Please send email (sample letter inside) TY
To: regcomments@dgif.virginia.gov ,

Subject: No Regulating of Captive Fox Hunting

To :
The VDGIF
www.dgif.virginia.gov.

To whom it concerns,

Imagine being caught in a trap, taken away from your family, dumped in a strange place and given a few days to learn your way around before a pack of dogs is set loose to find, and likely, kill you.

Despite attempts to ban it, Virginia is still home to the cruel blood sport of “penning” – a practice that involves trapping foxes and coyotes in the wild, transporting them whether or not they’re injured and putting them in fenced enclosures where they’re forced to run for their lives and are often caught and brutally torn apart by hunting dogs who are chasing them for practice and competitions.

Last year bills that would have banned fox and coyote penning were introduced, but died in committee, despite being supported by 67 percent of Virginia voters. Now the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) is considering proposed regulations that would amend state regulations on penning, but animal advocates and organizations including the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Project Coyote are still fighting for a full ban.

Not only does this practice cause unnecessary suffering for wildlife, but it also opens the door to other problems, such as the black market for wild animals and the spread of diseases that can affect wildlife, pets and people, including canine parvovirus, canine coronavirus, canine herpesvirus and canine parainfluenza virus, along with a variety of parasites, according to AWI.

While the proposed regulations prohibit pen operators from buying foxes, it still allows them to “reimburse” trappers, perpetuating yet another inhumane act against wildlife.

Supporters continue to argue that it’s a good way to train dogs without trespassing and that foxes aren’t intentionally killed, but an estimated 3,600 fox have died in pens across Virginia in the last three years alone.

Under current state law, pens must be at least 100 acres with places for the foxes to hide. However, previous investigations have found that some pen owners intentionally block hiding spots, leaving penned animals with no place to escape.

A study that was discussed at a meeting in March also highlighted the fact that “88 percent of the tracked foxes — 49 of 56 — died over two penning seasons. Twenty-nine, or 52 percent, of the foxes died during trials, or competitions, indicating the deaths were ‘trial-related,’” reported the Richmond-Times Dispatch.

The VDGIF’s proposed regulations would ban the use of coyotes, limit hunting field trials to five days each week and get rid of cash prizes, but would allow the VDGIF director to waive regulations if they pose an “unreasonable burden” on a pen operator, which makes even having regulations kind of moot.

There is no way regulations will make this practice any more ethically defensible than dog fighting, and as AWI points out, with too few conservation police officers, Virginia doesn’t have the resources to enforce these proposed regulations anyway.

This practice needs to be banned!

Sincerely,

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Animals-Are-Worth-Saving/268517346607556

prohibitionandcurls:

thegoddamazon:

hh0peless:

haniemohd:

gailsimone:

morenamagia:

equiusinamaidoutfit:

eridanamporass:

p41g3r4nk1n:

listenforthesteel:

Some assholes have been putting nails in cheese and treats in dog parks in Chicago and Massachusetts. Also adding antifreeze to water bowls.

Please watch out for your dogs. And if you find out the address of someone doing this, give me the address and tell no one. I will disembowel them.

Antifreeze is fucking deadly as shit. Whilst my mom worked in the vets office the neighbor of a cat owner had become sick of his neighbors tom spraying by his house so he left antifreeze out for the cat. Animals are weirdly attracted to the smell and will drink it.

The cat was given to the vets and for 2 days it’s insides were slowly dissolved by the acids and it bled from his nose, mouth and even eyes.  

On the second day, the vet not being able to help and refusing to let the cat suffer any longer put the cat down. The neighbor who did not deny his crimes didn’t even offer to pay the woman’s vet bill.

SO THE BIGGEST FUCKING SIGNAL BOOST TO THIS POST.

Fuck who ever is doing this. They can fucking burn.

my friend had a cat and it drank antifreeze that was puddled in the driveway and one day they were knitting and it just vomited up all of its internal organs and fell over dead on her lap.

The perpetrators of all of this will burn in Hell. 

A neighbor of mine threw a ball of hamburger full of rat poison pellets over our fence for my son’s dog. He survived, barely, but has had nerve damage ever since.

SIGNAL BOOSTING LIKE MAD. Nobody has any excuse to be this cruel.

this hits close to home, my dog was poisoned & i lost her a few years ago. people are fucking sick

Who are these sick people who would be this cruel, though?

I’m signal boosting this shit, because I have a dog back home.

I am so over this entire planet and the scumbags that walk all over it.

(via paradiise-circus)

People who abuse animals belong behind bars. Animal Rights.

La gente que lastima a los animales pertenece tras las rejas. Derechos Animales.

vegan-because-fuck-you:

xthegirlwithkaleidoscopeeyesx:

These pigs are having their testicles ripped off without anesthesia. It’s a standard, completely legal industry practice.

This is an abused cow, watching her companions get slaughtered,knowing that she is next.

This is…

Peter Dinklage joins Cruelty Free International to call for U.S. ban on animal tests for cosmetics.

vegan-art:

Artist: W. Jackson Thilenius  |  Title: “Next”

(via earthfirewindwatervegan)

If fast food could talk you’d bloody well listen. Choose Vegetarian. - Mercy for animals.

dee9316:

vegan-fortheanimals:

theveganmockingbird:

This so-called weaning nose ring is fitted into the nose of the calf and tightened against the septum in order to stop the calf from trying to drink milk and to stop the reflex of nursing. This is also used in organic farming. 

disgusting people!

oh my god…oh my fucking god

Terrible

(via angryvegan)

(via animalsandtrees)

voxamberlynn:

fuckyeahcompassion:

This calf was born in the truck whilst his mother was going to the slaughterhouse. He was abandoned on the road. As a mother it should have been a great day but instead, she was put to death. She couldn’t even say hello to him let alone goodbye. Luckily for the little one, Traffic Police rescued him. Whilst he will start a new life, his mother died a slow and painful death.

This is the reality for billions of animals per year.
You have the power to change reality.
Go Vegan.

Submitted by Mary.

This makes me clench my teeth.

HOW. HOW can people be a part of this? A meal means more to you??

Go fuck yourself.

(via angryvegan)

(via thesensibleapron)

Solo los cobardes maltratan a los animales.
para los perros y gatos, la gente son con regularidad los abusadores.

- Ami James para PETA

moonlit-madness-sunrise-sadness:

People who eat meat are supporting an industry that rips out animals’ testicles while they are fully conscious and without any painkillers—some animals even have their testicles crushed or their blood flow cut off with rubber bands!

Read more: http://www.peta2.com/achievements/#ixzz2PLc6smmV

I. am. horrified. This is not okay.