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Does it matter?
    DEVIL WOULDN'T RECONGISE YOU...
 
   You know I feel it in my heartbeat
It may feel old to you but to me it feels new You know I feel it in my heartbeat Don't you know, can't you see, when I dance I feel free Which makes me feel like the only one The only one That the light shines on 
 Jamie Oliver is turning the spotlight on the poultry industry
        
KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN
SO FAR AWAY...
your PARADISE (NOT FOR ME)...
 METRO Thursday, August 14, 2008 ANIMAL CRUELTY Two weeks ago, the RSPCA reported a 26 per cent increase in the number of people convicted of animal cruelty. Dogs bore the brunt of the abuse, with a 34 per cent increase; horses came a close second, up a third. If the figures are sobering, case studies were more so: the decaying body of a starved dog chained to a radiator, a cat kicked to death for having muddy paws, a Staffordshire terrier whose owners had cut its ears off.
Cases not recorded by the RSPCA are as distressing: the teenage girl videoed drop-kicking a cat, for example, and, earlier last month, the 100 farmyard birds in a Teesside allotment bludgeoned to death by four children aged 12 and 13.
Tougher legal powers Commentators heralded the figures as the decline of Britain's self-proclaimed status as a nation of animal lovers. Yet the report represents a positive rather than a negative shift. Thanks to the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which came into force last April, agencies such as the RSPCA have a greater ability to prosecute abusive owners at earlier stages of maltreatment. Now, owners can be arrested if they fail to provide animals with safe, appropriate environments and diets. 'Under the old animal welfare laws, we had to try to convince owners to do the right thing,' says the RSPCA's Henry Macaulay. 'We would have inspectors visiting one house 25 times. It's not surprising that figures have gone up.' And most people are receptive to warnings. 'Ninety-two per cent of the times an inspector is called out, it's resolved without any need for action,' says Macaulay. 'Most people are brilliant.' Cases like these point to general ignorance, which can be remedied. 'One man had 61 cats in his house. He was holding down two jobs to feed them but the problem had spiralled out of control,' says Macaulay. 'If you buy a washing machine, you get instructions; if you buy an animal, you get nothing. At the end of the day, it's about education. 'It's not complicated to understand that an animal deserves as much respect as a human.'
Torture is too common For some people, however, it is. The RSPCA doesn't differentiate between neglect and torture but the latter occurs with depressing regularity. Recently, video-sharing website YouTube was criticised for hosting thousands of videos of real-life cruelty.
Of course, people have been tormenting animals since time immemorial.
Our playthings Has our relationship with animals deteriorated? It's impossible to know, Hancock says. 'But you do have a sense that, in an agricultural society, people had a greater understanding of animals whereas, nowadays, most people's connections to animals are as pets.' Animals' positions as dependents makes them vulnerable to cruelty as well as to more subtle forms of mistreatment. They have become emotional avatars in an equation in which dressing your dog up in miniature clothing but also kicking it across the room are two sides of the same coin. The former is clearly preferable but both deny the dog's essential nature. 'People treat their dogs as small children but a dog needs to be treated in a particular way,' says Hancock. 'People perhaps use animals now in a more complex way than we've done before.' The RSPCA tries to remain upbeat. 'We've called on the government to look into links between interpersonal violence and animal abuse,' says Macaulay. 'But our role is prevention. If we could do ourselves out of jobs, we'd be happy.' Until we accept that animals are not toys – or ready victims for emotional frustrations – that day looks some way off.
What for?
     
dionarch is against all animal fur being sold on
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Uncovered: Countless rotting bodies of mountain hares still in the snares. These snares were a mile from where a member of the public found snares, and due to the vastness of the grouse estate, it is likely that hundreds of snares exist. Despite being trapped by its head the unfortunate creature was still alive but obviously in a lot of pain demonstrating once again that legal spring traps are inhumane. 
