Month: March 2019
WAV Comment – Please give your support to Jose Carlos Lorenzo asking the Ministry:
That they teach empathy, respect and care of animals at school
Addressed to: Ministry of Education (Argentina)
The new generations have to learn that it is wrong to mistreat an animal, that they feel pain and love just as we do. We can not allow our children to grow up seeing how an animal is mistreated and to say that it is okay depending on what animal it is, because it seems that a dog is not the same as an animal that they allow to hunt like a deer. If we did to the dogs what they do to the deer or birds that hunt, surely we would have the repudiation of the society, or at least of a part of it, but then why with hunting everything is fine and with the dog it is mistreatment , if both are animals that feel the same?
How do we explain to our children that one thing is good and the other is wrong, because they in their immense innocence can not distinguish. For this we need our children to learn to care for animals, to respect them and to treat them as living beings as we do.
I ask the Ministry of Education to put a subject in the primary and secondary schools where the children are taught empathy, respect and care of the animals.
Thank you and I hope you support my request.
SIGN AND SHARE THIS PETITION
WAV Comment – Great News – good on the People’s National Congress. we are sure that Chinese citizens will find medicinal alternatives to Pangolins without the need for animal and environmental destruction. We are certain that alternatives already exist for bear bile products. It just needs people to wake up and seek out cruelty free alternatives. Photos below are not associated with the article.
China Proposes Ban on Pangolins in Traditional Medicine
- Published: Monday, 11 March 2019 16:31
- Written by Lucy Papachristou
Members of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, announced a proposal to ban the use of pangolin products, the world’s most trafficked animal, in traditional Chinese medicine.
The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), a pro-Beijing conservative political party, released a series of 24 proposals for this year to be presented at the annual NPC sessions in March, which included the pangolin ban.
In addition to outright banning the use of those animals in traditional medicine, lawmakers are advocating for increasing “investment in the research and development of pangolin tablets substitutes” and “promoting the protection of pangolin resources.”
“The position taken by China’s lawmakers proposing a ban on the use of pangolins in TCM is an encouraging sign,” said Chris Hamley, Senior Pangolin Campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency, a UK-based NGO.
Pangolins, often referred to as “the scaly anteater,” are the only mammals entirely covered in scales. All eight species of pangolin—four are found in Africa and four in Asia—were granted protection under international law in early 2017, according to WildAid, a US-based environmental NGO.
A 2015 report by WildAid found that 70 percent of Chinese citizens surveyed believed pangolin scales could cure rheumatism, skin disorders and infections. They are also thought to cure cancer and arthritis.
China currently permits the legal use of pangolin scales in clinical treatment and in pharmaceutical manufacturing, and they are listed as an official drug in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, according to WildAid.
The new proposal could have a significant impact on the fate of pangolins, 100,000 of whom are taken from the wild every year across Africa and Asia.
Early last month, authorities in the Malaysian province of Sabah discovered two high-volume facilities containing thousands of boxes of pangolin meat, the biggest such seizure in the country to date.
Also included in the 2019 proposals were a number of other pieces of environmental legislation: strengthening the fight against illegal fishing; banning the trade and use of rhinoceros and its products; improving the system of protected natural lands; and the “protect[ion] [of] animals to promote environmental protection.”
We have covered this project before but feel it is worth looking at again as the 360 degree panorama made available gives un an insight directly into the world of the animal at the facility. At the end of this post we give details on how to view in 360 degrees if you are not familiar;
Regards Mark – WAV
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Dear Mark,
In 2016 we launched our virtual reality project iAnimal. This innovative project provides a unique and immersive view behind the scenes of the meat and dairy industries.
To see the world through the eyes of an animal, to feel their fear and desperation, to share their suffering – iAnimal has the potential to change our attitude towards animals permanently.
iAnimal is narrated by our famous animal-loving friends: Evanna Lynch, Amanda Abbington and Peter Egan. The modern 360° technology literally places the viewer in the world of a farmed animal. For many people it is a life-changing experience.
With the help of our generous supporters and volunteers, we take iAnimal to events, festivals, universities and other public places to raise awareness about farmed animal suffering.
Education is the first step to helping animals.
For the animals,
Dr Toni Shephard
Exec Director – UK.
WAV Comment – To Use:
Click on this link – https://ianimal.uk/
Click on the Yellow box – 360
Then you can hold down the LEFT button of your computer mouse, and move your mouse left, right, up or down to get a wider view of the situation.
On the left side of the screen there is a box where you can select to watch other videos if you wish.
UK Government to ban wild animal circuses by 2020.
Note – all photos and video are not directly associated with this article; they are from WAV archive.
Animal Defenders International (ADI) congratulates the UK Government on committing to ban the use of wild animals in travelling circuses in England by January 2020. With similar bans recently passed in Ireland and Scotland, and under discussion in Wales, the UK-wide ban that the public wants, and the animals need, is finally within reach. It follows a decade of promises by the UK Government and more than 20 years of investigations and campaigning by ADI.
The announcement was made in a ‘Post Implementation Review’ of the Welfare of Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses (England) Regulations 2012, introduced as an interim measure ahead of a ban. Opposed by ADI and other animal protection groups, due to the nature of the travelling circus, a system of licensing and inspection cannot improve the environment enough to ensure animal welfare; additionally, investigations show trained inspectors are unlikely to detect husbandry problems or physical abuse.
The Defra review states “The current Regulations expire on 19 January 2020. The Government does not intend to renew the Regulations as it intends to ensure that a legislative ban is introduced by then. The Regulations will then be allowed to expire”.
A ban on wild animal circuses was first promised under a Labour Government during the passage of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Following the shocking abuse of three elephants at the Great British Circus in 2009, exposed by ADI, a public consultation on the issue was launched by Defra. The results published in 2010 showed 94.5% supported a ban on wild animal acts and resulted in a commitment from the Labour Government, before the General Election resulted in a Coalition Government.
In 2011, ADI exposed the terrible abuse of Anne the elephant at Bobby Roberts Super Circus, leading to backbench MPs demanding a ban. ADI’s shocking footage also led to a cruelty conviction for circus owner Bobby Roberts. With a commitment from the Coalition Government in 2012, legislation to ban wild animals in circuses in England was drafted the following year. However despite stating it would be a “leading protector of animals”, the Government bill has simply gathered dust. Forty three countries have stepped up to stop circus suffering to date, with 27 of the bans – including in Scotland and Ireland – introduced since the bill was published. Repeated efforts by backbench MPs to bring in a ban through Private Member’s Bills, supported by ADI, have been thwarted by just a few MPs; the latest from Conservative MP Trudy Harrison to be introduced on 6 March.
In 2016, ADI revealed the miserable lives of Thomas Chipperfield’s lions and tigers, caged on the back of a truck and shut behind metal shutters at night and with restricted access to an outdoor exercise during the day. ADI also revealed suffering the same year at the winter quarters of Peter Jolly’s Circus. Appalling overcrowding, fighting between animals, a worker tormenting a camel, animals kept inside for days on end, and failure to comply with government regulations were documented.
Changing attitudes and awareness of animal suffering have seen the number of wild animal circuses in Britain plummet. Only two circuses perform in England with wild animals, Circus Mondao and Peter Jolly’s Circus. Opinion polls consistently show that the UK public remains overwhelmingly opposed to wild animal acts, with a high proportion against all animal acts.
Given the constant travel and their temporary nature, circuses cannot provide animals with adequate facilities to keep them physically or psychologically healthy. Welfare is always compromised.
http://www.ad-international.org/animals_in_entertainment/go.php?id=4531&ssi=10
Video – PeTA India.
“Every time the mother was on a tree, we felled that tree, and when she jumped on another tree, we also felled that tree. We cut down the trees until they can not go anywhere else. Tens of thousands of dollars are paid to buyers from Asia and the Middle East for an orangutan baby”.
A former orangutan smuggler now working as an informer tells how babies are torn by their mothers. At least three orangutan babies are to be taken out of the jungle every week and transported mainly through Thailand to third countries, especially in the Middle East, where owning an exotic rainforest animal is a great status symbol. Demand is always there, and what these babies experience is cruel.
The illegal trade in monkeys is a billion dollar business. Orangutan – they are hunted, even prostituted and brutally executed, or they kill their mothers and smuggle the babies to Thailand, as in a recent case. Orangutans, which only live in the wild on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, suffer from the illegal trade. There are even orangutan brothels, we reported: https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2018/05/20/the-monkeys-brothels-of-indonesia/
Three alleged Indonesian traders were arrested by customs officials on the Malaysian holiday island of Langkawi in late September 2018 in an attempt to transport small orangutans and other animals to Thailand. It was not the first time this year that smugglers were caught trying to cross Orang Utan across the border.
Journalists from Australia have gone in search of clues and found an informant who had also worked as a smuggler for orangutans. Reliable sources told Australian journalists that the police know who the perpetrators are, where they live, and there is evidence, but no arrests were made.
The informant reports how gangs steal baby orangutans to sell them as pets or status symbols, almost completely eradicating an endangered species.
The informant also said that smugglers often use commercial flights and paid corrupt officials – information from other sources confirms that.
“The demand is always there, they always want orangutans,” said the former smuggler.
“Every week, I’ve got at least three orangutans and given them to two women and one man. This demand was there every week. ”
A hunter receives about $ 50 to take a baby away from his mother, who is usually shot or beaten to death. He talked about how the babies are hidden in their luggage and how they got hugs as a substitute for their mothers’ pillow.
The former smuggler claimed that a recent brutal murder had persuaded him to stop trading orangutans.
“I looked at myself and I imagined that it would have happened to me to be separated from my child,” he said
“After swearing an oath, I felt I had dealt with people.”
“When I see baby orangutans now, I think about my baby.”
Two babies and the taxi
In a police raid in Bangkok, two Sumatran baby orangutans were saved and they made headlines just before Christmas 2016, when Nobita and Shizuka found themselves in a box in a taxi. They were probably drugged after their mothers were shot or beaten.
The two orangutan babies Nobita and Shizuka, who were found in the taxi, are in a state rescue center south of Bangkok a year later, far from their jungle. The taxi driver was arrested but quickly released. Nobody was punished.
It is a well-lubricated, well-organized criminal gang. Behind her stands the “Mafia,” said Edwin Wiek, founder of the Wildlife Friends Foundation in Thailand.
Wiek operates several conservation projects and programs throughout Southeast Asia. The native Dutchman is a pioneer in the protection of wild animals.
The return of babies to Sumatra is his ultimate goal, but the rehabilitation of orangutans is laborious and costly. Even if they are released into the wilderness one day, he worries about their fate.
“Unfortunately, we have recently found that some of the orangutans returned to Indonesia from illegal captivity have landed in a zoo in Indonesia, where they are bred without any system, for commercial purposes only,” he said.
“These government officials in Indonesia know very well what is going on,” said Wiek. “They know who the hunters are, they know who the traders are, and without the help of the authorities, they would not take these animals out of the country.”
https://netzfrauen.org/2018/12/28/orangutan-5/
My comment: World trade in wildlife is evolving as the world of drug trafficking. Where they have money, they are covert … the profits are so high and the risks are so low that this business is an invitation to corruption!
The misery of our world arises from the corrupt oligarchy of the rulers, and the next misery is a discouraged, wordless and cowardly society with indifference and zero empathy, which only observes how the ruling mafia gradually obliterates all life.
And this society is the one that always wants to say us, that humans are more important than animals, it wants to tell us how we have to behave and that we cannot save this world because it is as it is.
My best regards, Venus
Japanese scientists take ‘significant step’ towards bringing the woolly mammoth back to life
With their enormous shaggy torsos and long curved tusks, the imposing creatures last walked on earth during the Ice Age.
Fast forward thousands of years and the woolly mammoth may once again make an appearance on this planet – after Japanese scientists claim to have taken a “significant step” towards bringing the long-extinct animals back to life.
Researchers extracted bone marrow and muscle tissue from the remains of a mammoth named Yuka, who has lain frozen in Siberian permafrost for more than 28,000 years.
As a first step, the team, from Kindai University in Osaka, confirmed the authenticity of Yuka’s extracted tissue samples using whole-genome sequencing techniques.
Scientists then injected cell nuclei from the extinct woolly mammoth’s muscle tissue into mouse cell eggs – resulting in signs of biological activities, according to the study, published by Nature’s on-line journal Scientific Reports.
The biological activity detected in the mouse cell eggs included a type of structural formation that reportedly precedes cell division.
Kei Miyamoto, one of the authors, told the Nikkei that the findings marked a “significant step towards bringing mammoths back from the dead”.
Highlighting that they “still have a long way to go” before the species returns to existence, he added: “We want to move our study forward to the stage of cell division.”
Woolly mammoths last roamed the planet during the last Ice Age, before widely dying out in the face of rising temperatures, evolving food supplies and human hunting.
The Japanese team is also reportedly collaborating with Russian scientists who are attempting to clone the extinct woolly mammoth using a technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer.
“Our work provides a platform to evaluate the biological activities of nuclei in extinct animal species,” the report read. “Ancient species carry invaluable information about the genetic basis of adaptive evolution and factors related to extinction.”
Representative Image by Ronel Lowe
SIGN: Shut Down Race Track that’s Killed 21 Horses in Just 2 Months
Posted by Katie Valentine
Petition Link – https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-shut-down-race-track-thats-killed-21-horses-in-just-2-months/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email
PETITION TARGET: Arcadia, California Mayor Sho Tay
In the past two months, 21 horses have needlessly died at the Santa Anita Park horseracing track in Arcadia, California.
These horses are being worked to death, forced to race with fractures and broken bones. One even suffered a heart attack.
The most recent victim was a 4-year-old filly Eskenforadrink, who was tragically put down from an ankle injury.
This isn’t the first time a suspicious number of horses died in a short amount of time at the Santa Anita Park race track. Last year, ten horses died over a period of just ten weeks.
Rather than do the morally responsible thing and shut down the track for good, racing activities have merely been suspended. The cruel races could resume any day, putting even more horses’ lives in danger.
It’s time to shut down this track of horrors for good.
Sign this petition urging Mayor Sho Tay to do everything in his power to put the facility out of business, and place the lives of these innocent horses before profit.
In Brazil, once again, the dam of an iron ore mine is broken. On 25th January 2019, about 12 million tons of contaminated waste were dumped at the village of Brumadinho in the mountains from Minas Gerais valley downwards.
The mudslide caused at least 186 people to die, and another 122 people are still missing. The mining complex, housing estates, rivers and tropical vegetation are covered with toxic mud up to 15 meters high.
The dam failure was not an accident, but a serious crime against humans, nature and animals.
The operator of the iron ore mine is the Brazilian group Vale, the largest iron ore producer in the world.
With an annual production of over 430 million (2016) tons of iron ore, Brazil is the second most important global iron ore producer after Australia.
The Brazilian Vale Group – with its international headquarters in Switzerland* – is the second-largest mining group and the largest iron ore exporter in the world, with more than $ 34 billion in sales in 2017.
Those responsible for the disaster are not only in Brazil, but also in Germany.
The TÜV Süd, headquartered in Munich, Germany, had certified the dam of the sedimentation basin as safe in September 2018.
We source a good 26 million tons of iron ore – about 58 percent of our imports – from Brazil each year. Corporations such as ThyssenKrupp, AcelorMittal and Salzgitter AG make steel from which German industry produces millions of cars, machinery, construction steel and many other consumer goods for us and for export to all over the world.
We can no longer ignore this: the federal government and the German economy must take responsibility for the supply chains. Both must ensure that environmental and safety standards as well as labor and human rights are respected in the production of raw materials.
Voluntary corporate commitments are not enough, we need binding regulations and laws. Please support the petition:
https://www.regenwald.org/petitionen/1168/stoppt-die-giftschwemme-in-brasilien
Image: Pilar Olivares / Reuters
Activists are also protesting on January 28, 2019 in Rio de Janeiro against the mining company “Vale”.
A black-clad woman appeared as a dead, more demonstrators revealed posters and described the walls with slogans such as “It was not an accident, it was a crime,” “murderer” and “justice for Brumadinho”.
About thirty activists have also demonstrated in front of the headquarters of the mining group Vale in Saint-Prex, Switzerland .
The demonstrators denounced the “catastrophic ecological and human consequences of the corporate greed”. They carried a muddy banner with the ironic inscription “Thank you for choosing Switzerland”!
My comment: * First, a correction in the text of the newspaper: The headquarters of the company is located in Brazil. So it is a Brazilian company with a branch in Switzerland. How and if Vale handles its entire tax revenue through Switzerland is still not researched and another dirty story.
We experience it every day, with almost every message: a gangster group gives the hand to the other gangster group. Governments and industry are a bunch of corrupt psychopaths who stop at nothing. Humans, nature and animals are the raw materials with which the billions are made.
But we all join it in our own way.
With our consumption, our indifference, our voluntary apathy, our indirect collaboration with systems and their allies.
We live in a time when every act, every decision, every participation is a political one, because over our heads there is a powerful system that is kept alive by us.
Animal welfare is also a political issue, we have to be vigilant.
Remember the petition: https://www.regenwald.org/petitionen/1168/stoppt-die-giftschwemme-in-brasilien
My best regards to all, Venus
The organization FOUR PAWS warns of “unprecedented scandal“:
Vytenis Andriukaitis acts completely alone!
Vienna: FOUR PAWS sounds the alarm: At present, a single-handed approach by EU Commissioner for Animal Welfare Vytenis Andriukaitis is causing a stir in Europe’s animal welfare scene.
Andriukaitis wants to consolidate fur farming practically.
With a so-called “animal welfare reference center”, the standards for the attitude of mink, raccoon dog, fox, etc. should be laid down. Therefore FOUR PAWS, together with the umbrella organization of European animal welfare organizations Eurogroup for Animals, is launching a petition to prevent this plan.
According to the Commissioner, an animal welfare reference center should officially provide technical assistance to EU countries in their animal welfare inspections (!!).
The EU’s intention is also to establish standards and good practice examples in animal welfare. However, this would mean the same regulation of keeping conditions in wildlife as in other species – an absolute no-go for animal rights activists.
“Wildlife is, as the name implies, nature and never captive,” says Heli Dungler, founder and president of FOUR PAWS. “In addition, animal welfare and fur farming are mutually exclusive.
“There is no ethically or animal friendly produced fur. “
The life of fur animals is hellish, but the European Commission wants its second EU Reference Centre for Animal Welfare, which covers poultry and rabbits, to also focus on fur animals – an absurdity!! No amount of welfare can improve the lives of wild animals forced into conditions that are the antithesis of their natural needs and environment, and 8 out of 28 Member States have already gone fur free.
The role of EU Commissioner Andriukaitis is extremely dubious in this case. “The Commissioner responsible for animal welfare is vehemently, almost rabbid, against any criticism from animal welfare organizations. He simply denies the animal welfare organizations the dialogue. It’s unclear what drives him here, “says Dungler.
“It seems he wants to pull this project absolutely, which is against any animal welfare idea”!
While more and more EU member states recognize the spirit of the time and prohibit fur farming, the EU Commissioner goes exactly in the other direction.
The irony: Almost a year ago, EU Commissioner Andriukaitis was guest and speaker at the 1st International Animal Welfare Summit organized by FOUR PAWS in Vienna. At that time he said verbatim:
“Animal welfare is a very important part of my responsibility and indeed one of my personal priorities as Commissioner for Health and Food Safety. We should not take our foot off the pedal, not slow down our animal welfare activities. There are still many issues that need to be resolved and we need to continue to proactively make EU animal welfare policies a reality. “
A number of Member States, such as Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Croatia and the United Kingdom have banned the keeping of fur animals by law.
There are no longer any fur farms there, or this practice will expire after a transitional period.
Similar arrangements have been announced for Poland, Ireland, Lithuania and Estonia, or are under consideration.
In Denmark the keeping of foxes on fur farms is prohibited. In Austria, the last fur farm closed its doors in 1998.
Other EU Member States, notably Germany, Italy and Sweden, have adopted stricter animal husbandry requirements which are likely to lead to a short-term outbreak of this practice. A closure of the last German mink farm is expected by mid-2022 at the latest.
My comment: The Dachau’s fur farms in all countries are worse than anyone can imagine from the outside.
Buyers have to see what happens in fur farms. If we are honest, without consumers there are no such crematoriums anymore.
Consumers, however, are kept away from the shocking reality of fur farms by the media and advertising, so that their buying decisions are not compromised.
On the other hand, on such corrupt politicians, says Andriukaitis, the fur mafia sets now new hope that the bloody business will be resumed. And this new form of fur farming restoration is called in the “Moral vocabulary” of Andriukaitis with the code name “Reference Center for Animal Welfare”!
“Moral” they do not know … the MEP`s… “Empathy” is missing by them completely … Corruption is the norm in circles of the EU!
Please, sign the petition: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/community_petitions/EU_Commissioner_Vytenis_Andriukaitis_Fur_is_cruelty_EU_keep_out_1/
Best regards, Venus
World Animals Voice 