Welcome to Gaia! ::

Wicca: Blessed Be

Back to Guilds

For anyone interested in Wicca, Paganism, or Witchcraft 

Tags: Wicca, Pagan, Witchcraft, New Age, Community 

Reply The Sitting Room - - [real-life, quest threads, chatterbox, etc]
Petition Against Animal Cruelty!

Quick Reply

Enter both words below, separated by a space:

Can't read the text? Click here

Submit

Will you sign the petition?
  Yes. I HATE ANIMAL CRUELTY.
  No. I like my fur, thanks.
  Too disgusted to answer.
View Results

MiladyMidnight

PostPosted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:01 am
If you could please spread the word and sign, I would be grateful. Also feel free to post your opinions on the matter.

The Information
Clicking the link below will bring you to the petition page, there you can navigate and learn about what is going on and how we can help.


On the page is a video of how animals are being treated, please, do not watch the video if you have a faint heart.


I honestly cried within the first thirty seconds and had to close the window before I saw anything else.


Animal Saviors

WARNING; The facts disclosed in our first section headed “Why We Must Campaign” are shocking and deeply disturbing, but must be disclosed if our Campaign is to succeed. Obviously, if you are highly sensitive to such information, you may choose not to read those facts and pass on to the next section. However, we find that those people who know the facts are those who most want to help the animals. I guess you can’t get passionate about a Cause unless you know the facts. It takes a minute or two to read. It’s up to you. If you love animals and want to help stop one of the worst cases of mass cruelty to animals ever, you should first know the facts. Knowing the facts gives us the focus. Otherwise it’s all too vague and unreal.


Why We Must Campaign


The Animal Saviors Awareness Campaign is dedicated to stop more than 2,000,000 cats, dogs and other animals being brutally and callously skinned alive in China every year.


The animals are caged in cramped conditions, often fed on starvation rations or on the skinned carcasses of other cats and dogs.


Prior to skinning, they are dragged from their cages. The skinners hit them with a heavy metal rod or wooden club to break their necks or backs leaving them incapacitated and unable to defend themselves. Smaller animals are sometimes picked up by a hind leg and swung against the cage or the ground to achieve the same result. In most cases the animals are alive and conscious during the whole skinning process, squealing and yelping in agony in full view of the other terrified animals waiting in their cages for their turn.


In some cases the dogs may be led to a place of execution, where they are chained together or in a row. Each dog watches the horror metered out to the others, listening to their agonised squeals and frantically struggling to get away. When finally a man or woman walks towards it, rod or club in hand, the struggling terrified animal leaves no doubt that it knows exactly what is about to happen.


When incapacitated, the animal is usually strung up by a back leg or held down by a skinner wearing heavy boots for protection, standing or kneeling on its neck, to stop it from wriggling away. After incisions are made in the fur with a knife, the skinner forces his or her fingers under the fur and taking care to ensure that the whole pelt comes away in one piece, rips the pelt from its writhing agonised body. A bullet or lethal injection is too expensive and the skinners say it’s easier to rip an intact fur from a live warm body rather than one that is dead and inert. The ghastly task is completed when the helpless animal is entirely stripped of its fur – even the fur from its head is torn away.


The skinned animal is then cast aside to die in shock and excruciating agony.


This is probably the worst case of mass cruelty inflicted on helpless animals in the history of our so called “civilized” world. 2,000,000 cats and dogs skinned alive every year translates to 5,479 per day or 228 helpless animals suffering this unimaginable horror every hour of every day of every year – year after year.


The callous indifference shown by the Chinese government towards the suffering of the animals is inconceivable and completely unacceptable..

Cats and dogs have no animal rights in China and they never will unless we – the people who care – fight for those rights on their behalf.


If we don’t, the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.



What Happens to the Fur?


The fur pelts are sold to manufacturers, either exported or sold locally in China. The manufacturers, whether in China or elsewhere, use the fur to make a wide range of products; anything that may be made wholly or partially from the fur including fur coats, gloves, boots, handbags and other apparel and accessories, souvenirs and children’s toys.


The manufacturers export and sell their fur products to wholesalers and retailers. Eventually the fur products find their way to retail shops around the world and are sold to unsuspecting shoppers.


The Chinese traders have become expert in disguising the fur pelts and products – often dying the fur and always mislabeling it as rabbit or some other fur; even faux fur. Anything but cat or dog fur. Would you buy a toy for your children labeled “Labrador Fur” or “Siamese Kitten Fur”? I think not.


Shoppers are easily duped because unfortunately expert examination is required to determine the true nature of the fur and sometimes the only way to be certain is to conduct expensive laboratory testing. There is no other way to really know what you are buying.


Manufacturers in China are certainly aware of the true nature of the fur and when exporting their products, disguise and mislabel them. Most manufacturers outside China are probably ignorant of the true nature of the fur, but sadly, some know exactly what they are buying. Not only do they turn a blind eye they also deliberately mislabel the fur products to hide the true identity of the fur.


Any fur product whether “Made in China” or made in any other country is suspect and should not be bought. The safest bet: Don’t buy any fur or any product made wholly or partially with fur. You never know.



Kill the Demand for Fur Products


Make a pledge today to never again buy any product made wholly or partially with fur.


The trade in cat and dog fur flourishes because we create demand for the products by buying them. If we stop buying, we destroy that demand. If there is no demand for fur products, the Chinese traders will be forced out of business.


But remember, it’s not just a question of not buying cat and dog fur. It’s a question of not buying any fur whatsoever. If you think you are buying rabbit or fox or some other fur, you may in fact be buying cat or dog fur. You just don’t know. The only way to be certain is not to buy any fur. The risk is far too high. Just remember that if you buy a fur product you are encouraging another dog or cat to be skinned alive.


Some, but not all countries, prohibit the import of cat and dog fur products. Despite this, Chinese traders openly brag about how easy it is to fool the authorities by disguising and mislabeling the fur products. Customs officers cannot easily detect the true origin of the fur. Not many are trained in detecting cat and dog fur and to be sure it takes expensive laboratory testing. Not many get tested. Most are allowed through based on the certification and labeling.


Another way to kill demand is to educate retailers. Most retailers would not stock and sell fur products if they knew they are unwittingly aiding and abetting in the skinning of live cats and dogs.
So, every time you see a fur product for sale in a retail store, tell the retailer and the staff of the dangers of selling fur products and refer them to www. animalsaviors. org.
If you are happy to send us an email to info@animalsaviors.org with the email address, business name and if available, the name of the business owner or manager, we’ll send information about the cat and dog fur trade to the business.



What Will Our Campaign Do?


Because most people don’t know the horrific facts about the Chinese fur trade, our Campaign is designed to take the facts to the world and to gather supporters from every country, including China.


As a first step, we have created this website, www. animalsaviors. org, to get the message around the world as soon as possible.


Next we will devote a large part of our energies to publicize the website and encourage people everywhere to visit it.


We will achieve this by running a series of events.


Solo Global Sail – the Challenge is a worldwide event designed to attract international, national, regional and local media attention via television, radio, newspapers and magazines. That media attention will be used to publicize the Campaign and the website. Whilst more and more sailors are sailing yachts around the world, the reality is that there has never been an animal activist in his seventies prepared to sail a tiny 21 feet yacht around the world to draw attention to the plight of the animals. Both the yacht and the sailor are assured of getting a lot of media coverage.
The yacht will clearly display our website address www. animalsaviors. org.
Every time a picture of the yacht appears you’ll see the website address. And, every article about and interview of the aged sailor will provide an opportunity to publicize our Cause and the website address.


In addition during The Challenge the yacht will be involved in a number of events in the countries that it is visiting, the first being the Animal Saviors Australian Circumnavigation commencing on 1 June 2008.


The uworldweb Schools Competition is a series of regional and national competitions in which schools compete to design the best animal rights website. The competition will publicize our Cause to students in Years 8 to 12 in schools everywhere, their parents and teachers.. It’s also educational, helps to develop character, leadership, teamwork and an understanding and compassion for animals.


There will also be various Events designed to attract large numbers of people to attend and sign our Petition.


For our Campaign to be successful it will be necessary to raise sufficient Campaign Funds to ensure that our Aims are achieved. Also, we intend to construct and operate animal shelters to house and care for the animals that we are successful in releasing.


We propose to raise the necessary funds through Cause Related Marketing and various other fund raising events and competitions.


We will never lose sight of out Aims and will not stop until we witness the abolition of the cat and dog fur trade in China and the abolition of the sale and use of cat and dog fur in every other country.
 
PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:10 pm
Those poor animals. crying -signs the petition-

I can't understand how people can be so cruel.
 

x Haruhi in Wonderland x


KillerQueen Bash

5,700 Points
  • Money Never Sleeps 200
  • Wall Street 200
  • Tycoon 200
PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:05 pm
User Image
© Robin Wood 1997


Poor things. I never wear fur; I prefer wool because the sheep doesn't have to die, and should be shaved anyway so it doesn't overheat.


© Robin Wood 1997
User Image
 
PostPosted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:46 pm
All my life animals were my best friends...i can't even wear wool, i have to wear cotton or polyester or something that has nothing to do with animals. It kills me to know that animals are abused and killed. crying

signs petition  

wiccan of the moon


XxWrecklessIntentionsxX

4,550 Points
  • Dressed Up 200
  • Statustician 100
  • Forum Explorer 100
PostPosted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 7:03 am
I almost started crying just by viewing the picture on the page in the link. *signs petition* It's so wrong and I have no idea how anyone can hurt an animal.  
PostPosted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:39 am

I was equally upset upon viewing this, but even further upset when a few of my friends blatantly refused to sign this :/. It's appalling that anyone can condone such acts of cruelty.

Thank you for signing.
 

MiladyMidnight


aoijea23487

PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 7:08 pm
it's not just the fur industry. it's every animal industry [food, clothing, entertainment like circuses and seaworld, puppy mills, etc.]. go vegan~  
PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 7:29 pm
You can't honestly say any animal industry. There are quite a few zoos (emphasis on the word "few") and other such organizations that have the main purpose of helping endagered species become re-populated. A lot of places like Sea World also take in injured animals until they're healthy and healed enough to be re-released into the wild.

So I don't think it's fair to say that. However, I do know that not every such place is good for the animals. When I was younger, I went to the Hattisburg Zoo (in Mississippi) with my family while we were visiting my grandmother. Their tiger was outside very, very ill (throwing up and everything). (A)All of the kids were very upset to see that and (B)you could just tell that the poor thing was suffering. So my mom went up to a zoo employee and told her that it was very obvious the tiger was sick and all she had to say was, "There's absolutely nothing we can do for him."

I was completely dumbfounded. They could at least have let him inside with some air conditioning (it was very hot that day...I don't think he even had any water outside).

------

So I would say that zoos and aquariums (like Sea World) would be okay to go to....after doing some research. Because there are some who are just simply more interested in the money than the well-being of the animals. I think the only zoo that I've ever been to that didn't make me want to cry is the National Zoo in D.C. I remember when that baby giant panda was born a few years ago....those people pretty much dedicated their lives to making sure that baby survived.  

dark_angel_32189


Beautiful Propaganda

6,300 Points
  • Brandisher 100
  • Hunter 50
  • Hygienic 200
PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 7:35 pm
User Image I sign.  
PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 4:57 pm
dark_angel_32189
You can't honestly say any animal industry. There are quite a few zoos (emphasis on the word "few") and other such organizations that have the main purpose of helping endagered species become re-populated. A lot of places like Sea World also take in injured animals until they're healthy and healed enough to be re-released into the wild.

So I don't think it's fair to say that. However, I do know that not every such place is good for the animals. When I was younger, I went to the Hattisburg Zoo (in Mississippi) with my family while we were visiting my grandmother. Their tiger was outside very, very ill (throwing up and everything). (A)All of the kids were very upset to see that and (B)you could just tell that the poor thing was suffering. So my mom went up to a zoo employee and told her that it was very obvious the tiger was sick and all she had to say was, "There's absolutely nothing we can do for him."

I was completely dumbfounded. They could at least have let him inside with some air conditioning (it was very hot that day...I don't think he even had any water outside).

------

So I would say that zoos and aquariums (like Sea World) would be okay to go to....after doing some research. Because there are some who are just simply more interested in the money than the well-being of the animals. I think the only zoo that I've ever been to that didn't make me want to cry is the National Zoo in D.C. I remember when that baby giant panda was born a few years ago....those people pretty much dedicated their lives to making sure that baby survived.


no, i disagree. i've been to sea world several times. animals aren't dumb, and they deserve better. do you realize that living in a fish tank is the fish-equivalent of us never leaving our houses? i would argue that this is psychologically damaging and unfair to the animals. since when is it objectively okay for humans to reduce animals to property value and force the Earth and its inhabitants to act as our slaves?

i'm not against rehabilitating animals, or trying to correct the damage that humans have wreaked on the Earth. but rehabing animals isn't an industry; it's not done to generate money, and it's not for entertainment. i'm against getting animals and putting them on display. that's an animal industry.

when the carcasses of tortured animals served as food, animal enslavement, perpetuating the idea that animals are pretty objects and not living beings deserving of respect, etc. is weighed against the little "good" a company like sea world does, the bad definitely outweighs the good. keeping an animal in a cage forever to show humans isn't respecting it. it's disrespectful and unethical.
 

aoijea23487


dark_angel_32189

PostPosted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 11:18 pm
You're kind of missing my point.

I wasn't saying that caging animals for our entertainment is okay. It's not. I was just pointing out that there are some zoos and aquariums that temporarily house animals that are injured, who would otherwise die in the wild because of said injuries.

I've done reports on the negative effect that zoos and aquariums have on animals. I know the psychological damages that some of them endure. But just because some zoos and aquariums are equivalent to human prisons, doesn't mean they all are. Most of them, yes. But not all of them. The animals at the zoo here are treated like circus animals. The tigers do shows. Even the wolves do shows (which I've never even seen or even heard of before).

You can tell when an animal is happy or unhappy, just by looking in their eyes. I've seen animals in (larger) zoos that are just absolutely happy where they are. It's rare, yeah, but when they have an enormous amount of space to roam (which, again, is rare) and when the people caring for them actually do care about them and give them attention and activities that they can do to keep their minds active...I've found that those animals generally are happy.

And I will be the first person to say that even in the same zoo, there are certain animals that are treated much better than others. For example, at the National Zoo (which actually does treat their animals incredibly well), you look at the Giant Pandas who get constant love and attention, they have to work for their food just as they would in the wild (like they give them food in these "toys" that they can get, but that they have to work to get), have an incredibly large enclosure compared to most animals, and just over-all seem really happy...then you could go look at this other type of bear (I forget their exact names...black with a yellowish ring around their neck); she's by herself pacing the edge of her enclosurement like she's contemplating suicide (which is very common in zoo animals). She's very obviously taken care of, but she most likely doesn't get quite as much attention as the Giant Pandas.

----

My point is: I never once said that it was okay to "force the Earth and its inhabitants to act as our slaves." Nor did I say that animals were dumb or that they didn't deserve better. Not one single time. I simply stated that it wasn't fair to judge every single zoo, aquarium, wildlife refuge, whatever the way that you did. Because like it or not, some of them do a lot of good for the animals that they take in. And that sometimes the only places that they have to put the animals is in a zoo or aquarium. It sucks, yeah, but most people actually have good intentions. And they have to get the money to care for these animals from somewhere. It's not cheap by any means. The truth is, not that many people care about animals enough to donate money to help these animals out.

And there are a lot of places now that are showing the animals to educate people, not entertain them. The National Zoo has this orangutan and they have this program where they show people how smart he is. It's absolutely amazing.

I'm a huge animal enthusiast and animal's rights activist. Anyone who's ever met me in person will tell you that in a heartbeat. It absolutely breaks my heart to see any animal mistreated. I was in tears before we even got 1/4 of the way through the zoo in my town (it's a really small zoo). So believe me, I understand where you're coming from.

It's a win-lose situation. But the bottom line is that there are some places that do more good than bad for animals.

And just like I told everyone else, that tiger that got lose and attacked those people in whatever zoo it was...that tiger had every right to. Those idiots deserved it. I don't normally think that anyone deserves to die or be injured the way that they were, but they really deserved it for taunting those animals like that. I honestly don't feel bad for them at all. Maybe that's just me...I don't know, I'd sooner risk my life to save an animal than another person (well...most people).  
PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:40 pm
i think we're missing each others points. sweatdrop

i didn't say that anything that has to do with animals is wrong. i said that wildlife refuges are in the clear. i consider companies like sea world to be excessively shady and i don't trust them at all; rather i'd like them to go full-out conservation than keep perfectly healthy, unendangered animals in cages/aquariums. of course the system isn't perfect by any means, but i want it to be so that people refuse the entertainment side of zoos/etc. and only support the conservation/rehab sides of them. i want to change the system. [thus advocating for animal rights/promoting abolitonist veganism/etc.] anything conservation/rehab-oriented isn't an industry because they aren't looking for profit. they're looking out for the well-being of the animals by proper means.

and i have no problem with the education, as long as those animals aren't capable of surviving on their own in the wild.

i feel similarly about the tiger issue. >>;
 

aoijea23487


airplanes in the fog

PostPosted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:35 pm
*signs*

I'm vegetarian and proud. Animals should be respected as we would respect anyone or anything else.  
Reply
The Sitting Room - - [real-life, quest threads, chatterbox, etc]

 
Manage Your Items
Other Stuff
Get GCash
Offers
Get Items
More Items
Where Everyone Hangs Out
Other Community Areas
Virtual Spaces
Fun Stuff
Gaia's Games
Mini-Games
Play with GCash
Play with Platinum