… one of them is to put a bird behind bars and claim that you have a sweet pet that sings for you.
Flying is part of life for birds, as is breathing for us.
A bird never belongs to a cage, it belongs to nature.
If you really love birds, don’t lock them up, but watch them in the wild – where they belong.
Nobody wants to be locked up.
Regards from Venus
A couple of things well worth a look:
https://animalequality.org.uk/app/uploads/2020/05/MagazineUK_Spring2020.pdf
Well done Spain !
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/05/18/spain-unveils-climate-law-cut-emissions-net-zero-2050/
Four months of undercover research by the SOKO association and a short, powerful campaign, supported by the power of the images, brought a historical change.
The laboratory is now history, the authorities have withdrawn their operating license, and most of the animals were saved.
Almost 50 years of fighting were going on against LPT, it seemed hopeless to close it, and furthermore the laboratory was expanded, e.g. in primate husbandry.
Former LPT employees accuse the Hamburg-based company of falsifying studies and torturing animals.
Thanks to the “SOKO animal protection” as well as a large demonstration and increasing pressure, the laboratory is now closed!
We have often reported about this: https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/10/18/germany-lpt-labor-concentration-camp-for-animals/
https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/11/10/after-60-years-of-cruelty-the-lpt-lab-is-over/
Perhaps we should erect a memorial in front of the Hamburg laboratory in the name of the victims, like this one in Munich in Dachau, to remind us where millions of beings have lost their lives under fascism.
A very nice contribution by the Austrian philosopher and animal ethicist, Helmut. F. Kaplan on the subject:
“Animal testing is wrong regardless of whether it is useful for humans. The legitimate question is not: “What is the maximum amount of health we can produce?” But: “How much health can we generate in an ethically acceptable way?”
The – real or perceived – usefulness of animal testing is not an ethical argument at all: there are many things that would be useful but are still immoral and prohibited, for example human testing.
The only reason why animal experiments have not been frowned upon and banned for a long time is simply because animals cannot defend themselves. They are helpless delivered to us.
But of course this is not a moral justification, just a cynical exercise of power.
Animal experiments are and remain crimes against defenseless beings” (Helmut Kaplan, Animal ethicist)
My best regards to all, Venus
WAV Comment – this is an un edited copy of the PR from Eurogroup. We would love to see action on live animal exports. Make of this what you will.
Talk is one thing; action is another – especially where the EU is involved.
20 May 2020
EurogroupforAnimals
Press Release
https://www.eurogroupforanimals.org/news/green-deal-puts-animal-welfare-back-eus-agenda
The day has finally arrived: the Farm-to-Fork and Biodiversity to 2030 strategies of the European Union’s Green Deal have been adopted. Both contain positive points that suggest the Commission is ready to take action for animals – but will these strategies deliver the concrete changes the EU needs to move away from intensive farming and the exploitation of wild animals and their habitats?
Last week, an open letter from Eurogroup for Animals and its member organisations asked the European Commission to take our recommendations for both strategies on board, and our members also mobilised to drum up support at national level as part of our “Stop Pandemics – Start Here” campaign.
Indeed, during the preparation of the strategies, the COVID-19 pandemic offered a particularly timely reminder that devastating results can come out of the way we trade, farm and keep animals. Wild and domestic animals have carried viruses and bacteria for millennia, but what has changed is the way we humans interact with them. The legal and illegal wildlife trade, urbanisation and the destruction of wildlife’s natural habitats for agricultural purposes, especially for the intensification of animal farming, are combining to push humans, wildlife and other animals closer than ever before – and heightening the risk of pandemics like the one we’re suffering now.
With the presentation of the finalised texts today, it seems that the Commission has indeed taken most of this to heart.
The Biodiversity to 2030 Strategy takes many of our recommendations on board, committing to keep existing environmental policies strong and stimulating the enforcement of the Birds and Habitats Directives, with ambitious goals for protecting European species. It also makes a commitment to legally protect a minimum of 30% each of the EU’s land and sea areas, and says that at least 25% of the EU’s agricultural land must be organically farmed by 2030.
The Commission will propose a further tightening of the rules of EU ivory trade in 2020, and by 2021, it will revise the Action Plan against wildlife trafficking to step up efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade. It states that the EU will enhance its support to global efforts aimed at applying the ‘One Health’ approach, by promoting better protection of natural ecosystems coupled with efforts to reduce wildlife trade and consumption, to improve resilience to possible future diseases and pandemics.
However, to ensure that the strategy is implemented effectively, the Commission should also regulate the legal wildlife trade, which impacts global biodiversity and animal welfare, and poses health risks to EU citizens. An EU-wide ‘Positive List’ for exotic pets, specifying which animal species are suitable and safe to be kept as pets, would offer a much-needed precautionary approach, given the continuous shifts in species and numbers of animals in trade, and would be coherent with the ‘Do No Harm’ principle promoted in the strategy.
“The document is ambitious,” says Reineke Hameleers, CEO of Eurogroup for Animals. “However, we will be pushing for implementing actions to regulate the exotic pet trade to protect EU consumers, animal welfare and biodiversity. Going by the strategy’s acknowledgment of the ‘Do No Harm’ principle and the fact that any product on the market should comply with EU and international commitments, we hope they’ll be open to the idea. We also urgently need a full ban on the ivory trade, stricter regulation of the legal trade in wildlife, and a EU-wide Positive List.”
As for the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, happily the Commission makes it clear that animal welfare legislation will be revised and broadened, and the revision will have to provide higher welfare standards than existing ones. This is an opportunity for all existing animal welfare laws to be revised, particularly the Transport and Slaughter regulations, but also others such as the Broiler and Pig Directives. This also opens the opportunity to deliver on the recent ECI “End The Cage Age”, calling for an end to the use of cages in livestock systems, and to include specific animal welfare provisions for species such as cattle. As the strategy makes the link between legislative change for animal welfare and the aquaculture sector, this is the opportunity to introduce the first species-specific provisions for farmed fish, too.
However, in other respects the strategy is less ambitious. While the Commission accepts that moving to more plant-based diets and less meat consumption is good for health and the environment alike, earlier versions of the strategy proposed an end to promotional measures for meat. The finalised text now says only that the Commission will undertake a review of EU promotional support for agrifood products with a view to enhancing its “contribution to sustainable production and consumption”. We expect this review to lead to a transparent conclusion that meat should not be promoted, and we regret that the language has become so weak in the final version.
The strategy announces the creation of a framework for a sustainable food system, but remarkably a reflection on the role of the intensive livestock industry in the spread of zoonotic diseases is missing. Eurogroup for Animals believes the new framework law should lead to a profound system change including a phase-out of intensive animal farming practices. Although the strategy commits to considering options for animal welfare labelling, there is no mention of method-of-production labelling, which would provide an objective and harmonised framework to support the transition towards higher welfare and sustainable livestock systems.
The strategy also recognises the detrimental impact imported products can have on the environment in producing countries, calling to avoid the externalising or export of unsustainable practices. The call for EU trade policy to contribute to enhancing cooperation, and particularly to obtaining commitments from third countries on animal welfare, is very welcome.
“This document is historical in so many ways, opening the door to a potential better world for farm animals in the EU and other parts of the globe. It shows the Commission’s willingness to strengthen animal welfare legislation after years of stagnancy, and that they’re listening to the voices of millions of EU citizens,” says Reineke Hameleers. “Nevertheless, we need systemic change and that needs a lot of determination, as well as resources. The Commission’s plan for a sustainable food system is laudable, but will they also provide additional support to farmers in the transition towards higher animal welfare systems and regenerative agriculture?”
Both strategies recognise that the wildlife trade and intensive farming together add up to more than the sum of their parts, and not just where zoonoses such as COVID-19 are concerned. The Biodiversity to 2030 Strategy states several times that it will work in tandem with the new Farm-to-Fork Strategy and the revised Common Agricultural Policy, and that the Commission will ensure that the CAP’s strategic plans lead to the use of sustainable practices such as organic farming, agro-ecology, and stricter animal welfare standards. Similarly, the Farm-to-Fork Strategy asserts that “the Commission will ensure the implementation of this strategy in close coherence with the other elements of the Green Deal, particularly the Biodiversity strategy”.
The finalised strategies will now be rolled out, with the European Parliament adopting a resolution on the content later this year. At Eurogroup for Animals, our next opportunity will be to influence the European Parliament’s response to the two strategies, so our members will start to mobilise citizens in the days ahead to contact their MEPs and make their voices – and our recommendations – heard.
From the Animal Liberation Press Office: “Received anonymously: 3 hunting towers destroyed in Poland”
“3 hunting towers destroyed. Government has banned blocking hunting so we have no choice.”
And I mean…From an ethical point of view, hunting is and remains murder.
Therefore, it is not wrong to destroy towers and it is not forbidden to be happy about them.
My best regards to all, Venus
Read the full article, complete with pictures and video at:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8340725/Wuhan-BANS-eating-wild-animals-five-years.html
Wuhan BANS eating wild animals: Five-year rule brought in after global coronavirus pandemic was linked to city’s wet markets
Experts in China said in January that the virus had likely jumped onto humans from wild animals sold as food at a wet market in the city of 11million.
Apart from seafood, the market’s offerings included live wild animals, such as foxes, crocodiles, wolf puppies, giant salamanders, snakes, rats, peacocks, porcupines, koalas and game meats, according to a previous report .
The Chinese province of Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital city, in March passed a law to ban the eating of wild animals completely, including those bred or raised by people.
Viral footage purports to show a fashionable Chinese young woman biting one of the wings of a cooked bat at a fancy restaurant. The deadly coronavirus could come from the animal
Pictures emerging on Twitter shows soup cooked with a bat. Bats are used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a series of illness, including coughing, malaria and gonorrhea
WAV Comment – Bat soup, to ‘treat a series of illness’; But we assume Coronavirus is not one of them ?
Our ‘Clustrmap’; https://clustrmaps.com/site/1a9kn or world map showing visitors to the site, can be a pretty useful thing. It tells us where our daily visitors are from around the world, and it tells us of the number of visitors.
So, by pure chance, I was looking today and noticed that we have some visitor friends from Cambodia. So, it was time to delve a little deeper and find out more about Cambodian animal rights. A simple Google search on the engine took me to ‘Animal Rescue Cambodia’.
Here is a link to their site:
I then hooked it over to ‘World Animal Net’; which is a site we use to find welfare organisations in any part of the world – this is really useful if you are in the area and need help or assistance, as many links to the organisations are given.
So I typed in a search for ‘Cambodia’; and was given the following:
Our visitor friends from Cambodia may well be familiar with all of these organisations, but maybe they are not – so if we can help by giving national groups that may be of help to animals in need then we are happy to do it.
Here is the WAN link – http://worldanimal.net/ – then go to the ‘Directory’ tab at the top of the page, select your global area and search for helping organisations.
As I say, a really useful tool and I have used it a lot in the past when needing requests for help from Serbia. On our other site SAV – https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/ – https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/about-us/
If nothing else; these may help people in need to get further assistance for animals in need.
Regards Mark
Dear Mark,
How vast is a mother’s love! When you watch this rescue video below, you’ll remember the umbrella of love your own mother held over you most of the days of your life, and you’ll probably recognize yourself as the kid begging his mom to play. We can see so easily that in cows, just like in our own species, the mother-child bond is physical, practical, and highly emotional. All mothers try to protect their children. Animal mothers teach their children how to keep clean, how to play, how to stay safe, how to find food. Animal mothers even clean wounds in their young as best they can. But sometimes Mother can’t do it all, and we have the chance to help. Thank you for helping us to be a mother’s helper when a baby is in danger.
A serious wound covered in flies caused this baby intense distress. We brought both the calf (Moon) and his mother (Jupiter) to Animal Aid for his several weeks of treatment. As soon as his wound was cleaned and bandaged, his mood lightened incredibly, and he constantly invited his mom to play. It was as if he felt so secure with her always by his side that he was the perfect little patient, and she was the perfect loving angel always in the wings.
In most dairies, including the backyard dairies in villages, when a baby is only a couple of days old, they are taken from their anguished mother cows or tied apart from her to prevent the baby from nursing or having any physical contact. Watching Jupiter and Moon, it’s very clear that snuggling, grooming and touching is as important as sunlight and air.
But Jupiter couldn’t clean and bandage Moon’s wound. That’s where you come in. Please donate.
The crusting from advanced mange was encasing this older dog as if he was growing gravel instead of skin. Though mange is curable, he was made so frail by this terrible skin disease that we knew he could lose his life in his battle. He touched our hearts with his quiet, understated determination. But though he was subtle, his nature was so incredibly sweet that everyone loved him as soon as they looked into his innocent eyes. And when he was healed, he was as beautiful on the outside as he was, all along, on the inside. Meet Ramu today.
You can help a downcast dog lift his head again. In hope. Please donate.
We share so many stories where there has been negligence or cruelty: ropes tied and forgotten, animals hit by cars and to die by the side of the road, mange far too advanced before someone calls us for help. But many animals in India are deeply loved.
Kali is one such lucky “community” dog. The guardianship of her neighbors may not look like typical “pet ownership.” She isn’t kept inside a house. But she is loved, and lives with utter freedom with the other street dogs in her neighborhood, traipsing here and there. When Kali was hit by a bike and couldn’t stand, her guardians immediately called us to help.
We thought initially that Kali might have a spine injury because she couldn’t bear weight on any of her legs. But Kali would not give up, maybe because she couldn’t wait to get back to her neighborhood filled with love. Kali’s reunion with her beloved friends is beautiful.
Happiness is… getting someone home soon. Donate today.
Little Jet is a street boy who probably hadn’t had too many desserts in his life, but it took him no time at all, even in his darkest hour, to find he has a sweet tooth!
Celebrate the Staff: Aditi Dixit
Coordinating volunteers requires deep and immediate understanding of individual animals and equal insight into the character of people. Having moved to Udaipur from Bangalore last year just to work here, Aditi possesses this rare gift. During lockdown, with our volunteer program closed, Aditi has stepped in to manage the animal care in our Dog Hospital. She is a life-saver for animals and for her colleagues, an inspiration for her versatility and sweetness.
Today is World Bee Day 🐝🐝
A dear animal rights activist found an exhausted WASP just today, and had to help her, that was not planned for World Bee Day 😅!
It wobbled and kept falling over.
The animal quickly recovered with a little sugar water.
After strengthening, the wasp cleaned itself quickly ..
and then it flew away 🐝
That’s how nature is – always good for a surprise!
Thanks to everyone who loves even the smallest animals.
Regards from Venus
The final lap of greyhound racing has been completed after the city’s stadium confirmed there would be no more racing there – even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
The stadium owners confirmed the decision today, due to the financial pressures partially caused by the current pandemic.
In a statement, a spokesman for the stadium said: ““After much careful thought and consideration, and after 75 years, the Perkins family have decided to cease trading as a greyhound racing stadium with immediate effect.
“We are an evening greyhound racing venue and rely heavily on income from customers attending the venue to eat, drink, and bet (on our Tote) to survive. Without the substantial number of visitors we have experienced in the run up to the current Coronavirus outbreak, and the prospect of this not being achieved in even the longer term as social distancing measures remain in place, the long- term viability of continuing to trade from the site as a greyhound racing stadium is unsustainable.
“This is a decision that has not been taken lightly and has been taken in conjunction with and on the advice of our accountants. Long term, we are advised that the site cannot make a sufficient return to continue operating profitably as a greyhound racing stadium.
“So, it is with a heavy heart that the Perkins family would like to thank all greyhound owners and trainers, past and present, who have been attached to the stadium over the years for their support. We would also like to thank all those patrons who have visited and enjoyed a night`s racing with us over the years.
“The company remains active, and we are looking at other opportunities.”
Mark Bird, managing director of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) said; “We are extremely saddened to hear the news that Peterborough Greyhound Stadium is to close.
“It is a long established, family run track run by the Perkins Family since 1945 that has served its community throughout all that time and holds incredible, long lasting memories for racing fans throughout the country.
“The news clearly makes it a bittersweet week for our sport, as we have welcomed a safe return to trialling at many of our tracks and turned a corner since the start of this pandemic.
“We have also, of course, had the announcement that greyhound racing will shortly be returning to Towcester which is such a positive signal for the future of our sport.
“Our thoughts and best wishes are obviously with all those associated with the stadium at this incredibly difficult time. The ongoing situation with coronavirus is taking a significant toll on all sport, hospitality and leisure businesses which rely on spectators for their income.
“At GBGB, we will continue to provide whatever support we can, in particular to those trainers and owners affected. We will shortly be contacting all Peterborough attached trainers to check on their position moving forward.”
World Animals Voice 