Advocacy For Animals

by Gregory McNamee

There’s good news to report on during this festive week: Namely, that researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added 137 species to the annals of life: 83 arthropods, 41 fishes, seven plants, four sea slugs, a reptile, and an amphibian—numbers that are just as it should be in the great chain of energy, with, ideally, lots of little things and a few big things.

One of the new critters is a clawed cave spider called Trogloraptor, which represents not just a new species but also an entirely new family. A native of the Pacific Northwest rainforest, it is the first new spider family from North America to be described in a hundred years. Other newcomers arrive by way of Africa, the Galapagos Islands, and the Andaman Sea, and elsewhere around the world. For a complete list of the species discovered and their provenance, visit the Academy here.

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Where might one find the most biologically rich place on the planet? The Pacific Northwest is a good candidate, but one less touched by humans can be found in northwestern Bolivia, a very remote stretch of territory. There, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, can be found the most biologically diverse place on Earth, and the subject of another list enumerating more than 200 species of mammals, 12,000 plant types, almost 300 types of fish, and fully 11 percent of the world’s bird species. Those species are sheltered at Madidi National Park, comprising mountains reaching nearly 20,000 feet and dense lowland forests, some of which have yet to be mapped. It sounds like a very good place to find still more new species, come to think of it.

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More good news, at least of a sort: the world’s rarest cetacean, the spade-toothed whale, has been seen for the very first time. The bad news attendant in it, reports Scientific American, is that the whale was dead—two, in fact, a mother and a calf that had beached in New Zealand. The good news is that knowing where the whale lives—and that the whale lives—will help in conservation efforts. continue reading…

by Daniel Lutz

— Our thanks to the Animal Legal Defense Fund for permission to republish this post, which originally appeared on the ALDF Blog on December 21, 2012. Lutz is ALDF’s Litigation Fellow.

This week, ALDF joined forces with Center for Food Safety (CFS) to petition the FDA to rethink its mistaken approval of high levels of the dangerous animal drug ractopamine.

On the factory farm, ractopamine is mixed into animal feed to make leaner meat. Its actual effects run the gamut in bringing about suffering. Ractopamine is known to cause tremors, chronically elevated heart rates, broken limbs, higher risks of hoof lesions, and death in farm animals. Scientists associate the drug with both non-ambulatory (“downer”) and over-excited behavior. The effects are no small matter: 60 to 80 percent of U.S. pigs are treated with ractopamine, and the FDA has received over 160,000 reports of pig suffering since the drug was approved in 1999.

ALDF’s petition shines a light into the shadowy overlap between human health and animal welfare threats in food production. Ractopamine is added to cattle, pig and turkey feed for several weeks before the slaughterhouse. Application of the drug for any longer before slaughter risks putting the animals in a condition unsuitable for even the low standards of factory meat. Because ractopamine operates within animal muscles, its residues remain locked into the meat.

Foreign markets, such as the European Union, China, and most recently Russia, have banned imports of meat with any traces of ractopamine residue. Their consumers don’t want to taste the tremors. By petitioning the FDA to significantly lower allowable levels of ractopamine use, ALDF and CFS have pushed the U.S. to follow suit.

More information

Read the press release on ALDF’s recent petition to the FDA

by Anita Wolff

Holidays are highly stimulating to pets as well as to people: there are breaks in the routine, the introduction of shiny objects, greenery brought inside, excited people, displays of good-smelling delicacies, party guests and house guests, long absences for visiting. Pets take part in our preparations and our social experiences. It can all be a bit overwhelming for them, especially to young pets who have never experienced this uproar before. Advocacy for Animals offers some tips to keep both pets and holiday decorations intact.

Remove temptations rather than trying to guard them; it’s a form of toddler-proofing that will make for a more relaxed time for everyone.

When guests are present, make sure your pets have access to a quiet place where they can get away from noise, traffic, and small children. Give your pet a respite during meals or after greeting and settling guests. A pet crate is ideal, as is a separate room out of the action. Keep up pets’ regular mealtimes and exercise schedule. Older, experienced pets may mix well with guests, but all pets should be supervised around children. Block off hazardous areas with puppy gates when you will be gone for long periods of time or are unable to monitor pets effectively. continue reading…

Each week the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) sends out an e-mail alert called “Take Action Thursday,” which tells subscribers about current actions they can take to help animals. NAVS is a national, not-for-profit educational organization incorporated in the State of Illinois. NAVS promotes greater compassion, respect, and justice for animals through educational programs based on respected ethical and scientific theory and supported by extensive documentation of the cruelty and waste of vivisection. You can register to receive these action alerts and more at the NAVS Web site.

This week’s Take Action Thursday celebrates a new NIH decision to transfer 110 chimpanzees to a permanent sanctuary, reveals the result of ALDF’s annual state animal protection law rankings, and summarizes a recent ruling concerning Ernest Hemingway’s cats. continue reading…

by Matthew Liebman and Daniel Lutz

— Our thanks to the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) for permission to republish this post, which originally appeared on the ALDF Blog on December 13, 2012. Liebman is ALDF’s Senior Attorney, and Lutz is ALDF’s Litigation Fellow.

Elephants confined in zoos often face a parade of horribles, and ALDF is responding on all fronts.

This week, ALDF called on the Oregon Zoo to void a cruel agreement that gives ownership of newborn baby elephant Lily to known abuser Have Trunk Will Travel. The contract reveals a sinister side of zoo breeding programs that zoos tout as helping to recover dwindling species populations. After weaning in front of adoring zoo visitors, babies like Lily can be transferred into the anonymity of the entertainment industry. With full ownership rights to Lily, Have Trunk Will Travel has free rein to cart Lily down to their ranch and install her within the ranks of abused elephants who toil for human entertainment. Have Trunk Will Travel’s methods of training elephants for entertainment are notoriously abusive: a recent undercover video shows the company’s employees and owners using sharp metal bullhooks and stun guns on adult and baby elephants. ALDF will continue to pressure the Oregon Zoo to ensure its new baby Lily remains free from cruel entertainment labor.

Yet life as a zoo exhibit is not necessarily without suffering. ALDF’s efforts to highlight the plight of elephants in inadequate and outdated zoo exhibits were validated last week by an extensive, two-part report by the Seattle Times on the Woodland Park Zoo and its elephants, Bamboo, Chai, Watoto, Sri, and the late Hansa.

The story confirmed what ALDF alleged in the lawsuit it filed on behalf of Washington residents against the City of Seattle in 2010: that the Woodland Park Zoo’s elephant exhibit causes these animals to suffer unjustifiably and that its breeding program, far from being a promising avenue for conserving these endangered animals, is a cruel failure. continue reading…