Bear baiting is one of the most barbaric acts of inhumanity. This article is about it going on in Pakistan, but it also goes on in the United States!

STRAIGHT FROM THE WORLD SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS:

The brutal but lucrative contests are organized by powerful local landlords. They own and train the dogs, which are also victims of this 'sport', encouraging ferocity in attack situations.

The bears are owned by Kalanders – traditional bear owners –who are paid by the landlords to bring the bears to fight.

Bear baiting is banned by the Pakistan Wildlife Act and contravenes Islamic teachings, which forbid the baiting of animals.

Taking actionDogs attack during a bear baiting event, Pakistan
© WSPA/Mark RissiWSPA and member society the Pakistan Biodiversity Research Center (PBRC) have helped to dramatically reduce the number of bear baiting events in recent years, by:

• Campaigning to bring awareness of international opposition to the "sport" to the Pakistani authorities.
• Working with the Pakistani government and wildlife officials to halt the fights and look at alternative livelihoods for bear owners.
• Monitoring the numbers of captive bears and pushing for prosecution.
• Building the Kund Park sanctuary, providing a home for confiscated bears.
• Educating potential spectators through a mobile phone awareness unit and religious teachings. In 2007, WSPA persuaded over 1,000 mosques in target areas to preach against bear baiting.
• Calling for greater action to prevent illegal bear cub poaching. A Pakistan-wide educational program has raised awareness of the issue.

by Betsy Seeton
A dog's sense of  smell is 1000 times stronger than a human's. The canine's heightened ability is helping sniff out bowel cancer through breath and stool samples. It turns out that different types of cancer cells have their own distinct odor that a trained Labrador has been able to very effectively detect. The test revealed an astounding accuracy rate between 95% to 98%. This applies to even early stages of the cancer, which is being hailed as the holy grail because early detection offers the best cure rates.

By Boonsri Dickinson | Feb 3, 2011 |
smartplanet.com
Like Popular Science said:

Training dogs is another issue all together.

CSIRO researcher Trevor Lockett told ABC.net.au
While training dogs to identify cancer with their incredible sniffing ability might be impracticable as a scalable medical screening procedure, it’s reasonable to think that one day sensors could do the dirty work.

An electronic nose (see article below) can detect tumors in its earliest stages. But can researchers design a system that can recreate what goes on when a dog uses its super sense of smell? The dog might be smelling a number of different compounds - and this might be hard to recreate with sensors.

A number of groups are honing in on the precision of the systems to detect a slew of cancers and to identify the threat of hazardous substances. I wrote about Stanford chemists who created an e-nose that can sniff out anything from sour milk to explosives.

Breath test can detect cancer
By Boonsri Dickinson | Aug 11, 2010
Smartplanet.com

Scientists developed a breath test prototype that can identify the four most common forms of cancer: lung, bowel, breast, and prostate.

The Technion Israel Institute of Technology researchers tested 177 people — some were healthy, while others suffered from breast, bowel, lung, or prostate cancer, reports The Guardian. More tests will be needed to see if the breath test works in cases when the cancer status isn’t known.

The electronic nose could tell if a person has healthy or cancerous breathand detected which kind of cancer the person had. It’s the gold nanoparticles in the sensors that can sniff out chemicals. When tumors begin to grow, the cancerous cells emit chemicals unique to that type of cancer.

And it will take a few years for scientists to hone down the accuracy of the test. The breath tests would be far less troublesome than mammograms and stool tests. So using the electronic nose in addition to imaging could ease the burden of uncomfortable, regular checkups.

Why are there over 30,000 Wild Horses in holding facilities and not Home on the Range?

Why do we need a Private Foundation to save Wild Horses and Burros?Why does the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971 need to be amended to save Wild Horses and Burros?

What can you do to save these excess 30,000 Wild Horses and Burros held in holding facilities?Why do we need to create a Wild Horse Sanctuary?

How many wild horses can the Saving America’s Mustangs Ranch support?Can the Saving America’s Mustangs Ranch be managed without negative environmental impacts?

How can you keep 30,000 head of wild horses from escaping the Ranch?What kind of conflicts may exist between wildlife and wild horses on the Saving America’s Mustangs Ranch?

Could there be impacts to federal land users, adjacent land owners, local communities, county, or state government by changing use from cattle to horses on the Saving America’s Mustangs Ranch?

Will the federal government acquire any private lands within the ranch if the foundation ceases to exist?

Will the Foundation be a good neighbor by being open and accessible, ensuring fences are maintained and the horses don’t escape, and allow public access to the ranch?

Why do taxpayers have to pay the Foundation to care for and protect wild horses relocated from government pens to the ranch?

How can the federal government be assured that the foundation is capable of managing and caring for the thousands of horses they will receive and provide long term health of both the horses and the rangeland?

Why not acquire a small ranch which can support between 500 to 1,000 horses where the forage is more plentiful and the overall ranch price is lower so the ranch could be managed without government funding?

Are there other benefits the Foundation proposal provides the government?

Why does BLM have so many horses in Short Term Holding?

Does it make sense that the BLM relocate excess wild horses to other federal and private lands which has capacity for wild horses, if the WH&BA is amended to provide the Secretary of Interior this authority?

"In the past we have tried to make a distinction between 
animals which we acknowledge have some value and others which, having none, 
can be liquidated when we wish. This standard must be abandoned. 
Everything that lives has value simply as a living thing, as one of the
 manifestations of the mystery that is life." 
— Albert Schweitzer

"In the last 30 years, the African elephant population has 
declined to about 35 percent of its original numbers."
Samuel Wasser
Conservation Biologist, University of Washington

DEMAND FOR IVORY DRIVES THE ILLEGAL TRADE

Pictured below is confiscated ivory (top left corner), museum tusks (world record size), ivory scraps (lower right hand corner), cherished "legally" owned ivory tusks on the right, and various other specimens of ivory. They all have one thing in common: dead elephants. The only sure way to end the supply of ivory is stop the demand. Stop buying ANY ivory. You could be contributing to the demand for ivory without even knowing it. READ MORE

THE IVORY BAN IS A MAZE NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO NAVIGATE
"A confusing array of restrictions, bans and occasional legal mass sales make tracking and finding illegal ivory – made from the tusks of elephants slaughtered in spite of bans enacted decades ago — a challenge for the best of sleuths," writes Melissa Seagrest for Green Right Now. READ MORE 

by Betsy Seeton

If you don't know these egregious acts of inhumanity are being perpetrated against bears, how will things ever change? That's the reason I post this stuff. I know it's easier not knowing about this hell on earth suffering but these animals deserve their cries to be heard.  The stories of abuse that bears endure -- sometimes for their entire 25 year life -- are beyond comprehension. The abuse is so outrageously painful for these bears that it leaves me both enraged and numb all at the same time.  

As of 2011, the estimated price of a bear gallbladder on the black market is $10,000 according to Andrew Revelos writing for Marine Corps Base Quantico - Quantico Sentry OnLine. Ounce for ounce, gallbladders have ranked as some of the highest commodities on the black market. 

STRAIGHT FROM FREETHEBEARS.ORG:
Since 1995 Free the Bears Fund has provided support to a wide range of projects across the globe; from the rehabilitation of orphaned bear cubs in the Russian Far East to surveying wild Spectacled bears in Ecuador. As Free the Bears has grown we have focused more intensely on the Sun bears and Asiatic black bears of South-east Asia and the Sloth bears of India. 

By creating partnerships that are tailored to each individual country and situation we have been able to support a wide range of projects in our six priority countries; Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Despite these countries being geographically close to one another, the threats to bears vary widely and as such our responses encompass a wide range of strategies including environmental awareness, sustainable livelihoods, increased enforcement and research and protection of wild bear populations.

 Our support ranges from direct intervention on-the-ground to providing much-needed funds to local organisations carrying out bear conservation work in line with our goals. To find out more about the various projects that we support, please select from the menu to the left. VISIT FREETHEBEARS.ORG

 From an interview with Mary Hutton by  Claudette Vaughan reported on the ABOLISTIONIST-ONLINE.COM:

 The Bear Paw Soup is considered a delicacy in Cambodia. Some bears are taken because the meat is tender. The cub again is taken from the wild, the mother most likely killed. The cubs are put in a cage. This is not a dish specific to Cambodian either. The Koreans, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Taiwanese all go and order their bowls of Bear Paw Soup. The paw is cut off and the stump is sealed in hot coals and on oil to stop the bleeding. That paw is served as a delicacy. It’s called “Braised Bear Paw Soup” served with onions and garlic and it can fetch around US$200-$300 dollars per serve.This has been stopped to a huge extent by a big advertising awareness campaign that we worked with the group “Wild Aid” who are up there as well. 70% of this has now been stopped. There was one restaurant that didn’t comply. He was closed down by the Mayor and threatened with if he serves anything like this again, including any exotic pieces such as tigers, he would not be allowed to reopen. Due to this initiate it’s not very often now that you see a bowl of bear paw soup around on a menu.

If that one bear still survives having it’s paw cut off slowly each paw is taken by other people. Not so much now, because the trade is dying out, but that poor bear will go on until all four paws have gone. The bear then immersed in a boiling hot vat of water because people like to see the bear and ensure the meat is fresh before eating him.

We have made such a fuss about the Cambodian Paw Soup issue however we also know that bears are farmed in Vietnam and are trapped in other sorts of ways. I can tell you it is very distressing. 

STRAIGHT FROM http://www.greenmuze.com/animals/wild/768-bear-bile-farming.html

 Posing as buyers and suppliers in the illegal wildlife trade, eco warriors have taken hidden cameras where some of the most heinous crimes against nature are taking place: on bear bile farms in China.

Other Earth saviors have packed unhidden cameras when they've gone on rescue missions to record the conditions of the bears they save and the ones they have to tragically leave behind. These are their photos, their stories, and the history of bear bile farming. READ FULL REPORT WITH MORE UNDERCOVER PHOTOS OF ABUSE

I urge each of you reading this to help in the campaign to end this abuse by passing along this link and other information from organizations dedicated to saving bears. Also sign petitions, write letters, and reach out in your own creative way. The thought of cutting off the paw of a bear for 'bear paw soup' leaves me so disillusioned by the humans on both ends of the supply/demand chain. Who would cage these beautiful animals for a lifetime to take bile from them? What kind of souls are doing these things? Who are you people??  

CLICK THE IMAGE TO READ ABOUT YAKS AND SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE EVEREST BASE CAMP TREK

"The entire zoo concept needs to be reexamined, 
restructured, and reinvented." 
~~ Rob Laidlaw

"For more than 25 years, Zoocheck has been a leading voice for the protection of wild animals. We are the only Canadian organization with a specific focus on captive wild animal issues and problems." ZooCheck.com

STRAIGHT FROM ZOOCHECK.COM:
Zoocheck Canada is a national animal protection charity (#13150 2072 RR 0001) established in 1984 to promote and protect the interests and well-being of wild animals.

Zoocheck works to improve wildlife protection in Canada and to end the abuse, neglect and exploitation of individual wild animals through:

• investigation and research
• public education and awareness campaigns
• capacity building initiatives
• legal programs
• legislative actions

SUCCESS Over the years, Zoocheck's professional, animal protection campaigns have resulted in the closure of some of Canada's worst zoos; the cancellation of plans to construct new zoos and aquariums; improved husbandry conditions for captive wild animals; new or improved municipal bylaws across the country that control or prohibit the keeping and display of wild animals by private citizens, circuses and traveling shows; regional and national public education and awareness programs; a greater awareness of captive wildlife issues; and support for projects that directly protect animals in the wild.

Zoocheck has also provided vital support to the efforts of individuals, organizations and governments throughout Canada and around the world as they work to address wildlife problems and issues in their own regions. Training workshops have been conducted, campaign tools developed and advice, information and assistance provided to hundreds of different animal protection initiatives over the years.

Biography
Rob Laidlaw has spent 30 years campaigning to protect animals of all kinds. His work has taken him from Canada's north to tropical Asia and includes more than 1,000 visits to zoos around the world. He is a Chartered Biologist, avid outdoorsman, cave explorer, and a founder of the wildlife protection organization Zoocheck Canada. He regularly provides commentary on animal issues to print, radio and television media and speaks to groups of all ages throughout the world.

In 2008, Laidlaw’s first children’s book, Wild Animals in Captivity, was released. His second book, On Parade, The Hidden World of Animals in Entertainment, is scheduled for release in 2010, while a third book about rescue centers and sanctuaries is now in the works.



For more information, please visit Rob's websites at www.zoocheck.com andwww.wildanimalsincaptivity.com.

This is how Gareth Patterson described a scene that some of you will recognise from The Cook Report TV documentary on canned hunting. (Source captiveanimals.org) But you don't have to go to Africa to kill the animals of your dreams. You can do it right here in America. There are over 1000 canned hunting sites available for your killing pleasure in the U.S. All kinds of rare, exotic animals are fenced in on commercial hunting grounds that you can shoot just about any which way you choose -- for a price. Zebras cost somewhere around $4,500 to put a bullet through. Lodging costs are on top of the kill price. Killing a Transcaspian Urial Sheep will set you back upwards of around $17,000 while a Siberian Ibex is more than $19,000.

The Blah Blah Blah Hunting Lodge advertises that their hunting adventure: 
".... allows the opportunity to hunt and harvest the Trophy Zebra you'll want to hang on your wall...this hunt will offer 100% opportunity for a Mature Zebra. Year round, we offer hunts for beautiful Grants Zebra. There are no seasonal restrictions on hunting the Zebra in Texas, which makes it a suitable trophy year round."


( I guess the new word for kill is "harvest" .... )

I grew up eating elk and venison my entire childhood courtesy of my father who was an avid big game hunter. My brothers and I, along with my mother, helped pack out the meat from the forest and my father gutted/cleaned and packaged the meat in our basement using a band saw. But one thing he would never do, and would never support, is canned hunting. He hunted to put food on our table. He loved the hunt. He really did. But he told me if he had money he would not have hunted. He did it to provide for his family. He would not have done it for the joy of killing. 

The caption for this posting is what some or even most canned hunters feel. Trophy hunters often have their wish list -- a bucket list if you will -- of animals they want to kill during their lifetime. I cannot fathom this mindset. 

Canned hunters must have a perverted sense of joy and twisted sense of accomplishment  along with what I can only describe as scary egos. These exotic animals are transported from their natural habitat and some are farm raised to continue the species for future hunting. They are on grounds that have fences. They are not living a natural life and they die a quite unnatural death. I will never understand the soul of these people. How they stand by their trophy kill with those "look-at-me" grins  thinking they are powerful or strong or whatever it is that they believe they are. The whole concept of canned hunting is beyond my comprehension.

Canned hunting seems so obviously wrong that it feels almost silly making that point. Hunters I know would never go to a commercial lodge where animals had been stocked like fish in a pond and where the grounds are fenced. There's no real challenge. It's not 'real' hunting. It's disgraceful. The whole thing is a barbaric, inhumane way to make money and be entertained at the great expense of amazing wild creatures. "Harvesting" animals on canned hunts should not only be illegal it should be viewed as  horrendously shameful.

Don't buy anything containing tiger parts. Poaching of tigers is driven by continued demand for tiger parts – like bones for Traditional Chinese Medicine and skins for clothes. READ MORE