Tag Archives: United States

Megathrust Earthquake Strikes The North West Coast …

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filedesc The Cascadia Earthquake To replace an...

filedesc The Cascadia Earthquake To replace an inferior-quality jpeg version of this file in Cascadia_earthquake.jpeg Got from http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/wgmt/pacnw/pacnweq/casceq.html, a US government site. Automatically converted to PNG The PNG crusade bot automatically converted this image to the more efficient PNG format. The image was previously uploaded as “Cascadia earthquake.gif”. Previous file history 15:32:18, 28 April 2007 (UTC) . . Arg (Talk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Megathrust Earthquake Strikes The North American West Coast — When Will The Inevitable Happen?

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 10:44 PM PDT

When will the next megathrust earthquake strike the Pacific coast of North America? It’s an important question for those living in the region, and also more generally for the governments and economies of the United States and Canada, but it is a difficult one to answer. But now, new research may finally be helping to bring some clarity to this subject — the first truly comprehensive and well-dated record of earthquake history along the southern coast of British Colombia.

Image Credit: Dan Anthon, Royal Roads UniversityImage Credit: Dan Anthon, Royal Roads University

Such a record gives us a much more accurate understanding of the size and frequency of large earthquakes — especially megathrust earthquakes — along the Pacific coast of North America. The new work was done by utilizing a new high-resolution age model to identify and date the “disturbed sedimentary layers in a 40-meter marine sediment core raised from Effingham Inlet. The disturbances appear to have been caused by large and megathrust earthquakes that have occurred over the past 11,000 years.”

 

Dr Audrey Dallimore, Associate Professor at Royal Roads University, and a study co-author, explains: “Some BC coastal fjords preserve annually layered organic sediments going back all the way to deglacial times. In Effingham Inlet, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, these sediments reveal disturbances we interpret were caused by earthquakes. With our very detailed age model that includes 68 radiocarbon dates and the Mazama Ash deposit (a volcanic eruption that took place 6800 yrs ago); we have identified 22 earthquake shaking events over the last 11,000 years, giving an estimate of a recurrence interval for large and megathrust earthquakes of about 500 years. However, it appears that the time between major shaking events can stretch up to about a 1,000 years.”

“The last megathrust earthquake originating from the Cascadia subduction zone occurred in 1700 AD. Therefore, we are now in the risk zone of another earthquake. Even though it could be tomorrow or perhaps even centuries before it occurs, paleoseismic studies such as this one can help us understand the nature and frequency of rupture along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and help Canadian coastal communities to improve their hazard assessments and emergency preparedness plans.”

“This exceptionally well-dated paleoseismic study by Enkin et al., involved a multi-disciplinary team of Canadian university and federal government scientists, and a core from the 2002 international drill program Marges Ouest Nord Américaines (MONA) campaign,” says Dr. Olav Lian, an associate editor of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, professor at the University of the Fraser Valley and Director of the university’s Luminescence Dating Laboratory. “It gives us our first glimpse back in geologic time, of the recurrence interval of large and megathrust earthquakes impacting the vulnerable BC outer coastline. It also supports paleoseismic data found in offshore marine sediment cores along the US portion of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, recently released in an important United States Geological Survey (USGS) paleoseismic study by a team of researchers led by Dr. Chris Goldfinger of Oregon State University.”

Additionally, the Effingham Inlet site has provided further information on the climate of the time period when these earthquakes occurred — providing data that is of great use in other fields.

As a side note — the Cascadia Earthquake of 1700 is well accounted for by oral traditions passed down by the American Indian tribes which lived in the area.

“They had practically no way or time to try to save themselves. I think it was at nighttime that the land shook. … I think a big wave smashed into the beach. The Pachena Bay people were lost. … But they who lived at ‘House-Up-Against-Hill’ the wave did not reach because they were on high ground. … Because of that they came out alive. They did not drift out to sea with the others.”

The new research was published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.

Megathrust Earthquake Strikes The North American West Coast — When Will The Inevitable Happen? was originally posted on: PlanetSave
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Russia plans urgent evacuation of arctic post as ice melts: RAWSTORY

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English: Arctic Ocean, submarine features Fran...

English: Arctic Ocean, submarine features Français : Bathymétrie de l’océan arctique (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/23/russia-plans-urgent-evacuation-of-arctic-post-as-ice-melts/

 

Russia has ordered the urgent evacuation of the 16-strong crew of a drifting Arctic research station after the ice floe that hosts the floating laboratory began to disintegrate, officials said Thursday.

Natural Resources and Ecology Minister Sergei Donskoi set a three-day deadline to draft a plan to evacuate the North Pole-40 floating research station.

“The destruction of the ice has put at risk the station’s further work and life of its staff,” the ministry said in a statement.

The station is currently home to 16 personnel including oceanologists, meteorologists, engineers and a doctor.

It conducts meteorological research, monitors environmental pollution and conducts a number of tests.

If the situation is not addressed, it may also result in the loss of equipment and contaminate the environment near Canada’s economic zone where the station is currently located, the ministry added.

The floating research laboratory will be relocated to Bolshevik Island in the Russian Arctic with the help of an ice-breaker.

“The ice floe has crumbled into six pieces,” said Arkady Soshnikov, spokesman for the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute.

“The people are not at risk but it is not possible to work in these conditions. The ice may disintegrate so a decision has been taken to evacuate” the station, he told AFP.

The station was located at 81 degrees North and 135 degrees West as of early morning Wednesday.

Scientists point to increasing signs of global warming in the Arctic, which is being significantly affected by climate change.

The UN weather agency said this month that the Arctic’s sea ice melted at a record pace in 2012, the ninth-hottest year on record.

Vladimir Sokolov, who oversees the floating station at the Saint Petersburg-based Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, said the ice was disintegrating due to climate change.

“This has made the Arctic research significantly harder — the ice has become thinner and the weather conditions more difficult,” he told AFP.

He said it was important to continue studying the Arctic.

“The Arctic Ocean, just like the Antarctic, is the ‘refrigerator’ of the Earth. It significantly affects the climate of our planet.”

“If this ‘refrigerator’ has a glitch and we do not know about it, it leads to mistakes in forecasts and affects the quality of decision-making on entire territories.”

Russia, which has always prided itself on its exploration of the energy-rich region, established the first floating station, the North Pole-1, in 1937.

Funding for floating stations dried up after the collapse of the Soviet Union but resumed under strongman Vladimir Putin who has said Russia intends to expand its presence in the Arctic.

The first floating Arctic station of post-Soviet Russia, the North Pole-32, was put together in 2003. The crew of that station had to be rescued when the ice floe beneath it broke up in 2004.

At a meeting with the crew of the rescued North Pole-32 station, President Putin stressed the importance of the Arctic research.

“For us, for such a northern country like Russia communications in the North are very important both economically and militarily,” Putin said in 2004.

Russia alarmed its Arctic neighbours, including Canada and Norway, when it planted a flag on the ocean floor under the North Pole in 2007 in a symbolic staking of its claim over the region.

The five Arctic nations that also include Denmark and the United States are locked in a tight race to gather evidence to support their claims amid reports that global warming could leave the region ice-free by 2030.

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MoJo Tom Philpott: Charts: How Big Pork Screws Small Towns

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Satellite image of farming in Minnesota.

Satellite image of farming in Minnesota. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Charts: How Big Pork Screws Small Towns

—By

| Mon Nov. 12, 2012 4:08 AM PST
                    please, watch my blog, too:  www.schweingehabt.wordpress.com/

I’ve argued often that the food system functions like an economic sieve, draining away wealth. Imagine, say, a suburb served by a handful of fast-food chains plus a supermarket or Walmart or two. Profits from residents’ food dollars go to distant shareholders; what’s left behind are essentially low-skill, low-wage clerical jobs and mountains of generally low-quality, health-ruining food.

But the food system’s secret scandal is that it’s economically extractive in farming communities areas, too—and especially in the places where industrial agriculture is most established and intensive. I first learned about this surprising fact from the Minnesota-based community economics expert Ken Meter, specifially this 2001 study on a farm-heavy region of Minnesota. And now Food and Water Watch, working with the University of Tennessee‘s Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, has come out with an excellent new report documenting the food industry’s effect on several ag-intense regions, with the main spotlight on the hog-centric counties of Iowa, the nation’s leading hog-producing state. …

Read more ….

“What passing bells for these who die as cattle” Nathan Schneider titled

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Cologne

Cologne (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Blog  A WOW-ARTICLE AS I THINK:

‘What passing bells for these who die as cattle’

WHEN HUMANS ACT LIKE DEVILS: YUCATAN, MEXICO: “TORNEO DE LAZO” WHERE BULLS RAM HORSES:PETITION

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Please sign and share this petition if you are against this
http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Horses_eviscerated_alive_for_fun/?fQLnCab&pv=2
he pain and suffering inflicted on the horses is immense. The fact that this is a "public event" witnessed by all, including children is very harmful to all. THIS EVENT TEACHES THAT VIOLENCE AND CRUELTY IS FUN.<br /> They call it a feast. In the state of Yucatan, Mexico there is a "rodeo" type event called "Torneo de Lazo" where bulls ram horses and eviscerate them. THIS CAUSES A VERY HIGH LEVEL OF PAIN TO THE HORSES. These horses usually collapse and while still alive continue to get trampled by bulls and other horses during the length of this violent and cruel event where<br /> horsemen try to lasso the running, charging bulls (the bulls are specifically bred and trained to ram horses).</p> <p>Although it is against the law, this is only in name. Mexico’s federal government as well as the local authorities do nothing to stop this. This event takes place state wide all year round.</p> <p>Please demand the Mexican government to put and end to this barbaric event.” src=”https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s480x480/936479_10200827836715614_1772029781_n.jpg” width=”398″ height=”288″ /></span></a></div> <div id=
he pain and suffering inflicted on the horses is immense. The fact that this is a “public event” witnessed by all, including children is very harmful to all. This EVENT TEACHES THAT VIOLENCE AND CRUELTY IS FUN. They call it a feast. In the state of Yucatan, Mexico there is a “rodeo” type event called “Torneo de Lazo” where bulls ram horses and eviscerate them. THIS CAUSES A VERY HIGH LEVEL OF PAIN TO THE HORSES. These horses usually collapse and while still alive continue to get trampled by bulls and other horses during the length of this violent and cruel event where horsemen try to lasso the running, charging bulls (the bulls are specifically bred and trained to ram horses).
Although it is against the law, this is only in name. Mexico’s federal government as well as the local authorities do nothing to stop this. This event takes place state wide all year round.
Please demand the Mexican government to put and end to this barbaric event.
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Mortality Increase From Alzheimer´s Disease in U.S. within last 10 Years

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Talesfromthelou’s Blog - copied:

Mortality Increase From Alzheimer’s Disease in the United States within the last 10 Years. Data for 2000 and 2010

Fascinating data from the Center for Disease Control.  A generation ago we could not even spell Alzheimer’s. It now looks like we are facing an avalanche of seniors losing their minds, and their lives, in later years.  You better believe that I will be looking for all preventative methods and cures for this dreaded degeneration of the brain.  I have seen what it does and it has no dignity. Lou

Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States

NCHS Data Briefs Update.

In 2010, Alzheimer’s disease was the underlying cause for a total of 83,494 deaths and was classified as a contributing cause for an additional 26,488 deaths. Mortality from Alzheimer’s disease has steadily increased during the last 30 years. Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and the fifth leading cause for people aged 65 years and over. An estimated 5.4 million persons in the United States have Alzheimer’s disease. The cost of health care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia was estimated to be 200 billion dollars in 2012, including 140 billion dollars in costs to Medicare and Medicaid and is expected to reach 1.1 trillion dollars in 2050.

Alzheimer’s disease mortality varies by age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, and geographic area. This report presents mortality data on Alzheimer’s disease based on data from the National Vital Statistics System from 2000 through 2010, the most recent year for which detailed data are available.

Key findings

Data from the National Vital Statistics System

  • The age-adjusted death rate from Alzheimer’s disease increased by 39 percent from 2000 through 2010 in the United States.
  • Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and is the fifth leading cause among people aged 65 years and over. People aged 85 years and over have a 5.4 times greater risk of dying from Alzheimer’s disease than people aged 75–84 years.
  • The risk of dying from Alzheimer’s disease is 26 percent higher among the non-Hispanic white population than among the non-Hispanic black population, whereas the Hispanic population has a 30 percent lower risk than the non-Hispanic white population.
  • In 2010, among all states and the District of Columbia, 31 states showed death rates from Alzheimer’s disease that were above the national rate (25.1).

Keywords: dementia, National Vital Statistics System, death rate, aging

Alzheimer’s disease mortality increased compared with selected major causes of death.

Figure 1 is a bar chart showing percent change in age-adjusted death rates for the selected causes of death between 2000 and 2010.

Full article:


http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db116.htm

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You Call Yourself Vegan – But You Are Not.

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Cattle on the alp

Cattle on the alp (Photo credit: Darkroom Daze)

English: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s signature.

English: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s signature. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Real knowledge is to know
the extent of one’s ignorance.”
- Confucius

You Call Yourself Vegan

But you are not.

You eat an occasional slice of pizza
because it is delicious, and nobody can
see you. Occasionally, you lecture others
on animal abuse for doing the same.

You buy chocolate chip cookies while being
aware that milk is used to make those
chocolate bits, but cheating does not
count in the privacy of one’s home after
midnight when watching Saturday Night Live.

You pour whole milk into your coffee, because
2 percent just does not make it, and black
coffee is a joyless drink

You call yourself vegan because it feels good
to pretend that you are, but the animals
continue to suffer due to your lack of commitment.

The human population of the planet earth is greater
than 7.117 billion individuals. If sometime during
the course of this day, each person was to drink
just 1/4 cup of milk blended into the day’s coffee
consumed, that would add up to 445 million quarts.

The average American cow produces 24 quarts of
milk per day. It would require 18.5 million cows
to produce the milk for today’s coffee for the
creamer in every person’s coffee. One third of
the cows in an average milking herd end up
in slaughterhouses each and every year. Six
million cows would die to supply the milk for
all the coffees in the world in 2013.

Vegans who add milk to their coffee with
feigned ignorance and innocence, should accept
partial responsibility for the 16,400 cows who
met death yesterday, and will met her today, and
tomorrow in order for them to drink their lattes.

There are alternatives.


http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=1555&page=2

During the two minutes that it took you to read
thus far, twenty-two cows have died fear-filled
painful and tortured deaths in which the contents
of their arteries were sprayed onto bloody
slaughterhouse floors. They all die to dilute
7.117 billion human grande caffe lattes with
milk originally designed for their own children.

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than
sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Robert Cohen

http://www.notmilk.com

A Win for the Bees?

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300px-Bee_Collecting_pollenthe-earth-is-not-dying Published on Monday, April 29, 2013 by Common Dreams A Win for the Bees: EU Votes to Ban Bee-Harming Pesticides Victory for bees, but more must be done to ensure safety of bee population, global food – Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer In a historic vote on Monday the European Union banned the use of bee-harming pesticides across the continent for a minimum of two years, garnering praise from environmental groups who have said that the population of the vital pollinators, along with the global food supply are in grave danger, due to the widespread use of the chemicals. The vote is the first of its kind and suspends three of the world’s most widely-used pesticides—known as neonicotinoids. However, critics have said the two year suspension is not enough, meaning bees are not safe until the chemicals are banned permanently. Though the vote did not reach the required majority under EU voting rules, the hung vote moves to the European commission (EC) who will implement the ban. “It’s done,” an EC source told the Guardian. The Pesticide Action Network reports: Despite pesticide industry influence, a majority of countries voted to place a two year restriction on three neonicotinoid products linked to a wide-range of harms to honey bees: clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. The EU vote comes after significant findings by the European Food Safety Agency that these pesticides pose an unacceptable risk to bees and their use should be restricted. Along with habitat loss and pathogens, a growing body of science points to neonicotinoid pesticides as a key factor in drastically declining bee populations. The Guardian Reports: The landmark suspension is a victory for millions of environment campaigners concerned about dramatic declines in bees who were backed by experts at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). But it is a serious defeat for the chemical companies who make billions a year from the products and also UK ministers – who voted against the ban. Both had argued the ban will harm food production. Paul Towers, a spokesperson for PAN North America today urged the U.S. to follow suit and listen to growing scientific evidence, rather than voices from the pesticide industry: European leaders followed the weight of the scientific evidence and moved swiftly to protect bees from the harms of neonicotinoid pesticides. U.S. officials, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, should be emboldened by European action rather than yielding to pressure from pesticide corporations. Unless U.S. officials act soon, bee populations may not recover, threatening the livelihood of beekeepers and the agricultural economies that rely on pollination and honey production. However, the vote is only a temporary ban on the use of the pesticides, which, according to critics, does not go far enough to protect the survival of bees. As Keith Tyrell, executive director of PAN-UK, stated: Whilst we welcome the EU vote as a significant step forward, we are dismayed that it is only a temporary half measure which goes nowhere near far enough in protecting our bees and other vital pollinators from the harm of neonicotinoid pesticides. Friends of the Earth’s Head of Campaigns Andrew Pendleton said: This decision is a significant victory for common sense and our beleaguered bee populations. “Restricting the use of these pesticides could be an historic milestone on the road to recovery for these crucial pollinators. “But pesticides are just one of the threats bees face – if David Cameron is genuinely concerned about declining bee numbers he must urgently introduce a Bee Action Plan. The countries that voted against the ban were: the UK, Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Austria and Portugal. Ireland, Lithuania, Finland and Greece abstained. Those in favor: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, France, Cyprus, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden. from http://www.CommonDreams.

Source URL:  http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/04/29-3 .. 

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New Mexico Horse Meat Facility Moves a Step Closer to Operation

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Violence
The New York Times


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/business/new-mexico-horse-meat-facility-moves-a-step-closer-to-operation.html?src=recg&pagewanted=print

April 22, 2013

New Mexico Horse Meat Facility Moves a Step Closer to Operation

<nyt_byline>

By

<nyt_text>

<nyt_correction_top>Amid the unfolding horse-meat scandal, a New Mexico slaughterhouse has moved closer to becoming the first in the United States since 2007 to be allowed to process horses for human consumption.“I am recommending to the Dallas district manager that your application be processed, and a grant of federal inspection be issued, provided you meet all other requirements for inspection,” Scott C. Safian, a director at the Agriculture Department, wrote in a letter dated April 13 to Ricardo De Los Santos, owner of the Valley Meat Company.

Mr. De Los Santos has been seeking U.S.D.A. approval for his processing plant in Roswell, N.M., since December 2011.

“Grants will not be issued until an establishment is able to produce a safe product in accordance with the Federal Meat Inspection Act,” said an Agriculture Department spokeswoman, Catherine Cochran.

On Monday, an advocacy group for horses sent a letter to the U.S.D.A., asking it not to grant permission for Mr. De Los Santos to operate the facility because he had failed to disclose two felonies on his original application form, as well as on a second, subsequent form.

“Is this really a guy we want to be operating a regulated business, one in which the U.S.D.A. will rely on his representations?” said Bruce A. Wagman, a lawyer representing Front Range Equine Rescue, the advocacy group.

A. Blair Dunn, the lawyer representing Mr. De Los Santos, said Front Range had erroneously described a case of criminal trespassing as a felony. He said the issue was “another desperate attempt to degrade my clients” by Front Range and the Humane Society of the United States.

“Everything regarding that information has been vetted” through the department’s food safety and inspection service “and has been certified by letter by U.S.D.A. to offer no impediment,” Mr. Dunn wrote in an e-mail.

The issue of horse slaughtering has become contentious in light of a labeling scandal in Europe, where ground beef in processed foods made and sold by companies ranging from Nestlé to Ikea was found to contain horse meat.

On Monday, Robert Redford, who starred in “The Electric Horseman” and “The Horse Whisperer,” lent his voice to the debate in a letter to Equine Advocates, a horse welfare group, explaining his opposition to slaughter. “We need to oppose this unspeakable practice with all our might,” Mr. Redford wrote. “It has no place in our culture.”

Horses have not been slaughtered in the United States since 2007, after Congress forbade the use of federal money for inspection of horse meat. That prohibition fell out of legislation in 2011, and Mr. De Los Santos first applied for inspection in December of that year.

On that application, dated Dec. 13, 2011, Mr. De Los Santos wrote “none” in the section asking applicants to account for any felonies they have committed.

A subsequent application dated March 1, 2012 was filled out the same way, with no note made of any felony.

But on a third application dated March 15, 2013, the section is filled out with Mr. De Los Santos’s name and two convictions, one for criminal trespass in Texas in 1988 and the other for residential burglary there in 1978.

Court records show that Mr. De Los Santos was arrested by the Amarillo police department on Sept. 11, 1989 — his third U.S.D.A. application reported the incident occurring a year earlier — on suspicion of criminal trespass but charged only with a moving violation and convicted of that offense.

He was arrested on Aug. 28, 1978, in Dallam County, Tex., charged with residential burglary and convicted.

In his letter, Mr. Safian indicated that the U.S.D.A. and Mr. De Los Santos had been corresponding for some time on the issue. “We note that your April 4, 2013, submittal contends that the disclosed convictions were previously identified on a 1990 application for federal inspection,” Mr. Safian wrote. “However, for clarification, our records indicate prior disclosure of only the 1978 conviction, and no disclosure of a 1988 conviction prior to submittal of your March 2013 application.”

Nonetheless, Mr. Safian concluded that because of the time that had elapsed since the incidents and “other factors,” he was recommending approval of the application.

Mr. Wagman, the lawyer for Front Range, contended that Mr. De Los Santos now has committed a third felony by improperly filling out his first two applications. Under federal law, it is a felony to knowingly falsify, conceal or materially misrepresent facts submitted on a federal application.

Front Range also forwarded to the U.S.D.A. letters from the New Mexico Environment Department to Mr. De Los Santos, noting various failures related to discharge from what was then known as the Pecos Valley Meat Packing Company, a cattle slaughtering operation the De Los Santos family operated in the facility where they are seeking to slaughter horses.

In 2009 and 2010, the U.S.D.A. itself suspended inspection of Pecos Valley Meats, effectively suspending its operations, after finding problems with its sanitation and food safety program including “inadequate” testing for E. coli and “irregularities” in the segregation and disposal of “specified risk materials.” Those are parts of an animal banned for human consumption because they run a higher risk of contamination with the bovine spongiform encephalopathy prions that transmit mad cow disease. Mr. Dunn said the suspensions were only for a short time.

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Video: AnimalEquality Exposes the Horrors of the Dog Meat Trade Please sign the Petition

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http://www.voicelessfriends.org/
  PLEASE, MAKE A DONATION TO THIS GROUP! THANK YOU! YOU´LL FIND THE INFORMATIONS HERE in this link!

Investigator’s diary

Day 1

Guangzhou Jinrong Livestock Wholesale Market

On my first day investigating the dog meat industry in China, we visited the Guangzhou Jinrong Livestock Wholesale Market, where animals, who would later end up as meat on someone’s plate, were being sold to the highest bidder.

I observed sections of dogs, goats, pigs and donkeys on this market. When I arrived, people were unloading pigs from trucks – the same trucks we had previously seen on the highway. The pigs were packed in tightly in barred metal cages. The bottom level of pigs could barely stand up and the animals’ backs were rubbing on the second level. Some were reduced to kneeling down on the hard floor. The animals appeared exhausted and their demeanor was weary. They had dark shadows around bloodshot eyes. The animals appeared exhausted and their demeanor was weary. The people on the market carried out their work apparently oblivious to the suffering of animals there. And oblivious to the injuries, fear and screams.

To unload the pigs from the trucks, the workers used iron bars to hit the animals. I observed many animals being hit directly in and between their eyes. The workers didn’t seem to care, and sometimes laughed at the animals’ screams and falls as they struggled to remove themselves from the bars.

At the other end of the yard was the gated dog area. In front of the dog area there were piles of iron cages – apparently typical of cages used to transport these animals. I was unable to take many pictures in this area as the guard stopped me. When I reached out to the dogs with my hands, they were surprisingly curious and stretched to reach me. These animals can be the best friends of humans, which makes this trade even more confusing. Yet these individuals had become no more than victims of the meat industry.

…. Read more -

Watch the video

Do your part!

Voiceless Friends

Read the petition   FOR SIGNING PETITION PLEASE, GO TO THE ORIGINAL-LINK

To:
Li Keqiang, Han Changfu <english@mail.gov.cn>

In view of the shocking investigation into slaughterhouses and dog meat markets, carried out by the animal rights organisation Animal Equality, I’ve been able to see first-hand the terrible physical and psychological torture these animals are subjected to.

More than 10 millions dogs and 4 million cats are murdered each year for their meat and fur in China. The cruelty of this practice is completely unjustifiable.

There are millions of us around the world who consider that the massacre of dogs and cats for human consumption or for their fur is unacceptable and I therefore urge China’s government to prohibit and eradicate this cruel trade.

Yours sincerely,

[signature]

Animal Equality exposes the horrors of the dog meat trade

18 million

every year

50,000

every day

10,000

only in Qianxi city during the carnival

Here at Animal Equality we’ve undertaken an intensive investigation into slaughterhouses and the dog meat markets in the Leizhou peninsula and the rest of the province of Guangdong in China.

Dogs raised for the meat markets are often taken from the street or stolen from families. These animals are kept almost their entire lives confined in wire cages where they suffer terribly both physically and psychologically. Whilst in the cramped cages, they are scared. They suffer from hunger, extreme temperatures, and a lack of food and water.

Their deaths are horrific: various blows to the head leave the animals in a semi-conscious state before being stabbed to death. The dogs are bled out and die after agonising minutes whilst struggling in a desperate bid to stay alive.

At Animal Equality we have commenced a campaign to end the consumption of dog meat and its production in China.  Just like you, millions of people, in China and beyond, believe that cat and dog slaughter for human consumption is absolutely unacceptable.  This is why we are urging the Chinese government to prohibit this cruel trade immediately.

Help us stop the massacre!

By signing our petition you are letting the Chinese Government know that you are against the consumption of dog and cat meat, aswell as the use of their fur.  It is vital to add your signature to the thousands of people who have already joined this campaign to ensure that this practice becomes history, once and for all.

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