| Author |
Message |
    
Bajou
Citizen
Username: Bajou
Post Number: 611
Registered: 2-2006
| | Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 6:03 pm: | 
|
Should you find yourself in a position that requires you to give up your pet PLEASE DO NOT ADVERTISE IT AS "FREE TO A GOOD HOME".
Please make sure you check out the person that will take the ANIMALS and tell the new adopter that you would like to come and visit within the first month. Make a quick little handwritten contract that states that the animal has to be returned to you in case it doesn't work out.
It is very common for very nice people (even elderly ladies) to come and adopt your free of charge pets only to go and sell them one hour later to the next labratory for $50 to $200. It happens all the time here in NJ where we have an enourmous amount of medical labratories.
Please heed my warning... we have seen it plenty of times before ....it is not rare when you advertise "free to a good home". You should always ask for a $ 75.00 check for a charity or a shelter just so you have their name and address if you need it. Get their phone number and try it while they are there. Just play stupid and say "oh let me just check if I wrote that down/programmed that correctly".
It is soooo prevalent here in NJ because of all the Labratories..PLEASE BEWARE even when they show up as a family. Ask for Drivers license etc.
Illegal Animal Trade (also called Class B Dealers)
http://www.saplonline.org/petsafety.htm
And for those who think it's so necessary to use labratory animals read some facts from the specialist:
http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/GM02Autumn/GM02Autumn11.html
So please be careful who you give your pet to.
|
cody
Citizen
Username: Cody
Post Number: 1017
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 6:32 pm: |
|
Thanks for putting this out here, Bajou. I've heard this from people associated with different pug rescue groups in different parts of the U.S.
It's a timely reminder. |
combustion
Citizen
Username: Spontaneous
Post Number: 88
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 7:17 pm: |
|
I don't know if it's an urban legend or not, so don't bash me if I'm wrong, but I've also heard of people taking free puppies and kittens for their large pet snakes to eat. Once they get large, snakes can be quite expensive to feed. In rare cases pet snakes can even become large enough to swallow adult cats. Not that I'm in any way against feeding pet snakes live food, we used to have a boa who went through 6 mice a week, but be aware that this could be a possible end to your free puppy, kitten, rabbit, ferret, etc. |
K_soze
Citizen
Username: K_soze
Post Number: 352
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 8:05 pm: |
|
What else will those labs take? I could sell my........wait, she's home from work. I'll get back to you's later.  |
Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1967
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 8:37 pm: |
|
It sounds horrible, but couldn't the drug manufacturers skip the $200-$800 payment and keep a corral of breeders?
Also, why go through the potentially illegal process of "adopting" strays when it's easy enough to let out a fertile housecat and wait for the kittens?
I'm sure that this happens sometimes, but I doubt it's commonplace.
|
Calliope
Citizen
Username: Calliope
Post Number: 386
Registered: 3-2006
| | Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 11:35 pm: |
|
Bajou makes an excellent point that no matter the ruse, some unscrupulous people will use "FREE TO GOOD HOME" ads to promote their particular form of cruelty. I don't know about the snakes, Combustion, but I do know, all too well, that especially in urban areas, puppies and kittens are frequently used as bait for dog fighting rings. It is terrifying and infuriating.
In my former group we had a committee who did nothing else but scan the papers, freecycle and craigslist to contact "Free to good home"advertisers to convince them to hand the animals over to us, so we could find responsible, loving homes for them.
Lydia, it happens A LOT---so much more than most people think. The big pharmaceutical labs etc. do not procure these animals themselves, they hire brokers (or "bunchers").It is a disgusting underbelly of industry. And no matter your views on animal experimentation, I think most people recoil if they think about "Fluffy's" litter suffering for the sake of some new hair dye or eye makeup.
Calli |
Bajou
Citizen
Username: Bajou
Post Number: 619
Registered: 2-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 1:25 pm: |
|
Dear Lydia:
Breeding takes time and money. You have to hold the female for up to one year till she is old enough to breed then depending on her health and size you have might only get 2-5 pups in your first two or three litters. One year of food, vet bills, Kennel costs, fertilization treatment (or double the cost for a male on premise) supplement food when she is pregnant, and shots for the pups. You are talking a couple thousand. When you can buy already vaccinated dogs for a couple hundred.
The mass breeders have a high mortality rate so they need enourmous quantities of pups to make money. The bunchers take the puppies that stores like the one by Costco can't sell, leftover breeder stock from •••••• backyard breeders, and pets that third parties pick up from your house "free of charge" cause they always wanted a dog just like the one you are giving up.
I can tell you it is not rare at all, especially not here in NJ.
And yes as Calliope said... Newark is the northeast capital of dogfighting and to keep them active and trained they need bait animals. Dogs, cats, raccoons pretty much everything will do. The younger the pit the worse the fate of the bait animal. Pits have to learn to kill, it is not in their nature, pits are bite and lock animals and they have to learn to bite in the right position. If the young pit does not kill the bait animal it just gets thrown aside left to die which can take hours and days. |
Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1969
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 4:12 pm: |
|
Bajou and Calliope -
Well, you've convinced me - really. I've never heard of "bunchers", that's sickening.
I have heard that one of the reasons so many of the pharmacuetical companies are in isolated areas is because of the aniimal experimentation.
I also didn't know that dog fights were a problem the Northeast - how horrible. |
Flameretardant
Citizen
Username: Flameretardant
Post Number: 16
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 6:01 pm: |
|
I'm a dog owner (or as I say it, a human companion) and an animal lover. And I agree that it's reprehensible to use animals as baiting for fights, as food for pet snakes, as subjects for developing certain frivolous consumer products, etc. But please, please do *NOT* make the mistake of assuming there are always alternatives to animal experimentation when it comes to developing life-saving medication.
It's easy to blame the big, bad pharma companies for unnecessarily - we assume - inflicting pain on animals. But would you rather delay (or even forego) the chance to create a vaccine for AIDS? A more effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease? A drug that may add years to the life of a cancer patient? If it were your loved one who was dying, would you be so quick to oppose an animal study of a new drug? Think about that when you think about the people around you who need medication to live - medication that in all likelihood, was developed with the help of animals.
The reality is that there sometimes is *NO* way of developing a drug lead without preclinical animal research. I know this first-hand from working for pharma companies and one of the world's leading research hospitals. And I'm saying this not as an industry shill, but as someone who gets frustrated when others react to emotion-laden, popular causes without knowing all the facts.
And the fact is ... anyone familiar with the context of the quotes from the PCRM link Bajou posted will know that the NCI was referring to the famous mouse studies on angiogenesis a while back, and the fact that the agent used in these studies was not some wonder drug that could simply be injected into a human subject the next day. The mouse studies were a critical and very encouraging first step, but only a first step. This remark was an attempt to set realistic expectations after the "cancer cure" story by the New York Times.
Those familiar with drug development know that the vast majority of companies and institutions performing animal research are highly ethical and their practices humane. Not perfect, that's true. But to believe all the anti-vivisectionist rhetoric is to ignore cold, hard facts. |
Calliope
Citizen
Username: Calliope
Post Number: 389
Registered: 3-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 6:40 pm: |
|
But to believe all the anti-vivisectionist rhetoric is to ignore cold, hard facts.
I don't think anyone here was espousing anti-vivsectionist rhetoric.
My point,specifically,and I cannot speak for Bajou,was that "bunchers" will employ any ruse to gather "Free to good home"puppies, kittens and sometimes adult pets, to provide them to dog fighting rings and fringe industries who test god-knows-what---everything from vitamins to mascara, on former pets.
I will take issue, however, with the so-called "Premarin" farms,mostly in Canada and North Dakota,owned by large pharmaceutical companies in which mares, usually Clydesdales and Percherons, are chained in stalls in which they cannot turn around or lay down; are inseminated to keep them pregnant; are kept thirsty to concentrate their urine, which is collected in rubber sacks chained onto their bodies,causing open wounds which frequently go untreated. When the foals are born a small percentage are kept as replacements. When the mares' reproductive lives are over, they and their foals are slaughtered. These animals were kept in torturous conditions to provide the hormones in hormone replacement therapy, which may have relieved some menopausal symptoms, but is now, albeit controversially, linked to elevated cancer rates in the women who were recipients of HRT. Indeed, that bothers me.
Wasting lives of intelligent, sensitive creatures in search of a drug which may ultimately be a carcinogen,that distresses me very much.
I know that animal studies have led to some landmark medical breakthroughs, and, although it still disturbs me, I can partially justify it if the animals are treated humanely, and with the respect, I believe all life deserves.
Call that rhetoric if you will.
Calli |
Bajou
Citizen
Username: Bajou
Post Number: 625
Registered: 2-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 6:48 pm: |
|
Flame: You are quite right that there is no way around testing for development of live saving medicine. However millions of animals die in labs that test lotions, shampoos, make up and everyday products that have been tested over and over which is completely unnecessary.
Most research on dogs is fairly useless. We cannot even transmit flu to each other...You can transmit the flu to your car though. Life saving research is done on chimps (how sad that we punish our closest ancestor for being our closest ancestor)
There are quite well run labratories and research hospitals. Anything that receives a grant is usually heavily monitored but it still is a torture chamber..
As i said there are guidelines:
http://www.aaalac.org/
http://www.hsus.org/animals_in_research/monkeys_and_apes_in_research/chimpanzee_ retirement/
Most likely everybody here on this site knows somebody who owes their life to a chimp. Might be even you yourself..do you take thyroid medication, do you get the flu shot or do you have heart problems....?
Well the least we can do then is offer the ones that survive years (sometimes 15 -20 years) of torture on our behalf a decent place to end their lifes...
SO DONATE!!!!
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/wisdom/chimps.html
http://www.chimphaven.org/index.cfm#
http://www.faunafoundation.org/ff/english/sanct/chimps/chimpanzees.html
But that's just my opinion.. |
Calliope
Citizen
Username: Calliope
Post Number: 390
Registered: 3-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 7:11 pm: |
|
You can transmit the flu to your car though.
ummmm, Bajou, is that what we would call an AUTO-immune disease????
I thought we needed a little levity
C |
Bajou
Citizen
Username: Bajou
Post Number: 631
Registered: 2-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 1:37 am: |
|
You are funny !!! Please can I meet you ?? You are way ahead of me.. I meant cat not car!!! |
|
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page