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.
A serial killer has claimed another victim …
Exmoor Emperor, Britain’s Largest Animal, Gunned Down In ‘Trophy Hunt’
In a move that has infuriated British wildlife experts, a giant red stag thought to be the country’s biggest wild animal has been shot dead, according to reports.
The stag, nicknamed the “Exmoor Emperor,” weighed more than 300 pounds and stood nearly 9 feet tall. Its death is believed to have been carried out by a licensed sport hunter rather than poachers, the Daily Mail reports.
While there is no question as to the shooting’s legality, the Emperor’s death has reportedly angered animal activists and wildlife experts, who believe the wild stags should receive special protection during their mating season. Red deer stags are the biggest native land animals left in Britain, and the Emperor was thought to be the largest among them.
As British deer management expert Peter Donnelly tells The Telegraph:
It’s a disgrace that this magnificent animal has been shot at this time because it could be that he didn’t get a chance to rut properly this year -therefore his genes have not been passed on this time round. The poor things should be left alone during the rut – not harried from pillar to post. If we care about deer, we should maintain a standard and stop all persecution during this important time of the year.
Donnelly went on to note his frustrations that sportsmen from abroad and other parts of the country had been descending upon Exmoor National Park specifically for bloodsport. “There are people who are prepared to spend quite ridiculous sums of money to have a trophy on their wall,” he said.
RELATED:
Sixteen Cats Poisoned in Kos … And no investigation! Please send one message, sample provided.
From Fight For Animal Rights (requires valid Facebook account to view)
Original alert from Serbian Animals Voice
In the most recent event of animal poisoning in Greece, 16 cats who had been neutered and who were taken care of and fed by Tierhilfe Kos (”Animal Help Kos”), were found dead, dumped in a waste container – they had been poisoned.
Greece is a country that takes great pride in its long and old culture and history, and yet they they show very little respect and provide very little protection for their most innocent of beings. Please send a message (you may use the sample letter provided below) that this is unacceptable, and please be aware that our intent is not to malign any particular country since cruelty occurs globally, but that we will protest about any. Thank you.
Related:
Do You Still Find It Outrageous? The only difference is you …
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WHERE TO SEND YOUR LETTERS
**Please note that the first email address to the Mayor of Irakleidon, Billis Stergose, was invalid for me, but I’ll keep it in just in case it is just my platform that is refusing it, and press@kos.gr bounced back. The online forms are both in English; the second require telephone and specific address details, but a string of numerals will suffice. Thank you!
Mayor of Irakleidon, Mr. Billis Stergose:
Fax: 00302242051128
The Mayor of Kos Municipality – Mr George (2 addresses):
Local newspaper who took up the dog hanging incident in Kardamena (in 2008):
Greek Tourist Organisation:
Kos Island Greece, The Official Travel Guide (online contact form):
http://www.kosinfo.gr/en/contact
Presidency of the Hellenic Republic (online contact form)
http://www.presidency.gr/en/contact.htm
E-mail block:
TO: hrakleid@otenet.gr, dhmarhos@iraklidon.gr, kos_mayor@hol.gr, kos_mayor@kos.gr,
CC: btko@hol.gr, press@kos.gr, visitgreece@gnto.gr
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I was horrified to learn of the recent poisoning of 16 cats that were being taken care of by Tierhilfe Kos.
This incident is not an isolated case. The crimes against animals in Greece are horrific and the numbers are staggering. I’m appalled that a government can have such little respect for innocent lives. Animals in Greece are treated like pests – they are hanged, poisoned, run-over, or beaten to death. Animal advocacy groups get little to no support, and the country’s laws on animal cruelty are hardly enforced. The person(s) responsible for these poisonings must be apprehended and Kos needs to take a firm stand against animal abuse. The laws need to be regulated and enforced so as those guilty of such despicable animal neglect and cruelty are correctly and rightly charged.
You should also be aware that people who abuse animals have the predisposition to abuse humans; this link between animal and human abuse has been solidly established and international legal scholars, law enforcement, and judicial bodies all acknowledge that those who harm animals have the capacity to harm humans: all deserve freedom from abuse, exploitation, and suffering.
As such, please show the world a more compassionate Greece. Until you start taking these cases of animal cruelty seriously, I will boycott Kos and all of Greece.
Sincerely,
NAME/COUNTRY
Veganism or Extinction? Keeping COP16 Truly Sustainable
FROM Meat Free COP16
Immediate, please sign and send Letter to Delegates and Representatives Attending COP16
BACKGROUND
Encouraging delegates to make an ethical lifestyle choice for world health, for the environment and for the animals.
With COP16 around the corner, delegates and world leaders from around the world will once again be meeting to discuss the current climate change issues our planet faces. The previous conference in Copenhagen ended with major developing nations having made pledges but with no clear path toward a treaty all binding resolutions. Consequently, it is critical that our representatives demonstrate their commitment to make effective changes.
Recently, according to a new report from the UN. The report, Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Production and Consumption: Priority Products and Materials from the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP), found that consuming a diet free of meat and dairy will be the best approach to dealing with climate change and its consequences.
So despite all the science pointing to animal agriculture being the largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, inter-governmental talks do not even include on their agenda the discussion of the meat and livestock industries. The facts clearly demonstrate animal products are unsustainable and truly detrimental.
One goal of this meeting is to strive in making sustainable choices, therefore, we ask that our representatives and world leaders attending the COP16 truly take the initiative and demonstrate courage in choosing to be vegan during their attendance of this historical conference. By choosing to do so our delegates make a powerful statement,that is that they are determined to halt climate change by eliminating the root cause: Animal Agriculture. Furthermore we call on the COP16 organizers to only provide plant based meals during the conference to show their complete resolve to tackle climate change as well as other environmental issues. The world will be watching the participants of COP16 in hopes that the right choices and steps are taken, to avoid further climate change related calamities.
We invite all to join us in making a truly environmental, healthy and compassionate choice, choose a vegan diet and encourage others to do likewise. Each one of us also has the responsibility of sending this clear message that a plant based diet is the first choice when considering any possible solution to climate change.
For more information on the plant based solution please visit http://meatfreecop16.org/solutions/, on ideas on how governments can make the shift to a plant based diet, please visit http://meatfreecop16.org/making-the-shift/.
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours Sincerely,
Society for the Advancement of Animal Wellbeing
www.SAAWinternational.org
LETTER TEXT
Dear Delegates and Representatives,
Recently, according to a new report from the UN. The report, Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Production and Consumption: Priority Products and Materials from the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP), found that consuming a diet free of meat and dairy will be the best approach to dealing with climate change and its consequences.
So despite all the science pointing to animal agriculture being the largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, inter-governmental talks do not even include on their agenda the discussion of the meat and livestock industries. The facts clearly demonstrate animal products are unsustainable and truly detrimental.
One goal of this meeting is to strive in making sustainable choices, therefore, we ask that our representatives and world leaders attending the COP16 truly take the initiative and demonstrate courage in choosing to be vegan during their attendance of this historical conference. By choosing to do so our delegates make a powerful statement,that is that they are determined to halt climate change by eliminating the root cause: Animal Agriculture. Furthermore we call on the COP16 organizers to only provide plant based meals during the conference to show their complete resolve to tackle climate change as well as other environmental issues. The world will be watching the participants of COP16 in hopes that the right choices and steps are taken, to avoid further climate change related calamities.
We invite all to join us in making a truly environmental, healthy and compassionate choice, choose a vegan diet and encourage others to do likewise. Each one of us also has the responsibility of sending this clear message that a plant based diet is the first choice when considering any possible solution to climate change.
For more information on the plant based solution please visit http://meatfreecop16.org/solutions/, on ideas on how governments can make the shift to a plant based diet, please visit http://meatfreecop16.org/making-the-shift/.
Please don’t forget to sign and send the above letter HERE
RESOURCES, MEAT FREE COP16
Devour the Earth
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URGENT: Michigan plans to murder a mother for protecting her children! Please take action!
UPDATE FROM BORN FREE (early November 2010):
We talked with Russ Mason of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. He’s in charge of this bear issue. He said that the Michigan Department of Fish and Wildlife is not actively looking for the bears in question at this point as officials think the bears have gone into hibernation — good news! He added that the traps have been removed and that they will not actively look for the bears when they come out of hibernation in the spring. However, if the mother bear comes into contact again with humans, she will be killed.
When asked about the possibility of sending the mother bear to a sanctuary, Mason said that is not Michigan’s procedure for “habituated” bears. Although he agreed that this particular incident was brought on by the hunter punching one of the cubs and the mother trying to protect her, he thinks that this bear has been seen around town and therefore “habituated.” He did admit that the mother bear was probably not out to kill the hunter as she could’ve easily done that if she had wanted to.
Please take ACTION and include the above briefly, thank you!
1. Please sign and send TWO automatic messages:
Message Text
I have heard about the mother bear who, in protecting her cubs earlier this month, injured a bow-hunter in Emmet County. Thankfully, the man survived the attack. I urge you to let the mother bear live, too.
A basic instinct of all mothers, including bears, is to protect their young. According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s investigation into the incident, the sow’s cubs were drawn to the hunter because he retained smells from a family barbecue he had attended earlier in the day. Their interaction with the man was accidental, and their mother bear’s response to the confrontation was natural.
In announcing that the mother bear will be trapped and euthanized, DNRE’s wildlife chief, Russ Mason, said that the cubs are old enough to make it on their own. Why, then, were the cubs still with their mother at the time of the incident, and not already independent?
Soon the mother bear and her cubs will hibernate for the winter, and dangers — perceived and otherwise — will have passed. Please don’t punish a bear for heeding her maternal instincts.
From Change:
The voting citizens of Michigan have overwhelmingly voiced their opinion in the UpNorthLive.com newspaper poll with 85 percent voting no to the killing of this mother bear. Please listen to your constituents, and show some mercy and compassion to this bear family.
Please don’t forget to sign and send the above HERE and on Change
2. Please contact Russ Mason of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources & tell him how you feel: MasonR2@michigan.gov
3. Please read Politics and wildlife management – New Jersey bear hunt debate
By Katherine McGill from which I have shared the following:
The third trophy bear hunt in 40 years (in New Jersey) is scheduled for December. A ticket to kill a bear is $2.00. Yes, $2 ! Can you say “subsidized”? Who do you think is paying for the manpower to manage this hunt? We all are.
Hunters, sportsmen’s organizations, division officials, and the NJ Fish & Game Council claim a hunt is necessary to control a burgeoning bear population, and that public safety is a priority concern. Meanwhile there is scientific proof to the contrary, State F&G biologists (no bias there)claiming a hunt is needed, but in the bigger picture? Over 69% of the general public remain in opposition — and are being completely disregarded!
Then there is Compensatory Rebound Effect (CRE) science, which has proven to all of us that Nature is perfectly able to maintain wildlife populations. But that news seems to have not made it into the deep woods yet, especially in Michigan. Last week a camouflaged 21 year old bow-hunter kid sat in tree stand after a Bar-b-que and now ponders why a bear cub climbed up to check him out. He punched the cub, mother bear gives him a nip, and now Michigan is on a mission to kill her and her three cubs, per Russ Mason of the MDNR. Why three cubs? CRE. Check it out, Michigan wildlife management professionals; you might also be killing off your bears too fast!
Please click HERE to read the rest of Ms. McGill’s expose (start from the beginning as I have shared selected text from the middle, thank you).
RELATED INFORMATION
From: Brennon Browne
To: masonr2@michigan.gov
Mr Mason, you quote:
“Anytime you are dealing with a sow and her cubs, you have a potentially dangerous situation,” said DNRE Wildlife Chief Russ Mason. “A sow will do whatever it takes to protect her cubs if she perceives a threat. In this case, the hunter was not threatening the cubs, but the sow apparently thought he was, and she attacked him.”
This statement is blatantly untrue. The hunter admitted to elbowing and punching one of the cubs until it fell to the ground. Apparently THEN AND ONLY THEN did the mother bear “attack.” Had she genuinely wanted to do harm to this rube, he would have most certainly ended up dead. This mother’s reaction was a gentle warning and nothing more, I can assure you. I speak from living in the wilderness for 10 years and having a lifetime of experience in observing various species in the wild. I’m an animal behaviorist. And this whole incident and your response to it reeks of hysterical overreaction.
You claim that this female necessitates being destroyed because of her aggression and alleged lack of fear of humans. The truth is, this was a situation where a hunter, saturated with the smell of fried food, inadvertently used himself as a “lure” to coincidentally attract this mother and her cubs. This was NOT an incident of an aggressive bear stalking a human with the intent to do harm. The death sentence you have imposed is unwarranted and immoral.
As a taxpayer and someone who attempts to live up to a certain code of ethics, I am thoroughly disgusted with our hunter-dominated wildlife agencies. The ease by which your ilk mass murders is beyond reprehensible. Your arrogance and ignorance regarding the voiceless creatures you have charge over is criminal.
I hope you will reconsider your rash rush to jumping to the wrong conclusions and relocate this mother and cubs. She deserves the right to her natural lifespan and not to be yet another victim, sacrificed upon the altar of man’s psychopathic stupidity.
Brennan Browne
Included is an article which astutely illustrates this:
Wildlife Services Exterminates Over 4.1 Million Animals in 2009 Agency’s Budget Shrouded from Public
According to records released today by WildEarth Guardians, “Wildlife Services,” the ironically-named branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, killed more than four million wild animals and pets in 2009 while spending $121,039,763. Last month, WildEarth Guardians filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking to track how this money is spent, but the agency continually sidesteps public scrutiny.
“Apparently, Wildlife Services is comprised of bands of secret agents. One group, the assassins, operates on our national forests and kills millions of the public’s wildlife using helicopters, guns, poisons, traps, and hounds. The second, the artful dodgers, play shell games in the dark with the public’s money,” said Wendy Keefover-Ring of WildEarth Guardians.
In 2009, Wildlife Services reported it killed 4.1 million animals and “destroyed” 18,000 more. That total includes a staggering 27,314 beavers; 988,577 blackbirds; and 114,522 mammalian carnivores (e.g., 1,775 bobcats, 82,097 coyotes, 480 wolves, 571 river otters, and 443 black bears.)
Wolves in Idaho and Montana are now listed as federally endangered.
In response to WildEarth Guardians’ lawsuit, Wildlife Services and its parent agency, the USDA’s Animal and Health Inspection Service, stated that it could not answer the group’s simple request for line-item spending data. They agency stated that it tracks expenses using two different data bases: one that is “operational” and the other “financial”, but the accounting systems are “not interactive.” Thus, Wildlife Services claims it does not know how much it spends on its controversial operations such as shooting coyotes and wolves from helicopters. The agency further stated: “Wildlife Services does not have a managerial need for financial data at this finite level.”
“Federal agencies must be fiscally accountable to the public,” stated Steve Sugarman, WildEarth Guardians’ attorney. “It’s time for Wildlife Services to stop playing shell games and show the public what they’re doing with our money in the light of day,” he added.
Wildlife Services is biologically harmful and unselective for species killed. Many conservation biologists have noted that Wildlife Services’ carnivore eradications amount to a “sledgehammer” approach to wildlife management because of the breadth of the extermination. Wildlife Services uses indiscriminate and deadly means to slay wildlife—many are killed by mistake—even rare species such as kit foxes, swift foxes, and river otters.
“Of the 571 river otters it killed in 2009, Wildlife Services notes that 84% were killed accidentally. This is simply not tolerable: river otters are sorely lacking from many river systems,” said Keefover-Ring.
View Wildlife Services’ 2009 Annual Tables
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/prog_data/2009_prog_data/data_index_2009.shtml
War on Wildlife: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Wildlife Services”
Cat Rescued, Resuscitated By Firefighters With Special Mask
From 7News, The Denver Channel
Boulder firefighters saved the life of a cat Wednesday by using a special oxygen mask.
Firefighters said they found the cat home alone inside a burning condo at the Gold Run complex on Sundown Lane.
The cat was rescued, then resuscitated using a pet CPR mask, firefighters said. The cat was taken to the Humane Society for more treatment.
The masks were donated to the Boulder Fire Rescue Department in 2008 by two girls who sold jewelry to raise the money for the specialized animal equipment. Clara Grainger and Isabel Lippincott told 7NEWS in 2008 that they bought 15 masks. One week after the masks were donated, firefighters said they used a pet oxygen mask to revive a dog rescued from a house fire.
Damage to the condo Wednesday is estimated at $50,000. Fire Marshal David Lowrey said the fire appears to be accidental in nature.
RELATED
Save A Life
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New E.U. law could slow down horse slaughter in Canada and Mexico.
Dedicated to the Horses who Spilled their Blood, Lost their Lives, and gave up their Freedom For BLM.
New regulations requiring horses destined for federal slaughter plants to have paperwork documenting illnesses and medication for the previous six months have recently come into law.
A European Union requirement to document all health treatments for horses destined to be sold as meat came unexpectedly in April 2009 and Canada and other horse meat exporters countries were told to have identification in place within a year reports the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia and South America export horse meat to Europe and are expected to comply. European Union Inspectors are expected to monitor Canadian plants this fall to make sure they are in compliance.
Multiple Actions Needed to Save NJ Bears
There are Only 43 Days Left to Save Our Bears. Please join the campaign, get active and let everyone you know what’s going on! Here are THREE actions you can take now, please CALL, SEND, & SIGN.
BACKGROUND
New Jersey’s first bear hunt in five years will be taking place December 6-11, and the sale of up to 10,000 hunting permits despite the fact that there has never been a single confirmed death or case of serious injury caused by black bears in New Jersey.
The truth has been exposed; the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife fabricated the number of complaints against NJ’s bears in order to provide a reason for the forthcoming bear hunt!
Thanks to the investigative work by Rutgers University Professor Dr. Edward Tavss (study on pdf below), who spent countless hours pouring over state records, it is now fact that bear complaints have declined, not risen.
1. CALL! We need your help with getting APLNJ and the BEAR Group a meeting with Governor Christie.
- Ask the governor to meet with hunt opponents NOW!
- Ask him to stop this corrupt bear hunt NOW!
Governor Chris Christie
Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
Fax# 609 292 3454
Phone# 609-292-6000
E-Mail (webform) http://www.state.nj.us/governor/contact/ (pick Environment, then Fish and Wildlife)
2. SEND! Please continue to send us your name and contact information for our Christie’s Corruption Fax Blitz.
We have to hit Governor Christie hard with this and demand that he stop the hunt! Therefore, the first action campaign of the new Animal Protection League of New Jersey (APLNJ) / SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) Alliance is a mass fax blitz to the Governor’s office. If you can send your own fax, here is the fax number: 609 292 3454
If you do not have access to a fax machine, we will send it on your behalf. All you have to do is send us your full name and address, and we’ll put it on the following prewritten faxes (see below). We have two different faxes set up: one for NJ residents and one for those who live out of state. Christie has been traveling around the country promoting himself for a future run for higher office, so everyone has a role to play in fighting this hunt!
Send your name and address to: fightback@christiescorruption.com
3. SIGN! Please sign: Tell New Jersey to Stop CORRUPT Bear Hunt
RESOURCES
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Ed Tavss 2010 Bear Study
From PETA
Immediate, please sign and send:
Please Call for an Immediate Ban on the Use of Animals in Circuses
BACKGROUND
When international cover girl, singer and reigning queen of reality TV Rakhi Sawant learned how animal “performers” are bullied and beaten under the big top, she pounced on the chance to pose for a new PETA anti-circus ad.
Why is Sawant fighting mad about animal acts? Animals used in circuses lead miserable lives (below also). Animals do not voluntarily ride bicycles, stand on their heads or walk on tightropes. They don’t perform these and other confusing tricks because they want to; they perform them because they’re afraid not to.
Trainers often beat and intimidate animals into submission and obedience. Even the animals’ access to water, food and veterinary care is often severely limited. Animals are crammed into filthy cages and rarely see the sun or breathe fresh air.
“Animals in circuses are beaten and denied everything that is important to them – all for a lifetime of cheap tricks”, says Sawant. “My plea to parents is that if your kids love animals, the last place you should take them is the circus.”
Caring people like you must speak up for animals in circuses. Add your voice to Rakhi Sawant’s and steer clear of circuses that use animals. Ask the Ministry of Environment and Forests to ban the use of animals in circuses immediately.
You Can Help : Please ask the Ministry of Environment and Forests to permanently ban the use of animals in circuses HERE.
China’s One-Child Policy Forces Woman to Have Abortion at 8 Months
From Care2
By Laura Smith-Gary
Al Jazeera recently reported that in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen, a woman who was 8 months pregnant was forcibly given an abortion because her pregnancy was in violation of the country’s one-child policy.
Xiao Ai Ying’s husand told Al Jazeera‘s Melissa Chan that men pinned his wife’s arms behind her back and kicked her repeatedly in the stomach, presumably trying to induce a miscarriage. She was then forcibly injected with chemicals that killed her fetus. She spoke to Chan — who had sneaked into the hospital — while awaiting a procedure to remove the dead fetus.
Xiao and her husband were both visibly unhappy, and were terrified of government retribution for revealing their experience to a news organization.
Al Jazeera released this report, including video clips of interviews with both members of the couple (transcript at the bottom of the post).
While forced abortions are not officially part of the government’s family planning policy, reports of women being physically forced to submit to abortions make their way out of the country with regularity. In 2007, NPR reported on two specific forced abortions and described assertions from Chinese citizens that the procedure happened regularly. Around the same time, Time magazine reported that 61 women in the Guangxi province had been forced into abortions. The U.S. Department of State’s 2008 Human Rights Report on China contained reports of several coerced and physically forced abortions.
In addition, the trepidation with which Xiao Ai Ying and Luo Yan Qua reported their experience might suggest other couples have had similar experiences but were afraid to make themselves known. The fact this forced abortion happened in Xiamen, a modern city, is noted as an anomaly by Al Jazeera — till now, reports of forced abortions have been from rural areas. Hopefully, this means that this couple’s experience is unique, but I fear it means the practice is more widespread than we know.
Besides overtly, physically forced abortions, given the extreme financial penalties that can be levied for the birth of a second child — up to 40,000 U.S. dollars – — almost any abortion that happens because of the policy might be considered coerced. For the sense of the scale of these potential fines, consider that in 2004 WorldSalaries.org calculated the average gross annual income for an average Chinese worker as 4,397 U.S. dollars — less than an eighth of the maximum possible fine. For the crime of having a second child, a woman may also be sterilized. For a woman who finds herself pregnant after a birth control failure, or even after making the decision to conceive, the prospect of paying eight years worth of income and being sterilized by force makes abortion look like an attractive option.
It shouldn’t need to be said, but because pro-choice advocates are often painted by pro-life extremists as “pro-abortion,” I’ll say it — pro-choice means pro-choice, allowing a woman to make her own decisions about her own pregnancy. Of course, she may take many factors into account, from her religious beliefs to her financial security to the feelings of her partner, but such an exorbitant fine (and invasive medical procedure) is more coercion than “contributing factor.” Reproductive rights advocates are against forced pregnancy, but they are also very much against forced abortion and forced sterilization.
According to figures released by China’s government in 2009, 13 million abortions are performed in China annually, and an additional 10 million pills intended to induce abortions are sold every year. A report by the World Health Organisation and the Guttmacher Institute set the figure lower, at 9 million abortions per year. It is unclear how many of these abortions are performed to prevent the birth of a second child, or to abort a female fetus in the hope of later conceiving a valued boy.
Even after a second child is born, the danger may not be over. Last September at Equal Writes I wrote about a Los Angeles Times story in which Chinese families told reporters their babies had been stolen from them by “family planning” officials. They said that when they were unable to pay the fines for having a second child — or when they were simply perceived as vulnerable — government officials in charge of enforcing the one-child policy would take their infants away, then label them as “abandoned” for unscrupulous adoption agencies in exchange for a susbstantial cut of adoption fees from Western couples.
One-Child Policy’s Damage Goes Beyond Even Forced Abortions
China’s one-child has not been pure, unadulterated evil — for instance, it does seem to have been effective in curbing overpopulation in China — but its negative effects are serious and have the potential to be long-reaching. It not only leaves parents and infants vulnerable to family planning officials, it affects all Chinese society.
Some scholars postulate that the single-child policy may have set China up for an economic fall as the population ages. Perhaps even more serious, though, is the gender imbalance the family planning policies exacerbated (I say “exacerbated” rather than “created” because India, which has no such policy, is also experiencing a substantial gender imbalance). In China, sons are deeply prized as status symbols, heirs, workers, and as the only children who are believed to be able to properly care for their ancestors’ souls. In fact, male children are so important in many parts of China, especially rural areas, that some provinces allow couples with a daughter to have a second child in order to try for a son. In other areas, the desire for a son combined with a one-child policy can lead to sex-selective abortion or, worse, the abandonment or even infanticide of baby girls. Last year, the New York Times reported (and I discussed) that family planning policies and desperation for sons has also led to a rash of young boys being kidnapped in cities and sold to rural families.
Sex-selective abortion and the abandonment of female infants — and post-natal factors like preferential nutrition and medical care for sons — has led, over the past three decades of the family planning policy, to an extreme gender imbalance. In April of 2009, the British Medical Journal concluded that as of 2005, in China “males under the age of 20 exceeded females by more than 32 million.” Many scholars fear that this imbalance will lead to a glut of men who are unable to find partners, “bare branches” who may be more prone to crime, gang formation, religious extremism and social instability.
The 19th Amendment and those “terrorists” and “traitors” who courageously battled for it & Iron Jawed Angels
From American Association of University Women of New York State
It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. 40 prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of ‘obstructing sidewalk traffic.’
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.
The NWP’s militant tactics and steadfast lobbying, coupled with public support for imprisoned suffragists, forced President Woodrow Wilson to endorse a federal woman suffrage amendment in 1918.
Library of Congress
Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the ‘Night of Terror’ on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food–all of it colorless slop–was infested with worms.
When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won’t vote this year because why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn’t matter? It’s raining?
“Night of Terror” (Women`s Suffrage/Woman`s Rights)
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Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO’s new movie Iron Jawed Angels (end of article) It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women’s history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was–with herself. ‘One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,’ she said.
‘What would those women think of the way I use, or don’t use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.’ The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her ‘all over again.’
HBO released the movie on video and DVD (see below). I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn’t our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse.
Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn’t make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: ‘Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.’
Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.
We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent. Remember to vote.
Click on each picture to see it full-size.
Election Day 2010: Your Vote is Your Voice … Get Educated, Go Vote on November 2nd. Find all essential information HERE or click on the picture:
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Iron Jawed Angels (In 12 parts, click on the next video in line in the bottom window, but if you do nothing, it will automatically advance on its own; it takes a few moments to load, refresh if it is taking too long.)
This Movie is a Must See for everyone, especially for young women of today! It will give you a glimpse into the enormous effort that became a movement known as “The First Wave Of Feminism” The American Suffrage Movement. Our Foremothers fought hard, never flinched, and never looked back. As a “Third Waver” this film, depicting some of my greatest heroines, fills me will overwhelming pride. 2004’s Iron Jawed Angels starring Hilary Swank (as Alice Paul) Frances O’Connor (as Lucy Burns) Lois Smith (as Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw) Vera Farmiga (as Ruza Wenclawska) Brooke Smith (as Mabel Vernon) Patrick Dempsey, Julia Ormond as (Inez Milholland) and Anjelica Huston (as Carrie Chapman Catt.)
From UK Daily Mail
By Sean Poulter
Wholesale changes to the nation’s diet, with a move towards vegetarian food and away from beef and cheese, have been recommended by Government advisers.
A report commissioned by the Food Standards Agency suggests radical changes to what we eat and even how we cook.
These include eating more seasonal produce to reduce transportation and switching to microwave ovens and pressure cookers to use less energy in preparing food.
Out would go beef, cheese, sugary foods and drinks such as tea, coffee and cocoa. In would come vegetables and pulses, together with yoghurt.
The FSA says the switch is necessary as part of a move to a diet that is low in greenhouse gases (GHG), which are associated with climate change.
The report, compiled by a team from the University of East Anglia, suggests that schools, hospitals and other public bodies should be expected to lead a change in national behaviour by putting low-GHG food on their menus.
Related, Chew On This
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The university was at the centre of allegations last year that it had manipulated climate change data to magnify the problem.
Its report, called Food and Climate Change, will be controversial given that many people may baulk at being told what they should eat in order to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets.
However, the recommendations will be welcomed by vegetarian campaigners and those who support organic farming, which is recognised in the study as producing food that is lower in GHG.
But the National Farmers’ Union has ridiculed the idea that a shift to vegetarian food will combat climate change as ‘simplistic’.
A spokesman said: ‘It is simply not true that fruit and vegetables are a better climate option than meat and milk. You have to look at how these crops are produced in terms of the energy used for growing and transport.’
An admin said: ‘It is simply utter folly to accept an industry opinion that will, of course, be biased towards animal husbandry …’
Vegan food, recipes, and more … Click on the upper right arrow to view the full tab names, scroll down to see all entries.
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Guilty Verdict in Puerto Rico Horse Abuse Case
From ALDF
Posted by Stephanie Ulmer, Guest Blogger on October 15th, 2010
The Associated Press on September 16th reported that a man accused of dragging a “stubborn” horse alongside his truck has become the first person convicted by a Puerto Rico jury under an animal protection law enacted after dogs were thrown to their deaths from a bridge. Georgenan Lopez, 24, is scheduled to be sentenced in November and could face up to 15 years in prison. The horse has recovered from most of its injuries last February, but it still limps and can never be ridden. Animal activists hailed the conviction as evidence that the U.S. Caribbean territory is slowly, but surely, recognizing animals’ rights and prosecuting cruelty cases.
The animal protection law was approved in August 2008, nearly a year after authorities charged the owner and two employees of a private animal control company with taking away dozens of pet dogs and some cats from public housing projects and throwing them off a bridge. The three were acquitted, and international anger led more than 50,000 people worldwide to sign a petition threatening to boycott travel to the Caribbean island. Tourism officials estimated Puerto Rico lost more than $15 million as a result.
It is possible Lopez will appeal the verdict, but the message remains that people will be prosecuted for mistreating animals, said Yeidy Velazquez, president of Citizens for Animal Shelter in Aguadilla. “It is a triumph for us,” she said. And I agree. I remember the infamous bridge incident, and I have kept it in the back of mind, to be pulled up any time Puerto Rico is mentioned. At least there have been steps to turn that tragedy into something positive.
Related, Who We Are
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From Care2
By Sharon Seltzer
The European Union proposed a five-year ban on cloning farm animals and livestock, but the plan is not animal-friendly.
The ban gives the go-ahead for cloning all sorts of other animals including racehorses and fighting bulls.
The proposal was submitted by the EU’s executive commission on Tuesday and is expected to be approved in the next few months. It bans the cloning of first generation animals used for food and prohibits importing cloned livestock.
But the proposal does not protect animals and has advocates in an uproar because it specifically promotes cloning for many other purposes – including research.
In a story from The Wall Street Journal the EU health commissioner said,“Clones are for researchers, not butchers.”
Here is a list of cloning scenarios advocated by the EU:
- Saving a species from extinction
- Manufacturing pharmaceuticals
- Breeding performance animals such as racehorses or bulls for bull fights
The EU proposal also allows embryos and semen from cloned animals to be imported and the offspring of cloned animals to be used for their meat and milk.
The commission claims there are no animal health or public health concerns for consuming the offspring of clones.
Animal welfare groups pointed out that cloning is not an exact science and has a poor success rate.
Less than one out of every five animals cloned survives past the first few days of life.
And cloning is very expensive with costs coming in at $15,000 to $20,000 to breed one animal.
On May 19, the first cloned fighting bull was unveiled in northern Spain. The bull named Got, which means “glass” was identical to his father, a fighting bull named Vasito who died in March.
RELATED
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EU approves food from offspring of cloned animals
By William Surman
The European Commission has given the green light for member states to sell the offspring of cloned animals and their products into the food chain.
In a report published today (Tuesday) the Commission said a ban ‘would not be justified on grounds of protecting animal welfare, animal health or public health in so far as there are no welfare concerns for the offspring of clones’.
It added because food from the offspring of clones ‘cannot be distinguished from food from other animals’, a complete traceability system would be needed.
Arizona State Kills Students’ Anti-Dissection Ad & How to Get Out of Dissecting Animals
From PETA
You can imagine the excitement on the faces of student activists involved with Arizona State University campus organization Students Taking Action for Animal Rights(STAAR) when they recently found out that their student union has a system of TV screens which, for a small fee, will show advertisements from registered student groups.
The students have been trying to pressure their administrators to end cruel and archaic classroom experiments on animals for the better part of the past year, and now they could finally bring the issue front and center!
Unfortunately, school officials had other plans. They rejected the students’ request, claiming that the ad that the group helped produce is “too graphic,” and telling group members to “tone it down.”
EXCUSE ME???
In deadly classroom experiments in ASU’s biology courses, rabbits have holes cut into their necks and are injected with drugs, frogs have pins stuck through their skulls and are dissected while their hearts are still beating, and pregnant rats are killed so that students can experiment on the animals’ uteruses and small intestines. But it’s the students that need to “tone it down”?
Well, thankfully, we have no such censors, so here’s the unedited slideshow ad that ASU won’t allow its students to see:
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Sure, the images are gross, but if anybody is being obscene here, it’s the ASU officials who continue to support cruelty to animals in the classroom, not the students who are trying to put an end to it.
Send an automatic message HERE to Michael Crow, President of ASU ( or send one via email ), and politely ask him to replace these animal experiments with some of the humane, non-animal teaching methods that are available and in use at other universities. Also, make sure that your voice is heard by calling Michael Crow’s office at 480-965-8972.
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RELATED INFO FROM PETA:
Since October is “Cut Out Dissection” Month, there’s no better time than now to let your teacher know that you’re not going to participate in chopping up dead animals. If you’re feeling a little shy about talking to your teacher in person, we’ve got the perfect mission for you.
Do you live in one of these states (copied below as well)? Then you’ve got it really easy! Those states have laws that say students must be given a humane alternative to animal dissection. To let your teacher know that you won’t be dissecting animals, just print out this letter (below as well), edit it to fit your situation (that part is key, people!), and hand it to your teacher.
Cheerleader Kicked Off Squad for Refusing to Cheer for Rapist
From Care2
By Ximena Ramirez
Imagine having to go to school every day with the man who raped you.
Imagine that your rapist is also a popular football and basketball star and you’re a cheerleader.
Would you want to cheer for the man who raped you?
I wouldn’t and a 16-year-old in Texas didn’t want to either so she kept quiet. The result: she was kicked off her school’s cheerleading squad.
Fair? I certainly think not.
The student, only identified as H.S., from Silsbee High School sued the school for their actions but an appeals court dismissed the case earlier this month stating that “In her capacity as a cheerleader [she] served as a mouthpiece through which the school could disseminate speech – namely, support for its athletic teams.”
Not cheering for one player on the team meant that H.S. was not being supportive of the whole team and didn’t have the right to be on the squad. Her rapist however not only avoided his one year prison sentence by pleading guilty to a lesser charge, but was allowed to return to school and invited back on the varsity basketball team.
H.S., on the other hand, was asked to keep a “low profile” at school, avoid the cafeteria, and not take part in school activities like homecoming.
Now, I have to ask: Why is the victim in this situation being restricted, yet her rapist is being welcomed back with a cheering sideline?
If you think about it this story really isn’t new. Around the world women who are raped carry the shame of their sexual assaults while the men who rape them negotiate lesser sentences and are welcomed back to their communities.
Our Compass 
