Animal Rights

Protesting for Minks in Utah

categories: Activism and Actions, Animals in Entertainment, Farm Animals

Published November 12, 2009 @ 06:44AM PT

Thanks go to my friends at Food Fight! Grocery in Portland for the reminder on this one.

Morgan, Utah, is home to 15 active mink fur farms -- which makes it more entrenched in the abhorrent practice than any other U.S. community. And on Saturday, November 28, animal rights activists hope to make it the site of a major protest too: "For the first time, the animal rights movement will bring all the tears and rage for the millions killed every year for fur to the belly of the beast: Morgan, Utah. This convergence will climax in a one-mile march through the heart of this fur farm capital, past two of Morgan’s mink farms."

But Morgan County wants to put a damper on any protests; in the last couple months, it made some bold moves. First, it passed an ordinance prohibiting protesters from demonstrating within 1,000 feet of fur farms and the residences on them. Salt Lake animal advocate Colleen Hatfield had this to say in response:

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Could "Service Dog" Programs Be Good for Both Dogs and Veterans?

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Companion Animals, Politics and Law

Published November 11, 2009 @ 08:34AM PT

This morning, I learned for the first time of the Service Dogs for Veterans Act, a bill cosponsored by Senator Al Franken and described by OpenCongress.org as "a bill to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a pilot program to assess the feasibility and advisability of using service dogs for the treatment or rehabilitation of veterans with physical or mental injuries or disabilities, and for other purposes." A related provision was recently passed as part of the Defense Authorization Bill.

The details aren't terribly clear -- I've seen variations from place to place -- but a Minnesota Public Radio report summarized it thus: "The Veterans Administration would develop partnerships with organizations that provide disabled veterans with service dogs." Other sources have indicated that the "effectiveness" of the program will be studied, with possible expansion to come. One dog blog post, published a couple months before the legislation passed, indicated that "half the service dogs will be for veterans with mental health disabilities and the other half will help those with physical disabilities," but I haven't been able to determine yet whether those specifics and others made it into the final legislation.

The issue of nonhuman animals, dogs in most cases, as "service" animals for humans is not a black-and-white one in the animal rights community. On one hand, it can be argued that using animals in this way is just that -- using them and further building on our view of them as tools. On the other hand is the common argument that the dogs can benefit from the relationship as well and can be well loved and cared for, just as they would be in a home in which they're not also service-providers.

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Highway Construction That Considers Animals

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Activism and Actions, Wildlife/FreeLiving Animals

Published November 10, 2009 @ 05:03PM PT

The practice of keeping nonhuman animals and their needs in mind during development and construction of human projects has come up around here a few times lately. In early August, we looked at some interesting posts from Emily at the Stop Global Warming blog, on constructing bat habitats, and Glenn of Liberation BC, on proposed high-rises for urban animals. And later that same month, Glenn posted again on the topic, this time regarding underpasses and overpasses designed specifically for animals.

Some current happenings in Colorado fall right into this latter category. A wildlife advocate in that state is trying to make sure humans do their part to protect and accommodate their fellow animals along a highway where animals are routinely hit and killed by vehicles. Beyond seeking a nighttime speed limit, Frosty Merriott is also calling for overpasses and underpasses where animals' natural migration routes intersect with the highway -- the idea being that larger animals can travel over the highway while smaller ones can cross safely below.

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The Underestimated Compassion and Understanding of Children

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Farm Animals, Vegan

Published November 10, 2009 @ 07:35AM PT

A smart, sweet three-year-old and her dad made my morning today and inspired this post. Before or after you read this one, you must do yourself the favor of reading Ryan's post from last night over at The Veg Blog. Because his three-year-old daughter? She's going to do beautiful, compassionate things in this world. Hell, she's already doing them. I won't give away Ryan's whole post. I'll just say that his little one is a lovely example of what we're capable of as people, what this world's children are capable of in particular, when we can get past everything that's been ingrained in us -- or so much better, when it's never ingrained in us in the first place.

Back in May, when I wrote about Ruby Roth's gorgeous new children's book That's Why We Don't Eat Animals, I included the following paragraph:

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Jonathan Safran Foer and Eating and Killing Animals

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Farm Animals, Media, Slaughter, Vegan

Published November 09, 2009 @ 08:16AM PT

I haven't read Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals yet. I don't know when I will, given lack of time, but I have seen a head-spinning number of reviews of and reactions to it lately. I get the impression, from these reviews and reactions, that there will be aspects of the book that will frustrate me, but I can also appreciate that he is telling mainstream America far more than most of them have read or heard before about who rather than what is on their plates and that he has done it in a way that is getting a lot of people thinking and talking. And though I've not read it myself, I've found other animal advocates' reactions to the book and Foer's approach interesting and worth considering, and I've read and watched some of his interviews.

For example, in a recent Facebook note, Josh Hooten of Herbivore posted a thoughtful response to the attention Foer's book is getting and the discussing it's sparking, in the mainstream and within the the vegan animal rights movement. And a SuperVegan post that is thoughtful and worth reading itself republished Josh's post in full.

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Obama Administration Still Neglecting Endangered Species

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Endangered Species, Politics and Law, Wildlife/FreeLiving Animals

Published November 08, 2009 @ 10:47AM PT

President Obama's record on animal issues in his first year in office has been less than inspiring, including his decisions to give responsibility for protecting animals in his administration to decidedly un-animal-friendly people (Sam Hamilton to head the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior, for example) and, on a more personal level, his unfortunate failure to set an example that could have benefited shelter dogs.

And the Center for Biological Diversity has just weighed in on an administration report regarding candidates for endangered species protections. Obama's administration, the Center reports, has identified "a total of 249 species in need of protection." So what's the problem?

The review also describes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s progress in listing these species, showing that the administration has, to date, only listed one species – a Hawaiian plant reduced to a handful of individuals.

“This review shows that the Obama administration has not substantially improved the dismal record of the Bush administration in providing protection to the nation’s critically endangered wildlife,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Protection of only one species in 10 months reflects a failure to enact substantial reforms in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

Please read more here.

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Photo of juvenile yellow-billed loon retrieved from Wikimedia Commons