The original Cadbury was founded in England in 1824.
The British public have always been very proud of the brand; and all efforts were made until very recently to keep it in British hands. Recently the brand was purchased by Kraft in a huge buy out which very rapidly saw this very old British firm close down and move production of its chocolate bars to other nations.
Goal: Cut ties with palm oil plantations that are killing endangered species.
A major chocolate company has direct ties with destructive palm oil plantations. Cadbury sources its ingredients from palm oil plantations. Demand that the chocolate giant cut ties with this destructive industry.
Palm oil is one of the leading causes of rainforest deforestation. Millions of acres of land are being destroyed and thousands of endangered species are losing their homes forever. Species like the orangutan are dying at rapid numbers, without a mate, without a home, and without food. If nothing is done to put a stop to the farming of palm oil, our rainforests may cease to exist.
As a major producer of chocolate, Cadbury has the opportunity and the financial means to direct change. Sign the petition to demand that Cadbury cut ties with destructive and deadly palm oil plantations.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Van de Put,
Cadbury is a major producer of chocolate. However, that chocolate is being produced at the expense of our rainforests and the endangered species that call them home. Palm oil is a source of the chocolates’ ingredients. One of the leading causes of deforestation, the palm oil industry has led to the deaths of thousands of innocent animals.
Cadbury has the means and the voice to direct immediate change. If you source from more sustainable and ethical industries, other chocolate producers may follow. I demand that you cut ties with palm oil plantations.
A newly proposed law in Colorado would ban convicted animal abusers from owning, caring for, or living with an animal. Speak out to help this lifesaving legislation pass!
Time and time again, people convicted of horrific acts of animal cruelty go on to repeat the behavior, injuring — or even killing — the innocent and helpless.
There is also a proven link between animal abuse and violence towards humans; often, those who hurt animals continue to escalate these behaviors.
Introduced by Democratic state representative Alex Valdez, Bill HB19-1902 initially proposed a five-year ban for misdemeanor animal abuse and up to ten years for felony animal abuse.
However, after pushback from the House Judiciary Committee, Valdez plans to adapt the bill to give judges leeway in deciding on the length of the ban. We would like to see a ban for life in cases of animal torture or killing.
Importantly, judges would also be able to order animal abusers to attend anger management courses or receive mental health treatment.
The bill will likely be heard by the House Judiciary Committee for the first time this week.
Sign the petition urging Colorado Governor Jared Polis to strongly support this bill, ensuring that convicted animal abusers cannot harm any more innocent creatures.
“I want people to understand that these animals have a heart; they have feelings”.
Recently, Dolphin Project had the opportunity to speak with Ren Yabuki of the Life Investigation Agency (LIA). LIA focuses on the representation of animals in Japan. We met Ren for the first time in the 2016/17 dolphin hunt season when he came to Taiji to find out about the problems of the prison industry in Japan.
We would like to thank Ren and LIA for taking the time to talk with us and will be updating this blog as new developments occur.
Q: When did you first learn about the hunts in Taiji?
A: I learned about the dolphin hunt issue from the documentary film, “The Cove” (The Cove is a 2009 documentary film directed by Louie Psihoyos which analyzes and questions dolphin hunting practices in Japan.)
Q: How much do you hear about the hunts in Japan from news sources, and do you feel these sources are biased? Unbiased?
A: Generally speaking, the Japanese media outlets and news sources don’t fully cover the issues at hand in regards to the dolphin hunts. When the news reports on the subject matter, they are very biased and do not accurately portray the available information. The media tends to hide and cover up information for the Japanese people by never telling the full truth.
Q: What was your experience going to Taiji and witnessing the hunts first-hand?
A: What I saw was deeply disturbing and affected my peace of mind tremendously. A bunch of negative emotions ran through my body, making my blood boil upon the monstrosity I witnessed. This doesn’t even begin to describe the full emotions I felt as they are impossible to put into words. What I can say is I felt sadness, despair, anger and helplessness as I was unable to stop or do anything but watch at my horror as the events unfolded in front of me. At the end of the day, I was completely exhausted and drained from what I saw at the dolphin hunt.
My dad died in November last year (2018). Instead of flowers at the funeral; we asked people to give a donation to Animals Asia https://www.animalsasia.org/ or to London based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) – https://eia-international.org/ who do so much work relating to environmental issues.
I made contact with both organisations; and they kindly sent us leaflets on their work. Leaflets were put into each and every copy of the funeral service at the crematorium, so that everyone who came was able to see, and take away with them, information of these excellent organisations.
As an animal campaigner himself; I know that dad would much have preferred donations going to help animals and the environment rather than on flowers which would have ended up in the waste within a few days or weeks.
Despite losing dad, it gives us heart to know that we have helped in several ways towards making a better life for little Aurora. We know that he would not have had any problems with this in the least – it would have been something he would have been very happy with.
So here is the latest in Aurora’s new life at the sanctuary:
We have followed and shown you the rescue of Aurora on this site from the very start.
Rescued sun bear steps on grass for first time after 15 years of cruel captivity
14 February 2019
Sun bear Aurora worked up the courage to explore the unknown – finding cool grass beneath her paws, coconuts and even potential new friends.
Having been poached from the wild as a tiny cub, sun bear Aurora hadn’t felt grass under her paws for 15 years. Little wonder then that when the door to her new sanctuary home first opened onto an outdoor enclosure, Aurora wasn’t quite sure what to do.
As with so many rescued bears, Aurora’s first instinct was to be wary of the unknown. She timidly poked her head out of the den and let her eyes adjust to the sunlight. Then, taking small, slow steps, she stepped out onto the concrete patio and sniffed the strange new environment.
In front of her lay a grassy playground full of trees and climbing structures. Scattered throughout the enormous enclosure were irresistible treats including coconuts, jam smears and tropical fruits.
Soon enough temptation overcame trepidation and Aurora courageously stepped onto the grass and followed her nose around her new home.
Animals Asia Bear Manager Sarah van Herpt said:
“Aurora is the smallest bear in the whole sanctuary, but she has a big heart. She quickly overcame her fears and bravely explored her new home, searching out treats.
“Most encouragingly of all, while given free-reign outside, Aurora encountered other sun bears in their dens and played with them through the bars. Some of the bears were interacting very positively which gives us hope they could go on to become firm friends in the future.”
While bears are believed to be mostly solitary in the wild, Animals Asia has found the companionship of other bears to be an important factor in improved welfare for bears living in rescue centres and sanctuaries.
Sarah said:
“The entire sanctuary works tirelessly to give the bears new experiences every day and opportunities to live as naturally as possible, but nothing is as stimulating as playing with other bears. They can wrestle, learn from each other’s example, cuddle up on cold days and generally enrich each other’s lives.”
In the near future, attempts will be made to integrate Aurora with some of the other 11 sun bears currently at Animals Asia’s sanctuary.
Aurora spent 15 years in a tiny cage having been poached from the wild and sold as an exotic pet. She was rescued by Animals Asia in December 2018 and travelled 1,500 kilometres by road to the charity’s sanctuary in the north of Vietnam.
Since her rescue, Aurora has also received a thorough examination by vets who believe she has a small gallstone and suffers from arthritis. Thankfully, neither condition requires surgery or medication currently and will be monitored closely as future treatment will likely be required.
Animals Asia is a pioneer in combating the bear bile farming industry. In 1998, it was the first to expose the harsh realities of this once-hidden trade and has since rescued more than 600 bears from the industry in both Vietnam and China.
The organization’s Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson, is considered the world’s leading authority on bear bile farming, having dedicated her life to exposing and eradicating this brutal industry for more than 20 years. Today, nearly 200 bears live in peace and tranquility at Animals Asia’s Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre, while 190 more are looked after by the organization in China.
In 2017, the Vietnamese government signed a landmark partnership agreement with Animals Asia to shut down every bear bile farm and send all captive bears to sanctuaries by 2022.
A new report of AgriBusiness Consultingmakes a compelling case for a complete rethinking of the industrial intensive chicken production model that predominates in the EU and that threatens public health, pollutes the environment, and does little to respect animal welfare.
The report, published less than a week after the European Parliament urged the European Commission to address the major societal challenges caused by intensive broiler farming, focuses on the main issues arising from EU poultry production practices. After describing these practices and gathering evidence on their impact, the report concludes intensive broiler farming contributes to the current increase in antimicrobial resistance and causes environmental degradation, while also being intrinsically linked to poor animal welfare.
According to this new report, intensive broiler rearing practices are contributing to the increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria of zoonotic importance, such as Campylobacter spp., Salmonella spp., and E.coli (EFSA/ECDC, 2016). Fighting against AMR remains a key priority for the EU, but no actions have been set so far by the Commission to concretely support the uptake of higher animal welfare standards in broiler farming as an important means to reduce the sector’s still high dependency on antimicrobial treatments. Zoonotic bacteria that are typically found in intensive poultry production are developing resistance to multiple antibiotic substances that are important for human health, and Commission action is therefore urgently needed across the industry.
Antimicrobials used in intensive broiler systems are also polluting the environment, through water and soil contamination. Indeed, recent scientific studies show that up to 90% of antimicrobial agents used for livestock, including intensively reared broilers, may be excreted into the environment, causing changes in the physiology of water life and constituting another potential route for AMR.
Additionally, intensive broiler farming is responsible for high ammonia emissions, with negative effects on animals and humans, as ammonia is absorbed by land, water, and vegetation. As highlighted in the report, soil and water acidification, eutrophication and subsequent loss in biodiversity and greenhouse (GHG) emissions are major problems associated with ammonia deposition.
Clearly poor animal welfare – primarily due to selection for extremely fast growth – goes hand in hand with harmful consequences for public and environmental health. Factors such as high stocking densities, the deprivation of any possibility to express natural behaviours, and high concentrations of noxious gases, contribute to making intensively reared broiler chickens extremely vulnerable to disease. Consequently these animals still require a significant amount of antimicrobials just to stay alive.
“Despite available evidence on the detrimental effects of such farming practices, intensive broiler systems account for over 90% of the whole production in the EU, and the sector is in constant expansion” says Reineke Hameleers, Director at Eurogroup for Animals. “Given the animal welfare, environmental and public health implications highlighted by this report, the EU institutions have a duty to discourage intensive rearing. Raising the bar for animal welfare and supporting the shift to alternative systems are pivotal to tackle the problems at their roots.”
We hope this text will send a strong message to the Commission, urging it to support alternative, and less harmful, broiler farming systems. To keep animals healthier, Eurogroup for Animals is advocating for a shift towards rearing systems that offer animals more space, enrichment materials and clean air. Higher welfare breeds should be favoured, in order to have more robust flocks that are less susceptible to disease and consequently require fewer antimicrobials.
Ricky Gervais And Vegan Peter Egan Back Campaign To Free Dogs From ‘Cruel And Unnecessary’ Experiments
The one-year-old dogs, which are in a lab in a major university in Gothenburg, are due to be killed at the end of the month – despite campaigners calling for them to be freed from brutal experiments.
British animal advocates – Ricky and Peter.
Comedian Ricky Gervais and vegan actor and advocate Peter Egan have backed a campaign calling for six dogs in a university lab to be freed.
The one-year-old animals, at a major university in Gothenburg, are due to be killed at the end of the month. They are part of an experiment to test how dental implants cause inflammation and bone degradation. In less than two weeks, researchers plan to slaughter the dogs so that studies can be carried out on their tissues and blood.
Swedish animal rights organization, Djurrättsalliansen (Animal rights Alliance) has been pleading with Gothenberg University to free Venus, Milia, Mimosa, Luna, Lotus and Zuri, handing over a petition which has garnered more than 80,000 signatures. Now Animal Justice Project has joined forces with Djurrättsalliansen to continue to raise awareness.
Dental experiments
Dental research on dogs at Gothenburg University has been going on since at least 2009 – with the animals suffering intensely. Before the test is complete, the Labradors will have been anesthetized six times, and had 35 percent of their teeth pulled out.
An ex-veterinarian from the university, Dr. Mark Collins, points out that there are other ways to study human dental implants and that dogs and humans have vastly different teeth. “These dogs know exactly what to expect when they enter the surgery room, and they are afraid,” he added.
‘Do the right thing’
“The fate of these six dogs literally hangs in the balance – I urge Gothenburg University to do the right thing by ending the study and re-homing these dogs to the loving families they deserve,” Peter Egan said.
“We’ve banned cosmetics testing on animals in Europe, and yet dogs continue to be used in cruel and unnecessary experiments .. this time for our gums. This is no way to treat man’s best friend.”
Futile experiments
Daniel Rolke, Founder of Animal Rights Alliance, said: “The campaign to end these cruel and completely futile experiments has been huge here in Sweden but we are running out of time. The dogs will be killed in two weeks.”
Claire Palmer, Founder of Animal Justice Project, added: “Around 26,000 international students attend universities in Sweden – many will be studying at Gothenburg University, and we are certain that they will be shocked to learn that Labradors – voted Britain’s most loved dog last year are being treated so abhorrently before being killed inside the university walls. No animals should be suffering painful and unnecessary experiments inside universities.”
Dr. Andre Menache, Science Advisor for both organizations, said: “These dog experiments are not only very cruel but scientifically meaningless for human patients. I challenge these researchers to defend their research in a public debate.”
Despite the petition and protests, Gothenburg University has stated the experiments will continue and has declined to be interviewed in Swedish media.
World Animals Voice 