Idaho Teacher Acquitted of Animal Cruelty for Feeding Puppy to Turtle | Care2 Causes

One afternoon after school in March 2018, some students watched as Robert Crosland, a science teacher at Preston Junior High in Idaho, fed a live puppy to a snapping turtle. The turtle was later euthanized—not by Crosland, thankfully—because the teacher did not have a permit to keep it.

Outrage over this disturbing incident spread around the world, yet many of Crosland’s students and their parents defended him. Crosland was not suspended or fired from his job.

Jill Parrish, a former student of Crosland’s, received death threats after she reported the puppy killing to police. “This is a cut-and-dried case of animal cruelty,” she told the Idaho Statesman last year. “But they’re saying, ‘The teacher is a good teacher.’ Everybody loves him.”

One of those supporters is Farahlyn Hansen, the mother of two students who witnessed Crosland killing the puppy. She told EastIdahoNews.com last year that if anyone should be upset about it, it should be her, but that wasn’t the case. “I felt like it was the more humane thing for Robert to do than to just leave it to die,” Hansen said. “The puppy was dying.”

Another parent, Annette Salvesen, agreed with Hansen. “If it was a deformed puppy that was going to die anyway, Cros[land] is very much circle of life,” she said.
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Although about 4,000 people signed a petition supporting Crosland, more than 248,000 people signed a Care2 petition urging the teacher to be fired.

After a three-month investigation, the Idaho attorney general’s office charged Crosland with animal cruelty. Because this was Crosland’s first offense, under Idaho law it was a considered a misdemeanor. If he was found guilty, Crosland faced up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

But nearly a year after he killed the puppy, a jury of Crosland’s peers has found him not guilty of animal cruelty—which really shouldn’t be too shocking, considering his support from the community. The trial at the Franklin County Courthouse in Preston lasted just two days—most of the first day was taken up by jury selection—and the six jurors deliberated for only 30 minutes, KIFI reports.
Disturbing Details of the Puppy’s Death

According to testimonies from witnesses during the brief trial, the farmer who had given the puppy to Crosland’s son told him it was sick and dying. “I honestly thought I was doing the right thing by putting it out of its misery,” Crosland told an investigator. The prosecution argued that the puppy may not have even really been sick.

I don’t know if it was brought it up during the trial, but it should be noted that there’s at least one animal hospital located less than a mile from Preston Junior High, where the puppy, if it really was dying, could have been humanely euthanized.

Instead, witnesses—who insisted Preston cares deeply about animals—said he put the puppy in the snapping turtle’s aquarium, which was filled with water. Witnesses said the puppy “paddled a few times, and then the turtle grabbed it and pulled it under the water,” KIFI reports. “The puppy drowned before the turtle started eating it.”

Although Crosland’s attorney moved that the case be dismissed because of the lack of evidence that the puppy suffered, the judge ruled this decision was best left to the jury.

And, yes, the jury somehow decided in 30 minutes that the puppy hadn’t suffered. After all, they and Crosland’s supporters had no problem with what the teacher did—so why should the little puppy have any problem with Crosland dumping him into an aquarium with a hungry, sharp-beaked snapping turtle?

The Idaho Humane Society (IHS) released a statement saying it was outraged and saddened by the verdict, and I’m sure that many of us who truly do care about animals feel exactly the same way.

The one upside, as the IHS points out, is that this case has shined an international spotlight on Idaho’s weak animal cruelty laws.

“This travesty does not create any new precedence for allowing cruelty but rather, will undoubtedly serve as a rallying cry for those who care passionately about the welfare of animals to renew their efforts in communities throughout Idaho to ensure vigorous enforcement of our cruelty laws and to improve these laws both at the state level as well as locally,” it said. “Additionally, this verdict will no doubt bring both national and even international condemnation of Idaho’s laws and the reputation of Idaho in general.”

https://www.care2.com/causes/idaho-teacher-acquitted-of-animal-cruelty-for-feeding-puppy-to-turtle.html

Photo credit: East Idaho News/YouTube

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Sign Petition: Tell Coastal Golf Courses to Get Their Golf Balls Out of Our Ocean

thepetitionsite.com
by: Care2 Team
recipient: The Pebble Beach Company and other coastal and riverside golf coursesmore

Pebble Beach is world-renowned for being one of the most beautiful golf courses on Earth. The golf resort is dotted with million dollar mansions and frequented by some of the wealthiest people on the planet. It truly is a golfer’s paradise.

But right off the coast, where the links turn into the sea, that paradise has been lost.

Two years ago, a young 16-year-old freediver named Alex Weber was swimming off the coast in Carmel Bay. Weber says she had been diving since she was a young child, so the underwater world was nothing new to her. But this time she saw something she didn’t expect. Instead of sand covering the seafloor, she saw nothing but golf balls — thousands and thousands of them.

Weber knew this wasn’t good. Golf balls are covered in plastic, and like any plastic material that finds its way into the sea, they degrade over time, releasing microplastics and other toxins into the ocean that marine life ingest.

Weber knew just what she had to do — with help, she initiated her own golf ball clean up effort to rid Carmel Bay of its golf ball scourge. Over the following two years, she and her helpers removed around 50,000 balls — more than 2 tons of them.

Weber said that even as they made their regular diving trips out to remove more golf balls, they could hear the “plink, plink” of more balls hitting the ocean from golfers at nearby resorts.

The Pebble Beach Company (PBC) — owner of Pebble Beach and two other courses along the coast including The Links at Spanish Bay and Spyglass Hill — charge big money by offering a chance to play at this stunning course. They can charge exorbitant green fees ($525) because the links are pristine and beautiful. But management has failed to keep the entire area in equally as tip-top shape. For PBC officials, out of sight means out of mind. Over the years they have allowed thousands of golf balls to pollute California’s shore. That is unacceptable.

The PBC must take responsibility for the golf ball pollution caused by their guests and rid the sea floor of them at once. Additionally, they should take extra steps to make sure more balls don’t make their way into the sea, perhaps by erecting a net to stop stray balls.

Sign the petition to tell PBC and other coastal and river golf courses to clean up their mess. Photo credit: The Plastic Pick-Up.

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/972/407/417/tell-pebble-beach-to-get-their-golf-balls-out-of-our-ocean/

 

Petition · End Brutal ‘Coyote Whacking’ in Wyoming! · Change.org

End Brutal ‘Coyote Whacking’ in Wyoming!
Anja Heister started this petition to Wyoming Governor and 12 others

The image of this coyote is haunting.

The story behind it is unimaginable animal cruelty.

It’s happening in WY.

It happens to coyotes (wolves are being targeted as well).

It is legal.

This Wyoming coyote is one of thousands who are being persecuted by human killers in the state, who practice ‘Yote Whackin’. It includes coyote killing contests and snowmobiles. This coyote is plastered in the snow under a snowmobile after just being chased until she/he could no longer escape. The hunter arranged his camera on the snowmobile to film himself running over the coyote several times before grabbing the coyote by the tail and swinging the animal to beat her/his head against the snowmobile, again and again, until the job is done when he tosses the coyote, as he smiles into the camera.

You can read more about this animal cruelty, and also watch a video here (warning, the video is extremely graphic): https://mountainjournal.org/hunting-in-america-faces-an-ethical-reckoning

The photo and video above “ … offer brutal glimpses at reality, and they speak not only truth on the ground but to the fact such behavior is condoned by political and social leaders in Wyoming, who let them happen without comment.” (Todd Wilkinson).

Coyotes in WY and other western states have no protection at all … everything goes. We also have anecdotal evidence that hunters in Montana enjoy chasing and running over coyotes with their recreational vehicles.

No animal deserves this type of the suffering and cruel death.

No animal deserves to be treated with such aggression, brutality and violence.

Please take immediate action and contact WY’s officials to prohibit predator killing contests and killing coyotes with vehicles – now!

Please sign this petition to demand that the state of Wyoming immediately provide protection for predators and prohibit atrocious behavior such as coyote/predator killing contests, and chasing and running over coyotes (or any wild animal) with any vehicle, including aircrafts, ATVs, ORVs, cars and snowmobiles.

You can also write your own letter denouncing this unhinged cruelty, or you can personalize the letter below, and send it to the officials listed below. We must stop the pathological torture of our wildlife.

Public Photo: “Coyote snow camo”, and “that face you make when a snowmobile runs you over”.
Public photos and videos under Fair Use for educational purpose.

LETTER:

Dear official,

I was shocked to learn that Wyoming allows ‘yote whackin,’ a practice that include coyote killing contests and killing coyotes with snowmobiles.

In just one video posted online, a hunter can be seen chasing a coyote to exhaustion in deep snow, deliberately running the animal over several times, and then grabbing the coyote by the tail and slamming the animal onto his snowmobile while smiling into the camera. You can read more about this issue and also watch a video here: https://mountainjournal.org/hunting-in-america-faces-an-ethical-reckoning

Videos like the one above “ … offer brutal glimpses at reality, and they speak not only truth on the ground but to the fact such behavior is condoned by political and social leaders in Wyoming, who let them happen without comment.” (Todd Wilkinson).

Predator killing contests and killing wild animals with vehicles goes against the ethical standards laid out by the North American Wildlife Model and directly violates fair chase, respect for and humane killing of wild animals.

What gives hunters the right to engage in behavior that otherwise would be punished with a felony animal cruelty charge? No animal, whether domestic or wild deserves to be treated with such outrageous aggression, brutality and violence.

I am asking you to immediately provide protection for predators and prohibit atrocious behavior such as coyote/predator killing contests, and chasing and running over coyotes (or any wild animal) with any vehicle, including aircrafts, ATVs, ORVs, cars and snowmobiles.

Sincerely,

The following list includes WY’s governor, legislators, senators, representatives, the director of the Game and Fish Department and its commissioners.

governor.elect@wyo.gov,Jeff.Wasserburger@wyoleg.gov,Michael.VonFlatern@wyoleg.gov,Cheri.Steinmetz@wyoleg.gov,Charles.Scott@wyoleg.gov,Chris.Rothfuss@wyoleg.gov, Ray.Peterson@wyoleg.gov,Drew.Perkins@wyoleg.gov,Stephan.Pappas@wyoleg.gov,Tara.Nethercott@wyoleg.gov,Glenn.Moniz@wyoleg.gov,Bill.Landen@wyoleg.gov,Dave.Kinskey@wyoleg.gov,Larry.Hicks@wyoleg.gov,Mike.Gierau@wyoleg.gov,Affie.Ellis@wyoleg.gov,Ogden.Driskill@wyoleg.gov,Dan.Dockstader@wyoleg.gov,
Hank.Coe@wyoleg.gov,Cale.Case@wyoleg.gov,Anthony.Bouchard@wyoleg.gov,Brian.Boner@wyoleg.gov,Bo.Biteman@wyoleg.gov,Eli.Bebout@wyoleg.gov,Fred.Baldwin@wyoleg.gov,Liisa.AnselmiDalton@wyoleg.gov,jameslee.anderson@wyoleg.gov,Wyatt.Agar@wyoleg.gov,scott.talbott@wyo.gov,mark.anselmi@wyo.gov,david.rael@wyo.gov,patrick.crank@wyo.gov,mike.schmid@wyo.gov,gaylynn.byrd@wyo.gov,peter.dube@wyo.gov,keith.culver@wyo.gov

SIGN PETITION
https://www.change.org/p/end-brutal-coyote-whacking-in-wyoming

© 2019, Change.org, PBCCertified B Corporation

FDA Finds Salmonella and Listeria in Hare Today Pet Food

dogfoodadvisor.com
FDA Finds Salmonella and Listeria in Hare Today Pet Food

Not a Product Recall

January 23, 2019 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning pet owners not to feed a specific lot of Hare Today Gone Tomorrow Ground Chicken/Bones/Organs because Salmonella and Listeria bacteria were discovered in the product.

What Products Are Affected?

The product is available in four sizes and varieties. All included the processing date of 12.04.2018 on the back of the bag:

Ground Chicken/Bones/Organs
1-pound bag
Fine Ground
Ground Chicken/Bones/Organs
2-pound bag
Fine Ground
Ground Chicken/Bones/Organs
3-pound bag
Coarse Ground
Ground Chicken/Bones/Organs
5-pound bag
Fine Ground

What Caused the Warning?

The FDA collected this sample while following up on a consumer complaint in which a kitten became sick with Salmonella after eating the affected product.

The specific lot of Hare Today Gone Tomorrow Ground Chicken/Bones/Organs that the sick kitten ate was not available for testing.

The FDA collected samples from lot 12.04.2018, which tested positive for both Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.

Although the Salmonella isolated from the feces of the sick kitten did not match the strain found in the product sample, Federal law requires that all pet food not be contaminated with pathogens, including Salmonella and Listeria because of the potential impact on human and animal health.
Why Is the FDA Issuing This Alert?

The FDA is issuing this alert because the affected lot of Hare Today Gone Tomorrow Ground Chicken/Bones/Organs represents a serious threat to human and animal health and is adulterated under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because it contains Salmonella and Listeriamonocytogenes.

The FDA continues to work with the company on the affected product.
About Salmonella

What is Salmonella and what are the symptoms of Salmonella infection?

Salmonella is a bacterium that can cause illness and death in humans and animals, especially those who are very young, very old, or have weak immune systems.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people infected with Salmonella can develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps.

Most people recover without treatment, but in some people, the diarrhea may be so severe that they need to be hospitalized.

In these patients, the Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the blood stream and then to other body sites unless the person is treated promptly with antibiotics.

Consult your health care provider if you have symptoms of Salmonella infection.

Pets do not always display symptoms when infected with Salmonella.

But signs can include vomiting, diarrhea (which may be bloody), fever, loss of appetite and/or decreased activity level.

If your pet has these symptoms, consult a veterinarian promptly.

You should also be aware that infected pets can shed the bacteria in their feces without showing signs of being sick.
About Listeria

What are the symptoms of Listeria infection (listeriosis)?

According to CDC, listeriosis can cause a variety of symptoms, depending on the person and the part of the body affected.

Pregnant women: Pregnant women typically experience only fever and other flu-like symptoms, such as fatigue and muscle aches.

However, infections during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or life-threatening infection of the newborn.

People other than pregnant women: Symptoms can include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions in addition to fever and muscle aches.

People with invasive listeriosis, a more serious form of the disease, usually report symptoms starting 1 to 4 weeks after eating food contaminated with Listeria.

Some people have reported symptoms starting as late as 70 days after exposure or as early as the same day of exposure.

Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics.

Pregnant women and their newborns, adults age 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to get sick with listeriosis.

Anyone with symptoms of listeriosis should contact a health care provider.

Listeria infections are uncommon in pets, but they are possible.

Symptoms may include mild to severe diarrhea; anorexia; fever; nervous, muscular and respiratory signs; abortion; depression; shock; and death.

Pets do not need to display symptoms to be able to pass L. mono on to their human companions.

Once Listeria gets established in the pet’s gastrointestinal tract, the animal can shed the bacteria when it has a bowel movement, and the contamination may continue to spread.

If your pet has these symptoms, consult a veterinarian promptly.
Why Is the FDA Concerned

About Salmonella and Listeria?

Pet foods contaminated with disease-causing bacteria such as Salmonella and Listeria are of particular public health importance because they can affect both human and animal health.

Pets can get sick from Salmonella and Listeria and may also be carriers of the bacteria and pass it onto their human companions without appearing to be ill.

The FDA is aware of recent cases in which humans and/or animals have gotten sick from exposure to contaminated pet foods (Salmonella-human cases, Salmonella-kitten, Salmonella-kitten, dog).

Once Salmonella and/or Listeria become established in the pet’s gastrointestinal tract, the animal can shed the bacteria when it has a bowel movement.

And the contamination will continue to spread.

Because animals can shed the bacteria when they have bowel movements, it’s particularly important to clean up the animal’s feces in yards or parks where people or other animals may become exposed, in addition to cleaning items in the home.

Federal law, including the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, requires that all pet food not be contaminated with pathogens, including Salmonella and L. mono.

Pet food manufacturers must effectively manage sourcing of ingredients, processing and packing to control pathogens.

Without an effective control, such as cooking, raw pet food is more likely than other types of pet food to contain pathogens such as Salmonella and Listeria.

Refrigeration or freezing does not kill the bacteria.

Pet owners who choose to feed raw pet food should be aware of the risks associated with these products.

The FDA is the Federal agency that regulates pet food, while the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulates meat and poultry for human consumption.

USDA-regulated raw meat and poultry products are intended to be cooked and carry instructions to cook the product to a safe temperature.

However, raw pet food products are intended to be served without further cooking, which creates a potential health hazard for people and pets exposed to the product.
Company Response to FDA Warning

Click here to read the company’s response to the FDA warning and posted on Facebook https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recall/fda-finds-salmonella-listeria-in-hare-today-gone-tomorrow-pet-food/.

What to Do?

If you have the affected product in your possession, stop feeding it to your pets.

And throw it away in a secure container where other animals, including wildlife, cannot access it.

Consumers who have had this product in their homes should clean refrigerators/freezers where the product was stored and clean and disinfect all bowls, utensils, food prep surfaces, pet bedding, toys, floors, and any other surfaces that the food or pet may have had contact with.

Clean up the pet’s feces in yards or parks where people or other animals may become exposed.

U.S. citizens can report complaints about FDA-regulated pet food products by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.

Or go to https://www.fda.gov/petfoodcomplaints.

Canadians can report any health or safety incidents related to the use of this product by filling out the Consumer Product Incident Report Form.

https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recall/fda-finds-salmonella-listeria-in-hare-today-gone-tomorrow-pet-food/

SIGN: STOP THE SLAUGHTER OF AMERICA’S WILD HORSES

ladyfreethinker.org

Petition Target: Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen

America’s iconic wild horses are in grave danger of being sold off to meat slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada — where torture and painful death await.

U.S. Forest Service has just built its first corral for wild horses, where it is holding 260 animals rounded up from Modoc National Forest in Northern California. The horses’ fates hang in the balance as they may soon be shipped off to foreign slaughterhouses and brutally butchered for meat.

For decades, wild horses and burros have been protected by a ban on the slaughter of healthy animals or any sale that results in their harm. This is because federal law prohibits any such actions by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

But by building their own pen instead of following the usual protocol of sending the horses to BLM-operated pens, Forest Service is sidestepping the only protections that could save these animals from the kill floor.

Instead of brutally killing America’s horses, the government should enact cruelty free population control measures, such as reducing births. Better yet, they should protect the public land on which these majestic creatures roam free.

Sign the petition to urge US Forest Service not to send one single wild horse or burro to slaughter. These majestic animals must not be sent to their death.

https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-stop-slaughter-americas-wild-horses-2/

The huge challenge of removing palm oil – About Iceland

about.iceland.co.uk

Last year we pledged to make two massive changes that both presented enormous technical challenges: removing plastic packaging from our Iceland own label range by 2023, and removing palm oil as an ingredient from our own label range by the end of 2018.

Why so hard? Because both plastics and palm oil are effective, versatile and cheap. As a result, they have become the default setting for the whole food industry. When we set out to make the changes we wanted, we were asking suppliers to participate in nothing short of a revolution. As a responsible retailer, we were conscious of our duty of care to ensure that we did not push any of them too hard by demanding that they achieve the impossible.

We have also always been aware that hard-pressed consumers don’t have a load of spare cash to pay more for their food, however much of a good cause they may think plastics and palm oil removal to be. Hence we pledged to make the changes without increasing prices, and to bear the considerable costs ourselves. In the case of palm oil removal alone, we have invested several million pounds of our own money to achieve the switch. We also obviously needed to ensure that our new palm oil-free recipes tasted at least as good – or better – than the ones we replaced.

Palm oil was the more demanding deadline, and when we made our announcement in April we always knew that it was going to be a massive challenge to remove it from all our own label food by 31 December 2018. Because it’s not just a matter of replacing one ingredient with another; in many cases suppliers have had to invest – with our support – to change their whole production process. In a few cases they simply couldn’t do it at all, and we have had to seek completely new suppliers, adding further time and cost.

Nevertheless, we did it – or did we? There have been some murmurings in the media so let me be totally honest here about what we have done and what we still need to do.

We sell 911 Iceland own label lines and every single line manufactured after 31 December 2018 does not contain palm oil as an ingredient. Where it previously did or might have done, we have marked it with a ‘No Palm Oil’ flash.

Until yesterday, our website erroneously listed some fresh and chilled food own label lines – including hot cross buns – as containing palm oil, because of a technical failure that meant that our ingredients lists had not been updated. No such products were actually on sale, and the website has now been corrected.

Frozen food has a long shelf-life, and food banks do not welcome donations of bulk frozen products, so we had a simple choice with those products made with palm oil before 31 December 2018 that had not been sold by then: leave them to sell through in our stores or throw them in the bin. If we had opted for the latter we would have been lambasted – quite rightly – for creating avoidable food waste. So there are still around 30 Iceland frozen own label lines, mainly desserts and pastry products, listed on our website as containing palm oil, and they will continue to do so until stocks are exhausted. They will sell through in the next few weeks and be replaced in stores with new recipe lines carrying our ‘No Palm Oil’ flash.

Finally, there were a handful of products that our suppliers simply could not switch by 31 December. So, to meet our pledge, we have temporarily moved these out of own label into brands. We have always been completely transparent about the possible need to do this, and have done it in the knowledge that it will adversely affect our sales, because unrecognised brands never sell as well as our trusted own label.

We are working hard with existing or new suppliers to get 17 of these frozen and chilled lines back into Iceland own label as soon as we can, and expect to accomplish this by April 2019.

There are a further 15 chilled lines where we and our suppliers have reluctantly concluded that it simply isn’t technically feasible to replace palm oil with another ingredient, or where doing so would result in a massive increase in cost that neither we nor our customers would be able to bear. These will continue to be sold as branded products – along with the hundreds of other branded lines containing palm oil that we always recognised we would have to continue to sell. Palm oil is in half of everything that supermarkets sell, and it would be commercial suicide not to offer our customers the leading brands they want to buy.

So yes, we did tick the box and stop using palm oil as an ingredient in all our own label food made after 31 December 2018, exactly as we promised. It has been very hard, and very costly, and in some cases the change will take a few more weeks to work through. But customers can already see major progress in our stores with many products bearing our ‘No Palm Oil’ flash, and those who share our concern about tropical deforestation now have a choice where there was none before.

The noise we have made about palm oil has also had the beneficial effect of contributing to pressure on the palm oil industry to clean up its act, and deliver a genuinely sustainable product to the mass market. If they are fulfilled, recent commitments from both the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) and Wilmar (the world’s largest palm oil trader) will bring us much closer to the ‘no deforestation’ goal that has always been our aim.

http://about.iceland.co.uk/2019/01/24/the-huge-challenge-of-removing-palm-oil/