” I received this via email & wanted to share. This is horrific, why are these Countries being allowed to kill these animals in this way?? I can’t give a lot but £1 is better than nothing & a lot of £1 will add up & hopefully get this advert on the TV; to stop this heinous illegal type of slaughtering! I also found an unlisted video on youtube that I think everybody should be allowed to see! Graphic TV AD, Plus Graphic video at the end of this page FILMED BY A VET ON AN EXPORT SHIP “
Change his fate.Help expose live export sledgehammering on tv.
It’s been 6 days since we exposed the brutal reality of live export to Vietnam: terrified animals having their skulls smashed with sledgehammers.
Still, the trade continues.
That means young calves like him will grow up to risk the very same horror: sledgehammered to death in a filthy slaughterhouse. The ‘lucky ones’ die quickly. The unlucky ones feel everything — blow after agonising blow.
(VERY GRAPHIC… VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED; AT THE END OF THIS PAGE – Watch a video TAKEN ON-BOARD AN EXPORT SHIP BY A VET, after it was uploaded she lost her job!!!!).
These animals’ harrowing stories are sending shockwaves around the world. Our investigation made headlines in 34 countries. Our Prime Minister expressed his ‘shock’ and ‘disgust’. But it wasn’t followed by any meaningful action.
10 days out from an election and the last thing political leaders want is for their complicity in animal abuse to be thrown into the spotlight. With your help, that’s exactly what we’re about to do.
We urgently need to send a message to decision-makers that their promises and platitudes aren’t good enough. That for every animal who suffers for this industry, for every day a terrified steer is at risk of brutal sledgehammering — we will keep fighting for them.
We have just 48 hours to secure pre-election air time. Can you help us reach our goal? We don’t just have our sights set on TV — with your help we will target politicians when they read their news online, too.
For too long the odds have been stacked against animals, but right now we have a rare opportunity to hit the live export industry where it hurts.Help us seize it.
Even a small donation today can make a difference.
In whatever way you choose to help animals, thank you. Lyn White AM
Campaign Directo
Please donate to an emergency broadcast.
It’s not the first time Animals Australia investigators have exposed the horrific practice of sledgehammering animals to death in the live export trade. After 12 months, terrified animals are still having their skulls smashed on a nightly basis. Nothing Barnaby Joyce (the Agriculture Minister) has done to date will stop this horror continuing.
With just 9 days until the election, we need your urgent support to disrupt the election campaign with an emergency broadcast for animals. Help us get this online and on TV.
Australia’s Federal Agriculture Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has known for YEARS about sledgehammering in Vietnam. In that time, his Department has green-lit shiploads of animals to the region. In light of Animals Australia’s recent investigation exposing brutal sledgehammering yet again in Vietnam, he still refuses to suspend trade — putting more animals at risk of horrific cruelty. Tell the Minister what you think of the fact that NOTHING he’s done to date has prevented this extreme abuse from continuing: https://www.facebook.com/BarnabyJoyceMP/
“Please sign this petition, We have to keep the public updated on animal welfare issues. But with the AG- Gag Laws trying to be introduced to protect those who are blatantly flaunting the law; it’s hard to know what or where to turn to next. Please sign the petition here or further down.”
“We have to be the voice of the voiceless & ensure laws put in place to protect them; are in use!”
“YOU The PUBLIC have a voice, if you eat meat, don’t you want it to come from healthy farms, where the animals are cared for as they should be.? There are no excuses as you can see in the second video…but farmers cut corners to produce meat cheaply…would you honestly want to eat the meat that came from ill, diseased or filthy animals fed with slop??”
“Every time you open the door to one of these farms, you tell yourself: ‘it will be better than the last. They can’t all be ignoring the law, they can’t all be inflicting such misery.’ But then you see the pigs, and realise the scale of the suffering. It breaks your heart.”
Compassion’s Head of Investigations.
We have created a short video to summarise the findings of our investigation. Please help us to protect the pigs by watching it and sharing it as widely as possible.
The biggest scandal in modern pig farming?
Published on 23 Oct 2013
Much of the EU pig industry is completely ignoring basic welfare laws — leading to the suffering of millions of pigs. Compassion in World Farming has pulled together evidence from across Europe — join us in standing up for pig welfare by signing the petition: http://www.ciwf.org/EUpigvideo
Last year Compassion visited 45 pig farms across the EU. We went south to Italy and Spain; south-east to Cyprus; west to Ireland; and east to Poland and the Czech Republic. On every single farm we found the laws put in place to protect pig welfare were being flouted – the suffering was hard to witness.
And it doesn’t stop there.
We believe aspects of the Pigs Directive are being blatantly ignored all across the EU, inflicting illegal cruelty on millions of intelligent and sensitive animals. There are over 140 million pigs in the EU at any one time. Sometimes the scale of the challenge we are facing seems overwhelming.
But we have good news. The response to our petition has been amazing. It is the fastest growing petition in Compassion’s history; please help us keep up the momentum.
Humane, sustainable dairy farming can and does exist in California! In this film, Philip visits Strauss dairy whose organic dairy herd graze on pasture and are treated as much more than just units of production.
Over a three-year period Philip Lymbery (CEO of Compassion in World Farming) has travelled the world bearing witness to the hidden cost of cheap meat and the devastating impact of factory farming — on people, animals and our planet.
The findings of this journey are brought together for the very first time in Farmageddon (published by Bloomsbury).
” This heinous cruelty & horrific torture must be stopped; no animal should be treated this way. They are sentient beings capable of feelings just like humans! Do meat eaters really want to eat meat from animals that have been appallingly abused! The public have a right to know how the animals they intend to eat, are treated!
Those farms hoping to get Ag-Gag laws are doing so; because they don’t want the public to learn the truth, about the horrific violence & abuse used on their animals; once the public learn of this, they will think twice about buying their products. The people have the power to stop this by raising their voices & demanding better conditions for these poor neglected, abused & heinously treated animals; please use your voice to end this!! Please sign the petition below or at http://www.sliceofcruelty.com/
February 13, 2014 – By Matt Rice
Four workers at a dairy farm that was supplying cheese to DiGiorno Pizza are being charged with a total of 11 counts of criminal animal cruelty. Each count is punishable by up to nine months in jail and $10,000 in fines.
The charges stem from shocking animal abuse captured on a hidden-camera videoby Mercy For Animals at a Wisconsin dairy farm late last year. Abelardo Jaimes, Crescencio Pineda, Lucia Martinez, and Misael Monge-Minerowere charged with violating the state’s animal cruelty statute after they were caught on video viciously kicking, beating, whipping, dragging and stabbing cows at Wiese Brothers Farms in Greenleaf, Wisconsin.
MFA praises the Brown County Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office for taking swift and decisive action in pursuing justice for these abused and exploited animals.
Mercy For Animals is calling on Nestlé to adopt meaningful animal welfare guidelines, including zero tolerance for kicking, punching and shocking cows; requiring suppliers to prohibit painful and unnecessary mutilations of animals; and requiring suppliers to provide a safe, clean and sanitary environment for cattle. Tens of thousands of consumers have signed a petition at SliceOfCruelty.com, urging Nestlé to implement such policies, since the investigation’s release.
“These criminal charges should be a wake-up call that heartbreaking animal abuse runs rampant at DiGiorno cheese suppliers. Swift action must be taken to end this unspeakable cruelty. Nestlé has the power and responsibility to implement meaningful policies to end some of the worst forms of animal abuse in the dairy industry,” said MFA’s executive director, Nathan Runkle. “No socially responsible corporation should support dairy operations that torture animals.”
Please take action now to stop this type of blatant animal abuse by signing the petition at SliceOfCruelty.com.
After signing the petition, consider making changes in your own lifestyle to help animals by transitioning to a healthy and humane vegan diet. Visit ChooseVeg.com to learn more.
Watch the shocking hidden-camera video that led to the charges here:
Viewer Discretion Advised – WATCH: Cows Kicked, Stabbed and Dragged at DiGiorno Pizza Cheese Supplier (Please note, these are sentient beings, capable of feeling every strike, punch or kick) should animals be treated like this; just because they are going to be slaughtered? THE ANSWER IS NO!!
Published on 10 Dec 2013
Horrific undercover video taken by a Mercy For Animals investigator reveals disgusting animal cruelty at a DiGiorno dairy supplier. Workers kick, beat, and stab cows and drag them by their fragile legs and necks using chains attached to tractors.
“The video captures workers engaged in numerous serious acts of direct physical abuse and overt brutality—they whip, beat, slap, kick, stab and yell profanity at the cows. … There is a culture of serious neglect and mistreatment of animals in this facility, and the animals are suffering. This must stop.”
Dr. Debra Teachout
“There is no question in my mind, as a veterinarian experienced with farmed animals, including cows, that much of what was being done to the cows was inhumane, brutal and almost certainly a violation of the anti-cruelty statutes of many if not all states.”
Dr. Nedim Buyukmihci
“Dragging live cows, and completely suspending them with the cow lift is severe animal abuse. The actions of these people went beyond rough handling and escalated to the level of cruelty. Kicking, beating, and hard whipping of downed cows is abusive.”
Dr. Temple Grandin
“It is abuse to beat, kick or whip an animal that cannot get up. Hitting an animal in the face is particularly painful. The fact that cows in other scenes are beaten or kicked in the head and face demonstrates the workers have either learned or have been trained that this bothers the animals more than hitting them on other areas of their bodies.”
By Dr. James Reynolds
“Workers were observed to hit, kick and whip downer cows on multiple occasions. Cows were hit in their cervical (neck), thoracic, lumbar, and head regions using hands, ropes, and a thin plastic pipe. All of these actions would have unnecessary and unjustifiable pain and suffering.”
“And people ask me why I don’t eat meat…its not just the abuse they suffer, animals are sentient beings with feelings much like our own! I can’t be a part of that abuse & torture so prefer not to add to it by eating animal meats or stealing milk which is meant for animal offspring; being vegan or vegetarian is so much more healthy!! How would you like to live life in an iron jail for life; barely able to turn around.”
“I just don’t get this, the less an animal has suffered through life, the better the meat is supposed to be!! So why submit these animals to such barbaric torture, don’t tell me it’s to protect the young being sat on; that’s a load of old bull!!
If pigs are allowed to breed freely, are given straw to birth on & raise piglets, more will survive because the mom doesn’t sit on them on purpose!! When allowed, a sow will bring up her piglets just as well as a dog!!” These new viruses are being created by the way the animals are brought up…if your going to eat meat, the least you can do is make sure it came from a disease free farm!!”
On the heels of the recent viral diarrhea outbreak, yet another virus is plaguing pigs on factory farms in the Midwest, this time in Ohio.
“National Hog Farmer” magazine reports, “A new coronavirus has been identified in pig fecal samples from four Ohio swine farms, according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.”The article explains that although the symptoms are similar to the ongoing outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV), this is an entirely new coronavirus born of extreme confinement on today’s hog farms.
And according to “Feedstuffs,” the samples were taken from farms that “experienced outbreaks of a diarrheal disease in sows and piglets in January and early February.”The Ohio Department of Agriculture has yet to determine whether this new virus is the cause of the diarrheal outbreak.
Subjecting animals to a lifetime of confinement in crates so small they are virtually immobilized is perhaps the cruellest form of institutionalized animal abuse in existence.Combined with overuse of antibiotics, and unsanitary living conditions, these factory farm environments create a breeding ground for disease.
We can help stop the abuse of pigs and other animals on factory farms, as well as the spread of nasty superbugs, by choosing compassion at every meal. Check out ChooseVeg.com for delicious recipes and tips on transitioning to a plant-based diet.
Want the real simple truth? animals on today’s factory farms – even those raised on so-called humane farms – are treated as mere meat-producing machines, and their short lives are filled with misery and deprivation. See for yourself:
Viewer Discretion Advised -Farm to Fridge – The Truth Behind Meat Production
Mercy For Animals presents Farm to Fridge. Narrated by Oscar-nominee James Cromwell, this powerful film takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration behind the closed doors of the nation’s largest industrial farms, hatcheries, and slaughter plants — revealing the often-unseen journey that animals make from Farm to Fridge.
“Please sign the petition below; no animal should be treated in this horrific way, then sold to the public!”
20th February – Posted By Matt Rice
Today, The Humane Society of the United Statesreleased horrifying hidden-camera video footage of pigs being fed diarrhea and the ground up intestines of their own piglets at a factory farm in Kentucky – Iron Maiden Hog Farm.
Although the practice of feeding pig guts and shit to other pigs is common on industrial farms across the country, it is illegal under state law.
The video, which was profiled by The New York Times, also shows mother pigs crammed into filthy metal cages so small they can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably for nearly their entire lives. Seemingly without irony, the facility is named after a medieval torture device by which human victims were confined in a metal box barely larger than their own bodies.
Watch the graphic undercover video here:
Viewer Discretion – Pigs Suffer at IRON MAIDEN
Published on 20 Feb 2014
Click to Help: http://bit.ly/1e8oElA An undercover exposé of Iron Maiden Farms in Owensboro, Kentucky revealed that sows confined in cramped cages known as gestation crates were fed intestines from ground up piglets who had recently succumbed to a highly contagious diarrhoeal disease.
Like a medieval torture device, the use of gestation crates by the pork industry is perhaps the cruellest form institutionalized animal abuse in existence.
In fact, these crates are so cruel they have been banned in nine states and the entire European Union. In the last couple years, more than 60 major food providers, including Costco, Target, Safeway, Kroger, and others, have committed to phasing gestation crates out of their supply chains. Even major pork producers like Smithfield and Hormel have recognized the need to do away with cruel crates.
Unfortunately, Walmart, the largest pork retailer in the world, continues to support factory farms that keep pigs in gestation crates. Multiple undercover investigations by Mercy For Animals at Walmart pork suppliershave revealed thousands of pigs crammed inside these metal torture boxes. As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart has the power and the responsibility to put an end to this horror once and for all.
While grocery retailers can help put an end to some of the most egregiously cruel factory farming practices, consumers can also help prevent needless cruelty to animals every time they sit down to eat by adopting a healthy and humane, vegan diet.
“Scroll to the end of this post, to see a gallery of some of the worlds most beautiful horses…how could anyone even think, about killing one; let alone eating one??”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has given the green light for the grisly practice of horse slaughter to resume on U.S. soil.The agency approved an application for horse slaughter inspections under federal law at a plant in New Mexico.
This news comes on the heels of the U.S. House and Senate appropriations committees’ votes to halt all funding for horse slaughter in FY 2014. The decision means that the federal government could potentially spend millions of taxpayer dollars to start up inspections at horse slaughter plants, only to have Congress terminate the process in the coming months.
In response to the USDA’s decision, TheHumane Society of the United Statesand Front Range Equine Rescue plan to file suit immediately against the USDA to put a stop to this agency decision. The two groups previously informed USDA that they would take aggressive legal action against the agency, in light of the serious unresolved environmental and food safety issues surrounding horse slaughter.
Jonathan Lovvorn, senior vice president and chief counsel for animal protection litigation at The HSUS, said: “The USDA’s decision to start up domestic horse slaughter, while at the same time asking Congress to defund it, is bizarre and unwarranted. Slaughter plants have a history of polluting their communities and producing horsemeat that is tainted with a dangerous cocktail of banned drugs.
“We intend to hold the Obama administration accountable in federal court for this inhumane, wasteful and illegal decision.”
Hilary Wood, president of Front Range Equine Rescue, said: “America’s horses are not raised as food animals, and they receive numerous substances during their lives making them unfit and illegal for human consumption. Adding insult to injury, the suffering of the horses in the slaughter pipeline and the danger to humans makes this action more than inhumane. Horses bound for slaughter have many alternatives open to them including re-training, re-homing, and humane euthanasia. We remain committed to stopping this insult to justice and our sense of justice.”
The USDA’s approval is particularly surprising, considering the recent scandal in the European Union, where horsemeat was discovered in food products labeled as beef. The operation of horse slaughter plants in the U.S. will make it more difficult to prevent the commingling between horsemeat and beef products that occurred in Europe.
Horses are raised as pets and for use in show, sport, work and recreation in the U.S. and are regularly administered drugs that are expressly prohibited by current federal regulations for use in animals intended for human consumption. For example, a common pain reliever routinely administered to all types of horses, Phenylbutazone, is known to cause potentially fatal human diseases, and if the animal has taken the drug, the meat is adulterated and should not be eaten. There is also no system in the U.S. to track medications and veterinary treatments given to horses to ensure that their meat is safe.
Any facility slaughtering thousands of horses will necessarily be processing the blood, organs and remains of animals whose tissues and blood may contain significant amounts of dangerous substances, which are either known to be dangerous, or which have never been tested on humans and therefore present completely unknown dangers. At least six applications for horse slaughter inspections have been filed with the USDA.
Background:
This month, the U.S. House and Senate Appropriations committees voted to block funding for inspections of horse slaughter plants. President Obama’s proposed FY 2014 budget also included a request for Congress to prevent tax dollars from supporting horse slaughter.
According to a national poll conducted last year, 80 percent of Americans disapprove of horse slaughter.
“Kill buyers” gather up horses from random sources and profit by selling healthy horses for slaughter that bring the best price per pound for their meat. USDA reports show that approximately 92 percent of American horses going to slaughter are healthy and would otherwise be able to go on to lead productive lives.
The methods used to kill horses rarely result in quick, painless deaths, as horses often endure repeated blows to render them unconscious and sometimes remain conscious during the slaughtering process. When horse slaughter plants previously operated in the U.S., the USDA documented severe injuries to horses in the slaughter pipeline, including broken bones and eyeballs hanging from a thread of skin.
The Safeguard American Food Exports Act, H.R. 1094 / S. 541, introduced this year by U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Reps. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., is a bipartisan measure that would outlaw horse slaughter operations in the U.S., end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad, and protect the public from consuming toxic horsemeat.
The women were ultimately exposed after several people staying at the Snellville hotel reported smelling an overpowering stench emanating from the room the Waller sisters shared.
Police identified the disabled man as Leah Waller’s 19-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy. He was found trapped in the filthy room, confined to his wheelchair amid massive amounts of animal feces, urine saturation, and garbage, reportsWSBTV.
Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term denoting a group of non-progressive conditions that cause physical disability in human development.
The felineswere found, many of them suffering withupper respiratory infections, open soars, and missing hair. Only two were deemed fit enough to survive. The rest, 29 in total, were euthanized.
According to local animal control, there was no other option than to humanelyeuthanizethem due to their unhealthy condition.
This is the sisters’ second abuse-related arrest in less than two months.
Hoarding is a compulsive behavior to pathologically collect to excess, obsessively acquiring objects or even animals. However, hoarders are incapable or unwilling to discard the aforementioned acquisitions, regardless of the clutter, filth, danger or disease that can result, as doing so can cause significant distress or impairment.
Compulsive hoarding has been associated with health risks, impaired functioning, economic burden, and can result in adverse effects on friends and family members – creating frustration-fueled rifts between loved ones. Parents have had children taken away and couples have divorced over hoarding.
The troubling condition often stems from some type of psychologically engrained trauma. For one reason or another, a hoarder developed an unhealthy attachment, clinging to the otherwise innocuous, valueless item others would throw away.
The act of hoarding is dangerous as it puts the individual or others at risk from fire, falling, poor sanitation, and other health concerns.
BRUSSELS—Europe-wide tests of “beef” products conducted after the region’s horse-meat scandal found that nearly 5% were contaminated with horse meat, and the percentage was sharply higher in a few countries, especially France and Greece.
The European Union, Switzerland and Norway organized the tests in February after horse-meat DNA was found in products labeled as beef in a number of countries, prompting a public outcry, criminal investigations and pledges from authorities to discover whether the presence of horse meat in Europe’s beef supply is widespread. The authorities found 200 positive samples out of 4,497 tested, or 4.4%.
Nearly a quarter of all positive tests in the 27 EU nations occurred in France, home to a food processor, Spanghero, that shipped large amounts of horse meat found in frozen lasagna, spaghetti Bolognese and other beef dishes in the U.K. and elsewhere. Greek samples accounted for nearly 20% of all EU positive tests. Around 13% of samples were positive in both countries, the highest rate in Europe.
In a separate round of tests, less than 1% of all horse-meat samples tested positive for
A worker handles animal carcasses at an abattoir in northern Romania, in this file photo dated Feb. 12, 2013.
phenylbutazone, known as “bute,” a painkiller used on animals that is a health risk for humans.
“Today’s findings have confirmed that this is a matter of food fraud and not of food safety,” said Tonio Borg, the EU health commissioner. “In the coming months, the commission will propose to strengthen the controls along the food chain in line with lessons learned.”
The commission, the EU’s executive arm, could seek new legal authority that would give it the power to require action from member states to fight fraud in the food chain, commission spokesman Frédéric Vincent said.
The horse-meat scandal offered a window into the complex supply chains that move food ingredients from farms across Europe, through trading firms, processing plants and ultimately to packaged food products on supermarket shelves. The horse meat that found its way to U.K. supermarkets originated from slaughterhouses in Romania; at various points, it moved through a warehouse in the Netherlands owned by a Cypriot firm called Draap Trading, Spanghero’s facility in southwestern France, the French food-processing firm Comigel SAS and finally to the frozen-food company Findus Group.
Comigel and Findus have pointed the finger at their suppliers for mislabeling horse meat as beef, while Draap and Spanghero have said the meat they shipped was labeled as horse meat. Authorities in several countries are conducting criminal investigations. The U.K. has arrested three men in a separate horse-meat investigation who worked at processing plants in Wales and West Yorkshire.
The French government said its positive tests were particularly high because it focused on suppliers and products that were already suspected of mislabeling horse meat.The government said it would propose EU-wide rules that will strengthen penalties for food-chain fraud to a maximum of five years in prison and 10% of a company’s annual revenue.
The animal-protection group Humane Society International said European governments should have also tested for other common medications administered to horses that pose a health risk to humans.
“Testing for just one of the many drugs banned for use in animals that enter the food chain falls short of a precautionary and thorough approach to addressing fraud and ensuring food safety standards are met,” said Joanna Swabe, Humane Society International’s EU director.
“This is a great idea, I hope those that use the horn of any dead rhino suffer appalling reactions & suffer greatly; its’ nothing less than they deserve. If there stupid enough to use rhino horn instead of chewing their own fingernails, I have no sympathy. But, I’m not that happy either, that this pink potion has already killed test subjects; especially a rhino at an event to promote the cocktail. If inadequate studies have been performed to test this cocktail, should it go on, how many more rhino will die through testing; will several dying, justify saving the lives of those that are left? Or is there an easier option to save the rhino?”
“I’m for anything that stops the rhino poachers, dealers & resellers; but not at the cost of losing the lives of an already declining species. If only there was a way to stop poaching, without putting the rhino’s life at risk; to simply catch & use anaesthetics are high risk factors that could end in death, irrelevant of what is going to be implanted into the horn!”
“So think how much it costs in terms of drugs, anesthetics, vets, helicopters, spotters, darts, dart guns, man power etc. to implant something into the horn of one rhino? A rhino, who could die from the anaesthetic or stress of capture: but the process is being done to hopefully stop it being killed by poachers!. Then think of those that go out & poach said species…Why do they do it? Well I’m pretty sure it’s not because they hate the rhino species, they do it for money only, perhaps it’s easy money, which is the attraction; especially when your family are constantly hungry etc.”
” So perhaps the simplest, least cost-effective idea, is being totally overlooked!! Consider the cost of all the above, to one rangers wages & it’s obvious which is the cheaper & most cost-effective way of saving the rhino; more manpower on the ground…but why just rangers already trained up!”!
“What about the poachers? they risk their lives for such a small percentage in wages; so why not turn it around? They only poach for money, so perhaps they could be convinced to fight for the other side, i.e. protecting the rhino & being paid to do so; instead of being paid to kill the rhino! They are already savvy in the knowledge of rhino tracking etc. because they have worked out how & when is the easiest time to kill without being caught. Of course those in charge would have to be diligent, as newly employed protectors of rhino, could easily still work for the poaching kings, on an undercover basis! Inside knowledge could just as easily kill rhino; if done the right way. One just has to think of a way of making poachers protect; instead of kill!
“Perhaps if the government implemented an incentive, to suggest that all rhino poachers who come forward of their own free will, will not be charged for past regressions (otherwise they won’t come; even though I would be so tempted to slap them in chains!) but will be taken on & trained as a special task force, to be paid to save the rhino rather than kill. At the end of the day, it all comes down to money! Rhino potions can not be sold in shops, without those that poach the rhino horn! To stop poaching, one has to think of those at the bottom of the pile, those that do the poaching; because without them, there will be no rhino horn. So give them an incentive to stop, a uniform, a regular weekly income, less risk of being killed by rangers etc. & there might just be a better chance to stop this trade…there is no harm in trying, right??”
Rhino experts discuss a bright approach to keeping poachers away. Please note the following picture has been digitally altered!
This photo has been digitally altered and is not an actual photo of a rhino at Sabi Sand. (Photo: Heinrich van den Berg/Getty)
With over 200 rhinos already dead this year at the hands of poachers in South Africa and no signs of the slaughter slowing, some innovative rhinoceros lovers are stepping up their game.
Wildlife workers at Sabi Sand, a private game reserve at the southernmost tip of Kruger National Park,have injected a special cocktail into 100 rhino horns, turning them pink in an effort to deter illegal horn hunters.
In addition to discoloring the horn, the pink dye can also be detected by airport scanners, even when the horn is ground into a powder to make the high-priced traditional “medicines” that help fuel the killing of rhinos. The hope is to make transport of the illegal product that much riskier.
And that’s not all. There’s poison in the pink
The indelible pink dye is mixed with parasiticides, usually used to control ticks. Though it’s not meant to kill unscrupulous poachers and consumers who ingest the powder, it does have some pretty nasty side effects, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.Ironically, these are some of the symptoms which rhino horn is incorrectly believed to alleviate. (Rhino horns contain nothing more than the same keratin found in fingernails.)
This comes at a time when the demand for traditional “medicines” is growing, says Tom Milliken, Rhino Program coordinator with Traffic, a leading wildlife trade-monitoring network. He says, “There is a whole new market that advertises rhino horn as a successful cancer treatment. It’s being marketed in hospitals to the families of the critically ill. In addition, it has also become a trendy hangover remedy.”
Dr. Susie Ellis,Executive Director of the International Rhino Foundation, has concerns about the ethical implications of intentionally poisoning something that may well be ingested, but hopes the project will draw attention to the dire situation.
“If this strategy discourages even one person from buying horn, I think it’s marvelous,” she says.
Milliken also understands the urgency to save every rhino possible, but isn’t sold on this technique. “I’m not sure I fully buy the notion that this dye cocktail has been adequately tested and certified to be non-harmful to rhinos,” he says. “The process of anesthetizing living rhinos to inject the cocktail is time consuming and entails risks; we know of rhinos in the private sector that have died in the process, including one at an event to specifically showcase this particular dye technique.
“Do you know, I don’t give a fxxxxxg shit if someone gets ill from eating any part of a horse…because it serves them bloody well right. We kill more than enough animals that suffer horrendous lives; just to adorn our dinner plates. I’m sick of writing about the reasons why horses shouldn’t be eaten, irrelevant of the drugs that will harm humans!! It’s just another animal that humans have realised can still be worth money in death!! Sickening…if you would eat a horse, then you would also eat your pet dog or cat, or any other animal that humans refer to as pets! And that word say’s it all…PETS…not livestock!! Remember…if it lives in a stable; it’s not meant for the table! There would be a hell of a lot more veggies or vegans if slaughter houses had glass walls; humane slaughter…ha..there’s no such bloody thing!”
Congress Introduces Safeguard American Food Exports Act to End Horse Slaughter
Dear Humanitarian,
Horses are not raised for human consumption in theUnited States and are regularly administered drugs that are expressly prohibited by federal regulations for use in food animals. While the drugs may be perfectly suitable to treat injuries in horses, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)has declared that hundreds of them—including some highly toxic to humans —are “not for use on horses intended for human consumption.” For example, a common pain reliever routinely administered to all types of horses, phenylbutazone or “bute,” is known to cause potentially fatal human diseases.
It is important not to forget the toll horse slaughter takes on families and the horses they care about. Brittany Wallace and her horse Scribbles were reunited after Omega Horse Rescue in Pennsylvania saved him from a kill pen at the New Holland Livestock Auction. Read about Scribbles’ unbelievable journey, as told by Brittany in the upcoming Spring 2013 AWI Quarterly.
There is currently no system in the United States to track medications given to horses to ensure that horse meat is safe for human consumption. A recent New York Times article highlighted the plethora of drugs used on race horses—including cobra venom and cocaine—and the resulting food safety threats. Thousands of these horses are sent to auction—and subsequently on to slaughter in Canada or Mexico—within hours or days of their last race, virtually ensuring that these toxins are in the horse meat that is sent overseas. Many substances and drugs regularly used on horses have never been tested on humans; the potential danger of ingesting these chemicals is completely unknown.
Despite opposition to horse slaughter from bipartisan leaders of New Mexico, including Governor Susana Martinez, Attorney General Gary K. King, and State Land Commissioner Ray Powell, D.V.M, theU.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced plans to process an application for inspecting horse slaughter operations at a facility in New Mexico. If the application is approved, Valley Meat Company LLC—suspended twice by the USDA in the last 1.5 years for violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act—will be the first facility in the United States to slaughter horses for human consumption since 2007.
AWI has long exposed the widespread cruelty and dishonesty of this industry—from inside the slaughterhouse to the backroom dealings of killer buyers misleading horse owners and now to the store shelves of European grocery stores. Against this backdrop, the federal government could now potentially spend its limited fiscal and staffing resources to open new horse slaughter plants at a time when forced spending cuts are already severely affecting animal welfare and food safety inspections for U.S. meat products.
In the midst of the public commotion over horse meat, a positive development is the introduction of legislation, the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) andLindsey Graham (R-SC) along with Representatives Patrick Meehan (R-PA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). This bill would ban horse slaughter in the United States, while ensuring American horses are not exported to Canada or Mexico for the same purpose.
What You Can Do (sorry this appears to be for USA Citizens only)
Please email, call or write your Representative and both Senators today and urge them to cosponsor and act immediately in support of the SAFE Act, before horse slaughter has the chance to resume on U.S. soil.
Please be sure to share our “Dear Humanitarian” eAlert with family, friends and co-workers, and encourage them to send a message also. As always, thank you very much for your help!
Sincerely,
Cathy Liss
President
P.S. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates on the action above and other important animal protection news.
DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS BLOG - SOME PICTURES & VIDEOS CAN & WILL BE VERY GRAPHIC - SO PLEASE, VIEW THIS BLOG AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.
You can find out more about me & this blog by reading "ABOUT THIS BLOG" on the menu (when i finish it) lol
PLEASE NOTE.....
Not all of my posts will be current news, or even about animal abuse! I do like to share other animal news, uplifting stories or videos; some that are funny or just touch the heart!
If I have anything to say on any post, you will see it in bold blue writing. I try to remain a lady, but it's hard to contain my anger & emotions at the some of the stories I post; I don’t have a heart of stone, tears stain many articles I write!
Lastly, my apologies for any errors; I am learning whilst posting, so if you find anything that doesn't work or a broken link, sorry, I'm only human!!!!
ABOUT THESE POSTS
I would just like to make readers aware, that I search for stories on the internet; regards animal abuse etc. I copy stories etc. from the internet; assuming these stories are correct at time of publishing. Having said that, sometimes the press get it wrong! So I just want to add that at the time of me posting a news story, I presume all the facts seem present & correct.
Please note....all people mentioned in this blog, are presumed innocent, until proven otherwise, in a court of law.
Error: Please make sure the Twitter account is public.
Flag Counter Added May 2012
Face Book – Please Take Notice
For anyone wishing to connect to me via my Facebook page...PLEASE NOTE, ONLY PEOPLE I ADD AS ANIMAL ADVOCATES CAN SEE MY WHOLE PAGE...I do this out of respect for those friends I have who do not wish to see graphic images, videos or links of animal abuse!
As 99% of my page is animal related; anyone not in the above group of friends; will only see a limited amount of posts!!
DUE TO ANIMAL HATERS...I WILL ONLY ADD PEOPLE WHO CAN PROVE WHO THEY ARE via Facebook, Wordpress, Twitter etc. & WHO HAVE A GENUINE INTEREST IN ANIMAL WELFARE... i.e. if your Facebook page has absolutely nothing to do with animals, I see no point in joining my page. My Facebook is solely for animal welfare, I am not interested in playing games etc. I don't mean to sound rude but I am not interested in the amount of friends I have, its the quality of those friends that count.
PLEASE DO NOT SEND REQUESTS FOR YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN. I do not want anyone to be upset by graphic images etc.
My aim is to educate & raise awareness to the horrors animals face, at the hands of humans, every day, around the world!!
We can not hope to achieve better laws, to protect animals, unless we unite as one, to speak up for those who are voiceless!!
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Sold. Exported & SLEDGE-HAMMERED TO DEATH
DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS BLOG - SOME PICTURES & VIDEOS CAN & WILL BE VERY GRAPHIC - SO PLEASE, VIEW THIS BLOG AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.
STOP ANIMAL ABUSE 
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