Free Republic

Let me start off by saying that I’m a hypocrite. I eat meat, love me a good steak and am damn good at cooking one, if I do say so myself. Same goes for pork, chicken, fish, if you can buy it in the grocery store, I’ll likely cook it and eat it. What does that have to do with me being a hypocrite? Well, I love animals, more so than a lot of people, and it bothers me when I hear of animals being mistreated, for any reason. My hypocrisy doesn’t end with just eating meat, in spite of...

The phantom pilot who's tossed live turkeys from his airplane for 15 years now over the annual Turkey Trot Festival at Yellville, Ark., is a phantom no more. Now that he's been succeeded by a different pilot flying a different aircraft, he's proudly revealed his identity. He turns out to be Dana Woods, pharmacist and alderman from Mountain View. "My plane is on the ground," Alderman Woods texted during the festival, playing the hero of this sad story rather than the villain he is. Naturally enough, he's offered a lame excuse for his (mis)behavior, mainly that his critics care more...

If you like eating meat, information is not always your friend. In recent years, practices at large facilities that turn livestock into food have been exposed to public view, and the public often doesn't like what it sees. The companies that confine pregnant sows in tiny stalls or scald chickens to death don't publicize these practices. Slaughterhouses where cattle are sometimes dismembered alive don't offer guided tours. To see what goes on in the worst operations, most of us have to rely on activists who covertly record inside and put videos online. Organizations like the Humane Society of the United...

A man who told police he was a cardiologist was charged with felony cruelty to an animal after he tried to operate on his dog while drunk, Chicago police say. Stewart Gibbs, 44, of the 200 block of North Clinton Street, was arrested at about 10 p.m. Sunday after he told police he tried to remove a cyst from his Doberman’s right ear, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli. Police said they were called to Gibbs’ condo and, when he opened the door, his hands were covered in blood and he appeared intoxicated.

No joke: The Daily Show brought a camel to the protests in Madison the other day, presumably to help make fun of the Cairo/Madison comparisons. As this video shows, the gag didn't turn out so well: Who knew that an animal indigenous to the Middle East couldn't walk on snow and ice in the Midwest? Local firefighters eventually rescued the camel. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the Daily Show didn't use any footage of the camel in its Tuesday night broadcast. Update: If I'm not mistaken, it appears that Daily Show correspondent John Oliver walks in front of the...

Snatched Hunting Dog May Have Been Slated For Death At PETA's Norfolk Headquarters. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) employee Andrea Florence Benoit will be arraigned today in Southampton County (VA) Circuit Court on a felony charge of stealing a local Animal Control officer's hunting dog. The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, which tracks PETA's program of killing adoptable dogs and cats at PETAkillsAnimals.com, is calling on the animal rights group to stop playing God with other people's pets. Benoit was indicted by a Grand Jury on July 16. Benoit was arrested in October 2006, shortly after allegedly...

Posted on Thu, Jun. 01, 2006 Judge declines to dismiss animal cruelty charges in PETA caseAssociated Press WINTON, N.C. - A judge has declined to dismiss felony animal cruelty charges against two PETA workers accused of dumping euthanized animals into a trash container.Defense lawyers argued Wednesday in Hertford Superior Court that the charges should be dropped because the animals were killed humanely. They also argued that Andrew B. Cook and Adria J. Hinkle are being unfairly prosecuted because some people don't agree with the work of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.Cook, of Virginia Beach, Va., and Hinkle,...