Heartbreaking Video: Seal Hunt

Monsters ARE real. They walk upright, on two legs.

When Pigs Cry

The Faces of Evil

Please, let there be a God and let This God have a special place in Hell
reserved for these cowards.

Do You Know The Truth About Pigs?

One Voice

Most people don't have the privilege of getting to know a pig. For most of us, the thought of pigs conjure images of dirty, greedy animals living in their own waste. We couldn't be more wrong! Pigs don't perspire, and so wallow in mud to keep themselves cool. They are naturally very clean animals and, if given the choice, they prefer to cool themselves down in fresh water. When in a natural environment, pigs build communal nests and toilet areas away from their sleeping area

"I like pigs.. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. "
British politician and Nobel Prize Laureate Winston Churchill

Smarter than Dogs?

Pigs are remarkably intelligent creatures thought by many to be smarter than dogs. They can be trained to respond to simple voice commands, and are easily toilet trained. Studies have revealed that pigs have a long memory and are able to focus on specific tasks even better than some primates. Research conducted at Bristol University found that pigs are cleverly competitive with other members of their herd, and to avoid confrontation will wait until nobody is looking to sneak away hidden food. "This sort of behaviour suggests that pigs can compete with each other in quite complex and 'cerebral' ways," says Dr Mendl of Bristol University.

"[Pigs] have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more
so than dogs and certainly three-year-olds. "
Professor Donald Broom of Cambridge University Veterinary School

Playful Pigs

Pigs develop highly complex social structures and form strong bonds with other members of their group. At the age of around 3 weeks, piglets begin to play with other piglets, and for the majority of weeks thereafter will interact more with each other than with other members of their herd. It is during this time of play and interaction that strong bonds are formed, often lasting the duration of their lives

Mother and Child

About 24 hours before giving birth, pregnant mother pigs will temporarily leave the social group in order to collect branches and soft material to build a nest. Shortly after giving birth, piglets will often move to the head of the sow and touch noses, vocalise, and then begin suckling. The mother will stay isolated in her nest with her newborns for the first week, which allows her to develop a strong bond between herself and her piglets. Mothers are known to 'sing' to their offspring, which is believed to inform them when her milk is flowing.

A Healthy Appetite

Most of a pig's day is spent foraging and eating. The end of their snout contains has many tactile receptors as the human hand, and is a highly specialised and sensitive tool. This, along with their exceptional sense of smell, enables pigs to locate and uncover tasty treats such as seeds, roots, and truffles. Unlike dogs or humans, pigs never dangerously overeat-even when given access to unlimited food.

Pigs are affectionate, protective, playful,
intelligent and social animals
who suffer tremendously within
intensive farming systems.

…Behind closed doors

LIES THE

CRUEL TRUTH



Approximately 100 million pigs are raised and slaughtered in the US every year. As babies, they are subjected to painful mutilations without anesthesia or pain relievers. Their tails are cut off to minimize tail biting, an aberrant behavior that occurs when these highly-intelligent animals are kept in deprived factory farm environments. In addition, notches are taken out of the piglets' ears for identification.
By two to three weeks of age, 15% of the piglets will have died. Those who survive are taken away from their mothers and crowded into pens with metal bars and concrete floors. A headline from National Hog Farmer magazine advises, "Crowding Pigs Pays..", and this is exemplified by the intense overcrowding in every stage of hog confinement systems. Pigs will live this way, packed into giant, warehouse-like sheds, until they reach a slaughter weight of 250 pounds at 6 months old.
The air in hog factories is laden with dust, dander, and noxious gases, which are produced as the animals' urine and feces builds up inside the sheds. Studies of workers in swine confinement buildings have found sixty percent to have breathing problems, despite their spending only a few hours a day inside confinement buildings. For pigs, who spend their entire lives in factory farm confinement, respiratory disease is rampant.




Modern breeding sows are treated like piglet-making machines. Living a continuous cycle of impregnation and birth, each sow has more than 20 piglets per year. After being impregnated, the sows are confined in gestation crates — small metal pens just two feet wide that prevent sows from turning around or even lying down comfortably. At the end of their four-month pregnancies, they are transferred to similarly cramped farrowing crates to give birth. With barely enough room to stand up and lie down and no straw or other type of bedding to speak of, many suffer from sores on their shoulders and knees. When asked about this, one pork industry representative wrote, "..straw is very expensive and there certainly would not be a supply of straw in the country to supply all the farrowing pens in the US"



Numerous research studies conducted over the last 25 years have pointed to physical and psychological maladies experienced by sows in confinement. The unnatural flooring and lack of exercise causes obesity and crippling leg disorders, while the deprived environment produces neurotic coping behaviors such as repetitive bar biting and sham chewing (chewing nothing).




After the sows give birth and nurse their young for two to three weeks, the piglets are taken away to be fattened, and the sows are re-impregnated. An article in Successful Farming explains, "Any sow that is not gestating, lactating or within seven days post weaning is non-active," and hog factories strive to keep their sows '100 % active' in order to maximize profits. When the sow is no longer deemed a productive breeder, she is sent to slaughter.
The overcrowding and confinement is unnatural and stress-producing since pigs are actually very clean animals. If they are given sufficient space, pigs are careful not to soil the areas where they sleep or eat. But in factory farms, they are forced to live in their own feces, urine, vomit and even amid the corpses of other pigs.
In addition to overcrowded housing, sows and pigs also endure extreme crowding in transportation, resulting in rampant suffering and deaths. As one hog industry expert writes:



Death losses during transport are too high — amounting to more than $8 million per year. But it doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out why we load as many hogs on a truck as we do. It's cheaper. So it becomes a moral issue. Is it right to overload a truck and save $. 25 per head in the process, while the overcrowding contributes to the deaths of 80,000 hogs each year?




Prior to being hung upside down by their back legs and bled to death at the slaughterhouse, pigs are supposed to be 'stunned' and rendered unconscious, in accordance with the federal Humane Slaughter Act. However, stunning at slaughterhouses is terribly imprecise, and often conscious animals are hung upside down, kicking and struggling, while a slaughterhouse worker tries to 'stick' them in the neck with a knife. If the worker is unsuccessful, the pig will be carried to the next station on the slaughterhouse assembly line
— the scalding tank —
where he/she will be boiled, alive and fully conscious


Please think

before you eat another sausage link!!

One Voice

Support 'The Ban On Seal Products '

From: Phil

Phil

From: I Want Changes To Happen!

URGENT!
EMAIL THE EUROPEAN MINISTERS TO SUPPPORT THE BAN On SEAL PRODUCTS!



From: +INDEPENDENCE FOR THE VOICELESS+

URGENT! EMAIL THE EUROPEAN MINISTERS TO SUPPPORT THE SEALPRODUCTSBAN


http://harpseals.org/help/letters_and_emails/eu_ministers_email.php

The European Union and individual European countries are considering banning the importation of seal products, including skins (fur) and oil. Ministers of the Czech Republic have been strong supporters of such a ban. We now need the majority of other European Union member states to support this legislation. This will go a long way towards ending the seal massacre forever.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO SEND EMAILS TO ALL THE MINISTERS ITS QUICK AND EASY!!

http://harpseals.org/help/letters_and_emails/eu_ministers_email.php

A Seal Pup Survives the Massacre.

A Seal Pup Survives the Massacre....this Time



Do you have the GUTS to watch this video?

Posted by:
HEALING FOR HORSES
SEA SHEPHERD SIREN

SOURCE: Humane Society International (info@hsi.org)

After the sealing vessels left yesterday, we landed on the ice to document the aftermath. We passed one pup who had crawled into a small cave formed by ice. He hid his head as we approached, clearly terrified. I tried to talk softly to him, to let him know that it would be okay. But he just lay there, hiding his head.

This 3-week old seal pup had just seen hundreds of others beaten to death in front of him. To him, people now mean clubs and violence and pain.

Please help save seals from the clubs of sealers. Make an emergency donation to help seals now.

It took less than three days for sealers to slaughter 19,200 seal pups. The ProtectSeals team was there to document as they killed virtually every seal in sight.

We filmed this horror -- the tiny carcasses such a stark reminder that this is a slaughter for fur. They died by the thousands here, painfully, just to produce fur coats that no one needs.

* WARNING * GRAPHIC FOOTAGE

Canada Seal Hunt '09 Continues [WARNING: VERY graphic footage]

https://secure.hsus.org/01/hsi_protectseals09/n7pMgbxKqhViB

On Friday, the killing starts again, and the team is heading to the remote area where this next phase will occur. Please be a part of our team. Please help sustain our work on the ice to save these seals.

We need to show the world that the carnage is worse than ever -- and that despite the Canadian government's promises, the hunt is as cruel and merciless as ever.

Thank you for standing with us -- having so many of you behind us makes all the difference.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Aldworth
Director
Humane Society International/Canada




SEA SHEPHERD SIREN

The Seal Hunt Starts Today :( **Graphic**

☆*•¸¸.
•*¨'* ƸӜƷ Reposted by:



Click to add...

OVER 800 homeless pets are killed EVERY hour due to overpopulation. Please spay/neuter companion pets.

DONT LITTER, IT COSTS LIVES!


From: MorningStar
From: Moon Warriors

Moon Warriors

We are all connected









See some of the ways you can help at http://www.harpseals.org/


PLEASE ADD:

AfSD

Lost Pets


www.myspace.com/afsdlostpets

Terminate the bloody Canadian Seal Massacre NOW!

From: Anthony Marr

Subject: Terminate the Canadian Seal Massacre now!
Terminate the Canadian Seal Massacre
This is a bulletin I have put together very quickly.
No pretty
pictures, nothing fancy.
Please check out all the links so we
can save the seals in this up-coming hunt.
Every letter, every
signature helps. Especially if we write to foreign countries.


Kudos to Ireland who has just initiated a ban on seal products...
there are many countries to convince...let's keep it in front of
them so they know that this massacre will not be tolerated any
longer. Thank you. ~^..^~

Links to all sites regarding Seals...

Heal Our Planet Earth = H. O. P. E.

Terminate the Canadian Seal Massacre

The following is a list of email address in countries other than
Canada and the United States.
Please use these email addresses
to voice your complaints about the Canadian seal hunt.



Best European nations email list - use it or lose it - the Seal War

Belgium
frieda.brepoels@europarl.europa.eu; philippe.busquin@europarl.europa.eu; frederique.ries@europarl.europa.eu; gerard.deprez@europarl.europa.eu; antoine.duquesne@europarl.europa.eu; raymond.langendries@europarl.europa.eu; bart.staes@europarl.europa.eu; marianne.thyssen@europarl.europa.eu

Denmark
niels.busk@europarl.europa.eu; ole.christensen@europarl.europa.eu; dan.jorgensen@europarl.europa.eu; christel.schaldemose@europarl.europa.eu; lebech@post5.tele.dk; margrete.auken@europarl.europa.eu

Germany
info@reimerboege.de; hiltrud.breyer@europarl.europa.eu; daniel@caspary.de; albert.dess@europarl.europa.eu; karl-heinz.florenz@europarl.europa.eu; info@matthias-groote.de; heinz.kindermann@europarl.europa.eu; holger.krahmer@europarl.europa.eu; info@peter-liese.de; erika.mann@europarl.europa.eu; helmuth.markov@europarl.europa.eu; vural.oeger@europarl.europa.eu; rharms@europarl.eu.int; dagmar.roth-behrendt@europarl.europa.eu; doculmer@aol.com; europarl@weisgerber.com; jutta.haug@europarl.europa.eu; karin.joens@europarl.europa.eu; mail@bernd-posselt.de; wichert@gruene-europa.de; renate.sommer@europarl.europa.eu;

Ireland
liam.aylward@europarl.europa.eu; colmburke@colmburke.eu; briancrowleymep@eircom.net; avril.doyle@europarl.europa.eu; jim.higgins@europarl.europa.eu; kathy.sinnott@europarl.europa.eu

Greece
stavros.arnaoutakis@europarl.europa.eu; ioannis.gklavakis@europarl.europa.eu; dimitrios.papadimoulis@europarl.europa.eu; georgios.papastamkos@europarl.europa.eu; antonios.trakatellis@europarl.europa.eu; evangelia.tzampazi@europarl.europa.eu

Spain
pilar.ayuso@europarl.europa.eu; carlos.carnerogonzalez@europarl.europa.eu; ignasi.guardans@europarl.europa.eu; cristina.gutierrez-cortines@europarl.europa.eu; esther.herranzgarcia@europarl.europa.eu; antonio.masiphidalgo@europarl.europa.eu; willy.meyerpleite@europarl.europa.eu; rosa.miguelezramos@europarl.europa.eu; javier.morenosanchez@europarl.europa.eu; josu.ortuondolarrea@europarl.europa.eu; maria.sornosamartinez@europarl.europa.eu; daniel.varelasuanzes-carpegna@europarl.europa.eu

France
marie-helene.aubert@europarl.europa.eu; francoise.castex@europarl.europa.eu; joseph.daul@europarl.europa.eu; harlem.desir@free.fr; anne.ferreira@europarl.europa.eu; francoise.grossetete@europarl.europa.eu; aguellec@europarl.eu.int; jhenin@europarl.eu.int; anne.laperrouze@europarl.europa.eu; mn.lienemann@nordpasdecalais.fr; lipietz@club-internet.fr; tokia.saifi@europarl.europa.eu

Italy
vincenzo.aita@europarl.europa.eu; info@sergioberlato.it; giovanni.berlinguer@europarl.europa.eu; iles.braghetto@europarl.europa.eu; marco.cappato@europarl.europa.eu; paolo.costa@europarl.europa.eu; alessandro.foglietta@europarl.europa.eu; monica.frassoni@europarl.europa.eu; umberto.guidoni@europarl.europa.eu; raffaele.lombardo@provincia.ct.it; c.muscardini@tin.it; n.musumeci@inwind.it; guido.podesta@europarl.europa.eu; vittorio.prodi@europarl.europa.eu; guido.sacconi@europarl.europa.eu; amalia.sartori@europarl.europa.eu; gianluca.susta@europarl.europa.eu; marcello.vernola@europarl.europa.eu

Netherlands
bastiaan.belder@europarl.europa.eu; johannes.blokland@europarl.europa.eu; kathalijnemaria.buitenweg@europarl.europa.eu; dorette.corbey@europarl.europa.eu; Kartikatamara.liotard@europarl.europa.eu; europa@maaten.net; jan.mulder@europarl.europa.eu; lnist@home.nl; cornelis.visser@europarl.europa.eu; janmarinus.wiersma@europarl.europa.eu; corien.wortmann@europarl.europa.eu

United Kingdom
jim.allister@europarl.europa.eu; elspeth.attwooll@europarl.europa.eu; mrgrahambooth@aol.com; john.bowis@europarl.europa.eu; philip.bradbourn@europarl.europa.eu; philip.bushill-matthews@europarl.europa.eu; chrisdaviesmep@cix.co.uk; bairbre.debrun@europarl.europa.eu; den.dover@europarl.europa.eu; glyn.ford@europarl.europa.eu; ian.hudghton@europarl.europa.eu; caroline.jackson@europarl.europa.eu; skamall@europarl.eu.int; sajjad.karim@europarl.europa.eu; caroline.lucas@europarl.europa.eu; linda.mcavan@europarl.europa.eu; eluned.morgan@europarl.europa.eu; neil.parish@europarl.europa.eu; struanmep@aol.com .
http://www. all-creatures. org/hope/antisealing-20080330-1. htm..
YOUR URGENT ATTENTION IS NEEDED; please remember what the seals face in just days, drop everything for a few minutes, and contact:
Canadian Consulate General Daniel Sullivan
1251 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020-1175
Telephone: 1.212.596.
1628
Facsimile: 1.212.596.
1790

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington St.

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: 1.613.941.
6900
Fax: 1.613.995.
7858
Email address: pm@pm.gc.ca
Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
House of Commons
441-S Centre Block
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Fax: 1.613.992.
1974
Email address: Shea.G@parl.gc.ca
http://www. friendsofanimals. org/news/2009/march/calling-on-canadians. html
http://www. gan. ca/campaigns/fur+trade/index. en. html..
http://www. boycott-canada. com/what/writeMP. htm
Write to your MP
Incredibly, the UK still allows the imports of seal products. In 2004 this trade was valued at more than half a million pounds. This level of trade helps make the hunt viable and until it ends the people of Britain have the blood of the seals on their hands.
Here are three actions you can take today to help end the largest marine mammal hunt in the world:
Please contact Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for Environment, clearly stating that a ban on seal products is the ONLY acceptable option, no half measures or compromises are acceptable.
Commissioner Dimas: stavros.dimas@ec.europa.eu..
Please write to Gareth Thomas MP, Minister for Trade & Consumer Affairs, asking him to extend the ban that currently exists on some seal products to ALL seal products, regardless of the age of the seal – now.
Gareth Thomas MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Trade & Consumer Affairs at: Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET.

Please write to your MP urging him or her to sign Early Day Motion No 783 Commercial seal hunting and the Importation of Seal Products into the UK.
See if your MP has signed the EDM:
http://edmi. parliament. uk/EDMi/EDMDetails. aspx?EDMID=34947&SESSION=891

Find contact details for your MP:

http://findyourmp. parliament.uk/commons/l/

Or write to your MP at: House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.
http://www. animalsvoice. com/
http://www. animalsvoice. com/wycd/alerts. php
http://www. fisherycrisis. com/http://www. fisherycrisis. com/seals/grey_seal_hunt_2009. htm
http://www. touringnewfoundland. com/
http://www. pinnipeds. org/.
http://www. ocean98. org/..

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Advice from a Polar Bear 100% Organic Cotton T-shirt
Everyone needs a wise friend who knows how to say just the right thing, at just the right moment. Our "Advice from a Polar Bear" T-shirts do just that, with simple words of wisdom that include: Live Large. Sniff out opportunities. Learn some good icebreakers. Be thick-skinned. Be fearless. Appreciate long winter nights. Keep it cool. Navy blue. 100% certified organic cotton. Available in unisex adult sizes S, M, L, XL, and XXL.
$20.95 $16.80 Small $20.95 $16.
80 Medium
$20.95 $16.80 Large $20.95 $16.
80 XL
$21.95 $17.
60 XXL
http://www. polarbearsinternational. org/cgi-bin/pbstore. cgi
more links: http://www. gan. ca/links/index. en. html
http://www. wspa. ca/takeaction. asp

S.Korea wants whale quota if Japan gets deal

Anti-whaling groups fear South Korea and other countries will try to resume whaling if Japan gets permission for limited catches on its coasts in return for stopping so-called "scientific" whaling in Antarctica.


Lobby groups following an International Whaling Commission (IWC) panel meeting in Rome ending on Wednesday said diplomatic efforts for a compromise with Japan could, by creating a new "coastal" catch category, open up a new loophole for whaling.


IWC Chairman Bill Hogarth said in a statement after the Rome talks that "opinions differ among the members" but that he hoped for agreement by the IWC's annual meeting in Madeira in June.


Japan officially observes the 1986 global moratorium on whaling -- unlike Iceland and Norway, which ignore it and carry out commercial whaling. But Japan still catches about 900 whales a year in Antarctic waters for what it calls research purposes.


Japan, which defends its right to scientific catches and says killing whales is no different from slaughtering any other animal, has also long sought a quota of 150 minke whales for coastal areas it says have been impoverished by the moratorium.


Most of the meat from scientific catches still ends up on dinner tables, angering animal welfare groups around the world who argue that many species face extinction and that explosive harpoons used by whalers can cause horrific suffering.


"DANGEROUS PRECEDENT"

A panel of the IWC -- set up in 1946 to conserve stocks -- is seeking a compromise deal for its annual meeting in Madeira in June to let Japan hunt minkes off its coast in return for ending Antarctic whaling or limiting it to sustainable levels.


"This sets a really dangerous precedent which South Korea underlined by saying that 'if Japan has impoverished coastal communities and wants a quota, then so have we'," said Claire Bass of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).


"This would open the floodgates for commercial whaling," the WSPA marine mammal programme manager told Reuters in Rome.


Nicolas Entrup, spokesman for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), said minke whales in Korean waters already faced extinction because of "by-catching" -- when whales are accidentally caught in fishing nets, then sold for eating -- and would face an accelerated threat if Korea resumes whaling.


"We should be closing the loopholes that permit whaling rather than creating new loopholes," Entrup told Reuters.


Korean whaling helped supply the Japanese market for much of the 20th century, especially during Japanese occupation. It had a "scientific" catch of about 69 whales in 1986 but has since mostly abided by the global moratorium declared that year.