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In an opinion piece in the NY Times entitled “The Enigma of Animal Suffering,” “former vegan” Rhys Southan gives readers permission to eat animals while simultaneously acknowledging that their treatment is so inhumane that only nonexistent remedies would make their lives tolerable: “Some ideas include breeding genetically modified animals who are insensitive to pain, culturing non-sentient animal products in a lab, and giving chickens virtual reality helmets so that they think they are living in a nice environment even if they’re not.” Based on his own description about how farm animals are tortured (“Even small, high-welfare farms tend to subject their animals to at least some painful procedures like castration without anesthetic, dehorning or the separation of mothers and their newborn children”), his conclusion should be “don’t eat animals.” Instead, he seems to be justifying animal consumption by suggesting that animals are ignorant and that the parallels we make between human and animal suffering are “unsound.” The phrase “former vegan” is,  in and of itself, a detriment to the animal rights movement because it suggests that they “saw the light” and realized that eating animals is a good thing. If you’re going to betray the animals and the movement to protect them, please go away quietly.

Ex-Vegan Rhys Southan

According to the NY Times, China’s FDA will stop mandating animal tests on some cosmetics, including shampoos and certain skin-care products, if the manufacturers can assess risk using other methods, such as evaluating  existing data on the ingredients.  More than 50 activists celebrated in the streets in the city of Dalian in a rally organized by the Humane Society International, one of the NGOs behind the Be Cruelty-Free campaign in China. As many as 300,000 rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and other animals are used to test cosmetics in China every year.

Animals used in experiments are among the most tortured on the planet. Just imagine spending your entire life in a cage and being pinned down and having chemicals forced down your throat or injected into your eyes. In the U.S., the Humane Cosmetics Act would prohibit animal testing for cosmetics manufactured or sold in the country. Please ask your U.S. Representative to cosponsor this bill.

According to the NY Times, a city in southern China is “trying to lower the profile of its much-criticized dog-eating festival. The feasting is expected to go ahead as scheduled this weekend, but local officials have taken steps to deflect outside attention from the annual event, at which thousands of dogs are consumed.”  The article goes on to say that, “the dog meat trade has become a key target for Chinese animal rights advocates. In 2011, a group blocked a truck transporting nearly 500 dogs to a slaughterhouse and paid $18,000 to free them.”

Photo: China Network/Reuters

This NY Times article provides us with a hook to ask our dog-loving, meat eating friends why we should be any more disturbed by people eating dogs instead of pigs, cows and chickens.  As Mercy For Animals asks in its  campaign, “Why love one and eat the other?”  That said, ending or compromising any animal eating event is a victory, especially for the victims.

In what is being described as the biggest bear rescue in history, Animals Asia is converting a bear bile farm in Nanning, China, into a sanctuary following an unprecedented request by the farm to rescue and care for its 130 bears. While the majority of the bears will remain on the farm during its two year conversion into a sanctuary, 28 bears who are too sick to stay will travel 746 miles to Animals Asia’s existing bear sanctuary in Chengdu for urgent veterinary care. The cost of veterinary care, the conversion of the farm and three years of bear care are estimated to cost Animals Asia $5 million.

Bear bile farm

Bear bile is used in traditional Chinese medicine. According to Animals Asia, “over 10,000 bears are believed to be in farms in China suffering daily extractions in tiny cages and horrific conditions.”

With 87% of Chinese people being opposed to bear bile farming, the closure of the Nanning Farm could trigger other owners to shut theirs down too. I doubt that those who have exploited the bears are going to contribute money to help pay for their new lives at sanctuaries. Please visit Animals Asia to see how you can help support this rescue.

The NY Times editorial board published an opinion piece called “Keep The Carriage Horses” arguing that carriages have been a “fixture for generations” and that the industry should be reformed, not banned.

Once again, the NY Times editorial board has come out in favor of keeping horse-drawn carriages in midtown, suggesting reforms that they know are impossible to implement, such giving the horses the opportunity “to eat and socialize with one another.” NYC doesn’t have a pasture for one horse, much less over 200 of them. But even if the NY Times’ proposed reforms could be implemented, that wouldn’t change the fact that forcing horses to pull carriages in the streets of midtown is inherently inhumane, unsafe and anachronistic. If the NY Times editorial board members saw BLINDERS, they would have to change their position because the documentation on the cruelty and safety issues is indisputable. But, like so many other industry supporters, they refuse to take off their blinders. These horses will be taken out of harm’s way eventually, and the NY Times and other industry supporters will be on the wrong side of history. In the meantime, please contact Mayor de Blasio and ask him to make good on his promise to take the horses off of the streets.