Please help to support change in China and Korea, who torture dogs and cats for slaughter for food, skinning them alive, throwing them into boiling water alive, breaking their bones by stomping on them and throwing cages full of them around.

If you want to support change in China, you can support PETA, but some people don't like PETA's tactics so there is also the Humane Society International www.hsus.org or directly to the Animals Asia Foundation www.animalsasia.org

From the Animals Asia website...

Letter to Beijing Authorities regarding news of the legalization of dog slaughter in Beijing

Speaking Out Against Legalization of Dogs for Food


Following a story in "Beijing Daily" on 29 March 2005, that the Beijing authorities had issued certificates for dog meat-hygiene and slaughtering to butchers and slaughter houses, thus legalizing the slaughtering of dogs for meat in China, Animals Asia immediately responded with the following letter to the authorities in Beijing. You can do your part by forwarding the letter on to the Chinese Embassy nearest you.

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are deeply concerned to learn that the Beijing authorities have recently issued certificates which give approval to dog butchers and slaughterhouses and which now legally allow the sale of dog meat for human consumption.

Animals Asia represents many thousands of animal welfare supporters across the world, including China, who support responsible regulations and legislation which protect wild, domestic and endangered species from suffering and abuse. In recent years, the animal welfare community in China has developed and grown, with an increasing number of groups and local citizens championing a basic respect of all species and gaining significant approval as a result from the local and international arena.

The number of dog and cat owners in China has escalated, and is now seeing a growing and profitable market in a wide variety of locally made and imported pet supplies, including medicines, petfoods and toys. The growth of print, television and radio media stories, together with the expansion of petshops across the country, all devoted to the promotion of companion animals, is gaining wide interest locally within China towards the benefits of opening our homes to dogs and cats, and placing China firmly in the position of a country which is developing a harmonious attitude towards the animals which share our every day lives.

The news of Beijing regulating the dog meat trade will have serious consequences - not only angering and upsetting millions of dog owners in China, but seriously damaging the image of the country as a whole in the eyes of the international community who strongly believe that
dogs - and cats - provide valuable assistance and companionship to the human species and are very much considered our friends, rather than food.

Across the world, including Asia, dogs are recognised today as fundamental to the well being of human kind. They help us in times of war and disaster, and their incredible ability to "sniff out" a whole range of substances which would do us harm; including explosives and narcotics, is well documented by customs officials across the world who work side by side with this enthusiastic, intelligent and beneficial species.

Studies are coming to light which show that dogs are now capable of detecting cancers in patients earlier than conventional medical tests, and scientific papers abound showing that simply being in the company of dogs has far reaching physical and mental benefit to a wide range of patients, through sharing the unconditional love of a species which has rightly earned the accolade of man's best friend.

The cruelty of the dog and cat meat trade in China has been widely publicised over the years by a large number of local and international animal welfare groups. The Animals Asia team regularly document scenes of horrific abuse in live animal markets across the country - particularly to the species of dogs who are now enjoying protection against such atrocities in a growing number of countries in Asia - including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the Philippines. The method of slaughter is tragically cruel and markets in China reveal killing methods which leave both dogs and cats suffering a lingering, violent death as they are either bludgeoned over the head, stabbed in the neck or groin, hung, electrocuted or thrown conscious into drums of boiling water.

In addition, as carnivores, dogs and cats are inherently different in temperament and physiology to domestic livestock species more commonly raised intensively en-masse for food. Our investigations show that much damage is inflected through aggression and fighting when dogs are raised together under intensive and highly stressful conditions, and we draw your attention to a statement by a representative of the Hong Kong Government Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department who maintains that dogs cannot be humanely raised and slaughtered for food. More recently, in line with several other countries of Asia, Taiwan has also not only banned the practice of dog eating, but is now levying significant penalties on those who choose to ignore the law.

Today, Beijing's move to regulate the slaughter of dogs will now escalate the increasing criticism of China's practice of dog and cat meat consumption and further damage the country's image abroad - particularly as the date for the Beijing Olympic Games in August 2008 draws near.

We urge you to withdraw this legalisation of the dog meat industry and to follow the example of other countries of Asia who have adopted wide-ranging protective measures of companion animals and who promote far reaching education programmes of responsible pet ownership, rabies awareness and stray dog and cat control. In this context, Animals Asia and the groups with whom we work in China would be pleased to cooperate with you at all levels and look forward to your early response to our request.

Yours sincerely,
Jill Robinson MBE
Founder & CEO
Animals Asia Foundation

-------------------------------------

South Korea Legislation Amendment
Dogs to be reclassified as livestock

There has been a lot of activity recently about the city of Seoul’s proposal to reclassify dogs as “livestock”, thereby legitimising their slaughter as “meat animals”, despite the fact that South Korea currently outlaws the sale of dog meat.

Animals Asia has received pleas from many of our supporters and requests from the Korea Animal Protection Society (KAPS) and other animal welfare groups to lend our support to those in Korea working to prevent this.

Animals Asia fully endorses their activities and protests against this legislation, which would set back by years, the progress of all animal welfare groups in Asia working to take companion animals out of the food chain.

With this in mind, we have recently sent two separate letters in support of KAPS to the Mayor of Seoul and to the President of South Korea, strongly protesting this huge backward step and stressing its potential damage to the welfare of companion animals across Asia.

Below is the text of one of our letters – if you would like to support KAPS in this campaign please copy and forward it to:

Mayor of Seoul Mr Oh Se-hoon
Email: ohsehoon@seoul.go.kr
Address: Euljiro1, Jung-gu, Seoul, 100-744, Korea

Korean President Mr Lee Myung-bak
Email: Hwebmaster@president.go.kr
Address: 1 Cheongwadae-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea

If you would like to offer direct help on this issue, please contact the following animal welfare groups:

Korean Animal Protection Society
1593-19 Daemyung 10-dong
Nam-gu, Daegu City, South Korea
Tel: 82-53-622-3588 Fax: 82-53-656-3587
E-mail: kaps0127@hanafos.com
Website: www.koreananimals.net/ www.koreananimals.or.kr/
Attn: Sunnan

Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE)
Email: kyeowoolmom@hanmail.net
Website: www.fromcare.org
Attn: Ms Park So-Yeon, President

Korea Association for Animal Protection (KAAP)
Email: lwb22028@hanmail.net
Website: www.kaap.or.kr
Attn: Mr Lee Won-bok, President

On behalf of these groups and companion animals across Asia, thank you for your help.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 May 2008


President Mr Lee Myung-bak
1 Chongwadae-ro
Jongno-gu
Seoul
Korea


Dear President Lee

Animals Asia Foundation is an animal welfare organisation working to restore respect to all animals across Asia. One of our programmes is Friends…..or Food? through which we work on the ground in China to eradicate the use of dogs and cats as “meat” animals.

As such, we are extremely disturbed by the proposal of the Municipality of Seoul released in the Dog Meat Hygiene Management Policy, to list dogs as livestock. As supporters of the Korean Animal Protection Society (KAPS) and the Korea Association for Animal Protection (KAAP), we fully support and endorse their campaign to protest this legislation.

Listing dogs as livestock for human consumption under the Korean national legislation, would make Korea the first country in the world to legalise dog meat, and would also make Korea’s President the first national leader in the world to permit dogs to be used “as food for human consumption”.

Animals Asia believes that to advocate or legislate the slaughter of dogs for consumption would legitimise the practice and undermine the great work of countries like Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand and Hong Kong that have already outlawed the practice of dog eating. In China, we are seeing a groundswell of change with an increase in pet ownership, and a huge increase in awareness of dogs as companion animals, not livestock.

Animals Asia strongly urges your government to prevent the legalisation of dog eating in your national laws and to prohibit the consumption of dog meat as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely


Jill Robinson, MBE
Founder & CEO
Animals Asia Foundation

-----------------------------------

The Philippines is one of the few Asian countries where progressive laws exist to protect animals from cruelty and abuse, including the implementation of a law in 1998 forbidding the eating of dog meat (apart from certain tribal holidays in remote provinces). However, our long time Dr. Dog partners in the Philippines, the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) alerted us that this law was seriously under threat!

PAWS informed us that there was a proposal to legalise the dog meat trade in Baguio province. Whilst on the surface this appeared to be an attempt to preserve local "culture" and "tradition", PAWS were seriously concerned that the real intention of some government officials was to exploit existing loop holes in the animal welfare legislation and open a path to a wholesale dog meat industry. It was absolutely vital that this resolution was defeated, as it would be a terrible set back for dogs right throughout Asia if it passed.

We asked you to send a letter outlining your concerns and calling for the enforcement and improvement of the Philippine Animal Welfare Act. PAWS printed the letters out and passed them on to the appropriate government officials who were shocked by the international outrage.

We also like to encourage you to send letters by snail mail directly to the Baguio City Veterinarian and City Governor for more impact:

Bridget Piok, DVM
Baguio City Veterinarian
City Veterinary Office
Slaughterhouse Compound
2600 Baguio City
Philippines

Governor
Hon. Melchor P. Borromeo
Office of the Provincial Governor
La Trinidad
Benguet
Philippines

Below is the letter that Animals Asia wrote to the Governor on January 19th 2006

Dear Hon. Melchor P. Borromeo,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Animals Asia Foundation to express our concern over the proposed legalisation of the dog meat trade in Benguet, and to respectfully request that you do everything in your power to ensure that this reprehensible proposal is withdrawn immediately.

The Philippines won international praise for the introduction of the 'Animal Welfare Act' in 1998 (formally known as Republic Act 8485), and your comprehensive animal welfare laws are often cited as an example for other Asian countries to aspire to. Therefore, to hear that there are plans afoot to exploit existing loopholes in the Animal Welfare Act is distressing to say the least. The news that Baguio City is planning to legalise and regulate the dog meat trade will undoubtedly have serious consequences - not only angering and upsetting millions of dog owners in the Philippines and around the world, but seriously damaging the image of your country as a whole in the eyes of the international community.

Whilst we recognise that certain tribes within the Philippines have historically eaten dog meat during religious festivities, tradition can never be an excuse for cruelty and 'cultural relativism' is an extremely poor argument for maintaining a merciless practice that should be relegated to the history books. The legalisation of dog eating (even if only for a specific tribal minority) directly compromises all other efforts to protect animals within the Philippines and undermines the very core of the Animal Welfare Act.

Attempts to regulate the dog meat trade in any way would only provide a superficial solution and give dog eating a façade of respectability, whilst allowing the suffering to continue behind closed doors. As carnivores, dogs are inherently different in temperament and physiology to domestic livestock species more commonly raised en-masse for food, and our investigations show that much damage is inflected through aggression and fighting when dogs are raised together under intensive and highly stressful conditions. No government in any country has devised a way to humanely kill dogs for commercial purposes, and a representative of the Hong Kong Government Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department has stated on record that dogs cannot be humanely raised and slaughtered for food. More recently, in line with several other countries in Asia, Taiwan has not only banned the practice of dog eating entirely, but is now levying severe penalties on those who choose to flout the law. As more and more Asian countries table the issue of animal welfare legislation for discussion, it is imperative for the Philippines to uphold and improve its existing laws, instead of allowing such a giant step backwards by legalising dog eating.

Throughout the world dogs are being used in increasingly sophisticated roles to benefit mankind: today, dogs work their hearts out as guide dogs for the blind; hearing dogs for the deaf; police and army dogs; sniffer dogs searching out bombs, narcotics, illegal wildlife products and even certain types of cancer; or people lost in landslides, avalanches and earthquakes. Animals Asia's successful Dr. Dog animal therapy programme sees hundreds of dedicated dogs and volunteers visiting hospitals, hospices, disabled centres, elderly homes, orphanages and schools, spreading much needed love and laughter to people in need right across Asia. Dr. Dog has even spread healing paw prints to the Philippines, where our partners, the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) have been running this valuable community service programme since 1997.

Whilst it is difficult to avoid double standards by deeming one animal a companion and another a 'food' animal (suffering cannot be excused with the argument that an animal has been purposely bred for food), we firmly believe that change must start somewhere and that dogs, as our age old best friends, can serve as valuable ambassadors for all animal species. With dogs offering so many benefits to mankind, it is vital that they are given the protection that they so deserve. We respectfully urge you to reconsider the proposal to legalise the dog meat trade in Benguet and ensure that dogs retain their rightful place as our friends…and not food.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this request and I look forward to hearing of positive news regarding this issue in the near future.

Yours sincerely,

Anneleise Smillie
Education Director
Animals Asia Foundation

Cc:
Dr. Bridget Piok
Provincial City & Municipal Veterinarians League of the Philippines (PCMVLP)
Dr. Rustan V. Patacsil, President PCMVLP
Dr. Manuel C. Carlos, Vice-President Luzon
Dr. Eliezer Z. Dela Cruz, Vice President Visayas
Dr. Roehl C. De Los Santos, Vice President Mindanao
Dr. Jennilyn M. Averilla, Secretary

Tamia - Me
www.youtube.com/watch

-verse-

Love was a former owner, but quiet is renting our house
It seizes my lips from speaking, but forms a sarcastic smile
Suspense now raised one of your eyebrowes
You ask me if there's someone else
I replied yes, hell yes
You asked me if it's another man, I say no
You laughed and say is it a woman, I say yeah
Surprisingly you asked me for honey's name

-chorus-
And her name is me,
And she loves me more than you'll ever know
And I finally see that loving you and loving me
Just don't seem to work at all
So patiently, she's waiting on me to tell you
That she needs love
And to choose between you two, boy you know
If I have to choose, I choose me

-verse-
And she told me to tell you to never to hurt me again
Cuz if you haven't heard she's a bad chick
Even though I haven't been, no
Yet and still you try and test me by raisin' an angry hand
Put it down, put it down

I'm leavin don't try and stop me, (no)
I'm late and she is waiting, (yes)
My love for me is too much so I can't stay

-chorus-
And her name is me,
And she loves me more than you'll ever know
And I finally see that loving you and loving me
Just don't seem to work at all
So patiently, she's waiting on me to tell you
That she needs love
And to choose between you two, boy you know
If I have to choose, I choose

Cuz she's actually formin' a threesome
And I'm happy that I can join them, and
Their names are me, myself and I

-chorus-
And her name is me,
And she loves me more than you'll ever know
And I finally see that loving you and loving me
Just don't seem to work at all
So patiently, she's waiting on me to tell you
That she needs love
Gotta choose between you two, and you know if I had to choose
I'd choose me, me, I gotta go with me.

My birthday wishes: for friends who not only profess to care but actually do...for the direction that I'm supposed to go in my life to be made clear...for love and peace to surround me...for myself and those I love to be internally well and finacially stable.

Save me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck.

Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can't find a foothold to stand on.

I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me.

I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched and dry.

My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me…

But I keep right on praying to you, Lord, hoping this is the time you will show me favor.

Psalm 69:1-3, 13 NLT


Praying when hope seems dim

David's prayer recorded in this psalm essentially amounts to a simple, "Save me, I'm sinking." It's the cry of a desperate man who can't even think of helping himself. But at least David knew whom he needed to ask for help. Although he was exhausted from crying to the Lord in prayer, he kept on shouting to his God, the only one who could save him.

When waves of adversity threaten to drown you in despair, pray to God. Remember David's persistence, and keep on asking God for help.

Prayer for today:

Dear Lord, I am exhausted from crying for help, but I will keep on praying to you.

He's in the Pacific Palisades in a big cage with a plastic igloo and has 2 new rabbit friends. His new mom is a stay-at-home mom so he'll get lots and lots of attention from her and the kids. It's a fab situation and my heart is happy :-)