In Defense of Animals has called the footage of Palin clubbing a halibut to death a “snuff film.” Alaska fisherman groups beg to differ, saying it’s actually a humane technique to put down the large fish, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The former vice presidential nominee took to the seas with her daughter Bristol (off from a night of dancing, I presume), where she tells the camera, “stunning the halibut may seem a bit harsh to some, but it’s the safest and most humane way to harvest these massive fish.”

Read the entire article, view the video and vote at the Washington Post Blog.

San Rafael, Calif. (November 4, 2010) – In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international animal protection organization, is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to take action against the Cole Brothers Circus for its seeming role in an elaborate scheme to circumvent federal animal welfare laws by helping Florida-based animal handler Lance Ramos Kollman exhibit his animals even though his license was revoked by the agency.

Since losing his license in 2009 for horrific violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), including animal deaths, a cast of shady characters has been playing a complicated shell game and exploiting legal loopholes to keep Kollman illegally in business. Throughout its 2010 tour, the Cole Brothers Circus has been showing a group of nine big cats that belonged to Kollman but were exhibited (and sometimes purportedly owned) by a procession of unlicensed and inexperienced handlers.

In July, the USDA ordered the Circus to stop using unlicensed exhibitors to show the tiger act. And in September the agency began an action to revoke the licenses of those exhibitors, claiming they have been circumventing the AWA by allowing Kollman to exhibit his animals illegally, including at the Cole Brothers Circus.

Though the circus does not have its own USDA license, the agency has treated it as a “de facto” exhibitor, citing the Circus in July for several violations, all arising out of the participation of the unlicensed big cat act.

In a letter to the USDA, IDA urged the agency to pursue the Cole Brothers Circus for violating the AWA, which could result in fines or an order barring the circus from using animal acts. IDA also encouraged the USDA to consult with the U.S. Attorney, suggesting that the Circus appeared to have participated in attempting to circumvent federal law.

“The USDA should be pursuing all possible legal actions against the Cole Brothers Circus,” said Catherine Doyle, IDA elephant campaign director. “The circus has been putting children, families and the animals at risk by employing unlicensed and inexperienced handlers.”

The Cole Brothers Circus continues to use Kollman’s tigers under yet another handler, and Kollman has been seen working with the circus during its current Florida run, which continues through November. The Circus is currently in Boca Raton, moving on to Sarasota next week.

Documentation is available upon request. For more information, visit www.HelpElephants.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Catherine Doyle, 323-301-5730, zoos@idausa.org

Deborah Robinson, 860-836-7761, circuses@idausa.org

Portland, Ore. (August 31, 2010) – This Thursday, Oregon members of In Defense of Animals (IDA) will join other concerned citizens to protest the opening night of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Portland. Ringling has been embroiled in controversy over its brutal treatment of elephants, including calves ripped away from their mothers for violent training solely for “entertainment.”

What: Protest of Ringling Bros. Circus opening night in Portland. Activists will hold banners and signs, distribute leaflets, and show undercover video of Ringling’s animal abuse with a mobile Gorilla Theater Cart.

When: Thursday, September 2, 2010, 6:30 p.m.

Where: Rose Garden Arena, One Center Court, Portland, Ore. 97227 – South side of the Rose Garden Arena, near NE Multnomah St. Street

Ringling trainers routinely prod, hook, jab and strike elephants with a bullhook, a steel-tipped device similar to a fireplace poker that is used to control the large animals and force them to perform unnatural tricks. These abuses typically occur out of public view.

Evidence including court documents, undercover videos, and photos of training sessions with baby elephants shows that Ringling:

·     Routinely chains elephants in train box cars for more than 26 hours at a time and for as long as 60 to 100 hours without a break while traveling across the country for weeks at a time.

·     Physically abuses elephants with electric shock devices and bullhooks, including one elephant who was “dripping blood all over the arena floor from being hooked.”

·     Trains baby elephants through isolation from other elephants, prolonged restraint (tying their legs) and hitting with bullhooks. (A two-year-old calf, Aria, was chained nonstop for four months and only let off chains for 40 minutes a day during training.)

·     Chains elephants, who naturally walks tens of miles a day, at its Florida breeding facility for 16 to 22 hours a day.

For more information, please visit www.HelpElephants.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Matt Rossell, 503-890-5151, matt@idausa.org

“Orcas are apex predators who suffer intensely from the confinement and artificial, barren environments SeaWorld and other aquariums provide them,” said Scotlund Haisley, President of In Defense of Animals. “It is hazardous to force them into such close proximity to humans, let alone to swim with them, so we should expect more injuries and deaths to occur as long as they are publicly displayed and forced to perform circus-style tricks for food.”

Whistleblower Linda Simons, a previous Director of Health and Safety for SeaWorld Orlando, said she was fired two months after Brancheau’s death because SeaWorld did not want her to speak with OSHA about the event. Simons confirmed OSHA’s willful citation by claiming SeaWorld knowingly exposed staff to the dangers of working with Tilikum, who had previously killed two people. She said that a relevant safety drill was performed just weeks before the tragedy occurred and that it had failed miserably.  When Tilikum killed Ms. Brancheau, Simons described the scene as “chaotic” and that up to 85 people had responded.  She was shocked to see additional staff placed at risk when they were permitted to jump into the medical pool to try to free Ms. Brancheau from Tilikum’s jaws as he continued to thrash about.

SeaWorld’s supposedly “educational” dolphin acts have led to previous injuries and death. IDA challenges the educational value of the programs, noting that viewers learn nothing about the natural behaviors, instincts and needs of orcas in the wild, and in fact are given false and misleading information. “SeaWorld’s tiny pools and demeaning performances actually suppress the natural behaviors of orcas and reward unnatural behavior,” said Haisley. “Most visitors to SeaWorld shows actually leave with less accurate information about orcas than they had when they arrived.”

SeaWorld contends their public display programs are “valid under federal permits and under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Commerce National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.” Written testimony submitted by NMFS to the House Committee of Natural Resources in April stated otherwise, revealing that after a permit is issued to a facility for public display, they have “no additional oversight over the holding, breeding and care of animals” and that monitoring educational programs of public display facilities is not a focus of the agency. NMFS further confirmed that the public display industry have been regulating and evaluating themselves since 1994 when amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act took place.

“With NMFS allowing SeaWorld and other commercial theme parks to establish and regulate their own education programs, they are endangering the lives of people and allowing the public to be mislead about the needs of orcas and how to conserve them in their natural habitat,” Haisley added. “IDA recommends that NMFS declare orcas as unsuitable for commercialized captivity and halt orca breeding.  Orcas and other cetaceans should only be held in captivity when they are found sick or injured and need rehabilitation before being released. If they cannot be released, they should be held in spacious coastal sea-pens where they can live out their lives with more stimulation, more choices, and other natural habitat surrounding them. Tilikum should be retired to a coastal sea-pen. Currently he is being held indefinitely in a tiny, barren tank with barely any room to swim in any direction.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Scotlund Haisley, Scotlund@idausa.org, 707-981-7701

Also attending the rally will be State Senator Eric Adams, who represents the district that includes Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, where, without warning, 400 geese were rounded up and gassed in the early hours of July 8, 2010.

The Prospect Park killings sparked an outcry from local residents, many of whom knew individual geese by name, and relished them as a rare and vital link to nature amid city life. That outcry, which has now grown into a full roar of dissent, has since exposed reports of 1,700 Canada geese killed in New York City by the USDA’s Wildlife Services over the past year, with plans to wipe out roughly two-thirds of the existing goose population in New York State. Rally attendees, including the elected officials, are vowing to see the killings stopped and humane, non-lethal population control programs implemented instead.

For decades, state run wildlife agencies have been inflating goose populations by releasing them into areas to swell their numbers for recreational hunting. In addition, artificial landscapes, like manicured lawns and golf courses, attract geese to areas where they would otherwise never inhabit.

“This is a manmade problem that demands a humane solution,” said Scotlund Haisley, President of In Defense of Animals. “It’s outrageous to annihilate geese because of human error and arrogance. Humane, non-lethal population control programs allow us to address this issue without killing them.”

Resident Canada geese population issues can be addressed through a variety of humane, non-lethal population control methods.   OvoControl-G, an oral contraception developed and refined by the USDA, Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center and Innolytics, LLC is one method that is a safe and an environmentally friendly solution to curbing population growth for Canada geese.

Mr. Haisley will read from a statement prepared by Erick Wolf, CEO of Innolytics, LLC, which addresses the difficulty his company has encountered in getting the USDA Wildlife Services to utilize OvoControl-G.

The City and Port Authority claim that aviation safety demands the birds be killed, but ignore the very fact that cities worldwide deal with the problem of birds near airports without exterminating them. The problem of birds colliding with engines is real, but can be dealt with by employing a range of methods, including radar detection, currently not in use in New York City’s airports.

For more information, please visit www.indefenseofanimals.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Barbara Stagno 914.479.5276 (office), 914.584.5875 (cell)

Beverly Hills, Calif. (August 5, 2010) – In Defense of Animals (IDA) today congratulated the luxurious Beverly Hills Avalon Hotel for their compassionate decision to remove foie gras from their menu. The Avalon Hotel joins Spago as the second Beverly Hills establishment to remove foie gras.

“Foie gras production universally ranks as one of the cruelest forms of animal agriculture,” said Hope Bohanec, IDA Grassroots Campaigns Director. “We thank the Avalon Hotel for joining the ranks of world-renowned chefs like Wolfgang Puck in denouncing foie gras and refusing to serve cruelty.”

Executive Chef Mirko Paderno and Avalon Hotel Food and Beverage Director Peter Carrillo made the decision to remove foie gras following discussions with IDA, and faxed a pledge to IDA on August 3. That fax, signed by Mr. Carrillo, states “We pledge not to serve foie gras, because we oppose the inhumane and traumatic practice of force-feeding that is used to produce foie gras.”

Foie gras is produced by force-feeding ducks and geese through metal pipes inserted down their throats, swelling the animals’ livers five to ten times their normal size. Dr. Ward Stone, the former senior wildlife pathologist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, has conducted necropsies on ducks who died during force-feeding and writes, “The short tortured lives of ducks raised for foie gras is well outside the norm of farm practice. Having seen the pathology that occurs from foie gras production, I strongly recommend that this process be outlawed.”

The production and sale of foie gras will be banned throughout California by statute effective July 1, 2012. Foie gras is already banned in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Holland, Italy, Israel, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

In Defense of Animals leads a nationwide campaign to convince restaurants to remove foie gras from their menus. For more information, visit www.indefenseofanimals.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Weil Public Relations, rachel@weilpr.com , 818-341-3646

A passing jogger made the gruesome discovery early Saturday morning in front of this popular picnic and family activity park.  Animal control officers were immediately called to Alum Rock Park due to the suspicious nature of these tragic animal deaths.  The case has caused widespread disgust and outrage as well as fear in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Investigation by San Jose Animal Control is underway in order to find those responsible for this heinous act, and to determine the circumstances of the animals’ deaths.

“Animals are not simply put on Earth for humans to use in whatever sick and twisted ways they please.  They are sentient, innocent beings who need our protection, care and respect,” said IDA President Scotlund Haisley.  “This is a matter of utmost concern, also due to the fact that an indisputable link has been established between criminal animal abuse and violence against humans,” Haisley added.

“IDA is committed to ending animal cruelty wherever we find it. It is our hope that with this $2,500 reward offer, which we encourage other individuals and organizations to add to, someone will come forward who can help authorities find these dangerous, felony animal abusers.  We will work with municipal and county agencies in whatever way we can to this end,” said Haisley, a formidable rescuer with over 20 years of cruelty and disaster response experience.

For more information, contact In Defense of Animals at: indefenseofanimals.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Scotlund Haisley (415) 448-0078

While promoting her new reality/hunting show “Goin’ Country,” Cook — who placed 7th on “Idol” in 2008 — recently said, “I never used to like killing animals until I got out and experienced it.  It’s the food chain.  Animals are here for us to eat.”

Obviously, the statement didn’t sit well with the group In Defense of Animals, who see things a little differently … saying, “Contrary to Kristy Lee’s beliefs, animals are meant to live out their lives in peace, not to be killed for our enjoyment.”

So we gotta ask …

Read the article and take the poll, here.

San Rafael, Calif. (July 28, 2010) – The July 7th attack by a young African elephant on his keeper at the Toledo Zoo has reignited controversy over the use of circus-style training and the abusive device known as a bullhook. In Defense of Animals (IDA) today sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, requesting issuance of a policy statement that would designate such inhumane and dangerous practices a violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

“The tragic attack at the Toledo Zoo must be a wake-up call,” said Catherine Doyle, IDA elephant campaign director. “The government can’t wait until yet another person is injured or killed before it takes action. Now is the time to declare that circus-style training with archaic bullhooks is abusive to elephants, dangerous for humans, and a violation of federal animal welfare law.”

Circus-style training, also known as “free contact,” relies on painful punishment to train and control elephants. Handlers use the steel-pointed bullhook, a device similar to a fireplace poker, to prod, hook and strike elephants and force compliance with commands. The bullhook is a reminder of the physical punishment that can be delivered at any time.

In the free contact system, the keeper must dominate the elephant at all times. This likely explains why keeper Don RedFox returned to elephant Louie’s stall a second time, after the elephant had already aggressively chased him out. RedFox returned with a bullhook, appearing intent on regaining control of the elephant. The video released by the zoo shows that in the presence of the bullhook Louie is at first extremely submissive and likely anticipates punishment. After RedFox hooks Louie, the elephant attacks.

About half of zoos use “protected contact” management, which relies on positive-reinforcement training without bullhooks. A protective barrier separates keepers and elephants, removing the risk of bodily harm while still allowing for necessary care and veterinary treatment. IDA is calling for all zoos to immediately adopt this more humane and safer alternative for all captive elephants.

In the last 10 years, there have been at least 31 known dangerous incidents involving captive-held elephants in the U.S., including 4 human deaths, 17 injuries (handlers and the public) and 13 escapes. Every incident involved the use of free contact management. This year alone, there have been three incidents, including Toledo. One involved an elephant escape from a circus and the other the death of a circus trainer.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Catherine Doyle, 323-301-5730, zoos@idausa.org

This ritual, which played out in Anaheim’s council chambers this week, has gone on for years in city halls nationwide. But what is different this year is that the activists are armed with more direct evidence of the abuse than they’ve ever had before.

And this new evidence seems to be resonating with political leaders, including those in Orange County and Sacramento. But not so much in Anaheim.

Among the revelations changing officials’ minds are detailed accounts and pictures of the abuse left behind by a former circus worker who died late last year. The evidence was given to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and was the subject of this Washington Post story in December.

The story of the dead man’s experiences, to at least some degree, are helping PETA and other animal rights groups change policy.

Tuesday night, while the activists were showing the Anaheim City Council photos of alleged abuse of baby elephants, the Sacramento City Council was adopting an ordinance to regulate the treatment of animals in visiting circuses and rodeos.

Read the entire article here.