According to a recent press release, PETA’s latest attempt to use a celebrity and edited years-old video, to distort Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s commitment to proper animal management and care is difficult to take seriously by a Federally licensed exhibitor.

PETA, which tragically kills over 90 percent of the animals it “takes in,” according to recently released statistics from the Virginia Department of Agriculture, is using Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey current tour in the New York City area to promote their radical agenda.

In its most recent compilation, PETA edits old, and in many cases altered footage, includes footage from an unrelated circus, and combines it all with the opinions of a veterinarian who has never actually physically examined any Ringling Bros. elephant. No elephants were intended to be nor were they harmed in the video snippets shown. In short, PETA knows nothing about what it takes to care for an elephant, states the release.

“Our animal care programs rival the best in the world,” said Janice Aria, Director of Animal Stewardship for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, “Zoos and other facilities regularly seek out Ringling Bros. veterinarians for advice and assistance because of the quality of our exotic animal care.”

Everyone with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is very proud of their human and animal partnerships. They state that their animal care staff devotes their lives to their animals.

The physical and behavioral needs of their animal performers are a top priority that can be seen in every city they visit. They train through a system of repetition and reward, and elephants and horses are transported in custom built, specially-designed train cars. The health and vitality of the animals is something they can and do showcase at every Ringling Bros. performance.

In addition to their daily commitment to providing the very best in animal care, Ringling Bros. is dedicated to preserving the endangered Asian elephant at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation.

This unique facility was specifically designed for the research, reproduction, and retirement of the Asian elephant and enables Ringling Bros. to share its elephant husbandry knowledge with veterinary and conservation organizations around the world, including experts in elephants’ range countries. This is a major step for the conservation of this endangered species.

Rather than take what an extremist group like PETA says at face value, they’ve asked Mr. Baldwin to come see for himself what millions of families know: that all the animals are thriving at The Greatest Show On Earth.

Image Courtesy of   RoidRanger / Shutterstock.com

The article Ringling Bros. Retort at PETA’s Latest Campaign appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Hidden-camera video secretly shot at a North Carolina Butterball factory farm by an undercover investigator with the animal protection organization Mercy For Animals (MFA) has led to felony and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges of five Butterball employees by state authorities.

Additionally, Dr. Sarah Jean Mason, the director of Animal Health Programs (Poultry Division) with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, has pled guilty to obstruction of justice after admitting to leaking confidential information to Butterball about the criminal cruelty investigation by state law enforcement officials.

MFA’s Executive Director Nathan Runkle will reveal details of the investigation and the organization’s reaction to the animal cruelty charges against Butterball employees tomorrow morning at a news conference.

Date: Thursday, February 16, 2012
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Location: Hilton North Raleigh-Midtown, Sandalwood Room, 3415 Wake Forest Rd., Raleigh, NC

The names of the Butterball employees charged with criminal activity that have been released so far include Ruben Mendoza, Terry Bernard Johnson, and Jose Garcia. The charges stem from an MFA undercover investigation at a Butterball turkey semen collection facility in Shannon, North Carolina between November and December of 2011. The shocking undercover footage reveals:

• Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
• Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
• Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss and necrotic (dead) muscles and skin;
• Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
• Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to MFA’s investigator.

Mercy For Animals’ undercover video shows that the lives of turkeys in Butterball’s factory farms are brutal and filled with fear, violence and prolonged suffering. Butterball’s turkeys have been selectively bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them suffer from painful bone defects, hip joint lesions, crippling foot and leg deformities, and fatal heart attacks.

Due to the company’s lack of meaningful animal welfare policies, training or procedures, Butterball subjects countless turkeys to immeasurable cruelty and neglect each year. ”We commend law enforcement for taking swift and decisive action in bringing these animal abusers to justice,” said Runkle. “These arrests should send a clear message to the meat industry that cruelty to animals will not be tolerated.”

The article Butterball Employees Arrested for Cruelty to Animals appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Dutch artist Katinka Simonse is known for killing and brutalizing animals for her performance art. Simonse, 31, goes by the name “Tinkerbell” and gives live presentations of animal abuse and mutilation. She claims she is drawing awareness to animal abuse and rejects the idea that her work is repulsive.

During one exhibition, she made 100 hamsters roll about in little balls around the gallery. She has also mutilated and dismembered dogs, put day-old baby chicks in a shredder, and has killed chicks and put hooks through their bodies, so she could hang them up. Simonse has said that she does this “to use an animal that is close to you in order to show what we do with the ones that are far from sight. I wanted people to think about that.”

Her acts has caused an outcry amongst animal rights groups, like the Dutch animal welfare party called Partij Voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals), and questions of why the Dutch government does not have stricter animal abuse laws. In a statement, the animal welfare group described the Dutch artist as disturbed and obsessive and that she used her shocking “art” as a way to get attention. They have petitioned the Houses of Parliament in the Netherlands to have stricter laws and harsher sentences for animal abusers.

Not only has Simonse abused animals in her performance art, she also brutalized her own pet cat, Pinkeltjie. When it became sick, she was not interested in paying for a veterinarian, so she broke her pet’s neck. Simonse then had the cat skinned and used its skin for a handbag.

During an interview on a television show called De Wereld Draait Door (The Turning World), Simonse laughingly showed the interviewer how she broke her cat’s neck and showed no regret for her actions. She described the killing of her three-year-old cat as a “mercy-killing”.

In a joint project with artist Coralie Vogelaar, Simonse published a book in 2009 of all the hate mail that people have sent her. It is entitled “Dearest Tinkerbell”. Not only was the actual hate mail included in the books, but also the names, addresses, and other personal information (like what is on their Amazon wishlists) of the people who sent the hate mail, a very controversial move on behalf of the artist and her publicist.

She has received over 100,000 hate emails from all around the world. Eighty percent of the hate mail was from America, and some of the other countries included the Netherlands, France, Russia, and the UK. There are currently two petitions aimed at at the Dutch government to stop Simonse and bring her to justice.

The article Artist Mutilates, Kills Animals For Exhibitions appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Every second Tuesday of September a small town tucked in the middle of Spain, Tordesillas, holds an annual event that draws 45.000 visitors. A bull is lanced, speared and harassed to death by 500 men in the name of culture and tradition, this event has been happening since 1453.

‘El Toro De La Vega’ is one of the many controversial ‘Blood Fiestas’ that take place in villages and cities all over Spain every year. ‘Blood Fiestas’ and ‘Bullfighting Shows’ are different though both of them use, or according to animal rights activists abuse, bulls in order to carry out these kind of festivals.

While bullfighting shows take place in a bullfighting ring commonly known as ‘plaza de toros’ and have designated bullfighters or Toreros, ‘Blood Fiestas’ normally happen on streets, squares or entire towns where people gather to enjoy themselves.

Bullfighting and blood fiestas are considered part of Spain’s cultural patrimony and therefore millions of Euros are granted every year by The EU, central government, and local authorities to support what they claim is Spain’s unique art form.

Some of these bull-related events are worldwide known such as ‘San Fermines: The Running Of The Bulls’ where bulls and runners zigzag down the narrow streets of Pamplona but some others like ‘El Toro De La Vega’ involve what detractors state is an out-dated form of animal torture that shouldn’t be happening nowadays.

Tourists and even locals are often unaware of the real damage and harm the bull has to go through in Tordesillas because of a well-designed shielding campaign that surrounds the event.

There are several non-written policies that prohibit the use of cameras especially when the bull is being taken down, which endangers even more the work of the many photographers, journalists, not to mention undercover activists. Last year ‘El Intermedio’, a popular Spanish TV show sent a crew to Tordesillas with one goal: find some locals who were not in favor of this event.

The results were astonishing, on camera everyone seemed to agree with the tradition and the few who didn’t would only confess under the condition that their faces had to be blurred out and their names kept secret. Every year animal rights activists collect signatures and schedule various demonstrations to show their disapproval of the event.

They post videos, share ideas, and a couple of days before the event is set to be held, they show up in Tordesillas facing the local hostility of those who defend their right to enjoy their traditions. ‘Afligido’ (Spanish for sorrowful) was the 1300-pound bull that was previously hand-picked for this year’s edition.

Last September 13^th a lancer on foot struck the fatal stab that brought Aflijido down to a cheerful crowd that applauded the lancer’s courage. The lancer will be honored at the town hall and dub local hero before his neighbor’s eyes.

On his way through the village, Aflijido wounded two people but it was later announced that both men’s injuries were not severe unlike 17 other participants, that had to receive medical treatment after a woman pulled a pepper spray bottle out of a bag and attacked some of the attendees.

She was believed to be an undercover protestant that hid in the crowd before she turned on the audience, causing respiratory problems and panic attacks. The activist was arrested after some Toro de La Vega supporters held her down and unleashed their rage on her.

Tradition or cruelty? While supporters and activists duke it out on the streets, demonstrations and debates, Afligido has already lost this battle.

The article Battle in Tordesillas: Animal Rights Vs Tradition appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

It is not uncommon these days that the animal rights group PETA causes commotion with their controversial marketing endeavors. They have tried anything from nude-celebrities-against-fur to racy videos with women having erotic moments with vegetables on Youtube in support of veganism.

But all of that has nothing on their newest venture: PETA confirmed to the Huffington Post that they have registered a XXX porn site which will be targeting pro-vegan messages at their visitors.

“We live in a 24 hour news cycle world and we learn the racy things we do are sometimes the most effective way that we can reach particular individuals,” said PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt to the Huffington report.

“We really want to grab people’s attention, get them talking and to question the status quo and ultimately take action, because the best way we can help the greatest number of animals is simply by not eating them.”

According to Rajt, the site will have enough adult content to qualify as a XXX domain but it will also feature graphic images of animals. Australian Herald Sun could report that alongside the expected content, viewers will be treated to galleries and videos of “the sinister world of animal mistreatment uncovered but the group’s hidden camera investigations.”

Rajt explains their main content contributors: “There will be a lot of girl and boy next door content, but we haven’t ruled out celebrities on the site as well.”

She defined their supporters further as “people who are extraordinarily dedicated to helping animals and who are willing to do whatever it takes to draw attention to the suffering they endure.” PETA has before collaborated with adult film stars Sasha Gray, Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson for campaigns, according to the Huffington Post.

Despite the fact that going all the way on the XXX campaign isn’t that unexpected considering PETA’s previous initiatives, blog reporter Carmel Lobello of deathandtaxesmag.com points out a significant “content mismatch” on the upcoming site. Lobello admits that the idea of porn for animal rights makes some sense – essentially taking advantage of the term “sex sells” in the most literal of ways.

What she finds baffling is the juxtapose between porn and animal abuse: “For any sane person, images of mistreated animals should be an instant boner-killer.”

Lobello also hints at one of the criticisms that women’s rights groups have raised against PETA’s heavy use of female nudity: “By tapping into the porn industry aren’t they essentially exploiting one famously messed up industry to try to save the victims of another?”

The accusation that PETA’s interest in improving animal welfare leads to the cruel objectification of women has been echoed in other forums. One group, Real Women Against PETA, have objected fiercely to a Save The Whales billboard that attacks obese women.

The Huffington Post quotes one headline as “Pro-vegetarian group treats women like meat.” The spokeswoman from PETA explained that despite the controversy, their tactics are carefully thought out: “we try to use absolutely every outlet to stick up for animals.”

She also says that they wouldn’t use nudity if it didn’t work so well for their campaigns.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.facebook.com/PETA.Foundation.UK

The article PETA Launches Porn Site to Raise Veganism Awareness appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Last Friday, the new season of Whale Wars started on Animal Planet where Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherds crew are once again on the high seas, battling the whalers in their pursuit of an end to all whaling activity and eventual salvation of oceanic life. The Toonari Post spoke to Mr. Watson during the post-production of the new fourth season of Whale Wars, which was aired for the first time in 2008. The founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was off the coast of New Zealand when we made contact and despite the shaky connection, the friendly crew members helped us speak with Mr. Watson while the Steve Irwin, the signature ship, was heading for Tasmania in the Asia-Pacific.

Whale Wars follows Paul Watson and the volunteers on his boat as they continue their campaign against Japanese whalers. The organisation is known for their direct-action strategy and have been vigorously campaigning for the conservation of sea life – in the first season of Whale Wars, crew members threw bottles of butyric acid onto a Japanese vessel and Mr. Watson was allegedly shot during the campaign. The second season saw the introduction of the Earthrace vessel, a record-breaking, futuristic eco-friendly ship, later re-named Ady Gil in honor of the benefactor.

During our interview, we spoke about the organisation, their values and their mission. Watson told us about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and how they work as a volunteer organization specialized in oceanic life.

Every year, the organization recruits volunteers from all parts of the world. The application procedure is not that complicated. People with a genuine interest in taking part in the organisation’s campaigns can find the application form on the organization website. Applicants must have a passion for preserving marine life and taking care of marine diversity.

During the challenging phone interview, we eventually got to ask the die-hard animal rights activist about his organisation and the cause they are fighting for.

How would you describe the everyday life on the boat?

We are thirty people on the boat from all parts of the world. Life is basic routine – everyone does watches, takes care of different departments, different duties, and we just try to keep everybody busy.

What are the main values of your organization?

Protect the ocean and protect biodiversity. Stop whaling by the Japanese whaling fleet in the southern ocean. We are protecting a sanctuary.

What is your overall mission?

Basically we want to stop illegal fishing whether it be killing the sharks or whales or fish. We want to stop the illegal fishing. The problem is that people don’t realize that if we over-fish our oceans, if we take too much out of our ocean, the ocean will die, and if the ocean dies, then humanity dies and we cannot live in this planet with a dead ocean.

What was your motivation for creating the organization?

I started doing what I do by rescuing beavers. At age 26, I started the Sea Shepherds so I have been doing this pretty much my whole life.

How much wild life would you estimate you’ve preserved?

That’s really hard to say but I would say thousand and thousands of whales and dolphins, hundred thousand seals, and I don’t know how many fish but certainly a great deal.

Regarding your mission to the Galapagos Islands, do you work with the government to protect the ecological territory?

Well, we count with the park rangers and with the Ecuadorian federal police. We’ve been doing this for 12 years and we still have to protect it. The problem is that boats coming from Costa Rica, Venezuela, even Japan, are poaching fish – even in the national park. The Galapagos are symbolic and one of the problems is that there are too many people moving there, population increases, which is putting stress on the endemic species. This is a real problem.

You currently have strong media presence; do you plan to continue?

We are doing a show about tuna and we will probably be doing more whale campaigns shows in Iceland and Norway but yes, we will continue doing media campaigns.

Speaking of Whale Wars, is Japan your main focus?

Japan hasn’t been our main focus. We’ve been very much involved in trying to stop whaling in Iceland too. We’ve started to turn our attention towards Norway, Iceland and Denmark.

Do accusations of  ’Eco-terrorism’ hurt your organization in any way?

No, I don’t think it’s hurting, I don’t thing anybody is taking it seriously. In today’s world, if you disagree with somebody you just call him a terrorist. The Sea Shepherds doesn’t want to do crime, we haven’t committed a crime, haven’t injured anybody so we are not terrorists. We just happen to be up against people,who have decided that the best way to diminish somebody is to call him or her bad names. But I don’t think this hurts us at all.

You can follow the fourth season of Whale Wars, where the crew begins Operation: No Compromise in the southern ocean, every Friday at 9PM e/p on Animal Planet.

For more information on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society go to: http://www.seashepherd.org/ Want to receive up to date information on from the Sea Sheperd? Just go to their Facebook page and give them a like at  http://www.facebook.com/seashepherdconservationsociety

The article Whale Wars, Paul Watson and The Sea Shepherds Interview: Protecting the World’s Oceans appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.