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.
Tell the Audubon Society: Dismiss Ted Williams!
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Please click HERE to sign and send petition
Background | Source Alley Cat Allies
It’s beyond unconscionable.
A high-ranking representative of the National Audubon Society just published a major newspaper editorial calling on the public to kill millions of cats by poisoning them with Tylenol.
In the Orlando Sentinel, Ted Williams, editor-at-large for Audubon Magazine, advised readers that Tylenol is “a completely selective feral-cat poison.”
This isn’t just cruel and irresponsible, but also illegal and sickening. Poisoning is a slow and cruel death for cats. It’s just disgusting to think that anyone from a national animal advocacy organization could advocate poisoning cats. Reckless doesn’t even cover it. It’s a dangerous new low.
We have to respond immediately.
Please join Alley Cat Allies and send an email directly to the National Audubon Society CEO David Yarnold and Chairman B. Holt Thrasher calling on them to denounce this shameful, hateful article. Mr. Williams must be removed from his office immediately.
Click here to send a message directly to Audubon CEO David Yarnold and Chairman B. Holt Thrasher to fire Ted Williams. We can’t have these kinds of reckless pleas for cats to be murdered.
This isn’t the first time we’ve had to respond to something like this. In 2011, Nico Dauphine, a Smithsonian Institution bird researcher was fired for attempting to poison feral cats outside her apartment building. She was convicted of attempted animal cruelty.
A spotlight was shined on Dauphine’s incorrigible behavior because Alley Cat Allies and our supporters demanded it.
We have to do that again now. The law doesn’t equivocate: killing a cat is a criminal offense in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Ted Williams used a major media platform to call for cats to be illegally and torturously killed. It cannot be excused.
The Audubon Society should respond with swift and decisive action to dismiss Williams.
Our voices are stronger when we’re together and we have to speak out right away.
Thank you.
Read more…
Please help Tania the elephant
BACKGROUND | SOURCE FACEBOOK & STOP ANIMAL ABUSE
Tania is a 37-year-old elephant suffering a life of solitary confinement in a 90 square foot area at the Targu-Mures Zoo in Romania. She was transferred from an Italian zoo in September 2012. At a young age she was sent to a zoo in France where she appears to have lived for more than 20 years. She is confined alone showing signs of distress due to not having enough space. She is confined to only 90 sq ft with no adequate habitat to fit her needs. It is appalling the lack of space provided to her. Tania has nowhere near the amount of space needed, whether she is inside or outside; the place is too small for ANY elephant. Even 10,000 sq ft. is not enough for an elephant. Please read the sample letter for the remaining information on her.
PETITION
Please click HERE to sign
WHOM TO CONTACT | EMAIL BLOCK
SG-PLAINTES@ec.europa.eu, jaume.duch@europarl.europa.eu, efca@efca.europa.eu, Office@roembus.org, acsbucharest@state.gov, newseditor@independent.co.uk, drp@gov.ro, editoronline@romanialibera.ro, office@rtv.net, office@ansvsa.ro, redactia@romanialibera.ro, NEWSMANAGER@FOXNEWS.COM
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I have just learned of Tania, an Asian elephant, at the Trgu Mures Zoo; Tania is confined alone and showing signs of distress due to not having enough space. She is confined to only 90 square feet with no adequate habitat to fulfill her needs. This is appalling – Tania has nowhere near the amount of space necessary, whether she is inside or outside; the place is too small for any elephant.
Due to extremely cold winters in Romania, Tania is housed for up for six months at a time, which drives elephants insane, whether keepers are present or not. This has accelerated the deterioration of her feet. No veterinarian can correct this medical problem as long as she cannot move, even in the small outside enclosure. Her feet will eventually kill her. Even though she is alone, nothing can be solved by bringing in other elephants because there is not enough room for them all, and if they do not get along, one could be killed.
I would also like to address Tania’s unsecured fencing. If electrified, it could kill her; if not she could easily bolt, and the public could be in grave danger. If her keepers are unable to provide the proper security for her, it could result in her being chained and leading to mental anguish. Signs of this would be swaying and bobbing which she already exhibits.
Tania has shown too many signs of distress as you can see in the video links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-egOg_ROYSw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar4xl_6BhEo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ce99fZzg4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgeatP7qX-U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI__NLJsiPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pisaO4v9FGM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1Y95ZFBEJQ
The following link is to give you an idea of the habitat size required for an animal this large:
http://www.elephantpepper.org/downloads/Concept%20of%20home%20range.pdf
I ask that Tania be given the life every elephant deserves, one of freedom. As you are aware, thousands of people are horrified regarding her treatment, and even though new, they are inadequate facilities for Tania. I ask the authorities in control of her allow advocates transfer her to a sanctuary.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
Read more…
Urgent PETA alerts, please take action
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
1. Please click HERE to speak out against cruel live export
2. Please click HERE to save monkeys from being shipped by Air France
3. Please click HERE to halt prairie dog massacre
4. Please click HERE to urge feds to cut funding for cruel experiments at UCSF
5. Please click HERE to urge the North Face to ditch down
1. Background
After 19 years, Ireland has just resumed its live-export trade with Libya – a decision that condemns thousands of animals to immense suffering and represents a major step backwards for Irish agriculture.
On the night of 19 February, almost 3,000 cows were loaded onto the Al Mahmoud Express and dispatched on a long and terrifying voyage to Libya, where they faced a cruel and painful death. After enduring 10 days of misery aboard the severely crowded ship, the animals were killed in North African slaughterhouses, which often handle animals with a barbarity that would be illegal in the European Union.
Cows are intelligent animals with diverse personalities. They can remember faces, and they mourn the loss of their friends and loved ones. There is no way that the Irish government can guarantee that even minimum welfare standards are met once the animals leave Irish soil. Undercover investigators in the Middle East have documented that abattoir workers literally dragged cows and sheep to their deaths, slashed the tendons on their legs, poked or stabbed them in the eyes and killed them with blunt knives without stunning them first.
Sadly, this is likely to be the first of many live-animal trades between Ireland and Libya – unless we take action now to prevent any more animals from experiencing a similarly horrific fate. Please ask the Irish Agriculture Minister to put a stop to any further live-export shipments.
2. Background
Air France is one of the largest traffickers of primates in the world. The airline claims to be “making the sky the best place on Earth” – so why does it continue to ship terrified monkeys to laboratories to face imprisonment and torture?
Almost every other major airline in the world has shown compassion by refusing to transport monkeys for animal testing – including United, Aer Lingus, Air China, American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Southern, Delta, Lufthansa and Qantas. Air France even cancelled an individual shipment of primates after a public outcry by PETA and its supporters. Now we must convince the airline to end this barbarism once and for all.
Many of the monkeys Air France flies to laboratories have been snatched from the wild and ripped away from their families. Crammed into tiny wooden crates in the cargo holds of passenger flights, they endure a dark and terrifying journey. After landing, the animals are transported to facilities such as Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories and Covance in the US, where they face horrors such as mutilation, poisoning, food deprivation, infection with painful diseases and psychological torment.
Please ask Air France to stop giving primates a one-way ticket to experimentation and death. Tell officials that you won’t be flying with the airline until it ends this cruel practice!
3. Background
The city of Clovis, New Mexico, plans to cruelly poison ground squirrels who live in and around Ned Houk Park in an attempt to prevent the animals from moving into neighboring properties. The indiscriminate poison Rozol will be used—it causes convulsions, vomiting, internal bleeding, gradual cardiac collapse, and a variety of other reactions that result in immense suffering and a slow, agonizing death. Death can take days. Poisons also pose definitive risks to nontarget companion animals and wildlife who come into contact with the bait or tainted carcasses. The poison is scheduled to be set this week, and your voice is needed!
Using the form HERE, please politely urge city officials to scrap this cruel and dangerous plan. If ground squirrel control is insisted upon, officials should advise residents about the many humane, effective methods available to keep unwanted prairie dogs away. Please forward this message widely!
4. Background
The University of California-San Francisco (UCSF)—which receives half a billion dollars a year in taxpayer funds for research—has a long history of abusing mice, monkeys, and other animals imprisoned in its laboratories and violating federal animal welfare laws and guidelines. New documents obtained by PETA reveal that these miserable conditions continue to plague the more than 1 million animals in UCSF’s laboratories.
Government reports and internal UCSF records document more than 100 violations of federal animal welfare laws and guidelines in just the past few years. Among the dozens of violations:
Experimenters didn’t provide pain relief to mice and rats who had their skulls, backs, and abdomens cut into.
Experimenters placed live newborn mice inside a freezer meant for dead animals.
Experimenters cut out both of a rabbit’s eyes in an unapproved surgery.
Experimenters cut the toes off of mice without pain relief, and mice died from dehydration because staff failed to notice that they didn’t have any water.
A rhesus monkey named Peanut was subjected to multiple invasive brain surgeries and was deliberately deprived of food so that he would perform tasks while locked in a restraint chair. Peanut lost 25 percent of his body weight, but it was only after he was killed that experimenters realized that Peanut’s jaw didn’t open properly and that he probably hadn’t been able to chew food.
A monkey named Squinty suffered with chronic dermatitis for more than a year. Red rashes and open lesions covered his body, and one medical report noted that the condition was so severe that there was “[n]o normal skin to provide a comparison.”
Another monkey named Petra was subjected to invasive brain experiments and suffered chronic and painful complications, including a terrible bacterial infection in the wound where her head had been cut open. Experimenters continued to torment Petra for nearly two years despite her deteriorating health. She rapidly began to lose weight, circled endlessly in her cage, and ripped out her own hair.
UCSF’s history of violating federal animal welfare laws and guidelines dates back more than 15 years and includes a $92,500 fine that the university was forced to pay in 2005 for dozens of violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) policies require facilities receiving taxpayer money to abide by animal welfare laws and guidelines as a condition of their receiving grants, but last year, UCSF received more than $500 million in taxpayer money—half of which was likely spent on experiments involving animals—even though it continues to regularly violate these provisions.
Please join PETA and call on NIH to cut taxpayer funding for experiments on animals at UCSF.
5. Background
The North Face stuffs its jackets and sleeping bags with feathers from birds who are force-fed for the cruel production of foie gras. Force-feeding is a painful process in which birds have tubes rammed down their throats and their stomachs pumped so full of corn mush that their livers swell to as much as 10 times their normal size. Foie gras producers boost their profits by selling the feathers from these force-fed birds.
Other birds used for down are often pinned down as hurried workers yank fistfuls of feathers from the birds’ sensitive bodies while they are still alive, often plucking them so violently that they rip open the birds’ delicate skin, and then sew up the gaping wounds using a needle and thread and no painkillers.
The vast majority of birds used for down spend their entire lives in crowded, filthy conditions on factory farms. When they are sent to slaughter, their throats are slit—often while fully conscious—and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. All down comes from birds who suffer and die violently and painfully.
Read more…
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE BUAV
Pressure on airlines to start transporting primates again as industry has problems finding airlines willing to fly monkeys destined for research.
In the past few months, four key international carriers have stopped the transport of primates for research – Air Canada, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and Continental Airlines. This is having a major impact on the international trade in primates. In particular, laboratories in the USA and Canada are trying hard to secure new airlines willing to become involved in this cruel business or persuade others to lift their embargo.
On 1st March, China Eastern Airlines announced a suspension to the transportation of primates for research purposes. Until then, China Eastern had been one of the main airlines transporting primates from China for research purposes to the USA.
According to a tip-off received by the BUAV, Hainan Airlines has been asked to transport primates from China to Toronto in Canada and Seattle in the USA for research purposes. In February 2012, following a BUAV campaign, Hainan Airlines announced that it would no longer be involved in the transportation of primates for the research industry. However, we understand that Hainan Airlines is now reconsidering its position but is concerned about bad publicity and has requested that any future involvement remains confidential. We have also been told that China Southern Airlines has been approached regarding its position on transporting primates to the USA. Last year, the airline announced it would suspend transporting primates to Los Angeles Airport.
It is important for Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines to know the strength of public feeling on this issue. Please ask both airlines to keep their primate shipment embargo and not change their stance on this important issue. Please write polite emails/letters to the below.
For further information on the BUAV Cargo Cruelty Campaign, see HERE.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Hainan Airlines regional office email webetservice@hnair.com
China Southern Airlines email csnib@csair.com
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
I am writing in support of the BUAV Cargo Cruelty campaign.
I was shocked to learn that your airline is involved in the transportation of monkeys to laboratories. The international trade in primates for research is a global industry that involves misery, suffering, and death on a massive scale. The capture and confinement of such primates causes anxiety and stress. Transportation by air serves only to exacerbate these problems and contributes to further suffering. Primates destined for the research industry are packed into small wooden crates (usually too small to allow them to stand up) and travel as cargo, predominantly on passenger air flights to destinations around the world. In addition to the cramped conditions, the monkeys may have to endure delays, inadequate ventilation, noise, and extreme temperature fluctuations as they are shipped on extremely long journeys to research laboratories across the world.
Other major airlines to have stopped transporting primates for research include British Airways, United Airlines, Northwest Airlines, South African Airways, Delta Airlines, Eva Air, China Airlines, American Airlines, and Caribbean Airlines. There is now only a small number of passenger airlines that continues to be involved in this grim business. Please be certain yours is not one of them.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
Urge Foie Gras Pimps to Ditch Diseased Livers
Please click HERE to sign and send automatic letter
PETA’s investigation of Palmex, Inc. (“Palmex”), a factory farm outside Montréal that is part of Rougié, the self-proclaimed “world’s #1 producer of foie gras,” found that Palmex condemns gentle ducks to spend the last few weeks before they are slaughtered in barren metal cages that are not much bigger than their own bodies. The ducks are denied all that is natural and important to them and cannot spread a single wing or take even two steps in any direction.
We need your help now to end this cruelty.
Foie gras production is so cruel that 15 countries have banned it, including Australia, Germany, Israel, and the U.K. But various stores continue to sell the fatty, diseased livers of ducks raised and killed for Rougié.
Please sign the petition HERE to request that the businesses selling Rougié foie gras—supplied by Palmex and others—do the right thing and ditch this disgusting, vile product.
Speak Up! No Chimp Left Behind!
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
BACKGROUND | SOURCE IDA
Until March 23, NIH is accepting public input on the chimpanzee retirement recommendations. They have set up a webform for comments, that you can access here. The form on that page has many fields for comments on each specific recommendation, but you can just scroll to the end where it says “Overall Comments” and copy and paste the below message, or submit your own response.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Please click HERE for online contact form. Please scroll to the very bottom and enter sample letter (or your words) in “Overall Comments” field, enter the number in the box, and then click “Save Survey”
SAMPLE LETTER
I am delighted to learn that the NIH is considering retiring most chimpanzees under its control from research laboratories to sanctuaries. I applaud you and the Working Group on the Use of Chimpanzees in NIH-Supported Research for taking this important step.
I ask that you accept the Working Group’s recommendations, but reject the one recommendation that NIH maintain a colony of 50 chimpanzees for possible future research. There is neither scientific nor ethical justification to maintain a colony.
I also ask that you and the Council recommend the retirement to sanctuary of those chimpanzees who remain in private laboratories. I understand that since they are not under your jurisdiction, you are not able to render decisions about them, but a positive recommendation from your respected Council would be an invaluable step to according them the freedom the NIH acknowledges they deserve.
Take Action For Wolves Today
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Please click HERE to sign and send petition
Gray wolves are struggling to recover in the Pacific Northwest, California, southern Rocky Mountains and Northeast — but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is drafting a proposal to delist them in these states.
To “delist” means to remove the protections of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This would be a death sentence for wolves.
More than 1,200 wolves in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes region have been massacred since they lost ESA protection in 2011, when the species was removed from the list by political fiat instead of science.
Wolves across these states are slaughtered by bowhunters, gunned down by “recreational” hunters, tortured by trappers in steel-jaw foothold traps and snares, and subjected to brutal “management” methods, including aerial gunning. The same fate awaits wolves in other regions who are barely hanging on. Delisting would subject them to the same massacre we’re seeing in the Rocky Mountain states and the Great Lakes states where they’ve already lost protection.
Tell USFWS to keep gray wolves protected under the ESA. Tell them delisting is premature, because wolf populations have not yet recovered, and because the prejudices and misconceptions that led to their near elimination across the continent are still present.
Read more…
LivingSocial: Stop Promoting Baby Beaters
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
BACKGROUND
Ringling trainers routinely beat elephants and jab them with sharp, metal bullhooks in order to force them to perform. Heartbreaking photos reveal how Ringling circus trainers cruelly force baby elephants to learn tricks.
Despite receiving information from PETA about Ringling’s long history of animal abuse, online deal site LivingSocial continues to promote the cruel circus through an online ticket deal.
Please contact LivingSocial’s CEO and its head of communications and politely ask them to ask them to agree never to promote Ringling again.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Send polite comments to:
Tim O’Shaughnessy
CEO of LivingSocial
1-888-808-6676
tim@livingsocial.com
Andrew Weinstein
Head of Communications, LivingSocial
andrew.weinstein@livingsocial.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear CEO O’Shaughnessy and Head of Communications Weinstein,
I am extremely disappointed to learn that LivingSocial continues to promote Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus through an online ticket deal despite the circus’s record of animal abuse. Indeed, Ringling was recently fined $270,000 – the largest penalty ever given to a circus – by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for dozens of violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
Ringling Bros. rips still-nursing baby elephants away from their protective mothers, chains them for up to 100 hours at a time during transport, beats them, and shocks them with electric prods in order to force them to perform tricks that are confusing and unnatural to them. Corporations are distancing themselves from the negative publicity that surrounds Ringling. After learning about Ringling’s controversial history, MasterCard, Visa, Whole Foods, Denny’s, Lucky Brand, IGT, Lukoil, Sears, and other companies terminated their Ringling sponsorships or promotions. Burger King, Ford Motor Co., and General Mills ended their sponsorships of another animal-based circus after learning about these issues from PETA.
Please terminate your Ringling Bros. support right away. I won’t utlize LivingSocial and will tell my friends, family, and other contacts to do the same until you do so. Please do the right thing by taking action regarding this urgent appeal.
NAME
Read more…
Urge Federal Officials to Halt Cruel Poison Drop in Guam
Wikimedia Commons
Please click HERE to sign and send automatic letter
Background | Source PETA
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Division of Wildlife Services (USDA-Wildlife Services) has bizarre plans to airdrop dead mice attached to small parachutes around an Air Force base on Guam. Officials hope the mice, whose mouths will be stuffed with acetaminophen, will become entangled in the trees where invasive brown tree snakes reside and feed. Acetaminophen will then cause renal and liver failure in animals who take the bait, resulting in a slow, agonizing death that can take days or even weeks for snakes and others with slow metabolisms. Not only is this method exceedingly cruel, it is also indiscriminate, posing a danger to carnivores, scavengers, and aquatic life. USDA-Wildlife Services claims that this mass poisoning initiative is needed to keep the unwanted reptiles from being inadvertently transported to Hawaii, yet a brown tree snake has not been detected on those islands in 17 years! The drops are scheduled to occur in April or May, and your voice is needed.
Using the form HERE, please politely urge USDA-Wildlife Services officials to scrap this cruel and dangerous initiative. If brown tree snake control is insisted upon, then ask officials to find a more responsible plan. And please forward this message widely!
Read more…
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Please click HERE to sign and send automatic letter
Background | Source PETA
For decades, bears have been held in barren concrete pits and tiny cages, where they are forced to beg for food and are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them at roadside zoos in Cherokee, North Carolina. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has repeatedly cited these facilities for violating the minimum standards of the federal Animal Welfare Act, and the agency recently fined one of the facilities and suspended its license after charging it with more than a dozen violations, including feeding the bears inappropriate food, providing inadequate veterinary care and inadequate housing, and keeping incompatible animals together. A recent PETA investigation of this same facility revealed that staff members were deliberately depriving bears of food and that the animals are so stressed from being constantly confined to small concrete pits that they pace repeatedly and gnaw at the metal cage bars. PETA’s investigation also uncovered drug use, wage-law violations, racism against Native Americans, and more.
These depraved exhibits are a black eye for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. These roadside zoos—operated on tribal land by non-natives, at least some of whom engage in discriminatory practices toward Native Americans and and all of whom cruelly keep bears in barren pits or tiny cages, contrary to the Cherokee tradition of respecting all life—are an affront to the tribe, and it’s time that they be shut down once and for all.
And the tribe is considering doing just that! Tribal elders, after learning about the abuse and suffering occurring on tribal land, approached the tribal council about closing the bear pits. On the evening of this Wednesday, March 6, the council will meet to discuss closing the bear pits, and on March 7, it is expected to vote on the matter. But the bears need your help. A lot of pressure is being put on the council to keep the bear pits open, despite the suffering and racism and the fact that they stigmatize the entire tribe. The council members need to hear from as many people as possible about the importance of closing the bear pits and sending the bears to reputable sanctuaries.
Please refrain from using the words “bear” and “Cherokee” in your e-mail subject line to avoid having your e-mail blocked.
Read more…
Urgent! Speak Out Against Cruel Blood Sport in Virginia
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE PETA
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) is drafting new regulations pertaining to the cruel “penning” of foxes and coyotes in Virginia. Penning involves trapping and trucking wild foxes and coyotes long distances, only to throw them into fenced enclosures, where packs of frantic dogs are released upon them. The terrified wild animals are chased repeatedly over the course of several days and weeks. Those who grow weary are mauled—often torn apart limb by limb. Animals who manage to escape the pens can spread disease to local wildlife. VDGIF staff members will submit their recommendations to the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries on March 20. Your voice is desperately needed!
Graphic videos of penning can be found on the Internet. Click here to see an example.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Bob Duncan, Executive Director
Virginia Department of Inland Game and Fisheries
http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/contact/directory/send-message/?id=1
David Whitehurst, Director
Bureau of Wildlife Resources Virginia Department of Inland Game and Fisheries http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/contact/directory/send-message/?id=2
Please also reach out to the members of the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries and politely ask them to vote against all regulations that perpetuate fox and coyote penning operations. And then forward this message widely! Please copy and paste these e-mail addresses for the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries into your “To” box:
congressional.district1@dgif.virginia.gov; congressional.district2@dgif.virginia.gov; congressional.district3@dgif.virginia.gov; congressional.district4@dgif.virginia.gov; congressional.district5@dgif.virginia.gov; congressional.district6@dgif.virginia.gov; congressional.district7@dgif.virginia.gov; congressional.district8@dgif.virginia.gov; congressional.district9@dgif.virginia.gov; brent.clarke@dgif.virginia.gov; congressional.district11@dgif.virginia.gov
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
Penning involves trapping and trucking wild foxes and coyotes long distances, only to throw them into fenced enclosures, where packs of frantic dogs are released upon them. The terrified wild animals are chased repeatedly over the course of several days and weeks. Those who grow weary are mauled—often torn apart limb by limb. Animals who manage to escape the pens can spread disease to local wildlife.
Indeed, a brutal blood sport in which trapped coyotes and foxes are hunted and ripped apart by often-times medicated hounds, coyote and fox penning are horrific reminders of sanctioned barbarism. Non-human animals, including many obtained through illegal animal trafficking and acquisition across state lines, are brutally trapped in painful manners and used as bait in vicious competitive hunting games. These games, pitting trapped fox and coyotes against hunting dogs, typically end in bloody brutality, the animals prohibited from escape and ripped apart by doped hounds.
Please recommend a full ban on fox and coyote penning operations. This barbaric activity causes extreme suffering, harms local ecosystems, and is enjoyed only by small group of hunters.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.
NAME
Read more…
Animal-tested cosmetics bans go into effect
NEAVS
Sign a petition to show your support for companies who do not sell in China.
Source, NEAVS: As of Jan. 1, all products tested on animals are no longer allowed in Israel.
As of March 11, all personal care products and their ingredients sold and manufactured in the E.U. must be cruelty-free.
Both the E.U. and Israeli laws expand earlier bans on cosmetic product testing on animals within their borders. The new laws now ban any animal-tested product manufactured worldwide.
Meanwhile, the government of India is exploring a cosmetic animal testing ban of its own. If India passes a ban, there will be more than a billion people worldwide using only cruelty-free products.
NEAVS, in addition to its U.S.-based work, is part of international coalitions such as the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics’ Leaping Bunny Program and Cruelty Free International, who all seek to end animal testing worldwide. While we celebrate these worldwide victories, we know it’s long overdue for the U.S. to follow suit. Learn how you can go cruelty-free through Leaping Bunny shopping guides and free mobile apps highlighting certified companies.
In related news, the Paul Mitchell hair care company launched a partnership with Cruelty Free International and has pledged not to sell products in China until it ends animal testing requirements. Sign a petition to show your support for companies who do not sell in China.
NEAVS grants for students at alternatives conference
In January, 13 students intent on careers in alternatives to animal experimentation, testing, and use in education or training attended the 1st International Conference of Alternatives to Animal Experimentation of the Portuguese Society for Humane Education (SPEdH) in Almada, Portugal through the generosity of a NEAVS grant program.
According to Constança Carvalho, a conference organizer, students came away with new understandings about animal use and many said they would pursue careers in alternatives. One attendee noted, “I had given up the idea of becoming a researcher after graduation because I didn’t want to use animals and now I realize I can do more for animals than being a conscientious objector. I can work in the development and validation of alternatives.”
NEAVS 2013 grant winners: Sofia Esteves and Andriana Cabecinhas, marine biology and biotechnology; Tiago Gonçalves, veterinary medicine; Gonçalo Silva, Manuel Mendes, and Célia Feijão, biology; Maria Rocha, Liliane Scarpin, and Ana Oliveira, medicine; Carlota Pina, law; Mafalda Torres, chemistry; Inês Martins, nursing; and Susana Lopes, psychology.
“Medics to do no harm to animals …”
Wikimedia Commons
Yesterday (2/25), The Washington Post ran a cover story highlighting PETA’s vigorous and long-standing efforts to stop the U.S. military from shooting, stabbing, dismembering, and killing thousands of goats and pigs each year in crude medical training drills.
Our years of campaigning for the use of more humane and effective training methods recently pinnacled when President Barack Obama signed a bill requiring the Department of Defense to submit to Congress, by this-coming Friday, a detailed strategy and timeline for the phase-out of these deadly exercises. This is the first time in history that Congress has passed a bill that seeks to protect animals from being abused in military training exercises.
As The Washington Post story discusses, this effort was bolstered last year when PETA released disturbing, never-before-seen undercover footage showing live goats as they were stabbed, had their organs yanked out, and had their limbs broken and cut off with tree trimmers during a military training drill, all while the animals moaned and kicked. The video prompted action by federal authorities and Congress and led to an international outcry from compassionate people like you, including high-profile military veterans Oliver Stone, Bob Barker, and Gideon Raff as well as current and former military doctors and medics.
On top of that, PETA researchers and military doctors published a first-of-its-kind study in the military’s own medical journal showing that the U.S. is shamefully one of the last NATO nations that still maims and torments animals for medical training.
In recent years, we’ve convinced the Army and Navy to replace cruel training laboratories involving monkeys, cats, and ferrets in favor of human-like simulators. Now we’re close to ending the abuse of the animals most frequently and violently killed by the military.
Thank you for supporting these efforts. We urge you now to take a moment to write to the Department of Defense so that it hears loud and clear that the public wants an immediate switch from cruel animal laboratories to modern and humane simulation tools.
Mamaroneck, NY, Set to Slaughter Canada Geese in Parks
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE FRIENDS OF ANIMALS
The town of Mamaroneck, NY located in Westchester County on Long Island Sound, announced it’s hiring USDA agents this summer to annihilate Canada geese who reside in Harbor Island Park, the town’s largest park, and other areas. USDA’s “Wildlife Services” will also destroy eggs in nests, in addition to rounding-up and killing adult geese and goslings starting in June 2013.
Mayor Norm Rosenblum, who ordered the killing, claims goose droppings are too numerous — charging ahead with an intolerant, misguided assault — even though Mamaroneck purchased a $30,000 “Toro Rake-O-Vac” machine to effectively remove goose droppings from grassy areas and parks. Go figure.
The Mayor needs a different mindset, and plan to use the machine recently purchased with tax dollars to clean up goose droppings in parks. Officials must make it a policy to clean up waste matter instead of saying all geese within town limits must die. Posting signs and enforcing no-feeding and littering rules are also sensible steps.
Mayor Rosenblum told News 12 Westchester that Mamaroneck paid for dogs to chase the geese away but “it didn’t work.” Friends of Animals could have predicted that. Harassing geese from areas won’t work because if flat, grassy areas remain unchanged. Geese will move in when others leave, occupying those areas for nesting, especially in the summer.
Habitat and landscape modifications are environmentally sound, long-term ways to deter geese from areas where they are seen as problematic — clearly what’s needed in Mamaroneck. Co-existence with geese and other wildlife neighbors is required as a part of evolved suburban living. Is Mayor Rosenblem prepared to spend the residents’ taxes each year to kill geese instead of implementing the effective strategies Friends of Animals endorses?
Geese are attracted to areas with short, mowed grass with open sight lines as safe nesting areas. Growing grass longer in areas, planting native shrubs and trees to block sight lines (geese like to watch for predators), will deter geese from ponds, shores and parkland — reducing the time they spend in any one spot — especially for the 6 week period in summer when they’re moulting.
Friends of Animals produces a Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual detailing this process, and hopes to meet with Mayor Rosenblum to present him with the manual. We’ll urge him to implement the changes and spare the geese.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Village of Mamaroneck -Mayor Norman S. Rosenblum
Phone: 914-777-7738
E-Mail: nrosenblum@vomny.org
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Mayor Rosenblum,
I am extremely alarmed to learn of Mamaroneck’s decision to hire USDA agents next summer to cruelly annihilate Canada geese who reside in Harbor Island Park, the town’s largest park, and other areas. 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.
GeesePeace, for example, shows how to recruit and train community volunteers to find nests, addle/oil eggs, use repellents, etc,. Integrated strategies resolve conflicts with geese and are more enduring than violent sacrifice.
Furthermore, you claim goose droppings are too numerous, even though Mamaroneck purchased a $30,000 “Toro Rake-O-Vac” machine to effectively remove goose droppings from grassy areas and parks. Are you also prepared to spend the residents’ taxes each year to kill geese instead of implementing effective strategies?
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: USDA 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 Mamaroneck, 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.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.
NAME
Take a Stand Against the Savage Cruelty of the Dog Sledding Industry
Wikimedia Commons
Please click HERE to sign and send automatic letter
Background | Source ALDF
For “sled dogs,” animal cruelty has become a corporate-sponsored industry. Beginning on March 2, 2013 Alaska will hold the annual “Iditarod”—in which teams of dogs are forced to pull a sled over 1,100 miles across the Alaska wilderness, often running at a grueling pace of over 100 miles per day for ten straight days. The race has become a huge money maker for corporate sponsors.
According to the Sled Dog Action Coalition, since the race began in 1973, over 130 dogs have died during the event. Dogs suffer heart attacks, pneumonia, muscle deterioration, dehydration, diarrhea, and spine injuries. They are impaled on sleds, drowned, or accidentally strangled. During the off-season the dogs are crowded into small kennels with no state management or oversight. Many are tethered on short chains at all times, unable to play, forced to sit, stand, and lie in the same small area in which they eat and defecate—conditions that cause untold emotional and physical stress. When these “money-makers” are no longer profitable, they are destroyed, as are the puppies who aren’t qualified to race. The Sled Dog Action Coalition notes that the dogs often aren’t even humanely euthanized, but merely shot in the head.
What does the law have to say? In some states, dog sledding conditions might be considered criminally cruel. California’s cruelty law, for example, makes it a crime to deprive any animal of proper food, water, or shelter, or to inflict “needless suffering” or “unnecessary cruelty” upon an animal, particularly for overloading or overworking any animal. Violations can result in up to three years in prison and fines of up to $20,000 under California Penal Code section 597(b). However, Alaska’s cruelty law conveniently does not protect animals from such overwork. Alaska Stat. § 11.61.140(e) states that the crime of animal cruelty “does not apply to generally accepted dog mushing or pulling contests or practices.” So the event continues, with the industry defining “generally accepted” practices, shielding themselves from meaningful scrutiny.
Cloaked in claims that dogs have “fun” in this traditional event, the truth is that this event is nothing more than corporate-sponsored cruelty. Please take action to help ALDF speak out for sled dogs by asking the corporate sponsors of events like the Iditarod to withdraw their support.
Our Compass 