Monthly Archives: June 2015

animal conference, animal welfare, Tierschutz

Conference for People with Passion

photo: Best Friends

photo: Best Friends

There are some outstanding humans who work diligently at changing the world for non-human beings to the better. One of these amazing people is Rich Avanzino. Rich will be speaking at the conference organized by Best Friends.

“What Jane Goodall has done for endangered species and our relationship with them, Rich Avanzino has done for homeless pets. And this summer is your opportunity to meet him.

In 1984, around the same time that the founders of Best Friends Animal Society were breaking ground on the sanctuary in Utah, Rich, then the president of the San Francisco SPCA, ended his organization’s role as the city’s animal control contractor and knocked over one of the first dominoes on the path to saving them all.”

You can read more here and you can sign up for this event:

http://conference.bestfriends.org/events/2015-best-friends-national-conference/event-summary-d9986f7f11504a78871c90248463adad.aspx

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animal welfare, chimpanzee, Tierschutz

A Big Win for Chimpanzees in Captivity

photo_ NEAVS

photo_ NEAVS

photo: Te Jane Goodall Institute

photo: Te Jane Goodall Institute

The animal welfare networks are abuzz with the news about the new protection status of captive chimpanzees. The decision is a milestone in the right direction.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced it would give the same protections to chimpanzees held in captivity as it does their free-living relatives in Africa! The decision reverses a decades-long policy that contributed to the inhumane and wasteful use of chimpanzees in biomedical research for humans. Their new FWS endangered status affords chimpanzees much-needed protections, such as restrictions on their use in research and entertainment.

“FWS’ decision to protect all chimpanzees is an essential next step toward elevating their importance to Americans and worldwide,” says NEAVS President Theodora Capaldo, EdD. “Had their now endangered status applied to those in captivity decades ago, it would not have completely prohibited using chimpanzees in research, but it would have severely limited the ways.”

You can read more here:

http://www.neavs.org/alerts/info/care-about-chimpanzees

http://www.janegoodall.org/esaqandawithjane

http://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/chimpanzee.html?utm_source=U.S.+Fish+and+Wildlife+Service+Endangered&utm_campaign=Split+List&utm_medium=email

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animal welfare, Dugong, Tierschutz

Even Animals You Might Never Have Heard of Are Worth Saving

photo: Greenpeace

photo: Greenpeace

Most people probably have never heard of the Dugong, and most likely will never see one, either. These manatee-like marine mammals still deserve to be left alive. Their habitat, the warm waters of the Indian ocean and the Pacific, is becoming more and more unsafe for them. Especially off the coast of Japan, where only a few of these giant vegetarians live, their lives are threatened.

“Henoko Bay is the home of the last remaining Dugongs in Japanese waters. It is estimated that there are as few as a dozen left in existence.

We understand that the concrete slabs have already started being dumped into the Dugong’s primary habitat. We urge you to intervene and halt further construction until a sustainable solution is found which guarantees the survival of this last group of IUCN red-listed Dugongs and protects the coral reef and the Dugong’s seagrass food supply.

We stand with the local Okinawan people who have voted to elect a prefectural government which is opposed to building a U.S Marine base on this environmentally critical site in Japan.”

Please read more here and sign the petition, share it, spread it far and wide:

http://act.greenpeace.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1844&ea.campaign.id=35851

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animal welfare, fish, Tierschutz

Something Fishy in Paradise? Rescue Is Near

photo: National Parks Conservation Association

photo: National Parks Conservation Association

Pollution, overfishing, carelessness, and ineptitude have almost led to the complete decline of coral reefs and fishes around the Florida coasts. Before the complete wipe-out there is a sliver of hope: a marine park. With protection in sight, there might be a way to save some of Florida´s unique water wildlife. Even though there still will be fishing allowed in some areas, this is a step in the right direction.

“The National Park Service has finally announced plans to create a “no-fishing” marine reserve zone in Biscayne National Park to protect the park’s ailing reefs and to help restore fish to Florida.”

You can read more here:

http://parkadvocate.org/victory-what-you-helped-protect-at-biscayne-national-park/

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animal abuse, animal welfare, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PeTA, Tierschutz, Wildtierschutz

No More Primates on Japan Airlines

photo: Cruelty Free International

photo: Cruelty Free International

photo: Stop Vivisection

photo: Stop Vivisection

With pressure mounting on those airlines that still have continued flying animals to a life of torture and death, Japan Airlines has committed to stop taking in this kind of cargo.

“Following repeated requests from PETA and PETA Asia, Japan Airlines wrote to PETA earlier this month: “We don’t ship primates to laboratories and laboratory suppliers at the moment and will not ship them in the future.”

The announcement comes after PETA notified the company in April that an animal experimentation journal reported that Japan Airlines was actively involved in the transport of monkeys from the Philippines, and possibly other locations, to laboratories where they are likely imprisoned, cut into, infected, and killed.

Japan Airlines joins virtually every major airline in the world in banning these cruel shipments.”

You can thank Japan Airlines here:

Mr Inamori
President, Japan Airlines
JAL Building
4-11, Higashi-Shinagawa 2 Chome
Shinagawa-Ku
Tokyo 140-8637
JAPAN

Email: masaru.onishi@jal.com
Press Office: sze_hunn.yap@jal.com
Worldwide Press Office: http://www.jalpress.com/contact/
Europe: yoshiko.baba@jal.com

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animal abuse, animal welfare, chimpanzee, HSI, Petition, Tierrettung, Tierschutz

Chimpanzees Who Are Not (Yet) Safe Through Laws Need Help

photo:International New York Times

photo:International New York Times

The news about the day in court for two chimpanzees (see Animals in Court) coincides with the story of 66 chimpanzees being abandoned in Liberia. These chimpanzees had been used by an American company but have been left behind to fend for themselves.

“This year, the New York Blood Center (NYBC) abandoned more than sixty chimpanzees that it had used in research and testing for decades. These animals, located in Liberia — a country on the west coast of Africa — are now in danger of dehydration or starvation and need our help.

In the 1970’s, NYBC worked with the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research to create Vilab II — a laboratory that obtained and bred chimpanzees for use in research and testing. Once NYBC decided that the chimpanzees were no longer needed for research, it was determined that they would be permanently retired on islands near the lab in Monrovia, Liberia. The chimps still live there today and are completely reliant on humans for their survival, as there is no natural fresh water supply throughout the year, nor enough food.

As The New York Times recently reported, NYBC withdrew all funding and oversight for these chimpanzees in early March, despite previously committing to a lifetime of care.Since then, the situation has quickly deteriorated. The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International have given emergency funding to help provide food and water for the chimpanzees and several dedicated individuals on the ground are doing what they can to help these chimpanzees survive.”

Please read more and sign the petition:

https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=6921

http://www.vice.com/video/the-lab-apes-of-liberia

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/science/chimpanzees-liberia-new-york-blood-center.html

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animal abuse, animal welfare, chimpanzee, legal, Nonhuman Rights Project, Tierrecht, Tierschutz

Animals in Court

What approach to changing how humans treat animals is more effective: appealing to the conscience and hearts of humans not to hurt other beings or changing the laws so that other beings besides humans have the same legal status? Here is a group of lawyers fighting in court for the rights of animals:

“A legal team from the Nonhuman Rights Project argued on their behalf of Hercules and Leo — two chimpanzee plaintiffs wrongly imprisoned inside a SUNY animal experimentation laboratory – in a New York Supreme Court. Here are some of the news reports of Hercules’ and Leo’s historic day in court:

For a general overview of the proceedings, follow this link for a short Fox News TV report.

Wired magazine focuses on the fact that Justice Barbara Jaffe decided to call both sides into court for a hearing at all. It quotes me as telling reporters after the hearing that the fact that she held a full hearing represents a victory in itself. “Many human beings have these kinds of hearings,” I said. “Chimpanzees are now being treated like all the other autonomous beings of this world.”

Wired also takes note of how the judge challenged New York Assistant Attorney General Christopher Coulston’s argument that there’s no precedent for a case like this. It is the very essence of the common law, she said, that it “evolves according to new discoveries and social mores.” And so, she asked, “Isn’t it incumbent on judiciaries to at least consider whether a class of beings may be granted a right?”

The New York Times quotes me telling the court that chimpanzees “are the kinds of beings who can remember the past and plan ahead for the future, which is one of the reasons imprisoning a chimp is at least as bad, and maybe worse, than imprisoning a person.” They are enough like humans that they should have a right to “bodily liberty,” even if other rights, like voting or freedom of religion, are beyond them.

The Guardian also takes up the scientific evidence presented by the Nonhuman Rights Project, citing the voluminous research on “chimpanzee intelligence, emotions and consciousness” and noting that Hercules and Leo are “autonomous and self-determining beings.”

Courthouse News picks up on the parallel that the Nonhuman Rights Project draws between the imprisonment of chimpanzees and human slavery, adding that Coulston “bristled” at the comparison. “This language of animals as slaves is exactly what I’m talking about of the slippery slope,” he said, arguing that the case could open up the possibility of court cases on the rights of zoo animals, farmed animals, and even pets.”

Here are the links to more information:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4260819425001/should-chimpanzees-have-the-same-legal-rights-as-humans/?playlist_id=921261890001#sp=show-clips

http://www.wired.com/2015/05/chimpanzee-rights-get-day-court/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/nyregion/arguing-in-court-whether-2-chimps-have-the-right-to-bodily-liberty.html?_r=0

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/27/chimpanzee-animals-rights-new-york-court

http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/05/27/unprecedented-hearing-on-habeas-for-chimps.htm

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/27/410058029/research-chimps-get-their-day-in-court-in-new-york

http://www.wsj.com/articles/chimps-get-their-day-in-court-in-n-y-personhood-hearing-1432756362

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animal abuse, animal welfare, PeTA, Petition, Tierquälerei, Tierschutz, Wildtierschutz

The Only Place Where One Should See Traps Is in a Museum

photo_ PeTA

photo_ PeTA

There were times, when people needed furs to survive in the harsh climates of northern America. Hunters would set up traps, returning to the sights days or weeks later, hoping some big animal would be waiting for them, waiting to be put out of their misery. It is known that some animals have gnawed off their own feet or leg to escape the torture instruments.

Not only are furs no longer needed by anyone else than the animals wearing them, but to use such a medieval type of trap should be banned completely. Traps belong there where all instruments of torture belong: in a museum – if not demolished.

“If passed, the Refuge From Cruel Trapping Act (H.R. 2016/S. 1081) will save countless animals on national wildlife refuges from becoming ensnared or killed in steel-jaw traps, Conibear traps, and snares—archaic devices that cause immense suffering. Frantic victims caught in steel-jaw traps commonly snap their bones, tear their flesh, or even chew off their own limbs in order to free themselves. Conibear traps drown, crush, or suffocate their terrified victims, and animals caught in snares slowly strangle. In addition to causing extreme suffering, these medieval contraptions are indiscriminate because any animal, including beloved animal companions, can fall prey. And the trapped animals aren’t the only victims, because trapping tears wildlife families apart and leaves dependent young animals to starve.

Please take a moment to fill out the form below and urge your legislators to support H.R. 2016/S. 1081. Remind them that national wildlife refuges are meant to be safe havens for animals, not danger zones!”

Please read more and sign the petition:

http://www.peta.org/action/action-alerts/support-banning-traps-wildlife-refuges/

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