Like Blackfish & The Cove, the award-winning documentary film BLINDERS exposes the plight of animals used in entertainment, and it’s now on Vimeo.
Through original footage taken with hidden cameras and interviews with carriage drivers, large animal veterinarians, accident witnesses, animal rights activists, politicians and rescuers, BLINDERS takes viewers behind the scenes to expose the truth behind the tradition of NYC’s horse-drawn carriages.
Being gay has its advantages from time to time. And for a bull in Ireland who is sexually attracted to other bulls, it might just save his life.
Benjy is a charolais bull like this one (photo: Wikicommons)
At first, his homosexuality was a premature death sentence. Because Benjy won’t inseminate female cows, his owner decided to fatten him up and ship him off to an early slaughter. Upon reading about the gay bull in a local paper, however, the Irish animal rights group ARAN (Animal Rights Action Network) partnered with the U.K.’s biggest online gay magazine and a prominent farm animal sanctuary to raise money to buy him and pay for his care at the sanctuary.
Putting Benjy in the the spotlight has been a strategy to not only save his life but also direct peoples’ attention to the plight of “food” animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses. Benjy, ARAN says, would be a great ambassador for all farm animals.
John Carmody, the founder of ARAN, is “urging members of the public to step in and help save Benjy so that this little fellow live out his natural life in peace.” Please consider making a donation.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) has filed a lawsuit against a county in Central Florida for failing to hold a public hearing about the construction of a 32 acre monkey breeding facility.
Hendry County, FL
In a statement to the press, Hendry County claims that seeking public input for an “agriculture” facility is not required by law. Some locals suspect that the County intentionally kept the project a secret, knowing that members of the public would oppose the presence of monkeys who could carry infectious diseases in residential area. Florida already has a population over 1,000 non-native wild macaques, many of whom carry the hepatitis B virus, according to published reports.
Primera and SoFlo Ag cannot be reached
Primera Science Center, the company building the breeding center, reportedly intends to transport 3,200 macaque monkeys from Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa, to Florida, where they will be bred and sold to laboratories for use in experiments. The macaques, who will presumably have direct contact with workers, can carry infectious diseases like tuberculosis and hepatitis.
Photo: buav.org
Dwight Bullard, the State Senator who represents the area, has called for the project to be delayed until Primera and Hendry County provide more information about how public safety will be protected: “We are calling on Primera to hold a public meeting with the state and federal agencies that will be involved in the safety and care of these primates during their time at this facility. If primates get loose, what does that mean to the surrounding counties in terms of potential outbreaks?”
In a statement to the press, Primera says it “is in full compliance with the rules, guidelines and laws at the local, state and federal levels” and that it “is committed to meeting the highest standards with the utmost respect for the safety and preservation of the surrounding environment and its residents.”
To see the lawsuit in its entirety and the statement released by Hendry County in response to the suit, please visit news-press.com.
Please ask Hendry County officials to halt the construction of Primera’s monkey breeding facility until the County and company provide the public with an answers to its questions and gives local residents the opportunity to provide input at a public hearing.
Phone: 863-675-5220
Email: welcome@hendryfla.net
It has all the trappings of a thriller, but, like The Cove, it’s a real-life documentary that exposes the plight of one of the planet’s most beloved and intelligent animals. The film is called Virunga, and the animals are the majestic mountain gorillas.
Photo: Virunga Movie
On one side, a British energy corporation called Soco bribes government officials in the war-torn Congo so that it can explore for oil in a protected national park called Virunga. On the other side are locals who risk – and often lose – their lives to protect the park, which is their lifeline. Caught in the crossfire are some of Africa’s last remaining mountain gorillas.
Because tourists are willing to spend hundreds of dollars a day to see them, gorillas, along with many other animals in the park, are a priceless renewable resource for the communities around Virunga. But Soco and the officials they bribe appear willing to destroy the park to make a quick buck off of a finite amount of oil.
Photo: WWF
Among the many extraordinarily people in the film is a French journalist, who, wearing a hidden camera, films Soco executives making bribes and threatening those who oppose oil exploration in the park. In a particularly jarring moment, a member of the British entourage said, “I can’t believe that people are protecting the park just for monkeys. Who cares about fucking monkeys?”
Photo: Joe McKenna
The world’s last 950 mountain gorillas live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. In spite of sporadic civil unrest, gorilla tourism is returning to the Congo. And it is thriving in Rwanda and Uganda. In this video, wild gorillas wander onto the grounds of a tourist lodge in Uganda and give an unsuspecting guest the encounter of a lifetime.
To find out how you can help save the remaining mountain gorillas, please visit Virunga Movie, which is now available on Netflix.
Unilever, the $60 billion dollar corporation that makes Hellman’s mayonnaise, is attempting to cripple Hampton Creek, a start up company that makes Just Mayo, an egg-free alternative that is growing in popularity. Claiming that mayonnaise, by definition, contains eggs, Unilever is arguing in federal court that Hampton Creek must either add eggs to its recipe or remove Just Mayo from grocery store shelves.
“Relax, Max. It’s Just Mayo.”
Unilever has reasons for concern — and not just because Just Mayo is stealing market share from Hellmann’s. The CEO of Hampton Creek, Josh Tetrick, is aiming to “create a whole new model” that “takes animals out of the equation.” He elaborates in his interview with Jane Velez-Mitchell:
In his 2013 TED Talk, Tetrick points out that eliminating animal agriculture could dramatically reduce greenhouse gasses, hunger and inefficiency, not to mention the inhumane treatment of animals.
While Tetrick describes eggs as “the end result of a hen’s ovulation cycle,” he does acknowledge their “important role” in recipes. They cause cookies to bind; they hold oil and water together in mayonnaise; and they make cakes rise. He argues, however, that plants can do the same thing if we harness their potential, With Beyond Mayo, Tetrick has proven that plant-based foods can both satisfy our palates and feed people in a way that doesn’t destroy the environment or “misalign our values.”
Josh Tetrick, Hampton Creek CEO (photo: ALDF)
Please sign the Change.org petition telling Unilever “to stop bullying sustainable food companies.”
