InklingBlog / CC

Here’s the quote, which came after a Chinese reporter asked the increasingly irrelevant Stone what she thought about the recent earthquakes in China:

A lot of bloggers have been justifiably outraged by her insensitivity to a national tragedy, though given her vocal support for turning anything that so much as meows into, say, a lapel pin, I can’t say that I’m all that surprised at her inability to empathize with the suffering of others.

Which raises a couple of somewhat disturbing questions: 1) Isn’t it just a wee bit dangerous for someone who’s responsible for the excruciating torture of countless foxes, rabbits, and unsuspecting viewers of Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction to be talking about karma? And 2) If karma really does catch up with her after this, will that mean that her days of dragging that dead beaver out in public will be finally at an end?

‘Cuz that’d be a real disappointment for her five remaining fans.

-Jack

Just so I can complete the perfect trifecta of posts about quirky demonstrations today (see the shower girls and the DC dinosaur in case you missed them), here’s one that involves six businesspeople in one small cage. The purpose of this protest—which took place outside drugmaker Eli Lilly’s annual shareholder meeting yesterday—was to let the company’s shareholders know about its decision to outsource animal experiments to China and other countries where animal protection laws are virtually non-existent.

As a wise man once said, “A man’s crimes against nature aren’t any less disgusting when he pays the Chinese to do them for him.” OK, fine, a wise man didn’t once say that. But he should have. ’Cuz it’s true.

I’ve worked here long enough to know that for every nasty, cruel thing you could imagine to do to defenseless animals, there are some nasty, cruel people out there doing it. This is the latest one to come across my desk. These disturbing images, which have been circulating within the animal rights community and received coverage in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Sun, and Mirror today, show the hideous “sport” of horse fighting, from an organized event in China.

One of the most disturbing things about these images for me is the crowd of sadists (and children who are too young to know any better) who look on and smile—as if they were at a football game rather than a ritual torture. PETA Asia Pacific is working to raise awareness about this hideous blood sport, and I’ll keep you posted on their success as they continue to fight the ludicrous notion that “tradition” can justify torture in this or any circumstance.

If you haven’t heard about the little tiff we’re having with eBay at the moment, the point of contention is that the company refuses to prohibit the sale of live cats and dogs—as well as items lined with dog fur—on its Chinese website. Which, honestly, this is really an issue that everyone can get on board with, especially once you see the photos posted by eBay sellers showing animals chained to cages on the streets, puppies trapped in wire-bottomed cages, and other horrors that would be more suitable in an animal-cruelty case file than on an international auction site that’s supposed to have a code of ethics. Well, since the company has been turning a deaf ear to our pleas, this morning, we took them straight to the shareholders: Our fearless campaigner Deedra spoke at the Boston eBay shareholder meeting, while my friends Melissa and Julie stood outside to let passersby know exactly what’s going on at eBay China. Check it out, and if you’d like to write to eBay about this issue, click here.