On Sunday morning, a carriage horse escaped from his handler and fled down 11th Avenue in midtown Manhattan. Police officers chased the spooked horse in vehicles with flashing lights, which could have made him even more frantic. If the incident had taken place at a busier time, the horse could have easily crashed into a moving car, which has happened many times in the past when horses break free in midtown.

The fleeing horse is symbolic of an industry out of control since the ASPCA relinquished its humane law enforcement duties in January. On Friday, The Daily News published a letter about the chaos written by Elizabeth Forel, president of the Coalition to Ban Horse-drawn Carriages:

Because horses are flight animals, many have spooked and fled frantically down NYC streets. In  The blinders that curb their vision can only block some of the stimuli. In 2007, a horse named Smoothie who fled after being spooked by drums crashed and died on 59th St.

Smoothie spooked and died on 59th St.

Because horses spook unexpectedly, little footage exists. A wedding photographer in St. Louis, however, did capture a horse who fled with a carriage when revelers set off sparklers (1:07)

While waiting for NYC Mayor de Blasio to fulfill his campaign promise to take the horses off the streets, activists continue to advocate on their behalf. On Wednesday, NYCLASS is hosting a lobby day at City Hall “to urge Council Members to support the Mayor’s efforts to end the unsafe and inhumane carriage horse industry.”

On Thursday, the organization is staging a protest in front of lawmakers’ offices in memory of Charlie, a carriage horse who fell to the ground and died on the street.

RIP Charlie

On Sunday, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages is staging a protest on 59th Street, where the carriage drivers line up to wait for customers.

If you live in NYC, please join NY-CLASS in its efforts to rally support at City Hall for the Mayor’s plan to ban horse-drawn carriages. If you live elsewhere, please sign their petition to ban horse-drawn carriages from the streets of midtown Manhattan.

To learn more about the issue and keep apprised of news related to the movement to ban the industry, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages by sending an email to coalition@banhdc.org.

Watch the award-winning documentary film BLINDERS: The Truth Behind the Tradition.

Using provocative street theater, a determined group of Israeli activists is attempting to shut down one of the world’s most extreme, but under the radar, forms of animal abuse: live transports. According to the activist group, Against Live Transports, about 200,000 sheep and cattle are shipped each year from Australia to Israel. The entire 7,600 mile journey is treacherous, but the activists are calling attention to the one part for which they have the most documentation – the unloading of the animals.

The ships hold up to 30,000 live animals

Photo: Against Live Transports

Usually in the dark of night to avoid public exposure, workers force frantic cows and sheep, who are weak from the long journey, down the ramps by kicking, punching and electrically prodding them.

Photo: Against Live Transports

Photo: Against Live Transports

https://youtu.be/tABEbbzznaw

The activists’ efforts are having an impact. A local TV station aired a story not only about the unloading of the animals but also about the treacherous aftermath, when they are abused on farms before being slaughtered.

In addition to engaging in street theater, Against Animal Transports is “working on many other avenues, legal and political” to end the Australian exports. On those efforts, the group is collaborating with Let the Animals Live and Anonymous For Animal Rights.

Please sign the Change.org petition to end all live shipments to Eilat, a tourist city in Israel.

Just one month after the historic Climate March in New York City, thousands of people gathered near the same spot on Sunday to celebrate one of the the planet’s largest contributors to climate change: meat. According to organizers of Meatopia, guests were “immediately hit with the majesty and magic of slow-roasted whole animals” when they enter the tent.

Meatopia’s 2014 Theme: “The Carnivore’s Ball”

Thirty activists with the group Collectively Free staged a protest near the entrance of Meatopia to call attention to the cruelty associated with meat production. In this dramatic scene which brings to life their #SwapSpeciesism campaign, farm animals show Meatopia attendees “what it would be like if the tables were turned.”

Collectively Free Prepares “Rack of Man” and “Human Chops”

On its announcement about the protest, Collectively Free adulterated Meatopia’s promotional ad by painting blood onto the chefs’ faces.

Photo: Collectively Free

The promo video for NYC’s previous Meatopia, which was hosted by Whole Foods, contains footage of baby pigs being chased.

Restauranteurs, agribusinesses, slaughterhouses and others who make money off of meat turn a blind eye to the impact of animal agriculture on the environment. In fact, even America’s leading environmental groups refuse to publicly attribute climate change to animal agriculture, as documented in the new film Cowspiracy, for fear of alienating their dues-paying members.

https://youtu.be/WdZxwRPE0ZI

At the People’s Climate March in NYC, many participants called attention to the impact of animal agriculture on climate change, but many more lined up at food trucks to buy meat, fish and dairy products during the post-march street fair.

The 2014 People’s Climate March

Please visit Collectively Free to learn more about the organization and their interventions and programs.

Persistence pays. After years of exposing the barbarism of live pigeon shoots in social media and in TV commercials, the U.S.-based animal protection group SHARK (Showing Animals Kindness & Respect) has scored a major victory.

In a statement released on Thursday, SHARK announced that “Pennsylvania’s Senate voted overwhelmingly to ban live pigeon shoots in the state. SHARK president Steve Hindi said, “We are pleased that the will of the people has finally prevailed over the cruelty of the National Rifle Association (NRA).”

https://youtu.be/dKZWfpjqeKA

Here’s the catch: the NRA and the PA Flyers Association (the local hunting lobby) have donated thousands of dollars to members of the state House of Representatives, which has yet to vote on the bill. In addition, the Flyers Association is asking supporters to urge their state legislators “to protect Pennsylvania’s rich hunting traditions by opposing any attempts by radical and deceptive groups to outlaw hunting.”

On September 5th, U.S. Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, hosted a pigeon shooting party to raise funds for his re-election campaign. In spite of the Senator’s efforts to keep out animal rights activists, an undercover investigator from SHARK infiltrated the event and took damning close-up footage of the hunt. Now, SHARK is publicly exposing the sponsors of the event, which will assuredly deter other companies and individuals from supporting future hunting events.

More than any other organization in the United States, SHARK has exposed the utter brutality of canned hunts, rodeos and other animal abusing contests disguised as sporting events.

Rodeo (photo: SHARK)

If you live in PA, please contact your state representative and urge him or her to vote in support of the bill to ban the pigeon shoot.

Please share these videos and take a moment to learn about and support the critically important work done only by SHARK to protect animals who are tormented and killed in the name of sport.

In the short documentary film The Real Planet of the Apes, Betsy Brotman, an American researcher who spent 30 years conducting tests on chimps, says, “The animal rights activists were right. Chimpanzees really shouldn’t be used in experiments. I really do feel this way.” (see 13:30 in video below) From 1974 – 2005, Ms. Brotman ran a research institute in Liberia that conducted experiments on more than 100 chimps.

Chimpanzee Research Center in Liberia

In her interview, Ms. Brotman says, “There are certain instances where it would be very difficult to do the research without chimps unless you use humans.” She is referring to the development of a hepatitis B vaccine, which her colleague says could only be tested on chimps, as no other species is susceptible to the virus.

Betsy Brotman Studied Chimps in Liberia for 30 years

Since this research was conducted, science has advanced, eliminating any scientific rationale for using chimps. But Steve Wise, the founder of the Nonhuman Rights Project, isn’t taking any chances. In an effort to free all captive chimps, he is leading the legal battle to classify chimps as persons – instead of inanimate objects – on the grounds that they, like people, they desire things, act in an intentional manner to acquire those things, and have a sense of self. If Mr. Wise is successful, holding chimps captive in any setting will be illegal.

Here’s a short NY Times documentary about his quest to reclassify chimps as “persons” instead of “things.”

Today, sixty chimps, most of whom recovered from the diseases with which they were infected at the research center, live on “Monkey Island” near Monrovia, Liberia’s capital.  The chimps live freely in a somewhat natural habitat, and The New York Blood Center pays for their care.

Former lab monkeys, Monkey Island (photo: liberiana.wordpress.com)