HighestWelfare.Humane.Assured.GoodPractices.Vegetarian. Regenerative.Flexitarian.Lies...
What is the difference between No Welfare, High Welfare, and Highest Welfare when they all require animals to die? Only human comfort, NONE protect the actual animals. The most humane, ethical, and honest Webster-defined "welfare" is NOT exploiting animals - not using, not wearing, not eating, not killing - animals. The only meaningful position is vegan, everything else is just how humans euphemize animals' required suffering and violent deaths: no human exploits animals because they honestly believe that NOT exploiting animals is UNethical or INhumane.
Act Now To Stop ABC Show Glamorizing Ringling Bros. Circus: sample messages provided
Image | ELE
ABC recently announced a new program in development called Bazirkus, which, according to Deadline Hollywood, is a soap opera “based loosely” on Nicole Feld of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Feld is the producer of the circus owned by her father, Kenneth Feld. The show would feature a “fictional circus” modeled after Ringling, which is notorious for its abuse of animals, and would likely feature live wild animals in its production. And by using live wild animals in its production, ABC would be participating in the abuse inherent in the training and use of these animals in entertainment.
Please send a message to ABC (text characters are limited but each sample below will fit), urging the company to abandon the development of Bazirkus. You’ll need to personalize the Sample Message below, and then copy it onto ABC’s webform.
WHOM TO CONTACT
- Under category select “primetime other”
- Under subject select “complaint”
SAMPLE TEXT ONE
I am horrified that ABC is considering a series called Bazirkus, based on the Ringling Bros. Circus, that will glorify this cruel form of entertainment and possibly use and abuse animals in its production. Animals in the circus are beaten, confined and forced to perform despite illness and injury. Babies are forcibly torn from their mothers for training.
If ABC develops and airs Bazirkus, you will lose many viewers, including myself, to networks that don’t glorify animal abuse.
SAMPLE TEXT TWO
I am horrified that ABC is considering a series called Bazirkus, based on the Ringling Bros. Circus, that will glorify this cruel form of entertainment and possibly use and abuse animals in its production. Animals in the circus are beaten, confined and forced to perform despite illness and injury. Babies are forcibly torn from their mothers for training.
You will lose a loyal viewer: please watch footage of the cruelty you will be sanctioning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQrmwuSXOTs
VIDEO FOOTAGE
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PETA INTERNATIONAL ANIMAL-FREE CIRCUSES
Read more…
China Cancels Dog-Meat Festival
From PETA
Thank you, China! In a move that breaks with a tradition reportedly going back 600 years—when dogs barked, giving away the army’s position—officials have canceled an annual Chinese festival in which 5,000 to 10,000 dogs are killed and eaten on the streets of Jinhua City. The cancellation follows protests by thousands of animal rights advocates. This is a wonderful move by the Chinese government, and we hope to see many more compassionate decisions like this in the years ahead.
One protester described what he had seen at previous festivals: “I’ve seen the dogs being stabbed, strangled and even beaten into comas and thrown into boiling water. Some dogs woke up in the extremely hot water and they struggled, but the vendors kept pushing them, plucking their fur.”
If this sounds horrifying, bear in mind that animals by the billions meet similar fates in American slaughterhouses every year. Improperly stunned cows, turkeys, pigs, and chickens have their throats cut while they are still conscious. The beating and intentional abuse of animals by farm workers is rampant. And pigs, chickens, and turkeys are often still alive when they are dunked into tanks of scalding-hot water to remove their hair and feathers.
Order your free vegetarian/vegan starter kit today and protect all animals from painful slaughter.
PETA’s Vegan Shopping List
Guide To Cruelty-Free Eating: Vegan Outreach
USA Friends: We The People Support a Ban on Horse Slaughter
Please click on and sign Support a Ban on Horse Slaughter
Background | From The Persian Horse’s Blog
The Petition Link is to the White House’s We The People, where folks can create a petition. If that petition reaches 5000 signatures within 30 days, the White House Staff WILL read it and pass the petition up the ladder. HUGE…RIGHT? Well, this Petition was written by LAURA ALLEN, the Founder and Executive Director of ANIMAL LAW COALITION. We have until October 23 to reach our goal of 5000. The name of the petition is “Support a Ban on Horse Slaughter”.
Please note that this is only for friends who live in the USA. You will need to create an account, but the process is very quick and once you are signed up, you will be able to sign any other We The People petitions.
Please click HERE to sign the petition.
We Petition the Obama Administration to:
Support a Ban on Horse Slaughter
President Obama should support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011, S.B. 1176/H.R. 2966, to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption:
1) Horses are revered for their contributions to the building of this country, their companionship and special bond with people;
(2) Horses are not raised for the purpose of being slaughtered for human consumption, and, indeed, American horses are not raised, fed and medicated within the FDA guidelines established for food animals, making them potentially unfit and unsafe for human consumption;
(3) Horse slaughter is animal cruelty, not humane euthanasia; it means environmental and economic devastation for communities; and
(4) Banning slaughter would reduce the number of horses in need and improve horse welfare.
Related, Wild Horses and Renegades
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Investigate Primate Products NOW!
Please click on and sign:
Investigate Primate Products NOW!
From Care2
Sponsored by: South Florida Smash HLS
Primate Products is a hideous business located in Doral, Florida. They have caused countless monkeys to be killed and captured in the wild, caged and bred to end up in cruel laboratories for painful experiments that, by their own admission, have not contributed to a single medical advancement. All this at taxpayer expense. The awful smell emanating from their facility and graphic photos of gaping head wounds have gained the attention of their neighbors and caring people around the world.
Recently, Primate Products was caught improperly receiving $1.3 million of Federal stimulus money and is currently being investigated by three members of Congress. They have misled the city of Doral by making false claims about the activists who are working to expose them. The protesters have proven by their actions that they are peaceful advocates legally exercising their First Amendment rights. The city was manipulated by Primate Products into expending tens of thousands of dollars for what amounts to a publicly funded private security force. The city should force Primate Products to reimburse it for the manpower and other resources expended as a result of their lies and allow legal protesters to assemble on any public property of their choosing.
In addition to causing unspeakable cruelty, Primate Products constitutes a dangerous health hazard. Serious new diseases have arisen out of conditions precisely like those at this facility. Used cages are kept stacked outside where any passerby can breathe in whatever germs are present. Hazardous waste is easily accessible. We urge the city to thoroughly investigate this company. We believe you will find numerous violations of the law. We ask, in the name of all those animals who have suffered and are still suffering at the hands of Primate Products and for all of the taxpayers they steal from, that you do all you can to drive this reprehensible company from your midst.
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Previous alert:
Please send sample message: Captive Chimpanzees Require “Endangered” Status
Image | Project R&R
From Project R&R
NEAVS, along with other organizations, filed a petition spearheaded by HSUS with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) requesting that the agency “uplist” the status of captive chimpanzees from threatened to endangered. FWS agreed to review the request: “Based on our review, we find that the petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing all chimpanzees as endangered may be warranted.”
The Endangered Species Act protects wildlife and promotes conservation, but captive chimpanzees who are only listed as threatened are deprived of protections afforded their free-living kin, who are listed as endangered. Captive U.S. chimpanzees are used in entertainment, invasive research, and are kept as exotic pets.
The petition states, “It is clear that exploitation of this species for biomedical purposes has not positively benefitted chimpanzees in captivity or in the wild…and undermines chimpanzee conservation.” The petition further argues that this unusual split listing is “scientifically unjustifiable.”
The organizations behind the petition include the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, the Humane Society of the United States, the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, the Jane Goodall Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, the Fund for Animals, and the Humane Society International.
FWS’ decision to review the status of captive chimpanzees allows for public comment. Please, it is essential they hear from you!
FWS must receive all comments on or before October 31, 2011.
Submit your comments directly online: Federal eRulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions for submitting statements to DOCKET NO. [FWS-R9-ES-2010-0086]
You can submit your comments in your own words or borrow from the suggested language below.
WHOM TO CONTACT
- Click HERE for Regulations, Document Details
- Click on Submit a Comment on the top right in orange
- Complete the required details (only a comment is required)
- Enter the below Sample Message and hit “Submit”
SAMPLE MESSAGE
To The Fish and Wildlife Service:
RE: DOCKET NO. [FWS-R9-ES-2010-0086]
I fully support increasing protections for captive chimpanzees by granting them endangered status. This is a vital step to promote their conservation and protect them from continued exploitation in the United States. I am most grateful that the FWS has initiated this review under the Endangered Species Act.
Please take action to help increase protection of captive chimpanzees so that their exploitation doesn’t continue. Federal action is necessary to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the U.S. is dedicated to the protection, care, and conservation of this species.
Sincerely,
Your name
Address
City, State, Zip
Hunter Kills Hope, Famous Internet Bear
Related, please click on and sign:
Please Will YOU Help Save Eight Orangutans From A Living Hell in Malaysia?
From Care2
Lily is a wild black bear who is part of long-term study of black bear ecology and behavior being conducted by Dr. Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield at the North American Bear Center and affiliated Wildlife Research Institute in Ely, Minn. It is currently the “longest and most detailed black bear study and the largest educational outreach program ever done for black bears.”
In 2010, a webcam was put into Lily’s den and on January 22, she gave birth to Hope, and simultaneously became the first wild black bear to give birth live on the Internet. Like the Decorah eagles, Lily and her cub captured the hearts and curiosity of thousands of people from around the world who were able to watch these bears and gain a new perspective as they learned about their secret lives in the wild.
Lily has more than 133,000 fans on Facebook.
Hope was last seen on September 14 with her mother, after which they wandered into an area with bear bait, but were not followed by researchers. The following day, Lily’s GPS collar showed that they had been at the station, but Lily had returned and was later seen with Hope’s younger sibling, Faith …but no Hope.
Unfortunately, bear baiting is legal in Minnesota, as is killing collared research bears. However, hunters are asked not to. Sadly, not all hunters are respectful, and some research bears have been shot in the past. Elsewhere on the World Wide Web, someone previously created a ‘Lily: Bear with a Bounty’ fanpage where jokes about “Hope jerky,” were made, along with other really profound comments that you would expect to find on such a site.
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On Tuesday, an unnamed hunter confessed to killing Hope on September 16 when she came to his bait station. He claims he didn’t shoot her on purpose, though it’s hard to see how he wouldn’t have known, knowing they were in the area, or why he would even kill a juvenile bear at all. Rogers said “the hunter also did not express remorse.”
The news brought closure to everyone who was waiting for answers, but it also brought tears and anger to many who had been following Lily, Hope and Faith. Still Rogers stated he will not release the name of the hunter.
“I’ve gotten calls today from several people who could hardly talk through their tears, but there’s also a lot of anger. It’s a highly emotional item for the Lily fans. We’re just trying to figure out where we go from here. And we want to protect the hunter,” Rogers said.
“Minnesota bears belong to everyone. Why are they being managed for a dozen hunters that might see them instead of the thousands, actually about a quarter million people around the world, that want to learn from these bears? They need to be protected,” said Rogers last May when he was fighting for protection for collared bears. His petition gathered almost 28,000 signatures on Care2, while only about 100 signed the petition in opposition.
To learn more about Lily, Hope and Faith and find out how to help protect bears, visit Bear.org and Bearstudy.org and see more footage on Youtube.
Read more…
Image | Dreamstime
BACKGROUND | FROM PETA
The city of Naples, Florida, has narrowly approved a conditional use permit for “Gatorman Mike” (Mike Sturgill), allowing him to sell tourists the opportunity to be photographed holding and “hugging” captive alligators at his stores.
Sturgill argued that this exploitation constitutes “cultural use”! Failing to fully consider the cruelty inherent in this endeavor, the city council bought it. The vote can be overturned, but the council must call for a revote no later than this Monday, October 3!
These animals need your voice today! Alligators are naturally solitary and territorial, avoiding contact with any being. As if keeping them captive weren’t cruel enough, alligators used for photo ops are driven around, then muzzled and manhandled, all of which causes them extreme torment and stress. Indoor, air-conditioned environments rife with strange sights and sounds make things all the worse for these cold-blooded, wild beings. Please urge Naples city officials to call for a revote and ask them to deny Sturgill’s permit. Remind them that cruelty is not “culture” and should not be tolerated.
WHOM TO CONTACT
The Honorable Bill Barnett
Mayor of Naples
239-213-1000
239-213-1010 (fax)
mayor@naplesgov.com
The Honorable Doug Finlay, Teresa Heitmann, Gary B. Price II, Sam Saad, John Sorey III, and Margaret Sulick
Naples City Council
239-213-1000
239-213-1010 (fax)
council@naplesgov.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Honorable Mayor and Honorable Council Members,
I am writing today to share my disturbance regarding the conditional permit allowed Mike Sturgill (Gatorman Milke) to sell photo ops with alligators to tourists. This was approved based on its “cultural” value and I am respectfully requesting you withdraw permission.
Please allow me to establish that this is none other than animal cruelty, and my unintended delay in commenting does not change that fact. Alligators, naturally solitary and territorial, will demonstrate characteristic behavior of aversion to any other beings. Further torment consists of continuous muzzling and maltreatment, causing extreme states of suffering and fear.
I understand that “cultural” events should establish tradition, a celebration of heritage and a demonstration of custom. While I would never embrace such an egotistical belief that my opinions take precedent over established and sacred customs, any “tradition”, however, that is built on a foundation of animal cruelty, exploitation, and suffering, and which inflicts pain and fear on innocent, sentient animals, is neither justified, nor an expression of historical pride.
Please provide your voice to observe an obligatory duty and responsibility to protect animals, not condone their suffering.
I know your time is limited and I thank you for your attention to this important message.
NAME
Tell Bolivia: Stop the Repression, Respect Indigenous Rights
Image | Collaborative Journeys
Please click on and sign:
Stop police crack-down! Respect indigenous rights!
From Amazon Watch
A protest march by Bolivian indigenous peoples turned violent on September 25th as 500 Bolivian police tear-gassed, fired upon with rubber bullets, and beat a group of hundreds of protesters. Take action now, urging the Bolivian government to de-escalate tensions by immediately stopping the violent repression and by entering into good-faith dialogue with the marchers.
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Text Message
Dear Minister David Choquehuanca –
I am horrified to read about the violent confrontation between Bolivian police and indigenous marchers from TIPNIS this past Sunday. Whereas members of the Morales Administration claimed police forces were there to defend against violence, they became the instigators of such violence. This entire episode is extremely discouraging, coming from an indigenous President who, until now, has been viewed as a defender of indigenous rights and the environment. Please communicate to the President that recent events have damaged, perhaps irrevocably, the international image of Bolivia amongst social movements and people of conscience. To repair this image, radical actions should be carried out to take full responsibility for what happened and to immediately change course.
I join many others in urging you to wield your influence within the Bolivian Government to ensure that the violence stops immediately. Additionally, a full investigation should be carried out, and the people who gave the order for Sunday’s violence should be held accountable. Field reports indicate that construction of the road continues, even though President Morales called for a suspension. This construction must stop immediately.
Ultimately, a free, prior, and informed consultation as stipulated in the Bolivian constitution should be carried out amongst all the indigenous peoples of TIPNIS. This should not be substituted by the Beni-Cochabamba referendum that President Morales has been proposed. Related to this, the government should carry out the appropriate engineer and environmental studies of the project, including the study of alternate routes outside the protected area of the TIPNIS.
Sincerely,
Mayor Bloomberg: End the War on NYC’s Canada Geese
Please click on and sign:
Mayor Bloomberg: End the War on NYC’s Canada Geese!
Background | From Change
The USDA recently released its 2011 report for Canada Geese removal from NYC parks and golf courses in areas surrounding the three major airports. The plan? – To halve the Canada Geese population from 1.1 million to 650,000 along 17 Atlantic States.
This year it is tallied that 575 geese and their innocent goslings were rounded up in and around the NYC area and stuffed into turkey crates to make the long trek in unbearable heat, to an undisclosed poultry slaughter house. From there they were to be “donated to food banks. Officials feel that by whitewashing the issue and trying to turn a tragic situation into a charitable one will make the killings more palatable. Nothing could be further from the truth as many food banks declined the offers due to the liability and threat of contamination.
Since the landing of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson, over 2800 resident Canada Geese and their innocent goslings have been slaughtered in the NYC area in the name of aviation safety. The fact is killing Canada Geese does nothing to improve airline safety. NYC is situated on the Atlantic Flyway, a major migration route for millions of birds. You cannot stop thousands of years of evolution. Secondly, most airline crashes stem from pilot error, weather conditions or technical malfunctions. Thirdly, the geese they are killing are resident geese.
The USDA aims to continue this killing spree within 7 miles of all airports citing not only aviation safety BUT boasting that it “benefits” the added value of reducing damage to NYC’s public properties due to fecal droppings.
As referenced by the Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of Canada Geese- the basis of the argument is that Canada geese must be killed because goose droppings contain human pathogens (disease-causing bacteria). As has been pointed out in the literature by Weiner, et al. (Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Aug. 1979, p. 258), and at a public presentation in Rockland County, New York (Sept. 22, 1993), by Dr. Milton Friend, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Waterfowl Infectious Disease Specialist, Canada geese are not carriers of microorganisms (pathogens) that significantly threaten public health.
The Top 3 Outrageous Lies Hunters Tell
RELATED, PLEASE CLICK ON AND SIGN:
Gucci: Stop Canadian Seal Hunting
FROM INDY BAY
BY BRENNAN BROWNE
Hunters have long used blatant lies to pacify public anger and to manipulate people into believing that their serial killing is not only NOT immoral and unethical, but actually beneficial. Here’s the truth.
THE TOP 3 OUTRAGEOUS LIES HUNTERS TELL
HUNTER LIE #1
We help animals by keeping their populations in check. If we didn’t kill them they would starve from overpopulation.
FACT
If this were true, there would be piles of evidence [bones/bodies] all over the planet in places where hunters have historically found the habitats and animals too inaccessible to kill. The world would have heard these stories each time scientists discovered closed, ecological loops–islands–of which there are 10s of 1000s on Earth.
The biological reality is that if left alone, animal species regulate themselves. These ‘controlling’ elements are based primarily on food supplies and weather. Conditions which trigger hormonal responses in the females of non-human species. These responses determine whether the offspring will be male or female; how many babies a given animal will have; or if indeed they will have a successful pregnancy at all. Factor in disease and natural die-offs, and if hunting were never undertaken again, the environment would, for the first time in hundreds of years, function as the perfectly synchronized interdependent system Mother Nature intended.
“Dis”harmony–overpopulation–is CAUSED BY HUNTING. Species will adapt to FILL a void. These ‘voids’ are caused by Fish and Wildlife policies which encourage hunters to decimate natural predators, i.e., cougars, coyotes, wolves, etc.– a standard practice of wildlife “managers” throughout the world. Obviously once predators are removed, if food supplies are plentiful and weather conditions favorable, an overpopulation problem is created. However, if conditions are NOT favorable, a massive environmental disaster, resulting in the starvation of animals targeted by such “management” methods becomes the reality.
Wildlife officials KNOW FULL WELL they are manipulating prey species to the point of overpopulation by killing off their natural predators. This is done out of A) GREED. Hunting licenses and other hunting-related revenues bring big bucks into local, state and federal coffers. B) Because state and federal wildlife “management” are completely CONTROLLED by hunters whose interests are 100% self-serving. The non-hunting public is totally disregarded, and their tax dollars hijacked for wildlife mass murder, with estimates as high as nearly 5 BILLION animals slaughtered annually by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
HUNTER LIE # 2
Without the money we contribute, many of the areas which exist for animal populations wouldn’t be there.
FACT
Every single taxpaying citizen supports our National Parks system, and ALL OTHER PUBLIC LANDS. Hunters contribute with revenues generated by hunting licenses and other hunting related usage fees.
Whatever hunters provide in fees is minuscule in relation to what they COST the U.S. taxpayer. POACHING IS RAMPANT. Multiple billions are spent–annually–in manpower and on the increasing decimation of protected and endangered species from hunters’ criminal activities, which far outweigh the comparatively tiny contributions of hunting licensing/usage fees.
The taxpaying public and wildlife are continually egregiously abused for the sole benefit of hunters. 50% of federally funded wildlife “refuges” regularly allow trapping/hunting within them. This disenfranchises the non-hunting public from enjoying these lands and bastardizes the purpose of wildlife “refuges” which were created to PROTECT the inhabitants. The average taxpayer is forced to support these refuges, which in turn SUBSIDIZES hunters–not the other way around. If most hunters had to purchase this same acreage and maintain its wildlife, few would have the where-with-all to do so. Without taxpayer funding, these wildlife refuges would not exist, and neither would the land hunters exploit at the public’s expense. The war on our wildlife is an elitist’s game, fully SUBSIDIZED by the abuse of taxpayer money to the tune of BILLIONS annually.
HUNTER LIE #3
We are avid environmentalists and conservationists.
FACT
Hunters claiming to be “caring” environmentalists because they help support green spaces [so does every taxpayer] is like saying you’re pro-animal because you support slaughterhouses. Perpetuating the existence of animals for your own benefit [via artificial overpopulation] at the expense of their pain, suffering and death does not make you an environmentalist–only a malevolent opportunist. Hunting/poaching ranks second behind habitat destruction, as the leading cause of global, non-human species loss. Hunting is nothing short of ecological rape and the deluded and depraved partaking in such selfish acts of bloodlust can find no HONEST justification for their crimes.
Copyright © 2011 Brennan Browne. Permission is granted for reprint in email, blog, print and web media if this credit is attached and the title and content remain unchanged. Brennan is a freelance writer whose commentaries have appeared on web media and in numerous blogs.
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Urge FWS to Deny Animal Abuser Permit to Import and Export Tigers
Image | IDA
Please click on and sign:
Urge FWS to Deny Animal Abuser Permit to Import and Export Tigers
Background | From PETA
The Hawthorn Corporation has accumulated $200,000 in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) penalties for willful violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) as well as thousands of dollars in fines relating to other settlements. The USDA has even suspended Hawthorn’s exhibitor’s license twice and ordered the company to relinquish custody of 16 elephants. Hawthorn’s long history of AWA violations includes physically abusing elephants, causing physical harm to elephants, and failing to provide veterinary care to elephants, including both an emaciated elephant and an elephant with severe chemical burns. The USDA has also cited Hawthorn multiple times for cruelly confining tigers to transport cages—sometimes for months at a time—and numerous tigers have met with untimely deaths in the neglectful hands of Hawthorn handlers. The USDA also has an open investigation into Hawthorn. Despite its abysmal track record, Hawthorn is currently requesting government approval to export and import seven endangered tigers and their future offspring.
Circus Cruelty | Animal Media
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Hawthorn claims that the tigers will be used for “conservation education,” but the company has failed to provide any evidence that it will do anything other than cruelly display these animals for commercial entertainment. Experts agree that keeping tigers in captivity negatively impacts conservation efforts for wild animals, citing public confusion about what tigers are and the serious threats they face.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has the authority to deny this misleading permit request, and the agency wants to hear from you. Public input will be accepted until the end of the day on October 1. This input is extremely important to officials—it influences them when they are determining their course of action. These tigers need you to speak up for them now! Please ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to deny Hawthorn’s misleading application to export and import endangered tigers!
PETA International Animal-Free Circuses
Please click on and sign the following:
1. Tell Mastercard: Stop Supporting the Live Dolphin Trade
2. Tell the EPA: Spare Animals’ Lives
3. Petition to Environmental Protection Agency
4. Tell Learning Express that Frogs are Not Toys
5. Save the West Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel
1. Background | From Change
27 wild dolphins were recently captured in the Solomon Islands. Since their capture, two have already died. They wait in temporary holding pens for Resorts World Singapore, or RWS, to complete its marine mammal park. There, they will live our the remainder of their shortened lives by entertaining people in order to turn a profit for RWS. Many will die within the first seven years.
Mastercard is currently running a special promotion with RWS. The special began in July and ends on November 18th. During the promotion, cardholders can purchase discounted tickets to RWS and receive a retail voucher if they use their Mastercard.
Ask Mastercard to end their promotion with RWS and send a strong message to the resort that kidnapping wild dolphins isn’t acceptable. Tell them to do business with other theme parks and stop promoting the live dolphin trade.
For more information on the dolphins, please visit: http://www.saddestdolphins.com/
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2. Background | From PETA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just released a list of 134 chemicals that will be tested for their potential to act as endocrine disruptors (ED). EDs are chemicals that interact with hormone systems and possibly affect the growth or reproduction of animals.
The EPA’s program for screening these particular chemicals will take years and will kill approximately 80,000 animals. Since this program relies heavily on animal testing, it will provide information that is hard to interpret and is unlikely to help the EPA protect either humans or the environment from harmful chemicals.
The EPA has spent millions of dollars to create a large-scale non-animal testing program called ToxCast and has already used the program to profile the endocrine activity of more than 300 chemicals in the first phase of this program.
In addition, the EPA used ToxCast to study the health effects of the oil dispersants used in last summer’s Gulf Coast oil spill, yet the review panel overseeing the EPA’s endocrine program has so far refused to accept information from ToxCast. This is perplexing in light of the EPA’s own confidence in the usefulness of the program. Rather than killing tens of thousands of animals, the EPA should take its own advice and use ToxCast to test the potential endocrine activity of these chemicals.
Please take a moment to write to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to politely insist that the EPA use the non-animal ToxCast program to test the new list of chemicals for their potential to cause endocrine disruption.
3. Background | From PCRM
PCRM needs your help. And so do animals sitting in lab cages.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needs to know that testing chemicals on animals is bad for animals, and bad for people.
Please sign our petition to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson right now. Tell her that you oppose the use of animals in chemical testing. As you read this, animals are being injected with toxic chemicals—and they’re most certainly feeling pain.
We can—we must—stop this.
You and I know that animals have a different anatomy than people, which makes their reaction to chemicals different than ours. If the EPA continues to allow companies to rely on tests of chemicals and pesticides on mice, rats, dogs, and rabbits—not only will the animals die a painful death—but public health will be endangered.
Please take action with PCRM today. Your signed petition will be added to thousands of others, urging the EPA to stop allowing animals to be used in toxic chemical tests.
4. Background | From Change
Among the “toys” you can buy at Learning Express, the largest educational toy retailer in the United States, are live African dwarf frogs encased in 4-square-inch plastic cubes.
Learning Express awarded Wild Creations, the manufacturer of the “EcoAquarium,” a “Most Innovative New Toy” award. But Wild Creations would win no awards from PETA, whose undercover investigation of the company found “rampant neglect and mishandling of these delicate animals and total disregard for their needs, welfare, and lives.”
Worcester Polytechnic Institute professor John Sanbonmatsu, who led a protest of Boston-area Learning Express stores, said of the frogs, “entombing them inside tiny plastic prisons is to condemn them to a lifetime of slow torture.”
The frogs can carry disease as well — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 85 people had been infected with Salmonella Typhimurium due to their contact with water frogs, including African dwarf frogs. Nearly 80 percent of those infected were children under the age of 10.
Yet the EcoAquarium was included on the Learning Express “Twelve Toys of Christmas” list for the 2010 holiday season.
Target and several toy chains have listened to protestors and pulled the EcoAquarium along with other frog “toys” from their shelves. Please tell Learning Express to make an educated choice and do the same.
5. Background | From Center for Biological Diversity
In 2008, the Bush administration removed Endangered Species Act protections for the West Virginia northern flying squirrel. This removal came despite dire projections from global warming models that predicted complete disappearance of the squirrels’ habitat and a lack of evidence to show the species’ populations had rebounded.
In response to a suit from the Center and allies to restore protections for the squirrel, a federal judge in 2011 reinstated its endangered status, holding, in a precedent-setting ruling, that the Service had violated the Endangered Species Act by not following its own science-based recovery plan for the species.
Rather than accepting that pro-science ruling, the Obama administration has decided to appeal it. Apparently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not want to have to follow its own recovery plans when deciding whether protections should be retained.
Please write to Interior Secretary Salazar and Director Ashe and ask them to withdraw the appeal.
“We’re all going to suffer … “
Slaughterhouse reels as grocers reject pork shipped live to isles
By Andrew Gomes
A financially struggling slaughterhouse on Oahu, indebted to taxpayers, has been further imperiled after the two largest kamaaina supermarket chains decided to quit selling pork from hogs shipped live to Hawaii from the mainland.
The move by Foodland Super Market and Times Supermarkets, announced Tuesday, will substantially reduce business for the slaughterhouse owned by a private cooperative, just a few months after the state agreed to invest $750,000 to help sustain the facility at Campbell Industrial Park.
If the facility is forced to shut down, it could cut off the supply of fresh pork in Chinatown markets and the ability for local ranchers to expand a fledgling market for grass-fed Hawaii beef, according to agriculture industry representatives and the slaughterhouse operator.
“We’re all going to suffer,” said Leonard Oshiro, manager of the facility operated by Hawaii Livestock Cooperative.
Oshiro said it’s too soon to determine the fate of the operation, but he estimates the two supermarkets will cause a 15 percent loss in business that will require laying off four of 14 employees. “They will be on the unemployment line,” he said.
Calvin Wong, owner of Wong’s Meat Market Ltd. and president of the slaughterhouse cooperative, said he isn’t sure the operation can sustain another hit after struggling for a decade and surviving in part with government loans.
“This will be another nail in the coffin,” he said.
Meat processors import about 11,000 to 14,000 live pigs a year, representing the bulk of business for the slaughterhouse, which butchers about 850 pigs a month.
The slaughterhouse, Oahu’s only U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified slaughterhouse, opened around 2002. The co-op was set up by hog farmers, dairy farms, meat processors and other stakeholders on state land in part using a USDA loan. The facility was built in connection with a meat-processing plant developed by Palama Meat Co.
The demise of dairies on Oahu, high feed costs, the recession and other pressures over the past decade have challenged the slaughterhouse economically. Pressure on Palama Meat mounted more quickly, and it filed for bankruptcy in 2004.
The co-op sought support earlier this year from the state Legislature in the form of a grant or investment.
Two bills considered by lawmakers sought a grant to help the co-op avoid bankruptcy. An alternative bill asked the state to spend $1.6 million to acquire slaughterhouse facilities and make them more efficient.
The bills drew support from the state Department of Agriculture (which has previously made loans to the co-op and is owed $600,000), the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and the Hawaii Cattlemen’s Council.
But the bills also attracted an avalanche of testimony from animal rights groups, vegetarians and others that railed against what they characterized as a bailout of a failing business.
More than 500 pages of written testimony, including a petition with close to 475 signatures condemning the bill, were submitted.
Nicole Rosacia Jao told lawmakers in an email that slaughtering animals is an immoral luxury, especially at a time of government budget shortfalls and public service cutbacks.
“Slaughtering animals for food is unnecessary because nature has provided ample vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes for human sustenance,” Jao wrote. “It makes no sense for the state to use taxpayer money to promote a meat-based diet, which has been linked to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer and many other illnesses.”
Doreen Adams, a vegan, testified that people involved in slaughtering animals for food are more apt to perform violent acts against other animals and people. “There will always be war, killing; there will never be peace in this world if people continue to slaughter animals,” Adams wrote in an email.
No slaughterhouse bill passed. But lawmakers inserted $750,000 in the budget to pay for a photovoltaic system to reduce slaughterhouse electricity costs that would go a long way to make the operation more viable.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie hasn’t released the money. It was uncertain Wednesday whether he intends to.
One of the main opponents of the slaughterhouse bills, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, claimed victory Tuesday for persuading Foodland and Times to quit selling pork from pigs shipped to Hawaii live.
The group claims that the one-week ocean voyage, often in cramped and filthy conditions, causes suffering as well as relatively high illness and death rates. Since 2008, the WSPA has campaigned to end such shipments.
State officials have criticized the WSPA’s report, saying 99.5 percent of pigs arrive alive and healthy.
“We inspect all the shipments that come in,” said Jason Moniz, a veterinarian and animal disease control program manager with the state Agriculture Department.
A 1.4 percent mortality rate figure cited by WSPA based on 218 pigs dying en route to Hawaii between Sept. 1, 2006, and Aug. 31, 2007, included one shipment whose 83 pigs died from heat wave conditions on the mainland bad enough to kill people, Moniz said.
The WSPA said it hopes other retailers, mainly smaller markets, follow the example of Foodland and Times. Safeway, another supermarket chain in Hawaii, hadn’t sold pork slaughtered locally.
Vegan Deliciousness from the Grocer
Animal Ingredients to Avoid
Guide To Cruelty-Free Eating: Vegan Outreach
Need a vegan grocery shopping list? Check out PETA’s:
Hunting Elephant Safari, Price $34,000: help us stop this madness
Image | The Perfect World
Please click on and sign petition HERE
From The Perfect World
Did you know that they are offering you a hunting trip to kill lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalos, giraffes, etc., etc., just for fun!?
You can choose whatever animal you like. Most if not all of the animals are there. The smaller ones can be shot with a bow.
Price for Giraffe: $3800
Price for Elephant: $34,000
Price for Male Lion: $22,000
… or why not kill a Zebra for just: $1750!
Here is a price list of all animals: Click here!
We will send all these signatures to different groups and governments all around the world!
Please click on and sign petition HERE
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Shelter dog survives being euthanized and left in freezer, please support petition
Image | Xando Wallpapers - not Chance
Related, please click on and sign:
Remove Pat Claerbout from San Joaquin Animal Shelter
From National Examiner
By Cheryl Hanna
Stockton, California – It seems impossible for a dog to have been euthanized in a county animal shelter and then placed in a refrigeration unit until the next morning when a shelter employee saw the dog move. The young nine-month-old pit bull mix defied all odds, is recovering and has been named Chance.
Chance is no longer at the Stockton Animal Shelter and is now in foster care, but is in desperate need of finding a suitable home. His caretakers describe him as being a very sweet dog, and with some training Chance should become part of a loving family in no time.
Chance has a dominant personality and may not be fond of cats, but he’s young and likely needs someone experienced in handling dogs.
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Stockton Animal Shelter. You can read a petition by clicking here.
If you are interested in meeting this miracle dog or “love bug” please get in touch with Samantha Stolz. You can email her at samstolz@rocketmail.com
Related | Everyday Dogs
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Related | Animals Who Did Not Survive
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