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.
It’s all good: watch this video
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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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CORNWALL ~ PLEASE HELP TO CATCH THE SCUM THAT THREW KITTENS FROM CAR ONTO PENRYN FALMOUTH BYPASS
Please add your voice to catch these cretins.
wake up cornwall…
this is not going to play
well with the humane world
today.
apprehend and punish
these lowlife pieces
of sh*t,
monsters need to learn
that they cannot
get away
with
it!!!!!
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Cowschwitz of California
wrote this poem today about the state of our world
once upon a time,
the truth was
almost known,
it was sort of real,
not by
text or cellphone.
right was right,
wrong was wrong.
then modern times…
whatever moral compass
there was,
is now gone.
now we are left
with holograms,
the “whatever i want
to bes, i am”
that tired old song.
a one note bore.
seems not too many
people care
anymore.
but those of us who do,
will stand up and shout.
the truth is locked up
and we will let it out
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
In the mid 1980’s, I had a job driving 18 wheelers half way to Los Angeles from the San Francisco Bay Area and back. Five nights a week, twice each shift, I went past Harris Ranch in Coalinga, California. At the time, I was reading up on European history and watching documentaries on the WWII Holocaust. As I drove by Harris Ranch and smelled the stench of the seemingly endless stretch of confinement pens where huge numbers of cattle were held, the term “cowschwitz” immediately came to mind. I often wondered why more people did not make the connection of these imprisoned animals to what happened to so many European Jews, gypsies, gays, disabled folks and others during WWII. But most people did not drive by a huge feedlot 10 times a week, especially not while learning about concentration camps. In those days, I was not vegan. I was not…
View original post 494 more words
URGENT: Pigs Abused at Events Need Your Voice
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
Social, gentle, intelligent, and loyal, pigs are highly sensitive animals who enjoy communicating with each other, making nests, and relaxing in the sun. However, PETA has learned that Man Games, an obstacle course competition held across the United States, is hosting “pig wrestling” challenges. These are cruel events during which young, docile animals are frantically chased, grabbed at, and tackled, then roughly crammed into a barrel drum—all while trapped in a pen lined with screaming crowds. Being trucked to and fro and subjected to the inherent noise, violence, and chaos of these events is obviously a terrifying and hazardous ordeal for the pigs, who often sustain severe injuries, such as broken limbs and backs.
PETA has contacted event organizers and asked that they cancel this portion of the competition, but our request has apparently fallen on deaf ears. The next event is scheduled for September 6 and 7 in Heber, Utah. These animals need your voice!
Please urge Man Games to forgo “pig wrestling” events in the future—then forward this alert widely!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Please call or send polite comments to:
Patrick Williams
Marketing Director
Man Games
801-915-4331
info@mangames.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Director Williams,
Pigs are social, intelligent, loyal, and highly sensitive animals who enjoy communicating with each other, making nests, and relaxing in the sun. But Man Games, an obstacle course competition held across the United States, is hosting “pig wrestling” challenges. Such events typically involve frantic groups of people chasing, grabbing at, and tackling terrified pigs confined to pens lined with screaming crowds, and then roughly cramming them into barrel drums. Being trucked to and fro and subjected to the violence and general chaos of these events is a horrific and hazardous ordeal for the pigs, who often sustain severe injuries such as broken limbs and backs.
I am disturbed to learn of this and am therefore respectfully urging you cancel these unjustified and cruel events. Pigs are marvelously intelligent and sentient creatures, capable of love, pain, thought, and suffering; when you subject pigs to such indecent treatments, you not only condemn them to fear and agony, but you also demean yourself and establish that you are unsympathetic to animal concerns. I therefore urge you to cease this exploitation and demonstrate that yours is a business that recognizes the importance of animal protection rather than animal abuse.
Thank you for taking the time to read this urgent appeal.
NAME
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
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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UPDATE TWO
Sears responded on a Google Plus account to a member that the t-shirts were no longer available!
UPDATE | RESPONSE
This seems like a standard response, please keep sending your thoughts, thank you.
Dear Stacey,
Thank you for contacting sears.com. We apologize for any inconvenience or concern caused due to the graphics on the T-shirt. I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.
We regret that you found the T-shirt offensive as that was not our intent. We are listening to what you have to say and we appreciate the time you have taken to let us know what you think about the items sold on our website. We are always looking for ways in which we can improve.
All comments, suggestions, contributions and indeed all feedback from our sears.com customers are very important to us. Please know that our management team reviews feedback submitted by our customers and that many of the changes and additions have been as a result of feedback from our customers.
Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance. We hope that you will continue to make Sears your choice for future purchases.
Sincerely,
Malcolm R. (mrasi)
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@customerservice.sears.com
1-800-366-3028
BACKGROUND
Sears sells t-shirts glorifying wolf hunting. Please express your dissatisfaction and decision to boycott until these shirts are no longer available.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Please click HERE to send message via online web form
SAMPLE COMMENT
I am gravely disappointed to learn that Sears sells I Love Wolf Hunting t-shirts. Hunting animals is cruel and unnecessary.
Animals are inherently sentient and possess the capacity for thought and emotion, including contentment, loneliness, fear, and agony. All animals, human and non-human, experience the desire to live free from exploitation and suffering and fear the manifestation of death. Humans have adopted dangerous constructs of speciesism, the prejudicial regard of non-human species, to validate the brutality inflicted upon them. Using this manufactured status of superiority, humans have sanctioned the use of animals as commodities, regarding them only as products to benefit our goals and needs. We embrace inequity to justify our treatment of animals, which is mere savagery concealed in socially-approved descriptions.
Please recognize that glorifying hunting is unacceptable and discontinue selling merchandise that is contrary to such. Until this time, I will boycott Sears and all related stores.
Thank you for your attention to this appeal.
NAME
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
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
4 Reasons Why the “Plant Sentience” Argument Doesn’t Work
Wikimedia Commons
Source Vegan Rabbit
By Kara Kapelnikova
Whether you’re a vegan who has been called a “plant murderer” by a non-vegan, a non-vegan who is trying (and failing) to be funny, or just someone with an affinity for plants, this is information you need to read. The issue of plant sentience is being brought up more and more as a reason to justify the continued consumption and use of animal products. There are, however, a few things wrong with this argument. Here are four reasons the “plant sentience” argument doesn’t work:
1. Plants are not truly sentient
Though certain scientific studies have shown that plants can react to stimuli, these reactions do not point to sentience because they lack three basic qualifications for requiring sentience:
- Sensory organs — Plants don’t have organs which enable them to see, hear, taste, etc. like animals do.
- Variability of response — Animals have a conscious perception which acts as an intermediary between their environment and their many different behavioral responses to it. Plants lack this variability in that they will react in the same manner regardless of different scenarios (ex.: growing toward the sun).
- Appetite and locomotion — Nature has enabled animals to be sentient because they have the ability to move around. As I discussed briefly in my post about “ethical meat”, pain exists to teach sentient creatures what stimuli to avoid in the same way that pleasure exists to teach sentient creatures what stimuli to seek.
Plants do not feel pain the way animals do because they have no reason for it. If a plant had the means to get up and walk away from an area that was too dry, wet or cold, it would make sense for nature to enable the plant to feel pain. Enabling a living organism to feel pain without the ability for that organism to alleviate that pain is not something done by nature unless by some sort of mutation (i.e.: a creature being born without limbs or with mental or physical disabilities).
For more information on the science and philosophy explaining why plants are not sentient, click here and here.
2. Logical fallacy: Tu Quoque
A person who uses the “plants have feelings too” argument is guilty of using the Tu Quoque (You Yourself Do It) logical fallacy. This fallacy has to do with accusing your critic of being guilty of doing the same thing they accuse you of, even though the two situations being compared are not identical. For example:
“If a vegan can kill plants, then I have the right to kill to animals.”
As I have illustrated above, plants are not sentient and comparing plant’s reactions to stimuli and animal’s proven sentience is not the same, and this renders your argument fallacious.
Taking the above into consideration, for the sake of argument I will ignore the fact that there are clear biological and ethical differences between killing a plant and killing an animal. Even if there was hypothetically no difference between the two, it still would not change the fact that two wrongs don’t make a right. For example, if I were to rob a convenience store would that somehow make it okay for you to steal someone’s car?
3. Non-vegans kill more plants than vegans do
Living a lifestyle which includes animal products kills more plants than living a vegan lifestyle because the animals used in these industries are almost exclusively herbivorous (plant-eaters), with many consuming huge amounts of grains, grasses and seeds to be converted into a much smaller amount of meat, dairy and eggs. Because of this, a non-vegan consumes more plants indirectly than a vegan does directly. In other words, vegans don’t filter their nutrients through someone else’s digestive system.
Furthermore, animal agriculture is not sustainable and is one of the leading causes of environmental damage, resource depletion, and ecological imbalance, which threatens all plant life, not just the ones consumed by humans.
- 70% of the crops grown in the US are grown to feed animals on feedlots [Plants, Genes, and Agriculture by Jones and Bartlet]
- 7 football fields worth of forest land is bulldozed every 60 seconds to create more room for farmed animals and the crops that feed them [The Smithsonian Institution]
- 80% of all agricultural land in the US is used to raise animals for food and grow grain to feed them — that’s almost 50% of the total land mass of the continental US [Major Uses of Land in the United States by Marlow Vesterby and Kenneth S. Krupa]
If you really care about plants, you should go vegan.
4. The possibility of plant sentience does not minimize the reality of animal sentience
The improbable and unproven sentience of plants has no influence on the proven and blatantly obvious sentience of animals. Regardless of whether you believe that someone mowing the lawn is decapitating thousands of blades of grass, it doesn’t change the fact that animals suffer so long as you continue to consume them.
As discussed above, unlike plants, animals do have reasons to be sentient.
- Sensory organs, to feel and perceive the world around them (ex.: ears to listen for lurking predators, eyes to spy on prey, etc.)
- Variability of response, to respond differently in different situations (ex.: a wildebeest will have different reactions depending on whether a wildebeest or a lion is approaching the herd)
- Appetite and locomotion, to seek food through foraging or hunting, which requires the ability to move around. In order for animals to learn what to move toward and what to move away from, they require the ability to perceive pain and pleasure in relation to the objects around them.
In conclusion, because all living creatures must eat to survive, we must choose foods which cause the least amount of harm possible. Eating animal products causes an extreme amount of harm for not only animals, but for slaughterhouse workers, our planet, and our very own bodies. And while eating plants can certainly contribute to the harm of laborers, field mice, and the plants themselves, we must remember that this harm happens on a far larger scale in the production of animal products.
Most importantly, we can’t forget that because animals are sentient and because they have the ability to suffer, we mustn’t deny them their basic right to own their own life — to be free from the unnecessary harm that is inherent in all industries which exploit animals. We must respect the rights of animals if we are indeed the ethical creatures we claim to be.
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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
Wisconsin friends, please write for justice for Giggles
Please click HERE to sign and send letter
(Valid Wisconsin address is required – P.O. Boxes cannot be used)
Three weeks ago, a kind family brought a baby deer to the Society of St. Francis Animal Shelter in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Now the fawn, named “Giggles”, is dead – killed by armed law enforcement officials who raided the animal shelter, seized and killed the few-weeks-old, innocent and helpless fawn.
Armed to the teeth, a total of 13 (!) officials of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), joined by Sheriff’s Deputies, came unannounced in a drug-style bust in search of little “Giggles,” – one day before the fawn was scheduled to be transferred to a licensed wildlife rehabilitation facility. They grabbed the unsuspecting Giggles, carried the fawn over their shoulder in a body bag, and then killed her because it is their policy.
Jennifer Niemeyer, DNR’s Warden Supervisor and Cathy Stepp, DNR’s Secretary, both publicly approved the fawn killing. No surprise here since, being a huntress, Ms. Stepp encourages male hunters to take more women out to hunt, because “hunting is a lot of fun!”
These trigger-happy officials need to be reined in. After all, they work for us—the public—who is paying their salary. Use the form HERE to tell Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s Governor, that you want to see Ms. Stepp and Ms. Niemeyer officially reprimanded and a new, non-lethal policy implemented that allows animal shelters and wildlife rehab centers to take in deer.
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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.
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
Join the fight against waste, fraud, and abuse
TAKE ACTION HERE
SOURCE: WHITE COAT WASTE PROJECT
It’s a fact: animal experimentation is a big government program. And If you believe big government programs are inherently wasteful, inefficient, and incompetent, then you must question taxpayer-funded animal experiments.
Every year the government wastes over $12 BILLION in tax dollars to pay for cruel, unnecessary, and bizarre animal experiments.
Guess who picks up the bill? You do, every April 15.
For example, the federal government’s recent economic “stimulus” spending program wasted $144,541 of our tax dollars on a single experiment to study how cocaine affects addicted monkeys at Winston-Salem College. The result? We “learned” that cocaine is bad for you.
For over 30 years, the government has been handing out your tax dollars to Professor Marilyn Carroll at the University of Minnesota to forcibly addict animals to all sorts of illegal, recreational street drugs. During the last decade alone, government bureaucrats and politicians spent over $3.6 million on her experiments to study how heroin, crystal meth, and Angel Dust affect menstruating monkeys.
Taxpayer-funded animal experiments like these are the definition of government-run junk “science.” Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg for Uncle Sam’s wasteful animal experimentation budget.
The government’s pattern of ridiculous research is wasteful and shameful, and it is repeated over and over again in the taxpayer-funded animal experiments you’re paying for. But don’t take our word for it. Have a look at just a handful of the bizarre, junk-science studies that are typical in the government’s $12 billion per year animal experimentation budget:
Government Scientists Conclude Junk Food and Lack of Exercise May Contribute To Obesity.
Taxpayer-funded animal experimenter Kevin Grove, director of the government’s so-called “obese resource” at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, isolates frightened monkeys in tiny cages while feeding them fatty foods and sugary drinks. In his own words: “we are trying to induce the couch-potato style.” (New York Times, 2/19/11) After his taxpayer-funded study is completed, he kills the monkeys to examine their brains. The New York Times reports that some private sector companies “see no need to use primates to study obesity and diabetes.” However, Grove happily rides the big government gravy train all the way to the bank as his monkeys languish in solitary confinement for years. Grove’s wasteful experiments cost Americans over $2.1 million in taxes…
READ MORE HERE
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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.
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
Rodeo Horses need your help!
UPDATE
The current ban will stay in place. Details HERE.
BACKGROUND
We need your help! We are having a war here in Las Vegas about changing our Clark County Ordinance which currently BANS horse tripping. The Ordinance bans the roping or lassoing of horses legs but “they” want to change it because their Super Bowl of Charreada Rodeo is here at the South Point Casino & Hotel at the end of September and they want to be able to rope their legs all day long.
A few emails will only take a few minutes and will make a big difference for the horses! Please consider sending off a couple of emails. Even if you don’t live in Las Vegas -they care about the tourist’s opinion also. Pass on to others also.
There will be a County Commission meeting on Aug 20th and we need lots of emails to go to the chair and vice-chair before then.
They voted against any change and you can THANK them but they may be influenced to change their mind. That is why we need to contact them.
WHOM TO CONTACT
The two members we would like to contact are:
Steve Sisolak – Chair of the Clark Co. Commissioners at: ccdista@clarkcountynv.gov
and Larry Brown, Co-Chair at: ccdistc@clarkcountynv.gov
Group
ccdista@clarkcountynv.gov ; ccdistc@clarkcountynv.gov
SAMPLE COMMENT
Dear Chair Sisolak and Co-Chair Brown,
Thank you for your compassionate stance regarding the ban on horse tripping. Please note that I, too, am against ANY change in the current county ordinance which bans horse tripping.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
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
What SeaWorld Doesn’t Want You to Know
This is Lolita:
When she was a child, she was ripped from her ocean home in the waters off the coast of Washington state. This majestic animal, who once swam more than 100 miles a day alongside her family, was taken away from all that she knew and forced to live and perform in a tiny cement tank in Miami.
Dr. Terry Newby, a marine mammal expert who was present at Lolita’s capture, is haunted by her story and the chilling photographs that he took at the time of her capture.
After 42 years, Lolita, who has a remarkable will to survive, is still confined to a tiny cement tank and longing for her ocean home, where an orca thought to be her mother still thrives today and her family is protected under the Endangered Species Act. Help her now by learning the truth about Lolita’s capture and how 30 others were captured, torn away from their families, and sent to SeaWorld.
Click HERE to learn more.
What you can do: Never visit any animal entertainment park or facility. These “establishments” are in business for profit, using your money for their selfish pursuits.
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
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
Speak out against the lake Sammamish goose kill
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
According to news sources and furious Washington state residents, Lake Sammamish State Park recently authorized the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to capture and kill almost 100 Canada geese who had called the area their home. Once the birds molted their flight feathers (and were thus unable to fly), they were reportedly rounded up, then forced into a gas chamber on a truck and gassed to death. The terror experienced by these sensitive beings during such “roundups” can only be horrific, and their babies are left entirely vulnerable when mothers are hauled away. These initiatives are not only extraordinarily cruel but also wholly ineffective, as more birds will simply move in to use available resources so long as the area remains attractive and accessible. In fact, reports indicate that this may already be happening. Your voice is needed!
Please urge Lake Sammamish State Park officials to forgo these devastating lethal initiatives in favor of tried and true humane goose–control methods. And please, forward this alert widely!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Rich Benson, Manager
Lake Sammamish State Park
richard.benson@parks.wa.gov
Andrew Fielding, Resource Steward l
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
andrew.fielding@parks.wa.gov
Don Hoch, Director
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
don.hoch@parks.wa.gov
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Manager Benson, Resource Steward Fielding, and Director Hoch:
I am extremely alarmed to learn of Lake Sammamish State Park’s decision to cruelly massacre geese who reside in park areas via USDA agents. I respectfully request suspension of this violent strategy.
Please allow me to elaborate. First, killing geese does nothing to modify landscapes and waterways that attract them in the first place. I encourage officials to work with avian experts on population stabilization and site aversion.
Second, sweeping eradication does not reduce long-term growth. Killing geese artificially increases food supplies to the remaining geese, the consequence of which is increased reproduction and an ensuing greater population. In fact, studies have demonstrated that the continual cycle of seasonal eradication is responsible for a rebound, or larger gaggle populations, in subsequent years.
Third, using such barbaric strategies in such a visible location will most certainly affect visitation: agents typically enter the pond area during early morning, roughly separating goslings from parents, and then stuff the bound, panicked geese and babies into crates. Next, the geese are gassed or shot to death. In fact, although I do not currently reside near Lake Sammamish State Park, I would be unwilling to consider it, or a nearby location, for tourist purposes if this cull ensues.
Please practice compassion and integrity: let the geese live and institute responsible policies that promote respect and tolerance of wildlife, and commit to habitat/landscape modification as outlined in Friends of Animals’ Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual (http://friendsofanimals.org/sites/default/files/Goose%20Habitat.pdf) in addition to instituting a formal clean-up plan for goose droppings in parks.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.
NAME
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
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
Facebook Causes
BACKGROUND | SOURCE ROME NEWS TRIBUNE
A Bartow County law enforcement agency has closed its investigation into how a dog was dragged by a truck nearly two miles to its death, but animal welfare groups are “digging deeper” in an investigation of their own.
Bartow County Sheriff officials maintained Monday that the dog’s death was accidental, dismissing allegations of neglect or abuse and confirming no charges would be filed against the driver.
The animal had been tied to the rear bumper of a truck that was subsequently driven nearly two miles — from an Old Rome Residence to the Dollar General, located at 32 Cochran St. in Kingston — Saturday night.
Witnesses and Rome-based Animal Rescue Foundation volunteers contended the driver was careless and neglectful, but Sgt. Jonathan Rogers of the sheriff’s office disagreed.
“Negligence would be if the dog wasn’t fed or getting enough water,” he said, adding that hadn’t been the case with the deceased canine.
Rogers also stated that it’s lawful for a dog’s owner to humanely euthanize the animal, but said it wasn’t clear if the Kingston dog had been shot after it was taken back to the residence from where it was dragged.
But Stephanie Bell, a representative from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said even after reviewing the sheriff’s report, the organization is not done with their own investigation into the incident.
“We are not done here,” Bell said on Monday evening. “We certainly feel that someone should be held accountable. We’re horrified at what this dog surely suffered. … Surely this animal’s skin was ripped off, bones were broken. We imagine the animal was screaming in pain. It was an egregious crime.”
According to the report
According to the Bartow County Sheriff’s incident report, A man who lives at the address told deputies he had been cooking dinner and saw his dog had gotten loose in the yard. He retrieved it and tied it to the trailer hitch of his vehicle until he was done cooking.
The man said he asked another man at the residence to go pick up some bread and allowed him to drive his truck to the store, forgetting he’d attached his dog to the trailer hitch.
Both men were interviewed, but their names were redacted from the report made public Monday.
The driver told deputies that when he arrived at the store and went inside to get the bread, a woman came in yelling at him to go back out.
He said he went out and saw the dog in the parking lot, bleeding severely. At that point, he said, the large crowd began to converge around him, yelling, so he picked up the dog, put in him the back of the truck and drove back to the residence.
Witnesses said the driver went back into the store after he saw the dog, but that information was not in the report.
The reporting officer did say the dog, which was dead, had been severely injured with road rash and lacerations — but he noticed two other dogs on the property that appeared to be in good health.
PETA: Georgia laws should still apply
Bell said animal cruelty laws in Georgia are on the books to make people aware they have a responsibility in these kinds of situations.
“This is precisely why laws exist to protect animals,” she said. “The Georgia anti-cruelty statute, in our opinion, should apply here.”
Based on witness accounts PETA has heard, she said, the report left out some important details and “we’re still in the process of digging deeper.”
She said the idea that the owner forgot about tying the dog to the bumper and the driver of the truck didn’t see it “just doesn’t hold water. It’s hard to imagine that no one noticed the dog while the dog was being dragged.”
Bell said misdemeanor animal cruelty charges could be brought even if there was no malicious intent.
ARF volunteer Traci Ball said while she believes the incident could have been an accident, she still thinks the driver was neglectful based on eyewitness accounts.
“I can see that happening,” she said. “It was an awful, terrible, tragic accident. But what happened next is, in my opinion, neglectful.”
Ball said she was referring to accounts that the driver came outside and witnessed the injured dog, but then went back inside the store to retrieve his groceries.
Having been in touch with a Dollar General employee, Ball said store surveillance footage indicates the driver was notified about the dog at 7:12 p.m., went back in the store at 7:14 p.m. to allow a cashier to ring up his merchandise and drove away by 7:25 p.m., after loading the dog into the truck.
“I can’t say it wasn’t an accident,” Ball said. “We have to be fair and it was an old truck, it was probably loud. But… why was there no attempt for medical treatment for the dog? To me, that’s a classic case of animal neglect.”
Ball said she had talked to a family member of the dog owner, and ARF is in the process of organizing a memorial walk for the dog sometime this week — following the trail of dried blood on the road.
“We want people to know this wouldn’t be a protest or anything confrontational,” she said. “This would be a moment to remember the dog, who I believe was called ‘Bear.’”
WHOM TO CONTACT
Sheriff Clark Millsap, sheriffmillsap@bartow.org
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Sheriff Millsap,
I am gravely concerned that charges are not being filed against a man who dragged his dog behind his truck, causing fatal injuries; this decision was based on the lack of evidence indicating intent in this barbaric crime. I am writing to respectfully remind people that a crime has been committed and that the man should be charged accordingly. Furthermore, it is impossible for anyone to determine what the dog felt, and we are obligated to conclude that it was certain pain and fear; indeed, misdemeanor animal cruelty charges could be brought even if there was no malicious intent.
Please allow me to validate my concerns: 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 engage in such malevolent behaviour absolutely suggests sociopathic and sadistic tendencies and 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 animals has, disturbingly enough, the ability to show such indifference towards humans. This link between animal and human abuse has been established, and if we excuse or ignore this dog’s violent killing, we would be serving an injustice to both animals and society: those responsible for such heinous acts against animals will many times escalate towards human animals.
Please respect the victim by penalizing the guilty and demonstrate your commitment to justice, responsibility, and integrity, attributes unquestionably necessary in an 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 both impermissible and punishable.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
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Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE CARE2
Instagram, used by 130 million people worldwide, is playing host to the buying and selling of unwanted animals for pets, slaughter and ritual sacrifice, and in doing so is encouraging and promoting widespread animal abuse.
The popular and trending hashtag #forsale throws up more than 1 million results, most of which are completely innocent such as clothes, shoes and other second hand goods, but riddled among the listings are thousands of live animals being offered for sale.
From household pets and exotic animals like snakes and turtles that require specialist care to sheep and goats intended to be sacrificially slaughtered for birthdays and events, Instagram is turning a blind eye to this atrocity when they clearly have full knowledge of its development.
What is supposed to be in Instagram’s own words “a beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends and family” has rapidly become a breeding ground for those looking to make a quick buck, with many users turning their personal accounts into streams of classified ads for animals.
Scarily, Instagram does not currently have any rules or guidelines on the advertisement of items for sale, and nowhere in the site’s terms and conditions do they mention the sale of animals. Conversly, other leading online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay strictly prohibit the sale of live animals, and animal rights campaigners are imploring Instagram to follow suit and crack down on listings.
Leading the charge is the UK’s largest animal rights group Animal Aid, who are urging Instagram, which is owned by social media giant Facebook, to put an end to this careless and harmful trading of animals.
The charity’s director Andrew Tyler said, “Animals are being manufactured and traded as products and this will encourage people to breed carelessly. The easier you make it to buy and sell animals online, the more casual and callous an approach people will take…and this will only lead to more suffering.”
Animals are not mere commodities to be bought and sold. They are living, feeling, sentient beings, and when their welfare is put second to that of profit, they will always suffer as a result.
Millions of dogs and cats are killed every year because they have no prospects for a home, and it is facilitating sites like Instagram that are the worst offenders. By providing an easy way for irresponsible breeders and pet owners to offload their unwanted animals, the mentality of viewing animals as money making machines takes a hold and exploitative practices start to manifest.
As expected, Instagram has declined to comment on this controversy, but that doesn’t mean that their silence will go unnoticed. As an industry leader, Instagram has an obligation to lead by example and they need to recognize this thoughtless and careless trading and put a stop to it before any more harm is done.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Let Instagram know exactly what you think.
You can get in contact with them via Twitter, Facebook or you can shoot them an email at press@instagram.com
It only takes a few minutes to write an email and hit the send button so don’t wait, do it now and you can ensure that you are fighting towards creating a kinder and safer world for animals everywhere.
Another way you can help is to reject the buying and selling of live animals, and instead choose to adopt from a local shelter or rescue center.
SAMPLE COMMENT
To Whom It Concerns,
Like Amazon and Ebay, please change your business practices so that no animals are bought or sold on Instagram. Please keep Instagram an honest forum for everyone by rejecting the rampant cruelty that is inherent in live animal purchasing and selling for pets, slaughter, and ritual sacrifice. Unfortunately, until this practice ceases, I will be forwarding my business elsewhere.
Thank you.
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Please vote HERE
Source CNN
Costa Rica, known for its biodiversity, has decided to close its zoos because cages are bad for animals. Costa Rica’s Minister of the Environment, Rene Castro says the decision was based on childhood experience.
“One day, we took the parrot out to the patio, and a flock of wild parrots passed, and the parrot went with them… We fed her with food and affection. … all these things that we as humans thought she liked. And when she had the chance, she left.” Castro said.
Erin Burnett says she always thought that zoos were important, inspiring children to respect and love animals.
But, after reading about Costa Rica’s closing its zoos, she wonders whether the United States should follow suit.
Is it time for America to close its zoos?
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Ban Fur Trapping & Vicious Bloodsports in the US
Please click HERE to ban vicious blood sports in the US
Please click HERE to ban fur trapping on public lands in the US
Background | Source: Anti-Fur Society
Fur bearing animals are victims NOT only of the fur trade. The cruel attacks go from live skinning by the fur trade to being torn to pieces in bloodsports. The “buffets” of horrors are fair game for anyone who wishes to indulge in it.
There are virtually NO laws to protect fur bearing animals in fur farms or in the wild. Living in the compassionate AR community, we are constantly shocked by the violent acts of abhorrent cruelty inflicted on animals outside our cocoon. But we must face the reality in the rest of the world, and not only speak up but take actions for those who so suffer. The Anti-Fur Society has produced a series of action links to help people take action in a speedy way.
These links involved an immense amount of heart wrenching work to not only give you an idea of what happens in the animals’ world but also to make it easy for you to take action for them. The petitions have been programmed so that when you sign one, the second can be signed simply by adding your email. It is that easy! To learn about fur trapping, fox/coyote penning and bear baiting or baying, please check this web page BLOODSPORTS IN THE USA and videos (see above) PENNING VIDEO // TRAPPING VIDEO created specifically to bring an understanding about the importance of the petitions.
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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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Our Compass 