animal abuse

"My dog doesn’t eat meat! “ declared Ann. “Neither does my cat” declared Sarah in a satisfied tone.

Well, isn’t that amazing? Two different pet animals who do not eat meat, both of species associated with carnivorous habits. I guess I would not worry about this if I only heard it twice, but it seems now that most of the pet cats and dogs I know eat pebble shaped bites of a mysterious substance or mixture which is purported to be perfectly balanced and to provide “everything they need” !

The trouble is that, from my observations, these hapless canines and felines don’t like this manufactured offering. The unfortunate mutt that I am caring for at the moment whilst his owner is on holiday is only allowed about 20 mustard coloured manufactured morsels for each of his two meals. He madly tried to get into a plastic bag in which I had disposed of a piece of kitchen paper which had absorbed a trace of meat juices whilst the pebbly plateful remained untouched. This little dog barely recognises this stuff as food. He only resorts to it after several hours and after all other avenues of nourishment have been unsuccessfully explored. He eats these granules totally without joy. Another delightful and much loved pooch of my acquaintance who is now about 8 years old has never had anything but “pebbles” pass thorough his black lips. This animal is so much loved that the couple who own him cannot go away together unless he can go with them, yet every night a dizzying array of delicacies adorns their dinner table whilst their doted on dog only gets the same diet food.

Why? you may ask do people comply with a veterinarian-ly authorised dictum that their pets eat a constant and unvaried regime of “science diet”? As we all know these foods do contain meaty substances but in low concentrations. If they didn’t, surely the pets would not get to their 2nd birthday?

With my current charge I have broken the strict rules I was given as I cannot put up with his being constantly hungry and unsatisfied. I am a most unsatisfactory dog sitter. Today I slipped a few chop tails complete with sizzling and crispened fat into the dog’s dish as well as some miniature sausages earlier. All of these disappeared down the hatch at lightning speed. The mustard coloured pebbles, eschewed, sit lifelessly in another white dish, untouched, unwanted.

What a dilemma I have ! I can return the dog in good health and well fed when my friend returns from holiday but she will see, the first time she walks him, that I have not adhered to the yellow ochre pebbles. I could go back to the pebbles the day before, I suppose, and the dog's owner will never know what dietary transgressions took place.
I did ask my friend why her adored pet was not allowed real meat, and a varied diet, and she told me that this prescribed diet for her two year old dog was on the advice of the vet, in whom she has complete faith. This is the same answer to this question that I have had from everyone I know with "pets on pebbles” .

Australian Federal MP Hon. Kelvin Thomson speaks in Parliament opposing the practice of "canned hunting" in Africa and specifies ways in which Australia can make this unattractive for Australian would-be "canned hunting" tourists.

Speech against canned hunting given to House of Representatives by Kelvin Thomson

Monday, 9 February 2015, Page 148 Proof of Hansard, Federal House of Representatives.

Mr KELVIN THOMSON (Wills) (17:45): Canned hunting is the practice of intensely breeding and domesticating lions within confined areas in South Africa, in particular, in order to create easy targets for tourist hunters, and I support the member for La Trobe in condemning this practice. It is barbaric killing for macabre trophies. Hunters from all over the world, but notably from the United States, Germany, Spain, France and the UK, go to South Africa and send home lion body parts, such as the head and skin preserved by taxidermists, to show off their supposed prowess. The animals involved are habituated to human contact, often hand reared and bottle-fed, so are no longer naturally fearful of people. Such animals will indeed approach people expecting to get fed but instead receive a bullet or even an arrow from a hunting bow. This makes it easy for clients to be guaranteed a trophy, and thus the industry is lucrative and popular.

There is a spurious argument made that somehow hunting brings conservation funding into a country through hunting permits. Yet this has been shown to be patently false. The steepest declines in lion populations have been in countries with the highest hunting intensity, and it has been shown that the funds reaching the local community are minuscule. Born Free USA, along with the Humane Society International, the Humane Society of the United States and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, commissioned economists at large to investigate the facts. That study, published in June 2013, shows that the trophy-hunting industry makes a minimal contribution to national incomes.

It is an absolute scandal that the continental lion population has fallen from an estimate of over 75,000 as recently
as 1980 to around 32,000 in 2012, with a further concern that the numbers could now be as low as 25,000 distributed over only 22 per cent of their historical range. This demonstrates that African lions require increased international protection from all threats including over utilisation for commercial or trophy hunting. Between 1999 and 2008 offtake for recreational purposes was unsustainable by any standard in at least 16 of the 20 range states trading in wild source lion parts.

An Australia Institute report has shown that the economic impact of an Australian restriction on the import of African lion trophies would be minimal because trophy hunting plays a negligible role in African economies, lion hunting is a minor part of the trophy-hunting industry and trophy hunting makes a minimal contribution to rural development. The Australian Institute identifies the trophy-hunting industry as a small part of the African tourism industry. By contrast, the overall tourism industry generates over $13 billion in countries with lions and trophy hunting represents only around two per cent of tourism revenues.

The member for Calare asked in the debate: what can we in Australia do? In response, I support the member for La Trobe's proposal that all animals listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the CITES appendices I, II and III to which Australia is a signatory, are banned from being imported into Australia. I also concur with him that we should change the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to not only stop imports of canned hunted African lion body parts but also stop all species listed under the CITES Appendix 1, Appendix II and Appendix III from being imported unless specifically approved by the Minister for the Environment.

As the member for La Trobe outlines on his website, video footage of this practice depicts many distressing scenes including one of a lion lying on the ground where, at close range, a not-so-skilled or brave hunter takes several shots to kill the lion. The lion does not try to escape as it does not regard the hunter as a threat, due to past positive contact with humans. This cruel and barbaric activity needs to be stopped and a change in the law, preventing the importation of animal trophies resulting from canned hunts, will help achieve this while also assisting in protecting the future of international wildlife.

The idea of killing animals for sport is frankly barbaric and medieval but, if people really want to do it, then at least we should have a level playing field. The lions have teeth and claws; so give the hunter an appropriately sized knife and fire up the lions a bit before the contest by not feeding them for a couple of days. That would be fairer.

"Australian Governments (Federal, Territory and State), journalists and cattlemen's associations are attempting to cloud facts about Australia's live export trade, known for at least 18 years: Indonesian halal is intended to inflict pain, employing a slow sawing motion to cut throats, rather than the less-than-a-second two-motion movement used by Australian professionals. Moreover, halal knives are invariably blunt. Even if animal rights were legislated in Indonesia, the Indonesian Government is simply too corrupt to maintain regulatory controls." (Tony Ryan)

Article by Tony Ryan

Government, journalists, cattlemen's associations, and various politicians, are attempting to cloud the issues about Australia's live export trade.

Here are some facts:

1. Governments (Federal, Territory and State) have known the facts of halal cruelty for 18 years. Indonesian halal is intended to inflict pain, employing a slow sawing motion to cut throats, rather than the less-than-a-second two-motion movement used by Australian professionals. Moreover, halal knives are invariably blunt. Even if animal rights were legislated in Indonesia, the Indonesian Government is simply too corrupt to maintain regulatory controls.
2. Australian live export feeds only the rich in Indonesia. Indonesian farmers and their families who supply this market are being driven bankrupt by our exports, and have been calling for cessation since imports began. This harms, not helps the Indonesian people.
3. Government warned Australian Meat and Livestock of this crisis six months ago. Crush boxes were sent as a sop to this pressure. Government knew this full well.
4. Live export contributes little to Australia's prosperity; only to the handful directly engaged, and on stations that are often foreign-owned.
5. Live export is endemically cruel, in spite of public relations stunts and media releases organised by the export lobby. Worse, when animals reach their destination, they may be tied up for hours or days without water, before finally being killed in acts of horrific and indifferent cruelty.
6. Live export cost Australians a quarter of a million jobs in: abattoirs, meat packaging, yarding, leather tanning, leather manufacturing, meat distribution, package manufacturing, meat grading dyes, meat and bone cutting implements, organic fertilisers, casein, meat inspection officers, butcher's supplies, freezing works uniforms and laundry services, transport services, and retail.
7. That cattle farming is non-viable in the Top End has been known since at least 1982. Buffalo thrive while cattle starve, and the Department of Primary Production urged a move to buffalo domestication as far back as 1975. Buffalo were largely eradicated by 1988/89 to please US cattle lobbyists. Powerful interests in the NT's Country Liberal Party profited immensely from compensation payments made for the buffalo eradication (BTEC) programme. Claims of buffalo damage to the northern environment were falsified, and were in fact caused by feral pigs and disastrous fire regimes executed by the Commonwealth scientists of then ANPWS, which also destroyed one third of Kakadu northern cypress.
8. There is talk of Indonesia's lack of refrigerators and how this justifies live export, but since 1978 there has been a plan to export dried meat and fish to Malaysia and Indonesia; exploiting the NT's massive fish by-catch, buffalo, and feral camel and donkey populations, during the six months of perfect Top End dry season drying winds. The Federal Government has sat on this potentially lucrative industry ever since; no doubt under pressure from meat export lobbyists and foreign aid programmes executives.
9. Claims that live export employs a significant Aboriginal population are simply untrue. Where there is employment it is only for the few weeks of muster. By contrast, a buffalo and dried meat/fish industry could employ and feed thousands of Aborigines in the Top End, Kimberly, North Queensland and elsewhere. Moreover, this is the kind of industry they can operate without outside interference and this can lead to economic independence and an end to welfare dependency.
   10. Australia's reputation as a nation of decent and civilised human beings is at stake. If we fail to end live export, our good name will be gone forever.

Julia Gillard will say whatever her powerful lobbyists tell her to say, and we cannot rely on her assurances that live export will only proceed on the basis of animal welfare guarantees. It must be stopped now, forever.

There is also the issue of jobs, and regional and rural industrial recovery. Australians need every job we can get, and the elimination of the live export industry will create the biggest explosion in rural and urban jobs in Australia's history.

There is no sound argument to support live export, and ten good reasons (above) why it should be terminated.

We must e-mail to, write to, harangue, and nag our state and federal politicians to end live export. They need to understand that this issue has been embraced by almost the entire nation, and that politicians who do not vote to end live export, will see their names entered on the electoral black list prior to the next elections.

Finally, well done Lyn White of Animals Australia, for her courage in collecting and presenting the evidence of this crime to Four Corners.

This document has been produced by the Ryan Institute of Evidential Demographics (RIED)
PO Box 1786. Sunshine Plaza Qld
4558(07) 54754009
tonyryan43 [ AT ] gmail.com
And also by the: Tariff Restoration Bloc (www.oziz4oziz.com/)
Note: Since 2001, RIED has provided free statistics on unemployment, homelessness; and electoral consensus on current national issues.

Note: The principal of RIED, Tony Ryan, commenced his working life in the cattle industry in 1961 and began studying Top End rural industries after moving to the NT in 1971. He later conducted related socio-economic research for the Commonwealth and NT governments, between 1974 and 1983, and in 1982 wrote about the decline of the cattle industry and recommended replacement by buffalo. He is semi-fluent in several Aboriginal languages, and also worked in NT Aboriginal community development. He is currently developing a demographic and market research service for Australian Business, and the concomitant establishment of an Internet news service, coupled with e-library on the globalisation of Australia ... with particular reference to how this nation can regain control of its economy.

© Copyright 2011: Tony Ryan; RYAN INSTITUTE OF EVIDENTIAL DEMOGRAPHICS

See also: Bring Back the Music - the demise of Oz bands of 22 Oct 08 also by Tony Ryan

Traditional Chinese Medicine should be banned in Australia. It relies on animal cruelty worse than animal experimentation. The importation of TCM animal products should also be banned from Australia since it is illegal trade in wildlife. This would send a clear message that

practices involving animal cruelty and wildlife trade are not tolerated in Australia.

It is anathema to Australian moral values. The morality test is that if it is immoral to do it to humans, then it is equally immoral to do it on all sentient beings ('sentience' is the ability to feel or perceive).

The following incident recently reported from China is a case in point.

These backward Chinese also kill endangered tigers to use their penis to address impotence.

Traditional Chinese Medicine relies on killing endangered seahorses

More than 20 million seahorses are caught from the wild each year to supply the Traditional Chinese Medicine market to supposedly 'tonify the kidneys and fortify the Yang and for impotence, urinary incontinence, wheezing and old age debilitation. It enlivens the blood, aiding circulation: used for bleeding and pain from congealed blood and swelling due to sores and boils.'

What crap!

Traditional Chinese Medicine relies on killing endangered rhinoceros for their horns

All five of the world’s diverse species of rhinoceros have been brought to the edge of extinction because of human appetite for their distinctive horns to supposedly treat fever, rheumatism, gout, and other disorders.

According to the 16th century Chinese pharmacist Li Shi Chen, the horn could also cure snakebites, hallucinations, typhoid, headaches, carbuncles, vomiting, food poisoning, and “devil possession.”

What crap!

Traditional Chinese Medicine relies on killing endangered turtles for their plastron (shell)

Sold under the Chinese names 'guiban' and 'biejia', the plastron (shell) of the Reeves' turtle, a terrapin, as well as that of endangered sea turtles freshwater turtles and tortoises perpetuates an illegal trade to supply Traditional Chinese medicine. the plastron is supposedly used to for 'liver and kidney meridians and to nourish yin and subdue yang, and to soften hardness and disperse nodules. Among the conditions turtle shell is used to treat are febrile diseases, deficient yin with fever, night sweats, and amenorrhea.

What crap!

Traditional Chinese Medicine, It is wicked and backward.

Menkit's reaction to the vicious slaughter by Chris Palmer to kangaroos is an understandable normal human reaction. The slaughter and abuse of Australia wildlife makes my blood curdle.

On 29-Mar-2010, Chris Palmer, the self-confessed serial roo shooter on CanDoBetter wrote:

"My son is an up and coming roo shooter to at the age of 4 he can skin and gut a roo nearly as quick as me and over the last 4 weekends he has shoot over 50 roos with only 8 misses they still didnt get away tho like always dad was there to clean up the mess."

Clearly, this individual values his behaviour of slaughtering kangaroos acceptable to the extent he is inculcating in his young son his same values, attitudes and practices from an early age. Shooting wildlife is a violent crime against the natural animal kingdom. We are not savages anymore. We don't have to kill wild animals. It is a choice and an immoral act. Clean kills are wrong but also occasional. The suffering death of a bullet injury by a 4 year old followed up with a knife or blunt axe to the joey reflects a vicious and depraved existence.

Alaskan native Gray Wolves killed under Sarah Palin's predator control policy [Grizzly Bay]

It is a fact that acts of animal cruelty lead to forms of cruelty against humans.

"A criminologist and forensic psychologist at Bond University, said the torturing, maiming and killing of animals were red flags of someone capable of future violence against people."

They go on to state specific cases: "Archibald McCafferty, Sydney's 'Kill Seven' murderer, used to strangle chickens, cats and dogs before killing people."

"In Victoria, serial killer Paul Charles Denyer disembowelled a native cat and cut the throat of its kittens."

"Martin Bryant, who killed 35 people at Port Arthur, tortured and harassed animals at age seven, which was one of the first red flags he was a person with severe conduct disorder symptoms."

Then just last January 2010, a baby Koala was shot multiple times and eventually died. It's mother too was shot though survived, as explained in the following news article from Brisbane just two month ago:

Koalas shot north of Brisbane [CAMERON ATFIELD, Brisbane Times, 19-Jan-2010]

'A young koala is fighting for its life after it was wounded in a cowardly shooting at Morayfield, north of Brisbane.

Moreton Bay Koala Rescue president Annika Lehmann said the young male koala, estimated to be about eight or nine months old, had been taken to Australia Zoo for treatment.

The 940-gram koala, which had been named "Doug", was in an induced coma.

He was found at the base of a tree at J Dobson Rd in Morayfield, Ms Lehmann said.

"Our rescuers got a call this morning about a little joey sitting at the trunk of a tree and his breathing was laboured," she said.

"Mum was 30 metres up in the tree, so we needed tree climbers to get her down, but the little boy was sitting at the bottom of the tree, so he was easy to get."

Ms Lehmann said it was unclear how long Doug had been suffering as a result of the attack.

"He was very lethargic and dehydrated, so we don't think this happened this morning or yesterday, it might have happened one or two days ago," she said.

"At first we thought he had pneumonia, but when he had an x-ray they discovered the two bullets.

"One is in the left chest cavity and one is in the lower abdomen."

Ms Lehmann said Doug's mother, which could also have been wounded, was also being assessed.

"I can't really say much about her condition, but it looks like she's OK," she said.

Ms Lehmann said she had never seen a koala shot in the area before, although she was aware of several kangaroos shootings.

"Morayfield is one of those areas that we feel koalas are still relatively safe, so it was really bad that we found him there," she said.

RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty said the attack was disturbing, with the joey a "50/50 chance" of survival.

"At first glance, because it was a slug gun that was used, it's probably kids but we really need to catch those who are responsible," he said.

"All too often we've seen in the past the links between animal cruelty and other forms of violence down the track, so if this was kids they need to be made to be accountable for their actions now to nip something like this in the bud."

Mr Beatty said people could call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or the RSPCA Cruelty Complaints Hotline on 1300 852 188 if they had any information on the attack.'

Research shows abusers believe abuse is justified

A criminal psychology research article by Robert Agnew of Emory University, USA, entitled: 'The Causes of Animal Abuse: A Social-Psychological Analysis' presents a theory that explains why individuals engage in animal abuse.

"First, I describe the immediate determinants of animal abuse. Animal abuse is said to result from ignorance about the abusive consequences of our behavior for animals, the belief that abuse is justified, and the perception that abuse is personally beneficial.

Second, I describe an additional set of factors that have both direct effects on animal abuse and indirect effects through the above three factors. These additional factors include individual traits, like empathy; the individual's socialization; the individual's level of strain or stress; the individual's level of social control; the nature of the animal under consideration; and the individual's social position."

Animal abuse is no different to child abuse

As disgusted as nearly all Australians are with animal abuse, Australia's animal protection laws remain are inadequate both as a deterrent and as a punishment.

Wildlife killing and abuse is morally unacceptable and should be made a crime in the same way that killing or abusing humans is a crime. All that would be required is adding an animal section to the existing crimes acts around the country.

"A correlation between animal abuse, family violence and other forms of community violence has been established. Child and animal protection professionals have recognized this link, noting that abuse of both children and animals is connected in a self-perpetuating cycle of violence. When animals in a home are abused or neglected, it is a warning sign that others in the household may not be safe. In addition, children who witness animal abuse are at a greater risk of becoming abusers themselves." Read More

Our police are not required to enforce animal cruelty breaches. Instead it is relegated to an under-resourced, under-equipped RSPCA, which is at best a toothless force.

Australia should set a moral standard, establish a national squad within the Australian Federal Police to deal specifically with animal abuse. Australia needs to set up a central database on animal killers and abusers just as in the same way paedophiles are monitored as social deviants.

No more abuse!

Tiger Quoll
Snowy River 3885
Australia

In rural Wassau in the southern US state of Florida, the Wausau Possum Festival has become an annual summertime folk festival over the past forty years. This event is said to celebrate the role of the opossum in the survival of the populace of Northwest Florida during the depression. Aside from the music, a key feature is the fundraising possum auction for the local Wausau Development Club, which involves holding opossums by their tail. Possum is served up as a main fare.

The Virginia oppossum (Didelphis virginiana Kerr) is the only marsupial native to the south eastern region of North America and extending through Central America.

American Republican politician Katherine Harris of Florida is shown here in August 2006 during her campaigning for the 2006 Florida United States Senate election, holding a possum by the tail and is said to have bid $400 at the so-called 'possum auction'.

According to the festival's sick tradition, every election year, national and statewide candidates in Florida must prove they are good country folk by mistreating a possum at the Wausau Possum Festival. "Candidates bid for a possum, taking it out of a holding area by its tail and giving it a shake to terrify the creature into going limp so it won't claw them. They're later fed and released into the wild.

As one commenter rightly suggested:

"Someone should pick her up by her nether regions and shake her until she goes limp. Then take her back to the woods."