Oprah has dedicated today’s show to her beloved cocker spaniel Sophie, who passed away last month at the age of 13. Sophie had been suffering from kidney failure. It’s been an especially hard year for Oprah, pup-wise, as she lost her other dog Gracie in July when she chocked on a plastic ball. Today’s show is on puppy mills, and contributor Lisa Ling presents what’s said to be a great – but hard to watch – documentary on the mills. Oprah’s staff decided to surprise her by opening the show with a tribute to Sophie featuring movies and photos. Unfortunately they didn’t realize just how emotional it would make her, and they had to stop filming after she completely broke down.
E! News has learned the TV titan broke down last week during a taping when producers decided to surprise Oprah with a video tribute to Sophie, her cocker spaniel who recently passed away after a battle with kidney disease.
The special show, which is scheduled to air this Friday, features an investigation into puppy mills. An audience member tells E! News that Winfrey broke down when the tribute began. “She was crying hysterically,” says the source. “She was uncontrollably sobbing. She could barely breathe it got so bad.”
The source says Winfrey’s emotional breakdown became so severe that producers stopped taping. Our source says some Winfrey staffers were regretting the surprise tribute. “They were like, ‘Oh, no, we shouldn’t have done that.’”
That’s so sweet and sad. Clearly Oprah’s staff members were well-intentioned. People love their animals differently, but it’s pretty clear that Oprah’s dogs are her kids. There must be this bittersweet relationship with them, knowing that she’ll likely outlive the animals she loves so deeply. I can’t blame her for breaking down – a month isn’t long in the grieving process.
After watching Lisa Ling’s reports, Oprah said that she would never buy puppies from a breeder again. Though she’s claimed that her dogs weren’t from puppy mills, Winfrey says that from now on she will only adopt from shelters.
PETA has extended an olive branch to Britney Spears and offered the poptart a job. Considering how much Britney’s life seems to have stabilized as of late, a regular old job could be a great thing for the girl. Unfortunately the offer only stands for a one day gig, but the pay is pretty good: $1000 to the children’s charity of her choice. Though PETA has been criticized for the extremity of its anti-animal cruelty protests, I actually have to commend them for a pretty classy move. The letter they sent Spears is both honest and kind, and without bitterness for their past “disagreements.” They also complement her on the positive changes she’s made in her life, and politely ask that she reconsider some of her previous stances on animal welfare. A few excerpts from the letter:
After seeing your excellent performance on How I Met Your Mother, PETA would like to offer you a real job as a receptionist. It could be for as little as an hour, and you would see—from the inside—why we are so concerned about issues like fur and homeless dogs and cats. As a “thank you” for your willingness to learn and help, we would donate $1,000 to a children’s charity.
…You would also tell people about the misery that foxes, chinchillas, and other animals suffer on fur farms and explain how mother animals caught in traps are so desperate to return to their young that they will often chew off a limb to escape. You will tell callers about the number of animals killed to make one fur coat and how these animals—like us—would prefer to love and enjoy life rather than be strangled, poisoned, or electrocuted. And you will never be the same again.
We might have criticized you in the past for contributing to the dog overpopulation crisis and wearing real fur, but perhaps now that your own crisis has abated, a new day calls for a new relationship, a new outlook, and a new understanding.
While I doubt there’s any chance in hell Britney will be showing up to work at her local PETA office, I think the letter was pretty tasteful. Britney has made some shockingly large changes in her life in a relatively short period of time – though a lot of people attribute that to her father’s influence. Maybe PETA should have addressed the letter to Jaime Spears instead. Supposedly he’s trying to find Britney some type of television work, as he thinks having a steady 9-to-5 type job would be good for her and provide stability. If that fails, I’m pretty sure the PETA receptionists work a standard 40 hour week too. And it might not tax Britney’s acting skills quite so much.
Images from Britney’s guest role as a receptionist on “How I Met Your Mother” last week.
Update: Video:
Here’s part of the video that I mentioned below of the polar bear Vera who didn’t kill her cubs. This cub was eventually taken away from her after another polar bear mother in the same zoo is presumed to have eaten her young, as described below. The video that I saw on the news showed the bear being dropped repeatedly and it looked more deliberate than in this footage.
This is huge news in Germany today where I live. Two five week-old polar bear cubs have died after their mother presumably ate her babies. Two polar bears at the Nuremberg zoo, Vera and Wilma, gave birth to an unknown number of cubs just two weeks apart. Wilma had her two cubs three weeks ago and Vera had her cub five weeks ago. Vera’s cub was often heard crying pitifully by zoo visitors but was ignored by the zoo staff, who stubbornly insisted to let nature take its course. The keepers decided to let the newborn bear starve and hope that the mother would eventually care for him instead of hand feeding him like Knut, who became an international sensation at the Berlin zoo after his mother rejected him. Zoo officials specifically cited the Knut case as a reason not to rescue the cubs from either mother.
Vera was seen throwing her cub in a video that’s being shown repeatedly on the news. Now the two three week-old cubs from the other mother Wilma are missing and presumed eaten, as mother polar bears do in the wild when their young are ill. Zookeepers have finally pledged to hand raise Vera’s cub after saying they would wait and see what happened to avoid another Knut situation.
There is a lot of confusion over how many cubs were born, and in a Reuters news report they say that they can’t be sure how many cubs there were. An article in The Guardian reports that six cubs were born. Another Reuters story claims that each polar bear mother gave birth to just one cub, and German source Spiegel says that three cubs were born, two of which are missing and one of which has been removed from the other mother for safety after it was being seeing tossed around. It’s hard to tell what happened exactly, but it sounds like two three-week-old polar bear cubs were killed by their mother, Wilma, and that one remains from the other mother.
A zoo in southern Germany today came under fire for refusing to save the lives of two polar bear cubs who were apparently eaten by their mother, in order to avoid a sequel of “Knut mania”.
Nuremberg zoo, in Bavaria, southern Germany, refused demands to rear the vulnerable cubs by hand as Berlin zoo famously did a year ago.
Knut, Berlin’s polar bear cub, was whisked to safety from its mother’s enclosure in a fishing net in December 2006, subsequently becoming internationally famous.
However, Nuremberg zoo chiefs said nature should take its course in the case of the cubs that polar bear Vilma gave birth to five weeks ago.
“We wanted to avoid a repeat of the stupid Knut mania and not rear the animal by hand,” Helmut Mägdefrau, the deputy director of the zoo, said.
Despite evidence that Vilma was failing to feed her young, keepers decided to leave them to their own devices. On Monday, they approached the polar bear enclosure after being alerted by the disturbed behaviour of another bear, Vera. They discovered that the cubs could not be found.
“We could not find the remains of the little ones, so we cannot determine the cause of death,” Mr Mägdefrau said, adding: “We’re very sad”.
Despite his assurance that they had died, keepers had been unable to enter Vilma’s cave by yesterday evening to see for themselves.
Mr Mägdefrau said it was not clear whether Vilma had killed her young because they were sick - a not untypical reaction of polar bears in the wild - or had let them die for the same reason and then consumed them.
However, politicians and animal rights activists were quick to condemn the zoo, accusing it of neglect.
“You cannot just dump them in an artificial environment and then treat them as if they’re living in the wild,” Berthold Merkel, the president of Bavaria’s Animal Protection Association, said.
The affair reignited the row of a year ago, when an animal rights activist provoked an international outcry by arguing that Knut should have been allowed to die after being rejected by his mother rather than being unnaturally reared by humans.
However, supporters of the efforts to save Knut said it was a zoo’s duty to conserve animals, and that it was nonsense to treat them as if they were in the wild.
Attention is now focused on polar bear Vera, who also recently gave birth. Reacting to the public outcry, the zoo yesterday announced it would be rearing her [one remaining] cub by hand.
There is footage of Vera looking like she’s tossing her cub in a deliberate effort to kill it. It’s been all over the news today and I haven’t been able to find it yet online. I first saw it while out having lunch and other people at the restaurant were exclaiming loudly how awful it was.
The Berlin Zoo director has openly disagreed with the way that the Nuremberg zoo officials handled the case of the cubs. He said “This is not some new fad. We hand-reared a bear in 1986 that now lives in Serbia. That is responsible breeding and care. We have no concerns for the welfare of Knut.”
It looks like the Nuremberg zoo will have another little Knut after all, and a lot of well-deserved negative publicity for not looking after the other cubs before they met untimely ends. They did mean well in that they hoped the mothers would care for their cubs, but it seems they waited too long.
I’m not able to read German well, but my husband told me that the Bild article says that officials at the Nuremberg zoo wanted to install cameras to monitor the state of however many cubs there were from the two mothers, but that the cameras did not arrive before the births and they didn’t want to disturb the cubs or their mothers at this crucial time. If animals raised in captivity have a tendency to kill their young because they feel that their young are not safe, shouldn’t their young be saved from the mothers before it’s too late?
You have to hand it to the PETA people. They know the best way to getting attention for the cruelty of fur and their belief that meat eating is unnecessary is to get a naked starlet to talk about it. We all pay attention to naked people, especially if they’re famous. Maybe they should team up with that photographer who takes pictures of hoards of nude people in public.
In a PSA for the PETA promoting vegetarianism, Alicia Silverstone emerges naked from a pool with sexy music playing in the background. Her arm and leg are strategically placed to ensure a PG rating, but the idea is that not eating meat makes you hot and desirable if you’re a woman, and able to land hot chicks if you’re a guy. At least that’s what I got out of it.
She says in the ad that being vegetarian makes her feel so much better. In a statement on PETA’s website for vegetarianism, GoVeg, she talks about the cute little lambs and cows that she no longer has to feel guilty about eating:
Like most people, I wasn’t always a vegetarian, but I’ve always loved animals. If you ever have a chance to meet a cow, pig, turkey, or goat, you will see that they are just as cute and funny as your dogs and cats and that they, too, want to live and feel love. They don’t like pain. Now when I see a steak, it makes me feel sad and sick because right away, I see my dog or the amazing cows I met at a sanctuary. I’ve been vegan for 10 years, and it’s the single-most important and helpful decision I have ever made. Physically, the effect has been amazing. Once I went vegan, I lost the weight I wanted to lose, my nails were stronger, and my skin was glowing. I feel great, and I look better now than I did 11 years ago.
I’m a meat eater and I always feel guilty when I see little animals from species I’ve eaten, that’s true. We like lamb at my place, and my family and I were at a farm and I just thought how cute the little lambs were and felt sad for eating them for a moment. It’s like that episode of the Simpsons where the lamb on Lisa’s plate gets up and says “Lee-eehsa, don’t eat me.”
Going vegetarian not only has health benefits, it’s also much better for the environment. My parents are vegetarian because they know that meat production is unsustainable and uses much more water and fossil fuels than grain production, especially with factory farming.
Although I have a lot of respect for vegetarianism it’s not something that I think is right for me, and I don’t believe it should be anything more than a personal choice. PETA oversteps their boundaries a lot, in my opinion, and I don’t like how they made it their business to tell Victoria Beckham, a vegetarian, that she was unknowingly sharing her land with free-roaming sheep owned by a chef that were meant for slaughter. It’s not like the sheep were mistreated or anything, they had tons of space. They also bashed Michael Moore for eating meat and being heavy when he was promoting Sicko.
PETA does know how to get attention, and there’s nothing like a hot naked chick to make vegetarianism seem sexy. There are sexy meat eaters too, though.
All opinions are respected here, and many of you have quite intelligent and well-researched things to say about this issue. Past posts about vegetarianism vs. meat eating have resulted in some flame wars, so please don’t bash people for opinions that you don’t agree with. We are kind to each other here.
Update: Thanks to Best Week Ever for linking the video, which wasn’t available earlier when the post was first published:
Like most people, I wasn’t always a vegetarian, but I’ve always loved animals. If you ever have a chance to meet a cow, pig, turkey, or goat, you will see that they are just as cute and funny as your dogs and cats and that they, too, want to live and feel love. They don’t like pain. Now when I see a steak, it makes me feel sad and sick because right away, I see my dog or the amazing cows I met at a sanctuary. I’ve been vegan for 10 years, and it’s the single-most important and helpful decision I have ever made. Physically, the effect has been amazing. Once I went vegan, I lost the weight I wanted to lose, my nails were stronger, and my skin was glowing. I feel great, and I look better now than I did 11 years ago. 
:lol: great pun there ChurchOfCylontology 
