From March 13th – 15th, more than 100,000 people will travel to Chandler, Arizona, to watch ostriches being abused and exploited during the city’s annual Ostrich Festival. For three days, jockeys will climb onto the backs of ostriches; grab them by their wings and feathers; and force them to run around a track in front of cheering spectators. They will also hook the birds up to chariots to race them.

The “Great Ostrich Race” is not so “great” for the ostriches

Ostrich Festival in Chandler, Arizona (photo: http://afterglow-spins.livejournal.com)

According to the Chandler Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the festival, “ostrich races captivate audiences with their crazy riders and unexpected animal behavior.”

Ostrich tramples jockey during race (photo: Joshua Lott/Reuters)

According to PETA, ostrich races harm ostriches, “subjecting them to rough handling amid chaos and screaming crowds” in events that “cause them fear and stress and can result in serious injuries.”

The Association of British Travel Agents, whose Animal Welfare Guidelines discourage customers from attending ostrich races, agrees: “The ostrich skeleton is not designed to support a jockey’s weight on its back.”

Ostriches are not designed to carry humans (photo: Joshua Lott/Reuters)

The company that produces the festival, Universal Fairs, describes it as a “family event.” In addition to ostrich racing, the festival offers carnival rides, entertainment and “spectacular food,” including ostrich burgers and jerky. Also on sale at the festival are ostrich leather products, hand-painted ostrich eggs, and dusters made from ostrich feathers.

Can the ostriches forced to race smell their friends being cooked? (photo: TheKitchenFairy)

These medieval ostrich races, which began in 1989, are not a focus of the animal rights community, but that wasn’t always the case. In 1995, 35 members of Arizona People for Animal Rights (APAR) entered the festival grounds with posters and distributed over a thousand pamphlets. Three of the activists were arrested after handcuffing themselves to the announcer’s podium and chanting, “There’s No Excuse For Animal Abuse!”

Ostrich chariot race (photo: Martin Gollery)

Ostriches are wild animals who have complex social lives and move quickly over long distances in Africa. Breeding them on cramped farms so that people can frivolously use their bodies to feed, clothe and amuse themselves is cruel and deprives them of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them. The people of Arizona should stop entertaining themselves on the backs of ostriches – literally and figuratively.

1. If you live in the Phoenix area, please attend the protest planned for Sunday, March 15th.

2. Sign the Change.org petition created by Phoenix activist Tina Riedel demanding that the Chandler Chamber of Commerce and Universal Fairs Stop Using Ostriches for Entertainment.

3. Send your thoughts to the Chandler Chamber of Commerce President, Terri Kimble: terri@chandlerchamber.com and to the Special Events & Program Manager, Brianne Marr at Brianne@chandlerchamber.com.

4. If you have a Twitter account, please tweet your thoughts to @cityofchandler or retweet TheirTurn’s tweets about the ostrich races to the city.

Temperatures reach a scorching 104 degrees in Western Argentina, but that doesn’t stop the city of Mendoza from holding an arctic animal captive in its zoo. And that is only one of the reasons why Arturo the polar bear is going insane.

Polar bear Arturo is depressed and shows signs of insanity

The Mendoza Zoo in Western Argentina

For over 20 years, Arturo, who is the only polar bear in Argentina, has been confined to a small concrete pit that deprives him of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to him, including swimming in the open water, traversing the sea ice and hunting for seals. Since Pelusa, his polar bear companion, died in 2012, he has had no contact with members of his own species. His only stimulation is a shallow pool that, according to visitors, is often empty.

Arturo sits in 20″ deep pool

Arturo has been robbed of everything that makes life worth living, and he lets the zoo patrons who peer into his prison cell know it by displaying signs of depression, such as swaying, rocking and pacing.

For many years, activists have advocated to transfer Arturo to a Canadian zoo where the climate is more suitable to polar bears; where the enclosure if far superior and where he’d live with members of his own species. While captivity at Canada’s Assiniboine Park Zoo would be no substitute for freedom, it would be a major improvement for “the world’s saddest animal,” as he is often described.

Assiniboine Park Zoo’s new polar bear exhibit opened in 2014 (photo: Mike Deal, Winnipeg Free Press)

In response to a 2014 petition with 400,000 signatures demanding the the Mendoza Zoo relocate him to Canada, the Zoo’s director stated that Arturo must stay on the grounds that the journey could kill him. But captivity is killing him right now, which is why activists believe the transfer to this facility in Canada is well worth the risk:

Like Nosey the elephant and Lolita the orca, Arturo has captured the attention of activists worldwide and has become a global symbol of the barbarity of animal captivity. But, with the Mendoza Zoo refusing to transfer him, Arturo’s advocates are working to determine the best approach to helping him.

For the moment, #FreeArturo  and #Storm4Arturo “tweet storms” are keeping his plight in the public consciousness. In 2014, both Cher and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, tweeted on his behalf.

Cher tweets in support of relocating Arturo to Canada

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, tweets for Arturo

To keep apprised and participate in the effort to relocate Arturo, please “like” Free Arturo, Save Polar Bear Arturo and Proyecto Ecoparque Mendoza (local group in Mendoza) on Facebook.

If you have a Twitter account, please use the #Tweet4Arturo Facebook page as a resource to tweet on his behalf.

Sign the Change.org petition.

Share this article with others to raise awareness of the plight of Arturo and all animals held captive for entertainment and profit.

NYC law prohibits horse-drawn carriage drivers from working their horses in snow, ice, heavy rain or other slippery conditions. But that didn’t stop them from working a horse at a St. Patrick’s Day Parade during a snowstorm.

Horse-drawn carriage drivers break the law by working during a snowstorm

TheirTurn told several police officers who lined the parade route that the carriages drivers were breaking the law, but none of them took action.

NYPD officers watch from the sidelines as horse-drawn carriage drivers break the law

The presence of two marching bands also didn’t keep the carriage operators away, even though the city’s horse-drawn carriage operator’s manual includes marching bands on the list of stimuli that spook horses.

Marching bands and horses don’t mix well because drums can spook them

List of stimuli that spook horses in NYC Dept. of Health’s horse-drawn carriage training manual

In fact, it was a drum that spooked a NYC carriage horse named Smoothie, who bolted down 59th street, crashed into a tree and died in front of dozens of onlookers.

Smoothie crashed into a tree and died after being spooked by a drum in Midtown Manhattan

The carriage operators were very much aware of the risk, which explains why they held the reins.

Carriage drivers hold the reins to prevent horse from bolting if drums spook him

As carriage operators illegally worked a horse in a parade in Queens, several others were breaking the law on the snowy streets of Manhattan.

Carriage drivers work during snowstorm in defiance of the law (photo: Bronx resident)

Animal rights activists with NYCLASS, PETA and Long Island Orchestrating for Nature (LION) also participated in the parade, bringing animal costumes instead of a living animal.

Council Member Danny Dromm (center) is lead sponsor on bill to ban horse-drawn carriages

The carriage drivers thanked the village of Sunnyside, Queens, by leaving behind a pile of horse manure on main street. Not to worry, NYC tax dollars will pay for the clean up.

New Yorkers are fined if they don’t pick up after their dogs, but carriage drivers get a free pass

1. If you live in NYC, please ask your City Council Member to support the bill to ban horse-drawn carriages (Intro 573). If you live elsewhere, please sign their petition.

2. To learn more about the issue and keep apprised of news, subscribe to the weekly newsletter of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages.

3. Watch the award-winning documentary film BLINDERS to see why people have been fighting for years to take the horses out of NYC:

The duplicitous officials of Hendry County, Florida almost pulled it off — green lighting a 32 acre monkey breeding facility without informing the community or holding a public hearing, which is required by the state’s “Sunshine Law.”

But, in November, 2014, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) stepped in and filed a lawsuit after learning about Hendry’s underhanded and illegal maneuver. The plaintiffs, Hendry County residents, argue that they were denied their legal right to publicly comment on a facility that, if built, would house thousands of exotic animals who could potentially escape and/or spread disease before being shipped to laboratories around the country.

Lab monkey (photo: PETA)

Hendry County has asked the court to dismiss ALDF’s case on the grounds that the Florida’s Sunshine Law does not mandate public hearings for the approval of “agricultural” facilities. But ALDF asserts that monkeys are wild, not agricultural, animals. On Thursday, a Hendry County judge will hear arguments from both sides at a court hearing that is open to the public. In the meantime, Jane Velez-Mitchell breaks down the issues in this JaneUnchained exclusive:

The hearing will take place just one week after PETA made the shocking announcement that the number of animals being used each year in federally-funded labs rose from approximately 75,000 in 1997 to to 129,000 in 2012.

If you live in Florida, please consider attending a rally that will held in conjunction with the hearing. Jane Velez-Mitchell will be there to report on the hearing and the rally.

For more details about the lawsuit, please see Lawsuit Claims Florida County Kept Monkey Breeding Facility a Secret.

Secretly recorded video of racing dogs ripping apart live animals, who were being used as bait, has triggered public debate in Australia about a proposed ag-gag law that would have compromised the investigation and possibly prevented the incriminating footage from being taken in the first place.

Greyhound trainers attach live animals to fast-moving lures that the dogs chase while training

Barnaby Joyce, Australia’s notoriously anti-animal, anti-activist Minister of Agriculture, is using media coverage of the live bait scandal as a platform to push for a U.S.-style ag-gag law that would punish those who take the footage: “Why should people be allowed to trespass onto a farm? You cannot decide to take the law into your own hands. Everybody has in their own purview an ethical reason to break into some industry because of what they judge to be correct.” The proposed legislation would also require activists who do acquire footage to quickly turn it over to authorities, which would compromise their investigations.

Australia’s Minister of Agriculture Barnaby Joyce is advocating for ag-gag laws to criminalize undercover investigations that expose animal cruelty and to protect those who commit the abuses

If comments posted online about the live bait exposé are any indication, Australians overwhelmingly disagree with Mr. Joyce:

“Only people like Barnaby could look at video of the most barbaric animal cruelty and seek to punish those who exposed it, not those who perpetrate it.”

“If the regulators don’t protect the animals then SOMEONE has too.”

“Baby pigs being ripped apart while tied to a lure doesn’t seem to upset Joyce, but the people who exposed it do?”

“For too long, the so called regulators have been in bed with cruel industries. So who is going to stop cruelty? The people who always have — the public.”

It isn’t just the dog racing business that Barnaby Joyce is working to protect. Horrific footage from dozens of undercover investigations of Australia’s multi-billion dollar live export industry has demonstrated that transporting millions of cows and sheep to the Middle East and Asia is inherently inhumane. It is this damning footage that Minister Joyce is most eager to suppress.

Each year, millions of live sheep and cattle are exported to the Middle East and Asia

Australia’s proposed ag-gag law would impose fines up to $10,000 and prison sentences up to 20 years, depending on the amount of economic damage. In the U.S., seven states have passed “ag-gag” bills into law since the 1990s.

Please visit Animals Australia to learn more about the organization’s extraordinary investigations that are blowing the lid off of some of the world’s cruelest animal industries.