Enjoy – Mark
Day: November 20, 2023
17 November 2023
In a move that flies in the face of evidence that we must reduce industrial farming and increase plant-based diets, Italy has announced a ban on the production, sale or import of cultivated meat as well as the use of meat-related wording on labels to describe plant-based foods.
The Italian parliament passed the bill with 159 votes in favour to 53 votes against. MEPs in favour of the bill claimed it would help to protect national traditions and prevent “synthetic” foods from entering the market.
Whilst no cultivated meat is currently commercially available in the European Union, the ban is aimed at preventing novel foods from developing in the country. Breaching the law would result in a fine of up to €60,000.
As the European Commission continues to evaluate novel foods such as cultivated meat, the ban could later be challenged at EU level.
The bill also prohibits the use of meat-related wording on labels to describe plant-based foods. This will hinder producers of plant-based products with expensive re-labelling, and will prevent consumers associating the relevant language with plant-based products.
The measure is a deliberate attack on progress, preventing Italy from evolving despite the direction more and more European and non-European states are taking instead, with a significant push towards food transition. We are in front of the legalisation of an anti-scientific stance, which allows the livestock lobby to continue to exploit, violate and kill millions of animals, moreover, harming the health of all people, opposing transformation in every way.
Domiziana Illengo, LAV
The passing of this bill is a clear sign of resistance against the critically needed move towards better food systems for people, animals and the planet.
Sad -you would hope they have learned by now;
Regards Mark
A joint team of UK and South African researchers carried out a survey on public opinion toward trophy hunting. The survey involved 1,000 people from countries that most frequently visit South Africa, both from within the African continent and overseas. It indicated universally strong opposition to the killing of South Africa’s lions for sport and revealed a desire to finance the protection of the nation’s iconic wildlife through paying a ‘lion protection fee.’
The key findings of the research revealed that 84.2% of those surveyed stated that being asked to pay an inbound tourist ‘lion protection fee’ was a ‘good’ or ‘great’ idea. The highest support was from overseas with the UK, U.S., and many European Countries in favor at 92.3%. Those who live in Mozambique were in favour at 88.9%.
Continue reading at:
Regards Mark
Cool Cat !
Dear Mark,
Viva! Campaigns has investigated another large dairy farm in Wales and sadly documented some of the worst cases of physical violence against animals we have ever seen. At the time of filming, the farm, Tafarn Y Bugail, supplied one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the UK.
The first time we entered the farm, at the dead of night, the sight of a rotting cow and four calves hit us. Their bodies had been left outside, uncovered and accessible to wild birds and animals. As we crept closer, we could see that they had been eaten down to the bone – a clear indication that these animals had been abandoned and dead for some time.
On another visit, I saw the pathetic sight of baby calves isolated in hutches. Some were less than 12 hours old. These babies had been ripped from their mothers and were confined and shivering in the bitterly cold night. They had no love, warmth, comfort or stimulation and nowhere to go. It was the middle of winter!
Inside the maternity pens, conditions were chaotic, noisy and disgusting. We were shocked to find a colony of feral cats sleeping in the straw beds. They were devouring afterbirth; it was like a scene from a horror film. The fetid stench was horrendous.
| Desperate for their mothers One of the most distressing things we filmed were newborn female calves isolated from their mothers, crying out and desperately sucking our fingers for comfort. |
| Calf Pulling We filmed a cow having difficulty giving birth. The worker’s solution was to tie a rope to the calf’s protruding feet and forcibly haul him out, causing agony for the mother. Afterwards, the worker kicked the cow in the spine with his heel to force her to stand. Such cruelty is incomprehensible. |
| Repeatedly Beaten Cows were repeatedly and mercilessly beaten. We recorded one poor animal being hit harder and harder – a sickening 55 times. Other cows were subjected to being kicked in the udder and suffering blows to their legs, backs and faces. |
Shocking footage shows ‘half-eaten dead cows’ at UK dairy farm
Shocking footage shows ‘half-eaten dead cows’ at UK dairy farm | UK News | Metro News
The gentle mother, who simply didn’t know what was wanted of her, was pushed around and her tail twisted. The worker became angry very quickly, hitting the cow with increasing force to make her stand in position for milking. The cow had nowhere to escape, and it was absolutely harrowing to witness her pain.
A second cow was kicked in her already swollen udder – in a final act of indignity. The violence delivered to these poor animals was the worst I have seen, with blows landing on their legs, backs and to the sides of their faces.
In another instance, one of the farm workers used a knife to burst a huge abscess on a cow’s rump during milking. A stream of pus oozed onto the milking parlour floor for over three minutes.
We saw 17 cows in the parlour wearing hobbles on their back legs. These chains are to stop cows ‘doing the splits’ when they have suffered damage from birthing or falling, usually on dirty, wet floors. These sad and ill animals could barely walk. But they were still being milked.
Please donate to our campaign and you’ll be helping fund justice for these animals!
Your donations are crucial and help fund:
| DAIRY FARMING EXPOSED Donate Now » We’ll never give up the fight for animals and I’m hoping you’ll join us on our next Day of Action on Saturday 27 January 2024. We’re organising the biggest Day of Action Against Dairy in history where we will air our hard-hitting undercover investigations that expose the truth about dairy farming. We’ll be calling on the general public to stand up against animal cruelty and choose vegan. Help us cover every single city, town and village across the country by organising an event on your local high street. The animals need you to speak up for them! Together we can make this the biggest protest against dairy the industry has ever faced. Mark, thank you for being a part of Viva! Please, give what you can so we can continue to expose the vile practice of UK dairy farming and get the message out there. Any money you can donate – no matter how little – will help us in our fight against this appalling abuse of mothers and their babies. With your help we can fight dairy consumption and its inherent cruelty. We can’t do it without you! Yours for the animals, Juliet Gellatley Founder and Director |
Now that is an achievement !
Superb !
The Kingdom Of Bhutan Becomes The First Country In The World To Achieve 100% Dog Sterilization & Vaccination
The Kingdom of Bhutan has become the first country in the world to declare that its entire street dog population is fully sterilized and vaccinated following years of investment in a humane dog management program with global animal charity Humane Society International (HSI).
At the formal closing ceremony of the National Dog Population Management and Rabies Control Project in the capital Thimphu, presided over by Bhutan’s Prime Minister, Dr. Lotay Tshering, the Royal Government of Bhutan announced this historic achievement for animal welfare and human health.
At the ceremony, Prime Minister Tshering presented HSI with a plaque in recognition of what he called HSI’s ‘consistent and unwavering support’ towards Bhutan’s street dog welfare success from the beginning in 2009 until its closure – thereby honoring a decade and a half of intensive, targeted spay/neuter work and community engagement initiatives carried out by Bhutan in partnership with HSI.
Since its inception, the project has successfully sterilized and vaccinated more than 150,000 street dogs and micro-chipped 32,000 pet dogs.
Continue reading the full story at:
Back in 2005 I worked with Slavica (Serbian) to set up ‘Serbian Animals Voice’ in order to be a voice, and campaign for much better treatment of stray dogs and cats in Serbia. From the start it was difficult as we were up against a government which viewed endless killing as the only way to ‘control’ stray numbers.
This is an utterly wrong way to view stray animal management and instead we fought to have the government / regional authority ‘killing money’ redirected into covering costs for stray sterilisations, vaccinations and genera health check ups. Anyone with anything between their ears will agree that sterilised animals cannot produce more young; and that was the basis on which we fought. Their ‘final solution’ of just continually killing and doing nothing else does not reduce numbers as new animal young are being born on the streets all the time. A catch, neuter and re release scheme after vaccinations and a good health check is the only way forward to reduce stray numbers.
Sadly the Serbian government just ignored our proposals and continued with their policy of simply killing anything on the streets that they could. Killing simply creates a void in different areas into which strays will wander; looking for food and probably more dogs to reproduce with. If they are sick and have illness or disease, then they always have the chance by moving to a new area of taking ‘that’ illness into an area in which stray dogs may not have suffered from before.
Health checks, sterilisations and vaccinations against disease is the all round solution to stray dog / cat management. Killing is simply a short term ‘fix’ which may show a reduction in numbers for a few weeks; but with un-sterilised strays reproducing all the time we soon see a situation where ‘local mass killing’ returns stray numbers to what they were before, or even higher.
Serbia needs to learn stray dog management from Bhutan.
Thus to see this superb news from Bhutan is amazing – mega big well done to them for seeking and taking the right advice and way forward with stray animal management.
You can see all of our Serbian work by visiting the old site at
serbiananimalsvoice.com
Well done Bhutan; Serbia dragging years behind as always.
Regards Mark
World Animals Voice 