Other Nations

Welcome to Other Nations…offering information, inspiration, and support for human beings working to end speciesism.
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Your Mommy Kills Animals! 
Other Nations joins with the University of Montana’s Peace & Justice Film Series to screen a bold, wacky, sobering film on the animal rights movement and the curtailment of First Amendment rights. Thursday, March 8, 7:00 pm at Gallagher Business Building, room 122. Further details and the film’s trailer are in our February newsletter.

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“They’re proposing a 1.2 million-hog (per year) kill facility, but if they expanded the number of shifts, that would go to 2.4 million hogs.”
~Gov. Brian Schweitzer

On Wednesday, Feb. 15, Shelby, MT mayor Larry Bonderud met with Schweitzer to discuss the plan in more detail. Both men “…cautioned the project is still in a nascent stage.” 

“It’s a neat idea, a neat concept,” said Bonderud.
Shelby Promoter article 

A factory farm for Shelby, Montana? 800,000 (the real number appears to be 1.2 million–or DOUBLE that) pigs “processed” a year? See what Governor Schweitzer is proposing…visit our factory farming/CAFOs page here. Contact info for the governor is included. Read a related item at our blog to learn what horrors industrial animal production unleashes on animals, people, and the environment.
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“My understanding is that with appropriate notice and appropriate protocols in place, we will be allowed to ship bison to slaughter.”
~Dan Wenk, Yellowstone Superintendent

Read more at the Billings Gazette. Then please deliver to Superintendent Wenk a respectful but unequivocal message: There IS no appropriate notice nor protocol for shipping America’s last pure and genetically-diverse, wild, migratory bison to slaughter. American citizens, to whom Yellowstone National Park is dedicated, say NO to the slaughter of native wildlife.

Two simple actions: Contact the superintendent at 307-344-2003 or e-mail him at yell_superintendent@nps.gov (visit Buffalo Field Campaign for background info). If you are a petition-signer, click here to add your name and your two cents. Remember too that MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks is proposing increased hunting instead of increased habitat; for more on the 2/13 comment deadline, visit Buffalo Field Campaign. And just to prove that the more things change, the more they stay the same–read more in our very first blog entry from a year ago this month.

The State of Montana Office of Tourism targets “geotravelers” with a Montana “brand” that includes “More spectacular unspoiled nature than anywhere else in the lower 48.” Studies show that wildlife watching is increasing and generates billions of dollars. Yet Montana hunters and livestock owners want more dead Montana wolves. The livestock industry and hunters want more dead wild bison. Unless they’ve redefined slaughtered bison and dead wolves as “spectacular unspoiled nature,” there’s something seriously wrong with this picture.
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Empty Cages
“Being kind to animals is not enough. Avoiding cruelty is not enough. Housing animals in more comfortable, larger cages is not enough. Whether we exploit animals to eat, to wear, to entertain us, or to learn, the truth of animal rights requires empty cages, not larger cages.”
~Tom Regan

At our News & Alerts page (page updated, 2/22): Idaho takes wolf persecution to the extreme–Senate to vote; Cosmetic giants go backward, resume animal testing; Another elephant circus ban in the U.S.? Horses die making HBO series; Kudos to UM’s food service for vegan options; 80% of us oppose horse slaughter (new poll); State management (FWP) proposes using hunters for “lethal removal” of wild bison; Chimp research; Activist wins First Amendment settlement for leafleting in Philly; Canadian airline will stop transporting chimps to labs; Heinous abuse revealed at Butterball turkey factory farm; everyone’s sweetheart (well, maybe not?), Betty White; the Montana-China horse meat connection, and more.

Current blog posts deal with hog CAFOs (added 2/18); “an animal rights Super Bowl fantasy” (added 2/5); the groundhogs–celebrated one day of the year, persecuted the rest (added 2/1); team mascots and their real-life counterparts; rock stars, factory farmers, and gifts to food banks; a review of Sister Species: Women, animals, & social justice; the incongruities in charitable acts that exploit animals; feral cats, and so much more.

Power to the fowl!
A Chicken Liberation Manifesto
Read it at the Other Nations blog.
7 substitutes for eggs in baking: video here!

OTHER NATIONS SMILES ‘n’ SCAT PILES

“Thumbs up, thumbs down.” “Tip of the hat, wag of the finger.” We’re offering up our own Other Nations yeas and neighs! SMILES to those humans/institutions who show compassion and/or honor the innate rights of others–of any species. Woe to those who abuse, exploit, and make us sorry to share the sapiens species, for they shall receive a SCAT PILE.

An OTHER NATIONS SMILE to scientists and ethicists who argue that “there is sufficient evidence of…marine mammals’ intelligence, self-awareness and complex behaviour to enshrine their rights in legislation.

“Under the declaration of rights for cetaceans, a term that includes dolphins, whales and porpoises, the animals would be protected as “non-human persons” and have a legally enforceable right to life.” See full story. This comes on the heels of PETA’s whale slavery lawsuit dismissal, another landmark for which we send PETA a whale-sized smile.

An ON smile to Greece for banning ALL animals from circuses. Animal Defenders International and the Greek Animal Welfare Fund led the campaign resulting in this just and compassionate step forward. Fifty local animals groups across Greece supported the ban. Bolivia was the first country to ban all circus animals; Greece is the first in Europe.

Honorable smiley mention to: Ricardo Moreira, professional martial arts/cage fighting athlete and vegan. He’ll donate part of his take from an upcoming (2/11) fight to In Defense of Animals. Read an interview with him here.

A SCAT PILE to the U.S. Supreme Court. No, not for Citizens United, although, well, never mind. Late January produced a unanimous (“nine-pile”) decision when SCOTUS “…unanimously struck down a California law that had sought to keep out of the food supply animals that are unable to walk. The justices said the state law conflicted with a federal one,” as reported in the New York Times.

“Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the court, said the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which regulates slaughterhouses, pre-empted the California law, which requires the immediate euthanasia of “downer” animals and bars their slaughter or sale.

“The state law was enacted in response to undercover videos released in 2008 by the Humane Society of the United States. They showed, as Justice Kagan put it, ‘workers at a slaughterhouse in California dragging, kicking and electroshocking sick and disabled cows in an effort to move them.’”

According to the Animal Law Coalition, “the law was challenged by the National Meat Association on behalf of pig slaughterhouses.” Read more from the New York Times here. Read the opinion here. Read about the HSUS investigation here and watch the video…if you can.

Dishonorable scat pile mention: To the Philadelphia Wing Bowl (2/3/12) and wing-eating winner Takeru Kobayashi who gorged on 337 wings in 30 minutes, winning $20,000. “On Friday, approximately 20,000 people filled the Wells Fargo Center for the circus. Not the Ringling Bros.’, but the annual celebration of gluttony and half-naked women known as Wing Bowl.” Read more at Philly Sports Week. For the animal rights perspective, check out our blog entry, “Humanity Lost: 357 wings and a prayer” here.

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Toward animal rights–peacefully, persistently!
Empowering humans to end speciesism
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