Seal Hunt

(Photo courtesy of HSUS)
In 2006, the Canadian government estimated that at least 354,344 harp and hooded seals were killed. According to the Humane Society of the United States, the last time seals were killed at this rate (in the 1950's and 1960's) the harp seal population was reduced by nearly two thirds. 98 percent of these killed seals were pups under three months old. All these seals are killed mainly for their fur. The fur is used for fashion items. There is a very small market for seal oil and seal penises. The seal penises are sold in Asian markets as an aphrodisiac. Since there is little to no market for the meat, the seal carcasses are usually left to rot. Because the sealers only want the fur, there are reports of extremely inhumane killing. In 2001, a study found that in 42 percent of the cases they studies, the seals had been skinned alive while conscious. Moreover, sealers drag conscious seals across the ice with boat hooks, beat them with wooden clubs, hakapiks and guns.

I honestly can't imagine how people do this, along with other forms of animals abuse. Have they never loved an animal or received the "look" from one? This is definitely not my idea of fun...

To help end the horror of the largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals in the world, many people are doing a list of things including boycotting Canadian seafood. Click here for a list of other things you can do to help.

Watch this video about seal hunts. Viewer discretion advised--graphic images.

Pets

As a volunteer at a local animal shelter, I see a lot of animals who are surrendered for various reasons. While some of he reasons can be justified, I feel that most of them are ridiculous. One dog was surrendered simply because she barks. Another was surrendered at the young age of one year old because she chewed on objects, was having a hard time being house trained, and was rambunctious. One college student surrendered her dog because she wasn't aware of how costly maintaining a healthy dog could be and she could no longer afford to keep him. Also, some animals are given up because their owners move and can't keep them in their apartments, while others are simply unaware of what it takes to take care of a pet.

These incidents always astound me. Dogs will bark. Puppies will chew and have accidents. Pet owners or soon-to-be pet owners should realize this. Dogs don't just come well behaved, they must be trained and worked with on a daily basis. People cannot expect a puppy to be house trained within two weeks or assume they'll never chew on objects.
Moreover, pets are costly. There are expenses and unexpected expenses such as food, toys, vet bills, grooming, boarding, training, and tags to name a few. When people make the decision to get a pet, they should be sure they'll have the time, resources, and patience for the pet. People need to anticipate having the pet for 10-20 years.
This being said, there are a few questions you should ask yourself before getting a pet:
Can I afford the animal?
Can I afford unanticipated health problems and vet bills?
Can I have a pet where I live?'
Will I be moving?
How much time will the pet spend alone?
Do I have the time and patience for the animal?
What about the other pets (if any) in the household? How will they react?
Am I willing to work with, train, and play with my pet?
What about children in the household? Will there be additions to the family? Is anyone allergic?
What kind of pet best suits my activity level? Do I want a cuddling or active pet?
What are the reasons why I want a pet?

These are only a few of the questions people should consider before adopting or buying a pet. Do research on your pet, understand the commitment it will involve. If everyone understood what it takes to be a responsible pet owner, there would be considerably less animals in shelters, abandoned, or euthanized.

Factory Farm Animals

Factory farm animals suffer daily. The conditions they endure are horrible, some of which will be explained below. The information below is provided by the Humane Society of the United States.

Laying Hens-

Arguably the most abused animals in all agribusiness, about 95% of the nearly 300 million laying hens in the United States are confined in barren, wire "battery cages" so restrictive the birds can't even spread their wings. With no opportunity to engage in many of their natural behaviors, including nesting, dust bathing, perching, and foraging, these birds endure lives wrought with suffering.Inside a single windowless shed on a commercial egg factory farm, tens if not hundreds of thousands of egg-laying hens are confined in severely restrictive battery cages for more than a year.
Photo courtesy of HSUS.

Cattle and Pigs-
Nationwide, one million calves raised for veal and nearly six million breeding sows (female pigs) suffer nearly their entire lives inside tiny crates so small the animals can't even turn around. Veal factory farmers separate calves from their mothers within the first few days of birth and cram them into individual crates or stalls, tethered by their necks. Inside these enclosures, the calves can barely move. Breeding sows suffer a similar fate. Throughout nearly their entire four-month pregnancies, the animals are confined inside individual metal gestation crates barely bigger than their own bodies, unable to perform nearly any of their natural behaviors.

Due to animal welfare concerns, the entire European Union has already banned both veal crates and gestation crates, effective 2007 and 2013, respectively. Yet, in the United States, the use of these abusive crates remains customary practice. For both calves and pigs, intensive confinement in crates causes painful and severe welfare problems.

Inside barren, restrictive gestation crates, pregnant pigs are unable to turn around—or even move more than a step or two. For nearly four months, they languish in these cruel enclosures.
Image courtesy of HSUS.

Ducks and Geese-
Ducks and geese are forced-fed unnaturally large quantities of food through a metal tube that is shoved down their throats and into their stomachs two or three times each day. The extensive overfeeding causes their livers to become diseased. The livers become enlarged up to ten times their normal size, making it difficult for the birds to move comfortably and, for some, even walk.

The practice of force-feeding can cause painful bruising, lacerations, sores, and even organ rupture. On some foie gras factory farms, the birds are severely restricted inside small, filthy cages where they cannot even turn around or spread their wings.

Due to animal welfare concerns, more than a dozen countries—including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel (formerly the world's fourth-largest foie gras producing nation), Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland—have prohibited the production of foie gras. In 2004, California became the first U.S. state to ban the cruel force-feeding of birds and the sale of foie gras produced from force-fed birds, effective 2012. And in 2006, Chicago—famous for its meatpacking history—banned the sale of foie gras.

Image courtesy of HSUS.
This bird suffers inside a restrictive isolation cage covered with his vomit due to being force fed.

Pains of Poultry-
Each year, more than nine billion chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other birds raised for food are slaughtered in the United States with no requirement that their deaths be humane—more than one million birds killed every hour without legal protection.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture exempts birds from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA), an act passed more than 50 years ago intended to ensure that animals are rendered insensible to pain before they are killed. As a result, these birds—more than 95 percent of land animals killed for food—have no federal legal protection from being hung upside-down in shackles, electrocuted, cut with mechanical blades, and even being immersed in scalding water, all while fully conscious.

Indeed, these chickens, turkeys, and other birds are permitted to be slaughtered in ways that would be illegal if forced on cattle or pigs.

If these things disturb you, you are not alone. Below is the Humane Society's tips for humane eating.

Humane Eating and the Three R's-

Each year in the United States, nearly 10 billion land animals are raised and killed for food. Just like the dogs and cats we welcome into our homes, chickens, pigs, turkeys, and cows have their own personalities, inquisitive natures, likes and dislikes, and—most importantly—the ability to feel pain, suffer from boredom and frustration, and experience joy.

Yet these animals are routinely mistreated on industrialized factory farms. No federal law protects animals from cruelty on the farm, and most states exempt customary agricultural practices—no matter how abusive—from the scope of their animal cruelty statutes.

Fortunately, each one of us can make a significant difference in the lives of these animals and help decrease their suffering.

Reduce

Every hour in the United States, one million animals are killed for human consumption. If each one of us cuts back on our animal consumption by only 10%, approximately one billion animals would be spared a lifetime of suffering each year.

Refine

If you do continue to eat animal products, know that not all animal products are equal when it comes to animal welfare. Each industry has its own abusive practices, and some are much more cruel than others. For example, the chicken, egg, turkey, and pork industries tend to be far more abusive to animals than the beef industry. And a growing number of producers are raising animals without intensive confinement. Refining your diet by choosing cage-free animal products, instead of the conventional factory farm products that fill most supermarket shelves, will help to reduce animal suffering.

Replace

Each one of us can help prevent animals from suffering in factory farms simply by choosing vegetarian options. It's never been easier to replace animal products with readily available vegetarian alternatives. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, "Vegetarian diets can meet all the recommendations for nutrients." The American Dietetic Association goes even further to state that vegetarian diets "provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases."

Need Help Getting Started?

Visit the HSUS Guide to Vegetarian Eating for more information on how you can help farm animals when you eat, including delicious recipes, tips on incorporating more animal-free meals into your diet, shopping list suggestions, and much more. And for more information on the lives of farm animals and other ways you can help them, visit www.FarmAnimalWelfare.org.

Puppy (and Kitten) Mills

According to the Humane Society of the United States, puppy mills are "breeding facilities that produce purebred puppies in large numbers. The puppies are sold either directly to the public via the Internet, newspaper ads, at the mill itself, or are sold to brokers and pet shops across the country."
So what's wrong with these places that breed purebreds? Puppy mills produce such a large number of puppies that necessities such as veterinary care, proper shelter and quality of food aren't met. Most puppy mills include inbreeding, over-breeding, overcrowded cages, and killing of the dogs that aren't sold (watch puppy mill videos here). Puppy mills don't breed dogs because they love the breed, they breed dogs to gain a profit once the dogs are sold. Moreover, some of the dogs never leave the puppy mills, the "brood bitches" have one purpose in life-to breed and give birth to new puppies. Once this dog isn't able to breed any longer, she is killed.

Many of these puppy mill dogs have poor health, and certain health conditions won't be apparent until years into their lives. Interestingly enough, many people purchase puppies from these puppy mills because demand for a purebred dog is so high. Yet, the Humane Society of the United States estimates that 1 in 4 dogs in shelters are purebreds, so why aren't people adopting or rescuing these shelter dogs instead of buying from puppy mills?A Look Inside a Puppy Mill
(Image above courtesy of Morrow County Puppy Mill)

The majority people are unaware of what puppy mills are. Some people believe since they bought a dog from a local breeder, that dog couldn't be a product of a puppy mill. However, puppies from puppies mills are sold in pet stores, advertised for sale on the internet, and in the newspaper. People aren't able to see the conditions which most of the dogs are born into, therefore they can't be fully aware of whether or not they are purchasing their dogs from puppy mills. Moreover, most people want to buy puppies instead of adult or senior dogs, therefore increasing the demand for puppies.
What can you do to help this heartless act? The list below is from the Humane Society of the United States web site. View more on their site here.

To the Left is What Puppy Mills Look Like (Image Courtesy of Defenders of Animals)

What You Can Do:
To close down puppy mills and ensure the safety and humane treatment of dogs trapped in commercial kennels, you can:

• Encourage state and federal officials to stop the mass production and exportation of sick and traumatized dogs. In addition to passing new laws, legislators can demand that existing laws be enforced.

• Urge other people not to buy puppies from pet stores, over the Internet, or from newspaper ads.
• Write letters to the editor about puppy mills and pet stores. Explain the mills' inhumane treatment of puppies and their contribution to pet overpopulation.
• Visit a local pet store to determine where it obtains its puppies. Don't be misled by claims that its dogs were not bred in puppy mills. Insist on seeing breed registry papers or the interstate health certificate for each puppy. The papers will list the breeder's and/or wholesaler's name and address.
• Contact your member of the U.S. House of Representatives and your two U.S. Senators, asking them to urge the USDA to strictly enforce the Animal Welfare Act and to support efforts to increase funding for USDA/Animal Care. Members of Congress can be contacted at: The Honorable _______________, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC 20510.
• File a Breeder Complaint Form if your new puppy appears to be suffering from a medical condition.

Lastly, I would recommend saving dogs in multiple ways by adopting from an animal shelter. First, you save the dog in the shelter who may have been euthanized if you hadn't, and secondly, you'd decrease the demand for puppies, therefore helping to end puppy mills. If you still decide you want a puppy they don't have at the shelter, click here for puppy buying tips from the Stop Puppy Mills website.

For more information on this, please view:
http://www.hsus.org
http://stoppuppymills.org

Sadly, hundreds of thousands of animals in shelters are euthanized and disposed of because they can't find homes. Help save lives: Say no to puppy mills and adopt a dog or cat through a shelter.
Image above courtesy of http://www.dcr.net/~humane/Puppy_Mills2.html

Animal Hoarding

(Image courtesy of pet-abuse.com)

To most of us, the idea of hoarding animals is bizarre. However, this is something that happens much too often. Watching "Animal Precinct" on the Animal Planet, can show just how often this takes place. According to The Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium, the following criteria are used to define animal hoarding:

• More than the typical number of companion aniamls
• Inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, and veterinary care, with this neglect often resulting in starvation, illness, and death
• Denial of the inability to provide this minimum care and the impact of that failure on the animals, the household, and human occupants of the dwelling.

While Illinois is the first and only state in the US to define animal hoarding in its state cruelty statute, Vermont and New Mexico have submitted, but not passed, similar legislation. However, in most states it is considered animal cruelty if a person cannot provide the animals with proper food, drink, shelter, sanitary environment, or protection from the weather. Therefore, animal hoarding should fall into the category of animal cruelty. Interestingly enough, people to hoard animals do it so they can "help" the animals...most of the time, the owners truly believe they are benefiting the animals.

This is an issue that is important to me. The dog I rescued was seized by the Humane Society of the Black Hills, South Dakota. The woman in South Dakota had hoarded over 200 dogs, all of which were seized to be adopted or fostered (read more about the story here). When I first rescued Zee, his coat was dull and matted, he had scars all over his body, and his canine incisors were ground down. Needless to say, he was fearful, anxious, and in need of vaccinations and neutering. Today, Zee's coat shines, he's house trained, healthy, and happy. Zee and the other dogs lacked human interaction, love, and care. The thirteen dogs that ended up in Gillette all had the same sad, scared faces.

Something needs to be done to eradicate pet hoarding. The effects of it are horrible, for the animals and the people involved. Please feel free to read more about the subject below.

http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets/behind_closed_doors_the_horrors_of_animal_hoarding.html

http://www.tufts.edu/vet/cfa/hoarding/anwelf.htm#A1

Meet your Meat

I found this video in a few different places. Although I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian, I'm slowly weaning meat out of my diet and I do research on the animal product I do purchase. The conditions that most of these animals live in should be considered animal cruelty. If this video doesn't make you want to become a vegetarian, hopefully it raises concern about the treatment of farm animals. To watch the video, click on the link below and turn your volume on.

http://www.meat.org/

If you would like to aid in animal welfare, but are unsure whether or not you can become a vegetarian or vegan, please read the articles below. These articles have been copied from the Humane Society of the United State's website. To visit that site, please click here. I will write more about the subject of animals as food in later posts.

A Brief Guide to Egg Carton Labels and Their Relevance to Animals:

Certified Organic*: The birds are uncaged inside barns or warehouses, and are required to have outdoor access (although there have been concerns about lax enforcement, with some large-scale producers not providing birds meaningful access to the outdoors). They are fed an organic, all-vegetarian diet free of antibiotics and pesticides, as required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program. Beak cutting and forced molting through starvation are permitted. Compliance is verified through third-party auditing.

Free-Range: While the USDA has defined the meaning of "free-range" for some poultry products, there are no standards in "free-range" egg production. Typically, free-range egg-laying hens are uncaged inside barns or warehouses and have some degree of outdoor access. They can engage in many natural behaviors such as nesting and foraging. However, there is no information on stocking density, the frequency or duration of outdoor access, or the quality of the land accessible to the birds. There is no information regarding what the birds can be fed. Beak cutting and forced molting through starvation are permitted. There is no third-party auditing.

Certified Humane*: The birds are uncaged inside barns or warehouses, but may be kept indoors at all times. They must be able to perform natural behaviors such as nesting, perching, and dust bathing. There are requirements for stocking density and number of perches and nesting boxes. Forced molting through starvation is prohibited, but beak cutting is allowed. Compliance is verified through third-party auditing. Certified Humane is a program of Humane Farm Animal Care.

Cage-Free: As the term implies, hens laying eggs labeled as "cage-free" are uncaged inside barns or warehouses, but generally do not have access to the outdoors. They have the ability to engage in many of their natural behaviors such as walking, nesting, and spreading their wings. Beak cutting and forced molting through starvation are permitted. There is no third-party auditing.

Free-Roaming: Also known as "free-range," the USDA has defined this claim for some poultry products, but there are no standards in "free-roaming" egg production. This essentially means the hens are cage-free. There is no third-party auditing.

United Egg Producers Certified*: The overwhelming majority of the U.S. egg industry complies with this voluntary program, which permits routine cruel and inhumane factory farm practices. By 2008, hens laying these eggs will be afforded 67 square inches of cage space per bird, less area than a sheet of paper. The hens are confined in restrictive, barren cages and cannot perform many of their natural behaviors, including perching, nesting, foraging or even spreading their wings. Compliance is verified through third-party auditing. Forced molting through starvation is prohibited, but beak cutting is allowed. This is a program of the United Egg Producers.

Vegetarian-Fed: These birds are provided a more natural feed than that received by most laying hens, but this label does not have significant relevance to the animals’ living conditions.

Natural: This label has no relevance to animal welfare.

Fertile: These eggs were laid by hens who lived with roosters, meaning they most likely were not caged.

Omega-3 Enriched: This label claim has no relevance to animal welfare.

The truth is that the majority of egg labels have little relevance to animal welfare or, if they do, they have no official standards nor any mechanism to enforce them. Only three labels listed below are programs with official, audited guidelines, but even those vary widely in terms of animal welfare. Those three are marked with an asterisk (*).


A Brief Guide to Meat and Dairy Labels and Their Relevance to Animal Welfare:

"Certified Organic"*: The animals must be allowed outdoor access, with ruminants—cows, sheep, and goats—given access to pasture. (Consumers should be aware that there have been concerns about lax enforcement, with some large-scale producers not providing meaningful access to the outdoors.) Animals must be provided with bedding materials. Use of hormones and antibiotics is prohibited. These are requirements under the National Organic Program regulations, and compliance is verified through third-party auditing. Currently, there are no federal or state programs to certify aquatic animals, including fish, as organic.

Free-Range Poultry: The birds should have outdoor access. However, no information on stocking density, the frequency or duration of how much outdoor access must be provided, nor the quality of the land accessible to the animals is given. Indeed, the only national guidelines for the term "free range" are basic U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requirements that poultry raised for meat—but not for eggs—have some access to the outdoors. Producers must submit affidavits to the USDA that support their animal production claims in order to receive approval for this label.

Pasture-Raised and Grass-Fed: The animals have access to the outdoors and are able to engage in natural behaviors, such as grazing. However, no information on stocking density, the frequency or duration of how much outdoor access must be provided, nor the quality of the land accessible to the animals is given. Producers must submit affidavits to the USDA that support their animal production claims in order to receive approval for these labels.

"Certified Humane"*: The animals must be kept in conditions which allow for exercise and freedom of movement. As such, crates, cages, and tethers are prohibited. Outdoor access is not required. Stocking densities are specified to ensure animals are not overcrowded, and animals must be provided with bedding materials. Hormone and non-therapeutic antibiotic use is prohibited. Compliance is verified through third-party auditing. Certified Humane is a program of Humane Farm Animal Care.

Hormone-Free, rBGH-Free, rBST-Free, and No Hormones Added: These labels on dairy products mean the cows were not injected with rBGH or rBST, genetically engineered hormones that increase milk production. Hormones are commonly used to speed growth in beef production, and their use by both the beef and dairy industries are associated with animal welfare problems. Chicken and pig producers are not legally allowed to use hormones. These claims do not have significant relevance to the animals' living conditions. There may be some verification of this claim.

Cage-Free: As birds raised for meat, unlike those raised for eggs, are rarely caged prior to transport, this label on poultry products has virtually no relevance to animal welfare. However, the label is helpful when found on egg cartons, as most egg-laying hens are kept in severely restrictive cages prohibiting most natural behaviors, including spreading their wings.

Vegetarian-Fed: These animals are given a more natural feed than that received by most factory-farmed animals, but this claim does not have significant relevance to the animals’ living conditions.

Dolphin-Safe: In the United States, a Dolphin Safe label on a can of tuna means that no dolphins were intentionally chased, encircled, traumatized, injured, or killed in order to catch tuna swimming beneath the dolphins. Due to pressure from other countries, the U.S. government has made multiple attempts to weaken the rules and allow the use of the label even if the tuna were caught by deliberately setting nets on dolphins. The HSUS and others have won a series of lawsuits to maintain the integrity of the label, so a Dolphin Safe label in the United States still means that the tuna were not caught using methods that harm dolphins.

Natural: This claim has no relevance to animal welfare.

Grain-Fed: This claim has little relevance to animal welfare, but feeding ruminants—cows, sheep, and goats—high levels of grain can cause liver abscesses and problems with lameness. As such, beef products labeled "grain-fed" most likely come from animals who suffered lower welfare than beef products labeled "grass-fed."

"Free-Farmed"*: The animals must be kept in conditions which allow for exercise and freedom of movement. As such, crates, cages, and tethers are not prohibited. Outdoor access is not required. Stocking densities are specified to ensure animals are not overcrowded, and animals must be provided with bedding materials. Hormone and non-therapeutic antibiotic use is prohibited. Compliance is verified through third-party auditing. Free-Farmed is a program of American Humane.

No label: Most likely, the absence of a label means animals are raised in factory farm conditions that significantly reduce their welfare.

* The claims listed in quotation marks—Certified Organic, Certified Humane, and Free-Farmed—are programs with guidelines or standards, whereas the remaining claims are only labels.

My Reason

I am not typically a blog-type person. I enjoy using private blogs to discuss songs and poetry. I never considered opening my own public blog until taking at course called "Writing Public Forums" at the University of Wyoming. I am still leery about the idea, but at my professor's command, my fellow students and I have created our own blogs.

As for the topic of my blog, I haven't decided on what I'd like to write about yet. I'm an animal lover and am interested in discussing animal welfare, no-kill vs. kill shelters, and animal cruelty, etc. Still, I haven't decided which area I'd like to explore and discuss. I plan on narrowing my search to find a topic I'm most interested in. If, however, I cannot narrow my topic, I may generalize animal welfare and discuss the different aspects of it.

With that being, welcome to my blog.