Animal Rights Online Newsletter, Issue #7/17/05

[Catchawave]

A n i m a l W r i t e s © sm

The Official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter


Established 1997
ARO archives at www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/Editor ~ [e-mail]
Issue # 07/17/05





Publisher ~ Susan Roghair - [e-mail]
Journalists ~ Greg Lawson - [e-mail]
~ Michelle Rivera - [e-mail]
Webmasters ~ Randy Atlas - [e-mail]
~ Trevor Chin - [e-mail]
Staff ~ Alfred Griffith - [e-mail]
~ Andy Glick - [e-mail]
~ Sheridan Porter - [e-mail]
~ Bill Bobo - [e-mail]
~ Katie Vann - [e-mail]
~ Michelle Michelson - [e-mail]



THE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:

1 ~ What We Owe What We Eat
2 ~ Wanted for Conspiracey to Protect Seals
3 ~ Craigslist Pressured to Ban Dog, Cat Ads
4 ~ Neighborhood Cats and Corpus Christi Nuns Reach Agreement
5 ~ Alley Cat Allies Coming To Wisconsin
6 ~ Citizens For Pets in Condos
7 ~ Website of Note
8 ~ Animal Harm
9 ~ Memorable Quote




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~1~
What We Owe What We Eat
By George F. Will - Newsweek
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4917016/site/newsweek/



Why, Matthew Scully asks, is cruelty to a puppy appalling and cruelty to livestock by the billions a matter of social indifference?

Matthew Scully, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, is the most interesting conservative you have never heard of. He speaks barely above a whisper and must be the mildest disturber of the peace. But he is among the most disturbing.

If you value your peace of mind, not to mention your breakfast bacon, you should not read Scully's essay ''Fear Factories: The Case for Compassionate Conservatism for Animals." It appeared in the May 23, 2005, issue of Pat Buchanan's magazine The American Conservative--not where you would expect to find an essay arguing that industrial livestock farming involves vast abuses that constitute a serious moral problem.

The disturbing facts about industrial farming by the $125 billion-a-year livestock industry -- the pain-inflicting confinements and mutilations have economic reasons. Ameliorating them would impose production costs that consumers would pay. But to glimpse what consumers would be paying to stop, visit www.factoryfarming.com/gallery.htm. Or read Scully on the miseries inflicted on billions of creatures ''for our convenience and pleasure": "... 400- to 500-pound mammals trapped without relief inside iron crates seven feet long and 22 inches wide. They chew maniacally on bars and chains, as foraging animals will do when denied straw... The pigs know the feel only of concrete and metal. They lie covered in their own urine and excrement, with broken legs from trying to escape or just to turn..."

It is, Scully says, difficult, especially for conservatives, to examine cruelty issues on their merits, or even to acknowledge that something serious can be at stake where animals are concerned. This is partly because some animal-rights advocates are so off-putting. See, for example, the Feb. 3, 2003, letter that Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal "animals other than humans sent to the
terrorist Yasir Arafat, complaining that an explosive-laden donkey was killed when used in a Jerusalem massacre. The rhetoric of animal "rights" is ill-conceived. The starting point, says Scully, should be with our obligations the requirements for living with integrity. In defining them, some facts are pertinent, facts about animals' emotional capacities and their experience of pain and happiness. Such facts refute what conservatives deplore, moral relativism. They do because they demand a certain reaction and evoke it in good people, who are good because they consistently respect the objective value of fellow creatures.

It may be true that, as has been said, the Puritans banned bearbaiting not because it gave pain to the bears but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. And there are indeed degrading pleasures. But to argue for outlawing cruelty to animals because it is bad for the cruel person's soul is to accept, as Scully does not, that man is the only concern. Statutes against cruelty to animals, often imposing felony-level penalties, codify society's belief that such cruelty is an intrinsic evil. This is a social affirmation of a strong moral sense in individuals who are not vicious.

It is the sense that even though the law can regard an individual's animal as the individual's property, there nevertheless are certain things the individual cannot do to that property. Which means it is property with a difference. The difference is the capacity for enjoyment and suffering. So why, Scully asks, is cruelty to a puppy appalling and cruelty to livestock by the billions a matter of social indifference? There
cannot be any intrinsic difference of worth between a puppy and a pig.

Animal suffering on a vast scale should, he says, be a serious issue of public policy. He does not want to take away your BLT; he does not propose to end livestock farming. He does propose a Humane Farming Act to apply to corporate farmers the elementary standards of animal husbandry and veterinary ethics: "We cannot just take from these creatures, we must give them something in return. We owe them a merciful death, and we owe them a merciful life."

Says who? Well, Scully replies, those who understand Judeo-Christian morality, whose whole logic is one of gracious condescension, or the proud learning to be humble, the higher serving the lower, and the strong protecting the weak." Yes, of course: You don't want to think about this. Who does? But do your duty: read his book ''Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy." Scully, a conservative and hence a realist, knows that man is not only a rational creature but a rationalizing creature, putting his intellectual nimbleness in the service of his desires. But refraining from cruelty is an objective obligation. And as Scully says, ''If reason and morality are what set humans apart from animals, then reason and morality must always guide us in how we treat them."

You were warned not to read this. Have a nice day.

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.



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~2~
Wanted for Conspiracy to Protect Seals:
A Letter From Captain Paul Watson



My sincere apologies but I won't be able to attend the Sierra Club Board meeting.

I arrived in Halifax today. I did some television interviews prior to giving a lecture at Dalhousie University. It was a good crowd but I noticed a number of police officers and Department of Fisheries and Oceans officers in the audience.

I was warned that they intended to arrest me after the lecture.

I left by a rear exit. A police officer spotted me and said, "Mr. Watson...."

He made a mistake in not identifying himself as a police officer so I was under no obligation to stop.

That's all I heard. I ducked down a stairwell of the Student Union Building. He followed. I ran down three flights of stairs and I could hear feet pounding the stairs above me. I had no idea where the stairs were leading but they brought me to the ground floor. I was outside and ran up a short flight of steps, around a corner and ducked into a pub. I went to an upper level of the pub where there was an unoccupied beverage room and watched as police surrounded the Student Union Building. They proceeded to stake out the building for three hours. I waited them out then went to my rental car and left.

I had no idea why they were intent upon arresting me. I've since discovered that the warrant is for conspiracy to disrupt the Canadian seal hunt. This stems from my taking my ship Farley Mowat into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in March and off the coast of Labrador in April.

The police know that you are expecting me at the Sierra Club Board meeting. So regrettably I cannot attend. If I do they will arrest me, transport me to Charlottetown for a bail hearing, and I will miss the meeting anyway.

Thus I am returning to the U.S.A. I'm sorry Elizabeth but the smell of bananas here in Canada is strong. I have hurt no one. I've damaged no property. I simply documented an atrocity. My crew were violently assaulted and we video taped the assaults yet not a single charge is being laid against the sealers, yet they are putting eleven of my crew on trial for approaching a seal hunt and now they are seeking to arrest me for conspiracy to document the slaughter of seals.

It is for this reason that we are advocating a boycott of Canadian seafood products and remember there are NO sustainable oceanic species. The cod fishery has collapsed and I predicted 20 years ago that it would. I am now predicting that the snow crab fishery will collapse within two years. The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans is overseeing the complete destruction of the oceanic eco-systems of the Northwestern Atlantic ocean.

So for those of you who wish to feast on lobster, scallops, snow crabs, or fish during this meeting, remember these species are no different than the bush meat that we condemn in Africa. We are systematically hunting down and exterminating entire species of marine life - just so people can have the luxury of dining on exotic flesh.

Anyone who partakes of the flesh of these species cannot call themselves conservationists.

So I'll see you in September if I am successful in avoiding the gendarmes here in the Great White North.

On the lam in Nova Scotia.

Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President - Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Director - Sierra Club USA
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
President - Oceanic Research and Conservation Action Force
P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, Wa 98250
Tel: [phone] Cell: 310-701-3096
E-mail: [e-mail]
Website: http://www.seashepherd.org/



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~3~
Craigslist Pressured to Ban Dog, Cat Ads
Posts Said to Promote Reckless Breeding



Nearly two dozen Bay Area shelters and pet rescue groups are asking the popular Craigslist online bulletin board to ban postings that advertise certain animals for sale, saying casual transactions encourage backyard breeding and irresponsible adoptions.
Those activities in turn can lead to dangerous situations like the recent pit bull mauling death of a San Francisco boy, representatives of 21 agencies said.

Craigslist officials have said they are considering a change. But animal advocates, who first wrote to founder Craig Newmark in May and have made subsequent pleas, are getting impatient. The request from the 21 agencies is the latest fallout from a recent cluster of pit bull maulings, which also have spawned calls for local and state crackdowns on breeds with vicious reputations.

Animal advocates led by the East Bay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said they have been monitoring Craigslist postings for several months. In February, for example, they found at least 183 unneutered pit bull puppies for sale -- and a few were even described as human-aggressive. They believe Craigslist's free classified section is fertile ground for uncertified breeders who are trying to sell pit bull puppies for anywhere from $50 to $2,000 with no accountability for how they've bred
the dogs or who they sell the pups to.

"It's sloppy breeding," said Donna Reynolds, founder of the advocacy group BAD RAP (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pit Bulls). "They are not creating dogs from the best breeding stocks with the best health and best temperament in mind."
Reynolds said such breeders often breed for looks, creating dogs such as the so-called blue pit bulls with smokey grey coats that are so popular now and fetch the highest dollar. Reynolds pointed out that it was a blue that attacked an 8-year-old Santa Rosa girl last month.

"Backyard breeding certainly existed long before Craig, but he's brought down the barrier of entry to where anyone can (advertise) for free, and it's having tragic results," said East Bay SPCA spokeswoman Kirsten Park.

Backyard breeding can be tragic for dogs as well as humans, Park said. People who end up with difficult dogs often abandon them or drop them off at the shelter, where they may be euthanized. Many area shelters have more pit bulls than other breeds. In Berkeley, they account for as much as 90 percent of the shelter population.

Craigslist Chief Executive Officer Jim Buckmaster said the community bulletin board, which began in San Francisco and has spread to 170 cities, is run by just 18 employees and gets 5 million new classified ads every month. "It's physically impossible for us to monitor all the listings," Buckmaster said.

Craigslist is, however, considering directing viewers of its pet classifieds to Web pages on the humane treatment of animals. Craigslist does ban sales or other transactions involving illegal animals, such as endangered species. EBay, a more tightly regulated online marketplace, does not allow animal sales on its site.

Bay Area shelters suggested Craigslist change its Web site so posters who are advertising a dog, cat or rabbit are automatically shown another screen. That page would read, "Craigslist does not allow the retail sale of pets, only the adoption or rehoming of pets. All cats, dogs and rabbits must be spayed or neutered before being rehomed," according to a written request from the agencies. The agencies also suggested that Craiglist users who indicate they want to advertise their pet as a
breeder (male or female) not be provided a screen to write their post.

Concern about overbreeding is especially strong in San Francisco, where more than 700 of the 12,000 registered dogs are American pit bull terriers, pit bulls or mixes where "pit bull" is listed as the primary breed. City officials estimate only 1 in 10 dogs in the city is licensed.

Carl Friedman, director of San Francisco Animal Care and Control, who has called for changes on Craigslist, said he'd like to see a way for breeders to register within their communities and receive an identification number. They could then list that number on their advertisements, whether on Craigslist or in newspapers, to help buyers
identify responsible breeders. Attempts to interview pit bull breeders with current ads on Craigslist to get their opinions about the controversy were unsuccessful.

Ilene Lelchuk, Chronicle Staff Writer
E-mail Ilene Lelchuk at [e-mail] .
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/11/MNGJ2DLUUH1.DTL



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~4~
Neighborhood Cats and Corpus Christi Nuns
Reach Agreement:
Cats to get New Home at Pets Alive Sanctuary!



Neighborhood Cats and In Defense of Animals (IDA) are happy to announce that we have reached a mutually acceptable agreement with the Dominican Nuns of the Corpus Christi Monastery in the Bronx, NY. The Sisters have made a compassionate, humane decision to allow the Feral Cat Initiative, a program of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals that is administered by Neighborhood Cats staffers, to come to the Monastery to gather the cats and take them to their new home at the Pets Alive sanctuary in Middletown, NY.

We want to stress to the public that relocating a colony of feral cats is very rarely an option but in this unusual case we were fortunate to receive this generous offer from the Pets Alive sanctuary. We would like to thank the Sisters of the Corpus Christi Monastery, the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, the Humane Society of New York and Pets Alive for their humane efforts to help these cats get safely to their new home.

We would also like to thank the thousands of people who called and wrote us expressing their deep care and concern for the safety and well-being of these feral cats.

Deborah Delgado-Hand
No More Homeless Pets
Best Friends Animal Society
5001 Angel Canyon
Kanab, Utah 84741
[phone] ext. 4401
[e-mail]
www.bestfriends.org



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~5~
Alley Cat Allies Coming to Wisconsin
5 Cities – 5 Days



You're invited to join Alley Cat Allies for a free workshop on humane management of feral cats. Please pass this message on to others who may be interested too – cat caregivers, interested individuals, humane society staff, veterinarians, animal control officers, and others who wants to make a difference is welcome to attend.

The session will include how to create a successful program for your community. You’ll get to see ACA’s latest video about successful, cost-saving TNR programs that are working in communities nationwide. And you'll take home lots of free handouts and a wealth of information on juvenile spay/neuter, long-term colony care, FeLV & FIV, working with agencies and caregivers, fundraising, networking, and much more.

Meeting details:
Green Bay
Sunday, August 28, 2005, 2-4 pm
Regency Suites / KI Convention Center
333 Main Street, [phone]

Eau Claire
Monday, August 29, 2005, 7-9 pm
The Plaza Hotel & Suites
1202 West Clairemont Avenue, [phone]

La Crosse
Tuesday, August 30, 2005, 7-9 pm
Logan High School Auditorium
1500 Ranger Drive

Madison Wednesday, August 31, 2005, 7-9 pm
Sheraton Madison Hotel
706 Nolen Drive, [phone]

Milwaukee
Thursday, September 1, 2005, 7-9 pm
Four Points Sheraton, Milwaukee North
8900 North Kildeer Court, Brown Deer

Please RSVP to [e-mail] if you plan to attend one of the sessions.

Alley Cat Allies • 7920 Norfolk Avenue • Suite 600 • Bethesda, MD 20814-2525 http://www.alleycat.org/



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~6~
Citizens For Pets in Condos
From Maida - [e-mail]



Though this campaign is taking place in Florida, it's something that should expand to other states, and other countries. Not only would companion animals benefit by new homes opening up for adoptable cats and dogs, but it would have health benefits for their pet guardians as well.

The effort to get pets allowed in condos is NOT a single condo issue. The Pets in Condos issue as a national human rights, senior rights, animal rights issue, and even a pet law issue. The reason why pro-animal groups should be concerned is that there are many thousands of perfectly adoptable animals that are euthanized because would-be perfectly responsible and able people are prevented from having animal companions.

It is especially a problem in south Florida, where there is probably the largest number of seniors living in 55+ communities (whether they be condos, private homes governed by home owners associations, or trailer parks). In this area, there is an inordinate amount of limitations on pet ownership that goes beyond anything reasonable. Builders and lawyers have set up a system in south Florida where there are "cookie cutter" rules applied as a standard. The rules are not necessarily what the owners (and I am talking about people who OWN THEIR HOMES, not renters) want. There has to be a way to break this cycle.

With help from IDA and PETA2, our online signature count is growing impressively, but we need more signatures. We need even greater exposure to raise awareness - because this IS an uphill battle, and we are just at the beginning. We got the animal friendly license plate passed down here in Florida against all odds; we can fight these unreasonable pet rules, too. Please sign, and consider starting campaigns outside of Florida, as well.

Citizens for Pets in Condos, http://www.petsincondos.org/



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~7~
Website of Note



This poignant website sends a great message:



HOMELESS
http://www.itsmeowornever.org/homeless.html

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~8~
Animal Harm
By Jess Breen - [e-mail]

pigs cleansing impurities in their muddy glory
no remorse for such harmless eyes
pigs unaware of their bloodshed story
unalienable rights alienably denied
pigs forced to stop breathing to serve an obese army
toxic meals for diseased minds
a different lord will keep the mud holy... until the next homicide.

horses showing off their beautiful speed--
broken backs their symbolism.
horses beaten by the hands they obey...
oral refreshment their own limbs must suffice to.
horses are pretty until they are dead--
emaciation their holy makeup.
and their last breath is taken in a communist race.

animals in chains, treading through a nation's plague
how rapid food is named despite slow and painful demises.
should low dollar costs suffice for such pain; will eternal hell be glorified in the name of all capitalists and flesh-greedy evils, or will they continue this shame?

foxes born into furry coffins
although the only eulogy spoken is that of their screams.
foxes subject to death because they are beautiful
their given grace stolen for ugly women.
foxes hollowed out as bony shells... glittering of tragedy
ceremonies attended by satanic ones and savages
who is the real animal?

cows grazing pesticides with tired mouths
underneath flesh lie simple souls doomed to fail.
cows never appreciated for tedious deaths
intended for their survival, it is stolen for selfish use.
cows ingested by men of a higher intelligence.... put to only evil beginnings
fleshy babies abducted of breath
and their cries silenced by dinner.

animals in chains, treading through a nation's plague
how rapid food is named despite slow and painful demises.
should low dollar costs suffice for such pain, will eternal hell be glorified in the name of all capitalists and flesh-greedy evils, or will they continue this shame?

will intelligence choose good and help a race to survive? or
is our universe destined to die alive...

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~9~
Memorable Quote





"Any society which does not insist upon respect for all life
must necessarily decay."
~ Albert Einstein






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Susan Roghair - [e-mail]
Animal Rights Online, President
Established 1997
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal RightsOnline=-
In memory of my Sam - www.all-creatures.org/stories/a-sam.html
In memory of my Molly Girl - www.all-creatures.org/stories/a-molly.html
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[flvegan]

1. Thanks for posting! Also, can I just say one thing?

Capt. Paul Watson kicks so much ass I can hardly stand it.

[livinginphotographs]

2. Yep.

That's total bullshit to be arrested for "conspiracy."