Month: August 2018
Dear Mark;
SeaWorld confines animals to tiny concrete tanks at marine abusement parks across the country. Often housed with incompatible tankmates, dolphins, whales, and other animals are regularly drugged in order to manage stress-induced aggressive behavior and relieve the endless monotony of swimming in circles.
They break their teeth chewing in frustration on the metal bars and concrete sides of their tanks, and they’re forced to perform tricks for tourists in exchange for food—all in the name of entertainment.
It’s a business built on the suffering of intelligent, social animals who are denied everything that’s natural and important to them.
WestJet recently stopped its promotional support of SeaWorld, and travel giant Thomas Cook has committed to ending ticket sales to the parks. STA Travel, Taco Bell, and Alaska, JetBlue, and Southwest airlines as well as dozens of other responsible companies have already severed ties with the abusement parks.
ACTION – Please send a quick note to Air Canada urging it to join the wave of companies making the compassionate decision to cut ties with SeaWorld.
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Thank you for your compassion for animals.
Sincerely yours,
John Di Leonardo, M.S.
Manager, Animals in Entertainment Campaigns
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
August 30, 2018
Dear Mark,
The sealers of the Magdalen Islands of Quebec are pressuring the government of Quebec to allow them to kill grey seals who live on and around the nature reserve, Brion Island.
The government of Quebec is considering this proposal. The Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, Isabelle Melançon, has said that consultations on the matter will begin in September.
The sealers, in typical fashion, are blaming seals for fish population declines at the same time that they pillage the oceans. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans of Canada (DFO), which calls the Atlantic cod “endangered,” still allows thousands of tons of the fish to be killed by fishermen. In 2017, the DFO allowed fishermen to kill 13,000 metric tons of this endangered fish.
At the same time, the DFO allows over-fishing of capelin, thus depleting stocks of one of the main prey of cod.
Until the DFO and fishermen recognize that the marine ecosystem is a complex web and that human interference in the web is extremely destructive to this ecosystem, we will continue to see scapegoating of seals along with ever more population collapses, both of fish and marine mammals. The DFO and the fishing industry must change the way they operate, ending industrial-scale fishing and the use of destructive fishing methods like long lines, purse seines and bottom trawlers, and maintaining control of fishing gear so that unintended targets do not become victims of entanglement in their plastic pollution.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY and send an automated email to the Quebec government. If you are a resident of Quebec, please also participate formally in the public consultations on Brion Island seals. Note: the National Assembly of Quebec was recently dissolved, so if you are a voting citizen in Quebec, please keep this issue in mind in the coming elections.
Other Actions You Can Take for Seals
- Hand out our leaflets. Email us with your mailing address and the number of leaflets you would like us to send.
- Donate to our seal campaigns.
- Be a walking billboard for seals by purchasing a Harpseals.org t-shirt from our e-store or our Variety Store, and help us raise funds by purchasing gifts from our stores.
- Spread the word about the plight of the seals on Facebook and Twitter.
- Volunteer in bigger ways: join Harpseals.org as a volunteer officer or outreach activist.
Thank you for caring and taking action.
For the seals,
Diana Marmorstein, Ph.D.
CEO
Harpseals.org
Visit our sister site, Furseals.org
Join us on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter
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You have to decide early!!
You can teach children empathy, respect and affection for animals.
Or you can educate them to future series killer…
My best regards to all, Venus
In the canton of Zurich, a vote will be taken on 23.9.2018 on the initiative “Gamekeeper instead of hunters”!
Because killing should not be a hobby!
The initiative briefly explained:
“Today’s hunting is counterproductive!
Due to the intensive hunting of the wild animals their fertility increases, as the animals become sexually mature due to the hunting pressure. This leads to an inventory increase. Hunters cite this artificially generated increase in wildlife populations as a justification for killing wildlife.
Experience and studies have shown that wildlife is largely self-regulated even without hunting (Wild Sanctuary City of Zurich, Canton of Geneva, Luxembourg with ban on fox hunting). In the canton of Geneva, the hunt was replaced in 1974 by a plebiscite in a referendum that proved its worth. This model is to be introduced by the initiative in the canton of Zurich.
Jungle School is currently being shown on UK television.
What a brilliant series – training Orangutan babies who’s mothers have been killed by poachers etc to get ready for a life back in the wild.
But only after they have undertaken all their training at the Jungle School.
Superb !!
Orangutan dies after brutal pellet gun, stabbing attack
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A male orangutan on the Indonesian portion of Borneo died after being shot at least 130 times with an air gun and apparently being stabbed and clubbed, in the second known killing of a critically endangered orangutan this year.
Villagers spotted the wounded orangutan in a lake in the Kutai Timur district of East Kalimantan province on Sunday.
Local police chief Teddy Ristiawan said Wednesday that the great ape was still alive when he was taken Monday to a hospital in the town of Bontang.
· 4 elephants found poisoned to death by poachers
A statement from the Center for Orangutan Protection said the orangutan died early Tuesday.
An X-ray showed at least 130 air gun pellets in its body, including more than 70 in its head, the center said.
It said an autopsy found the animal had been blinded as a result of the shooting and also had 17 open wounds believed to be caused by sharp objects. Its left thigh, right chest and left hand were bruised from blunt object trauma.
Ramadhani, a manager of habitat protection at the center who goes by one name, said the death was a terrible event in the history of conflict between orangutans and humans in Indonesia.
“The 130 pellets within the body of a primate is a new record, the most ever,” he said.
In mid-January, an orangutan was found decapitated and shot more than a dozen times with an air gun in Central Kalimantan, environmental news website Mongabay reported. Police arrested two rubber farmers suspected in the killing, it said.
The number of orangutans in Borneo and on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, recognized as separate species and both classified as critically endangered, has fallen precipitously since the 1970s.
Orangutans are a protected species in Indonesia and Malaysia, but deforestation has dramatically reduced their habitat and brought them into contact with farmers and plantation workers who kill them to protect crops and for meat.
About 40 percent of Borneo’s forests have been lost since the early 1970s and another huge swath of forest is expected to be converted to plantation agriculture in the next decade.
Dear Lyn White,
On the occasion of the recent positive messages you have sent to us https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2018/08/29/australia-live-exports-latest-news-from-animals-australia we would like to assure you that we will do all we can to support your and your team’s excellent work against ship transport.
I, personally, admire your stamina, your persistence, your effective planning, and your nervous capacity.
We, on our part, are grateful to you and to your staff for leading with all your strength and conviction an unequal but essential fight for our animals.
We think of you, we stay with you
Venus and Mark
(From the blog of the famous Austrian philosopher and animal ethicist: Helmut F. Kaplan)
In many areas of life, over time, wide and profound changes have taken place. Let us remember the immense progress in medicine, technology and science. Or the great works in literature and music.
Only in one area has not changed, no improvement since the Stone Age: the food. We still eat like wild animals.
Meat eating (and the related consumption of other animal products) is THE anachronism of modern man, an ecological, economic, medical and ethical madness: this gruesome habit destroys the environment, is uneconomic and unhealthy, causes hunger and is a crime against the animals.
(Translation: Venus)
Hi Mark,
If a day is a long time in politics then I’m sure you’d agree that the last week has felt like a year!
There’s been a lot of media commentary overnight about Sussan Ley’s inability to progress her private member’s bill to end sheep exports, now that she is a member of executive government. I knew this would leave many of our supporters, who have been passionately lobbying their MPs to support her bill, concerned and disappointed.
The first thing I want you to know is that we are still on track to end the cruel live sheep export trade.
Here’s why:
The trade continues to unravel before our eyes…
- It’s now been 11 weeks since a sheep ship left our shores — for the first time in the history of this trade, sheep have not suffered through the furnace of a Middle Eastern summer.
- The biggest sheep exporter — Emanuel Exports — is off the water PERMANENTLY.
- A tightening regulatory environment has presented a new world order for exporters that has them questioning the commercial viability of the trade at any time of year.
- And very soon a review into the Department of Agriculture’s ability to properly regulate the industry will be handed down and this is expected to be damning.
All of these factors will lead to fewer animals being shipped and a dramatic reduction in the commercial ‘attractiveness’ of this trade. Much of this industry’s profits have been built on its ability to operate unlawfully. Those days are now gone.
While it’s disappointing that Sussan Ley and Sarah Henderson are no longer in a position to progress their private members bill, they’ve both publicly committed to continue to work within the government to obtain support for a phase out of the trade. Importantly, as you know, the ALP has committed to ending live sheep exports if elected to govern and polls are showing them clearly in front as we head towards an election.
The way forward:
In terms of next steps … the Senate bill to phase out the trade is still set to be voted on in coming months. If it passes, this will be another historic milestone in this campaign. This bill’s ability to progress further is dependent on the Morrison government, which controls the House of Representatives. As lobbying opportunities emerge, we will be sure to let you know.
The political developments of last week present a classic example as to why the key to effective campaigning is the ability to embrace developments, seize opportunities and pivot strategy at a moment’s notice. I should add to that list … resilience, and never taking your eye off the end goal!
Please rest assured that in the midst of this political upheaval, all remains well and momentum is still with us. There is as much reason to be optimistic today as there was a week ago.
As always, I am incredibly grateful to have you on this historic journey with us.
For the animals,
Lyn
Lyn White AM
Director of Strategy
World Animals Voice 