The world’s first Loving Hut Inn and Austria’s first vegan inn is the ultimate vegan escape overlooking Lake Klopein. Rich with landscape, nature, fine plant-based dining, eco-friendly accommodations, and more, it is no wonder Carinthia is one of Europe’s most popular holiday destinations. The Loving Hut Inn is a compassionate, conscious, and now vegan certified business nestled between a landmark lake and dramatic mountain landscape. Here, guests can walk the healing gardens, bask in the natural thermal baths in Austria’s warmest lake, meditate on a private beach, and/or embark on an adventurous day trip on and around Lake Klopein. The Loving Hut Inn is an expansion of the Loving Hut restaurant chain. Guests can enjoy daily vegan breakfast and international vegan cuisine with all mostly local, organic, and fair-trade products served on property 24/7. Consistent with the Loving Hut mission of love, peace harmony, compassion, ecology and health — the food, decor, cleaning products, soaps, shampoos, linens, and more are all vegan conscious (not of animal origin) and cruelty-free (not tested on animals), which qualified the location to get the special globally certified vegan sticker for its front doors. The Loving Hut Inn officially joins the global BeVeg vegan certification network, along with many other vegan wellness, lodging, and dining establishments across the globe from the UK, USA, Latin America, Asia, and so on. Recently, BeVeg also certified vegan the only luxury vegan resort and spa in America, the Stanford Inn by the Sea. While BeVeg International focuses on vegan product certification, the vegan certification program for businesses is a service for the consumer who is searching for vegan only establishments, rather than places with just vegan friendly options. “The purpose behind the global vegan network is to encourage vegans to patronize other vegan establishments to drive a vegan economy, which will ultimately drive the kind of change vegans wish to see in the world. Compassion and kindness towards the planet, others, and ourselves,” says Carissa Kranz, Esq., founder and CEO of BeVeg International. Loving Hut Inn has clear guidelines and regulations to ensure vegan integrity is maintained. Besides serving only vegan food, and ensuring all toiletries, furniture and on site products are carefully selected and without animal origin, the Inn also has requirements of its guests and staff that qualify the property to receive the gold standard BeVeg vegan logo. The bringing onto the property and or consumption of non-vegan products is strictly prohibited. According to the resort, this “applies to baby and pet food! We offer a selection of vegan baby and pet food, free of charge in the Inn and at the on site restaurant.” As a law firm, BeVeg advocates for truth and transparency in vegan claims. BeVeg International consistently named the gold standard for global vegan certification in well-known news outlets around the world. In addition, BeVeg is used by celebrity supermodel, Christie Brinkley, and vegan icon from What The Health documentary, Kip Anderson. For more information about the BeVeg International vegan certification program and its free searchable vegan guide, visit BeVeg at www.beveg.com and to enjoy a cruelty-free vegan experience visit Loving Hut Inn, Austria. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Colorado corporation that distributes prescription drugs for animals to veterinarians, farms, feedlots, and other facilities has been sentenced on charges of introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce. Animal Health International (AHI) was sentenced through its corporate counsel after pleading guilty to charges this past February. Additionally, AHI’s corporate parent, Patterson Companies, entered into a non-prosecution agreement in which it committed to enhance its compliance program and fully comply with the law, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says. Court documents state that, between 2012 and 2018, AHI distributed prescription veterinary drugs from its wholesale locations to unlicensed individuals. Two of them previously pled guilty to criminal charges for their conduct in United States District Court in Abingdon, Va. AHI has been ordered to pay a forfeiture of more than $46 million, along with $1 million to the Virginia Department of Health Professionals (DHP) and a $5-million fine. All amounts have been paid in full pursuant to February’s plea agreement, the U.S. States Attorney’s Office says, adding AHI was required to make full payment prior to pleading guilty. Additionally, the company has been placed on probation for one year. FDA says its restrictions on veterinary prescription drugs are not primarily to protect animals from the potential harms of prescription drugs, but to protect the human food supply from unsafe drug residues in the edible tissues of animals sold for slaughter. “FDA recognizes the importance of controlling the prescription drug supply for animals,” says Mark S. McCormack, a special agent at the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations’ Metro Washington Field Office. “The careless or uncontrolled distribution of prescription animal drugs poses a danger, not only to the medicated animals, but to the U.S. public health by increasing the risk that humans will become resistant to antibiotics we unknowingly consume through our food supply.” FDA says Patterson has cooperated in the investigation, adding it has implemented changes to its compliance programs to prevent further violations of federal and state law. “Manufacturers and distributors of veterinary prescription drugs must ensure these medications are dispensed in accordance with their labels and federal law,” says U.S. Attorney, Thomas T. Cullen. “The Department of Justice (DOJ) will continue to work closely with FDA to investigate and prosecute entities and individuals who engage in these types of unlawful business practices.” -------------------------------------------------- Enriching and optimizing the physical and psychological environments of domestic cats is the goal of Morris Animal Foundation’s latest round of funding. The organization is accepting applications for the Mark L. Morris Jr. Investigator Award to address environmental, social, and emotional risk factors for health and welfare in cats. The recipient receives funding of up to $200,000 per year for a maximum of three years of research. Applications involving combinations of epidemiological and interventional research are of particular, but not exclusive, interest, the foundation says. Proposals may involve individuals or interdisciplinary groups of researchers. Established in 2016, the Mark L. Morris Jr. Investigator Award is designed to support impactful companion animal research with the potential for quick and meaningful progress. The focus area for this cycle was determined following a survey of researchers and veterinarians, which suggested the need for studies regarding feline health and behavior. Applications are due Aug. 5 at 4:59 p.m. EDT. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Does the mere mention of stem cells make your mind jump to tendon and ligaments repair? Considering these soft tissues were among the first targets of stem cell therapy in horses, this is a reasonable leap. As advances in regenerative medicine move swiftly, veterinarians now have the power to explore the use of stem cells under vast and varied conditions, including patients with inflammatory conditions such as equine asthma syndrome. Scientists first thought stem cells either turned into particular cell types or behaved like specific cells inside the patient’s body. For example, if stem cells were injected into a tendon lesion, those cells were believed to become tenocytes (tendon cells) to facilitate healing. Later, researchers learned that stem cells do not need to differentiate into the target tissue cells to be effective. Rather, stem cells secreted soluble factors to promote repair and growth, and to exert anti-inflammatory effects. Veterinarians from Marion DuPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Virginia recently published an article that describes using stem cells for their anti-inflammatory properties to treat equine asthma, a chronic condition associated with prolonged, low-level inflammation.* Although studies involving live horses have not currently been conducted, research in other animals and in laboratory settings suggest that stem cell administration to asthmatics can: • Decrease the presence of inflammatory cells in the bronchoalveolar fluid (BALF); • Minimize airway remodeling; and • Reduce levels of inflammatory mediators, such as interleukin-5, -13, interferon-ã, and immunoglobulin E. The researchers concluded, “While stem cells may be beneficial in the treatment of asthma based on our animal models, the timing of their administration may play a role in response to treatment. The number of doses and follow-up treatment needs to be investigated.” Further research would clearly be advantageous considering no cure for equine asthma currently exists. In the meantime, the most up-to-date published treatment guidelines for equine asthma relay that horses can most successfully be managed using a combination of corticosteroids, bronchodilators, and omega-3 fatty acids. “Kentucky Equine Research recommends the use of omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA for respiratory health in horses. In addition to management strategies, such as hay-soaking and extensive turn out, owners are encouraged to use EO-3 in horses diagnosed with equine asthma,” stated Catherine Whitehouse, M.S., a nutrition advisor for Kentucky Equine Research. ------------------------------------------------------------------ During this unprecedented time, veterinary educators who are used to teaching in a classroom environment have been tasked with developing creative new ways to instruct their students online. VetMedAcademy (VMA) and the Merck Veterinary Manual want to celebrate—and reward—those educators who are “turning lemons into lemonade” during COVID-19. VMA and Merck Veterinary Manual are co-sponsoring a contest to recognize those who have “discovered and deployed innovative online approaches to reaching and encouraging interaction with their distant students,” according to a press release. All topics about veterinary medicine and/or animal health are welcomed, and all faculty, resident, intern or other instructors in veterinary or veterinary technology programs are eligible to apply. Student nominations and/or documentation of student support of an instructor and their online instruction will also be considered. “We are looking for ways that you might have gone beyond a simple recording of your normal lecture presentations to ways that you both educated and engaged your students, even including externally available resources,” according to the release. Submissions must be equivalent to a teaching on a single topic (including the content of one or more lectures). If creativity among submissions is deemed equivalent, those that are more broadly applicable will be considered more favorably. Prizes (in the form of Amazon gift cards) for contest winners are as follows: • First place: $1,000 • Second place: $750 • Third place: $500 • 4th through 8th places: $200 each Submissions are due by June 15, 2020, with winners chosen by July 8, 2020. All suitable submissions, regardless of whether they are selected as winners, will be shared on VetMedAcademy.org. ---------------------------------------------------------------- One Minnesota hog farmer sealed the cracks in his barn and piped carbon dioxide through the ventilation system. Another farmer has considered gassing his animals after loading them into a truck. And a third shot his pigs in the head with a gun. It took him all day. These are dark days on many American pig farms. Coronavirus outbreaks at meatpacking plants across the Midwest have created a backlog of pigs that are ready for slaughter but have nowhere to go. Hundreds of thousands of pigs have grown too large to be slaughtered commercially, forcing farmers to kill them and dispose of their carcasses without processing them into food. And yet, around the United States, scores of people are struggling to find enough to eat, lining up at food banks after losing their jobs in the economic fallout of the pandemic. Distribution issues have caused grocery stores and fast-food restaurants to run low on meat. Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the United States, is limiting the amount of ground beef and pork that customers can buy at some stores. Costco has placed a three-product cap on purchases of fresh beef, poultry and pork. Wendy’s has run out of hamburgers at hundreds of locations. The waste of viable pigs at a time of great need is causing both deep economic loss and emotional anguish across the nation’s pork industry. “There are farmers who cannot finish their sentences when they talk about what they have to do,” said Greg Boerboom, a second-generation pig farmer in Marshall, Minn., who is trying to find ways to avoid killing a backlog of more than 1,000 pigs. “This will drive people out of farming. There will be suicides in rural America.” The number of pigs being slaughtered but not used for food is staggering. In Iowa, the nation’s largest pork-producing state, agricultural officials expect the backlog to reach 600,000 hogs over the next six weeks. In Minnesota, an estimated 90,000 pigs have been killed on farms since the meat plants began closing last month. The crisis mostly affects farmers with large pork operations who usually send pigs to be slaughtered in giant meatpacking plants run by companies like Tyson and Smithfield. Pigs are not the only casualties. Last month, a farmer in Minnesota watched an egg-processing company gas 61,000 of his birds. The poultry processor Allen Harim Foods sent a letter to farmers in April announcing plans to begin “depopulating flocks in the field.” In all, it killed nearly two million birds on farms in Delaware and Maryland last month. Like the dumping of fresh milk and destruction of fresh vegetables on farms, the waste of viable livestock shows how finely calibrated and concentrated the American agricultural system has become after decades of consolidation. For years, farming groups and state agencies have published guidelines on how to euthanize the animals humanely. But never have so many farmers had to kill so many fully grown hogs so quickly without producing any food. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Nonhuman Rights Project is disappointed that today’s ruling from the Connecticut Appellate Court appears to repeat the legal errors it made in our first bid to free the elephants imprisoned and exploited by the Commerford Zoo, with Minnie now the traveling circus’s sole surviving elephant following the deaths of both Beulah and Karen this past year. The court’s continued assertion that in Connecticut a third party, such as the Nonhuman Rights Project, cannot bring a habeas corpus case that demands that an autonomous being who has long been considered to be a rightless legal thing should now be considered a legal person—able to have her right to bodily liberty asserted by that third party—not only contradicts almost two centuries of Connecticut law, but also the law of every English-speaking jurisdiction in the world. As we consider how best to continue our fight for Minnie’s release to The Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary or The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee—where she’ll be able to roam freely in an appropriate climate, with the opportunity to form bonds with other elephants and no bullhook in sight—we emphasize that our litigation isn’t just about the legally invisible suffering of nonhuman animals who want and need to live freely just as we do. It’s also about whether we value liberty enough to extend it past the arbitrary boundaries of our own species. In New York, courts are beginning to recognize, in the words of Bronx Supreme Court Judge Alison Y. Tuitt, that an elephant is “an intelligent, autonomous being who should be treated with respect and dignity, and who may be entitled to liberty” and, in the words of New York Court of Appeals Judge Eugene Fahey, that the question of a nonhuman animal’s legal personhood and rights is “a deep dilemma of ethics and policy that demands our attention.” When will the courts of Connecticut do the same? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Two dogs that tested positive for COVID-19 in Hong Kong most likely picked up the virus from their owners, researchers have found. The dogs — a German shepherd and a Pomeranian — were the first reported to have the coronavirus. Genetic sequencing showed that the virus they had was identical to that found in their owners, according to a study published in Nature. Neither dog was visibly sick, according to a news report about the research. The findings support scientists’ suspicion that the dogs got the virus from their owners, said virologist Malik Peiris, who led the study. Still, it can’t rule out the possibility that it was the dogs who infected the humans. It’s also not clear whether dogs can spread the virus to one another, although the study did not show evidence of that. Other animals known to have been infected with the coronavirus include domestic cats and a tiger. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A suburban Chicago woman was fatally mauled by what local officials say was a French bulldog that she recently adopted that had been bred to fight, authorities said. Lisa Urso of Ingleside, Illinois, was found unresponsive on the patio of her home on Saturday. Investigators said that she died from an attack from one of her three dogs. The 52-year-old woman had a second French bulldog, which was found with some blood on it, and a border collie. “I hate to say it, but unfortunately, it was a vicious attack,” Lake County Coroner Dr. Howard Cooper said. “You don’t really think about it happening with a smaller dog breed, but we forget animals can be powerful,” he said. “This animal has a lot of jaw strength.” Cooper said the dog attacked Urso inside her home before she made it out to the patio, where she died. Urso had bite wounds and scratches on her arms, legs and torso. Cooper said the attack likely lasted for minutes. Cooper told the Chicago Tribune that only one French bulldog had a history of biting, and that it is impossible to know whether it was the only dog that attacked Urso. The dog thought to have killed Urso will be humanely euthanized, the Chicago Tribune reported. Cooper confirmed to USA TODAY that the dog weighs about 55 pounds. Officials weren't sure which dog started the attack, but Cooper described the animal with the history of biting as "short and stocky."