A couple celebrating their wedding anniversary in New Bern, North Carolina, got stuck with the memory of a lifetime when the horse-drawn carriage in which they were riding was struck by a car, sending them and the carriage driver to the hospital. (Needless to say: open carriage, no seat belts, no air bags.) The horse, Suzi, was also injured.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cipherswarm/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Horses like Suzi have a bad life, trying to dodge traffic—but traffic doesn't always dodge them. This couple may now have a cautionary tale to tell their grandkids, but for Suzi and other horses who are forced to bear the weight of carriages and tourists in traffic day and night in all weather extremes, carriage rides are a hard trip down memory lane. New Bern needs to join cities around the world that have put these rides out to pasture for good.

Send a polite note to New Bern Mayor Lee Bettis Jr. asking him to ban horse-drawn carriages.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

In July, thousands of pigs lost their lives when a factory farm in Alberta, Canada, was ravaged by fire. Our friends at Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals (CETFA) obtained photos of the aftermath, which show that before succumbing to smoke inhalation, the panicked pigs frantically trampled each another in a futile attempt to escape.

Pregnant sows, trapped in gestation crates, tried desperately to jump out of their stalls or squeeze through the bars. Instead, they died in their cramped prisons. Many of them suffered from ruptured bellies, and their unborn piglets were killed.

On poorly regulated factory farms, where so many animals are crammed together in confined spaces, fires are all too common, and they cause the horrible deaths of thousands of animals.

Please head over to CETFA's Web site right now and support that organization's initiative to prevent the deaths of animals in factory farm fires.

Written by Jeff Mackey