Irvine bans retail sales of dogs, cats

Attendees, including a man in a dog outfit, celebrate 
the Irvine City Council's vote to ban retail sales of dogs and cats.

By JEFF OVERLEY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
 

IRVINE – The latest chapter in a fast-growing debate over animal welfare in puppy mills and other venues played out Tuesday night in Irvine, where elected officials backed government intervention to safeguard pets and animals used for entertainment.
On a 4-1 vote that drew a standing ovation, the City Council banned retail sales of dogs and cats, rodeos and circuses featuring exotic animals.

Animal Cruelty: Who is to Blame?

 

For many of us who are aware of the multitude of ways that animals suffer at the hands of humans around the world, this ubiquitous cruelty is the most pressing social justice issue of them all. From declawing to debeaking, ear clipping to tail docking, the suffering that human beings inflict on animals being used for food, clothing, research, ‘pets’ and entertainment appears to know no bounds, and the many brutal ways in which we force animals to succumb to our desires appear to be limited only by the scope of our imaginations.

But why does all this cruelty take place? And what can we do about this horrifying brutality as individuals? It’s easy to point the finger at the direct perpetrators of animal cruelty as being villains who need to be brought to justice. It’s much harder – and yet much more significant – to turn that critical eye inward and ask oneself, ‘What am I doing to contribute to this?’ But it is only by asking that question that the path toward emancipation from barbaric injustice becomes clear.

Chinese Dog Eating Festival Banned After 600 Years Because Of Social Media Outcry

A 600-year-old dog eating festival in Qianxi, China was banned this week after a massive social media outcry called for its cancellation. Fifteen thousand dogs are slaughtered annually at the festival, which commemorates a battle fought in the town. Before the battle, an invading army killed all the dogs in the town of Qianxi to prevent being exposed by barking dogs. After capturing the town, the army ate the dog meat to celebrate.

DOG EATING FESTIVAL BANNED AFTER ANIMAL RIGHTS FURY

ABOVE: The images were condemned by millions of animal lovers around the world / Europics

ABOVE: The tradition is more than 600-years-old

ABOVE: 15,000 dogs were due to be butchered and eaten

ABOVE: The habit of dog eating is traced to a Ming Dynasty legend

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IMAGES MAY CAUSE DISTRESS TO SOME READERS.

CHINA has banned a sickening 600-year-old dog meat festival were helpless hounds were boiled alive after furious protests by hundreds of thousands of animal rights activists.

These gruesome scenes of appalling cruelty at the festival - which has been around since the Ming Dynasty - were condemned by millions of animal lovers around the world.

Officials in Hutou, Zhejiang province, eastern China, have called off the mass slaughter next month where up to 15,000 dogs were due to be butchered and eaten over three days.

Shocked visitors to previous festivals reported live dogs to densely crowded into wire cages that they gouged each others' eyes out just trying to stand up.

Activists at last year's Fur Free Friday!

Activists at last year's Fur Free Friday!

Last night the City Council of West Hollywood passed a historic ordinance unanimously prohibiting the sale of fur apparel products within the city!  This great success culminated after months of canvassing and rallies spearheaded by the Fur-Free West Hollywood Campaign made up of activists from In Defense of Animals, Last Chance for Animals, Animal Alliance, PETA, OCPA, ARME, APRL and many hard-working individuals, most notably Ellen Lavinthal, Ed Bucks, Shannon Keith and Bryan Monell. Several stores in West Hollywood had voluntarily removed fur items from their stores prior to the City Council’s actions.
In 1989, West Hollywood passed resolution number 558 proclaiming West Hollywood a “cruelty free zone for animals”.   Since that time West Hollywood has passed legislation banning the declawing of cats, prohibiting pet stores from selling puppy mill animals and resolutions banning cosmetic testing on animals and steel-jaw leg hold traps.  In February of 2001 they adopted IDA’s guardian language which substitutes the word “guardian” for “owner“ in all discourse.
West Hollywood is the first city in the United States banning the cruel commerce of fur.  It is a remarkable historic  victory.
Want to help animals killed for their fur in your city? Click here for some ideas on what you can do!
This year’s Fur Free Friday is right around the corner. Click here to see what activists from around the world did last year and start planning your own events soon… more details on that coming soon!

Source : idablog

The Life of One Battery Hen

By Karen Davis, PhD Photo by: Mercy for Animals, Weaver Brothers Egg Farm in Versailles, Ohio Prologue Sound of a Battery Hen You can tell me: if you come by the North door, I am in the twelfth cage On the left-hand side of the third row From the floor; and in that cage I am usually the middle one of eight or six or three. But even without directions, you’d Discover me. We have the same pale Comb, clipped yellow beak and white or auburn Feathers, but as the door opens and you Hear above the electric fan a kind of One-word wail, I am the one Who sounds loudest in my head.

Free at last! Chimps caged for 30 years and injected with HIV in cruel experiments finally feel the sun on their faces again

Like prisoners emerging from a lifetime behind bars, a group of chimpanzees step blinking into the sunlight with what appears for all the world to be a wave and a smile.

And they have much to be joyful about. For this is the first time they have felt grass under their feet and breathed fresh air for 30 years.

Though a few of the chimps were born in captivity, most were kidnapped from African jungles as babies and flown to Europe, where they were locked in metal laboratory cages to be used in a long series of experiments.

Scroll down for video

 
Hello world: With a wave and what appears to be a smile, chimpanzees step into the daylight for the first time in 30 years at the Gut Aiderbichl Animal Sanctuary, 

near Salzburg, Austria

Running for her life: one cow's fight for freedom

In late May, Yvonne, a six-year-old slaughter-bound cow, escaped from a German farm and ran for her life.

In her quest for freedom, she spent nearly 100 days hiding in the forests of Bavaria. Garnering international attention, she eluded capture by police, farmers, countless good samaritans and animal advocates, and hunters (until authorities called off the "hunt"). Some joined the search in hopes of taking home a $14,500 reward offered by Bild, a German tabloid. A radio station rented a helicopter equipped with thermal imaging cameras, animal advocates tried to lure her with a bull ox, her sister, and her son while animal psychics attempted to talk with her -- all to no avail. 

Is Your Diet Destroying The Environment?

5 Reasons Why the Food on Your Plate is More Important Than the Car You Drive:

Many people who “go green” consider buying something major like a hybrid car.  A larger contribution to the environment is not in your driveway though, but in your fridge right now.

The climate change cost of animal meat production is greater than the cost of cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.

This is not just vegetarians or health advocates saying this either. The World Health Organization, Scientific American, New Scientist and Readers Digest have all come out with clear information on this fact.

U.S Meat consumption fall

Due to an oversupply brought on by low demand, chicken (or broiler) meat slaughter is expected to slow dramatically in the second half of 2011. According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s latest report, third quarter production is estimated to be 1.3% lower than the third quarter of 2010.

Lower production is expected to continue in the fourth quarter of 2011, with production expected to decrease 2% from the same period in 2010.

More than 50 Sheep facing slaughter commit mass suicide in Turkey

RIA Novosti

A man removes the bodies of 52 sheep that 
leapt to their deaths in a mass suicide in Turkey.

Maybe they knew what was coming.

More than 50 sheep on their way to slaughter in Turkey beat their executioners to the punch and jumped to their deaths in an unexplained and unprovoked mass suicide.

Fish Can't Feel Pain? Don't Be So Sure

“But why not at least eat fish? They can’t feel pain anyway”.
Growing up vegetarian, this was an argument I encountered on a regular basis. I always balked at it, for a couple of different reasons. First, was the implication that the inability to feel pain somehow caused a life to be of lesser value. The other was, perhaps, a bit more complicated. How, I would ask, can we be sure that fish really don’t feel pain?

Breaking Investigation: Behind Indonesia's Exotic-Skins Trade

Every year in the exotic-skins industry, millions of snakes, lizards, crocodiles, and other animals are grotesquely abused and cruelly killed. Welfare is never a consideration for those who hunt, poach, farm, abuse, and kill these animals to turn them into bags, shoes, belts, gloves, and other accessories.

Mother bear kills cub and then itself

The Chinese media has reported on an extraordinary account of a mother bear saving her cub from a life of torture by strangling it and then killing itself. 

The bears were kept in a farm located in a remote area in the North-West of China. The bears on the farm had their gall bladders milked daily for 'bear bile,' which is used as a remedy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
It was reported that the bears are kept in tiny cages known as 'crush cages', as the bears have no room to manoeuvre and are literally crushed.

The bile is harvested by making a permanent hole or fistula in the bears' abdomen and gall bladder.
As the hole is never closed, the animals are suspect to various infections and diseases including tumours, cancers and death from peritonitis.

The bears are fitted with an iron vest, as they often try to kill themselves by hitting their stomach as they are unable to bear the pain.

A person who was on the farm in place of a friend witnessed the procedures and told Reminbao.com that they were inhumane.
 
The witness also claimed that a mother bear broke out its cage when it heard its cub howl in fear before a worker punctured its stomach to milk the bile.

The workers ran away in fear when they saw the mother bear rushing to its cub's side.
Unable to free the cub from its restraints, the mother hugged the cub and eventually strangled it.
It then dropped the cub and ran head-first into a wall, killing itself.

Many TCM practitioners have denounced the use of bear bile in their treatment as there are cheaper herbs and synthetics that can be used in its place.

Bear bile is traditionally used to remove 'heat' from the body as well as treat high fever, liver ailments and sore eyes.

Bear bile farm Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: STOMP, Internet)

Source : AsiaOne Story

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