Animal Rights:By: Ashley Mcpherson

• Three important ways the U.S could enforce animal rights are forbidding fighting dogs, not using animal fur for clothing/products and eliminating hunting seasons.

• Dog fighting is a form of blood sport in which game dogs are made to fight, sometimes to the death. It is illegal in most developed countries. Dog fighting is used for entertainment and may also generate revenue from stud fees, admission fees and gambling.

• Even though we know dog fighting is wrong some people still do it unfortunately.

• Animal rights advocates say that there are about 30 dog fighting rings on the southern Virginia border. Michael Vick, the superstar professional quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, now an inmate was caught for dog fighting in April 2007 .

• In my state, Kentucky, we have different views on what is animal cruelty and what is not. “Kentucky is known to be a terrible place to be an animal”, says an unknown source. “The laws allow people in the state to still have cockfights.”

• “Animals are not ours to use for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other reason. By switching to a plant-base diet, human societies will be able to alleviate the needless suffering and deaths of countless animals, the irreparable damage done onto the earth like air and water pollution, the erosion of lands, waste of precious energy, and deforestation. Raising and eating meat leaves behind an environmental toll that generations to come will be forced to pay.” Says www.happycow.net.

• Today the majority of farmed animals are:

• confined to the point that they can barely move,

• denied veterinary care, • mutilated without painkillers, • and finally slaughtered (often while

fully conscious. )

• Some videos you can watch include: Egg Farm Turkey slaughter Pig Farm Kosher slaughter• These are the videos the government

doesn’t want you to see.• Visit the website for these videos and

more information at www.chooseveg.com

• Why would people harm animals just to get fur clothing or accessories? We may all ask this question but never get the right answer. In an article I read about how the killing of these animals for their fur works. Foxes, raccoons, minks, coyotes, bobcats, lynxes, opossums, nutria, beavers, muskrats, otters and many other fur-bearing animals are killed daily on fur farms by anal and vaginal electrocution and in the wild by drowning, trapping or beating. They do this to not damage their fur.

• “The encouragement of a proper hunting spirit, a proper love of sport, instead of being incompatible with a love of nature and wild things, offers the best guaranty for their preservation.”

- U.S. President and Nobel Prize winner Theodore Roosevelt

• Unlike 10,000 years ago, today the vast majority of hunters does not need to hunt in order to survive. Most hunters hunt just for fun. They will even bring their children on their hunting trips, teaching them a complete disrespect for life by needlessly killing innocent creatures.

• Hunters spend billions of dollars each years on guns, ammunition, travel and other expenses, making hunting a very profitable industry.

• Here are the numbers, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and other public sources:

• $746 million — Annual amount of money spent by hunters in the United States on licenses and public land access fees alone. Sportsmen’s licensing revenues account for more than half of all funding for state natural resource agencies

• $300 million — Additional monies contributed to wildlife conservation every year by the more than 10,000 private hunting-advocate organizations, like the National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

• $4.2 billion — Amount of money sportsmen have contributed to conservation through a 10% federal excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, and gear since the 1937 Pittman-Robertson Act established the tax. Millions of acres of public-use land has been purchased, preserved, and maintained with this money

• For a long time animals have been used as fur, leather and wool. They have to go through a very painful process . The animals that are a victim of cruelty are placed in wired uncleanly cages and go through all weather conditions and chemicals with no food or water. When the animals have been shipped and the truck is being unloaded the workers throw the cages, kick, stomp on and poke the animal. To kill the animals the people use suffocation, gas chambers and poison and then the animals are then shipped to the company to be skinned. This is a painful process for the animals and their are no pain killers involved in the process.

• "I don't understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol-lowering drugs for the rest of their lives."

-Dean Ornish, MD• "An estimated 85 percent of all U.S

agricultural land is used in the production of animal foods, which in turn is linked with deforestation, destruction of wildlife species, extinction of species, loss of soil productivity, mineral deletion and erosion, water pollution and depletion, overgrazing, and desertification."

Dr. Michael W. Fox, Agricide

• There are lots of reasons “For” hunting and a lot “Against” it. Here are some:

• FOR The injury rate for hunting is lower than that of some

other forms of physical recreation, such as football and bicycling.

Hunters argue that hunting is a tradition, a ritual or a bonding experience.

• AGAINST Lands managed for hunting are sometimes purchased

and maintained with tax dollars, even though 95% of Americans do not hunt.

Opponents also argue that hunting does not reduce the deer population because removing some individuals from the population results in more food per deer, which leads to the births of more twins and triplets.

• While driving across the country you will find several "cockfighting corridors," a strip of states stretching from Ohio to Alabama. In these states, the penalties for cockfighting are so little that cockfighting enthusiasts flock there.

• The dogs used are mostly pit bulls. They literally bite and rip the flesh off each other while the crowd cheer, scream, and place bets on which dog will win the match. After the fight, both dogs are wounded badly, usually with bleeding, ruptured lungs, broken bones, and other life threatening injuries. Generally, the loser of a match dies or is killed.

• Most people that believe in animal rights are vegan. Also, most vegans believe that it is a much healthier lifestyle then eating beef, pork and other meats.

• The ways you can prevent animal cruelty includes:

Banning any kind of animal fighting in every state.

Stop using animal fur for clothing or products

Eliminating hunting seasons. Stop animal testing. You can do all these things by starting a

protest with family and friends or even other people that are against animal cruelty.

• Fur, wool, silk and leather are the most popular clothing animals are killed and slaughtered for.

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