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Whales

Whales in Danger

Ear-splitting military sonar and the industrialization of the oceans are threatening whale populations worldwide.

Photos (c) Corbis: Top left, humpback; tops right, orcas; above, gray whale breaching in Laguna San Ignacio.

Threats to whales around the world are escalating, as the use of deadly military sonar spreads through the oceans and industrialization despoils critical whale habitat. In Alaska’s Cook Inlet, the beluga whale population has plummeted to only 375 animals as pollution increases. And ear-splitting military sonar is needlessly harming populations of whales as the U.S. Navy continues to refuse to use common-sense safeguards during training exercises.

NRDC is fighting on all fronts to protect imperiled whales throughout the world’s oceans. In 2008, under pressure from NRDC and other conservation groups, the National Marine Fisheries Service placed Cook Inlet belugas on the endangered species list. However, the state of Alaska -- in a move to protect oil and gas interests -- intends to challenge this decision. NRDC will go to court to protect Alaska’s most endangered whales.

NRDC is also waging a campaign of courtroom action, administrative advocacy and public pressure to compel the Navy to restrict its use of deadly sonar, which has been linked to hundreds of whale strandings and deaths around the world. NRDC has made enormous progress over the past decade in compelling the military to study the impacts of sonar and put precautions in place. But a set of eleventh-hour rules adopted by the Bush Administration would allow the Navy to harm whales more than 2 million times each year along the eastern seaboard, the Gulf of Mexico, California, and Hawaii. We are asking the new administration to revisit those rules and will continue to push for reasonable safeguards to ensure the Navy conducts sonar training in an environmentally responsible manner -- so that whales don’t have to die for practice.

Factory Farms

Vegan Outreach is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization dedicated to
reducing the suffering of farmed animals
by promoting informed, ethical eating.

Vegan Outreach

POB 30865, Tucson, AZ 85751-0865

Visit our networking pages:

“U.S. society is extremely naive about the nature of agricultural production.

“[I]f the public knew more about the way in which agricultural and animal production infringes on animal welfare, the outcry would be louder.”

Bernard E. Rollin, PhD
Farm Animal Welfare
Iowa State U. Press, 2003

Many people believe that animals raised for food must be treated well because sick or dead animals would be of no use to agribusiness. This is not true.

The competition to produce inexpensive meat, eggs, and dairy products has led animal agribusiness to treat animals as objects and commodities. The worldwide trend is to replace small family farms with “factory farms”—large warehouses where animals are confined in crowded cages or pens or in restrictive stalls.¹

Bernard Rollin, PhD, explains that it is “more economically efficient to put a greater number of birds into each cage, accepting lower productivity per bird but greater productivity per cage…individual animals may ‘produce,’ for example gain weight, in part because they are immobile, yet suffer because of the inability to move…Chickens are cheap, cages are expensive.”²

In an article recommending space be reduced from 8 to 6 square feet per pig, industry journal National Hog Farmer suggests that “Crowding pigs pays.”³

See also: investigations; video; Meet Your Meat (order).

Birds

Chickens raised for meat (click for larger image; courtesy of PETA).

“In my opinion, if most urban meat eaters were to visit an industrial broiler house, to see how the birds are raised, and could see the birds being ‘harvested’ and then being ‘processed’ in a poultry processing plant, they would not be impressed and some, perhaps many of them would swear off eating chicken and perhaps all meat.”

Peter Cheeke, PhD
Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture
2004 textbook

In the United States, virtually all birds raised for food are factory farmed.⁴ Inside the densely populated buildings, where they are confined their entire lives, enormous amounts of waste accumulate. The resulting ammonia levels commonly cause painful burns to the birds' skin, eyes, and respiratory tracts.⁵

As reported in “Settling Doubts About Livestock Stress,” published in the March 2005 issue of Agricultural Research magazine (USDA ARS), "Farmers trim from a third to a half of the beaks off chickens, turkeys, and ducks to cut losses from poultry pecking each other." This causes severe pain for several weeks.⁸ Some, unable to eat after being debeaked, starve.² Professor John Webster, of the University of Bristol’s School of Veterinary Science, has said: “Broilers are the only livestock that are in chronic pain for the last 20% of their lives.”

Egg-Laying Hens

Packed in wire cages (the industry average is less than half a square foot of floor space per bird),⁶ hens can become immobilized and die of asphyxiation or dehydration. Decomposing corpses are found in cages with live birds. Tens of millions (approximately 14%) of egg-laying hens die during production each year.^6,7

Laying hens in battery cages (click for larger image; courtesy of Farm Sanctuary).

Those who survive are removed from the farms when deemed no longer economically viable. Some of these “spent hens” (the industry term for layers who have completed their egg production cycles) are sold for slaughter; the rest are rendered, composted, or destroyed by other means (e.g., on two California farms, workers fed 30,000 live hens into wood chippers). By the time spent hens are removed for low production, their skeletons are so fragile that many suffer broken bones during catching, transport, or shackling.³⁶

Male chicks, of no economic value to the egg industry, are typically gassed² or macerated (ground up alive).⁹ Maceration is becoming a common method for disposing of male chicks.

Pigs

The Food Marketing Institute’s (FMI) Animal Welfare Program guidelines do not require that a sow (mother pig) have enough room to walk or turn around, but rather that she actually has enough room to fit in the cage without being forced against the bars.³¹ Some in the pig industry believe that these regulations that don't allow for walking or turning are something to be proud of: “Hog producers should toot own horn.”

In the September 1976 issue of the industry journal Hog Farm Management, John Byrnes advised: “Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory.”

Piglet biting cage (click for larger image; courtesy of PETA).

Today’s pig farmers have done just that. As Morley Safer related on 60 Minutes: “This [motion picture Babe] is the way Americans want to think of pigs. Real-life ‘Babes’ see no sun in their limited lives, with no hay to lie on, no mud to roll in. The sows live in tiny cages, so narrow they can’t even turn around. They live over metal grates, and their waste is pushed through slats beneath them and flushed into huge pits.”

On September 17, 2008, the Associated Press reported on a cruelty investigation performed by PETA at a pig farm in Iowa. The report stated in part:

The video, shot by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, shows farm workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods into sows’ hindquarters.…

At one point in the video, workers are shown slamming piglets on the ground, a practice designed to instantly kill those baby pigs that aren’t healthy enough. But on the video, the piglets are not killed instantly, and in a bloodied pile, some piglets can be seen wiggling vainly. The video also shows piglets being castrated, and having their tails cut off, without anesthesia.

Dairy Cows


	Veal calf (click for larger image; courtesy of PETA).

From 1940 to 2008, average per-cow milk production rose from 2 to 10 tons per year;³⁸ some cows have surpassed 30 tons.⁹ High milk production often causes udder breakdown, leading to early slaughter.¹

It is unprofitable to keep cows alive once their milk production declines. They are usually killed at 5 to 6 years of age,¹ though their normal life span exceeds 20.

Dairy cows are rarely allowed to nurse their young.¹ Many male calves are slaughtered immediately, while others are raised for “special-fed veal”—kept in individual stalls and chained by the neck on a 2–3 foot tether for 18 to 20 weeks before being slaughtered.⁹

See also: How does drinking milk hurt cows?; Tour a Dairy Farm; and this Q&A explaining the fate of cows on an organic dairy farm.

Free-Range Farms

A growing number of people are looking to free-range products as an alternative to factory-farmed animal products. Poultry meat may be labeled “free-range” if the birds were provided an opportunity to access the outdoors. No other requirements—such as the stocking density, the amount of time spent outdoors, or the quality and size of the outdoor area—are specified by the USDA.³⁷ As a result, free-range conditions may amount to 20,000 birds crowded inside a shed with a single exit leading to a muddy strip, saturated with droppings.

The free-range label applies only to birds raised for meat, not eggs. There is a cage-free label for eggs; but it is not regulated by the USDA, nor does it guarantee that the hens were provided access to the outdoors. Neither label requires third-party certification. Even for USDA Organic, the most extensively regulated label, minimum levels of outdoor access have not been set and specific rules do not apply to stocking density or flock size.³⁷

Male chicks, of no value to the egg industry, are killed at birth; and female chicks, whether destined for cages or not, are typically debeaked at the hatchery. Although hens can live more than 10 years, they’re killed after a year or two.

Free-range and cage-free farms vary greatly, and while they may be an improvement over conventional farms, they are by no means free of suffering. Visiting the farms and slaughterhouses is the only way to know how the animals are being raised and killed before the meat hits your plate.

For more information, see this page.

“To visit a modern CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) is to enter a world that, for all its technological sophistication, is still designed according to Cartesian principles: animals are machines incapable of feeling pain. Since no thinking person can possibly believe this any more, industrial animal agriculture depends on a suspension of disbelief on the part of the people who operate it and a willingness to avert your eyes on the part of everyone else.

Chick being debeaked (click for larger image; courtesy of PETA).

“From everything I’ve read, egg and hog operations are the worst. Beef cattle in America at least still live outdoors, albeit standing ankle deep in their own waste eating a diet that makes them sick. And broiler chickens…at least don’t spend their eight-week lives in cages too small to ever stretch a wing. That fate is reserved for the American laying hen, who passes her brief span piled together with a half-dozen other hens in a wire cage whose floor a single page of this [New York Times] magazine could carpet. Every natural instinct of this animal is thwarted, leading to a range of behavioral ‘vices’ that can include cannibalizing her cagemates and rubbing her body against the wire mesh until it is featherless and bleeding.… [T]he 10 percent or so of hens that can’t bear it and simply die is built into the cost of production. And when the output of the others begins to ebb, the hens will be ‘force-molted’—starved of food and water and light for several days in order to stimulate a final bout of egg laying before their life’s work is done.…

Many breeding sows spend their adult lives in gestation and farrowing stalls where they cannot turn around (click for larger image; courtesy of PETA).

“Piglets in confinement operations are weaned from their mothers 10 days after birth (compared with 13 weeks in nature) because they gain weight faster on their hormone- and antibiotic-fortified feed. This premature weaning leaves the pigs with a lifelong craving to suck and chew, a desire they gratify in confinement by biting the tail of the animal in front of them. A normal pig would fight off his molester, but a demoralized pig has stopped caring. ‘Learned helplessness’ is the psychological term, and it’s not uncommon in confinement operations, where tens of thousands of hogs spend their entire lives ignorant of sunshine or earth or straw, crowded together beneath a metal roof upon metal slats suspended over a manure pit. So it’s not surprising that an animal as sensitive and intelligent as a pig would get depressed, and a depressed pig will allow his tail to be chewed on to the point of infection. Sick pigs, being underperforming ‘production units,’ are clubbed to death on the spot. The USDA’s recommended solution to the problem is called ‘tail docking.’ Using a pair of pliers (and no anesthetic), most but not all of the tail is snipped off. Why the little stump? Because the whole point of the exercise is not to remove the object of tail-biting so much as to render it more sensitive. Now, a bite on the tail is so painful that even the most demoralized pig will mount a struggle to avoid it.…

“More than any other institution, the American industrial animal farm offers a nightmarish glimpse of what capitalism can look like in the absence of moral or regulatory constraint. Here in these places life itself is redefined—as protein production—and with it suffering. That venerable word becomes ‘stress,’ an economic problem in search of a cost-effective solution, like tail-docking or beak-clipping or, in the industry’s latest plan, by simply engineering the ‘stress gene’ out of pigs and chickens. Our own worst nightmare such a place may well be; it is also real life for the billions of animals unlucky enough to have been born beneath these grim steel roofs, into the brief, pitiless life of a ‘production unit’ in the days before the suffering gene was found.”

Michael Pollan, “An Animal’s Place,”

Pets as Pawns in Domestic Violence

Some people are cat people. Some people are dog people. Bird, fish, reptile and other animal-type people abound as well. "Fur People" (as pets are known in many homes) have some great assets, just by nature of being our pets. They're usually home, even in the middle of the night. Substance abuse among the pet population is rare (catnip might be an exception). Unemployment is expected of them, and they love us unconditionally. Animal companions are good for us. Studies show that people with pets have lower blood pressure, live longer lives and suffer from less anxiety.

But for victims of domestic violence, pets can become a barrier to leaving an abusive relationship and can even become a tool of violence for an abusive partner who is willing to injure or kill a pet as a retaliation or as part of a pre-emptive strike designed to gain or maintain control by means of terrorism. The more you or your children are attached to a pet, the more that pet can be seen by an abuser as a means to control you. Pets are also often seen as being in competition with an abusive partner for your attention.

Even if a spouse has never been violent towards YOU, it's vital that you take even the threat of violence against a pet seriously - not only for the pet's safety, but for your own as well. Tons of research has been done on the issue of animal abuse and the relation to child abuse and spouse battering and the facts are in: threats or actions against your pet are a very strong indicator that violence is on the way for you or your children.

Of 50 shelters surveyed about women and children escaping from domestic violence, 85% said that women in their shelter talked about pet abuse, 63% of children talked about pet abuse, and 83% said that they had observed the coexistence of domestic violence and pet abuse.

See: The Abuse of Animals and Domestic Violence:
A National Survey of Shelters for Women Who Are Battered".
By Frank R. Ascione, Ph.D, Claudia V. Weber, M.S., and David S. Wood,
Utah State University, Logan, Utah. Society and Animals, 5(3): 205-218. 1997.

Further research indicates that 70% to 75% of women reporting domestic violence also reported that their partner had threatened and/or actually hurt or killed one or more of their pets. Actual (as distinct from threatened) harm to pets represented the majority (57%) of reports.

See: " Battered Women's Reports of Their Partners' and Their Children's
Cruelty to Animals" By Frank R. Ascione, Ph.D, Utah State University,
Logan, Utah. Originally published in Journal of Emotional Abuse, Vol. 1(1) 1998.

Nearly half (46.4%) of the incidents involved the father, stepfather, or woman's boyfriend as the perpetrator. 93% of the children indicating they were "sort of upset " or "very upset" by the incidents. 50% of these children said they had protected pets, in some cases by directly intervening to keep pets from being harmed. See: "Animal Welfare and Domestic Violence". By Frank R. Ascione, Ph.D, Claudia V. Weber, M.S., and David S. Wood, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. Originally submitted to The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, April 25, 1997.

If your partner harms your pet in any way, consider filing a police report. Not only can this result in criminal charges, but as part of the bigger picture it helps to build your case for a restraining order to protect yourself and the rest of the famly, establishes a paper trail on the trend of violence from the abusive partner, and can start the ball rolling for your state crime victim compensation program to cover costs associated with abusive criminal action (remember to save all your vet bills). It also helps to establish a civil case against an abusive partner for intentional infliction of emotional distress should you decide to sue an abuser in civil court at a (much) later date.

Unfortunately, many victims stay in abusive relationships because they don't know what to do with their pets. Many victims, up to 25%, report that concern for their pets had affected their decisions about leaving or staying with the batterer. Higher proportions of rural than urban women reported that their partners had threatened or harmed their pets and that concern for their pets had affected their decisions. See: "To Leave or to Stay? Battered Women's Concern for Vulnerable Pets" by Catherine A. Faver, Elizabeth B. Strand. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Beverly Hills: Dec 2003.Vol.18, Iss. 12; pg. 1367.

Family, friends, or a local domestic violence safe house might welcome you and your children, but what do you do about Fluffy?

If you are thinking about leaving because of domestic violence but hesitating because you don't want to leave your pet behind, always call your local program and let them know the situation - it's not a unique one. Some shelter programs have on-site kennels, others have other arrangements in place. Ask the program to help you find someone willing to house your pet. Many domestic violence programs work with local animal rescue programs or their local Humane Society to find safe and loving homes for your pet until you've made safer arrangements for yourself and your children. Just because you've never seen it advertised, don't assume that the help isn't available. You've got to ASK. Your safety and the safety of your pet depend on it!

Other things to do include:

Develop an emergency plan for sheltering the pets (check out the First Strike Planning Guide and the Personal Safety Plan on this website)
Establish ownership of the pets: obtain an animal license, proof of vaccinations or veterinary receipts in your name to help prove who owns the pets
Prepare the pets for departure (collect vaccination and medical records, collar and identification, medication, bowls, bedding, etc.).
Ask for assistance from law enforcement or animal care and control officers to reclaim the pets if left behind.

Resources: The Humane Society maintains the Online Directory of Safe Havens for Animals Programs. You can find a local pet shelter at the Humane Society Website. Also check the Pets 911.com website for local rescue groups and emergency vets.

Streaming Video on Pet Abuse

Streaming Online Video: Humane Society: First Strike (8:33)

Streaming Online Video: Humane Society: Domestic Violence and Pets

Streaming Online Video: Humane Society: Safe Havens from Domestic Violence

Streaming Online Video: Seattle Police Dept. "Beyond the Badge": looks at the correlation between animal cruelty and domestic violence.

If you are interested in starting a shelter program for animal victims of domestic violence, you can download:

Safe Havens for Pets: Guidelines for Programs Sheltering
Pets for Women Who Are Battered (PDF file)
by Frank R. Ascione, Ph.D., the world's leading authority on
the connections between animal abuse, child abuse, and
domestic violence. A must read for every domestic violence
worker, advocate, student, and supporter.

To learn how to implement a temporary sheltering program for animals of family violence victims, download The HSUS's new resource, Starting a Safe Havens for Animals Program (PDF).

Then check out the operational guide called "Handling the Pets of Domestic Violence Victims". Written for animal shelters, this 5 page guide discusses the concerns and possible procedures of offering temporary shelter to the pets of those who leave domestic violence situations. Publication Number AOG480; $4.00. Order from The American Humane Society

We also highly recommend Breaking the Cycles of Violence (Set) A Video and Training Manual. When animals are abused, people are at risk; when people are abused, animals are at risk. This video, which is accompanied by a 64-page cross training manual, assists child protection, human service and domestic violence, and animal welfare professionals to identify, report, investigate, and treat interrelated forms of family violence. The video is a sensitive portrayal featuring a cross-disciplinary team of experts. It promotes community awareness about the connections between family violence and animal abuse. The video and manual are designed to train agency personnel, cross-train other agencies, sensitize community groups, and build coalitions. (26 minutes). Avaliable for about $30.00 from the Latham Foundation.

Pictures of Animal Abuse

Pictures of Animal Abuse - Cat abused, neglected - Photo by kayi1117

Here's some pictures of animal abuse to remind us how dysfunctional and cruel the world often is. All of them make me feel sick, ashamed and angry.

Our capacity to forget is awesome. Everything gets washed away in time. What we don't see or hear on a regular basis gets forgotten. Short term human memory is how politicians survive making errors. They just try and see the problem off for long enough until people forget.

This video shows some shocking pictures of animal abuse. We don't often see these. Pictures of Animal Abuse should be put in front of us every day until we do something about it. Out of sight out of mind.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - legalized animal abuse. Photo by Brian Gunn with his permission.

Declawing is legalised animal abuse of the worst kind simply because it is condoned by veterinarians, the very people who are meant to be the guardians of animal's well being and health.

A lot of animal abuse is legalized in the form of scientific or medical research. It is obviously animal abuse but the pain we cause to other animals is meant to be offset by the benefit to us. I personally never understood this. Where in the rules of life does it say that this equation works? The truth is we all know that animal testing is wrong but justify it by its benefits. That said many people have little respect for animals and it doesn't seem to matter if the person is educated or not. Scientists are obviously educated but they still work for the big pharmaceutical companies and the big pet food suppliers and prod and poke and poison and destroy animals in the name of science.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - dog "chained" to a door and in a poor way. This is the kind of animal abuse perpetrated by the underclass, the uneducated and the damaged angry and violent people. Photo by parrotcharmer

So at one end of the spectrum we have high class animal cruelty, the academic kind and at the other end we have low level people, angry young people, ill educated and badly brought up people who have no moral compass and who were probably abused themselves, abusing animals. It is what they have no doubt learned from their parents.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - cat burned by girls for the fun of it. This cat recovered. He is Adam. he is strong and forgiving - photo by wndrngwlf - Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County. His story can be seen here.

It would seem that a far bit of animal abuse (as the picture above of animal abuse attests) are carried out by teenagers, both girls and boys. Sometimes they just like to shoot airgun pellets at cats (this goes to cats with guns a page about the cult sometime ago and mentions animal cruelty in the UK as well, plus the "China problem"). Here's another page of airgun attacks in the UK - total madness.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - battery chickens. Are we prepared to pay more for free range chickens? Photo credit Farm Sanctuary

Somewhere in between the academics and the damaged teenagers are the farmers. A lot of animal abuse takes place on farms in an entirely legalized manner such as battery farming. There was a recent campaign in England by a well known TV personality, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, against intensive chicken farming for example.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - Dogs caged on a lorry going to the dog and cat meat market where they will be half killed before being sold to a customer. This makes the flesh taste better. Photo by kilroy238. We owe a special duty of care towards domestic animals, cats and dogs, that is over and above that owed to farm livestock as we agreed to live with them. The agreement didn't include eating them and abusing them. Livestock also have rights.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - Not institutionalized animal abuse such as animal testing but an individual in China who dragged this dog onto the bus with wire collar. Shame on you Mr. I'd like to do the same to you. Photo by silverlinedwinnebago. An example only of other countries where domestic animals are mistreated are Ghana, Ecuador and Guatemala and India, see chained monkey below:

Pictures of Animal Abuse - chained monkey. These animals become mentally very damaged and the thing is human keepers just don't get it. They have no conception of the cruelty of their actions due to a lack of education and sensitivity.

Then we have that great and venerable nation, China and the animal abuse that is perpetrated there, on many levels and on all manner of animals both in the name of their ancient medicine (the scourge of the many fine wild animals including the big cats and bears) and as food for the plate. The trouble is a number of Chinese abuse domestic animals (see picture above) and eat them. China's animal rights record is very poor and the same applies to other eastern countries. They are named and shamed by me. China has no animal welfare laws. Most if not all western countries have animal protection/welfare law s.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - Some European countries also practice animal abuse and cruelty in the name of profit. Pigs are castrated in Belgium without anethestic so their flesh tastes better when eaten. Photo by Toos&TheSea. Switzerland is involved in the cat fur trade.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - And in Spain we have bullfighting. Today this must be considered animal abuse. Photo by 3pom

Animal abuse is widespread. In the UK cases of reported and discovered animal abuse or cruelty rose between 2004 (1700) and 2006 (2071). These are the tip of the iceberg. Many cases are never reported obviously.

Another form of legalized animal cruelty is the mass slaughter of over 2 million shelter cats every year in the USA. Most (I hope of these cats are euthanized - meaning killed painlessly) but many are not, they are simply killed by various means. This causes suffering and that in my book is animal abuse and animal cruelty and it is carried out by animal lovers! Maybe there shouldn't be any animal shelters or volunteers doing trap, neuter, return. Maybe we should let the cat population grow so people actually saw it. In many ways the shelters encourage irresponsible cat keeping ("ownership") by mopping up the mess for free. Yes, this would cause more cat suffering in theshort term but in the long term there would be a gain as something proactive and long lasting would, hopefully, be done. Or would it?

Pictures of Animal Abuse - Dog fighting - photo by Daquella manera under a creative commons license

Another form of animal abuse is dog fighting and cock fighting. Then there is hare coursing. Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares by greyhounds or whippets. It is a blood sport. Another blood sport is fox hunting. Fox hunting is innately cruel and justified by the upper classes in the UK as a control of the fox population, which is just another one of those faintly ridiculous excuses to assuage their guilt at doing something that they know is a form ofanimal abuse.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - There are many other forms of animal abuse some are debatable. Is dressing a cat up in funny clothes or a silly hat animal abuse? Photo by devlyn. I am not criticizing the photographer and I don't think it is animal abuse but it doesn't seem to respect the cat.

Pictures of Animal Abuse? - hunted foxes photo by householdriot

For me sport hunting is animal abuse and one of the main causes of the steep decline in wild animals in the world such as the wild Cougar, Bengal tiger and Cheetah. This picture shows foxes hunted in Australia. Australia seems to adopt a rather cruel approach to wildlife as they also hunt the feral cat and this is endorsed by the government (see feral cats of Australia).

Other forms of abuse are puppy and kitten mills, the mass breeding of dogs and cats for profit with little concern for the animal. Also the making of Foie Gras isanimal abuse. Ducks are force fed which enlarges the liver making it delicate and buttery to eat.

Pictures of Animal Abuse - Foie gras production causes immense suffering and is patently cruel. It is the reality behind the fresh, fragrant and classy ambiance of the fine restaurant. Photo credit Farm Sanctuary.

Cats are resilient and forgiving. They don't hold grudges even when a person or persons set a cat on fire. This is not that unusual. What I mean is that cruelty to cats and animals generally is not that unusual. It is often young people who do it. The horrible thing is that the person or persons who did this (see video below) wanted to be cruel to an animal and chose to set it on fire! Or did they actually realise that they were being cruel? Did they feel the pain or have empathy with the cat. What I mean is could they relate to the pain and distress that they were causing? I don't think they did.

Legislation

The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act (H.R. 503/S. 727) will end the slaughter of horses for human consumption and the domestic and international transport of live horses or horseflesh for human consumption.

The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act (H.R. 503) was introduced in the U.S. House on January 14, 2009 by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) and Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN). An identical version (S. 727) was introduced in the Senate on March 26, 2009 by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and veterinarian and Senator John Ensign (R-NV).

The horse slaughter industry and its supporters are working very hard to mislead the public and members of Congress. Thankfully, the facts are very easy on this cruel and preditory industry. To learn more about the issue, check our AWI's Facts and FAQs About Horse Slaughter.

For a list of horse organizations, rescues and industry leaders opposed to horse slaughter and in support of efforts to ban the practice, click here.

BETRAYING OUR EQUINE ALLY

Horse sanctuaries and rescue organizations provide care for horses who have suffered from abuse or neglect. Many are able to be adopted to loving homes for the remainder of their lives with veterinary treatment and care. (Stephanie Shain)

Horses have served humans throughout history, carrying us on their backs, tilling our fields, drawing wagons and carriages, and enriching our lives as friends and companions. In the United States, horses have never been raised for human consumption, yet for decades, our horses have been bought and slaughtered by a predatory, foreign-owned industry for sale to high-end diners in Europe and Asia. In 2007, the slaughter of horses on US soil came to an end when a court ruling upheld a Texas law banning horse slaughter, and similar legislation was passed in Illinois.

However, failure by the US Congress to pass legislation banning horse slaughter means that American horses are still being slaughtered for human consumption abroad. Tens of thousands are shipped to Mexico and Canada annually, where they are killed under barbaric conditions so their meat can continue to satisfy the palates of overseas diners in countries such as Italy, France, Belgium and Japan.

Additionally, without the federal law, there remains the threat that horse slaughter plants may set up shop in states that have no laws against the practice. In the beginning of 2008, unsuccessful attempts were made to open a horse slaughterhouse in South Dakota and overturn the Illinois ban. It is likely that pro-horse slaughter organizations will try again elsewhere in the United States, including Texas and Illinois.

Ironically, while the most vocal opponents of the effort to end horse slaughter decry the closure of the domestic plants and subsequent increase in the export of horses for slaughter, some actively partner with the very slaughterhouses that are shipping our horses to Mexico.

While a handful of horses are purposely sold into slaughter by irresponsible owners, most arrive at the slaughterhouse via livestock auction, where unsuspecting owners sell the animals to slaughterhouse middlemen known as "killer buyers." Despite the fact that the US plants are no longer in operation, killer buyers continue to purchase and haul as many horses as possible from livestock auctions around the country to the slaughterhouses that have now relocated to Mexico and Canada.

Wild horses are also slaughtered, since a 2004 backdoor Congressional rider engineered by then-Senator Conrad Burns (R?MT) gutted the protections afforded by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. Now, the Bureau of Land Management, the agency responsible for protecting wild horses, must sell "excess" horses (those 10 years of age or older, or not adopted after three tries) at auction. As a result, wild horses are being removed from their range at an alarming rate and sold for slaughter. Sadly, the American Quarter Horse Association has hired former Senator Conrad Burns to lobby against legislation banning horse slaughter and other equine welfare measures.

Although awareness has grown exponentially in recent years, the horse meat trade is still relatively hidden from most Americans, and the industry wants to keep it that way. Warren Smith, operations manager of a Canadian horse slaughterhouse, was quoted as saying to the Edmonton Journal, "Talking about horses is kind of a scary thing, especially in the West, where people think it's more of a pet than protein. When anybody starts writing about horses, everybody gets up in arms. Every time we say anything about horse in the paper, there's always an uproar, so I don't want to talk about it."

Until the US Congress passes legislation banning horse slaughter into law, show horses, racehorses, foals born as "byproducts" of the Premarin? (a female hormone replacement drug) industry, wild horses, burros and family horses will all continue to fall prey to this detestable foreign-driven industry.

A BRUTAL DEATH

The suffering begins long before our horses even reach the slaughterhouse. Conditions of transport are appalling, with horses regularly hauled to our domestic borders on journeys lasting more than 24 hours. Deprived of food, water or rest, the horses are forced onto double-decked cattle trailers with ceilings so low that they injure their heads. Not only are these double-deckers inhumane, but they are also dangerous and have been involved in a number of tragic accidents.

The notorious "Wadsworth Crash" occurred in 2007 when a double-decker carrying 59 Belgian draft horses "blew through a stop light" and overturned in Illinois. For five hours, police officers, firefighters, local horse owners and other members of the community fought to free the horses from the mangled truck. By the time all the horses had been removed, nine had died, and another six later died because of the injuries they sustained.

In fact, federal regulations governing the transport of horses to slaughter are so deficient that they allow the movement of blind horses, horses with broken legs and heavily pregnant mares.

Upon arrival at the slaughterhouse, the suffering continues unabated. Horses can be left for long periods in tightly packed trailers, subjected to further extremes of heat and cold. In hot weather, their thirst is acute. Downed animals are unable to rise, and horses are offloaded using excessive force.

When the horses are herded through the plant to slaughter, callous workers use fiberglass rods to poke and beat their faces, necks, backs and legs as the animals are shoved through the facility and into the kill box. Subjected to overcrowding, deafening sounds and the smell of blood, the horses become more and more desperate, exhibiting fear typical of "flight" behavior?pacing in prance-like movements with their ears pinned back against their heads and eyes wide open.

Conditions over the border are even worse than those at the previously operational US plants. A 2007 investigation by The San Antonio News-Express revealed that the use of the puntilla knife on horses prior to slaughter is common practice in Mexican slaughter plants, such as a facility currently owned by Beltex, formerly operating in Texas.

Footage obtained by the paper shows horses being stabbed repeatedly in the neck with these knives prior to slaughter. Such a barbaric practice simply paralyzes the animal. The horse is still fully conscious at the start of the slaughter process, during which he or she is hung by a hind leg, his or her throat slit and body butchered. Death, the final betrayal of these noble animals, is protracted and excruciating.

DEBUNKING THE "UNWANTED HORSE" MYTH

In recent years, pro-horse slaughter organizations and individuals have consistently fought adoption of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act and Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, claiming that there is a huge "unwanted horse" population in the United States. Proponents of this unsubstantiated claim, including the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Quarter Horse Association (all members of the Horse Welfare Coalition, a group founded and led by the slaughterhouses and represented by former US Representative Charlie Stenholm of Texas) have lobbied Congress to block passage of the federal ban. Their premise is that slaughter improves horse welfare?offering a "humane" way to dispose of these animals, a "necessary evil" without which horses would be subjected to neglect, abandonment and abuse.

In truth, no hard data exists to back up claims about a burgeoning population of "unwanted horses." What is clear is that killer buyers working for the slaughterhouses are outbidding other buyers at auction because they have the financial incentive to do so. The market for slaughter horses is set by the international demand for their meat in other countries, not by the number of supposedly unwanted horses.

Thankfully, a truly humane veterinary organization has emerged to counter the bogus claims of these veterinary and industry organizations.

Veterinarians for Equine Welfare (VEW) was founded by a group of leading veterinarians to help educate the public about horse slaughter from a veterinary position.

During a trip to meet with legislators in Washington, D.C., VEW co-founder Dr. Nicholas Dodman said, "Horse owners currently have two options when their horse has reached the end of his or her trail: They can pay to do the right thing (re-home or euthanasia) or be paid to do the wrong thing (send to slaughter). A few thoughtless folks choose to do the latter, and it should not be an option."

ILLEGALLY ACQUIRED HORSES

Hundreds?perhaps thousands?of our horses are stolen each year. Horse thieves make quick money by unloading illegally obtained horses to killer buyers and slaughterhouses. Slaughterhouses typically kill and process them so quickly that it is almost impossible to trace and recover stolen animals in time to save their lives. Who would imagine their stolen animal was hauled across the border to be slaughtered for meat?

Judy Taylor of Kentucky sought help in caring for her two beloved Appaloosa horses, Poco and PJ, due to her own serious health problems. At the recommendation of a friend, she contacted Lisa and Jeff Burgess. The couple agreed to take care of the animals with the understanding that, if they were unable to continue doing so, the horses would be returned to Judy. Despite this agreement, within seven days of receiving the horses, the Burgesses sold them to a known killer buyer. Soon after, Judy discovered what had happened and frantically searched for the horses acquired with fraudulent intentions.

Eventually, she learned the horrifying truth?her horses had been slaughtered for their meat. Successful charges were brought against the Burgesses. The Kentucky Court of Appeals noted, "The Burgesses' conduct clearly rises to the level of being outrageous and intolerable in that it offends generally accepted standards of decency and morality, certainly a situation in which the recitation of the facts to an average member of the community would arouse his resentment against the actor, and lead him to exclaim, 'Outrageous!'"

In another tragic case, a horse owner in northwest Oklahoma contacted the Animal Welfare Institute to report that her two pregnant mares were purchased by someone who in turn sold them for slaughter. "Nobody that works at the auction barn let me know who was buying," she said. "I found out when I went to the office to ask how to notify the buyers so I could send them the breeding certificates." When the staff hinted that no certificates would be needed, the owner suspected something might be wrong. By the time she located the buyers, the mares had already been sent to Mexico and slaughtered.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Do not sell your horse at an auction where killer buyers may operate. Consider donating your horse to a rescue organization or retirement farm; donating, selling or leasing your horse to a therapeutic riding program; or selling the horse privately to an individual with proper references and a legally binding agreement that the horse will never be sold to slaughter. Humane euthanasia by a licensed veterinarian is preferable to cruel transport and slaughter.

Stolen horses may frequently end up at the slaughterhouse. Please report any stolen horses to local and state authorities. Likewise, if you witness an abused or abandoned horse, please report the details to your local animal control authority for further investigation. Not only does such abuse and neglect require immediate attention for the obvious welfare reasons, but these horses are also at risk of being sold into slaughter by uncaring owners.

Help raise awareness on the issue of horse slaughter by writing letters to the editors of your local newspapers and any equine publications you read. Talk about the horrors of horse slaughter and the solution to this cruelty: passage of legislation banning horse slaughter. You can also help our campaign by distributing AWI's "Betraying Our Equine Ally" brochure to others; extra copies are available from AWI upon request. Finally, contact your elected officials in the US Congress to let them know that you strongly support passage of the Act.


Dear Action Army,

HELP!!! join us in our networking endeavors to speak up, loudly and say no!! 
against illegal horse slaughter and the wipe out if the american wild horse, as 
well as sign the petition to free the 30.000 wild horses, currently trapped 
under abinimable conditions, underfed and close to starvation, facing only to be 
euthanized. Help FREE these horses. Join me on facebook  and help post links, 
banners and blog this into the world together. Or submit artwork or music and 
videos to this cause on all animal lovers' of the world facebook, myspace, twitter 
homepages!!! any new idea is great! we can all help, all ideas work and all 
ideas are welcome!!  Call your Congressman or Senator, or The President TODAY...This
IS SO HORRIBLE!!! 
Best, L
Studio City, CA

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000509373118

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Horse Slaughter Prevention