Great to finish this year by seeing we have visitors from so many places this early in the morning –
The Netherlands; Finland; Australia; France; Chile; United States; Egypt; Algeria; Germany; UK; Ireland; Turkey; Italy; Singapore.
Wishing you all a great new year and an even better 2019 !
For animals worldwide – Thank You – Mark and Venus.
WAV Comment: California once again setting the animal welfare standard in the US. A very positive move – well done them. Helping rescued animals and cutting down on specifically bred animals.
Californian law change means pet shops can sell only rescued animals
California is set to become the first state in the US to ban the sale of non-rescue animals in pet shops.
The new law, known as AB 485, takes effect on 1 January. Any businesses violating it face a $500 (£400) fine.
The change means cats, dogs and rabbits sold by retailers cannot be sourced from breeders, only from animal shelters.
Animal rights groups have heralded it as a step forward against so-called “kitten factories” and “puppy mills”.
They say the current “high-volume” industries, where pets are bred for profit, can lead to inhumane treatment and long-term emotional and physical health problems in some animals.
The new state-wide law, approved in late 2017, will now require shops to maintain sufficient records of where they sourced each animal, for periodic checks by authorities.
§ The story of a dog that sparked a campaign
§ The dogs without a home for Christmas
It does not, however, affect sales from private breeders or owner-to-owner sales.
Some Californian shop owners have raised concern the law could put them out of business. The measure has also seen resistance from the American Kennel Club, which said it limits pet owners.
According to American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) estimates, more than 6.5 million pets enter shelters across the country every year, of which about 1.5 million are put down.
The California assembly member who introduced the legislation, Patrick O’Donnell, has insisted the legislation is not just “a big win” for “four-legged friends”, but for California taxpayers too, as they spend hundreds of millions on sheltering animals across the state.
A couple hoping to adopt a cat from a San Diego shelter on Friday, told NBC News the move was a step forward for the state.
“It takes the emphasis off the profit of animals and puts the emphasis back on caring for and getting these cats and dogs a good home,” prospective owner Mitch Kentdotson said.
AB 485 is the first state-wide law of its kind, although other places have enacted similar regulations on pet sales on a local level.
Earlier this month, a similar ban on third-party puppy and kitten sales was confirmed in England.
Lucy’s law, named after a mistreated cavalier King Charles spaniel, also aims to combat low-welfare animal breeding.
Source – BBC News – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46717173
Best regards, Venus
Germany is world champion in the industrial killing of pig
Germany is export world champion for pig meat
Maybe we should import dog meat in return?
Balance of an “animal friendly” country for the year 2018:
– Animal rights activists are criminalized,
– Piglets must be castrated until 2021 without anesthesia.
– Chicks are shredded alive
– Advertising for school milk and meat is done by the state
– School canteens offer pork
– The protection of the wolf is to be lifted in the future
– Animal transports to third countries should be continued
– Animal transports without limit will continue to be approved
– Process of monkey torments is discontinued
And now the tons of export meat in numbers!
“Since the turn of the millennium, exports of meat and dairy products to China have multiplied thirtyfold, with pigs in particular being popular: German traders exported 2.4 million tonnes between January and October 2017, accounting for just under a fifth of slaughtered pigs meanwhile well over half of the exports to China, as data from the EU Commission and the Agricultural Export Report 2017 shows.
The export business has gone so well in recent years that German companies (Tönnies) started breeding more pigs again. In November 2017, they kept about 27, 5 million animals and about 378,000 more pigs than in May. “
One of Germany’s most important trading partners in pig exports is still China. Exports to the country remained well above the previous year. Just over 40,000 tons of pork wereexported to China in the first five months of the current year, more than in 2017.
Germany is therefore China’s slaughterhouse
The Tönnies Group, Germany, continues to be one of the five largest pig slaughterhouses in the world with 3.04 billion Euro private wealth. Where does come it from?
Thanks to the indifference of the German population to mass industrial killing!
And above all, thanks to the shameless lobbying policy of a corrupt ruling coalition, that is proving to be a leading force in the export of weapons and animal corpses right now.
Despite the many setbacks, despite anger and sadness, we continue to fight.
We lose neither the hope nor the strength to fight.
Because giving up gives this system a simple hand to commit crime and exploitation against the animals.
My best regards, Venus
Posted by Katie Valentine
PETITION TARGET: Sergey Kislyak, Russian Ambassador to the U.S.
Over 100 whales are illegally confined in appalling conditions in the waters off Russia’s Pacific Coast, in what the local media has appropriately nicknamed a “whale prison.”
Kept in cramped, tiny cages, some of the whales have been unscrupulously sold to Chinese aquariums, in direct violation of an international ban on commercial whale hunting that restricts the sale of these intelligent marine mammals.
In early November, a disturbing video appeared online, showing one of these whales being torturously hoisted by a crane in preparation for transport to an unspecified destination.
Between 2013 and 2016, 13 Orcas were reportedly exported to China by unnamed companies, who sold their helpless victims for as much as $6 million each — quite possibly profiting from China’s booming marine park industry.
Even more disturbingly, evidence shows that some of these cruel cages contain infants, which is illegal under all circumstances.
Petition Link – https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-shut-cruel-whale-prison-off-russian-coast/
Russia is believed to be the only country in the world that exports wild Orcas, and if nothing is done to stop this, the rate at which they’re being caught and killed will ultimately lead to the species’ demise.
Until recently, the cruel imprisonment of these endangered whales was shrouded in mystery and deceit. It is imperative to race against the clock to ensure the survival of what’s left of these already-threatened species.
Sign this petition urging the Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, to do everything in his power to shut down the whale prison and halt all whale trading out of Russia’s waters.
Petition Link – https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-shut-cruel-whale-prison-off-russian-coast/
$2.4 million daydreaming study and a very scientific examination of the sex habits of coked-up quails topped Senator Rand Paul’s annual list of maddening government waste, which this year clocked in at $114 million.
Last week, the Kentucky lawmaker issued his fourth installment of the annual ‘Festivus Waste Report,’ which names and shames some of the US government’s most egregious spending choices.
The waste is humorously documented in this year’s report. Some of the examples include the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spending $2.4 million to study daydreaming, and another NIH study, costing $874,000, which researched the sexual habits of quails that were high on cocaine.
My comment: So far, the Labor Mafia (almost all over the world) has brutally tortured millions of monkeys with our money to allegedly cure Parkinson’s, dementia, or Alzheimer’s. Without success until today.
Now the Labor Mafia in the US is collecting an extra helping of millions to research the sexual behavior of the quail under cocain!!
Is anyone so perverted or stupid to believe that experiments are being made for the good of humanity?
Best regards, Venus
To all our readers, friends, animal lovers …
A year is finishing, a new one is coming.
For all of us who see it as a mission to fight for the rights of animals and to give them a better world, there is always a balance sheet exclusively dealing with this mission.
What have we achieved in this direction is often a difficult decision for us personally, how much do we write that is good, how much do we write that is sad.
We all know that we are always faced with a perfectly equipped system of violence, lobbying and exploitation that makes our struggle ever more difficult.
Witnessing the suffering of any animal(s); through video, photos or other media routes is never an easy one for any of us. It takes its toll; but we have to be strong against an often stronger opposition of abusers, bureaucrats and politicians.
Through our blog sites, ‘Serbian Animals Voice’ https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/ and ‘World Animals Voice’ https://worldanimalsvoice.com/ , we aim to cover as many issues as we can in often, the harshest of blogs – with us, what you see is what you get; cruelty is cruelty and we will never disguise the daily system of abuse and suffering that many animals have to endure the world over.
On the other hand, we know that only if we all fight together against this ‘system’ of abuse, do we then have any chance of winning campaigns.
Looking back, we realize that all the best this year has already been achieved by many using this very same approach, because we participated in solidarity and cooperation in actions, that wanted to abolish the suffering and slavery of animals.
So we have to continue to move forward into next year: active, solidary, united!
Also in the New Year (of 2019) we will do a part in this fight with our two blogs. With information, education, criticism, and facts !
Stay true to us, we all remain faithful to the animals, and faithful to you, our dear campaigner friends !
What one alone does not achieve, many unite to create victories together. Be part of our team uniting in achieving victories !.
In this Sense and with this hope, we wish you all a healthy and happy new year of fighting for the voiceless in 2019.
Best wishes – Venus and Mark.
Here is a message from Erika at Animal Aid Unlimited that shows this exactly:
Udder flaming is a dairy farming practice where workers run blowtorches under the udders of cows to burn off their little hairs. This helps to facilitate the work of the sucking machines designed to imitate a calf and trick the cows bodies into giving milk.
This cruel practice is common on many dairy farms in the United States and can obviously be very painful. We must also take into account the mental aspect of placing fire near cows who are, like many animals, naturally terrified of fire.
Besides udder flaming, this shocking video from Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) reveals other cruel practices that happen in dairy farms such as separating mothers from their babies, force-feeding, beating with sharp devices and more.
This undercover investigation by ARM was held at McArthur Dairy in Okeechobee, Florida (owned by Dean Foods). Overall, ARM investigated 5 different dairy farms in Okeechobee, exposing a pattern of horrible treatment of cows and calves.
In order to help more animals escape a fate of misery, try to be vegan for 22 days! We highly recommend to join Challenge 22+ for both free guidance and support.
The EU is taking action to reduce plastic pollution by setting tough new restrictions on single-use plastic products. Today’s meeting of member states’ ambassadors in the Permanent Representatives Committee agreed the Council’s position on a proposal for a new directive which is part of the EU’s efforts to protect the environment and clean up the oceans.
The new rules will ban the use of certain throwaway plastic products for which alternatives exist. In addition, specific measures will be introduced to reduce the use of the most frequently littered plastic products, especially those that are often found on European beaches.
Plastic waste is polluting our rivers, our beaches and our oceans. This is why we will ban plastic products for which good alternatives exist. And we will make plastic producers pay for cleaning up. Today’s decision is an important step towards protecting our environment.
Elisabeth Köstinger, the federal minister of sustainability and tourism of Austria which currently holds the presidency of the Council
The Council has made the original draft directive clearer by being more specific in the listing of the products affected:
The Council also wants the legislation to be more ambitious:
The Council has introduced provisions to improve the implementation of the directive:
Finally, the Council has also taken measures to reduce the administrative costs of the directive:
Member states broadly supported the mandate at today’s meeting, and some member states indicated that the interlinkages between this directive and the existing waste legislation need further consideration in the upcoming negotiations.
The proposal under discussion is part of the EU’s plastics strategy. The Council Working Party on the Environment has been working on the draft directive since it was presented by the Commission in late May 2018. Environment ministers discussed the proposal at their meetings on 25 June and on 9 October.
The European Parliament voted its position on the proposal on 24 October.
Today’s mandate means that the Austrian Presidency of the Council can begin talks with the European Parliament. A first trilogue meeting will take place on 6 November.
World Animals Voice 