Month: November 2019
Vegnews. Click on the following link to read in your browser:
https://mailchi.mp/vegnews.com/this-healthy-eating-hack-is-life-changing?e=c00ea464d5
| 4 sweethearts covered in solid tar, only able to move their eyes
Four incredibly dear puppies came close to losing their lives in a horrendous accident when they stumbled into spilled tar in a garbage pile. When the first one wandered in and got stuck, she must have cried with so much emotion that the others came to see what was the matter, and they too got glued down by the awful tar. We knew they had a mother, but we couldn’t find her until the day following their rescue and the hours-long process of removing the tar with oil and dish soap. The little sweethearts were dazed with confusion, pain, fear and frustration, and two were so completely covered that all they could move was their eyes. But by the time Mommy arrived, they were freed from the poisonous grip of the tar and ready for the comfort of her love.
Help suffering sweethearts when they need us the most. Please donate. |
Member States should protect their wolves, says the European Court of Justice
The Court of Justice of the European Union has confirmed the strict protection of the wolf in Europe, saying that hunting permits should be delivered only in exceptional cases, and as a very last resort after non-lethal measures have been adequately implemented and have failed.
This good news for the species came last week when the EU Court of Justice (EUJC) delivered its decision on the permits granted by the Finnish Wildlife Agency to kill wolves – a seriously endangered species in Finland, with only around 200 individuals left – to prevent poaching and harm to hunting dogs.
The decision stresses that the wolf is a strictly protected species, and that the provisions of the EU Habitats Directive must be interpreted in light of the precautionary principle in Article 191(2) TFEU. In other words, if there is any risk (due to a lack of scientific data) that a hunting permit will adversely affect the conservation of the wider wolf population, then it should not be granted.
“The EUCJ decision is great news for wolves, and provides clear guidance on how derogations according to the Habitats Directive should be delivered. Member States’ efforts should focus on preventing conflicts and ensuring coexistence with the wolf and other strictly protected species, instead of calling for hunting permits,” says Reineke Hameleers, Director of Eurogroup for Animals. “We call on the European Commission to take into consideration these important EUCJ conclusions when updating the guidance document on the strict protection of Animal Species of Community Interest under the Habitats Directive.”
No European money for Ukrainian poultry company
Faced with strong opposition, MHP, the main Ukrainian poultry meat company exporting to the EU, has withdrawn its application for a grant from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Over the past five months, Eurogroup for Animals and its Member organisations have urged the European Union and its Member States to prevent the EBRD from granting another €100 million loan to MHP.
Our message was clear: the loan must respect the rules of the EBRD, which means that the grantee’s operations must follow animal welfare standards equivalent to those applied in the EU. This was not – and still has not – been proven for MHP.
The discussions at the EBRD were postponed several times after the European Commission, through Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan, expressed its opposition to the EBRD granting such a loan to MHP. The EBRD had even published a recognition of the numerous concerns voiced by stakeholders and indicated that they would carry out a proper assessment of whether their environmental and social criteria – including animal welfare – were respected.
The announcement by the Ukrainian company that it has finally withdrawn its request for a loan is a victory. Faced with strong opposition from not only the animal welfare movement, the environmental NGOs and the European poultry sector, but also from the EU institutions themselves in the context of difficult EU-Ukraine trade discussions, the company has opted for another way to finance its acquisition of a Slovenian poultry producer, avoiding thus more scrutiny.
Eurogroup for Animals welcomes that no additional European money will fund unsustainable agricultural practices carried out by the Ukrainian poultry giant. In addition, considering the steep increase in animal products imported by the EU from Ukraine, we call on the EU and its Member States to encourage Ukraine to fulfil its commitment to align with EU animal welfare rules faster.
Revealed: The horrible fate of French animals exported alive to third countries
Suspended by their legs while still conscious, tied up and with their necks cut halfway through: a new investigation by Animals International reveals the fate of French animals exported alive to Morocco and Lebanon.
Today in France, Welfarm, Fondation Brigitte Bardot, L214, CIWF France and La Fondation Droit Animal, Ethique et Sciences are releasing footage filmed by Animals International’s investigators in slaughterhouses in these countries.
Every year, France exports live animals to other EU and non-EU countries. When it comes to animals transported outside the EU territories, the majority of animals are destined for countries in which the slaughterhouses do not have the infrastructure and equipment required to comply with the standards established by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in regards to slaughter.
In 2018 alone France exported 83,914 sheep and cows, mainly to Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon and Israel. Hanging the animals by their paws, pushing fingers into their eyes, slashing their throats, binding them, slicing their tendons, and letting to struggle with their heads half cut off are common practices in slaughterhouses in North Africa and the Middle East, where Animals International has been investigating for 10 years.
Confronted with this evidence, Welfarm, Fondation Brigitte Bardot, L214, CIWF France, La Fondation Droit Animal, Ethique et Sciences and Animals International, together with Eurogroup for Animals, have sent a letter to the French Minister urging him to stop the export of live animals and to shift to a meat and carcasses trade.
ACTION:
Sign the Welfarm petition to stop live exports
Read the article by Le Monde
Received anonymously: Trick or treat !
During the night of October 31st to November 1st, 2019, poltergeists went to work. In reaction to the hunters who tortured and wounded the inhabitants of the forest, we bit back with the teeth of a saber saw. 8 hunting towers were targeted by the spell ACTIVISTA ANTISPECISTUM.
They were cut up, dismantled and then collapsed on the ground. Saturday’s hunting party will be severely compromised …
The revengeful spirits have also left a trace on their way (‘Their life, your profits, die’) on a neighboring farm ‘respectful of animal welfare’ to remind that respect does not stand for a haystack on the ground of a prison and as a promise of an imminent return.
Happy Halloween to the forest people!!
French: Des bonbons ou un sort !
Dans la nuit du 31 octobre au 1er novembre 2019, des esprits frappeurs facétieux se sont mis au travail. Les chasseur.esse.s ayant torturé et meurtri les habitant.e.s de la forêt se sont pris.e.s un retour de baton, ou plutôt de scie sabre. 8 miradors ont subi le sort ACTIVISTA ANTISPECISTUM. Ils ont été découpés, démantelés puis se sont effondrés au sol. La partie de chasse de samedi va être sévèrement compromise…
Les esprits vengeurs ont également laissé une trace de leur passage (“Leur vie, vos profits, crevez”) sur un élevage voisin “respectueux du bien-être animal” pour rappeler que le respect ne tient pas à une botte de paille sur le sol d’une prison. Promesse d’un retour imminent.
Joyeux halloween aux habitant.e.s de la forêt
https://animalliberationpressoffice.org/NAALPO/2019/11/04/hunting-towers-destroyed-france-2/
And I mean … every now and then we have to start the day with good news, because there is so little of it …
Best regards to all, Venus
Best regards to all, Venus
China records third case of plague this month
Three people from the rural village of Xilingol League have been diagnosed with different forms of the disease in November.
A 55-year-old man has become the third person to be diagnosed with a form of plague in China this month.
The unnamed man, from the rural village of Xilingol League, became infected with bubonic plague after killing and eating a wild rabbit on 5 November.
He is being treated at a hospital in the city of Huade in Inner Mongolia, a statement from the health authority in the region said.
The statement added that 28 people who had close contact with the man were quarantined, but none have a fever or are showing other plague symptoms.
Two patients, also from Xilingol League, were diagnosed with pneumonic plague in Beijing on 12 November.
Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague and is caused by the bite of an infected flea.
The bacteria travels to a lymph node which becomes inflamed and painful, causing a “bubo”.
Pneumonic plague, the most severe form of the infection, can develop from bubonic plague and results in a lung infection, causing shortness of breath, headaches and coughing.
Both types of plague are caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, and the infections can be fatal in up to 90% of sufferers who are not treated.
The pneumonic variant – where the bacterium is breathed into the lungs – is more dangerous because it is spread through coughing.
Septicaemic plague is a rare third variant which infects the bloodstream.
China has largely eradicated plague, but occasional cases are still reported, especially among hunters who come into contact with fleas that carry the bacterium.
The last major known outbreak was in 2009, when several people died in the town of Ziketan in Qinghai province on the Tibetan Plateau.
Plague has killed tens of millions of people around the world in three major pandemics, with about a third of Europe’s population wiped out in the 1300s by bubonic plague, known as the Black Death.
The bacterium is believed to have originated in Yunnan in southwest China, where it remains endemic.
https://news.sky.com/story/china-records-third-case-of-plague-this-month-11864058
More ……
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/18/chinese-man-diagnosed-bubonic-plague-eating-wild-rabbit/
Rodent populations have risen in Inner Mongolia after persistent droughts, worsened by climate change. An area the size of the Netherlands was hit by a “rat plague” last summer, causing damages of 600 million yuan ($86 million), Xinhua said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/18/china-records-third-case-of-deadly-bubonic-plague
Already in 2015, the “association against animal factories” (VGT) received shocking material from this southern Styrian slaughterhouse. In recent weeks, the slaughterhouse was mainly in the media because of a “rotten-meat” scandal.
Now new shots show how cruel it still going on in 2019 in this slaughterhouse.
Blows, kicks and injured animals, slaughterhouse veterinarians are just watching!
Brand-new images of a Styrian slaughterhouse show employees torturing pigs with electric tricycles in different situations. In several cases, the official slaughterhouse veterinarians watch for a few minutes and do not step in! The “association against animal factories” (VGT) refunds comprehensive advertisements.
A few weeks ago, the scandal began around a Styrian slaughterhouse, which, according to media reports, had processed meat from animals that were to be classified as carcass waste.
Now comes the shocking footage of August and October this year, which show gross violations of the Animal Welfare Act and the Battle Ordinance.
Even if the operation has been closed for a short time: the allegations to the authorities remain!
Electric torture: pigs roar in pain
According to the European regulation for the protection of animals, the use of electric drivers at the time of killing is strictly regulated and limited.
Only on clearly movement-denying animals, which can actually move on, electric drivers may be used to a small extent.
The videos from the slaughterhouse show another, cruel reality: “Pigs that are already running or even trapped with other pigs are systematically shocked and the screams of the pigs can be heard all the way to the cemetery opposite,” explains VGT vice-chairman David Richter.
Slaughterhouse veterinarians are just watching!
In the imagination of many people animal welfare violations in slaughterhouses would actually have to be prevented by the presence of official veterinarians.
But the current detection shows a different picture: the pigs are driven by the electric shock device directly to the veterinarians – without intervention of the veterinarians, systematically over several hours. The VGT filed a complaint against the two veterinarians for abuse of office.
Beating, kicking and injured animals
Particularly hard to bear are the scenes of a pig with significant walking problems and a severely injured foreleg.
Nevertheless, the animal is forced to walk with the stun gun.
A cattle is delivered with a swollen leg, hobbling. Other shots show the faces of pigs and cattle and a kick towards the pig’s head.
Such punches and kicks are in turn prohibited by the battle ordinance.
A comprehensive complaint against the employees of the slaughterhouse has been submitted to the district main team Leibnitz.
Consequences demanded
Already in 2015, the slaughterhouse caused a negative sensation in the wake of the slaughterhouse scandal. The allegations at the time of the violence in the activities of the animals are partly reflected in the current material.
Changes since 2015 did not appear to be effective, at least in this area.
“The fact that there are still veterinarians who are not immediately involved in such activities is seen as a failure of official control measures,” concludes David Richter.
A recent petition (https://vgt.at/actionalert/skandalschlachthof2019/index.php) to the Styrian Parliament demands consequences: exact investigations and possibly penalties for those involved; Improvements and transparency in official slaughterhouse controls (for example in the form of annual reports); and a final closure (without “reopening”) of the scandal operation.
And this one week before the Styrian state election – how will the state policy react?
https://vgt.at/presse/news/2019/news20191118mn.php
My comment: A shit will react the politics!
Animal welfare is a topic that is represented in Austria with less than 3%.
This is what the last state elections on 29th September 2019 showed. The party, in which Martin Balluch (founder of VGT) ran for animal welfare, reached only 2.5% and thus no place in parliament. https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/09/24/austria-give-your-vote-for-martin-balluch-for-the-animals/
An indifferent and disinterested society has strengthened the backs of corrupt lobbyists for years and these will return to power over and over again, with or without rotten meat.
Suffering animals and a bit of rotten meat can not change the rotten conscience of voters.
My best regards to all, Venus
World Animals Voice 