A UK Court of Appeals has found an 8 month sentence for convicted blackmailer Deborah Morrison to be too lenient. She has had her sentence extended to a period of 2 years.
The judges said the original sentence had been "unduly lenient".
Over five years Morrison sent dozens of emails and letters - some containing white powder - to individuals and companies which had, or used to have, connections with animal research organisations.
One firm she targeted had links with Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, which bred guinea pigs for research until January 2006.
In total Morrison pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted blackmail, three charges of interference with a contractual relationship so as to harm an animal research organisation, and two charges of attempting to interfere with contractual links to animal research organisations.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Does Mike Huckabee Eat Horsemeat Too?
Mike Huckabee is the gift that keeps on giving. If his alleged statement is true, I'd like to know if there ANYTHING or ANYONE this man won't eat!United Animal Nations(UAN) today asked presidential candidate and Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabeeto educate himself about horse slaughter and reconsider consuming a Dutch horsemeat dish, which he recently described as tasting "like chicken."
According to Washington Wire, a blog from The Wall Street Journal's Capital Bureau, Huckabee made the comment on December 21, 2007, when speaking with a group of reporters in eastern Iowa. The blog entry suggested that Huckabee was perhaps pandering to the Dutch Iowan vote when he mentioned several of his favorite Dutch foods, including one made from horsemeat.
Photo by lauren victoria burke.
UK Horses Also Slaughtered for Human Consumption
It's a dirty little secret in Britain that horses are being slaughtered there for human consumption. You won't find locations of horse slaughterhouses on the Food Standards Agency's web site, although slaughterhouses for other animals are identified....the Government refuses to advertise the location of horse abattoirs and...the abattoirs themselves are none to keen on publicising this particular speciality.
Whenever they have in the past, they have found themselves targeted by animal rights activists who have fought an aggressive campaign to have the trade outlawed....
Andrew Tyler, the director of Animal Aid, the country's largest animal rights group, claims that every year more than 2,000 unwanted racehorses are killed for meat in this way.
"The figures we have assembled suggest that there are 17,000 thoroughbreds born each year and only about 5,000 make it to race," he says.
Horses must be slaughtered in Britain because the live export of horses for meat is banned. This prevents them from suffering the transport conditions other animals are subjected to in Europe. However, the horsemeat export from the UK is growing.
We currently source about 5 per cent of our meat from Britain," a Paris horsemeat dealer told me. "This figure amounts to around 89 tons of meat a year, but it is growing.
"Imports from Belgium, South America, the U.S. and Canada are all strong, but Britain is catching up."
Photo by RainPacket.
Greenpeace Drives Whalers out of Antarctrica
According to Greenpeace, the factory ship Nisshin Maru has fled past 60 degrees latitude taking it out of Antarctic waters for now.Greenpeace have claimed to have driven Japan's controversial whaling fleet out of Antarctic hunting grounds after a dramatic, 24 hour chase through thick fog and rough seas.
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza located the six Japanese whalers on Saturday after 10 days of scouring the icy reaches of the Southern Ocean.
The environmental group plans to harass the fleet and disrupt its plan to kill nearly 1,000 minke and fin whales by placing volunteers in inflatable boats between the whales and the whalers' harpoon guns.
After confronting the fleet, the Esperanza pursued the main factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, until it crossed the 60 degrees latitude boundary - the limit to southern whale hunting grounds.
According to Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd, they are not far behind as well.
Photo courtesy of Greenpeace
Saturday, January 12, 2008
News Video on Efforts to Stop Whaling
Al Jazeera English has their own channel on Youtube. It's worth subscribing to. They post excellent stories and programs every day with news you won't get elsewhere (at least in the US).
To our non-US readers, the nightly news here is about 22 minutes long when you take out the commercials. That leaves about 6 or 7 minutes of US and international news, with rest filled by breakthroughs in hemorrhoid research, buildings burning down and human interest stories. And unless there's an American involved, you can pretty much forget the "international" part. That helps to make ignorance the default setting on pretty much all the people that live here.
But enough of my media bashing rant. Watch the video.
To our non-US readers, the nightly news here is about 22 minutes long when you take out the commercials. That leaves about 6 or 7 minutes of US and international news, with rest filled by breakthroughs in hemorrhoid research, buildings burning down and human interest stories. And unless there's an American involved, you can pretty much forget the "international" part. That helps to make ignorance the default setting on pretty much all the people that live here.
But enough of my media bashing rant. Watch the video.
US Horses Inhumanely Slaughtered Across the Borders
On January 8, I posted about the rise of horse neglect in the United States. The second half of the post contained a quote bemoaning the loss of horse slaughterhouses in the United States.
I didn't agree with this sentiment, but now, a new article is making me rethink this opinion.
This article appears in the New York Times and talks about the inhumane conditions of horses slaughtered in Canada and Mexico.
Amid pressure from animal rights groups, horse slaughter virtually ended in the United States last year, as courts upheld state laws banning it in Texas and Illinois, home to the nation’s last three horse slaughterhouses.
But there have been unintended consequences, including more grueling travel for tens of thousands of horses now being sent to slaughter in Canada and Mexico, where, animal advocates say, they sometimes face more gruesome deaths....
The American slaughterhouses killed horses quickly by driving steel pins into their brains, a method the American Veterinary Medical Association considers humane. Workers in some Mexican plants, by contrast, disable them by stabbing them with knives to sever their spinal cords, said Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University.
“My worst nightmare has happened,” Dr. Grandin said. “This is an example of well-intentioned but very bad unintended consequences.”
Supporters of the ban on US slaughterhouses believe that horse owners should euthanize their animals humanely. Some opponents argue this is an expensive option because it could cost $140 or more to euthanize and disposs of the carcass. $140? How often have you spent less than $140 on a tune-up for your car? I have no sympathy for this lame argument.
But it concerns me that owners who refuse to euthanize these animals are making them suffer even more from inhumane slaughtering practices across the border. I don't want horses slaughtered for food, but if they have to be, I don't want them to suffer.
In the meantime, federal legislation that would forbid the sale and transport of horses for human consumption is awaiting action in both houses of Congress.
I didn't agree with this sentiment, but now, a new article is making me rethink this opinion.
This article appears in the New York Times and talks about the inhumane conditions of horses slaughtered in Canada and Mexico.
Amid pressure from animal rights groups, horse slaughter virtually ended in the United States last year, as courts upheld state laws banning it in Texas and Illinois, home to the nation’s last three horse slaughterhouses.
But there have been unintended consequences, including more grueling travel for tens of thousands of horses now being sent to slaughter in Canada and Mexico, where, animal advocates say, they sometimes face more gruesome deaths....
The American slaughterhouses killed horses quickly by driving steel pins into their brains, a method the American Veterinary Medical Association considers humane. Workers in some Mexican plants, by contrast, disable them by stabbing them with knives to sever their spinal cords, said Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University.
“My worst nightmare has happened,” Dr. Grandin said. “This is an example of well-intentioned but very bad unintended consequences.”
Supporters of the ban on US slaughterhouses believe that horse owners should euthanize their animals humanely. Some opponents argue this is an expensive option because it could cost $140 or more to euthanize and disposs of the carcass. $140? How often have you spent less than $140 on a tune-up for your car? I have no sympathy for this lame argument.
But it concerns me that owners who refuse to euthanize these animals are making them suffer even more from inhumane slaughtering practices across the border. I don't want horses slaughtered for food, but if they have to be, I don't want them to suffer.
In the meantime, federal legislation that would forbid the sale and transport of horses for human consumption is awaiting action in both houses of Congress.
Bush or Chimp?
An oldie but a goodie for those that can't wait for this embarrassment of a President to leave office. Happy Saturday!
Quote of the Week
God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages. ~Jacques Deval, Afin de vivre bel et bien
Pet Abuse Dot Com
This website is so damn depressing. I get a feed from them on my igoogle account. It's sooo hard to even read the headlines. But these people live this stuff. Whether you live in the US (which is the focus of their research), or in another country, remember the work that they do.
They are true heroes.
They are true heroes.
Supreme Court in India Bans Bull Fighting
Good for them.
The Supreme Court today refused permission to hold the over four-century-old 'Jallikattu' event or bull fight that attracts thousands of people during Pongal harvest festival in Tamil Nadu, saying it was "barbaric" and amounted to cruelty against animals.
"We cannot continue with such event if it is barbaric .... We cannot allow any event involving cruelty towards the animals," a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said, rejecting a plea by Tamil Nadu Government to vacate its July 27 stay on the event.
The Supreme Court today refused permission to hold the over four-century-old 'Jallikattu' event or bull fight that attracts thousands of people during Pongal harvest festival in Tamil Nadu, saying it was "barbaric" and amounted to cruelty against animals.
"We cannot continue with such event if it is barbaric .... We cannot allow any event involving cruelty towards the animals," a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said, rejecting a plea by Tamil Nadu Government to vacate its July 27 stay on the event.
70,000 Stray Dogs?
This according to the Mumbai government.
The city has 97,000 dogs of which 70,000 are stray, the city's civic body said today on the basis of an animal census carried out across the city.
The civic body which has been asked to house the dogs in shelters outside the city by the Bombay High Court, said that the census had found 27,000 dogs were pets.
The municipal commissioner had earlier said that the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai would approach the Supreme Court seeking to cull the stray dogs in the city.
Sounds like they plan on doing a serious dog killing.
The city has 97,000 dogs of which 70,000 are stray, the city's civic body said today on the basis of an animal census carried out across the city.
The civic body which has been asked to house the dogs in shelters outside the city by the Bombay High Court, said that the census had found 27,000 dogs were pets.
The municipal commissioner had earlier said that the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai would approach the Supreme Court seeking to cull the stray dogs in the city.
Sounds like they plan on doing a serious dog killing.
A Little Help For Wildlife
The Colorado Wildlife Commission has decided to help deer in the Gunnison Basin.
The Colorado Wildlife Commission has authorized funds to feed wildlife in the Gunnison Basin because of the extreme weather.
Wildlife biologists worry that frigid temperatures and deep snow are making it tough for deer and other big game to find food and they want to prevent widespread deaths among the herds in western Colorado.
Wildlife commissioners voted Thursday to spend $160,000 in discretionary funds to start the emergency feeding. Division of Wildlife director Tom Remington said the total cost could run from $500,000 to nearly $1 million.
The state plans to bring in tons of specially formulated feed for the roughly 21,000 mule deer in the Gunnison area. The feed is a wafer composed of wheat and other grains, dehydrated alfalfa and cottonseed meal.
The Colorado Wildlife Commission has authorized funds to feed wildlife in the Gunnison Basin because of the extreme weather.
Wildlife biologists worry that frigid temperatures and deep snow are making it tough for deer and other big game to find food and they want to prevent widespread deaths among the herds in western Colorado.
Wildlife commissioners voted Thursday to spend $160,000 in discretionary funds to start the emergency feeding. Division of Wildlife director Tom Remington said the total cost could run from $500,000 to nearly $1 million.
The state plans to bring in tons of specially formulated feed for the roughly 21,000 mule deer in the Gunnison area. The feed is a wafer composed of wheat and other grains, dehydrated alfalfa and cottonseed meal.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Sea Shepherd One Day Away From Contact With Japanese Whalers
Greenpeace isn't being very cooperative, but it sounds like Sea Shepherd found out where they are anyways. And, they have a helicopter, so it's only a matter of time.
According to the Sea Shepherd web site:
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is about one day away from making contact with the Japanese whaling fleet.
"We know where the Greenpeace ship Esperanza is and if Greenpeace is in contact with the Japanese fleet, Sea Shepherd will be there as quickly as we can cover the distance between our two positions," said Captain Paul Watson from onboard the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin.
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is with the Japanese fleet. Peter Hammarstedt, the 2nd officer of the Steve Irwin called the Esperanza to speak with the Captain but was informed that the Captain was sleeping and was not to be disturbed. Mr. Hammarstedt spoke with Karli Thomas the Greenpeace expedition leader and congratulated her on finding the Japanese fleet and said that since Sea Shepherd gave Greenpeace the coordinates last year would they repay the favor and provide Sea Shepherd with the coordinates this year? Ms. Thomas replied that as expedition leader she did not have the authority to release that information nor did the Captain of the Esperanza. She added that Greenpeace was withholding the information for security reasons.
I don't agree with that attitude. I think Greenpeace does great work, but I don't think they should withhold this information over a disagreement in tactics. Just my two cents...
According to the Sea Shepherd web site:
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is about one day away from making contact with the Japanese whaling fleet.
"We know where the Greenpeace ship Esperanza is and if Greenpeace is in contact with the Japanese fleet, Sea Shepherd will be there as quickly as we can cover the distance between our two positions," said Captain Paul Watson from onboard the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin.
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is with the Japanese fleet. Peter Hammarstedt, the 2nd officer of the Steve Irwin called the Esperanza to speak with the Captain but was informed that the Captain was sleeping and was not to be disturbed. Mr. Hammarstedt spoke with Karli Thomas the Greenpeace expedition leader and congratulated her on finding the Japanese fleet and said that since Sea Shepherd gave Greenpeace the coordinates last year would they repay the favor and provide Sea Shepherd with the coordinates this year? Ms. Thomas replied that as expedition leader she did not have the authority to release that information nor did the Captain of the Esperanza. She added that Greenpeace was withholding the information for security reasons.
I don't agree with that attitude. I think Greenpeace does great work, but I don't think they should withhold this information over a disagreement in tactics. Just my two cents...
Whalers Found!
Greenpeace has found the Japanese Whaling Fleet. Good for them. Let's hope they share the information with the world about where they are.A GREENPEACE protest ship is in pursuit of a fleet of Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean after finding the vessels early this morning.
Expedition leader aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza Karli Thomas said the six Japanese ships fled when Greenpeace located them shortly after midnight (AEDT).
"The first thing they did when we approached them was to scatter and run," Ms Thomas said.
"We stayed with the factory ship the Nisshin Maru, which is always the major target," she said.
Here is a post from Irene on the Esperanza crew blog.
Here is a link to the Mast cam aboard the Esperanza. It updates every minute.
Photo courtesy of Greenpeace
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Take a Vacation...and Help an Animal!
Very cool article with great ideas for those of us who would like to combine traveling with animal work.I've bookmarked it for further research. Hopefully, I won't have to sell our house to go!
Voluntourism as it's being dubbed by the travel industry, offers people from all walks of life, the opportunity to visit interesting places in the U.S. as well as remote and exotic destinations, and volunteer their time or specific skills for the benefit of a cause of their choosing — and animal welfare and related environmental issues top the list.
Charity Guide a Web-based volunteer directory that puts it all on a plate for potential volunteer vacationers.
The Web site lists some of the best volunteer vacation possibilities offered worldwide by reputable organizations and links potential travelers directly to them so that they can efficiently glean all the information they need to put their travel arrangements in motion.
Photo by silentdream.
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