Animal+Rights

animal rights activists page!  Miriam Schachtman  Kathy Grolle  Brooklynn Colacino  Jeanie Kamberos  Crystal Unzueta = = =  = media type="custom" key="3545920"  Testing 1, 2, 3 Do you think this is right?

Animal rights are human rights!

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=Animal Homelessness= Not many people know that approximately 63% of U.S. houses— almost 70 million homes — have at least one companion animal. There are about 43 million dogs, 37 million cats, 6 million birds, and 29 million other animals living in homes across the country. But, because irresponsible people accidentally or sometimes even intentionally allow their animals to reproduce, about 10 million “extra” dogs and cats will be killed in shelters per year, while millions of homeless animals live short, hard, hungry lives on the streets, only to die miserably from disease, injury, or being eaten. In some places, animals who end up in shelters might be sold into research through pound seizure. Also, a lot commercial pet foods have terrible quality or potentially dangerous ingredients. [|This is one persons story and it is dedicated to all homeless animals]

=Baby Seal Slaughter= Canadian government will allow 338,200 seals to be slaughtered in this year's annual war on seals.

**This is NOT humane!**

Since the ’70s animal rights movement, there was a massive worldwide campaign to end Canada’s baby seal slaughter. Publicity forced Canada to ban killing “whitecoat” baby seals in 1987. The slaughter game ended. In 1996 the Canadian government started to forget about the incident and have since then been rebuilding it. It is now the largest marine-mammal slaughter in the world, with up to 330,000 harp seals killed annually.



Baby Seals are legally killed after 12 days. 60 seconds after the seals are clubbed, they are then skinned.

=Hunting= media type="custom" key="3583778" American trophy hunters are gunning for Canada's shrinking polar bear population. [|Protect Polar Bears Humane Society]

=Vivisection=
 * Every year**, tens of millions of animals are dissected, infected, injected, gassed, burned and blinded in hidden laboratories on college campuses and research facilities throughout the U.S. Still more animals are used to test the safety of cosmetics, household cleansers and other consumer products. These innocent primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, rodents and other animals are used against their will as research subjects in experiments and procedures that would be considered sadistically cruel were they not conducted in the name of science. Researchers claim that they must be allowed unfettered access to animals for experiments in order to find cures for human diseases, yet they refuse to address the serious ethical problems of torturing sentient creatures for research purposes. On top of that, over-reliance on animal experimentation has historically hindered scientific advancement and endangered human safety because results from animal research typically cannot be applied to humans. In fact, scientists could save more human lives by using humane non-animal research and testing methods that are more accurate and efficient.

More information at [|The Truth About Vivisection.]

=Dissection=

Every year, thousands of schools participate in dissecting animals for educational purposes. Schools teach little children that its okay to kill these animals because that's how you learn. In the United States, about 3-6 million frogs are destroyed in dissection. There is absolutely no purpose in this when there are alternate ways of learning about the structure of living things without murdering them like computer modeling which is equally effective and cruelty-free. [|Learn more about dissections]

Q: What's the difference between these two pictures? A: Nothing. The only thing different between computer dissecting and actual dissecting, is that in one of them, your destroying a life!



=Pet Abuse= This graph demonstrates the most common abuse classifications in cases the animal was intentionally bound or tied. This graph does not take into consideration tethering - only situations where the animal has its limbs, muzzle, etc deliberately bound.

=Dog Fights= Animal advocates consider dog fighting to be **one of the most serious** forms of animal abuse, not only for the violence that the dogs endure during and after the fights, but because of the suffering they often endure in training. At least one major study alleges that the prevailing mind set among dog fighters is that, the more the dog suffers, the tougher he will become, and the better fighter he will therefore be. In addition to the controversial treatment a dog receives when he has potential as a fighter, according to a filing in U.S. District Court in Richmond by federal investigators in Virginia, which was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and published by the // Baltimore Sun // on July 6, 2007, a losing dog or one whose potential is considered unacceptable faces "being put to death by drowning, strangulation, hanging, gun shot, electrocution or some other method" [|Pettion To Stop Dog Fights] = Bait animals =

"Bait" animals are used to test a dog's fighting instinct, and these animals are often mauled or killed in the process. Trainers obtain bait animals from several sources: wild or feral animals, animals obtained from a shelter, or in some cases, stolen pets. Sometimes the animals are also obtained through "free to a good home" ads. According to news reports compiled by the National Humane Society, the snouts of bait dogs are wrapped with duct tape to prevent them from injuring dogs being trained for fighting. Other animals, such as cats and rabbits are also reported to be used as bait animals. Experts have said small dogs, kittens, and rabbits are more at risk of being stolen for bait than larger animals. The real idea of baiting is to place an object, any object that will keep the dogs focus on it and place it in front of them while they are on a treadmill being conditioned for their match. The benefit of this is that it keeps the dog running longer than it would normally without the bait.[|link]

=History of Animal Rights Movements=

The **animal liberation** or **animal rights movement**, sometimes called the **animal person hood** or **animal advocacy movement**, is a global movement with roughly three components: philosophical debate, legal development, and direct action. The movement seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human beings, an end to the status of animals as property, and an end to their use in the research, food, clothing, and entertainment industries. The movement is regarded as having been founded in the UK in the early 1970s by a group of Oxford academics, now known as the "Oxford Group." Animal rights advocates believe that these basic interests make moral rights of some kind on the animals, and have to confer legal rights on them. Utilitarian liberationists, on the other hand, do not believe that animals possess moral rights, but argue, on utilitarian grounds — utilitarianism in its simplest form advocating that we base moral decisions on the greatest happiness of the greatest number — that, because animals have the ability to suffer, their suffering must be taken into account in any moral philosophy. To exclude animals from that consideration, they argue, is a form of discrimination that they call speciesism. Despite these differences, the terms "animal liberation" and "animal rights" are generally used interchangeably.

[[image:logo.jpg.jpg width="169" height="169" align="center"]] [|ASPCA (The American Society For The Prevention OF Cruelty To Animals)]
The ASPCA was the first humane organization in the Western Hemisphere.Their mission, as stated by the founder, Henry Bergh, in 1866, is “to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States.”

=Vegetarianism and Vegansim (link to GoVeg page)= ==

The majority of animal rights advocates are on vegetarian or vegan diets. They may also avoid clothes made of animal skins, such as leather shoes, and will not use products known to contain animal byproducts. Goods containing ingredients that have been tested on animals are also avoided where possible. Company-wide boycotts are common. The Procter & Gamble corporation, tests many of its products on animals, leading many animal rights advocates to boycott the company's products entirely, whether tested on animals or not. There is a growing trend in the American movement towards devoting all resources to vegetarian outreach. The 9.8 billion animals killed there for food every year far exceeds the number of animals used in other ways. Groups such as Vegan Outreach and Compassion Over Killing devote their time to exposing factory-farming practices by publishing information for consumers and by organizing undercover investigations. [|List of Companies that Test on animals]. [|List of Companies that do NOT test on animals.] =Falcons' Vick Indicted In Dog fighting Case=

A federal grand jury in Richmond indicted Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and three other men on charges related to their alleged operation of a dog fighting ring based at a property Vick owns in southeastern Virginia. Vick, one of the NFL's most exciting players, was charged with competitive dogfighting and conducting the venture across state lines. The 19-page indictment alleged Vick was highly involved in the operation, alleging that he attended fights and paid off bets when his dogs lost. It said he also was involved in the executions of dogs that did not perform well. The NFL said the matter would be reviewed under the league's toughened personal conduct policy. "We are disappointed that Michael Vick has put himself in a position where a federal grand jury has returned an indictment against him," the NFL said in a written statement. "We will continue to closely monitor developments in this case, and to cooperate with law enforcement authorities. The activities alleged are cruel, degrading and illegal. Michael Vick's guilt has not yet been proven, and we believe that all concerned should allow the legal process to determine the facts." Federal officials twice searched the property after suspicions were initially raised in late April. Officers reportedly found equipment associated with dogfighting, blood stains on the walls of a room and a bloodstained carpet stashed on the property. They reportedly removed more than 60 dogs from the property. [|Washinton Post] = =

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