Tag Archives: cruelty

“Kill ‘Em All Boys” Ringleader Gets 13 Months in Prison for Poaching and Animal Cruelty

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Prosecutors obviously saw the potential for this hunter/poacher’s behavior to lead to cruelty against humans–Washington state officials also suspended his nursing license.

http://www.komonews.com/outdoors/news/30924359.html

Poaching group leader gets 13 months in prison

Mick Gordon poses with slain cougar

By Dan Tilkin and KATU Web Staff

Oct 13, 2008   Story Updated: Oct 30, 2013

CATHLAMET, Wash. – The man considered the ringleader of a group of poachers who called themselves the “Kill ‘Em All Boys” was sentenced to a year and a month in prison Monday for illegally killing wildlife.

Mick Gordon, pictured below, pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree animal cruelty, hunting black bear, cougar, bobcat and lynx with dogs, second-degree criminal trespass and third-degree malicious mischief.

Washington Fish and Wildlife officers said the group used a device they called “the permission slip,” which is a metal bar used to break locks blocking access to prime poaching territory on timber company lands. They even had a videotape made of the bar in use because they wanted to sell the contraption on eBay.

Undercover officers infiltrated the group as part of the investigation. Later wildlife officers seized trophy heads and guns from Gordon’s garage.

Gordon, a registered nurse, was also accused of torturing one of his hunting dogs with a shock collar as well as not giving it care for porcupine wounds; the dog eventually died.

Prosecutors on Monday asked for an exceptionally long sentence, saying Gordon had “run amok.”

“I’m deeply sorry for what I’ve done,” Gordon told the judge. “It’ll never happen again”

Judge Michael J. Sullivan called Gordon an aberration.

“When I look at you and what you’ve done here, which seems to be a highly organized crime spree, I just don’t know how to put those two together,” the judge said.

The sentence was much stiffer than normal. In other recent animal cruelty cases, defendants received sentences of about 3.2 months on average.

Washington state officials have also suspended Gordon’s nursing license.

According to state health department documents, Gordon told an undercover officer he put a shock collar on a child’s neck, turned it to its highest setting and shocked the child. He also told the officer he despised his bed-ridden, elderly patients.

NY Town Hosts Annual “Squirrel Slam” Bloodbath

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Photo copyright Jim Robertson

Photo copyright Jim Robertson

THE VILLAGE OF HOLLEY, N.Y., IS PREPARING FOR ANOTHER
BLOODBATH SATURDAY, FEB. 22, WHEN IT WILL HOST ITS ANNUAL”SQUIRREL SLAM”

Friends of Animals (FoA) and local residents will lead a protest of the
horrific event, a squirrel-shooting contest for children and adults
disguised as a fundraiser, and take questions from the media, on Saturday
from 4:30 to 6 p.m. outside the Holley Fire Department located at 7 Thomas
St., where the hunters will bring dead squirrels to be weighed to claim prizes.

“Our experiences protesting the event last year showed a sickening,
gun-worshipping culture of adults, teenagers and children who celebrated the
violence of mass animal killing,” said Edita Birnkrant, FoA’s NY Director.

While the fire department gears up for the event despite opposition, New
York lawmakers are speaking out against the disgrace and showing support of
legislation that would put an end to animal killing contests for good.

“Any competition that encourages and glorifies the slaughter of innocent
animals for no purpose has no place in our state,” said N.Y. state Sen. Jack
Martins, one of the sponsors of a bill that would make these contests illegal.

Last year FoA, an international animal advocacy group founded in New York in
1957, mobilized supporters and took to the streets to protest and released a
mini documentary detailing its efforts. The video,
<http://friendsofanimals.org/news/2013/april/squirrel-slam-video&gt;
http://friendsofanimals.org/news/2013/april/squirrel-slam-video , also draws
attention to the Senate and Assembly bills that would ban animal killing contests in New York.

“Killing contests like the ‘Squirrel Slam’ provide an incentive to children
and adults to shoot many animals to win prizes- a disturbing, irrational
activity that’s out-of-pace with New York culture and must end throughout
the state,” said N.Y. state Sen. Tony Avella, who created the bill.

“I believe it is an obligation and honor to advance legislation that will
protect and maintain the beauty and health of New York State wildlife,”
added N.Y. state Assembly member Deborah J. Glick.

David Brensilver, a wildlife advocate and writer/musician, created a
“Squirrel Slam” protest song in support of FoA’s efforts and can be
downloaded here: <http://thedailymaul.com/?p=9791&gt;

Puppy dies in hot backyard

Animal killing contests are part of a broader conversation on gun violence.
The Holley event comes just over a year after a rifle wielding Adam Lanza
committed mass murder at an elementary school, and last month, a 12-year-old
opened fire at a middle school and an elderly man fatally shot someone
because he was text messaging during a movie.

__________________

Friends of Animals, an international animal protection organization founded
in 1957, advocates for the rights of animals to live free, on their own
terms. <http://www.friendsofanimals.org&gt; http://www.friendsofanimals.org

Animal Cruelty and Human Violence

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cathy-kangas/animal-cruelty-and-human-_b_2507551.html

by Cathy Kangas, 01/18/2013

Recently in Tampa, a pit bull was found dead, chained to a post in a foreclosed home. In Sacramento, a puppy was burned alive. At the same time across America dozens of men, women and children are victims of violent crimes. It is time to take a serious look at the connection between those who torture and kill animals, and perpetrators of violent crimes against people.

The examples are appalling. Mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer cut off the heads of cats and dogs impaling them on sticks; Albert DeSalvo, the “Boston Strangler, trapped dogs and cats in orange rates and shot arrows through the box, and David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz poisoned his mother’s parakeet. While these are anecdotal stories about well-known serial killers, there are scientific studies that draw a direct correlation between animal torture and human cruelty.

With their limited resources local law enforcement can’t always make animal cruelty incidents a top priority. But perhaps when we look at the connection between animal cruelty and human violence, we would focus more attention on those who abuse animals to prevent them from escalating to crimes against people.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, researchers determined that between 71 percent and 83 percent of women entering domestic violence shelters reported that their partners also abused or killed the family pet. 1 Another study found that in families under supervision for the physical abuse of their children, pet abuse was concurrent in 88 percent of the families. 2 In seven school shootings that took place across the country between 1997 and 2001, all boys involved had previously committed acts of animal cruelty. 3

Because of this growing evidence of a link between animal cruelty and violent crimes, those who abuse animals are now on the radar of law enforcement agencies, social workers, and veterinarians in states that have cross-reporting laws requiring these professionals to report cases of animal abuse.

In the case of animal abuse by young children, intervention at an early age can stop these tendencies before they escalate to include violence against people. The National School Safety Council, the U.S. Department of Education, the American Psychological Association, and the National Crime Prevention Council all now agree that animal cruelty is a warning sign for at-risk youth.

Dr. Randall Lockwood, a psychologist who has written extensively on the link between animal abuse and human violence, wrote “Those who abuse animals for no obvious reason are budding psychopaths. They have no empathy and only see the world as what it’s going to do for them.”

What can the public do to stop animal abuse? First and most importantly, all animal abuse should be reported to local law enforcement, who should make arrests in these cases a priority. Only 28 states currently have counseling provisions in their animal cruelty laws. Psychological counseling should be mandated for anyone convicted of animal cruelty with particular emphasis placed on helping children who have abused animals. This is necessary for their own welfare as well as that of their community.

Animal welfare organizations should come together to offer substantial rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone who abuses an animal and efforts should be undertaken to push this story in the local media. The Humane Society of the United States offers rewards in cases across the country, oftentimes in partnership with other organizations. Prosecutors should not only demand jail time, but also insist on psychological counseling for those convicted of animal cruelty. In questioning suspects in violent crimes, law enforcement should question them about any abuse of animals in their past.

This is a serious problem. It is also one that will only get worse if left unchecked. The public should demand that anyone who abuses an animal be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This is not an animal rights issue. It is a way to identify and help those who may one day become a danger to the community at large.
__________
Cathy Kangas, a member of the Board of Directors of The Humane Society of the United States, supports animal welfare causes through Beauty with a Cause.

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Restaurant’s seal-meat burger, named after Brigitte Bardot, sparks threats from animal-rights activists

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http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/16/restaurants-seal-meat-burger-named-after-brigitte-bardot-sparks-threats-from-animal-rights-activists/

MONTREAL — When Kim Côté and Perle Morency added a seal-meat burger to the menu of their popular bistro in Kamouraska, Que., they decided to have some fun with the name. The Phoque Bardot Burger — combining the French word for seal and the name of the actress known for her campaign against the Canadian seal hunt — became one of the restaurant’s top sellers.

But last month news of the couple’s creation made its way across the Atlantic, and animal-rights activists there failed to see the humour. A French Facebook page called “Defend the animals and protect nature” reported the burger was concocted from “the meat of massacred baby seals” and lamented that its name was disrespectful toward Brigitte Bardot.

“We are receiving a lot of hate messages, and we’re almost inclined to let them win, because we don’t feel like fighting,” Ms. Morency, co-owner of the Côté Est bistro, said in an interview Wednesday. “There is a lot of intimidation. I don’t want my restaurant to be blamed any more, for people to call and say, ‘You are crazy, you are inhumane, you are assassins.’ ”

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Celebrities Want to Tie Trade Pact to Dolphin Hunt

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http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/celebrities-tie-trade-pact-dolphin-hunt-22385320

WASHINGTON February 6, 2014 (AP)

Associated Press

A group of American celebrities and other activists want President Barack Obama to refuse to sign an international trade agreement until Japan bans the capture and slaughter of dolphins in the fishing town of Taiji.

Backing the effort are Oscar-winning performers Sean Penn, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Jennifer Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron as well as TV stars Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner, and many others.

The Oscar-winning 2009 documentary “The Cove” chronicled the dolphin roundup in Taiji and helped spark protests over the annual hunt and ensuing slaughter. Japanese law allows a hunting season for dolphins, and fishermen defend it as a tradition.

In a letter dated Wednesday that included dozens of names, hip-hop producer Russell Simmons asked the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, to urge Obama not to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, until Japan bans the hunt. Kennedy recently tweeted that she was deeply concerned about the dolphin hunt, which has drawn widespread news coverage.

Simmons’ letter said those signing don’t oppose the TPP but seek to make stopping the dolphin hunt a key factor in negotiations. The free trade agreement is being negotiated by 12 nations that account for about 40 percent of global gross domestic product.

The letter said that corporations have spent the past two years crafting language in the TPP “to serve their interests.”

“Should human compassion not be afforded the same privilege as business interests?” the letter stated. It added: “The world is looking to you, Ambassador Kennedy, and to our government to send a clear message to Japan that this atrocity must be banned now.”

After Kennedy’s tweet, a State Department spokeswoman told reporters that the U.S. was “concerned with both the sustainability and the humaneness of the Japanese dolphin hunts.”

Simmons said more than 600 dolphins have been slaughtered since the hunting season360_yangtze_dolphin_0810 began Sept. 1. Anti-hunt activists reported that dozens of fishermen helped to herd about 250 dolphins into a cove one day last month. Of those, about 40 were eventually killed for their meat. At least 50 others were kept alive for sale to aquariums and others, and the remaining dolphins were released.

Connections of animal and human suffering

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http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/pets/dr-fox/connections-of-animal-and-human-suffering/article_0d7de883-b56e-587a-bc67-516db2cddce1.html

by Dr. Michael Fox

Dear Readers • Humans, like other animals, have so-called mirror neurons in their brains that instantly process the emotional state of another deciphered through their facial expressions, vocalizations and body language. This happens to facilitate communication and appropriate action/reaction.

When signals of distress and suffering are processed, empathetic concern is evoked, as is fear. Sociopaths and psychopaths may respectively feel nothing or some perverse pleasure. Empathetic concern, which can include sympathy, outrage, remorse, anger, guilt and disbelief, can lead to denial or appropriate action to help, save, protect and defend by direct action.

While the print and TV media increasingly limit public exposure to extreme human suffering, there are even greater limits imposed, at least in America, on showing documented cruelties and suffering of animals. Ironically, some newspapers —1474693_10202436592133870_578596781_n including my local edition — have no qualms publishing photographs of a 12-year-old girl with a deer she had shot and a wildlife biology student grinning with a wolf he had shot draped around his shoulders. This establishes a culturally accepted norm, but images of animal suffering and cruelty — of animals in traps, in factory livestock and fur farms, puppy mills and slaughterhouses — are rarely shown by the mass media. We should ask why, and who is protecting whom.

Censorship of animal cruelty and suffering by the mass media parallels the atrocious record of state and federal law enforcement agencies of anti-cruelty laws. Janelle Dixon, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Animal Humane Society, recently reported how her organization spent $225,000 caring for dogs from a puppy mill, while the operator of this commercial dog breeding operation received a charge of a year’s probation, a 90-day suspended jail sentence and a $50 fine.

Clearly, America must wipe its mirror clean when it comes to animal and human suffering caused by how, as a culture, we choose to do our business. And the media must begin to act responsibly rather than entertain, distract and continue to promote consumerism and biased information.

Bowhunting and elk–Unfair to Who?

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This columnist–a rifle hunter–brings up some good points about the cruelty and waste of bowhunting, but he perceives himself the victim and only mentions the suffering of wounded elk to help make his case…

http://www.dailyastorian.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/bowhunting-and-elk/article_840e51ac-0c1a-11e3-8f0c-001a4bcf887a.html

Bowhunting and elk
Posted: Friday, August 23, 2013

DICK MATTSON
Warrenton

I have hunted elk, usually successfully, in Clatsop County for 60 years, all with a big game rifle, hopefully with one merciful shot. I write to share my experience and knowledge, as I also studied elk habits during my lifetmie, much of it during wonderful scouting trips with my brother, Jim.

The current Clatsop County archery season of 30 days was politically driven by archers to take advantage of the unwary bulls during the mating “rut” season in September. This is wrong, both by lack of biological insight, and by the great disparity to rifle bull elk hunters, who are allowed only a four-day season, or seven days for the last elk season.

House ad: Northwest Opinions website – ros in article ad

During my investigation years ago, I found that 50 percent of elk wounded by arrows get away to suffer. This was illustrated by a Bill Monroe column where he wrote of two archers’ “success” near Jewell with bow hunting a bull elk. However, both archers had wounded two other elk, which they did not look for. This is a calamity, as well as highly absurd and unfair to elk rifle hunters.

If elk rifle hunters do not care enough to do something, archers will continue to dominate. I suggest a 10 day bull elk rifle season and a 16 day archery elk season, ending by Sept. 10, allowing time for more herd bulls to escape arrows. Herd bulls are needed for a stronger, healthy elk herd.

It’s high time to care about elk seasons.

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Welcome to “What the Fuck Week”

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What the fuck’s going on with humans’ cruel and sadistic treatment of animals these days? Has the world of man gone completely mad?

If you have the feeling there’s a kind of quickening—an acceleration of human evil—happening lately, you’re not alone. I’ve noticed it for a while now. From Sears carrying “I love wolf hunting” T-shirts to the Wildlife Services round up and gassing Canada geese, so many bizarre, shocking and downright malevolent deeds have come to light in the past few days that I hereby declare this “What the Fuck Week.” (WTFW will run from now until further notice.)

Early last evening the warm autumn air brought out a hatch of flying termites. Clumsy in flight, they lose their wings shortly after finding a suitable log or house to bore into. An entire industry was built around trying to exterminate them, when nature has long held the key to termite control—namely, bats. And last night there were more bats circling the house than I’ve seen all summer. Bats big and small were out in force, dodging each other to get to their temporarily-winged prey.

Much has come to light in recent years about the benefits of bats as managers of mosquitos and other undesirables.

But just today in my inbox I received the following petition about an absurd and sadistic reality show that caused me to let out a “What the Fuck?!” loud enough to rattle the termites out of their burrows:

                              ………..

The Discovery Channel: Stop showing videos of Bear Grylls mutilating, killing and eating innocent animals

This petition will be delivered to: Chairman, Discovery Communications, LLC, John S. Hendricks

 

In a clip from Man vs Wild (formerly on The Discovery Channel) Bear Grylls used smoke to flush bats from a cave and then struck the fleeing, terrified animals with a makeshift club and stomped on them with what seemed to be glee, jokingly referring to it as “bat tennis.”

Yes, this actually happened, and it is not an isolated incident. Aside from bats, Bear has killed alligators, monitor lizards, capybaras and even boas. None of these animals are killed in anywhere near a humane manner; they are simply beaten to death for the amusement of the viewing public.

 
This can’t be overstated enough: for those who care about animals, the videos available online showing his frequent atrocities are very, very difficult to watch.  If you seek them out to see for yourself, please be aware of this.

In replying to email complaints about the show, The Discovery Channel defended itself by saying that Bear was imparting valuable survival information and, unbelievably, that it was his Bear’s “style!” Such “stylistic” concerns as applied to people comprises much of the notoriety of serial killers.  As for the conveyance of vital survival tips, opting to beat, kill and eat whatever animals are near is very clearly a rash and inadvisable course of action. Real survival experts – the ones who actually survive in the wilderness rather than preen their sad macho survivalist fantasies on television – say that pretty much everything Bear Grylls does or says to do will get you killed. There is no worthwhile information whatsoever that can only be conveyed by filming oneself killing innocent, healthy animals, and terrorizing and bludgeoning sleeping bats right at their doorstep.  

Let us not forget that Bear Grylls was exposed for staying in hotels overnight while filming a show that falsely portrayed him as embattled by harsh wilderness.

Profiting from the utterly pointless killing of these bats – and all animals – is unilaterally unacceptable, and while the show may now be cancelled, Discovery still has the video and others like it up for viewing on their website, meaning that they as well as Bear are still profiting from engineering, perpetrating and showing the deaths of these innocent animals to audiences worldwide. 

Please contact those responsible for fouling our televisions with his presence. Please also feel free to join the Bear Barbaric Bear Grylls Facebook page to voice your opinion: https://www.facebook.com/BoycottBarbaricBearGrylls

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America’s Top 10 Threats to Trapping; or, The enemy of my enemy is my friend

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http://www.ussportsmen.org/trapping/americas-top-10-threats-to-trapping-2/

Posted on August 22, 2012

Courtesy of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance/ http://www.ussportsmen.org.

There are many forces in America working to end trapping and wise wildlife management. Here are a few of those anti-trapping groups:

1- Sierra Club—this group’s board of directors has let America know it opposes any and all trapping—period. The official Sierra Club statement reads: “The Sierra Club considers body-gripping, restraining and killing traps and snares to be ecologically indiscriminate and unnecessarily inhumane and therefore opposes their use.” This position earns this group a No. 1 spot.

2- PETA—best known for being wackos, this group opposes fur, trapping and anything non-vegan. PETA also wanted to “trap” and euthanize problem hogs in Florida to prevent them from being hunted.

3- Humane Society of the United States—this radical animal rights group lists trapping as wildlife abuse. This group is currently being sued for violation of federal racketeering laws.

4- American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (alias ASPCA)—states openly on its website that “The ASPCA is against the use of leg-hold or body gripping traps to capture wild animals because of the pain and distress that they cause.” The group also opposes hunting.

5- Defenders of Wildlife—this group opposes wolf hunting and trapping, and launched an aggressive on-line campaign to skew an Idaho wolf trapping survey in its favor. D o W reported it had 39,000 followers overwhelm the Idaho Game and Fish Commission’s website.

6- Born Free USA—this radical animal rights group labels trapping as “barbaric” and has a trapping victims fund to help cover veterinarian costs for animals—including wildlife—caught in traps. It distributes a free “How to Organize an Anti-Trapping Campaign” booklet through its Animal Protection Institute group.

7- In Defense of Animals—opposes trapping and has created a “furkills” website to promote the group’s propaganda—and to collect funds. The group also encourages followers to create a display in their local public library to display leaflets, posters, and books about the cruelty involved in trapping or leg-hold traps.

8- Animal Welfare Institute: Opposes trapping and is pushing the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act in Congress to end trapping on national wildlife refuges. Filed a lawsuit in 2008 to stop coyote and fox trapping in Maine under the guise of protecting Canada lynx.

9- Center for Biological Diversity: has campaigns underway to stop wolf trapping and hunting in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, and another in New Mexico to save Mexican gray wolves. Some of the group’s “urgent letters of action” also includes requests for donations to end trapping.

10- Footloose Montana—works to oppose wolf trapping and the management of these large predators in Montana while other wildlife species, like elk, dwindle in numbers at the hands, or paws, of wolves. Also works to end trapping on public lands.

As you can tell, trappers and hunters need to work together to overcome these radical forces…

Save the Wolves: Support the Rights of All Animals

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Make no mistake, I love wolves as much as just about anyone; yet some people practically worship them, putting them above any other species except perhaps whales and dolphins. To be sure, wolves are sacred, but there are folks who think of them as hyper-sentient—the great Northern furred land-dolphin, if you will.

I’m not for a minute denying wolves’ intelligence or adherence to an almost human-like social caste system, but I can’t get behind campaign slogans such as “Real hunters don’t hunt wolves.” I call bullshit on that. Real hunters hunt wolves, coyotes, elk, deer, prairie dogs, pigeons, pronghorn, bears, cougars, raccoons— anything and everything that moves or has ever moved. Hell, they’d probably hunt whales and dolphins if it weren’t for the Federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. Most hunters just want a target and a trophy, they don’t really care what species it is.

Granted, some hunters are more sadistic than others, just as some serial killers revel in their victims’ suffering, while others dispatch their prey as quickly as possible—they’re only interest: harvesting a trophy corpse to have around, for whatever morbid reason. The most sadistic hunters are probably fueled by the fact that there are people out there who adore wolves while state laws still consider delisted wolves “property” like every other non-human animal.

Serial killers have been known to derive sick pleasure from taunting the families of their victims, calling them from prison to recount their murders. The same kind of thing likely goes on in the minds of sadistic wolf hunters who boast and post photos of their kills, knowing that some sentimental environmentalist or animal rightsists might come across one and be hurt or outraged by it. They’d love to know that one of us broke down, burned out or resorted to lethal action because of their post (as long as they weren’t on the receiving end of the action).

The wolf situation is unique among modern-day animal atrocities, in that it’s as yet perfectly “legal” for hunters and trappers to film themselves in action. In sharing them online, they’re banking on the fact that the general public is unmoved and apathetic. But I’d like to think that if factory farmers readily shared footage of their routine acts of animal abuse online, there would be a lot more vegans in this world.

For now, the only way anti-wolf sadists can be stopped is by eliminating them from the world of the living. But if you happen to reside in one of those backward states that have yet to implement a death penalty for wolf hunting, the best advice is to just ignore them like you would the taunts of any other bully. Meanwhile, keep petitioning Facebook and other social media outlets where their death porn appears. As long as animals, including wolves, are seen only as “property” by the powers that be, the people who run Facebook will feel entitled to allow anti-wolf evil to be spread throughout their pages and posts.

Eventually common decency will prevail and violent anti-wolf/anti-animal sites will come under serious scrutiny, just as misogynistic sites recently have. We need to step up the pressure on Facebook and let them know that freedom of speech does not give one the right to victimize. Be sure to sign this petition and pass it on: http://www.change.org/petitions/facebook-executives-ban-sadistic-pages-of-wildlife-torture

Meanwhile, let’s fight for the rights and personhood of all animals, not just a chosen few.

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved