vegansaurus!

Little abused dog on death row just wanted to be loved  »

Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!

Here’s another bittersweet, heartstring-tugging video from Hope for Paws. It’s a few years old but it’s new to me. I could watch videos from this site all day. If I wanted to have puffy cry-y eyes at work! Really though this makes me so sad. I understand that a lot of dogs have to be euthanized, because what the hell do we want people to do with them? There’s just too many to take care of. But the idea that a dog like Chase could be euthanized after years of abuse, never knowing what it’s like to be loved or even treated nicely? Heartbreaking. It’s like, were they born just to be abused and die? And so many of the dogs in these videos are the kinds of dogs people pay thousands of dollars for, when dogs like Chase are waiting, scared and alone in shelters. So senseless.

Dashing and daring Animals Asia rescues two moon bear cubs from smugglers!  »

Wonderful news from Animals Asia: They’ve saved two moon bear cubs!

Two small moon bear cubs, confiscated from smugglers in North Vietnam, were rescued by our Vietnam team and successfully transported home to our Moon Bear Rescue Centre at Tam Dao National Park.

Negotiating flood-damaged roads extended the journey home to 12 hours, with stops every two hours to feed and check on the cubs.

Now happily ensconced in their very own den at the rescue centre’s Cub House, these lucky cubs may be just two of many being spirited across borders to feed the bile farm trade in China.

Get all the details at Animals Asia’s rescue diary. We’ll be here, swooning over the photos of these two fine gentleman.

If you want to support Animals Asia’s fight against the bear bile trade, check them out. They do wonderful work!

[Photos from Animals Asia]

A 655-pound sea turtle gets rescued! Looks cutish!  »

Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!

This poor, giant turtle got stranded in Massachusetts, but luckily Mass. Audubon and IFAW were there to help. You can watch him (her?) being rescued above.

There’s something endearing about this giant leatherback turtle. It’s not just that they are endangered and all these people are helping to rescue this one, it’s something in his funny face. Do you see it? Maybe he just reminds me of a giant Cecil Turtle:

Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!

New favorite site: I Heart My Rescue  »

I ❤ My Rescue is a new site from Brooklyn Animal Action that is all about rescued pets. Here’s one such pet above! This little girl is Hypatia and she was rescued from a dumpster at six weeks old. As you can see, she’s doing great. 

Here’s a description of the site’s mission:

I Heart My Rescue is dedicated to rescued animals and the people who love them. Submit the story and photo of your rescued pal and we’ll post it. Our mission is to spread the word about the many joys rescue animals bring, encouraging folks to adopt a rescue and support their local animal rescue organization.

We’re a project of the all-volunteer organization Brooklyn Animal Action. We are very grateful for your submissions and your support.

If there’s one thing I love, it’s rescued pets! With all the doom and gloom we see, it’s nice to know there are some happy endings out there. Who’s going to submit?!

via Pawesome

Easy activism: Go shopping to help the thousands of chickens rescued from Cali egg farm!  »

Here’s a simply amazing video documenting the rescue. Incredible. Watch it and then I defy you not to donate. The song is perfect too. Excellent work! PS: Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com

The 4,460 hens rescued from the 50,000 hens left to starve in Stanislaus County—the Turlock Hen Rescue—still need our help. What can you do? Go shopping! Food Fight Grocery and some other fine retailers are going to be donating a portion of their sales on these specific days:

• Food Fight will be donating 10% of all online sales (and in-store for those in Portland) on Saturday, March 3.
• Herbivore Clothing will be donating 10% of all their online sales (and in-store) March 3rd and 4th (someone said they’d be donating sales now as well but I can’t confirm)
• Purrfect Pinapples will be donating 20% of this weekend’s sales too. Cruelty-free lingerie! Handmade! Wow!
• Blue Strawberry Scents will donate 10% of their sales for the next week. Buy you some cool soap!
• And I just saw on the event page that for the next month (to March 24th) Veganville on Etsy will donate 15% of all online sales to Animal Place. 

Check out the event page for more info and updates. Food Fight adds this note:

If you were planning to place an order, please do it on Saturday, and if you don’t need anything, maybe go here and donate directly.
If you can’t spend any money right now, then please spread the word about these fundraisers and about the rescue.

And don’t forget to sign the petition started by Harvest Home to bring the man responsible for this catastrophe to justice. 

Update!: Never Felt Better Vegan Shop in Sacramento is having a bakesale on Saturday from 1pm to 4pm for Harvest Home!

Update on the 50,000 chickens left to starve, many rescued need your help!  »

One of the rescued hens. You can see more pictures of the rescue on Flickr.

We got an update from Marji at Animal Place:

We actually took out 4,610 hens total - more than 3,000 are currently at our Rescue Ranch facility. The hens were released into Animal Place and Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary custody. They are slowly recovering…we could really use help w/ this rescue. This is the largest and most expensive rescue we have ever undertaken.

Please donate if you can! So sad! They need our help!

NYC: Bill A 5449 vote is TODAY  »

Sorry I didn’t get this out earlier! I don’t know what time it’s happening, but here’s the info from Best Friends:

The New York State Assembly Agriculture Committee will be voting on Bill A 5449 on Wednesday, Feb 15. Last year,Best Friends expressed our concerns about this bill, and presented recommended changes to Assemblywoman Paulin that would address serious problems in this legislation. These suggestions were not incorporated into the current version of A 5449. We have resubmitted these recommended changes and need your help to insure that they are included. Without the suggested changes, A 5449 would:

• Allow for the euthanizing of a frightened or panicked animal on the basis of “psychological pain,” which is too vague and subjective to be meaningful criteria for euthanasia.
• Allow animals to be euthanized for unspecified and undiagnosed “deadly and contagious” diseases.
• Not clearly define the requirements for a rescue organization to be maintained on a shelter’s registry of approved rescue organizations, which opens the door for arbitrary requirements subject to change without notice.
• Allow shelters to remove rescues from their registry of approved groups if a group is publicly critical of the shelter or staff, regardless of the merit of such criticism.
• Remove all protection for an animal that is surrendered to a shelter with an owner request that the animal be euthanized even if the animal is healthy and could be placed in a new adoptive home or with a rescue group.
• Not require shelters to include rescue organizations located in adjoining counties in New York state on the shelter’s registry of qualified rescue organizations.

The recommended changes offered by Best Friends to Assemblywoman Paulin would close the holes in the safety net that this bill should be providing. Please urge Committee Chair Magee and fellow members of the Assembly Agriculture Committee to vote NO on Bill A 5449 unless these changes are all incorporated. The welfare of shelter animals in New York depends on your action.

That sounds pretty out of control. My timid Figaro would have definitely not made it to me with those rules in place. You can go to this link to enter your ZIP code and find out who to contact.