Related, please click on and sign We have the right to know what is in the products that we use and consume!

From Daily Mail

Don’t hurt my baby! Pregnant orang-utan protectively hugs her daughter as ruthless Borneo bounty hunters move in for the kill

• Pair saved at last minute by Brit-based animal rescue group
• Palm oil firms trying to clear plantations said to be offering £70 for each orang-utan killed on the Borneo palm oil plantations

As bounty hunters with bush knives entrapped them in a circle and moved in for the kill, the only thing this mother orang-utan could think to do was to wrap a giant protective arm around her daughter.

The pair seemed to be facing a certain death as a gang of hunters surrounded them in Borneo, keen to cash in on the palm oil plantations’ bid to be rideof the animals.

But, happily, a team from the British-based international animal rescue group Four Paws arrived in time to stop the slaughter and saved their lives.

The pregnant mother and daughter were captured and moved to a remote and safe area of the rainforest and released back into the wild – but not before the mother was equipped with a radio device so she and her young can be tracked to ensure they remain safe.

‘Our arrival could not have been more timely,’ said Dr Signe Preuschoft, a Four Paws primate expert.

‘A few minutes later and the orang-utans could have been dead.

‘We discovered a gang of young men surrounding them and both victims were clearly petrified.

‘The gang meanwhile were jubilant in anticipation of their rewards for catching and killing the animals. These massacres must not be allowed to continue.’

Before the rescue, a Four Paws team had scoured the area on the Indonesian side of Borneo, which is shared with Malaysia, but found no other orang-utans which had survived an earlier slaughter.

Deforestation has dramatically reduced their habitat and their numbers have dropped from 250,000 a few decades ago to only 50,000 in the wild.

And while the loss of their habitat by logging companies has created a major threat to their existence, a more brutal form of reducing their numbers has emerged in recent years – direct slaughter.

Palm oil is used in hundreds of products from chocolate to oven chips, but the demand for buying it at a low price has resulted in significant deforestation as habitats are being destroyed to make way for plantations.

Some palm oil companies see orang-utans as pests, a threat to their lucrative business, and have placed a bounty on their heads.

Company executives are reported to be offering up to £70 to employees for each orang-utan killed on the palm oil plantations.

While such stories were at first denied, proof of the slaughter emerged last September when graves and bones were found by investigators.

In an equally tragic scenario, babies left alive after adult orang-utans have been slaughtered have been put up for sale in the pet trade by hunters.

When traumatised babies are found by Four Paws and other animal rescue teams they are taken to a sanctuary and taught skills they will need in order to return to the wild.

See More:

Please consider supporting this charity organization: http://www.four-paws.org.uk/

To find out more about palm oil, the damage it’s causing and the threat to these animals: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil

List of products to avoid that contain palm oil:
https://www.daisysfriends.org/Palm_Oil_Products.html
http://a-z-animals.com/palm-oil/products/

Petition to change the current European legislation to ensure that companies are forced to clearly state if their products contain palm oil.
http://a-z-animals.com/palm-oil/

From 3Dayz

27th of January 2012 - A spokesperson for Completely Bare confirmed on the phone with 3dayz yesterday that Cindy Barshop, former Real Housewives of New York star and owner of luxe spa chain Completely Bare, will stop using real fox fur for her newly launched Foxy Bikini and will start to replace it by faux fur!

It was further confirmed that the main reason for their decision was the amount of protest they received. Just now we also received written confirmation:

It’s true, we have began using faux fur instead of fox.

Only one day after releasing the news about our involvement of saving 1000′s of beagles from vivisection, this is yet another amazing victory for fur-bearing animals!

“Our campaign against Completely Bare was one of the most visited campaigns on 3dayz.com. A lot of people were angry, disgusted and offended by the fox fur bikini and for good reasons. It’s a very good thing these people shared their anger with Completely Bare!”, a spokesperson for 3dayz said. “We’re very pleased the concept of 3dayz seems to work and we will continue to motivate people to keep contacting those who are responsible for animal cruelty.”

See More: 3Dayz – Plans of largest farm for breeding beagles for vivisection rejected

we work so hard
our fingers sore
our hearts so sorely
tested
we want to say
“no more”
but every time we
feel defeat
we receive news of a
victory
the sweetest
treat
so ourselves off we dust
and we do that which
we know
we
must♥

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

ALDF

FROM ALDF

Please comment by clicking HERE using sample comments below or compose your own message. No personal information is necessary, only the comment field needs to be completed.

BACKGROUND

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is supposed to protect imperiled animals on the brink of extinction, but current regulations under the ESA leave captive chimpanzees with virtually no protection, despite the fact that wild chimpanzees receive the benefits of endangered status. This “split listing,” in which wild chimps are listed as “endangered” but captive chimps are listed as merely “threatened,” facilitates the exploitation of captive chimpanzees in entertainment, biomedical research, and the pet trade.

Since the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) instituted the split listing of chimpanzees in 1990, the population of the species as a whole has continued to deteriorate at an alarming pace. Not only has the split listing failed to conserve wild chimpanzees, it has also caused immense suffering in captive chimpanzees, who are forced to perform demeaning tricks in commercials and movies, used in invasive animal experiments, and kept as pets in wholly unnatural environments.

But there’s good news: the Fish and Wildlife Service recently launched a status review to reexamine the status of captive chimpanzees and possibly reclassify them as “endangered.” FWS has invited the public to comment on this important issue, and is accepting comments through their website or by mail until January 30, 2012.

Join ALDF in urging the FWS to extend endangered status to captive chimpanzees, along with all of the meaningful protections such a listing entails.

Speak out for chimpanzees and submit your comment on the FWS website today!

FWS is accepting comments only through their website or by mail. Please complete the form found at the link above to submit your comments.

Please be aware that your comments are public record. All comments submitted in response to this proposed rule (including any personal information that is provided) will be included in the record and will be made available to the public. FNS will make the comments publicly available on the Internet via http://www.regulations.gov.


WHOM TO CONTACT

FWS comment form can be found HERE

If you prefer to mail your comments to FWS, please address your letter to:

Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-R9-ES-2010-0086
Division of Policy and Directives Management
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, MS 2042-PDM
Arlington, VA 22203


SAMPLE COMMENT

I write in regard to the pending status review of chimpanzees, and specifically to encourage FWS to list the entire pan troglodyte species as endangered. The proposed listing is a long overdue step toward improving the life of captive chimpanzees in the United States. In addition, it will help to preserve the population and habitat of the pan troglodyte species around the world by calling attention to the plight of the species, and eradicating the destructive double standard that suggests that the United States is more concerned with the treatment of chimpanzees on foreign soil than within its own territory.

As the petition amply demonstrates, the pan troglodyte species meets each of the five factors to be considered by FWS in making its listing determination under the Endangered Species Act:

1. The natural habitat of the species is threatened with destruction, modification and curtailment by deforesting activities;
2. Chimpanzees in their native habitat and in captivity in the United States are grossly exploited for food, for entertainment, as personal property, and in biomedical and other research;
3. The species has been plagued by disease, both in the wild, and in captivity, where healthy chimpanzees have been infected with human diseases for research purposes.  In addition, its members are frequently killed when their natural behavior brings them into contact with humans;
4. In the thirty-five years since FWS instituted the split listing of chimpanzees, the condition of the species as a whole has continued to deteriorate at an alarming pace; and
5. By permitting the use of chimpanzees in entertainment and biomedical research, and allowing them to be kept as pets, the split listing harms captive animals in the United States by denying their wild instincts, subjecting them to torture by their human captors, and restricting genetic diversity.  That permissive approach also harms chimpanzees in the wild, by trivializing the species and minimizing the seriousness of the threat to its survival.

For each of these reasons, I strongly urge FWS to find in favor of listing the entire pan troglodyte species – captive and wild members – as endangered.



See More: Animal Legal Defense Fund

what more does one have to say
as chimpanzees share 98% of our DNA
so why so sorely mistreat our brothers
this way

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND | FROM PETA

The Monmouth County Parks System is once again allowing bowhunters to kill deer in an attempt to reduce deer populations. Officials defend the hunt by claiming that there are no other viable options, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Your voice is needed!

Bowhunting is among the cruelest forms of hunting. Bowhunters often spend hours following bloody tracks before finding wounded deer. Many are not found, and their deaths are slow and painful. It can take weeks for them to succumb to their injuries. Families are then torn apart, and young and weak animals starve or die of dehydration.

Please urge Monmouth County Parks officials to halt bowhunting—and then forward this alert widely! If deer control is insisted upon, please share these tips.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Block email

jtruncer@monmouthcountyparks.com , wildlife@monmouthcountyparks.com

Full contact details

James Truncer
Director and Secretary
Monmouth County Parks
jtruncer@monmouthcountyparks.com

Please also e-mail the Monmouth County Board of Recreation using this address:
wildlife@monmouthcountyparks.com


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Director Truncer and Board of Recreation members:

I have just learned that Monmouth Country is considering bowhunting, the cruelest of all hunting methods, of deer populations in a misguided attempt to reduce their numbers in populated areas. Although this proposal is inherently cruel based on its premise alone, it is important to recognize it is based on erroneous information.

Please allow me to illustrate a few of these concerns. First, ecologically, populations will fluctuate according to conditions and naturally-occurring food sources; it is the interference of humans that causes imbalance. To blame and slaughter the deer for human encroachment is both irresponsible and unjustified.

Second, killing deer would artificially increase food supplies to the remaining deer, the consequence of which would be increased reproduction and an ensuing greater deer population. In fact, studies have demonstrated that the continual cycle of seasonal hunting is responsible for a rebound, or larger herd populations, in subsequent years.

Third, this type of mass killing using such a brutal type of slaughter in such a central and visible location would certainly adversely affect both visitation and tourism; it would be financially detrimental to move forward with such a cruel and unnecessary killing, and although I do not currently reside in Monmouth Country I would be unwilling to consider it, or nearby, as a potential vacation destination if this deer cull transpires.

Furthermore, bowhunting is among the cruelest forms of hunting. Bowhunters often spend hours following bloody tracks before finding wounded deer. Many are not found, and their deaths are slow and painful. It can take weeks for them to succumb to their injuries. Families are then torn apart, and young and weak animals starve or die of dehydration.

Please instead examine alternative, non-lethal options such as fencing, fertility control, and relocation according to established protocols when using these methods, which have all proven successful in curtailing deer populations.

I know your time is limited and I want to thank you each for your attention to this urgent matter.

NAME


See More:

• Vegan Guides
• Cruelty-Free
• Video Library

what is at the end
of the barrel of a
gun
it is a living creature
not a source of fun
so put away your rifles
your antiquated bows
and arrows
life is meant to be lived
with kindness and open
hearts
not with cruelty and minds
closed and narrow

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Blood clearly visible on the left, one of the images used as evidence. | sUAS News

From MyFox
By Lynn Kawano

DALLAS – An Oak Cliff meat-packing company is the focus of a pollution investigation.

The Columbia Packing Company is on East 11th Street. It is very close to a section of the Trinity River that the city wants to develop for recreation.

Two months ago a resident taking pictures of the area noticed the water behind the plant was dark red. He notified the county.

The Department of Health and Human Services took its own pictures and confirmed the water in Cedar Creek was suspicious. Cedar Creek feeds into the Trinity River.

On Thursday a search warrant was executed on the 99-year-old slaughter house and meat-packing plant. Investigators said they found an underground pipe leading into the creek and the substance in the pipe tested positive for pig’s blood.

“This additional pipe, the pipe is there and why is it there? And who put it in?” asked Zachary Thompson, the spokesman for the health department.

Those are questions all the agencies involved – from the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Agriculture to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department – now want answered.

In the meantime, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office would not comment about the investigation or what kind of charges the plant operators could face.

FOX 4 did try to contact someone at the plant but was not allowed on the property. The company’s attorney did not return phone calls.

Click in box to play video.

PETA’s Vegan Shopping List

the water turns red
so many are dead
so those who eat
animal flesh
can be fed:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

FROM ARAN & BAN FUR FARMING IN IRELAND

A group of Irish and International animal welfare organisations have joined forces in an effort to ensure this Irish government does not renege on the previous government’s policy of a phase out of fur farming. Organisations supporting this call include ARAN, Respect for Animals, Anima, and the international coalition of animal welfare groups opposed to fur farming, The Fur Free Alliance.

Mark Glover of Respect for Animals, the UK’s leading anti-fur organisation, said today: “Fur factory farming has been banned in Northern Ireland for nearly a decade, and the rest of the UK for over 11 years. These bans reflected public opinion and that the farming of animals for nothing other than their fur offended public morality. The Northern Ireland Assembly and Parliament of Westminster studied extensive evidence on the issue before concluding that only bans on this cruel practice could resolve the problem.

“With the very best intentions in the world, fur farmers cannot adequately provide for the welfare of mink on Irish fur farms,” says ARAN’s Campaign Director, John Carmody. “ This latest investigation shows that its business as usual on Irish fur farms and that this suffering must come to an end, nothing has changed since the previous coalition government’s pledge to ban fur farming back in 2010. Today there should be no need to cage and treat animals in such a manner”

“Fur breeding is not consistent with good agricultural practice and Britain is a better place without it, as Ireland could be.”

Mary-Anne Bartlett of Compassion in World Farming-Ireland said today: “At the time, Compassion in World Farming-Ireland very much welcomed the agreement to ban fur farming as a major step forward for animal welfare. We sincerely hope that the current government now puts this major reform in place without delay.”

Facts:

• The Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Council, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in its annual review 2009-2010 refers to the commitment to phase out fur farming over three years in the previous government’s Renewed Programme for Government.

• In 2001, the EU’s Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare concluded that, “current husbandry systems cause serious problems for all species of animals reared for fur…..”.

• The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, has established a Review Group to review all aspects of fur farming and is accepting submissions from interested parties until the end of the year with a view to making recommendations to government.

• A Private Members’ Bill to ban fur farming (Fur Farming Prohibition Bill 2004) was debated in the Dáil on 22 and 23 March 2005. Although the bill was defeated by the then government’s TDs 67 to 50, it won support from all opposition parties, including Fine Gael and The Labour Party.

• An opinion poll conducted in 2004 showed that 63% of people in Ireland agreed that fur farming should be banned, despite the fact that only 51% were aware that it took place.

• In 2010, 141,812 mink pelts were exported from Ireland, valued at 4.9 million Euro whilst 5,910 (444,000 Euro) were imported, showing net exports of 135,902.

• The North American Mink is an alien species to Ireland and mink attacks on wildlife and domestic animals are becoming increasingly frequent. In 2010, the Department of Agriculture planned to spend 60,000 Euro on the control of predators, including wild mink.

WHOM TO CONTACT

Please click on and write and send message HERE, click on TAKE ACTION

SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

I am shocked to discover the savagery inherent in the  fur industry. Due to the malicious business of fur, any products derived from the suffering and killing of animals should be rejected, and I am respectfully requesting that until Ireland discontinues profiting off the exploitation of animals,  consumers and tourists will be likely to sever ties with you.  It is obvious that this cruelty cannot be regulated and only an outright ban will ensure animals are not barbarically treated and slaughtered, all for frivolous products.

Furthermore, I will share this information with family, friends, colleagues, and members of online communities.  The animals in Ireland are counting on compassionate people who would rather help, rather than harm, animals.  Indeed, why not act on principle and become a country that promotes compassion fashion?  Very stylish clothing and accessories can be made using gorgeous synthetic materials.

Please watch the undercover footage of the industry promoted: animals are forced to endure deplorable conditions including living in cramped, feces-crusted cages; suffering from sickness and disease; lacking an enriching environment; and being subjected to substandard diets and severe psychological trauma. They are then butchered via anal electrocution, gassing, skinning alive, and forced trauma.

FurStop.Com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTZQnQeAPJc&feature=player_embedded

Please make both the ethical and responsible decision to ban fur farms immediately: join an increasing body of compassionate countries, businesses, and designers who are listening to a concerned and attentive consumer population who refuse to be complicit in the inherently malicious industry of fur farming. I hope this letter finds you willing to scrutinize your own involvement and desire to protect, rather than harm, animals.

Thank you for taking the time to read this important message.

NAME

SEE MORE: ARAN

farming fur
whatever for
so the vain
and frivolous
can walk
out the door?
please stop this
ugly, bloody trade
being coats is not
why animals were made

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

I’m happy to share some terrific news on PETA’s global fight to stop Canada’s annual baby-seal slaughter. Ryan Cleary—a member of Parliament from the Canadian province where much of the seal slaughter is scheduled to take place—has now gone on the record stating that it may be time to end the massacre for good as the market for seal skin dwindles as a result of animal rights campaigns. This is terrific news and an indication that PETA’s vigorous efforts are beginning to change the minds even of politicians from regions where the seal slaughter takes place.

Cleary’s statement comes after a string of victories against the seal slaughter. Thanks in part to the help of thousands of caring members and supporters like you around the world, the U.S. and the European Union (E.U.) have banned seal imports, and just last month, Russia—which buys 80 percent of Canada’s seal pelts—took steps to ban imports as well. This move came after Pamela Anderson made an international appeal to Vladimir Putin on PETA’s behalf. In just the past year, Iggy Pop and Ke$ha starred in PETA’s edgy “Canada’s Club Scene Sucks” ads, Sarah McLachlan and Joan Jett penned letters urging Canada to give up its challenges of the E.U. ban, and Canada native William Shatner led our Canadian Tax Day campaign to show citizens and lawmakers that millions of Canadian taxpayer dollars are propping up the dying annual massacre. At last, after all these efforts, national media outlets across Canada are exposing the wasteful slaughter for what it is.

We have finally reached a tipping point in this campaign—the time is now to call on Canada to end the slaughter once and for all. Please take a few minutes and click here to urge Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to stop this annual massacre.

Thank you for your unwavering commitment to these animals.

every second of every day
we take a step
closer in every way♥

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND

This week Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) will launch a new ‘boycott’ drive to support efforts in India to enforce an existing ban on the cruel Indian, Jallikattu, which is currently going un-enforced, but what is Jallikattu? Jallikattu is a cruel contact game in which terrified bulls are surrounded by hundreds of shouting men, are hit with fists, have their tails twisted and pulled – and some even snapped and broken – and are jumped on and wrestled to the ground. Men pounce on the backs of bulls, sometimes alone, sometimes together and attempt to wrestle him to the ground. There are reports that chili powder is rubbed into the bulls’ eyes, they are given alcohol and then have to undergo the trauma of being chased by mobs who try to overpower and bring them down. Investigations at five Jallikattu events after these regulations had come into place documented bulls being tied so tightly it would cause them severe discomfort and pain, hit with fists, having their tails twisted and pulled, jumped on and wrestled to the ground. Not only is Jallikattu cruel to animals, it also poses a threat to public safety. In one four-day period in January 2011 again after these regulations came to be, 215 people sustained injuries during Jallikattu events. Out of this, 154 people were spectators who suffered injuries. Two people died.

ARAN has started contacting Indian officials, tourist agencies and others to inform them of our efforts to highlight the cruel spectacle here in Ireland and across Europe with our  ‘ad’ that  is a mock-up of the ‘Incredible India’ tourist ad’s that promote the beautiful country.


TAKE ACTION

Tell the Indian Tourism Minister that you won’t visit India until it enforces the ban on the Jallikattu.


WHOM TO CONTACT

tourismminister@nic.in


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Minister,

I am writing today to share my disturbance regarding the ritual Jallikattu, about which I have learned is characterized by the methodical torture and torment of a bull in a demonstration of manhood, a ceremony celebrating “bravery”. During this event, a bull is systematically brutalized, tripped, beaten, jumped on, and wrestled to the ground, and at times chili powder is shoved into the bulls’ eyes. This unremitting torment is inflicted on the bull while he is fully conscious, subjecting him to what can only be considered excruciating pain and prolonged suffering even though this activity has been banned. Additionally, it is my understanding that dozens of spectators have historically been injured, some with fatal injuries. I am therefore requesting you enforce the ban and cease this savage event.

While I would never embrace such an egotistical belief that my opinions take precedent over established and sacred customs, any “tradition”, however, that is built on a foundation of extreme animal cruelty, exploitation, and suffering, and which inflicts pain and fear on innocent, sentient animals, is neither justified, nor an expression of historical or manly courage and pride. There can be no honor amongst those who condemn animals to such depraved actions substantiating my disturbance that such animal cruelty is perpetuated by the inaccurate conviction that this ritual confirms bravery.

As such, I, along with a global contingent of concerned citizens, respectfully request that you intervene to ensure the ban is enforced so that no other bulls have to be tormented for cheap human entertainment or obscure traditions. Please provide your voice for others to observe their obligatory duty and responsibility by protecting animals, not condoning their torture; your ethical gesture of compassion would serve as an international model of empathy.

Regrettably, until such a time as the ban is enforced and further bulls not mistreated, I will promote a boycott of India and will share this information with friends, colleagues, and online community networks.

Thank you for your time and attention to this urgent issue.

NAME
ADDRESS

to whom we hope this concerns:

if you really think about this
you will realize this something
no one would miss
there are laws out there
to stop this ugly course
but these laws are not
being adequately enforced
think if you were the bull
and sadistic humans were
on your trail
you would want the ban
enforced
NOW without fail!!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Send two letters: Please use first sample letter (or compose your own) and send via Max Mara’s online webform.  Please also send second sample letter to listed email addresses. Due to spam-blocking software, the second letter contains spam-free characters versus letters that would be bounced back by their spam filter.

BACKGROUND | FROM 3DAYZ

With their 2300 shops all around the world Max Mara Fashion Group is one of the biggest retail companies worldwide. Max Mara is considered one of the most important pret-a-porter brands, promoting a classic and sober style. But what this company doesn’t say is how many animals die for their collections every year. Fur is used in the form of trims, hats, scarves or even coats.

All over the world campaigning networks and organizations are fighting to make designers and clothing companies “fur-free”. We think it is time to ask the same ethical stand to Max Mara Fashion Group, owners of world renowned brands like Max Mara, Max&Co, and many more like Maxsport, Marina Rinaldi, Marella, Pennyblack, Newpenny, Persona, Iblues.

The Max Mara campaign is similar to those waged at department stores, or similar to the internationally coordinated campaigns that have made important fashion companies like Zara, Guess and Stefanel fur-free. This is a campaign with international support and demos in front of Max Mara stores in different countries.


1. WHOM TO CONTACT

Online contact form HERE


SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

I am shocked to discover that Max Mara and associated brands supports the fur industry. Due to the savage business of fur, any products derived from the suffering and killing of animals should be rejected, and I am respectfully requesting that until Max Mara discontinues profiting off the exploitation of animals consumer sever ties with them.

Please watch the undercover footage of the industry promoted: animals are forced to endure deplorable conditions including living in cramped, feces-crusted cages; suffering from sickness and disease; lacking an enriching environment; and being subjected to substandard diets and severe psychological trauma. They are then butchered via anal electrocution, gassing, skinning alive, and forced trauma.

FurStop.Com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTZQnQeAPJc&feature=player_embedded

Regrettably, as long as you unnecessarily and selfishly capitalize on the mutilation, torture, and death of animals, I will not financially support you or your associated brands. Furthermore, I will share this information with family, friends, colleagues, and members of online communities. Max Mara, why not act on principle and become a company that promotes compassion fashion? You can create very stylish clothing and accessories using synthetic materials.

Please make both the ethical and responsible decision to discontinue your commercial support of fur immediately: join an increasing body of compassionate businesses and designers who are listening to a concerned and attentive consumer population who refuse to be complicit in the inherently malicious industry of fur farming. I hope this letter finds you willing to scrutinize your own involvement and desire to protect, rather than harm, animals.

Thank you for taking the time to read this important message.

NAME


2. WHOM TO CONTACT

Max Mara Fashion Group
Via Giulia Maramotti 4
42124 Reggio Emilia, Italy

Phone: 00 39 05 22 3991
Fax: 00 39 05 22 399 3993
Facebook: facebook.com/maxmara

Email block | Easily copy and paste all relevant addresses:

guidotti.g@mmfg.it, info@maxandco.com, franchisingita@maxandco.com, franchisingexp@maxandco.com, info@marella.it, otb.iblues@marella.it, laurenzi.m@maxmara.it, proffice@maxmara.it, fasi.l@maxmara.it, guidotti.g@mmfg.it, info@marinarinaldi.it, negozimaxmara@maximasrl.it, info@maxmarafashiongroup.com, info@pennyblack.com, businessopp@pennyblack.com, caroggio.l@usa.maxmara.com, lusuardi.l@maxmara.it, mazzali.m@maxmara.it, ferretti.e@maxmara.it, info@maxmarafashiongroup.com


SAMPLE SUBJECT

Please stop s3lling fvr


SAMPLE LETTER, COURTESY 3DAYZ

To the attention of Max Mara Fashion Group,

Being informed by 3dayz.com, I send this message to show my svpport for the internat1onal campa1gn aga1nst the pr3sence of fvr trims and fvr jackets in the collections of Max Mara and the other brands of your company. As you may be aware every year d0zens of milli0ns anim4ls are raised in sm4ll c4ges and 4wful c0nditions to be sk1nned and tr4nsform their p3lts into tr1ms, hats or jackets sold in shops and collections like yours.

There is a gr0wing numb3r of companies and designers refvsing to use real fvr and i think the same decision is a choice that also Max Mara Fashion Group should consider, to create a fashion fr3e of this appalling crvelty. Until I will see this eth1cal decision I will take part in the b0yc0tt of all your brands products and shops and will inv1te all the people I know to do the same.

Yours sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

SEE MORE:

• 3Dayz.com

• Fur | Skin

• Cruelty-Free

Fur is not pretty
On human clothes
It is rather sh*tty
As many people
Know
Fur is meant
Only to be worn
On the backs of
Those wearing
It when they were
born

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

From The Street
By Matt Brownell

When McDonald’s began promoting the #McDStories hashtag Wednesday on Twitter, the idea was to get people talking about their experiences with the fast-food giant. And in that sense, it was a rousing success: The phrase exploded in popularity as Twitter users across the country shared stories of their visits to McDonald’s.

Unfortunately, McDonald’s learned a harsh lesson in social media marketing: When you encourage people to talk about your company, they’re not always going to say nice things.

While McDonald’s own tweets on the topic tended along the lines of “When u make something w/pride, people can taste it,” actual customers were less inclined to toe the company line. “I haven’t been to McDonalds in years, because I’d rather eat my own diarrhea,” read one top tweet by @Muzzafuzza. Another user, @Jetsonjetsonjet, referred readers to a viral video of a mouse crawling through a bag of hamburger buns.

Meanwhile, animal rights activist @michellevegan tweeted that “@McDonalds scalds baby chicks alive for nuggets,” and linked to a site run by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It was retweeted more than 100 times.

Yes, it appears McDonald’s lost control of the narrative here.

Such dangers are inherent in using social media to promote your brand. Sometimes it’s an isolated gaffe, as when the marketing professional running the Chrysler Twitter feed inadvertently tweeted his distaste for Detroit drivers. But trying to enlist the masses on Twitter or Facebook for brand promotion carries its own set of risks. When Wendy’s paid to promote the #HeresTheBeef hashtag last year, users responded with bawdy innuendo and other tweets completely unrelated to hamburgers. And in the summer of 2010, Coca-Cola was forced to apologize when a complicated social media contest for Dr. Pepper resulted in a pornographic reference being posted to a teenager’s Facebook page.


Related:

Vegetarian (Vegan) Starter Kit: Mercy For Animals

Guide To Cruelty-Free Eating: Vegan Outreach

McDs and other cruel companies
a caveat when you tweet
animal rights activists are out there
watching as into your mouths
you insert your feet

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Please click HERE for petition.

From PETA

An insider from pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb recently approached PETA with disturbing allegations about animals who suffered painful and gruesome deaths through negligence.

The whistleblower reported that a monkey and a rat had been scalded to death when the cages in which they were each housed were carelessly put into the company’s mechanical high-temperature, high-pressure cage washer—with the animals still inside. In a separate incident, the whistleblower reports that several monkeys were tethered to their cage doors to be weighed and then left unattended. When workers returned to the room, they found that one of the monkeys had strangled to death.

In addition to these allegations of blatant neglect, from 2008 to 2010, Bristol-Myers Squibb tormented more than 20,000 animals in its laboratories, including more than 2,600 dogs and 3,400 primates who were imprisoned in cages, intentionally poisoned to death, and subjected to other painful and stressful procedures.

Astonishingly, these numbers do not even include the thousands of mice, rats, and other animals who are not covered under the Animal Welfare Act, and they do not include animals used in experiments contracted out by Bristol-Myers Squibb to other laboratories, such as the notorious Covance.

Bristol-Myers Squibb has long been on PETA’s radar, and we have submitted a shareholder resolution this year to urge the company to be more transparent and to minimize its use of animals by implementing modern, non-animal testing methods—recommended  by the National Academy of Sciences.

Please be a voice for the animals suffering in Bristol-Myers Squibb laboratories. Take a minute of your time now to urge Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Lamberto Andreotti to implement the recommendations outlined by PETA in its shareholder resolution immediately.

See More: Dissection | Testing

bristol-myers squibb
with all your resources,
for testing products
you could find many
other sources.
than sentient animals
who feel pain
just like you.
be a leader of
compassion
we are counting
on you

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Please click on and sign petition HERE

From Environmental Action

A group of climate-deniers in the House of Representatives won’t let the NOAA distribute data on global warming impacts because they think it’s a liberal plot to destroy the economy. Sign here and we’ll deliver a tinfoil hat to any member of Congress who denies the climate is changing.

Message Text

Climate change is real and scientists warn that its impacts are only going to get worse.

But a key House committee has voted to stop a sensible, no-cost proposal to provide citizens with data we need about climate change and its impacts.

The National Climate Service is not part of a liberal conspiracy. It’s an attempt by scientists to provide facts and data about climate change to people who need it.

America needs honesty and action from is Representatives, not conspiracy theories peddled by polluters and their allies. When politicians deny the facts in order to delay action on this essential issue, you not only betray the public trust but endanger the future of our planet and all of us who live on it.

Please write back to me and confirm that you understand that climate change is real, and that we need to start doing something about it. If you don’t, you can expect to hear more from Americans like me who will not tolerate misinformation from our leaders.

Related | Global Warming: Meat the Truth

See More: Compassionate Eating

climate change
sadly, very real
we could really
do something
about it
if politics were
kept out of
the deal

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Feld Entertainment—the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—recently paid the largest settlement ever by an exhibitor in the history of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) for a multitude of AWA violations, including forcing sick animals to perform and failing to provide animals with proper veterinary care. Ringling’s long history of AWA violations includes physically abusing animals, causing physical harm to animals, and transporting animals in dangerous railcars and other vehicles whose jagged edges and broken metal wound them. Undercover video footage shows Ringling handlers using bullhooks to strike elephants backstage before performances in order to remind them “who’s boss.” Despite its abysmal track record, Ringling is currently requesting a permit that would allow the circus to continue harming endangered Asian elephants and leopards.

Ringling claims that the elephants and leopards will be used for “conservation education,” but the company has failed to demonstrate that it will do anything other than cruelly display these animals for commercial entertainment. The purpose of transporting animals up to 50 weeks a year while keeping them chained for up to 100 consecutive hours in cramped, narrow boxcars—as Ringling does—is not to enhance the species, but to force them to perform in the company’s profitable circus. Experts agree that forcing endangered animals to perform in circuses negatively impacts conservation efforts.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has the authority to deny this misleading permit request, and the agency wants to hear from you. Public input will be accepted until the end of the day on February 16. This input is extremely important to officials—it influences them when they are determining their course of action. These elephants and leopards need you to speak up for them now! Please join PETA by personalizing the comments below and urging the FWS to deny Ringling’s misleading application to continue using—and abusing—Asian elephants and leopards. The more you are able to personalize the comments, the more impact they will have.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Brenda Tapia, Program Analyst/Data Administrator
Branch of Permits
Division of Management Authority
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Rm. 212
Arlington, VA 22203
dmafr@fws.gov

703-358-2280 (fax)

Click HERE for access to free faxing from your computer.  No fax machine, registering, or credit card required.  Please remember to confirm the fax via your email after submitting.


SUGGESTED SUBJECT LINE

Please Deny Feld Entertainment’s Application!


SUGGESTED LETTER

I am writing to urge you to deny Feld Entertainment’s application to renew its captive-bred wildlife registration (PRT-720230) for Asian elephants and leopards.

Because Feld Entertainment—the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—has failed to demonstrate that its exhibition of Asian elephants and leopards for entertainment is educational and because studies have shown that circus-style animal exhibits fail to enhance the survival of the species, the application must be denied.

In addition, Ringling recently paid the largest settlement ever by an exhibitor in the history of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) for a multitude of AWA violations, including forcing sick animals to perform and failing to provide animals with proper veterinary care. Ringling’s long history of AWA violations includes physically abusing animals, causing physical harm to animals, and transporting animals in dangerous railcars and other vehicles whose jagged edges and broken metal wound them.

It is clear that Ringling cannot meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, and therefore, the company’s application to renew its captive-bred wildlife registration for endangered Asian elephants and leopards must be denied.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.

NAME

SEE MORE:

• Animal Wrongs
• What Can I Do?
• Cruelty-Free

circus berserkus
under any name
animal cruelty
all the same
ringling misery
one of the worst
if the circus
owners were animals
then they would know
how it hurts
so when an abomination
like this for a permit applies
the only acceptable response
is permit denied!!!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

From The Persian Horse's Blog

Charges filed against a Chester County woman for posing as a rescuer of horses while sending them to slaughter have prompted a new round of calls in Congress to end the killing of horses for meat in the United States.

U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R., Pa.) on Thursday urged his colleagues in the House and Senate to pass legislation to halt horse slaughter after reading a report in The Inquirer that Kelsey Lefever of Honeybrook was allegedly selling animals for slaughter in Canada under false pretenses.

“This is a tragic example of why we need federal law to prohibit the transportation and sale of horses for slaughter in the first place,” said Meehan, one of 150 cosponsors of anti-slaughter legislation in the House. “Horses are not raised for human consumption, and their slaughter for sale overseas is a cruel and inhumane practice that is not consistent with our values here in Pennsylvania.

In November, state police charged Lefever, a 24-year-old horse trainer, with multiple counts of fraud connected to an alleged scheme involving ex-race horses.

Lefever duped thoroughbred owners at a central Pennsylvania racetrack into believing she would find homes for their retired racehorses and instead sold them to kill-buyers at a Lancaster auction, according to charging documents.

Horse slaughter effectively ended in the United States in 2008, when the last plant closed after federal funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors was withdrawn. Since then, an estimated 140,000 U.S. horses have been transported to abattoirs in Canada and Mexico.

With funding for USDA inspectors restored in a budget bill President Obama signed late last year, slaughter plants could again legally operate in the United States


What you can do

• CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR CONGRESSPERSON and Email, Fax and Call.
• CLICK HERE FOR FREE FAXING FROM YOUR COMPUTER.  No Fax Machine Required. No Credit Card Needed.
• CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW HORSES WERE SLAUGHTERED IN THE U.S.BEFORE THE BAN ON U.S. HORSE SLAUGHTER.

Sample Email

I, and the 70% of Americans who do not support horse slaughter,  will not consider voting for any congressperson, or Presidential Candidate,  who supports horse slaughter, or transport to horse slaughter,  in any manner; I will only vote for candidates who support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S. 1176.


Warning: Graphic

See More:

The Persian Horse’s Blog

too many animals already
used to feed man
mistreated and thrown
in the garbage can
adding horses to this
bloody mix
it is not too late
this can be fixed
so before you consider
chowing down on
“mr ed”
outlaw horsemeat consumption
go vegan/vegetarian instead
and a little further, note
if you approve of horse slaughter
you will not get our votes!!!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Design Against Fur | Fur-Free Alliance Slides

Please take action on the following 2 alerts from Born Free USA

1. ACT: Tell Upscale Retailer Barneys to Stop Carrying Fur

Help us move toward a fur-fashion-free society: Sign our petition that urges upscale retailer Barneys New York to stop selling fur. Then check out our Consumers for a Fur Free Society website to find out what stores — national and worldwide — have formally pledged to not sell fur.

2. ACT: Urge State Officials to Crack Down on Fur Farms

If you live in one of the 12 states with the most fur farms — the “dirty dozen” — please use our online form to urge your elected state officials to take action against fur farms. Simply click on your state and sign the letter. (Feel free to personalize!)

Find a zip code HERE

See More: Fur | Skin

1. Close a deadly loophole, protect all chimpanzees
2. Support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act
3. Tell Indian Oil and Others to Stop Using Bullocks
4. Urge Malaysian Authorities to Prosecute Dog Torturer
5. Urgent: Animals Languishing in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Shelter Need Your Help!
6. Help Air Canada Stop Shipping Primates to Labs

1. Background | From Center for Biological Diversity

Please speak up to protect chimpanzees who can’t defend themselves. The worldwide population of wild chimpanzees has fallen by nearly 70 percent in the past 30 years.

Wild chimpanzees have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1976, but a special rule exempting captive chimpanzees from protection is compromising conservation efforts. This loophole is preventing the recovery of the species in the wild by encouraging their illegal trade.

Chimpanzees are endangered everywhere due to habitat loss, poaching and illegal trafficking — wild chimpanzees are captured and sold for use as entertainment, as pets and as test subjects. The loophole in the Act creates a vicious cycle of supply and demand: Chimpanzees are exploited for entertainment, giving people the misconception that the species is common in the wild, which creates a demand for pet chimpanzees, which in turn leads to more poaching.

The exemption in the United States also undermines international chimpanzee conservation efforts. African nations see the animals being commercially exploited in America and have little incentive to protect them in their home range.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now considering whether to protect captive chimpanzees under the Endangerd Species Act. Please use the form below to submit comments in support of protecting every endangered chimpanzee.

2. Background | From PCRM

Please send an e-mail that asks your members of Congress to support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act. This important legislation will end the use of chimpanzees in invasive experiments, permanently end federal breeding programs, and release federally owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuaries. We have provided some text for you, but it would be helpful if you would take a minute to add your own language to the letter. Please be polite and encouraging, and personalize the e-mail by sharing why this issue is important to you.

Please note: This alert is directed at U.S. members of Congress and non U.S. residents will not be able to take this action. Non U.S. residents please consider taking other actions!

3. Background | From PETA

Hundreds of bullocks are currently used to transport kerosene from oil ports in Sewri, Wadala and Mulund to different rationing stations in the city. Most of the animals are underfed and malnourished, and many suffer from untreated illnesses or injuries. They are forced to work until they are exhausted, pulling heavy loads through all weather extremes. Motorists who encounter bullocks in the streets are at risk of being involved in dangerous traffic accidents.

On 30 September 2008, the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies made the decision to end the use of bullocks to transport kerosene in Mumbai by 31 March 2009. However, there has been no shift to transporting kerosene by motorised vehicles or other means, and the ban still has not been enforced by Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum. Hundreds of bulls continue to suffer.

In a goodwill effort to jump-start the program, PETA founder Ingrid E Newkirk travelled to India from the US to donate an auto rickshaw to one owner of a bullock-drawn cart in exchange for his beleaguered bull. The bull was sent to a sanctuary.

As India’s largest and wealthiest oil company, Indian Oil Corporation Limited has the resources and an ethical obligation to end the suffering of bullocks who are used to transport their oil. However, currently, they use the most number of bulls to transport their oil. Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum are not far behind in their support of cruelty.

These oil companies can and should help stop the use of bullock-drawn carts, yet they refuse to take concrete steps to alleviate animal suffering.

Let’s speak up for bulls and demand a complete ban on the use of bullocks by Indian Oil and other oil companies to transport kerosene.

You Can Help:  Please ask the oil companies to stop the use of bullock-drawn carts to transport their kerosene

4. Background | From PETA

An appalling video that was posted on Facebook and YouTube shows a man—who is believed to be from Malaysia—repeatedly striking a dog, shaking him, and then throwing him across the room in an apparent attempt to teach the dog to stand on his hind legs.

PETA Asia has collected information on the case and submitted it to authorities, including the government’s Veterinary Services Department as well as the police. But despite leads in the case, no action has been taken by authorities. Under Part IV of Malaysia’s animal welfare act, the Animals Act 2006, the man seen in the video could be convicted and fined RM50,000 or sentenced to six months in prison.

Please use the form HERE to urge Malaysian authorities to take immediate action to find the abuser, remove the animals currently in his care, and prosecute him to the fullest extent.

5. Background | From PETA

Animals in the custody of CCCAS are reportedly routinely denied basic humane care, including simple provisions like fresh water, regular nutritious feedings, clean and comfortable housing, and veterinary care to alleviate suffering. PETA and local advocates have repeatedly offered assistance to help bring conditions at this facility up to minimal humane standards, but our offers have been ignored or denied. Workers’ blatant disregard for the law, which mandates that animals be humanely treated, and their callous handling of animals—including spraying them in the face with water hoses to keep them from fighting over basic sustenance—continues daily without intervention from local officials.

Demand that Clarksdale and Coahoma County officials intervene immediately to ensure the humane care of animals at the shelter. Local citizens fighting for change have formed a nonprofit group with the eventual goal of building a new facility and possibly contracting with the city/county to provide animal sheltering services. While this is promising, in reality it could take years to come to fruition. The animals in Clarksdale need help now.

Please keep all calls and correspondence polite—anything less will hurt our efforts.

6. Background | From PETA

Almost every major airline in the world refuses to transport monkeys and other primates to cruel and painful fates in laboratories. Now Air Canada, one of only two major North American airlines that still flies primates to laboratories, wants out of the gruesome primate trade too. Air Canada stated that “[i]t was a decision taken both to align our policies with those of many other major international carriers and in response to widespread public concern.”

Unfortunately, airlines in Canada must obtain approval from the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) to revise their shipping guidelines, and the CTA is requiring Air Canada to continue shipping primates to laboratories while it considers the issue.

As a government agency, it is important for the CTA to hear from the many individuals who support Air Canada’s compassionate attempt to get out of the cruel primate trade before any more monkeys are shipped to their deaths!

Please take a few moments of your time to contact Ghislain Blanchard, director general of the CTA’s Industry Regulation and Determinations Branch, and politely urge the agency to approve Air Canada’s amended tariff to allow the airline to refuse to ship primates to laboratories.

we go about
our daily lives
alone, with parents,
children, husbands
or wives
but there are those
who suffer
and those who
cause pain
so we keep on fighting
over and
over again♥

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Please join us for Meatout on March 20th, when caring activists in all 50 U.S. states and two dozen other countries will promote the benefits of a vegan diet!

Help us reach our goal!

Last year, Meatout activists served thousands of vegan food samples; this year we’re shooting to reach 30,000 people! We’re partnering with several vegan food companies that can provide samples to you directly, or you can apply for a grant through VegFund.

All activists planning to hold food samplings will receive a new handout, which, in addition to information about a vegan diet, gives recipients a chance to enter to win movie tickets in exchange for participating in a short online survey about their dietary choices!

What types of food can you offer?

• Meat substitutions, such as prepackaged jerky samples, chick’n on a tooth pick, or vegan meatballs.
• Dairy alternatives such as vegan cheese dip or (if the weather is right) soy/coconut ice cream samples.
• Substantial offerings such as Tofurky sandwiches, veggie dogs with condiments, or eggless baked goods.

Learn about conducting a feed-in with our online action guide.

What else can you do?

In addition to serving free food samples, we offer guidance on leafleting, holding information tables, and hosting attenion-grabbing events such as Meatout festivals.

Don’t miss this chance to inspire your friends, family, and community members to save animals, protect the environment, and improve their health. Sign up to let us know your plans and request event materials.

Let’s make this Meatout the best yet… the animals are counting on us!

Thank you,

Alex Felsinger
Grassroots Coordinator
831-601-9062 (cell)


See More:

• Vegan Guides
• Compassionate Eating

Vegan food, recipes, and more … Click on the upper right arrow to view the full tab names, scroll down to see all entries. There are approximately 19 Vegan Groups represented.

be meatless one day
then forever,
some day
♥☻

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

From 3Dayz: Actively Compassionate for Animals

Cindy Barshop, former Real Housewives of New York star and owner of luxe spa chain Completely Bare, has created two new lines of ‘luxury’ merkins. The first line is called the Foxy Bikini, in which the bikini line is waxed bare and replaced with a pubic wig made from real fox fur. The second is the Carnivale Bikini, utilizing neon-colored feathers.

3dayz.com is disgusted to hear about such a twisted and sick thing. Innocent animals with real feelings suffer and die in horrible camps for such a controversial and cruel product as fur. There was no need for Completely Bare to use [real] fur or feathers and our belief is that it’s their perverted way of seeking attention.

To people around the world we say: let’s give them that attention and send them our protest mail!

For more information about fur and fur farming, please visit the website of FurBearerDefenders.com


WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Write to Completely Bare. Create your own message or simply copy and paste the example letter below (don’t forget to sign it at the end) and send it to the address below.
2. Leave a message on their facebook or twitter accounts. You can copy and paste parts of the example letter or leave something personal. Please be polite since the decision is not yet final!
3. Share this action with your friends and ask them to send a protest mail to Completely Bare too.
4. Let us know when you receive a reaction in response to your email. You can reach us using our “Contact Us” form, Facebook or Twitter.

WHOM TO CONTACT

Email: info@completelybare.com
Facebook: facebook.com/completelybarespas
Facebook: facebook.com/CindyRHONYC
Twitter: twitter.com/completelybare
Twitter: twitter.com/cindybarshop


EXAMPLE MESSAGE

Dear Cindy / Completely Bare,

I am shocked to read about the Foxy Bikini and the Carnivale Bikini on 3dayz.com. The use of fur is highly controversial to say the least and very cruel and unnecessary at best.

Please watch the following video to learn about established protocols in the fur industry and the utter savagery involved:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cz8XLh5crDA

I urge you to do the right thing and stop selling these cruel products.

Thank you for taking the time to read this urgent message.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

SEE MORE: Fur | Skin

completely bare
you are not all
there
do you know
what happens
to fur animals
or maybe
you just don’t
care:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Please click on and sign the following three petitions:

1.Free Dutch Sea Shepherd Activist Erwin Vermeulen

2.Free Cove Guardian Erwin Vermeulen

3.Please release Dutch citizen Erwin Vermeulen from Japanese prison


Background | From Care2

Target: Japanese Ministry of Justice / Embassy of Japan, the Netherlands
Sponsored by: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, The Cove Guardians, Taji Dolphin Action Group

Dutch Sea Shepherd activist Erwin Vermeulen was arrested on Friday 16th of December in Taji, Japan while attempting to make photographs of the transport of dolphins. The animals who were captured in the wild were being transported towards holding basins at the Dolphin Resort Hotel.

Erwin traveled to Japan on his own initiative to investigate the slaughter of dolphins in Taji. His intention was to observe the transport in a peaceful manner and collect footage to reveal to the world what is happening. Annually the Japanese government provides 23.000 licenses to various coastal towns to slaughter dolphins of various species for consumption purposes.

Police claim Erwin shoved a hotel employee even though Erwin strongly denies ever using violence. The arrest seems pre-planned since no witnesses saw him shove the employee and Erwin was not even questioned as police simply approached him and took him away.

According to Sea Shepherd the Japanese authorities use any possibility to remove activists out of Taji.
Out of compassion for the dolphins being slaughtered in Taji, Erwin Vermeulen ventured to Japan at his own expense to devote his time and energy.

His family has not been allowed direct contact with Erwin, not even during Christmas time.
Recently Erwin has been given a date to appear in court on the 26th of january where, if found guilty, he faces 2 years of imprisonment.

Don’t forget to email your personal messages of support to Erwin on freeerwinvermeulen@gmail.com

All messages will be personally handed over to Erwin once he is released from prison.

And don’t forget to LIKE this page too:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-dutch-Sea-Shepherd-activist-Erwin-Vermeulen/337079989635943

See More:

Human Rights

what is the nature
of a crime
what is criminal
who should serve time
taking pictures of dolphins
being abused
is an act of heroism
why does he
stand accused

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

For years, the conditions for Brian Ladoon’s sled dogs in Churchill, Manitoba, have caused outrage among residents and tourists alike. Dozens of dogs are kept chained in extremely cold, windy conditions without any shelter. Reports that dogs are periodically mauled by polar bears and wolves have made it all the worse. Photos provided to PETA can be viewed here.

Manitoba’s Animal Care Act requires an owner to “provide … reasonable protection from injurious heat or cold.” Although the Chief Veterinary Office of the Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives reportedly inspected Ladoon’s dogs in the fall of 2010 and recommended that Ladoon provide doghouses and bedding, these animals are suffering through yet another frigid winter without these necessities.

Please politely urge the CVO to act in behalf of Ladoon’s dogs immediately.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Dr. Wayne Lees, Chief Veterinary Officer
Dr. Terry Whiting, Manager, Animal Health and Welfare
Office of the Chief Veterinarian
Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives
204-945-7663 (phone)
204-945-4327 (fax)

Click HERE for access to free faxing from your computer.  No fax machine, registering, or credit card required.  Please remember to confirm the fax via your email after submitting.

Email
animalcare@gov.mb.ca


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Chief Veterinary Officer Lees and Manager Whiting,

I have learned of extremely disturbing cases of animal cruelty in which Brian Ladoon’s sled dogs in Churchill, Manitoba, are currently suffering in the frigid temperatures.  Incidentally, this is not an isolated occurrence and the Chief Veterinary Office of the Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives reportedly inspected Ladoon’s dogs in the fall of 2010 and recommended that Ladoon provide doghouses and bedding, which he failed to do.

Please allow me to elaborate. Our global communities share laws, moral and written, and when one person demonstrates such a gross lack of respect for both, our societies must react with concern for the innocent and potential victims.  It is our obligation to protect them from cruelty, and Mr. Ladoon’s callous disregard, so easily adopted as demonstrated by his unprovoked and negligent behaviour, needs to be regarded rather than dismissed.

Please respect the victims by demonstrating your commitment to to them and imploring upon Mr. Ladoon to furnish protection from the weather and other animals.  Rejecting cruelty by maintaining an unyielding position towards it would be a model for all community members and would serve to characterize this type of behaviour as both impermissible and punishable.

I know your time is limited, and I thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.

NAME



SEE MORE:

• Animal Wrongs
• What Can I Do?
• Cruelty-Free

how would you feel
left out in the cold
covered in ice and snow
even your heart of gold
as your humans enjoy
a warm, cozy berth
you wait outside
in this frigid
hell on earth

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Please click on and sign No More Children Locked Up For Life: Clemency for Christi Cheramie

From Amnesty International

Locked up for life at 16. No possibility of parole. Christi Cheramie is living a nightmare.

When Christi was 16 years old, back in 1994, she couldn’t vote, drink alcohol, serve on a jury, or buy lottery tickets. She was considered a minor — a child. But that didn’t stop the state of Louisiana from giving this 16-year-old a sentence of life without parole.

Ask Louisiana’s governor and the state Board of Pardons to grant clemency to Christi Cheramie.

Only in the U.S. — where children as young as 11 have faced life in prison — are such harsh sentences against juveniles allowed. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits life without parole for offenses committed under the age of 18. This is not about excusing or minimizing the consequences of crimes committed by children, but about recognizing that children are not yet fully responsible for their actions and have special potential for rehabilitation and change.

Christi, now 33 years old, has spent more than half of her young life in prison. She’s earned her high school equivalency diploma and an associate’s degree in Agriculture Studies, and teaches classes to her fellow inmates. A prison warden who oversaw Christi considers her a “model inmate” who has grown into a “remarkable young woman” deserving of “a second chance in society.”

But if we don’t act, a mandatory sentence of life without parole means that Christi will die in prison. A victim of sexual abuse and depression, and caught in the web of an aggressive and controlling older fiancé, Christi found herself at the grisly murder scene of her fiancé’s great aunt. She was charged with murder just for being there — even though it was her fiancé who wielded the knife.

The victim’s closest family members are sympathetic to Christi’s case. But Christi’s fate is now in the hands of Louisiana’s governor and Board of Pardons.

Our 2011 Write for Rights campaign highlighted Christi’s case, and thousands of letters have already poured into Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s office. Next week, the Board of Pardons will meet to decide whether or not to move forward with Christi’s clemency application — a decision that the governor can influence. We must keep the momentum going from Write for Rights — and the time to act is now!

Christi has already changed people’s lives through her work at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, but she will never be able to realize her full potential — and society won’t benefit from her potential contributions — if she spends the rest of her life behind bars.

It’s time for the U.S. to join the rest of the world and end the cruel and unusual punishment of juvenile life without parole. People convicted of crimes while still children — like Christi Cheramie — should be given a chance at rehabilitation. They shouldn’t be left to grow old in a jail cell.

You can make a difference in Christi’s case. Sign our petition now calling for clemency for Christi Cheramie.

See More:

Human Rights

until our system of justice
gets some just
it is nothing more
than a bust

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Contact these gallery sponsors and ask them not to support animal neglect. Ask them to sever ties with Primary Flight who purchased two pigs to be used for profit during their Art Basel display by artist Miru Kim. The sick pigs were then abandoned at Earth-N-Us Farm without money for food or urgent medical care. They had to be rescued on December 23rd and transported for medical attention and safe placement at CJ Acres Animal Rescue: http://www.cj-acres.org/


WHOM TO CONTACT | EMAIL BLOCK

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SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

I am shocked to learn that you are a sponsor or a contributor to Primary Flight Art Gallery in Miami. I am writing to you as part of a national action campaign, to ask that you withdraw all financial support of this gallery who purchased two pigs to exploit during Art Basel. Primary Flight neglected these two very sick pigs, causing them to suffer and almost die from lack of food and medical care. Please see media coverage below.

Read Jan 12, 2012
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2012-01-12/news/miru-kim-s-nude-art-with-pigs-made-them-sick-activist-says/

Read Jan 5, 2012
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2012/01/pigs_from_naked_artists_basel.php

Primary Flight Aric Kurzman has stated they will never financially or physically help with the care of the animals they abandoned, neglected, and who had to be subsequently rescued. Anyone who exploits animals for profit and allows them to suffer must be held accountable.

By continuing to sponsor or contribute to Primary Flight, now and in the future, you are supporting animal cruelty and neglect. I urge you to sever all ties with Primary Flight gallery immediately.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

NAME



See More:

• Vegan Guides
• Compassionate Eating
• Animal Wrongs

art is kind
art is beauty
to keep it such
is a humane duty
a rogues gallery
of suffering and
neglect
do not sponsor
primary flight
show animals
some much
deserved respect

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND

In August, an extremely disturbing video depicting a very young girl being forced by her parents to repeatedly shoot an opossum who wandered onto their porch was posted to Facebook. Visibly shaken and exclaiming in distress, “I don’t want to shoot him!” the girl is directed, in front of two even younger children, to fire pellets again and again into the helpless animal. The traumatized girl pleads, “I don’t like doing this,” but to no avail, and the opossum, having been struck only about the body, suffers terribly during the ordeal. The video was posted with the caption “Well our dogs kept us up all night long cause that possum was eating their food. So I’m glad it’s dead. [The girl] was a little sad cause her dad made her shoot it. she didn’t like it…[sic]“. The family reportedly lives in Bee County, Texas.

PETA provided officials with everything they need to investigate (including names and an address) and has for months urged them to do just that, but our public records request reveals that no action was taken! Your voice is now needed! Please politely urge officials to take this matter seriously for the sake of the children and the animal who suffered that day.

WHOM TO CONTACT

The Honorable Martha Warner
Bee County District Attorney’s Office
martha.warner@co.bee.tx.us

Sheriff Carlos Carrizales Jr.
Bee County Sheriff’s Office
carlos.carrizales@co.bee.tx.us

Major Larry Young
Texas Parks and Wildlife Division Law Enforcement
Region 10
larry.young@tpwd.state.tx.us

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Honorable Warner, Sheriff Carrizales, Jr., and Major Young:

It has come to my attention that a gross case of animal cruelty has occurred in Bee County, Texas, in which a parent allegedly forced a child to brutally shoot an opossum with other children nearby. I therefore respectfully request a case be immediately initiated with the adequate information as gathered by PETA to investigate the deliberate abuse of the child and animal and that the most severe subsequent penalty be pursued as well.

Although not required, I do feel it important to validate my concerns: when I try to imagine what possible motive abusers entertain for subjecting their victims to such malicious, heinous acts of emotional brutality as well as physical cruelty, I fail, but I am thankful for a lack of cognitive understanding and rationalization. To engage in such malevolent behaviour absolutely suggests sociopathic and sadistic tendencies and demonstrates an incontrovertible lack of morality regarding other living beings and a gross disrespect for the law. In fact, a person who shows such a remarkable lack of compassion towards animals has, disturbingly enough, the ability to show such indifference towards humans. This link between animal and human abuse has been established, and if we excuse or ignore the opossum’s violent killing and the indirect killer, the parent, we would be serving an injustice to both animals and society’s children.

When animals are subjected to such brutality with no human accountability, our society inaccurately concludes that animals are not worthy of empathy, compassion, or rights. We become desensitized to the issue of animal abuse, and our children learn troubling lessons that are contrary to respect of and towards animals, which often evolves into a lack of empathy for humans. We must do everything in our power to allocate necessary resources to investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of animal cruelty cases. I understand that yours can be a challenging position, limited by vague and inadequate laws as well as insufficient funds; however, we are intelligent people with loud voices and tireless determination, and I believe we can make a difference or initiate change to better protect our animal friends. Please proceed with the most severe penalties and examine where existing legal mandates may be rewritten to address the current inadequacy of such.

I know your time is limited and I thank you for your attention to this important, urgent issue.

NAME
ADDRESS

See More:

• Compassionate Eating
• Cruelty-Free
• Human Rights
  

an evil adult
run rampant and wild
abusing an animal
tormenting a child
this sociopath
belongs in a cell
because such
wickedness can
never get well

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND

From Aljazeera

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has said Arab troops should be sent to Syria to end the political unrest in the country that the UN says has left more than 5,000 people dead.

In an interview due to be aired on Sunday with US broadcaster CBS for the news programme 60 Minutes, Sheikh Hamad was asked if he was in favour of Arab nations intervening, to which he replied: “For such a situation to stop the killing … some troops should go to stop the killing.”

The interview was recorded in mid-November.

Sheikh Hamad is the first Arab leader to publicly suggest foreign intervention in Syria, where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad is now in its tenth month.

Speaking about his own influence on the uprisings in the Arab world, he said: “We are supporting the people of those countries … [who are] asking for justice and dignity.

“If this [is] influence, I think this is a healthy influence. I think all the world should support this.”

Continued violence

Sheikh Hamad’s remarks came as Syrian activists said that at least 26 people were killed across the country during protests supporting the armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army, on Friday.

Amateur video posted on YouTube by Ugarit News, an opposition news outlet, purported to show an armoured personnel carrier engulfed in flames in the flashpoint city of Homs on Friday after allegedly being targeted by the group.

The narrator in the video says army defectors attacked the vehicle with a rocket.

The Arabic caption that goes with the video suggests the attack was part of a “special operation by the Free Syrian Army on an armoured personnel carrier after it attacked protesters”.

The content, date, location or authenticity of the videos could not be independently verified. Syria has banned most foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting, making activist accounts and amateur videos posted online key sources of information about the uprising and crackdown.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition group, said security forces killed one protester in the central city of Hama and another in the town of Ariha in the northwestern province of Idlib, where more than 20,000 people were demonstrating on Friday.

The group reported violence in the southern province of Deraa, the eastern region of Deir ez-Zor and the central province of Homs, all centres of frequent protests.

US sees Iran link

Against this backdrop, a senior US official has accused Iran of aiding Assad’s government in its efforts to crush the uprising.

The official, who did not want to be identified, has told Al Jazeera: “Iran is standing behind the al-Assad regime and continues to provide support to suppress the Syrian people.”

The US has long suspected that the Islamic Republic is aiding Assad as he tries to avoid the fate of other Arab leaders toppled by the Arab Spring uprisings.

“A number of senior Iranian officials have visited Syria to co-ordinate with Syrian officials the repression of Syrian citizens. In addition, Iran has provided security-related equipment – including munitions – to the Syrian security services that is being used against the Syrian people,” the official said.

“It has come to our attention that the Commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, Ghasem Soleimani, was in Damascus, Syria in early January 2012.

“Given Soleimani’s rank within the Iranian government, we are confident that he was received at the highest levels of the Syrian government, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Moreover, the visit was likely related to further Iranian support to Syria’s efforts to suppress its people.”

Soleimani has repeatedly been the target of US sanctions.

Under scrutiny

The accusations come as the US remains locked in confrontation with Iran over its nuclear programme and maritime tensions between the two states simmer in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route.

Signs of direct co-operation between Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Syria came under the spotlight after Mahmoud Souleiman Hajj Hamad, a former official in Assad’s government, accused Iran and Iraq of financially aiding the Syrian crackdown.

He made the allegations at a news conference in Cairo after announcing his defection from the government.

Iran has also been standing firmly by Syria after the Arab League suspended the country over the crackdown on opposition protesters and compelled the Assad government to accept a peace plan.

Iran has been concerned about the possible collapse of Syria, its principal regional ally, a scenario that would leave it even more isolated in its own region amid tightening nuclear sanctions. It has accused Israel and the US of stirring up trouble in Syria.

WHOM TO CONTACT

Click HERE for webform for His Highness Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani

SAMPLE LETTER

See More HERE

Please click on and sign HERE

• Enter your name and email address

• Click ‘Next’

• Click ‘Sign Petition’

Target: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack

Goal: To phase out animal brutality in circuses and instead employ animal-free entertainment.

The population of the largest of all land animals, elephants, is now confined to decreasing habitats in Africa and Asia. In the wild, they are hunted for their tusks and face the perpetual threat of habitat loss. Sadly, the plight of the elephant worsens outside of its natural environment and inside of the circus tent. Elephants are subjected to cruel training and constant confinement, being held captive and forced to perform stressful acts, with most of the creatures facing whips, sticks, and bull-hooks. These poor animals need to be freed from the stage and given the fighting chance to survive in the wild.

It is no secret that in many circuses, elephants have been reported to be beaten, poked, prodded and jabbed with sharp bull-hooks, many times until blood pours from their leathery skin. Their spirits are broken as mere calves, sometimes with lives destroyed after excruciating fractures occur within their bones and the elephant babes are deemed useless in the show. In just months, many elephants suffer a dramatic decline in health, and without adequate veterinary care, an overwhelming amount of the large mammals succumb to a preventable death. Similar to the fate of their babies, aged elephants that suffer from painful ailments, mostly arthritis, are spared no torture, as they are still forced on their hind legs adding pressure to their joints.

Not only are these animals in danger, but they also endanger the public. Often times, after elephants engage in erratic behavior- a clear indication of psychological distress- these gentle beasts become aggressive and react wildly. There have been a reported 35 cases within the past decade of elephants rebelling against trainers, attacking the audience, bolting from circuses, and wreaking havoc through towns. People have been killed during these moments of rebellion, and in the end, the bulls are often times shot and killed as well. As a result of having to perform night after exhausting night, it should come as no surprise that an animal would snap. The only answer is to provide elephants their natural environment.

Fortunately, there is a solution. Not all circuses are dangerous to animals. Many animal-free venues exist, complete with trapeze artists, jugglers, clowns, and other various forms of entertainment. With that in mind, it is imperative that elephants and other circus animals are taken out of the boxcar and left to remain in their proper home– the wild.



International Animal-Free Circuses

how would you like to be
tormented
and on display
wishing those who
are bothering you
would go away
dreaming of freedom
a safe world outside
as you cower in
the corner
of your cage
and sadly, hide

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND

Emerald Isle, North Carolina, has decided to allow bowhunters to kill deer in an attempt to reduce local deer populations. Our office received reports that deer who were wounded by arrows were left to suffer during last year’s hunt. Your voice is needed!

Bowhunting is among the cruelest forms of hunting. Bowhunters often spend hours following bloody tracks before finding wounded deer. Many are not found, and their deaths are slow and painful. It can take weeks for them to succumb to their injuries. Families are then torn apart, and young and weak animals starve or die of dehydration.

Please urge Emerald Isle officials to halt bowhunting—and then forward this alert widely! If deer control is insisted upon, please share these tips.


WHOM TO CONTACT


Email block

aschools@ec.rr.com
frush@emeraldisle-nc.org
fmesser@ec.rr.com
nhedreen@coastalemail.com
trhoover@ec.rr.com
jwootten@earthlink.net
maripatw1@yahoo.com


Individual

The Honorable Art Schools
Mayor of Emerald Isle
aschools@ec.rr.com

Frank Rush
Emerald Isle Town Manager
frush@emeraldisle-nc.org

Please also e-mail the members of the Emerald Isle Commission using these addresses: fmesser@ec.rr.com; nhedreen@coastalemail.com; trhoover@ec.rr.com;
jwootten@earthlink.net; maripatw1@yahoo.com


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Honorable Schools, Town Manager Rush, and Emerald Isle Commission Members:

I have just learned that Emerald Isle is considering bowhunting, the cruelest of all hunting methods, of deer populations in a misguided attempt to reduce their numbers in populated areas. Although this proposal is inherently cruel based on its premise alone, it is important to recognize it is based on erroneous information.

Please allow me to illustrate a few of these concerns. First, ecologically, populations will fluctuate according to conditions and naturally-occurring food sources; it is the interference of humans that causes imbalance. To blame and slaughter the deer for human encroachment is both irresponsible and unjustified.

Second, killing deer would artificially increase food supplies to the remaining deer, the consequence of which would be increased reproduction and an ensuing greater deer population. In fact, studies have demonstrated that the continual cycle of seasonal hunting is responsible for a rebound, or larger herd populations, in subsequent years.

Third, this type of mass killing using such a brutal type of slaughter in such a central and visible location would certainly adversely affect both visitation and tourism; it would be financially detrimental to move forward with such a cruel and unnecessary killing, and although I do not currently reside in Emerald Isle I would be unwilling to consider it, or nearby, as a potential vacation destination if this deer cull transpires.

Furthermore, bowhunting is among the cruelest forms of hunting. Bowhunters often spend hours following bloody tracks before finding wounded deer. Many are not found, and their deaths are slow and painful. It can take weeks for them to succumb to their injuries. Families are then torn apart, and young and weak animals starve or die of dehydration.

Please instead examine alternative, non-lethal options such as fencing, fertility control, and relocation according to established protocols when using these methods, which have all proven successful in curtailing deer populations.

I know your time is limited and I want to thank you each for your attention to this urgent matter.

NAME

See More:

• Vegan Guides
• Cruelty-Free
• Video Library

From ALDF

Santa Cruz, Calif. – This morning, represented by Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) attorneys, Compassion Over Killing (COK) filed a complaint  in the California Superior Court in Santa Cruz to stop alleged ongoing animal abuse at Cal-Cruz Hatcheries, Inc., a Santa Cruz chicken hatchery that handles millions of chickens per year. Undercover video footage, taken by a COK investigator working inside Cal-Cruz Hatcheries, reveals shocking abuse of newly-hatched chicks. As described in the lawsuit, this video documents numerous routine abuses—including acts amounting to felony animal cruelty—that are in violation of the California law, and which in turn constitute unlawful and unfair business practices under the California Business and Professions Code.

Why are animal advocates and attorneys up in arms over conditions for chickens at Cal-Cruz? COK’s investigation uncovered abuses including:

• Dead hatchlings and their body parts, and mutilated but still living hatchlings, trapped in and under processing machinery;⁞
• Hatchlings with ripped or  missing skin, exposed organs, and severely injured feet and legs left in bins for several hours at a time, where they gasped, shook, and struggled to move;
• Baby birds cruelly tossed in a bucket of liquid waste where they struggled to escape before drowning;
• Hatchlings tossed like garbage into bins and then forced down a clogged disposal chute with a pole and hose.

ALDF and COK argue that these unlawfully abusive practices violate the California Business and Professions Code, undermining the integrity of the market. By grossly disregarding the welfare of animals, Cal-Cruz is cutting corners that allow it to produce hatchlings at a reduced cost. The lawsuit seeks an immediate end to the abusive and neglectful practices causing unnecessary suffering at Cal-Cruz.

 
Compassion Over Killing immediately turned over the video evidence to law enforcement authorities upon completion of the investigation; a follow-up investigation conducted by humane law enforcement corroborated the evidence of abuse and neglect and resulted in the impoundment of 88 hatchlings.

Cal-Cruz hatches thousands of chicks per week—amounting to millions of birds  per year—for shipment to growers who house and feed the birds until they are ready for slaughter. ALDF was recently informed by a Cal-Cruz representative that many of these chicks are sent to Bauer Family Farms and Carlson Family Farms and are ultimately destined for meat counters at Northern California grocery stores.

“The systematic torture and reckless neglect of baby birds at Cal-Cruz is not only shocking—it is also illegal under the California Business and Professions Code,” explains ALDF’s director of litigation Carter Dillard. “These mistreated and abused baby birds deserve justice. It’s time that their suffering be recognized under the law and permanently stopped,” says Cheryl Leahy, general counsel of Compassion Over Killing.

Copies of the lawsuit and footage of COK’s investigation at Cal-Cruz are available upon request.

ALDF was founded in 1979 with the unique mission of protecting the lives and advancing the interests of animals through the legal system. For more information, please visit www.aldf.org.

Compassion Over Killing (COK) is a nonprofit animal protection organization based in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Since 1995, COK has worked to end the abuse of animals in agriculture through undercover investigations, public outreach, litigation, and other advocacy programs. COK is on the web at www.COK.net.
 

Viva Vegan Basics

how dare anyone treat
another living being
this way
if the tables were turned
they would have
a lot more to say
let us hope the legal
system does not fail
and these evil abusers
end up in jail!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Huffington Post

From The Huffington Post
By Lynne Peeples

Thousands of pounds of primate parts, rodents and other dry, smoked or raw animals — so-called “bushmeat” — are smuggled into the United States as food every year, frequently hidden inside cases of similarly stinky but legal fish. Scientists now warn that the increasing practice may also be bringing deadly disease into the country.

“We know a fair amount about the risks of harvesting and slaughtering the animals in countries far away,” said Nina Marano, branch chief of quarantine and border health services at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But we wanted to know more about the persistence, if any, [of pathogens] once the animals have been slaughtered.”

In a small study published Tuesday in the journal PLoS ONE, Marano and colleagues from several institutions tested samples of some 44 nonhuman primates and rodents seized by customs agents at JFK International Airport in New York, as well as a few other U.S. points of entry. They then ran sophisticated genetic tests to detect pathogens.

Sure enough, the researchers found that several bugs had made the trip, including diseases that belong to the same family as HIV — which also originated in African bushmeat.

“This is good example of why we want to know about these viruses. We want to prevent any kind of future epidemic similar to what happened with HIV,” said Bill Switzer, a microbiologist at the CDC and preeminent expert on the simian foamy virus. First identified in the mid-1990s, SFV is common in nonhuman primates and known to spread quickly. It has also made the jump to humans, though it has yet to cause obvious symptoms.

Among the other pathogens found in the confiscated bushmeat were several forms of herpes, all of which could pose threats to humans.

“We are also worried about the viruses that we haven’t identified yet,” said Kristine Smith, the study’s lead researcher and the associate director for health and policy at EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based organization of scientists dedicated to the dual goals of conservation and public health.

Overall, an estimated three of every four emerging infectious diseases in humans originate in wildlife. As HuffPost reported last month, the live wildlife trade can also expose humans to infectious diseases such as monkeypox, bird flu and rat bite fever. Boris Pavlin, the head of the Northern Micronesia office of the World Health Organization who was not involved in the Smith study, warned of potential exposures from close contact with pets that can bite and scratch, noting that “a living being can create an infectious aerosol, which bushmeat normally would not.”

Pavlin said he was not surprised by the results of the Smith study. “My research has shown that there are myriad species of imported animals that are known to be potential carriers of zoonotic pathogens,” he said. “This study is the first to demonstrate virus directly in imported bushmeat, but it basically confirms what we all suspected.”

A person handling meat may be directly exposed to an animal’s blood and internal tissues, which Pavlin said “could be extremely dangerous, particularly as the bushmeat being prepared may be ‘double-dead.’” In other words, the animal may have initially died from disease before being found and processed for consumption. This is the scenario that likely gave rise to the deadly Ebola virus.

People may also be exposed to disease by eating the bushmeat. As with chicken and salmonella, the level of risk depends on how well the meat is cooked, but millions of Africans rely on bushmeat for protein, and surveys of West African communities have found that many people are unaware that they could get sick from this practice.

While greater travel and immigration between the United States and Africa means the potential for more direct U.S. exposure, Smith suggests that even a bushmeat hunter contracting a disease abroad could affect health, economy, food and natural resources here.

“Unfortunately, it is ‘One Health‘,” said Smith, referring to the emerging movement that seeks more recognition of the connections between the health of the environment, animals and human beings.

To get a better handle on just how much bushmeat is entering the country — currently estimated at 15,000 pounds a year — as well as the range of diseases that are traveling with it, Smith and her team are now expanding their study to include most of the U.S. airports that have a CDC quarantine.

Any bushmeat found by U.S. customs agents is already confiscated and destroyed. Ideally, the CDC would like to intervene earlier — say, before someone abroad even plans their trip. “We are hoping that as we go along with these studies, we can develop educational campaigns to better inform people coming into the U.S. about the risks of bringing bushmeat,” said Gale Galland, leader of the CDC’s zoonoses team.

Such efforts may well pay dividends, Pavlin said. “The end users of bushmeat are likely to be very specific communities, which may benefit from targeted efforts to educate them about the potential risks associated with bushmeat,” he said. “If we can decrease the demand, we can decrease the risk.”

you are what you eat
what else can one say
if you eat this sad meat
you could end up
D.O.A.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND

According to news sources, Québec resident Normand Girard has pled guilty to shooting puppies in the head with a nail gun. Reportedly, after his attempts to gas to death a mother Labrador retriever and her puppies proved unsuccessful, Girard began driving nails into their skulls! When he failed to kill his first two victims, Girard just dumped the whole canine family on the side of the road.

Girard now awaits sentencing, and your voice is needed! Please contact the prosecutor handling this case and thank him for taking the case seriously. Let him know that you support the maximum penalty for Girard: a $10,000 fine and 18 months in prison!

WHOM TO CONTACT

Me. Karim AinMelk
Office of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions
77 Main St.
Office 20.1
Granby QC J2G 9B3
karim.ainmelk@dpcp.gouv.qc.ca

And please forward this alert widely!

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Me. Karim AinMelk,

I have learned of extremely disturbing and malicious cases of animal cruelty in which Québec resident Normand Girard has pled guilty to shooting puppies in the head with a nail gun. Reportedly, after his attempts to gas to death a mother Labrador retriever and her puppies proved unsuccessful, Girard began driving nails into their skulls! When he failed to kill his first two victims, Girard just dumped the whole canine family on the side of the road.  I am therefore writing to thank you for taking this case seriously and to request you sentence Mr. Girard to the maximum penalty allowable under the law: a $10,000 fine and 18 months in prison.

Please allow me to elaborate. Our global communities share laws, moral and written, and when one person demonstrates such a gross lack of respect for both, our societies must react with concern for the innocent and potential victims, who include both non-human and human animals. It is our obligation to protect them from cruelty and although past behaviours are not indicative of future actions, Mr. Girard’s callous disregard, so easily adopted as demonstrated by his unprovoked, barbaric,  and  lethal behaviour, needs to be regarded rather than dismissed.

Please respect the victims by penalizing the guilty and demonstrate your commitment to justice, responsibility, and integrity, attributes unquestionably necessary in a law enforcement  setting: rejecting cruelty by maintaining an unyielding position towards it would be a model for all community members and would serve to characterize this type of behaviour as both impermissible and punishable.

I know your time is limited, and I thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.

NAME

See More: Companion Animals

normand girard
a waste of air
and space
needs to be removed
from every
civilized place
locked in a jail cell
dark and cold
with pictures of his victims
until he gets very old

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

PETITION

Please applaud the EL-AL airline management for taking a compassionate stand and ask that it does not bow to pressure from the research industry to carry primates.

A petition has been started by the Israeli Anti-Vivisection Organization “Behind Closed Doors”, with English translation, that can be found here:

https://www.atzuma.co.il/elalsupport

(To sign the petition just enter your full name into the box on the right hand side and hit the green submit button.)

TEXT

Many airlines all over the world refuse to transport animals destined for vivisection. Following a prolonged public campaign, the Israeli airline El-Al declared in September 2010 that its management decided to join the growing list of airlines that refuse to transport animals destined for vivisection.

Now, more than a year after El-Al stopped such transportation, vivisectionists are trying to force it to change this policy, through a lawsuit filed by The Council of University Presidents against El-Al.

The transportation of animals to labs is an integral part of the severe abuse animals endure in vivisection – they are transported in extreme packed conditions in a journey which may last tens of hours, while suffering extreme physical and mental stress, and many are found dead upon arrival.

In recent years, a significant part of the air transportation of animals for vivisection to and from Israel has comprised of monkeys imported to the Mazor Facility from Mauritius.  The Mazor Facility is a private business that has been responsible for kidnapping monkeys from the wild in Mauritius, confining and breeding them in Israel, and selling their babies abroad, for vivisection.

We the undersigned applaud the El-Al management for its moral policy, which ensures us that while we fly on vacation or on business, there will not be animals kept with our luggage on their way to hell.

el al you have stepped up
to the plate
by not transporting animals
to a terrible fate
we thank you for
taking this moral stand
a round of applause
and a show of grateful
hands♥☻

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

From Newser

By Mark Russell

Today’s bullfights at the 97-year-old Plaza de Toros Monumental arena in Barcelona will be the last ever for the venerable—and brutal—sport in Catalonia province, reports the BBC.

The province voted to end bullfighting last year, the first ban on the corrida de toros in mainland Spain (it’s been banned on the Canary Islands since 1991).

“This is such a beautiful arena, with a lot of tradition both for bullfighters and this national celebration,” said one matador. Although attendance for bullfighting has been poor for many years, tickets to the last matches at the 20,000-seat Monumental sold out quickly, and have been selling for five times their original value on black markets.

The ban came partly from Catalonians’ desire to distinguish themselves from the rest of Spain and partly because of declining interest, but animal rights groups say they hope to extend their campaign to the rest of the country.


See More:

League Against Cruel Sports

whatever the reason
good news,
we will take it
and work even harder
tomorrow,
to make it

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

1. Please click and sign HERE to ban duck hunting in Australia.

2. Please click HERE to ban greyhound export in Australia.

1. Background | From Animals Australia

The beautiful wetlands of South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria should be safe havens for wildlife; instead every year in Autumn and early Winter they become killing fields.

At this moment the lives of hundreds of thousands of native waterbirds are under threat. Tasmania and Victoria have already confirmed that they will permit a duck hunting season in 2012 and South Australia will also soon decide.

While numbers of active shooters dropped substantially during the opening weekend of the 2011 season, there was no reprieve for ducks, with numbers of birds killed and captured more than doubling from an estimated 270,000 in 2010 to more than 600,000 in 2011, in Victoria alone. For every bird killed and captured it is estimated that at least one more escapes injured. So in excess of one million birds will have been harmed or killed during the 2011 shooting season — with those who escaped likely to have suffered prolonged pain and even death from their untreated wounds.

Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia have already banned duck shooting due to the extreme suffering caused to birds.

Please help us protect these defenceless birds and send a strong message to the Governments of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, urging them to ban duck hunting.


2. Background | From Animal Australia

Australia’s greyhound racing industry is not one with a glowing track record for animal welfare. Just like in the horse racing industry, animals whose only fault is that they are not fast enough to win are disposed of in the thousands. A very small portion of these unwanted animals are rehomed, however the vast majority are killed. But perhaps the grimmest fate that can await these unlucky dogs is export, and this export trade may soon grow if not stopped.

A primary export destination for greyhounds from Australia is Macau, with hundreds of racing dogs facing cruel conditions in this region of China. In Macau’s greyhound racing stadium, the Canidrome, these dogs are kept in cages so small they can barely turn around and must literally run for their lives on the track.

Greyhounds from Australia were killed at the Canidrome at a rate of more than 1 every day in 2010. Nearly all of these dogs were healthy and not even five years old. All they had done wrong is fail to finish in the top three for five consecutive races. With an ongoing supply of dogs from Australia, this unethical practice can continue, and is even threatening to expand.

Macau is the only place in China where greyhound racing is currently legal. But with racing industries from around the world pushing for the legalisation of greyhound racing on mainland China many more greyhounds are at risk.

The Australian government can help stop this cruel practice by banning the export of greyhounds. Please call on Minister for Agriculture, Joe Ludwig, to stop Australia’s export of greyhounds.

See More: Animals Australia

common sense to us
would be
not killing any animal,
being a peaceful
society
but apparently to many
these notions exist not
so our world sits in decline
so sickens the plot

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND

The Delaware County, New York, District Attorney’s Office has filed charges of cruelty to animals as well as a drug-related charge against Susan Marino, the woman responsible for the horrific suffering of hundreds of animals at Angel’s Gate, Inc., which she founded, operates, and dares to call “a hospice and rehabilitation center.”

PETA’s investigation of this hellhole exposed the daily neglect and terrible suffering of disabled, elderly, and ailing animals, many of whom had been shipped to Marino by well-meaning but severely uninformed individuals and agencies, including the New York Center for Animal Care and Control (NYCACC), which doomed Malcolm the Chihuahua and hundreds of other animals to die slowly at Angel’s Gate through its “New Hope” program.

PETA had provided the District Attorney with the evidence that our investigator gathered while volunteering at Angel’s Gate. Our investigator saw Marino allow animals to suffer, sometimes for weeks, from treatable conditions as well as terminal illnesses without providing veterinary care, medication, or pain relief. Paralyzed animals dragged themselves until they developed bloody ulcers. Animals developed urine scald after being left in soaked diapers for up to two days. Dehydrated animals were denied water, and others were forced to stay outside in freezing temperatures. The bodies of dead animals were left among those of the living for days.

While Marino has been charged, the nightmare is not over for the animals at Angel’s Gate, as they have not yet been seized. Please help us ensure their welfare and the safety of future victims by joining us in urging the New York State Attorney General to revoke Angel’s Gate’s nonprofit status and ensure that the animals are removed from Marino’s custody. Please click here to send a letter to the Attorney General, and please, when your animal companions become elderly or ill, let them live out their final days with dignity in the comfort of their own homes, surrounded by their families, not at the mercy of a conniving stranger.

PETA has turned over evidence to the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Please join us in urging Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to revoke the non-profit status of Angel’s Gate and ensure that Marino’s victims are seized and helped.

WHOM TO CONTACT

The Honorable Eric T. Schneiderman
Office of the Attorney General
The Capital
Albany, NY 12224-0341
518-474-5481
Click HERE for online webform


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Honorable Schneiderman,

I have learned of extremely disturbing and malicious cases of animal cruelty in which Susan Marino, owner and operator of Angel’s Gate, deliberately and with malice caused the suffering and death of numerous animals as well as cheated well-meaning people out of enormous sums of money. I am respectfully requesting that you revoke her non-profit status, charge her with the harshest penalty allowed, and seize and care for animals still suffering.

The following, courtesy of PETA, are the conditions witnessed by an undercover volunteer of Angel’s Gate:

Paralyzed animals dragged themselves until they developed bleeding ulcers, even though wheelchair carts were readily available. One dachshund suffered a wound so deep that it exposed the bone.

Animals whose bladders should be expressed every few hours were kept in the same diaper for up to two days until the diapers were urine-logged, and animals suffered from urine scald.

Animals, even severely dehydrated ones, were confined without access to water.

Animals kept outside in freezing temperatures without access to proper shelter.

Animals were confined to a bathtub, which they could not climb.

Animals were confined to bathrooms.

Small dogs were confined to Marino’s bed, several feet off the ground, with no way to leave it.

Animals were suffering from treatable conditions without veterinary examination or care, including open wounds and respiratory, eye, ear, mouth, and skin infections. One dog’s infected, rotten jaw snapped in half.

Crowded conditions so stressful that fights broke out daily, leaving animals with wounds that were left untreated.

Animals suffering from pain, seizures, and hydrocephalus (water on the brain) were denied veterinarian-recommended and/or prescribed medication.

Horribly suffering animals on death’s door were deprived of the dignity and relief of euthanasia.

The bodies of dead animals were left out for days among live animals.

Animals were fed rancid, raw meat that had been left unrefrigerated.

Please respect the victims by penalizing Ms. Marino and demonstrate your commitment to justice, responsibility, and integrity, attributes unquestionably necessary in a law enforcement setting: rejecting cruelty by maintaining an unyielding position towards it would be a model for all community members and would serve to characterize this type of behaviour as both impermissible and punishable.

I know your time is limited, and I thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.







SEE MORE:

• Compassionate Eating
• Vegan Guides
• Cruelty-Free
  

Please click on and sign petition HERE

From Force Change

Target: The Humane Society

Goal: Apologize for the death of Daniel Dockery’s cat and review the procedure regarding payment for veterinary services

Lovers of animals and compassionate people will feel sorrow and even outrage at the story of Daniel Dockery and the cat that saved him from addiction and despair.  After rushing Scruffy to the Humane Society’s Campus for Compassion in Arizona for treatment of non-life threatening wounds, Dockery discovered that because of his inability to pay in a timely manner, his beloved kitten had been euthanized.  This callous lack of compassion is unacceptable in any circumstance, but especially from an organization known for their compassion for animals.  Tell the Humane Society that they need to apologize for Scruffy’s death and review Dockery’s case to make sure something like this never happens again.

Daniel Dockery raised Scruffy since she was 4 years old.  He claims that through raising and caring for her, he was able to recover from his 20 year heroin addiction.  When he brought her to Humane Society’s clinic on December 8th, he was confronted with an inexplicable lack of compassion, understanding and common sense.  When Dockery presented them with his mother’s credit card, they refused it according to their “no credit card” policy.  He then asked for 24 hours to come up with the cash and was again refused.  Instead, they insisted he sign ownership over to them.  The Humane Society would later confirm that Scruffy was euthanized a few hours after being brought in because they were only able to treat two cats at their clinic.  The 49 year old Dockery is devastated, feeling like he has failed the cat that he loved so dearly.

Dockery received a massive outpouring of financial and emotional support from the people of Arizona.  We also stand with Dockery in asking the Humane Society of Arizona to issue a formal apology and to review their policies concerning payment for services.  No animal should be killed because their owner can’t pay, especially an animal that brought such joy into the life of someone who suffered for so long.

See More: Force Change

Very sad that
In the name of
Cost,
Living creatures
End up, dead
Or lost

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

From One Green Planet
By Nick Pendergrast

2011 has seen veganism move into the mainstream more than any other year. It has seen growing awareness of the animal rights, environmental and health arguments for veganism, a number of well-known people becoming vegan and increasing vegan options at restaurants and supermarkets.

An increase in the number of famous vegans has certainly led to greater awareness and visibility of veganism this year. This year, talk show host Ellen DeGeneres not only continued to promote veganism on her popular talk show, but she also established the website Going Vegan With Ellen and set up a vegan restaurant chain and standalone vegan restaurant.

Some celebrities have also demonstrated the health benefits of a vegan diet. The most obvious example of this is former U.S. President Bill Clinton. After eating a diet high in animal products and narrowly escaping death due to heart problems, Clinton has adopted a vegan diet and tests have shown that he is starting to reverse the damage to his heart and blood vessels caused by cardiovascular disease, has lost over nine kilograms, and claims he has more energy than before.

Clinton’s story was featured on a recent hour-long CNN documentary on heart attacks and his vegan diet success story was also featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, and the ABC – to name just a few of the endless amount of outlets that have covered this story.

The release of the documentary Forks Over Knives has also drawn attention to the health benefits of a vegan diet. This documentary ‘examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods.’ This documentary has convinced celebrities like comedian Russell Brand and musician Ozzy Osbourne to adopt a vegan diet for health reasons, which has led to greater awareness of the health reasons to remove animal products from the diet.

The growing diversity of vegans, particularly famous vegans, has helped in bringing down stereotypes about veganism and is likely to have made veganism more appealing to a wider variety of people. It is not just animal advocates who are busting the myth that vegans fit some narrow stereotype, but also mainstream media outlets like Bloomberg Businessweek.

2011 has also seen growing awareness of the environmental arguments for veganism. In 2009, a study by the World Watch Institute found that animal agriculture accounts for 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions – far higher than the 18% figure cited by the United Nations in 2006. This year, the website 51percent.org was set up, increasing awareness of this statistic and the environmental reasons to give up animal products.

As the term ‘vegan’ and arguments for veganism increasingly enter the mainstream media and consciousness, it is becoming easier and easier to be a vegan. Mainstream supermarkets increasingly provide vegan staples like tofu and tempeh, as well as more “luxury” products like vegan meat substitutes and desserts, and chain restaurants as well as university cafeterias are offering more and more vegan options.

As veganism reaches the mainstream, it is important to reflect on the definition of the term. In 1944, Donald Watson began The Vegan Society and coined the term ‘vegan’ to mean a vegetarian who also avoided other animal products in their diet, such as dairy and eggs.

In 1951, the definition of veganism was extended to be far more all-encompassing than just a diet. The Vegan Society redefined veganism to mean seeking ‘to end the use of animals by man for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection and all other uses involving exploitation of animal life by man.’

Although some recent articles have acknowledged that veganism goes beyond diet, unfortunately it has mainly been the dietary aspect of veganism, rather than the broader philosophy and lifestyle (often referred to as ethical veganism), that have become mainstreamed.

The mainstreaming of the vegan diet is obviously a positive thing for other animals, as an overwhelming majority (often suggested to be approximately 99% in the United States) of non-human animals killed by humans are killed for food.

However, from an animal rights point of view, ethical veganism is essential. The non-human animals harmed and killed for other uses beyond food, such as entertainment, clothing and experimentation are just as important.

The concept of animal rights gives other animals inherent value and challenges the dominant idea that they are just “things” for us to use and kill for our enjoyment and profit. Ethical veganism puts this concept into practise for all non-human animals, not just those used and killed for food.

It has been great to see the term ‘vegan’ mainstreamed and normalised this year. From an animal rights point of view, it is important that the broader philosophy and lifestyle of veganism gets wider recognition in the years to come.

Vegan food, recipes, shopping list, and more … Click on the upper right arrow to view the full tab names, scroll down to see all entries.

2012 we will make it be
the best year yet
for all societies
people and animals
and the planet
on which we live
share our love
and forever, give

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND

Please read the message below and please, please, please contact the officials.

My friend, Jacqueline, who lives in Kentucky (which is the worst state for NOT prosecuting animal abuses-email to follow) just lost one of her precious canine babies in a trap set out for wild life.

These traps should be outlawed.

I’m asking all the animal advocates out there to please let your voice be heard:

(1) prosecution of the person who set the trap (it’s in an area where children play and families walk/run their dogs

(2) push for KY to prosecute animal abusers

(3) get these traps outlawed.

I know we have many battles on our hands and it’s probably years down the road before we see progress on some, but we must push for change.

Billy Boy was a happy doggie in a home with a great person who loved him dearly.

My heart breaks and I am still in shock just thinking about his horrible death.

Thanks for caring about the animals.


MESSAGE

Since his death on Sunday, I find I am unable to feel much of anything.

Where once a heart as big as a city block swelled with beat after beat of passion, nothing sounds but hollow breathing. Shattered is the word that comes most often to mind.

Not until today have I been able to find the strength to face the screen before me.

Four days ago, on Sunday, December 11, 2011, my beautiful, loving boy was savagely killed by a steel trap laid for the purpose of snuffing out some poor, wild creature.

Fur from other victims, I later observed, was caught in its metal jaws.

I can’t feel much of anything. I should feel rage but no, nothing. After years and years of saving animals I find my heart has taken a beating.

Hours spent before his death were beautiful ones and like every day my lovable lug had on this embattled planet, Billy Boy was out and about following that Geiger counter nose that in the end drew him to his death.

Oh, how that boy loved life.

I could actually find myself smiling just by virtue of watching his face light up into a smile.

His very last moments were agony: From the moment he poked his head into that lethal device until he was gone maybe one minute elapsed.

As soon as I heard his cry of pain, I went running. Within seconds I was at his side. About all I can remember of the location was being in the creek, near the culvert located directly under the road. My muddy, bloody jeans still lie on the floor. I’m not sure if he was still alive.

I couldn’t first grasp what had happened. He was writhing so I thought he could still be saved. Not so. That dreaded glassy look that appears in the eyes of the dead was soon staring at me. Still I tried to free him from that steel deathtrap.

I kept screaming for help that did not come and even if someone had been there, it would have been too late.

On my hands and knees, I tried to lift him from the streambed onto the road but he was now 55 lbs of dead weight. I weigh 105.

The children I saw earlier playing next to the very same creek with their Boxer heard my cries. I suspect I frightened them.

No creature deserves to die like that let alone a member of the family.

Billy Boy was the embodiment of devoted love and loyalty.

The other four dogs with me at the time fled the scene, all except little Sassy. She alone stayed with her hysterical mother. Baby, Daisy Mae and Muchacho ran for their lives having witnessed what happened to their friend and frightened by the crumbled bodies of me and Billy Boy on the wet asphalt.

Tears that have long been a stranger to these cheeks are now streaming down my face.

I have witnessed too much cruelty in my life.

Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of my loss.

Last night, each night and for many nights to come I will miss the warmth of that burly body huddled next to mine.

He was the consummate Mama’s Boy who never, but never knew a stranger.

He was only three-years-old.

Yes, I dread going to bed.

Just the other night, I dreamt a dream of terrible sorrow. I dreamt of my lost boy. Somewhere in the darkness I could hear him crying for me but as much as I tried I could not find my darling Billy. I awoke from my nightmare and reached over to what had now become a place empty of my nightly familiar.

Billy Boy is gone.

I want his death to stand for something other than just another poor beast robbed of the life he loved.

The creek where he met his death either sits on or borders the sheriff’s property: It could have been one of his beautiful Shepherds.

Tina, up the street, has a gorgeous, white Spitz called Rooster, just yards from the place of death. It could have been her boy.

These traps do not discriminate.

Whatever luckless being ventures close to its lethal grasp is not long for this world.

That being the case, these coiled mechanisms of death have no business close to companion animals and children who play in these streams.

If it hadn’t been Billy Boy, it could have easily been Sarge, Rooster, Baby, Sassy, Summer, Daisy Mae, or Muchacho.

Billy Boy with his Labrador nose found it first and well, the rest you know.

This is my story.

Jacqueline Muth
859- 499-1920


WHOM TO CONTACT

***Please note the emails may not work, some people have had them returned.

Block

kevin.cockrell@ky.go,  nik.fegenbush@ky.gov

Individual

The Montgomery County Attorney is Kevin Cockrell:  kevin.cockrell@ky.gov
and his Assistant County Attorney is Nick Fegenbush: nik.fegenbush@ky.gov

Their phone number is 859-498-8713

The fax is 859-498-8714

Click HERE for access to free faxing from your computer.  No fax machine, registering, or credit card required.  Please remember to confirm the fax via your email after submitting.


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Attorneys Cockrell and Fegenbush:

I am writing in response to a tragedy that occurred in which a loved family dog, named Billy Boy, died from capturing his head in a possibly illegal steel trap. Specifically I request the following:

(1) prosecution of the person who set the trap (it’s in an area where children play and families walk/run their dogs)

(2) push for KY to prosecute animal abusers

(3) outlaw traps

 According to Born Free USA following their in-depth campaign to ban traps:

Our investigation proves that despite industry claims to the contrary, leghold traps and snares cause serious injuries and extreme suffering to trapped animals. We also revealed that archaic killing methods such as suffocation, drowning and chest crushing are widely used today — methods that in fact would be considered cruelty to animals (a felony offense in some states) if inflicted intentionally upon domestic cats or dogs.

The investigation also demonstrates that despite years of research, there have been no significant advances in reducing “collateral damage.” In other words, non-target animals still are captured in traps set for other species. No animal is safe from these diabolical devices — dogs, cats, squirrels, bears, hawks and even threatened and endangered species can become victims of vanity. (Find hundreds of examples of non-targeted animals being caught in traps and read about our Trapping Victims Fund.)

Our investigator documented that what few trapping regulations do exist are regularly flouted by trappers: They openly use illegal snares to capture animals, they leave traps out after the close of the trapping season, and they capture animals out of season.

The whole operation of trapping is built on a very weak foundation of trust, as there are no authorities present when traps are set or an animal is killed, and most states don’t even require trappers to report the number of animals they kill.

Please exercise your influence to ban traps so that no animal will be tortured and maimed by such archaic and barbaric contraptions.

I know your time is limited and I thank you for the attention to this urgent issue.



SEE MORE

• Compassionate Eating
• Vegan Guides
  

to the hunters and those whose support them

how would you like to be
caught in a trap
unable to move
pain much worse
than a slap
hours pass,
alone you cry
slowly, in agony
alone, you die
any animal
is
damage
collateral

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

From Mercy For Animals

Butterball has become synonymous with turkey. But how do the millions of turkeys who end up in the grocery store, or served at restaurants, under the Butterball brand, really live and die?

A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation reveals the truth: extreme cruelty and violence is the harsh reality for birds on Butterball’s factory farms.

Between November and December of 2011, an MFA undercover investigator documented a pattern of shocking abuse and neglect at a Butterball turkey semen collection facility in Shannon, North Carolina.

Hidden-camera footage taken at Butterball reveals:

• Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
• Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
• Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, with some unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss
• Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
• Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to MFA’s investigator.

After viewing the undercover footage, Dr. Sara Shields, research scientist, poultry specialist and consultant in animal welfare, said, “Turkeys are fully capable of feeling pain, fear, stress and of suffering, and the way they are treated in the video is clearly abusive.”

Dr. Debra Teachout, a practicing veterinarian with experience in farmed-animal welfare, agrees, stating, “The birds are not living a life remotely worth living. Their world is full of fear, distress, pain, injury and illness as witnessed by this video. A culture of blatant and severe animal mistreatment has been allowed to flourish unchecked, and for that reason, this facility should be shut down immediately.”

Following the investigation, MFA immediately went to law enforcement with extensive video footage and a detailed legal complaint outlining the routine violence and cruelty documented by the investigator at this Butterball facility. On Thursday, December 29, state law enforcement officials obtained a warrant and raided the facility on grounds of cruelty to animals.

Unfortunately, the lives of turkeys in Butterball’s factory farms are short, brutal and filled with fear, violence and prolonged suffering. While wild turkeys are sleek, agile and able to fly, Butterball’s turkeys have been selectively bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them suffer from painful bone defects, hip joint lesions, crippling foot and leg deformities, and fatal heart attacks.

This genetic manipulation creates birds that are so large they cannot even reproduce naturally, meaning that artificial semen collection and insemination have become the sole means of turkey reproduction at Butterball facilities.

Even though domestic turkeys have been genetically manipulated for enormous growth, these birds still retain their gentle, inquisitive and social natures. Oregon State University poultry scientist Dr. Tom Savage says that turkeys are “smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings.” In fact, animal behaviorists, veterinarians, and scientists now agree that turkeys are sensitive and intelligent animals with their own unique personalities, much like the dogs and cats we all know and love.

While MFA works to expose and end animal abuse at Butterball and other giants of the meat, dairy and egg industry, consumers can help prevent the needless suffering of turkeys and other animals by adopting a compassionate vegan diet



COK’s Vegan Starter Guide

.

BACKGROUND

The Mission Inn in Riverside, California, is exhibiting reindeer at the Festival of Lights through January 8, 2012. These undomesticated animals—their wild instincts still very much intact—are transported to and from the hotel each weekend and subjected to a constant barrage of strange noises and sights, flashing cameras, and crowds trying to pet them. PETA contacted the hotel’s owners and urged them to cancel this exhibit, but our request has fallen on deaf ears.

Animals used in such traveling exhibits are cruelly carted from one event to the next during the holiday season. Deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, they often become despondent and develop neurotic and self-destructive behaviors, including pacing, rocking, swaying, bar-biting, and self-mutilation. Their instinctual needs, such as seeking mates, raising young, and grazing, are completely stifled. Neglectful practices, such as withholding food and water to keep them from eliminating, are routine. Such events also pose risks to public health, as reindeer can transmit numerous diseases to humans, such as contagious ecthyma, brucellosis, anthrax, salmonellosis, rabies, toxoplasmosis, sarcoptic mange, and ringworm.

Please contact the Mission Inn and politely implore it to cancel this cruel exhibit.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Duane Roberts, CEO
The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa
3649 Mission Inn Ave.
Riverside, CA 92501
951-784-0300
concierge@missioninn.com

Shannon Mueller
Executive Assistant
949-500-7327


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear CEO Roberts and Executive Assistant Mueller,

It has come to my attention that Mission Inn in Riverside, California, is exhibiting reindeer at the Festival of Lights.  Since animals used in traveling exhibits display many negative consequences, such as despondence  and  neurotic and self-destructive behaviors, including pacing, rocking, swaying, bar-biting, and self-mutilation, I am therefore respectfully urging you to help these reindeer and instead protect them from such destructive habits.

Please allow me to elaborate. Reindeer are complex animals who experience suffering and joy, communicate with each other, and who also have the capacity to nurture complex relationships and display grief upon separation. Furthermore, their instinctual needs are suppressed from the lack of a nurturing environment and are they are instead subjected to noise, strange sights, and flashing cameras.  Additionally, food and water is routinely withheld so the animals won’t relieve themselves while on display.

This also proves medically dangerous to humans considering that reindeer can transmit numerous diseases to humans, such as contagious ecthyma, brucellosis, anthrax, salmonellosis, rabies, toxoplasmosis, sarcoptic mange, and ringworm.  I would hope any organization that shares a core principle of human enrichment via entertainment, such as yours, would be equally concerned with any disease-spreading forms of exhibits.

Please instead take this opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to protect rather than harm animals, and be a model for other cities by discontinuing using the reindeer in your exhibit.

I know your time is limited and I thank you for your attention regarding this important message.

NAME



SEE MORE:

• Compassionate Eating

• Animal Wrongs

• Cruelty-Free

reindeer do not belong on display
they are not cartoon animals
that pull santa’s sleigh
they have feelings and
they want to be
in their quiet habitat
with their own company

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

By Sarah Kiser

I picked up a dead animal today. I did. I was driving home, and out of the corner of my eye on a small road, I saw a squirrel lying on the curb. He looked dead to me, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t see any obvious trauma on his body as I passed by in my car, he almost looked like he was just sleeping, so I thought maybe just maybe he’s alive and just slightly injured. I pulled my car over and I went up to the squirrel. His eyes were closed mostly, and glazed over just a bit, his body was still palpable and warm (but some of the warmth could just be attributed to the sun as it was a warm day today), but yet at the same time felt heavy and as though he was starting to stiffen.

I turned his body over so that he lay on his back so I could check his underside. That side also had no damage. I checked him for signs of life, but I couldn’t find any. His chest did not move, his belly didn’t move, his legs didn’t move, nothing at all…..there was no heartbeat, no sign of life. I watched him for awhile, and checked him again and again to just be completely sure. When I was sure that he was no longer alive, I picked him up gently and moved him to a spot away from the road, atop some mulch surrounded by bushes to kind of shield him, even though he was no longer alive, it felt like the least I could do for him. Surely nicer than leaving him on the curb by a road.

I figured what must have happened to him is that he ran out into the road, and perhaps ran right into the side of a tire as a car was passing. The impact of that could have killed him without leaving any visible signs of trauma or damage. I pet his sweet little head a few times, and left the scene with a heavy heart.

While I was there with the squirrel, many cars passed by me ( I was safely out of the road far off onto the grass by the sidewalk). I am sure there were at least some people who saw what I was doing that were perplexed by my actions. Possibly some people were aghast at what I was doing. I can imagine they must have been thinking something like “EWW she’s picking up a dead animal!”….But here’s the thing, most everyone picks up dead animals every single day. They pick them up at the grocery store, they pick them up at restaurants, they pick them up at the drive-through, they pick them up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And these dead animals they pick up weren’t accidentally killed. They were killed intentionally and suffered beyond comprehension before they were killed. Funny, isn’t it, how our perception of things can be so different? ……..one thing, an act out of compassion, can be seen as so disgusting and strange and the other, eating animals who suffered unimaginable cruelty and died violently, can be seen as so normal……

See More:


Vegan Shopping List

• Click here for the Change.org petition:  “Bring Animal Killing Artist, Katinka Simonse To Justice”.

• Click here for the Change.org petition:  “Bring to Justice Torch Gallery and Katinka Simonse”.

• Click here for the videos of “Tinkebell”.  

• Click here for slideshow

• Click here for more information about this “artist”.
  

Background | By Brennan Browne

A Dutch woman who calls herself a “performance artist”, Katinka Simonse (aka Tinkebell) believes that killing animals and displaying them in gruesome and controversial ways is performance art.

For one “performance”, Simonese actually broke her own cat’s neck and then skinned the animal, making it into handbags.  She even provided a “how to” manual for those seeking to do the same with their own animals.  The picture of her holding the cat as his/her skin is being taken from his/her body is revolting.

The pictures provided with this article are sickening.  They show several of her exhibits at the galleries as well as her demonstrations on how she accomplished these exhibits.  Simonse is very pleased with herself in the picture holding her dead cat as she pulls the skin off his/her body.

Also provided is a translated video, where this woman attempts to justify her art form, claiming it is not cruelty.  There are numerous videos of her, which can be found at the link provided below that includes videos of visitors to various galleries with their reactions to her “art”.

The very thought of innocent animals having to die so this woman can earn money from their misery and murder is simply horrifying.
There are two petitions currently being circulated regarding this woman and her performance art.

The first petition is directed at Den Haag of the Ministry of Security and Justice in the Netherlands, asking that justice be served against the Torch Gallery and Simonse for these horrendous exhibits.

The second petition is directed at the Netherlands State Senate, and is asking that Simonse be brought to justice for her heinous acts involving these helpless animals in the name of “art”.

Please consider adding your voice to these two petitions.  They are Change.org petitions, which can be signed by anyone.  You can access them here and here, or at the links provided above.

The fact this kind of horror is allowed at all perpetuates the belief that it’s perfectly fine to murder an animal as long as you label it “art”.

This is similar to another situation where in 2007 Guillermo Vargas, another performance artist, chained a dog to a wall in a gallery and slowly starved him to death, again in the name of “art”.

Word had spread quickly through the animal advocacy community when it was learned that a gallery had asked the artist to “perform” this again.  A petition was circulated regarding this and was recently closed.  Hopefully the voices of advocates were heard and this atrocity was not allowed to be repeated with another dog slowly dying of starvation.

This type of horror must not be allowed to continue.  As long as humans continue to pay to see this “performance art”, it will continue to go on.  The suffering of an animal is never an art form, but is instead is the needless suffering and death for the amusement of humans.

Advocates need to speak up now to hopefully stop this horror from continuing and to keep any more animals from having to needlessly suffer and die for Simonse’s “art”.

as an artist and
as a human being
i stare in horror
at what i am seeing
art is about beauty
truth and kindness
not out and out sadism,
cruel and mindless
their performance art
of vile smell
should be behind bars
cowering in their
jail cells

Karen Lyons Kalmenson