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.
Related action, please click on and sign Ban Circuses with Animals in Denmark
From Animal Defenders International
ADI’s ‘Stop Circus Suffering’ campaign announces landmark victory in Peru
Last night, President Alan Garcia signed into law an end to the use of wild animals in circuses, following an investigation of circus animal suffering and a long campaign by Animal Defenders International (ADI) and local animal protection groups in the region.
With this ban, Peru is the second country in South America to take national steps to stop the suffering of animals in circuses, following the ban in Bolivia.
Other countries considering similar moves are the UK, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia.
ADI Chief Executive Jan Creamer said: “We are absolutely delighted and applaud this bold move by President Garcia and the Congress of Peru. With the ban in Bolivia and the current discussions in Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia, there is no doubt that South America is leading the world on this issue.
“Peru has looked at the evidence, the undercover investigations, the scientific reports and seen the suffering of the animals. The people of Peru have been adamant in their support of a ban, and both the Congress and President have listened.”
Representatives Alexander Rebaza (APRA) and Jose Urquizo (Gana Peru) introduced the bill and have championed it throughout the legislative process.
Congressman Urquizo invites parliamentarians from all countries to follow the example of Peru and ban wild animals in circuses, ending the suffering of animals.
Congressman Urquizo said: “that will make us a more modern and civilized society”.
The ADI investigation exposed terrible suffering of animals in circuses, including lions whipped and beaten, monkeys, bears and other animals kept in deprived and appalling conditions.
Jan said: “ADI will continue to work with the Government of Peru in the preparation of regulations to implement the law.”
In February 2011 ADI completed an enforcement operation with the Bolivian authorities and removed every single animal from circuses in Bolivia. 29 lions were moved from Bolivia to the United States.
Related | What Circus Animals Can’t Tell You
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From Change | Ban Circuses with Animals in Denmark
By Anne Holmberg
Several years ago, Denmark banned the use of wild animals in circus. Yet we still see elephants (both Asian and African), zebras, sea lions, camels and alpacas who are forced to perform in the arena in circus in Denmark.
Their living conditions for these animals are horrific. They are ‘broken’ mentally and forced to perform, and they are transported around in small trailers; so tiny that the animals cannot always turn around. The large animals are chained up without any form of mental stimulation. They are bored and stressed and frustrated – far removed from their natural habitat, food sources and fellow animals (elephants, for instance, live in large groups). Many of these animals have their natural habitat in warm countries and find it difficult to live in colder environments. Especially the African elephant is suffering with the heavy snow and cold temperatures in Northern Europe.
The former Minister of Justice in Denmark believed that the animals must remain slaves in the circus.
Denmark will probably have a new Government in the autumn of 2011, and the parties in the upcoming new government will provide additional financial support for circuses with animals.
Please help us get the animals out of circus by signing and also sharing this petition.
Thank you for your time and support.
Read more…
Call to kill dogs daily; sadistic spree on cats: please send Sample Letter
From ACTAsia
June 2011 – Aggravated by the rescue by animal protectionists of 520 dogs in Beijing destined for the slaughterhouse, a man from Guangzhou posted a message on his blog threatening to kill two dogs every day. He will start on July 1st and continue his executions until the animal rescuers apologise in public for saving the dogs.
He is also calling for a hundred like-minded people to join him in his gruesome plan. Meanwhile, he is posting pictures and comments on his blog on different ways to kill dogs.
On a picture of a pegged puppy on a clothesline, he wrote: “I found a way to have fun by hanging a dog in the sun for exposure over a long time – the dog will enjoy it and so do I.”
In another cruelty case this month, it was discovered that an individual has been torturing and killing cats over the last five years. He always adopted former stray cats for this abuse. Every time he molested and killed a cat, the whole process was described vividly and posted on various online popular forums in China, using different ID names.
Excerpt from his online diary on the torture of a cat named Peanut can be read HERE.
Unfortunately, these examples are no exceptions. There is an increasing number of cases where individuals torture animals and publicise widely on the internet their abuse and the satisfaction they get from such acts. Research has proven repeatedly that animal abuse and violent behaviour in society are strongly linked.
Although these instances of animal abuse cause outrage among Chinese citizens and animal groups, there’s not much they can do. It shows yet again that the adoption of proper animal welfare legislation in China is an urgent need. Therefore we are asking individuals from all over the world to ask the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress to pass animal protection laws as soon as possible. Please send a polite email to the addresses listed below; we have also provided a sample letter.
At the same time, we will raise our concerns to the relevant authorities and urge China’s infotainment web portal to stop disseminating this information which encourages the public to torture innocent lives.
WHOM TO CONTACT
qzxx@npc.gov.cn, tgxx@npc.gov.cn, icc@npc.gov.cn
SAMPLE LETTER
To the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress,
Chairman Wu Bang Guo
Dear Chairman Wu,
I am writing to urge you to ask the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress to establish animal protection legislation in China as early as possible. Currently in China there is no legislation to protect animals against cruelty by individuals or ensure the needs of animals and acceptable welfare standards maintained in different industries.
Inhumane and cruel treatment towards these animals cannot currently be stopped by legal action.
People throughout the world, as well as Chinese citizens, are shocked by the recent online publication by individuals in China of extreme animal torture and encouragement to kill animals. There is an increasing number of cases where individuals torture animals and publicise widely on the internet their abuse and the satisfaction they get from such acts. Research has proven repeatedly that animal abuse and violent behaviour in society are strongly linked.
The victims of these horrendous acts, together with thousands of other animals kept in intensive factory farms, used in laboratories, ill-treated in the name of entertainment, or sold in markets for human consumption and fur, demonstrate the urgent need for passing animal protection laws in China. China’s production ability has been demonstrated globally, as products made in China are seen all over the world. We hope the country can demonstrate the same power and determination to establish an animal protection law as early as possible.
Yours sincerely
Name:
Country:
Related | NZ SPCA One of the Family TV spot
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Ban puppy mills in Suffolk County; oppose wild animals in CO festival; oppose AGP carriage rides
Please click on and sign the following three Change petitions:
1. Ban the Retail Sale of Puppies in Suffolk County
2. Tell CO Renaissance to Stop Using Exotic Animals
3. – PETITION NOW CLOSED – AGP: Cancel Horse-Drawn Carriage Ride
1. Background | From Change
To combat the problem of Puppy Mills, Suffolk County Majority Leader, Legislator Jon Cooper, introduced Resolution No.I.R. 1545-2011, a law that will ban the retail sale of puppies in pet stores in that county.
If you care about dogs, you must lend your support to Legislator Cooper to ban the retail sale of pet shop puppies in Suffolk County, NY. Puppy mills are breeding facilities that produce purebred puppies in mass quantities and sell them to an unsuspecting public. They are inhumane, designed to maximize profits, and commonly disregard the physical, social, and emotional health of the dogs in their facilities. Puppy mills are the epitome of cruelty to animals. These helpless dogs are kept confined in tiny wire cages with minimal food and water, little or no veterinary care, and no positive human contact. They breed these animals until they cannot produce anymore and then they throw them away or let them starve or kill them. Because of these conditions, puppy mill puppies are more likely to have physical and behavioral problems than dogs from ethical sources.
Puppy mills lurk behind the doors of the nearby pet store. The best way to stop puppy mills from continuing their abuse is for consumers to stop buying the puppies they breed, however slick ads and false advertising hoodwink them into thinking that this pet store is different! That couldn’t be further from the truth. And many think they are “rescuing” a puppy by buying one—they are simply creating new space for another mill puppy to be sold while the parents in the mills suffer till death.
Related | Everyday Dogs
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2. Background | From Change
There is a new show at the Colorado Renaissance Festival that is called “Endangered Cat Show”. They claim it is “educational and entertaining” but is the company that provides this “educational entertainment” more focused on the entertainment than the education? CLICK HERE to see their web site. Not only do they perform at Renaissance Festivals but also other events include Sportsman/Outdoor Shows, County and State Fairs. These are direct quotes from their site: “ON STAGE! Looking for a way to attract a crowd? The Great Cats World Park Show can come to your event!!” – “Our cats also specialize in stunt action and mock attacks, as well as snarling, leaping, jumping, running, and climbing. If you are looking for specific behaviors, call in advance so the trainers at the Park can prep each individual cat.” I will let that speak for itself when it comes to what I think this company’s motivations are. You can educate people without using these animals as stage props and making them perform.
Please help others realize that social responsibility has evolved beyond allowing the abuse of animals for entertainment and these beautiful animals deserve a life of dignity and respect.
3. Background | From Change
PETITION NOW CLOSED
During a brutal heat wave, while cooling centers opened up across New York City with heat advisories in force, American Girl Place, the wildly popular chain of stores geared toward young girls, held a horse-drawn carriage ride event, with three more planned this summer. On July 21, at 10:30 am, as humid temperatures approached 90 degrees and a reported heat index of 109 degrees, carriages lined up in front of the 5th Avenue and 49th Street location of American Girl Store. Forty girls climbed into carriages for a ride after dining at the store’s Café.
The $75 promotional event is also scheduled for, July 28th, August 4th, and August 18th, as American Girl Place’s website recommends: “Spend a delightful day with your girl in the heart of New York! Your experience begins at American Girl Place with a delicious meal in the Cafe. Then, step outside for a luxurious horse-drawn carriage ride to see the sights of Manhattan. The carriage ride continues through scenic Central Park, where your journey ends.”
Friends of Animals’ New York Director, Edita Birnkrant contacted Judy Herbst, Senior Manager of Marketing for American Girl Place, and met with her at the store during the carriage ride to attempt to stop the event. Judy avoided accountability, stating that American Girl Place “does not take a political” stance on the horse-drawn carriage issue, and that “they were complying with the law.” FoA explained to Judy that many activists, including New York State Senator Tony Avella, Assembly member Linda Rosenthal, and NYC Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito were working to change laws and prohibit the dangerous, disgraceful exploitation of the carriage horse trade on Manhattan’s chaotic streets.
Please sound off to American Girl Place to cancel the three upcoming carriage rides. Sign this petition to email Judy Herbst, then call Judy Herbst at 212.401.6569. Leave a voice-mail message, if needed. You can also register your views at the main switchboard of American Girl Place’s store at 212.371.2220.
The wholesome image American Girl Place markets does not blend well with the controversy of New York’s degrading carriage horse trade. Please make that clear to Judy Herbst. Also mention that Friends of Animals and others will protest their Thursday, July 28th event at the front entrance of their 609 Fifth Avenue & 49th Street location at 9:15am-10:30am unless the event is cancelled.
Image: Joel Sartore | Ocelot, population 190
Please click on and sign the following:
1. Defenders of Wildlife: Stop the Extinction Rider in Its Tracks!
2. Change: Tell Congress to Defend the Endangered Species Act
3. CBD: Stop the Extinction Rider
Background | From Center for Biological Diversity
Urge Your Congressional Representative to Oppose Any Legislation Stripping Funding for Protecting Species and Their Habitat
On July 12, the Center for Biological Diversity reached a historic agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that commits the agency to move 757 highly imperiled species toward protection under the Endangered Species Act.
But this never-before-made promise to throw lifelines to hundreds of species is under threat from a legislative rider that would handcuff the Act. The rider prohibits the government from spending any money to list new species as endangered or designate their habitat critical. Funding, however, could still be used to remove species from the endangered list. Placed in the appropriations bill for funding the Interior Department by House Republicans, the bill has passed out of committee and is expected to see a full House vote next week. We need your help now to stop this species-dooming rider.
Dubbed the “extinction rider,” the bill will place hundreds of our most imperiled species at greater risk of extinction, including the Pacific walrus in Alaska, Miami blue butterfly in Florida, American wolverine in the Rocky Mountains, Mexican gray wolf in the Southwest, and hundreds of others across the country.
Our time to act before the House votes is limited: Please contact your U.S. congressional representative right now using the form below and urge him or her to remove the “extinction rider” and to fully support the Endangered Species Act.
Related | Capturing America’s Endangered Species
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Please take a few moments to click on and sign the following actions from the associated groups; they are all supportive of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, and are only open to USA residents:
1. IDA: Support The Great Ape Protection And Cost Savings Act
2. Care2: Support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act
3. PCRM: Ask Your Members of Congress to End Chimpanzee Experiments
4. HSUS: Support The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act
5. Project R&R: Support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act
~ You can also Contact your congresspeople directly if you prefer
Background | From IDA
The Great Ape Protection And Cost Savings Act has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate! This landmark bill would ban invasive experiments on chimpanzees. IDA has been working for this since 1993.
The bills are H.R. 1513 and S. 810.
Representative Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland, one of the original co-sponsors, said:
“As a scientist who worked with chimpanzees on research projects, I believe the time has come to limit invasive research on these animals and rigorously apply existing alternatives.”
For 18 years, IDA has documented and battled against abuse, fraud, waste, and cruelty in chimpanzee experiments. IDA shut down the world’s biggest chimpanzee laboratory – the notorious Coulston Foundation – resulting in the single largest effort ever accomplished on behalf of chimpanzees in labs: the permanent retirement of 266 chimpanzees and 61 monkeys by the state-of-the-art sanctuary Save the Chimps. IDA also secured criminal cruelty charges against NIH-contractor Charles River Laboratories and got an entire laboratory disqualified by the Food and Drug Administration. These actions were unprecedented in the history of U.S. medical research, and helped lay the groundwork for this landmark legislation.
Since 1993, IDA has repeatedly called for an end to chimpanzee experiments, documenting the cruelty that is inherent in experiments on chimpanzees. We urge you to support this historic legislation.
Related | Please support GAPA
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Message Text
Please Support The Great Ape Protection And Cost Savings Act – HR 1513 / S 810
Dear [Decision Maker],
The Great Ape Protection Act has been reintroduced in Congress as the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (S. 810, H.R. 1513). I urge you to support and co-sponsor these landmark bills, which would ban invasive experiments on chimpanzees.
McClatchy Newspapers recently published a groundbreaking Special Report — based on thousands of pages of medical records — documenting in detail the profound mental and physical anguish that chimpanzees endure in labs, as well as the scientific move away from using chimpanzees. The McClatchy series constitutes the most compelling evidence yet why chimpanzee experimentation should end now.
One of the original sponsors of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act is Representative Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland, who stated, “As a scientist who worked with chimpanzees on research projects, I believe the time has come to limit invasive research on these animals and rigorously apply existing alternatives.”
For 18 years, In Defense of Animals (IDA) has documented and battled against abuse, fraud, waste and cruelty in chimpanzee experiments, both federally- and privately-funded. During this time, IDA shut down the world’s biggest chimpanzee laboratory – the notorious Coulston Foundation – which resulted in the single largest effort ever accomplished on behalf of chimpanzees in labs: the permanent retirement of 266 chimpanzees and 61 monkeys by the state-of-the-art sanctuary Save the Chimps.
IDA also secured criminal cruelty charges against NIH-contractor Charles River Laboratories and got an entire laboratory disqualified by the Food and Drug Administration. These actions were unprecedented in the history of U.S. medical research, and helped lay the groundwork for this landmark legislation.
I urge you to support IDA’s call for an end to chimpanzee experiments. Advocates of this legislation have thoroughly documented the pervasive cruelty that is inherent in experiments on chimpanzees. I urge you to support this historic legislation.
Your position on this issue will help me decide how to vote in upcoming elections.
Innocence Project Congratulates Dewey Bozella on Receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award
Image | The Inquisitr
From The Innocence Project
Boxing Helped New Yorker Survive 26 Years He Was Incarcerated for a Crime He Didn’t Commit
(New York, NY – July 12, 2011) Poughkeepsie native Dewey Bozella will be presented with the 2011 Arthur Ashe Courage Award during the ESPY Awards live on ESPN on Wednesday, July 13. With the help of the Innocence Project and represented by lawyers at WilmerHale, Bozella was exonerated in 2009 after serving 26 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. While in prison, Bozella took up boxing and now trains young people in the sport.
“We are extremely proud that Dewey is being recognized for the incredible courage he displayed during and after the horrible injustice he suffered,” said Peter Neufeld, Co-director of the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law. “Being wrongfully convicted is one of the most difficult challenges that one can face, yet Dewey not only survived this heartbreaking ordeal, but came out of it with humanity and generosity of spirit that is hard to match.”
Bozella was initially arrested for the 1977 burglary and murder of a 92-year-old woman shortly after her attack, but the charges were dropped because there was no evidence linking him to the crime. He was rearrested for the crime 6 years later after 2 inmates, who were released from prison for their cooperation, told prosecutors that Bozella committed the murder. Even though a fingerprint was found at the crime scene that matched another individual who committed a nearly identical crime around the same time, the state went forward with the prosecution. Based solely on the strength of the informants’ testimony, Bozella was convicted. Bozella was given a new trial in 1990, but he was convicted again.
2011 Arthur Ashe Courage Award | Dewey Bozella
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Bozella eventually sought the help of the Innocence Project, which uses DNA testing to exonerate people who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes. Unfortunately, the physical evidence in the case had been destroyed, so DNA testing wouldn’t be possible. Convinced of his Innocence, the Innocence Project persuaded lawyers at WilmerHale to take up his case, and they were able to prove that Dewey was innocent of the crime by uncovering additional evidence that was never turned over to Bozella.
“Even though the system repeatedly failed him, Dewey never lost faith and bravely fought for 26 years to clear his name,” said Olga Akselrod, a staff attorney at the Innocence Project who worked on Bozella’s case. “Since his release, he has worked selflessly to inspire young people by sharing his love of boxing. There isn’t a more deserving person for this award.”
Bozella took up boxing while he was incarcerated at Sing Sing. The sport helped him to channel his anger over being wrongfully convicted. He eventually became the light heavyweight champ of the prison and even got the opportunity to fight Golden Gloves champ Lou Del Valle.
While in prison, Bozella also met his wife Trena and earned a bachelor’s degree from Mercy College and a master’s from New York Theological Seminary. He was a model prisoner but was denied parole several times because he wouldn’t admit that he was guilty of the murder.
After his release, Bozella found a job in Newburgh helping people who are released from prison get back on their feet. Until it was recently forced to close, he was also volunteering at a nearby gym, training young people how to box.
The Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. To date, 272 people nationwide have been exonerated through DNA testing and dozens of states have implemented critical reforms to prevent wrongful convictions.
Four Alerts: Protest badger, seal cull; second action for Lovelace; oppose banks funding dirty coal
Image | LACS
Please click on and sign the following:
1. Be one of the million against the cull
2. Tell Canada to end it’s shameful seal slaughter
3. Lovelace, stop killing monkeys and beagles
4. Tell banks to stop funding dirty coal
1. Background | From League Against Cruel Sports
The League opposes the proposed badger cull on two main grounds. Firstly, a cull would fly in the face of scientific evidence about how to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis, and could even exacerbate the problem. And secondly, authorising a cull would create a new bloodsport by licencing the shooting of badgers for gun-toting volunteers. We are calling for a badger vaccination programme instead of a cull.
Just enter your details below to register your support for vaccinations and not extermination.
We need 100,000 signatures to start a debate in parliament on the issue – but we think that’s too easy so we want a million. Will you help us reach our target?
We have 17219 signatures so far, help us reach a million.
Related | Canada’s Shame
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2. Background | From PETA
For thousands of years, harp seals have migrated from Greenland down the coast of Canada, stopping each spring to give birth on the ice floes. Every year, a band of fishers descends on the ice to beat hundreds of thousands of seals to death and sell the animals’ pelts on the international fur market. Sealers routinely hook baby seals in the eye, cheek, or mouth and drag them across the ice, often while the animals are still conscious. Many of the seals killed in the massacre are only a few weeks old.
Baby seals stand no chance against club-wielding seal hunters—pups must look on as fellow seals are bludgeoned to death only to then meet the same bloody fate. The commercial seal slaughter is an off-season profit venture for the fishing industry, and it accounts for less than 1 percent of Newfoundland’s economy. The seal slaughter is not a subsistence activity for native peoples—Inuit sealing accounts for only about 3 percent of the annual slaughter.
The price of seal fur is plummeting as international outrage against the seal slaughter rises. The U.S. and the European Union have banned seal products, and world leaders such as President Barack Obama and His Holiness The Dalai Lama have denounced the massacre.
The annual seal slaughter will continue unless people like you speak out and take action to stop it, so please add your voice to the global outcry against Canada’s shameful seal massacre. Please write to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Canadian ambassadors around the world to demand that they bring the massacre to an immediate end.
3. Background | From Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF)
According to whistleblower reports, the Albuquerque-based Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) has begun exterminating 300 monkeys and an unknown number of beagles, allegedly for financial reasons. Last week, a whistleblower contacted the group Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN) and reported that beginning on July 11, 30 monkeys would be killed each day, and following the slaughter of all of the monkeys, the beagles would also be killed.
Just last month, LRRI agreed to pay $21,750 in fines for multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act over several years, one of which involved a Rhesus monkey who choked to death in his cage. In 2010, the lab was cited after one dog died during an experiment after not receiving enough oxygen and another was bled to death without approval.
Culls like this one illustrate how the animal research industry views animals as disposable research tools, and not the living, feeling beings that they are. Animals who are no longer used in experiments should be turned over to reputable sanctuaries or, in the case of domestic animals like these beagles, adoptive homes.
Send an email to the president and CEO of LRRI and urge him to stop killing innocent animals! Ask him to do the right thing and find new homes or sanctuaries for these animals after their lifetimes of forced service in this research facility.
A pre-written letter is available for your convenience. Please take a moment to add your own polite comments so that your message stands out and has more impact.
*Note: Your email will be sent to the LRRI president and CEO. If his email account fills up, your email will bounce. If this happens, please try to resend your email later or call him directly at the number provided. Thank you for speaking out for these innocent animals!
4. Background | From Rainforest Action Network (RAN)
Air pollution from the Fisk and Crawford coal plants in Chicago cause more than 40 deaths, 66 heart attacks and 720 asthma attacks every year. Big banks are enabling devastating coal projects like these to continue the contamination of communities in Chicago and all across the United States.
Enough is enough. Tell Bank of America, Citi, and Chase to take responsibility for their actions, pull financing from dirty coal projects and start banking on clean, sustainable energy.
Connecticut law ties animal cruelty to violent behavior | Please sign one related petition
Related | Please click on and sign:
Stop the abuse at the Memphis Animal “Shelter”
From Pet Rescue Examiner
By Cheryl Hanna
Conneticut HB 6226 was signed into law and will require crossposting of child abuse and animal cruelty. For years researchers have studied the close occurrences of animal abuse and domestic violence.
The legislation was introduced by State Representative Diana Urban (D-North Stonington) and goes into effect on October 1,2011. Municipal, regional, and state employees of the Department of Children and Family Services will be required to report to the Department of Agriculture commissioner any instances of reasonably suspected animal cruelty or neglect. The information forwarded from the animal cruelty officers to the Division of Children and Family Services can then be opened as an active investigation.
Related | Scars of your Love: Memphis Animal Shelter
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Statistics show that in cases of animals being abused, there is an 80 percent chance that child abuse is also happening as animal cruelty presents itself as a red flag for continued violent behavior.
On October 1, 2012 the Department of Children and Family Services will go even further and develop and implement training of employees to help them identify animal cruelty and the relationship to child welfare. The training will assist case workers to identify and report child abuse and neglect to animal control officers.
Several states have already instituted similar legislation. They are California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Congratulations to Connecticut for taking the initiative to protect families and animals.Every state should follow suit.
Related | NZ SPCA One of the Family TV spot
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FOURTH ACTION: Misery and agony at San Bernabe
Mercado de San Bernabe
This is the FOURTH ACTION for the San Bernabe horses. Please click on THREE ADDITIONAL ACTIONS if you have not already participated, thank you.
BACKGROUND | FROM THE PERSIAN HORSE’S BLOG
San Bernabe is the largest illegal, unregulated livestock market in Mexico. It makes a mockery of humanity and is one of the most shameful examples of animal brutality and ill health in Mexico. The San Bernabe market has existed for over 60 years. Origin of horses at the San Bernabe market – Estado de Mexico, Chihuahua, Michoacan, and the United States.
There is no animal health control. Animals are sold directly for two purposes, either privately as live animals (for work or food), or to a slaughterhouse (called the “rastro”). Obviously, the sale of live animals is done in less cruel way than that of animals that are sold to the rastro, since the horses going to the slaughterhouse are considered waste and therefore are treated in a very brutal manner: they are kicked, poked with electric barbs that are prohibited for horses; bats and pipes are used to hit animals; they are tied with ropes; animals suffer fractures or they fall dead, others arrive with broken limbs because the owners want to get some extra money by selling them and the animals are forced to walk down to the transport truck in these conditions. In the best case, the animals are transported sick, infected with tumors or open wounds, and later sold to the highest bidder. At worst, their corpses are left on the ground without being buried, with animal viscera strewn about in violation of standard NOM-024-ZOO-1995.
It’s time to send Protest Letters to Livestock Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food Rural Development. Please send the below Spanish letter to Lic. Francisco Javier Mayorga Castañeda, Secretary of SAGARPA, by clicking on the Whom To Contact webform link, completing the required fields, and clicking on Aceptar.
There are only four required fields: Nombre (Name), Telefono (Telephone number), Correo electrónico (Email address), Petición (Sample Letter)
Favor de Enviar Cartas de Protestar a Lic. Francisco Javier Mayorga Castañeda, Secretaria de Agricultura Ganaderia Desarrollo Rural Pesca Y Alimentacion, Clickar en este enlace para enviar el email.
WHOM TO CONTACT
http://www.sagarpa.gob.mx/Paginas/contacto.aspx#.TiTqF66UJ54.facebook
- Please copy the Sample Letter, between the two rows of stars, including the picture, and paste it into the Petición field.
- Favor de copiar la carta completa, entre dos hileras de estrellas, incluyendo la foto y copialo dentro del email.
SAMPLE LETTER
**************************************************
El Mercado de San Bernabé arruina la imágen de México (ya de por si muy dañada) y nos averguenza ante el resto del mundo civilizado.
en el mundo están reportando que no van a viajar a México hasta que las autoridades se pongan a trabajar y tomen cartas en el asunto, detengan este horror.
Urgente que se resuelva el asunto del Mercado de San Bernabé!!! la forma en que abusan y torturan a los animales no humanos es HORROROSA!!!, se tiene que poner orden ahí si es que desean los votos de los activistas de derechos animales y somos millones por si acaso les interesa saber, además contamos con todo el apoyo internacional, ahì les encargo, gracias.
En Almoloya de Juárez, Estado de México, se encuentra el Mercado llamado San Bernabé, donde se comercia principalmente, con caballos mulas y burros, en condiciones de crueldad y falta de higiene extremas, violando consistente y permanentemente, las leyes de protección animal y de sanidad. Las autoridades, teniendo plena facultad y pruebas para clausurar el sitio (a través de imágenes mostradas en múltiples medios), han hecho caso omiso a este reclamo.
Typical Condition of Horses at Mercado San Bernabe
Los animales en venta, en su mayoría, están visiblemente enfermos; son transportados en condiciones deplorables, y arrastrados sádicamente, sin importar que tengan fracturas expuestas, estén sangrando o tengan llagas. Cuando ya no pueden sostenerse en pie, son colgados con mecates para simular que aún tienen fuerza. Carecen de atención médica, agua y alimento y si mueren antes de llegar al rastro, son abiertos en el mismo sitio en que se encuentran, tirando sus vísceras al piso.
Les llaman “animales de desecho”, y se les mantiene con vida hasta el último momento, en una lenta y gran agonía, porque el kilo de carne viva cuesta casi el doble que el de la muerta.
Por lo aquí expuesto, exigimos a las autoridades competentes, la mejora inmediata de las condiciones existentes en este cruel lugar, utilicen rampas, denles a beber agua fresca y limpia, asegurense que se les de un trato humanitario y digno a estos bellos seres sintientes, después de todo es lo mínimo que todo ser humano pensante puede hacer.
El mercado de San Bernabé está violando la Ley Federal NOM-024-ZOO-1995-DISPOSICI ON DE LOS CADAVERES Y DESHECHOS ANIMALES, Y NOM-033-ZOO-1995-CRUELDAD ANIMAL. RESPETUOSAMENTE DEMANDAMOS SE HAGAN RESPETAR LAS LEYES FEDERALES MENCIONADAS. GRACIAS.
El Mercado de San Bernabé arruina la imágen de México (ya de por si muy dañada) y nos averguenza ante el resto del mundo civilizado.
Atentamente,
Name (Nombre)
Country (Pais)
**************************************************
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
The market of St. Barnabas is violating the Federal Law NOM-024-ZOO-1995-ON PROVISION OF carcasses and animal waste, and NOM-033-ZOO-1995-ANIMAL CRUELTY. RESPECTFULLY DEMAND BECOME BOUND BY THE FEDERAL LAWS MENTIONED. THANK YOU.
El Mercado de San Bernabe ruins the image of Mexico (already severely damaged if) and shames us before the rest of the civilized world.
I hereby express my total opposition to the cruel and undignified way they treat animals “El Mercado de San Bernabe, Almoloya de Juárez, Estado de Mexico, Mexico is a shame and it is urgent to resolve this terrible situation, the citizens of each country
in the world are reporting that they will not travel to Mexico until the authorities get to work and take action on the matter, stop this horror.
Urgent that the matter is resolved Market St. Barnabas! how abusing and torturing non-human animals is appalling!, you have to bring order there if they want the votes of the animal rights activists are millions in case they want to know, also have all international support, then I order, thank you.
In Almoloya de Juárez, Estado de Mexico, is called San Bernabe Market, which trades mainly with horses mules and donkeys, under conditions of cruelty and extreme lack of hygiene, consistent and continuously violating the animal protection laws and health. The authorities, having full power and try to close the site (through images displayed in multiple media), have ignored this claim.
Typical Condition of Horses at San Bernabe Market
The animals for sale, mostly visibly sick, are transported in appalling conditions and sadistically dragged, no matter they have fractures, are bleeding or have sores. When I can not stand, are hung with ropes to simulate still have strength. Lack of medical care, food and water and if they die before reaching the trail, are open in the same place they are in, throwing their entrails to the floor.
They are called “animal waste” and are kept alive until the last minute in a slow and great agony, for a kilo of raw costs almost twice that of the dead.
As presented here, we urge the competent authorities, the immediate improvement of conditions in this cruel place, use ramps, give them a fresh, clean drinking water, make sure they are of a humane and dignified these beautiful beings, after all, is the minimum that any thinking human being can do.
The market of St. Barnabas is violating the Federal Law NOM-024-ZOO-1995-ON PROVISION OF carcasses and animal waste, and NOM-033-ZOO-1995-ANIMAL CRUELTY. RESPECTFULLY DEMAND BECOME BOUND BY THE FEDERAL LAWS MENTIONED. THANK YOU.
El Mercado de San Bernabe ruins the image of Mexico (already severely damaged if) and shames us before the rest of the civilized world.
Sincerely,
Name (Name)
Country (Country)
Related | Welfare groups speak out against Bernabe
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Please send a message to Mexican equivalent of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) regarding the utter hell of the San Bernabe stockyard. Letter number two and the petition have been published recently on Our Compass but please participate if you have not yet done so, thank you. (Both letters are in Spanish and should be sent in Spanish, but English translations are for your information.)
1. Send Sample Letter #1 to the associated email addresses
2. Send Sample Letter #2 to different targets
3. Please click on and sign Close Mercado de San Bernabe: the shame of Mexico
The first two addresses are to Secretary of Department of Ecology & Environment, Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada; the second is to Sagarpa, Department of Agriculture, Cattle, Rural Development, Fishing, and Feeding
Individual
Secretary of Department of Ecology & Environment, Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada:
c.secretario@semarnat.gob.mx
dgira@semarnat.gob.mx
Sagarpa, Department of Agriculture, Cattle, Rural Development, Fishing, and Feeding
As a Group
c.secretario@semarnat.gob.mx ,
dgira@semarnat.gob.mx ,
contacto@sagarpa.com.mx
LETTER #1 TO SEND
A quien correponda,
Por este medio, quiero expresar mi total rechazo a la manera cruel e indigna en que tratan a los animales en “El Mercado de San Bernabé, Almoloya de Juárez, Estado de México, es una vergüenza para México y es urgente resolver esta terrible situación, los ciudadanos de cada país en el mundo están reportando que no van a viajar a México hasta que las autoridades se pongan a trabajar y tomen cartas en el asunto, detengan este horror.
Urgente que se resuelva el asunto del Mercado de San Bernabé!!! la forma en que abusan y torturan a los animales no humanos es HORROROSA!!!, se tiene que poner orden ahí si es que desean los votos de los activistas de derechos animales y somos millones por si acaso les interesa saber, además contamos con todo el apoyo internacional, ahì les encargo, gracias.
En Almoloya de Juárez, Estado de México, se encuentra el Mercado llamado San Bernabé, donde se comercia principalmente, con caballos mulas y burros, en condiciones de crueldad y falta de higiene extremas, violando consistente y permanentemente, las leyes de protección animal y de sanidad. Las autoridades, teniendo plena facultad y pruebas para clausurar el sitio (a través de imágenes mostradas en múltiples medios), han hecho caso omiso a este reclamo.
Los animales en venta, en su mayoría, están visiblemente enfermos; son transportados en condiciones deplorables, y arrastrados sádicamente, sin importar que tengan fracturas expuestas, estén sangrando o tengan llagas. Cuando ya no pueden sostenerse en pie, son colgados con mecates para simular que aún tienen fuerza. Carecen de atención médica, agua y alimento y si mueren antes de llegar al rastro, son abiertos en el mismo sitio en que se encuentran, tirando sus vísceras al piso.
Les llaman “animales de desecho”, y se les mantiene con vida hasta el último momento, en una lenta y gran agonía, porque el kilo de carne viva cuesta casi el doble que el de la muerta.
Por lo aquí expuesto, exigimos a las autoridades competentes, la mejora inmediata de las condiciones existentes en este cruel lugar, utilicen rampas, denles a beber agua fresca y limpia, asegurense que se les de un trato humanitario y digno a estos bellos seres sintientes, después de todo es lo mínimo que todo ser humano pensante puede hacer.
Atentamente,
Name (Nombre)
Country (Pais)
ENGLISH TRANSLATION | LETTER #1
To whom corresponding, by this means, I would like to express my total opposition to the cruel and shameful way they treat the animals in the market of San Bernabé, Juárez, Mexico State, Almoloya is a shame for Mexico and is urgent to solve this terrible situation, citizens of every country in the world are reporting that they will not travel to Mexico until the authorities put to work and take letters on the matter”stop this horror.
Urgent to resolve the issue of the market of San Bernabé! the way in which abuse and torture of non-human animals is APPALLING!, is to get order there if they want the votes of animal rights activists and we are millions if you perhaps want to know, we also have full international support, ahì commissioned them, thanks.
In Almoloya de Juárez, State Mexico, lies the market called San Bernabé, where mainly traded with horses mules and donkeys, in extreme conditions of cruelty and lack of hygiene, consistent and permanently, to violate laws on animal protection and health. Authorities, taking evidence and full school to close down the site (through images shown in multiple media), have ignored this claim.
Animals for sale, are most visibly ill; they are transported in deplorable conditions, and dragged sadistically, regardless that they have exposed fractures are bleeding or have sores. When no longer can sustain is on foot, they are hung with mecates to simulate that they still have force. They lack food, water and medical care and if they die before reaching the trail, are open in the same place are, pulling their guts on the floor. They are called ‘animal waste’, and they were kept alive until the last moment, in a slow and great agony, because kilo of meat living costs almost double that of the dead.
By it herein, we demand that competent authorities, the immediate improvement of the conditions that exist in this cruel place, use ramps, give them to drink fresh clean water, make that is them humanitarian and dignified treatment to these beautiful sentient beings, after all it is the least that everything be human thinking can do. Sincerely, Name (name) Country (country)
WHOM TO CONTACT | LETTER #2
Individual
Governor of State of Mexico, Mexico | Enrique Pena Nieto
Email: ac@gem.gob.mx
Government offices of State of Mexico, Mexico
Email: gobierno.edomex@gmail.com
As a Group
ac@gem.gob.mx , gobierno.edomex@gmail.com
SUBJECT: Desgarradoras condiciones en el Mercado de San Bernabé.
Estimado Sr. Gobernador, Don Enrique Peña Nieto:
Respetuosamente solicitamos se cumplan los ordenamientos Federales y Estatales para asegurar un trato humano y digno a todos los animales en el Mercado de San Bernabé, ubicado en Almoloya de Juárez, Estado de México. La noticia y evidencia de cómo son tratados los animales en este Mercado ha trascendido a nivel INTERNACIONAL, la comunidad Internacional está en shock por la forma en que se torturan y maltratan a los animales es este mercado y sobre todo ha surgido una gran indignación porque se sigue haciendo impunemente.
Usted como Gobernador del estado de México y figura ascendente en la política de su país, es la persona con el poder de mejorar las condiciones existentes en este mercado, tenga compasión por favor y haga cumplirse las Leyes de protección y respeto a los animales, además de los ordenamientos sanitarios en este Mercado.
Nosotros, la comunidad internacional, quienes visitamos y hacemos negocios en México, urgentemente le pedimos atender este penoso asunto del increible maltrato y sufrimiento que soportan estos inocentes animales, dicho tratamiento a los seres vivos y sintientes no tienen cabida en la sociedad moderna, son simplemente inaceptables. Estaremos observando y supervisando las mejoras urgentes en el tratamiento a los animales en San Bernabé, el cual está bajo su mandato.
Gracias por su tiempo Sr. Gobernador.
Atentamente,
Nombre (Your Name)
país (Your Country)
ENGLISH TRANSLATION | LETTER #2
Dear Sir Enrique Peña Nieto:
Respectfully I hereby demand the enforcement of Mexican federal and state regulations to ensure the humane treatment of animals at the San Bernabe market located in Almoloya de Juarez.
News of how animals are treated at San Bernabe is now reaching countries outside Mexico and people are shocked to hear that this is allowed to continue. You, as the current Governor of Estado de Mexico, and a respected and rising political figure in Mexico are the person with the power to improve conditions at San Bernabe.
We, the citizens of the international community, who visit and do business with Mexico urgently ask you to address the cruelty of San Bernabe which has no place in today’s society. I will continue to follow the situation at San Bernabe and I will be waiting to see some urgently needed improvements to the treatment of animals at San Bernabe under your leadership!
Thank you, Governor.
Respectfully,
Your Name
Your Country
Please click on and sign the following:
1. Revoke Massey Energy’s Corporate Charter
2. Tell Westfield Malls To Stop Supporting Cole Brothers Circus
1. Background | From Rainforest Action Network
Everyone reading this knows that we need to switch to a clean energy economy. It will create jobs, protect vulnerable communities, and save our ailing climate.
This obvious logic is an abomination for coal corporations like Massey Energy. Though Massey was bought earlier this year by Alpha Natural Resources, Massey’s corporate charter still exists. This means business as usual for Appalachia’s most notorious mountain destroyer.
Nestled at the base of Eastern Kentucky’s rugged Black Mountain are two historic mining towns working hard to define a future beyond coal. Local residents of Lynch and Benham are in the midst of reinventing their towns as historic tourist destinations of Appalachia.
Related | Daisy Girl Ad: Stop Mountaintop Removal
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Much to their dismay, the coal barons at Massey Energy have other plans for Black Mountain. The same company whose negligence contaminated countless Appalachian waterways and took the lives of 29 coal miners just last year is one of several companies attempting to mine coal on Black Mountain.
Putting a coal mine on Black Mountain means putting the health and culture of local communities on the line.
Local Lynch city councilmember Bennie Massey explains, “The biggest thing is our water resource. Our water is really good now. You’re not just taking out the coal, you’re destroying generations of people who could live here and raise their families here.”
Join RAN, Appalachian Voices and Free Speech For People in demanding Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden to revoke Massey’s charter today.
2. Background | From IDA
Westfield Malls in many locations across the Eastern Seaboard have been and will be hosting the Cole Brothers Circus on mall property. The circus is now at the Westfield South Shore in Bayshore, New York.
Cole Bros. Circus shows gross indifference to the welfare of its animals and threatens public safety by displaying dangerous wild animals under inadequate control and conditions, including:
- Using an elephant to give rides and perform who has a history of escaping.
- Using an elephant handler, John Walker III,who has a grievous history of elephant abuse and neglect, including causing physical harm, failure to provide veterinary care to suffering elephants, and unsafe public contact. His record is so bad that he cannot be licensed to exhibit animals and must exploit a loophole in federal law that allows him to operate under another license.
- Turning a blind eye as Walker has repeatedly been caught on video abusing the elephants with a bullhook and endangering children and families by paying insufficient attention to elephants giving rides. (Watch video of Walker hooking an elephant on the very sensitive inside part of the ear. | Below, too.)
- Using an unlicensed tiger act and hiring a tiger trainer last year who did not have sufficient experience with dangerous wild animals to be granted a U.S. Department of Agriculture license.
No corporation should support a traveling business with such a history of contempt for laws intended to protect people and animals, and no mall should expose the public to this danger.
Viola of Cole Bros. Circus dragged with bullhook- trumpets in pain
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Petition Text
Dear [Decision Maker],
I am shocked that the Westfield Group would allow any of its malls to host the Cole Bros. Circus, which has a history of hiring handlers who are unqualified and even unlicensed to work with dangerous wild animals, including tigers and elephants, creating serious public safety and animal welfare threats.
The circus’s current elephant handler does not possess a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) license due to horrific elephant abuse and neglect (he exploits a loophole to perform under another license). And last year the circus hired an unlicensed tiger trainer who lacked the experience with these hazardous animals to be granted a USDA license.
The circus is equally unconcerned with animal welfare. Its elephant trainer has repeatedly been caught on video abusing the elephants with a bullhook a pointed steel rod resembling a fireplace poker that is used to prod, hook and strike the elephants. He also has endangered children and families by paying insufficient attention to the elephants giving rides.
The Cole Bros. Circus has shown nothing but contempt for laws intended to protect animals and the public, and it should not be welcome at any mall properties owned by Westfield. I urge you to insure that the Cole Bros. Circus, or any circus that uses wild animals, is not allowed to perform on your properties.
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
A Message To The Dalai Lama ~
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
The Dalai Lama
The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Thicken Coiling P.O. McLeod Ganja
Dharamsala H.P. 176219
India.
His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama ~
Your Holiness, please use your vivid imagination and “oceans of wisdom” to consider the magnitude of the lifesaving opportunity that is outlined in this presentation that will take you on a path that is rarely traveled.
…A path that only a few people like you are capable of traveling.
The journey begins below. Please follow this path to its final destination…
When you occasionally think back about the many personal accomplishments in your life, which accomplishment do you think will stand out as the most worthy, most meaningful, and most beneficial for humans, animals, and the earth?
Is it possible that there is one more accomplishment that could be the most satisfying of all?
Your Holiness, I think you will agree that most people in the world consciously or subconsciously “really prefer kindness and life for all animals.”
Now would be an excellent time for millions of people to prove it.
Now, more than ever, is the time to persuade and convince hundreds of millions of people throughout the world that, not only can they get along perfectly well without eating animal flesh and dairy products, but they can also get along a great deal better, while sparing the lives of billions of animals.
Your Holiness, I keep imagining what kind of amazing positive repercussions would happen if you made an announcement broadcast throughout the world that you have become a vegan!
Your “historic monumental announcement” expressing love and compassion for all animals would reverberate loudly and clearly throughout the entire world and would go a long way in promoting kindness and, ultimately, a full life for all farmed animals.
More than ever before, many reluctant and impetuous leaders throughout the world must now, COME OUT OF THE CLOSET, to check up on the quality and nature of their own beliefs. In the light of new data gained, in the presence of new ideas accepted, an old belief may have to be changed in its form and content.
Stubborn and indifferent world leaders in every profession must have the COURAGE to make the necessary changes to remodel existing beliefs. They must have the courage to check within themselves, to repair and refine their convictions, their beliefs, and their way of life.
Your Holiness, may your sincere affections and sympathy for animals’ lives generate love, compelling you to seek an identity with this cause.
May you then be inspired to become one of the prominent world leaders promoting this righteous campaign motivated by the desire and goal to permanently protect the sanctity of life for all precious and vulnerable creatures on the face of the earth?
With your invaluable leadership, along with the cooperation of brilliant and compassionate leaders everywhere, a worldwide mandate designed to ultimately emancipate all animals from any form of unnecessary cruelty could be established. A mandate that should be accepted and endorsed by most rational government and religious leaders.
Your Holiness, I hope during your golden years of life you will not think back with a deep feeling of disappointment, frustration, and regret because you did not take advantage of the amazing opportunity you had while “you were briefly in the limelight” and could have truly helped to change the world.
That “brief time in history” when your efforts to save the lives of billions of animals could have made an incredibly beneficial difference to the entire world!
You may spend many years thinking and wishing “you could go back in time” to recapture the special opportunity you once had, and let slip away.
Your Holiness, now is your short window of opportunity to make this unprecedented effort to accomplish a goal that only a few people think is possible.
WHY NOT GO FOR IT?
Your Holiness, in closing, let me make one last recommendation.
Please devote 70 minutes of your busy schedule to watch and seriously consider the real meaning and value of the incredible Youtube video of vegan Gary Yourofsky’s magnificent speech titled BEST SPEECH YOU WILL EVER HEAR, which is probably also the most important speech you will ever hear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6U00LMmC4
Thank you Your Holiness for seriously considering the content of this message for the urgently needed benefits of all humans, animals, the earth, and the earth’s atmosphere.
Respectfully,
Arthur Poletti, Vegan
USA
PS: The last meal of the Buddha, which is said to have hastened his death, was a meal of tainted pork.
Vegan Mother, Vegan Baby: Kinder, Safer, Healthier World To Live In!
Tell Donna Karan, DSW Inc., to Ditch Fur
Image | “Size 38” by Nicholas Poitou
Please click on and sign the following:
1. Help Stop Donna Karan, the Bunny Butcher
2. Tell DSW Inc. to Ditch Fur!
1. Background | From PETA
Please click HERE to view pictures | warning – graphic.
Despite knowing about the suffering that goes into every fur-trimmed coat, hat, and bag, Donna Karan has made the cruel decision to use the skins of dead rabbits in her clothing lines.
Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages, and fur farmers use the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available. Foxes, minks, coyotes, and rabbits—and even dogs and cats—are bludgeoned, genitally electrocuted, and often skinned alive for their fur.
One of the best ways that you can help animals who are beaten and tortured for their fur is to tell Donna Karan executives that you’ll boycott the designer’s collections until she stops using fur. Many top designers—including Stella McCartney, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Liz Claiborne—have chosen to create wonderful work without using animal fur.
Speak out against the killing of animals for their skins. Write to Donna Karan International and urge the company to dump fur for good.
Related | Bloody Harvest: The Real Cost of Fur
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2. Background | From PETA
DSW Inc. refuses to stop selling shoes made with animal fur, despite the fact that PETA has repeatedly explained to company executives that animals on fur farms live in cramped, filthy conditions before they are bludgeoned, electrocuted, and sometimes even skinned alive. Animals who are trapped in the wild may suffer for days before trappers arrive to crush their chests, stomp on them, or beat them to death.
DSW lags behind other fashion-industry leaders who have dumped fur, such as Foot Locker, Gap Inc., JCPenney, Steve Madden, H&M, and Limited Brands, Inc.
Millions of animals who are cruelly trapped, farmed, and killed for their fur every year around the world, and they need your help now. Please politely write to DSW and demand that it join other top retailers that have dumped fur.
Please send a message to DSW’s CEO, Michael R. MacDonald, and urge him to end DSW’s sale of fur immediately and implement a fur-free policy.
Stop LGBT discrimination in Turkey
Image | Gay rights are human rights, William Murphy
Please click on and sign Stop LGBT discrimination in Turkey!
Background | From Amnesty International
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Turkey suffer discrimination in employment, housing and access to public services.
The newly elected government in Turkey has pledged to introduce a new constitution containing greater human rights protections. An anti-discrimination law is also scheduled to come before the Turkish parliament. However without concerted pressure, there is a danger that these legal changes will again ignore LGBT people’s demands for equality.
Related | Standing Up For Freedom
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Message Text
I am deeply concerned about the discrimination that many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are facing in Turkey.
In this discriminatory climate, violence and harassment against LGBT individuals by police officers and in the military remains unchecked. Furthermore, LGBT people suffer discrimination in employment, housing and access to public services.
Effective measures are also lacking to prevent and investigate suspected hate crimes targeting people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
In light of the new Turkish government’s promise to introduce important constitutional changes, I believe that now is the time to adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation.
I am calling on you to play a key role in:
• Introducing comprehensive non-discrimination legislation that guarantees the right to non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity
• Extending constitutional protections of the right to non-discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
With your help, we can create a constitution that fully respects and protects human rights.
Agony and Ivory
From Vanity Fair
Highly emotional and completely guileless, elephants mourn their dead—and across Africa, they are grieving daily as demand from China’s “suddenly wealthy” has driven the price of ivory to $700 a pound or more. With tens of thousands of elephants being slaughtered each year for their tusks, raising the specter of an “extinction vortex,” Alex Shoumatoff travels from Kenya to Seattle to Guangzhou, China, to expose those who are guilty in the massacre—and recognize those who are determined to stop it.
Agony and Ivory
By Alex Shoumatoff
Another carcass has been found. On the Kuku Group Ranch, one of the sectors allotted to the once nomadic Maasai that surround Amboseli National Park, in southern Kenya. Amboseli is home to some 1,200 elephants who regularly wander into the group ranches, these being part of their original, natural habitat. More than 7,000 Maasai live in scattered fenced-in compounds called bomas with their extended families and their cattle on Kuku’s 280,000 acres. Traditionally, the Maasai coexisted with their wildlife. They rarely killed elephants, because they revered them and regarded them as almost human, as having souls like us. Neighboring tribespeople believe that elephants were once people who were turned into animals because of their vanity and given beautiful, flashy white tusks, which condemned them, in the strangely truthful logic of myth, to be forever hunted and killed in the name of human vanity. And Maasai believe when a young woman is getting married and her groom comes to get her from her village she musn’t look back or she will become an elephant. “But in the last few years, everything has changed,” a member of the tribe told me. “The need for money has changed the hearts of the Maasai.”
In 2008, post-election ethnic violence followed by the global recession halved tourism to Kenya, making the wildlife in the parks even harder to protect. Then, in 2009, one of the worst droughts in living memory hit much of the country. More than 400 elephants in Amboseli died. The Maasai lost many of their cows and are still struggling, while the price of ivory is higher than ever, so increasing numbers of them are risking the misfortune that killing an elephant could bring on their families, according to their traditional thinking, and are getting into poaching. There are brokers just across the Tanzania border who are paying cash—around $20 a pound—for raw ivory and selling it to the Chinese. Or perhaps there is a series of transactions, a series of middlemen, but ultimately what is not being picked up by the Kenya Wildlife Service’s sniffing dogs at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, in Nairobi, is making its way by all kinds of circuitous routes to China, where raw ivory is now fetching $700 or more a pound. Ninety percent of the passengers who are being arrested for possession of ivory at Jomo Kenyatta are Chinese nationals, and half the poaching in Kenya is happening within 20 miles of one of the five massive Chinese road-building projects in various stages of completion.
There had been almost no poaching around Amboseli for 30 years before a Chinese company got the contract to build a 70-mile-long highway just above the park. Since the road crews arrived, in 2009, four of Amboseli’s magnificent big-tusked bulls have been killed, and the latest word is that the poachers are now going after the matriarchs—a social and genetic disaster, because elephants live in matriarchies, and removing the best breeders of both sexes from the gene pool could funnel the Amboseli population into what is known as an “extinction vortex.”
Related | Elephants Grieving, BBC Wildlife
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Unfortunately, this problem isn’t limited to just Kenya. Across the continent, in their 37 range states, from Mali to South Africa, Ethiopia to Gabon, elephants are being killed, some believe, at the rate of around 100 a day, 36,500 a year. But like so many things in Africa, it is impossible to know how many elephants there really are (estimates run from 400,000 to 650,000), how many are being slaughtered for their tusks (figures range from “more than 4,000” to “as many as 60,000” a year), or how much ivory is being smuggled to Asia (over the last 10 years, an annual average of roughly 45,000 pounds has been seized in Asia or en route). But the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) believes roughly 100 elephants are being killed each day, and this lines up with two of the most plausible estimates.
A Kenya Wildlife Service official and Soila Sayialel, the deputy director of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, have invited me to come along as they investigate the carcass found on the Kuku Group Ranch.
Soila, a local Maasai woman in her 40s, has been working with Cynthia Moss—the revered 71-year-old American conservationist who started the project in 1972—for 25 years and wants to know if this latest victim is one of Amboseli’s elephants. A week earlier, K.W.S. rangers shot dead two poachers right outside the park who had just killed Magna, one of the big breeding bulls.
The poaching is even worse in the northern part of the country. A few weeks ago, two poachers were killed and a ranger was wounded in a firefight in Meru National Park. Al-Shabaab, the Islamist youth militia which is in league with al-Qaeda and controls most of Somalia, has been coming over the border and killing elephants in Arawale National Reserve. Ivory, like the blood diamonds of other African conflicts, is funding many rebel groups in Africa, and Kenya, K.W.S. director Julius Kipng’etich told me, “is in the unenviable position of sharing over 1,700 kilometers of border with three countries with civil wars that are awash with firearms: Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan.” Nothing less than a full-scale military operation is going to stop the poaching in the north.
But Kenya’s poaching problem is nothing compared with that of some other African range states. It’s only losing a few hundred elephants a year. (Kenya has zero tolerance for poaching and banned the sale of all ivory, including its old stock, in 1989. There has also been a blanket ban on all hunting since 1977.) Gabon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania are losing thousands. Chad, home to 15,000 elephants in 1979, has less than 400 left. Sierra Leone is down to single digits.
This April was the cruelest month in the current wave of killing. Then, in the first week of May alone, a ton of ivory was confiscated in Kenya, more than 1,300 pounds in Vietnam—from Tanzania—and a Chinese man was arrested at Entebbe airport in Uganda with 34 pieces of ivory. To top it off, a South Korean diplomat was caught trying to bring 16 tusks into Seoul. The carnage is escalating.
During the great elephanticide of the 1970s and 1980s, Africa’s elephant population was cut from an estimated 1.3 million to some 600,000, and Kenya’s elephant population went from 120,000 to 15,000. (It is now about twice that.) At the height of the slaughter, it is believed, 70,000 elephants a year were being killed continent-wide. The death toll may be half that now, but there are only half as many elephants left.
The previous slaughter was driven by Japan’s economic boom. This new crisis is driven by China’s nouveaux riches, or bao fa hu (the “suddenly wealthy”), who are as numerous as the entire population of Japan. The main consumers are middle-aged men who have just made it into the middle class and are eager to flaunt their ability to make expensive discretionary purchases. Beautiful ivory carvings are traditional symbols of wealth and status.
Soila expertly navigates the cavernously potholed dirt road that leads to Kuku, at one of whose bomas we pick up Johanus, the Maasai scout who found the carcass. Johanus was looking for lion tracks down by the river a few mornings ago when he picked up the blood trail of an elephant and started to follow it. The wounded elephant was making for the safety of nearby Tsavo National Park. It was accompanied by another elephant who was not bleeding, and they were being followed by two men—local Maasai, Johanus tells us, because they were wearing tire-tread sandals of local manufacture. Johanus shows us the four sets of prints, which we pick up at the river. We follow them up a slope of jagged red stones—an old lava field, with patches of grass and thickets of flat-topped acacia trees, which several stocky, mud-reddened zebras and frisky impalas melt into as we approach. After half an hour of tortuous progress, Johanus says we are here.
Read the rest of Agony and Ivory, beginning on page 2 of 8, by clicking HERE …
For additional information on IFAW’s program and how you can help, click Saving the Worlds Remaining Elephants.
Read more…
URGENT: Save the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute Lab Animals | Beagles & Monkeys NEED YOU
Image | I Love Dogs
Please send emails, faxes, and/or call directly the contacts of Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute demanding they stop slaughtering animals. The days of action are Thursday and Friday, July 14 and 15. 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.
BACKGROUND | FROM SAEN & WAR
We know that everyone is busy and that there are many campaigns competing for your attention. The lives of as many as 300 monkeys and an untold number of beagles are hanging in the balance here. Please, we beg you, take some time to read about this desperate situation and take action to save these precious, innocent lives. This is an opportunity for everyone to agitate to liberate.
A year ago last June, Win Animal Rights (WAR) launched the first Operation: Agitate to Liberate and as a result, 120 beagles and 55 monkeys were liberated from a bankrupt lab in New Jersey. With your help we can do it again!
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)
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
WHOM TO CONTACT | INDIVIDUAL
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
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):
Email: saen@saenonline.org
Phone: 1-513-575-5517
Website: http://saenonline.org
Win Animal Rights (WAR):
Email: centcom@war-online.org
Phone: 1-732-250-6066
Website: http://war-online.org
Thank you for your attention and consideration.
NAME
Our Compass 