Day: December 18, 2021

Farm Animals

you decide whether they live or die

We are a society that has got used to violence.

click on the picture

Every year around 60 billion animals are murdered worldwide to satisfy the greed of industry and carnivores.
It’s an extremely cruel and violent practice, but that’s how the meat mafia works.

The machinery draws its energy from the large power plants of economy, press, religion and politics, but the energy itself is extracted in the deep, dark tunnels of the thought mines of human indifference.

The meat eaters in the billions help to maintain this system of exploitation, extermination, crime against animals, although they are informed almost every day, and even by conventional media, about the Holocaust of animals.

When you buy eggs or milk, meat or fish, you are paying the ones who make the money to do the dirty work … you are not innocent of these crimes if you still consume animal products … your money is that what they want … and they go all out to get the most money … by the cheapest means and the worst animal suffering …it’s time to stop eating animals and their products, it’s time to say … Animals of any kind are not resources, they are individuals, part of our Earthling family.
Speciesism and anthropocentrism are both ideologies that have enforced and manifested the highest contempt for life in the non-human world.

Don’t be a follower of these filthy ideologies; finish them.

My best regards to all, Venus

Environmental

Nicaragua: Thousands of sea turtles lay their eggs under military protection

Soldiers have guarded thousands of sea turtles on the coast of Nicaragua in the past few days.

The animals laid their eggs under military protection (!!)

A member of Nicaragua’s army carries a paslama (or Lora) turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) after it laid her eggs at the beach in La Flor Wildlife Refugee in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, during nesting season, on December 5, 2021. –  (Photo by Oswaldo RIVAS / AFP)

Together with the environmental authorities of the country, the emergency services on the beach of La Flor in San Juan del Sur in the south of the country are to prevent residents from neighboring communities from plundering the nests of the olive ridged turtles.

The turtle species is considered critically endangered.

The sea turtles cover long distances to lay their eggs in the La Flor and Chacocente nature reserves on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast.

Authorities estimate that out of 100 hatched turtles, 90 make it into the ocean, but only 3 reach adulthood.

However, the young animals in particular are exposed to many other dangers: They are eaten by larger fish and seabirds.

In addition, pollution, boats and fishing pose a threat to the turtles.

For example, many animals are killed as “bycatch”.

Each of the turtles lays around 90 eggs.

The offspring hatch from the eggs after about 40 to 70 days.

When fully grown, the animals are a little over half a meter tall and weigh around 38 kilograms.
Source: spiegel

And I mean…Nice! the good news of the day!

You can see, if wanted, that the military can also be used for extremely sensible measures: to protect endangered animals from human violence.
It would be nice if the example caught on worldwide.
For many other endangered animal species too!
This is really a military phrase that can be welcomed without reservation.

In the country’s most recent elections (November 2021), Nicaraguan President Ortega received 75 percent of the vote.
The Biden government condemns the Sandinista government of Ortega as undemocratic and threatens with consequences for his election victory.

The US should be the last to criticize other nations’ elections.
Any election result that the US does not like is a bad one; any brutal dictator, as long as he is on the side of the United States, is good.

We congratulate on the election result and hope that further such meaningful actions for animals on the part of the government will follow!

My best regards to all, Venus

Environmental, General News, Hunting

EU: Ivory Trade: Steps Forward Against Elephant Poaching and Ivory Trafficking.

17 December 2021

News

The European Commission adopts a set of new measures to end ivory trade. While they will help in the fight against wildlife crime and to protect elephants, significant gaps remain.

Yesterday,(16/12/21) the European Commission adopted the revised Guidance on the EU regime governing ivory trade, following measures already taken under the EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking to “eradicate illicit ivory from the EU market”. 

The new measures suspend trade in raw ivory on the EU market except for the exclusive purpose of repairing objects containing ancient ivory. Together with amendments made to Commission Regulation 865/2006, the Guidance also suspends intra-EU trade in worked ivory items, unless strict conditions are fulfilled. 

While Eurogroup for Animals welcome the Commission’s amendments to Regulation 865/2006 and the revised guidance document on the EU regime governing trade in ivory, some significant gaps still remain. 

The trade restrictions on worked ivory are only partially addressed in the Regulation (with the rest being in the guidance document), and those on raw ivory are currently only included in the guidance document and therefore are not legally binding for Member States.

Eurogroup for Animals has been directly involved in the process of developing the new rules, through participation in meetings, consultations, drafting documents and public mobilisation. 

The recently adopted measures represent a great achievement in the fight against wildlife crime and the slaughter of elephants. However, we will continue working, together with our members, to ensure that the new rules are duly implemented by Member States and strictly monitored by the European Commission.

Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals

Regards Mark

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

EU / China: EU investments driving unsustainable farming in China.

17 December 2021

Study found a significant increase in EU investments flowing to the Chinese livestock sector following the introduction of new investment rules in China. In the absence of sufficient animal welfare related standards in the country, this practice harms the global transition towards sustainable food systems, and fuels the public health and environmental crises the planet faces.

In 2020, EU and EFTA-based investors owned shares worth around €4.5 billion across four of the largest Chinese meat and dairy companies: WH Group, Muyuan, Mengniu and Yili. With the introduction of new investment rules in China, investors like JP Morgan Asset Management Europe, Allianz SE and BNP Paribas significantly increased their shareholding. 

In recent years, European livestock giants like Tonnies and Danone have also entered the Chinese market. Tonnies, whose core business is pork and beef processing, spent €500 million in 2019 on a slaughter and butchering centre in the Sichuan region, initially for two million pigs a year (rising to six million), while Danone earned almost €1 billion in profits from the 2021 sale of its stake in Chinese dairy company Mengniu. The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, which holds the world’s biggest stock portfolio, also entered the market after the new rules were introduced, now owning shares worth approximately €437 million in these four companies. 

The business opportunities may seem eye-watering, but a perfect storm of economic, cultural and regulatory issues that accompany EU investments into the Chinese livestock sector could lead to misery for millions of animals. China’s livestock sector is growing in the direction of greater intensification and automation, and the welfare problems associated with intensive livestock are well known and increase with scale.

In addition to being detrimental to animal welfare, intensive industrial farming has a very negative impact on the environment (air, water and ground pollution), biodiversity (as related land-use changes often lead to habitat loss), public health (as intensive conditions tend to favour the spread of zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance) and climate change (as animals emit greenhouse gases, and also because of the related deforestation). Intensive farming also leads to huge volumes of waste (i.e. high level of water use, animal remains, excrement, water and soil pollution). 

Without careful management and awareness of the welfare concerns associated with intensification and automation – and in the absence of further regulation in China – EU investments risk transforming China into a living laboratory for futuristic experiments in animal husbandry, with consequences that could affect the entire planet. 

In that context, the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) – which has not been ratified yet – is also a missed opportunity as it does not allow to address a situation where investments fostered under the deal would fuel unsustainable sectors.

To prevent such situation, Eurogroup for Animals thus calls on the European Commission, the European Parliament and EU Member States to:

  • adopt effective rules on due diligence, including animal welfare within their scope; 
  • bring up the animal welfare dimension in the work started with China on agreed terms for responsible investment;
  • establish a cooperation mechanism with China around animal welfare standards;
  • promote a reform of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles in multilateral development banks where the EU and/or its Member States are share owners to include EU-equivalent animal welfare  requirements.

The sustainability of EU investments in the Chinese livestock sector – The role of Animal Welfare

File

Report: The sustainability of EU investments in the Chinese livestock sector – The role of Animal Welfare2.38 MB

Regards Mark