On September 13th, approximately 45,000 activists marched through the streets of Madrid and broke makeshift spears in half in a ceremony called “Rompe Una Lanza” (translated: break a sword). The activists were protesting an annual ritual called “Toro de la Vega” in which over 100 men chase down a bull and slowly spear him to death. The ritual takes place on Tuesday (9/16) in Tordesillas, a town 118 miles northwest of Madrid.

THE PROTEST

THE RITUAL

The Spanish activist group PACMA (Political Party against Mistreatment of Animals in Spain) says that, during the Toro de la Vega, “one hundred or more men harass the bull with their thrusting lances until the poor animal, who is bleeding profusely and riddled with holes, can go no further. As he collapses, someone cuts off his testicles. It is a slow form of torture, watched by a rowdy spectators, including parents who take their children.”

To learn more about “Toro de la Vega,” please visit SHARK, which translated the PACMA’s description of the barbaric ritual into English. And sign the petition.

Update as of Monday, 9/15: The elephants are, unfortunately, en route from Maine to the Carson & Barnes circus facility (Endangered Ark Foundation) in Oklahoma from which Hope Elephants leased them. The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, which is where they should be going, has stated that it is willing to collaborate with the circus to adopt and provide a real refuge for these abused circuses elephants. See below for how you can help.

On September 9th, TheirTurn reported that one of the two retired circus elephants at Hope Elephants in Maine trampled and killed the founder of the facility. According to its website, Hope intends to send Rosie and Opal back to their owners at The Endangered Ark Foundation in Oklahoma. Animal Rights Maine, on the other hand, is advocating to relocate them to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, arguing that the Ark Foundation is run by the family that manages “the cruel Carson & Barnes Circus known for violence toward elephants.”

Opal & Rosie (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Please ask the Board of Hope Elephants to work with the Carson & Barnes Circus to retire Rosie and Opal to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (info@hopeelephants.org) instead of keeping them at their circus facility, the Ark, in Oklahoma. Hope leased these elephants from the circus and is legally obligated to return them. However, instead of hiding behind the terms of their contract with the circus, Hope should be pressuring Carson & Barnes to move Rosie and Opal to the sanctuary.

For more information, please visit Animal Rights Maine and/or contact Melissa Gates, the organization’s Founding Director: animalrightsmaine@yahoo.com

1. It’s unhealthy – Dairy milk is designed for the digestive systems of baby cows, not humans. It’s filled with fat and nutrients that help a baby cow gain almost 2 pounds per day.

2. It’s unnatural – Humans are the only species that drinks the milk of another species. Why do we drink the milk of a cow when we create our own? It’s no wonder so many people are lactose intolerant.

Photo: Viva!

3. It’s illogical – Humans are the only species that drinks milk beyond infancy. If our bodies were designed to consume milk for a lifetime, then wouldn’t women produce it long after their babies stop nursing?

4. It’s cruel – When female cows give birth, they lactate for their babies, not for us. Yet, in order to maximize the amount of milk they have to sell, dairy farmers forcibly separate newborns from their mothers. Female babies are raised to become milk machines, like their mothers, and male babies are often moved into veal crates, one of the cruelest and most intensive forms of confinement. Dairy cows and their babies know nothing but physical pain, deprivation and misery. Here is video of a mother chasing after her baby as he or she is being kidnapped. Don’t be fooled by the green pasture; this footage is taken on a small family farm, not on a factory farm where 99% of dairy cows are raised.

5. It’s outdated – Milk is addictive because it creates opiate effects during digestion. That is why babies want to nurse and why people say, “I could never give up cheese.” But consuming dairy is unnatural, unhealthy, environmentally destructive and inhumane. Why not kick the habit by consuming plant-based milk products which are so similar to dairy that you might not know the difference?

Mom looking for her baby

Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg and Giorgio Armani have refused to comment after being revealed, along with many other world-renowned fashion designers, as customers of fur farmers who were caught on video torturing rabbits.

Last Chance For Animals and Animal Equality, which conducted a two year undercover investigation of 70 rabbit fur farms in Spain, chose fashion week to release both the names of the customers and the outrageous footage taken during their investigation.

Advocates for animals employ many different approaches to ending the horrific fur trade. Some lobby lawmakers to ban the sale of fur; others work to educate or shame fur consumers, designers, retailers; and a small number break into fur farms and liberate animals in the dark of night, at times permanently shutting down the operation.

Regardless of strategy, what we share in common is outrage that millions of helpless animals are intensely confined, abused, neglected and deprived for their entire lives before being executed and skinned – all for the purpose for vanity.

Please visit endfahsioncruelty.org to take action and be a voice for these animals.

At the Gay Rodeo near San Francisco this weekend, hundreds of LGBTs will applaud and cheer as their gay brothers and sisters wrestle terrified cows to the ground and then twist their necks in an event called “chute dogging.”

In a statement to San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter, The International Gay Rodeo Association defends chute dogging, bucking, goat dressing and other abusive events that celebrate the “traditional western lifestyle” by saying, “The animals of gay rodeo are well cared for and loved.”

Andrew Zollman of LBGT Compassion, a San Francisco-based group that protests the rodeo, compares the abuse of these animals to anti-gay bullying: “Instead of becoming oppressors and abusers of others who are also different and powerless, we should show compassion and empathy for them. The least we can do for farm animals is to not subject them to additional suffering and torment for the gratuitous purpose of our own entertainment.”

1. Learn more about rodeo cruelty at LGBT Compassion

2. Submit a letter to the Bay Area Reporter (news@ebar.com) expressing your point of view. Write “letter to the editor” in the subject line, and include an address and phone number.

3. Post a comment on the Facebook wall and/or email the International Gay Rodeo Association: askigra@igra.com