Do you remember that story we published four years ago?
It was about building a shark aquarium in southern Germany.
An investor wanted to build the biggest shark aquarium in Europe: “Shark City”.
Today we received very good news!!
The translation of the mail I received:
“Since this week it is certain that the “Shark City” shark aquarium will not be built. This saves countless sharks from capture and a painful life in captivity.
A group of investors originally wanted to build the large aquarium in Sinsheim in Baden-Württemberg (southern Germany). After massive protests by residents and animal and species protection organizations from all over Germany, the operators relocated the construction project to Pfungstadt in Hesse.
Even before the public found out about it, the city council in Pfungstadt voted to sell urban land to investors. But resistance was also very massive in Pfungstadt. Within a very short time, the local shark protectors managed to collect enough signatures for a referendum, which was rejected by the city council.
In 2019, the operators submitted a development plan. Then Shark City suddenly became quiet. In May of this year it became known that the property reservation had expired without the purchase contract being signed. The operators did not show up at a date agreed with the city. The company disappeared from the Internet.
This week the city council in Pfungstadt repealed all resolutions regarding the shark aquarium.
“animal public” has repeatedly intervened with the responsible politicians and the responsible authorities against the construction of the shark aquarium and supported the active citizens on site.
We are pleased that countless animals have been spared a short, dreary existence in captivity. This was only possible thanks to the cooperation of numerous organizations and active citizens, whom we would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts. Such successes give hope because they show that we can change a lot together.
Thank you very much for your compassion and support”
Animal Public
And I mean…When the famous German playwright and librettist Bertolt Brecht was asked what is the point of all the resistance against the Nazi regime at the time, the dead victims, the prisoners … he thought a little and said: “Without us, they would have had it much easier” . With us this is now a reality, the shark prison belongs to history!
What do we learn from it?
United and active, we can also achieve great things.
It’s been a year since the animal rights activist and our loyal friend Slavica Mazac-Bešlić passed away.
We have not forgotten them and we will always remember their tireless struggle for animal rights.
The fight continues, Slavica, but it is still very sad for us and the animals that you can no longer fight with us and for them, as you always wanted and have done.
In Thailand, a well-known tourist attraction has to close after 24 years in the wake of the corona pandemic: The Sriracha Tiger Zoonear Pattaya is no longer able to maintain operations after being closed for months, the newspaper “Pattaya Mail”reported on Thursday citing the owner.
The approximately 5000 animals, including tigers, crocodiles, camels and elephants, are initially to be relocated to another area that belongs to the park.
The zoo was opened in 1997 by a former pig and crocodile breeder.
At times there were 1.5 million holidaymakers a year, mainly Chinese, Indians, Vietnamese, Indonesians and Russians.
Since the first Corona wave last year, management has tried everything to generate income, including selling “street food” and temporarily free entry for visitors.
Sriracha Tiger Zoo
But since foreign guests are still not allowed to come and the number of infections is now increasing, a closure is the only way, according to the operators.
The Sriracha Tiger Zoo is harshly criticized by experts and animal rights activists.
In 2004 the American NGO “Animal Welfare Institute” reported that the park’s tigers and elephants were being used in circus shows.
A baby tiger sleeps with piglets in the Sriracha Zoo, on a grid floor
A British organization criticized in 2016 that the big cats were in poor condition and that tiger babies were separated from their mothers only two to three weeks after birth.
And I mean…Wildlife tourism, worth up to $250 billion (USD) annually is a big business.
It is estimated that globally wildlife tourism attractions condemn around 550,000 wild animals to appalling, mostly unseen suffering.
Because the pain and distress is largely hidden, visitors are usually oblivious to the horrific abuse and conditions endured for tourist entertainment.
Captive tigers are particular victims of irresponsible tourism – their suffering fuelled by the demand for selfies and photo sharing on social media.
These majestic and endangered predators are bred, used and abused to create entertainment for tourists and boost the profits of wildlife attractions, travel companies and illegal traders.
Sriracha Tiger Zoo near Pattaya had reported the most tigers in their possession.
Here, visitors are encouraged to photograph a tiger in an ‘African’ landscape. The tiger is pushed and prodded with a bamboo stick wielded by a Tarzan-style trainer until the animal sits on a stool.
One attraction of the zoo that kids and their parents love is the “cub milk-feeding”.
In a big room, with several cages in a row containing one baby tiger each, visitors are encouraged to feed the animals through the wire-mesh with milk in feeding bottles.
A zoo attendant offers visitors milk in feeding bottles in exchange for a certain amount.
But loud cries of the baby tigers can be heard meters away from the room. When visitors start asking why, the attendant is quick to explain that the cubs are hungry and in need of feeding.
Visitors are then offered milk bottles to feed the cubs, but for a price.
All animal abuses have a price in the zoo.
Some suspect that the baby tigers are deliberately starved so they’ll always cry for milk.
Our message is simple: please do not support these activities.
Captured wild animals and other animals that are used for direct human-animal interaction for entertainment purposes suffer enormous agony in such businesses.
You make yourself an accomplice if you support them
We can now confirm that things are ramping up in an attempt to close this hell hole for animals down, permanently !
Dear Mark,
We have a number of events coming up and we need YOUR support! Following our undercover investigation of Hewitt slaughterhouse in Cheshire, Animal Justice Project is taking action against this violent company and the UK government in a series of online actions and demonstrations. Will you join us?
During our 200-hour undercover investigation, our cameras caught despicable acts of animal cruelty. Panic-stricken sheep were dragged to the kill room by their horns, where ineffective stunning rendered them conscious as they were slaughtered. A pair of gentle bulls were jabbed over 200 times with a pointed stick and an electric prod, by the slaughterhouse manager himself. Our cameras watched on as a conscious, tiny piglet was hurled into the scalding tank, where they were left to drown.
These illegal acts of violence were commonplace and were carried out right in front of the slaughterhouse’s own CCTV and in the presence of a Food Standards Agency-appointed Official Veterinarian. It is clear that government initiatives are failing to deter illegalities, allowing companies such as Hewitt to flout UK law.
On Friday 30th July, Animal Justice Project are heading to Hewitt slaughterhouse to demand that they are urgently closed down. Placards and banners will be provided to activists, who are invited to join us from 11am-1pm.
Location: G. & G. B. Hewitt slaughterhouse, CH3 9BH
Following our demonstration, we will move to Chester city centre to spread the word about this bloodbath of a slaughterhouse and urge locals to take action. This will be an outreach-style event, with leafletting and placards. Activists can join us at 2pm-4pm, even if they cannot make the earlier event at the slaughterhouse
Location: Eastgate Street, Chester, CH1 1LE
If you can’t make it to our demonstration, you can still join our online events! Taking action for animals is just a click away!
On Thursday 22nd July from 4pm-6pm, our team will be demanding an end to the public funding of slaughterhouses and calling for an immediate, independent review of The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015. We will be tweeting our demands to Boris Johnson, who must be held accountable for the government’s failure to ‘protect’ animals from illegal acts of cruelty inside UK slaughterhouses.
You can use our pre-written tweets, which will be sent next Thursday morning via email. You can also join our Facebook event here, so that you receive a notification when the event is starting. Our online actions help us to share our undercover footage with the public, who have the option to help or harm animals with their daily choices. Online outreach is so quick and simple, so please do join us next Thursday.
Have you sent our letter yet? Our pre-written letter to the Environmental Secretary, George Eustice, makes the following demands:
An urgent and independent review of the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 (WATOK), following the failure and inaction of the legislation’s January 2021 industry-led review.
Halt public funding to slaughterhouses under the Agriculture Act, including small slaughterhouses that the government has deemed ‘critical’; and channel funding instead into plant-based agriculture.
Our latest investigation has been months in the making and we can’t wait to take action with our dedicated supporters. It is vital that we seek justice for the innocent animals dying everyday inside Hewitt slaughterhouse. Please keep an eye out for further updates on our latest campaign, Scammed! A System Built to Fail Animals.
Just to give you an update; I have now sent my letter re abuses at Hewitt slaughterhouses to both the government Minister responsible for welfare, and also to the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
In August 2020, “SOKO Animal welfare organization” uncovered horror conditions in the Gärtringen slaughterhouse (state: Baden-Württemberg, in Germany).
With hidden cameras, activists from SOKO Tierschutz e.V. have uncovered numerous cases of massive animal cruelty in this slaughterhouse.
The video shows terrifying scenes.
The pictures show pigs that are not properly anesthetized shortly before slaughter or cows that are tormented with stick stitches in the anus. This happens in the presence of inactive official veterinarians.
Here is the video, with the title: “the land butcher from the land- Animal torture in the butcher slaughterhouse Gärtringen”
(Note: At minute 1:39 a pig is brutally mistreated.
The animal is kicked in the face and a pipe is rammed into its eye. You can clearly hear the cries of the animal. Then, in the case of the skidding box, sheer violence prevails. The anesthetic fails again and again)
I have today written a letter about this, which I am sending to all the authorities and UK government; requesting that this facility is immediately closed down for good.
You can read a copy of my letter below.
As I have said; if we do get replies then these will be put onto the site for all to view and make their own decisions. Being fair, unlike the Danes that we wrote to about the Mink cull in Denmark; I am expecting the UK government to at least respond to my letter. It may take some time for a response, but ………………..
Yesterday I was provided with disturbing footage (from January / February 2021) relating to chronic animal abuse at a family operated slaughterhouse – one G & G.B Hewitt Ltd, located in Church Lane, Huxley, Chester, England. Over 200 hours of CCTV footage was obtained at this facility, which I understand currently holds a British government approval rating, and has done for many years in a row.
The footage which I have seen (link provided below), has already been posted onto the WAV site, and the investigation related uncovers several illegalities happening inside this particular facility. Despite this, I understand the slaughterhouse has held a British government FSA ‘generally satisfactory’ rating for six years. Standards are far from ‘generally satisfactory’; they are diabolical.
The footage has also been made public by the ‘Animal Justice Project’ (AJP) and claims (as is clearly shown in the footage) that an ‘Official Veterinarian’ was appointed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) of the UK government; their job supposedly being to ‘ensure that all animal welfare requirements are met, and to ensure that animals are spared avoidable pain, distress or suffering’. The footage shows anything but, clearly showing when animals (such as a lame cow) enter the line to be slaughtered, the veterinarian does NOT even look at, or make any effort to inspect the condition of animal, which is one of obvious distress. The footage clearly shows that the official veterinarian is failing in her role to any ensure animal welfare, and as a result is aiding breaches of UK legislation.
Key findings which are shown clearly include:
Piglets appearing to be scalded in a hot water tank whilst still alive, due to slaughter failures; and cows being beaten (in some cases over 200 times) by facility workers (including the use of electric prods by the slaughterhouse manager Mark Hewitt). One particularly distressing scene shows a bull being violently prodded hundreds of times using a sharp stick, which is illegal.
In the footage, the alleged FSA professional veterinarian is not even present in the stun room / locations where animals are killed, which they should be; even though many animals (cows) are showing clear signs of lameness, and pigs with large masses on their legs are forced to move by workers using cruel methods. The language used by workers (not repeated here) against these animals who are clearly suffering, shows what a demented facility full of demented humans is being used with UK government approval.
Veterinary professionals working at the location for the UK government to allegedly ‘ensure that all animal welfare requirements are met, and to ensure that animals are spared avoidable pain, distress or suffering’, have by their own actions, missed the poor handling of animals, the failing stun equipment, the insufficient stun times as detailed under UK legislation, in addition to missing clear signs of consciousness from animals that should have been rendered unconscious by stunning.
The disturbing footage also shows a piglet which should be rendered dead though routine slaughter procedures, being put STILL ALIVE into the scalding tank. We are informed that this poor, unfortunate and suffering animal was simply ‘left to drown’ by the demented personnel operating the slaughterhouse.
Alick Simmons, Former Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer declares after watching the footage:
“The overall impression given is of routine poor practice in premises barely fit for purpose.”
In addition, the slaughtering process fell outside of the recommended 15 seconds by the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA). The investigators claim that in the footage, no worker is seen checking for signs of animal consciousness after sticking, displaying yet another breach of regulations which should be acted on by the official veterinarian.
In a further statement to that above, Simmons says: “There are a number of instances where apparent breaches of the law are shown: incorrect use of electric goads, cattle repeatedly struck with a stick – one appears to be pointed and the (UK) law prohibits the use of such pointed sticks – a sheep is dragged by the horns, severely lame cattle, and one severely lame pig being presented for slaughter. Such animals are not fit to be transported. In several instances, immediately after ‘sticking’, slaughtermen are seen to start dressing pig carcasses”.
“The law requires that pigs are bled for a minimum of 20 seconds. The overall impression given is of routine poor practice in premises barely fit for purpose. The circumstances are made worse by poorly trained and poorly supervised operatives. For example, the handling, stunning, and killing of piglets is barely adequate”.
As a result of the footage, the Animal Justice Project (AJP) is calling for an ‘urgent’ independent review of UK slaughterhouses, and urges the immediate cessation of public funding under the new Agriculture Bill. As an independent organisation, we at WAV fully support these demands by AJP. Under the current system, abattoirs nationwide are eligible for financial aid under the new Agriculture Bill act. This has to change, and now !
We support the words / terms used by Animal Justice Project’s founder Claire Palmer, who declared the findings as both ‘law-breaking’ and ‘extensive’ in (animal) suffering and abuse. This was ‘right under the nose of the vet, and CCTV’, Palmer added.
Our (WAV) final summary of operations at this facility is one of utter incompetence throughout all slaughter processes; of utterly incompetent slaughterhouse management supported by unprofessional, incompetent staff. All this supported by an incompetent official veterinarian, allegedly working for a government Food ‘Standards’ Authority who is located at the facility to ensure that all animals do NOT suffer in their final minutes of life.
The whole process can only be described as a complete fiasco, captured throughout on CCTV in England; a nation that (quite rightly) demands very high animal welfare standards that are compliant to the law and maintained to the highest standards set in accordance with the law. This facility is a circus, not an animal slaughtering facility; it is operated throughout by clowns, one being the slaughterhouse manager Mark Hewitt; in addition, it is monitored by clowns under the guise of the FSA, and thus should be immediately and permanently closed down for both the welfare of sick and suffering animals and human beings who still consume the meat products resulting. Action should be taken against the ‘official veterinarian’ who failed so clearly in the undertaking of their work.
We request your formal request to this letter, the utter fiasco shown, which we will also publish on our site, unchanged, for our worldwide audience to view.
We ask – Is the UK leading the way in animal welfare, with incompetents such as this employed in this hell hole ?
The video footage can be viewed at:
Yours with hope of action and one less slaughterhouse facility operating;
Mark Johnson
Co Founder – World Animals Voice.
G and GB Hewitt declare:
Business overview
Established over 50 years – Family run Business
G & G.B Hewitt Ltd is a well established slaughtering company that has built up an enviable reputation over the last 50 years. We pride ourselves on our commitment to provide a professional and speedy service at all times, whilst maintaining the highest quality of work.
Venus has just posted an excellent article / post on a very similar situation in Germany to what we are showing in the UK above. You can see the post on the site; or here is the direct link:
As we are only too aware, and have been for years; politicians will bend over backwards to support the meat mafia business, be it UK, Germany, or any other global location.
Please read the post by Venus, and draw your own conclusions to slaughterhouse operations, where ever they are.
After a legal dispute, on Monday, 12. July, a protest camp against factory farming started in Goldenstedt (a municipality in Lower Saxony).
There is space for around 500 people in the tent city in a nature reserve. The district wanted to ban the camp, but failed before the Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court, for a security deposit of 10,000 euros. The number of participants has increased from around 180 to 230 people.
Animal protection and climate activists want to stay there until Saturday.
A “mass action of civil disobedience” is planned. The farmers in the area are displeased.
It was not by chance that the activists chose the community of 10,000 residents as the location for the camp.
The PHW Group is only a few kilometers away. The company is the largest German poultry meat concern, and its “Wiesenhof” brand is best known. “Sure, that’s the reason why we’re here,” says one of the organizers, Franziska Klein. It is also about networking with local agronomically critical groups. The region is one of the strongholds of intensive animal husbandry in Germany.
Anyone walking around here wearing a t-shirt that says “Meat is Murder” will attract attention.
The organizers of the camp, the “Alliance against the Animal Industry”, had announced in the past few days that they wanted to disrupt the group’s operations with various actions under the motto “PHW ade”.
The access road, which was previously open to the public, became the property of Paul Wesjohann & Co. at the end of June, the municipality has sold the road!!
Only later is the council supposed to have approved the sale in a closed meeting.
Barricaded: The PHW Group, to which the “Wiesenhof” brand belongs, has been protecting itself against unwelcome visitors with four-meter-high walls since last weekend!!
The PHW Group does not comment on the protest camp in Goldenstedt, which was approved by the Oldenburg administrative court. The camp organizers announced actions of civil disobedience.
According to a spokesman, Wiesenhof also did not want to comment on the camp.
Many farmers in the area are outraged that the camp has been allowed. “A lot of tax money is wasted again because the police have to protect farmers from alleged animal rights activists”, said a farmer in a radio interview in Lower Saxony.
In addition, rumors of alleged acts of sabotage and threats are said to circulate in chat groups. A spokeswoman for the alliance denied the allegations.
“We are not planning any actions that would harm people or animals”, she said.
The police described the farmers’ statements as pure speculation, there are no safety concerns.
And I mean…“The road to the PHW Group premises is barricaded with around four-meter-high wooden panels.”
Why? Do they have something to hide, that they want to wall themselves in, hold guards in front of them and curtail basic rights?
If everything were fine, if there was paradise on earth for animals, as they claim, they wouldn’t really have to do that, would they?
What are they hiding there? What can you imagine …
“A lot of tax money is wasted again because the police have to protect farmers from alleged animal rights activists”, said a farmer in a radio interview.
Some farmers certainly see documentation of animal cruelty in their mega stables as militant actions and try to put this under repression with the help of the state.
The millionaire and former head of the largest German poultry company PHW(Wiesenhof brand)Paul-Heinz Wesjohannsaid in an interview: “Modern poultry farming is a great social act. It made the former luxury product meat affordable for the masses “.
Wesjohann has been awarded the “Federal Cross of Merit”.
One can also bring it to the Federal Cross of Merit with the massive torture and killing.
Fortunately, they still exist, people, courageous people, responsible people who make independent judgments, make decisions and act responsibly. Yes, act!
They have our fully support!
In late December, some 1,800 bulls left Spain for Turkey aboard a ship called the Elbeik. The trip was supposed to take around 11 days, then the cattle were to be sold, mostly to halal slaughterhouses, where they’d be killed with minimal suffering, as required by religious law.
At least it would have been swift. For the next three months, as the pandemic began to wreak havoc on global shipping, the vessel failed to unload its cargo, and the animals began to starve, according to an investigation by the Spanish government. Nearly 10% of the bulls died, their corpses thrown overboard or left to fester in the pens among the living. When the Elbeik returned to Spain, authorities ruled its remaining 1,600 animals were too sick to sell and had to be put down.
The Elbeik has become Exhibit A in the mounting case to ban the controversial, $18 billion cross-border trade in live animals. The pandemic has worsened conditions for the roughly 2 billion cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens that are exported each year, and epidemiologists have joined the calls for reform. Animals have been stuck in transit far longer than expected and safety inspections have been dramatically curtailed. With new sensitivity to risks that diseased animals can pose to humans, a growing number of countries are limiting or phasing out the practice altogether.
“When it comes to animal welfare, transport by sea is a big black hole,” said Thomas Waitz, an organic farmer from Austria who is a European parliamentary representative on a committee charged with updating the rules for the cross-border shipping of animals. “Ship transports completely fall outside of any regulations or animal-welfare standards. Public health is at risk if animals are transported in conditions where germs and bacteria can flourish.”
The EU, which accounts for more than 75% of the world’s live animal exports, is “incapable of guaranteeing animal welfare,” according to a report commissioned by the committee, which is expected to recommend a new, tighter set of regulations for exporters by the end of the year. The U.K. has gone further, planning to ban the transport of live animals for slaughter altogether, though it hasn’t set a date yet. New Zealand in April said it will phase out trade in live animals by 2023.
Some 39 million tons of meat were exported globally in 2019, most of it slaughtered, packaged and frozen or chilled beforehand — a process that’s more lucrative for meat producers and avoids the health and safety issues of transporting live animals. But as consumers in countries like China and Vietnam have grown wealthier, they’ve added more meat and dairy to their diets, amping up demand for breedstock and dairy animals. The robust market for halal meat among devout Muslims also means demand has spiked in recent years. Prices for live cattle from Australia are at record highs.
An extensive undercover investigation by Network for Animals (NFA) has discovered utter cruelty at a Tanzanian donkey slaughterhouse where hundreds of donkeys are bludgeoned to death every day. We desperately need your help.Please don’t stop reading…
We have just a few weeks to close the slaughterhouse where up to 1,000 donkeys a day are being brutally and illegally killed. We need to raise funds to pursue these criminals and have them brought to justice, and to meet with authorities to point out the massive amount of cruelty and criminal behavior that is taking place. The slaughterhouse permit is up for review, and if we can raise $6,000 (£4,300), we can take experts to a critical meeting with Tanzanian authorities and reveal to them the true horror of what is going on. We are sure they will listen because what is happening is so barbaric that they will be forced to take action.
Once the slaughterhouse is closed, the next challenge will be providing the long-term care the surviving donkeys will require. We have to be frank here; This is a financial challenge because of the remoteness of the area and because we don’t know how many donkeys there will be. We also have to consider that the government may not listen, in which case we have to take them to court. Please, this is a time when your donation is really needed if we are to end this nightmare.
The Chinese use donkey skins to make a cosmetic called ejiao (pronounced “uh-jee-ow”), a pointless waste because the cosmetic has never been proven to work. 4.8 million donkeys are being killed each year – at this rate, donkeys will be extinct in under ten years! As the number of Chinese donkeys plummeted because of the demand for ejiao, traders turned to Africa, with devastating consequences for donkeys and rural communities that depend on donkeys for their livelihoods.
NFA has been fighting the trade for four years and has rescued donkeys from the Chinese in South Africa and Zimbabwe. A two-year-long investigation has led to a Chinese-run slaughterhouse situated in a remote and desolate region of Shinyanga, in northern Tanzania. We joined forces with the Arusha Society for the Protection of Animals (ASPA) to investigate after receiving reports of cruelty on a massive scale.
We discovered that tens of thousands of donkeys are bludgeoned to death there EVERY MONTH, in a scene of utter cruelty and contempt for compliance with Tanzanian law.
Against the law and against common decency, the donkeys are bludgeoned to death with a hammer, even though the slaughterhouse has a humane killing device.
Donkeys bludgeoned who do not die immediately are left to suffer, with blood running down their faces, with blood running down their faces, until they succumb to their injuries.
The Chinese only have a permit to kill 20 donkeys a day, but kill up to a thousand daily.
We witnessed truckloads of donkeys being delivered. Donkeys were dragged off the trucks by their ears or simply kicked off, tumbling to the ground on top of each other. One had a broken hip, and many were emaciated.
In many cases, donkeys arrive for slaughter in horrific conditions, some with broken legs, severed hooves or maggot-infested wounds, and many in states of near starvation and collapse.
To fuel the trade, donkeys are stolen in neighboring countries of Kenya and Uganda and illegally smuggled across the borders. Donkeys are often transported long distances in poorly constructed, overcrowded vehicles with little or no access to food or water. Journeys may be as long as 72 hours without rest periods. These animals are kept in such shocking conditions that many die along the way from hunger, stress or injuries.
We witnessed pregnant mares, young foals, and sick and injured donkeys being rounded up for slaughter, and because injury and illness often do not affect the quality of the hide, traders have little incentive to ensure humane treatment.
Our team was advised that donkeys are sometimes deliberately starved because people falsely believe that emaciated donkeys are easier to skin.
When challenged about the conditions at the slaughterhouse, the Chinese woman running it is caught on camera telling her interpreter to lie about what actually happens there.
This sickening slaughter of donkeys and trade in donkey ‘products’ is LEGAL in Tanzania. But we have a chance to end it!
The slaughterhouse’s permit expires in October this year. We are working with ASPA to seek justice for the donkeys by persuading the government to end this shame on the face of the Tanzanian nation.
We will take the responsible people to court if immediate action is not taken!
We cannot allow this daily massacre of donkeys to continue, but, we need your help to stop it. The sheer scale of the tragedy is overwhelming.
Literally, as you read these words, donkeys are waiting to be bludgeoned to death with a hammer. In the name of human decency, this must stop right now. If you possibly can, please help us end this horror by making a generous donation to Network for Animals right now.