Animal & Wildlife Weekly Report: Best Super Bowl LIII ad, 'Our Planet', a Netflix original documentary series, Vivien Lyra Blair ('Bird Box'), Chinese New Year of the Pig, FOUR PAWS Pod Episode 1, Arctic Wildlife Habitat Threatened, Burned for Dairy, Wolves, Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act

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If you were watching the big game this week, we hope you caught the ad during the 3rd quarter for Our Planet, a Netflix original documentary series in collaboration with WWF and Silverback Films.

If you missed it—or want to see it again—check it out here.
Our Planet video trailer

Voiced by Sir David Attenborough and supported by the latest ground-breaking science, the series relies on many of the findings from WWF's recent Living Planet Report to showcase the Earth’s most pressing challenges—and inspire people worldwide to come together to protect nature.

This exciting series—releasing globally April 5 on Netflix—makes us grateful to have you by our side. As a WWF supporter you help build a future where humans and nature can thrive.

When it comes to our planet, we are all on one team.
Help Animals This Year of the Pig
There's good reason to celebrate the Year of the Pig. Pigs are among the most intelligent animals and are known for their long memories and sophisticated communication skills. They're playful, sensitive beings who, like humans, love and cherish their families.

 But many pigs born over this Chinese New Year won't live long enough to see the next one.

 Instead, on farms around the world, they'll be taken away from their mothers just days after their birth, their tails will be chopped off, the ends of their teeth will be ground down, and males will be castrated – all without any painkillers.

 Pigs can live for more than a decade, but after as little as five months spent inside a dark, crowded warehouse, many will face a terrifying journey to the abattoir, where they will be violently killed and dismembered, all so that their flesh can become someone's sausages or chops.

 Please make this Chinese New Year a kinder one for pigs and all animals.

 Imagine for a moment the absolute terror of being torn away from your family, mutilated, and imprisoned for months in a filthy, windowless shed with others like you. Millions of smart, sensitive pigs endure this abuse each year.

 Whether such misery takes place on a farm in Europe or the US or on the bloodstained concrete floors of an abattoir in Cambodia, the pain and fear experienced by these animals is the same.

 Investigators with PETA US have found farmworkers kicking mother sows, beating them with metal gate rods, and poking them in the eyes. Footage from one hideous facility shows a worker slamming piglets considered "runts" against the ground head first to kill them. A recent PETA Asia investigation revealed abattoir workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, mercilessly bashing pigs on the head with metal pipes over and over again as the animals cry out in pain. One pig was hit six times before his throat was slit, and he was left to bleed to death as other terrified pigs watched.

 No animal should ever endure such agony. Please support PETA's work for animals by making a special Chinese New Year gift right now. Your contribution today will help us spread compassion for pigs and other animals who are being exploited, abused, and killed by the millions at this very moment.

 Of course, the best way to spare pigs, cows, and other animals immense suffering is to go vegan, and every day, we're persuading more and more people to shun animal "products". Our work is making it far easier for kind people to choose vegan foods, thanks to resources such as our popular free vegan starter kit. Our headline-grabbing demonstrations, events, and celebrity campaigns are keeping media and consumer attention focused on the pigs and other animals we're working to help. We're also confronting the meat industry head on, as we did last year when we mobilised our supporters to help get plans for a massive farm in Rugby rejected, preventing thousands of pigs from being slaughtered annually.

 With your support, we'll be able to reach more people, distribute more vegan starter kits, release more exposés that prompt consumers to make compassionate food choices, and launch more hard-hitting campaigns that improve animals' lives.

 Just like us, pigs love their families and value their own lives. Your special gift to commemorate this Year of the Pig will power our vital work to give pigs – and all other animals – lives free from the pain and terror that most are experiencing today.
Ask Congress to pass the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, the first-ever general federal Animal Cruelty law in history. This is a bill with broad bipartisan support. Even prior to swearing in the new members of Congress, this bill had 36 Co-Sponsors in the Senate and 283 Co-Sponsors in the House. It was previously blocked from a vote by a single congressman. Now that the House of Representatives has changed, this bill needs to be brought to the floor of Congress for a vote. We should not go another day without protecting the animals from cruelty, bestiality, and torture.
Why is this law important?
This law will allow the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies to crack down on malicious cruelty and the sexual exploitation of innocent animals. The legislation will build on the federal “animal crush” video law that was enacted in 2010, which banned the creation, sale, and distribution of obscene videos that show animals being crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or subjected to other forms of heinous cruelty. The PACT Act will prohibit those same extreme acts of animal cruelty when they occur in interstate or foreign commerce, regardless of whether a video is produced. The PACT Act will also enable the federal government to prosecute malicious acts of animal cruelty on federal property such as military bases, federal prisons, airports, and national parks. Additionally, it will enable federal authorities to crack down on the practice of bestiality which often involves a subculture where animals are moved across state lines and where information is exchanged on websites that enable the exploitation to happen.
Who supports this bill?
This legislation is endorsed by more than 200 law enforcement agencies across the country.
This bill was previously passed in the Senate by an UNANIMOUS bipartisan vote.
This bill had 283 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and 36 Co-Sponsors in the Senate even prior to the swearing in of the current members of congress.
History
In December 2017 the Senate UNANIMOUSLY passed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, S. 654.  This bipartisan legislation protecting animals against cruelty and torture was led in the U.S. Senate by Senators Pat Toomey, R-Pa, Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and was joined by 34 cosponsponsors. Despite the overwhelming bipartisan support we still do not have this important federal law.
The bill was blocked by a single member of Congress despite the valiant efforts of Reps. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Ted Deutch, D-Fla. to help pass this bill (H.R. 1494). Reps.Lamar Smith and Ted Deutch previously secured an unbelievable 283 cosponsors and broad bipartisan support by ⅔ of Congress. Now, with the change of leadership in Congress, there is a new and fresh opportunity for congress to pass this important law with vast bipartisan support.
Why should we sign this now?
There is a new and fresh opportunity for congress to pass the overwhelmingly bipartisan Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act that was previously blocked by a single member of congress. The shift of power in congress has removed this one congressman as an obstacle. Now this bill has a real opportunity to pass if the public demands that Congress makes it a legislative priority, and brings it to a vote. Passage will bring the first federal animal cruelty bill that protects against bestiality, animal cruelty, and animal torture. Your signature will help demonstrate the public outcry to make this a legislative priority.  
The animals cannot speak for themselves. Please consider being the voice for the voiceless and sign the petition. Your support will speak volumes to lawmakers!
"Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have." ~ Margaret Mead
What can you do to help RIGHT NOW other than signing this petition?
1.  Share this Petition on social media.
2. Ask your friends, co-workers, and family to sign the petition and encourage them to consider asking others to sign the petition and share it on social media also.
3. Follow the progress of this petition on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Animal-Welfare-Center-372334840193521/

 More Precious Arctic Wildlife Habitat Threatened by “Energy Dominance”. Most Americans have heard of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, but many fewer are familiar with the Western Arctic. Much of the land in this northwestern reach of our country is covered by the 22 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, also known as the “Reserve.”
Contrary to the image evoked by its name, the Reserve is not a series of underground tanks filled with crude oil for use in a national emergency. It is rather the largest single tract of public land in the United States, home to an amazing array of Arctic wildlife, including imperiled species such as polar bears, spectacled and Steller’s eiders, and ringed and bearded seals. There are also two herds of caribou that use this habitat, hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, Pacific walrus, peregrine falcons, and much more.
Federal law requires the Bureau of Land Management to protect the incredible fish and wildlife resources of the Reserve while also implementing an oil and gas leasing program. The current management plan for the area, known as an Integrated Activity Plan (IAP), balances these dual goals by permitting oil and gas development on over 11 million acres — a little over half of the Reserve — while restricting development in many of the most important areas for wildlife.

 Foremost among these protected “Special Areas” is the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area in the northeastern portion of the Reserve. This region — one of the largest wetlands complexes in the circumpolar Arctic — provides habitat for a multitude of birds and wildlife, including up to 100,000 molting geese of several species, over half a million shorebirds, high densities of loons and eiders, denning polar bears, and tens of thousands of caribou in the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd. It is vital for wildlife and globally significant to biodiversity.
Unfortunately, the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area and the entire IAP are under threat from the Trump administration and its “energy dominance” mantra. Apparently believing that over 11 million acres of the Reserve is not enough for development, the administration has proposed amending the IAP to open even more areas to drilling — especially the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, which is close to existing oil and gas activity.

 Defenders opposes this effort to upset the current balance and sacrifice some of the most valuable fish and wildlife habitat in the region to even more oil and gas drilling. In Alaska, there is already a huge area of state lands in the central Arctic devoted to oil and gas production, and the Trump administration seeks to industrialize the Arctic Refuge, our nation’s largest and most iconic wildlife preserve refuge, for fossil fuel development as well. Enough is enough!
Less than 1% of Alaska’s Arctic coastal eco-region is statutorily protected. We need environmental safeguards in this area of the world, especially in light of our changing climate. The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the planet as a whole and sustaining Arctic wildlife populations will become increasingly challenging in the years ahead. Turning critical wildlife habitat into more oilfields won’t help.

Help us conserve polar bears, caribou, and other Arctic wildlife by opposing this effort to undo wildlife protections in the Reserve!
Polar Bears (c) Douglass Owen

SAVE POLAR BEARS AND WILDLIFE IN THE ARCTIC REFUGE!


The Trump administration has taken the next step to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by issuing a draft environmental impact statement. Next comes oil and gas leasing on the coastal plain of the refuge. We can’t abandon arctic wildlife for the sake of oil profits – stand up and voice your opposition to coastal plain drilling! Take action to save polar bears >>
Coyotes
Wyoming is a killing field for gray wolves, coyotes, cougars, birds and other animals.
The state contracts with Wildlife Services, using taxpayer dollars, to annihilate tens of thousands of wild creatures each year.
Wildlife is targeted and killed — often by helicopter snipers, cruel leghold traps, strangulation snares and poison — mostly to appease livestock operators.
This program has to be shut down. Please give today to our Stop Wildlife Services Fund.
More than 20,000 animals were killed by the state in 2017, and the extermination program is only ramping up. This senseless, bureaucracy-driven slaughter justifies itself based on an outdated plan two decades old.
So we've taken the program to court — to stop its rampant killing of wildlife and force the state to follow the science, which shows nonlethal methods are the best way to manage conflicts.
In 2017, in Wyoming alone, Wildlife Services killed more than 5,000 coyotes, 1,000 ravens, hundreds of foxes and 52 wolves. Even animals that aren't targeted by the reckless acts of Wildlife Services are killed, such as two family dogs that died near Casper after encountering deadly poisons.
The state should not be in the business of exterminating wildlife. It's tragic and it's wrong.
This suit is the latest in our long-running, hard-hitting legal campaign to stop the killing. We're driven by an uncompromising love of all wildlife, and we won't give up.
County by county, state by state, we'll do whatever it takes. It's a fight we can win, but we need you with us.
In Defense of Animals
Join Our Activist Appreciation Month Events! We're so excited to announce our amazing line-up of events for Activist Appreciation Month this February! To honor your activist efforts we've scheduled self-care webinars, activist spotlights, an Ode to Activists poem, and a collaborative international action to save the Amazon Rainforest. Read on to see what we've got in store for you. READ MORE
Keep Existing Wildlife Protections in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is home to imperiled wildlife like polar bears, ringed and bearded seals…secure.defenders.org
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Don Lichterman
Sunset Corporation of America (SCA)
Sustainable Action Network (SAN)