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.
Change Rattlesnake Roundups to Humane Festivals
CBD, Cassie Holmgren
Please click HERE to sign petition
Background | Source Center for Biological Diversity
Each year thousands of rattlesnakes are removed from the wild and killed at “rattlesnake roundups.” Rattlesnakes play a key role in the food web, maintaining balance in nature by preying on rodents, but hunting of snakes for roundups is pushing some species toward extinction.
Please sign this petition asking communities to change their roundups to festivals where snakes are not hunted or killed. Several communities have already changed their roundups to wildlife-appreciation festivals, which generate important income for the communities and educate the public about the importance of saving native species, not slaughtering them.
Petition Text
We, the undersigned, are writing to urge you to change the rattlesnake roundup held in your community to a humane festival where snakes are not hunted or killed. Towns such as San Antonio, Florida and Fitzgerald, Georgia have already changed their roundups to successful wildlife festivals that generate income for their communities. We urge you to follow their example and change your roundup to an event where snakes are not collected or slaughtered.
Read more…
End the Cat Lab
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE FOR LIFE & FACEBOOK
Washington University conducts a class called Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) that includes practicing intubation on live cats.
Intubating requires students to forcibly insert tubes into cats’ throats. This can cause bleeding, swelling, cracked teeth, punctured lungs, and even death.
The American Heart Association states that it does not condone the use of animals in its PALS course.
Instead, training should be done on lifelike human simulator manikins. Wash U’s PALS students have access to a state-of-the-art pediatric simulation lab on the campus of St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
97% of U.S. medical institutions offering PALS training do not use live animals.
Your voice counts for these cats. Take action immediately.
Tell Washington University to stop using live animals for unjustifiable practices.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email block:
kennedy@kids.wustl.edu ; mgp6225@bjc.org ; jaffe@kids.wustl.edu ; gunn_j@kids.wustl.edu ; shapirol@wustl.edu ; wrighton@wustl.edu
Individual:
Robert “Bo” Kennedy, PALS Director
kennedy@kids.wustl.edu
314-454-2341
Marcia Putnam, PALS Administrator
mgp6225@bjc.org
314-454-2229
David Jaffe, PALS Instructor
jaffe@kids.wustl.edu
314-454-2341
Joseph Gunn, PALS Instructor
gunn_j@kids.wustl.edu
314-454-2341
Larry Shapiro, Dean of WUSTL School of Medicine
shapirol@wustl.edu
314-362-6827
Mark Wrighton, Chancellor of WUSTL
wrighton@wustl.edu
314-935-5100
Telephone:
314-454-2341, 314-454-2229
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Administrator Putman, Director Kennedy, PALS Instructor Jaffe, PALS Instructor Gunn, Dean Shapiro, and Chancellor Wrighton:
I am disturbed after discovering that Washington University in St. Louis still uses cats and ferrets to teach students how to intubate babies; these animals are subjected to mutilating experiments and killed, a practice that inflicts immense suffering upon them. These animals are marvelously intelligent and sentient beings, capable of thought, love, pain, and fear, and to expose them to this archaic method of training is alarming. In a recently-conducted survey, it has been determined that in greater than 95% of similar programs, the TraumaMan System has been utilized (PCRM). The TraumaMan System has been proven a superior model to the live animal “model”, and I fear any student not trained on the most advanced method will have a diminished learning experience. This should be concerning to any potential patient.
Additionally, since animals cannot be substituted for human beings, subjecting them to this exploitive process reflects a blatant disregard for life; how can we teach our future medical professionals ethics while enforcing a course that maims and kills live, sentient beings? This represents a conflict of interest as well as a contradiction in both morals and actions: if non-human animals are deemed similar enough to humans physiologically, then you must acknowledge that, as sentient beings, they should not be exploited and killed either. Any other conclusion would be considered a discord and would serve as a detriment to the learning process, especially in such a critical field of study.
It would be regrettable not being able to recommend your fine institution; however, because I value the most sophisticated and innovative learning techniques, it would be remiss of me to consider Washington University based on your reliance of such an obsolete method of study. As such, I respectfully ask that you please accept the superior method of study, the TraumaMan System, for your university and students, and make yours an institution of credibility and honor.
I know that your time is limited, and I want to thank you for your attention and consideration to this urgent appeal.
NAME
AstraZeneca: Free the Beagles Immediately
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE FACEBOOK
This is an urgent call to action on behalf of the international campaign to Free the AstraZeneca Beagles. Win Animal Rights is calling for international solidarity and we are asking for animal rights groups across the USA and around the world to get behind the international effort to liberate hundreds of beagles used in laboratory testing by AstraZeneca.
Actions for Groups and Organizers:
Start organizing protests and events at local AstraZeneca offices. Locations can be found here:
http://www.astrazeneca.com/About-Us/Worldwide-locations
USA AstraZeneca Leadership Team:
http://www.astrazeneca-us.com/about-us/us-leadership-team
Call as often as you can
Write Letters – snail mail, email
Tweet
Take pictures of your dogs and other companion animals asking that the AstraZeneca beagles be set free.
Send your pictures and letters to:
kontakt@astrazeneca.com
IR@astrazeneca.com
Make sure you copy WAR as we will be delivering pictures in person to AstraZeneca’s USA Headquarters.
winanimalrights@optonline.net
And also send a copy to the international campaign coordinators:
info@djurrattsalliansens.se
Coming soon:
Protest at AstraZeneca USA Headquarters in Delaware
Protest at AstraZeneca’s NYC Investor Office
Details soon.
If you have any questions or if you want to help on this important campaign please contact us at:
winanimalrights@optonline.net
or message us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/WinAnimalRights
WHOM TO CONTACT
kontakt@astrazeneca.com ; IR@astrazeneca.com
Phone
If you are in the United States and would like additional information regarding AstraZeneca products, or you are a third party with an offer of services for AstraZeneca, you can contact the AstraZeneca Information Center by phone at 1-800-236-9933 (Monday – Friday 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET, excluding holidays).
Online
Contact AZ online HERE
SAMPLE LETTER
To Whom It Concerns,
This is an urgent call to AstraZeneca to free the AstraZeneca vivisected beagles, and any other animals suffering under the guise of medical advancement.
From a pragmatic standpoint, if we could adequately determine the effects of drugs using animals in general then human trials would be unnecessary, a costly redundancy of testing protocols. Therefore, if we acknowledge that data from animal testing cannot be extrapolated to humans, as demonstrated by the need for human testing trials prior to a general administration of drugs, then why are animals used at all? To determine a general idea relative to safety of them? If animals cannot be used to predict a human outcome in general, then how can they be used to predict safety? It’s a ridiculous premise, one on which vivisectors place the lives of human animals and the death of non-human animals with a publicity machine using deceptive statements and misleading assertions fabricated by unscrupulous “scientists” to garner social approval.
Animal experimentation is unnecessary, unjustified, and unprincipled, its only function to financially benefit those who exploit animals. Animals have rights to live free from pain and suffering regardless of objections to acknowledge such; I therefore hope this message finds you willing to examine and subsequently change your potential complicity in their abuse and death.
Thank you for your attention and consideration to this urgent appeal.
NAME
Read more…
Help save Nosey the elephant from a life of misery
BACKGROUND | SOURCE IDA
Since 2009, IDA has worked tirelessly on behalf of an elephant named Nosey, who suffers in a variety of traveling circuses at the hands of her exhibitor Hugo Liebel. With your help, we have documented Nosey’s condition and numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) as she was dragged around the country to give rides and perform tricks. IDA members sent more than 18,000 letters and e-mails to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) urging the agency to help Nosey.
We reported a year ago that the USDA had finally filed charges against Liebel concerning numerous AWA violations for which Liebel had repeatedly been cited between 2007 and 2011. These included safe-handling violations that put Nosey and the public at risk, failure to provide adequate veterinary care, violations of food storage requirements, and unsafe and inadequate conditions in Nosey’s barn, enclosure, and trailer.
Liebel answered these serious charges with a rambling response blaming everyone but himself, without acknowledging any responsibility for the egregious violations. Given Liebel’s history, there is no indication he has any intention of improving his treatment of Nosey. Liebel continues to haul Nosey around the country, jamming her into a tiny, foul trailer with other animals. Nosey also suffers from a persistent terrible skin condition and is constantly chained, except when giving rides or performing unnatural tricks.
A hearing is scheduled January 15 in Tampa, Florida on the USDA charges. Please help us ensure a positive outcome for Nosey.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Send a message to Colleen Carroll, who is prosecuting on behalf of the USDA. Thank Carroll for her work on this case and encourage her to press for the maximum available penalties. Please ask Carroll, in the event that Liebel is found to be in violation, to push for the maximum allowable amount of fines and termination of Liebel’s license to exhibit animals.
We don’t want to disrupt Attorney Carroll’s office with emails and faxes, so we’re asking you to please take an extra few minutes to mail her a hard-copy letter instead. Below is a sample letter. Please personalize that model letter or compose your own similar letter and mail to:
Colleen Carroll, Esq.
Office of General Council
US Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20250-1400
For those who do not have the option of postal mail: colleeen.carroll@usda.gov
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Attorney Carroll:
As a supporter of In Defense of Animals (IDA), I am very concerned about the plight of Nosey the elephant, who has been exhibited around the country by Hugo Liebel. Liebel is charged with numerous substantial, willful violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including repeated noncompliance with veterinary care, handling, housing, and husbandry requirements from 2007 to 2011. If Liebel is found to be in violation on these charges, I urge you to press for the maximum allowable sanctions
I would also like to express my gratitude for your work on this case to date, particularly your decision to pursue serious charges against Liebel.
The violations charged in the complaint are, as you point out, substantial, and many of them are repeated violations for which Liebel has previously been cited. Many of the violations are allegedly willful. His documented lengthy record compels the conclusion that Liebel is either unable or unwilling to comply with the laws and regulations put into place to protect exhibited animals and the public.
Therefore, I urge you, in the event that Liebel is found to be in violation on these charges, to press for the maximum allowable sanctions, including the highest possible amount in fines and termination of Liebel’s license to exhibit animals. I see no other way of ensuring the safety of Nosey, the surviving elephant, and any other animals who Liebel could acquire for exhibition.
Again, thank you for your efforts and attention to this serious matter.
Sincerely,
Read more…
1. Click and sign Fire And Prosecute Police Officers In Illegal Killing Of A Boulder, Colorado Neighborhood Elk
2. Click and sign to protest Bears Trapped in Pits, Forced to Beg For Food
3. Please click and Pledge To Go Cruelty-Free
4. Please click HERE to comment (see below for sample comment) to list African Lion as endangered
1. Source IDA
Please sign this petition asking Colorado officials to fire and prosecute officers Sam Carter and Brent Curnow for the death of the elk known as Big Boy.
On January 1, the beloved male elk who had been frequenting the Mapleton Hill area of Boulder, Colorado was shot dead by on-duty police officer Sam Carter. Officer Carter posed with the dead body shortly after killing Big Boy, a name given to the elk by residents of the area. He then called fellow officer Brent Curnow, who was off-duty, to come and collect the animal for butchering.
Both officers failed to report the incident to their dispatch or supervisors at the Boulder Police Department. They also didn’t report the incident to Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, which is also required.
Officer Carter has given conflicting accounts of why he shot Big Boy. He first told investigators that Big Boy appeared injured and that he was putting him out of his misery. He also told investigators that Big Boy was aggressive and that’s why he fired. Both of these stories have been contradicted by neighbors who saw Big Boy on an almost daily basis, including those who saw Big Boy just hours before he was killed.
Officer Carter acted recklessly, needlessly firing a shotgun in a heavily populated residential area. And not reporting the incident is a violation of the law he is sworn to uphold. Click here to sign the petition!
At the least Big Boy’s killing violates Samson’s Law, which was passed after a similar incident in 1998 where a poacher killed another beloved neighborhood elk. Samson’s Law is meant to protect animals from unscrupulous hunters. Animals protected under this law are those with six-point antlers or larger. Anyone caught killing one of these protected animals faces a fine up to $10,000 and other criminal penalties.
Officers Carter and Curnow should be fired by the Boulder Police Department and charged in the reckless killing of Big Boy.
2. Source PETA2
Bears Trapped in Pits, Forced to Beg For Food …
In 2012, PETA conducted an undercover investigation at Chief Saunooke Bear Park (CSBP), a roadside collection of bear pits in Cherokee, North Carolina. CSBP confines bears to desolate concrete cells, where they are forced to beg for food and are deprived of all that is natural and important to them.
PETA’s investigator found that the bored and frustrated bears turn endlessly in circles. One of them routinely rocks back and forth—a sign of profound deprivation and stress. They bite the pits’ metal bars, which breaks their teeth. This is painful and can cause bone infections, so it requires veterinary care, but PETA’s investigator never saw a veterinarian at CSBP and never saw the bears given any pain relief.
PETA’s investigator also found cruelty:
Workers sometimes leave the bears, who have a remarkably well-developed sense of smell, trapped amid their own waste all day long.
Instead of removing feces, they spray a citrus-scented product into the pits. One worker told PETA’s investigator, “You just got to be careful because [federal officials] think you’re trying to hide something. Which we are.”
CSBP’s manager and bear handler admitted that workers deny bears food because, “[i]f you feed them … they ain’t gonna eat for people.”
The manager boasted that he sprays water at one bear “all the time … to get his ass up” and force him onto display.
The park’s bear handler said it took “20 shots … in the head” to kill one of CSBP’s bears. He said that there is “[n]othing better than a bear that’s been eating bread and apples all its life. Meat’s good.”
3. Source PETA
Musician Dave Navarro is known for his body art, guitar shredding, and iconic rocker look. His intense rocker style includes an array of beauty products that help give him his dark edge, but some makeup was too dark for even him. When Dave discovered that some companies perform cruel experiments on animals in order to test their products, the only choice was to go cruelty-free.
Around the world, rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, and other animals are force-fed products or endure the pain of having chemicals applied to their sensitive eyes and skin for product tests––even though the results of animal tests are unreliable and not applicable to humans. These cruel tests are not required by law in the U.S., and they’ve been banned in the European Union and Israel. Cruelty-free products are manufactured by companies that refuse to poison and kill animals in crude product tests. In his ad with PETA, Dave is putting himself in the shoes of the animals who live a painful life and suffer an agonizing death for these archaic experiments.
‘I Defy Anyone to Watch This Stuff and Explain Why It’s OK.’ Dave takes us behind the scenes at his edgy photo shoot with PETA, urging everyone to help stop product testing on animals by choosing to purchase only cruelty-free products. The best way to stop companies from using animals is to refuse to purchase their products and to let them know that you won’t buy their products as long as they support tests on animals.
Start the new year off with a pledge to go cruelty-free, and check out PETA’s lists of companies that do and that don’t test on animals in order to make your search for cruelty-free products as easy as vegan pie! Order a free copy of PETA’s first-ever global cruelty-free shopping guide, then take it with you on your next shopping trip and share it with friends. All companies that are included on PETA’s cruelty-free list have signed PETA’s statement of assurance or provided a statement verifying that neither they nor their ingredients suppliers conduct, commission, or pay for any animal tests on ingredients, formulations, or finished products anywhere in the world.
4. Source Born Free
Please click HERE to list comment
Sample Comment
As a supporter of Born Free USA and a lover of wildlife, I implore you to list the African lion as “endangered” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. This magnificent species is under attack from many directions, including habitat loss, retaliatory killings and disease.
But possibly the biggest major threat to lions comes from the United States, which is — by far — the world’s largest importer of lions and lion parts. By listing them as endangered, we will assume a leading role in lion protection, and no doubt will inspire other countries to at least pay attention and probably follow our good example.
In the past quarter-century, African lions’ population has been more than cut in half. It now is estimated that fewer than 35,000 live in the wild today, and if those numbers drop much more, the species survival across its range will be in grave doubt.
Please list the African lion as “endangered” under the United States Endangered Species Act. Thank you for your consideration, and for doing the right thing for lions.
Background
The latest estimates are that fewer than 35,000 lions now exist in the wild in Africa, about a 50 percent drop in just a quarter-century. You can do something to stop that alarming decline.
Please contact the Fish and Wildlife Service in support of our petition to list the African lion as “endangered” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
In November, the U.S. government declared the petition — submitted in March 2011 by Born Free USA and a coalition of other animal protection groups — may be warranted, and began soliciting comments for 60 days. That comment period ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, Jan. 28.
Shrinking habitat (one-fifth of what it once was), loss of prey and retaliatory killings by humans have decimated the African lion population. But one of the biggest challenges to the species’ survival may come from the United States, the world’s largest importer of lion trophies and lion parts. (Learn more about lions’ plight here.)
That is why listing the African lion as “endangered” is so crucial.
Protect the Orcas of Southern Washington
BACKGROUND | SOURCE ALDF
What does it mean to be “endangered?” For the creatures of the deep—those endangered whales who live in fragile marine ecosystems, it means the difference of life and death. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is considering a petition to remove a group of orcas from the protections of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)—not because they are no longer threatened, but because their existence is inconvenient. Why? Well, it all comes down to water and money.
The incredibly self-aware group of whales (orcas) living off the coast of southern Washington are also known as Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW)—the pod that Lolita was taken from years ago. The distinct population segment, made up of about 84 individual orcas and listed as endangered since 2005, are “resident” fish-eating whales who spend time each year in the San Juan Islands and Puget Sound. Like humans, the southern orcas engage in family behaviors such as babysitting and food-sharing. Marine experts have declared that these orcas truly need all the protection we can provide.
So who is trying to remove these protections? The petition is brought by the corporate-backed Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), allegedly on behalf of farmers who want water from the Sacramento River. This water is off limits because it holds endangered Chinook salmon, who the southern orcas depend upon for their survival. Thus, farmers wouldn’t get access to the water, regardless of this petition. A previous lawsuit to de-list the orcas was dismissed for lack of standing. PLF’s new strategy, with arguments about farmers and semantics about species designation, carries with it a veiled threat of further lawsuits.
 |
| Southern resident orca (Photo by Miles Ritter) |
Don’t be fooled. This petition is about weighing profit against the protection of endangered animals and complex marine ecosystems. At the heart of the petition is an underlying motivation to destroy the Endangered Species Act entirely. The ESA, a crucial, inestimable law for wildlife, gets in the way of business: that is the real issue. It is imperative that we protect orcas, and not allow profit-seeking groups to set in motion the complete destruction of the ESA.
These financial motivations truly violate the intention of the Endangered Species Act. The ESA mandates the protection of endangered species, period—the PLF’s petition is a shameful diversion of government agency resources. The NMFS is obligated to only weigh issues of the best science in this case, not potential profit from desecrating our oceans and rivers. We must not become a nation that removes animal protection laws for the purpose of allowing unmitigated commercial enterprise.
This dangerous petition could have dire consequences for the cherished orcas of southern Washington. The NMFS will consider the petition for 12 months, but they will only consider comments until January 28. Now is the public’s chance to speak out!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Please click HERE to leave comment; only your name and comment is required
SAMPLE COMMENT
Please reject this proposal and stop the removal of the southern orcas from the protections of the Endangered Species Act. This dangerous petition could have dire consequences for the cherished orcas of southern Washington.
Read more…
Wikimedia Commons
Written by Michelle Kretzer
Companies that test their products on animals needn’t bother trying to ship them to Israel, because, starting New Year’s Day, the country banned the import, sale, and marketing of animal-tested cosmetics, toiletries, and household cleaners. Previously, in 2007, the Israeli government had banned using animals to test personal-care and household products within the country. But with the new law, which was passed in 2010 and came into effect January 1, 2013, lawmakers have one-upped themselves, blocking products that have been tested on animals in other countries from even crossing Israel’s border.
PETA and our affiliates are working to end the testing of cosmetics and household products on animals in countries around the world, and Israel has proved that a full ban on such vile products is not only possible but also ethically responsible. The EU had passed a similar ban, which was also scheduled to take effect in 2013, but lawmakers are now considering extending that deadline. PETA and PETA U.K. have been pushing hard to get the EU to uphold the original end date. In addition, PETA India is trying to get a similar ban implemented in that country, and the effort has a lot of momentum. PETA and PETA Asia have been helping Chinese scientists switch to in vitro cosmetics testing methods and are encouraging the Chinese government to accept the results in place of the animal tests that it currently requires. And in the U.S., PETA has been purchasing stock in companies that conduct animal tests so that we can propose shareholder resolutions to switch to humane testing methods.
But despite all the legal hullabaloo, we can at least designate our homes cruelty-free areas. It’s easy to select personal-care and household products that weren’t tested on animals by glancing at PETA’s new global Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide, the latest complete list of companies that refuse to conduct or pay for any animal tests anywhere in the world.
Israeli monkey-breeding farm “mazor” to close | Y Net News
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein decided Saturday to back an initiative by Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan to ban the import and export of monkeys to Mazor Farm (BFC) and limit its activities to medical research in Israel only.
Erdan welcomed the decision, saying: “Banning the trade of monkeys bolsters animal rights and sends a very clear message: Trading animals for profit is wrong.”
Erdan’s initial move to limit BFC’s operations was met with legal hurdles, as the Environmental Protection Ministry’s own legal counsel expressed concern that the move may infringe on the freedom of occupation rights of businesses that trade animals.
Erdan than asked Weinstein to rule on the matter, focusing specifically on the export and import of monkeys by BFC. The minister said that the limitation will have to impact on research facilities in Israel.
“Closing Mazor Farm stems from moral, ethical and educational reasons – all of which are meant to minimize the harm and suffering of wild animals,” Erdan said in his brief.
“Israel should not be a center for monkey trade for other countries,” Erdan stressed, “Especially since the local demand in Israel is so low that it does not morally justify the existence of a farm whose main business is large-scale exports,” he added.
Still, while the AG ruled that the Erdan’s ministerial jurisdiction allows him to make extensive changes to the volume of animals trade for research purposes, there was no legal justification to bar such action altogether.
The ruling states that the import and export of monkeys for research purposes will be barred, and that BFC’s breeding operations must be limited to medical research in Israel only.
Weinstein ruled that the limitation on the export and import of monkeys will be applied gradually over the next tow years. “This two-year period takes into consideration the needs of research facilities in Israel, as well as those of Mazor Farm, to adjust to these changes,” he said.
The AG also ruled that the new regulations must be anchored by the proper legislation; and ordered the Environmental Protection Ministry to update the relevant international bodies of the changes, as required by various international research treaties Israel is a part of.
Israel’s animal rights group welcomed the decision, saying it was “Putting an end to one of the cruelest ways in which animals in Israel are treated. Mazor Farm has been a black stain on Israel’s society since the early 1990s.
“We will continue to pursue the issue for the two years until the ban takes effect, to stop the farm’s cruel and corrupt trade in monkeys.”
The decision, the statement added, “Sends a clear message to anyone who abuses animals for a living – the Israeli public will no longer tolerate cruel practices, only because a handful of people make their living off them, even if it’s out of the public eye. This is a happy day for anyone who has morals and scruples.”
Anabel Zamir, a leader of the animal rights campaign against the Mazor Farm, welcomed the ruling, but noted that “The attorney general is still allowing animal trade for profit, under the state’s sponsorship, for the next two years, without mandating proof that any such trade will be done for life-saving purposes. That’s very disturbing.”
BFC was unavailable for comment.
United Airlines Will Not Ship Primates to Labs! | Source PETA
Following a relentless PETA campaign, United Airlines has announced that it now prohibits the transportation of primates to laboratories for use in cruel and deadly experiments!
In 2011, when United announced its planned merger with Continental Airlines, PETA contacted United to ask whether the airline would maintain its compassionate ban on shipping primates to laboratories or allow the cruel practice, as Continental had. When officials refused to give a straight answer and then a United cargo representative confirmed in writing that the company was not prohibiting such shipments, PETA launched a public campaign urging the newly merged airline not to send monkeys to die in pain and misery in laboratories.
United received more than 130,000 e-mails from PETA supporters who took action through our website. Thousands of dedicated activists flooded United’s Facebook wall with messages and heartbreaking photos of primates locked in laboratories. And PETA organized demonstrations against the airline at its offices around the world, including at the company headquarters in Chicago. We also purchased stock in the company with the intention of introducing a shareholder resolution later this year.
United Airlines’ laudable decision not to ship primates to laboratories means that, with our recent Air Canada victory, not a single commercial North American airline is willing to do so, making it much more difficult for experimenters to get their hands on primates in order to separate them from their families and poison them, drill into them, addict them to drugs, and lock them in solitary confinement.
PETA will continue to pressure the few remaining major airlines that haven’t seen the light and followed United’s lead. This shrinking list includes only Air France, China Eastern Airlines, Philippine Airlines, and Vietnam Airlines. You can help animals by urging these airlines to stop this cruel practice.
Thank you for helping make this victory possible and for your compassion for animals everywhere!
HSI Commends Taiwan for Historic Ban on Trade in Marine Mammal Products
Humane Society International/Canada commends Taiwan for passing a landmark ban on trade in marine mammal products, including seal skins, but exempting products of traditional indigenous hunts. The Taiwanese Legislative Yuan passed the legislation with unanimous support following a multi-year campaign by Taiwanese animal protection group EAST in collaboration with HSI.
“The compassionate actions of the Taiwanese Legislative Yuan will save countless seals and other marine mammals from a horrible fate,” said Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of HSI Canada. “The momentum to end trade in marine mammal products is growing and the sealing industry’s days are numbered. Instead of providing more pointless subsidies to artificially prop up this shameful practice, Canada should prohibit the slaughter and invest in a transition program for sealers.”
“Citizens of Taiwan care deeply about animal welfare, and we do not want to trade in products of cruelty that the rest of the world has rejected,” said Wu Hung, executive director of EAST. “I am very proud of the leadership Taiwan has shown in banning trade in marine mammal products. I hope that many other nations will follow suit, and that the Canadian government will finally do as the majority of Canadians and people around the world want and end the seal hunt for good.”
“Between 2003 and 2009, Taiwan imported 430,000 kilograms of seal oil, which made us the 4th largest importer of seal oil in the world. Through our trade in seal products, consumers in Taiwan were unintentionally involved in the killing of thousands of innocent seals in Canada,” said Legislator Lin of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan. “Taiwan’s decision is an important step forward for animal protection and conservation in Asia.” Canada’s commercial seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth. Because most Canadians oppose commercial sealing, the products of the seal slaughter are almost entirely exported. With the United States, European Union and Russia prohibiting trade in seal products, the Canadian sealing industry has sought to develop alternate markets in Asia, sparking protests in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.
EAST launched their campaign to secure a Taiwanese ban on seal product trade in 2010, achieving massive public support for the move and convincing many retailers in Taiwan to voluntarily discontinue sales of seal products. The prohibition on trade in marine mammal products cements Taiwan’s position and ensures that its trade in marine mammal products will never resume.
Facts:
- The United States, European Union, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Mexico—and now Taiwan–have prohibited trade in some or all seal products.
- In January 2012, sealing industry representatives admitted that there are 400,000 seal skins in inventory on the global market.
- In April 2012, when it appeared the annual seal slaughter would not go ahead due to lack of markets, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced that it would provide $3.6 million in loans to Carino Processing Limited to stockpile skins to meet “future demand.”
- At the industry’s height, sealing revenues amounted to about 3 percent of the landed value of Newfoundland’s fishing industry. In recent years, the landed value of the seal hunt has been in the region of $1 million annually, with only a few hundred fishermen participating in the slaughter.
- 2010 polling revealed half of Newfoundland sealers with an opinion support a sealing industry buyout—a plan in which sealers would receive immediate compensation as the hunt is ended and funds would be invested in economic alternatives in the communities involved.
Media Contact: Dean Pogas, 514.395.2914, dpogas@humanesociety.org
Read more…
Tell Canada Goose to stop using fur
Wikimedia Commons
Please click HERE to send automatic message
Source: Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals/LUSH
Petition Text (you may edit to personalize, please add the cruelty of using down, too)
Dear Mr. Reiss,
Each year, tens of thousands of coyotes are trapped and killed for use as fur trim on your coats and hats. Stolen from their families and homes, these sensitive, intelligent animals often spend hours or even days stuck in cruel traps where common injuries include broken bones and teeth, gashed eyes, and severe internal bleeding. This stands in stark contrast to your stated commitment to “the humane treatment of animals”.
In order to justify this blatant cruelty, you claim to use coyote fur “only as absolutely necessary” to survive “the coldest places on earth”, conveniently ignoring the fact that most Canadians are not Arctic explorers, and that even those who are have no need for animal fur.
Mr. Reiss, fur is neither humane nor necessary. As such, I am joining LUSH and The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals in urging Canada Goose to stop killing Canada’s wildlife, including geese, who need their fur in a way we never would.
Please click HERE to learn of other ways you can help
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Blue Feather Spirit
Please click HERE to sign petition.
Source: Blue Feather Spirit
State governments and resident hunters/trappers have been wantonly brutal and excessive in their ‘management’ (killing) of wolves; this is not acceptable due to the individual suffering of wolves, and it is a clear threat to the future of wolves and their DNA diversity.
Last fall, right from the starting gate, Idaho and Montana began to carry out their their diabolical plans for killing wolves. First there was a horrendous bow and arrow season, followed by deliberately mis-aimed bullets (gut shots – so wolf tags could be used for another day), and barbaric trapping and ‘dispatching’ of the trapped wolf in unthinkable ways. Uncountable boastings, postings, and photographs from wolf hunters on public forums have all documented evidence of a brutal regime celebrating and glorifying the killing of wolves. We have read ‘instructions’ on how to slowly poison wolves, “gut shoot wolves so they won’t die right away”, dispatch trapped wolves by means of strangulation, crushing, slow torture, skinning, and the dark list goes on and on.
None of this, so-called ‘management’ of wolves has anything to do with science or protecting livestock. This hunt is about ‘thrill killing’ the wolf because he is an icon and keystone predator. Trophy hunters covet the wolf and other predators for their trophy rooms. Teeth, pelts, feet, claws, and even deflated wolves are being sold. All of this flying in the face of our Native American people who consider the wolves brethren and in their beliefs, ‘what ever happens to the wolf, happens to them.” History has proven this to be true.
Wolves are only a negligible threat to livestock – being responsible for less than 1% of livestock losses. An example would be Wyoming 2010 – a total of 41,000 livestock animals perished. A study released the following year concluded that 26 cows and 33 sheep were taken by wolves – the other 40,941 animals died from infection, birthing, and being left out in extreme weather.
Montana recently released their new immoral plan to kill the wolves of Yellowstone National Park using electronic calling devices just outside the park to lure wolves from the safety of the park into their cross hairs! They will use the sounds of pups in distress to lure adult wolves to their death.
Idaho ended one wolf hunting season on June 30th and began another on July 1st!! The 2nd hunt, even more barbaric in that puppies, pregnant females, all wolves will be in the cross hairs and fair game for trapping – 365 days a year in EVERY INCH OF IDAHO with the small exception of national parks/city limits.
Wolves have been brought back from the brink of extinction and reinstated, only to be brutally massacred. This round-robin of destruction must not continue.
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New all-vegan cooking show, please send comments of support
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE: COMPASSION OVER KILLING
Just in time to help you to stick to your New Year’s resolution to eat healthier, the Cooking Channel is premiering its brand-new, all-vegan cooking show How to Live to 100.
Starting this Sunday, Jan. 6, at 8 p.m., celebrity chef and certified raw food chef instructor Jason Wrobel will introduce countless viewers nationwide to the nutritional—and flavorful—benefits of choosing fresh, plant-based foods.
Be sure to tune in! Chef Wrobel will be dishing up a sublime fusion of food and humor, and he’ll also be turning up the heat on powerful ingredients proven to increase your longevity. You’ll soon become a culinary master, whipping up heart-healthy and animal-friendly for the whole family.
If you don’t get cable or simply can’t wait until Sunday night, the Cooking Channel is sharing many of Wrobel’s recipes online, including chocolate kale chips and nacho cheesy popcorn. You can even subscribe to his popular YouTube channel, The J-Wro Show, for recipe demonstrations and a healthy serving of humor.
Want even more vegan recipes? We’ve got dozens of quick and easy meal ideas on our website VegRecipes.org, or you can request our free Easy Vegan Recipes booklet today!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Please click HERE for online contact form
SAMPLE COMMENT
Thank you for airing your first all-vegan cooking program How to Live to 100. As a vegan animal rights activist, I find it important that the media and programming avenues take an active stance in veganism to offer and disseminate information; this is vital to educate and inspire the populace as to the compassionate as well as the superior, healthful benefits of veganism. Animals are sentient creatures, as are human animals, and are capable of pain, suffering, loss, and love. It is important to recognize the equity between animals and non-human animals; please continue cutting-edge programming that challenges the current status-quo that thus far negligibly recognizes this precept. I wish you success for How to Live to 100 and I will share this information with friends, family, and online community members.
NAME
GUIDE TO CRUELTY-FREE EATING| VEGAN OUTREACH
Read more…
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
It is said that the Pope reads all of his e-mails. Please send your message using the below SAMPLE LETTER as a guide, and Arthur Poletti’s letter as inspiration.
A message from Arthur Poletti to Pope Benedict XVI
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVl
Dear Most Holy Father,
Being the Pope is not easy. Sometimes, with God’s guidance you must go against the status quo when you are certain you are right about a controversial subject and take a FIRM stand against overwhelming odds.
No matter what the majority of the people in the world may think or say.
Especially when YOUR HOLINESS KNOWS you are supporting and promoting THE WILL OF GOD.
I am sure you will agree that God is the supreme symbol of compassion, kindness, life, and love for all creatures with a soul, which proves why God wants all animal factory farms and slaughterhouses to close, yes?
Your Holiness, for this reason you should seriously consider the significance of God’s will and the multitude of benefits that would most certainly occur if you stopped eating animal flesh and dairy products and announced to the world that you are A VEGAN.
Your announcement that you have stopped eating animal flesh and dairy products will promote — VEGANISM — like never before, and it will convince millions of people that you are PERSONALLY SUPPORTING your love and GOD’S LOVE FOR ALL ANIMALS, setting the precedent for many religious leaders and government officials throughout the world to appreciate and emulate.
Holy Father, your historic action of becoming the FIRST VEGAN POPE will send a powerful message throughout the world, like a “lightning bolt from heaven,” that God and “Your Holiness” want factory farms and slaughterhouses to close ending the hideous torture and MASS MURDER of billions of God’s precious creatures.
Many immediate urgently-needed benefits for animals, humans, the earth, and the earth’s atmosphere will most certainly occur as well as a multitude of endless residual benefits, all because of your COURAGEOUS announcement.
Thank you, Your Holiness, for your important consideration and most needed action promoting *THE WILL OF GOD* and GOD’S love for all animals.
Respectfully.
Arthur Poletti
USA
Author of the essay: GOD IS A VEGAN — https://ourcompass.wordpress.com/essays/god-is-a-vegan/
Author of the short story: GOD DOES NOT EAT MEAT
Read for free online at: http://www.all-creatures.org/book/gdnem.html
WHOM TO CONTACT | SOURCE
Email block:
av@pccs.va ; cdf@cfaith.va ; USEmbassyVatican@state.gov
Postal:
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI PP.
00120 Via del Pellegrino
Citta del Vaticano
or
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Apostolic Palace
Vatican City
or
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Vatican City State, 00120
Please note:
The Vatican Press Office is considered the official means of e-mail contact for the Holy Father.
The following e-mail address does gain a response.
e-mail: av@pccs.va
phone: +390669881022
fax: +390669885373
Press Office Mailing Address where the e-mail (listed above) and incoming calls/faxes are received:
Pontificio Consiglio delle Comunicazioni Sociali
Palazzo San Carlo – 00120 Città del Vaticano
When sending mail to the Holy Father do not place the word Italy on the envelope. The Vatican is an independent nation and Italy’s mail system routinely misroutes mail addressed to the nation of Vaticano.
SAMPLE LETTER
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVl
Dear Most Holy Father,
It is sure that God is compassionate, but He is also certainly unwilling to excuse the massive exploitation of animal deaths, be they for food, fashion, or fun. Based on His teachings, we know that Eden was the ideal, a vegan world where no animals were killed. We should strive for this vegan ideal. Please allow me to explain the wisdom of this definite precept.
Speciesism, the prejudicial regard elevating human animals to a superior status as compared to non-human animals, thus validating a lack of compassion towards them, is dangerous and immoral. This is not an ideal precept but rather an unethical display of bias. The fact that human animals strive endlessly to disguise the deliberate enslavement, torture, and killing of animals using solicitous excuses such as need, desire, want, and finances demonstrates the fundamentally specious nature of such justifications. Indeed, if you replace pig, cow, dog, or deer with human, you will shock yourself into a disturbing submission of shame: duplicitous exclamations may serve to benefit humans, but they do nothing to conceal the deaths of others. When a life is intentionally taken so maliciously and callously, that it was human or non-human is irrelevant, that it was taken so maliciously and callously is, which is a viable teaching of the Lord. The devalue of life, and the disregard of suffering and death does not make the action invisible or obscured or acceptable, it only makes it appropriate to the people who exploit a definition, who corrupt sentience, and who subvert life to validate the deliberate termination of it.
Dear Most Holy Father, please reconsider your position and remember via the teachings what we have learned about the real victims, the animals, whose blood is so callously deemed irrelevant, whose lives are ended at the beginning of a weapon, stolen as inconsequential by hands demanding death. Please be a symbol of love, equity, and compassion to the global community by becoming the first vegan Pope and heralding in a new non-suffering world by teaching God’s followers that they, too, should reject exploitation by discontinuing animal suffering and becoming vegan.
Thank you, Most Holy Father, for taking the time to consider this important appeal.
NAME
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Congress Signs Bill To Replace Animals in Training
Wikimedia Commons
Source: VegNews
By: Elizabeth Castoria
The National Defense Authorization Act will stop the use of animals in military trainings.
The New Year brings good news for our four-legged friends. By signing the National Defense Authorization Act on January 2, President Obama has called for an end to the use of live animals in military training. Previously, the military used animals—usually pigs or goats—in combat-trauma training courses that involved injuring the animals (often amputating their limbs or shooting them) so that trainees could practice medical intervention on the victims, as they might an injured soldier on the battlefield. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has long lobbied to end the cruel practice, especially in light of the available human-based alternative methods, which will now be implemented.
Source: PETA
We’re starting 2013 off with a bang! President Obama has just signed into law a bill that includes language requiring the Department of Defense to create a strategy and timeline by March 1, 2013, for replacing the shooting, stabbing, and dismembering of animals in military training drills with human simulators and other modern non-animal methods.
This is a milestone moment in our ongoing campaign to stop the military from tormenting thousands of live animals each year in these archaic trauma exercises!
When this lifesaving provision was first inserted into the National Defense Authorization Act last year, PETA and its supporters sprang into action with e-mail and call-in campaigns to urge members of Congress to support the important measure. We now know that they took our concerns seriously and acted on them!
To bolster our efforts to urge the Department of Defense and Congress to address this vital issue, PETA released disturbing, never-before-seen undercover video footage this past year showing live goats who had their limbs broken and cut off with tree trimmers in a military training drill. A PETA complaint based on the video led to federal citations for animal welfare violations and prompted Congress to request an investigation into the contractor that conducted the cruel training. PETA also coauthored a study showing that three-quarters of the U.S.’s NATO allies do not use any animals in their military medical training programs, instead employing superior non-animal methods such as humanlike simulators.
Tens of thousands of PETA members and supporters—including high-profile military veterans Oliver Stone, Bob Barker, and Gideon Raff—have written to the Department of Defense asking the agency to modernize its training program by replacing its deadly animal laboratories with more effective, human-relevant simulation tools.
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Urge Racetrack to Cancel Cruel Zebra and Ostrich Races
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, a racetrack and casino in New Orleans, will be holding zebra and ostrich races on January 12. Mounted by jockeys and subjected to rough handling amid chaos and screaming crowds, these terrified animals are forced to race around a track—a miserable ordeal that causes them fear and stress and can result in serious injuries.
Animals used for “entertainment” in traveling acts suffer terribly and need your voice! These zebras and ostriches endure constant anxiety, physical discomfort, and frustration—and they are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them.
Please urge Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots management to cancel these cruel races and replace them with a humane alternative.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Send polite comments to:
Block
tim.bryant@fgno.com , eric.halstrom@fgno.com
Individual:
Tim Bryant
President
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
1751 Gentilly Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70119
tim.bryant@fgno.com
504-944-2511
Eric Halstrom
Vice President and General Manager of Racing
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
eric.halstrom@fgno.com
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear President Bryant and Vice President Halstrom,
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots will be holding zebra and ostrich races on January 12, and I am requesting that this plan be immediately terminated due to the inherent cruelty the animals experience.
Please allow me to elaborate. Mounted by jockeys and subjected to rough handling amid chaos and screaming crowds, these terrified animals are forced to race around a track — a miserable ordeal that causes them fear and stress and can result in serious injuries. Animals used for “entertainment” in traveling acts suffer terribly. These zebras and ostriches endure constant anxiety, physical discomfort, and frustration; they are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them.
I hope you make the compassionate decision to discontinue the negligence of these animals and reject complicity in the unethical industry that profits from their suffering. However, as long as Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots continues to unnecessarily capitalize on the exploitation and maltreatment of animals, I will not financially support you. It is important to recognize that consumers and tourists are increasingly rejecting those companies that are complicit in the suffering and unnecessary treatment of animals by shifting their loyalties to those that do not participate in the exploitation of animals, and I hope that you will extend such an ethical and empathetic gesture as well.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent appeal.
NAME
Read more…
Second appeal: investigate alleged cruel wrongdoing
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND | SOURCE PETA
According to news reports, Jamie Olson, a Wyoming-based trapper for the Wildlife Services division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), recently posted photos online that depict illegal trapping activities and blatant animal abuse. In some photos, Olson poses with wild animals—including coyotes, raccoons, and bobcats—who are desperately ensnared in cruel steel-jaw traps. What’s worse, Olson reportedly allowed his hunting dogs to badly harass ensnared animals and at least one coyote was mauled to death! Olson also apparently failed to check his traps in a timely manner, leaving animals to languish and subject to attack, as evidenced by a photo showing a trapped coyote who was eaten, most likely while still alive, by scavengers.
Graphic photos posted by Olson can be viewed by clicking here and here.
Wildlife Services claims that it does not condone cruelty, yet our repeated requests for an investigation into the matter and swift disciplinary action have gone unanswered. Please contact USDA officials and urge them to take appropriate action regarding this alarming matter. And please forward this message widely!
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email block:
gregory.l.parham@aphis.usda.gov , bill.clay@aphis.usda.gov , rodney.f.krischke@aphis.usda.gov
Individual:
Gregory Parham
Administrator
USDA-APHIS
gregory.l.parham@aphis.usda.gov
Bill Clay
Deputy Administrator
USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services
bill.clay@aphis.usda.gov
Rod Krischke
State Director
Wyoming Wildlife Services
USDA-APHIS
rodney.f.krischke@aphis.usda.gov
SAMPLE LETTER | SOURCE ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE
Dear Administrator Parham, Deputy Administrator Clay, and State Director Krischke:
Following up on the Animal Welfare Institute’s (AWI) letter, I, too, am writing to request your immediate investigation and subsequent termination of Jamie P. Olson, a Wildlife Services (WS) employee, based in Douglas, Wyoming, for blatant acts of animal cruelty.
As you are no doubt aware, you can view the following photos published by Mr. Olson:
http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2012/11/01/22/24/vchnG.So.4.pdf.
As noted and sourced by AWI, they, and Project Coyote, firmly oppose the use of steel-jaw traps for the capture of any species given their inherent cruelty. I am further alarmed that instead of immediately killing the trapped animals, this WS employee inflicted even greater fear and pain on already-suffering animals caught in these brutal traps by allowing dogs to torment or attack the trapped animals as is depicted in several of the photographs. This is unacceptable behavior for any trapper, but such wanton cruelty and callous disregard for the welfare of these animals is particularly egregious when done by a government employee and must not be tolerated.
Furthermore, another photograph posted on Olson’s Twitter page titled “Eagles got to this adult female before i did. #3 bridger on a drag,” (also shown at this link – http://wg.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=priorities_wildlife_war_wildlife_kill_methods_trapping_abuse&autologin=true ) demonstrates Olson’s failure to check his traps in a timely manner and his disregard for the animal’s pain and suffering.
I also note that Mr. Olson appears to be the primary organizer of several coyote contest hunts in Montana and one scheduled for January 2013 in Dickson, North Dakota ( article dated October 15, 2012, about the MT contest and the attached flyer advertising the ND contest mentioned at below link).
Click on this link for further information: http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2012/11/01/22/24/vchnG.So.4.pdf
Mr. Olson’s mobile phone number is included in the article. If this is a WS-issued phone, Mr. Olson’s use of it to organize and promote a coyote-killing contest is unacceptable and provides additional grounds for his termination.
As you know, WS is a highly controversial program responsible for killing millions of animals each year which is funded, in part, with taxpayer dollars. While AWI, PC, and WS disagree about the merits of WS’ lethal control practices, there should be no question that the intentional infliction of additional suffering on any trapped animal by a WS employee is entirely unacceptable and warrants immediate termination.
Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter and for expeditiously and decisively acting on these concerns. I look forward to receiving your response to this matter in writing by replying to my email address.
NAME
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Tell Tufts-Cummings Veterinary School: Declawing is Mutilation, Stop Justifying It
Wikimedia Commons
BACKGROUND
The December issue of the Tufts-Cummings Veterinary School ‘s Catnip newsletter featured an article entitled “Curb Destructive Scratching” which includes an irresponsible sidebar section on declawing entitled “The Declawing Option: What You Should Know”, which outrageously serves to legitimize and justify cat declawing in certain circumstances.
The article describes declawing as a “relatively simple” procedure with “slight risks”. This is recklessly untrue. In fact, declawing is among the most agonizing procedures a cat can undergo, and can lead to chronic pain and disability, says veterinarian Jennifer Conrad, DVM. While called “declawing”, the procedure actually involves amputating a portion of a cat’s toes, with life-long adverse affects common.
An important point Friends of Animals has long made to our members is that adopting a cat or dog means taking responsibility for their well being. Declawing—an act of cruelty which should be illegal—means renouncing the responsibility one has assumed when one adopts a cat into one’s home. We’re so serious about our anti-declawing position that we mandate that our low-cost spay neuter certificates cannot be used in the cat owner also intends on declawing their cat. Our educational pamphlet “Paws Come With Claws: That’s One of Nature’s Laws”, details the various ways that pet owners can protect themselves and their furniture without ever harming their cat.
According to Catnip’s editor-in-chief, Tufts-Cummings veterinary surgeon Dr. John Berg, “We do not do declawing procedures at Tufts-Cummings, and would consider it only if one of the very rare instances outlined in the sidebar ever arose.” Friends of Animals’ New York office contacted Dr. Berg and voiced our opposition to the contradictory message about declawing posed in Catnip’s article, yet Dr. Berg insisted that the sidebar was appropriate and even stated that he himself could “imagine circumstances in which I personally would consider performing declawing.”
Such a confused and backwards position should not be championed by a well-regarded Veterinary School.
Incredibly, the article also suggests that front-paw declawing does not render outdoor cats defenseless because they can climb “small-diameter trees”. What about cats with only wide-diameter trees available, or no trees available? How would a declawed cat escape or defend themselves from a predator then? They would be incapable of doing so.
What are the instances outlined as reasons to amputate a portion of a cat’s toes so it can’t scratch? If an owner “appears likely to euthanize or abandon the cat unless (it) undergoes the procedure” or if the cat shares a household with someone who is medically compromised.
That is a flimsy justification, and utterly without merit. Many people doing rescue and shelter work know: Declawed cats are abandoned and euthanized just like any other cat.
Although Dr. Berg says he “cannot remember the last time” a declawing was performed at Tufts-Cummings since he started as a faculty member in 1987, Catnip‘s promoting declawing as a procedure of so-called last resort justifies this cruelty.
And justifying declawing gives vets and uninformed or selfish pet owners the green light to continue mutilating cats for the crime of being cats and doing what comes naturally to them.
WHOM TO CONTACT
Email: john.berg@tufts.edu
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Dr. Berg,
Catnip‘s careless treatment of declawing does a disservice to cats and does not reflect well on Tufts-Cummings.
Please publish an article in Catnip that takes a humane stand–with reasons declawing should never be done as behavioral intervention. If Tufts-Cummings indeed prohibits this unnecessary surgery, it is especially necessary for its newsletter to inform its readers why it takes this ethical stand.
Anyone adopting a cat must accept that scratching is a normal characteristic of a healthy cat. Amputating a portion of a cat’s toes, or severing the tendons (tendonectomy), to deal with this behavior is patently cruel. There are many humane, sensible options, such as behavioral modification techniques with rehoming, a kinder “last resort”.
Additionally, bite wounds are as dangerous as scratches. What then? Remove the cat’s teeth? To suggest that a cat should be declawed if an owner is medically compromised is absurd. It is important to also note that once deprived of claws, a cat may turn to his only other form of defense—his teeth. It is fairly common for a declawed cat to become a biter, doing so out of fear and frustration.
Furthermore, declawing does not ensure cats a secure home. People who select, care for, and train companion animals responsibly; who have realistic expectations of a cat’s innate behavior; and who make a lifetime commitment to their pets are the only things that ensure a cat a secure home.
Thank you for taking the time to read this important appeal to publish an article detailing the dangers and inhumane properties of declawing.
NAME
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Our Compass 