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 chimpanzees, ferrets, and mice
Please take action on the below issues. Additionally, OC will re-publish alerts via sponsor sites (such as PCRM or Born Free) because they are requesting additional participation. Also, the targets typically change, too. For example, OC already published a previous alert via PCRM about the ferret use in the Washington Peds Program, but the target has now changed to the President of the school versus a person teaching the program.
1. Ask Your Senators and Congressperson to End Chimpanzee Experiments
2. Ask the University of Washington to End the Use of Ferrets in its Pediatrics Residency Program
3. Urge Ortho to Stop Selling Cruel Mousetrap
1. Background | From PCRM
Please send e-mail that asks your members of Congress to support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act. This important legislation will end the use of chimpanzees in invasive experiments, permanently end federal breeding programs, and release federally owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuaries. We have provided text for you, but if you decide to write your own message, please be polite and encouraging. Here are some talking points:
- The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act is a bipartisan bill that makes sense—ethically, scientifically, and financially.
- Chimpanzees in laboratories suffer similarly to human victims of trauma and it is unethical to continue to use them in experiments.
- Only 20 percent of chimpanzees in laboratories are used in research while the others are warehoused at taxpayer expense.
- Research funding would be better spent on superior modern research and testing methods, such as ethical, human-centered studies, mathematical modeling, and in vitro testing.
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2. Background | From PCRM
Please take a minute to ask University of Washington president Michael Young to replace the use of ferrets in the school of medicine’s pediatrics residency program with validated human-based training methods. We have provided text for you, but if you decide to write your own message, please be polite and encouraging. Here are some talking points:
- Please replace the use of animals in UW’s pediatrics residency program.
- Anatomical and physiological differences between ferrets and humans render this type of training suboptimal.
- UW is part of a shrinking minority of pediatrics residencies (7 percent) that still use live animals for training.
- High-fidelity simulators such as Gaumard’s Premie HAL and PREMIE Blue accurately replicate the airway of a premature newborn and allow for data collection.
- UW already has a state-of-the-art simulation center that can easily provide nonanimal training methods.
3. Background | From PETA
Despite numerous complaints from horrified customers, lawn-and-garden giant Ortho (part of Scotts Miracle-Gro Company) continues to sell the Kill & Contain Mousetrap! Mice trapped in these cruel devices are flipped upside down into a tiny chamber and may suffer for hours, even days, before dying.
Ortho advertisements claim that the Kill & Contain trap is “guaranteed” to kill trapped mice and tells customers to throw away the traps without checking them. The misleading ads mean that customers who buy the traps may not realize when they are throwing live, terrified animals in the trash, leaving them to die slowly from painful injuries, suffocation, or starvation and dehydration. Complaints to PETA and those posted on the Scotts Web site describe mice who were crying out from inside the traps and mice who struggled pitifully to escape after their legs and backs had been broken by the Kill & Contain trap. When PETA caseworkers called Scotts Miracle-Gro about the trap, we were told that it was designed to kill the animals gradually—by suffocating them or forcing them to die from thirst! We were also instructed to throw traps away with the live animals inside.
Please take a moment to write to the chairperson and CEO of Scotts Miracle-Gro urging him to immediately discontinue the Kill & Contain traps.
Four Alerts: Please help to stop vivisection; stop killing of badgers & horses; oppose trapping
Please click on and sign the following:
1. Ask the Medical College of Wisconsin to End the Use of Animals
2. Petition US Senators to Co-sponsor S1176, the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011
3. Stop the Badger Cull (post codes include CR2 6XH, M60 1NW, CR2 6XH, DN55 1PT)
4. Please Co-Sponsor the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act
1. Background | From PCRM
Please ask Jonathan Ravdin, M.D., dean of the Medical College of Wisconsin, to end the use of rabbits, frogs, and rats in the school’s medical student curriculum. Fewer than five percent of U.S. medical schools and no Canadian medical schools use animals for this purpose. We have provided text for you, but if you decide to write your own message, please be polite and encouraging. Here are some talking points:
- I am writing to ask that MCW end the use of anmals in its medical student curriculum.
- MCW is one of only four U.S. medical schools that use animals to teach physiology.
- As of October 2010 no Canadian medical schools use animals for this purpose.
- MCW is endangering its reputation by continuing this practice.
2. Background | From Change
Institute a federal ban on the selling, purchasing, transporting and slaughtering an equine for the purposes of human consumption.
Contacting your congresspeople individually will have a greater impact! They can be found HERE.
Please add your signature to this petition which will be delivered to the United States senators who have not yet cosponsored S1176 – the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011 – in the next few weeks. By doing this, you can add your voice to the nationwide lobbying effort in support of this critical legislation to federally ban the predatory horse slaughter industry ridden with cruelty and corruption. The 112th Congress convenes from January 2011 through January 2013. Louisiana Sen. Landrieu is the original sponsor of the bill and she has asked for nationwide citizen support in obtaining cosponsors for this vital and progressive legislation. The timing of it is a good opportunity and we must act now.
The first and most important step towards making Sen Landrieu’s S1176 bill a law, is to obtain a large number of cosponsors and move the bill out of Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation where it is being held at the moment. This is the list of Commerce committee members: http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=CommitteeMembers
If you wish to contact your senators personally by fax or email, which is the most effective way of making your will known, please go to SENATE.GOV and search under Find Your Senators. It’s easy.
PS: Please include your Name and Zipcode. Signatures are not being emailed to the senators at this time. The list for each state will be delivered to their offices in person by individual citizens representing each state!
Every person counts! THANK YOU!
3. Background | From 38 Degrees (post codes include CR2 6XH, M60 1NW, CR2 6XH, DN55 1PT)
The government has announced plans to start culling badgers. There’s been a big debate among 38 Degrees members about these culls. Some of us believe killing badgers would be wrong under any circumstances. Some of us believe that if the science really proved that shooting badgers could make a real dent in the cow TB problem, it would be a tragic necessity.
But 87% of us agree on this: the government’s current plans to shoot England’s badgers simply don’t stack up. The government’s own scientific advisers warn that it won’t solve the problem of TB in cattle, and could even make it worse.
Government scientists say that if a cull isn’t carried out “in a co-ordinated, sustained and simultaneous manner according to the minimum criteria, then this could result in a smaller benefit or even a detrimental effect.”
The government is consulting on the plans right now. If we don’t stop them, badger shoots could begin in a matter of months. Can you take 30 seconds now to add your name to the petition?
4. Background | From Born Free
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.
Russia’s Olympic Bear Of St. Petersburg Circus Kept Caged On Parked Bus: please send sample letter, sign petitions
Please sign Petitions and send Sample Letter protesting the continuous enslavement of bears and other circus animals in St. Petersburg, Russia.
BACKGROUND
From Huffington Post
By Dmitry Lovetsky
St. Petersburg, Russia — For two years, a 36-year-old bear who performed during the 1980 Moscow Olympics has been kept with other retired circus animals in a rusty old bus parked on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.
Animal rights activists say they receive only minimal care in their cramped and stinking cages.
Katya the bear was a longtime star of the Big St. Petersburg State Circus on Fontanka, where night after night she and another bear delighted children by riding motorcycles around the ring.
During the 1980 Summer Games, the bears were applauded by thousands at a ceremony opening the football competition in St. Petersburg, then called Leningrad. Katya also performed in two movies released in the 1980s.
Since her retirement in 2009, Katya and the painted bus on which she once toured with the circus have not left a parking lot near a busy highway. The aging bear spends the long hours jumping up and down in her cage and trying to crack the rusty metal railings with her chipped and yellowed teeth.
Dozens of other retired circus animals also live in the smelly cages placed inside the bus and a minivan parked nearby.
Some occasionally are taken out to accompany photographers to downtown St. Petersburg to have their pictures taken with children and tourists. Others never get washed or examined by veterinarians, animal rights activists say.
Related | Russia’s Olympic Bear Caged On Rusty Bus
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“They can’t move normally and start going crazy,” Zoya Afanasyeva of the Vita animal rights group said as she stood by Katya’s sweltering bus on a hot summer day.
“Apparently they are being taken care of, but not more often than once a day, and this care is perfunctory because the smell here in the parking lot is unbearable,” Afanasyeva said.
Klava the bear shares a small cage with Pasha the boar. Birds with atrophied muscles live next to cats that don’t meow and stare straight ahead with pus-covered eyes.
Circus director Viktor Savrasov said the animals are cared for and Katya’s fate would have been worse if her trainer had agreed to have the bear put to sleep.
“Whatever happened, she did not leave her,” he said of retired trainer Natalya Arkhipova, who still visits Katya to feed her.
Animal rights activists have long urged Russia’s government to strengthen animal protection laws.
PETITIONS
To free Russia’s Olympic bear and other animals kept caged on parked bus
Save Russia’s Olympic Bear Of St. Petersburg Circus
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email:
russianembassy@mindspring.com
Webform:
Send a Letter to the President (click on red ‘Send a Letter’ after reading the requirements)
Postal Address:
Consular Division, Embassy of the Russian Federation
2641 Tunlaw RD., N.W.
Washington D.C. 20007
USA
Phone: +1 202.939.8907, 202.939.8913, 202.939.8918
Telex: (232) 248708 COEM UR
Fax: +1 202.483.7579
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing today to encourage you to relinquish the Olympic Bear Of St. Petersburg Circus and the other circus animals languishing in cages on a bus to sanctuary. These non-human animals have been subjected to enslavement, imprisonment, forced to endure inadequate space, inferior medical treatment and care, lack of companionship, and involuntary training, made to perform tricks and have pictures taken with ignorant audiences. Although you may assert that humane protocols are observed, the visual evidence validates the position that this care is ignored in favor of profit.
As the result of a more attentive and compassionate group, individuals comprising a large global audience concerned with these animals have been respectfully offering medical evidence establishing the debilitating natures to which these animals are exposed. Sadly, however, apparent greed and indifference have resulted in their deteriorating mental and physical states. By refusing to release them, you are establishing your approval of animal cruelty, and I am appalled to learn of your deliberate involvement in the exploitation of animals.
I hope you make the compassionate decision to discontinue your imprisonment of them and reject complicity in the unethical industry that profits from their suffering. However, as long as you continue to unnecessarily capitalize on the exploitation, imprisonment, and maltreatment of them, I will not financially support you via tourism or commerce.
Thank you for your attention to this important issue; I hope you extend an ethical and empathetic gesture to release these non-human animals to sanctuary.
NAME | COUNTRY
Image | Jess Wahl Blog
Please contact Berks County District Attorney John Adams, PA Governor Tom Corbett, and all PA State Senators and let them know how you feel about the illegal pigeon shoots that are continually sanctioned and illegally allowed. Governor Corbett does not have email but rather webform, contact him via webform in separate mailing. Please modify and shorten the Sample Letter below and remain courteous.
BACKGROUND | From SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK)
The use of live pigeons for target/pleasure shooting is obviously despicable, but the horror does not end when the shooting stops. Left to suffer and die, the wounded but still living animals face unspeakable agony. Unable to fly, injured pigeons are exposed to the elements, including freezing rain, snow and ice. With open and infected injuries, the end is slow and arduous. Days may pass before the relief of death finally comes.
Abandoning wounded pigeons to die slow, painful deaths clearly falls within the purview of Pennsylvania’s animal cruelty laws as it would for any other animal. Nevertheless, Berks County District Attorney John Adams (who has received campaign donations from pigeon shooters) not only refuses to act on animal cruelty complaints – he has actively crushed all efforts to have state animal cruelty laws enforced by Pennsylvania Humane Police Officers.
District Attorney Adams protects pigeon shoots, even though most shooters are not from Berks County. Many of the shooters aren’t even from Pennsylvania.
RELATED:
- Does the PA District Attorney Protect Animal Abusers?
- Is This Pennsylvania’s Most Corrupt Politician?
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Please contact Berks County District Attorney John Adams, PA Governor Tom Corbett, and all PA State Senators and let them know how you feel. Governor Corbett does not have email but rather webform, contact him via webform in separate mailing. Please modify and shorten the sample letter below and remain courteous:
- Telephone number DA Adams | Phone: 610.478.6000 ; Fax: 610.478.6002
- Telephone number Governor Corbett | Phone: 717. 787.2500 ; Fax: 717.772.8284
- Calling codes can be found HERE
- Calling code plus telephone number to USA is: 00 + 1 + 555.555.5555
- Webform for Governor Tom Corbett: click HERE
Email block
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Governor Corbett, District Attorney Adams, and Senators:
I am greatly disturbed to learn that Berks County Pennsylvania continues to host the savage slaughter of thousands of pigeons for entertainment. Indeed, I have even witnessed footage of severely injured and dying birds thrown in piles, casually ignored, in obvious states of agony, following such a primitive and reckless game of juvenile glee and participation. It is my understanding that this type of “sport” is illegal yet is repeatedly sanctioned due to certain alleged relationships; indeed, the District Attorney in nearby Dauphin County allowed a humane officer to level 100 charges against those involved in a similar event, and there has not been another shoot there since. This exploitation of animals is an unacceptable practice, and I therefore respectfully request you uphold the law and subsequently cease these events immediately.
Please allow me this opportunity to elaborate. Our society considers other beings disposable, to be used as commodities and discarded in accordance with egotistical human-focused goals and benefits. It is within this rigid definition of human acceptability absent accountability that humans embrace speciesism, the prejudicial regard of other species as undeserving of either rights or freedom from exploitation. Speciesism is immoral and dangerous, a precept built upon a foundation of arrogance, greed, and inequality, promoted with solicitous validations meant to foster approval. However, regardless of euphemistic descriptions meant to disguise exploitation, this practice is indeed unethical, the animals being intentionally subjected to suffering and pain and then killed. Although you may find the lives of these birds as immaterial and therefore expendable, you should understand they value their own lives and possess the capacity to experience trauma, fear, and suffering.
This reckless destruction is unnecessary, unjustified, and unprincipled, its only function to egotistically benefit those who exploit animals. Animals have rights to live free from pain and suffering regardless of objections to acknowledge such, and as long as Berks County profits on the torture of animals, complicit in their abuse and death, I will discontinue visiting as a tourist. It is important to accept that, what is indeed valuable, is the life itself and the capability to experience emotion and suffering. Please observe this basic moral principle and act with justice rather than react with cruelty.
Thank you for your attention to this important issue.
NAME | ADDRESS
Primate Products: Ask Novartis not to do business with them
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Novartis has been in contact with Primate Products. Write to Amber Lange of Novartis and tell her that Novartis should not do business with Primate Products. Ask her to share your concerns with her co-workers at Novartis. You may use the Sample Letter but please shorten and modify so she receives a variety.
FROM FOX 4
BY MATT GRANT
Hendry County – A Fox 4 investigation is creating a ripple effect through Washington D.C.
Two Florida lawmakers are now calling for an “immediate suspension” of the government’s contracts with Primate Products, an animal research facility awarded $1.3 million in stimulus money.
Fox 4 discovered the contract with Primate Products didn’t create a single job.
Primate Products has a location miles behind the Hendry County Prison, off of a long dirt road. They import animals from all over the world for scientific research.
Last fall, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), paid Primate Products $1.3 million, using stimulus money meant for spurring economic growth and saving or creating jobs.
Here’s the break down: The feds gave Primate Products nearly $538,000 to buy 108 monkeys for flu virus experiments. They were also given $792,000 from a pool of $17 million to develop a universal flu vaccine.
“I think it’s great that you’re doing the story,” said Rep. Connie Mack, “and that you’ve uncovered this.”
Before our story even ran, the southwest Florida congressman sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking for an explanation as to how the money given to Primate Products fits in with the goals of the stimulus.
“We were told the stimulus package was going to create jobs,” said Mack. “This is what people are so frustrated about – that the government is spending money on things that the people don’t need, don’t want and don’t deserve.”
Fox 4 left messages and e-mails with Health and Human Services to see if they are in fact investigation but have yet to hear back.
RELATED| Horrific Pictures Leaked From Primate Products
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Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
East Hanover, New Jersey
Phone: (862) 778-0335
Fax: (973) 781-2286
Email: amber.lange@novartis.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Ms. Lange,
I have just learned that you have been in contact with Primate Products on behalf of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, and I am writing to request you reject this project. You should be aware that, despite any solicitous remarks made to facilitate societal endorsement of vivisection, it is fundamentally cruel and unethical, and the existence of non-lethal alternatives makes vivisection not only inhumane but also archaic. You should also be aware that Primate Products is once again receiving negative publicity and it would seem irresponsible to connect Novartis with such shocking allegations.
Please allow me this opportunity to elaborate. Those of us who share the ethical belief that non-human animals have inherent rights, including lives free from human-manufactured exploitation and suffering, choose to expose the industry that disregards this most basic moral tenet. Any attempt at validation using conciliatory rhetoric meant to solicit support is false, lies perpetrated by an industry accustomed to spin and dependent upon the, at times, intentional misinterpretation by consumers to foster approval. To disregard this unambiguous cruelty as necessary is nothing but an employ of disingenuous industry lingo, an example of the distortion advocated as care and concern. However, we who recognize the deceptive nature of such promotion understand the reality: those who actually care for animals do not imprison them and expose them to disease and experimentation; those who actually concern themselves with animals would never subject them to pain, suffering, and agony and the denial of companionship and comfort.
From a pragmatic standpoint, if we could adequately determine the effects of drugs using animals in general then human trials would be unnecessary, a costly redundancy of testing protocols. Therefore, if animals cannot be used to predict a human outcome in general, then how can they be used to predict safety? It’s a ridiculous premise, one on which vivisectors place the lives of human animals and the death of non-human animals with a publicity machine using deceptive statements and misleading assertions fabricated by unscrupulous “scientists” to garner social approval. Indeed, to establish legitimacy, they constantly promote the idea that those opposed to animal testing are supportive of human suffering. What an insidious remark, effective in its subtlety to gain public endorsement while at the same time fostering a hatred towards anti-vivisectionists, labeling us as misanthropists. I can assure you, I am neither ethically challenged nor stupid: these false assertions are nothing but pathetic attempts to rationalize a morally deficient industry where they capitalize on the fear of people and exploitation of animals.
Animal experimentation is unnecessary, unjustified, and unprincipled, its only function to financially benefit those who exploit animals. Animals have rights to live free from pain and suffering regardless of objections to acknowledge such; I therefore hope this message finds you willing to examine and subsequently change your potential complicity in their abuse and death.
Thank you for your attention and consideration.
NAME|ADDRESS|COUNTRY
PREVIOUS: At Least 21 Monkeys Dead After Botched Rescue Attempt from “Primate Products”
RELATED:
Lovelace: Your actions are still needed!
Image | The Daily Puppy
OPERATION: AGITATE TO LIBERATE, 300 DAYS OF HELL FOR LOVELACE | FROM Win Animal Rights/WAR (need Facebook account to view event).
Please send emails, faxes, and/or call directly the contacts of Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute demanding they stop slaughtering animals. This is a reblog of the initial action published mid- July. You may use the below Sample Letter, but if you do not, please remember to include SAEN and WAR contact details with your message, thank you. Email block and individual details included.
BACKGROUND
On July 19, 2011, SAEN & WAR Launched a Joint Campaign Operation: Agitate to Liberate 2011 to save the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute Lab Animals. On August 1, 2011, SAEN & WAR call for 300 Days of Hell for Lovelace in response to the killing of 300 monkeys by Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute.
Recently a whistleblower contacted SAEN revealing that Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI), as a result of financial reverses, had plans to exterminate 300 monkeys and a colony of beagles whose size we do not yet know. The whistleblower has told us that the monkey slaughter began on Monday, July 11th. 30 monkeys are being killed every day. When they have all been wiped out, the beagles are next. – Michael Budkie, Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN)
More recently, we have been notified that the above-mentioned 300 monkeys have already been killed and the fate of the beagles is unknown. In addition, we have been told that the killing will not end here and that more monkey are due to be exterminated. Media has been alerted and it has been reported that Lovelace’s response to the media is that killing lab animals is routine business at Lovelace and that their policy is to not comment.
Demand that Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute respond to the calls of animal advocates who can arrange for the LRRI ‘surplus’ animals to be taken to safety and sanctuary. Ask them to contact Michael Budkie of Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN) or Camille Hankins of Win Animal Rights (WAR) immediately to arrange transport of the at-risk animals.
Beginning on Monday, August 1, 2011, we will be releasing the contact information of the below Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute’s Board of Directors and others on a daily basis. As a non-profit organization, their Board of Directors must be made aware of what is happening there and how damaging it could be to their personal and professional reputations.
Please keep your contacts polite and informative. It is possible that board members are not aware of the horrific activities taking place at LRRI.
Hundreds of Beagles & Monkeys are depending on you! We must take steps to let the LRRI management team know that the animals in their care deserve to be released and given sanctuary. They have already given enough of their lives and enough of their freedom for human greed. We are asking that for the next 2 days, you make a commitment to advocate for the lives of these innocent beings by demanding that LRRI management open lines of communication to SAEN and/or WAR before close of business on Friday, July 15, 2011.
WHOM TO CONTACT | EMAIL BLOCK
rwrubin@lrri.org,rmcgivney@lrri.org,cdevaul@lrri.org,rblea@lrri.org,rleclaire@lrri.org,
jmcdonal@lrri.org,rsherwood@lrri.org,sstemkowski@lrri.org,wbechtol@lrri.org,
mreed@lrri.org,cdicarlo@lrri.org,pholeman@lrri.org,bhendzel@lrri.org,jtaylor@lrri.org,
dfox@lrri.org,dgriego@lrri.org,rmorrow@lrri.org,cmerriam-leith@lrri.org,info@lrri.org
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I have just learned that Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) is currently slaughtering animals, including monkeys and beagles, due to financial disparities. It is my understanding that dozens of animals are being killed daily and I am pleading with you to explore non-lethal alternatives including discussing this decision with animal rights groups, including Win Animal Rights and Stop Animal Exploitation Now, who have initiated a dialogue to save them. You should be aware that, despite any solicitous remarks made to facilitate social endorsement of vivisection and caused deaths, it is fundamentally cruel and unethical, and the existence of non-lethal alternatives, including rescue and sanctuary, makes sacrificing these animals to satisfy your budget deficits an unacceptable, irresponsible, and cruel response.
Animal experimentation is unnecessary, unjustified, and unprincipled, its only function to financially benefit those who exploit animals. Animals have rights to live free from pain and suffering regardless of objections to acknowledge such, and I therefore hope this message finds you willing to examine and subsequently change your complicity in their abuse and death. Please contact one or both the following organizations who have willingly offered to intervene on the animals’ behalf:
Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN), Michael Budkie:
Email: saen@saenonline.org
Phone: 1-513-575-5517
Website: http://saenonline.org
Win Animal Rights (WAR), Camille Hankins:
Email: centcom@war-online.org
Phone: 1-732-250-6066
Website: http://war-online.org
Thank you for your attention and consideration.
NAME
WHOM TO CONTACT | INDIVIDUAL DETAILS
Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI)
2425 Ridgecrest Dr. SE
Albuquerque, NM 87108-5127
Phone: 505-348-9400
Fax: 505-348-8567
Email: info@lrri.org
Robert W. Rubin, PhD
President and CEO
(505) 348-9365
rwrubin@lrri.org
Richard C. McGivney, MS, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
(505) 348-9430
rmcgivney@lrri.org
Cheryl N. DeVaul, BEd, MBA
Chief Human Resources Officer
(505) 348-9191
cdevaul@lrri.org
Rachel M. Blea, MBA
Director of Information Services
(505) 348-9597
rblea@lrri.org
Ross D. LeClaire, DVM, PhD, MSS, DABT, Fellow ATS
Director of Federal Programs
(505) 348-1795/9113
rleclaire@lrri.org
Jacob D. McDonald, PhD
Director, Chemistry and Inhalation Exposure Program
Director, Environmental Respiratory Health Program
(505) 348-9455
jmcdonal@lrri.org
Robert L. Sherwood, PhD
Director of Applied Life Sciences and Toxicology
(505) 348-9459
rsherwood@lrri.org
Stephen A. Stemkowski, PhD
Director of Center for Pharmacoeconomic and Outcomes Research
(704) 775-3515
sstemkowski@lrri.org
William E. Bechtold, PhD
Director of Technology Transfer
(505) 348-9456
wbechtol@lrri.org
Matthew D. Reed, PhD, DABT
Director of Preclinical Drug Development
(505) 348-4980
mreed@lrri.org
Cheryl D. DiCarlo, DVM, PhD, DACLAM
Director Comparative Medicine/Attending Vet
(505) 348-1935
cdicarlo@lrri.org
Chris Merriam-Leith, MS, PMP
Director of Business Affairs
(505) 348-9650
cmerriam-leith@lrri.org
Penny H. Holeman, MS, MPH
Director of Biosafety, Training & Biosecurity Solutions
(505) 348-9415
pholeman@lrri.org
Bret Hendzel, BA, MBA
Senior Director of Operations
(505) 348-9450
bhendzel@lrri.org
James Taylor
Federal Capture Manager
(505) 348-9518
jtaylor@lrri.org
Donii D. Fox, MSPH, CIH, CBSP
South Biological Safety Officer
(505) 348-1953
dfox@lrri.org
David D. Griego, BSME
Director of Facilities
(505) 348-9406
dgriego@lrri.org
Ricky L. Morrow
Consultant Director of Office of Research Contracts
(505) 348-9405
rmorrow@lrri.org
Tell the FBI: Rape is Rape; Free Climate Hero Tim DeChristopher; Subaru – Stop Selling Cars Where Women Can’t Drive
Image | Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA)
Please click on and sign the following:
1. Tell the FBI: Rape is Rape!
2. Free Climate Hero Tim DeChristopher
3. Subaru: Stop Selling Cars Where Women Can’t Drive
1. Background | From Change
Each year, the FBI fails to count hundreds of thousands of rapes in its Uniform Crime Report (UCR)—even missing many rapes that are reported to police. That’s because for over 80 years, the FBI has been using the same fundamentally flawed definition of “forcible” rape: “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will” to track rape statistics in the UCR.
This excludes rapes involving forced anal sex and/or oral sex, vaginal or anal fisting, rape with an object (even if serious injuries result), rapes of men and transgender people and other injurious and degrading sexual assaults. Also, because the definition includes the word “forcibly,” police departments often interpret the rule (against UCR guidelines) as leaving out rapes of women with physical or mental disabilities and those who were unconscious or under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
A recent Ms. investigation revealed that the archaic definition plays a key role in the vast underreporting of rape in the U.S.:
- The FBI’s 2007 Uniform Crime Report listed 91,874 “forcible rapes”, but some estimates suggest the actual number may be 24 times higher.
- Police departments go to great lengths to look good on the UCR, the FBI’s comprehensive national crime report by which all U.S. police departments are judged, and federal funding is determined. Often this means interpreting “forcible rape” even more narrowly than the FBI does when classifying sexual crimes.
- Police departments across the country, notably Baltimore and Philadelphia, have been found to be juking the stats—coding legitimate rape cases as “unfounded” in order to make it appear that rape numbers have declined.
Related | Corrective Rape
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Without an accurate definition, we won’t have accurate statistics about rape, and without accurate statistics, we will never have adequate funding for law enforcement to solve these crimes. A change in the definition of rape would lead to better law enforcement response and could thus reduce dramatically the incidence of rape.
It’s high time for a change. For rape survivors, a modern definition of rape at the federal level would acknowledge, once and for all, that rape is rape—and that the stories and experiences of all rape survivors count.
Make sure that all rapes are counted. Sign this petition to tell FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Eric Holder to update the overly narrow, outdated “forcible rape” definition.
2. Background | From Change
In a peaceful act of protest against oil and gas leases, 29 year old Tim Dechristopher was sentenced to 2 years in jail yesterday.
“My intent both at the time of the auction and now was to expose, embarrass and hold accountable the oil and gas industry, to the point that it cut into their $100 billion profits,” DeChristopher told the court.
Dechristopher told the judge, “You have authority over my life, but not my principles. Those are mine,” DeChristopher said. “I’ll continue to confront the system that threatens our future.”
We must all stand up and take action to tell DeChristopher that he is not alone and his actions were not in vain.
Jail is a lonely and solitary place and we must ensure that Tim’s resolve stays strong and we can send him a huge message of support for his courage to protect our planet.
3. Background | From Change
Dear Subaru,
We are leading Saudi Women’s rights activists and we write this open letter to you as a company that has made a name for itself among women drivers and which has built up a progressive brand image.
Subaru sponsors women’s surf festivals, the U.S. Women’s Triathlon Series, “Subaru Women’s Week” packages for skiers and even the Outstanding Woman in Science Award for the Geological Society of America.
But while Subaru is marketed heavily at women, your company is simultaneously making millions selling cars in the only country on earth where women aren’t allowed to drive – much less ride a bike or go surf, run a triathlon, or ski on their own.
Subaru takes corporate citizenship seriously. On your web site, Subaru Chairman Yoshio Hasunuma writes, “We are dedicated to support and improve the communities in which we live and work.”
But Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. As Saudi women our lack of freedom of movement places an extreme burden on our lives. We lack a public transportation system and the most basic errands and medical appointments are missed due to the difficulty and expenses of arranging transportation, notwithstanding educational and work opportunities. Our lack of this basic right to drive our own cars creates many safety risks for women on the roads, and relying on strangers as drivers has jeopardized the safety of women and children in many documents cases.
We write to you with a simple request: that Subaru publicly pledge to pull out of Saudi Arabia until such time as women are allowed to drive.
It is our hope that this will put huge pressure on the Saudi royal family and shine a bright light on the “gender apartheid” in our country. It’s a chance for your company to live up to your brand, and make a huge difference for nearly 13 million of us Saudi women.
Image | Animals Australia
Please send sample letter and sign two petitions protesting Chinese rodeo; letter and addresses generously provided by Anti-Fur Society.
BACKGROUND | BY JUDY M.
A coalition of 68 Chinese animal rights groups has called for the cancellation of Rodeo China, a Sino-U.S. cultural exchange event scheduled for October at Beijing’s National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest.
Rodeo China was approved by the Chinese government in April as part of a series of Sino-American cultural exchange events. It will be the richest competition of its kind, with an unprecedented prize of $8 million. It will also be the biggest event of its kind, with around 120 cowboys, 180 horses, 36 bulls and 90 steers, primarily from the U.S. and Australia, competing in the Bird’s Nest stadium.
Please join us in calling for the cancellation of Rodeo China.
PETITIONS TO SIGN
WHOM TO CONTACT
SAMPLE LETTER
To the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China
Chairman Wu Bang Guo
Dear Chairman Wu,
I am writing to you to express my greatest concern about your intention to bring American rodeo to China as part of the “American culture”. What you may not be aware of is that rodeo is NOT a part of the culture of most Americans. Americans in general are compassionate people and rodeos are a part of a culture that most Americans are disgraced and embarrassed about, not proud of.
I urge you to reconsider this decision to bring American rodeo to your country. Years of investigations have revealed horrific animal cruelty in American rodeos. Animals not only suffer during this despised spectacle, but many are also killed during the event. We do not wish this to Chinese citizens or anyone else in a world already full of violence. If you would like to bring American culture to China, please find a vast number of events that we are proud of and which truly reflects the compassion of American people and culture.
The Rodeo organizers say that they have humane laws and regulations that protect the performing animals, but this is what they want people to believe. Just as a simple example, this past July 24, 2011, a horse was cruelly killed in a rodeo performance in Cheyenne, Wyoming. These are not rare occurrences. The links below show the aforementioned horse’s death and a second horse injured all in the same event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zwfcv-F89s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjWsdKJV2HI
Please reject American rodeo in China as it will only reflect poorly on your country.
Sincerely,
NAME
COUNTRY
Related | SHARK introduction
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The fate of the innocent…
In spite of a 1991 law which prohibits consumption of dogs and cats, a flourishing industry exists within the markets of South Korea. Illegal and unsanitary dog farms are hidden away in the countryside where breeders raise their stock for butchers.
The International Day Of Action For South Korean Dogs And Cats is August 16, 2011; please take action by clicking on and participating in the following:
- Sending One or Both Sample Letters
- Signing Petition to Stop the Torture and Consumption of Dogs in South Korea
- Handing out Leaflets
- Contacting IDA
BACKGROUND | FROM IDA
Every year, two million South Korean dogs and cats are electrocuted, strangled, or bludgeoned to death and are then skinned, chopped up, and boiled to be eaten. The cruelty and suffering endured by these dogs is unimaginable.
Where do they come from?
Most are homeless, captured by butchers and sold in open markets.
The country’s Animal Protection Law, which was passed in 1991 considers dogs and cats to be “domestic pets.” However, authorities are giving the dog meat trade their silent blessing by turning a blind eye to this outrageous bloodbath throughout South Korea.
Let me assure you the eating of dog meat isn’t based on any deeply rooted South Korean tradition. South Koreans have only eaten dogs when poverty has been widespread, as was the case during World War II. Even in those hard times, dogs were treated as companion animals.
Now, however — with the unspoken blessing of the government, greedy, unscrupulous dog traders in South Korea propagate the myth that canine meat increases male sexual prowess and general health. This illegal industry has organized itself well. It bribes government officials and police, hires thugs to intimidate animal welfare campaigners, and persuades newspapers to extol the “virtues” of dog meat.
WHOM TO CONTACT
*Please note you need to send your letters to all three email addresses and via both webforms in order to message all addressees.
**Please also note that pcrmadmin@mw.go.kr bounced back but I will keep it in.
Email block (three)
consular_usa@mofat.go.kr , pcrmadmin@mw.go.kr , master@mifaff.go.kr
Webforms (two)
http://www.dynamic-korea.com/embassy/meet.php
http://www.korea.net/directory/top_directory.jsp?addr=http%3a%2f%2fenglish.president.go.kr%2f
(Must click “Contact Us” in the upper right under “Close”)
SAMPLE LETTER ONE
Dear President Lee, Ambassador Duk-soo Han, and Ministers,
I am horrified at the continued torture and consumption of South Korea’s companion animals.
Even with the South Korean Animal Protection Law for cats and dogs and a Ministry of Health Law banning the consumption of dog-meat soup (boshintang), dogs are still beaten, electrocuted, skinned alive and slaughtered by the thousands for boshintang while cats are still beaten and boiled alive for rheumatism remedies (goyangi soju).
Please immediately enforce the following:
The Ministry of Education’s requirement to introduce and maintain a public education campaign to teach modern, internationally accepted general-care knowledge of cats and dogs, including the importance of spay-neuter surgery and to address the many unfounded South Korean myths surrounding their species.
The Ministry of Agriculture’s duty of office to outlaw the slaughter of cats and dogs as well as their “passing the buck” to the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health’s duty of office to uphold and enforce South Korea’s current law which bans dog-meat soup, as well as their “passing the buck” to the Ministry of Agriculture.
The allocation, through the Ministry of Finance, of reasonable budgets to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Health to carry out their official responsibilities on behalf of not only cats and dogs, but other animals as well.
I WILL NOT BUY KOREAN GOODS, SUPPORT KOREAN BUSINESS, OR VISIT KOREA UNTIL KOREANS STOP EATING DOGS AND CATS.
Signed,
Your name
Your address
SAMPLE LETTER TWO
Dear President Lee, Ambassador Duk-soo Han, and Ministers,
I am shocked to learn of the cruel and torturous treatment of cats and dogs in your society as used for consumption and medicinal purposes. To condemn these animals to such horrific practices is depraved and horrific. These forms of tortures include electrocution, drowning, beating, and boiling and skinning while alive. Only the most immoral and indifferent could subject an animal to such contemptible conditions. While you may object with and claim hypocrisy regarding Western treatment of farm animals, I have to declare that I am against all forms of animal abuse.
Furthermore, the belief that the more painful deaths equal the better meat or medical treatment is not only terrifying but also scientifically and medically unsound. I’d like to believe that humans across the globe have not conditioned themselves to forever believe we are superior to animals and thus justified in our abusive treatment and deaths of them. We are capable, indeed we are obligated, to acknowledge animals as sentient beings, who feel emotion, pain, despair, and love. You must view animals as such because any lesser view would demean humans and our ability to feel empathy and compassion.
Furthermore, I must add that I will boycott any of your country’s products. Your economy benefits significantly from many exports, including those manufactured by companies including Samsung, LG, and Kia to name a few, as well as clothing and footware. These I will boycott unless you take a stand against these atrocities and illegalize in PRACTICE the torture and slaughter of cats and dogs.
I know you wish to become a model society for the rest of the world; you have the courage and the duty to cease these actions and prove you are a society of compassion.
Respectfully yours,
FULL CONTACT DETAILS
Embassy of the Republic of Korea
Duk-soo Han, Ambassador
Address:
2320 Massachusetts Ave. NW.
Washington, DC 20008
TEL: 202-939-5657, 202-939-5653
FAX: 202-342-1597
email: consular_usa@mofat.go.kr (this email is directed to their Public Relations.)
http://www.dynamic-korea.com/embassy/meet.php
(This is an online forum designed to provide you an opportunity to communicate issues of your concern to the Ambassador of the Republic of South Korea Han Duk-soo.)
Prime Minister’s Office(PMO)
Kim Hwang-sik, Prime Minister
Address:
Central Government Complex, 55 Sejong-no, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea, 110-760
TEL:+82-2-2100-2114
Rim Che-min, Minister of the PMO
TEL: +82-2-2100 2200
The Ministry of Health & Welfare
CHIN Soo Hee, the Minister
Address:
75 Yulgok-ro, Jongno-gu
Seoul, South Korea
110-793
Tel: +82-2-2023-7000
email: pcrmadmin@mw.go.kr
Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Foresstry and Fisheries(MIFAFF)
Suh Kyu-Yong , Minister
Address:
Government Complex Gwacheon
Jungang-dong 1,
Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do
South Korea
TEL: +82-2-500-1501
E-mail: master@mifaff.go.kr
Letters to South Korea from the U.S. cost $.80 to mail.
THE FATE OF THE INNOCENTS | LEAFLETS
CONTACT IDA FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW YOU CAN HELP:
In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner Blvd.
San Rafael, CA 94901
Tel.: 415-448-0048
Fax: 415-454-1031
hope@idausa.org
The Last Mountain
Image | Steve Shames
Please click on and sign: Ask your Senators to become cosponsors of the Appalachia Restoration Act
Background | From The Last Mountain
The Appalachia Restoration Act is a bill in the US Senate which will sharply reduce mountaintop removal coal mining by protecting our headwater streams, where our rivers, like the Mississippi and the Ohio, are born. Over 2,000 miles of streams have already been buried and polluted. But we can stop this. The Appalachia Restoration Act would go a long way to stop the devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining, which has also destroyed over 500 mountains of the oldest mountains in the continent. Please help, it only takes a minute!
Contact your Senators today and ask them to become a cosponsor of the Appalachia Restoration Act.
To learn more about the Appalachia Restoration Act visit www.ilovemountains.org/appalachia-restoration-act
Additional action: Revoke Massey Energy’s Corporate Charter
The Last Mountain
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Related | Rally Against Tar Sands, Massive Keystone XL Pipeline
Aug. 20 – Sept. 2, 2011
Washington, D.C.
President Barack Obama will decide as early as September whether to light a fuse to the largest carbon bomb in North America. That bomb is the massive tar sands field in the Canadian province of Alberta. And the fuse is the 1,700-mile-long Keystone XL Pipeline, which would transport the dirtiest of petroleum fuels all the way to Texas refineries. If built, the Keystone XL Pipeline would lock America into a future of planet-warming energy dependency.
From Aug. 20 to Sept. 3, the Center will join thousands of Americans — including Bill McKibben, Danny Glover and NASA’s Dr. James Hansen — in a peaceful protest of this tar-sands nightmare at the White House. This event could be the biggest act of civil disobedience in the climate movement’s history.
Learn more about the event and sign up to take part in the D.C. rally. Then learn about the Center’s campaigns against oil shale and tar sands and dirty energy.
Read more…
WANTED | Two cases
CASE ONE | Children Forced to Crush Animals to Death
Related action: please click on and sign Ban Horrifying Animal Abuse Videos in the Philippines
After a year-long investigation by PETA Asia-Pacific and the National Bureau of Investigations, police have now charged a Philippine couple with cruelty to animals and other crimes related to producing a series of pornographic videos in which young girls torture and kill animals. Faced with the charges, suspects Dorma and Vic Ridon have fled. Warrants have been issued for them.
WARNING: Graphic descriptions follow.
The “crush” videos that the Ridons are believed to have produced show scantily clad 12-year-old girls as they stomp on live animals, a rabbit as he or she is skinned alive, other rabbits as they scream while their ears are cut off and they are set on fire, a dog as he or she is burned with a clothes iron, and a monkey who was repeatedly hit in the eye with the sharp end of a stiletto heel. There is more, including puppies crushed until they vomited their own internal organs. A bill currently in the Philippine Senate would criminalize the sale of such “crush videos,” already illegal in the U.S. and other countries.
PETA Asia-Pacific is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of Dorma and Vic Ridon. Anyone with information on the couple can e-mail Info@peta.org and we will pass it along.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Posted by PETA
Read More – PETA: Manhunt on for producers of animal fetish videos in PHL
Contact: Tony Carr, 503-249-9996, tony@idausa.org
Portland, Ore. (July 20, 2011) – In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international animal protection organization with over 100,000 members, has pledged $2,500 to a reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual or individuals who tortured and abandoned four kittens in McMinnville, Oregon.
On June 30, four starving and dehydrated kittens estimated to be 3 to 4 weeks old were brought in a box to the Homeward Bound Pets animal shelter in McMinnville. One cat appeared physically healthy otherwise but the other three showed signs of torture.
A calico kitten had such severe injuries that she had to be euthanized. Her whiskers had been burned off and her lower jaw was broken, possibly due to a kick to the head or another extremely forceful impact. A Siamese kitten showed multiple wounds at various stages of healing, a sign of continuous abuse rather than a single incident or accident. The third injured cat – a long-haired white kitten with grey spots – is weak, barely able to stand or walk, and exhibits a strange gait when moving. The cause of these symptoms is unknown. The shelter worker fostering the kitten reported that he had a hard time holding up his head to eat and cried incessantly while held, unable to be comforted.
Shelter workers and IDA staff believe the nature and variety of these injuries constitute solid evidence of torture. The attending veterinarian is in the process of filing a report of possible aggravated animal abuse with local police.
“FBI profiles of serial killers suggest that the disturbed individual responsible for these despicable acts is a danger, not only to other animals in the area, but to people as well,” said Tony Carr, Northwest Coordinator for IDA. “Serial killers commonly practice on animals before ‘graduating’ to humans and studies have confirmed that those who abuse animals are much more likely to abuse humans. For your own safety, as well as the safety of the animals, children, and adults around you, please contact the police if you have any information on animal cruelty in your community.”
IDA urges anyone with information leading to the conviction of the criminal(s) responsible for the brutal mutilation of these defenseless kittens to contact the City of McMinnville Police Department at (503) 434-6500. The three people who dropped off these kittens at Homeward Bound are urged to contact either the shelter or the police to help with the investigation. To contribute to the reward fund, please call IDA at (415) 448-0048.
Related | Violence Towards Animals Leads To Violence Towards Humans
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Please oppose foie gras; ask for maximum sentence in cruelty case; help sharks; ban convicted animal abuser
Please click on and sign the following actions:
1. Please urge Gelson’s Markets to stop selling fois gras
2. Please ask for maximum sentence for Dionte Davis
3. Don’t let sharks be fished to extinction
4. Tell the Peterculter Golf Club to Ban Convicted Animal Abuser
1. Background | From PETA
Because of the extreme cruelty involved in the production of foie gras—the diseased and “fatty liver” of force-fed ducks and geese—many restaurants and grocery stores around the world have stopped serving and selling it. PETA has shared the shocking undercover video footage of foie gras farms with California-based grocery chain Gelson’s Markets, yet the company continues to sell foie gras in its stores. After thousands of you contacted Gelson’s, the company’s president, Robert E. Stiles, informed PETA that Gelson’s would continue to sell foie gras until the supermarket chain is forced to stop when the California ban against foie gras takes effect in mid-2012.
Investigations of foie gras farms in the U.S. and overseas have documented countless sick, dead, and dying birds, including some animals who were found suffering from holes in their necks after pipes had been forced down their throats. One investigation in New York found ducks crammed into wire cages. Animals’ beaks were bloody, and their wings were twisted together. At another foie gras farm, in Europe, birds were found dangling by wires as blood spilled from their neck wounds onto live animals beneath them.
Foie gras production is so cruel that it has been condemned by the pope and is prohibited in 15 countries, including the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.
Related | Foie Gras Expose with Kate Winslet
Vodpod videos no longer available.
2. Background | From Change
Poor Hope, she fought so hard to live after being tied up around the neck with electrical wire, and then left there by this teenager, Dionte Davis, to die. She had a severely severed trachea but survived. We became aware of the case, and soon thereafter she died. Dionte Davis must serve his prison time. Who will be next if he’s not reformed? My child? I don’t think so!
3. Background | From Change, Oceana
It’s Shark Week and you know what that means: 24/7 coverage of some of the oceans’ most alluring predators. But what you may not know is sharks are in danger from the world’s most terrifying predators: humans.
Sharks are being fished faster than they can reproduce and their numbers are declining – and fast. Some U.S. hammerhead populations have dropped an alarming 98% in recent decades.
If we keep fishing at this rate, soon there will be no more sharks swimming in our waters and Shark Week will be our only chance to see these amazing creatures.
We want the U.S. government to limit fishing of the most threatened sharks. Speak up now to protect our sharks!
4. Background | From Care
Last year 55-year old Donald Forbes beat a fox nearly to death with a golf club for doing nothing more than stealing a biscuit from his belongings at the Peterculter Golf Club in Scotland. According to the Press and Journal, an animal-cruelty officer described it as a “brutal and sickening” attack.
Forbes was charged with animal cruelty, paid a fine of $1,210 (£750) and was suspended from the club for nine months.
Unfortunately, the club has decided to reinstate Forbes’ membership, which animal lovers and activists disagree with. Legendary Queen guitarist and animal rights activist Brian May has also added his voice to protest Forbes’ membership, along with the group Fox Watch.
Please sign the petition asking the Peterculter Golf Club to hold animal abusers accountable and take a stand against violence by banning Forbes for life.
From Saving the American Wild Horse
America’s wild horses are being managed to extinction by the Bureau of Land Management. With dramatic footage, the new film Wild Horses & Renegades exposes abusive taxpayer-funded roundups of the few remaining American wild horses, which are then starved, abused and sold for adoption or to Mexican slaughterhouses for human consumption. Shot in HD, Wild Horses & Renegades captures the pure and stunning beauty of horses in the wild in contrast with the mismanagement of our last wild public lands.
“If the public could view what’s being done to wild horses, the public would stand up and take action. This is not a film just about America’s wild horses; this is a film about what is happening to America itself!” — Michael Blake, author of Dances with Wolves.
This issue needs the support of the American public. Please lend some time to this issue by sending the below letters to the associated addresses, either online or via post. Please note that you will need a valid zipcode to contact the administration.
Please scroll down or click on the following for the addresses (email or webform and postal). sample letters (some webforms may limit characters so you will need to modify and shorten letter), and phone/fax numbers:
SAMPLE LETTER ONE | TO YOUR CONGRESSPEOPLE
SAMPLE LETTER TWO | TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
SAMPLE LETTER THREE | TO KEN SALAZAR
SAMPLE LETTER FOUR | TO ROBERT ABBEY
RELATED | U2 for the documentary film Wild Horses & Renegades
Vodpod videos no longer available.
CONTACTING YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE
~ See Find your lawmakers, tell them what you think under Get Involved at top to the right.
SAMPLE LETTER FOR YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE
The Honorable
Washington, D.C. 20510-0606
July 26, 2011
Dear
I am writing to ask you to stop immediately the round-up of wild horses and burros, removing them from our public lands. I am also asking you to place the healthy animals back into the wild, from which they were removed, without sterilizing them. These round-ups break up family structures and bonds and destroy long-standing mare/stallion relationships, and they remove all older, wise horses, who are responsible for naturally managing the welfare of the herds. The BLM’s strategy of “management for extinction” has almost completely eradicated the wild horse, as was the intention. The round-ups must stop now in order for them to survive.
The removals and round-ups are brutal, unjustified scientifically, and expensive. Moreover, the holding facilities, both short- and long-term, are expensive and inhumane. I resent that I am paying for this atrocity through support of my own government, and your actions go against the overwhelming majority will of the people.
The wild horse originated on this continent over 58 million years ago. There were over 2 million free roaming wild horses and burros in 1900. Now, there are an estimated 12,000 – 15,000 in the wild, and over 40,000 warehoused in holding facilities, costing the American tax payer over $120,000/DAY. Most of the herds that are targeted are thriving prior to the round-ups, contrary to the disinformation spread by the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management. Moreover, on these same lands, in 2010, the BLM sold over 12.5 million grazing permit units, which translates into even more animals allowed to graze on these same lands that you claim cannot sustain small herds of 30 or more horses. Our government LOSES millions of dollars each year on this grazing for cattle, sheep and goats, for such things as range improvement and grazing management, along with the horse holding facilities costs. Horses crop of the tops of grasses and shrubs, making the grass roots stronger, and fortifying the land. Cows, as an example, pull grass up from the roots. The round-ups themselves are also expensive. This makes no sense at all from any type of financial or sustainability standpoint, and it is brutal and horrific as well. You are selling out our public lands to corporate ranchers, and to mineral, oil and gas extraction, and eradicating our wild horse to this effect.
We are asking that our government, the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management institute a shift in resources to focus on range management, range enhancements such as water improvements, and the limitation of livestock grazing on HMA’s per Federal Code 43 C.F.R. Section 4710.5, and we are asking for an end to the stockpiling of wild horses and burros as a management method. We want to protect the herds and restore the legal lands given to them by the 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.
Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.
Sincerely,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
PHONE: 202-456-1111
FAX: 202-456-2461
SAMPLE LETTER FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA
President Barack Obama; the White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500
July 26, 2011
Dear President Obama:
I am writing to ask you to stop immediately the round-up of wild horses and burros, removing them from our public lands. I am also asking you to place the healthy animals back into the wild, from which they were removed, without sterilizing them. These round-ups break up family structures and bonds and destroy long-standing mare/stallion relationships, and they remove all older, wise horses, who are responsible for naturally managing the welfare of the herds. The BLM’s strategy of “management for extinction” has almost completely eradicated the wild horse, as was the intention. The round-ups must stop now in order for them to survive.
The removals and round-ups are brutal, unjustified scientifically, and expensive. Moreover, the holding facilities, both short- and long-term, are expensive and inhumane. I resent that I am paying for this atrocity through support of my own government, and your actions go against the overwhelming majority will of the people.
The wild horse originated on this continent over 58 million years ago. There were over 2 million free roaming wild horses and burros in 1900. Now, there are an estimated 12,000 – 15,000 in the wild, and over 40,000 warehoused in holding facilities, costing the American tax payer over $120,000/DAY. Most of the herds that are targeted are thriving prior to the round-ups, contrary to the disinformation spread by the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management. Moreover, on these same lands, in 2010, the BLM sold over 12.5 million grazing permit units, which translates into even more animals allowed to graze on these same lands that you claim cannot sustain small herds of 30 or more horses. Our government LOSES millions of dollars each year on this grazing for cattle, sheep and goats, for such things as range improvement and grazing management, along with the horse holding facilities costs.
I am asking that our government, the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management institute a shift in resources to focus on range management, range enhancements such as water improvements, and the limitation of livestock grazing on HMA’s per Federal Code 43 C.F.R. Section 4710.5, and we are asking for an end to the stockpiling of wild horses and burros as a management method. We want to protect the herds and restore the legal lands given to them by the 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.
Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.
PHONE: 202-208-3801
FAX: 202-208-5242
SAMPLE LETTER FOR KEN SALAZAR
Ken Salazar; Dept of Interior
1849 C St; NW
Washington, DC, 20240
July 26, 2011
Dear Mr. Salazar:
I am writing to ask you to stop immediately the round-up of wild horses and burros, removing them from our public lands. I am also asking you to place the healthy animals back into the wild, from which they were removed, without sterilizing them. These round-ups break up family structures and bonds and destroy long-standing mare/stallion relationships, and they remove all older, wise horses, who are responsible for naturally managing the welfare of the herds. The BLM’s strategy of “management for extinction” has almost completely eradicated the wild horse, as was the intention. The round-ups must stop now in order for them to survive.
The removals and round-ups are brutal, unjustified scientifically, and expensive. Moreover, the holding facilities, both short- and long-term, are expensive and inhumane. I resent that I am paying for this atrocity through support of my own government, and your actions go against the overwhelming majority will of the people.
The wild horse originated on this continent over 58 million years ago. There were over 2 million free roaming wild horses and burros in 1900. Now, there are an estimated 12,000 – 15,000 in the wild, and over 40,000 warehoused in holding facilities, costing the American tax payer over $120,000/DAY. Most of the herds that are targeted are thriving prior to the round-ups, contrary to the disinformation spread by the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management. Moreover, on these same lands, in 2010, the BLM sold over 12.5 million grazing permit units, which translates into even more animals allowed to graze on these same lands that you claim cannot sustain small herds of 30 or more horses. Our government LOSES millions of dollars each year on this grazing for cattle, sheep and goats, for such things as range improvement and grazing management, along with the horse holding facilities costs. Horses crop of the tops of grasses and shrubs, making the grass roots stronger, and fortifying the land. Cows, as an example, pull grass up from the roots. The round-ups themselves are also expensive. This makes no sense at all from any type of financial or sustainability standpoint, and it is brutal and horrific as well. You are selling out our public lands to corporate ranchers, and to mineral, oil and gas extraction, and eradicating our wild horse to this effect.
We are asking that our government, the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management institute a shift in resources to focus on range management, range enhancements such as water improvements, and the limitation of livestock grazing on HMA’s per Federal Code 43 C.F.R. Section 4710.5, and we are asking for an end to the stockpiling of wild horses and burros as a management method. We want to protect the herds and restore the legal lands given to them by the 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.
Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.
Sincerely,
CONTACTING ROBERT ABBEY, DIRECTOR OF BLM
http://www.doi.gov/feedback.cfm
PHONE: 202-208-3801
FAX: 202-208-5242
SAMPLE LETTER TO ROBERT ABBEY, DIRECTOR OF BLM
Robert Abbey: Director of BLM; Dept of Interior
1849 C St; NW; # 5660
Washington, DC, 20240-0001.
July 26, 2011
Dear Mr. Abbey:
I am writing to ask you to stop immediately the round-up of wild horses and burros, removing them from our public lands. I am also asking you to place the healthy animals back into the wild, from which they were removed, without sterilizing them. These round-ups break up family structures and bonds and destroy long-standing mare/stallion relationships, and they remove all older, wise horses, who are responsible for naturally managing the welfare of the herds. The BLM’s strategy of “management for extinction” has almost completely eradicated the wild horse, as was the intention. The round-ups must stop now in order for them to survive.
The removals and round-ups are brutal, unjustified scientifically, and expensive. Moreover, the holding facilities, both short- and long-term, are expensive and inhumane. I resent that I am paying for this atrocity through support of my own government, and your actions go against the overwhelming majority will of the people.
The wild horse originated on this continent over 58 million years ago. There were over 2 million free roaming wild horses and burros in 1900. Now, there are an estimated 12,000 – 15,000 in the wild, and over 40,000 warehoused in holding facilities, costing the American tax payer over $120,000/DAY. Most of the herds that are targeted are thriving prior to the round-ups, contrary to the disinformation spread by the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management. Moreover, on these same lands, in 2010, the BLM sold over 12.5 million grazing permit units, which translates into even more animals allowed to graze on these same lands that you claim cannot sustain small herds of 30 or more horses. Our government LOSES millions of dollars each year on this grazing for cattle, sheep and goats, for such things as range improvement and grazing management, along with the horse holding facilities costs. Horses crop of the tops of grasses and shrubs, making the grass roots stronger, and fortifying the land. Cows, as an example, pull grass up from the roots. The round-ups themselves are also expensive. This makes no sense at all from any type of financial or sustainability standpoint, and it is brutal and horrific as well. You are selling out our public lands to corporate ranchers, and to mineral, oil and gas extraction, and eradicating our wild horse to this effect.
We are asking that our government, the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management institute a shift in resources to focus on range management, range enhancements such as water improvements, and the limitation of livestock grazing on HMA’s per Federal Code 43 C.F.R. Section 4710.5, and we are asking for an end to the stockpiling of wild horses and burros as a management method. We want to protect the herds and restore the legal lands given to them by the 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act.
Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.
Sincerely,
Stop massacre of street dogs in Bangalore; stop coal’s train of destruction; oppose Mexican Wolf killing
Please click on and sign:
1. Help IDA-India Stop Massacre Of Street Dogs In Bangalore
2. Stop Coal’s Train of Destruction
3. Don’t let Mexican wolf trapping start again
1. Background | From IDA
The Indian city of Bangalore has begun a campaign to eradicate stray dogs, or “street dogs,” through “culling,” i.e. killing. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to do away with 50% of the street dogs in Bangalore since they are considered a “menace” to the human population. The other half is going to be dumped in an isolated area away from humans.
While large numbers of stray dogs can pose both a human health risk and increased animal suffering, mass slaughter is not the answer.
Animal birth control experts and In Defense of Animals-India are encouraging city officials to begin a systematic sterilization campaign, which has successfully and humanely made many areas of India including much of Mumbai “stray dog-free.”
Related | Do you still find it outrageous?
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2. Background | From RAN
America’s top three banks—Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America—are all ready, willing and able to finance dirty coal ports on the West Coast of the U.S.
A successfully completed “coal export terminal” means 10 open-top trains a day will spread toxic coal dust in communities living along the rail line, beautiful Pacific Northwest ecosystems will be threatened, and vulnerable communities in Asia—as well as the global climate—will be heavily impacted by the emissions of America’s dirtiest fossil fuel.
Demand that Citi, Chase and Bank of America stop perpetuating 19th-century technologies and fund clean, renewable energy technologies instead.
3. Background | From Center for Biological Diversity
From the inception of the Mexican wolf reintroduction program in 1998 up until 2008, federal agents shot 11 wolves, accidentally killed 18 wolves during capture, and captured dozens that would never again be released to the wild. As a result the wolf population that was expected to reach 100 in 2006 is still languishing at half that level in 2011, and inbreeding depression may be hurting the wolves through lower litter sizes and pup survival rates.
In 2008, shooting and trapping of wolves in response to depredations was suspended in part due to opposition by the New Mexico Game and Fish Department and then-governor Bill Richardson.
But now New Mexico game commission appointees of Governor Susana Martinez have prohibited the game department from working with the feds on wolf recovery for the endangered Mexican gray wolf.
Despite the cessation of wolf removals, the number of depredations has actually steadily decreased in the past three years — perhaps because ranchers were more careful with their stock knowing that wolves would not be killed in response to depredations. Reverting to wolf removals now would undercut painstaking continued efforts at coexistence.
Read more…
Image | Live Well Above The City
Related, please click on and sign the following two petitions if you have not already:
1. Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages in New York City – new bill needs support | Sponsored on Change
2. Ban all horse drawn carriages from the City of New York | Sponsored on PetitionOnline
Previous: Ban puppy mills in Suffolk County; oppose wild animals in CO festival; oppose AGP carriage rides
From Friends of Animals
New York, NY – The popular American Girl Place retail chain has cancelled the horse-drawn carriage rides originally planned through summer after Friends of Animals worked with local activists and social media to halt the rides.
Last week, the store advertised package events for $75 that included a carriage ride from its Fifth Avenue entrance.
Edita Birnkrant, director of Friends of Animals’ New York office, met with senior marketing manager Judy Herbst on July 21st, the first day the carriage rides were held — only to be told that American Girl Place “does not take a political stance” on the issue and that the rides would go on.
Friends of Animals members and supporters phoned the company, stating our intention to hold a protest. On Friday, July 22nd, a related petition on Change.org’s website attracted hundreds of responses and pledges to boycott, which were sent to the company.
On Sunday, July 24th, Friends of Animals held an in-store demonstration to let customers know the wholesome image American Girl Place markets does not blend well with New York’s exploitive and dangerous carriage horse trade. Holding a carriage ride event during a dangerous heat wave is especially outrageous.
By Monday morning, four days after our campaign had begun, American Girl Place released an official statement declaring the carriage rides cancelled:
Thank you for taking time to share your comments about the American Girl Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides. We value your feedback and appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns. American Girl made the decision today to discontinue the rest of the carriage events and has no plans to offer this type of event in the future. We hope this information helps to alleviate your concerns.
“With that statement the store regained the good will of the many New Yorkers, politicians, veterinarians and animals organizations who are working to end horse-drawn carriage operations in New York City and throughout the state,” said Edita Birnkrant.
Related | Ban the Horse Drawn Carriage Industry
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