~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The killing is not even for food. It's for winning a contest and the fun of sadistically killing intelligent and defenseless creatures. All this is LEGAL and it happens in civilized Maryland, United States of America. Please contact Maryland authorities.
- It's just an excuse for a blood fest.
- They shoot them with harpoons, they pull them up, they beat them with a metal baseball bat, they throw them in a barrel and let them suffocate.
- They are dumped on the blood-soaked decks of small boats and stuffed into buckets where they can be seen writhing in agony.
- They die slow and painful deaths.
- As they are dying, they sometimes give birth as a last chance to get their babies out, who are also killed.
- Mostly the fishermen force the babies into their mothers' bodies to increase the weight of the catch.
- After being weighed in, the dead creatures and their babies are thrown into the water. All this is LEGAL in Maryland.
"Cownose rays glide peacefully below the water's surface like so many kites against the sky, adding to the beauty and mystery that draws people to the ocean," Jeff Pierce, legislative counsel for the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), told The Dodo in a statement. "Researchers have shown that these rays are actually very intelligent, that they have preferences and ideas of their own."
But in recent years, some of these magnificent rays have met the cruelest fate.
Hunters, armed with bows and arrows, board boats and shoot the rays in the water — all for a contest called the Battle of the Rays. Those who don't die instantly are clubbed in the head.
Because the contest takes place in birthing season, most of the rays killed are pregnant and about to give birth. Cownose rays carry just one baby at a time, so there are concerns about the impacts on the ray population. Not only that, the sheer violence of the contest seems needlessly cruel, according to witnesses.
Continue reading, see more images, and watch VIDEOS
From the first video on this page:
The following VIDEO shows how men shoot, and then beat the bleeding creatures with metal bats.
Source
https://www.thedodo.com/ray-killing-contest-chesapeake-bay-2231406494.html
Additional information:
https://www.sharkonline.org/index.php/14-animal-cruelty/1580-cownose-ray-slaughter-documented
http://www.arkive.org/cownose-ray/rhinoptera-bonasus/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cownose_ray
http://fishfeel.org/
Photos
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3677175/Harrowing-video-men-shooting-basking-rays-point-blank-range-tournament-coast-Maryland-sparks-outrage.html
VIDEO:
THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS DISTURBING:
It shows how fishermen hunt the rays, then beat them up with metal bats. The worse is to come, as they force the babies inside the mothers so that the dying creatures will weigh more for the contest.
The killing of the rays was originally promoted by a now-debunked theory that fewer rays would help increase the dwindling oyster harvests. The state of Virginia even started a campaign (with tax dollars) to promote killing the rays for food — except the rays taste like urine, some say.
The ray killing contests continued because enough people wanted to kill the animals and throw them back into the water just for sport.
In 2015, Maryland-based Fish Feel asked Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) to film one of the cownose ray killing contests.
"The video we captured that year, and in 2016, featured animal cruelty so violent and vicious that it brought international condemnation down upon these contests and spurred more than 146,000 people to sign a petition against them," Stuart Chaifetz, an investigator for SHARK, told The Dodo.
Chaifetz saw firsthand how the cownose rays were beaten to death and dumped into the river when the contest was over.
Chaifetz told WBALTV in 2015, after filming so many mother rays getting shot: "As they were dying, they gave birth as a last chance to get their babies out, who were killed themselves."
Video of the 2015 contest was viewed by Maryland state senator Ron Young, who decided to do something about it.
"They shoot them, they pull them up, they beat them with a baseball bat, they throw them in a barrel and [the rays] suffocate, and then they dump them back in the water. It's just very inhumane. I don't think we should treat any live species that way," state Sen. Ron Young told WBALTV.
Young drafted Senate Bill 268, which would make contests like the Battle of the Rays illegal. It has garnered the support of ALDF, among other animal rights groups.
You can write to your representatives about supporting a bill that would end these cruel contests, or you can write to the Maryland Office of Tourism and tell them what you think. You can also sign a petition to save the rays.
A Facebook page for the Battle of The Rays did not immediately reply to The Dodo's request for comment.
Update: After The Dodo published this article, Mike Hutt, executive director of the Virginia Marine Products Board, the marketing arm for the Virginia Seafood Industry, told The Dodo that the rays do not taste like urine, when prepared correctly. "It tastes like what you put with it," Hutt said.
From the first video on this page:
Cownose rays are gentle, intelligent creatures native to the Chesapeake Bay.
But every summer contests are held in Maryland where cownose rays are killed for fun and prize money.
These contests are cruel and harmful to the Bay ecosystem.
Unlike traditional hunting and fishing, these contests are not about obtaining food.
Rather than eating the rays, they are dumped after weigh-in.
Cownose rays are either pregnant or just given birth during these contests, and their babies are killed too.
These contests are actually LEGAL in Maryland.
Participants say killing a baby and his mother is "like getting two for one".
Please write your legislator to stop this cruel practice.
The following VIDEO shows how men shoot, and then beat the bleeding creatures with metal bats.
"There is no valid justification for the vicious massacre of these gentle creatures who are merely trying to survive. Scientists and the government have expressed disapproval of such reckless slaughter, and of the grave environmental consequences that could result," said Mary Finelli, President of Silver Spring-based Fish Feel. (www.fishfeel.org)
"These people have no respect for life. They shoot arrows into these beautiful animals swimming slowly at the surface, many whom may be pregnant, and drag them out of the water by hooks, beat them mercilessly with metal clubs, and then throw them still alive into boxes where they slowly suffocate to death. Then, we saw bowhunters dumping the bodies into the river like garbage. This is an atrocity and it must end now," added Michael Gurwitz, the Secretary of Fish Feel.
"We had two active operations at the ray slaughter," states SHARK investigator Stuart Chaifetz. "One was on the boat where we recorded the merciless beating and slaughter of these innocent animals. The second was at the staging area where the rays were brought in to be weighed. The video footage of that undercover operation, which will deal with the fact that many of these animals were pregnant, will be revealed at the press conference on Monday. We are calling on Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to immediately take action to stop these despicable and heinous tournaments from ever happening again."
"These people have no respect for life. They shoot arrows into these beautiful animals swimming slowly at the surface, many whom may be pregnant, and drag them out of the water by hooks, beat them mercilessly with metal clubs, and then throw them still alive into boxes where they slowly suffocate to death. Then, we saw bowhunters dumping the bodies into the river like garbage. This is an atrocity and it must end now," added Michael Gurwitz, the Secretary of Fish Feel.
"We had two active operations at the ray slaughter," states SHARK investigator Stuart Chaifetz. "One was on the boat where we recorded the merciless beating and slaughter of these innocent animals. The second was at the staging area where the rays were brought in to be weighed. The video footage of that undercover operation, which will deal with the fact that many of these animals were pregnant, will be revealed at the press conference on Monday. We are calling on Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to immediately take action to stop these despicable and heinous tournaments from ever happening again."
WHO IS SPONSORING THIS MASSACRE? WATCH VIDEO
Source
https://www.thedodo.com/ray-killing-contest-chesapeake-bay-2231406494.html
Additional information:
https://www.sharkonline.org/index.php/14-animal-cruelty/1580-cownose-ray-slaughter-documented
http://www.arkive.org/cownose-ray/rhinoptera-bonasus/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cownose_ray
http://fishfeel.org/
Photos
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3677175/Harrowing-video-men-shooting-basking-rays-point-blank-range-tournament-coast-Maryland-sparks-outrage.html
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for visiting my blog. Your comments are always appreciated, but please do not include links.