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A monthly Magazine edited and published by Maria Lopes - October 2005 Maria Lopes
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for
survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. It is
my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on
the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of
mankind."
CROATIA
VELIKA GORICA TODAY BECAME THE THIRD CROATIAN TOWN TO BAN
CIRCUSES WITH ANIMAL ACTS!
Source: Linda Furness
Velika Gorica is the third town in Croatia which this month
banned circuses with animal acts!!! Velika Gorica thus joined Mursko Sredisce,
which banned circuses with animal acts on 10 October, and Varazdin, which banned
circuses on 21 October 2005. These three Croatian towns thus followed the
examples of Venice, Vienna, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro and hundreds of other
towns worldwide in which circuses with animal acts were not
welcome.
Activists of Animal Friends Croatia are more than thrilled by
this new victory, which came as a result of the four years of intensive
campaigning for the animals in circuses, and will keep contacting other cities
and towns in Croatia to join Mursko Sredisce, Varazdin and Velika Gorica and ban
circuses with animal acts in their towns as well.
If you would like to congratulate and thank the mayors of
Mursko Sredisce, Varazdin and Velika Gorica, please send them a few words of
support at their e-mails:
The mayor of Mursko Sredisce, Mr. Rudolf Klennert, e-mail: grad-mursko-sredisce@ck.t-com.hr The mayor of Varazdin, Mr. Ivan Cehok, e-mail: gradonacelnik@varazdin.hr The mayor of Velika Gorica, Mr. Tonino Picula, e-mail: gradonacelnik@gorica.hr EUROPEAN UNION
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT VOTES AGAINST SUBSIDIES TO BULL
BREEDERS
EFE News Agency/27th Ocober
The European parliament voted today the end of
subsidies to bull breeders for the 2006 budget.
The decision is now in the hands of the Council
of Ministers of the 25 member states.
The decision was approved with 277 in favour,
266 against.
This proposal was presented by the Green
Party in the European Parliament.
U.S.A.
Please help the dogs
Source:Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org
Walter McKenzie who promotes the cruel Iditarod to teachers
through his eIditarod program will be speaking at the November conference of
MassCue (Massachusetts Computer Using Educators, Inc.). Please tell the
organization's board members that animals abusers are not heroes for children to
study and copy. Ask them to cancel McKenzie's speech.
EMAILS:
lekeating@comcast.net,steven.lamarche@mail.pembroke.mec.edu, steven.lamarche@mail.pembroke.mec.edu, kathleen.galvin@comcast.net,edriscoll@masscue.org, edriscoll@plymouth.k12.ma.us, allessio@wsps.org,
lallen@masscue.org, lallen@cbrsd.org, lbcolvin@earthlink.net,gcoolong@masscue.org, glenn@glenncoolong.com,ddonohue@masscue.org, donohued@worc.k12.ma.us, mrsdubrey@verizon.net, pkotyk@masscue.org, pkotyk@mail.ab.mec.edu, sigcoord@masscue.org, reber@burlington.mec.edu, dwright@masscue.org, baron_wright@yahoo.com, clouie@doe.mass.edu, alan@anovember.com, solivo@aol.com, runemana@kingphilip.org, cschuster@integrityschool.com SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear Ms. Keating, Mr. Lamarche, Ms. Galvin, Ms. Driscoll, Ms.
Allessio, Ms. Allen, Ms. Colvin, Mr. Coolong, Ms. Donohue, Ms. Dubrey, Ms.
Kotyk, Ms. Reber, Ms. Wright, Ms. Louie, Mr. November, Mr. Olivo, Mr. Runeman,
Ms. Schuster:
I understand MassCue (Massachusetts Computer Using Educators,
Inc.) will be promoting the Iditarod dog sled race at its November conference by
having Mr. McKenzie talk about his eIditarod project. The Iditarod has a long,
well-documented history of dog deaths, illnesses and injuries. Please cancel Mr.
McKenzie's talk.
In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150 miles, which is
the approximate distance between Boston and Memphis, TN, over a grueling terrain
in 8 to 15 days. Dog deaths and injuries are common in the race. USA Today
sports columnist Jon Saraceno called the Iditarod "a travesty of grueling
proportions" and "Ihurtadog." Fox sportscaster Jim Rome called it
"I-killed-a-dog." Orlando Sentinel sports columnist George Diaz said the race is
"a barbaric ritual" and "an illegal sweatshop for dogs." USA Today business
columnist Bruce Horovitz said the race is a "public-relations
minefield."
The Sled Dog Action Coalition (SDAC) was founded in 1999 to
educate America about the exploitation of sled dogs in Alaska's annual Iditarod
dog sled race. The SDAC and its efforts to educate people about the brutalities
associated with the Iditarod was profiled in USA Today and in the Miami Herald.
I am emailing copies of these and other articles.
Please visit the SDAC website http://www.helpsleddogs.org to see pictures, and
for more information. Be sure to read the quotes on http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm and on
all the quote pages that link to it. Links can be found in the drop box at the
top and at the bottom of the page. All of the material on the site is true and
verifiable.
Iditarod dogs are simply not the invincible animals race
officials portray. Here's a short list of what happens to the dogs during the
race: death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers, broken bones,
pneumonia, torn muscles and tendons, diarrhea, vomiting, hypothermia, fur loss,
broken teeth, viral diseases, torn footpads, ruptured discs, sprains and lung
damage.
At least 126 dogs have died in the Iditarod. There is no
official count of dog deaths available for the race's early years.
Causes of death have also included strangulation in towlines,
internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury, heart failure,
and pneumonia. "Sudden death" and "external myopathy," a fatal condition in
which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during extreme or prolonged
exercise, have also occurred. The 1976 Iditarod winner, Jerry Riley, was accused
of striking his dog with a snow hook (a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In
1996, one of Rick Swenson's dogs died while he mushed his team through
waist-deep water and ice. The Iditarod Trail Committee banned both mushers from
the race but later reinstated them. In many states these incidents would be
considered animal cruelty. Swenson is now on the Iditarod Board of
Directors.
In the 2001 Iditarod, a sick dog was sent to a prison to be
cared for by inmates and received no veterinary care. He was chained up in the
cold and died. Another dog died by suffocating on his own vomit.
No one knows how many dogs die in training or after the race
each year.
On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not
make it across the finish line. According to a report published in the American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, of those who do cross, 81
percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary
Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who finish the Iditarod have
ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.
Stories about the dogs receiving top notch health care don't
square with the facts. Dogs are often sick before the Iditarod starts but are
made to race anyway. While some sick dogs are dropped during the race, others
are given massive doses of antibiotics to keep them going.
In 2003, The Anchorage Daily News reported, "Lindwood Fiedler
opened the dog's mouth and fed it antibiotics to fight an infection. 'Better
mushing through pharmacy,' he quipped." In 2004 the newspaper quoted Aliy Zirkle
as saying "It was my first Iditarod; I had to finish the ding-dang thing. The
dogs all had fevers. The vets gave them a powerful antibiotic."
Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident
for over 40 years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into
submission:
"They've had the hell beaten out of them." "You don't just
whisper into their ears, ‘OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the
devil.' They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into
submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers will
deny it. And you know what? They are all lying." -USA Today, March 3, 2000 in
Jon Saraceno's column
Beatings and whippings are common. Jim Welch says in his book
Speed Mushing Manual, "I heard one highly respected [sled dog] driver once state
that "‘Alaskans like the kind of dog they can beat on.'" "Nagging a dog team is
cruel and ineffective...A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all but
is effective." "It is a common training device in use among dog mushers...A whip
is a very humane training tool."
Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted dogs,
including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or
who are unwanted for any reason, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged or
clubbed to death. "On-going cruelty is the law of many dog lots. Dogs are
clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in
harnesses....." wrote Alaskan Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush
Blade Newspaper (March, 2000).
Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today,
"He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like starving
dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight. Skinning them to make
mittens. Or dragging them to their death."
Iditarod administrators promote the race as a commemoration of
sled dogs saving the children of Nome by bringing diphtheria serum from
Anchorage in 1925. However, the co-founder of the Iditarod, Dorothy Page, said
the race was not established to honor the sled drivers and dogs who carried the
serum. In fact, 600 miles of this serum run was done by train and the other half
was done by dogs running in relays, with no dog running over 100 miles. This
isn't anything like the Iditarod.
The Iditarod, with its history of abuse, could not be legally
held in many states, including Massachusetts, because doing so would violate
animal cruelty laws. Massachusetts' law says that "Whoever overdrives,
overloads, drives when overloaded, overworks, tortures, torments, deprives of
necessary sustenance, cruelly beats, mutilates or kills an animal..." is guilty
of animal cruelty.
The race has led to the proliferation of horrific dog kennels
in which the dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have over 100 dogs and
some have as many as 200. It is standard for the dogs to spend their entire
lives outside tethered to metal chains that can be as short as four feet long.
In 1997 the United States Department of Agriculture determined that the
tethering of dogs was inhumane and not in the animals' best interests. The
chaining of dogs as a primary means of enclosure is prohibited in all cases
where federal law applies. A dog who is permanently tethered is forced to
urinate and defecate where he sleeps, which conflicts with his natural instinct
to eliminate away from his living area.
Iditarod dogs are prisoners of abuse Please cancel Mr.
McKenzie's talk.
Sincerely,
Name/Country PETITIONS
Greyhound racing petiton
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/599374928 Animals have rights
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/193711332 End Dolphin Slaughtering in Japan
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/391762699 AGAINST HORSE RACING CRUELTIES
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/398531952
Disclaimer: All items published in this magazine were received by us and we pass them on in good faith. We are not responsible for incorrect email addresses, errors, omissions etc. by the originators.
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT AGAINST
BULLFIGHTS
This Magazine published by
Maria
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