animal welfare

What happened to Angel’s Gate?

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A friend recently brought the news about Angel’s Gate to my attention and it has left me sad and extremely confused. To say that this organization was one that I looked up to and admired is an understatement. This hospice for animals began in a town away from my hometown. I volunteered with them, ran their 5K’s every summer, donated to them on a monthly basis and stood by them while they were being pushed out of their home by the town.

While I do support PETA, I also take everything they do and say with a grain of salt. Susan Marino was obviously in way over her head. It happens to many animal rescuers, and it is unfortunate.

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This statement was recently posted on the organization’s website:

As many of you know, for unknown reasons Angel’s Gate has been the target of an unwarranted attack.  Unfortunately, this has resulted in the circulation of many false accusations and rumors.

We here at Angel’s Gate, have created a gentle and compassionate environment to allow our resident animals to live out the final chapter of their lives with dignity and receive specialized care for their individual needs.  Anyone thinking otherwise simply hasn’t visited the facility or witnessed the extraordinary work accomplished on a daily basis by the committed and loving staff.

Angel’s Gate is not a shelter; it is a hospice and as such, many of the animals require care that most pet owners never have to contemplate.  Our residents’ health and safety are our primary concerns and we go to remarkable lengths to ensure their well-being.

We are appreciative of our supporters who continue to believe in us and our work as we go through this difficult ordeal.  We also hope there comes a day when animal care and rights groups start working with, and not against, each other.  We all have a common goal: ensuring the well-being of sentient creatures who, for better or worse, have found themselves at the mercy of our care.  Angel’s Gate hopes that you continue to support our mission so that we may provide for terminally ill animals and rehabilitate those with special needs in the future.

Sincerely,
The Board of Directors of Angel’s Gate

Mylostone – First Farm

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This Mylostone is a particularly personal one for me. As a vegetarian, it meant a lot to me to be able to introduce my son Mylo to farm animals. I apologize ahead of time if what I’m about to write offends you, but since becoming a vegetarian, I’ve always wondered how parents take their children to farms to feed and admire the cows, chickens and goats to then turn around and feed those same animals to them for dinner. My own folks included.

I’ve always intended to write in more detail about our decision to raise our children vegetarian but have sadly not gotten around to that post, (and others for that matter). My husband Jason is only vegetarian 75% of the time, but I am immensely grateful that I have his full support in bringing up Mylo as one. As he said to my parents when we explained to them of our wishes, “How can you really argue with a lifestyle that is healthy, environmentally responsible and compassionate.”

So you could imagine my delight at seeing my son hand-feed this bully billy goat a carrot in my hometown of Northport, NY — at the same farm I grew up visiting no less!

NYC AC&C New Hope Liaison Fired for Doing Her Job Well

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I was away on vacation when friend and fellow animal rescuer, Emily Tanen, was fired from her job as the New Hope Liaison at New York City’s Animal Care & Control.

Emily Tanen was fired from her job at AC&C for caring too much.

Because of the photos Emily took of at-risk dogs she then promoted via social media sites like Facebook, hundreds of dogs found forever homes and escaped being killed at the overcrowded city shelter. However according to AC&C, who is contracted by the Department of Health, Emily violated her contract by having people pose with the dogs in the photos.

One of Emily’s many heartbreaking albeit lifesaving photos.

While I am so sad for what Emily’s absence will mean for NYC’s homeless dogs – especially pitbulls – I have no doubt that she will go on to do tremendous and beautiful things.

Fellow writer and friend Michael Mullins covers the story in depth here.

Elephant Stomps on GoDaddy CEO

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Well, not exactly, but GoDaddy.com CEO’s recent killing of an African elephant DID stomp on his business.

I’ve always been looking for a reason to jump ship from the web-hosting company where I own eight domain names, including this one. And if their Super Bowl commercials featuring scantily-clad women wasn’t reason enough, then shooting an elephant sure as heck is.

The company’s CEO, Bob Parsons, recently shot an elephant in Zimbabwe and posted the graphic, misspelled subtitled footage in a video for the whole world to see, and then dubbed it a “humanitarian” expedition.

Note that I’m intentionally NOT linking to the video which shows the CEO and other hunters looking over a farmer’s damaged crops, shooting at elephants in the night. The subtitle which was evidently not spell checked reads: “Team waits until the elephant are close then turns on lights duct tapped to their rifles & opens fire.” Parsons is then shown smiling while posing with the dead bull. The video depicts “hungry villagers” the next morning stripping the dead animal of its flesh while donning GoDaddy.com hats. The most boorish part of the video is set to AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells,” and is nothing more than an unscrupulous, self-promoting plug for the company.

If only this poor elephant could rise from the dead and wipe that grin off Bob Parsons face.

Parsons, who’s second elephant hunt this was, told myFox Phoenix that he is not ashamed of what he did. “All these people that are complaining that this shouldn’t happen, that these people who are starving to death otherwise shouldn’t eat these elephants, you probably see them driving through at McDonald’s or cutting a steak. These people [Zimbabwe villagers] don’t have that option.”

While I don’t condone the killing of any animal for human consumption, whether it be cows at slaughterhouses to hunting elephants, what I think is worth questioning is the need for an American CEO to carry out this gruesome task for the African villagers while shamelessly promoting his company.

After reading that Namecheap.com, a GoDaddy.com competitor, recently ran a promotion to raise money for the endangered elephants in Africa I decided it was time to leave GoDaddy. Coupon code (BYEBYEGD) allowed up to 10 domain transfers at just $4.99 per domain, $1 per domain of which was transferred to Save the Elephants. Namecheap raised $20,433 for the elephants in Africa.

Even though I missed out on Namecheap’s promotion (and boy do I love a good deal), it’s still worth jumping. To join me in transferring your domain from GoDaddy.com to Namecheap.com, click here.

What Parsons does not know is that elephants are extremely intelligent, sensitive animals, and that there are strategies that exist to protect them which combine community and creativity. As Stephanie Feldstein wrote on Change.org last November, conservationists and farmers have devised plenty of clever and harmless methods of keeping elephants away from crops.

For example, draped fences made out of string first dipped in chili-infused grease (because elephants don’t like chili peppers), or elaborate cowbell systems that trigger wires to warn when the intruders arrive, are just two ways to preserve villagers’ crops and preserve an ancient species who is highly social and intelligent.

It’s doubtful, but perhaps next year Parsons will trade in his rifle for a cowbell.

Swimming With Dolphins

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I decided to write this post after I recently came across a fellow mom blog who had a detailed bucket list of things she would like to do in her life before she kicks it. Swimming with dolphins was one of them.

I’m not linking to this woman’s blog, who happens to be a TV news reporter, as she doesn’t need to be attacked by animal rights activists. But as a fellow parent who’s job it is to teach our children compassion and as a fellow writer and sometimes journalist who’s job requires being a savvy researcher, I was disappointed to see that swimming with dolphins was up there with visiting another country and opening a 401(k).

I don’t think people understand that more harm than good is being done when you swim with dolphins who are in captive environments. So here it is folks…

For starters, the capturing of dolphins is traumatic and stressful and often results in injury and death.

Dolphins are trained to look as if they perform because they like it. This isn’t the case. Tailwalking and playing ball are trained behaviors that do not occur in the wild. Dolphins perform because they have been deprived of food. Hold food in front of me when I am famished and I too would jump through hoops to get to it.

Most captive dolphins are confined in minuscule tanks containing chemically treated artificial seawater. Dolphins in a tank are severely restricted in using their highly developed sonar, which is one of the most damaging aspects of captivity. It is similar to forcing a person to live in a maze of mirrors for the rest of their life – their image always bouncing back with no clear direction in sight.

Perhaps the saddest part of dolphin captivity is how short their lives are. The average life span of a dolphin in the wild is 45 years; yet half of all captured dolphins die within their first two years of captivity. The survivors last an average of only five years in captivity.

Wild dolphins can swim 40 to 100 miles per day – in pools they go around in circles.

The truth behind swimming with dolphins could help set them free.

These are simple facts that people and especially parents, should know. If you think it would be cute to get snapshots of your spawn swimming with dolphins during your next vacation to Atlantis in the Bahamas, please, think again.

Bittman Bites Down on Agribusiness

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I recently read a post by Mark Bittman about the new bills that were recently introduced by Florida and Iowa that aim to crack down on people who shoot photographs and videos of agricultural operations. In other words, big-farma is fed up with the undercover work exposing the vast inhumane treatment and suffering of farm animals.

Bittman writes:

The Florida bill would require anyone wishing to photograph a farm to first secure written permission from the owner. And what if they don’t? First-degree felony. The implicit goal here is to deter and criminalize damning undercover exposés like this one. The bill would also make it illegal for an agenda-less passerby to snap a picture of a farm from the side of the road, but my best guess is that those “crimes” might not be prosecuted quite so diligently.

As for the Iowa bill, we get this gem from the Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA): “It is imperative that activists be held accountable for their actions to undermine farmers, ranchers and meat processors through use of videos depicting alleged mistreatment of animals for the purposes of gaining media attention and fundraising—all in an effort to drive their vegan agenda.”

If activists, radical vegans, or whatever you want to call them, break the law by sneaking onto private property to document animal or farm worker abuses, then yes, they should be held accountable for their actions – though unless I’m misinformed, that’s what trespass law is for. But these people shouldn’t have to sneak the cameras into the farms that are torturing animals or mistreating workers: the cameras should already be there. It should be the state’s responsibility to find and monitor the few farmers that are giving the rest of them a bad name. You want to quiet the crazy vegans with the video cameras? Do their job for them.

It’s so true. Quiet the crazies by making it a state law to monitor the farmers that practice inhumane farming.

While most vegans advocate for plant-based diets, most vegetarians, myself included, understand that man can’t live on plants alone. I think it is a waste of time to even lobby for that. But as meat eaters, I think it is incumbent on man to come up with more humane ways to end these creatures’ lives.

As an animal welfare advocate who does not eat meat, I would be honored to live to see that day. According to animal rights philosopher Peter Singer, I will.

If what Singer says is true, that by 2020 all farm animals will be able to stand up, lie down, walk around, and stretch their limbs, then who knows, I may even start eating meat again.

Ok, so I’m probably exaggerating but it’s my way of trying to remain level-headed about something that deep-down inside, I am raging about.

14 Pitbulls Rescued in Bronx Fire

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Update

Dog Habitat Rescue in Brooklyn, is fostering the mama pit and her four newborns. All are said to be doing well despite their ordeal. Mama is extremely malnourished, but still able to feed, nursing her foursome regularly.

A big thanks goes out to Dog Habitat for stepping in!

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The story proclaims that the 14 pitbulls who were rescued from a fire in the Bronx yesterday were taken to the ASPCA, however the video shows New York City’s Animal Care & Control taking the pups away.

Even the news reporter refers to the dogs going to a local shelter? Why is it that ACC can never get any love? They are a city-funded and grossly underfunded shelter. Their budget pales in comparison with the ASPCA’s.

As for the pitbulls, that fire might have been the best thing that ever happened to them. Whether they get adopted or put down, it beats a life of breeding and fighting, which is most likely why they were holed up in the apartment in the first place.

A NYC fireman carries one of 14 pitbulls in a burning building, to safety.

 

NYC Tightens Leash on Dog Laws

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Enrique, as an animal welfare advocate and animal rescuer I do not support breeding, not even the most responsibl­e of responsibl­e breeding. I understand why you called me biased and I don’t disagree, this is after all a blog, which expresses my opinion. Until the homeless rate and euthanasia rates are down in this country, I stand vehemently against breeding of any kind. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.
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Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

NYC Ups The Ante On Dog Laws

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Alas, two bills were passed by the city council Tuesday aimed at protecting dogs in New York City. Now Mayor Mike just needs to sign them into affect!

The first one takes aim at people who tie their dogs up outside in all weather for hours and sometimes even days at a time. The second looks to a more than 50% increase in the licensing fee for dogs that are not spayed or neutered.

NY1 covered the story and posted a video here: http://tinyurl.com/4kuw95s

Also published on Huffington Post.