During the 2018 Iditarod, a total of 350 dogs were pulled off the trail, likely because of exhaustion, illness, or injury. One of those dogs, Blonde, later died from aspiration pneumonia—probably as a result of inhaling his own vomit. More than 150 dogs have died in the race’s history—not counting those who were killed because they lacked the speed and stamina to make the cut.

But a handful of companies are still sponsoring this death race, including Chrysler, Donlin Gold and its parent companies—Barrick Gold Corporation and NOVAGOLD Resources, Inc.— GCI, and Matson.

After the 2017 race, a whistleblower came forward with disturbing photographs and video footage that reveal apparently dying puppies and injured, sick dogs at a kennel reportedly owned by Dallas Seavey, the four-time Iditarod champion who was implicated in a dog-doping scandal last year. According to the whistleblower, operators at the Willow, Alaska, kennel allowed severely injured and ailing dogs to suffer—sometimes fatally—without veterinary care.

Dogs in the Iditarod are forced to run nearly 1,000 miles—roughly the distance from Orlando, Florida, to New York City—in under two weeks. On average, they must run 100 miles a day, with only a few brief periods of rest.

They’re subjected to biting winds, blinding snowstorms, and subzero temperatures. Their feet become bruised, bloodied, cut by ice, and just plain worn out because of the vast distances that they cover. Many pull muscles, incur stress fractures, or are afflicted with diarrhea, dehydration, intestinal viruses, or pneumonia.

Up to half the dogs who start the race don’t finish.

This follows a veteran musher’s revelation that she believes that some trainers—including those at Seavey’s kennels—have killed “hundreds on top of hundreds or more dogs” because they were deemed slow or otherwise unfit for races. She wrote, “Sadly, this has been going on in the family ‘dynasty’ for decades.

“These reasons why the Iditarod Race should be terminated will leave you outraged:

1. Dog deaths at the Iditarod are so routine that the official rules blithely state that some “may be considered unpreventable.”

The Iditarod has killed more than 150 dogs since it began in 1973. Five died in 2017 alone.

2. If the dogs don’t die on the trail, they’re still left permanently scarred.

3. There’s no retirement plan.

4. Dogs pull mushers’ sleds up to 100 miles a day.

5. As many as half the dogs who start the Iditarod don’t finish.

6. No dog would choose to run in this arctic nightmare.

7. Thousands of dogs are bred each year for sled racing.

This is how sled dogs were warehoused for 40+ years in the mountains of Colorado

8. Dogs at sled-dog breeding compounds have died of numerous ailments.

Dog residing at a kennel run by 2017 Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey.

Some have frozen to death, while others have died of complications from eating rocks—presumably a result of the intense frustration of spending years on a chain.

Dogs deserve far better than a lifetime of isolation, cruelty, suffering, and death on the Iditarod Trail. Dogs should never be interchangeable sports accessories. They belong in the warm, as members of a family. We demand that this dangerous and deadly race be finally abolished.

Please urge the Iditarod Trail Committee and the mayors of Anchorage and Nome—the start and finish points—to celebrate Alaskan huskies and protect them from suffering and death by replacing them with willing human cyclists, cross-country skiers, or snowmobilers.

Report with petition, please sign: https://headlines.peta.org/iditarod-race-will-leave-you-outraged/#takeaction

 

My comment: The dog sled drivers – the so-called mushers – come from the USA, Canada and Norway. Many also from Germany.
Because they probably lead a totally boring life behind an office all year round, these sled cowboys want to experience adventure at the animals’ expense.
Torture, squeezing and suffering is the solution for bored non-users and a common human specialty.
But our protests (and most of all those from PETA) have spilled on some sponsors in recent years, most recently the heavyweight financier Wells Fargo – the money is running out for the Alaska Cowboys.

After discussions with PETA USA, numerous sponsors, including Nestlé, Panasonic and Pizza Hut, have stopped sponsoring the “Iditarod”. To stop further economic support, PETA is calling on all animal lovers to participate in the online protest.

Hopefully! We are doing everything to put an end to this cruel fun for money-hungry psychopaths.

My best regards to all, Venus

 

 

Snakes are the most hunted animals in private life.
Most people are afraid of snakes, most of us fight against them because we automatically feel threatened by them.

Since childhood, we’ve learned to compare sneakiness and malice with the behavior of a snake: “poisonous as a snake” or “he acts evil like a snake …”

I had a snake in my garden, she came every night and got leftovers from the cat food. I could hear she before I saw she and we were friends even though I did not even know if the animal was a she or a he …
That was not important, the friendship was important.
She explored the whole world with her tongue, often she touched from time to time my hand with it, and I knew that was a love sign.

One night she did not come anymore. And since then I have not seen her.

I can only guess that she was killed by someone who learned at school or at home that snakes are evil and devious.

The beautiful video is a little help against prejudice.

My best regards, Venus

 

 

The federal army carries out so-called “live tissue training“ every year – yes! read correctly! these are training sessions on live animals, in the case of the federal army on pigs. In these surgical courses, also called trauma training, operations of war wounds are practiced – for example, injuries with severe bleeding.

Although nearly 80% of NATO member states use non-veterinary training methods in the medical training of their military, the German Federal Armed Forces continue to stick to so-called live tissue trainings with pigs.

In order to simulate war wounds, live pigs should be subjected to severe puncture and cut injuries under severe anesthesia.
Soldiers and paramedics should then train the wound care on the defenseless animals.  The pigs are cut open and mutilated, in the end they let them die.

Help us convince Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen not to abuse animals in military training anymore!

Here the text of the online petition

Please refrain from using animals in the training courses of the Federal Armed Forces

Dear Ms Federal Minister von der Leyen,

The Federal Armed Forces continues to use live pigs in the medical training of surgeons as part of so-called live tissue training.

Pigs are highly intelligent, very social creatures who, like us, feel anxiety and pain. We consider it ethically unacceptable to wantonly inflict injuries on pigs and abuse them as living practice objects.

Nearly 80% of NATO member states do not rely on animals in their military medical training. We ask you once again to reconsider and stop the mutilation of pigs. Many medical interventions can now be practiced on simulators of human patients who correctly and lifelike readjust the anatomical situation.
Non-animal methods are not only didactically superior but also more economical.

Please show compassion for all living things and decide for the end of these cruel exercises!
Regards…

( please sign all: https://www.peta.de/bundeswehr-op-kurse-petition)

https://www.peta.de/bundeswehr-op-kurse-petition

 

My comment: In 2013, this message came to the media:: “In accordance with the German Animal Welfare Act, the Federal Armed Forces relies on advanced, animal-free testing methods,” says an official confirmation by Captain Waldemar Boczek.
“During training projects, the soldiers are trained on very good models and the physicians do not need animal experiments.

 The German animal protection law requires the use of animal-free teaching methods, if they are available. In addition to Germany, 21 other NATO countries work exclusively with simulation exercises”.

Now, in 2019, we read that the training methods on pigs continue to be performed in the federal army!
If we did not have the investigative work of some organizations, we would continue to sleep with a quiet head that the federal army not only with France new killing systems developed, but also performs an innovative animal experiment-free trauma training!

My best regards to all, Venus

 

 

 

Foto: Magnus Neuhaus

 

“Krefeld: Farewell to a monkey personality: Gorilla female Tumba has surprisingly died at the age of 45 years. Their deaths are particularly hard on the housemates in their seniors’ monkey flat in the Krefeld Zoo”.
With this outrageous message the german media announce the death of Tumba to the public.

And it goes on…
“At the age of 45, Tumba was one of the old gorillas in Krefeld Zoo. In 1975 she moved into the monkey house and lived there together with silverback Massa (48) and another gorilla lady: Boma (46). The three were in the 1980s / 1990s, a successful breeding group: Tumba and Massa were 1985 and 1995 offspring. Daughter Kira now lives in the Moscow Zoo and already has children herself”.

The strategy of distraction is to divert public attention from important issues. One way is to flood a message with trivial details. That requires sentimentality.
The goal is to distract people from concentrating on the essentials and to direct their thoughts and feelings to the unimportant. So they should not wonder if Tumba was illegally snatched from her mother as a baby and illegally dragged from her home in Africa to the Krefeld Zoo “open air prison”, where she led a miserable life. They should not ask why the media does not talk about the miserable life of zoo animals and hide the real issues.

“And in the Facebook comments express several zoo visitors from their sympathy: “She always radiates a kind of superior boredom! just as if she was above things, “writes one user. Another reader adds, “Rest in peace, big girl, we wish you a good last trip. My granddaughter will miss you. “

“But especially mourn Massa and Boma for their mate, with whom they shared the enclosure for years. They could no longer say goodbye to her: Deceased members of the group are usually left in the enclosure for some time, so that all animals can convince themselves of their deaths.

In the tropical temperatures in the monkey house but that was not possible, reports the zoo.

 Everyone now hopes that he and Boma females will cope with the death of Tumba in the circumstances”.

The more the media wants to manipulate the public, the more they will talk to the public as if they were exclusively children. Then sugar sweet arguments, signs, and intonations are used, as if people were too weak or immature to handle the truth.

The goal is to produce a submissive, docile response, to prevent critical thinking.

The media knows that and therefore addresses the emotions of the public. So here they try to keep people from thinking of the core problem, namely: why Tumba and their conspecifics have lived in captivity for 45 years – almost her entire life. That with the misery and the slavery of these personalities a zoo merchant has felt his cash. And that anyone who visits the zoo to show his children what it means to have fun with animals is a stupid accomplice.

Now Tumba is gone.
The same prisons remain in Krefeld and all over the world, reminding us that the only animal on this planet that captures other animals for fun is the human species!

What the human species can never be ashamed of enough.

https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/krefeld/zoo/ueberraschender-tod-krefelder-zoo-trauert-um-gorilla-tumba_aid-38795961

My best regards to all, Venus