ERIC MARGOLIS—An old tub of a cargo ship named the Queen Hind (likely Indian-owned but convenience flagged), packed with 14,600 live sheep, capsized at its dock on Romania’s Black Sea coast due to overcrowding and improper load balancing. At least 14,000 of the terrified sheep drowned in the icy waters and darkness of the overturned death ship. Imagine their plight.
A local NGO claims that blood from a nearby burial site, where some 47,000 pig carcasses had been disposed of, had seeped into the Imjin River due to heavy rainfall. South Korean authorities claim that the pigs had already been disinfected before being slaughtered and that there was a delay in the production of plastic containers for the carcasses.
While most animal cruelty laws are handled at state level, the House felt it was time for there to be a federal penalty as well. The federal government currently only has laws that prohibit animal fighting and the creation and selling of videos depicting animal cruelty.
The law goes beyond the sale and manufacture of fur and also bars residents from donating fur products. “CA has no place for the inhumane & unsustainable treatment of animals,” tweeted state assemblywoman Laura Friedman who authored the bill. “Now for other states to follow in our legacy.” The law defines fur as “animal skin or part thereof with hair, fleece or fur fibers attached thereto.” For fur shoppers that means they will not be able to buy mink, sable, chinchilla, lynx, fox, rabbit, beaver, coyote and other luxury furs, according to The New York Times.
ROBERT HUNZIKER—Meanwhile, “Earth’s oceans continue to absorb over 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” It’s that source of ocean heat that’s primarily extinguishing marine life. As such, civilization in toto is subjecting itself to suicidal behavior by failing to listen to scientists and failing to enact emergency measures to convert fossil fuels to renewables. It’s a deadly situation, but still not resonating nearly enough to save the oceans.