Tag Archives: animal-rights

Paul Watson: Costa Rica Trying ‘To Imprison Me For Saving Sharks’

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https://www.thedodo.com/paul-watson-costa-rica-petition-1133526041.html

By Paul Watson

Thank you — 20,000 signatures in just three days is a good start. I need your help to send a strong message to the Costa Rican government that the continued pursuit of the bogus charge against me needs to stop; this is a politically motivated charge.

In 2002, at the request of Guatemalan authorities, Sea Shepherd stopped an illegal shark-finning operation by a Costa Rican-flagged fishing boat well inside the territorial waters of Guatemala. The boat was not damaged and no one was hurt. The entire confrontation was filmed by Rob Stewart as he was making the film “Sharkwater.”

The Sea Shepherd vessel Farley Mowat had two independent film crews and 35 crewmembers onboard as witnesses. The fishing boat with eight fishermen and without cameras presented no evidence backing up their charges. When I arrived in Costa Rica, I was charged with eight counts of attempted murder. We presented our witnesses and our video evidence to the court. The charges were dismissed and I was given clearance to depart from Costa Rican waters; I did so, and heard nothing more about this incident until 10 years later, when I landed in Germany in 2012. There, in Frankfurt, I was detained on a Costa Rican warrant for the charge of alleged “shipwreck endangerment.”

No one was injured nor was property damaged, and yet Japan and Costa Rica managed to place me on the INTERPOL Red List — a list meant for serial killers and war criminals. Japan wants me for alleged “conspiracy to trespass on a whaling ship.”

The government’s own charge contradicts itself; the official accusation states that the incident took place in international waters, yet the same accusation gives the exact coordinates at which the incident took place, and that position is well within the territorial waters of Costa Rica.

You have to wonder why a government that conveniently lost the evidence for the trial of the narco-poacher killers of sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora Sandoval is spending so much money and making such an effort to imprison me for saving sharks from poachers?

If you have not already done so, please take a few moments to sign and share the petition at the link below for me, provided in both English and Spanish. It will be presented to the government of Costa Rica.

Thank you, Merci, Gracias and Mahalo.
— Captain Paul Watson

Please sign and share the petition here.

Mankind’s Last Days

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10405311_308608659330466_3235603653435958062_nThe other day a friend asked me, “How do you keep your head above it all? You do so much, and your immersion in the dark side of information and events is so deep. I’ve seen most of what can be seen, I think. But even still, I have to periodically recharge with temporary absences from the info stream. It’s so disheartening and yet if you’re a person who cares, you just can’t dig your head in the sand. It’s my most challenging thing in this life — striving for a balance between my mental well-being and my commitment to our fellow beings.”

First, I can understand anyone who finds this all too much on a daily basis. I guess I get through it by choosing my battles and knowing that by not eating animals I’m not so much a part of what’s happening to them. Sometimes I have to step back from the fray and look at it all through the lens of deep ecology. Earth has survived far worse than the toxic attack of the human fly speck that’s currently plaguing her and gone on to flourish, as she certainly will again once the anthropogenic onslaught is over.

Consider this blog a chronicle of mankind’s last days. What were humans thinking when they took this incredibly beautiful, fragile, planet down—in the name of greed, selfishness, arrogance, sport or self-esteem?

Some of the articles I post might seem unrelated, off-topic or out of place when examined alone. But they are all part of the bigger picture which someday may be viewed by a higher intelligence who comes across it in their quest to know just how one species—out of so many—thought they had the right to exploit all others, carte blanc, under the narcissistic delusion that non-human lives on Earth had no rights at all.

Whether or not mankind survives the assault they’re putting the planet through is a non-issue for me. Personally, I hope they don’t. They do not deserve a second chance to rule this vibrant, watery orb any more than they deserved the first chance to steal Nature, abuse and forever change her.

But why all this on an anti-hunting blog? Because hunting, and ultimately meat-eating, is where humans first started screwing things up. For a plant-eating primate to leave the trees, take weapon in hand, turn carnivorous and claim the planet and everything that walks, crawls, swims or flies as their own was a recipe for disaster.

As the same friend so aptly put it, “I do wish we didn’t have to share the planet with persons whose empathy muscles are so undeveloped.”

What would it be like for humans to be treated like animals?

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http://news360.com/article/291521649/#

What would it be like for humans to be treated like animals?

07May, 2015by in BLOGS
Font size –16+

These sketches say it all. From an alligator walking the runway with a human bag, to a man-drawn carriage pulling horses — prepare to question your own choices.

To believe that one race holds supremacy over all other living beings is to live in an illusion, to be infatuated with a lie and promise of power, and to contribute to a destructive and cruel cycle which exploits and harms other sentient, innocent creatures every day.

Yet this is exactly what is happening all around the world. Not only are women treated as less than equals in every profession (making up 40% of the workforce, yet hold only 1% of the world’s profits), but animals in every country and region are considered to be less intelligent, and in effect, less worthy of having rights.

Just because animals do not communicate in the same way human beings do does not make them any less important – or essential – to the ecosystem and workings of the world.

To shed light on the way animals are treated and cause viewers to contemplate their own actions, these creative – and somewhat disturbing – cartoons have been compiled into a collection for YOU to ponder what it would be like if animals treated humans the same way they are presently being treated.

AnimalTreatment

AnimalTreatment2

AnimalTreatment

What are your thoughts? Comment below. And if you support the general message being conveyed through the cartoons, please share with others so they, too, may benefit from the thought-provoking sketches as well.

Words by Amanda Froelich
This post originally appeared on TrueActivist.com.
Source: Higher Perspective

Also see: Will you see a South African rhino on your next trip to South Africa?

Also see: Is dehorning South African rhinos really the solution?

Blissful, Willful Ignorance

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Ignorant people are lucky. It must be nice to skate through life choosing to be clueless of the unfairness and injustice going on around you; that you are a part of; that you’re causing; that you benefit from. But then again, you’d have to go through your life harboring a lot of hatred for the messenger; for the competition; for the things you can’t control, no matter how hard you try.

No, maybe willful ignorance wouldn’t be so blissful after all. How can a person be ready when the shit inevitably comes down, or make peace with their part in it? Are they going to stand around scratching their heads, asking themselves, “Wha’ happened?” Or, “Where did all this human evil come from?”

The world may seem like a relatively nice, peaceful place right now, but that’s only because non-human nature has been taking the brunt of human avarice.  While some of us carry the weight of the world on our shoulders, most people just float through life. And though there’s no doubt about their willful ignorance, the blissful part may be getting ever more elusive.

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Graphic Video Of Annual Canadian Seal Hunt Released By Animal Rights Group

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I can’t watch, it just makes me want to club someone…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/20/canada-baby-seals-killed_n_7087092.html

WARNING: This post contains graphic content that may upset some readers.10264634_10152337495904586_9174164310757903244_n

The Canadian government in early March announced this year’s quota for its annual, and highly controversial, seal hunt. The allocation for 2015? 468,000 harp, hooded and grey seals.

In an effort to minimize inhumane treatment, the Canadian government mandates that seals can only be killed using a high-powered rifle or shotgun, a club or a hunting tool called a hakapik. Yet with the hunt in full swing, last week Humane Society International released shocking footage of baby seals being shot, clubbed and dragged aboard hunting vessels — footage that, the group alleges, shows the hunt is anything but humane

Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of HSI’s Canada chapter, told The Huffington Post that despite the legal protections, “what happens to these baby seals is some of the worst suffering I’ve ever witnessed.” She spent last week in a helicopter off the northeast coast of Newfoundland getting a firsthand look at the seal hunt — her 17th year doing so.

Click to reveal graphic photo

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“Ever year we go out there, we see the same kind of cruelty,” Aldworth said. “The seal is moving on the ice, the ice is moving on the ocean and the boat is rocking on the waves, so you often see a seal that’s just wounded because it’s incredibly difficult to make that shot.”

The hunt takes place in northeastern Canada between November and June, with the majority of the seal hunting happening in March and April. The animals are killed mainly for their furs, and young harp seals tend to be in the highest demand because they have the most valuable pelts.

The Canadian government maintains that safeguards are in place to ensure animals are killed quickly and humanely. When asked about the scientific rationale for the hunt, a spokesperson for the country’s Fisheries and Oceans Portfolio directed HuffPost to an online FAQ page about the seal hunt.

Click to reveal graphic photo

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The huge annual quota is all the more surprising given that the number of seals harvested each year has fallen dramatically over the past decade, thanks to a shrinking market. Around 94,000 animals were hunted in 2013, down from about 366,000 in 2004. Harp seal populations in Canada are nearly three times what they were in the 1970s, currently numbering close to 7.3 million animals.

The Canadian Sealers Association recently announced that it will scale back operations in light of the difficult financial situation caused by a constricted commercial market. Carino, the top buyer of sealskins in Canada, said it wouldn’t be purchasing any pelts this year because it already has a stockpile that didn’t sell in 2014.

The lower demand is partially a result of growing international concern for animal welfare. The entirety of the European Union banned the trade in 2009 due to worries about the inhumane nature of seal hunts in Canada, Greenland, Namibia and other countries. Canada appealed the decision to the World Trade Organization, but the agency upheld the EU ban in 2014, noting it was “necessary to protect public morals” related to animal rights.

In the U.S., trade in seal products is banned and all species of seal are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

Captain Paul Watson, founder of the marine wildlife conservation group Sea Shepherd, told HuffPost that while his organization supports the work of HSI, it no longer actively opposes to the hunt due to the “collapse” of the market.

“There simply is no market today,” he said. “Sea Shepherd’s role has been to oppose the sealing ships, and there are no more ships on the water and in the ice killing seals.”

Watson noted that despite the large number of seals designated for hunting through the government’s quota, it’s likely that fewer than 60,000 will be killed this year because of the lack of demand.

Aldworth told HuffPost that HSI is hoping to help broker a deal between the sealers and the Canadian government that would bring about an end to the hunt through a federal buyout of sealing contracts. She said the plan would be similar to the shift that took place when whaling was ended in the country in the 1970s. Parts of Canada now have a burgeoning whale-watching industry.

But for now, her group believes a single seal killed is one too many.

“HSI’s concern is that the seal hunt is inherently inhumane. Because it’s inhumane, it must be shut down,” Aldworth said. “The only progressive thing to do, the only acceptable solution is to shut down the slaughter forever.”

Click to reveal graphic photo

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Also on HuffPost:

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WARNING

Other Evils of the Livestock Industry

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The following is by Rosemary Lowe:

Thinking Beyond the Animal Factories to Save This Planet

  
 Those out there who are concerned about this planet, the wildlife, the wild places, really need to understand how very destructive the Livestock Industry is, and not just for the factory farming aspects (as horrendous as they are).
Even many Vegans, who rightly abhor  what goes on in animal factories,  ignore, (or are unaware of), the plight of billions of native wild species in the U.S. and around the world. Wild species’ populations are in severe decline , some near extinction, due to livestock grazing on the last open, wild places.
Since the 1880’s the western livestock industry in the U.S., has been responsible for the slaughter of Billions (not millions) of coyotes, bears, wolves, prairie dogs, birds of prey, mountain lions, bobcats, beavers, ferrets, and other wild fauna and flora. This industry is also killing our rivers, streams,  forests, not to mention increasing the volatile gas, methane, that is a by-product of grazing, &  increasing global climate change.
So, while most people are now at least aware of the evil animal factories,  the horror of what goes on “out there” on the range– the vast expanses of our public lands– is hardly mentioned or thought about. It is crucial to also understand that western public lands–wilderness areas, BLM, National Forests, National Grasslands,  National Wildlife Refuges, and state lands–are becoming Domesticated Feed Lots because of the ranching industry. These public lands are the last refuge for wildness, in this Climate Change world!
 No matter how livestock grazing is packaged, it is an industry which is  removing what is wild and replacing it with  Domestication. Every so-called “wildlife problem” west of the Mississippi is really about The Livestock Industry, whether it be actual  grazing, or the raising of crops used for grazing domestic sheep and cattle. The western livestock interests are powerful, vocal, and determined to keep wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, wild horses, & thousands of other species “controlled/managed” with emphasis on aerial shooting, roundups, poisoning, trapping, hunts,  subsidized by taxpayers.
Now, some misguided animal groups, like IDA, and HSUS are falling for the PZP “birth control” method for horses, deer and other wild ungulates–which means more “taming” of the wild west.
What does this trend mean for the future of The Wild, when even so-called “animal people” start Sleeping with The Enemy?
 The great naturalist, professor, author, John A. Livingston, wrote, in Rogue Primate that: “to domesticate…is to amputate its wildness, to tame it; to train or otherwise coerce it into living with, and being of use, to us; to make it a part of our (human) infrastructure.”

We who care, still have a chance to save what is left of wildness, but we don’t have much time. Worse yet, the other living beings–wild non-humans-are fast running out of time.
      __________________________________________________
And John A. Livingston also wrote (and ahimsaforever commented), One of my favorite quotes of Livingston catalogs why he and other people (including me) who care about animals can be misanthropic:

“In the alchemist’s dungeon that is almost any well-appointed shopping center in the “developed” world, you can buy cosmetics, transmission fluid, and pet food made from whales; you can buy the hide of lynx in the form of a hat, or gloves made from the skin of an unborn lamb; you can buy a coat made from seal whelps; you can buy a tropical finch in a metal cage and a Siamese fighting fish in a plastic bag; you can buy firearms and whammo ammunition and multiple hooks with barbs on them; you can buy sharkskin shoes and the unspawned eggs of a sturgeon; you can buy the pulverized enlarged liver of a force-fed goose and the testicles of a bull and the brain of a calf . . . . You can buy the sterile eggs of an untrod chicken and the tongue of a feed-lot steer that spent its last weeks hock-deep in its own manure; you can buy medicines made from the blood and viscera of living laboratory animals . . . . You can also buy the Holy Bible and the Declaration of Human Rights.” The John Livingston Reader (2007), p. 149.