Best Friends Sanctuary in Utah recently completed a prison survey in Chicago showing that 7 out of 10 people convicted of violent crime said they'd begun with animals. Their conclusion is that if a community harbors cruelty to animals (including farm animals) that community is not safe for people either.
Toxicity testing
Currently there is no U.S. law mandating the use of alternatives to the cruel and unnecessary practice of toxicity testing on live animals. In Europe, however, animal tests cannot be used when validated alternatives exist.
A coalition of animal organizations has submitted a precedent setting petition to the U.S. government that would follow the lead of the European law thus saving tens of millions of animals from terrible suffering and death in U.S. labs.
Europe has become the world leader in non-animal methods with far more alternatives validated and used than in the United States.
Farm animal cruelty
The state of California and some of its cities are way ahead of other areas of the country in laws that benefit animals.
The latest example is the launching of the most sweeping farm animal protection initiative in U.S. history. Farm Sanctuary has campaigned for this act for some 20 years along with the Humane Society of the United States and other animal groups. The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act seeks to ban veal crates for calves, battery cages for egg laying hens and gestation crates for pigs in the state of California.
These animals currently spend the majority of their lives confined in cages and crates so small they cannot turn around or stretch their limbs. (Think about that). These confinement systems are outlawed throughout most of Europe and are widely regarded as inhumane. Yet factory farms in this country continue to use them.
According to Farm Sanctuary Director of Campaigns, Julie Janovsky, bills to protect farm animals introduced in legislative bodies are often referred to industry-influenced agriculture committees where they often die quietly. The ballot initiative is seen as a better alternative.
The voters of Arizona and Florida approved ballot initiatives that banned such confinement systems and the Oregon Legislature banned gestation crates in 2007.
Judy Vorreuter is the founder and director of Animal Advocates of the Finger Lakes. Contact her at judy@cayugaanimaladvocates.org
Currently there is no U.S. law mandating the use of alternatives to the cruel and unnecessary practice of toxicity testing on live animals. In Europe, however, animal tests cannot be used when validated alternatives exist.
A coalition of animal organizations has submitted a precedent setting petition to the U.S. government that would follow the lead of the European law thus saving tens of millions of animals from terrible suffering and death in U.S. labs.
Europe has become the world leader in non-animal methods with far more alternatives validated and used than in the United States.
Farm animal cruelty
The state of California and some of its cities are way ahead of other areas of the country in laws that benefit animals.
The latest example is the launching of the most sweeping farm animal protection initiative in U.S. history. Farm Sanctuary has campaigned for this act for some 20 years along with the Humane Society of the United States and other animal groups. The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act seeks to ban veal crates for calves, battery cages for egg laying hens and gestation crates for pigs in the state of California.
These animals currently spend the majority of their lives confined in cages and crates so small they cannot turn around or stretch their limbs. (Think about that). These confinement systems are outlawed throughout most of Europe and are widely regarded as inhumane. Yet factory farms in this country continue to use them.
According to Farm Sanctuary Director of Campaigns, Julie Janovsky, bills to protect farm animals introduced in legislative bodies are often referred to industry-influenced agriculture committees where they often die quietly. The ballot initiative is seen as a better alternative.
The voters of Arizona and Florida approved ballot initiatives that banned such confinement systems and the Oregon Legislature banned gestation crates in 2007.
Judy Vorreuter is the founder and director of Animal Advocates of the Finger Lakes. Contact her at judy@cayugaanimaladvocates.org
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