Day: August 21, 2019

General News, Hunting

South Africa: Dead Lion Cubs Found in Freezer at Cruel ‘Canned Hunting’ Farm.

SAfrica

 

Dead Lion Cubs Found in Freezer at Cruel ‘Canned Hunting’ Farm

Posted by Carly Day | August 10, 2019

Dead Lion Cubs Found in Freezer at Cruel ‘Canned Hunting’ Farm

Officials inspecting a lion breeding farm in South Africa discovered a multitude of horrors during a surprise visit in July.

The first heartbreaking case of neglect was captured on video; two lion cubs locked in separate metal crates displayed serious neurological issues as their heads shook uncontrollably. With their front and back legs paralyzed, accompanying other serious injuries, the vet had no choice but to euthanize them at the scene.

Further searching revealed the bodies of around 20 tiger and lion cubs stuffed into a chest freezer.

Dead lion cubs in freezer

Shockingly, this isn’t the first time inspectors have found severe animal welfare issues at Pienika Farm in the North West Province. In April this year, officers from SA’s National Society for the Prevention of Animals (NSPCA) visited the property and found dozens of lions and tigers cramped together in small cages, many with no water or shelter. Twenty-seven animals were nearly bald due to extreme mange. The caracals were so obese they couldn’t even clean themselves.

Lions suffering from mange

During that first visit, more cubs suffering from severe neurological conditions were found.

Animal welfare charges were laid, but no action has been taken since then, as officials are reportedly still gathering evidence. Further charges will be added following the second inspection.

This farm is just one of an estimated 300 lion breeding farms in South Africa, where big cats are bred purely for lives of exploitation. Many end up as fodder for the canned hunting industry — but only after being used and abused throughout every stage of their lives. Ultimately, they are harvested for the lion bone trade.

Advocacy organization the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting alerted The Sun to this tragic case, bringing the issue of lion farming in South Africa into the media spotlight.

“There are around 60 such facilities in South Africa breeding big cats for people to pet, bottle feed, and then shoot for a trophy,” said Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting. “The bones are often sold off to dodgy dealers in Asia who make fake medicines out of them. This is the reality of big cat factory farming in South Africa. It’s simply obscene. The animals are kept in appalling conditions, and their owners make a fortune out of their misery.”

What is canned hunting?

Family pose by dead lion

Canned hunting is where people pay a fee to kill exotic animals kept in a confined area. The animals have no escape and are conditioned to humans, so they lack the flight response of wild animals.

Not only is the practice of killing animals bred in captivity legal in South Africa, it is thriving. The Born Free Foundation estimates that more than 8,000 lions and other big cats are held in hundreds of farms in the nation.

“Africa’s lions are facing an unprecedented crisis,” says Dr. Mark Jones, Head of Policy at the Born Free Foundation. “There are now almost three times more in captivity than there are in the wild. These animals have a short and traumatic life in what is an incredibly cruel and cynical industry.”

The big cats are ripped away from their mothers at around two-to-three weeks old. The mother is then immediately forced to breed again in a torturous cycle. Gullible animal lovers pay to volunteer at lion cub “orphanages,” petting and bottle feeding these babies, falsely assuming their efforts are contributing to conservation.

The cubs are then exploited at lion-walking facilities, where tourists spend money to get selfies. Finally, they are sold to the canned hunting sites. After being ruthlessly murdered, their body parts and bones are sold.

An estimated 800 farmed lions are slaughtered by trophy hunters every year in South Africa.

“Here in South Africa, where lions are indigenous and a massive part of our heritage, we are condemning thousands of lions to a life of captivity, where their basic needs are not being catered for, and we are subjecting what is globally known as the king of the animal kingdom to a pathetic life in a cage, waiting for death,” said Senior Inspector Douglas Wolhuter, manager of NSPCA’s Wildlife Protection Unit.

These magnificent animals suffer from birth for a gruesome, unethical industry which is kept afloat by wealthy trophy hunters from around the world.

Add your voice to stop the cruelty. Sign our petition to end trophy hunting in S. Africa for good.

https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-stop-cruel-canned-hunting-of-factory-farmed-exotic-animals/

Environmental

Brazil: There is war in Amazonas

 

When Notre Dame burned, the world’s media reported on every moment and many billionaires rushed to rebuild it, even foreign governments offered their financial aid.
At the moment, the Amazon, the lung of our planet, is burning.

 

Brasil pg

 

It’s been burning for 3 weeks and the world is watching and silent. Right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro is against protected areas, as he made clear when he arrived at the G20 summit in Japan.
And despite criticism of right-wing extremist President Jair Bolsonaro, the EU and Mercosur member states, including Brazil, have come to an agreement after more than two decades. This creates the largest free trade area in the world.

At the same time, President Jair Bolsonaro sent heavily armed men to the Amazon to plunder the rainforest. In one week alone, 9,507 fires were detected in Brazil.

amazonas brennt

IT IS RISING WAR ‘in Brazil’s Amazon region. Rainforests are considered the green lung of the earth. More than half of the world’s remaining tropical forest is in Brazil. Just last year, according to the government, the Brazilian rainforest shrank by about 7,900 square kilometers, an area of ​​more than one million football fields.

Rainforests around the world absorb about 30 percent of man-made greenhouse gases, or about 11 billion tons of CO2 per year. Critics and indigenous peoples who stand in the way of right-wing extremist President Jair Bolsonaro are being murdered.

“Your profit destroys our lives,” say the people who lose everything, but do not give up and fight against their governments, like the many people who lost their lives in Brazil in 2019. They are tortured and murdered because they are fighting for their land. These murders are not receiving any attention in Germany, because it is often German companies that benefit from these projects.

Brazil is the largest economic location outside of Germany, with around 1300 German companies based mainly in Greater São Paulo. Brazil is also Germany’s largest trading partner in Latin America.

Record number of forest fires in the Amazon rainforest

Brazil’s Amazon rainforest recorded a record number of fires this year, according to new data from the country’s Space Research Agency.
The National Institute for Space Research (IPNE) has so far uncovered 72,843 fires so far this year, and since Thursday there have been 9,507 fires in Brazil.

The new data show an increase of 83% over the same period in 2018, the highest since records began in 2013.

In light of the progressing deforestation in Brazil, several states recently announced that they would stop subsidizing the protection of the Amazon forest. For example, Norway, the largest forest conservation fund in Brazil so far, said it was freezing around US $ 33 million for the so-called Amazon Fund.

Bolsonaro denied other countries the right to interfere. “The Amazon is ours, not you,” said the president.

Amazonas.Tabelle jpgGraphic image about the deforestation of the Amazon

 

Sign the Petition: https://www.change.org/p/united-nations-stop-bolsonaro-from-destroying-the-amazon

https://netzfrauen.org/2019/08/21/regenwald/
https://www.rtl.de/cms/rekord-braende-in-brasiliens-regenwald-prayforamazonia-geht-viral-4390738.html

 

My comment: Amazonas is the world’s largest tropical rainforest with an area of ​​approximately 5.8 million square kilometers. About 75 percent of the area is attributable to Brazil. The region is home to a rich and diverse flora and fauna. In addition, it is crucial for the global climate.

Only a few people are aware that for the destruction of the forests of South America is due the European factory farming.
There huge soy plantations destroy the native fauna and flora. Soya, which is needed to feed chickens, cattle and pigs in Europe, is now growing to over 11 million hectares in South America – and demand is growing rapidly.
In 2014, more than 312 million tonnes of soybeans were harvested worldwide. Of that, the most part lands on the plate indirectly as a meat menu.

It is processed to animal feed and serves the growing meat production in the animal factories.

My best regards to all, Venus