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Animals for sport, entertainment and fur |
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Why is Leeds Animal Protection opposed to using animals for sport, entertainment and fur?
Forty million pheasants and other birds are purpose bred each year so that people can kill them. These feathered targets are born in appalling conditions and are released young, so they have no idea how to care for themselves. They often starve to death or suffer painful injuries if they don’t die instantly when shot. Although the hunting ban idoes acknowledge the cruelty involved in the “sport”, it is still happening. This is a clear infringement of the law that means that innocent animals continue to be tortured and killed. The racing industry also pays little attention to the welfare of its animals – around 375 horses are destroyed as a result of racing injuries and tens of thousands of greyhounds are dumped, drowned or killed every year, when they fail to make profit. Animals that don’t make the grade are slaughtered for meat. Zoos and aquaria are not developed as “conservation schemes” but to make profit. They are not havens, aimed at preserving endangered species, but prisons, which provide little stimulation or entertainment for their inhabitants. “Surplus” animals are traded between establishments, and some are sold to vivisection laboratories. Wearing leather directly subsidises the meat industry and therefore promotes cruelty. Fur farms also involve torture – mink, foxes and many other animals are farmed in appalling conditions and then electrocuted, causing unbearable pain.
What can you do?
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