August 2014
If an animal lives,
kill it.
If it gets away,
hunt it down and kill it.
If it learns to adapt to humans,
hate it and kill it year ‘round.
If it becomes endangered,
kill its mother and put it in a zoo.
If an animal proves intelligent,
respect it then kill it.
If you think it dumb,
kill it and eat it.
If it simply is,
kill it because it’s there.
If anyone’s watching,
Just call it “conservation.”
by Jim Robertson
October 2015
What do you call a war waged on unarmed opponents? Considering the rate and frequency of shooting I’m hearing out there now, there’s a massacre going on. If the victims being slain were human, it would be called mass murder. A pre-dawn ambush. All-out insanity. Evil incarnate.
But to the hunters on opening day annihilating ducks and geese, it’s tradition; harvesting nature; business as usual.
Someone must have signaled “charge” to an entire platoon waiting to attack at dawn, and a mindless barrage of semi-automatic shotgun fire shattered the morning air. Now it’s 7:30 a.m. and only the random explosions break the stillness. The blitzkrieg has been going on steadily for over forty-five minutes—since before first light (sunrise today is officially at 7:35, according to the NOAA weather radio).
I wasn’t sure if the “enemy,” no, “opponent,” no, victims were the elk herd who occasionally…
View original post 70 more words
by Jim Robertson September 2015
Although one never saw the light of day again (former bakery-shop owner Hansen died in an Alaskan prison in 2014) and one may never see the inside of a courtroom, there are numerous similarities between serial killer/trophy hunter Robert Hansen and dentist/trophy hunter Walter Palmer:
View original post 136 more words
by Jim Robertson
The protagonist in Nobel Peace Prize laureate and author Isaac Bashevis Singer’s book, The Letter Writer, stated, “In relation to animals, all people are Nazis.”
Ah, the Nazis; who can forget them? They were those goose-stepping narcissists who had the arrogant audacity to think themselves superior to all other races. Hell, “Nazi” even sounds like a derivative of the word “narcissism.” Thank God that kind of grandiosity is a thing of the past.
Or is it…
Not if you, like Isaac Singer, consider the attitudes human beings have toward their fellow animals. When you allow yourself even for a moment to ponder the plight of non-humans at the hands of man and connect the dots, you’re sure to come to the logical conclusion that: in relation to animals, all people are Narcissists.
Although Galileo and Copernicus have long since put to rest the notion of…
View original post 647 more words
(Blog post by Jim Robertson): https://www.all-creatures.org/aw/art-humans.html
October 2015
As far as the rights and welfare of all other species of animals are concerned, human arrogance—narcissistic notions of human supremacy over nonhumans—is the root of all evil.
Ever since my youngest days, I’ve always instinctively known that the “us and them” cultural given was wrong-headed, and that having two sets of laws, one for our species and one for all others, is absurd at best.
This has been backed up by much that I have read over the years. In an effort to counter centuries of long-accepted dogma intended to instill anthropocentric attitudes, philosophers like Peter Singer, with his Animal Liberation, and scientists like Jared Diamond and Richard Leaky, in The Third Chimpanzee and The Sixth Extinction respectively, have devoted sections of their books to debunk outdated beliefs of human preeminence and superiority.
To further put humans in their rightful place, the following is something I happened on last night in the late John A. Livingston’s 1994 book, Rogue Primate:
“Few exercises in rationalization have involved quite so much intellectual pretzel-bending as the task of demonstrating absolute human uniqueness. Our obsession with this is revealing. It’s not enough that every individual, and every species, is a unique, one-time-only, event. Fanatical humanism demands more. All species are unique, we may acknowledge, but one species is uniquely unique. Which reveals a good deal more than bizarre English usage.
“Thanks to studies in ethology and behavioral ecology, the religion of human uniqueness has sustained a series of notable setbacks in our lifetime. We have had to abandon a substantial list of ‘unique attributes’: tool using, tool making, language, tradition and culture, abstraction, teaching and learning, cooperating and strategizing, and others, less inflammatory, such as caring and compassion. There’s not a lot left. But the ultimate fallback position, the central jewel in the human imperial crown, hadWashoe_chimpanzee always been self-awareness. Then along came little Washoe.
“Washoe, a chimpanzee, was raised by humans, Allen and Beatrice Gardner. She became famous as the first non-human being to learn the hand-sign language of the deaf and mute, a mode of communication seen by the Gardners as more useful to a chimpanzee (because of its anatomy) than human sounds. While still very young she became extraordinarily adept at signing, which of itself generated concern in some quarters. An ape was not only ‘speaking,’ but also, apparently carrying on conversations with her human mentors. But Washoe’s historic bombshell was kept in abeyance for a time. She had been supplied with various toys and other miscellaneous items, and had also become used to all manner of human household hardware, such as mirrors. One day, while she was looking into a mirror, she was asked ‘Who is that?’ ‘Me, Washoe,’ she signed back.
“Washoe was ‘self-aware.’ This was flabbergasting. And for many people it was deeply unsettling. We seem to be witnessing the collapse of the last bastion of human uniqueness. Something had to done about Washoe. Human brows furrowed in thought. Then came the answer. Of course! How blindingly obvious! Washoe was not aware that she was self-aware. One can almost feel the collective sigh of relief. We could not know this, of course, but it was fundamental to the shoring-up of the collective self-esteem that we asserted. Now if it were somehow demonstrated that a non-human animal was, in fact, aware of its self-awareness, then no doubt, the claim would be made that it was not, like us, aware of its awareness of its self-awareness. This could go on forever, and probably will.
“The problem of self-awareness (or rather, the problem of our unrepentant claim, in spite of Washoe and others, that beings who are not human do not have it) confuses a number of issues pertaining to the human treatment of other animals. It appears consistently in defense of vivisection, for example. ‘Sentience’ is much used as a synonym for self-awareness, or, sometimes, consciousness. Non-human animals are not sentient (consciously self-aware); therefore, it is ethically permissible to do as we please with them. Such reasoning is mystifying. Even if the living, captive individual beings (both wild and domesticated) upon whom the vivisectors visit their incomprehensible acts were not self-aware, how would that justify cruelty? No one denies that they have central nervous systems (that is one of the important reasons they are used) that they feel pain (another reason), that they entertain fear (still another). Fear without self-awareness is gibberish.
“Vivisection has its own strange ethical code, but it is not the only such structure to depend ultimately on the concept of self. Ethics rests on moral philosophy. Moral philosophy rests primarily on the individual. Presumably the concept of the individual rests ultimately on the concept of self. It used to be generally assumed that non-human beings were incapable of thinking or behaving ethically because, among other limitations, they lack the concept of self. That was pre-Washoe.
Many humanists attempt to handle the problem of self-identity in a chimpanzee by asserting that the animal lacks the capacity for reason, and therefore could never conceive of moral or ethical rights and obligations. That the animal lacks reason could be debated (there is ample evidence in many species of problem solving, which could only be conceptual). What animals very probably do lack is the power of rationalization, which would appear to be a uniquely human attribute.”
It seems, while our technological advancements and mechanical understandings may be growing rapidly, if not hastily, our acceptance of non-human awareness, and in fact, our own moral evolution, is still crawling at a snail’s pace. As it is for global warming, denialism about animal awareness is an agenda-driven form of rationalization.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/southwest-illinois-man-charged-2-110000698.html
Kelsey Landis
Thu, February 3, 2022, 3:00 AM·5 min read
Illinois Conservation Police cited aPinckneyville man for numerous violationsin December following a year-long investigation, but the Perry County state’s attorney’s office has so far only filed two charges.
Justin Bauersachs, 23, drove an ATV at waterfowl and dumped a goose carcass into a creek two years ago, according to documents the office filed this week.
The charges don’t reflect police accusations that Bauersachs trespassed on private property and poached wildlife, among other conservation violations. Conservation police are the law enforcement branch of the Department of Natural Resources.
Without charges from the state’s attorney, the police citations are unenforceable. The Perry County State’s Attorney’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
According to the Perry County charges, Bauersachs disturbed wild birds on Feb. 1, 2020, on private property between Cougar…
View original post 756 more words
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trapper-wauwatosa-killed-five-coyotes-185444819.html
Evan Casey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Thu, February 3, 2022, 10:54 AM·3 min read
A Wisconsin-based trapper has trapped and killed five coyotes in three weeks aftera coyote attacked and killed a dogin Wauwatosa’s Fisher Woods neighborhood in December.
However, it’s not clear yet whether any of the trapped coyotes is the one that killed the 15-year-old Yorkie, according to a city spokesperson.
The city contracted with Recon Trapping to set traps and kill the coyote as part of itsCoyote Nuisance Management and Response Plan Policy,which says if a verified pet attack occurs, the city “will engage a contracted professional in an attempt to locate and remove the nuisance coyote(s).”
“The City of Wauwatosa also recognizes the environmental benefit of maintaining and encouraging natural wildlife populations and will make every effort to maintain natural ecosystems…
View original post 460 more words
1 day ago
Lead Image Source : Katvic/Shutterstock
ADVERTISEMENT
FoodMonster AppSupport Us
For the first time in Congressional history, the U.S. House is taking up a bill to ban a category of factory farming of animals for food or fiber. It’s an amendment, offered by Representatives Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, to ban mink farming in the United States.
Animal advocates concerned about the cruelty of factory farms and the frivolity of fur should take action today. The vote is imminent.
Advertisement
SARS-CoV-2 is, by and large, a virus that affects two species: humans (Homo sapiens) and American mink (Neovison vison).
Public health authorities tracking the progression of the COVID-19 virus in humans estimate 10 percent of 7.8 billion people in the world have been infected. There has been a parallel progression of the virus in mink, with infected mink farmworkers passing the virus to captive mink on fur farms.
In North America and Europe, there have been approximately six to seven million mink infected with SARS-CoV-2, with approximately 675,000 dying from the virus. That’s more than 10 percent of the global population of about 60 million mink kept in factory farms from Utah and New Brunswick to Denmark and Finland to Russia and China.
These startling numbers contrast with perhaps just 100-500 known COVID-19 infections among all other non-human animals, including big cats, domesticated dogs and cats, White-tailed deer, gorillas, and ferrets. Perhaps more importantly, there has been no spill-back from these other species. They appear to be dead-end hosts, while humans and mink are bilateral spreaders of the virus.
Advertisement
Mink farms have already spawned three variants – in Denmark, France, and the United States.
If SARS-CoV-2 could design its perfect habitat, it might closely resemble a mink factory farm: highly stressed, immuno-suppressed inbred hosts with thousands of other such potential hosts kept in very small cages. This environment maximizes chances for intraspecific aggression, viral infections, and mutations.
Advertisement
Denmark’s mass shutdown of its industry in 2020 – requiring the abrupt gassing of 17 million mink – was the first major act of animal disaster response, after SARS-CoV-2 infected hundreds of farms and a variant started ricocheting through the Scandinavian nation. Netherlands followed and killed its four million mink as a COVID-19 containment strategy.
Over time, nearly 20 nations in Europe have decided that mink farms must go.
Advertisement
If Europe bans these mink farms, and the United States fails to act, then we might see the U.S. mink farming industry, which has been in steady decline, rise again.
Mink are wild, solitary, territorial, and aggressive carnivores. Housing them in groups in small cages is a prescription for aggression and even cannibalism. There are kept in these tight quarters for a maximum lifespan of eight months, with less powerful and aggressive animals especially vulnerable.
A small number of farmers continue to cram these uniquely vulnerable non-human carnivores on factory farms to generate a luxury product that few people want or need and that generates negligible income for a few dozen farmers. Eighty percent of all of the pelts go to a thin strata of luxury consumers in China, yet Americans in our homeland face the startlingly dangerous disease and ecological risks presented by these live-wildlife fur producers.
Please call your U.S. Representative today by clicking here and urging them to vote “YES” on the DeLauro-Mace-DeFazio amendment to ban mink farming.
It’s time to pass the MINKS Are Superspreaders Act!Click Here to Sign Petition
Wayne Pacelle is a New York Times bestselling author and President of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. He has led efforts to pass 1,500 state laws for animals, more than 100 federal laws and amendments, 30 ballot initiatives, and 500 corporate agreements. He is a graduate of Yale University.
by WJAC StaffMonday, January 31st 2022
Hunting safety during the season (WKRC) FILE
CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) —A Boalsburg man is facing charges after he unintentionally shot a man in the head while trying to shoot a deer with a handgun from across a road, police say.
According to the State College Police Department, Michael Lloyd has been charged with recklessly endangering another person, shooting and injuring a human while hunting, unlawful shooting on or across a highway and propulsion of missiles onto a roadway.
Officers say they were called Dec. 4 to Lenape Lane for a man lying on the ground with a head wound.
When they arrived on scene, they say they found Lloyd and another man, who were both wearing orange hunting clothes, tending to the wounded man’s injury.
According to police, Lloyd was using a towel to keep the man’s bleeding under control.
Emergency Medical Services…
View original post 348 more words
https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2022/jan/30/wolf-hunting-and-trapping-down-despite-added-oppor/
Hello Mr. Laughlin,
it is the kind of articles like yours, “Wolf hunting and trapping down despite added opportunities,” that does nothing to inspire a better relationship between humans and nature in general, and wild animals, in this case with wolves.
And this at a time when we need to cultivate empathy and compassion for others, especially for nonhuman animals–domestic and wild,–and are in need for education on how to co-exist, become more tolerant and appreciative of nature–recall that we are in the midst of an accelerating rate of plant and species extinction, global destruction of ecosystems and mass killings of nonhuman animals, oh and let’s not forget climate change.
Your article presents the activity of killing wolves as something that is valuable, when an opposing view would call it an activity of ‘very sick’ individuals.
Stating that hunters and trappers have “achieved” killing a mere third of the allowable number of wolves in Montana is supporting the status quo of this ecologically and ethically indefensible madness brought on by legislators, and a Governor and his choice of FWP Commissioners –a representative of the Safari Club International and Outfitters, who are wolf haters and have no sense of respect for wild animals here in our state. The only decent member of this commission with decency is Pat Byorth.
Repeating the new language of “threshold,” which has a much better sound than a “quota,” shifts the focus of the tragedy of the high number of wolves killed to the human, who then will act. This tells the public that there is nothing to worry about, no need for concern, let alone empathy. This trivializes the lives of wolves even further.
Putting your emphasis on the “harsh weather conditions” and increased gas prices that make wolf killing so hard for the poor sportsmen, omits the animal side completely. It really does not get more anthropocentric–only the human side matters; forget that wolves and tens of thousands of other wild animals are getting killed by trappers this year alone; forget that these sentient animals greatly suffer from physical pain and psychological trauma in neck snares, and other body-gripping and killing devices set by ‘poor’ trappers; forget that this mass killing impacts not only on these animals themselves but also on their mates and young, the latter of whom may die as a result of their mother killed in traps or shot by a so-called ‘hunter.’
How many wolf pups are going to die in their den, now that their mother won’t come home to nurse them? Do you really not care about this?
Just like sometime ago in the Bitterroot, when a mountain lion mother who was found, strangled to death by a snare with her two little cubs also dead next to her body.
In conclusion, presenting the disaster of the ongoing wolf slaughter as a game where ‘sportsmen’ compete, achieve and are allowed etc., could not be further from reality.
It would be very helpful for the public to read articles that are more sensible, consider the animal side for a change, and encourage us not to engage in aggressive, violent and cruel behavior such as most hunting and all trapping, and the ongoing wolf slaughter but rather cultivates empathy and compassion for ‘others’ as stated before.
It is one thing if you personally support killing of wolves, but please do not put your opinions in a public article that presents us with a biased information. As you certainly know, words matter.
Best, Anja Heister, Missoula
