Day: July 8, 2024
In a long-awaited win for animals, Colombia’s Congress voted overwhelmingly to ban bullfighting, international news reported.
The legislation is expected to be signed by President Gustavo Petro, who has been open about his disdain for the violent tradition.
“Congratulations to those who finally made death not a spectacle,” President Gustavo Petro wrote on social media.
The bill will make all bullfighting illegal in Colombia beginning in 2027. It also stipulates that anyone whose income was tied to bullfighting will have help finding more humane employment — demonstrating that the economy does not justify animal cruelty.
This win follows a long and difficult legislative battle. The city of Bogota made several attempts to ban the cruelty over the years, but the bloodsport could only be truly outlawed by Congress — because of a decision from the Constitutional Court in 2018 that bullfighting was a part of the country’s “culture.”
“The next generations will grow up in a country where culture will define things much more creatively than torturing animals for the amusement of a few insensitive people,” Juan Carlos Losada, a member of Congress, said about the win.
Bullfighting is bloody: Bulls are repeatedly stabbed until they give up the will to live in exhaustion and pain. The suffering of these sentient animals is not entertainment — it’s animal cruelty.
“We are prioritizing the welfare and defense of all animals,” Congressman Alejandro Garcia remarked after the vote. “To the whole world, we say Colombia is in a process of cultural transformation, where all beings retain dignity.”
Colombia will join other South American countries like Brazil, Chile, and Argentina in banning the violent sport. Seven countries still allow bullfighting — and the pressure is on for them to follow suit.
Lady Freethinker applauds Colombia’s Congress for passing this historic bill, as well as the animal rights activists who campaigned for years for this more compassionate future.
The heartbreaking story of a dog brutally attacked with a machete has resurfaced in Sancti Spíritus, stirring outrage among animal rights advocates. This time, they have identified the alleged perpetrator and are demanding justice from the Cuban regime.
Natasha Zapata reported this latest act of violence against an animal in the Facebook group “SOS Callejeros. Cuba,” identifying the citizen Y.A.C. as the aggressor.
Warning: Graphic Content. The following content includes images and explicit descriptions of violence against an animal. These images may be disturbing to some readers. Discretion is advised.
According to the accuser, the man also owns a mare with whom he engages in inappropriate behaviors, prompting her to call on authorities to take legal action against him under the Animal Welfare Law.
Zapata also noted that the man works as a cook in a slaughterhouse: “I can’t understand how someone unsanitary like him is allowed to prepare food,” she remarked.
The woman expressed her dismay at the existence of unscrupulous individuals and emphasized that the competent authorities must intervene, as she fears for the life of the aggressor’s mare and any other animal under his care.
In the comments section, Elizabeth Herrera Rodríguez explained that the dog lost an eye and that at the time of the violent act, it had wandered from its home and ended up in the aggressor’s house.
Continue reading at https://www.cubaheadlines.com/articles/284
We have a new government in the UK now.
Animal protection NGO, Cruelty Free International, is calling on the UK’s new Labour government to honour its manifesto pledge to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”.
This commitment must lead to the end of the use of animals in UK laboratories, through the development of a roadmap with clear targets, milestones and actions, led by a new minister to co-ordinate plans across all departments.
The government must also provide further detail to expand on earlier commitments by senior members of the Labour Party that included a board of experts to be established in the first year and tasked with drafting a plan to phase out the use of dogs, minipigs and rabbits in testing, including medical testing.
Cruelty Free International stands ready to offer its expertise to ensure these policies are delivered in an ambitious but achievable way.
The organisation’s ‘Pledge Cruelty Free’ campaign in the build-up to the General Election asked all parliamentary candidates to make a commitment to put the 1998 ban on testing cosmetics on animals, covering ingredients used either primarily or exclusively in cosmetics, into law; make our homes safer by modernising the system for testing the chemicals that go into the products we use every day, such as food, clothes, household cleaning, furniture, electronic goods, paints and dyes, and removing animals from those tests; and ask that the government create a plan to phase-out animal testing forever, with a minister dedicated to delivering this target across all government departments.
Home Office statistics show that there were over 2.76 million uses of animals in laboratories in Great Britain in 2022. Ten per cent of those are tests required by regulators to assess the safety or effectiveness of chemicals, medicines and other products.
Cruelty Free International Head of Public Affairs, Dylan Underhill, said: “Sir Kier Starmer and his new government must honour their manifesto pledge to phase-out animal testing, and reflect both the views of the public and the strength of feeling that there is on this issue. With such a strong majority they can and must be bold to reflect the promise of change on which Labour built their campaign. Animal testing is simply not good science, yet inexplicably continues as the default method for testing the safety of products. We know that, as a country, we can do so much better in our protection of the millions of animals that suffer and die in laboratories every year.
“Their commitment must lead to the end of the use of animals in UK laboratories, through the development of a roadmap with clear targets, milestones and actions, led by a new minister to co-ordinate plans across all departments. The government must provide further detail on commitments that included a board of experts to be established in the first year and tasked with drafting a plan to phase out the use of dogs, minipigs and rabbits in testing, including medical testing. Cruelty Free International stands ready to offer its expertise to ensure these policies are delivered in an ambitious but achievable way.
“We know that there is so much for a new government to do in its first few days and weeks in office, but this is long overdue and cannot be forgotten or delayed any longer. The government must develop a roadmap with clear targets and milestones to phase out the use of all animals in experiments as soon as possible. We stand ready to offer our expertise in service of this ambition.
“A greater increase in funding, in line with the levels for similar ground-breaking technologies in the UK, needs to be accompanied by innovative incentives to encourage scientists and industry to move away from the current use of animals. Non-animal testing methods, in many cases, have already proven themselves to be faster, cheaper and more accurate than animal testing.
“Animal testing touches our lives in many ways that most of us don’t appreciate, from cosmetics and household products to clothes, furniture, plastics, electronic and white goods, paints, dyes, and food – all these things can be associated with animal testing on their way to our homes. We need Labour to take bold steps forward – without this, we will be condemned to a never-ending cycle of small reductions rather than the transformative step forward which is needed to meet the aspirations of the public.”
Regards Mark
World Animals Voice 