Friday, July 26, 2013

Is gross cruelty justified so we can enjoy a "delicacy"?

Look into the eyes of sadness and pain. This poor goose, suffering the daily injury of having food forcefully jammed down its throat, until its liver is ill and swollen, and this dejected bird's life of suffering is ended violently so some human can enjoy their (cruel) "delicacy" of foie gras.

Please sign the petition at the following link and share, to help stop this gross cruelty to these sad creatures.- http://www.thepetitionsite.com/10/we-the-undersigned/

Man helps save 1000's of animals from cruel deaths,

and is sentenced to prison. Peter Young, at his sentencing before the court -

"This is the customary time when the defendant expresses regret for the crimes they committed, so let me do that because I am not without my regrets. I am here today to be sentenced for my participation in releasing mink from 6 fur farms. I regret it was only 6. I'm also here today to be sentenced for my participation in the freeing of 8,000 mink from those farms. I regret it was only 8,000. It is my understanding of those 6 farms, only 2 of them have since shut down. I regret it was only 2.


More than anything, I regret my restraint, because whatever damage we did to those businesses, if those farms were left standing, and if one animal was left behind, then it wasn't enough.

I don't wish to validate this proceeding by begging for mercy or appealing to the conscience of the court, because I ...know if this system had a conscience I would not be here, and in my place would be all the butchers, vivisectors, and fur farmers of the world.

Just as I will remain unbowed before this court- who would see me imprisoned for an act of conscience- I will also deny the fur farmers in the room the pleasure of seeing me bow down before them. To those people here whose sheds I may have visited in 1997, let me tell you directly for the first time, it was a pleasure to raid your farms, and to free those animals you held captive. It is to those animals I answer to, not you or this court. I will forever mark those nights on your property as the most rewarding experience of my life.

And to those farmers or other savages who may read my words in the future and smile at my fate, just remember: We have put more of you in bankruptcy than you have put liberators in prison. Don't forget that.

Let me thank everyone in the courtroom who came to support me today. It is my last wish before prison that each of you drive to a nearby fur farm tonight, tear down its fence and open every cage.

That's all."

~Peter Young

Please help us find this soldier's dog!!

Soldier on deployment,while he was gone, the person who was watching his dog sold it or gave it away on Craigslist...(nice friend grrrr)...have you seen this dog?? Please help this soldier reunite with his pup!

LAKEWOOD– A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier was devastated when he returned home from deployment to find his dog was missing — and possibly sold on Craigslist.

Brandon Harker returned last week after an 8-month deployment to Afghanistan. He was excited to see Oakley, his 2-year-old purebred yellow Labrador retriever.

Harker had asked a friend to take care of Oakley while he was deployed. When he contacted the friend to pick him up, he was told the dog had been given away.

He turned to social media to find his dog and was contacted by numerous people who said they’d seen Oakley listed for sale in February on Craigslist. Harker has been calling local veterinarians and shelters, hoping for word on his dog since Oakley is micro-chipped and registered.

“I am just trying to get him back since he was wrongfully given away or sold without my permission while I was deployed,” Harker said.

To see the Craigslist ad or to contact Harker, click here:http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/pet/3956713351.html


Olympia Memes
Help this soldier reunite with his pup! LAKEWOOD– A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier was devastated when he returned home from deployment to find his dog was missing — and possibly sold on Craigslist. Brandon Harker returned last week after an 8-month deployment to Afghanistan. He was excited to see Oakley, his 2-year-old purebred yellow Labrador retriever. Harker had asked a friend to take care of Oakley while he was deployed. When he contacted the friend to pick him up, he was told the dog had been given away. He turned to social media to find his dog and was contacted by numerous people who said they’d seen Oakley listed for sale in February on Craigslist. Harker has been calling local veterinarians and shelters, hoping for word on his dog since Oakley is micro-chipped and registered. “I am just trying to get him back since he was wrongfully given away or sold without my permission while I was deployed,” Harker said. To see the Craigslist ad or to contact Harker, click here: http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/pet/3956713351.html Source: http://q13fox.com/2013/07/25/deployed-soldier-returns-home-discovers-his-dog-was-sold-in-his-absence/#ixzz2a6iY05N4

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Humans poisoning bees to extinction!

Recent scientific studies have shown what is causing mass bee deaths. (Bees are crucial to the propagation of our food crops, and therefore our very survival!) The mass die-off of honey bees that pollinate $30 billion worth of crops in the US has so decimated America’s apis mellifera population that one bad winter could leave fields fallow. Now, a new study has pinpointed some of the probable causes of bee deaths and the rather scary results show that averting beemageddon will be much more difficult than previously thought.




Scientists had struggled to find the trigger for so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives, worth $2 billion, over the past six years. Suspects have included pesticides, disease-bearing parasites and poor nutrition. But in a first-of-its-kind study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives. The findings break new ground on why large numbers of bees are dying though they do not identify the specific cause of CCD, where an entire beehive dies at once.

When researchers collected pollen from hives on the east coast pollinating cranberry, watermelon and other crops and fed it to healthy bees, those bees showed a significant decline in their ability to resist infection by a parasite called Nosema ceranae. The parasite has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder though scientists took pains to point out that their findings do not directly link the pesticides to CCD. The pollen was contaminated on average with nine different pesticides and fungicides though scientists discovered 21 agricultural chemicals in one sample. Scientists identified eight ag chemicals associated with increased risk of infection by the parasite.

Most disturbing, bees that ate pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times as likely to be infected by the parasite. Widely used, fungicides had been thought to be harmless for bees as they’re designed to kill fungus, not insects, on crops like apples.

“There’s growing evidence that fungicides may be affecting the bees on their own and I think what it highlights is a need to reassess how we label these agricultural chemicals,” Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the study’s lead author, told Quartz.

Labels on pesticides warn farmers not to spray when pollinating bees are in the vicinity but such precautions have not applied to fungicides.

Bee populations are so low in the US that it now takes 60% of the country’s surviving colonies just to pollinate one California crop, almonds. And that’s not just a west coast problem—California supplies 80% of the world’s almonds, a market worth $4 billion.

In recent years, a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids has been linked to bee deaths and in April regulators banned the use of the pesticide for two years in Europe where bee populations have also plummeted. But vanEngelsdorp, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland, says the new study shows that the interaction of multiple pesticides is affecting bee health.

“The pesticide issue in itself is much more complex than we have led to be believe,” he says. “It’s a lot more complicated than just one product, which means of course the solution does not lie in just banning one class of product.”

The study found another complication in efforts to save the bees: US honey bees, which are descendants of European bees, do not bring home pollen from native North American crops but collect bee chow from nearby weeds and wildflowers. That pollen, however, was also contaminated with pesticides even though those plants were not the target of spraying.

“It’s not clear whether the pesticides are drifting over to those plants but we need take a new look at agricultural spraying practices,” says vanEngelsdorp.

Above story courtesy of http://qz.com/107970/scientists-discover-whats-killing-the-bees-and-its-worse-than-you-thought/
Photo :AP Photo/Ben Margot

Help Stop Wild Duck Carnage (petition and article)

Stop Duck Shooting in Victoria, Australia
The barbaric and nonsensical killing and maiming of ducks in Victoria continues with the annual duck hunting season every year. Even though recreational duck shooting has been banned in QLD, NSW, the ACT and WA, the Victorian state government continues to support it. Aside from the cruelty and pain inflicted, duck shooting wounds as many birds as are actually killed. For every three birds killed one is wounded and left to die a slow and agonising death. For every ten ducks bagged six are crippled.

Endangering native bird populations and causing mass injury and suffering solely for the twisted pleasure of a minority of perverted individuals is irresponsible, unethical and immoral. This year's season saw over 200 rare and threatened Freckled and Blue bill ducks and 50 Swans killed.

In a 2012 survey three out of every four Victorians wanted recreational duck shooting banned.

As a veterinarian who has an ethical responsibility to animal welfare the Premier should be outraged at this totally senseless cruelty.

It is time that this barbaric practice which has for too long been misleadingly portrayed as a "sport" was stopped.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Florence + The Machine - "No Light, No Light"video

I have never heard a song by Florence and The Machine I haven't loved. Another superb piece of music!

Spectrum EP is OUT NOW (iTunes):



Directed by Arni & Kinski

Music video by Florence + The Machine performing No Light, No Light. (C) 2011 Universal Island Records, a division of Universal Music Operations Limited

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Live Export sending pregnant cows to horror death...

Due to a 'loophole' in the laws on exporting live animals, Australia was able to send thousands of pregnant dairy cows to die in Qatar. Photos and reports from two whistleblowers reveal that within one week, one in four of the animals died of thirst or malnutrition. Mothers watched as their baby cows died in agony.

Despite these photos and eye witness accounts, the Australian Government didn't investigate this incident because breeding animals are excluded from live export regulations. The dairy cows were pregnant when they were shipped, so they weren't part of any Government-sanctioned 'supply chain.' When breeding animals are shipped out of Australia, no one knows where they'll end up or what suffering they'll face.

So far, it looks like no one will be held accountable for the deaths of these animals, and nothing is stopping this from happening again -- unless we speak out! Please sign the petition below.

If you are an Australian citizen, call or email your local MP to tell them to close the loophole on exporting breeding (pregnant) animals!