A story of stress and upheaval from the violent twentieth century recorded in stress hormones and tracked by scientists… This isn’t the tale of a war-torn human population, it’s the story of whales harassed and hunted by humans over a period of 150 years. Scientists have gathered earwax plugs from between 1870 and 2016 to study the stress hormones in whales. Stress hormones dramatically increased during times of intensive whaling and decreased when moratoriums were put on whaling in the 70s. However, now factors like pollution, climate change and noise pollution seem to have been causing a slow rise in stress for whales over the last 40 years. The oceans have become a boiling soup of pollution, human activity and higher temperatures, and whales, like many creatures are being turned into refugees of violent industrial human activity. Not only this but whales were shown to have survivor stress because of whaling, meaning that whales who were exposed to the indirect effects of whaling and its constant harassment experienced stress spanning vast distances. This research spells out another chapter in the saga of humans waking up all too slowly to the reality that we share our planet with other beings, who experience a rich range of emotions and can suffer terribly at our hands. Read more about this research here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ear-wax-tells-story-humans-and-whales-over-last-century-180970840/
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A new Sheriff’s Association report confirms the truth that violence is universal, and when animals suffer at the hands of violent people, humans are likely to suffer too. Just in case it wasn’t clear that violence against animals isn’t just a minor indiscretion, the report has indicated that when people commit animal cruelty, they are often on the road to committing other serious violent crimes against humans. Even more upsetting, animals are often victims in domestic abuse situations. In these situations, they are often used as a tool of control to get abused spouses or vulnerable older people to comply. Because animals can’t speak up, crimes are difficult to prosecute, and those humans who love the animals may also be silenced. As always, animals have much to teach us – this time that the silent ones are those who often suffer most. Saving animals and saving people who cannot speak for themselves must go hand in hand.
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In some good news, it looks like more people are choosing to have a cruelty-free Thanksgiving, as turkey sales drop at two major poultry companies. Sales of tofurkey and vegan options are on the rise. This Thanksgiving, the LA Dodgers gave away 100 vegan turkeys to raise awareness.
The tragic thing is that losses at both companies won’t restore the lives of turkeys who have died. Both the companies mentioned in this Live Kindly article have put their vegan lines in competition with their poultry products. An oversupply of turkeys means a loss for the company, but also meaningless loss of life and/or miserable lives for turkeys on farms. Even a turkey farm owner whose company is fighting Direct Action Everywhere activists in court has taken it upon himself to release birds to the activists. The truce came about through an unlikely friendship between the farm owner and the head of DxE. DxE activists are facing 60 years for releasing turkeys (the owner of the farm isn’t in favor of the charges).
Until recently, turkeys were not treated like living beings. They were symbolic to humans at best and fuel at worst. Turkeys were even thrown out of planes at the infamous Yellville Turkey Trot – a sport, and a joke because they couldn’t fly. The trend for a cruelty-free Thanksgiving shows that we are moving away from these terrible times, but casual cultural traditions like the White House turkey pardon make it apparent that we still have far to go. Consider encouraging your family and friends to start a cruelty-free Thanksgiving tradition next year and beyond!
Animals do not have to suffer so that humans or other animals can live – and in fact, that suffering seldom produces results and wastes research dollars. An article penned by a neuroscientist and PETA research associate details how so-called “breakthroughs” in new treatments using lab animals very rarely translate to results for humans. We also have new science proving other methods to be more effective. Take for example, this news that algorithms crunching databases of large amounts of chemical data are more effective than toxicology tests on animals.
Animal testing increasingly looks more like a cruel sport than a necessary stage in testing. As the above article comments, one researcher hangs mice from their feet, sets mice against each other to measure stress and cuts into their brains. Like so many outdated practices, animal testing reinforces the myth of its own necessity. But isn’t necessity the mother of invention? As animal testing has become less acceptable, new methods have sprung up. In America, animals are still tested on because small animals aren’t covered by the Animal Welfare Act, a legacy of our disregard for creatures other than humans. See what you can do to write to your local lab or university to ask them to stop animal testing. Chances are, they have the science to help them do so.
Would violent psychopaths stand out more in a culture where animal cruelty wasn’t tolerated? From this list of violent criminals who tested on animals provided by PETA, it appears that animal testing can provide a convenient veil for violent psychopaths to hide behind. If these criminals didn’t get to wreak cruelty on animals in a legitimized setting, perhaps their latent cruelty and violence would be spotted earlier and checked.
Of course, most animal testers are not psychopaths. But society’s cognitive dissonance on morality – we preach kindness to humans and practice cruelty to each other and animals – is the reason why the violent can continue to blend in easily. Aggression, violence and cold disregard for life is the secret gospel that a mechanistic, capitalist society is preaching. And if psychopaths can get their start in animal testing with no questions asked, those without violent tendencies may be broken down by these norms, suffering a huge psychological cost. The psychological health of people working in industries that harm animals should be a huge concern as it breeds both trauma and violence. Neither of these effects – whether they lead to further violence or not – stop at the boundary of the individual. They go on to affect everyone close to the individual and the world around them. Animal testing and animal cruelty is a harm done to everyone – animals and human.
I am in line for the Killbox. I am standing with the Others who love me, and whom I love. We are living beings. We have lives. Goals. Culture. We like shelter and good food. We like the sun on our brow. We like the clean crisp air of the morning. But today we are being driven toward the place. We know what is coming. We are terrified. We are sad. We tremble and our bodies start to shake. Tears come. Our legs nearly give out to escape this vile place. This Nazi place. This black evil place. We are pushed there harder – quickly. I can smell death. I don’t want to die in this place. Yet they make me go there, closer. Then it is my turn. This is wrong. It is illogical. It is the place of abject poverty. It is the place of shame. This is the place of the humans.
The comment period is coming to an end on a series of changes to the Endangered Species Act today. These changes have been portrayed as a way of giving industry “incentives” to protect wildlife. This is a roundabout way of saying that important regulations to protect wildlife will be removed to make way for industry. The argument for the changes revolve around the idea that since species are still endangered, the act isn’t working. This is like saying that we should remove social welfare because people are still poor.
The Endangered Species Act doesn’t protect all animals, but it has protected 99 percent of the animals it covers from extinction. It’s imperative for animals that we see through the deceitful arguments of the “regulation-shy.” These are nothing more than a veil for shifting the focus of conservation towards human interests and away from animal interests. The changes will:
– Remove protection from threatened species, if they are not officially endangered, allowing them to be hunted and trapped
– Exclude scientists from federal findings
– Change language to make it less clear-cut that species’ interests should trump economic ones
What is most outrageous is that these actions have been portrayed as reasonable. Handing power to business owners and vested economic interests is a recipe for disaster. What will it take for human beings to learn that a superior force will always harm the vulnerable if left unchecked? This is not an abstract philosophy, it’s the basic physics of how beings interact. It’s time to refuse this cowardice and shift the weight of our choices towards protecting the vulnerable. Please make your comment today and join the fight to protect endangered species.
Read more:
https://www.missoulacurrent.com/outdoors/2018/09/endangered-species-act-3/
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