Animal Crime & Animal Cruelty Weekly Reports

China Is Finally Addressing Animal Welfare Issues. New standards for the transportation and slaughter of birds are a first for the world’s second-largest poultry producer.

Is the world’s second-biggest producer of poultry meat getting serious about chicken welfare?

For the first time, China has released official recommendations for the humane slaughter of chickens, specifically for farms in Shandong province, which leads the country in poultry production, raising 20 percent of domestic birds. As the English-language website People’s Daily Online reported, the standards provide detailed steps for handling poultry from transportation to slaughter and provide clear recommendations for minimizing the suffering of the animals, including limiting transport to a maximum of three hours and adopting the EU practice of anesthetizing birds before they are killed.

The recommendations are just that—they’re not mandatory—and they address the slaughter of chickens, not how they’re raised. Nevertheless, animal welfare advocates are praising the move as “a step in the right direction,” as Jeff Zhou of the nonprofit Compassion in World Farming told The New York Times.

Yet it’s unlikely that the guidelines were a product of a spasm of concern on the part of Chinese officials over the well-being of chickens. As the Times notes: “In China, where factory farming practices and a lax enforcement of food safety codes have contributed to one food scandal after another, there is a business incentive to treat animals better.”

Animal welfare issues are a rising concern among Chinese consumers, as they are in countries around the world. But the more pressing concern is the ability of Chinese poultry producers to compete on the world market. With evidence of the birds’ “violent deaths” remaining visible even after processing and the quality of the meat from stressed, abused birds often poorer than that of animals treated humanely, poor animal welfare is hurting exports. Only the U.S. produces more chicken meat than China, yet while America also ranks No. 1 in poultry exports, China lags in fifth place.

Thus, the country’s move toward improved animal welfare practices may well be part of a longer-term strategy to appeal to conscientious consumers abroad, including in the U.S. Since 2013, the only chicken from China permitted to be sold here is chicken that has been raised and slaughtered in the U.S. (or Canada), processed and cooked in China, then shipped back to the U.S. again. If you think that seems patently absurd, you’re not alone. Even a chief lobbyist for the American poultry industry thinks the trade “probably doesn’t make any economic sense.”

Most trade watchers believe that the bizarre arrangement was an incremental move toward overcoming China’s ban on U.S. beef. Sure enough, in May the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it had conducted a follow-up audit on China’s inspection system for slaughtered poultry and found the system met U.S. standards, meaning we’re one step closer to accepting chicken raised in China for sale in the U.S.—and one step closer, perhaps, to caring more about how chickens in China are raised.

A PETA Asia investigator captured many hours of footage like this at circuses and animal-training centres in China – and nearly every single second of it is hard to stomach.

Baby bears paw helplessly at the bars of the barren metal cages they're trapped in.
A lion cowers in fear as a trainer approaches brandishing a whip.

A monkey paces wildly in deep distress in the confines of a cage. Another is dragged by a rope around her neck as she struggles frantically to escape, and a trainer even slaps her on the head.
Please make a donation to PETA right now and help all animals – including those exploited and abused for entertainment!

The suffering these animals endure – and the decrepit conditions they're forced to live in – is as common as it is terribly cruel. It breaks my heart knowing there are so many bears, monkeys, big cats, and other animals living this way.

Thanks to powerful exposés like this one, PETA and our international affiliates are helping millions of people discover what really happens to frightened and abused animals condemned to perform in circuses around the world. Our campaigns are prompting families to avoid shows that use animals – progress that has abusers worried.

But to keep this kind of vital work going, kind people like you must step in and support our efforts to help the animals who need us the most.

Will you make a gift to PETA today and strengthen our work for animals? Any amount you can give will make a difference.

USDA inspections find horse soring cruelty. Late last year, The HSUS obtained still photographs and inspection reports from USDA inspectors who examined horses trained by a well-known figure in the Tennessee walking horse show world, Larry Wheelon. Those deeply disturbing images revealed that Wheelon and his associates intentionally injured and “sored” horses – deliberately injuring the animals’ feet to produce an artificial, exaggerated gait known as the “big lick.”

Now we’ve had our first look at video footage of the abuse Wheelon and his people perpetrated. This footage, released to the public for the first time on this blog and showing a USDA inspector gauging the injuries to the horses, confirms in a dramatic way what the still photographs told us about the cruelty these people committed in that barn. The horses felt such pain that they violently pulled away as the inspector handled their feet and lower limbs.

Take action to put a stop to it by telling the USDA you support its proposed rule, and want to see it implemented without delay during the Obama Administration. http://bit.ly/2c3MyJv

Please Help The Suffering Cats Of Thailand. Each year, Soi Dog cares for, sterilises and treats thousands of cats. Without veterinary treatment, these cats would have been left to suffer from disease, malnutrition and injuries caused by road accidents or cruelty. Most would have died agonising deaths. YOU can stop this by joining the Care for Cats Club: https://www.soidog.org/en/join-the-ca...

The Soi Dog Foundation is a not for profit organisation that relies on donations to help Thailand's dogs & cats that have been abused or neglected. As a supporter you will be giving these animals a 2nd chance at life. There are many ways you can help either by donating to our "Magic 1000' club that helps feed dogs rescued from the illegal dog meat trade to "Sponsoring one of the rescued shelter dogs, or one of many other options. Please take a moment to visit our Face Book page at https://www.facebook.com/SoiDogPageIn...& our website at http://www.soidog.org

Will YOU Help Us Stop the Abuse? Caring people refuse to be silent about animal cruelty. Your support today can help our Cruelty Investigations Department expose abuse and rescue animals from almost unimaginable suffering. HELP MORE ANIMALS.

Act Today: Three Roadside Zoos That Are Hell on Earth for Tigers. Thanks to activists like you who took action, criminal charges were brought against Michael Hackenberger for allegedly abusing a tiger. Now, tigers at three roadside zoos urgently need your help. One facility houses them in drained swimming pools that contain disgusting murky puddles of water, another forces cubs to swim with the public, and one has even been cited for keeping a tiger cub locked inside a cramped cage in the basement of a house. E-MAIL THE FACILITIES

Watch: How Can You Tell if Your Leather Is Made From Dogs? You might be wearing skin stolen from dogs and not even know it. SEE THE VIDEO

8-Year-Old Girl Bites Into the Heart of a Deer She Shot for 'Fun' (Graphic) A girl bit into a deer's "warm quivering heart." It was a repulsive demonstration of disregard for a life, and people worldwide are outraged. READ THE STORY

Tell Baylor University to take football player who beat his dog off the field. As reported in national and local outlets, a wide receiver on the Baylor University football team was caught on camera viciously whipping his dog. Ishmael Zamora was shown via a Snapchat video in June to be whipping his Rottweiler with a belt, eventually kicking the poor creature as it yelps in pain. Zamora’s excuses his actions by saying he lost his temper while house training the dog.

There can be no tolerance for animal abuse. We call upon the President of Baylor University, David E. Garland, and Jim Grobe, the Head Football Coach, to remove Ishmael Zamora from the team.
While we have no idea if this was an isolated incident, or a pattern we merely are getting a glimpse into, Ishmael Zamora’s actions are troubling. The police have already charged Zamora with a misdemeanor that could come with a $500 fine. Baylor University must show they take the misconduct of their players seriously, especially when it comes to harming another living being. Someone who would beat an animal for having an accident in the house has no place in sports, let alone a Division 1 team in the Big 12 Conference.

This petition will be delivered to:
Jim Grobe - Head Football Coach
David E. Garland - Interim President - Baylor University

Cruel idiot arrested in Alabama for setting tortoise on fire, streaming on Facebook

A 19-year-old man from Alabama faces animal cruelty charges for setting a rare tortoise on fire and livestreaming the abuse on the internet.

The video was streamed on Facebook Live on August 31 by James Allen from Dothan, Alabama.

Allen was later arrested by the police and charged with animal cruelty, local newspaper the Dothan Eagle reported.

Allen said that he would set the tortoise on fire if he got 100 Facebook likes.

The video had over 160 likes on Facebook and was still viewable on Sunday night.

Allen poured rubbing alcohol on the tortoise before setting it on fire.

The poor creature was identified as a rare gopher tortoise, which is considered a “threatened” species and is protected in the state of Alabama.

Police named the tortoise “Leonardo.” The good news is that Leonardo is doing well and he’ll be sent to an animal sanctuary for rehabilitation before being released back into the wild.