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.
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1. Please Click HERE to Stop Horse Roundups and Consider NAS Recommendations
2. Please Click HERE to Help Elephants Sophie and Babe at the Niabi Zoo
3. Please Click HERE to Protect Arctic Marine Mammals From Oil Exploration
4. Please Click HERE to Stop the Slaughter of Wolves
5. Click HERE to Help Take the Slaughter Off Wolves
1. Source IDA
The National Academy of Science (NAS) recently released a report on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro program and determined that the program can’t continue “business as usual.” The report provided numerous suggestions for improvement and found that the BLM has not used scientifically rigorous methods to estimate population, model effects of management actions, or to assess forage on rangelands. Further, the report found that the current practice of rounding up and removing wild horses actually leads to higher rates of population growth, rather than curbing it. Please use the form below to join IDA in asking Sec. Jewell to carefully consider NAS recommendations and immediately stop all roundups.
The National Academy of Science (NAS) report recommends the use of fertility control vaccines as an alternative form of population control. Unfortunately, roundups are still recommended in order to administer these vaccines in many areas. During roundups, horses are stampeded and chased until they’re too exhausted to run, resulting in many injuries and deaths. In the “business as usual” roundups, family bands are heartlessly torn apart, never to see each other again.
New Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who is tasked with heading up the BLM program, has stated she would consider the NAS report prior to implementing policy changes. We are also urging her to consider administering fertility control options in the wild, rather than subjecting horses to these traumatic roundups. The NAS also calls for greater transparency and more public participation, so this is our chance to insist our voices are heard.
2. Source IDA
After more than a decade of living in the grossly antiquated exhibit at the Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, Illinois, Sophie and Babe might finally have a chance for a better future.
Rock Island County officials recently hired zoo expert Alan Roocroft to review the zoo’s elephant program. Fortunately for Babe and Sophie, Mr. Roocroft recommended that the elephants be sent to a facility in a warmer climate that offers space for exercise and veterinary care for their existing and anticipated health problems. Mr. Roocroft also found the zoo’s elephant facility to be outdated, providing little to no stimulation for the elephants. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums pulled the Niabi Zoo’s accreditation in 2012 in large part due to the inadequate elephant exhibit.
Sophie and Babe are former Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performers. At ages 43 and 37, both Asian elephants have chronic health problems exacerbated by long, cold winters that keep them 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 that will only worsen if conditions for her remain unchanged.
It would cost the Niabi Zoo millions of dollars to bring the elephant exhibit up to modern standards—money the zoo does not have. Even with improvements, the elephants will still be forced inside for the majority of the bitterly cold winter. After serving the community for more than 10 years, Sophie and Babe deserve the opportunity to spend their remaining years in surroundings that can meet their needs.
A final decision on Sophie and Babe’s future will be made by the Rock Island County Forest Preserve Commission, which has authority over the Niabi Zoo—and they need to hear from you.
The Commission will hold a public meeting on June 17th to further discuss Mr. Roocroft’s report. Please take a moment to send a letter to the members of the Commission and urge them to make the compassionate decision to send Sophie and Babe together (this is imperative, since they are closely bonded) to a facility that will give them year round warmth, space, and the companionship of other elephants. If you are in the area, please attend the meeting and speak up in support of moving Sophie and Babe to a better place and a better life.
3. Source EarthJustice
Big Oil may not be drilling for oil in America’s Arctic Ocean this summer, but it is still threatening the region’s wildlife.
Marine mammals—such as bearded and ringed seals, beluga whales, and the endangered bowhead whale—depend on sound to communicate, find food, and avoid prey. Oil exploration activities fill the ocean with loud noise that can interfere with these basic functions. Seismic surveying, for example, uses air-guns to detect oil beneath the sea-floor. The blasts—loud enough to cause deafness—occur day and night for months, and cover vast areas of the ocean.
The federal government is proposing moving forward with loud and risky oil exploration methods even though it has not completed an assessment of the cumulative impacts on Arctic marine mammals. Tell your government to take responsibility for protecting the marine mammals of the Arctic.
The remote Arctic Ocean and its wildlife are already under great stress from climate change. Why add the stress of oil exploration?
Tell the government not to permit any Arctic Ocean oil exploration until it completes a full analysis of the effects and understands how to mitigate the damage to marine mammals.
4. Source Center for Biological Diversity
Wolves nationwide urgently need your help. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is poised to remove protections for these important and majestic animals in most of the lower 48 states, according to a new proposal from the Obama administration.
Since 1973 wolves have been protected under the Endangered Species Act. In 1978 those protections were expanded to include wolves across most of the lower 48 states. In the past two years, protections have been removed for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes. States in these regions have instituted aggressive hunting and trapping seasons resulting in more than 1,600 wolf deaths.
Despite the horror that state management has been, the Service has now proposed removing wolf protections in the remainder of the lower 48 states. The plan abandons wolf recovery in the Pacific Northwest, southern Rocky Mountains, Northeast, California and other areas where there is space for wolves — keeping protections only for the very small population of Mexican gray wolves that roams Arizona and New Mexico.
Please take action now to lend your voice to the fight to protect wolves.
5. Source Environmental Action
Federal wildlife officials have put the American gray wolf squarely in its crosshairs by proposing to remove them from the Endangered Species List nationwide. Already hundreds of wolves have been slaughtered in just the handful of states where hunting is already legal, and if the feds follow through with this plan, it’ll be a massacre.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service is accepted comments on their plan for the next 90 days. Sign here and we’ll deliver your comments to them for you. Let them know that wolves need protection, not slaughter.
Wikimedia Commons
A serious threat to animal protection laws is looming with a vote scheduled today.
The “Farm Bill” has an amendment by Representative King (Iowa) that could wipe out animal protection laws nationwide.Arizona’s law banning gestation crates, Michigan’s law banning veal crates, California’s law banning battery cages – are all in jeopardy.
And it doesn’t stop there: every state factory farm confinement law, foie gras ban, horse slaughter law, shark finning ban, and puppy mill regulation, along with environmental protection laws, are all at risk. If the King amendment passes, these could all could be nullified.
The Farm Bill has passed the Senate and will go to the House floor as soon as TODAY for a vote, so please voice your opposition NOW.
Call your U.S. representative (click here to find your representative) and urge him to oppose King’s amendment to the Farm Bill. You can simply say: “As a constituent, I’m asking you to oppose the King Amendment to the Farm Bill because, like most Americans, I want farm animals to have protection from cruelty.”
NOTE
You may have gotten alerts from some groups asking that you request your Representative to remove the King Amendment and substitute it with the Denham-Schrader Amendment.
The Denham-Schrader amendment is the “Egg Bill,” which you may have heard of. There has been a lot of controversy on the “Egg Bill” and many animal activists are unsure whether to support or oppose it. Animal Protection League of New Jersey, as well as United Poultry Concerns and others, OPPOSE the Egg Bill (now also known as the Denham-Schrader Amendment).
If passed into law, the Egg Bill Amendment will legalize keeping egg-laying hens in cages in the U.S. Furthermore, it will prohibit state efforts to ban all cages – effectively keeping chickens in cages forever. To learn more about why we oppose the Egg Bill/Denham-Schrader Amendment click here.
Read more…
Tom Animalpastor
Please click HERE to sign petition
Link to petition to be sent to Pope Francis. Please sign and share this. Animals are our brothers and sisters, deserving of compassion. Your personal comments are encouraged–Tom, the Animal pastor, will be in Rome, at St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on 4th of October, 2013 – the day of St Francis of Assisi. As part of his campaign “They are our brothers and sisters!”, He will be there on behalf of all the tortured and prosecuted animals. He will bless animals and he will leave a personal letter for POPE FRANCIS , pointing out the importance and responsibility of the Church towards animals, together with your signatures and your personal messages to POPE FRANCIS.
– Arthur Poletti
http://www.animalpastor-vatican-2013.info/#!petition/c1a9w
As part of his campaign “They are our brothers and sisters!”, Tom, the Animalpastor, will be in Rome, at St Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on 4th of October, 2013 – the day of St Francis of Assisi.
He will be there on behalf of all the tortured and prosecuted animals. He will bless animals and he will leave a personal letter for Pope Francis I, pointing out the importance and responsibility of the Church towards animals, together with your signatures and your personal messages to Pope Francis I.
It doesn’t matter if we are Catholic, atheist, or if we believe in any other religion. What is important is THE one thing that we all have in common: a great love for animals, and the strong desire to make a real difference in the way animals are treated in our world.
So, please sign the petition, and leave a comment for Pope Francis I.
For further information on Tom Animalpastor’s visit in Rome and this petition, please visit: http://www.animalpastor-vatican-2013.info/#!gods-creation/c1ger
and please pay us a visit on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreAllGodsCreation
We thank you very much, in advance, for your signature and for sharing this petition with your friends and contacts.
Click HERE to learn about going vegan
Kaiser Permanente Encourages Plant-Based Diets
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Source Meatout Mondays
Kaiser Permanente, the largest nonprofit healthcare company in the U.S., is letting its doctors and patients know that good health starts with healthy, vegan foods: “Healthy eating may be best achieved with a plant-based diet, which we define as a regimen that encourages whole, plant-based foods and discourages meats, dairy products, and eggs…”
In an effort to address the rising cost of healthcare and skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, the spring issue of The Permanente Journal also urges that, “Physicians should consider recommending a plant-based diet to all their patients…” Healthier foods means healthier people. Healthier people means lower healthcare costs for everyone.
Kaiser Permanente is leading the way noting that, “The future of health care will involve an evolution toward a paradigm where the prevention and treatment of disease is centered not on a pill or surgical procedure, but on another serving of fruits and vegetables.”
Read the peer-reviewed journal article at ThePermanenteJournal.org.
Click HERE to learn about going vegan
PETA’s Vegan Shopping List
Read more…
Go Vegan, Stop the Massive Barbarity
The Billions Slaughtered (note how they are considered “units”)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Why Vegan – Boycott Cruelty!
Compassionate Shopping Guide
Companies That Do Not Test On Animals
Companies That Do Test On Animals
BUAV’s Updated Little Book of Cruelty Free
PETA’s Vegan Shopping List
Read more…
Source: Rabbit Action Alerts by Linda Sue
The Rabbits Need Your Voice!
Sign the pledge HERE and please send letter below
WHOM TO CONTACT
Please copy and paste the below letter (with Rodeo References below) and email them to the block addresses provided here:
lrich@cityofroseburg.org, president@myrtlecreekchamber.com, secretary@myrtlecreekchamber.com, treasurer@myrtlecreekchamber.com , ppinedo@co.fresno.ca.us, townmanager@berryvilleva.gov, news@horizonbroadcastinggroup.com, newsroom@oregonian.com, news@pe.com, blee@fresnobee.com, bclough@fresnobee.com, tsheehan@fresnobee.com, mbenjamin@fresnobee.com, info@nvdaily.com, kvalnews@kval.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Greetings,
I am writing you today as a concerned citizen. There are events taking place at your local rodeos called “Rabbit Scrambles”. This event is a concern as it is extremely harmful to the rabbits involved, both emotionally and physically as they are thrown off the truck, chased after, stepped on, and pulled. It is also sending a terrible message to children about how animals are seen and treated, which can later lead to cruelty to humans. Referencing Video footage of this event, as you can see, is not one isolated rodeo.
Rabbits have a very fragile bone structures to make them light and fast, so grabbing them by a leg or throwing them around most surely causes broken bones – that very likely go untreated, or broken backs, which causes paralysis or death. As prey animals, being chased is one of the worst things you could do to them, so not only did they have to survive being thrown, injured, and now chased down by screaming children, grabbed roughly, accidentally stepped on, they also are literally running for their lives in fear, which is basically torture.
When rabbits are treated well and given care and respect, they are outgoing, full of personality, and are wonderful house pets to millions of people, and they are considered a family pet. However, after the treatment the rabbits at these events have received, it is a wonder that any have survived…or made it through the first year. Rabbits typically live 10+ years when cared for properly.
This unnecessary cruelty really must stop. I am asking you to stand with me and make sure this event does not take place again in your county. Please contact your local rescue groups to come and be on hand to educate families on adoption and care of rabbits and other companion animals as an alternative to this torture of a sentient helpless being.
Giving unwanted animals away as “prizes” only results badly for the animals; there are many options and games for children to have fun – animal cruelty doesn’t have to be one of them.
Video footage:
http://redbarnrabbitrescue.org/2012rodeo.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-2U7DA_oto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1DRpdq-1SE
News Story, Scott Beckstead Oregon state director of the Humane Society :http://www.eugeneweekly.com/article/cruel-rabbit-roundup
Ordinances Involving Rabbits: http://rabbit.org/ordinances-involving-rabbits/
Thank you for your consideration to this urgent appeal.
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BACKGROUND | SOURCE ALDF
All chimpanzees deserve protection — the ones in the wild, yes, but also the ones captive in labs, zoos, and private homes. That’s why we are rallying our supporters to comment on a proposed rule that would protect all chimpanzees under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Will you comment in support of the proposed rule today?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced its proposal to classify captive chimpanzees as endangered under the ESA — the proposed rule would end the “split-listing” of chimpanzees, which incongruously gives endangered species protections to wild members of the species residing in Africa but not to their captive counterparts living in the United States.
Among other things, the split-listing has led to cruel and unnecessary biomedical research on captive chimpanzees, as well as the routine exploitation and abuse of the species for entertainment purposes and as pets. It’s time to remedy this injustice by standing behind the proposed rule to provide all chimpanzees with Engandered Species Act protections.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Leave a comment with the FWS to show your support of classifying all chimpanzees — captive and wild alike — as endangered!
Please note: You need to only submit a comment, no other field is required, even your name.
SAMPLE COMMENT
Thank you for proposing the elimination of the split-listing for captive chimpanzees, which was illegal, ineffective, and harmful to both captive and wild chimpanzees. I am writing to urge you to make the proposed rule final, extending the protections of the Endangered Species Act to all chimpanzees.
For the animals,
Täby County, Sweden, Is Going To Cull Barnacle Geese Because Of Their Pooping On The Lawn
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BACKGROUND | SOURCE ANN NOVEK – WITH THE SKY AS THE CEILING AND THE HEART OUTDOORS
My county, Täby Kommun (County), is going to cull 20 Barnacle Geese ( almost all of the flock) because of their droppings in public parks.
This decision is outrageous because 14 % of all Barnacle Geese are wounded from hunting. This shows as well how humans of today are totally alienated from Nature and Wildlife. They prefer pollutions of all kinds before little droppings on the lawn by Wildlife.
We must also remember that every 8th bird is threatened by extinction and that there’s a biodiversity loss of 50 000 species each year.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Write protest letter to Game Keeper Jan Ledberg:
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Game Keeper Ledberg,
I am extremely alarmed to learn of Täby Kommun’s decision to cruelly massacre 20 Barnacle Geese. 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 in Täby Kommun, 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.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.
Amazon Cruelty: Ban Foie Gras!
Please urge Amazon.com to do the right thing. Take action here.
In May 2013, a Mercy For Animals investigator documented a culture of cruelty at Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale, New York, a company that falsely bills itself as “the humane choice for purchasing foie gras.” The shocking undercover video footage shows:
Workers violently grabbing ducks by their wings and necks and then shoving metal pipes down their throats
Countless ducks hyperventilating as their unnaturally large livers pressed against their lungs making it difficult for them to breathe
Dead ducks—killed by the cruel force-feeding process—callously thrown away into garbage bins
Workers callously grabbing and tossing ducks by their fragile wings into transport cages
Birds with open, bleeding wounds left to suffer in tiny wire cages without proper veterinary care
Fully conscious ducks being shackled upside down and having their throats cut open
After reviewing the undercover footage, Dr. Greg Burkett, DVM, a board-certified avian specialist, stated: “If one looks at the production of foie gras for what it really is—causing a healthy liver to become diseased by forced overfeeding—then eating it could leave a whole different taste in your mouth.”
Dr. Nedim Buyukmihci, emeritus professor of veterinary medicine at the University of California, wrote: “This overfeeding will lead to liver enlargement and malfunction, causing chronic metabolic dysfunction and illness. The ducks at this facility, therefore, are being subjected to extremely inhumane conditions causing them to suffer greatly.”
Workers at this foie gras facility admit that the force-feeding process is so abusive that ducks routinely die from it. Some of the ducks simply choke to death, while others succumb to slow and painful suffocation as their unnaturally enlarged livers press against their lungs and make it impossible for them to breathe.
Force-feeding birds to produce foie gras is considered so blatantly cruel that the practice has been outlawed in California and more than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Israel.
A comprehensive report by the European Union’s Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare examined the production of foie gras and unequivocally concluded: “[F]orce-feeding, as currently practised, is detrimental to the welfare of the birds.”
Dr. Ward Stone, a senior wildlife pathologist at the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, stated: “[T]he short tortured lives of ducks raised for foie gras is well outside the norm of farm practice. Having seen the pathology that occurs from foie gras production, I strongly recommend that this process be outlawed.”
According to Dr. Ian Duncan, a poultry welfare expert and professor in applied ethology at the University of Guelph in Canada, “[F]orce feeding quickly results in birds that are obese and in a pathological state, called hepatic lipidosis or fatty liver disease. There is no doubt that in this pathological state, the birds will feel very ill. In my view it is completely unethical to deliberately promote a diseased state in an animal.”
But it doesn’t take a scientist to understand that foie gras production is cruel and unjustifiable. Leading chefs, restaurants, and grocery retailers, including Costco, Safeway, Wolfgang Puck, Giant Eagle, and Target, refuse to sell foie gras due to its inherent cruelty.
Unfortunately, Amazon.com—the world’s largest online retailer—perpetuates this blatant animal abuse by continuing to sell foie gras worldwide. Amazon.com has both the power and ethical responsibility to help end the cruel force-feeding of ducks by ending the sale of foie gras.
Please urge Amazon.com to do the right thing. Take action here.
Then consider taking further action to help prevent cruelty to ducks and other farmed animals by rejecting foie gras and other animal products, and adopting a compassionate vegetarian diet.
Read more…
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Source NaturalNews.com
By Lance Devon
McDonald’s happy image and its golden arches aren’t the gateway to bliss in Bolivia. This South American country isn’t falling for the barrage of advertising and fast food cooking methods that so easily engulf countries like the United States. Bolivians simply don’t trust food prepared in such little time. The quick and easy, mass production method of fast food actually turns Bolivians off altogether. Sixty percent of Bolivians are an indigenous population who generally don’t find it worth their health or money to step foot in a McDonald’s. Despite its economically friendly fast food prices, McDonald’s couldn’t coax enough of the indigenous population of Bolivia to eat their BigMacs, McNuggets or McRibs.
One indigenous woman, Esther Choque, waiting for a bus to arrive outside a McDonald’s restaurant, said, “The closest I ever came was one day when a rain shower fell and I climbed the steps to keep dry by the door. Then they came out and shooed me away. They said I was dirtying the place. Why would I care if McDonald’s leaves [Bolivia]?”
Fast food chain remained for a decade, despite losses every year
The eight remaining McDonald’s fast food shops that stuck it out in the Bolivian city’s of La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, had reportedly operated on losses every year for a decade. The McDonald’s franchise had been persistent over that time, flexing its franchise’s deep pockets to continue business in Bolivia.
Any small business operating in the red for that long would have folded and left the area in less than half that time. Even as persistent as McDonald’s was in gaining influence there, it couldn’t continue operating in the red. After 14 years of presence in the country, their extensive network couldn’t hold up the Bolivian chain. Store after store shut down as Bolivia rejected the McDonald’s fast food agenda. Soon enough, they kissed the last McDonald’s goodbye.
Deep cultural rejection
The McDonald’s impact and its departure from Bolivia was so lasting and important, that marketing managers immediately filmed a documentary called, “Why McDonalds’s went broke in Bolivia.”
Featuring, cooks, nutritionist, historians, and educators, this documentary breaks down the disgusting reality of how McDonald’s food is prepared and why Bolivians reject the whole fast food philosophy of eating.
The rejection isn’t necessarily based on the taste or the type of food McDonald’s prepared. The rejection of the fast food system stemmed from Bolivian’s mindset of how meals are to be properly prepared. Bolivians more so respect their bodies, valuing the quality of what goes into their stomach. The time it takes for fast food to be prepared throws up a warning flag in their minds. Where other cultures see no risk, eating McDonald’s every week; Bolivians feel that it just isn’t worth the health risk. Bolivians seek well prepared, local meals, and want to know that their food was prepared the right way.
This self respect helps Bolivians avoid processed “restructured meat technology,” often used by fast food joints like McDonald’s.
The McRib: 70 ingredients all restructured into one
Did you know that the McRib is processed with 70 different ingredients which include azodicarbonamide, a flour-bleaching agent often used in producing foamed plastics? McRib’s are basically “restructured meat technology” containing a mixture of tripe, heart, and scalded stomach. Proteins are extracted from this muscle mixture and they bind the pork trimmings together so they can be molded in a factory. The McRib is really just a molded blob of restructured meat, advertised and sold like fresh ribs. There’s nothing real about it, the preparation or the substance. In fact, McRibs really came about because of a chicken shortage. The restructured meat technology approach kept the McRib on the menu, despite the shortage, and the profits continued rolling in.
This is the very disgusting idea that the Bolivians have rejected in their country.
The Bolivian rejection of McDonald’s has set a proper example for the rest of the world to follow.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com
http://www.trueactivist.com/mcdonalds-goes-belly-up-in-bolivia/
US Friends, Please Tell Your U.S. Senators to Support Enhanced Enforcement of Animal Fighting Law
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Please click HERE to take action
Dear Humanitarian,
Animal fighting—whether it involves dogs or birds—is a violent crime that causes immense suffering to countless numbers of innocent animals. It is also associated with gang activity, drugs, gambling, money laundering, illegal guns, and other offenses. Animal fighting operations endanger the whole community.
In the last few years, the federal government has increased coverage of and penalties for animal fighting activities under the Animal Welfare Act, but it is still lacking in one area: the spectator. Spectators are not innocent bystanders; they are active participants in and enablers of these cruel criminal enterprises and should be treated accordingly. Moreover, when a fight is raided, the organizers, promoters, trainers, and owners disperse and blend into the crowd to escape arrest.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and 14 bipartisan cosponsors have reintroduced the Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act (S. 666), to close this loophole. Their bill makes knowingly attending an animal fight punishable by fines and up to one year in prison. Also, recognizing that exposure to animal cruelty—especially the egregious brutality of animal fighting—can desensitize children to violence at an early age, the bill makes it a separate offense, with even higher penalties, to knowingly bring a minor to such an event. This common-sense legislation will improve efforts to rid our communities of this cruel and dangerous crime.
Take Action by clicking here. Please ask your senators in Congress to support S. 666, the Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act. Even if you have already contacted your senators about this, they need to hear from you again. You can send an email through the Compassion Index by clicking here. Once there, you will find suggested talking points to include in your email.
Please be sure to share our “Dear Humanitarian” eAlert with family, friends and co-workers, and encourage them to write, too. As always, thank you very much for your help!
Sincerely,
Cathy Liss
President
Read more…
Wikimedia Commons
Additional footage, including pictures, video, and story HERE.
Petition can be found HERE
Source Examiner
By Elisa Black-Taylor
North Ridgeville Police Chief Mike Freeman has now issued a statement that the part-time “humane” office hired by the city will not be disciplined for the shooting deaths of five young kittens. You can read the original article written only a few hours ago here.
Information has come out that the complainant was concerned about the odor of the cats, plus fleas getting into the home. This apparently gave Accorti the right to remedy the situation in the interest of health. Chief Freeman said the woman agreed to Accorti taking care of the problem, but she thought he would take the kittens to the shelter to be adopted or euthanized there. Not to start shooting in plain sight of her young children, who were watching from an upstairs window.
Despite an online petition, phone calls and emails calling for the firing of Officer Brad Accorti, according to an investigation, Accorti acted within the law when he shot and killed 5 8-10 week old feral kittens who were living in a woodpile on the complainants property.
The Facebook page for the department had to be temporarily taken down due to threatening statements being made. Freeman suggested the woman who called should have made herself more clear on what she wanted done with the kittens. He said shooting is an accepted form of euthanasia at research organizations and that he wouldn’t discipline an officer with 30 years experience in law enforcement.
Freeman stated in a press release Tuesday afternoon “To walk away and leave a safety issue unresolved is irresponsible. At no time does this agency condone or allow the indiscriminate killing of animals, but we will continue to assist residents when there is a safety or nuisance condition.”
Do you want to talk about a safety issue! How about discharging a firearm in a residential neighborhood with children as witnesses. Is this the impression police want children to take with them from a young age?
This officer may be experienced in law enforcement, but he doesn’t know the law. This is a lot of research condensed into just a few paragraphs, making this a long read. Unfortunately, it makes this a time-consuming but necessary read to understand just how many laws this officer has broken.
And for the chief to turn around and blame the woman who called about the kittens is surreal. Put the blame where it should go-with the officer who knew he was violating police policy.
The following are several paragraphs of the law according to the euthanasia laws for the state of Ohio (PDF). Listed below are excerpts that state this officer violated the law, and should face charges of animal cruelty. It’s NOT legal to shoot kittens as a form of euthanasia.
959.06 Destruction of domestic animals.
(A) No person shall destroy any domestic animal by the use of a high altitude decompression chamber or by any method other than a method that immediately and painlessly renders the domestic animal initially unconscious and subsequently dead.
4729.532 Performing euthanasia by means of lethal injection on animal.
(A) No agent or employee of an animal shelter shall perform euthanasia by means of lethal injection on an animal by use of any substance other than combination drugs that contain pentobarbital and at least one noncontrolled substance active ingredient, in a manufactured dosage form, whose only indication is for euthanizing animals, or other substance that the state veterinary medical licensing board and the state board of pharmacy both approve by rule adopted in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code. The agent or employee of an animal shelter when using a lethal solution to perform euthanasia on an animal shall use such solution in accordance with the following methods and in the following order of preference:
(1) Intravenous injection by hypodermic needle;
(2) Intraperitoneal injection by hypodermic needle;
(3) Intracardial injection by hypodermic needle, but only on a sedated or unconscious animal;
(4) Solution or powder added to food.
(B) Except as provided in division (D) of this section, no agent or employee of an animal shelter, other than a registered veterinary technician as defined in section 4741.01 of the Revised Code, shall perform euthanasia by means of lethal injection on an animal unless he has received certification after successfully completing a euthanasia technician certification course as described in this division. The curriculum for a euthanasia technician certification course shall be one that has been approved by the state veterinary medical licensing board, shall be at least sixteen hours in length, and shall include information in at least all of the following areas:
(1) The pharmacology, proper administration, and storage of euthanasia solutions;
(2) Federal and state laws regulating the storage and accountability of euthanasia solutions;
(3) Euthanasia technician stress management;
(4) Proper disposal of euthanized animals.
(C)
(1) Except as provided in division (D) of this section, no agent or employee of an animal shelter shall perform euthanasia by means of lethal injection on animals under this section unless the facility in which he works or is employed is licensed with the state board of pharmacy under section 4729.531 of the Revised Code.
(2) Any agent or employee of an animal shelter performing euthanasia by means of lethal injection shall do so only in a humane and proficient manner that is in conformity with the methods described in division (A) of this section and not in violation of Chapter 959. of the Revised Code.
According to Ohio Rev. Code Ann 959.01 Cruelty to animals is defined as: “Torture an animal, deprive one of necessary sustenance, unnecessarily or cruelly beat, needlessly mutilate or kill, or impound or confine an animal without supplying it during such confinement with a sufficient quantity of good wholesome food and water; affording it access to shelter; carry or convey an animal in a cruel or inhuman[e] manner.” Cruelty to animals is a 2nd degree Misdemeanor with a fine up to $750 and/or imprisonment up to 90 days. Cruelty to companion animals is defined as: “knowingly torture, torment, needlessly mutilate or maim, cruelly beat, poison, needlessly kill, or commit an act of cruelty against a companion animal.” The first offense is a 1st degree Misdemeanor with a fine up to $1000 and/or imprisonment up to 90 days. A second or subsequent offense is a 5th degree Felony with a fine up to $2500 and/or imprisonment up to 12 months.
Ohio SPCA director Teresa Landon is writing a letter to the North Ridgeville Police Department and Mayor David Gillock asking that Accorti be fired and charged with animal cruelty. This writer suggests you do the same. Take the time to read the laws listed above, and you’ll realize that only a trained vet or vet tech using an injection can perform euthanasia in a peaceful setting.
Whom to contact
North Ridgeville Police Chief Mike Freeman
7307 Avon Belden Road
North Ridgeville, OH 44039
Phone 440-327-2191
Fax 440-353-0834
North Ridgeville Mayon G. David Gillock Phone 440-353-0811
Your comments are welcome, but please keep threats out of it, as they won’t help this issue.
Additional sites
http://www.cleveland.com/north-ridgeville/index.ssf/2013/06/north_ridgev…
http://www.straypetadvocacy.org/PDF/AnimalCrueltyLaws.pdf
Sample letter
Dear Chief Freeman,
With respect to the part-time “humane” office hired by the city responsible for the shooting deaths of five young kittens, I respectfully request that Officer Brad Accorti be fired immediately and that penalties be applied. First, only a trained vet or vet tech using an injection can perform euthanasia in a peaceful setting. Second, according to Ohio Rev. Code Ann 959.01, these actions would clearly fall under that category of animal abuse. Third, according to 959.06, “No person shall destroy any domestic animal by the use of a high altitude decompression chamber or by any method other than a method that immediately and painlessly renders the domestic animal initially unconscious and subsequently dead”.
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 these kittens’ violent killing, we would be serving an injustice to both animals and society.
Please respect the victims by penalizing the guilty and 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 both impermissible and punishable.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
Read more…
Source HuffPost Green
By Bruce Friedrich
More than 99 percent of eggs used by McDonald’s in the U.S. come from chickens confined in tiny, barren cages, in what is certainly the most abusive factory farming system in existence.
As you can see in this video from a Mercy for Animals investigation into a McDonald’s supplier, the animals’ muscles and bones deteriorate from lack of use, and these inquisitive and doting mothers go insane from having almost every natural desire thwarted.
I remember when I saw my first video from a battery cage; I couldn’t believe the mummified bodies of hens in cages with live hens, the investigators peeling the rotting corpses from the cages. I was sure it was a particularly bad “farm.” But it turned out that all of the many subsequent undercover investigations found this same gruesome reality in battery cage facilities, and it’s common enough that the industry has a name for it — “cage fatigue.” It happens when the animals’ bodies deteriorate so thoroughly that they become paralyzed, causing them to dehydrate to death. Click here or here for documentation and video.
The animals also go insane. It’s worth remembering that chickens do extremely well in tests of cognitive function and behavioral sophistication. Discovery Magazine reported on research from the University of Bristol: “Chickens do not just live in the present but can anticipate the future and demonstrate self-control… something previously attributed only to humans and other primates…” But in battery cages, chickens can barely move; like a dog or cat would in similar conditions, the animals go insane from the lack of mental stimulation.
In Europe, McDonald’s has received awards for getting rid of this same system beginning in 1998. In 2008, I attended a ceremony in the Houses of Parliament in the UK at which a McDonald’s Europe executive said about getting rid of battery cages, “We believe this is the right thing to do. This is the latest step in McDonald’s evolution from being a fast food company to a company that serves good food, fast.”
He was right, and it’s way past time for McDonald’s in the United States to listen. McDonald’s nearly-exclusive use of battery cage eggs in the U.S. is indefensible, grotesquely unethical, and hugely inconsistent with its own policies in other countries. Eating at McDonald’s, of course, directly supports the abuse.
It’s worth noting that Burger King — McDonald’s top competitor — has pledged to do away with its support for the system completely.
If you know someone who eats at McDonald’s, please send them a link to this article. Please also share it on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.
And please click here to send an email to McDonald’s executives urging them to take action. Together, we can convince McDonald’s to stop supporting horrific cruelty to animals.
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
Concerned residents of Kentucky Circle Village, a senior living community in Denver, alerted PETA upon hearing that management was trapping local squirrels and relocating them five or more miles away—and “with PETA’s approval.” Nothing could be further from the truth! Squirrels transplanted beyond a one-mile radius (of where they’re trapped) have trouble finding adequate sustenance and often fall victim to predators, foreign disease and parasites, and territorial maulings by other squirrels. These initiatives also leave unweaned babies to starve when mothers are removed. We expressed our concerns to the community’s executive director, only to be informed that trapping is underway and several squirrels have already been dumped more than 10 miles away! Despite offering our assistance with effective, humane squirrel-control methods, we were hung up on. Now your voice is needed!
Please politely urge Kentucky Circle Village to halt cruel squirrel trapping before more animals suffer—and then forward this message widely!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Polite comments can be directed to:
Ann Lane
Executive Director
Kentucky Circle Village
303-756-5218
ann_lane@msn.com
Walter Rowell
President of the Board
Senior Homes of Colorado Foundation/Kentucky Circle Village
whrowell@aol.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Executive Director Lane and President Rowell,
I am disturbed to learn that management in the Kentucky Circle Village, a senior living community in Denver, was trapping local squirrels and relocating them five or more miles away. Please discontinue this practice and allow me to elaborate.
Squirrels transplanted beyond a one-mile radius (of where they’re trapped) have trouble finding adequate sustenance and often fall victim to predators, foreign disease, and parasites, and territorial maulings by other squirrels. These initiatives also leave unweaned babies to starve when mothers are removed.
Please halt cruel squirrel trapping before more animals suffer.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
Read more…
Ashley Fruno for PETA
BACKGROUND
Recently, Philippine Airlines flew 190 pig-tailed macaque monkeys, who were crammed into tiny crates, from Indonesia to the Los Angeles International Airport. Once there, the monkeys were transported thousands of kilometers in loud, dark, and terrifying cargo trucks to a laboratory where monkeys have been subjected to cruel and deadly experiments in which they are intentionally infected with diseases and have holes drilled into their skulls.
Philippine Airlines continues to ship monkeys to laboratories for use in experimentation, even though almost every other major airline has already stopped this cruel practice. Many of the monkeys who are transported on Philippine Airlines flights to laboratories are torn away from their families in the wild.
Fortunately, air passengers concerned about the treatment of animals have other options. Almost all major passenger and cargo airlines in the world—including Air China, Thai Airways, China Southern Airlines, Singapore Airlines, EVA Air, and Cathay Pacific—now refuse to ship primates to laboratories.
Contact officials with Philippine Airlines, and tell them that you will refuse to book flights with their airline until they stop shipping primates to their deaths in laboratories.
PETITION
Please click HERE to sign
WHOM TO CONTACT
wecare@pal.com.ph
SAMPLE LETTER
I am extremely disturbed to learn the cruelty inflicted on primates as captured, imprisoned, and exported by Philippine Airlines for research, the efficacy of which is unproven, demonstrably cost-prohibitive, and lethal, not only on non-human animals, but also on human animals. These experiments subject these sentient animals to enormous suffering and pain, and I respectfully request that you immediately cease your participation in such an unethical practice.
Animals are sentient beings, capable of thought and emotion, including love and suffering. I plea with you to acknowledge this important condition that both humans and non-humans share. We must teach our children respect for, and empathy towards, animals, for our children are undeserving of this cruel legacy whereby animals are exploited and suffered for human greed and egotistical motive, which only fosters the dangerous premise of acceptable suffering against all animals, human and non-. Please consider my request, immediately cease causing harm to these inquisitive and intelligent animals by discontinuing your participation in the testing business. Many other international companies, including Air China, Thai Airways, China Southern Airlines, Singapore Airlines, EVA Air, and Cathay Pacific have already made the decision to stop the transportation of animals for such unethical practices, and I hope you, too, make the similar decision.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.
NAME
Our Compass 