VIDEO Movie Trailers; CRY OF THE INNOCENT: The Voices That Can’t Speak

“BE THE CHANGE…Please support this movie; donate what you can! Read the information, digest it, then share it will everyone you know! Nobody needs the skin of an animal except the animal, their fur is to protect them from the elements; not us!!! Please do whatever you can to stop this inhumane trade; read the MISSION statement below, read the links & sign petitions, thanks!”

Every year, more than 50 MILLION fur-bearing animals, including man’s best friend and feline companion, are brutally murdered without mercy in the name of greed, vanity and ignorance.  The fur trade is criminal and an atrocity at the lowest level of inhumanity.  To address the issue of animal cruelty in our society is to address the complexity of the human condition and our collective consciousness, which perceives animals as commodities, rather than loving, sentient beings.

ABOUT THE MOVIE:  This compelling film reflects the need of a changing society and its revolution for evolution – not a battle with armor but a quest for spiritual epiphany and the redemption of our planet.

THE CRY OF THE INNOCENT: The voices that can’t speak 

Published on 2 Dec 2013

CRY OF THE INNOCENT: The Voices That Can’t Speak
A Kathleen Lowson Film http://www.cryoftheinnocent.com
Indiegogo Campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cry…
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CryoftheInnocent
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lowsonstudios

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR:

This film speaks the voice of truth for those who cannot speak for themselves.  It does not rely on gruesome images as a means to convey the message, but it does reveal the reality.   

This precedent-setting film will unveil the spiritual truth behind the veil of a culture that perpetuates the holocaust of animals for personal gain.  Its pure intent is to probe into the deeper level of the psyche, so that the nemesis can be healed.

If we cannot witness inhumanity, we cannot empower humanity, and we fail as a “human” species.  If we are not willing to hear their cries or experience their terror, then we are not willing to bear witness to the truth, which is the only path to redemption and transformation.

This film is one that needs to be made, for it would be a tragedy of epic proportions to passively consent to the silence of mass murder for profit and self-aggrandizement.  

I have asked myself the question: If not me, then who?  Someone needs to make this film, to beckon the soul of humanity to awaken.  That’s us, you and me.  If not us, then who?  If not now, when?

Without our voice, the animals have no voice. 

Thank you for your support of this critical film, on behalf of the animals and humanity on our planet.

THE CRY OF THE INNOCENT: The voices that can’t speak (Movie Trailer Premier)

Published on 28 Apr 2012

CRY OF THE INNOCENT: The Voices That Can’t Speak
A Kathleen Lowson Film http://www.cryoftheinnocent.com
Indiegogo Campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cry…

FILMMAKER INTERVIEW AT THE ANTI-FUR SOCIETY CONFERENCE, WASHINGTON D.C. 2013 via Skype:-http://www.cryoftheinnocent.com/wp-co…
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CryoftheInnocent
Causes campaign: http://www.causes.com/actions/1711686…

Animal rights is the greatest social justice issue of our time

MISSION

“A lie goes half way around the world before truth puts on its boots.” – Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

What is the state of our world’s conscience when we can tolerate the needless and horrific act of a sentient being skinned alive for its fur and empower the industry that profits from such atrocity?

Social responsibility, ecological preservation and evolution of consciousness are the challenges of this decade.  It is evident that we have not yet fully evolved as a society when the unconscionable practices and cruelty of the fur trade, and the inhumane suffering of all afflicted animals, is still a reality in the 21st century.  The killing of defenceless animals is an atrocity and reprehensible violation of the innocent, and should no longer be tolerated in a civilized and evolved society.

What is the price an innocent animal must pay for the sake of commerce, in the guise of fulfilling society’s needs?  Does our desire for material adornment outweigh human compassion and empathy?

How can we witness the massacre of innocent baby seals taken from their mother while nursing in Canadian waters and condone such an egregious act by continuing to invest in Canadian products, tourism and Canada’s stock market?

What is the state of society’s consciousness when man’s “best friend” and “feline companion” are mutilated and heinously killed for the skin on their bodies?  Where are the laws to protect them?  And why do we continue to invest in China and export their products to North America?

The impetus that drives the fur trade is the fashion industry, and film is the most powerful medium in which to convey the truth.

This precedent-setting film will leave an indelible imprint on the soul of humanity, intuitively evolving the collective consciousness toward sustainable change by bridging the link to cruelty through the soul perspective, with its center on the fur trade as a paradigm of a larger nemesis permeating our world.

AN INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY ON OUR PLANET 

This critical film is a calling for transformational social evolution.

The impact of the film’s message will intuitively evolve the collective consciousness toward fundamental and sustainable change and iinstilthe principles of compassion, empathy, love and humanity on our planet, and in turn, save the lives of countless animals around the globe. The power of respect will change our world.

We will unite in a new world paradigm that stands in the power of good that will forever overcome the forces of evil and harm to all sentient beings and mother earth.

The way our animals are treated is the moral and spiritual compass of our humanity.

The World Will Change Through You.  No Other Means Can Save It.  

IF NOT YOU, THEN WHO?  IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

More Trailers:- http://www.youtube.com/user/LowsonIntl/videos

Website:-http://www.cryoftheinnocent.com/

News Link:–http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cry-of-the-innocent-the-voices-that-can-t-speak

Links:-

• ACTAsia for Animals
• AFS Animal Rights Conference
• ANIMAL BILL OF RIGHTS (PETITION)
• ANIMAL PROTECTION LEGISLATION IN CHINA (PETITION)
• Animals Asia
• Anti-Fur Society
• Canadian Seal Hunt Explained
• Consciousness
• Did You Know?
• Fur Bearer Defenders
• Fur Free Campaign (HSUS)
• Fur-Free Retailers/Vegan Retailers
• International Anti-Fur Coalition
• Nine Shocking Fur Facts
• Our Compass: Fur/Skin
• Pinnacle: Reinvent The Icon
• PRECEDENT-SETTING ORDINANCE TO BAN SALE OF FUR
• The Truth About Fashion
• TV Commercial: Dumb Animals
• VIDEO: Anti-Fur by Our Compass
• VIDEO: Meet the Seals
• More petitions to sign:-http://www.antifursociety.org/WHAT_YOU_CAN_DO.html

ADI New Video: Elephant Training At Have Trunk Will Travel – No Fun For Elephants

Animals in entertainment

Animal Defenders International’s undercover investigations go behind the scenes, exposing the abuses wherever animals are forced to perform, including movies, circuses, advertisements, special events and rides. In fact, many of the companies provide animals across this spectrum of entertainment. For example, in Perris, California, ADI captured on video the trainers and owners of Have Trunk Will Travel violently beating and electric shocking their elephants in training sessions and routine husbandry.

These elephants including Tai and Rosie, the famed movie stars of ‘Water for Elephants’ and ‘Zookeeper’, are also hired out for weddings, elephant rides at county fairs, TV ads, and even forced to travel cross-country to do ridiculous tricks in the circus. You can help ADI shine a spotlight on and end the abuse of animals in entertainment. ADI conducts letter writing and email campaigns to legislators, studios, advertising firms and local newspaper editors, and organizes outreach events when the circus comes to town. Find our current campaigns and how you can help detailed below. Together, we will make a difference!

Click here:- http://www.ad-international.org/animals_in_entertainment/

News Letters:-http://www.ad-international.org/newsletter/

Out Of Control ADI Parliamentary Briefing: Wild Animals in Circuses PDF Document:- https://www.ad-international.org/admin/downloads/adi_parlbrief_circus_regulation_oct_2011f.pdf

Elephant Training at Have Trunk Will Travel

Published on 21 Mar 2013

ADI investigation of Have Trunk Will Travel, based in California, which shows trainers and owners violently beating and electric shocking their elephants in training sessions and routine husbandry.

Support our campaign to end the use of animals in entertainment 
http://www.ad-international.org/anima…

No Fun For Elephants!

PLEASE WATCH & SHARE this incredible new video “No Fun for Elephants” narrated by Bob Barker and help ADI end the use of elephants giving rides at fairs, performing in circuses, and making appearances at parades and other events in the United States. ADI is sending copies of the DVD, which features our undercover footage, to fair and event organizers all over the country. PLEASE HELP ADI STOP THE SUFFERING – Donate now to help this campaign and our investigations.

Get involved – send a polite email or letter to event organizers in your neighborhood, urging them to stop offering elephant rides. Email usa@ad-international.orgfor information.

Click here to learn more.

Donate now to help this campaign and our investigations

No Fun For Elephants!

Published on 28 Feb 2013

Animal Defenders International (ADI) has launched the first nationwide initiative in the U.S. about the use of elephants giving rides or making appearances at public events. At the heart of the campaign is a new DVD narrated by Emmy award winning TV host Bob Barker entitled ‘No Fun For Elephants,’ featuring harrowing undercover footage from inside elephant training facilities in California, as well as abuse of an elephant on tour by a Texas-owned company. The ‘No Fun For Elephants’ DVD is being mailed to event organizers across the U.S., including board members of county fairs, renaissance fairs and organizers of town parades, urging them to adopt a humane ‘no elephant rides or performances’ policy, in view of the suffering these animals endure. 

For more information: 
http://www.ad-international.org/anima….

Elephants really do grieve like us: They shed tears and even try to ‘bury’ their dead – a leading wildlife film-maker reveals how the animals are like us

The pictures of a baby elephant in Borneo, nudging and nuzzling the body of its dead mother in obvious distress and bewilderment, cannot fail to move us.

Allegations that up to ten pygmy elephants were poisoned, perhaps by local farmers, are upsetting — perhaps because elephant emotions seem so like our own, so heartbreakingly close to human sorrow and grief.

Any scientist knows how dangerous it is to project human feelings on to an animal, to force them into human moulds or ‘anthropomorphise’ them, but it’s equally dangerous to ignore a wealth of scientific data based on decades of observation in the wild.

Heart-rendering: An African elephant mother mourns her calf, a victim of the three consecutive years of drought in East Africa

We may never know exactly what goes on inside the mind of an elephant, but it would be arrogant of us to assume we are the only species capable of feeling loss and grief.

I have been filming animals in the wild for more than 20 years, and that has often meant being around elephants: they live across a huge range of habitats. But mass poaching has put them into terrible decline — around 40,000 elephants a year are killed by poachers and, according to some estimates, since the Sixties the population has been culled from 3.5 million to just 250,000.

I am certain that the behaviour I have witnessed so often stems from real emotion. Understanding it is the biggest challenge for a wildlife cameraman. We have to get inside the heads of the animals, see how they are reacting and predict what they will do next, or we won’t get the shots we need.

Perhaps the most dramatic and emotional sequence happened in our current BBC1 series, Africa, narrated by David Attenborough. We filmed an elephant mother’s desperate attempts to keep her calf alive during the worst drought in 50 years in Kenya.

These animals were not dying of thirst: they were starving. Some volcanic springs were still flowing, so the animals could get water; what they couldn’t get were nutrients.

By that time, the drought was well into its second year and mother and baby were trying to survive on dry twigs. There was no hay in Kenya, there was a sense of utter helplessness, and we felt the most important thing was to document what was happening.

Cameraman Mark Deeble had been following the family for days. He saw that the mother stayed with her baby and felt she was distressed, trying to lift up the dead body and move it with her feet, before standing over the prone calf for about an hour, seeming to come to terms with the situation.

Whether you were actually there or watching events unfold on the screen, it was impossible to keep your emotions separate from what you were seeing. The mother’s bereavement transmitted itself so strongly.

In a more benign environment, an elephant might mourn for longer. I have heard of animals staying beside the bodies of dead friends for three days and nights, refusing to move.

This mother didn’t do that, possibly because she had been exposed to a lot of death around her. Fifteen thousand head of game died in that reserve during the drought. More than 400 elephants perished, including 60 per cent of all the matriarchs — a herd’s female leader. It was a terrible time for that population, and I think death had become familiar to them. You could draw a parallel with humans in wartime. The mother had to move on for her own survival.

We couldn’t save her baby, but we felt it was essential to put its death in context: Africa is infamous for its droughts and famines, and yet we very rarely see how seriously that affects its wildlife.

Scientists have observed extraordinary displays of emotion from elephants. When one tame animal called Abu died at a safari outfit in Botswana, his keepers brought the other elephants to say ‘goodbye’. One female, Cathy, was seen crying from both eyes, tears streaming down her face.

That doesn’t mean elephants know what death is. They can’t anticipate death in the way we can or imagine it as an abstract concept. Their grief is different: it’s simply about loss.

Dr Kate Evans, of the Elephants For Africa research foundation, has told me that on several occasions she has watched grieving elephants exhibit almost a sense of puzzlement.

They pick up, hold and examine bones, balancing a jawbone on their tusks or putting it in their mouths, as if they are saying to their dead friend: ‘Is that you?’ Perhaps the discredited myth of the elephant’s graveyard, a secret place where the animals supposedly went to die, had its origins in the fact that elephants interact with their dead.

Dr Evans has observed mourning among wild elephants that she knew well. On one occasion, a young bull came across three skulls. He ignored the first two, but paid particular attention to the third skull, from an elephant he had been friendly with. In Kate’s words, he seemed to know who the skull belonged to

Another time, a matriarch collapsed and died in the bush. Over the next three weeks, several lone males visited her body and spent time by her side.

Back in the Forties, George Adamson (the naturalist who, with his wife Joy, was the inspiration for the film Born Free) recalled how he once had to shoot a bull elephant from a herd that kept breaking into the government gardens of northern Kenya.

Adamson gave the elephant’s meat to the local Turkana tribesmen and then dragged the rest of the carcass half a mile away. That night, other elephants found the body, took the shoulderblade and leg bone, and returned the bones to the exact spot where the elephant was killed.

According to Charlie Mayhew, of the Tusk Trust, elephants will ‘bury’ their dead, covering carcasses with branches and even taking the tusks to be placed at a different spot. We cannot guess the precise meaning of that, but it’s clear that elephants are large-brained and social animals that live in complex groups. They recognise each other and, of course, they have marvellous memories.

When one animal dies, they will each need to assess how their social group has changed and how to re-evaluate themselves within this new hierarchy. The whole dynamic changes, and they need to know where they fit in within the crowd.

Those are not the only emotions they display. If you look at an elephant calf, chasing cattle egrets through the long grass, it is playing — it exhibits joy. In another episode of the Africa series, we showed a young bull elephant in ‘must’ or on heat — he was throwing his weight around, clearly in a heightened emotional state. We called it a ‘sexual fury’.

Elephants in zoos have reportedly shown symptoms of depression. The first African elephant to be taken to London Zoo, in the 1860s, was called Jumbo, and he posed problems for his keepers, who tried to keep him happy and amused.

For humans, the most complex and important emotion is love, and we describe it in a multitude of ways. The powerful bond between a mother elephant and her calf is an easy one for us to understand. But unlike humans, elephants don’t seem to have any notion of romantic love. You don’t get courting elephants — when they mate, it can be a pretty brief encounter.

Their society is a very female-based hierarchy, and the loyalty that a herd shows to a matriarch is intensely strong. They will follow her wherever she goes: perhaps that is a manifestation of love of a different sort.

Emotion requires communication, and the vocalisations of elephants are incredibly sophisticated.

They operate on some sound frequencies we can hear — trumpeting and grumbling — and others that we can’t. Much of their long-distance communication occurs through vibrations that are inaudible to us.

Low-frequency (or infrasonic) sounds are transmitted constantly, a deep rumble somewhere between  15-30 Hertz. The normal human range of hearing is between 20Hz and 20,000Hz.

These low frequencies can be sensed through the elephants’ trunks and even their feet, like vibrations on the skin of a drum.

They can talk to other elephants 50 miles away through the ground, communicating in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. It is possible that each elephant can recognise up to 100 other individuals by their infrasonic ‘voice’.

When we’re working with elephants, we can never let down our guard. I have been with populations that were utterly relaxed around humans; they just looked at us as being another kind of primate. Once, in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, on foot, I was part of a three-man camera team when we were surrounded by a herd of elephants.

That felt pretty scary — we were miles from our camp and could do nothing but crouch low beside a termite mound and keep murmuring, making small movements to show the animals that we were still alive. These were elephants very much in their natural state; they had never been hunted, and they were simply curious. In turn, three mothers brought their babies to show us to them. It appeared to be for their education — as if the mums were saying: ‘Come here, kids, and look at this!’

The babies approached us to within about five or six metres, wiggling their trunks and looking in all directions, and then they would suddenly lock on to us. We could hear these rumblings between mother and calf, as if they were discussing us. This happened three times within about ten minutes, before the matriarch led the herd away. That really was a magical experience.

When we’re on foot, especially in the forests of western Africa, we often have to use their trails. The only pathways are those made by elephants, so there is always a chance of an encounter. If one is coming head on, our only option is to get off the path: we have to rely on our guides because they know much more about the habits of those particular elephants than we do. And they will probably hear them coming a lot sooner.

You might imagine you could see an elephant coming a mile off, but it’s amazing how easy it is for an elephant to disappear. Give them a few small bushes and they can vanish completely. They are incredibly stealthy for their size.

Sadly, the impact of poaching is changing their behaviour. Some populations are becoming more aggressive because of it. Though I can’t prove it, I would readily accept that the elephant who wanted to shake our cameraman out of a tree was an animal who might have been hunted. All the others in the herd seemed relaxed, but this one was grumpy.

Why was that? Who can say how an individual elephant will respond to the loss of a close family member to poachers? All this feels particularly poignant as we examine in the next and last episode of Africa the future of the continent’s wildlife, and ask what the next few years hold for elephants.

Apart from the poaching crisis, elephants are coming into increasing conflict with farmers and expanding human populations. The incident in Borneo highlights that it’s not just an African problem.  One thing is certain: there will be many more dead elephants to mourn in the coming months.

News Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270977/Elephants-really-grieve-like-They-shed-tears-try-bury-dead–leading-wildlife-film-maker-reveals-animals-like-us.html#ixzz2JzKmOKP8
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The dolphin snatchers: Mail investigation exposes vile trade where animals are sold for up to £100,000 each to aquariums where they suffer unimaginable cruelty

For the men wearing wetsuits wading in a shallow bay teeming with trapped wild dolphins, the decision is as simple as it is ruthless. Running their hands carefully over each dolphin’s body, they check to ensure the creature is free from scars, particularly on the dorsal and tail fins.

At first glance this human interaction with one of the few creatures said to possess an intellect close to our own appears an act of caring tenderness. But in reality, these are businessmen selecting their merchandise for a multi-million-pound trade in live dolphins. The best specimens (usually young females, or cows) are removed from their families to be sold live for between £50,000 and £100,000 each to aquariums.

The dolphins they reject — the ones with minor blemishes on their skin — are slaughtered where they are trapped in that cove at Taiji on the south coast of Japan.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Discretion advised when scrolling down!

The cruel sea: A dolphin selected for sale last month in Japan. Others that are ‘not suitable’ are killed

In a frenzy of violence that has shocked animal lovers and marine environmentalists around the world, some are speared repeatedly by fisherman circling in motorboats whose propellers often slice the dolphins’ skin. Others are simply held underwater to drown.

Sometimes, a metal pole is rammed into their blubber in the hope of shattering the mammal’s spine. A cork stopper is then hammered into the hole where the rod was forced in, to try to reduce the blood spilt into the sea — to conceal the extent of the slaughter.

The rejects are slaughtered for their meat. Some are speared repeatedly by fisherman circling in motorboats whose propellers often slice the dolphins’ skin

Invariably a few dolphins try to make a break for freedom and attempt to jump over the netting that seals off the bay.

However, amid the blood-red waters almost all of them eventually succumb to their fate. These barbaric scenes took place just before Christmas, during a hunting season when Japanese fishermen ‘harvest’ dolphins to supply to aquariums for human entertainment.

Killer cove: The dolphins they reject – the ones with minor blemishes on their skin – are trapped in a cove at Taiji on the south coast of Japan

It is estimated that for every wild dolphin caught to be trained to perform tricks in captivity, around four times that number are slaughtered.

The fishermen then sell off the meat for about £10 a kilo. They see the creatures as a menace because they pose a threat to the dwindling reserves of fish in the Pacific Ocean.

Blood red: Japanese fishermen collect the bodies of harpooned dolphins from the bloody waters of a bay in Taiji

But for those that survive the slaughter, life might as well be over.The stress a dolphin suffers as a result of being captured, transported and imprisoned in a small tank dramatically reduces its lifespan

While wild dolphins live for up to 60 or 70 years, captured ones often perish when they are as young as eight, say environmentalists.

According to marine experts, some dolphins are so distressed by their capture that they commit suicide.

The odds: For every wild dolphin caught to be trained to perform tricks in captivity, around four times that number are slaughtered

One of the most vocal campaigners against the practice is also one of the most knowledgeable — he is the very man who helped create and promote the worldwide aquarium industry.

Ric O’Barry became famous in the Sixties as the on-screen trainer of the five dolphins that played Flipper in the popular U.S. TV series, which was also hugely successful in Britain.

For ten years he worked at Miami Seaquarium, where he trained the wild mammals after capturing them on hunting expeditions in the Pacific.

Rounding them up: Fishermen drive bottle-nose dolphins into a net during their annual hunt off Taiji. The ‘drive hunt’ involved five or six large fishing vessels sailing out to sea to find a pod of dolphins

But when Kathy, the main dolphin that played Flipper, died in his arms after apparently losing the will to live, he says it dawned on him how cruel captivity is for such intelligent and social creatures.

For the past 40 years he has travelled the world highlighting the plight of dolphins in amusement parks, and even releasing them from those parks into the wild, often getting arrested in the process.

Three years ago, he made a documentary called The Cove, which revealed the truth about the ‘drive hunts’ that take place at Taiji in Japan. Yet since then, the practice has continued unabated — as these photographs demonstrate only too graphically.

O’Barry, 73, says live dolphins taken from the waters in Japan are shipped to aquariums and ‘swim-with-dolphin’ centres mostly in the Far East. Speaking from his home in Miami, O’Barry says: ‘Taiji is the number one location to get dolphins for the dolphinarium industry — or what I called “abusement parks”.’

Some dolphins are so distressed by their capture that they commit suicide. the stress that they suffer as a result of being captured dramatically shortens their lifespan

Although there are no international laws banning the shipment of live dolphins to those countries prepared to accept them, O’Barry claims the dolphins undergo terrible suffering.

‘After enduring a painfully long period of transportation, they are put into often filthy and confined conditions at aquariums. ‘These are free-ranging creatures with a large brain whose primary sense is sound.

‘Some have been placed in aquariums at casinos where the noise is appalling. These environments are hell-holes to creatures used to the open seas and which often swim up to 100 miles in a day in search of food. ‘They are taken away from the two most important aspects of their life — the world of oceanic sound and their families. ‘They end up suffering depression. I believe they are also capable of trying to commit suicide.’

Two years ago at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in south-western Japan, hundreds of tourists at a marine show looked on in astonishment as a large dolphin rose up out of the water tank to balance precariously on the glass barrier of the aquarium. It then threw itself out of the water on to the ground.

Touchingly, the other dolphins in the tank swam to the glass wall to look at the plight of their companion, called Kuru (meaning ‘black’). The dolphin was eventually put into a huge tarpaulin sling and winched by a crane back into the water.

The hunt is on: Taiji’s fishermen are licensed by the national government to catch 2,100 dolphins and pilot whales in the six-month hunting season

The incident was filmed by an appalled American tourist, who passed the footage on to O’Barry. While many thought the mammal was trying to make a break for freedom, O’Barry believes it was more likely it wanted to commit suicide.

‘It was depressed and wanted to end it,’ O’Barry says, adding that it had been in captivity for six years after being taken from the wild. ‘I have seen it many, many times. They are living in a world of sensory deprivation, then bombarded with a wall of noise from the crowd.’

After the clip was made public the aquarium managers immediately issued a statement saying the dolphin was ‘playing around’ and suffered minor scratches and bruises on its head and fin. It was, they insisted, fine and enjoyed a healthy serving of mackerel and squid once returned to the tank.

They did admit, however, that dolphins occasionally jump out of the water on to dry land, so they have now placed crash mats around the perimeter of the three tanks in their amusement park to avoid serious injury.

A hidden practice: Due to worldwide concern, the fishermen now try to hide the slaughter. The kills take place out of sight underneath blue tarpaulins

The trade in wild dolphins to U.S. aquariums has ceased due to public outrage, and the high-profile campaigns of activists like O’Barry.

There are no captive dolphins in Britain either as a result of a public backlash against the shows. Only a few are on show in Europe, and these animals were born in captivity — although O’Barry fears even this poses a threat to the mammals’ welfare because there is now a problem with inbreeding. O’Barry exhorts the public never to attend dolphin aquariums.

‘The solution lies with the consumer,’ he says. ‘Don’t buy a ticket for a captive dolphin show. ‘This is a multi-million-dollar industry I helped create. I remember loading them onto the planes after the Flipper show became so popular. At one point there were more dolphins in the UK than in Florida.

‘But the consumer now has to bring his power to bear on this trade, which also results in the slaughter of all those other dolphins. There is more money in live dolphins than dead ones, but the one fuels the other.’

A fisheries worker guides the carcass of dolphins at ‘killer cove’ in Taiji, Japan. The fishermen claim that any kills that take place are humane and that it takes only seconds for the dolphins to die

In Taiji, Nicole McLachlan, of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is part of a team monitoring the capture and killing of dolphins that takes place from September to March each year in the small port where whales have been hunted since the 17th century. Last month alone, she claims up to 170 cetaceans were killed, including pilot whales, risso, striped and bottlenose dolphins. More than 100 were captured for aquariums.

Such is worldwide concern over the slaughter that the fishermen try to hide it. ‘Nowadays the kills take place out of sight underneath blue and brown tarpaulins that cover the bay,’ the Australian marine environmentalist says.

‘The carnage lasts about half an hour. It is harrowing. ‘They are terrified. You hear the dolphins screaming; it’s a high-pitched wailing sound. ‘There is splashing as they thrash around in the water. Young dolphin calves are often among those slaughtered within the cove; some are younger than a year old.’

Yet locals are adamant it should continue. Police monitor the activists while many of the town’s 3,500 residents — most of whom are linked to the fishing industry — arrive to support the fishermen in this Japanese tradition.

The ‘drive hunt’ (‘oikomiryou’ in Japanese) involves five or six large fishing vessels sailing out to sea to find a pod of dolphins. The fishermen bang metal poles against the side of the boat to disorientate and scare them.

More boats arrive, making the same noise, to corral the confused and by now terrified pod into the cove, which is then sealed off. The next day the inspectors arrive to examine their quarry and separate the dolphins for the aquariums from those to be killed.

According to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, between 1968 and 1972, only 77 live-caught bottlenose dolphins were sent to aquariums from such hunts. But now Taiji’s 120 fishermen are licensed by the national government to catch 2,100 dolphins and pilot whales in the six-month hunting season.

A fisherman tows away dolphins that have been tied by rope to the front of his boat. In 2011, about 15 per cent of dolphins were taken into captivity (68 were kept alive and 968 killed)

The fishermen claim any kills that take place, particularly those where the rod shatters the spine, are humane and that it takes only seconds for the dolphins to die. It is a claim vehemently refuted by marine environmentalists.

A spokesman for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said: ‘In 2011, about 15 per cent of the dolphins were taken for captivity (68 were kept alive and 968 killed). ‘The year before that (2010-2011), nearly 20 per cent were taken into captivity (213 were sold for aquariums and 1,100 were killed)  This year, however, may be even higher due to the 100 bottlenose dolphins already taken into captivity.’

In the summer months, long after the blood has been washed away from Taiji cove, tourists arrive to swim in the bay — with dolphins. The town has a whale museum and fish tanks in which dolphins are kept — in 2011, two dolphins were filmed in a tank so small it was nicknamed ‘the fish-bowl’.

Captured dolphins also swim in the bay, which is sealed off to ensure they cannot bolt to freedom.

And as tourists marvel at the antics of these sensitive creatures and play with them, almost every one remains blissfully unaware of Taiji’s bloody secret — and of how young healthy dolphins are snatched away from their parents to amuse humans in this callous multi-million-pound trade.

News Link:– http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257426/The-dolphin-snatchers-Mail-investigation-exposes-vile-trade-animals-sold-100-000-aquariums-suffer-unimaginable-cruelty.html#ixzz2H3wYDyHM

Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Please spare a moment to sign just a few of the many petitions – Thanks in advance:-

• http://www.takepart.com/actions/cove-help-save-japans-dolphins
  
• http://www.thepetitionsite.com/832/040/232/solomon-islands—keep-promise-to-ban-dolphin-exports/?z00m=20429616
• http://www.change.org/petitions/aspro-international-purchases-six-dolphins-from-japan-s-killing-cove-stop-the-slaughter-stop-profiting-from-blood-dolphins
• http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-dolphin-slaughter-in-taiji-japan
• http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-annual-slaughter-of-dolphins
• https://www.change.org/petitions/waza-imata-top-upporting-the-dolphin-laughter-in-taiji
• http://www.change.org/petitions/imata-trainers-don-t-train-taiji-dolphins
• http://www.change.org/petitions/sky-broadcasting-cover-and-update-what-is-happening-in-taiji-japan
• http://www.change.org/petitions/japan-international-broadcasting-inc-research-what-is-going-on-in-taiji-wakayama-and-broadcast-what-you-find
• http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/get-60minutes-australia-to-cover-killings-and-captures.html
• http://www.change.org/petitions/bbc-take-a-crew-to-taiji
• http://www.thepetitionsite.com/5/stop-dolphin-captivity/
• Please consider a donation to the Sea Shepherd to defend dolphin’s in Taiji https://my.seashepherd.org/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid=353

Hidden Camera: Graphic Video: Shocking Truth Behind Butterball Thanksgiving Turkey

“I know I’m late with this as Thanks Giving has past, sorry, but I’m still playing catch up, so think of this as your Christmas turkey instead! It’s kind of irrelevant which meal it’s for, as they are still horrifically abused by sadistic workers; who have no interest in the animals feelings or well-being. For our Christmas dinner we still have everything, only it’s Quorn & not meat, i.e sausages  meatballs, bacon strips, Quorn chicken fillets. If anyone eats at my house they eat Quorn & they are quite surprised by it, it’s the flavouring & spices you use that bring Quorn to life. Put it another way, what ever meat you eat, I can find a Quorn alternative; going vegetarian isn’t hard at all these days, there is so much to choose from. Several years ago; I looked like a chick pea!!

With Thanksgiving looming around the corner, an animal rights group has levied charges of animal abuse against Butterball, LLC, the country’s largest producer of fresh and frozen turkeys.

Graphic – Viewer Discretion Advised

Published on 13 Nov 2012 by mercyforanimals

The allegations, from the Los Angeles-based animal advocacy organization Mercy for Animals, stem from undercover video shot at four Butterball turkey farms in North Carolina. The graphic video, which the group has posted at ButterballAbuse.com, shows the birds being grabbed by the necks, kicked, thrown and general mishandled. According to website, the organization also found “birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, and broken bones.”

“Consumers have a right to know how turkeys are treated at Butterball, before they end up as their Thanksgiving dinner,” Matt Rice, director of the investigation for Mercy for Animals, said in a statement to the media. “And I think that most people care about animals, even animals that are raised and killed for food.”

Mercy for Animals documented similar abuse at a Butterball turkey semen collection facility in North Carolina in 2011. That investigation resulted in felony and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges against five Butterball employees, two of whom have since pled guilty. A representative of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture also pled guilty to charges of obstruction of justice after leaking information about the investigation to Butterball.

The organization says it has taken its footage to law-enforcement officials, who are investigating.

Butterball released a statement to the media, saying it has a zero-tolerance policy for animal abuse will take any allegations seriously. Butterball also said it has already suspended the employees shown in the Mercy for Animals video while it investigates if the employees should be fired. “Any employee found to have violated our animal care and well-being guidelines, as well as any employee who witnessed abuse and failed to report it, will be terminated,” the statement read. “When we learn of any instances of animal mistreatment, we take immediate corrective action to suspend workers involved, conduct a swift investigation and terminate their employment with the company. Animal care and well-being is central to the operations of our company, and we remain committed to the ethical and responsible care of our turkey flocks.”

NBC News talked to industry analyst Phil Lempert, who is also known as the “Supermarket Guru,” who said consumers may decide to choose a different brand of turkey if they are aware of the allegations against Butterball. “We have seen a consumer and industry move to more humane treatment of chickens, hogs and cattle and now turkeys,” he said. “This Thanksgiving shoppers will be looking at prices and the credibility of the brand that sells them.”

In a blog post, Mercy for Animals offered a series of tips and actions for cruelty-free Thanksgiving celebrations, many of which focus on having a vegetarian holiday meal.

Also on MNN:

Thanksgiving turkey disaster? Hit the Butterball phone lines – 10 turkey fact you might not have known. – Better turkey choices

via Undercover video depicts abuse at Butterball turkey farms | MNN – Mother Nature Network.

News Link:-http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/undercover-video-depicts-abuse-at-butterball-turkey-farms

Learn more at:

http://www.ButterballAbuse.com

http://www.MercyForAnimals.org

WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO (Click to watch) – The Humane Slaughter Myth

“Firstly let me just say the video is not on auto play, to watch it you must click play”

“I’m disgusted at the way these workers treat these sentient beings…To make the slaughter process better, people have to join together TO WANT to make changes. I don’t eat meat but for those that do, I’m sure you too would prefer the animal to have been properly stunned & slaughtered. What you see in the video is blatant abuse, the workers enjoy inflicting pain on the animals, it must make them feel more manly…FFS…I wish they would also only have one animal at a time in the stun room, the other poor animals have to watch, not nice is it? Lets make some changes, stand up & be heard, sign the petition below”.

SLAUGHTER CAMPAIGN ACHIEVEMENTS

Our call for CCTV to be installed in all UK slaughterhouses is endorsed by the Chief Executive of the industry’s regulator, the Food Standards Agency, and by the RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming and the Soil Association.

Although the government has been reluctant to encourage slaughterhouses to install CCTV, ten supermarkets – Morrisons, Waitrose, the Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Tesco, Lidl, Asda, Marks & Spencer and Iceland – along with wholesalers Booker, have now agreed to deal only with slaughterhouses that have independently monitored CCTV cameras installed. We are now working with the supermarket chains to ensure that the CCTV footage is monitored properly and that incidents of law-breaking are dealt with effectively.

One slaughterhouse – A&G Barber – has closed permanently as a result of our exposé, and legal action was started against nine workers and four slaughterhouse operators. But, in September 2010, DEFRA decided to drop all these cases, offering no convincing explanation for its decision. Animal Aid embarked on a long battle to reverse this decision to bring the abusers to justice, which culminated in two men being jailed for burning pigs with cigarettes and beating them with excessive force and frequency.

Bristol University is using our footage to train vets and Soil Association inspectors. The industry, government agencies and veterinary bodies are now taking part in ongoing discussions about how to implement changes and bring about improvements in animal welfare in slaughterhouses.

Most importantly, perhaps, the horror of slaughter has been brought to the public’s attention through our footage and through articles in the print media and on television. Many people have seen the reality and chosen to adopt a meat-free diet as a result.

Published on 15 Nov 2012 by AnimalAid

Animal Aid started to film secretly inside Britain’s slaughterhouses in January 2009. To date, we have filmed inside nine randomly chosen slaughterhouses and found evidence of cruelty and lawbreaking in eight of them.

The problems are serious and widespread. Our films reveal animals being kicked, slapped, stamped on, and picked up by fleeces and ears and thrown into stunning pens. We recorded animals being improperly stunned and going to the knife while still conscious. Even where no laws were broken, animals still suffered pain and fear.

And ‘high welfare’ plants, such as those accredited by the Soil Association, were no better than the non-organic ones. Animal Aid believes that whether ‘conventional’, organic, kosher or halal, all slaughter is unnecessary and immoral, and the only way to prevent such suffering is to choose a meat-free diet.

We are calling for CCTV to be installed in all UK slaughterhouses and for the footage to be made available to independent parties outside of the slaughterhouse. We also want better independent training, regular retraining and assessment, rigorous enforcement of the laws. We also believe that people with outstanding convictions for violence or animal cruelty working should fail the ‘fit and proper person’ test and should not be issued a slaughter licence. Finally, we want people to see the shocking truth from inside UK slaughterhouses and choose a humane diet.

CCTV In Slaughter Houses

The welfare of animals at slaughter is a devolved issue, so we are lobbying each of the four GB countries to introduce a new regulation under section 12 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (England and Wales); Section 26 of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006; and Section 11 of the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011.

When the government refused to act, Animal Aid and our supporters lobbied the supermarkets to insist on CCTV in all their slaughterhouse suppliers. The ten largest, along with wholesalers Booker, agreed, and committed to having CCTV installed by the end of 2011.

This means we have a voluntary scheme in which an estimated 80 per cent of slaughterhouses are covered. But it is only a voluntary scheme, and in order to ensure that supermarkets and slaughterhouses do not have a change of heart, CCTV must be installed in all slaughterhouses.

Animal Aid continues to work with politicians and officials in all four GB countries and is encouraged to see progress. But there is still a long way to go.

Find out more about our campaign and the progress made:http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/slaughter/ALL///

Animal Aid – I want to help!

1. Order campaign postcards to send to the English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish Agriculture Ministers, and to your MP
2. Sign our petition
3. Read our CCTV briefing sheet, download it and send it to your MP.
4. Write a letter to your local paper about this campaign. See a sample letter that you can adapt.
5. Tell the world on Twitter, Facebook and other social media
6. Make a donation to help Animal Aid achieve this historic goal.

Get Off The Meat Wagon

The Meat Wagon is an ambulance that has been converted to show films about animal farming and slaughter, and to promote a healthy, humane and planet-friendly diet.

It will be touring the country this summer and coming to a town near you.

Meat Wagon Link:- http://www.meatwagon.org.uk/

Think going organic lets you eat meat with a clear conscience? This shocking investigation into a ‘humane’ slaughterhouse will make you think again….

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242503/Think-going-organic-lets-eat-meat-clear-conscience-This-shocking-investigation-humane-slaughterhouse-make-think-again.html#ixzz2COlhVlCN

Earthlings – The Feature Length Documentary About The Suffering Of Animals For Human Gain

“I posted this, way back in February, but have just noticed the video’s were removed??…so here it is again!” 

“I’m certainly not trying to convert everyone to become vegetarian…but I do think people should watch this video… as difficult as it is to watch in parts…it is very informative. After viewing it, people are entitled to their own opinions regards the subject matter! I am not telling people what they should or should not eat, it’s a personal preference…I’m merely pointing out the journey, animals take, from field to plate! I will just point out that some things have changed regards animal welfare, since this video was made!”

” I chose to become vegetarian, several years ago, after watching something similar to this…I can’t call myself vegan because I just love egg butties from my friend’s pet chucks! Like I said, were all entitled to eat what we want…my daughter lives with me as my carer, she eats meat (particularly McDonald’s) I may not like it, but I don’t take offence at it & make her eat it in another room! When she does cook, she just substitutes the meat for Quorn, it makes a lovely spaghetti bolognese, which even she a meat eater, enjoy’s!

EARTHLINGS is an award-winning documentary film about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment and medical research. Considered the most persuasive documentary ever made, EARTHLINGS is nicknamed the Vegan maker for its sensitive footage shot at animal shelters, pet stores, puppy mills, factory farms, slaughterhouses, the leather and fur trades, sporting events, circuses and research labs. The film is narrated by Academy Award® nominee Joaquin Phoenix and features music by platinum-selling recording artist Moby.

Initially ignored by distributors, today EARTHLINGS is considered the definitive animal rights film by organizations around the world. “Of all the films I have ever made, this is the one that gets people talking the most,” said Phoenix. “For every one person who sees EARTHLINGS, they will tell three.”

In 1999, writer/producer/director Shaun Monson began work on a series of PSAs about spaying and neutering pets. The footage he shot at animal shelters around Los Angeles affected him so profoundly that the project soon evolved into EARTHLINGS. The film would take another six years to complete because of the difficulty in obtaining footage within these profitable industries. Though the film was initially ignored by distributors, who told Monson that the film would “never see the light of day and should be swept under the rug,” today EARTHLINGS is considered the definitive animal rights film by organizations around the world.

Nation Earth was established to produce documentary films on socially urgent issues. EARTHLINGS, released in 2005, was the company’s first feature film and is the first of a documentary trilogy. The company is currently at work on the second installment, UNITY, which will explore the unifying force of consciousness found in nature, animals and humankind. UNITY is scheduled to be completed in 2010. For more information please see http://www.unitythemovement.com.

EARTHLINGS DIRECTOR’S FEATURETTE2

Uploaded by earthlingsthemovie on 2 Oct 2008

Filmmaker Shaun Monson talks about submitting his animal rights documentary EARTHLINGS to film festivals, networks, the Academy, and the new Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act law. 

Earthlings is a feature length documentary about humanity’s absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research). Earthlings illustrates human’s disrespect for “non-human providers”, it is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix and features music by Moby.

You can download the full version of Earthlings at http://www.earthlings.com. The film is available with subtitles in 10 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Hindi, Arabic and Portuguese

There are many farm animals, who endure their whole lives in stinking , horrific conditions, from birth to slaughter!  Don’t get me wrong, some owners treat their animals as if they were pets, but this is mainly on the smaller family run farms, where the owner probably has names for each pig or cow!!”

“However, it seems that small holdings are being driven out, as the big guns come in, wanting to build bigger factory farms, that can handle thousands of  animals a day!  They don’t care much about the well-being of the animals or the environment…just the profits they can make from them!

 As if that is not bad enough… there will always be farm workers who see fit to direct their anger at these sentient beings…there going to die anyway; so who cares if one is targeted & beaten? Well actually we all should, just because they are raised for human consumption, does not give anyone the right to abuse or harm them, in any way! I think all animal factories & slaughter houses, should have CCTV…where inspectors can call unannounced to view the tapes…If all areas are covered properly by cameras, hopefully it might stop a lot of abuse towards the animals, from the bullies…there is always one who thinks it’s funny to stub a cigarette out on a pigs face & roughly handle the babies…anyone who harms a defenceless animal is just a pathetic coward!!

 

Donkey sex gets thumbs-up from censors

“I find this sickening & not in the slightest bit funny…please sign the petition below”!

Film depicting bestiality gets a surprising pass from classification board.

A donkey in costume in a still from the film Donkey Love

Gay sex is more likely to offend standards of morality and decency than men having sex with donkeys, as far as Australia‘s censors are concerned.

A film depicting sex acts between men and donkeys was screened at a Sydney film festival last week after an exemption from classification was granted to the festival by the Classification Board.

The federal government agency responsible for classifying films, the Classification Board, did not ask to view Donkey Love before granting permission for it to screen at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival and Sydney Underground Film Festival.

No film can be publicly screened in Australia without first being rated by the Classification Board, which may refuse a classification if it offends standards of morality and decency. However, it may permit a festival to screen films that have not been rated.

In contrast, the Classification Board banned L.A. Zombie, which features a zombie character having homosexual sex with dead bodies, from being screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2010.

The director of the Classification Board, Donald McDonald, told The Age he refused to grant the film an exemption from classification to screen at the festival because “the film, if classified, would be classified X18+ or RC and, in this circumstance, the law requires the [Classification Board] director to refuse an exemption”.

A director of SUFF, Stefan Popescu, said he was surprised the Classification Board had not asked for more information about Donkey Love or to view it before granting the festival permission to screen it. “I was almost certain they would ask for that film but they didn’t,” Popescu said.

Donkey Love, which purports to be a documentary about a tradition of Colombian men having sexual relations with donkeys, won best documentary at the MUFF.

“I was very nervous about awarding it,” said Richard Wolstencroft, the director of MUFF. “It’s a controversial film but [jury head] Gene [Gregorits] was very insistent it should win.”

One scene in Donkey Love shows the filmmakers laughing as they film a man committing acts of bestiality on the side of a road.

The director of Donkey Love, Daryl Stoneage, said the film had divided audiences but had not been banned overseas.

“You make half the room never want to talk to you again and the other half come up to you and tell you what a pair of balls you must have to make a film like this,” he said.

“I think when people actually see the film, they get desensitised to the act pretty fast and are able to watch a funny and informative documentary about a cultural practice that most people don’t know anything about.”

However, he said the whole film had made him feel uncomfortable. Stoneage was unapologetic about treating the cultural practice of bestiality, which many people would find abhorrent, and illegal, with humour.

“I’m guessing those same people would have a hard time wrapping their heads around a country full of bestiality,” he said. “It’s too bad, there should be more funny documentaries.

“I know I think about that every time I watch the 20th documentary about 9/11 being an inside job or some documentary narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon telling me what’s melting or that I should recycle more.”

“If you don’t think a country full of people having sex with donkeys is funny then maybe there’s something wrong with you.”

The film does not have an Australian distributor yet, but Tyler Chandler, from the film’s production company, said he would be happy to screen the film at other film festivals.

“We don’t have any specific policies on bestiality because it is illegal in Australia,” said a spokeswoman for RSPCA Australia, Elise Meakin. “But from our perspective it is unacceptable in any form.”

News Link:-:http://www.watoday.com.au/entertainment/movies/donkey-sex-gets-thumbsup-from-censors-20120914-25×24.html

Petition:-http://www.causes.com/causes/644857-let-s-turn-facebook-orange-for-animal-cruelty-awareness/actions/1684401?causes_ref=email&template=activity_mailer%2Fnew_activity&utm_campaign=action_email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=causes