Free Republic

ANIMAL rights campaigners will call on MSPs this week to ban the Islamic and Jewish method of slaughtering animals, claiming there can be no exemptions purely on the grounds of religious belief. A petition will be heard, backed by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA), arguing that animals can only be killed in Scotland if pre-stunned first. Jews and Muslims believe that animals should be slaughtered using methods known as the 'schechita' and 'dhabiha' respectively. A sharp knife is used to cut its throat. The meat must then be 'purified' by the blood being drained...

"Just bought a brand-new purebred puppy? Welcome him or her into your home with a free gift bag! Call us today at 1-866-834-6061 to claim your bag and hear about our products," reads a new ad appearing in the July 7 issue of Dog Fancy magazine, which is on newsstands now. But when respondents call the number, they'll learn that the ad was placed by PETA and that the bag offered is really a body bag--for the unlucky dog in an animal shelter who is "sentenced to death" because the respondents bought a purebred pup from a breeder or a...

PLANT CITY -- Two young fishermen walked across the street from a pond to give some of their catch to Harold Gene Beall, 66. That's when they noticed a cat's paw sticking out of a barrel on his property. It was clinging to life. The children, ages 10 and 14, told an adult, who called Hillsborough County Animal Services. Investigators went to the scene, and deputies arrested Beall and charged him with animal neglect. The barrel was on his property at 3808 McGee Road, Animal Services spokeswoman Marti Ryan said. He later admitted to submerging the cat in water,...

South of Hartsel, the South Platte River meanders through some of the most fabulous ranch and fishing land in the nation. On a late summer afternoon, the sheer beauty of the setting caused a couple of motorcyclists to stop and point their cameras at a group of handsome horses standing near the river. Exactly five months earlier, a group of 14 men pointed not cameras but guns at a group of bison and shot them dead. Killed were 32 bison belonging to longtime South Park rancher Monte Downare. The slaughter has caused an outrage that the beauty of Colorado's South...

Efforts to nab an orphaned bear cub in Stuckagain Heights have been unsuccessful after more than a week of searching, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Chances aren't improving for catching the cub, whose mother was shot on suspicion that she mauled at least one person in Far North Bicentennial Park and chased several others, said department spokesman Bruce Bartley. "It's getting increasingly difficult. He's not coming back to the original spot," Bartley said. "The prospects are not good, and they aren't getting any better." Efforts to trap the cub have been stymied because biologists have not...

You have to be careful about who you insult in today's America, but if you're a liberal activist, you can freely attack religious groups without fear of reprisal. Nancy Gardner, well-know animal activist and President of the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter, slandered the Mennonite Sect in a leter to the Chambersburg, PA Public Opinion. Trying to drum up support for legislation regulating 'puppy mills' she singled out Mennonites in her letter trying to draw some weird conspiracy theory between local Mennonite farmers and two dog breeders who recently shot 80 of their dogs in response to pending action from the...

The Ministry of Defence is to meet an animal rights group to discuss alternatives to the bearskin hats worn by guards at Buckingham Palace. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) has approached Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney to design a new shape for the 18in hat. The charity has previously called for fake fur to be used, but said the MoD was not happy with prototype designs. Baroness Taylor, minister for defence procurement, will meet Peta on Tuesday.

First, let me state that I support Sarah Palin and I couldn't be happier that she is the VP choice for McCain. Having said that, a friend said that Palin has put a bounty on wolves in Alaska. Specifically, this was the email sent out: Hoping to boost the number of wolves killed this year by permitees, Palin announced the state would pay $150 for each kill. According to an Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) news release, the bounty was instituted to "motivate permittees to redouble their efforts and to help offset the high cost of aviation fuel,...

Mauling was in Gates of the Arctic National Park. A grizzly bear dragged a woman out of her tent Thursday and mauled her ... according to the National Park Service. The woman was saved by companions camped with her ... An Alyeska Pipeline Services Co. helicopter, normally used to monitor the oil pipeline, was expected to pick her up there and ferry her to a hospital in Fairbanks... They were camped and asleep when the bear arrived in camp. It apparently first entered a "food tent," Quinley said. "It destroyed a water jug," he said, and tried to get into...

One family had an unwelcome guest visit them on their camping trip Wednesday. The Division of Wildlife says campers reported a black bear came into their camp site and carried their dog away in its mouth. It happened on the Uncompahgre Plateau in the Big Creek Reservoir Area near Divide Road. No one in the family was hurt-- but their dog wasn't so lucky. If you come across a bear or mountain lion the first thing you want to do is make yourself look as large as possible. Making noise and throwing things can also help-- just don't bend down....

Authorities filed charges today against the owner of a Rottweiler accused of killing a black bear cub in Jefferson Township on Tuesday. The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals levied four counts against Teri Daubner, a Jefferson Township woman who authorities said failed to provide proper care for her dog and caused the death of the bear cub, said Matt Stanton, NJSPCA spokesman. The cub was the second animal killed by 5-year-old Max this summer, authorities said. Daubner was charged with two counts of failure to provide proper shelter for her dog and two counts of...

Switzerland is well on its way to becoming the most dignified country in the world, after its federal parliament decreed that goldfish must be protected against physical and psychological abuse. From September 1, Swiss aquariums must have an opaque side to allow the fish live in a natural cycle of day and night. The new law sets rigorous standards for the treatment of all "social animals". It will be an offence, for instance, to keep only one guinea pig or budgerigar. Or one rhinoceros, apparently, because the law also covers pet rhinoceroses. The Swiss are amongst the best educated people...

PARKERSBURG, W. Va. (Aug. 24, 2008) - One thousand dogs saved from a Parkersburg, W. Va. puppy mill are now on their way to better lives thanks to the diligent efforts of local authorities and local and national humane organizations. "It is extremely gratifying to know that our efforts will bring comfort and hope to 1,000 animals that spent their whole lives in darkness and despair," said Maryann Hollis, executive director of the Humane Society of Parkersburg. "But we would not have been able to save all of these dogs without the help of United Animal Nations, Best Friends Animal...

A North Texas family is mourning the loss of two of their pets. The nine-month-old pit bulls were shot and killed by a neighbor who says it was self defense. The shooting happened in a neighborhood off Ten Mile Bridge Road in northwest Fort Worth. The neighbors never had any problems before. But that all changed over the weekend. The man who pulled the trigger says he didn't have any choice. But the dogs' owners disagree. Kristopher Harrison has a six-year-old daughter. He says that's why he was upset when two pit bulls wandered into his backyard Saturday afternoon. Harrison...

A three-metre (10-foot) python has killed a student zookeeper who let the snake out of its enclosure in Venezuela while working a night shift at the zoo. Horrified employees at the Caracas zoo discovered the Burmese Python as it tried to swallow its victim's head. "The young man underestimated the animal's instinct,"

The intruder, a Komodo dragon, is the world's largest lizard, an ancient, fierce carnivore found only on a handful of remote islands in eastern Indonesia. Reaching 10 feet in length, the dragons feed on buffaloes, deer and an occasional human. Just a year ago, a boy about Syarif's age died in a dragon's jaws, his bones smashed against rocks to facilitate reptilian digestion. These locals have long viewed the dragons as a reincarnation of fellow kinsfolk, to be treated with reverence. But now, villagers say, the once-friendly dragons have turned into vicious man-eaters. And they blame policies drafted by American-funded...

Wind turbines can kill bats without touching them by causing a bends-like condition due to rapidly dropping air pressure, new research suggests. ...scientist Erin Baerwald and colleagues report that only about half of the bat corpses they found near Alberta, Canada, turbine bases showed any physical evidence of being hit by a blade. A surprising 90 percent showed signs of internal hemorrhaging—evidence of a drop in air pressure near the blades that causes fatal damage to the bats' lungs.

THEY met on the local hot rod scene. They saw one another at tattoo conventions around the area, comparing bikes. They looked like heavies, a band of Hells Angels, with nicknames equally tough: Mike Tattoo, Big Ant, Johnny O, Batso, Sal, Angel, Des. They meant no harm. Clad in leather, inked to the hilt in skulls and dragons, with images of bloodied barbed wire looped about their necks, they shared something else — a peculiar tenderness for animals, and the intensity needed to act on the animals’ behalf when people abuse them.

A decision to allow the trophy-hunting of endangered elephants in Namibia has angered conservation groups. Trophy permits have been issued for the killing of six bull elephants by the government's Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET). Conservationists estimate there are about 400 elephants in the Kunene region It will allow any big game hunter willing to pay about $40,000 the right to hunt and shoot a bull elephant in Namibia's north-west desert region. But opponents say killing bull elephants in an already endangered population is unsustainable and risks pushing the desert elephant towards extinction. The elephants, who spend their lives...

BULL VALLEY – While driving down Thompson Road on Wednesday morning, Robert Poyner Sr. couldn’t believe his eyes. “At first I thought it was a couple of small deer,” he said. “And then I said, ‘Them ain’t deer; they’re two large cats.’ ” Images fresh in his mind from when a cougar was shot and killed by police in Chicago’s Roscoe Village in April, Poyner said the two animals looked similar. He described them as about the size of German shepherds with golden brown fur and long tails. “My first instinct was to call 911,” Poyner said. “I figured I’d...

Monday evening there was a meeting of district three of the Conservation Congress at the DNR Ranger Station in Tomahawk. District three of the Conservation Congress includes Vilas, Oneida, Lincoln, Marathon and Taylor counties. The meeting was the 2008 Fall Congress District meeting. Each fall the Congress meets with a variety of DNR employees to share information and prepare for the fall hunting seasons. ADVERTISEMENT Charles McCullough, who is the area wildlife biologist for the Headwaters Area, presented an update regarding the on-going two-year study of bears. This study has been mentioned several times in this space. For two years...

[Celebrity Chef]Jamie Oliver caused controversy last night by making an apparent reference to the Holocaust. The 33-year-old celebrity chef told a live audience how his Jamie’s Fowl Dinners show, about the treatment of intensively farmed chickens, was shown around the world. The Naked Chef presenter quipped that only German viewers had complained about the controversial scene in which a group of chicks was gassed in an example of cruel industry practices. Oliver, who campaigns for livestock welfare and healthier school meals, said: 'We had a lot of complaints about the gassing of chicks in Germany. 'It’s gone all around the...

There is a 15ft anthropomorphic panda in painted concrete by the media village here opposite the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing. There was a cuddly panda in the goody bag. On my desk here as I write, there is a drawing of a cute panda with a lot of children holding flowers. One world, one sickbag. But I'll tell you something to make you cast cynicism aside: there are still some real pandas left. There are actually more than there were 20 years ago: an 1988 census counted 1,110 pandas left in the wild, but in 2004 there were 1,590....

A dead humpback whale that washed ashore at Fort Abercrombie State Park last week may be there to stay. The 30-foot, 2-year-old whale was discovered Aug. 14 and has probably been dead three-and-a-half to four weeks, said district park ranger Kevin Murphy. Murphy said Fort Abercrombie staff have two main concerns about the whale. “The Marine Mammal Protection Act, and more importantly, the Endangered Species Act protects those guys, even after death,� he said. “So collection of soft or hard parts, bone or baleen or blubber is illegal.� Murphy said tampering with an endangered species comes with a hefty $25,000...

<p>AP) -- Nine polar bears were observed in one day swimming in open ocean off Alaska's northwest coast, an increase from previous surveys that may indicate warming conditions are forcing bears to make riskier, long-distance swims to stable sea ice or land.</p>

A lawyer for the state today defended the firing of a state Highway Patrol trooper who was caught on video repeatedly kicking his police dog. Charlie Jones, a sergeant and 12-year veteran of the agency, has said that he was simply training his canine partner, Ricoh, after the dog failed to release a piece of fire hose. Jones is trying to get his job back. But Assistant Attorney General Ashby Ray today urged the state Personnel Commission to watch the videotape before making a decision. The tape, shot with a cell phone camera by another trooper, shows that the dog...

Gwyneth Paltrow has angered PETA, by wearing fur in a new advertising campaign for luxury Italian fashion label Tod’s. The campaign, which was shot in Capri by Mario Testino, features the 35-year-old actress in fox fur and wearing fur-lined boots.

The newest controversy over exports from China has caused nightmares for researchers documenting the abuse inflicted on animals bred and raised in tiny cages and then skinned alive for their fur. WND has reported multiple times on problems with exports from China, with poison found in pajamas, consumers warned against using ginger, an alert about the dangers from China's pickled vegetables and even the dangers from honey and fireworks. Now comes word from an extended investigation into the fur trade that China is estimated to produce approximately 85 percent of the world's fur products – and it has virtually no...

WASHINGTON — Compared to the polar bear, the American pika is downright tiny. Weighing only 4 ounces to 6 ounces, this small, rabbitlike mammal with thick brown hair that lives on boulder-covered slopes near alpine meadows in Western mountain ranges, could represent the latest effort to use the Endangered Species Act to combat global warming. Environmentalists filed a lawsuit today in U.S. district court in Sacramento, Calif., to force the Bush administration to decide whether to list the pika for protection under the act. The lawsuit claims the animal is threatened by rising temperatures and says the U.S. Fish and...

Antelope Valley farmers believe passage of Proposition 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, would place greater financial burden on the state's egg industry and leave consumers shell-shocked. While members of the Los Angeles County Farm Bureau,and the California Farm Bureau Federation stand opposed to the ballot measure, the Humane Society of the United States and the Sierra Club are urging voters to support the proposition when they go to the polls on Nov. 4. The animal rights advocates contend "little, if any cost increase" would result from passage of Prop. 2, a conclusion reached by researchers at the...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Authorities cut open a slain bear and found a shoe lost by a Florida man while fighting off a bear that attacked his 8-year-old son in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The footwear was discovered in the black bear's stomach during a necropsy at the University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center, Smokies spokeswoman Nancy Gray said Monday. < snip > John Pala, a 43-year-old health insurance salesman from Boca Raton with no backwoods experience, literally ran out of his shoes racing to the aid of his young son Evan when the bear pounced on the boy...

Michael Gonzales gave a $3,000 teacup poodle to his girlfriend as a graduation gift. Missy, the dog, was almost three-years-old and weighed three pounds. The little pup had a big appetite and last Tuesday morning, Missy choked while gobbling down her dinner. With her airway partially blocked, veterinarian care was a must. "We jumped in the car rushed down to the New Braunfels pet clinic. She had just gone limp right as we ran out of door," said Gonzales. The dash cam video from the San Marcos police officer's car shows Gonzales speeding down I-35, police say at speeds up...

Pope Benedict's fondness for fur trim on his hats and capes has come under fire from an Italian animal rights group, which has launched an online petition to persuade the pontiff to switch to synthetics. Benedict has taken a traditional approach to papal formal wear to match his conservative views on liturgy and theology, reviving the camauro, an ermine-trimmed red velvet hat favoured by 17th-century popes and last worn by Pope John XXIII in the 1960s, as well as donning a cape trimmed with ermine, which is the white winter coat of the stoat. But his use of ermine, long...

A scorpion was found Friday on a Deerfield, WI area farm, captured and turned over to the Dane County Humane Society. Authorities speculated it might be an escaped pet. A town of Oregon man, who asked not to be named, said in an interview that the scorpion was found during yardwork at his parents' farm. The creature was captured -- carefully -- by putting an aquarium on top of it, then sliding cardboard underneath the aquarium and flipping it over, he said, adding that it didn't make any aggressive moves. He then used duct tape to seal the aquarium, put...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Even in a city whose logo is "Big Wild Life," the summer of 2008 is testing residents' tolerance for large carnivores. The problem is bears, black bears and bigger grizzlies. So far this summer, three people have been mauled in the city. < > "I wasn't going to lay down and take it. The bear came and tried to fight me," said Rees, 18, who works in a meat store. "I started punching it in the head, kicking it and elbowing it ... I was boxing him using one arm to defend, one arm to strike." <...

We heard it through the grapevine - Queens has a purple pigeon. The royal-hued bird wasn't born that way, though. Someone with a sick sense of humor - or a problem with pigeons - painted him purple. "Itwas terrible," said Joe Mora, an animal lover who rescued the birdThursday from a Long Island City playground, where onlookers were gawking at the oddly-colored columbine. "It looks like this was done intentionally...it could have been blinded," Mora said. He tried coaxing the lethargic bird to eat while asking anyone and everyone for advice on how to clean paint from its feathers and...

The Italian Association for the Defense of Animals and the Environment launched an online petition appealing to the Pope not to wear his fur-trimmed robes. Anti-fur protesters have gathered 2,260 signatures for the petition.

An East Boston sicko is facing up to 25 years in state prison for stomping a neighborhood cat to death, lighting its carcass on fire and nearly burning down an apartment building into which he threw the torched tabby. Luigi Epifania, 25, will be sentenced Monday for last year’s death of “Nunu,” in what Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley called “a cruel and cowardly act.” A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Epifania yesterday of arson and killing a domestic animal, but that’s just the beginning of his troubles. He still faces trial on a separate charge of attempted murder for...

A Los Angeles man who killed his girlfriend's cat, telling her to "follow the blood trail to find Tweety," has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Habitat restoration makes home for pelicans By Diane Baumgart Regional Editor http://www.thecountrytoday.com/story-outdoors.asp?id=BHF06T69EIU   Pelicans crowded a rock wall early this spring at Terrell's Island at the Butte des Morts conservation preserve. Pelicans herd fish into shallow water and scoop them up. They can hold 3 gallons of water in their bills.   <B>LAKE BUTTE DES MORTS </B>- American white pelicans have found a home at the Terrell's Island wetlands. More than 600 pelicans nested there this year. In 1998, the Butte des Morts Conservation Club purchased 1,200 acres of wetlands on the south shore of Lake Butte des Morts,...

It is likely that it will be two or three years before Wisconsin could have a wolf-hunting season, according to a Department of Natural Resources wolf expert. DNR Conservation Biologist Adrian Wydeven said the state's wolf population has stabilized and the number of attacks on livestock decreased in 2007, although more farms are reporting wolf depredation problems. He said a hunting season with an annual harvest goal of 30 to 50 wolves could be part of the long-range solution to control the wolf population. Mr. Wydeven and UW-Madison Wildlife Ecology Professor Tim Van Deelen updated Wisconsin's Natural Resources Board on...

The pit bull that critically injured a young girl during a vicious attack in her East Anchorage home was put to death Wednesday at the request of its owner, according to Anchorage Animal Care and Control. The family pet, Dozer, was also responsible for attacking the girl's baby sitter Tuesday afternoon. A neighbor shot the dog in the leg while trying to get it off the baby sitter. The owner surrendered Dozer to animal control officials later that night, and the dog was killed by lethal injection Wednesday evening. "He was owner-surrendered for euthanasia by his owners," said animal control...

The Associated Press reported Monday details of a proposal by the Interior and Commerce departments that would change how the 1973 law is implemented, allowing federal agencies to decide for themselves - without seeking the opinions of government wildlife experts - whether dams, highways and other projects have the potential to harm endangered species and habitats. Current law requires federal agencies to consult with experts at the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service if a project poses so much as a remote risk to species or habitats. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne defended the changes in a call...

BATON ROUGE -- Some call it a blood sport. Others call it a way of life. But whatever the view, as of Friday cockfighting will be illegal in Louisiana, the last state in the nation to outlaw it. Those on both sides of the battle to end the spectacle that pits roosters with razor-sharp gaffs on their feet in a fight to the death, concede that the law will not eliminate the practice, but only send it deeper into the shadows. "You will have people saying they are going to keep fighting their roosters, " despite the law, said Chris...

A little eight-legged pickpocket that darts around acacia trees could be the first known vegetarian spider.

WELLFORD — The theft of a black bear cub from Hollywild Animal Park has led to the jailing of a Blacksburg man.

SEVIERVILLE - A father and his sons today detailed an attack by a black bear Monday night that left 8-year-old Evan Pala with staples in his head and stitches in his arms and back, binding the cuts and scrapes suffered when he was attacked from behind near the Rainbow Falls trailhead outside Gatlinburg. "I looked around and he was on his four feet," then reared up, said Evan Pala, 8, who was playing near a creek with his brother, Alex. "He came at me too fast. I called "bear!" He jumped on me. I was screaming." The boys' father, John...

WASHINGTON, DC, August 12, 2008 (ENS) - The Bush administration has proposed sweeping changes to the Endangered Species Act, releasing a plan to give federal agencies the authority to decide without expert consultation whether their activities could harm endangered and threatened species. Administration officials contend the proposal will make the law easier to implement, but critics say the plan would undermine federal protection of imperiled plants and animals. Announced Monday by the head of the U.S. Interior Department, the proposed changes would relax the current requirement that federal agencies consult with federal wildlife experts to ensure activities they undertake or...

SCIENTISTS have been stunned by the discovery of a shark that had eaten a polar bear. Part of the jaw of a young polar bear was found in the stomach of a Greenland shark in Svalbard, northern Norway. Kit Kovacs, of the Norwegian Polar Institute, said: "We've never heard of this before. "We don't know how it got there. We can't say whether or not the shark took a swimming young bear or ate a carcase.

Mercedes Clemens is certified to massage humans, but she claims the state of Maryland is keeping her from her first love: Massaging horses.