Another Fortnight, Another Links Digest

• In shocking news, it’s not just animal welfare offences that the government plan to fix by raising maximum sentences: It’s assaults on police.  Experts disagree.  The same logic, of course, probably applies to animal welfare.
• More coverage of the Swiss referendum on legal rights for animals:

The “No to the Useless Animal Lawyers’ Initiative” (yes, that’s actually the name of group) said, “Animal rights advocates are useless to animals. They can’t prevent animal abuse because they only get involved after it has been perpetrated.”

Is that how they feel about police officers? Child welfare and social services?

• It’s official: New Zealand has more cows than people.
• Bitch magazine fires off a salvo at welfarist-hero slaughterhouse-designer, Temple Grandin (via AnimalBlawg).
• The problem is this: ‘Grandin does not provide consistent answers on how to treat animals.’
• Twitter.  For.  Dogs.  Why?
• More interestingly, dogs can serve a role in the courtroom.
• ‘This puppy is not in any pain’ despite his…dislocated leg (Alternative summary: Man kidnaps pet dog.  Or SPCA hopes to save dog by killing it.  Or just another case of welfarism being plain absurd).
• An Italian food writer recommended cat stew and stewed up some controversy.  AnimalBlawg reaches bravely for a bright-side.
• The Animal Legal Defence Fund asks what you are doing for others:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”  Dr. King devoted his life’s work to causes of social justice and equality. In August 1994, the King Holiday and Service Act designated the King Holiday as a national day of volunteer service. Instead of taking a day off, Americans are challenged each year to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy by giving back to their community. So on January 18, please support the Animal Legal Defense Fund in its efforts to end animal suffering and abuse.

• Hawaii may ban foie gras.
• Journalist Grant Butler is going vegan, and loving it:

I’ve dropped six pounds without changing my exercise regimen (primarily commuting to work on foot), and my clothes are fitting more loosely. My energy level is flying high, and I find I’m needing fewer mid-day coffee pick-me-ups. And I’m sleeping better than in recent months, which is possibly related to the transition.

In the kitchen, I’m more excited by the cooking prospects than ever. I’ve made some wonderfully delicious dishes in the first few weeks of vegan cooking

• And ALDF’s executive assistant explains why she is vegan.
• While Jon Safran Foer explains why he just plain doesn’t eat meat.
• A successful ‘lifestyle’ blogger promotes veganism as minimalism.
• So: Is animal rights going mainstream?
• As whale numbers are recovering, commercial whaling appears to be crawling back into existence. Australia has threatened to take Japan to the ICJ.  New Zealand might join in.
• The question recurs, of course: Sea Shepherds, pirates?
• Whaling is not the only issue in the oceans, of course.  For example, deep sea trawling has catastrophic effects on sea-dwelling animals, by destroying marine habitats.  See also: ‘The seas are dying and NZ not helping: experts‘.
• The Humane Society of the US has graded each US state on animal law.
• The NZ Herald has the important stuff covered: A dog got skinny.   Oh, and a man brandishing a weaponised rabbit threatened passers-by on Queen St.  Um.  Yes.
• Interestingly though, jokes aside, in covering the killing of two pet dogs, the Herald brings out one of the fundamental paradoxes of animal welfare law: It’s better to charge offenders under any statute except the welfare one:

A person who damages someone’s property (including animals) and fails to report the incident to the owner can be charged and fined up to $5000 under the Land Transport Act.