Chris's Sharebook 

PETITION: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/237/391/433/dont-test-legal-recreational-drugs-on-animals/

In a new bill, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne outlined procedures for testing "legal highs" on animals so that the products can be sold in New Zealand stores again. Legal highs, also called party pills, are psychoactive drugs intended for recreation, not for curing or preventing illness.

The bill recommends performing toxicity tests on dogs and rats over a six to 12-month period. Toxicity testing generally involves administering drugs or chemicals to animals by force feeding, inhalation, injection, or on the skin to determine immediate reactions and lethal doses. This causes great pain to the test animals, who are usually killed at the end of the testing period. New Zealand currently tests 300,000 animals per year, and the legal drug tests would add to this number for a completely unnecessary cause.

There is no reason for legal highs to be sold on the New Zealand market, as their use is purely for cheap recreation. Administering painful tests and killing animals to sell party pills is unjustifiably cruel. Please sign the petition to put an end to these unnecessary tests.

A newsletter originally posted on the USDA website read, "One way to reduce your environmental impact while dining at our cafeterias is to participate in the Meatless Monday initiative." After backlash from politicians and agricultural interest groups, the USDA retracted their recommendation, tweeting that the "Statement found on USDA website was posted w/o proper clearance."

The USDA's own food pyramid lists beans, peas, processed soy products, nuts and seeds as protein sources along with meats. The average U.S. diet is unimaginative and heavy on meats, to the detriment of human and environmental health. No one is forcing citizens to give up meat. The Meatless Mondays initiative or similar promotion of non-meat proteins would simply encourage people to be more imaginative in their eating choices and more conscious of how their diets affect their health and the world around them.

Please click here to sign the petition to encourage the USDA to promote meat alternatives and put the health of citizens and the environment above political and financial interests.

Artist Laura Ginn recently hosted an extravagant dinner in Manhattan to complement her art show, "Tomorrow We Will Feast Again On What We Catch." The dinner was made with rat meat, and the artist wore a fur coat made from the pelts of 300 rats.

Catching and eating animals for survival is one thing, but Ginn purchased and used medical rats from California. She used thousands of dollars solicited from the public to fund the exhibition and dinner. Despite the exhibition's primitive survivalist motif, the use of medical rats in this fashion was indulgent and glamorized animal exploitation for the sake of art. Eating wild rats is dangerous because of the diseases they carry, so the dinner/performance art had little if any educational value from a survivalist perspective.

This is not the first time animals have been killed, tortured or exploited for the sake of an art show. New York City is a leader in the art world, and should not allow these types of shows to become trendy. Please click here to sign the petition to urge NYC art galleries to ban future exhibitions involving animal exploitation and cruelty.

California's foie gras ban went into effect on July 1st, but chefs and restauranteurs are exploiting  loopholes to get around the law. Some restaurants have created a secret code word for customers to use when requesting foie gras, serve it for "free" with an overly expensive menu item or offer to prepare foie gras that a customer brings in.

Choosing to serve and eat foie gras is not a victimless crime -- undercover investigations of foie gras farms have found sick, dead and dying birds with holes in their necks from having force-feeding tubes rammed down them. California gave state producers years to come up with more humane ways to produce foie gras, but they failed to do so.

The loopholes currently used to serve foie gras in California are a slap in the face to everyone who created and voted for the ban. Chefs and restauranteurs should not get away with cooking foie gras that a customer brings in or serving foie gras under a different name, for free, or as a complement to another dish. Please urge California legislators to seriously enforce the foie gras ban and close loopholes in the law.