In 2009, subway passengers from across Toronto were greeted with a provocative ad campaign that challenged them with a simple question: Why Love One But Eat The Other? The ads were put together and distributed by a dedicated Toronto team with the help of Mercy For Animals, and offered viewers information about factory farming in … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Companion Animals
Move Over Dog Whisperer: Alana Stevenson’s Training Your Dog the Humane Way
With a growing industry of products, services, and even TV shows, dog training is big business in the United States and Canada. But some of the most popular practices in the dog training world are abusive and rely on dominance and intimidation to control behavior. Alana Stevenson, author of Training Your Dog the Humane Way: Simple … Continue reading
NO! On Puppy Mills: An Interview with “YES! On Prop B” Campaign Director, Barbara Schmitz
This week Animal Voices speaks with Barbara Schmitz, Missouri State Director for the Humane Society of the United States and campaign director for the YES! On Prop B campaign. The campaign is attempting to usher in The Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act in Missouri, where a full 30% of the estimated 3000 US Puppy Mills are … Continue reading
One Face of Change: An Interview with Marcie Laking
Ever since the shutdown and investigation of the Toronto Humane Society by the OSPCA last fall, the state of animal care in the city of Toronto has been difficult to discern. Marred by political rivalries and mixed messages, the battle to bring animal care at the THS back to an acceptable level has been arduous. … Continue reading
Rat Chick: An Interview with Maria Pandolfi
For most people, even people who might consider themselves “animal lovers,” the rat is not a very loved animal. They are commonly seen as pests by the majority of people who have never had contact with them, and outside of that context, they are used extensively in animal testing / research, and also bred as … Continue reading
A Relationship, Fraught: Discussing The Role of Dogs in Native Communities with WSPA’s Josey Kitson
Often considered a “third world within the first world” the hardships that aboriginal nations in Canada face on reserves are staggering. Lack of proper infrastructure, access to education, or clean drinking water are problems that are all too common, and these communities struggle on a consistent basis to get their basic needs met. In such … Continue reading
Shadow City: An Interview with Cat City Director Justine Pimlott
Beneath the finely constructed facades of an urban centre such as Toronto, there is a different city that teems and struggles to make its way. Though we’re probably all familiar with the cats that live in our homes or neighbourhoods, we might not know so much about the other world of cats that exists in … Continue reading
Paying Attention to the Noise: Barbara Smuts’ Research with Dogs, Wolves, and Nonhuman Primates
Dr. Barbara Smuts, professor of Biopsychology at the University of Michigan, knows she isn’t a rock, which is actually very useful information when studying animals. Similarly, for example, baboons are also aware that the scientist sitting nearby is not an inanimate lump. As Smuts discovered, once this mutual acknowledgement has happened, a whole world of … Continue reading
Filling the Ark: Dr. Leslie Irvine discusses animals in disasters
When disaster strikes, news reports come fast and furious with constant updates and around the clock coverage. However, the coverage of earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods is almost always human-focused; where animals are concerned, the media often has little to say, especially if those animals were to become food or be used as research subjects. … Continue reading
Friends or Dinner?: A Toronto Subway System Campaign Stops the Public in Its Tracks
“Why love one but eat the other?” is the provocative slogan of the recent campaign launched by concerned citizens of Toronto and the U.S.-based animal advocacy organization, Mercy for Animals. This ambitious initiative, running June 9th to August 15th, involves a series of visually-striking subway posters that centrally juxtapose images of animals typically considered pets … Continue reading
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