Siskin by Caroline Johnston. https://flic.kr/p/SMjPwx. Used under a Creative Commons license.
This weekly grab bag of news is brought to you by a beautiful bird I found on Flickr.
10,000 dog adoptions, through HSUS pet stores conversion program via Humane Society of the United States
After launching this campaign in 2013, we’ve worked with 20 pet stores across the country to stop selling puppy mill dogs and to make homeless dogs available for adoption instead (just as PetSmart and Petco have long done). Our staff helps identify shelters in need and match them with pet stores willing to convert; we then assist with transporting homeless animals from the pre-screened shelters to the pet stores. We are working with several stores now to convert their model to an animal-friendly one. This is a very practical example of the workings of the humane economy – with The HSUS driving action and business owners responding and adapting to the new consciousness about animals.
Using Vegetarianism to Put Animal Welfare on the Table via Sixth Tone
Excellent interview with Zhang Si, founder and CEO of Veg Plant, about “the obstacles to growing China’s vegetarian community, her hopes for its future prospects, and her thoughts on the country’s violent animal rights activists.”
How Factory Farms Are Pushing the Jaguar to Extinction via alternet
Important read from author Philip Lymbery. Animal agriculture doesn’t only harm the animals raised and killed to become “food,” it also harms the ecosystem and the wildlife who inhabit it.
The pace of agricultural expansion in this rapidly developing nation is unlike anything I have seen in the world. When people think of deforestation they tend to associate it with logging, or with felling trees to make way for housing and crops for human consumption. In fact, here, the real driver is farming of soya and corn – much of it destined for farm animals. Vast areas of rainforest and savannah are turned over to these industries.
As their habitats are razed, jaguars are being driven out. Seen as pests by cattle ranchers, they are often shot on sight.
In West Virginia, Greyhound Racing’s Days Could Be Numbered via New York Times
The race bettors and spectators at the Mardi Gras Casino and Resort in West Virginia stopped showing up long ago. Soon, the greyhounds could be gone, too. That’s because the Legislature passed a bill to end $14 million in subsidies that benefit dog racing breeders and handlers at the state’s two racetracks. Lawmakers want that money to address a state budget shortfall expected to reach as much as $500 million next fiscal year.
Racing officials believe that if the governor signs the legislation, it will kill the industry and force hundreds to go elsewhere to find work.
Cattle that escaped from St. Louis slaughterhouse are headed to animal sanctuary via St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Six steers that ran amok on the streets of north St. Louis last week after escaping from a neighborhood slaughterhouse have a new lease on life — and a possible future grazing on the lush pasture of a Tennessee animal sanctuary.
The steers — including Chico, who dodged police and animal control officers during a dramatic five-hour bid for freedom that included a crash through an iron fence — were picked up Monday morning from the slaughterhouse, Star Packing Co., and taken to an area farm.
The infamous six will stay at an area farm for a couple of weeks before making the trip to an animal sanctuary. That will likely be a Tennessee property owned by the Gentle Barn animal sanctuary, said Gentle Barn co-founder Jay Weiner.
New Jersey puppy store owner dogged by protestors opens adoption-only shop via pix 11
“I realized how many dogs were dying, and how many dogs they were finding in trash cans and dumpsters and abandoned houses down south and in Puerto Rico, that I said, we can try to do this.”
Double standards in animal ethics: why is a lab mouse better protected than a cow? via The Conversation
Really good think piece on our attitude towards animals:
A recent MORI poll found that as many as 26 per cent of the British public would support an outright ban on animal research and yet, according to an Ipsos MORI survey, only 3.25 per cent of the British public never eat meat. Why is there such a disparity? Do the British public care less about the animals they eat than the animals that are used in research?
If we are to be consistent in the application of our moral principles, we should apply the same consideration to all animals that are used by humans, for whatever purpose.
And lastly, I want to suggest to my followers that they attend an upcoming webinar on the topic of animal testing:
In acknowledgement of World Lab Animal Awareness Day (April 24), join us for a webinar with Dr. Elisabeth Ormandy, co-founder and Executive Director of the Animals in Science Policy Institute: a registered charity dedicated to building an ethical culture of science without animals. Elisabeth is a university-level educator with a decade of experience in international animal welfare policy and the ethics of animal research.
You can register here. I plan on attending and possibly blogging about it!
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Categories: Animal Law, Animal Welfare, Environment
The Paw Report 