Friends of Animals

BACKGROUND | SOURCE MARC BEKOFF

Following up on the good news about the release of two dolphins into the wild, I learned this morning about a most heinous and perverse situation in Alaska. Healy, Alaska trapper Coke Wallace “apparently walked a horse out to an area off the Stampede Trail near the boundary of Denali National Park – an area made famous by the 1996 book ‘Into the Wild’ – shot the horse, and set snares all around the area hoping to catch wolves attracted to the carcass. Wolves from Denali National Park were drawn to the dead horse, resulting in the killing of a primary reproductive female wolf from the Grant Creek (also called Toklat West) pack from the park, along with at least one other wolf. It is unknown how long the two wolves were alive in the snares before being killed and collected by the trapper. The Grant Creek wolf pack has been one of the three packs most often viewed in Denali National Park.”

All of this happened in a former buffer area where wolves were protected from 2002-2010 when the Alaska Board of Game eliminated the protected area. The loss of these wolves puts the fate of this long-lived and long-studied pack in jeopardy. Observations began on this pack back in the 1930s. Of course, the loss of any wolves due to killing another animal to use as bait is reprehensible, legal or not.

This kind of hearltess slaughter must not be tolerated and it’s important to call attention to it and to protest it loudly and clearly. While “the incident does not violate state law, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) is looking at potential violations of state water quality regulations, which prohibit discarding carcasses in surface waters of the state.”


WHOM TO CONTACT

According to Friends of Animals, here are some people you can contact (the area code is 907):

Tom Meier, Wildlife Biologist, Denali National Park. Tom_Meier@nps.gov; 683-9572

Susan and Dave Braun, Healy: braun@mtaonline.net; 683-2654

Trooper James Ellison, Cantwell: james.ellison@alaska.gov; 768-2202

Chris Foley, Water Quality, ADEC, Anchorage: chris.foley@alaska.gov; 269-4632

Marybeth Holleman, Anchorage: marybeth@alaskawriters.com, 360-4512

Coke Wallace, Midnight Sun Safaris, Healy: info@midnightsunsafaris.com; 683-4868

EMAIL BLOCK

Tom_Meier@nps.gov , braun@mtaonline.net , james.ellison@alaska.gov , chris.foley@alaska.gov , marybeth@alaskawriters.com , info@midnightsunsafaris.com


SAMPLE MESSAGE

To Whom It Concerns,

I am writing to protest the brutal slaughter of a horse to attract and subsequently viciously kill wolves, one of whom was likely pregnant. Humans have adopted dangerous constructs of speciesism, the prejudicial regard of non-human species, to validate the brutality inflicted upon them. Using this manufactured status of superiority, humans have sanctioned the use of animals as commodities, regarding them only as products to benefit our goals and needs. We embrace inequity to justify our treatment of animals, yet euphemistic descriptions meant to facilitate morality cannot disguise the fundamentally unethical parameters with which we surround ourselves to distinguish our dominance. As dangerous as racism and sexism, speciesism further divides the chasm between species, which desensitizes us to cruelty and inevitably leads to human inequality and injustice.

This disregard of your most vulnerable group of beings is unacceptable, and until this barbarism is appropriately addressed including a mandatory ban of such, I will boycott. I and others will collectively voice condemnation, resulting in the sacrifice of vital tourism and commerce profits. Please act responsibly and with compassion and choose to protect, rather than sanction harm, to animals.

NAME

PETA

Click HERE to submit your comment; please use United States for country, and I wrote “self” for organization and used “Drug Association” for category, the only two required fields besides your comments.

BACKGROUND

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products has issued draft recommendations for the testing of some tobacco products. This guidance would allow companies to conduct cruel animal tests to demonstrate the “reduced risks” of new products and ingredients. These deadly tests are included in the guidance even though they are irrelevant to human smokers and there are more modern and accurate non-animal methods available, such as computer simulation, tests using human cells, and clinical studies with human smokers.

In some of the horrendous tobacco tests that could be conducted, rats would be forced to breathe tobacco smoke for as long as six hours a day for months at a time by jamming the animals into tiny canisters and pumping concentrated cigarette smoke directly into their noses. The animals would then be killed and their bodies dissected.

For decades, the tobacco industry used results from these misleading animal tests to deny the link between smoking and cancer because animals forced to inhale cigarette smoke don’t develop the same diseases that human smokers do.

Belgium, Germany, the U.K., and other countries have banned the testing of tobacco products on animals, and all the tobacco safety tests required by the Canadian government are modern, non-animal methods.

We need to tell the FDA loudly and clearly that no more animals should suffer and die for these archaic, inaccurate, and cruel tests on products that we already know are deadly when used as directed!


WHOM TO CONTACT

Please exercise your right as a U.S. citizen to submit a polite comment to the FDA urging it to remove any language recommending or allowing animal tests from its draft guidance on tobacco product testing.

Note: Comments must be submitted before June 4, 2012. Click HERE to submit your comment now; please use United States for country, and I wrote “self” for organization and used “Drug Association” for category, the only two required fields besides your comments.


SAMPLE COMMENT

I am shocked to learn that the FDA continues to support animal experimentation on tobacco products. Considered archaic and fundamentally flawed, product testing on animals lacks social legitimacy and validation.

Furthermore, 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. Animals suffer drastically different effects from tobacco use than humans.  Tobacco use and abuse can factually lead to harm regardless of how many animals are wrongfully killed during the product testing phase.

Please make both the ethical and financially-responsible decision to discontinue animal experimentation immediately: remove any language recommending or allowing animal tests from its draft guidance on tobacco product testing;  join an increasing body of countries who are listening to a concerned and attentive consumer population who refuse to be complicit in the inherently malicious and ineffective industry of animal experimentation.

people want to smoke,
they have a choice
animals do not,
so we are their voice!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Facebook

BACKGROUND | SOURCE SEA SHEPHERD

Urgent Call to Sea Shepherd Supporters – Help Save Captain Watson from Extradition to Costa Rica!

In shocking news, German officials have decided to proceed with the extradition of Captain Watson to Costa Rica. Our last hope of saving Captain Watson from extradition is to convince German officials at the Ministry of Justice to step in and overturn their decision. Show your support for Captain Watson by contacting Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the Federal Minister of Justice in Berlin, Germany. Let her know that the warrant for Captain Watson’s arrest is politically motivated and thus should be ignored by the German goverment. With international support we can set Captain Watson free, and keep him from the possibility of facing an unfair trial in Costa Rica.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Federal Ministry of Justice
Mohrenstrasse 37
10117 Berlin, Germany
Telephone: +49 (030) 18 580-0
Telefax: +49 (030) 18 580-9525

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
Federal Minister of Justice
Deutscher Bundestag
Platz der Republik
11011 Berlin

Telephone 030 – 227 751 62
Fax 030 – 227 764 02

E-Mail: sabine.leutheusser-schnarrenberger@bundestag.de


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Ms. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger,

I was very concerned to hear that Germany has detained Sea Shepherd’s Captain Paul Watson for possible extradition to Costa Rica. I understand that the warrant for Captain Watson’s arrest is politically motivated and possibly due to an incident in which Sea Shepherd uncovered an illegal shark finning operation.

I support Sea Shepherd’s efforts to monitor and publicise illegal fishing and whaling around the world and recognize that some illegal fishing operations try to use international law to shut down the Sea Shepherd operations.

I urge you to consider the valuable work Captain Watson and Sea Shepherd are undertaking globally to highlight the dangers to our oceans in considering this extradition request.

Sincerely,

NAME

what is all too sad
and very clear,
poachers and whalers
are the criminals, here.
if they did not slaughter,
sharks, dolphins, whales,
for their greed.
for men like our captain watson
there would be no need

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND | SOURCE: FACEBOOK

If you have the time, could you please call the governor each day this week in regards to the bear hunt, and tell him how disappointed again we are in the NDOW (Nevada Department of Wildlife)?   We need the governor to act on this! It only takes 2 minutes a day for each of us to call and express how the NDOW consistently is still going unchecked. What specifically we want to know is how come Lackey’s so-called science is so far off base from a nationally-renowned bear biologist, Dr. Stephen Stringham. Here are other talking points. WE MUST TIE UP THE PHONES!!!!!

1. No unit-specific hunt, which could lead to potential over hunt
2. No density studies or numbers
3. Not enough information about the immigration/emmigration with CA bears
4. Not enough understanding about the fringe population
5. Unclear on human-interfaces and impacts on the bears
6. There is no DNA on the bear populations
7. Concerned about the females

With respect towards talking points, certainly 1-3 above, I feel, are strong ones. Here are a few other suggestions as well:

1. The Mark Capture method assumes that bears do not leave the area. In short, there is no immigration/emmigration between CA. This is a serious flaw, particularly that 2007 is included because of the drought and angora fire. The capture/mortality rate was more than 150% compared to 2006 and 2008.
2. If it’s based on science then why isn’t there specific hunt unit quotas and why aren’t there density studies to support this?
3. If it’s based on science then why does NDoW even make reference to how many applications there are?

If you have the time and ability, phone, email, and fax would be great!

See further information at No BearHunt Nevada


PETITIONS

No Bear Hunt Nevada


WHOM TO CONTACT

State Capitol Building
101 N. Carson Street
Carson City, NV 89701
Phone: (775) 684-5670
Fax: (775) 684-5683
Las Vegas

Grant Sawyer State Office Building
555 East Washington Ave, Suite 5100
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: (702) 486-2500
Fax: (702) 486-2505

Click HERE for free faxing from your computer.  No fax machine, credit card, or registering required. Please be certain to confirm you message by clicking on the link sent to your email address or else your fax will not be sent.

Webform:   Contacting the Governor

Please remember to click the authorization box at the top and select a topic such as “wildlife”


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Governor Sandoval,

It has come to my attention that Nevada is reportedly considering allowing bear hunts in an attempt to reduce bear populations. Although this hunt would be inherently cruel based on the premise alone, it is important to recognize it is based on erroneous information.

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

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

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

Fourth, I have concerns regarding a few points: There are no unit-specific hunts, which could lead to potential over hunt; no density studies or numbers; not enough information about the immigration/emmigration with CA bears; not enough understanding about the fringe population; unclear on human interfaces and impacts on the bears; there is no DNA on the bear populations.

Furthermore, the Mark Capture method assumes that bears do not leave the area. In short, there is no immigration/emmigration between CA. This is a serious flaw, particularly that 2007 is included because of the drought and angora fire. The capture/mortality rate was more than 150% compared to 2006 and 2008. And if it’s based on science then why isn’t there specific hunt-unit quotas and why aren’t there density studies to support this? If it’s based on science then why does NDoW even make reference to how many applications there are?

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

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

NAME

Put away your lies
Put away your guns,
If you were the bear,
This bear hunt would
Not be fun!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

PETA

BACKGROUND

Because of the Ringling Bros. circus’ shenanigans, Atlanta may lose its animal control services! No strays picked up, no calls about injured animals answered. How? Last year, Fulton County passed an important animal control law that banned the use of bullhooks—sharp metal tools used by circuses to goad and prod elephants. As Atlanta has incorporated Fulton County’s animal control laws into its own, the ban legally applies in the city. But Ringling is trying to convince Atlanta not to abide by this law. If Atlanta does not agree to allow the ban on bullhooks to be enforced, the city risks losing its animal control services altogether.

The use of bullhooks to abuse elephants in circuses is routine. An undercover investigation  of Ringling revealed that elephants are struck repeatedly with them in order to intimidate the elephants and remind them that they must do as they’re told or suffer the painful consequences. A longtime elephant trainer with the Carson & Barnes Circus was caught on video viciously attacking elephants with a bullhook and instructing others to sink bullhooks into elephants’ flesh and twist it until they screamed in pain.

If Atlanta opposes enforcement of the ban on bullhooks, the city’s whole range of animal control services may be suspended—no injured dogs picked up, no responses to dog attacks, no rabies vaccination enforcement, nothing. Please don’t let this happen. The mayor must sign an enforcement agreement with the county without further delay.

Please contact Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and urge him to enforce the bullhook ban in Atlanta and ensure that the city keeps its animal control services. Please be sure to note if you are an Atlanta resident. We encourage you to use your own words, but feel free to use this sample letter (see below).


WHOM TO CONTACT

Please send polite comments to:

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed:  kreed@atlantaga.gov


SAMPLE LETTER

animals abusers should have nothing to say
except cry like a baby
when they are locked away.
atlanta turn deaf ears to their pleas.
and think about the animals, first
if you please

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND

Avon Lake, Ohio, is reportedly considering the use of bowhunting in an attempt to reduce deer populations. Your voice is needed!

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

Please urge Avon Lake officials to toss bowhunting—and then forward this message widely! If deer control is insisted upon, please share these tips.


WHOM TO CONTACT

The Honorable Greg Zilka, Mayor of Avon Lake, and the Avon Lake City Council using these e-mail addresses:

gzilka@avonlake.org; modonnell@avonlake.org; dbucci@avonlake.org; jshondel@avonlake.org; rjames@avonlake.org; jfenderbosch@avonlake.org; lmeiners@avonlake.org; dkos@avonlake.org


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Honorable Zilka and Avon Lake City Council Members,

It has come to my attention that Avon Lake, Ohio, is reportedly considering allowing bowhunters to kill deer in an attempt to reduce deer populations. Although this hunt would be inherently cruel based on the premise alone, it is important to recognize it is based on erroneous information.

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

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

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

Fourth, bowhunters often spend hours following bloody tracks before finding wounded deer, if they look at all. Many deer are not found, and their deaths are slow and painful. It can take weeks for them to succumb to their injuries. Families are then torn apart, and young and weak animals starve or die of dehydration.

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

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

NAME

they shot an arrow in the air
who it harmed and where
it landed.
they did not care
until they, the bowhunters
were the sighted
not the ones manning
the sights.
then they cowered in corners
covered with their own
fright:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Please click on and sign the following:

1. Help Stop the Mass Dog Killings in Ukraine!

2. Ask Harvard to End Deadly Marmoset Experiment

3. Stand Up for America’s Horses


1. Background | Source PETA

The 2012 European Football Championship is just about to start, and the host countries, Poland and Ukraine, have been busily preparing for a surge of sports tourism. In Ukraine, that means shocking efforts to reduce the number of homeless animals across the country in an attempt to hide the country’s neglected and abandoned dogs from tourists.

Animals are poisoned, shot, and, in some cases, even burned alive. Authorities in Lysychansk, Mariupol, and other Ukrainian cities use a cremation truck, which has even advertised on national television. The animals are caught and then shot or anesthetized and thrown directly into the cremation truck!

Even the Union of European Football Associations, which PETA Germany contacted in 2009, sharply criticized the cruel practices of Ukrainian authorities and offered financial support to animal protection advocates to neuter animals. Ukrainian authorities have reacted to the efforts of animal rights advocates with repressive measures: They have put pressure on animal activists to stop the international protest!

What You Can Do

Please help the animals in Ukraine and support our protest against the mass killing of homeless dogs. Sign the petition to ask the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States to speak out against the cruel killings and push for humane animal birth control!


2. Background | Source PCRM

Harvard Medical School has a history of neglecting, harming, and even killing animals in its laboratories, and the situation just keeps getting worse. Last October, a marmoset escaped from his cage, was captured, and died during an imaging procedure at Harvard’s New England Primate Research Center (NEPRC). PCRM has uncovered disturbing new details about this incident, and we need your help to ask NEPRC interim director Mark Barnes, J.D., LL.M., to immediately end the cruel and unnecessary experiment that killed this marmoset.

From correspondence received through the Freedom of Information Act, PCRM learned that in this experiment, marmosets are forced into restraint tubes barely larger than their bodies. Then, they are placed in an EchoMRI machine while fully awake. It appears that the marmoset who died during the experiment was so panicked that he suffered lethal injury during capture, restraint and placement in the tube, or the imaging procedure.

Not only is this experiment extremely cruel, it is also completely unnecessary. Marmosets are being used to study the human aging process—something that is being effectively and ethically investigated in humans through population studies and clinical trials.

PCRM has asked federal authorities to investigate this experiment for waste, fraud, and abuse, but the marmosets still at risk at NEPRC need help this instant. The protocol has been suspended, but it must be terminated to save the remaining marmosets. Please e-mail Mr. Barnes  today to ask him to end this deadly experiment and retire the marmosets who are still alive to sanctuary.

Thank you for your support on this urgent matter.


3. Background | Source ALDF

Please help stop the abuse and slaughter of horses for human consumption!

For the past six years, a provision added to the recurring Agricultural Appropriations bills has prohibited any federal funds from being used to inspect horses prior to slaughter. Without such inspections, it is illegal for horse meat to be later sold for human consumption in the U.S. and slaughterhouses closed. Instead, the industry has been shipping more than 100,000 American horses each year for slaughter in Canada and Mexico.

This year, the House of Representatives voted to again include the provision banning funds for inspections. However, in November, three members of a conference committee assigned to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation (Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), and Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) removed the ban from the final conference report. The report was subsequently passed by both the Senate and the House and signed into law.

Horse slaughter for human consumption can now re-start in the U.S. and your help is needed more than ever to end this horrific practice once and for all.

Please contact your legislators in Congress by completing the form HERE and ask them to support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011 (S. 1176/HR 2966). This legislation – which already has 25 Senate and 100 House co-sponsors – will permanently end the slaughter of horses for human consumption, and the domestic and international transport of live horses or horseflesh for human consumption.

New York Against Devocalization

BACKGROUND | SOURCE NY AGAINST DEVOCALIZATION

The proposed NYS devocalization ban is in trouble. The legislation must pass both the Assembly and the Senate before the 2011-2012 session ends in June–and the veterinary lobby, with members who profit from devocalization, has mobilized to defeat it.

It’s time for animal advocates to mobilize too, while the legislation still has a chance to become an enforceable law.

Legislative aides say the veterinary lobby is vocal and tenacious in its quest to kill the proposed devocalization ban. It can do that by stalling the legislation in committee…or amending it into a sham law that allows, legitimizes and will encourage this cruelty.

Pro-devocalization lobbies failed in Massachusetts , which passed a strong devocalization ban thanks only to calls to lawmakers by kind people like you. That has to happen in NY too.

Don’t let those who promote abject cruelty–cutting vocal cords just to stifle a dog’s or cat’s voice–win in NYS or helpless animals will lose.

5 Minutes to Spare Dogs and Cats

Lifelong Anguish or Agonizing Death.

Every Call is Vital. Yours Matters.

WHOM TO CALL, WHAT TO SAY

Start by identifying yourself. If you represent a shelter, rescue or  advocacy organization, or are a vet, say so!

Sen. Agriculture Committee Chair Patty Ritchie, 518-455-3438:   “Please release Senate Bill 6167A from Agriculture quickly and favorably. I ask that it not be amended beyond the language of Assembly Bill 3431B as written, so it has a chance to become an enforceable law that protects dogs and cats.”

Assembly Codes Committee Chair Joseph Lentol, 518-455-4477
“Please release Assembly Bill 3431B from Codes quickly and favorably as written, without further amendments so it has a chance to become an enforceable law that protects dogs and cats.”

If you have a few more minutes, please call these two power-brokers of the NYS Legislature too:

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, 518-455-3791: “I’d like the Speaker’s help ensuring Assembly Bill 3431B is passed as written this session, without further amendments, so it can become an enforceable law that protects dogs and cats.”

Sen. Majority Leader Dean Skelos, 518-455-3171: “I’d like the Senator’s help ensuring Senate Bill 6167A is passed this session.  I ask that it not be amended beyond the language of Assembly Bill 3431B as written, so it can become an enforceable law that protects dogs and cats.”

If your New York State Senator is on the Agriculture Committee, call him/her too. Click here to find his/her phone number: http://www.nysenate.gov/senators. The members of the Agriculture Committee are: Chair: Sen. Patty Ritchie Tony Avella, Patrick M. Gallivan, Shirley L. Huntley, Timothy M. Kennedy, Thomas F. O’Mara, Michael H. Ranzenhofer, James L. Seward, David J. Valesky, Catharine Young.

Don’t know who your New York State Senator is (in Albany, not Washington)? Click here: http://senate.state.ny.us/mem/?sh=search

• Use the specific wording provided–including the letters at the end of each bill number–so your message is clear. Add your own thoughts if you’d like, but be brief and always polite.
• If you get voicemail, leave a short message, then call back until you can speak with an aide. Don’t give up!
• The position of our coalition, New York Against Devocalization, is simple: Devocalization is an act of cruelty that NY must prohibit for any reason except to treat a physical ailment causing the animal medical harm.
• Learn more about the issue and proposed amendments here: http://nyagainstdevocalization.weebly.com/pending-new-york-devocalization-ban.html

New York Against Devocalization

www.nyagainstdevocalization.weebly.com

do not be silent for those who cannot speak,
we are the voice of the wounded and
the weak.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Footloose Montana

BACKGROUND | SOURCE FOOTLOOSE MONTANA

Stop Senseless Trapping of our Wolves and other Wildlife in Montana!

Public Comments needed to FWP, best by May 10 (comment period ends at 5 p.m. on June 18)

Dear Friend,

Your comment is needed against statewide wolf trapping on public lands. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) will present the proposal to allow a wolf trapping season on our public lands on May 10 in Helena! Update: The proposed statewide Trapping Season for wolves would be December 15 through Feb. 28; Snaring is out for now, statewide trapping using leghold traps is in… Click here for info about the proposal. Traps used for wolves have a 9 inch jaw spread! See background information for more details.

Allowing trapping of wolves could potentially put an end to our efforts to eliminate trapping in general on Montana’s public lands!

Trapping of wolves brings a whole new arsenal of weaponry to trapping on public lands! Powerful traps will further compromise the public’s safety, and  increase the risk for our companion dogs.

A wolf trapping policy could be used as a “Trojan Horse” to actually loosen current trapping regulations (e.g., seasonal restrictions, setbacks, etc.)

Click here for background info. We need your help to protest trapping of wolves on public lands. Please write, call and attend this crucial meeting!  The final agenda is set, with trapping disguised under ‘Wolf Hunting.’ Please spread the word to all your friends and family. We’re providing talking points at the end of this alert.


WHOM TO CONTACT

E-mail: fwpcomm@mt.gov ,  fwpgen@mt.gov

Mail: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, 1420 East Sixth Avenue, P.O. Box 200701, Helena, MT 59620-0701

Phone: (406) 444-2535

Fax: (406) 444-4952

Click HERE for free faxing from your computer.  No fax machine, credit card, or registering required. Please be certain to confirm you message by clicking on the link sent to your email address or else your fax will not be sent.


SAMPLE MESSAGE | COURTESY FOOTLOOSE MONTANA

Dear Commissioners Moody, Ream, Vermillion, Stafne, and Colton:

I strongly oppose the trapping and snaring of wolves and other wildlife, as it is cruel, indiscriminate, dangerous to people and pets, and causes wanton waste.

Trappers already set tens of thousands of baited traps and snares across our public lands, which lure in any animal or person unfortunate enough to step into these hidden devices. The hidden nature of trapping and the sheer number of traps means no monitoring or enforcement of trapping regulations is possible. Allowing yet another layer of larger, lethal traps across the public landscape for wolves will cause the by-catch of non-target animals to increase exponentially. Already, 50,000 animals are reported killed in traps or snares annually, and the real number is likely three times that.

Currently, publicly-owned ‘furbearing’ wildlife is being managed as a ‘natural renewable resource’ for trappers’ recreation and profit. However, wildlife and public lands are owned by the public, and as a taxpayer, I want to have my voice considered. The public wants less trapping and not more. If FWP needs to manage wolf populations, they need to find more ethically responsible methods of doing so.

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

NAME

trapping animals,
so cruel and
arcane.
as the innocents
die, while
they writhe in pain.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND | SOURCE FACEBOOK

Based in South Florida, Primate Products, Inc. (PPI) is a vile company that imprisons, breeds, mutilates, and sells monkeys for experimentation in U.S. labs. Aside from providing the vivisection industry with live captive animals, PPI is also a key supplier of primate restraint devices and “bioproducts” (i.e. blood, organs, tissue samples, etc).

Primate Products’ executives and personnel have built their entire careers on the misery of countless innocent animals, but not without help. The company currently maintains a close business alliance with Indianapolis-based Harlan Laboratories. Given their grim financial outlook and shortage of willing business partners, PPI is largely reliant on Harlan’s continued support to remain in operation.

Please take a moment to email Harlan and let them know what you think of their dealings with the killers at Primate Products.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Email block (please note that you will receive undeliverable mailings back):

harlan@harlan.com, rms.na@harlan.com, tekladinfo@harlan.com, hbps@harlan.com, transportation2@harlan.com, rms_mx@harlan.com, crs.ch@harlan.com, crs.de@harlan.com, crs.es@harlan.com, crs.uk@harlan.com, rms.nordic@harlan.com, rms.uk@harlan.com, rms.nl@harlan.com, rms.be@harlan.com, rms.fr@harlan.com, rms.ch@harlan.com, rms.de@harlan.com, rms.at@harlan.com, rms.hu@harlan.com, rms.es@harlan.com, rms.it@harlan.com, crs.jp@harlan.com, crs.kr@harlan.com, rms.in@harlan.com, rms.il@harlan.com, hbi@harlanisrael.com, secr@harlan.com, orders@harlan.com, tekladuk@harlan.com, hnlcsd@harlan.com, verkauf@harlan.com, HITInfo@harlan.com, harlanfrance@harlan.com, HfrServiceClientele@harlan.com, csdhsc@harlan.com, harlanclientes@harlan.com, bramani@harlan.com, hbps@harlan.com, teklad@teklad.com, hpbm@netvision.net.il, kweber@harlan.com, jfallet@harlan.com, mwormuth@harlan.com, gochs@harlan.com, dpitts@harlan.com, rcarter@harlan.com, tbheffner@harlan.com, lknarr@harlan.com, dschreiner@harlan.com, csdorders@harlan.com, TechServ@harlan.com, jbeyers@harlan.com, webmaster@harlan.com, hr-jobs@harlan.com, PKazeminy@harlan.com, askanutritionist@harlan.com, rbrady@harlan.com, Nwhited@harlan.com, mtengle@harlan.com, bbayne@harlan.com, technicalservices@harlan.com, rguest@harlan.com, aburghdorf@harlan.com, khoetzer@harlan.com, agraunstrup@harlan.com, bmickelson@harlan.com, TBurns-Heffner@harlan.com, PressRelease@harlan.com, njarvis@harlan.com, sbohnenberger@harlan.com, harlancommunication@harlan.com, mthompson@harlan.com, fhermann@harlan.com, hr1croeurope@harlan.com, askanutritionist@teklad.com, customerservice@teklad.com, hkim@harlan.com, ldurst@harlan.com, sgaehler@harlan.com, wnef@harlan.com, kwerner@harlan.com, RMS.Nordic@harlan.com, Jgillespie@harlan.com, dcooper@harlan.com, harlan@netvision.net.il, hans@harlan.com, kkelly@harlan.com, JMcginley@harlan.com, jstradling@harlan.com, SCapdevila@harlan.com, jeasley@harlan.com, jchick@harlan.com, jgoerge@harlan.com, efrische@harlan.com


SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

I was disappointed to learn that Harlan Laboratories does business with the notorious Primate Products, Inc., a Florida-based company with a record of shoddy animal care and reckless decisions that have led to animal suffering. There have been a number of serious incidents that suggest serious problems at Primate Products:

- In July 2009, Primate Products dumped close to 100 owl monkeys that they could not sell at a roadside zoo in Homestead, Florida. Within a week, at least 25 of the monkeys were dead!

- In 2010, disturbing photographs surfaced of monkeys inside Primate Products suffering from horrible wounds and crude surgical mutilations.

- In April 2011, Primate Products was cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for leaving monkeys who were still under anesthesia in an enclosure without supervision, and in the hot sun.

Your business with Primate Products is no secret. Poor employee morale at Primate Products has made the company leakier than an old rusty bucket!

Please, do the right thing and permanently sever your ties with Primate Products.

Thank you.

The Persian Horse Blog

Please click HERE to sign petition.

From The Persian Horse Blog

Member of Parliament Canada, Alex  Atamanenko, of the New Democratic Party, feels that if he can present Parliament with 10,000 Signatures Protesting Horse Slaughter in Canada, and Supporting his Bill  C-322, An Act to amend the Health of Animals Act and the Meat Inspection Act (slaughter of horses for human consumption), thus prohibiting the importation or exportation of horses for slaughter for human consumption as well as horsemeat products for human consumption, that he will be able to have the bill adopted into LEGISLATION.

Click HERE for more information about the progress of C-322.

We only need 2,000 more signatures to reach the 10,000, which Mr. Atamanenko feels will be significantly influential.

Please click HERE to sign petition.

From Care2

Every day, trucks carry horses hundreds of miles in cramped, sweltering quarters across the border from the United States to Canada. After the ones that survive the trip wait for hours at auction without hay or water, slaughterhouses shoot each between the eyes with a .22 calibre pistol.

Horse slaughter may be illegal in the United States, but both the U.S. and Canada play horrifying roles in the $70 million industry. Farms across America raise thousands of horses every year for shipment, slaughter, and export to Europe and Asia.

Many of these farms feed horses a steady diet of medication specifically labeled as hazardous for human consumption. Still, Canadian slaughterhouses sell the arguably contaminated meat at up to $12 a pound.

The horse slaughter industry is both inhumane and risky to public health. Call on Canadian Parliament to ban horse slaughter in Canada and stop the cycle of cruelty.

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND | SOURCE CIRCUS ANIMALS IN QUERTARO

Intolerable Treatment of Circus Animals

On Sunday, April 29, 2012, we were walking past Plaza de Toros Santa Maria in Querétaro, Mexico when we noticed a circus with animals corraled outside. It was the Circo Union, owned by Hermanos Fuentes Gasca, as shown on the trucks. I went home and returned with a camera to record these conditions:

• An elephant was chained in leg irons on the front and back legs. The elephant was struggling continuously to get out of the sun shining on its backside. This animal seemed to be in distress and was vocalizing continuously…like it was talking to itself. In fact, it just seemed miserable.
• Two juvenile tigers were dozing in a cage that had a water dish, but I do not know if it was full.
• During the heat of a 90 degree afternoon, a semi-truck containing large, adult tigers was closed on one side. That reduced any hope of ventilation as only one side remained open.
• When the other side of the truck was opened up, I saw the semi was sectioned off into 8 compartments. Adult tigers were caged here, with as many as 3 in a single small section! Only half of the compartments had small water dishes, while the rest were empty.
• A male employee came up with a long, metal pole which he shoved into the cages and began screaming at the tigers. To say the cats were disturbed is an understatement. He did not see me on the other side, so this behavior continued for a while.

I am writing up this episode and displaying photos in order to get some help for these animals. As I am not a local here, I don’t understand the mechanisms for reporting animal welfare/cruelty violations and my Spanish is atrocious. But, I find animals suffering through such heat, restraints and a lack of water intolerable. As for the man screaming at the cats as he poked them with a metal rod….who knows what to do with that kind of human?

WHOM TO CONTACT

Send letter of complaint with heading ‘Circo Union in Queretaro Cruelty’ to: denuncias@profepa.gob.mx


SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

I am writing to request that action be taken immediately on behalf of the animals in the Circo Union, owned by Hermanos Fuentes Gasca, who are living in less-than ideal conditions, forced to endure inadequate space and diets, inferior medical treatment and care, lack of companionship, and involuntary training.

The documented negligence to which the animals are subjected has been well established and can be seen at http://circusanimalsinquertaromx.shutterfly.com/, and although you may assert that humane protocols must be followed in accordance with certain standards, the visual evidence validates the position that these directives are often ignored in favor of park management profit; nevertheless, establishing a threshold of humane treatment is ambiguous at best, these standards being implemented by those with questionable interests, its oversight managed by those who exploit animals for funds.

I hope you make the compassionate decision to discontinue the negligence of these animals and reject complicity in the unethical industry that profits from their suffering. However, as long as Circo Union continues to unnecessarily capitalize on the exploitation, imprisonment, and maltreatment of animals, I will not financially support them. It is important to recognize that consumers and tourists are increasingly rejecting those destinations that are complicit in the suffering and unnecessary treatment of animals by shifting their loyalties to those countries that do not participate in the exploitation of them, and I hope that you will extend such an ethical and empathetic gesture as well and return a superior standard of care to these animals or relinquish them to accredited sanctuaries and preserves.

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

in quertaro and all over the world,
a brand new program has been
unfurled.
now manunkind is forced to perform.
the spacemen have landed here,
in a swarm.
so homo crapiens paces in his
cage, dark and cold.
and wonders why his freedom was
bought and sold.
a cautionary tale,
tables do sometimes turn
is this the only way
that our species will learn?????

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

California’s top chefs are walking the halls at the State Capitol this afternoon, asking lawmakers to repeal the state foie gras ban. Sunday’s big Chronicle story has more on the chefs’ petition to overturn the ban.

Not all chefs are aboard, of course, most prominently Wolfgang Puck. He has made it known that he is in favor of the looming California foie gras ban, and wrote a very strongly worded letter earlier this year, saying how much he hates foie gras and how he hasn’t served it since 2007. However, it’s long been rumored that Puck’s restaurants still offer foie gras, particularly if specifically asked for as an off-menu item. Urban legend no longer.

Turns out Puck is more of a talker than a doer, as Carolyn Jung gets the confirmation that Puck still serves foie gras. (Puck’s people have denied that same question from Scoop in recent weeks. He also denied to be interviewed in the Sunday article.)

But here’s the smoking gun: Rick Bishop, Hudson Valley Foie Gras’ director of marketing, tells Jung in Food Arts that Wolfgang Puck has continued to buy from Hudson Valley Foie Gras since early 2010.

And then Wolfgang Puck PR machine admitted it. As reported by Jung:

“We do, unfortunately, have private events where people want foie gras on their menu,” says Stephanie Davis, director of communications for the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group. “We do our best to steer them in a different direction, but sometimes people just want it.”

Discuss.

UPDATE: Thanks to a commenter for pointing out that foie gras is still on the menu at Wolfgang Puck’s Singapore branch of CUT. Actually, as of today, it’s on the menu twice.

The below screenshots are from the menus presented on the website for the restaurant’s resort, Marina Bay Sands; interestingly, there’s no foie gras on CUT Singapore menu on Puck’s own website. Guess someone’s going to have to check it out first hand to see which one’s true. Either way, CUT Singapore opened just last year, so Puck’s claim of a 2007 foie gras strike doesn’t appear to hold water. For what it’s worth, there are even various user reviews that refer to foie gras at CUT in recent months.

Here are the screenshots taken this afternoon, preserved for posterity:

Inside Scoop SF

Inside Scoop SF

Please click HERE for webform


SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

Despite a commitment to discontinue offering it since 2007, Wolfgang Puck, I am greatly disturbed to learn, is still selling foie gras, the production of which inflicts incredible suffering and cruelty upon sentient animals. As such, I respectfully request you take immediate steps to eliminate foie gras from your product list.

Foie gras, French for “fatty liver,” is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. The birds are kept in tiny wire cages or packed into sheds. Pipes are repeatedly shoved down the birds’ throats, and up to 4 pounds of grain and fat are pumped into their stomachs two or three times every day. The pipes puncture many birds’ throats, sometimes causing the animals to bleed to death. This cruel procedure causes the birds’ livers to become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to stand up. The birds who survive the force-feeding are killed, and their livers are sold for foie gras.

Globally, people have spoken out against the cruelty of foie gras. In 2004, as you know, California passed a law banning the sale and production of foie gras, effective this year; his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI denounced foie gras, the force-feeding as being in violation of Biblical principles; and foie gras production has been outlawed in the U.K., Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, and Israel.

As such, I respectfully request you please reconsider and make the compassionate and ethical decision to ban foie gras. You may be interested to know in addition to those people and places indicated above, many regional chefs and colleagues have recently removed foie gras from their menus, and I would love to inform my friends and acquaintances that Wolfgang Puck has joined them by also rejecting this torture and eliminating foie gras. Until such a time, however, I maintain the only ethical decision is to promote a boycott of your establishment and visiting instead the ones that do not sell foie gras.

I look forward to a positive response, however, so that I may visit your establishment again.

Please feel free to watch the following video illustrating in disturbing detail the inherent cruelty of foie gras production:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAzrSl0ztsQ&feature=youtu.be

Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.

NAME

what the f*ck
wolfgang puck
would you like to
be treated the way
foie gross treats
force fed geese
or ducks:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Click HERE to urge Canadian senators to support Harb’s bill to end seal hunt.

Source: PETA

I’m delighted to share some exciting news. Today, Canadian senator Mac Harb introduced a historic bill to end Canada’s commercial seal slaughter. Now that Russia—which had imported 95 percent of Canadian seal pelts—has joined the U.S., the E.U., Mexico, and others in banning seal fur, there are no markets for this fur. If passed, Harb’s bill would transition people in sealing regions into sustainable economic programs. Senator Harb’s bill comes on the heels of Sarah McLachlan’s recent appeal on PETA’s behalf to Prime Minister Harper urging him to end the slaughter and consider a government buyout of the sealing industry.

We are finally near ending the seal slaughter once and for all, but we need your help. Please take a few minutes and click here to urge Canadian senators to support Harb’s bill.

A victory is within reach, but it is not possible without your support. Please share this urgent alert with your friends and family on Facebook, and ask them to join you in speaking up for seals today.

Thank you for everything that you do to help animals.

Animals Lebanon

Source: Animals Lebanon

Eva is only a few years old but has spent her entire life as a homeless dog. Trying to find enough food and avoiding dangers of the streets is hard for every homeless cat and dog, especially with the shooting and poisoning that is often used to kill large numbers of animals.

The only thing she had to look forward to in her days is waiting until evening when a kind man put food out each night.

Nadim had been looking after Eva ever since she was born and she was very friendly to him.

On 17 April, like almost every night, when Nadim finished work he came with food and Eva was waiting – wanting attention and her daily meal.

The next morning Nadim woke to a terrible sight. Eva was laying in the bushes near Nadims apartment building, her eyes closed tight, head bleeding, and though she was in obvious pain she didn’t make a noise. Eva might have known that Nadim would likely be the only person who would help her.

All at once we received a phone call, email, and Facebook post about this poor dog. Nadim was desperate for help, quickly explaining that it seems like Eva had been shot and needing assistance to transport her to a vet and help with her treatment.

Eva was  safely moved to the car and brought to vet clinic.

She was still quiet with blood on her face, and she was shaking from pain or fear.

X-rays showed that she had been shot repeatedly with a pellet gun, pellets were still lodged under the skin of her face and head. This can be treated and she can recover, but the pellets also harmed both of her eyes and Eva might never be able to see again.

She was also heavily pregnant, and about to give birth.

The vet put her on pain killers and antibiotics but had to be careful to protect the unborn puppies. She was resting by herself, scared and stressed out from what she had endured and now being unable to see, but she would be fine.

Later that day when the vet went to check on her one puppy had already been born. Then another, and another, until later that evening six newborn puppies were all nursing and cuddling up against Eva.

Eva and her puppies were taken to a quiet home so she can recuperate from her wounds and the puppies can be safe.

Dogs on the street are often shot or poisoned as an inhumane and ineffective way of controlling the population, but Eva was shot and blinded for no reason at all. She was no harm to anyone and was never aggressive.

Eva and her five puppies will require a couple months of care and treatment, and possibly a surgery to remove any of the remaining pellets.

Please donate now to help this family of dogs and they will all be ready for adoption soon.

only the filthiest foulest
beast,
could be so cruel,
jail time for decades,
at least.
that
would barely suffice,
as even that seems
too far too nice.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Previous story HERE

Please click HERE to send automatic letter

Source: Animal Equality

Background

Target: Lee Grant, Chief Executive of the RSPCA’s Freedom Food and Jim Paice Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, DEFRA

Animal Equality has released undercover footage from Little Thorns Weaner Unit and Didlington, The Piggery, owned by East Anglian Pig Company. East Anglian Pig Company is a member of the UK farm assurance scheme and food labeling system, ‘Freedom Food’, audited and monitored by the RSPCA. They are also licensed by Red Tractor Farm Assurance scheme.

Animal Equality’s undercover footage shows pigs being hit on the head with iron bars, kicked and slapped by workers, stereotypies caused by extreme confinement, pigs being thrown over gates by their back legs, several injuries such as broken legs, prolapses, deep wounds and hernias.

Leading experts have reviewed and supported the findings, such as veterinarian, Andrew Knight, Dr. Katherine van Ekert, President, The Veterinary Institute for Animal Ethics, Lorelei Wakefield, VMD, Founder of the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Animal Welfare Society, and Professor John Sorenson, Chair of the Department of Sociology, Brock University, Canada. The RSPCA have stated that they will NOT be prosecuting, even though Lee Grant, chief executive of the RSPCA’s Freedom Food, was quoted saying that he was ‘absolutely disgusted’ by what he saw on the footage and that it was ‘absolutely unacceptable’.

We urge the RSPCA and DEFRA not only to investigate the farms exposed by Animal Equality, but to prosecute those who are responsible.

Warning: graphic

PETA’s Vegan Shopping List

barbarity is not a
strong enough word,
to describe this cruelty
so vicious and absurd:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND | SOURCE ESA

Deer Slaughter in British Columbia

The BC government has authorized various communities to slaughter deer.

Write to the communities of Kimberley, Invermere, Crankrook, Penticton, Grand Forks and Victoria. Tell them to choose humane methods for controlling the deer ‘overpopulation’, which is mostly a result of human interference in the first place.

•  Evidence
• • Complaint to WorkSafe BC
  • City Councils Responsible for the Killings
  • The Cruel Killing Mechanism
  • Deer cull approved in Cranbrook

WHOM TO CONTACT

Send email to Kimberley politicians

mayor@kimberley.ca; jratcliffe@kimberley.ca; ahoglund@kimberley.ca; dmccormick@kimberley.ca; doakley@kimberley.ca; kgoodwin@kimberley.ca; bmiddlebrook@kimberley.ca


Send email to Invermere politicians

mayor@invermere.net; councillorAnderson@invermere.net; councillorAtterbury@invermere.net; councillorDenchuk@invermere.net; councillorHawes@invermere.net


Send email to Cranbrook politicians

reed@cranbrook.ca; pearce@cranbrook.ca; knudsen@cranbrook.ca; deglow@cranbrook.ca; girvin@cranbrook.ca; rprice@cranbrook.ca; kweaver@cranbrook.ca; leroux@cranbrook.ca; veg@cranbrook.ca; bedell@cranbrook.ca; zettel@cranbrook.ca; lode@cranbrook.ca


Send email to Victoria CRD

deermanagement@crd.bc.ca


SAMPLE LETTERS

Sample One

To Whom It Concerns,

Why would you even think about slaughtering deer in your city? Violence only begets violence – at the end of it all, what kind of a message does that send to the children in your community? Should conflicts with wildlife automatically be solved with firearms? There are many humane, non-lethal methods to address human-deer conflicts. Please visit the following webpage: http://www.netandboltcruelty.net/humane.htm

Unless you indicate that deer slaughtering is off your agenda, my family and I will not consider spending our tourist dollars in your city, and we will inform all of our contacts of this unethical behaviour. Do the right thing! Be kind! A timely response to my concerns would be appreciated.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.


Sample Two

To Whom It Concerns,

It is remarkable how some politicians choose expediency over rational behaviour. There are many tried and tested humane alternatives to killing deer: http://www.netandboltcruelty.net/humane.htm

Fortunately, not all politicians cater to violence. Hopefully, yours will not be remembered as those who didn’t bother to try the alternatives, because they just wanted to use tax dollars to promote cruelty. Please don’t kill the deer and instead implement non-lethal alternatives.

Unless you indicate that deer slaughtering is off your agenda, my family and I will not consider spending our tourist dollars in your city, and we will inform all of our contacts of this unethical behaviour.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.


Sample Three

To Whom It Concerns,

Please oppose the killing of deer in your township. There are plenty of tried and tested humane alternatives. Because you support violence, I will not spend my tourist dollars there and will also tell my friends not to spend their money in your city.

Please implement the non-lethal methods:  there are many tried and tested humane alternatives to killing deer: http://www.netandboltcruelty.net/humane.htm

Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.

this is the 21st century
the puter age,
and it is very clear.
there is no time nor place
for slaughtering deer.
teaching killing animals
next graduating to man,
taking moral values
and throwing them into
the garbage can.
we will not visit any
deer killing cities,
soon.
we will not give our $$$s
to murdering loons!!!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

PETA

Speak up for pigeons now!

Pigeon racing is one form of cruelty that you may never have thought about. Pigeons are intelligent, loyal birds who mate for life and who are doting parents, yet each year, tens of thousands of them are torn from their partners and babies, packed tightly into crates, loaded onto trucks, driven hundreds of miles away, and forced to try to fly back to their homes in deadly long-distance races.

During a recent 15-month investigation, PETA penetrated some of the largest pigeon-racing operations in this country and discovered that the birds are being killed by the thousands. Investigators found that in many races, two-thirds of the pigeons or more never make it back to their mates alive. They die after they are released from crates on the back of a truck and are forced to fly through severe weather, are attacked by predators, collide with electrical wires, are shot by hunters, or collapse from exhaustion. Because the birds are raised in captivity, they cannot fend for or even feed themselves. They are considered disposable objects to be wagered on.

The stakes are high for pigeon racers and all of the gambling is illegal. PETA documented races in which participants bet more than a quarter of a million dollars on the birds. Pigeons who aren’t making money for their owners are typically suffocated, decapitated, or drowned to make room for new birds the next racing season.

You can read more about our investigation by clicking here and by viewing exclusive undercover photos. We also need for you to take action to help pigeons used in cruel races right now.
Please click here to contact Attorney General Eric Holder and urge him to investigate cruel and unlawful pigeon races. And please involve other people in helping the birds—family members, friends, coworkers, neighbors—by sharing this on Facebook.

homo crapiens
is there any animal
you do not use,
eat, enslave,
torment or
abuse:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Tim Lloyd

SOURCE: FACEBOOK

BACKGROUND

As you may know by now, yesterday, 13 activists managed to free 30 beagles puppies from the lager Green Hill. They have been arrested like common criminals and they are now in jail. Please, do not leave them alone and send fax, mails or, using Skype, phone and leave a message of support for these heroes. Here is a sample of e – mail or fax but feel free to add your thoughts (no violence or bad words, please). Green Hill is a symbol and it is the first grain of the big battle against vivisection.


PETITION

Please click HERE for petition to sign and send


WHOM TO CONTACT

polizialocale@comune.desenzano.brescia.it ; urp.quest.bs@pecps.poliziadistato.it ; segreteria@montichiari.it , tg3net@rai.it;
tg1.speciali@rai.it; tg3fvg@rai.it; tg1.interni@rai.it; urp.quest.bs@pecps.poliziadistato.it;roberto_formigoni@regione.lombardia.it; protocollogenerale@pec.comune.brescia.it;luciano_bresciani@regione.lombardia.it; carlo_lucchina@regione.lombardia.it; mario_astuti@regione.lombardia.it; redazione@nichivendola.it; redazione@rsn.it; edazione@tgcom.it;

info@geapress.org; redazione@geapress.org; direzione@geapress.org; redazionetg4@mediaset.it; redazionetg5@mediaset.it; studioaperto@mediaset.it; redazioneiene@mediaset.it; roma@gazzettino.it; stampaweb@lastampa.it; segreteria@mixerpress.it; staff@radioradicale.it; radioitalia@radioitalia.it; lettere@lastampa.it; webnews24@rai.it; toni.capuozzo@mediaset.it; napoli@repubblica.it; larepubblica@larepubblica.it; posta@ilmattino.it; mimandaraitre@rai.it; fattivostri@rai.it; rai-tv@rai.it; amica@rcs.it; settimanaledipiu@cairoeditore.it; dipiutv@cairoeditore.it; donnamoderna@mondadori.it; gente@hachette.it; grazia@mondadori.it; oggi@rcs.it; panorama@mondadori.it; frcaputi@libero.it; segreterie@avenuemedia.eu; lettere@vanityfair.it; altoad@tin.it; info@ilsole24ore.it; redazione@bresciaoggi.it; cormez@tin.it; info@gazzettadelsud.it; segreteria@ilgiornale.it; posta@ilmattino.it; lettere@altoadige.it; lettere@avvenire.it; redazione.internet@avvenire.it; cronaca@bresciaoggi.it;

lettere@bresciaoggi.it; diffusione@corgiorno.it; presidenza@corgiorno.it; direttore@corgiorno.it; m.demarco@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; cultura@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; economia@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; politica@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; sport@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; napoli@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; cartellone@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; campania@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; caserta@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; salerno@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; redaz.ba@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; economiapuglia@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; sportpuglia@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; spettacolipuglia@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; culturapuglia@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it;

bari@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; redazione@messaggeroveneto.it; ufficio.centrale@messaggeroveneto.it; brindisitaranto@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; foggia@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; lecce@corrieredelmezzogiorno.it; belluno@corrierealpi.it; online@quotidiano.net; segreteria.redazione.bologna@monrif.net; feltre@corrierealpi.it; lettere@corrierealpi.it; cega@corriereromagna.it; redazione.mn@gazzettadimantova.it; cronaca.mn@gazzettadimantova.it; lettere.mn@gazzettadimantova.it; lettere@gazzettadiparma.net; redazione.re@gazzettadireggio.it; politica@liberazione.it; capitale@liberazione.it; lavori@liberazione.it; esteri@liberazione.it; partito@liberazione.it; societa@liberazione.it;

culture@liberazione.it; lettere@liberazione.it; incontri@liberazione.it; info@laregione.ch; ornet@ossrom.va; locarno@gdp.ch; mendrisio@gdp.ch; online@gdp.ch; redazione.mo@gazzettadimodena.it; cronaca.mo@gazzettadimodena.it; lettere.mo@gazzettadimodena.it; spettacoli.mo@gazzettadimodena.it; redazione.fe@lanuovaferrara.it; info@LibertaOnLine.it; lugano@gdp.ch; sport@gdp.ch; interni@gdp.ch; ticino@gdp.ch; cultura@gdp.ch; redazione@gdp.ch; bellinzona@gdp.ch; angela.azzaro@liberazione.it; stefano.bocconetti@liberazione.it; vittorio.bonanni@liberazione.it; ivan.bonfanti@liberazione.it; tonino.bucci@liberazione.it; guido.caldiron@liberazione.it; g.contin@liberazione.it; carla.cotti@liberazione.it; sabrina.deligia@liberazione.it; laura.eduati@liberazione.it;


ENGLISH LETTER thank to Fabienne

To Whom It Concerns,

The people who freed the dogs from Green Hill are no criminals, they are heroes who understand that animals have feelings as well. Arresting them like criminals doesn’t solve the problem, for there are many others out there who are willing to sacrifice their lives for innocent living beings.

It is time mankind starts to make a shift in its mentality towards animals and Mother Nature.  All living creatures have feelings and therefore do suffer.  We are the ONLY species on this Planet who are capable of destroying EVERYTHING!

This unnecessary act of the police will not be left unnoticed and the whole Animal Rights Community will watch and fight for these people to get them free again.  Locking us up doesn’t solve anything, for we will strike back.  We are no criminals, we are the Voice for the Voiceless.  Trying to communicate with us and understanding where we come from might help for we only do what is rightful to do: saving innocent lives…

Sincerely,


FRENCH LETTER merci Fanny

Les libérateurs de ces pauvres chiens ne doivent pas être,emprisonnés ni encourir de peine.  Ce ne sont pas des terroristes,juste des gens au grand coeur qui réagissent à ce scandale.

La vivisection est un CRIME,des solutions alternatives EXISTENT,elles doivent être APPLIQUEES !!

SVP LIBEREZ NOS AMIS !!Ce sont des héros,pas des terroristes.

La plupart des gens ignorent ce qui se passe vraiment,beaucoup d’argent en jeu,au mépris du bien être animal,des méthodes absolument pas fiables pour l’humain !!

Je suis même sûr que la plupart d’entre vous au fond et en dehors de votre métier n’approuvez pas cette barbarie.

Comptant sur votre bienveillance,recevez mes sincères salutations.

heroes imprisoned by
following their hearts,
you in authority,
please do your part
… free these activists
all they wanted to do
is save precious lives,
and end the tortures
they go through

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons | Not Boozer, killed dog

SOURCE | FACEBOOK

PREVIOUS ALERT

UPDATE

A well-respected, well-established business offered the Newington Police Department **FREE** training on how to handle and read dogs two weeks before Boozer was killed. The Newington Police deemed the training unnecessary and therefore declined it. Because of the pressure we’ve been putting on them, they brought in an investigator that is not part of NPD. So there is progress.

BACKGROUND | COURANT

A police officer shot and killed a pit bull dog Monday as it was charging him and a bystander, police said Wednesday.

Sgt. John Zematis said the bystander, a tree trimmer working in the area, had taken cover behind the officer as the dog charged at them with its mouth open. The officer fired one shot when the dog was 12 to 15 feet away. The dog was hit and dropped, but then got back up and charged again, he said.

“It’s an unfortunate incident, but the officer acted to protect himself and the witness,” he said.

A resident who lives on Main Street called police at about 2:30 p.m. to complain about a roaming dog. When the officer arrived, the dog was near the back yard of the house, where a tree trimmer working nearby tried to help him catch it.

Police said the dog snapped at them, then ran to the other side of the yard before turning and charging.

Zematis said the dog had no collar or tags, but the owner was eventually identified. He said no charges have been filed against the owner, who lives about a block from the scene.

A woman who said she is the daughter of the owner, but asked not to be identified, said the family has filed a complaint with the police asking for an investigation of the shooting. She said her mother, the owner, was devastated by the death of the dog, which she described as gentle.

“I’ve never seen him be aggressive,” she said.

Police did not identify the officer or the address of the house on Main Street.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Block

rmulhall@newingtonct.gov , swoods@newingtonct.gov

Individual

Chief of Police Richard Mulhall

Telephone:

(860) 594-6201

Email:

rmulhall@newingtonct.gov

Mayor Stephen Woods

Email:

swoods@newingtonct.gov


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Chief Mulhall and Mayor Woods,

Regarding the dog, Boozer, who lost his life on April 16 in an officer-involved shooting, it is my understanding that a well-respected, well-established business offered the Newington Police Department free training regarding how to handle and read dogs two weeks before Boozer was killed. The Newington Police deemed the training unnecessary and declined.

Because of subsequent community pressure over the death of Boozer, the police brought in an investigator unrelated to the NPD. I therefore respectfully request information as to why the training was initially declined and how an innocent dog lost his life because of such a cavalier, irresponsible decision.

It is my hope that following such a tragic, needless death that the Newington Police Department now agree to the well-justified training, and I look forward to a positive response to my deserved concerns.

Sincerely,

Name

3dayz

BACKGROUND

At the end of February the homepage of 3dayz featured a 3 days of action marathon for Yupi the polar bear. Last week, Ericka Ceballos – who is coordinator of the International Yupi Campaign – contacted us to thank all of our supporters for sending the many protest mails in support of Yupi during that action. She also gave us new email addresses to contact, but that’s not all…

Your protest mail will have an even bigger impact, because every protest mail sent before the end of this month will be printed and hand-delivered on the 3rd of May! On this date Ericka will personally deliver an incredible 76.500 emails and signatures in support of Yupi to the director of Morelia Zoo. With less than 3.500 signatures and 4 days to go, supporters from all over the world are now trying to reach 80.000 signatures.

Join the effort to get 80.000 signatures before the 1st of May: send a protest mail today!

Your protest mail will be send to the new Mayor of Morelia, to the Governor of Michoacan State and to Ericka Ceballos. Ericka will print your email and will add them to the 76.500+ signatures to deliver them to the director of Morelia Zoo on the 3rd of May. Please note: you might get emails on behalf of CATCA afterwards!


WHOM TO CONTACT

presidencia@morelia.gob.mx, fvallejo@morelia.gob.mx, yupicatca@yahoo.ca, protest@3dayz.com


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Representative,

After reading about her on 3dayz.com, I am deeply concerned about the continued housing and display of Yupi the polar bear at the Parque Zoologico Benito Juarez (Morelia Zoo) in Mexico. I support moving her to a more appropriate naturalistic accommodation in a more appropriate climate as soon as possible and would like for you to team up with Zoocheck Canada for advice in this matter.

Polar bears are uniquely adapted for life in cold environments and do poorly in temperate and tropical climates. In the wild, they inhabit extremely large home ranges, occupying one of the largest living spaces of any terrestrial animal species. They spend significant time hunting and tracking prey, walking, socializing, and playing.

At the Morelia Zoo, Yupi is housed in an antiquated, undersized, barren enclosure that does not satisfy her biological and behavioural needs. She is the only Arctic animal in a collection of temperate and tropical species and opportunities for viewing Yupi are extremely limited by her enclosure.

I understand that there are suitable facilities currently willing to provide Yupi with a permanent home where she can enjoy an expansive natural space to roam, more complex environments, and a colder, more suitable climate. I strongly encourage you to ensure that Yupi is relocated as soon as possible and urge you not to keep any polar bears in the future.

Thank you for considering this letter.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR COUNTRY]

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND | SOURCE FACEBOOK

【News update and urgent request! 27 April 2012】

9 hours ago I received a reply from Aberdeen City Council to a ‘Freedom of Information’ request I made on March 25th. The main information enclosed in that reply is that Aberdeen City Council have killed 22 of the circa 30 roe deer that lived on Tullos Hill. That’s not a “management cull” to reduce numbers – that’s an out and out mass slaughter; a massacre of healthy, sentient deer to plant trees which are unlikely, deer or no deer, to reach maturity on Tullos Hill.

I would like all of you, wherever you live, to send a letter or email of protest to Aberdeen City Council and to ‘The Woodland Trust’. I’ve attached a draft which you can copy and paste and add your own name and address before emailing. You have every right to be very angry but please keep the communications polite.

Please send your protest to the three email addresses below. I’m not 100% sure of the address for Sue Holden so please use the general enquiry one as well. Incidentally I know that a few of our supporters are also supporters of ‘The Woodland Trust’. Did you know you are paying the wages of 8 PR and Media Officers?

If you are in or near Aberdeen the Funeral Protest on Tullos Hill is going ahead this Saturday. Contact Suzanne onsgvk27@aol.com for more info.

Forward this to anyone you think might be interested.


WHOM TO CONTACT

sueholden@woodlandtrust.org.uk, enquiries@woodlandtrust.org.uk, chiefexecutive@aberdeencity.gov.uk


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Mrs. Watts and Ms Holden,

I learned today that, in a late response to a request for information under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, Aberdeen City Council have told the charity Animal Concern Advice Line that 22 roe deer have been killed as part of your joint initiative to create a new woodland on Tullos Hill in Aberdeen under the Tree For Every Citizen initiative and Diamond Jubilee Woods project.

As only around 30 deer lived on and around Tullos Hill this has been more of a mass slaughter than a cull or management programme to reduce numbers.

This massacre was conducted despite opposition from at least three local Community Councils, over 200 letters and e-mails, over 4,000 petition signatures and letters of protest from a number of animal welfare groups including the Scottish SPCA, Animal Concern and Animal Concern Advice Line.

These animals were killed for a planting programme on a hill where I understand an earlier planting scheme failed due to poor management, failure to control weed growth and use of inappropriate tree protection sleeves.

I think Aberdeen City Council should be thoroughly ashamed of their key role in this atrocity. As for The Woodland Trust, I for one will make a point of avoiding any of your appeals for funds or volunteers and I will have no hesitation in warning others that if they support your work they may well be supporting the killing of innocent animals.

What angers me most is that there was no need to kill the deer. If, unlike other experts, you truly believed the deer posed a serious risk to the survival of the trees, you could have protected the saplings using a mixture of the right type of tree protection sleeves and deer fencing to exclude deer from certain areas.

I understand that this is a long-term project and that the culling of deer on Tullos Hill is to continue for another five to ten years. I ask you to change your modus operandi from killing deer to physically protecting the trees.

Yours sincerely,

(Your name and country)

killing accomplishes nothing,
just pain, bloodshed and
sorrow.
we have the capacity
to reason,
it is kindness we
have to borrow:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Facebook

BACKGROUND | SOURCE FACEBOOK

Welcome back everyone; we are now in Week- 6 of our “Shut Down WSU Painful Dog Experiments Lab – In Memory of Queenie Cyber Action Thursday”

Our targets this week are again a variety of Wayne State Universities Professors: the colleagues of the vivisector and his cohorts of which we are going to “shut down”, therefore I have used basically the same sample letter, with a couple of changes.

It seems that WSU has been also making some changes, as I pulled up pages I had bookmarked on their site for e-mail addresses – they can no longer be found, this I take as a very good sign.

However, I had a huge stash and we are sending them this week; I understand many of you had trouble sending the bigger blocks through your e-mail carrier so I have tried to break them down a bit….

For those who may be new to this event, I will first say thank you very much for joining us, and below I have inserted a link that explains the horrific and inexcusable torture these dogs are going through each day at WSU:

http://pcrm.org/search/?cid=3119

There is no time to waste as these dogs are suffering this very moment. We must persuade WSU to abandon the cruel and inhumane animal experiments and end this suffering….

(Please sign petition below, happy to say we passed the goal of 40,000 signatures 2nd petition posted last week):

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/charge-wayne-state-university-with-felony-animal-cruelty/

Thanks to all for participating, You’re doing a Fantastic job!!  Now let’s blast em’ and shut this horrible lab down for good!


WHOM TO CONTACT

Copy/paste into your email TO:

aj0533@wayne.edu, ag7662@wayne.edu, bajjaly@wayne.edu, ee4525@wayne.edu, dcharbon@wayne.edu, aa4101@wayne.edu, es7746@wayne.edu, aa2500@wayne.edu, aa3401@wayne.edu, pecoskie@wayne.edu, hanley@wayne.edu,
dadamo@wayne.edu,jturrini@wayne.edu, ah1984@wayne.edu, ae9101@wayne.edu, e2586@wayne.edu, hossam@wayne.edu, dbach1@dmc.org, aj2269@wayne.edu, Deepak.Bhalla@wayne.edu, ae7647@wayne.edu, aa3663@wayne.edu, aa3663@wayne.edu, r.cha@wayne.edu, chen@wayne.edu,

Commissaris@wayne.edu, gconti@wayne.edu, corcoran@wayne.edu, ee0073@wayne.edu, sldavis@wayne.edu, dt7303@wayne.edu, ar7975@wayne.edu, ad6611@wayne.edu, adutta@wayne.edu, sfirestine@wayne.edu, pfrade@wayne.edu, cgarwood@wayne.edu, sgee@wayne.edu, ao3255@wayne.edu, av6457@wayne.edu, sgilkey@wayne.edu, ek2397@wayne.edu, agoldberg@wayne.edu, ab8372@wayne.edu, ai2775@wayne.edu, ab1181@wayne.edu, doreenh@wayne.edu

fhirata@wayne.edu, rhusband@wayne.edu, ljaber@wayne.edu, aa3509@wayne.edu, pkale@wayne.edu, kathykath@wayne.edu, ab1395@wayne.edu, aa1156@wayne.edu, ab4642@wayne.edu, dr4775@wayne.edu, akowluru@med.wayne.edu, ab6034@wayne.edu, karenkrisher@wayne.edu, klacey@wayne.edu, ladd@wayne.edu, rlouis@wayne.edu, RLL@wayne.edu, c.lysack@wayne.edu, en7488@wayne.edu, ad4553@wayne.edu, etmartin@wayne.edu, dmaser@askenviroair.com, mcginnity@wayne.edu

olivia.merkel@wayne.edu, miller929@aol.com, ak0631@wayne.edu, amosz@wayne.edu, amosz@wayne.edu,
h.normile@wayne.edu, mboconnell@wayne.edu, dq1462@wayne.edu, oupicky@wayne.edu, av6281@wayne.edu, dejue@wayne.edu, ad9049@wayne.edu, apattin2@wayne.edu, ds2688@wayne.edu, pitts@wayne.edu, pociask@wayne.edu, pokorski@wayne.edu, andrew.reeves@wayne.edu, ai6795@wayne.edu, reineke@wayne.edu, m.rybak@wayne.edu

salinitri@wayne.edu, preethy@wayne.edu, bl8952@wayne.edu, at7833@wayne.edu, martha.schiller@wayne.edu, dseparovic@wayne.edu, aa1446@wayne.edu, rls@wayne.edu, gbs@wayne.edu, msmythe@beaumont.edu, msriniva@wayne.edu, aj0555@wayne.edu, ac1563@wayne.edu,
tntaylor@wayne.edu, tracyma@udmercy.edu, vtlehr@med.wayne.edu, nancyv-m@wayne.edu, jessevivian@wayne.edu, wabeker@wayne.edu

ac6415@wayne.edu, aa4631@wayne.edu, billwatt@wayne.edu, av2238@wayne.edu, wilkraw@gmail.com, rwill@wayne.edu, eg5862@wayne.edu, wimmerm@oakwood.org, henryw@wayne.edu, aa1635@wayne.edu, zhengping.yi@wayne.edu, youngl@wayne.edu, asamra@med.wayne.edu, lcarlock@genetics.wayne.edu, gfeldman@med.wayne.edu, rfinley@wayne.edu, agow@med.wayne.edu, l.grossman@wayne.edu

hheng@med.wayne.edu, maik@genetics.wayne.edu,
jkamholz@genetics.wayne.edu, gkapato@med.wayne.edu, markku@genetics.wayne.edu, lancaster@wayne.edu, sland@med.wayne.edu, lili@med.wayne.edu, llipovich@med.wayne.edu, jloeb@med.wayne.edu, fluca@med.wayne.edu, fsong@med.wayne.edu, tainskym@karmanos.org, monica.uddin@wayne.edu, atrepani@med.wayne.edu, dwildman@genetics.wayne.edu, kzhang@med.wayne.edu, rzhang@med.wayne.edu


SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

This letter is to inform you that Wayne State University and all who support them are directly responsible for allowing horrific dog heart failure experimentation to continue in the labs at the WSU. This includes the imprisonment, torture, maiming, and murdering of innocent shelter dogs.

If you are unaware of what’s happening at your school I have inserted a link which will explain as documented by one of your own:

http://pcrm.org/good-medicine/2012/winter2012/queenies-story

As the experiments proceeded, her restlessness and pain turned to such horrible depression she even began self-mutilation.  As a supporter of this school, you, too, are responsible for this scientific fraud, especially since technologically-advanced alternatives are not only available, but also preferable. Please take a peek at the following article:

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1148620–u-of-t-animal-experimentation-a-waste-of-time-says-dr-ray-greek-of-california#.T4uWT09k7MA.facebook

WSU is allowing former companion dogs purchased from Michigan Animal Shelters to be forced to run dozens of treadmill experiments with catheters protruding from their bodies and incisions leaking blood and other bodily fluids, causing pain and distress, with no anesthesia or compassion whatsoever, until they die!

This is not only totally unacceptable, but it is also a barbaric and completely inhumane act, which is being allowed to continue on the Wayne State University Campus. This cruelty has been continued at WSU for two decades while the number of people with poor heart health continues to rise.

This one laboratory is taking the good reputation WSU once had and is literally trashing it, and as you allow this to continue you are guilty as well.

We are far from the only ones who will no longer tolerate this abuse! PCRM has filed a legal complaint, you may view this here:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Lh2Msp8AsqQJ:www.pcrm.org/pdfs/research/research/WayneStateUSDAComplaint101911Final.pdf+wayne+state+usda+pcrm+complaint&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgVoW6dgI9A0zrPsAytWeaN2XGsUdSF6Gji1505OUru4ywsGPtp1GWc3JKHTyBO8isxTDQKaQgb_3GMZSORlZtFQlerlT_AisiCq8J3t2aD_8M2KfWKsUg0JSffqu9qT7pk8XoO&sig=AHIEtbQiTGBWIs5FfhSTdpWELJ_xeWu14Q

There are also many petitions circulating such as this, which you can see with over 40,000 signatures; it is ready for delivery to Alan Gilmore, President of WSU:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/272/228/294/

Please make an ethical decision. Let WSU know you will not be supporting these monstrous acts to continue within the same institution you have pride in.

Now, I urge you to see the truth of this matter, take charge, and stop these atrocities within your educational institution! Everyone involved by sponsoring and/or supporting WSU in any fashion is culpable! Until this is remedied, I will no longer patronize your establishment.

Sincerely,

NAME

week six is here
and here we stay
until this sadistic
cruelty,
goes away!!!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons | Not Boozer, killed dog

SOURCE | FACEBOOK

UPDATE

A well-respected, well-established business offered the Newington Police Department **FREE** training on how to handle and read dogs two weeks before Boozer was killed. The Newington Police deemed the training unnecessary and therefore declined it. Because of the pressure we’ve been putting on them, they brought in an investigator that is not part of NPD. So there is progress.

BACKGROUND | COURANT

A police officer shot and killed a pit bull dog Monday as it was charging him and a bystander, police said Wednesday.

Sgt. John Zematis said the bystander, a tree trimmer working in the area, had taken cover behind the officer as the dog charged at them with its mouth open. The officer fired one shot when the dog was 12 to 15 feet away. The dog was hit and dropped, but then got back up and charged again, he said.

“It’s an unfortunate incident, but the officer acted to protect himself and the witness,” he said.

A resident who lives on Main Street called police at about 2:30 p.m. to complain about a roaming dog. When the officer arrived, the dog was near the back yard of the house, where a tree trimmer working nearby tried to help him catch it.

Police said the dog snapped at them, then ran to the other side of the yard before turning and charging.

Zematis said the dog had no collar or tags, but the owner was eventually identified. He said no charges have been filed against the owner, who lives about a block from the scene.

A woman who said she is the daughter of the owner, but asked not to be identified, said the family has filed a complaint with the police asking for an investigation of the shooting. She said her mother, the owner, was devastated by the death of the dog, which she described as gentle.

“I’ve never seen him be aggressive,” she said.

Police did not identify the officer or the address of the house on Main Street.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Chief of Police Richard Mulhall

Telephone:

(860) 594-6201

Email:

rmulhall@newingtonct.gov


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Chief Mulhall,

I have learned of a disturbing case of an officer-involved shooting of a dog on Monday, April 16, in Newington, and I am respectfully requesting that an investigation be initiated.

Please allow me to elaborate.  My only focus is to protect the innocent, sentient animals that others regard as mere sacrificial, expendable beings, objectified and disposable. When animals are subjected to such brutality with no human accountability, our society inaccurately concludes that animals are not worthy of empathy, compassion, or rights. We become desensitized to the issue of animal abuse, and our children learn troubling lessons that are contrary to respect of and towards animals, which often evolves into a lack of empathy for humans. We must do everything in our power to allocate necessary resources to investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of animal cruelty cases. I understand that yours can be a challenging position, limited by vague and inadequate laws as well as insufficient funds; however, I believe we can make a difference or initiate change to better protect our animal friends. Please proceed with the intent of a full investigation and subsequent penalties if warranted.

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

NAME

Scott Bauer | USDA

Background | Source Animal Equality

Animal Equality’s investigation spanned from December 2011 to January 2012. An undercover investigator worked at two different sites for a total of 29 days:

Little Thorns Weaner Unit (6 Dec 2011 – 16 Dec 2011)

This is a weaner unit, with approximately 8,000 to 10,000 pigs on site. At Little Thorns, the pigs were bred outdoors in six sheds for a period of 6 to 8 weeks, before being sent to the finishing units.

Didlington, The Piggery (20 Dec 2011 – 6 Jan 2012)

This is a breeding unit, with 3,000 pigs on site and over 700 female pigs. The pigs are raised outdoors, and fattened indoors. Over 300 pigs are sent to the slaughterhouse from this facility each week.

Animal Equality proves once again that, regardless of whether a farm is labeled as being ‘higher welfare’, ‘Quality Assured’ or monitored by the RSPCA, there exists pain, suffering and exploitation on a huge scale.

Warning: graphic

PETA’s Vegan Shopping List

BACKGROUND | SOURCE FACEBOOK EVENT

The palm oil companies in Indonesia are using slash and burn methods to destroy the rain forests in which the endangered Orangutan and Tiger lives along with other endangered species and plant life, too.

We ask you to please take action now and help the Indonesian government by asking the Australian authorities to now send aircraft to the hard hit areas to put the fire out now and save our endangered Orangutans.




WHOM TO CONTACT

Email address:

public-affairs-jakt@dfat.gov.au

Postal address:

Mr Greg Moriarty, Ambassador to Indonesia
Jalan H.R. Rasuna Said Kav C 15-16
Jakarta Selatan 12940
Indonesia

Fax:

+62 21 522 7101, 2550 5467

Telephone:

+62 21 2550 5555


SUBJECT

Forest fires in Indonesia / Palm oil companies


SAMPLE LETTER

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/fires-in-indonesian-swamp-forest-may-have-killed-a-third-of-rare-orangutan-population-there-144659165.html

Dear Sir/Madame,

The above link is an update on the critical forest fires in Indonesia that is destroying the land and the endangered Orangutans and other sub species.

We urge you to please take action now and help the overwhelmed Indonesian government to now extinguish these forest fires that are being started via the slash and burn methods of the palm oil manufacturers/producers.

You have the aircrafts that can do this, they do not. We urge you to please help, speak, and take action on behalf of the critically endangered Orangutans and our climate too.

Thank you.

Kind regards,

NAME

it is not always
about the goal,
you who slash, burn,
sever the whole.
you who cannot see
beyond the smoke,
and the haze
of the foulest of
motives
a scenario,
dazed.
our orange brothers,
and
others,
of world so small
any more of this
they will have
no world at all.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

3DAYZ

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR SAMPLE LETTER OR SEE BELOW

BACKGROUND | SOURCE 3DAYZ

Orca Morgan was found malnourished and dehydrated in the Wadden Sea, off the northwestern coast of the Netherlands on the 23rd of June, 2010. Although EU law states that captured orcas must be returned to the wild, the Dolfinarium at Harderwijk who ‘rescued’ her had no intention of releasing her. Morgan was sold to Loro Parque, Tenerife and now lives in a small unnatural environment away from her family.

A release plan, written by more than 40 expert and which ensured the safe return of Morgan to the wild and to her family, was ignored by the Dolfinarium. Instead the Dolfinarium turned to SeaWorld for help. An obvious choice, since the 5 orcas who are already in Loro Parque are owned by SeaWorld.

EU wildlife trade rules prohibit the use of orcas for commercial purposes, said the European Commission and Dietrich Jelden, the head of Germany’s Cites management authority at the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. The only exemptions are for primarily scientific, captive breeding for conservation purposes or education reasons.

A spokesman at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, which gave permission for the move, said: “We rely on the Spanish authorities that Loro Parque is not only commercial, but also has some aspects of scientific research and education.” As of February the 17th, 2012 Morgan performs in shows in Loro Parque…

But the real money will be made through breeding programs. When Morgan was caught in 2010, she was estimated to be about 2 years old. Females breed until the age of 40 and mothers calve about once every 5 years. This means Morgan will give birth to 6 or 7 calves, with each calve being worth millions when sold to other marine parks.

While legal battles continue, please keep the pressure on Loro Parque to release orca Morgan and send a protest mail today!

For background info and news about the legal battle, check www.orkacoalitie.nl (English/Dutch)
For more info about the Spanish campaign, please visit GAP (English) / PGS (Spanish)


WHOM TO CONTACT

Loro Parque, S.A.
Avenida Loro Parque s/n
38400 Puerto de la Cruz
Tenerife, Canary Islands – Spain

Phone: 00 34 922 37 38 41
Fax: 00 34 922 37 50 21
Email: relacionespublicas@loroparque.com, personal@loroparque.com, social@loroparque.com, loroparque@loroparque.com, protest@3dayz.com

Tweet: @LoroParque
Facebook: facebook.com/LoroParque


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Loro Parque,

After reading about her on 3dayz.com, I am deeply concerned about the continued housing and display of orca Morgan at Loro Parque, Tenerife. I completely support reuniting her with her family in the wild according to the release plan of the experts of the Free Morgan Group. This will be in the best interest of orca Morgan for some (but not all) of the following reasons:

- although she’s been held captive for about 2 years now, she still makes a good candidate to be released back into the wild;

- sound recordings and DNA analysis suggests that Morgan belongs to a Norwegian population of orcas;

-  EU wildlife trade rules prohibit the use of orcas for commercial purposes. Spanish authorities acknowledged Loro Parque as a zoo and it’s agreed among the European Cites experts that every zoo must be considered a commercial facility, in which research or education in most circumstances has either no or only secondary priority;

- in a similar case to that of orca Morgan, orca Springer was released successfully back into the wild. At the same time, Morgan’s case is nothing like the case of orca Keiko (Free Willy), who died shortly after being released, since Keiko had lived more than 20 years in captivity;

- marine parks will never meet the requirements needed to house orcas, dolphins or other marine mammals accordingly. Orcas, dolphins and other marine mammals can therefore never display their natural behaviour which is a serious violation of their welfare and rights.

To read what experts say about Morgan’s captivity in Loro Parque, please read their testimonials at http://www.freemorgan.com/why-morgan-should-be-free

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

Morgan has feelings,
Morgan wants to be
Free
To live as an orca
In an orca society !

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Simon Eugster

Please sign and send protest HERE

Second Petition HERE

Third Petition HERE

Background | Source Huffington Post

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Coast Guard is defending its practice of using live animals in its combat medical training after an activist group released a video on Wednesday of a goat’s legs being removed with tree trimmers during what it said was training for agency personnel.

Live anesthetized goats have been used in Coast Guard training to treat combat wounds, but the agency could not verify if the video involved its personnel. The courses do involve “live tissue training using live animals,” Lt. Cmdr. Jamie C. Frederick, spokesman for the Atlantic Area, wrote in an email.

Frederick was responding after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called on the Pentagon to stop the practice. A congressman also has introduced legislation that would phase out the use of animals by the military for such training.

PETA said the undercover video it released from a whistleblower did show military instructors contracted by the Coast Guard cutting off an anesthetized goat’s legs in Virginia Beach. The faces of the participants are blurred and they are not in uniform.

“Animals used in trauma training are supported and monitored by well-trained, experienced veterinary staff to ensure that appropriate anesthesia and analgesia prevent them from experiencing pain or distress,” Frederick wrote.

In the video, the goat is still while its legs are cut. Later it makes noise and moves, followed by one of the men calling for another “bump” of anesthesia.

Other branches of the military use similar training on goats and pigs and have defended it as a way to replicate wartime injuries and prepare medics and front-line troops for treating catastrophic injuries in the field of battle.

The Pentagon declined to respond to an AP request for comment on the video.

“Effective combat trauma training and treatment results in lowering the fatality rate of U.S. troops deployed in combat situations,” Frederick wrote.

He said the training has also proved invaluable in noncombat situations, such as when Coast Guard members were the first to respond to Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake.

PETA and other animal rights groups, as well as some medical professionals, say the practice is cruel and unnecessary. They promote the use of human simulation models over animals.

“Learning how to apply a tourniquet on a severed goat’s leg does not help prepare medical providers to treat an anatomically different human being wounded on the battlefield,” according to Dr. Michael P. Murphy, an associate professor of surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves who served two tours of duty in Iraq. He was among the medical professionals who signed PETA’s letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta seeking an end to the practice.

The group also asks U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate “apparent serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act.”

U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, a California Democrat, has introduced legislation that would phase out such use of animals by the military. He said he’s faced fierce opposition from the Department of Defense.

“With these animals, they can break their limbs, or they want to simulate broken bones or a gunshot wound, and it’s not clear if they’re anesthetized or not,” he said. “You’re torturing animals when you don’t have to.”

___

Online:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: http://www.peta.org/

Tier 1 Group: http://www.t1g.com/


WATCH the alleged leaked video (WARNING — GRAPHIC FOOTAGE, NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES):

cruel, ignorant
vicious and vile,
there are not
enough words
that can
describe
my bile:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

BACKGROUND | FROM FACEBOOK

Welcome back everyone and welcome all who may be joining us for the first time this week!

Week 5 is here, and our targets this week are a variety of Wayne State Universities Professors…..the colleagues of the vivisector and his cohorts of which we are going to “shut down”

So let’s make this an especially good week by making sure we share this widely.

For those who may be new to this event, I have inserted a link below which explains the horrific and inexcusable torture these dogs are going through each day at WSU

http://pcrm.org/search/?cid=3119

There is no time to waste as these dogs are suffering this very moment. We must persuade WSU to abandon the Cruel and inhumane animal experiments and end this suffering….

(Please sign petitions below)

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/charge-wayne-state-university-with-felony-animal-cruelty/

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/272/228/294/

Thanks to all for participating!!


WHOM TO CONTACT | PLEASE COPY/PASTE INTO YOUR EMAIL TO:

ad5565@wayne.edu, dora.apel@wayne.edu, cj8807@wayne.edu, eg2916@wayne.edu, pdelaura@wayne.edu, aa3597@wayne.edu, ai4589@wayne.edu, av4486@wayne.edu, ac2540@wayne.edu, aa8888@wayne.edu, aa2540@wayne.edu, ex2503@wayne.edu, eg4472@wayne.edu, ab3792@wayne.edu, aj7332@wayne.edu, aa1708@wayne.edu, em6728@wayne.edu, eb9076@wayne.edu, aa4725@wayne.edu, aa4779@wayne.edu, ay2092@wayne.edu, af5343@wayne.edu, ad9087@wayne.edu, ad5276@wayne.edu, aa3462@wayne.edu, ak4496@wayne.edu, ex0360@wayne.edu, eg2919@wayne.edu, eg2921@wayne.edu, ae4711@wayne.edu, ak6640@wayne.edu, aa4212@wayne.edu

jbanderson@wayne.edu, cbaker@wayne.edu, aa5200@wayne.edu, jbyars@aol.com, ee4523@wayne.edu, eu2266@wayne.edu, janefitzgibbon@wayne.edu, mary.garrett@wayne.edu, ad8889@wayne.edu, ad3337@wayne.edu, kmaguire@wayne.edu, bryan.mccann@wayne.edu,
pmccormak@gmail.com, aa6545@wayne.edu, ANails@wayne.edu, m.a.najor@wayne.edu, jmnovak@wayne.edu, h.oshagan@wayne.edu, ac2367@wayne.edu, kpiperaiken@wayne.edu, dx1649@wayne.edu

ee5558@wayne.edu, matthew.seeger@wayne.edu, psopory@wayne.edu, rj_stevenson@hotmail.com, vulteef@wayne.edu, dx8298@wayne.edu, w.warters@wayne.edu, kelly.young@wayne.edu, ziegelmueller@wayne.edu,
ep4625@wayne.edu, ab7444@wayne.edu, ad8367@wayne.edu, an9403@wayne.edu, ariel.osterweis@wayne.edu, dv6978@wayne.edu, ad2016@wayne.edu, ai6498@wayne.edu, ay2360@wayne.edu, ar2852@wayne.edu, aa6490@wayne.edu


SAMPLE LETTER

To whom it concerns,

This letter is to inform you that WSU and all who support therein are directly responsible for allowing horrific dog heart failure experimentation to continue in the labs at the WSU, including the imprisonment, torture, maiming, and murdering of innocent shelter dogs.

If you are unaware of what’s happening at your school I have inserted a link which will explain as documented by one of your own http://pcrm.org/good-medicine/2012/winter2012/queenies-story

As the experiments proceeded, her restlessness and pain turned to such horrible depression she even began self-mutilation.

In turn, as a supporter of this school, you, too, are responsible for this scientific fraud, especially since technologically-advanced alternatives are available.

WSU is allowing former companion dogs purchased from Michigan Animal Shelters and are forced to run dozens of treadmill experiments with catheters protruding from their bodies and incisions leaking blood and other bodily fluids, causing pain and distress, with no anesthesia or compassion whatsoever, until they die!

This is not only totally unacceptable, but it is also a barbaric and completely inhumane act which is being allowed to continue on the Wayne State University Campus. This cruelty has been continued at WSU for two decades while the number of people with poor heart health continues to rise.

We are far from the only ones who will no longer tolerate this abuse! PCRM has filed a legal complaint, you may view this here; http://www.pcrm.org/pdfs/research/research/WayneStateUSDAComplaint101911Final.pdf

Please make an ethical decision. Let WSU know you will not support these monstrous acts to continue within the same institution in which you hold pride.

Now I urge you, to see the truth of this matter, take charge and stop these atrocities within your educational institution! Everyone involved by sponsoring and/or supporting WSU in any fashion is culpable and, therefore, I will no longer patronize your establishment.

Sincerely,

week five is here

how many have cried

at the tragic way

sweet queenie died.

so now we write

for you to do

the right thing,

let kindness get

you through.

WE STAND IN DEFIANCE

AGAINST PSEUDOSCIENCE!!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Rob Hille

Please click HERE to send automatic message protesting the construction of a new foie gras producing facility in China

Background | Source HSI

The production of pâté de foie gras involves force-feeding ducks and geese by thrusting a long pipe down the birds’ throats and pumping an unnatural quantity of food directly into their stomachs.

Plans have been revealed for an industrial-sized foie gras production facility, to house millions of geese, in China.

Rightly, this terrible practice of force feeding is widely condemned around the world and is prohibited it in much of Europe including the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Italy and Poland, as well as Argentina, Israel and in the U.S. state of California.

Please, act now:  Sign our petition HERE to the Chinese Premier – Ask him to stop plans for this cruel foie gras production facility

foie gross.
a decadent
evil meal.
why would
anyone partake
what is
the deal:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

PETA

BACKGROUND | SOURCE PETA

Ideal Poultry Breeding Farms, a company that sells and ships live birds, uses live baby chicks as packing material! According to complainants and Ideal Poultry’s own website, male chicks are included as filler in live shipments so that the birds who were ordered can be kept warm during transit. Sadly, many of these filler chicks reportedly arrive dead or die within hours of arrival. One caller who adopted several ailing filler chicks from a neighbor contacted PETA with a heartbreaking story: She tended, fed, and watered her chicks with a dropper throughout their first night, but she could only watch as each one slowly died.

We reached out to Janet Crouch, the owner of Ideal Poultry, but our concerns were brushed off with the response that male chicks are used for warmth and to take up extra space in the box. … Adding males for warmth is an acceptable practice with backyard poultry hatcheries.”

Your voice is needed! Please contact Crouch and let her know that live animals are not disposable and that using them as shipping material is inhumane! Please urge her to stop shipping live animals or, at the very least, to use heating packs in place of live chicks.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Janet Crouch
Ideal Poultry Breeding Farms, Inc.
800-243-3257, ext. 5562
254-697-2393 (fax)
janet.crouch@idealpoultry.com

You can also email help@idealpoultry.com or sales@idealpoultry.com

If emails get returned, send a message via PETA’s electronic mail system HERE

Click HERE for free faxing from your computer.  No fax machine, credit card, or registering required.


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Ms. Crouch,

I am shocked to learn Ideal Poultry Breeding Farms ships live baby chicks as packing material and I am respectfully requesting you discontinue this business; one, they may not survive shipping and two, the recipient may abuse, neglect, or even kill the baby chicks, especially those people inexperienced in the care of baby chicks.

Please allow me to elaborate.  Animals are sentient beings, capable of thought and emotion, including love and suffering.   I ask you to acknowledge this important condition that both humans and non-humans share.  Animals are undeserving of this cruel legacy whereby they are exploited and suffered for human greed and egotistical motive, which only fosters the dangerous premise of acceptable suffering against all animals, human and non-human.

Please consider my request, immediately cease causing harm to these inquisitive and intelligent animals by discontinuing your participation in the breeding and shipping business. Many other companies have already made the decision to stop the transportation of animals for such unethical practices, and I hope you, too, make the similar decision.  Animals have rights to live free from pain and suffering regardless of objections to acknowledge such; I therefore hope this message finds you willing to examine and subsequently change your potential complicity in their abuse and potential death.

Thank you for taking the time to read this importance request.

NAME

Filler chicks?
Beyond cruel
And sick

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

PETA

BACKGROUND

Because of the extreme cruelty involved in the production of foie gras—the diseased and “fatty liver” of force-fed ducks and geese—many restaurants and grocery stores around the world have stopped serving and selling it. Yet Celebrity Cruises—which is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, the world’s second-largest cruise-line operator—continues to serve foie gras on some of its cruises.

Investigations of foie gras farms in the U.S. and overseas have documented countless sick, dead, and dying birds, including some animals who were found suffering from holes in their necks after pipes had been forced down their throats. One investigation in New York found ducks crammed into wire cages. Animals’ beaks were bloody, and their wings were twisted together. At another foie gras farm, in Europe, birds were found dangling by wires as blood spilled from their neck wounds onto live animals beneath them.

Foie gras production is so cruel that it has been condemned by the pope and is prohibited in 15 countries, including the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Richard Fain
CEO of Royal Caribbean
rfain@rccl.com


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear CEO Fain,

I am greatly disturbed to learn that on some cruise ships Royal Caribbean is serving foie gras, the production of which inflicts incredible suffering and cruelty upon sentient animals. As such, I respectfully request you take immediate steps to eliminate foie gras from your menus.

Foie gras, French for “fatty liver,” is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. The birds are kept in tiny wire cages or packed into sheds. Pipes are repeatedly shoved down the birds’ throats, and up to 4 pounds of grain and fat are pumped into their stomachs two or three times every day. The pipes puncture many birds’ throats, sometimes causing the animals to bleed to death. This cruel procedure causes the birds’ livers to become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to stand up. The birds who survive the force-feeding are killed, and their livers are sold for foie gras.

Globally, people have spoken out against the cruelty of foie gras. In 2004, California passed a law banning the sale and production of foie gras, effective this year; his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI denounced foie gras, the force-feeding as being in violation of Biblical principles; and foie gras production has been outlawed in the U.K., Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, and Israel.

As such, I respectfully request you please reconsider and make the compassionate and ethical decision to ban foie gras. You may be interested to know in addition to those people and places indicated above, many regional chefs and colleagues have recently removed foie gras from their menus, and I would love to inform my friends and acquaintances that Royal Caribbean has joined them by also rejecting this torture and eliminating foie gras. Until such a time, however, I maintain the only ethical decision is to promote a boycott of your ships and utilizing instead the ones that do not sell foie gras.

I look forward to a positive response, however, so that I may visit your establishment again.

Please feel free to watch the following video illustrating in disturbing detail the inherent cruelty of foie gras production:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAzrSl0ztsQ&feature=youtu.be

Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.

NAME

royal caribbean,
your foie gross
policy really stinks,
compassion is a ship
that must not sink

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Facebook

SOURCE: FACEBOOK EVENT

BACKGROUND

Welcome back everyone, to our weekly Cyber Action E-mail Blast where we are going to shut down Wayne State Universities’ Lab of
Torture “In Memory of Queenie.”

We are now in week 4 of this event and will be targeting Wayne States Alumni once again. Wayne State University has more than 230,000 alumni living throughout the United States and around the world. Here are a couple of statistics on WSU Alumni!

•About 75 percent of WSU alumni live in Michigan, providing a diverse, highly skilled talent pool for employers.
•About 30 percent of practicing physicians in Michigan and 43 percent of practicing physicians in the tri-county area received all or part of their medical training at Wayne State.
•75 percent of the Law School’s graduates live and work in Michigan; 18 percent of the judges on the Michigan Court of Appeals and six judges on the US District Courts are WSU Law alumni.
WSU Alumni have a yearly membership fee of $30 which comes to a total of $6,900,000 according to the number of Alumni living at this time!

As you can see the WSU Alumni have around the world support and not only fund, but are supporting animal torture at WSU. Our weekly Cyber Action event is dedicated to Queenie, a companion animal (Dalmation mix) who was turned in to a shelter in Gratiot Co. MI as a stray, only to be sold shortly thereafter to a sadistic vivisector from WSU.

This is where Queenie died a miserable, torturous death that no being should have to endure! I have inserted a link with facts of this case as obtained by PCRM if you are not already familiar with this case http://pcrm.org/good-medicine/2012/winter2012/queenies-story.

WSU must be persuaded to abandon the cruel and inhumane animal experiments from which they gain millions of dollars annually.

Therefore, it is time to apply systematic and sustained pressure on them, their benefactors, their sponsors and the WSU community worldwide.….

Thank you for your participation!


WHOM TO CONTACT

m.rigby@wayne.edu, aw9863@wayne.edu, ab2746@wayne.edu, michelle.martin@wayne.edu, sarah.freeman@wayne.edu, m.cousin@wayne.edu , cscheidel@wayne.edu, klkoehler@wayne.edu, aa9929@wayne.edu, aa2191@wayne.edu, c.j.parrish@wayne.edu, LJR@chem.wayne.edu, woodyard@wayne.edu, ay1414@wayne.edu, ab1165@wayne.edu, ab0070@wayne.edu, ab1146@wayne.edu, ab2297@wayne.edu, ad5015@wayne.edu, MIKIDIWAY@wideopenwest.com, dr3340@wayne.edu, au8223@wayne.edu, aa0955@wayne.edu, w.h.volz@wayne.edu, k.feathers@wayne.edu, aa1104@wayne.edu, aa6460@wayne.edu, ag7246@wayne.edu, ivan.avrutsky@wayne.edu, jku@wayne.edu, apandya@indigo.eng.wayne.edu, jpotoff@eng.wayne.edu, aa0057@wayne.edu, wolfson@wayne.edu, ak1354@wayne.edu, vdallas@wayne.edu, aa5782@wayne.edu, aa1708@wayne.edu, ab8898@wayne.edu, bb4184@wayne.edu, aa2846@wayne.edu, mcintyre@wayne.edu, lrydstedt@med.wayne.edu, tstemmle@med.wayne.edu, ssundaram@pet.wayne.edu, rthomas@med.wayne.edu, etisdale@med.wayne.edu, ad6056@wayne.edu, jhudson@med.wayne.edu, dwildman@med.wayne.edu, jwithey@med.wayne.edu, zyang@med.wayne.edu, aa1565@wayne.edu, aa2347@wayne.edu, aw9799@wayne.edu, oupicky@wayne.edu, av6281@wayne.edu, hsandlin@wayne.edu, shawnal@wayne.edu, dt4578@wayne.edu, dw6163@wayne.edu


SAMPLE LETTER

To Whom It Concerns,

This letter is to inform you that the WSU Alumni are directly responsible for allowing horrific dog heart failure experimentation to continue in the labs at Wayne State University. These experiments include the imprisonment, torture, maiming, and murdering of innocent shelter dogs.

Since technologically-advanced alternatives are available, as a supporter of this school, you, too, are responsible for this scientific fraud.This is unacceptable.

These useless and inhumane experiments have been continuing for 20 years at WSU, while the human heart disease rates are only increasing. Unlike humans, heart failure in dogs and many other animals is irreversible.

WSU is allowing former companion dogs purchased from Michigan Animal Shelters to be forced to run dozens of treadmill experiments with catheters protruding from their bodies and incisions leaking blood and other bodily fluids, causing pain and distress–with no anesthesia or compassion whatsoever–until they die!

I am sure that you are aware of these extremely painful and unethical experiments on dogs at WSU. However, let me add a quote from a well-respected cardiologist: “Felony animal cruelty charges should be brought against Wayne State, and the use of dogs in painful heart experiments should be halted immediately,” says John J. Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., a cardiologist and director of academic affairs for PCRM.

I urge you now, to see the truth of this matter, to take charge and to stop these atrocities within your educational institution! Everyone who is involved by sponsoring and/or supporting WSU in any way is culpable and therefore I will no longer be patronizing your establishment.

Please make an ethical decision. Consider withdrawing your support for WSU.

Sincerely,

Week four will only be the end
If torture like this is no longer
A trend
Not another should suffer,
How queenie cried,
No other animal
Should go through
How queenie died

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Pet Pardons News: Jeffrey Nally Jr. was sentenced on Wednesday to 10-45 years in prison for torturing and killing at least 29 dogs he collected from Craigslist and "free to a good home ads."

Source: Pet Pardons News

Convicted serial dog killer, Jeffrey Nally, of New Cumberland West Virginia was sentenced by Judge Fred Fox II on Wednesday to 10-45 years behind bars. While animal advocates would rather have seen him spend life in prison, the truth is that this sentence is substantial considering that animal abuse cases seldom carry this kind of weight.  From that standpoint, the outcome is a victory.

It is true though, that this was no run of the mill animal abuse case. This was a brutal series of intentional mutilations, torture and execution of innocent puppies. Nally was accused of mutilating and killing 29 puppies that he received through classified ads, and Craigslist “free to good home” ads.

Nally’s house was raided by a SWAT team in March of 2011 when his girlfriend’s mother called authorities. His then girlfriend, Jessica Sellers, alleged that Nally had been holding her captive in his home and terrorizing her by torturing and murdering the animals in front of her.

Police found 29 dog carcasses on Nally’s property. They also found guns, which Nally was prohibited from possessing due to a 2010 domestic battery conviction, and collected other items including blood and hair covered tools and what appeared to be a beagle’s pelt and eyes in a jar.

During an evidence suppression hearing, Nally’s court-appointed attorney, James Carey, had argued to keep the pelt and the eyes out of evidence, citing a lack of scientific proof the items are what police claimed them to be. He also stated that he believed some of the crime scene photographs were staged.

Related: Alleged Puppy Torturer Appears in Court

Also Related: Accused ‘Free to Good Home’ Pet Killer Will Move to Suppress Evidence

Nally, age 20, was facing 29 counts of felony animal cruelty, one count of domestic battery, one count of kidnapping and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm. Although he had passed on a plea deal offered to him last January, he took the plea offer he was offered this week.

Hancock County Prosecutor James W. Davis said that there had been an overwhelming outpouring of concern in the form of letters and e-mails from around the world relating to this case.

Nally pled guilty to nine charges of felony animal abuse and unlawful possession of a firearm. He will receive one to five years on each count of cruelty, and one year on the firearm charge to be served concurrently.

Nally has already spent a year behind bars while his case was continued in Hancock County Court. He will have to serve a minimum of five years before he can apply for an early release. In exchange for pleading guilty to the nine charges of felony cruelty, the sexual assault, kidnapping charge and other 20 cruelty charges were dropped.

Nally has shown no remorse for his actions, but Davis said that he has changed during the past year. “I wouldn’t call it remorse, but he has accepted that what he did was wrong,” said Davis. “Of course, people like this, sociopaths, they are mostly only concerned with how circumstances are affecting them.”

Restrictions on Nally ever having a pet and other requirements will be addressed further down the road at the time of his eventual release. “Not just having any pet,” Davis said. “I don’t want him to be around any animals, ever. Definitely not under the same roof.”

Davis said that a few dogs had escaped the house of horrors and have been adopted. “They are having great lives.” He said.

Part of the plea deal is the condition that Nally submit to a polygraph test and debrief authorities on Seller’s involvement in the cruelty charges. Sellers reportedly told investigators Nally said the only way she was leaving his 1855 Orchard Road home was “in a body bag,” and that on the day of his arrest he forced her to hold a puppy as he bored into its head with an electric drill. However, she testified during a February pretrial motions hearing that she had left the house without Nally’s supervision on several occasions during her approximately three-month “captivity” there.

“Ms. Sellers was a problematic witness,” Davis said, “because there is some question as to her level of involvement. There is some evidence that she obtained the animals for him.  My dogs, they won’t hold still to have their nails clipped…these dogs he tortured…to do what he did, somebody had to hold them still. A dog is not going to hold still while a drill is bored into its skull.”

Davis was audibly distressed while discussing details of the case, and became overwhelmed and unable to continue when it was remarked that the case had greatly disturbed him.

Following Wednesday’s hearing, Davis had noted the contributions of other people and groups involved with the investigation, including West Virginia State Police Cpl. Larry Roberts, Hancock County sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Swan and county Animal Control Officer Nicole Busick. He praised the work of forensic experts Drs. Beth Wictum of UC Davis and Melinda Merck – the latter of whom helped federal prosecutors build a case against Michael Vick – and thanked the Animal Legal Defense Fund for its pledge of financial support for the prosecution of the case.

Scott Heiser, of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, said there is still work to be done. He referred to Nally as a narcissistic psychopath, and said that he believes that Nally cannot be rehabilitated. He does not think that Nally will be released in as little as five years.

“He is a clear and manifest threat to society,” Heiser said.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit that helps provide funds and support to prosecutors around the country for the best possible outcome in criminal cases of animal abuse. They provided the funds for the forensic scientists to build the case against Nally.

Heiser recommends that once Nally is transferred to the WV Division of Corrections, risk-scored, placed in one of WV’s several prisons and his projected release date set that then would be a good time to start a petition campaign urging the Parole Board to recognize Nally’s immense danger to society and ask that they deny him any concessions (e.g., no work release) and deny his release after serving the five-year minimum.

About the author: Ariel Wulff is an author, artist and animal advocate. She has worked in animal rescue for more than 24 years, authoring the book Born Without a Tail, a memoir of her experiences with rescued animals. She writes a column as the Cleveland Pets Examiner, and is the National Animal Books Examiner. She also maintains a personal blog about dogs: Up on the Woof, and uses her yelodoggie art to spread the joy of living with dogs.

this monster needs to be locked up in
a cell,
with only pictures of his victims,
as company,
his own living hell.
to never see freedom,
to be forever in a cage,
banging his head against
his own wall
of ignorance and rage:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

SOURCE: ESA

Contact Speaker Thom Tillis and Senator Pro Tem Phil Burger and tell them to get rid of puppy mills in NC.

BACKGROUND

Laila’s Story

The youngest member of the Kreem family has been working to support the NC chapter of HSUS and the North Carolina Voters for Animal Welfare to bring awareness to the upcoming bill to be presented in NC that will call for Commercial Breeders to be monitored to assure that the dogs are kept in sanitary conditions and that they are receiving appropriate veterinary care. This law will weed out the quality breeders from the mass breeders who have hundreds of dogs suffering on their property for the sole pupose of breeding the life out of them.

Laila has been traveling to events across NC, to share the rack cards created by the NC voters for Animal Welfare, telling citizens how to contact their local reps to request commercial breeder legislation. Some of you have met Laila, some have not. She’s a little firecracker that survived the most horrid conditions and hopefully will put a face with the suffering that is going on in Puppy Mills in NC. We’ve been everywhere from ladies groups, to churches, to pet friendly businesses to our first visit to spring mala at a yoga studio! If you belong to, or come across any groups that we can have about 10 minutes to share this info or be a guest and just hang out at an event to share legislation information, please let me know, we’d love to add more places to her calendar!

We’d like to unite NC rescues to stand for this cause and would love the opportunity to share this information with your supporters. There’s no competition for funding or face time, the only agenda is to urge voters to contact District Representatives and Senators. If you have an event, or know another group with an event coming up, we’d love to join you and share this information. If I can’t attend myself, I have a strong group of supporters/handlers that are always willing to step up to bring Laila and share this information.

If you have businesses in your area that are geared toward companion animals who would be willing to keep her cards in their business, we’d be glad to send to them. We’ve distributed about 4,000 so far and are more than happy to keep sharing.

Here’s Laila’s story and her mission for those who aren’t familiar with it:

Hundreds of Dogs Rescued from N.C. Puppy Mill

Dogs housed in unsanitary conditions, lacking medical care …

The Humane Society of the United States’ Animal Rescue Team was called in by Caldwell County Animal Control to assist in the rescue of approximately 300 dogs from a Hudson, North Carolina property. The dogs were being housed in unsanitary conditions and lacked proper socialization and medical care. The owner has surrendered all of the dogs to Caldwell County Animal Control.

Read more from HSUS press release


Puppy Mill Awareness isn’t one day, it’s EVERY day …

Read more and get flyers here.


Inside View of a North Carolina Puppy Mill

(Source: Article by Donna Doe on PuppyMillRescue)

As a rescuer pretending to be a breeder, going inside a large multi breed puppy mill was an emotional roller coaster from sadness to disgust and horror. Having to keep an emotionless face and not react to what I saw and learned was the hardest part.

It is difficult to get inside a puppy mill and if you should find one contact PuppymillRescue. Please do not attempt to go in to see for yourself, as it may ruin the hard efforts of those who have already gained access.

When I arrived, there was an eerie silence and a strong acid smell engulfed the entire yard. The miller talked about the dogs as we headed to one of several buildings. The dogs heard us approaching and they began to bark and whine.

As I stepped inside a building a stronger putrid smell took my breath. My eyes started watering and with the dim lighting it took a couple of minutes to see the dogs. The barking was deafening.

There were small dogs, Poms, Dachshunds, Chihuahuas, and Pugs, crowded in rows of small wooden boxes that were too high for them to see over. Their world was only wooden sides. Dogs were circling and stepping on each other as they frantically jumped up trying to see over the top, some begged for attention, and some were motionless. Some cowed in fear.

On the other side were mostly larger breeds crowded in small inside boxes that opened into small outdoor runs.

One little pregnant Chi was being trampled and the miller said the pups would be born in the next few days.

When the miller’s back was turned, I was able to give a few a kind touches. When inquiring about a particular dog, the miller’s hand would move in circles just above the dog’s heads. This created more panic as they tried to escape from the hand. The miller grabbed the dogs by the hair or which ever body part could be caught as they were handed to me for inspection. When held the dogs remained motionless in fear. There were toothless dogs and some with only a few rotten teeth.

The miller explained how she stuck her finger inside their mouth to remove loose teeth and as it was easy, there was no reason to pay a vet to do this.

We entered another building much the same as the one before. I will forever be haunted by a Boston Terrier mom with one tiny pup in a small wooden box. The mother was frantically jumping for attention, but she was stepping on the pup. The miller kept screaming at her to stop and said that the other pups were trampled to death by the mother dog. I walked a little further down the rows of dogs hoping that if I moved away the dog might stop jumping and the miller would stop screaming at her. The screaming continued and as I turned,

I saw the miller pick up a long wooden board (2×4) and it rose above the miller’s head.

The miller noticed me watching and as the board swung down the miller’s arm moved slightly to the side and the sound of a hard hit against the top of the box echoed throughout the building. Feeling horror and anger, had the dog been hit my cover would have been blown as I could not have remained indifferent. Realizing that the board was there for a purpose, I have no doubts that it had been used on this dog. The pup’s cries were pitiful and I walked over and saw this mother dog with eyes tightly closed flattened on the floor against the back of the box trembling in terror. She did not look at me or make a sound. She did not move again while we were in that building.

As we were leaving the building, I noticed a tiny female min pin in a small wire cage placed away from the other dogs. A rear leg was at a weird angle. The miller said the dog hurt her leg, but she was fine. I asked if a vet had checked her leg and the response was no. This tiny girl trembled in silence. When the miller walked away, I reached thru the wire and softy touched her. This girl tugged at my heart.

The miller showed me Shih Tzu, Yorkie, and mixed puppies, all sizes and ages. The miller would bring out arm loads of pups from an area I had not seen. They were covered with dried feces and fleas. As the miller held them, they never wiggled or moved, but remained motionless in fear.

Around the buildings were many dog pens with small and large breeds. Their enclosures were mud with several inches of standing water and feces everywhere. The larger dogs only had metal barrels for protection from the cold and rain.

Around the buildings w ere many dog pens with small and large breeds. Their enclosures were mud with several inches of standing water and feces everywhere. The larger dogs only had metal barrels for protection from the cold and rain.

The other buildings in this mill were the same or worse conditions, but housed different breeds. There were numerous dogs with eye injuries, large cherry eyes, infected eyes, and skin infections, which were obvious at a glance.

The dogs rescued from this mill have had no teeth, no lower jaws, broken jaws, broken bones and were matted with feces hardened hair. One little Pom was so badly matted on his rear end that he could not go to the bathroom. Some dogs have Heartworms, intestinal worms, and some with medical problems that required surgery. All were filthy with fleas. We now know that some lived with constant pain and without vet care. Millers do their own medical care, if any, in order to save money. This was explained by the miller.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Thom.Tillis@ncleg.net; Phil.Berger@ncleg.net


SAMPLE LETTERS

Sample Letter One

Dear Speaker Tillis and Senator Pro Tem Burger,

Please end all puppy mill operations in North Carolina. They are institutions of animal abuse.

Thank you for your consideration of this  important message.


Sample Letter Two

Dear Speaker Tillis and Senator Pro Tem Burger,

We are a puppy mill state and our current cruelty laws are not sufficient to protect the dogs in these facilities. Dogs in unscrupulous commercial dog breeding facilities (puppy mills) must suffer for an extended period of time before law enforcement can step in. Our cruelty laws also do not address consumer fraud and taxation. NC leadership needs to support a responsible bill to regulate dog breeders in NC and make them accountable to the animals and the community.

Thank you for your consideration of this  important message..


Sample Letter Three

Dear Speaker Tillis and Senator Pro Tem Burger,

Puppy mills are horrendous places of animal cruelty. More and more people are becoming aware of these despicable operations. Those who make money from the lives of dogs like this should be treated as the criminals they are. Please do the right thing and prosecute all puppy mill operations.

Thank you for your consideration of this  important message.

Be an esoldier!

puppies, milled
We live here in a puppy mill
It is winter now, and we are
So chilled
When summer comes the
Heat is very strong
Our fur gets matted,
It gets too long
We cannot breathe
We cannot see
we can only feel
our misery
please rescue us
please get us out
we are not human
so we cannot shout

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

]]> http://our-compass.org/2012/04/10/stop-puppy-mills-in-north-carolina/feed/ 5 ourcompassadmin 800px-Wildlife_trade_-_puppy_mill http://our-compass.org/2012/04/09/ban-south-korean-dog-and-cat-meat-trade/ http://our-compass.org/2012/04/09/ban-south-korean-dog-and-cat-meat-trade/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:57:28 +0000 Stacey http://our-compass.org/?p=23547 ]]>

Wikimedia Commons

SOURCE: ESA

Please send a sample letter (three samples below) urging the ban of the dog and cat meat trade, thank you.

BACKGROUND

Every year, two million South Korean dogs and cats, the majority of whom are homeless, are captured by butchers and sold in open markets. They await the most gruesome fate—dogs are slowly and agonizingly torn apart, electrocuted, strangled, or beaten to death while cats are bludgeoned and boiled alive for human consumption. The cruelty and suffering is one of unimaginable horror.

South Korean’s Animal Protection Law, which was passed in 1991, considers dogs to be “domestic pets,” but the shadowy and illicit world of the dog and cat industry flourishes because of the shameful indifference of the South Korean government.

While the majority of South Koreans are dog and cat lovers, myths and lies surrounding the alleged medicinal properties of the meat persists among a very small minority of the population.

South Koreans have only eaten dogs when poverty has been widespread, as was the case during World War II. Yet even during those punishing times, dogs were treated as companion animals.

Source: IDA website. Read more there.


Local Group Demonstrates Against South Korea’s Consumption of Dogs And Cats

The San Francisco-based animal rights organization In Defense of Animals wants South Koreans to stop eating animals–at least the adorable ones, anyway.

The group is staging a protest in front of San Francisco’s South Korean consulate this Tuesday, where it will be delivering a petition with over 15,000 signatures urging the South Korean government to do more to stop the consumption of dogs and cats inside of its borders.

This week’s event is part of the “International Day of Action for South Korean Dogs and Cats” the organization is simultaneously holding in dozens of cities all over the world.

“While it’s now technically illegal to eat dogs and cats in South Korea, the government has not been good about enforcing the laws, thus allowing the tradition to continue in parts of the country, [In Defense of Animals Campaign Manager Robin] Dorman says. So killing dogs and cats is illegal, but the processing and sale of the animals is not, she added. “The law is deliberately obscure,” Dorman says.” (SF Weekly)

Source: Huffington Post. Read more there.


From All Creatures: Animals In Print The On-Line Newsletter 26 May 2010 Issue

Today, in violation of the Korean Animals Protection Act, two million dogs are raised or trapped for human consumption. Approximately 30% of these dogs are or were family pets, sharing their lives with humans they loved and trusted.

Many people have the impression that dog consumption is a traditional Korean food, this is anything but true. Up until the last 600 years Koreans were mostly Buddhist and living under the Koryo dynasty. The people were encouraged to eat a meat free diets.

When this dynasty came to an end a new country was formed, Korea. Though taking its name from the now defunct dynasty a new belief system and lifestyle began. In the last few hundred years there was a few people that did eat dog though it is was never a cultural habit.

About 50 years ago poverty was severe in South Korea. At this time the extremely impoverished people, did begin to consume dogs. This was not a normal eating habit.

Twenty-five years ago a new trend began to take shape the dog meat industry began to flourish. How did this happen?

Certainly not because of hunger, but due to a false belief system that by consuming the meat of a TORTURED DOG a man may increase his sexual virility. This caused dog flesh to became especially popular and a status symbol among the wealthy. Believing the adrenaline in the tissues of the tortured, slain canine would somehow exert profound effects upon their manhood their demand for this meat grew.

This belief has provided great financial opportunities for dog meat dealers. With millions of dollars to be made, illegal dog farms abound. The government looks the other way while these innocent, trusting creatures are brutalized.

Dogs are usually raised on illegal, rural dog farms, but any dog is actually fair game. Stray and abandoned dogs don’t last long in Korea. The dogs are kept in squalor, they are crammed in wire cages too small for even one dog to be comfortable. The situation is unbearable for these trusting animals. They become dehydrated from lack of proper food and water. They are forced to live in their own wastes and have no protection from extreme weather.

These dogs are exceptionally vulnerable to diseases, especially distemper and are quickly sold to markets or consumers before they appear ill. Because of this, the usual age of slaughter is between eighth months and a one year.

When the dogs are of age they are transported to large open markets. The Hyundai, with its spaciousness, is a favorite vehicle of transportation, accommodating the large cages crammed with dogs. The dogs can be seen piled on top of one another as they travel toward their doom.

They usually go to one of the three largest market places, The Chilsung Market in Taegu City, the Gupo Market in Pusan City, and the Moran Market in Sungnam City. Dogs are also sold in other smaller market places throughout Korea. They can also be found behind restaurants, alive and crammed into small cages, waiting their turn to be tortured and slaughtered.

In the larger markets the dogs are transferred from the vehicles to large cages that can hold up to 800 terrified and confused animals. Most of the dogs in the market place closely resemble each other as they are descendants of generations of interbreeding. Through all of this many of the dogs, once family pets, remain docile and hopeful, wagging their tales when approached by humans.

The market place is a cramped area filled with dogs. Cars are parked in random fashion and people can be seen walking about selecting their dog.

Once a person makes his selection the dog is dragged by a noose around its neck from its cage and purposely tortured until it is allowed to die.

The dog, chosen for sale and slaughter, may be hung, beaten with pipes or hammers and strangled repeatedly. During this atrocity, the dogs my be heard yelping, screaming and howling in agony as they struggle against their captors.

When the dog is assumed dead, it is shocked with an “electric stick”. Remember, difficult as this is to read, this form of violent killing, according to the Koreans, is necessary to both tenderize the flesh and improve its aphrodisiacal properties. The more the dog suffers, the more flavorful and beneficial the meat is thought to be, the more adrenaline. The Korean consumer demands this form of slaughter less the meats affect are nil.

The dog is then taken inside a building where it is placed inside a vat of boiling water. Finally it is removed and butchered according to the buyers discretion.

There, now, is the tragic story of a dogs’ plight in Korea, but what about the cats?

The cat fares no better in South Korea. They are not considered good pets and the few people that do attempt to have a cat in their home find it difficult. There is virtually no cat food or kitty litter to be had. There are very few vets that treat cats. Cats are thought to be a filthy, dangerous to a Korean’s health, and a threat to their well being.

Cats are best served by Koreans as an elixir usually called Liquid Cat or “cat juice.”

To accommodate the customers, the dealer will place cats in a large sack and in what seems to be the tradition, beat them to death. This is done either with a blunt object or just slamming the sack upon the ground, preferably a concrete surface.

The cats, some still alive, are then placed in large pots of boiling water, dates, ginger and chestnuts are added and the final liquefied results are believed to cure rheumatism and neuralgia.

Source: Animals’ Voice, Volume 7, Number 2 Laura Moretti

Source: Jon Bearscove

Source: Kyenan Kum

Source: anonymous Korean citizens.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Send email to government officials and ambassadors by copying and pasting the below addresses into your TO:

consular_usa@mofat.go.kr; kcgboston@mofat.go.kr; chicago@mofat.go.kr; consulatehi@mofat.go.kr; Con-hu@mofat.go.kr; consul-la@mofat.go.kr; info@koreanconsulate.org; consularsf@mofat.go.kr; seattle0404@mofat.go.kr; koreaconsulate@gmail.com; kconsul@guam.net; canada@mofat.go.kr; toronto@mofat.go.kr; vancon@mofat.go.kr; mail@koreaemb.at; czech@mofat.go.kr; korembdk@mofat.go.kr; korembfi@mofat.go.kr; koremb-fr@mofat.go.kr; gremb@mofat.go.kr; korcom@t-online.hu; israel@mofat.go.kr; consul-it@mofat.go.kr; kornor@mofat.go.kr; embpt@mofat.go.kr; koremb.sweden@mofat.go.kr; swiss@mofat.go.kr; turkey@mofat.go.kr; koreanembinuk@mofat.go.kr; korea@un.int; webmaster@koreanembassy.cn; postmaster@koreanculture.jp; economic@koreanembassy.org.nz; koembth@gmail.com; embcoreamx@mofat.go.kr; ecuador@mofat.go.kr; argentina@mofat.go.kr; emb-br@mofat.go.kr; koremb-ge@mofat.go.kr; Embajadadecoreaenchile@gmail.com; peru@mofat.go.kr; koemur@gmail.com; consyd@mofat.go.kr; india_visa@mofat.go.kr; mumbai@mofat.go.kr; korem-my@mofat.go.kr; philippines@mofat.go.kr; info@koreaembassy.org.sg; taipei@mofat.go.kr; korembfj@mofat.go.kr; koremb_in@mofat.go.kr; pakistan@mofat.go.kr; EmbassySeoulPA@state.gov


SAMPLE LETTERS

Sample Letter One

Dear Government Officials and Ambassadors:

Stop this barbaric exploitation and abuse of animals! The cruelty inflicted on dogs and cats in your country is not going unnoticed throughout the world.

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


Sample Letter Two

Dear Government Officials and Ambassadors:

As an official with the power to make a difference, please use your authority to support an amendment to strengthen South Korea’s Animal Protection Law to ban the torture, killing, sale and consumption of dogs and cats.

Please enforce the South Korean Animal Protection Law to prevent animal cruelty. Provide severe penalties for violations and ensure that mistreated animals can be legally seized. Ban the torture, killing, sale and consumption of dogs and cats.

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


Sample Letter Three

Dear Government Officials and Ambassadors:

I am appalled and shocked to learn about the rampant cruelties inflicted upon animals that have been documented in South Korea’s live food markets. The dogs and cats are raised in the most hideous and cruel environments, only to be beaten and slaughtered by the millions.

There is no appropriate animal protection legislation to prevent the prevailing animal cruelty currently taking place in South Korea. As someone who believes strongly that animals should not be treated in this way, I have the following requests:

1. I urge the South Korean Government to strengthen the South Korean Animal Protection Law to prevent animal cruelty and to introduce basic animal protection regulations. It must also provide penalties for violations and ensure that mistreated animals can be legally seized from abusers and given immediate refuge.

2. I request that the South Korean Government create an enforceable law to ban the torture, killing, sale, and consumption of dogs and cats.

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

Be an esoldier!

you have your traditions
we do not understand,
we wish to spread love
throughout your land.
love for all animals,
especially those
who live to love you,
do you suppose,
you could stop killing
and eating your friends,
this is the 21 st century
it is time that this ends!!!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Source: Animal Alliance NYC

The Archdiocese of New York agreed to work with the NYC Feral Cat Initiative (NYCFCI) of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals to restore daily care and feeding to the colony of eight feral cats living at the historic St. James Church in lower Manhattan. During a sixty-day trial period, a suitable feeding station and shelters for the cats will be placed and a litter box will be added to the regimen of care. There will be an onsite meeting with the church pastor and caretakers this week to work out a routine acceptable to all. The NYCFCI has submitted a proposal for consideration outlining guidelines for ongoing care for the colony to be reconsidered and adopted after the sixty-day trial period.

The agreement was reached at a March 27 meeting attended by Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals President Jane Hoffman, Monsignor Kevin Nelan of the Archdiocese of New York, Father Lino Gonsalves of St. James Church, and NYCFCI Community Outreach Coordinator Mike Phillips. A dynamic and vigorous discussion of the virtues of Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) was a part of the meeting, as well as the importance of continued daily feeding in order to assure continued stability of any feral colony.

Fortunately, the TNR project at St. James was already completed and discussions began from that strong position. Chinatown is known to be one of the most rodent-infested areas of New York City, as well as having large numbers of unneutered feral cats roaming the area. After explanation of the merit of keeping a neutered and vaccinated colony in place, there was agreement that removal of the cats was not in anyone’s best interest.

Kudos to TNR volunteer Elizabeth Eller for the energy she devoted to the project starting in 2009. Her completion of TNR on the eight cats lent much more weight to arguments defending the current presence of the colony. The colony has not grown in three years since two litters of kittens were trapped, tamed, and adopted at the beginning of the project. In contrast, a colony being fed without TNR cannot be defended with such effectiveness. Thank you, Elizabeth, on behalf of the colony. May they enjoy continued care and acceptance thanks to your very timely hard work!

The need for education in responsible pet ownership (the human component of feral cat management) was also discussed to prevent additional cats from being abandoned to the streets and starting new feral colonies.

The church is setting a fine example of leadership by example with this compassionate and humane consideration for these cats abandoned to the street through no fault of their own. Please express your thanks to the Archdiocese of New York for their willingness to meet and their agreement to the sixty-day trial period. Though not completely resolved, we are confident this will be a win-win for the cats and St. James Church.

Subscribe to the NYC Feral Cat Initiative mailing list and/or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for further updates on the story.

Thank the Archdiocese of New York!

Thank the Archdiocese of New York by contacting Joseph Zwilling, Communications Director, at communications@archny.org or (212) 371-1011 x2997.

in the spirit of our holiest days
goodness as worked
in these most wonderful
ways☺☻☺

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

PETA

Please click on and sign Don’t Let Whistleblowers Be Silenced

House File (H.F.) 1369 and Senate File (S.F.) 1118, which are now before the Minnesota state legislature, would subject whistleblowers to criminal prosecution for their efforts to expose cruelty to animals on factory farms, in laboratories, and in other facilities in which animals are abused. If passed, the bills would make it a crime to photograph or record video in these facilities without the owner’s consent—even if that evidence shows violations of the law. These bills would punish whistleblowers and could hurt vital undercover work that exposes routine—and often criminal—abuse of animals in the factory-farming and animal experimentation industries.

At Crestview Farm in Minnesota, the number one turkey-producing state in the nation, a PETA undercover investigation documented that a farm manager strangled young birds and haphazardly bludgeoned dozens of others with what he called his “killing stick.” Birds who did not die immediately were still thrown onto the “dead pile,” where they were left to die slowly and in agony as they lay helpless and struggling to survive among the bloody corpses of other birds. And a recent PETA investigation at a laboratory uncovered dozens of violations of federal law that government inspectors had not found. The evidence led to the indictment of three former workers and a former manager on 14 felony cruelty-to-animals charges. Undercover video footage revealed that lab workers were kicking, throwing, and dragging dogs; lifting rabbits by their ears and puppies by their throats; violently slamming cats into cages; and screaming obscenities at animals, calling them “a**hole” and “motherf***er.” One of the defendants was shown trying to rip out a cat’s claws by violently yanking the animal from the fence onto which he or she clung in fear.

These bills are designed to shroud in secrecy industries that exploit animals for profit and to shield criminals from accountability under the law.

Fill out the form HERE to urge the Minnesota governor to oppose H.F. 1369 and S.F. 1118 today!

Abusers,
Of intellect
Lighter than
A thistle,
If you did not abuse,
We would not have to
“blow the whistle”

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

BACKGROUND | SOURCE WOOD COUNTY DEMOCRAT

A Wood County Sheriff’s deputy responded to an animal call on County Road 2174 just outside of Quitman in the Clear Lakes area Monday. Upon arrival, Deputy J.W. Williams discovered a hole in the ground and inside the hole were the metal bands from numerous burned tires and the burned carcass of a medium sized dog.

According to a press release from the sheriff’s department, witnesses advised that on Sunday the suspect, 28-year-old Larry Lowery, of Point, had thrown a dog into a fire. Lowery was confronted about burning the dog and he (Lowery) apologized but then later threw a second dog into the fire. Witnesses said Lowery was bragging about the dogs and stated that the second dog did not die. Witnesses told police that Lowery stated that the second dog jumped out of the fire and ran off on fire.

According to the release, witnesses reported approximately four people sitting around the pit watching the debris being burned and were drinking alcoholic beverages. One of the witnesses, (unknown which one), made a comment daring Lowery to throw a stray dog into the fire. Witnesses stated that Lowery picked up the stray dog and threw the dog into the fire.

Deputy Williams made contact with Lowery who gave a voluntary statement, admitting to grabbing a stray dog that had bit him approximately two weeks earlier. Lowery advised the deputy that he was swinging the dog towards the fire but that he had stumbled over a rock or a root and “accidentally” tossed the dog into the fire.

Lowery was arrested and booked into the Wood County Jail on Monday and was charged with cruelty to a non-livestock animal, a state jail felony. His bond was set at $5,000. Lowery posted bail shortly after 9 a.m. this morning (Tuesday).

The sheriff’s department would not release any additional information however did say the case will be forwarded to the Wood County District Attorney’s office for prosecution.


PETITION

Click HERE to sign petition


WHOM TO CONTACT

Jim Wheeler
Criminal District Attorney
Wood County Courthouse
Quitman, TX 75783
wcda@mywoodcounty.com
Phone: 903-763-4515
FAX: 903-763-5105


CLICK HERE FOR FREE FAXING FROM YOUR COMPUTER  No fax machine, credit card, or registering required.


SAMPLE LETTER

Case # 12-02218
Defendant: Larry Lowery

Dear District Attorney Wheeler,

I have learned of extremely disturbing and malicious case of animal cruelty in which Mr. Larry Lowery, case # 12-02218,  deliberately caused the suffering and subsequent death of a dog by throwing her into a fire. I am writing today to encourage you to effectively sentence him to the harshest penalty of animal cruelty; his crime causing unimaginable agony, fear, and death in the dog deserves social justice, not community approval.

When I try to imagine what possible motive animal abusers entertain for subjecting their animal victims to such malicious, heinous acts of brutality, I fail, but I am thankful for a lack of cognitive understanding and rationalization. To voluntarily engage in such malicious behaviour suggests sadistic tendencies, and Mr. Lowery’s actions, causing unmitigated pain and suffering, demonstrates an incontrovertible lack of morality regarding other living beings and a gross disrespect for the law. In fact, a person who shows such a remarkable lack of compassion towards non-human animals has the ability to show such indifference towards human animals. This link between animal and human abuse has been established, and if society excuses Mr. Lowery’s criminal behaviour, or agrees to a lesser punishment, we only harm ourselves by unjustly nullifying cruelty as acceptable behaviour.

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

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

Name
Address

larry lowery a subhuman beast,
deserves to spend many years,
in jail, at least.
in solitary, no friends, no phone
just pictures of the dog he killed,
so he does not feel “alone”
any punishment, less
would be a disgrace,
you can see the lack of humanity
on that man’s hateful face

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Wikimedia Commons

Please click HERE for action and letter or see below.

Source: 3Dayz

Background

Sea turtles use light as a navigation tool, instinctively moving toward light at night. Sand dunes typically obscure the night’s natural light from their view, and this instinct to follow the light allows them to then find the sea. But when artificial lights shine above the sand dunes, sea turtles can become disoriented and wander inland to their death.

The Hillsboro Inlet Entrance Lighthouse in Pompano, Florida casts an extremely bright, 1,000-watt light onto the beach that attracts sea turtle hatchlings and lures them to their doom. The U.S. Coast Guard is currently evaluating the lighthouse and its effect on endangered sea turtles. It is unclear whether the lighthouse still serves a valid navigational role; its continued operation would likely only be cosmetic and historical. Unfortunately this issue has been inaccurately spun as a choice between sea turtles and a beloved, historic lighthouse. But in fact the lighthouse need not be at risk as long as simple steps are taken to give Florida’s turtles a fighting chance.

If the Coast Guard determines it is necessary to continue to illuminate the lighthouse, there are several easy steps it can and should take to help reduce the danger to sea turtles from the lighthouse. Please send LTJG Andrew Haley from the US Coast Guard our example letter and tell him about the 9 simple steps that can be taken to protect endangered sea turtles.


Whom To Contact

Commander, USCG Seventh District
Brickell Plaza Federal Building
909 SE. 1st Ave.
Miami, FL 33131
USA

Email: andrew.s.haley@uscg.mil, protest@3dayz.com


Sample Letter

Dear LTJG Andrew Haley,

I strongly urge you to take simple steps to protect sea turtles in Pompano. Sea turtles use light as a navigation tool, instinctively moving toward light at night. Sand dunes typically obscure the night’s natural light from their view, and this instinct to follow the light allows them to then find the sea. But when artificial lights shine above the sand dunes, sea turtles can become disoriented and wander to their death.

The Hillsboro Inlet Entrance Lighthouse is a major source of artificial light that has been documented to cause sea turtle disorientation and even death. It is unclear whether the lighthouse still serves a valid navigational role; its continued operation would likely only be cosmetic and historical. Therefore, if the Coast Guard determines it is necessary to continue to illuminate the lighthouse, there are several steps it can and should take to help reduce the danger to sea turtles from the lighthouse.

1. Change the color from 1,000-watt tungsten halogen (bright white) to high or preferably low pressure sodium (yellowish tinge) for a more animal-friendly color.

2. Reduce the lumen output by using several 250-watt lamps or fewer.

3. Mask the portion of the lens room visible from the sand by rotating the metal shield blocking condominium bedrooms that is already in place.

4. Install a frosted, Plexiglas panel or filter curtain to dim the beam, only over the nesting beaches and only during turtle season.

5. Shield the bottom half pane of glass in the light enclosure such that stray light visible to the beach is eliminated.

6. Shield the bottom of the clamshell double lens so the lamp is not visible to the ground directly below and about 100-feet from the supporting structure.

7. Change the speed or direction of rotation so it is more suitable to sea turtle nesting.

8. Paint the ceiling and all structural elements in the lens room nonreflecting black.

9. Tinted glass or film with a visible light transmittance value of 45 percent or less could be applied to all glass windows and doors within line of sight of dry land.

Thank you for seriously considering these measures. This issue is important to me personally, and I look forward to seeing many of these simple turtle-safety measures put into practice.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

a lighthouse should be a beacon of life
not a cause of death, and sea turtle strife
these little creatures,wander confused
and lost,
your artificial illumination, at a
terrible cost.
with some humane changes,
just a few,
think of all the
good you can do.

Karen Lyons Kalmenson