There are several “actionable items” – not quite action alerts, but rather opportunities for participation, if that makes sense – I’ve been meaning to share, but just haven’t had the time to blog about in depth. Rather than neglect these projects altogether, here’s a handy-dandy roundup. Please scan through each item and help out where you can; these virtual volunteer opportunities are perfect for activists who have more extra time than they do money!

1. Science

It really chaps my rotund hide when speciesists claim that animal advocates are “anti-science.” Being all diverse and stuff, I’m sure the animal rights and welfare movements are home to a fair share of science-averse humans, but for the most part, we’re hardly anti-science. On the contrary: many of us harness the power of scientific research to demonstrate that veganism is a healthier alternative to “meat” and dairy consumption; that nonhuman animals can experience complex thoughts and emotions; that our exploitation of nonhumans animals is both unnecessary and harmful; etc., etc., etc. (you get the idea). On the whole, I don’t think we’re any more anti-science than our omni counterparts.

Personally, I love science; once upon a time, I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, specializing in anthrozoology and world vegan (then vegetarian, but wev) domination. I still peruse research articles and scientific journals (of a social nature) on occasion, just for the fun of it. No, it’s not science per se that I take issue with. Rather, I object to the imprisonment, torture, killing and exploitation of sentient, non-consenting animals, usually for redundant and frivolous research.

So I’ve become increasingly interested in “vegan” science, particularly in supporting such endeavors whenever possible. For example, I would love to donate my body to science when I die. The thought of spending my “afterlife” rotting away on a body farm somewhere brings a smile to my face; doubly so if my remains can save a nonhuman animal from being birthed, tortured and killed in the name of science. Oooh, Dr. Brennan, pick me, pick me!

Anyhow, when I saw an ad for research volunteers in the latest issue of Best Friends magazine, I immediately fired off an email to Dr. Frank McMillan to see how I might help. He pointed me to five open surveys, all of which are related to studies he’s conducting at Best Friends (as described here):

Dr. Franklin McMillan has been the director of well-being studies at Best Friends since October 2007. As director of well-being studies, Dr. Frank assesses and studies the mental health and emotional well-being of animals who have endured hardship, adversity and psychological trauma. Through these studies, he hopes to learn what the effects of trauma are – the psychological injuries and scars – and how best to treat them in order to restore to these animals a life of enjoyment rather than one of fear and emotional distress.

He is currently conducting such studies on cats from the Great Kitty Rescue in Pahrump, Nevada – an institutionalized hoarding situation – and the fighting dogs taken from the estate of former NFL quarterback Michael Vick.

(more…)

Robert Melia & Heather Lewis:
accused child (read: cow/calf and human/girl) rapists.

I, Bonobo: There’s plenty more where this came from

veganprimate points to the case of Robert Melia – a former police officer who, along with his girlfriend, was arrested for sexually assaulting three girls – as a demonstration of the link between the exploitation of women and that of nonhuman animals. Melia’s misogyny only came to light because Melia was under investigation for engaging in “oral sex” (read: rape) with calves. Though the animal cruelty charges were dismissed by a judge – according to whom, a grand jury had no way of knowing whether the animals were “tormented” by the assault – police found

videos on his computer of a girl being “subjected to sexual activity” in addition to taped encounters between Melia and the calves.

While I’m glad the assistant prosecutor seems to be taking animal abuse seriously, the cynic in me can’t help but think he’s simply latching onto this “lesser” offense for leverage. Either way, it’s doubtful that Melia and girlfriend Heather Lewis will serve much time, as rape is too often minimized and excused in our kyriarchal society.

On that note, methinks New Jersey Judge James J. Morley needs to be schooled on animal abuse, interpersonal violence and intersectionality.

Judge James J. Morley
Burlington County Cts. Facility
49 Rancocas Road
Mt. Holly, New Jersey 08060
609-518-2965
Fax: 609-518-2551

Be firm but polite!

Lisa @ Sociological Images: A Summary Visual Of Women’s Objectification

In a could-be-vegan spin on the ever-popular women-as-meat meme, I bring you: women-as-cake! Sure, there’s a dudely version of the photo too, but as Lisa points out, it’s sans copy – and probably wasn’t plastered on the magazine’s cover, as were the woman’s sliced and dismembered buttocks.

(more…)

Via the latest issue of Dog’s Life e-newsletter, I found a link to this alarming story, by Steve Dale at www.goodnewsforpets.com: Dump the Dog is Military’s Message to Families with Targeted ‘Bad’ Breeds.

That’s right, folks: breed specific legislation, coming soon to military housing near you:

Lots of dog breeds will no longer be allowed on military housing property, according to new policy announced in a memo stamped January 5 from the United States Department of the Army. According to sources, the directive was approved by the Pentagon just prior to President George W. Bush leaving office.

The subject line of the memo reads: “Pet Policy for Privatized Housing Under the Army’s Residential Communities Initiative Privatization Program. Pit Bulls (American Staffordshire Bull Terriers and English Staffordshire Bull Terriers), Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, Chow Chows and wolf hybrids are now banned.” [...]

According to the ruling, dogs of any type who currently live on base can be grandfathered in. However, Lynde points out that families are frequently being asked to re-locate. When they do, they can no longer bring their banned dogs with them. Similarly, new enlistees must leave their dogs at home if they’re indentified as a banned breed.

Then what happens to any banned dogs identified and then forcibly relinquished by transferring military? Lynde says, “No one seems to have that answer.”

With morale already low on military bases, according to Lynde, she believes the ruling has already begun to further impact morale. “What kind of family support is this? I tried to communicate with the Garrison Comander’s Office (at Fort Bragg), but I got nowhere,” she says.

Military families whose members include so-called “dangerous” dog breeds, such as pit bulls, rottweilers, doberman pinschers, chow chows and wolf hybrids (!?) – or any mutt whose lineage includes or even resembles these breeds – may, under the new housing policy, be forced to relinquish their canines. If they’re unable to find a trusted friend or family member to take the animals, presumably they’ll have no choice but to surrender their beloved dogs to animal shelters, where many will be killed for lack of homes.

Simply put, this is a travesty. We already demand far too much of our military members and their families – we send them overseas, to fight and die in capricious, pointless wars; we deny them proper physical and psychological care, both in the battlefield and here at home; we ignore the high rates of sexual assault perpetrated against women in the military; we actively discriminate against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons who want nothing more than to serve their country; we fail to provide care for the non-human members of military families when the caregivers are deployed or on active duty; and now, the U.S. government is attempting to eradicate a targeted segment of their non-human family members, based on nothing other than naked prejudice, stereotypes and hysteria. Shameful, just shameful.

(more…)

Just a friendly reminder: HBO is premiering Death on a Factory Farm tonight at 10PM EDST (you can view a full schedule here). Directed by Tom Simon and Sarah Teale – the people who brought you Dealing Dogs, another animal-friendly documentary – Death on a Factory Farm follows an undercover investigation of an Ohio factory farm by the Humane Farming Association (HFA).

Here’s the synopsis from the film’s website:

Each year, ten billion animals are raised for consumption in the U.S., mostly on sprawling, industrialized farms, where virtually no federal laws mandate how the animals are treated – though guidelines exist – and state laws are ineffective. As a result, animals are frequently subjected to what many consider cruel treatment and inhumane conditions in the interest of economic efficiency. DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM chronicles an investigation into alleged abuses that took place at a hog farm in Creston, Ohio. This shocking documentary is produced by Tom Simon (a seven-time Emmy® winner) and Sarah Teale, producer of the 2006 HBO special “Dealing Dogs,” which received two Emmy® nominations, including Best Documentary.

Three years in the making, DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM follows the undercover investigation of Wiles Hog Farm by the animal rights group The Humane Farming Association (HFA), and the resulting court case against it. The organization received a tip from an employee at the farm that animals were being abused, including a claim that hogs were being hung by chains and strangled to death as a form of euthanasia. HFA then turned to an undercover investigator (also featured in “Dealing Dogs”) going by the name “Pete,” who wore a hidden camera while he worked as a farmhand at Wiles.

Over the course of six weeks, Pete secretly filmed numerous disturbing scenes, including piglets being tossed into crates from across a room, impregnated sows held in pens that don’t allow them to move, an unhealthy piglet being slammed against a wall to euthanize it, and a sick sow being hung by a chain from a forklift until it choked to death. Having obtained this key evidence, Pete concluded the investigation and quit his job.

HFA brought the footage to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, which subsequently raided the farm. Prosecutors filed ten criminal charges of animal cruelty against Ken Wiles (the owner of the farm), his son Joe, and Dusty Stroud, a farm employee who participated in hanging the sow.

In the trial that followed, prosecution and defense waged a tense battle over the legality and morality of practices rarely seen by the public and described by the presiding judge as “distasteful and offensive,” but defended by Ken Wiles and other members of the tight-knit Ohio farming community as the commonplace reality of producing livestock for consumption.

(more…)

CNN wants your iReports about healthy lifestyle changes in 2009:

CNN is looking for iReporters who want to make a journey to change.

Are you contemplating making a healthy change to your life in 2009? Whether you’d like to lose weight, eat healthier, stop smoking or reduce stress, we want to hear from you.

Put your New Year’s resolution on video and tell us why it’s an important goal. Your story could be featured on CNN.

Why not vlog about the joys of veg*nism? Veg*nism is good for your health, good for the animals, good for the environment – and even good for the health of others, as it uses far fewer resources than diets consisting of animal flesh and secretions.

Even if your iReport isn’t featured on-air, it lets the folks at CNN know that veg*ns are out there, watching and participating.

And if your video is aired on CNN – bonus!

————

Tagged: cnn ireport vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism animals animal rights animal welfare action alert video new year’s new year’s resolutions

Yeah, I know it’s the New York Post…and maybe this is their misguided attempt at “satire” (dog, I hope this is supposed to be satirical!)….but still. FELONIOUS BALL OF FUR DESERVED EVERY BLOW – WTF!?

THE stupid cat had it coming.

Forgive me, all you animal- rights nuts, you freaky lovers of things furry, fierce and woefully incontinent. I’ve got something to say to all assorted people who’ve got nothing better to do with their days than stick their noses in another man’s litter box.

The dead cat at the center of a whacked-out catricide trial now eating up precious court time and tax dollars in downtown Manhattan is no innocent wittle victim.

PHOTOS: Man On Trial For Cat Killing

Norman the Cat, who was pummeled to death last year at the age of 8 by an inarguably hot, allegedly drunk, former Met minor leaguer and bit-part actor named Joseph Petcka, had serious issues.

The first of which may have been his name.

Owner Lisa Altobelli testified yesterday that she named Norman after the zhlubby character Norm from “Cheers” – “my favorite show.” Norman Bates sounds more accurate.

No one likes to see a little frisky drowning in a pool of his own blood. Well, not many.

But Petcka had grown tragically fixated on the idea of getting along with the pet pussy that Altobelli called “my little buddy.” He wrote in his diary that he’d made “progress” getting the pea-brained flea bag to allow Petcka to pet him.

Early on March 27, 2007, Altobelli testified, Petcka had too much to drink. She said he chanted, in a weird, sing-songy voice, “Nor-man. Nor-man!”

So Altobelli did what anyone overly attached to a neurotic hairball would do when danger was afoot: She left Petcka alone in her apartment with her beloved cat.

Hours later, Altobelli returned. She found the puss under a table.

“He was cold,” she said, crying crocodile tears and hanging her head petulantly.

Petcka claims the thing sank his teeth into his hand. So he had to violently knock him away.

Innocent victim? Or kitty provocateur?

Why can’t we just ask Petcka to clean a few hundred litter boxes, and end this fiasco?

Petcka, if you couldn’t discern from the dreck above, is currently on trial for killing his girlfriend’s cat Norman – pummeling him to death with his fists. Petcka’s “defense” is that Norman attacked him, thus justifying the beating. Trouble is, Norman’s declawed. And, erm, even if he weren’t – there are other ways to deal with an angry cat. It’s a fucking cat, ferchrissakes, not a cougar.

Petcka is a liar, a psychopath, an animal- and (future) woman-abuser. He allegedly killed Norman in a jealous rage because Altobelli loved the cat more than him. A woman who cared for an innocent, fluffy, unconditionally loving sentient being more than her cold, unfeeling asswipe of a boyfriend – you don’t fucking say!

If you’d like to fire off a complaint to the New York Post, here’s there online form for submitting letters to the editor. Andrea Peyser – the sub-human who wrote this piece – can be reached at andrea.peyser@nypost.com.

Please keep the misogyny and death threats to a minimum, people; instead of calling her a bitch or cunt or suggesting that you send your own C-list actor over to her place so that she, too, can experience the joy of being beaten to a bloody pulp, why not remind her of the link between animal abuse and interpersonal violence?

Also, here are a few related petitions you can sign, if so inclined:

NY Post Columnist Says Beaten Cat Deserved to Die!

Celeb. Boyfriend Kills Girlfriends Cat in Jealous Rage

(Crossposted from.)

——————–

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts petitions the petition site new york post animal abuse animal cruelty cruelty to animals Joseph Petcka Norman cat feline pet companion animal New York NYC Lisa Altobelli interpersonal violence Andrea Peyser

UPDATE, 11/15/07:

Updated to include Daniel McGowan’s unit # on his mailing address:

Daniel McGowan
#63794-053, Unit I
FCI Sandstone
P.O. Box 1000
Sandstone, MN 55072

Thanks to Jenny for the correction!

—————————-

In honor of International Human Rights Day (December 10th), Amnesty International is holding a “Global Write-a-thon” through December 7-10, 2007.

The details:

On or around International Human Rights Day (December 10) activists from around the world write letters on behalf of individuals at risk of human rights abuses. The Global Write-a-thon was initiated by Amnesty International Poland in 2002 and was a huge success. It became a global, annual event that involves tens of thousands of participants from more than thirty countries. The goal is that this intense and concentrated pressure will elicit positive change in the lives of human rights defenders, prisoners of conscience, and other victims of human rights abuses.

Everyone can participate. It’s easy! Follow the 5 simple steps below:

1. Register for the write-a-thon as an individual or as a group. Watch as your pledges help light up the Amnesty candle.

2. Spread the word! Encourage your friends and family to get involved.

3. Check out the write-a-thon resources online starting the week of November 12th. You’ll find everything you need to participate on this site including case sheets, sample letters, a checklist for how to plan an event, and promotional materials. For hard copies, please email us at writeathon [at] aiusa.org

4. Write and mail lots of letters on Dec. 7-10.

5. Report back: Let us know how many letters were sent.

While Amnesty International focuses its efforts on prisoners of conscience who have been jailed for their human rights activities (for example, some of this year’s cases include “a prisoner of conscience from Myanmar, a disappeared student from Chechnya, and a survivor of rape from the Democratic Republic of Congo”), why not organize an event to generate letters of support for jailed animal rights and eco-activists instead of in addition to AI’s suggested targets? Better yet, register your event with Amnesty International and report your letters to the org – tell them that animal rights activists, tree huggers, and other “terra-ists” are important to you, too!

Interestingly, the same day that Amnesty International emailed their announcement of the Global Write-a-thon, Last Chance for Animals (LCA) sent out an action alert urging supporters to “Reach Out to an Animal Activist in Prison!” You can find that email – along with additional resources for AR prisoner support – after the flip.

(more…)

UPDATE, 6/27/07:

The results are in.

—————

Here’s an interesting poll from Corporate Accountability International:

Voice Your Choice in the Corporate Hall of Shame 2007!

Which of these corporations are the most abusive, manipulative and harmful? You decide.

Vote for the three nominees that deserve to be inducted this year—or use your votes to write in another corporate candidate. You can even post comments about why these corporations should be inducted. We’ll announce the three new inductees in June, so check back then, but vote now and spread the word to other voters.

The nominees include Coke, Exxon, Ford, Kimberly-Clark, Halliburton, Merck, Nestlé and Wal-Mart.

I voted for Exxon (their, erm, black enviro record) and Halliburton (hello, warmongers!), and wrote in Menu Foods Income Fund as my third choice. It’s doubtful that they’ll win – even if all 23 of my readers vote for ‘em! – but at the very least, it lets the folks at Corporate Accountability International know that animals abusers, like abusers of the environment and human rights, must be called out for their heinous actions. So write in your (least) favorite animal abuser and tell your fellow activists that members of all species should benefit from progressive values.

—————

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts Coca-Cola ExxonMobil Exxon Ford Halliburton Kimberly-Clark Merck Nestlé Wal-Mart Corporate Accountability International Corporate Hall of Shame

If so, CNN invites you to nominate him or her for their Hero Awards:

Do you know someone who should receive a CNN Hero Award? Click on the link below, tell us a bit about yourself and your Hero, pick a category, and tell us why your Hero should win. The most outstanding entries will be revealed at The CNN Hero Awards, a December broadcast hosted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

Among the listed categories is one that’s well-suited for readers of this blog: Defending the Planet. Hello, greenies! On the flip side, I’m not sure whether animal advocacy would mesh with this obviously environmental grouping…but there do seem to be some opportunities for slipping animal activists into some of the other categories. For example, crusaders against animal abuse would be perfect for “Fighting for Justice”, and younger activists of any stripe can be nominated as a “Young Wonder”. Plus, we all know what an animal lover the Silver Fox ™ is – let’s just hope he’ll be helping judge the entries. So get creative already!

And if you’re super-creative (and, um, geeky), here’s an extra credit assignment:

Tell us: What does it take to be a hero?

What are the qualities that make someone a hero? Send us a video telling us what you think. Start with the words: “A hero is…” The rest is up to you!

Right now I’m totally loving me some Sgt. Carri Lucas, Senator Sheila Kuehl, and activist pattrice jones. Problem is, I don’t actually know any of them personally. So if on the off-chance you do, do me a favor and give ‘em a shout out for me.

————————–

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts cnn heroes contest anderson cooper the silver fox activism activist ireport CNN Hero Award advocacy advocate

Thus far, 2007 is shaping up to be a fairly melancholic year, at least virtually. First came the passing of Zeke, beloved blog dog of the liberal/progressive corner of the internets. Last week, I was saddened to discover that Heidi, my favorite – and perhaps the most-photographed – dachshund on Flickr had died suddenly in a freak accident. I don’t think I’ve shed so many tears for other people’s companions, ever. Perhaps it’s just because my first-born is starting to get on in age, and I’m dreading the day when…gah, enough.

Anna Nicole Smith’s death…well, normally I wouldn’t pay much mind to the demise of a B-list star. And yet, I find myself mourning her death, albeit in a low-level way. Smith was something of an advocate for animals; she posed in several PETA ads, including two protesting Iams and fur. (Interestingly, the ads featuring Smith were arguably – and ironically – the more tasteful of PETA’s largely exploitative campaigns.) As an animal rights activist, the loss of a fellow activist hits hard. Yet, even my pensive mood and our shared values don’t explain why I feel such sorrow over her death.

Though she’s been (and even in death, continues to be) derided as a dumb, no-talent bimbo by the media, Smith is more deserving of sympathy than spite. Salon explains it eloquently, so rather than offer a half-assed paraphrase, allow me to quote Cintra Wilson:

Vickie Lynn Hogan of Mexia, Texas — the woman Spy magazine once called a “super-duper-model” — was ripe for the taking: She had always been compared to Marilyn Monroe, and she nursed these comparisons, right down to her own sense of victimization by a society that she perceived as having no respect for her, and to her self-fulfilling prophecy that she would die young and tragically.

Naturally, the death of her 20-year-old son didn’t help, and neither did the methadone. It was clear she lacked coping skills. Following the death of Daniel Smith, three days after Anna Nicole gave birth to a baby girl, the tabloids reported that the distraught new mother was so sedated that she needed to be reinformed of his death, again and again, every time she woke up … an excruciating ring of hell.

Even in such times of private agony, prurient interest now follows its victims everywhere. Wherever there’s a cellphone and an Internet connection, the camera can steal a soul. [...]

What needs saying — what it seems nobody has yet said — is that when she was able to suppress her demons enough to pull herself together and look her best, she was fabulously gorgeous. Numerous red-carpet moments, the footage of which we now run over and over again like a televised rosary in order to understand her death, reveal this. Anna Nicole was a star because she possessed an unusually large amount of beauty. At her best, she didn’t evoke Marilyn Monroe so much as Anita Ekberg in “La Dolce Vita” — the strapless black dress, mounds of white flesh, piles of blond hair. She was indelicate, but an unstable element nonetheless — not so much a candle in the wind as a bonfire in a hailstorm. But the real similarity between Anna Nicole and Marilyn was their shimmering tension — an unsettlingly powerful physical beauty, collapsing irresistibly in real time beneath the frailties of its hostess. She was entropy porn at its finest.

Our fascinated gaze was her real addiction — and the humiliating media tractor pull between our disgust and our attraction for her was, in all likelihood, both her lover and her murderer. Fame, the only chemotherapy available for the desperate toxicity of narcissism, proves once again that it is deadly enough in its own right to be avoided.

Like all women, Smith tried her damnedest to adhere to society’s mandate that women be teh sexxy, that they be ready and willing to bend to the patriarchy at will. And then she was scorned and derided – abused – for doing so. Just as women like Hillary Clinton are criticized for being too smart, too successful, too manly, Anna Nicole Smith was castigated for her uber-submissiveness, her unabashed sexuality, her exaggerated femininity.

As Twisty opined:

If any doubts linger as to the sinister essence of the feminine directive marketed by the beauty industry, I urge you to consider the painful case of poor Anna Nicole Smith, dead of femininity at age 39.* Blonde bombshells are disturbingly disposable.

* The system that rewards a woman’s acquiescence to pornulation with fawning attention, cash, glamor, and fame can be fickle. Here is what one enlightened genius commenting on Smith’s Miami-Herald obit had to say about yet another icon destroyed by the pornsick culture he jacks off to on his computer every night: “Anna Nicole Smith — Stupid Life, Lived Stupidly, By a Stupid Person. A disaster from beginning to end.”

Too sexy or not sexy enough. Women just can’t win.

The media blitz is sickening, really; not just on accounta it mostly hates on the deceased, but because there are much more important stories out there. Those covering mocking Smith’s life and death reek of hypocrisy: they drone on about how inconsequential Smith’s life was, all the while trivializing the important events that they’re not affording adequate coverage, such as the War on Terra, the crises in Darfur and the Congo, heck, climate change, even. But 300000+ dead Iraqis does not a pornalicious scandal make, I ’spose. Add to that the fact that those who made Smith famous are now decrying her undeserved fame, and you’ve got a pack of patriarchal media pricks.

So let’s help the press out, shall we? Take a moment to write CNN, the NY Times, your local paper, whathaveyou, and tell them how you think Anna Nicole Smith should be remembered. Not as a drugged-out bimbo, or every misogynist’s jagoff material.

Remind them that she was more than her celebrity.

Unlike more educated, esteemed, “respectable” individuals, Anna Nicole Smith worked to improve the plight of the single most disadvantaged group in our country, indeed, the world: animals. She spoke out against Iams’ torturous treatment of dogs and cats and campaigned against seal slaughter. She was more than boobs, booze, and blonde curls – she also had a big heart, in a world sorely lacking big hearts.

And that’s the Anna Nicole Smith that I’ll remember.

After the jump – a selection of Anna’s PSAs.

(more…)