A Must-See Video About Circus Elephants with Alec Baldwin

This is a superb PETA video on animals in circuses, hosted and narrated by actor Alec Baldwin. There is an excellent interview in the video with a longtime veterinarian Dr. Mel Richardson, who has worked with elephants in circuses for over 40 years. Please have a look at this video. It's not very long and it's quite informative.

One Atrocity Leads to Others

Luka Rocco Magnotta, the 29-year-old Canadian
who allegedly sent human body parts in the mail
recently, got his start as an animal abuser.

There's a piece of conventional wisdom that I've always agreed with that goes something like this: People who begin as animal abusers often graduate to heinous crimes involving human beings.

Take 29-year-old Luka Rocco Magnotta, a Canadian who has appeared in Internet porno videos and is now being sought by authorities for allegedly murdering a man, dismembering the torso and mailing various body parts to the offices of the federal Liberal and Conservative parties. 

The story is almost too gruesome and twisted to be true. 

And guess what?

In today's Vancouver Sun, columnist Stephen Maher reports that animal rights activists had been hunting Mangotta down for videos he posted online showing him murdering kittens. Maher writes:

They were motivated by four horrible videos in which a young man gleefully kills kittens. In the first one, in 2010, a young man alleged to be Magnotta suffocates two kittens in a plastic bag. A few weeks later, he posted a related video.

By January of 2011, after frantic online searching, animal lovers tentatively had identified Magnotta as the suspect. They meticulously compared photos that Magnotta posted of himself, identifying jewelry and furnishings that appeared in both, until they were certain they had found the right guy.

They then focused on finding him, something which was made more difficult by the many apparently fake photos Magnotta seems to have posted — using a host of false online identities — showing him in cities around the world.

This news, horrifying as it is, should come as no surprise. 

By the time police raided a Montreal apartment on Tuesday where Magnotta lived, they discovered scenes of human depravity and violence too horrifying to describe. The National Post, a Canadian newspaper I read religiously, actually describes a website called Best Gore that has posted a sickening video purported to be Mangotta cutting up his bound victim, having sex with the body and feeding parts to his dog.

Hard to imagine anything more vile than that.

Magnotta's story is a cautionary tale. There is a banner going around the Internet (especially Facebook) that says, "FAMOUS ANIMAL ABUSERS," and shows pictures of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. Below their faces, it says, "THE LINK BETWEEN ANIMAL CRUELTY AND HUMAN VIOLENCE IS INDISPUTABLE." 

I refuse to post that banner here because Vick, unlike Bundy, Dahmer and Berkowitz, is not a serial killer and does not belong with those monsters, despite his involvement in horrific dog fighting matches. Vick's dogfighting ring was broken up by authorities in 2007 and he endured a trial and punishment. Since then, Vick has served a prison term, publicly apologized and lobbied for legislation to create much stricter penalties for those who take part in animal fighting. 

As Vick said last year: "I deeply regret my previous involvement in dogfighting, I'm sorry for what I did to the animals. During my time in prison, I told myself I wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem." (Source) 

I believe Vick's face shouldn't have been added alongside Bundy, Dahmer and Berkowitz. We should forgive those who express genuine, heartfelt remorse about their crimes against animals. And Vick's example shows that not every single animal abuser goes on to become a murderer of human beings.

But take away Michael Vick's face, and the banner is absolutely correct. The link between animal cruelty and human violence is indisputable. My suggestion is to remove Vick from that banner and add the face of Luka Rocco Magnotta, who - if the ghastly stories about him are true (and they appear to be) - has earned a prominent spot among the very worst of the worst of the animal abusers who turned into savage killers of human beings. 

Fighting the Good Fight: SHARK is Shining the Spotlight on Animal Abuse

There are so many wonderful groups fighting the good fight against animal abuse and cruelty. One of those groups, which has been putting videotaping to its very best and most effective use, is Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (or SHARK for short). SHARK is a group that deserves our support.

SHARK maintains a highly effective Facebook and YouTube presence. SHARK's head, Steve Hindi, is an incredibly effective spokesman for the cause. A former hunter, Steve goes from place to place, camcorder in hand, documenting human brutality against animals. As Steve points out in the introductory video on YouTube, SHARK relies on volunteer efforts and operates with a skeletal budget, so they need all the support they can get.

SHARK has been particularly effective in exposing the abuse at rodeos. Far too many animals have died extremely violent deaths in rodeos, which has tripped off warning bells among animal advocates. In one of SHARK's most recent videos, documenting the death of a Wyoming rodeo horse on July 30, 2011, thugs attempted to prevent Steve from filming the horse's painful death. This sort of scene has repeated itself over and over. No wonder the rodeo bosses - and all people who profit from the abuse of animals - fear SHARK's videocameras. Thee are modern-day video guerrillas, taking the best weapons imaginable - camcorders - into the belly of the beast.

SHARK is doing so much that is worthwhile. I urge you to support them. I'm going to be logging on to PayPal shortly to give a donation.

We're fighting an uphill struggle, but it's worth it.

Kudos to British Columbia in the Fight Against Animal Cruelty

This week, the Premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark, unveiled some of the toughest anti-animal cruelty laws in North America. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, a response to the slaughter of a hundred sled dogs in Whistler last year, has increased maximum punishments for animal cruelty from $10,000 and six months in prison to $75,000 and two years in prison. As Premier Clark put it:

The thing is that people will do bad things. That certainly happens not just to animals, but to other people, to property. But what we can do as a government and as a society is to try to put in place deterrents that are strong and will be enforced. (Source)

The move toward stricter animal abuse laws in British Columbia will set an important precedent and serve as an example to other animal advocates who are trying to achieve the same thing elsewhere. There's a movement afoot across North America to crack down on animal abusers. Efforts are already underway in Ohio, Illinois, Rhode Island, Mississippi, New Jersey and across Canada. What happened in British Columbia was only the beginning. There are ample reasons to be optimistic.

You call that "Throwing the book at 'em"? I call it pathetic...

Case 1: On June 17, 2010, Bobby Elliott of Merritt, British Columbia, tied his Golden Lab mix named April Rain to the back of his truck and dragged her around. He claimed he was giving her "exercise." A kind bystander find April Rain badly injured and took her to a vet. Elliot's punishment?

He was sentenced to 30 days of house arrest and another 60 days of arrest with certain conditions.He is required to pay $2100 in restitution to Angel's Animal Rescue, the organization that rehabilitated the dog. Elliott is banned from owning a dog for the next five years. (Source)

Case 2: Kisha Curtis, age 28, employee at Klimaaxxpromos Girls, an adult entertainment agency in Newark, N.J., starved her pit bull and then tossed the emaciated dog down a garbage chute on March 16, where the poor, whimpering animal was left to die. Once again, a kind soul found the dog and saved him by taking him to the vet. The pit bull was named Patrick (pictured above) and he has become a Facebook celebrity. Legions of wonderful folks from around the world have donated to help this beautiful dog (Source) Meantime, latest reports indicate that Curtis is out of jail and her $10,000 bail has been dismissed. (Source)

Case 3: In Rhode Island, State Rep. David Bennett is fed up. And with good reason. He was outraged when he heard that local authorities fined a Providence woman $50 for "mistreating" her Labrador retriever mix after the starving animal was found suffering from dehydration and hypothermia. Bennett decided the animal protection laws weren't strong enough. He has co-sponsored a bill that will fine animal abusers $1,000 and prohibit them from owning an animal for five years. The bill awaits a vote in Rhode Island's General Assembly. (Source)

The common thread running through these cases is obvious. Across North America, anti-abuse laws are not strict enough. Too many sadists, sociopaths and thugs are able to adopt animals. And when they harm those animals, laws do not serve as deterrents to prevent them from engaging in these types of abuse in the future. If anything, the laws in place in most parts of the United States and Canada encourage abusers and fail to protect the abused.

Good for Representative Bennett and others like him who are out there fighting the good fight on behalf of animals. More people are needed in the trenches. Our anti-abuse laws don't go far enough. The time to toughen those is long overdue.

Look at the lines of pain etched into Patrick's face (above). He makes a beautiful "poster dog" on behalf of the need to clamp down and hit animal abusers hard.

The Animal Abuse Scandal that Shook Canada

The killing of 100 sled dogs in Whistler, British Columbia, has caused a huge scandal across Canada.

Newspapers have been fixated on the "dog slaughter," which allegedly last April, when post-2010 Winter Olympics demand for dog sled rides plummeted. A company called Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc. allegedly shot the dogs and buried them in a mass grave.

In the past few weeks, news of the slaughter has escalated into a full-fledged national scandal. The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals launched an investigation of the alleged slaughter.

Stories about the bloodletting have been all over the television and internet, and newspapers across Canada (and outside the nation) have editorialized about the brutality. Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc.

The company responsible for the dog slaughter issued a statement saying

that the dogs to be euthanized were too old or sick and not adoptable. These dogs live to run and were not able to do so and would have had to be kept in cages with the result that they would have had very poor or virtually no quality of life. (Source)

This as an after-the-fact rationale that sounds like a big load of B.S. Of course, it is regrettable that the terrible treatment of factory farm animals does not stir the same sort of reaction as the violent slaughter of 100 sled dogs. Most people who become outraged at the news of dogs being shot can't be bothered with stories about pigs and cows and chickens meeting violent deaths.

That much is impossible to deny.

But I keep going back to what I've been saying all along on this Blog. We've come a long way, baby. Twenty years ago, an incident like this would have likely passed without anyone noticing. Thanks to years of struggles by animal rights activists, outrages like this one are now capturing media attention from far and wide. The Internet has helped spread the word. And companies caught treating animals so horribly either go on the defensive or they go out of business.

We'll take all the outrage we can get. Bless the public for being so furious about this nightmarish story. Notice has been served to companies that brutalize and kill animals. People who are shaken to the core and outraged by the treatment of these dogs are potential converts to the cause of animal rights. If a story like this can upset them, other instances of animal abuse can have a similar effect.

The key is to keep chipping away, like waves battering cliffs. Eventually the wall will erode and collapse.

Just what does she mean by "very normal"?

I don't know which was worse: The gruesome descriptions of the nearly 1,000 dead pigs found at a farm in Fulton County, Pennsylvania (right), or the response of the real estate agent who is now trying to find a buyer for the farm.

In case you haven't heard the news, authorities made a grisly discovery on a Pennsylvania farm on Monday: between 950 and 1,000 dead pigs were left to starve to death.

"I was horrified when I opened the door and saw what I saw," said Dennis Bumbaugh, a police officer with the Better Days Animal League. "All I know at this point is that I'm dealing with a heck of a lot of dead animals." (Source)

The farm, in Union Township, belongs to a couple named Dennis and Kerron Clark, who have reportedly separated in recent years. Dennis left the farm in August and stopped taking care of the pigs. Thanks to him, now the place has become an open-air mass grave.

The poor animals died over a period of several months and in extreme agony.

Almost as appalling as the hundreds of pigs perishing in such an excruciating way was the reaction of realtor Rebecca Glesner of Long and Foster Real Estate, who is in the unenviable position of trying to sell the giant death house.

Her response to the gruesome scene? "I think this is very normal in a lot of farming operations, that you're going to have dead animals." (Source)

Dude, you didn't say that. Tell me you didn't say that!

Very normal? Just what in God's name do you define as "very normal?"

Sadly, systematic and institutionalized cruelty is normal in the factory farm racket. From the time they're piglets, pigs live short and violent lives, often kept in dark and poorly ventilated places. Female pigs in gestation crates have no room to move around. Pigs unable to move on their own due to sickness or injury are carried to slaughter on forklifts. In many operations, pigs are conscious and aware of being slaughtered. And even in the more "humane" farms that successfully put pigs to sleep, their deaths are still violent and bloody. Don't fool yourself into believing that if an animal is unconscious, everything is OK.

But as horrific as the treatment of pigs in the factory farm system is, it's not quite as awful as allowing these poor animals to starve to death.

Maybe the simple fact that the terrible treatment of pigs is "normal" should cause us to step back and call for an end to the violence that human beings inflict on millions of these animals every single day in all parts of the world.

This mass starvation of pigs is but the latest in a long, long, long catalogue of unspeakably awful episodes of animal abuse. And it is emblematic of a wasteful society that both fails to protect animals and puts an incredibly low price on life.

Remember that all pigs began like this little fellow right here. They are intelligent animals who have feelings and memories, form bonds, and even communicate with each other. They need warmth and love and care, not neglect, abuse, starvation and violence.

What right have we to call ourselves a "civilization" while we're condoning - either through direct endorsement or simply looking the other way - the mass slaughter of these beautiful and very important beings?

A proper punishment for hog farm owners

It was so wonderful to see 23 charges filed against two hog-barn operators in Winnipeg who severely neglected their 2,000 hogs, which resulted in authorities finding 400 of them dead or dying, and later destroying 160 of the animals.

According to an article today's Winnipeg Free Press, the charges laid against the farmers in Notre Dame de Lourdes included (among others):

• failure to provide adequate food and water to more than 2,000 pigs
• failing to provide adequate medical attention to hundreds of wounded or ill animals
• confining more than 2,400 animals in a space with inadequate ventilation, according to court documents

I know that vegan purists and hardcore animal rights advocates who don't have any use for "welfarism" might argue that punishing animal abusers misses the point: All exploitation of animals must end. Punishing the abusers soothes the public into believing that justice is being served and everything is going to be OK. I get it. I understand the concern.

But for years, the justice system has traditionally let animal abusers off the hook. Authorities looked the other way. The worst abusers never even got a slap on the wrist. People were allowed to do pretty much anything they wanted to animals without facing any consequences for their actions.

Things are changing. There is a heightened consciousness about the need to end animal suffering. Rather than condemning the "gradualist" approach, we should adopt the view that every step in the right direction is a good thing. Improving the quality of life for animals is essential, even if those improvements do not entail dismantling the factory farm system tomorrow (which should happen, and it's important for us to keep saying, over and over and over, that it should happen, until we're blue in the face).

Something is better than nothing, though. We as vegans and animal rights activists can insist on radical changes, but those aren't going to occur overnight. Seeing harmful individuals - like the hog farmers in Winnipeg - appear to be getting the punishment they so richly deserve is extremely encouraging.

Finally! The justice system is actually punishing creeps like this one...

The justice system in the United States is finally cracking down on animal abusers. Wayne Brackett, age 22, was just sentenced to a four-year prison sentence in North Adams, Massachusetts. His crime? In June, Brackett - under the influence of drugs and alcohol - broke into a construction company and horribly murdered and mutilated five pet rabbits on the premises. As the Boston Herald noted:

Surveillance footage reportedly showed him ripping the ears off a rabbit, stabbing another one repeatedly, and stomping one baby bunny to death.

Now, this low-life will be spending four years in prison - plenty of time to reflect on his heinous crime. It's wonderful to see a thug who abuses animals finally being punished for such violence. This hasn't always happened. Twenty years ago - hell, ten years ago - a creep like this most likely would have gotten away with a slap on the wrist, maybe a little bit of community service.

Not any more. This prison sentence sends out a strong message: Animal abuse will not be tolerated. Brackett's case is especially disturbing. Peter Gollub, director of Law Enforcement for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told a local television station:

The rabbits in this case suffered horrific and repeated acts of cruelty. We wish to express our gratitude to the courts for recognizing the gravity of the crimes by imposing appropriate sentences.... Regrettably, the savagery repeatedly inflicted upon the helpless rabbits exceeds any brutality I’ve seen in quite a while. (Source)

Nine other rabbits are missing and presumed dead. Good thing this creep is going to do serious jail time. There have been many studies that show that human beings who carry out such senseless acts of violence against animals often commit violent acts against other human beings as well. Who knows? By punishing this creep now, maybe the life of a person might be saved. And apart from that, what he did to those rabbits was so brutal, so vile and disgusting, he deserves to spend time in prison. He'll also have to do 100 hours of community service. I'm praying this jerk comes across a really big and really tough inmate who loves animals and detests animal abusers.

Betty Boop & Grampy: Two Pioneering Animal Rights Activists!

I adore this 1936 Max Fleischer cartoon starring Betty Boop and her partner in crime, Grampy, as a couple of Depression-era animal rights activists who relentlessly go after a mean goon of a farmer who's abusing his animals. At the start of the cartoon, Betty is playing the piano, singing and minding her own business when she hears an awful noise coming through the window. It turns out to be her nasty neighbor, whipping a poor, defenseless dog. Like Billy Joe Gregg, who abused numerous cows and calves at the Conklin Dairy Farms in Ohio earlier this year, the jerk in this cartoon goes from one harmless animal to the next, taking out his wrath. Thanks to the intervention of Betty Boop and Grampy, the prick is stopped dead in his tracks. I won't give away the ending, but its absolutely priceless - and uplifting. Check it out if you get a chance. This black-and-white '36 cartoon, with the interesting title "Be Human," is a reminder that in all periods of history, you can find examples of compassionate people trying to help animals - even at moments when you'd least expect to find such goodness.

Cat Abusers Need to Face Stiff Punishments

Cat abuse is on the rise in North America and it is something we should all be very concerned about. Consider some of the more disturbing recent examples:

• Caleb Capen, age 22, of Albany, New York, is now facing a prison sentence for torturing and killing several cats. One of the cats he drowned just days after adopting the animal. (Source)

• Dallas Animal Services in Dallas, Texas, is under investigation after a cat escaped and got stuck in the wall. The temperatures in the shelter were high due to the hot weather and the cat frantically meowed for days, hoping someone would get her out. The cat died inside of the shelter wall and when the stench began to bother the shelter workers, they had the cat removed. Now an animal cruelty investigation of the shelter is underway. The rationale: If it was easy to remove the cat from inside the wall once she was dead, the shelter workers could have helped the cat when she was trying to get out of the wall. (Source)

• In Outagamie County, Wisconsin, a judge has dismissed evidence in an animal cruelty case involving a 42-year-old woman named Lorie Kuehl who allowed numerous cats to starve to death. Prosecutors wanted to use 20 cat skeletons found at the woman's house, but the judge dismissed the evidence because police searched the home without a warrant. Now it looks like Kuehl is going to get away with denying food and water to at least a dozen (probably many more) cats. (Source)

• An article on the wonderful website Change.org, there have been as many as 9 horrible cat mutilations in recent days in Sacramento, California. Families find the tortured and disfigured bodies of their beloved pets, who became the tragic victims of an insane stalker. Authorities in Sacramento are warning people not to let their cats outdoors. (Source)

• From the town of Wittmann, Arizona, comes a story of an 80-year-old woman who was living with 104 cats. When Phoenix authorities raided the home, they found many of the cats diseased to the point of being almost dead. She kept nine dead kittens in a freezer. As a UPI report noted: "Most remaining cats were so diseased - some without eyes, others with feline leukemia - that they were euthanized on the spot, the deputies said." The woman who owned the cats was clearly insane. She threatened to kill the officers who were raiding her home, saying "she enjoys when officers die." Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says the woman probably won't spend a day in jail. He noted that she is "too old and frail to see the inside of a jail cell." (Source)

I could go on and on and on. But you get the picture from these illustrations, I'm sure. We have cases of cat abuse up here in Canada, too. And horrific acts of abuse will continue until the psychos, sadists, nutjobs and whackos who get off on torturing and murdering cats are severely punished. Right now, there is no real deterrent in North America to prevent cat abusers from taking out their wrath on innocent felines. That must change. These cases are sickening reminders that we have a long way to go when it comes to protecting the rights of animals.

The time has come to throw the book at these disturbed men and women. Make them pay for their crimes. Punish them with jail time. Create a nationwide Animal Abuse Registry that actually has fangs. Stick it to these monsters and stick it to them hard. They'll never suffer the way the poor animals suffered at their twisted hands. But that doesn't mean we should continue to let these abusers off the hook. Today they'll torture and kill animals. Tomorrow, there's a very good likelihood they'll move on to human beings.

A Few Thoughts on the Conklin Dairy Farms abuse videos and the dairy industry...

Well, you've probably heard the latest, but I'll comment on it here, anyway.

Gary Conklin, owner of Conklin Dairy Farms in Marysville, Ohio - the place where those notorious undercover videos were shot of cows being beaten, jammed with pitchforks, having their tails snapped and the list goes on and on - will not face criminal charges.

There is some confusion as to whether Conklin wast actually captured on film abusing cows. Whether or not he was directly involved, this terrible abuse occurred in the facility he owned, and God only knows how long it had been going on.

This case is not over. Not by a long shot. Animal rights groups won't let this rest. Ever since these videos went public in the spring, protesters have not let up on Conklin Dairy Farms. The struggle has included online petitions, Websites calling for justice, demonstrations at the farm, and activists networking across North America to advocate for the abused animals.

Ten years ago, a case like this would not have generated so much attention. Today, those who advocate for animals are more outspoken than ever. The dairy and meat industries are on the defensive all the time. If you get a chance, look at their online magazines and trade publications. Regularly, they publish articles about the negative impact of animal rights activism on their businesses. Of course, these things are all a matter of perspective. What they see as negative, animal rights advocates see as progress.

When the Conklin Dairy Farms video scandal first broke, I expressed concern that if people focus too much on the specific instances of abuse and not the fact that the dairy industry is violent and exploitive, then there won't be any sweeping, long-term changes. Even if cows are not hit or punched in the face, like the poor animals at Conklin Dairy Farms, they're still confined to cold, dark places, out of the sunlight, forced into a perpetual state of pregnancy and their babies are hauled off and turned to veal.

How much more violent must a system be before people recognize the tragic toll it is taking on sentient beings who have feelings?

Please Take 1 Minute Out of Your Day to Help These Abused Pigs

All it takes is one minute. One minute to help animals who need your help. Please visit this URL:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/500-pigs-starved-to-death--those-involved-need-to-be-prosecuted

I beg you to take a moment to sign this petition and let the authorities in Manitoba know that the horrifying abuse of thousands of pigs at a farm in Notre Dame de Lourdes, which resulted in the unspeakably awful deaths of well over 600, will not be tolerated. (See my Blog entry here on the subject.)

The very barn that became a ghastly pig torture chamber burned last Wednesday in a fire, not long after authorities raided it and found hundreds of dead pigs and countless others suffering. Luckily, the authorities saved 2000 of the beautiful creatures.

Our animal friends need our help right now. These are extraordinary creatures who all - each and every one - deserve to live much better lives than the awful existences they have lived up until this point.

Time to punish the offenders. And punish them hard.

Even though this case is an extreme form of animal abuse, we should not lose sight of the violence inherent in the factory farm system. Combating awful cases of abuse such as this one should be our Number One priority. The poor pigs who suffered so terribly deserve justice.

Surely, this is a cause around which omnivores, vegetarians, vegans and anyone else with a healthy respect for the sanctity of life can rally.

Yet Another Reason to Just Say No to Dairy

I am a veteran of watching these animal abuse videos, but even this one is hard to take. The video consists of hidden camera shots of workers in Conklin Dairy Farms in Plain City, Ohio, brutalizing the cows in the facility. The images are deeply troubling. Workers punch calves in the face and kick them in the head. Pitchforks are used to jab various parts of cows. Cows in too much pain to stand (from the savage beating they've endured at the hands of these thugs) are kicked repeatedly. Workers whack cows with crowbars, snap their tails, and they joke about their ability to beat the shit out of (and sometimes kill) innocent, defenseless calves.

Conditions in dairy facilities often leave a lot to be desired, but the ones in Conklin Dairy Farms are particularly brutal. Dr. Bernard Rollin, distinguished professor of animal science at Colorado State University, had a difficult time watching the video and was horrified by what he saw. "This is probably the most gratuitous, sadistic, sustained animal abuse I have ever seen," he said. "The video depicts calculated, deliberate cruelty based not on momentary rage but on taking pleasure through causing pain to cows and calves who are defenseless." (Source.)

Dairy is as brutal as meat. This video shows the day-to-day violence of the factory farm system at its most extreme. In all likelihood, the workers who abused the cows and calves at Conklin are family men - loving husbands and fathers - who aren't earning much money and walking the tightrope to make ends meet. My purpose here is not to dehumanize them. No, my purpose is to show how the factory farm system dehumanizes good people. And make no mistake: It is a system that asks us, the consumers, to look the other way at the shocking treatment of animals.

Even in dairy facilities where workers do not abuse the cows and calves, these poor animals live lives in cold, sterile and unnatural conditions. And when they can no longer give milk, they're not handed a gold watch and allowed to go off and enjoy the sun in some lovely pasture. They meet the same end as all animals in the factory farm system.

So it's not just a matter of ending the abuse at Conklin Dairy Farms in Ohio, although that's a good start. The real goal is to bring a halt to the factory farm system and recognize that we human beings do not have the right to do what we are doing to farm animals.

Going vegan - thereby reducing demand - is a good place to start.

A Big Thumbs Up to New Zealand's Prime Minister...

Thumbs up to New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key for fast-tracking a new bill through the government to get tough on animal abuse. Key has a lot of support for the bill, both within his own party (the National Party) and from the opposition. The public pressure to pass the bill intensified after a man in Wellsford recently shot and killed 33 dogs in a local dispute. The head of the Labour Party opposition, Phil Goff, spoke for a lot of New Zealanders when he said:

I'm the owner of two dogs and have had pets all my life. There is a human obligation to treat animals humanely and we need to do everything we can to stop these appalling acts. We know that there is a link, that people who are capable of committing acts of cruelty against animals [are also capable of behaving] in a similar manner against human beings.

Hopefully the passage of tougher laws in New Zealand (it's looking like this bill is a sure thing) will inspire other countries around the world to toughen their animal cruelty laws. It is time to start punishing those who abuse, harm and - in some cases - kill innocent animals. This law is a very encouraging sign.

PM Key, you get a big thumbs up!

Protecting Animals by Getting Tough on Abusers

The time has come to get tough on serious animal abusers by charging them with felonies and giving them the harsh prison sentences they deserve. I never enjoy blogging about animal abuse, any more than I enjoy blogging about human abuse, but the shocking case of police finding 160 dead animals in a barn in Deer Park, Washington yesterday compels me to do so yet again. The barn contained 200 animals locked in cages, most of them dead. The ones who were still alive were desperate for food and water. It was an absolutely appalling scene. (Source)

In Garden City, New York, a mother was recently charged with forcing her children to torture pets. When the authorities raided her house, they found five dogs and a cat in cages, living in their own pee and shit. In the backyard, the SPCA made an even more gruesome discovery: 42 animals buried, many with duct tape over their mouths. The woman has six daughters, ranging in age from 18 months to 13 years. Her 21-year-old son who turned her in described her house as a "concentration camp for animals." (Source)

There are other similar cases, but, to be honest, it would depress me too much to list them all here.

Suffice it to say that it has only been since the 1990s that serial killers who target animals have actually been charged with felonies. Before the 1990s, such killers were usually let free, or - at the very worst - they were charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty. There are several states that still do not even have felony animal abuse laws (for a list of which states have them and when they adopted such laws, see here). Some would say these sadists just need good counseling. But what they really need are long jail sentences and huge fines if there is any hope of sending out a message that this sort of behavior is absolutely unacceptable.

Note: I'm singling out the United States only because I have studied the society more carefully as an American historian and newspaper columnist who often comments on American affairs. Here in Canada, the animal abuse laws are a little tougher, but not much. (Click here for a history of animal abuse laws in Canada.) Four years ago, there was an excellent entry on the Toronto Humane Society's blog (dated June 9, 2006), that offered the following observations:

Canada's current anti-cruelty laws for animals are totally inadequate, allowing those who neglect and abuse animals to repeat their crimes again and again with minimal consequences. For six years, Canada's government has stalled on the passage of tougher animal cruelty sentences.

The main reason Canada remains largely ineffective in preventing animal cruelty is the lack of tough laws and large fines in cases of cruelty and neglect. The current maximum fine for animal cruelty is $2,000 and a possible two-year ban on animal ownership. The laws have not been updated in more than 100 years. Meanwhile, cruelty to animals continues....

Canadians want to protect animals

Ninety-three percent of Canadians polled support tougher animal cruelty legislation including law enforcement officers, lawyers, researchers, farmers, hunters and animal welfare organizations.

The Short, Sad Life of Timothy

On a freezing cold night just seven days before Christmas in 2009, a motorist in southwestern Minnesota made a horrible discovery. A beautiful, 7-month-old kitten (later named Timothy) was stuck in the middle of the highway. Some horrible sadist had glued his paws to the pavement.

Volunteers at Second Chance Rescue took him in, but he died a few days later. Apparently, the poisonous glue got into his system and killed him.

Timothy is gone, but not forgotten. He was the victim of a system in which animal abusers are seldom punished for their crimes. So many people have committed ghastly crimes against animals. And in the rare cases these thugs are brought to trial, they're almost always released with only a slap on the wrist - if that. This is because we live in a society that has looked the other way at animal abuse.

This sort of tragedy repeats itself over and over again, in a thousand different communities across North America.

But there is another side to humanity. A number of donors have offered rewards for information leading to the capture of the sadists who murdered Timothy. In fact, the reward has grown to $10,000. One anonymous donor contributed $1,000 toward the reward money. The outpouring of support and sympathy for Timothy has been nothing short of remarkable.

There is also a movement in Minnesota to push for the passage of more stringent animal cruelty laws. As the Morris (Minnesota) Sun Tribune noted:

Just two days before Timothy was pulled from the roadway west of Mankato, Minn., the national Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) released a report ranking the states on their laws concerning animal abuse.

Minnesota ranked 15th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and someone arrested in connection with the Dec. 18 incident could face a felony charge because it involved intentional cruelty and resulted in the animal’s death, according to Stephan Otto, an attorney and legislative director with the California-based ALDF.

“They would be facing penalties of up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine,” Otto said Monday.

Minnesota has a more severe felony animal abuse charge available for cases where the animal torture is done to terrorize another person. That carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Conviction on a misdemeanor animal abuse charge in Minnesota carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a fine of $3,000, Otto said.

Tougher laws to protect animals are long overdue. Humane people who love animals can only accomplish so much. They need the legal system on their side, so that there is actually a deterrent against this kind of cruelty. As it is now, the fiends who committed this crime will likely go on hurting other animals simply because they can. Time to change the laws so the bad guys pay and the victims receive the protection under the law they deserve.

Fighting the Good Fight Against Puppy Mills

Rather than always focusing on the negative, which is easy for animal rights advocates to do, it is also important to spotlight the heroic fight against animal abuse. Kudos to SPCA volunteers across North America. In Pennsylvania, SPCA workers in Lebanon and Lancaster counties are working to help abused puppies who are currently crammed into dark mills in a state with the reputation as "the puppy mill capital of the world." (Source) The conditions in the puppy mills are horrendous. It is worth quoting extensively from the article in the Mercury:

An Associated Press report in Monday's edition of The Mercury reported on one day in the life of an animal rescue worker driving through Lancaster County buying mistreated animals. The account described the horrid conditions inside high-volume puppy mills: "... an overwhelming stench of urine and feces. Ammonia fumes burn the nose and eyes. The simultaneous barking of hundreds of dogs creates a wall of sound that makes it hard to think, let alone converse.

"Lacking a bone or toy to occupy their time, some dogs go into a frenzy every time they see a human. Other dogs circle endlessly. Still others just sit there, staring, like a 'warm statue,' says Jessie Smith, special deputy secretary of dog law enforcement at the state Department of Agriculture.

"Breeders often act as their own vets, performing delicate surgical procedures — docking tails, "debarking" dogs by hacking at the vocal cords, performing Caesarean sections on pregnant females."

Thanks to a group of committed SPCA activists, these puppy mills are being exposed in the press as the profit-hungry, cruel factories that they are. "The corps of combatants" fighting against the abuse in puppy mills, notes the Mercury article, are "tireless." It is an uphill battle, to be certain, but when you see the horrible acts of abuse captured on tape (for example: a series of recent dog beatings in New York filmed on video), you begin to understand how crucial it is that animals receive better protection under the law. It is encouraging to see that many states, including Pennsylvania and Minnesota, are enacting much tougher anti-cruelty laws. This is a welcome move in the right direction. And the passage of such laws is largely because of the pressure being placed on legislators by animal rights activists.