3.4 Million Animals Drowned on Factory Farms during Hurricane Florence, Yummy...Dog Meat Trade in Indonesia, Lawsuits, Wolves, Giraffes, Illegal black market butchers, backyard slaughter operations, Toronto International Film Festival, Iditarod Dog Race, Chinese Badger-Hair Industry, Sustainable Action Network (SAN)

To be honest with y'all, this happened in the last hurricane down there in that same that area and I bet at the same farms when that one hit a few years ago.

While Thousands of People Evacuated From Hurricane Florence, Millions (3.4 Million animals are now dead) of Animals Drowned on Factory Farms

In the wake of Hurricane Florence, countless North Carolina families have packed up their most valuable belongings and evacuated their homes in the interest of their own safety. Most fleeing residents with pets have done everything in their power to bring their dogs, cats, and other animal companions with them or, if doing so wasn’t possible, arranged for them to go somewhere safe during the storm.

On the contrary, the millions of animals trapped inside of North Carolina’s factory farm operations haven’t been given this very basic right to be protected from a horrific death by drowning.

Rather than being treated like the living creatures they are and evacuated along with the majority of the humans and pets in the path of Hurricane Florence, livestock have remained confined inside metal cages with no chance to escape as the state has experienced extreme flooding.

These photos were shared by Woodstock Farm Sanctuary via Steve Helber of the AP, and they illustrate the state that factory farms have been left in. Woodstock writes, “There are nine million pigs across the state, babies living their entire lives inside giant sheds. Mothers in metal cages, unable to save themselves or their piglets.”

At one of the state’s industrial meat production facilities, Sanderson Farms, a whopping 1.7 million chickens have already died, and this number is expected to continue climbing and to include pigs and turkeys as well as flooding persists and farmers remain unable to access the buildings where the surviving animals are stuck suffering without adequate food and water.

This is an absolute tragedy, yet instead of being regretful regarding the massive loss of animal life, all the company seems to be concerned with is how much money it will lose. In a press release, Sanderson Farms described the millions of dead chickens as being “destroyed as a result of flooding,” as if they were disposable objects rather than living, breathing beings.

For this factory farming operation and the numerous others across the state that left countless livestock to drown or starve to death during the storm, innocent farm animals losing their lives is simply seen as a financial loss.

As Gene Baur of Farm Sanctuary described the upsetting situation in a Facebook post, “Sad but predictable … Farm animals are the most abused of all, and there wasn’t even an effort to relocate them, which would have been logistically difficult.”

He went on, “At the very least, factory farms should not be located in areas prone to flooding, and tax dollars should [not] be used to reimburse this cruel industry, which ironically and wrongly opened their statement by announcing that they didn’t experience loss of life in the wake of the storm. Please note, chickens and other farm animals are living animals, and their deaths very much represent a loss of life.”

We couldn’t agree more. Quite frankly, it’s difficult for us to fathom how people can be so nonchalant about animals dying en mass. But then again, these creatures would have eventually met a cruel fate at the slaughterhouse even if they hadn’t died in a flood. It’s difficult to say which is worse.

Try as we might to ignore it, the unpleasant reality is that our insatiable appetite for meat and dairy is what is fueling this inhumane industry. The huge demand for cheap animal protein in the U.S. has led to the rise of factory farming and the resultant disturbing treatment of animals as commodities rather than as the intelligent, precious beings they truly are. We also have to acknowledge the horrific irony that industrial animal agriculture contributes immensely to climate change, which is making these huge storms more frequent and powerful, and sadly, in every scenario, it is the animals who pay the worst price.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. We can all help dismantle this industry and bring about a more sustainable and humane future by swapping out meat and dairy for plant-based alternatives.

To learn all about how ditching animal products can create a better world for everyone, check out the #EatForThePlanet book. Image Source: Woodstock Farm Sanctuary/Facebook

Lawsuit Launched to Save Giraffes From Extinction

Giraffe populations have dropped nearly 40 percent in the past three decades. And the crisis is only getting more urgent.

That's why the Center for Biological Diversity and allies this week filed a notice of intent to sue the Trump administration for failing to respond to our 2017 petition to protect giraffes under the Endangered Species Act. Just over 97,000 of these beloved, impossibly long-necked animals remain in the wild: The species is gravely imperiled by habitat loss, civil unrest, hunting for meat and the international trade in bone carvings, skins and trophies.

"Africa now has fewer giraffes than elephants, but the Trump administration refuses to throw these imperiled creatures a lifeline. That has to change, before it's too late," said the Center's Tanya Sanerib.

Read more at The Hill, check out this video, and consider donating to our Trump Resistance Fund.

Wolves Need National Recovery Plan — So We're Suing

Under the Endangered Species Act, wolves must remain protected until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service implements a comprehensive recovery plan for them. Yet this summer the agency instead announced a scheme to strip protection from the species across the lower 48 states.

That would make wolves vulnerable to trophy hunting and trapping, halting their progress toward recovery. So on Wednesday the Center filed a notice of intent to sue the Service over its failure to make a recovery plan.

"Endangered Species Act protection pulled gray wolves back from the brink," said the Center's Collette Adkins. "Cutting their lifeline now would get wolves needlessly killed and terribly hobble their progress toward a comeback." Check out our press release.

For residents just outside of Fort Myers, Florida, the piercing cries and squeals of the animals are unbearable. Pigs, goats, horses, chickens, and other animals are being cruelly and illegally slaughtered at “backyard slaughter” operations — and the sounds of their pain have brought people to tears.

Black market butcher operations are clearly illegal, which is why the Animal Legal Defense Fund recently filed a lawsuit to shut them down.

Your help will support our lawsuit to shut down illegal, inhumane backyard slaughter operations.

Florida law requires that animals be unconscious and rendered insensitive to pain before being killed. But video footage of workers at these backyard slaughterhouses reveal that animals routinely retain consciousness during slaughter. Workers stab squealing pigs in the chest and throat, and even attempt to skin animals alive.

No wonder their cries of pain are so upsetting to nearby residents. I can’t begin to imagine the horror of waking up in the middle of the night to continuous, heart-wrenching squeals of pain from animals being violently slaughtered.

This cruelty is an affront to Florida residents who demand that their state laws be enforced. Our lawsuit aims to stop this cruel and illegal slaughter before any more animals are cruelly killed.

Please help the Animal Legal Defense Fund today to join this fight and support all of our work on behalf of animals. With your help we can bring black market slaughter operations out of the shadows and shut them down!