According to a recent report, the Houston Police Department has shot and killed 187 dogs since 2010. The department authorizes officers to use any force necessary if they feel threatened by an animal and the officials have defended their officers actions. We take a closer look at why HPD is targeting man’s best friend.
Posts in category Animal Welfare
Corporate Governance and Monsanto’s Bee Genocide
One criticism of libertarians claims that they are too pro corporation. As one who still self identifies as a libertarian (small l) despite the continuing barrage of insulting rhetoric and misconceptions coming from both Democrat and Republican sources, I take exception to that critique. I am not pro corporation at all, but I am pro business. The difference being a corporation is the creation of a government and is given privileges and protections over individuals, a business is the creation of an individual to provide goods and services to other individuals and it is its privilege to serve the individuals who are its customers. Businesses are the cornerstones to innovation and human advancement, corporations are a danger to human endeavors and individual freedom, especially when given the power to govern. READ MORE »
U.S. quarantines two dairies after mad cow case
WASHINGTON – Two California dairy farms are under quarantine and a calf ranch is under investigation following discovery of the latest U.S. case of mad cow disease, but the government on Wednesday said the actions were standard procedure and there was no threat to the food supply.
Also, a calf born to the infected cow was found and tested negative for the disease.
Cattle records at the two dairies are being matched to determine if any at-risk cattle are on the farms, said the Agriculture Department.
USDA said the infected cow was a rare “atypical” case of the disease, meaning it arose spontaneously rather than through the feed supply. However, it is USDA’s standard procedure to search for other cattle, offspring or herd mates, that might be exposed to the fatal disease, even though mad cow disease is not contagious.
Cutting off poachers through rhino de-horning
Every day two rhinoceros are killed for their horrns by poachers in South Africa.
The animal’s iconic keratin-based horn is thought to have medicinal benefits in certain parts of Asia, making them highly valuable commodities on the black market.
With 80 dead rhinos already found this year, park rangers in South Africa are taking drastic measures, including sawing off the horn itself in hopes of keeping the heavyweight animal alive.
Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa reports from Mpumalanga.
The Harmful Influence of Politics on Everyday Life
It may seem to many of you that I like writing about politics. When I think back on it, I find myself thinking that actually, I don’t. I can think of so many better things to write about and I’ve shown this by my work as a novelist. I’d much rather be writing adventures and working with fiction than expressing my opinions on the political happenings in this nation and the world. The problem is, as I discovered long ago, politics doesn’t want to leave me alone. It wants to seep into every aspect of my life. It wants to micromanage my personal decisions. It wants to tell me what I can eat, what I can and can’t put into my body, what medications and medical procedures I can and can’t use, what businesses I can and can’t open, how I must operate a business when I open it, what I must accept as money from any given costumer, who I can and can’t marry, how I can travel, etc. They keep their hands in my pockets and their eyes on all my activities. In short, politics wants to control my actions from cradle to grave and make sure they get a piece of everything I produce during my time here on earth. READ MORE »
Japan ends whaling season short of quota
Japan has ended its whaling season with less than a third of its annual target, said the country’s Fisheries Agency.
The whaling ships headed home from the Antarctic Ocean this week with 266 minke whales and one fin whale, falling short of its quota of about 900.
The agency blamed “sabotage” by anti-whaling activists for the shortfall.
Japan conducts “legal research” on whales each year, but activists say it is a cover for commercial whaling banned under an international treaty.
“The catch was smaller than planned due to factors including weather conditions and sabotage acts by activists,” an agency official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
“There were definitely sabotage campaigns behind the figure.”
The US-based anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd follows the Japanese fleet south every year in a bid to disrupt its hunt.
“I think it’s been a very successful campaign,” said the group’s president, Paul Watson. “I predicted they wouldn’t take over 30% and they got 26% so we were right on that one.”
There has been a ban on commercial whaling for 25 years, but Japan catches about 1,000 whales each year in what it says is a scientific research programme.
Cockfighting and Religion
It can be found throughout Scripture – the idea that the abuse of animals is an abuse of God’s creation. Now Dr. Richard Land and other religious teachers are becoming allies in the fight to end the exploitation of animals used in blood sports.
Japan says some tsunami reconstruction funds going to whaling
Tokyo (CNN) — The Japanese government has affirmed that $29 million from its budget for post-earthquake and tsunami reconstruction is going toward extra security measures for the country’s whaling fleet, angering environmental activists like Greenpeace.
The whaling industry is “siphoning money away from the victims of the March 11 triple disaster, at a time when they need it most,” Junichi Sato, executive director of Greenpeace Japan, said this week, referring to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that struck Japan in March.
But Tatsuya Nakaoku, an official from the Japanese Fisheries Agency, said Thursday he funds would help “support the reconstruction of a whaling town and nearby area,” which was devastated by the natural disasters.
Ohio Dangerous Exotics Pet Trade
It’s up to Ohio’s Governor Kasich and state lawmakers to ban the sale and ownership of dangerous exotic pets.
Shark fin soup banned in Toronto
TORONTO — City councillors voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to make Canada’s largest city a shark fin free zone.
After an almost three-hour debate, councillors voted 38-4 to ban the possession, sale and consumption of shark fin soup and other products within the Toronto city limits, effective Sept. 1, 2012.
“This will be a motion that will be heard around the world, I think sharks in every single ocean of the world are clapping right now as we speak,” said Coun. Glenn De Baeremaeker. “We did this to make sure that (sharks) didn’t get wiped off the face of the earth; we’re being part of a global solution to solve a global problem.”
EU bans GM-contaminated honey from general sale
The European Union’s highest court on Tuesday ruled that honey which contains trace amounts of pollen from genetically modified (GM) corn must be labelled as GM produce and undergo full safety authorisation before it can be sold as food.
In what green groups are calling a “groundbreaking” ruling, the decision could force the EU to strengthen its already near-zero tolerance policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Bavarian beekeepers, some 500m from a test field for a modified maize crop developed by Monsanto – one of only two GM crops authorised as safe to be cultivated in Europe – claimed their honey had been “contaminated” by pollen from the plant.
The European court of justice found in their favour, a ruling that should offer grounds for the beekeepers to claim compensation in a German court.
Jury awards family $300K after police kill man’s dog during search
Thomas Russell III describes watching a police officer shoot his canine “best friend” two years ago as “the scariest thing I ever saw.”
On Thursday, a U.S. District Court jury decided Russell, 20, and his family deserved to be compensated for the Feb. 27, 2009, police search of the family’s South Side home during which “Lady,” the family’s black Labrador, was shot dead. The jury awarded the family about $300,000.
“That was my best friend,” said Russell, who was 18 at the time. “We did everything together. When I worked out, she’d be right there watching me. She’d sleep when I’d sleep.”
The Russell family originally sued the city of Chicago in January 2010, accusing police of excessive force, false arrest and inflicting intentional emotional harm — among other claims — during the 2009 search of the family’s apartment in the 9200 block of South Justine. Though police searched for drugs, they found none in the apartment, the family’s lawyers say. Russell and his younger brother, Darren, were handcuffed during the incident, attorneys for the family said, and both boys had shotguns placed against their heads. At some point, Lady appeared and an officer shot her, the family’s lawyers said. Lady was a sweet dog, and police had no reason to fear her, Russell said.