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In Medinaceli, a picturesque town in the province of Soria, Spain, a "tradition" called "Toro Júbilo" brings shame on Spain. On the second weekend in November, balls of pitch (a sticky black substance made from tar or turpentine) will once again be stuck onto the horns of a bull and set on fire. The burning bull is called "Toro de Fuego" (literally "bull on fire").
The bull is then released onto the streets and can do nothing but run around in pain. The bull often smashes into walls in an attempt to douse the fire. The agony the bull must suffer is unimaginable. These fiery balls can burn for hours, and they burn the bull's horns, body and eyes and cause tremendous stress – all while spectators cheer and run around the victim.
Please click here to send pre written letter to Spanish officials
STOP THE BULLFIGHT!!
From the moment the bull enters the ring, he is destined to die. His death will be slow and painful, and the last moments of his life will be full of terror and confusion as he hears the sounds of a jeering crowd. For the bull, bullfighting is no “competition”. It is simply slaughter for human entertainment.
During a typical bullfight, the bull is first taunted by picadors – men who ride on the backs of blindfolded horses and thrust metal lances into the terrified bull’s back and neck, twisting and gouging the lances in order to impair the bull’s ability to move and ensure that he loses as much blood as possible.
Next, banderilleros run around the bull and plunge banderillas – brightly coloured harpoon sticks – into his already bloodied and mutilated back. The harpoons tear the animal’s flesh, adding to his torment. When the bull is significantly weakened, the banderilleros run in circles around him until he is too dizzy and weak to continue.
Then the matador appears and provokes the exhausted animal into charging once more. The matador often doesn’t succeed in killing the bull, which adds to the animal’s suffering. If the matador doesn’t kill the bull, an executioner is called in to sever the bull’s spinal cord with a dagger. In a final act of degradation, the bull is then dragged from the arena by his horns. The bull is often still conscious and twitching as his ears and tail are cut off and held up as “trophies” before the jeering crowd.
Bullfighting is a cruel, abhorrent blood sport that should have been relegated to the history books a long time ago. The torment, mutilation and death of these magnificent animals must be stopped.Music
Australia exports millions of sheep and thousands of cattle each year to the Middle East where there are no laws to protect them from acts of cruelty.
..More videos from Animals Australia
Sheep are regularly bought by individual buyers for home slaughter. They are trussed with rope and shoved into car boots in a region where temperatures are regularly above 40°C in Summer. In abattoirs and private homes sheep face a terrifying slaughter, as their throats will be cut whilst fully conscious.Movies
Millions of households have pets, and billions of dollars are spent yearly on pet supplies and food. But as a nation, we should take a hard, sobering look at a different annual statistic: the millions of dogs and cats given up to shelters or left to die on the streets.
Every cat or dog who dies as a result of pet overpopulation—whether in a shelter or by injury, disease or neglect—is an animal who, more often than not, would have made a wonderful companion, if given the chance.
Tremendous as the problem of pet overpopulation is, it can be solved if each of us takes just one small step, starting with not allowing our animals to breed.
Australia exports approximately 3 million kangaroo skins, worth more than £12 million, to Europe and the USA every year. The vast majority of these skins are used to make football boots, some are used for golf gloves, baseball mitts and other sports goods. Products are often labelled “K leather” or “RKT” (rubberised kangaroo technology) to disguise the fact that they are made from the skins of butchered kangaroos.
With all three horse slaughter plants in the U.S. now closed, and horses being trucked by the tens of thousands to Mexico and Canada for slaughter, passage of a permanent slaughter ban to prohibit horse slaughter - and the transport of horses for this purpose – is crucial.
Horses are still being crowded into trucks, enduring hours without food, water and rest, and driven to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. Undercover footage shows the extreme suffering endured by horses shipped across our borders to slaughter plants in Mexico. Crammed onto crowded trailers with no regard for age, sex breed, condition or temperament, the horses are transported for hours and sometimes days a time, horses without food, water or rest. It is not uncommon for these animals to arrive at the plants dead or seriously injured.
Prior to the closure of all three foreign-owned plans in the U.S., over 100,000 horses were being slaughtered in the United States and processed for human consumption. Now, tens of thousands of live horses are transported across the border to Mexico and Canada for slaughter. After these horses are killed, their flesh is shipped to Europe and Asia for human consumption. Their owners are often unaware of the pain, fear, and suffering their horses endure before being slaughtered.
Television
America's wolves were nearly eradicated in the 20th century. Now, after a remarkable recovery in parts of the country, our wolves are once again in serious danger.
In Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies On March 6th, 2009, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the Bush Administration's discredited plan to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in Idaho and Montana -- a decision that could lead to the deaths of more than 1,000 wolves!
In Alaska More than 1,000 wolves in Alaska have been killed by aerial gunning since 2003, and state officials are pushing to kill even more wolves this year using aerial gunning, poison gas and snares.Books
In Japan, fishermen round up and slaughter hundreds and even thousands of dolphins and other small whales each year. In the small fishing village of Taiji, entire schools of dolphins are driven into a hidden cove after a prolonged chase. Once trapped inside the cove, the fishermen kill the dolphins, slashing their throats with knives or stabbing them with spears. The water turns red with their blood, and the air fills with their screams.
This brutal massacre — the largest scale dolphin kill in the world — goes on for six months of every year. Even more scandalous, members of the international dolphin display industry take advantage of the dolphin slaughter to obtain some few, show-quality dolphins for use in captive dolphin shows and dolphin swim programs.
It is commonly assumed that Japanese fishermen hunt dolphins to supply a small minority of Japanese people with dolphin meat. But unlike the expensive whale meat, dolphin meat is not considered a delicacy in Japan, and the real reason the Japanese government issues permits to kill dolphins by the thousands every year has nothing to do with food culture. It has to do with pest control. As shocking as it sounds, some Japanese government officials view dolphins as pests to be eradicated in huge numbers. During a meeting at Taiji City Hall, the fishermen of Taiji admitted this. "We don’t kill the dolphins primarily for their meat. We kill them as a form of pest control," In other words, killing the competition is their way of preserving the ocean’s fish for themselves.
Most likely in order to push the food culture issue even further, the Japanese government recently introduced pilot whale meat to children's school lunch programs, despite the fact that the meat is tainted with mercury and not fit for human consumption. The Japanese government and the dolphin hunters do not warn the Japanese people of this danger, although the dolphin meat should be labeled as toxic. Much of the tainted dolphin meat ends up as counterfeit whale meat in Tokyo and other large cities.
The fishermen say they kill the dolphins "quickly and humanely." That's an outright lie. The methods used to kill the dolphins are so savage, it's hard to believe it unless you witness it for yourself. And once you've seen it, the images and sounds of the screaming dolphins never go away. The fishermen know that the world will be outraged when the truth gets out. And so, guided by their government, they hide behind phrases such as "food culture" and "tradition." They even once told us they are proud of what they do. If they had told us they were having fun while killing dolphins, we would have believed them. We have heard them laugh out loud as they were throwing spears at the dolphins and hauling them ashore with ropes, or dragging still live dolphins by their tail flukes to be slaughtered. If they were really proud of this, then why do they go to such extreme measures hiding it? Why won’t they even let their own people know about the hunt? We asked them this once, and the answer was: "It is none of their business." But it is their business. The Japanese people have every right to know about the dolphin slaughter. And they have a right to know about the mercury-poisoned dolphin meat that is being fed to their children.
"Each year, tens of thousands of nursing seal pups are cruelly clubbed and stabbed to death in Namibia for their fur," said Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International Canada. "With markets for seal products closing, the Namibian sealing industry is clearly desperate to hide the shocking images of this globally condemned slaughter from the public."
Commercial seal slaughters are horrific and cruel processes. The reported attacks on seal hunt observers in Namibia are, regrettably, not unusual outbursts around such events. In Canada, HSI seal hunt observers, independent journalists and parliamentarians are routinely threatened, harassed and physically attacked to prevent them from documenting the seal hunt.
Click here to write to Namibia
Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark's fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water). Shark fins are being "harvested" in ever greater numbers to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup, an Asian "delicacy".
Not only is the finning of sharks barbaric, but their indiscriminate slaughter at an unsustainable rate is pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Since the 1970s the populations of several species have been decimated by over 95%. Due to the clandestine nature of finning, records are rarely kept of the numbers of sharks and species caught. Estimates are based on declared imports to shark fin markets such as Hong Kong and China.
Click here to sign petitions to end shark finning
Whales are sensitive, social animals with highly developed nervous systems. They have a profound capacity to suffer distress, terror and pain. Each year, the Faroese kill pilot whales and other small cetaceans.
Islanders in motorboats first drive the whales into a bay. The chase may be lengthy. The exhausted, terrified and confused whales are eventually driven into the shallows. Here the bloodbath begins. The islanders repeatedly hammer 2.2 kg metal gaffs into the living flesh of each whale until the hooks hold. A 15 cm knife is then used to slash through the blubber and flesh to the spinal column. Next the main blood vessels are severed. The blood-stained bay is soon filled with horribly mutilated and dying whales.
The Faroese celebrate the butchery of their victims in an carnival atmosphere of entertainment. Indoctrinated from an early age, children are often given a day off school to watch the fun. They run down to the bay and clamber over the carcasses of slaughtered whales.
Every year around 2,000 whales are driven ashore and cruelly slaughtered in the Faroe Islands, mid-way between the Shetland Islands and Iceland. For centuries the Faroe Islanders have hunted pilot whales, driving entire schools into killing bays, where they are speared or gaffed from boats, dragged ashore and butchered with knives. Although the Islands are a protectorate of Denmark, they have their own Government and regulations governing the pilot whale hunt or "grind" as it is known.
Aside from the fact that the number of North Atlantic long-finned pilot whales is unknown and they are listed as 'strictly protected' by the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, this is an act of barbarism and pointlessness. By slaughtering 100 whales at a time, the Faroese are wiping out entire pods and family groups. They are removing building blocks from the gene pool of the species and damaging the web of life in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.
The drive hunt is a practice abandoned elsewhere many decades ago, and now outlawed by other European states. The inhabitants of the Faroe Islands have no subsistence need for whale meat, and much of the flesh is left to rot and be dumped; it cannot be exported, as it is polluted with heavy metals and other toxins and therefore cannot meet EU heath standards for human food.
According to Faroese legislation it is also permitted to hunt certain species of small cetaceans other than pilot whales. These include: Bottlenose dolphin; Atlantic white-beaked dolphin; Atlantic white-sided dolphin; and Harbour porpoise (There are also specific regulations for the hunting of harbour porpoise. Harbour porpoises are killed with shotguns).Heroes
Food Animal Counter
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- Status: Single
- Here for: Networking, Friends
- Hometown: London
- Orientation: Straight
- Body type: 5' 6" / More to love!
- Ethnicity: White / Caucasian
- Zodiac Sign: Virgo
- Children: I don't want kids
- Smoke / Drink: No / No
- Education: High school
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The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise their families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything that is natural to them. They won't even feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.
Animals on today's factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions.
The factory farming system of modern agriculture strives to maximize output while minimizing costs. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and other animals are kept in small cages, in jam-packed sheds, or on filthy feedlots, often with so little space that they can't even turn around or lie down comfortably. They are deprived of exercise so that all their bodies' energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption. The giant corporations that run most factory farms have found that they can make more money by cramming animals into tiny spaces, even though many of the animals get sick and some die. Industry journal National Hog Farmer explains, "Crowding Pigs Pays," and egg-industry expert Bernard Rollins writes that "chickens are cheap; cages are expensive."
They are fed drugs to fatten them faster and to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them, and they are genetically altered to grow faster or to produce much more milk or eggs than they would naturally. Many animals become crippled under their own weight and die within inches of water and food.
While the suffering of all animals on factory farms is similar, each type of farmed animal faces different types of cruelty.
The 9 million cows living on dairy farms in the United States spend most of their lives in large sheds or on feces-caked mud lots, where disease is rampant.3 Cows raised for their milk are repeatedly impregnated. Their babies are taken away so that humans can drink the milk intended for the calves. When their exhausted bodies can no longer provide enough milk, they are sent to slaughter and ground up for hamburgers.
Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do: to nourish their babies. In order to force the animals to continue giving milk, factory farmers impregnate them using artificial insemination every year. Calves are generally taken from their mothers within a day of being born—males are destined for veal crates, and females are sentenced to the same fate as their mothers.
Mother cows on dairy farms can often be seen searching and calling for their calves long after they have been separated. Author Oliver Sacks, M.D., wrote of a visit that he and cattle expert Dr. Temple Grandin made to a dairy farm and of the great tumult of bellowing that they heard when they arrived: “‘They must have separated the calves from the cows this morning,’ Temple said, and, indeed, this was what had happened. We saw one cow outside the stockade, roaming, looking for her calf, and bellowing. ‘That’s not a happy cow,’ Temple said. ‘That’s one sad, unhappy, upset cow. She wants her baby. Bellowing for it, hunting for it. She’ll forget for a while, then start again. It’s like grieving, mourning—not much written about it. People don’t like to allow them thoughts or feelings.’”
After their calves are taken from them, mother cows are hooked up, several times a day, to machines that take the milk intended for their babies. Using genetic manipulation, powerful hormones, and intensive milking, factory farmers force cows to produce about 10 times as much milk as they naturally would.5 Animals are pumped full of bovine growth hormone (BGH), which contributes to painful inflammation of the udder known as “mastitis.” (BGH is used throughout the U.S., but has been banned in Europe and Canada because of concerns over human health and animal welfare.)6 According to the industry’s own figures, between 30 and 50 percent of dairy cows suffer from mastitis, an extremely painful condition.
A cow’s natural lifespan is 25 years, but cows used by the dairy industry are killed after only four or five years.8 An industry study reports that by the time they are killed, nearly 40 percent of dairy cows are lame because of the filth, intensive confinement, and the strain of constantly being pregnant and giving milk.9 Dairy cows are turned into soup, companion animal food, or low-grade hamburger meat because their bodies are too “spent” to be used for anything else.
Veal Calves
Male calves—“byproducts” of the dairy industry—are generally taken from their mothers when they are less than 1 day old.10 The calves are then put into dark, tiny crates, where they are kept almost completely immobilized so that their flesh stays tender. The calves are fed a liquid diet that is low in iron and has little nutritive value in order to make their flesh white. This heinous treatment makes the calves ill, and they frequently suffer from anemia, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Frightened, sick, and alone, these calves are killed after only a few months of life. “Veal” is the flesh of a tortured, sick baby cow, and a byproduct of the milk industry.
All adult and baby cows, whether raised for their flesh or their milk, are eventually shipped to a slaughterhouse and killed.
The 340 million chickens raised for their eggs, called “laying hens” by the industry, endure a nightmare that lasts for two years.22 A large portion of each hen’s beak is cut off with a burning-hot blade, and no painkillers are used. Many birds, unable to eat because of the pain, die from dehydration and weakened immune systems. After enduring these mutilations, hens are shoved into tiny wire “battery” cages, which measure roughly 18 by 20 inches and hold five to 11 hens (McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Safeway allow a maximum of five birds per cage), each of whom have a wingspan of 32 inches. Even in the best scenario (five hens to a cage), each hen will spend the rest of her life crowded in a space about the size of a file drawer with four other hens, unable to lift even a single wing.
Battery cages are stacked on top of each other, and excrement constantly falls onto the birds in the lower cages and into huge manure pits that line the sheds. The stench of ammonia and feces hangs heavy in the air, and disease runs rampant in the filthy, cramped sheds. Many birds die, and survivors are often forced to live with their dead and dying cagemates, who are left to rot. The light in the sheds is constantly manipulated in order to maximize egg production. Periodically, for two weeks at a time, the hens are only fed reduced-calorie feed. This process induces an extra laying cycle.
Male chicks are worthless to the egg industry, so every year, millions of them are tossed into trash bags to suffocate or are thrown into high-speed grinders called macerators while they are still alive.
After two years in these conditions, the hens’ bodies are exhausted, and their egg production drops. These “spent” hens are shipped to slaughterhouses, where their fragile legs are snapped into shackles and their throats are cut. By the time they are sent to slaughter, roughly 29 percent of the hens are suffering from broken bones resulting from neglect and rough treatment.25 Their emaciated bodies are so damaged that their flesh can generally be used only for chicken noodle soup, companion-animal food, or “canned, boned, and diced” meat, much of which goes to the National School Lunch Program (these purchases are in jeopardy, however, as students have been injured by accidentally swallowing bone fragments).
Each year over 50 million animals—including millions of dogs and cats—are killed for their fur worldwide. Although the fur industry does its best to keep the cruelty out of sight, suffering is a common ingredient in all methods of procuring fur, from fur factory farming to trapping. Many, perhaps more than half, of these animals are killed specifically for fur trim—it is not a by-product.
Dog and Cat Victims
Few people realize the true scale of suffering wild animals endure for the fur trade. But even less well known is that buying fur or fur trim supports an industry that also kills millions of domestic dogs and cats each year.
Although the majority of dog and cat victims are raised and killed in China and other parts of Asia, their fur is exported for sale worldwide.
Only a handful of countries have banned dog and cat fur, but the European Union has publicly stated it intends to seek a ban in the near future.
China—Unimaginable Cruelty, Exporter to the World
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Pledge to go fur-free at PETA.org.
Pledge to go fur-free at PETA.org.
China is a leading country in number of animals—including dogs and cats—killed for their fur, and in the amount of fur exported to other countries, including the United States. Raccoon dogs have been documented being skinned alive in China; their fur is sold here.
Seal Pups Clubbed and Shot
Canada's annual seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet. Hundreds of thousands of seals are killed for their pelts each year, with many skinned alive.
Trapping of Wildlife, Dogs and Cats
Millions of wild animals, including lynx, bobcats and wolves, suffer and die in traps each year. Countless dogs and cats, deer, birds and other animals—including threatened and endangered animals—are also injured and killed each year by the indiscriminate traps.
Newborn and Fetal Karakul Lambs
As if peddling the skin and fur of a tortured, electrocuted adult animal weren't bad enough, some heartless designers take fashion cruelty to a whole new level with a particularly grisly "killer" look: astrakhan, also known as "broadtail" or "Persian wool"—the fur of newborn and fetal karakul lambs who are bred by the thousands in Central Asia for the bloody fur trade.
Fur Factory Farms
On fur factory farms and squalid backyard operations around the world, over 45 million animals, including raccoon dogs, rabbits, foxes, mink and chinchillas, spend their short lives in tiny wire cages until they are killed by methods such as neck-breaking and anal electrocution. Raccoon dog fur from China—where the animals are smashed to the ground, and live skinning takes place—is being sold in the United States.
Vivisection means the 'cutting up' of living animals, but has now become more generally used as the term for all experiments on living animals as many animal experiments, such as poisoning tests, will not involve surgical procedures. It is estimated that over 100 million animals suffer every year in laboratory experiments world-wide. Animals bred for research that are subsequently killed as 'surplus' are not included in these numbers.
There has been a huge increase in the number of animals - particularly mice and rats - used in genetic engineering experiments and this is predicted to continue to increase in the future.
WHAT ANIMALS ARE USED IN EXPERIMENTS
A wide variety of animals are used for experimentation.
Rats and mice are used in a large proportion of experiments, because they are easy to handle and cheap to keep. They occupy less space in a laboratory than larger animals and can produce 50 - 100 babies a year.
Rabbits are commonly used for eye and skin tests because they are easy to handle and they have a very limited ability to 'cry away' substances from their eyes during experiments.
Guinea pigs are also commonly used in skin testing and batch testing for substances such as vaccines. Dogs and primates are commonly used in toxicity testing, brain research, dental research and surgical experiments. The most common breed of laboratory dog is the beagle, chosen primarily because they are good-natured and a manageable size for testing procedures.
Primates such as baboons, macaques, marmosets and chimps continue to be used in their thousands.
Other animals commonly used for research include cats, birds, fish, pigs, horses, sheep and hamsters, but many other species are used as well.
WHAT TYPE OF EXPERIMENTS ARE ANIMALS USED IN?
Animals are used in many different types of experiments; all experiments cause pain and suffering. The animals involved will either die as a result of the experiment or be deliberately killed afterwards, often for post mortem examination.
In the laboratory an animal may be poisoned; deprived of food, water or sleep; applied with skin and eye irritants; subjected to psychological stress; deliberately infected with disease; brain damaged; paralysed; surgically mutilated; irradiated; burned; gassed; force fed and electrocuted. Researchers around the world use animals to test or develop almost anything from household products, cosmetics and food additives to pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, agrochemicals, pet foods, medical devices and tobacco and alcohol products.
Genetic engineering experiments subject animals to myriad forms of physical deformity as well as more subtle forms of suffering.
Military experiments subject animals to the effects of poisonous gas, decompression sickness, blast wounds, burns and radiation as they assess new and existing weapons and surgical techniques 'in the field'. Animals are even used in 'curiosity driven' research. In fact, almost all of the products used and consumed by humans every day around the world, will have been tested on animals at some point in time.
Who I'd like to meet:
Canada's annual commercial seal hunt is the largest commercial hunt of marine mammals on the planet. Facing harsh criticism the world over because of the hunt's cruelty and unsustainability, the Canadian government and fishing industry have spread much misinformation.
Which Seals Are Targeted by Canada's Seal Hunt?
Harp seals are the primary target of the commercial seal hunt, and to a much smaller extent, hooded seals are also killed. In 2006, 98 percent of the harp seals killed were pups under just three months of age.
Where Are the Seals Killed?
Canada's commercial seal hunt occurs on the ice floes off Canada's East Coast in two areas: the Gulf of St. Lawrence (west of Newfoundland and east of the Magdalen Islands) and the "Front" (northeast of Newfoundland).
....Who Kills Seals?
Sealing is an off-season activity conducted by fishermen from Canada's East Coast. They make, on average, a small fraction of their annual incomes from sealing—and the rest from commercial fisheries.
How Are the Seals Killed?
The Canadian Marine Mammal Regulations, which govern the hunt, stipulate sealers may kill seals with wooden clubs, hakapiks (large ice-pick-like clubs) and guns. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, clubs and hakapiks are the killing implement of choice, and in the Front, guns are more widely used.
It is important to note that each killing method is demonstrably cruel. Because sealers shoot at seals from moving boats, the pups are often only wounded. The main sealskin processing plant in Canada deducts $2 from the price they pay for the skins for each bullet hole they find—therefore sealers are loath to shoot seals more than once. As a result, wounded seals are often left to suffer in agony—many slip beneath the surface of the water where they die slowly and are never recovered.
Is the Seal Hunt Cruel?
Yes. In 2001, a report by an independent team of veterinarians who studied the hunt concluded that governmental regulations regarding humane killing were neither being respected nor enforced, and that the seal hunt failed to comply with Canada's basic animal welfare standards. Shockingly, the veterinarians found that in 42 percent of the cases they studied, the seals had likely been skinned alive while conscious.
Parliamentarians, journalists, and scientists who observe Canada's commercial seal hunt each year continue to report unacceptable levels of cruelty, including sealers dragging conscious seals across the ice floes with boat hooks, shooting seals and leaving them to suffer in agony, stockpiling dead and dying animals, and even skinning seals alive.
How Many Seals Are Killed Each Year?
Hundreds of thousands. In fact, over the past three years, nearly one million seals have been killed. The current kill levels are higher than they have been in half a century. During the 2006 hunt, the Canadian government allowed fishermen to club and shoot at least 354,344 seals. The last time seals were killed at this rate—in the 1950s and '60s—the harp seal population was reduced by nearly two thirds.
And the actual number of seals killed is probably far higher than the number reported. Many seals are shot at and injured in the course of the hunt, and studies suggest that a significant number of these animals slip beneath the surface of the water, where they die slowly and are never recovered.
After hundreds of years of exploitation, whale populations remain at risk from hunting, ship strikes, by-catch, entanglements, marine pollution, underwater noise and global warming. Given all of these threats, whale populations cannot withstand the resurgence of commercial whaling. In addition, ensuring healthy whale populations is critical to restoring the health of the world's oceans.
Our planet's great whales are battling for their lives.
Whales face more threats today than at any other time in history. Commercial whaling has been banned for more than two decades - yet Japan, Iceland and Norway continue firing harpoons into these gentle creatures for products that nobody needs. More than 30,000 whales have been killed for commercial purposes since the ban on whaling in 1986. And now the magnificent humpback whale is being targeted for whaling by the government of Japan.
Whales are usually killed with an explosive harpoon that detonates inside the whale's body. If the first harpoon fails to kill the whale, then a second penthrite harpoon or a rifle is used. Some whales take over an hour to die.
There is currently no limit on the number of weapons or bullets that can be used to kill a whale and no upper limit on the acceptable time to death. Japan reported that nearly 60% of whales did not die rapidly or ‘instantaneously' in its hunts in 2002/2003. Norway reported about 20% failed to die ‘instantaneously' in its hunts for the same period.
There are only two IWC established sanctuaries in the world. Every year, Japan kills whales in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, in waters that are supposed to be ‘whaling-free'.
Friend Space (Top 40)
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~pyrate rum gal~
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VALERIE aka Salt
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RILEY
Riley Prince
Online Now!
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PRINCE
Online Now!
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MOO
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♥Sharks Rock♥
Save Our Sharks
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J☼mie
Jamie S
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♥Karen Sisco
Karen Sisco
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Whales In Crisis
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Phil
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~Angel of the Sea~
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ARTIC WOLF WOMAN
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wolfs angel
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-{~Aaa*-yo~}-
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Cristina
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*turtle crawls*
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Guinevere
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♡ Ridiculous Mess ♡
Online Now!
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Poetry In Ocean™ Lynn
Lynn Gladhill
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♥Allie♥
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THOR
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♥~Cruelty-Free Beauty …
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Mother Nature
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Robin
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~TAMMY~*♥Chaplain For A…
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Phil
Phil Two
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♥Stassy♥Love♥
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melba the purple cat
melba camacho
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Dogs
Dogs Trust
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Marie
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Love Is Noise
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Donna Loves ALL Animals
Donna Durbin
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I Want Changes To Happe…
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SHARK
Steve Hindi
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deb&rockfighting 4the h…
deborah rybka
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Don't Stay Silent
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Bishop's Family~
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vegan babe
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Cathy - Wildlife Artist
Cathy Garneau
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dominique
Comments
Dec 3 2009 5:23 PM
have a nice evening
Love and hugs
Phil~~
Dec 3 2009 2:14 PM
xox
Dec 3 2009 12:51 PM
Have a beautiful day sweetie. Stay warm like me. Winter is almost there!! brrrrr
Love and hugs my friend. xoxo
Riley
Dec 3 2009 9:32 AM
Dec 3 2009 9:26 AM
Dec 3 2009 5:15 AM
Dec 3 2009 4:08 AM
Dec 3 2009 3:18 AM
Your friendship is as beautiful
to me as this rose...
Pass it along to those you care about..
God bless you!!!
Dec 3 2009 2:23 AM
Kathys Comments
Dec 3 2009 2:20 AM
Dec 3 2009 12:29 AM
Dec 3 2009 12:21 AM
1 cup whole blanched almonds
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
1-1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary leaves
Place the almonds in a bowl of room-temperature water; allow to soak for 24 hours, then drain and rinse.
In a powerful blender, purée the almonds, lemon juice, 3 T olive oil, garlic, salt and water until very creamy, 5-7 minutes. (The original recipe calls for a food processor, but I found it didn’t get creamy enough that way).
Place a triple layer of cheesecloth over a strainer and spoon the cheese mixture into it. Bring up the ends of the cheesecloth, twist the top and squeeze slightly to remove some of the excess liquid; tie the top with a twist tie or elastic. Allow to drain in the refrigerator overnight, or at least 8 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Turn the cheese out onto the parchment and shape it into a disk about 3/4-inch ( cm) thick. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the top is firm and dry. Cool, then chill.
When ready to serve, place the cheese on a plate. Top with additional olive oil (I only used about 2 Tbsp/30 ml instead of the 1/4 cup/60 ml), sprinkle with herbs, and enjoy. (I used basil rather than the herbs called for, since that’s what I had on hand; I think pretty much any fresh herbs would be fantastic with this). Makes 4 appetizer servings.
ENJOY!
Dec 2 2009 11:33 PM
Dec 2 2009 10:45 PM
repost, bulletin, share the link to my petition with anyone and everyone you know. We have to act today!!!! Thank you all.......tanYaisa
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/47/stop-killing-our-wolves-in-usa-alaska-and-canada
Can you believe these heartless trophy hunters are killing baby wolf cubs in Idaho, as well.
thank you, friends, tanya payne
Dec 2 2009 10:08 PM
Dec 2 2009 9:31 PM
MySpace a place for friends
Dec 2 2009 9:31 PM
Dec 2 2009 7:46 PM
Kathys Comments......
Dec 2 2009 7:43 PM
Hope you are having a wonderful day.
Love, Kitty
Dec 2 2009 7:23 PM
Dec 2 2009 7:03 PM
Have a good evening sweetie. love you. xoxo
Riley
Dec 2 2009 6:36 PM
Dec 2 2009 6:03 PM
Dec 2 2009 4:26 PM
still sicky here....shark hugs, God Bless, xxoo
Dec 2 2009 2:14 PM
A little hi to send you some love sweetie. xoxo
Riley
Dec 2 2009 5:49 AM
Dec 2 2009 5:12 AM
Dec 2 2009 4:07 AM
Dec 2 2009 1:52 AM
moar funny pictures
Tracy....Something to make you smile!!
Have a great week too my friend!
Love ya....Sherri & Doberkids
Dec 2 2009 1:33 AM
We are busy here at the bridge getting all our decorating done. Just wanted to stop in and say Hello!
Love,
Angel Winston
Dec 2 2009 1:17 AM
classy and strong,
and I love her.
Help her live her life to the fullest.
Please promote
her and cause her to excel
above her expectations. Help her shine
in
the darkest places where it is impossible to love.
Protect her at all
times, lift her up
when she needs you the most,
and let her know when
she walks with you,
She will always be safe.. Love you Girl!!!!
Dec 2 2009 12:55 AM
Dec 2 2009 12:25 AM
Hey sweetie!! Hope your back at work was great. Have a goodnight and sweetdreams. Love and hugs
xoxo. Riley
Dec 1 2009 11:40 PM
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Dec 1 2009 11:14 PM
Dec 1 2009 10:16 PM
Dec 1 2009 9:47 PM
have a great week,thank you
Dec 1 2009 9:20 PM
Dec 1 2009 8:56 PM
Dec 1 2009 7:59 PM
comments and graphics
thx for being friends
Dec 1 2009 7:04 PM
Dec 1 2009 5:10 PM
A Scary Car Ad
John Warner Laster | MySpace Video
Dec 1 2009 4:20 PM
Comments and Graphics - Layouts - Photobucket
Dec 1 2009 2:48 PM
Dec 1 2009 1:18 PM
Dec 1 2009 12:00 PM
Dec 1 2009 10:30 AM
Have a great Tuesday and a nice week with happiness, peace and love
December starts under a timid sun
Much love
Your friend
Nicole
Dec 1 2009 10:26 AM
Also the photo above makes me furious!!! Slaughtering a Beaked Whale: one of the rarest creatures on Earth.... and undoubtedly more intelligent than the piece of shit cutting her up. :-(
Dec 1 2009 10:22 AM
Thanks for the beautiful photos...I always look forward to them so much! And, I'm with you...f@*k the Japanese whalers....I wonder how they would like an exploding harpoon up their a55 !!
xoxoxox
Cat
Dec 1 2009 8:36 AM
rosée sur les dernières feuilles de rosier avant l'hiver!
une bonne journée à toi pas de pluie en france normalement aujourd'hui, il faut en profiter!
A++++