Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Friday, September 30, 2011

First-Ever Conference to End Factory Farming

This sounds wonderful. It will be in Arlington, VA at the end of October. Someday, if it becomes an annual event, I hope I can go.

http://www.factoryfarmingconference.org/

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Activists Set Fire to Idaho Fur Store

I just don't support these tactics. I hate fur....it's disgusting. But burning a store just 1) makes us into terrorists, 2) does nothing to stop the trade, 3) probably won't even stop the store because they'll get insurance money and reopen and 4) only feeds into sympathy for the industry and the business owners.

JMHO.

Excerpted from Reuters....
Animal rights activists claimed responsibility on Monday for a fire that caused $100,000 in damage to a Boise-area store that sells fur coats and fireworks, authorities said.

No one was injured in the early morning blaze at Rocky Mountain Fur & Fireworks, a retailer in Caldwell, Idaho, about 30 miles northwest of the state capital.

The North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which says it conveys messages for unnamed animal advocates, distributed a statement from a group calling itself the "arson unit" that said it set fire to a store stocked with "chemically treated skins of thousands of tortured animals".

"By oppressing innocent life, you've lost your rights. We've come to take you down a notch. Stay in business and we'll be back," the unit said.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Suit Filed Over Cows Killed to Drive Up Milk Prices

If the dairy companies were doing this, well, that's cold!

Excerpted from the Seattle P-I....
A Seattle law firm is taking on dairies, claiming that a price-fixing scheme has consumers paying too much for milk.

The class-action lawsuit accuses companies of slaughtering thousands of cows just to decrease supply.

Animal rights group Compassion Over Killing was the first to uncover the alleged systematic slaughter of healthy dairy cows in California. The group turned to Seattle attorney Steve Berman, who filed the suit claiming more than half a million U.S. dairy cows were slaughtered over seven years to artificially reduce the supply of milk and drive up prices.

"The cooperatives got together and instituted what we'll call a killing program; they retired cows," he said. Berman said the milk producers called it "dairy herd retirement", but he insists it was a way to cheat consumers and line their own pockets.

"Using their own numbers, we calculated conservatively that (they) raised the price of milk over a seven-year period by $10 billion," Berman said.

Berman said all milk products - everything from cheese to butter - got more expensive. His firm sued Cooperatives Working Together, its members are dairy companies and trade groups.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Quebec to Review Puppy Mill Laws

The fallout from the huge puppy mill seizure is fueling calls for a review of Quebec's animal rights laws, which are abysmal even for Canada. It's unbelievable that the maximum penalty would be $1,200 if convicted.

Exerpted from CTV News...
Animal welfare workers are calling for stricter laws on breeding facilities after more than 500 allegedly malnourished dogs were seized from a Quebec puppy farm last week.

The dogs were confiscated from Paws "R" Us Kennel in Clarendon Township, about 90 minutes northwest of Ottawa. The raid might represent the largest puppy seizure in Canada.

Under Quebec law, the kennel owners could face a maximum penalty of only $1,200 if convicted of animal cruelty — a penalty that some animal rights advocates say is too lenient.

"You need to reopen the law to change the fines," said a representative from an animal welfare group.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Huge Dog Seizure at Quebec Kennel

This is huge.

Excerpt from the Vancouver Sun....
One of the largest animal rescue operations in Canadian history just got a lot bigger: about 90 puppies have been born since hundreds of dogs were seized northwest of Ottawa.

"We have a lot of puppies here and a lot more puppies coming," said Rebecca Aldworth, the executive director of Humane Society International Canada.

More than 500 dogs were removed from the Paws 'R' Us kennel in Clarendon Township, Que., about 90 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, during the weekend seizure, which was carried out by Humane Society International Canada, Quebec's agriculture and fisheries ministry and area police. The dogs were taken to an emergency shelter in Lachute, about 115 kilometres east of Ottawa.

The dogs will remain there until a custody hearing determines whether they will be returned to the owner of the kennel or placed under the care of the province.

If custody goes to the province, Aldworth said, the humane society will put the dogs up for adoption, regardless of whether the owner is charged or not.

The owner of the kennel has maintained she was targeted by animal rights activists and that inspectors found only trivial violations.

Aldworth said about 100 dogs received critical veterinary care, but could not say how many were expected to survive or suffer long-term health problems. She said the humane society has already received calls from people wanting to adopt from all over Canada.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Bull Gets Gored to Death in Spanish Festival

I've read some pretty disgusting stuff in writing this blog, but this just pisses me off. As a Portuguese-American, I hate bullfights...and they even have the stupid things in California.

Townspeople in Tordesillas spear a bull to death in some festival tradition dating back to medieval times. It's a "cultural asset." Disgusting.

Excerpted from the Montreal Gazette....
Lance-wielding Spanish townspeople speared a huge fighting bull to the death Tuesday, defying a lone protester who sprayed some of them with an irritant.

Hundreds of people, many on horseback, turned out for the combat with a 608-kilogram (1,338-pound) black bull named Afligido — Spanish for Sorrowful — in the centuries-old "Toro de la Vega" festival.

The massive beast charged through the fortified town of Tordesillas, central Spain, crossing a bridge over the River Duero and into a plain in a tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages.

Before the lancing began, a female protester sprayed an irritant at some of those taking part before being taken away by police, a witness to the event said.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Seal Industry Tries to Capitalize on Medical Researchers Conjectures

While I'm not a fan of using animal hearts for transplants, I'm far more sympathetic to that than to simply using their parts for human vanity consumption. But the seal industry doesn't care. They'll exploit anything to try to save their barbaric trade and, if they can use guilt, even better.

Excerpted from the Chronicle-Herald...
Dr. Philippe Pibarot has been studying seal heart valves to see if they might be a better transplant option for humans than those from cows or pigs, believing they may be more durable than the other animal tissue.

The research at Laval University is still in the earliest stages. Pibarot has yet to begin collecting data through testing rodents and he says that a clinical trial in humans is hypothetical at this point - at least a decade of positive results and funding would have to be established first.

Despite that, a Quebec-based seal fur company has begun championing Pibarot's hypothesis, seeing the research as a buoy for Canada's beleaguered seal harvest.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Commissioned Study Shows Namibian Seals Worth More Alive than Dead

Seal tourism brings in more revenue for the African country than the seal hunt. These are the results of a study commissioned by Bont voor Dieren (BvD), Humane Society International (HSI), Respect for Animals (RFA) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), and produced by the Australia-based independent economics consultancy Economists at Large.

Excerpted from PR Newswire...
"Each year, up to 85,000 seals are killed in Namibia to make just a few dollars from their furs, when they would be worth so much more to the Namibian economy alive," said Claire Bass, WSPA International Oceans Campaign Leader. "Eco-tourism is a growing part of Namibia's identity, but tourists will be shocked to learn that a seal they photograph one day may be clubbed to death the next morning. There is a clear economic case for the government to protect these animals."

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Mexican Border Town Offers Tax Exemption for Euthanizing Dogs

There's a stray dog problem in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. The solution? If you bring in the dog for euthanization, you get a tax exemption...hooray!

Sarcasm there of course. Clearly, there's no spay/neuter program in this place. But there are animal rights activists in Mexico that will hopefully take notice and try to establish some kind of long-term and humane solution.

From Latino Fox News...
Mexican border town has a big dog problem, and it’s not sure what to do about it.

There are about 70,000 stray dogs roaming San Luis Rio Colorado in northern Mexico. That’s one dog for every two inhabitants, according to the BBC.

The town has become so overrun with dogs, that the government began offering a tax exemption of $17 per stray that was offered for euthanasia.

That move prompted an uproar in northern Mexico after animal rights groups argued the government was barking up the wrong tree, and they demanded the town stop what they called unnecessary “dog killings.” Activists said what the government was doing qualified as “animal torture,” and they called for legislative reform.
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