Day: June 9, 2023

General News, Stray Animals, Uncategorized

China: Yulin Dog Meat ‘Festival’ Just Weeks Away. Could Be Biggest In Years.

I am attempting to get more about this years Yulin dog meat festival; Julia de Cadenet, founder of NoToDogMeat, said the controversial Yulin Dog Meat Festival in China could be the biggest for years as organisers try to make a spectacle for tourists.

We are expecting this year’s festival to be even bigger than in the pandemic years, as covid restrictions have now been lifted.

Lychee and Dog Meat Festival – Wikipedia

Read a lot more here:

Chinese dog meat festival to be biggest for years as organisers ‘put on show’ for tourists | UK | News | Express.co.uk

Appeal – we need a war chest – TotalGiving™ – Yulin 2023, We Need A ‘War Chest’ – NoToDogMeat Foundation – Fundraising Page

Yulin Dog Meat Festival 2023 in China – Dates (rove.me)

More to be published as info is obtained.

Regards Mark

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

EU: Live animal transport: new Essere Animali report presented to the European Parliament.

Live animal transport: new Essere Animali report presented to the European Parliament

9 June 2023

Essere Animali

Yesterday at the European Parliament Essere Animali presented a new report dedicated to the investigations on live animal transport conducted in the last three years.

The event was hosted by Niels Fuglsang MEP (S&D, Denmark), Vice-President of the Intergroup on the welfare and conservation of animals and Chairman of the Animal transport working group.

The report analyses the law enforcement controls that took place during the investigations conducted in Italy and the shortcomings of the current European Regulation which is currently being revised by the European Commission.

The debate was also an opportunity for MEPs from different parliamentary groups to exchange views on such a complex and important issue in order to truly guarantee compliance with higher welfare standards in the EU.

The key priorities for the Transport Regulation’s review must be the 8-hour limit for all transport and the ban on transport for pregnant and unweaned animals. Another crucial aspect is the ban on extra-EU transports. We believe that these points and animal welfare should be included in the manifestos for the next European elections in 2024 and we will work in this direction.

Niels Fuglsang – MEP

Francisco Guerreiro MEP (Greens, Portugal) emphasised that “The role of the European parties to include these demands in the electoral programmes is crucial”.

Every year, more than one billion animals are transported in Europe both to extra-EU countries and within Europe’s borders. According to the latest report released at the end of 2022 by the Italian Ministry of Health on the activity carried out by the Border Control Posts (PCF) and the Veterinary Offices for Community Compliance (UVAC), in 2021 the following animals were imported into Italy from other EU countries: 1.4 million pigs, 1.3 million cattle, 790 thousand sheep and over 56 million poultry, most of which were 1-day-old chicks.

Essere Animali investigations, started in 2021 and carried out until Easter 2023, focused on two of the main problems affecting Italy: the long-distance transport of lambs and the very high temperatures that affect animals during transport, even on short distances, in the summer. 

The latest shocking checks by Essere Animali conducted in Easter this year showed the terrible suffering to which animals are still subjected, with conditions so painful that Italian vets found themselves forced to euthanise some animals inside the trucks. 

The lambs transported on long distances often travel in overcrowded conditions, without access to food and water and without protection from dangerous gaps that often cause injuries and end up trapping body parts of these fragile and very young animals.

In recent years, the European Parliament has tried, with the ANIT Committee, to document the limitations of the current legislation, but the final Recommendations called for minor improvements rather than systemic change.  

Investigations conducted also in recent weeks show that animal transport is one of the phases of production with the most violations, the least protection for animals and continuous suffering and mistreatment that can no longer be ignored.

We hope, therefore, that the Commission can take into account our report and the scientific evidence also highlighted by the latest EFSA opinions (2022) and propose a revision that can really protect animals during this phase, raising animal welfare standards and at the same time starting a transition to the transport of meat and carcasses.

Chiara Caprio, Head of Public Affairs at Essere Animali

Regards Mark

General News, Vivisection

EU: ECHA workshop highlights commitment to animal-free regulatory system for industrial chemicals.

ECHA workshop highlights commitment to animal-free regulatory system for industrial chemicals

9 June 2023

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) hosted a two day workshop to hear feedback from regulators, industry, academia, and environmental and animal protection organisations on how to accelerate the transition to a chemicals regulatory system free from animal testing.

The workshop’s main objectives were to explore opportunities to increase the use of NAMs in the short term and how research and regulation can support the transition in the longer term, to identify next steps to accelerate the transition to non-animal testing.

The event successfully engaged 500 attendees following other recent key developments, including the unprecedented success of the European Citizens Initiative “Save Cruelty-Free Cosmetics —Commit to a Europe without animal testing“, which received more than 1.2 million validated signatures in January 2023. Subsequently, meetings between the ECI organisers, the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament took place to discuss the ECI’s three objectives. These events built on the majority support received in 2021 from the European Parliament, which led to a resolution calling on the European Commission to coordinate a plan to accelerate the transition to innovation without the use of animals in research, regulatory testing, and education.

At the end of the event, 75% of attendees felt ‘more confident’ that animal testing can be replaced with non-animal methods and that increasing confidence in these methods is critical to transition to an animal-free chemicals safety testing system. ECHA closed the event by remarking on the community’s strong commitment to move towards animal-free chemical safety assessments, the different understanding of NAMs among stakeholders, and the importance of having goals and concrete milestones to make progress. This aligned with earlier remarks from the European Commission (DG Environment) to identify ‘critical milestones along the way’.

However, presentations from DG Environment on short-term planned actions under the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability showed that – despite some efforts to adopt non-animal methods – the revisions of REACH and CLP will still lead to an increase in the use of animal testing for new purposes, and suggestions from the Commission’s scientists (DG JRC) to avoid new tests have not been fully taken into consideration at this stage.

Eurogroup for Animals will continue its efforts to build support for concrete actions and next steps on the roadmap from the European Commission, to ensure an active transition towards animal-free regulatory testing and scientific innovation.

Regards Mark