Tens of thousands of Spanish greyhounds (called galgos) suffer a horrific fate after obediently serving their masters during hunting season.
Some dogs are hanged, left to dangle from the noose for days while they slowly starve. Some are burned with painful acid. Other dogs are thrown down wells, left to die slowly with broken bones and a crushed spirit.
Even though animal torture is illegal under Spanish law, there is shockingly little regulation of the Galgueros who breed these dogs. Competition training involves tying a dozen dogs to the back of a car and dragging them down the road. Since the dogs are deemed disposable, there is little concern if they are injured or killed.
Spain can no longer ignore the cruelty. It’s time to stop the torture and death.
Contact Spanish Ambassador Mr. Santiago Cabanas Ansorena
E mail at: emb.washington@maec.es
and urge him to do everything in his power to outlaw all use of dogs in hunting and competitions before the next season begins — so that no more innocent greyhounds suffer.
A documentary film highlighting Turtle Island Restoration Network’s shark research in Costa Rica was released this morning, and it’s well worth the watch.
The film, “What Sharks Reveal About the State of the Ocean,” follows Turtle Island to one of the world’s most premiere dive sites where we have researched sea turtle and shark migration for more than 10 years.
The film debuted today at the World Ocean Summit in Abu Dhabi, where political leaders, policymakers, heads of global business, scientists, NGOs and multilaterals from across the globe gathered to connect the world to new ideas and perspectives.
A film crew from The Economist joined Turtle Island on our December 2018 Cocos Island Dive Expedition, where they spent 10 days witnessing expedition participants accomplish a number of important objectives surrounding shark research in the area, including the tagging of a 14-foot female tiger shark.
The film also shows chilling footage of the shark fin trade, as well as efforts to stop illegal fishing in the protected waters surrounding Cocos Island.
Every year, TIRN takes scuba divers to Cocos Island, one of the world’s most stunning marine protected areas, to view and photograph the most diverse marine life in the world, as well as the exclusive opportunity to assist TIRN with various levels of shark migration research.
Our research is setting the basis for enlarging protections for highly migratory marine species by creating the world’s first marine protected area between two sovereign nations. If you are interested in supporting our research, please consider coming on an expedition, or making a donation.
I hope you enjoy the film.
Sincerely,
Todd Steiner
Founder & Executive Director
Turtle Island Restoration Network
As a reminder for all: About five months ago, undercover investigations by the organization SOKO documented the following illegal conditions in a slaughterhouse in northern Germany, Saxony: The cattle got electric shocks. They got them if they did not go to the slaughterhouse by themselves, they got them if they did not want to get up. If they could not get up at all, they put a chain around their forelegs and drag them down the trailer with a kind of winch. Calves were thrown from the trailer into the slaughterhouse. And also dead animals should have been delivered there.
Such animals, which are no longer transportable, the farmer may no longer bring to the slaughterhouse, they may not be used by the slaughterhouse itself. But the disposal of a dead farm animal costs money, the slaughterhouse may bring a few euros. Dead animals must not be brought to a slaughterhouse at all. These are cruel scenes. But what shocks even more: that’s illegal!
A cattle is pulled by cable winch from a transporter. It is a so-called downer. Thus, “spent” dairy cows from intensive farming are called.
Veterinary Officers have not intervened, when cattle trampled and bellowed because they were obviously not sufficiently stunne, and because lame and sick animals are illegally transported to slaughterhouses by cattle dealers.The responsible veterinarians looked away.
And now the reaction of “responsible” politicians!
The Lower Saxony regional chief, ( also minister of economics in Saxony), called Bernd Althusmann, did not understand the problem.
In a press statement, he speaks of the fact that the previous animal welfare measures at slaughterhouses, the animal cruelty “would not have prevented”. Now the state should take responsibility – and not these “criminal burglars”. This is what Althusmann calls the animal rights activists who have uncovered scandals in three slaughterhouses in Lower Saxony!!
When the responsible veterinary service is confronted with the pictures from the slaughterhouse, confirmed: “The pictures show indeed serious animal protection offenses.” The prosecutor has ordered that in the factory initially no longer allowed to be slaughtered.
This mistreatment does not happen isolated. Their frequency reveals a deliberately organized system that goes far beyond the single case of this slaughterhouse. The proportion of “bad” animals here is oversized, that’s what they have purposefully operated.
And the minister Althusmann?
In his statement, he does not criticize the farmers, who wear the dairy cows so badly that they lack the strength to take a single step.
He does not criticize the transport companies, who still cart these animals into the slaughterhouses.
He also does not criticize the slaughterhouses, which slaughter the animals instead of slaughtering them in the transporter, with full awareness of chains in the slaughter room. No!! He criminalized the animal rights activists, he calls them “criminal burglars”, without whose commitment, the slaughterhouse -for example- in Bad Iburg would not have been closed.
My comment: Who benefits from this criminal system? Lots!
The farmer gets hardly a penny for such a cow. But that’s not what it’s about. He calculates differently: for him, it counts that the animal costs nothing more – no food and no fee for the disposal of the carcass, if the cattle were killed in the yard.
Most animals are so emaciated that they hardly give more juicy steaks. These are so-called downer – “spent” dairy cows from intensive farming, who have not lived even 5 years. Their meat goes to low margins to the sausage industry, and also to the dog food.
A lot of people are making money from this illegal animal cruelty. Until a courageous group of people with civil courage documents their crime, and introduces them to the public as an illegal slaughterhouse operators.
And that the Saxon Minister Althusmann is a ridiculous puppet of the criminal agricultural lobby, we would not have known without the animal rights activists!!
Imagine that you would be thrown into deep water. You try to escape by climbing up the sides, but the walls of the container are just too slippery and steep. You swim wildly; You try to keep your heads above water at all costs so as not to drown. But you are terrified and have no strength left.
At some point you give up and let yourself drift. You do not know if you will ever escape this horror.
What sounds like a nightmare is reality for thousands of mice, rats and other small animals – even today.
The so-called infamous “Forced Swim Test”, ( also known as the “Behavioral Test on Hopelessness”), is a widespread – but completely useless – animal experiment. As you can see in this video, experimenters place mice, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters or gerbils in a water-filled container from which they can not escape.The animals panic and try to climb out on the sides of the container. Some even dive and look further down for an exit. They paddle wildly to somehow keep their heads afloat. At some point, they are only driving.
This criminal idiocy is being conducted in university and pharmaceutical laboratories to test potential anti-depressants – even in Germany.
We do our utmost to stop animal experiments of any kind. Results from animal experiments can not be transferred to humans, because humans are not 70 kg rats.Already a small detail in the metabolism is enough to cause a completely different reaction to a certain substance.
Depression is a serious illness. However, the pointless attempt with mice and rats described above deprives people with depression of the possibility of true help.
Of the 47 pharmaceuticals identified by PETA USA, namely AbbVie, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly, which have been tested in this way in animals, not a single one is currently approved for the treatment of depression in humans. And that, although this test has been done for decades!
Even those who use the forced swim test do not agree on what he really says about the traumatized animals.
Maybe animals that can be drifted earlier than others have not given up yet, but just want to save energy to somehow survive. The experimenters draw wrong conclusions about what could help people suffering from depression. Anyone who has ever had depression knows that the feeling of being drowning is very different from the sensations of depression.
First success – AbbVie stops forced swim test
Following a meeting with PETA USA, AbbVie has undertaken not to perform or finance the forced swim test.
The meeting followed PETA USA’s shareholder resolution, in which a total of four pharmaceutical companies were asked to end the cruel and pointless test.
AbbVie is the first pharmaceutical company to publicly and firmly oppose the near-drowning of animals. Now it’s time for Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly to follow AbbVie’s lead and challenge the Forced Swim Test.
And now to Germany
In the EU, animal tests applied for since 2012 must be classified in degrees of severity. There is a choice: no restoration of vital functions, low, medium and heavy. The list submitted by the EU, which falls under “severity level”, reads like a horror cabinet:
• Swim to exhaustion to simulate depression (“forced swim test”)
• Electric shocks that the animal can not escape (“learned helplessness”) • Death from poisoning
• Irradiation with fatal consequences
• death from rejection of transplants
• bone tumors, • xenotransplantation etc …
EU bans, Germany does not!!
The EU bans these “heavy-grade” experiments, but allows exemptions to Member States. And that is exactly what Germany has done in the new version of the Animal Welfare Act: It has made use of pressure from the animal experiment lobby of the exception and allowed even the worst animal experiments.
Implement ban! NOW!
We want Germany to implement the EU’s prohibition on the severity of “heavy” animal testing and to ban these attempts by law. Legally, this is not only possible, but even necessary, because animal welfare is enshrined in the Basic Law and can restrict the freedom of research, which is also constitutionally guaranteed.
Text of the petition: “Rats have to swim to the point of exhaustion, mice are shocked with electric shock until they desperately give up and suffer the pain. Extremely cruel animal experiments such as the “forced swimming test” and experiments on “learned helplessness”, which are commonplace in depression research, are allowed in Germany, although the EU allows a legal ban on such trials with severity “heavy”.
With my signature, I call for a legal ban on animal testing with severity “heavy”!
My comment: The EU directive / 2010/63 is: “From an ethical point of view, there should be an upper limit on pain, suffering and anxiety that can not be exceeded in scientific procedures, by prohibiting the use of procedures likely to cause prolonged and unreliable severe pain, distress or anxiety become.”
But it is still tortured in the whole of Europe (in Germany in particular), and experimented with the most brutal sadism against defenseless animals.
Animal experiments is the pure, naked fascism of the stronger one to the weaker.
And the results? Animals that are senselessly tortured to death, a bunch of criminal Nazis who disguise themselves as “researchers” and waste billions from our cash register for their career, and have never brought a result for the good of man.
But these criminal idiots continue to work, they continue to earn, the animals continue to die, and serious illnesses still torment us all.
Until ten years ago, the world of poultry farmers in Ghana was still in order.
They supplied their clientele with fresh chicken, which they bred themselves and brought to the markets of the country. But then frozen chicken pieces from Europe flooded the country at dumping prices. The EU started its criminal blackmail against Africa in favor of the meat companies of Europe.
In contrast, the domestic poultry industry could not compete and a whole industry collapsed. How many jobs were lost is hard to estimate, but one thing is for sure: not only most of the farmers had to shoot their farms. The turnover of hatcheries, feed mills, slaughterhouses and transport companies also collapsed.
The European Union has a long and shameful history of abusive agricultural trade practices directed at Africa and other developing regions. Its predatory approach has had a catastrophic effect and has devastated poultry farmers and producers in Africa and elsewhere.
Everyone wants only the best of chicken and what can not be sold in Europe is transported to Africa and recycled there.
Look at the discounters in the meats, see chicken fillet, chicken schnitzel and chicken thighs, but where is the rest? These are mainly poultry leftovers such as offal, wings and necks, which are not in demand in Europe. And they are sold to dumping prices in Africa.
Was not the EU, which had promised the African states support in building their own economy?
Instead, EU chicken meat is still flooding Africa’s markets, cheap exports of EU poultry meat leave little chance for domestic producers.Over the last 20 years, the EU has used its economic agreements in Africa to bring its highly subsidized agricultural products to Africa, with devastating consequences. Many African countries have been led by the EU’s promise of barrier-free access to trade with Europe to reduce their own trade barriers.
However, as soon as the ink on the contracts became dry, EU poultry producers flooded the African country with frozen poultry at prices significantly lower than African production costs. Ghana imports 135,000 tons of chickens from Europe in one year!! But not only Ghana is affected, also other African countries.
The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) accuses foreign manufacturers (especially European) of supplying these parts at dumping prices in South Africa, destroying the business foundations of domestic companies.
The EU is destroying the entire African continent with its policies! Not only with armaments, but also with other “gifts” that drive Africa into poverty. In Africa’s refrigerated shelves, European dairy products are available at low prices, so that more and more small farmers in Africa are losing their livelihood.
An exemplary victim of the International Monetary Union Fund – Ghana: The Ghanaian Parliament had decided to impose an import duty on imported poultry. But the International Monetary Fund reported concerns. The directive has never been implemented.
Imports of poultry at dumping prices prevent local poultry producers from raising prices to compensate for drought-induced increases in other inputs such as maize. As local production becomes uneconomic, factories and jobs are lost.
Cameroon, Senegal, Ghana and most recently South Africa have been among the victims of the EU’s shocking criminal stance on poultry trade. As a result of an import flood 70% of poultry farms in Senegal were closed.In Cameroon, 120,000 people lost their jobs.In Ghana, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, poultry processing plants have been reduced to 25% of capacity and feed mills to 42% of capacity.
For example: in 1996, 960 tonnes of frozen chicken from the EU were exported to Cameroon, compared to 22,000 tonnes in 2003. Because Cameroon’s small farmers can not compete with the prices of importers.
Due to the fact that native chickens are no longer in demand on the market and are much more expensive than the cheap chicken parts, they are basically broke! almost 80 percent. And if the situation should change, they can not buy chicks because they are just in debt – and get no new loans.
My comment: There is so much talk about Development Assistance….
But what did it really bring Afrika? Western countries should ask why the poultry industry is collapsing.
Because first they send Afrika their frozen poultry, their companies go bankrupt – and then they provide development aid so that they do not starve to death.
That is not only absurd, it is criminal!!
We do not have to give presents to Africa
We just have to stop robbing the continent.
Take action now by signing our letter calling on Indonesian authorities to take action to close cruel live animal markets throughout Indonesia.
Live animal markets – locally known as “traditional markets” – in North Sulawesi and throughout Indonesia are places of extreme cruelty. Every week, tens of thousands of animals are traded and slaughtered, including many thousands of dogs and cats.
Thousands of live dogs and cats are put through hell every week – terrified and trembling, they wait their turn. Children watch as dogs are repeatedly bludgeoned over the head and blow-torched alive.
Not only is this trade cruel, it also poses a threat to public health and safety, and is largely illegal – encouraging dog theft, illegal wildlife trade, and enabling the transmission of deadly diseases such as rabies by accepting dogs of unknown disease-status from outside the province.
These markets must be condemned and they must stop.
Please join us in calling on the authorities to take urgent action to close down these markets of extreme cruelty!
I am deeply concerned about the hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats caught up in Indonesia’s cruel “traditional markets” such as “Tomohon Extreme Market” each yaer, as well as the risk this poses to Indonesia’s pledge to eliminate rabies to safeguard both human and animal health and welfare.
The Dog Meat-Free Indonesia coalition’s investigations in 2017, 2018 and 2019 in North Sulawesi’s markets have revealed the immense suffering caused to tens of thousands of dogs and cats each month, as well as countless other animals, including illegally-captured and slaughtered species of wildlife.
There are also growing concerns about the risk the dog meat trade poses to human health, including the transmission of rabies. Furthermore, I am deeply disturbed to see that children are routinely exposed to scenes of extreme animal cruelty such as witnessing the bludgeoning and live blow-torching of animals in these public markets. There is mounting evidence of the detrimental psychological impacts witnessing this kind of brutality can have on children’s mental health.
The Dog Meat Free Indonesia coalition has presented to Central and Provincial government representatives as well as the national and international media, evidence spanning decades documenting the link between the dog meat trade and rabies transmission from throughout Asia, including Indonesia; and in 2018 conducted tests on just 10 samples and found a rabies-positive dog carcass being sold for human consumption in Tomohon market.
The brutal and unhygienic slaughter and butchery of dogs, and consumption of meat from rabies-positive animals, puts human health at risk. There have been reports of human deaths from rabies that have been directly linked to involvement in the slaughtering, butchery, handling and even consumption of meat from infected dogs.
There is mounting and vocal global opposition to the dog and cat meat trade, and such practices gravely impact Indonesia’s international reputation. Far from representing #WonderfulIndonesia, these scenes of cruelty are shocking to millions of people around the world, including potential tourists who may decide not to visit Indonesia until action is taken. As Indonesia is one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world, I urge you to promote its natural beauty, and safeguard its reputation from such scenes of horror.
Across Asia there is an ever-growing number of countries and territories prohibiting the trade in and consumption of dog and cat meat, on the grounds of human health risks, animal protection, and the special role that dogs and cats have as companion animals; and in August 2018, the Indonesian government promised action!
Animal cruelty can never be defended as “culture” or “tradition”, and I urge you, on behalf of all dogs and cats – and on behalf of the 93% of the Indonesian population that never consume dog or cat meat – to please take action to safeguard Indonesia’s animals from cruelty, it’s world-renowned biodiversity, and the nation’s health from disease risk, by taking strong and urgent action to close the cruel live animal markets.
Close Indonesia’s Cruel Live Animal Markets
Sign the letters to the Provincial and Central Governments of Indonesia calling on them to take urgent action to end the trade in dogs and cats and other animals to be slaughtered at “traditional markets” throughout North Sulawesi
Target: J. Stuart Adams, President of the Utah State Senate
Goal: Make it a crime to deny a dog adequate shelter in hazardous weather conditions.
Dogs suffer and die every year because they don’t have access to adequate shelter during extreme weather. The state of Utah is trying to change that. Demand punishment for those who deny their dogs a safe place to take shelter.
The Utah Senate Rules Committee is currently reviewing a bill that would make it illegal to deny an unattended dog access to shelter during extreme weather. Dubbed SB 142, or the Animal Welfare Amendments, the bill seeks to modify “cruelty to animals provisions to address a dog at a residence in extreme weather condition.” It clarifies that the shelter must sufficiently protect against all weather and prevent penetration by moisture, while also providing freedom of movement and a roof and door large enough to accommodate the animal. The shelter should also include straw, bedding, or another artificial heat source that allows the dog to maintain healthy temperature.
If passed, then this bill would make this an act of animal cruelty punishable in a court of law. Sign below to demand that Senators move in favor of protecting these innocent dogs.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear President Adams,
The lives of many dogs throughout your state are now in your hands, thanks to SB 142. This bill moves to protect dogs in the event of hazardous weather by making it punishable to deny them life-saving shelter. I demand that you move in favor of this important legislation.
An amendment to animal welfare laws moves to protect dogs and punish owners who deny them vital access to shelter during a weather emergency. This means that dogs could be legally entitled to accessible shelter that prevents penetration of moisture and accommodates their size. The bill also emphasizes that the shelter must contain an artificial heat source, such as straw or bedding, to help the animal maintain a healthy body temperature.
Under the threat of criminal punishment, owners will be less likely to neglect their dogs during hazardous weather. This could actually save animal lives. I demand that you pass this legislation for the good of all domesticated animals.
With ‘Tommie’s Law,’ Animal Cruelty Is Now A Felony in Virginia
Image Credit: Richmond Animal Care and Control
An important Virginia animal welfare bill passed unchallenged through the Senate and House of Delegates. If signed by Governor Northam, SB 1604 will upgrade animal abuse in the state from a misdemeanor to a felony.
Supporters of SB 1604 say that a horrific case of animal cruelty involving a dog named Tommie helped raise awareness of the bill, pushing it through the House. They have dubbed it “Tommie’s Law” in his honor.
An unknown person chained a dog named Tommie to a pole and set him on fire. Tommie battled to survive for five days under the care of Richmond Animal Care and Control (RACC) and the Virginia Veterinary Center.
With severe burns over 40 percent of his body, tragically, the trauma proved to be too much for this brave dog — his body gave up.
Shockingly, current legislation dictates that even the most brutal torture and abuse of an animal can only be prosecuted as a felony if it results in the death of that animal. No matter how serious the cruelty, if an animal survives, the assailant can only be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor, resulting in only a maximum of 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
The passing of SB 1604 rectifies this; regardless of whether animal abuse results in the death of an animal or not, the perpetrator will be charged with a Class 6 felony and face up to five years in prison.
Senator Bill DeSteph (R-Virginia Beach) introduced the bill after hearing about a shocking case of abuse in 2016, when a man attacked a dog with a machete. The dog survived, and the perpetrator was only charged with a misdemeanor.
“I think this is so wrong that it’s only a misdemeanor,” said DeSteph. “People who torture a dog, or any animal like this, their next step is to go after a human. They’re truly a threat to public safety and to society and should be dealt with severely.”
A Lady Freethinker petition urging Richmond Police to hunt down Tommie’s attacker has garnered more than 25,000 signatures, with outpourings of rage, grief, and support for Tommie and his rescuers.
Someone in LeHigh Acres, Florida cruelly wrapped an innocent dog’s mouth tightly shut with duct tape, slowly suffocating the helpless animal nearly to death. The dog, a Florida cur, was found wandering through people’s backyards, panting, drooling and bleeding from the legs and chest.
A concerned resident contacted police, and Lee County Domestic Animal Services rushed to give the dog veterinary attention. They discovered he was dehydrated and malnourished, in addition to his painful wounds.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno — a self-professed animal lover — stated the county has zero tolerance for any form of animal abuse, and that he is determined to find and prosecute the person responsible. It is imperative that he now follow through with that promise.
Anyone capable of inflicting this kind of torment on an animal needs to be put behind bars and banned from being around animals for the rest of their lives, before they harm anyone else.
We thank Sheriff Marceno for his quick and heartfelt response to this heartbreaking case, and urge him and his team to use all available resources to find the perpetrator.
You can contact the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at (239) 477-1000 or submit information anonymously to Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-(800) 780-TIPS.
On 20 December 2013, at its 68th session, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) proclaimed 3 March, the day of signature of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as UN World Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.
A cattle is pulled by cable winch from a transporter. It is a so-called downer. Thus, “spent” dairy cows from intensive farming are called.
World Animals Voice 