The Case of the Florida Scrub Jay Challenges the ESA's Tyranny.  As the name suggests, the Florida scrub jay lives exclusively in the scrublands of the Sunshine State.  A medium-sized, long-tailed, blue-and-gray songbird, its call when perched on scrubs is a screechy scold that sends its tail up like a Roman catapult launching a rock.  One of 15 bird species native to the continental U.S. — and allegedly threatened by loss of habitat — it is protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973.  But should protecting the bird take precedence over a citizen's property rights when his land isn't habitat suited to the bird?  And doesn't the arbitrary development fee that Florida counties imposed — a scrub jay fee, supposedly for offsetting the environmental impact of building on a property — amount to an exorbitant ransom?  These are among the questions raised in a federal lawsuit filed by Michael Colosi, a tech entrepreneur who hopes to build a house on a five-acre plot he recently bought in Punta Gorda, Charlotte County, Florida.

Win It For Peanut and Fred.  Some stories take on a life of their own, and Peanut the Squirrel's and Fred the Raccoon's certainly did that. [...] [W]e all understand that the government raiding a home to murder a squirrel is WRONG in so many ways.  The event is the grain of sand around which the pearl of understanding grows.  People get this story:  a Karen who was jealous that a squirrel had more Instagram followers than she calls the authorities, the authorities use a technicality to raid an animal shelter/home (300 rescue animals are housed on the farm) funded by donations driven by Peanut the Squirrel videos, four judges and countless bureaucrats mobilize to turn a home upside down to kidnap the squirrel, and then they kill it.  That's government abuse in a nutshell, as it were. [...] Peanut, for instance, lost his mom to a car that ran her over.  He was rescued as a baby and raised by this family.  He brought joy to them and to millions.  He wasn't hurting anybody.  He didn't have and never would get rabies.  Yet the government officials, prompted by a vile, jealous woman, killed him.  Why?  Because they could.  They didn't care that no actual good would be done by their actions.  They had a rule on their side, and used it to do real harm.

Man who killed eagles on a Native American reservation gets nearly 4 years in prison.  A Washington state man accused of leading a wildlife trafficking ring on a Native American reservation that killed thousands of eagles and hawks to sell on the black market was sentenced Thursday to nearly four years in prison.  The trafficking ring operated for years on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana, exploiting high demand among tribal members for feathers and other bird parts that are used in powwows and sacred ceremonies.  The defendant and others killed at least 118 eagles, 107 hawks and as many as 3,600 birds overall, prosecutors said.  Juvenile golden eagles in particular were targeted because their black and white feathers are highly desired among Native Americans, officials said.

The Editor says...
They'll send you to prison if you kill an eagle and make a few bucks selling its feathers.  But if you put up a windmill, and the windmill kills an eagle every day, nothing will be said about it.

Leftists hate American traditions and customs.  And America in general.
PETA to Kick Off National Tour to Harass People Into Avoiding Turkey on Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is less than a month away, which means that the public will once again be subject to vegan schoolmarming from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).  After all, would it really be Thanksgiving without these people showing up to badger us into foregoing our customary turkey dinner?  PETA plans to bring its "Hell on Wheels" turkey transport truck to Bristol Farms in Santa Barbara, California.  The vehicle is covered with pictures of turkeys stuffed into crates.  It will blare out recorded sounds of turkey's cries when they are slaughtered for human consumption, according to a press release.  The truck will "bombard" shoppers with "subliminal messages every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan" as part of a 30-state tour to "raise awareness of the 46 million turkeys who are killed every year for Thanksgiving."

Migrants Are Now Performing Animal Sacrifices In NYC.  Democrats and the media don't want you to hear about animal sacrifices happening in NYC:  "In just the last four weeks, we have rescued a chicken, a baby rat who was tied alive in a plastic bag of coconuts, three pigs, and recovered a dead dog who had its neck snapped.  There are multiple other rescuers who are local and have also gotten animals such as chickens, cats, roosters, pets, and other pigs as well," said Maribel from Zion's Animal Rescue Mission during a rally against animal cruelty at Howard Beach, NY.  [Video clip]

New legal field seeks to confer 'rights' on inanimate objects.  [Scroll down]  Grant legal personhood to objects?  How about we grant legal personhood to young persons in the womb first?!  Might not an unborn child deserve "personhood" more than, say, a rock or a log?  If we answer that question with a "no," what does that say about us, and our future?  The flipside of rights is responsibilities.  What responsibility does a rock or log have?  If you think about it, if everything has rights, nothing has "rights."  What is really happening here is an attempt to replace our God-given natural rights with the pseudo-rights of nature.

PETA urges Olympic Games to remove equestrian events.  A video of an English horsewoman beating a horse while training it four years ago has spurred PETA senior vice president Kathy Guillermo to demand the Olympics end equestrian competitions.  "The message to the International Olympic Committee should be clear by now:  Remove equestrian events from the Olympic Games," Guillermo said in an online statement Tuesday.

Washington's Makah Tribe could once again harpoon whales as US waives conservation law.  The United States granted the Makah Indian Tribe in Washington state a long-sought waiver Thursday that helps clear the way for its first sanctioned whale hunts since 1999 and sets the stage for renewed clashes with animal rights activists.  The Makah, a tribe of 1,500 people on the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, is the only Native American tribe with a treaty that specifically mentions a right to hunt whales.  But it has faced more than two decades of court challenges, bureaucratic hearings and scientific review as it seeks to resume hunting for gray whales.

California Woman Fined $88K After Children Pick Up Clams.  A woman from Fresno, California, got a huge shock after taking her children on a family trip to Pismo Beach.  At the close of 2023, Charlotte Russ visited the area with her children who wanted to collect seashells at the beach, ABC 30 reported on Thursday.  But what the family did not realize at the time was they had actually picked up 72 clams.  Clamming is regulated, so Russ was given a ticket and later got a notice that said she was being fined a whopping $88,000. [...] Russ's fine was later reduced to $500 after she explained what happened to a San Luis Obispo County judge.

Critical Bear Studies.  I am not a bear expert. [...] But I do know something about narrative building, and this story from the Washington Post is an excellent example of how one does it.  [Tweet]  The story purports to be about the new discoveries that scientists have made in their research on the California Grizzly Bear.  It is, in other words, a piece that is supposedly grounded in science, expanding our knowledge about a vaguely interesting subject.  It isn't a story about science, Grizzly Bears, or anything similar.  It is a thinly veiled essay about White Settler Colonialism and how bad it is.  Far be it from me to defend everything about how the West was won.  The expansion of European settlers into the West was as inevitable as it was occasionally brutal.  With only a few million Native Americans inhabiting two continents.  The Americas make up about 30% of the Earth's land surface and a larger percentage of the comfortably habitable zones.

Pro-abortion California state representative introduces bill to ban 'cruel' glue traps for rats and mice.  Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), a famously left-wing and pro-abortion member of Congress with a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, recently introduced a bill to outlaw glue traps designed to eliminate rodents ... because he considers them to be "cruel" and "inhumane."  The glue traps, that is.  Lieu took to social media to lobby for the criminalization of glue traps, the use of which he deems to be "ruthless:"  [Tweet]

Biden Fish and Wildlife Service Wants to Release Wolves Into Colorado Cattle Country.  The Biden Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to reintroduce the Gray Wolf into cattle country in Colorado and ranchers are not happy about it.  This is apparently going to happen because the ranchers are only suing to delay the measure, but it's still a terrible idea.  Livestock will be attacked, it's an inevitability.  It's probably safe to assume that the people who came up with this idea have never raised cattle or sheep.

The Editor says...
It is easy to infer that socialist bureaucrats have little or no real-world experience in the areas affected by their half-baked anti-capitalist decrees.  For example, Barack H. Obama has never held a job in a for-profit organization, at least as an adult.  The same is true of Bernie Sanders, and is probably true of many other socialist democrats.  When a tree-hugging hippie acquires power in a cabinet-level department, nothing good will happen to the people affected out in the field.

Biden Administration Considers Breaching WA's Snake River Dams to Save "Imperiled Salmon Species".  I recently theorized that the EPA is doubling down on the destruction of this country, as Biden's poll numbers are collapsing and woke bureaucrats seek to use what power that they have in the time still remaining to them.  The same is true for the rest of the administration, as evidenced by the fact that a leaked document shows an agreement for the federal government to spend $1 billion replacing four functional hydroelectric dams along Washington's Snake River with green energy alternatives.  ["]The U.S. government is willing to help build enough new clean energy projects in the Pacific Northwest to replace the hydropower generated by four controversial dams on the Snake River, according to a leaked Biden administration document that is giving hope to conservationists who have long sought the removal of the dams as a key to restoring depleted salmon runs.["]

The Editor says...
When your lights go off and stay off, and your phone quits, and the gas station can't pump, you won't care about any stinking salmon.

Appeals court orders sale of Gulf oil, gas leases to proceed over environmentalists' objections.  A federal appeals court Tuesday ordered the federal sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico to be held within 37 days, rejecting environmentalists' arguments the project endangering a rare whale species.  The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and others had hoped to block 6vmillion acres from being offered in Lease Sale 261 over concerns it could further endanger the mammal.  A lower court had issued an injunction against excluding the acreage from the sale.  During oral arguments Monday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had questioned if the environmental groups had demonstrated the whales would be harmed as a result of the lower court's decision.

US Appeals Court Orders Biden Admin to Conduct Gulf Oil, Gas Auction Within 37 Days.  A federal appeals court in New Orleans gave the Biden administration 37 days to move forward with the sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, dismissing challenges from environmental groups in a ruling on Tuesday.  The decision comes after a series of legal battles, primarily citing concerns over endangered whale species.  The three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the attempts by environmental groups to block the leases, which had been delayed due to legal challenges related to whale protections.  The pending sale, initially announced in March, faced delays from its original date on Sept. 27, extending to Nov. 8 amid ongoing legal disputes.  In late October, the appeals court further postponed the sale pending arguments specifically addressing endangered whale species, scheduled for Nov. 13.

The Government Wants to Release Grizzly Bears WHERE?  It's a safe bet that the residents of several Northern Washington communities are not voting for Joe Biden next November.  The Biden administration, apparently possessed by the spirits of dead grizzly bears, wants to go ahead with a plan to release up to seven apex predators in the Northern Cascade Mountain National Park every year for the next decade.  It's hoped that there will be 200 grizzlies in the park by the end of the decade.  Seeing a grizzly bear from afar is one of nature's most magnificent sights.  But the 200 residents who crowded into a hearing about the government's plan to release the beasts just a few dozen miles from their communities aren't thrilled about meeting one of the bears up close and personal.

Thousands of Mink Released From PA Fur Farm:  Authorities Term It 'Agricultural Criminal Mischief.'.  Thousands of pen-raised mink are on the run in Pennsylvania, apparently after someone cut holes in the fur farm fence.  [Video clip]  Mink are nasty little predators.  Mustelids — that's the weasel family, of which the mink is a member — are one of the few predators that will kill more than they can eat.  This sudden influx of mink into a local ecosystem will do a lot of damage to the local ecosystem, and the mink themselves will suffer badly.

The Biggest Environmental Scandal In The World.  A dead whale washed ashore on Takanassee Beach in New Jersey in the early evening yesterday.  Police blocked off the area so tractors could be brought in to remove it.  "We were sitting on the beach yesterday, and I noticed it when people started running up to it," said Soraya Nimaroff, who lives nearby.  "I'm very sad.  It is very sad."  Yesterday marked the 60th known whale death on the East Coast since Dec 1, 2022.  Whale strandings have increased markedly since 2016.  The North Atlantic right whales are headed for extinction.  Their population has dropped to 340.  There have been 200 humpback strandings and 98 strandings of right whales since 2017.  "It caused us concern enough to ask, 'What is happening?'" said Cindy Zipf, executive director of the Long Branch-based nonprofit Clean Ocean Action (COA).  "We looked into what was different about this December and early January."  The only thing she and other researchers found was offshore wind exploration.

The return of animal sacrifice.  We look back with bewilderment at the ritual sacrifice of animals by our ancestors.  Whether it was the Celtic people's sacrifice of livestock to appease pissed-off deities or the Ancient Romans' slaughter of oxen so that Jupiter might be more sparing with his stormy weather, it was all a bit mad.  We would never be so superstitious, we tell ourselves.  I'm not sure that's true.  Consider the proposed slaughter of hundreds of thousands of cattle in Europe in the holy name of Net Zero.  This is the return of pagan lunacy, surely.  Irish farmers are under pressure to 'cull up to 200,000 cows' in order that Ireland might meet its 'climate goals', reported the Financial Times at the weekend.  The Irish government is considering proposals to bump off that amount of cattle over the next three years to help it achieve a 25 percent reduction in its agricultural emissions.  Cows produce methane, you see, and methane is bad.  It's a greenhouse gas.  Farming accounts for 40 percent of Ireland's greenhouse-gas emissions, so it has become a natural target for the Net Zero zealots.  Every EU member state is under pressure to make strides towards Net Zero, and if that entails the sacrifice of livestock, so be it.  Save the planet, slaughter the cows.

9 Year Old School Girl Is Brutally Attacked By A Stray [Sacred] Cow In India.  After a schoolgirl in Chennai was attacked by a cow on her way home, the animal's owner has been arrested.  Ayisha, 9, is being treated for injuries from the horrific attack, which was caught on CCTV camera.  Ayisha was returning home from school on Wednesday when a cow ahead of her on the road suddenly turned and charged at her.  In a disturbing video that is viral, the cow is seen repeatedly attacking the child, lifting her with its horns and tossing her to the ground.  [Video clip]

Scientists Urged to Aid 'Rights of Nature' in Science.  The major science journals are growing increasingly hard left politically.  The prestigious journal Science, in particular, has swallowed progressive ideology — including supporting the "nature rights" movement.  The rights of nature — which include geological features — are generally defined as the right to "exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution."  Nature is, of course, not sentient.  So, this campaign is really about granting environmental extremists legal standing to enforce their policy desires through litigation as legal guardians serving nature's best interests.  But the movement has a problem.  It is clearly ideological rather than rational.

ASPCA Exposed: Charity Giant Sits on Millions While Only Donating 2 Percent to Animal Shelters.  Remember those commercials showing footage of dogs and cats living in deplorable conditions while singer Sarah McLachlan croons about being in the arms of an angel?  There is a chance that you might have been moved to donate to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the organization behind those ads.  A recent report might prompt those who supported the ASPCA to reconsider.  The ASPCA has been accused of sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars while giving only two percent of its budget to animal shelters, according to the Center for the Environment and Welfare (CEW).  The group has launched a paid media campaign to expose the ASPCA's priorities, which it claims are more focused on a radical political agenda and enriching itself than helping pets in need.  The campaign currently includes a six-figure TV ad running nationally, a radio spot, and a digital ad on Twitter and Facebook.  The CEW released a report detailing its findings about how the ASPCA engages in practices some would find questionable at best.

Crowder Exposes PETA as the Vicious Animal-Killers They Are.  Crowder explained that he is not a huge fan of practices that crop animal's ears and horses, but they always serve a purpose.  He then brought up how PETA actually kills a lot of animals.  In 2021, PETA's Virginia shelter alone killed 50,000 animals.  The Virginia Department of Agriculture identified the shelter in Norfolk as, "the single largest killer of animals in the state."  This is a fact everyone brushes over, but PETA euthanizes animals at an exponentially higher rate than other places whose job it is to re-home animals.  Crowder then highlighted how in 2022 alone, PETA killed over 2,000 dogs and cats with a 74% kill rate in their shelter, and a 2.1% adoption rate.  He contrasted this with the rates of an average Virginia shelter — 74.5% adoption rate, and a 5.2% kill rate.  Crowder then brought up a 2014 Virginia law that defined a private animal shelter as "a facility operated for the purpose of finding permanent adoptive homes for animals."  PETA then lobbied against this bill.  Crowder explained how, not only does PETA kill at an astronomically high rate, they used their millions in funding to lobby for the ability to continue killing animals at an astronomically high rate.

Insect Farming Is Booming.  But Is It Cruel?  Insects are strange, wondrous beings.  Butterflies can see parts of the light spectrum that are invisible to human eyes and use these ultraviolet patterns to find their way to tasty plants.  Moths use the Earth's magnetic field to orient themselves on journeys of hundreds of miles.  Bees waggle their butts to tell their hive-mates where to find a juicy stash of nectar.  Insects live in our world — or humans live in theirs — yet we inhabit completely different sensory universes.  But just as we are starting to understand insect senses, something is shifting in the way we treat these creatures.  Insect farming is booming in a major way.  By one estimate, between 1 trillion and 1.2 trillion insects are raised on farms each year as companies race to find a high-protein, low-carbon way to feed animals and humans.  In terms of sheer numbers of animals impacted, this is a transformation of a speed and scale that we've never seen before.  It's a weird twist in our already strange relationship with bugs.

No more elephants in zoos, experts warn.  Over the past year, the Fresno Chaffee Zoo has been pulled into a growing global debate over the future of elephants in zoos.  In recent years, some zoos have phased out elephant exhibits due to the complexity of the animals and their needs.  Still, others, like Fresno's zoo, say they are committed to keeping elephants and are turning to breeding, arguing that a sustainable population of zoo elephants will help spur a commitment to wildlife conservation among future generations of visitors.  The zoo in Fresno, while beloved by local residents, has been targeted by animal activists in a report criticizing living conditions for the elephants and in legal actions trying to free them.  Broadly, some elephant experts say urban zoos simply don't have the space that African elephants, who roam extensive distances in the wild to forage for hundreds of pounds of vegetation each day, need for a normal life.

A Nanny State Idiocracy: When the Government Thinks It Knows Best.  For instance, an animal welfare bill introduced in the Florida state Legislature would ban the sale of rabbits in March and April, prohibit cat owners from declawing their pets, make it illegal for dogs to stick their heads out of car windows, force owners to place dogs in a harness or in a pet seatbelt when traveling in a car, and require police to create a public list of convicted animal abusers.  A Massachusetts law prohibits drivers from letting their cars idle for more than five minutes on penalty of a $100 fine ($500 for repeat offenders), even in the winter.  You can also be fined $20 or a month in jail for scaring pigeons.

Bad New Idea From Florida: Ban Dogs From Sticking Their Heads Out of Car Windows.  Not content to merely regulate human fun, a Florida lawmaker has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for drivers to let their dogs stick their heads out of car windows.  Senate Bill 932, introduced last week by state Sen. Lauren Book (D-Plantation), tackles a wide range of animal welfare issues.  It would ban the declawing of cats, prohibit the sale of rabbits in stores in March and April, create a registry of animal abusers, and limit cosmetic testing on animals, among many other policies.  The legislation centers on what Book believes would improve the quality of life for Florida's animals, but one section of the bill would single out a favorite activity of the state's canine population.  Dogs would be banned from sticking their heads "or any other body part" outside a vehicle's window while on a public roadway.  Drivers would also be banned from holding dogs on their laps while driving.

Hamtramck council approves Islamic animal sacrifices at home.  After several months of contentious debate and pressure from Muslim residents, Hamtramck City Council voted Tuesday night to allow the religious sacrifice of animals on residential property.  Muslims often slaughter animals during the holiday of Eid al-Adha and Hamtramck has one of the highest percentage of Muslim residents among cities in the U.S.  The all-Muslim city council voted 3-2, with Mayor Amer Ghalib casting an additional vote in favor making it 4-2, to amend a city ordinance to allow religious sacrifice of animals at home.  After the vote to approve, applause broke out from members of the public, who packed the meeting to speak out before the vote.  "If somebody wants to do it, they have a right to do their practice," Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Mohammed Hassan said at the meeting, which was livestreamed.

18 Absurdities of the McConnell-Schumer Omnibus Spending Bill.  [Scroll down]  [T]he spending bill includes provisions that are cause for concern for pro-life Americans.  In perhaps the clearest example of the frame of mind of the authors, the $575 million in a global health section allocated for "family planning/reproductive health, including in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species."  This section quite literally puts plants before people.  This provision sees humanity as a parasite, as a threat to the plants and animals that the bill's drafters clearly see as vastly more important than the Americans and their families who Congress is supposed to protect.

Climate alarmists set their sights on a new target — your dog.  My fellow Gen Xers will remember vividly that there were two existential threats growing up that could annihilate mankind: nuclear war and acid rain.  Future decades expanded the circle of bogeymen to include ozone layer degradation, bioweapons, African killer bees, SARS, financial market collapse and finally COVID, to accompany the ongoing dire threat that human activities are hurtling the globe to losing large swaths of its population from climate catastrophes.  While the level of urgency to "save the planet" has intensified from the doom-and-gloom crowd, so has the level of craziness about how to deal with their villains.  From the early warnings of "don't shower every day," to today's eugenics, the cult of the "church of climate change" has become increasingly rabid.

Control Freaks and the Guilt Trip Travel Agency.  Some years ago, I visited an aquarium in Monterey, California.  At first glance, it seemed like an interesting place, but sadly, I'm one of those people who read the entire sign explaining each exhibit.  After reading a few signs, I realized that each was a composition using a few words to describe the critter in the tank and progressing into a sad description of how man's actions — or even just man's presence on the planet — was causing trouble for the creature on display.  In short, it was one guilt trip after another, until I finally got the message and stopped reading the signs.  If it had been just one aquarium, it wouldn't be worth mentioning.  But this theme is repeated in many places these days.  It is so pervasive that years ago I nicknamed it the Guilt Trip Travel Agency.

Supreme Court to decide if CA can use pigs to impose its left-wing agenda on America.  The state of California simply refuses to leave the rest of us alone.  Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard more than two hours of oral arguments (more than in the case overturning Roe v. Wade) concerning pigs and how much space should be allotted for a sow to give birth and wean her piglets.  In 2018, California voters approved a proposition that banned the sale of any pork not produced at a farm that provided at least 24 square feet of space per sow.  While there is always an argument to be made against animal cruelty, the problem here is a matter of practicality.  Only four percent of pig farms currently meet California's new standard.  Boutique pork — as it were — is available at stores like Whole Foods for around $8 a pound.  If applied nationwide, California's law would raise the price of pork by an estimated 9.2 percent; current record inflation and already-high food prices [notwithstanding].  Believe it or not, the Biden regime is reportedly siding with the pork farmers, not California.

SF grocery store shut down due to rat infestation created by the birdseed lady.  Who is up for another San Francisco story?  This one starts in a neighborhood called Glen Park where there's a local grocery store called Canyon Market.  It's a nice looking place.  Yesterday, Canyon Market was shuttered by the health department after the city found evidence of a "severe" rodent infestation. [...] The birdseed woman may not be homeless but it sure sounds as if she has some mental problems.  And just like every other person with mental problems wandering the streets of San Francisco (or Los Angeles), the city's default position is to do nothing until it creates a big enough crisis to make the local news.  Then, finally, the city might stir itself to do something about the actual problem.  In this particular case, it has taken two and a half years just to put out some rat bait.

New York State Court Rules Elephants Are Not People.  With all the other critical and depressing news stories filling our social media feeds and cluttering our minds, it would understandable if this piece of groundbreaking jurisprudence slipped through the cracks in one's effort to be well-informed.  On Tuesday, the State of New York's highest court ruled in a 5-2 decision against the efforts of a group known as the Nonhuman Rights Project which asserted that an Asian elephant named Happy was being illegally "detained" in The Bronx Zoo.  And yes, you read that correctly:  Two judges actually ruled in favor of the idea that Happy is really a human being.

The Editor says...
The name of the organization — Nonhuman Rights Project — should be construed as an admission that elephants are non-human.  Too bad I'm not a judge.  Even so, it is good to know that two state court judges think elephants are people.

Walmart drops Chaokoh coconut milk after PETA allegations about forced monkey labor.  Walmart is pulling a popular brand of coconut milk off their shelves after reports of forced monkey labor.  Walmart became the latest retail giant to drop Chaokoh coconut milk from its catalog.  The mega-retailer pulled the beverage due to repeated allegations of monkey slave labor in its production.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) accused the Thai coconut milk supplier of using monkey slave laborers for harvest, which it claims are kept chained and improperly cared for.

Actor James Cromwell Crazy Glued [Himself] To A Starbucks Counter For Charging Extra Money For Vegan Milk.  James Cromwell, "Succession" actor and honorary director of PETA, superglued himself to a Starbucks counter in New York City on Tuesday.  Cromwell glued his hand to the counter at a Midtown, Manhattan location to call on Starbucks to stop charging extra for vegan milk.  PETA, which stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, live-streamed the "glue-in" on Facebook.

The otherization of unvaccinated people is proceeding quickly.  Ever since I learned about Peter Singer, a chaired professor of bioethics at Princeton University, I've been deeply suspicious about ethicists.  Singer, after all, is simultaneously the ur-source for the animal liberation movement, which tries to give animals the same legal status as humans, and the man who believes that parents should have up to a month to determine whether to euthanize a newborn infant because of physical or mental imperfections.  Meanwhile, a little over a decade ago, in England, the land of socialized medicine, Baroness Warnock, described as "the influential medical ethics expert," announced that elderly people suffering from dementia should be encouraged to get euthanized.  "The 84-year-old added that she hoped people will soon be 'licensed to put others down' if they are unable to look after themselves."  Whatever medical ethics is, if one judges by these two people, both of whom are leaders in their fields, it doesn't align with actual morality and human decency.

Are Animal Rights Extremists Transforming Agriculture in America's Heartland?  Cattle ranchers and other meat producers have been under fire by animal rights and environmental groups for years.  It's nothing new.  But under the current Biden administration, the agenda to halt meat production under the premise of a climate crisis has accelerated to a mind-numbing pace.  With food prices already increasing due to high fuel costs, the never-ending nudge by animal rights organizations to increase extraneous animal welfare regulations has taken on a new foothold and strategy to advance animal rights organizations' vegan agenda.  While these regulations may seem reasonable on the surface, the agenda behind them lies within the organizations pushing these deceptive bills, cloaked in emotionally charged propaganda used to advance these proposed regulations into law. [...] People are finally waking up to the deceptive policies driven by animal rights groups mandating extraneous regulatory changes to animal agriculture such as California Proposition 12, which has produced a pork shortage in the Golden State.

PETA Urges MLB to Replace 'Bullpen' with 'Arm Barn'.  Animal rights organization PETA has called for Major League Baseball to "strike out" the word "bullpen" in favor of "arm barn" because, as the organization claims, the current term is a reference to a "holding area where terrified bulls are kept before slaughter."  "Words matter, and baseball 'bullpens' devalue talented players and mock the misery of sensitive animals," PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a press release.  "PETA encourages Major League Baseball coaches, announcers, players, and fans to changeup their language and embrace the 'arm barn' instead."

The Editor says...
[#1] If you don't like baseball terminology (or America), don't go to the games.  [#2] The overlap between PETA people and baseball fans is near zero, so the baseball announcers could have a field day with derisive mockery of this suggested destruction of our language and traditions.

California officials seek woman seen feeding platter of meat to coyote.  Authorities in California are asking for the public's help in identifying a woman who allegedly fed wild coyotes in San Francisco.  A recent photo snapped by officials with San Francisco Animal Care and Control shows the woman allegedly holding a platter of raw meat in San Francisco's Bernal Heights Park, KTVU reported.

Bacon in California May Soon Be More Hard to Find as Pig Rules Take Effect.  Thanks to a reworked menu and long hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the coronavirus pandemic.  That makes it all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-focused diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make one of her top menu items — bacon — hard to get in California. [...] Animal welfare organizations for years have been pushing for more humane treatment of farm animals but the California rules could be a rare case of consumers clearly paying a price for their beliefs.

Top 10 Examples of Leftist and Democratic Racism.  [#7] Prohibiting the distribution of food and water at Georgia polls suppresses black votes — The goal of this provision within the Georgia voting law which went into effect in late-March is obviously to prevent outsiders at polling stations from essentially bribing soon-to-be voters with water and sandwiches.  Makes sense, right?  But the pushback from the left insisted the stipulation specifically targeted black voters, with one activist arguing, "You know something is wrong when you can't give grandma a bottle of water and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."  Therefore, follow the apparent logic.  This law doesn't target white voters because a white grandma is capable of eating and drinking before she votes, or she can remember to bring a snack and a water bottle if she thinks she might be waiting on line for a while.  But a black grandma?  We can't expect her to take care of herself like that.  What's wrong with you?

Peter Singer:  If a House Were On Fire I'd Save 200 Pigs Before Saving One Human Child.  Peter Singer is something of a house ethicist for the New York Times and especially beloved of the weak liberal thinker, Nicolas Kristof.  While I think he should be treated the same as if he were a racist for his anti-human equality views, the media here mostly ooh and aah.  That is why I was pleased to see Singer pushed in an interview by a Swiss newspaper to claim that the lives of 200 (or some other number of) pigs should be saved from a fire over that of a single human baby.

Colombia's 'cocaine hippos' must be stopped, scientists warn.  Pablo Escobar's hippos are taking over the marshlands of Colombia — and need to face the same fate as their late owner before they become impossible to control, scientists have warned.  The so-called "cocaine hippos" were illegally imported to the country by the notorious drug lord, who was shot dead by authorities in 1993, the Telegraph reported.  But the rapidly breeding beasts have grown to become the largest invasive species on the planet — and could reach dangerous numbers in the next two decades.

Doggone: Department of Transportation Bans Emotional Support Animals.  If you're used to flying with fluffy, the DOT is clipping your wings.  As made clear by the U.S. Department of Transportation Wednesday, the Air Carrier Access Act regarding transport of service animals has been amended.  Subsequently, emotional support animals have been banned.

Monkey Business:  PETA Wants to Make Working Thai Monkeys Unemployed.  They're just doing the jobs humans won't do — or, at least, can't easily do.  But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) isn't happy and wants these workers, Thailand's coconut-picking monkeys, booted from their jobs.  No, the issue isn't that the monkeys may serve a more useful purpose in this world than PETA does.  It's that, claims the organization, they're abused.  Thus is PETA encouraging retailers to discontinue merchandise with ingredients derived from monkey labor, and it has already convinced Costco to do just that.  In fact, "Costco follows Walgreens, Food Lion, Giant Food and Stop & Shop, who [sic] also stopped stocking brands of coconut milk including Chaokoh after PETA alleged that monkeys in Thailand were picking coconuts," reports USA Today.

Costco Cans Coconut Milk Over the Forced Employment of Manacled Monkeys.  For those of you who love Costco coconut milk, I have bad news. [...] The world's second largest retail chain has chosen to no longer carry a condemned brand of Thai coconut extract.  It appears there may have been poor form as the money-grubbing makers tried to milk it for all it's worth:  The Southeast Asian suppliers have been accused of forced labor.  Not of peasants or children, but monkeys.  Yet, what could make that rich goodness taste any better than knowing it was made by wild, screaming, tree-dwelling primates?  Nonetheless, PETA is thrilled with the throw-out.

Costco pulling products allegedly made with forced monkey labor.  The alleged use of forced monkey labor has led Costco to stop selling Thai-made coconut products.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been tracking such animal abuse since 2019, while urging retailers to pull merchandise made from the bad actors to discourage the practice, USA Today reported.  "No kind shopper wants monkeys to be chained up and treated like coconut-picking machines," PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement, according to the outlet.  "Costco made the right call to reject animal exploitation, and PETA is calling on holdouts like Kroger to follow suit."

The Editor says...
Horses, oxen, mules, dogs, and an occasional elephant have been used in "forced labor" for millennia, all over the world, without anyone complaining about "exploitation," because that's normal!

Roaming Raccoons Show No Fear Of Humans In San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.  Park visitor Wendy Wald says the raccoons have been in Golden Gate Park for years and she has not noticed them being more aggressive.  "They usually just like this, praying that I'm going to give them food," said Wald.  A few blocks away, resident Sylvia Ramirez says raccoons living in the redwood trees in her backyard now come down during the day and go under her deck, which they've never done before.  Ramirez also recalled a raccoon strolled right up to her recently when she was walking on a trail a few miles away at Lake Merced.  "We have to coexist in the world with wildlife," said Ramirez.  "We're the ones that are in their territory."

The Editor says...
No, you're the human, and they're the animals.  It's your territory, not theirs.  You take dominion over the animals, with deadly force if necessary.  Unless you're an earth-worshiping hippie living in a leftist utopia, in which case you treat raccoons as your equal.  And if they want your house, I guess you have to leave.  Really, if you think you are equal to a raccoon, you should never vote in any election.

Ignoring Warnings, Mich.  AG Sued to RAISE Lake Level Ahead of Dam Break — to Protect Mussels.  In her ongoing audition to be Joe Biden's veep pick, Michigan Governess Gretchen Whitmer all but convicted a private dam owner for the disastrous floods that struck the middle of the state last Wednesday [5/20/2020].  However, it wasn't the dam company that was trying to save a few clams — it was Whitmer's radical attorney general, Dana Nessel.  Nessel was suing the dam company to raise the lake level three feet in order to save mussels — both endangered and common — and in their response, the dam company cited safety as a reason for not doing so.  But to Dana Nessel, who is also suing to keep Michigan's chilly Upper Peninsula from having a reliable source of propane, citing an imaginary concern over a pipeline across the Straits of Mackinac, people come second.  A distant second.

Meet the South Texas Couple Who Kill Feral Hogs as a Public Service.  Since 2014, Robert [Lyle] and his wife, Vickie, have been the only trappers allowed year-round on the 140-plus national refuge units sprinkled across the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and they also hunt on private land from the border north to Sinton and as far west as Laredo.  They bag an estimated thousand hogs a year, butchering the pigs on-site and processing the meat themselves at their home near Mercedes.  Robert says his biggest expense is butcher paper, and with two freezers full of hog meat, from summer sausages to spareribs and sirloin steaks, it's clear he needs a lot of it.  The Lyles work for free under a special-use permit with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency that oversees the string of wildlife refuge areas that preserve some of the last bits of the scrubby forest that once covered this part of South Texas.

Should A Coyote Be Indicted?  One of Chicago's most notorious criminals was recently captured:  the limping coyote.  A six-year-old boy was attacked and bitten by a coyote while walking with his caretaker.  A concerned citizen chased away the coyote with a tree branch. [...] It was decided that this animal would not be euthanized because it was not aggressive after capture.  (Of course, it was not tested near children.)  The coyote, now named "Mercy," was placed in a "permanent educational setting." [...] Fortunately, no one was killed by the Chicago coyote.  But what message should be sent once an animal attacks and is very publicly apprehended?  What would best deter the public from feeding the animals and therefore endangering people and animals?  Is the sacrificing of some animals the best way to save human life and to prevent more widespread purgation of animals later?  Why do laws call for the euthanizing of a bear that attacks a man, but not for a coyote that attacks a child?

Don't call your pet a pet:  Animal rights charity chief says term is derogatory.  Cats and dogs seem perfectly happy to be fed, watered and cuddled by doting owners.  But whatever you do, don't call them pets, says the head of an animal rights organisation.  Ingrid Newkirk, the president of PETA, said this is derogatory and suggests they are merely a 'commodity' or 'decoration'.

Abortions are okay, but stray dogs must be preserved.
'We want to be a no-kill state.' Newsom calls for end to animal euthanasia in California.  Gov. Gavin Newsom wants California to stop euthanizing animals, and he's ready to put taxpayer money toward the cause.  "We want to be a no-kill state," Newsom said during a press conference where he presented his 2020-21 budget.  Specifically, Newsom's budget calls for a $50 million one-time general fund allocation to the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program to develop a grant program for animal shelters, with a goal of helping local communities "achieve the state's policy goal that no adoptable or treatable dog or cat should be euthanized," according to the budget summary.

PETA seeks shareholder vote to ban SeaWorld trainers from riding dolphins.  A leading animal-rights group is taking its fight to stop SeaWorld trainers from riding dolphins during shows directly to the company's shareholders.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has long battled SeaWorld over its handling of killer whales, proposed on Tuesday [12/10/2019] a shareholder vote to ban certain performance stunts, such as balancing on dolphins' nostrums.

Wild hogs that mauled a Texas woman, 57, to death are part of a 'Pig Bomb' invading the US.  A research scientist believes the US is in the middle of a 'Pig Bomb' - where feral hogs are increasing in huge numbers.  Dr. Jack Mayer, a zoologist whose been researching wild pigs for 40 years, has warned that the population could keep growing unless there is a swine flu epidemic.  His comments come just a week after a caregiver was mauled to death by wild hogs in Texas.  Christine Rollins, 59, was attacked and killed outside the home of the elderly couple she was looking after in what the local sheriff described as 'one of the worst things he has seen'.

Lawsuit: Ben & Jerry lying about their "happy cows".  Since most of this week in Washington is already shaping up to be a festival of the ridiculous, we may as well toss a few more logs on the bonfire.  Up in Vermont, Ben & Jerry's, the famously liberal ice cream company, is being taken to court over fraudulent advertising, along with its parent company, Unilever.  But this suit has nothing to do with the quality or safety of their product.  An environmentalist is suing them because of their advertisements claiming that their creamy products are made from milk from "happy cows."  Not so, says the plaintiff!  Apparently, many of the cows are simply miserable.

'Emotional support rooster' ruffling feathers in Florida neighborhood.  Neighbors in East Arlington say it's illegal and waking them up early with its crowing, but the owner claims it's his emotional support animal.  Roosters can be loud.  They also can be aggressive.  People who live near the intersection of Abe Court and Running River Road have had enough.

Gov. Cuomo signs bill outlawing elephant performances.  A bill protecting elephants from the abusive conditions in the entertainment industry took effect in New York on Saturday [10/19/2019].  Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Elephant Protection Act in 2017, which banned the use of elephants in entertainment acts within the state, including their use in circuses, carnivals, and parades.

Extinction Rebellion Protesters Dine at McDonald's.  Last night [10/7/2019] Boris Johnson dismissed the protesters as "uncooperative crusties" who should abandon their "hemp-smelling bivouacs" and stop blocking roads.  Activists camped overnight inside the 800-year-old Smithfield Market in London and held a minute's silence for all the animals which had been butchered there over the years.  However they were branded hypocritical when a number of eco-warriors were seen popping into McDonald's, which boasts that it sells 75 hamburgers every second.  Tory MP Ben Bradley said:  "Capitalism is killing us all!!  We should stop eating meat!!  Right then guys, let's knock off.  Maccy Ds anyone!?"  "The lack of self-awareness is absolutely staggering".

33rd Horse Dies at Santa Anita Since December.  Horse racing continued Sunday at Santa Anita Park, one day after dueling demonstrations for and against the sport preceded the death of a 33rd horse at the facility since December 26.  The latest casualty was a 5-year-old gelding named Ky. (Kentucky) Colonel who collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack after jogging around the Arcadia racetrack Saturday afternoon [10/5/2019].

More Muslim animal abuse.  At least they're not slitting his throat and laughing as the poor animal slowly bleeds to death.  But that probably comes next.  [Video clip]

The Media Has A Problem Covering 9/11.  The New York Times began its 9/11 coverage this year with an avian appeal.  The 9/11 tribute lights, they claim, are putting 160,000 birds at risk every year.  Apparently the "Tribute in Light" — two columns created by 88 searchlights — is affecting the migratory patterns of our winged friends.  That is, unless you read the article.  The headline's claim is debunked about halfway in:  "But according to radar studies ... the 20-minute breaks are enough to allow birds to resume their migration."  This isn't the first year they've done it, but the articles are getting longer and the shrieks are becoming shriller:  "Won't somebody PLEASE think of the yellow warblers?!"

Vegan activist who 'rescued' 16 rabbits killed nearly 100 in the process.  A vegan activist in Spain who claimed to have been attacked by an angry mob last week — after she "rescued" 16 rabbits from their farm — wound up causing the deaths of nearly 100 baby bunnies in the process, a report says.  The activist, who goes by the name "Mythical Mia" on social media, conducted the alleged rescue mission on a farm near Osono last Sunday, according to the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.  Five rabbits, which were pregnant and about to give birth, were killed during the chaotic retrieval and several others were left with broken spines, the paper reports, citing an assessment from a local veterinarian.

The animal rights people are all totally silent about this:
ISIS rigs cows with explosives in failed attack on Iraqi forces.  Isis militants reportedly rigged cows with explosives in an attack on Iraqi security forces, in what is thought to be the first time the group has weaponised cattle.  The two cows were strapped with explosives belts and were heading towards a military checkpoint in Diyala province when Iraqi soldiers opened fire and "blew them up", according to a report on the Kurdish language Rudaw news website.  One civilian was injured in the failed attack last week, according to the report.  Local official Sadiq Husseini was quoted as saying that the incident "shows that the group has lost the ability to recruit young people and would-be suicide bombers, instead they are using cattle".

Julián Castro's new animal rights plan takes on a favorite Donald Trump Jr. hobby.  Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro on Monday released a comprehensive animal welfare plan that includes a series of ambitious policy proposals, including making animal abuse a federal crime and cracking down on trophy hunting.

SUNY Women's Studies Staffer:  Milking Cows Is 'Sexual Assault'.  A new research paper published last week by a staff member of the women's studies department at SUNY Brockport makes the case that the dairy industry's production process involves the "rape" and "sexual assault" of cows.  According to a report by Campus Reform, a staff member of the women's studies department at The College at Brockport, State University of New York argued in a recently published academic journal article that the production of milk on farms is akin to "rape" and "sexual assault.

Leaving the Democrats.  In 1978, I got a job in the wood products industry at a particleboard factory and began work a schedule that just became normal to me.  [S]even days on, two days off, working nights, weekends, and most holidays.  I wore "save the whales" t-shirts at work.  The industry came under attack because of environmental concerns for the spotted owl.  The lumber and wood products industry in the West was decimated over the next 15-20 years.  We tried to muster support from our government, but our efforts fell on deaf ears.  Eventually after 22 years, the facility I worked at closed.  The ability to do what we did, which was to recycle sawdust and discarded wood into a usable product, became too expensive as we had to go further and further away for our raw materials.  The logging industry was gone because of environmentalism and government policies to put animal concerns ahead of humans.

PETA is Oddly Silent as Muslims Around the World Slaughter Over 10 Million Animals in Celebration of Eid Al-Adha.  Across the world men, women and children prayed and sacrificed animals as part of the celebrations.  Eid al-Adha is the holiest of the two Muslims holidays celebrated each year.  Photos from Pakistan show men in the street slaughtering goats, camels, cows and sheep as of the festivities.  As many as 10 million animals worth up to $3 billion are sacrificed during the festival, the Pakistan Tanners' Association says.

The Editor says...
It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. [Hebrews 10:4]

The Trump Obsession Comes for California's Water.  Tomorrow, the Golden State's Democrat-run, veto-proof legislature returns from its summer break and is expected to quickly take up S.B. 1, the "California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense Act of 2019."  It has been proposed for one reason:  Donald Trump is president.  Under his administration, long-standing EPA regulations and analyses, and bureaucratic (state and federal) actions, related to water have been rethought, reviewed, and relaxed.  Which comes to the progressive Left as a threat:  All that water-denying is now at risk.  Hence the bill.  Its consequence will be to preempt any possible forthcoming federal regulations that would result in people and farms (instead of, seriously, the Pacific Ocean) getting more, already available water.

California prefers 'free range rats' over humans.  Proposed poison ban.  California is prepared to sacrifice human lives for the sake of wildlife apparently.  The wise Progressives have let fester a growing health risk in allowing their rat population to explode with no interest in controlling their expanding population.  The Democrats want to ban rat poison.  You can't call them lazy.  Once a female rat reproduces, she could have 15,000 descendants by the end of just one year!  Note:  Your rat mileage may vary.

A Liberal's Viral Tweet About Dog Ownership Shows Just How Unhinged The Left Has Become.  At first I thought I had misunderstood Danielle's tweet.  I had not.  This young woman, whose tweet has gone viral, has tried to find a way to make dog ownership about race and she has failed spectacularly.  I suppose that's why over 33,000 people are talking about it so far.

PETA finds name of rural road in Idaho distasteful, asks for change.  PETA sent out a news release this week alerting Idaho media that it has written a letter to Caldwell Mayor Garret Nancolas to ask for a change to the street name Chicken Dinner Road.  However, Caldwell city street maps don't include Chicken Dinner Road, which is located in rural Canyon County.

Open Your Eyes.  The Planet's Not Dying.  Most of the costly changes that the Green community is pushing don't work but somebody is making beaucoup money selling turbine windmills and solar panels.  The windmills kill anywhere from 140,000 to 328,000 birds annually.  Why hasn't PETA demonstrated against them?  Of course, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has lots of skeletons in its closet that doesn't bear scrutiny.  It routinely euthanizes animals left in its overcrowded facilities.  Amanda Schinke, a spokesperson for the organization, explained how "euthanasia is a product of love for animals who have no one to love them."  Thank goodness, they're not in charge of nursing homes.

While We Are on the Subject of Nazis....  In addition to being a vegetarian, a non-smoker, and a teetotaler, Hitler was an animal lover.  Trevor-Roper further notes that SS chief Heinrich Himmler thought Reich Marshal Hermann Goering a pig.  Why?  Because he advocated the extermination of millions of people?  Of course not.  It was simply because Goering was an avid hunter:  "Imagine, Herr Kersten," Himmler told a companion.  "Some poor deer is grazing peacefully, and up comes the hunter to shoot that poor animal. ... Could that give you pleasure?"  As elements within the Democratic Party embrace an increasingly radical abortion policy that inches toward infanticide, the New Republic has declared animal rights "the next frontier for the Left."  There is something dangerously warped about a society that passes federal laws that will fine you up to $250,000 and send you to prison for destroying the egg of a bald eagle, but offers government assistance to destroy its unborn children.

Governor Abbott signs bill allowing the hunting of feral hogs without license.  Governor Abbott signed House Bill 317 which allows people to hunt feral hogs without a hunting license.  The law, which was authored by Senator Bryan Hughes of Mineloa, was passed unanimously by the House and Senate before going to the governor's desk.  Feral hogs cause an estimated $52 million in damage to Texas agricultural enterprises each year, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.  There are around 2 million feral hogs in the state.

German Green Party Proposes Ban on All Industrial Farming.  The Green party in Germany said it will ban industrial farming to reduce global warming if it comes to power.  The measure was proposed by Katrin Goering-Eckardt, the party's leader in the Germany parliament, as part of a massive €100 billion project to finance climate initiatives.  For several years, climate change doomsayers have turned their attention to cattle, as a series of reports demonstrated that "livestock emissions" are more dangerous for the environment than automobiles.

The Editor says...
If farming is "dangerous for the environment," what is the solution?  If you eliminate farming, nearly everybody will starve.  At that point, what is the purpose of saving the environment?

PETA Fights for Oysters' Rights in Push for Veganism.  In its new crusade for veganism, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has rushed to the defense of oysters and other bivalves, insisting they should be respected and never eaten.  "Oysters are never vegan," PETA announced in a short video presentation on Twitter Saturday.  "Bivalves are animals that deserve our consideration and should never be eaten or used in any other way."

Cat declawing would be outlawed under first ever NYS legislative ban.  Felines in the Empire State no longer have to live in fear of cold-hearted owners who care more about their couch than their cat.  State legislators passed a bill Tuesday that would make New York the first state in the nation to ban the declawing of cats.

Animal Rights Extremist Attacks Kamala Harris, Moderator Blames Trump.  A scruffy, hippie-ish animal rights demonstrator with long beard, long hair in a bun, and blue jeans leapt onto the stage and grabbed the mike from Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris during MoveOn.org's "Big Ideas Forum" in San Francisco on Saturday [6/1/2019], before being shuffled away by security.  If you were the left-wing Democratic Party operative moderating the event, you would think, "too bad it wasn't a right winger wearing a MAGA hat.  We could blame it on Trump!"  Right?  Wrong.  It's still Trump's fault!

PETA Is Beyond Parody.  [Scroll down]  No group is more hypocritical on this front than PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. [...] In 2013, the New York Times reported the group was killing "an average of about 2,000 dogs and cats each year at its animal shelter" in Virginia.  And that's just one shelter.  As far as pet adoptions at those shelters goes, the Times reports they only adopted out "19 cats and dogs in 2012 and 24 in 2011."  They're quick to kill, seemingly not so big on the care and feeding part of taking care of pets.  Two years later, the Washington Post found PETA in Virginia was still euthanizing 80 percent of the animals they "rescued."  Makes you wonder what they were rescued from.

New York City Council Considering Banning Fur.  Lawmakers in New York City will hold a hearing Wednesday [5/15/2019] on a measure that would ban the sale of nearly all new fur products.  City council Speaker Corey Johnson sponsored the fur ban that will be the centerpiece of a hearing at City Hall Wednesday afternoon.  The bill bans the sale of all fur, except for sales of used fur apparel and fur garments worn for religious reasons.

The Editor says...
Here's a sample of a "religious reason:"  God created man and gave him "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth[.]"  Dominion is supreme authority and complete control.  Thus, mankind has been given permission to manage the animals of the earth.  Part of that dominion is the decision-making authority to wear fur or leather when conditions warrant, or to sell such products as supply and demand make it feasible.  This activity went on for thousands of years without anyone objecting to it.  The prohibition of fur sales is just another facet of the wholesale destruction of cultural traditions by the left.

Retail Giant PetSmart Names PETA in Spying Lawsuit.  Pet superstore PetSmart has filed a lawsuit against PETA, claiming a former employee who illegally filmed internal operations was being paid by and acting with orders from the animal-rights group that aims to fully eradicate pet ownership.  PetSmart had already filed a lawsuit against the employee, Jenna Jordan, for lying on her job application and proceeding to transmit secretly recorded audio and video to PETA.  The newly filed lawsuit, however, names both Jordan and PETA as the defendants.

The latest hurdle at Camp fire debris cleanup?  Endangered frogs near 800 homes.  Environmental concerns, including fear of harming a sensitive frog species, have forced Camp fire crews to back away from cleaning some properties in the Paradise area.  State officials tasked with debris cleanup say they have been directed not to enter an estimated 800 burned Butte County home sites within 100 feet of a waterway.  They've been told to wait for representatives of several state and federal agencies to reach an agreement on environmental assessment guidelines.

California spends $178 million per fish to bring back salmon.  Leftie greenies recently hailed the return of ... five ... salmon, swimming upstream to the San Joaquin river to spawn.  Paradise restored!  In water-starved California, that was quite an achievement, given that each salmon required 50,000 gallons of water to get the job done, coming at a price tag of $890 million at the low end and $2 billion at the high.  And that water came out of the hides of California's farmers, who got very little of the water they were promised, and paid for, as a result.  That's some use of resources to get those five salmon to swim upstream.

The Elephant in the Room.  While human populations and the concomitant demand for land continue to grow in both Botswana and Zimbabwe, so are their elephant numbers.  One estimate coming from the Zambezi Society puts the elephant population of what is now known as Zimbabwe at a paltry 4,000 in 1900, when the country was very sparsely populated.  Against a backdrop of a massive increase in the number of people, there are now over 80,000, and that is despite the culling of roughly 45,000 between 1960 and 1990.  Hwange National Park, which is now home to the bulk of the Zimbabwean elephant population, did not boast a permanent elephant presence until the arrival of the Europeans at the turn of the last century.  They were at a loss as to what to do with an uninhabited wasteland unsuited to agriculture because of poor sandy soils and a lack of water.  A farsighted decision was made to turn it into a viable wildlife refuge through the creation of artificial water holes drawing on subterranean water, and the success was spectacular; too successful, in fact, and thus the present-day problem of too many animals.  Neighboring Botswana, part of the same ecosystem, and about which the present controversy swirls, is home to approximately 130,000 elephants, the largest population of them in Africa, and parts of the country, particularly the Chobe area, are being ecologically devastated as a result of the overconcentration of animals.

Nebraska Flooding:  When the Government Cares More about Birds than People.  [Scroll down]  Until 2004, the government kept its end of the bargain, and flooding, while still a danger, was dramatically lessened in frequency and severity by the prudent operation of the dam system and the mechanical restructuring of the river itself.  That last paragraph, while perfectly reasonable to normal folks, is cause for outrage and seething anger among the increasingly radical environmentalist left, which is enamored of a dream of "rewilding" vast sections of North America via the "recovery" of river basins.  One might ask, "Recovery from what?"  In a word, the answer is "man."  Environmental groups like the Sierra Club and American Rivers advocate the wholesale removal of dams, even if it requires the forced relocation of millions of people and their businesses.  They seek a continent with untamed rivers, devoid of human interference with the perceived "natural processes" of ebb and flood.  At this level of green-think, it is more religion than science, with devotion measured in antipathy for the needs of mankind whenever there is conflict with nature.

Green Insanity Is Flooding Towns and Destroying Lives.  Having written extensively in these pages on the catastrophic flooding of the Missouri River basin in 2011, I believe that the occasion of this present flood disaster plaguing Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota has given rise to many questions.  Foremost, I have been asked if there is an environmentalist element, as there was in 2011, when the Corps of Engineers intentionally permitted the flooding of eight states in order to further their highest priority (as per the Master Water Control Manual) of "habitat restoration for riverine wildlife" at the expense of the original top priority, flood control, and the preservation of human life and property.

Major Science Journal Embraces 'Nature Rights' Movement.  Nature rights" is a hard-leftwing and anti-free market movement — once on the fringe but now growing increasingly mainstream within environmentalism — that doesn't seek tighter legal regulations over our use of the natural world, but rather, advocates personalizing nature toward the end of granting flora, fauna, ecosystems, and geological features human-type rights.  In a saner era, the idea of granting rights to "nature" would be laughed off the public stage.  But it's not funny.  The nature rights movement is serious, it is growing in power and influence, and it becoming alarmingly successful.  Indeed, the movement has made important strides in the last few years:  four rivers have been granted enforceable rights, including the Amazon and Ganges.  So too have glaciers.  An orangutan was declared a "non-human person" in Argentina and granted a writ of habeas corpus to be released from a zoo to a sanctuary.  Most recently, a special election in Toledo, Ohio passed that granted "rights" to Lake Erie.

Emotional support pit bull mauled 5-year-old girl: suit.  A woman has filed a $1.1 million negligence lawsuit after her 5-year-old daughter was mauled by a pit bull — which was being used as an emotional support animal — at Portland International Airport when she petted it.  Mirna Gonzalez and her children were waiting for an Alaska Airlines flight to Texas on Dec. 18, 2017, when she stepped away to grab a coffee, the Washington Post reported.  While she was away, Gabriella asked if she could pet the dog, which suddenly bit her in the face and left her bloodied.

Virginia Del.  Kathy Tran Submitted Bill To Save Caterpillars On Same Day As Late-Stage Abortion Bill.  The Democratic Virginia delegate who has recently come under fire for sponsoring a bill in the Virginia House of Delegates that would allow the termination of a pregnancy up to 40 weeks old, is also the chief patron of a bill that would protect the lives of "fall cankerworms" during certain months.  Democratic Virginia Del.  Kathy Tran introduced "House Bill No. 2495 — Fall cankerworm; spraying prohibited during certain months" on Jan. 9, the same day as "House Bill No. 2491 — Abortion; eliminate certain requirements."

Unborn Baby Eagles.  The bald eagle and the golden eagle have now been removed from the endangered or threatened species list by the federal government.  This is, of course, wonderful news.  I am all in favor of saving the eagles and all other species (including our own) from extinction.  In fact, our laws are so intent on protecting the eagle that simply injuring, molesting or destroying an eagle egg could cost you a serious criminal penalty, civil fines, and a year in the slammer.  All for disturbing an egg.  The law takes this seriously.  Whatever else you do, don't disturb an eagle egg.  We go to great lengths to protect unborn baby eagles while they are vulnerable and in the first few weeks of their embryonic life.  In fact, the laws do more than that — they protect unborn eagles from conception to the end of life.  That is how much we value eagle life.

North Carolina voters Enshrine Hunting and Fishing as Constitutional Rights.  North Carolina voters passed a ballot initiative establishing hunting and fishing as rights protected in the state's constitution.  The measure was introduced to the ballot by Republicans in the state legislature, and the referendum passed in the general election, with the state's voters approving it by approximately 57 percent to 44 percent.  The amendment states, in part, "The right of the people to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife is a valued part of the State's heritage and shall be forever preserved for the public good."

PETA goes off the deep end with anaphrodisiac ad sexually promoting vegetables.  Determined to go Gillette one better on the repel-your-customer front, animal rights activist group PETA has issued an eye-bleach-inducing video of scraggly and tubby men swinging vegetables strapped to their privates in a bid to persuade men to adopt vegetarian diets.  Against a soundtrack of lust-fueled gangsta rap, PETA claims it's a masculinity issue.

California To Ban The Retail Sale Of Dogs, Cats And Rabbits.  When the new year arrives, pet stores in California will no longer be legally allowed to sell dogs, cats or rabbits sourced from commercial sellers.  They will still be allowed to sell these types of pets, but only if they are obtained from public animal shelters.  The regulation is an effort to crack down on puppy mills which are widely known to be rife with abuse of animals.

PETA Finds Popeyes "Emotional Support Chicken" Box Offensive.  PETA is on the warpath against the chicken chain Popeyes because of a disposable tote that says "Emotional Support Chicken" on it.  No, this is not fake news but is actually a big issue for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The American Princess:  Meghan Markle Inspires Prince Harry Into Pulling Out Of 40-Year Christmas Tradition.  Meghan Markle is truly living up to her title of "The American Princess," being that she allegedly compelled her husband, Prince Harry, into pulling out of a 40-year-old Christmas tradition because it offended her sensibilities.  According to the Daily Mail, Prince Harry will be skipping the "traditional Boxing Day pheasant shoot with his brother Prince William at Sandringham to avoid upsetting his animal-loving wife Meghan."

PETA criticized for equating 'anti-animal' language with racism and homophobia.  PETA's request to replace "anti-animal language" in everyday conversation was met with ridicule and criticism after the animal rights group compared popular meat-related expressions to racism and homophobia.  "Just as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are and start 'bringing home the bagels' instead of the bacon," PETA said Tuesday [12/4/2018] in a tweet.  "Words matter, and as our understanding of social justice evolves, our language evolves along with it," it added.

PETA Bizarrely Attacks Feminists Over Eggs.  At some point, PETA is going to run out of crazy ideas or perceived enemies to target and simply get on with their lives.  But I'm here to assure you, my friends, today is not that day.  Out in San Jose, California, the group has selected a new group as a target for their wrath, but it's not one you'd generally expect to find on the enemies list.  They're going after feminists.  But not just any feminists, mind you.  They're targeting feminists who eat eggs.

Animal rights activist going to court for tossing fisherman's catch back into lake.  An animal rights activist who confronted a Florida fisherman about his catch — and ultimately tossed it back into the water while shouting about saving the fish's life — is heading to court.  Michael Leaming stands charged [with] "interfering with the catching of a fish" following the July 2007 incident, which was captured on film at Crescent Lake Park in St. Petersburg, The Tampa Bay Times reports.

This is where "protected species" will get you.
Monkeys kill elderly woman in Agra.  A 58-year-old woman died after being attacked by monkeys when she had gone out of her house at Thok Mohalla in Agra, two days after an infant was killed by a monkey in the city. [...] Residents took out marches and held a meeting on Wednesday night, demanding monkeys be excluded from the list of protected species under the 1972 wildlife act.  Currently, there are over 25,000 monkeys in the city, according to municipal corporation officials.

This is a good example of "reading too much into it."
Cow's milk is a symbol of white supremacists, PETA claims.  Cow's milk is allegedly a symbol used by white supremacists, according to PETA.  In a recent statement, the animal advocate organization explains that dairy milk has been the drink of choice for supremacists because "the dairy industry inflicts extreme violence on other living beings."

The Editor says...
The most bigoted people I've ever known were not milk drinkers.  I think they all had a preference for cheap beer.

Rock climbers campaign to access local cliff closed to protect endangered frogs.  Williamson Rock is a sheer granite wall that rises from chaparral in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.  Crisscrossed with 300 routes, it has been a proving ground for Southern California rock climbers since the 1960s.  But in a move that outraged many in the climbing community, the area was closed in 2005 to protect an isolated colony of federally endangered Southern California mountain yellow-legged frogs from being trampled.

We Must All Sacrifice for the Environment (But I meant you — not me!)  The city [of San Francisco] has banned plastic straws, grocery bags, and Styrofoam, and even required solar panels on private buildings.  If it is on the environmental industry wish list, San Francisco is leading the way.  Even so, when activists there insist on leaving more water in the rivers, to protect salmon, they mean water from Central Valley farmers — not their own water.  State regulators have obliged, and water restrictions have been imposed on farms to the south for 25 years.  Hundreds of billions of gallons of water previously used for irrigation have been flushed to the ocean every year, rather than sent through the California Aqueduct to the Central Valley.  Nevertheless, salmon remain endangered.  So now, the California Water Resources Control Board proposes further restrictions, this time including water that is part of the municipal supply of San Francisco.  Public hearings are generating lots of angry responses.

Whose Rights Matter More Before The Supreme Court:  A Man's, Or A Frog's?  Suppose for a moment you owned 1,500 acres of land that your family had owned and worked for generations.  Then, out of nowhere, the federal government said you could no longer use that land as you wished.  Why?  Because of a frog.  Would that anger you?

New Hampshire man fined $124 for kicking seagull that tried to eat his cheeseburger.  A man accused of kicking a seagull that tried to eat his cheeseburger at a New Hampshire beach has been fined $124.  Police investigated the report from a bystander at Hampton Beach earlier this summer.

From Vegeterianism to Gluten-phobia.  In France, a country of meat eaters, there has recently been a spate of attacks on butcher shops by militant vegans.  They have smashed the windows of butcher shops or sprayed them with blood-colored paint.  In the areas in which these attacks have taken place, butchers are said to live in a low-grade state of fear.  There has been at least one assassination.  In an article in the French newspaper Le Figaro, a scholar of the relations between man and animals, Jean-Pierre Digard, suggested that there is a comprehensible and meaningful relation between veganism and violence.  [...] The only model most people now have of relations with animals is that which they have with their cat or dog, and they use it as a model or template for what they think all relations with animals should be.

PETA wants Maine officials to build gravestone in memory of lobsters who died in truck crash.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) asked Maine officials on Wednesday [8/29/2018] for permission to build a large grave to mark the site of a truck crash that resulted in thousands of lobsters spilling out onto a highway.  PETA hopes to memorialize the "countless sensitive crustaceans" who were killed during the Aug. 22 crash in Brunswick, the animal rights group said.

How America is anthropomorphizing pets and abandoning babies.  No doubt in an attempt to alleviate all the serious hardships visited upon upper-middle-class pet owners, a marketing firm in Minnesota recently announced that it will grant employees who have purchased new animals the ability to work from home for a period of one week.  "Fur-ternity leave," as the policy has been internally dubbed, is "kind of a no-brainer," a representative of the company told The New York Times.  In the same article, it was reported that a "data company" (imagine that) in New York (ditto) is offering two full weeks of paid time off to anyone who adopts a dog or an "exotic pet," such as an iguana.

Iconic animal cracker box gets redesign after pressure from PETA.  After more than a century behind bars, the beasts on boxes of animal crackers are roaming free.  Mondelez International, the parent company of Nabisco, has redesigned the packaging of its Barnum's Animals crackers after relenting to pressure from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.  PETA, which has been protesting the use of animals in circuses for more than 30 years, wrote a letter to Mondelez in the spring of 2016 calling for a redesign.

The Editor says...
Having ruined the circus industry for the sake of animal rights, the activists are now trying to push the circus down the Memory Hole.

With push from PETA, animal crackers bust out of their cages.  After more than a century behind bars, the beasts on boxes of animal crackers are roaming free.  Mondelez International, the parent company of Nabisco, has redesigned the packaging of its Barnum's Animals crackers in response to pressure from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.  PETA, which has been protesting the use of animals in circuses for more than 30 years, wrote a letter to Mondelez in the spring of 2016 calling for a redesign.

Green Weenie of the Week:  PETA. Again.  Really, sometimes I think PETA exists mainly to make fools of themselves and offend as many normal people as possible.  We reported back in June how Friends of the Earth (with PETA along for the ride) had come out against the new "meatless" burgers that actually taste like burgers.  Can't have that!  Veggie-burgers have to taste like.... well, like veggie-burgers, because what's the fun of being an environmental scold if you can't make life miserable. [...] Well, at least PETA has liberated animals from the cruelty of Animal Crackers packaging.

The Editor says...
Many years ago, the loudest voices on the political left made fun of Vice President Quayle when they accused him of not knowing that Murphy Brown was a ficitional character, after Murphy Brown flaunted her unmarried state of maternity.  Apparently some of the same people are now upset about fictional animals being held in fictional cages.

French butchers say 'militant' vegan activists using 'terror' tactics to destroy culinary culture.  France's world-famous butchers are sharpening their knives — but the target this time isn't lamb chops and pork loins but a brigade of growing and increasingly confrontational vegetarians.  In June, the French Federation of Butchers sought the help of the government against the rising number of attacks from what it called "militant" vegan activists, who have been targeting shops with anti-meat graffiti, fake blood and protest stickers.  The butchers called the harassment a form of terrorism aided by a hostile media.  "It's terror that these people are seeking to sow, in their aim of making a whole section of French culture disappear," federation chief Jean-Francois Guihard wrote in a letter to Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.

Florida beachgoer who took queen conch shells sentenced to 15 days in jail: report.  A 30-year-old woman from Dallas, Texas, is facing more than two weeks of jail time next month after removing protected conchs from the water last summer, the Florida Keys Keynoter reports.  A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officer nabbed Diana Fiscal-Gonzalez at a Key West home in July 2017 after someone reportedly witnessed the woman cleaning off the mollusks.  The officer said he found the conchs in plastic bins and transported them back into the ocean, with the majority of them alive, according to the newspaper.

Why doesn't PETA use its money to help animals?  PETA is not an association of concerned pet owners, but rather an extremist organization dedicated to eliminating all human use of animals and actually establishing animal rights.

California's Delta Tunnels:  An Unnecessary $15 billion, 15-Year Jobs Program.  When Jerry Brown was elected for his third term, he ran with it in 2011 now claiming the tunnels were needed to protect the Delta Smelt, a non-indigenous fish.  "To protect smelt from water pumps, government regulators have flushed 1.4 trillion gallons of water into the San Francisco Bay since 2008," Wall Street Journal columnist Allysia Finley wrote in 2015.  "That would have been enough to sustain 6.4 million Californians for six years."  During his 2016 Presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to "open up the water" in drought-stricken California, acknowledging that the "drought" was political.

Animal Rights Activists Endanger Chickens in Massive 'Rescue'.  Animal rights activists forcibly broke into a farm supplying Whole Foods with eggs and stole chickens in broad daylight last week.  Local farmers worry that in their zeal to save chickens the activists actually endangered them.  The Direct Action Everywhere "rescue," which involved hundreds of activists transported to Petaluma, California, on seven buses on May 29, comes as the latest action targeting Whole Foods or businesses connected with the supermarket giant.  "They were bused in," Toni Brooks, a neighbor of the targeted Sunrise Farms property, told The American Spectator of the estimated 300 to 400 activists descending on the city about an hour north of San Francisco.  "They marched up the street with signs saying, 'Funeral Procession.'"

Tennessee man catches, kills 6½-foot timber rattlesnake after it swallows squirrel in backyard.  Rob Freeman caught the snake after his wife saw it while playing with their son in the backyard, The State reported.  Freeman reportedly called the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency before killing the snake, as the species are threatened or endangered in certain parts of the U.S., according to WKRN.  In Tennessee, the snakes are "protected from harvest" and listed as "in need of management" according to the Tennessee Herpetological Society.

Monkey See, Monkey Sue:  Monkeys Can Bring Lawsuits, 9th Circuit Says.  A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday found an ape satisfies the criteria for standing to bring a lawsuit under Article III of the Constitution.  Though the panel concluded the case could not proceed because apes do not have standing under the federal law at issue, it did acknowledge they meet basic requirements for standing set out by the Constitution.

If you like eating dogs, prepare for a ban.  Such a diet is culturally repulsive in a country whose citizens share their home, own foods and even beds with some 90 million dogs as pets and companions.  Soon, eating them may also become illegal.  An estimated 86 million pet cats also reside with Americans.  An amendment was slipped into a bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee Wednesday to bar "knowingly slaughtering a dog or cat for human consumption" or transporting or participating in other commercial activity related to eating pet meat.  Penalties would include up to one year in prison plus possible fines.

Eating A Cat Could Send You To Prison Under Proposed Law.  Congress may ban the slaughter of cats and dogs to sell as meat or for human consumption and punish offenses with a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.  The House Committee on Agriculture approved by voice vote an amendment to the farm bill Wednesday that would make all sales of domesticated canines and felines illegal, Politico reported.  "Adopting this policy signals that the United States will not tolerate the disturbing practice in our country," California Republican Rep. Jeff Denham said in a statement as he introduced the amendment.  Some believed the ban unnecessary, as eating dogs and cats is rare in the U.S. Iowa Rep. Steve King voted against putting the amendment in the bill because he thought the sentencing was too harsh.

The Editor says...
What is the moral difference between eating a cat and eating a rabbit or a pig?

YouTube shooter identified as animal rights activist who ranted about being censored by video-sharing company.  The woman behind a mass shooting at YouTube's headquarters has been identified as an animal rights activist who claimed the company censored her channel.  Nasim Aghdam, who also used the name Nasime Sabz on her Facebook, Instagram and personal website, injured three people before turning the gun on herself.

Planned Parenthood President Promotes Adoption Over Death — For Dogs.  Don't let a dog be put to death, adopt it, the president of the nation's largest abortion provider suggested Tuesday [4/3/2018].  Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards made the pitch on Twitter, employing the #AdoptDontShop hashtag advocating dog adoption over pet store purchases.  Adopting (or, "rescuing" a dog from a shelter) would save its life.  Ironically, Planned Parenthood performs 113 abortions for every adoption referral it provides, NewsBusters reports.  Under Richards' leadership, Planned Parenthood has snuffed out the lives of more than 3.5 million unborn humans in 12 years, The New American reports.

Professional Hunters Driven Down by Regulation, Fees in Australia.  Australia is a place where commercial hunters survive.  Australia is a continent as big as the lower 48 states, with a human population smaller than Texas.  Australia has game populations that must be controlled to prevent starvation and environmental degradation.  Australia exports hundreds of millions of dollars of meat and hides a year, harvested by commercial Australian hunters.  Kangaroo hunters are being driven out of business by over-regulation driven by animal rights activists.

PETA Erects Billboard Memorializing Cows Killed in Auto Accident.  The animal rights organization known as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a perfect example of Poe's Law — that without a clear indicator of intent, it becomes impossible to distinguish many extreme views from parody.  As if they didn't make enough of a joke out of their organization when they wanted people to start calling fish "sea kittens," the group has now done something even weirder.  They're paying good money for billboards to memorialize cows killed in auto accidents.

A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Britain:  February 2018.  February 8:  The number of sheep slaughtered in Britain without first being stunned has doubled to more than three million, according to official statistics.  The increase was attributed to the Muslim community eating more sheep meat and "an enhanced religious observance."

Should we give up half of the Earth to wildlife?  Populations of all kinds of wildlife are declining at alarming speed.  One radical solution is to make 50% of the planet a nature reserve[.]

The butterfly effect:  Trump's border wall could be blocked because it threatens endangered insects.  A tiny endangered butterfly could stop President Donald Trump from building his beloved border wall.  A lawsuit has been filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, environmental groups and the State of California against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  It outlines that the Quino checkerspot butterfly, Riverside fairy shrimp and the Pacific pocket mouse will be threatened if the border wall is built.  The butterfly, which is native to southern California and Northern Mexico, is already on the endangered species list.

Trump saves lives in Alaska.  Jimmy Carter signed legislation in 1980 creating the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.  This was to help save the black brant, a subspecies of the brant goose.  In the first 14 years of this refuge, 12 Alaskans died because the refuge reduced the access of King Cove, population 989, to the neighboring community of Cold Bay, where Medevac aircraft land.  We overdo saving species to the point where we are willing to let an Alaskan die every year because a few geese might be upset.  President Reagan could not undo this mess, nor could either President Bush.  Clinton and Obama could not care less about the people of Alaska.

About 900 volts should do it.
Swiss government rules lobsters must be 'stunned' before being boiled.  There's a more humane way to cook lobster — and in Switzerland, it's now the law.  The Switzerland's government has barred the culinary practice of throwing lobsters into boiling hot water while they are alive, The Guardian reported.  The government said the crustaceans must be "stunned" before being boiled.  "The practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water, which is common in restaurants, is no longer permitted," the government order stated.  "Lobsters will now have to be stunned before they are put to death."

Not every man's best friend in Vietnam.  The dog-meat trade in Vietnam is sparking an increasingly heated debate, both among Vietnamese and in a wider international community.  While the consumption of dog meat doesn't necessarily denote cruelty to animals, high and rising demand is driving a lucrative but largely unregulated meat market across the country.  Roughly 5 million dogs are slaughtered for human consumption each year in Vietnam, according to the Asia Canine Protection Alliance (ACPA).  In the absence of any animal-rights laws to protect them, traders are free to prioritize profit over humanity — and many do.

Scrooge atheists want no blessings for animals.  For the past few years, an animal shelter in Teterboro, New Jersey has posted a note on Facebook saying it was hosting a blessing of animals.  The blessing, performed by a Catholic priest, is a tradition in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi.  No one was required to come.  But this year, for the first time, someone complained.  Enter American Atheists.  It was so angry that it actually went into federal district court to stop Fido from being blessed.

Atheists Are Now Suing An Animal Shelter For Having A Priest Say A Blessing.  Militant atheists have moved beyond just protesting Nativity scenes at government buildings and are now suing to prevent clergymen from blessing homeless animals at a humane society.  According to NJ.com, the snowflake God-haters at American Atheists Inc. of Cranford, the guys who erect those charming anti-Christmas billboards every holiday season, are getting all hot and bothered by the annual blessing of the animals at the Bergen County Animal Shelter in New Jersey.  In a federal suit, the group claimed the Teterboro shelter's event, where a Franciscan reverend blesses the animals, violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

"You killed me": Supermarket customer shocked to find note 'from dead cow' inside her burgers.  An advertising executive was shocked to discover a 'personal message from the cow' when she opened a packet of burgers for her dinner.  Camilla Moser spotted the note from 'Chloe the cow' hidden underneath the cardboard sleeve of her Sainsbury's burgers as she prepared her dinner on Sunday night [9/24/2017].  The note read:  "My name was Chloe, I wanted to live.  Your 'personal choice' killed me!  Don't buy it!"  Ms Moser, from Fulham, London, said the chain's packaging plant was probably 'infiltrated', because the note was between the cellophane and the cardboard.

Witness says Menendez lived large at Dominican resort.  Robert Menendez's stays at the luxurious Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic gave him access to white-sand beaches, a marina filled with expensive yachts and five golf courses, a resort executive testified Monday [9/18/2017] at the New Jersey senator's corruption trial.  The seven-acre gated community on the Caribbean Sea also boasts the top-rated golf course in the Dominican Republic, six international restaurants, a security staff of 800, and access to elite sports like pheasant shooting, Andres Pichardo Rosenberg, the resort's president, told a Newark federal jury.  "We import the eggs and cultivate them," Rosenberg explained when the judge asked, somewhat incredulously, if there are pheasants in the island nation.  "You cultivate the eggs to shoot them?" the judge said in disbelief.

The Editor says...
Oh, by the way, Senator Menendez is a Democrat.

PETA to Pay Out Big Bucks After Euthanizing Girl's Chihuahua.  A family has settled a lawsuit against the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for taking a girl's unattended dog and euthanizing it, ending an attempt to effectively put PETA on trial for euthanizing hundreds of animals each year.

Climate Change Nut Jobs Want Your Pets Dead To Save The Planet.  Some global warming fanatic at UCLA has come up with a report claiming our pets are part of the problem when it comes to climate change and we are going to have to make 'tough choices'.  It's no choice at all... our pets stay.  At issue is the food you feed your fur-kids and then what comes out of them when they go potty.  This is idiotic.  If these loons got their way, all animals would be killed off so Mother Earth could be at ease.  Animals are a huge part of what makes Earth inhabitable.  But you can't talk sense to a moron.

Vegans bully California butcher shop into hanging animal rights sign.  Vegan extremists have bullied a mom-and-pop butcher shop in California's most liberal city into hanging an animal rights sign in the window that the shop owners say amounts to "ethical extortion."  The Local Butcher Shop, of Berkeley, had been targeted for months by nearly naked protesters dripping in fake blood.  The protests had been organized by the vegan group Direct Action Everywhere, or DXE, which said they would continue if the shop's owners, Monica and Aaron Rocchino, didn't cave in to their demands.

Hunter Commits Suicide After Harassment From Animal Rights Activists.  A 27-year-old Spanish woman best known for her blogging on hunting committed suicide recently.  She was apparently unable to cope with the massive hate and harassment she received from so-called animal rights activists.

Thousands of mink dead after activists release 38,000 from Minnesota fur farm:  Sheriff.  A Minnesota sheriff is blaming animal rights activists for releasing 38,000 mink from an Eden Valley fur farm this week, causing thousands of the domesticated animals to die in the wild.  "If they actually cared about animals they wouldn't release thousands of mink to die out in the heat," Stearns County Sheriff Don Gudmundson said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.  "They are not interested in animal rights, they are interested in chaos," he said.

Animal Rights Activists Pretend To Slaughter Animals In Chick-fil-A Protest.  While many Chick-fil-A fans were enjoying their free chicken as part of the annual Cow Appreciation Day, kids at one Florida restaurant were left terrified after animal rights activists showed up to the restaurant wearing bloody clothing and carrying fake knives to simulate animal slaughter.  Fox 13 reports that on Tuesday, while many kids were dressed up as cows for Cow Appreciation Day, Direct Action Everywhere activists arrived at the Pinellas Park Chick-fil-A dressed up as cows, chickens, and butchers.  The butcher pretended to slit the throats of the cows and chickens, which were covered in fake blood, using a fake knife.

Therapy animals are everywhere.  Proof that they help is not.  A therapy-animal trend grips the United States. [...] The trend, which has accelerated hugely since its initial stirrings a few decades ago, is underpinned by a widespread belief that interaction with animals can reduce distress — whether it happens over brief caresses at the airport or in long-term relationships at home.  Certainly, the groups offering up pets think this, as do some mental health professionals.  But the popular embrace of pets as furry therapists is kindling growing discomfort among some researchers in the field, who say it has raced far ahead of scientific evidence.

Owner Is Angry His 20-Pound Lobster, Dinnah, Was Photographed by the T.S.A..  In the final hours of his life last weekend, he was plucked from anonymity, nestled in darkness at the bottom of an insulated cooler and given a name:  Dinnah, like how a Mainer might pronounce the last meal of the day.  His fate was sealed, literally, with Dinnah placed at the bottom and a layer of smaller friends on top in the cooler, which was wrapped with duct tape.  His owner, Christopher Stracuzza, a 32-year-old auto-body repairman from Savannah, Ga., wanted Dinnah, a hulking 20-pound American lobster, and another 20 pounds of more-modest crustaceans to reach their final destination peacefully.

Guess who got busted for 'fake news'.  PETA is among my least favorite organizations.  It is skillful at propaganda, but ethics is another matter entirely.  Here is how the founder and president, Ingrid Newkirk, denied the obvious intent to deceive.  "There was never ... any attempt to keep people in the dark that what they had seen was fake.  The only issue here is timing[,]" Newkirk argued in an email to The Washington Post.  Sorry, Ingrid, but you quite clearly did wish to deceive, in order to produce an emotional reaction that you could then exploit to attach to something else.  That is fraud.

PETA wanted a fake cat video to go viral.  It didn't exactly turn out as planned.  A small grey cat, Rufus, sits on a bar stool in a kitchen.  "Rufus, jump," a man says in a stern voice.  Rufus looks at the stool next to his, a few feet away, and cowers.  The owner sighs, walks over to the cat and instructs again.  "Rufus, jump," he says, and slaps the house cat hard, in the head.  The cat doesn't jump; he slaps the animal again.  Finally, the cat does the trick.  "Once more for the camera!" the owner demands, before the cat scurries away, terrified.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were intending to anonymously release this disturbing video on YouTube this week, to draw attention to animal cruelty.  But there's a problem:  The video was faked.  The cat is CGI.  And a PR company working on PETA's behalf asked a media organization to help them make the video go viral — without revealing that Rufus wasn't real.

Animal Rights Radicals Wreck Ringling Brothers Circus.  The one place animals have no rights is in their natural state.  The complete list of "animal rights" in the wild consists, first, of the right to eat other animals, and second, the right to try to flee being eaten.  There are no other animal rights in nature.  Animals do not have abstract thoughts and cannot combine ideas.  Their cognitive abilities, to the extent they even exist, are wholly distinct from the sort meriting rights.

PETA Says Milk is a 'Symbol of White Supremacy'.  PETA's shenanigans vary from the absurd to the downright offensive.  From likening rape survivors to pigs and cows, to calling Pokémon a form of animal cruelty, PETA's efforts to "save the animals" always make the headlines — and with good reason:  they're completely absurd.  The animal rights group today released a new video to cry over milk, equating the nutritious drink with Nazism.

Fearing "feral hog apocalypse," Texas approves drastic measures.  Announcing the "feral hog apocalypse" is within reach, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has approved of the first pesticide targeting wild pigs, CBS Dallas reports.  The estimated 2.5 million feral hogs in Texas cost an estimated $50 million a year in damage to Texas agriculture, according to the Austin American-Statesman.  In addition to the damage to crops and livestock tanks, hogs cost untold damage to suburban yards.

This assumes that wolves can count to four.
French told not to fear wolves roaming Paris streets as 'they only eat four-legged animals'.  French people have been told not to fear wolves roaming Paris streets — as "they only eat four-legged animals".  Parisians are frightened that the endangered beasts — which have fought back from near extinction in the 1930s — are now within howling distance of the capital.  Indeed the discovery of paw prints, messy droppings and late-night howls from wolves — a distant relative of the domestic pet dog — are reported to be a now frequent occurrence in the city's suburbs.

The Editor says...
Do your own internet search for wolf attacks on humans, and you'll see it's something to be avoided.  It would be far better to completely eradicate wolves from the earth than to have another child dragged off and eaten by a wolf.

Why pay high ticket prices to see a circus with no elephants?
Ringling Bros. circus plans to shut down 'Greatest Show on Earth' after 146 years.  After 146 years, the curtain is coming down on "The Greatest Show on Earth."  The owner of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus told The Associated Press that the show will close forever in May.

Famed Ringling Bros. circus closing.  The Ringling Bros. circus is closing down after more than 100 years in operation, according to a press release from Feld Entertainment, which has owned the circus for the last 50 years.  "I have made the difficult business decision that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® will hold its final performances in May of this year," CEO Kenneth Feld said.  High operating costs and the decline of ticket sales "made the circus an unsustainable business for the company," Feld said.

Animal rights activists claim major win in Ringling Bros. closing.  Animal rights activists claimed a major victory Sunday after Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus said it would halt its show in May after 146 years.  The move came as circuses and animal-performance shows across the country have struggled with declining attendance and shifting social pressure brought to bear by activists who argued the animals were sometimes poorly treated.  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus removed elephants from its performances last May, and the company said ticket sales then dropped drastically.

People Who Hate Humanity.  While liberals talk a lot about racism they ignore the far greater threat of their own Anti-Human Movement (AHM). [...] AHM members tend to have a highly disordered view of animals.  They tend to think that animals are just like people; for example, they think that pets love their owners the same way that a child loves his mother.  They declare that pigs are people and that eating animals is evil.  Strangely, they see no inconsistency with feeding their cats meat while condemning people who eat meat.  But of course, if cats are companions, not pets, they should clearly be held to the same standard as humans.

Florida Man Arrested for Shooting Alligator That Threatened His Horses, Attacked His Stepson.  A Florida man was arrested on Tuesday for shooting an alligator that was threatening his horses and attacked his stepson.  Reginald Blanton of Bushnell, Florida noticed his horses were startled by something in one of his fields.  He grabbed his gun and went to investigate.  What he found was a nearly ten-foot-long alligator.  Since the gator was mere feet from his horses, Blanton said he feared they might be attacked.  That's why he pulled out his 9mm pistol and shot at the gator.

Larry the lobster D.O.A. at aquarium after activists rescue him from restaurant.  An ancient 15-pound lobster named Larry was saved from becoming dinner at a Florida seafood restaurant last week but has died in transit to the Maine State Aquarium, the Miami Herald reported.  When Joe Melluso, the owner of Tin Fish restaurant in Sunrise, Fla., first got the call about a massive lobster from his seafood supplier, he thought Larry could be 115 years old.  After a picture of the lobster was broadcast on a local TV station, business owners and animal activists rallied to save him.

Texas fisherman:  Facebook removed photo of huge hammerhead shark for violating site rules.  Corpus Christi fisherman Eric Ozolins posted some amazing photos last weekend of a giant hammerhead shark he caught on Facebook, but the social media site reportedly removed the photos Wednesday for violating terms and policy.  "Facebook had removed my recent post and hammerhead photos due to going against 'terms and policy'."  Ozolins said on Facebook.  "Wow.  There was not a single thing against any terms etc.  Not that I am worried about it, I'm just amazed (or rather appalled) by how they can gain influence from uneducated tree-huggers and break their own rules to remove something rather innocent despite all the other horrendous stuff they fail to remove on their actual system."

While You Were Crying Over a Dead Ape, 125,000 Babies Were Just Murdered.  If you make the mistake of reading the reactions on Twitter or in the comments section under articles about this incident, you'll find that a good number of folks think this should have been settled by "survival of the fittest."  Let the preschooler and the quarter ton beast work it out between them.  If that means a child is ripped apart, so be it. [...] There is no real controversy here.  It is very simple.  And anyone who struggles with it is disturbed on a deep, spiritual level.  That's why we ought to be terrified that so many people would not only place the ape and the child on the same level, but even put the ape above the child.  It's comforting to imagine that these people occupy a very small, isolated corner of our society, but that would be wishful thinking.  There are, I'm afraid, a huge number of Americans who would watch that video of the gorilla dragging the boy and feel a greater dread for the gorilla's fate than the boy's.

The Editor says...
There's another angle of this story, too:  Over the last 20 or 30 years, zoos have given exotic African names to all the big showcase primates and other mammals (e.g., giraffes) with African origins.  This helps to personify them and make the poorly educated visitors love them even more.  In the case of a gorilla who has taken possession of an intruding child, when it becomes necessary to have a sniper kill the gorilla, it would be a lot less of a publicity problem if the gorilla's name was Steve or Charlie, rather than Harambe.

While People Complain About Harambe the Gorilla's Death, Thousands of Babies are Aborted.  [Scroll down]  This incongruent concern for animals but not unborn children was recently seen in New Zealand.  A 24 year old Danish student tourist, Rasmus Zetner, was fined $10,000 by Judge Brian Callaghan in the Christchurch Court for killing a Whio duck, an endangered specis [sic] in South Westland.Under the Wildlife Act 1953, the whio duck is an absolutely protected species.  Its killing is a serious crime, on conviction the offender may be fined up to $100,000, or imprisoned for up to two years.  This crime was considered important news and was given extensive coverage by all the media in New Zealand.  Yet New Zeland allows the killing of an unborn baby.

The Gorilla in the Room.  [Scroll down]  Beyond the self-congratulation, there's the deification of the animal.  Watching the gorilla yank the child through the water, standing in front of him and guarding him like a new toy, and then yanking him to the other end of the enclosure, one doesn't see malicious animal, but one does see an animal so big and powerful that harm to the child is inevitable or certainly likely.  When deciding between an animal and a human child, there shouldn't be a decision.  And yet, we have keyboard warriors convinced that there could have been another way.  That taking precious moments to subdue the animal wouldn't have resulted in a more horrible tragedy.  A dead child is a more horrible tragedy.

Going Ape Over Shooting Harambe.  [Scroll down]  As Vox's Max Fisher wrote last year, "You'll notice that most of these [Internet mob-justice efforts] trace back not to the crime's impact on society, but rather the degree to which punishing the crime will feel good for the punishers."  And "feel" is the operative word, as the lack of a sense of proportion here certainly doesn't reflect rationality.  It's not surprising that many people anthropomorphize animals.  They're weaned on entertainment (e.g., cartoons) that does so, portraying animals that think and talk as people do; couple this with the environmentalist agenda permeating school curricula and society in general, and it's a potent one-two punch.  In addition, the secularism prevailing in the West holds that man is just another animal, bereft of a soul — merely an organic robot comprising some pounds of chemicals and water.  This mindset can view a rare gorilla as more valuable than a person, who is one of seven billion; hence the comment that Harambe "is more important than your [expletive] kid."  And it isn't just that one commenter.  Did the 2015 Planned Parenthood videos showing abortionists cavalierly talking about selling babies' body parts for money evoke nearly the same outrage?  Note that on the day the gorilla was killed, more than 2,000 babies were murdered via abortion in our nation.  And what of the Islamic State's brutality, burning people alive, drowning them in cages, and committing genocide?  Are the calls for justice nearly as intense?

Ringling Bros circus elephants pack up their trunks for retirement.  Elephants take a final bow at Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus on Sunday, ending a 145-year spectacle that delighted fans but enraged animal activists, who say the highly publicized retirement is notenough.  The last 11 elephants touring with 'The Greatest Show onEarth' will leave behind their enormous studded tiaras and begin traveling on Monday [5/2/2016].

Ostrich hit by car after activists 'free' it from circus.  An ostrich at a circus in Munich was hit by a car and died shortly after animal rights activists opened its cage.  It was around 9pm on Monday evening [4/18/2016] when as yet unknown people snuck onto the land that Kaiser Circus — along with its 80 animals — was encamped on.  Finding a trailer where the ostriches Nala and Zawo were held along with a goose called Fred, the culprits managed to unscrew the hinges and open the door.

Colorado Comes Down on Fake Service Dogs.  Service animal fraud is a growing problem in dog-friendly Colorado, says [Angela] Eaton, who has been training service dogs for 35 years.  State legislators agree; the Colorado House unanimously passed a bill on Monday that would make it a crime to misrepresent a pet as a service animal in the state.  But vague service dog guidelines and a growing acceptance of "emotional support dogs" have blurred the line between pet and working animal.

WARNING:  Graphic images.
Death By Halal : Slow and agonizing — just the way Muslims like it.  In Halal Islamic slaughter, Muslims don't sever the spinal cord which means the animal suffers in agony until it bleeds out and dies.  Muslims believe the suffering makes the meat taste better.

The Editor says...
You can bet that if Catholics or Jews or Mormons were torturing animals for religious reasons, the animal rights activists in the U.S. would be marching in protest.  But as long as the Muslims are involved, the activists are all totally silent.

How the Left Ruined Air Travel.  This week, after three years, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals gave Kennedy International Airport permission to shoot some birds that fly around the runways threatening to cause plane crashes.

Crocodile bites off woman's arm in 'death roll'.  The victim, aged in her 60s, had been at Three Mile Creek in Wyndham, about 280 miles south-west of Darwin, when the predator attacked on Wednesday afternoon [1/13/2016]. [...] Crocodiles are common in Australia's tropical north where numbers have increased since the introduction of protection laws in 1971, with government estimates putting the national population at around 100,000.  They kill an average of two people each year in Australia.

The Editor says...
Crocodiles kill two people per year, yet the government insists they be protected.  I say, turn them all into shoes and purses.

Florida Woman Arrested, Accused of Riding Sea Turtle.  Multiple media outlets report that 20-year-old Stephanie Marie Moore was arrested by Melbourne police early Saturday [9/26/2015] on the felony charge of trying to "possess, sell, molest marine turtle."

If You Love Lions, Let People Hunt Them, The New York Times Says.  Every once in a while, common sense finds its way onto the pages of The New York Times.  That was the case on Monday [8/10/2015], when it published a piece on Cecil the lion and trophy hunting of large animals.  "Despite the intensifying calls to ban or restrict trophy hunting in Africa," Norimitsu Onishi writes, "most conservation groups, wildlife management experts and African governments support the practice as a way to maintain wildlife." [...] It turns out that letting people legally hunt animals is, as Onishi put it, "the most effective method of conservation."

Reaction to the death of Cecil the lion is further proof of secular society's moral confusion.  In Western Europe and North America, we live in the first godless and religion-less generation in Western (and probably world) history, and without Judeo-Christian values, there is no compelling reason to hold human worth above animal worth.  Judeo-Christian values are based on the Bible, which asserts the fundamental principle that human beings, not animals, are created in God's image.  Therefore, human life is sacred; animal life is not.

Coca-Cola and Verizon Have Subsidized the Brutal Killing of Animals.  Coca-Cola has not only ruined its signature product with that idiotic Freestyle machine that makes all its drinks taste terrible, it also has subsidized the brutal killing of animals.  It is horrific news that should unite the left and the right.  Coca-Cola has been joined by Verizon in subsidizing this.  Both companies have contributed to an organization that takes pregnant female animals and pulls their unborn from them and crushes them.  In numerous cases, the barbarians who do this procedure then take the organs from the small, crushed animals and give them to others for scientific research.

Russell Simmons Compares Horse-Drawn Carriages to Holocaust, Slavery.  Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons went on a rant on Thursday [7/16/2015] in which he compared the plight of the horses that pull carriages in New York City's Central Park to the plight of people during the Holocaust and slavery, according to the New York Post.  Simmons held a news conference in front of City Hall to discuss his call to ban horse-drawn carriages, which Mayor Bill de Blasio promised during his campaign that he would do.  "It's a holocaust," Simmons said.  "There were people for slavery, remember?  Slavery was fine.  There were people who put people in ovens.  There are all kinds of ethnic cleansing, people for it."  "The horses matter," Simmons said.

Salon: Animals Are People Too.  Salon has brilliantly presented the argument that animals should be considered people, positing that the antiquated notion of a line of demarcation between humans and animals should be discarded.  Dolphin scientist Lori Marino states, "Right now, there is no one besides a human who is a person.  They're all property, no matter how complex they are, no matter how much we love them.  They have no inherent rights of their own."  Salon points out that orcas have "big brains, complex social structures, mysterious communications, and mind-boggling sixth sense," and "chimpanzees and all the great apes, elephants, even cats and dogs and pigs and cattle, all have more developed emotional centers than we had previously supposed."

CA Water Board Prioritizes Fish Over People.  As severe drought conditions in California continue to worsen, state officials have started to roll out with new regulations to prioritize various water interests.  On Wednesday [6/24/2015], the State Water Resources Control Board adopted new emergency regulations to protect endangered and threatened fish.  Low flows in four tributaries of the Russian River cause "high temperatures, low oxygen levels and isolated pools of water that can kill fish," such as the coho salmon and steelhead trout.

PETA successfully outlaws outdoor BBQs in Portland, OR.  Members of P.E.T.A. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have successfully lobbied to outlaw outdoor barbeques within city limits and suburbs of Portland, Oregon.  The ban was based on a P.E.T.A. claim that the smell of cooking flesh is highly offensive and no one should be forced to endure the fumes from what they call "a crime worse than the Holocaust."  Under the new law, individuals caught cooking meat outdoors can face a $2,000 fine or one day in jail.

Environmentalists Fight Huge Solar Plant On Behalf of 100 Sheep.  The Natural Resources Defense Council said it had "significant concerns" about the project.  So what are we talking about here?  A new CO2-spewing coal plant?  Something that runs on "extraordinarily dirty" oil from the Canadian tar sands?  Nope.  These environmentalist groups are celebrating the likely demise of a solar power plant slated to be built in the Mojave Desert.  Bechtel Corp. says its 350 megawatt Soda Mountain Solar Project would generate enough power to light 170,000 homes in California, and the site chosen is ideal because of its "excellent solar resources, its location in an existing utility corridor and due to the low density of sensitive plant and animal species."

Poaching America's Traditions: When animal extremists attack.  On Thursday, March 5, I picked up my iPhone to read my morning news alerts and saw the headline, "Ringling Bros. eliminating elephant act."  It took a few moments for this to sink in.  When it did, I realized a special childhood memory of watching elephants march down Main Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and seeing my first circus show with my grandfather would never be one I would share with my sons, at least not in the same way.  I also realized animal rights extremists had just landed a blow to my family and me I hadn't seen coming.

NY Judge Gives 2 Chimpanzees 'Human' Status.  As far as a judge in New York is concerned, the "Planet of the Apes" is no longer a fantastic sci fi movie because he has given two chimps legal status as humans.  The judge has given the chimps legal status so that they can "challenge their captivity."

N.Y. Judge Grants Legal Rights To 2 Research Chimps.  The judge in the case has amended her ruling to strike out the term "writ of habeas corpus."  It is now unclear whether Hercules and Leo, the chimps at Stony Brook University, can challenge their detention.

Orangutan granted rights of personhood in Argentina.  In recent months, animal rights advocacy groups have worked to free primates from captivity by representing them in court, fighting for the animals' rights to be recognized as non-human "people."  In the United States, chimpanzees are losing trials left and right.  But an Argentinian orangutan has just won her habeas corpus case.

Court Rules Chimps Don't Have Same Rights As People.  We told you last month about an appellate court taking up a case that explored whether chimps had the same rights as people.  Today we have an answer:  No.  As NPR's Eyder Peralta explained in December 2013, the Nonhuman Rights Project asked a court to send Tommy, a chimpanzee living in a cage at a trailer dealer in Gloversville, N.Y., to a sanctuary.

New York court denies legal bid to grant captive chimpanzee human rights to free him from his owner.  In the first case of its kind, a New York appeals court has rejected an animal rights advocate's bid to extend 'legal personhood' to chimpanzees, saying the primates are incapable of bearing the responsibilities that come with having legal rights.  The unanimous ruling meant that Tommy, a 26-year-old chimpanzee is not entitled to the rights of a human and does not have to be freed by its owner[.]

Cage-bound chimp doesn't have same rights as humans, court rules.  A New York appeals court says a chimpanzee isn't entitled to the rights of a human and doesn't have to be freed by its owner.  The three-judge Appellate Division panel was unanimous Thursday in denying "legal personhood" to Tommy, who lives alone in a cage in upstate Fulton County.  A trial level court had previously denied the Nonhuman Rights Project's effort to have Tommy released.

The Editor says...
Ever notice that chimps are always named Charlie or Tommy or Steve, and they're never named Trayvon, Ja'Quarius or Mohammed?  Gorillas, as noted above, are given exotic African-themed names, especially if they are born in captivity, but the name given to a gorilla is sufficiently artificial so that it is unlikely to match the name of a person.

Airline: 'Emotional support' pig kicked off flight for being 'disruptive'.  A woman was kicked off a US Airways flight after the pig she brought for "emotional support" became disruptive, an airline spokeswoman told CNN.  The passenger and her large pig were booted from the flight before it left Connecticut's Bradley International Airport on Wednesday, spokeswoman Laura Masvidal said.  "After the animal became disruptive, the passenger was asked to deplane," she said.  How disruptive?  Fellow passengers told the Hartford Courant that the pig stank up the cabin of the tiny DC-bound aircraft.

Pets Allowed.  [A]n increasing number of your neighbors have been keeping company with their pets in human-only establishments, cohabiting with them in animal-unfriendly apartment buildings and dormitories, and taking them (free!) onto airplanes — simply by claiming that the creatures are their licensed companion animals and are necessary to their mental well-being.  No government agency keeps track of such figures, but in 2011 the National Service Animal Registry, a commercial enterprise that sells certificates, vests, and badges for helper animals, signed up twenty-four hundred emotional-support animals.  Last year, it registered eleven thousand.

Courts Will Decide If Chimps Should Have Same Rights As Humans.  A New York appeals court next week will consider whether chimps should have the same rights as human beings.  The extraordinary proceeding is the result of a lengthy battle by animal-rights activists who argue that animals with human qualities — including chimps — are entitled to human protections, including freedom from captivity.

The inhumane society.  In May, the Humane Society and a handful of other radical animal-rights groups had to write a $15.8 million check to the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus for damages done.  The circus had filed a racketeering lawsuit against the society to recover damages from a dishonest 14-year campaign the animal-rights groups mounted to bar elephants from the big top. [...] That's the sort of thing the Humane Society spends much of its $150 million annual budget on, raised from unsuspecting donors.

California Rep. On Drought: Democrats Believe 'Fish Are More Important Than People'.  Rep. David Valadao (R-Bakersfield) lashed out at Democrats, including congressional opponent Amanda Renteria, on California's urgent drought problem, saying Democrat policies will fail to provide relief for millions of Central Valley residents living with severe water shortages. [...] Valadao is not the only one in the district blasting the allocation of water resources.  Area farmers are angry after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began releasing 25,000 acre-feet of water from Northern California's Trinity Lake to help protect the native salmon population on Saturday [8/30/2014], even as farmers have repeatedly asked for more water to help grow food.

Bird-brained case? Feds go after California tree trimmer for hurting herons.  Ernesto Pulido was hired by the U.S. Postal Service to cut back the trees, specifically to prevent a group of herons from sitting and defecating on the mail trucks parked below.  But in the course of pruning the trees, his crew cut down limbs where the black-crowned night herons — one of 1,026 species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act — were nesting.  Several baby birds fell and were injured.  Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reportedly is seeking he pay a $1,500 fine for a misdemeanor violation.  The infraction can carry a penalty of up to $15,000 and six months in jail.

Feds Prosecuting Tree-Trimmer for Unintentionally Bruising Herons.  Ernest Pulido is expected to face charges from the U.S. Attorney's Office within a week for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  He could face a maximum fine of $15,000 and six months in jail.  Pulido was hired by the U.S. Postal Service to prune trees May 3 outside an Oakland, Calif., branch, where postal officials were upset with birds pooping on mail trucks.  One branch that Pulido cut contained nesting black-crowned night herons, one of more than 1,000 species of birds protected under the act.  No birds were killed.  Five were injured and taken to a bird rescue in Fairfield, where the facility said all would heal and be able to be returned to the wild.  One bird suffered a fractured beak while the offers suffered bruises and scrapes.  Pulido is currently paying for the birds' care.  Even though nothing has indicated the tree-trimmer intentionally targeted the birds, Pulido is being referred for prosecution.

Update:
Feds drop criminal charges over damaged bird nest.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has dropped plans to pursue criminal charges against a California tree trimmer who accidentally injured some baby birds — an incident that attracted the attention of the House's chief investigator and charges of "bureaucratic bullying."  The tree trimmer, Ernesto Pulido, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was recently told that the agency had decided to drop the case against him — an abrupt about-face just days after Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, called for a congressional inquiry.

Animals with Human Right Make Researchers Run Scared.  Dogs and cats, historically, have been people's property like a couch or a toaster.  But as they've moved into our houses and our hearts, courts of law have begun to treat them as something more.  They can inherit your estate, get an appointed lawyer if your relatives challenge that inheritance and are protected from cruel acts.  Your toaster can't do any of that.

PETA scolds Michelle Obama over using real eggs for Easter Egg Roll.  PETA is urging first lady Michelle Obama to substitute fake eggs for the 19,000 real ones to be used in Monday's Easter Egg Roll, claiming that egg production is cruel and eating them unhealthy and a violation of her "Let's Move!" agenda.  In a video featuring young girls playing to the first lady's heartstrings, two pre-teens say, "Just because all the other first ladies have done it doesn't mean you have to.  If all the other first ladies jumped off a bridge would you?"

Are animal-rights activists really concerned about animals?  In such cases, concern for animal rights seems to be a rather thin veneer for other political objectives that have far more to do with intolerant ideologies than they do with protecting animals.  In the United States, animal-rights activism has found other pet causes but, at its core, activists seem less interested in protecting animals than in broader political agendas.

The Left's War on Horses.  [Scroll down]  Animal rights activists and their real estate backers have more money than horse carriage drivers.  The modest stable buildings are no match for the liberal real estate developers seeking to put up pricey hotels and progressive animal rights activists easily overwhelm drivers who may get only eight fares a day.  The anti-horse activists of Homo progressivus spent $1.3 million on Bill de Blasio.  The drivers bring their own coffee with them in a thermos because a Starbucks coffee is too pricy for their budgets.  Bill de Blasio refused to visit the stables where the horses are kept.  The money has changed hands, his mind is made up and he doesn't want to be confronted with the anger and suffering of the working men whose jobs he is taking away.

California wants to force Alabama to give chickens roomier accommodations.  In 2008, voters in California inexplicably passed a proposition requiring California-based egg producers to provide either free ranges or larger cages for their hens.  After concerns were raised that this would put California's egg producers at an economic disadvantage with producers in other states, provisions were added to extend the mandate to any eggs imported from other states to be sold in California.  The law is currently set to go into effect next year.  However, six state attorneys general, including Alabama AG Luther Strange, have come together in an effort to block the law.

Feds to Alaskans: No road for humans, lots of land for animals.  In one of Alaska's most remote outposts, where a thousand hardy souls make their homes, the Obama administration has put the fate of birds and bears above the lives of people, blocking construction of an 11-mile gravel trail connecting a tiny fishing hamlet to a life-saving airport.  For more than three decades the predominantly Aleut fishing community of King Cove has been fighting to build a one-lane, gravel track connecting the Cove to the nearby hamlet of Cold Bay.  What they have gotten is 30 years of flat-out federal refusals or stall tactics.

USDA Considering New Zoo Regs at Request of PETA.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering adopting new regulations for zoos at the request of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that would require "humane" treatment for bears.  The proposed rules would mandate the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to hire a "bear expert," prohibit bear pits, and require rules so bears are not "stressed, frustrated, and bored."

PETA wants monument honoring chickens killed in Gainesville truck wreck.  Wednesday [2/5/2014], a member of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, filed an application with GDOT to have a memorial placed at the Hall County site where a truck hauling live chickens overturned on Jan. 27.  The drivers of the chicken truck and the other vehicle involved were not seriously injured in the predawn crash on U.S. 129 near Gainesville, but "dozens" of the truck's cargo were apparently not so fortunate, according to the local PETA member who filed the request for a "giant tombstone" to be erected in memory of the chickens.

The Editor says...
Why don't they put up big signs next to every windmill in the U.S., showing how many birds and bats have been killed by each one?

New York declares war on wild mute swans.  Mute swans were brought to North America by European settlers to adorn their estates in the late 1800s but the authorities no longer consider them a beauty worthy of roaming free.  The New York state department of environmental conservation says swans attack people, destroy vegetation, pose a threat to jetliners and damage water because their feces contain e coli.  Ever since US Airways flight 1549 collided with a flock of geese in 2009 and landed on the Hudson river, the US Department of Agriculture has set about annually culling Canada geese.

Green Drought.  You have almost certainly never heard of the Delta smelt and, in all honesty, nor should you have.  As fish go, it is undistinguished.  Inedible, short-lived, and growing to a maximum length of just under three inches, smelt are of interest to nobody much — except, that is, to the implacable foot soldiers of the modern environmental movement, some of whom have recently elevated the smelt's well-being above all else that has traditionally been considered to be of value.  Human beings, the production of food, and the distribution of life-enabling water [are secondary], it seems.  All hail the smelt, the most important animal in America.

No, animals don't have rights.  Earlier this week, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni declared that "an era of what might be called animal dignity is upon us."  If he merely meant to draw attention to the fact that we're more attached than ever to our pets — spending billions of dollars a year on veterinary care and paraphernalia, even making places for them in our wills — then the point would be undeniable.  But that was not Bruni's aim.  Beyond these sociological observations, Bruni was writing to endorse the movement that's working to establish the legal personhood of animals and grant them legal rights.

De Blasio's horse-drawn carriage ban: Is it really about campaign cash?  Mayor Bill de Blasio's promise to ban New York City's iconic horse-drawn carriages could backfire, exposing what the newly-elected mayor's critics suggest is a corruption scandal masquerading as an animal-rights crusade.

Another low-information Democrat voter, coming soon.
US lawsuit demands 'legal personhood' for chimpanzees.  A US animal rights group has filed what it said is the first lawsuit seeking to establish the "legal personhood" of chimpanzees.  The non-profit Nonhuman Rights Project asked a New York state court to declare a 26-year-old chimp named Tommy "a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned."

Tommy the Chimp Subject of Bid for Legal Personhood.  Tommy, a 26-year-old chimpanzee owned by a couple in upstate New York, has a lawyer and a trust fund in a bid by a nonhuman rights group to have him declared the first animal to be considered a person under the law.

Habeas Chimpanzee.  "Tommy" and other chimpanzees are the subjects of several lawsuits in New York seeking writs of habeas corpus and "immediate release from illegal detention."  These lawsuits, the doing of the Nonhuman Rights Project, are not a surprise.  As already noted in these pages, NRP volunteer lawyers have spent years researching the common law of states, looking for legal precedents that can be twisted to support declaring intelligent animals such as chimps and dolphins to be "legal persons."

War on the Little Guy.  Marty the Magician performed magic tricks for kids, including the traditional rabbit-out-of-a-hat.  Then one day:  "I was signing autographs and taking pictures with children and their parents," he told me.  "Suddenly, a badge was thrown into the mix, and an inspector said, 'Let me see your license.'" [...] Marty's torment didn't end with a demand for his license.  "She said, from now on, you cannot use your rabbit until you fill out paperwork, pay the $40 license fee.  We'll have to inspect your home."  Ten times since, regulators showed up unannounced at Marty's house.

Climate Scientists Murder World's Oldest Creature.  A group of "climate change experts" that discovered a 507-year-old clam that was the world's oldest known creature killed it in the process of determining its age.  The scientists, determined to count the rings on the inside of the clam's shell, killed the creature instantly when they opened it up.

Kid Cages at School Bus Stops Spark Outrage.  Environmentalists have galvanized behind a movement to resurrect wolf populations in rural America. [...] In Catron County, New Mexico, aggressive Mexican gray wolves are terrorizing residents.  Here wolves are killing pets in front yards in broad daylight, and forcing parents to stand guard when children play outside.  The threat has become so ominous the local school district has decided to place wolf shelters (kid cages) at school bus stops to protect school children from wolves while they wait for the bus or parents.  These wolf proof cages, constructed from plywood and wire, are designed to prevent wolves from taking a child.  The absurdity of this scenario is mind-numbing.  What kind of society accepts the idea of children in cages while wolves are free to roam where they choose?

Armed agents raid animal shelter for baby deer.  WISN 12 News investigates an operation raising questions about the use of government resources and the state policy that meant a death sentence for a fawn.  "It was like a SWAT team," shelter employee Ray Schulze said.  Two weeks ago, Schulze was working in the barn at the Society of St. Francis on the Kenosha-Illinois border when a swarm of squad cars arrived and officers unloaded with a search warrant.

13 Wisconsin officials raid animal shelter to kill baby deer named Giggles.  Two weeks ago, Ray Schulze was working in a barn at the Society of St. Francis no-kill animal shelter in Kenosha, Wis., when officials swarmed the shelter with a search warrant.  "[There were] nine [Department of Natural Resources] agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth," Mr. Schulze told WISN 12.  "It was like a SWAT team."  The agents were there to retrieve a baby deer named Giggles that was dropped off by a family worried she had been abandoned by her mother, the station reported. Wisconsin law forbids the possession of wildlife.

Why Liberals Kill.  [Scroll down]  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) preaches an animal-liberation line and even condemns meat consumption, but kills 89 percent of its shelter animals.

Chris Christie under fire from PETA for killing a spider in front of fourth graders.  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is taking heat from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals after he killing a spider on his desk in front of a class of fourth graders.

Animal rights activists will use airborne drones to spy on hunters.  Hunters should look to the skies, but not for canvasback ducks or fair weather.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will soon acquire "impressive new weapons to combat those who gun down deer and doves."  The animal-rights group plans to invest in airborne drones armed with video cameras, aiming to collect damning video footage of "any illegal activity, including drinking while in the possession of a firearm," or evidence of maiming animals or use of spotlights and feed lures.  On the potential shopping list:  a remote-controlled CineStar Octocopter.

PETA Plans to Fly Drones That Would 'Stalk Hunters'.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is actively shopping for a drone that would "stalk hunters," the organization said Monday [4/8/2013].  The group says it will "soon have some impressive new weapons at its disposal to combat those who gun down deer and doves" and that it is "shopping for one or more drone aircraft with which to monitor those who are out in the woods with death on their minds."  The group says it will not weaponize the drones, but will use them to film potentially illegal hunting activity and turn it over to law enforcement.

The Editor says...
The PETA people obviously do not understand hunting or hunters.  I don't know much about it myself, but here's what I think I know:  Most hunting takes place on private property in the middle of nowhere with the permission of the property owner.  The people who engage in "illegal hunting activity" aren't gonna hesitate to blow a PETA drone to pieces, legally or not, and the PETA people would be wise (for once) to forget about looking for those pieces.  Are the PETA people just opposed to guns, or do they also object to hunting with a bow and arrow?

Saving the Fish to Kill the Fish.  Saving the fish isn't about saving the fish.  With the price of gasoline at record heights, why are there so many abandoned rigs in the Gulf?  A safe bet would be because of the government.

Save a deer, Go to jail.  An Indiana couple faces jail time for nursing a near-dead deer back to health, in apparent violation of the state's Department of Natural Resources rules for returning wild animals to the forest.  The couple — Jeff Counceller, a police officer, and his wife, Jennifer — found the deer in 2010 on a porch, curled into a ball, with maggot-filled puncture wounds, the Associated Press reported.  The two cared for the animal on their 17-acre Connersville home, according to the Associated Press.  State conservation officers recently visited the home and discovered the deer, according to ABC News.  The couple was subsequently charged with illegal possession of a deer.

PETA Wants Decapitation Ban In Fla. Snake-Hunting Contest.  The state of Florida is gearing up for a massive python hunting contest in the Everglades starting on Saturday [1/12/2013].  But an animal rights group is calling for the state to ban decapitation as a method of killing the giant snakes.

If They Were Baby Seals Instead of Just Babies...  Perhaps our pro-abortion friends will better understand why we pro-lifers oppose any tax-funded support for Planned Parenthood if we explain our opposition in a way that engages their sympathy:  Suppose there were a company called Planned Parkas that manufactures very warm winter coats for people who otherwise would have difficulty obtaining them.

The animal rights fanatics are believers in "survival of the fittest", are they not?
New Zealand environmental advocate launches campaign to ban cats as pets.  Gareth Morgan has a simple dream:  a New Zealand free of pet cats that threaten native birds.

The ASPCA Pays Price For Bad-Faith Ringling Brothers Elephant Suit.  The ASPCA sued Ringling Brothers, but ended up paying the circus $9.3 million to help cover its legal bills.

The Democrats' War on Science Aids Our Enemies.  [Scroll down]  In this litany of eco-activism certain to impoverish us all, there's one bright spot this week.  Barnum & Bailey Circus's owners, Feld Entertainment, brought a RICO suit against "animal rights" scamsters and has already won a $9.3 million settlement from one of the multiple defendants.

The animals' greatest enemy is Islam -- yet the activists are all completely silent about this:
Sudanese Islamists Financing Genocide by Wiping Out Africa's Elephants.  This story is so depressing in so many ways and on so many levels because it shows you what will be left Africa or of any part of the world if the Islamists succeed.  All that will be left are corpses, slaves and deserts.  No civilization and not even much in the way of wildlife.

Muslims In Sweden Practice Beheading Skills On Cats.  So, Sweden, how's that multiculturalism working out for you?

Los Angeles may ban circus elephants.  The city council is expected to vote early in the new year on an ordinance that could force the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus either to drop its annual stop in the country's second-largest city or pull one of its most popular acts, The New York Times reported.

The Editor says...
Naturally, if this works in California, it will be tried in the other 49 (or more) states, and if the animal-rights activists "save" the elephants, then the rest of the animals will be put out of a job as well, and there will be no more circuses to go with our bread... if there is any bread.

Not just guns, PETA wants hunting banned.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants to take the gun control debate to a whole new level:  banning hunting.  Claiming hunting desensitizes children to killing humans, the group plans to make their case Friday by crashing the National Rifle Association's press conference downtown at the Willard Hotel where they are expected to cite some form of gun ownership and sales changes they would support.

The Editor says...
Name one mass murderer or school shooter who was an experienced hunter, a marksman, or even a skeet shooter.

Welcome to the Salazar Wilderness.  [Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar] seems to think that turning a tiny portion of the lovely coastline of California's Marin County (part of the National Seashore) into the first marine wilderness in the continental United States also requires destroying a family-run oyster operation that has conducted business in the same spot for eight decades.  So Mr. Salazar recently ordered the business to close within 90 days — a decision that will spell ruin for the Lunny family, owners of Drake's Bay Oyster Farm, which supplies 40% of California's oysters.

Oyster Farm Loses To Federal Bullies And Eco-Fanatics.  If ever there was a business that environmentalists should have supported, it was the Drakes Bay Oyster Co.  By all reliable accounts, it was a clean, sustainable source of food for nearly 80 years.  One local told the San Francisco Chronicle the farm provided "a good organic food source in our backyard."  "A department head in Washington, D.C., shouldn't be able to tell this community it can't eat oysters," said Sarah Cane of San Rafael.  Another local, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, was also upset by Salazar's decision.  She strongly implied the fix was in.

Update:
Ohio woman wearing fur is stabbed by animal-rights activist in church, police say.  An Ohio animal rights activist allegedly stabbed a woman in a church on Wednesday [11/20/2019] because she was wearing fur.  Police believe that Meredith Lowell, 35, stabbed the woman wearing fur boots based on a prior arrest in 2012, in which Lowell was charged with attempting to hire a hitman to kill a person wearing fur. [...] In 2012, Lowell allegedly posted several times on social media looking for someone willing to kill a person wearing fur. [...] An evaluation was completed to determine if Lowell posed a danger to herself or others.  Prosecutors said she had passed a handwritten note to jail guards shortly after her 2012 arrest.  The note stated that if Lowell were to be released, she would contract another hit man to kill a person wearing fur or even do the deed herself, according to prosecutors.  However, a forensic evaluation later determined that though she was not competent to stand trial, did not pose a risk to herself, the general public or to property.  Fast-forward to 2018, when Lowell reportedly stabbed a woman.  Her motives were unknown.

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2024 by Andrew K. Dart

Can New York City Ban the Sale of Foie Gras?  This past term the Supreme Court upheld a California law barring the sale of animal products that are not produced in conformity with the state's animal welfare laws, even if the products are produced out of state.  A majority of the justices rejected the claim that such a law violated the Dormant Commerce Clause because of its extraterritorial effect.  Politico reports on a similar battle in New York, where New York City is seeking to ban the sale of foie gras, largely because of the manner in which it is produced. (Foie gras involves force feeding ducks or geese so as to increase the fat content in their livers.) Although the conflict arises under state law, some of the underlying quesitons are similar, as it pits producers from elsewhere (in this case, upstate New York) against a local jurisdiction.  New York City's anti-foie-gras ordinance was set to take effect last year, but it was blocked by the state.  That order, in turn, was rejected by a state court, and litigation is ongoing.