Innocent Animals

He must come from the city!

Lavagirl really took exception to my blog about how to skin a cat, and laid into me, no holds bared, stating amongst other things that:

"Coming from a medical family - my father is a surgeon - I would argue with the extremist view the author purports.
Calling dissection "horrific" and "unbelievable" is easy to say from your armchair when you're not faced with some life threatening surgery coming up."

"Has the author ever had surgery? I would rather have a medical student train on a cat so s/he is better prepared to carve up MY body."

Danish dolphin slaughter, part 2

Photo: Bay Turned Red During Dolphin Slaughter

Caitlin Rose made some great comments on my post about the dolphin slaughter in the Faroe Islands. She brought up several excellent points, the first being that the Faroese Islanders said: "… most people in the modern world have become so far removed from the harsh realities of animal food production that they have formulated unrealistic notions of how food actually gets to their tables.”

Danish Dolphin Slaughter

Photo: Faroe Islanders Killing a Pilot Whale

I received an email recently from a friend with widely circulated photos of a horrific dolphin slaughter in the Faroe Islands of Denmark. (The Faroe Islands, located about 250 miles north of Scotland, are about half way between Denmark and Iceland, in other words, they are one very inhospitable place, freezing cold, about as different from Hawaii as one can imagine.)

Boiling crabs to death; don’t be squeamish!

A couple of recent articles dated December 23, 2009 in the Taste section of the Honolulu Advertiser were truly gruesome, brutal, and stomach turning; they were about how to prepare live crabs for eating. They contained horrifyingly graphic and detailed explanations of how to kill a crab, how to cook it, how to break its legs, crack off its back, etc. These articles were shocking – the writer advises, “Boiling crabs isn't difficult. And don't be squeamish. Unless you're a vegetarian, something always dies for your dinner.”

Rat killers punishable by up to 3 years in prison

There has been a lot of press about the televised killing and eating of a rat on a British reality show filmed in the Australian bush; and the two people involved are potentially facing up to three years in prison. This is interesting. Now, could someone please explain to me why someone can be imprisoned for up to three years for killing and eating a rat, but there is no penalty whatsoever for anyone involved in the slaughter of over 10 billion animals a year in the US alone? I simply just don’t get it, am I missing something?

Save the shearwater! .... eat the cows?

State officials are asking O'ahu residents to turn down their lights at night for the next few weeks to help native seabirds find their way out to sea for the winter.

Back to the Peacock!

On December 1, 2009 the Honolulu Advertiser provided an update on the case of the woman accused of brutally bashing a peacock with a baseball bat back in May 2009. You may recall that after bashing it she left it to die while it piteously cried for over an hour. She explained that the bashing occurred because she couldn’t take its noise anymore. Her attorney is now seeking to have the animal cruelty charges against her dismissed on the basis that peacocks “are detrimental to human life."

Animal Shelter operator files lawsuit

In an update about the Leeward Coast animal shelter which was accused of animal hoarding and cruelty to animals, the owner has filed a lawsuit against the Hawaiian Humane Society and several other local and national animal welfare societies. The following is from the Honolulu Advertiser story on the lawsuit: The surviving owner of the Leeward Coast animal shelter where more than 400 dogs, cats and birds were housed in a no-kill sanctuary has filed a lawsuit against several local and national animal welfare organizations, including the Hawaiian Humane Society.

Severed cow's head used in Malaysian protest

In a rather gruesome incident twelve Muslims have been charged in Malaysia with illegal assembly and six of them have been charged with sedition, which is defined as an act that may engender "feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races", after parading a severed cow's head in a protest against the planned relocation of a Hindu temple to their neighborhood.

"I say, if you eat animals, you eat animals."

A LA Times article on September 4, 2009 was about a Korean vegetarian's efforts to garner signatures for a petition to stop the eating of dog meat in Korea. In the past westerner's have criticized the eating of dogs as inhumane, but Koreans have tended to disregard that as being merely hypocritical opinion. One government official who eats dog meat stated "Westerners eat one type of animal and tell the world they can't eat another. I say, if you eat animals, you eat animals."