Good news for dogs – Indonesia just banned the cruel practice of dog and boar fighting. (http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/indonesia-bans-brutal-boar-and-dog-fights/) Yet, as this video shows, dogs are still suffering because of the horrific dog meat trade. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5042541/Horrific-footage-Indonesia-s-dog-meat-trade.html) As the video shows, standards for animal wellbeing in this industry are zero. Dogs are swaddled and bound in bags. The dogs are literally thrown into the back of trucks on top of other dogs. They are awake when they are bound, whimpering and struggling. They are beheaded in front of their companions. These dogs are not spared a moment of pain and fear on their journey to death.
This is not a niche practice, if anything the demand for dog meat in Indonesia is on the rise. The cruel treatment of dogs shouldn’t take cover under the name of industry. Dogs are intelligent, feeling animals whose lives are cut short in extraordinarily brutal ways in the Indonesian dog meat trade.
The video is hard to watch, but please watch and share. It would be easy to forget the plight of dogs in the meat trade because of small gains elsewhere. But this cruelty continues every day, and these dogs must not be forgotten. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5042541/Horrific-footage-Indonesia-s-dog-meat-trade.html)

It’s always good to be able to report any new positive steps for how animals are treated by the law and our society. In some recent good news, an Italian court was able to consider a sick dog as a family member. Though this was just one animal, it means another big stride for how we view animals legally and how our culture views them in relation to humans. In American law, courts have recently started to recognize pets as more than property when it comes to things like divorce. One of the biggest obstacles to freeing animals is our culture’s deeply embedded understanding of them as chattels to humans. Every decision that changes the law in this regard is a big win for animals.
The woman had the help of lawyers from the Italian Anti-Vivisection Leage (LAV), one of the biggest animal rights groups in Europe. The decision rested partly on a provision in Italy’s penal code that provides for people who abandon an animal to “grave suffering” to be jailed for a year and fined up to €10,000. The woman was able to get a pay allowance for absences related to “serious or family personal reasons” to look after her red setter, who was undergoing a serious operation. You can visit sites like the ADLF to learn more about legally protecting animals in the US:

Animal Protection Laws of the United States of America and Canada

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41594224
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/12/italian-woman-sick-pay-leave-time-off-look-after-ill-dog

At long last… The US may finally be about to join billions of people in countries – like India and nations in the EU — that have sought to end the needless suffering of many animals by banning animal tested cosmetics and the sale of cosmetics tested on animals. With the bipartisan support of 174 House cosponsors, Republican and Democrat sponsors have planned to reintroduce the Humane Cosmetics Act.

Even though legislation hasn’t been passed yet, it’s good news politicians are finally sending the message that the torture of animals is inhumane. Animals tested for cosmetics have chemicals applied to their skin that make them sick. They are killed at the end of experiments which often yield results that are unreliable – animals do not react to chemicals the same way as humans do. In addition to being inhumane, animal testing is unnecessary: we already have technologies that are faster and less costly.

So are we finally seeing the end of the myth of the “necessity” of “animal sacrifice”? Last year it was revealed that the majority of the American public is against animal cruelty.  However, until the act is passed, we should let our senators or congress-people know how the public feels about animal suffering: that it’s unnecessary and unacceptable.

Jessica Ellen Monk

Americans’ opposition to animal testing at record high, survey finds

This Legislation Could Make Animal Testing for Cosmetics in the U.S. a Thing of the Past

 

 

 

From our book, Vivantonomy: A Trans-Humanist Phenomenology of the Self

~ Kevin Boileau

 

First, we must dismiss the notion that humans are better, of more worth, or higher on a value scale.  We must substitute it with a new axiom of ontological parity.

 

Second, we must agree that in principle that most of us have little knowledge about the whole: about how all beings, processes, and structures work together in an ecosystem.  We substitute it with a new axiom of rigorous inquiry.

 

Third, we must accept a new Archimedean point.   We cannot pretend to be at the center of the universe or the planet earth.  This means that we must render an accounting of all life forms, including ours, holding that all living beings have equal interests and rights.  We must, therefore, have an axiom that recognizes we play a part in the whole but are not the whole, and that we must mediate and weigh our interests relative to those of other life forms.

 

Fourth, we must recognize that all life forms come from the same source.  This leads us to the reconstituted notion of solidarity.  This is a trans-human notion that includes the human equally with all other life forms.

 

Fifth, we must acknowledge and accept a new depth and breadth of our responsibility to others, including humans, other sentient life forms, additional life forms, and the environment in general.

 

Sixth, we must work diligently to formulate and articulate a new philosophical anthropology for human beings.  This means we must strive for new meaning and understanding of the world and our place within it.  This is neither the autonomous subject nor the heteronomous subject but it is a new human.  This re-formulates the reality principle.

“Cecilia’s present situation moves us. If we take care of her wellbeing, it is not Cecilia who will owe us; it is us who will have to thank her for giving us the opportunity to grow as a group and to feel a little more human.” – Judge María Alejandra Mauricio

It is our view at Freedom4Animals that we respect the autonomy, sense of self, and needs/preferences of each and every sentient being.  This is part of our Non-Violent Life Project and a deep meaning in our book entitled Vivantonomy: A Trans-Humanist Phenomenology of the Self.  We must stop harming non-human animals.  We must stop exploiting them.  We must stop commodifying them.  We must stop eating them.  We must stop wearing them.  We must stop using them for our “research,”  Instead, we must guard them and protect them.  It is our belief that humans owe fiduciary duties to all non-human primates; to all domestic dogs and cats; to the orca; to the elephant. And to more.

It is a sacred duty.

~ Dr. KCBoileau

Little Sage

3.11.17 Kevin Boileau

 

I made it home, mama

but they hurt me so bad

then crawled inside, papa

they’d already killed me, sad

 

My body-broken-stopped

that day, and I —

could not cry nor walk to die

but I loved you then

 

I’m a ghost here now

in another room, train is

coming soon, so I can’t stay on

but I loved you then

 

I hear you all crying

it’s not over for you still

but my little paws are healed

I must leave, the rain, I can now smell