clipped from latimesblogs.latimes.com

Monkey smuggling: Don’t try this at home

We’d be lying if we said it had never occurred to us that it’d be neat to have a baby monkey around the house.

Of course, we’d never do more than think about keeping a monkey as a pet. (First, because we know exotic pets are a big no-no, especially with so many homeless dogs and cats out there. And second, because ABC’s prime-time special “The Dark Side of the Monkey Business” really freaked us out!)

But two Washington women went to a bizarre extreme to make their pet-monkey dreams a reality — they tried to smuggle a baby rhesus macaque from Thailand into the U.S. Their method? Tranquilizing the monkey and hiding it under one woman’s loose-fitting clothing to make her appear pregnant. CNN reports:

clipped from www.ocregister.com

Veterinary services shouldn’t be taxed

Even if Schwarzenegger didn’t mean it, the comparison is reprehensible. Pets are living, breathing, sentient beings. How dare anyone say that my dogs aren’t worth any more than my refrigerator? Take my fridge; I’ll survive. Try to take my dogs and you might as well take my soul. They mean that much to me.

The fact sheet adds that veterinarians are insulted at their services being compared with appliance and furniture repair. I sincerely hope that comparison wasn’t what Schwarzenegger had in mind, but if he was equating living, breathing animals with furniture and appliances, then I’m as insulted as the veterinarians are.

clipped from www.avma.org

AVMA supports—in concept—Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare

The UDAW is described by WSPA as “an agreement among people and nations to recognize that animals are sentient and can suffer, to respect their welfare needs, and to end animal cruelty—for good.

“The declaration would be structured as a set of general principles that acknowledge and emphasize the importance of animal welfare,” according to the recommendation. “The principles would encourage all nations to put in place, or where they already exist, to improve animal welfare laws and standards. The UDAW would not be a proscriptive piece of binding legislation and is therefore not concerned with attributing legal rights to animals.”