Month: October 2020

Farm Animals, General News

USA: the meat mafia sabotages Proposition 12

UPDATE: California’s Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act

October 15, 2020

WHAT IS PROP 12: In 2018 California voters passed the “Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act,” also known as Proposition 12, and is set to be fully effective by 2022.

The law establishes new minimum requirements for farms to provide more space for hens raised for eggs, pigs in the pork industry, and calves raised for veal.

In addition, California businesses are banned from selling eggs or uncooked pork or veal that came from animals housed in ways that do not meet these requirements.

THE MEAT INDUSTRY IS TRYING TO SABOTAGE PROP 12: Although voters passed Proposition 12 overwhelmingly with over 62 percent of votes in favor, the meat industry doesn’t want to comply, and is working hard to undermine the new law.

Last year, the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) filed a lawsuit against Proposition 12 so that out-of-state farms that violate the law’s minimum housing standards for animals could still sell products in California.

HOW WE’RE FIGHTING BACK: Animal Equality’s legal team, along with other animal protection groups, is working on the case to help the state of California defend and uphold the sales ban provisions of Proposition 12.

Today, we received some great news—although NAMI had requested a preliminary injunction which would’ve blocked the law from taking effect until the court case was over, their request was denied by the court of appeals.

This means that the court determined that NAMI is unlikely to win its case.

STAY UP TO DATE: We’ll keep you posted on what ultimately happens with the case, but today’s news is a sign that Proposition 12 will likely be upheld, giving some relief to the billions of animals suffering on factory farms, not only in California but throughout the country. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates!

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Voting for measures like Proposition 12 that offer farmed animals more protection is a super important step in the fight for animal protection. But the most important—and easiest!—way to help is by switching to a plant-based diet.

Nowadays, avoiding animal-derived foods like meat, eggs, and dairy is easier than ever.

UPDATE: California’s Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act

And I mean…There has never been a real will to rethink in the meat industry, as any alternatives are life-threatening for the whole meat mafia.
But in the case of California, the political will for it is there, and so the meat system itself sees itself as endangered.

The meat industry is a huge climate killer, multi-resistant germs are the greatest health threat of the 21st century and Corona, like practically every pandemic, came from animal exploitation. The meat industry is out of date and threatens the future of humanity on this planet.

Our daily decisions to consume meat are the engine of this industry that kills 10 billion animals annually in the US alone – the billions of marine animals that are also slaughtered in the US are not included.

If we voluntarily support this murderous industry and cannot provide any reason for it, except “because it simply tastes good”, then we are nothing more than pathetic monsters and do not deserve anything like human rights.

We are the ones who enable and maintain this factory of violence, slavery, and fascism against other animals.

My best regards to all, Venus

General News

Argentina: Petition for Tougher Punishments for Animal Abusers. Please Sign and Crosspost.

 

Please support the author of the petition, Adriana Herrera with her campaign to enforce tougher punishments for animal abusers.

Petition link:  https://www.sosvox.org/en/petition/do-you-think-the-punishment-against-animal-abuse-should-be-toughened-if-your-answer-is-yes-sign-the-petition.html?utm_source=highlight&utm_medium=title&utm_campaign=campaign-p161020

Thanks – Regards Mark

Wording –

We live in a country full of animal abuse, abandoned pets that live on the streets, horses that have to work all day pulling a cart and literally die of exhaustion, dogs and cats that are poisoned, burned alive, beaten, that live all the time. life tied to a tree without the possibility of moving.

All these things happen in Argentina today and we never see these abusers go to jail, perhaps a fine, a sentence of a few months suspended, but nothing more, so how can we expect this to stop if the Laws are not harsh enough against these crimes?

General News, Live Transport

England: ‘Banksy’ and Animal Rights.

 

WAV Comment – Banksy is a more than fabulous anonymous English street artist.  He has been known also for his involvement with animal rights.  True to form, below you can see a couple of his ‘projects’ in New York relating to live animal transport (one of our main issues), and the abuse of animals linked to the pet industry.

Banksy’s name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. In a 2003 interview with Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian,

Banksy is described as “white, 28, scruffy casual—jeans, T-shirt, a silver tooth, silver chain and silver earring. He looks like a cross between Jimmy Nail and Mike Skinner of the Streets.”

Banksy began as an artist at the age of 14, was expelled from school, and served time in prison for petty crime. According to Hattenstone, “anonymity is vital to him because graffiti is illegal”. For 10 years in the late 1990s, Banksy lived in Easton, Bristol, then moved to London around 2000.

He does all this and he stays anonymous. I think that’s great. These days everyone is trying to be famous. But he has anonymity.

 

Banksy loses art trademark battle with greeting card company in 'devastating' ruling | The Independent

Banksy's Latest Mural Is a Haunting Take on Air Pollution - EcoWatch

Confined, Banksy redecorates his bathroom with an exclusive work of art - Sortiraparis.com

Banksy: Well Hung Lover

Banksy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director, active since the 1990s. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges throughout the world. Banksy’s work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.[5]

Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self-built physical prop pieces. Banksy no longer sells photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti, but his public “installations” are regularly resold, often even by removing the wall they were painted on. A small number of Banksy’s works are officially, non-publicly, sold through Pest Control. Banksy’s documentary film Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the film. In 2014, he was awarded Person of the Year at the 2014 Webby Awards.[10]

Regards Mark

General News, Vivisection

USA: Workers Pry Baby Monkeys Away From Mothers, Electroshock Monkey Penises in Depraved Lab.

Workers Pry Baby Monkeys Away From Mothers, Electroshock Monkey Penises in Depraved Lab

Posted by Dan on September 17, 2020 | Permalink

Image shows monkey at WNPRC

A six-month PETA US undercover investigation into the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC) – which keeps nearly 2,000 monkeys in barren steel cages and bleak, windowless rooms – found that highly intelligent animals were being neglected, driven mad by extreme long-term confinement, and attacked by their traumatised cagemates.

Severe Confinement, Constant Stress, and Mutilation

Monkeys at WNPRC spend every day and every night locked inside barren metal cages. They never feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or the earth beneath their feet. Stripped of their autonomy, they’re unable to make decisions regarding the most basic aspects of their lives. Constant, unremitting captivity causes these smart, sensitive animals extreme psychological distress, leading some to injure each other and themselves.

A baby monkey, named Cocoa by the PETA US investigator, was attacked by a severely stressed adult macaque, resulting in deep, painful cuts to her face.

Months later, her wounds still had not fully healed, and she clung to her mother in fear.

Incompatible animals were forced to live together in just a few square feet of space, and a monkey named Ellie lost part of her ear in a fight with a cagemate.

Amputations of parts of fingers, toes, and tails were a common result of the traumatic injuries sustained by monkeys in WNPRC’s care. A worker said that some of these highly intelligent animals were caged alone “because they’re a**holes ” who “beat the crap out of” each other – completely ignoring that the fights were a result of the monkeys’ unnatural, barren living conditions.

One frustrated monkey, known only as r12050, mutilated his own leg down to the muscle. With nothing to occupy his mind, he picked and scratched compulsively at the open wound.

“We’re not supposed to say they look depressed .”

Highly intelligent, social macaques – who, in their natural habitats, explore and roam vast grasslands and lush forests – paced, circled, and shrieked in the never-ending lockdown. One monkey, named Sainte, rocked continuously from side to side, all alone and miserable in a small cage.

When they weren’t being simply warehoused, animals were used in painful procedures and experiments.

Workers euphemistically referred to certain monkeys as “semen donors,” but they had certainly not volunteered for the painful process. Typically, the monkeys are fitted with metal collars, and workers use poles that fasten onto the collars to pull them out of their cages by the neck. The monkeys are then strapped into a restraint chair, and experimenters electroshock their penises until they ejaculate.

Many different types of experiments were being carried out at this facility. One experimenter bred monkeys infected with Zika and simian immunodeficiency virus, which is similar to HIV. Infant macaques were deprived of food overnight for “cognitive testing” and cried endlessly when separated from their companions. A supervisor said that experimenters attempted to infect marmosets—small, delicate monkeys—with COVID-19 but that “nothing happened.”

See the full PETA US investigation here.

Monkeys Are Used in Experiments in the UK, Too – Help Them

In 2019, 2,850 procedures using primates took place in the UK. It’s time to relegate such cruel experiments to the history books.

We must shift away from all procedures using animals.

Sign our petition to support PETA’s Research Modernisation Deal.

Workers Pry Baby Monkeys Away From Mothers, Electroshock Monkey Penises in Depraved Lab

Environmental, General News

Netherlands: Listen ! – Dutch Animal NGOs Call on Parliament for Better Fish Protection.

UK trawlers ignoring ban on discarding edible fish at sea | Fishing | The Guardian

Photo – The Guardian, London.

 

CIWF LOGO
Dierenbescherming LOGO
Vissenbescherming LOGO

Listen ! – Dutch animal NGOs call on Parliament for better fish protection

The Netherlands must pay much more attention to the welfare of fish when caught and when killed say Dutch animal advocates.  

In a joint letter, Eurogroup for Animals’ members Dierenbescherming, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and Vissenbescherming, together with many other animal welfare organisations, call on Members of the Dutch House of Representatives to place fish welfare at the heart of fisheries policy.

Fish suffer en masse in capture and killing.

Animals are oppressed in the nets, injured and often endure long, painful agony. While the House of Representatives will meet on fisheries this week, fish welfare is not on the agenda.

In a joint letter, Dierenbescherming, Vissenbescherming, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and other NGOs are calling for more research into new methods of catching and killing fish, whereby the animals have as little stress and pain as possible. 

Currently there is only one ship in service that stuns plaice before they are killed.

The majority of Dutch citizens believe that the welfare of fish should be better protected and they deserve the same protection as other animals. However, it is currently impossible to buy fish in the supermarket, where the fish welfare is sufficiently guaranteed.

Dierenbescherming recently showed in a new study that some supermarkets do want improvement for the fish, but that the options are limited.

Also with fish with a quality mark, such as MSC and ASC, welfare is hardly taken into account and the animals suffer on a large scale which prompted CIWF to start an international campaign where they call on the biggest fish labels to put an end to fishing suffering.

The government must now also take responsibility and commit to better treatment of fish. Among other things, by giving fish welfare an important place in the fisheries policy and investing in improvements for the animals.

Read more at source

FOK!

Regards Mark

Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

Denmark: The Killing Boxes Arrive to Murder at Least 2.5 MILLION Mink After Covid-19 was Reported on at Least 63 Danish Fur Farms. Other Farms to ‘Do It Themselves’ !

WAV Comment – “breeders who have non-infected animals on a farm within 8 kilometers (5 miles) of an infected farm must put them to sleep themselves”, said Flemming Kure Marker of the government agency.

So Danish authorities go from mass murderers to people who ‘put them to sleep’. Sounds so ok when said quickly. We are talking millions of deaths here – just so thhat ugly tarts can think they look better. Shame on the Danes for still doing the farming – shame on anyone who thinks they look better in a dead animal skin than the living animal themselves. Pathetic Denmark.

All data and photos from ‘Respect for Animals’ – Nottingham, England.

HOME

Slaughter on Denmark’s covid-hit fur farms

Photos depicting long lines of killing boxes being marched to fur farms have caused shock and anger in recent days. The devices are being used to gas mink after more coronavirus outbreaks on fur factory farms in Denmark.

Danish authorities have confirmed that veterinarians and farmers have begun slaughtering at least 2.5 million mink in northern Denmark after Covid-19 was reported on at least 63 farms.

Campaign Director of Respect for Animals, Mark Glover, said:

“This is shocking news and these images are greatly distressing. It should be clear to all that keeping animals in tiny, cramped, barren cages – and in appalling conditions- creates an environment for diseases to spread rapidly.

“I’ve seen many awful scenes on fur farms during my decades of campaigning, with terribly high levels of early mortality . Now we have major coronavirus outbreaks among factory farmed mink across Europe and in Utah, USA.

“Fur factory farming is a disaster for animal welfare. It must be banned.”

Full Coverage:

Photos depicting long lines of killing boxes being marched to fur farms have caused shock and anger around Europe.

The devices are being used to gas mink after more Covid outbreaks on fur factory farms in Denmark.

Danish veterinarians and farmers have begun slaughtering at least 2.5 million mink in northern Denmark, authorities have confirmed, after coronavirus was reported in at least 63 farms.

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration is handling the culling of the infected animals while breeders who have non-infected animals on a farm within 8 kilometers (5 miles) of an infected farm must put them to sleep themselves, said Flemming Kure Marker of the government agency.

Campaign Director of Respect for Animals, Mark Glover, said: “This is shocking news and these images greatly distressing. It should be clear to all that keeping animals in tiny, cramped, barren cages – and in terrible conditions- creates an environment for diseases to spread rapidly.

“I’ve seen many awful scenes on fur farms during my decades of campaigning, with terribly high levels of early mortality . Now we have major coronavirus outbreaks among factory farmed mink across Europe and in Utah, USA.

“Fur factory farming is a disaster for animal welfare. It must be banned.”

Scientists are exploring how the mink got infected and the extent to which they spread it to people. Some may have received the virus from infected workers. Dutch authorities say some farm workers later caught the virus back from the animals.

In August, the Netherlands brought forward the mandatory end of mink farming by three years to 2021 amid a huge outbreak f coronavirus infections at fur farms.

Regards Mark

Slaughter on Denmark’s Covid-hit fur farms

 

General News

Russia: inspector saves three Beluga whales! a great act of humanity!

Three stranded Beluga whales saved in remote Russian Far East after a dramatic solo rescue operation by hero local inspector

An inspector from Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has been hailed as a hero, after he saved a family of three Beluga whales – two adults and a young calf – left stranded on a Far Eastern beach on Thursday when the tide went out.

Alexey Paramonov said that when he arrived at the scene he saw the animals about 1.5 kilometers from the coast. One of the adults was in a dangerous position, lying on its side, so he dug a hole under the beluga and turned it over to the correct position, while also trying to protect the family from predators.

In order to prevent dehydration, he watered their skin and eyes, and, with nighttime temperatures below freezing, Paramonov also swaddled the baby to keep it warm.

Beluga whale

 

The dramatic incident occurred in the Khabarovsk region, a vast territory that borders China by land and is close to Japan by sea, over 6,000 kilometers east of Moscow. A local resident told the Emergencies Ministry at about 4.30 pm local time that the animals were stuck at the mouth of the Uda river, which flows into the Sea of Okhotsk, near the village of Chumikan.

The settlement, home to about 1,000 people, is so remote that it has never been connected to the national road network. Thus, access is possible only by sea (which is frozen for close to half the year), helicopter, or small plane. It is 480 kilometers from the nearest train station and almost 700 kilometers away from the city of Khabarovsk.

Paramonov remained with the stricken creatures long after it got dark, mindful of the threat from other animals and poachers.

At about midnight, when the high tide arrived, the whales safely returned to sea on their own.

Last year, Paramonov also rescued three belugas.

Back then three adults found themselves stranded in shallow water and came under attack from crows and gulls before the hero inspector came to their rescue.

https://www.rt.com/russia/503626-russia-beluga-whales-stranded/

 

And we say...Yay !! Finally some good news instead of the constant horror reports we read every day about animal suffering, caused by direct animal abuse, or by those who do nothing against it.

The systematic indifference of the authorities to animal suffering leads us to regard an inspector as a hero, simply because he has conscientiously done his duty to the three animals.

And it is actually a hero who saves animals today.

But most of the officials who get paid for it don’t even give a shit when it comes to an animal’s life.

In the name of the animals, we say thank you to Inspector Paramonov!

My best regards to all, Venus

 

Farm Animals

German Minister: on behalf of animal exploitation and they do the job well

In Baden-Württemberg, south Germany, a slaughterhouse had to close due to severe animal welfare deficiencies.

According to media reports, the Minister of Agriculture, Peter Hauk, intervened personally to suspend the fine against the operator.

A bitter article about this scandal from the SOKO animal welfare association
(for those who don’t remember: https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/10/08/germany-slaughterhouse-scandal-turns-into-a-political-thriller/)

“…. a pig breeding business that was reported months ago, and where nothing happened.

A slaughterhouse whose shortcomings were known for years and which was last personally protected by the Minister of Agriculture.

A slaughterhouse where the vets just watch how we do brutal force to the animals,
And: A Minister Hauk who does not see himself in any responsibility here.

Actually, he’s not far removed from tradition. Animal welfare – that has always been politically irrelevant. And the Ministry of Agriculture in particular is traditionally trying to make it easier for animal exploiters; animal welfare is systematically ignored and prevented.

The real scandal: people have become so accustomed to the fact that the interests of animals are trampled underfoot that even Minister Hauk creates the trick of not feeling responsible even in these entanglements.

Ministries of Agriculture and their associated ministers have consistently campaigned AGAINST animals.
They prevent the smallest concessions in animal welfare, enforce perpetual extension periods, and play into the hands of the animal exploitation industry.
These people act on behalf of animal exploitation and they do the job well”.

SOKO Tierschutz

 

And I mean…The district office had levied a fine against the slaughterhouse (which was closed in March 2020), which Minister Hauk suspended shortly thereafter.
After SOKO’s undercover investigation, pigs were brutally beaten and kicked, electric shock devices were used and the animals were stunned in an unprofessional and incorrect manner. The public prosecutor’s office is informed and determined.

Nevertheless: three days ago, in front of the Agriculture Committee, where he had to give an account of this corrupt and illegal act, Hauk said: He was not aware of any animal welfare violations at the time!!!

Such system structures are not normal but can be described as psychopathic. Mentally, morally, socially healthy people with decency do not engage in such disgusting, exploitative business.

Nevertheless: this system is firmly established, it is an established ideology of violence, has the authority, and is supported by all-important social institutions.

Our parents, school, church, media, or other educational institutions persuade us that eating meat is normal, natural, and necessary.
So we go on with it from childhood; without us, the animal holocaust would not exist.
No meat consumption – no slaughterhouse

What exacerbates the whole matter is the fact that an animal is a “thing” by law, so cruelty to animals is often punished as property damage – if at all.

Black smokers’ lungs are depicted on cigarette packets; How about dead pork or beef in an animal transport or a cow with its throat cut on the meat packaging?

But the meat mafia would never allow that.
Everything indicates that the meat mafia is stronger than the tobacco mafia.

My best regards to all, Venus