Deep Roots: Animal Rights Blog

This video from current_, entitled Good Night Tex, is a heartbreaking look at the euthanization of shelter animals through the eyes of the one doing the euthanization. The video does an excellent job at showing just how important it is to stop breeding and start spaying and neutering your companion animals (and start adopting shelter animals). Watching the empathy that this woman feels for the dogs she euthanizes, I can’t possibly look her in the eye and say that she is my enemy in the struggle to stop the killing of 3-4 million shelter animals each year. Instead, we must focus on why it is that so many animals end up in shelters in the first place.

hat tip to The PETA Files

Legal Support Needed for Ten Animal Rights Activists in Chicago [Infoshop]
On June 16th, ten activists on the HLS Shut Them Down tour were arrested in Chicago. Two were minors and were not charged, while the other eight are facing three misdemeanor charges each, and one is facing one felony charge.

Judge Dismisses Schumacher Suit Against IDA, PeTA and Kevin Mieras [Portland IMC]
In federal court today, the judge dismissed all of Schumacher’s claims against IDA (and its employees) and PeTA, and dismissed a majority of the claims against Kevin Mieras.

Cat and Dog Fur Trade to End in EU [Sky News]
The European Parliament has voted to ban the “horrific” trade in cat and dog fur in the EU, in response to campaigns to outlaw a practice which many consider unethical.

The copy of Earthlings that I bought for the sanctuary showed up yesterday, so my partner and I decided to take a midday break and watch it. Neither of us had seen it, but I’ve certainly been listening to all the buzz over the past year.

The movie is absolutely incredible. A magnificent primer. Sure, it can be nearly impossible to watch at times due to the violent nature of much of what is portrayed in the movie, but isn’t that all the more reason to watch it? I like the line from the movie, “ignorance is not an option.” I think I might steal that and start incorporating it into the sanctuary’s materials. I also planned to do a showing or two of Earthlings here in Bloomington. People need to watch it.

Mercy for Animals has released a new undercover investigation video from inside a House of Raeford Farms slaughterhouse in North Carolina. You can click here to read more information about the investigation.

From MFA:

Largely hidden from view, every year over 9 billion chickens and 250 million turkeys are raised on factory farms and killed in our nation’s slaughterhouses. Their suffering often goes unseen and their cries unheard - until now.

A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation takes you behind the closed doors of one of the country’s largest poultry slaughterhouses – House of Raeford Farms, Inc. in Raeford, North Carolina. In January and February of 2007 an MFA investigator worked in the “live-hang” area of the plant (where live birds are snapped into shackles on the slaughter line), secretly filming egregious acts of animal cruelty with a hidden camera. Shocking abuses he witnessed include: