Dear Juicers, Animal issues seem to be more in the news than ever before. Below is this week’s sampling. Let us know what you think of any of the below items, and please feel free to add any faunasphere-related news of your own in the comments. – Hillary
- Gotcher vegan Girl Scout cookies right here.
- Wonderful! Cat and dog deaths down and adoptions up due to increased socializing, mobile adoption vans, pet food pantries, and other New York City shelter reforms.
- Good laws! Minneapolis City Council votes to ban cruel elephant bullhooks and Tempe, AZ, becomes the 120th U.S. locality to ban the sale of puppies in pet stores. Meanwhile, Honduras becomes one of the first countries in Latin America to penalize animal cruelty with jail time.
- Tyson Foods: a mega-polluter.
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Photo of fur farmed fox by Jo-Anne McArthur / The Ghosts in Our Machine. Used with permission. “…whose lives and souls are destroyed by human excess.” Fascinating Psychology Today interview with Jo-Anne McArthur, considered by many the foremost photojournalist of animal exploitation.
- Noted animal activist Brigitte Bardot (yes, that Brigitte Bardot) asks that you sign her petition protesting the plight of the “galgos,” the approximately 50,000 Spanish greyhounds who, at the end of each hunting season, are killed, often in sadistic ways, by their owners.
- Incredibly moving, and a balm to those of us who have lost a canine loved one: a dog’s letter to his guardian on his last day.
- Good news for the orangutans and everyone else: Borneo sets aside 168,000 acres of rain forest as a wildlife preserve.
- Werebear may weigh in: research sez fat cats won’t hate you if you force them to diet.
- There will come a day when no reasonable person would ask a child to lovingly raise and nurture an animal only to send him off to slaughter. “Known as the Trail of Tears, the dirt-floor tunnel of the Richardson-Bass Building is where the youngsters say goodbye to their livestock. While some of the youth are stern-faced and business-like, others cry openly….Such was the case with Kendyll, who hugged Oatmeal and kissed the top of his head.”
- More Federal welfare for cattlemen: the annual Yellowstone bison “cull.” The stated reason is to prevent the bison from transmitting brucellosis to cattle, which scientists say has never actually happened. The more likely explanation: to clear grazing land for cattle. Cost to taxpayers of this program since 2000: $50 million.
- Trader Joe’s and BJ’s announce moves to 100% cage free eggs. Cage-free /= cruelty-free, but it’s a great first step.
How about it Juicers? Can we at least agree that zaftig felines >>> human fat cats?
