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.
Three actions to help cats, coyotes, wildlife from traps
Please click on and sign the following:
1. U.S. Fish & Wildlife: Stop Using Tax Dollars to Declare War on Cats
2. Help Stop Indiscriminate Coyote Killing in Calabasas, CA
3. Urge Your Representative to Co-Sponsor H.R. 2657 Today
1. Background | From Best Friends Animal Society
Is U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service poised to start taking out cats by the thousands? Such a project would be inhumane, not to mention a waste of precious taxpayer dollars in a time of deficit reduction. But believe it or not, this covert war on cats is already being waged and USFWS will be recruiting with a presentation scheduled for a Hawaii conference this fall.
In early November, USFWS personnel are going on a junket to beautiful Hawaii to teach conventioneers how to stop Trap Neuter Return programs in their towns. The program for the Wildlife Society’s annual conference states that USFWS folks will give a presentation that includes “role-playing” that can be used to defeat TNR programs across the nation. (How come I never get sent to Hawaii for role-playing?)
And what is the USFWS method of choice to control community cats? Killing. That’s pretty unconscionable in this humane age, especially considering that catch-and-kill doesn’t work. If it did, we wouldn’t have any community cats left by now.
If USFWS’s goal is to reduce the number of outside cats, which is laudable, they are being short-sighted by not encouraging Trap Neuter Return projects. Studies have shown that these programs work to reduce the cat population.
The nice thing about TNR programs is that they have broad public support because folks don’t want to see cats and kittens killed. You can also get humanitarians to help fund these projects, which helps with the programmatic bottom line. Maybe employing folks to trap, neuter and return cats would help create more jobs, too, including good jobs for vet techs and veterinarians.
But no innovative thinking for our government leaders. Instead of building on that humanitarian support to find solutions that protect cats, wildlife and the community, they view cats the same way they view Asian carp: search and destroy.
By holding a workshop with the goal of ending Trap Neuter Return programs, USFWS is promoting an approach that hasn’t been proven effective, but has been proven expensive. And they have no way to fund it. By leaving local governments to their own devices, they’re opening the door for so-called “solutions” like the publication put out earlier this year by the University of Nebraska Extension Service, which described numerous cruel ways to kill outside cats including shooting and using body-gripping traps. This is your tax dollars at work.
Best Friends Animal Society is asking the USFWS to declare a truce in their war on cats and embrace trap, neuter and return programs to reduce the community cat population. Please sign the Best Friends’s petition today. Politics is not a spectator sport.
2. Background | From Project Coyote
Join Project Coyote and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) in urging the City of Calabasas, California to make permanent its temporary ban on indiscriminate coyote killing
After public outcry against the indiscriminate and cruel trapping and killing of coyotes in the City by a county trapper, the City temporarily suspended the killing pending further review.
The City of Calabasas’ Environmental Commission is reviewing the issue and will make a recommendation to the City Council on how to proceed.
Your voice is needed: Please sign the petition and submit comments directly to the Environmental Commission by email- afarassati@cityofcalabasas.com
Talking points (please be respectful and personalize your message):
- Commend the City of Calabasas for its decision to stop coyote trapping and killing and urge them to make the temporary moratorium permanent.
- Indiscriminate trapping of coyotes is not an effective or humane solution to reduce real or perceived conflicts between people, coyotes, and domestic animals. Coyotes are here to stay. We must learn to coexist.
- Coyotes play an important role in keeping rodent populations in check and ecosystems clean of carrion (dead things). Coyotes also help to limit mescarnivoress (e.g. foxes, skunks) thereby helping boost bird population and diversity.
- There are many effective non-lethal methods for reducing negative encounters between people, coyotes, and domestic animals. More info. here.
- Encourage the City of Calabasas to work with Project Coyote and AWI in adopting and implementing an ecologically and ethically sound long-term coyote coexistence plan that emphasizes public education and reducing coyote/wildlife attractants as well as intentional and unintentional feeding.
Remember to include your name, address, and email when submitting public comments so that your comments will be counted in the official record!
Thank you for writing on behalf of America’s Native Song Dog!
Read more here:
Coyotes Seen as Friends, Not Enemies
Coyote Traps in Urban Area Cause Concern
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3. Background | From Born Free USA
Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) has worked with Born Free USA and our colleagues to reintroduce the “Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act” (H.R. 2657). This important initiative finally would end the horrific practice of trapping on national wildlife refuges. Please ask your congressional representative to co-sponsor the bill.
When visiting a national wildlife refuge, most people expect to see wildlife in abundance without fear of stepping into a trap, or having to witness the pain and suffering of a trapped animal. More than half of America’s refuge lands, however, allow barbaric and indiscriminate trapping! We are horrified that the brutal practice occurs on some of the very last safe havens for wildlife in the United States.
H.R. 2657 aims to restore the original intent of the National Wildlife Refuge System — to maintain lands where wildlife are safe and free from unnatural intrusion. Congresswoman Lowey’s bill also would protect people and domestic companion animals incidentally caught by traps while visiting refuges.
As highlighted by Born Free USA’s 2011 trapping investigation and our online database of non-targeted incidents, trapping is a highly unregulated, inhumane and dangerous practice, and has remained this way for years.
“The use of steel jaw leghold traps and other barbaric mechanisms has no place in national wildlife refuges or other public lands,” Lowey said. “Body-gripping traps are cruel and inhumane, and it is time to end this brutal practice once and for all.”
Please help us pass the 2011 Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act. Ask your U.S. representative to co-sponsor H.R. 2657 today.
Read more…
Please ask library to cancel pro-Iditarod event
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Background | From The Sled Dog Action Coalition
Clark Public Library in Clark, New Jersey, invited Iditarod musher Kim Darst to speak at the library on October 2, 2011. The Iditarod has a long, well-documented history of dog deaths, illnesses, and injuries. Please tell the library to cancel Darst’s talk.
Whom To Contact
BoardPresident@clarklibrary.org ,
Sample Letter
Dear Library Staff:
The Iditarod has a long, well-documented history of dog deaths, illnesses, and injuries, and I am respectfully requesting you therefore please cancel musher Kim Darst’s talk. During racing and training, dogs experience paralysis, frostbite, bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles, tendons, and sprains, and death. At least 142 dogs have died in the Iditarod, including two dogs, from a doctor’s team, who froze to death in the brutally cold winds. For more information, please visit Sled Dog Action Coalition website at the following: http://www.helpsleddogs.org .
Furthermore, during training runs, Iditarod dogs have been killed by moose, snowmachines, and various motor vehicles, including a semi tractor and an ATV. They have died from drowning, heart attacks, and being strangled in harnesses. Dogs have also been injured while training via being gashed, quilled by porcupines, bitten in dog fights, and suffered from broken bones, and torn muscles and tendons. Most dog deaths and injuries during training are not even reported.
Iditarod dog kennels are nothing more than puppy mills. Mushers breed large numbers of dogs and routinely kill unwanted ones, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, including those who have outlived their usefulness, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged, drowned, or clubbed to death. “Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don’t pull are dragged to death in harnesses…” wrote former Iditarod dog handler Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska’s Bush Blade Newspaper.
Dog beatings and whippings are common. During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched, and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, “Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective. A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective. It is a common training device in use among dog mushers…”
Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000, column in USA Today, “He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse, like starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight. Skinning them to make mittens… Or dragging them to their death.”
During the race, veterinarians do not give the dogs physical exams at every checkpoint. Mushers speed through many checkpoints, so the dogs get the briefest visual checks, if that. Instead of pulling sick dogs from the race, veterinarians frequently give them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them running. The Iditarod’s chief veterinarian, Stu Nelson, is an employee of the Iditarod Trail Committee. Since the Iditarod is his employer, do you expect that he’s going to say anything negative about it?
When they aren’t hauling people, the dogs are routinely kept on four-foot chains or tethers. It has been reported that dogs who don’t make the main teams are never taken off their chains. Because chaining is cruel to dogs, many jurisdictions have banned or severely restricted the practice. For more information about the cruelties of tethering, please visit http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks-abuseinkennels.htm#chaining .
The Iditarod, with all the evils associated with it, has become synonymous with exploitation. The race imposes torture no dog should be forced to endure, and I hope you decide to cancel any event that sanctions such torturous conditions.
Thank you.
NAME
Please Join the Campaign Against Glue Traps
Image | PETA
Please send Sample Letter and Petition protesting glue traps.
Background | From PETA
Glue traps cause slow, agonizing deaths to the animals—mice, birds, squirrels, kittens, and other small animals—who get caught in them. These animals can die of suffocation, dehydration, or starvation while stuck to a trap, or the glue can rip patches of skin, fur, or feathers from the animals’ bodies as they desperately struggle to escape. Death can take days.
Glue traps are also filthy—in fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions against their use! And glue traps don’t even work to control rodent populations: When rodents are killed, a spike in the food supply results, prompting accelerated breeding among survivors and newcomers and causing increased populations!
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns against glue trap usage because of the disease risks posed by the many pathogens in the waste of ensnared rodents, who eliminate out of stress and fright. This should be a concern for any business. Glue traps are some of the cruelest products on the market, causing immense and prolonged suffering. Panicked rodents often rip themselves to pieces in their frantic struggle to escape the sticky mess. Exhausted and terrified, they die from shock, dehydration, asphyxiation, or blood loss. Death can take more than 24 hours.
Many well-known companies and institutions, such as JPMorgan Chase Bank, American Eagle Outfitters, and even the New York City Police Department, have already pulled these cruel, unsanitary, and ineffective traps. But others have not yet done so. Mice and other animals who suffer in glue traps need your voice. Please contact the following entities now and demand that they stop selling cruel glue traps.
Related victims of glue traps
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Urgent: Glue Traps Set in New York City Schools and Universities!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email block:
twlawrence@raytheon.com,
john_b_patterson@raytheon.com,
david.c.stuckwisch@pps.k12.va.us,
nita.mensia-joseph@pps.k12.va.us,
ballake@tulsaschools.org,
leeto@tulsaschools.org,
james.merrill@vbschools.com,
larry.ames@VBSchools.com
Individual details:
Raytheon Missile Systems
Taylor W. Lawrence
President
Raytheon Missile Systems
twlawrence@raytheon.com
John B. Patterson
Senior Manager of Public Relations
Raytheon Missile Systems
john_b_patterson@raytheon.com
Portsmouth Public Schools
David C. Stuckwisch
Superintendent
Portsmouth Public Schools
801 Crawford St.
Portsmouth, VA 23704-3822
757-393-8742
757-393-5236 (fax)
david.c.stuckwisch@pps.k12.va.us
Nita Mensia-Joseph
Director of Operations
Portsmouth Public Schools
801 Crawford St.
Portsmouth, VA 23704-3822
757-393-8332
757-393-5236 (fax)
nita.mensia-joseph@pps.k12.va.us
Tulsa Public School
Dr. Keith Ballard
Superintendent
Tulsa Public Schools
3027 S. New Haven Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74114
918-746-6295
918-746-6334 (fax)
ballake@tulsaschools.org
Todd Lee
Chief Information and Operations Officer
Tulsa Public Schools
3027 S. New Haven Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74114
918-746-6800
918-746-6334 (fax)
leeto@tulsaschools.org
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
Dr. James G. Merrill
Superintendent
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
757-263-1007
757-263-1397 (fax)
james.merrill@vbschools.com
John Kalocay
Assistant Superintendent
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
757-263-1040
757-263-1502 (fax)
Larry Ames
Director of Custodial Services
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
757-263-2600
757-263-2601 (fax)
larry.ames@VBSchools.com
Hounds Run Apartments in Theodore, Alabama
Thomas H. Cooksey
President
Apartment Services & Management, Inc.
5954 Sperry Rd.
Theodore, AL 36582
251-653-4431
251-653-4492 (fax)
Thelma Lambert
Resident Manager, Hounds Run Apartments
Apartment Services & Management, Inc.
5954 Sperry Rd.
Theodore, AL 36582
251-653-4431
251-653-4492 (fax)
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I have just learned of your use of glue traps to capture and kill mice. Killing the mice is inherently immoral, and using glue traps to do so compounds the vicious nature of such an extremely painful and fearfully agonizing experience for animals. These animals are further traumatized trying to free themselves, causing skinning, tearing, ripping, and dismemberment, a profoundly agonizing ritual of attempting to escape for hours upon hours; death sometimes can take days. If you had to experience such a barbaric form of torture and prolonged death, would you be willing to justify it? This also proves medically dangerous to humans considering that, according to the CDC, glue traps create optimal conditions to spread disease.
It is impossible to contemplate supporting any business, including apartment complexes and schools, that capitalizes on the brutality of animals, and when you utilize such horrendous accessories, you are indeed establishing your complicity and apathy in doing so, and I respectfully request you discontinue using glue traps. Indeed, I hope this letter finds you willing to scrutinize both your own involvement in the intentional exploitation of animals and your desire to therefore protect, rather than harm, them.
Please consider, instead, using humane traps to capture and release mice in an ethical and painless manner. These can be found at hardware stores and local animal rescue groups, who would be willing to assist you.
Thank you for your time and attention to this important issue.
NAME
Stop Greyhound Racing in India: Petition, Sample Letter
Artist, Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Please sign Petition and send Sample Letter to prohibit greyhound racing in Punjab, India, thank you.
BACKGROUND | FROM CHANGE, GREY2K
Your help is needed to prevent the coming of commercial dog racing to India. It has been reported that the state of Punjab would like to build a track should greyhound gambling racing be legalized.
Diana Ratnagar, Chairperson of Beauty Without Cruelty India is asking animal advocates around the world to join her in fighting for the greyhounds. GREY2K USA, along with several organizations including the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations and the United Kingdom’s Dogs Trust have each contacted government officials.
Now we ask you to join us by doing two things today:
1. Add your name to the petition to Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh.
2. Send a personal message to the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal. Tell him to say no to dog racing.
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Prime Minister of India: Let’s Stop Dog Racing
WHOM TO CONTACT
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Deputy Chief Minister Singh Badal,
It has come to my attention that a proposal has been brought forth to build a dog racing track in Punjab should gambling be legalized; I am writing today to emphatically request this proposal be dismissed.
Please allow me a few moments to share some of the facts about the brutality inflicted on innocent dogs for racing purposes. The logistics of dog racing are inherently cruel as the industry profits from the exploitation of dogs, causing thousands of deaths annually. These unfortunate animals are objectified, forced to endure horrible conditions, subjected to unethical practices, and made to either perform or die torturous deaths. If a dog fails to perform according to racing standards, for example, the dog will be abandoned or killed. Puppies, sadly, are sold into vivisection if deemed unsuitable. Shockingly, retired dogs are treated with indifference and cruelty, abandoned or killed. These animals are also forced to endure upwards of 23 hours per day in confinement due to limited space.
The goal of this industry, as like any industry, is profit. It is cost prohibitive to provide comfort, room to move, superior diet, and medical care. Instead, these animals are discarded, treated no better than garbage, if the performance does not match racing requirements, or when performance declines due to disease, illness, or age.
Does financial benefit provide justification of brutality? Can we honestly ignore the suffering this industry causes? Humans have the capacity for empathetic and judicious endeavors, and we must use our gifts to cease this horrible industry. Financial gain is inexcusable, and the implications about humans who enable dog racing are disturbing: we cannot allow our children to inherit a cruel and apathetic society. Indeed, if we do nothing, we are teaching our children troubling lessons and encouraging indifference, intolerability, and socially-approved abuse. As such, I am requesting you please provide your position and influence to prohibit dog racing by enacting a gambling prohibition.
I know your time is limited, and I thank you for your attention and consideration.
NAME
Oppose the Death Penalty for Troy Davis
Please click on and sign the following petitions:
1. Oppose the Death Penalty for Troy Davis
2. Grant clemency to my brother, Troy Davis
1. Background | From Amnesty International
Troy Davis has faced execution three times for a crime he may not have committed. In an unprecedented evidentiary hearing held in a federal district court in Savannah, Georgia in June, 2010, he was able to present evidence supporting his innocence claim. However, the standard for proving his innocence was “extraordinarily high”, especially given the lack of physical and scientific evidence in his case. The federal judge ruled that he did not meet the high standard, despite the fact that doubts about his guilt remain unresolved. It is more important than ever that we continue to let Georgia authorities know that we oppose any effort to execute Troy Davis. Sign the petition today!
NOTE: Due to high volume of supporters, please keep trying to sign this petition if your initial attempt does not succeed
Learn more about Troy Davis
Download and gather names for this petition (pdf)
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2. Background | From Change, Kim Davis
My brother, Troy Davis, has been on Georgia’s death row for 20 years despite strong evidence of his innocence. His execution date is now scheduled for Wed, Sept 21. He has a hearing in front of the GA Board of Pardons & Parole two days beforehand.We need to tell the Board strongly and clearly: There’s too much doubt to execute Troy Davis!
The case against my brother Troy consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state’s non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis. Here is what one had to say:
“I got tired of them harassing me, and they made it clear that the only way they would leave me alone is if I told them what they wanted to hear. I told them that Troy told me he did it, but it wasn’t true.”
We need to tell the Board strongly and clearly: There’s too much doubt to execute Troy Davis!
Urge FWS to Deny Animal Abuser Permit to Import and Export & Rescind Generic Tiger Exemption
PLEASE CLICK ON AND SIGN/SEND THE FOLLOWING:
1. Urge FWS to Deny Animal Abuser Permit to Import and Export Tigers
2. Repost – Help Protect All Tigers Under the ESA: Sample Letter
1. 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 twiceand 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.
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 September 16. 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!
2. BACKGROUND | FROM BORN FREE (previously posted 08/30/11)
In 1900 there were estimated to be 100,000 wild tigers. Today, fewer than 4,000 remain. Sadly, there are more tigers in captivity in the United States than exist anywhere in the wild — where they belong. And many of the tigers in captivity can be sold, killed or in other ways exploited because of a loophole in the Endangered Species Act.
After much pressure, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to close this loophole! Please take a minute today to tell the FWS that you support its proposal to rescind the “generic tiger exemption.” The deadline for comments is Wednesday, Sept. 21.
Since its promulgation 13 years ago, the “generic tiger exemption” has left us in the dark. The majority of tiger dealers in the United States have had free reign to cruelly exploit their tigers with virtually no oversight, and it has been next to impossible to determine the fate of thousands of tigers kept in certain unaccredited breeding operations.
Tigers are considered “generic” largely because they often are inbred and cross-bred in order to generate cubs for photo opportunities. Once the cubs grow up and the breeding pairs grow older or too difficult to handle, the lack of a paper trail makes it far too easy for unscrupulous “owners” to abuse and kill these tigers and even sell their parts without detection. This further fuels the illegal trade in tiger products, one of the leading and most dire threats to wild tiger populations today.
Please commend FWS for its proposal to rescind the “generic tiger exemption” today. Feel free to use (the sample letter below):
SAVE THE TIGER
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WHOM TO CONTACT | CLICK ON LINK TO COMPLETE WEBFORM
Please note that you are not required to complete all fields – only the comment is necessary. The blue “v” references those areas that will be viewable on the Regulations site, but you are not required to complete them.
DETERMINE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE | CLICK ON LINK
SAMPLE LETTER | COURTESY BORN FREE
Dear Representative,
As a member of Born Free USA, I strongly support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to remove the “generic tiger exemption.”
By removing “generic” subspecies from the list of animals exempt from registration under the Captive-Bred Wildlife (CBW) regulations, USFWS will close a dangerous loophole that allows people to keep these tigers without even applying for a permit. This loophole has put thousands of captive-bred tigers in danger of being further exploited with virtually no oversight.
I am especially concerned that the “generic tiger exemption” makes it nearly impossible for law enforcement to regulate the number of tigers in the United States and prosecute ESA violations such as the illegal trade in tiger parts, one of the leading threats to wild tiger populations today. I strongly support this proposal as a strong step toward protecting the fewer than 4,000 tigers who exist in the wild, as well as the many more tigers held in captivity, today.
URGENT: Animals in Battle Mountain, Nevada, Need Your Voice to Oppose Greased Pig Contest
Please send Sample Letter below to protest greased pig contest as part of the “animal scramble” events.
(FYI: battlet@broadwaygroup.com bounced back, but I am keeping it posted in case it is reactivated.)
BACKGROUND | FROM PETA
This Saturday, the Chamber of Commerce in Battle Mountain, Nevada, has scheduled a greased pig contest and “animal scramble” at the Lander County Fair. Being chased and subjected to rough handling, crowds, and loud noises is a terrifying (and easily injurious) ordeal for these animals, who have no opportunity to escape or defend themselves. To make matters worse, the animals used in the scramble will be sent home with participants! Sadly, every year, countless animals are “won” as prizes. Many die within weeks from neglect or are bounced around from home to home, relegated to lonely rooms or backyards and ignored. Participants are simply unprepared for the extraordinary responsibility of caring for their “prizes.”
PETA has asked event organizers to replace these cruel events with any number of humane alternatives, but our request has been ignored. We need your help today! Please join us in urging the Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce to cancel these cruel events. And spread this alert far and wide!
RELATED FOOTAGE
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WHOM TO CONTACT
Email Block
bmcommerce@yahoo.com,
susan.vandemark@wellsfargo.com,
gorda3@hotmail.com,
battlet@broadwaygroup.com
Individual
Sarah Burkhart, Director
Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce
bmcommerce@yahoo.com
Sue Vandemark, President
Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce
775-635-5446
susan.vandemark@wellsfargo.com
Angela Gonzalez, Vice President
Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce
775-635-5556
gorda3@hotmail.com
Wanda Nelson, Director
Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce
775-635-5424
battlet@broadwaygroup.com
Randy Clark, Director
Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce
775-635-2129
Brian Garner, Director
Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce
775-635-5007
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I am disturbed to learn of your greased pig contest during “animal scramble” and am respectfully urging you cancel this unjustified and cruel event. Pigs are marvelously intelligent and sentient creatures, capable of love, pain, thought, and suffering; when you subject pigs to such indecent treatments, you not only condemn them to fear and agony, but you also demean yourself and establish that you are unsympathetic.
Furthermore, when you actively engage in this type of cheap entertainment in front of children, and, in fact, have children actually participating in such, you are demonstrating that animal abuse and disrespect are socially-approved activities, and the link between animal and human abuse is represented. I therefore urge you to cease this exploitation and demonstrate that yours is a community cognizant of the importance of animal protection rather than animal abuse.
Thank you for taking the time to read this urgent request.
NAME
Oppose extremely savage penning/baiting
Image | Animal Rescue Unit
Please send Sample Letter protesting penning; this action targets multiple state departments, some via email, others via webform, whichever was available and valid at the time of publishing alert.
BACKGROUND | FROM ANIMAL RESCUE UNIT
Fox penning is a blood sport in which dozens of dogs compete in a fenced-in area to chase—and sometimes rip apart—foxes and coyotes. Trapped in the wild and sold to fox pens, often in other states, the fox or coyote must run for his life inside fences where there is no hope of getting away.
Grisly from start to finish, fox penning begins when the steel jaws of a leg hold trap snap shut on a coyote or fox, inflicting terrible pain. A trapper removes the animal from the trap and packs her into a cage with other injured animals.
The caged animals may be hauled hundreds of miles. With no food or water, some animals die on the trip. Once bought by pen operators, the foxes and coyotes provide amusement for participants who travel from state to state to wager on their dogs.
With dogs tearing apart the captive animals, there is a constant demand for fresh wildlife for the fox pens.
Florida just banned this sport on Sept 1st, 2010, but it is legal in most other southern states!
Americans recognize that dog fighting and cockfighting are unacceptably cruel and that such spectator events don’t have a place in civilized society. How different is penning?
It’s time again for society to stand up, and shout a collective NO to another cruel, unethical and dangerous blood sport -and make penning illegal in all 50 states. Our shock and outrage can help relegate coyote and fox pens to their rightful place in America’s dark past.
FOOTAGE
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WHOM TO CONTACT
Emails:
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Indiana Department of Natural Resources
Kentucky Department of Game & Wildlife Resources
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
Email block
dcnr.commissioner@dcnr.alabama.gov,
dfw@dnr.in.gov,
info.center@ky.gov,
gordon.myers@ncwildlife.org,
info@odwc.state.ok.us,
dgifweb@dgif.virginia.gov
Webforms:
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Iowa Department of Natural Resources
South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Telephone numbers
Alabama Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources: (334) 242-3486
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission: (501) 223-6300
Georgia DNR: (404) 656-3500
Indiana DNR: (317) 232-4080 (division of fish and wildlife)
Iowa DNR: (515) 281-5918
Kentucky Dept. of Game & Wildlife Resources: (800) 858-1549
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission: (919) 707-0010
Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation: (405) 521 3851
South Carolina DNR: (803) 734-3886 (wildlife)
Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries: (804) 367-1000
Wisconsin DNR: 608-266-2621
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
A brutal blood sport in which trapped coyotes and foxes are hunted and ripped apart by medicated hounds, coyote and fox penning are horrific reminders of sanctioned barbarism. Non-human animals, including many obtained through illegal animal trafficking and acquisition across state lines, are brutally trapped in painful manners and used as bait in vicious competitive hunting games. These games, pitting trapped fox and coyotes against hunting dogs, typically end in bloody brutality, the animals prohibited from escape and ripped apart by doped hounds.
There is no place in civilized society for such depraved hunting games. Hunting is inherently cruel, yet these types of hunts are particularly savage, fundamentally cruel, and based on inequity and accommodating promoters, employing vulgar tactics to trap coyotes and foxes and then denying them any defense against antagonized dogs, a decidedly unmerited and cruel strategy to kill animals for cheap human entertainment.
Therefore, I respectfully request that, based on the established brutality involved as well as the potentiality for facilitation of illegal animal commerce and trade, you please use your position to begin the process illegalizing statewide penning/baiting practices. Please leave your state reputation free of such brutal, inequitable hunting enterprises, and do not allow economical benefits, hunting sympathizers, and distorted business trappers to dominate over ethics and judicious resolutions.
Thank you for taking the time to read this important message.
NAME
Support the Free Speech 8
From Justice 4 Activists, Free Speech 8
***IMPORTANT!!! Please read this before continuing***
The Justice4Activists website is intended to make activists aware of a particular case for a couple of reasons:
1. To make all activists in the Los Angeles area aware of repression against activism at UCLA and Los Angeles more broadly.
2. To assist these particular activists in galvanizing support.
THIS WEBSITE SHOULD NOT DETER ANYONE FROM ANY FORM OF LEGAL ACTIVISM. REPRESSION ONLY WORKS IF ACTIVISTS STOP DOING THEIR WORK.
Please do not insult the activists in this case and, more importantly, those whom you are fighting for, by using this case as an excuse not to engage in any form of legal activism.
CASE UPDATES: ACTIVISTS BEGIN TRIAL SEPTEMBER 13
Activists begin trial on Tuesday, September 13th at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles. Trial is expected to continue for the remainder of the week, and perhaps into the following week. Your presence in the courtroom is appreciated. If you are able to attend, please dress appropriately.
FREE SPEECH 8 SUPPORTERS, PLEASE REPORT TO: Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Division 52, 7th Floor, 210 W. Temple St., Los Angeles CA 90012.
WHY ALL ACTIVISTS SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS CASE
This case is an attempt to stifle free speech
This is a free speech case, plain and simple. The UCLA police department and Los Angeles city attorney’s office are trying to reinterpret a law to abridge what constitutes legal protest activity. Neighborhood protests and pickets are completely legal in Los Angeles and have been engaged in by many social movements. However, police officers find them a nuisance and vivisectors are annoyed by them; and so, in an attempt to shut them down, the UCLA police and LA city attorney’s office are trying to make them appear illegal.
Activists are being punished for things they have not done
In an interview, one of the arresting officers stated clearly that he views above ground legal activists as no different from activists for animal liberation that engage in illegal actions. Law enforcement has not been sophisticated enough to capture covert animal liberationists. The assault on the Free Speech 8, activists who choose to show their faces because they have chosen legal tactics, reflects UCLA’s desire to punish someone, regardless of the reason.
This is a case of police harassment
As a way to further punish activism against UCLA vivisection, the UCLA police and LA City Attorney’s office pulled every video recording of these activists protesting on this campaign and added as many charges as they could for other protests. These charges are other violations of Los Angelece Municipal Code 56.45 E as well as a variety of alleged noise violations under codes 116.01 and 41.57. Though the sound ordinance codes all state the officer is to give a warning prior to citation, these activists were not given warnings and are being punished retroactively for protests that occurred up to one month prior to the arrest. One activist faces six charges and the other seven face eight charges each, which are a various combination of these three codes.
This case is about money, not rights
This prosecution is an assault against activists who challenge money-making institutions. Vivisection receives large grants, and UCLA gets over 50% from each grant received. They want to keep the money flowing by stifling dissent. The bottom line is that UCLA is more interested in protecting its assets than respecting individuals’ constitutional right to free speech.
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CASE BACKGROUND
On May 15, 2010, 12 activists were engaging in picketing and demonstrations in the neighborhoods of UCLA primate vivisectors. This activity occurs on a monthly basis and is completely legal. Activists were picketing in the neighborhood of vivisector Edyth London when they heard sirens in the distance. Two UCLA Police cars parked at the top of the street and demanded everyone sit down. The UCLA Police did not observe the activists behavior before turning on their sirens; they arrived ready to arrest, with zip ties prepared. Activists were made to sit on the sidewalk where they were when the police arrived. Though administering citations would not require any arrests, UCLA PD chose to handcuff and arrest all 12 activists.
Victory! Indiana University Ends Cruel Use of Cats
Image | Aspire Communications
Related | Please click on and sign the following petitions if you have not already, thank you:
2. Ask the University of Mississippi Medical Center to End the Use of Pigs in its Physiology Lab
3. Urge the University of Tennessee College of Medicine to End Its Cruel Pig Lab
4. Help End Live Animal Labs at Johns Hopkins University
5. Ask the University of Washington to End the Use of Ferrets in its Pediatrics Residency Program
From PCRM
After PCRM requested a curriculum evaluation, the school moved to modern teaching methods that better equip trainees to care for newborns, according to a letter from the school’s residency program director.
Indiana University School of Medicine’s animal use came under scrutiny after PCRM urged the university to end the animal use. Nonanimal education methods are used by 94 percent of U.S. pediatrics programs surveyed by PCRM.
“Indiana University School of Medicine is to be congratulated on its carefully considered decision to move to nonanimal methods of pediatrics training,” says John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., PCRM’s director of academic affairs.
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IU’s move toward nonanimal methods comes after similar announcements from medical institutions across the country following complaints and requests from PCRM. Since January, ten pediatrics residency programs—including Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, and the University of Arizona—have also confirmed the end of animal use for training.
This shift has been facilitated by innovations in medical simulation technology, increased availability of alternatives, a rising awareness of ethical concerns, and a growing acknowledgement that medical training must be human-focused.
But live animal use for pediatrics training continues at the University of Washington, where ferrets suffer tracheal bruising, bleeding, scarring, severe pain, and sometimes death.
To ask the University of Washington to stop using live animals for pediatrics training and see the list of other schools still using animals, visit PCRM.org/Pediatrics.
Protest bullfighting as French cultural heritage
Please click on and sign the following two petitions (see below for translation instructions):
1. Stop Plans to Honour Bullfighting
2. Protest against bullfighting as French cultural heritage!
1. Background | From PETA
Despite growing worldwide condemnation of killing bulls for sport, France’s Minister of Culture has declared bullfighting to be one of the country’s cultural treasures. This opens the door for the deadly pastime to be considered for inclusion in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation – better known as UNESCO – “World Intangible Heritage List”. Making the list is seen as both prestigious and a source of pride.
Countless bulls are stabbed to death in arenas throughout France and Spain. Bulls are teased and provoked before being led into bullfighting arenas where they are surrounded by screaming crowds. The confused and agitated bulls will naturally “fight” for their lives as men on horses run them in circles while repeatedly piercing them with banderillas (barb-tipped wooden daggers) until they are dizzy, weakened from blood loss and suffering agonising pain. The horses, who are blindfolded, can also suffer serious injuries when they can’t avoid a charging bull. The matador comes in when the exhausted bull is already near death. The bulls are often still conscious as their ears and tail are cut off as “trophies” and as they are dragged from the ring on chains.
The cultural heritage designation flies in the face of growing opposition to these deadly events. Last year, two French MPs introduced a bill in Parliament to ban bullfighting, calling the fights “barbaric spectacles”. The bill has been co-signed by 12 other parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, including UMP member Jean-Marc Roubaud who said, “Bullfighting is an anachronism. In an already extremely violent world, simply adding to the brutality is shameful”.
Petition Message | English Translation
Dear Mr Mitterrand,
Dear Mr Prime Minister,
I am writing to you to express our shock and dismay at learning that you have designated bullfighting as a cultural heritage. We urge you to withdraw this proposal without delay. Glorifying the deliberate slaughter of animals cannot and should not be tolerated in a civilised society. Despite the history of bullfighting in France, times and sensibilities have progressed. Torturing animals for entertainment is now rightly looked upon with condemnation and censure.
France stands alone in paying tribute to these bloody spectacles by designating them a cultural heritage. We urge you to reverse course with this plan and consign bullfighting to history alongside other shameful reminders of our past.
Thank you for your time.
Kind regards,
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2. Background | From CAS International
Send your protest here so that a as swiftly as possible withdrawal of bullfighting as part of the French immaterial cultural heritage will be made possible.
You only need to fill in the fields with a red star.
Nom de famille: last name
Prénom: surname
Code postal: postal code
Ville: city
Pays: country
Courriel: email address
Cocher cette case si vous souhaitez recevoir des informations sur cette campagne: Check this box if you wish to receive information about this campaign
Then, click on SIGNER!
You will be sending this letter in French:
Yours truly requests Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication, bullfighting to be withdrawn from the list of French immaterial cultural heritage as soon as possible. Given the fact that this application has been realized in an improperly obscure way and that this topic is polemic in nature, we make the request to start a country-wide debate on bullfighting. This debate could be commenced in the National Assembly with the proposition to completely prohibit bullfighting, made by the delegates Muriel Marland-Militello (UMP) and Geneviève Gaillard (PS) in July 2010.
Merci d’avoir signé cette pétition! Thank you for having signed the petition!
Help Stop the Army From Poisoning Monkeys!
Image | PETA
- Please click on and sign PETA’s Help Stop the Army From Poisoning Monkeys!
- And if you have not yet already, please also sign PCRM’s Ask Your Members of Congress to End the Army’s Cruel Use of Monkeys
From PETA
During the week of September 12, the U.S. Army at Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground is planning to conduct a cruel exercise that involves injecting vervet monkeys with a drug overdose to crudely recreate the effects of a nerve agent attack. Monkeys used in the exercise suffer from vomiting and uncontrollable twitching and seizures, and some even stop breathing. In a laboratory worksheet that PETA obtained from Aberdeen, one trainee compared a monkey’s violent reaction during the exercise to “a chiwawa [sic] shitting razor blades.”
Each of the 32 monkeys locked up at Aberdeen for this laboratory is forced to endure this cruelty as frequently as every 60 days for three years. Miami-based primate importer Worldwide Primates is scheduled to ship 20 vervet monkeys—some of whom may have been ripped from their homes in the wild—to Aberdeen on September 30. We believe that these monkeys may be used in the course as well.
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Instead of tormenting animals, other military and civilian training programs around the world use sophisticated human patient simulators. These simulators can be programmed to mimic the human response to a nerve agent attack and be placed in outdoor scenarios that recreate conditions in which such an attack on humans may actually occur—as opposed to a sterile laboratory where a monkey is poisoned and people are instructed to stand around and watch how the monkey’s tail moves and how perspiration collects on his or her paws.
In addition to being incredibly cruel and ineffective, the Army’s monkey laboratories clearly violate Department of Defense policies that prohibit harming primates for training purposes and that require that alternatives to the use of animals be used when available. Yet, the military has continued to look the other way while animals suffer.
Please help spare monkeys from this outdated and cruel chemical casualty training exercise right now by sending polite e-mails to the commanding general of Aberdeen Proving Ground and the Commander of U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense urging them to replace the use of animals in this laboratory with modern non-animal training methods.
Burros shot on sight, please take action
Image | The Persian Horse's Blog
Please protest the brutal slaughter of burros using the information below, thank you.
From The Persian Horse’s Blog
By Marjoree Farabee
8/24/2011
Earlier this year, I made a trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park to investigate the ecosystems of these parks with Craig Downer a well known wildlife ecologist. Our purpose was to investigate stories from locals who insisted that the the shooting of burros had not been halted after “burrogate”. After 71 burros were inhumanely gunned down in 2007, it was widely believed that the shootings had stopped. Unfortunately, we discovered since that at leastl 46 more of these remarkable animals have also been wasted.
Why do I use the word wasted? Several reasons. Promoting the burros positively is a win, win, win for the parks’ image, the local economy, and the burros.
After meeting with several parks directors here in Austin, I made a decision then to find solutions that would benefit all involved. Since that time I put together a team of professional people to research and develop the solutions we all need to move forward in a mutually beneficial manner.
The dedication of these people who sincerely want to preserve, protect, and promote burros in the Chihuahuan Biosphere has been truly inspiring. We CAN find solutions that will put the park’s image in a positive light, preserve the historic and cultural heritage of the region, and will add to the economic well-being of the local businesses that benefit from the tourism dollars these widely loved animals generate. Most importantly, mutual cooperation allows our National Heritage Species to maintain its presence in the ecosystem that it has called home for centuries. It is important to note that the heritage of Texas is equally enriched by the contribution of the wild burros.
The Wild Burro Protection League is a consortium of individuals, businesses, animal advocacy groups, and scientists who have been working diligently on this issue. We sincerely hope that our most supportive partners will be TPWD, and both the Big Bend Parks. We are dedicated to working cooperatively while independently funding this community-wide effort as much as possible. However, we are also actively seeking state and local grants. We hope that TPWD will support our applications for this very reasonable effort to end the park’s present zero-tolerance policy for burros. Clearly, the locals do not want them shot while they peacefully graze in their ancestral home.
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With the help of the local support we have garnered and the additional financial support we have cultivated, our goal is to assist in the development of a strong community-supported program. The Wild Burro Protection League envisions a partnership with the parks that puts emphasis on our common goals. We want to conserve the land, and its diverse inhabitants, including bighorn sheep. We want to have the park work with us on studies to determine actual conflicts, and find creative non-lethal ways to mitigate those conflicts. The Wild Burro Protection League will help with those efforts through grants and other funding.
We would like to put emphasis on studies at this time to determine fact from opinion. We have inquired and discovered that the park has NEVER done a single study on the burro. It is a startling oversight considering the importance of this animal’s presence to the fabric of this park as a long-standing resident, and the burros’ standing as a beloved National Heritage Species. Moreover, it is clear that without appropriate investigation, reporting that the animal causes damage is thus nothing more than OPINION. Without scientific data to back TPWD’s claims of damage, it is clear that TPWD’s zero-tolerance policy toward burros needs to stop. The Wild Burro Protection League is receiving pleas from around the world to find solutions. We are looking to our future partners at Texas Parks and Wildlife for a cooperative and mutually beneficial effort toward solutions.
Local business from the towns surrounding the park are growing in awareness about what is happening to animals that represent the culture of their little towns. The burros are a part of the tourist appeal, and they are concerned at the thought of losing them. They would be listed as partners in our efforts to save the burros, too: businesses such as Mi Tesora, Jackassic Park, Emily’s “Nice Bread” Bakeria, Refresco, Front St. Books, Rachael’s Art Studio, Red Horse Nation, Johnson’s Feed, Kiowa Gallery, Ivey’s Emporium, The Apache Trading Post, Gallery on the Square, Catchlight gallery, Marfa Public Radio, The Big Bend Sentinel, The Famous Burro restaurant, and many others including members of the Chambers of Commerce in Alpine.
The Wild Burro Protection League is looking forward to working with our future partners at TPWD as we cooperate in finding reasonable solutions that will benefit the many over the few, keeping land stewardship and community involvement, foremost in all of our future efforts to save our national heritage species the burro. Please do not continue to waste this naturally occurring resource with which the parks have been blessed. Cultivate the burro culture and develop strategies with us that will be a win for us all.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
- If you have a profile at FaceBook, join the Wild Burro Protection League. Click HERE.
- Click HERE to consider commenting at the bottom of the Editorial Advocates reach for solutions in Big Bend Ranch burro issue.
- Send letter using the below information, please modify and shorten letter.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Please Call, Write or Email:
John Young, Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept
4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744
(512)389-8047
Email: john.young@tpwd.state.tx.us
Brent Leisure, State Parks Division Director
Email: brent.leisure@tpwd.state.tx.us
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Mr.Young and Mr. Leisure,
I am writing today to protest the burro slaughter that occurs in Big Bend Ranch State Park and Big Bend National Park. Please allow me to elaborate: 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 of you resulting in the sacrifice of vital tourism and commerce profits. Indeed, it would potentially be financially detrimental for you to enable the harm done to these animals, especially given the Wild Burro Protection League’s generous offer to intervene and propose non-lethal and both financially- and mutually-beneficial alternative methods. Please act responsibly and with compassion and choose to protect, rather than sanction harm, to animals. Please reject cruelty and oppose further burro slaughter.
Thank you for your time reading this urgent message.
A letter to vegetarians: 5 reasons I wish I’d gone vegan sooner.
Image | Shannon Alberta, The Veganomoly
From The Veganomaly
By Shannon Alberta
This is not meant to be some secular, vegan sermon from the mount. I get little pleasure in alienating myself from well-intentioned, goodhearted individuals, but some stuff just needs to be said.
I’d been vegetarian for years before I went vegan. I was never any good at watching those PETA videos, or reading in detail all the horrors endured by farmed animals at the merciless hands of fellow human beings. I thought no further than that consuming the flesh of a murdered animal was wrong.
Prior to my veganism, I was participating in what most call the ‘alternative’ (read: elite) food economy, happily paying the premiums associated with organic milk, free run eggs, etc. As far as I understood, so long as the animal products that I consumed were produced in this alternative way, there was no real moral dilemma. While I now fight feelings of guilt over believing this for so long, I also believe this misperception to be the intention of the animal agriculture industry whose hegemonic influence controls and shapes so much of the dialogue and discourse on food systems.
As bought into and morally comfortable as I was with supporting alternative animal agriculture, there were many critical truths hidden from me, and five in particular I want to share today. I say ‘hidden’ because they were in the truest sense of the word. I was one of those individuals who even visited the farms where my food came from, and I assure you if any of the following critical truths had been made even a smidgen clear to me, I’d have become vegan a lot sooner. It is my sincerest intention that this piece may potentially save you the time and heartache of finding out why vegetarianism, though a great start, isn’t enough.
Critical truth #1: The male calves
I never once as a vegetarian thought about what happened to all the calves born to pregnant cows. I never thought about this because I’d never cognitively processed that cows need to be kept impregnated in order to produce milk (and don’t feel foolish if you didn’t either!). While I was living in the fantasy world of no-meat = no-cruelty, I had no idea that the male calves born to pregnant dairy cows end up as the veal on the plate of some person whose face I want to kick in. I’ll never forget the moment I learned this– I felt duped, betrayed by all the promises made by the dairy companies I’d supported about welfare being the highest priority. If intentionally impregnating female animals and slaughtering their baby animals can be described as taking animal suffering seriously, then by that same standard John Wayne Gacy would have been a great babysitter. And the same goes for all dairy. When we consume a cow, sheep or goat’s milk, we are actively participating in the deaths of these baby animals.
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Critical truth #2: The male chicks
Because farmed animals are seen as commodities (no different than say, car parts), when particular animals are seen as purposeless, they are discarded in ways that a psychologist would say must reflect some committed hatred for these little beings. Male chicks who are born onto farms serve no economic ‘function’ and are therefore disposed of in heinous ways. As though spawned from the imagination of some sociopath on steroids, chicks are thrown into grinders, manure pits, etc. When we consume eggs (regardless of whether the carton says ‘free-range’, ‘free-run’, ‘organic’) we are actively participating in this barbarism.
Critical truth #3: The ‘spent’ dairy cows
In my world, when someone retires there is generally a store-bought cake served on party napkins, greeting cards rife with bland jokes about what retirement life will entail, and one of the higher ups gives you a fancy watch. What does a dairy cow get after a life of service (a job she never applied for)? She gets ground into hamburger, that’s what. Despite having life expectancies of 20 years or more, most dairy cows are sent to slaughter as soon as their production decreases (at about 3 or 4 years of age). So by supporting dairy, we are participating in and supporting the meat industry, as it is ‘spent’ dairy cows who end up as the ‘lower quality’ meat in your grocery store.
Critical truth #4: Dairy is a feminist issue
Despite calling myself a feminist since I was a kid (which cost me big time on the playground), and despite having a rich understanding of feminist theory, it had somehow escaped my worldview that the mass, institutionalized control of female farmed animals is the entire basis of the dairy industry (and the meat industry too for that matter). The same dominionistic, patriarchal energy that has siloed men and women (‘us’ versus ‘them’), is responsible for the mammoth sized schism between humans and non-humans. Female cows have their babies stolen from them (sometimes at only a few hours old) and killed for food. Female pigs are confined and constrained in gestation and farrowing crates, and all female farmed animals have their reproductive systems controlled by a profit-thirsty, industrial system designed and perpetuated by a worldview that sees them as mere units, commodities, or capital (instead of as thinking, feeling, individuals). I now understand dairy to be the feminist issue.
Critical truth #5: Sneaky buggers
Factory farmed milk. Sure looks tranquil, don’t it?
One thing I learned through my graduate work, is that so long as citizens shift their dollars to alternatively produced animal products (i.e.: ones with stated ‘welfare standards’; ‘organic’; ’antibiotic free’, etc.) animal-use industries will find a way to co-opt the jargon, the packaging, the colour schemes and the narratives that come with them. Take for example the depicted carton, which paints a picture of quaint rurality that communicates several things: a) Old MacDonald lives here b) the cows are free to roam the pasture and appear healthy/happy c) this is an environmentally sustainable, ‘natural’ product. While this sort of packaging may have once been reserved for the organic, alternative (elite) supply markets– today’s eater (hopefully due to their empathetic nature) expects more, and industry is cleverly responding. So long as we settle or concede that the consumption of animals (in any way) is acceptable, we also create massive, lucrative opportunities for industry (with their gargantuan budgets) to convince people that their products pass some arbitrary ‘checklist’ for animal welfare, environment sustainability, etc.
I hope, dear vegetarians, that you’ll consider confronting the hypocrisy of abstaining from flesh while consuming dairy and eggs (which support and result in the same suffering and death one seeks to avoid as a vegetarian). May all the beautiful, empathetic reasons you decided to become vegetarian be the same reasons you decide to go vegan!
For the animals,
Shannon
I Can’t Believe It’s … Vegan!
Going Veggie: Your Guide To Animal-Free Shopping, Cooking, Eating
It’s Easy To Be Dairy-Free!
Please click on and sign: Act Now to Help Thousands of Suffering Ferrets
Background: From PETA
Triple F Farms, Inc. (Triple F), is a Bradford County, Pa.-based ferret-breeding factory farm whose animals are sold to laboratories around the world and pet stores across the U.S., including Petland. Triple F boasts that it is “one of the largest and [most] esteemed ferret producers in the world” and that “[o]ur babies are very special to us.” But PETA’s undercover investigation exposed a massive breeding mill keeping thousands of ferrets confined in crowded, filthy, stiflingly hot barns, where animals suffered chronic neglect and died on a daily basis.
Based on evidence that PETA presented to federal and state law-enforcement officials before releasing the case publicly, the U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected Triple F and the Bradford County District Attorney’s Office has opened an investigation of Triple F.
The horrific suffering of ferrets documented by PETA’s investigator is detailed below. After you read about the plight of these animals, please take action to help them here.
PETA’s investigation found that ferrets were kept grouped in small cages with dangerous metal wire floors, deprived of any opportunity to engage in natural behavior such as burrowing or hiding, and often deprived of food and water. Newborn, young, and adult animals were systematically denied basic and veterinary care for even painful, life-threatening injuries and conditions.
Investigation Reveals Cruelty to Ferrets
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Bloody rectal prolapses, gaping wounds, herniated organs, ruptured and bleeding eyes, infected feet, and inflamed, swollen mammary glands are just some of the ailments that PETA’s investigator saw ferrets suffering and sometimes dying from during her employment at Triple F. Help these ferrets now by taking action. PETA’s investigator routinely brought to the attention of Triple F ownership, management, and supervisors the suffering of individual ferrets at the facility but to no avail. The investigator’s repeated requests for care and speedy euthanasia to relieve suffering were met with blank stares, shoulder shrugs, and general indifference, as the investigator was instructed to “just leave” ferrets as they were.
Hundreds of newborn and young ferrets fell through the gaps in the wire cage bottoms 3 feet to the waste-covered concrete floors below, where they were left to writhe and cry, and they often died of dehydration or starvation within sight of their mothers and siblings. Triple F forbade its workers—including PETA’s investigator—to pick up the dying newborns. Many of them were consequently run over, maimed, and/or killed by carts used to move food and supplies through the facility’s aisles, and many others were stepped on and buried in feces. PETA’s investigator also saw ferrets thrown into the trash—and into the facility’s incinerator—while still alive. Take action now to end this cruelty.
Read more about PETA’s findings here and excerpts from our investigator’s notes.
Triple F did not have a staff veterinarian to examine and treat the 6,000 or more ferrets it keeps confined in its sheds on any given day. Lay employees worked in a dusty “surgery room” and used unsterilized instruments—including a dull needle and a razor blade—over and over again to cut organs and anal sacs from ferrets who were not anesthetized properly and “woke up” and cried out. Despite claims on Triple F’s website that the facility was visited weekly by a veterinarian, PETA’s investigator never saw a veterinarian or veterinary technician at Triple F in nearly four months of working there.
PETA has submitted formal complaints to seven federal and state agencies and is calling for investigations and appropriate charges including criminal charges. However, we also need you to take action now to help the thousands of ferrets who are suffering at Triple F!
Also, please remember that the animal overpopulation and homelessness crisis is not limited to dogs and cats. Ferrets and other small mammals are also bought on impulse and then left at animal shelters when people have grown tired of them. If you’re willing to open your home to a ferret, please adopt from an animal shelter or rescue group. There are hundreds around the country, so search online or ask your local humane society for a group near you.
Read more…
Our Compass 