Day: April 2, 2024

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

South Africa: Another Al Mawashi ‘Death Ship’ Expected To Ship Live Animals From East London To Middle East.

Another Al Mawashi ‘death ship’ expected to ship live animals from East London to Middle East© Provided by Cape Times

Africa –

Info – The Port of East London is located at the mouth of the Buffalo River in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It serves as the only remaining river port in the country. The port has excellent rail and road connections to regions such as the Free State, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal. Additionally, it acts as a vital gateway connecting Africa to the global market

Animal rights groups will greet the Al Mawashi vessel when it docks at East London harbour today and document “animal exploitation”.

In East London, Ban Animal Trading South Africa will document the export and in Cape Town the Coalition to Stop Live Animal Export South Africa will protest at 123 Hertzog Boulevard on the Foreshore.

The Kuwaiti importer of livestock is expected to load live animals and transport the cargo to the Middle East.

Labelled as the “death ship”, the 44-year- old vessel is expected to be anchored at the harbour at about 8am, according to a ship tracking website.

National Council of SPCA (NSPCA) executive director Marcelle Meredith said their inspector and veterinarian travelled to the feedlot in the Eastern Cape, owned by a farming company, in preparation for the arrival of the vessel.

About 60 000 sheep, 1500 cattle and 200 goats will be loaded onto the vessel and taken to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

“They inspected the animals at the feedlot and again serious welfare concerns were identified.

On March 18 a warning was issued for shade and water to be provided for the animals and for injured animals to receive appropriate treatment. Since March 26 seven NSPCA inspectors, the veterinarian and two inspectors from King William’s Town SPCA have been at the feedlot to inspect the animals being held in preparation for loading,” said Meredith.

According to the NSPCA, their understanding was the owner of the farming company was managing the shipment for Al Mawashi to whom he rented the feedlot for the export.

Meredith said on Wednesday the inspectors encountered escalating hostility during a lawful inspection, conducted with a warrant as the company owner allegedly displayed aggressive, discourteous behaviour and demanded the inspectors leave the premises.

“The NSPCA had to request assistance from police. The NSPCA has five prosecution cases against Al Mawashi and (the owner of the farming company). The NSPCA has encountered ongoing animal abuse at this feed lot. During the June 2023 shipment, inspectors thwarted attempts to load sick, pregnant, lame, heavily horned and unshorn sheep. Inspectors further intervened when rams had their horns severed using an angle grinder causing a bloodbath and resulting in 131 rams being confiscated and the arrest of the then feedlot manager.

As a result, the NSPCA met the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform. The department agreed guidelines for the export of animals by sea would be stringently followed for future shipments,” said Meredith.

Al Mawashi declined to comment.

Cape Times

Regards Mark

An animal abusing rust bucket that should have gone to the sea bed decades ago !

General News, Uncategorized

Nepal: Nepal’s animal rights activists protest death of three tigers in cage at Parsa National Park

Animal rights activists in Nepal staged a protest in front of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) office here on Tuesday to express their concern over the recent death of three tigers kept in a cage at the Parsa National Park.

The protesters led by activist Sneha Shrestha carried placards and banners with messages such as ‘Stop all forms of animal cruelty’ and ‘Tigers belong to the wild; not to captivity, Why triple tiger population, just to cage them?’ at the WWF office in Baluwatar.

Two male tigers and one female tiger were rescued from Chitwan National Park and Thori of Parsa succumbed to ill health within a few weeks of being placed inside a narrow cage at the Parsa National Park.

The tigers in captivity were meant for display to visitors at Parsa National Park without proper ventilation and enough space.

The national park officials said the tigers might have died due to illness as they were kept in a single cage that could barely accommodate two tigers.

“Today’s protest drew over 100 concerned individuals, united in their call for accountability and the cessation of practices that threaten the welfare of captive animals,” remarked animal rights activist Sneha Shrestha.

Nepal is home to 355 Royal Bengal tigers as the Himalayan nation succeeded in more than doubling the tiger population within 12 years.

Nepal’s animal rights activists protest death of three tigers in cage at Parsa National Park | Science-Environment (devdiscourse.com)

Regards Mark

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

USA (California): Restrictions on size of CAFO animal farms in Sonoma County to be decided by voters.

 
NORTH BAY NEWS 

Sonoma County voters will be asked this November if they want to restrict the size of animal farms.

The county clerk and registrar of voters approved the measure for the ballot last Wednesday after animal rights and environmental activists gathered more than enough signatures to meet the required 19,746.

The petition drive was led by the group Coalition to End Factory Farming, who want to end large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, in Sonoma County.

The initiative calls for a three-year phase-out of one classification of animal farms — large CAFO. It does not affect farms classified by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency as medium CAFO or smaller.

According to Coalition spokesperson Samantha Faye in a statement released Monday, the ordinance could affect two dozen sites that classify as Large CAFOs, which she said are only about 2.4% of animal farms in the county.

“Across these two dozen facilities, there are approximately 2.9 million animals confined,” she said. “These facilities disproportionately affect animals, our water, our air quality, our public health, and the sustainability of agriculture in Sonoma County.”

The group uses the EPA definition of CAFO, which differs depending on an animal’s species, their quantities and the way the farm handles animal waste. For example, a duck farm is classified as a “large CAFO” if it confines 5,000 ducks and uses a liquid manure handling system that washes their waste into a holding pond or lagoon on site. If it disposes of manure some other way, it doesn’t become a large CAFO until it has 30,000 ducks.

The potential ordinance would state that CAFOs disproportionately affect low-income and disadvantaged communities, and that the county intends to provide a retraining and employment assistance program for workers at CAFOs to facilitate the transition to safer forms of work.

“We are against the very vague language in the proposed ballot initiative put forth by the Coalition to End Factory Farming, and the group behind them, Direct Action Everywhere,” said Jennifer Reichardt of Sonoma County Poultry, Liberty Ducks in an email. “This will not save family farms. The goal of this initiative is to put farms out of business.”

Reichardt said that if the measure is passed, residents in the Bay Area will have to pay a higher price for meat, dairy, and eggs, because they will need to be imported.

“If it is passed, it will increase greenhouse emissions from trucking in products from further away, increase the cost of food, and shut down local, often multi-generational, businesses. It will put hundreds of employees out of work, and force the import of other meat, dairy, and eggs from outside the county and state,” Reichardt said.

Sonoma is one of four California counties where the highly pathogenic avian flu was detected among commercial flocks last year, prompting the board of supervisors to declare a local state of emergency in December 2023.

The Coalition to End Factory Farming includes animal rights groups, small farm advocates, and Direct Action Everywhere, an organization that, among other things, wants to make legal the right of people to enter places such as factory farms to remove animals they say are in distress. Their activism includes trespassing to obtain video footage inside farms and rescuing animals. 

Their co-founder, San Francisco attorney Wayne Hsiung, was arrested in November and sentenced in Sonoma County to 90 days in jail and two years of probation last year for felony trespassing at chicken and duck farms in 2018 and 2019.

At a press conference Monday, Cassie King of Direct Action Everywhere said they watch farms from public property or may use satellite imagery to decide to enter a facility. For example, they may see if birds never go outside in a facility that’s supposedly free range.

“Sometimes they find animals who are on the brink of death, who are clearly ill or injured and can’t get themselves up, can’t get themselves to food and water,” she said. “If they leave them behind, they will surely die, either die slowly from starvation or dehydration. In many cases, facility employees will come and kill the individuals who are too sick or weak to feed themselves to survive.” 

Restrictions on size of CAFO animal farms in Sonoma County to be decided by voters – CBS San Francisco (cbsnews.com)

Regards Mark