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.
Norwich, CT: INFORMATION SOUGHT: Cat Shot
Source Facebook
With many thanks to Mayor Peter Nystrom and All Friends Animal Hospital, Elliot has much hope. If you know ANYTHING, please call Norwich Animal Control at 860-887-5747.
“We need your help!! We had a sweet kitty named Elliot come in today with an arrow through his chest. We are hoping to find the person responsible for this heinous act of cruelty. Fortunately for this kitty, our city’s Mayor Peter Nystrom was in the area and able to contact Animal Control, who rushed Elliot to All Friends to seek immediate treatment. Elliot is resting comfortably after having the arrow removed, although we still don’t know if there will be long term nerve damage. Elliot was shot in the area of Gates road in Norwich. If you have any information please contact Norwich Animal Control at (860) 887-5747. A special thank you again to our Mayor who stepped up to help Elliot and has even offered to personally help with his medical expenses.”
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URGENT: Bulls Tortured With Fire in Sadistic Spanish Festival
Please click HERE to sign and send letter
Every year in November, the city of Soria, Spain, holds a festival called Toro Jubilo, during which balls of flammable tar (or pitch) are attached to the horns of bulls and then set on fire. The terrified animals, either tied to stakes in public squares or released to run madly through the streets, burn in agony for hours, the blazing tar scorching their faces and bodies. Many frantic bulls reportedly crash into walls in blind terror! Their carcasses are later consumed by participants, who believe that the flesh of the tortured animals provides fertility and invincibility. You can learn more about this horrifying ritual by clicking here.
Please politely urge Soria officials to ban Toro Jubilo! Remind them that this sadistic, archaic event has no place in today’s society, and let them know that you and everyone you know will boycott travel to Soria until this cruelty is ended. And please, forward this alert far and wide!
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Innocence Blog: New Jersey Judge Overturns 1995 Murder Conviction
Wikimedia Commons
Source Innocence Project
Almost 20 years after Gerard Richardson was convicted of the 1994 murder of Monica Reyes in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a Somerset County Superior Court Judge overturned the conviction today, paving way for his release later this week.
Judge Julie M. Marino set bond at the low amount of $5,000, which was agreed upon by Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Van Hise and Richardson’s Innocence Project attorneys Barry Scheck and Vanessa Potkin.
Richardson, who, upon request, was unshackled by court officers at the start of the hearing, was joined in court by more than a dozen relatives and a bus-load of Innocence Project staffers from New York City.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Marino allowed Richardson a brief visit with his 78-year-old mother, who hadn’t seen him since the day he was convicted.
It remains unclear if the prosecution will agree to dismiss the indictment or seek further investigation, but Van Hise is expected to make a decision on the matter by December 17.
Read more in My Central Jersey.
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Picture parade fifteen.
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Love is love,
No definition
Need apply.
Love answers
And questions.
Yet never asks
Why.
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
The second set of wonderful pictures sent in by John Hurlburt. If you missed the first set, they are here.
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And the final set from John next Sunday.
A liberated mink writes a thank you letter
LEADFINGERTIP’S BLOG
Source Leadfingertip’s Blog
In the past few weeks animal lovers have been breaking into mink farms and setting hundreds of minks free. One of the cute, little animals wrote a thank you letter to his liberator.
“I am writing this letter as a free mink. It is still hard to believe I no longer live in a cage. Few days ago, on an early morning, the humans came. It was earlier than usual, and these humans were different. They were dressed in black and wearing masks. We paid them little attention. Usually they give us food and water. But not these humans. They started opening the cages and setting us free. I could not believe my eyes. There was great excitement among my brothers and sisters as well.
When one of the humans opened my cage I rushed out without hesitation. I ran as fast as I could and never looked back. I wish I had stopped and thanked that human. He saved me from pain, stress and torture. He saved my life for if it was not her I would have either gone mad or died of a terrible infection or disease.
In the nature we are free, we run and swim and life feels great. But living in a tiny cage was very hard and depressing. Many of my brothers and sisters went insane. They ran in circles for hours, biting the metal bars of the cages or fighting each other. Many went as mad as hurting themselves. It was very sad. I saw my friends biting their paws and tails to the bone. They could not control themselves anymore. When someone got sick others also got sick. We are not used to living together in such small and crowded places and many of us died of infections and diseases.Thank you for setting me free from this awful prison. I cannot describe how happy I felt when I saw the sun for the first time in my life. The green grass under my paws feels much nicer than the dirty, cold metal bars of the cage floor. I can run freely and I can rest when I get tired. Then I can run some more or take a nap in a burrow that I discovered the other day.
I hope that many other humans will have the courage to set free all my brothers and sisters who are locked up in such horrible places. Because no one deserves a life full of pain and suffering. With all my heart I thank you.”
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Very Sweet Video: Happy World Vegan Day
Sometimes it’s just nice to smile and learn from our animal friends. Please watch and enjoy the video.
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Urge No Plea Deal For Torture Of Puppy Doe
Examiner
BACKGROUND | SOURCE PATRIOT LEDGER
Police have arrested a 32-year-old Polish man in the Puppy Doe animal cruelty case, which has attracted worldwide attention.
Radoslaw Czerkawski was arrested Monday at a hotel in New Britain, Conn., and was to be arraigned today in Quincy District Court, Quincy Police Chief Paul Keenan said. He is charged with 11 counts of animal cruelty and one charge of misleading investigators.
“The case was of grave concern to us, and we took it very seriously,” Keenan said during a Monday afternoon statement to the press at the Quincy police headquarters. “We had an abused animal, and it was a very difficult case. …We do believe he (Czerkawski) acted alone.”
Czerkawski, who was brought to Massachusetts Monday afternoon, is from Hrubieszow, Poland, and was in the U.S. on an expired tourist visa, Keenan said.
Czerkawski had been living at 89 Whitwell St., directly across from Quincy Medical Center and adjacent to the park where the battered dog was found Aug. 31. The dog, believed to be about 1 year old, had been so severely beaten and tortured that it had to be euthanized.
Two State Police investigators were seen leaving the Whitwell Street house at about 4:30 p.m. Monday. The four-bedroom house has most recently been owned by Janina Malinowski Stock, according to Quincy assessors’ records. But Stock, a seamstress born in Poland, died in September, according to a Ledger obituary.
Keenan said Czerkawski had worked as a care giver for Stock, but no foul play is suspected in her death.
Investigators said the dog, which Keenan said Czerkawski had purchased, suffered from starvation and showed signs that it had been kept in a constrictive space. She had a number of severe injuries, including dislocated limbs, a fractured skull, stab wounds, broken ribs and a split tongue.
Keenan said a tip helped lead police to Czerkawski, whose arrest is the first significant break in an investigation that has received an outpouring of support from animal lovers across the world. Vigils have been held in Puppy Doe’s honor, and tens of thousands of dollars has been donated to reward funds created to help find the perpetrator.
Keenan said Animal Rescue League of Boston veterinarians who treated Puppy Doe would participate in a press conference after Czerkawski’s arraignment.
At a vigil in Quincy last month, Mary Nee, president of the Animal Rescue League, said, “Never in our collective memory do people remember a case so horrific. We are all shaken to the core by the details of what happened to this poor dog.”
Read More HERE
Reach Patrick Ronan at pronan@ledger.com. Reach Chris Burrell at cburrell@ledger.com.
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear DA Carson,
I have learned of extremely disturbing and malicious cases of animal cruelty allegedly committed by Radoslaw Czerkawski, who was arrested Monday at a hotel in New Britain, Connecticut, in the hideously sadistic case of torturing and killing Puppy Doe. He is charged with 11 counts of animal cruelty and one charge of misleading investigators.
I am writing to express my support of sentencing this defendant to the maximum penalty allowed under the law. Mr. Czerkawski has allegedly committed deliberate and methodical abuse and torture on Puppy Doe. It is essential to recognize that Mr. Czerkawski’s decision to harm this gentle, innocent non-human animal was premeditated as demonstrated by the chronicle of torturous events.
When I try to imagine what possible motive animal abusers entertain for subjecting their animal victims to such malicious, heinous acts of brutality, I fail, but I am thankful for a lack of cognitive understanding and rationalization. To voluntarily engage in such malicious behaviour suggests sadistic tendencies, and Czerkawski’s actions, causing unmitigated pain, suffering, and death, demonstrates his 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 Mr. Czerkawski’s criminal behaviour, or agree to a lesser punishment, we only harm ourselves by unjustly nullifying cruelty as acceptable behaviour.
I am thanking you for taking an unyielding position against animal cruelty and holding Mr. Czerkawski accountable by sentencing him in accordance with the maximum penalty allowed. We need to demonstrate in both word and action that the human essence of empathy does not exist to excuse maliciousness, it exists to provide compassion and justice to the brutalized and punishment to those who willingly deviate from this capacity. If we do not do our duty to provide this, we harm animals and invite injustice into our society.
I know your time is limited and I want to thank you for your attention and consideration to this message.
NAME
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Read more…
Wikimedia Commons
Source The Daily Maul
By David A. Brensilver
“The bull-fighter … has merely demonstrated that he is a butcher with balletic tendencies.” — Brigid Brophy, “The Rights of Animals,” Sunday Times (London), Oct. 10, 1965.
State-sanctioned public executions were carried out in France this past weekend, while jackbooted police used tear gas to repel horrified protesters. Thuggish French officials would explain that such violence was necessary to defend cultural expression and the creation of art. That the French government defends bullfighting — legislatively, rhetorically, and forcibly — is totally unacceptable.
While the bloodsport is illegal in France, the country’s Neanderthal influence peddlers and policy-makers made sure a few years ago that barbarians in certain regions could conduct their savagery without legal consequence — and with defiant government support.
The politicians and those for whom they’ve enthusiastically bent over have argued that these legal exemptions were codified in the name of cultural heritage, which is as offensive as it is insulting.
An overtly jingoistic report published yesterday by French News Online — under the unsophisticated headline “‘Invasion Forces’ Repelled at Rodilhan Bullfight” — claims that “opponents tend to overlook both the historic and the economic importance of the bullfighting tradition in the region.”
What bullfighting apologists and enthusiasts in France are “overlooking” is their own psychopathy. Those who seek to profit by exploiting a troglodytic audience’s unabashed bloodlust — particularly when the sacrificial victims have no say in their participation — operate at the absolute height of callous arrogance. To delight in the brutal exploitation, torture, and murder of an animal doesn’t make one a cultural adherent, it makes him a monster. And a serial killer who sates his own bloodthirst in front of a cheering crowd is not an artist, he is, to quote Brigid Brophy, “a butcher with balletic tendencies.”
The editors at French News Online included — as an addendum to their propagandistic report — a commentary written by Edita Birnkrant, New York director of Friends of Animals, and Carole Raphaelle Davis, an actress who works as the West Coast director of the Companion Animal Protection Society and as Friends of Animals’ director of campaigns in Europe, both of whom were in Rodilhan this past weekend.Birnkrant and Davis wrote, in part: “As Americans, we were appalled at the violence of the police but the real horror show was going on inside the arena. We heard the aficionados cheering as bulls and young calves were being tortured and stabbed to death. Many activists, frustrated at not being able to jump into the ring to stop it, were crying and wailing.”
What the French News Online story failed to acknowledge was the impassioned resolve of those who will continue to stand up to monsters.
WHOM TO CONTACT
press.us@franceguide.com ; info@ambafrance-us.org
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I am shocked to learn of your bullfighting event in Rodilhan, in which bulls and young calves were chased, stabbed, mutilated, and, after enduring prolonged agony and certain terror, were killed. This event is promoted as a cultural tradition, a celebration of your heritage and spirit, but your mitigating words and euphemistic descriptions cannot conceal the inherently barbaric nature of this event. Any celebration built on a foundation of extreme animal cruelty, exploitation, and suffering cannot be justified; condemning bulls, or any other animals, to a torturous ceremony for mere entertainment is indefensible. Commemorating your cultural history is admirable, yet subjecting innocent creatures to such a primitive ritual only demonstrates yours as an uncivilized, undereducated society.
Animals, as humans, are sentient creatures, capable of emotion, thought, and pain; when you support the exploitation of them, you only promote indifference and establish that you are unsympathetic to suffering. Furthermore, the global community will certainly recognize and scoff at your shameless attempts of justification and will refuse to financially contribute to such an archaic demonstration of savagery . Indeed, until you ceases these events in favor of a celebration that embraces compassion and respect towards all living beings, I will necessarily maintain the only ethical decision is to promote a boycott of your country and your country’s commerce.
Please choose compassion and empathy and permanently ban bullfighting and any other rituals that unethically and unnecessarily inflict suffering and pain on animals.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
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Read more…
Man arrested in Puppy Doe cruelty case faces felony charges
Examiner
Previous articles HERE and HERE
Source Examiner
On Monday afternoon, police in Quincy, Mass., held a news conference announcing details in the arrest which has been made in the “Puppy Doe,” animal cruelty case.
According to NECN News, 32-year-old Radoslaw Czerkawski was arrested in New Britain, Conn. on Monday and he will be arraigned on Tuesday.
Czerkawski, a native of Poland, is facing 11 felony counts of cruelty to animals, as well as a charge for misleading investigators; he could be sentenced up to five years in prison.
According to the Patriot-Ledger, Czerkawski has an expired tourist visa and officials have determined that he used to reside on Whitwell Street in Quincy – the area where the tortured, young pit bull was discovered in late August.
Puppy Doe was alive when she was initially found, but her injuries were so severe that she had to be euthanized. The young pit bull had been starved, beaten and stabbed; her abuse was described as “sadistic.”
In late September, the necropsy results on the tortured dog were released; the findings confirmed that Puppy Doe had endured ongoing, extensive abuse.
Detectives working on this case have taken their time to ensure that everything has been done right; the chief of police noted that they have taken Puppy’s Doe’s case “very seriously.”
Currently, over 61,000 people from around the world are following the Justice for “Puppy Doe,“ Facebook page, where updates are continually being added.
Click here to watch the news conference.
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Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
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Read more…
Stop the Senseless Killing of Mute Swans Around JFK Airport, NY
Wikimedia Commons
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) wants to continue with its senseless and dangerous plan to kill birds passing through JFK airspace, either when they follow their historic flying routes or when they are trying to get to feeding sites, for alleged aircraft safety.
Killing birds, whether Mute swans, Canada geese, gulls or others, does not increase aircraft safety; instead, it may even exacerbate the risk of plane-bird collisions.
After aggressively and brutally killing more than 5,000 Canada geese in New York’s wildlife refuge and city parks, the agency now wants to kill Mute Swans, despite statements by avian experts and biologists pointing out that “removing” any birds from parks, wetlands, and other desirable habitat surrounding the airport creates an ecological niche that will be quickly filled, either by the same or by other bird species.
Instead of slaughtering birds endlessly and senselessly, political power and will is needed to implement non-lethal methods, including relocation of Mute Swans (currently prohibited by New York’s State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)), and the use of proven radar detection systems and dissuasive tactics that can keep birds out of the pathways of aircraft. This type of system has been implemented successfully at the Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, and its avian radar detection program has received worldwide recognition for its impact on reducing bird strikes.
What You Can Do:
Please comment on the Supplement Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to oppose the planned killing of Mute Swans for alleged aircraft safety at JFK airport in New York by following these steps:
1. Click here to submit your comment:
2. Copy and paste the suggested comment below into the web form – please personalize your comment if possible (5000 characters max).
3. Enter your name and contact information, and click on “continue.”
4. Preview and check the box which says “I read and understand the statement above”
5. Click on “Send your comment.”
Sample Comment
As a supporter of In Defense of Animals (IDA), I strongly oppose the planned killing of Mute Swans as outlined in your agency’s Supplement to the Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Bird Hazard Reduction Program: John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Killing birds for alleged aircraft safety is ecologically senseless and ethically unacceptable. It also deceives the public into believing that this slaughter increases aircraft safety, when in fact, only non-lethal methods ensure long-term viable solutions.
I request that your agency makes it a priority to implement habitat modifications to reduce the flight movements from and to feeding sites. Also, I strongly suggest that USDA APHIS works cooperatively with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC), to create policy allowing the relocation of Mute Swans to private areas.
Furthermore, I request that the use of proven radar detection systems and dissuasive tactics be implemented that can keep birds out of the pathways of aircraft. This type system has been proven to be successful at the Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, where its avian radar detection program has received worldwide recognition for its impact on reducing bird strikes.
Thank you,
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Read more…
Wildlife Vet or Rehabber Needed ASAP
Emergency situation, can anyone help?
to hunters:
if you were on the other end of the bow,
bleeding in agony, dying slow.
would you care then, if it was your own
pain that you know!!!Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Today I received this message and photos from a friend in need who lives in rural Oregon:
“F-ing bow hunters. I took this pic in my backyard minutes ago. Arrow sticking out his back, bleeding. How do I help him?! Do you know anyone who works with wildlife? This buck spent the entire summer with me….I can’t stop shaking. ”
Desperate to help the poor deer and hoping to find help getting the arrow removed, the friend had called the game department, who told her it wouldn’t be safe to tranquilize the deer. Next she reached a vet, who said she was in luck because a wildlife vet was visiting and that they would come over and see what they could do. Well, they never showed up! Here are some of the posts she made throughout the day:
“He’s laying down surrounded by the other bucks, does and fawns. It seems as though they…
View original post 513 more words
Texas hunters to auction permit to kill black rhino
Wikimedia Commons
Click HERE to sign petition
Source Yahoo News
By Kerry Sheridan
Washington (AFP) – A Texas hunting club said Friday it aims to raise up to a million dollars for endangered black rhinoceroses by auctioning off a permit to kill one in Namibia.
“First and foremost, this is about saving the black rhino,” said Ben Carter, executive director of the Dallas Safari Club, which is hosting the auction early next year.
Black rhinos are internationally considered an endangered species and the World Wildlife Fund says about 4,800 are alive in the African wild.
Carter said in a statement sent to AFP that the Namibian government “selected” his hunting club to auction a black rhino hunting permit for one of its national parks.
The permit is expected “to sell for at least $250,000, possibly up to $1 million. The Conservation Trust Fund for Namibia’s Black Rhino will receive 100 percent of the sale price,” said the statement.
Namibia has an annual quota to kill up to five black rhinos out of the southern African nation’s herd population of 1,795 animals.
A single permit issued to a US hunter in 2009 to kill a black rhino fetched $175,000 for the Namibian Game Products Trust Fund which pays for conservation efforts, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Tim Van Norman, chief of the branch of permits at the FWS said the US government has not yet issued any permit to the Dallas Safari Club to return a rhino’s carcass to the United States.
The individual hunter who is identified as the winner of the auction would first have to pass certain background checks and the animal chosen for the hunt would have to be approved as being beneficial to the conservation of the species for the US government to allow the trophy to come back inside US borders, he said.
Van Norman said Namibia has determined that older black rhino males that have already produced offspring and are in reproductive decline are the best targets for hunting.
“Black rhinos are very territorial so you will have an older male that is keeping younger males from reproducing,” he explained.
“By removing these older males from the population, you get an increase in the production of calves. Younger males are able to impregnate the females that are in that area so you get more offspring than from some of these older males.”
The DSC said the auction would take place at its annual convention January 9-12, 2014 in Dallas.
The winning hunter will have to hire a guide to lead the hunt and will be accompanied by Namibian wildlife officials.
Limited hunting is a conservation strategy that is supported by US wildlife officials, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species — all of which list rhinos as endangered, according to the Dallas hunters’ group.
The Humane Society of the United States described the news of the auction as “disturbing” and vowed to campaign against the issuance of a US permit to return the trophy.
“The world is seeing a concerted effort to preserve the very few black rhinos and other rhinos who are dodging poachers’ bullets and habitat destruction,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the HSUS.
“The last thing they need are wealthy elites from foreign lands coming in to kill them for their heads.”
He also questioned the ethics of wealthy, competitive trophy hunters who say they want to kill an animal in the name of conservation.
“Shooting a black rhino in the wild is about as difficult as shooting a parked car,” he said.
“If these are multimillionaires and they want to help rhinos, they can give their money to help rhinos. They don’t need to accompany their cash transfer with a high caliber bullet,” he said.
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Wildlife Refuges, Not Hunters’ Playgrounds
IDA for Jim Lish
Update, comments are now closed, thank you for your help!
Source IDA
Once again, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) wants to turn even more wildlife refuges into playgrounds for hunters and other “consumptive users” of wild animals.
The U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System includes 550 national wildlife refuges, thousands of waterfowl protection areas and four marine national monuments, totaling more than 150 million acres. Despite being called “refuges”, more than half of all national wildlife refuges are already open to hunters, trappers and anglers.
Consumptive users also have millions of acres of public and private lands outside the refuge system available to them to pursue their frivolous and violent activities of “recreational” trophy hunting and fishing, and trapping for fur. They should not be allowed in refuges, which often are the last remaining places for animal species already struggling for survival.
Furthermore, as the USFWS’s own 2011 survey has shown, wildlife watchers have already well outpaced and outspent wildlife killing interests. Wildlife watchers are a growing economic force, and their overwhelming preference to see living animals needs to be considered and respected.
Wildlife refuges, as the name indicates, should be true sanctuaries for wild animals where they are sheltered from the killing spree that surrounds them.
What You Can Do:
Please copy and paste the comment below to the USFWS and tell them that hunting, trapping and fishing should not be allowed in national wildlife refuges at all.
Please follow these steps to send your comment to the USFWS:
1. Click here to submit your comments:
2. Copy and paste the text below into the comment section
3. Please personalize your comments – 5000 characters max.
4. Choose whether you want to provide your contact info, and if so, fill out the boxes— if not, click on “continue”
5. Preview and check the box that says, “I read and understand the statement above”
6. Click on “Submit comment”
Sample Comment
Dear Director Dan Ashe,
As a supporter of In Defense of Animals (IDA), and a wildlife advocate who enjoys wildlife watching, I strongly oppose your proposal to add several national wildlife refuges (NWRs) to the list of areas open for hunting and/or sport fishing, and to increase hunting and fishing activities in even more refuges.
More than half of the 550 NWRs are already open to wildlife killing activities. Hunters, trappers and anglers also have millions of acres of public and private lands outside the refuge system available to them to pursue their frivolous and violent activities of killing animals for recreation, trophy hunting, fishing and fur.
Consumptive users are a minority, and they are no longer the chief financiers of conservation as they often claim to be. As your own 2011 survey has shown, wildlife watchers have already well outpaced and outspent wildlife killing interests. Wildlife watchers are a growing economic force, and their overwhelming preference to see living animals needs to be considered and respected.
I request that my interest in watching living wild animals be considered in making any decisions on wildlife treatment in refuges, which are often the last remaining places for animal species already struggling for survival.
As the name indicates, wildlife refuges should be true sanctuaries for wild animals where they are sheltered from the killing spree that surrounds them. I ask that you close all wildlife refuges to hunting, trapping and fishing. Thank you.
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Read more…
Japan dolphin-killing town to open marine park, serve dolphin meat
Source The Raw Story
By Agence France-Presse
The Japanese town made infamous by the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove”, will open a marine mammal park where visitors can swim with dolphins, but will not end its annual slaughter, an official said Monday.
The town of Taiji has begun researching a plan to section off part of a cove and turn it into a place where people can swim and kayak alongside small whales and dolphins, Masaki Wada told AFP.
But, Wada insisted, far from having caved in to pressure from conservationists who want an end to an annual hunt that turns waters red with blood, the project was aimed at helping to sustain the practice.
“We already use dolphins and small whales as a source of tourism in the cove where dolphin-hunting takes place,” he said.
“In summer swimmers can enjoy watching the mammals that are released from a partitioned-off space,” he said.
“But we plan to do it on a larger scale. This is part of Taiji’s long-term plan of making the whole town a park, where you can enjoy watching marine mammals while tasting various marine products, including whale and dolphin meat,” he said.
The park will be separate from Hatakejiri Bay, the place into which the fishermen of Taiji corral dolphins, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and marine parks, and stab the rest to death for meat.
The plan calls for the creation of a whale amusement park stretching roughly 69 acres by putting up a net at the entrance to Moriura Bay in northwestern Taiji, the official said.
The 2009 film “The Cove” brought Taiji to worldwide attention, winning an Oscar the following year, after graphically showing the killing, including by using underwater cameras. Activists continue to visit the town to protest the hunt.
Taiji, in western Wakayama prefecture, is looking to open part of the park within five years, the Wada said.
Black whales and bottlenose dolphins caught in waters near the town would be released into the pool, which would be developed as a nature park that also includes beaches and mudflats, he said.
Wakayama prefecture said the town caught 1,277 dolphins in 2012 and has licence to capture 2,026 this season, which began in September and runs until August next year.
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Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
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Read more…
Mad Sausage
A hungry young man gets served some serious food for thought when a sausage starts telling his dramatic life story. What he hears will change his life forever.
http://www.MeatVideo.com
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Read more…
Our Compass 