Where's the rest of my ear and tail??!!

Ear cropping is when the pinna, or "floppy part" of the ear, is surgically removed. Tail docking is the removal of most of a dog's tail. This requires anesthetic so has to be done by a vetenarian however, many owners feel the need to do the procedure themselves leading to extreme pain for their dogs. "No scientific studies have been conducted to establish whether docking and cropping have any medical value". If this is true then the reshaping of dogs' ears or tails are not really necessary. From my own knowledge I know that people where I live crop their dogs' ears and tails because they make them fight other dogs and they don't want their ears or tails to get in the way. They feel if their ears or tails are long then the other dog we bite or pull on them. I feel that they should not make their dogs fight in the first place.

There is a history behind ear cropping and tail docking which goes back to the Romans. They believed that cropping a dog's ears prevented rabies. Also, dogs used for hunting, fighting, or watching flock were more likely to get hurt if their ears or tails weren't cropped. The owners of working dogs felt that tail docking decreased the dog's ability to move so it would discourage them decreasing their ability to chase game. However, other dog owners felt that tail docking made the dogs faster. Another reason why tails were cropped was because working dogs were not taxed so people whose dogs didn't work would crop their dog's tails so that it seemed as though they worked and they wouldn't get taxed. In other areas people were taxed on the length of their dog's tail so they would crop their dog's tails so they wouldn't get taxed so much.

When cropping a dog's ears the chances of getting ear infections increases because they don't have that extra part for protection. Tails are docked because when dogs do their business feces stick to long hairs on the tail so it prevents flies and maggots. However, dogs need their tails for many reasons. They use their tail to express many different emotions that we have come to understand. Also it is said that "muscles used to wag the tail may also strengthen the perineal area and prevent perineal hernias."

"It is against the law to crop ears on dogs in so many large and civilized countries: the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, England, Sweden, Singapore, South Africa and Germany, and is not sanctioned in other places." If it is against the law then why are so many dog owners doing it and not getting punished? By visiting this website, bloomington.in.us/~stopcrop/index.html, you can help prevent the cropping of ears and docking of tails.

http://www.animallaw.info/articles/dduscroppingdocking.htm

http://www.bloomington.in.us/~stopcrop/index.html

Give a needing pet a home!!

Many animals don't have a place to live and are stranded in the streets or stuck in shelters without real homes but there are many websites that you can visit in order to help and adopt an animal.

Petfinder.com is an online database where you can search for the right pet for you. By visiting this website you can become a volunteer at a local shelter or rescue group, post ads about missing, found, or homeless pets, gain information about pet care, find shelters or rescue groups near you, and search for pets that you can adopt. All you have to do is create a screenname to login and use all of these features.

An organization called the HOBO foundation was named after a dog named Hobo and was created to help find homes for stray or unwanted animals. A family in Alabama had found this stray dog Hobo and brought him into their home. When he died they created this foundation in his memory. In order to help find animals a place to live they created a website http://www.petstoadopt.org/. In this website you can adopt dogs or cats by searching for the best one that fits your interest. You can also view pet care tips such as ways to keep you pet healthy.

If you do not want to adopt an animal but you would still like to help then this website, http://www.petrescue.com/home.htm, is great for you. PetRescue is a small non-profit organization that specialize in caring for dogs and cats. On this website you can find a good home for animal that you are giving away or donate money to help other stray pets. Also, if you have lost a pet they give advice on ways to find your pet.

Helping in any little way is really a big help in the end!

http://www.petfinder.com/

http://www.petstoadopt.org/

Do animals need rights???

Although I've been posting a lot about the cruelty to animals and how people like to become vegetarians most people feel that animals don't have rights or that they are supposed to be eaten.

In this article by Diane Dew she looks at animal rights through a biblical perspective. She quotes many scriptures(verses) from the bible to discuss animal rights. She states that God DOES condemn the cruelty to animals and he cares for animals. God expects people to provide animals with food, medical care, and rest however scriptures say that beast(meaning animals) should not be valued over man(all people). God gave man the power over animals for a reason. When it comes to the opposing of the use of animal fur Diane discusses that animal fur was worn and is talked about in the bible. The skins of animals and other parts of animals were used for clothes, shoes, leather for armor, and ivory. When it came to vegetarianism Jesus wasn't one and it is not wrong to eat meat. Jesus ate fish and did multiply them to give to his disciples. God made animals for many reasons and one of them was so that humanity could eat them and survive. In this article Diane also discusses inconsistencies about how our priorities are not right. Laws were made to protect animal before laws were even made for child abuse. She states that people who do not agree with abortions are viewed are extremists but those who don't agree with the killing of animals are viewed as lovers of life. I agree with her and she makes some great points. One of the great points she brings out that really had me thinking was this: "If it is wrong to wear fur or leather because these were once part of a living organism, then neither should we eat vegetables, for the same reason. Further, if there is no differentiation between human and animal life, neither should there be between animals and insects (is it wrong to kill a cockroach?), or plant life ... or viruses? Serious questions arise. Shall man cease all efforts to develop a means of destroying the AIDS virus, also a living organism, and obligate ourselves, rather, to ensuring the virus an environment conducive to its growth, and help it thrive? One can easily see the irrational conclusions that must be drawn from such a crooked line of thought." I think this is so true! If we say animals are equal to people because they are living things then we would have to say all the things she mentioned that are living are equal too but that would just be ridiculous. Proving that animals are not equal to humans. If they were they would be the ones making money and businesses and putting humans in cages.

http://www.dianedew.com/animals.htm

Want to Help??!!

Some of us have the passion to help animals and we have sympathy for them but we just don't know how we can help. There are many organizations and programs out there that you can join in order to help improve the rights and treatment of animals. You can also start your own petitions to help make laws for the safety of animals.

One very large and well known organization is PETA which stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA is a nonprofit charitable organization that was founded in 1980. There mission and goal is to support the rights of all animals and teach others that animals are not for us to eat, wear, use as entertainment or other harmful things. Through their different programs such as FurIsDead and GoVeg they are nonstop fighting for animal rights. They help reveal animals going through abuse or maltreatment and report them to the world to spread the news of how animals are treated. To join or help the organization you can visit their website at www.peta.org.

When it comes to animal abuse a big organization is ASPCA which stands for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Founded in 1866, it was the first humane organization in the Western Hemisphere. They work to reach a day where no animal will feel fear or pain. They do their best to help prevent animal poisoning, animal abuse and cruelty by finding them new loving homes or shelters. You can visit there website which is www.aspca.org.

The last organization I am going to mention is the WSPA which stands for the World Society for the Protection of Animals. The WSPA began in 1981 and has since then fought for the end of animal cruelty and hoped for a world of care for animals and that animal welfare is important. They try to convince the government to create laws to help animals and how they are treated. Most importantly they do there best to inform and spread news to everyone because they know that human ignorance is a major impact.

"WSPA‘s work is focused on four priority animal welfare areas:"
Companion animals - responsible pet ownership, humane stray management and preventing cruelty.
Commercial exploitation of wildlife - intensive farming and cruel management and killing of wild animals for food or products.
Farm animals - intensive farming, long distance transportation and slaughter of domestic animals for food.
Disaster relief for animals - providing care to animals in distress from man-made or natural disasters.

You can visit WSPA's website: http://www.wspa.org.uk/about.asp

By visiting http://animalrights.meetup.com/ you can search for Animal Right activists and Right meetings in your area. This is great because you can easily help out any organization where you live.

http://www.peta.org/factsheet/files/FactsheetDisplay.asp?ID=107

TO eat meat or NOT to eat meat?? That is the question!!

Well the answer is up to you! I know most of us, including myself, can't live without biting into a nice juicy hamburger or having an order of barbecue ribs but many people can. Vegetarians are people who do not eat anything derived from animals (even cheese and milk) but instead eat only vegetables, fruit, nuts, and anything else not made from animals. There are different types of vegetarian diets and they are: ovo-vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian, and veganism. Ovo-vegetarian is when a vegetarian eats eggs but no meat. Lacto-ovo vegetarian is when a vegetarian eats dairy and egg products but no meat. Lacto-vegetarian is when a vegetarian eats dairy products but no eggs or meat. Finally, veganism is when a vegetarian only eats food from plant sources. Some people call themselves vegetarians but they only eliminate red meat and still eat fish or poultry. I feel that if you want to be a vegetarian you shouldn't eat any kind of meat because they you're going against what you believe. That's like saying you feel sorry for animals getting killed for food but you discriminate on which animals you won't eat.

There's nothing wrong with being a vegetarian and many people are vegetarians for different reasons. Some people have pity for the animals and don't want them to be killed, some people can't eat meat in their religions, and some people do it just cause it can be healthy. Vegetarianism has been around for quite some time now. The vegetarian movement began in the United States around the 1900s. In the year 1850 the American Vegetarian Society was established. Now, vegetarianism is very popular here in the United States because it is said to be a great healthy diet and is very nutritious.

"Population studies have linked vegetarian diets with a decreased risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and colon cancer. " So being a vegetarian can be very beneficial but I am sure it is also very tough. However, that doesn't mean that because you eat meat you cannot be healthy. "In 1991, two nutritionists studying the benefits and risks of vegetarian diets reported that vegetarians are not necessarily healthier than non-vegetarians and that well-planned omnivorous diets can provide health benefits as well." So basically it is how you live your life. If you eat a lot of meat but you exercise and also eat fruits and other nutritious things. you will have a healthy lifestyle.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_fit/nutrition/vegetarianism.html

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Vegetarianism.asp?sitearea=ETO

Behind the Scenes at the Zoo

In the zoo wild animals are taken from their natural habitats and put into cages that are small and they are confined into these little areas. When we go to the zoo we sometimes notice the animals acting weird, biting or sucking the poles, just pacing back and forth, or eating their feces and vomit. In this article it is said that these behaviors are caused by boredom, loneliness, anger, stress, and lack of their true habitat. These animals suffer while we look at them behind cages and glass. Many animals die due to the lack of food, unnatural feeding patterns which is usually not getting fed much throughout the day, and interbreeding. We go to the zoo to see how animals act and such but because they are in a different environment they have to adjust to it and adapt changing the natural behaviors they would have in the wild in their natural habitat. In the zoo animals are separated from their families, they don't gain much survival skills so they really can't be put back into the wild because they wouldn't know how to hunt for their own food.

In this second article we see similar observations. Being caged doesn't allow the animals to run free, explore, find their own food, soar in the sky, and do whatever they please. In the zoo sometimes we get bored looking at the animals because they aren't doing anything but that is because of their boredom. They don't gain much intelligence because they are in captivity. Zoos also like to showcase baby animals because they know that's what catches people's attention. Because of this there have been overbreeding decreasing the space animals have and making things more uncomfortable. However, one of the benefits of zoos is that they can play a small role in helping endangered species. Because they breed these animals they can increase the population of the endangered specie. The only thing is that they "won't have anywhere to go" because they are not in the wild instead they're in cages.

In a psychological point of view some people feel that zoos are effecting the way people feel about animals. When reading this I agreed. They say that it puts out a message that humans are superior to animals and that we can do what we please with them. Philosopher Dale Jamieson also agrees and said " Zoos teach us a false sense of our place in the natural order. The means of confinement mark a difference between humans and animals. They are there at our pleasure, to be used for our purposes. Morality and perhaps our very survival require that we learn to live as one species among many rather than as one species over many. To do this we must forget what we learn at zoo." Basically animals should be left in the wild and not used for our own pleasure and entertainment.

http://www.animal-lib.org.au/lists/zoo/zoo.shtml

http://www.animalliberation.org.au/zoos.php

Go Fish?!

In the first article it states that fish have pain receptors just like us meaning they feel it when we pick them up out of the sea with hooks. Dr. Lynne Sneddon studied this by placing different types of stimuli in the heads of fish and studying their neural activity. Dr Sneddon said, "we found 58 receptors located on the face and head of the trout that responded to at least one of the stimuli.” These receptors are like the ones of mammals, amphibians, and humans.

This second article discusses the excessive pain that fish go through because of fishing. Through the first article we now know that this pain is real for fish. Drawing the attention of the fish with bait it grabs it and the hook is pierced into the mouth of the fish. The fish is pulled up by this hook feeling excruciating pain. One bait that is used is live bait. Small fish are used to attract other larger fish. This is how it is done: "The needle is passed through the front of the eye socket of both eyes. The material is then pulled through so that the hook sits on the head of the baitfish." Just reading this sounds painful, imagine going through this. Once a fish is caught the pain doesn't end there. They begin to suffocate because of the lack of water gasping for oxygen. People usually don't feel the same sympathy when hearing about fish cruelty compared to the cruelty to dogs or cats especially because it is so difficult to see if a fish is feeling pain but it is still the same. Fish have nerve endings like mammals and the same chemicals that transmit and block pain we have to believe that fish also fear and feel pain.

In my opinion, fishing is not wrong but there should be a limit. There shouldn't be overfishing or fishing that is just for fun and not used for food. To decrease the cruelty to fish live bait should not be used and the fish should be instantly killed once caught instead of letting them suffocate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2983045.stm

http://www.animal-lib.org.au/lists/fish/fish.shtml