Animal Rights

The King penguin has been at the top of the food chain in the Antarctic for what seems like forever. They are the second largest penguin, after their cousin the Emperor penguin. Both of these species came dangerously close to extinction during the nineteenth century when sailors hunted them nonstop so that their fat could be used to cook foods in. Soon after this scare, people began to prefer other fats to cook their food in as opposed to penguin fat, and the penguin population started to grow again. Today it is at about two million. But this could soon be on the decline once again if we don’t start doing something.

French scientists have been following 456 birds over the course of the past eight years by implanting radio transponders beneath their skin. The Antarctic Ocean has heated up at about 0.47 degrees F over the course of their studies, which scientists say could lower the penguin popular by as much as nine percent. This being because the fish population is on the decline as well as a result of the warming temperatures of the ocean. And this isn’t even the worst part. King penguins are at the top of the food chain as of right now, meaning that all of the other species under them could be, and most likely are, suffering even more than the penguins. For example, one major reason why the penguins aren’t surviving is because of a shortage of food. The ocean is heating up, leaving more of the Antarctic fish to die, and ultimately having less fish in the ocean to feed the penguins.

The conditions in which the penguins are accustomed to living in are also becoming a problem. Both the north and south poles are warming up faster than any other part of the world, and this is five times faster than the global average from the past fifty years. Another species on their way to becoming endangered and maybe even extinct is the polar bear. Environmentalists are trying to push for it to be officially declared threatened, which would make it the first species to be declared threatened based on climate change specifically.

When it comes down to it, we either have to start changing our attitudes and actions towards global warming, or face the facts that the habitats as well as the animals that live in them are going to cease to exist as we know them.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1712518,00.html

Obviously, the penguin population is a huge problem, but unfortunately not many people think about penguins other than in the zoo. The penguins didn’t choose to live in these conditions, they didn’t ask for it. It’s just how they are. Humans can live just about anywhere, so why do we need their space, when this is the only place that they can survive? What our goal is to inform people of this problem so that we can all work together in order to fix it. There is so much that we as human beings, as well as individually are capable of doing. It’s just a matter of getting off the couch and out into society so that we can make use of ourselves. In researching the topic, I’ve found a few ways in which we can help to save the penguins:

• Make the entire ocean safer by preventing oil spills
• Stop taking away their habitats
• Don’t over-fish
• Newspaper and magazine journalists could publish articles about it, which would potentially reach hundreds of thousands of people
• Television and radio personal could talk about these problems, also potentially reaching many people
• Internet sites could do more to advertise the problem
• Save the rookeries (places where penguins go to find a mate and also make great habitats for penguins when it isn’t mating season)
• And most importantly, you individually you can make a difference by supporting companies that are ecologically responsible or buy gas from companies that haven’t been/aren’t involved in big oil spills.

These are just a few of the ways that you can help out. No one knows what will happen to the penguin population, but what will you do to help?

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0214752/help.html

-Audrey

Animals are used for many purposes every day. They are used for food, sporting purposes, fur, and many other countless, sometimes inhumane, things. Some things, like food, is a necessity, (even though that fact is arguable.) Other things, such as animal testing, is NOT a necessity and should be banned forever. Animals are forced to test makeup, washes, treatments, and many other frivolous things, and for what? So we can look pretty. Animals are DYING for our vanity. Some examples of animal cosmetic testing as follows:

1.) Skin Penetration: This is used on animals to determine the extent to which cosmetics might penetrate the skin. This is important in determining whether or not the cosmetic ingredients might enter the bloodstream or other parts of the body causing toxic effects.

2.) Skin Irritancy: Rabbits and Guinea Pigs are used for skin irritancy testings, where they apply the cosmetic to shaved or occasionally scraped skin areas. Redness, ulcers, rashes etc. may occur.

3. Eye Irritancy: Animals such as albino rabbits are held down with their eyes held open with clips as people drop product into their eyes to see if it harms people.

In tests such as the eye irritancy test, animals often end up breaking their neck trying to escape. If they don’t break their neck, many animals end up going blind, having liver problems or excessive bleeding, even dying. Animals are also said to have a different distribution of blood vessels, and therefore, their skin doesn’t react the same way a person’s skin would. Therefore, animal testing isn’t 100% effective, so why should we even do it? Not to mention the inhumane way we are making the animals be tested. Animal testing is also much more expensive.

People argue that animal testing is the only way to make sure that cosmetic products are safe for people to use. In my opinion, since we’re the ones using the products, we should be the ones testing the products. After all, we’re the ones using them. But seeing as that would be illegal, I looked up some other testing alternatives.

Testskin: Testskin uses human skin grown in a sterile plastic bag and can be used for measuring irritancy,

Epipack: The Epipack uses cloned human tissue to test potentially harmful subsances.

Skintex: Skintex uses pumpkin rind to assess skin irritancy to replicate the results of a foreign substance on human skin.

As you can see those are just a few, simple ways to test cosmetic products WITHOUT using animals. I hope next time you go shopping for soap, eyeshadow, or other cosmetic products, make sure that it says “This product is not tested on animals.” The animals will thank you.

-Hannah.

sources:

www.PETA.com

http://www.clearleadinc.com/site/cosmetic-animal.html

http://www.allforanimals.com/alternatives1.htm

These  stories  that  I  have  found  were  very  heartbreaking  to  me!  I  cannot  belaeve  that  these  people  are  this  cruel  to  animals.  What  I  am  about  to  write  about  is  very  dear  to  me.  I  was  searching  though  my  articles  online  when  one  stood  out  at  me;  pets  thrown  off  a  50ft  bridge  into  a  gorge.  What  was  said  in  these  to  articles  (Links  to  articles  at  the  bottem  of  this  post)  was  that  animal  control  workers  took  pets  and  stray  cats  and  dogs  and  hurled  them  from  atop  a  bridge  to  there  cruel  and  painful  deaths.  That  is  what  authorites  and  witnesses  said.  These  animal  control  workers  were  suposaly  to  take  these  50-80  cats  and  dogs  to  an  animal  shelter,  but  did  otherwise.  Mayor  Sol  Luis  Fontanez  blamed  a  contractor  hired  to  take  the  poor  animals  to  a  shelter.  He  said,  “This  is  an  irresponsible,  inhuman,  and  shameful  act.”  I  do  not  believe  him  when  he  says  it  is  not  his  fault.  These  animals  were  mostly  abtainted  from  families  that  had  pets  that  were  not  alowed  to  have  them.  These  raids  happened  the  8th  and  10th  of  October,  2007.  As  the  animal  control  workers  were  taking  the  animals  away  they  were  injecting  them  with  something,  poeple  asked  what  it  was  and  the  replied  it  was  a  sedative  for  the  drive  to  the  shelter.  However,  I  do  not  believe  that  at  all!  One  Person  remarked, “They  came  as  if  it  was  a  drug  bust.  They  took  away  cats,  dogs,  and  whatever  other  animal  they  could  find.  Some  were  even  taken  in  front  of  children.”  That  is  just  so  mean!  However,  instead  of  taking  them  to  the  shelter  they  went  to  a  near  by  bridge  before  dawn  Tuesday  the  9th,  October,  2007.  People  that  lived  next  to  the  bridge  said  most  of  them  were  already  dead  when  they  started  throwing  them  to  their  inhumane  graves.  About  half a  dozen  unlucky  ones  that  did  not  die  instantly  climbed  out  of  the  gorge  all  battered,  so  they  had  to  suffer  even  more  before  they  died.  And  the  ones  that  died  lying  in  the  gorge  had  lime  spread  over  them  to  cover  the  smell.  A  lawsuit  has  been  filed  against  Animal  Control  Solutions  and  city  officials  including  the  ones  that  did  the  terrible  deeds,  for  22.5  millon  dollors.  “The  animals’  deaths  show  a  cold  and  depraved  heart  and  has  stirred  public  outrage  around  the  whole  world,”  the  lawsuit  said.  No  one  has  been  sent  to  jail  yet,  but  I  hope  they  do.  This  was  a  terrible  act  that  I  hope  will  never  happen  again.

 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/12/national/main3363614.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_3363614 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3865114              

Animals cannot speak out as they should be able to, so we speak out for them instead. However, people all over the world take advantage of their inability to speak … and those people are cruel. They torture animals, use them for personal gain, as well as many other horrible things. We don’t know why, but we are here to stop them.We are the students of City High School and we choose to speak out against all of these  people and to help our animal friends. We will each be writing individual posts about animal rights in general, as well as about sepcific topics. The posts will include ways in which we can help to stop the abuse of animals and how we can give them back the rights that they rightfully deserve. J

(We will each be posting multiple times about animal rights sometime in the future.)

Sincerely,

Animal lovers of City High School- Audrey, Tyler, and Hannah.

The sources used to aid us in this post were: Google reader- Google News, Washingtonpost.com, The Trail, Newsweek International Version, and many more. If other sites are used, they will be added at the bottom of the post.

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