On April 29, I featured an article which reported that dogs and cats are reared and beaten alive for “medicinal value” before being boiled alive for consumption. (Pls click here for the article.)
It is never late to do something to help these poor dogs and cats. Please continue to urge the Korean prime minister, the minister of agriculture, and the ambassador in your country to support an amendment to the Animal Protection Act to specifically prohibit the beating, hanging, electrocution, burning, boiling alive, and all other abuse of dogs and cats. The contact details can be found here (URL: http://www.idausa.org/campaigns/korea/koreando.html )
[About picture on right] :Dogs in South Korea are often beaten before being killed because of the belief that the adrenaline flow caused by the beatings increases virility in men who consume the dogs’ flesh.
Without pressure from international communities, Korea is likely to continue the cruel treatment of dogs & cats. More people need to voice their concern and respectfully seek the cooperation of the Korean heads of government. If you are Korean or have Korean connections, please let them know about this sad issue and seek their help to spread this message. Ideally, if this issue can receive Korean media coverage that would enable it to be broadcast nationally, it could have an effective reach.
With these soaring summer temperatures, please don’t leave your poor pets in your car, even with the windows semi-open. The air inside a car very quickly rises to extremely high temperatures in the sun, and even in the shade when the sun moves overhead as time passes. If you sit in the car with the windows even 3/4 open, you will find it excruciatingly intolerable, so please, leave your pets well ventilated at home, with lots of fresh cool water and spare them the misery of heat trauma (and even death) in the hot car.
How You Can Help
> Call your local SPCA if you see an animal suffering from trapped heat in a car. (The Royal Canadian Mounted Police charges drivers a fine of CAD$100 for animals left inside a car.)
> This Summer, Be an Angel to a Neglected Backyard Dog .
“New & Improved” Shampoo, lotion, cosmetics for humans come at a price for animals.
Have you ever wondered how many animals suffer in labs? It’s a good question. Because there are so many animals in laboratories and records are not kept for all animals, estimates of the number of animals tortured and killed annually in U.S. laboratories vary widely but are in the millions.
The Animal Welfare Act requires laboratories to report the number of animals used in experiments, but it does not cover mice, rats, and birds (used in some 80 to 95 percent of all experiments). Because these animals are not covered by the act, they remain uncounted, and we can only guess at how many actually suffer and die each year.
Many household products and cosmetics companies still pump their products into animals’ stomachs, rub them onto their skin, squirt them into their eyes, or force animals to inhale them as aerosol sprays. Charities such as the March of Dimes use donations from private citizens to fund experiments on animals, and the FDA requires all drugs to be tested on animals. However, animals differ from humans significantly, making animal drug tests unreliable and dangerous. New research methods, such as computer models, cell cultures, and human studies are more accurate, less expensive, and much more humane.
— Meet David Waitzman, an animal experimenter at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Waitzman had a $1.7 million grant from the federal government that funded his cruel research on monkeys. He used the money to drill holes into monkeys’ skulls and implant steel coils in their eyeballs over and over again.
Let me share with you a shocking account from an actual cage log of Cornelius, one of the tortured monkeys in Waitzman’s experiments. Cornelius suffered from tremors and seizures for more than eight months after Waitzman drilled into his skull, yet Waitzman continued to use Cornelius in experiments in which he was held immobile in a restraint chair and his brain was poked and prodded. On his final day, Cornelius started vomiting and convulsing during an experiment. The convulsions developed into grand mal seizures, and Cornelius died from cardiac arrest.
So many helpless animals like Cornelius—some just babies—are condemned to spend their entire lives in barren metal cages in windowless laboratories. They are force-fed, injected with toxins, and afflicted with painful diseases. Chemicals are sprayed in their eyes and poured down their throats, and electrodes are implanted in their brains. Experimenters cut tissue from animals’ bodies without any anesthesia. All the animals are scared, and many die slow, painful deaths, as Cornelius did.
—
Companies that do not test on animals proudly state it on their labels. Send back items that you have from companies that test on animals, and write a letter to the companies explaining why you won’t buy their products anymore. For more information on animal testing and a list of companies that do not test on animals, see PETA’s Shopping Guide for Caring Consumers and be sure to share it with your friends! Learn more . > Donate to help PETA in its efforts to stop unnecessary Animal Testing .
Right now, PETA members like you are helping to ease the suffering of abused animals all over the world. I’m glad that you’re part of our team, and I’d like to share recent examples of how our work together makes a difference for animals.
Victory for Animals Used for Food
Quiznos, a huge sandwich chain with more than 5,000 shops worldwide, has agreed to bring about better conditions for animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses—following nearly a year of behind-the-scenes negotiations with PETA.
These reforms, as well as those made already by Burger King, Wendy’s, Hardees, and many other restaurant and grocery chains—all as a direct result of PETA pressure—are revolutionizing the living and dying conditions of millions of individual farmed animals.
Victory for Victims of Glue Traps
After learning that a Washington Mutual (WaMu) bank in the Chicago area was using glue traps to catch mice, PETA presented JPMorgan Chase—which recently acquired WaMu—with the facts about animals entangled in glue traps, who often suffer from torn flesh and broken bones in their panicked efforts to escape. The company promptly announced that it would permanently ditch glue traps across its branches and opt for more humane methods of resolving conflicts with mice and rats. JPMorgan Chase joins the many other major companies that have agreed to stop selling glue traps, including CVS, Rite Aid (including its subsidiaries Brooks and Eckerd), Walgreens, and Dollar Tree, Inc.
Victory for Animals Used for Clothing
After years of pressure from PETA and animal rights activists nationwide, JCPenney has finally agreed to stop selling fur! PETA first wrote to JCPenney about its support of the cruel fur industry in 2001, and we had kept the pressure on the company ever since. JCPenney now joins other major retailers and designers—including Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Liz Claiborne Inc., Polo Ralph Lauren, J.Crew, and Forever 21—who no longer use or sell fur as a result of PETA’s efforts.
While there’s still so much work left to do, I hope that you take great hope and pride in the progress that we’re making to help animals, which is a direct result of your support. Thank you for your generosity!
Following message from Humane Society Canada : This is our chance to pass a law to help seals!
Ask your Senators to support the “Harb Seal Bill.”
Dear Friends,
I’m writing to urgently ask for your help.
On March 3rd, Senator Mac Harb introduced a historic bill to end the commercial seal hunt in Canada. For the first time, Canadians can support a legislative initiative in our own country that would save hundreds of thousands of defenseless seal pups each year from a horrible fate.
Sadly, no other Senator has yet stepped forward to support the Bill, and many are organizing to work against it. We risk the “Harb Seal Bill” being lost if we don’t act quickly.
TAKE ACTION
As a Canadian, speaking up for the seals has never been more crucial. We are asking that you send a message to your Senators — copying your Member of Parliament — to urge them to support Bill S-229 (the “Harb Seal Bill”) to end the seal slaughter. Then, let your friends and family know how they can help, too.
On our recent visit to see this year’s baby harp seals, we were overwhelmed by the beauty of their icy nursery. The pups nursed from their protective mothers as the water lapped against the ice edge. To know that this peaceful scene will soon be turned into an open-air slaughterhouse is too much to bear, and many of us were in tears as we looked at the trusting babies, so oblivious now to their likely fate.
But there is hope on the horizon. With the European Union poised to ban its trade in seal products as early as next month, there may be little demand this year for seal fur. Canada’s fishing industry is feeling the impacts of a US boycott of Canadian seafood, and may soon remove its powerful lobby on behalf of the sealing industry.
As the ProtectSeals team returns to the ice floes, I know I can count on each and every one of you at home to help us save the seals.
Thank you for helping us keep up the fight for seals, and for all that you do for animals.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Aldworth
Director
Humane Society International/Canada
Please email or write a letter to restaurants and caterers that use cruel meats such as veal and foie gras. Feel free to use the following as a draft to customise your letter. (For those living in British Columbia BC, of Canada, you can find a list of restaurants that serve such cruel cuisine here . URL : http://www.liberationbc.com/campaigns/foie_gras )
——-draft letter as follows—-
TO: [Name of Restaurant]
AGAINST CRUEL CUISINE : VEAL & FOIE GRAS
I am writing on behalf of my friends, relatives and fellow volunteers to state our stand against the use of veal and foie gras in restaurants and caterers.We are also requesting that your restaurant stop serving these meats which are seen by many as cruel cuisine. Until then, we, our friends and their friends will not be visiting your restaurant for dining, or to celebrate special occasions.
The following are the reasons why we advocate against serving veal and foie gras :
VEAL
Male calves are taken from their mothers shortly after birth. Some are slaughtered soon after birth for “bob veal.” Others are raised in “open pens,” a kind of minimum security prison, and even then they are sometimes chained. Most are destined for the veal crate.
Solitary Confinement
The veal crate is a wooden restraining device that is the veal calf’s permanent home. It is so small (22″ x 54″) that the calves cannot turn around or even lie down and stretch and is the ultimate in high-profit, confinement animal agriculture.(1) Designed to prevent movement (exercise), the crate does its job of atrophying the calves’ muscles, thus producing tender “gourmet” veal.
“Feeding” Time
The calves are generally fed a milk substitute intentionally lacking in iron and other essential nutrients. This diet keeps the animals anemic and creates the pale pink or white color desired in the finished product. Craving iron, the calves lick urine-saturated slats and any metallic parts of their stalls. Farmers also withhold water from the animals, who, always thirsty, are driven to drink a large quantity of the high-fat liquid feed.
A Fate Worse Than Death
During their brief lives, these claves never see the sun or touch the Earth. They never see or taste the grass. Their anemic bodies crave proper sustenance. Their muscles ache for freedom and exercise. They long for maternal care. They are kept in darkness except to be fed two to three times a day for 20 minutes. The calves have committed no crime, yet have been sentenced to a fate comparable to any Nazi concentration camp.
For videos to see how veal is produced, go to www.youtube.com, type “veal cruel” in the search box to watch any of the videos.
FOIE GRAS
is produced by cruel and inhumane farming practices. At just a few months old, ducks are confined inside dark sheds and force-fed enormous amounts of food several times a day. A farm worker grabs each duck and, one by one, thrusts a metal pipe down their throats so that a mixture of corn can be forced directly into their gullets. In just a matter of weeks, the ducks become grossly overweight and their livers expand up to 10 times their normal size.
For videos to see how veal is produced, go to www.youtube.com, type “foie gras force feeding” in the search box to watch any of the videos.
CONCLUSION
We applaud and celebrate the few Vancouver restaurants that have removed foie gras from their menus:
Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill, Pearl Drops Tea House.
Even Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, has banned foie gras from his restaurants after learning the immense suffering that ducks, geese, cows and calves go through.We ask for you to have some compassion and kindness.Put yourself in the shoes of these defenceless animals. If you are them, you wouldn’t want your entire life to be such a misery.
