Month: March 2021

Hunting

France: the power of the hunters

“Hunters, if you want to save lives stay at home” we can read on the posters. At the bottom of this slogan, figures revealed by the French Biodiversity Office.

During the 2019-2020 season, 114 hunting accidents occurred,11 were fatal and 30 million animals were slaughtered.

“In 20 years the hunters have killed more than 400 people”!

This hobby is the only one to cause the death of non-participants (mountain bikers, walkers, some victims were killed at home)

71% of French people do not feel safe walking in nature during hunting season.

50% of hunting accidents occur on Sunday, a day of rest and leisure for a majority of French people

78% of French people are in favor of Sunday becoming a day without hunting.

In France, according to the National Union of Hunting Game Producers, 14 million pheasants and 5 million partridges are reared each year to be released a few hours before the hunt begins.

Thus, 9 out of 10 pheasants killed in hunting come from farms.

For the Foundation Brigitte Bardot… “these grain-raised animals serve as targets for hunters who engage in a real clay trap in a henhouse!”

Frankreich: Die Macht der Jäger - Panorama - SZ.de

The situation of these farms is so absurd that the deputies Guillaume Pelletier (LR) and Pascal Brindeau (UDI) intervened with the Minister of Agriculture to request the extension of the hunting period in order to be able to organize the slaughter, by hunters, game not released during the confinement period.

This shows how hunters are not managers but gravediggers of nature, their role is not to “regulate” species but simply to kill for the sake of killing.

The French are 77% in favor of recognizing the character of being sensitive for wild animals in order to allow them to benefit from legal protection (as is the case for domestic animals) during mistreatment and acts of cruelty.

The hunt? A morbid, archaic, destructive, useless, and dangerous leisure …

Text: Laurent Baheux

And I mean … 1.3 million hunters are registered in France. Just for comparison: The German Hunting Association currently has 397,414 hunting licenses.
If you add a wife to every hunter, because hunting remains a men’s hobby, you get two and a half million French voters who need to be courted.
Emmanuel Macron understood that.

Macron’s bows to the hunters are sometimes tangible, sometimes symbolic.
He has halved the price of the hunting license from 400 to 200 euros.
And he celebrated his 40th birthday in 2017 at Chambord Castle, the former royal, now legendary hunting ground.

On the night of his birthday party, Macron joined the hunters and their freshly shot boars.
Despite asking for discretion, the hunters proudly tweeted a photo of the Halali president around the world.

In Germany every year 5 million wild animals are shot, or killed in traps.

5 million animals every year – that’s 13,700 every day, 570 an hour, almost 10 animals a minute. Every 6 seconds an animal dies at the hands of a hunter.
The most hunted animal in Germany is the fox.

The justification for the 500,000 bloodbaths with foxes, which are actually only supposed to hide one’s own desire to kill, is rabies, which has been practically eradicated in Germany since 2008.

Theodor Heuss, the 1st President of the Federal Republic of Germany, put it in a nutshell about 50 years ago:
“Hunting is a subsidiary form of human mental illness“.

Whole job done: the result of a fox hunt. There should be people who get intoxicated at such a sight. And they are even allowed to run around freely …

Heuss was right! If you see these pictures, you agree with him.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News, Vegan Recipes

EU: STOP PLANT-BASED DAIRY CENSORSHIP – Petition, Please Support.

WAV Comment – we feel this a very important petition to support as it has huge implications throughout the EU regarding plant based dairy censorship.  Please give your support, thank you – petition link below.

STOP PLANT-BASED DAIRY CENSORSHIP

Dear European Commission and EU Member States, 

We want you to put a halt to plant-based dairy censorship

Please reject amendment 171. If adopted, it would totally counteract the consumer shift to more sustainable eating habits that’s urgently needed to fight climate change.

Dairy terms are already protected by law. Amendment 171 would go further and censor all use of dairy-related language, packaging, or imagery for plant-based foods. 

Words and phrases like “contains no dairy” or “creamy texture” might be banned. The same goes for a tweet or an advert mentioning scientific data showing that a product causes, for example, “half the carbon emissions of dairy butter”. Bizarrely, the amendment could even prohibit plant-based foods from using photos of their own products on packaging.

In this way, amendment 171 would not only hide information from consumers, but also hinder innovation and the emerging sustainable food sector. Altogether, it would be a huge reversal of the work done so far to meet the EU’s own goals on public health and sustainability, as agreed under the terms of the Paris Agreement. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, it’s a highly irresponsible move.

Please add your name and tell the European Union to stop plant-based censorship. 

Petition link:

Stop plant-based dairy censorship | Stop AM171 | ProVeg International

mark 3

Regards Mark

Farm Animals, General News, Hunting, Live Transport, Uncategorized, Vegan Recipes

England: Introducing Benjamin Zaphaniah – Poet, Animal Rights Advocate, Lifelong Vegan.

I have ‘loved’ (in a ‘blokey’ sort of way) ! Benjamin since I first saw him at a London animal rights demo decades ago.  So seeing him again the BBC this morning; I thought it was time to introduce him to you.  Here are a few shorts of his life and actions; a passionate animal rights advocate, he wrote the foreword to Keith Mann‘s book From Dusk ’til Dawn: An insider’s view of the growth of the Animal Liberation Movement

Dedicated – Yes;

do we want him – for sure.

Regards Mark

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958)[1] is a British writer and dub poet. He was included in The Times list of Britain’s top 50 post-war writers in 2008

Turning vegan at 13 Benjamin is pretty much a lifelong vegan. He is now 58 and as a busy performer, writer and with a passion for martial arts, he just naturally shows people what it is like being vegan and doesn’t “ram veganism down peoples throats”.

Zephaniah is an honorary patron of The Vegan Society,[12]

Viva! (Vegetarians’ International Voice for Animals),[13]

EVOLVE! Campaigns,[14] the anti-racism organisation Newham Monitoring Project with whom he made a video[15] in 2012 about the impact of Olympic policing on black communities, Tower Hamlets Summer University and is an animal rights advocate.

In 2004, he wrote the foreword to Keith Mann‘s book From Dusk ’til Dawn: An insider’s view of the growth of the Animal Liberation Movement, a book about the Animal Liberation Front.

In August 2007, he announced that he would be launching the Animal Liberation Project, alongside People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.]

He became a vegan when he read poems about “shimmering fish floating in an underwater paradise, and birds flying free in the clear blue sky”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Zephaniah

https://benjaminzephaniah.com/poetic-thoughts/ https://animaladvocacy.fandom.com/wiki/Benjamin_Zephaniah

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

EU, Togo, Spain: How Nearly 3,000 Cattle Came to be Stranded at Sea for Three (3) Months. The Photos Say Everything About Their ‘Concerns’ For Animal Welfare.

WAV Comment – I don’t think there is much to say – the disgusting photographs on conditions on ship say it all for us.

The Guardian, London – with thanks for brilliant journalism as always !

All of our posts re Live Exports can be found via the following:

Live Transport – World Animals Voice

Regards Mark – the fight for justice goes on !!

How nearly 3,000 cattle came to be stranded at sea for three months | Live exports | The Guardian

How nearly 3,000 cattle came to be stranded at sea for three months

After being refused entry to several countries on health grounds, the surviving animals were ordered back to Spain for slaughter

Read more: Stranded cattle ship ordered to dock in Spain after ‘hellish’ three months at sea

After more than three months stranded in the Mediterranean, the surviving bulls onboard a livestock ship were humanely slaughtered by the Spanish authorities in Cartagena on Sunday. An official Spanish veterinary report described dire conditions onboard the Elbeik, on which 179 bulls had already died.

The Elbeik and a second livestock ship, the Karim Allah, had been refused entry to multiple countries on health grounds. We look back on the events that shaped this “hellish ride”.

18 December 2020
Two livestock ships, the Karim Allah and the Elbeik, leave Spain bound for Turkey loaded with young Spanish bulls. The Karim Allah departs from the port of Cartagena carrying almost 900 animals and the Elbeik leaves from Tarragona with nearly 1,800.

27-29 December
The Karim Allah arrives in Turkey on 27 December and the Elbeik on 29 December. Both ships are refused entry due to fears the bulls may be infected with a bovine disease called bluetongue. The shippers blame a mistake on health certificates issued by Spain’s agriculture ministry; the ministry denies this. On 1 January, the Karim Allah leaves the Turkish port of İskenderun and the Elbeik leaves from another Turkish port, Derince.

6 January
The Karim Allah arrives in the Libyan port of Tripoli on 6 January and departs again on 9 January with all the bulls onboard, after being refused permission to unload.

9 January
The Elbeik arrives in Tripoli on 9 January and leaves again on 25 January, after also being refused permission to unload. The ship’s next port of call is Alexandria, Egypt, arriving on 1 February and leaving on 4 February.

27 January
The Karim Allah reaches the Italian port of Augusta, Sicily, and leaves again on 29 January.

19 February
The Karim Allah arrives in Sardinian waters near the port of Cagliari. On the same day, the Elbeik anchors off the coast of northern Cyprus, near the port of Famagusta. Animal welfare organisations call for vets to visit the ships. Cypriot vets are placed on standby to check the animals but neither ship approaches or requests veterinary assistance.

22 February
The Karim Allah returns to waters near Cartagena, Spain, but does not enter. The shippers plan to have the cattle’s blood tested and, if the animals are cleared of any disease risk, to re-export them. The shipper says the Spanish agriculture ministry has said the animals “face immediate slaughter” if the ship docks.

25 February
The Spanish agriculture ministry’s deadline for the Karim Allah to slaughter its cattle expires. A legal tussle ensues as the shippers try to block an official Spanish slaughter order.

26 February
An official Spanish vet report dated 26 February finds 22 of the Karim Allah bulls died at sea, with two corpses still on board. The report notes that other corpses were chopped up and thrown overboard during the journey. It concludes that the animals suffered from the lengthy journey, were generally unwell and not fit for transport outside the EU, nor should they be allowed into the EU for disease-control reasons. Euthanasia would be the best solution, it says. The report does not say if the cattle have bluetongue, but it notes a range of other skin, eye and leg conditions including alopecia, flaking, scabs and joint inflammation compatible with septic arthritis.

6 March
The legal tussle ends and the slaughter of the Karim Allah bulls by Spanish officials begins on 6 March. By 9 March, all the Karim Allah bulls are dead.

18 March
Under orders from Spanish officials, the Elbeik finally returns to port in Cartagena three months after it left Spain, following stops near Cyprus, in Greece, to stock up on supplies, and off the coast of Menorca.

19 March
Spanish veterinary officials complete and sign a report describing dire welfare conditions onboard the Elbeik. The report cites the Elbeik’s captain as saying that, of the 1,789 bulls originally loaded, 179 died during the journey. The bodies were chopped up and thrown overboard. Ten other carcasses were also found on board, the report says, and of the remaining animals, some are dying, while others are starving and extremely dehydrated. In some pens, it notes, “the crew had placed fodder in the corral in a way that the starving animals were forced to eat on the corpses of their companions”. The urine and manure buildup covers the animals’ hooves, it says, leaving them without dry areas to lie down.

22 March
A separate veterinary inspection, conducted on behalf of the Elbeik cattle owners, found that only 136 of the bulls required immediate euthanasia. The rest, it said, could recover after a period of rest and adequate feeding if cleared of the risk of bluetongue or other diseases.

28 March
The last of 1,610 surviving bulls from the Elbeik are slaughtered in the port of Cartagena. Spain’s agriculture ministry says it has forwarded the veterinary report to the public prosecutor on the basis that “the facts described therein could constitute indications of a possible offence in relation to the current legislation on animal welfare”. The cattle owner, who does not wish to be named, has disputed the findings of the report.

Arrival and departure times for the Elbeik and the Karim Allah were supplied by Marine Traffic.

EU revealed to be world’s biggest live animal exporter

Read more

General News

Jo-Anne McArthur: the most important animal photographer of our time

When it comes to animal activism, I’ve always believed the most powerful tools we have as activists are undercover investigations. The truth is that the majority of animal cruelty at the hands of humans is done for major industries behind closed doors.

Joe-Anne MacArthur

From animal farming for food and textiles to zoos and circuses to laboratories, etc. – all of these industries know that if the public saw how they regularly mistreat animals, people would be outraged.

It’s why you can’t just walk up to a factory farm or an animal testing facility, knock on the door, and ask for a tour. It’s why states across the US have passed ag-gag laws that attempt to criminalize undercover investigations.

It’s also why Ringling Bros. is out of business.

While undercover operations carried out by brave animal activists have been going on for decades, there is one activist I’d specifically like to spotlight: Jo-Anne McArthur.

Even if you’ve never heard her name, you’ve likely seen her photographs. McArthur’s award-winning, powerful and haunting work has been featured in National Geographic, HuffPost, and Photolife – among many other media outlets.
Her subject? Animals in the human environment. For more than a decade, McArthur has traveled to over 40 countries documenting how animals are exploited by humans for food, clothing, entertainment, research, and more.

Continue reading “Jo-Anne McArthur: the most important animal photographer of our time” →

General News

Rats are sentient too

Rat Meat: In just about every country around the globe there are people eating Rat corpses for pleasure or survival necessity.
West Virginia, USA & Mexico have “Rat Stew”, “Caldo de Rata” there is also Rat Jerky.
The USA citizen in the cooking photo especially enjoys eating Rat testicles.

In Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Laos, China, Cambodia, etc, etc, Rats can sometimes be seen on restaurant menus.

Some people in Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia, Africa, South, Central & North America, and Europe enjoy eating Rats.

Rats from the forested wild, near wineries or grain farms, are preferred to sewer Rats, graveyard Rats & garbage dump Rats.
Buying live Rats or Rat corpses in open markets is risky because one never knows where the Rats lived and what they actually fed on.
Rats like people can survive on eating just about anything & everything.
There is a better way, a kinder way, a healthier way.

Source: Scott Young

And I mean…Yes, the whole thing is absolutely weird and disturbing, and no, it doesn’t just apply to the rats.
This affects all sentient animals.
Is severing a pig’s leg more painful than severing a rat?

If I see the infliction of pain as negative and accordingly try to avoid it, then it is consistent to do this to all living beings with pain perception.
It then makes no difference whether these creatures are humans, rats, dogs, or cattle.


In view of the masses of animal products consumed in Germany, we do not need any sharp criticism of “THE other” food cultures, the so-called exotic ones.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals

Germany: Hell of fire in Europe’s largest pig fattening

BREAKING NEWS: The facility known as the largest pig breeding facility in Europe is located in Germany and was part of the Straathof group of companies.

Now the plant in Alt Tellin is burning down and with it thousands of innocent creatures! They cannot escape the flames, the heat, and the smoke and die excruciatingly in these minutes!

The former owner Straathof had received a nationwide professional ban due to numerous criminal violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
He had therefore initially sold the system to a bank holding company and this last year to a Swiss mailbox company.
Again and again, there were massive scandals in Alt Tellin: one time highly toxic sulfuric acid escaped and another time over a thousand piglets died due to defective ventilation.

The lawsuits against the approval of the facility have been delayed since 2017! A massive judicial scandal could be hiding here.
Because fire protection was presumably not guaranteed right from the start and the system should therefore never have been approved.

Now the horror that was, unfortunately, to be expected has occurred – the farm is on fire.
Like so many animal husbandry facilities before!
Factory farming is a crime because it is systematically designed to unlawfully torture animals and expose them to risk.
Any form of factory farming must therefore be stopped immediately! No ifs and buts!

+++Last message today, March 30: Old Telliner pig fattening pigs facility can no longer be saved.

The devastating fire in the pig fattening Alt Tellin has spread to other parts of the barn, some have already collapsed. The facility, in which, according to the Schwerin Ministry of Agriculture, around 50,000 piglets and 9,000 sows were kept, has been almost completely destroyed. Many animals died.

How many died in the flames is still unclear. The emergency services assume that the majority – thousands – should be.

German animal protection party

And I mean…Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Agriculture and Environment Minister Till Backhaus describes the incident as a tragedy in a press release: “We cannot imagine the suffering of animals in such a fire. And I have always said that we do not want such facilities” !!

So… Mr. Backhaus,
You don’t want such facilities!!
This facility with 50,000 piglets and around 9,000 mother sows should not have been approved because of the fire protection in size.
Animal welfare organizations and others took legal action in 2011 against this facility, which in no way corresponds to fire protection.

Straathof, Alt Tellin pig breeding with piglets (2015)

In 2018 the court adjourned and nothing happened.
Both the judiciary and other authorities are involved here and they all looked the other way!

Inaction in office because of lobbying to the animal industry, there we must see the cause of this cruelty, and those who covered up and participated, regardless of the reasons, must be held accountable.

It is a crime, no other words can be found!
There is also a large biogas plant in the immediate vicinity, which has apparently also been approved. What more can the Minister tell us about this?

Of course, now everyone is outraged and is talking about a tragedy .. no, it’s not a tragedy, it’s a crime.

In the case of Corona, all ministers are quickly at hand with instructions and regulations, but in the agribusiness industry, they shut up and obey …

My best regards to all, Venus

General News

don’t be racist

Dana Ellyn

“Man is evil and irrational
The malignancy is – besides the stupidity – the more fundamental property: the irrationality often serves to cover up the malevolence”

(Helmut F. Kaplan, animal ethicist)

good night, Venus

Environmental, General News

Mexico: “GM corn, and glyphosate, are undesirable and unnecessary”-Great!

Mexico proceeds with plan to replace 16mn tonnes of GM corn with homegrown variety
Deputy minister describes GM corn and glyphosate, which is also being banned, as ‘undesirable and unnecessary’

The federal government will go ahead with its plan to stop importing genetically modified (GM) corn and replace it with homegrown maize, according to Deputy Agriculture Minister Víctor Suárez.

Suárez: Sustainable “agro-ecological” practices must take priority.

The official also told the news agency Reuters that the government is sticking to its plan to ban glyphosate, a controversial herbicide.

The government announced by executive order on the final day of 2020 that it aims to replace approximately 16 million tonnes of yellow corn imports – most of which comes from the United States and almost all of which is GM corn – with new, local production by 2024, the final year of the current administration’s six-year term.

The imports account for more than a third of Mexican demand for corn and are mostly used as livestock fodder.

Replacing the imports by 2024 with homegrown corn would require an almost 60% increase over current domestic production levels.

ARCHIV – Protesters from 14.09.2016 +++(c) dpa – Bildfunk+++

Suárez, an agronomist, a long-term ally of President López Obrador, and a key architect of the executive order, told Reuters that GM corn and glyphosate, the active ingredient in the Monsanto herbicide Roundup, are too dangerous to be permitted long term in Mexico.

He said that Mexican agricultural production and sustainable “agro-ecological” practices must take priority.

“We are moving in this direction, and this must be clear: no one should think that they can bet that this decree will not be implemented,” Suárez said.

The deputy minister cited studies that have linked glyphosate to cancer and found that it is harmful to bees and other pollinators. He also claimed that GM corn contaminates native strains of the grain that have long been cultivated in Mexico.

Continue reading “Mexico: “GM corn, and glyphosate, are undesirable and unnecessary”-Great!” →

General News, Live Transport

Investigation: Live Horse Exports to Japan From Canada and France for Human Consumption. 28 Hours Without Food or Water.

WAV Comment – Brilliant as always – ‘The Guardian’, London.  They have recently undertaken so much work on live animal exports – well done them !

Now they help to expose the trade in live horses to Japan from Canada and France for human (meat) consumption.

Live animal exports are a major issue at the moment; we will continue to support the campaigns and to expose all issues whenever we can.

Regards Mark

Protests at ‘inhumane’ export of live horses to Japan for food

Some of the 40,000 horses flown to Japan in similar crates from Canada since 2013. Canadian law allows them to be exported without food, rest or even water for up to 28 hours.
Some of the 40,000 horses flown to Japan in similar crates from Canada since 2013. Canadian law allows them to be exported without food, rest or even water for up to 28 hours. Photograph: Canadian Horse Defence Coalition

Activists seek ban on flying horses to Japan with thousands sent every year from Canada and France

Protests at ‘inhumane’ export of live horses to Japan for food | Animal welfare | The Guardian

Tens of thousands of horses are being subjected to long-haul flights, confined in crates with no food or water, to meet demand for horsemeat in Japan.

Since 2013, about 40,000 live horses have been flown to Japan from airports in western Canada. Under Canadian regulations, the journey can stretch up to 28 hours, during which the animals are allowed to go without food, water or rest.

The multimillion-pound global trade in fresh horsemeat to Japan is dominated by Canada and France. The little-known sector has burst into public view in Canada in recent years, fuelled by footage captured by campaigners of the near-weekly flights.

The footage prompted one vet, Judith Samson-French, to travel to the Calgary airport three times to see for herself what was happening. “As a veterinarian, I did not like what I saw,” she said. “These horses have not been trained nor conditioned for this kind of transport.”

She watched as the horses were loaded, in groups of three or four, into wooden crates that leave just the top of the animal visible. “You hear them in the crates,” said Samson-French. “There’s a lot of kicking going on there.”

At times, the horses appeared to be too tall to comfortably fit into the crates, she said. “These are big horses,” she added. “It’s absolutely impossible for a horse to lay down in those crates.”

She worried that the crating of horses, combined with the animals’ high centre of gravity, could prove dangerous on a plane.

Once they land in Japan, the horses are taken to a government quarantine facility for 10 days. From there, they are moved to feedlots to be fattened up for up to a year before being slaughtered to meet demand for popular delicacies such as basashi, a dish of raw, thinly sliced pieces of horsemeat dipped in soy sauce and served with ginger.

Between 25% and 40% of Japan’s horsemeat comes from imported animals, often in an attempt to save on the high cost of feeding horses, according to research carried out by the consultancy Williams & Marshall Strategy.

In 2019 Canada provided 71% of the live horse imports to Japan, in statistics that exclude purebred horses for breeding, followed by France at 21%

Canadian government figures show exports to Japan of live horses for slaughter began picking up in 2000 with the sale of 96 animals, worth C$231,000. A year later, the value of these exports had risen more than fivefold; by 2018 it was worth more than C$20m (£11.5m).

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