The Newest Philadelphia Eagle: Michael Vick

Michael Vick has signed on to be part of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles. He is expected to be fully reinstated to the game by week six of the season, which is in October.

"I fully understand that playing football in the NFL is a privilege, not a right, and I am truly thankful for [the] opportunity I have been given," Vick said in a statement last month upon his reinstatement [to the NFL].

"As you can imagine, the last two years have given me time to re-evaluate my life, mature as an individual and fully understand the terrible mistakes I made in the past and what type of life I must lead moving forward," he said in last month's statement.

Vick is also aiding the Humane Society of the United States in their effort to eradicate dog fighting and animal cruelty by sharing his story with at-risk youth.

Petland Employee Drowns Injured Rabbits

I'm sorry to post this violent and disturbing photo. I know it's not something anyone wants to see, at least not any sane people, but I think it's important that people witness exactly what happened to these two rabbits at the hands of Elizabeth Carlisle, a Petland employee in Akron, Ohio.


After being allowed to "attack" and "eat" one another, Carlisle decided to drown the rabbits rather than seek veterinary attention or even humane euthanasia. The rabbits had sustained many deep wounds, a missing eye, what appeared to Petland employees to be a broken jaw, and possible paralysis from the waist down after fighting each other. These are not injuries that happened in the course of a few minutes. With proper supervision and care, they could have been prevented altogether.

Carlisle admits to a friend on Facebook that "[T]he manager took the pic for me. [S]he reminded me that there were people outside as [I] was swearing at them to just hurry up and die but then she was so kind as to take this picture."

This is not the first time allegations of cruelty and irresponsibility have been brought against Petland.

In a statement released on August 4, Petland says that Elizabeth Carlisle was "immediately dismissed" from her position at Petland upon their discovery of her heinous acts of cruelty and that "the case is now being handled by local law enforcement." Good. I was wondering when law enforcement was planning to get involved because HELLO! I smell a giant lawsuit and hopefully some jail time coming Ms. Carlisle's way. Jesus, something better be done about Carlisle's actions, as well as whomever else was involved, other than losing their jobs. The type of person who would drown injured rabbits, yell and swear at them to die faster, and then pose for a disgusting photo with them after they are dead has issues we should all be concerned about. As I've said before, people with a history of abusing others often start with abusing animals.

Please join me in writing to Petland President Frank Difatta to request that Petland stores no longer sell rabbits. After demonstrating their gross inability to provide even the most minimal care and protection for rabbits, they should not continue to accept responsibility for their wellbeing. I honestly don't think Petland should be allowed to sell animals at all if they are not going to care for them properly and make sure their employees are not psychopaths.

PETA's letter to Petland can be found here.

Would you like to touch my whale?

And no, that's not a euphemism for something dirty.

If you happen to have 200 extra bucks lying around, Chicago's Shedd Aquarium now offers visitors the opportunity to touch a beluga whale. Pretty exciting, even if it does cost a small fortune. Included in the $200 price tag is an orientation on animal care, a private meeting with the whale, some touchy time, and maybe a tongue scratching or the chance to hear the whale's heartbeat. At the end of the experience you get a souvenir photo with your new friend. And the chance to tell people that you TOUCHED A WHALE! Aaaaagh!

I think this is a really cool idea, but I wonder if it stresses out the whales? I don't know much about the temperament of belugas, but I can imagine that it might be confusing and stressful to have strangers grabbing at you two days a week (the face-to-face interaction is only available on Fridays and Saturdays). Then again, maybe it's nice to have some new company after seeing the same trainers day in and day out. Who knows?

Anyway, this is a pretty unique attraction and thought I'd share!

Hello again, let's talk about something depressing!

Why, hello! I have a blog! About animals! Right.

Sorry for my long absence, it's been a hectic few weeks. But I'm back! And sad to say that today's discussion is about puppy mills. Sigh. I look forward to the day when I don't have to think about puppy mills anymore because they no longer exist...

Anyway.

I am on a bunch of animal welfare-related email lists and I must say that between the attention puppy mills are getting among animal activists groups and the rising number of mainstream media reports on them (and the busts!) I am hopeful we can get some more legislation involved in the regulation of dog breeding. I mean, puppy mills are B-A-D. They are filthy, disgusting, inhumane, cramped, and often the dogs are sick and not vaccinated. Which, as a consumer - even if you don't particularly care about puppy mills - you should be pissed off about.

Have you ever bought a puppy from a pet store? If so, how was your dog's health? Because often that is how puppy mills come to light: after angry customers report buying sick puppies from an organization and after further investigation it becomes apparent that said puppies were born and raised in disgusting conditions with inadequate veterinary care for the parent dogs and the puppies. Wow, run-on sentence much? But really, it makes me so mad!

Defenseless animals are completely vulnerable to whatever kind of care we humans are willing to provide. And keeping the parent dogs in squalid conditions is bound to have ill effects on their offspring (which are then purchased for hundreds or even thousands of dollars by unsuspecting people who want a [healthy, duh] family pet). I know the last dogs my family bought from a pet store (yes, I KNOW, bad Austin!, but I was in 6th grade and didn't know better yet, I promise) were VERY sick. They were sister lab-dalmatian mixes and had worms so bad that when they shat it was nothing but a squirming pile of white parasites. Gross, no? We had no proof they came from a puppy mill, but it was obvious that their care had been lacking until they came to us. But don't worry, they both recovered after some medical attention and grew into happy, loving dogs.

Also for the consumer to think about is what ELSE the people who are running puppy mills have their fingers in. Are you inadvertently supporting puppy mills by buying, say, organic milk? Also, if an organization (or farmer, in this case) thinks it is okay to run a puppy mill, what do they think is okay to do with the milk you are buying? In my opinion, being an irresponsible producer is not often concentrated on just one product if you know what I'm saying.

It's come out in recent months that a puppy mill in Lancaster County, Pa., called B&R Puppies, also supplies organic milk to Horizon Organics, a popular brand found anywhere from Jewel-Osco to Dominick's to Whole Foods Market. And if you know anything about Whole Foods (I can't speak for the others) you know that animal welfare is of the utmost importance to them. Here is an update on the Newsweek article "A (Designer) Dog's Life", which solicited a wonderfully supportive response from Horizon Organics. Upon receiving word that Newsweek was about to publicly announce that Horizon buys milk from a puppy mill farm, they immediately sent out an inspector who reported that dogs were indeed being kept in filth. Horizon suspended the farmer, John Stoltzfus, at the urging of Whole Foods. Stoltzfus has since stopped his puppy mill and has begun supplying milk to Horizon again as of early July.

My point of telling you all this is that WE HAVE THE POWER. I know it's cheesy, but as consumers we do have the power to choose which organizations to support. Part of that power is knowing when to lean harder on an organization in order to stop terrible things from happening, like the continuation of puppy mills. If you suspect that puppy mills are behind the scenes at a store you love, write them a letter. Get a petition started. Get the media involved (that'll scare 'em). Demand that they stop their relationship with sources who condone inhumane treatment of animals. It can be done; just look at Whole Foods Market.

All you ever wanted to know about eggs, and then some

Chickens are arguably the most abused animals in the agricultural business. Currently the Humane Society of the United States is trying to ban the use of battery wire cages, which give hens less space than a single sheet of letter-size paper. Confined their whole lives in these cages, the hens can't spread their wings, dust clean themselves, nest, forage or perch, all of which are the natural behaviors of these birds. California passed Prop 2 (the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act) with an overwhelming 63% in 2008, which outlaws the use of battery cages for chickens, gestation crates for pigs, and veal crates for calves.

If you grocery shop for yourself or your family then you know what I'm talking about when I refer to the four frillion different labels on egg cartons. Organic, Cage-free, Free-Range, Hormone & Antibiotic-Free, on and on and on. But what do those labels really mean? And why is it important to know the difference?

Let me start by answering the latter question. It is important to know the difference, for instance, between Cage-Free and Free-Range; a significant distinction is that Cage-Free hens are kept in barns or warehouses without access to the outdoors, while Free-Range hens are also kept in barns or warehouses, but have some access to the outdoors. However, neither has third-party auditing to make sure guidelines are being followed. The smallest word variation can mean quite a difference in the lives of the hens who supply your eggs.

From the perspective of animal welfare, none of the labels, save one, is 100% hen-friendly. Animal Welfare Approved eggs ensure that chickens are not kept in cages at all, are allowed unfettered access to the outdoors, and forced molting (by starvation) as well as beak cutting is prohibited. Unfortunately, as of yet there are no producers who sell Animal Welfare Approved eggs to grocery stores.

A complete list of what those confusing labels actually mean can be found here. You might be surprised at what you discover about the origins of your favorite breakfast food.

Now the United Egg Producers (UEP), our nations largest trade organization for eggs, has put out cartoons depicting chickens wishing they'd never been taken out of their cages to try and make kids think that a caged lifestyle is preferable to a free one. And since I can't get my computer to cooperate, you can see the cartoons here. Please go look. They will infuriate you.

It seems the battle to end animal cruelty is constant and always uphill. But we carry on because otherwise millions of animals each year continue to live, suffer, and die in horrible conditions. And honestly? They deserve better than that.

Should the military use animals in training medics?

New videos have surfaced depicting the use of monkeys and goats in military medical training. Acquired by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, now the videos are causing controversy about whether the military is violating its own regulations regarding animal welfare.

Similar to the question about whether using live animals for vet school training is ethical, the debate is strong over whether using live animals in medical training in the military is acceptable. Some say it's essential and invaluable; others argue that it's a poor substitute for actual human experience and that it's inhumane treatment of the animals. In the CNN article I link to above, one doctor argues that no animal has ever died from their experiments so it's okay to conduct them. But I ask this: how much do they suffer? How often are they allowed to recover only to be used again in some other test? What kind of life is that?

While I have the utmost respect for our service men and women and want to ensure their health and safety out in the field, I don't believe that testing nerve agents on monkeys or learning how to put a chest tube in a goat is particularly pertinent practice for military medics. Animal anatomy - even monkey anatomy - is pretty different from human anatomy. How a monkey reacts to the nerve agent might be totally different from how a human would react; I can't imagine the chest of a goat is so similar to a human that it would be devastating to a person's education to miss that day in medical school.

I believe that military medics should do rounds with doctors in hospitals, in trauma centers, where they will have the opportunity to experience real human medical problems and crises and will learn how to deal with them. I imagine this next suggestion might be considered too resource-consuming or impractical, but perhaps medics-in-training might be assigned to an active-duty medic and follow him or her on a tour in order to get some hands-on experience.

Not only am I an advocate for animal welfare and the humane treatment of animals, I also want our military medical staff to receive the best training possible. I do not think that the best training available requires animal involvement. Find another way, a better way, not only for the animals, but because using them just isn't a good substitute for the real thing.

Chicago is a rock star!

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but MY CITY is doing some amazing stuff with animal welfare.

A study went underway in May here in Chicago that, when complete, should give some concrete information about what the problems associated with homeless or at-risk pets, what neighborhoods in the city are most at-risk for animal abuse and neglect, how much companion animal issues cost the city. Because it's the first study of its kind, it is unclear what type or how much information will actually be useful, but researchers are collecting as much information as they can. The study will conclude by the end of this year with a report to the Chicago city council on its findings. More on the study as news unfolds.

*****

In other happy and Huzzah Chicago! news, a bill that would mandate a cross-reference of animal and child abuse has passed both houses of the Illinois legislature and is now awaiting Gov. Pat Quinn's signature to be signed into law. This bill could be instrumental in decreasing violence toward children and animals Chicago.

Basically, when a call of child abuse comes in, officers will be required to check to make sure that the same family has not also had reports of animal abuse, and vice versa. It is well documented that there is a significant connection between animal abuse and child abuse. In approximately 9 out of 10 households where children were abused, a 1983 study found that animals were also abused.

I'd like to encourage all you folks in the Chicagoland area to contact Gov. Quinn and ask him (nicely and respectfully 'cause we're all good people around these parts) to please sign this bill into law. And also give yourself a pat on the back, 'cause your town is the shit.