Wednesday January 25, 2012
Plans have been announced for the first animal history museum, to open later this year in Los Angeles, California. Executive Director Amy Breyer states, "It will be the first brick-and-mortar museum to focus on the always complex, but historically marginalized, relationship between humans, (non-human) animals and society in general."
Unlike a natural history museum, where the focus is on biological or zoological information, the Animal History Museum focuses on "understanding and celebrating the human-animal bond."
The project is still in its beginning stages - the musem doesn't have a permanent location yet - and the museum is seeking donations of photographs, objects, labor, and money. And if you purchase a membership now, you'll be a founding member.
Even if you can't donate anything right now, you can help them get the word out by liking the Animal History Museum on Facebook, and following them on Twitter.
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Thursday January 19, 2012
ABC News has discovered that Butterball was tipped off by a state employee before the December, 2011 police raid that resulted from the Mercy for Animals undercover investigation. The undercover video shot by MFA depicted workers brutalizing the turkeys, sometimes killing them. On December 28, 2011, the Hoke County Sheriff's Department raided Butterball's Shannon, North Carolina farm; authorities inspected 2,800 turkeys, seized 28 and euthanized four.
According to information uncovered by ABC News, the Hoke County District Attorney's office asked the North Carolina Department of Agriculture if they would assist in the raid, since the Ag Department is charged with inspecting livestock. An unnamed state ag employee, the Director of Animal Health Programs, then tipped off Butterball.
The Hoke County DA's office is now looking into this apparent breach of confidentiality, including executing a search warrant for information on phone calls between Butterball and the Ag Department in the days leading up to the raid.
As Nathan Runkle, executive director of MFA, puts it, ""It is deeply troubling . . . that a governmental agency that is entrusted with monitoring and overseeing agriculture and food production is so corrupt that it's in bed with the very corporate interests that were documented abusing and neglecting animals. The fox apparently is guarding the henhouse."
Given Monsanto's unsettlingly cozy relationship with the US Department of Agriculture and the increasingly murky distinction between the regulators and the regulated, perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised that someone in the NC Ag Department would want to protect a farm from an animal cruelty investigation. But in this case, the county DA's office is taking the offense very seriously. The NC Ag Department claims they are cooperating with the DA's investigation and, "Once the investigation is complete, we will take appropriate action based on the facts."
This is also further proof of why ag-gag laws are so dangerous. Without the opportunity to document infractions as they happen, it would be much more difficult for employees, investigators or prosecutors to prove crimes such as animal cruelty, illegal working conditions, food safety violations or environmental infractions. Even without a tip from an insider, a company can clean up a crime scene long before the police can get a warrant and investigate.
Image courtesy of Mercy for Animals
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Thursday January 12, 2012
Romney supporter with dogWhat kind of person straps a dog to the roof of the car, keeps the dog there after he gets sick, and keeps driving?
In 1983, Mitt Romney put the family dog, Seamus the Irish Setter, into a carrier that he tied to the roof of his car for a twelve-hour drive to Canada. Despite a homemade windshield that Romney attached to the carrier, the dog became predictably traumatized. At some point, Romney's eldest son noticed a brown liquid running down the rear windshield. Romney pulled over at a gas station, hosed down the car and the dog, and then put the sick dog back on top of the car and kept driving.
One might chalk it up as a long-ago mistake, but in 2008, Romney made light of the incident and didn't think it was a mistake. Romney is also a hunter and supports rodeos. Read the full story here, then answer the poll:
Alex Wong / Getty Images
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Wednesday January 11, 2012
Butterball turkey
A Butterball turkey farm in Shannon, North Carolina was raided by law enforcement after an undercover investigation by Mercy for Animals.
This is why "ag-gag" bills are so dangerous. These bills would criminalize the making of undercover videos at factory farms, protecting the farms from cruelty investigations. Although the facilities are subject to state and federal inspections, you can be sure that workers are not kicking and stomping on turkeys when the inspectors are there.
Learn more here.
Photo courtesy of Mercy for Animals
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