Wild Horses and Madeleine Pickens

by Stephanie Ernst

Published November 20, 2008 @ 02:14PM PST

First, let's allow the Animals and Society Institute to set the scene:

How’s this for a scheme that only a government could design:

Over 100,000 wild horses roamed the Western US minding their own business and not requiring any assistance from people, thank you anyway. So let’s spend lots of time and money rounding up nearly half of them, kill and injure some in the process, and condense the survivors into holding areas.

Now those horses who once roamed free do need human intervention. Food, medical services, and caretaker personnel, for starters. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who manages this enterprise, complains that it takes three-fourths of its $37 million horse budget just for such basics.

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Bush Is Leaving Office--and Taking the ESA with Him

by Stephanie Ernst

Published November 20, 2008 @ 06:26AM PST

You're enormously unpopular, at home and abroad; your successor is widely adored, at home and perhaps even more abroad; and you have just a couple short months left to cement your legacy. What to do? What to do? Well, if you're George W. Bush, the answer is apparently easy: take your frustrations out on endangered animals and plants. If you're going to go down as reckless and inept and as the worst-ever-in-history president, you might as well embrace that fate and give it all you've got at the end, right? I mean, you want everyone to feel the damage you can do--right down to the wildlife who are barely holding on to existence and who might one day interfere with big business plans. Who are they to stand in the way of progress? Who are they to think they're entitled to something as silly and trivial as "habitat"? Am I right?

You, Almost Not President Bush, are a fair and equitable president. You are no speciesist. You're not going to screw over millions of humans and leave nonhumans out. No siree. Those animals can expect the same treatment their human cousins have been getting. In fact, you'll take it one step further--you'll disregard nonhuman animals and their interests even more.

Instinctively, I wanted to end this post with one word on one line:

Jackass.

But of course, I can't do that; as an animal rights advocate, I do my absolute best to avoid ever using a comparison to an animal as an insult--it is more an insult to the animal than it is to the human you're trying to cut down (to be discussed in a future post). So I pondered what other name I could call him--to whom or what would I personally least want to be compared? What embodies arrogance, shortsightedness, destructiveness, incompetence, broad offensiveness, and so much more? And then it came to me:

Bush.

Coulter was a close second.

Related links:

• Telegraph.co.uk: George W Bush may lift protections on endangered animals and plants
• New Yorker: Midnight Hour (quote: "What distinguishes this Administration in its final days—as in its earlier ones—is the purity of its cynicism. White House officials haven’t even bothered to argue that these new rules are in the public interest. Such a claim would, in any event, be impossible to defend, as just about every midnight regulation being proposed is, evidently, a gift to a favored industry.")
• AP: Dems look to stop endangered species rule changes

Peaceful Prairie Expansion Update

by Stephanie Ernst

Published November 19, 2008 @ 03:05PM PST

Yesterday, Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary supporters received an e-mail update regarding the sanctuary's expansion plans (discussed here and here on this blog). The good news: kindhearted supporters helped Peaceful Prairie raise the $110,000 they needed. The bad news: just when the sanctuary thought it was in a position to acquire the acreage and building, others with deeper pockets swooped in and made higher offers that Peaceful Prairie couldn't match. But anyone who donated can be sure the donation will still be well used in the effort to add an education center and housing to the existing property. Mary Martin of Animal Person has already posted the text of the e-mail in full, so I won't repeat that effort; see her post for all the details.

Turkeys at Poplar Spring: The Luckier Ones

by Deb Durant

Published November 19, 2008 @ 07:19AM PST

In the following post, shutterbug Deb Durant introduces us to the turkeys who reside at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, where she volunteers; included are lovely photos she has taken of the birds. Deb is the author of the blog Invisible Voices. I refer to these turkeys as the luckier ones rather than just lucky because they all still suffered before finding sanctuary at Poplar Spring. But they are certainly, absolutely luckier than most other turkeys, including the ones I told you about late yesterday; once you are finished reading Deb's beautiful guest post, please see the previous post about what happens to many other turkeys, if you haven't already, and watch the video there. -SE
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As Thanksgiving approaches, turkeys are being killed by the millions. I could discuss those numbers, and what those numbers mean, but instead I am going to tell you the stories of a few individuals. These are turkeys who slipped through the hands of the people intent on killing them and landed in a safe zone at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, in Poolesville, MD, run by Terry Cummings and Dave Hoerauf.

If you came with me to the sanctuary, walked down the hill from the Civil War–era farmhouse to the weathered old chicken barn, and stepped inside, you'd be greeted by Victor. He would be displaying, proud bird that he is, and he would follow you with his distinctive turkey strut — step, step, pause, *poof* of air, step step, pause, *poof* of air. You'd likely be charmed and perhaps a little intimidated at first.

Turkeys are big birds, and the domesticated turkeys are abnormally large, genetically manipulated to become that abnormally large size. It is usually their primary health concern as they age.

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New Undercover Investigation Shows Horrifying Turkey Abuses

by Stephanie Ernst

Published November 18, 2008 @ 05:52PM PST

Update, 11/19: The New York Times has picked up the story. Read the article.

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Today the details of a sickening undercover investigation conducted between September and November of this year were revealed, and if your Thanksgiving plans include chewing on turkey, you absolutely must read on and must watch the undercover video (included at the end of this post). Here is an excerpt from the e-mail notice:

Men shoved feces and feed in turkeys' mouths and held turkeys' heads under water. One worker bragged about jamming a broom stick 2 feet down a turkey's throat because the turkey had pecked at the worker's back. The same man mimicked raping a turkey hen whom he had pinned against a shed floor.

Others told PETA's investigator that they had killed turkeys, including by hitting them with pieces of lumber and pipes. Workers broke turkeys' necks, sometimes leaving them to suffer for several minutes before trying again or stomping on their heads. A supervisor said that he saw workers kill 450 turkeys with 2-by-4s. Many of the workers kicked and violently threw turkeys, and hens' beaks were cut with dull pliers. You can watch video footage from the investigation here.

Still convinced that you need that turkey flesh on your plate for Thanksgiving? Not sure? Here's more, straight from the investigator, via PETA's blog:

They are crammed into pens, sometimes 600 or 800 to a pen. There are almost 8,000 turkeys in one barn. Each of these turkey farms has two or three barns. The dust inside the barns is sickening. I can’t even go in without a respirator mask. I cough and choke from not being able to breathe. I see the turkeys panting much of the time. I think about grabbing one of them and carrying her outside and putting her in the grass where she could breathe and walk freely. It is so sad that they are reduced to this miserable existence just to make some profit.

There are times when I have to hold back the tears. To see the workers torture these animals is infuriating. Today we are loading a truck with male turkeys who have been bred to weigh 80-plus pounds—the same weight as my 10-year-old cousin. I will spend the next four hours watching men slam them into cages on the back of a semi truck in temperatures near 20°F. I have seen these guys stomp turkeys’ heads on the concrete. The sound of cracking beaks and breaking bones makes me cringe, but I can show no emotion. I am forced to watch in silent pain as these innocent lives are being destroyed.

More details are available at the main page for the investigation. Here is the video. What you're about to see can't be described in words. Please, make it a turkey-free, vegan Thanksgiving. Don't support this. Don't fund this. You know how wrong it is.

Happy Cage-Free Eggs: Just What I Was Afraid Of

by Stephanie Ernst

Published November 18, 2008 @ 07:01AM PST

You may be tired of reading about the Proposition 2 campaign and the Oprah program on farming practices and Prop 2, especially now that the measure has passed. I'm tired of writing about it too. I'm tired of being angry about it. But I've lost count of how many times since the Oprah show--and subsequently, since the passage of Prop 2--that I've read or heard someone say that the campaign and Oprah show did exactly what so many of us feared they would do: they made people feel better about eating products that still involve great suffering; the chosen strategy for passing Prop 2 gave the public an utterly false idea of what "cage-free" and "free-range" mean and guaranteed that these people will continue funding cruelty rather than remove themselves from it, as perhaps they would have done if presented with the actual truth.

What exactly managed to get me all riled up again this morning? The following remarks from a blog post/article last Friday on Proposition 2, remarks that are representative of what I've been seeing elsewhere for the last several weeks (emphasis mine):

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Animals in the News & Blogs: Cats, Urchins, Dogs, and Chickens

by Stephanie Ernst

Published November 17, 2008 @ 03:55PM PST

In the News

"Teens get probation in Camrose cat-microwaving case"
"Ybor Residents March In Support Of Wild Chickens"
"3 charged, dozens arrested in Chicago dog fight"
"$5,000 reward offered in animal fighting"
"Dog tossed from moving car rescued...and now recovering"

In the Blogs

Bob Torres and Eric Prescott are fighting the good fight over at Opposing Views in a debate titled "Should Animals Have the Same Rights as People?" But like Alex, a friend of this blog who commented similarly at Opposing Views, I'm bothered by the very question posed, by the assumption implied by the title Opposing Views gave the debate--that animal rights advocates believe that nonhuman animals should have the "same" rights as humans; we don't believe that, at least not in the way many people assume, and we're stuck with having to explain that constantly as it is.

Suicide Food alerted us yesterday that the sea urchins have now joined "the ranks of death-hungry 'food' animals."

Elaine Vigneault has penned a letter titled "Dear Family, Please Pardon a Turkey" and has invited us to use it as a template.

Football season is upon us (apparently--this is not my thing), and just in time, we have the Top 5 Vegetarian-Friendly Football Stadiums.