Puppy Sharkbait

Just off the surfer's paradise island of La Reunion (off the east coast of Africa), fishermen are using puppies and kittens as live bait to catch sharks. Dogs have hooks passed through their noses or through tendons in their legs, the hooks are attached to lines and rods. The dogs are thrown into the water and their struggles attract sharks. "We don't see that every day, but it's not the first time, either," Marie-Annick Chantrel, vice-president of the Reunion branch of the French Society for the Protection of Animals, told a Reunion newspaper. "We've already seen cats six or seven months old with hooks in them."

The International Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are offering rewards for information leading to convictions. Also, the Fondation 30 Millions d'Amis and Brigitte Bardot's animal defence association are campaigning to have this incredibly cruel practice stopped. You can help by signing the petition online at www.30millionsdamis.fr/fr/index.asp (click on the picture of the dog with hooks in its nose). Or you can download the petition, print it and have as many people sign it as possible. Do it.