Heart 4 Animals

Factory farming is an attitude that regards animals merely as commodities to be exploited for profit. In animal agriculture, this attitude has led to institutionalized animal cruelty, massive environmental destruction and resource depletion, and animal and human health risks. Are your meats, eggs and dairy products (milk, cheese etc) supporting the inhumane practice of Factory Farms ? What are the issues about Factory Farms and how do these farms promote animal cruelty ? > Learn More .

Here are 5 easy five-minute actions to help animals!

This week, we’re asking you to speak out against the horrors of shark-finning again by contacting another establishment in the lower mainland: the Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant!  Shark fin products are incredibly cruel and we owe it to the sharks to speak out against the industry!

Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant
180 - 355 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6C 2G8
Telephone: (604) 688-8191
Email: info@imperialrest.com

A front page article in the Vancouver Sun stated that “up to three million farm animals are found dead each year when trucks are unloaded at Canadian abattoirs” and “more than 11 million farm animals are declared unfit for human consumption after arriving diseased or injured at abattoirs each year.” (Read the full article here.)

Please thank the Vancouver Sun for discussing this important matter on their front page, and encourage them to report on factory farming issues more often!

Email: feedback@canada.com

On that note, and from HumaneFood.ca:

Canada’s animal transportation guidelines desperately need updating. Now is a unique opportunity to express your views to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency about existing transport standards, the adoption of new welfare standards and adequate enforcement.

Learn more here or send an email to the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food at Ritz.G@parl.gc.ca

Wild horses are being slaughtered in Chilcotin, BC for wolf bait and the slaughterhouse.  The Vancouver Sun reported on this travesty on December 5th.

Angry and want to say something? Contact information here.

More local horse abuse:

“I can’t call the horse in the ditch a walking skeleton because by the time we reached him, he was too weak to walk,” said Drever, who estimates the gelding would score 1.5 out of 9 on a body condition scale. (From Horse Used to Tow Car is Euthanized, The Langley Times)

The worst part of it all is that the man and woman responsible for the condition of this horse (and 5 others) are licensed veterinarians.  Sign a petition to have their license revoked here.

Source: Liberation BC .

The following is a message from the People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals:

Please accept my deepest thanks for your support of PETA’s hard work this year. I am especially grateful that, even in these challenging times, you never forget that it is animals who suffer the most.

No one is more important to PETA and the animals we serve than you. I am sure you will help us protect even more animals from abuse and neglect in 2009. Your year-end gift to PETA today will help us stop animal suffering in all its forms in the coming year.

In this brief slideshow, I’ve highlighted some of the remarkable successes that your support over the last year has made possible. Please note that a few of the images from our investigations may be unsettling and they are slides 22 and 23 if you want to skip them.

From convincing global companies such as H&M to stop selling wool from mutilated lambs to our groundbreaking first steps in making horseracing less cruel, PETA’s efforts are having an impact. The footage from our undercover investigation of an Iowa pig farm—which led to 22 criminal livestock abuse and neglect charges against farm workers—is a testament to the difference you make for animals with your generous financial support.

I do hope that you’ll be inspired by what you see and will consider making a generous gift to PETA today so that we can bring about even more changes for animals, no matter what challenges lie ahead. Whatever you can do for animals this holiday season will be of enormous help and will be truly appreciated.

On behalf of everyone here at PETA, thank you for everything you’re doing for animals. Our best wishes to you this holiday season.

Kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

Overcrowding plagues thousands of hens in Canada’s battery barns.

Dear Readers,

Millions of laying hens all across Canada are confined in barren, wire battery cages so restrictive the birds can’t even spread their wings. Unable to engage in any of their natural behaviors, these birds endure lives wrought with suffering.

However, there is hope for these animals. Animal advocates like you have persuaded their local councils to improve the lives of egg-laying hens. Your municipal council needs a friendly reminder that you care about animals and they should, too!

HSI Canada contacted city councils from coast to coast, encouraging them to pass cage-free resolutions. Only the Ontario cities of Orillia and Pickering passed such resolutions immediately. With your help, I know we can persuade more.

TAKE ACTION
Please contact the your local council today to tell them that you care about animals and want them to pass this very important resolution that could dramatically improve the lives of millions of hens. Please act right away — factory farming industry lobbying groups are working hard to make sure no more resolutions make it onto the agenda at council meetings.

Then, please tell your friends and family how they can help, too.

Thank you for all that you do for animals.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Aldworth
Director of Animal Programs
Humane Society International/Canada

The following message comes from the People For The Ethical Treatment for Animals :

Please give yourself a big pat on the back for being part of the many successes for animals that your support of PETA has helped make possible!

On November 4, California voters passed Proposition 2, a history-making ballot initiative to make it illegal as of 2015 to confine egg-laying hens, mother pigs, and calves used for veal in ways that prevent them from standing, lying down, turning around, and fully extending their limbs. PETA staffers and members helped gather signatures, organized numerous eye-catching demonstrations, and held phone-banking events in the months before this resounding vote to benefit animals.

We made fantastic progress in our Animals in Entertainment campaigns this month. The psychological damage caused by separating infants from their mothers and the terror of being beaten or shocked with shock collars make life in “show business” a living hell for orangutans and chimpanzees. Thanks to the support of caring members like you, we convinced video game company SEGA to pull an ad that featured a dancing baby chimpanzee and secured a promise from the company that it will never use great apes in ads again!

PETA’s Great Ape Humane Pledge saw yet another new signatory as the Ad Council—the producer of such influential public service campaigns as “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires” and “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk”—has pledged never to use great apes in its campaigns. Others who have committed never to use great apes in ads include Subaru, Honda, Yahoo!, PUMA, and MovieTickets.com.

And finally, good news in another Animals in Entertainment campaign: An Asian elephant named Ned will never again have to endure days locked in boxcars or chained to the ground, beatings with bullhooks, or other horrors of the circus now that the efforts of PETA and other animal advocates have resulted in his rescue. Ned will spend the rest of his life at an elephant sanctuary!

Last, but not least, I have a fantastic victory to report in our efforts to get veterinary schools to stop needlessly killing animals for teaching purposes and to switch instead to more humane practices like those used in progressive institutions around the world. Following months of campaigning by PETA, Ross University—a veterinary school that forced students to perform deadly surgeries on healthy dogs, donkeys, goats, and sheep—is no longer performing terminal surgeries on animals! (However, the school is still conducting harmful invasive surgeries on these animals, so our campaign continues.)

For every extraordinary victory we accomplish for animals, congratulations go directly to you—a dedicated PETA member and supporter.

We have much to celebrate for animals this month. I wish you and your loved ones a joyous holiday season.

Kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk

President.

> Write a Letter to the Editor Urging Your Community to Boycott Circus Cruelty

> URGENT: Starving Deer Dying, Abused on Sacred Island

> Help Animals in 5 MINUTES FLAT

> When an Animal needs your Help

> Podcast : The Story of a Downed Cow

> Join the Revolution : Make a Difference Today

> Win a Tofurky for Thanksgiving

> Celebrity feature : Joan Jett testimonial

> Julie Benz Speaks Out Against Violence

> Win a Vegan Body-Care Pack From Jason Natural!

> CANADIANs : You can Stop Puppy Mills .

> Filipina Supermodel Gets Wrapped Up for Animals

> Top 10 Reasons Not to drink Milk
among them, “cow’s milk is loaded with cholesterol, fat and other contaminants — including cow’s blood and pus, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics — which, over time, can be just as dangerous as ingesting melamine. ” In my opinion, research is needed to determine if these bio-engineered antibiotics, hormones and pesticides in milk cause cancer over the long-term .