Animal Rights

The Undercover Animal Cruelty Videos that Spurred Big Ag's Censorship Crusade

This week's story, "The Ag Gag War," goes behind the scenes of the guerilla fight between animal rights groups and Big Agriculture. For years organizations like the Humane Society and Mercy for Animals have being going undercover at America's largest farms, using hidden cameras to show exactly how ... More >>

How Undercover Animal Rights Activists are Winning the Ag-Gag War

Animal Cruelty Bill You've Never Heard Of Wants to Ban Actual Pet Tattoos

Upper East Siders may be tramp-stamping their French bulldogs with temporary tattoos, but there's a little-known bill working its way through the state legislature that's trying to ban the real thing. Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, whose district includes much of Midtown and the Upper West Side, ... More >>

Animal Rights Activists Exploit "Illegals" in Central Park Horse-Carriage War

As we've chronicled, there is a war going on between the labor union that represents Central Park horse-carriage drivers and animal rights activists who think keeping horses in midtown Manhattan is dangerous and inhumane.Now the activists are using illegal immigrants as PR ammo against the union.The ... More >>

NJ Voters Actually Support Bill Requiring Dogs to Wear Seat Belts (Sigh)

A bill proposed in the New Jersey State Legislature that would require animals to wear seat belts in the car has the support of the majority of voters, according to a recent poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind.According to the poll, conducted earlier this month, 45 percent ... More >>

New Jersey's Proposed Seat Belt Law For Dogs Isn't As Dumb As It Sounds (Just Kidding)

If a New Jersey legislator gets her way, the Garden State will have the toughest seat belt laws in the country...for dogs.Democratic New Jersey Assemblywoman Grace Spencer has proposed a bill that would give law enforcement the authority to issue a a $20 ticket to anyone caught driving around with t ... More >>

Reward For Long Island Scumbag Who Threw Puppy From Moving Car Now $25,000

If getting an animal-torturing shit-bag off the streets isn't enough, there are now 25,000 more reasons to turn in the person who threw a 3-month-old puppy out of a moving car in Long Island over the weekend.We told you about "Joey" -- a 3-month-old pit bull -- on Tuesday, at which point the reward ... More >>

Cat-Killing Father And Son Face Prison Time In Beating Death Of Own Cat

You'd think that at ages 60 and 29, the prepubescent thrill of killing animals (most typically found in soon-to-be serial killers) would have faded. That, apparently, is not the case for a father and son in Brooklyn, who authorities say beat a cat to death and then tossed it in the road.Jean Rog Mur ... More >>

Zombie Apocalypse: PETA Exploits Texas Dog-Eater To Push Vegan Agenda

As the rest of us try to cope with the impending Zombie Apocalypse, the animal rights group PETA is using the latest case of potential zombie-ism to push its Vegan agenda.As we reported earlier this week, a Texas man was arrested near Waco on Monday after police say he ate the family dog -- after cr ... More >>

Long Island Cat-Killer Sought; Creep Shot Animal With Bow And Arrow

Full disclosure: we're not cat people. They're rude, cocky, and bring nothing to the table. That said, we acknowledge that cats are living things and we would never do anything to harm one. The same can not be said about some sick creep in Long Island, who recently shot a cat with a bow and arrow. T ... More >>

PETA: Pigeon Racing Is A "Blood Sport"

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is in a huff after the group's 15-month "investigation" revealed that pigeons often die during pigeon races. In most cases, however -- as even PETA admits -- the animals aren't killed by their handlers, but by things that would kill the birds if they were ... More >>

Burger King Promises to Stop Use of Caged Pigs and Hens

Following in McDonald's footsteps, Burger King has announced that it will only serve pork from suppliers who have banned gestation crates, and cage-free eggs in its restaurants nationwide. Burger King is now the only fast food restaurant that has committed to selling cage-free products.

Assemblymember Micah Kellner on The Companion Animal Access and Rescue Act (UPDATE)

Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) isn't the only assemblymember sponsoring an animal shelter bill in Albany. Micah Kellner (D-Manhattan) is pushing a rival piece of legislation, which he says would do a better job of protecting stray cats and dogs. Kellner's Companion Animal Access and Rescue Act would ... More >>

Assemblymember Amy Paulin On The Shelter Access Bill

In response to longtime concerns over how shelters and rescues treat animals, Assemblymember Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) has sponsored the Shelter Access Bill. The proposed legislation has been in the works for several years. After intense debate -- including outcry from some "no-kill" animal rights ... More >>

Georgina Bloomberg, Amanda Hearst Save Puppies

The Humane Society of the United States and Jones County, North Carolina busted a supposed puppy mill on Wednesday -- and New York's own Georgina Bloomberg and Amanda Hearst were on the scene to help. The shakedown saved at least 80 puppies and maybe one pregnant calico cat from unsanitary living c ... More >>

The Horse-Drawn Carriage Debate Continues; Local Groups and Celebrities Call for a Ban

Michelle D. Anderson​The effort to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City rages on. Another report of a carriage horse collapse in a two-week span has left animal-rights advocates -- including celebrities such as Glee's Lea Michele and Pamela Anderson -- with a renewed passion to end the u ... More >>

The Humane Society and the Egg Industry Agree That Egg-Laying Hens Deserve Better Lives

Rebecca Marx​ Consumers may not like the idea of spending more for healthy menu items, but studies have found they are willing to pay a bit more for eggs that come from chickens living in humane conditions. And that's a good thing, because thanks to a new agreement between the Humane Society o ... More >>

NJ Lawmakers Petitioned for Harsher Animal Abuse Laws After Pit Bull Found in Trash Chute

​We have a rather serious adorable animals in trouble for you today. Did you hear about the 1-year-old pit bull, now named Patrick, who was cruelly thrown 19 stories down an apartment trash chute in Newark and left for dead? He was rescued by Humane Society workers the day before St. Patrick's ... More >>

Amanda Cohen Wins PETA's Faux Foie Gras Challenge

Faux foie fabulousness!​We're no strangers to the delights of the mushroom mousse Amanda Cohen serves at Dirt Candy, and now PETA isn't, either.

Supreme Court Overturns Animal Cruelty Law

​Today the Supreme Court voted down a federal law banning the sale of videos and other depictions of animal cruelty, saying it violates the right to free speech. The law had been enacted in 1999 to limit Internet sales of videos that show women crushing to death small animals, like kittens and ... More >>

The Farming Empire Strikes Back

​When folks hear "Humane Society," they think dogs, cats, and pet shelters. But as our sister newspaper in St. Louis, the Riverfront Times, shows this week, the Humane Society has actually been involved in a steady campaign to change the way farmers raise animals. And in places like Florida, ... More >>

PETA, Unsurprisingly, Has Something to Say About the White Slab Palace Taxidermy Incident

Melissa Mango for the Daily NewsPETA naturally has something to say about this.​ Where there is smoke, there is PETA: in the wake of the news that a woman was suing White Slab Palace after being clobbered by the bar's taxidermied moose (or was it caribou?) head, the animal rights organization ... More >>

Long Island pet cemetery mom jailed

​Sharon McDonough, 42, was ordered held on $100k bail on Friday after prosecutors presented evidence that some of the 42 animals buried in her Selden, LI back yard were tortured. Assistant DA John Cortes, who says she's likely to face felony charges, told the court that examination of the dead ... More >>

Salon: The End of American Foie Gras and Unintended Consequences

Today, on Salon, Thomas Rogers wades into the foie gras discussion, reporting that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has been granted discovery (a fairly routine part of a lawsuit) in a complaint against Hudson Valley foie gras, which will allow the HSUS access to certain farm records a ... More >>

UK PETA Celebrity Nudes Superior to US, Study Finds

​American PETA's celebrity nude ads are pretty good, but we have to admit the UK has them beat. Here's Keeley Hazell -- yeah, us neither, but PETA says she's a "sexy glamour model" -- in their latest. We will reproduce the full ad, and another, after the jump so you can enjoy the full effect ... More >>

Oreo, RIP

​Oreo, the pit bull terrier mix who survived a six-story fall from a Red Hook roof last summer, was euthanized by the ASPCA Friday despite protests, twitters, 2 death threats and over 2oo phone calls from animal lovers.

"Racy" Pamela Anderson PETA Ad Sets Animal Rights Back 10 Years

We love our fellow animals, and generally approve PETA's advertising, particularly in the celebrity nude category. But this ad, starring Pamela Anderson and generally described as "racy," feeds the unfortunate impression of animal rights activists as enemies of human freedom. Anderson plays an air ... More >>

Justice for Oreo: Alleged Dog Thrower Charged

​Oreo, the pit bull who was allegedly thrown from a Red Hook roof in June, is still nursing her considerable injuries, but may take some comfort from the fact that her alleged assailant, 19-year-old Fabian Henderson, has been indicted by the Brooklyn D.A.'s office for aggravated animal cruelty ... More >>

Greatest Show on Earth, Animal Abuse Come to Coney Island

Tickets for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus' "Coney Island Boom a Ring," scheduled for Coney Island this summer, go on sale today. (Warning: link plays horrible music.) A Ringling exec tells the New York Times, "this opening night in June will be a celebration of Coney Island." "J ... More >>

Save the Planet--Eat More Jellyfish, Experts Say

Starbucks yesterday opened its first café in Poland, located in downtown Warsaw. The company said it has been wanting to enter Poland, a country that has embraced coffee culture, for awhile. [Seattle PI] Hamptons restaurateur Ed "Jean Luc" Kleefield was arrested Friday after turning himself in f ... More >>

Brooklyn DA Nabs Killers in Vicious Cat Murder

The vicious teen killers apparently had nothing better to do: On October 7, Angelo Monderoy, 18, and Matthew Cooper, 17, broke into a vacant apartment at 1933 Union Street. There, they allegedly lured the helpless victim inside. Pinning the innocent to the floor, the duo squirted lighter fluid all ... More >>

New Life For Chicken Slaughterhouse?

Courtesy Times-Picayune A Chicken Empathy Museum sounds like an upscale showcase for all the young boys molested by a certain pop star. But that's not at all what we're talking about here! We're talking about how, when a Pilgrim's Pride poultry processing plant in Farmerville, Louisiana was announc ... More >>

Is Foie Gras Torture?

Fuck vegetables? Hell, yeah!

'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad PETA's banned video advises: Once you go broccoli, you never go back. Is that a carrot in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? NBC won't let PETA even try to ask that question, banning the animal-rights group's proposed Super Bowl ad campaign. FO ... More >>

140-Year-Old Lobster Liberated From City Crab to Maine

Along with those naked celebrity ads we all enjoy, PETA does a lot of ground-level animal-saving. They scored a small but noteworthy victory today at City Crab, the venerable Manhattan seafood restaurant, which agreed after negotiations to release a 140-year-old lobster in its possession. City Crab ... More >>

GIMME SHELTER

Helping your fellow animals

Foie News: Councilman Avella Weighs In

Test Tube Meat Update: PETA 'Civil War'

Targeting the Testers

Animal rights activists move beyond fur and the circus

Lucky King Kong Is Digital

Activists say all Hollywood apes should be

Bloody Brilliant

Pie, Anna Wintour, and the history of fur protest

Letters

Range Life

How the autistic brain explains the interior life of animals

Pet Adoption

Rescue Me-ow

Terrorist Tactics

A State Law Would Pin the T-Word on Animal-Rights and Eco Protesters

Chimp Change

Animal Rights Goes Legit

A Dostoyevskian Dilemma, or The Nature of the Beast

Letters

Horse Rules

An ASPCA Campaign Is Saddled With Criticism

Pulp Legislation

Congress Brings the Crush Video Industry to Heel