Today, thanks to your ongoing
support and generosity, I have
exciting news to share about a
very big win for animals:
Humane Society International has
just secured the biggest
reduction in animal testing
requirements in history!
Our science team has been
hard at work for more than two
years, negotiating with
companies, government
authorities and elected
officials in Brussels for major
changes to European testing
requirements for pesticides and
biocides -- among the most
heavily animal-tested products
in existence.
Until now, dozens of
different animal-poisoning tests
have been required by law before
a pesticide is approved for
sale. In some cases, more
than 13,000 animals are killed
for a single new pesticide
ingredient.
But together, we’ve made
great strides toward convincing
European authorities to say
goodbye to outdated animal tests
and to take up the very latest
animal replacement and reduction
alternatives.
Going forward:
Twelve-month
dog-poisoning studies: gone.
Lethal dose skin,
inhalation and injection
tests on rabbits and other
animals: on the way out, no
longer an absolute
requirement.
We've just secured the
first-ever legal acceptance
of alternative test methods
and strategies that reduce
animal use by 40 to 70
percent.
And that's just the
beginning. Next up? After
this enormous victory for
animals and humane science in
Europe, we’re moving into the
world’s other major pesticide
markets -- the United States,
Canada, India and Brazil -- to
make sure animals everywhere
benefit from these advances.
We can only do this work
because of support from people
like you. Thank you so much for
all you do for animals.
Andrew Rowan, President & CEO,
Humane Society International
Tränare
opererade travhästen själv
Travhästen hade ont i
benet och den danske amtörtränaren ville
lindra besvären.
Då opererade han djuret själv – utan
bedövning. – Det är djupt förkastligt, säger
veterinären
Ole Bjørn Jensen blev kallad till stallet i
Danmark under onsdagen. Den sexåriga hästen
blödde våldsamt från det ena frambenet,
rapporterar TV2 Nord. – Jag tvivlade aldrig
att någon hade skurit hästen i benet.
Snitten var rena, pulsådern var av och
blodet sprutade ut då jag tog bort
förbandet, säger veterinären till
TV-kanalen. Han har nu anmält
händelsen till polisen och amatörtränaren
misstänks för grovt djurplågeri. – Det här
är det värsta jag sett någon göra mot ett
djur, säger veterinären. På kuskens
hemmabana ser man allvarligt på händelsen.
– Det är det värsta som jag upplevt under
min tid här som direktör. Det är mycket
tveksamt om han får ställa upp i lopp igen.
Vi vill inte ha djurmisshandlare på banan,
säger direktören på banan till TV2 Nord
Danska Travsportens Centralföbund vill inte
utesluta att amatörtränare kört sitt sista
lopp någonsin.
Friends
of Animals
Support Free-Living
Horses
Horse Advocates
Demand an End to Capture and Slaughter
Darien,
Conn. – In the past two weeks, 41 wild
horses have been slaughtered under a
new law that makes it easier to round
up older horses and kill them.
The recent
killings began on the 18th of April,
when Dustin Herbert of Oklahoma seized
upon a statute signed by President
Bush in December, and purchased six
horses in Colorado. The former rodeo
clown said the horses would be used
for a church youth program. Those
horses were later sent to the Cavel
International slaughterhouse in
DeKalb, Illinois. This week, 35 more
horses were killed at the same plant.
Friends of
Animals, an international animal
advocacy organization supported by
about 200,000 members, calls for a
full moratorium on the
government-sanctioned round-ups, sales
and slaughter of free-living horses.
The group
asks for a repeal of the Burns
Amendment, which reversed a 34-year
prohibition on the slaughter of wild
horses. The Amendment, attached to the
3,000-page 2005 Appropriations Bill,
enabled the Bureau of Land Management
to sell off horses older than 10 who
are not able to be adopted. Over 9,000
horses are currently at risk of being
sold to slaughter.
The
Bureau’s officials are under pressure
from the Department of the Interior to
cut herds in half by the end of 2005.
About 37,000 wild horses compete with
almost 95,000 cows on public lands,
according to the Department of
Agriculture, and ranchers are lobbying
for more expedient round-ups.
Said
Friends of Animals president Priscilla
Feral:
Increasingly, our society only
accepts other animals if they can be
made into commodities – even if that
means their death. So free-living
horses are deemed unacceptable,
particularly where they compete with
ranch lands for water, space and
sustenance. For those who respect
free-living animals, it’s simply not
enough to express outrage at their
deaths: We must also stop supporting
the profits of ranches. It’s time we
acknowledge the connection between
horsemeat and hamburgers.
Recommendations for action from
Friends of Animals:
Go to the
root. The most important step any
single member of the public can take
in support of horses is to adopt a
plant-based diet.
Demand
public accountability: Demand a
moratorium on the round-up and
slaughter of free-living horses.
Letters to your congress member should
begin by clearly protesting the Burns
Amendment to the 1971 Wild
Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. Urge
representatives to co-sponsor H.R.
297, introduced by Reps. Nick Rahall
(D-WV) and Ed Whitfield (R-KY). Urge
senators to co-sponsor S. 576,
introduced by Senator Robert Byrd
(D-WV).
Senator
Conrad Burns (fax: 202.224.8594)
introduced the wild horse slaughter
amendment, and found support from
Nevada Senators Harry Reid (fax:
202.224.7327) and John Ensign (fax:
202.228.2193). Concerned people
everywhere should protest their move
to privatize animals on federal lands.
At this
time, action by the Bureau of Land
Management is stalled in the
controversy. Keep the pressure on.
Write to Gale Norton, Secretary of the
Interior, 1849 C Street, N.W. ,
Washington DC 20240 (fax:
202.208.5048); Robert Abbey, Nevada
State Director, Bureau of Land
Management, 1340 Financial Blvd.,
Reno, NV 89502-2055 (fax:
775.861.6606); and Kathleen Clarke,
Director, Bureau of Land Management,
1849 C Street NW Rm. 406-LS,
Washington, D.C. 20240 (fax:
202.452.5124).
To track
legislation and locate your Congress
Members online, visit:
http://thomas.loc.gov
Dear Bent Bay,
With your help, both the U.S. Senate and
House of Representatives overwhelmingly
voted to ban horse slaughter in the United
States. All of your great work was essential
to these dual victories in Congress.
But that work is in danger of being undone!
We fear that the horse slaughter ban
is going to be stripped during
final passage of the Agriculture
Appropriations bill. We cannot allow this
outrageous action -- which would violate the
overwhelming majorities in both the House
and the Senate. If the horse slaughter ban
is dropped, nearly 100,000 horses will be
slaughtered for human consumption overseas
next year.
We have only days left before this issue is
decided.
Reach for your phone now and call
your two U.S. Senators and Representative in
Washington, D.C. and urge them to
oppose the final Agriculture Appropriations
conference report if it doesn't contain the
horse slaughter ban.
Worried about making a
phone call? It's simple! Your call will take
no more than two minutes. You will speak to
a staff assistant who will take your message
and pass it along to your Representative or
Senators. You can reach your members of
Congress through the Capitol Switchboard at
(202) 224-3121. If you need to to find out
who represents you,
click here.
Not sure what to say? Here's a sample phone
call script:
"Hello, I'm calling from [your town and
state] to let you know I've heard that the
ban on horse slaughter in the Agriculture
Appropriations bill is being stripped by
the conference committee. After landslide
votes in both House and Senate, that is an
outrage. I want [your Representative or
Senators' names] to oppose any Agriculture
Appropriations conference report that
doesn't include the ban on horse
slaughter. Thank you."
We need a massive outcry in the
halls of Congress immediately if we
hope to save our horses. Thank you for your
fast action on this critical issue.
Sincerely,
Wayne Pacelle
President & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States
New
Anti-Slaughter Amendment: What Does It Mean
for Horses?
28
October 2005 - In four months' time, under
an amendment passed with the 2006
agriculture appropriations bill,[1] the U.S.
Department of Agriculture will no longer be
allowed to provide the inspection necessary
to process horse meat for human consumption.
The measure also deems shipping horses to
other countries for slaughter illegal,
although there is no penalty for doing so.
Animal welfare groups are ecstatic, calling
the legislation a "historic victory on
behalf of country’s beloved horses."[2]
For certain horses,
that might be true. But others won't be so
fortunate.
Once enacted, the
amendment is only valid for one fiscal year;
in October of 2006, horse slaughter will be
up for Congressional debate once again. In
any case, horses not saved from human
consumption may be rendered for zoos or for
pet food.
While two of the
three horse slaughter plants in the United
States may see a dip in sales come February,
the Beltex Corporation in Fort Worth, Texas
will continue to stay in the business of
processing wild boars, ostriches, and bison.
[3]
The slaughtering of
horses is decried, in part, for its
foreignness. Much of the horse flesh is
shipped to places abroad such as Belgium and
Italy; the three slaughterhouses exporting,
we frequently hear, are also foreign-owned.
Yet it is the U.S.
government and U.S. ranchers, relying on
U.S. demand for beef and other animal
products, who remain unwilling to give up
their use of public land. And that is what
really pushes wild horses and burros off the
land and into slaughter. With less land
given to the ranching industry, the 41wild
horses found slaughtered in the Illinois
plant earlier this year might still be
alive.
In addition,
private owners across the United States will
still discard lame, old, outgrown, and
otherwise unwanted horses. Horses used for
sport and other large commercial purposes
also outlive their usefulness and are
discarded. An estimated 15,000 horses are
actually conceived as throwaways by the
menopausal hormone industry each year.
Because the legislation does not address the
root of the problem, the Congressional
debate will continue.
Horses serve us all
of their lives, say the animal welfare
proponents, and thus we ought to stop
slaughter. But it is precisely because we do
see horses as put on earth to serve us that
we wind up with the issue of how to dispose
of them. That won't go away so easily.
Until we stop
seeing horses as an item to be privatized
and traded -- whether for sport, for
companionship, or even for their iconic
value as symbols of romantic western ideals,
killing is inevitable.
Starting with the
few free-living horses still roaming the
plains and islands, an enlightened society
would ask how we can begin to respect these
animals on their own terms.
By Laurel Lundstrom
Friends of Animals
[1] House Amendment
236 of House Resolution 2744.
[2] “Ban on horse
slaughter survives Republican effort to kill
it,” Associated Press (26 Oct. 2005),
quoting Nancy Perry, vice president of
governmental affairs for the Humane Society
of the United States.
[3] Personal
Interviews, Beltex Corporation, Cavel
International and Dallas Crown
Slaughterhouses (28 Oct. 2005).
Dog Risks Life To
Save Injured Friend !
That happend
on a Highway in Chile. When
people do nothing, a dog
is helping his friend. See Video.
Auf einer
Autobahn bei Santiago de Chile
wird ein Hund von mehreren Autos
angefahren.
Kein Fahrzeug hält an, um zu
helfen. Ein anderer Hund läuft
auf die Fahrbahn, riskiert sein
eigenes Leben und zieht den
schwerverletzten Artgenossen auf
den Pannenstreifen.
Taschentücher beim Anschauen
dieses beeindruckenden Videos nicht vergessen –
das ist Liebe pur.
Tränare
opererade travhästen själv
Travhästen hade ont i
benet och den danske amtörtränaren ville
lindra besvären. 
