You have likely heard of the devastating floods that have hit the Philippines. Last weekend, Tropical Storm Ketsana, dumped 42 centimeters of rain on Manila in just 12 hours, flooding 80% of the city and causing the deaths of 143 people and hundreds of thousands of animals.The floodwaters rose so high that residents and their companion animals had to take to the roofs of their houses. So many animals didn’t make it, however. There are reports of dead dogs floating in the water. Tragically, many of them didn’t stand a chance, as they were chained to fixed objects, a common practice in Manila, and would have drowned as soon as the waters rose above their head.Some organizations are working to provide relief to these animals in need and they need your help. Please make a donation to Network For Animals who’s present in the Philippines. I do realize times are tough for everyone but this is an emergency. There’s more rain predicted to come over the weekend so the situation may get even worse. Any help will make a vital difference.
LGBT, a San Francisco-based group, has released a warning about the horrid treatment of animals at San Francisco markets.
Live animal vendors at San Francisco’s farmers’ markets overcrowd animals in direct sunlight with no water, cram animals upside-down in paper bags inside plastic bags, and set aside injured birds for later sale or eventual dispatch. Customers then take them home (often in their car trunks, after carrying them around shopping) and kill them when and how they wish (for food, ritual sacrifice or fighting), unsupervised and unregulated - these “spent hens” (worn-out egg-laying birds) and “small game birds” are exempt from California’s poultry slaughter laws, and these birds (along with rabbits) are exempt from federal slaughter laws.
A video on YouTube (no disturbing imagery) gives an idea of what’s going on in the city’s markets. It is so sad that such gross behavior is being frowned upon by the authorities.
You can help by contacting the San Francisco District Attorney’s office (email erica.derryck@sfgov.org and districtattorney@sfgov.org) and politely ask that Kamala Harris pursue prosecution of live animal vendors whose cases have been turned over to them by Animal Care and Control.
Of course, going vegan is the best way to help all animals. Please consider banning animal parts and derivatives from your diet and life. It’s easier than you might think. And the health rewards are immense.
Something terrible in happening in Egypt right now. The government of the Northern African country decided to slaughter its swine population because of swine flu and is doing so in the most brutal way. Says Compassion in World Farming, an animal welfare UK organization:
Hundreds of pigs are dragged from their smallholder pens and dumped live and fully conscious into a huge dumper truck. Fighting to breathe, the animals writhe on top of each other. From a distance, the scene almost looks like a tin of maggots. Come closer, and the true horror is clear. The animals are then driven to mass graves where they are covered in caustic chemicals before being buried. Media reports tell of the pigs screaming at the pain of the chemicals for half hour or more before they are dead. This is the intended fate of all of Egypt’s 400,000 pigs.”
The organization has also released disturbing footage of the way the animals are being rounded and taken to mass graves. This must be stopped immediately.
Please add your voice to the organization’s protest as there is no place in the world for such unspeakable brutality.
I was nearly moved to tears when I opened my inbox this morning and saw the news that grey seals have been spared of the brutal killing that takes place every year in Canada around this time of the year. And why has it happened? Because demand has shrunk, which proves once again that boycotting is one of the most powerful weapons an ethical consumer has. This is the point of veganism: decreasing demand for cruel products.
According to a report by seal activist Rebecca Aldworth, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the government of Nova Scotia announced last week that they were authorizing another grey seal kill. But yesterday, seal processing plants told seal hunters that they would not buy the skins of the baby grey seals, and the sealers stayed home … “this is the beginning of the end of the commercial seal slaughter”.
Many sealers are now openly wondering whether shrinking markets will also impact the imminent commercial harp seal kill. In light of these developments, HSI Canada is urging the Canadian government to buy out sealing licenses and develop alternative economies for coastal communities.
But we should not assume that all’s well up north. The grey seal pups are likely safe for now, but in just a few weeks, the true target of the world’s largest slaughter of marine mammals, the harp seals, will be killed by the hundreds of thousands in horrible ways. But, just as with the grey seals, there is hope for the harp seals. Not only is the demand for seal products drying up; the boycott of Canadian seafood products is costing the Canadian seafood industry far more than the seal hunt brings in. So, let’s keep at it and tell Canada, one of the richest countries in the world, that defying ethics for the sake of a cruel commerce is a very ugly thing.
Valentine is a time for love, so it’s no wonder that animal lovers, the ones who really love animals and don’t eat/wear/use them, use the date to also celebrate their commitment to making this a better world for our non-human friends. I found two things that I’d like to share. First is the Discerning Brute’s take on Valentine crafts with help from the wonderful and compassionate Todd Oldham. Check out the video and the amazing ideas these two materialize together.
Over in the UK, AnimalAid and Viva! have joined forces to send a love message to British pigs via the Have a Heart for British Pigs! day of action on the 14th. You see, celebrity TV chef Jamie Oliver has been telling people to eat British pork because he says the animals are treated ‘better’ in his country than in the rest of Europe. First of all, no animal is treated nicely if they are going to be killed. Secondly, it’s not true that ‘welfare’ standards are higher in Europe as undercover investigations show. “The answer to saving pigs is not to buy British - the answer to saving pigs (and all farmed animals) is to go veggie!” says Viva!
The blogger at Food For Change has a good comment on this Jamie Oliver fiasco: “How can a chef who claims to be concerned with the nation’s health promote foods which are strongly linked to heart disease, obesity and cancer? In particular, sausages, bacon and other processed meats are extremely damaging to health, so much so that the World Cancer Research Fund have warned that there is no safe level of consumption.”
I couldn’t agree more and it shows yet again what hogwash the whole ‘humane meat ‘ movement is.
Friends of Animals is inviting activists and advocates to join them in the city of Victoria, British Columbia, on Canada’s west coast for the nation’s biggest seal demonstration. “Hundreds of thousands of seals are still murdered every year on the ice under government quotas and assistance,” says Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, an opponent to seal killing for over 30 years.
“This despicable policy must end, and the Canadian public needs to demand this be done.”After gathering in Centennial Square by City Hall, hundreds of activists will march through the streets of downtown Victoria. The march will culminate at the BC Legislature, where speakers will inspire more action on the issue.
Says Dave Shishkoff: “Many people care about this issue. Our plan is to call to account the two people in Canada who can put a stop to the killing on the ice floes off Newfoundland: Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Gail Shea’s predecessors have perpetuated human arrogance and violence which the world associates with Canada every spring. It’s Gail Shea’s time to change history and declare peace for the seals.”
Event co-organizer Bruce Foerster, of the West Coast Anti-Sealing Coalition, observes that the commercial pelt trade exists essentially for vanity, generates very little income to the people pressed by the quota to engage in it, and can no way qualify as a matter of human need. Pelts have dropped from a high of $105 in 2006 to $35 in 2008. “It is impossible to justify from any perspective,” says Foerster, “be it moral, cultural or financial. It is high time that Canada stops financing this bloody trade, and joins the growing list of countries which have outlawed the sale of seal furs.”
The activists demand that Harper’s government stops issuing quotas, buys back permits for killing seals, and establishes solid training and job placement in and around Newfoundland.
Yesterday was World Animal Rights Day and all over the world people were sending out the message that our treatment of non-humans has to improve and they must be included in the moral sphere that humans currently exist. A lot of people work incredibly hard to make it happen and one of them is Lorri Bauston (pictured), who co-founded Farm Sanctuary in 1986 and founded Animal Acres in 2005. Bauston is a true animal rights heroine, whose life is dedicated to the cause. Here you can read an interview with Ms Bauston.
You can help too.
How about signing this petition that asks president-elect Barack Obama to ppoint an animal-friendly Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of the Interior? Obama is working to fill key positions in his administration and these two roles have a tremendous impact on the treatment of animals and the enforcement of a broad range of laws - including those covering puppy mills, animal fighting, and wildlife. Among the candidates being considered for these two positions, there are several who have taken a strong stance on animal protection, but Obama needs to hear from the people that this is what they want – no hunters, please!
As vegetarians/vegans, we don’t only want to see the end of animal exploitation by the food industry, but also in science laboratories/classrooms and so-called ‘entertainment’. Hollywood actress Anjelica Jouston recently hosted PeTA’s latest video against the use of primates in film. If you thought that the fate of child-stars was grim, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Elsewhere, In Defense of Animals is carrying out a campaign to help three abused elephants currently on tour in America with a cruel circus. “Tina, Jewel and Queenie have spent their summer being trucked around the country with Circus Vazquez. Day after day, town after town, the lives of these elephants are the same - crammed into the back of a trailer, confined to a tiny pen where they sway neurotically - all for five minutes of performance doing demeaning tricks for dwindling circus crowds”, says the organization.
You can help by writing to the authorities who should be doing their job to protect these animals and instead choose to ignore their plight. Or you can help Ida with their leafletting activities. The day is coming when no one will be interested in these cruel spectacles. But until that day arrives, we must ensure those animals are not forgotten about.
You have likely heard of the devastating floods that have hit the Philippines. Last weekend, Tropical Storm Ketsana, dumped 42 centimeters of rain on Manila in just 12 hours, flooding 80% of the city and causing the deaths of 143 people and hundreds of thousands of animals.The floodwaters rose so high that residents and their companion animals had to take to the roofs of their houses. So many animals didn’t make it, however. There are reports of dead dogs floating in the water. Tragically, many of them didn’t stand a chance, as they were chained to fixed objects, a common practice in Manila, and would have drowned as soon as the waters rose above their head.Some organizations are working to provide relief to these animals in need and they need your help. Please make a donation to Network For Animals who’s present in the Philippines. I do realize times are tough for everyone but this is an emergency. There’s more rain predicted to come over the weekend so the situation may get even worse. Any help will make a vital difference.
Yesterday was World Animal Rights Day and all over the world people were sending out the message that our treatment of non-humans has to improve and they must be included in the moral sphere that humans currently exist. A lot of people work incredibly hard to make it happen and one of them is Lorri Bauston (pictured), who co-founded 
As vegetarians/vegans, we don’t only want to see the end of animal exploitation by the food industry, but also in science laboratories/classrooms and so-called ‘entertainment’. Hollywood actress 