Being transported, whether to slaughterhouses or to “finishing” sites (for fattening prior to slaughter), is acknowledged as one of the most stressful events in the lives of farm animals—billions of whom make such final journeys annually around the world. The long trips, strange situations, lack of mobility, close quarters, exposure to temperature extremes, and crowding in with unfamiliar animals are all factors that cause stress and harm. The results include a high incidence of death and injuries—including bruising, broken bones, goring, and abrasions—as well as dehydration, heat stroke, and severe motion sickness, not to mention the spread of disease among animals and, beyond that, to humans. […]

» Read more of Highways to Hell: The Long-Distance Transport of Farmed Animals

RaeLeann Smith is a circus specialist with the animal rights organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). She works to educate people about the cruelty involved in circuses and other animal acts and meets with legislators to develop ordinances that protect animals used for entertainment. She is currently working to promote legislation in Chicago that would be the strongest elephant protection law in the United States. In an article also posted at the Britannica Blog, Smith discusses the rampant abuse of animals and loose enforcement of health regulations at U.S. slaughterhouses.

In the wake of the largest beef recall in U.S. history—which included 37 million pounds of meat that was sent to schools—lawmakers are questioning whether the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is doing its job and whether the meat supplied to the school-lunch program is safe. The answer to both queries is a resounding “No,” and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is encouraging meat-eaters to rethink their food choices. […]

» Read more of Animal Cruelty and the U.S. Beef Recall

At the 59th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), held in Anchorage, Alaska in May 2007, Japan’s latest attempts to revive legal commercial whale hunting were defeated. But the country continued to insist on the legality of its “scientific” hunts of more than 10,000 whales since 1987, and since the conclusion of the meeting antihunting countries have appeared unwilling to do more in response than issue public criticism. In contrast, the environmental organizations Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society prevented the killing whales during the second half of January of this year by chasing the Japanese hunting fleet through thousands of miles of the Southern Ocean. For background on the IWC and whale hunting, see the Advocacy for Animals June 2007 article Hunting the Whales.

The 2007 meeting of the IWC

Japan, the leader of the prohunting bloc within the IWC and by far the leading killer of whales in the world since the IWC imposed an indefinite ban on commercial hunting in 1986, lost the prohunting majority it briefly held during the 58th IWC meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis (which it used to pass a resolution declaring the organization’s commitment to “normalize” its functions—i.e., to return to its role as manager of legal commercial whale hunting). Japan circulated but eventually withdrew a draft resolution that would have allowed four Japanese communities to kill an undetermined number of minke whales “exclusively for local consumption” for a five-year period; critics regarded the proposal as an attempt to equate local small-scale commercial hunting with aboriginal hunting, which the IWC allows, and thereby create an undermining exception to the IWC’s general commercial-hunting ban. […]

» Read more of Hunting the Whalers