Breaking News: Rescues, New Laws, Endangered Species.. our pollinators, honey bees and wildlife. News on the litigation's from ALDF to PETA.
Petitions to sign!!! ..
"We are their only Voice"
I've always been fascinated by pangolins, and concerned for their survival, so I'm thrilled to share this news with you.
I hope you're proud of how your support and actions are making a difference for all kinds of animals, from our cat and dog companions, to charismatic animals like elephants and big cats, to more exotic creatures like cobras, saiga antelope, and pangolins.
It shows how every animal is vital, and how, together, we can make a lifesaving difference for them.
Azzedine Downes
IFAW President
Hawaii IUCN meeting advances animal protections
I recently traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress. The meeting occurs once every four years and brings leaders and decision-makers from government, civil society, indigenous peoples, business, and academia. We made some great progress for animals. Here are some highlights.
IFAW-WTI aids 4,000 animals in flood-stricken India
When heavy rains flooded vast tracts of land in India, our rescue teams mobilized and arrived at the worst-affected areas just in time. Read more about this monumental effort.
The thrilling IFAW documentary Huntwatch is making its TV debut on Discovery Channel Sept 22 at 10PM ET.
PLEASE DONATE
Our work depends on your generous support. Please give what you can to help the animals.
IFAW Youth Forum highlights next generation of animal protectors
The Youth Forum for People and Wildlife is both an online community and in-person conference for young leaders to learn, share and connect with people around the world as they explore animal welfare, wildlife conservation, and global commercial trade issues. Thirty-four extraordinary young leaders in conservation and animal welfare from around the world have been selected from a pool of nearly 1,000 candidates as delegates. Learn more about this groundbreaking conference and how you can get involved.
(Slideshow) Louisiana flood update: pet & family reunions begin
It's one of the best parts of our jobs as animal rescuers. When disasters strike, animals often need to be rescued and sheltered apart from their families, but once their families can return home, the shelter reunions can begin. Cue the tears of joy. Read about our response and shelter reunions.
Mother dogs held captive by puppy mills in Pennsylvania will have more legal protection thanks to a landmark decision reinstating regulations on the industry. A panel of judges found in favor of the Animal Legal Defense Fund in our lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The decision closes a loophole -- created by enforcement exemptions -- in the Dog Law, and now puppy mills in Pennsylvania will have more regulations, leading to concrete improvements in conditions for puppies and dogs who are forced to live in puppy mills. Now mother dogs should have unfettered access to an exercise area and the use of metal strand flooring is banned. With your help, the Animal Legal Defense Fund will continue to push for stronger laws protecting dogs until the inhumane puppy mill industry shuts down altogether.
California Governor Jerry Brown made the bullhook ban official, signing into law a prohibition on using this cruel instrument of torture statewide. Since it is practically impossible to force elephants to perform tricks without a bullhook, circuses and other industries that exploit elephants for entertainment have been dealt a serious blow. California is now the second state -- after Rhode Island -- to have a statewide bullhook ban. A huge thank you to all of our California supporters who took action, and contacted their legislators at our urging -- to make sure this bill got to the governor’s desk. With your support, the Animal Legal Defense Fund will continue to push for regulatory changes that will bring an end to the cruel exploitation of rare and endangered species like elephants once and for all.
By now many of you have already heard the great news that Animaland Zoo, an inhumane roadside zoo in Pennsylvania, has shut down as a result of our legal efforts. After closure, the Animal Legal Defense Fund helped to ensure the animals were relocated to sanctuaries that will allow them to have more space, companionship and species appropriate enrichment. It is because of your support that we are able to litigate cases to liberate animals like the ones at Animaland Zoo.
Did you know that more than 10,000 dogs are shot and killed by police officers each year? In an effort to expose this injustice, and to draw attention to solutions and prevention that protect officers and dogs, the Animal Legal Defense Fund is sponsoring the documentary, Of Dogs and Men. We’re hosting the Los Angeles premiere Thursday, September 22 at 6:30 p.m. If you can, please join us. You can also visit the film's website to learn more about seeing the film, licensing a screening and taking action to protect dogs.
A big hero of ours, nine-year-old Willow, makes toys for cats and kittens who don't have homes. For every $25 donated, Willow has pledged to sew and send one cat toy to her local shelter. To help with her efforts, we’re promoting a “Wall of Love” on GivingGrid. You can support Willow, shelter kittens and the Animal Legal Defense Fund by adding your name to the Wall of Love. Give it a try!
For the animals, BRAVO ALDF!!!!!!
Stephen E. Wells
Executive Director
It's our worst nightmare. Last Friday, September 9, 2016, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board voted 7-1 to recommend the mass killing of up to 45,000 wild horses and burros in holding facilities. The recommendation was made just hours after the agency announced it was cancelling plans to conduct cruel sterilization experiments on wild mares, citing the lawsuit filed by AWHPC and The Cloud Foundation as the reason.
Although at this time, the lethal option is just a recommendation, there is a real danger that the BLM and its allies will use it to attempt to overturn the Congressional ban on killing healthy horses and burros or selling them for slaughter. Now is the time to demonstrate massive public outrage at the prospect of the mass killing of 45,000 innocent wild horses and burros who once roamed free and are supposed to be protected by federal law. Please Take a Stand Today!
Despite receiving thousands of emails from citizens across the U.S. in support of humane management, the BLM's National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board last Friday voted in favor a resolution to kill or sell for slaughter up to 45,000 wild horses and burros who once roamed free but are now warehoused in government holding facilities. Only one member, Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation, voted against the resolution.
The Board's outrageous recommendation is completely out of step with the wishes of the American public, 80 percent of which opposes horse slaughter! It is the culmination of an orchestrated effort by the BLM to legalize slaughter as a solution to the problem it has created by refusing to utilize the long-available and scientifically-proven PZP birth control and failing to adequately reduce livestock grazing on drought stricken rangelands. Read all about the stomach-turning events of last week's Advisory Board meeting below.
This is barbaric action towards our legacy of horses and they will be judged on their actions regarding these mass murders of our WILD HORSES AND BURRO'S...
WE HOLD THE KEYS AND WE ARE THE LOUDEST VOICES TO BE HEARD WE WILL SAVE AND PROTECT...
lmost every day, PETA receives reports about “rescue” and “sanctuary” operations that claim to “save” animals from euthanasia but instead severely neglect them—sometimes to death. Over and over, PETA has exposed cases in which sham rescues, like Caboodle Ranch and Angel’s Gate, prey on well-meaning people who have never actually visited the facility and have no idea what they’re funding.
Now, PETA has documented that at Darlynn’s Darlins Rescue Ranch, Inc. (DDRR), outside Polk City, Florida, pigs weren’t given anything to eat for up to five days at a time, and then, when they were, it was often nothing but rotten scraps of produce and moldy bread. Sick, injured, and dying animals were denied veterinary care. Malnourished dogs kept confined to kennels outdoors were deprived of water as temperatures approached 100 degrees. And the list goes on.
Based on PETA’s evidence of systemic neglect and unnecessary suffering at the facility, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) executed a warrant on August 4, 2016, and seized nearly 200 animals, rescuing them from utter misery. On August 9, 2016, officials charged DDRR operators Darlynn Czerner and Clinton Martin with a total of 282 counts of cruelty to animals, including six felonies.
Spunky and Buddy
Spunky was emaciated, covered with sores, and unable to use his back legs. He was left languishing like that for months on end. When the largest of several lesions on his back grew to the size of an orange and became abscessed, Czerner and Martin spent an hour cutting into it andsqueezing pus and blood out of it without any anesthetics, while he screamed and struggled to escape.
In the weeks that followed, Czerner squeezed the abscess again and again, tearing large swaths of skin off Spunky’s back and admitting ashe screamed that “of course” it caused him pain.
Spunky spent several days penned up with Buddy, a listless, emaciated pig Czerner said she would take to the vet in early June. But time passed, and she didn’t do it. Buddy was left lying on his side—just standing up was a struggle for him. According to Martin, after suffering for “over two weeks,” Buddy was found dead. Spunky was by Buddy’s side on the last day of his miserable life.
Martin routinely denied pigs feed for up to five days (even though it took just 30 minutes or so to feed them) and rejected numerous offers to help feed the animals. When they were finally fed, some got scraps of produce—much of it rotten—or bread that was often moldy. But they were denied hay and only rarely given pellet feed.
When food was provided, smaller, less assertive pigs couldn’t access it, as larger pigs dominated the few troughs available. The vertebrae, hips, and other bones protruded prominently under the skin of numerous emaciated pigs.
Even though some pigs’ hooves curled up and others’ tusks rubbed against their faces because they were so overgrown, no hoof or dental care—which are important to pigs’ health—was provided during PETA’s investigation.
With such a nutritionally deficient diet and lack of basic care, they didn’t stand a chance.
An Emaciated Steer, Desperately Thirsty Chickens and Dogs, and Dying Cats
As heat indices topped 100 degrees in the Florida summer, Isis, the couple’s emaciated steer, was repeatedly found without water. He often had little to eat besides a few wisps of hay on the ground, despite requests by a PETA eyewitness to give him more food.
Approximately 40 hens and roosters were found without water again and again. When water was provided by a PETA eyewitness, the chickens routinely drank for nearly 10 minutes.
Thin dogs were repeatedly found without water and drank voraciously whenever it was provided. After a dogfight occurred on the property, Martin offered to shoot the dog whose leg was injured and bleeding. No veterinary care was provided.
After a lethargic and unresponsive cat named Princess convulsed and died, Czerner admitted that she had so many animals, she was simply unable to care for them all. (She also kept several pigs in her bathroom and in a crate in her house.) She even admitted that she feared being jailed for neglect.
You Can Help Stop This Cruelty!
The Office of the State Attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit has joined the PCSO in taking swift, strong action in this case. Please thank State Attorney Jerry Hill for his support of the PCSO’s efforts and let him know that you strongly support his office’s action and criminal prosecution of this case.
Make sure you aren’t funding or backing a “slow-kill” nightmare for animals. Instead, support professionally run, open-admission shelters that provide animals with veterinary care and, when necessary, a painless and dignified end, instead of hoarding them and letting them suffer until they die on their own, in misery.
