IDA Blog

Posts Tagged ‘abuse’

The past week has seen some steps forward for elephants in circuses. These are only small steps but they represent progress for elephants and, for Dumbo, a life that has improved in significant ways.

Dumbo a circus performer no more

Dumbo

For nineteen months, we searched for Dumbo – the African elephant who killed her handler at a Pennsylvania Shrine Circus in April of 2010 and then disappeared from view. The USDA confirmed an open investigation into that incident, following a complaint from IDA. With your help, we were persistent in demanding the USDA’s urgent attention to Dumbo’s welfare, filing complaints and mobilizing people to write to the USDA on her behalf, while making efforts to locate and monitor her.

We can now report that Dumbo has been moved to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado; she is finally out of the hands of her circus “owners’” – the notorious Frisco family.

This is not the perfect solution. Of course, we would have much preferred that Dumbo spend the rest of her life at a natural habitat sanctuary in a more suitable climate. But we are pleased that she will no longer be forced to give rides or perform circus tricks at the point of a bullhook; the zoo manages its elephants using protected contact. She will no longer have to endure the intense confinement of travel.  And she now lives with three African elephants, ending years of solitude.

For Dumbo, who is known as Jambo in her new home, life is better.

Ringling hit with the biggest fine ever by USDA

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has hit the owner of Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus with a $270,000 fine to settle charges that the circus violated federal animal welfare law. The charges involved numerous violations over the past three years, including

• forcing a sick elephant to perform
• endangering animals and the public by failing to safely handle an elephant who broke away from her handlers during a pre-show
• carrying food for the tigers in the same containers used to remove waste from the cages

In all there were more than 24 violations cited, and the fine is the maximum allowed by federal law ($10,000 per violation). The circus has agreed to train staff to comply with welfare requirements, as well. While Ringling officially admits to no wrongdoing, and the fine is nothing more than the cost of doing business for wealthy circus owner Feld Entertainment, Inc., the media is generally getting the message that there were significant animal welfare violations that prompted this settlement, which means that the public is hearing about Ringling’s abuse.

IDA joined with other animal groups to organize the largest circus protest ever against Ringling in Los Angeles in July. We will continue to monitor Ringling and other circuses, to file complaints with the USDA, and to educate the public about the suffering of animals used in the circus.

For more information about IDA’s work on elephants in circuses, go to www.helpelephants.com.

Fur Free Friday, November 25th, is a time to raise our voices to educate shoppers and the media about the real cost of fur – the cold, merciless fact that more than 50 MILLION fur-bearing animals are slaughtered for fashion each year. This number doesn’t even reflect the estimated billion rabbits who are killed annually for their skins, because of laws in places like France, where over 70 million rabbits are killed each year, has falsely labeled the much more valuable fur a “by-product” of the meat industry. Whether on fur farms, where these helpless animals go insane from the cramped, filthy conditions, or in the wild where they are trapped and left to suffer, these animals need your help now.

Please make this your profile main picture

This year, everyone can help fur-bearing animals no matter where you live, and you don’t even have to leave your house (or get out of your pajamas!). Simply participate in IDA’s Fur Free Friday Virtual Demonstration on Facebook and Twitter. Help us to blast the Internet with our compassionate message; it’s easy to do and a great way to spread the word that it’s time to stop the animals’ suffering.

TAKE ACTION

Facebook Instructions – Speak up for 50 MILLION fur-bearing animals in 3 easy steps!

1. Make sure you have your protest image up. All you have to do is right click on the “You Don’t Have To Wear Fur To Be Foxy” image and choose “Save Image As” to get the image. Replace your profile photo with it and keep it up all weekend!  (The image will look best if you “Edit Thumbnail”.)

2. Go through the list below and “Like” the promotional pages (links included). This will allow you to post comments on their pages:

• Nordstrom
• Saks Fifth Avenue
• Neiman Marcus
• Kohl’s
• Macy’s
• BCBG (please also send a quick email to BCBG by clicking here)

3. Starting on Friday, November 25th, start posting your POLITE comments! (Choose from our quotes below or write your own.) Remember that your comments will be seen by followers of all ages and comments that include profanity or can be interpreted as “abusive” will probably be removed before the general public gets a chance to read them and may result in your profile being reported and/or deleted by Facebook. IDA is not responsible for any comments you may leave or resulting actions.

Twitter Instructions:

1. Make sure you have your protest image up. All you have to do is right click on the “You Don’t Have To Wear Fur To Be Foxy” image and choose “Save Image As” to get the image. Replace your profile photo with it and keep it up all weekend!  (The image will look best if you “Edit Thumbnail”.)

2. Go through the list below and “Follow” these pages. This will allow you to send them direct messages and Tweets.

3. Encourage your friends to join your Twitter Demo! Tweet to them to also change their profile image to their “sign.”

4. You can run your Twitter Demo all day – Rain or Shine! But remember messages and Tweets that include profanity or can be interpreted as “abusive” may result in your profile being reported and/or deleted by Twitter. IDA is not responsible for any messages or Tweets sent or resulting actions.

• Nordstrom
• Saks Fifth Avenue
• Neiman Marcus
• Kohl’s
• Macy’s
• BCBG (please also send a quick email to BCBG by clicking here)

 

Twitter (Under 140):

 

An incredible amount of suffering is represented in each piece of fur: full coats, lining, or fur trim. Please show compassion and don’t sell fur.

 

Over 50 million animals–including millions of dogs & cats–are killed for their fur worldwide (not including the unknown number of rabbits). Please don’t sell fur.

 

Animals are killed for fur in horrific ways incl. bludgeoning, neck braking, anal & genital electrocution & many are skinned alive. Choose compassion & go fur-free.

 

In the US, there are no federal laws providing protection for the millions of animals who suffer and die on fur farms. Please stop selling fur.

 

Fur trim is not a by-product. Many, perhaps more than half, of all animals killed for their fur are killed specifically for fur trim. Please don’t sell fur.

Facebook Only:

 

Each year, over 50 million animals–including millions of dogs and cats–are killed for their fur worldwide. This number does not include rabbits as that number is unknown. Please don’t sell fur.

 

Animals are killed for fur in horrific ways including bludgeoning, neck braking and anal and genital electrocution and many are skinned alive. Please make the compassionate choice and go fur-free.

 

Over 50 million animals, including raccoon dogs, rabbits, foxes, mink, and chinchillas, spend their short lives in filthy, tiny wire cages until they are killed by ruthless methods on fur farms around the world. Please don’t support this suffering and go fur-free.

 

In the U.S., there are no federal laws providing protection for the millions of animals who suffer and die on fur farms. The fur industry remains completely self-regulated. Please stop selling fur.

 

Fur trim is not a by-product. Many, perhaps more than half, of all animals killed for their fur are killed specifically for fur trim. The number of animals killed for fur trim is expected to exceed the number of animals killed for full-fur garments. Please don’t sell fur.

 

There is no such thing as “green” or “eco-friendly” fur. It takes more than 15 times as much energy to produce a fur coat than it does to produce a fake fur. Furs are loaded with chemicals to keep them from decomposing, and fur production pollutes the environment, wastes precious resources, and poisons our waterways. Please don’t sell fur.

To help fur bearing animals year round please go to our Fur Campaign.

Today, Wednesday, Nov. 2^nd, began like every other busy day at Hope Animal Sanctuary. Lisa, Sarah, and B.J., our new teammate, had their hands full with the care of our precious animals. Danielle, the delicately featured brown bay, is still having a bit of trouble with her right front hoof, but is doing better.  Her mother, our Dolly, seems content, but is struggling with her deformed hoof.  Our time with her is cherished.

Arlin

Our new resident, Arlin, has taken well to his environment but needs a friend. He is a Barbados sheep. He probably doesn’t know how blessed he is. Our friend, Arlin, animal control officer (ACO) for Winona, Mississippi, went the extra mile to see his namesake safely delivered into our hands. The four-hoofed Arlin escaped the trailer he was being transported in and was captured and delivered to the Sell Barn. Technically, the Sell Barn had no claim on him, but it wouldn’t agree to his release without payment. The asking price was $150. Our buddy raised the bounty, and we picked up the newly freed Arlin.  He certainly has moxy. He challenged the emus, horses, and each of us when we initially approached him. A good stomp of his right front hoof, followed by lowered horns and impact on whatever barrier was between us quickly gained respect for his wishes.

Haystack, Helga, & Hannah

Three more abandoned pups arrived. Haystack, Helga, & Hannah are thin, have mange, and are simply adorable.  If it weren’t for the next transport to Colorado, we don’t know what we would do.

By late afternoon I thought I’d wrapped up our business in town when I received a timely call from “Doc” Abernethy, whose Veterinary Associates clinic was on my way home. The newer Grenada ACO had brought a dog in for euthanasia. He’d had a call from a man who’d kicked in a neighbor’s door after his mother had seen a dog in the kitchen window of a house that had been abandoned for months.  The occupant had moved in May and had stopped her irregular visits. There was a horrid odor permeating the air around the front of the house.

When the man and another neighbor entered the deserted home, they were stunned to find two young dogs had been confined to the kitchen and one had succumbed to cannibalizing her lifeless sibling or perish.

I accompanied the ACO to the scene, documented the evidence, and accepted custody of the dog for Doc’s capable and caring hands. I called the chief of police to ask for support. Two officers and the senior ACO joined us.  A report was taken, and you can rest assured that IDA will assist with the prosecution of the callous soul who simply stopped caring for the two precious lives she entrapped. She could have called animal control, asked a neighbor for help, or even just let them loose if she was too lazy or unthinking to ask for help.

Imagine being confined with your sister and slowly starved and dehydrated.  Imagine the desperation of climbing to the window to seek help, freedom, and then being alone, terribly alone when your sister lost her fragile grasp on life. Think of first nuzzling her for comfort and then as her lifeless body faded and she was no more, resorting to the instinct of survival. How long will it take Wanda to be herself?  She’s emaciated. As she lay on the exam table fleas careened in and out of her dull hair.  She stared straight ahead, fearful of making eye contact, the whites of her eyes so revealed that her beautiful brown irises seemed stark and desolate amidst a panicked world of confusion.

I promise you Wanda will heal with us and learn to love life.

Wanda

Doc & Holly

Little Holly and Bo Jangle are home with us.  Holly, an adorable kitten, has had her badly injured eye removed; Bo Jangle’s hip, side, and back healed with no apparent intervention after what was probably a brush with a vehicle, and Miss Beasley is recovering from the amputation of her badly healed leg.  These are just a few of the treasured lives we’ve been blessed to help in the first few days of November.

And none of this could have happened without you.

We will presently update you about our transport to Colorado. We just want you to know how much we appreciate and value your support. We were able to take 8 kittens and 89 dogs and puppies to find their forever guardians. The 5 puppies we recently pulled from beneath a home (their mother had been killed the day before), and the 6 neglected puppies we gathered from beneath a trailer were all on board and are doing well!

To support our work please click here.

Many people are not aware that quite a few common human foods can make our animal companions very ill, and many are even toxic.

We all know that they love to get into everything they can (this is their job, after all), so be sure they don’t have access to the foods, beverages, cleaners, chemicals, and other products that will harm or possibly even kill them.

Please share the following list of poisonous foods and products with everyone in your household.

• Chocolate
• Xylitol (commonly found in gum, candy, baked goods, and toothpaste)
• Alcoholic beverages
• Hops
• Milk and other dairy products
• Coffee
• Tea
• Caffeine
• Apple seeds
• Peach pits
• Apricot pits
• Cherry pits
• Grapes
• Macadamia nuts
• Walnuts
• Mustard seeds
• Onions and onion powder
• Raisins
• Yeast dough
• Avocados
• Moldy foods
• Raw (or undercooked) meat, eggs, and bones
• Garlic
• Chives
• Mushroom plants
• Potato leaves and stems (green parts)
• Tomato leaves and stems (green parts)
• Rhubarb leaves
• Salt
• Tobacco
• Marijuana
• Eggplant
• Prescription and over the counter drugs
• Fat trimmings and bones
• Ham and other salty meats
• Liver (can cause vitamin A toxicity)
• Tuna (can lead to malnutrition or cause mercury poisoning)

Consult with your veterinarian or animal nutritionist before feeding your animal companions food not specifically intended for them.

Additionally, more than 700 plants have been found to be harmful to animals.  Please research all plants and flowers before bringing them into your home.

Many commercial animal companion foods contain reject meat from diseased animals that isn’t fit for human consumption, and it is believed that this is causing higher incidents of cancer in our animal companions.  If you want to keep the inedible slaughterhouse waste out of your dog’s diet, a vegan dog food might be the healthiest choice for your dog.  Regrettably, many of the leading food companies also test on animals, so please be sure to choose a food manufacturer that doesn’t.

For more tips on how you can be a great guardian and help keep animals safe, please visit our Guardian Campaign.

To support our work please click here.

Work every day of your life to right what is wrong.

Please join IDA and activists worldwide to speak up for fur-bearing animals on November 25, 2011.

Fur Free Friday is the most widely-attended annual demonstration in the history of the animal protection movement. Don’t miss your opportunity to join with thousands of other activists worldwide for this international day of action.

Mark your calendars, contact IDA, and plan now! We must raise our voices in unison to educate shoppers and the media about the real cost of fur – the cold, brutal fact that more than 50 MILLION fur-bearing animals are slaughtered for fashion each year. Whether on fur farms, where these helpless animals go insane from the cramped, filthy conditions, or in the wild where they are trapped and left to suffer, these animals need your help now.

IDA’s last day for shipping materials for your event in the U.S. is Nov. 17, so plan now and register your event.  We have a new poster to make your event stand out. IDA is asking Nordstrom to be the first department store to go fur-free. Please consider targeting Nordstrom if you have one in your area and we can send you specific Nordstrom literature. Click here to see a list of stores.

TAKE ACTION: In 2008, high-end fashion brand BCBG signed a pledge not to sell fur,
but BCBG’s 2011 holiday line has fur! We are disappointed that BCBG is moving in the wrong direction and has gone back on its word. Please join IDA in asking BCBG to honor its original compassionate choice and go fur free … again! Click here now to send an e-mail to BCBG. 

We have lots of events already posted. Please check here to see if there is an event happening in your area.  Contact Hope Bohanec at Hope@idausa.org or 707-540-1760 to find out how you can get signs, literature, and ideas for outreach in your community.

This week BJ Martin joined our staff at Hope Animal Sanctuary.  BJ is a vet tech with 15 years experience who has worked with a wide variety of species, including emus.  She will be an invaluable asset to our team. She’s already proven her worth. On Thursday, BJ, Sarah, and I dedicated our day to caring for our animals and then set out for Macon, Mississippi, to Heartworm Test 33 of approximately 100 dogs needing medical care and guardianship. We didn’t arrive until 10:30 p.m. and didn’t wrap up until after midnight, finally returning at 2:30 a.m. With cases involving so many animals, every opportunity to provide help must be seized. We brought Ella, who is among the 145 dogs when the rescue began, home as her male companions were sparring over her.

Doll Stanley with Ella

I’ve been in contact with “Animal Planet’s” hoarding program over a period of months believing it would be aiding in the Macon case. After the production department passed and rescheduled several interviews I was told the case wasn’t chosen because family members weren’t in conflict over the issues related to the case. What a shame.

But thanks to local activists and members of at least one grassroots group, an effort to help the animals was launched. The activists began documenting the dogs, Dr. Bushby (Mississippi State University Marcia Lane Endowed Professor of Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare Department of Clinical Sciences) and his student surgery team provided 22 surgeries, Friday the 15^th, (we were there to aid with pre- & post-surgery needs), Homeward Bound (the group founded by MSU veterinary students) arranged for the transport of some of the dogs, and we will be taking some of the dogs to Colorado on our next transport. There’s much more to be done, but it will have to be in steps if every option to place the dogs will be accomplished.

The six pups Lisa and I removed from beneath the trailer of a local man are faring well as are the seven adults we wrenched from him.  Apathy, drink, and ignorance have contributed to his years of neglect of animals. This time we will put an end to his contribution to suffering.

Bonnie & Breezle

Two wonderful young women raced three pups to us whom they found bound in a shirt on an unpaved county road. Sadly one of the pups passed the next morning, but his sisters, Beezle and Bonnie, who are absolutely adorable, are thriving.

Friday I had a zillion things to do that just couldn’t be put off, including heading to Starkville, Mississippi, for this year’s Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue class at MSU. It’s a given that the more we have to do the more certain priorities will change with the next phone call. Sure enough, a local Duck Hill police officer called to ask for assistance for the pups of a mother dog who was killed on the road in front of the house she’d chosen for her den.

The elder couple that owned the house volunteered their grandson to assist with rescuing the pups, who were huddled beneath the center of the house against the center junctions of the wooden foundation.  As the house was so low and the pups were so far in, even the slender frame of a young man couldn’t fit beyond a few feet of the outside wall. We bound my pole net and a segment of wooden molding and the young man went to work. He was exhausted after retrieving the first two pups. The police officer’s family had come for the vigil and his smaller son took up the effort. All five of the babies came out safely and in good condition. They are now flourishing.

On my way back from the rescue class this evening I rendezvoused with a man who rescued a dog from a rest stop in our region. The dog may have been abandoned, or he wandered there in search of food. Either way, he has endured deprivation, is very thin, and appears to have suffered injuries from a brush with a vehicle. We’ll have him checked out tomorrow.

Last Sunday, Glory went to her new home. A family that pampers their horses and has multiple pastures in which to do so has adopted our beautiful and good-natured mare. We couldn’t be happier.  Glory was emaciated when we rescued her from a barren parcel unfit for pasture. Her companions had died and she would have, too.  We are so grateful for our sanctuary and the support of friends who partner with us to carry out the hope we promise the animals with whom we are entrusted.

To support our work please click here.

In a great win for elephants, the Toronto City Council voted to send the Toronto Zoo’s African elephants, Thika, Iringa and Toka, to the PAWS Sanctuary in Northern California. The council voted in May to close the zoo’s elephant exhibit, but decided to send the elephants to another zoo and not to a sanctuary—though a sanctuary was not out of the question if an appropriate zoo was not located.

But things turned around last week when Councilor Michelle Berardinetti presented an urgent motion to move the elephants to PAWS amid rumors that the Toronto Zoo was zeroing in on a facility that would not meet the council’s criteria for the elephants. The council had specified that they be sent to a warmer climate and to a facility that did not use bulhooks on any elephants. Councilor Berardinetti’s motion passed by a resounding 31-4.

Thanks to the compassion of the Toronto City Council and the hard work of Zoocheck Canada, Thika, Toka, and Iringa are now assured a permanent home in a facility that offers far more space than any zoo, a climate suitable for elephants, and only positive reinforcement training.

IDA is very proud of its role in helping these elephants. We sparked the effort to save them in 2009, when IDA called for closure of the Toronto Zoo’s elephant exhibit following the unprecedented deaths of four elephants in less than four years, and urged the Toronto City Council to send the elephants to a sanctuary. The story was widely covered by the Canadian media. IDA kept the pressure on when we made Toronto the first Canadian entry on IDA’s annual Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants list. And it is thanks to the perseverance of Zoocheck Canada that this wonderful victory was finally achieved.

Now it’s time to turn our attention to the plight of solitary Lucy in Edmonton, and assure that she, too, can live out her life in a sanctuary in the company of other elephants. And we can’t forget all the other elephants living in inadequate conditions in Canada and elsewhere. With your help and support, we can bring about the mammoth changes they need.

One of the neglected dogs being rescued.

On Wednesday, June 29th, HAS volunteer Sarah Thomas, a vet tech, wildlife rehabilitator, and activist, and I set out to locate three horses in Grenada County, Miss., reported to be starving.  On our way, I got a call from my buddy Kevin Hodges, an animal control officer, water-meter reader, and part-time law enforcer for Charleston, Miss., only an hour from us, asking for help with six dogs also reported to be starving. Kevin knows he can count on our support and guardianship of animals we seize.

We located the first property where the horses were, but a privacy fence prevented “plain view” and an uncooperative sheriff meant the groundwork would have to be laid before there would be intervention.  I called Kevin to tell him that we were on our way to meet him. At 704 East Chestnut Street, Charleston resident Sherri White showed us six chained and horribly neglected dogs.  She claimed two to be hers and four to be those of her boyfriend’s relative.
After a visit to the police department, we prepared a seizure order, and crossed the street for Municipal Court Judge Steve Ross to sign. We returned, warrant in hand, and documented the heart-wrenching plight of the dogs and removed them. White protested the taking of her dogs and informed us the other “owner” refused to come when she called him. The chief and a fellow officer arrived to insure a smooth operation.

We immediately took off for Veterinary Associates, HAS’s vet clinic, to settle the dogs in and supervise as they dove into the nourishment they’d long been denied. White had stated she fed her dogs, but only fed the others if she had extra food. One of her dogs was as emaciated as the boyfriend’s relative’s dog to whom she was chained.  I listened in amazement as she told us she wouldn’t interfere when the other dog jumped her dog and would bite going for the morsel of food she gave her own dog.

The extraordinary density and inhumanity of seemingly conscious people is beyond my grasp. The gross neglect of the dogs has been recorded, they’ve been secured in a private kennel, and I’ll be filing criminal affidavits after meeting with the city attorney. Why can’t all community leaders have it so together like Charleston’s?

The plight of horses is worsening. Some blame the economy; others say banning horse slaughter in the U.S. meant “owners” who couldn’t sell their horses let them starve. I say it’s both selfishness and ignorance. Horses are being overbred just like other companion animals. Those who think they can make a buck breed and then find out there are no buyers, at least at the prices they want, and they don’t want to feed what they can’t make money off of and certainly don’t want to give away what they might someday sell. The glut of horses means you can buy a horse for $50, or get one from someone who wants to “unload.”  It’s cool to have a horse and to tell folks you have a horse. Horses are like “trophy brides”: they express status, and, of course, there are some who actually think they’ll ride. The question is how many of these people are caught up in a whim with no thought of how to actually care for horses.

Read the rest of this entry »

By the amazing Dan Piraro

Of all the useless arguments I’ve heard to defend the carriage horse industry, none is more maddening than the argument of “tradition.” How can anyone think that honoring a tradition can be more important than basic compassion?

Don’t get me wrong. Traditions are important. They give us a feeling of security and connect us to our heritage. But blind adherence to tradition is a dangerous thing, and there are too many examples of traditions that perpetrated great suffering and oppression. These practices continued in the face of much criticism, shielded only by the argument of “tradition.”

For centuries girls in China endured a foot-binding ritual that literally broke their toes and crippled their bodies, but the practice was so ingrained that it continued. It was said that a woman with bound feet was more civilized, disciplined, and dutiful. This abomination continued for 1,000 years, affecting a billion women, before being banned in the 1900s.

In Europe, for over three centuries, hundreds of boys were castrated, many of them by the Catholic Church, so they could sing soprano as adults.  Efforts to ban this practice took 150 years because of concern by the Church that it would seriously harm attendance if there were no castrati in the choir.

Such examples are not just historical. In 2004, the British government banned the cruel practice of fox-hunting, even with loud opposition that it was an essential icon of British culture and must continue.

One only need look at those poor horses who are forced to pull carriages day-in, day-out, to see the deep despair in their eyes. What kind of existence is it for a horse to spend his days on the clogged streets of NYC pulling a carriage, followed by nights in a dark stall in a warehouse? Where is the chance to frolic, roll in the grass, or nuzzle another fellow horse?

The truth is, while traditions can be quaint, or comforting, or links to bygone era, there are probably many of them that belong in the dustbin of history. And that’s certainly where horse drawn carriages belong.