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.
Urge Kansas Cardiology Office to Halt Alleged Bird Poisoning
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
Concerned Wichita-area residents have reported to PETA that Heartland Cardiology is using avicides (bird poison) to kill unwanted birds on its property! Avicides are often falsely touted as harmless “flock dispersing agents,” when, in fact, they are extraordinarily cruel poisons, attacking and impairing nervous systems and causing disorientation, erratic flight, tremors, and convulsions before an agonizing death. And lethal measures, in addition to upsetting Heartland Cardiology patients and area residents who find birds in their death throes, actually backfire because when birds are killed, the resultant spike in the food supply causes survivors and newcomers to breed at accelerated rates. PETA has asked Heartland Cardiology to scrap poisoning initiatives in favor of humane bird-control methods that keep birds away permanently, but to no apparent avail. Your voice is needed!
Please contact Heartland Cardiology and urge the office to stick with tried and true bird-control methods that everyone can live with, including the animals. And please, forward this alert widely!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Please send polite comments to:
Jane Robinson, Administrator
Heartland Cardiology551 N. Hillside, Ste. 410
Wichita, KS 67214
jane.r@hc-mail.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Administrator Robinson,
It has come to my attention that Heartland Cardiology is using avicides (bird poison) to kill unwanted birds on its property. Please allow me to state my objection. First, avicides are often falsely touted as harmless “flock dispersing agents”, when, in fact, they are extraordinarily cruel poisons, attacking and impairing nervous systems and causing disorientation, erratic flight, tremors, and convulsions before an agonizing death.
Second, this poison can also affect other non-target wild and non-wild animals, including those who maintain an endangered definition, and cats and dogs.
Third, killing the birds artificially increases food supplies to the remaining birds, the consequence of which is increased reproduction and an ensuing greater bird population. In fact, studies have demonstrated that the continual cycle of seasonal culls is responsible for a rebound, or larger populations, in subsequent years.
As such, I respectfully request that you work with particular groups and citizens to develop alternative, humane solutions to killing these animals. These creatures are sentient and deserve our compassion and respect, not our brutality and violence.
I thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
Ask Redford Union High School to Bench Cruel Donkey Basketball
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
BACKGROUND | SOURCE PETA
“Donkey basketball” games are loud, chaotic, and utterly bizarre events during which docile animals are pulled, shoved, screamed at, whipped, and forced to support riders who are too heavy for them to carry comfortably. Used again and again, the donkeys are lugged from place to place for months on end in small, poorly ventilated vehicles, with no consideration for their welfare, safety, or happiness. Equines who are systemically subjected to such stressors can develop unpredictable temperaments, putting riders and bystanders at risk. There has been a record of injuries, including a case in which an injured participant successfully sued a school for more than $110,000 in damages. Sadly, Redford Union High School in Redford, Michigan, has now scheduled a “donkey basketball” game for March 1. Your voice is needed!
Please politely urge Redford Union School District administrators to cancel this cruel event and replace it with a safer, more humane alternative. And please forward this alert widely!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email block:
stonemr@redfordu.k12.mi.us ; nachmaj@redfordu.k12.mi.us ; humitzm@redfordu.k12.mi.us
Individual:
Ron Stoneman, Superintendent
Redford Union School District
stonemr@redfordu.k12.mi.us
Judy Nachman, Principal
Redford Union High School
nachmaj@redfordu.k12.mi.us
Michael Humitz, Assistant Principal
Redford Union High School
humitzm@redfordu.k12.mi.us
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Superintendent Stoneman, Principal Nachman, and Assistant Principal Humitz:
It is my understanding that Redford Union High School is planning to participate in “donkey baseball” as a fundraising event. While fundraising can certainly be an admirable endeavor, I am shocked at the disrespect and cruelty inflicted on donkeys in pursuit of such. Donkey baseball is inherently cruel, subjecting donkeys to unnatural environments and pain in exploitative situations; examples include being shoved, yelled at, whipped, and forced to travel for months at a time with little mobility or fresh air. Forcing donkeys to endure this is completely unjustified, and the Animal Welfare Act affords no protections to them.
Indeed, “donkey basketball” games are barbaric events during which docile animals are used again and again: the donkeys are lugged from place to place for months on end in small, poorly ventilated vehicles, with no consideration for their welfare, safety, or happiness. Equines who are systemically subjected to such stressors can develop unpredictable temperaments, putting riders and bystanders at risk. There has been a record of injuries, including a case in which an injured participant successfully sued a school for more than $110,000 in damages.
Animals are sentient creatures, capable of love, pain, thought, and suffering, and when you support the exploitation of these donkeys, you only promote indifference and establish that you are unsympathetic to animal concerns. Furthermore, when you actively engage in this type of abuse in front of children, you are indeed promoting animal abuse and disrespect, which invariably lead to human abuse and disrespect. Please discontinue plans for this activity and use an alternative fundraising event in which all can participate in a cruelty-free manner.
Thank you for your attention and consideration to this urgent appeal.
NAME
Read more…
United States friends – please send comments to your U.S. Senators and Representative
Wikimedia Commons
Click HERE to sign and send message
Each year, billions of dollars go to fund animal experiments, much of it through United States-taxpayer supported funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The unsuspecting public is led to believe that these experiments are necessary to promote human health and well-being. Indeed, the mission of NIH is to “to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.”
But under close scrutiny, this claim does not hold up. Federally-funded animal experiments continue year after year, examining the same questions, at huge cost, creating “animal models” for diseases and conditions that are uniquely human, like smoking and alcoholism.
The American public should be outraged by this inhumane and fraudulent use of animal life. For this reason, IDA has created the “Outragies Awards”, to highlight the bogus use of animals in cruel, repetitive and wasteful research.
Awarded to the “Top Ten Most Outrageous Animal Experiments,” the Outragies, based on publications released in 2012, highlight stupid, cruel and truly outrageous research, like tormenting baby rats to study “child abuse”, giving hallucinogenic drugs to monkeys to create an animal model of schizophrenia, and hanging mice upside down by their tails to study depression.
There are hundreds of animal experiments that are outrageous and these Top Ten simply exemplify some of the worst. These experiments show that your tax dollars and animals’ lives are unjustifiably wasted on research that adds nothing to medical progress and does not promote human health.
You can read IDA’s full list here. Among this year’s awardees are:
The Most Outrageously Heartless award went to experimenters at New York University (NYU) who abused tiny newborn rats, exposing them to Abu Ghraib-like conditions, professing to study “child abuse.”
The Most Outrageously Superfluous award went to researchers at Yale and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who gave massive doses of PCP to monkeys, claiming this made them “schizophrenic,” and then gave them a drug already known to treat schizophrenia in humans.
The Most Outrageously Depraved winner went to scientists at Columbia University who used costly genetic engineering to wipe out the sense of smell in mice, and then electro-shocked them and hung them upside-down by their tails with adhesive tape, claiming to study the effect of smell on anxiety.
Click here to sent a fax to your U.S. Senators and Representative right now! Then call them also – you can reach any Senator or Representative through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
Cranbrook deer slaughter action alert
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
Deer defenders will be going to Cranbrook, B.C., next week to document and oppose the slaughter of 30 mule deer (Cranbrook voted on 2/14 to go ahead with the cull). We’re looking for supporters who could be there to assist.
Please contact Sinikka if you can help: sinikka1@telus.net
Thanks!
Sinikka
WHOM TO CONTACT
The contact box for Cranbrook Mayor and Council is HERE if you’d like to submit a message regarding the planned slaughter of 30 mule deer starting this week.
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Cranbrook Mayor and Council Members,
The City of Cranbrook has announced plans to kill deer starting February 2013 in a misguided attempt to reduce deer numbers. Although this hunt is inherently cruel based on the premise alone, it is important to recognize it is based on erroneous information.
Please allow me to illustrate a few of these concerns. First, ecologically, populations will fluctuate according to conditions and naturally-occurring food sources; it is the interference of humans that causes imbalance. To blame and slaughter the deer for human encroachment is both irresponsible and unjustified.
Second, killing deer artificially increases food supplies to the remaining deer, the consequence of which is increased reproduction and an ensuing greater deer population. In fact, studies have demonstrated that the continual cycle of seasonal hunting is responsible for a rebound, or larger herd populations, in subsequent years.
Third, this type of mass killing using such a brutal type of slaughter in such a central and visible location would certainly adversely affect both visitation and tourism; it would be financially detrimental to continue with such a cruel and unnecessary killing, and although I do not currently reside in Cranbrook, I would be unwilling to consider it, or nearby, as a potential vacation destination if this deer cull continues.
Please instead examine alternative, non-lethal options such as fencing, fertility control, and relocation according to established protocols when using these methods, which have all proven successful in curtailing deer populations.
I know your time is limited and I want to thank you for your attention to this urgent matter; I look forward to a positive resolution to this situation.
NAME
Urge Maryland County to stop deer hunt
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
The legislation that is referenced in article (https://our-compass.org/2012/03/23/urge-montgomery-county-maryland-to-stop-bowhunting-sample-letter/) did not pass Montgomery County Council. There now is a bill underway in Maryland General Assembly that does the same thing, but bypasses the need for the council to vote on it. There are much better ways to curb the deer population than this inherently dangerous bill.
Maryland General Assembly House Bill 671 (MC 2-13)
http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=hb0671&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2013RS
WHOM TO CONTACT
karen.montgomery@senate.state.md.us, anne.kaiser@house.state.md.us, eric.luedtke@house.state.md.us, craig.zucker@house.state.md.us, rob.garagiola@senate.state.md.us, kathleen.dumais@house.state.md.us, brian.feldman@house.state.md.us,arunamiller@gmail.com,brian.frosh@senate.state.md.us, bill.frick@house.state.md.us, susan.lee@house.state.md.us, jennie.forehand@senate.state.md.us, kumar.barve@house.state.md.us, jim.gilchrist@house.state.md.us, delegatesimmons@aol.com, richard.madaleno@senate.state.md.us, alfred.carr@house.state.md.us, ana.gutierrez@house.state.md.us, jeff.waldstreicher@house.state.md.us, roger.manno@senate.state.md.us, sam.arora@house.state.md.us, bonnie.cullison@house.state.md.us, benjamin.kramer@house.state.md.us, jamie.raskin@senate.state.md.us, sheila.hixson@house.state.md.us, ariana.kelly@house.state.md.us
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Maryland General Assembly,
It has come to my attention that, in reference to Maryland General Assembly House Bill 671 (MC 2-13), for the purpose of establishing for archery hunters in Montgomery County a safety 4 zone of a certain size, the General Assembly is therefore reportedly considering allowing bowhunters to kill deer in an attempt to reduce deer populations. Although this hunt are would be inherently cruel based on the premise alone, it is important to recognize it is based on erroneous information.
Please allow me to illustrate a few of these concerns. First, ecologically, populations will fluctuate according to conditions and naturally-occurring food sources; it is the interference of humans that causes imbalance. To blame and slaughter the deer for human encroachment is both irresponsible and unjustified.
Second, killing deer artificially increases food supplies to the remaining deer, the consequence of which is increased reproduction and an ensuing greater deer population. In fact, studies have demonstrated that the continual cycle of seasonal hunting is responsible for a rebound, or larger herd populations, in subsequent years.
Third, this type of mass killing using such a brutal type of slaughter in such a central and visible location would certainly adversely affect both visitation and tourism; it would be financially detrimental to continue with such a cruel and unnecessary killing, and although I do not currently reside in Montgomery County, I would be unwilling to consider it, or nearby, as a potential vacation destination if this deer cull continues.
Fourth, bowhunters often spend hours following bloody tracks before finding wounded deer, if they look at all. Many deer are not found, and their deaths are slow and painful. It can take weeks for them to succumb to their injuries. Families are then torn apart, and young and weak animals starve or die of dehydration.
Please instead examine alternative, non-lethal options such as fencing, fertility control, and relocation according to established protocols, which, when using these methods appropriately, have all proven successful in curtailing deer populations. Please see these tips.
I know your time is limited and I want to thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
Read more…
Urge Nevada Company to Halt Alleged Bird Poisoning
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE PETA
Concerned Las Vegas citizens have alerted PETA to media reports indicating that the Regent at Town Center, a residential community managed by Excellence Community Management, plans to use the notorious bird poison Avitrol to kill unwanted birds on its property! Products like Avitrol are often falsely touted as harmless “flock-dispersing agents” when, in fact, they are extraordinarily cruel poisons, attacking and impairing the nervous system and causing disorientation, erratic flight, tremors, convulsions, and, finally, an agonizing death. And lethal measures, in addition to upsetting residents who find birds in their death throes, actually backfire because, when birds are killed, the resultant spike in the food supply causes survivors and newcomers to breed at accelerated rates! PETA has asked Excellence Community Management to scrap poisoning initiatives in favor of humane bird-control methods that keep birds away permanently but apparently to no avail. Your voice is needed!
Please contact Excellence Community Management and its parent company, FirstService Residential Management, and urge them to stick with tried and true bird-control methods that everyone can live with, including the birds. And please, share this alert widely!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email block:
info@excellencemgmt.com ; info@fsresidential.com
Individual:
Lynn Blaylock
Community Manager
Excellence Community Management LLC
info@excellencemgmt.com
Gene Gomberg
CEO
FirstService Residential Management
info@fsresidential.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Community Manager Blaylock and CEO Gomberg,
It has come to my attention that Regent at Town Center, a residential community managed by Excellence Community Management, plans to use the notorious bird poison Avitrol to kill unwanted birds on its property. Please allow me this opportunity to elaborate my protest. First, these animals are targeted to be killed as a response to private and public objections over their presence, and the use of the poison Avitrol has been chosen as the preferred method of death. This poison is not rapid; in fact, it causes a drawn-out and painful condition that can last for days. Many birds will attempt escape and fly only to be stricken mid-flight to fall to the ground dying upon impact.
Second, this poison can also affect other non-target wild and non-wild animals, including those who maintain an endangered definition, and cats and dogs.
Third, killing the birds artificially increases food supplies to the remaining birds, the consequence of which is increased reproduction and an ensuing greater bird population. In fact, studies have demonstrated that the continual cycle of seasonal culls is responsible for a rebound, or larger populations, in subsequent years.
As such, I respectfully request that you work with particular groups and citizens to develop alternative, humane solutions to killing these animals. These creatures are sentient and deserve our compassion and respect, not our brutality and violence.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
Get Pigeon Poison Avitrol OUT of NEVADA
Wikimedia Commons
Please click HERE to sign petition
Background | Source No Avitrol
Pigeon Poison Avitrol is a very Deadly and Toxic Pigeon Poison used by only a few Las Vegas, Nevada pest control companies. Out of the over 300+ pest control companies in the Las Vegas area, only about 50 are known to use Pigeon Poison Avitrol.
Regardless of your opinion on the cruelty aspect of the poisoning, what needs to be given consideration are other possible threats to our community.
Avitrol claims there are “little or no reported incidents of secondary ingestion” The problem with their statement is the communities that are being poisoned are unaware they are being subjected to the poison. Therefore when there is an instance of sickness or death, the victims would never think to consider Avitrol as the culprit.
Avicides like Avitrol are acutely toxic and cause birds and other animals to suffer immensely. Avitrol attacks and impairs birds’ nervous systems, causing birds who ingest the poison to become disoriented, exhibit erratic flight and tremors, and suffer violent convulsions for hours before they finally succumb to the effects of the toxin.
For these reasons, cities such as New York City, San Francisco, and Boulder, Colorado, have worked with PETA and other animal protection groups to restrict or prohibit the use of Avitrol and other avicides. But these cruel, indiscriminant poisons should not be on the market at all.”
Other Reference links:
Two PETA petitions to help deer, foxes
Wikimedia Commons
1. Please click HERE to sign and send letter to help deer.
2. Please click HERE to sign and send letter to help foxes.
1. Background
The National Park Service (NPS) has alarmingly decided to massacre deer at Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. The animals will be gunned down, bow-hunted, or cruelly netted and then killed up close with a captive-bolt gun. Hunted animals often do not die outright but disappear only to die slowly from wounds, extreme stress, or injuries sustained during attacks by other animals. Those who are netted are subjected to a terrifying ordeal—they thrash frantically, often harming themselves, and are handled roughly before eventually being killed. The NPS claims that the deer at Rock Creek Park are overpopulated and that killing them will protect plant life—yet the agency’s own data show that deer numbers have gone virtually unchanged in the past 10 years!
Please politely urge NPS officials to halt this deer-management plan. Remind them that deer are beneficial to parks because they distribute key nutrients deep into the forest and that deer numbers are stable so these easily frightened prey animals should be left alone.
Personalized letters always work best. Feel free to send the sample letter provided, but your message will carry more weight if you write your own customized message and subject line.
2. Background
The Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries has asked the state’s game department to recommend new regulations pertaining to cruel wildlife “penning.” Penning involves trapping and dumping foxes and coyotes into fenced enclosures, then releasing packs of frantic dogs upon them. The frightened wild animals are terrorized to the point of exhaustion, cornered, and often torn to shreds. And those who manage to escape the pens can spread disease to local wildlife.
Graphic videos of this blood sport can be found on the Internet. Game department officials will submit their recommendations to the board in March 2013, and your voice is urgently needed!
Please use the form HERE to write to the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries and Virginia’s Game and Inland Fisheries Department and politely ask them to ban fox and coyote penning activities entirely. Remind them that these bloody operations cause extreme suffering, harm local ecosystems, and are enjoyed only by a small group of hunters. And then forward this message widely!
Read more…
Wikimedia Commons
Click HERE to sign petition
Background | Source SignOn
Breaking news: The Senate just voted to renew the Violence Against Women Act!
Momentum’s on our side, but House Speaker John Boehner and other representatives continue to block the bill from coming up for a vote. That’s why I created a petition on SignOn.org urging the U.S. House of Representatives to renew the Violence Against Women Act.
Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.
In 1983, I was a victim of rape at gunpoint. At the time, I was a single mother of a five-year old daughter and attending a local community college.
The Violence Against Women Act initially strengthened federal penalties for repeat sex offenders, mandated that women didn’t have to pay for their own rape exams, and helped communities develop law enforcement units dedicated to violence against women. This Act has been allowed to expire since it was passed, and House Republicans continue to block it—this is unacceptable.
Thanks!
–Sheila M. Thomas
Read more…
Ask University of Wisconsin to End Cruel Experiments on Cats!
PETA
BACKGROUND
For decades, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) has allowed experimenters to conduct cruel taxpayer-funded “sound localization” experiments on cats like Double Trouble, a gentle orange tabby. In these experiments, cats have steel coils implanted in their eyes, holes drilled into their skulls, and electrodes implanted in their brains. Sometimes, they even have their ears cut off or are intentionally deafened by having a toxic chemical applied to their inner ear. They are then deprived of food for several days in order to coerce them to look in the direction of sounds during experimental sessions in which their heads are immobilized by a bolt screwed to their skulls.
More than 200,000 people have already contacted the federal government to ask that funding for these experiments be halted.
But UW also shares responsibility for approving and allowing this horrific abuse. Please use the form below to contact the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. Urge the board members to use their authority to halt these cruel experiments immediately.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
This morning (2/7), Academy Award nominee and longtime PETA activist James Cromwell was arrested after he burst into a UW Board of Regents meeting to demand that university leadership take action to stop cats like Double Trouble from having holes drilled into their skulls, being deafened with toxic chemicals, having steel coils implanted in their eyes, and being killed and decapitated.
Campus police arrested James and his fellow protester but not before the board sat stunned and listened as Cromwell shouted, “This is not science! This is cruel! Shame on you!” and held up graphic blown-up photos of Double Trouble, one of the many cats who has been tormented and killed in UW-Madison’s disturbing brain experiments that we first exposed last year.
WHOM TO CONTACT
jbbartell@aol.com ; jbehling@wrpr.com ; mbradley@ruderware.com ; jrdrew29@gmail.com ; anthony.evers@dpi.wi.gov ; mjfalbo2@gmail.com ; thiggins@uwalumni.com ; tracyhribar.regent@gmail.com ; em@rgmlawec.com ; rmmillner@uwalumni.com ; katherinepointer@gmail.com ; cpruitt@abdata.com ; garyr328@aol.com ; brent@johnsflaherty.com ; markt@oemfab.com ; vasquez.josef@gmail.com ; dwalsh@foley.com ; gwhitburn@aol.com ; anottestad@uwsa.edu ; jradue@uwsa.edu ; jlathrop@uwsa.edu ; mrice@uwsa.edu ; board@uwsa.edu ; kreilly@uwsa.edu ; chancellor@news.wisc.edu
SAMPLE LETTER | SOURCE PETA, CHANTAL BUSLOT
To Whom It Concerns,
It was with horror and revulsion that I read of the grisly experiments carried out at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a continual basis, during which you subject innocent cats to the most excruciatingly painful ‘sound localization’ experiments. The cats have steel coils implanted in their eyes, holes drilled into their skulls, and electrodes implanted in their brains. Sometimes they have their ears cut off or are intentionally deafened by the application of a toxic chemical to their inner ear. They are then deprived of food for days untill hunger forces them to look in the direction of certain sounds, while their heads are immobilized by a bolt screwed to their skulls.
If this kind of torture was inflicted on cats by ordinary people they would be publicly shamed, prosecuted for animal cruelty, fined, and imprisoned. You are doing the very same thing under the guise of ‘science’ which in no way is any kind of justification.
You who promote and/or carry out these disgusting experiments deserve to be prosecuted, fined, and jailed for what you are doing, but you are allowed to hide behind your so-called scientific purposes. You should be ashamed. You are truly a disgrace to the human race, no matter what your qualifications are. You should be teaching kindness and compassion, not deliberately inflicting pain and torturing innocent creatures.
I am so very proud of James Cromwell for being brave enough to take a stand, and forcing you to confront what you are doing, allowing, and condoning.
I can only hope it has served to jolt you into a state of awareness, and that you will see the terrible error of your ways, and immediately put measures in place to ensure that these dreadful experiments are stopped forever.
Thank you for taking the time to read this urgent appeal.
NAME
Read more…
Ask the University of Mississippi Medical Center to End the Use of Pigs in its Physiology Lab
Wikimedia Commons
Please click HERE to sign petition
Background | Source PCRM
Medical training at UMC involves cutting into live, anesthetized pigs and performing cardiovascular procedures. Students place catheters in the veins of the pigs, block the animals’ arteries, and inject them with drugs. Students then open the pigs’ chest cavities and manipulate the hearts. After the training, the animals are killed.
Ninety-eight percent of U.S. and Canadian medical schools exclusively use nonanimal education methods. UMC currently operates a simulation center and could immediately replace its use of animals immediately.
Please take a minute to ask University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Medicine dean James E. Keeton, M.D., and University of Mississippi chancellor Daniel W. Jones, M.D., to stop the use of live pigs in the school’s medical student physiology lab. We have provided text for you, but if you decide to write your own message, please be polite and encouraging. Here are some talking points:
- Please replace the use of animals in UMMC’s physiology lab.
- Anatomical and physiological differences between pigs and humans render this type of training suboptimal.
- UMMC is one of only seven schools in the United States and Canada that still use live animals for training.
- High-fidelity human-patient simulators more accurately represent human anatomy and allow for repetitive training.
- UMMC already has a state-of-the-art simulation center than can easily provide nonanimal training methods.
Contact embassy, officials about trapped, starving cats
Wikimedia Commons
This action is partially copied HERE as an alternative to the previous alert about the bulls, the action which PETA removed from their site. Even if you have already, please participate again in this alert as there is a new contact and new translation, thank you.
Background | Source CBS News
City authorities in the Belarusian capital of Minsk are carelessly trapping stray cats in locked basements, dooming them to starvation, animal activists say.
Elena Titova, leader of the animal rights group Protect Life, says the ex-Soviet nation has no long-term shelters to house stray animals. She estimated that about 9,000 strays have been killed in the Belarusian capital alone over the past three years.
“Killing the animals with impunity has become a government policy,” Titova said Monday. “This barbarian policy can be described as `No animal, no problem.’ They find it easier to kill them as they don’t have to build shelters.”
City authorities say they must isolate the basements of apartment buildings in line with Soviet-era health rules to prevent rodents from getting in.
“Cats and residents will scream for a while and then they will calm down,” said Alexander Yubkov, a city worker who has welded iron covers on basement windows.
He said if workers did not secure basements “sanitary officials will come and order us to pay a fine.”
Minsk resident Karolina Litvinova said authorities don’t bother to check whether there are no animals left in a basement before shutting it.
“My heart aches to hear how the animals, whom they have walled up, are screaming day and night,” said 72-year-old Antonina Gayenko, a retiree who was feeding some cats through small holes in the iron plates. “They have doomed them to death from thirst and hunger.”
Please click HERE to read rest of article
PETITION
Please click HERE to sign
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email Block:
info@minsk-region.gov.by ; mgik@minsk.gov.by ; mgik.jil.pol@minsk.gov.by ; kom_stroy.stroy@minsk.gov.by ; kom_stroy.invest@minsk.gov.by ; usa.ny@mfa.gov.by
Individual:
The Honorable Boris Batura
Chair
Minsk Oblast Executive Committee
info@minsk-region.gov.by
The Honorable Vladimir Yevguenyevich Kukharev
First Deputy Chair
Minsk City Executive Committee
mgik@minsk.gov.by
The Honorable Alexander Sergeyevich Avramenko
Director
Minsk City Executive Committee Department of Housing Policy
mgik.jil.pol@minsk.gov.by
The Honorable Viktoria Markov
Deputy Director of Housing
Minsk City Executive Committee of Construction and Investments
kom_stroy.stroy@minsk.gov.by
The Honorable Natalia Arturovna Yuditskii
Deputy Director of Construction Investment Projects
Minsk City Executive Committee of Construction and Investments
kom_stroy.invest@minsk.gov.by
Belarus is a dictatorship, but they do have an embassy in the United States. They can be reached here:
usa.ny@mfa.gov.by
SAMPLE COMMENT | SOURCE PETA
SUBJECT: Пожалуйста, освободите котов, заточенных в подвалах!
Пожалуйста, освободите котов, заточенных в подвалах!
Я была шокирована, узнав, что бездомные коты в Минске оказываются, по недосмотру, заперты в подвалах домов, опечатанных для исключения грызунов. Принуждение животных умирать от голода и обезвоживания – жестоко и антисанитарно. Трупы вызовут зловоние в домах, огорчат жильцов и соседей, а также приведут к еще большему количеству грызунов в этих местах.
Пожалуйста, освободите всех котов из опечатаных подвалов. Размещение всего нескольких тряпок, пропитанных аммиаком (животные ненавидят этот запах) в этих местах, приведет к тому, что все коты покинут подвалы. По прошествии 24-х часов входы в подвалы могут быть опечатаны. Благодарим Вас за внимание.
NAME
TRANSLATED COMMENT | SOURCE PETA
SUBJECT: Please Free Entombed Cats From Sealed Basements!
Dear Honorable Batura, Honorable Kukharev, Honorable Avramenko, Honorable Markov, and Honorable Yuditskii:
Please Free Entombed Cats From Sealed Basements!
I was shocked to learn that cats in Minsk are being inadvertently entombed in basements when the buildings are sealed to keep out rodents. Forcing these animals to die from starvation or dehydration is extremely cruel and unsanitary. Carcasses will cause buildings to smell, upsetting occupants and neighbors while attracting more rodents to the area.
Please free any trapped cats. Placing multiple rags soaked with ammonia in basements will drive out all animals (they hate the smell). After 24 hours have elapsed, entry points can be safely sealed. Thank you for your consideration!
NAME
Read more…
URGENT: Speak Out for Cats Entombed Alive in Belarus
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE PETA
Officials in Minsk, Belarus, have reportedly entombed hundreds of stray cats in the basements of apartment buildings that are being sealed to keep out rodents. According to media reports, area residents are traumatized by the anguished cries of the trapped and dying cats. Forcing animals to die from starvation or dehydration is extremely cruel and unsanitary. Carcasses will cause buildings to smell, upsetting occupants and neighbors while attracting more rodents to the area!
Please urge Minsk officials to free any trapped cats. Advise them that placing multiple rags soaked with ammonia in basements will drive out all animals because they hate the smell. After 24 hours have elapsed, entry points can be safely sealed. Thank you, and please forward this alert widely!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email Block:
info@minsk-region.gov.by ; mgik@minsk.gov.by ; mgik.jil.pol@minsk.gov.by ; kom_stroy.stroy@minsk.gov.by ; kom_stroy.invest@minsk.gov.by
Individual:
The Honorable Boris Batura
Chair
Minsk Oblast Executive Committee
info@minsk-region.gov.by
The Honorable Vladimir Yevguenyevich Kukharev
First Deputy Chair
Minsk City Executive Committee
mgik@minsk.gov.by
The Honorable Alexander Sergeyevich Avramenko
Director
Minsk City Executive Committee Department of Housing Policy
mgik.jil.pol@minsk.gov.by
The Honorable Viktoria Markov
Deputy Director of Housing
Minsk City Executive Committee of Construction and Investments
kom_stroy.stroy@minsk.gov.by
The Honorable Natalia Arturovna Yuditskii
Deputy Director of Construction Investment Projects
Minsk City Executive Committee of Construction and Investments
kom_stroy.invest@minsk.gov.by
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Honorable Batura, Honorable Kukharev, Honorable Avramenko, Honorable Markov, and Honorable Yuditskii:
Please Free Entombed Cats From Sealed Basements!
I was shocked to learn that cats in Minsk are being inadvertently entombed in basements when the buildings are sealed to keep out rodents. Forcing these animals to die from starvation or dehydration is extremely cruel and unsanitary. Carcasses will cause buildings to smell, upsetting occupants and neighbors while attracting more rodents to the area.
Please free any trapped cats. Placing multiple rags soaked with ammonia in basements will drive out all animals (they hate the smell). After 24 hours have elapsed, entry points can be safely sealed.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
Read more…
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
BACKGROUND | SOURCE ELEPHANT E-CTIVISM
With 35,000 elephants a year being slaughtered for their tusks, the fate of the African Elephant hangs in the balance. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) prepares for the sixteenth Conference of the Parties (CoP16) in March 2013. The scientific community, global intelligence agencies and wildlife trafficking authorities warn that the African Elephant is on the precipice of extermination due to the unmitigated slaughter of tens of thousands of elephants each year.
Elephants need people all around the world to be their voice and take this simple 3 step action.
EMAIL: WHOM TO CONTACT | SEND ONLY TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY’S AUTHORITIES
- Australia: wildlife.communications@environment.gov.au
- Brasil: dema@itamaraty.gov.br; paulino.carvalho@itamaraty.gov.br; ramiro.costa@ibama.gov.br; rodrigo.silva@ibama.gov.br
- Canada: cites-canada@ec.gc.ca; cites-science@ec.gc.ca
- France: cites@developpement-durable.gouv.fr; humbert@mnhn.fr
- Germany: gerhard.adams@bmu.bund.de: CITES-Science@bfn.de; ute.grimm@bfn.de
- India: jkishwan@nic.in; dirzsi@wb.nic.in
- Italia: dpn-cites@minambiente.it; laposta.alessandro@minambiente.it; maturani.antonio@minambiente.it
- Kenya: cites@kws.go.ke; kipngetich@kws.go.ke; director@kws.go.ke; jgichiah@kws.go.ke; pomondi@kws.go.ke
- South Africa: okumalo@environment.gov.za; tcarroll@environment.gov.za
- United Kingdom: cites.ukma@defra.gsi.gov.uk; vin.fleming@jncc.gov.uk; alison.littlewood@jncc.gov.uk
- United States: managementauthority@fws.gov; scientificauthority@fws.gov
SAMPLE LETTER | SOURCE ELEPHANT E-CTIVISM
- Voting for a full ban on all commercial trade in ivory, legal and illegal, indefinitely.
- Upgrade all elephants currently listed as Appendix II to Appendix I until current elephant poaching trends and related illegal trade in ivory is controlled and African Elephant populations throughout Eastern, Western and Central Africa recover.
- Reject all requests to down list the African Elephant from Appendix I to Appendix II indefinitely.
- Revoke China’s “Approved Buyer” status and trade partnership and take positive steps in engaging Chinese Designated Authorities in relevant forums at CoP16 to ask that the Chinese Government takes immediate meaningful action to stop all trade in ivory.
Urgent: Urge Officials to Stop Jallikattu, Ask for a Countrywide Ban on Cruel Manja, Plus Four Other Petitions
Wikimedia Commons
1. Please click HERE to sign and send petition to stop Jallikattu
2. Please click HERE to sign and send petition to ban Manja
3. Please click HERE to help get a meaningful sentence for dog shooting
4. Please click HERE to tell Smithsonian to stop harming cats with junk science
5. Please click HERE to get answers about the wild horse and burro program
6. Please click HERE to help people who saved fawn
1. Background | Source PETAIndia
Per the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ notification in The Gazette of India, bulls can no longer be used as performing animals. This should mean an end to the cruel “sport” of jallikattu, in which terrified bulls are kicked, punched, jumped on, dragged to the ground and otherwise tormented. Despite this notification, however, the Tamil Nadu government has shockingly permitted jallikattu events to continue to be held in the state.
Recent PETA investigations at five jallikattu events documented that bulls were tied so tightly it caused them severe discomfort and pain, were hit with fists, had their tails twisted and pulled, were jumped on and were wrestled to the ground. Not only is jallikattu cruel to animals, it also poses a threat to public safety. In one four-day period in January 2011, 215 people sustained injuries during jallikattu events. Of these, 154 were spectators. Two people died.
We would like to thank the Ministry for issuing a ban on the use of bulls as performing animals. Now, it is time for the Ministry to make sure that the ban is enforced immediately.
Please help by writing to the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. Thank Ministry officials for banning the use of bulls as performing animals and ask them to enforce the ban.
2. Background | Source PETAIndia
The manja used in kite-flying competitions is often gummed and coated with powdered and finely crushed glass. Glass-, plastic- and metal-coated manja is deadly for thousands of pigeons, crows, owls, kites and other birds who are slashed, wounded and killed when they become entangled in the strings.
Sharp manja is hazardous not only for birds but also for humans – including passersby travelling on open vehicles, such as bicycles, motorcycles or scooters – and is responsible for numerous human injuries and deaths every year. In Mumbai, a stray manja cut a young person’s throat, slicing the larynx and surrounding muscles, which are 3 to 4 cm thick. According to a news report , five people , including two children, were killed and nearly 250 people injured in the state of Gujarat alone – in just one month during Makar Sankranti.
Caring people like you must urge the Ministry of Environment and Forests to ban the use and sale of glass-, plastic- and metal-coated manja across India.
Please ask the Ministry of Environment and Forests to ban the use and sale of glass-, plastic- and metal-coated manja across India immediately.
3. Background | Source Animal Legal Defense Fund
While on a hunting trip, John Lake reportedly made a comment to his 13-year-old son about shooting dogs they had seen chasing deer. He incorrectly thought it was legal. On November 10, 2012, the Lakes were on a subsequent hunting trip when the boy saw the dogs chasing deer again, and he allegedly shot and killed three dogs with his rifle. On November 29, a neighbor familiar with the dogs discovered their bodies covered with leaves and brush in a gully. A Suffield police officer said that Lake allegedly disposed of the corpses because he panicked after realizing what his son had done.
The State’s Attorney has charged John Lake with the following:
- 1 felony count of risk of injury to child
- 1 misdemeanor count of accessory to cruelty to animals
- 1 misdemeanor count of accessory to illegal discharge of firearm
- 1 violation of illegal gun/bow hunting by minor
4. Background | Source Alley Cat Allies
Articles scapegoating cats have been all over the news. These stories are based on biased research that could lead to more outdoor cats being rounded up and killed.
The new so-called “study,” funded by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of Migratory Birds, recklessly perpetuates a bogus debate.
It is a direct attack on our progress with Trap-Neuter-Return. In communities across the country, TNR stabilizes and reduces the population of feral cats and saves millions of cats from being killed in shelters.
Please join us by standing up for cats today. Sign our petition telling the Smithsonian to stop spreading junk science.
5. Background | Source American Wild Horse Preservation
Congressmen Raul Grijalva, D-AZ, and Ed Whitfield, R-KY, are circulating a letter to fellow members of the US House of Representatives asking for answers from outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar about his department’s wild horse and burro program, specifically why over 1,700 captured mustangs have been sold to kill buyer Tom Davis.
The letter asks Secretary Salazar to respond to the demands of the 25,130 American citizens who signed a petition, which we delivered in person to the Department of the Interior in November 2011. To date, we have had no response from the Department, despite the petition’s request that the Secretary respond within ten days.
Your help is urgently needed. It is important that we gain the support of as many members of Congress as possible to make sure that our voice on behalf of wild horses and burros is finally heard within the Obama Administration. We need as many sign ons as possible as soon as possible, since Secretary Salazar is set to retire from the Interior Department at the end of March.
Will you please ask your Representative in the House to sign on the Grijalva/Whitfield Letter to Interior Secretary Salazar?
6. Background | Source: Change
Jeff and Jennifer Counceller thought were doing the right thing when they saved the life of an injured baby deer they found near their home in Indiana. But because they didn’t have a permit, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is prosecuting them and they could face up to 60 days in prison. The DNR should drop these charges now.
When they found the fawn on a neighbor’s porch in 2010, she was badly injured with puncture wounds that were infected and had maggots in them. Jennifer, a registered nurse and wound caretaker for the couple’s dogs and horses took the deer home and named it Dani and began nursing the deer back to health.
When they called the DNR they were told to return the deer to the wild and let nature take it’s course. That would have been a death sentence for the deer. Instead, they tried to find Dani a home at animal rescue operations, petting zoos and deer farms, but no one would take her. The Counceller’s decided to keep caring for the deer until it was strong enough to make it on it’s own in the wild.
This past summer the DNR started an investigation into the situation and a DNR official recommended they get a permit to rehabilitate Dani. The DNR then denied the permit application and then said the deer would have to killed.
Just before DNR officials arrived at the Counceller’s house to kill Dani she escaped through a gate that was left open. Now, the DNR has assigned a special prosecutor to the case and they’re charging both Jeff and Jennifer with illegal possession of a white-tailed deer.
Jeff is a police officer and Jennifer is a nurse – these are good people who were just trying to the right thing by saving an injured animal. They don’t deserve to go to jail and the DNR should drop all charges against them.
We’re asking that you sign the petition and also join the fight on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/connersvillecharges
Read more…
Our Compass 