Dogs and Dames » Animal rights

ASPCA Celebrates 2010 Victories

admin — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 20:43:33 +0000

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Zootoo Pet News StaffEnd of the year marks progress for animal rights.… full story
Discussion

No animal should have to race for it’s entire life just because it is a greyhound or a horse or it i… (by Ches21)

i do get their mail and i think this is wonderful. when i lived in nh they had greyhound racing. i w… (by daryl b. (Darylob))

HSUS and SPCA both of these organizations have stripped local shelters of the funds that would norma… (by DrBarnes)

drbarns am i reading what your said correctly. you don’t believe in spay and neuter? what about all … (by daryl b. (Darylob))

ches i hope you see this it won’t let me reply to you. you are so right. that is the height of cruel… (by daryl b. (Darylob))

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It’s Yoga Kitty! And She Couldn’t Be Cuter

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:17:44 +0000

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Filed under: Cats, Funny Animal Videos

Ukiyo doesn’t do Downward-Facing Dog, thank you very much. Nevertheless, she is quite the yogi, and can position herself in more ways than a cat has lives. (Get it?)

Pegged “Yoga Kitty” by, well, the Internet, Ukiyo proves that sometimes, it’s just the right angle of stretches that can set you up for a long, luscious trip into dreamland.

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Switzerland Votes: No Legal Aid Lawyers for Animals

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:48:22 +0000

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Filed under: Pets News

West Zest, Flickr

Forced to decide whether their country of Switzerland should create a national system to provide state-funded lawyers to represent animals in court, the Swiss people voted, and the outcome was a resounding no. “The measure was rejected by around 70 percent of voters,” reports BBC News.

Currently, Zurich is the only Swiss canton (an administrative district similar to a county in the United States) to have a government-subsidized animal lawyer. Antoine Goetschel represents dogs, cats, guinea pigs, farm animals, and even fish who have been abused, reports the (U.K.) Telegraph.

“People accused of animal cruelty very often hire lawyers to defend themselves,” Goetschel tells the Telegraph. “Why shouldn’t someone speak for the animal as well? It’s about fairness and defending a minority.”

The referendum was required to be held after “activists from the Swiss Animal Protection (SAP) collected more than the 100,000 signatures required to force a national ballot,” reports the Telegraph. But the animal activists were in the minority. The majority of voters in 26 cantons in Switzerland voted against the measure. Goetschel wasn’t surprised. “Animal welfare has been a big topic in Switzerland in the last few years and perhaps this has been too much for some Swiss,” the Zurich animal lawyer told the Telegraph.

Switzerland has some of the world’s strictest animal protection laws, reports the Telegraph. “It recently changed its constitution to protect the ‘dignity’ of plant life and made a law last year establishing rights for creatures such as goldfish and canaries,” states the Telegraph. “Pigs, budgies and other social creatures cannot be kept alone; horses and cows must be regularly exercised outside their stalls and dog owners are required to take a training course to learn how to properly care for their pets.”

What do you think? Is the notion of state-funded lawyers for animals just too bizarre? Or is it a great idea?

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Registering animal offenders: Saving animals one bag of pet food at a time?

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:56:26 +0000

: Image by Beverly & Pack via Flickr

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In California, those who would abuse of our animals may soon be getting a taste of what sex offenders get treated to nationwide: their names, addresses and places of employment will be listed in an online database accessible to anyone who wants to know who and where they might be. This, according to yesterday’s New York Times:

“The proposal, made in a bill introduced Friday by the State Senate’s majority leader, Dean Florez, would be the first of its kind in the country and is just the latest law geared toward animal rights in a state that has recently given new protections to chickens, pigs and cattle.”

It’s the 21st century version of getting hung out in stocks in the middle of the town square. It’s also protection against cruelty offenders for those of us who worry about our pets and/or livestock. It doesn’t hurt to know whether your neighbors might harbor a insensitivity to animals, right?

In case it’s not obvious, the rationale for registration akin to that for sex offender’s is quite simple: those who would abuse of animals are prime candidates for the perpetration of abuse against humans––children in particular.

Even if it seems a slap on the wrist, a big brother not-so-nicety, and/or not much of a deterrent against future crimes, I can’t help thinking it’s a step in the right direction all the same. Given that crimes against animals are rarely prosecuted to the full extent of the law, an online database would serve as additional backstop for those who might otherwise get off scot-free.

Still think it’s an over the top approach? Consider that arsonists in CA also have their own registry. And animal abusers, it’s well understood, have as high a rate of recidivism as either of these registration-requiring groups. To wit, the NYT piece offers this:

“One supporter of the proposed law, Gillian Deegan, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Botetourt County, Va., says such a registry could also be valuable in tracking people who run puppy mills and animal-fighting rings, as well as hoarders, who sometimes collect hundreds of animals, often resulting in neglect.

‘A lot of times these people will just pick up and move to another jurisdiction or another state if they get caught,’ said Ms. Deegan, who has written on animal welfare laws. ‘It would definitely help on those types of cases where people jump around.’ One Web site — Petabuse.com — already offers a type of online registry, with listings of animal offenders and their crimes.”

Much as the welfare crowd appreciates this proposal, it’s not likely to pass. And that’s probably because the state’s approach to paying for the registry’s maintenance is all about taxes on pet food, something the powers that be behind your kibble are none to pleased about.

Jacking up pet food prices is no solution, they say. After all, why offer pet owners more of an incentive to make their own food? I, on the other hand, would see a pet food tax that supports an animal cruelty offender’s registry as a pretty darn good reason to buy more of that machine extruded stuff. How about you?

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