Thursday February 4, 2010
On Monday evening, West Hollywood, CA came much closer to being the second city in the US to ban the sale of cats and dogs in pet shops when the city council unanimously approved a proposed ordinance. The first was South Lake Tahoe, CA, in 2009.
The West Hollywood proposed ordinance is the work of the Companion Animal Protection Society, which staged regular protests in front of Elite Animals Pet Store and also conducted an investigation of the puppy mill that the dogs came from. Carole Davis, West Coast Director of CAPS, explained, "Dogs were covered in feces, covered with wounds, and extremely stressed out . . . They try to chew their way out, the poor dogs."
If approved at the second reading, the proposed ordinance will become law, effective March 19, 2010, although pet shops that currently sell cats and dogs will have until September 17, 2010 to comply with the ban. Pet shops would still be allowed to provide space for the adoption of shelter and rescue animals. There is also an exception for the sale of "animals that were bred and reared on the premises of the person or establishment," meaning that small breeders would still be allowed to sell animals, but pet stores could no longer get animals from puppy mills or other off-premises breeders. (02/10/10 Addendum: This language may change in the final version of the ordinance.) The ordinance is expected to be approved, and Davis told me that 17 other cities have already contacted her with interest in passing similar ordinances.
Want more details about how they did it, and how you can get a similar ordinance in your town? I'll publish an exclusive interview with Davis later on this week. Update: Davis' interview is now available here.
Photo courtesy of Companion Animal Protection Society
Suggested Links:
Add to Technorati Favorites
Share on Facebook
Follow Me on Twitter
Thursday February 4, 2010
I am surrounded by non-vegan Valentine's Day treats in the stores - unending shelves full of milk chocolate, and pink heart-shaped marshmallows and conversation hearts containing gelatin from animal bones. So far, I have not been able to find vegan conversation hearts - the closest have been these vegan conversation heart cookies, which are now sold out. But there are lots of vegan Valentine's Day chocolates available, along with other vegan Valentine's Day treats.
In addition to these online resources, try googling "vegan bakery" along with the name of your town or state, and you might be surprised to find a vegan bakery nearby. There are quite a few of them these days, and I just discovered that a new vegan bakery is opening near me!
Traditional Heart-Shaped Boxes of Chocolates:
More Vegan Valentine's Day Treats:
Photodisc / Getty Images.
Suggested Links:
Add to Technorati Favorites
Share on Facebook
Follow Me on Twitter
Monday February 1, 2010
A gruesome, graphic video from a new undercover investigation by Mercy for Animals shows the horrors of the dairy industry, including dehorning and tail docking, both of which are performed without anesthesia. The video aired on ABC News as well as Nightline last week.
While the Mercy for Animals video ends by asking people to go vegan, ABC News says the video is "fueling a debate over the need for new laws to regulate the treatment of American dairy cows."
The problem with that debate is, no matter how much the dairy industry is regulated, the industry is going to be cruel to the cows. Just breeding them to be dependent on humans, depriving them of their freedom and taking their milk violates their right to be free of human use. The cruelty of factory farming is just another reason to go vegan.
These horrors - taking calves away from their mothers, turning male calves into veal, tail docking, dehorning, confining the animals, and then killing the cows when their milk production drops - are all a part of factory farming, which is the only way to produce enough animal products to feed hundreds of millions of omnivores on a finite piece of real estate. The solution is not more regulation; the solution is fewer people and veganism.
And while these practices are an attempt to make this industry profitable, it is not:
(Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack) announced the Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment Program, which provides $290 million for one-time payments to eligible dairy producers . . . On average, the price U.S. dairy producers received for milk marketed in the summer of 2009 was about half of what it cost them to produce milk . . . USDA spent approximately $1 billion in fiscal year 2009 on purchases of dairy products under the Dairy Price Support Program and payments to producers under the Milk Income Loss Contract.
That's right - our tax dollars - a billion of them, went to support the dairy industry and their cruelty during FY2009. This is why it's so important to not only go vegan, but also to speak out against the dairy industry so that others will go vegan.
Suggested Links:
Add to Technorati Favorites
Share on Facebook
Follow Me on Twitter
Thursday January 28, 2010
I'll give you the bad news first. Pigeon killers in Pennsylvania will not be prosecuted for animal cruelty because of the interference of the county's district attorney. According to the New York Bird Club:
"In another effort to protect cruel pigeon shooters in Pennsylvania, Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams has ordered animal cruelty charges withdrawn against the Pike Township Sportsmen's Association . . . It has been revealed DA John Adams has received a contribution from the Flyers Victory Fund (the pigeon shooters)."
The charges had been filed by Johnna Seeton, an officer for the Pennsylvania Legislative Animal Network, who stated:
"My attempt to do my job protecting animals is blocked if I cannot enforce our (Pennsylvania) cruelty law . . . I've been attending and documenting cruelty at pigeon shoots for 23 years, and I've spent 16 years lobbying at the Capitol to ask the legislature to prevent situations like these where an incorrect interpretation causes continual animal suffering."
Pigeon shoots are horribly cruel, and are more target practice than hunting. You can watch a video of an actual pigeon shoot here, but I warn you that it's disturbing. This political move by the DA would be wrong even if he hadn't accepted a donation from the shooters.
Pennsylvania is the only state that still allows pigeon shoots, and the hotbed for this cruelty is Berks County. Why is this? Are pigeon shoots culturally acceptable in Berks County, PA? Not according to the Humane Society of Berks County:
We . . . recognize that organized pigeon shoots for profit are not in the mainstream of Berks County and Pennsylvania values. Pigeon shoots are not hunting, as the PA Game Commission and any reasonable hunter will tell you. They are not even about "pest control" as some would claim since all these birds are being imported to Pennsylvania from New York and the mid-west. They are unsporting canned hunts, undertaken for profit and rife with out-of-state money and gambling.
The good news? Former TV game show host and animal activist Bob Barker has donated $1 million to SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness) to fight pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania. Barker plans to participate personally in protests outside of the Bensalem gun club where multiple pigeon shoots are regularly held. The campaign will also include working toward a state-wide ban on pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania.
If you live in Pennsylvania, please contact your state representative and state senator, and ask them to ban pigeon shoots.
Chris Hepburn / Getty Images
Suggested Links:
Add to Technorati Favorites
Share on Facebook
Follow Me on Twitter
