Candidate Barack Obama in 2008 pledged to keep the ban on horse slaughter permanent. In November 2011 he and our lawmakers broke that promise.

How many times have we heard the phrase “unintended consequences” in reference to government actions? Some actions have great intentions, but result in a major calamity.

In response to the Dec. 19 commentary, “Horse slaughter a humane option” by Arizona Farm Bureau President Kevin Rogers:

The mountain lion’s predatory instincts kicked in, Arizona Game and Fish Department officials said.

The mountain lion’s predatory instincts kicked in, Arizona Game and Fish Department officials said.

Hunting animals is so senseless. “Wild animals,” as we call them, spend every day of their lives searching for food and struggling to survive. Then guess what? Hunting season opens.

Caffe Boa, in Tempe, and Boa Bistro, in Mesa, have touched a nerve with their plans to serve a rabbit-based menu on Easter Sunday.

LOS ANGELES - Pamela Anderson has auctioned her sporty 2000 Dodge Viper for $65,000 as a donation to animal-rights activists to run an anti-snake slaughter campaign.

Last week, food safety officials in United Kingdom, France, and Sweden found traces of horse meat in ground beef sold across Europe. Massive recalls and lawsuits are ensuing.

People have differing opinions over the ethics of the nation’s food choices.

BILLINGS, Mont. — With 88 bison from Yellowstone National Park facing possible slaughter, billionaire Ted Turner has swept in and offered to hold the animals for five years on his sprawling Montana ranch while a new home for them is found. But Turner, ever the shrewd businessman, won't do it for nothing.

According to the prophet Hosea, God says, “I will make a covenant on behalf of Israel with the wild beasts, the birds of the air, and the things that creep on the earth, and I will break every bow and sword and weapon of war and sweep them off the earth so that all living creatures may lie down without living in fear.”

Mesa police are investigating why parts of slaughtered horses were scattered on two roads on Tuesday. At 12:30 a.m., the first grisly discovery was made in the 100 block of West Southern Avenue.

The Westmoreland family knows where their Thanksgiving turkey comes from — they raised and slaughtered it in their Queen Creek backyard.

What are the ethical standards of hunting? For hunters to be so actively ignorant is understandable; they have been able to bamboozle the public for generations. Morons, bullies, and brutes are trapping and baiting millions of innocent animals for sports, trophies, heritage. None of their lamebrain excuses should ever be taken seriously by anyone.

A group of farmers and ranchers is gearing up to fight animal rights activists determined to change the way Arizona’s hog and veal farms operate.

An animal rights campaign that has drawn the wrath of Jewish leaders around the country because it compares the slaughter of livestock to the Holocaust will make its way Monday to Tempe.

Love horses? So do the folks who volunteer at Gilbert’s WildHorse Ranch Rescue, a 501(c)3 sanctuary for horses in need. You can be part of the rescue’s mission to save horses from abuse, neglect, slaughter and premature death by volunteering for the WildHorse Ranch Rescue Feed Team.

Eleanor H. Porter’s 1913 book "Pollyanna’’ told the story of a girl whose infectious optimism changed the hearts of people in her small village.

The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals pledges that it will focus its efforts on issues that involve the largest numbers of animals, suffering the most intensely, for the longest periods of time.

The arguments of Arizona’s farmers and ranchers against Proposition 204 on the Nov. 7 ballot appeal strongly to the libertarian nature of the Tribune Editorial Board.

They come to her battered and bruised. One is blind. Another hobbled. Most are just afraid, unwanted, abandoned.

More than a dozen European nations have banned the cruelty of foie gras. In 2012 the state of California will also ban the production and sale of foie gras. However, this diseased duck and goose product is marketed as a supposed "delicacy" in expensive restaurants around the state of Arizona.

Some people are finding it impossible to keep their horses as the economy worsens, leaving owners scrambling to sell or find shelters for their animals. They occasionally wind up setting horses free to fend for themselves.