Author: Pamelyn Ferdin

Please Help Australia’s Wildlife

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn , , , , ,

This is me at the age of three with a beloved koala doll. Today my heart is broken for all the koalas and other animals of Australia. That country is facing a crisis from the worst fires in their history. TV news programs tell us that millions of acres of land have been scorched, homes burned, and 19 people killed, but often left unmentioned is the fact that half a billion (that’s billion, with a B) animals have also been burned to death or choked to death by smoke. This is a tragedy on an almost unimaginable scale.

Koalas are uniquely at risk during bushfires. While kangaroos and Australia’s other native animals can move quickly and try to outrun the fast-moving fires, koalas move slowly. Because of this, they are dying by the thousands. According to Newsweek, experts estimate 8,000 koalas in New South Wales alone have died in the fires. Even koalas who manage to get away from the fires are being brought to relief stations and animal hospitals with life-threatening burns and other serious injuries.

In the time it takes you to read this, thousands more animals will die. Millions more – mammals, birds, and reptiles – are in imminent peril. You can help.

The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital desperately needs help. Donate here.

The World Wildlife Fund is accepting donations for help with emergency animal care. You can help them out here.

WIRES (Wildlife Rescue) is an organization that helps rescue and treat injured animals. An emergency fund has been set up to help. You can donate here.

Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast is another worthy organization. You can help them out here.

PETA Australia helps Australia’s animals in so many ways. Make a donation here.

Humans must be stewards of the Earth, including ALL the world’s animals, not just pf those companions at home or the wildlife in your own area. Please consider making a donation now to help save lives and treat the injured from the Australian wildfires.

Peace to ALL the animals with whom we share this planet.

 

 

 

“Game Changers” – A Must-See Movie

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn , , , ,

Happy Holidays to all my fans! Looking for a great movie to watch before shopping for the big holiday dinner? I’m really excited about the Netflix documentary “Game Changers” and a recent USA Today article that are both changing the public face of veganism. Now that elite athletes are “going vegan,” people are realizing just how important eating a plan- based diet is for health, stamina and recovery from injuries and inflammation. “Game Changers” is produced by James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic, Chris Paul, Joseph Pace, and James Wilks.

You won’t believe all the  professional athletes who have adopted a vegan diet, including the NFL legend quarterback Tom Brady, NBA stars Kyrie Irving and Chris Paul, ultra-marathoner Scott Jurek, silver medal-winning Olympic cyclist Dotsie Bausch, and tennis champions Serena and Venus Williams. Arnold Schwarzenegger is vegan, and the strongest man on earth, Patrik Baboumian, is, too. Watch Baboumian flip a car over in “Game Changers” and do a yoke-walk carrying 1,200 pounds. As his t-shirt says, he’s a “Vegan Badass!” They’ve all switched to a plant-based diet to put them at the top of their game. “Game Changers” also features interviews with elite athletes, sports doctors, cardiologists, and even a urologist who proves by clinical trial that a vegan diet has a very positive effect on men’s “manhood.” 

I’ve been vegan for almost 30 years.  While I enjoy the health benefits, my motivation was to do what I could to put a stop to the cruelty, suffering and killing of animals. I’ve witnessed firsthand the shocking things done to animals on factory farms and smaller independent farms.  I’ve seen the chickens with their beaks sheared off so they won’t peck each other in crowded, stressful living conditions. I’ve seen the poor suffering dairy cows artificially inseminated in what the dairy industry calls “rape racks” to keep them pregnant and lactating their sad miserable lives. They’re then killed when their productivity declines. I’ve seen three-day-old male baby calves torn from their mothers’ sides to be shipped to veal farms where they are put into cages so small they can’t even turn around, then fed an iron-deficient diet to keep their flesh pale and tender. These and other horrors I’ve seen with my own eyes are why I try so hard to inform and educate others with my Saturday Facebook essays.   

Whether you’re interested in helping putting an end to cruel suffering and death of animals or simply interested in improving your health and vitality, “Game Changers” is the must-see movie of the season. 

Here is the USA Today article, which underscores the revelations in “Game Changers:”

ATHLETES TURN TO PLANT-BASED AND VEGAN DIETS TO GAIN EDGE IN A GROWING SPORTS WORLD TREND

Alex Morgan remembers athletes sporting milk mustaches in ads when she was a kid, reinforcing the idea that she needed protein from animal and dairy products to be strong. “I never thought it was possible I could be playing at an elite level as a professional athlete with a plant-based diet,” the U.S. women’s soccer star told USA TODAY Sports. “Then I realized it wasn’t detrimental at all. What I learned growing up just wasn’t true.”

When Morgan’s Orlando Pride teammates and the MLS teammates of her husband, Servando Carrasco, showed they could thrive while eating vegan, the stigma was erased and Morgan was ready to try a new diet. She became vegetarian in August 2017 and then took on a vegan lifestyle at the beginning of 2018.

NEW TREND IN SPORTS WORLD

What Alex Morgan and Chris Paul eat everyday is entirely  plant based.  “If anything, it makes me stronger and helps with fatigue and recovery,” said Morgan, who had the U.S. women team’s chef, Teren Green, prepare vegan meals during the World Cup, prompting several of her teammates to give it a try. 

Veganism is on the rise in the United States — the plant-based market increased 17% in dollar sales this last year, according to The Good Food Institute — and more athletes are turning to the diet, particularly at the peak and latter stages of their careers. 

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is the most prominent football player to embrace veganism, crediting his plant-based diet for allowing him to play at an MVP level into his 40s. He made the change starting in 2014, and detailed his approach in his 2017 book, “The TB12 Method.”

Athletes have been exposed to plant-based diets for a variety of reasons. NBA guard Chris Paul said his children’s nanny was vegan. 

Recovering from a shoulder injury, Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton said in April he’s gone vegan to aid his stamina and rehabilitation. 

Tennis star Venus Williams adopted a vegan diet in 2011 after she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. 

A gluten allergy led Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic to go plant-based, and in 2016 he opened up a Monte Carlo vegan restaurant. 

While most nutrition experts are in agreement that veganism aids recovery and promotes good health, others raise questions about its effectiveness.  Yet athletes are among the biggest advocates for veganism. 

Morgan and Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving were named “Most Beautiful Vegan Celebrities” by PETA this year. “The rules aren’t as strict as everyone thinks,” Irving told USA TODAY Sports. “I’m an example of someone who ate really unhealthy — fast food or a quick TV dinner in the microwave — without educating myself on what I was putting into my body. Now I feel like I understand the truth — how certain chemicals in meat and dairy affect your body, and that now there are alternatives bridging the gap available.”

Those alternatives start with plant-based meat companies such as Beyond Meat, which has attracted Paul, Irving and Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins as investors. You’ve got to be open-minded,” Paul said. “I was someone who was like, ‘I don’t want that fake chicken or fake burger.’ But it tastes similar and it really makes a huge difference in how I feel.”

James Loomis, who practices internal medicine at Barnard Medical Center in Washington, D.C., said he believes a vegan diet is a natural fit for athletes: “It leads to quicker recovery from workouts and better injury prevention. The food pyramid is misleading and that’s stayed with us from a young age. The standard American diet leads to low-grade inflammation so when athletes are exercising it’s like putting Diesel fuel into a regular car.” 

Cate Shanahan, a nutrition consultant says “The healthiest diet comes from four natural pillars — fresh food, fermented and sprouted food, meat cooked on the bone, and organ meats.”

Loomis disagrees, and has data to prove it. He collaborated with experts for a 2019 study that outlined evidence of plant-based diets benefiting endurance athletes in heart health, overall performance and recovery. 

“It’s a factual myth that we have to have animal protein to perform at a high level,” he said. “With a plant based diet, food becomes more like medicine.” 

Loomis is one of the doctors featured on “Game Changers,” a documentary that debuted in September that features MMA fighter James Wilks exploring the differences between protein from plant-based and meat-based diets.

“If you go into locker rooms and look at the pre-game meal, it’s usually steak or chicken or pasta, and there’s lots of Whey Protein powder,” said Loomis, the former team internist for the St. Louis Rams and Cardinals. “That’s then amplified commercially with marketing, basically saying, ‘You’re not a man unless you eat meat.’”

Times are changing. Brady appeared in a 2002 Got Milk? ad. Nowadays he’s promoting his own plant-based protein shakes. 

Silver medal-winning Olympic cyclist Dotsie Bausch became vegan in her mid-30s — three years before the 2012 London Games — and appeared in an anti-milk commercial for her non-profit, Switch4Good, during the 2018 Winter Olympics. 

“Most people have meat and dairy because the next person does it,” Bausch said. “The truth is milk doesn’t make you grow big and strong.” 

Chris Paul’s personal chef, Seong Hwang, prepared a post-game meal for the Houston Rockets last season. He didn’t tell players until afterwards that it was made with Beyond Meat.

“The players, the staff, they all loved it solely based on the taste,” Seong said. “No one wants to give up taste. Chris is a big foodie. If what I was making him didn’t taste good, he wouldn’t stick with it. Whenever you hear veganism, you think you have to give up something or eat tofu to survive. That’s really not the case.”

The vegan perception can be damning, though. According to a 2017 report by NBC Sports Bay Area, NFL teams were dissuaded by Colin Kaepernick’s vegan diet, calling it a red flag when considering signing the free agent quarterback.

“There’s a weird connotation that comes with veganism,” said Loomis, who moved his practice to Washington, D.C., from the St. Louis area because colleagues in the Midwest thought his approach was “crazy.”

Morgan says the stigma can go both ways.

“It took me a while to feel comfortable with my lifestyle,” said Morgan, who also supports veganism because of ethical concerns around animal rights. “The vegan community can be very unforgiving at times, and I don’t want to sit here and say I’ve never eaten dairy or worn leather. But I haven’t eaten meat or dairy in two years and do the best I can.”

“I just want to feel good about why I’m doing this. I don’t think our country is there yet, in terms of being able to adopt a fully vegan lifestyle, but we’re getting there.” 

New York Passes Bill Banning the Declawing of Cats

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn , , , , ,

Hooray for New York, which this week became the first state to pass legislation banning the declawing of cats. California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are considering similar bans. Declawing is already banned in some cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver.

Cats’ claws are a vital part of their anatomy and their instinctive behavior. They use them to escape from other animals or people who are hurting or threatening them. Cats claw to have fun and exercise, to maintain the condition of their nails, and to mark their territory. They stretch by digging their claws in and pulling against their own claw-hold.

Declawing of cats, or onychectomy, is not at all like clipping your fingernails. It is the amputation of the last bone, including the nail bed and claw, on each front toe. It is the same as cutting off each of your fingers at the first knuckle. Declawing is serious surgery and puts a cat at risk of adverse reactions to anesthesia, gangrene, hemorrhaging, permanent nerve damage, persistent pain, difficulty walking, scar tissue formation, bone fragments, and skin disorders. After surgery, the nails may grow back inside the paw, causing pain but remaining invisible to observers. Declawing results in a gradual weakening of leg, shoulder, and back muscles, and because of impaired balance caused by the procedure, declawed cats must relearn to walk, much as a person would after losing his or her toes.

Without claws, even house-trained cats may urinate outside the litter box. Declawed cats may be morose, reclusive, and withdrawn or irritable, aggressive, and unpredictable. Many people think that declawed cats are safer around babies, but in fact, the lack of claws, a cat’s first line of defense, makes many cats feel so insecure that they tend to nip more often as a means of self-protection. Declawed cats often develop behavioral problems that eventually lead to their being dumped at animal shelters and killed.

Peace to all the animals with whom we share this planet!

Senior Animals Need Love, Too

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn , , , ,

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Sure you can, but really, why would you want to? Old dogs (and cats) are perfect just the way they are.

November is Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month. It’s a sad fact that older animals have the hardest time finding homes and are often the first to be killed at city and county shelters. But there are so many reasons that older animals make ideal companions. Here are just a few:

Older pets are typically calmer than curious puppies and kittens and are quite content with a more relaxing day-to to-day routine. The mellow nature of older pets makes them a great fit for households with children too. Before ending up in shelters, senior pets often come from some sort of family life which makes adjusting to a new home environment much easier than it could be for puppies or kittens.

Senior dogs and cats are often already trained (and potty trained) and may even be pros at performing basic commands. The great news is that even if they’re not, they are much easier to train than younger animals. Their experience around humans, along with more established physical and mental abilities, allow them to better understand the requested commands and pick up new tasks much faster than puppies or kittens.

Senior animals don’t require the constant attention required young ones. Of course, they still love to play and go for walks, they just don’t require as much of your focus and energy. All they really want is a warm and comfortable place to sleep, fresh food and water, and a companion to love and one who will love them back. If you want an animal friend who can fit right in the moment he or she comes home, a senior dog or cat might be just what you’re looking for.

Last, but far from least, by adopting a senior pet or any animal – you are giving the gift of life. Animals, old and young, are dumped at city and county shelters every day, and, sadly, many will never leave alive. Doesn’t every animal deserve a chance at a loving and caring home?

Thinking about adding an animal companion to your household? Adopt and save a life – and why not adopt a grateful and loving older animal?

Peace for ALL the animals with whom we share this planet!

Cruelty to Animals Is No Three-Ring Circus

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn , , ,

Hanna-Barbera’s The Roman Holidays was a humorous look at “modern-day” life in Ancient Rome, as seen through the adventures of the Holiday family. I voiced the youngest Holiday, Precocia. The Holidays had a family “cat,” a lion named Brutus. Brutus’ antics very often got the family in trouble, but it was all in cartoon fun. What’s not funny is the life of a lion – or a tiger, or an elephant, or any animal – in a circus.

“The circus is coming to town” is a saying that used to bring excitement to small town and city dwellers, but now with the knowledge of what really goes on “behind the big top,” people are thinking twice. Instead of paying money to see the exploitation of animals in circuses, people are choosing “animal free” circuses like Cirque du Soleil and many others who are saying “NO” to the use of animals in circuses. You see, there’s another side to the story of animals in the circus I’d like to address – animal cruelty.

Consider the elephants. Circuses typically confine these animals with a pair of heavy leg chains front and rear, diagonally opposite. An elephant thus chained cannot even turn in a circle. It’s not unusual for these animals to live in double leg chains all night and day except during performances and when they are on   public “display”. Some elephants are kept in a small electrified corral, but even those elephants may spend 10 hours or more a day in double leg chains. Male elephants may have their head and trunk movements restrained with additional chains. Most of us would be outraged to see a dog tethered in that manner. Yet a wild elephant, or even one born into captivity, has an immense, instinctive need to roam, take mud baths and interact with their own social community.

In nature, elephants sleep only four hours a night and can travel up to 80 kilometers a day, but the frustration, boredom, and loneliness of circus confinement creates the motivation for aggression. When I think about the effects of rampaging elephants’ (as has happened in cities worldwide), I wonder why animal acts have been tolerated for as long as they have. A visit behind the scenes of circuses can be an eye-opener. One sees tigers kept in cages equivalent to what an airline carrier would be for domestic cats (where the tigers can’t even turn around let alone express their natural behaviors), hippos in tiny containers with scarcely six inches of water, and bears with muzzles around their mouths while harnessed onto the backs of horses. Animals in circuses also engage in aberrant, repetitive movements such as pacing and rocking; these are pitiful symptoms of the complete boredom and isolation in a totally unnatural environment. Many circus animal “handlers” don’t really care or, worse yet, go out of their way to abuse  animals.

The opportunity to dominate large land mammals like elephants and tigers seems to attract individuals with violent behavior to work as “handlers.” One technique used to dominate an elephant is to wet him down and then repeatedly administer 110-volt shocks to drive the animal to its knees. Not only does this torture and terrify the animal, it may prematurely age its brain. Another is to strike an elephant repeatedly in their most sensitive areas with a bull hook, a long wooden rod with a sharp metal hook at one end. The “handlers” do this in order to get elephants, who weigh thousands of pounds, to do tricks which are difficult and completely unnatural for them to do. Some circuses say that they train their animals with a “reward system”; this is simply false propaganda meant to soothe an uneducated public.

If we want this world to be a more peaceful and less violent place, if we want to start teaching young children to have compassion and respect for those beings with whom we share the planet yet who are different from us, then we must not take them to places that show these magnificent animals doing stupid and unnatural tricks in ridiculous costumes. This teaches nothing to our children about these animal’s lives or who they truly are and should be.

Please teach your children compassion not cruelty and choose circuses that have the jugglers, clowns, cotton candy and acrobats, but do not contain the suffering of those circuses who use animals.

For more information, please visit:

friendsofanimals.org/program/circuses-rodeos-bull-riding/

www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/circuses/

When It Comes to Horse Racing, No Horse Is a Winner

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn , , , ,

Here I am at the age of 4 or 5 up on a very large horse!! I might be smiling but, boy, was I scared. I didn’t have to be; horses, like many large mammals, are gentle giants. But maybe because I was so tiny, I felt really frightened. I was able to cover up my fear because at 6 I got a part where I rode one on an episode of “Branded,” starring Chuck Connors. I was around horses while filming the movie “The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band,” as well as the Walt Disney TV movie, “Smoke,” starring Ronny Howard. When filming the series “Lassie,” I rode a horse regularly; by that time I was pretty much over my fear of riding.

As an adult, I completely overcame my fear of horses and learned a lot about them in the process. Horses are herd animals. They naturally want to be around other horses, graze in meadows, trot great distances, play and court, but they suffer greatly when used to pull carriages around busy city streets, as in New York, or are made to race around tracks.

Behind the romanticized façade of thoroughbred horse racing is a world of injuries, drug abuse, gruesome breakdowns, and slaughter. Horses who weigh at least 1,000 pounds are supported by ankles the size of a human’s, and are forced to run around dirt tracks at speeds of more than 30 miles an hour while carrying a rider on their backs. Celebrated filly Eight Belles was euthanized on the track after breaking both front ankles during the 2008 Kentucky Derby; her poor ankles couldn’t sustain her running that fast. At another race, a horse named Appeal to the City hemorrhaged around her eye when jockey Jeremy Rose “engaged in extreme misuse of the whip.” In his Kentucky Derby win, American Pharaoh was struck with a whip at least 32 times by jockey Victor Espinoza. Pushed beyond their limits, most horses are subjected to cocktails of legal and illegal drugs intended to mask injuries and artificially enhance performance.

Racehorses are the victims of a multi-billion-dollar industry that is rife with drug abuse, injuries, and race fixing, and many horses’ careers end in slaughterhouses. Horses used for racing are forced to sprint — often under the threat of whips and even illegal electric-shocking devices — at speeds so fast that they frequently sustain injuries and even hemorrhage from the lungs. While spectators show off their fancy outfits and sip mint juleps, horses are running for their lives.

I hope all who read these posts learn something they didn’t know about animals and share them with their friends and co-workers. We all need to stand up and be a voice for the voiceless.

Peace for ALL the animals with whom we share this planet!

Humans Have No Monopoly on Motherly Love

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn , ,

Mother’s Day is this weekend, and I can’t think of a better time to remember that humans don’t have a monopoly on loving and caring for their children, or on the anguish and grief of losing a child.

For cows and their calves, the first minutes after birth are spent developing a bond that will last a lifetime. Throughout life, mother and child maintain social contact and regularly enjoy each other’s companionship. Pity, then, the poor dairy cow, kept pregnant and lactating so humans can steal the milk meant for her baby. Pity, too, mother and child when that baby is male. He is taken, umbilical cord still attached, from his mother before even his first taste of his mother’s milk and loaded onto a truck bound for a short and painful life in a veal crate. Both mother cow and calf cry out for each other for days, and mother cows have been known to escape their enclosures to run after trucks taking their babies away.

Mother seals can pick out their pups in a sea of hundreds using their uncanny powers of vocal recognition. How painful it is for them to hear their pups cry as they are clubbed and axed on the Arctic ice by seal killers who skin the pups for sealskin gloves and fashion accessories? The mother seals cry, too, and desperately try to save their pups from slaughter, but the seal killers hold them at bay with spears and other weapons.

Among the world’s most intelligent animals, dolphins are known for graceful synchronized swimming, but dolphin mothers and their babies also synchronize their breathing for the first few weeks following the babies’ birth. These dedicated moms may nurse their young for up to ten years and will also mentor less experienced females by allowing them to babysit as practice for when they have babies of their own. If only they could teach them to avoid the nets and long lines of commercial fishing boats, who consider the dolphins nothing more than “by-catch.”

Nurturing begins in the nest for chicken moms. Mother hens will turn their eggs as many as five times an hour and cluck softly to their chicks, who chirp back to her from inside their shells! Once chicks hatch, devoted moms use their wings to shield their babies from predators and have been known to refuse to leave their nests during a fire if they have newly hatched chicks. Chickens on an egg farm, though, have no opportunity to raise their babies, and male chicks, deemed “useless” by the egg industry, are often tossed into a grinding machine while they are still alive.

Fur-bearing mothers, like foxes, rabbits, and minks, make sure their children are warm and protected in their dens before they leave to search for food. Many never come home, their legs crushed and shattered in steel-jawed traps set by fur trappers. Many will chew their own leg off to get back to their babies. Sadly, it isn’t long before shock, blood loss, or infection kills the mother, and her children, waiting in vain at home, die, too, of starvation.

Human children taken from their mothers often headlines the news, but the fact that animal babies are stolen from their mothers every day isn’t considered newsworthy. But listen to a mother cow crying for her stolen calf, or the wail of a mother seal over her murdered and skinned child and understand that grief and pain are not just something human mothers feel.

This Mother’s Day, please take a moment to recognize the unique bond between mothers and children of all species. To support all moms, go vegan, wear vegan fashion, use cruelty-free products, and never exploit animals in any other way.

Are Your Purchases Supporting Poaching?

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn , , , , ,

A few years ago, I visited Uganda, where I had the extraordinary experience of viewing a beautiful mountain gorilla and her baby from no more than ten feet away. It breaks my heart that, due to poaching, fewer than 900 African mountain gorillas are left on this planet.

When most people think of wildlife poaching, they think about exotic animals on distant continents, but poaching and its consequences extend far beyond African mountain forests or Asian wildernesses right into your own community and even into your own home.

Two poachers under arrest!

Poaching, the criminal hunting and killing of animals for profit, is on the rise worldwide. This year more than 1,200 rhinos will be killed and dismembered by poachers in South Africa compared to just 13 a decade ago. That’s one rhino killed every eight hours, and for the ridiculous reason that some people believe the rhino’s horn has aphrodisiac properties.

There are many species around the world that are poached, some right here in the United States.  Their remains are used in various ways, often for luxury or pseudo-medicinal purposes. Here are some of the most common victims:

Elephants: Elephants are poached for their ivory, which is carved into jewelry, utensils, religious figurines, and trinkets. To remove a tusk requires removing a very large chunk out of an elephant’s face and skull. Elephants are often chased into pits or poisoned, and their faces and tusks cut off while they are still alive. Approximately 70% of illegal ivory ends up in China, where it is sold on the street for up to $1,000 a pound. Conservationists estimate that between 30,000 and 38,000 elephants are poached annually for their ivory. At that rate, they will be extinct in 20 years.

Tigers: Tiger claws, teeth, and whiskers are believed by some superstitious cultures to provide good luck and protective powers. Some superstitious cultures believe their bones and eyes have medicinal value. In Taiwan, a bowl of tiger penis soup is believed to boost virility. Their skins are used to make coats and handbags. Fewer than 3,500 tigers are left in the wild; like elephants and rhinos, tigers are being poached to extinction.

Rhinoceros: The most expensive items in the world are gold, platinum, and rhino horn, with rhino horn topping the list. Rhino horn can sell for nearly $30,000 a pound. Gold, by comparison, is worth about $22,000 a pound. Their horns are believed to have aphrodisiac properties and are widely used in traditional medicines. Like elephants, they are driven into traps, killed, and their horns sawed off. Since 1960, the black rhino population has decreased by 97.6% due to poaching.

Tibetan Antelopes: They are poached for their fur, which is commonly used as a light wool, and is in great demand world-wide. 20,000 Chirus, as they are called, are killed each year.

Big-horned sheep: Poached for their antlers, which can fetch $20,000 on the black market.

Bears: North American black bears are poached for their gall bladders and bile, another pseudo-medicinal ingredient. A black bear’s gall bladder can fetch more than $3,000 in Asia.

Gorillas: They are poached for their meat, captured for collections, and killed for trophies such as their hands, feet, skins, and skulls. Kidnapped baby gorillas, like the beautiful baby I saw in Uganda, bring $40,000 on the black market.

Lions: Another species fast disappearing, poached as trophies to prove an insecure human’s man(or woman)hood. It is estimated that 30% to 50% of Africa’s lion population has been illegally killed over the last 20 years. Last summer three poachers who broke into a South African game preserve to stalk and kill rhinos were attacked and eaten by lions, to which I say, justice was served.

Sharks: Sharks are poached for their fins, which some cultures consider a delicacy. Once caught, the fins are hacked off, and the still-living shark dumped back into the sea where it will soon die. Poached manta rays and sea cucumbers are also considered delicacies by some.

Red and Pink Coral: This is the most valuable type of coral, known for its use in jewelry and decorations. Not only does the poaching of coral effect coral population but it also effects the population of coral reefs and fish.

Blue Whale: Blue Whales have almost been hunted to extinction. They are poached for their blubber and oil, which are then used in candles and fuel.

Most poaching is done by organized crime syndicates who use high-powered technology and weaponry to hunt and kill animals without being detected. Poachers often prefer using poisoned arrows because there is not a telltale gunshot sound. A well-placed arrow can kill in 20 minutes; however, a misplaced arrow can leave an animal dying a lingering death from infection for up to a month. Poachers will often leave poison on the carcass of the prey to kill the vultures that might fly above and alert rangers.

Violent conflicts and ivory poaching are interconnected. Heavily armed militias and crime networks use ivory funds to finance terrorism and wars. Cash-starved terrorist organizations have turned to trading ivory, which the Elephant League has dubbed “the white gold of jihad.” The illegal wildlife trade nets $8 billion to $10 billion a year.

To combat poaching, in 2014 the United States banned the trade in African elephant ivory. Shamefully, the ban has been partially lifted by the current administration.

What can you do? Lobby your legislators to reinstate the complete ban and expand it to include poached animal products of every kind. Never buy ivory or coral products, whether new or used, or any other poached animal products, and boycott merchants who sell them. It’s only by making poaching less profitable that it can be reduced and the greed-fueled extinction of so many animal species reversed.

Peace to ALL the animals with whom we share this planet.

Should Animals Have Rights?

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn

Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. Many of us bought our beloved “pets” at pet shops, had guinea pigs, or kept beautiful birds in cages. We wore wool and silk, ate burgers at McDonald’s, and went fishing. Never did we consider the impact of these actions on the animals involved.

People often ask, should animals have rights? The answer, quite simply, is “Yes!” Animals deserve to live their lives free from suffering and exploitation. Jeremy Bentham, social reformer and founder of the Utilitarian school of moral philosophy, identified the vital characteristic to establish the rights of beings. “The question,” wrote Bentham, “is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” Unlike the capacity for language or to perform higher mathematics, the capacity for suffering is universal. All animals suffer in the same way and to the same degree as humans do. All animals feel pain, pleasure, fear, frustration, loneliness, and maternal love.

Whenever we engage in an activity that exploits or causes animals to suffer – eating them, putting them in prison-like zoos, wearing their fur or hides or buying items that are tested on animals – it is unethical and immoral. What you would not do to a human, it is wrong to do to an animal. Human society permits such horrendous things to be done to animals. Think of the steel jaw leg hold trap and anal electrocutions of fur-bearing animals. Think of pigs living their lives in gestation crates, unable to turn around or touch their offspring. Think of male calves ripped from their mothers, fed an anemic diet, and chained to an igloo in the bitter cold to be slaughtered for veal. Think of fish with sharp metal hooks in their mouths, pulled from the water to die of suffocation. Think of elephants in a circus being hit and jabbed behind the ears or knees and other sensitive areas with a “bull hook,” a wooden rod with a sharp steel hook at one end. Think of the miserable existence of a dairy cow, artificially inseminated again and again on what the dairy industry calls a “rape rack” in order to provide milk for humans while her own unweaned offspring are taken from her. Think also of the factory farmed chickens packed so tightly in cages that they go crazy and would peck at each other had their sensitive beaks not been cut off with a sharp blade, leaving many unable to eat or drink. The list goes on and on.

Supporters of animal rights believe that animals have an inherent worth, a value separate from their usefulness to humans. We believe that every creature with the will to live has the right to live free from pain and suffering imposed by humans. Animal rights is not just a philosophy, it is a social movement that challenges society’s traditional view that nonhuman animals exist solely for the use and benefit of humans. As PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk has said, “When it comes to pain, love, joy, loneliness, and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. Each one values his or her life and fights the knife.”

Only prejudice, tradition, and an unwillingness to give up what we’re used to, compels us to deny others the rights that we demand for ourselves. Whether it’s based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or species, prejudice is morally unacceptable. If you wouldn’t eat a dog, why eat a pig, a cow, or a fish? Those animals share the same capacity to feel pain as any other, and it’s reprehensible for us to think of one animal as a companion and another as dinner.

 

 

More Than 100 Countries Have Banned Leg-Hold Traps, Why Not the USA?

Pamelyn Ferdin Essays by Pamelyn , , , , ,

My character on “Lassie,” Lucy Baker, was introduced in a three-part story in the spring of 1972. Lucy Baker was a nature-loving deaf girl who befriends Lassie and the two have many adventures together. In one of those first episodes, titled “Paths of Courage, Part One,” Lucy has a beloved pet wolf named Mountie. A sadistic sheep herder shoots Mountie and I have a tearful scene as the wolf dies in my arms. It turned out to be one of the most memorable scenes of my acting career.

The wolf playing Mountie was tranquilized so that he would lay quietly in my arms, as seen in the accompanying photo. I felt horrible that this poor wolf was tranquilized for a scene, but that’s what happens to a lot of animals in TV and movies; they don’t ever get to live their lives the way nature intended. Luckily for Mountie, he had a good-hearted trainer in the person of Pat Derby. Pat Derby later became an outspoken advocate for animals, and I’ll tell you more about her in my forthcoming book. Anyway, my job was to kneel over Mountie and cry my eyes out. I was given very specific instructions not to put my face near his; a wild animal, especially when tranquilized, may react badly to his space being invaded. I heeded my instructions and was very, very cautious.

The director called for action, and I began to sob pitifully over my mortally wounded companion, all the while taking care to avoid putting my face near his. The wolf must not have been fully tranquilized because, as my tears fell he began to rouse. At first, I’m sure I was the only one to notice, but when he slowly lifted his head to look at me, I could sense a nervous stir among the crew.

The wolf began to lick the tears from my face. I was startled, but continued acting, unwilling –afraid, is the better word – to break the scene. It was so sweet – and so scary. The more I cried, the more the wolf licked my face. It dawned on me that this big, beautiful animal was trying to console a weeping little girl with kisses!

My instinct to carry on while the camera rolled proved a good one. The resulting footage of Lucy sobbing over her dying pet, with the wolf tenderly kissing his grieving companion goodbye, was nothing short of remarkable. Ever since then I’ve always had a special place in my heart for wolves.

Did you know that legislation was finally enacted a few years ago to stop the slaughter of wolves by hunters using high-powered rifles from inside low-flying airplanes and helicopters and other horrific acts? Did you also know that this past March, with a stroke of the pen, the president rescinded the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Rule and opened the door for hunters to chase down and shoot wolves, bears, and other animals within Alaska’s national wildlife refuges? Yes, both the House and Senate approved a measure to repeal the legislation that largely banned hunting and trapping of Alaska’s most iconic animals on more than 76 million federal acres, the largest land-based, federally-protected area in the United States.

Once again, the killing of hibernating bears and wolves from airplanes and the slaughter of cubs and pups in their dens is permitted in one of America’s last great wildlife refuges. Legal again are airborne hunters scouting, chasing, and and killing brown and black bears. Legal again are trapping methods like steel-jawed leg hold traps, wire snares, and the luring of bears with food so that they may be shot at point-blank range. Despite years of relentless work by over 70 groups, many of them made up of Alaska citizens, the law that protected these majestic wild creatures on the people’s land – land specifically created to protect and conserve wildlife and habitats in their natural diversity – has been senselessly and tragically wiped away.

Steel jaw traps are banned or heavily restricted in many US states. Such traps inflict excruciating pain not only on the targeted animals, but also on any other animal that unknowingly sets off the trap, for these traps do not kill on impact, they snap shut on the leg or other body part when the victim steps on it. The trap inflicts deep puncture wounds to prevent the animal from writhing around and pulling itself free. Imagine slamming your hand in a car door with teeth and waiting in excruciating pain to die of shock, exposure, dehydration, starvation, or infection.

Leg hold traps, also banned in many countries around the world, are used primarily for foxes, coyotes, wolves, and lynx. These traps, which consist of a metal footplate with curved jaws and powered springs, break and crush the animal’s limb. Immobilized, the animal is trapped where they are, easy prey for predators, and without shelter from harsh weather conditions. Many become so desperate to escape they attempt to chew or wring off their trapped limb, breaking their teeth or bones in the process. When they don’t return to their den, their babies are left alone, unable to fend for themselves, and they die, too.

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States spoke of the recent ruling saying, “What the Senate did should outrage the conscience of every animal lover in America,” adding, “The passage of this bill means that we’ll see wolf families killed at their dens, bears chased down by planes or suffering for hours in barbaric steel-jawed traps or snares.”

Although the repeal of the law was signed by the president, there are still ways to reduce the suffering for these animals. The main way is to stop buying fur products and to encourage others to do the same. Many animals are hunted for their pelts, and if there is no demand for them, there will be less reason for hunters to trap them. We can also spread awareness about this heinous slaughter, send letters to our representatives in Congress, and sign petitions to end the horrific torture caused by these practices.

Many animal rights groups are calling for a ban on inhumane traps. Although the situation is sickening for animal lovers, there is hope. More than 100 countries have banned leg hold traps while 85 nations have banned steel jaw traps; let’s add the United States to those lists!

Peace for ALL the animals with whom we share the planet!