Deep Roots: Animal Rights Blog

The floods in southern Indiana have been devastating. Our field was under six feet of water. All of us at Deep Roots were well above the flood waters, but not all others were as lucky. Animals throughout the region are in need of your help. In some cases, companion animals were stranded. In others, emergency shelters set up for humans refused access to families who refused to leave their non-human companions. One shelter in Morgan County was completely engulfed with water and over 200 animals had to be evacuated by boat. Things are getting back to normal, but many still need your help.

Here is a message from the Monroe County Humane Association:

The MCHA has received many phone calls and e-mails regarding what is being done and can be done to help our neighboring communities, their shelters and animals that may be stranded by flood waters.

from HSUS:

Measures to protect pets from being sold for experimentation, and also from the horrors of dogfighting, are being considered right now for inclusion in the final Farm Bill. A small committee will decide the fate of these provisions, and you live in a district that has more influence than others in the country. Please take action right away to protect pets.

Both the House and Senate Farm Bills include provisions to stop the abuses of Class B Dealers, who acquire dogs and cats through methods such as pet theft and fraudulent response to “free to good home” ads. The Senate Bill also includes a provision to strengthen the federal law to combat the barbaric activity of dogfighting. These provisions are in jeopardy and we need your help right away to ensure that they are retained in the final Farm Bill.

From KOMO TV:

Researchers implant coils on the monkeys’ eyeballs, thread wires up the skull and put a metal cylinder - sometimes two - into holes drilled in the monkey’s skull.

Through public disclosure requests we obtained thousands of pages of internal e-mails and reports from the UW and federal agencies. Some of the surgeries were approved, many more were not. We found evidence that some monkeys underwent a dozen or more surgeries, as the eye coils and head chambers were removed and replaced, again and again.

From StopAnimalTests.com:

Prompted by a complaint from PETA, federal investigators opened a formal inquiry at the University of Washington, Seattle (UW). New information from the ensuing investigations has confirmed widespread violations of animal protection regulations. The animal suffering involved in these cruel experiments is shocking. Experimenters cut off the tops of monkeys’ skulls, insert electrodes into their brains, and implant wire coils in their eyes. The monkeys are then restrained in experimentation chairs, with their heads bolted in place so that they can’t move while experimenters track their eye movements. They are kept hungry or thirsty much of the time so that they’ll comply during tests to get a sip of water or a bite of food.

This holiday season, thousands of puppies will be purchased as holiday gifts for loved ones. Many unsuspecting shoppers, however, will be giving their loved ones the gift of animal cruelty.

Yesterday marked the beginning of Puppy Mill Action Week (it also marked the beginning of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence), so expect to see a lot about puppy mills and what you can do to stop them in the coming days.

Here is a video from a recent undercover investigation that the Humane Society of the United States conducted in Virginia.

What you can do to shut down puppy mills:

• Adopt from local animal shelters and rescue organizations, never buy from pet stores, websites or newspaper ads
• Boycott pet stores that sell dogs; tell the store owners why you are boycotting them and have your friends do the same

Ignoring the global moratorium on killing whales for commercial use, Japan has decided to provoke yet another fight over marine life. Heading to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, Japan has announced plans to kill 1,000 whales, including endangered fin whales and humpbacks, in the name of “scientific research.” Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace have both departed to intervene.

“The Japanese government’s “scientific” whaling program is a sham and a source of diplomatic tension between Japan and countries that support whale conservation, like the United States. Whaling has no place in Antarctica - it’s a place of peace and science, and this is not science,” said Karli Thomas, expedition leader aboard Greenpeace’s Esperanza.

Greenpeace is collaborating with a team of scientists on the “Great Whale Trail” project to prove that you don’t need to kill whales to study them. The project uses data from satellite tagging of whales, harmless skin biopsies and fluke identification.