hedweb / CC

Problem: You're head of an engineering firm hired to simulate and analyze a customer's fall in a Dollar General store in order to provide testimony in a lawsuit.

Solution(?): Get some goon to shoot a sensitive, intelligent pig in the head and then drop the pig's body repeatedly onto a concrete floor.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that killing a pig to mimic a human fall is inhumane and unnecessary, but that's exactly what Linda Weseman of Gainesville-based Weseman Engineering Inc. did.

Since shooting a pig execution-style violates USDA regulations, we filed a complaint with that agency in September 2008 after a whistleblower alerted us to the incident.

Exactly a year later, we learned that the USDA has issued Weseman three citations and a "serious warning" for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

The following are the violations Ms. Weseman was cited for:

• Conducting experiments on an animal without being registered with the USDA
• Failure to have the experiment reviewed by an animal welfare oversight committee
• Failure to provide adequate veterinary care for the pig prior to the animal's death and failure to meet the requirements for euthanasia

Weseman also agreed never to do another experiment on a USDA-regulated animal again (so pigs are safe, but rats and mice beware).

In case those citations and a warning aren't enough to drive home the point for Ms. Weseman that sentient beings shouldn't be killed for pointless experiments, I suggest some compassion training with rescued piglets at her nearest animal sanctuary.

Posted by Heather Drennan

This guy wasn't monkeying around when he and 300 animal defenders recently descended upon Guayama, Puerto Rico (aka "Pueblo de los Brujos" or "city of witches"), to condemn the proposed construction of a Bioculture monkey-breeding facility within city limits.

This plan is driving everyone—from PETA to local citizens—bananas because Bioculture reportedly wants to use the facility to breed wild monkeys and sell their babies for use in painful and cruel experiments. Even Guayama's mayor, Glorimari Jaime, is opposed to the facility's construction. Halfway through the protest, she came out of her office, stood on a bench, and told the group that she was on their side—and that she would support and join in civil disobedience with them.

The protest was picked up by media across the city, so my guess is that Puerto Rican governor Luis G. Fortuño has already caught wind of the public's outrage. Yesterday, we sent him a letter calling on him to halt consideration of the Bioculture facility—hopefully it will be the final nudge he needs to prevent its construction.

Our hats are off to the hundreds of caring people who have voiced their opposition to Bioculture—please join them.

Posted by Karin Bennett

earthfirst / CC

Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning actor—and animal defender extraordinaire—Woody Harrelson might have played the laid-back Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men, but he was almost as mad as his controversial character Mickey Knox when he learned about deadly medical training exercises involving cats at Texas Tech.

Homeless cats at the Odessa animal shelter—just a stone's throw away from the star's birthplace in Midland—are purchased by the university's Health Sciences Center and then abused and killed in medical training exercises. Faculty members and trainees force plastic tubes down the cats' throats and stab needles into their chests for procedures that invariably result in pain and death for the animals. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association exclusively endorse the use of modern, human-like manikins—not live animals—for this kind of training in their courses.

Here's part of Woody's letter to Texas Tech President John Baldwin:

Harming and killing shelter animals for these exercises is unjustifiable, especially as realistic manikins that more accurately represent human anatomy and better prepare medical professionals to treat injured and sick children are readily available. . . . I and countless others around the state are deeply discouraged to learn that Texas Tech is taking advantage of the tragic abundance of abandoned animals.

Cheers to Woody for speaking out against these cruel exercises. Wood you (ouch) join him in protesting these cruel, outdated procedures?

Posted by Karin Bennett