It's all happening next week! Not only is it World Veg Week, but the wonderful people from Edgar's Mission animal sanctuary have launched Be Kind To Animals Week -- a week for everyone to take simple steps to improve the lives of our furry (finned, feathered and scaley) friends!
There are plenty of great things you can do to get involved:
You can act at home, by taking your best friend for a stroll (more than once I hope!); or putting a nesting box for birds in a tree in your backyard.
You could act local, by volunteering at an animal shelter; picking up rubbish on the beach; or writing a letter to the editor of your local paper about an animal issue you are passionate about (live export maybe? Or jumps racing? Puppy farms?).
Or you can make a change in your own life (to have a big impact!), such as taking the Veg Week Challenge and saving two animals' lives by taking animals off your plate for the week (or longer!); or committing to buy products that aren't tested on animals.
Remember, even if you're already rockin the cruelty-free lifestyle, you can extend the Veg Challenge (or any other Be Kind to Animals Week initiatives) to your friends and family, neighbours, workmates, teachers, etc. The more the merrier (and the better off animals will be for it)!
To get you in the mood for Be Kind to Animals Week, here's a gorgeous video of two amazing inhabitants from Edgar's Mission:
Leave a comment below - What will you be doing to be kind to animals next week?
I'm excited to let you know that we've got a copy of the stunning Oceans DVD to give away. So read on to find out how you could be checking out some of the most amazing animals under the sea.
Don't you agree, there's something nice about watching fish swim? You know at first glance it's easy to believe there isn't too much thinking going on upstairs in fish, but keep watching and it's amazing how you start to notice how each animal has her own personality and quirks.
A lot of people seem to find watching fish calming -- or more precisely, see fish as a calming 'decoration'. Why else would so many houses and offices install fish tanks, and why else would Google offer this very cute gadget (below). But to be honest, I much prefer watching fish swim in their natural environment -- not a fish tank. And not surprisingly, it turns out fish prefer this too.
Researchers recently compared the behaviour of fish in the wild; in a large artificial 'stream' in a zoo; and in smaller tanks used by pet owners. What they found is that the smaller the tank, and the less 'complex' (ie. no rocks, plants, hiding places, etc) the tank was the more aggressive the fish became -- sometimes even escalating to nipping and attacking other fish.
When you think about it, it's not really that surprising. If you put me in a small empty room, I'd be pretty annoyed as well. Obviously, like us fish feel pain. And when you consider all the other amazing things scientists have discovered about fish, it makes sense that they might experience boredom and frustration too.
For example, did you know that fish communicate with each other using squeaks and squeals that you and I can only hear with special instruments? Or that in some species the older fish teach the youngens -- about things like predators, and even to recognise the sound of trawling boats. Or that some fish use tools... such as stingsrays working out how to extract food from plastic tubes by shooting jets of water; or blackspot tuskfish using a rock to open a clam's shell.
And don't even get me started on how cool cuttlefish are (although technically they're not a fish)! Ahem ... I guess what I'm trying to say is: Sea animals is pretty amazing! And there's a whole lot more going on upstairs in the animals that live down below than we often give them credit for.
Oceans DVD Giveaway!
The Disney doco, Oceans, is about to be released on DVD and we have a copy that could be yours. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment below and tell us one good reason people should care about fish.
UPDATE You guys are all so awesome for knowing how awesome fish are! These responses are all fabulous! Unfortunately there can only be one winner .....
And the DVD goes to *drumroll* Liz2!
Well done Liz!
And massive THANK YOUs to everyone for entering!
I figure that I'm gonna be pretty popular when I announce that we have chocolate for you! Well, ok not all of you! But 5 lucky peeps who can tell me what amazing dairy free delights they have discovered this year.
I can tell you what my favourite is right now -- Constant Cravings incredibly, immensely delicious and decadent Chocolate Truffles! We've got gift packs of 8 (EIGHT!! I just dribbled on the keyboard) Constant Craving truffles valued at $18 to win.
And victory will taste all the sweeter knowing that no cows (or calves!) were harmed in the making of those chocolicious treats!
In the pack are Scorched Almond, Coconut Rough, Apricot Dream and Coffee flavoured truffles. Now if any of you are worried about a little guilty pleasure, I am quite prepared to get on a flight to anywhere and help the winners polish off their prize. I'm considerate like that ;)
So, go on, tell me what your fave dairy-free snack is and make my tummy grumble even more. Good luck!
I don't know about you, but the idea of having a dead animal draped around my shoulders to keep warm, or worse, to make a 'fashion statement', makes me want to recoil in disgust, or more to the point: puke!
On a recent shopping trip I happened to spot a number of rabbit fur vests in shop windows--at least I think they were rabbit fur . But with dog and cat fur often deliberately mislabelled and imported as 'rabbit', you can never be sure.
What is up with this resurgence of fur?! At the recent Melbourne Spring Fashion Week there were a disturbing number of attendees in the crowd wearing this season's "on-trend" of brightly coloured fur.
Even Aussie expat, supermodel Jess Hart has been seen walking around the streets of New York in a fur coat that I'm sure looked much better on the animal it was taken from.
And to top it all off, the latest episode of Australia's Next Top Model again featured fur to the disgust of viewers and even the show's own judges. ANTM copped it last year for the same tasteless faux pas so they have no excuse for not using faux fur this time around.
We know there is nothing fashionable about the cruel slaughter of animals for fur. Fur farms, which often use killing methods such as drowning, anal electrocution and skinning alive are kept in business through the demand for fur coats, gloves, hats, fur trimming at the cost of thousands of animals' lives.
What do you think -- How can we communicate to these "fashionistas" that animals need their fur on their own backs, not ours? With so many cosy cruelty-free outfits at our fingertips, haven't we evolved past killing animals for coats?!
If somebody told you that an animal was 'free to roam', you'd probably think that's a pretty good situation, right? Not so if you're a chicken in a factory farm. Can you believe the chicken industry has been calling this 'free to roam'?!
Alright, it's probably no surprise that an industry willing to lock thousands of animals in sheds like this is also willing to bend the truth when they try to sell dead animals to the public. But this time around, it doesn't look like they'll get away with it.
Following a complaint, prompted by Animals Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has decided to take a number of chicken producers (including producers for Steggles and La Ionica) to court for misleading advertising.
But these companies aren't the only ones using these dodgy tactics to sell chickens. Seeing the writing on the wall, KFC have now taken all claims that their chickens are 'free to roam' off their website.
If the ACCC case is successful, then Steggles, La Ionica and the Australian Chicken Meat Federation will be forced to publicly correct their misleading claims.
If only the ACCC could also force them to tell the public that birds inside their sheds have been selectively bred to grow so unnaturally fast that many cannot even lift their own body weight to reach food or water. Or that they kill the birds when they are only 6 weeks old -- cutting their lives short by about 11 years. Or that because these animals are forced to live in their own waste many suffer chemical burns to their chest and legs.
But we don't need to wait for the chicken industry to admit their shady sales tactics. Take the Quiz to find out if you've been duped by the chicken industry. Then click here to post it to Facebook and challenge your mates to see if they can see through the industry spin.
Update: 10th January, 2012 -- Chicken meat company La Ionica has agreed to settle! They've been ordered to pay a $100,000 fine, remove the misleading advertisement from shops and publish an ad admitting liability in a Melbourne newspaper. Baiada, Bartter and the Australian Chicken Meat Federation are continuing with the case though, which will go to court in March of this year. Stay tuned!
A couple of weeks ago, I was chuffed to see the panel on The Gruen Transfer discussing Animals Australia and RSPCA Australia's very own Ban Live Export television ad!
Not only that but they discussed quite a few ads from different groups on really important topics like fur, battery hens, going veg and an ultra clever ad on the destruction caused by unsustainable palm oil. Check out the discussion - it gets pretty heavy!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on all the ads. Which was your fave? What tactics do you think work better than others and why? Do you have any great ideas for tv commercials that raise awareness for animals?
Oh, and check out Animals Australia and RSPCA Australia's latest joint ad to ban live export here!
Some of you may have been following the story of Oscar, a small dog kept for breeding on a property in remote Victoria. Found cowering in the back of a small dark cage, Oscar's fur was thick and matted, he had fleas and mites in his infected ears and his teeth were so infected he couldn't eat. He was rescued from this nightmare by a woman named Debra Tranter.
After being treated by a vet, shaved and desexed, he weighed only 1.6kg by the time he got to what should have been his new home. Then in what could have been a scene from a movie, police raided Debra's house in the middle of the night, arrested her, seized Oscar and returned him to the miserable puppy factory.
It was this awful experience that inspired the birth of a nationwide campaign against puppy farms known, as Oscar's Law. While Oscar was again languishing alone in a cage, caring people would keep fighting to save him and the thousands of others like him.
Puppy factories are just like factory farms, only for pets.Dogs are kept in small cages for breeding. They hardly ever get patted, or have their bellies rubbed and they almost never get veterinary treatment. Often living in their own filth, both parents and puppies can suffer from various diseases and illnesses that can often go untreated.
Why do puppy farms exist? People want puppies. It's as simple as that. Most people don't realise that when they buy a puppy from a pet shop or from an ad in the paper, they are usually from these hellholes and the parents are living a life of confinement and misery.
What else? If you're looking to bring a four-legged friend into the family, then make sure you adopt from a shelter. There are millions of healthy animals in shelters across the country just waiting for a new home. So huge is the dog and cat overpopulation problem in Australia that each hour, 23 dogs and cats are put down just because they haven't been able to find a home. By adopting from a shelter, you not only save the life of an animal in need, you can take your new friend home happy in the knowledge that you haven't contributed to a cruel industry.
Whatever became of Oscar?
In July, Debra donned a disguise and headed back to the dreaded puppy farm after seeing a newspaper ad selling adult dogs. Knowing the cage, she found Oscar straight away, trembling in fear. The puppy farmer considered him "no good" because he had been desexed, so sold him for a "discount price" of $400. Oscar is finally safe and in loving arms!
But Oscar's friends still need us. You and everyone who cares are the animals' hope for an end to their suffering in puppy farms and for safety at last. For more info head to www.OscarsLaw.org. See you on Sunday!
Thanks to Debra Tranter for use of photos
UPDATE18/9/11-- Thousands of people attended the rallies for Oscar's Law in a huge show of support for a ban on puppy farms. In Melbourne, the guest of honour was little Oscar himself. Thanks and well done to everyone who helped to send a clear message to our politicians that cruel factory farming of companion animals must end!
Imagine going decades without seeing the outside world -- spending many of those years confined in a laboratory, bright lights and metal bars a staple of your daily environment. Then finally being able to experience the sunlight on your skin and the simple joys of walking freely and interacting with your friends...
This is the sad but uplifting story of ten chimpanzees, held in captivity for 30 years in Austria. Yes, you heard correctly, 30 years... And for more than half of those years, these unfortunate animals were confined in a medical testing laboratory. Check out this amazing video as the chimps step into the sunshine for the first time:
Isn't that moment when the two chimps turn and hug each other in joy so touching to see!
What do you think -- should pharmaceutical companies find better, safer ways to test drugs, that don't involve animals? I mean, when you see the joy of these chimps at finally being safe and free, it makes you wonder how we can justify locking them away and testing on them for decades, doesn't it?
As Prof. Charles Magel put it: "Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals and the answer is: 'Because animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why it is morally okay to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are not like us.' Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction."
This footage not only brings home the sad reality of animals being used in pharmaceutical testing, but the chimps' reactions to being set free shows just how similar they are to us. Share this video on facebook (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDgo6ee6uas) and show others just how touching a moment it can be to give animals the safety and freedom they all deserve.
What would you do if you were being loaded onto a massive ship to spend weeks at sea, crammed in with thousands of others in sometimes stifling temperatures, standing in your own waste until you are finally offloaded in a country where no laws protect you from cruelty and being slaughtered fully conscious...?
I don't know about you, but if I had any inkling of what was to come I'd jump ship! And that's exactly what one cluey cow did last week, while being loaded onto a live export ship in Darwin.
Rather than accept her fate as part of the cruellest trade in Australia, this brilliant Brahman escaped the loading races and plunged into the sea in a bid for freedom. And who could blame her?
Export ships leaving Darwin port take cattle straight to Indonesia, and if you saw the Four Corners report in May you'd know why this cow would not want to end up there! Animals Australia filmed cows being kicked, whipped, eye gouged, having their tails broken, and slapping their heads on concrete that forms part of horror restraining boxes that the Australian government had installed.
Eventually the swimming cow was pulled out of the water, but still kicking and bucking, she clearly didn't want to be "saved" and put back on the ship. Her fate is now unknown.
Even more tragic is that this is not the first cow to make a break for freedom. Apparently others before her have tried to save themselves, but it looks like we'll have to do it for them. Please click here to send a letter to the Prime Minister and ask her to end this barbaric trade for good!
In just over two weeks, hundreds of people travelled from far and wide to join Animals Australia campaigners in Port Adelaide for five protests, shining a spotlight on the cruelty of live export. What an amazing effort by South Australians! And now the people of Perth are stepping up to make their voice heard too.
This all began when an old car carrier, converted into a live export ship, carrying 67,000 sheep, broke down after one day at sea. The ship went back to Port Adelaide but the animals were not immediately unloaded. Instead, they remained stuck on board in cramped pens. Around 300 animals died on board the Al Messilah in just 10 days!
Sadly, these deaths are not unusual. In fact, on every ship that leaves our shores hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of animals die. But what was unusual is that it happened under our noses, for all Australians to see. And with every one of the protests making the nightly TV news, the protesters guaranteed that the animals suffering would not go unnoticed.
After suffering on board the broken down ship for 10 days, the animals were finally unloaded and sent to a feedlot, their fate uncertain. But these animals weren't safe for even two weeks before another boat, the Al Shuwaikh, arrived to load them for the trip to the Middle East -- to countries with no laws to protect them from cruelty.
Over three consecutive days, hundreds of people turned out at Port Adelaide to call for an end to the cruelty. On the final day, as the boat readied to set out, people laid flowers in a memorial to the victims of live export -- the thousands that die on board ships each year and the millions that are slaughtered fully conscious :(
On each of the last three days of protests, the exporters seemed to be trying to avoid the protesters (and media), first delaying the ships arrival, then delaying loading and then rushing to load animals through the night before the protesters returned. Does that sound to you like an industry with nothing to hide?
All thoughts today are with the sheep onboard the Al Shuwaikh, which has just arrived in Fremantle, and with the wonderful people of Western Australia who were out in force at Fremantle Port today, to again highlight just how cruel this industry is and show our politicians that Australians will not stay silent while animals continue to suffer in this trade.
Disclaimer:
We’re supposed to let you know that the ideas expressed here are the views of the individual authors, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Animals Australia or Animals Australia Unleashed. So now you know.
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