tagged w/ Animal Rights
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The Scottish Sun...
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Connery fights for dolphins
By STUART MacDONALD
Published: 08 Dec 2011
SIR Sean Connery is on a mission with fellow James Bond star Pierce Brosnan to halt the illegal slaughter of dolphins and whales.
Connery, 81, has joined the advisory board of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, of which Brosnan is already a member.
Other supporters of the group include Batman star Christian Bale and Star Trek legend William Shatner.
A spokesman said yesterday: "Having one James Bond — Pierce Brosnan — has been a great help to our campaigns to defend the ocean.
"Now with Connery and Brosnan, Sea Shepherd will be an unstoppable force for conservation."
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Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/3985334/Sean-Connery-fights-for-dolphins.html#ixzz1g4s2pCpo
.The Scottish Sun...
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Connery fights for dolphins
By STUART MacDONALD... more
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Justice for Dog Whose Face Was Blown Off By Fireworks!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/441/petition-for-the-dog-whose-face-was-torn-off-after-people-put-a-lit-firework-in-his-mouth-and-later/
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Please sign the petition -- these two ugly humans need to be punished.
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care2 petitionsite
Justice for Dog Whose Face Was Blown Off By Fireworks!
Justice for Dog Whose Face Was Blown Off By Fireworks!
signatures: 90,724
deadline: ongoing
signature goal: 100,000
Target: Federal Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sponsored by: International workers for animal rights
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Please share Vucko's story on Facebook.
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SARAJEVO -- Two intoxicated youths duct-taped a firework in a German shepherd's mouth and blew off his face. But the torture didn't stop there. The poor dog, known as Vucko, wandered for five days, unable to eat and with maggots infecting the meaty pulp of his ruined face. Vucko was finally picked up by authorities and euthanized after vets were unable to perform reconstructive surgery.
Click on the link in the story if you can bear viewing EXTREMELY GRAPHIC footage of Vucko being examined by vets. Notice the firework's shell casing still embedded in the dog's head.
We must bring the animal abusers to justice and ensure that this inhumanity is never repeated; sadly, animal welfare laws are practically nonexistent in much of Eastern Europe. Sign this petition urging Bosnian authorities to hunt down the guilty parties, expose the severity of animal abuse, and create proper legislation that will protect animals. Don't let Vucko die in vain!
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Pas Vucko je uzasno stradao kad neki su zalepili vatromet za usta od psa I zapalili to. Od explozije je pas tesko bijo ranjen u lici. 5 dana se vrtio u ulice od Sarajevo dok su ga nasli. Na zalost nista nije se moglo ucinit da se ga spasi i Vucka se trebalo eutanizirat. Te ljude koji su ucinili tu uzast bi trebalo da se osudi.
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.Justice for Dog Whose Face Was Blown Off By Fireworks!... more
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Time...
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‘Gay’ Penguin Pair Adopts a Baby Chick in China
Hot on the tail feathers of Canada's gay penguin controversy, a China zoo has given another same-sex penguin couple the opportunity to raise a chick — and so far, everyone seems to be doing just fine.
By Erin Skarda | @ErinLeighSkarda | December 7, 2011 | 37
PHOTO: A pair of African penguins walk together in Betty's Bay, South Africa
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First came Roy and Silo and their children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, and then Buddy and Pedro made headlines as a gay penguin couple who were being separated by the Toronto Zoo. Now, meet China’s same-sex penguin pair, 0310 and 067 — or as NewsFeed likes to call them, Adam and Steve.
Adam and Steve have a pretty lush life at Harbin Polar Land in northern China. While zookeepers at the Toronto Zoo were quick to separate their “gay” penguin couple for mating purposes, keepers at Harbin Polar Land embraced their eccentric penguins by not only giving them a same-sex wedding ceremony worthy of Leslie Knope, but also providing them with their very own baby chick to care for.
Adam and Steve had a history of stealing eggs from other more traditional couples during hatching season. So when keepers noticed a mother of recently hatched twins struggling with her parenting duties, they decided to give Adam and Steve the baby they were looking for.
While it might seem, well, different for a penguin chick to have two male parents, in fact, all penguins are known to have natural instincts for parenting, as males and females equally share in the responsibility to incubate and care for their chicks, before and after they’re born. For this reason, keepers at Harbin Polar Land are confident that Adam and Steve’s chick will grow up to be just like its penguin peers.
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Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/07/gay-penguin-pair-adopts-a-baby-chick-in-china/#ixzz1fyqPpW5Y
.Time...
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‘Gay’ Penguin Pair Adopts a Baby Chick in China
Hot on... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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PHOTO: Congress removed wolves in Montana and Idaho from the protection of the Endangered Species Act in April. (Associated Press)
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The new war on wolves
As soon as federal protection ended, the slaughter began.
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By J. William Gibson
December 8, 2011
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Congress removed wolves in Montana and Idaho from the protection of the Endangered Species Act in April. And this fall, the killing began.
As of Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game reported that 154 of its estimated 750 wolves had been "harvested" this year. Legal hunting and trapping — with both snares to strangle and leg traps to capture — will continue through the spring. And if hunting fails to reduce the wolf population sufficiently — to less than 150 wolves — the state says it will use airborne shooters to eliminate more.
In Montana, hunters will be allowed to kill up to 220 wolves this season (or about 40% of the state's roughly 550 wolves). To date, hunters have taken only about 100 wolves, prompting the state to extend the hunting season until the end of January. David Allen, president of the powerful Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, has said he thinks hunters can't do the job, and he is urging the state to follow Idaho's lead and "prepare for more aggressive wolf control methods, perhaps as early as summer 2012."
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead recently concluded an agreement with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to save 100 to 150 wolves in lands near Yellowstone National Park. But in the remaining 80% of the state, wolves can be killed year-round because they are considered vermin. Roughly 60% of Wyoming's 350 wolves will become targeted for elimination.
What is happening to wolves now, and what is planned for them, doesn't really qualify as hunting. It is an outright war.
In the mid-1990s, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 66 wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho, most of the U.S. celebrated. The magnificent wolf, an icon of wilderness that humans had driven to extinction in the United States, would now reoccupy part of its old range. But in the region where the wolves were introduced, the move was much more controversial.
Part of the reason was the increase, particularly in Idaho and Montana, in paramilitary militia advocates, with their masculine ideal of man as warrior who should fight the hated federal government, by armed force if necessary. They were outraged by what they saw as federal interference in the region spurred by environmentalists, and their ideas found a willing reception among ranchers, who view wolves as a threat to their livestock — even though they ranch on federal land — and hunters, who don't want the wolves reducing the big game population.
The factions have reinforced one another, and today a cultural mythology has emerged that demonizes the federal government, the environmental movement and the wolves themselves. Many false claims have been embraced as truth, including that the Fish and Wildlife Service stole $60 million from federal excise taxes on guns and ammunition to pay for bringing wolves back; that the introduced wolves carry horrible tapeworms that can be easily transmitted to dogs, and ultimately to humans; that the Canadian wolves that were brought in are an entirely different species from the gray wolves that once lived in the Rockies, and that these wolves will kill elk, deer, livestock — even humans — for sport.
The false claims may have had particular resonance because they built on a long tradition in Western culture. During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church ruled that wolves belonged to the devil: Demons could take the shape of wolves, as could witches. Puritans brought similar ideas to America. Cotton Mather called New England before it was settled a "howling wilderness." Asked to investigate Salem's alleged witches, Mather concluded in his book, "On Witchcraft" (1692): "Evening wolves" (werewolves and witches) were but another of the devil's tests as New England passed from "wilderness" to the "promised land."
And that attitude has persisted. Gary Marbut, president of the influential Montana Shooting Sports Assn., wrote in 2003 that "one might reasonably view man's entire development and creation of civilization as a process of fortifying against wolves."
Politicians from both parties in Western states have been eager to help with the fortifications. In Idaho, Republican Rep. Mike Simpson and the state's governor, Butch Otter, made removal of wolves from the Endangered Species Act a political priority. In Montana, Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg has made delisting wolves central to his 2012 Senate campaign against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. In April, Tester in turn persuaded fellow Democrats in the Senate to approve his inserting a rider in a budget bill that delisted wolves.
In early November, Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, made his own political contribution. Thrilled at the testing of a drone aircraft manufactured in Montana, Baucus declared: "Our troops rely on this type of technology every day, and there is an enormous future potential in border security, agriculture and wildlife and predator management." A manufacturer's representative claimed his company's drone "can tell the difference between a wolf and a coyote." Pilotless drone aircraft used by the CIA and the Air Force to target and kill alleged terrorists now appear to be real options to track and kill "enemy" wolves.
How far we have fallen since the mid-1990s, when we celebrated the wolves' reintroduction. During the 2008 presidential election, candidate Barack Obama declared: "Federal policy toward animals should respect the dignity of animals and their rightful place as cohabitants of the environment. We should strive to protect animals and their habitats and prevent animal cruelty, exploitation and neglect."
The president now should make good on that promise.
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J. William Gibson is a sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach and the author of "A Reenchanted World." http://www.jameswilliamgibson.com
.Los Angeles Times...
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PHOTO: Congress removed wolves in Montana and Idaho from... more
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CBS News US...
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December 6, 2011 4:38 PM
Kittens discarded in cat food bag rescued by dog
By
Michelle Castillo
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PHOTO: Reagan, the dog who saved the day by rescuing two kittens from a discarded cat food bag (WHOTV)
(CBS News)
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Two kittens who were thrown mercilessly into a a bag and then dumped in the middle of the road are now available for adoption from and Iowa rescue group But if it weren't for the heroic actions of dog named Regan, they probably would not have survived.
WHOTV reports that the two kittens, named Tipper and Skipper, were sealed in a Meow Mix bag with the rest of the litter, and then left in the street. The bag had been run over by a vehicle, killing some of the kittens and making it difficult to tell exactly how many cats were inside. Somehow, Tipper and Skipper survived. "It was not a pretty sight," Linda Blakely from Iowa's Raccoon Valley Animal Sanctuary said.
That's when Reagan stepped in. He grabbed the bag, and carried it home. He didn't stop whining until his owner opened the bag. Covered in the blood and remains of the kittens who were killed, she found two seriously injured survivors.
"The instinct of the dog was to nurture and not kill the kittens. With all the blood some dogs would have responded to the scent. Reagan the dog is a hero," Blakely said.
Tipper and Skipper were traumatized and weak from the experience, and had to be fed with a bottle every two hours. They have recovered, and are now available for adoption. Blakely believed their their survival is proof that there is always a way to make things right, and wanted to remind pet owners that there's always a safe method to finding a new home for pets if you are unable to take care of them.
.CBS News US...
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December 6, 2011 4:38 PM
Kittens discarded in cat food... more
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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/san-bernardino-county-cockfighting.html
Los Angeles Times...
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D.A. combats cockfighting with undercover video, $5,000 reward
December 6, 2011 | 9:30 am
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Click on link to view video:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/san-bernardino-county-cockfighting.html
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The San Bernardino County district attorney's office went multimedia in its efforts to combat cockfighting.
The district attorney's office released a video about the illegal blood sport in which roosters with blades strapped to their feet fight to the death. The six-minute video includes "undercover footage" of cockfighting matches provided by the Humane Society of the United States.
The video posts an offer of a $5,000 reward by the Humane Society to those who report cockfighting.
The district attorney's office has prosecuted 43 cockfighting cases in San Bernardino County in the last year. Cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states, but California is one of 11 states where it is a misdemeanor rather than a felony.
"One of the ways that a society should be judged is by how they treat their animals. I truly believe that," San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Michael Ramos said in the video.
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Click on link to view video:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/san-bernardino-county-cockfighting.html
.http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/san-bernardino-county-cockfighting.html... more
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BuzzFeed...
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20 Asshole Celebrities Who Wear Fur
Celebrity Buzz
Many celebrities choose to wear fur as a symbol of their success and luxurious lifestyle. You would think that they would know better, especially with all the press about animal cruelty! Plus, they just look silly.
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1. 50 Cent (above)
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[NOTE FROM ETHICAL VEGAN: The headline is not mine.]BuzzFeed...
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20 Asshole Celebrities Who Wear Fur
Celebrity Buzz
Many... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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Southern California -- this just in
Nearly 60 animals seized at 'death trap' in rural San Diego County
December 2, 2011 | 4:51 pm
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Fifty-eight animals in the rural community of Campo were seized Friday by San Diego County sheriff's deputies and animal services officers in a raid on a small ranch that one animal services officer called a "death trap."
The animals included goats, sheep, llamas, cattle and horses. Many of the animals were sick, were on the verge of starvation and had overgrown hooves, investigators said.
On Nov. 9, animal control officers had found nine dead goats and a dead llama on the same property. Necropsies determined that the animals had probably died of starvation.
The owners were given a warning about the remaining animals but apparently were not following through on their promises to provide better feed and care, according to Lt. Dan DeSousa of the county Department of Animal Services.
"We were not going to allow these animals to remain and suffer the same fate as the others," DeSousa said.
The animals were taken to a county-run facility in Bonita. Investigators are gathering evidence and will present a report to the district attorney about possible animal cruelty charges against the property owners, DeSousa said.
Deputies and investigators allowed several dogs, several chickens and a pig to remain. "But we'll be monitoring to see how they are doing," DeSousa said.
Campo is an hour east of downtown San Diego. The owners were not home at the time of the raid.
.Los Angeles Times...
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Southern California -- this just in
Nearly 60... more
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NBC L.A. ...
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Wildlife WayStation in Dire Financial State
"We are at the end of our rope," said Martine Colette, the sanctuary's founder and director
By Ashley Gordon
| Friday, Dec 2, 2011 | Updated 3:29 PM PST
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Wildlife Waystation in Dire Financial State
Photo: Wildlife Waystation resident Bolero plays with a ball.
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Taking care of wild animals is no easy task. Couple the labor and maintenance involved with a troubled economy and the result is an animal sanctuary on the brink of closure.
Tucked within the Angeles National Forest is the Wildlife WayStation, an animal sanctuary that some 400 wild and exotic animals, birds and reptiles call home. Since it opened its doors in 1976, it has relied solely on corporate and foundation grants, private donations, animal sponsorships and bequests – all of which have dwindled under the current economic climate.
“We are at the end of our rope,” said Martine Colette, the sanctuary’s founder and director. “We cannot stretch a dollar anymore and we are out of dollars.”
Colette said she is experiencing the most significant drop in fundraising activity in her 45 years of animal welfare and rescue work, making it increasingly difficult to meet the $150,000 needed monthly to maintain the WayStation. She even issued a plea for public help.
The nonprofit has significantly cut back on permanent support staff, instead, relying more heavily on volunteers to help with the day-to-day operation.
In addition, Los Angeles County requires such a facility to obtain a conditional use permit in order to open to the public.
“When we have a hearing, we contact the associated [governmental] agencies and they actually formulate conditions that would be appropriate for that facility,” said John Gutwein, deputy director of the Land Use Regulation Division of the county’s department of Regional Planning.
While the WayStation remains a licensed animal sanctuary, the high costs associated with county-required repairs has kept its doors shut to the public for the last seven years.
Because of this, the organization finds itself in a Catch-22: It is in need of money to meet county requirements before the public is allowed on the premises; however, it is lacking the money that would be raised through public visitation to make repairs.
Gutwein said he visited the organization six or seven years ago and at the time thought the level of animal restraint was not suitable for outside visitors. He also expressed concern involving an evacuation plan for the animals if a fire were to start in the high-brush area.
Still, he said the WayStation’s issues are completely due to a lack of resources.
“If [Colette] did have the resources, I have no doubt she could make those improvements so perhaps parts of the facility could be open to the public," he said.
Colette said the WayStation is mostly funded by the Average Joe, the people the economy has hurt the most. For this reason, she believes the best case scenario for long-term sustainability of the organization would be a partnership with a company that could get behind its brand.
“I know that the public will be empathetic and there will be a certain amount of dollars sent to the station,” Colette said. “But the real solutions have to come from any of the options I’ve outlined.”
The worst case scenario would be the closure of the 160-acre property and would leave the government with the difficult task of relocating hundreds of troubled animals.
“We have an opportunity to make a difference in these animals’ lives now. Once we are unable to care for them, governmental agencies step in,” Colette said. “That is a very scary concept.”
Marcia Mayeda, director of the county’s Department of Animal Care & Control, said that if her department had to intervene it would work with the United States Department of Agriculture to find a solution.
“It is not easy. We’ve taken over 300 dogs over time from people who could no longer care for them,” Mayeda said. “Although tigers are way different, we do have a lot of resources to help find new homes from them.”
.NBC L.A. ...
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Wildlife WayStation in Dire Financial State
"We are at... more
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The New York Times...
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November 30, 2011
Arkansas: Meatpacker May Lose U.S. Contracts
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Labor officials have moved to cut off federal contracts held by one of the nation’s largest meatpackers, saying it discriminated against women and non-Asians.
The Labor Department says the company, Cargill Meat Solutions, discriminated against more than 4,000 qualified people who applied for entry-level jobs at a Springdale plant, with women less likely to be hired and Asians and Pacific Islanders unfairly favored over other races.
Federal officials said Tuesday that they wanted to cancel Cargill’s contracts and prevent future contracts until the company stopped discriminatory practices.
Cargill Meat Solutions holds contracts worth more than $550 million with the Department of Defense, labor officials said. The company, a subsidiary of Cargill Inc., in Minneapolis, attributed the problem to documentation, saying there was not a satisfactory record of why it did not hire certain candidates. Mike Martin, a spokesman, said that minorities made up 84 percent of the 1,300 people employed at the Springdale plant and that the accusation appeared to be based on a “statistical analysis” of the job market rather than a review of specific applicants.
The plant drew national attention this year when it had to recall 36 million pounds of ground turkey after a salmonella outbreak that sickened 107 people in 31 states. One person died.
.The New York Times...
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November 30, 2011
Arkansas: Meatpacker May Lose U.S.... more
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Technorati...
Obama Legalizes Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption
Author: madeline bernstein
Published: November 28, 2011 at 2:52 pm
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Horse slaughter plants are legal again in the United States. Restrictions on horse meat processing for human consumption have been lifted.
In a bipartisan effort, the House of Representatives and the United States Senate approved the Conference Committee report on spending bill H2112, which among other things, funds the United States Department of Agriculture. On November 18th, as the country was celebrating Thanksgiving, President Obama signed a law, allowing Americans to kill and eat horses. Essentially, one turkey was pardoned in the presence of worldwide media while in the shadows, buried under pages of fiscal regulation, millions of horses were sentenced to death.
Horse slaughter has been prohibited in the United States as funding for inspections of horses in transit and at slaughter houses was non-existent. This worked because the horse meat cannot be sold for human consumption without such inspections. The House version of the bill retained the de-funding language and the Senate version did not. The conference committee charged with reconciling the two opted to not include it. The result is that it is now legal to slaughter horses for humans to eat.
Notwithstanding that 70% of Americans oppose horse slaughter, that President Obama made a campaign promise to permanently ban horse slaughter and exports of horses for human consumption (horses can be sent to Mexico and Canada), that documentation of animal cruelty, slaughterhouse stench, fluid runoff and negative community impact exists, it is taxpayers that will bear the costs!
Wyoming state representative Sue Wallis and her pro-slaughter group estimate that between 120,000 and 200,000 horses will be killed for human consumption per year and that Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Georgia and Missouri, are considering opening slaughter plants.
During these trying times, is the only thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is that Americans need to eat horses?
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Read more: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/obama-legalizes-horse-slaughter-for-human/#ixzz1fG00lE9y
.Technorati...
Obama Legalizes Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption
Author:... more
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I survived my first Thanksgiving as a vegan, but not without some guilt-inducing temptations.I survived my first Thanksgiving as a vegan, but not without some guilt-inducing... more
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Consciousness TV...
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Up to 12 million bees found dead in Florida and no one knows why
By Eddie Sage on 05 October 2011
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Authorities have already ruled out disease, including the infamous “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD), as the cause of a recent honeybee holocaust that took place in Brevard County, Florida.
The UK’s Daily Mail reports that up to 12 million bees from roughly 800 apiaries in the area all dropped dead at roughly the same time around September 26 — and local beekeepers say pesticides are likely to blame.
CCD is the term often used to describe the inexplicable mass die-off of honeybees around the world, which typically involves honeybees leaving their hives and, for whatever reason, never finding their way back home.
Mass die-offs associated with CCD often occur at seemingly random locations around the world, and typically involve a gradual process of disappearance and eventual colony collapse — and the dead bees are typically nowhere to be found.
But the recent Florida event involved hundreds of colonies from 30 different sites in a one-and-a-half mile radius literally dropping dead all at the same time and leaving their carcasses behind, which is why authorities have dismissed CCD as the cause.
Based on the appearance of the dead bees, as well as the synchronous timing of their deaths, pesticide sprayings appear to be the culprit in this case. “I’m a pretty tough guy, but it is heart wrenching,” said Charles Smith of Smith Family Honey Company to News 13 in Orlando. His family’s company lost an estimated $150,000 worth of bees in the recent die-off.
“Not only is it a monetary loss here, but we work really hard on these bees to keep them in good health.”
The Florida die-off coincides with a recent county-wide mosquito eradication effort, during which helicopters flew over various parts of the county and sprayed airborne pesticides.
Officials, of course, deny that this taxpayer-funded spraying initiative had anything to do with the bee genocide, though.
“The fact that it was so widespread and so rapid, I think you can pretty much rule out disease,” said Bill Kern, an entomologist from the University of Florida (UF) toFlorida Today. “It happened essentially almost in one day. Usually diseases affect adults or the brood, you don’t have something that kills them both.”
Many of the beekeepers who lost their hives in the mass killing raised their bees to sell to American farmers, who then used them to pollinate food crops. Because of their massive losses, many of these beekeepers could end up losing their entire beekeeping businesses.
.Consciousness TV...
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Up to 12 million bees found dead in Florida and no one... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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Court ruling keeps Yellowstone grizzlies on 'threatened' list
November 22, 2011 | 1:16 pm
A ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2007 decision to remove the "threatened" designation for Yellowstone grizzly bears under the Endangered Species Act
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Conservationists won a major battle Tuesday in their campaign to protect Yellowstone grizzly bears when a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service erred in removing Endangered Species Act protections for "one of the American West's most iconic wild animals."
The ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the wildlife agency's 2007 decision to remove the "threatened" designation for the bears under the Endangered Species Act.
Tuesday's ruling cited climate change as having accelerated a beetle infestation destroying the bears' vital white-bark pine food source. The grizzly is only the second wildlife species, after the polar bear, to earn protection in recognition of harm caused by global warming. Both are considered "threatened."
The three-judge panel embraced conservationists' warnings that the decline in the grizzlies' fodder would likely drive them to forage in more populous areas around the park, increasing incidents of confrontation between humans and the omnivorous bears.
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Los Angeles Times...
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Court ruling keeps Yellowstone grizzlies on... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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Getting a handle on feral cats
A nonprofit group in South L.A. employs a trap-and-neuter service to bring down the feline population over time.
PHOTO: Stray Cat Alliance founder Christi Metropole is shown with some feline friends.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
By Ricardo Lopez, Los Angeles Times
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November 19, 2011
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The 90037 ZIP Code in South Los Angeles has about 60,000 residents.
And by some estimates, almost 12,000 feral cats.
Colonies of the strays roam the alleys and backyards of these low-income neighborhoods.
L.A.'s mild weather means the cats come into season frequently, breeding like wild. Add to that residents' inability to seek veterinary care when most are struggling to make ends meet, rescue groups say.
"I can hear them right outside my window when they're fighting and mating," said Cydney Fellows, a retired high-rise window washer who lives near Vermont Avenue and 22nd Street.
Sometimes she is awakened in the middle of the night by the dozen or so cats that frequent her apartment building. "I've been living here for almost 10 years. I've never seen so many stray animals in my life."
Officials say that the city's Animal Services Department is stretched too thin to trap any cats and that when residents take them into city shelters, many are euthanized.
But one nonprofit group is hoping to decrease the number that are killed. And even more ambitiously, the Stray Cat Alliance hopes to trap and neuter at least 7,000 cats within this roughly two-square-mile area, using a grant from a private company.
"When people are struggling to put food on the table, they don't focus on feral cats," said Christi Metropole, the nonprofit's founder. "We're stepping in to fill a need. Animal Services doesn't have the budget, and residents often don't know what to do."
The group's strategy is simple: trap, neuter and return the cat to the spot where it was captured.
This method, Metropole said, results in zero population growth. Eventually, as cats die, the population will dwindle through natural attrition. The cats that remain lead healthier lives and don't fight as much because they've been neutered, she said.
In recent weeks, Metropole's volunteers have begun canvassing the neighborhood, educating residents and encouraging them to help trap cats. On Saturday, there will be a small rally to officially launch the capture effort, dubbed "I Spayed LA."
Carol Brookshire's home, directly west of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, is the ZIP Code's "trap depot."
"My yard was overrun with cats and kittens, some diseased," Brookshire said. She remembers the band of cats that occupied her avocado tree-lined backyard when she moved here six years ago.
Now they're all neutered, and she has volunteered her home to be the headquarters for nighttime trapping missions.
In her garage, she demonstrates how the steel crate traps work. She admits it takes a bit of finesse to trap. Location and bait are important. Foods with strong scents, like sardines and rotisserie chicken, do the best job of luring cats from their hiding spots.
After a quick surgery at the nearby Animal Rescue Center, a nonprofit animal hospital, the trapped felines are returned to their homes within a couple of days.
Opened in January, the hospital offers low-cost medical services for residents' pets and partnering rescue groups. Some of the cats are put up for adoption if deemed suitable.
During a drive around the area, Metropole pointed out the handful of strays roaming the sidewalks along Exposition Boulevard. She remains undaunted by the sheer number of cats she wants to trap and neuter, instead mulling over future efforts.
"We just want to be able to move on to the next ZIP Code," she said.
.Los Angeles Times...
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Getting a handle on feral cats
A nonprofit group in... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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West Hollywood makes fur ban official
November 22, 2011 | 12:00 pm
West Hollywood approves fur ban 2011
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After multiple readings and loads of public comment, the West Hollywood City Council gave final approval Monday night to its ban on fur sales.
By a vote of 3-1 with one abstention, the council passed the ban, which will prohibit the sale of fur apparel within city boundaries.
The move comes after the council tentatively approved the measure at a council meeting in September.
The ban was later tabled for 30 days as city officials worked to modify the ordinance to protect against potential lawsuits.
The ban, which is one of the first of its kind in the nation, is set to take effect in 2013.
.Los Angeles Times...
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West Hollywood makes fur ban official
November 22,... more
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Los Angeles Times...
Orphan turkeys seek future as pets, not dinner
November 18, 2011 | 6:00 am
Baby turkeys
Aren't baby turkeys surprisingly photogenic? These birds are also lucky. Twenty-five baby turkeys, or poults, were dumped off at the Farm Sanctuary animal protection facility near Palmdale recently. They were weak and dirty, and the very tips of their beaks had been removed, leaving experts to speculate the birds were rescued from a commercial factory farm.
“This isn't the first time this has happened,” says Susie Coston, national shelter director for the nonprofit Farm Sanctuary, who adds that such drop-offs are common around Thanksgiving. “Sometimes I think it's workers who feel really bad.”
Now needing permanent homes, the birds make good companion animals, sanctuary officials say. Prospective adopters should have large yards and be sure zoning allows turkeys, Coston says, noting that many communities allow chickens but not bigger birds.
Chefs need not apply. “Not wanting to eat them is the No. 1 thing we're looking for,” Coston says.
On Sunday, the public is invited to the farm in Acton, off the 14 Freeway, to meet some of the babies at the shelter's free Celebration for the Turkeys from 2 to 5 p.m.
Details: www.adoptaturkey.org.
.Los Angeles Times...
Orphan turkeys seek future as pets, not dinner
November 18,... more
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MyFox News...
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Wonderful video!!
Blind Dog Gets New Leash on Life
Updated: Wednesday, 02 Nov 2011, 4:18 PM CDT
Published : Wednesday, 02 Nov 2011, 4:18 PM CDT
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Memphis, Tn - When an energetic black lab named Shelly started losing her sight at three, her owners knew they had to do something.
"We knew Shelly would need to run, play."
Putting her down was not an option, so Gail and Charles Silverstein took Shelly to a nearby animal shelter where a dog trainer suggested they look for a two-year-old male.
She took to a lab mix named Tommy immediately, but what happened when they took him home sealed the deal.
"He laid down beside her and started licking her eyes. It was like he knew she was going blind and I guess he was trying to heal her."
Within a year, Shelly lost her sight completely to a disease that destroyed her retinas.
Now, Shelly uses her other senses.
The Silversteins use a double leash when they walk the dogs, but sometimes they let Tommy take his girl for a stroll on his own.
Tommy has become a seeing-eye dog for a blind dog, Shelly feels comfortable and safe with Tommy taking the lead.
"It's like they communicate with each other. He just kinda leans towards her and puts his head near and (she) just follows him."
Tommy has never lost sight of his mission. He's there to lead, and protect.
"She's never afraid with him around. When strangers come up and she is afraid, he'll go and comfort her. It's like he knows that that's his job," said Gail.
The Silversteins are convinced that Shelly saved Tommy's life by choosing him at the pound. But, it's easy to see Tommy saved Shelly from a life lived on a short leash.
Charles Silverstein is eternally grateful, "She's blind...but she doesn't know she's blind."MyFox News...
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Wonderful video!!
Blind Dog Gets New Leash on Life... more
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The Washington Post | Associated Press (AP)...
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Animal rights groups allege panel evaluating wild horse management is stacked against them
By Associated Press, Published: October 23
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RENO, Nev. — A panel of experts chosen to spend two years generating the definitive study on wild horse management in the West is kicking up controversy before it even gets out of the chute.
Mustang protection advocates contend the committee charged with solving a conundrum that has eluded consensus for decades is stacked with allies of the livestock industry who won’t give the horses a fair shake.
The panel’s 14 members were picked by the National Academy of Sciences, an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on science. Their first meeting is set for Thursday in Reno.
The American Wild Horse Protection Campaign, Cloud Foundation and others say several of the appointees are outspoken defenders of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s current management strategy that relies on “mass wild horse roundups and removals at the expense of on-the-range management strategies.’”
“The heart of the controversy surrounding the wild horse issue is the conflict between private livestock and wild horses on the 11 percent of BLM land that is designated as wild horse habitat,” said Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Protection Campaign, a coalition of environmental, public interest and animal rights organizations.
The public’s need for an accurate, objective review of the government’s controversial wild-horse management program will not be served unless the National Academy of Sciences corrects the panel’s “imbalances,” Roy said.
Academy spokesman Bill Kearney said the organization’s staff and legal counsel will investigate any concerns about conflicts and consider disqualifying members or adding new ones to provide additional expertise.
The BLM asked the academy earlier this year to assemble the panel of wildlife biologists, rangeland ecologists and others to review the program at an estimated cost of $1.2 million, after prodding from members of Congress critical of the roundups. The agency, which plans to round up another 6,000 horses in the coming months, argues the gathers are necessary to ease ecological damage on the range.
Opponents maintain the horse numbers are much lower than historical highs and that the roundups are intended to appease ranchers who don’t want the mustangs competing with their cattle and sheep for limited forage on arid rangeland.
The committee is tasked with producing a comprehensive study that addresses, among other things, total herd populations, genetic diversity, appropriate management levels, and population control options including immunocontraception and “managing a portion of a population as non-reproducing,” according to the academy’s website.
Committee members under fire include Dr. David Thain, former Nevada state veterinarian who is an assistant professor in the Department of Agriculture, Nutrition and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Nevada Reno.
Thain is a member of the Nevada Livestock Association — a “clear conflict of interest,” said Ginger Kathrens, executive director of the Colorado-based Cloud Foundation.
.The Washington Post | Associated Press (AP)...
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Animal rights groups allege... more
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If It Becomes Possible, Should Human Beings End Predation?
Posted by Brian Carnell on Jan 3rd, 2011
Animal Rights.net...
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One of the more interesting dilemmas that animal rights critiques poses is exactly what role human beings should play as part of the animal kingdom, specifically when it comes to things like predation. After all, if we suppose that birds have rights, not only does the turkey on a farm have a right not to become my Thanksgiving meal, then so does the bird chirping outside my window have a right not to become the victim of the neighborhood serial killer of the feline persuasion.
Occasionally a variety of this argument is used as an attempted reductio ad absurdum against the case for animal rights — that if one were to take seriously the claims made by animal rights theorists that humans should be out there attempting to prevent lions from preying on zebras and antelope. Taking that to a further extreme, perhaps instead of attempting to preserve endangered carnivore species, human beings should instead allow them to go extinct since this would reduce the total suffering in the world on this view.
Some people, especially in the transhumanist community, take this idea very seriously, however. In September, The New York Times published an op-ed by Rutgers University philosophy professor Jeff McMahan on this very topic. Once you get past the tedious introduction referencing Isaiah and whether or not we would be “playing God” by making wholesale changes in carnivorous species, McMahan gets to the heart of the matter,
There is an element of truth in this view, which is that our moral reason to prevent harm for which we would not be responsible is weaker than our reason not to cause harm. Our primary duty with respect to animals is therefore to stop tormenting and killing them as a means of satisfying our desire to taste certain flavors or to decorate our bodies in certain ways. But if suffering is bad for animals when we cause it, it is also bad for them when other animals cause it. That suffering is bad for those who experience it is not a human prejudice; nor is an effort to prevent wild animals from suffering a moralistic attempt to police the behavior of other animals. Even if we are not morally required to prevent suffering among animals in the wild for which we are not responsible, we do have a moral reason to prevent it, just as we have a general moral reason to prevent suffering among human beings that is independent both of the cause of the suffering and of our relation to the victims. The main constraint on the permissibility of acting on our reason to prevent suffering is that our action should not cause bad effects that would be worse than those we could prevent.
That is the central issue raised by whether we ought to try to eliminate carnivorism. Because the elimination of carnivorism would require the extinction of carnivorous species, or at least their radical genetic alteration, which might be equivalent or tantamount to extinction, it might well be that the losses in value would outweigh any putative gains. Not only are most or all animal species of some instrumental value, but it is also arguable that all species have intrinsic value. As Ronald Dworkin has observed, “we tend to treat distinct animal species (though not individual animals) as sacred. We think it very important, and worth a considerable economic expense, to protect endangered species from destruction.” When Dworkin says that animal species are sacred, he means that their existence is good in a way that need not be good for anyone; nor is it good in the sense that it would be better if there were more species, so that we would have reason to create new ones if we could. “Few people,” he notes, “believe the world would be worse if there had always been fewer species of birds, and few would think it important to engineer new bird species if that were possible. What we believe important is not that there be any particular number of species but that a species that now exists not be extinguished by us.”
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Yet the extinction of an animal species is not necessarily bad for its individual members. (To indulge in science fiction, suppose that a chemical might be introduced into their food supply that would induce sterility but also extend their longevity.) And the extinction of a carnivorous species could be instrumentally good for all those animals that would otherwise have been its prey. That simple fact is precisely what prompts the question whether it would be good if carnivorous species were to become extinct.
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Here, then, is where matters stand thus far. It would be good to prevent the vast suffering and countless violent deaths caused by predation. There is therefore one reason to think that it would be instrumentally good if predatory animal species were to become extinct and be replaced by new herbivorous species, provided that this could occur without ecological upheaval involving more harm than would be prevented by the end of predation. The claim that existing animal species are sacred or irreplaceable is subverted by the moral irrelevance of the criteria for individuating animal species. I am therefore inclined to embrace the heretical conclusion that we have reason to desire the extinction of all carnivorous species, and I await the usual fate of heretics when this article is opened to comment.
Transhumanists who go down this road typically posit altering the DNA of carnivores and omnivores so that they no longer need/desire the flesh of other animals (which McMahan does mention), or producing meat in a non-cruel way (for example, growing it in a vat and then distributing it somehow).
An alternative that McMahan seems to ignore might be modifying prey species so that they no longer suffer when they are killed by predators which would allow predation to continue without reducing the number of species or radically changing the ecosystem in other ways.
It is also curious that McMahan and others tend to stop there. After all, predation is not the only cause of suffering in the animal kingdom. For example, in 2009 a 39-year-old chimpanzee kept in captivity at a zoo in Oregon died from what is believed to have been either a heart attack or stroke. Presumably, either way the chimpanzee’s death involved quite a bit of suffering.
Would human beings also be obliged to then re-engineer animals to prevent the sort of suffering that occurs even from “natural” deaths? If we are somehow obliged to prevent suffering due to predation, it becomes difficult to argue that we can still tolerate other forms of suffering that animals experience.
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If It Becomes Possible, Should Human Beings End Predation?
Posted by Brian... more
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