Spay message from Peta
November 10, 2007
Found this poster while surfing Peta’s website. Simple, to-the-point & cute.
Archive for the 'Animal Welfare' Category
Socks got dumped
October 25, 2007Maybe you knew but this is news to me.
Apparently, Hillary Clinton dumped Socks as soon as the Clinton’s left the White House!
Read the full story here.
Socks giving an address on responsible pet ownership
Persian Kitten for Sale in Mocca.com
August 7, 2007I was checking out mocca.com - Mediacorp’s new ad site & found this:
Looks like a pet shop & according to the description, it is located in Tampines.
Another potential suffering? I sincerely hope not!
There are even more dogs & puppies for sale on this site & most sellers I suspect are backyard breeders.
In other news …
February 21, 2007Tualatin police cite resident for letting dogs loose & kill cat
By Rick Bella for The Oregon, 20 February 2007
TUALATIN — Police have cited a Tualatin woman, accusing her of failing to control two large dogs that killed a cat while running loose last week.
Julie McCluskey, 32, was cited for two counts of failing to prevent running at large, two counts of failing to prevent acts of nuisance by dogs and keeping a dangerous dog.
Capt. Jeff Groth, Tualatin police spokesman, said McCluskey owns only one of the dogs. However, both dogs were in her custody when the incident occurred.
Groth said police received a report shortly after 12:30 p.m. last Wednesday that two dogs were killing a cat in the 22000 block of Southwest Pinto Drive.
When an officer arrived, the dogs still were with the cat, which already was dead. As the dogs moved though the neighborhood, police remained in their patrol cars in a “rolling containment” maneuver to ensure that the dogs did no other damage.
Police also contacted the department’s school resource officer to make sure no students or school buses would be in the area.
About 45 minutes later, Washington County Animal Services officers were able to capture the dogs.
$5,000 reward for information about cat mutilation
By Lindsey Collom for The Arizona Republic, 20 February 2007
The Arizona Humane Society and Silent Witness are offering up to a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or indictment in the attempted castration of a feline.
An examination revealed the cat’s genitals were wound with rubber bands, inciting inflammation, infection and severe damage to its bladder and kidneys.
The animal was also emaciated and dehydrated, according to a Humane Society statement issued Tuesday.
Humane society officials said the 2-year-old male cat had to be euthanized.
“We believe that someone carried out this depraved act at least two weeks ago then turned the cat loose,” spokeswoman Angela Stringfellow said. “He suffered horribly before we rescued him. . . . And now, we are committed to finding his abuser(s) and bringing them to justice.”
An emergency animal medical technician found the animal near 32nd Street and Greenway Road after someone reported a cat being hit by a vehicle. Humane society officials do not think the cat’s injuries were accidental.
“It’s common sense that dogs and cats should only be spayed and neutered by a veterinary surgeon who will carry out the procedure under general anesthetic and administer appropriate pain relief and antibiotics,” chief veterinarian Nancy Brandley said. “There is absolutely no excuse for anyone to do something this heinous.”
Humane society officials urge anyone with information to call the Silent Witness at (480) WITNESS. Callers can remain anonymous.
Guangdong inspects civet cat trade
February 20, 2007GUANGZHOU, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — South China’s Guangdong Province, the first to report fatal SARS cases in late 2002, has enhanced surveillance on civet cats, found by scientists to be a major source of the SARS virus, to prevent possible outbreaks in spring.
The province mobilized nearly 7,000 health inspectors in the past month and examined 10,000 restaurants for civet cats, said the Guangdong Provincial Health Department.A live civet cat and several frozen ones were confiscated and 18 restaurants were fined in the latest campaign across the province, said Huang Fei, deputy director of the department.
A restaurant in Shunde, Foshan City was fined 30,000 yuan (3,800 U.S. dollars) for buying civet cats.
The province banned raising, selling, killing and eating of civet cats in January 2004.
But “the health departments have received increasing reports of illegal trade in civet cats since November,” said Huang.
During the campaign, restaurants were required to make a written commitment on no trading of banned wild animals like civet cats.
Those who fail to keep the commitment will get their licenses revoked.
“The possibility of a SARS outbreak still exists in Guangdong in spring,” said Luo Huiming, an official with the Guangdong Disease Control and Prevention Center.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, first broke out in Guangdong in November 2002 and spread to 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the Chinese mainland.
The outbreak caused alarm around the world, with infected cases reported in 32 nations and regions. The disease claimed more than 700 lives worldwide, including at least 349 on the Chinese mainland.
Lab Used By Iams Busted - Blog report by PETA
February 16, 2007
Back in 02/03, PETA conducted a 9-month investigation into a lab used by the Iams pet food company to “test” its food. During the investigation, we uncovered horrible abuse, including dogs gone crazy from intense confinement; dogs left piled on a filthy paint-chipped floor after having chunks of muscle hacked from their thighs; dogs surgically debarked; horribly sick dogs and cats languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer with no vet care.Well, we’ve continued to work on the case and have just received very good news in a report from the USDA. The report confirms Animal Welfare Act violations that we found during our investigation, including:
- Untrained personnel performing animal experiments
- Failure to provide veterinary care and observe animals on a daily basis
- Caging facilities for dogs and cats so stifling that staff were unable to endure the ammonia levels
- Failure to provide animals with the minimum required space
The lab can now either admit to its wrongdoing and settle with the government or go through an Administrative Court proceeding.
Source: Blog.Peta.Org
Some People Ignorant of Wildlife Around Them
January 12, 2007I love this! It is true is usually our unfounded fears that cause innocent animal lives to be lost.
Straits Times Interactive
ST Forum, 12 January 2007
THE Sunday Times article on Jan 7, ‘Bee attack: Don’t fight back, just run’, is balanced journalism - educative and fair. This contrasts with previous fear-mongering reports on ‘killer bees’ which miscast unaggressive local species as their dreaded Africanised cousins in the Americas.
Competing literacies leave many ‘bio-illiterate’. Recent giveaways include a Channel News Asia presenter who ascribed the film, Gorillas In The Mist, about Diane Fossey, the late mountain gorilla specialist, to Jane Goodall, the chimpanzee expert.
A local article referred to chimpanzees, which are apes, as monkeys. Another writer feared that monkeys on one of the Southern Island might throw stones - they don’t, but apes might.
Another writer mislabelled the whale shark - a fish - as a marine mammal. Years ago, a reporter sensationalised the harmless, plankton-feeding whale shark as a potential maneater.
Some youngsters mistake the ubiquitous monitor lizard, which is much smaller and not life threatening, for the rarely seen crocodile. This may explain signs (still there?) at MacRitchie Reservoir that differentiate these animals pictorially - to obviate panic?
In the Dec 31 Sunday Times story, ‘Korean study mamas’, one of them complained: ‘Singapore is so clean, so why are there lizards crawling on the walls of our apartment? We are really scared of them.’ Why must non-humans always be filthy and threatening by default?
House lizards (geckos) don’t smell, whereas - unwashed - we and our pets reek and exchange bacteria. That creatures exist to attack us is self-flattering. Gecko droppings show their pest-control role. Cleaning up after them after initially being startled when they panic at our intrusion. Admire their adaptation to our environment - don’t fear or despise them.
American author Mark Twain said: ‘The more I see of people, the more I like my dog’. We have no monopoly on human traits. Some wild dolphins, summoned by drums, herded fish into tribal fishermen’s nets for mutual benefit.
Lacking muscles to access honey, the honey guide bird uses body language to lead animals or humans towards a beehive to share the spoils. Kamuniak, a wild lioness in Kenya, adopts several oryx calves for company instead of eating them which baffled zoologists no end.
Animals don’t deserve short shrift. Bio-literacising ourselves via documentaries, and so on will outgrow a distrust of - overwhelmingly less dangerous - non-humans. Don’t we owe our own species honesty, humility, edification and justice too?
Anthony Lee Mui Yu
