A French fashion house has teamed up with Northern Territorian (NT) Mick Burns to buy a former garden farm near Darwin that will be building Australia’s largest crocodile farm.
The Northern Territory’s crocodile farming industry (NT) will be given a major boost with the finalization of a land deal outside Darwin where a $40 million development is planned.
Important points:
-The proposed farm will house up to 50,000 saltwater crocodiles and was purchased for $ 7.25 million
-During full production, 30 people will be employed on the farm -Hermès and Louis Vuitton control most of the NT crocodile farms and prefer Australian saltwater crocodiles
PRI Farming – ultimately controlled by French high fashion label Hermès – has bought The Sweet Life, a former melon and banana farm in Lambells Lagoon, for $ 7.25 million.
The Lambells Lagoon fruit and vegetable farm.
A veteran of the NT crocodile farming industry, Mick Burns,is the director of PRI Farming along with three French nationals who are also directors of Hermès.
The company plans to build a facility for 50,000 saltwater crocodiles to be raised for skin and meat products.
The stated development costs amount to around 40 million US dollars.
The proposed crocodile farm is said to be Australia’s largest crocodile farm.
If Burns’ plan is carried out, it will increase the number of crocodiles bred in the NT by 50 percent.
Hermès’ crocodile leather handbags can sell for over $ 30,000. (Supplied: Mario Anzuoni / REUTERS)
French fashion labels Hermès and Louis Vuittonown or control the vast majority of crocodile farms in the NT.
“They look for the crocodile eggs in the Northern Territory, raise them on their own farms – according to their own standards – and these standards are very high because the skin of the animals must not be damaged so that a very high-quality product can be made from it,” explains Geoff McClure, a crocodile farm advisor, to “ABC”.
Both Hermès and Louis Vuitton tend not to put their crocodile farm holdings in the spotlight – none of their websites mention they are in the industry.
“ABC” Rural believes that crocodile farmers who have been bought up by luxury brands often do not need to talk about sales through nondisclosure agreements.
According to McClure, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton like Australian saltwater crocodiles because they have “more scales per unit area on their stomach” (!!!)
“The NT was traditionally the home of crocodile breeding due to climatic factors – it’s warmer there,” he said.
“In the NT the egg harvest is well established … and the number of eggs that can be removed under license is increasing. Hence, there is some certainty about the consistency of egg supply that you will not get in Queensland or Western Australia.
In 2018/2019, over 24,600 crocodile skins were exported from the NT, according to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), with the industry valued at $ 26.7 million for the NT economy.
This means high income for the Australian region, as it is a growing industry that is also interesting for tourists, the report said.
Mick Burns, the director of PRI Farming declined ABC Rural’s request for comment.
And I mean…That the human species completely disrupts the natural order is undeniable – the depth and scope of our crimes are unpredictable and incalculable.
We would therefore like to thank the pandemics for intervening and perhaps achieving what we are currently unable to do – namely, weakening or even stopping the crimes of the most dangerous and vicious predators.
Ducks sold by Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco by were brutally hung from shackle lines and dragged by their heads, necks, and wings while still alive in a series of violent breaches of guidelines caught on camera.
Workers were filmed rough-handling ducks, ramming them with force into the shackles.
Staff at the Red Tractor-endorsed Gressingham Duck – which also supplies the Co-op, Asda and Morrisons – even used live ducks to hit torn-off birds’ feet from the shackles, investigators claim.
Several workers were seen yelling heatedly at one another, which experts say led to their aggressively manhandling the ducks – many of which are thought to be destined for freezing ahead of Christmas dinners.
The Co-op suspended Gressingham as a supplier after seeing the footage, and others said they were launching investigations.
Food standards chiefs are to investigate the allegations against the company, which is the UK’s largest duck producer, killing around eight million birds a year.
Undercover footage reveals ducks being grabbed roughly by workers from crates, hung upside down and sent along shackle lines into an electrical waterbath, according to the Animal Justice Project (AJP) group, which filmed inside the slaughterhouse.
Use of shackles is legal, but government farm animal welfare advisers called in 2009 for live shackling to be phased out, saying it “may cause considerable pain and distress”.
But rough handling, causing birds distress and pulling them by their body parts all break codes on animal welfare at slaughter – which is illegal.
The investigators claim they saw “a staggering” 15 breaches of EU, UK government and Red Tractor guidelines in just one day at the Suffolk-based abatare poultry processing plant” with “no clear evidence of abuse or neglect”.
Sales of duck and geese had been predicted to rise this Christmas with the “rule of six” meaning smaller family gatherings.
AJP claims ducks arrived at the slaughterhouse with huge sores and in filthy crates.
“Workers were caught on camera brutalising and rough-handling ducks, ramming them with force into shackles, which is likely to cause extra pain and injury to their delicate legs. Ducks were also filmed being grabbed and dragged by their heads or necks, one leg and wings across crates. Another breach of guidelines,” said spokeswoman Claire Palmer.
The birds are seen in the video sometimes still flapping as they are sent to an electrical waterbath – practices the group says are condemned by UK and European authorities. “Shackling and involuntary inversion appeared to cause the ducks significant distress,” said Ms Palmer.
Once on the shackles, video footage showed some birds were left hanging for two periods well over the legal time limit of two minutes: once for at least 14 minutes and once for almost 12 minutes, investigators say.
The European Food Safety Authority, as well as the Farm Animal Welfare Council, has urged that live shackling and waterbath stunning be replaced as soon as possible “to spare birds from severe welfare consequences”.
The Food Standards Agency said it would seize Gressingham’s CCTV to inspect it.
Guidelines say people must not drag animals by the head, ears, tail or handle them in a way that would cause pain or suffering; birds being shackled must be relaxed and not touch each other or be distressed, and poultry must not get a shock before touching a waterbath.
Alick Simmons, former UK government deputy chief vet and former Food Standards Agency veterinary director, said: “The video shows a cramped hanging-on bay and a slaughter line being run too quickly for the available space, resulting in the ducks being frequently handled inhumanely and without due care.
“Operatives argue with each other; they are distracted and hence take poor care.
“Shackled birds are allowed to touch each other meaning that birds further up the line will receive pre-stun non-lethal shocks.”
The New Zealand town of Punakaiki has decided to turn off the lights in the next few weeks. The aim is to help save an endangered seabird whose only known breeding site is in the immediate vicinity of the small community. 🐦
Specifically, the street lights on a 3.4-kilometer stretch on the South Island will remain switched off at night until the New Year, the authorities said on Wednesday.
The reason: juveniles of the Westland petrel, classified as endangered, could lose their orientation due to the lights.
Especially bright lights could cause the animals to crash land, said Bruce Stuart-Menteath, spokesman for the Westland Petrel Conservation Trust, which is committed to protecting birds.
Some of them were seriously injured or were run over by cars.
Spotting the lanterns is a “fantastic” initiative for the birds, who normally can’t get off the level ground, said Stuart-Menteath.
The breeding season lasts from April to December. The birds are only active on land at night.
WAV comment – having argued the case for animals in transport for over 30 years whilst also calling for a ban on live exports; we have always declared that the EU is utterly useless at enforcing (its own) legislation when it comes to live animal transports. The video here; the first of 3; shows this.
EU = junk = animal abuse.
Welfarm to release three shocking videos to call for a long-overdue end to the export of live animals
12 November 2020
WELFARM
It only takes three videos for Welfarm, Animals International and Animal Welfare Foundation to show the French government the horrifying state of play of what exporters and livestock breeders do to animals they export to North Africa and the Middle East.
From European ports to Lebanese slaughterhouses to Moroccan cattle markets – four NGOs captured the dreadful fate of the thousands of French cows shipped across the Mediterranean every week. These investigations will be released by Welfarm over the next three weeks.
In a petition to the French government, Welfarm calls for the suspension of live animal exports to third countries. “The Ministry of Agriculture, exporters, breeders and the port of Sète are aware of these violations, yet they continue to export animals” states Adeline Colonat from Welfarm. And for good reason as cattle exports generated nearly 1.5 billion euros in 2018, of which 118 million went to third countries.
“France cannot even detect and solve problems in its own slaughterhouses, so how can we imagine that we can have the slightest influence on what happens on the other side of the Mediterranean? The truth is that France no longer has any control as soon as the animals leave our soil. The only way to avoid their suffering is not to send them there alive. ”
Eurogroup for Animals and its members urge the EU to stop live transport especially to Third Countries and to prepare a strategy to shift to a meat and carcasses and genetic material only trade.
Video 1: Death before boarding the boat
The first video of the investigation series is from July 2020 and sets the scene in Port of Cartagena, Spain, which calls itself a “pioneer in animal welfare”: A cattle with fractured legs is dragging itself along the foot of a ship. Born in the Puy-de-Dôme, exported to Spain for fattening, it is to be shipped to Libya.
A tractor will have to drag the paralysed and screaming animal into a lorry. Heading for the slaughterhouse. By law, it should have been euthanised on the spot, but in this case, it would be impossible to profit from his meat… Like this cattle, 425,000 French cattle are exported every year to Spain for fattening. How many then embark in Cartagena? “It’s impossible to say since they disappear from French statistics”, explains Adeline Colonat, head of the project team on transport in Welfarm, “but we are the leading supplier of cattle to Spain, which in turn is the leading exporting country in Europe.”
Maria Boada (Animal Welfare Foundation), who captured these images alongside Animals International and Welfarm explains further: “In European ports as well as in Third Countries, the lack of controls, infrastructures and sanctions is disastrous for animals. The presence of a veterinarian is not even compulsory on board of ships leaving the EU. Thousands of animals are deprived of care for days or even weeks”
Today, 12/11/20, we at WAV have written to the Danish Ambassador in London; Ambassador Lars Thuesen, to express our concerns regarding the current situation (re Mink) in Denmark and generally its involvement in being a very big player in the fur industry.
We reproduce an un edited copy of our letter here for you to read. Despite wanting to loose it sometimes; we have remained polite but expressed our views and possible future actions quite openly. Hopefully, the letter makes it clear where we stand on the issue of fur farming and that we will continue to fight for a complete ban anywhere that it still continues.
Also enclosed in our letter to the ambassador were a few pictures of the current mink ‘burial’ situation and one picture of the whale slaughter in the Faroe islands – just to keep him aware that this still goes on in Danish territory; the nation which he represents.
When, and if we get a response to our letter, then we will naturally publish for you all to read.
Regards Mark and Venus.
The letter is as follows; un edited from the original:
Dear Ambassador Thuesen – Danish Ambassador to the United Kingdom, London;
I write to you as the co founder of ‘World Animals Voice’ which is located here in England and also in Germany – https://worldanimalsvoice.com/
From the start of the problems in Denmark, we have been following and reporting daily on the issue of mink farming and culling as a result of the Covid virus. You can see all of our posts via this link: https://worldanimalsvoice.com/?s=denmark+mink
The association with the fur industry, and the involvement of Denmark in the fur trade and on the issue of fur farming is a shame on your nation.
There was an international shock last week when Denmark decided to cull all its mink – over 17 million animals, because of the spread of coronavirus and ‘mutations’ which stem from fur farming. That national (Danish) mink cull has turned into a political outcry now that the Prime Minister has admitted the plan was rushed through and had no legal basis. Basic issues which national governments should be associated with and which do not present Denmark as a respected and world leading nation which we, as Europeans, know it is.
As Danish politicians continue to argue over the mass murder of millions of minks, huge grave trenches are appearing in the Danish countryside which are / will be filled with the sentient, slaughtered animals. As there are far too many animals to incinerate; which amounts to millions, we also question the issue of water contamination to the Danish citizens by the burial in the ground of so many mink carcasses.
Basically, the fur industry and fur farming has had its day. As the ambassador to the UK, you may (or may not) be aware that the UK was the second country (after Austria) in Europe to ban fur farming in 2000; something which we as an animal welfare organisation are very proud of. This achievement strengthens our commitment to take up the side in defence of being voices for suffering animals.
Denmark adopted legislation in 2007 to improve the welfare of fur-bearing animals that included a number of welfare improvements for foxes on fur farms. In 2009, Denmark passed a ban on fox farming, with a phase-out period that lasted until 2017 for a majority of farms, and a longer period until 2023 for farms where the main income originates from fox farming. Unfortunately; and to their shame; Denmark farms more than just fox animals for their fur – being ‘home’ to more than 1,000 fur farms.
The Danish fur industry had a reported turnover of almost $1bn (£750m) in 2018-19; with many furs being sold to the garment industry, but with also some being used in some false eyelash products, with China and Hong Kong in particular providing some of the biggest markets.
Danish animal rights groups such as ‘Animal Protection Denmark’ (APD) believe it is now time to follow the example of several other European countries and phase out the trade of animal fur and its farming completely. We as an organisation give APD our full support and will continue to name, shame and expose to the world all the suffering of the fur industry which takes place on Danish fur farms. As mentioned above; we have a large global audience who can continue to be informed of the wrongdoings of Denmark.
I suggest to you sir; that despite the ‘waffle and jargon’ put out by the Danish led fur industry and its farmers; you, as a nation (Denmark), are actually putting national financial gain way ahead of undertaking adequate animal welfare. With a fur trade turnover of almost $1bn (£750m) and the sudden / proposed culling of over 17 million sentient fur bearing mink animals, how can you as a representative of your nation’s government deny to me that finance comes way before animal welfare ?
With these figures of financial profit and the mass murder of animals, we can only decree that in this respect, Denmark is a very sick nation. With your undertakings in both fur farming and the mass killing of animals, be it farming or culling, you bring huge shame on yourselves; on the EU, and shame on the decent people of Denmark who are attempting to eradicate this ‘fur farming disease’ from your nation.
Covid-19 originally came from a wild animal, worked its way through disgusting ‘wet markets’ in the Far East; was then transmitted to humans and, later, passed on to farmed mink, before jumping back to a number of humans.
Several different mutations have been discovered in the virus found in mink that do not arise in humans. But one called “Cluster 5” is of particular concern, as at least 12 people are known to have caught it in Denmark. More than 200 other people have contracted other mink-related strains of the virus. This sir, is all as a simple result of Denmark wishing to undertake massive fur farming. It could easily be said that you, as a nation, are now reaping what you sowed many years ago. The innocent farmed animals have now finally struck back; and you have no answers to this strike back; other than to do mass killings. Why don’t you do something with long term positive results and ban fur farming ?
Scientists from Slaten’s Serum Institute in Copenhagen recently raised the alert after detecting mutations in strains of coronavirus found in mink. “Mutation happens all the time, but once in a while these mutations happen in the spike protein,” said Prof. Anders Fomsgaard, SSI’s head of virus research.
That spike protein of the coronavirus is the target of some vaccines in development. “So we are a little nervous once we see mutations that change amino acids and the shape of this protein,” it was reported to the BBC.
Again; and I say clearly and openly; you are now reaping what you sowed all those years ago by undertaking fur farming, and your association and ‘very deep’ relationship with the fur business.
I close by telling you formally, here in writing, that we (WAV) as an organisation, will never stop exposing and reporting on the cruelties and suffering inflicted daily on millions of sentient animals in the Danish fur farming business.
You, Denmark, as a nation have a simple choice; you can stop and abolish all fur farming and associations with the fur business; or otherwise continue to reap the bad national publicity (such as now) as you are getting from us and other organisations worldwide by simply continuing to associate Denmark with its allies in the fur trade.
The choice is a simple one; and we hope that you undertake the former and utterly abolish the trade. If you do not; then you have a big fight in the future; and we are very happy to be part of that fight for those who have no voice; the fur bearing animals which you continue to cause suffering to each and every day.
Get back Denmark the respect that it truly deserves and do not associate yourselves with a barbaric and disgusting reputation of being one of the world’s major players in the fur farming and animal abuse business.
You have a choice – please make it the right one !
World Animals Voice 