Heart 4 Animals

When Euthanasia is the most compassionate choice
We are meant to be their guardians, but sadly, many companion animals have been relegated to lives that do not even meet minimum standards of care. Read about why sometimes euthanasia is the compassionate option.

Groundbreaking Victory: Bolivia Issues First Animal Welfare Regulation
After PETA released a shocking video of the Bolivian military performing gruesome combat exercises on live dogs, more than 20,000 people took action. The Bolivian government has agreed to end the torture and killing of animals in military exercises.

Cutest Mutt Announced!
After sifting through nearly 1,000 photographs of loveable mutts, PETA’s panel of judges painstakingly narrowed the list to 10 finalists. Then we asked you to cast your vote. Did your favorite mutt make the cut? The votes are all in—see who is the Cutest Mutt Alive!

The Seal Slaughter Has Started—Take Action Now!
The Canadian seal slaughter has officially begun! Over the next few weeks, 338,200 seals are slated to be bludgeoned to death on the ice. We need you to speak up for seals now and demand a permanent end to the cruel seal slaughter. Read more.

Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door Winners Revealed
We’ve finally narrowed down almost 1,000 entries to the two sexiest vegetarians in North America. Find out if Amber or Giselle and Chris or Monty won the title of Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door for 2009—and a free trip to Hawaii!

Cloris Leachman Says, ‘Let Vegetarianism Grow on You’
Not only has the very talented Cloris Leachman won nine Emmys and an Oscar, now she is also posing in a dress made of cabbage for PETA. Check out her behind-the-scenes video and find out the secret of her endless vitality.

Celebrate a Compassionate Vegan Passover
Start a new tradition this year by hosting a vegan Passover dinner. The traditional cholesterol-laden array of foods often found on the Passover table can easily be replaced with delicious, healthful vegetarian dishes.

Bunny Fever—Don’t Catch It!
Are the kids begging for an “Easter bunny”? Many moms and dads give in to the Easter bunny temptation and buy a rabbit for their kids, vastly underestimating the amount of care that bunnies require. Before you consider adding a bunny to your family, check out our guidelines.

The PETA Podcast Presents: Nonviolence Includes Animals
PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk’s address to the International Nonviolence Conference in Bethlehem in 2005 was the first time that nonviolence toward animals had been formally included in what has always been a humans-only conference agenda. Listen to the address now.

Source: People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals .

Please watch PETA’s new video about ritual sacrifice horrors during annual religious ceremonies.

The footage is from PETA’s investigations of the Jewish atonement and sacrifice ritual kapporos, which is performed in Hasidic communities in the days before Yom Kippur.

In Brooklyn alone, more than 50,000 chickens are trucked in for kapporos ceremonies, in which chickens are roughly waved over people’s heads and then slaughtered. The chickens languish without food and water and are stacked in cramped, filthy transport crates on public streets for hours. Many don’t even survive until slaughter.

Many Jewish communities use money for kapporos instead of live chickens—the money is then donated to tzedakah (charity).

Rabbi Shea Hecht of the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) runs the largest—and arguably the most inhumane—kapporos operation in Brooklyn. PETA has filmed some of the worst abuses and cruelest conditions at Rabbi Hecht’s location. For more information on this practice and what you can do to help, click here.

Please write to Rabbi Hecht, the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE), and representatives of Beis Din of Crown Heights—the kosher agency that certifies this kapporos operation—to demand that Rabbi Hecht no longer use live chickens for this ritual.

Please also forward this important information to your friends and family.

Thank you for all that you do for animals!

Sincerely,

Philip Schein
Senior Researcher

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals .

DEVOTEES of a local Buddhist temple released 300,000 shellfish into the waters off Pulau Ubin as part of a traditional practice known as animal liberation.

The rite, which is tied to Buddhist belief in reincarnation, commonly involves the release of birds, fish and turtles. Members of the Thekchen Choling Temple chose to liberate cockles instead.

‘People won’t think of releasing these animals,’ Venerable Ani Thubten Chodron said. ‘They won’t bother about these small lives. We release animals that people neglect. We hope that these animals will have a very good rebirth and good life after this.’

According to Buddhist belief, liberating an animal makes a positive imprint on its mind and frees it from being reborn as a lower being. The temple community pooled together $3,000 and managed to buy two tons of cockles from a distributor.  Read the full story in Tuesday’s edition of The Straits Times.

Source: The Straits Times Source of Image: Wikipedia

By a fortuitous event, I chanced upon Veggie Karma’s blog which contained a quote about rodeo training in North America from the book No Nonsense Guide to Animal Rights:

(Quote) In modern day rodeos, tame horses and bulls are sometimes given electric shocks to get them ‘bucking’ or have straps squeezed around their lower abdomens to put pressure on their groin areas. Apart from this kind of discomfort, animals are sometimes seriously injured and even killed at the rodeo. A USDA meat inspector said that the rodeo horses and cows that come to slaughterhouses are so terribly bruised that there are few places where the skin is actually attached to the muscle. Animals also commonly have broken ribs and punctured lungs .(unquote)

So, effectively, the rodeo owners, participants and the audience entertain themselves watching animals writhe in pain, get severely injured and crippled, and then dragged to the slaughterhouse. Whence did Man’s conscience disappear ?