Tag Archives: abuse

InCity Voices

Racing young horses at reckless speeds needs to stop

Leave a comment

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.

PETA also videotaped another young horse who suffered a fatal burst aorta when pushed to sprint in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company auction in Florida on June 19. The danger of sprinting in severe heat is well known in the racing industry, and some tracks cancel races in such weather. PETA is urging the county attorney to file charges against the company for violating Florida’s anti-cruelty laws.

Recklessly endangering—and even killing—very young, inexperienced horses simply to put on a show for potential buyers is animal abuse, plain and simple. It’s also what happens when animals are viewed as “investment opportunities” rather than individual beings.

PETA has sent thoroughbred auction companies a list of simple, lifesaving recommendations, including preventing horses under 2 years of age from sprinting, eliminating the timing of sprints, mandating that under tack shows be postponed in unsafe weather conditions and banning whips and other devices that force the horses to run at excessive speeds. It’s time for the “sport of kings” to do right by the animals it claims to love.

Kathy Guillermo is vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Green Island Grrrl, InCity Voices, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Boycott Ringling Bros. Circus – the Cruelest Show on Earth!

Leave a comment

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!

*********************************************

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.
Ringling’s cruel treatment of animals continues today.

Elephants in Ringling’s possession are chained inside filthy, poorly ventilated boxcars for an average of more than 26 straight hours—and often 60 to 70 hours at a time—when the circus travels. Even former Ringling employees have reported that elephants are routinely abused and violently beaten with bullhooks (an elephant-training tool that resembles a fireplace poker), in order to force them to perform tricks. Read more about the Ringling whistleblower who told PETA about the shocking death of a lion and the abuse of elephants in Ringling’s care.

Since 2000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited Ringling numerous times for serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), such as the following:

Improper handling of dangerous animals

Failure to provide adequate veterinary care to animals, including an elephant with a large swelling on her leg, a camel with bloody wounds, and a camel injured on train tracks
Causing trauma, behavioral stress, physical harm, and unnecessary discomfort to two elephants who sustained injuries when they ran amok during a performance
Endangering tigers who were nearly baked alive in a boxcar because of poor maintenance of their enclosures.
Failure to test elephants for tuberculosis.
Unsanitary feeding practices.

In fact, the USDA currently has open multiple investigations of potential violations of the AWA by Ringling.

At least 26 elephants, including four babies, have died since 1992, including an 8-month-old baby elephant named Riccardo who was destroyed after he fractured his hind legs when he fell from a circus pedestal. Elephants are not the only animals with Ringling to suffer tragic deaths. In 2004, a 2-year-old lion died of apparent heatstroke while the circus train crossed the Mojave Desert.
Ringling Bros. is currently on trial for allegedly abusing elephants with bullhooks and electric prods and for subjecting them to prolonged chaining.******************
Meet the elephants

Animals used in circuses, like Ringling Bros., live a dismal life in which they are dominated, confined, and violently trained. Workers routinely beat, shock, and whip them until they perform ridiculous tricks that make no sense to them.

Most elephants used by circuses were captured in the wild. Once removed from their families and natural habitat, their lives consist of little more than chains and intimidation. Some baby elephants are born on breeding farms, where they are torn from their mothers, tied with ropes, and kept in isolation until they learn to fear their trainers. Throughout their lifetime, all they will ever know is severe loneliness and beatings with sharp bullhooks.

During a 2009 investigation into Ringling, PETA documented 11 elephants who range in age from 12 years old to at least 52. These sensitive and intelligent animals have spent an average of 30 years with Ringling, and four elephants have each been in Ringling’s possession for 41 long years of suffering.

Meet just a few of Ringling’s unwilling performers:

Tonka was born in captivity and has been with Ringling since about 1989. PETA captured on video an incident in which the 25-year-old elephant was hooked behind the ear, causing her to scream and bleed, while the elephants were being walked from the arena to the train in Austin, Texas, but her brother, Kenny, suffered a worse fate. In 1998, 3-year-old Kenny, who had been bleeding from his rectum and was clearly very sick, died alone in a stall after being forced to perform despite being sick. As a result, Ringling was charged with violations of the Animal Welfare Act and paid $20,000 to settle out of court.Luna is considered to be especially dangerous. Like Tonka, she and her siblings have also been horribly abused by the circus industry.

Luna’s brother Ned, an emaciated Asian elephant, was confiscated from circus trainer Lance Ramos-Kollmann in 2008 and placed with The Elephant Sanctuary, where he died May 15, 2009. Her brother Benjamin drowned on July 26, 1999, when he was only 4 years old, as he tried to move away from a trainer who was poking him with a bullhook while he was swimming in a pond.

Angelica, 12, has been held captive by Ringling since the day she was born. In 1999, a USDA report stated that there were large lesions on Angelica’s leg, and a Ringling employee said the scars were caused by rope burns, resulting from the violent and terrifying separation process from her mother. In January 2006, the USDA cited Ringling for causing trauma, behavioral stress, physical harm, and unnecessary discomfort to Angelica and another elephant who suffered injuries when they ran amok while performing in Puerto Rico.

Assan, Banana, and Baby were born in Asia, and all three have been with Ringling since about 1968. A humane officer discovered lacerations consistent with bullhook wounds on Assan and Baby during an inspection in California. A former Ringling employee reported that the elderly Banana, who suffers from arthritis, was not being given medication to alleviate the pain.

Help the elephants who are held captive and beaten by Ringling Bros. Take action now!

******************

Undercover investigation reveals Ringling abuse

In 2009, PETA went undercover at “the saddest show on Earth”—Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—and captured Ringling workers on video as they beat and whipped elephants dozens of times in venues across the country.

The 11 elephants used in the show—most of whom were captured in the wilds of Asia as early as 1957 and some of whom have spent more than 40 years with the circus—suffer month after month at the hands of Ringling and its crew. PETA documented workers as they struck elephants and tigers on the head, face, ears, trunk, legs, and other parts of their bodies with bullhooks and other abusive handling tools. The unit’s animal superintendant and head elephant trainer were among those who used bullhooks—sharp, fireplace pokerlike devices—to hook and yank elephants by their sensitive skin, as can be seen in PETA’s undercover video.

The abuse extended from Birmingham, Alabama, to Providence, Rhode Island. Ringling’s venues changed, but the beatings did not.

One of the animals Ringing hauls across the country and forces to perform is Tonka, a 25-year-old elephant whom Ringling has used since 1989. From a very young age, she has known only beatings with bullhooks and whips and confinement to cramped spaces, with shackles around her legs.

During an investigation, Tonka was repeatedly captured on video engaging in “stereotypic” behaviors, recognized as a sign of severe psychological distress—including swaying from side to side while simultaneously bobbing her head and swinging her right foot. Despite her condition, Tonka was forced to perform for crowds night after night. PETA’s undercover footage of this suffering is only the latest chapter in Ringling’s long history of abusing animals. PETA has obtained other videos of Ringling workers as they beat animals, and former Ringling employees have even spoken out against the circus’s cruel practices. A verdict is expected as early as summer 2009 in a lawsuit filed against Ringling, alleging that the circus’s use of steel-barbed bullhooks, electric prods, and shackles on the elephants it forces to perform violates federal law.

PETA has filed a formal complaint with the USDA, but officials also need to hear from you. Write to Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack and demand that the agency seize the elephants whom Ringling hauls around the country in filthy boxcars and forces to perform under the constant threat of punishment. If officials act now, Tonka and her peers might be spared future beatings.

These elephants should be sent to a sanctuary, where they would be able to roam across hundreds of acres of natural habitat, play in ponds, and socialize with their longtime friends—all of which elephants are deprived of in circuses.

And please remember, if you attend a Ringling circus or any circuses that use animals, you are supporting this suffering. Please, stay away from circuses that use animals.

For more information, go to PETA.orgUndercover investigation reveals Ringling abuse

In 2009, PETA went undercover at “the saddest show on Earth”—Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—and captured Ringling workers on video as they beat and whipped elephants dozens of times in venues across the country.

The 11 elephants used in the show—most of whom were captured in the wilds of Asia as early as 1957 and some of whom have spent more than 40 years with the circus—suffer month after month at the hands of Ringling and its crew. PETA documented workers as they struck elephants and tigers on the head, face, ears, trunk, legs, and other parts of their bodies with bullhooks and other abusive handling tools. The unit’s animal superintendant and head elephant trainer were among those who used bullhooks—sharp, fireplace pokerlike devices—to hook and yank elephants by their sensitive skin, as can be seen in our undercover video.

The abuse extended from Birmingham, Alabama, to Providence, Rhode Island?Ringling’s venues changed, but the beatings did not.

One of the animals Ringing hauls across the country and forces to perform is Tonka, a 25-year-old elephant whom Ringling has used since 1989. From a very young age, she has known only beatings with bullhooks and whips and confinement to cramped spaces, with shackles around her legs.

During our investigation, Tonka was repeatedly captured on video engaging in “stereotypic” behaviors, recognized as a sign of severe psychological distress—including swaying from side to side while simultaneously bobbing her head and swinging her right foot. Despite her condition, Tonka was forced to perform for crowds night after night.

PETA’s undercover footage of this suffering is only the latest chapter in Ringling’s long history of abusing animals. PETA has obtained other videos of Ringling workers as they beat animals, and former Ringling employees have even spoken out against the circus’s cruel practices. A verdict is expected as early as summer 2009 in a lawsuit filed against Ringling, alleging that the circus’s use of steel-barbed bullhooks, electric prods, and shackles on the elephants it forces to perform violates federal law.

PETA has filed a formal complaint with the USDA, but officials also need to hear from you. Write to Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack and demand that the agency seize the elephants whom Ringling hauls around the country in filthy boxcars and forces to perform under the constant threat of punishment. If officials act now, Tonka and her peers might be spared future beatings. These elephants should be sent to a sanctuary, where they would be able to roam across hundreds of acres of natural habitat, play in ponds, and socialize with their longtime friends—all of which elephants are deprived of in circuses.

And please remember, if you attend a Ringling circus?or any circuses that use animals?you are supporting this suffering. Please, stay away from circuses that use animals.

*************
Olivia Munn Combats Circus Cruelty

From hosting G4′s Attack of the Show! to appearing in summer blockbusters Date Night and Iron Man 2, Olivia Munn is entertaining audiences all over the globe. Olivia also has a soft spot for animals and was shocked to learn that elephants used in circuses are torn from their mothers at birth and bound and electro-shocked as babies in order to break their spirits. They spend the rest of their lives performing silly, meaningless tricks out of constant fear of physical punishment, including beatings with bullhooks—sharp, metal-tipped implements that resemble fireplace pokers.

Since elephants are not naturally inclined to balance on balls, stand on their heads, or perform tricks, trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other painful tools to force them to perform these physically uncomfortable tasks. Elephants used by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus are beaten, hit, poked, prodded, and jabbed with sharp hooks, sometimes until bloody. When they are not performing, elephants—who walk up to 30 miles a day in their natural environment—spend their time in chains as the circus travels from city to city.

Olivia explains, “When you look at something like the circus and everyone’s laughing and there’s color and there’s music and everything seems so great, but when you go right behind that door and they’re in these crates all day long and then they’re getting shocked and beat just so they can get up and dance around on a ball … it was just so sickening.”

Please join Olivia in helping to stop cruelty under the big top and spread the word about this important issue to everyone you know!
Ask the USDA to remove suffering, lame elephants from Ringling!

A recent inspection of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus by an independent exotic-animal veterinarian in Sacramento revealed that four elephants — Karen, Nicole, Bonnie and Minyak — are suffering from foot ailments, including lameness and stiffness consistent with arthritis, as a result of long-term neglect of foot care. Foot-related conditions and arthritis are the leading cause of euthanasia in captive elephants.

Despite an initial city order limiting the activities of these elephants, Ringling continues to force the animals to perform grueling and physically strenuous tricks, such as standing on their hind legs. These tricks, which are performed under the constant threat of punishment, only aggravate the animals’ conditions. The veterinarian’s inspection confirms previous testimony from a federal trial that Karen and Nicole have been suffering from lameness and serious foot problems for many years.

Please write to Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack and demand that the U.S. Department of Agriculture confiscate the ailing elephants from Ringling.

InCity Voices

Fall fashion’s hottest trend: Faux fur

Leave a comment

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.

In China, which is now the world’s largest exporter of fur, animals on fur farms are bludgeoned, beaten and mutilated—all in the name of fashion.

Earlier this year, PETA’s affiliate PETA Asia released footage from its latest undercover investigation of fur markets and farms in China. The shocking footage reveals that raccoon dogs are beaten with steel pipes and left to die slowly as they writhe in agony in full view of other animals. Rabbits’ necks are broken while the animals are still conscious and able to feel pain. Animals live in barren wire cages—exposed to all weather extremes—as frozen piles of waste accumulate below them. Some are driven insane from the constant confinement and frantically pace and walk in circles in their cages.

Says Project Runway guru Tim Gunn, “With so many great alternatives, why would you buy the real thing? Why would you? I just don’t understand it.”

For anyone who worries that faux fur may not be as “green” as other options, consider this: Before a fur garment reaches the local mall, it is soaked in a bath of chemicals—including sulfuric acid, ammonium chloride, formaldehyde, lead acetate, sodium perborate and more—to keep it from decomposing in the buyer’s closet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one of the chemicals used to dye furs, hexavalent chromium, is a hazardous waste.

As designer Marc Bouwer (who uses no fur, leather or wool in his collections) points out, the technology used to produce faux fur will continue to improve. “But death is death.”

So when you’re out shopping for clothes this fall, remember that sometimes it’s OK—in fact, it’s preferred—to “fake it.” “Technical advances are so perfect you can hardly tell fake fur from the real thing,” says Lagerfeld. “Fake is not chic … but fake fur is.”

Paula Moore is a research specialist for The PETA Foundation.

InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

Squash your carbon footprint: Go veggie!

Leave a comment

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, and eating just one pound of cheese is akin to driving more than 13 miles—a worrisome thought considering that the average American eats more than 31 pounds of cheese per year. Eating a McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese means not only consuming 740 calories, 42 grams of fat and 155 milligrams of cholesterol but also contributing to climate change and other serious environmental problems.

A 2010 United Nations report revealed that meat and dairy products require more resources and cause higher greenhouse-gas emissions than do plant-based foods. Instead of choosing pork chops, hamburgers, cheese pizza and other fatty, cholesterol-laden foods that take a toll on your body and the planet, opt for wholesome, climate-friendly foods such as lentils (which were rated best on the EWG report), beans, tofu, nuts and other plant-based protein sources.

Chris Weber, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, has pointed out that not eating meat and dairy products one day a week has an even bigger impact on the environment than buying local foods every single day of the year. Since Americans eat twice as much meat as the average person worldwide—and, unsurprisingly, America spends more money on health care than does any other nation—it will only benefit us to eat more vegan meals.

Fortunately, many people are now opting for more plant-based foods in an effort to save the environment, animals and their own lives. Last month, Aspen, Colo., became the first city in the country to launch a comprehensive Meatless Monday campaign, with local restaurants, schools, hospitals, charities and businesses promoting plant-based meals on Mondays. Durham County, N.C., recently proclaimed Mondays as “Meatless Mondays,” as have officials in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. City schools in Baltimore as well as some public schools in New York observe “Meatless Mondays,” and Sodexo, a leading food-service provider, now offers a weekly plant-based entrée option to the 900 hospitals and 2,000 corporate and government clients that it serves in North America.

It’s a great start—but it falls far short. Would it really be so hard for every American to leave meat and cheese off the menu for at least one day a week? If you need help, you can find plenty of delicious vegan recipes online. Once you see how easy it is to eat great-tasting vegan meals one day a week, you’ll realize that you can save the planet, help animals and eat healthily all week long.

Heather Moore is a staff writer for the PETA Foundation.

InCity Feature, InCity Voices

Why aren’t there more felony indictments for lab animal abusers?

Leave a comment

By Kathy Guillermo

In our work to replace the use of animals for experimentation with superior non-animal methods, we at PETA often say, “If what happens to animals inside a laboratory happened outside the lab, it would be a crime.”

This month, a grand jury agreed with us.

Fourteen felony cruelty-to-animals indictments were returned against four former employees of Professional Laboratory Research Services (PLRS) in North Carolina, which was investigated and exposed by PETA last year. Indictments and charges against those who abuse animals —wherever the cruelty occurs — should happen more often.

For decades, PLRS was hired by big pharmaceutical companies to test the pesticides in flea and tick products on dogs, cats and rabbits. Last year, a PETA investigator worked undercover in the facility and caught these employees on video kicking, throwing and dragging dogs; hoisting rabbits by their ears and puppies by their throats; violently slamming cats into cages; and screaming obscenities and death wishes at terrified animals. One worker can be seen on video trying to rip out a cat’s claws by violently pulling the animal from the chain link fence that the cat clung to.

The indictments follow citations by federal officials for serious violations of animal welfare laws, the laboratory’s closure and the surrender of nearly 200 dogs and more than 50 cats just a week after we released our findings. Laboratory staff reportedly killed all the rabbits, but the dogs and cats have been placed in homes.

I know one of the rescued dogs, a small terrier-hound who looks a little like the beleaguered but hopeful pup in the animated version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” She was known only by the number tattooed in her ear. Bone-thin, terrified and infested with worms, she was pulled from her cage and began a long journey that ended in the home of one of my colleagues.

At first Libby, as she was named, cowered in fear and crawled on her belly rather than standing upright and risk being noticed. I visited her recently. She is a joyful little dog today who loves her person, her canine friends and her happy life. Imprisonment in a laboratory has been replaced by long walks in the mountains, where she darts up and down the trails, her tail wagging.

Some abuse in laboratories has the approval of oversight committees and is funded by the federal government with our tax dollars. They don’t call it abuse of course—it’s “research” when someone gets paid to collect data on suffering animals. But forcing mice to fight with each other until they’re bloody, keeping monkeys constantly thirsty to coerce them to cooperate in brain experiments, torching sheep over two-thirds of their bodies, force-feeding chemicals to dogs, electrically shocking the sensitive feet of rats, cutting off the tops of cats’ skull to insert electrodes in their brains—all this is legal.

Many state anti-cruelty laws exempt experiments on animals. Wisconsin, where the mice-fighting experiments occurred and were in apparent violation of anti-animal fighting laws, just passed such an exemption.

As Libby shows, the animals are the same whether they’re inside a laboratory or outside it. They feel pain when they’re hurt. They want their own lives, even if some humans think these lives are of no value. Thank goodness the grand jury in North Carolina saw the appalling treatment of animals for what it was and refused to give the laboratory a free pass. Let’s hope it’s a trend.

Kathy Guillermo is vice president of Laboratory Investigations for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Why wasn’t the Dixfield Street wife charged?!

Leave a comment

By Rosalie Tirella

District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. and the WPD mustn’t let the woman at 47 Dixfield St. get away with STABBING her husband’s Siberian husky – one of the sweetest dog breeds in the world! – to death.

Peter R. Ahearn, 40, of 47 Dixfield St., was arrested Saturday on charges of assault and battery. His wife, who had fled to a neighbor’s house, told police that she had killed the dog and that her husband had hit her in the head. Did she brutally kill the husky before or after her hubby whacked her in the head?

Personally, we don’t give a shit. Just charge the broad – take her to court, too, for God’s sake. Have her have to post bail and go through the court system … . And we hope PETA can provide her husband with a kick-ass animal rights laywer so that this sicko can serve jail time.

It seems the older we get, the more enamoured we become with animals (great and small) and the less passionate we are about human beings. For the police to arrive at Dixfield Street and see Mr. Ahearn Continue reading Why wasn’t the Dixfield Street wife charged?! →

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Feral cat “tales”

Leave a comment

By Rosalie Tirella

Up until a few years ago, I fed and cared for a feral cat colony in Green Island. I fed my colony, which grew to about 14 cats and kittens of various ages and sizes, for 10 years. A decade of committing to feeding and caring for what now seems like scores and scores of dumped/wild cats (as cats died others replaced them) every day. Every day! A decade of half-frozen paws, bloody car accidents, bobbed/half-chewed-off, puss-encrusted cat tails. A decade of calling “Here, kitty kitty” in the rain, in the slush, in the snow, in the humidity – no matter how crappy or busy or happy I may have been. A decade of counting, observing, bonding with, fretting over felines that nobody loved or wanted.

A decade of falling in love with every one of those cats and kittents – only to see them die horrible, premature deaths.

A decade of “trapping” young feral cats and getting them to a vet so he/she could spay or neuter them so that the heartbreaking feral-cat cycle could stop. So that when these cats died – horribly, prematurely – they would leave no offspring behind to suffer the way them had. So that the colony, eventually, would come to a humane end.

A decade of “trapping” sick/dying feral cats – the emergencies – and rushing to the vet with my feral kitties too sick – dying – to put up a fight when I held them close or gingerly placed them in a blanket on the car seat. A decade of the stench of a dead cat – one the rats hadn’t gotten to. The one I hadn’t been able to save.

A decade of trying to … save lives, save living things from brutal events, save my inner-city world, even. (Neighbors, for the most part, admired my dedication and were glad to see the cats’ suffering alleviated. I especially think it was good for the kids to see love, to see love in action. To see animals grow strong and healthy, to see love given unconditionally to creatures that were – before I came upon the scene – pariahs.

I remember the cat I named Midnight (I named them all). It was the only time I got physically close to one of my cats. My lovely feral Midnight, a long haired black Persian kitty, had “show cat” written all over him. I was feeding him since kittenhood and had gotten him neutered and vaccinated when he was very young, so he never got into fights over mates, territory, etc. His face was perfect!

Anyways, with the great care Midnight was getting from me, he was healthy enough to groom himself. So his long black fur shone auburn highlights in the sun! His eyes were green! Every day when I visited my colony to feed everyone – huge 14 pound bags of cat chow that were donated to me by folks at local animal shelters – Midnight waited … for me. His pert little upturned nose peeking from behind one of the junked cars. Then he would prance to my car trunk – where the bags of cat food were stashed. He’d make circles and figue 8’s near me and purr and pur and then go to one of his brothers – the rest of the cats were too shy to get very close – and rub against him – as if to say: This nice lady is gonna be gving us some yummy food and fresh water! I’m so happy!

Sometimes as I was driving down the street to the junk yard, I’d see Midnight running from a nearby yard, running after my car to get to meet me! (or the food!) He knew the sound of my car’s engine!

I was so proud of Midnight – and all the cats in my colony that year. I had trapped my pregnant feral “Sassy” (another black cat – with short hair) and got her to a nonprofit group that fostered her as she had her seven kittens. All the kittens were tamed down by the foster mom and placed in real homes! (Sassy came back to the colony and was hit by a car a few weeks later.) My other cats looked so healthy! Everyone had made it through the brutal winter! I did too, having tromped through two feet of snow in my high boots – breaking path and clearing out a hole in which to put food and water. Placing their food under a junked car or inside the old shed was tricky with all that snow – but I did it! Once I found a person – a homeless guy! – lying beneath the truck! I stepped back – he was quite courteous – and let me feed me cats.

But the day I went to feed Midnight and the other cats I heard: “Mew, mew, mew, mew, mew, mew” – a tiny cry. When a cat cries continually, it’s in pain. Good God, I thought, one of them’s been hurt!

So into the depths of the junk yard Rosalie goes looking under and over everything … crying and calling to her beloved cats, Here kitty, kitty! until Midnight limps out, looking dazed. Blood all over his rear paws.

Oh, babe! I say to Midnight, and then rush to my car for my big blue soft blanket and softly, softly approach Midnight and put the blanket around his shoulders and pick him up and crade him in my arms and take him to my car. I place him on the passenger seat. He is looking far away … .

Don’t cry! I cry to my cat! I love you! I love you!

And then it’s a mad race to the vet, practically mowing down several people as I wind and whip my way through traffic.

Feral cats are like coyotes or racoons. They do not – cannot – want to be touched by humans. So to be so close to my Midnight, to hear his little cries after having survived the crappy winter with him, after having riased him since kittenhood, after having him live for three or so years – ancient for a feral – made for a personal crisis. Like rushing your sick dog – or friend – to the doctors.

To make a long story short. The vet bill came to $300 or so. And the vet put down Midnight. He had lost too much blood, the vet said. “Can you amputate?” I said, sobbing like an idiot. Did I have the money to spend on the operation, the vet wanted to know. Did I want to spend the money on a cat that would just end up back on Worcester’s mean streets?

No, I said, to both questions. I did not.

And then I left the animal clinic – alone – and drove home – alone.

You see them as kittens. So cute and plump from mommy’s milk. You run after them trying to catch them. But it’s too late. They are “feral.” You love them anyway. You call your nonprofit pals and you arrange for help and the sad love story begins. I once thought one of my feral cats was pregnant and rushed her to the vet. She was not pregnant but huge – bloated – from peritonitis. Fluid in her lungs/belly. So that was what all the crying was about. All the suffering. I paid the $300 bill and went home alone.

My Green Island feral cat colony! A decade of tears! A decade of animal emergencies – and even if you got your feral cats spayed or neutered and gave them all their shots you still lost them. To assholes who ran them over in the spring. Joy riding. To jerks who poisoned them because they were healthy enough to do a little exploring in their gardens. To the cold. To the dogs. To the rats, even. (if they are very young and tiny)

I tell you, 10 years – two cat colonies – it was like being in the middle of some kind of urban war. There I was nurse Rose. With no medical degree, no equipment, no nothing really, strong-arming the angel of death! And I – the feral cats – would always (eventually) lose.

A few years ago, as I was packing to leave for my new apartment, I got a phone call: this person was moving far away (another state) and did I want to take over this person’s feral cat colony? Feed and care for them.

I nearly fell over backwards. My answer: “Oh, God no! Please! No. No. No. I am so heartbroken…. I can’t help you now.”

I needed a respite.

I am still in “recovery.”

InCity Feature, InCity Voices

Return to The Elephant Sanctuary!

By Marisa Shea, R.N.

There have been many changes in the year since my friends and I last participated in a volunteer day at The Elephant Sanctuary (TES) in Hohenwald, Tennesse. Heavy flooding last May left parts of TES damaged, and although the elephants were unharmed, significant repairs were needed. The ongoing treatment of elephant Liz, suffering from tuberculosis (TB), remained a high priority.

It was with a feeling of trepidation we arrived at TES. The Sanctuary is currently home to 14 elephants, most of them having arrived at TES after decades of performing in circuses, and their welfare had been foremost on our minds as we made the trip from Boston to Hohenwald.

The moment we arrived at TES I knew my feelings of concern for the elephant’s welfare had been misplaced. TES was as clean and well maintained as ever, the grounds still full of life under the hot sun. The Sanctuary dogs ran about, keeping a close eye on our group of volunteers as we proceeded to unload a tractor trailer full of bales of hay, enough to feed one elephant for one year.

Lunch was eaten outside on the deck behind the small ranch style house that serves as the headquarters for the Sanctuary. We were joined by Scott Blais, co-founder, and in charge of the daily operations. Scott readily answered our questions about the Sanctuary, commenting on the recent flooding and delighting in passing on anecdotes about the elephants. He clearly knows and loves every elephant under his care. We were later joined by other caregivers; all equally enthusiastic about the direction TES is headed.

My questions for Scott focused on TB in elephants. TES has strict controls in place for the monitoring, treatment, and protection of the elephants and staff. As a nurse who has cared for people with TB, I was very favorably impressed with Scott’s knowledge of the disease and its progression.

In my opinion, TB is a prime reason to keep your children away from the circus. The mycobacterium tuberculosis that causes TB in humans also causes it in elephants, and transmission of TB between humans and elephants is a fact. TB is airborne, spread on the droplets from our respirations. Liz, a one time resident of Benson’s Wild Animal Farm in New Hampshire, and later leased out to circuses by the Hawthorn Corporation, is currently being treated for TB. Her prognosis, like that of all elephants with TB, remains uncertain.

Our volunteer group consisted of TES supporters from across much of the US, and we often see the same people every time we visit to volunteer. The afternoon was spent painting the fences that divide the sanctuary into fields. The temperature was 91 degrees, the sun beat down on us, and we happily painted away, oblivious to the insects and the scorching metal of the fences. We had a distant view of a pair of elephants, Lottie and Minnie, munching contentedly in a field under the branches of a large shade tree.

Sunday morning, as we readied ourselves for the trip home, we were greeted with sad news. Lottie, seen in all her stately majesty the day before, died suddenly. She was only 47 years old. Her passing stunned the TES community. Lottie had no known health problems, and her necropsy results are pending as of this writing. What can never be answered is how much the toll of Lottie’s years in the circus had on her long term health.

TES is the nation’s largest natural habitat refuge for endangered Asian and African elephants. TES operates solely on donations. This is a wonderful organization – one that is always looking for volunteers! The experience will change your life!

Please go to www.elephants.com to learn more and for more information on how you can help!

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

The real meaning of Thanksgiving

Leave a comment

By Lisa Towell

Turkeys are so closely associated with Thanksgiving that some people simply call the holiday “turkey day.” Thanksgiving-themed art features smiling cartoon birds in Pilgrim hats or plump roasted turkeys on platters.

But we never see the real lives of the birds who become our holiday meals. Virtually all of the 45 million turkeys consumed in the U.S. every Thanksgiving live lives of constant suffering.

Cruel conditions on factory farms frequently make the news, but I wanted to see for myself, so I recently visited a typical turkey farm.

I saw thousands of birds crowded into a vast sunless shed, most with missing feathers and raw patches of skin. Nervous and noisy, the birds ran away in fear and trampled each other when I approached. All the birds had been debeaked without being given painkillers. (Debeaking is a procedure in which the sensitive tip of a bird’s beak is cut off to prevent stress-induced fights.) The birds were living in their own accumulated waste, breathing noxious fumes 24 hours a day. Continue reading The real meaning of Thanksgiving →

InCity Feature, InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

More on Ringling Bros. Circus cruel treatment of elephants – more on how elephants REALLY live in the wild. Boycott Ringling!

Leave a comment

editor’s note: This “side bar” by Steve Baer ran in an ICT cover story (also by Steve Baer). We repost it today in light of what’s happening in Worcester today. – R. Tirella

Elephants and Circuses

By Steve Baer

In June 2000, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute, The Fund for Animals, the Animal Protection Institute, and Tom Rider, a former employee of Ringling Brothers, filed a lawsuit against Ringling Brothers in Federal District court under the Endangered Species Act.

The lawsuit charges that the circus uses a stick with a sharpened metal hook on the end (called a “bullhook” or “ankus”) to repeatedly beat, pull, push, torment and threaten elephants. This type of aggression should be illegal, and is, but only because the recipients of the beatings were highly endangered Asian Elephants. Other animals in the circus, unfortunately, are not given the same level of protection. The intention of the lawsuit was to immediately stop Ringling’s inhumane mistreatment of animals in the circus.

It wasn’t, however, until October 2006, a year after a September 2005 court order by a Federal District judge who announced that he will incarcerate Ringling’s lawyers and executives if they do not turn over critical veterinary documents that Ringling disclosed their internal veterinary records. The records revealed Ringling Brothers severe abuse of the elephants.“[We] hope the spotlight continues to shine on the use of inhumane chains and bullhooks and Ringling’s cruel behind-the-scenes treatment of elephants,” said Nicole Paquette, G e n e r a l C o u n s e l a n d Director of L e g a l Affairs at the Animal Protection Institute.

“ T h e Court has run out of patience for R i n g l i n g Bro t h e r s ’ s t a l l i n g ploys,” added M i c h a e l Markarian, president of The Fund for A n i m a l s . ” This trial will come not a moment too soon, as R i n g l i n g ’s e l e p h a n t s continue to suffer every day from abusive discipline and prolonged chaining.”

Training

Elephants are not domestic pets. They are wild animals. The same is true of lions, tigers, and bears. To be trained for the circus, an elephant had to have been chained down and had the spirit repeatedly beaten out of him or her by a team of “animal trainers.” The “trainers” use baseball bats, metal pipes, ax handles, metal prods, and sticks. The intention of the “trainers” is to show the elephant who is boss. The elephant, being an emotionally sensitive creature, Continue reading More on Ringling Bros. Circus cruel treatment of elephants – more on how elephants REALLY live in the wild. Boycott Ringling! →