Author Archive
Happy Angels Dog Rescue
October 5th, 2011 | 
Author: 
CoCo was rescued from a "Dog Meat Farm" in 2010 & now has a loving home!
Every dog is a story. In South Korea, millions of dogs are subjected to the most unimaginable agony until their last breath, at grim and squalid dog meat farms and meat markets—the very bowels of existence—with their pitiless smell of human injustice and cruelty. They come to sorrow in these hellish places, imprisoned in filthy and desolate cages, where puppies are usually separated from their mothers, all awaiting their fate. According to a persistent and mystifying belief, the greater the terror and pain a dog experiences while dying—the more he suffers—the more intense the boost in adrenaline in the flesh for a tastier meat, as well as a real boon for a man’s virility. A life snuffed out. Everyday cruelties perpetrated casually and without remorse.
As every dog is a story, every rescue is a story—jubilation-bringing rescues that are rays of light in a realm of darkness.
Happy Angels Dog Rescue, in Los Angeles, California, not only rescues dogs from high-kill shelters and off the streets of L.A., but also funds, transports, and places dogs from South Korea. Working with various South Korean animal organizations, including IDA’s partner Coexistence for Animal Rights on Earth (CARE) and Young-Jin Kwon of the newly formed People Defending Animals, dogs are saved from dog meat slaughterhouses, dog meat farms, restaurants that serve dog meat, S. Korean shelters, and individual abuse cases. Because many South Korean dog lovers clamor for purebreds, especially puppies, adult dogs of mixed breeds find it much more difficult to find homes there. After rescue, the South Korean organizations foster and assist in the transportation of the dogs.
Founded in June, 2008, by Stephanie Jeong, Happy Angels has transported about 150 S. Korean dogs to be placed in permanent homes in Los Angeles. The following stories highlight an odyssey of unremittingly bleak lives, and miraculous endings.
Click ‘Read More’ to read these amazing and heartwarming stories!
Click Here to learn more about what IDA is doing to help animals in live markets in Korea.
Posted in Animal Rescue, Korean Animal Abuse | 
Tags: Cats, Days of Action, Dogs, Food, Korea, Live Markets, Los Angeles, rescue, South Korea | 
25 Comments »
International Day of Action for South Korean Dogs & Cats : Join our Online Demonstration Next Tuesday!
Please replace your profile pictures with the Virtual Demo "Sign"
Tuesday, August 16th, is the International Day of Action for South Korean Dogs and Cats, when activists around the world speak out against the suffering and terrible fate of the two million dogs and cats killed every year in South Korea for consumption.
Mostly homeless dogs are strangled, beaten to death, or literally ripped apart. Others are bred on dog farms in deplorable conditions, crammed together in tiny cages, awaiting their gruesome deaths. Cats are subjected to their own torment by being bludgeoned and then boiled alive in “medicinal” stews.
This year, everyone can help the dogs and cats, no matter where you live, by participating in a virtual demonstration on Facebook and Twitter. It’s easy to do and a fantastic way to spread the word that it’s time to stop these indefensible atrocities perpetrated against the dogs and cats of S. Korea.
Please support South Korean animal-protection organizations in urging the South Korean government to strengthen its existing laws to illegalize the killing of companion animals and not openly sanction the illicit and shadowy world of the dog and cat industry.
Here’s how it works:
Facebook Instructions – Speak up for these Dogs & Cats in 2 easy steps!
1. Make sure you have your protest “Sign“. All you have to do is right click on the “South Korean Dog” image and choose “Save” to get this “sign”. Replace your profile photo to your “sign” and keep it up all week.
2. On Tuesday August 16th, post a link to this Action Alert that will allow you send an email to the Korean Government letting them know that you are appalled and shocked to learn about the rampant cruelties inflicted upon animals that have been documented in South Korea’s live food markets. Then throughout the day encourage your friends to also send an email and join our efforts by changing their profile photo too!
Twitter Instructions:
1. Make sure you have your protest “sign“. All you have to do is right click on the “South Korean Dog” image and choose “Save” to get this “sign”. Replace your profile photo to your “sign” and keep it up all week.
2. On Tuesday August 16th, Tweet a link to this Action Alert that will allow you send an email to the Korean Government letting them know that you are appalled and shocked to learn about the rampant cruelties inflicted upon animals that have been documented in South Korea’s live food markets. Then throughout the day tweet friendly reminders to encourage your friends to also tweet the link, send an email and join our efforts by changing their profile photo too! By including the following 3 Hastags (#) you can also encourage other animal activists outside your current followers to also join our efforts! Just paste one of 3 Hastags into your tweet – remember to not put spaces between the words and to include the # :
- #DogsandCatsMatter
- #FriendsNOTFood
- #HelpTheseDogsandCats
One of the best things about your Online demos is that you can run them all day – Rain or Shine! But remember Messages, Statuses and Tweets that include profanity or can be interpreted as “abusive” may result in your profile being reported and/or deleted by Twitter and Facebook. IDA is not reasonable for any Messages, Statuses or Tweets sent or action that results. Please also keep in mind that the advocates in South Korea helping these animals are also South Korean – so please avoid language or comments that could be interpreted as hateful or even racist towards all South Koreans and Asians.
To find out how you can animals year round – CLICK HERE to sign up at IDA’s Action Center!
Posted in Korean Animal Abuse |
Tags: Asia, Cats, Days of Action, Dogs, Food, Government, International, Live Markets, South Korea |
22 Comments »
Latest Updates from Hope Animal Sanctuary…
The Hope Animal Sanctuary (IDA-HAS) Team has spent the past two months zealously rescuing and caring for abused and abandoned animals in our region. Celeste, a precious horse for whom the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department solicited help, was unbelievably emaciated when we brought her home. Her keepers readily surrendered her to our custody when they realized the seriousness of our joint effort.
A Grenada breeder sought out HAS for help placing six poodles last summer. The breeder said she and her family were no longer breeding. Her husband was very ill and her adult sons who lived at home were both unable to care for the dogs. One son suffered a terminal condition and the other Down syndrome. Her sister feared she might have become a hoarder, as it had been five years since she’d been invited into the home.
The breeder called again and asked that we place ten dogs for her, and that she’d like help with the remaining ten when she was able to get her ailing family use to the idea of letting go of their way of life. But before the woman called again her husband had died and she was admitted to the hospital. Another son outside the home stepped in to aid his brothers and discovered there were 23 poodles stored in small cages, 2 to 3 in each, suffering in their own filth.
Fresh Water for Animals in Mumbai
Like the sublime Gunga Din giving water and sustenance to the wounded on the front lines, IDA, through our India program, with its own evangelical fervor, is offering fresh water to stray animals on the streets of Mumbai. Vulnerable to chemical-laden water from the gutters—water said to be pink one day, orange the next until turning black from the waste of nearby chemical factories—wandering animals under the watchful idea of IDA-India can now find cement water bowls all over the city, attached to the ground to thwart would-be thieves, brimming with safe and deliciously fresh water every day. Sarita & Sharmee’s Water Bowls Project is named for IDA-India’s Sarita Raturi, who created the life-saving plan, and Sharmee Bhatt, a volunteer who is helping to making it happen. With 120 bowls already installed in various parts of the great metropolis, citizens are signing up as overseers of the bowls to ensure that they are kept filled on a daily basis. The S & S Water Bowls Project is a huge hit, with many more of these substantial bowls to be in place in the coming weeks. The large city of Navi Mumbai recently placed 25 bowls with hundreds on the way. IDA-India is hopeful that the plan spreads far and wide, beckoning all the pilgrims of other species in need of fresh water, a necessary tonic and source of great nourishment.
Bison on Birth Control
Catalina Bison
With great ardor, Bill Dyer, IDA’s Southern California Coordinator, has been fighting for the rights of one species or another every day of his life or so it seems. There have been the feral cats, dogs, goats, abused captive elephants, and whales, among so many others, and the American bison, specifically the ones on Catalina Island, 23 miles west off the coast of Los Angeles. In 2003, when the Catalina Island Conservancy, which controls more than 90 percent of the island, wanted to reduce the non-native bison population—the clock ticking infallibly—Bill, in one of the more thrilling rescues of his storied career, raised the funds to relocate 103 bison to three Native-American tribal lands in South Dakota, where they would live freely. Bill choreographed that inspired odyssey with Catalina resident Debbie Avellana, and the conservancy.
Grady finds a home because Project Hope found him.
Grady, a Mastiff mix, spent months in the Winona Animal Shelter, in Winona, Mississippi, a prisoner of a five-run outdoor facility, with one barrel in each run and constantly running water, leaving him and the rest of his kennel mates always cold and wet—a purgatory for captive dogs. He had mange, a bacterial infection, and was undernourished. Doll Stanley had seen the miserable dog on a number of occasions, but there was no room for him at the Project Hope sanctuary, and she had to stay focused on getting the mothers and puppies out so the puppies wouldn’t die. And, finally, the day came when she was able to take Grady, and then immediately boarded him at Veterinary Associates in Grenada, where the staff fell in love with him and revivified his physical state and spirit to the point where he was able to go the sanctuary. “Rescue takes time. Unlike ‘Animal Planet,’ there are months of rehab, expenses, and the search for a home worthy of them.”
Posted in Guardian, Hope Animal Sanctuary, IDA Africa |
Tags: Dogs, Pit Bulls, rescue |
5 Comments »
The Nine Elephants of Zimbabwe
Nine elephants who survived the grim and punishing assaults of being forcibly captured from the wild and then endured the harrowing training methods for elephant back safaris at a Zimbabwe ranch—with its sickening smell of human injustice, along with chains, severe deprivation, and torturous taming methods—were rescued in an elation-bringing moment by the Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals (ZNSPCA) and have now been released into Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Fully recovered from injuries incurred during the breaking and training process, radio collars for tracking reveals the elephants are now forming new bonds as a herd, and socializing well with one another in the intricately unified and sophisticated world of elephant social groups.
Gigi’s Tail
Gigi and Family
Mike Massucco and Trese Biagini are drawn to the abused, scarred, ill, and old—a mosaic of the not loved enough. Outcasts all. The tan and white Pit Bull puppy with the white blaze on her forehead and stockings on her short front legs was found walking along a highway and didn’t fit the usual bill. With her good looks, coquettish smile, and her tail-wagging, fervor-for-life character, Gigi was nearly perfect.
Dorothy’s Photo
It is with rapt fascination that a photograph of a deceased chimpanzee being visibly mourned by dozens of chimpanzees looking on as the body is being wheeled for burial has transfixed viewers across the Internet, on television, and in countless publications, with its soul-piercing sadness. The image of the matriarch Dorothy, lying still amid orphaned chimpanzees at Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, in Cameroon, Africa, is something wondrous to behold. The Sanaga-Yong Center, which provides sanctuary for nearly 70 orphans, victims of the illegal bushmeat trade, is a project of IDA Africa, the creation of In Defense of Animals’ Dr. Sheri Speede. who first traveled to the country to volunteer her veterinary skills. She made friends with three chimpanzees, Becky, Jacky, and Pepe—who had suffered decades in small cages at a resort hotel and, in 1999, became the first adult chimpanzees who had been rescued in Cameroon. In 2000, IDA Africa organized a forced confiscation of adult chimpanzees Dorothy and Nama, and eight monkeys, the first armed confiscation of illegally held primates in Cameroon.
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