Elephant Cruelty

It seems counterintuitive that what claims to be “The Greatest Show on Earth” whose main goal is to bring smiles to children’s faces uses the cruelest tactics to train their elephants. But that is what is happening as the helpless elephants go on countless tours year round.

The article revolves around a young three year old elephant named Kenny. Kenny became very sick during a show on tour. Sickly elephants require prompt medical care to make sure that they are able to preform to the best of their abilities. What seems like a safe and intelligent precaution is where it goes south. Kenny was observed and the veterinarian recommended that Kenny skip the evening show that night. Ringling Bros ignored this request and forced Kenny to preform even though he was deathly sick and incredibly week. That night Kenny died as he was shackled to his suffocatingly small pen.

The circus wanted desperately to keep this hush hush so they payed off or “donated” 20,000 dollars to elephant causes. Kenny’s death is just the tip of the iceberg for elephant cruelty within the circus.

Before each show these endangered, beautiful, smart elephants are beaten with bull hooks as well as slapped in the face with whips. The circus claims this is for “positive reinforcement” Hurting and beating an animal is never acceptable, especially those who are endangered.

Since Kenny’s death 3 more young elephants have died by causes that were not disclosed to the public. It is our job to put an end to this cruel and unusual punishment. We must end support of circus’ and use our voice to speak for these defenseless animals.

The idea of children given the choice of euthanasia in terminally ill cases is counterintuitive because it can be viewed as irrational to give such power to such young lives.

Childhood Euthanasia

Belgium the first of all the nations to bring this concept into play. A majority of the Belgian Senate voted for the childhood euthanasia, and it is likely to pass. Many countries have been opposed to allowing terminally ill adults let alone children to end their lives. This may be due to religious reasons, but also the horrors that the Nazi regime murdered thousands of handicap or mentally ill children.

Well the question poses, is allowing children to end their lives ethical? It is becoming more and more common to allow euthanasia for adults with terminally ill diseases to choose to end their lives world wide. If children are just as susceptible to these diseases as adults, they should not have to continue to suffer when their is no hope for recovery. Also, it is not solely the child’s choice. In Belgium the parents must sign off on paperwork and give their consent for the euthanasia.

If a child is mature enough to understand the severity of their illness and cope or try to fight the illness, they must be mature enough to know the extremity of choosing euthanasia.

Do Multivitamins Really Work?

It seems counterintuitive that something that is promoted as preventing disease and making healthy people healthier could really have no effect at all.

The billion dollar industry that vitamins provide for people who pop them daily claim to improve breast, heart, lung, and colon health along with many other benefits. But is this just a ploy to get people to spend their money? Studies show that in 39,000 women who took vitamins daily found that they had no beneficial qualities, and they did not protect against any of the diseases they claimed vitamins did.

This may not only be a scheme to get peoples hard earned money, but many users may believe they are being proactive by exceeding the recommended vitamins. Thinking “the more the merrier” they begin to take more than one vitamin a day. This can actually do more harm than good. The article states that studies show an excessive amount of folic acid may be dangerous to the user, and can go so far as to cause birth defects!

Something as innocent as a multivitamin may hurt us more than help us, think twice before handing away your treasured dollar bills away for a possible birth defect.