A beautiful & important story to remind us about our relationships with animals

Not many people get a picture of this proud bird snuggled up next to them.



Freedom and Jeff
Freedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places . She's my baby.

When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.

This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a week. You know you don't want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought of her being etherized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.

We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington . We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV . Miracle Pets even did a show about us.

In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.

Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone



So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill.. I hadn't said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my yes, and we just stood there like that for I don't know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.

On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power course through his body.. I have so many stories like that.

I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom's.

Hope you enjoyed this.

Alert: FL sport of penning fox/coyotes & letting dogs murder them

I attended the meeting today of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission on fox and coyote penning. At the meeting, Commissioners would
decide on the vote to whether regulate or prohibit fox and coyote penning-a
cruel activity in which trapped foxes and coyotes reside inside fenced
enclosures to be chased by packs of dogs, who kill the captive animals.
It's hard to believe that for more than 20 years this "sport" has been going
on in FL

In his column ("Let's put an end to pens for coyotes and foxes", 6.18.10)
Eric Ernst of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune writes,

"They may call it hunting, but that's an insult to real hunters. In this
case, wild coyotes or foxes are trapped, packed and shipped to fenced areas
where they are turned loose to run for their lives, day after day, from a
pack of dogs. If the dogs don't maul them to death, the wild animals die of
disease. Incredibly, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, an agency
entrusted with managing the state's natural resources, has sanctioned the
practice for more than 20 years

Over a hundred people signed up to speak and testify.

The FFWCC voted to BAN the penning of foxes and coyotes in the state of Florida !!!

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-fox-coyote-enclosures-20100623,0,55\45373.story

Dogs Used as Shark Bait on French Island

Dogs Used as Shark Bait on French Island
By Maryann Mott

As Far back as Oct. 19 2005 it was reported by Maryann Mott that live and dead dogs and cats were being used as shark bait by amateur fishers on the French-controlled island of Réunion, according toanimal-welfare organizations and local authorities.

At The time the small volcanic island off Africa's east coast was bursting with stray dogs—upward of 150,000, says Reha Hutin, president of the Paris-based Fondation 30 Millions d'Amis (the Thirty Million Friends Foundation).
Hutin sent a film crew to Réunion this summer to obtain proof that live animals were being used as shark bait. The goal was to expose the practice on the animal rights group's weekly television show.

It didn't take long for the film crew to find three separate cases, she said.

A videotape and photographs show the dogs with multiple hooks sunk deep into their paws and snouts.

"From then on everyone started to take the whole story seriously and realized it was true," Hutin said.

Photographic Evidence

PLEASE READ:
http://www.all-creatures.org/aip/nl-20100526-10.html

Do not support testing on animals...

Animals have feelings

Please take care of animals!!
Please be aware of their presence!!
Animals have feelings too!
In my opinion, they feel More than we do, so often.
Birds often mate for life.

Please see: http://vision02.com/birds-have-feelings/

Mario's Sexy Ink Not Mink Ad - PETA - Soulful R&B singing sensation Mario says, "Be comfortable in your own skin, and let animals keep theirs."

https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2051&c=pfs

Chimp Sanctuary Celebrates Chimpmas!! VERY CUTE!!

http://us.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2009/12/25/zarrella.chimpanzee.christmas.cnn

Attacking the Messenger: Big Ag’s Attempt to Misdirect Attention from Its Own Problems

Attacking the Messenger: Big Ag’s Attempt to Misdirect Attention from Its Own Problems
By Paul Shapiro
November 24th, 2009
Link to full article below


Reading agribusiness officials’ responses to undercover exposés documenting egregious acts of cruelty to farm animals can be truly mind-boggling. I’ve written about this before, and feel compelled to follow up with a couple more recent sordid examples.

When faced with gruesome images of mistreatment of farm animals, rather than simply condemning the cruelty, some in agribusiness just can’t leave it at that. They feel the need also to attack the compassionate investigators who put themselves at great risk to go undercover and blow the whistle on such abuse.

For example, a new Mercy for Animals investigation involved videotaping workers at one of the nation’s largest pork companies throwing piglets by their ears and legs across the room, cramming pigs into cages barely larger than their own bodies for months on end, and even leaving pigs with untreated prolapses, sores and other health problems.

And what’s the response of the president of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, Dr. Butch Baker? Quite simply: These types of investigations “really are an attack on the rural lifestyle of America.”

To read the full article: http://civileats.com/2009/11/24/attacking-the-messenger-big-ag%E2%80%99s-attempt-to-misdirect-attention-from-its-own-problems/

Captain Paul Watson Responds to Japan’s Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada

Captain Paul Watson Responds to Japan’s Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada
The Australian
December 11, 2009
Link to full article below

Question: The most frequent cause of diplomatic tension between Japan and Australia is over Japan's scientific whaling program. What is the Hatoyama government's policy view of scientific whaling and of supporting it by government subsidies and public loans and having the programme providing positions for former bureaucrats?

Katsuya Okada: First of all, with regards to this issue, I think we should try to discuss this issue in calm, not emotional way. Because our ancestors, we have a tradition here in Japan where we have been eating whale meat. Of course it would be a different story if it were endangered species which are on the verge of extinction. But if not, I think the average Japanese would like to consume whale meat into the future.

To read the full article: http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-091210-1.html

EXCELLENT ARTICLE: Animal, Vegetable, Miserable

Animal, Vegetable, Miserable
By GARY STEINER
November 22, 2009
Lewisburg, Pa. LINK TO FULL ARTICLE BELOW

LATELY more people have begun to express an interest in where the meat they eat comes from and how it was raised. Were the animals humanely treated? Did they have a good quality of life before the death that turned them into someone’s dinner?

Some of these questions, which reach a fever pitch in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, pertain to the ways in which animals are treated. (Did your turkey get to live outdoors?) Others focus on the question of how eating the animals in question will affect the consumer’s health and well-being. (Was it given hormones and antibiotics?)

None of these questions, however, make any consideration of whether it is wrong to kill animals for human consumption. And even when people ask this question, they almost always find a variety of resourceful answers that purport to justify the killing and consumption of animals in the name of human welfare. Strict ethical vegans, of which I am one, are customarily excoriated for equating our society’s treatment of animals with mass murder.. Can anyone seriously consider animal suffering even remotely comparable to human suffering? Those who answer with a resounding no typically argue in one of two ways.

Some suggest that human beings but not animals are made in God’s image and hence stand in much closer proximity to the divine than any non-human animal; according to this line of thought, animals were made expressly for the sake of humans and may be used without scruple to satisfy their needs and desires. There is ample support in the Bible and in the writings of Christian thinkers like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas for this pointedly anthropocentric way of devaluing animals.

Others argue that the human capacity for abstract thought makes us capable of suffering that both qualitatively and quantitatively exceeds the suffering of any non-human animal.

PLEASE READ THE FULL ARTICLE: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/opinion/22steiner.html?_r=1

Joanna Krupa: Angel for Companion Animals (PETA)

http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/11/joanna_krupa.php?c=pfs

"Point of View" - by Shel Silverstein

Point of View
by Shel Silverstein

Thanksgiving dinner's sad and thankless
Christmas dinner's dark and blue
When you stop and try to see it
From the turkey's point of view.

Sunday dinner isn't sunny
Easter feasts are just bad luck
When you see it from the viewpoint
of a chicken or a duck.

Oh how I once loved tuna salad
Pork, lobsters, lamb chops too
'Til I stopped and looked at dinner
From the dinner's point of view.

Vegan

"Veganism denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose; and by extension promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals, and the environment." ~ Donald Watson

Extreme Torture of Animals — and Humans: A Thanksgiving Prayer for Mercy

Extreme Torture of Animals — and Humans:
A Thanksgiving Prayer for Mercy
by Suki Falconberg Ph.D.
November 18, 2007 Link to full article below

I have seen it all before but it still shocks me. The Humane Farming Association recently shot undercover video at an Ohio pig farm which shows animals living and dying in conditions far more horrifying than one finds in any torture camp. And what I am about to describe in this article is typical of the lives of the 10 billion 'food' animals raised for slaughter in America each year.

Pigs with broken legs and broken backs; pigs with prolapsed vaginas and abscessed tumors; pigs crowded so closely together they cannot move or turn around, living in their own excrement; pigs bashed with hammers and shocked with electric prods.

At this Ohio farm, the pigs are killed through strangulation. We see a worker kicking and then beating a pig with a metal bar. The pig cannot walk either due to broken legs or partial paralysis, and so the man relentlessly bashes and bashes and bashes her to make her crawl down a corridor until he kicks her off a four-foot ledge onto a muddy yard. She is then chained around the neck and hoisted by a fork-lift. It takes her about five minutes to die as she struggles desperately. During her last few seconds of life, you see one of her feet waving feebly in the air. While this is happening, the men are joking around, as if it is all good fun.

A few feet away, a group of pigs are huddled together, waiting their turn. Some are lying on top of others, forming a pile of animals too weak to move. They are covered with excrement; one has a broken leg sticking out at an odd angle; they look near death already, from the conditions of torture they were raised in.

Like all other animals, pigs feel. Pigs are extremely aware, intelligent, conscious of their surroundings. They experience a range of emotions equal to that of the human animal. This pile of what humans would call ‘near dead meat’ has watched what the men just did to one of their kind.

Read the full article: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=43247

Explaining Txgvng Fast

Explaining Txgvng Fast

Fasting achieves numerous benefits. It is a wonderful way to clean
out the body as far as health is concerned.

Spiritually, it also cleanses the soul.

For both, I am not discussing one (1) day fasts. My fasts run from
4-6 days.

Originally, fasting was used to 'get closer to the higher being.'

It was also used to rid sick bodies of diseases. This was copied from
watching animals when they are ill. They either eat greens or nothing
at all.

Modern times has shown fasting to be a form of protest - thus, the
death of Barry Horne. Gandhi also used fasting to bring his point
across.

My fast is in HONOR/REMEMBERENCE/REVERENCE of the millions of animals
that are tortured, abused then slaughtered just for this one (1) day
alone in the U.S.

It came about when I could no longer go to family gatherings for this
'holiday' and sit around a table infested with dead carcass and
by-products.
Even the 'religious' holidays were laughable as we traipsed to our
building of worship only to traipse back to a home full of death,
abuse and chemical irresponsibility.

I have had numerous opportunities to join like-minded folks for a
holiday feast, but prefer to not look upon this holiday as a festive
occasion. Why? Because it also represents false facts throughout
american history. Native Americans were thwarted into slavery and
near-annihilitation by the 'white man' in the name of 'god.' Recent
findings are coming out that there was no turkey - or even any kind
of 'meat' - at the dinner; only fruits, vegetables and grains.

Then, back to modern times, it always bothered me that after these
dinners, the male attendees would gather together in front of a
television set to watch the bloodsport known as 'football,' leaving
the women (slaves again to the 'white man') to clean up and watch
after the children.

I hope this explains my 'point.'

BEAUTIFUL: Bob Barker donates $1M for animal rights professor

Bob Barker donates $1M for animal rights professor
Link to full article below

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Former television game show host Bob Barker, who ended episodes of "The Price is Right" by asking viewers to spay and neuter their pets, donated $1 million to Drury University to establish a professorship on animal rights that he hopes will lead to a full undergraduate degree program.

Barker, who graduated from the small liberal arts school in 1947 with a degree in economics, said Tuesday that he hopes the school will eventually be able to offer a program of studies that would train them to be animal rights activists and to respect animals.

"I think some students would become full-fledged animal rights activists," Barker said. "Some will become lawyers and doctors who will always be interested in animal rights. And some will have more respect for animals."

The new professorship went to Patricia McEachern, a professor of French who will work full time to develop what Barker and McEachern said would be the nation's first undergraduate program in animal rights.

To read the full article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iCkUOXDco08DHyq7jjGKdRg3x7rwD9BK6E8O0

EUROPE: New EU funds for non-animal testing

EUROPE: New EU funds for non-animal testing
Leah Germain
University World News
Issue: 0094
27 September 2009 Link to full article below

A substantial fund of EUR50 million (US$74 million) is being offered to European research teams to develop alternatives to animal testing for cosmetics and related industries.

The joint partnership between the European Commission and the European Cosmetics Association (Colipa) is calling on scientists to develop proposals for studies into new non-animal testing methods before a February 2010 deadline.

Colipa has matched the EUR25 million funding offered by the European Commission to create the EUR50 million incentive for non-animal research.

To read the full article: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090925023713493

PETA: Undercover Investigation Reveals Cows Suffer for Land O'Lakes

Undercover Investigation Reveals Cows Suffer for Land O'Lakes

See video (and read 5 comments):
http://current.com/items/91310702_undercover-investigation-reveals-cows-suffer-for-land-olakes.htm?xid=RSSfeed

A new undercover investigation inside a Land O'Lakes supplier facility in Pennsylvania has revealed routine neglect and cruelty to cows who are milked for the Fortune 250 company's products. Over the course of several months, the investigation documented deplorable, filthy conditions for cows on the farm, such as pens that were filled with deep excrement (see video and photos), and cows who suffered from ailments and conditions so severe that they collapsed and became "downers" but were not put out of their misery or given veterinary care in a timely manner, if at all.

Land O'Lakes "inspected" the farm as recently as June 2009 and even noted that there were areas in need of cleaning (including the milking parlor walls!) but approved the facility nonetheless.

Cows on dairy factory farms are not given much more than the numbered tag that is punched through their ears to identify them. Read more about what happened to a few of the cows who lived and died miserably at one such farm.

The farm's owner and one of his sons were caught on video electro-shocking cows who were in too much pain to stand up. One of the farmer's sons kicked a cow and jabbed her with the blade of a pocket knife. Both the father and son have now been charged with cruelty to animals.

The dairy industry's standard forms of cruelty also led to suffering for these cows. In order to make milking easier, cows' tails were amputated by tightly binding them with elastic bands, causing the skin and tissue to slowly die and slough off and leaving the animals unable to swat away flies, which, in addition to tormenting the cows, also led to the spread of disease. Tail-docking is unnecessary and cruel, which is why it has been condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Dairy farmers don’t allow cows―whose pregnancies last for nine months, just like human pregnancies―to spend any significant time with their calves, who are taken from their mothers shortly after birth. Cows are intelligent animals who can remember things for a long time, and they have the capacity to worry about the future.

PETA's investigation also reveals cows and calves who were kept in pens and barns whose floors were covered with deep excrement, which caused foot and hoof problems and fostered the spread of disease. Calves rescued from the farm had pneumonia, "manure scald," ringworm, pinkeye, and parasites. Some cows suffered respiratory distress and had pus-filled nasal discharge streaming down their faces. Abscesses were common on the farm—some of them burst and oozed pus, even as cows were being milked, as can be seen in our video.

World-renowned meat and dairy industry expert Dr. Temple Grandin, after reviewing the footage, said, "The conditions are absolutely atrocious. ... It was obvious that the place was seldom cleaned and ... that many sick animals were not receiving veterinary treatment. ... The dairy manager totally NEGLECTED his animals. ... Many animals suffer greatly."

Please watch the video and read the full article: http://current.com/items/91310702_undercover-investigation-reveals-cows-suffer-for-land-olakes.htm?xid=RSSfeed

Hog Heaven? Life is no picnic for free-range pigs.

Hog Heaven?
Life is no picnic for free-range pigs.
By James E. McWilliams Monday, June 29, 2009
Link to full article below

The horrible fates of factory-farmed pigs are relatively well-known: They live crammed in drab confinement. Their tails are docked, they're castrated to reduce aggression, and they're stuffed with growth promoters and antibiotic-laden feed. In the minds of most, the humane alternative is the free-range cultivation of pigs, an arrangement that affords access to open space and the chance to behave like pigs. As a system of swine management, however, free-range-even though it mercifully allows ample pig mobility-is in many ways far from the ideal that most people imagine it to be.

To read the full article: http://www.slate.com/id/2221754/

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Link between farmed fish and Mad Cow Disease

Link between farmed fish and Mad Cow Disease
June 26, 2009 Link to full article below

Researchers are suggesting new reasons that support the importance of accurate and comprehensible labeling when it comes to seafood. Scientists from the University of Louisville have now brought into question the safety of eating farmed fish that could transmit Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, which is commonly now as Mad Cow Disease.

Although it has not yet been proven that it is possible to transmit the disease to humans through consumption of fish, some farm fished are fed byproducts rendered from cows, leading scientists to believe that a ban of feeding cow meat or bone meal to fish be put into place until the safety of this practice is confirmed.

Creutzfeldt Jakob disease is an untreatable, fatal disease that can be contracted by eating parts of an animal infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease). As the disease has been learned to easily spread within the same species, the feeding of rendered cow material to other cattle has been outlawed in many countries due to an outbreak in England that led to 163 deaths.

To read the full article: http://www.supermarketguru.com/index.cfm/go/sg.viewArticle/articleId/566


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