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.
Urgent action needed to pass Israel fur ban
Urgent action needed to pass the proposed bill on fur ban in Israel. SAMPLE LETTER below (as provided in intial alert, thank you to whomever wrote it), thank you!
Please also sign this petition if you have not already regarding Denmark’s fur industry (both Denmark and Canada are opposed to Israel’s potential fur ban): http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-fur-industry-in-denmark
VIA: Jane Halevy, International Anti-Fur Coalition
The bill for a total ban on fur trade will be voted on in the Israeli parliament on September 2nd. This influential bill is being put into jeopardy by the extreme lobbying of the fur industry. They are demanding of the Israeli Minister for Trade to fight the bill and without his backing the bill can not be voted in.
St. Francis Animal Rescue Center needs help!
St. Francis Animal Rescue Center
Dear Friends of the St. Francis Animal Rescue Center,
WE ARE BEING EVICTED! Without your help we cannot keep the St. Francis Animal Rescue Center open. If we have to close I don’t know what will happen to our animals. I cannot let them be killed! Please, if you can help at all, send a donation via PayPal by going to PayPal.com and entering our email address: stfrancisanimalrescue@yahoo.com and then following the prompts.
You can also send a donation to our mailing address:
St. Francis Animal Rescue Center, P.O. Box 4044, Rock Hill, SC 29732.
We have almost 150 cats and kittens at the center and each one is special, unique and precious. When I am at the center and I look into those beautiful, trusting eyes I know that I cannot let anything happen to them. As you know, we are an absolutely no-kill shelter. No matter what, I have to keep these cats safe. Please help me to pay the rent we owe and to keep the shelter open. Our rent is $900.00 per month but, because of the economy, we have had very few donations and now we owe almost $13,000.00. Our landlord has really worked with us for the past three years, but now he is at the point where he is saying, pay up or move out! I would like to be able to pay him what we owe so that we could stay in our present location, if possible. Our only other option is to find another location to move to, but that is costly, too, and it has to be a location where the landlord and the zoning will allow an animal shelter, which is not easy to find.
Stop the ‘World’s Cruellest’ Seal Cull
Baby seal pups stabbed in the heart while mother's milk pours out in shock...
Please click here and sign and send: http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/namibian-seal-slaughter
From Animals Australia
BACKGROUND:
The world’s cruellest slaughter of seals takes place every year in Namibia, and is due to start again on July 1st. Australian-based fur and skins company, Hatem Yavuz, is directly implicated in this annual brutal slaughter. Hatem Yavuz is the last remaining buyer of these dead seal pup skins to make them into fur coats.
Cape Fur Seals are directly related to the protected Fur Seals living on the southeast Australian coast and the Namibian Government has allowed 85,000 of these animals to be killed each year. Most pups are so young that they are still being nursed by their mothers. The terrified pups are rounded up, separated from their mothers and brutally clubbed to death.
The market for Namibian Cape Fur Seal skins has collapsed over recent years due to lack of demand and import bans in the European Union, the United States, Mexico and South Africa because of the cruelty involved in the sealing methods. As of 2008, Australian-based Hatem Yavuz is the only one company left buying seal skins from Namibia.
There is international pressure on Hatem Yavuz to stop funding this cull. Please add your voice and express your outrage to Hatem Yavuz for their culpability in animal cruelty, and call on them to commit to never again buying Namibian Cape Fur Seal skins.
Please click here and sign and send: http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/namibian-seal-slaughter
Romania: Hell’s Basement for Animals
Please send SAMPLE LETTER (below) to email block; I do not know who wrote this letter for credit as it was on the original alert. Also PLEASE NOTE that I have removed five invalid addresses from the original alert, including one for the mayor, but more may refuse letters so it is possible you will receive additional address failures. Thank you.
Simulposted with Save the Dogs
Three months were needed of waiting and investigations to show what everyone knew for a very long time: the public dog pound in Costanza, managed by the company Alfmob srl, is nothing more than a big slaughterhouse for stray dogs. The images posted next to the dog pound, clearly show healthy animals injected in the thorax by someone looking like a veterinarian, placed in line on the ground dead and in a plastic bag. The bodies are then transported to an incinerator in a nearby region, an incinerator financed with European funds.
Editor’s Note: Improvements such as these serve one species: human animals, who profit off the exploitation and murder of non-human animals; indeed, people who are reluctant to consume animals treated “inhumanely” are now given ethical approval to consume them due to the banning of “inhumane restrictions”. This is nothing but duplicitous rhetoric, implemented by the very people who kill. It is a fundamental impossibility to care for animals while killing and eating them.
And as long as people are given approval, especially by internationally-known animal “welfare” organizations, to eat meat, animals will continually be treated as commodities. Welfarism leads to exploitation and suffering in greater numbers.
People who embrace these “improvements” completely fail to acknowledge the very dangerous and unethical position of speciesism, the prejudicial regard of non-human species as inferior based on such faulty tenets. It is SPECIESISM that gives human animals APPROVAL to exploit, torture, and kill animals. Speciesism is what enables human animals to treat non-human animals with zero regard for their inherent right to live free from suffering and exploitation. Speciesism is what gives people the misguided and cruel belief that the commodification of animals is okay as long as humans define the processes of such HUMANE. Welfarism is NOT for the animals, it is for HUMANS.
Let’s use the example of hostages: if someone is taken hostage and immobilized with restraints, what happens if a hostage’s handcuffs are removed, yet the hostage is still murdered? In what universe would that person’s condition be considered humane? In this example, what would people do? Recommend that all hostages be allowed five minutes in the sun or absent restraints? A hostage is imprisoned and treated with NO regard and absent humane conditions regardless of mobilization or five minutes in the sun and especially considering murder.
Any animal used is abused regardless of cage size or “improvements”. You have to look beyond the rigid definition of animals as set by humans because it is that inaccurate perception that promotes this nonsense of welfarism, and NEW welfarism. And as long as humans, especially ARAs, champion welfarism, no animals will EVER be free OR have any rights; all humans succeed in doing is endorsing animal deaths by continually approving it as long as the animals can see the sky for five minutes each day.
Rather than spend exorbitant amounts of money promoting “improvements” wealthy organizations should instead invest in vegan education. SR
Simulposted with United Poultry Concerns
In November, 2008, California voters supported Proposition 2 requiring that egg-laying hens in the state must be given enough room, effective 2015, to lie down, stand up, fully extend their legs and wings, and be able to turn around without bumping into other hens. However, Proposition 2 did not require California egg producers to eliminate cages. Rather, the law reflects the European Union’s 2012 ban on barren cages for egg-laying hens, which permits the so-called “enriched” or furnished cage to substitute for the barren cage. In June, claiming compliance with the requirements of Proposition 2, egg producer, J.S. West & Co., opened the first “enriched” cage system for laying hens in the US, in Livingston, CA.
Responding to the egg industry’s move to substitute “enriched” cage systems for the barren cage system, in California and other states following suit, United Poultry Concerns, joined by 8 other farmed animal sanctuaries, has formulated the following Position Statement opposing “enriched” cages for laying hens. We are submitting this statement to the agribusiness community.
Torture in Greece
Our Greek activist friends are asking us to participate in signing petitions and pledging boycotts to protest the cruelty against animals, which includes poisonings, beatings, shootings, and other monstrous treatments towards animals. Please take a few minutes to do these, thanks.
http://www.petitiononline.com/katerini/petition.html
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/poisoning_at_university_of_ioannina
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/greece-protect-your-animals-or-lose-your-tourists
Response to the view of “pets as polluters”
by Paul York
Cruelty-Free.org
More and more we hear the view that “pets” (we would call them “animal companions”) are emitting large amounts of C02, and contributing to global warming. A dog emits as much as a normal sized car and a cat a small car, apparently.
It has to do with their meat consumption, so clearly this would not apply to a vegan animal. But assuming that most animal companions are not vegans, what do we make of this?
I wrote a response to it today because a friend brought it to my attention. Here is his email:
“Here is an interesting article on the eco-footprint of “pets”- a cat has an eco-footprint of almost as bad as a volkswagen golf. According to this you maintain a small fleet of vehicles!”
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Polluting+pets+devastating+impact+best+friend/2367119/story.html
He says this because I have four animal companions. Here was my response:
Simulposted with The Huffington Post
The federal law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define the institution and therefore denies married gay couples some federal benefits, a federal judge ruled Thursday in Boston.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled in favor of gay couples’ rights in two separate challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, a 1996 law that the Obama administration has argued for repealing. The rulings apply to Massachusetts but could have broader implications if they’re upheld on appeal.
The state had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.
Tauro agreed and said the act forces Massachusetts to discriminate against its own citizens in order to be eligible for federal funding in federal-state partnerships.
The act “plainly encroaches” upon the right of the state to determine marriage, Tauro said in his ruling on a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Martha Coakley. In a ruling in a separate case filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, Tauro ruled the act violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“Congress undertook this classification for the one purpose that lies entirely outside of legislative bounds, to disadvantage a group of which it disapproves. And such a classification the Constitution clearly will not permit,” Tauro wrote.
…the rest of the animals tortured for fur
PLEASE! Click on the pictures or the links to sign and send automatic message opposing fur as well as visit original alert to send letters if you have not already. Thank you.
1
. Please visit the original alert to send letters if you have not already: https://ourcompass.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/listen-to-them-they-are-screaming/
2. NEW! CLICK HERE OR ON PICTURES TO SIGN PETITION:http://www.change.org/petitions/view/listen_to_them_they_are_screaming_
Spotlight on alternate testing methods
The American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology (ASCCT) is a scientific society dedicated to the promotion of toxicology testing and research that reduces and replaces the use of animals.
Toxicology testing is currently undergoing a paradigm shift from a primarily observational, whole animal-based science to a predictive, mode-of-action-focused discipline. This shift is has been spurred by factors as diverse as concern for the animals used in tests, logistical difficulties in assessing growing inventories of substances, and a better understanding of the interaction between chemistry and human biology at the molecular level.
NH Governor Lynch Signs Bill to End Greyhound Racing
Statement by GREY2K USA on the Signing of House Bill 630 by Governor John Lynch and the End of Greyhound Racing:
“We received confirmation this morning that Governor John Lynch has signed into law House Bill 630, a humane proposal to outlaw greyhound racing in New Hampshire. New Hampshire now joins a majority of states where greyhound racing is illegal.
“This is a victory for everyone in the state who cares about animals. It sends a clear message that we will not tolerate cruelty, regardless of whether the perpetrator is an individual or a profit-driven industry.
Boycott the Calgary Stampede Rodeo!
PLEASE CLICK:
As you read this (message), the Calgary Stampede Rodeo is taking place in Alberta, Canada. Supporters of rodeo use words like “tradition” and “heritage” to describe what takes place. But, in reality, rodeo is nothing more than the exploitation of animals for human entertainment.
During a rodeo, animals are subjected to immense stress and cruelty in events such as Calf Roping. In this event, the calf is goaded, prodded and often has its tail twisted to ensure that it bursts out of its chute at full speed. The terrified calf is then chased by a mounted rider who must lasso the calf, jump off his horse, pick up the calf, slam it to the ground and tie three of its feet together.
See BACKGROUND below for complete details.
1. Please contact your associated representatives (US friends) with this automatic letter demanding answers to undeniably suspicious, questionable behaviour:
https://secure2.convio.net/ida/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1517
2. Please send letters to Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, and to the chairs of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry: Senator Blanche L. Lincoln and Senator Saxby Chambliss, asking them to reverse the decision that sentenced Queenie to San Antonio (as taken from PAWS) and demanding transparency and reasoning, feel free to use the sample, or write your own message:
Email Chairman Lincoln HERE
Email Senator Chambliss HERE
Email Mr. Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture: agsec@usda.gov
SAMPLE MESSAGE
I have just learned that Queenie, an Asian elephant, was mandated to be moved to the San Antonio Zoo in Texas, despite evidence establishing the danger to her of such a decision and the spotty history of the zoo director, Steve McCusker. Additionally, considering that Pat Derby, director of Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and PAWS supporter, Mr. Bob Barker, have agreed to accept Queenie at the PAWS sanctuary with no charge to the USDA, I am baffled at such a neglectful decision and request she be relinquished immediately to PAWS. It is no secret that the San Antonio Zoo does not meet even the minimum requirements for adequate elephant care, and has indeed been cited for its neglect of another elephant, Lucky, who has been subjected to insufficient surroundings, imprisoned in an inadequately-sized area, provided no comforts, and given no positive interaction.
Furthermore, in an effort to conceal this questionable “acquisition” and confuse Queenie advocates, the San Antonio Zoo has renamed Queenie “Boo”. I can assure both them and you, however, that Queenie by any other name is still being exploited. Please make the compassionate and equitable decision to remove both Queenie/Boo and Lucky to certified sanctuary, PAWS, for their health and well-being. It is time to stop the malicious and exploitative treatment of them because no excuse, commercial or profit, is a valid reason for such suffering.
Thank you for taking the time to read this important message.
BACKGROUND
As taken from IDA
The 1950s must have felt peaceful to the little baby elephant Queenie.
Somewhere in the Asian forests, two-year-old Queenie followed her mother and family as they foraged for hours, as elephants do in the wild – exploring miles of rich natural environment, seeking out mates, and meeting distant friends and relations.
Anti-whaling activist sentenced in Japan
Simulposted with CNN
Anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and five years’ probation Wednesday by a Tokyo district court judge for his role in boarding a Japanese whaling ship.
Bethune was found guilty on five charges, ranging from assault against whalers to trespassing into a whaling vessel. Bethune had previously pleaded guilty to all charges but assault. He could have received up to 15 years behind bars on charges.
Bethune testified during his trial in May that he had no intention of hurting anyone when he protested Japan’s whale hunt.
The New Zealand activist from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said that he believed the bottles of butyric acid he threw at the Shonan Maru 2 whaling ship were non-toxic and would not harm anyone.
Prosecutors said the butyric acid burned two crew members of the Japanese whaling fleet, but Sea Shepherd called it a harmless, albeit rancid, liquid. Butyric acid is found in rancid butter and vomit.
In response to the disappointing decision regarding the Conklin Dairy abuse case, PLEASE VISIT THIS LINK, OR CLICK ON THE ABOVE PICTURE, TO SEND THE MESSAGE DETAILED BELOW:
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/conklin_walks_after_good_old_boys_club_talks
- If you wish to send Mr. Phillips a separate message, please find his contact details HERE
- Please also share this message with the Ohio Department of Agriculture:
Ohio Department of Agriculture
Dairy Division
8995 E. Main St
Reynoldsburg,OH 43068
Phone: (614) 466-5550 EMAIL: dairy@agri.ohio.gov
PETITION LETTER TO PROSECUTOR PHILLIPS:
Dear Honorable Phillips,
I have learned of an extremely disturbing case of animal cruelty on the Conklin Dairy farm where certain individuals deliberately caused the suffering of numerous animals; although I have written previously, I am writing again to express my support of sentencing this defendant, Billy Jo Gregg, Jr., to the maximum penalty allowed under the law as the result of his deliberate and methodical abuse and neglect of animals. It is essential to recognize that Mr. Gregg’s decision to harm these animals was premeditated as demonstrated by the chronicle of events occurring over a lengthy period of time, namely 30 days, as established by Mercy for Animals’ undercover investigation.
I have also been informed that, as the result of a grand jury recommendation, Mr. Gary Conklin, owner of the dairy farm, may not face charges as the result of the footage capturing his treatment of animals, and I am greatly disturbed by this decision. Although I can appreciate the need for impartial testimony and evidence, humane societies and veterinarians are unquestionably biased: the AVMA, for example, frequently approves various protocols, including unanesthetized branding, dental extractions, and castration, as medically appropriate, and community humane societies decidedly favor animal farming, euthanasia, and population control, all inherently exploitive practices.
Furthermore, with the absence of any judicial animal representation, all persons involved would be prejudiced toward humans. Indeed, the law is grossly inadequate relative to non-human animals and, in fact, only defines them in accordance with human animal benefits, duplicitous rhetoric that is advantageous to humans and not the animals for whom they are intended. Any regulations that legislate the permissibility of animal exploitation and death cannot, by their very definitions, be considered protective. Additionally, you may be surprised to learn that the Animal Welfare Act specifically excludes animals “used for food” from any measure of protection, a fundamentally cruel bias. As such, to dismiss Mr. Conklin’s actions, clearly represented on video footage, as appropriate, only further endorses the inaccurate precept that non-human animals are exploitable as determined by human animals. Were his actions truly “appropriate”? Indeed, should you replace the animals he abused with humans, would you continue to define the actions as “appropriate”? I would surmise that you perhaps would not. Animals value their lives absent our definitions of them, and they all experience suffering, pain, fear, and sadness; their emotions are not precluded by our deception.
When I try to imagine what possible motive animal abusers entertain for subjecting their animal victims to such acts of brutality, I fail, but I am thankful for a lack of cognitive understanding and rationalization. To voluntarily engage in such behaviour demonstrates an incontrovertible lack of morality regarding other living beings and a gross disrespect for the law. In fact, a person who shows such a remarkable lack of compassion towards non-human animals has the ability to show such indifference towards human animals. This link between animal and human abuse has been established, and if we excuse this behaviour, or agree to a lesser punishment, we only harm ourselves by unjustly nullifying cruelty as acceptable behaviour.
Please respect the victims by penalizing the guilty and demonstrate your commitment to justice, responsibility, and integrity, attributes unquestionably necessary in any judicial setting: rejecting cruelty by maintaining an unyielding position towards it would be a model for all community members and would serve to characterize this type of behaviour as both impermissible and punishable. As such, I trust that you are pursuing the harshest sentence legally permissible for Mr. Gregg as well as remembering the victims in future cases.
I know your time is limited and I thank you for your attention to this important message.
SIGN HERE: http://www.change.org/petitions/view/conklin_walks_after_good_old_boys_club_talks
BACKGROUND
July 6, 2010
Simulposted with The Columbus Dispatch
A Union County grand jury has decided the owner of a Union County dairy farm caught in an abuse scandal should not face criminal charges.
A grand jury met last week and heard testimony from an Ohio Department of Agriculture veterinarian, the Union County Humane Society and others before deciding that dairy farmer Gary Conklin did nothing criminal, according to Union County Prosecutor David Phillips.
Jurors saw hours of video tape recorded by an undercover employee of the animal-rights group, Mercy For Animals, not just the few minutes that group posted on YouTube, Phillips said.
On the tape, Conklin employee Billy Joe Gregg is seen viciously beating and abusing cows and calves at the Plain City farm. Gregg has since been fired. He has been charged with 12 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and faces a felony weapons charge. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Also on the tape, Conklin is shown kicking a cow that is lying down.
Phillips said the portion of the tape shown publicly was spliced together and that Conklin’s behavior was taken out of context. The Union County sheriff’s office said it had four veterinarians with experience in large-animal care review the tape.
“In context, Mr. Conklin’s actions were entirely appropriate,” Phillips wrote in a news release this morning. “The veterinarians told law enforcement that cows who remain down are at risk of injury or death. A cow’s muscles may atrophy. Once that happens, the cow may never get up and may suffer or die.”
In an e-mailed statement, Gary Conklin called the announcement bittersweet.
“It is gratifying that the grand jury found no reason to bring any charges against our farm, family members or current employees,” he wrote. “However, we remain extraordinarily saddened by the willful abuse of animals on our farm by one of our former employees.”
He said this has been “a horrible time for the Conklin family” and that Gregg’s abuse did not reflect the farm’s commitment to animal care. He said he hopes to put the matter behind him, and continue to run the fourth-generation cattle-sales business along Rt. 42.
Jurors also reviewed the actions of another Conklin employee as well as the Mercy for Animals investigator, who admitted to poking animals with pitchforks to maintain his cover, and they found nothing that merited criminal charges, Phillips said.
The criminal investigation isn’t over, however. Phillips said threats of violence and murder made by animal-rights activists against the Conklins are still under review and information may be forwarded to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for possible charges under the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.
Daniel Hauff, director of investigations for Mercy For Animals, said he could not comment until he had seen the prosecutor’s office news release.
PLEASE SIGN HERE: http://www.change.org/petitions/view/conklin_walks_after_good_old_boys_club_talks
Our Compass 