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.
Is There Cruelty In Your Coffee?
Background
Kopi luwak is made from the beans of coffee berries that have been eaten and excreted by the Asian palm civet. A PETA Asia investigator visited civet coffee farms in Indonesia and the Philippines, two of the world’s top producers of kopi luwak.
Undercover footage from these farms—some of which falsely advertise their coffee as “wild–sourced”—shows sick, depressed civets suffering from infections and exhibiting signs of zoochosis, a stress–induced neurotic condition that causes captive animals to spin, pace, and bob their heads in constant frantic displays of frustration.
This coffee can be found in various stores, including at Amazon.com. Please don’t support the cruelty of kopi luwak coffee. If you would like to help,contact Amazon.com representatives and tell them about the suffering that civets endure for this product.
Thank you for your compassion.
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Urge Niabi Zoo to Retire Elephants Sophie and Babe to a Sanctuary
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE IDA
The Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, Illinois, recently made the commendable decision to relocate two female Asian elephants—Sophie and Babe—to another facility that can better meet their needs. IDA and our supporters have long urged the zoo and the Rock Island County board to send the elephants to a facility that offers a more suitable climate, ample space, excellent veterinary care, and the companionship of other elephants. The zoo has reportedly narrowed down a search to three facilities and has stated that the elephants will be moved by winter.
Sophie and Babe must be moved to a facility that offers dramatically improved conditions—not more of the same. At ages 43 and 37, both elephants have chronic health problems exacerbated by the zoo’s tiny enclosure and long, cold winters that have kept the elephants confined in their cramped barn, sometimes for 24 hours a day. Sophie’s health is especially bad—she suffers from arthritis, painful foot abscesses, and pressure sores. The elephants’ health will only continue to worsen if conditions for them aren’t significantly improved.
Please take a moment to write to the Niabi Zoo’s director and the director of the Rock Island County Forest Preserve District. Please keep your comments brief and polite and thank them for recognizing that Sophie and Babe need improved care and better conditions. Please encourage them to consider retiring Sophie and Babe to a sanctuary in a warmer climate where they would greatly benefit from round-the-clock veterinary care, room to exercise, and the companionship of other elephants. Also, please point out that it is important the elephants stay together, since they are closely bonded.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Jeff Craver, Director, Rock Island County Forest Preserve District
jcraver@ricfpd.org
Marc Heinzman, Director, Niabi Zoo
mheinzman@niabizoo.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Directors Craver and Heinzman,
The Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, Illinois, recently made the commendable decision to relocate two female Asian elephants—Sophie and Babe—to another facility that can better meet their needs.
Sophie and Babe must be moved to a facility that offers dramatically improved conditions—not more of the same. At ages 43 and 37, both elephants have chronic health problems exacerbated by the zoo’s tiny enclosure and long, cold winters that have kept the elephants confined in their cramped barn, sometimes for 24 hours a day. Sophie’s health is especially bad—she suffers from arthritis, painful foot abscesses, and pressure sores. The elephants’ health will only continue to worsen if conditions for them aren’t significantly improved.
Thank you for recognizing that Sophie and Babe need improved care and better conditions. I encourage you to consider retiring Sophie and Babe to a sanctuary in a warmer climate where they would greatly benefit from round-the-clock veterinary care, room to exercise, and the companionship of other elephants. Also, please note that it is important the elephants stay together, since they are closely bonded.
Thank you for your compassion and immediate attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
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Orthodox Rabbi throws down on fur
Wikimedia Commons
Source Of Course Vegan
An orthodox Rabbi has lashed out at the use of fur for traditional head wear in the faith at an animal rights conference in Israel that was attended by top religious figures from across the world. Rabbi Pappenheim urged Hasidic Jews to stop wearing fur as part of the traditional shtreimel hats worn by Jewish men of faith.
The hats are worn on Shabbat and other special holidays.
According to Rabbi Pappenheim, wearing real fur shtreimels, each of which may be made of up to 30 sables, minks, martens, or foxes, violates the Jewish law of tza’ar ba’alei chayim, which prohibits causing animals unnecessary pain. He even went so far as to say that flaunting real fur hats amounts to Chilul Hashem, or desecration of God’s name, since the cruelty of the fur industry is so widely known.
“[W]e must stop this custom of hurting animals,” he said. “We should get to a point where people would be ashamed to wear anything but a synthetic shtreimel.”
Animal rights activists in Israel have repeatedly called for a blanket ban on the use of real fur in the hats, but have been rebuked by Jewish leaders who claim tradition and history. But with the defection of Pappenheim to the animal welfare side, it could be a watershed moment for animal rights activists in Israel, who hope to end the killing of animals for religious purposes.
Among the leading figures to urge for an end to real fur is Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu, who has also spoken out against fur and even believes it should be banned in Israel.
Click HERE for fur-free retailers (or see below) and more!
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Kenya to microchip every rhino’s horn
Wikimedia Commons
Microchips to be placed in horn of every rhino in Kenya in attempt to tackle scourge of poaching.
Source The Telegraph
By Chris Irvine
Microchips will be placed in the horn of every rhinoceros in Kenya in an ambitious bid to tackle the scourge of poaching, wildlife officials have announced.
The World Wildlife Fund donated the chips as well as five scanners at a cost of $15,000 (£9,400). Tracking the rhinos – there are more than 1,000 in Kenya – to dart them and fit the device will cost considerably more.
Officials believe however that it will boost the ability to prosecute poachers or traffickers, allowing for all the horns to be traced, providing potential vital information on poaching and smuggling chains.
The chips will be inserted into the horn, which is made of keratin, the same composition as fingernails.
“Poachers are getting more sophisticated in their approach,” Paul Udoto, spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service said.
“So it is vital that conservation efforts also follow and embrace the use of more sophisticated technology to counter the killing of wildlife.”
The KWS said in a statement: “Investigators will be able to link any poaching case to a recovered or confiscated horn, and this forms crucial evidence in court, contributing towards the prosecution’s ability to push for sentencing of a suspected rhino criminal.”
Poaching has risen sharply in Africa in recent years, with the wildlife trafficking industry thought to be worth around £6.6 billion.
In August, a white rhino was shot dead in Nairobi National Park, one of Kenya’s most heavily protected parks, in the first such killing in the area for six years.
The lucrative Asian black market has contributed to the rise of deaths, with ground rhino horn being sought to treat ailments ranging from poor libido to cancer to “devil possession”. Since 2007, rhino deaths have risen by 3,000 per cent. The incident in Nairobi National Park was the 35th death of the year, already more than the 29 in Kenya in 2012.
In South Africa, drones have been deployed in the Kruger National Park to target increasingly sophisticated poachers who are using helicopters and night-vision goggles.
As well as rhinos, whole elephant herds have been massacred for their ivory. Earlier this week, Zimbabwean wildlife authorities said they had discovered another 10 elephant carcasses, bringing the number poisoned by cyanide for their ivory to more than 100 in the past month.
In May, the Duke of Cambridge warned that elephants, rhinos and tigers risked becoming “historical creatures in the same category as the Dodo” if more was not done to stop the illegal wildlife trade.
“Either we take action to stem the trade or we will run out of the animals – there is no other outcome possible,” he said.
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UNESCO: Place Rosia Montana on World Heritage List
Please click HERE and HERE to sign
Background | Source Change
Street protests are snowballing in Romania against a Canadian-led gold mining project by Gabriel Resoures in the Rosia Montana area in the Apuseni Mountains. More than 20,000 people joined a protest march in Bucharest on Sunday, and thousands in other Romanian cities took to the streets. This will be a disaster for the Environment because for the Gold Excavation, 12,000 tons of cyanide would be used yearly and 13 million tons of mining waste produced each year, according to a project presentation submitted by the company to the Ministry of Environment.
Chevron is also destroying the Sacred Land of Rosia Montana by fracking for gas, which has already caused multiple earthquakes, and will make the drinking water unfit for human consumption.
The protests erupted after the Romanian government proposed a draft law Aug. 27 that gives extraordinary powers to the project promoter, Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (in which Canadian group Gabriel Resources is the majority stakeholder).
According to the text, the company can relocate people whose homes are on the perimeter of the mine. Additionally, the law asks state authorities to grant the company all necessary permits within set deadlines regardless of national legislation, court rulings or public participation requirements.
Gold Corporation plans to build Europe’s largest gold mine at Rosia Montana to extract 300 tonnes of gold and 1,600 tonnes of silver over 17 years. The operation would involve the destruction of three villages and four mountains.
In all, 12,000 tonnes of cyanide would be used yearly and 13 million tons of mining waste produced each year, according to a project presentation submitted by the company to the Ministry of Environment.
The proposed law is meant to give the project a definitive green light after over 14 years in which Gold Corporation has not been able to secure all necessary permits.
In 2004, the Romanian Academy of Science – the most authoritative scientific body in the country – called for the project to be scrapped because environmental and social costs far outweigh benefits. Apart from environmental risks and displacements, the large-scale mining proposed by Gold Corporation would threaten the cultural heritage in Rosia Montana, a mining area since Roman times.
Hundreds of people in the 3,000-strong village have been opposing the project for years, setting up the NGO Alburnus Maior and successfully battling the corporation and state authorities in courts.
Contributing to the growth in public sympathy for the movement has been the seemingly close alliance between Gold Corporation, politicians across the political spectrum and mainstream media.
Political arch-rivals, such as centre-right President Traian Basescu and Socialist Prime Minister Victor Ponta, have at various points declared themselves in favour of the project.
Most major media outlets in the country have run Gold Corporation advertisements while failing to cover arguments against the exploitation. In a country where corruption is a big feature of public life, this consensus in favour of gold mining at Rosia reeked of backroom deals.
The predominant discourse about Rosia Montana in the public sphere has been that gold mining would create employment and enrich state coffers. According to the most recent agreement between the Romanian government and the company (annexed to the Aug. 27 draft law), Gold Corporation would employ 2,300 people during the two-year construction phase and 900 during the 17 years of exploitation. Over the duration of the operation, the Romanian budget is set to win 2.3 billion dollars while other benefits for the Romanian economy are estimated at 2.9 billion dollars.
The popular mobilisation now targets the Parliament, whose vote will effectively decide the fate of Rosia Montana. If the law is approved, even if it is challenged as unconstitutional in the Constitutional Court (the premises for such a procedure exist since a judicial committee in the Senate issued a negative opinion on the draft law), construction could begin immediately, pending the supreme court ruling.
“We cannot tell what will happen with this project, but all that we can say is that we keep fighting, that united we will save Rosia Montana,” Eugen David, leader of Alburnus Maior told IPS. “We are under siege right now in Rosia Montana, but in the end we will manage to lift it.”
The protests that began on Sep. 1 are remarkably strong for Romania. Since their start, misinformation in the public space has been abundant: the main television channels originally failed to cover the protests despite their size; on Sep. 10, media wrongly announced that the draft law had been rejected by the Senate; and Ponta declared that the project could not go ahead against popular will, only to later express again support for the project.
In spite of this, protesters – who function according to a non-hierarchical structure and have no official leaders – have skillfully kept the public informed and engaged via Facebook. The weekly hours-long marches go through neighbourhoods with the goal of spreading the word about opposition to the project and showing that protesters are not hooligans as depicted on TV.
Their strategy seems to have worked since numbers this Sunday were bigger than ever. The first days of mobilisation brought mostly youth to the streets, but older participants and youth-parent couples are increasingly visible. After two weeks of well-mannered street actions, police presence on Sunday can be considered symbolic.
“It is very interesting that such a revolt began with a case of protecting the environment, but this is not only about the environment,” Claudiu Craciun, an active participant in the protests, told IPS. “It is also about the right of people to keep their properties, about our duty to safeguard a patrimony that belongs not only to us, but also to the world and to future generations.
“The Rosia Montana case – in which you see legislation custom made to serve the interests of a corporation – highlights some failures of both democratic institutions and of the economic system, capitalism in a broader sense,” Craciun added.
“Rosia Montana is the battle of the present and of the next decades,” the activist said. “It illustrates the end of post-1989 cleavages [communist vs anti-communist, European vs. non-European] and the emergence of new ones. People today confront a corrupted political class backed up by a corporation and a sold out media; and they ask for an improved democratic process, for adding a participatory democracy dimension to traditional democratic mechanisms.”
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/17/romanians-mobilise-gold-mine
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RSPCA hunt man who ‘kicked Dalmatian in the head’
Coventry Observer
Source Coventry Observer
By Matthew Bates
CCTV cameras have captured the shocking moment a man kicks his dog in the head.
The images, taken from a Coventry subway last month, allegedly show the man stopping before aiming two kicks at the helpless Dalmatian’s head.
RSPCA chiefs branded the footage stomach churning and are appealing for information in a bid to find the man’s identity. Footage of the incident has not been made available but this CCTV still has been released.
It comes after a concerned member of the public tipped off the charity.
The incident happened on Saturday, September 28 between 12.22pm and 12.24pm in the Central 6 Subway.
Charity Inspector Louise Labram said: “This is pretty stomach churning footage to watch – and it appears to be completely unnecessary and unprovoked.
“I am keen to speak to anyone who may recognise the man in the CCTV stills
“In the footage the man is seen walking with a woman with a push chair.
“I would really like to hear from anyone who recognises this man – as I am keen to speak to him about this incident.
“I am also keen to speak to anyone who was walking through the subway at around the same time and may have seen what happened.”
The man appears to be wearing a blue t-shirt and dark navy shorts.
Anyone with information can call the inspector information line on 0300 123 8018.
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Amazon agrees to stop selling foie gras on UK website
Source DailyMail
By Sean Poulter
Amazon has bowed to pressure from animal welfare campaigners and decided to stop selling ‘cruel’ foie gras on its British website.
The product, which comes from ducks and geese that are force fed to make their livers grow to a large an unnatural size, has been added to a list of prohibited items.
It is highly prized by some food lovers and celebrity chefs, such as Gordon Ramsay, who have included it on their menus for many years.
However, earlier this year the animal welfare campaigners at the Viva! group petitioned Amazon to stop selling the delicacy on the grounds of the cruelty involved in its production.
It presented Amazon with video evidence of the suffering caused by its production and a petition signed by over 10,000 opponents of the trade.
The campaign followed an investigation in France which showed shocking images of force feeding at a farm that supplied products sold through Amazon.
Footage from a farm belonging to a producer called Labeyrie showed distressing scenes of ducks being given huge amounts of grain with pneumatic pumps.
These birds were seen in group cages where an automatic bar pins the ducks to the floor to prevent them avoiding being force fed.
Production of foie gras is illegal in the UK as it would break existing animal welfare law, however it is not against the law to sell imported products.
Before the ban, the UK Amazon Marketplace grocery section offered more than 100 products containing foie gras, including 75g cans for £15. Both Amazon and third party retailers sold the controversial food.
Justin Kerswell, campaigns manager at Viva!, said: ‘Foie gras is mostly produced by imprisoning birds in cages so tiny they can’t move, by forcing a pipe down their throats and force feeding them until their livers swell to ten times their natural size.
‘I can’t imagine why anyone would want to eat it – or be involved in its sale. It is quite simply torture in a tin. There is nothing humane about mechanically inducing disease in a bird.’
He described Amazon’s decision to stop selling it as ‘an incredible victory’ for anyone who cares about the welfare of animals.
Mr Kerswell said: ‘Amazon should be congratulated for taking an ethical lead by delisting foie gras in the UK, but we hope that ethical stance is expanded worldwide.
‘This is a perfect example that consumer pressure does work, even with corporate giants such as Amazon.
‘We will be extending our campaign to other online retailers, such as eBay. We must not lose sight of the fact that foie gras is a peculiarly un-British cruelty.
‘It would be illegal to produce in Britain and causes untold suffering to millions of birds every year in France and other countries that produce it.’
The organisation is calling on the UK government to ban imports.
The campaign against foie gras, which also includes the PETA organisation, has gathered a host of celebrity backers, including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Roger Moore and Brigit Bardot.
Amazon did not respond to a request to explain why it had decided to ban the product. A spokesman said: ‘All sellers on Amazon.co.uk Marketplace must adhere to our guidelines in relation to the products that they make available for sale on our website.’
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Please help animals in Pakistan
BACKGROUND | SOURCE FACEBOOK
HIGH WARNING VERY GRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPH – Cee4life had this photo sent to us about a week ago to see if we could track down where this happened and if it was illegal and could be addressed.
What we have found.
This African Lion was skinned in PAKISTAN. Over there, there are virtually NO animal laws, and anyone can keep an exotic animal. Most of them end up dead in one way or another; however, you can GUARANTEE most are abused, and in the case of this dear boy, he just became useless and a burden.
He was electrocuted immensely prior to skinning, causing the blood to boil and thin so much, hence why there is little blood. However, they are excellent “skinners”.His skin was probably sold, and his meat either eaten or sold along with his bones for the lies of TCM ABP. ( the FAKE Traditional Chinese Medicines Animal Body Part Use)This African Lion endured hell.
If anyone can identify the faces of these scum in the photos and is near them and loves animals, please go put a electric prod up their arses for me and let them burn…..
This IS the mentality of many in Pakistan with animals. ie: horror and they can get away with it, as its not illegal.
African Lions…. dying for dollars.Please contact the Pakistan Embassy in your country, you have permission to attach this photo and information, and ask them to enforce laws which protect these animals, and address these murderous bastards.
WHOM TO CONTACT
http://pk.embassyinformation.com/
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Ambassador,
I am shocked to learn of the dangers animals face in Pakistan, where virtually no laws concerned with the welfare of them are in existence.
Animals, such as humans, are 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 the cruelty animals experience and react with shame and anger at the horrors animals are subjected to in Pakistan.
Please choose compassion and empathy and permanently forge welfare laws that counterattack the unethical and unnecessary inflictions that result in the suffering and pain of animals.
I know your time is limited, and I thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
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Nationwide Outrage Grows Over Gruesome Abuse of “Puppy Doe”
Source Care2
By Susan Bird
If you hate stories about cruelty to animals, give this one a pass. It’s one of the most savagely horrific animal crimes in recent memory and it will break your heart. What’s worse is that the sick, twisted perpetrator is unknown and remains at large. Still reading? You’ve been warned.
This sweet little brindle and white pit bull puppy once had a name. She’s known to the world now as “Puppy Doe,” but once upon a time she was Kiya, and she was loved. When her owner’s landlord decided she couldn’t keep a pit bull puppy, however, a Craigslist ad found Kiya a new home. That’s when the real tragedy began to unfold.
Kiya’s new owner got rid of her a few months later, apparently because she didn’t want her anymore or couldn’t care for her. Somehow, Kiya ended up in the hands of monsters.
On August 23, a passerby found Kiya abandoned near a playground in Quincy, Mass. She was barely alive and could not walk. Authorities named her “Puppy Doe.”
“She was a Rack of Beaten Bones”
Puppy Doe had been tortured. She had been “drawn,” which is a medieval-style torture that stretches the limbs until the joints pull apart. Her wrist, ankle and elbow bones were separated from their joints, and a leg bone was almost broken in half.
“It’s a very intimate form of violence,” said Dr. Martha Smith-Blackmore, who says Puppy Doe was drawn “over and over and over.”
“I don’t know how they did it, but the force was tremendous,” she added. Dr. Smith-Blackmore said she had to take a time out from the puppy’s post-mortem examination to pull herself together before she could complete it. It was that bad. If you can bear it, read her report here.
That’s not all Puppy Doe endured, though. Not by a longshot. In additional to extreme malnourishment, Puppy Doe’s tongue had been crudely sliced in order to create a snake-like split, she’d been stabbed in the right eye, burned on the nose and beaten. She had broken ribs, broken vertebrae and crushed cheekbones.
“She was a rack of beaten bones,” said Dr. Smith-Blackmore. ”When I saw how vulnerable she was and I understood immediately the duration of her suffering, my heart collapsed.”
This ruthless torture occurred over weeks or months, according to Dr. Smith-Blackmore. It’s a wonder this poor dog was still alive. Puppy Doe got a good meal and some loving care, but it quickly became clear she had to be euthanized.
See HLN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell discuss the “Puppy Doe” case above.
This is How Serial Killers Get Started
“It is highly unlikely that this level of sadistic cruelty could be shown to one animal and not be part of a pattern involving other animals or perhaps vulnerable people,” said Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey in a press release about this case.
“I spoke with Quincy Police Chief Paul Keenan and we share a sense of urgency here, as does the Animal Rescue League [of Boston],” Morrissey added. ”It is prudent to proceed as if the perpetrator or perpetrators have moved on and are now aiming this cruelty and violence at another target and needs to be stopped.” A prosecutor with experience and training in animal cruelty cases will be working with law enforcement on this investigation.
Law enforcement officials are absolutely correct. Whoever did this must be found and stopped as soon as possible. The person (or people) will do this again to other animals, and eventually to humans, too. People do not commit atrocities like this only once.
Pit Bull Paranoia and Craigslist – A Lethal Combination
It appears a combination of pit bull discrimination and naivete about re-homing dogs using Craigslist are to blame for putting Kiya in harm’s way.
“No one was willing to rent to someone with a pit bull and two other dogs. We looked for four months,” Kiya’s first owner told the Boston Herald. “We even offered our landlord more money.” She was horrified to learn later what had happened to her dog. She thought Kiya was happy in a new home and didn’t know she’d been passed on to persons unknown.
Responding to criticism over continuing to allow pet ads on Craigslist, CEO Jim Buckmaster said he will not put a stop to those ads. He said in his blog:
[D]irect rehoming via classifieds is a solution, not a problem. Countless pets find good homes on CL, saved from euthanization (“no kill” shelters are full and 3 million healthy pets are put down yearly). In fact, CL “pets” is a primary tool shelter volunteers themselves use to find homes for dogs and cats they might otherwise have to put down. We at craigslist love animals and are proud of the overwhelming good our “pets” section does in finding them new loving homes. Let’s honor Kiya by (1) not breeding so many pets, and (2) taking care when a new home must be found (CL recommends a rehoming fee).
Well, yes and no. Yes, these ads undoubtedly do find good new homes for many animals in cases where people make an effort and take a few precautions. Yes, charging a re-homing fee is much better than offering a pet for free. No, Buckmaster’s response doesn’t cut it, because there will always be many uncaring people out there who will offer “free” animals, just to get them out of the house and off their hands.
Do the successful Craigslist pet adoptions outweigh the horror stories? Do we have any way to know?
“Puppy Doe“ Inspires Vigils, Reward Offers and Legislation
Heartbroken dog lovers around the country are staging vigils to remember Kiya. Hundreds showed up in Boston on September 28. See a news report about that vigil here:
Organizers have arrangements in place for a huge vigil in New York City on National Pit Bull Awareness Day, Saturday, October 26 from 5-8 p.m.
Massachusetts state senator Bruce Tarr has proposed legislation in his state called Protecting Animal Welfare and Safety (PAWS), which would increase the penalties of those convicted of abusing animals and create an animal abuse registry to prevent those convicted of animal abuse from being able to buy or sell animals.
Rewards abound for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for this soul-shattering crime. The Animal Rescue League of Boston is offering $5,000, the Animal Legal Defense Fund is offering $2,000 and Misty’s Journey/Second Chance Rescue are offering $11,000, just to name a few.
If you are interested in following the progress of the Puppy Doe case, you may want to “like” the “Justice for Puppy Doe” page on Facebook.
Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster has already said he doesn’t plan to drop pet ads from Craigslist. However, if you‘d like to encourage him to at least stop allowing any ads that offer “free“ pets, sign this petition. Care2 will forward it to Mr. Buckmaster on your behalf.
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Gov. Brown Signs Bill Banning California Bobcat Trapping
Wikimedia Commons
Source Center for Biological Diversity
SACRAMENTO, Calif.— Gov. Jerry Brown today signed a bill that will ban commercial bobcat trapping around California’s national and state parks, monuments and refuges. Assembly Bill 1213 also prohibits bobcat trapping on private land without the owner’s permission and ends the state’s subsidy of this archaic practice.
“This is great news for California’s bobcats, and for the millions of Californians and visitors alike who love watching wildlife in our beautiful parks and other wild places,” said Brian Nowicki with the Center for Biological Diversity.
Assembly Bill 1213, introduced by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, was sparked by a disturbing increase in commercial bobcat trapping just outside the boundary of Joshua Tree National Park. In some areas the amount of trapping increased eight-fold over the course of two years as international demands for pelts grew.
Thousands of California residents spoke out against bobcat trapping. Rising fur prices overseas have driving up demand for California bobcat pelts.
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U.S. Marine nurses orphan bunnies back to health after rescuing them from military barracks
Daily Mail
Source Daily Mail
A U.S. Marine medic, previously stationed in Afghanistan, was able to use his field skills back home… when he came to the rescue of four orphaned rabbits.
Joshua Bisnar, a Naval Hospital Corpsman, found the helpless bunnies alongside their dead mother while he was raking the volleyball court at Camp Pendleton, in San Diego, California, where he was stationed with a Marine Corps unit.
He scooped up the animals and carefully placed them in a makeshift home – consisting of a box with a few old shirts to make it more comfortable.
To feed them, he researched a formula mixed with probiotic he found at Petco pet store and purchased four small droppers to administer the formula into the hungry mouths three times a day.
And clearly a fan of guitar players, he named them James (after Jimi Hendrix), Steven, Raymond and Vaughan (after Stevie Ray Vaughan).
Bisnar said: ‘I would feed them at about 6am before work, 12pm at lunch and 6pm.
‘I was so scared to go to work or leave them alone, I should have given them to a wildlife sanctuary but I was scared that the car ride would be too traumatic but It was amazing how fast they grew up.
‘They got out of that ugly newborn phase and started looking like fluffy little bunnies after one week
‘Soon they were hopping around their modified cage I made them.’
He added: ‘It was about the second week that they started jumping against the side of the box at about 2-3am trying to wake me up for another feeding. That’s when it went to four times a day.
‘It was adorable. I always knew when they were hungry because they would all bunch up and look up at me during the day when I walked by and when I would put my hand in the box, they would all run up and fight to jump into my hand for feeding.’
Mr Bisnar started weaning them on to arugula (rocket salad) and slowly incorporated some of the natural foods found in southern California – including dandelions and grass.
Then one day, the combat medic went back to his room to discover there was one just sitting in the hallway looking at him – and he knew it was time to let them go.
Mr Bisnar said: ‘I’m originally from Newport Beach, California, so the next weekend I brought them to a wildlife conservation place off of PCH in Huntington Beach.
‘The lady that worked there was amazed about how a Military member from Camp Pendleton raised four bunnies with a 100 percent survival rate.
‘I could have got into a lot of trouble having animals in the barracks, and even more trouble considering Camp Pendleton is very strict on the handling of animals.
‘I grew up around animals, my mother is a dog groomer and has always taught me to look after and care for the little guys.
‘In Afghanistan, I was always getting in trouble for playing with kittens and petting the working dogs too much.
‘I was sad to drop them off because I felt like their dad – after all the time I spent raising and nurturing them.’
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Fur industry reward for ALF capture plummets by 95%
Wikimedia Commons
Source Animal Liberation Frontline
By Peter Young
As fur farm raids surge, the Fur Commission’s reward for the ALF drops from $100,000 to $5,000.
The Fur Commission’s announcement of their new bounty on fur farm raiders fell a little flat this week with the punchline: The reward is only $5,000.
In the 1990s, when myself and many others were targeting fur farms, the price on our heads was $100,000. This amount was put up by fur farmers and related companies nationwide, and was a hefty reward for any crime, especially one that amounted to little more than cut fences and opened cages. The reward terms stated that anyone who provided information that led to the arrest of a person involved in a mink or fox release would be paid $100,000.
Headline from 2008
The $100,000 reward remained as late as 2008. Yet as fur farm rescues became less and less frequent, the reward seemed to vanish – or at least wasn’t publicized.
This week, the Fur Commission announced their “ALF bounty” was back, with a minor adjustment: The amount has plummeted by 95%. It now stands at a mere $5,000.
Headline from 2013
While the Fur Commission USA is stating publicly their new priority is “farm security,” this new bounty makes quite the opposite statement – and does so in a very public way. One would think that the group tasked with protecting its members would incentivize informants with something a little more substantial.
One would also think that as raids surged, such a reward would increase, not go down by 95%. What’s the message here?
Good news for aspiring informants: You can now permanently trade in your dignity for something that will buy you a 10-year old used car.
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Rhino horn poison ‘extremely toxic’
Wikimedia Commons
Source Independent Online
By Tony Carnie
South Africa has deployed a powerful and poisonous new weapon to stem the flow of rhino blood soaking into the country’s soil.
On Tuesday Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife took the step of being the first state conservation agency to inject a chemical cocktail into the horns of several rhinos in an effort to contaminate an illegal black market wildlife product, the price of which has shot through the roof in the Far East and fuelled a deadly war that has claimed another 620 rhinos in the first nine months of the year.
Although the poison is not intended to kill people who swallow crushed rhino horn potions, wildlife officials warned that it was “extremely toxic” and poisonous enough to make users of the illegal product seriously ill.
Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea, nerve disorders and other dose-related health problems.
The first animals to undergo the treatment are on the front line of KwaZulu-Natal’s rhino war in the Tembe Elephant Park and Ndumo Game Reserve which lie on the northern border with Mozambique.
The horns will contain a bright red dye similar to the indelible marker dyes used to stain banknotes.
Apart from warning international crime syndicates and those using rhino-based traditional health remedies that the horns could be deadly, the dye can also be picked up on airport X-ray scanning machines – even if the horn is ground to powder.
Wildlife veterinarians Charles van Niekerk and Lorinda Hern, who have pioneered the “horn infusion” technology with several privately owned rhinos near the Kruger National Park and other poaching hot spots, said there was no evidence that the toxins could seep from the horn into the rhino’s flesh.
The first of several rhinos would be “infused” over the next few days and, depending on the results of the pilot project, Ezemvelo may extend the treatment to rhinos in other reserves.
The hope is that the illicit product will lose its commercial value to the extent of deterring poachers.
Ezemvelo chief executive Bandile Mkhize said he recognised that poison infusions were not a “silver bullet” which would end poaching, but it was one of several strategies to deter poaching.
“We cannot sit back and watch this species disappear on our watch,” he said.
While the strategy has been hailed by several conservationists as a bold and daring response to poaching, the deliberate poisoning of a product which can cause health problems has raised ethical and legal issues.
But Meshack Radebe, provincial MEC for Environmental Affairs, brushed these concerns aside.
Instead of querying whether conservation agencies could be held liable for criminal charges if any rhino horn-users became sick, Radebe said the emphasis should be on the “real criminals” slaughtering rhinos and profiting from the illegal sale of their horns.
“Let us arrest and deal with the poachers instead,” he said.
He urged Mozambican government officials and journalists in Tembe to take back a message to their country about what had happened in KZN.
Nevertheless, a Durban-based environmental lawyer has questioned the ethical and legal dimensions of poisoning a product which could be used for human consumption, regardless of whether the international trade in rhino horn was illegal.
“As much as I would like to see a more aggressive approach to poaching, the use of poison as a deterrent to poaching is akin to the use of chemical weapons in war,” he said.
“Under our common law, any person who creates a dangerous situation or condition is liable for the consequences if a person is hurt or killed.”
The cost of poisoning Ezemvelo rhino horns is being sponsored by the Stellenbosch-based Peace Parks Foundation, which was set up under the patronage of Nelson Mandela and international conservation donors.
Chief executive Werner Myburgh said a dedicated fund had been set up locally for the public to make donations to further rhino horn infusions.
See www.peaceparks.org. – The Mercury
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10 Billion Lives
In partnership with Farm Animal Rights Movement (F.A.R.M.), Veracity Films created this video to show the horrors and cruelty of the meat, egg, and dairy industries. Over 10 Billion farmed animals are killed each year for food, in the U.S. alone. Let’s stop animal abuse! By going vegan, you can save up to 100 animals per year! And the benefits don’t stop there! For more info, go to www.livevegan.org
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Tell the President of Wayne State University to Halt Cruel Heart Failure Experiments on Dogs
PCRM
Please click HERE to sign and send letter
Source PCRM
Rogue, a brown, black, and white hound, endured months of experimental surgeries, having nine devices implanted in her body and being forced to run on a treadmill. At just 15 months old she died in October 2012 in a laboratory at Wayne State University in Detroit, where she was being used in cruel and misguided experiments. Unfortunately, Rogue was neither the first nor the last dog to suffer and die like this, but with your help we can stop these experiments once and for all.
Please speak out and demand that the president of Wayne State end these experiments immediately.
These experiments have been going on at Wayne State for more than 20 years. Over that time, hundreds of dogs have been used and killed with no human health benefits to show for it. Since 2000, more than $8 million in taxpayer funding—doled out by the National Institutes of Health—have gone to these experiments.
The Physicians Committee has been fighting to advance heart failure research by stopping these experiments. In 2012, we tried to obtain new documents from Wayne State to support our campaign, but the school sued us to try to withhold all information. So we went to court against Wayne State—and won.
From that court battle we obtained more than 800 pages of documents that detail what dozens of dogs have gone through in Wayne State laboratories. Using information in the documents, this week we filed a complaint with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), calling on the agency to cite Wayne State and halt these experiments.
While we expect the USDA will take action, we still need your help. Please take a few seconds to
e-mail the president of Wayne State and demand that he immediately transition his institution away from these cruel and ineffective dog experiments and toward human-relevant research.
Read our USDA complaint and learn more about Rogue here.
Thank you for taking immediate action.
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Our Compass 