The Chain of Compassion

The Chain of Compassion has come to me from Laura at the myspace animal rights forum.

Laura says:

It’s like a chain letter, but it’s for a great cause! Go to: www.chainofcompassion.org/helpanimals.html and print copies, then spread the word! Give this to everyone you know: at home, at work and at school. Put it in your neighborhood mail boxes and even bus and subway seats. Send it over the internet to people. Then hopefully more caring people like you will do the same thing. Please start …Your Chain of Compassion Today!

Here’s the letter, directly from the site, for the truly lazy . . .

Have You Saved A Life Today?

Don’t Buy Fur – In China, Thailand and the Philippines more than 2 million cats and dogs are killed in the following ways each year: Hanging by the neck from a wire noose, water is poured down their throat through a hose until they drown, bludgeoning them with metal rods or slam them on hard surfaces, causing broken bones and convulsions, but not always immediate death. Many remain conscious while they are skinned are struggle to defend themselves to the very end. 40 million animals are killed each year for their fur: reared on factory farms that cause them to go mad and mutilate themselves and each other, or caught in vicious leg hold traps and left to starve, freeze, drown, be beaten to death or gnaw off their own limbs in a futile attempt to escape. This is the reality of the fur trade. Learn more: www.caft.org.uk/factsheets/cats-and-dogs.html

Boycott Pet Stores That Sell Dogs – Roughly 99% of all pet stores that sell puppies get them from puppy mills. Dogs and puppies that live in puppy mills have inadequate, water, food, shelter and veterinary care. Little money is actually spent on their care because they are bred purely for profit. Dogs are often crammed into small cages unable to move around and sit in there own excrement. Often these cages are stacked on top of each other with nothing to separate the dogs below from the ones above. This means that excrement from the dogs above falls directly on to those below. If a dog dies in a cage and is not removed the body fluids of the decaying dog falls on to the ones below. This causes extreme filth and disease and in some cases death. Don’t buy while others die adopt a puppy from your local shelter. Learn more: www.puppymillprotest.org

Boycott Circuses – Animals do not naturally ride bicycles, balance on balls, or jump through rings of fire. To force them to perform these confusing and physically uncomfortable tricks, trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bull hooks, and other painful tools of the trade. They spend 95 percent of their lives imprisoned in small cages only to be let out when they must perform. Elephants are kept in leg shackles. When not performing, elephants can be seen rocking and swaying back and forth from frustration, anger and boredom. Learn more: www.circuses.com

Spay And Neuter Your Pets and Keep Your Cats Indoors –  It is estimated that between six and eight million cats and dogs enter animal shelters every year in the United States, but only about half of them make it out alive the rest are euthanized or sold to laboratories to be used for hideous animal experimentation. Stray animals live hard lives on the street before dying hard, agonizing deaths from starvation, freezing, disease, getting hit by cars and poisoning by antifreeze or pesticides. Some are even killed for sport or pleasure by cruel and sadistic individuals. When people let their cats outside each day they are subjecting them to these hazards. Learn more: www.sniksnak.com/stop_s-n.html and www.cat-world.com.au/IndoorCats.htm

Boycott Products That Conduct Animal Testing  –  It is estimated that over 100 million animals suffer every year in laboratory experiments world-wide. The animals involved will either die as a result of the experiment or be deliberately killed afterwards. In the laboratory an animal may be poisoned; deprived of food, water or sleep; applied with skin and eye irritants; subjected to psychological stress; deliberately infected with disease; brain damaged; paralyzed; surgically mutilated; irradiated; burned; gassed; force fed and electrocuted. They test or develop almost anything from household products, cosmetics and food additives to pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, agrochemicals, pet foods, medical devices and tobacco and alcohol products. Animal experiments tell us about animals, not about people. For example arsenic is very dangerous for humans but does not present the same level of threat to rats, mice or sheep. Advanced non-animal research techniques such as computer simulations, cell, tissue or organ cultures, complex artificial systems, epidemiology, QSARs or brain imaging that utilize human biological material or data can be used. These techniques are not only more humane but also more relevant and reliable.These companies and others: Nestle Purina Petcare, Hills Pet Nutrition (Colgate Palmolive), Iam (Protor and Gambal) and Petigree (Mars) all conduct cruel animal experiments on cats and dogs. Learn more: www.buav.org

Boycott Zoos – Wild animals imprisoned in zoos suffer physically and mentally from the lack of freedom captivity imposes. The frustrated animals spend much of their time pacing, walking in tight circles, swaying or rolling their heads, pulling out their hair and feathers and self -inflicted wounds. Zoo babies are crowd-pleasers, but when they get older and attract fewer visitors, many are sold or killed by zoos. Deer, tigers, lions, and other animals who breed frequently are sometimes sold to "game" farms where hunters pay for the "privilege" of killing them; others are killed for their meat and/or hides. Other "surplus" animals may be sold to circuses or smaller, more poorly run zoos or to slaughter houses. Learn more: www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=67

Boycott Dog Races – It’s estimated that 100,000 rabbits and other small animals are tortured and torn apart by Greyhounds in standard training practices known as live lure training. Greyhounds languish in long kennel confinements and are denied socialization with humans or its own kind. After Greyhounds are raced until they’re too injured or slow to finish in the money, they’re abandoned on city streets or country roads, their tattooed ears cut off to foil identification, or sold to research labs, or left to starve in their kennels, or condemned to die from a bullet in the brain. It estimated that 16,000 to 45,000 dogs a year are put to death. Learn more: www.adopt-a-greyhound.org/about/body_king.html

Boycott Rodeos – Electric prods, spurs, and bucking straps are used to irritate and enrage animals in rodeos. The flank, or "bucking," strap or rope-which is used to make horses and bulls buck-is tightly cinched around their abdomens, which causes the animals to "buck vigorously to try to rid themselves of the torment." The irritation causes the animals to buck violently, which is what the rodeo promoters want them to do in order to put on a good show for the crowds. The flank strap, when paired with spurring, causes the animals to buck even more violently, often resulting in serious injuries. Cows and horses are often prodded with an electrical "hotshot" while in the chute to rile them, causing intense pain to the animals. Most common injuries that occur are broken spines, ribs and punctured lungs and then the animals are discarded to slaughter houses. Learn more: www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=69

Boycott Horse Races – A study concludes that 800 thoroughbreds die a year because of injuries on the racetrack. Reasons for horses being destroyed include broken legs, back, neck and pelvis; fatal spinal injuries, exhaustion, heart attack, and burst blood vessels in the lungs. Others are killed because they are considered of no further commercial value and are essentially a waste by-product. They are then killed for pet food, fed to hunting hounds, used for other equestrian events, or sold from owner to owner in a downward spiral of neglect. Learn more: www.all-creatures.org/adow/cam-hr-20041211.html

Boycott Aquariums – The life span of a dolphin in the wild is 45 years; half die within their first two years of captivity. The survivors last only 5 years in captivity. They are kept hungry so they will perform for their food. Sometimes chemicals and bacteria in their tanks causes them blindness. Dolphins in captivity tend to develop stereotypical behaviors (swimming in a repetitive circle pattern, with eyes closed and in silence) because of the boredom and confinement in their cement prisons. Learn more: www.inkokomo.com/dolphin/captivity.html

Thanks again to Laura at the myspace animal rights forum for composing this important letter. Insert on into your holiday cards this year!