Nearly 30 dogs have been rescued after authorities in Panola County busted a dog fighting operation over the weekend.
The Panola County Sheriff’s Office reports that their call center was dialed from 256 Rayburn Road, west of Como, around 7:05 p.m. Saturday night, but the caller immediately hung up.
Deputy Brian Howell responded to the location and encountered a large group of people who reportedly fled in multiple vehicles — many of which were from other counties and states. It was determined that dogfighting was taking place.
Backup was requested and other deputies arrived to secure the scene. Officers then rescued 29 dogs that were said to be in various stages of health. Deputies say many of the canines had scars from previous fights.
During the course of the investigation, 13 vehicles on location were seized. Authorities believe the cars belonged to those involved in the dog-fighting operation.
37-year-old Damien Jay Smoot, the owner of the home facilitating the fights, was taken into custody. He is charged with felony dog fighting.
“We applaud the Panola County Sheriff’s Office for cracking down on a dogfighting operation,” Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, said. “Dogfighting is one of the most despicable crimes, and whenever it’s uncovered, people rightly ask how anyone could be so cruel and ruthless. Only with this kind of strenuous enforcement will we see the demise of dogfighting in our nation.”
The PCSO is now working with animal health specialists to get the dogs the proper treatment. More arrests are expected in this case.
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JONES COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) – The Jones County Sheriff’s Department is investigating an incident regarding a man who suffered a gunshot wound to the head on Sunday morning.
The sheriff’s department said it responded to the incident on Flem Phillips Road outside of Ellisville.
JCSD Investigator Sgt. Denny Graham, who is investigating the incident, noted that the man, who was not named, was reportedly retrieving a .30-06 caliber hunting rifle, and a .380 caliber handgun lying under the rifle discharged, striking the man in the forehead.
The pistol round entered the bridge of the man’s nose and exited the top left side of his forehead, JCSD said.
The sheriff’s department said the man walked to a neighbor’s house where 911 was called and emergency personnel responded.
Despite his significant gunshot injury, the man was able to talk to emergency personnel and describe what happened.
The man was transported by EMServ Ambulance Service to South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel for treatment.
JCSD said the initial indication is that the incident was a tragic accident; however, it remains under investigation.
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“It was a young lady that shot her brother. It was in Jones County.”
With the investigation ongoing, Carter said exactly what happened can’t be released, but according to the Jones County Sheriff’s Department, which is also involved in the investigation, the two were hunting rabbits with their 19-year-old step-brother on Saturday.
The Sheriff’s office received the call at 9:36 p.m. and responded. An 11-year-old boy had been shot in the head with a .22 caliber rifle by his 12-year-old sister. Their names are being withheld due to their ages.
He was transported to Forrest General Hospital with critical, life-threatening injuries and later died.
Jones County Sheriff’s Department public information officer Lance Chancellor described it as a tragic situation that took a toll on everyone involved. However, he said the boy’s organs may save lives.
“Out of this horrible tragedy, some child or children somewhere around the country will receive organ donations that could be the gift of life,” Chancellor said.
Our 2023 undercover investigation into an Illinois wildlife killing contest revealed that 405 coyotes from multiple states were killed for a large cash prize. The bodies were piled up, dragged and hung up as children watched.
This is an important moment for our movement. The codification of this right in the U.N.’s human rights charter elevates the seriousness of animal cruelty on the world stage.
The damage violence to animals can cause for children who witness it has long been flagged by psychologists. A recent review in the Journal of Adolescent Trauma concluded that “[w]itnessing violence predicts and increases a child’s engagement in maladaptive behaviors, including the perpetration of violence towards humans and animals. The mechanisms by which witnessing violence may lead to perpetrating violence involve desensitization, decreased empathy, learned maladaptive coping mechanisms and other learned behaviors… These processes are believed to be very similar, regardless of whether the child witnesses violence toward humans or toward animals; thus, both potentially lead to violence against animals/or people.”
It’s a horrifying fact that children are still exposed to violence in so many forms, as victims and as witnesses, around the globe, in times of outright war and in times of peace. Domestic violence that inflicts harm on both people and pets is one such example, but hardly the only instance.
In the course of our work in the U.S. and internationally, we have frequently seen or learned of children exposed to animal cruelty. We have documented the presence of children at dogfights and cockfights, for example. In the U.S., the federal Animal Welfare Act was amended in 2014 specifically to treat the bringing of minors under the age of 16 to animal fights as a separate crime. In addition, seven U.S. states have incorporated specific prohibitions on bringing minors to animal fights. Still, around the globe in places where animal fighting is legal, the presence of children at fights is fairly common. Additionally, when investigating animal fighters, we find that they often bring their young children to “learn the business,” exposing them to horrific animal suffering. In some cases, children have been put in charge of caring for the animals at home, only to then watch them die in the ring.
Slaughtering animals can also be harmful for children to witness. In some countries, it’s common practice to hide the horrors of farm animal slaughter, but even here in the U.S. we have seen reports of children being employed in slaughtering plants. In nations where slaughter occurs more frequently out in the open, children are more likely to catch sight of animals being killed. For example, investigations of Tomohon Extreme Market in Indonesia by Dog Meat Free Indonesia (of which Humane Society International is a founding member) revealed horrific treatment of dogs and cats being beaten to death and sold for their meat, all carried out in plain sight of young children. (Earlier this year, after years of campaigning to end the cruelty at this market, the mayor of Tomohon issued an order to end all sale and slaughter of dogs and cats at the market.)
Violence toward animals is a concern in and of itself, but it also reverberates far and wide, involving and implicating us all, and diminishing the prospects for a better and kinder world that would benefit all who live and breathe. Animals are not the only victims of the cruelty they suffer. The U.N.’s recognition that children have a right to be protected from exposure to violence against animals is a momentous step toward a more holistic understanding of the damage animal suffering can cause, and it is a sign of the progress we’ve made in getting the world to take animal cruelty more seriously.
Sara Amundson is president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.
Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and CEO of Humane Society International, the international affiliate of the HSUS
Conspiracy theories are undermining efforts to reduce consumption of factory farmed meat and dairy, a new report finds. A surge of online misinformation could be delaying necessary climate action, the researchers say, as nearly one million social media posts amplified misinformation about plant-based alternatives.
The report, released Wednesday by the Changing Markets Foundation, analyzed over 285 million digital posts, mostly on X, formerly known as Twitter, over a 14-month period to 31 July 2023. Of these, the report said, close to one million featured meat and dairy misinformation.
Social Media Posts Boost Junk Science
Changing diets and protecting environments are difficult tasks which, the report says, are made significantly harder by “severe backlash” on social media. Such posts are generated and promoted by fringe protesters, the meat and dairy industries, right wing conspiracy theorists and “misinfluencers,” a term the report uses to describe individuals or entities that actively disseminate or amplify “misleading information” that significantly influences “the narratives and beliefs of online communities.”
Titled Truth, Lies and Culture Wars, the report finds that most misinformation, almost 80 percent, falls into the “disparage” category, attacking meat and dairy alternatives using three dominant narratives: soyboys, vegan cultists and meat masculinity.
The soyboy narrative ridicules men that consume soy directly, rather than via the meat of intensively farmed animals fed on soybean. Soy, the false narrative claims, elevates estrogen levels “leading to perceived physical and emotional vulnerabilities.”
The vegan cultist narrative “attempts to marginalize vegans … [and] undermine the legitimacy of their dietary choices and climate action” — framing calls to reduce meat consumption as coming from zealots or cultists.
On the other hand, the meat masculinity narrative “focuses on pseudoscientific claims suggesting that meat (especially red meat) and eggs are the epitome of nutrition” and encourages links between meat consumption and male dominance.
About 20 percent of the misinformation featured “enhance” narratives. These use health-washing, which positions “animal-based food products as essential for good health,” and greenwashing, which frames “animal products as environmentally friendly options,” to promote meat and dairy consumption.
Overall, the most “pervasive” form of misinformation, says Maddy Haughton-Boakes of Changing Markets, are the attacks on alternative proteins that focus on “supposedly dubious ingredients.”
The report said advertisements placed by the Center in prominent U.S. newspapers have included language like ‘Fake Meat Has WHAT in It!’ and ‘Should Fake Meat Have a Cancer Warning?’
Viral Social Media Posts Spark Mass Dutch Farmer Revolt
In other parts of the world, the Great Reset conspiracy theory has included unfounded claims that cancer cells were “discovered” in “Bill Gates-Backed Lab-Grown Meat.”
Tweets (now posts on X) documented by the report claim that Dutch emissions reduction efforts, which included proposals to buy out livestock farmers wanting to leave the sector, were coming from the “tyrannical Great Reset Netherlands government” which “farmers must win against”.
In the Netherlands, overly high nitrogen oxide and ammonia emissions, which threaten protected plant and wildlife habitats, are linked to the country’s intensive livestock production.
The report says the misinformation narrative essentially “subverted [Dutch] government efforts to reduce emissions into accusations of planned land theft, stoking fears of radical government actions.”
Those fears, says Haughton-Boakes, have now translated into votes for a far-right candidate, Geert Wilders.
“In the Netherlands, we can already see the impact of that misinformation because one of the leading misinformation sources, Geert Wilders, has just won an election victory.”
The Irish Independent is generally known for adhering to normal journalistic standards, but the UC Davis story contained no link to the study, failed to say it had not been peer-reviewed and provided no comment from the cultivated meat sector.
In Ireland, Haughton-Boakes says it is “too early to say how much influence meat and dairy misinformation has had on government policy.” What is clear, she says, is that “misinformation will make it even harder for the Irish government to set policies to meet its 25 percent agricultural sector emissions reduction target by 2030.”
As for the rest of the world, Haughton-Boakes says the report aims to “highlight to governments the kinds of meat and dairy misinformation out there so they can deal with it and keep the focus on what the science is telling us about methane … [which in many cases requires] … reducing animal numbers and eating less animal protein.”
Neither the Irish Independent nor the Center for Consumer Freedom replied to requests for comment.
Photo from Getty Images
