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

How many animals had to die for you to look fly??

Is fur really a necessity? If you think we need it to keep us warm in the winter we do have synthetic materials that are known to keep you warmer and don’t cost as much as real fur. Fur is mostly used for money and fashion. Animals that are used for fur are treated so horribly that when I watched videos of these acts I couldn’t even watch. When men went out to get seals they beat them continuously and even baby seals. Many animals are kept in cages where they don’t even have space to move. The necks of animals are broken to kill them so that they can keep the fur good and get their “money’s worth”. When catching other wild animals viscous traps are set out that break their bones and muscles but don’t instantly die leaving them to suffer in pain for many days. “About one quarter of trapped animals escape by chewing their own limbs off.” Animals are electrocuted through the anus and stripped of their fur. Dogs and cats are also stripped of their fur and even skinned alive where you can see their hearts beating under their ribcage. Who knows, someone out there could be wearing Lassie.

“Over 300 fashion designers are currently working with fur including Oscar de la Renta, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Gucci, Michael Kors, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves St Laurent, Valentino and Versace.” It’s not very fashionable when an animal is lying on the ground bloody after being beaten and stripped of all its fur. Fortunately, there are some designers out there that have pity for these harmless animals and only use synthetic materials. If the synthetic materials look and give you the same results as real fur why kill animals.

Fur farming conditions are horrific. Along with living in confinement an added risk is that farmers sometimes cross-breed which leads to colors in fur never seen in nature, genetic defects such as deaf white minks and pastel minks with nervous disorders. Why do animals have to be tortured and killed just for people to look “fashionable”?

http://www.furkills.org/

http://www.furfreefriday.com/

How fun is the circus?

While horses, lions, elephants, tigers, zebras, monkeys, birds, snakes and other animals perform their tricks the audience is amazed but when the circus has ended what is done behind isn't so amazing. The Ringling Brothers circus, the Greatest show on earth but is it really? It is said that it is an inhuman circus and mistreat their animals. In 1998, a baby elephant was strained to perform even though they knew it was sick and only hours later died. They have been caught on tape beating an elephant after stating that they do not hit their animals.

However, the Ringling Brothers circus is not alone. An elephant at the King Royal circus died from heat exhaustion in a trailer car. The Sterling and Reid circus has eight horses taken away from them because they were underweight which of course leads you to think that they were not fed properly. 90 percent of the time elephants are not performing so during these times they are chained by the leg causing them to hurt their legs when they try to pull away because of anger and boredom. If they aren’t chained they are controlled using electrical fencing. Circuses claim not to beat their animals yet you see their trainers with whips in their hands. Circus animals perform because they are fearful of getting hit again.

When animals aren’t needed anymore in the circus they are sent to zoos, preserves to be hunted, and even used for animal experimentation. Circuses don’t necessarily need animals. People do wonderful and amazing tricks on their own. People have the choice to join the circus while animals are forced to do so.

Comparing nature with circus living animals would most likely run back to the wild. In their natural habitat animals are able to grow up with their families, play around, gain hunting skills, climb trees, and just enjoy the wild. In the circus animals are separated from their families, chained and constrained, have to travel all the time in uncomfortable trucks/trailers, not able to nurture their children if they have any, fed food that is not fresh, and don’t get to enjoy the wild and explore on their own.

http://www.animaldefense.com/Circus.html

Pick on someone your own size....or at least your own kind!

Ooops….the dog peed on the kitchen floor. You grab a belt and smack it or you kick it on its side, “Bad Dog!” Yet it probably peed because YOU didn’t walk it. Animal behavior is defined as “socially unacceptable behavior that intentionally causes unnecessary pain, suffering, or distress to and/or death of an animal”. There are many signs of animal abuse/cruelty. Some of them are lack of food and water, no veterinarian attention sought after for illness or injury, filth or poor body condition, negligence, tied or caged animals that have no room to move around, animal fighting, and burns or bruises.

There was an interview done with some animal abusers on why they treat animals in such a cruel way and these were some of their reasons:

• To control an animal.


• To retaliate against an animal.


• To satisfy a hate against a species or breed.


• To express aggression through an animal (i.e., training an animal to attack, using inflicted pain to create a “mean” dog).


• To enhance one’s own aggressiveness (e.g., using an animal victim for target practice).


• To shock people for amusement.


• To retaliate against other people (by hurting their pets or abusing animals in their presence).


• To displace hostility from a person to an animal (i.e., attacking a vulnerable animal when assaulting the real human target is judged too risky).


• To experience nonspecific sadism (i.e., enjoying the suffering experienced by the animal victim, in and of itself).

Studies show that there is a link between animal abuse and other forms of family violence. Both the animal and the person are living, can feel pain and show that they are feeling pain and can die because of an injury. Don't take animal abuse lightly and always treat your pets well.

http://www.mag.maricopa.gov/dv/About_DV/Animal_Abuse/animal_abuse.html

http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/188677.pdf

Testing Testing 1 2 3

It's hard to hear someone say they are not aware of animal experimentation due to the fact that behind most of our products, such as shampoos and conditioners, it says "tested on animals". By viewing this website, http://www.caringconsumer.com/resources_companies.asp, you can see which companies do and don’t test on animals. Things are injected into their skin and eyes and they are forced to swallow things. Because of the testing of consumer products on animals they are poisoned and killed.

As bad as it seems testing of consumer products are the least of any animal’s worries. Not too long ago during the 1990's there were experiments done injecting the HIV virus into chimpanzees. They were kept in small steel and glass isolation chambers in laboratories causing them to go psycho. Because of the use of an endangered species of chimpanzees the experiments became very expensive so they used other animals. A monkey who they called “798” was experimented on and later became sick and died. “Every HIV vaccine that passed animal testing has failed in human clinical trials,” meaning many animals were put through pain and no cures or benefits were found for human patients. One researcher said “what good does it do you to test something in a monkey? You find five or six years from now that it works in the monkey, and then you test it in humans and you realize that humans behave totally differently from monkeys, so you’ve wasted five years.” I agree with this researcher. Who’s to say that what may work for an animal will work on us, it could even harm us.

It is said that a lot of the times scientists perform experiments on animals just for curiosity and not to improve human research or medicine. This “growing trend toward curiosity-driven research is largely a product of today’s “publish or perish” research environment, in which scientists are recognized for the number of research papers they publish rather than the contribution that each study makes to the advancement of science or medicine.”

There is also animal experimentation in schools. During science we see students dissecting frogs, eyeballs and other animals meaning animals had to be killed for this. In my opinion you don’t need to dissect animals to learn about them. Dissection of animals in school doesn’t serve much of a purpose and can lead students to want to kill more harmless animals on their own.

When searching for pictures to post for animal experimentation it was very disturbing to look at them. It really opened my eyes to see the horrible things that are being done to animals. Just because they are animals and not humans doesn't mean they don't feel every bit of pain.

http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=93

http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=126

History of Animal Rights

According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia animal rights "also known as animal liberation, is the movement to protect non-human animals from being used or regarded as property by humans." In these movements people seek out to improve animal treatment. They want animals to be referred to as "legal persons". For quite some time now there have been many efforts towards helping animals and giving them more respect. These efforts go back to numerous philosophers. Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician who believed in reincarnation. Because of this he felt that if someone killed an animal they could be killing their ancestor. He did not believe in using animals as sacrifice or as food and so he was a vegetarian. An English philosopher Jeremy Bentham believed that the pain animals went through was exactly the same as the pain humans went through. Bentham felt that “the ability to suffer, not the ability to reason, must be the benchmark of how we treat other beings. If the ability to reason were the criterion, many human beings, including babies and disabled people, would also have to be treated as though they were things.” The philosophy these men believed in is that animals deserve certain moral rights and laws should be made to insure of it. In a way I agree but also disagree with these philosophers. I don't think I would ever be able to become a vegetarian and I feel that one reason animals were put on this earth was to use them for food to survive. However, I do agree that we don't need to kill animals for useless things such as for fur on our clothes or to make alligator shoes. What I'm tyring to say is that there should be a limit on how animals are treated or used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_rights