A Swiss animal welfare organization is suing the Olympic International Committee over the treatment of horses during the equestrian competition in Tokyo. One horse was punched by a coach after refusing to jump, another was bleeding from the nose while being ridden and a third was euthanized after a fall.
Midwestern Pet Foods appears to be falling down on the job. The manufacturer’s Sportmix brand food has sickened or killed hundreds of dogs this year. The first round of recalls were in January, due to aflatoxin:
Samples of SPORTMiX were later found to contain levels of aflatoxin as high as 558 parts per billion (ppb). The FDA considers pet food to be adulterated if it contains more than 20 ppb of aflatoxin.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-brief-fda-issues-corporate-wide-warning-letter-company-associated-contaminated-pet-food-hundreds
In March, the company recalled more food due to contamination with salmonella:
The FDA found that Midwestern’s food safety program appears inadequate to significantly minimize or prevent Salmonella in its pet food.
And in August, things at Midwestern still appear to be broken:
After inspecting Midwestern’s Chickasha [Oklahoma] plant, the FDA also inspected the company’s three other manufacturing plants. These inspections revealed evidence of significant violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals regulation.
The FDA issued a warning letter to the company with a request for response within fifteen business days. The agency states that failure to adequately and promptly address the violations may result in legal action.
A six year old female killer whale at Sea World exhibited signs of illness on August 18 and died the next day. A necropsy was performed and the results, not yet available, may help determine the cause of death. She was the youngest of the ten orcas at the California park.
A couple weeks ago, a young dog was found strangled to death, tied to a jungle gym at a kiddie park in Saginaw, Michigan. It was an especially heinous crime, not only because of the fact that the coward intended for children to find the dog (they did) but also because the plastic coated cable which killed the dog was tied around three separate poles so that there was no slack. And (warning, disturbing details):
“It was so tight around the dog’s neck that it was embedded,” [Saginaw County Animal Care and Control director Bonnie] Kanicki said. “What was quite haunting about this was there was a bolt around the (neck) fashioned in such a way it couldn’t loosen. Once it tightened around her neck, it did not come loose. The puppy had no chance once that cable locked down.”
https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2021/08/strangled-dog-found-tied-to-parks-jungle-gym-by-neighborhood-kids-in-saginaw.html
This is the act of a monster. If the person hasn’t already tortured other animals to death, I’d be surprised. And he’ll continue escalating. I hope he is found soon.
A week later, another dog was found in Saginaw with a plastic coated cable wound so tightly around his leg, he chewed the leg off to free himself. He was tied in a yard with no food, water or shelter. Kanicki says the incidents appear to be unrelated.
The ancient Egyptians kept cats as pets and for their ability to keep unwanted animals, such as venomous snakes and scorpions, out of the home. And while cats themselves were not worshipped, they were given divine attributes such as an association with fertility and a belief that gods could take the form of a cat.
