Month: December 2019

General News, Stray Animals

Romanian Pound Won’t Feed Dogs for 12 Days of Christmas – we ask for your help to resolve.

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A message from Harmony Fund;

 

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Romanian Pound Won’t Feed Dogs for 12 Days of Christmas

 

We’ve learned that more than 400 dogs at the Mioveni pound in Romania will be on their own for 12 days beginning on Christmas Eve. No workers are expected to come in over the holidays, leaving the dogs without food and water. Especially during the cold weather when these dogs have only minimal shelter from the cold, mealtime is the most important time of day. We can’t let them go hungry.

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Typically, these dogs receive leftover food from the local prison and from a car factory. It is a mix of food scraps that also includes toothpicks, orange and banana peels, napkins and other garbage. We’re in negotiations now to try to change that diet and to make sweeping improvements to the dog pound over the next few years, but the first step is to make sure the dogs don’t go hungry this month.

 

It will cost $130 each day to provide 23 sacks of kibble for the dogs, plus a bit of extra money to compel workers to come in to work those days. We will need repeat this all the days the workers are scheduled to be on vacation from Christmas Eve straight through to January 4. If your contributions exceed the cost of 12 days of dog food, we will be able to help with more good quality food in January and February and this will also help us feed many other dogs and cats in Romania who are also at risk of going hungry.

 

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Link to help feed the Romanian dogs this Christmas:

 

https://harmonyfund.org/donation/feed-dogs-romania-christmas

 

 

To donate by mail, send to:

Cheques may be addressed to Harmony Fund.
800 Main Street, Suite 217, Holden, MA 01520, USA

 

 

 

 

Environmental

Climate change conference in Madrid: Zero. Zilch.

 

After all the big claims, a hypocritical COP25 summit runs two days over schedule and decides absolutely nothing, leaving climate change issues up in the air and any plans to ‘save the planet’ on hold until next year in Glasgow.

 

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The disgraceful collapse of the COP25 gabfest in Madrid, while it was running two days over schedule, is an indictment of everything that those in attendance purported to stand for.

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The extra allowances for these holier-than-thou do-gooders, (that includes you, Mary Robinson) , the rescheduled flights (oh, the fuel), the extra meals (the methane emissions), the energy bills from those chilly Madrid hotel rooms (oil, gas, wind, even). If the check is ever totalled I’m sure we will discover this is a summit that actually took the world climate change lobby backwards in its bid to save the planet.

Glacial cliffs are shearing off into the sea in Antarctica, polar bears eat their newborn in the Arctic Circle, but those churros and hot chocolate were bangin’.

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This whole débâcle was world-class hypocrisy at a global level.

Sure, the head of the UN, António Gutteres can chunter on about this being a missed opportunity but the game was rigged from the start and it’s those international bodies claiming to represent everyone that are the worst.

The UN has every nation in the world to answer to. The EU has 27 (for now) nations to claim it represents. Within those institutions there is absolutely no consensus whatsoever.

Poland scuppered the EU’s most recent attempt to head the climate-change crusade, not out of obstinacy but after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said: “Poland will be reaching climate neutrality at its own pace.”

This is not a wealthy Western nation. People still rely on the old school. And that is fair cop but the EU, obsessed with itself as representative of one single voice, simply ignored that, insisting that everyone had endorsed 2050 as a target for achieving net zero target emissions, despite carbon-hungry Poland opting for 2070.

This Madrid assembly of the world’s most worthy, all burnishing their green credentials by making over-inflated claims about how quickly and how much they will each save the planet, finally broke up after achieving nothing. Zero. Zilch.

Because –and let’s be perfectly clear– the whole carbon credit scam is based on a huge hypocritical lie put in place so that those nations largely responsible for polluting the planet can cheat the system and keep on doing so. They simply buy carbon credits from those countries operating below their emissions allowance to soothe their consciences, balance the books and make it look like they are actually doing something to stick to internationally pre-agreed limits.

Look, I’ve negotiated with my 10-year-old daughter. Here’s how it works. A few more minutes past the previously agreed bedtime on her online game and she’ll tidy her bedroom… tomorrow.

So tomorrow comes, there’s school, netball, homework, dinner and bed, so the debt is not recovered at the agreed time. Then there’s the day after. Same story. And after that, and after that.

Now expand that to an international climate change summit level and you get what I mean. Debts promised but never repaid. Credit given but soon devalued. National interests. Political interests. Business interests. Local interests.

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Next thing you know, you have teenage girls sailing around the world, lecturing us all and being, frankly, used by parasitic public relations interests far greater than they will ever understand to push an agenda that suits their paid employers.

It devalues the strength of people like Greta Thunberg. Like the native Amazonian indians that Sting so embarrassingly sucked-up-to during his ‘Save the World’ phase.

So what has happened? The climate change chiefs of the world have taken a huge pivot and given the carbon emissions can a mighty-ol’ kick down the road, to Glasgow next year, when they are pinning their hopes on a newly-energized British government coming up with some sort of solution.

This, I gotta see.

That would involve China rendered happy (with their bunch of worthless carbon offset certificates they bought in Kyoto), the US somehow engaged in the whole process (immediately after their November 2020 presidential election), Australia appeased that their good efforts will actually be rewarded (rather than scrapped) and anyone in the UK actually giving a hoot.

Because Boris Johnson has enough on his plate and with an EU trade deal widely expected by the end of next year, he could really do without the climate change roadshow and the associated circus acts its attracts in just 12 months’ time.

2050 suddenly seems a whole lot closer.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/476039-cop25-worlds-climate-results/

 

Internationaler Tag der Umwelt - Myanmar

 

My comment: It’s scary how willing people let themselves be shit in the brain! And feel good when others are still touching it!

In discussions on this annoying issue of climate during the climate conference, I notice very clearly that most, like the parrots, repeat everything that is distributed in the media without questioning a single thing. For them, what is said is like religion and belief. Their ignorance becomes clear when asked about the function and origin of the climate.
Absolute ignorance !!

That’s why the climate spark sends us a Greta.
A welcome occasion for politics and the media to present daily salvation programs and punitive measures for non-man-made climate change.
Constant brain massages, appeals to the guilty conscience, around the clock, make the majority of the people accept their “climate change”.
Politics and climate profiteers now smell their chance.

Filling the cash register has never been easier.
The more people pay, the more effectively and quickly Germany and the rest of the world can be “saved”. The guilty conscience has to be washed away.

Meanwhile, others (including climate missionaries) clutter up the accounts and multi-billion dollars in opaque channels disappear.
That is the result of the climate conference! No more.

My best regards to all, Venus

General News

UK: Polling Station Dogs – A British Way of Life !

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As we said in a recent post. The UK has just had a General Election:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/12/14/uk-election-12-12-19-hopefully-good-news-for-animals/

 

If there’s anything the Brits love more than any democracy, it is their dogs.

Politicians come and go. Governments form, try to function and usually fail. But dogs are a universal constant.

Brits take their dogs everywhere – and the polling station when they vote is one such place. In the UK a kind of ‘polling station dog’ photo trend has developed in recent years; people take pictures of their own dogs at the polling station and then share with others.

God forbid; but dogs are not allowed in the polling area; and so they patiently wait outside for a few minutes whilst owner casts his or her vote.

Here are a few (randomly selected) polling station dogs from the event of 12/12/19. Enjoy.

Regards Mark

 

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Farm Animals, General News

England: Dismantle Dairy – A New Campaign by ‘Surge’.

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With thanks to Stacey – https://our-compass.org/2019/12/16/dismantle-dairy/

 

 

Surge have launched a brand new campaign Dismantle Dairy, featuring 18 months of undercover footage obtained from inside UK dairy farms. Independent investigators placed hidden cameras in dairy farms around the UK, as well as obtaining HD footage during visits. The footage revealed widespread incidences of physical and emotional abuse of mothers and calves.

Surge found repeated incidences of punching, kicking, excessive tail twisting, swearing/shouting, beating with sticks, separation of calves from their mothers, force-feeding of calves and the disposal of calves. Investigators also recorded HD footage during visits, capturing harrowing scenes such as dead cows and calves left to rot outside for days.

However, rather than draw attention to individual farms and create the impression that these are isolated cases or “bad eggs”, the campaign seeks to expose the dairy industry as a whole, revealing how even standard practices such as separation at birth and removal of calves is abuse. Violence on dairy farms is ubiquitous and occurs in all farms, including those associated with high ranking officials within the industry.

This is not about one “bad farm”, or one “bad farmer”, Dismantle Dairy is about the foundations the dairy industry is built upon. Standard, legal dairy industry practice involves (but is not limited to):

– Artificially inseminating dairy cows.
– Separating babies from their mothers (usually within 24 – 72 hours of birth).
– Killing ‘useless’ male calves soon after they are born (this is known as the “dirty secret” within the industry).
– Keeping newborn calves in solitary confinement pens.
– Sending dairy cows to slaughter when they can no longer produce milk for the farmer.

Prior to the campaign release, the authorities including the RSPCA and APHA have been notified of the farms and footage where necessary.

See more in the The Independent:

Cows sexually abused, hit and punched at company owned by NFU deputy president, footage shows

This particular farm is owned by Guy Smith, Deputy President of The National Farmers’ Union, the largest organisation representing farmers in the UK. What we found on the farm was so horrific, so brutal, that The Independent couldn’t show all of it in their press video; however, it is available to watch below:

 

 

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General News

Vienna: must abolish carriage horses!

 

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The 🎄Christmas season is high season for the 🐎Vienna Fiaker. Regardless of whether it is icy cold or the risk of slipping when wet, the horse-drawn carriages are always on the go. One carriage after the other travels through the tourist crowds in downtown Vienna. For the horses this means anything but a “contemplative time”. Vienna has so much more to offer than animal suffering.

Sad but true: the Vienna Fiaker tours are not missing from any travel guide, which are listed as a “must”. Numerous pictures of the horses stretched in front of the carriages can be seen. This should convey the right Vienna flair and make you want to visit the Danube metropolis. But traveling is different in the 21st century. Animals are sentient beings who feel suffering as much as we humans.

And the animals suffer.

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Education is important to draw attention to the suffering of horses. Because many don’t know that
➡️ horses have a high risk of falling and injury due to the uneven and slippery floor.
➡️ they need constant access to roughage, which is hardly possible in the city.
➡️ the horses suffer from traffic stress, noise and hustle and bustle in the city center.

In spring 2019 we asked the publishers of the largest travel guides as well as a city tour provider and a large travel platform what the level of awareness of the suffering of the Fiaker is and whether they are willing to no longer advertise the Fiaker as an attraction or to present it more critically. We have observed the main editions of the travel guides:

Big Bus Vienna = romantic carriage ride
Dumont = a must
Lonely Planet = best city tour
Marco Polo = expensive, but great pleasure
Polyglott on Tour = tourist icons
Trip Advisor = Recommendations by users possible
And under “Animal Welfare Problems ?” there is an outrageous X!!

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Cause for concern

Not only from an animal welfare point of view, but also from a safety point of view, fiasco tours are extremely questionable. It becomes clear here how great the risk potential is in the city center. The driver himself says that it is not always possible to control the animals. This is also proven by the frequent accidents in downtown Vienna.

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From an animal welfare point of view, it is unacceptable to say that the drivers do not feed the animals in the city, but “only at night in the stable”. Horses need continuous access to roughage, everything else is cruelty to animals. The animals’ digestive system should always get small portions of hay, because it is not suitable for long feeding breaks. These can lead to serious health problems such as painful stomach ulcers and colic.

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That is also a fact, of course: last year, the Inner City district itself estimated the annual repair costs of the road surface as a result of the horse-drawn carriage rides at 750,000 euros.

With your petition you send a protest email prepared by us to Lonely Planet, Polyglott, Marco Polo, Dumont and TripAdvisor. This email will be sent from your (private) email address.

By sending the email, you give your consent for the companies mentioned above to receive mail from your email address.

Sign our petition now and call for better living conditions for the Fiaker horses.

https://www.vier-pfoten.at/kampagnen-themen/themen/pferdehilfe/fiaker-tierleid-als-touristenattraktion (The completed mail petition can be found in this link)

 

My comment: 12 hours in scorching heat or freezing cold, these animals have to pull a massive, heavy carriage behind them, loaded with people who care a shit about the obvious animal suffering.

Because how else could one understand that people pay a lot of money for this primitive pleasure of a carriage ride, even though they have two horses in front of their eyes, with blinders and very often with earplugs, because otherwise they would not be able to stand the noise of the carriages and the traffic?

Without a doubt, these people know instinctively that standing of the horses for a long time at the horse-drawn carriages is a great challenge for their tendons and joints, because they are escape animals, accustomed to movement;
Then there is the pulling of the load on asphalt-like ground. Many of these workhorses suffer from hoof diseases and joint complaints, which will be massive with increasing age.

And even in their ‘free time’ – if we can even speak of ‘free time’ for carriage horses – they usually live a lonely and completely unnatural life.
365 days a year, the official ‘working time’ (of course without calculating the arrival and departure) in winter from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in summer from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The horses are often  the reassured-medium Sedalin administered. The animals become apathetic to their environment, they have a reduced sensation of pain and can be easily manipulated.

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From August 2017, the Viennese Fiaker may no longer drive at 35 degrees in summer.
Anyone who does not follow this can expect fines of up to 3,500 euros.

But high, low temperatures, less or a lot of work, that’s not the point.
The exploitation of animals for tourism must stop in general and in principle.

Animals are not a tourist attraction, they are not our slaves and they are not our pleasure.
Something like this belongs no longer to a civilized society, and everyone who has not yet understood it, is a primitive, underdeveloped person who deliberately ignores the suffering of animals for a romantic horse-drawn carriage.

Or make money with it, like the politicians who promote it.

My best regards to all, Venus

Latest info: I got a good reaction to my mail! right now:
Dear Ms. Venus …,

Thank you for your email and your critical feedback about our Vienna travel guide.

The welfare of animals is also very important to us and we will pay even more attention to animal welfare when choosing the “attractions” in the future. Our authors are informed and corresponding recommendations will be avoided in the future i.e. deleted in the next issue.
Yours sincerely
GRÄFE UND UNZER VERLAG GMBH

Your reader service team
Box 86 03 13
81630 Munich
Tel: 00800- 7 23 73 333 *
Fax: 00800 – 5 01 20 544 *
Email: leserservice@graefe-und-unzer.de

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It works!
Please keep on writing your protest emails!

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

Romania: Surviving Sheep To Be Given Sanctuary ? – A Message From Lyn White (Animals Australia).

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ROMANIA-SAUDI-ARABIA-SHEEPS

Mark,

I wanted to get in touch with an update about the capsized live export ship disaster in Romania. Last time I emailed, I asked if you could help us call on the Romanian Government to save the survivors stranded in the upturned ship out on the ocean.

Thank you for taking that action, Mark. Your voice, alongside thousands of our other dedicated supporters, helped save 180 lives. These gentle sheep are now safe. Thank you.

Your determination — in unity with rescuers and thousands of other caring people globally — provided the beacon of hope amidst the overwhelming tragedy.

The rescued sheep are currently under the care of the Romanian veterinary authority, and the Prime Minister of Romania has given his word that he will do everything he can to ensure the sheep will soon be transferred to sanctuaries where they can live their lives in peace.

 

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But your advocacy goes beyond the immediate situation to save the survivors. You’ve directly contributed to a kinder future for all sheep who face live export in Romania. Since you and others so strongly encouraged the country’s Prime Minister to take urgent action, a bill to end live export has been put forward in the Romanian Parliament.

The Prime Minister himself has acknowledged the need for this cruel trade to end. Romania is Europe’s biggest exporter of live animals — this is historic, and such progress could very well have taken years. But ending live export is now firmly on the political agenda there.

While we still have a long way to go, Mark, I can tell you with certainty that without your action on behalf of these animals, these historic steps forward simply couldn’t have been achieved.

As I know you understand, this disaster has again highlighted the needless cruelty at the heart of all live export. You helped save those who could be saved, but together we will never forget the tens of thousands onboard who perished, for nothing other than profit. I know we are now only more committed to ending live export globally, for good. Heartfelt thanks for providing such crucial support towards that goal, now and in the future.

For the animals,

Lyn

Animals Australia

Fur and Fur Farming

Russian fur industry: producer of animal torture

 

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At the beginning of the Christmas shopping season PETA publishes for the first time a report about the Russian fur trade. The video material taken by PETA Asia’s eyewitnesses shows atrocities from five different farms.

These shocking images taken show a Russian fur farm where rabbits have their heads hacked off and chinchillas are electrocuted and have their necks snapped.The images come from PETA’s first expose of the fur trade in Russia and were reportedly taken across five farms in the country.

In the video, animals can be seen being kept in tiny cages when a worker takes a white rabbit and hits it on the head with a metal pipe.

ruschische Pelzfarmen 2pgA worker can then be seen slitting a white rabbit’s neck while it was reportedly still conscious.
ruschische Pelzfarmen 6A chinchilla electrocuted to death at a Russian fur farm

 

ruschische Pelzfarmen 5pgA rabbit is hung upside down before being decapitated at a Russian fur farm in images taken from PETA’s first exposure of the fur trade in the country

 

The clip then shows a chinchilla being electrocuted before its neck is snapped. Animals including foxes, minks and sables can be seen in tiny wire-mesh cages.

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PETA report one chinchilla was seemingly blind but still forced to breed. The report adds that one worker at the farms said that animals are killed if they relieve themselves in the “wrong” area of the cage as “any animal must be clean, if you produce not clean skin, you’re losing a lot of price.”

ruschische Pelzfarmen 7A caged mink at a Russian fur farm. The shocking images were taken during a PETA sting into the Russian fur trade and shows chinchillas having their necks snapped

 

The investigation was carried out in October 2019 and a worker reportedly told the eyewitness that the farm they work on sells 30 percent of their product to Kopenhagen Fur.

Kopenhagen Fur is an auction house which sells animal skins to companies throughout the world.

PETA Senior Vice President of International Campaigns Jason Baker said: “Every compassionate shopper should keep firmly in mind that behind every fur coat, collar, or cuff is a filthy wire cage, a shrieking animal, and a blood-soaked slaughterhouse floor. This holiday season, PETA is urging everyone to help give some peace to these tormented animals by going fur-free.”

The report states that the regulation of animal welfare in Russia is practically “non-existent” and added that the country does not have any laws to protect farmed animals.

PETA asked consumers, designers and retailers to join other fur-free designers and retailers such as Zara, H&M, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, Versace, Gucci, and Michael Kors.

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Mick Madsen, director of communications for Fur Europe, a company which represents the fur sector in Europe, said: “It is mistake to claim chinchillas and rabbits produced in Russia are sold at European auction houses, and it is mistake to believe PETA’s ideological campaigning provides a reliable image of animal welfare in fur farming.”

PETA alleged that another facility it investigated supplied furs to Saga Furs, a Finnish fur auction house that markets itself as a responsible and ethical source for fur, describing itself on its website as having “a reputation as the world pioneer in responsible fur breeding.”

A Saga Furs spokesperson told Newsweek: “Any allegations that Saga Furs is provided fur from farms in Russia which treat animals unethically is denied in full. Saga Furs takes the ethical treatment of animals very seriously and at all times requires farms used to comply with strict criteria and regulation. We have received no evidence or substantiation to suggest that any farms providing fur to Saga Furs have been the subject of PETA’s alleged investigation.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7755033/Rabbits-clubbed-head-undercover-footage-exposing-brutality-Russian-fur-farms.html

 

My comment: As soon as something becomes public, nobody wants to appear as  collaborator of the Russian fur industry.

And despite the demonstrable, documented torture in the Russian fur farms, the Finnish Saga Furs company wants to tell us that it takes animal ethics very seriously!!

But the animal Dachau of this world take only money and profit seriously, they know no ethics and no inhibitions in the torture of animals.
Perhaps the Russian fur Dachau are no better and no worse than any other fur Dachau  in the world.
But that’s not why we shouldn’t report it.

Fur farms are concentration camps and no longer have a right to exist, nowhere in the world.

My best regards to all, Venus

 

 

Farm Animals, General News

Denmark: Petition – Petition – Stop Breeding Pigs to Death.

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Petition – Stop Breeding Pigs to Death

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Petition link – https://forcechange.com/548427/stop-breeding-pigs-to-death/

Target: Henrik Studsgaard, Secretary of Denmark’s Ministry of Environment and Food

Goal: Revise rapid replacement breeding methods that prematurely end pigs’ lives.

 

Half a million sows face slaughter annually in Denmark: an estimated half of the country’s total pig population. Of these slaughtered sows, only about 15 percent will be killed because of sickness. Instead, the majority of pigs are seemingly put down because they can no longer pump out enough young piglets to satisfy Denmark’s profit-rich, welfare-impoverished pork market.

This market fuels the agriculture-driven economy of Denmark, and it is heavily subsidized by the government. These heavy investments have led to sows birthing as many as 35 piglets per year. While these numbers soar past global averages, they often prove devastating to the sows’ health and well-being.

Denmark also leads the way in sow mortality rates. Over 10 percent of the animals essentially either drop dead in their pigsties or must be euthanized because they are too incapacitated to function. Even when they do survive this grueling existence, slaughter still awaits the poor sows after they have given birth to two or three litters… and apparently outlived their usefulness. Perhaps worst of all, Denmark’s supposedly ‘superior’ methods for pig production are being ramped up and exported to other countries.

Sign this petition to urge government officials to honour their oath in making animal welfare a central part of this unforgiving, often abusive process.

 

 

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Mr. Studsgaard,

“I am ready to welcome the aim of producing twice as many pigs in Denmark if we can handle both animal welfare and the environment.” The facts are clear: Denmark has not met the benchmark envisioned by your predecessor. Upwards of 500,000 sows lose their lives prematurely every year because of “fertility” or “mothering” issues. Thousands of others apparently drop dead from the wear and strain imposed on them. In regards to animal welfare, Denmark has not offered much in the way of “handling.”

The “rapid replacement” philosophy not only leaves hundreds of thousands of animals subject to unneeded slaughter, but it also undermines any claims of production efficiency. This country is summarily killing half its pig population every year. In many cases, you discard more than you produce. Humane breeding and production methods may hinder profits in the short-term, but long-term gains would make the commitment more than worthwhile.

Please end rapid replacement breeding and implement human standards for pigs, for the longevity of your agricultural sector and, more importantly, for the health and well-being of these living beings entrusted to your care.

Sincerely,

{Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Keith Weller

Farm Animals, General News

Spain: Petition – Prohibit the Sale of (Farm) Produced Pets.

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Hatchery dogs are constantly mistreated and live in the worst way, and also encourages the abandonment of animals.

ADOPT, DO NOT BUY!
Prohibit the sale of pets in Spain
Addressed to: Government of Spain

Prohibit the sale of pets in Spain

 

We arrive at that time of year when many people think of giving a dog to their children for Christmas, a dog that will surely be abandoned when the child gets bored. This happens every year, as in the holidays, so we have so many dogs abandoned in the streets. But that is not all abuse, since those puppies they sell come from hatcheries where their parents live constantly being mistreated.

 

Petition Link:

https://www.sosvox.org/en/petition/prohibit-the-sale-of-pets-in-spain_1.html?utm_source=highlight&utm_medium=title&utm_campaign=campaign-p131219

 

 

 

 

Farm Animals, General News, Hunting, Live Transport

UK Election 12/12/19: Hopefully Good News for Animals.

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The UK had a General Election this week on 12/12/19. In reality, it was really more like a contest to see who would be successful in the battle to either remain in, or to leave the EU. The British public voted in 2016 to leave the EU, but this has always been blocked and contested by some political parties in the UK Parliament. 12/12 was a decisive day to see what the people thought after 3 years of debates, arguments and general troubles in the Parliament.

 

We watched with interest on the night of 12th; polling stations closed at 2200hrs. By the morning it was very clear that the real opinion was for the UK to leave the EU and instead take up other international trade deals around the world; which were prevented by being a member state of the EU. Trade deal negotiations are always done by the EU when it comes to member states; they are not allowed to go off and do their own thing. This is what annoys a lot of British people; that the EU does the deals on their behalf, and they then have to put up with the result. People wanted out, as the 2016 ‘In / Out’ referendum showed by its result.

 

Some political parties fought the election on a ‘remain in’ approach; others fought in a ‘get Brexit done’ approach. By the morning of 13/12 it was clear what the majority thought – ‘get Brexit done’ had made huge winnings in the form of the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn on an attitude of getting another deal done and then putting it back to the people (again) – a 2nd referendum; were tranced in the election; losing dozens of seats in what had always been Labour heartlands.

 

The Liberal Democrat Party; fighting on a ‘stay in the EU’ approach, were very heavily defeated. Both the Party leader (Jo Swinson) and their Brexit spokesperson, one Tom Brake MP; lost their seats in the election. They had hoped for massive gains at the election to remain as members of the EU; but the voters thought otherwise. They were trounced.

 

So, now, with a majority of some 75 Members of Parliament the Conservatives are rapidly moving ahead to get out of the EU by the end of January 2020. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48256318

 

By leaving the EU, the UK will be able to take back control of its own policies and future destiny. UK law will be decided on and made in the UK rather than in the EU; which would apply to all member states.

 

As animal advocates; we are very much hoping that by leaving the EU, the UK will be able to make its own legislation for improvements in animal welfare. One issue that has been very important to us is the live transport of animals. Under EU law the UK is NOT allowed to ban live animal exports; a rule which applies to all other member states. By leaving the EU, the UK government will be free to introduce its own legislation which would allow live animal exports to be banned. Campaigning by many UK animal welfare organisations over many years has sent a clear message to the UK government; and we are confident that UK action for a ban will start very soon.

 

The UK has some good animal welfare policy, but that does not mean that it cannot be improved on. Free from the EU legislation; the UK will be able to make even higher standards for farm animal welfare than those which are laid out under EU regulations; many of which are not adhered to by some EU member states anyway. Why does the EU not take action about this ? – don’t ask us; it probably cannot be bothered in reality. They are, in their opinion, only animals after all.

 

carrie symonds dolphin hunt protest.jpg

Carrie Symonds is the partner of Prime Minister Boris. She is a very keen animal welfare activist and we think is behind his approach in government to improving animal welfare standards. Good news for welfare as it can do nothing but good from our national situation.

Above and below – Carrie protests against Taiji and whaling.

carrie symonds end whaling

 

Regards Mark