abuse

From The Guardian. – R. T.

Circuses to be banned from using wild animals

By Alisa Mullins

The dog on the chain vibrated with excitement as the woman picked her way through the muddy, junk-strewn yard. She was only bringing a bale of straw to line the floor of the dog’s dilapidated doghouse, a small measure of comfort that would hopefully prevent the dog from freezing to death in the coming winter months. But for a dog who goes without human—or canine—contact for 23½ hours out of every 24, this was a thrilling event.

Such impoverished living conditions might find favor with South African President Jacob Zuma, who caused an international uproar recently when he told attendees of a rally that people who lavish their dogs with so-called extravagances, such as taking them to the veterinarian when they are sick, show a “lack of humanity.”

Zuma has it precisely backwards, of course. It has been demonstrated over and over again—so many times that you’d think that it wouldn’t bear repeating—that it is not the people who are kind to animals that we have to worry about. It is the people who are cruel.

That’s because cruel people are equal opportunity abusers. Men who beat their dogs often beat their wives and kids, too. In three separate studies, more than half of battered women reported that their abuser threatened or injured their animal companions. The same goes for negligent and abusive parents. Sixty percent of more than 50 New Jersey families being monitored because of incidents of child abuse also had animals in the home who had been abused. Click to continue »

from the editor: Here’s a message from our animal rights pals. To learn everything you need to know about circuses and their cruelty to exotic animals (lions, tigers, elephants, etc), please go to: http://www.peta.org/features/circuses-hurt-animals.aspx:

We are organizing a demonstration at Ringling Bros.’ opening-night performance in Worcester on Wednesday, October 3.

We are currently planning to hold a daytime demonstration on October 3 from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition (MARC) and local animal rights activists are planning a daytime demonstration for Saturday, October 6.

We also need volunteers to leaflet at all of Ringling’s shows in Worcester (October 3 through October 8). Organizing a demonstration is easy, and I’ll help you every step of the way!

These are the dates and times of Ringling’s performances in Worcester (the dates and times of existing demonstrations are also noted):
Wednesday, October 3—There will be a PETA demonstration from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Wednesday, October 3, 7 p.m. (opening-night performance)—We need an organizer.

Thursday, October 4, 7 p.m.—We need an organizer.

Friday, October 5, 7 p.m.—We need an organizer.

Saturday, October 6—There will be a MARC demonstration from 1 to 3:15 p.m.

Saturday, October 6, 7 p.m.—We need an organizer.

Sunday, October 7, 3 p.m.—We need an organizer.

Monday, October 8, 3 p.m.—We need an organizer.

Your presence will make a world of difference to frightened baby elephants who are cruelly bound with ropes and wrestled into confusing and physically difficult positions in order to teach them circus “tricks.” As they scream, cry, and struggle, they are stretched out, slammed to the ground, struck with bullhooks, and shocked with electric prods.

Please let me know if you can help, and I’ll be happy to send you free leaflets and/or signs so that you can get the news out to your community about the circus’s abuse. And feel free to forward this message to your friends and family!

You can contact me at AdamM@peta.org or 323-210-2210 or on Facebook. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks so much!

Tax dollars thrown away on pointless animal experiments

By Alisa Mullins

A report issued a couple years ago by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., blasted 100 “questionable,” “mismanaged” and “poorly planned” stimulus-funded projects, including an especially pointless and cruel experiment that the report aptly called “Monkeys Getting High for Science.” The study in question was being conducted at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, a Winston Salem, N.C.–based facility that was awarded $71,623 in stimulus funds to feed cocaine to monkeys.

“I think all of [the projects] are waste,” McCain told ABC News. “[S]ome are more egregious than others but all of them are terrible.”

Hooking monkeys on coke definitely falls into the “more egregious” category. Unfortunately, this study is just a drop in the proverbial crack pipe. Wasteful and cruel addiction studies on animals are currently being conducted all over the country—and most are simply slight variations on experiments that have been conducted for years. Often the “results” have been known for years as well. Click to continue »

By Paula Moore

Imagine if someone invaded your home, tore you away from your family, drove you hundreds of miles away and then let you go. You don’t know where you are, and you’re desperate to get back home. You’re surrounded by hundreds of strangers, all as confused as you are. You’re scared and hungry and must fight to stay alive through all weather extremes. Some of the others succumb to exhaustion or starvation. Some are killed by hunters or predators. It may sound like a plot twist from The Hunger Games, but it’s real.

This is the fate of birds who are forced to fly for their lives in the abusive and often illegal pastime known as pigeon racing. That the victims of this cruel sport are animals and not humans should not make their suffering any less appalling.

PETA recently completed a 15-month undercover investigation into some of the largest pigeon-racing operations in the U.S. PETA’s investigators documented massive casualties of birds during races and training, rampant “culling” (killing), abusive training and racing methods and illegal interstate gambling.

In many of the races—which can be up to 600 miles long—more than 60 percent of the birds become lost or die along the way. Because these birds were raised in captivity and cannot fend for themselves in the wild, those who don’t make it home will likely starve to death. Pigeon racers even have a name for races that are particularly lethal: “smash races.” Click to continue »

Finally! Fantastic story in The New York Times! – R. T.

Many US Native Americans live in federally recognised tribal areas plagued with poverty, alcoholism other social problems. Photograph: Jennifer Brown/Corbis for The New York Times.

“The UN is to conduct an investigation into the plight of US Native Americans, the first such mission in its history. …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/22/un-investigate-us-native-americans

OTHER GREAT STORIES. CLICK AWAY!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/us/vatican-reprimands-us-nuns-group.html?_r=1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17675816

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-weiner-youth-revolt-economics-20120411,0,6994951.story

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/sagira-ansari-india-cigarettes_n_1361786.html

By Kathy Guillermo

If you thought your 9-year-old son had the makings of a great football player, would you force him, under threat of whipping, to conduct extreme physical drills designed for the top college prospects just to impress NFL scouts? Fortunately, that wouldn’t come until some 10 years and a hundred pounds later.

Thoroughbred racehorses aren’t so lucky. Before they are ever entered in a race, juvenile horses, some of whom are not even 2 years old, are being forced to sprint at top speeds on fragile, undeveloped bones and joints for an eighth of a mile—sometimes to their deaths. This is an ugly first step into an industry that exploits animals as commodities and then throws them out like trash when their bodies are worn out and broken.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) went undercover to document what happens at the “under tack shows” that thoroughbred auction companies put on before the annual auctions. The sprints are meant to impress potential buyers, and young horses are made to run at speeds faster than they ever would in an actual race.

PETA’s video footage shows terrified horses panicking and running into guard rails. Some suffer career-ending injuries or catastrophic breakdowns in which their still-developing bones snap like twigs.

One of the horses captured on video suffered a compound fracture of her cannon bone while being pushed hard to sprint at breakneck speed at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Auction in Timonium, Maryland, on May 19. Fragments of bone can be seen exploding from her foot.

Because the auction failed to cancel the event despite unsafe weather and track conditions, PETA has asked the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office to bring cruelty-to-animals charges against the auction. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

How pathetic. As if she had nothing better to report on, a Worcester TV 3 news tart (why are all the gals there look as if they are on the brink of anorexia?) had to bite the Ringling Bros. Circus p.r.-bait and do a feature on their clowns coming to our schools to teach our kids about exercise.

Pathetic girl reporter!

Ringling Bros. Circus will be putting on their horrific animal shows in Worcester in less than a week. More and more, people all over the world are telling circuses that use exotic/wild animals to FUCK OFF. Instead, they embrace Cirque de Soleil and other circuses that use only people acts to entertain crowds. Didn’t the TV 3 “news” girl see Ringling was using their clowns as a PR ploy? To suck our kids/families into attending their circus? To come up with something so innocuous so that peple think COOL! I want to go there! And then they forget about all the lions, tigers and elephants – wild animals which God created to roam thousands of miles in beautiful jungles or wild grasslands – exotic animals who are carted around in circus metal box cars – un-airconditioned in the summer, un-heated in the winter. And to do what? To be whipped and chained and degraded – all for the kiddies’ pleasure! To stand on red rubber balls, jump through hoops of fire, to wear tutus.

Wake up TV 3! Wake up moron TV 3 news editor Andy LaComb! This is not news! Like half the crap you run on your station, this is PR CRAP that distorts the truth! Ringling Bros. Circus is a mult-billion-dollar corporation that has pr professionals brainstorming day and night on just how to trick good people/families to forget the horrific lives that their tigers, lions, elephants and other wild animals lead (as slaves) in their travelling torture show.

Last year Ringling Bros. called Mayor Joe O’Brien. They wanted to do a press event where “their” elephants would be fed by our mayor in front of our City Hall. The mayor told me his office declined – he told me he wanted no part of Ringling’s business.

So of course, Ringling come up with other ways to use their animals for free publicity in Worcester. We heard from a friend that they are loaning their elpehants to our World Smiley Day event. How horrible! What a frown-inducing experience!

Let’s get these circuses out of our city for good! Let’s ban them! Go, Joe O’Brien, and other good people! Go!

Here are some stories on Ringling Bros. Circus and elephants and more. Read them and get educated!

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Animal Abuse begins at Ringling

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is known for its long history of abusing animals. In 1929, John Ringling ordered the execution of a majestic bull elephant named Black Diamond after the elephant killed a woman who had been in the crowd as he was paraded through a Texas city. Twenty men took aim and pumped some 170 bullets into Black Diamond’s body, then chopped off his bullet-ridden head and mounted it for display in Houston, Texas. Click to continue »

By Paula Moore

If you’d rather go naked than wear fur, you’re in luck. This fall, faux fur is everywhere. Many of the hefty fashion magazines on newsstands this month include spreads spotlighting faux-fur coats and other creations. Designers and retailers from Anna Sui to Uniqlo are selling faux-fur bags, faux-fur jackets, boots trimmed with faux fur and more. Even veteran designer Karl Lagerfeld featured head-to-toe fake fur in his fall collection for Chanel.

Whether it’s a sign of a slow economic recovery (fake fur is considerably cheaper than the “real thing”) or a nod to the growing “eco-fashion” movement hardly matters. For the sake of the millions of animals suffering in crowded wire-mesh cages on fur farms, faux fur is one trend that we should all embrace.

On fur farms around the world, animals spend their entire lives in small, filth-encrusted cages, often with no protection from the driving rain or the scorching sun. Rabbits’ tender feet become raw and ulcerated from rubbing against the wire mesh of the cage bottoms, and the stench of ammonia from urine-soaked floors burns their eyes and lungs. Video footage taken during undercover investigations of fur farms in China and France shows rabbits twitching and shaking after their throats are cut. Click to continue »

By Heather Moore

Worried that you have a sasquatch-sized carbon footprint? Eat less meat and cheese. That’s the advice of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which recently calculated the ecological impact of 20 conventionally grown foods. The figures show that many animal-based foods have a supersized carbon footprint—in addition to a whopping amount of fat and calories. In fact, according to the EWG, if every American stopped eating meat and cheese for one day a week, it would be the same as if we collectively drove 91 billion fewer miles a year.

Imagine what a difference we could make for animals, our own health and the health of the planet if we stopped eating meat and cheese entirely—or at least for a couple of days a week.

The EWG found that in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, eating a pound of lamb is equivalent to driving about 39 miles. Every pound of beef represents a 27-mile trip, Click to continue »