This blog was created to try to make people aware of the cruelty to animals around the world.
Animals can be extraordinary living beings, and humans we should learn from them.
As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap the joy of love. (Leonardo Da Vinci)
Macabre range of collectible toys as dark as the inside of a heifer. And they all have one thing in common. They’ve been run over. they are called Squash-Plush.
Bombay exiles its meat eaters Amrit Dhillon, Bombay
RICH vegetarians in Bombay are turning sections of their city into meat-free zones — to the indignation of meat eaters barred from living there. Housing complexes and whole neighbourhoods in India’s most cosmopolitan city are going vegetarian. Even on Malabar Hill, where foreigners and Indian millionaires live in mansions, some shops owners refuse to stock meat products.
Bollywood stars also risk being drawn into the row. Mahima Choudhury, the actress who is such a staunch vegetarian she has done free promotions for the campaigning group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is appalled at the idea of banning meat eaters from flats.
“I think people should live in harmony whatever their beliefs,” she said last week. “I don’t agree with meat eaters being kept out of apartment blocks because vegetarians don’t want the smell of meat. You can’t impose your views on other people.”
Leading the stealthy enforcement of the meat fatwa are businessmen -diamond merchants, traders, industrialists and clothing exporters. Many are from Gujarat, where vegetarianism is common, or are Jains, vegans who do not even eat root vegetables such as onions, garlic and potatoes.
For a long stretch of Marine Drive — Bombay’s Champs Elysées — there are no restaurants serving meat, fish or eggs. Even Pizza Hut has gone vegetarian. This is not enough for the more radical vegetarians, however, who insist on the right to live among their kind.
Two years ago Jati Chedda, 32, moved into Ramkrupa Flats in south Bombay with her husband and was relieved to find the occupants of the 120 flats were all vegetarians.
“We detest the smell of meat being cooked,” she said. “Even omelettes give off a disgusting aroma. My relatives would avoid coming to my house if my neighbours were non-vegetarian.”
Bhavesh Shah, a shopkeeper and a Jain, has thrown a cordon sanitaire around his housing complex in Breach Candy. “Our housing society asks new tenants to sign a declaration,” he said. “If they’re found cooking meat, they’re thrown out.”
The Supreme Court has ruled that people who want to live in a community of “like-minded” people can prevent outsiders moving in.
Sanjay Narang, a hotelier, was forced to close his restaurant after residents of the nearby vegetarian building spat at customers from balconies, threw nails at them and scratched their cars. They were particularly affronted that it was close to a Jain temple. “What they did was completely against Bombay’s live and let live ethos,” said Narang.
The only support for meat eaters comes from the regional Hindu nationalist party, the Shiv Sena. Hostile to Indians moving from other regions, it is indignant that “Bombay wallahs” who eat meat are being excluded from buildings by the Gujarati vegetarians.
Last year a Shiv Sena group stormed vegetarian buildings demanding admission for meat eaters armed with Bombay duck, a strong-smelling dried fish. “People are free to choose their own lifestyle but imposing it on your neighbours is wrong,” said Subhash Desai, a party spokesman.
On April the 9th 2007, activists entered and filmed video footage showing the conditions that battery hens at Pitt's Poultry farm experience. During the filming they discover a live chicken in a pile of chicken corpses.
A little duck jumps in his mother's back to cross the river.
The goosander chick, who is only two or three weeks old, gingerly hopped on her back and sat there, secure and contented, for the arduous paddle upstream.
"When they got tired, they all climbed on the back of their mother." said photographer Nick Leslie on the River Dart in Devon.
A couple who used their pet ferrets as bowling balls. They then posted the video on Youtube to make people laugh. (video has been removed from the website)
The sickening video shows Andy Thomas, a YMCA employee, and a female colleague hurling the creatures across the floor to knock over improvised skittles.
But Kath Airey, from the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), said: 'It's basically adults using animals as a toy. I certainly would not like to be thrown across the floor like a bowling ball.'
This video is not the one concerning the article but shows a similar act:
A conservation group monitoring the annual seal hunt said armed Canadian Coast Guard officers boarded their vessel the Farley Mowat in the Gulf of St. Lawrence Saturday. Paul Watson, who heads the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said coast guard officers stormed the vessel at 11 a.m. local time. Watson received a call from Albertan Shannon Mann, 35, the onboard communications officer for the protest ship. [...]
[...] "Today's action will help ensure the safe and orderly conduct of the seal hunt." said Hearn. "We will continue to protect sealers while ensuring the sustainable and humane management of the hunt so it continues to provide economic opportunities for Canada's coastal communities in the future."
A sheep-shearing competition which has been the centre of rural life for years has been scrapped over concerns the clippers may harm the sheep. Farmers today blasted animal welfare activists who claimed the animals were being hurt by the electric clippers which nip them during the shearing.
Shearers from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand flock to the annual Kent contest in a bid to become the fastest to shear an animal.
This tiny little chick cheated death and narrowly escaped becoming bird feed when he survived the gas chamber.
Like the 14,500 other male chicks in his crate, Lucky was destined to lose his life.
An estimated 30 million cockerels like Lucky are killed every year in the poultry industry because they cannot lay eggs and do not produce as much meat as female birds.
Almost 12,000 grey squirrels have been killed in Northumberland in an effort to save the red squirrel.
New figures reveal that two-thirds of the county's grey population, which spread a lethal pox virus, have been culled with government backing.
UK native red squirrels are dying out because they cannot compete against the larger grey populations.
"Some people believe it is impossible to control the spread of grey squirrels, but we have proved it can be done, and reasonably cheaply" Lord Redesdale
OTTAWA - The latest version of proposed legislation to combat cruelty to animals by increasing fines and jail time for convicted abusers won easy final approval in the Commons on Wednesday, marking a major breakthrough after a decade of political gridlock over the issue.
The legislation - a private member's bill proposed by Liberal Senator John Bryden - would increase the maximum penalties for animal cruelty to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000, up from the current six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. It now needs only royal assent to become law.
The bill's approval prompted no joy among animal rights' activists. "It's disappointing. It shows that MPs are not listening to their constituents," said Kim Elmslie of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Elmslie said her group and others opposed the bill because its narrow focus on penalties is of little value considering less than one per cent of animal abuse investigations result in conviction. Sheila MacDonald, program director for the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, denounced it as "19th century legislation adjusted for inflation."
Nowadays, agricultural scientists learn about the digestive system of cattle by putting holes in cows - and the cows stay alive and well. These cows (fitted with a sealing cover called a "cannula") each have a hole into their stomach. Through this hole one can extract food caught mid-stream through the digestive system.
Fistulated cows are used to research the digestibility of different foodstuffs for cattle. One can feed the cow, then later catch the food while it's digesting to see how it's doing. Without fistulated cows, one would have to look at external factors in order to garner information about the best food for cows - none of which are as accurate as food sampled right from the stomach. Since cattle is such an important part of life (for milk and beef), it is important to feed them well.
In many villages and towns in Spain they organise Fiesta's (feast) to honour the name day of a certain Saint (like the fiesta held in honour of San Fermin in Pamplona). In many of these Fiesta's the released bulls are chased in the streets by a crowd with sticks, whips and knifes. Ones the bull is surrounded by the villagers, it is tortured, most of the time until death. Legs are broken, the very sensitive horns are hit off, tails are ripped off etc.
Here are some of the "Fiesta":
"Toros de Fuego" (Fire Bulls) held in Medinacelli (Soria)
This particular savagery consists in putting a kind of ball of pitch on both the horns of the bulls and setting fire to the balls (sometimes fireworks are used). The bulls are then released on the streets. These balls burn for hours, burning the horns, body and eyes, causing terrible suffering. Several times the bulls try to kill themselves against walls, due to the horrible pain.
"Toros Enmaromado" (Bull with ropes) held in Benavente (Zamora)
The bull is bound with ropes and dragged all over the village till he dies of exhaustion or by the cutting of his throat.
"El toro de Vega" (Bull of Vega)
This so called popular fiesta consists in chasing a bull with spears all over the village sticking them into his body until his death. Since the crowd think that the torture is not enough, they cut off his testicles while he is still alive.
"El toro de Coria" (Bull of Coria)
The bull walks and runs for hours in the streets while people throw darts at him. The men are aiming for the more sensitive parts of it's body like the nose, eyes and testicles. When he is too tired and weak from loss of blood to continue the escape, the villagers cut off his testicles while he is still alive.
The bullfight organisers in Spain, Portugal and France say that it is a noble and beautiful way for the bull to die in an arena. They say it is an art and that it is beautiful for the "respected, loved and privileged" bull to die while the crowd is cheering and applauding!
BEFORE THE BULL ENTERS THE ARENA:
-give the bulls very salty water before the game to weaken them with diarrhoea. -cut up the horns very carefully (not to show) to the nerve so that the bull loses it's coordination during the game. -put prickly glycerine into the eyes. -give him drugs to keep it calm. -give him, if he is too calm, electric shocks to it's testicles. -hit him very hard on the kidneys to weaken him (bags with sand are used, they don't leave any scars) before the game. -keep the bulls for hours in boxes in full sun where they only can stand before the game. -Then in the arena the bull is sadistically tortured to death with spears that cut like razors, hooks, sword and harpoons.
It's common that the horses used during a bullfight get deeply wounded by the horns of the bulls, loosing their intestines and consequently dying. The horses, by nature are very frightened of the bulls, scream, so the vocal cords of these horses are cut, because the crowd doesn't want to hear the horse scream. It does happen that the horse which has been ripped open by the bull, is stitched up without anaesthetics and put back in the arena for the next fight.
The breeders of the special bulls used for bullfights get subsidies from the European Union. Many of the European citizens don't know this is happening.
text from Animal Frontline (http://www.animalfrontline.nl)
A "targeted cull" of badgers has been announced as part of a plan in Wales to eradicate tuberculosis in cattle.
The Welsh Assembly Government's plan includes a one-off test of all cattle and a review of the compensation system, rural affairs minister Elin Jones announced.
Wales' chief veterinary officer said bovine TB was out of control and the current policy was not working.
In a briefing on Tuesday, Christianne Glossop said incidents had increased dramatically over the last decade.
Compensation payments to farmers have risen from £1.3m in 1999-2000 to £15.2m in 2007-2008.
'Protected species' Farmers have long blamed badgers for spreading bovine TB but animal groups say evidence does not support this.
Two men died in Castilla y León (Spain) due to cow disease. The dead bodies of a 41 and 50 year-old men were found in December 2007 and January 2008 but they haven't been reported until now.
The last case in Spain was in 2005 when a 26 year-old women died due to mad cow disease.
POSTURA OFICIAL DE LA AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSOCIATION (ADA) RESPECTO A LA DIETA VEGETARIANA
"Las dietas veganas y ovo-lacto-vegetarianas son apropiadas para todas las etapas del ciclo vital, incluyendo el embarazo y la lactancia. Las dietas veganas y ovo-lacto-vegetarianas adecuadamente planificadas satisfacen las necesidades nutritivas de los bebés, los niños y los adolescentes y promueven un crecimiento normal." ADA.
"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men".
Alice Walker
"Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character; and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man."
Arthur Schopenhauer
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.