Height: 9'6"
Weight: 7,500 pounds
Captive-born: 10/10/87
Reason for coming to the Sanctuary:
USDA confiscation 11/8/08
Favorite Food: Any
Welcome Ned!!!
On Saturday, November 8, an emaciated Asian male elephant named Ned was confiscated from Florida based circus trainer Lance Ramos by the USDA for failure to comply with the Animal Welfare Act and was placed by USDA authority with The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. On Sunday, November 9th, at about 12:30 p.m., Ned arrived at The Elephant Sanctuary. Ned will reside only temporarily in his private facility at The Sanctuary until a permanent facility is ready for him.
More Information... Ned's Bio Ned's Wish List Ned's Diary Leave a Message for Ned --------------------- Ned the Elephant - Nov. 11, 2008 UPI.Com - Nov. 11, 2008 Video from TBO.Com (Tampa Bay) about Ned - Nov. 11, 2008 St. Petersburg Times - Nov. 11, 2008 WSMV Nashville - Nov. 10, 2008 TampaBay.Com - Nov. 10, 2008 PETA Media Center - Nov. 10, 2008 South Shore News - Nov. 10, 2008 Tennessean - Nov. 9, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Ned the elephant
Ned the elephant has just been rescued by the USDA. It's only the second time the USDA has ever done that. He's currently at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee where he will be recuperating from his mistreatment. They have a wish list of needs that can be found by pasting the following URL into your browser:
http://www.elephants.com/estore/views.php?
Ned the elephant
Ned the elephant has just been rescued by the USDA. It's only the second time the USDA has ever done that. He's currently at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee where he will be recuperating from his mistreatment. They have a wish list of needs that can be found by pasting the following URL into your browser:
http://www.elephants.com/estore/views.php?
Thursday, July 12, 2007
100 COUNTS OF ANIMAL ABUSE
They call it one of the worst cases of animal abuse in our region and the people responsible could face more than a hundred counts of animal cruelty.
Dozens of animal carcasses are found in and around a home in Jackson, Ohio and several of them are barely alive.
There are 75 surviving animals found at this farm in Jackson County, Ohio. More than 60 other animals weren't so lucky.
Police were called to the scene after this pig wandered into a neighbor’s yard trying to eat chickens, which led police to this home where they found caged animals, dead and alive
Police said three people lived on this farm, two females and a male. Police said they left the animals alone after a domestic dispute.
When emergency workers first got to the scene, they say it looked like something out of a Stephen King novel, an animal death camp. They said the search still isn't over and they fear there may be more animals dead in the field.
Police said the three people who lived on the farm face well over 100 charges of animal cruelty and neglect.
Each count carries a $500 fine and/or jail time.
It's important to point out nobody can adopt the surviving animals until the judge hands them over to the Humane Society. In the meantime, they're in good care.
Dozens of animal carcasses are found in and around a home in Jackson, Ohio and several of them are barely alive.
There are 75 surviving animals found at this farm in Jackson County, Ohio. More than 60 other animals weren't so lucky.
Police were called to the scene after this pig wandered into a neighbor’s yard trying to eat chickens, which led police to this home where they found caged animals, dead and alive
Police said three people lived on this farm, two females and a male. Police said they left the animals alone after a domestic dispute.
When emergency workers first got to the scene, they say it looked like something out of a Stephen King novel, an animal death camp. They said the search still isn't over and they fear there may be more animals dead in the field.
Police said the three people who lived on the farm face well over 100 charges of animal cruelty and neglect.
Each count carries a $500 fine and/or jail time.
It's important to point out nobody can adopt the surviving animals until the judge hands them over to the Humane Society. In the meantime, they're in good care.
CIRCUS REFORM
Circus Reform Yes!
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Reprint right By Christine Coughlin ,
Like many grassroots groups, Circus Reform Yes! (CRY!) started with a dream: a dream we had to end the misery of wild animals incarcerated in the circus. Initially we held demonstrations outside of the Target Center when the circus came to town, bearing witness to the animals’ suffering. But we knew more could be done. As a city with vision, we knew that Minneapolis could become the twenty-ninth American city to ban wild animal circuses. In Europe, hundreds of cities (one hundred and sixty in England alone) and the entire country of Austria have already banned wild animal circuses.
Opinion: Circus Reform Yes!
We decided to set up a table and start talking to our fellow Minneapolitans. As we tabled outside of Minneapolis food coops, thousands of people signed postcards to City Council members, urging them to prohibit wild animal circuses. We next took our message to Minneapolis events such as the Gay Pride Festival, the Children's Expo and the Pet Expo, and the Minnesota Educators Conference. Every minute we’ve worked (which now totals thousands of hours) is totally volunteer, without exception. Why do we keep going?
Elephants, highly intelligent, sensitive beings with strong family bonds, walk over twenty miles a day on their home range. In circuses they are chained up to twenty hours a day. Elephants urinate, defecate and sleep in chains. As the famous civil rights activist Dick Gregory put it so eloquently, "The chains that hold the elephants captive are the chains that held my ancestors." Each CRY! volunteer remains committed to breaking those chains, and that’s where our inspiration comes from.
How does a one hundred and eighty pound man get a two thousand pound elephant to perform painful, unnatural tricks? With a bullhook, among other implements. Bullhooks are long sticks with sharp metal hooks attached to the end. The elephants are jabbed and prodded in their most sensitive areas, around the ears and mouth. Bullhooks are sharp enough to make them remember, as elephants do, what will happen if they don't perform the trick right—tricks that often leave them arthritic or crippled for life.
As more people learned about the reality of life for circus animals, our ranks began to grow. We raised money, started a website (www.crymn.org), printed t-shirts, and were able to reach even more people. How did members of the Minneapolis City Council respond when they began receiving hundreds, then thousands of signed postcards, letters, emails and phone calls- all from constituents who want animal circuses to be replaced with animal-free circuses? Some on the Council immediately embraced the issue, some warmed to it, and remarkably, some remain unmoved by the cruelty done to the animals and the concern of their constituents.
If you come hours before the wild animal circus at the Target Center, you'll see the circus trailer trucks hauling in the elephants. The arena doors open, bringing the elephant truck inside. The doors slam shut. The process is reversed after the shows are over. These circus animals on tour do not see the light of day.
Lions and tigers don't fare any better. These magnificent animals are kept in cages so small that they can hardly turn around. Imagine what fear has to be drilled into a tiger to make that tiger jump through a hoop of fire. These large cats have a deep fear of fire that protects them in the wild. When a hoop of fire collapsed on a tiger in Coquitlam, British Columbia, in front of schoolchildren, that municipality banned wild animal circuses in a hurry.
People from all over the Twin Cities we met while tabling stopped to tell us how wild animal circuses had impacted them as a child. Some saw the fear in a tiger's eyes when the whips came out. Others remembered dull eyed, depressed elephants neurotically swaying back and forth. Others, as children, saw nothing wrong, but when they grew up and learned how the animals lived and were trained, their opinion on wild animal circuses changed. I can say with certainty that no child would go a circus if they knew what the animals endured out of sight.
Confinement in trucks, chains and cages is an enslavement that dishonors our children. Dr. Melvin E. Levine, professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina, says that circuses teach children to disregard "the feelings, the needs, and the rights of other living individuals." We want our children to follow their natural bent away from violence. As citizens of Minneapolis, we are all their teachers.
Is there a public safety risk? Wild animals in circuses endure relentless travel in their own waste, in constant confinement. For naturally free roaming animals, the constant moving in confinement is enough to cause them to go out of control. Wild animals do not cope well with isolation from their social groups and with repeated changes in their territories.
Peggy Larson, D.V.M., who worked with large animals as a USDA inspector said it well, "Circus animals have gone berserk and killed people. Sears, Roebuck and Co. no longer sponsors circuses because of the potential danger to children from the animals, and because of the animal abuse inherent in circuses." All the injuries and deaths that have occurred in circuses would not have occurred if wild animals were not exhibited for entertainment.
Where will the wild animals go when circuses go the way of the freak show? Excellent sanctuaries such as the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and the Elephant Sanctuary already exist. With patience and kindness caregivers help the animals heal, physically and psychologically.
Drugs and crime are two of the many social problems our city faces. We can and should chip away at these more complex issues. But wild animal circuses could be eliminated in one fell swoop. A City Council "yes" vote on the Animal Protection Amendment would do it. Please urge your council member to join that YES. Open the way for the many wonderful animal-free circuses to come here. It's time, and it’s in your hands.
Christine Coughlin is the executive director of Circus Reform Yes!
Posted: Thu, 06/28/2007 - 19:32
Article Tags:
Both
Voices
Comments
Leave a comment
Reprint right By Christine Coughlin ,
Like many grassroots groups, Circus Reform Yes! (CRY!) started with a dream: a dream we had to end the misery of wild animals incarcerated in the circus. Initially we held demonstrations outside of the Target Center when the circus came to town, bearing witness to the animals’ suffering. But we knew more could be done. As a city with vision, we knew that Minneapolis could become the twenty-ninth American city to ban wild animal circuses. In Europe, hundreds of cities (one hundred and sixty in England alone) and the entire country of Austria have already banned wild animal circuses.
Opinion: Circus Reform Yes!
We decided to set up a table and start talking to our fellow Minneapolitans. As we tabled outside of Minneapolis food coops, thousands of people signed postcards to City Council members, urging them to prohibit wild animal circuses. We next took our message to Minneapolis events such as the Gay Pride Festival, the Children's Expo and the Pet Expo, and the Minnesota Educators Conference. Every minute we’ve worked (which now totals thousands of hours) is totally volunteer, without exception. Why do we keep going?
Elephants, highly intelligent, sensitive beings with strong family bonds, walk over twenty miles a day on their home range. In circuses they are chained up to twenty hours a day. Elephants urinate, defecate and sleep in chains. As the famous civil rights activist Dick Gregory put it so eloquently, "The chains that hold the elephants captive are the chains that held my ancestors." Each CRY! volunteer remains committed to breaking those chains, and that’s where our inspiration comes from.
How does a one hundred and eighty pound man get a two thousand pound elephant to perform painful, unnatural tricks? With a bullhook, among other implements. Bullhooks are long sticks with sharp metal hooks attached to the end. The elephants are jabbed and prodded in their most sensitive areas, around the ears and mouth. Bullhooks are sharp enough to make them remember, as elephants do, what will happen if they don't perform the trick right—tricks that often leave them arthritic or crippled for life.
As more people learned about the reality of life for circus animals, our ranks began to grow. We raised money, started a website (www.crymn.org), printed t-shirts, and were able to reach even more people. How did members of the Minneapolis City Council respond when they began receiving hundreds, then thousands of signed postcards, letters, emails and phone calls- all from constituents who want animal circuses to be replaced with animal-free circuses? Some on the Council immediately embraced the issue, some warmed to it, and remarkably, some remain unmoved by the cruelty done to the animals and the concern of their constituents.
If you come hours before the wild animal circus at the Target Center, you'll see the circus trailer trucks hauling in the elephants. The arena doors open, bringing the elephant truck inside. The doors slam shut. The process is reversed after the shows are over. These circus animals on tour do not see the light of day.
Lions and tigers don't fare any better. These magnificent animals are kept in cages so small that they can hardly turn around. Imagine what fear has to be drilled into a tiger to make that tiger jump through a hoop of fire. These large cats have a deep fear of fire that protects them in the wild. When a hoop of fire collapsed on a tiger in Coquitlam, British Columbia, in front of schoolchildren, that municipality banned wild animal circuses in a hurry.
People from all over the Twin Cities we met while tabling stopped to tell us how wild animal circuses had impacted them as a child. Some saw the fear in a tiger's eyes when the whips came out. Others remembered dull eyed, depressed elephants neurotically swaying back and forth. Others, as children, saw nothing wrong, but when they grew up and learned how the animals lived and were trained, their opinion on wild animal circuses changed. I can say with certainty that no child would go a circus if they knew what the animals endured out of sight.
Confinement in trucks, chains and cages is an enslavement that dishonors our children. Dr. Melvin E. Levine, professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina, says that circuses teach children to disregard "the feelings, the needs, and the rights of other living individuals." We want our children to follow their natural bent away from violence. As citizens of Minneapolis, we are all their teachers.
Is there a public safety risk? Wild animals in circuses endure relentless travel in their own waste, in constant confinement. For naturally free roaming animals, the constant moving in confinement is enough to cause them to go out of control. Wild animals do not cope well with isolation from their social groups and with repeated changes in their territories.
Peggy Larson, D.V.M., who worked with large animals as a USDA inspector said it well, "Circus animals have gone berserk and killed people. Sears, Roebuck and Co. no longer sponsors circuses because of the potential danger to children from the animals, and because of the animal abuse inherent in circuses." All the injuries and deaths that have occurred in circuses would not have occurred if wild animals were not exhibited for entertainment.
Where will the wild animals go when circuses go the way of the freak show? Excellent sanctuaries such as the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and the Elephant Sanctuary already exist. With patience and kindness caregivers help the animals heal, physically and psychologically.
Drugs and crime are two of the many social problems our city faces. We can and should chip away at these more complex issues. But wild animal circuses could be eliminated in one fell swoop. A City Council "yes" vote on the Animal Protection Amendment would do it. Please urge your council member to join that YES. Open the way for the many wonderful animal-free circuses to come here. It's time, and it’s in your hands.
Christine Coughlin is the executive director of Circus Reform Yes!
Posted: Thu, 06/28/2007 - 19:32
Article Tags:
Both
Voices
Comments
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
I THINK ITS TIME TO PARTY AND I THINK THE ELEPHANTS ARE READY TO!!!!
Infamous animal trader dies in crash
Sheena Adams July 03 2007 at 10:22AM
The death of Riccardo Ghiazza, who became infamous after a 2003 conviction for torturing baby elephants, will help to raise awareness about the wildlife trade in South Africa. This was the view of animal rights activists on Monday.Ghiazza, believed to have been on his way home, was killed on Saturday night when he crashed his black Mercedes SLK on the R512 near Hartbeespoort Dam. He died instantly from head injuries.Animal Rights Africa spokesperson Michele Pickover on Monday told The Star that the organisation was "always troubled by the death of anybody".
'We believe that no one is beyond redemption'"We believe that no one is beyond redemption. All we can hope for is that this unpleasant event will at least be able to raise public awareness and discussion about the wildlife trade in South Africa, and the suffering of animals that are victims of this cruel trade," she said.Ghiazza made news headlines in 1998 when secretly filmed footage of mahouts employed by his company, African Game Services, brutally abusing baby elephants was screened on television.
top.DisplayAds('SquarLAV',12,13);
Some of the methods used included starving the young elephants, depriving them of sleep and dragging the animals around in circles while anchored to an adult elephant.Ghiazza was believed to be functioning as a wild animal trader until his death.
This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on July 03, 2007
Sheena Adams July 03 2007 at 10:22AM
The death of Riccardo Ghiazza, who became infamous after a 2003 conviction for torturing baby elephants, will help to raise awareness about the wildlife trade in South Africa. This was the view of animal rights activists on Monday.Ghiazza, believed to have been on his way home, was killed on Saturday night when he crashed his black Mercedes SLK on the R512 near Hartbeespoort Dam. He died instantly from head injuries.Animal Rights Africa spokesperson Michele Pickover on Monday told The Star that the organisation was "always troubled by the death of anybody".
'We believe that no one is beyond redemption'"We believe that no one is beyond redemption. All we can hope for is that this unpleasant event will at least be able to raise public awareness and discussion about the wildlife trade in South Africa, and the suffering of animals that are victims of this cruel trade," she said.Ghiazza made news headlines in 1998 when secretly filmed footage of mahouts employed by his company, African Game Services, brutally abusing baby elephants was screened on television.
top.DisplayAds('SquarLAV',12,13);
Some of the methods used included starving the young elephants, depriving them of sleep and dragging the animals around in circles while anchored to an adult elephant.Ghiazza was believed to be functioning as a wild animal trader until his death.
This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on July 03, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Scandalous conditions in European rabbit farms
Scandalous conditions in European rabbit farms
FOUR PAWS exclusively offers unbelievable and current footage uncovering the reality of today’s rabbit farms in six European countries: Millions of rabbits are suffering in tiny cages with their soft paws on bare cold metal.
They are living their entire life directly above huge masses of their own excrements creating a painful atmosphere of acidic ammonia gases. The footage shows rabbits with swollen bleeding eyes, covered with pus - some rabbits are already blind. Due to the tight cages the rabbits develop abnormal behaviour like cannibalism or they keep biting the cage.
See the video.
Attention: Tormented rabbits on your plate!
Each year more than 1 million tonnes of rabbit meat are eaten all over the world. This means that 900 millions rabbits are slaughtered, year by year. Half of them are bred and eaten in Europe.
FOUR PAWS checked hundreds of supermarkets in six European countries. The result: FOUR PAWS can prove that the usual “meat rabbit” comes from battery cages.
Help the rabbits not to be abused in cages anymore and help us to force the supermarkets to stop selling rabbit meat!
“What you can do”
Call for a ban of caging of rabbits
The animals are kept in huge battery cages similar to the ones for laying hens. While battery cages for hens are already illegal in some European countries, so far cages for rabbits are not even questioned.
FOUR PAWS is starting an international campaign to end the suffering of rabbits. This is an appeal to the public, the industry and politicians to act now and end the suffering in rabbit farms in Europe and worldwide.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
THE LAST DANCING BEARS
Animal rights activists buy freedom for Bulgaria's last 3 dancing bears
SOFIA, Bulgaria: Bulgaria's last three dancing bears are being sent to a mountain sanctuary after activists bought their freedom Friday in an effort to stamp out the centuries-old tradition which has survived in the Balkans despite being outlawed.
The trio — 8-year-old Mima, Misho, 19, and Svetla, 17 — will join another 20 brown bears in their new home on Mount Rila, a 12-hectare (30-acre) sanctuary 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Sofia partly funded by a foundation run by former French actress Brigitte Bardot.
"Our aim is to make their life more bearable in their remaining years," Ioana Tomescu from the Austria-based Four Paws Foundation told The Associated Press.
Throughout the Balkans, families — mostly among the Gypsy or Roma community — have long earned a living through performing bears. But the brutal techniques used to train them led the practice to be banned.
The bears are captured while still young. Their nose or lips are pierced, and a metal ring attached to a chain is inserted; the pain ensures instant submission.
The cubs are forced to walk on burning embers or a hot sheet of metal, and hop from one hind leg to the other in order to escape the burning, while their trainer beats a drum. The process is repeated until the bear learns to connect the drum to the pain.
As dancing bears are illegal, authorities could simply have taken Mima, Misho and Svelta away from their owners, in the eastern village of Getsovo.
Instead, the Four Paws Foundation decided to pay for their freedom by giving their owners small grants to set up new businesses. It did not reveal how much was paid. In return, the owners signed declarations pledging never to take up the bear dancing business.
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