PETA list of companies that test on animals

If you click on the link below you'll be taken to a list of companies that test on animals. I would hope that animal advocates take the time to read the list. However, it is difficult, I believe, to avoid buying products on supermarket shelves that have been involved in any way with animal testing because, firstly, there is a plethora of products and secondly, you don't know which manufacturer is ultimately responsible; meaning the umbrella company.

APOLOGIES FOR THE INITIALLY WORD BLIND TITLE WHICH HAS BEEN UPDATED (TWICE)!

Photo by Understanding Animal Research - original photo.

You might read that the manufacturer is a smallish company but it may well be owned by one of the big multi-national companies such as Colgate-Palmolive who do animal testing. I believe they contract it out but ultimately they are responsible for it.

In addition, most consumers in a supermarket are in a hurry to do their shopping and get home. Well, at least the men are!  However, the only way to have our say albeit with an almost insignificant effect, is to reject products which have some connection in their manufacture to animal testing. If everyone made a minute impact it would amount to a big impact.

Please click on this link to see companies that do animal testing one way or the other.

Associated: Animal testing for cosmetics. Sales of animal tested cosmetics are banned in Europe.

Photos of Cats who Survived Westberry Cat Hoarding Tragedy

Photos of Surviving Cats From Julianne Westberry Cat Hoarding Tragedy

This is a cross-post of cats that have survived a cat hoarder's worst efforts to kill them through neglect. The woman is the now infamous: Julianne Westberry.  It is a terrible story that has been well documented on the main website.

Here are the cats. More cats were found dead than alive at this cold-hearted cat hoarder's property. These are the lucky ones:

If anyone wants to adopt leave a comment.

Asiatic Cheetahs in Iran are Unique but Neglected by Iranian Authorities

We are told that only a "few dozen" Asiatic cheetahs remain in Iran. A forgotten species of wild cat; sidelined by political confrontations. These are the big issues for humankind -- shame that very late in the day the Iranian authorities are making a last ditch effort to save the Asiatic cheetah in Iran. It is probably too late because the population size is arguably too small to achieve sufficient genetic diversity to ensure that inbreeding is avoided. Inbreeding results in infertility which in turn further diminishes the chances of survival - a downward spiral (see Siberian tiger habitat).

Iran's World Cup football team were involved in cheetah conservation.

There used to be about 400 Asiatic cheetahs in Iran as recently as the 1990s, we are told (I am not sure about that to be honest) but numbers have plunged to an "estimated" (estimates are often optimistic) 50-70 individuals. The cause is the usual suspects: poaching, hunting the cheetah's prey and reducing it to the point where the cheetah can no longer survive together with loss of habitat due to human expansion and activity.

Additional reasons for cheetah loses are: being hit by cars when crossing roads and attacks by sheep dogs (farmers occupy cheetah territory).

Apparently the Iranian government see financial profit in ensuring the survival of the cheetah. Well, yes, but it is a bit late, isn't it?

With United Nations assistance cheetahs are being more carefully monitored by fitting GPS collars so they can be tracked. Also, the authorities seem to adopting a similar approach to conservation to that of the Snow Leopard Trust; getting the local people involved and committed to conservation while compensating farmers for the loss of livestock due to cheetah attacks to avoid retaliation by famers.

Gary Lewis of the U.N. Development Program says:

"There are no other Asiatic cheetahs like the one that you have here in Iran..."

Therefore it is vital to save them form extinction in the wild in Iran. Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar who is in charge of Iran's Department of the Environment says,

...we are working very seriously with international organizations as well as our national specialists and experts to protect this species."

Iran has used the football World Cup to promote the campaign to save the cheetah in Iran. There are images of the cheetah on their kit.

Source: Fox News

Cat Hoarders Don't Care About the Cats

If more proof were needed and I don't think it is, the Kansas City cat hoarder is a good example of how people who collect cats and fail to care for them really don't care about the health and welfare of their cats despite what they profess.

This is a lady who rented out to apartments in Kansas City but didn't live in them herself. About 70 cats lived in them but, of course, in complete squalor and utterly neglected by this woman.

She actually called the authorities herself in order to get help so she was able to think rationally and at that moment was belatedly concerned about her cats but now a month later with most of the cats gone but some of them still roaming around the area she has failed to clean up her flats which are apparently still in a state of high squalor and smelling to heaven because of the urine and faeces inside them and I suppose other mess and detritus.

Not only does this woman not really care about her cats' welfare she appears to be disregarding the views of her neighbours who obviously want a decent place to live in but are forced to confront the ammonia smell seeping out of the flats and some remaining cats who look unhealthy which is disturbing to any decent person.

The city's authorities say they're still trying to trap some of the cats inside the apartment, which I find unbelievable.  This is a month later after all.  They say they have run out of traps to catch the cats.  I find that somewhat unbelievable as well.

The residents in the area are having to step in and do some cat catching themselves but this is skilled work and apparently only one cat has been trapped.  The authorities say it is the responsibility of the apartment owner to clean the inside of the apartments.

However, I would have thought that health and safety regulations would give the local authorities the power to step in and clean up themselves and apparently they have hinted that they might do this.

The point is this, though, the cat hoarder has shown antisocial tendencies, a disregard for others on top of a blindness about the consequences of her activities, namely, damaging the health of cats that she purportedly wishes to help.

Change of Appearance of Website

This is a quick note just to say that I have change the appearance of this website to try and match it up to the main website. There are a number of sub domains for PoC serving various purposes which were set up many years ago because at that time building a website was highly complicated and I was able to create subdomains which made writing content far easier. This site then closely matches the main website to try and create a seamless appearance. Here is a very nice picture by Helmi Flick to brighten up this current post.

Moggie! Glorious random bred cat -- photo copyright Helmi Flick