Kia ora Mark  

Let’s put animals on the agenda.

Last night we put animals back on the agenda at our online event, Political Panel 2020: It’s Time! Ahead of the general election we asked political decision makers the tough questions on issues affecting animals in New Zealand, now and in the future. 

Today, we’re launching an ambitious pre-election action to call on our next Government to commit to freeing hens from cages – and we need your help.

Take action for hens this election

Action 1 – Email your MP

In New Zealand, nearly three million hens are confined in cruel cages. Thanks to you, the Government banned tiny battery hen cages, but the new standard ‒ ‘colony cages’ ‒ is just as cruel. Cages prevent hens from carrying out normal behaviour such as dust bathing, foraging and spreading their wings. The reality is – a colony cage is still a cage.     In the lead up to this election we need our MPs to know that New Zealanders have lost their appetite for the cruel caging of hens. Over the next few weeks we will be calling on you to give hens a voice so that animals are put back on the election agenda.

Contact your MP now

Let’s keep moving

In 2014, the Labour Party promised to introduce legislation by 2016 to phase out cruel colony cages ‒ but four years on, we’re still waiting. These cruel cages have no future in New Zealand. Even Parliament’s restaurants have committed to going cage-free, along with all major supermarkets and a growing list of businesses. So, let’s keep movingand banish cages to the history books!   It’s time New Zealand put the chicken before the egg.     

Debra Ashton
Chief Executive Officer  

P.S. We know the world can be different for animals. Together, we can create a better, safer Aotearoa New Zealand for all. Read our vision to find out more.

Hi Mark,

Today we have launched the second phase of our campaign calling on the UK Government to ban the importation of foie gras made by force-feeding.

The force-feeding of animals is currently illegal on animal welfare grounds in the UK; despite this, imports of products involving force-feeding are permitted.

Will you help us urge the Government to ban this cruel ‘delicacy’ by signing our renewed petition? Our ask is now more urgent than ever, and with a new Government in place since we began our campaign in 2017, we have made the decision to launch a petition specifically directed at influential policy-makers – George Eustice and Lord Zac Goldsmith – who are currently in the position to be able to put in place a ban.

Petition Link – please sign:

https://animalequality.org.uk/act/ban-force-feeding?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=23-07-20 

Treasured comedian, TV personality and animal lover, Alan Carr, is the latest celebrity to support our campaign, which was featured in The Mirror today.

Animal Equality has visited several foie gras farms over the years, exposing harrowing scenes of severe animal suffering. Terrified ducks and geese desperately struggle during ‘gavage’, where a metal tube is brutally forced down their throats to fatten their livers up. The birds endure severe physical pain and mental anguish throughout their short lives.

A ban would spare 250,000 birds every year from a lifetime of suffering for this so-called ‘speciality’ dish, but we need your help to make this a reality.

With the Brexit transition period coming to an end on 31st December 2020, the Government has a short and ideal window of time to put in place measures to enact a ban. We are urging Environment Secretary, George Eustice, and Minister, Lord Goldsmith, to take action and commit to a ban, effective 1st January 2021.

https://apnews.com/85a02d9296053980ea47eba97f920707

Outbreak at Iowa pork plant was larger than state reported

By RYAN J. FOLEY

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The first confirmed coronavirus outbreak at an Iowa meatpacking plant was far more severe than previously known, with more than twice as many workers becoming infected than the state Department of Public Health told the public, newly released records show.

The department announced at a May 5 news conference that 221 employees at the Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Columbus Junction had tested positive for COVID-19.

But days earlier, Tyson officials told Iowa workplace safety regulators during an inspection that 522 plant employees had been infected to their knowledge, documents obtained through the open records law show.

A dozen of the plant’s roughly 1,300 workers were believed to have been hospitalized by then, and two died after contracting the virus, Tyson officials told the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The discrepancy adds to mounting questions that the state health department faces about its handling of public information during the pandemic. The department last week forced out its longtime spokeswoman, who said she was ousted for pushing hard to fulfill media requests and that the agency’s delays and scripted talking points were embarrassing.

The agency has also faced criticism for seeking to charge thousands of dollars for open records requests and for not routinely announcing outbreaks in workplaces, among other things. The department said it has “gone above and beyond to provide up-to-date and comprehensive information” to the public.

The early April outbreak in Columbus Junction was the first of several at meatpacking plants across the state as the virus spread through crowded workplaces.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds took a pro-industry approach to managing those outbreaks in Iowa, the top pork-producing state. She worked with executives to continue production even as thousands of workers became infected and some died, and she applauded President Donald Trump’s order to keep such plants open throughout the country.

On May 5, Reynolds said at her then-daily news briefing that the public health department had been compiling data from surveillance testing to track outbreaks, which the state defines as at least 10 percent of employees absent or ill.

She turned over the podium to health department’s deputy director, Sarah Reisetter, who said the Tyson plants in Columbus Junction, Perry and Waterloo and two other workplaces had confirmed outbreaks. Reisetter said the Waterloo plant had 444 positive cases, but county officials said days later it actually had more than 1,000.

As for Columbus Junction, department spokeswoman Amy McCoy said the 221 case figure announced by Reisetter reflected the results of the department’s testing and what it “could verify from our data systems” at the time.

“Keep in mind, we had just established an outbreak definition, and wanted to share the information we had available,” she said. “Since that initial round of testing back in April, the testing reporting process has significantly improved.”

The department never updated the number of confirmed infections in Columbus Junction. Unlike outbreaks at long-term care facilities, the department does not post workplace outbreaks on the state’s coronavirus website.

At the May 5 briefing, Reisetter said that the 221 cases reflected 26 percent of those tested, which would be 850 total tests.

Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said the number of infections announced by the state appeared to reflect only the first round of testing at the plant and that additional testing had uncovered hundreds of more cases.

“Coordinating facility-wide testing and obtaining results is a complex process that takes time,” he said.

But it’s unclear why the department would not have the full testing results that Tyson described to Iowa OSHA. The department, along with county health officials, had conducted the mass testing of workers weeks earlier.

Tyson officials said they learned of the first case in Columbus Junction on April 1 and idled the plant four days later after 29 workers tested positive, according to an Iowa OSHA inspection report.

The governor sent 1,100 testing kits to the county for testing during the two-week shutdown. The plant reopened April 20 with new safety measures, and Mickelson said the company isn’t aware of any current infections there.

Iowa OSHA opened an inquiry after seeing media reports that two workers had died from the virus and inspected the plant on April 30, walking through and meeting with several Tyson officials.

“There were 522 positive COVID-19 cases to the best of the company’s knowledge,” the inspection report says.

Tyson’s plant manager told inspectors that communication between the company and public health officials was “not efficient” and that information about the positive cases wasn’t available for days after testing, the report said.

Iowa OSHA did not cite Tyson for any workplace safety violations, saying the company “was trying to follow the best CDC guidance at the given time” and recommendations were rapidly changing.

Italy –  Animal rights activists rejoice as horror farm is closed

22 July 2020

Essere Animali

Bologna, 21 July – Closure of the farm located in the municipality of Senigallia (AN), where in 2018 an undercover investigator from the organisation Essere Animali – hired as a worker – used a hidden camera to film the violent behaviour of staff towards pigs bred for a well-known PDO (‘premium’) circuit.

The news is also being communicated by the same group Essere Animali which, after the broadcasting of the investigation, launched a campaign to demand the farm’s closure. Although the decision to close the business was made by the farmer, for the organisation this is clearly attributable to the release of the shock footage. In fact, from the documents recently received by the Department of Prevention, Hygiene Service for Livestock Breeding and Production of the healthcare department Azienda Sanitaria Unica Regionale (ASUR) of the Marche region, it appears that the farm closed after sending to slaughter the last pigs that were already there when the investigation came to light. The farm is not currently assigned any of the business codes required to pursue the activity of breeding any species of animals regarded as livestock.

The images of the investigation achieved widespread coverage in the media and quickly went viral. In addition to the killing of the sow, who died after 30 minutes of agony following numerous hammer blows to the head, the video shows the use of the electric taser on sick pigs who were unable to move, the cruel handling of animals while they were being moved – with smaller piglets literally being thrown and adults hit on the snout with iron bars – and the presence of hundreds of bodies, left outdoors and piled together in buckets, in breach of health regulations. The hidden camera of Essere Animali’s investigator also filmed some of the workers (those who were not committing these violent acts) protesting at the treatment inflicted on the pigs.

The footage and images caused a tremendous uproar. Two parliamentary questions and one regional question followed, and the then Minister of Health Giulia Grillo also condemned the violence filmed by the investigator. In the days that followed, Essere Animali promoted a large demonstration in the square in Senigallia and launched a petition to ask the relevant institutions to immediately revoke the farm’s permits, a petition that has now been signed by over 280,000 people.

“The images filmed by our investigator revealed a reality of ongoing abuse and violence. Since the release of the investigation, our aim has always been to close the farm and today we can finally say that no more animals will be abused at this horror farm, a result that confirms the importance of our investigations which are a fundamental tool for shedding light on crimes against animals,” says Simone Montuschi, president of Essere Animali.

The closure of the farm does not affect the legal action that the organisation has taken against those responsible for the violence, reported to the Ancona Public Prosecutor’s Office for the alleged crimes of killing animals (art. 544-bis of the Italian Criminal Code) and mistreatment of animals (art. 544-ter of the Italian Criminal Code), as well as for specific violations of the regulations for the protection of pigs. Following the charges, the Carabinieri Forestali responsible for the territory carried out a blitz on the farm, seizing the sledgehammer used to kill the sow, several tasers used in breach of the current legislation, the iron pipes used to beat the animals and the instruments used for the castration of pigs, an operation that was carried out by unauthorised personnel and outside the periods allowed by law.