ForUsToBe » animal cruelty

Facebook Members Demand Prosecution

ForUsToBe — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:16:31 +0000

No one knows what was in a mind of a teenage boy Jerzon Senador from Philippines who tortured this young puppy.

He pegged his pet on a washing line in his yard.

After this cruel act, he took some pictures and posted them on Facebook. Pictures went viral.

Over 3000 members joined Facebook group called ‘Jerzon Senador the Animal Abuser’. They demand his prosecution.

Massive National Cage-free Movement

ForUsToBe — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:54:09 +0000

Across the country, a national movement away from using eggs from hens confined in cages has taken root: Kraft, Sara Lee, and Otis Spunkmeyer are switching millions of eggs in their products to cage-free; Hellmann’s mayonnaise announced plans to convert the 350 million eggs it uses in the U.S. to cage-free; Burger King, Subway, Sonic, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Denny’s, Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, Quiznos, Cracker Barrel and Golden Corral are just some of the restaurant chains that use cage-free eggs; and Wal-Mart’s and Costco’s private brand eggs are exclusively cage-free.

With egg-laying hens in cages less than the size of an 8-1/2″ x 11″ piece of paper and veal calves in 22″ x 54″ crates that don’t allow them to turn around (which is the intended purpose—along with an iron-deficient diet, their muscles don’t have a chance to develop, creating the desired texture in the final product), just about any additional space is a step forward.

Of course, the hens will still be kept in cages, so the “cage-free” term is still a myth, but for the chickens it’s a certain sign of a positive future.

Barilla pasta will switch 45 percent of the eggs it uses to cage-free by the end of the year, according to the Humane Society. Barilla is the world’s largest pasta maker, and the transition will make it the first pasta company to join the growing cage-free movement.

Some facts:

U.S. factory farms confine about 280 million hens in cages so small, they can’t even spread their wings. Extensive scientific research confirms this causes suffering.
Cage-free hens generally have two to three times more space per bird than caged hens.
Cage-free hens may not be able to go outside and, like caged hens, may have parts of their beaks cut off, but they can walk, spread their wings and lay their eggs in nests–all behaviors permanently denied to hens crammed into cages.
Factory farming is a major social issue: A study by food industry consultancy, Technomic, ranked animal welfare as the third-most important social issue to restaurant patrons; an American Farm Bureau-funded report found that 89 percent of Americans believe that food companies that require their suppliers to treat farm animals better are doing the right thing.

Although “cage-free” and “free range” can be meaningless and not as cruelty-free as they sound, it’s a step in the right direction.

This Is How They Do It!

ForUsToBe — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 13:21:20 +0000

Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow‘s former mayor, stated in May of 2008 that he was supporting humane policies towards the regulation of the number of homeless animals. However, reality proved that the verbal statement entailed no action: animals would be captured in the streets and sent to unfinished shelters, where they would die because of poor housing conditions.

The same year, Luzhkov’s deputy Pavel Biryukov offered to replace the program of sterilization of homeless animals to their extermination in municipal shelters. The black list included quarantined and sterilized dogs. Animal rights activists said that such a change in the law would only legalize animal slaughter.

There is direct connection between the cultural and moral level of the society and the attention that it pays to issues of protection of animals. The culture of eating dog meat has been prospering in Moscow lately. A journalistic investigation conducted by one of Russian TV channels revealed a whole chain of restaurants serving dog meat in the south-west of Moscow.

The attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to four-legged creatures is terrible too. On October 27, 2007, a priest of Russia’s iconic Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius ordered to pack over 30 cats in sacks and take them to a landfill where they were bulldozed.

During the festival of balloons held in Moscow’s Tushino in 2008, several lambs were publicly slaughtered for meat. The festival was conducted with the blessing of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

In 2007, a priest of the Temple of St. Matrona in Moscow’s center ordered a security guard to beat a puppy who ran onto the territory of the church. The guard broke the puppy’s spine.

Atrocious attitude to animals prospers in Ukraine too. Ukrainian animal rights activists won the support of UEFA after their numerous attempts to reach the national authorities had been left without attention. In Ukraine, homeless animals are destroyed barbarically. Dog catchers use special syringe guns to kill homeless pets. The poison that they used is called ditiline - a drug that paralyzes respiratory muscles.

In Ukraine’s Lisichansk, local authorities purchased a mobile crematorium for 198,000 hryvnas. It looks like a field kitchen with a chimney. The crematorium is operated by a driver, an operator and a catcher “armed” with a syringe gun. They paralyze animals and throw them into the container. As soon as they collect 40 kilos, they burn the paralyzed dogs and cats while they are still alive.

Last year, the Ukrainian president, the prime minister and the opposition leader received dozens of letters from foreign animal rights activities, who urged them to immediately stop the uncontrollable and brutal extermination of homeless animals. Activists from other countries sent many similar messages to UEFA headquarters because Ukraine is hosting Euro 2012 football championship.

Europe is ready to boycott Euro 2012 in Ukraine. Activists, with famous people among them, are ready to organize meetings of protest near Ukrainian embassies in EU countries if nothing changes for the better.

Director of Euro 2012, Martin Cullen, told Ukrainian officials that he condemned barbaric methods of solving the problem with homeless pets. The official stated that the government of Ukraine should take the problem under control because the brutal methods used against the animals contradict to European norms.

Bear Drinks Cola As It Goes To Death

ForUsToBe — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:29:00 +0000

Brits confronted by the vile spectacle last night slammed it as barbaric.

Days after the cruelty was captured on video, the starving mountain bear was dead – only to be replaced by another in Gabala, northern Azerbaijan, reports the Sun.

The eaterie’s owner told sickened Daryl Willard, 27: “We just catch a new one up in the mountains.”

Daryl, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, told how he was working in the former Soviet republic as a sports trainer when he stopped at the café last month.

He said: “People cheered and shouted as they watched the starving bear drink from the cola bottle and eat sandwich leftovers they threw. A few days after it died, there was a new one.”

The International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Born Free charity branded it “shocking” and “a disgrace”.

TV’s animal expert Terry Nutkins said: “It’s unbelievable cruelty.”

Azerbaijan‘s embassy here said the mistreatment was an “isolated case”.

What They Don’t Want You To Know

ForUsToBe — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:15:21 +0000

An enormous victory was achieved for animals this week when nearly 200 dogs and 54 cats were rescued from a North Carolina animal testing facility that closed its doors after an undercover investigation revealed apparent abuse of the animals by workers at the facility. Quick work on the part of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), in partnership with the Humane Society of the U.S. and more than a dozen animal shelters and rescues succeeded in placing all of the rescued animals, offering hope that they will find loving homes and solace after their ordeal.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) conducted the initial investigation that exposed the apparent cruelty at Professional Laboratory and Research Services, an inconspicuous rural lab funded by large pharmaceutical companies to test insecticides and other chemicals used in companion animal products. For nine months, a PETA investigator worked undercover at the facility, and shot video showing animals in excruciating pain from procedures, as well as employees kicking, throwing, and dragging petrified dogs, violently slamming cats into cages, and screaming obscenities at the animals for showing fear and being uncooperative.

Following its investigation, PETA filed formal complaints with federal and state agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and submitted evidence to the local prosecutor’s office. Soon thereafter, the USDA inspected the facility and instigated a formal investigation. In the meantime, the lab agreed to surrender voluntarily all its dogs and cats, and to cease research at the facility.

US Goat ‘Maria’ Killed In Drive-by Shooting In The Middle Of The City

ForUsToBe — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 10:00:24 +0000

The shooting happened Sunday evening and killed a Nigerian dwarf goat, Maria, who lived with two other goats and other animals at the home in a central-Santa Fe community. Someone in a blue-green minivan drove up to the fenced yard where the goats are kept and fired three shots from a small-caliber pistol, hitting the animal once in the abdomen and once through a nasal passage.

Maria’s owners, one of whom is an emergency medical technician, tried for more than an hour to care for the dying goat.

“The fact that this was a goat getting killed is bad enough,” Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler said. “But this is also a drive-by shooting of a home in the middle of the city. That’s a major concern for us.”

Wheeler told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the suspect could face felony charges of animal cruelty, shooting at an occupied building and negligent firearm use.

The goat was one of three owned by two women who live in the home. They also have 12 chickens, four cats, a dog and a duck, most of them rescue animals.

The owners, who didn’t want to be identified, and neighbors said the goats were a local fixture that drew adults and children alike to the yard. Maria in particular would come up to the fence when people walked by.

No More Animal Cruelty Videos?

ForUsToBe — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:06:19 +0000

Three months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the conviction of a Virginia man prosecuted under the 1999 law for selling dog-fighting videos, a new bill aimed at stopping these vile videos has passed the House of Representatives in a landslide.

This bill, called the Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act, would outlaw “obscene” depictions of acts that violate cruelty-to-animals laws, such as crush videos—in which women kill puppies, kittens, and rabbits by stomping on them with their bare feet or in high heels. “These videos have no redeeming value and clearly fall outside the realm of protected speech,” says Rep. James P. Moran, D-Va., one of the sponsors of the bill. “Not only are they viciously inhumane to the animals involved, but they also teach behavior that can lead to other violent crimes against animals and humans.”

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), the bill’s chief sponsor, said the measure addressed the court’s free-speech concerns, which passed 416 to 3, headed to the Senate for expected approval.

Urge your senator to do the right thing and approve this bill.

Skinned Alive, Shocking Look At The Chinese Fur Farms

ForUsToBe — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:23:24 +0000

When undercover investigators made their way onto Chinese fur farms, they found that many animals are still alive and struggling desperately when workers flip them onto their backs or hang them up by their legs or tails to skin them. When workers on these farms begin to cut the skin and fur from an animal’s leg, the free limbs kick and writhe. Workers stomp on the necks and heads of animals who struggle too hard to allow a clean cut.

When the fur is finally peeled off over the animals’ heads, their naked, bloody bodies are thrown onto a pile of those who have gone before them. Some are still alive, breathing in ragged gasps and blinking slowly. Some of the animals’ hearts are still beating five to 10 minutes after they are skinned. One investigator recorded a skinned raccoon dog on the heap of carcasses who had enough strength to lift his bloodied head and stare into the camera.

Before they are skinned alive, animals are pulled from their cages and thrown to the ground; workers bludgeon them with metal rods or slam them on hard surfaces, causing broken bones and convulsions but not always immediate death. Animals watch helplessly as workers make their way down the row.

Animal Cruelty, Watch How Pet Trade Supplier Treats Animals

ForUsToBe — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:56:11 +0000

New undercover investigation at a wholesale animal dealer that supplies animals to PETCO and PetSmart stores across the U.S. revealed animal mistreatment and suffering.

Video footage and photos show the widespread suffering of hundreds of birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, gerbils, mice, and rats in Sun Pet’s enormous warehouses.

On April 22, 2010, Georgia Department of Agriculture representatives descended on Sun Pet, which was, unfortunately, tipped off well in advance and apparently took the opportunity to clean up its act.

In addition to the misery of confinement to extremely crowded containers, forcing animals to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate all in the same space, investigator recorded the violent killing and abusive handling of hundreds of animals.

One worker put live hamsters into a bag and then bashed the bag against a table in an attempt to kill them—one of the animals was seen suffering and panting heavily minutes later. Other animals whom Sun Pet could not sell were gassed in a crude, filth-encrusted tank. Animals who got loose in the company’s warehouse suffered horribly after ingesting the poison that Sun Pet sets out to kill them.

A supervisor trained PETA’s investigator to determine animals’ genders by forcefully squeezing their abdomens “like a … PlayStation controller handle” to make their genitals “come out.” “You could throw them against the wall and they’ll stand back up again and keep on running,” Sun Pet’s supervisor said to the investigator when ordering him to pack and handle animals more quickly. In more than three months of employment, not once did the investigator see anyone from PETCO’s or PetSmart’s corporate offices inspecting Sun Pet’s facility.

PETA has received information indicating that Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. has instructed his office to halt its investigation of animal suffering at Sun Pet. Please complete the form to urge Mr. Howard to investigate.

See The Hygiene Conditions And The Torture Your Food Is Getting

ForUsToBe — Sat, 29 May 2010 17:46:12 +0000

An animal-rights group, Mercy For Animals, released a video Tuesday showing an upstate New York farm worker lopping off a calf’s tail and burning off its budding horns as the animal moans and struggles frantically to escape, prompting a state lawmaker to propose that New York follow California’s lead in banning tail-docking for dairy cows.

The video was recorded in an undercover investigation at one of New York’s largest dairy farms, according to Chicago-based Mercy For Animals, a not-for-profit group that publicizes what it calls cruel practices in the dairy, meat and egg industries and promotes a vegan diet.

The video, posted on YouTube, shows workers punching and kicking cows to get them to move and dragging newborn calves from their mothers by one leg. After seeing it, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat, proposed a tail-docking ban similar to one enacted last year in California.

The video also shows cows with various injuries, including swollen and festering sores and a prolapsed uterus, and several animals too sick or injured to stand.

Dairy officials say the practice of cutting off cow tails to prevent them from slinging manure is practiced on a small percentage of dairy farms. It is usually done without numbing, either with sharp shears or with a tight rubber band that stops the blood flow and causes the tail to die and fall off. Dehorning is done to prevent the animals from goring each other or their handlers.

The only person authorized to comment for Willet Dairy was out of the country and unreachable, said Laura Wells, the farm’s accounting manager. Attorney David Cook, who successfully defended the farm against a pollution lawsuit filed by neighbors several years ago, was also out of the country, his assistant said.

Assistant District Attorney Diane Adsit said in an e-mail that many of the actions shown in the videotapes “are commonly accepted practices used to protect both animals and farmers on large dairy farms.”

“While shocking to look at, these practices are not necessarily illegal,” Adsit said. If an investigation by the local SPCA leads the organization to file animal-cruelty charges, “we will prosecute anyone so charged,” she said.