It is not about animals; it is about all of us

Imagine you are at home, enjoying all what surrounds you, feeling happy, having dinner peacefully and, all of a sudden, all these things are taken away by a group of people. They break into your house, take your children away, and start killing your family and friends.

They are right next to you, armed, they want to kill you, but you don’t know why. You haven’t hurt anyone in your life. You don’t understand what’s going on. They start beating you, they have already killed your kids…you’re on your own now. You've got no one to turn to.
You yield, “Please, stop! It hurts!” But nobody seems to listen. They are killing you with no compassion.

Imagine now this time it is not you, but an animal, which also hasn’t hurt anybody in its entire life, and doesn’t understand what’s happening. It is an animal that can feel pain just like you, an animal that wishes to say: “PLEASE, STOP!” But it can’t.

In this exact moment thousands of animals of different species are being killed because of food, clothes, laboratory tests, or just because of cruelty. All that is happening while you are reading this post at home, workplace, or at university.

You can do something about it. You may think your part is too small to matter, but believe me, every little effort from every single person counts. You can make a difference. Educate our future generations, show and explain them the pain and suffering men are causing in animals. Guide them.

Make a start now!

Animal can have a voice, YOU.


“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." -Mahatama Gandhi

Posted by Valeria

Animal Cruel & Painful Testing

What would you say if I told you that two or three of those four little animals above died just to make sure that your shampoo, floor polish, and antibiotic are safe for you and your family?

Every minute , hundreds of animals suffer and are exposed to convulsions, labored breathing, diearrhea, constipation, emaciation, abnormal posture, and bleeding from the eyes, nose or mouth; develop skin eruption or irritation, and tumors; get sick or stressed till the point of hurting themselves, and even get killed without any mercy in laboratories of cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and household products companies.

Guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, dogs, cats, fish, and so many other animals, are used for these cruel experimentations, despite the fact that there are cheaper and more effective ways of proving the safety of products, and simply forgetting that animals are also living creatures, and that they feel pain just like us.

Fortunately, there are some companies that are using alternative methods of testing products that leave animal testing behind; for instance, they are using donated human retinas to test eye irritation and cultured human skin to evaluate skin reactions.

This ethical issue has been controversial for decades, and animal lovers have been fighting against all these hearthless procedures in many different ways. But, what can we do, apart from signing lists claiming to stop animal testing, or demanding the companies to, at least, follow the three Rs (Reduce the use of animals on scientific procedures with non-animal alternatives whenever possible; Reduce the number of animals used in any animal testing procedure; and Refine procedures so that animals experience less pain, suffering, and discomfort)?

If we are really concerned about this real problem, we colud just stop buying products from companies that use animals for their researches.

Here is a list of some well-known companies that currently do those procedures:

Alberto VO5, Always, Ace, Ades, Adidas, Alberto-Coulber (3M), Anubis, Ariel, Axe, Bic, Biotherm, Blem, Cacharel, Calvin Klein, Clorox, Close up, Colgate-Palmolive, Cover Girl, Cutex, Denim, Dog Chow, Dolge & Gabbana, Dove, Drive, Duracell, Ecolab, Elizabeth Arden, Friskies, Garnier, General Motors, Gillette, Giorgio Armani, Glade, Glassex, Hellmann's, H&S, Huggies, Hugo Boss, Johnson & Johnson, Kleenex, Knorr, Kotex, Liquid Paper, Listerine, Lysoform, Maisena, Maybelline (L'oreal), Mennen, Mr. Músculo, N.A.S.A., Nenuco, Nestle, Neutrógena, Nina Ricci, Pampers, Pantene, Pato WC, Playtex, Pepsodent, Pond's, Post-it, Pro Plan, Purina One, Oral-B, Puig, Raid, Ralph Lauren, Secret, Sensodyne, Speed Stick, Sedal, Tampax, Timotei, Vaseline, Vasenol, Veet, Vichy, Ives Saint Lauren, Whiskas, Ziploc.

Here are some companies that DON'T experiment with animals:

Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, Aqua Herbal, Armani, Avon, Benetton, Channel, Clinique, Christian Dior, Dento, Donna Karan Beauty Company, Ebel, Esteé Lauder, Eucerín, Epilady, Gap, Gucci Parfums, Heno de Pravia, M.A.C., Nivea, Oriflame, Revlon, St. Ives, Tommy, Tommy Girl, Tommy Hilfiger, Wella.

"Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research" George Bernard Shaw

Posted by RuuuL

THE PURRING CAT AND I

First of all, I need to tell you that the facts that I am going to narrate in this story are completely real. It happened to me three days ago.

That day, I woke up, took a shower, had breakfast, and headed to classes. As it always happens on Wednesdays, I was a bit late. Hence, when I saw a filthy, sad, extremely skinny, and sick cat standing next to the entrance, I was not able to stop and check him. However, I couldn’t stop thinking of the sad image I had seen at my arrival to the university. As soon as my class finished, I went to see whether the cat was still at the same place. And there he was… He could barely walk, see or eat.

He was awfully skinny and dirty, had a severe infection in his eyes and snout, stank and tottered when he walked. I watched him for a while, deliberating what to do. I wanted to do something for him, but what could I do? I had only $1000 in my pocket, didn’t know any vet, and couldn’t take him home with me. I rent an apartment here in Viña and live with my brother and sister. Besides I already have a bunny as a pet, which is quite moody (really, he seems extremely cute, but he hates cats, dogs and animals in general… he is quite aggressive). Notwithstanding all this, I couldn’t leave him there; especially after seeing that he was almost run over by a car and tried to “poop” but only diarrhea came out. I went quickly to talk to Mr. Luis and his wife (they sell candies outside the university) and asked them if they could give me a box. Without even doubting, they helped me and gave me a small box so I could carry the cat. I stood next to the box that contained the cat for about ten minutes, thinking what to do. The only thing I knew at that moment was that I couldn’t let this poor animal just die there, because with only one glance, you could realize he was dying.

I took the bus carrying my box, and decided that the best thing to do was finding a veterinarian that could help him without charging. I went to a vet who is located in 3 Norte. I told him that I had found an extremely sick cat, but that I had no money. I explained him everything, but he answered: “The consultation here costs $7000. If you are looking for someone that can help the cat for free, maybe you should go ask the vet on the next block”. Was he being serious? If you are a veterinarian, aren’t you supposed to be fond of animals and care about them? I stayed speechless for some seconds and tried to explain the situation again. But he just mumbled an almost inaudible “Sorry”.

Completely shocked and angry, I searched for the other vet, who worked at “Pet City”, located in 3 Poniente. Luckily, she was very understanding and rapidly took me and the cat to another room. After examining him meticulously, she gave me the bad news. Besides the infection in his eyes and snout, the cat was dehydrated, had a severe and advanced renal dysfunction, had an acute problem in his digestive system, had problems in his skin and fur, and had a probable anemia. In other words, he was dying.

“What’s the next step, then?” I asked myself. However, the answer seemed quite obvious. There was nothing I could do. The animal was suffering and had almost no chance of survival, even if he were hospitalized and given the best treatment. But, was euthanasia the right alternative? That means killing him! Yet, after discussing all the possibilities with the veterinarian, “making the cat sleep” didn’t sound that cruel idea after all.

Was I going to leave the cat on the street and let him just die painfully? I’m not cold blooded. Was I going to take him home with me and take care of him until he finally passed away? I couldn’t even imagine having a cat in my apartment constantly meowing because of the pain, so definitely not.

The vet told me sadly that she could not take care of the cat either. So, after talking for a while, we decided to make the cat sleep. With the injection he would not get stressed nor feel pain at all. I petted this creature for a while, and he purred. It wasn’t a strong purr, but it was a purr after all.

First the veterinarian injected the cat a solution so he would relax. After a minute or to, he fell almost asleep. Then, with he cat still looking at us, she injected him the “deathly solution” directly to his heart (she could not find any vein, since the cat was too skeletal). His pupils became dilated instantly.

DYING WITH DIGNITY

What happened that day still makes me deliberate whether I did the right thing or not. Maybe my mind, in its effort to protect my emotions, forces me to believe that I did not make the wrong decision. I strongly believe that animals have the right to die with dignity as well as human beings.

When people are sick, especially if they have a chronic or degenerative disease (like cancer or AIDS for instance), they are given medicines to diminish the pain. Palliative cares in humans are very common. But, what happens if the sick is an animal? Furthermore, what if that animal lives on the street? Should we ignore them and just let them suffer and die in pain? I don’t think so.

Many people think, that because they are animals, they do not feel pain. Well… let me tell you something: researchers in this field conclude that animals have also a threshold of pain Just like humans. This means that if they are injured, ill, or abused, they WILL suffer and feel pain.

I’d like you to tell me how you feel about this issue, so we can start a debate on this blog.

Alondra Cirio

Be surprised!

Could you believe it if somebody told you that your diet is contributing to global warming?

Surprinsingly enough, it is. Researches have determined that the livestock sector produces more greenhouse gasses than transport and it also spoils the soil and water.

Nowadays, most of us are trying to save energy, to use less pollutant products, and some of us are even choosing bicycles over cars. There seems to be a real concern about how our behaviour affects the planet, but when it comes to do something really significant most of us just look the other way.

Choosing a vegetarian diet not only shows respect for animals, but also for the planet, for us as human beings and the future of all human race.

Before reading the article on Vegan Outreach I had no idea that my diet could directly affect the future of the planet, and I must confess that it is a scary idea for me. I try not to produce much garbage, I have planted trees and I take good care of my garden, where I prepare my own soil. I do not buy bottled water, or any kind of beverages for that matter, because every bottle that we empty is a new piece of rubbish for the planet. I do not eat at McDonald's or any kind of fast-food chains, and I keep encouraging my three-year old daughter to turn the lights off when she leaves a room, and to tell her classmates to throw their garbage in the proper places. Now I know that all these things are not enough and that I have a huge desicion to make, for all of us.

You can read the whole article here: http://www.veganoutreach.org/globalwarming.html

Posted by Lis.