Deep Sea Creatures Spotted By NOAA Expedition

Follow the expedition live - Click here and here or here.

The Primate Genocide Happening Right Now That The World Needs To Know About

The genocide of thousands of primates, as well as the destruction of some of the world’s most diverse and vital habitats is currently – and quietly – occurring. Palm oil is something the majority of use will use every day. It is an ingredient found in everyday products such as breadsticks, shampoos, toothpaste and chocolate. Many of the household products we use utilize palm oil because it is cheap to source. However, it seems this cheap produce comes at a devastating cost.

In order to clear the way for palm oil plantations, vast expanses of untouched rainforests in countries like Borneo, Sumatra, Indonesia and Malasia, are being destroyed and levelled, at a scale and speed which is staggering. Like many cases before this one, it is those without a voice – the poor, vulnerable and native residents, as well as the wildlife – which is paying the price. It is evident that the large companies simply do not care about the destruction homes, displacement of people and endangering of wildlife.

Deforestation workers are instructed to dispose of any wildlife which stands in their way – no matter how inhumane the process. Tragically, this involved running over orangutans with logging trucks. In the past 20 years, 90% of the orangutan habitat has been destroyed. Just look at the pictures, it may not be nice to learn, but this destruction is something we all should be aware of.

More at The Unbounded Spirit

I Will Survive

Hi, I'm Baxter! My last owner didn’t love me and I knew I just had to get outta there. At first I was afraid, I was petrified. Kept thinking I could never live without him by my side… Ahem, you know the rest.

Blue Cross

Why Is America Outraged For Cecil The Lion, But Not For Sandra Bland?

Can someone – anyone – please explain why America is near-universally outraged over the death of Cecil the Lion, the 13-year-old protected African lion who was recently illegally poached, but not over the death of Sandra Bland, Sam Dubose and so many other recent victims of police brutality, injustice and murder? Cecil the Lion was shot and killed by wealthy Midwestern dentist Walter Palmer last week. Personally, I’m not happy about this. But then again, I’ve rightly been accused of being a “tree hugger” (to say the least).

When Cecil the Lion was killed, a number of news and alternative media sites ran pieces on the poaching. Each article easily got thousands of shares throughout social media. But Sandra Bland, by comparison, has received far less universal support. While there is outrage, for many it is quite conditional. While many say the police should have done things differently, Sandra Bland is also the recipient of their criticism.

But Cecil the Lion? Nearly everyone defends his right not to be shot. Even people who might not care one bit about what happened to him if he were a different species. Perhaps it’s because he is so rare and Americans want to hold on to him as something of an exhibit. His life is valuable not because it holds intrinsic value; not because it is valuable to him as a sentient being; not because it is anything other than a commodity of human intrigue. It is valuable because the dominant class in human society has decided it has value.

Article by M. David at Counter Current News

The Final Show

Elephants and other wild animals are legal in circuses all around the world. But they do not belong in circuses where they are used in the purpose of amusement.

Circuses in 60 Seconds Flat -

The Truth About Leather

PETA Asia’s groundbreaking investigation into the Chinese dog-leather industry created a tidal wave of outrage earlier this year.

Now Hollywood superstar Joaquin Phoenix is using his voice to let more people know that dogs are bludgeoned and killed so their skins can be turned into leather items to be sold around the world.

Watch Joaquin’s eye-opening video:

peta.org.uk

The Truth Behind Elephant Rides in Thailand

Throughout Thailand, there are countless elephant tourist parks and camps. The vast majority of these camps are commercial enterprises, making huge amounts of money from tourists keen to have their photos taken with elephant calves, bathing with the elephants or riding them, or watching them paint. Some elephants are used in performances, dressed up and forced to perform unnatural, painful and demeaning tricks.

The sad and devastating reality is that this tourist-driven demand is fuelling a huge and unsustainable illegal trade in baby elephants. Recent reports indicate that at least 50-100 calves and young females are removed from their forest homes in Burma every year and are illegally traded to supply tourist camps in Thailand. It is estimated that for every calf smuggled across Burma's border into Thailand, up to five adult elephants, including the calf's mother and other protective family members, are killed.

More at the AFA Coalition 

Cute Animals That Can Kill You

Meet the world's ugliest endangered animals

With their flabby frowns, gurning grins and bloated, gassy stomachs, they're hardly going to win a pin-up competition. But these disgusting creatures have become the surprise stars of a glossy new book in a bid to save them from extinction. Unlike their cute and fluffy cousins in the animal kingdom, the plight of these rancid animals is relatively unknown. The Ugly Animal Preservation Society was set up to champion the cause of endangered creatures with no friends.

It is backed by a number of celebrity scientists, presenters and comedians, and organises road shows and school visits. Particle physicist and broadcaster Professor Brian Cox said: 'I support the ugly animal campaign. There are too many people trying to save cute animals. They get all the press, and all the attention. Ugly animals are more deserving than cute animals.' Simon Watt, the society's president, said: 'We've needed an ugly face for endangered animals for a long time and I've been amazed by the public's reaction. For too long the cute and fluffy animals have taken the limelight, but now the blobfish will be a voice for the mingers who always get forgotten.' 

Daily Mail Online

Hundreds of Dead Sea Lions Found - Fukushima's Damage Continues in Silence

As the world focuses on other things, billions of humans forget what the helpless animals still affected everyday do not: Fukushima is killing their home, their ecosystem, and, sadly – them.  Stories appear almost daily on alternative news sites about a new group of whales, dolphins, fish, or other sea creatures dying in the millions in some cases, yet those stories aren’t “hip” anymore, so the corporate controlled mainstream media tends to ignore them.

Thankfully, sites like Natural News still talk about the ongoing Fukushima disaster.  In a recent article entitled, “500 more dead sea lions; Fukushima radiation continues to spread across ocean” Natural News writer Jonathan Benson writes:Another mysterious wave of dead sea animals has washed ashore in Peru, the possible consequence of ongoing radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan. BBC News reports that 500 dead sea lions were recently discovered on Peru’s northern coastline, some 250 miles north of the capital city of Lima, with no obvious explanation as to why this occurred.

More at YourNewsWire.com

Chimpanzee Sees the Blue Sky for the Very First Time…

The Humane Society of the United States rescued 111 chimpanzees from horrendous conditions in testing facilities, and gave them — for the first time, or for the first time in a long time — their natural right to a peaceful habitat.

Rescuers brought the chimps to Chimp Haven, which is a vast stretch of land designated exclusively to rescued chimpanzees, located in northwest Louisiana. This group of apes has nearly doubled the size of the sanctuary, and is the largest number of chimps ever rescued at once.

The Rainforest Site Blog

Barbaric slaughterhouses in China use the hide of pets slaughtered for food to make leather goods

Leather gloves, shoes and other goods being sold in British shops and online may be made out of dogs slaughtered in horrific factories in China, it has been claimed. Dog skin produced in the slaughterhouses are used in products, labelled real leather, destined for export to the West, according to an animal rights group.

Footage taken by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) shows workers stood by a door at a slaughterhouse in the northern province of Hebei. As dogs are led through the door, the men kill them with a heavy stick. Sometimes it takes several blows to finish off the unwitting animals.

A pair of gloves made using dog skin. With dog meat restaurants popular in many parts of the country, several establishments later sell the animals' skin to leather producers, which likely sell to Western stores. 'Skin looks the same, whoever it comes from, and Chinese dog killers are not likely to advertise their skins honestly, so it's impossible to tell if those leather gloves or wallets are made out of dog, cow, pig, or goat skin.

'PETA is calling on British shoppers to consider the terror that dogs and other animals endure when they're mercilessly slaughtered and make the safe, vegan choice in clothing and accessories for the holidays and every day.'

Daily Mail Online - Peta

Mass animal sacrifice at Nepal’s Gadhimai Festival

The Asia for Animals coalition is deeply concerned about the forthcoming Gadhimai Festival, held in honour of the Hindu Goddess Gadhimai, due to take place in Nepal on 28th and 29th November 2014. The festival is scheduled once every five years, will see the slaughter of many thousands of animals.

Despite campaigning by Nepalese, Indian and international animal-welfare organisations, the organisers of the festival and the Nepalese government allowed the 2009 slaughter to take place, where it was estimated that a quarter of a million animals were brutally slaughtered without stunning, resulting in extreme fear and pain.

Campaigners continue to lobby the organisers to cancel the slaughter, but despite worldwide protests, they have not introduced a single measure to alleviate the tremendous suffering. Animals are transported in appalling conditions, often with no food or water for two to three days before the sacrifice, before being forced to witness the killing of countless others before they are slaughtered themselves, including the killing of mother animals in front of their offspring.

Asia for Animals Coalition - The Gadhimal Festival: Why it must never happen Again (Think Differently About Sheep)

'Stop Abusing Baby Monkeys'

Maternal deprivation experiments on baby monkeys are a textbook example of unethical psychological research, and they need to stop. Hundreds of infant monkeys are being torn away from their mothers, causing them to suffer from psychoses at a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) laboratory. So when Dr Stephen J Suomi, the head experimenter on baby monkeys at NIH, was to speak in Cardiff at the annual general meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, I, along with another activist, decided to make my voice heard and interrupted his keynote speech.

Suomi is responsible for tormenting baby monkeys in disgustingly cruel and archaic experiments that cause them to experience severe anxiety, fear, pain and depression. Some of the monkeys bite at their own flesh and pull out their own hair. This was all revealed following the release of hours of video footage and hundreds of photographs and documents obtained by PETA US from NIH through a contested Freedom of Information Act request. After watching the video below, any compassionate person would wonder how Suomi can sleep at night.

We’re in the age of brain imaging and superior human-based research that allows us to study the causes and treatments of mental illness in humans without terrorising animals in traumatic experiments. Yet videos revealed that experimenters laughed while infant monkeys were being terrorised, screaming frantically and trying to escape and hide. This is not science – it’s violence.

From Peta

20 Years on, Tyke’s Intense, Tragic Story Will Still Leave You Shocked

Tyke was an African elephant at a travelling circus in the US who had been abused for years. Like most elephants in circuses, her life consisted of endless beatings and constant confinement.

Eventually, she snapped.

On 20 August, 1994, she was forced to perform in Honolulu. This is what happened next.

Warning: upsetting footage

Tyke’s rampage killed her trainer and injured 13 other people. She collapsed and died after being shot nearly 100 times.

Animals do not deserve to live and die as Tyke did – abused, mentally and physically, until they go mad from the frustration, loneliness and pain.

More at Peta

Raju the Elephant cried tears of joy after being freed from suffering

These incredible pictures show the moment an elephant who was held in chains and beaten and abused for fifty years cried as he was released to freedom. Raju the elephant was left bleeding from spiked shackles and living on hand-outs from passing tourists after he was captured and tied up by his 'owner'. But, after 50 years of torture, the animal cried tears of relief after he was rescued by a wildlife charity in a daring midnight operation -- fittingly on American Independence Day.
North London-based charity Wildlife SOS stepped in to save Raju from dying in his bonds after learning of his plight in India.

Wildlife SOS Blog

Burberry: Fashion over Animal Welfare

Tools of the Trade

He has karate-chopped some of cinema's most fiendish adversaries in his 40-year film career. And now Jackie Chan is taking on his toughest challenge yet: changing the mindset of a billion Chinese citizens.

More on The Telegraph

Volunteers smuggle Sochi dogs out of town

Alexei stops in his tracks as he sees a half-breed Labrador snooping around at a cafe's back door.

The dog comes obediently on his whistle. Alexei strokes it and in one swift movement takes it in his arms like a newborn baby.

Rushing past surprised passers-by, Alexei carries the equally-surprised dog to his car parked round the corner and places it gently on the back seat.

Alexei is one of a dozen people in the emerging movement of animal activists in Sochi alarmed by reports that the city has contracted the killing of thousands of stray dogs before and during the Olympic Games. Activists have been picking up dogs from the streets and putting them up at their homes or in temporary shelters before finding an owner elsewhere.

Stray dogs are a common sight on the streets of Russian cities, but with massive construction in the area the street dog population in Sochi and the Olympic park has soared. Useful as noisy, guard dogs, workers feed them to keep them nearby and protect buildings. The dogs — friendly rather than feral — soon lose their value and become strays.

Tonight, a few dogs will be taken on their way to a new life.

More on MSN news