For The Animal Lovers

[Margot]

Unfortunately, not every animal story has a happy ending.

This news item on Yahoo really upset me. Puppy and kitten fur?

Ex-Beatle's Wife Calls for Pet Fur Trade Ban
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050301/en_nm/eu_animal_fur_dc

God bless Heather Mills McCartney for taking a stand.

[letters2dorian]

Animal rights activists estimate that 2 million cats and dogs are killed in Asia each year for their fur which is imported into Europe under false labels, saying it's either fake fur or exotic Asian species, to make soft toys, blankets, coats and fur trims on hoods.

what?!! that's insane!! toys and blankets!! i mean, that's like everyday stuff...



thanks for posting the article, though, margot!

[Pancake]

I wasnt going to click on the link b/c i have a deep love for all animals...but my curiosity overruled me. That is the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. We should do something about it. I'm going to start a petition or something i dont know what to do. But im doing something. I'm also going to write to Ellen Degeneres (she also loves animals) and maybe we can all do something together! Who's with me?

[Margot]

I’m definitely in. You have my full support.

[Remi]

What is wrong with people?

I'm in too!

[Natalie]

This has been a big story in Italy - I see that they mentioned Italy in the article. They found out that the furs came from dogs and cats. How sick is that?! They even showed videos and now the furs are much more controlled (where they come from).

On the other hand, it's about time that PETA is doing something about J-Lo!

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7031634/

Fur to fly over J.Lo’s clothing line

PETA is not happy that Jennifer Lopez wears fur and also uses it in her clothing line, Sweetface.

By Jeannette Walls

MSNBC

Updated: 9:26 a.m. ET March 1, 2005

Jennifer Lopez’s fur is going to fly.

The actress/singer, whose album “Rebirth” is being released today, is about to become the target of a major campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals because she wears so much fur and uses it extensively in her new line of clothes, Sweetface.

Phase One of the campaign launches today, when the take-no-prisoners activists will be stationed outside Virgin Records in Times Square in Manhattan. While Lopez is inside signing copies of her new album, PETA activists will be showing horrific film footage of animals being skinned alive in China — the world’s number one fur-producing country, where there’s not a single animal-protection law — edited in with images of Lopez swathed in fur from her latest video.

“There is nothing remotely ‘sweet’ about the torture deaths of animals killed for fur,” says PETA Vice President Dan Mathews. “Jennifer Lopez may be able to get the images of bloody, skinned foxes still alive and breathing out of her head, but we doubt all her fans will."

My brother has seen those videos and he has said it is the sickest thing he's seen in his life. He told me some details and I felt sick just hearing about it. There is no way I am going to watch those videos. I can't believe that torture is allowed to go on.

I don't know why PETA doesn't say anything to Usher and P.Diddy about all the fur they wear. And how about that one time that at the MTV Awards, Usher had black panthers on diamond leashes (I remember reading about it a long time ago, I hope I got the details right)? That's just sick and wrong. They should protest about him as well!

[WilsonFreak]

I'll join to sign up for the list to stop these poor little animals from suffering!

And you're right, Natalie, everyone should be singled out, not just J Lo. She probably thought that using faux fur didn't mean any little animals getting hurt................so did I..........not that I HAVE any faux fur............

[letters2dorian]

re: the MTV awards--> if a performer wants to use an animal in their performance in that show, they need to check with PETA beforehand...i remember this because Britney Spears wanted to use a live tiger or lion in her performance a few years ago, and she did, but it was in a cage, while she had a snake of some sort around her neck

has anyone (in the US) seen those horrific ads that PETA made for goveg.com?? they're soo utterly disturbing, i don't even want to think about them!!

[Pancake]

I havent seen it. Are they commercials?

You guys, this really makes me so pissed off

I want to do something. I dont know what. is there any way we can make them stop? A Petition wont do anything. I just wanna go to China and whip their asses!! As I sit here with my kitten Bella (she's sitting right in front of the monitor) I wonder how a person could seriously do this. I want to go all around the world and petnap all the dogs and cats. I wanted to write Ellen Degeneres an e-mail about this. Maybe you guys can help. i'm not very good at writing letters. especially when i'm fuming. Lets join together and send her an e-mail and maybe she could help.

[Nana]

Coincidently this was in my mailbox today:

Breaking News From PETA.org
PETA warns shoppers that they are contributing to some of the worst cruelty to animals ever witnessed—animals still alive and moving after being skinned in China for export fur. A year-long undercover investigation captured video footage of fur farmers in China swinging raccoons and foxes by their hind legs and smashing their heads onto the ground—breaking the animals’ necks or backs but leaving them fully conscious, panting, and blinking as they are skinned alive. No one who wears fur trim or fur should be spared this footage. Please pass it on and do all you can to register your support for our actions in this matter.

For more information, please visit FurIsDead.com.

[Pancake]

This makes me sick...

MADISON, Wis. (April 12) - Feline lovers holding pictures of cats, clutching stuffed animals and wearing whiskers faced-off against hundreds of hunters at meetings around Wisconsin to voice their opinion on whether to legalize cat hunting.

Residents in 72 counties were asked whether free-roaming cats - including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar - should be listed as an unprotected species. If listed as so, the cats could be hunted.

The proposal was one of several dozen included in a spring vote on hunting and fishing issues held by the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. The results, only advisory, get forwarded to the state Natural Resources Board.

Statewide results were expected Tuesday.

La Crosse firefighter Mark Smith, 48, helped spearhead the cat-hunting proposal. He wants Wisconsin to declare free-roaming wild cats an unprotected species, just like skunks or gophers. Anyone with a small-game license could shoot the cats at will.

At least two other upper Midwestern states, South Dakota and Minnesota, allow wild cats to be shot - and have for decades. Minnesota defines a wild, or feral, cat as one with no collar that does not show friendly behavior, said Kevin Kyle with that state's Department of Natural Resources.

Every year in Wisconsin alone, an estimated 2 million wild cats kill 47 million to 139 million songbirds, according to state officials. Despite the astounding numbers, Smith's plan has been met with fierce opposition from cat lovers.

Critics of Smith's idea organized Wisconsin Cat-Action Team and developed a Web site - dontshootthecat.com. Some argue it is better to trap wild cats, spay or neuter them, before releasing them.

In Madison, about 1,200 people attended the Monday evening meeting at the Alliant Center - more than the 250 or so in a typical year, but less than the 3,000 or so who took part in a debate in 2000 over whether to allow hunters to shoot mourning doves.

One of the attendees was Katy Francis, who wore cat ears, whiskers, a cat nose and a sign that read, ''Too Cute to Kill.'' For Francis, ''The cat hunting thing brought me out because it was very extreme.''

[Natalie]

This dog is so cute! I can't believe the things that are done to animals still. :-(

news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/04/0411_050411_peteuthanasia.html

Miracle Dog: How Quentin Survived the Gas Chamber to Speak for Animals on Death Row�a new book by animal-welfare advocate Randy Grim�tells the story of Quentin (pictured), the Basenji mix that survived the gas chamber at a Missouri pound.

Photograph courtesy Randy Grim

Animal Gas Chambers Draw Fire in U.S.

Maryann Mott

for National Geographic News

April 11, 2005

When animal-shelter employee Rosemary Ficken opened the door to the St. Louis pound's gas chamber one August day in 2003, she couldn't believe her eyes: A reddish brown mutt, standing on top of six dead dogs, was still alive.

In the shelter's 64 year history, no dog had ever survived the chamber's noxious fumes.

Unwilling to close the door and re-gas the dog, Ficken called Randy Grim, the founder of Stray Rescue of St. Louis. The Missouri organization rescues abused and neglected animals, restores them to health, and places them in new homes.

Grim retrieved the big-eared Basenji mix and named him Quentin after California's San Quentin prison.

Quentin's life was spared that day, but many others are not so lucky. Nearly four million dogs and cats in the United States are put to death in shelters each year.

Carbon monoxide gas chambers�a euthanasia method used since World War II�are routinely used in animal shelters throughout the country, including Rhode Island, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia.

The American Veterinary Medical Association�whose euthanasia guidelines are widely followed�considers carbon monoxide gassing an acceptable method when done in a properly manufactured and equipped chamber. Many animal-welfare advocates, though, say the method is inhumane.

"It's America's dirty little secret," said Grim, who has written the book Miracle Dog: How Quentin Survived the Gas Chamber to Speak for Animals on Death Row (Alpine Publishing). "If people actually saw the gas chamber working, they would sign a petition tomorrow to ban it."

Due to Grim's fundraising and lobbying efforts, the St. Louis gas chamber shut down in January of this year.

The Euthanasia Process

From start to finish, the process of gassing an animal takes about 25 minutes. One or more animals are placed in an airtight chamber, and a high concentration of bottled carbon monoxide gas is released.

Cats and dogs are rendered unconscious within a minute, then eventually die from lack of oxygen.

Doug Fakkema, an animal-euthanasia expert, said that, in theory, the gas chamber doesn't sound bad, but in reality it's awful.

"The animal is in a warm or hot box, usually with other animals. They don't know what's going on. The hiss of the gas is going on inside. They get dizzy, and they panic," he said. Fights can break out, and animals' calls can sometimes be heard.

Today most private and city animal shelters euthanize animals with sodium pentobarbital, a controlled substance that is injected into one of a dog or cat's veins. Animals die in seconds, experts say, and without pain or suffering.

Private-practice animal hospitals also use sodium pentobarbital to euthanize sick and old family pets.

The American Humane Association (AHA), an animal- and child-welfare nonprofit, says that lethal injection is the only acceptable method for putting down dogs and cats.

Currently 13 states, including California, Florida, and New York, require animal shelters to perform death by injection, according to the AHA.

In the rural farming community of Enoch, Utah, the animal shelter's brick gas chamber uses carbon monoxide exhaust from an old pickup truck.

The city was heavily criticized for its method by animal welfare organizations in 2002. To put the controversy to rest, the city hired a veterinarian to perform a necropsy on a 50-pound (23-kilogram) dog euthanized in the shelter's gas chamber.

His report found that there was no evidence of heat injury to the dog's respiratory tract. No mouth or foot abrasions were found, indicating the dog did not try to escape.

Enoch's animal-control officer, Jim Mitchell, said the shelter will soon use bottled carbon monoxide gas, because a newly constructed addition to the shelter is blocking the truck's access to the chamber.

The shelter, however, will not switch to sodium pentobarbital, Mitchell said. "Unless you have an actual veterinarian on site to administer and supervise the process, in my mind euthanization by injection is inhumane."

Mitchell explained that only aggressive dogs are put down at the Enoch shelter, adding that the animals would have to be held with a control stick while a lethal injection was administered to their muscle or chest cavity. (A control stick is a metal pole with a wire loop that tightens around an animal's neck.)

He also noted that the massive overdose of barbiturates may take as long as 20 to 30 minutes to take effect if injected into a dog's chest, during which time a dog would be stressed and possibly have convulsions.

Injecting sodium pentobarbital into an animals muscle or chest cavity, however, is not an acceptable practice, according to the American Veterinary Medical Associations Euthanasia Report released in 2000.

Aggressive or fearful animals should be sedated prior to intravenous (within the vein) administration of the drug, the report states.

Proper Training Urged

Jodi Buckman, director of animal-protection services for the American Humane Association, said training shelter workers on proper euthanasia techniques is important.

"We want them to be the most humane people in our communities, because they are taking care of the homeless animals that no one else has taken responsibility for," she said.

Currently four states�Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, and Nebraska�require special training for workers who use lethal injection to euthanize animals.

Animal welfare advocates say euthanasia rates are on the decline. Experts attribute the decline in large part to aggressive spay and neuter programs initiated by shelters and humane societies.

In some parts of the United States, adoptable animals are now even in demand.

To cover the shortfall, volunteers drive to areas where a severe overpopulation still exists, then take dogs and cats to cities seeking adoptable pets.

The retail giant PETsMART recently built a custom bus specifically for this purpose. The Rescue Waggin' program will save more than 4,000 pets annually, the company says.

"Probably within ten years the only animals that will still have to be euthanized are those suffering, health-wise, or [those] that are too dangerous to adopt out," Fakkema, the euthanasia expert, said.

[furg]

Ladies, help me...my dog Ruby (not her real name), lol...has started to well...erm..hump boy dogs. WHY, WHY, WHY does my girl dog do this? It's most embarrassing.

Last week she did it to a boy dog we meet on or dog walks. I was mortified, shouted her back and said "no you don't do that"

She ran away wagging her tail and did the exact same thing AGAIN.

I commented to S****N'* owner that perhaps she was trying to dominate him...what do you think?

Mr. Furg thinks it's hysterical.

[texasgal]

Margot, when I clicked on your link "Ex-Beatle's Wife Calls For Pet Fur Trade Ban," nothing happened.

From your and others' comments, it's just as well I couldn't get to this site. From what you've all said, I get the gist.

Chinese DO eat cats and dogs. If that's not bad enough, they have a ridiculous notion that the animal will taste better if it is tortured to death than killed quickly and humanely. How sick is THAT!

Chinese readers, please don't take offense. I understand these animals are a part of your normal diet, and eating them is a way of dealing with excess pet population. Perhaps these animals are less expensive to eat than others. But, please, for the love of God, kill the animals humanely. There is no scientific evidence that tortured animals taste better. It is only your expectation that makes them taste better. You can adjust to "bland" meat. Just add seasonings. And humane death isn't any more expensive than dismembering a live, conscious animal.

Please, ladies, count me in for your petition!!

Oh, by the way, other animal rights activists include Bridget Bardot, Bob Barker, and Tippi Hedren.

I'm sure there are more.

[Natalie]

Furg, my puppy, who's actual name IS Ruby did that too. She would try to hump both my other dog's legs. And the two other dogs are a boy and a girl. So....who the hell knows! She did get her first heat very early though.