1. Activists occupied KFC on two continents last week. More from the Dogwood Alliance: “Colonel Sanders and various woodland creatures made appearances at over 150 KFC restaurants across the country and various locations in Europe to deliver a message, ‘Stop destroying Southern forests for your throwaway packaging.’ The iconic KFC bucket and other KFC
Elephants are beautiful, thoughtful creatures — people love them. I imagine this is why they are in so many ads and movies. However, some of the people and companies that own elephants are not elephant lovers. In fact, some are downright cruel towards the sensitive creatures. Chick-fil-A is currently running an ad with an elephant
The National Conference to End Factory Farming starts tomorrow! One of our writers, Kate Follot, will be attending and reporting back for us. In the meantime, though, the organizers there have shared this guest post with us — 5 ways to end factory farming, with quotes from some of the conference speakers. Here’s the list:
Animal rights and environmental activists are increasingly being targeted by governments as terrorists (or “eco-terrorists”) as award-winning independent journalist and author Will Potter repeatedly shows. One of his recent posts on his site Green is the New Red was on animal activists in Finland being prosecuted for undercovering filming of factory farms. The story:
Although touted by China as “conservation”, the country’s notorious tiger farms are actually commercial enterprises engaging in the internationally banned business of selling products derived from tigers.
We’ve several cute and awe-inspiring animal videos for you this week, as always, but we’ve also got a handful of interesting and disturbing videos about animal cruelty and endangered species that I think everyone should watch. Check these videos out and the stories underneath them all.
OK, this video of a baby chimp feeding a tiger cub is too cute. Check it out and hear the cute story of how this care-taking came about…
Here are some of the top animal stories and videos of the week (videos first). Enjoy! These first three are totally funny & cute…
Persistence has paid off for the Animal Defenders International “Stop Circus Suffering” campaign, although it has been long and hard battle it has paid off with a landmark victory in Peru. Peru’s President Alan Garcia signed into law an end to the use of wild animals in circuses.
After watching this video I wanted to share this with everyone. This is just plain cruelty and I will never think of a circus the same way again. At the bottom of this post is a link to causes.com, if this disturbs you as much as me then please take the time to join the cause!
Playboy model Victoria Eisermann joined in Animal Aid’s efforts to ban the use of whips on racehorses today, Ladies’ Day, by “offering punters the surprise experience of a spanking, using a diamond studded whip” at the gates of Royal Ascot. As Animal Aid reports: “This will allow race-goers a chance to experience a similar beating to that which horses will receive from jockeys during the Royal race meeting.”
Bob Barker, working with well-known animal activist organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), has called Sea World a “sad exhibit” and is encouraging people not to visit it.
This Animal Aid is one I’ve covered a couple times and have been following closely. It is a campaign to get CCTV cameras in all UK slaughterhouses, to try to help prevent completely insane animal cruelty that has been documented by undercover investigations and fly-on-the-wall cameras.
Well, here’s some good news out of the UK. As I shared on here recently and have from time to time, circus animals often live quite inhumane lives. Undercover footage (below) of the horrible treatment inflicted upon 59-year-old Asian elephant Anne, part of a UK travelling circus, brought this fact to the eyes of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Anne, who has been in captivity for 50 years, was recently kicked or hit hard with a metal pitchfork 48 times over the course of 3 and a half weeks a recent undercover investigation by Animal Defenders International found (and filmed). Northamptonshire police and the RSPCA subsequently investigated the situation as a result of this video. (Note that she is repeatedly beat in here back right knee — she has arthritis.)
Smithfield puts a positive spin on pork production in a new multimedia campaign that it claims “takes the mystery” out of how they use pigs to make pork products… but it doesn’t work.
A recent report from the West Virginia Racing Commission has revealed that over 152 greyhound dogs have been euthanized, due to injuries acquired while racing, since 2005. The injuries occur because of the design of the tracks’ first turn. I would think that a greyhound racetrack that makes thousands on a daily basis could afford
This is news from a couple weeks ago. Nonetheless, worth writing about and bringing to more people. Also, there is a petition going around on this and if you haven’t signed it yet, I imagine you would like to. And one more important way to help ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen (or happens
Some top global warming and environmental news from the last day or so: Global Warming & Environmental Politics Time to Put People Ahead of Polluters Over on ecopolitology, Sierra Club’s Michael Brune had a good piece on why it’s time to put people ahead of polluters. Senate 2012 Race & Tea Partiers The conservative right
Some of the top climate change and environmental stories of the last day or so: Climate Science Graph of the Day: Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Changes Good info and graphs on the page above, but thought I’d share the 3 videos from the post here for you to check out just in case you don’t feel
Here are some top global warming and environmental stories from the last day or so: Global Warming Politics Anti-Koch Rally (or Rallies) A great video on the Koch Brother Billionaire Bash protests and Uncloak Koch Rally from the other 98%: More on Schmitt We covered a couple pieces going into depth on astronaut Harrison Schmitt’s
I covered the utter cruelty on show in UK slaughterhouses a couple times a couple months ago when reporting on Animal Aid’s thorough investigation of the matter and their videos from secret fly-on-the wall cameras. From that investigation and increasing activism, more and more companies and people in the UK are supporting CCTV cameras in
Truly, it is hard to understand the insensitivity, lack of compassion, and utter cruelty that allow or stimulate such human actions. How can we even call ourselves intelligent beings? Here’s a full repost from the League Against Cruel Sports on a horrible incident in the UK and commentary on what actually goes on without our
The following is a guest post from the WWF. Law enforcement officers in Gabon have arrested five men accused of possessing illegal animal products, including those of endangered species. The raids, conducted by the country’s Water and Forest and Defense Ministries with the assistance of WWF partner AALF, yielded an alarming number of ape, leopard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAzrSl0ztsQ Foie gras is a “luxury food” or delicacy. However, if you watched the video above, I imagine you’d rather not pay anything for it. Completely horrifying. It is nice to see Kate Winslet joining the Pope, world-renowned chef Wolfgang Puck, PETA, and others trying to bring an end to the consumption and commercial sale
Denmark’s largest newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, activists from the animal welfare organization ANIMA, and Danish TV2 have revealed horrible animal cruelty at mink and fox farms in Denmark. Some of the things they caught on camera were a fox with three legs lagging around in its cage; a fox with a mouth full of abscesses; a
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCovPp9NSKc There’s basically one way to describe this, disgusting. The League Against Cruel Sports reports: On 18th November, our Operations Team were monitoring a hunt in the north Cotswolds, close to the village of Weston sub Edge. They witnessed a red-coated hunt official relentlessly laying into one of the hunt’s hounds. Watch carefully as the
Activist organizations like the League against cruel sports won a major victory last month in France. The city of Fréjus has banned bullfighting, meaning that bullfighting is now almost entirely situated in the south-west corner of the country. Here’s more via the League: Last month, the Mayor of the French municipality of Fréjus announced that
UK animal advocacy organization Animal Aid published “its full investigation into UK slaughterhouses” last week, describing “the ‘utter horror’ of slaughter in so-called ‘humane’ British abattoirs.” “The cruelty on show is the worst I have seen,” wrote Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency Tim Smith. For the study: Animal Aid visited seven randomly chosen
Last week, the owner of a certain “Little Acre Petting Farm” in the UK was sentenced to 3 months in jail and was banned from keeping animals for the rest of his life. Apparently, the man’s petting farm was actually “nothing short of an animal concentration camp” according to the judge. League Against Cruel Sports
Members of European parliament voted this morning to ban seal products, further tightening the noose on Canada’s archaic and cruel commercial seal hunt. With members voting 550 to 49 in favor of the ban, Europe has sent Canada a clear message: Europeans do not support the hunt. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) welcomed
Did you hear about KFC’s offer to fill the potholes in Louisville and four other US cities? Well, they’ve asked to be allowed to stencil an ad onto the pavement in exchange. Predictably, PETA and their KFC Cruelthy campaign now want some of the action. [social_buttons] “KFC might concentrate instead on improving conditions for the
The Humane Society of the United States has returned to court in attempt to stop the sea lion cull near the Bonneville Dam in Washington and Oregon. [social_buttons] Hundreds of sea lions may be trapped and killed in a program aiming to increase the salmon population in the river. The animal welfare group argues that
Humane Society Canada has sent a representative to the Gulf of St. Lawrence to document and broadcast the commercial killing of over 300,000 young seals beginning today. Rebecca Aldworth, who has attended the seal hunt for 11 years in a row, has arrived in the area. She will photograph the scene and send live updates
Despite evidence that increasing the seal hunt quota could bring the harp seal population down the dangerous levels, the Canadian government has approved a 55,000 seal increase to quota for the upcoming commercial seal hunt. [social_buttons] The increase brings the total to 338,000 young seals scheduled to be brutally killed. Canada’s Humane Society said the
An Arizona man who was caught by police in August 2008 after tying his horse to the back of his truck will face charges for animal cruelty in federal court this Tuesday. [social_buttons] Gorden Allen Bates tied a horse to the back of his truck and then proceeded to stop the vehicle and beat the
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has issued an interim policy regarding dogs victimized by dog fighting. The policy recommends that dogs be evaluated on an individual basis rather than being condemned to euthanization as a group. The HSUS was widely criticized in recent weeks for supporting a court ruling that ordered 145
Sabah, a large Malaysian state, is considering banning the practice of shark finning after scuba divers threatened to boycott the country. [social_buttons] The Semporna Tourism Action Council proposed the ban because they believe sharks are largely responsible for the area’s booming touring industry. The council includes members of the Sabah Fisheries Department, Sabah Tourism Board,
Animal rights activists have filed suit against Washington’s King County to dispute a state-wide law that essentially allows farmers to decide what treatment is humane and what is not. [social_buttons] In a press release, the Northwest Animal Rights Network declared that “Foxes should not be guarding the henhouse” and argued that the law is against
The Animal Legal Defense Fund is celebrating their annual Justice For Animals Week by asking people to partake in a new, specific action for animals every day this week. [social_buttons] For the first day, they’re asking people to help spread the word by telling friends on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere to visit their site to
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently re-launched the ‘McCruelty’ campaign against the fast food giant McDonald’s, saying of their treatment of animals, “I’m hatin’ it.” The original campaign against McDonald’s was launched in 2000, and after the company worked with PETA to make some basic animal welfare changes, the campaign was withdrawn.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/jsearqknaE8&hl=en&fs=1] Warning: Video contains disturbing content. This video is very hard to make out (and all online Turkish-to-English translations don’t yield much more insight), but this appears as if a small town in Turkey gathered together to encourage their dogs to attack and kill a captive wolf. Please comment if you have any idea what
Animals Asia Foundation rescued thirteen black bears from government-approved stomach bile farms in southwest China today. [social_buttons] The bears had holes punched in their stomachs to allow bile to drip out for traditional Chinense medicinal use. The bears were found in poor condition suffering with anything from blindness to cancers. Bear bile farms, however, are
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/_TB2nxydFLw&hl=en&fs=1] The debate over the aerial killing of wildlife in Alaska rages on with Ashley Judd and Defenders of Wildlife president Rodger Schlickeisen appearing on CNN’s Larry King Live last night. [social_buttons] Judd discusses why she so vehemently opposes aerial hunting (and later name-drops Van Jones and the Green Collar Economy) while Schlickeisen responds to
City officials in Houston, Texas have fired a veterinarian who has acted as a whistle-blower against botched and cruel operations on pets in the past. [social_buttons] But Kathy Barton, a health department spokesperson, said Gil Costas has been fired because he failed to file registration to handle controlled substances and drugs with the Department of
If I didn’t know any better, I’d congratulate Utah republicans for at least being consistent in their ultra-conservative, anti-choice beliefs by spreading it to all species. But alas, that was not the intention of this new law. [social_buttons] They’ve preemptively passed a law to stop animal rights activists from distributing birth control to deer populations
[social_buttons] A man who stabbed an Emu to death ‘because he wanted to eat it for Christmas lunch’ has been fined almost A$4,000 (US$2,500) for animal cruelty. An Australian court heard that, two days before Christmas, Patrick James Andrews, 23, crept into the Emu enclosure at Alexandra zoo in south-east Queensland, where he repeatedly stabbed
Despite extensive opposition and the rallying of animal activists and Hollywood celebrities alike, Los Angeles City Council voted today to go ahead with a $42 million elephant exhibit. About $12 million has already been spent towards the completion of the new exhibit, which is now 30 percent done. Council also decided that the city will
Canadian officials are in Brussels this week to ask the European Union not to pass proposed legislation that would ban the import of seal products. The trip was organized by the Canadian federal Fisheries and Oceans Department. According to the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), the delegates are hoping to sway members of European parliament to
