Month: November 2023

Farm Animals, General News

England: Viva ! – Dairy; Corporate Cruelty – New Investigation.

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  
General News, Stray Animals

The Kingdom Of Bhutan Becomes The First Country In The World To Achieve 100% Dog Sterilization & Vaccination – Fantastic !!

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:

The Kingdom Of Bhutan Becomes The First Country In The World To Achieve 100% Dog Sterilization & Vaccination – World Animal News

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

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

UK: Hopefully More Good News – An Official UK Ban On Live Animal Exports / Transport.

https://www.ciwf.org.uk/news/2023/11/bill-to-ban-live-exports-welcomed

Above Photos – Mark.

WAV Live exports links:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/?s=live+animal+exports

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2023/01/30/england-1-2-23-remembering-jill-a-brief-insight-the-live-exports-battles-of-se-england-to-be-a-voice-for-the-voiceless/

and dear friend John:

England: Another Terrible Loss – John Callaghan.

After years of campaigning by many animal welfare organizations, the announcement of a ban on live exports is a significant moment in the history of the animal welfare movement in the United Kingdom.

Above – more fighting at the EU, Brussels, Belgium.

The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill will prevent the horrendous shipment of calves and other farmed animals for days or even weeks on unsuitable transport vessels that have seen dreadful accidents in the past with thousands of animals dying.

Unweaned calves that were sent from the UK to Spain for fattening suffered from injury, stress, and exhaustion. Global animal welfare organization FOUR PAWS said that it would fortify its efforts to advocate in next year’s EU elections, where a revision of Animal Welfare legislation is more than overdue.

“The last few years have seen too many fatal accidents with farmed animals being transported alive with countless documented infringements against existing legislation that are not prosecuted. The suffering the animals have to endure due to excessive temperatures in cargo, nonexistent veterinary care, and a constant shortage of water and feed is unimaginable,” said Corinna Reinisch, Program Lead Farm Animal Welfare at FOUR PAWS.

“Therefore, this milestone announcement in the UK shines a light on the upcoming proposals for transport that the European Commission has announced for December of this year. Eventually, the EU Parliament and the Council of the EU have to take those proposals, which raise the significance of live animal transport forward in the upcoming EU elections in 2024,” continued Reinisch. “This strong signal shall be the door opener for an urgently needed improvement for billions of farmed animals that are transported outside the EU to third countries every year. FOUR PAWS keeps advocating for animal welfare worldwide.”

Every year, millions of cows, pigs, birds, and sheep are exported from the EU to non-EU countries. This year alone, there have been several fatal accidents with animals being transported. After a three-month ordeal through the Mediterranean Sea, around 1,600 young bulls were killed in Spain after the transport ship Elbeik was not allowed to enter the Middle East due to feared bluetongue cases among the bulls on board. Almost 900 young bulls from the transport vessel Karim Allah experienced the same fate some weeks earlier, and only recently, 14 sheep died after the Phoenix III was stuck off the Italian coast due to bad weather conditions.

Link:

King Charles Announces Ban On The Live Export Of Animals For Slaughter In The UK In New Legislation – World Animal News

Regards Mark

Words from the recent past:

I (Mark) have fought the export of live animal exports from the UK (via English ports) for around 35+ years.  A ‘been there; done it; got the T shirt’ type of scenario.  Over those 30 or so years the ‘fight’ has taken me into Europe investigating the trade; to the EU no good hierarchy in Brussels; and to many ports around England which, to their regret, got involved with the live export trade.

We have experienced the countless, wet; windy; cold and tearful nights at the docks; bearing witness to all the suffering – the noise of the calves having travelled from all over the UK; the smells of days old urine on the transporter floors; and the sights of helpless animals (pigs, sheep, calves and horses) through the slats on their way to meet barbaric deaths in the far corners of Europe and beyond.  Yes, despite Ministry promises; horses were exported to Europe under the guise of going for riding; when in fact they were going for slaughter.  How can I say this ? – one way or another I got the paperwork (export certificates) and we trailed the transporters into Europe.  The Ministry said one thing; and we had the evidence for another.  See more on it all at:

About Us. | Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

The corruption of the system bummed me off enough; that one night; after witnessing the horses going out through an English port; I had to get something down to show what an utter sham it was – hence:

Microsoft Word – EXH6.doc (wordpress.com)

Sometimes you worked alone; for me also, sometimes with a female campaigner; sometimes more; and I cannot even start to count all the wonderful folk that have shared this journey of compassion with me – folks who; if you need it; would give you the shirt off their back to help you out. 

I lost a wonderful campaigner friend; Mike Tucker; see his photo – from London, a few years ago.  He was a stalwart in the fight for the ban on live animal exports.  Sadly he passed before this great news has broken today.  It would have been his dream to know that this issue has now reached UK government for action; with the very real prospect of a positive result soon.  Like me; the fight got deep into his veins; and the tenacity to be a voice for the suffering animals stayed with him until his final minute.  You don’t forget people like him.

I can remember meeting up with him many times in Ol’ London town over the years to fight this bloody, barbaric trade in sentient beings.  Despite his disability from an accident many years earlier, Mike would always dress ‘dapper’ in suit and bowler hat; and would take his bucket of water and a mop to wash the steps of the Agriculture Ministry (responsible for authorising the exports); telling them to ‘clean up’ their act and stop the trade regarding live animal transport.

The EU, for what little it is worth; has a policy of ‘member states’ never being allowed to stop the trade.  With the UK sensibly voting to leave a few years ago; and our relationship with the EU hopefully coming to an end this month in 2020; the UK, as an independent nation, can now take the action to stop the live export trade; re the action starting in Parliament tomorrow (3/12/20).  Things will not change overnight; we know that; but the UK government; unlike the EU; is listening to its citizens; and hopefully in the near future, will introduce legislation to stop the trade.  If other member states of the EU cannot go independent and enforce their own nation legislation; then it is a sad state of affairs; especially as so many citizens of the EU (who’s wishes are ignored) wish to see the business / trade stopped for good.

Mark

Above – Livestock transporters wait at Dover harbour.

Fighting in Dover and Brussels, Belgium

Above – in all the cruelty, we had some fun nights as well- you have to !!

Farm Animals, General News, Stray Animals

South Korea: Finally An End To Dog Farming – Legislation To Phase Out All Farming Within 3 Years. Massive Victory !!

WAV Comment.

With thanks to Di for this update.

This is fantastic news for the welfare movement; and we send them our very best for what has been a massive campaign over so many years – they have had the tenacity to fight on regardless of some promises by politicians in the near past.

A 3 year phase out sounds long and is long; but with those in the business knowing their days are very limited; we may e a dramatic reduction in farming in say, the first year.  Once there is proper legislation in the form of a (legal) Bill; then this can be used for prosecutions etc.  The dog farmers will know it and the sooner we see them walk the better it will be for all.

We have attempted to give action and news support on this issue singe our foundation – you can see our past posts here :

Search Results for “south korea dog farms” – World Animals Voice

Congratulations again dear campaigner friends – in the end, good always wins over evil.

Regards Mark

Photos by HSI Korea

A historic announcement as the South Korean government has stated that before the end of 2023, it will introduce a bill to ban the dog meat industry, which farms and kills up to 1 million dogs per year for human consumption.

At a meeting in Seoul today, between the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, representatives of the ruling Peoples Power Party and Korean animal groups, including Humane Society International/Korea, a government bill was confirmed with a three-year phase out period once legislation is passed, meaning the ban would come into effect in 2027.

Compensation will be offered to help legally registered dog meat farmers, traders, slaughter houses, and restaurant owners transition or close their businesses, similar to the Models for Change program run by HSI/Korea, which has worked with 18 dog meat farmers across the country since 2015 to switch to growing chili plants or parsley.

This news follows considerable public and political momentum for a dog meat ban, including the introduction of five legislative bills by National Assembly Members. The news is welcomed by HSI/Korea, one of the leading animal groups campaigning for an end to dog meat nationwide.

“News that the South Korean government is at last poised to ban the dog meat industry is like a dream come true for all of us who have campaigned so hard to end this cruelty,” said JungAh Chae, executive director of HSI/Korea, who attended the meeting with MAFRA. “Korean society has reached a tipping point where most people now reject eating dogs and want to see this suffering consigned to the history books.”


“With so many dogs needlessly suffering for a meat that hardly anyone eats, the government’s bill delivers a bold plan that must now urgently be passed by the Assembly, so that a legislative ban can be agreed upon as soon as possible to help South Korea close this miserable chapter in our history and embrace a dog friendly future,” said Chae.


With growing concern for animal welfare and over 6 million pet dogs now living in Korean homes, demand for dog meat has dwindled. Latest opinion polls by Nielsen Korea, commissioned by HSI/Korea, show that 86% of South Koreans won’t eat dog meat in the future and 57% support a ban.

HSI recognizes that a short phase out period is an inevitable consequence of dismantling the trade and helping farmers and traders transition to other livelihoods. However, HSI urges the government to use the phase out period to work with animal welfare groups like HSI/Korea to rescue as many dogs as possible in a state-sponsored, coordinated effort.


HSI/Korea’s Models for Change program has rescued more than 2,700 dogs from dog meat farms across South Korea. The program has found adoptive homes for the rescued dogs in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, with a small number rehomed in South Korea. Most of the farmers with whom HSI/Korea has worked experience mounting societal, family, and financial pressure to get out of farming dogs for their meat.

“This is a momentous day for HSI’s campaign to end the horrors of the dog meat industry in South Korea, and one we have been hoping to see for a very long time,” said Kitty Block and Jeff Flocken, CEO and President of HSI globally, in a joint statement.

”Having been to dog meat farms and seen HSI/Korea’s Models for Change program in action, we know only too well the suffering and deprivation these desperate animals endure in the name of an industry for whom history has now thankfully called time,” continued Block. “This is the beginning of the end of dog meat farming in South Korea, and HSI stands ready to contribute our expertise until every cage is empty.”

Regards Mark

Link:

Victory! South Korea Announces Plans To Ban Dog Meat Industry By The End Of 2023 With A Three Year Phase Out – World Animal News

Environmental, General News

EU: Conference celebrates first year of revised Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking.

Conference celebrates first year of revised Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking

17 November 2023

AAP

Animal Advocacy & Protection, or AAP, is working to put an end to the suffering of exotic animals in Europe. They tackle the problem preventively by advocating across Europe for better laws and regulations to prevent animal suffering, as well as practically by rescuing, rehabilitating and finding safe permanent homes for exotic animals in distress. Their areas of focus are exotic pets, animals in entertainment and wildlife trafficking.

On 16 November, a year after the publication of the Revised EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking, representatives from Member States, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the private sector, and civil society gathered in Brussels to discuss the implementation of the Action Plan and solutions to end the illegal wildlife trade. The event was co-organised by Eurogroup for Animals, AAP, IFAW, Humane Society International and Pro Wildlife.

Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest international criminal activities. It contributes significantly to biodiversity loss, increases the risk of zoonotic diseases and has negative socio-economic impacts, particularly in countries where animals and wildlife products are sourced.

The EU is a hub for wildlife trafficking and therefore has a crucial role to play. The revised EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking, published in 2022, provides improvements compared to the previous Action Plan and foresees ambitious actions to tackle the issue. Our conference, marking the first year of the release of the revised Action Plan, was opened by a video message from Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, who highlighted the role of illegal trafficking in loss of biodiversity and undermining peace and security,  followed by a message from César Luena MEP (Socialists and Democrats), who stressed that the success of the Action Plan depends on dedicated implementation by all actors.

The first panel discussed care for confiscated live animals. Representatives from rescue facilities across Europe emphasised the difficulties they are facing to accommodate seized animals and called for increased capacities and resources to offer proper care. Maria Pita Fernandez from the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenges detailed the actions taken by the country in this regard, especially to facilitate information-sharing and coordination. IFAW presented a new Online Learning Program for enforcement authorities on handling confiscated live animals. The panel stressed the challenges in setting adequate conditions for a wide range of species and called for dedicated funding for rescue centres in national Action Plans without impeding activities to address the root causes of wildlife trafficking.

Participants then heard the experiences of Member States regarding the implementation of the EU Action Plan and innovative solutions at the national level. Representatives from Spain and Czechia presented their plans to fight illegal wildlife trafficking, while Lithuania, the Netherlands, Cyprus and Belgium detailed their experience in implementing innovative measures such as the positive list of allowed pets, emphasising the importance for such lists to protect animal welfare, public health and biodiversity. This is relevant in the context of the upcoming study from the European Commission on the added value and feasibility of an EU Positive List for Pets. Panellists highlighted the added value of an EU positive list to better regulate intra-EU trade and the need to retain national lists that would be stricter than the EU list.

The third panel focused on enforcement challenges and consisted of French and Spanish law enforcement authorities, the representative of the German online platform DeineTierwelt, IFAW and the European Commission. The panellists discussed the state of play and opportunities to properly enforce the legislation in place to combat wildlife trafficking. They emphasised the need for ambitious and harmonised rules to regulate wildlife trade online. Training and awareness raising of enforcement officers on environmental crime, including cyber crime, is crucial to enforce these rules. Financial crimes closely linked to wildlife criminal activities can also facilitate prosecution and must be carefully considered by enforcement authorities.

The final panel exchanged on the loopholes in the current EU legislation which enable species that are illegally caught and smuggled in their origin countries to legally enter the EU market. The example of the Macedonian Grayling, an endangered nationally protected butterfly sold online across the EU was presented. Experts and enforcement authorities described the problem while lawyers and civil society proposed solutions, including a model legislation for the EU, in view of the upcoming Commission’s feasibility study on this issue. Panellists underlined that such legislation could complement an EU Positive List and is an important opportunity for the EU to protect biodiversity worldwide.

The event was closed by MEP Martin Hojsík (Renew) on a hopeful note, calling for the timely and proper implementation of this ambitious Action Plan, increased capacity to seriously tackle illegal wildlife trade and the need for new legislative tools at EU level including the positive list and the criminalisation of illegally sourced wildlife trade in the EU.

Illegal wildlife trafficking is not only a major threat to conservation, it also condemns millions of animals to a life of suffering. This event demonstrates that solutions exist! We hope that these fruitful discussions will lead to positive change in the legal framework, in particular the implementation of an EU positive list that is deeply needed to better regulate this trade.

Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals

Wildlife traffickers are increasingly going online to reach a vast virtual marketplace. Dismantling wildlife cybercrime requires the acquisition of specific equipment and competencies by law enforcement and judicial authorities, but currently, there are huge disparities in the level of efficiency of detection and prosecution of wildlife cybercrime in different countries. New tools, training and collaboration are needed to fight criminal networks in and outside the EU.

Ilaria Di Silvestre, Head of EU Policy & Campaigns, IFAW

Today’s event has illustrated just how vital it is that the EU closes the loopholes in the current EU wildlife trade regulations. By failing to criminalise the import of nationally protected wildlife species that have been taken in violation of the laws of other countries and allowing this stolen wildlife to be traded legally in Member States, the EU continues to be complicit in the loss of biodiversity elsewhere in the world. This cannot and must not continue.

Dr Joanna Swabe, Senior Director of Public Affairs, Humane Society International/Europe

Many range states do not even know that their threatened and nationally protected species are stolen and smuggled to Europe to be marketed as exotic pets. Our event today confirmed that the European Union, with its responsibility as a main hub and destination, urgently needs to take action against this particular form of wildlife crime.

Dr Sandra Altherr, Pro Wildlife

Today multiple Member States who have implemented a Positive List shared their experiences and lessons learned. These are not only crucial for the EU to consider when conducting their feasibility study, but also other Member States who have yet to implement such an instrument. The message today is clear: a Positive List is a highly effective way to combat illegal wildlife trade, being one of the major risks the exotic pet industry confronts us with.

Laurens van de Noort, AAP

Regards Mark

General News

India: IN MEMORY OF RANI, THE FIRST CAMEL CREMATED IN RAJASTHAN. ALL ANIMALS HAVE DIGNITY AND DESERVE CARE.

Forwarded from Di in Germany:

https://www.oipa.org/international/in-memory-of-camel-rani/

IN MEMORY OF RANI, THE FIRST CAMEL CREMATED IN RAJASTHAN (Northern India). ALL ANIMALS HAVE DIGNITY AND DESERVE CARE

Inserito da oipainternational | Nov 2, 2023

Our member league APS received a request for help about a female Camel named Rani. Her owner abandoned her to die on the street after she suffered severe injuries due to a vehicle accident. As soon as APS heard of this, they arranged a truck and crane for her rescue, while one of their volunteers rushed immediately on site. They managed to save Rani after 30 minutes, and they took her to the Udaipur Animal Husbandry Department in Udaipur. Her health was seriously compromised. One eye was completely destroyed, and her skin completely diseased. She suffered a fracture to her leg’s radius. She had been applying dressings and antibiotics.

Unfortunately, despite all efforts, she couldn’t overcome her injuries and sadly passed away after four days. It’s always tough to lose an animal you’re trying to save.

Even though there is not a facility for cremating camels in the region, they are recognized as Rajasthan’s state animal. In order to carry out Rani’s cremation, APS hired a truck and crane once more and headed to the forest. The Team organized a cremation process in the forest to give Rani a dignified farewell. It was the first time a camel has been cremated in the entire state of Rajasthan.

It’s also unfortunate that there were no facilities available for the cremation of camels in Rajasthan. This sad ending is a reminder of the importance of creating proper infrastructure and providing proper care for the state animal.

You can support them by sharing their work or donating to them

Website: www.animalsprotectionsociety.org

Instagram/Twitter:@animalproindia

Regards Di and Mark

Farm Animals, General News

EU (Eurogroup for Animals): Insect farming: our three biggest concerns with the rapidly growing sector.

16 November 2023

Did you know that several insects are authorised for farming in Europe?

Insect farms are on the rise in the EU, and the growth of the sector has been rapid, with trillions of insects set to be farmed by 2030. Not only is insect welfare not being taken into account as this sector explodes, but the industry could have a major impact on intensive livestock farming as a whole.

Insect farming is not being widely talked about by key decision-makers at EU level, but it should be. 

Research into the welfare of insects is scarce compared to other vertebrates, but the science so far reveals they are sentient beings, with a range of feelings and needs.

Further, research into insect farming shows the growing sector could have a big impact on the planet if allowed to proceed at its current growth rate, without policies in place to manage it. 

Our three key concerns:

Insects are sentient beings

Insects are sentient beings that can feel pain, experience emotion, socialise, play, and much more. Like with any other animal, they should therefore have their welfare needs protected – however, no EU policies to this end are currently in place, leaving trillions of insects open to suffering in the coming years.

This must change – and policymakers could start by developing measures to improve insect diets on factory farms. Our report uses the latest research to make recommendations.

Insect farming is risky

Due to its fast growth, industrial insect farming poses several threats to the environment and other animals, especially by:

Facilitating the spread of pathogens

Possibly disrupting ecosystems

Using GMO to increase productivity on farms, the consequences of which are so far unknown.

This could lead to major issues for animal welfare, public health and the planet – making it even more critical that this expanding sector is closely monitored and regulated as soon as possible.

Regards Mark

Farm Animals, General News, Vegan Recipes

England: Keeping hens clucking, pigs oinking and cows mooing. Free to live their best lives. Now that’s what we call plant positivity.

Disclaimer.

The purpose of this site is to be informative of animal welfare / rights issues.  I never take any financial support for advertising products or anything else at all; what you see is input, nothing else.  What you see here in this post is my input to a food which I fully support.  It can be purchased here in the UK no problem – overseas ?; for more info and products go to Vegan organic Bakery baking delicious pies, quiches, tarts and nut roasts (clivespies.com)

They say:

We want to make eating animals a thing of the past.

With your help, we’re changing the world, one irresistible bite at a time. Choosing Clive’s keeps hens clucking, pigs oinking and cows mooing. Free to live their best lives. Now that’s what we call plant positivity.

We say:  Last night for dinner, as we have many times before, had a Clives nut roast with vegetables, seeds and herbs.  Click on link above. It was great as always; if you are able, then please give it a try.

Regards Mark

Enjoy – Going to the city by Hugh Cornwell.

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News, Vegan Recipes

England: German Analysis of 37 Studies Shows Meat and Dairy Out, But Changing to Whole Grains, Beans, Nuts and Olive Oil Significantly Reduces Cardiovascular Disease and Type 2 Diabetes. (Guardian London).

Plant-based swaps may cut diabetes and heart disease risk, major review finds

Analysis of 37 studies finds largest health benefits come from replacing processed meat, with 20% reduction in type 2 diabetes

Replacing meat and dairy with whole grains, beans, nuts and olive oil may significantly reduce cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, according to a major review into the impact of diet on health.

Researchers in Germany analysed 37 published studies to assess the benefits of switching from red and processed meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products to plant-based foods such as beans, nuts, whole grains, oils, fruit and vegetables.

Read in full at:

Plant-based swaps may cut diabetes and heart disease risk, major review finds | Health | The Guardian

Regards Mark