Animal Abuse, Rights and Welfare

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    From Oregon, a Chocolate Cake That Changes Hearts and Minds

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    In Oregon, there’s a through line from 19th century saints to 21st century sinners. They both sought salvation, of a sort, by eschewing meat.It was in Portland, in the 1890s, that Seventh-day Adventists opened one of the first vegetarian restaurants in the country, in line with their belief that a Godly diet was one of fruit, vegetables, legumes and grains.It was also in Portland, more than hundred years later, that Johnny Diablo Zukle opened a vegan strip club, now in its 18th year.50 States, 50 Fixes is a series about local solutions to environmental problems. More to come this year.Portland, highly praised for its food scene, is a hot spot for vegans, who don’t eat dairy or meat. The maker of Tofurky, the vegan holiday roast, is headquartered nearby, as is Bob’s Red Mill, global purveyor of artisanal whole grains.Tell Us About Solutions Where You Live More

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      Cher Wants a Better Home for L.A.’s Elephants. Not Tulsa.

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      For years, animal-rights advocates have pushed for the elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo to be moved to an animal sanctuary.But in Southern California, even the elephants have celebrity backers. One in particular, Billy, has gotten some extra love from Cher.“Billy doesn’t deserve this,” the singer said in an interview on Thursday. She says the 40-year-old pachyderm, who has been at the zoo since 1989, “has had a terrible life” in a restrictive enclosure, with minimal shade and hard ground that could damage his feet.In recent months, the legal, political and zoological drama playing out over the fate of the zoo’s Asian elephants has escalated. After two aging members of the herd had to be euthanized, zoo officials announced in April that Billy and the only other surviving elephant, Tina, who is 59, would soon be relocated.But instead of the sanctuary that Cher and other advocates wanted, officials said the elephants would be moved to another zoo in Tulsa, Okla., where they could join a larger herd. That has led to protests, a lawsuit, tense city meetings, anger at the zoo director and a legal declaration submitted by the pop icon on the elephants’ behalf.The battle comes at a time when lawsuits from animal-rights advocates and the shrinking number of available animals have led more zoos to close their elephant enclosures. The Bronx Zoo has faced growing legal pressure to move its last two elephants to a sanctuary, and in 2023 the Oakland Zoo sent one of its elephants to a sanctuary in Tennessee after it was unable to find it a compatible companion.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      We Can Have More Humane Chicken Eggs

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      Every spring, I’d eagerly await my special package — a box that arrived peeping. Inside were just-hatched chicks, still egg-shaped and covered in down.I would raise the chicks in my home office. During our first month together, there was always a chick or two in my sweater, on my shoulder or perching atop my head. They considered me their mother.Later, when they moved outside to a coop, they ranged freely over the eight acres my husband and I own in rural New Hampshire. Whenever they caught sight of me, they would greet me as if I were a member of the Beatles, racing toward me with wings outstretched. When they began to lay eggs, I was elated. I had gotten the hens to keep me company, but nothing tastes better than an egg from a free-range chicken you know personally. I’ve been a vegetarian since 1980, so I felt great about accepting this gift from my sweet little flock, which I called the Ladies.I had no idea that while the Ladies enjoyed shelter and sunshine, fresh bugs and freedom, their newborn brothers faced a gruesome fate shared by 6.5 billion male chicks around the world each year. These male birds can’t lay eggs but also aren’t raised for meat. Because they come from egg-laying breeds, they don’t grow big or fast enough to be used for food. So they are ground up alive or gassed to death.The practice is especially egregious because unlike many baby mammals and songbirds, which are born blind, naked and helpless, newborn chicks are capable little creatures. Within hours of hatching, they are standing, running and successfully finding food. When they are thrown into the grinder or gasser at 1-day old, these male chicks are alert and aware.Unwittingly, I was complicit in this monstrosity.The good news is that a new technology can help end it. Called in ovo sexing, it determines the sex of the chick embryo long before it hatches, allowing the producers to get rid of the male eggs and hatch only the females. Eggs from in ovo sexed hens have been available in some European countries since 2018 and now make up about 20 percent of Europe’s market, driven in large part by bans on chick culling in several countries, including Germany and France. Come summer, the first such eggs are due to become available in U.S. supermarkets.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      LeShon Johnson, Ex-N.F.L. Running Back, Ran Major Dogfighting Kennel, U.S. Says

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      Federal investigators say that they seized 190 pit-bull-type dogs from the former player, who previously pleaded guilty to state dogfighting charges in 2004.The federal authorities said this week that they had broken up a major dogfighting kennel in Oklahoma led by the former National Football League running back LeShon Johnson, seizing 190 pit-bull-type dogs in what they described as the most ever taken from a single person in a federal case.In a news release, the Justice Department said on Tuesday that a 21-count indictment against Mr. Johnson, 54, had recently been unsealed in federal court in Muskogee, Okla. He was arrested on March 20 and arraigned the same day before being released, according to court documents.Mr. Johnson, who played for the Green Bay Packers, the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Giants in the 1990s, is facing felony charges of possessing and trafficking dogs for use in an animal fighting venture. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.He previously pleaded guilty to state dogfighting charges in 2004 and received a five-year deferred sentence.“The F.B.I. will not tolerate criminals that harm innocent animals for their twisted form of entertainment,” Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, said in a statement. “The F.B.I. views animal cruelty investigations as a precursor to larger, organized crime efforts, similar to trafficking and homicides.”Courtney R. Jordan, a lawyer for Mr. Johnson, declined to comment on Wednesday.Investigators say that Mr. Johnson “selectively bred ‘champion’ and ‘grand champion’ fighting dogs — dogs that have respectively won three or five fights” as part of his criminal enterprise, which was known as Mal Kant Kennels and was based in Broken Arrow, Okla., and Haskell, Okla.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Mexico City Bans Traditional Bullfights for Violence-Free Option

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      Showdowns between people and bulls can still go on, but the animals can no longer be hurt or killed. Some bullfighting proponents said the law imperils an ancient tradition.In the biggest bullfighting city in the largest bullfighting country in the world, Mexico City lawmakers overwhelmingly voted on Tuesday to ban traditional bullfighting — a move that was supported by Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, but was fiercely opposed by backers of the centuries-old custom.The legislation, approved by a 61-1 vote, prohibits the injuring or killing of bulls for sport, in or outside of the arenas. It will allow for what proponents call “bullfighting without violence,” in which rules determine how long a bull can be in the ring and limit bullfighters to using only capes.“My heart always beats for animal welfare,” said Xochitl Bravo Espinosa, a Mexico City legislator who helped spearhead the effort.But Ms. Bravo Espinosa said that legislators tried to find a balance in which the bullfights could go on, albeit modified, so that people who made a living off the industry could continue working. She pointed to people who sell gear and food around La Plaza México, the largest bullfighting arena in the world, which opened in 1946 in the heart of the city and seats 42,000 people.Bullfighting proponents denounced the legislation, protesting outside the Mexico City legislature’s building on Tuesday morning. “This is just the beginning of a fight for our bullfighting,” four bullfighting groups said in a joint statement later in the day.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Attempted Theft and Poisoning of a Star Reindeer Leaves Anchorage Miffed

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      Star VII, the unofficial mascot for the Alaska city, nearly died when a person sprayed it with air freshener, the animal’s owner said.Dressed in dark clothes and hiding behind a mask, a dark figure hopped over a six-foot-tall wooden fence and opened up Star VII’s cage to release perhaps the nation’s most famous reindeer into the dark Anchorage night at 6:30 on Feb. 20.Star was found roaming the city’s streets by a member of the Anchorage Police Department later that evening. But the next night, a disguised figure visited Star’s enclosure and sprayed him with what his owner believed was air freshener.Anchorage’s Star reindeer are the stuff of legend, serving as the unofficial mascots of the city and playing a vital role in parades, school field trips and cultural events — living the life of small-town celebrities. Like the Pope or the Dalai Lama, when one Star dies, another Star is named.In the hours after Star VII was assaulted with air freshener, the reindeer feel deeply ill, and the Anchorage Police Department began its investigation into who might have sought to steal and harm the animal. No arrests have been made, and the police have posted security camera footage of an assailant in an effort to get tips about the case.Albert Whitehead, 84, a retired technology entrepreneur and Star’s caretaker, said he did not know what the attacker who poisoned the reindeer looked like but noted that he had heard the attacker’s voice.“Stop!” Mr. Whitehead screamed at the attacker, whom he caught on his security footage spraying his animal.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Some Vegans Were Harmed in the Watching of This Movie

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      A film critic who provides “vegan alerts” for animal cruelty goes beyond onscreen violence. Milk and eggs are problematic, too.Inside a dark theater in Midtown Manhattan, Allison McCulloch watched “Kraven the Hunter,” an origin story for the obscure Spider-Man villain, while jotting notes on a white piece of paper smaller than a Post-it.Fur clothing.Taxidermied animals.Characters eating steak.McCulloch is the Roger Ebert of vegans, a dedicated cinephile who cares as much as anyone about acting and cinematography — and more than almost anyone about onscreen portrayals of dairy, poultry and beef.In the short reviews she writes for the app Letterboxd, she includes her overall critique as well as “vegan alerts,” flagging signs of animal products in a one-woman quest to highlight animal welfare onscreen, even in details most viewers would overlook.“People might think a glass of milk is innocuous,” she said. “It’s not. It’s full of violence.”Some of McCulloch’s vegan alerts for “Kraven the Hunter,” with Aaron Taylor-Johnson: “Sergei catches and eats raw fish” and “tiger rug.”Columbia Pictures/Marvel, via Sony PicturesMcCulloch has documented her opinion on 24,082 movies on her Letterboxd account, putting her in the top 100 out of the app’s more than 18 million members. Movies starring animals are almost a lock for vegan-friendly ratings, with films like “Flow” and “Kung Fu Panda 4” getting four stars.“Kraven the Hunter,” about a criminal-tracking vigilante played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, flopped by traditional measures (“incomprehensible plotting and dodgy one-liners,” Robert Daniels wrote in The New York Times). But it worked on some level for McCulloch, who was surprised by how it framed Kraven as a kind of conservationist who shares a supernatural connection with the creatures he encounters, and hunts criminals instead. She even gave the movie one “vegan point” for Kraven’s decision to not shoot a lion.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Georgia Man Sentenced to 475 Years for Dogfighting

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      Vincent Lemark Burrell was found guilty last month of more than 100 counts of dogfighting and animal cruelty after dozens of dogs were found in poor condition at his home.A Georgia man who the authorities said kept more than 100 dogs in cruel conditions at his home has been sentenced to 475 years in prison after being found guilty last month of dogfighting and cruelty to animals, prosecutors said.The man, Vincent Lemark Burrell, 57, of Dallas, Ga., was found guilty by a jury on Jan. 30 of 93 counts of dogfighting and 10 counts of cruelty to animals.The verdict came after a four-day trial in which the authorities said they had found 107 dogs, many of them underweight, scarred and missing teeth, chained up in his yard in 2022, the Paulding County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.Judge Dean C. Bucci of the Paulding County Superior Court gave Mr. Burrell the maximum possible sentence.The authorities had been acting on a search warrant issued after an Amazon driver raised concerns about the welfare of the dogs, which the driver said he saw chained in the yard, according to the statement.Officers sent to Mr. Burrell’s house in Dallas, which is about 32 miles outside of Atlanta, found the dogs, most of them pit bulls, without access to food or water, the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      2-Year-Old Gorilla Dies After Being Struck by Hydraulic Door at Zoo

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      A Calgary Zoo staff member mistakenly activated a door that struck the western lowland gorilla named Eyare, a report found.A 2-year-old gorilla died of traumatic injuries last week at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta, Canada, after being struck by a hydraulic door that a staff member mistakenly activated, according to the zoo.The western lowland gorilla, named Eyare, who was the offspring of gorillas at the zoo, had been interacting with other gorillas on Nov. 12 in an enclosure where they are fed, observed and trained outside their habitat.A staff member was trying to separate Eyare, who weighed about 30 pounds, from the other gorillas for a vaccination training session.“A team member intended to activate a door that they were looking at, but accidentally used the control lever for a different door,” Colleen Baird, the zoo’s director of animal care, said in an interview on Saturday. “And as that door was closing, Eyare was passing through, and she was struck by it.”Teams attempted lifesaving measures, but Eyare died shortly after 9:30 a.m.Ms. Baird said that the staff member operating the door was “devastated,” and that the person was immediately removed from the workplace. The staff member was not a new employee, and was comfortable working with gorillas, Ms. Baird said.The staff member will undergo additional training before returning to work in that area of the zoo, which is home to six other western lowland gorillas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More