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

When I stopped eating fish and other sea animals 10 years ago, I worried that I would miss one of the staples in my diet: tuna rolls. I was so addicted that I once bought a tuna roll at a BP station and ate the raw fish while pumping gas. Oddly, I didn’t miss eating tuna at all when I gave it up. Maybe my tastebuds evolved, or maybe the cravings just disappeared after a week.

Vegetarian rolls from Beyond Sushi in NYC

Eliminating tuna and other fish from my diet exposed me to fantastic options that I would have never considered. When I go to Japanese restaurants now, I order vegetarian sushi, which is delicious, eco-friendly, cruelty-free and less expensive than a sushi roll with someone in it. It’s also a lot healthier than fish contaminated with mercury and other pollutants that we dump into the ocean.

In 2009, actor Jerermy Piven ended his run in a Broadway show due to “mercury toxicity” from sushi. He experienced extreme fatigue, dizziness and neuro-muscular disfunction. Is consuming tuna really worth any level of heavy metal exposure?

If you still eat sea animals, please give vegetarian sushi a chance the next time you eat Japanese – to protect your body, the oceans and, of course, the animals.

One week after NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “There’s tremendous support in the City Council” for banning horse-drawn carriages, a NYC lawmaker who would normally oversee legislation relating to the carriage business held a press conference opposing the Mayor’s plan.

“For over 150 years, the horse carriage industry has grown to employ 300 drivers, blacksmiths and stable workers,”  said Council Member Rafael Espinal. The stables, he says “have been modernized with top of the line equipment to make sure that each horse is healthy and safe.”

Note: Even if the stables were adequate, that wouldn’t change the fact that the horses work in the congested streets of NYC; have no access to a pasture; and are denied the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them.

Ironically, the press conference took place just a couple hours after a carriage driver who had been charged with “torturing and injuring animals” made an appearance in criminal court just a few blocks away.

Thirty activists with NY-CLASS attended the press conference and held signs: “Espinal is on the Wrong Side of History.”

Espinal Supports NYC Carriage Trade Photo: Juliet Papa

The road to banning horse-drawn carriages has been paved with more speed bumps than anticipated, with the Teamsters Union, Working Families Party, New York Daily News, carriage owners and actor Liam Neeson working aggressively to keep horse-drawn carriages in NYC.

The Mayor, who has consistently reaffirmed his support of a ban, faces an uphill battle, and he needs the help of those of us who support his position. Please visit NY-CLASS, which leading the fight at City Hall, to see how you can help.

When a pig leaps out of a slaughter-bound truck, everyone – even pig eaters – prays that she escapes for good. We don’t know much about her, but we very much want her life to be spared.

By making a film that helps us get to know these animals more intimately and documents their dramatic transition from confinement to freedom, one animal rescuer hopes to convince carnivores to see all animals – not just the ones who escape – as individuals.

Farm sanctuaries are filled with pigs (and other animals) who “dodged a bullet” by leaping (or falling) to freedom. Why do some of us root for these pigs but eat the others?  Are they more deserving than those who didn’t have the courage or ability to jump?

The founder of Hope Elephants, a rehab center in Maine that provides medical care for retired or injured circus elephants, has been crushed to death by one of his elephants. In response to the news, Melissa Gates, Founding Director of Animal Rights Maine, a local group that worked with national animal advocacy organizations to try to block the 2011 opening of this “inhumane” and “unsafe” facility, stated:

“This tragedy could easily have been avoided if authorities had heeded the countless warnings from elephant experts prior to green lighting this facility. These elephants deserve to live out their lives at a true sanctuary, with healthy herds that satiate their emotional needs, enough room to thrive, and in a climate conducive to their needs.”

Jim Laurita, founder of Hope Elephants

Elephants are intelligent and socially sophisticated animals who are deprived of virtually everything that comes naturally to them in captivity. In circuses, they are beaten into submission with bull hooks; confined for up to 100 hours at a time in box cars; and forced to perform tricks in exchange for food. Maybe the elephant who crushed Mr. Laurita suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after 40 years in circus captivity. And maybe she would not have killed someone had she been retired to an actual sanctuary in a moderate climate instead of a small, zoolike enclosure in the cold state of Maine. Ms. Gates from Animal Rights Maine says that her group will advocate to relocate Hope’s elephants to a sanctuary.