Stop the inhumanity at Chinese fur farms!

Animals are being brutally tortured to death at Chinese fur farms. MANY ARE SKINNED ALIVE. All fur farms are disgusting and evil, but these ones in China defy imagination.

Please consider signing this petition to stop the unbelievable cruelty at Chinese fur farms:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/stopcff/petition.html

Here is the video, but I warn you, it is very graphic and extremely disturbing:
http://www.peta.org/feat/ChineseFurFarms/index.asp

From the PETA website: "When undercover investigators made their way onto Chinese fur farms, they found that many animals are still alive and struggling desperately when workers flip them onto their backs or hang them up by their legs or tails to skin them. When workers on these farms begin to cut the skin and fur from an animal's leg, the free limbs kick and writhe. Workers stomp on the necks and heads of animals who struggle too hard to allow a clean cut. When the fur is finally peeled off over the animals' heads, their naked, bloody bodies are thrown onto a pile of those who have gone before them. Some are still alive, breathing in ragged gasps and blinking slowly. Some of the animals' hearts are still beating five to 10 minutes after they are skinned. One investigator recorded a skinned raccoon dog on the heap of carcasses who had enough strength to lift his bloodied head and stare into the camera.

Before they are skinned alive, animals are pulled from their cages and thrown to the ground; workers bludgeon them with metal rods or slam them on hard surfaces, causing broken bones and convulsions but not always immediate death. Animals watch helplessly as workers make their way down the row. Undercover investigators from Swiss Animal Protection/EAST International toured fur farms in China's Hebei Province, and it quickly became clear why outsiders are banned from visiting. There are no regulations governing fur farms in China—farmers can house and slaughter animals however they see fit. The investigators found horrors beyond their worst imaginings and concluded, 'Conditions on Chinese fur farms make a mockery of the most elementary animal welfare standards. In their lives and their unspeakable deaths, these animals have been denied even the simplest acts of kindness.'

On these farms, foxes, minks, rabbits, and other animals pace and shiver in outdoor wire cages, exposed to driving rain, freezing nights, and, at other times, scorching sun. Mother animals, who are driven crazy from rough handling and intense confinement and have nowhere to hide while giving birth, often kill their babies after delivering litters. The globalization of the fur trade has made it impossible to know where fur products come from. China supplies more than half of the finished fur garments imported for sale in the United States. Even if a fur garment's label says it was made in a European country, the animals were likely raised and slaughtered elsewhere—possibly on an unregulated Chinese fur farm."

Response to "Harvard’s Crisis of Faith"

Response to "Harvard’s Crisis of Faith" by Lisa Miller, Newsweek Feb 22, 2010

http://www.newsweek.com/id/233413

As a graduate of Harvard with a Masters in Religion, I feel compelled to respond to this article. I am also an atheist who is against the organized practice of religion. I study religion because I find it fascinating from a phenomenological standpoint, and view it as another expression of human culture and identity. However, I also see it as the main force for hatred and ignorance in the world, and know that I must, in Ms. Miller’s words, “understand how religious belief and practice influence our world.” Part of what Ms. Miller describes is not consternation at Harvard over whether religion courses per se should be required or not, but rather stems from an overhaul of the entire Harvard Core Curriculum. Harvard has one of the oldest and most prestigious divinity schools in America, with groundbreaking centers for Women and Religion and World Religions, as well as professors who incorporate religious history into their own department (art, music, literature, cultural studies, etc). The Committee on the Study of Religion is not a freestanding department, but neither is Women’s Studies or Medieval Studies – by Ms. Miller’s own logic, that would mean Harvard is also sexist and anti-Middle Ages. It may surprise you to learn that there are many atheists, agnostics, and non-practicing students studying religion all over the world; while I am in the minority, I certainly am not the only one.

At HDS, I had the best professors in the world who challenged and expanded my mind in ways for which I will forever be grateful, even as I found most of the faculty there (and at College X, too) to be practicing or devout in their own religions. I studied the mystical experiences of Medieval women, and it never mattered to me whether their visions were ‘real’ or not (I suspect they were not) – I take their religious worldview as a given, as my personal belief did not need to conflict with academic and intellectual inquiry. I have found the same of every religion professor I have ever known, whatever side of the belief divide they are on. The tone of Ms. Miller’s writing is tired and unoriginal, rehashing sloppy debates about “faith versus reason” at a level a Dan Brown fan would understand, with some facile Harvard-bashing thrown in for good measure. Perhaps it’s just possible that faith can be part of academic discourse, while both respecting and keeping distance from personal faith practice.

As for the Harvard bashing - just about everyone who implies Harvard isn't "all that" has a tear-stained rejection letter in the back of a drawer somewhere. Also, Ms. Miller totally does NOT understand how the system works there. There is NO bureaucratic division between the Divinity school and the rest of the University. All HDS students can take up to 50% of their classes anywhere in the University, which allowed me to study, work and teach in the Music department. Furthermore, HDS is part of the Boston Theological Institute, a consortium of about 10 schools throughout the Boston area, which also has porous cross registration, and a vigorous, diverse membership.

If the Catholic student mentioned in the article is whining that he couldn't bring up god in his classes, why did he not avail himself of HDS or BTU courses?!