IT'S a typical day at the animal shelter — Bagel is getting a good belly rub. Roscoe and Kirby are receiving pats and scratches on their heads. And Sophia and Precious Moment are being softly stroked as they nestle closer to humans.

Dogs? Cats? Bunnies? No, they're farm animals, namely pigs, cows and turkeys — and they're having a great time. These and other critters roam, snort, cluck and bleat freely at a new 25-acre rescue shelter devoted to caring for farm animals.

Cuviello, along with activists Deniz Bolbol and Alfredo Kuba, sued HP Pavilion and San Jose back in January and won, with a jury finding that "an employee of HP Pavilion Management conspire[d] with an official of the City of San Jose to use government authority to restrict the ... free speech activities of the Plaintiffs and then proceeded to take actions which restricted the ... free speech activities of the Plaintiffs."

The whole bizarre story started after Cuviello, Bolbol and Kuba were arrested in the HP Pavilion parking lot while handing out fliers condemning Ringling Brothers for alleged acts of animal abuse when the circus came to San Jose in September of 2003.

The activists were surprised, to say the least, since prior to that their do-gooding had failed to rate any law enforcement attention whatsoever.

The fish kill happened in 2003 in the Lower East Side apartment Garcia shared with Martinez, her three kids, Juan, Crystal, then 8, and Emaleeann, 5, two dogs, and a cat. They also had three goldfish, named after the kids.

Martinez said she woke up at 3 that morning to find the 6-foot-5 Garcia standing over her, holding their 20-gallon fish tank. He then hurled it into the TV, shattering both.

Juan rushed out to see what was happening, which is when Garcia "stomped" on Crystal, the decision says.

Garcia went berserk again the next day, punching Martinez in the face and choking her. He went after Juan when he jumped in to help his mom.

He was sent up the river for seven to 15 years, but the appeals court reduced his time to five to 11 years after finding fault with one of the assault convictions.

Along with many other half-baked notions in this opinion piece, Sean Stalpes says "the idea that we all are obligated to give up meat is unfeasible." That statement falls well short of the mark, betraying a rather serious ignorance about modern factory farming, which is itself unfeasible. This is especially true as the world population grows, and China and India -- with their massive populations -- seek to increase meat consumption in their countries as they adopt other Western practices.

The Worldwatch Institute released a paper recently that I think Stalpes and your readers will find edifying, called "Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry," which shows explicitly how the dominant method of animal agriculture is inhumane and ecologically disruptive. After reading this detailed report and its recommendations, I don't think anyone could read Stalpes' claims of inaccuracy without seeing right through them.

Looking to reduce the stray dog and cat population overwhelming county facilities, county commissioners in a workshop meeting Tuesday supported a proposal to spay or neuter lost animals before returning them to owners. Those who object would have to pay $300 to get their animals back with reproductive systems intact.

Commissioners stopped short of a proposal to require all dog and cat owners in the county to have their animals "fixed," but some said they would consider that in the future.

"I think we have a ... fundamental problem," commissioner Jeff Koons said. "We need to be much more aggressive."

One has students read a passage entitled "Why Be Vegetarian." The second has students interpret a poem with a verse that says, "your brain could rot from eating beef" due to mad cow disease.

Those sections are being removed. This morning, Queue's chief executive officer told Missouri officials that it had removed the passages from the fifth and sixth grade workbooks.

But let's be realistic and frank. There's not a huge public demand for feral animals. How many families really want to adopt a wild and vicious cat?

Sadly, some of these animals may meet the unfortunate fate that too many unwanted animals do already in this era of pet overpopulation and irresponsible ownership. Some may ultimately be euthanized.

The pigs, which ranchers introduced to the island in the 1850s, are being killed because park ecologists say they harm the island's landscape by eating endangered plants, digging up archeological sites and making it difficult for the endemic island fox populations to rebound.

Vetoing all meat doesn't give any incentive for a farmer already committed to raising livestock to stop abusing his animals. If you're not going to buy a chicken regardless of how it's treated, why should anyone change for you?

• Alternative Outfitters (AO is a really hip, fun vegan clothing store, with some great styles, though they don't seem to have any boots for men)


• Vegan Wares


• Vegetarian Shoes

• NY Times Letters to the Editor


• The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollen (from which the article is drawn)


• Excerpt from The Omnivore's Dilemma at Michael Pollan's home page, including the intro and beginning of the first section

In some cases, owners were forced to leave their pets behind because rescue teams were obliged to concentrate on saving human lives; and shelters where evacuees were taken would rarely accommodate animals.

"I felt we were derelict in our duties to the citizens of Louisiana, because we didn't make arrangements for pets," said state Sen. Heulette "Clo" Fontenot, who planned to formally introduce legislation Monday that would ensure that an emergency evacuation plan specifically for pets is put into place.

"I don't think we recognize that pet-human bond that was there, and a lot of people refused to evacuate because they weren't going to leave their pets behind," Fontenot said.

"There really is no end," said Charlotte Bass Lilly, executive director of Animal Rescue New Orleans.

In January alone, her group rescued 1,000 animals, thought to be Katrina survivors because of the areas in which they were found. The group has set up 4,000 animal food and water stations in areas that were devastated.

Placing the pets up for adoption has seemed the most humane solution, said Maloney of the LA/SPCA. She added that the group hoped the new owners would be willing to relinquish their pets if the original owner were found.

[Jing] Kang's research has prompted concerns from some experts about food safety and animal welfare, while others have questioned the secretive nature of the approval process.

"The application process is confidential, and the FDA needs to have a transparent process that addresses the public's moral and ethical concerns towards animal cloning," said Michael Fernandez, executive director of the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology in Washington, D.C.

According to Margaret Mellon, who heads the Food and Environment Program at the Boston-based nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, Kang's work "raises serious questions about interfering with fatty acid metabolism."

"We don't know about the fat levels in adults and in future generations. There has been no study on the effect it might have," Mellon said.

Responding to Kang's point about declining fish stocks, Mellon added, "We need to solve the ocean crisis and not push it as an excuse for introducing genetically modified food."

Caged up in a legislative committee, a bill that would allow trappers to catch and sell live coyotes appears to be dying a slow death.

If the measure had passed, Kentucky would have joined eight other states that allow sales of live coyotes. The coyotes typically are purchased by houndsmen who turn them loose in sprawling enclosures for their dogs to chase.

Singer’s talk was not self-righteous or zealous; it was not hysterical or inflammatory. It was simply a presentation of facts and ideas to support his cause. While his views remain extreme to some, at least he is presenting them in a way that makes people think. If more activists would take his approach, they would find they would garner a lot more support in the long run.

to change the way agency officials, justices and lawmakers view companion animals.

He called the humane treatment of animals a "moral-values" issue that many people care deeply about.

Gov. Rendell is pledging to find a way to end the state's reputation as the puppy-mill capital of the East.

"I am not satisfied that we, as a state, are doing all that we can," he said.

In an interview Thursday, Rendell said he also has begun to make administrative changes that might include "a shake-up" of the state Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement, and will push for legislation to improve animal-welfare laws.

Rendell said he would dismiss the 14-member Dog Law Advisory Board, which advises the secretary of agriculture on dog issues, because it has not been "proactive enough."

He is the first governor since the advent of the commercial dog-breeding industry in the state to take such a personal interest in the issue, according to Dotsie Keith, the legislative chair of the Pennsylvania Federation of Dog Clubs.

Earlier this year, Rendell formed a working group to address the issue. The panel will issue a report on its findings and, in the meantime, has made recommendations that Rendell is considering, including one that would give dog wardens the authority to follow up in cases where kennel licenses have been revoked by the state.

7.Pasture Provided
Rating 0–100 is based on the following criteria:
    Policies requiring pasture in addition to USDA regulations
    Enforcement/oversight
    Amount of acreage available per cow on the firm’s largest farms
    Average days cows are on pasture per year
    Permissible exemptions

8.Cull rate
Rating is based on the health and longevity of a farm’s cattle, taking into account the farm’s slaughter rate/cull rate.
    100    Annual cull rate under 10%
    90    Annual cull rate under 30%
    50     Limited information supplied

A spokeswoman for the zoo said: "The masterplan is a vision for the future of Edinburgh Zoo. As it stretches over 20 years, it will have to be flexible. In this respect, the plans for the animal collection are very much aspirational, and will depend on the conservation need of each species.

"At the moment, the future does not look bright for the Indian elephant as a result of poaching and habitat loss. If we are to fulfil our aim 'to protect endangered species', then we have to include them in our future.

Having just seen four weeks of ready-to-wear shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris, it seems that come next winter, we will not be able to escape wearing fur.

There were collars made of red fox at Burberry Prorsum, chinchilla blouson jackets at Julien Macdonald, chinchilla trims to bags and even a chinchilla blouse at Celine, fur hoods on cardies at D&G, fur pockets and panels and even a fur motorcycle helmet at Prada. Nobody seemed to bat an eye.

No one would want to eat food that came from heinous practices - hence the rise in sales of organic meat, eggs and dairy products - yet people wear fur as though its ethical dimension were irrelevant.

I don't expect everyone to adopt my position, but all decent people would agree unnecessary suffering is intolerable in a humane society. Cruelty for the sake of an extravagance, a gaudy piece of "bling", is obnoxious.

...not even John Galliano at Dior, who told me last year he was going to rethink his use of animal pelts, having just received a video he could "hardly bear to watch' from fellow designer and animal lover Stella McCartney, but who showed just as many pieces made from real fur as ever.

Only Stella McCartney, who showed her collection in Paris, was a fur and leather-free zone. "It's barbaric," McCartney says.

"Fur looks much better on animals than on humans."

ALMOST as soon as Michele Pusateri and her two daughters chose a black-and-white terrier at a humane society shelter near their home in South Pasadena, Calif., they were told they did not qualify to own the dog.

Mrs. Pusateri took her daughters, Mira and Zoe, back twice more and met with different adoption counselors. Each time she got a no. "It was insane," Mrs. Pusateri said. "Their concern was that I had never had a dog in my life and that I had a 6-year-old daughter."

Her chances of pet ownership didn't improve when she turned to groups whose mission is to rescue abused and unwanted pets. She found herself explaining to her crying children that they couldn't adopt because the organizations suspected the family had a hole in the backyard fence or the yard was too small.

Ultimately Mrs. Pusateri went to the county animal shelter last May and found Piper, a mutt. She paid $80 for the dog to be spayed and picked her up two days later, to the girls' delight.

The process left Mrs. Pusateri thinking that animal adoption gatekeepers can be so concerned about their charges that they forget about the people in the equation. "They make you jump though all these emotional hoops," she said. "You feel so judged. You start wondering, Am I dog worthy?"

While some 8 million to 12 million dogs and cats end up in shelters in the United States each year, and 4 to 6 million are euthanized, those who place pets say that the high standards they demand of owners rarely leave animals without homes. Eventually almost everyone who wants an animal will get one, somewhere. So why put would-be adopters through a process that makes them feel inadequate, their privacy invaded?

"The home visit weirds out a lot of people," said Jill Blasdel-Cortus, the president of Dachshund Rescue of North America, a network of about 100 volunteers, who give temporary homes to daschshunds claimed from overcrowded shelters or families who surrender them because of a behavior problem or lifestyle change. The group places the dogs in permanent homes. "We're not going to judge if you've dusted or if it's clean," Ms. Blasdel-Cortus said.

Nonetheless she defends the practice of requiring would-be adopters to fill out three-page applications that ask if the home is owned or rented, as well as open-ended questions like, "If your dog bit a child at a backyard barbecue, what would you do?"

References are checked. The home is visited. Adopters must sign a contract specifying the care of the dog. In the last nine years the dachshund group has placed some 4,300 dogs, Ms. Blasdel-Cortus said, and she could recall only one family turned down after a home visit, because it lived in an upstairs apartment with rickety stairs and refused to carry the dog up and down.

"I am a dog advocate," Ms. Blasdel-Cortus said. "I'm not a people advocate. If you don't want to fill out the form, go to your local shelter. Some people may find that uncooperative, but a rescued dog is not for everyone."

Cocker Spaniel Rescue of New England will not place a dog with a family with children under 7, said Gerry Foss, its president. German Shepherd Rescue, in Burbank, Calif., receives six dogs a day from people who don't want them, said Grace Konosky, the founder, and she denies about 70 percent of the people who want to adopt them.

Janie Regnier filled out an application to adopt a dachshund through Dachshund Rescue. "It was a surprisingly long application, but as an animal lover, I thought it was a good application," she said.

are trying to lower the hurdles, though they don't envision letting people drop in and simply take home a dog with no questions asked. That would make them pet shops. "We are interested in making adopting an animal less like applying to college," said Gail Buchwald, the vice president of shelter and adoption programs at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Manhattan, which places more than 2,000 dogs and cats each year. "Most people who have been asked to go through a process like that tend to feel intruded upon."

She said that her organization asks for an application form and makes contact with each member of the household to be sure they want to have a pet. They ask about landlords, but they do not make home visits. "When pets are easy to come by," Ms. Buchwald said, "it doesn't make sense to push adopters away to the point that they'll say: I don't need your college-application process. I'll go to the deli down the street and take that stray from the box."

"As an animal rescuer, you want to have control," Ms. Buchwald said. "You may have nursed the animal back from the streets or illness or injury. You want to know beyond any doubt what the home looks like. But this work involves trust and restraint. The best thing you can do is say, 'Go with my blessing,' and you clap when they find a home."

Barely 5 percent of U.S. farms now raise 54 percent of the country’s beef and dairy cattle. Corporations now produce 98 percent of all poultry. Small to mid-size family livestock farms are going the way of the dodo. While “local food movements” and a resurgent interest in grass-fed and free-range animal production are gaining traction and deserve our full support, they will never be enough to stem the “blood-dimmed tide” of the livestock industry.

Are the research reports, the scientific studies, and the occasional manure spill only isolated “factoids” in an otherwise benign landscape of inevitable agricultural modernization? Or is the increasing flow of data and the growing number of incident reports the proverbial canary in a coal mine? A recent World Watch Institute paper pronounced, “Factory Farms are breaking the cycle between small farmers, their animals and the environment, with collateral damage to human health and local communities.” And the Washington Post reported on North Carolina State University professor C.M. “Mike” Williams, who has spent five years researching how to treat manure from the state’s 10 million hogs. He concluded, “I do not feel that system [of factory hog farms] is long-term sustainable.”

Dr. Charles Benbrook, a former executive director of the Board of Agriculture for the National Academy of Science, shares Williams’ assessment. After years spent studying the dairy industry, Benbrook says he is “perplexed” by the growth of gargantuan dairy farms west of the Mississippi where subsidized water supplies in an otherwise dry landscape have made the expansion of dairy herds feasible—in the short term. In the long term, says Benbrook, further expansion of factory dairy farms “doesn’t make sense and is patently unsustainable because water will become too costly, and in not less than five years, but surely no more than 20, the dairy waste stream will overwhelm the absorptive capacity of the local environment.”

In other words, our food system may be looking at a doomsday denouement before the middle of this century. It is becoming increasingly certain that the water will run out, the land will no longer absorb the torrent of nutrient waste spread upon it, and the over-bred, antibiotic and hormone-injected animals will eventually succumb to their natural limitations. Poole puts it this way, “The factory system of food production will simply implode.” Until the citizens of the heartland rise up in sufficient numbers to hold their government and the corporations accountable, this is both the best and worst we can hope for.

Lori Manire pled guilty to felony charges of aggravated cruelty to animals. She was sentenced to serve ninety days in jail, five years probation, and must pay thousands in restitution. Alan Manire pled guilty to felony cruelty and received four years probation. Neither can own large livestock during the probation period.

According to the Jamie Norris, the animal welfare officer who handled the case since December 2004, the only reason given for letting the horses waste away was business. Since the family business went bankrupt, the animals were left to starve because there was no money to buy feed rather than selling the animals to others who could afford to care for them.

A Hernando County judge said Tuesday afternoon he was irked that the focus of the case of Daniel Sean Hayes has been on the cat he killed. Don Scaglione made that clear at Hayes' sentencing. He reminded everyone in the courtroom that the case also involved a burglary, a violation of a domestic injunction, criminal mischief and removing a tomb or a monument, in addition to the animal cruelty charge.

He said all that. Then he handed down a longer, stiffer sentence than the one that the state had asked for.

Scaglione gave Hayes, 44, just less than two years in state prison, two years of house arrest and 10 years' probation.

"You'll never have a man stand before you who's more sorry for what they did than me," Hayes told the judge. "You'll never have a man stand before you who's more ashamed."

Hayes broke into his then-wife Wendy Harvey's house in December 2004, according to a Sheriff's Office arrest report, broke the neck of her brown Burmese cat named Lanai, put sugar and liquid detergent into the gas and the oil of her car and took the urn containing the ashes of her brother.

But the emotional flashpoint of the case seemed to center on the cat.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter last spring to the State Attorney's Office demanding the stiffest possible sentence.

Hayes has an "Animal Abuse Database Profile" on Pet-Abuse.com.

[snip]

Scaglione asked Tuesday if people were legitimately interested in the case - or just the cat.

"I'm troubled by the publicity surrounding this case," he said. "We need to direct our attention to the emotional trauma involved with domestic violence as a whole."

Just killing the cat, he pointed out, would not have gotten Hayes prison time. All the charges against him, in fact, with the exception of the burglary, would still have added up to only probation because Hayes had no prior criminal record before December 2004.

The state's witnesses still argued for a stiff sentence.

"He knew when he removed my brother's ashes that it would have a profound effect on our family," said Susan Moore, Harvey's sister.

"Anyone capable of an act like this," she said, referring to the cat, "is capable of harming humans."

Harvey had to sit down when she read her statement in a shaky voice. She called him "a man without a conscience."

"We can no longer imagine a life without worrying about his whereabouts," she told Scaglione. "Daniel has sentenced me to a life of fear. ... I am convinced that had I been home the night of the crime that would have been my life as well."

The scientists and researchers said in their letter that an isolated population of 500 to 600 bears does not constitute a biologically recovered one.

A population of 2,000 to 3,000 is needed for genetic diversity and to withstand regional variations such as food sources, they said. A smaller one is likely to go extinct, they argued.

Kris Kelly, [Director of Animal Welfare] for Beverly Hills and Pacific Palisades, feels the program’s biggest accomplishment to date is the relationship formed with Ed Boks. “I think Mr. Boks and his department no longer feel alienated by the animal community. We’re working together for all of Los Angeles.” The DAW Animal Abuse Committee, which Kelly chairs, was recently asked to join with the new Los Angeles Animal Cruelty Task Force to share ideas and achieve goals. According to Kelly, “The only way we are truly going to make L.A. a no-kill city is by joining hands, not fighting with each other.” Differing groups have varying approaches but their goals are the same, so the DAW Program is serving as a unifying conduit to make things happen -- a sort of “United Nations” of Animal Welfare.

On average the UK exported 418,000 live cattle a year from 1991 to 1995, a trade worth about £75m annually. Most were bull calves, usually under one week old, from the dairy herd, not needed for breeding and almost worthless - because of poor carcase conformation - for the conventional UK beef trade.

On the continent these calves were reared intensively and slaughtered at a few months old for veal. Loss of that trade made most dairy bull calves worthless - today most are shot on farm.

Hard-pressed UK dairy farmers now see export of live calves for the veal trade, particularly in France and the Netherlands, at more than £50 a head, as a potential income booster.

But Ross Minett, director of Edinburgh-based Advocates for Animals, condemned the idea yesterday. He said: "We are opposed to this trade on two grounds. First, the stress involved in transport, which leaves these animals more susceptible to disease when they arrive.

"Second, many calves will be reared in conditions which are illegal in the UK, with only minimal bedding in the first few weeks."

He added: "Looking at this trade from a calf's point of view, it would be preferable to be shot at birth."

In addition to ranking Santa Monica as the fifth most vegetarian-friendly small city in the nation, advocates with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) praised City officials for launching this week what may be the first program in the nation to humanely control ground squirrel populations.

Through a partnership with the Los Angeles-based non-profit Animal Advocates, City officials will begin overseeing a new policy to educate the public not to feed the squirrels in Palisades Park, causing the population to grow beyond its natural numbers.

In addition, the group will begin sterilizing the rodents, which burrow hundreds of holes in the seaside park, with immunocontraceptives. The method works by adding a cholesterol-lowering drug to the squirrel feed and does “not pose a danger to the to non-target wildlife or humans," according to a published City staff report on the proposal.

I read Andrew Hanelly's opinion, expecting something fresh and intelligent from the PennPenn State senior, but instead I found some of the most ignorant, backward thinking I've ever encountered from a young person on the subject of vegetarianism and animal suffering.

Arguing that the suffering of animals is valid based on good ol' American tradition is ridiculous. Slavery was an American tradition. Tradition is what we make it. Barbecues will continue on just fine, featuring a variety of non-meat items on the grill. They already are, with veg-friendly options becoming common at these events as the compassionate lifestyle grows more widespread.

Many of the jobs Hanelly claims would be lost to a meat-free society belong to uneducated and/or migrant workers that suffer greatly at the hands of an industry that makes sweatshops look like union strongholds. Read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation for a riveting account of the human toll of meat-processing.

Finally, Hanelly's assertion that products are tested on animals completely ignores the fact that many excellent alternative products exist for the same hygenic purposes. The toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant and other products I use are not tested on animals, and can be found at a national grocery store you may have heard of: Whole Foods Markets.

For a senior majoring in media studies, Hanelly sure hasn't been paying much attention to what's going on in the real world.

The seal hunt exists for a single reason: So Gucci, Versace, Prada, Marni, and Petit Nord can deck out their runway models in seal fur or skin, and impress the last remaining twenty or so mouth-breathing morons with more money than brains who haven’t heard of faux-fur.

You won’t hear much criticism of the seal hunt in the Canadian media—if only because no one wants to be accused of picking on a group of people about whom there are already enough jokes to fill five HBO Dennis Miller pay-per-view specials.

If Newfoundlanders want to curtail the Newfie jokes, may I suggest refraining from whacking defenseless critters over the head just because someone pays you to do it? A lot of things pay well—sliding naked up and down a brass pole in front of a beer-chugging audience, for example—but, come on, whatever happened to moral standards and a sense of decency?

...the growing number of feral cat colonies has raised concerns among advocates of the piping plover, a beach-nesting shorebird protected by the federal Endangered Species Act.

To many plover lovers, the stray cats are gangs of predatory carnivores threatening the threatened birds.

"The cats are wiping out the bird life," said Kathleen O'Connor, of the Great South Bay Audubon Society. "The feral colonies have played havoc with the population. The beach is the worst place you could put them. They give the plovers a heart attack, so they can't reproduce."

And with the plovers set to migrate back to these beaches next month, a plan proposed by state park authorities to remove the cats has cat advocates up in arms. They say the cats will wind up in shelters, and inevitably, be euthanized.

"That's a Maine coon," Mrs. Carlson said last week, pointing to a furry cat cowering in the brush. "That's a $1,000 cat, and someone just dumped him here."

“In effect, we are currently responsible for the sixth major extinction event in the history of earth, and the greatest since the dinosaurs disappeared, 65 million years ago,” said the 92-page Global Biodiversity Outlook 2 report.

A rising human population of 6.5 billion was undermining the environment for animals and plants via pollution, expanding cities, deforestation, introduction of “alien species” and global warming, [the report] said.

“The direct causes of biodiversity loss -- habitat change, over-exploitation, the introduction of invasive alien species, nutrient loading and climate change -- show no sign of abating."

It urged better efforts to safeguard habitats ranging from deserts to jungles and better management of resources from fresh water to timber. About 12 percent of the earth’s land surface is in protected areas, against just 0.6 percent of the oceans.

It also recommended more work to curb pollution and to rein in industrial emissions of gases released by burning fossil fuels and widely blamed for global warming.

-- Give more authority to inspectors under the Commercial Dog and Cat Operator Inspection Act.

-- Allow the director of the Ag Department to set a sliding fee schedule of up to $250 for licenses.

-- Make it illegal to sell puppies or kittens under 8 weeks old.

Blair Sen. Mick Mines said the bill he introduced could help rid the state of puppy mills. The term typically refers to mass breeding facilities where dogs are raised in conditions ranging from unsanitary to inhumane, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Ben wrote on March 19, 2006 9:41 AM: "I agree with the new regulations, in fact, they should be tougher. I bred very high end German Shepherds for many years. My dogs and lines have been on the world stage...I know what I'm talking about. We bred to improve the breed, not to make money. When breeding of dogs is done for the right reasons, i.e. to improve the breed it is a money losing proposition. If you're breeding to make money YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! Between the tremendous vet bills, loss of breeding stock, feed, housing, and a multitude of other expenses you cannot make money breeding dogs IF YOU ARE DOING IT THE RIGHT WAY. Now, if you're just breeding "a dog" to "a dog" to get "a puppy" you should be shut down. There are enough of those running loose on the street! I've had to deal with hundreds of heartbroken owners over the years who come to me because of our reputation. They tell me how their dog died at 6months, 1yr, 1 1/2yrs....and the stories are always the same. They bought from a breeder who "just bred dogs". This bill won't fix the problem...it should be tougher. Do what Florida does. Require a vet certificate of all pups leaving the facility and impose a lemon law. I often wonder how these places sell their pups for a couple hundred dollars or less. IF the pups are going to the vet the amount of times they should be before 8weeks and they have the expense of the pregnancy and delivery as well as the supplementation of the pregnant female before and after the delivery, how can they sell the pups for this kind of money (muchless say they're doing it to supplement income)? The NUMBERS DON'T WORK! "

Those efforts include plans for responsible breeding education programs and plans to get lax breeding regulations changed.

With their traditional profession of bear dancing declared illegal on pressure from animal rights groups, a new future awaits bear trainers: tailoring and soap manufacture.

Twenty-two 'kalandars' in Madhya Pradesh, as they are known, will be trained in the two jobs, according to the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), an animal welfare group.

Under the deal with L'Oréal, Dame Anita will stay on as a consultant to advise on community trade and will advise The Body Shop, which will be run as a separate entity.

"The assumption that I am sitting next to the enemy is wrong," she said. "There is something wonderful when your battlefield enemies become bedfellows."

Animal welfare activists have called for a boycott of the Body Shop after its founder Anita Roddick and fellow shareholders sold out to French cosmetics giant L'Oreal for £652m.

The boycott was called by Naturewatch and backed by Uncaged.

The animal welfare groups oppose L'Oreal's policy on the testing of cosmetics ingredients on animals.

Body Shop made its name championing ethical consumerism and opposing animal testing and went on to make a fortune of £130m for Mrs Roddick and her husband Gordon.

the daily massacre of innocent people in Iraq, the execution of prisoners -- mainly blacks -- in American prisons, the massive sale of handguns to Americans, the destabilization of the entire world by the American government's aggressive foreign policy, etc.

Opposition Leader Bill Graham issued a statement on Friday saying those words "reflect her personal opinions and not those of the Liberal Party of Canada."

"What's very interesting about horses is that the sight of a companion's dead body doesn't seem to cause distress -- they will typically sniff it and then turn away. Perhaps they are more clever than we are, or more realistic -- they seem to know that the body isn't the important part of their friend, and although they make it clear that they miss the other horse, they aren't usually preoccupied with its remains," says Jahiel, also an author and clinician.

[snip]

Heard is the constable who trailered the three remaining police horses on duty back to the barn following Brigadier being put down: "They really freaked out all the way back -- bucking and kicking. I had to stop the trailer four times and go back and calm them down ... This has never happened before.

"I can't explain it -- maybe they fed off the fact that four left the barn but only three were coming back," says Heard. "Brigadier was an alpha -- he was the head honcho!"

Jahiel isn't surprised at the horses' reactions: "Their behaviour at the scene was almost certainly based on fear and agitation, especially their riders' fear and agitation -- and, no doubt, anger at the driver of the vehicle, and frustration at their inability to apprehend the guilty party immediately.

"The horses wouldn't necessarily understand the reasons for their riders' emotions, but they would definitely perceive all of them and be strongly affected by them."

She says, "A grieving horse may appear dull, slow, uninterested and tired -- in the same way that a depressed human can appear dull, slow, uninterested and tired. In fact, a grieving horse may appear to be suffering from depression."

The grieving process can't be hurried, says Jahiel. "I've seen horses grieve for many months -- one mare of mine grieved for nearly 11 months after the death of a half-sister with whom she had shared a stable and field for 19 years.

In a civilized country such as Canada, we can do better than treat farm animals like freight.

...perhaps 95 percent of the country's eggs come from caged hens. Mr. Durand and a few friends decided to investigate the conditions at one of the largest egg farms in the state, which is owned by the Rochester-based supermarket chain Wegmans.

After the company denied his request for a tour of the farm, which is in Wolcott, 47 miles east of Rochester, Mr. Durand and a few friends made three midnight visits in 2004. The complex, which houses 750,000 hens and supplies all of the Wegmans-brand eggs to the chain's 69 stores, was unlocked, and no employees were around, he said, and he and his companions wandered freely, though they said they were aware that they were trespassing.

They said they found hens were closely confined, sometimes spattered with manure and sickly. In some cages, a hen carcass was left with live chickens, he said. Below the cages were manure pits, some with mounds three to four feet deep. "We could hardly breathe," he said.

Mr. Durand, who works as a graphic artist, shot video during the visits and took a few of the more sickly hens with him, which he bathed and placed at a friend's farm. From the video, he produced a 27-minute documentary called "Wegmans Cruelty."

[snip]

After the film's debut, Wegmans pressed burglary and other charges against Mr. Durand and two of his friends, Melanie Ippolito and Megan Cosgrove. Ms. Ippolito and Ms. Cosgrove have since pleaded guilty to reduced charges, but Mr. Durand has not been offered a plea bargain. He faces the most serious counts, including burglary, criminal mischief, petty larceny and criminal trespass. His trial is scheduled for May.

The battle continues over a north Texas horse slaughterhouse. "Dallas Crown" is in Kaufman, east of Dallas.

Some Kaufman residents have spent years trying to close the plant, and they've had both a victory and a setback.

It's the odor, the environmental concerns and a matter of principle.

Neighbors in Kaufman want the Dallas Crown plant locked for good.

The Ohio Supreme Court today ruled against a national animal rights group, denying its attempt to gain access to research data gathered by Ohio State University scientists.

The group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, filed suit late last year seeking access to photographs, videotapes and other records produced as a part of the university’s spinal cord injury training program.

Ohio State had argued that such records are considered “intellectual property” and are exempted from disclosure under the Ohio Public Records Act.

"It vindicates what we do," Feld said. "We spend our time putting shows together, trying to make families happy-- that's what we do."

PETA general counsel Jeff Kerr said the trial had "exposed the sordid underbelly of the circus, and let patrons know what their money's really going to support behind the scenes."

[President Nestor] Kirchner on Tuesday urged consumers to "buy less beef if they don't lower the price," speaking of industry prices he is trying to control.

"Let's make them feel the power of the consumer so they don't sell at whatever prices they want," he said.

A recent spike of more than 10 percent in meat prices has roiled the president, wary of past hyperinflation in a South American country that has suffered wrenching economic crises throughout its history - the last in 2001-2002. Inflation topped 12 percent last year and many fear more double-digit inflation by year's end.

Still, it was unclear Wednesday whether Argentines were heeding the call as restaurants grilled juicy racks of ribs in restaurants around Buenos Aires and crowds flocked to open-air steakhouses as always.

What pasta is to Italy, red meat is to Argentina. This country once boasted its working class could eat beef almost every day. On weekends, smoke swirls across whole neighborhoods as barbecuing families unite for the Sunday "asado." And in cattle country, Argentine cowboys roast entire sides of beef for tourists.

Free-range production, by its very nature, could never be affordable to most of humanity; nor could the planet endure all that methane and manure. And as they push their ill-advised and expensive plans, advocacy groups become consultants to agribusiness. Their employees commit to memory the dimensions of cages, the mechanics of slaughter. What’s gained from this?

Animal welfare laws, even where they could fit, would extend no kindnesses to animals where doing so would substantially cut into profit. And no matter what regulations apply to slaughter, at the bottom line, dead means dead.

[snip]

Animal-welfare advocacy largely functions to ensure that activists conform to the received social and economic template. It transforms activists into paid, staid professionals who negotiate with a few companies over the caging and killing of the animals we commodify, the animals we use. These professionals select videos and reports for publicity value, then find decision-makers who are willing to negotiate, or at least to add pious phrases like “animal compassion” to the corporate and legislative lexicon. And although the reporters who discuss these campaigns use the terms “animal welfare” and “animal-rights” interchangeably, professional welfare lobbying does not advance animal rights.

agrees instead to elaborately codify the human right to use other animals, and commodified animals will always be rightless. That’s what it means to be property.

While [professional campaigners] focus on goals such as “improving the living and dying conditions” of animals sold as fast food, they let the interests of free animals languish and become invisible. Yet if free-living animals were thought to have a claim to their territory and freedom, then finally, finally, the polluting and resource-consuming ranchers and animal farmers would meet a true challenge! Animal-welfare advocacy deals only with symptoms, in contrast, and will do so infinitely, without ever challenging our permission to use animals.

...because a holistic intervention would view Newfoundlanders as potential allies, it would exert its economic pressure not on the people living as near to the poverty line as to the sea, but on the government that sets the quotas, opens new markets, and fails to engage the human potential of its coastal populace.

students “seem to be eating more eggs just to try them out.”

Most “free-range” offerings are, in reality, mass-produced commodities involving no pastures at all. The egg and dairy industries are notorious for their overall treatment, and the few cast-offs living in sanctuaries were typically found starved, neglected or abused -- common situations for animals raised for human consumption, including on so-called family farms.

Little if anything changes after a private act of rescue. The laws protecting the industries become stricter, but demand does not change. Radical activism would mean going to the root of the problem, dissuading the public from supporting animal agribusiness. A firebomb can’t do that any better than an undercover video showing violations of the Animal Welfare Act. These aren’t radical acts. Contrary to an increasingly popular belief, making oneself and others vulnerable to law enforcement doesn’t make anyone radical. Offering oneself as raw material to the prison industry supports the makers of cages. In a world where coercion has, for so long, been the tedious norm, truly radical activism seeks and models a view in which respect prevails.

No one can be arrested for buying eggless noodles. Yet setting oneself free from the social addiction to animal products is serious direct action. It’s not a matter of decrying the worst abuses -- agriculture’s torture photos -- but of challenging the appalling communal injustices of the everyday. At a time when corporations have legal personhood, yet the conscious individuals used as raw materials do not, no activism can be more basic, more direct, or more needed.

Two pending bills in the state Legislature would let people earmark a donation of $2 or more on their tax refunds to what would be called a Companion Animal Welfare Fund. The fund would be distributed among shelters and animal control agencies around the state.

Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, said the money would be used for education about spaying and neutering. He introduced the legislation.

Michigan Humane Society spokeswoman Nancy Gunnigle said it would also go toward promoting adoption and helping to strengthen anti-cruelty laws.

"It's important legislation because it has the potential to generate enough funds to make a tangible reduction of the number of adoptable animals being euthanized while increasing the number of cruelty cases investigated throughout the state," she said.

Gunnigle said people would be able to donate to the Companion Animal Welfare Fund yearround, not just at tax time. The Michigan Department of Agriculture's Animal Welfare Advisory Committee would decide how the money would be distributed.

Gunnigle said organizations would be able to forgo an extensive grant-writing process and apply for assistance by outlining how they would use the money. A lobbyist from the Michigan Humane Society helped develop the legislation.

Pork customers continue to push for increased emphasis on animal welfare, said Sherrie Niekamp, director of animal welfare for the National Pork Board.

She said companies, such as McDonald’s, are listening to animal rights groups.

“The animal rights movement is still very prominent, and now they seem to be focusing on animal agriculture,” Niekamp said.

“Consumer awareness on animal welfare and food safety continues to go up,” he said. “It heightens the importance of us dealing with this issue because the customer is always right.”

Placing more of an emphasis on animal welfare should be a priority for producers, added Craig Christensen, a board member and producer from Ogden.

“As producers, we are comfortable if we need to improve our genetics and nutrition because it affects our bottom line,” he said.

“With animal welfare, our customers are asking us about this. If someone doesn’t take the lead on this, we will be influenced by regulations that we don’t have control of, and that’s why the Pork Board is involved in this.”

Curiously, for a case with such serious implications, none of those convicted in Trenton is alleged to have carried out any of the substantive crimes laid out in the indictment — from property damage to intimidation.

Prosecutors didn't provide evidence they knew the perpetrators or had ever communicated directly with them. Rather, the six were convicted of running an Internet site that allowed others access to information that could be used in crimes.

FBI spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan says there have never been any deaths or injuries in the U.S. attributable to animal rights or environmental terrorism.

By comparison, radical right-wingers killed 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Since then, according to a Southern Poverty Law Center report, police have uncovered 60 more right-wing plots, including plans to assassinate judges, bomb synagogues and destroy mosques.

The book is technically a thriller, though it's also a message book about the plight of animals, a cause at the forefront of its protagonist and author's interest.

As an on-demand title - copies are printed by iUniverse per customer request - Hayes has relied on consumer word of mouth (such as online comments from Amazon.com readers) and local recognition to spur sales. She is a former reporter for The Wilton Bulletin, a background that served her well in crafting the story, and worked for a prominent national animal rights protection organization, the spur for the novel's theme.

"I lived it, much of this book, for six and a half years," she says. "The campaigns are based on my own experience."

[snip]

Much of the causes described in the book were heavily researched for seven years, Hayes says, in addition to her experience with animal rights causes. Indeed, the focus of her protagonist's new, unifying message, the slaughter of farm animals for human consumption, led Hayes naturally through the past 20 years of her own life as a vegan but also to research sources such as the Library of Congress.

[snip]

"Readers from my church and my family and friends, they all say this, 'I wouldn't say this if I didn't really mean it -- I can't put it down.' And a couple people told me it, 'You know when you don't wanna finish a book, so you read it slower. ...' "

Hayes was particularly pleased with another anecdote she heard from a reader who told her that she and her husband were thinking of becoming vegetarians. Hayes says that the woman told her that she thought for a moment when she was about to have a bite to eat and asked herself, "Do I really need to eat this sandwich?"

[snip]

"I wanted to see it as a good story ... I thought that this was a good way to reach a lot of people who don't want to be reached."

Eleanor Aquitaine Green, a savvy reporter and survivor of a painful divorce, discovers her true calling is crusading for the animals. Only days later, as if by divine providence, she lands a job in the animal rights movement.

Before long, Eleanor realizes that her boss, Honor Vine, the president of People Against Animal Cruelty, is a burned out, aging tyrant stuck in a bygone era of the movement. Even worse, the movement Eleanor so admires is near death and is fractured with inner turmoil. A unifying issue is required and that issue, Eleanor believes, is the yearly slaughter of ten billion farm animals for human consumption. Convincing Americans to change their meateating ways borders on impossible, but it seems less difficult than working for her manipulative boss. An animal rights organization, however, is the perfect war room to wage such a battle, so Eleanor begins her crusade in the dysfunctional office. With the help of her brow beaten colleagues, Eleanor attempts to endure the daily batterings in order to gain some kindness for the animals. As a movement foot soldier, Eleanor campaigns against traps and wearing fur, she attempts to rescue a circus elephant, and also meets her other true love.

But on the day that Honor is forced to pay for her abuse, both Honor and Eleanor are threatened by an unexpected outcome.

Owning a dog is a major responsibility. Dogs require daily care and constant attention. Before anyone decides to bring a dog into their family, they should research the particular breed to make sure it is suitable for their particular situation, and should learn about and be willing to undertake serious responsibilities of dog care. There are many great websites you can visit for further information including the ASPCA.

The conclusion by pet experts that the dog poses no threat isn't sitting well with Kenneth Phillips, a Los Angeles attorney who exclusively represents dog bite victims. A dog that kills, even during rough play, is a dangerous dog and should be put down, he said.

“What we're balancing here is the life of a dog versus the life of another child,” Phillips said. “I'm not willing to risk another freak accident. I'm not willing to risk that (the behaviorist) was having a bad day and made a mistake” in determining Jessie's tugging habit isn't a fatal flaw.

Pets in America have never had it so good. Many pet owners – scratch that – pet guardians, see their pets, and dogs in particular, as surrogate children. “Dogs are seen as pitiful and abused, or as adorable and needy,” said John Katz, author of 14 books on dogs, including “Katz on Dogs: A Commonsense Guide to Training and Living With Dogs.” (Villard, 2005) “They're seen as children with furs.”

In theory, these countries should have a decent record regarding animal welfare, since Islam - the dominant religion in the region – preaches compassion for animals.

Muslim hadiths, or oral traditions, say the Prophet Muhammad cared for living things and that he praised people who were kind to animals, including dogs, which are generally perceived as dirty creatures.

One tradition holds that, “If the Prophet saw any animal over-burdened or ill-fed he would pull up alongside the owner and say, ‘Fear Allah in your treatment of animals.’”

But in practice, in many places in the Middle East, animals in zoos, pet shops, streets and farms are abused or neglected, to the extent that local animal welfare organizations find themselves overwhelmed and almost powerless.

...gather the newspapers you’re reading today and go to the classified sections marked “Pets” (for sale and given away). Count all the animals and all the times you read “puppies” and “kittens.”

For every pet you count that finds a home, one is euthanized at an animal shelter. Did a whole litter find a home? A whole litter was euthanized. This is true for crossbreeds and purebreds.

Labels: animal shelters, companion animals, pets

Average prices [at the mid-December raw fur sale conducted by the Independent Fur Harvesters at the Pompey Rod & Gun Club] were up, compared to a year earlier, for 10 of 11 fur species that were on sale at the auction.

Only raccoons fetched lower prices in 2005 than in 2004. That's at least partly due to the sheer abundance of the masked bandits. The 22 sellers at the Pompey auction had 355 raccoon pelts to unload, compared to 209 the year before.

Muskrat pelts, which are the bread-and-butter money-maker for most trappers, fetched an average of $4.26 each at the recent sale, versus $2.27 at the '04 auction.

Mink went for an average of $14.94, about half again the $9.83 average logged a year earlier.

Other pelts that were worth more this winter than last included those of beaver, otter, fisher, opossum, skunk, gray fox, red fox and coyote.

Animal-rights activists often boast that fur-trapping is on its death bed, but right now the corpse appears to have a lively pulse.

An internal report from the Agriculture Department has found that one of the nation's leading kosher slaughterhouses violated animal cruelty laws and that government inspectors not only failed to stop the inhumane practices but also took improper gifts of meat from plant managers.

After a six-month investigation, the Agriculture Department suspended one of its own inspectors for 14 days and gave warning letters to two others, a department spokesman said. He declined to describe which offenses brought which punishments.

The inspector general's office gave its report to federal prosecutors, but "based on the information presented to us, we decided there was not a prosecutable case," said Robert Teig, a lawyer in the United States attorney's office for the northern district of Iowa.

The investigation ended last April, but the report was released to PETA only after months of appeals under the Freedom of Information Act. The group will release it today on its Web sites, including GoVeg.com.

PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, said the Agriculture Department "should fire all the inspectors who accepted gifts and did nothing about these egregious abuses of the animals whom they are supposed to protect." Bruce Freidrich, a PETA spokesman, added that the punishment "indicates yet again that the U.S.D.A. is completely uninterested in enforcing the law."

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said Mr. Cooney's school is a "stepping stone" to animal cruelty. "This is not an activity that any school should promote or provide training for," Mr. Pacelle said. "We want them to stop engaging in this nonsense."

Mr. Cooney contends that the opposition has only made the experience more attractive to thrill seekers. "I think our students are tired of all the fingers wagging in their faces," he told me a few days before I arrived at his place for a weekend class in January. "The idea of something so contrarian as bullfighting becomes appealing."

Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., who sponsored the original provision, was incensed when congressional leaders rewrote his legislation, and he ended up voting against the final bill, said spokeswoman Melissa Carlson.

The slaughter plants interpreted the new language as allowing fee-for-service inspections, as has long been done for such exotic species as bison and ostrich, and petitioned the Agriculture Department, which agreed to provide them at the plants' expense.

Meanwhile, slaughter opponents sent 10 pickup trucks pulling empty horse trailers -- symbolizing animals gone to slaughter -- from New Hampshire to Washington.

They also requested that the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia issue a temporary restraining order preventing the fee-for-service program, arguing that it was the intent of Congress to stop horse slaughter.

The court has yet to take any action.

"We are sitting around anxiously awaiting a decision from the judge," said Chris Heyde, a lobbyist with the Society for Animal Protective Legislation. "We are obviously disappointed by the USDA's action. The language was clear. But the amendment also was not the ultimate goal. It would have stopped horse slaughter only a short time."

Anti-horse slaughter activists have long enjoyed the support of such animal-welfare groups as the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Protection of Animals, and have garnered publicity by enlisting such celebrities as Bo Derek, Whoopi Goldberg, Morgan Freeman, Viggo Mortensen and Mira Sorvino.

But in the past month, the three outgunned horse-meat suppliers have ratcheted up their low-key lobbying effort, hiring former Rep. Charles Stenholm, a Texas Democrat had been a powerful member of the House Agriculture Committee, and signing on a Washington-based public-relations and lobbying firm, SciWords.

"Many horse owners absolutely oppose horse slaughter," Stenholm said. "And I agree with them -- on their horse. The fundamental issue involved is that the horse owner makes the choice. It's always been a property-rights issue."

...it remains to be seen whether a leap can be made from mice with knocked-out genes to therapies for humans. In the past, discoveries that looked promising in rodents have often failed in human patients.

succumb to Alzheimer's disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and countless other conditions... *snip* As many as 25 million mice are now used in experiments each year.

Plans were unveiled Friday detailing a 3.5-acre exhibit that include a lush forest, bathing waterholes and a “behind the scenes” view of elephant quarters. A viewing area is also planned from a variety of distances, from vistas overlooking the enclosure to a barrier-protected area that will provide up-close views.

The project will cost a total of $39 million, funded from private donations, bonds approved under Propositions A and CC, the city’s General Fund and the Municipal Improvement Corp. of Los Angeles.

The new elephant oasis will replace a 2-acre, $19 million elephant exhibit that was previously proposed. The Elephants of Surin habitat had called for providing a spacious, natural and enriching environment for the zoo’s elephants.

When the sweet-natured orange cat wandered into Willard's life, the solution became clear.

"It's an unbelievable match," Willard said. "This has worked out a lot better than I expected it to. She's got brighter eyes now. He's brought a lot of light to her."

Zookeepers named the cat, T.K. - short for "Tondalayo's Kitty."

They play together, cuddle and sleep together each night. They have been together constantly for more than a month.

"He's perked up Tonda more than anything," Willard said.

Think of it as a boarding school for pandas: a place where 16 cubs live, eat and play together, all in the name of science and efforts to save the species from extinction.

The school is actually a research center that recently opened in Sichuan province, and China’s Central Television on Friday aired video of the giant panda cubs playing — and even doing face plants — on slides and other playground equipment.

Separated from their mothers soon after birth, the 16 cubs are between five and seven months old, the network reported.

Pandas are notoriously difficult breeders and Chinese scientists have tried nearly everything to increase the population in captivity, including showing films of other pandas mating.

Some 1,600 pandas are estimated to be left in the wild in China, but the animal remains endangered because its scattered habitat makes breeding difficult for the notoriously reclusive animal.

The pandas’ habitat of bamboo forests has also seen heavy clearing for agriculture, timber and firewood, and pandas are even illegally hunted for their pelts.

Giant pandas are classified as bears, which are carnivores, but they have adapted to a vegetarian diet and depend almost exclusively on bamboo, eating up to 100 pounds a day.

Should Congress pass the law, an illegal dogfight that occurred in Decatur and involved a dog from Tennessee would become a federal case. Even though the offense occurred in Alabama, federal officials could expand the investigation to Tennessee and even go after whoever originally sold the fighting dog.

"So it really gives law enforcement the ability to hit these guys broadly and really dismantle these networks of animal fighters," Goodwin said.

Sgt. Rick Archer, head of the Decatur police homicide/robbery unit, said the department plans to follow up the dozens of tips he's received about dogfighting, and he would welcome federal help.

It would give local law enforcement agencies more personnel to track a case, as well as special support, such as helicopter surveillance, he said.

"People talk about cruelty to racehorses in England and Ireland, but they'd soon understand what cruelty really was if they came here," Culloty said. "I saw one horse who worked seven days a week with this ancient harness which had nails underneath and was cutting into open wounds on his back. He looked like he was 30 and on his last legs, but he was only a young horse.

"In nearly all yards [in England and Ireland] horses are looked after better than the people. They do a bit of exercise every morning and they do the odd 10 minutes of work at the racecourse. Fair enough, that's hard work, but they're fit, they're trained for it and they're prepared. If they get an injury they get the very best of treatment. And, nowadays, most of them are found a good home afterwards and they're spoiled rotten. Over here, if an animal gets a career-ending injury he is not even put out of his misery. They let him go on the streets to starve and die a slow, painful death.

"People say the bears were innocent, but this wasn't punishment for them," said Julia Dixon, a spokeswoman for the game department, one of several agencies participating in a three-hour meeting that resulted in the decision to kill the bears. "It was a set of circumstances that triggered . . . a no-win situation."

But residents and the mayor have been unforgiving.

"Our job is to protect them," Wilder said in an interview. "It's the same horror you have if someone says to an urchin on the street, 'Let me take you home, adopt you, keep you -- and then beat you, abuse you and kill you.' "

The government is to ban certain wild animals from performing in travelling circuses, Animal Health Minister Ben Bradshaw has announced.

He said the use of some animals in circuses was "not compatible" with their welfare needs.

The minister says the ban will apply to "travelling circuses" only and not performances in static circuses or zoos.

The government plans to discuss the ban with the industry, welfare organisations and other government departments before throwing it open to public consultation.

impose fines of up to £20,000 and prison sentences of up to 51 weeks for animal cruelty.

It will also allow RSPCA inspectors to intervene earlier when an animal is reported as suffering, and give people clear instructions on how to look after their pets.

The charity is optimistic that it can get a ban on tail docking in the bill.

People convicted of animal cruelty would face higher fines and more jail time under a bill approved by a Senate panel today.

The Senate Agriculture Committee approved the bill 6-0 minutes after Sen. Nan Rich, D-Sunrise, presented it (SB484).

''It's a living being,'' she said. ''Why would we allow abuse to any living creature?''

The bill would increase minimum fines from $2,500 to $4,000 and would create a minimum jail sentence of six months for people who torture or kill animals. Those who commit a second act of animal cruelty would face a minimum fine of $6,000 and at least 10 months in jail.

The bill also includes mandatory counseling and anger management training for offenders.

Rich proposed the bill last year, which passed through the Senate but stalled in the House. This year's bill now heads to another Senate committee, while a companion House bill is scheduled for hearings in three committees.

The Mississippi House voted 110-11 Tuesday to ban hog-dog rodeos, but only after a raucous debate that touched on drinking, hunting, illegal gambling and guys named Bubba.

Former Labour minister Chris Mullin called on the Ministry of Defence to introduce fake fur for the five guards regiments that use the historic headgear.

One 4,000-head Idaho factory farm is even owned and managed by the country's largest organic dairy marketer, Dean/Horizon. Another farm in California, with 10,000 cows split between its organic and conventional operation, also supplies Dean/Horizon.

But there's a rub.

Are dairy products still "organic" if the milk comes from a factory operation with 5,000 cows confined in a feed lot?

The debate over whether the Navy's use of sonar to detect submarines is harming whales and other sound-sensitive species is back again. This time the battleground is the waters off the southeastern United States, where the Navy hopes to establish a training area for sailors who need to practice their sonar skills in a shallow ocean environment. The plan has aroused justifiable concern not only from environmental groups, but also from the federal and state agencies responsible for protecting marine life. If these concerns cannot be allayed, the project should be denied a permit to proceed as now planned.

PETA contends that since the employees and can now live their lives high on the hog that they should use a little bit of their good fortune to make life a bit better for pigs, 'whose bodies have provided their livelihood,' according to PETA.

In a letter to the winners, PETA urges that 'a tiny fraction of their fortunes be used to care for one or more pigs that are rescued from a slaughterhouse or a 4-H project when kids realize that they can't give up their pet to the knife or to spread the word about PETA's undercover investigations of pig beatings and other instances of cruelty to pigs in factory farms and slaughterhouses.'

"The Powerball winners have the luxury of leaving their dirty work behind," says Bruce Friedrich, PETA's director of farmed-animal campaigns. "We hope that they will help pigs get a few more square feet of living space or be allowed to breathe fresh air and feel the sun on their backs for the first time in these animals' lives."

a study by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reveals that animals experience emotional responses to significant upheaval in their environment: 66% of dogs exhibited four or more behavioural changes after losing a pet companion.

One of the world's most splendid oases for wildlife, Kruger National Park is considering a plan to kill thousands of elephants that are destroying forestland, unleashing a domino effect on eco-systems and putting other species in jeopardy.

In the last decade the elephant population in Kruger has nearly doubled, with about 12,500 now roaming an area the size of Israel, far more than the 7,000 that park authorities estimate is the maximum capacity for the park of two million hectares (about five million acres).

For [Ian] Whyte[, a research manager and elephant specialist who has worked in Kruger for 36 years], there is no option but to reduce the number of elephants through culling, if the park on South Africa's northeastern border is to maintain its biodiversity.

"I don't know anybody who gets excited about killing elephants," said Whyte. "But is it better to do nothing and risk losing other species?"

Using helicopters, a team will swoop down on a herd with a marksman on board who will put down the matriarch with one shot to the head. The remaining elephants that will gather around the fallen matriarch or wander aimlessly nearby are easy targets for a fast kill.

Because elephants have such strong family bonds, park managers feel the most humane method is to kill an entire herd including calves in one quick cull rather than allow traumatised animals to survive.

Kruger also plans to sell the ivory tusks, hides and meat from the culled elephants.

The creation of “megaparks” – or cross-boundary/border parks – will allow a greater migration of elephant groups between parks and countries in Southern Africa. A series of conservation networks that include differing landscapes and conditions would restore a more natural balance to elephants and their relationship with the environment.

In August 2003, a friendly but homeless young basenji mix with pointy ears and melting eyes was given a lethal dose of gas at St. Louis's city animal shelter. For reasons that no one understands, the dog survived - although the other dogs in the gas chamber with him perished.

Stunned shelter workers offered the dog to Grim, who named him Quentin. The next morning, Quentin appeared on the Today Show. Adoption offers poured in from as far away as London and Tokyo. But Grim decided Quentin would stay with him and become a "spokesdog" for his unwanted brethren.

And so he has. Photogenic and poised, Quentin is a celebrity attracting broad audiences to whom Grim can recite facts he longs to make better known: In the US between 5 million and 12 million dogs and cats are euthanized yearly. Fewer than 1 in 3 animals in shelters find a new home. Adoption, spaying, and neutering of pets are the answer, say animal rights supporters.

Yet as grateful as Grim is for the wave of compassion that made Quentin a star, it's hard for him not to be bitter that almost none of Quentin's 700 would-be adopters were interested in other dogs

Grim is often asked why he dedicates his life to dogs when so many people suffer as well. His friends also fret that he has so little outside life (apart from a recent foray into ballroom dancing).

[snip]

Sometimes, he says, all he can offer a dog is a loving gesture - perhaps the only kindness it will ever know. This ability to even momentarily relieve suffering with love, says Grim, buoys him in ways he cannot explain.

A new study ... shows for the first time that chimpanzees understand when cooperation is needed and how to go about securing it effectively. And another study shows they might even be willing to cooperate without hope of reward.

Alicia Melis of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and her colleagues presented chimpanzees at a sanctuary in Uganda with a cooperative challenge. To reach a food tray from behind bars, a chimpanzee had to pull on two ends of a rope threaded through metal loops on the tray. If the chimpanzee simply pulled on one end, the rope would slip the loop. If, however, the chimpanzee unlocked the door to an adjacent room, released a fellow chimp, and cooperated with it to pull on both ends of the rope at the same time, both would be rewarded with the food on the tray.

"Not only did they need to know when they needed help, they had to go out and get it," Melis says. "Then they had to wait until their partner came in and pull on the rope at the same time. The chimps really had to understand why they needed their partner."

When the rope ends were placed close enough together that a single chimp could accomplish the task, the subjects rarely enlisted aid. But when they required help--and were given a choice between potential collaborators--the chimps quickly learned to choose partners better at cooperation.

Although this provides the first glimpse of cooperative understanding outside humanity--and raises the possibility that such abilities might have been present in our common ancestor more than six million years ago--it does not mean that chimpanzees can communicate about a shared goal, like human children. However, in the second study, led by Felix Warneken, also at the Max Planck Institute, three young chimpanzees helped their human minder reach for objects even without any hope of reward--just like human children as young as 18 months old. "This is the first experiment showing altruistic helping toward goals in any nonhuman primate," Warneken notes. "It's been claimed chimpanzees act mainly for their own ends, but in our experiment, there was no reward and they still helped."

"We're not looking to be bold, we're looking to be right," said Rep. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, who heads the House Judiciary Committee. "We are analyzing those things that have made it into the constitution that truly do not belong in such an organic, fundamental document."

Simmons has sent committee members a list of 22 items added to the constitution since 1968, ranging from declaring English the state's official language and limiting the size of fishing nets to reducing class size in public schools and banning smoking in enclosed work spaces. But the poster-porker for constitutional revision is the "animal cruelty amendment" that forbids confinement of pregnant pigs in small pens.

In the first week or two of the session that begins Tuesday, Simmons wants committee members to tell him which amendments they think are worth discussing - not necessarily repealing or altering, just debating. He said the committee might move some or all of the citizen-initiative amendments into the statutes and build a high fence around them, requiring a three-fifths or two-thirds vote to change them in the future.

Simmons' Senate counterpart, Republican Daniel Webster of Ocoee, said his committee has produced a draft of a new constitution that keeps everything that's in there now - except for the pregnant-pig amendment and 297 errors in grammar, capitalization, verb tense and archaic provisions that have been spiked by federal courts.

[snip]

"I don't care how you say it," said Simmons, a lawyer, "you are never going to convince me that pregnant pigs belong in the constitution."

Common Cause and many Democratic lawmakers have insisted that public initiative is the only way voters can force a recalcitrant Legislature to do things like banning indoor smoking or reducing public-school class size - while Republican lawmakers have argued that the petitions let special-interest groups saddle future generations with costly mandates like the now-repealed "bullet train" between major cities.

"Citizens need a way to influence the process," said Ashwell. "The whole system is bogged down with undue influence by corporate interests with unlimited resources that ordinary citizens don't have."

Members of the US House and Senate are sponsoring the "Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act." It would toughen the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act by imposing penalties for veiled threats to individuals and families, economic disruption or damage, and "tertiary targeting."

plan to crack down on pit bulls and Rottweilers — aimed at reducing the number of dog attacks — has mushroomed into a far more sweeping proposal that would require the spaying or neutering of most dogs in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

About 1 million residents could be affected by the ordinance, which supervisors expect to revisit next month.

Other cities and counties around the nation are adopting similar measures, but few appear to be as broad as the one proposed by County Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

Although recent state legislation allows local governments to require spaying and neutering for some breeds, county animal control officials said they decided to push for a broader measure, in part because of complaints from pit bull and Rottweiler owners that it would be unfair to single out their dogs.

But officials also saw revising the proposed ordinance as an opportunity to help stem the daunting problem of pet overpopulation.

"We still get other dogs in. We get way too many," said Marcia Mayeda, director of the county Department of Animal Care and Control, who is working on the proposal. "There was a point to be made. Why not all breeds? Why don't we include everybody?"

Last year, Mayeda said, nearly 20,000 dogs were put to death in the county's overcrowded animal shelters.

The county charges $15 to license an altered dog and $30 for one that has not been spayed or neutered. Under the new proposal, which is still being drafted, a license for an unaltered dog could increase to $150.

Under the proposed measure, only dogs that were purebred, registered and equipped with an identifying microchip could remain unaltered. They also would need to pass health and temperament tests. Officials also would inspect the houses of the owners to ensure that the premises were suitable for breeding.

The export of live veal calves, which prompted mass protests at ports in the 1990s and led to the death of a woman under the wheels of a cattle lorry at Coventry airport, is likely to be approved this week.

A European Commission committee meeting in Brussels tomorrow is expected to allow British farmers to resume sending calves to be fattened on the Continent for veal. The trade was banned 10 years ago in the wake of the BSE crisis but not before it had become the focus of sustained public anger at the conditions endured by the animals.

“What can we do if bonobo meat is tasty?” Kanyamba said.

even some zoo professionals say zoos cannot care for elephants properly. In 2004, the Detroit Zoological Institute decided to send its two elephants, Wanda and Winky, to a California sanctuary.

The pair's 1-acre elephant exhibit had been remodeled a few years before and exceeded the new standards. And zoo officials spent months studying a new master plan that included additional expansion of the elephant exhibit, making it four or five times larger.

But after consulting with experts, zoo officials announced that they didn't believe they could provide "the necessary social and physical environment for elephants." Wanda and Winky needed a minimum of 10 acres "in a warm climate with a number of other elephants," officials concluded

For most zoo professionals ... banning elephants is not the solution. Expanding exhibits and creating breeding programs, zoo officials argue, is essential to ensuring the animals' survival in the wild, where elephants face a continuing loss of habitat. Captive elephants are "ambassador animals," they say, inspiring people to care about an animal few will ever see in the wild.

"What is natural behavior?" he asked, suggesting that a zoo could simulate life in the wild by increasing the animal's parasite load, pairing them with predators and making them "compete with farmers for their crops ... and shoot them when they raid their villages."

Zoo professionals and the activists agree on one thing: By [midcentury], zoos will have evolved substantially.

"Standards are going to continue to rise as we learn more," said Mark Reed, executive director of the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas, who heads the zoo association's elephant task force. "It's our moral and ethical obligation to meet all those."

Caninus have a message: 'Animal rights, vegetarianism, veganism, and trying to spread the word about adopting homeless animals,' said Brannan. 'The whole purpose of the band is to spread those messages, because Budgie and Basil are adopted, rescued dogs.'

The whole idea behind Caninus was giving people what the band's members assume people really want. 'All these death-metal bands have dudes that are trying to sound like animals, so we figured we'd give people the real deal,' Brannan said. 'So instead of having some dude living in his parents' basement, growing out his hair, trying to growl like a rabid pit bull, we give you the real deal. The music is for real, and we're all fans of death metal and grindcore. We're not poking fun at it -- it's all in good fun. And the dogs are the stars. We're the anonymous, disposable human beings.'

Elizabeth Matthews, a spokeswoman for the Premier, said Mr. Williams will tape his appearance from St. John's Friday afternoon.

Ms. Matthews says the Premier's goal is to educate people about the seal hunt and counter a campaign of misinformation by well-funded groups that have a ”huge communications machinery."

Bestiality will become a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Because the Enumclaw case involved filming the sex acts, the measure also says that anyone videotaping could be convicted under animal-cruelty laws. People who allow bestiality on their property also could face prosecution.

The measure also says that anyone caught having sex with an animal also could be restricted from owning animals and required to undergo counseling.

A federal jury on Thursday convicted an animal rights group and six of its members of inciting violence and terror during their ongoing campaign to shutter a company that uses animals to test drugs and consumer products.

[snip]

The six-count indictment charged SHAC and its members with animal enterprise terrorism, which carries up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Counts two through five charge SHAC and three of its members with conspiracy to engage in interstate stalking, which carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and three counts of interstate stalking, which carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count. Count six, telephone harassment, is charged against SHAC and four members, and carries up to two years in prison.

Experimental animals cannot merely be seen as collateral damage in the quest for knowledge. Questions from animal rights activists should not be instinctively regarded as attacks on science; rather, scientists need to step up to the challenge and hold themselves to a higher level of scrutiny and accountability.

"Using anesthesia to facilitate filming has been prohibited since 1997 after causing several animal deaths during a production," said Karen Rosa of the AHA. "Regardless of how it's administered, anesthesia endangers an animal's life and health. That's why we require production companies to find alternatives – like humane training or digital enhancement – that create the same effect without jeopardizing the animal's safety."

Carnism is the word I began using several years ago to denote the ideology of meat consumption. Ideologies are social belief systems that have enormous power to shape people's attitudes and behaviors. Ideologies are often so embedded in society that their influence is mostly unconscious-and therefore unquestioned. Typically, ideologies are only recognized when are an exception to the "normal" way of thinking (what we call the "dominant ideology"). This is why there is a name, vegetarianism, for the ideology that considers the consumption of other animals inappropriate or unethical. The dominant ideology in our society maintains that eating other animals is normal and even necessary. However, there is no name for this ideology. We therefore tend to view eating animals not as a choice, but as a given. This way of thinking makes society view the consumption of animals as normal, natural, and legitimate.

Ideologies can hide contradictions between people's behaviors and their values. They allow people to make exceptions to what they would normally consider ethical, without even realizing it. This is how we can understand carnism. If we consider carnism to be an ideology, then we can explain why it is possible to love some animals and eat others. We have been so socialized to believe in the legitimacy and necessity of carnism that most people do not even think of their meat as having once been an animal. Indeed, most people begin eating meat before they can even talk, and the process of maintaining the invisibility of the animals who become food continues for the rest of our lives.

The carnism concept puts modern meat-eating in a proper perspective: it's an arbitrary, malleable, and ultimately replaceable norm. To my mind, carnism goes even beyond a choice or ideology. To willingly cause pain, suffering, and death in other living beings even though it is unnecessary, and to make excuses for it, is an emotional disorder.

People who manage to disengage themselves from carnism can see plainly that the multitude of reasons given for carnism are unconvincing, and sometimes bizarre—much in the way we shake our heads when listening to an addict's contorted justifications for his or her habit. But when everyone's doing something that from the outside is strange or immoral, on the inside it may have the illusion of being normal and acceptable. Ideologies are like enablers. They can enable cruelties such as slavery, exterminations, and factory farms to perpetuate. One day we'll look back in horror at the mass misery and slaughter of farm animals in horror. But for now the population is mostly trapped in present-day carnism, kept alive by advertising, inertia, government subsidies, profit, "myth-information" about happy farm animals, and fear: fear of confronting one's complicity in causing animals to be suffer and be killed; fear of switching from the comfortable and mainstream ideology to the new and relatively unknown, but ultimately most humane one.

As the Los Angeles Zoo looks at renovating its elephant exhibit, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, has authored a bill that would require zoos throughout California to expand their elephant habitats - potentially costing millions of dollars or forcing them to close.

Levine's bill would require zoos to maintain at least five acres for up to three elephants - with another half-acre for every additional elephant - a standard that exceeds current practice at most zoos in the state.

Some zoo officials say the standard is excessive and would even make it more difficult for zoo visitors to see the elephants.

But Levine and animal-rights groups argue most zoos provide insufficient space for the massive animals, which roam many miles every day in the wilds of Africa and Asia.

"It would be like keeping a human being in solitary confinement in perpetuity," Levine said. "These are social creatures and they need space. Yes, it would cost more, but you're talking about living, breathing beings that can feel pain."

If the space cannot be provided, he said, zoos should consider removing their elephant exhibits and releasing the animals to sanctuaries.

Chicago, for example, is considering a city ordinance to require 10 acres per elephant, while

San Francisco closed its elephant exhibit and sent its animals to a sanctuary.

Los Angeles Zoo director John Lewis called Levine's standard "excessive," saying it is more important to look at the habitat overall rather than simply quantify the amount of space.

"Particularly in a zoo situation, larger can be better for the animals, but at some point it becomes a problem for the visitors," Lewis said. "If your goal is to get that connection with the animals and all they see is a spot on the distant horizon, they don't quite get that."

Force-feeding ducks and geese to produce "foie gras" (translated from French as "fatty liver") may soon be illegal in Massachusetts. Legislation aimed at ending this inhumane practice, Senate Bill 498, was voted out of the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture on February 28th. The measure, introduced last year by Senator Susan Fargo, has garnered widespread support among humane organizations, restaurants, and even farmers.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - In the 1970s, there used to be about 1,300 beluga whales in Cook Inlet, delighting locals and tourists alike in the body of water around Anchorage. Last year, the number was estimated at just 278.

Why their numbers are dwindling has scientists puzzled — and scared. The National Marine Fisheries Service is embarking on a status review to determine if the belugas need the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act.

[snip]

One cataclysmic event — a large stranding in the inlet’s 20-foot tides, perhaps, or an oil spill or tsunami — could push the remaining whale population over the edge, said [Lloyd Lowry, a professor of marine mammals with the University of Alaska Fairbanks].

“Having a small population for a long time is very risky,” he said. “If the decline continues we are going to get to very critically low numbers soon.”

In contrast to the isolated belugas whales of Cook Inlet, belugas overall are thriving in Alaska, with at least 35,000 to 40,000 animals in four Arctic stocks.

[Brad Smith, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service] said the status review will be expanded this time. It will include a prediction at what point the inlet whales — considered a genetically distinct population — could go extinct. The last review was done about a decade ago and the data shows the decline.

“It certainly does not look encouraging,” Smith said.

Labels: endangered species, environment, whales, wildlife