Whale Wars on Animal Planet -

Earthlings (Documentary)

Earthlings (with music by Moby) is a very beautiful, honest and graphic documentary about the connection between people, animals and nature. With bare bones visual examples they show how the three effect one another. It was narrated by Joaquin Phoenix who is a big animal rights person himself. If you decide to see the film please be advised there are many scenes of graphic violence that some will find very upsetting. You are given an inside look into the lives of farm animals and working animals. But there is "no" violence in the following trailer.

How can you help Canada's Baby Seals? Boycott Canadian Seafood...

The following video is cute and not graphic.







The Humane Society offers very detailed documentation of the Canadian Seal hunts and please click the following links if you'd like to learn more or try and help stop the Canadian seal hunts.

With the world spotlight on China for the Olympics let's look at life for Chinese animals...

China is undergoing one of the most rapid industrial transformations of any country in history. It is said that China is presently building 1,000 cities, each equivalent in size to larger American cities. Hopefully with the thirst for Capitalism will come a greater love for companion animals and interest for animal welfare in general. What the recent Chinese dog cull (immediate and brutal killing of dogs due to rabies outbreak) perfectly exemplified was a country of clashing morals and ideals. It was easy to find images of Chinese military persons beating dogs to death during the rabies cull but the media gave us few images of the many dog owners crying for their beloved dogs. This harrowing event also brought to light the lack of education and infrastructure for animal welfare in China (like the simplicity of vaccinating puppies for rabies).

China is a clash of old vs. new. The older, more traditional forms of Chinese medicine sometimes call for bizarre animal materials and torturous means of extracting those materials. The famous Black Moon Bears (pictured below) are renowned for being caged for life in tiny cages and having bile extracted from their stomachs. The role this bile plays in Chinese medicine could easily be replaced by natural herbs. While Chinese animal welfare laws are painfully limited for all animals, the Moon Bears might be the closest thing to the abuses you will find with American Veal / Gestation Crates and French Foie Gras. I look at these farming "techniques" as constructive madness. If you're going to start some universal standard of morality for animal welfare then outlawing these farming "techniques" would be a good start (along with promoting the benefits of companion animals). I invite you to support a charity that both saves Black Moon Bears from lives of imprisonment and also promotes the benefits of companion animals in Asia (click to view the Animals Asia website).

Chinese Monkeys who will be used for lab testing -

Buy animal friendly and cruelty free products! View some our resources on animal friendly products or you can click the following link to view the cruelty free website...

The Simpsons on cruelty free food -

Lisa: "Do we have any food that wasn't brutally slaughtered?"

Homer: "Well, I think the veal died of loneliness."

~Matt Groening, The Simpsons

Therapy Pets -

Race Horses - Running for their Lives

HBO has been providing strong coverage of animal cruelty issues with the Real Sports spotlight on dog fighting, the HBO documentary "I am an Animal" (the story of the founder of Peta), and most recently the Real Sports segment on the loophole that some of have found in the recently passed US horse slaughter ban. The legislation passed in late 2007 was to end the slaughter of US horses for foreign consumption in Italy and Japan. Not to be outdone those in the horse meat trade have started to ship horses across the borders to Mexico and Canada to be slaughtered.

What horses are being slaughtered: Horses who are not winners or used to be but are now losing.

Why are they being sold for slaughter: Because they are losing the owners money.

Profit they make to sell the horses over cost of euthanizing them: Very little

Problems with animal export: Many countries who import livestock animals do not have the proper / humane means to slaughter the animals. Also animal export is extremely traumatic on animals and some do not even survive the trip.

As a horse rescuer who used to work in the racing industry said, "seven days from stable to table," is the term for horses who don't win.

You can view the story on the recent HBO Real Sports episode or possibly on HBO on demand.

The Animal Welfare Movement (a letter to the editor of the New York Times)

Do Animals Belong in the Lab?

To the Editor:

The animal rights movement is often mischaracterized as a fringe movement, populated only by those who speak through unsigned threats or property damage and violence (front page, July 23). But most animal-rights supporters seek redress within the law and mainstream political channels.

We are lawyers and doctors, students and parents, former cattle ranchers and even a metal worker from the Bronx. To focus on the actions of radicals within any movement is to serve its opposing interests. - KATHLEEN EDDY

* click the following link to read some of our animal welfare posts (page1) and (page 2).

could the cheeseburger of the future come from a test tube? (part 2)

Meat produced in vitro (in the laboratory - outside the body) could be the way of the future and PETA has challenged researchers to come up with viable consumer meat produced in vitro...to the tune of 1 million dollars! I think this is an exciting idea and meat produced in this manner would be cleaner, let alone the horrors that farm animals would be spared from. I wouldn't start eating meat again but for those who do they would be able to in a guilt-free environment. It seems to work out on all sides.

I have long supported a company who does research on meat produced in vitro called New Harvest (view old blog post). Please click the following link if you'd like to view the New Harvest website.

Oprah Winfrey discusses Puppy Mills -

The gourmet dog market is rapidly growing and it's having disastrous effects. Puppy Mills are popping up all over the country to feed this urge to have a pedigree dog. But just like with industrial farming too many people are not searching out the facts of where their dogs are coming from. When it's time to get your next pet please adopt your pets. It is absolutely ridiculous to have dogs being sold for hundreds, even thousands of dollars, when millions of amazingly loyal, wonderful dogs are put to sleep yearly.

B Dealers - Dealing Dogs

B Dealers - Class B dealers are licensed by the USDA to buy animals from "random sources" (for the reason of SELLING THEM TO LABS TO BE TESTED ON). This refers to animals who were not purpose-bred or raised on the dealers' property. Animals from "random sources" come from auctions, pound seizure, newspaper ads, and a small number may be stolen pets or illegally trapped strays.

Around a year ago I watched a documentary on HBO called Dealing Dogs. It details an undercover operation by a brave young man who infiltrated a B Dealer and documented the abuses being committed (common abuses in this industry) in the B dealer kennel. Many of the animals at the kennel were stolen, lost, etc. Animals held by B Dealers are eventually sold to labs where cruel and usually lethal lab tests are performed on them. You can click the following link to learn more about the documentary Dealing Dogs and to view a trailer (on the top right of page you'll be taken to).

What is most upsetting to me about the B dealers is that the worst is yet to come for these poor little dogs. Their next home will be in a lab (maybe at Columbia University) to endure lab tests that are cruel, deadly and almost always un-necessary.

All investigations into labs likes these show the animals have no social interactions and do not receive necessary medical attention. You can click the following link to learn more about lab testing by companies.

What can you do? If you want to live a guilt free life and if you don't already, you need to care about the companies you support. Supporting a company who tortures monkeys to make you better cosmetics is not a guilt free lifestyle. Please click the following link to view some animal friendly products and you can also click this link to view companies who DO and DO NOT test their products on animals.

Downer Cows -

downer cow - A downer cow is a live cow that cannot walk. This state can be caused by disease or injury.

A Humane Society undercover investigation (investigation / video) has exposed severe abuses to downer cows that have helped lead to the largest beef recall in American history! The actual amount of beef recalled was 142 MILLION POUNDS - enough flesh to feed every American 2 burgers each.

Abuses to downer cows is a time old tradition on industrial farms. The only reason the media is even discussing this story is because some of the sickened cows flesh made it into the human food chain. Abuses to sick downer cows perfectly embodies the science fiction horror know as industrial farming. When you pack animals into tight little spaces, inject them with endless antibiotics and feed them milk mixed with their fellow cows own blood....well, you reap what you sow.

On industrial farms the assembly line of slaughtering cows never stops moving, not for cows who are being skinned or cut up alive nor apparently for sickly downer cows who should not be slaughtered for human consumption.

Until we as consumers care more about how our foods are being produced and only support companies who share our moral values....well, we will reap what we sow too.

It's what's for dinner -

image source:

"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity (guilt as an accomplice in a crime or offense)."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (on eating meat)