i—-i:

brotherwarlockxvx:

thetreestories:

dogjournal:

MAN TAKES CARE OF DOGS IN NUCLEAR EXCLUSION ZONE

A man named Naoto Matsumura refused to leave the nuclear exclusion zone, which is contaminated with radiation, after the 2011 earthquake in Japan.  He is the only one living in the area, and he spends his days taking care of dogs and a variety of other animals including cows, an ostrich, cats, and other farm animals.  Here’s the story from the New York Daily News:

A modern day Robinson Crusoe, Matsumura has become something of a folk hero to animal lovers around the world.

He spends his days feeding 400 cows, 60 pigs, more than hundred cats and dogs, and one vivacious female ostrich named “Boss.”

His hometown, Tomioka, was a tidy village of 16,000 people eight miles from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant when the earthquake and tsunami hit.

The town, once famous for one of Japan’s longest cherry blossom tunnels, now stands empty, the power out except for a single traffic light blinking over the deserted main road.

***

Matsumura only managed to save a small percentage of the cattle left to starve slowly in their pens and that tragedy continues to enfuriate him.

“I’m full of rage,” he told CNN last month. “That’s why I’m still here. I refuse to leave and let go of this anger and grief.”

He is confronted daily by the harrowing results of the sudden evacuation — a cageful of withered canaries, or a calf that died horribly as it grew too big for the rope tied around its head.

my heart

more people in the world need to do things like this

what a legend.

vegansaurus:

This is Forest Service employee Josh Bransford happily posing with a wolf he trapped in Idaho. The wolf wasn’t just trapped; when some passing motorists saw the limping animal, they thought it’d be super fun to non-fatally shoot the trapped wolf a few times. Bransford posted some pics online and people were positively giddy. Awesome.

People make me so sick sometimes. This is exactly what people opposed to the de-listing were worried about. This isn’t just an animal who’s threatened by habitat loss or something, hunters and farmers hate wolves. They are in competition with them. It’s not like a few will be killed now, these dudes are out for blood. 

According to Environment News Service, people are calling for Bransford to be fired. Though you’re allowed to kill wolves now, there are actually rules about it:

Idaho state law makes it a crime for a person who “causes or procures any animal to be cruelly treated, or who, having the charge or custody of any animal either as owner or otherwise, subjects any animal to cruelty.” The law also requires that “destruction of animals for population control,” the stated reason for wolf trapping, be carried out humanely.

Stopping to pose while an animal hobbles in pain is certainly not carrying out the murder humanely. Though I don’t know that Idaho actually cares about enforcing laws. They certainly don’t care about upholding promises.From Earth Island Journal:

Removal of Endangered Species Act protection for the wolf was based on the assurances of state game agencies that they would manage wolves to ensure survival of the species and approval of state wolf management plans by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Idaho has since abandoned the targets of its state plan and instead said it will seek to reduce the population from roughly 1,000 wolves to as low as 150 wolves. Since the delisting, 375 wolves have been reported killed in Idaho. Idaho’s wolf hunt remains open in portions of the state.

As you know, wolves were removed from the federal protection list last year in Idaho and Montana. Since then:

By late March some 117 Idaho wolves had been killed in traps and snares, and another 251 shot. Montana saw 166 killed, for a total of 534 wolves out of an estimated 1150 in the two states. Although Montana’s season ended in February, Idaho is not quite done. Both states have announced plans for increased hunting in the 2012-2013, and discussions are underway among hunting groups and state officials to allow private donations to establish wolf bounties.

Wolf bounties? They aren’t criminals—they’re animals just trying to live! This is so absurd. As you can see, it’s not like there a gagillion wolves walking around. This animal that was nearly wiped off the earth has rebounded to a little more than a thousand in those areas. How does an animal go from federal protection to being legally culled by half? There needs to be national intervention. States shouldn’t be able to just do whatever they want with regard to their environment and wildlife. This is bullshit. I’m angry!

occupyallstreets:

The 15 Deadliest Corporations: #11 Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey

“The Cruelest Show on Earth” is famous for its abuse of wild animals. In July 2004, Clyde, a young lion traveling with Ringling, died in a poorly ventilated boxcar while the circus crossed the Mojave Desert in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Circus elephants are routinely confined for days at a time and beaten with bullhooks and electric prods, and when they’ve had enough, they lash out. In one famous case in 1994, an elephant named Tyke killed her trainer and injured 12 spectators before being gunned down on the streets of Honolulu.

Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Baily Circus also has an impressive dead human headcount because of a fire under the big top in 1944 which killed a hundred spectators — the canvas was illegally non-flame-retardant.

Source

Largest California Farm Animal Rescue - Inside A&L Egg Farm (by AnimalPlace)

Between February 23-24, 2012, Animal Place and Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary coordinated the largest farm animal rescue in California history. More than 4,400 hens were pulled from A&L Poultry in Turlock, California after the owner left the hens without food for more than two weeks.

More than 3,200 of those hens arrived to Animal Place’s two sanctuaries in Grass Valley and Vacaville. This video shows the reality of egg farms across the country.

If you would like to help these hens, visit animalplace.org or simply eliminate eggs from your diet.

axelritt:

Rodeos Abuse, Maim and Kill Animals

Animals are abused and exploited in a variety of forms of “entertainment.” Born Free USA’s primary focus is on the use of animals in circuses, where elephants, lions, tigers, and other animals are sentenced to a lifetime of misery in order to provide a few moments of human amusement. We were part of a groundbreaking lawsuit against Ringling Bros. for their mistreatment of Asian elephants. Click here for more details. Our Zoo Check campaign tracks abuses and substandard conditions suffered by animals in zoos, aquariums, circuses, or other places that exhibits animals.

Animals are also forced into the role of unwilling performer in other venues, including:

Marine parks, where captive marine mammals such as dolphins and orcas are doomed to a life of confinement, deprived of normal social and environmental interaction. Animals in marine parks typically show signs of psychological disturbance are often forced to perform degrading tricks that run counter to their natural instincts. (Join us in protesting the deadly dolphin exhibit at The Mirage hotel in Las Vegas.)

Roadside zoos and aquariums, where, under the guise of “conservation” and the name of “education,” animals are too often treated as disposable specimens. Many animals held in captivity in these facilities continue to be bored, cramped, lonely, and unable to perform normal social behaviors. Too many zoos still sell off older and “surplus” animals who may end up in roadside menageries, breeding facilities, circuses, or even as “game” in canned hunt facilities.

Movie and Television Sets, where animals are used as involuntary “props” to sell products and services, and to boost the profits of studios and production companies. In addition to all the problems associated with keeping wild animals in captivity, animals used in filming have been mistreated, injured, or even killed on set.

Other Venues: Animals are also exploited and mistreated for human amusement in horse and greyhound racing, cockfighting and dog fighting, and in shopping malls and schools where they are put on public display. Exotic animals are often used in photo opportunities, or are shot and killed in canned hunts or on hunting ranches. Unfortunately, people can be very creative in finding ways to make a profit off of other animals.

Born Free USA strongly opposes the use of animals in all entertainment venues. Animals are not novelties; they have their own needs, interests, and rights — including the right to engage in their natural behaviors in their natural environment. We are committed to using every tool at our disposal, from lobbying to lawsuits to grassroots organizing, to end the cruel exploitation of animals for human amusement and profit.

vegansaurus:

There’s a very interesting study in this month’s Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin that we vegans may find particularly fascinating: “Don’t Mind Meat? The Denial of Mind to Animals Used for Human Consumption.” It’s all about how meat eaters cope with taking a life so they can have a…

singinslowmotion:

This is often how organic and free-range egg-layers live - not the bucolic farm you might imagine. And keep in mind that all the male chicks are destroyed at the hatcheries that supply these places. The boys don’t lay eggs and aren’t profitable to raise for “meat type” birds. Please share - people have such illusions of what free-range looks like.

And even if they did live in a bucolic setting, their eggs aren’t ours to take. 

Valentine’s Day at Farm Sanctuary (by farmsanctuary1)

[TW: graphic descriptions of violence]

melesmelesxvx:

Animal Equality has carried out a ground-breaking two-month undercover investigation on a ‘Quality Assured’ (Red Tractor) farm in Norfolk - Harling Farm, belonging to A. J. Edwards & Son. Harling Farm is typical of a farm in Britain.

Over 200 hours of footage and recorded conversations, and more 300 photos provide a shocking insight into the British pig industry and demonstrate that regardless of whether a farm is labelled as ‘Quality Assured’ there exists pain, suffering and exploitation on a huge scale.

A day at Harling Farm - The investigator´s diary

“Geoff grabbed the handle from the gate as usual and smashed it over the head of one of the sick piglets. It took him several blows before he finally cracked the skull, sending the animal into spasm. He then shouted at me to help him throw the animal into the dead bin. It took me a few seconds to react as I just cannot get used to him doing this.

The blood was pumping out of the animal’s head, and pieces of brain. I got hold of the leg and the blood went all over my boots, the floor and the dead bin. As soon as the piglet was inside the bin, Geoff put the lid on and walked away. I could still hear the piglet kicking and desperately squealing. Once again I felt frustrated and unable to help.”

If you eat meat, please think about what your money is funding. This is a typical pig farm, and cruelty is widespread throughout the animal farming industry. Please make the ethical decision to go vegan. There’s a whole world of information out there online to help you make that transition, and a brilliant community of vegans who will support you if you want, all you need to do is ask!

Find out more:
http://www.britishporkindustry.co.uk/
http://www.chooseveganism.org/

[IMAGE: A black and white vertical rectangular graphic of a hand holding a dog’s paw at bottom, with two shades of green bordering the entire image. Green text above in Batik Regular font reads: “VEGANISM is the radical notion that animals are not objects.”]

sailorvegan:

camirebolledok:

Photos from animal rights organization EligeVeganismo. This was the activity performed in commemoration of the International Animal Rights Day, on 10th December 2011. We were about 80 activists, some came from outside Santiago (Chile’s Capital).
These are all victims of animal exploitation. Their corpses were collected from factory farms, dairy, labs, street, and other such places.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5TSqaGu0n0&feature=colike Here’s the video. 
“63 years ago, the whole world, unanimously, condemned the atrocities of World War II, trough a Declaration that pretended that none of those horrors would recur. Until today, millions of animals die on a daily basis; most of them to be made human food, in the most absolute and painful of silences. We get them usually in pieces, as meat, leather, fur, or substances like milk and eggs, others are caged beneath a glass on a pet store, caged on a zoo, or in a circus spectacle.
For this reason, the International Animal Rights Day is more than just a memorial, it’s a call to reflection and the will to leave inertia. If we apply non violence, and look for peace, this act is a call to practice every day respect for animals, those who don’t express on languages we do, and are out of our structures, but share with us the most basic characteristics, the will to live, to determinate their own lives, and the desire to fully live their freedom.” Isabel Collao Lemus, EligeVeganismo’s coordinator. Translation of the speech from video 

190590:

Going through the Vegan tag on Tumblr reminded me of the other day, I was watching this show, Countryfile, which was discussing organic farming and the recent decline in sales of certified organic food - why and when and how etc., but how a recent rise in purchases of food with welfare labels has…

Animal “welfare” certified meat and other animal products are for people who care about animals, but ultimately aren’t willing to align their behavior with their values, so want their consciences eased by sugarcoated labeling (lies). So, really, they don’t care all that much. 

http://humanemyth.org/