Circuses

http://www.allelephants.com/allinfo/trumble13.php

This article is voicing the "real" agenda for the anti-circus dilemma. First, the author focuses on the difference of animal cruelty and animal training. Today, the line that separates the two is often blurred. Especially when it comes to training animals in the circus. Trainers take advantage of the fact that they can discipline the animals and since they feel superior to the animals, they mistreat them but claim that they are just training them, hoping that people looking in will see them as doing good for the animals. Next, the article focuses on the fact that circuses fail to "meet minimal regulatory standards." The circuses get inspected often times, but there is no harsh treatment for the circuses that have unfit conditions.

Cock Fighting

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/cockfighting/

This website defines cockfights and gives breif information about the sport. It also shows a video clip and gives a list of websites that lead to more information about cock fighting and what is being done to try and ban it. This website is biased. It takes the side that cock fighting is wrong and that states need to crack down on their laws because it is illegal and a felony in every state.
The website states that "in a cock fight, two roosters fight each other to the death while people place bets. Cockfighters let the bird suffer untreated injuries or throw the birds away like trash afterwards. Besides being cruel cock fighting often goes hand in hand with gambling, drug dealing, illegal gun sales, and murder."
In these fights, birds wear razor-sharp blades on their legs which cause injuries like punctured legs, broken bones and peirced eyes. Most of them do not survive. This website also talks about how parents take their children to see cock fights which could leave their children to think that violence is okay.
The websites video clip gives the most in depth look at cock fighting because it explains and shows how the cock fight is set up as well as the dead and injured birds. They are set up with orange scratch lines in the video. They also found a shelter where these cock fighters were breeding chickens and realized that it was also an animal cruelty case which made things worse. These chickens did not have access to water and were in very bad shape. This was a cock fight the the HSUS helped bust open.

Live Pigeon Shoots

http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-gun.html

A historic Pennsylvanian gun club that has hosted Ernest Hemingway and Annie Oakley has surreptitiously restarted a century-old tradition of holding live pigeon shoots, reigniting the ire of animal rights groups and putting the state's porous animal cruelty legislation in the crosshairs.

The Philadelphia Gun Club has been fined $160 following a recent incident in which a member was spotted firing his rifle at birds that had been released from spring-loaded traps along the banks of the Delaware River, about 32 kilometers north of Philadelphia.

"Live pigeon shoots are a practice similar to cockfighting or dog fighting, where it is largely an underground circuit of the same people who follow it around," said Heidi Prescott of The Humane Society of the United States. "The Philadelphia Gun Club had shut them down, but apparently started them up quietly again, and we don't know when."

Horse Carriage

http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/animal-precinct/nyc-carriage-horse-industry.aspx

The ASPCA's stance on horse carriages:

     The ASPCA believes that carriage horses were never meant to live and work in today's urban setting. In addition to the dangers of working in congested areas, these horses spend their days directly behind cars, trucks and buses, inhaling their fumes. Given the constraints and challenges that New York City presents, and as the primary enforcer of New York City's carriage horse laws, the ASPCA does not believe New York City can meet the needs of its horses. Neither the New York City environment nor the current law can provide horses with the fundamental necessities to ensure their safety and well being.
   
     For all of these reasons, the ASPCA is a supporter of New Yorkers for Clean, Livable & Safe Streets, an organization dedicated to improving New York City's quality of life through education and advocacy. NYCLASS advocates viable alternatives to carriage horses that will not only relieve the City government of its financial burden, but will also avoid the safety and quality of life issues caused by the carriage horse industry.


     The ASPCA supports Intro. 86, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito's legislation to phase out carriage horses in New York City, replacing horse drawn carriages with alternative, fuel-powered classic cars. These cars can provide rides for tourists, offer jobs to workers currently in the carriage horse industry and maintain the historic feel of the tours.

Kapparot

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/407513/jewish/Kapparot-The-Chicken-Thing.htm


"Kapores is a custom carried out before Yom Kippur. Some do it in the days preceding Yom Kippur, others on the evening beforehand or in the early morning of the day preceding the Holy Day. It is observed by both men and women. Each man takes a live rooster, and each woman takes a hen. Pregnant women take both a rooster and a hen since they may give birth to a male. Preferably the chicken should be white. Some authorities say that one should not search out a white chicken, but if there is a choice, a white one should be chosen. Why? Because in Isaiah it says. 'And if your sins be like scarlet, they shall become as white as snow.'"

Santeria

Conflicts concerning Santeria sacrifices: animal and human; real and imaginary

The article is a listing of various conflicts, controversies and court cases around animal rights under Santeria. Examples range from a witch-hunt in Mexico to a First Amendment Supreme Court case.

CIRCUS

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/media/in_the_news.php?article=1995

In her article, “The Controversy Comes to Town,” Terra Sword talks about a specific case regarding the banning of circuses in an Australian city of Lismore. Circus owner Jan Lennon was denied the right to perform with her animals and the rest of the Stardust Circus crew when animal rights advocate Amber Hall took the matter into her own hands and joined forces with the Lismore City Council to prevent their ability to do so. Sword skillfully switches points of view to address each side of the argument and get incites from both parties.

In the article, Hall claims that, “animal circuses are inherently cruel with animals constantly confined to cages, pens, and trucks,” also mentioning that “Lismore City Council has declared animal circuses as cruel and thus against the social values of community.” Holder of a law degree, she tried to and succeeded in convincing the City Council to deny Lennon the right to perform. Her desires of doing so were in attempts to achieve the goal of decreasing the popularity of animals in the circus, the accomplishment of which would bring her, and the rest of the animal rights activists, closer to the passing of the law that would actually ban the practice as she believes that even though “it is still lawful to have animals in a circus, that doesn’t make morally acceptable.”

On the other side of the ring however, Lennon is attempting to fight for “the only life she’s ever known.” The circus owner claims that she’s had the lions “forever and a day,” also adding that “they’ve been born and bred in captivity and don’t know any other life,” which indeed brings up a good point in the argument. Who is to judge if lions are content with the life they have at the zoo? Like Lennon mentions, they don’t know life otherwise, and “don’t know what the wild is.” If the circus was to go out of business and the lions were to be let go there is a potential that they indeed would not survive in the wilderness. Even though some, and in this case Hall, may argue that the lion’s life and participation in the circus is “absolutely pathetic” and perhaps even unnatural for an animal who has perpetually been called the “King of the Jungle,” so may the life of a modern day actor be criticized similarly.

Animal abuse is, of course, immoral in any case and should be prevented the best way possible. However, if “anyone can come and watch a training session [at the circus] any time they want, and there is never any cruelty,” and if one truly devotes themselves to the upbringing and wellbeing of the animals like Jan Lennon claims she does, why not let the show and its participants go on?

Kapparot

http://www.upc-online.org/kapparot.html

This report is accompanied by photographs and video documentation of the Kapparot 1996. I have included literature to assist in an in-depth understanding of why the chickens that you used were in poor health and present serious questions as to whether such chickens could be considered kosher on any day of the year, much less a sacred Jewish holiday.

This report is designed to open up discussions and may easily be supported by more descriptions and visual documents upon request. My intense involvement in the past year with the chickens changed me and many people who met them. Most of us had no idea how extensively damaged the chickens as a species have become as a result of human manipulation. Please understand that although the following is not easy to read, even ugly to think about, the intention is to constructively use this information to improve the situation. I write to foster understanding of who the chickens are and to explore our moral responsibility to them.

Circuses

http://www.bornfreeusa.org/articles.php?p=493&more=1

"The Circus is coming to Town!" In the article "What's Wrong with The Circus?" the Animal Protection Institute (API) provides information on myths that are used to justify Circuses as being helpful and not harmful to animals. "The API has been involved in Forty years of fighting animal abuse and exploitation. Whether they use the courts, the legislatures, the ballot box ... engage in their nationwide team of grassroots activists at the community level ... work closely with individual advocates ... form coalitions with other national or state animal advocacy groups ... or use their position as a major media resource to focus national attention on the abuse of animals anywhere and everywhere ... they continue to get the job done". API explains that Exotic animals do not choose to work in circuses. The animals are being degraded and emerged into a lifestyle that is not natural. What kind of message are we sending to the younger generation? "That it is acceptable to use animals for amusement and profit" In the article API proves the myth that "Circuses help conserve endangered animals" to be completely false. They are not saving them they are exploiting them. They claim that they help to "preserve" the animals through "captive breeding." This does not help wild endangered animals because they don't have problems with breeding but with the dangerous environment that has put them into endangerment. Circuses are not "conserving" they are "exploiting" they are not here to help the animals they just want to make money off of them. This myth is a cover up and holds no truth. The API urges people to boycott circuses that exploit animals and attend shows that only show human performers to ensure the safety of the animals. They also urge people to lobby for animal rights before, during, and after the show. The API is diligently working to eliminate animal participation in circuses despite the myths. Therefore, Circuses try to justify the use of animals as a positive thing but in fact it is detrimental to the welfare of animals as well as extremely cruel practices.

Circuses

Peta.org on circuses

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is the largest animal rights organization in the world and has over 2 million members. PETA focuses on animal rights in four different categories: "on factory farms, in the clothing trade, in laboratories, and in the entertainment industry."(PETA). This organization argues that animals that are in circuses are treated horribly through training tactics and demands. No animal willingly performs the stunts that they are forced to do. Peta states, "They don't perform these and other difficult tricks because they want to; they perform them because they're afraid of what will happen if they don't." The training tactics that are used are very inhumane and torturous. The trainers use punishment and deprivation to control the animals (PETA). The Ringling Bros. circus go to violent extremes to train their animals, "elephants are beaten, hit, poked, prodded, and jabbed with sharp hooks, sometimes until bloody"(PETA). Baby elephants are even taken from their mothers at their vulnerable stage. Not only are the animals abused, they are also kept in horrible conditions when they are traveling. One or two animals are kept in tiny cages with hardly any space to move around (PETA). The animals travel in extreme weather conditions and hardly get the basic necessities to live. Some animals have even died because they were denied food and water. Animals that are mistreated in circuses also become a public danger. There have been many instances where animals try to escape from the circuses, causing harm to the audiences and the trainers. Elephants have ran through the streets trying to get away from the circuses, causing harm to pedestrians. There is no way for circuses to treat animals right, so the best circuses are the animal free ones.

Circuses

http://www.ad-international.org/animals_in_entertainment/go.php?id=222&ssi=10

Animal Defenders International is a “group of organizations… [that] work together globally for the protection of animals.” (See “About Us”) They work together across an array of locations to ensure that animals are being treated as the members of the organization believe that they should be. Among the areas of focus, the treatment of animals in the entertainment industry is a main concern for ADI.

In 1998, a group of Animal Defenders’ Field Officers in the UK worked with various circuses, video-taped the daily routine of numerous animals involved in the circus, and were consequently horrified at the manner in which the animals were treated for 18 months. Stones, metal bars, wooden planks, and negligence were thrown at the animals whenever they appeared to be stressed or were simply not cooperating.

In traveling circuses, where constant uprooting is required, many animals and their apparent uneasy feelings towards the unorthodox traveling procedures, the circus companies paid no mind, tying the animals down with heavy chains, leaving them stuck in their transport cages for long hours.

When not traveling, the conditions of their living quarters were hardly improved. Kept in dark, cramped cages the animals were not given enough exercise or comfort that they inevitably require in order to remain physically and psychologically healthy. Such confinement caused what can be described as nervous habits, “pointless repetitive movements and pacing….” “Abnormal behavior increased when animals were closely confined, tied, or chained up.” Consequently, these are the very environment in which they are kept in.

ADI has done as much as it can to ensure that the circus institutions that inflict pain and unprecedented circumstances onto these animals get reprimanded and shut down. 58 summonses were sent out to three specific individuals and when the charges against them were dropped, “ADI…immediately launched a massive letter-writing campaign….” With the effort of ADI, the three humans who were treating animals with disdain were found guilty for the cruelty they bestowed upon elephants and chimpanzees.

ADI is doing what they can to not let the prevailing cruelty towards circus animals continue. Through their active study of the environment in which these animals are living in, the way in which they are being treated, and they manners in which they are being transported they have experienced first-hand the horrifying conditions these animals unwillingly have found themselves in. With this information, ADI hopes to save the hundreds of animals by freeing them of the life they never asked to have. ADIs involvement across the globe makes them a very viable, very strong force against animal cruelty in circuses.

Kapparot

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/kapparot.html

Kapparot is a custom in which the sins of a person are symbolically transferred to a fowl. It is practiced by some Jews shortly before Yom Kippur. First, selections from Isaiah 11:9, Psalms 107:10, 14, and 17-21, and Job 33:23-24 are recited; then a rooster (for a male) or a hen (for a female) is held above the person's head and swung in a circle three times, while the following is spoken: "This is my exchange, my substitute, my atonement; this rooster (or hen) shall go to its death, but I shall go to a good, long life, and to peace." The hope is that the fowl, which is then donated to the poor for food, will take on any misfortune that might otherwise occur to the one who has taken part in the ritual, in punishment for his or her sins.

Carriage Horses

http://www.banhdc.org/

The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages is a standing committee of the Coalition for New York City Animals, Inc. It was formed in January 2006 in response to the death of Spotty, a five year old carriage horse who died in a horrendous spooking accident on 9th Avenue and 50th St. on his way back to the stable.

It was the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages that brought this issue to the public after years of non-activity and disinterest. Since January 2006, we have been out there on the street educating people and creating support where there was none.We were the only organization that has been consistently involved and are primarily responsible for all the hard work that brought us to where we are today.

In the spring of 2006, we asked the Comptroller's office to do an Audit of the City agencies that oversee the carriage industry. When it was completed one year later, we made sure the NY Times reported on it even though it appeared that there was a cover-up since it had not been uploaded to the NYC Comptroller's web site two months after its issue date. In the last two years, we generated a lot of press - newspapers, radio and TV, letters to the editor - and got people and politicians talking about the issue again.

We created an issue where there had been no interest since the early 1990s when Peggy Parker of the Carriage Horse Action Committee was active.

In December, Council Member Tony Avella agreed to introduce legislation to ban horse-drawn carriages - Intro 658. This is the first time ever that legislation was introduced to ban this archaic out-of-place industry.

Our Committee and our volunteers consist of people from all walks of life. Some have a background in animal activism; for others, it was the first time they got involved with animal issues. But what we all have in common is compassion for the carriage horses and the hope that this cruel industry will come to an end.