In autumn 2020 we were on the road together with the “Robin Hood” association(www.robinhood-tierschutz.at) in Slovakia;
The aim of the company was to find a company that apparently operates an active puppy trade.
We noticed the company because of a gaudy website – a serious-looking homepage, then also very professionally made, namely promises great dog luck!
But it immediately catches the eye – this is where the high-level business is done.
From the Akita Inu to the West Highland Terrier, there are all conceivable dog breeds available to order, the animal children are even delivered directly to the house.
The prices for a young life, from 700 euros upwards plus 300 euros for delivery, are relatively high for Eastern conditions (should also represent a ‘quality feature’) but are still only a fraction of those that would have to be paid at the breeder’s site.
In any case, Elitdog – that’s what the soul trader calls itself – is popular and undoubtedly enjoys high earnings.
The fact that these are at the expense of other living beings is, of course, at best a side note of the story for the operators.
The Slovak village, in which the animal traders are based, looks shaken by existence; small single-family houses are lined up, a clear town center is not recognizable.
No structure, prosperity has taken a break. The “big, wide world” happens elsewhere, a life apart from the stream of history.
Our local favourite brother-sister vegan butcher duo will open their second brick-and-mortar later this year. Herbie Butcher’s Fried Chicken is set to open late spring from Aubry and Kale Walch, the pioneering siblings behind The Herbivorous Butcher. The new location on 48th and Chicago in South Minneapolis (735 East 48th Street) will provide comforting and homestyle classics including vegan fried chicken biscuit sandwiches, mac and cheese, seasonal sides, milkshakes, malts, and a fried chicken bucket.
Co-founder Kale Walch said, “Our mission has always been to try to save the world by bridging the gap for omnivores that haven’t quite made the full jump to veganism yet. By making vegan meats and cheeses that are even better than what they were used to, we start to accomplish just that. Herbie Butcher’s Fried Chicken continues our brand’s mission by making a fried chicken that won’t leave anyone questioning if a plant-based lifestyle is possible without sacrificing the foods we love.”
This is second major win for Kale and Aubry Walch who recently stood up to big-time conglomerate Nestlé. Nestlé aimed to trademark “The Original Vegan Butcher,” “The Vegan Butchers,” and “Vegan Butcher,” but met opposition from the siblings and eventually backed down, giving up all claims. Twin Cities residents know that the Herbivorous Butcher’s homemade meat-free meats and dairy-free cheeses are deserving of the term “vegan butcher,” one they have proudly embodied since opening in 2016. Now that Nestlé will not own these titles, it benefits and allows small businesses everywhere to use them.
Announcing a vegan fried chicken concept and trademark victory in less than the span of a month this early in the year is the bit of good news we’ve all been waiting for.
Cultured meat from Eat Just – which debuted in Singapore last year Credit: Eat Just
‘Cultivated meat presents as an achievable low-carbon, cost-competitive agricultural technology that can play role in achieving a carbon-neutral food system’
Cultivated meat, compared with conventional beef, can slash global warming impacts by up to 92 percent, states a new study.
Researchers from CE Delft also found cell-based meat could cause 93 percent less air pollution and use up to 95 percent less land and 78 percent less water.
The studies model a future large-scale cultivated meat production facility. It shows that by 2030, the cost of cell-based meat, when manufactured at scale, could drop to $5.66 per kg.
The LCA analyzes various scenarios. This includes the adoption of renewable energy by both the conventional and cultivated meat industry ‘should they go all-in on their climate mitigation efforts’.
In the most optimistic scenario, which factors in ambitious projections of conventional animal agriculture’s achievements in environmental impact improvements, cultivated meat outperforms all forms of conventional meat.
The LCA shows that cultivated meat, when produced using renewable energy, reduces the cumulative environmental impacts of conventional beef by approximately 93 percent, pork by 53 percent, and chicken by 29 percent.
In these scenarios, the conventional products are also produced using renewable energy.
Moreover, CE Delft says this production cost will enable cultivated meat to ‘compete with multiple forms of conventional meat’. As well as ‘serve as a high-quality ingredient in plant-based meat products’.
‘A carbon-neutral food system’
Ingrid Odegard is CE Delft’s Senior Researcher. In a statement sent to PBN, she said: “We show that cultivated meat presents as an achievable low-carbon, cost-competitive agricultural technology that can play a major role in achieving a carbon-neutral food system.
“This research provides a solid base on which companies can build, improve, and advance in their goal of producing cultivated meat sustainably at scale and at a competitive price point.”
‘Massive reductions in emissions’
Elliot Swartz is a Senior Scientist at The Good Food Institute (GFI). He added: “As soon as 2030, we expect to see real progress on costs for cultivated meat. And, massive reductions in emissions and land use brought about by the transition to this method of meat production.
“This research signals a vote of confidence. It serves as a practical roadmap for the industry to address technical and economic bottlenecks, which will further reduce climate impacts and costs.
“Government investment in R&D and infrastructure will be critical to accelerating the development of cultivated meat. And, help us achieve global climate goals.
Swartz then concluded: “Favorable policies and carbon markets can incentivize the restoration of agricultural land for its carbon sequestration and ecosystem services potential. This maximizes the climate benefits of cultivated meat.”
Alternative proteins
GFI Executive Director Bruce Friedrich also said the world will not achieve net-zero emissions ‘without addressing food and land’. Moreover, he states that alternative proteins are a ‘key aspect of how we do that’.
“Decarbonizing the global economy is impossible with the diffuse production process and range of gases involved in conventional animal agriculture,” Friedrich explained.
“As these new models illustrate… If we can concentrate the environmental impact of meat production in a single, manageable space — and if we power that space with electricity generated from clean energy sources — that’s how the world gets to net-zero emissions.”
Hundreds of animals are now being euthanised in Spain, after the second ship, Karim Allah, returned with the unwanted young bulls, who are all only between seven and eight months old now. The same fate unfortunately awaits the animals transported in the Elbeik if it reaches Spain.
Compassion in World Farming has been in close contact with the relevant authorities in Brussels, Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy to minimise the suffering of the animals involved.
The EU has intervened to put diplomatic pressure to reduce the suffering of animals, who have been stranded at sea for over two and a half months. In the latest controversy to hit the trade of live animals, a pariah ship carrying over 1,700 cattle was allowed to anchor in Crete this weekend, after European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides intervened on Friday.
The Elbeik is one of two vessels departing from Spain in mid-December, carrying young bulls for Libya and Turkey. Due to concerns over the bluetongue disease, the two ships were refused entry at all ports they reached. The animals have thus been circling the Mediterranean in hellish conditions.
On Friday, Kyriakides intervened and asked the Greek authorities to provide assistance with the Elbeik which was in need of fuel, feed and food, as well as to assess the condition of the animals.
“Unlike a sack of potatoes that can be shipped back and forth, cattle are capable of feeling pain and suffering,” said Olga Kikou, Head of Compassion in World Farming EU. “It is an extremely upsetting situation where thousands of young bulls got stranded in sea for over two and a half months, only to be killed back in the country where they came from – and this is considered legal, despite EU law that intends to protect animals during transport and recognises animals as sentient beings!”
Olga added: “The intervention by Commissioner Stella Kyriakides was instrumental in mitigating the suffering of the young bulls in this instance. Still, we all need to look at the upcoming revision of the rules on animal transport and we cannot stress enough how ambitious that revision should be. To avoid such scandals and to end this unnecessary suffering, once and for all, the EU must ban the exports of all animals outside its borders. Even animals sent for breeding will encounter cruel treatment due to lack of parity with EU animal welfare standards. It is about time animals are not treated as cargo in the European Union.”
Every year millions of farmed animals are transported live on long and gruesome journeys, quite often in filthy conditions, cramped, and often trampling on each other. In summer, they are transported in scathingly high temperatures, dehydrated and exhausted. Some of them perish.
The EU Commission’s ‘Farm To Fork’ strategy clearly states that the EU Commission intends to review the legislation on animal transport. In December 2019, the Council of the EU highlighted in its conclusions on animal welfare that ‘clear shortcomings and inconsistencies remain’ regarding the challenges of long-distance transport.
According to the European Commission’s overview audit reports of animal transport by land and by sea, there is widespread non-compliance and regular failure by Member State authorities to enforce the EU law protecting animals during transport. In addition, there are many loopholes that need to be strengthened. In particular, we call for an end to exports of animals outside the EU.
Sir David Amess MP will lead a Ten Minute Rule Bill on prohibiting the use of farrowing crates
There are 500,000 sows in the UK, 55% are caged. The crates severely restrict the sow’s movement and her strong instinct to build a nest before giving birth.
On the 10 March Sir David Amess MP will lead a Ten Minute Rule Bill on prohibiting the use of farrowing crates and improving the welfare of pigs entitled “Pig Husbandry (Farrowing) Bill”. We must put a stop to this cruel practice.
There are 500,000 sows in the UK, 55% are caged.
The crates severely restrict the sow’s movement and her strong instinct to build a nest before giving birth. Farrowing crates have been banned in Sweden, Norway and Switzerland already. The farrowing crate use is allowed and used routinely in the rest of the EU, however there are commercially available free-farrowing systems: 360 degrees; PigSafe; and, SWAP systems.
Sow stalls (where pregnant pigs are kept indoors in sow stalls, have no access to the outdoors and are deprived of natural movement) are illegal in the UK and Sweden and banned across the EU from 2013, except for the period of weaning of the previous litter until the first 4 weeks of gestation. They are being phased out in the US and in New Zealand.
Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation calls for a ban on farrowing crates which severely restrict the sow’s movement and her strong instinct to build a nest before giving birth.
The Farrowing Crate is a small metal cage in which pregnant sows are imprisoned for weeks on end, usually from a week before giving birth until their piglets are weaned three to four weeks later. She will be subjected to this roughly twice a year. The metal frame of the crate is just centimeters bigger than the sow’s body and severely restricts her movements. She is completely unable to turn around, can scarcely take a step forward or backward, and frequently rubs against the bars when standing up and lying down.
Beside her cage is a “creep” area – for her piglets. The flooring is hard concrete and some form of heating, either mats or more commonly heatlamps, is used as a substitute for the warmth of their mother’s body.
Sows instinctively want to care for their baby piglets but are deprived of building them a nest on industrial farms and are unable to exhibit their natural behaviours. We need Change now. Pigs are highly intelligent animals and scientists have shown that they can play computer games.
The spider monkeys are a genus of primates from the family of the spider-tailed monkey.
The genus is divided into two types, the northern arachnid, and the southern arachnid.
They live in the forests of southeast Brazil.
In the past, its range stretched from the state of Bahia in the north to the state of Paraná in the south, but today its range is greatly reduced and fragmented.
The habitat of these animals is the coastal rainforests, where they occur up to 1600 meters above sea level.
Spider monkeys are the largest New World monkeys.
They reach a head-body length of 45 to 78 centimeters, plus a 65 to 80-centimeter long tail.
Males are 12 to 15 kilograms heavier than females, which reach 9.5 to 11 kilograms.
Their whole body is adapted to the tree-dwelling way of life, arms and legs are noticeably long and slender.
The thumb is small in the northern species, but it is present, in the southern species it is completely absent. The tail, which is as long or longer than the body, is used as a prehensile tail.
As with the other spider-tailed monkeys, it is hairless on the underside of the tip, which allows for a better grip. Spider monkeys are diurnal tree dwellers and prefer to stay in the upper crown area.
They are skilled climbers who often move suspensively – swinging by their arms or hanging by their tails – or on all fours.
If necessary, they come to the ground as well.
WAV Comment – I saw this today and thought that I would share it with you. Cornwall is a county in the South West of England. It shows a secluded little chapel hidden in the woods, and dedicated to St. Francis, the patron saint of animals.
Inside Cornwall’s hidden woodland chapel that’s just for animals
The tiny chapel, no bigger than a garden shed, is dedicated to the patron saint of animals and was built almost 100 years ago
If your puppy is in need of a prayer, or you have a horse hoping for heavenly intervention, there is a sanctum offering spiritual space for all creatures, great and small, hidden deep in a beautiful Cornish woodland.
The tiny, stone building, no bigger than a garden shed, must be the smallest chapel in Cornwall.
At the bottom of a pretty footpath lined with snowdrops and bluebells through Pengwedhen woods, near Helford, is St Francis’s Chapel.
Built in 1930 in memory of local man, Dr Leo O’Neill, and dedicated to St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, the chapel, which is not signposted, is an unexpected destination on the tranquil circular walk through the woods.
And for first-time visitors, the initial glimpse inside upon opening the doors can be a little unnerving.
The first thing visitors are met with as they open the doors of the chapel, is the fixed, hard stare of St Francis of Assisi.
With remarkably lifelike eyes, he looks up towards the entrance from behind a dog, which is stood on its hind legs, resting its front legs upon his lap.
Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone in 1181, Francis of Assisi, as he became known, was made a saint by Pope Gregory IX in 1228, two years after his death.
Originally St Francis was designated as patron saint of Italy, but he later became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment. It became customary for churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4.
Surrounding the seated St Francis, who appears far less stern once you are inside the chapel, are all kinds of animals, including a frog, a cockerel, a hare, a jackdaw and the dog at his lap
A small spaniel sits on a shelf, as a more recent addition to the chapel’s menagerie, its paw guarding a personal card.
The wooded slopes of Pengwedhen, which means ‘head of the fair stream’ in Cornish, lie just to the north of Penarvon Cove. The woods were donated to the National Trust by the daughters of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Frederic Jerram.
The Colonel, who was a Royal Marine in both World Wars, is said to have spotted a ‘For Sale’ sign on the land when he was sailing down the Helford. According to accounts, he was so ‘horrified at the idea that a post-war housing estate might be built in this tranquil haven, he bought the 34-acre piece of land, building himself a small and private bungalow here in 1926.’
Sybil Jerram’s brother, Dr Leo O’Neill, was also a keen sailor on the Helford River, and it is in his memory that St Francis’s Chapel was built in 1930, following his death in 1927.
A small brass plaque inside the chapel, in memory of Leo O’Neill, includes a passage from the poem about the regrets of a mariner who shoots and kills an albatross, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
“He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.”
Constructed with local Constantine granite and Delabole slate on the roof, St Francis’s Chapel is clearly well-maintained and cared for.
This little-known chapel hidden away in the woods gained some more notoriety recently when it made a brief appearance on ITV’s ‘Cornwall and Devon Walks with Julia Bradbury’.
As well as Julia Bradbury, there are many walkers who stumble across the chapel, some of whom have written in a visitors’ book, including a recent entry which reads: “What a place – beautiful. Here with our new rescue dog, Otis, after dear old Charlie passed away 4 months ago, bless him.”
Whilst surrounded by trees, St Francis’s Chapel is also perched on a cliff edge, above a tiny beach on the Helford River. Sadly, it was on this beach, whilst visiting the chapel, that I discovered a recently deceased common dolphin. As should be done if you discover a dead marine animal, I reported its position to the Cornwall Marine Strandings Network on 0345 201 2626
A sad end to an otherwise beautiful walk, but strangely there was some comfort to be taken from the dolphin’s final resting place, directly below the chapel, with St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, watching over it.
WAV Comment – we are very much trying to get news and information from Spain re the ‘Karim Allah’, which docked at the south-eastern Spanish port of Cartagena last week. We think that (and via other groups also) that all the cattle started to be slaughtered at the port commencing 6th or 7th of March 2021. When we get confirmation of the exact situation, we will publish more.
Horsemeat from overseas: animal welfare and consumer protection at risk
8 March 2021
AWF
Press Release
The latest NGOs investigations and EU audits in Australia and North and South America have, again, revealed massive problems with animal welfare and food safety. Today, the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals of the EU Parliament hosted a meeting on the import of horsemeat from overseas to analyse the problem.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Brussels, 8 March, 2021
New video footage proves that horses are systematically abused, mistreated and neglected. Severely injured and sick horses do not receive veterinary care or euthanasia. Downer horses are pulled off the trucks with chains and left to die. In Canadian feedlots, newborn foals still freeze to death at temperatures as low as minus 36° Celsius
Horsemeat imports from overseas have been criticised by international animal welfare organisations for many years. The Animal Welfare Foundation (Germany) and Tierschutzbund Zürich (Switzerland) published their first comprehensive investigation report about horsemeat production in North and South America in 2013.
As a result, all Swiss supermarkets took horsemeat from overseas off their shelves. Several Belgian, Dutch and French retailers followed their example. In 2015, the biggest Swiss meat importer GVFI (Basel) also stopped these imports on the ground that the equines’ traceability is not ensured. Yet, around 17,000 tons of horsemeat from overseas continue to be imported every year to the EU and Switzerland.
An international animal welfare coalition, via a petition which has already gathered nearly 120,000 signatures, is currently calling on the European Commission to immediately suspend the imports of horsemeat from countries where EU requirements on food safety and animal welfare are not respected.
“Since 2015, European importers have been trying to get to grips with the blatant animal welfare violations in their partner slaughterhouses overseas by producing new manuals and arranging on-site visits”, added Gurtner. However, the importers’ attempts to control the production conditions have been ineffective to this day, as confirmed by recent NGOs investigations and EU audit reports.
The malicious trade and slaughter of horses of unclear origin is causing serious animal welfare issues as well as health- and food safety risks. Horsemeat ends up indistinguishable in processed products, often sold in snackbars and cafetaria’s, so consumers may even be unaware of what they are actually eating. Besides, the animal abuse uncovered in the NGO’s documentaries is horrific. There are no excuses for the European Commission to look the other way any longer. The import of horsemeat from overseas has to be immediately stopped
The most recent EC audit reports on horsemeat production in Uruguay (2018) and Argentina (2020) confirm “serious questions about animal welfare at the time of killing” and that “the shortcomings identified in the operation and effectiveness of the control system at these facilities do not allow the CCA (Central Competent Authority, ed) to provide guarantees that they are under adequate control, and thus to provide assurances that they meet relevant EU standards”.
The same EU audit reports also indicate that the audits did not reflect the everyday situation. “The inspections are announced in advance and slaughterhouses and horse dealers have developed a system to mislead the inspectors”, explains Gurtner. Footage recorded by NGOs shows that pens are emptied before the audits, or that sick and injured horses are exchanged with healthy animals.
The EU suspended Mexican horsemeat imports, following issues similar to those that occured in Uruguay, Argentina, Canada or Australia, and it led to a decrease in production and exports. Yet, now we witness an increase of Argentinian horsemeat imports into the EU, so any positive impact has been hindered by the lack of coherence of the EU approach on this dossier. The EU should send a clear message to its trading partners stressing that respecting the rules matters, and suspend imports where requirements are not met. Then, it should use its trade negotiations to incentivise progress and only restore imports if rules are respected
Concluded Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals.
E-Mail from the German Hunting Association (DJV) to its members:
“Dear hunters,
In the following, I will give you information from the DJV, according to which hunting opponents will probably be active in different parts of Germany.
Because the DJV is currently receiving frequent reports of hunting-critical activities in hunting grounds by hunters at the base. At the same time, the DJV noticed increased activities in the direction of hunting disruption and hunting sabotage in internet forums and social media groups.
In Lower Saxony, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) recently destroyed the Celle hunter’s burrow facility overnight and released the foxes.
In animal rights forums, the DJV finds calls and plans for further acts of sabotage, increasingly through “profiles” from Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Lower Saxony.
Be particularly vigilant in the near future and report suspicious activities to the DJV (!!!) If you see calls for criminal offenses on the Internet, please send screenshots with URLs and time tamp to us or directly to the DJV.
Please also pay attention to possibly sabotaged high seats such as sawn-off ladders etc (!!!)”
Source: Facebook
And I mean…The hunters are mobilizing.!!
They are slowly losing the ground under their feet! They notice that more and more people do not want to accept that their peaceful forests are turned into battlefields for defenseless animals.
In Germany, there is no nature reserve, no forest, no lake that is not subject to hunting.
Our remaining natural environment and the wild animals living in it have been degraded to a shooting range by a wretched minority (0.45% of the population, 388,000 hobby hunters).
Some animal rights activists who published the DJV’s email on their Facebook page have already been threatened.
The standard method used by German hunters is the intimidation method.
The heavily armed gang was always of the opinion that not only the animals in the forest but also any hunting opponents can terrorize.
Those days are over!
* SOKO Animal Welfare Association made an appeal on Facebook in January of this year, I quote:
“Who can help?
We are looking for hunting trap locations. Alive or homicide traps. Anyone who knows such locations: Please doesn`t comment here, but send us exact location data and, if possible, a photo by PM. Thank you.
Update: Since the various hunters are just going crazy again, I would like to remind you again that the forest in Germany is free. That means, you can enter it, you can relax there and also take photos. Of course, as always, you should pay attention to signs, leave them as you found them, and show consideration for yourself, animals, and third parties.
Anyone who knows SOKO Animal Welfare Association knows that our tactics are always peaceful, legal, and successful. In this sense, enjoy nature, respect its inhabitants, and do not allow yourself to be patronized by people who think the German forest is their private playground”.
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They reach a head-body length of 45 to 78 centimeters, plus a 65 to 80-centimeter long tail.
As with the other spider-tailed monkeys, it is hairless on the underside of the tip, which allows for a better grip.
World Animals Voice 