2010 • 2009 • 2008 • 2007 • 2006
12/21/10, VICTORY! — U.S. Lawmakers Pass Shark Finning Ban As Lame-Duck Session Ends Last March, the
Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 81) was quickly approved in the U.S. House of Representatives. Nearly a year later, the
Senate has unanimously passed a similar measure to plug loopholes that allow shark finning in Pacific waters off the West Coast. On the same day, lawmakers scored a bipartisan victory for shark conservation by pushing a final version through the House.
A universal ban on amputation of shark fins — an ingredient for shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy — now heads to President Obama's desk!
Kinship Circle supporters asked their federal legislators to crack down on shark finning, a brutal practice in which fishermen sever dorsal fins and dump mutilated sharks into the sea to bleed to death. Our persistence paid off...and legislators did the right thing! The new law mandates that all boats land sharks with fins intact and it forbids nonfishing vessels to transfer detached fins. While shark finning was already illegal in Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters, loopholes let Pacific fishermen catch “1.2 million pounds of shark” in 2009, according to NOAA. Finning has imperiled populations, with just 3,500 Great Whites free in the wild. It has also triggered the deterioration of ocean ecosystems...Thanks to all who participated in this action campaign!
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12/18/10 VICTORY! — Law Enacted Requiring Fur Labels To Show Animals Used, Country Of Origin
After years of advocating for labels that identify origin on fur, U.S. lawmakers heard us...and consented to H.R. 2480/Truth in Fur Labeling Act of 2010. With President Obama’s signature, this measure became Public Law No: 111-313 on 12/18/10.
Prior law didn’t require retailers to distinguish between faux or real fur, or name the species and country of origin, on products sold for $150 or less (such as most fur-trimmed clothing). In 2007, the issue gained mainstream attention when Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) unveiled hidden dog and cat hides in “fake fur” products from China — the world’s leading supplier of finished fur garments exporting over half of all furs sold in the U.S. Every year millions of dogs and cats face death at the hands of the Asian fur and skin trade. Since the U.S. enacted a dog/cat fur ban in 2000, European markets have seen a rise in items deceptively labeled Gae-wolf, Sobaki, Asian Jackal, Wildcat, Goyangi and Katzenfelle. These goods easily found their way back into the U.S., where unwitting consumers bought them.
ALL fur begins with the violent torture and death of fur-bearing animals. As far back as the 1950s, furs marketed in the U.S. had to display species and country — but with a gaping exclusion for garments under $150. The Truth in Fur Labeling law mandates that fur items at any price level show species and country of origin. Now, no consumer can claim they didn't know who originally owned their “fur.”
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12/9/10, VICTORY! — Crush Videos Are Illegal Animal Abuse, Not Free Speech
Thanks to the perseverance of Kinship Circle members and animal advocacy groups nationwide
(most notably, HSUS) H.R. 5566 — the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010 — is now law. The victory snubs a 4/20/10 Supreme Court ruling that protected crush fetish videos as free speech. The U.S. vs. Stevens edict focused on “depiction” rather than animal abuse. Crush videos typically portray high-heeled feet stomping rabbits, puppies, kittens, mice and other small animals to death. The new law directly bars production, sale and circulation of torture videos that depict animals crushed, drowned, suffocated, stabbed or burned.
- 12/9/10: H.R. 5566 becomes law with President Obama's signature!
- 11/19/10: U.S. Senate unanimously agrees to House version H.R. 5566, passed 11/15/10. The Crush Videos Act now has full Congressional approval.
- 7/21/10: U.S. House of Representatives passes H.R. 5566, Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010.
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12/8/10, VICTORY! — NASA Nixes Cruel Radiation Experiments On Monkeys
With little fanfare, NASA cancelled irradiation tests that would have repeatedly blasted restrained monkeys with gamma rays comparable to three years in space! For over a year, NASA Nukes Monkeys. Stop Them. made Kinship Circle's
TOP 10 ALERTS list. Thousands of activists emailed, faxed, called and wrote to NASA Headquarters, Public
Communications Office, and Office of Inspector General — demanding that the space giant return to animal-free technology rather than subject squirrel monkeys to high-energy gamma-ray radiation. Abusing monkeys to assess human response to long-term space voyage was a giant leap backward. In
fact, NASA had not experimented upon animals in decades, since chimpanzees were sent into space.
Thanks to your diligence, along with campaigns
from other organizations — most notably PETA, which enlisted Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Barker, Alicia Silverstone, U.S. Congress members, and a former NASA astronaut/engineer — our voices were heard. Dozens of animals are saved from brutal and unnecessary tests that would have induced brain damage, cataracts, malignant tumors, motor control loss and premature death... Animal advocacy is grueling. Years pass as we plead for humane reforms. When VICTORIES occur, you know why we do it.
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11/3/10, VICTORY! — Missouri Makes Puppy Mill Cruelty A Crime
Kinship Circle founder Brenda Shoss is from St. Louis, Missouri, a state that has long flaunted an ugly nickname: PUPPY MILL CAPITAL OF THE U.S. In fact some 3,000 puppy factories are hidden in a rural stretch between St. Louis and Kansas City. Home to 30 percent of all mills nationwide, Missouri mass breeders annually earn millions.
It will be harder to profit from abused dogs since Proposition B, the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act, passed in November. Violations are a misdemeanor “puppy mill cruelty” crime. Breeders and agriculture want to overturn the law, which dictates that breeders must limit reproductive cycles and offer adequate food, water, shelter, space, vet care, and exercise. It restricts producers to 50 breeding dogs.
Brenda's three dogs (photo above) — Mandy, a Lhasa Apso (6), Ethel, another Lhasa (4 months), and Liberty, a beagle (4 months) — were born in Missouri mills. When Mandy came home, her back legs caved in. An x-ray revealed her head of femur bone missing in one leg and rotting in the other. “Cage trauma.” It’s when rough hands fling fragile pups from cage to crowded cage. Libby is so timid, she won’t bark, and she's a beagle! Ethel is a warrior Lhasa, seven pounds of fearless confidence. All three campaigned with Brenda at election-day polls.
Breeders with over 50 dogs have until Nov. 2011 to decrease their “inventory.” Some 200 MO rescue groups have volunteered to take in surplus breeding dogs. Mandy, Ethel and Liberty were slated to be killed at puppy mills. Their second chance came from FLAWDOGS ADOPTION, a rescue devoted to “puppy mill leftovers” about 45 minutes southwest of St. Louis. There are no stacked cages at Flawdogs. It’s a canine Shangri-La where dogs frolic in pools, hammocks and playhouses. A far cry from such cruel beginnings.
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NOVEMBER 2010, VICTORY! — All Canadian Trauma Training Labs Are Now Animal-Free
In its campaigns, presentations, and literature Kinship Circle stresses animal-free technology as a replacement for animal experimentation. We continually urge academic institutions and government to utilize, validate, and/or fund human-oriented tools such as in-vitro studies or advanced anatomy simulators — all more relevant to human health. So we welcome outstanding news from Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine (PCRM) that every Canadian medical school has now upgraded to nonanimal applications such as TraumaMan System simulators. The last to leave animals behind, the Memorial University of Newfoundland terminated its controversial live pig labs. PCRM cardiologist John Pippin (also in Kinship Circle) says “Canada has completely ended live animal labs, which should send a clear signal to the handful of U.S. medical schools still clinging to these inhumane and educationally inferior procedures. It's time for the remaining seven to end animal use and embrace the future of medical education.” We couldn't agree more!
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OCTOBER 2010, VICTORY! — Fashion Giant Escada Sheds Real Fur From Its 2011 Collection
Kinship Circle, along with animal advocacy organizations worldwide, pressured Escada to sell cruelty-free couture instead of furs rooted in violence and death. Frank Elsner, Escada press rep, says: “Starting with the Spring-Summer 2011 collection (in stores January 2011), Escada stops using fur, including rabbit and Karakul (Persian lamb). This decision is valid for an unlimited period.” Our members persistently asked Escada to clear its shelves of animals killed by genital electrocution, cervical dislocation (neck popping), lethal injection of pesticides or other junk chemicals, asphyxiation from unfiltered carbon monoxide, and steel jaw leghold traps.
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OCTOBER 2010, VICTORY! — Memo To Bioculture Primate Sellers: Get Outta Our City!
Kinship Circle advocates, along with voices worldwide, fought to keep Bioculture — a supplier of primates for research — out of Guayama, Puerto Rico. Our members repeatedly asked officials to halt construction of a Bioculture compound in Guayama city. Letters, emails, faxes and phone calls stressed that old-fashioned animal research does not serve human health. Primate experiments have failed to yield tangible data for AIDS, Alzheimer's, stroke, cancer, and other diseases. Companies like Bioculture persevere for profit, not medical progress.
A lower court initially ruled to terminate the monkey-breeding project. Then an Appeals Court let Bioculture build. Amid allegations of improper applications and permits, Bioculture made plans to seize 4,000 long-tailed macaques from the wild to cage, breed, and sell for invasive research. Guayama Mayor Glorimari Jaime Rodriguez has now thwarted those plans, declaring that Bioculture's business is not welcome or legal in their city. The municipality unanimously approved two ordinances to bar the import, export, breeding and use of monkeys in experiments.
As Bioculture searches to set-up shop elsewhere in Puerto Rico, a Senate Resolution from U.S. Sen. Melinda Romero Donnelly is underway that encourages U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Agriculture to refuse Bioculture permits or licenses for the import or breeding of any animals.
- OCT 2010: The city of Guayama, Puerto Rico votes to bar import/export, breeding and use of monkeys in research. Bioculture monkey-breeders are basically told: “Don't let the door hit ya as you leave our city.”
- 2/9/10: An Appeals Court rules to let Bioculture construction proceed, until the court orders otherwise.
- 12/30/09: A Superior Court judge rules to terminate construction of Bioculture’s primate compound.
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9/18/10 VICTORY! — North Carolina Lab Forced To Close, Abusers Should Be Charged
Nearly 200 dogs and 54 cats are safe. Previously tortured by lab staff who kicked, slammed and dragged them — animals from Professional Laboratory and Research Services, Inc. get a second chance. The Corapeake, NC lab was forced to close and surrender its “test subjects” after a PETA investigation uncovered diseased and wounded dogs, cats and rabbits. Over 9 months, PETA’s investigator recorded staff brutalizing terrified animals. One worker used pliers to wrench teeth from a frantic dog. Another tried to pull out a cat's claws.
PLRS closure is a portal to the routine abuse that occurs in ALL labs. Animal experimentation itself causes creatures to convulse, bleed, stagger, die. Imagine being overdosed with poison or cut apart while restrained. There isn’t one animal experiment today that couldn’t be replaced by non-animal research tools. But animals come cheap and old habits die hard. Still, for PLRS animals, there is hope. Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) — plus about 12 regional shelters/rescues — have taken in the lab’s surviving dogs and cats. Kinship Circle does not know the rabbits' fate, but assumes they were killed. PLRS destroyed all rabbits upon conclusion of experiments.
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AUGUST 2010, SUMMARY — WI And TN Universities Are Latest To Drop Live Animal Labs
Kinship Circle does ongoing campaigns to medical schools that still use animals instead of human-oriented research models. We are happy to add the University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health and the University of Tennessee (UT) College Of Medicine in Memphis to an ever growing list of schools that train future doctors without cutting apart animals. Kinship Circle members asked both schools to replace live animal labs with more applicable human-focused technologies — noting that animal experiments deflect focus and funding from training pertinent to human conditions. Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine (PCRM) reports that first-year physiology students at UW will no longer practice on pigs who are bled out and killed. UT students will train with simulators rather than pigs in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) courses.
ATLS programs benefit from human-patient simulators such as TraumaMan System, along with human cadavers and real-life hospital rotations. Anatomical simulators cut costs and improve proficiency. They allow for more in-depth feedback and assessment of student performance, while reducing dropout rates. Dr. Emad Aboud — co-inventor of a system that pumps specially dyed water into a human cadaver's vessels and arteries — says animal-free models are cheaper and more accurate. “This is the perfect alternative to the use of live animals in surgical training,” claims Aboud, a neurosurgeon fellow at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
As 2010 concludes, over 95 percent of facilities with ATLS programs use TraumaMan and other human-centered teaching tools in place of dogs, goats, or pigs. ATLS courses prep trainees to handle acute trauma injuries. Prior to 2001 — when the American College of Surgeons (ACS) officially endorsed Simulab's TraumaMan — nearly all lab exercises involved live animals. Students used animals for: cricothyroidotomy (neck incision to alleviate blocked airway); pericardiocentesis (fluid removal from sac that encases heart); and chest tube insertion (drainage of blood, fluid or air to facilitate lung expansion). SOURCE: Background On ATLS
In recent years many medical schools have dropped animal labs: University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Allegheny General Hospital, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Tennessee (UT) College Of Medicine in Memphis, University of Tennessee, New York Medical College, St. Louis University, Washington University Medical School, University of Rochester, and University of Illinois...and more.
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SOURCE: Gray wolves regain federal protections under Endangered Species Act
8/5/10, SUMMARY: The Bush administration delisted them. Obama's admin
sanctioned their delisting. But your persistence helped return gray wolves
to Endangered Species Act protection. A federal judge reversed a U.S. Fish
and Wildlife mandate to delete Northern Rockies wolves from the endangered
species list. The slaughter of Greater Yellowstone wolves will not
recommence in Sept. For Montana and Idaho hunters — who killed thousands of wolves last year — open season is over.
Kinship Circle supporters protested killing the wolves that Americans had salvaged from near extinction. Thousands of letters, calls, faxes and emails to President Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and state-federal officials demanded that hunters stop the largest wolf bloodbath since the 1930s. For over a year our gray wolves campaign stayed on Kinship Circle's Top 10 Alerts lists. We are happy to remove it, for now — as the current court ruling backs science, not politics, with its reinstatement of gray wolves as a protected species.
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SOURCE: European Vegetarian and Animal News Alliance (EVANA)
JULY 2010, SUMMARY: Spain's northeastern Catalonia region is now the nation's first mainland region to ban bullfighting. Catalonian nationalist Jose Rull said: There are some traditions that can't remain frozen in time as society changes. We don't have to ban everything, but the most degrading things should be banned. A 68 to 55 vote sealed the ban, amid cheers in the 135-seat legislature.
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SOURCE: Stunning Victory For Whales
6/23/10, SUMMARY: This year's bid to legalize commercial whaling is a no-go. Thanks to Kinship Circle supporters who spoke out against whaling now...and many times over the years. Your comments to the International Whaling Commission help solidify wins like this one. Japan, Norway and Iceland are still hunting whales under the guise of “research.” However, if commercialized whaling (what whalers do now, illegally) had been legalized — they could have won rights to openly slaughter whales.
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SOURCE: Maine Egg Producer Pleads Guilty to 10 Counts of Animal Cruelty,
Mercy for Animals
JUNE 2010, SUMMARY: Kinship Circle supported a Mercy For Animals
undercover investigation inside Quality Egg of New England, a Maine factory
farm. Thanks to all who sent comments in this breakthrough case. In a rare
outcome for farmed animals, Quality Egg pled guilty to 10 animal cruelty
counts and acquiesced to $130,000 in fines and restitution. The largest egg
maker in the U.S. also granted the state authority to make unannounced
inspections for the next five years.
Egg-laying hens endure particularly cruel conditions. Producers typically
pack 6-9 hens inside wire coops no larger than a filing drawer. Each bird
occupies a space half the size of a sheet of paper and cannot flutter a wing
or extend a leg. To curtail fighting and cannibalism, workers amputate the
bottom third of each bird's beak. Each year, millions of male chicks are
crushed alive in automated mashers. Spread as fertilizer, some mutilated
chicks still peep and cry once spread over the ground.
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SOURCE: 2010 Missouri legislature bills list
5/14/10, SUMMARY: Missouri Rep. Jim Viebrock wanted to kill horses. So he proposed House Bill 1747 to sidestep a federal ban on U.S. horse slaughter. Kinship Circle issued a 3/21/10 letter campaign urging House Reps to reject legalization of horse kill plants in Missouri. From there, it got weird… Some Reps harassed Kinship Circle with menacing late night calls — neighing like a horse, chanting KC president Brenda Shoss’ name over and over, screaming incoherently, and singing “A Horse Is A Horse” (theme song from the movie Mr. Ed). Ms. Shoss filed a police report. The House seemingly passed its bill as revenge against animal advocates. Then, Rep Viebrock covertly attached horse slaughter provisions to unrelated Senate Bill 795.
But in the end YOUR VOICE — along with support from rational Missouri legislators — proved stronger than the pro-slaughter extremists. Against a backdrop of strong public protest from around the world, the Missouri Congressional session closed with language to legalize horse slaughter rejected. Thanks to all who wrote, faxed, emailed, called and mailed on behalf of horses!
Weird Odyssey: How Missouri Tried & Failed to Revive U.S. Horse Slaughter
5/15/10 - MISSOURI SESSION ENDS WITH HORSE SLAUGHTER A DEAD ISSUE SB795 AGRICULTURE: Increases some regulations relating to agriculture, including rules concerning large carnivores, but does not create mechanism to allow horse slaughter plants in Missouri.
5/11/10 - S.B. 795 STUCK IN COMMITTEE: S.B. 795 lags in conference committee. Missouri’s Senate can’t agree on the House Committee Substitute that passed the House with amendments — including horse slaughter provisions.
5/7/10 - HORSE SLAUGHTER PROVISIONS STILL HIDDEN IN S.B. 795: Original horse kill bill 1747 — that was covertly attached to S.B. 795 (an unrelated bill) — is NOT REMOVED from S.B. 795, as formerly believed.
5/2/10 - SOME REPS RENEW HARASSMENT OF KINSHIP CIRCLE: MO Reps debate the House Committee Substitute version of S.B. 795. Animal Law Coalition and R.A.G.E. ask their members to send comments opposing horse slaughter language in S.B. 795. Some Reps bounce hundreds of unread emails (from members of these other groups) to Kinship Circle's computer — from May 1 to the present! |
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4/30/10 - IT DOESN'T GET MUCH SLEAZIER THAN THIS: Chair of the MO Senate Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources Committee, Sen. Dan Clemens, states "there will be no further legislative progress on H.B. 1747." But Rep James Viebrock attaches provisions to legalize horse slaughter to an unrelated bill. S.B. 795, with horse slaughter attached, passes the House Agriculture Committee.
4/6/10: HARASSMENT OF KINSHIP CIRCLE MAKES FRONT-PAGE NEWS: St. Louis Post Dispatch runs a front page story about Missouri House Representatives tampering with public information and harassing Kinship Circle: State Legislators Target Activist. Post also runs an editorial against killing horses and hounding activists, Squirrelly about animals in the Frog Kingdom. An Associated Press version runs in Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, Guardian UK, Yahoo News, and more papers nationwide.
CONTRIBUTING SOURCE FOR TIMELINE:
Animal Law Coalition, Laura Allen |
ACTION CAMPAIGNS & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS:
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| • 3/12/10 – 5/15/10: Show Me Missouri, Show Me Horse Slaughter? |
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• This is horse slaughter. Join Kinship Circle in opposing it. |
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SOURCE: Coalition to Protect and Rescue Pets • Three Barks for Logan's Law!
4/22/10, SUMMARY: “Dear Kinship Circle — On April 22, 2010 Gov. Deval Patrick signed Logan's Law, making Massachusetts the first state in the nation with an effective law banning the cruel practice of canine and feline devocalization — cutting vocal cords to suppress the voice.
Coalition to Protect and Rescue Pets couldn't have done it without Kinship Circle. The Coalition is an all-volunteer, unfunded advocacy network with statewide reach; but passing legislation against opposition from the AKC and state veterinary association required far greater numbers. The powerhouse animal welfare organizations in Massachusetts refused to help. Luckily for animals, Kinship Circle stepped up. You rallied your Massachusetts members at every stage of the 15-month legislative process. Whenever you were asked to put the word out, you unhesitatingly did.
Animal lovers in Massachusetts are very grateful to Kinship Circle for embracing this principle, and for working with the Coalition to put landmark humane legislation on the books. Thank you, Brenda and Kinship Circle.”
Sincerely,
Sandra Finder, Coalition to Protect and Rescue Pets
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