Barry Horne (17 March 1952 – 5 November 2001) was an English animal rights activist. He became known around the world in December 1998, when he engaged in a 68-day hunger strike in an effort to persuade the British government to hold a public inquiry into animal testing, something the Labour Party had said it would do before it came to power in 1997.
The hunger strike took place while Horne was serving an 18-year sentence for planting incendiary devices in stores that sold fur coats and leather products, the longest sentence handed down to any animal rights activist by a British court.
The hunger strike left Horne with kidney damage and failing eyesight, but it was neither the first nor the last he embarked upon, and when he died of liver failure three years later, he had not eaten for 15 days.
Media reaction to his death in the UK was hostile, where he was widely described as a terrorist by journalists and politicians.
He is viewed as a martyr by some within the animal rights movement.
Live pigs killed and mangled, as scientists in China use them as crash-test dummies
Beijing. Animal rights activists criticize several scientists of the Chinese Institute of Transport and Medicine, who have performed crash tests with live pigs. The scientists used 15 young pigs, because their physique resembles that of a six-year-old child. Their study aimed to further investigate which injuries occur in children who are wearing a seatbelt and experiencing a head-on collision.
The seven scientists are said to have given the pigs 24 hours before the crash tests no food. In addition, they could not drink for six hours, according to information from The Independent.
Then they were each in a child seat, which were mounted on sledges, strapped. With 50 kilometers per hour they drove against a wall.
According to media information, seven pigs have died. Another eight were injured. In most cases, the lungs were damaged, and there were injuries to the spleen and liver, bloody wounds, internal bleeding and broken bones.
The Chinese scientists said they used young pigs to develop seatbelts for children because the animals’ anatomic structure was similar to that of human six-year-olds, and hinted they might conduct similar experiments in future.
The research, reported in the International Journal of Crashworthiness, involved testing three different seatbelt modifications: two parallel belts restraining chest and abdomen; one diagonal belt and a lap belt; and crossed diagonal belts.
The animals, which were given an anaesthetic to reduce “excitement and stress”, had electrodes inserted into their abdomens, according to animal-rights group Peta.
“The injuries sustained by the tested subjects resulted in seven deaths. The common injury types included abrasion, contusion, laceration, bleeding and fracture,” the journal’s report said.
The animal welfare organization PETA has condemned as “barbaric” the tests that left the animals “bloody, bruised, and mangled” and have asked the Chinese research institute to refrain from such cruel crash tests with live animals. “No regulations exist there that would require such horrific experiments to be performed,” PETA said.
In the USA, crash tests with pigs were last carried out in the 1990s.
Chris Magee, of the UK-based Understanding Animal Research group, told The Independent he couldn’t imagine such tests being useful in any country as lots of crash-test dummies already exist.
“I don’t understand why they would feel the need to do this. In this country it would go through an ethical review,” he said.
My comment: It may be that in China there are no rules and regulations regarding animal experiments.
But here in Germany, where we have set a humorous animal protection, animal cruelty in the labs is also everyday business.
“I do not understand why they think that’s necessary,” said Chris Magee.
But he should know that animal experiments in general are not performed for the benefit of humans.
The quality of “research” is not measured by how many people are helped or even cured, but by the number of publications in prestigious journals. In this case the proof is very clear: before the test is even completed, the “results” will be published in ” International Journal of Crashworthiness”!!
And as with any experiment, a lot of animals have been tortured in this experiment too, so that some psychopaths can secure their careers and the next research funds.
Animals’ Angels controls an animal transport with horses on the route from Spain via France to Italy. It is raining heavily. When stopping at a French toll station we look in tired children’s faces: 31 foals are on the truck and two adult horses. The animals are crowded, many with drenched, matted fur.
The transport violates the regulations for animal transport on several occasions: Among other things, the vehicle is completely overloaded, the animals are not housed as prescribed in individual stands and there is no automatic drinking system. That’s why we call the police in Italy. Unfortunately, neither the police officers nor the official veterinarian consulted are trained in the inspection of animal transports, so that the control lasts several hours.
In the meantime the horses are completely exhausted. Despite noise, people, cars, flashlights and photo flashes, some are sleeping. Many seem apathetic with drooping heads, they barely react to what is happening around them. We hope that none of the animals lie down, because in the tightness it would be almost impossible for them to get up again.
The police finally imposed a fine of EUR 2,000 on the carrier and he was allowed to continue to the destination near Venice. Esteban and the 32 other horses have about six hours to go before they can finally rest.
This case again shows the incompetence or indifference of many Spanish veterinarians.The transport in Spain should never have been approved in this way.
We are angry and disappointed.
Together with the Spanish organization Anda, we continue to work to ensure that the veterinary offices no longer handle illegal transports.
My comment: Horsemeat is cheap and is considered particularly lean and digestible– that’s why unscrupulous traders spend it as more expensive beef.
Over 214,000 horses are killed every year in Europe, according to official Eurostat data. 100,000 of them were transported across the continent for many hours or even days under the worst possible conditions – only to be unloaded and killed in a slaughterhouse.
The front runners are the countries of Poland and Romania.There are killed around 20,000 animals a year for nutritional purposes and around 10,000 are spent abroad for slaughter.
What will happen to Spain because the veterinarians of an EU country have deliberately violated animal welfare standards?
Nothing!
With 2000 Euro every criminal gets away.
What use are the EU laws when corrupt officials decide on the fate of the animals in this continent because they know that they have nothing to fear?
On July 2019 it was the ILLEGAL transport of the ship Al Shuwaikh from Romania (Midia) with 70,000 sheep to Kuwait. At this case, a cheeky ministry of agriculture even disregarded the personal mail of Commissioner Andriukaitis; The animals have been shipped there for three weeks, Romania has not received any sanctions to this day!
We always come across this fact: the EU either has no power or no interest in getting the animal transport under control.
Both are a very good reason to abolish the EU.
“I don`t want to cause pain to another living, empathic creature. It is absurd and barbaric”!
Star of the Hollywood smash ‘Joker’, actor and activist Joaquin Phoenix explains why he first went vegan and continues to fight for animal rights every day.
He recently joined activists during the Be Fair Be Vegan campaign in Toronto.
Be Fair Be Vegan: “we are a cutting-edge social justice advertising campaign, bringing attention to the plight of non-human animals exploited for human gains. Featuring moving billboards supported by a range of other advertising media, our ads aim to introduce viewers to the faces and feelings of the animals we use for food, clothing, research and entertainment.
Our provocative slideshows have been displayed in some of the highest-profile billboard locations in the world (including Times Square and the Javits Center in New York City), inviting passers-by to consider the circumstances of the victims of the animal industry, while seeing them for who they are: sentient beings who value their lives”.
My comment: One waits for the subway and MUST look at the cruel images of reality.
He must. This reality can no longer be left behind the scenes.
All who participate in this cruel daily crime deserve no peace.
The pictures are not cruel, the reality is cruel.
If such pictures are hard to bear for some, that is hypocrisy.
Because those who do not want to see the pictures are the ones who cause the creation of these pictures, this torture.
If someone sees this as a disorder, then he should imagine how the animals perceive their torture.
Excellent campaign and even better the implementation!
We wish more of this direct confrontation.
Birdcatchers under pressure in Malta: Over the last 10 days, the teams working on Malta’s Committee Against Bird Slaughter have done a great job. There were already police operations on 18 out of a total of 38 discovered installations for the illegal capture of protected finches.
Here five birdcatchers were caught red-handed, 15 slings and about 50 living decoys could be secured. 13 poachers managed to escape, but they were filmed by us – the video material is probably sufficient to identify these perpetrators and bring them to justice.
20 more active traps were reported to the authorities. Finches such as goldfinch, linnet and grosbeak are popular caged birds in Malta, among “connoisseurs” get the wild animals high prices.
Our current video shows parts of the evidence – in addition to fleeing and masked birdcatchers you can see a poacher who collects his decoys with their pants down!
My comment: On October 27, a report came from the committee on a murderer who had set up 12 stroke for songbirds in northern Italy. He was arrested by the police. It was poacher number 49 of the current bird protection camp in northern Italy.
The protected animals are highly sought after as a delicacy and are eaten with polenta (maize porridge). In addition to four robins, he had also caught a wren fresh – with only eight grams of meat one of the smallest birds in Europe.
We call it murder, and murder must be punished severely.
Our sincere thanks to the Comittee,which often struggles with life threats and body attacks from the poachers.
The fight for the rights of animals is always a fight against people who act under the fascist conviction of the stronger race. And mostly under the protection of corrupt politicians.
It is time again, the Christmas season is approaching, which, as most know, is associated with more agony and death for the animals.
Whow the “life” of a Christmas goose looks like before it lands on the plate of devout gourmets as a traditional corpse, we describe the following:
A goose from Poland: not only has to let feathers four times a year but also lay eggs constantly. She is slaughtered at the age of about five.
Their offspring are plucked bald at the age of eleven weeks, and then abused again at intervals of three to four months as feather suppliers until they have reached their slaughter weight.
Then each duck is locked in a tight wire cage and forcibly stuffed twice a day. This means: a 50 centimeter long metal tubestuffed into the throat, through the boiled corn porridge with fat in the stomach is pressed.
At the age of 14 weeks, ducklings are slaughtered, his pathologically fat liver landed as a delicacy in the belly of a gourmet. To 96 percent ducks are fattened, the female chicks are shredded after hatching, because their liver does not grow so strong.
The stuffing of ducks and geese in many countries is considered animal cruelty and is therefore prohibited. But because of the free EU goods traffic the import is allowed to Germany.
Polish oatmeal geese or geese from Hungary can be found in discounters as low as ten euros. The reason why these geese can be “produced” so inexpensively, is very easy: down! Until a goose lands on your plate, it is plucked alive, and even 4 times. A stressor that is still supported by antibiotics and many other medications. we all also support this kind of cruel attitude with taxpayers’ money.
Report of the Organisation “Four Paws”: “We were on farms in Hungary and Poland and watched the plucking. There are shattering scenes from. The animals are plucked by hand in the chord. It comes to bad cracks, which are sewn without anesthesia, wings are dislocated. After the procedure, the animals are in shock, they get medication, otherwise many would not survive. And it gets spooky quiet in the stable”.
When the geese are plucked outside the moult, feathers partly sit so tight that they are torn out together with the skin. Some geese die of it, others look like in the photo!
Down feathers are popular for their high quality. The breeders usually sell their geese to a slaughterhouse after 9 to 22 weeks of fattening. In addition to the fattening of meat, with this business the profit for the breeder increases.
Dangerous germs and burst stomachs – staphylococci were found in fattening geese from Poland and Hungary. Especially resistant staphylococci are known as deadly hospital germs. In irresponsible fattening they are literally bred.
All this largely with the financial support from the EU. Germany already receives 20% of the imported poultry meat from Poland. The Netherlands and Denmark have already moved their chickens and pigs to Poland, where lower environmental standards apply.
Poland is on track to become the largest poultry producer not only in Europe, but worldwide, with financial support from the EU, from 2007 to 2013 alone EUR 67 billion Torment for the animals incl.
Although live plucking is officially banned in Poland and Hungary as well, reports have repeatedly been issued in the past according to which EU directives have not been complied with. Live plucking is banned in the EU, but animal rights activists say the rules in Poland and Hungary are ignored.
One reason why Hungary is so cheap at producing geese is because of the down. The torture of the fast mast is not the end of the flagpole for many geese from Hungary. Those who have the misfortune to survive the attitude, are often plucked alive. The “bloody” feathers are then processed in our down pillows, beds and jackets.
At some point, the nightmare is finally over and the animals are released from their agony by death and then land frozen in the refrigerated counters of the discounters – or nicely garnished in numerous restaurants on the menu.
And of course as a traditional menu on the Christmas table.
Tragically, there are still many unenlightened fellow human beings who eat goose liver from animals that are tortured to death.
My comment: Foie Gras brings a lot of money, the down too, and finally the corpse of geese too …
A living being is used up to his last body part as a money packet.
The more plucked, the more money one makes. The fourth rupf gets even finer down, say the farm owner.
Columns of migrant workers pluck animals like machines.
The videos show that often rips the skin of geese when their feathers are torn out. A life like in concentration camps until slaughter.
And all that is legal and subsidized.
One wonders how people can participate and co-finance this fascist torture with a clear conscience.
The driver stops the car on the edge of the forest, we get out and take our tools. He drives away we approach the object and try to hide in the shadow of the forest, where is silence. The closer we are to the factory farm, the worse the smell gets. The stink means that the buildings are full of animals. What a sad confirmation.
When the watchers get on their spots we check the transmitters connection and Lukas goes inside the area with me. We avoid cameras while trying to find a way to get into one of the halls. It takes us quite a while. Through a narrow window I stretch myself in. Lukas waits outside by the window.
I take one turkey in my arms, then another, I comfort them to let them know it all will be better and then hand them over to Lukas.
On our way to safe home, we finally have time to check them properly. As I took one of them, it seemed she had strange head, but there was no time for us to focus on that. Now we can see how horribly deformed her head is. It’s like a view from a horror movie. How could she survive with such disability? I don’t know, but she made it.
I visited her in her new home a few days after. I saw how grateful she was for the touch, care and feather cleansing, how she enjoyed the sun and grass (the second rescued turkey as well) and I realized that even though I don’t know how she will handle it, she’s doing fine now.
Thanks to all who provided homes and all who help us.
…… and in the name of the animals, we thank the brave activists for this animal liberation. It is symbolic and reminiscent of the millions of other turkeys that live as slaves on wretched farms to serve as food for us, a still more miserable species.
We reject the distinction between humans and animals.
We even consider it as dangerous.
For us, every living being has the right to freedom, life and happiness.
Not to eat animals, not to carry them, not to enslave them is not a religion’s motto.
It is a moral duty.
Who eats animals and their products, gives the order of a murder.
It’s called food, we call it murder. We, the vegans!
We know that humanity is still a long way from undestanding and accepting that.
But we firmly believe this idea grows with each passing day, we are already many.
And that’s why we do not give up.
That’s what we owe our mandates.
We remain faithful to them and continue to fight for the abolition of exploitation and slavery of all nonhuman animals.
For the first time in Germany, a pet owner has been legally convicted of animal cruelty to a prison sentence, albeit on probation. The groundbreaking verdict was already in July in the court, as the police in Magdeburg (Saxony Anhalt state) announced on Tuesday.
It is the well-known 64-year-old Mass pig farmers and Dutchman Adrianus Straathof, the owner of the largest pork companies in Europe.
Maladministration in pig fattening: Imprisoned for the first time for animal cruelty
In all previous cases, which are final and thus no longer contestable, animal tormentors were fined or fined. “There is such a judgment in the history of livestock farming for the first time,” said Criminal Affairs Commissioner Annett Bormann, who led the investigation.
Straathof is penalized for the conditions that were identified in March 2014 at his pig farm in Gladau (Jerichower country). At that time 12,000 sows and 40,000 piglets lived there. For three days, the police raided the six-acre facility and business premises, with 60 forces in action.
In 2014, the county of Jerichower Land pronounced a prohibition of occupational practice against Straathof. The breeder had to withdraw from the management of his holding company.
However, according to the animal rights organization Animal Rights Watch (who also did the undercover investigations), his company continues to operate breeding facilities in the region under a different name.
The officials found that almost all sows were crammed into too narrow crates. More than 1200 animals and their metal boxes were measured. The result: 93 percent of the stands were a maximum of 72 inches wide. However, 98 percent of the sows measured a height of 74 centimeters and more. This made it impossible for them to stretch out on their side.
In addition, many animals had been ill, reported the police. In 871 sows and 133 piglets one had abscesses, open wounds,organ prolapses, dents, infections,lameness or behavioral problems noted. “In the documents, however, we have found no evidence of planned medical treatments,” said Criminal Chief Commissioner Bormann.
The animal rights organization Animal Rights Watch (ARIWA) called the verdict “welcome”. So far, the pet industry has been “a law-free area,” said spokeswoman Sandra Franz.
However, the current rules on pig fattening are not sufficient. “The animals are taken in the narrow stables everything that makes up their lives.”Straathof is not the black sheep, but a typical representative of the industry.
On the video below are undercover shootings from three Straathof pig factories: they come from Alt Tellin,Drebkau and Osterne and are recorded between 2014 – 2015.
My comment: Germany is a paradise for those who use and torture animals industrially. Authorities do not control, investors are welcomed with open arms because of promises for jobs and taxes. How much the animals suffer in the pig farms, show the images in Straathof`s pig farms, taken by Animal Rights Watch on Straathof’s pig farms.
Of course Straathof is not the exception, but the rule. And that’s our proble! the rule of torture, the legalization of torture, which is used as a normal practice despite animal welfare.
The verdict can be understood as a message to other public prosecutors and courts to finally take seriously the protection enshrined in the Basic Law seriously and to pursue violations. The real crimes are, however, in the system itself.
Pig breeding and pig fattening are unimaginably cruel even without violating the law.
World Animals Voice 