Do Animals Have Emotions? Of Course They Do

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“Emotions are the gifts of our ancestors. We have them and so do they. No longer do we have to put words like happy or sad in quotation marks when we speak of animal emotions and animals’ inner lives. Animals will always have their mysteries but their emotional lives are public and transparent.”

Do animals have emotions? Of course they do. Just look at them, listen to them, and if you dare, smell the odors that pour out when they interact with friends and foes. Look at their faces, tails, bodies, and most importantly, dare to look into their eyes. What we see on the outside tells us a lot about what’s happening inside animals’ heads and hearts. Animal emotions aren’t all that mysterious. Continue reading →

Consumers Want Leather Mooved out of Cars

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A 1997 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals survey indicated that 87 per cent of people in the UK were opposed to wearing fur, and this year, research conducted by the Consumer Analysis Group with Safeway claims that all Britons could be vegetarian by 2047, as 2,000 people a week stop eating meat. European public opinion polls throughout the years have clearly demonstrated that on moral grounds, the general public is overwhelmingly opposed to animal testing for cosmetics. Society is moving away from the purchase of products that are produced by harming animals. Continue reading →

Animal Experiments More Stressful than Previously Recognized

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WASHINGTON-Mice, rabbits, rats, beagles, geese, and other animals all show measurable physiological stress responses to routine laboratory procedures that have been up until now viewed as relatively benign. The findings come in a new report published in Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science, based on an extensive review of the scientific literature by ethologist Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D., of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). For example, a mouse who is picked up and briefly held experiences several physiological reactions. Continue reading →

A Time For Peace For The Wolves Of Quebec?

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Wolves leave no one indifferent and never fail to ignite human passions. Once marginally protected, now overhunted-such is the sad reality of wolves. Wolves everywhere pay a high price for living near humans. As the government resolutely encourages the hunting and trapping of wolves, more and more people are defending their cause. Wolves thus spur many contradictory actions. While some still see them for their skin, others fight for their survival and protection. Continue reading →

The Fur Industry Exposed

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Editor’s note: I conducted this interview in a devil’s advocate style in an attempt to refute every possible justification for wearing fur. It worked.

The Fur Bearer-Defenders is one of the first organizations I became involved in to protect animal rights. Fur, which again has become trendy, is a luxury gained at the expense of innocent animals. There are many rationalizations for this (rational-lies) such as it’s good for the environment and that nothing equals the warmth of fur. Plus, the myth still lingers that today’s trapping methods are more humane than those previously used. For the truth on these matters I turned to Jennifer Allen; director of the Fur-Bearer Defenders. Her answers are unforgettable.

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Factory Farming

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Every year, over eight billion cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, sheep, and goats are raised, transported and slaughtered under grossly cruel and inhumane conditions. The vast majority of these animals are reared in intense confinement operations, commonly referred to as “factory farms.” Cramped into cages and crates, or pressed together in overcrowded pens, these animals endure unbearable conditions in dark, windowless buildings. Continue reading →

Morality Aside, is Violence an Effective Strategy?

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May 6, 2002, Volkert van der Graaf, a 33 year-old vegan animal rights activist was waiting nervously in a parking lot outside of a Denmark radio studio. It was days before the Dutch general elections. Inside the studio, political candidate Pim Fortuyn swore that if his party rose to power he would lift the ban outlawing fur farming in the Netherlands. Minutes later, as Fortuyn was about to get into his limousine, our activist pulled a gun out of his pocket and shot the politician five times, point blank, in the chest, gunning him down, dead, in broad daylight. Later he told the Court that he committed murder “guided by my conscience.” Continue reading →

peace

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“Casual Peace”
 Peace between two slices of bread

When I was with my ex I made sandwiches daily. I’m a precise person, so I took care to make these sandwiches in a precise manner. There would be an exact amount of butter and lettuce, with a measured amount of salt. The filler was meat. This varied. Sometimes it was salmon, sometimes cheese, sometimes luncheon meat. In all the years that I made R’s sandwich just perfect, I never once made a sandwich for myself with the same care.

Until now. Why? Because now that he’s gone I’ve learned to care for myself. Before I began my personal growth and spiritual journey I neglected myself. Sure I did all the outward things; attending to my grooming and wearing clean, stylish clothes, but I never took care of the inner me. It’s amazing that in making a sandwich I could see where I’d failed myself before. Continue reading →