A historic beagle rescue, a big cat bill & tales of whales

“Government inspectors found that beagles at the facility were being killed instead of receiving veterinary treatment for easily treated conditions; nursing mother beagles were denied food; the food that they did receive contained maggots, mold and feces; and over an eight-week period, 25 beagle puppies died from cold exposure. Some dogs suffered from injuries when they were attacked by other dogs in overcrowded conditions.” -- HSUS

I have always heard good things about beagles’ temperament, which has made them popular, easy-to-work-with lab animals.  How supremely unlucky for beagles. 

During the last week, a rescue began for some 4,000 beagles in a facility where they were bred to become lab animals.  The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is leading the rescue, which also involves other animal-advocacy organizations, to move the beagles into shelter-partner sites around the country for eventual adoption. 

This move, with its great humane motivation, is thrilling to know of.  I hope people all over are following the HSUS news, watching for specifics on where the beagles are going, donating to HSUS to help the effort and thinking very seriously about adopting!       

https://www.humanesociety.org/4000beagles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZo_j-U_J-0

For both big cats & people

A federal bill that would curb or end the exploitation and suffering of captive big cats and protect the US public – the Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263) – is coming up for a vote this week.  Please contact your US representative to urge a positive vote on this important legislation.  

Basically, the bill aims to (1) prohibit the possession by private individuals of lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, cougars or any hybrid of these species, and (2) restrict direct contact between the public and big cats of any age.   

The Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), one organization urging passage of this bill, points out that since 1990, there have been nearly 380 dangerous incidences involving captive big cats in 46 states and the District of Columbia, with 25 people killed and many more injured.

What else does it take?

It also takes this: “Cub petting operations continuously breed big cats so they can sell photo and handling sessions with young cubs to the public.”  After being “torn from their mothers shortly after birth,” the cubs are exploited and often mistreated.

Once they grow too big to handle or bring in profits, cubs may be “funneled into the exotic pet trade, sold to other disreputable exhibitors, or ending up in the illegal trade in wildlife parts.”

This is all very ugly. 

To repeat: Please ask your US rep to vote "yes" on the Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263).  Thank you! 

Huge, invaluable & jeopardized

Whales, cetaceans, leviathans . . . just a few ways to allude to “fully aquatic, open-ocean” marine mammals, including the blue whale, “the largest animal known to have ever existed,” according to Wikipedia.  And not only the largest, but also intelligent beyond belief, incredibly feeling and, alas, long victimized by humans – to the extent that some are already functionally extinct, while others are “endangered.”

A comprehensive description of whales and whale history that will amaze and (properly) depress those who listen to it can be found in “Whale Nation,” a two-CD set.  The first CD is devoted to Heathcote Williams’s extended poem about these majestic creatures, while the second CD, about whale history, is read by Williams, Harry Burton and Caroline Webster (beautiful, stirring voices all). 

For those who care about our world’s threatened environment and its animals, I recommend buying or at least listening to this impassioned CD.

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