Marcy Winograd: Santa Monica can now move forward in a more positive and humane direction, offering our children uplifting activities like painting, poetry, and drama.
Animal Rights
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) maintain that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way. Whether you embrace their philosphy or some version of it, the articles, opinion pieces, and investigative reports on humans' treatment of animals on this page offer a view into the many ways we can improve in the treatment of the non-human beings with whom we share the planet.
Santa Monica City Council to Decide Whether to Free the Ponies
Marcy Winograd: The Santa Monica City Council will decide whether to replace the exploitative animal exhibits — tethered pony rides and cramped petting zoo — at the Main Street Farmers Market with life-affirming children’s activities: painting, arts and crafts, poetry, and drama.
Compassion for the Wild Horses of North Dakota
Georgianne Nienaber: The bottom line is that horses are social animals with a very complicated hierarchical network that is especially susceptible to disruption. Sudden culling is an immediate and profound assault on social cohesion.
Expert Calls Santa Monica Animal Exhibits Inhumane
Marcy Winograd: Bekoff refutes arguments that the animal exhibits are educational. “This sends the wrong message that it’s okay to treat animals like this and that they don’t mind being tethered or kept in cages.”
Admitting That Pigeon Shoots Are Animal Cruelty
Walter Brasch: The NRA leadership, as opposed to most of the membership, wrongly believes that banning animal cruelty by guns is a “slippery slope” that not only violates the Second Amendment but will lead to gun control bans.
Environmentalism and Why I’m a Vegetarian (Almost)
Vegetarian Health: What convinced me to cut back on eating red meat was when I realized the environmental consequences of consuming it.
No Honor in Killing ‘God’s Dog’
Coyote Hunting: For whatever reason people say they kill coyotes, it has nothing to do with sport and everything to do with joy of killing.
Pets Are Property Like Kitchen Chairs
Animal Abuse — Every year, about 2.7 million healthy and adoptable pets in the United States are killed by the staff of animal shelters.
Rabbits, Endangered Rhinos, and the Dallas Safari Club
Endangered Rhinos — The safari club will offer the chance to go to Namibia and shoot one of the magnificent, endangered creatures dead.
Why Do Politicians Support Animal Cruelty?
Walter Brasch: It’s an easy answer. Politicians are ruled not by the people who elect them but by who spreads money and fear onto their souls — in this case, NRA executives.
Rattled with PTSD: Post Traumatic Snake Disorder
Irene Monroe: In our first and never again face-to-face encounter, the boa poked its head up greeting me with a hiss, and I responded with a blood-curdling scream.
Why I Don’t Support Public Radio: Cats and Dogs
Janis Schmidt: North Dakota is swimming in a sea of oil, yet does not have any dollars for homeless, abandoned cats, dogs, and people. You know, I haven’t talked to a single person who has benefited from all this oil.
Breeding Immorality
JP Sotille: Once again this year, millions of discarded and unwanted dogs will be executed in overcrowded shelters, far away from the glaring lights of cable television.
