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.
BEING VEGAN – If I Were a Dog
Wikimedia Commons
By Paul Graham
Source: Las Vegas Informer
If I were a dog, there is a chance that I could be treated very, very well. I would live in a home where I was recognized as a member of the family and given love and attention every day of my life. I would be a vital part of their lives and they would be a vital part of mine. Every day I would be showered with affection and I would love in kind. There would be long walks and trips in the car and many adventures together. I would have the best of care and be an important of that home life. I would be a companion for my human(s) and they would be a companion for me. Life would be as it could and should be.
If I were a dog, I could also be left alone. Abandoned and unwanted. I could have gotten out of where I thought I belong only to roam and not be able to find my way home. I could be picked up and taken to a place where they would put me in a cage. Sometimes the humans might decide that they don’t want to or can’t take care of me anymore and bring me to that same place themselves and leave me. Either way I will sit in the cage waiting for someone I know to come and find me and bring me back home. But most of the times they do not come. Sometimes people that I don’t know come by and look at me and I wonder if they would want to take me home. They look nice. If I am lucky they will choose me…I see other dogs going with people. But then sometimes we just sit alone waiting. I wish someone would have brushed me or given me a bath. I know I can look better than this. I hope that they see something in my eyes when they look at me. If I stay here too long they will lead me to a room that don’t want to go to. It just doesn’t feel right. They will give me a shot and I will go to sleep. I just won’t ever wake up.
If I were a dog, I could be born in a place that people will call a puppy mill. Our mothers give birth to us often in cages stacked up together and it smells really bad and there are lots of bugs around. It is sometimes really hot and other times it is really cold. Our mother seems so tired and doesn’t have much energy but she loves us the best that she can. They will have her do this over and over again till she is all worn out and then they can’t use her any more and will just put her to sleep…and she will never get up. I don’t stay with my mother very long or my other brothers and sisters. Some of us do not feel very well but they separate us and send us to someplace where we will be placed in cages next to other dogs and people will come by and look at us and point at us. Sometimes they will ask someone to open our cages so that can pet us and hold us. That is nice. If they like us we go home with those people even if we aren’t feeling very well. If we are too sick we might not live very long. We might have too many problems and maybe they won’t want to take care of us any more.
If I were a dog, I might be bought or bred for people who will make us fight other dogs. They starve us, beat us and treat us very badly. We don’t want to hurt any other animal or human but we are so frustrated and angry and confused. We often don’t know any other way. They put us with other dogs that will hurt us if we don’t hurt them first. Everything is happening so fast and the humans are yelling and making lots of noise around us and there is teeth and snarling and pain and blood and sometimes that is our end. If we live through it we are not treated or cared for even though we are hurting and we only live until the next time we are forced to fight. If we don’t fight we will be beaten or killed so we fight to survive. Sometimes they bring dogs to us who don’t know how to fight so that we can practice on them. It doesn’t feel right but if we don’t kill them we will suffer the consequences. This is the only life that we might ever know.
If I were a dog, I could be taken as a puppy to a school or company that would keep me in a cage in a laboratory. People in long coats would come in each morning and look at us and do things to us. We are never sure why. Sometimes they make us breathe smoke that makes us cough and choke. They make us drink liquids that also make us feel funny or sick. They spray things in our eyes that burn so badly…there are times that after they do it we can’t see anymore. Sometimes there are windows and sometimes there are not. We might never see sunlight. We might never leave our cage and see the outside and put our paws upon the grass or the dirt. Some of us will be opened up and they will look inside our brains or other parts of our body. If we live we will get to stay in our cage for the rest of our lives. If we don’t live they might just throw us in a big garbage can with other dogs and animals that didn’t make it either.
If I were a dog, I might be born in a country where they would look at me as something to eat rather than something to pet and love. I could be rounded up with other dogs and crammed so tightly that we can hardly breathe in a big metal basket and then weighed and sold to someone who will take us to a place that no dog or any other animal should ever have to go to. They want to kill us so they can eat us. We can still be alive and our throats cut or they will put us in boiling hot water to burn our skin off. What kind of miserable end to a miserable life would this be? I would wish I had never been born. I am dead and now they will take our skinned bodies and hang it up in the marketplace so that people will buy our dead carcasses and take us to their homes or restaurants and cook us and eat us. Why would anyone ever want to do that?
If I were a dog, I could be recognized as the special and loving animal that I am. I could have people find me in the shelter and clean me up and take care of me until my owners find me or I find a forever home. There would be people that would work on my behalf and be tireless to see that things like puppy mills and dog fighting would no longer exist. I could be in a cage in a lab and be rescued by people who would set me free forever and let me feel the warmth of the sun for the first time and play upon the grass and find me a home where people will love me and take care of me and not let anyone experiment on me ever again. People would help me by making sure that I couldn’t make puppies or bring puppies into the world because there just isn’t enough nice people in the world to take care of all of us. People could learn and grow to understand that there are plenty of other things to eat so that they don’t have to eat dogs any more. If I were a dog, I would be born into this world as a special gift with a heart full of unconditional love to share for whoever wants it…this is all that I could ever want and hope for.
Paul Graham
Paul Graham was born and raised in Northern California and has lived in Las Vegas since 2004. He is a top wedding officiate, a green Realtor and writer. He has a daily vegan food blog http://www.eatingveganinvegas.tumblr.com which is 365 days and 365 vegan meals in Las Vegas. He can also be reached at eatingveganlv@gmail.com or http://www.facebook.com/EatingVeganinVegas.
Paul’s e-book, “Eating Vegan in Vegas: If It Can Happen Here, It Can Happen Anywhere” is now available at www.sullivanstpress.com.
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Gored Utah Man Finds Out That Payback Really Is Hell
PETA
Written by Christina Matthies
Imagine your legs giving out as something sharp tears through your skin, shredding muscle and penetrating bones. Your heart races with panic as you see your own blood. You feel yourself growing weak, and you try to catch your breath, but you can’t move.
This is what deer, elk, moose, and other animals experience when they are shot down by hunters every year all over the U.S. And it’s exactly what Utah hunter Bradley Greenwood felt when he slipped and was gored in the face and neck on the antlers of a 700-pound elk he’d killed only moments before.
Greenwood isn’t the only hunter who’s hurt himself drooling over a “big rack.” With plans to place a billboard in Vernal, Utah, that shows an elk with blood dripping from his antlers and reads, “Payback Is Hell. Leave Animals Alone!” PETA is bringing attention to the fact that hunting draws blood on both sides. Every year, hunters hurt or kill themselves, friends, family, and even strangers innocently hiking through the woods.
Hunting isn’t necessary for human survival, and so-called “wildlife management” is a myth that often intentionally inflates “game” populations, rather than the reverse. Wildlife populations are self-regulating, responding to naturally occuring disease, the availability of food and habitat, and prey-predator relationships. Hunters hunt for the thrill of it, often injuring animals who manage to escape, only to die later from blood loss, infection, or predation.
Now that a recovering Greenwood knows what it feels like to gasp what you believe to be your last breaths, maybe he’ll stop killing animals and agree with PETA that compassion feels better than (bad) karma.
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Read more…
Blackfish to air on CNN October 24
OC apologizes, Blackfish will air on CNN on OCTOBER 24, not September 24, thank you.
Source: CNN
By Breeanna Hare
It was one of the hottest films out of Sundance, but “Blackfish” will leave you with chills.
The nearly 90-minute documentary tells the story of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was killed in 2010 when the killer whale Tilikum grabbed her and yanked her underwater.
“I became interested in this project when I found out about the death of Brancheau,” filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite said. “I was very confused by that story, because I didn’t understand why a killer whale who was a very highly intelligent animal would have made a decision to kill a trainer that was actively feeding it.”
The result of Cowperthwaite’s curiosity is a film that raises a number of questions, not the least of which being whether killer whales have any place in theme parks.
Critics have praised “Blackfish” for being an “emotionally powerful” and “mesmerizing psychological thriller” that could double as a teaching tool. The documentary arrived in select theaters on July 19, and it will also air on CNN as part of CNN Films on October 24 at 9 p.m. ET.
To unravel what happened between the 12,000 pound Tilikum and Brancheau, Cowperthwaite also takes us through the 39-year history of orcas in captivity. Although Brancheau’s story is at the heart of the film, “Blackfish” also shows more generally the dangers of working with orcas and their majestic beauty and intelligence.
“For anyone who has ever questioned the humaneness of keeping wild animals in captivity and training them to perform tricks for food, this will be trenchant, often harrowing stuff,” The Hollywood Reporter said in its Sundance review. “Perhaps even more so for those who have never considered the issue.”
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Country’s First Fur Ban Goes Into Effect
Written by Alisa Mullins
Foxes, minks, lynxes, chinchillas, and other furbearing animals have found an unofficial sanctuary in West Hollywood, California. Just days after the city banned exotic-animal acts, it’s getting ready to implement the country’s first ban on the sale of fur this Saturday, which means that swanky stores such as Balenciaga, Alberta Ferretti, and Phillip Lim will have to clear fur from their shelves or face fines of up to $800.
While the Fur Information Council of America—which, in a delightful coincidence, is based in West Hollywood—is unsurprisingly foaming at the mouth and threatening to sue, some retailers are welcoming the change.
“We are on board with the ban as we understand the concerns and have realized that there are many other fabrics and fibers that can easily take the place of real fur,” David Malvaney, cofounder of the upscale Church Boutique, told Women’s Wear Daily. “We feel that the desire for real fur will lessen over time as more people become aware of the process to which the animals are subject, and I believe more cities will adopt a similar ordinance.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, Mr. Malvaney.
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Grand Theft Auto V Animal Rights Group DEMANDS BOYCOTT. Please vote YES
Please click HERE to vote “yes”
Source TMZ
“Grand Theft Auto V” crossed the line by allowing game-playing children to run over, behead and kill animals — and a prominent animal rights group is calling for a boycott.
Jack Carone from In Defense of Animals tells TMZ … his group is incensed that Rockstar Games is capitalizing off animal torture — and it doesn’t matter if it’s real or fake. He says it perpetuates what he calls “institutionalized violence” against helpless animals.
“The makers of this game have traded decency for money” Jack says, adding, “Encouraging the darkest impulses of young people is not an admirable pursuit.”
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$2,000 Reward Offered for Information Leading to Arrest and Conviction of Medieval-Style Puppy Torturer
Please click and sign HERE
Contact: Megan Backus, Animal Legal Defense Fund
BOSTON — The national nonprofit Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) is offering a $2,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator(s) who savagely tortured a pit Bull puppy over the course of several months. The female puppy, who police officers named “Puppy Doe,” was found abandoned in the woods in Quincy, Massachusetts on August 31, 2013. She was found with broken bones and other injuries that indicated severe and routine torture, starvation, and mutilation; Puppy Doe was euthanized to relieve her suffering by veterinarians at the VCA South Shore Animal Hospital in Weymouth.
According to the Boston Herald, the veterinarian who performed the necropsy of Puppy Doe reported that the puppy’s limbs were repeatedly pulled apart in a “medieval style,” and the puppy was beaten, stabbed, and burned. Dr. Martha Smith-Blackmore of the Animal Rescue League called it “hands down” the worst case of animal cruelty she had ever seen. At a mere 18 pounds, the puppy weighed less than half her ideal weight, had her tongue split in two, and had been stabbed in the eyes.
Under Massachusetts state law, such aggravated animal abuse constitutes a felony and could mean a maximum of five years in prison and up to a $2,500 fine.
“We are devastated by the suffering this puppy endured and will do everything we can to support the prosecution of this sadistic abuser.” says Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “We call on anyone with knowledge of this horrific violence to come forward for the safety of other animals. Abusers frequently repeat violent crimes against helpless animals, and often go on to victimize people as well.”
If you have information relating to the identity of the person or persons who mutilated this puppy, please contact the Animal Legal Defense Fund at 707-795-2533, x1010.
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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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Cats Drowned, Eaten at Festival
Our Compass comment: all animals deserve respect and compassion, be they cats, cattle, snakes, or dolphins. This alert is for one species but all deserve the same positive benefit.
Please click and sign HERE
Every year on the third Saturday and Sunday in September, at what is known as the “Cat’s Party” or “Party of the Curruñao,” 100 cats are drowned, butchered, and EATEN as part of the feast of St. Efigenia in the village of La Quebrada in San Luis de Cañete, Peru.
Video footage from a previous year’s festival shows terrified cats being pinned down in buckets of water to slowly die, their carcasses then cooked and body parts eaten by participants.
Drowning is a horrifying, painful way to die, but despite Peruvian laws explicitly stating that only authorized personnel may religiously sacrifice animals using the most humane methods possible, this event has continued.
Take Action: Please POLITELY tell Peruvian officials that you and everyone you know will boycott travel to Peru until the cruel and illegal slaughter of cats in La Quebrada is stopped.
Earthlings
By Karen Lyons Kalmenson
peace, understanding and harmony begin at mealtime…if you eat something, you do not respect it, if you do not respect it, you abuse it. if you abuse it, you open the door to abusing others.
there can NEVER be harmony as long as the chain of abuse remains unbroken.
be the one to say YES…be the one to say i will stop this cruelty and i will spread my message.
your world depends on it!
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URGENT: Dog in Horrific Condition Being Returned to Owners?
Kristin Simon/PETA
BACKGROUND
A West Virginia rescue group recently obtained a severely emaciated dog who was found running at large and who was suffering from a skin infection, overgrown toenails, ear infections, and dental problems—all indicators of long-term neglect. Reportedly, the rescue group determined that the dog, whom it nicknamed China, was being sought by her family and had been missing only for six days—a period of time that cannot account for her shocking condition. Furthermore, photographs document the significant amount of weight that China reportedly gained in less than a week with proper care at the rescue group’s facility. Upshur County officials are now apparently considering returning China to her former home!
West Virginia law requires people to provide their animals with necessary food and veterinary care. Please urge Upshur County officials to initiate a criminal investigation regarding China’s condition and to take all possible measures to secure her safety. Remind them that if the family failed this animal before, then they will likely fail her again!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Individual
Megan Pomeroy
County Administrator
mjpomeroy@upshurcounty.org
Upshur County Commission
treedr02@yahoo.com
jcraffety@suddenlink.net
The Honorable Jacob E. Reger
Upshur County Prosecuting Attorney
jacobreger@aol.com
Group
mjpomeroy@upshurcounty.org ; jcraffety@suddenlink.net ; jacobreger@aol.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Honorable Reger, Administrator Pomeroy, and County Commissioners:
I have learned of extremely disturbing and case of animal cruelty committed on a dog who was renamed China. A rescue organization has been treating her neglect, and I am writing to express my support of sentencing her abusers to the maximum penalty allowed under the law, and to reject the family’s desire to pursue their “ownership” of China.
China was found as a severely emaciated dog, running at large and who was suffering from a skin infection, overgrown toenails, ear infections, and dental problems—all indicators of long-term neglect. Reportedly, the rescue group determined that China was being sought by her family and had been missing only for six days—a period of time that cannot account for her shocking condition.
When I try to imagine what possible motive animal abusers entertain for subjecting their animal victims to such neglect, I fail, but I am thankful for a lack of cognitive understanding and rationalization. To voluntarily engage in such behaviour suggests sadistic tendencies, and these actions, causing unmitigated pain and suffering to China, 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 criminal behaviour, or agree to a lesser punishment, we only harm ourselves by unjustly nullifying cruelty as acceptable behaviour.
West Virginia law requires people to provide their animals with necessary food and veterinary care. Please initiate a criminal investigation regarding China’s condition and to take all possible measures to secure her safety. Please remember that if the family failed this animal before, then they will likely fail her again.
I know your time is limited and I want to thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
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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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Please Challenge the Hunter Harrassment Law in Pennsylvania
Petition Site
Please sign petition HERE
Please comment HERE
Subject: DOCKET FILE 12-964
Comment: I am aware of Jan Haagensen’s case challenging the Hunter Harassment Law of Pennsylvania, DOCKET FILE: 12-964. I respectfully urge the Court to hear Jan’s case.
Background:
People across the country have been arrested on their own property for interfering with armed hunters and charged with “hunter harassment” for
• speaking on their cell phones
• chopping firewood
• playing the radio
• asking trespassing hunters to leave their property
On any property, if you merely ask a hunter not to shoot animals, you can be charged with hunter harassment!!
Hunter Harassment laws exist in every state and are clearly unconstitutional in that they violate our First Amendment Rights. If the Supreme Court decides this case in Jan’s favor, it will have a far reaching effect: It will assure successful challenges to these unconstitutional laws in every state of the country.
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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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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
SAEN Blows Whistle on Another Ohio-Based Lab; Cites USDA Reports Linking Horrific Deaths to Battelle Institute
SAEN
BACKGROUND | SOURCE SAEN
SAEN Blows Whistle on Another Ohio-Based Lab; Cites USDA Reports Linking Horrific Deaths to Battelle
COLUMBUS, OH – Horrific animals’ deaths are being linked by government reports to Columbus-based worldwide conglomerate Battelle Memorial Research Institute, according to a Cincinnati-based watchdog nonprofit at a news conference here Monday.
According to the national research watchdog organization Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN), recent government investigative documents reveal that Battelle has broken federal laws in its laboratories, including drowning one research subject and cooking another one alive.
SAEN, based in Ohio, said it will make available copies of the federal reports about Battelle and its official complaint against Battelle, calling for major fines and other penalties.
Battelle has more than 100 offices facilities around the world involved in scientific and commercial research with laboratories focusing on chemical, biological and material science. Battelle works with universities and government research centers.
Please contact the Director of the USDA’s Eastern Regional Office to insist that she take immediate action against the Battelle Memorial Institute for negligence that drown one guinea pig and cooked another to death. The USDA MUST issue a fine!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Dr. Elizabeth Goldentyer USDA/APHIS/AC
920 Main Campus Drive, Suite 2000
Raleigh, NC 27606
(919) 855-7100
Betty.J.Goldentyer@usda.gov
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Dr. Goldentyer,
I have just learned of horrific animal deaths cited by the USDA regarding the lack of care, neglect, and the facilitation of suffering as perpetrated by the Battelle Memorial Research Institute in Ohio. I am respectfully requesting that immediate action be taken against this vivisector. Vivisection is fundamentally cruel and unethical, and the existence of non-lethal alternatives makes it not only inhumane but also archaic.
We who recognize the deceptive nature of such promotion understand the reality: those who actually care for animals do not imprison them and expose them to disease and experimentation; those who actually concern themselves with animals would never subject them to pain, suffering, and agony and the denial of companionship and comfort. Two of these victims died via drowning and being cooked to death. Animals, such as human animals, are sentient beings capable of love, pain, and suffering. Any deviation from this most basic tenet is disingenuous rhetoric, as spun by those who exploit them.
Please use your resources immediately to, at the very least, charge them accordingly with fines, and ideally, close down the labs permanently.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.
NAME
Council asks for ordinance on feral cats
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
Source Cove Herald
By Mason W. Canales | Herald staff writer
The Copperas Cove City Council asked city staff to draft an ordinance prohibiting any form of a trap, neuter and release program for feral cats in the city limits.
Trapping and releasing at-large animals are already prohibited by the city ordinance as is feeding stray animals. But City Manager Andrea Gardner said her staff will work to clarify the ordinance and forbid such activities from taking place, as was directed by the council.
“I am a cat person,” said Councilman Kenn Smith, who made the request backed by numerous other council members present at a Tuesday meeting. “But the issue of feral cats is not the same.”
Councilwoman Cheryl Meredith and Councilman Jim Schmitz were not at the meeting.
The council’s decision comes after the topic has been discussed for about four years by members of the Animal Advisory Committee. It also comes after the council gave the direction to the two differing opinion factions in the committee to come to a compromise and draft an ordinance by a marginal decision last December.
Vice chairwoman Michaela Ramos said Tuesday said she was trying to do that when she attempted to place the issue back on the committee’s agenda.
“I want to stop any litter from being born,” Ramos said Tuesday night to the council.
Her suggestion was to continue to allow residents to trap cats and surrender them to animal control, but also allow animal welfare groups to operate trap, neuter and release programs.
Ramos said she was not allowed to present her plan to the committee.
Instead, the committee killed the suggestion before hearing it by a vote of 3 to 2.
“This is a very heated topic that has been going on time after time,” said Beau Brabbin, the committee’s chairman.
“It has been voted down each time.”
Every time the group meets, a form of trap, neuter and release is on its agenda, Brabbin said.
Creating a trap, neuter and release program does not solve the city’s problems of dealing with nuisance animals who may cause property damage and defecate in residents’ yards, said Deputy Police Chief Mike Heintzelman, who also is on the committee.
Residents have been trapping cats daily and surrendering them to animal control, but Heintzelman didn’t know of any true cat colonies.
“We can’t go back to this every six months,” Smith said.
Committee member Robyn Bandinel, who was not at the last animal advisory meeting and was called out during Tuesday’s council meeting for her lack of attendance, said the group is once again “regressing.”
“We are all supposed to play nice, and I don’t see that being done,” Bandinel said Tuesday.
Despite Bandinel being present at Tuesday’s meeting, the council authorized Mayor John Hull to send her a letter reminding her of her obligation to the committee.
Bandinel said she sent several emails to the group stating she would miss meetings because of family obligations.
“The attached letter simply ensures Robyn is properly notified of the council’s concern of her lack of attendance at the meeting and that the ordinance provides language for removal should the council decide it appropriate,” stated the council’s agenda item.
No time line was given Tuesday for the drafting of the ordinance, but the council directed the staff to handle it rather than the committee.
The Animal Advisory Committee is regulated by state law because the city operates an animal shelter.
Its job is to focus on how the city manages the shelter and programs that “benefit not only the residents but the animals,” Heintzelman said.
Contact Mason W. Canales at mcanales@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7474
WHOM TO CONTACT
SAMPLE LETTER
City of Copperas Cove
Mayor & City Council
Mayor John Hull
City Council Cheryl Meredith
City Council Mark Peterson
City Council Gary Kent
City Council Danny Palmer
City Council Kenn Smith
City Council Jim Schmitz
City Council Frank Seffrood
Animal Control
To Whom It Concerns,
The City Council in Copperas Cove, Texas, amended an animal control ordinance attempting to stop trap, neuter, and release (TNR) programs for feral cats in the city. The ordinance seeks to forbid such activities from taking place, such as releasing a spayed feral cat within the city limits and feeding feral cats. Those who violate the ordinance can be fined $200.
Feeding bans don’t stop cats from “multiplying”; neutering does. Trap-Neuter-Return is the only effective way to stabilize feral cat populations. Since TNR requires scheduled feeding to be successful, it is impossible to carry out with a feeding ban in place.
One unspayed female cat, her mate, and all of their offspring can produce 370,092 cats in just seven years.
Feeding bans are counterproductive and unenforceable, wasting taxpayer dollars without doing anything to fix the underlying issue. The only effective way to stabilize cat populations and keep cats out of shelters is through humane programs like TNR (Trap/Neuter/Release).
I ask The City Council in Copperas Cove to revisit the amended animal control ordinance and remove feeding bans and allow for Trap/Neuter/Release programs.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.
NAME
Kicked Kitten May Be Going Back to Abuser! Please take action ASAP!
Please click HERE to sign and send letter
This viral video posted online in July 2013 by 17-year-old Walter Easley of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, depicts Easley violently kicking a kitten off the porch of his home and laughing. The tiny animal, who appears to have approached Easley for affection, cartwheels wildly through the air and crashes to the ground many feet away. PETA immediately alerted Orangeburg County Animal Control, and the agency acted quickly, confiscating the kitten, whom they nicknamed Boots, and filing charges against Easley. On September 12, Easley pleaded guilty to ill treatment of an animal. But Orangeburg County Magistrate Donald West appears to be considering returning Boots to his abuser. Your voice is needed!
Please contact Magistrate West via the Orangeburg County Clerk of Court’s Office and remind him that Easley was “remorseful” only after he got caught, that the recidivism rate among animal abusers is extremely high, and that Boots will likely not be safe. Urge Magistrate West to allow animal control to find a new home for this kitten!
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.
Vegan Outreach has a suggested donation: http://www.veganoutreach.org/catalog/index.html
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
Cops taking wounded animals to the gun range and shooting them
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
Source The Libertarian Republic
Merced Police are reportedly taking injured animals out to the shooting range and shooting them according to a report filed by CBS13. Animal rights activists are questioning whether this is the most humane solution to put down pets who are suffering from injuries.
According to a California penal code, it’s an officer’s discretion, saying in part: “…any officer… may, with the approval of his or her immediate superior, humanely destroy any abandoned animal in the field in any case where the animal is too severely injured to move or where a veterinarian is not available and it would be more humane to dispose of the animal. “No one wants to see an animal lose its life, but if death is inevitable, and it’s just being prolonged,” said Sacramento County Sgt. Jason Ramos.
WHOM TO CONTACT
policedepartment@cityofmerced.org
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
It is my understanding that police personnel take injured animals to kill at a shooting range, and I am respectfully requesting you cease this type of behaviour and take them, instead, to receive veterinary services.
Animals are sentient beings, capable of thought and emotion, including love and suffering. They deserve our respect and compassion to be diagnosed correctly and not be exploited additionally.
Please respect the victims by taking them to qualified medical personnel and thereby demonstrate your commitment to justice, responsibility, and integrity, attributes unquestionably necessary in a law enforcement 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 impermissible.
I know your time is limited and I thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
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.
Vegan Outreach has a suggested donation: http://www.veganoutreach.org/catalog/index.html
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
Four petitions, please take action
Making the Link
1. Please click HERE to sign petition demanding harshest penalty to man who dragged dog
2. Please click HERE to tell the NFL to Stop Funding Sports-Injury Experiments on Animals
3. Please click HERE to stop massacre on Romania’s dogs
4. Please click HERE to Tell the Snack Food 20: Cut Conflict Palm Oil, Not Rainforests
1. Background Source Focus
The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in the southern Bulgarian town of Asenovgrad has launched a probe into a case about a man who violently tormented his dog, announced the press center of Plovdiv District Police Directorate.
The prosecutor’s office want to find out whether there is evidence for a crime. The regional police station in the town of Asenovgard received a message about a dog tied to a car and being dragged behind in the village of Topolovo. The police found out that on Friday noon a 55-year-old man from the same village decided to punish his dog he was taking care of and tied the animal to the drawbar of his car and dragged (him) to a nearby ravine in the village and threw (him) there. The dog was found on Saturday alive, suffering grazes on (his) body. (He) was taken to a vet and the case was referred to the prosecutor on duty at Asenovgrad Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
Additional background HERE
2. Background Source PETA
For years, the National Football League Foundation, formerly known as NFL Charities, has quietly funded horrific and deadly sports-injury experiments on dogs, mice, rats, and other animals at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California–Los Angeles, the University of Notre Dame, and other schools and private laboratories.
Images from NFL Foundation-funded head-injury experiment on rats |
These projects, many of which are ongoing, are crudely designed to recreate injuries on the football field. They have involved inflicting severe knee injuries on dogs, after which the animals are killed and have their legs cut off; repeatedly slamming heavy weights into rats’ heads to create brain and spinal cord injuries and skull fractures; and cutting open the heads of mice and delivering crushing blows to cause traumatic brain injuries. Many animals have even died during the studies because of the severe injuries that they sustained.
In addition to these experiments being cruel, studies have shown that they do not accurately replicate the complex injuries sustained by football players, and data and treatments derived from brain-injury experiments on animals have repeatedly failed to help human patients.
3. Background Source IDA
IDA has learned from our Romanian activist friends that it is now legal to murder every stray dog in Romania. On September 10th, a law passed sanctioning the killing of all homeless dogs captured in the streets, sterilized or not, friendly or not, puppies or old, and those in the shelters. According to witnesses in Bucharest, many of the known strays have already disappeared. Gunshots have been heard at night. Hundreds of thousands of dogs’ lives are at stake. The week leading up to this criminal government activity was a state-inspired kind of mob violence toward stray dogs, resulting in a horrific ongoing massacre.
The recent frenzy began when Ionut, a four-old boy, was tragically killed on September 2nd, and his death was immediately blamed on stray dogs. The real story emerged, but too late to assuage the hysteria: the boy was found dead in a very rugged area, where a child was unlikely to go. There were clear indications that he had been molested and thrown over a fence in an area dogs use as shelter. And because there were visible dog bites, the medical examiner admitted that he didn’t release the information about the boy’s sexual abuse because of intense pressure by the media, who had already run with the story that stray dogs killed the boy. And the war was on.
The Romanian President, Traian Basescu, blithely ignoring European Union humanitarian laws with respect to dog population management, urged the government to create an emergency ordinance that all stray dogs be killed at once, essentially authorizing its citizens to viciously execute stray dogs everywhere throughout the country. The President of the Chamber of Deputies echoed the President’s decree and asked for draft legislation. As the rest of the world shudders in disbelief, Romania has just legalized the genocide of hundreds of thousands of its dogs.
The powerless prey in this deadly dog hunt have been shot in the streets, beaten to death by gangs, skinned alive; stoned and hacked to death, poisoned; impaled on steel rakes, stabbed and left to die with their guts hanging out, hanged and mutilated, little puppies burnt alive, friendly community dogs butchered in public shelters, all of which is being gruesomely documented. Since the law passed, the government is allowing rescuers 14 days to save as many strays as possible and get them to makeshift shelters or available homes, but the sad reality that is there only a handful of rescuers who can do only so much.
The falsified account of a murder actually perpetrated by a pedophile has been the perfect pretext for ridding the country of its massive stray dog problem, and, in the process, a perfectly fiendish excuse not to use public money allocated for strays and a beautiful solution to enrich craven and greedy officials’ pockets. Apparently, in this latest Romanian horror show, murdering dogs has become a full-blown industry, where tens of millions of Euros intended for sterilization programs are never actually spent on trying to resolve the catastrophic issue of stray dogs, many of whom are cast aside by horribly irresponsible “owners.” For 20 years, dogs have been captured and taken to shelters, which Romanian activists refer to as “extermination camps,” where if the dogs don’t succumb because of hunger or thirst or freezing to death, they are then tortured and killed. Apparently, there is money to be made for every dog killed and cremated, at 120 Euros a dog, with public taxpayer funds being exchanged between various crooked city and government agencies.
4. Background Source RAN
Expansion of palm oil plantations into Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s rainforests is pushing wild orangutans to the brink of extinction. We have reached The Last Stand of the Orangutan—but it’s not too late.
Take action now to call on the Snack Food 20—companies that control some of the best-known snack food brands in the world—to remove “conflict palm oil” tied to rainforest destruction and orangutan extinction from their products.
Only 60,600 orangutans remain in the wilds of Sumatra and Borneo, so we’re trying to get 60,600 humans to stand up for them by calling on the Snack Food 20 to cut conflict palm oil, not rainforests. Will you be one of them?
Our Compass 