Animal Cruelty and Animal Crime Weekly report


Kristen Lindsey
Update: Texas Cat Killer Receives Light Punishment. The Punishment Does Not Fit the Crime. Yesterday, veterinarian Kristen Lindsey, who cold-bloodedly shot a pet cat named Tiger through the head with a bow and arrow, received a slap on the wrist from the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. The Board’s decision to only temporarily suspend Kristen Lindsey’s veterinary license pales in comparison to the egregious felony cruelty that Ms. Lindsey committed against Tiger and his family. 
Allowing Ms. Lindsey to continue to practice veterinary medicine in the future puts animals in the community at great risk, and taints the good name of the trusted veterinary profession.

Please help the Animal Legal Defense Fund push for stronger laws in all 50 states. Your gift from now until Nov. 1 will be doubled to help bring justice for animals like Tiger. The sanction imposed by the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners fails to match the severity of the crime of animal cruelty. Rest assured the Animal Legal Defense Fund will continue to seek new legal strategies for this and other cruelty cases. Your support will help us continue to fight to make sure animal abusers receive punishments that fit their crimes.
Charge Animal Control Officer Who Allowed Kitten to Rot. 
In Defense of Animals Virginia Animal Control Officer, Raymond Merkh, has been charged with two felony counts for the cruel deaths of two animals entrusted to his care. Merkh is accused of neglecting veterinary care for two animals, a kitten and a Jack Russell Terrier who suffered for extended periods, languishing in their filthy cages and eventually they had to be euthanized. Animal Control Officers are paid to help animals, not make them suffer in agony. We cannot allow this to happen again! Sign our alert now. Take Action
Abused Horses in India

Horses in India Living With Infected Wounds and Forced to Stand in Their Own Feces. Footage at facilities that produce antitoxins captured horses with severe inflammation, eye abnormalities, and bleeding wounds and shows workers using painfully large needles to collect blood, causing one horse to collapse to the floor in agony. ACT NOW FOR HORSES

Dogs at Florida Kennel

Dogs Confined Without Water for Hours at Florida KennelPETA's exposé shows dogs at a kennel with their mouths tied shut and confined to small crates in the blazing sun. This proves why it's so crucial to screen boarding facilities carefully before leaving your animal companion in their hands. WHAT YOU CAN DO 

Rabbit Used for Angora

Dear Fab, We'll Shop Elsewhere Until You End Your Fur and Angora Sales. Fashion retailer The Kooples recently scrapped angora and fur, but online designer Fab is falling behind the latest yet timeless trend: animal-free fashion. TAKE ACTIONStop Selling Cruelly-Sourced Fur and Angora

Duck Farm Investigation

Duckling's Head Torn Off, Ducks Slammed Against Wall at Meat and Down SupplierDucks were kicked, thrown, wrung by the neck, and kept in isolation for weeks—some even survived for an hour after being slammed against a wall. Share the exposé, and pledge to help stop this cruelty now. STOP THE SLAUGHTERVideo: Ducks Bashed Against Wall and Decapitated - Demand Justice

Mike VI Is Dead: Tell LSU to Stop Exploiting Tigers!tiger

Update: Months ago, when we learned that Mike VI, Louisiana State University's (LSU) tiger mascot, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, we urged the school to ensure that he would be the last tiger to endure a lifetime of exploitation and confinement at LSU. Now, Mike VI is dead. Please help us renew our call for the school to do right by Mike VI and all the Mikes who came before him by using only willing, costumed human mascots from now on. Click to read more.

Tell Hallmark Cards to Stop Exploiting Chimpanzees!

chimpanzee card
They're meant to be humorous, but greeting cards featuring chimpanzees dressed in silly costumes and making funny faces are anything but a joke. In fact, what might look like a smile displayed by chimpanzees on these cards is actually a grimace of fear—not an expression of joy, as the public is misled to believe.
Chimpanzees and other great apes used for entertainment are often removed from their mothers shortly after birth—a traumatic experience that typically results in neurotic and sometimes self-injurious behavior that can persist into adulthood. Eyewitness investigations have revealed that physical abuse of chimpanzees is standard practice in the entertainment industry. Click to read more.
Cat Who Was Shot By Cruel Human and Left to Die Needs Our Help. When people welcome a companion animal into their lives, they usually have so much compassion and affection in their heart, that they want to share it with another being. They will go to the shelter and pick out a pup or kitty to pour all of that love into. Alternatively, there are some people out there who treat animals as a way to release their aggression, and sadly, homeless animals with no guardian to protect them, tend to be the target of this anger. We’ve heard stories where stray animals are abused by people living in the area who are simply annoyed by their presence. We’ve heard of stray animals getting run over by cars and no one bothering to stop and see if they’re okay. And, sadly, we’ve seen dogs get picked up off the street and turn into bait or aggressive opponents for dogfighting circles.
Just recently, the residents of a mobile home park in Calera, Alabama found a cat who had been shot in the back and was dragging herself through the park. At the time they found her, the bullet was still lodged in her spine. The fact that this little kitty was pulling herself around the park, likely looking for food or help, shows that this cat had a clear will to live. The folks who found her immediately called The Purrfect Love Cat Rescue. The kitten, now named Jackie, seems to be permanently paralyzed and the employees at the center are skeptical as to whether she will ever be able to walk, control her bowels, or her bladder. According to the veterinarian on board, it appeared someone put the gun up against her back, then fired, almost certainly intentionally.
Why anyone would harm such a precious creature is beyond us. This kitty’s only crime was existing in the same space as a cruel human. 
Kitty 2
Sadly, Jackie is too weak to undergo any surgery, so all that’s left to do is hope that this sweet kitten can somehow pull through the ordeal. 
Kitty 1
Despite the fact that Jackie cannot undergo surgery, the rescue center employees are determined to do all they can for her and hopefully find the horrible individual who did this to her. They have set up a Facebook page and hope to get donations for what will likely be a very costly recovery program for Jackie. If you’re touched by this story and would like to donate to the cause, click here.

We can all play a role in helping prevent animal cruelty, check out these resources to learn more:
All image source: Justice for Jackie/Facebook 
Winter Is Coming. And Bears Know It. Conflicts between humans and bears can happen more often this time of year as bears must eat enough food to make it through the winter. Thankfully there are simple steps and useful tools to keep bears and people’s property safe.

Cooler temperatures and falling leaves signal the arrival of fall here in the Rocky Mountain West. It also marks a precarious time of year for bears, as their search for food can lead them into backyards — and into conflicts with humans.


It’s no small feat for bears to find enough to eat to put on enough weight as they dig their dens and prepare to enter hibernation in November and December. To overwinter in their dens, bears slow their metabolic activity and have to be able to survive off of the body fat reserves they’ve stored up throughout the year. This is even more critical for female bears that need additional calories and a substantial fat layer to give birth to their cubs and nurse them through the winter.

Bears are omnivores, and their diet can vary widely. They rely on a variety of foods from vegetation such as seeds, berries, roots, grasses, and fungi to protein rich insects, deer, elk, and fish. This time of year, bears are highly motivated to find any food they can. When their natural food sources are scarce, they are more likely to turn to the things found in people’s backyards. This can include everything from garbage to domestic fruit trees to someone’s backyard chicken coop.

Grizzly bears are especially vulnerable to humans because humans often consider grizzlies more of a threat than black bears. As a result, humans wiped out grizzlies across almost their entire range in the lower 48 states, which once spanned from the Pacific Coast to the Mississippi River and from Canada to Mexico. By the 1970s they hung on only in very small areas in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington. Thanks to the protections of the Endangered Species Act, and a lot of work from many people to reduce conflicts, grizzlies are slowly increasing in number and in range in a couple places in the northern Rockies.

A Nonlethal Solution: It’s Electric!

© Russ Talmo/Defenders of Wildlife
“Thank you so much for helping me to make the electric fencing around my chicken yard a reality…I just wanted to thank you & to let you know your work matters.” - Electric Fence Participant, 2015
As some grizzly populations expand, grizzly bears are being seen in some areas for the first time in decades. Adding to the temptation for hungry bears is the rapid increase in backyard hobby farming across the West. This means there are more chicken coops, bee hives, and other bear attractants on the landscape. In addition, more and more houses and their accompanying attractants border or are within what once was prime grizzly bear habitat.

As a result, we’re seeing conflicts between bears and humans in new places. These conflicts can result in bears being relocated or even killed for eating a chicken dinner. Fortunately, there are resources, tools and techniques are available that can keep hungry bears out of trouble and property and people safe from harm.

Defenders’ popular Electric Fence Incentive Program is one way we are working directly with residents of grizzly bear country to minimize conflicts between bears and people.

Initiated in 2010 and currently serving key areas of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington, our Electric Fencing Incentive Program provides financial and technical assistance to residents installing bear-resistant electric fencing around items that could attract bears. We completed more than 210 fencing projects through the end of 2015. And the program’s popularity grows each year, as more projects continue to roll in for the 2016 season.

In fact, we are seeing so much interest in our incentive program and the use of electric fencing to address bear conflict issues that we’ve created our own how-to video for folks at home. This instructional video gives a step-by-step account of how landowners can build a simple electric fence to secure their attractants. While this how-to video is geared toward residents in grizzly bear country, a simple electric fence can also help people dealing with black bear issues and many other wildlife conflicts, and we encourage everyone who lives in places with bears to consider installing a simple electric fence as described in the video before wildlife conflicts occur (just be sure to check local building codes).

Many Ways to Help Keep Bears Out of Trouble

As effective as this program is, electric fencing isn’t the only solution to every potential conflict. That’s why we also invest in other tools and methods to prevent bear-human conflict. So far this year, we have:
  •  Helped provide funding for bear-resistant garbage storage for residents in northwest Montana
  • Assisted with costs associated with three range rider projects in grizzly bear and wolf habitat in Montana. Range riders are used to increase human presence around livestock, with the intent of minimizing livestock loss to predators
  • Helped purchase and install bear-resistant food storage lockers for backcountry river campsites in prime grizzly bear habitat in northwest Montana.
Since 1997 we have invested over a million dollars in these types of projects. Defenders is dedicated to long term grizzly bear recovery in the lower 48 states, and that means working on the ground to secure attractants to keep bears and people safe, as well as pushing for better federal and state policies to benefit bears. It will take us all working together to minimize human-bear conflicts and to ensure grizzly bears are here to stay. The post Winter Is Coming. And Bears Know It. appeared first on Defenders of Wildlife Blog.

Greyhounds are dying at Palm Beach Kennel Club in Florida

Twenty-five greyhounds have died at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in Florida since 2013. The fate of many more dogs is unknown. In the summer of 2016 we documented dozens of violent collisions at this track. We are closer than ever to ending dog racing in Florida but we still need your help. Please share this video widely and encourage your friends to sign this petition. You can also donate to help...Read more 
Ivory hunter trampled by wild African elephant; American tourists mauled by lion and more

Tedx: Jill Robinson speaks out against the dog meat trade