From the Horse’s Mouth - December 2010 Edition (The Trumpet)

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”


~Paul McCartney

It’s official. The world is gradually yet steadily morphing into a more vegan oriented society. What better news to take with us into the New Year? I promote veganism, because it is not only the MOST compassionate choice to make in the coming year, but also the healthiest. And in your heart of hearts you know it too.

It’s been proclaimed for years – a full-fledged vegetarian diet is the most beneficial for the human system. Dr Hean Yee, Head, Cardiovascular Medicine at Alexandria Hospital in Singapore was quoted to have said, “Humans are natural herbivores: we get heart disease when we eat meat.”

Crisp and lucid.

Dr Baxter Montgomery, a leading cardiologist in Houston, also strongly promotes the health benefits of a vegan diet. “By getting a patient on a plant-based diet and getting her completely off animal flesh, it was possible to reverse her Type 2 diabetes,” Montgomery says, speaking of one of the many patients he has treated for diabetes in a similar way. “Eventually even insulin injections were no longer needed.”

Meanwhile, reviews for Melanie Joy’s latest book “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism” are out. And they’re vibrant with praise.

Says one editorial review “She uses her factory farm–to–table narrative to buttress her real thesis: meat-eating or carnism, is an oppressive ideology as noxious as racism. Joy casts meat eating as genocide, comparable to the Holocaust, and factory farming on a par with the American enslavement of Africans.”

And the sad part is that factory farming is actually ‘intensive animal agriculture’ – a system of livestock production and slaughter, rife with cruelty that most of us are not only ignorant about, but also incapable of witnessing. Dairy production, the meat industry and poultry farming are all blatant examples of human exploitation at its most extreme.

Take the time out to rethink your lifestyle. Think about the origins of the milk you drink, the meat you consume and the eggs you devour. And if you still can’t grasp the gravity of the situation, put yourself in the place of a chicken about to be killed brutally after being debeaked, defeathered and skinned alive.

For the benefit of all and sundry, the Vegetarian Society of Singapore, along with fellow animal welfare organizations, have shared with us a video on ‘The Intelligence and Emotions of our Fellow Animals’ which was also shown at the recently concluded India, South and West Asia Vegetarian Congress held at Bangalore, from 30 October-1 November. The link to the video: http://www.vegetarian-society.org/node/1488 . Seeing the video may help you to understand our fellow animals better and have a glimpse of their complex emotional states too.

Spread the word. Animals are not ours to exploit. They are living beings in their own right and deserve to be appreciated and respected, not beaten, skinned, scalded, slashed, experimented on, eaten or worn. Make a statement in the coming year. Take a stand. And don’t hesitate to share this with your friends and family. Even one changed heart in ten, calls for a celebration.

I sincerely hope you have had a compassion-filled, cruelty-free 2010. If you have, then be assured that the blessings of all the animals you have supported are with you. I also pray that 2011 is equally enlightening, healthy and animal friendly for you.

Happy holidays and a very happy New Year too.

For Thane S.P.C.A.,

Shreyasi Majumdar

Yet Another TSPCA Success Story!!!!!

Thane S.P.C.A. continues with its animal rescue successes!


 Recently we received a couple of phone calls and an sms message which informed us of the sad plight of three Persian cats and a few birds inside a very dirty cage. The prompts originated from neighbours who live in and around the vicinity, where the alleged crimes against these hapless animals were being perpetrated.


We (TSPCA officials) proceeded to check out the claims of animal abuse, but could only see the cats from the rear end of what we realized was a fabrication workshop. We managed to find the main entrance into the shop, where approximately ten workers were labouring in the usual filthy conditions.


Our investigations led us to a shocking discovery! At the very rear end of the workshop, the owner had fabricated cages, two of which housed turkeys, Indian hens, pheasants and geese – all in a 2oo sq.ft enclosure. We would like to add at this point that the cages were devoid of a single drop of water or morsel of food for the hapless animals.

The three cats were locked up in a pitifully small cage, without any sunlight or any other source of light for that matter.

However, when we also found three large Star Tortoises in a cage, we knew we had to have them picked up immediately. Their legs were stretching unnaturally on all sides on account of walking on the tiled floor. There were some ladyfingers strewn around for the reptiles to eat, but not a single bowl of water.

Further on, near the entrance, we found a 4x7 dungeon-like enclosure with around 15 goats tied to the charactertistic miniscule ropes that we find on cattle so often. The area was so small that the goats were literally sitting one on top of the other! Apart from the goats, we also found several pigeons and what could have been either cockatiels or budgerigars (we couldn’t really see that well in the darkness there).

The place stank due to the overcrowding and the wet floors and lack of sunlight didn’t ease the situation at all. We clicked some pictures and immediately went to the Versova Police Station to lodge a complaint there.

The police were co-operative and we managed to speak with the Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) too. We returned to the workshop with the police jeep and began the panchanama on the spot. The owners arrived in the midst of the investigation and were visibly ruffled and unhappy with us for interfering in their affairs like we did. However the police investigation had already begun and there was no way for them to change anything in anyway – yay!


We got the Star Tortoises packed up and removed from the premises. They were brought back to the police station. The owners meanwhile were detained, while we completed lodging the FIR. The one happy twist to this story was that the CCF and the police inspector handling the case, turned out to be long lost friends and were reunited with much thrill on both sides!


And now, to the most savoury part of the story – the owner of the place was produced in court and remanded to custody in jail, by the court. He is now probably languishing in Arthur Jail now. The court will decide about the fate of the other animals on Monday and we expect the judgement to be in their favour – Godwilling!


-----Team TSPCA

Scientists stunned as grey whale sighted off Israel (AFP)

Wednesday, May 12

A handout picture made available by the Israeli Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center (IMMRAC) shows a grey whale off the coast of Israel. The appearance of the grey whale off the coast of Israel has stunned scientists, in what was thought to be the first time the giant mammal has been seen outside the Pacific in several hundred years.
JERUSALEM (AFP) - – The appearance of a grey whale off the coast of Israel has stunned scientists, in what was thought to be the first time the giant mammal has been seen outside the Pacific in several hundred years.

The whale, which was first sighted off Herzliya in central Israel on Saturday, is believed to have travelled thousands of miles from the north Pacific after losing its way in search of food.

"It's an unbelievable event which has been described as one of the most important whale sightings ever," said Dr Aviad Scheinin, chairman of the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center which identified the creature.

A population of grey whales once inhabited the north Atlantic but became extinct in the 17th or 18th centuries and has not been seen there since.

The remaining colonies live in the western and eastern sectors of the north Pacific.

"What has amazed the entire marine mammal research community is there haven't been any grey whales in the Atlantic since the 18th century," he said. Scheinin said the creature, a mature whale measuring some 12 metres (39 feet) and weighing around 20 tonnes, probably reached the Atlantic through the Northwest Passage, an Arctic sea route that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is normally covered with ice.

"Here you have an animal that is supposed to live in the Pacific and because the ice in the Arctic is melting, it managed to get through this corridor near the Bering Strait," Scheinin told AFP.

The population which lives in the northeastern Pacific normally migrates southwards in around October, heading for warmer waters around the Gulf of California in a huge round trip of at least 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometres).

So when autumn came, this particular grey whale began travelling south, keeping the land mass on the left and heading for the Californian Gulf with the aim of "turning left" into the bay.

But instead, it reached Gibraltar and turned left into the Mediterranean and ended up off the shores of Israel, Scheinin said.

"The question now is: are we going to see the re-colonisation of the Atlantic?" he said. "This is very important ecologically because of the change of habitat. It emphasises the climate change that we are going through."

So far, the whale seems to be happy enough in the waters off the shores of Israel, he said.

"It is pretty thin, which indicates the trip was quite harsh, but we think it can survive here," he said. "Grey whales are very generalist in what they feed on."

Now experts are mulling the possibility of tracking the whale by satellite -- a costly operation that would need outside funding and expertise, Scheinin said.

"It's quite a big operation to do this. If it stays around here for the next month, it's worth having someone come in and do this professionally," he said.

"It will be interesting to see where it goes and to follow it."