Day: August 13, 2021

Environmental, General News

Amazon Frontlines – Our Territories, Our Decision.

Dear Mark,
 

Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo and A’i Kofan leader Alexandra Narvaez recently co-published a powerful op-ed, Our Territories, Our Decision, in Ecuador’s most widely distributed newspaper. We are excited to share it with you today.

As the Waorani and Kofan prepare to fight a court battle in the coming months that may well determine the future of the Amazon in Ecuador and of our planet, Nemonte and Alexandra invite us to look back at history to understand how the legal justifications of the Spanish colonizers hundreds of years ago are at their core the same as those used by government and industry today.

As Nemonte and Alexandra describe, “What the Ecuadorian governments and industries call ‘free, prior and informed consultation’ is nothing more than the following: they give us confusing and misleading information about what they want to do in our territories, and if we do not agree, they threaten us by waging war against us again.”

Read the full article here:

Our Territories, Our Decision – Amazon Frontlines

We cannot allow this to continue. We have a massive opportunity to change course and to defend Indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent and self-determination for their territories.

As the Waorani and Kofan prepare for their case to be heard by the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, we need your help to apply global pressure so that the ruling upholds respect for Indigenous peoples’ rights to decide over the future of their territories and cultures. 

Learn more:

Our Territories, Our Decision – Amazon Frontlines

Stay tuned over the next week for important new opportunities to get involved and support the decision-making power of the next generation of Indigenous leaders and forest defenders. Because what happens in the Amazon matters everywhere.

The Amazon Frontlines Team

We give 100% support to the Amazon Frontlines tean and campaign;

Regards Mark

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

Australia: Live Exports – Update From Stop Live Exports.org.

Friday 13th August 2021.

Dear members and supporters

It’s been a while since you’ve heard from us, we know. There have been a few changes!

The current pandemic has made it challenging to hold the usual events we do, as we can’t accurately predict how many people will turn up, or if the event will be able to go ahead. We are still here though, monitoring situations at home and abroad, commenting on media and industry stories regarding yet more atrocities for Australian animals, this time in Indonesia, Jordan, and UAE.

Our other focus is on the up-and-coming federal election, now expected to be sometime from March to May 2022. We have also been busy developing new branding to maximise our effectiveness (it’s been over a decade since the last one.)

Some of you will be aware that I moved to Tasmania in May this year. I am still doing the job I have been doing for the past nine years, as much of the work is done remotely, and what can not be, is undertaken by our volunteers. The committee has some fresh blood, and a new president, Rebecca Tapp. They are dynamic, enthusiastic, and have some great ideas. Our committee continues to meet regularly, and I join in via Zoom.
Here is a photo of some orphaned lambs I recently adopted – Buster and Lucille. Unlike the tens of millions of other Australian sheep, they will have a long, safe, and happy life.

Sadly, we will not be holding a quiz night this year, as the planning is quite demanding and time-consuming, and with the situation in other states thanks to the Covid-19 delta strain, we just feel everything is too unpredictable to hold that event this year.

However, the Human Chain will go ahead on Sunday 17 October, unless there are any restrictions on attendance numbers or social distancing, in which case we will also opt to defer for a year. We have had over 1200 people attend in the past, which is not ideal for an event that requires a Covid Plan. Please keep an eye on your emails and our Facebook page for any last-minute changes.

You might have read in the media over the past month, that there have been yet more ESCAS breaches reported in Indonesia (thanks PeTA), Jordan (the one Middle Eastern country we export to where a royal family edict requires animals slaughtered in government facilities to be stunned first), and UAE (thanks Animals Australia for both exposés). There is also another complaint lodged by Animals Australia regarding cattle being leaked from the supply chain in Indonesia, but this has not yet been reported on by the media.

In this, the tenth year of reporting and investigations of Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) breaches, STILL we are seeing animals mistreated and being channelled out of supply chains and treated horrifically at slaughter. Surely, after a decade of ESCAS, a one-strike rule should apply to any country not strictly adhering to ESCAS regulations.

Fremantle has been quiet, with only four ships in total docking since the northern summer trade moratorium started on 1 June. Three ships loaded feed and continued to Portland, and one loaded cattle bound for Mauritius. Liberal MPs have recently called for a dramatic shortening of the 1 June to 17 Sept moratorium on live animal exports to the Middle East, stating that it can be done successfully. This is despite records from the last monitored shipment that left in that season, showing that sheep were subjected to days of wet-bulb temperatures of up to 34 degrees (sheep suffer from heat stress once wet-bulb temperatures exceed 28 degrees). So despite their claims that “only” 28 sheep died and the voyage was, therefore, a success, one can be assured that every single animal on board suffered to some degree with wet-bulb temperatures at that level.

In 2018, the Labor Party pledged to phase out live sheep exports in under five years. We urge you to contact your Labor MP and ask them to not go back on their word. With a federal election now expected in 2022, please remind them of what their constituents want – an end to all live export, but at the very least, a cessation of the live sheep trade; this would likely also see an end to any cattle being sent by sea to the Middle East, as it would no longer be cost-effective. Whilst the aim of our organisation is to end the trade in all live animals, we see the live sheep trade to the Middle East as the priority, both because of the length of the voyages, and the lack of stunning in all but one destination country. Animals Australia has made it easy for you – just click here.

We are so grateful for your unwavering support, which has been vital in helping us continue our important campaign to end the live export trade. Though we have experienced a drop-off in donations and memberships due to the global pandemic, we have a solid, strong community that stands steadfast and determined to stop this trade once and for all. Thank you for everything you do for the animals.

If you are unsure of whether your membership or monthly financial pledge is still current, or you wish to recommence membership or monthly donations or increase or decrease the amount, feel free to get in touch with me at  info@stopliveexports.org and I can assist. If you know you are no longer a member or have never been a member, sign up here, and if you wish to start or recommence monthly donations, which greatly help us fund our ongoing campaign, sign up at GiveNow here. You can pay via credit card or direct deposit; weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually, or make a one-off donation.

Follow us on Facebook for all the latest.

For the Animals

Katrina Love
Campaign Manager

Regards Mark

Farm Animals

US-Pennsylvania: “humane” turkey farm

If you’ve ever shopped at Whole Foods, you may have seen signs posted in the meat department that say things like “enriched environment” and “treated humanely.”
But what a PETA investigator documented at a series of Pennsylvania turkey factory farms tied to a Whole Foods supplier reveals that these signs are probably worth less than the recycled paper they’re printed on.

Farm workers feeding “humanely raised” turkeys to stores such as Whole Foods were filmed torturing animals.

The horrifying masked footage obtained by a worker who was secretly doing a side job for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) also shows that the worker is trampling, kicking, and beating birds.

Taken at Plainville Farm in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. The farm also supplies stores such as Publix and Harris Teeter. After being fatally injured by a worker, the bird was photographed cramping in pain and left to die on the concrete floor of a harshly illuminated barn.

The footage was shot by PETA activists who worked 11 shifts in 10 different plain buildings in July and August this year, claiming that the company is “humanely” raising birds in a “stress-free environment.”
Pennsylvania police have been investigated and told the New York Post Thursday that their animal cruelty office is “currently” reviewing information from animal advocacy groups.

Workers on a plainville farm can be seen picking up large birds with fragile wings and necks before throwing them into the air across the farm.

“Instead of trying to stop this abuse, one supervisor himself kicked a turkey and repeatedly encouraged workers to abuse the bird,” PETA said.

It is about “terrible atrocities.”

“A worker picks up a bird, tries to break his neck, and then puts her between his legs. When he hugs her with an injured neck, he mimics masturbation,” PETA reviews from DailyMail.com.

It is stated in the video. [The worker] Then drop her on the floor, kick her, and let her die.

The disturbing footage shows workers picking turkeys with their necks and fragile wings, throwing them across the room “like a game” to each other and to other turkeys.

Workers can also be seen kicking injured or dying turkeys on the ground.

Continue reading “US-Pennsylvania: “humane” turkey farm” →

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

UK: UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement sets a dangerous precedent for Animal Welfare. Do Johnson and Liz Truss Care ? – Probably Not.

UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement sets a dangerous precedent for Animal Welfare

After several weeks of anticipation, the UK and Australia announced on 15 June that they have reached a political agreement on a trade deal. The future Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will grant huge trade preferences to Australian beef and sheep meat, with no further condition on animal welfare standards. This is a dreadful precedent for UK trade policy.

The Agreement in Principle, published on 17 June, confirms that the FTA will open duty-free and unconditional tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for beef and sheep meat, starting at 35,000 tonnes for beef and at 25,000 tonnes for sheep meat. In both cases, the volume is set to increase over ten years (up to 110,000 tonnes for beef and 75,000 tonnes for sheep meat yearly), after which the TRQs will be replaced by unconditional liberalisation, accompanied by safeguards for another 5 years. 

This result is a huge disappointment for the animal welfare movement. As most UK animal welfare standards are not applied to imports, such a trade deal is likely to fuel intensive and unsustainable farming in Australia, which is extremely detrimental to animal welfare. For instance, feedlots are common practice in Australian beef production and transport rules allow for journeys of up to 48h without food or water. The UK committed to use trade deals to promote animal welfare abroad. Yet, by abandoning the possibility to condition preferential market access to the respect of UK-equivalent animal welfare standards, it renounces to the best tool to achieve this purpose. Conditional liberalisation was part of the calls expressed by the Trade and Agriculture Committee (TAC) earlier this year. 

Similarly to the EU-Mexico Global Agreement, the UK-Australia deal is set to include a chapter on Animal Welfare and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). This is welcome, but the language described in the Agreement in Principle lacks ambition. The UK government is likely to depict the inclusion of non-derogation and non-regression clauses in this chapter as a victory , however, considering the low level of Australian animal welfare standards, a commitment not to lower such standards – or not waiver them – is hardly a ‘success’. In addition, non-derogation and non-regression clauses can usually only be activated when the derogation to or regression of the standards has an impact on trade or investments, which is very hard to prove. 

Allowing such cheap low quality imports in the market in Great Britain will have various implications. In addition to further fueling unsustainable practices in Australia, the massive market access granted to Australian beef and sheep meat could undercut English, Scottish and Welsh farmers, as they remain subject to higher standards – and thus, higher costs. For farmers in England and Wales, this comes at a time when they begin to transition to a fundamentally new type of income support system, one that rewards them solely for better environmental stewardship and for better animal husbandry. If not well managed, this new system could potentially lead to a lowering of the availability of higher welfare British products, and thus to a greater share of lower welfare imports. In addition, central and devolved governments in the UK have set out a range of ambitious agendas to improve farm animal welfare- notably within England – and the lack of measures on imports could well diminish the support for these reforms among farmers in Great Britain. 

By negotiating very fast, without even having published a trade strategy, the UK seems to have sold out animal welfare for the sake of a quick deal. Addressing animal welfare in trade policy requires a long term vision and an understanding of the far-reaching interlinkages between animals and trade. The UK-Australia deal is thus a very bad precedent and does not bode well for future negotiations with the US, Mercosur or India.

Regards Mark