In The News..
warning: if you are easily upset do not read.
The Hidden Life Of Baboons:
Baboons who are being used as “research tools” in Columbia’s labs are denied all that is natural to them. Crammed into barren metal cages, these naturally social beings suffer unbearable loneliness. Mother baboons, who fuss over and care attentively for their young in the wild, have their babies taken from them. Trapped in their tiny prisons, they are deprived of the ability to roam over long stretches of land.
They are tortured in part to secure hefty federal money (our tax dollars at work) for grant-hungry vivisectors. Experimenters at Columbia are causing strokes in baboons by removing their left eyeballs and using the empty eye sockets to clamp critical blood vessels to their brains; they are surgically implanting heavy pipes into the skulls of rhesus macaques to induce stress and study the connection between stress and menstrual cycles; and they are pumping nicotine and morphine into pregnant baboons and their fetuses. Please be a voice for the animals in Columbia’s labs. Click here to find out how you can help.
Dog Reportedly Stabbed 27 Times, Estranged Wife Charged
Experts in domestic violence know that people who abuse their spouses and children will likely also victimize the family pet. Austin, Texas, police allege that 31-year-old Joanne Lee Hinojosa is such a dangerous person.
Hinojosa, of Kyle, Texas, faces felony charges stemming from her alleged January 3 stabbing of her estranged husband's dog, Marti, in front of his South Austin home. According to news sources, the defendant swung at the man—evidently the basis of the family violence charge that she evidently also faces—before carrying the 20-pound dog inside the home. Marti was reportedly heard yelping loudly shortly thereafter, and investigators evidently arrived to find the dog lying in a pool of blood in the home's kitchen. A knife was reportedly stuck in the dog's side, and an examining veterinarian later apparently euthanized Marti in light of 27 stab wounds suffered in the alleged assault, including ones to the lungs, spleen, diaphragm, and stomach.
The district attorney's office for surrounding Travis County—headed by the Honorable Ronnie Earle—will handle this alarming case.
Please respectfully remind Earle of the connection between animal abuse and acts of domestic violence. Urge him not only to seek justice for this dog but also to help secure the safety of the community at large by vigorously prosecuting this and all animal abuse cases that come his way. Ask that, if Hinojosa is convicted, Earle's office work with the court to ensure stringent penalties that include the following:
• incarceration for two years, the maximum that she would thus face
• a lengthy prohibition on her ownership of, caring for, and contact with animals
• a mandatory, thorough psychiatric evaluation and counseling or anger-management classes at her own expense
Impolite correspondence works against our efforts.
The Honorable Ronnie Earle
Travis County District Attorney
509 W. 11th St.
Austin, TX 78701
512-854-9695 (fax)
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