Using social media, Chinese animal rights activists recruited “thousands” of volunteers to rescue 2,400 dogs on their way to the butcher after spotting the five slaughter-bound trucks on a highway near Beijing. According to the NY Times, the activists and volunteers were “able to surround the trucks, preventing their escape.” Even though dog slaughter is legal in China, the police allowed the activists to take possession of the dogs because many were companion animals who had been kidnapped, and most did not have the proper paperwork.

Photo: Susan Wang

We are so accustomed to vilifying China for being the world’s biggest consumer and/or supplier of fur, shark fins and ivory that we forget to acknowledge the activists who are moving mountains to help animals in China. Providing food, water, medicine and housing to 2,400 dogs on a moment’s notice is a breathtaking feat. Can you imagine if we tried to rescue the thousands of abused chickens stacked in cages in Brooklyn during Kaporos, the pre-Yom Kippur ritual in which religious Jews swing chickens around their heads to transfer their sins to the chickens before slaughtering them? We’d be all be thrown in jail.

After learning that a human leg was found at a recycling plant in Dublin, PETA produced an ad depicting a human leg on a dinner plate to remind people that “all meat is murder.” A furious Council Member said, “The deliberate use of human remains in an advertisement is sickening and disgusting . . .That person will have family, friends and loved ones worried about them and I would call on PETA to stop trying to gain publicity out of such a sickening situation.”

Given the extraordinary challenge of getting the general public to give serious thought to the plight of animals, PETA employs attention-grabbing tactics, such as nude protests, that many find offensive. But do the benefits of these tactics outweigh the downsides?  I think so.  These tactics generate media coverage that our typical protests do not receive.  And media coverage drives people to their website, which can trigger people to go veg.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the federal Animal Enterprise Act (AETA), claiming it violates the First Amendment. Under AETA, which was passed in 2006, anyone who causes the loss of property or profits to institutions that use or sell animals can be prosecuted and face up to 20 years in prison, depending on the amount of profit loss. CCR claims that AETA is vague and “makes no distinction between loss caused by criminal acts and loss caused by constitutionally-protected activity.”

Trespassing = terrorism?

What’s scarier?  The fact that big business was able to convince Congress to pass a law describing non-violent animal rights activists as “terrorists” or the fact that exercising our first amendment right to free speech can land us in jail, if it’s animal abusers we are targeting. Does that mean I can be arrested for protesting horse-drawn carriages in midtown Manhattan if potential customers decide not to take a ride after seeing my poster? Activists have already been prosecuted and sent to prison under AETA, but the law, which is so clearly unconstitutional, will eventually be overturned.  Learn more about AETA and see how you can help at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

A bill to ban gestation crates, an intensive form of confinement for breeding pigs, did not pass Massachusetts.  In the National Hog Farmer, hog farmer Lisa Colby declared a victory for “the rights of local farmers,” stating “Massachusetts family farmers are relieved the legislature had the good sense not to waste time debating a law prohibiting farmers’ choices in taking care of their animals.”

Gestation Crates

Agribusiness owners, who describe themselves as “farmers” to garner public support, justify the use of extraordinarily cruel gestation crates for sows by claiming that they “allow for individualized care and eliminate aggression from other sows.”  This is the ultimate in hogwash.  “Individualized care?”  Sows locked in gestation crates are among the most abused animals on the planet.  “Eliminate aggression from other sows?” The sows are so stressed and traumatized by their inability to so much as turn around that they go insane, chewing on the metal bars that imprison them. Farm Sanctuary and other advocacy groups are supporting legislation at the state level to ban gestation crates.   Please see how you can help.

Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) of S. Florida is using a $10,000 reward and undercover footage of pigs being terrorized and brutalized to solicit the help of the public in tracking down a man notorious for torturing animals. ARM’s lead investigator, Richard Cuoto (aka Kudo), says that the man, Yurianne Hervis Gonzalez, beats the pigs with sledgehammers and guts them alive.  UPDATE: Mr. Gonzalez has been arrested and is being held on an $80,000 bond.

Dade County is notorious for its illegal horse slaughterhouses.  Now, thanks to the work of ARM, we are learning about horrendous illegal pig slaughterhouses. If you want to learn more about how activists are affecting change in South Florida and/or to support their efforts, please visit ARM.