” 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/
Greyhound racing authorities publicly call it ‘abhorrent’. They also say it has been ‘outlawed’. But that hasn’t stopped high profile trainers across the country from subjecting defenceless animals to barbaric live baiting rituals in an attempt to gain a ‘winning’ edge on the racetrack.
Viewer Discretion Advised
Published on 18 Feb 2015
They’re the victims you’ll never see at the racetrack. Tied up, terrified, and savagely mauled in widespread ‘live baiting’ sessions. Groundbreaking Animals Australia / Animal Liberation Qld investigations uncover the shocking truth. More @http://www.GreyhoundCruelty.com
***WARNING*** Please note that this video contains footage of which many will find distressing. To take immediate action to help animals without watching the video, head to http://www.GreyhoundCruelty.com
POSSUMS
Native possums — a protected species — were also tied to lures and flung violently around training tracks. Before being used as live bait, one mother possum watched on helplessly as her baby was killed in front of her.
PIGLETS
Piglets — one of the most intelligent and sensitive of all species — were a common choice among live baiters. Their futile squeals could be heard as their bodies were torn apart.
RABBITS
After several laps, rabbits with pieces torn from their bodies twitch and writhe in agony. Their spine-chilling screams ring out across the training track.
KITTENS
While investigation footage captured only piglets, rabbits and possums — kittens have long been reported to be among the victims of live baiting, too.
Investigation footage shows naturally gentle dogs provoked into displaying aggressive and violent behaviour in ‘blooding’ sessions. Those who don’t race fast enough to turn a profit are often killed — sometimes they are shot.
The inherent conflict of interest presented by those ‘promoting’ the sport also ‘policing’ it could not be more damning. While self-regulation continues, there can be little hope that live baiting will ever be eradicated from this industry.
You can help put a stop to this cruelty. Make your voice heard today.
The damning Animals Australia and Animal Liberation Qld investigations have revealed that this sadistic training method is all too common.Terrified piglets, rabbits and native possums are all victims of live baiting — tied to lures, flung around racetracks at breakneck speeds, and then mauled to death. Some animals who survived their first attack were ‘re-used’ multiple times…
‘Bait‘ animals are not the only victims of this industry. Greyhounds themselves — naturally gentle dogs — are often kept in deplorable living conditions off-track. Live baiters will taunt and incite their dogs to chase, attack, and ultimately kill small animals.
If dogs fail to ‘perform’, they too may be killed. Industry-wide, some 18,000 greyhounds are killed every year because they aren’t deemed fast enough to win races.
The big question is — how can state governments and sponsors continue to support an industry that has been exposed for such abhorrent widespread illegal activity?
With the horrific revelations of live baiting cruelty in the greyhound racing industry following our investigations, I have been desperate to share with you a side to greyhounds that didn’t make it to the media this week. This little video has gone viral — watch it now and you’ll see why!
Published on 22 Feb 2015
If you’ve ever wanted a gentle, loyal, loving couch-potato to share your home with, consider adopting or fostering a greyhound today:http://www.AnimalsAus.org/beg
Despite their deep pockets, greyhound racing authorities have utterly failed to take effective action to address shocking brutality and illegal activity at the heart of this ‘sport’. Apparently, they didn’t even know about it. That is, until investigations by two small charities on a shoestring budget exposed routine and systemic ‘live baiting’…
In fact, of all the major corporate supporters, just one company continues to support greyhound racing. Click here to see who’s left.
The greyhound racing industry is on notice. Those who are willing to tie up, torture and kill animals in pursuit of a ‘win’ now have a national spotlight on their activities for the first time. With dozens of trainers now suspended, thousands of possums, rabbits and piglets will now be spared from the horror of being used as ‘live bait’. But while greyhound racing continues, we fear that innocent animals will still be tied up and mauled to death on private training tracks — albeit more carefully hidden.
If you haven’t already, please click here to add your voice to over 100,000 people taking a stand against greyhound racing cruelty. If you have — please share this with your friends and family today.
Together we can end greyhound racing cruelty, once and for all.
Lyn White AM
Campaign Director
Thank you.
Animals Australia and our colleagues at Animal Liberation Qld have been overwhelmed by the response toour investigations into the greyhound racing industry. Because you spoke out, this industry is under more scrutiny than ever before. State governments have launched inquiries; industry heavyweights have been stood down; sponsors are backing out; and commentators are questioning the future of the ‘sport’. Importantly, thousands of animals will be spared from the terror of being used as ‘live bait’. But there’s still much to do.
Please keep your voices loud, for the animals.
GREAT BRITAIN – Dark side of Greyhound Racing Investigation by BBC Panorama full Documentary 2014
Panorama – 03/11/2014 The integrity of greyhound racing has been called into question by a Panorama investigation which has exposed blatant cheating and the drugging of dogs at the heart of the sport. The undercover investigation caught a trainer revealing how he dopes greyhounds in order to effect betting coups – some of which he claims to have paid out up to £150,000. The programme’s findings have prompted animal welfare campaigners to call for the government to reconsider the sport’s self-regulatory status.
Cosmetics retailer Lush launches tombstone window displays in memory of equine fatalities
Adverts across London and in a national newspaper call on punters not to bet on the National
2012 Neptune Collonges runs clears as According to Pete and jockey Henry Haynes and On His Own and Paul Townshend fall at Bechers. According to Pete was also put down
Despite much heralded ‘safety improvements’, the Grand National’s most notorious obstacle remains a potentially lethal challenge for horses running at Aintree next month. The two horses who died at last year’s event – Synchronised and According To Pete – both fell at Becher’s Brook. The same 4ft 10in fence accounted for Dooneys Gate in 2011. His back was broken after the obstacle brought him down and another horse landed on him.
Animal Aid has long criticised the hard wooden core of Becher’s Brook. Reports, therefore, that the inner structure of Becher’s and other fences will be softened represents, in our view, a positive development.
However, Becher’s remains inherently lethal for many reasons, including its height, the spread, the diagonal angle of approach, the fact that it comes at the end of a fast straight of five demanding fences, and because horses must turn after the obstacle has been jumped. In addition, although changes have been made to the ground on the landing side of Becher’s, the fence is still lower there than on the take-off side, which poses another potential hazard for horses.
Animal Aid insists that the time for tinkering is over – Becher’s Brook must be removed.
Thrills and spills: James Reveley rolls away from the crash. A number of other fallers in the race will renew calls for smaller fences. Pictures via Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2130235/Grand-National-2012-horse-deaths-Ban-cruel-spectacle.html
Read more:
Besides Becher’s, other distinctive features make the Aintree annual race extraordinarily dangerous for horses. These include: an overcrowded field of 40 horses; a uniquely long distance, with more fences per mile than any other race; plus perversely challenging obstacles that vary in height and design, unlike the uniform fences found on other British courses. It is due to these and other factors that just 37 per cent of horses entered into the event over the past ten years have managed to complete the course.
Animal Aid anti-Grand National campaign initiatives include:
A demonstration outside Channel 4 in London on 6 April (the day of the race) by local activists and supported by Animal Aid. Channel 4 this year takes over broadcasting the Aintree meeting from the BBC.
Adverts, asking punters not to bet on the big race, appearing across London and in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
A visit to Liverpool, on 3 April, by a converted ambulance emblazoned with stark protest imagery and messages. On the vehicle’s side, a powerful short film will be screened continuously. Leafleting will take place in various locations around the city.
Ethical cosmetics retailer, Lush, to feature a striking window display in its Leeds outlet, drawing attention to the horses who have died at recent Grand Nationals.
Animal Aid to attend the annual demonstration outside the gates of Aintree racecourse on the day of the Grand National.
Animal Aid’s redesigned unique database of on-course equine fatalities,Deathwatch, to be launched at the start of the Grand National meeting.
Animal Aid activists to distribute tens of thousands of leaflets across the country, calling on the public not to place a bet on the race, but instead back the Sanctuary not Cruelty scheme which directly funds two hard-pressed specialist sanctuaries that rescue horses – including ex-racehorses.
A number of course alterations and entry conditions were announced in November 2011, but these did not prevent two horses being killed in the 2012 Grand National. Further changes were introduced at the end of last year and more in recent weeks. But features that make the race so lethal remain unchanged.
Last month, Animal Aid published the report Deathwatch 2012, drawn from its online database that records the deaths of thoroughbreds on all British racecourses. The report reveals that Aintree was the most lethal of all Britain’s 60 racecourses in 2012, when deaths are evaluated in relation to the number of days’ racing. Six horses died at Aintree in just eight days of racing. Three of those fatalities occurred during the three-day Grand National meeting.
‘The time has come for Aintree Racecourse to face what for them is an unpalatable truth: the tide of public opinion is turning against its perversely cruel spectacle. An NOP poll conducted on behalf of Animal Aid last year revealed that, of those respondents who expressed a clear opinion, the majority feels that the Grand National is cruel. Our message is clear: people should stop backing this horror show and donate their money instead to sanctuaries that help horses – not to an industry that exploits and kills them.’
Further information
For press enquiries, please call Andrew Tyler or Dene Stansall on 01732 364546. Notes
Animal Aid’s campaign vehicle will be in Liverpool (Bold Street, near Ropewalks Square) on 3 April at 13.30.
The protest at Channel 4 in London will take place on 6 April from 14.30 onwards.
“I saw this petition & wanted to highlight it to show how humans can be so fxxxxxg inhumane! I am horrified at this, the brutality is appalling…we have to help; it is outrageous that this is allowed to happen. Dr. George Litov is a hero in my eyes, he has to be helped!So please sign the petition, link is at the bottom of this post.”
A Lynch Mob and the Media staged a shameful act of barbaric abuse on a family dog and used intimidation in order to force the village Doctor, Dr. George Litov, out of his home and work, only because he is helping the strays in the village, where there is no vet and no shelter.
The TV news article in no way criticised the mob for their actions, they only blamed Dr. Litov for helping strays. The Police were called, and they did nothing. They did not even attend.
This is typical of the out of control Media in Bulgaria …The Bulgarian Journalists are the main instigators of the so-called “war against the stray dogs” this is the exact term they use in their TV shows and articles.
They are the ones who encourage the barbaric primitive acts on the defenceless stray animals and should also be held accountable for their despicable actions.
Bulgaria has very good, modern Animal Welfare Law (APA 2008) that forbids inhumane handling of animals and places strays under special protection.
On 14 April 2011, Bulgarian Parliament passed an amendment in the Penal Code, which criminalized Extreme Cruelty to Animals.That came onto force on 27 July, 2011. So, what is the problem then?
The problem is that Bulgaria has no enforcement body to implement the new law and therefore change cannot take place.
Bulgaria has no legitimate Zoo police with powers and Bulgarian police officers do not want to bother to investigate and take animal abusers to justice. Since 27 July 2011 we witnessed a number of extreme animal cruelty cases in Bulgaria and no criminal was caught and punished with jail term, or even with a fine.
Our complaints go unnoticed and in some cases we’ve been told to “shut up or else”.
Bulgarian animals live and die in agony! Criminals never get investigated and punished! In most cases Police laugh it off or simply do not accept their duty to protect animals.
We have now created an ONLINE PETITION, to the Government of Bulgaria and associated authorities – it is aimed not just at the need to prosecute the man who savagely beat Disabled Borko in his own home, yet also the very real need for Strict Guidelines for the out of control media.
The Bulgarian Journalists are the main instigators of the so-called “war against the stray dogs” this is the exact term they use in their TV shows and articles. They are the ones who encourage the barbaric primitive acts on the defenceless stray animals and should also be held accountable for their despicable actions.
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 witnessedso 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 inKenya.
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.
In March of last year, HBO confirmed its decision to cancel the racehorse drama starringDustin HoffmanLuck after only its first season. Although they promised safety of the animals was their first priority, throughout the production of the nine episodes, Paste Magazinereports several of their horses died during filming.
Recently, a lawsuit has been filed claiming both the network and itsanimal rightssupervising committee, theAmerican Humane Association, may have covered up even more animal abuse that had occurred behind the scenes. The Hollywood Reporter reveals the official document. Barbara Casey, who had worked on the set of Luckas the Director of Production in the AHA’s Film and Television Unit, is suing HBO for multiple counts of unreported animal abuse. She had allegedly been pressured to keep her lips sealed on the matter under threat of being let go from the team, and was eventually wrongfully fired for alerting authorities.
“In order to save time and money…minimize any disruption of its production schedule…rather than fully cooperate with AHA, continued to engage in and/or direct animal abuse and cruelty,” Casey states. Among the charges, she recalls underweight, sick, and retired racehorses being “drugged to perform.” Moreover, another horse, Hometrader, was killed, but because it was during a summer hiatus, his passing “did not count.”
“At last he has been caught, I remember doing this story back in May. Lets hope he gets what he deserves; if he can do that to a kitten in public, what happens behind closed doors?”
AUSTIN — Austin police have arrested a man for kicking kittens and throwing them across a grocery storeparking lot. Mark Sheldon Watson, 29, is charged with cruelty to non-livestock animals. That’s a state jailfelony.
According to his arrestaffidavit, on May 12, 2012, Watson came to the HEB located at 2110 W. Slaughter Lane with a box of kittens to give away. The box said “Free Kittens for Mother’s Day.” When store managers asked Watson to leave the property, police say he became angry and violent.
Witnesses watched as Watson kicked the box of kittens, then picked one up and threw it hard, 50-60 feet across the parking lot. That kitten did not survive, but its brother, Banjo, did. Banjo was taken to an animal shelter in Travis County.
The affidavit says HEB hassurveillance video of the incident showing the kitten hitting the ground, then shaking uncontrollably.
Police say witnessestried following Watson but he picked up a cinder block and hurled it at them.
Investigators tried tracking down Watson. They released surveillance video of him walking away from the store.
Police were unable to make an arrest until Sept. 10. That’s when a woman came forward and reported that Watson was showing her theTV news reports of the incident on a smartphone and bragging that he was the one responsible.
Austin police arrested Watson and charged him with a state jail felony. If convicted, he faces up to two years in state jail.
Viewers tuning into a recent episode of TLC’s new hit show “Breaking Amish” saw the cast discussing Amish men having sex with animals, sparking questions about bestiality and incest in the Amish community.
The new series that debuted Sept. 9 claims to follow the lives of five fresh-faced Amish and Mennonites.
The cast members, who are from Pennsylvania and Ohio, were purportedly taken to New York Cityto explore life outside their culture.
The cast of “Breaking Amish” had a bizarre conversation about animal sex in a recent episode,
The conversation during the Oct. 7 episode, “What is Really Happening,” was filmed at a restaurant in New York and involved the entire cast — Rebecca Byler, Abe Schmucker, Jeremiah Raber, Sabrina Burkholder and Katie Stoltzfus.
Leading into the human-on-animal sex discussion, Byler opines that there was a lot of incest within the Amish community. “I feel like where we come from everyone’s incest[uous] honestly,” Byler says. “Like first and second cousins getting married … that’s disgusting.”
Schmucker counters that there are a lot of “good Amish people out there, but there are a lot of perverts too.”
This apparently opens the door to taboo sex acts, as Raber says, “You would be surprised how many Amish married men confess to having sex with animals. You would be surprised.”
Raber later clarifies that not all Amish men are having sex with animals, but adds, “There’s a lot of them.”
Stoltzfus during a one-on-one interview with producers later in the show appears to be the only one at the table offended by the discussion. “I’m not really comfortable talking about things like that and the topic of conversation was just not really what I thought was appropriate,” she says.
“I’ve heard a lot about Cesar Millan‘s training since the Alan Titchmarsh show. But until I found the right videos I didn’t want to post any story. But I found the one regards the show, plus a slowed down version of what Titchmarsh is talking about when he refers to ‘thumping a dog’. I’m not saying everything he does is bad…watch the videos below to see what you think. I am no animal trainer but have lived with dogs, breeds from GermanShepherd’s to Chihuahua’s & horses of all breeds & sizes, since I was knee high to a grasshopper. When working with big animals like horses it’s vital you learn to take note of their body language, because it will save you from getting your butt kicked or hand bitten…all of which I have had done to me, so many times, when I was younger.”
“Going & crying about it to my parents didn’t help, the best advice they gave me was, ‘if you don’t want it to happen again, learn to respect their space & get them to respect yours, they will tell you via their body language if their pissed at you’! It took a long time for me to pick up on such subtle actions as a tail flick to tell me, ‘I’m warning you get out my stable I’m busy eating’ but I finally got it. I don’t know about other animals, but with horses & dogs the body language is similar, the eye’s, nostrils, lips, chewing & licking, ears, tail…that is how they communicate with us.”
“But there are the usual dick heads who want their dogs tails docked or ears cropped because it’s our preference…to make them look better. If you don’t like a breed the way it is, don’t bloody well buy one…simple! We have no business nor any right to be cutting off bits from animals or de-vocalising them, just because it suits us!! If we are to live in harmony with our pets & understand their needs, wants & desires, then as owners we must learn to listen to what their bodies are telling us!”.
Charges £60,000 for controversial methods, including electric shocks
A week ago, Hollywood ‘dog whisperer’ Cesar Millan scarcely registered in the national consciousness. But now, after a single appearance on ITV’s normally sedate Alan Titchmarsh Show, he has become one of Britain’s most controversial characters.
The normally genial host turned on him, saying: ‘You punish dogs. You hit them. I’ve seen you punch a dog in the throat to get it to behave, and to most people, like myself, this is totally unacceptable as a way of training an animal. You also work with electric shocks and spikes on collars – and that’s pretty barbaric treatment.’
Unsurprisingly, the spat triggered an internet frenzy. Many critics were vituperative about Cesar’s controversial methods. Others say the Mexican-born dog trainer – who is rumoured to charge £60,000 to tame Hollywood pets – uses tried-and-tested methods.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Cesar robustly defends his methods. ‘I am not brutal or cruel to animals,’ he insists. ‘My mission has always been to save dogs – especially troubled and abandoned dogs. I’ve dedicated my life to this. My newTV series is all about saving shelter dogs and rehabilitating them so they can be adopted by good families.’
Cesar insists he uses the more controversial techniques only on what he calls ‘red-zone’ animals: aggressive and abandoned dogs who could never be re-homed without proper training.
He says he never hurts the animals, only touches them lightly. But he also says that spike chokers and electrical devices ‘may be helpful’.
On his website, Cesar says that an electronic dog collar ‘is the most successful’ at stoppingunwanted barking, but says owners should seek expert advice before using them.
He says: ‘I use many techniques to rehabilitate dogs. In extreme cases – by which I mean cases where I’m the last resort before a dog is put down – these tools may be helpful. But they are just one of many techniques.
‘The processes I prefer are exercise, discipline and affection. I realise there is debate about what techniques are “best” or right, but I focus on the fundamentals of the problem – the question of why the dog is behaving like he is. Then I know what technique from a wide range of options is the best to solve the problem.’
A-list celebrities including Scarlett Johansson, Oprah Winfrey, Charlize Theron and Yasmin Le Bon are all fans.
Le Bon’s husband, Duran Duran star Simon Le Bon, last week tweeted:
‘What did Alan Titchmarsh say about Cesar Millan that’s seriously put my wife on the warpath? He should be afraid, very afraid! Cesar Millan is pretty close to holy in this house.’
While animal rights groups voice disquiet about some of his methods, many on the internet seemed to side with Cesar. Jessie from Stoke-on-Trent spoke for many when she posted:
‘There is no point asking a red-zone dog, as they’re called, to sit and offer him a treat.
‘His behaviour demands immediate action to dominate the dog and that is what Cesar does.
‘If people took the trouble to actually watch him at work on his TV show, they might realise that dogs are not children and should never be treated as such.’
Cesar himself insists that calmness is the key to canine obedience. ‘When I approach an animal, I want to demonstrate that I’m calm,’ he says. ‘Then I ask myself what he needs. Both those considerations must come before any needs of the human. If you’re calm, the animal will pick up on that. I believe a calm dog is a happy, obedient dog that won’t get into trouble.
‘There’s a time for excitement but it isn’t first thing in the morning. Don’t start your dog’s day with excitement.
‘ We’ve got to become better at listening to what a dog is trying to tell us. I always start off by teaching the owner to relax before I start working with their dog. Otherwise, they’re influencing their dogs negatively.’
Nor should you judge a dog by its breed, he says. ‘Don’t suspect a rottweiler or a pit bull before you’ve met it. And look at the owner. That will tell you all you need to know about the dog. Dogs d don’t see themselves as breeds. When a beagle meets a pit bull, he’s not thinking: “Are you the one everyone talks about?” They see themselves as individual dogs.’
Wherever your sympathies lie, 43-year-old Cesar’s personal story is extraordinary, even by Hollywood standards. He was born into abject poverty in Culiacan, Mexico, where three generations of his family lived in a one-room shack. His spare time was spent on the farm where his grandfather worked, which is where the young Cesar learnt about dogs.
In December 1990, he left home to seek a new life in America, crossing the border illegally. ‘I wanted to be the best dog trainer in the world. It felt like a calling I couldn’t ignore,’ he says. A decade later he has a 43-acre ranch in Santa Clarita, California, a new house in the affluent Studio City area of LA, a TV series syndicated to 110 countries, and a string of celebrity clients.
It was a transformation that nearly stalled at the very start. Cesar tried for two weeks to cross the border. ‘Luckily, I was always stopped bythe US guards. They’d give you a sandwich and a can of cola and send you back,’ he says. ‘They did not abuse you like the Mexican guards. You d didn’t want to get caught by them.’
CESAR had only $100 to his name – exactly the sum demanded by a man who told him that he could get him over the border into America. ‘He was a dirty, skinny guy,’ he says. ‘But for some reason, my gut told me that I could trust him.’
That night, they stood up to their chests in water in a hole while they watched until the border guards changed shift. ‘That’s when we ran for it across the border and into a sewage tunnel, where I was told to wait.’
The man eventually returned in a taxi that took Cesar to the American town of Chula Vista. For weeks, he slept rough, sweeping floors and washing cars to get enough money to eat. Then he got a job in a dog-grooming parlour – despite not speaking a word of English – after demonstrating that he could calm a snarling spaniel. The parlour’s owners even allowed him to sleep there.
Cesar taught himself English by listening to the radio. Two months later, he moved to downtown LA. ‘My goal was Disneyland or Hollywood, the home of Lassie and Rin Tin Tin – the dogs that inspired me to come to America,’ he says. ‘Our dogs on the ranch back home didn’t do tricks like them. I found out later, of course, that there were lots of Lassies, lots of Rin Tin Tins so the whole thing was fake.’
It was in LA that his reputation as a dog whisperer began to grow. ‘The LA Lakers played basketball nearby. A lot of them had rottweilers and pit bulls that were causing problems, and I started dealing with them,’ he says.
Music producer Tony Spoon heard about Cesar and asked him to train his rottweiler, Kanji. Spoon’s friend Jada Pinkett – Hollywood actress and Mrs Will Smith – was so impressed she asked if he would train a dog for her.
‘She wanted me to see her two rottweilers who were pretty much out of control. She introduced me to Will, but I didn’t know who he was, either. It was only when the movie Independence Day came out [in 1996] that I realised who I was dealing with.
‘Will’s animals had received plenty of affection but no direction. They lived in a fabulous house but they were frustrated. They needed good, long walks. I also taught them discipline when it came to eating. A dog’s natural tendency when there’s food around is to keep checking that another dog isn’t about to take it from him. They’re very competitive. So I clicked my fingers and made them concentrate on the dog bowl in front of them.’
Cesar’s fame was spreading. Nicolas Cage asked for help with his dogs. Scarlett Johansson asked him to help her mother’s wayward bulldog, then her own timid chihuahua. Charlize Theron needed to train a rescue pit bull. Then Oprah Winfrey mentioned on her show that her dog, Sophie, had started biting other dogs. ‘We made contact with her office and it all went from there,’ he says. ‘In the human world, Oprah is a leader. But in the animal world, she isn’t.’
And that is a position Cesar seems very keen to hold for himself – however controversially.
Cesar Millan will be touring the UK with his seminar from April. Details are at cesarmillanlive.com.
Aggressive techniques are exciting for TV – but terrible for the animals
When the American Navy wanted to train dolphins for military purposes, they quickly picked up on the fact that rewards work a lot better than punishment. It’s all there in the history books of animal training, but it doesn’t make for good TV.
Cesar Millan is a showman. He presents himself as a modern-day gladiator wrestling with snarling animals he calls his ‘red-zone cases’ – and he usually ends up getting the upper hand by punching and kicking the dogs to prove who’s boss.
Cesar claims he’s merely ‘touching’ the animals, but most informed dog lovers wouldn’t see it that way – certainly Alan Titchmarsh didn’t let him get away with that excuse on his ITV chat show last week.
Apart from the tweed skirt, there’s really not much difference between Cesar and Britain’s own Barbara Woodhouse. But Barbara was training dogs 35 years ago, when none of us knew any better.
The science of dog training has moved on a lot since then, but Cesar hasn’t. Who needs proper scientific techniques when you can make a fortune on the back of celebrity endorsements, his Hollywood smile and wrestling with powerful dogs that sometimes bite him?
Proper, positive, qualified dog trainers would never do that for the cameras. But it’s much better television to see Cesar zapping a dog with electric shocks or tightening a prong collar so the spikes go into a naughty dog’s neck.
Cesar said last week that shock collars were an ideal training tool for people with disabilities to use on their dogs. “Being disabled myself, I don’t like the way he is referring to us…does he mean because we can’t get out of our wheelchairs that it’s easier to shock a dog? But use a shock collar in Wales and you could get six months in prison or a £20,000 fine. Hopefully, England’s animal welfare laws will catch up soon, too.
Caesar’s loyal fans claim his detractors are jealous of his fame and fortune, but it’s much more complicated than that. Even if you accept his claim that he’s merely ‘touching’ the animals, it’s a real problem that Cesar’s techniques are already being aped by scores of copycats whose only qualification is usually watching his show.
And just as his imitators probably won’t have his gorgeous Hollywood smile, they might also not have the benefit of his ‘calm assertiveness’ or, crucially, the TV editing skills that ensure the required happy ending. The result could be serious cruelty to dogs – and a trip to A&E for the unsuspecting owner.
“I like to back up evidence as much as is possible, so hopefully these 2 videos will help explain all….the first video is the one that Titchmarsh mentions, saying cesar thumped the dog…watch the body language…who instigated that stand off??
“Now watch the video slowed down…you can clearly see the dog is trying so hard to say ‘I’m sorry don’t hurt me’ watch the eyes, body posture, chewing & liping licks, blinking…all signs that say ‘I don’t want to fight, just go away, leave me, but you keep invading my space'”
All comments containing swear words and insults are now going to be deleted, whichever ‘side’ you are on. Recent quote from a legitimate dog trainer on people that frequently get bitten. “”The person has no business working with dogs in the first place.
If you can’t keep a dog, as a supposed trainer, from getting upset you have no business doing that job and you should be ashamed of yourself.”
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