Veganism Is The Future & Green Unity For Nature And Animal Liberation

These horrors happen because of greedy humans breeding and using these animals for ”profit” and because of those who buy animal products. If everyone ate an animal-products-free diet, and didn’t use animals for any other purpose, none of these horrors would happen. Signing petitions can sometimes make a difference, yes. But if you really want this to stop, you must change your eating habits and your way of living — you must stop using animals for any purpose — and also help us raise awareness. Please, go vegan!

http://www.chooseveg.com/
http://vegankit.com/

the flames of ignorance
fanned and killing.
how such miseries
still exist,
is so beyond
chilling.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

PETA

BACKGROUND

Pigs are social, intelligent, loyal, and highly sensitive animals who enjoy communicating with each other, making nests, and relaxing in the sun. But on Saturday, June 8, the village of German Valley, Illinois, has scheduled a “Pig Scramble” event to take place during its German Valley Days festival. Such events typically involve frantic groups of people chasing, grabbing at, and tackling terrified pigs confined to pens lined with screaming crowds. Being trucked to and fro and subjected to the violence and general chaos of these events is a horrific and hazardous ordeal for the pigs, who often sustain severe injuries such as broken limbs and backs. PETA has asked organizers to replace this cruel activity with any number of humane alternatives, but to no avail. We need your help today!

Please politely urge the festival’s organizers to cancel this cruel event. And please, spread this alert far and wide!


WHOM TO CONTACT

Send polite comments to:

Mark Jewell
President of German Valley
815-362-5671
marcus@jewellzone.com

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear President Jewell,

Pigs are social, intelligent, loyal, and highly sensitive animals who enjoy communicating with each other, making nests, and relaxing in the sun. But on Saturday, June 8, the village of German Valley, Illinois, has scheduled a “Pig Scramble” event to take place during its German Valley Days festival. Such events typically involve frantic groups of people chasing, grabbing at, and tackling terrified pigs confined to pens lined with screaming crowds. Being trucked to and fro and subjected to the violence and general chaos of these events is a horrific and hazardous ordeal for the pigs, who often sustain severe injuries such as broken limbs and backs.

I am disturbed to learn of this and am therefore respectfully urging you cancel this unjustified and cruel event. Pigs are marvelously intelligent and sentient creatures, capable of love, pain, thought, and suffering; when you subject pigs to such indecent treatments, you not only condemn them to fear and agony, but you also demean yourself and establish that you are unsympathetic.

Furthermore, when you actively engage in this type of cheap entertainment in front of children, and, in fact, have children actually potentially participating in such, you are demonstrating that animal abuse and disrespect are socially-approved activities, and the link between animal and human abuse is represented. I therefore urge you to cease this exploitation and demonstrate that yours is a community that recognizes the importance of animal protection rather than animal abuse.

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

we are pigs,
we live to romp
and ramble,
but we do not
want to play
in your so called
scramble.
you humans thinks
you are smart,
but think of this idiocy,
seems rather stupid
and cruel to the
likes of we!

pigs are pigs, but man is the swine!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

A German serial killer, Fritz Haarmann, known as the “Butcher of Hanover,” cut his victims’ bodies into strips of flesh and sold them as pork. Here in North America, third-generation Canadian pig farmer and serial killer of 49 women, Robert Pickton, ground the bodies of his victims into sausage and sold it in packages or gave it out to friends.

While it’s appalling that folks who acquired meat from Pickton may have ingested human flesh, it is equally unsettling that they didn’t notice. To the taste buds it seems meat is meat. This tragedy was just one of many recent incidents that should make people rethink their carnivorous ways.

On a related note, according to an article by Cindi Avila with NBC News, Whole Foods admitted to accidentally reversing labels on two salads sold at its stores, a curried chicken salad and a vegan version called curried “chick’n” salad, last Tuesday and Wednesday at some 15 of its locations in the Northeast (including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York). “The switched labels means it is highly likely someone who made a conscious choice not to eat animal products wound up doing so, through no fault of their own.”

To the ethical vegetarians who inadvertently ingested chicken flesh, the stomach-churning physical response of revulsion was on par with those of the pork-eaters who learned they’d cannibalized. Now, you might be asking yourself, “How can anyone compare eating chicken or pork to cannibalizing human flesh?”

The NBC article makes the clarifying point, “It may be hard for meat-eaters to understand, but this is a way of life that simply doesn’t involve compromise or mistakes. That’s especially the case for those of us who are vegetarian or vegan because of animal-welfare reasons or those who choose this for religious reasons.”

Pigs, like humans, cows and chickens, are capable of experiencing joy, affection, and pleasure. However, on hog farms, they are treated like unfeeling machines, confined in tiny stalls and fed growth-accelerating drugs that often cause lameness. Their teeth are cut with pliers, and their tails are cut off-without anesthetic. At the slaughterhouse, they are hung upside down and bled to death-often while they are fully conscious. Whether flesh comes from the victim of a serial killer or from a pig, a cow, or a chicken, it is the product of cruelty toward a thinking, feeling being who experiences pain and fear and wants to live free of exploitation.

In light of all this, why are people still eating meat? One common answer goes something like this: “I’m a human—superior to other beings—I’m entitled.” But a sense of entitlement is one of the trademark rationalizations that serial killers use to justify their wrongdoings, and grandiosity is also symptomatic of psychopathy, according to Canadian psychologist and author of Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, Robert D. Hare, Ph.D. Other symptoms outlined on Dr. Hare’s “psychopathy checklist,” such as shallow emotions and a lack of empathy or remorse, aid the killer—or meat-eater—in disregarding the suffering of his or her victims.

Psychopathic serial killers objectify their victims and consider their victims’ self-interests insignificant. The same rationale is called into play when one thinks of pigs only as “pork,” cows as “beef,” or chickens as “poultry,” without thought of the individuals or their suffering.

Both Canada and the U.S. have had recent cases of mad cow disease. As a result, we saw news footage of downer cows, too sick to walk, being dragged by chains into slaughterhouses. Press coverage of avian flu outbreaks reveal the intensely overcrowded conditions of chickens on factory farms-tens of thousands of animals cooped up in their own filth, each with less space than a standard sheet of typing paper. Besides being warned of health risks, consumers are finally learning about some of the cruelties endured by the animals they know only as “roasts” or “drumsticks.”

It is never too late to examine our actions and re-evaluate our food choices accordingly. By respecting the interests of all sentient beings, we are not akin to the conscienceless killers that plague our society. The only way to ensure that you are not supporting grotesque violence and cruelty against animals, or benefiting from their suffering, is to adopt a plant-based diet.


PETA’s Vegan Shopping List

humane slaughter does not exist.
what about this memo have some
people missed.
killing animals because humans
want food,
cruel, nasty and morally
lewd!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Source | Comment on OC post fromVirginia

I need your help. I have created a petition for my school to Ban this cruel fundraiser also. Here is the link. We have so far 578 signatures. Please, spread the word and sign this important petition. Please post a sensitive comment also if you could. Thank you for caring for animals.

Background

Donkey Basket Ball Show encourages the mocking of people (bullying) and the use of animals for the sake of entertainment (animal cruelty).  Schools across the country have have stopped hosting the cruel donkey basketball fundraisers because they want to help nurture kind kids, not bullies.

Donkey Basket Ball brings together Bullying and Abuse. Little children at school age are invited to watch and mock of people and animals that are frightened by the crowd and being physically abused for the sole purpose of entertainment: Pulled, dragged and kicked, one way to the other, by inexperienced riders for 2 hours trying to play basket ball on top of them. We are in the 20th Century, and this is far from expressing a civilized message to our next Generation. Schools are not Circuses. It is time for the Schools to take a serious stance to their role in the community and especially in the values and examples they set for the young minds.

The U.S. National Parent-Teacher Association Congress states, “Children trained to extend justice, kindness, and mercy to animals become more just, kind, and considerate in their [interactions] with each other.”

we are donkeys,
please here our plea,
do not do anything
this cruel to such as
we!

Do not judge us
We are not you
We do what donkey
Were born to do
We are not stubborn
we do not like being
used
we are not tools of man
to be beaten or abused
if you want us to help you
be kind with your request
we will gladly oblige
if you do your best

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Riverdale, CA – The Riverdale Rodeo is under fire from animal protection group SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) for its “Barnyard Scramble” event. The event is where a large group of children chase animals including chickens, goats, pigs and rabbits for a competition. In a SHARK investigation at the May 5, 2013 rodeo, the terrified animals can be seen being dropped, kicked, held by their wings and roughly handled. The event can easily result in many serious injuries to the animals.

SHARK is demanding local officials ban the “Barnyard Scramble” and is calling on the local Animal Control to investigate the rodeo for animal abuses. SHARK president Steve Hindi stated, “It is shocking that children are being taught to abuse and dominate animals in this way. The animals are clearly mistreated.” Throughout the video animals are shown being thrown to the ground, baby ducks being picked up by their delicate wings, chickens being kicked and goats and pigs being roughly handled. The animals run terrified around the ring trying to escape their ordeal. Any animals the children catch they keep dooming them to an unknown fate.

Karen Davis, President of United Poultry Concerns stated, “This “Barnyard Scramble” is a reign of terror, orchestrated by adults, on helpless, frightened and bewildered chickens, ducks, goats and pigs by children who are being used by their parents to act out behaviors the children do not understand. The “scramble” comprises both child abuse and animal abuse. Children are always abused whenever they are taught and, as in this situation, basically forced by the adults they are dependent on, to enjoy tormenting animals and to fear being ridiculed if they refuse or are scared to participate in such a heartless, moronic, and injurious activity that defiles a child’s natural empathy for animals.”

SHARK investigates cases of animal abuse at rodeos around the country. The illegal electro-shocking of horses at the Riverdale rodeo was also captured on tape along with other animal injuries. Video footage of these incidents will be released at a later date.

perhaps we have not yet been properly heard,
but we will keep on trying,
abusers, you have our word!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Non US Friends, please download free PDF HERE or see below


Vegetarian (Vegan) Starter Kit: Mercy For Animals

so you still have meat on your plate.
the time to stop eating that way is
now…
it is not too late☺♥☻

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND

The town of North Hempstead , New York , located on Long Island, announced its hiring USDA “Wildlife Services” agents to annihilate hundreds of Canada geese and newly born goslings in town parks and likely plans to gas the geese to death in an intolerant, misguided assault. NY Newsday  reports on the town’s disastrous plan to spend $8,602.71 in tax dollars for the kill plan, in addition to $6 per goose to process the slaughtered geese who they absurdly claim will go to food banks.

North Hempstead Parks and Recreation officials complain that droppings from the geese are a nuisance—yet there is no mention of the town utilizing machines available for commercial use which quickly and effectively remove goose droppings from grassy areas and parks.  How can the town leadership ignore such an obvious solution in favor of a mass slaughter?

Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman and Council Members who ordered the killing need a different mindset, and a plan to clean up goose droppings in fields and parks.  Officials must make it a policy to clean up waste matter instead of saying all geese within town limits must die. Posting signs and enforcing no-feeding and littering rules are also sensible steps.

The town claims they’ve tried everything to “scare off” the geese, and that nothing worked.” Friends of Animals could have predicted that.  Harassing geese from areas won’t work if flat, grassy areas remain unchanged. Geese will move in when others leave, occupying those areas for nesting, especially in the summer.

Habitat and landscape modifications are environmentally sound, long-term ways to deter geese from areas where they are seen as problematic — clearly what’s needed in North Hempstead . Co-existence with geese and other wildlife neighbors is required as a part of evolved suburban living. Are Supervisor Jon Kaimin and Town Council Members prepared to spend the residents’ taxes each year to kill geese instead of implementing the effective strategies Friends of Animals endorses?

Geese are attracted to areas with short, mowed grass and open sight lines as safe nesting areas. Growing grass longer in areas, planting native shrubs and trees to block sight lines (geese like to watch for predators), will deter geese from ponds, shores and parkland — reducing the time they spend in any one spot — especially for the 6 week period in summer when they’re molting.

Friends of Animals produces a Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual detailing this process, and plans to meet with North Hempstead officials to present them with the manual. We’ll urge them to implement the changes and spare the geese.

The towns of Mamaroneck and Scarsdale , in Westchester , NY recently cancelled their plans to kill Canada geese in park areas after feedback and meetings from Friends of Animals and from outraged residents opposed to the killing— North Hempstead can and should do the same.

Note: the NY Newsday article has a poll – please vote yes here that the town’s plan is inhumane: http://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/is-the-town-s-plan-inhumane-1.5244371

You can also post to the town’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/townofnorthhempstead


PETITION

Please click HERE to sign petition


WHOM TO CONTACT

Email Block

kaimanj@northhempsteadny.gov ; grossl@northhempsteadny.gov ; tax@northhempsteadny.gov ; russellv@northhempsteadny.gov ; dwyert@northhempsteadny.gov ; ferraraa@northhempsteadny.gov ; kaplana@northhempsteadny.gov ; seemanl@northhempsteadny.gov ; degiorgiod@northhempsteadny.gov

Individual

Supervisor
Hon. Jon Kaiman
516.869.6311
kaimanj@northhempsteadny.gov

Town Clerk
Hon. Leslie Gross
516.869.6311
grossl@northhempsteadny.gov

Town Receiver
of Taxes
Hon. Charles Berman
516.869-6311
tax@northhempsteadny.gov

Town Board
Councilperson District 1
Hon. Viviana L. Russell
516.869.7701
russellv@northhempsteadny.gov

Town Board
Councilperson District 2
Hon. Thomas K. Dwyer
516.869.7702
dwyert@northhempsteadny.gov

Town Board
Councilperson District 3
Hon. Angelo P. Ferrara
516.869.7703
ferraraa@northhempsteadny.gov

Town Board
Councilperson District 4
Hon. Anna M. Kaplan
516.869.7704
kaplana@northhempsteadny.gov

Town Board
Councilperson District 5
Hon. Lee Seeman
516.869-7705
seemanl@northhempsteadny.gov

Town Board
Councilperson District 6
Hon. Dina M. DeGiorgio
516.869.7706
degiorgiod@northhempsteadny.gov

Please attend the Tuesday, May 14th North Hempstead Town Board Meeting to speak out against this plan during the public comment period of the meeting:

Tuesday 5/14/13 at 7:30 PM
North Hempstead Town Hall
220 Plandome Road
Manhasset , NY 11030
Call: 516.869.6311


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Honorables Kaiman, Gross, Berman, Russell, Dwyer, Ferrara, Kaplan, Seeman, and DeGiorgio:

I am extremely alarmed to learn of North Hempstead’s decision to cruelly massacre geese who reside in park areas via USDA agents.  I respectfully request suspension of this violent strategy.

Please allow me to elaborate. First, killing geese does nothing to modify landscapes and waterways that attract them in the first place. I encourage officials to work with avian experts on population stabilization and site aversion.

Second, sweeping eradication does not reduce long-term growth. Killing geese artificially increases food supplies to the remaining geese, the consequence of which is increased reproduction and an ensuing greater population. In fact, studies have demonstrated that the continual cycle of seasonal eradication is responsible for a rebound, or larger gaggle populations, in subsequent years.

Third, using such barbaric strategies in such a visible location will most certainly affect visitation:  agents typically enter the pond area during early morning, roughly separating goslings from parents, and then stuff the bound, panicked geese and babies into crates. Next, the geese are gassed or shot to death. In fact, although I do not currently reside in North Hempstead, I would be unwilling to consider it, or a nearby location, for tourist purposes if this cull ensues.

Please practice compassion and integrity: let the geese live and institute responsible policies that promote respect and tolerance of wildlife, and commit to habitat/landscape modification as outlined in Friends of Animals’ Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual in addition to instituting a formal clean-up plan for goose droppings in parks.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.

NAME

town of north hempstead,
shame on you..
geese are your citizens,
too!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Right this very moment, mothers are having their babies taken away from them just days after their infants are born.

The kidnapped babies will be sold to a violent, bloody industry, and after just a couple of weeks, they’ll be shipped to slaughter and have their throats slit!

This is how animals used for the dairy and veal industries will spend their Mother’s Day.

Let everyone know that every time they consume dairy products, they’re supporting an industry that steals babies from their moms and tortures them.Give these moms the ultimate Mother’s Day gift by spreading the word.

Watch and share this video on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr.

Click HERE to learn how to go vegan.

this is my baby,
this is my child
please do not
take the little one
away.
my family you have
defiled.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

The pain and suffering inflicted on the horses is immense. The fact that this is a “public event” witnessed by all, including children is very harmful to all. THIS EVENT TEACHES THAT VIOLENCE AND CRUELTY IS FUN.
They call it a feast. In the state of Yucatan, Mexico there is a “rodeo” type event called “Torneo de Lazo” where bulls ram horses and eviscerate them. THIS CAUSES A VERY HIGH LEVEL OF PAIN TO THE HORSES. These horses usually collapse and while still alive continue to get trampled by bulls and other horses during the length of this violent and cruel event where horsemen try to lasso the running, charging bulls (the bulls are specifically bred and trained to ram horses).

Although it is against the law, this is only in name. Mexico’s federal government as well as the local authorities do nothing to stop this. This event takes place state wide all year round.

Please demand the Mexican government to put and end to this barbaric event.

2. Background | Source Force Change

Target: Florida Governor Rick Scott

Goal: Investigate and raise awareness about the shocking new fad that forces dogs to fight in the trunk of a moving car.

A new kind of dog fighting using cars is gaining popularity in Florida. “Trunking” involves placing two dogs in the trunk of a car, playing loud music to aggravate them, and driving around for about fifteen minutes. The dog that is either dead or the most injured by the end is then thrown away. Police in the southern part of the state have seen an increase in these cases in recent months and something must be done immediately to stop it.

The practice has largely come about in urban and more residential areas where space is limited. Trunking does not require a ring or a yard, nor does it require a basement, which most Florida residents are without, to provide discretion. It can be done anywhere at anytime.

Perhaps the worst case of trunking so far was recently uncovered in Miami-Dade County. Five pit bulls and four puppies were discovered at a residence in the Goulds neighborhood after animal services received an anonymous tip. In the back of the home cages were covered in urine and feces. The dogs exhibited clear signs of fighting and are currently being treated for open wounds and broken bones. The face of oldest dog of the group, Max, is obscured by cuts and scars.

The case is currently ongoing and once the owner of the dogs is found, he or she will likely receive third-degree felony charges. It is bad enough that dog fighting has proliferated as much as it has over the past decade, but we cannot allow it to grow and expand into other forms of abuse. Something must be done to stop this now. Please sign the petition below to ensure that trunking does not become a common practice across the country.

3. Background | Source PETA

It calls itself the “premier producer of foie gras in America.” But, in 2013, a PETA investigator visited Hudson Valley Foie Gras (HVFG), a factory farm, and saw workers shove steel tubes down ducks’ throats and pump huge amounts of grain into them. The investigator recorded HVFG’s manager stating that this is done three times a day, every day, for weeks.

The birds’ livers become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Fatty duck livers from HVFG are served at Gordon Ramsay at the London, a New York City restaurant licensed by Chef Ramsay.

Not surprisingly, experts opine that force-feeding causes ducks painful injuries, including, according to world-renowned avian welfare expert Dr. Ian Duncan, tearing of the esophagus. Dr. Duncan writes, “[T]he regular insertion of a feeding tube down the esophagus several times a day will inevitably lead to damage of the esophagus. When the esophagus becomes damaged, then the painfulness of every force-feeding episode will be exacerbated.”

Veterinarian Holly Cheever, who has studied force-feeding’s effects on ducks, explains, “Due to the enormous size of the livers … the birds have no room for their air sacs to fill with oxygen, and therefore all birds in the last 10-14 days of [force-feeding] show respiratory distress … analogous to feeling as if one is smothering for that entire length of time” [emphasis added].

HVFG condemns ducks to huge, dark sheds, where there is no water for them to bathe or swim in or eat from. They are denied any opportunity to live naturally like ducks.

After weeks of being force-fed, the ducks are hung upside down and their throats are slit. Many ducks sent to slaughter by the cruel foie gras industry are still conscious as their throats are cut and they bleed to death.

4. Background | Source Stop the Rotten Egg Bill

We, the undersigned, urge our representatives in Congress to strongly oppose H.R. 1731/S. 820 the United Egg Producers’ (UEP) proposed amendments to the “Egg Products Inspection Act” that would:

Nullify existing state laws that ban or restrict battery cages.
Deprive voters of the right and ability to pass ballot measures banning cages.
Deny state legislatures the ability to enact laws preventing cruelty to laying hens.

This egg industry legislation is rotten to its core. It would establish egg factory cages as a national standard that could never be challenged or changed by state law or public vote. It would take away states’ and citizens’ rights. And it would keep hens locked in cages throughout the United States.

5. Background | Source PETA

To produce down pillows, comforters, or jackets, birds are often pinned down as hurried workers yank fistfuls of feathers from the birds’ sensitive bodies while they are still alive, often plucking them so violently that they rip open the birds’ delicate skin before sewing up the gaping wounds using a needle and thread, without any painkillers.

Many also use the feathers of ducks and geese who are force-fed for foie gras. Birds raised for this cruel foodstuff have tubes rammed down their throats and their stomachs pumped so full of corn mush that their livers swell to as much as 10 times their normal size, which is very painful.

Please join us in asking Marriott to drop down.

6. Background | Source Center for Biological Diversity

Through important protections, Alaska’s curious and charming sea otters are finally on the path to recovery after being pushed to the brink of extinction after over-hunting. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Alaska Native hunters alone are allowed to kill sea otters — and they can only do so to create “authentic native handicrafts.”

Unfortunately those protections could be weakened if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collapses under the greedy pressures of the commercial fishing industry — rules may be expanded to include nearly unaltered sea otter pelts under the “handicrafts” definition.

Sea otters play an important role in Alaska’s coastal ecosystems by encouraging the growth of kelp beds, which serve as nurseries for fish and create important carbon dioxide sinks. But sea otters also eat some species that are targeted by commercial fishers, which is why the fishing industry is pushing to control sea otter populations.

Sea otter populations in some parts of Alaska appear to be increasing — though there are still nowhere near as many of the animals as there used to be — but otters in southwest Alaska are not recovering. They’ve been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Service’s new rule doesn’t have this distinction; it would apply to all sea otters — even those listed as threatened.

Please take action now to tell the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect Alaska’s sea otters.

we wake up each day,
to a world, deranged.
if we work together,
we will make
a change.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Terrified animals making desperate efforts to escape after having their throats cut open; others with eyes stabbed; leg tendons slashed; and being butchered while still alive… This is the nightmare endured by animals who were exported live from Australia to Egypt. If it weren’t for the brave actions of one Egyptian vet who alerted Animals Australia, this cruelty may have gone completely unchallenged.

Tragically this systemic abuse occurred under the close watch of Australia’s live export industry — inside the ‘closed-loop’ facilities of Sokhna and Ismailia. These two locations represent the entire Egyptian live export supply chain and has been lauded by industry as ‘state of the art’. But when Animals Australia revealed that we had obtained footage from inside these facilities, the industry immediately and loudly announced a temporary trade suspension. Yet just days later, live exporters are already making moves to re-open the live export trade to Egypt — and send more animals to be killed in these same abattoirs. We cannot let this happen.

Animals shouldn’t have to pay the price for the fact that the live export trade cannot be trusted to protect them from extreme cruelty. Please take urgent action to demand that animals never again be sent to these cruel destinations, and tell our political leaders to end the cruelty of live export, forever.


Use Sample Letter

Like most Australians I’m sick of the ongoing cruelty of live export. It is now abundantly clear that this trade can never be made humane. Every day that it is allowed to continue is another day of suffering for the animals in this industry.

I urge you to listen to the will of the Australian public and end live animal export. Such a decision by you would be widely applauded – and could not come too soon.

dear egypt

we do not want to be shipped to you
and the horrors that you put
us through!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Background | Source Earth First! Newswire
By Phyllis M. Daugherty

Sonora has become the first Mexican state to ban bullfighting, recently passing the long-awaited Animal Protection Law addressing cruelty to animals.

In a statement on Formato 21 radio, Perez Rubio hailed the unanimous vote on May 2 by the legislature of Mexico’s northwestern border state.

“It has caused quite a stir because we are the first state of the republic to pass this law. I really didn’t expect–I say this with all the honesty in the world–I didn’t expect the repercussion this would have, nationally and internationally,” said local lawmaker of the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico, or PVEM, Vernon Perez Rubio, the Global Post reports.

His party explained in a media release that the law “not only bans bullfighting” but “also protects other domestic animals.”

The PVEM said the new law in Sonora puts them “a step closer to achieving one of the goals the Green Party has fought for, which is the prohibition of bullfighting nationwide.” The party states that “clearly more than 70 percent of Mexicans are against the continuation” of bullfights in the country, on the basis of several public opinion polls.

In Sonora, citizens’ demand for an end to bullfighting began two years ago, when a crowd of 18,200 came out before a bullfight was to start to ask that the spectacle by banned, Perez Rubio said.

Unfortunately, the law does not include the very popular spectacle of cockfighting, local legislative officials said Saturday. Rubio explained, “I’m against cockfighting. However, if we included a discussion on that subject, the law would never have passed.”

“Now with the law in place, it’s very easy to launch a movement to end cockfighting if that’s what people want,” Perez Rubio said.

♪hip hip hooray
three cheers
and ole♪

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

The League of Humane Voters

BACKGROUND | LEAGUE OF HUMANE VOTERS NJ

S2369, sponsored by Senator Raymond Lesniak, (D-20), is especially important legislation. Bear Smart legislation corrects the state’s signal failure to organize, implement, and enforce non-lethal solutions preferred by 74% of New Jersey voters.

We all know the terrible cruelty, and sadness, of New Jersey’s now annual bear hunt, or bait and shoot. Hunters bait mothers and cubs with pastries and other foods, using trail cameras to monitor the bears’ every movement. The bloodied bodies of cubs, mere babies, and their mothers hauled in to the weigh stations have become a news staple during the week-long December kills. The tragedy is that the killing is utterly unnecessary.

Human-derived foods, be they unsecured trash or bait for bear and deer, condition bears to associate food with humans and lead to the very conflicts the state hunting agency claims baiting and hunting alleviate.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Please contact your legislator today. Find your legislator HERE.


SAMPLE COMMENT

Dear Senator,

Please co-sponsor Senator Raymond Lesniak’s Bear Smart legislation (S2369) to require bear-resistant trash containers and disallow baiting in bear habitat. Please remember that 74% of New Jersey voters, in all geographic regions, prefer non-lethal solutions.

S2369 is especially important legislation. Bear Smart legislation corrects the state’s signal failure to organize, implement, and enforce non-lethal solutions preferred by 74% of New Jersey voters.

We all know the terrible cruelty, and sadness, of New Jersey’s now annual bear hunt, or bait and shoot. Hunters bait mothers and cubs with pastries and other foods, using trail cameras to monitor the bears’ every movement. The bloodied bodies of cubs, mere babies, and their mothers hauled in to the weigh stations have become a news staple during the week-long December kills. The tragedy is that the killing is utterly unnecessary.

Human-derived foods, be they unsecured trash or bait for bear and deer, condition bears to associate food with humans and lead to the very conflicts the state hunting agency claims baiting and hunting alleviate.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.

NAME

dear humans,
some information we
have to share,
humans, you came to
live here,
after we bear.
so please stop
killing us, the
rivers run red.
just like you humans,
we bears do not
want to be dead!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

WCAU NBC News

Source Animal Connection , Daily Mail

A cat (who) went missing after Hurricane Sandy reappeared at his owner’s home last week.

Looking as sleek and unassuming as he did the day he left six months ago, Porsche showed up at the door of his owners’ New Jersey shore home Wednesday as if he’d never left.

‘It’s a miracle,’ she said Uranie Roberts.

The Toms River, New Jersey woman had long given up on her cat ever returning. And not just because so much time had passed.

Roberts and her daughter Carol Baumann live in the Chadwick Beach Island section of town, an area that was brutally lashed by the October 2012 storm.

The women were forced to evacuate by boat and stayed, temporarily, with family 8 miles inland.

While still staying with family, the cat went missing.

‘He got out of the house and that was the last we saw of him,’ Baumann told WCAU.

When they were finally allowed to return to their home, they would do so without the company of Porsche.

Six months passed.Neither Baumann nor Roberts believed they’d ever see their dear pet again.

But on Wednesday, Baumann heard a familiar sound from the back deck of their home.

The sight that greeted her as she approached the door was familiar, too.

‘I saw the green eyes and I said, “My God in heaven, it’s Porsche!”’ said Baumann.

After half a year and across miles of storm-ravaged coast–and even across a bridge–Porsche made his way back home.

And the happy mother and daughter say he doesn’t look like the trip fazed him at all.

‘You could see he was eating,’ Roberts said. ‘His fur is sleek and soft.’

The two aren’t sure how Porsche made it back, but they don’t really care, anyway.

‘It’s just amazing how he found his way home,’ said Baumann. ‘I wish he could talk.

‘It’s wonderful, I missed him so bad.’

Link

You are my family,
Wherever you are,
I will find my way home,
No matter how far.

Love, porsche

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Please click HERE to sign and send letter,  or send individually below

Background | Source Buffalo Field Campaign

Yellowstone National Park officials and other Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) entities are aiming to kill hundreds of wild buffalo this winter through hunting, slaughter, or both. Over 200 wild buffalo have already been killed in state and treaty hunts, yet Yellowstone intends for hundreds more of America’s last wild buffalo to be permanently removed from the population.  When buffalo are captured within Yellowstone National Park’s Stephens Creek bison trap, they will suffer captivity, sorting and separation from their families, horrors of being tested and handled by humans, and transport to USDA-APHIS-run research prisons and slaughter facilities.

Yellowstone says they want to “even the sex ratio” of wild buffalo, stating that a “skewed sex ratio” has resulted from years of capture and slaughter operations.  Now in response to these earlier crimes against buffalo, Yellowstone plans to kill more cow than bull buffalo, some of them just weeks away from giving birth.  In other words, the government is saying they will slaughter more buffalo to mitigate the impact of slaughtering so many buffalo. Talk about playing God in Yellowstone.

Up to sixty-three young buffalo would be handed over to USDA-APHIS for use in their experiments with GonaCon, a chemical pesticide birth control.  APHIS claims this research is about brucellosis, but in reality, it is a population control experiment.

Yellowstone National Park threatens the buffalo’s immediate survival and evolutionary potential and are are absolutely contrary to their mission to preserve and protect plant and animal species unimpaired for present and future generations.  The wild bison of the Yellowstone ecosystem are America’s last continuously wild herds and number fewer than 4,200.  Wild bison are ecologically extinct throughout their native range.

TAKE ACTION 

Using the sample letter HERE, or in your own words, tell Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk that you absolutely oppose any capture or slaughter of wild buffalo, and that you oppose them handing wild buffalo over to USDA-APHIS for birth control or any other experiments.  Yellowstone is mandated by law to protect wild bison, not cater to Montana’s cattle politics, which are driving these unjust and unnecessary actions against the gentle giants.  Tell Superintendent Wenk to stop being a puppet for Montana livestock interests, pull out of the draconian Interagency Bison Management Plan, and to stand up for the wildlife that the American people have placed in Yellowstone’s care.  Wild bison are a natural, national treasure, the prehistoric and rightful roamers of North America, and we will not stand by and allow Yellowstone or Montana’s cattle industry to jeopardize their future for any reason.

WHOM TO CONTACT

Alternately to using this sample letter, you can contact Superintendent Wenk directly at:

Daniel Wenk, Superintendent
Yellowstone National Park
P.O. Box 168
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190-0168
(307) 344-2002 phone
(307) 344-2014 fax
Dan_Wenk@nps.gov

SUBJECT

Protect Wild Buffalo!  No Capture!

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Superintendent Wenk,

I am aware of your continued plans to capture, kill or transport to research facilities our wild buffalo, and want you to know that I am strongly opposed to this.

It makes no sense for Yellowstone to undertake the killing of wild buffalo for any reason, and even less sense for you do take these action to further trouble their sex ratio that you feel should be even.  This is totally unnatural, and since your past actions have caused such harm, the best thing you can do for wild bison is to leave them alone.  Your actions are continuously placing wild bison in dire straights.

Nowhere in nature do even sex ratios occur.  You cannot justify or defend taking such action against wild buffalo.

Further, I have written to you repeatedly about my opposition to handing over wild buffalo to USDA-APHIS for their birth control experiments and I state again that, as a tax paying citizen and lover of Yellowstone, implore you to cease such plans.  You are setting a very dangerous precedent here and you are going against the nature of the National Park Service.

I am appalled by your actions towards wild buffalo and urge you make an about face.  Stop bending over backwards for livestock interests and champion wild bison as you are meant to do.  You will never be able to do enough harm to wild buffalo that the livestock industry will quietly go away.  They will always want more killing and more mismanagement of wild buffalo, and you need to take a stand and tell them no.

You can pull out of the Interagency Bison Management Plan and end your role in wild bison abuse.  Montana will likely take other actions, that is for certain.  But you are fooling yourself if you think that your participation and funding of the IBMP has been helping wild buffalo.  You have become one of the larger adversaries of wild bison, and you must instead take the necessary steps to be their friend.

The Organic Act of 1916 that established the National Park Service requires your agency “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Yellowstone National Park’s maltreatment of America’s last wild buffalo populations runs absolutely contrary to the intent of “this most important provision of law.”

You know that wild bison are ecologically extinct, and you know that Yellowstone harbors the last continuously wild population.  You cannot continue to hide behind the Interagency Bison Management Plan nor the indefensible arguments about brucellosis.

Your participation in the Interagency Bison Management Plan is shameful and I absolutely oppose Yellowstone’s involvement.  You are causing irreparable harm to the buffalo, all to placate the selfish whims of Montana’s livestock industry.  This is not your charge.  You are responsible for protecting wild bison, the American people have entrusted you with this great honor and.

Please protect the wild bison of Yellowstone!  Pull out of the Interagency Bison Management Plan and abandon any and all plans to harass, harm, capture and kill wild bison!

I appreciate receiving a written response from you, and I trust that you will provide a real response to my concerns and not hide behind the language of the Interagency Bison Management Plan.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.

buffalo in spring

this is MY land
where is my herd
i want it back to
the way it was
before man
ever said
a word

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Animals Are Worth Saving

Please note that this is a welfarist issue, which is typically contrary to Our Compass’s philosophy: people should not just stop dehorning cattle, they should stop using cattle completely, period. I thought, however, that this alert was important to raise the issue of the necessity of veganism, which can, at times, take steps, rather than just an all-out change. See action below from Animals Are Worth Saving.




BACKGROUND | PETA

Many people are surprised to learn that nearly all cows used for milk are born with tissue that will develop into horns. That’s because most farmers remove the sensitive horn tissue or the horns themselves from the cows’ skulls using searing-hot irons, caustic chemicals, blades, or hand saws.

Animals often struggle violently and have to be restrained manually or in a head bail (a metal apparatus for restraining a cow by the neck) during the painful dehorning process, which is frequently performed without anesthetics or painkillers and results in severe pain that lasts for hours and can become chronic.

This procedure is extremely traumatic to young calves, who are often just a few weeks old when their horn buds are burned or cut out of their heads. Older cows fare even worse. Dehorning in mature cattle usually requires amputation of the horn, which has already attached itself to the skull. Tools used for this procedure include saws, sharp wires, or gruesome guillotine dehorners, which also slice off the surrounding skin. Horn removal in older animals can lead to post-operative problems of hemorrhage, tissue necrosis, bone fracture, sinusitis, and even death. The wound caused by this amputation can take three months or more to heal.

Farmers are fully aware that dehorning is painful, and it is up to the industry to phase out this excruciating mutilation. One simple solution is to breed for naturally hornless cows. A single gene determines whether or not a cow will have horns, and this approach has proved effective in the beef industry.

However, the easiest and most effective way for consumers to save cows from the misery of factory farms is to stop buying cow’s milk and other dairy products and choose instead from the dozens of vegan milks, cheeses, yogurts, coffee creamers, and ice creams available in grocery stores. Browse PETA’s website for hundreds of free vegan recipes, and pledge to be vegan today!


If you are not already vegan, please watch this two-minute video





WHOM TO CONTACT

gjhart@cpk.com


SAMPLE LETTER

To California Pizza Kitchen, G.J. Hart President, CEO, and Executive Chair:

I was shocked to hear that California Pizza Kitchen refuses to address the issue of dehorning by your cheese suppliers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kWscTrpBVOM
Casey Affleck Exposes Mutilation of Cows in Dairy Industry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxV35EZ1px4
Cow Dehorning

Your company has learned about the cruelty of burning hot irons into calves’ heads or gouging developing horns out of their skulls as well as the proven solution of breeding for naturally hornless, or “polled,” cows.

Instead, young calves fight back in pain and fear as their horns are painfully removed.

I won’t eat at California Pizza Kitchen and will tell all my friends and family to do the same until CPK takes action to stop this unnecessary suffering.

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

Sincerely,

we are cows,
we need our horns,
please stop abusing us
and stop regarding us
with scorn.
we live on a planet
here together,
we were born to be
free,
not to human menus,
sadly tethered.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Background | Source Animal Connection, Save Our Environment

Have you heard of the Louisiana black bear? Very cute, right? And also very threatened.

There are only 300-400 left in the wild and 80% of their habitat has already been destroyed. And what’s left is repeatedly threatened by destructive and unnecessary Army Corps of Engineers projects.

It’s gotten bad enough that they’re officially listed as a threatened species.

Unfortunately, a bill that’s about to hit the Senate floor tomorrow threatens our ability to protect these little guys.

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) contains two provisions that would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to skimp on or bypass crucial environmental reviews when pushing for large scale structural projects that typically cause significant environmental damage.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that 80% of Louisiana black bears’ habitat has already been destroyed. The remaining bears live in wetlands along the Mississippi River, but even this last bit of habitat is at risk from potentially devastating Army Corps construction projects.

If the Army Corps of Engineers gets its way, the crucial protections (like environmental impact studies and adequate review time for proposed projects) will be steamrolled by two dangerous provisions in the Water Resources Development Act.

The WRDA bill is expected reach the Senate floor as early as tomorrow so please contact your Senators today with your request to remove the provisions rolling back critical environmental review

we are black bear,
in louisiana we live,
our world is being destroyed,
we want so much to live.
you have already destroyed
nearly all of our land.
please kind people,
give us a hand.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

1. Please click HERE to sign petition for PA

2. Please click HERE to sign petition for TN

3. Please click HERE to stop ag-gag

1. Background | Source Causes

Billions of animals in factory farms are forced to live in cruel and inhumane conditions. From chickens who are squeezed into tiny cages to the inhumane slaughter of cows, the transport of horses across the borders to be slaughtered for human consumption, animals are treated cruelly and politicians (with their corporate supporters) are trying to keep this practice a secret.

Corporate backers of factory farms are trying to silence and criminalize brave individuals that expose the cruelties that animals face in farms across the US.  Not only does this go against our free speech but we as consumers and animal lovers have a right to know how these creatures are treated. We need to join together to stop these “Ag-Gag” bills. Please sign the petition today and forward it to friends.Below is an excerpt from the Pennsylvania House Bill 683.

This bill will allow factory farms to act in secrecy and criminalize those that try to stop them.

From Pennsylvania House Bill 683:

Offense defined - A person commits the offense of interfering with agricultural operations if the person:

1. Without consent from the owner of an agricultural operation or the owner’s agent:

• (i) records an image of, or sound from, the agricultural operation by leaving a recording device on the agricultural operation; or
• (ii) uploads, downloads, transfers or otherwise sends recorded images of, or sound from, the agricultural operations over the Internet in any medium.
• Also: (iii) while employed at, and while present on, the agricultural operation, records an image of, or sound from, the agricultural operation

2. Background | Source PETA

We urgently need your help to stop Tennessee Senate Bill (S.B.) 1248, which has passed through the legislature and is awaiting the signature of the governor, who has just 10 days to make a decision. If signed into law the bill could subject whistleblowers to criminal prosecution for their efforts to expose cruelty to animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses. The bill would require those who document abuse to report it within 48 hours, stopping undercover investigators from documenting a pattern of routine cruelty that has helped authorities across the country enforce the law. It is a desperate attempt by agriculture industry giants to prevent consumers from learning the truth about the miserable lives and gruesome deaths of animals killed for food.

A 2007 PETA investigation at a Tyson chicken slaughterhouse in Tennessee that supplied KFC found that workers violently threw birds and yanked them out of shackles with such force that their legs were broken. Other past undercover investigations have resulted in criminal convictions after revealing systematic abuse, including footage collected at Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., in West Virginia that documented workers beating, stomping on, and maliciously killing birds. These abuses continued even after being brought to a supervisor’s and the management’s attention. Over the course of two months, the investigator collected meticulous evidence showing that these abuses were routine—and not just isolated incidents—helping officials obtain 23 indictments for cruelty to animals against three former employees, all of whom were convicted and one of whom was jailed.

S.B. 1248 is designed to shroud industries that exploit animals for profit in secrecy and to shield criminals from accountability under the law. Because of the help of compassionate citizens, similar bills have died in Florida, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Arkansas, Illinois, California, and New Mexico, and one was recently declared unconstitutional and gutted in Indiana.

Even if you don’t live in Tennessee, we still need your help. The meat from slaughtered animals crosses state lines, and the government needs to hear from consumers across the country who care about the way animals killed for food are treated. Please urge Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam to veto S.B. 1248 right away!

3. Background | Source ALDF

Animal abuse, food safety violations, and illegal working conditions are rampant on factory farms. In 2011, the corporate agriculture lobby attempted to pass ag gag laws which would have made it illegal to photograph or videotape at agricultural facilities, or to possess or distribute such evidence. In the 2011-2012 legislative session, 10 states introduced ag gag bills, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Utah. In 2013, Arkansas, Indiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Wyoming introduced ag gag legislation, and many other state legislatures are poised to do the same. Ag gag bills are already on the books in Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Iowa, Utah, and Missouri.

The goal of ag gag laws is insidious: to silence whistleblowers and eliminate access to critical evidence of farmed animal and other abuses. What’s more, restrictions or prohibitions on these records would decrease the opportunities for food safety violations to be discovered, thereby increasing the risk that consumers could be exposed to and contract illnesses from the consumption of unsafe food products and produce from jurisdictions that pass ag gag legislation.

Factory farms, like other industries, are already fully protected from illegal activities that could detrimentally impact them by trespass, fraud, and other existing criminal and civil laws – despite corporate agriculture’s claims to the contrary. Ag gag bills were designed to place restraints on free speech by making it a crime to take photos or video on a factory farm without the written permission of the owner. Under the guise of property rights, ag gag bills are intended to prevent consumers from ever seeing the horrors of animal abuse, contaminated crops, illegal working conditions, and risky food safety practices—the sort that result in massive food safety recalls and all too frequently lead to outbreaks of food-borne illness—that are common practice behind factory farm gates.

ALDF and a broad range of stakeholders have raised concerns about the potentially devastating impacts of these and newer ag gag legislation efforts. Ag gag is a grave concern for everyone from journalists to whistleblowers to animals to mothers concerned about the safety of their children’s food.

you want to hide the truth,
in the name of the dollar.
we are the voices of animals
and we will stand up
and HOLLAR!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Please click HERE to sign petition

If you do not live in the UK, use postcodes SE1 9QQ or SW1X 7RN

Background | Source 38 Degrees

The government has announced plans to start culling badgers. There’s been a big debate among 38 Degrees members about these culls. Some of us believe killing badgers would be wrong under any circumstances. Some of us believe that if the science really proved that shooting badgers could make a real dent in the cow TB problem, it would be a tragic necessity.

But 87% of us agree on this: the government’s current plans to shoot England’s badgers simply don’t stack up. The government’s own scientific advisers warn that it won’t solve the problem of TB in cattle, and could even make it worse.

Government scientists say that if a cull isn’t carried out “in a co-ordinated, sustained and simultaneous manner according to the minimum criteria, then this could result in a smaller benefit or even a detrimental effect.”

Can you take 30 seconds now to add your name to the petition?

put away your guns,
leave badgers be.
cullling is murder
and an affront
to morality!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Innocence Project

UPDATE
Breaking News: Execution Stayed in Mississippi

Please click HERE to sign and send letter

Background | Source Innocence Project

Willie Manning is on death row in Mississippi, awaiting execution for the abduction and murder of two college students in 1992. He was convicted on circumstantial evidence, including the testimony of a jailhouse informant who had previously given a statement implicating another person. No physical evidence has ever linked Willie to the crime, and he has always maintained his innocence. He has been seeking DNA testing of crime scene evidence for years.

Incredibly, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that there is “overwhelming evidence of guilt,” so no DNA testing is needed. His execution has been set for May 7th. Eighteen men have been exonerated by DNA testing after being sentenced to death, including Kennedy Brewer of Mississippi. We are asking the Governor to stay the execution and order the DNA testing that will definitively prove Willie Manning’s guilt or innocence. Join us in calling on Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant to stay Willie’s execution and order DNA testing!

execution is forever,
DNA testing cannot
wait.
state of mississippi,
do you want innocent
blood spilled
on your plate????

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Please click and sign HERE

Source : Force Change
By Jennifer Hartmann

Target: Government of Nepal

Goal: End mass sacrifice of animals at Nepalese temple

Every five years, the Gadhimai Jatra festival takes place in Nepal where half a million animals are brutally slain in honor of the Hindu goddess of power. Because all 500,000 animals must be slaughtered in the first two days of the festival, the participant butchers spend 48 hours massacring thousands of water buffalo, pigs, goats, chickens, and even pigeons and mice.

By the end, their disease-filled slaughterhouses are strewn with the blood and headless bodies of thousands of animals that, prior to their painful deaths, scrambled to escape the massive blades that decapitated them. The next ritual is scheduled to take place in 2014, but with help from the government of Nepal, it is possible to stop this mass slaughter before it is allowed to begin again.

While animals are killed for slaughter every day in countries around the world, this particular tradition is uniquely appalling due to the inhumane methods employed by participants of the ritual in such short periods of time. In one event, the throats of sacrifice animals are slit with knives, leaving them to die a slow, agonizing death while priests sprinkle their blood over religious idols and symbols.

In another, more than 20,000 water buffalo are penned in a yard where men wielding swords attack them until they are all maimed to death. While many animal sacrifices end quickly, these animals are hacked at the neck and legs multiple times before they even fall to ground. The largest animals are mutilated over two dozen times by machete before they are given the mercy to die.

Maneka Gandhi, an Indian politician and activist, is outspoken in her disapproval of the tradition. She has explained that many villagers refuse to end the slaughter for fear that they will dishonor the goddess of power, called Gadhimai. In addition, Gandhi explained that the festival is an incredibly profitable enterprise for priests, moneylenders, and animal sellers, who have incentive only to continue the inhumane practice out of greed.

Sadly, this despicable crime is allowed to continue in order to honor the tradition and religion of the Hindu people, even though profitable business remains the driving force behind it. Despite the fact that many Nepali residents are opposed to the violence of the Gadhimai festival, there has yet to be governmental interference to end this mass carnage once and for all. Urge the government of Nepal to illegalize the world’s largest mass sacrifice of animals.

It is not the deity
that worships blood.
It is manunkind, whose cold heart
Pumps mud.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

We need you to become a part of the campaign to enact a total ban on dolphin captivity for the whole nation of India!

The Indian Minister of Environment and Forests, Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan, is currently considering a ban on dolphin captivity in India. She will be making her decision in the coming weeks, and if a ban is enacted, it will save the lives thousands of dolphins from lifetimes of pain and suffering. See our blog for the whole story. 

We need you to write letters, draw pictures, send dolphin origami, or do anything else that is positive and creative, as a way of saying “Thank You” to Minister Natarajan for considering the ban and encouraging her to enact it into India’s legislation.

WHOM TO CONTACT

 A list of embassies can be found here. 

If you cannot physically mail, please email:  mosefgoi@nic.in

 SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns:

I am writing you to express my sincerest gratitude that the Indian Minister of Environment and Forests, Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan, is considering a nationwide prohibition on dolphin captivity.

It is known that dolphins suffer in captivity. They are extremely intelligent, self-aware beings with emotions, feelings, and close relationships to one another and their ocean home. Removing dolphins from the sea and putting them into small tanks or sea pens is removing a huge part of whom they are as dolphins, and forcing them to endure a life of misery.

India is a culture of compassion. In a world where animals are treated so poorly, India represents a beacon of hope. By enacting a total ban on captivity, not only will thousands of dolphins over the years be spared a life of torture and misery, but people will also be encouraged to think about whom dolphins truly are – as beings who deserve our respect.

As Mahatma Ghandi famously said, “You can judge a society by the way it treats its animals.” The Minister has the chance to show the world how compassionate and kind India truly is by denying dolphin-exploiting industries to become established within their borders. I hope she makes the right choice.

Yours truly,

in freedom

My eyes reflect the blue of the sea
When they are in freedom, naturally
I can jump up so high
Chase and play
Catch my food
This is the dolphin way
But when in a small space
Entrapped and alone
Or even with others
All I can do is moan
The blue sea reflection
Flickers then dies
Lost in man’s deception
Why bother to try

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Next, all-vegan meals!

Source NYC Department of Education

Vegetable wraps, black beans, falafel and vegetarian chili on the menu at the first public school in a major American city to serve an all-vegetarian menu

Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott today congratulated PS 244, the Active Learning Elementary School, in Flushing for being the first New York City public school to serve an all-vegetarian menu. It is believed to be one of the first public schools in America to do so.

The menu includes healthy recipes such as roasted chickpeas, braised black beans with plantains, tofu vegetable wrap with cucumber salad, vegetarian chili served with brown rice, falafel, and roasted tofu with Asian sesame sauce. The school, which opened in 2008, began offering a vegetarian lunch three times a week and then increased it to four times a week. This year it became the first NYC public school to have a vegetarian menu for all meals.

Today’s lunch included black beans and cheddar quesadilla served with salsa and red roasted potatoes.

“I am proud of the students and staff for trailblazing this extraordinary path,” Chancellor Walcott said. “Our school meals program has evolved under the Bloomberg Administration to offer dishes that meet our nutritional standards. I want to thank the Office of SchoolFood and the New York Coalition for Healthy School Food for working collaboratively to create vegetarian meals.”

“We created PS 244 based on a principle of a healthy lifestyle and academic achievement,” Principal Robert Groff, one of the school’s founders, said. “We discovered early on that our kids were gravitating toward our vegetarian offerings, and we kept expanding the program to meet the demand. The vegetarian menu fits right in with our mission and we are thrilled that our students in Pre-Kindergarten all the way up to Grade 3 understand the importance of healthy and nutritious meals.”

“Our breakfast and lunch program offers nutritious and delicious meals for all students,” Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm said. “For students at PS 244, we worked together to create a menu that meets our nutritional standards and at the same time offers delicious meals.”

“Since 2004, we have made improvements to breakfast and lunch that offer meals low in sodium and calories,” said Eric Goldstein, CEO of School Support Services. “Our Office of SchoolFood staff worked with the New York Coalition for Healthy School Food and PS 244 to come up with healthy vegetarian meals.”

The New York Coalition for Healthy School Food has partnered with PS244 and the Office of SchoolFood since 2009. At the time, the Coalition introduced its Cool School Food Program, which includes the development and introduction of plant-based entrée recipes. In 2012, the partnership created a vegetarian lunch menu that is healthy, low in cholesterol and saturated fat, and high in fiber.

Amie Hamlin, Executive Director of New York Coalition for Healthy School Food, said, “Plant-based, nutrient-dense options help students do better in school, and reduce global warming.

We are thrilled that our Cool School Food program, the DOE Office of SchoolFood and PS244 are responsible for the first public school I know of that offers a vegetarian menu. We are sure that with time and the understanding of the powerful impact of whole foods plant-based nutrition on disease prevention and learning, that PS244 will be the first of many schools to adopt a vegetarian menu.”

kudos for giving animals a voice,
and offering children this
wonderful, humane choice!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Kinship Circle

Please click HERE to protest

Source Kinship Circle

Huntingdon Life Sciences faced financial ruin. But US Bank’s $120 million loan kept them open to poison dogs, cats, monkeys and more animals in tests for pesticides, sweeteners, diet pills… So today animals still collapsed, frothing at the mouth. Dogs who didn’t get enough anesthesia “whimpered and moved” while cut apart.

US Bank is currently Huntingdon’s top debt-relief source. Though made aware of 7 investigations that reveal habitual animal abuse and fraudulent science, the bank approved this mega loan. Apparently US Bancorp doesn’t see animal cruelty as reason to blacklist a company, as it does with illegal gun sellers, gambling websites, etc. Like hundreds of other firms that dumped HLS, US Bank has access to footage and documents about techs who punch beagle puppies, dissect live animals, falsify data, and botch experiments so badly that animals seize and die on the spot.

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty UK launched a global campaign in 1999, with unified U.S. action a few years later. Anti-HLS efforts target the lab’s infrastructure: Financiers, customers and suppliers are strongly urged to dump HLS in ongoing letter/phone/email campaigns and live protests. Any company with ties to HLS is exposed to evidence of animal abuse. While HLS has teetered on the edge of shutdown, straddled with a $100 million debt, some financier always seems to bail them out. Ask US Bank to end its association with HLS and terminate the current loan agreement.

Please note that some of the addresses will be returned as invalid.

to the ethically aware
and morally sound,
US bank is funding
terrorism,
and we stand
our ground!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

PETA

Please click HERE to sign and send petition

Background | Source PETA

Donkey basketball games are loud, chaotic, and utterly bizarre events in which docile animals are pulled, shoved, screamed at, whipped, and forced to carry riders who are too heavy for them. Used again and again, the donkeys are lugged from place to place for months on end in small, poorly ventilated vehicles—with no consideration for their welfare, safety, or happiness. Equines who are continually subjected to such stressors can develop unpredictable temperaments, putting riders and bystanders at risk. There has been a record of injuries associated with donkey basketball games, including a case in which an injured participant successfully sued a school for more than $110,000 in damages. Sadly, Morning Sun Elementary School in Morning Sun, Iowa, has scheduled a donkey basketball game for May 5. Your voice is needed!

Please urge school administrators to cancel this cruel and dangerous event and to replace it with a safer, humane alternative. And please forward this alert widely!

Please keep all correspondence polite, as anything less will hurt our efforts.

Personalized letters always work best. Feel free to send the sample letter provided, but keep in mind that your letter will carry more weight if you write your own customized message and subject line.

donkeys
Do not judge us
We are not you
We do what donkey
Were born to do
We are not stubborn
we do not like being
used
we are not tools of man
to be beaten or abused
if you want us to help you
be kind with your request
we will gladly oblige
if you do your best.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

1. Harvard to Close Primate Facility after Pressure | Source PCRM

Following two years of pressure from PCRM and other groups, Harvard University announced today that it will close its primate experimentation facility where numerous monkeys have died and been seriously injured in recent years. This move is a step in the right direction—away from cruel and scientifically misguided research—and PCRM’s members played a big role by sending Harvard more than 30,000 e-mails last summer. With your help, we did it!

The closure will affect the 2,000 monkeys currently at the New England Primate Research Center in Southborough, Mass. PCRM will call on Harvard and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to retire those animals to sanctuaries rather than send them to other research facilities.

In September 2011, PCRM issued its report Animal Welfare Act Violations at Ivy League Universities, which detailed how a primate (later revealed to be a highly endangered cotton-top tamarin) was found dead in a cage at the Harvard facility after going through a machine that uses near-boiling water and caustic chemicals to wash cages.

Following PCRM’s report, other accounts of animal deaths and mistreatment continued to surface, including:

• A marmoset was found to have died after escaping, being captured, and then undergoing an imaging procedure. PCRM’s sources from within the primate center claimed that the marmoset was traumatized during his capture and that he was hyperventilating and distressed when he was forced into the constricting imaging tube.
• A cotton-top tamarin died of dehydration as a result of not having a water bottle in his cage.
• A primate died after being overdosed with anesthetics.

PCRM took this evidence of animal cruelty to the United States Department of Agriculture and NIH’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare and called on the agencies to investigate Harvard.

PCRM also charged Harvard with violating the federal Endangered Species Act by negligently harming and killing cotton-top tamarins in a complaint filed with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in July 2012. Harvard responded by claiming that it would relocate its nearly 170 tamarins—critically endangered monkeys native to Colombia—to “other institutions, such as wildlife preserves or sanctuaries.” The complaint is still pending.

PCRM is still urging Harvard to retire its tamarins, and now we are pushing the school and NIH to do the same with all 2,000 primates. As we move forward, you will hear more from us.

Thank you for your continued support.

2. Israel: a bill to ban the imports of fatty goose and duck liver | Source AR News

A bill to ban the import and sale of fatty gooe and duck liver (“foie-gras”) was introduced yesterday (April 22nd, 2013) in the Israeli Knesset. The bill was introduced by 23 Knesset members (fifth of the 120 members), from almost all parties, led by Knesset Member.

The bill, if enacted, will be a complementary step to the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court 10 years ago to ban on the force-feeding of geese and ducks in Israel. In the 1990′s, when the Israeli campaign against force-feeding of geese and ducks started, Israel was one of the world’s leading producers of fatty liver. The precedential Court Decision led to the closing of the industry and still underpins campaigns against other common cruel practices. In drafting and promoting the current bill, Anonymous for Animal Right and Let the Animals Live hope to stop the imports of fatty liver to Israel and to set the principle that cruelty is unacceptable – whether done locally or abroad, by oneself or by one’s money.

“Foie gras” is the pathologically-greasy and swollen liver of geese and ducks. To bring the liver to this diseased state, the industry force-feeds the bird with growing quantities of high-calorie gruel – up to one third of the bird’s weight per day. The gruel is forced down the bird’s esophagus using a tube, which is connected to an air-pressure-operated machine, or a similar technique. The sick ducks have difficulty breathing and walking. Their slaughter time is chosen so that not too many of them would die before being taken to the slaughterhouse.

Force-feeding of geese and ducks is already banned also in Italy, the UK, Poland, The Czech Republic, Luxemburg, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Australia, Argentine and California.

California also bans the sale of the fatty liver which is the objective of this form of animal-abuse.

Please thank MK Rabbi Dov Lipman on his initiative:

Email: dlipman@knesset.gov.il

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dov.lipman?fref=ts

Mailing address: MK Dov Lipman, the Knesset, Jerusalem , Israel

3. The Norwegian Labour Party adds fur ban to the party manifesto | Source Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance

Victory! The Norwegian Labour Party adds fur ban to the party manifesto

The Labour Party Congress has today (21st April 2013) voted to add a ban on fur farming to the party manifesto.

This addition to the manifesto follows the resolution to put an end to fur farming, as decided at the 2011 Party Congress.

While this stance is not new for the party, the inclusion of a fur ban into the manifesto commits the party to this work for the next four years.

This inclusion in the manifesto is an important signal in Norwegian politics, in particular to the right-wing partys like the Conservative Party.

The Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance has been working towards this point for the past 10 years. Through intense lobbying including letters, flyers and phone calls targeting many hundreds of local politicians the active work of the Labour Party towards a Norwegian ban on fur farming has today been secured.

The Norwegian Labour Party are currently in Goverment, together with the Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party. The Labour and Socialist Left Parties wish to ban fur farming, however the Centre Party wish to keep fur farming in Norway. This strong signal from the Party Congress this weekend should provide incentive for negotiations regarding this issue between the Government parties.

This is an important milestone, and it is wonderful news for animal welfare in Norway. Our work will now focus on the Conservative Party in the future, however this will require a very different campaigning strategy, says information manager to the Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance, Live Kleveland.


4. Vietnam Airlines to stops shipping primates | Source PETA

As you know, for more than two years, PETA has been asking Vietnam Airlines to stop shipping primates to misery and death in laboratories. Monkeys shipped to laboratories are crammed into small wooden crates, then stuffed into the cargo holds of airplanes, often under the feet of unsuspecting passengers. Some of these monkeys are ripped from their homes in the wild, others are bred on squalid monkey factory farms. When they reach their final destination, they are confined to tiny cages and tormented in cruel experiments.

Now, after hearing from more than 100,000 compassionate supporters like you, Vietnam Airlines has informed PETA that, starting today, it will no longer ship primates to laboratories.

But our work is not over. PETA will continue to strengthen our efforts against the remaining few airlines engaged in this cruel practice so that fewer primates will suffer and die in laboratories and more monkeys will be left where they belong: in the wild.

We need your help. Please take a moment to urge Philippine Airlines to join Vietnam Airlines and nearly every other major airline in the world by refusing to transport primates to laboratories.

sometimes we want to turn away,
we cannot do this another day,
and then we hear that little voice,
that reminds us that when
something good happens,
we all rejoice.
so do not worry,
being discouraged is okay,
but we keep on going,
anyway ☺♥☻

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND

The bullfighting lobby has submitted to the Spanish Congress of Deputies a Popular Legislative Initiative full of irregularities seeking to shield bullfighting in Spain declaring it a National Cultural Heritage.

This would not only include the shielding of regular bullfighting in bullrings, but also the celebration of acts as cruel as the Toro de la Vega in Tordesillas, where a bull is killed with spears by people on horseback and foot, or the Toro de Jubilo, where, for pure fun, a bull’s horns are set on fire and the animal is subsequently executed.

Bullfighting in Spain currently receives about 600 million in public subsidies. Should this law be passed, it would still get more. This is totally unjustified, if we consider that, according to the latest poll made by Ipsos MORI in April of 2013, only 13% of Spaniards strongly support this activity, and that Spanish people have other priorities they wish to direct their taxes to.

But even more disturbing is the fact that this law includes programs to ensure new generations of bullfighting fans, children whose nature leads them  to instinctively feel empathy and compassion towards animals, shall be denatured and taught to stick harpoons (banderillas), spears (pikes), and swords in the tender backs of calves at bullfighting schools as something we should aspire to. They will be taught that those who torture an animal to death for 20 minutes for pure entertainment are heroes.

All this, ignoring recent studies presented by leading international psychiatrists such as Dr. JP Richier in France, which demonstrate how harmful this is for the moral and psychological development of children, and the construction of a less violent society.

WHOM TO CONTACT

We ask and we welcome you to write to the Spanish embassy in your country, making sure that you send us a copy of your email to info@latorturanoescultura.com, so that we can keep track of the emails sent, asking them not to approve this law.

Here I leave a list of embassies and consulates of Spain in the world, where you can find the email address to which to write:

(The United States embassy in Washington DC is emb.washington@maec.es)

TWITTER

Please share this action on Social Networks with the hashtag #LoveSpainHateBullfights

You can use this message: “Please contact the Spanish Embassy today and ask them not to protect cruelty #LoveSpainHateBullfights http://tinyurl.com/bpu8a8j“

SAMPLE LETTER

Estimado Embajador,

Hemos sido informados de que el Gobierno Español está considerando legislación, con el fin de proteger y promover las corridas de toros y para reconocerlas como patrimonio cultural. Además, entendemos que tal legislación permitiría la utilización de fondos públicos para apoyar a la industria. Lo que es más, estos fondos también podrían ser usados para introducir a los niños a las corridas de toros.

Respetuosamente aunque con gran preocupación me dirijo a usted pues está demostrado que las corridas de toros causan un gran sufrimiento a los toros y desensibilizan a las personas, especialmente a los niños, ante la violencia.

Quisiera solicitar que comunique mi petición a su gobierno para que considere cuidadosamente las opiniones de la mayoría de sus propios ciudadanos, que no apoyan las corridas de toros y no quieren que sus fondos públicos sean utilizados para un pasatiempo tan controvertido y anacrónico.

Su gobierno tiene una oportunidad real de hacer una diferencia positiva por los animales en su país, enviando un claro mensaje a la ciudadanía española y a la comunidad internacional en general de que España ya no tolerará la crueldad hacia los animales bajo el pretexto del entretenimiento o la cultura; y para mostrarles a otros, incluidas las personas jóvenes, que debemos proteger, en lugar de maltratar, a los animales.

Le instamos a que tome una posición compasiva en contra de las corridas de toros. Al oponerse a la legislación propuesta, acordando no declararlas patrimonio cultural y por lo tanto evitando el uso de fondos públicos, usted ganará el apoyo de ciudadanos alrededor del mundo.

Atentamente,

TRANSLATION

Dear Ambassador,

We have been informed that the Spanish government is considering legislation in order to protect and promote bullfighting and to recognize them as cultural heritage. Furthermore, we understand that this legislation would allow the use of public funds to support the industry. What’s more, these funds could also be used to introduce children to the bullfights.

Respectfully though with great concern I am writing it is shown that bullfighting cause great suffering to the bull and desensitize people, especially children, to violence.

I would ask that communicate my request to your government to carefully consider the views of the majority of its own citizens, who do not support bullfighting and do not want their funds are used for a hobby so controversial and anachronistic.

His government has a real opportunity to make a positive difference for the animals in their country, sending a clear message to Spanish citizens and the international community at large that Spain no longer tolerate animal cruelty under the guise of entertainment or culture, and to show others, including young people, we should protect rather than abuse, animals.

We urge you to take a compassionate stand against bullfighting. In opposing the proposed legislation, agreeing not to declare cultural heritage and thus avoiding the use of public funds, you will gain the support of citizens around the world.

Sincerely,

PETITION

US citizens, please click HERE to sign petition

UK residents take action here.

Live outside U.S. or U.K., sign this version.

BACKGROUND | SOURCE HSI

Right now, the Spanish government is considering a law to protect and promote bullfighting, an outdated spectacle that causes the slow and tortuous death of a beautiful bull.

The majority of Spanish citizens don’t support bullfighting. Nor do they want their taxes spent protecting it.

Join us in opposing the proposed new law by sending a message to the Spanish government today!

Spain has so many treasures to cherish, but by supporting and protecting the killing of bulls for entertainment, Spain’s government risks leaving a terrible legacy for future generations.

The torment and death of animals for amusement, or for cultural reasons, can never be acceptable. It is cruel and outdated, and has no place in a modern society.

Write now: Ask the Spanish government to do the right thing.

Let them know that by taking a compassionate stance against this cruel pastime, they would surely win the hearts of citizens around the world.

Thanks for all you do for animals.

your nation and heritage,
of which you are so proud,
should no longer include
screams of torments
from bloodthirsty crowds.
bullfighting is cruel and
teaches children that
animals are inferior.
and that is OK to harm
those to whom you feel
superior.
this is the 21st century,
no more bulls in this
way should ever be
destroyed.
there are activities of kindness
to be much more, enjoyed.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

The film “The Ghosts in Our Machine,” directed by Liz Marshall, is a view of the animal rights issue through the lens of Toronto photographer Jo-Anne McArthur. The film posits that animals are not an insentient resource to be mechanistically processed, but a separate nation. Humanity is making imperial war on this nation, and Jo-Anne McArthur is a combat photographer.

McArthur makes an international career of documenting the inhuman misery that capitalism visits upon animals. She has worked with numerous animal rights campaigns documenting the horror that are the lives of billions of animals treated as system throughput rather than sentient beings. Her photographs are haunting both to herself and the viewer. Her lens gives meaning to lives lived only to gain protein mass, fur or some other commodity traded and consumed by human beings.

In the scenes where McArthur infiltrates a fox fur farm, the banality of the evil that is fur is immediately apparent. The foxes are caged, exposed and miserable. As a European animal rights activist enumerates the number of foxes that are raised and killed in this single operation, it becomes apparent that billions of animals are born, live and die in conditions tantamount to life long torture.

Despite “advanced” animal protection legislation, most animal cruelty is concentrated in the developed world. For that reason industries exploiting animals fear the right photograph more than property damage or animal liberation direct action.

It will be people who will eventually end animal abuse. This will only happen when the suffering of animals is unavoidably evident. Insurance will cover property damage and stock loss, but the idea that there is no more god given right to exploit other species than to exploit other races is the biggest threat to the status quo.

An eventual acceptance of basic animal rights will occur like the end of slavery, or universal suffrage. It will take a critical mass of awareness. McArthur is clear in her purpose. She is not there to liberate individual animals. That would not change the system that is geared to exploit them. She is there to add to the critical mass of awareness needed to render the concept of animal rights as normal as that of human rights.

McArthur is personally haunted by the life of one chimpanzee, Ron, whose image is truly poignant. Despite a life of enduring medical experimentation, Ron forgave humanity for the horrors of his existence. The picture of Ron is heartbreakingly anthropomorphic. If we can abuse a creature separated from ourselves by so few degrees of evolution, what hope does a rat or mink have.

But McArthur’s photographs show us the animals we don’t want to see: the beagles bred for torture, the highly intelligent marine mammals imprisoned in water circuses, and the trailers full of pigs trucked to slaughter in a Toronto urban slaughterhouse. These are all animals who we don’t want to view outside their normal context. Everyone loves images of majestic wildlife, or cute cats. What nobody wants to see is billions of animals being processed into product. The machinery of modern life is greased with the suffering of sentient creatures, but it’s best if no one questions what makes the machine run so smoothly.

Recent legislative gambits may actually render McArthur’s craft illegal. The factory farming industry has sponsored many bills to make photographing slaughterhouses a crime. The success of photographers like McArthur in advancing animal rights can be measured directly by the efforts of animal exploitation industries to have their profession criminalized.

The farm sanctuary sequences in Ghosts in Our Machine show one of the last contexts within which human beings form actual connection with farm animals. Most real farms are protein factories wherein animals are commodities and no regard is given to their sentience. The tranquility of farm sanctuary is a welcome counterpoint to the film’s merciless displays of industrial and scientific cruelty.

The difference between the life of an animal in a sanctuary and an animal in the machine, is the difference between heaven and hell. Piglets at the sanctuary are things of beauty enjoying happiness. The fact that their mother was the subject of torture by cattle prod seems an incongruity, rather than the brutal norm.

The film moves slowly and deliberately. It is richly shot, and has a lingering ambient and atmospheric soundtrack by Bob Wiseman. The film’s atmosphere does not reflect the noise and pain of the lives of the animals caught in the machine. What it does reflect is the inner tranquility of McArthur, who, though haunted by what she has seen, is at peace for knowing she is doing whatever she can to ameliorate the existence of billions of creatures.

Upon meeting with a Newsweek editor she whispers: “I’m trying to save the world” in a way that is self-consciously exaggerated. This is pure insight. The secret to tranquility is a life spent in good humour, pursuing a higher purpose.

After a creature is consumed in the machine, a McArthur photograph is usually the only thing documenting its miserable existence. There are cultures that believe that a photograph steals the spirit of its subject. McArthur’s photographs actually accomplish the opposite. They are often the only haunting trace of an entire existence; ghostly representations of billions of lives lived in horror.

Humberto DaSilva is a union activist whose ‘Not Rex Murphy’ video commentaries are featured on rabble.

what is the machine
that man has built.
a heartless motor,
filled with bloodshed
and guilt.
man is the only one who can
flip the switch,
turn off the cruelty
so life for animals
is no longer
a b*tch.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

1. Please click HERE to help horses and burros
2. Please click HERE to help wolves
3. Please click HERE to help dolphins (need to sign up for account)

1. Background | Source IDA

The Senate recently confirmed Sally Jewell as the next Secretary of the Interior. This could be a positive change from her predecessor, Ken Salazar, who failed to deliver on his promise to reform the federal wild horse and burro program. Salazar, a rancher, defended other ranchers to the detriment of wild horses and burros.

During Salazar’s tenure, the Bureau of Land Management removed more than 35,000 wild horses from public lands. Jewell is known as an outdoor enthusiast and conservationist and IDA is hopeful that her appointment will be good news for wild horses and burros, but she needs to hear how important this issue is to you.

Jewell has already pledged to “pursue effective and ecologically sustainable policies” for management of America’s wild horses and burros. Please take a moment to urge her to keep that promise!

2. Background | Source EarthJustice

Help ensure continued protections for wolves across the lower-48 states! You can make a difference by writing to Obama administration officials to urge them not to drop federal protections for wolves across much of the United States.

In the next 2-3 months, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may remove federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves across nearly the entire lower-48 states. This would be a disastrous setback for gray wolf recovery in the United States.

The recovery of gray wolves is an American success story, from their reintroduction in the northern Rocky Mountains to their comeback in the western Great Lakes states. But there are few, if any, gray wolves in the vast majority of their former range. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removes gray wolf federal protections, wolves in the Pacific Northwest, California, the southern Rocky Mountains, and the Northeast will face even more difficult odds than they do already.

It is critical that the administration not proceed with a blanket national delisting of the gray wolf, when wolves are still missing across so much of the U.S. landscape.

Urge President Obama, Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe to maintain protections for gray wolves in the lower-48 states.

3. Background |Source Oceana

According to your Department of the Interior, seismic airgun testing for oil and gas in the Atlantic will injure or kill 138,500 dolphins and whales, including endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Seismic airguns and offshore drilling threaten commercial and recreational fisheries as well as ocean-based tourism and coastal recreation from Delaware to Florida. 730,000 jobs in this region depend on a healthy ocean. Seismic airgun testing is the first step toward expanding deepwater drilling, the same practice that caused the well-known Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.

Offshore drilling is dirty and dangerous, and seismic airguns are an insult to ocean economies and ecosystems. With respect, we call on your administration to reject seismic airgun testing in the Atlantic.

When the earth mother created this planet,
For man and all creatures
A garden was borne, of her beautiful features
A haven of habitats varied,
nurtured with care
Embraced by the blue green of the sea
the blue greys of sky and air
The deep browns of the mountains
The harsh desert sands
icy whitish extremes
of the vast frozen lands
and now she sits watching
her world slip away
the animals she cherishes
nearing their last days.

please sign and share every petition…beautiful lives depend on us

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Source ABC

After weeks of opposition from animal welfare advocates, labor groups and First Amendment experts, a California assembly member withdrew a bill that would limit undercover abuse investigations before it could advance past its first step.

California now joins Arkansas and Wyoming in declining in recent weeks to advance bills that seek to punish the documenter of farm animal abuse rather than the abuse itself.

In Tennessee, however, lawmakers on Wednesday were close to approving a bill similar to the one in California.

The California bill introduced by Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, originally would have required anyone collecting evidence of abuse to turn it over to law enforcement within 48 hours or be guilty of an infraction, which advocates say does not allow enough time to show a pattern of illegal activity under federal humane handling and food safety laws. In an effort to ease criticism, he amended the bill last week to increase reporting time to 120-hours.

It was supposed to have been voted on Wednesday by the California State Assembly Committee on Agriculture. Patterson killed his bill less than three hours before hearings were scheduled to begin as it became clear he would not have the votes to get it out of the committee.

“Sanity prevailed in Sacramento today,” said Jennifer Fearing, state director of the Humane Society of the United States, which had organized more than 50 groups in opposition of the bill.

Patterson, a freshman Assembly member, said he had hoped his bill would prevent animal abuse by requiring witnesses to promptly report it to authorities. He sponsored it for the California Cattlemen’s Association.

“My intention with this bill was and remains the prevention of animal cruelty,” Patterson said.

The bill cannot be brought back this year, though Patterson and the cattlemen want to hold a hearing later in the session to allow for more discussion.

“Animal welfare has always been and remains a top priority for beef cattle producers across the state of California,” CCA President Tim Koopmann said. “We appreciate Assemblymember Patterson’s willingness to push this bill forward despite opposition.”

In addition to Tennessee, other bills are gaining support in North Carolina and Indiana.

“California lawmakers rightfully saw through this attempt to suppress whistleblowers, but it’s troubling that Tennessee lawmakers were fooled by the same effort,” said Paul Shapiro, senior vice president at HSUS. “These bills are not an attempt to prevent animal cruelty, but to prevent Americans simply from finding out about cruelty in the first place.”

The California bill was one of a handful across the nation that are a pushback by the meat and poultry industries that have suffered financial losses in recent years after undercover videos revealed horrific abuse in egg plants and slaughterhouses.

A 2008 HSUS undercover video in California cows struggling to stand as they were prodded to slaughter by forklifts and led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history. In Vermont, an HSUS video of veal calves skinned alive and tossed like sacks of potatoes ended with the plant’s closure and criminal convictions.

Some bills being considered make it illegal to take photographs at a farming operation. Others make it a crime for someone such as an animal welfare advocate to lie on an application to get a job at a plant.

Read the rest HERE

Once again reason triumphs,
Animals are heard,
We will be their voices,
As their hearts echo our
Words

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

HSUS, Green is the New Red

Concerned about Ag-Gag laws?  Click HERE to sign petition

Update, 4/30,13 : Amy Meyer’s Ag-Gag Charges Have Been Dropped!

Source, 4/29/13: Green is the New Red
By Will Potter

Amy Meyer wanted to see the slaughterhouse for herself. She had heard that anyone passing by could view the animals, so she drove to Dale Smith Meatpacking Company in Draper City, Utah, and from the side of the road she could see through the barbed-wire fence. Piles of horns littered the property. Cows struggled with workers who tried to lead them into a building. And one scene in particular made her stop.

“A live cow who appeared to be sick or injured being carried away from the building in a tractor,” Meyer told me, “as though she were nothing more than rubble.”

As she witnessed this, Meyer did what most of us would in the age of smart phones and YouTube: she recorded.

When the slaughterhouse manager came outside and told her to stop, she replied that she was on the public easement and had the right to film. When police arrived, she said told them the same thing. According to the police report, the manager said she was trespassing and crossed over the barbed-wire fence, but the officer noted “there was no damage to the fence in my observation.”

Meyer was allowed to leave. She later found out she was being prosecuted under the state’s new “ag-gag” law.
This is the first prosecution in the country under one of these laws, which are designed to silence undercover investigators who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms. The legislation is a direct response to a series of shocking investigations by groups like the Humane Society, Mercy for Animals, and Compassion Over Killing that have led to plant closures, public outrage, and criminal charges against workers.

Even the most sweeping ag-gag bills, such as the American Legislative Exchange Council model legislation, don’t explicitly target filming from a roadside. But Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Vermont are all considering bills similar to the Utah law right now.

Pennsylvania’s bill criminalizes anyone who “records an image of, or sound from, the agricultural operation” or who “uploads, downloads, transfers or otherwise sends” the footage using the Internet.

North Carolina’s bill doesn’t specifically mention factory farms or slaughterhouses: it is called the “Commerce Protection Act,” and it includes investigations of any industry. It was introduced on the same day a fifth employee of Butterball pleaded guilty to animal cruelty after an undercover investigation showed workers beating turkeys.

Tennessee’s bill has already passed and is awaiting signature from the governor. In response to calls for a veto from the Humane Society and Carrie Underwood, one state representative compared undercover investigations to rape and sex-trafficking.

California’s ag-gag bill recently failed, after a massive public backlash. One newspaper editorial said “the cattlemen have committed the worst PR gaffe since New Coke.” The bill was a response to an undercover investigation by the Humane Society that showed “downer” cows, too sick to move, being pushed by tractors (much like what Amy Meyer recorded in Utah). It led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history.

The public backlash against these bills, including recent editorials by the New York Times and Washington Post, has relied  on hypothetical examples of how they could be used. The AFL-CIO and Teamsters say they could put workers at risk. The ASPCA says they could shut down lawful investigations by animal protection groups. The National Press Photographers Association says they could wrap up journalists.

The first ag-gag prosecution should be a warning that these aren’t hypothetical concerns. These bills have one purpose: keep consumers in the dark. Rather than respond to video footage of animal cruelty with across-the-board reforms, the industry is trying to turn off the cameras.

It’s telling that the owner of the slaughterhouse Amy Meyer filmed happens to be Darrell H. Smith, the town mayor. (Mayor Smith, the meatpacking company, and the local prosecutor did not return phone calls for comment). If that’s shocking to you, it shouldn’t be. In Iowa, for example, the nation’s first ag-gag law was sponsored by Rep. Annette Sweeney, who is the former director of the Iowa Angus Association.

In Utah, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. John Mathis, called undercover investigators “animal rights terrorists” and said video recordings of animal abuse are “propaganda.” In his opening remarks at a legislative hearing on the ag-gag bill, Mathis said: “It’s fun to see my good ag friends in this committee… all my good friends are here.” Ag-gag supporters couldn’t be any more transparent in their financial motivations for censorship.

It was prescient that, as the Utah bill was being considered, the Utah Sentencing Commission warned that it could be used against anyone who merely takes a photograph of a farm or slaughterhouse. At the time, Rep. Greg Hughes of Draper replied: “Who would really pursue that in terms of prosecution?” Now, the first ag-gag prosecution is for precisely that, in his own district.

Most people won’t ever find themselves in the position of Amy Meyer, of course. Few of us actively seek out information about how our food is produced. (Do you know the location of a factory farm, if you wanted to?) The animal products just arrive at the supermarket, without investigation or thought.

With ag-gag bills, the industry is trying to keep it that way. These bills are not just about animal activists from national organizations going undercover. They are about people like Amy Meyer, who have seen how animals are being treated, and who want you to see what they have seen.

Most importantly, ag-gag bills are about you — the millions of Americans who might see this footage, be sickened by it, and demand a change.

Will Potter is the author of Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege (City Lights, 2011).

burying your head,
does not stop
what goes on
outside.
truth is truth,
and from that
you cannot hide.
laws that stop
those from pursuing
what is real,
will only come back
to bite the ones who
make this devil’s deal.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Animals Are Worth Saving

UPDATE

These animals have been rescued, no action is required: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.374313689273215.78050.132594796778440&type=3

BACKGROUND | SOURCE

Translation: The prosecutor’s office will check in a private zoo “BIOS”, which on the eve of the children found the remains of animals. Those animals that are still alive, kept in appalling conditions. Two exhausted bears crammed into a small cage. They almost do not feed. Private zoo director Sergey Starkov, agreeing to an interview at the last moment he gave it up. No comments have not yet provided the experts and the regional department of veterinary medicine.

sergey starkov
the misery he
has made,
is not his private
zoo,
to the public
these horrors,
relayed.
the world is watching,
and we will see justice
is served
for the sake of his animal
prisoners,
and the punishment
he deserves.
we call on those
authorities,
who have the power to
intervene
for these bears and this
dog,
save them from this plight,
obscene.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Animal Connection

BACKGROUND | SOURCE ANIMAL CONNECTION

The community of Orangevale, Calif., has reportedly scheduled a “Pee Wee Rodeo” to take place on May 19 during its annual Pow Wow Days celebration.

During this event, children between the ages of 5 and 9 will participate in “Goat Tying,” where they will chase down goats, flip them onto their backs, and tie their legs together. Obviously, being chased and subjected to rough handling, crowds, and loud noises is a terrifying ordeal for these animals and they can get hurt! They have no opportunity to escape or defend themselves.

Please urge the Orangevale Chamber of Commerce to cancel these cruel events. And spread this alert far and wide!




WHOM TO CONTACT

Please call and send polite comments to:

Orangevale Chamber of Commerce
9267 Greenback Ln., Ste. B-97
Orangevale, CA 95662
916-988-0175
info@orangevalechamber.com


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Chamber of Commerce,

The community of Orangevale, California, has reportedly scheduled a “Pee Wee Rodeo” to take place on May 19 during its annual Pow Wow Days celebration.

During this event, children between the ages of 5 and 9 will participate in “Goat Tying”, where they will chase down goats, flip them onto their backs, and tie their legs together. Obviously, being chased and subjected to rough handling, crowds, and loud noises is a terrifying ordeal for these animals and they can get hurt. They have no opportunity to escape or defend themselves.

I am shocked at the disrespect and cruelty inflicted on goats in pursuit of such. “Goat Tying” is inherently cruel, subjecting goats to unnatural environments and pain in exploitative situations.  Indeed, “Goat Tying” games are barbaric events during which docile animals are used again and again.

Please accept that animals are sentient creatures, capable of love, pain, thought, and suffering, and when you support the exploitation of these goats, you only promote indifference and establish that you are unsympathetic to animal concerns. Furthermore, when you actively engage in this type of abuse in front of children, you are indeed promoting animal abuse and disrespect, which invariably lead to human abuse and disrespect. Please discontinue plans for this activity and use an alternative event in which all can participate in a cruelty-free manner.

Thank you for your attention and consideration to this urgent appeal.

NAME

peewee rodeo,
cowboy
mini-me of hell.
teaching children
that it is okay
to be cruel and
mentally unwell.
it is sick and
vicious to torment
these little goats.
how about some
peewee compassion
this is
all
she wrote!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

PETA has obtained disturbing undercover video footage of cats being subjected to cruel medical training exercises in a course called Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) conducted at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) in conjunction with St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Despite the availability of superior, lifelike infant simulators, which are used instead of animals at other medical facilities around the country, WUSTL continues to lock nine cats in its laboratories and have trainees repeatedly force hard plastic tubes down their delicate windpipes in a crude attempt to teach students how to intubate human infants. Of the more than 1,000 PALS training facilities, WUSTL appears to be the last facility in the country that is still abusing cats in the course, in defiance of modern science and ethics.

In the video, several unskilled trainees are seen struggling for several minutes to intubate two vulnerable cats named Elliott and Jessie as they repeatedly shove tubes down the cats’ windpipes and mishandle metal instruments in a manner that can break the cats’ teeth.

The cats are supposed to be anesthetized, but several participants in the video state that the cats they used began to wake up in the middle of the procedure.

The footage also shows a WUSTL veterinarian discussing how each cat is subjected to as many as 15 intubations each session. Yet, studies show that intubating animals more than five times in these trainings can cause them pain and trauma. WUSTL’s veterinarian and course leader also both admit that some cats’ windpipes are injured during the exercise, which can cause bleeding, swelling, scarring, collapsed lungs, and even death. Each of the nine cats used by WUSTL is subjected to this painful procedure up to four times a year for three years.

WUSTL continues to torment these cats even though research has shown that lifelike infant simulators better teach trainees to intubate babies than practicing on animals.

The American Heart Association (AHA), which creates the curriculum for and sponsors the PALS course, also strongly opposes animal use in the program, previously stating that “the AHA recommends that any hands-on intubation training for the AHA PALS course be performed on lifelike human manikins.” In the video, WUSTL’s veterinarian shamefully tells trainees that the AHA has taken this position only because animal laboratories are too expensive for most facilities. However, when asked subsequently by PETA if this was the reason it did not support animal use, the AHA clearly stated, “We do not endorse or require the use of animals during the AHA-PALS training because of advances and availability of simulation mannequins.”

For years, PETA has been pushing WUSTL to end its use of animals for intubation training, including with protests and ad campaigns.

Please help us protect animals by urging WUSTL to modernize its medical training program.

2. Background

The end of Canada’s annual baby seal slaughter is near. Over the last few years, all major markets have banned seal-fur imports, including the U.S., the European Union, Mexico, Taiwan, and even Russia, which had been importing 95 percent of Canadian seal pelts. There are no remaining markets for seal fur—the only reason the Canadian government continues to defend this dead industry is because political parties crave Newfoundland’s swing seats in Parliament. But as this editorial shows, even local sentiment is turning, and lack of markets has led Canadian officials to seriously examine whether the slaughter should end.

We’ve reached a tipping point. The time is now to urge Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Keith Ashfield, Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird, and Minister of International Trade Ed Fast to help bring the commercial seal slaughter to an immediate end by supporting a government buyout.

3. Background

The U.S. Navy has been using our oceans as a staging ground for target practice for more than 30 years — leaching highly toxic and cancer-causing chemicals into the sea. This practice, known as SINKEX, is currently exempt from laws that protect marine life from dangerous substances.

But that could change this month because the Environmental Protection Agency is considering revoking this exemption.

Through SINKEX, the Navy uses old warships for torpedo and gunnery practice — sinking the old vessels at sea. In the past decade alone, the Navy has disposed of more than 100 vessels through this program.

Old ships contain toxic materials, including polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. PCBs have been banned in the United States since 1979 because they’re known to cause cancer. When the ships are sunk, these chemicals leak into the ocean and harm all levels of the food web, including fish, whales and dolphins.

Please use the form to take action now. Tell the EPA that our oceans are not a toxic waste dump and that the Navy should dispose of old war ships in a safe, responsible manner.

4. Background

Justin Bieber just can’t seem to stay out of the animal-exploitation spotlight. This time, for having his 14-week-old capuchin monkey confiscated in late March when he tried to bring her into Germany illegally on his private jet.

Mally had been with Bieber for at least a month; even now she is way too young to be without her mother. Such a traumatic uprooting has been shown to create serious life-long problems, sometimes even death.

“At our Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary we have witnessed firsthand the amazing transformation monkeys can make given a supportive and nurturing environment,” says our sanctuary’s director, Tim Ajax.

Bieber has a chance to right this wrong and relinquish Mally so that she can immediately go to a sanctuary and live with her peers. If he decides to fight for custody, it could mean months — even years — before Mally gets that second, better chance at life.

Please tell the pop megastar to do the right thing and make a “belieber” out of us all!

5. Background

***Please note that Our Compass does not believe that dogs are more important than cattle, fish, or lizards.  All animals are equal and deserve compassion and respect.  This is an important alert that demands protection to one population of animals, yet any alert that spotlights a specific species, in order to implement protections, would be published as well.

Dogs (and cats) are suffering horrific cruelty because of the dog meat trade in South East Asia. Dogs piled on top of each other in tiny cages for days, and then boiled alive, electrocuted or beaten to death.

How can we stop this horrific cruelty? One answer is to slow the demand for meat by convincing local restaurants to stop buying and serving dog (and cat) meat. Please help us support local organizations in South East Asia employing this critical tactic. Sign your name below and we’ll provide this list of thousands of names to organizations trying to convince local restaurants to stop buying and serving dog meat. If we use our voices collectively the impact will be so much greater and this shocking cruelty will cease.

Sign this petition and tell all restaurants with dog meat on their menu to “STOP serving dog (and cat) meat!

6. Background

Help ensure continued protections for wolves across the lower-48 states! You can make a difference by writing to Obama administration officials to urge them not to drop federal protections for wolves across much of the United States.

In the next 2-3 months, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may remove federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves across nearly the entire lower-48 states. This would be a disastrous setback for gray wolf recovery in the United States.

The recovery of gray wolves is an American success story, from their reintroduction in the northern Rocky Mountains to their comeback in the western Great Lakes states. But there are few, if any, gray wolves in the vast majority of their former range. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removes gray wolf federal protections, wolves in the Pacific Northwest, California, the southern Rocky Mountains, and the Northeast will face even more difficult odds than they do already.

It is critical that the administration not proceed with a blanket national delisting of the gray wolf, when wolves are still missing across so much of the U.S. landscape.

Urge President Obama, Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe to maintain protections for gray wolves in the lower-48 states.

7. Background

Each year, countless fragile chicks, ducklings, and even reptiles are shipped nationwide by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Many of these animals are injured or killed when packages are delayed, roughly handled, dropped, crushed, or left in extreme temperatures. Last summer, 1,000 baby chicks were found dead during 105-degree weather at a mail-processing plant in Louisville, Kentucky. While the USPS currently prohibits the shipment of most live birds (excluding day-old poultry), the agency is now considering relaxing this restriction and allowing the shipment of any adult bird weighing up to 25 pounds! This means that countless more animals would suffer and die in transit. The USPS is currently seeking public comment, and your voice is needed!

Please use the form to urge the USPS to ban ALL live shipments of animals. Be sure to include your mailing address in the letter, and do not change the “Live Animals “subject line (otherwise, your comment may go unread). Please also share this alert widely!
8. Background

In 2007, the European Union introduced the “REACH” regulation to provide for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals — more than 30,000 of them.

REACH requires a long list of animal tests, which means horrific suffering from chemical poisoning and death for millions of rabbits, mice and other creatures. But REACH also requires the use of animal testing alternatives where available, including measures to revise the regulation itself to reflect scientific progress on alternatives.

In April 2012, HSI submitted a comprehensive proposal to the European Commission calling for major changes to REACH testing requirements to spare millions of animals while providing the same level of regulatory scrutiny of chemicals.

We’re still waiting… and every day the Commission delays, more animals suffer and die needlessly.

9. Background

A citizens’ initiative that aims to protect bullfighting is due to be discussed by the Spanish Congress in the coming weeks.

The threat of this new law passing could result in:

• more public money being spent to promote bullfighting
• changes in education that portray bullfighting in a positive way to children
• potentially even overturning the current bullfighting bans in autonomous regions such as Catalonia

Send a letter to the Spanish Ambassador to Canada and let them know the international community will not accept this proposal.

Please help us now:

The torment and death of animals for amusement, or for cultural reasons, should never be acceptable. Email the Spanish government today to let them know the international community will not accept this proposal.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

how lovely a place this world
could be,
if humans had a sense of
humanity.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND | SOURCE CETFA

Last Thursday, on April 18, a student at the Alberta College of Art and Design brought a live chicken into the school’s cafeteria. In front of spectators, the student slowly cut the throat of the writhing and screaming bird. The student proceeded to bleed the chicken out, remove the head and feathers and drop the bird into a pot–all under the guise of performance art.

Art never justifies harming and inflicting fear, pain and suffering upon another sentient being. The student`s actions must be recognized as what they are: blatant abuse and cruelty inflicted upon a defenceless animal.

Further, the student`s actions may be a sign of psychopathology. A large body of research indicates that those who inflict pain and suffering upon human victims start by inflicting it upon non-human animals.

It is important that the student who committed this cruelty be prosecuted by authorities and disciplined by the school (along with undergoing mandatory psychological treatment).

1. Contact the Alberta College of Art and Design to urge the school to discipline the student who committed this act of cruelty, adopt a formal policy prohibiting animal cruelty. Also request that the school take steps to counteract the unacceptable message of cruelty and violence promoted by this student’s actions and invite CETFA`s humane educator to give a presentation to students, faculty and staff.

2. Contact the Chief of Calgary Police Service, the Chief Crown Prosecutor, the Alberta SPCA and the Calgary Humane Society, and politely urge them to lay charges against the student as Section 2 of Alberta’s provincial Animal Protection Act prohibits causing an animal to be in distress (defined in s.1(2) as including animals that are injured, in pain, suffering, abused or subjected to undue hardship).


WHOM TO CONTACT

Email block

president@acad.ca ; AnneMarie.Dorland@acad.ca ; cps@calgarypolice.ca ; lloyd.robertson@gov.ab.ca ; execdir@albertaspca.org ; general.inquiries@calgaryhumane.ca ; admin@calgaryhumane.ca

Individual
Alberta College of Art and Design
Dr. Daniel Doz, President and CEO
1407-14 Ave NW
Calgary, Alberta T2N 4R3
Email : president@acad.caPhone: 403.284.7670
Fax: 403.338.5575

Anne Marie Dorland, Director of Communications
Email: AnneMarie.Dorland@acad.ca
Phone: 403.284.7656

Rick Hanson, Chief of Calgary Police ServiceCalgary Police Service5111 47 St. N.E.

Calgary, Alberta T3J 3R2
Email: cps@calgarypolice.ca
Phone: 403-428-5900

Lloyd Robertson, Chief Crown Prosecutor
600 Centrium Place
332-6 Ave. S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2P 0B2
Email: lloyd.robertson@gov.ab.ca
Phone: 403-297-8444
Fax: 403-297-4311

Alberta SPCA
Terra Johnston, Executive Director
10806 – 124 Street NW
Edmonton, AB  T5M 0H3
Email: execdir@albertaspca.org
Phone: 780-447-3600
Fax: 780-447-4748

Calgary Humane Society
Mark Takhar, Executive Director
Brad Nichols, Manager of Animal Cruelty Investigations
4455 110th AVE SE
Calgary, Alberta T2C 2T7
Email: general.inquiries@calgaryhumane.ca or admin@calgaryhumane.ca
Phone: 403-205-4455
Fax: 403-723-6050


SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

On April 18, a student at the Alberta College of Art and Design brought a live chicken into the school’s cafeteria. In front of spectators, the student slowly cut the throat of the writhing and screaming bird. The student proceeded to bleed the chicken out, remove the head and feathers and drop the bird into a pot–all under the guise of performance art.

Art never justifies harming and inflicting fear, pain and suffering upon another sentient being. The student`s actions must be recognized as what they are: blatant abuse and cruelty inflicted upon a defenseless animal.

Further, the student`s actions may be a sign of psychopathology. A large body of research indicates that those who inflict pain and suffering upon human victims start by inflicting it upon non-human animals.

It is important that the student who committed this cruelty be prosecuted by authorities and disciplined by the school (along with undergoing mandatory psychological treatment).

I am urging the school to discipline the student who committed this act of cruelty and to adopt a formal policy prohibiting animal cruelty. I am also requesting that the school take steps to counteract the unacceptable message of cruelty and violence promoted by this student’s actions and invite CETFA`s (Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Farm Animals) humane educator to give a presentation to students, faculty and staff.

I am also contacting the Chief of Calgary Police Service, the Chief Crown Prosecutor, the Alberta SPCA, and the Calgary Humane Society, and politely urging them to lay charges against the student under Section 2 of Alberta’s provincial Animal Protection Act, which prohibits causing an animal to be in distress (defined in s.1(2) as including animals [who] are injured, in pain, suffering, abused, or subjected to undue hardship).

Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.

why upon us do you test,
rob us of our lives,
our chances to nest.to whom i hope this concerns.
what madness here,
it is very clear.
that life is something
some do not
hold dear.
as an artist, i know
that art is not about
blood spilling.
art is about beauty,
and kindness,
so thrilling.
but the insanity of
this act
is far colder than
chilling.
this student is headed
down a twisted path,
serial killer, or murderer,
trapped by his own
inner wrath.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Did you know that helping animals in labs also helps the environment? In addition to the suffering and bad science resulting from animal use, NEAVS asks you give thought to the tons of dead bodies disposed every year by biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. Labeled “biological waste,” let’s never forget they were all once living, thinking, and feeling animals whose short lives were cruelly sacrificed to ineffective science and indefensible ethics. To help the Earth, her animals, and humans, here are three things you can do.

• Support alternatives to animal testing: Toxicity and product testing uses living animals to test hazardous substances. Tests such as those for acute toxicity slowly poisons them with more and more doses of a substance – all without any relief for their pain and suffering. Those who do not die are killed at the end. Millions of bodies, many of which are considered pathogenic or hazardous waste, must be disposed – ending up in our water, soil, and air. Call 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332) or email the U.S. Federal Drug Administration and ask them to require alternatives and stop permitting archaic animal-based testing.

SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

I am shocked to learn that companies continue to support animal experimentation. Considered archaic and fundamentally flawed, product testing on animals lacks corporate legitimacy and social validation. Indeed, despite using deceptive statements and misleading assertions fabricated by clever marketing and publicity departments, companies that subject animals to product testing are NOT legally mandated to do so, and knowledgeable consumers are demanding discontinuation of such unnecessary and vicious tests. Furthermore, it is imperative to recognize the existence of ingredients that already have an established, proven safety record for human use. These products, such as those found on the FDA GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) list, can be utilized and manufactured in the absence of deliberately cruel and unwarranted animal experimentation. The blatant disregard for animals and decisions to not use GRAS ingredients exclusively is irresponsible and negligent.  Please use your authority to demand that companies discontinue using animals.

Furthermore, an attempt to foster an idea that consumers continually support animal experimentation due to some inaccurate notion that it will prevent them from being harmed is unprincipled. Product misuse and abuse can lead to harm regardless of how many animals are wrongfully killed during the product testing phase. In fact, corporate manipulation and exploitation of consumer fear by using deceptive advertising is not only unethical but it is also illegal. As such, as long as certain companies continue to unnecessarily and selfishly capitalize on the mutilation, torture, and death of animals, I will not financially support them; furthermore, I will share this information with family, friends, colleagues, and members of online communities as well.

Please make both the ethical and financially-responsible decision to demand a discontinuation of animal experimentation immediately and requiring ethical alternatives instead: join an increasing body of corporations, companies, and entities that are listening to a concerned and attentive consumer population who refuse to be complicit in the inherently malicious industry of animal experimentation.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.

NAME

• Go cruelty-free product shopping: Cruelty-free products – as well as the processes by which they are produced – are more environmentally friendly than those tested on animals, less likely to contain harmful chemicals, more likely to use natural substances, and safer for you, the Earth, and the animals. Email or visit NEAVS for free Leaping Bunny cruelty-free shopping guides and apps.

• Support alternatives in education: Many animals are taken from natural habitats and used for dissection, contributing to the depletion of species diversity and ecosystem imbalance. Preserving and discarding specimens carries environmental risks. Toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde, identified as a carcinogen and designated a hazardous air and water pollutant, are used to preserve. The toxic waste generated by specimen dissection is dangerous for students, teachers, the public, and the Earth (read more). Call your schools to make certain students can choose cruelty-free alternatives to specimen dissection.

why upon us do you test,
rob us of our lives,
our chances to nest.
lock us in cold labs,
where we can only
anticipate,
the most painful,
and tragic,
cruelties of fate.
stop this madness,
stop it today.
another moment we
cannot bear
to live this way.

signed,
all the animals in labs

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Received anonymously:

“As of March 2013 we have removed and destroyed approximately 200 fur traps in Ontario. The traps were snares and Conibears intended to murder beaver, rabbits and other innocents. Tragically we were too late for two rabbits and one raccoon, whose bodies and internal organs had already been eaten into by snares. We will be forever haunted by our memories of their bodies, we will forever continue removing traps and we encourage others to get in the bush and help smash the fur industry. Look for tell tale signs of traps and trap lines; flagging tape tied to branches, repeated tracks entering the bush, and poles or sticks protruding from bodies of water especially near beaver lodges, where trapping is frequent. Join the burgeoning ranks of trap saboteurs!

ALF”

Images and video released anonymously by ALF hunt saboteurs:

ALF, Bite Back

thank you ALF
and people who care.
you have saved us
from the agonies
and torments of
the snares!

signed,
fur bearing animals,
everywhere.

FUR BELONGS ON WHOM IT WAS BORN,
NOT BY THE VAIN AND FRIVOLOUS,
WORN

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Background

Every year, tens of thousands of American horses are crammed into livestock trailers and trucked to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico—and we may soon see slaughterhouses opening in states like New Mexico and Oklahoma. After a long and frightening journey, these horses are shot with a rifle or a captive-bolt gun, are hoisted by one leg into the air, and have their throats slit so that their flesh can be sold to other countries for human consumption. Many of these horses are former companion animals or were used for sport and have been treated with drugs that are not safe for human consumption.

PETA investigators found Royale With Speed—the grandson of Triple Crown winner Secretariat—in a crowded “kill pen” at a livestock auction in Iowa. Royale With Speed, who had contracted a contagious disease known as strangles and was severely dehydrated and feverish, was sold to a meat buyer for just $350. PETA investigators followed one transporter from the meat buyer’s property in Iowa to a slaughterhouse in Québec and witnessed how the 33 horses aboard the trailer endured this 36-hour ordeal in subfreezing conditions and were never given food, water, or a chance to unload. Undercover footage taken inside the Québec facility revealed that at least 40 percent of the horses were still conscious after receiving a captive-bolt shot to the head. One horse suffered through an agonizing 11 shots before finally collapsing. PETA was able to save Royale With Speed, who has regained his health at his forever home, but tens of thousands of other horses continue to be sent to slaughter.

Passing a complete ban on horse slaughter has never been more important. Please use the form to urge your senators and representative to co-sponsor the Safeguard American Food Exports Act of 2013 (S. 541/H.R. 1094), which would ban horse slaughter in the U.S, end the transport of American horses to foreign countries for slaughter, and prevent the public from consuming horse flesh that is laden with dangerous drug residues. If passed, it would effectively end the slaughter of American horses for food—both here and abroad.

Buried deep in President Obama’s 244-page budget proposal is a request to remove all funding of U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors at horse slaughter plants. This is great news because if the budget passes, it means that horse slaughter will once again be illegal in the U.S.

This measure is fantastic news, but we also need to make sure that no American horses are being sent out of the country to be killed. Please urge Congress to pass the bill that will ban horse slaughter in the U.S. and forbid the transport of horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter: the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act.

Until Congress acts, American horses will continue to die.

humans already eat too many animals.
now mr ed???
try going vegan or vegetarian
instead!!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Please click HERE to sign petition

Background | Source Causes

We respectfully ask that you do NOT consider Japan’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid, until the Japanese Government agrees to end the brutal Taiji Dolphin Drive Hunt, by making it illegal to hunt Dolphins in Japan. If Tokyo wants the honour of being an Olympic Host City, Japan must be held accountable for allowing fishermen in Taiji to continue this unnecessary annual dolphin hunt in the name of tradition. Since 2009 there has been a worldwide outcry condemning this barbaric and outdated hunt. Still, in 2013, Japan refuses to address and discontinue this annual slaughter. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) cannot ignore this.

This is Japan’s 5th Olympic bid, since their 1964 Olympics. They are very eager to be selected as Host City again to boost their economy after the devastating tsunami & Fukushima nuclear disaster. By challenging Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic bid, it’s a demonstration that the world is condemning the actions of this hunt and offers support to people within Japan who also strive to end this practice once and for all.

Japanese Government grant permits to the Taiji Fishermen’s Union to hunt 2,800 dolphins from September to April for slaughter & to supply the captivity trade. While this is not illegal in Japan, the hunt has been condemned internationally as barbaric. Despite claims that the killing is swift & humane there is extensive evidence to prove otherwise. In this daily hunt, babies are torn from their mothers, many dolphins witness the slaughter of their entire families before either being taken captive or killed. The manner in which they are killed (a spear to the spinal cord which takes up to 7 minutes to die in agony) is unspeakable and inhumane. The hunt continues, hidden under tarpaulins in an attempt to conceal the slaughter, they clearly know what they are doing is wrong. Many Japanese people are becoming aware & condemning it, but most are afraid to speak out. All pleas to stop the killings are ignored by the people who have the power to stop it.

The dolphin hunt is a lucrative business for the Taiji fishermen, the big money is in the captive trade supplying marine shows, with prime specimens selling for ¥800,000 in Japan, but much more abroad. Captives are initially held in cove sea pens, while buyers are found, starved & traumatised, many die waiting. Those not selected for captivity are slaughtered for human consumption, despite health warnings regarding the excessively high mercury content. This meat sells for around $22 per kilo. Many alternatives have been put forth including turning the otherwise beautiful town of Taiji into a tourist attraction for whale and dolphin watching that allows the fishermen to continue to be employed, but they are repeatedly rejected in the name of “tradition”.

If the IOC Evaluation Commission does not challenge this atrocity under their Mandate for Environmental  responsibility during their visit to Tokyo on the 4th of March 2013 & the selection process continues, it will be perceived that by ignoring this, the IOC are actually endorsing the hunt. If Tokyo’s bid is announced as the winning bid on the 7th of September 2013. Japan will continue to hunt these very social, amazingly intelligent animals, with large brains, closest in structure to the human brain, capable of higher brain functions & emotions like humans, will eventually be driven to extinction.

The International Olympic Committee have the opportunity to make real changes in Taiji Japan, we MUST ensure that they listen to the concerned masses, NOT the people who profit from this shameful tradition. To clarify, at no point do I condone boycotting Japan, nor do I incite hatred, violence or negativity towards Japanese citizens.

Please join one of our GLOBAL events on 29.06.13:

https://www.facebook.com/events/198864223593289/

your nation has been through fury
and wrath,
nuclear meltdowns, tsunamis.
too much thrown in your path.
your people suffered, ached,
heartbroken,
they cried.
so many loved ones, missing
and died.
dolphins feel the same sorrows
as you.
they love, they mourn,
it is up to you,
to show them the kindness
that lives in your hearts,
please stop the taiji slaughters
now before it can once again,
starts.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Click HERE to input address information and then sign and send message

It’s not legal, but on today’s Tennessee Walking Horse show circuit, trainers still engage in the cruel practice of “soring”—using chemicals and devices to cause extreme pain to horses’ legs and hooves to exaggerate their special gait. Trainers may also file down horses’ hooves to expose the nerves, then insert sharp objects into hooves to cause further suffering.

Please email and call your U.S. representative and ask him or her to cosponsor H.R. 1518 to better protect horses from the cruelty of soring.

Majestic Tennessee Walking Horses have long been cherished, both for their unique four-step gait and their gentle dispositions. Unfortunately, these same traits make these horses vulnerable to extreme exploitation and abuse at the hands of unscrupulous trainers.

On today’s Tennessee Walking Horse show circuit, trainers still engage in the cruel practice of “soring” to force horses to exaggerate their gait. Despite laws against this cruelty, trainers use chemicals and devices that cause extreme pain to the horses’ legs and hooves. Trainers may also “pressure shoe” a horse by filing hooves to expose the nerve, and inserting sharp objects into the hooves to cause further suffering. Desperate to escape the constant, intense burning and sharp pain, the horses unnaturally fling their legs in the high-stepping “big lick” gait that ironically wins prizes at shows.

To evade detection, these trainers often condition horses to remain still during inspections by beating, torturing or burning them beforehand. This conditioning to extreme pain deadens the horses’ reaction to the soring-related pain in their feet. This brutal practice of “stewarding,” exposed in an ABC Nightline report, masks the fact that trainers are soring the animals.

The Prevent all Soring Tactics (PAST) Act, H.R. 1518, will address inadequacies in the current law by amending the Horse Protection Act and improving protections for horses. The bill, introduced by Representatives Ed Whitfield (R-KY) and Steve Cohen (D-TN), will require horse show organizers who engage inspectors to use only USDA-licensed inspectors; prohibit the use of action devices that intensify the pain caused by soring; and increase the penalties for violations.

you tried to put your feet on the ground,
the pain so much, you ache and pound.
all you want is some relief,
from this misery and disbelief.
you did it to horses,
now it happens to you,
as the tables turn.
in horror you
turn blue.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

(Please note you may need to sign in to YouTube to confirm age to watch video.)

Please click and sign petition HERE

Background | Source BUAV

New BUAV investigation uncovers appalling animal suffering and wrongdoing at leading UK University

The BUAV has released harrowing footage following an investigation at Imperial College London that sheds new light on the reality of animal experiments in the UK. A BUAV investigator worked for seven months at Imperial College, ranked as one of the best universities in the world, and documented a catalogue of shortcomings and wrongdoing by staff and researchers that caused even more distress and suffering to the animals in its care than was allowed in the experiments. Findings included: breaches in and lack of knowledge of UK Home Office project licences; a failure to provide adequate anaesthesia and pain relief; incompetence and neglect and highly disturbing methods used to kill animals.

The findings from the investigation appeared in the UK Sunday Times on 14th April: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Science/article1245301.ece

The UK Government and research industry repeatedly claim that the UK has some of the highest welfare standards in the world for animals in laboratories, yet huge secrecy and a lack of transparency surrounds animal research. This BUAV investigation, like many others before, has shown the true reality of animal welfare standards at Imperial with breaches of the regulatory regime and inappropriate licensing and enforcement by the Home Office.

Key concerns raised by the BUAV investigation include:

• Underestimation of the degree of suffering in project licences. Experimental protocols were given a ‘moderate’ limit even when it was foreseen that animals would die and the anticipated adverse effects clearly called for a ‘substantial’ classification of the research. One research project involved kidney transplantation, a major procedure by any standard. Some rats had both their kidneys removed via abdominal surgery and were left with just one (transplanted) kidney.

• Poor monitoring of animals resulting in suffering and breaches of humane endpoints (the point at which further suffering must not take place). In one case, where mice were found to be in a distressed state on a Monday morning, a senior technician stated: ‘I am so disgusted. Those poor mice’ and ‘If the Home Office was in we would have been screwed if they saw those mice.’

• Researchers lacking knowledge of the severity limits of their project licences, and the humane endpoints they were supposed to apply. When asked about the severity limits on their licences, many researchers did not know. One said: ‘So do I get to call a friend?’. Not knowing the severity levels and endpoints could result in animals being subjected to even more pain and suffering than permitted.

• Poor application of the methods used for killing animals, leading to unnecessary suffering, and the controversial use of a guillotine to carry out live decapitation.

• Poor surgical and other procedures resulting in animal deaths and suffering. One researcher, for example, raised concerns about the competence of a colleague: ‘I think you should keep an eye on XXX because he makes many mistakes.’

• Unsupervised researchers, with little experience, anaesthetising and carrying out surgery on animals. One researcher anaesthetising a rat to re-staple a surgery wound admitted: ‘I’ve never done this before.’ and ‘I only came down here for the first time yesterday so I haven’t even seen these rats before.’

• Failure to provide adequate anaesthesia and analgesics. There were several occasions when animals appeared to be inadequately anaesthetised, either as a consequence of inadequate monitoring, use of inappropriate anaesthesia, or deliberately – due to fears about losses of animals during surgery. One researcher who did not want to wait for hours for a rat to recover from anaesthesia on a Friday afternoon stated: ‘But I won’t give it a full dose. As long as there is enough for it to be not fully under but you know not feeling too much pain.’

Pop music was played at high levels throughout the facility, adding to animals’ distress. The music was even played during surgery itself, while animals were recovering, and during killing.

The BUAV is urging the UK Government to:

Revoke the Establishment Licence of Imperial College London;

Set up an inquiry, wholly independent of the Home Office, into the concerns we raise.

Michelle Thew, Chief Executive, BUAV stated: “Despite claims made by the Government and research industry that the UK has the best system of regulation in the world, this shocking BUAV investigation shows that the reality for animals is very different. Standards at this leading UK University were poor with breaches of the regulatory regime and inappropriate licensing and enforcement by the Home Office. This investigation raises significant and far reaching questions about animal research in the UK. A full independent inquiry must be carried out as a matter of urgency. The public will expect no less.”

Investigation film: http://bit.ly/11ae6Pa

(warning: the film contains footage of animal suffering that you may find upsetting)

Website: http://licensedtokill.buav.org

Please sign and share our petition calling on the Home Office: http://chn.ge/116rHpV

Why

why we ask do you hurt us so,
what is it you think that you
are going to know.
how can you see us day
after day,
and still mistreat us in
so cavalier a way.
you humans feign superiority,
but you behaviors reek
of inferiority!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson