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Animals

Bison Restoration To Be Led By Tribes

Washington – The Department of the Interior today announced several new steps to restore wild and healthy populations of American bison and the prairie grassland ecosystem. Through a new Secretary’s Order and over $25 million from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Department will empower its bureaus and partners to use the best available science and Indigenous Knowledge to help restore bison across the country. “The American bison is inextricably intertwined with Indigenous culture, grassland ecology and American history.

‘Wildlife Conservation’ Groups Fuel Violence Against Congolese

On its face, nothing seems more benign and positive than “wildlife conservation.” But the Wildlife Conservation Society and the German and US governments have now been implicated in supporting organized violence against Congolese villagers, using mortars, RPGs, indisciminate fire, murder and rape. This is the finding of award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Robert Flummerfelt. Flummerfelt and his team uncovered a three-year campaign of violence by park authorities to expel Batwa people from their lands, using funding and trained by the West and conservation groups.

Judge Reverses Convictions Of No More Deaths Volunteers

TUCSON, AZ – On January 31st, United States District Judge Rosemary Márquez reversed the convictions of four No More Deaths volunteers. The volunteers were convicted in January 2019 of multiple misdemeanor charges stemming from their humanitarian aid work on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge (CPNWR) during the summer of 2017 in an area known as the “trail of death.”

Brave New World: What You Need To Know About Gene-Edited Farm Animals

For decades, the biotech industry has spun a narrative around genetically engineered crops that could be summed up very simply as “jam tomorrow, instead of bread and butter today.” Sustained—and financed—largely on the promise of spectacular success at some unidentified point in the future, the research and development of new types of GMO foods, made with a whole host of new genetic engineering technologies, has gathered pace in recent years.

Cuts To Animal Protections Aren’t Surprising To Anyone Who Knows David Bernhardt

Who would want to make it harder for vulnerable species to survive on an increasingly imperiled planet? That would be David Bernhardt, Trump’s Secretary of the Interior. Today, Bernhardt dramatically weakened the rules that implement the Endangered Species Act. He is attempting to weaken the popular environmental law that serves as the last safety net for animals and plants facing extinction. These rollbacks are a gift to industry, removing legal barriers that protect endangered species and their habitats from harmful fossil fuel extraction operations.

Society In Jeopardy: UN Report Details Humans Have Pushed One Million Species To The Brink Of Extinction

"Society we would like our children and grandchildren to live in is in real jeopardy.""Society we would like our children and grandchildren to live in is in real jeopardy." The newest United Nations report on global biodiversity has officially been released and it solidifies what the initial draft warned: human exploitation of the environment has pushed one million plant and animal species to the brink of extinction. Conducted by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the report details findings conducted by a team of hundreds of experts from 50 nations.

Woman On A 17-Day Hunger Strike To Save Southern Resident Orcas

OLYMPIA — Lanni Johnson is a 71-year-old woman who has been sitting in front of the Capitol Building in Olympia for the past 10 days on a hunger strike. Johnson said Tuesday that the government is taking too long to solve the problem of declining food supply for the Southern Resident orcas. “I’m here because I believe that while we twiddle our fingers and push a lot of paper around and have many, many meetings, we are going to watch the Southern Resident orca go extinct,” Johnson said. She sits outside from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day with a sign that reads, “Solidarity with starving Southern Resident Orcas. Breach the Dams! Now!”

They Rescued Pigs And Turkeys From Factory Farms — And Now Face Decades In Prison

IN THE FALL of 2017, Glenn Greenwald reported on a nationwide FBI manhunt for two pigs named Lily and Lizzie. The pigs had been removed from a factory farm in Utah by animal rights activists from a group called Direct Action Everywhere. From the perspective of the activists, the pigs were rescued. From the perspective of Smithfield Farms, the Chinese-owned multinational corporation that owns the factory farm, they were stolen. Direct Action Everywhere, also known as DxE, engages in a practice called “open rescue.” Open rescue involves entering, without authorization, the facilities of animal-based industries, such as farms, slaughterhouses, and puppy mills...

Hurricane Florence Highlights The Cruel Reality Of Factory Farming

Broiler chickens (chickens raised for meat) are the top agricultural commodity in North Carolina. In 2015, 823 million broiler chickens were raised in the state. (Photo credit: North Carolina Department of Agriculture). In 1999, Hurricane Floyd tore through North Carolina, killing 74 people and causing $6.5 billion in damage. But it didn't just destroy towns and claim human lives; it also claimed the lives of millions of farm animals. The images are impossible to forget: lifeless pigs floating in flood water, thousands of dead chickens inside a factory farm and a few live pigs huddling on top of a barn almost completely submerged under water.

Six Animal Rights Activists Charged With Felonies For Investigation And Rescue That Led To Punishment Of A Utah Turkey Farm

SIX ANIMAL RIGHTS activists are facing felony charges, filed on Wednesday by a Utah prosecutor, stemming from an undercover investigation into abusive conditions on a large turkey farm. The criminal complaint includes two felony theft charges that carry possible prison terms of five years each. The six defendants include Diane Gandee Sorbi, 62, a retiree who spends most of her time volunteering at animal shelters; Andrew Sharo, 24, a Ph.D. student in the biophysics program at Berkeley; and Wayne Hsiung, a lawyer and lead investigator. In January 2017, the six activists entered a farm in Moroni, Utah, that supplies turkeys to Norbest, a large company that aggressively markets itself to the public as selling “mountain-grown” turkeys who are treated with particularly humane care.

Boycott Factory Farm Foods: But Don’t Forget The Fish

Factory farming and fish production are now a multi-trillion-dollar monster with a growing and devastating impact on public health, animal welfare, small farmers and farmworkers, rural and fishing communities, ocean marine life, water quality, air pollution, soil health, biodiversity and last but not least, global warming. Worldwide, two-thirds of all farm animals are now inhumanely imprisoned on highly-polluting factory farms, fed pesticide- and chemical-contaminated grains and GMOs, often supplemented with contaminated fish meal and oils, and routinely dosed with antibiotics and hormones. In the U.S., 90-95 percent of all dairy, meat and poultry come from industrial-scale factory farms, while more than half of all fish consumed comes from factory-scale fish farms. 

Meat Industry Linked To Largest Toxic Dead Zone In US History

By Alexandra Jacobo for Nation of Change - The meat industry, more specifically corporate giants such as Tyson foods, has been directly linked to the environmental catastrophe know as the toxic dead zone. Corporations that are a part of the meat industry use industrial-scale agriculture to raise their animals, which is the number one source of water pollution in the country. Even though there are better solutions available to minimize the impacts on the environment, corporations continue to use resource-intensive and ecologically destructive practices. This pollution has lead to toxic “dead zones”, which are areas where there is no longer enough oxygen for fish to survive. The largest dead zone in the United States is in the Gulf of Mexico. America currently houses five times as many livestock animals as humans. More than a third of America’s agricultural land is dedicated for the production of corn and soy, key ingredients in animal feed products. American humans only consume 10 percent of that which is produced. A new campaign launched by Mighty Earth is aiming to expose Tyson’s role in the process of livestock feed production that causes major pollution – and hold them accountable for it.

‘Appetite For Destruction’: How Feeding Livestock Strains The Planet

By Dharna Noor for The Real News Network - DHARNA NOOR: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Dharna Noor joining you from Baltimore. There's a growing awareness that meat production puts a strain on water, land use and habitats, and that it increases greenhouse gas emissions, which drives climate change. But few know the largest environmental impact actually comes from what the animals are being fed. To discuss a recent study on this topic, it's from the UK branch of the World Wildlife Fund, and it's titled Appetite for Destruction. We're joined by Duncan Williamson. He's the food policy manager for WWF UK. Thanks for joining us today, Duncan. D. WILLIAMSON: Well, thank you very much for having me. DHARNA NOOR: So, your recent report says that producing crops to feed livestock is putting an enormous strain on our natural resources, and it's a driving force behind wide scale biodiversity loss. How does livestock feed actually have that kind of impact? D. WILLIAMSON: It's two things. It's the numbers of animals that we're producing globally, and where we are growing the crops to feed them, so for example, we know there's 23 billion poultry animals on the world at the moment. That's enough for three animals each basically, and most of these animals are grown in intensive systems, so they don't have access to the outside, so they have to be fed on something, and their feed tends to be maize and soy.

Former Colorado Beef Ranch Is Now A Thriving Animal Sanctuary

By Amanda Froelich for Nation of Change - If you truly love animals, eschew the beef tartare and try out some veggie lentil loaf. This is what owners Jen and Tray Federici did, but with their entire business in Colorado. Now, their Larkspur-based ranch is now a thriving animal sanctuary. Once a lucrative business that butchered and sold cows for profit, the Surf and Turf Animal Sanctuary is now a safe haven for a variety of species. Both Jen and Try are lifelong animal lovers. They never really realized the disconnect of their passion and professions unit last year, however. After being unable to cope with the killing of an older cow they had selected from their herd, the couple decided change was needed. Said Jen, “We officially had our last ham Christmas 2016. We never looked back after that. We swore off all meat as well as all animal products. Needless to say, we have never felt better or more healthy, both mentally and physically.” In the summer of 2017, the duo transformed their 100-acre ranch into a 501(c)3 Nonprofit Animal Rescue and Sanctuary. VegNews reports that it is now a home to a variety of rescue animals, including longhorn cows, calves, pigs, goats, chickens, and zebras – among others.

Meet Ava: The Chicken I Risked My Freedom For

By Eva Hamer for Common Dreams - This past summer, I entered a place most Americans - especially those in urban areas - can barely even fathom: a place that sounds innocent, but when you step foot in it, you realize it’s one of the darkest places on the planet. I entered a modern farm. This farm was different from most other farms. Though farms across America are shifting away from holding hens in what are known as “battery cages,” this was the rare farm that had both caged and cage-free barns. With a small team of other activists, we carried out two birds—Mia from a cage-free barn and Ava from a cage. Mia was a beautiful Rhode Island Red chicken, and as I carried her through dark fields and passed her over barbed wire fences to save her from hell
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