​www.kbzk.com/news/crime-courts/woman-who-killed-skinned-huskey-cited-for-animal-cruelty

Original Story -- www.thehappyveg.ca/animal-news/montana-huntress-shoots-skins-domestic-husky-thinking-its-a-wolf-hold-her-accountable

Montana huntress, Amber Rose Barnes, is being cited for animal cruelty after an incident in September that garnered significant media attention.  Back in September, she was out hunting and shot, skinned, and posted photos with a "wolf pup" she proudly slaughtered. The problem was, it was actually a domesticated husky pup she shot and killed and after trying to lie her way out of the situation, admitted she mistook it for a wolf. The debate began as to whether she could be held criminally accountable for the error that saw a domestic animal shot & skinned. 

This story is saddening but it proves that wolves must be relisted under the endangered species act. Since being removed, wolves have been under relentless attack and are plummeting towards extinction once again. The hatred towards wolves is evident and if we do not reissue them the protections they need to rehabilitate, we're going to hunt them to extinction. Allowing this to happen would effectively undo 45 years of efforts while wolves were federally protected. 45 years of time, effort, and money, would be down the drain by allowing the extinction of wolves. This is wholly unacceptable.

There's no time to debate as to whether wolves require these protections. This story proves that the hatred towards wolves is so strong and is shared by enough people that wolves are in serious danger of extinction. As soon as they were delisted, it was like a free-for-all with wolves being killed in excess. How could the government allow this to happen when we have enough knowledge indicating that wolves are in danger? We can't claim ignorance in this situation when the facts are so evident. We must reissue endangered species act protections to wolves before it's too late.

I hope Amber Rose Barnes suffers as a result of what she's done but the bigger picture is the perils wolves will continue to face without these protections. The time is now to protect them.

​plantbasednews.org/news/activism/animal-activists-jail-sentence-exposing-pig-farm-canada/

Two Canadian animal activists were given a 30-day jail sentence for entering and filming animal cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm back in 2019. They were convicted of one count of break-and-enter & mischief for their undercover work at the hog farm and despite filming several instances of blatant animal cruelty, were not permitted to show any of their footage. What this story shows us is that there is plenty to hide behind the walls of these establishments and not everyone is on board with exposing those atrocities to the world.

The problem is, I don't think exposing cruelty on these farms benefits the higher ups as the factory farming industry is heavily subsidized and generates large profits. Exposing cruelty and forcing these establishments to shut down or be investigated simply causes a loss of profits. My other thought is, do consumers truly care about what's happening to the animals prior to their being slaughtered? I really am curious. If you're eating meat, you're aware that animals are slaughtered against their will and you've probably seen a video or two of how it's done, if that doesn't turn you off, would abuse of animals be the reason you give up meat? I really don't know.

The videos recorded some seriously grotesque instances of animal cruelty. Pigs were electroshocked on their faces, kicked, and piglets were seen having their tails & genitals severed off without any sort of pain mitigation. Mother pigs were documented crammed so tightly in cages that they couldn't even move and there were dead pigs scattered around that the others were actually eating. All of this, every ounce of this, is blatant animal cruelty. All of this goes against welfare standards that should be met within the industry. Who's monitoring this? Who holds these establishments accountable? If activists weren't filming these atrocities, then we would never know what was really going on behind those walls. The fact is, this sort of abuse is not limited to any one farm, rather, thousands of them. If it's not one, it's another because farm animals are regarded as nothing more than products, and that mentality makes it easy for people to abuse them without any regard.

​I don't know if I believe that exposing the cruelty will stop people from eating meat. I'd like to believe so, but I really don't know. What I do know though is that these places need to be held accountable for their business practices. If they're not operating within the acceptable welfare standards set out for the industry, then that needs to be addressed and corrected. The problem is, the only people who seem to care about the cruelty are being sent to jail for exposing it, so where do we go from here?

Look, if you're eating meat, rest assured that there is a very good chance that the place that supplied your meat probably abuses animals. That's basically a guarantee. I feel terrible for these activists but I also think it demonstrates how heavily protected the factory farming industry is and that it's going to take a lot of effort and work to expose and actually have something done about the cruelty happening within the animal ag industry.

​Learn more about this story by clicking the link at the top of this post.

​worldanimalnews.com/heartbreaking-news-as-ryder-the-carriage-horse-dies-two-months-after-collapsing-being-whipped-by-owner-ian-mckeever-in-new-york/

Ryder, the horse filmed collapsing on the streets of New York city back in August has sadly passed away, fueling continued calls for a ban on carriages. Ryder's carriage operator, Ian McKeever is currently being investigated for lying on veterinary records about Ryder's age, documenting him as 13 when he was in fact 26 years old. This comes after his brother was charged in relation to the falsified records. The McKeever's planned to work Ryder to death, a feat they unfortunately achieved. This is why we must act and ban horse carriages before another horse dies from being over worked.

This story is infuriating and incredibly saddening but it's nothing new. Horses have been documented falling from cliffs, dropping in the streets, colliding with traffic...none of this is new. The carriage industry continues to vehemently defend their treatment of horses but refuse to acknowledge that the conditions in which they are working are not acceptable in today's times. There weren't millions of vehicle son the road, pumping out pollution when carriage horses originally took to the streets. There wasn't alarming amounts of pollution in busy cities like there is now. The conditions for working horses have changed so much but the industry has not evolved with the times. This is why it's imperative to ban horse-carriages and retire the remaining horses. Should another innocent horse drop to the ground before we start to care about their well-being?

Intro 573 is being introduced to tackle the carriage industry. The bill would effectively ban any new licenses from being issues and would transition horse-carriages to electric carriages by June, 2024. Carriage operators would be the first in line to receive the new electric carriage licenses, giving them an opportunity to shift in to a cruelty free industry. There is no longer a place for horse carriages on our busy, polluted streets. We have to stop looking at how we're "treating" the horses behind the scenes and accept that we're putting them in harms way on a daily basis. These animals have served humanity for centuries, and to be using them now for novelty rides and watching them drop to the ground from exhaustion is sickening. 

It's time to ban horse-carriages in New York City. We must pass Intro 573 and retire these horses before another one sees its life cut short at the hands of this abusive industry.
RIP Ryder.

​worldanimalnews.com/breaking-51100-reward-offered-for-information-on-washington-wolf-poisonings-after-two-more-tragic-deaths-are-confirmed/

A $51, 100 reward is being offered for information regarding the intentional poisoning of 6 wolves in Northeastern Washington. The wolves were discovered to have ingested poisons that led to their deaths, poison that was determined to be intentionally given to them. The continued attack on wolves is hindering the recovery process and putting wolves in continued danger of further endangerment leading to extinction. 

Wolves are hunted for sport or competitions, poached, poisoned, and slaughtered for livestock / animal ag conflicts. They are under constant threat of predation which is hindering any recovery efforts being made. The only way to truly protect wolves and work towards properly rehabilitating the species, is issuing them Endangered Species Act protections again. Without federal protection that prohibits killing them, they are going to continue to be decimated. Unfortunately, it'll take more than just giving them protections, we need an entire re-education program on the importance of wolves and the contributions they provide to a healthy ecosystem. If we do not change the way people view wolves, there's not going to be anything we can do to prevent their extinction.

The #RelistWolves campaign is working towards forcing an ESA protection decision quickly, recognizing that wolves do not have time for us to drag our feet. It's evident that wolves will continue to be killed both legally & illegally unless we act diligently to protect them. As I said, it'll take more than just federal protections because if they're going to come off the list and be hunted in excess immediately, then what's the point of spending money and time trying to protect them? We must work towards educating people on the importance of wolves. Our attitude towards them must change for real rehabilitation to occur.

My hope is that this reward leads to an arrest and sets an example that illegally targeting wolves is unacceptable and punishable with jail time. Wolves need our help before it's too late.