Animal News Weekly – January 31, 2014
Free The Dogs
Take Action Today to Stop
Their Suffering and Death
IDA’s new Free The Dogs campaign staff has uncovered cruel and wasteful research that caused the suffering and deaths of hundreds of puppies and adult dogs, as well as the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and conducted at Wake Forest University (WFU), the dogs in this study were forced to undergo invasive procedures and were then killed.
Our staff was shocked to learn that the NIH funded a study which attempted to fix a problem that does not exist. The researchers used dogs to explore a link between the use of a heart-lung machine and permanent brain dysfunction following cardiac surgery. However, there is no association between use of the heart-lung machines and long-term brain dysfunction following cardiac surgery. Permanent brain dysfunction is due to the coronary artery disease itself and not after-effects from having used a heart-lung machine.1,2
Although the theory of a link has been discredited and their studies have not improved cardiac surgery, nor have they published any of their related results, the researchers continue to waste tax dollars and use dogs as disposable test tubes.
Click here to take action.
1Selnes, O. A., Grega, M. A., Bailey, M. M., Pham, L. D., Zeger, S. L., Baumgartner, W. A., & McKhann, G. M. (2009).
Do management strategies for coronary artery disease influence 6-year cognitive outcomes?. The Annals of thoracic surgery, 88(2), 445-454.
2http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/is_there_long_term_
brain_damage_after_bypass_surgery_more_evidence_puts_the_blame_on_heart_disease_itself
Tell the USFWS to Deny Import
Permit for Black Rhino Parts
The Dallas Safari Club recently auctioned off a hunting permit for a Namibian black rhino. The winner of the auction will now need to obtain a permit from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to import the body parts of a rhino (the trophy) into the U.S.
Only about 5,000 of the critically endangered black rhinos still exist in the wild, with 1,800 remaining in Namibia. Poaching is the leading reason why black rhinos are struggling for survival. Trophy hunters pay big bucks to shoot rare and endangered animals because all they care about is the thrill of killing, under the guise of conservation. They degrade beautiful and majestic wild animals to lifeless, dead body parts they mount on walls.
Protect black rhinos, not the interests of trophy hunters.
Click here to take action.
VICTORY! The King Amendment is Dead
The King Amendment will not be included in the Farm Bill!
The Farm Bill has been finalized and the highly controversial King Amendment has been removed. The King Amendment claimed to protect interstate commerce, but in reality it was designed to undermine animal welfare laws enacted by individual states.
Thanks to letters and phone calls from dedicated animal advocates like you, our representatives and senators decided to reject the dangerous and unconstitutional King Amendment to the Farm Bill. This is a big win for animals!
Mute Swans Still Need Your Help
Last week, we let you know that The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) announced its intent to exterminate ALL wild mute swans—approximately 2,200 birds in New York State—by the year 2025.
So far, over 11,000 of you (thank you-wonderful supporters) have signed our alert, but we need even more participation. Please sign the alert if you have not already and also please use the share button to share with your friends on Facebook to maximize our efforts. Everyone around the world is free to express concern, so let’s double our impact and save New York’s mute swans!
Click here to help.
Lonely Abandoned Rabbit Rescued by IDA Staff
In order to start the new year with a bang (or a hop, as luck would have it), it seems that IDA’s Guardian Campaign Director, Anita Carswell, was fated to rescue and become the guardian of yet another rabbit, along with her partner, IDA’s all purpose fix-it and build-it man, Brendan Montgomerie.
The call came in on the cold and windy second evening of the new year. A very small domestic rabbit was spotted by mutual friends who were walking their dogs on part of the grassy field surrounding one of the marinas in Richmond, California. With only a carrier in hand, Anita looked beneath the car the rabbit had hopped under. Brendan went around to the other side, and in a sheer moment of bunny magic, the rabbit ran up to him and licked both his hands. It was an instant later that she was in the carrier and brought home under the watchful eyes of Anita and Brendan’s previously rescued rabbits, Azalea and Everest.
The next day, Buttercup was checked out by wonderful staff members of House Rabbit Society (HRS) in Richmond. She had a severe case of ear mites and was underweight and starving.
Click here to read more and to help out.
Everest and Buttercup |
Buttercup |
Azalea and Everest |
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