22 Oct 2024: Civil defence teams and residents work together to rescue a horse trapped beneath the rubble of a home destroyed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza.
One more innocent victim, among the many animals so often forgotten in this war not just on humanity, but on all creatures trapped there in this Hell unleashed by Israel, made possible by the United States.
Italy banned male chick killing in 2022, yet the slaughter quietly continues. From the heart of Rome to its most iconic landmark, advocates are demanding action.
March 28, 2025
Italy banned male chick killing in 2022, but enforcement has stalled due to loopholes and government delays.
Male chicks are killed in the egg industry because they cannot lay eggs or grow quickly enough for meat. Millions are ground up alive or suffocated each year.
Animal Equality has long pushed for in-ovo sexing, a technology that determines a chick’s sex before hatching.
Animal Equality projected a message onto the Colosseum, displaying hatchery footage and urging ministers to enforce the ban.
Advocates have also taken to the streets, protesting outside Italy’s Agriculture and Health Ministries.
Update February 2025 – Animal Equality projected a message onto the Colosseum, calling for enforcement of Italy’s male chick-killing ban. The display showed footage from hatcheries alongside the faces of the three Italian ministers responsible for implementing the ban. These were accompanied by the words: “Act now, stop the slaughter of male chicks!”
Advocates also launched a manifesto against chick killing, backed by journalist Giulia Innocenzi and singer-songwriter Giorgia.
Update December 2024 – Animal Equality’s Vice President for Europe spoke about male chick killing on TV program Mi Manda Rai Tre.
Update November 2024 – Protesters gathered outside the Agriculture and Health Ministries, condemning delays in the ban’s enforcement.
Update September 2023 – The Italian government outlined enforcement for the male chick killing ban. However, loopholes remain, allowing exceptions for sexing errors, machine failures, and more. A letter signed by Animal Equality and other groups urged the government to close these gaps.
Update August 2023 – Some members of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies–similar to the U.S. House of Representatives–asked to clarify enforcement of the 2022 male chick-killing ban. Officials formally requested answers from the Ministers of Agriculture and Health.
Update August 2022 – Italy’s Chamber of Deputies gave final approval for a ban on male chick killing. The law passed by a wide margin and is slated to take effect by 2026. Animal Equality’s Director for Italy spoke at a press conference to mark the occasion in the Parliament’s press room.
Animal Equality has launched a campaign urging Italy’s government to end the killing of male chicks in the egg industry.
The petition–directed at the Ministries of Agriculture and Health–calls for officials to promote in-ovo sexing technology and support companies that adopt it.
Italy’s largest supermarket chain–Coop–voiced its support just hours after Animal Equality’s campaign launch. The company announced online and in the media that it will adopt in-ovo sexing technology as soon as possible.
Why are male chicks killed in the egg industry?
Around the world, millions of male chicks are killed every year because they can’t lay eggs or grow fast enough for meat. Within hours of hatching, they are typically ground up alive in industrial macerators, gassed, or in some cases, electrocuted.*
*While electrocution is allowed in the U.S., it is not allowed in Europe.
In Italy, tens of millions are discarded as waste each year. The practice is just as widespread in the U.S., where hundreds of millions are killed annually.
Billions of baby birds face death on the day they are born simply because their lives are not profitable. Please sign the petition to end this massacre.
(PLEASE SIGN PETITION ON PAGE)
A proven solution: In-ovo sexing
In-ovo sexing technology identifies a chick’s sex before it hatches, preventing millions of male chicks from being born into the egg industry. Several countries have already adopted this method.
The process works by detecting the embryo’s sex within the first days of fertilization. This is done through a minimally invasive or non-invasive test.
Various in-ovo sexing technologies are available, though some are still in development.
Egg-free: The best way to protect chicks
While in-ovo sexing prevents male chicks from being killed, millions of hens still suffer in the egg industry. They endure short, stressful lives, only to be slaughtered when their production slows.
The simplest, most effective way to protect them is to choose plant-based alternatives. Check out delicious, compassionate, egg-free recipes on Love Veg (https://loveveg.com).
It sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare, but it’s real: pregnant horses are restrained and drained of massive amounts of blood, leaving them weak and traumatized —all so the pharmaceutical industry can extract PMSG, a hormone used to fuel factory farms.
And Iceland is at the center of this horror. As the only producer of PMSG in Europe, its blood farms keep industrial animal agriculture running across the continent. Without Iceland’s supply, the entire industry takes a major hit. But right now, we have a rare chance to shut these farms down for good.
Iceland’s government has already admitted that blood farms violate EU animal welfare laws. Under pressure, they’ve pledged to reconsider the future of PMSG production *this year*—to either ban it permanently or allow this cruelty to continue. Meanwhile, Ísteka—the pharmaceutical company profiting from this torture—is lobbying hard to keep blood farms open, pressuring Iceland’s government to protect its bottom line.
This is our moment. If we raise a massive global outcry now, we can drown out Big Pharma’s lobbyists and push Iceland to finally ban PMSG for good.
Tell Iceland: ban PMSG
Thanks to numerous investigations by the Animal Welfare Foundation, the reality of PMSG production in Iceland has been exposed. Their latest undercover investigation in 2023 revealed the true extent of the cruelty behind PMSG extraction, bringing this hidden industry to light.
PMSG is the ultimate symbol of factory farming’s brutality—a hormone extracted from the blood of pregnant horses to fuel mass production of meat. In industrial pig farms across Europe, mother sows are injected with PMSG to hijack their bodies, forcing synchronized pregnancies so factory farms can churn out piglets on a rigid schedule.
Iceland had a chance to stop it. But in 2023, under pressure from Ístekathe government caved. Instead of banning blood farms, they put forward weak regulations and delayed real action until this year. Now, with the future of PMSG on the line, Big Pharma’s lobbyists are back, fighting to keep the cruelty going. This time, we can’t let them win—Iceland’s leaders need to see that people everywhere are demanding they ban PMSG for good. If we act now, we can make this year the turning point.
The Ekō community has taken on this fight before—and won. We pressured two major German pharmaceutical companies to cut ties with blood farms in South America, dealing a big blow to this cruel industry. Now, Iceland is the last major stronghold—and together, we can shut it down.
Pauline is also a volunteer animal rescuer for the Greenwich Wildlife Network – a charity founded in 2018. For overseas visitors, Greenwich is an area of South East London. Pauline often tells me, Mark, about many of her rescues; and the wonderful network of the volunteers available.
I do not know Rae personally, but in Pauline we have a mutual friend – and an interest in helping / saving animals in need which all of us share. There is one issue in particular which we all have concerns about – CATAPULTS – particularly when used by youngsters to maim or kill wildlife.
The use of, and resulting terrible suffering caused by catapults on animals is detailed in the following newspaper article by Rae. Here she does a overwiew of daily rescues resulting from the use of catapults,
I personally produced a post on this site recently which was directly associated with the same issue; the use of catapults by youngsters on innocent British wildlife. It is almost always the wildlife rescuers who have the task of dealing with the results of catapult usage; dead animals, dying animals or injured animals.
So, here we are back at the start again; local politics, county elections etc. As the title says they are after your vote, but once elected, they do not generally give a damn anymore. So lets all work together to try and change that; respond to them by phone, e mail etc and TELL THEM, no changes, no vote. They usually do not really give a damn about animal issues; but YOU, AS A VOTER, DO; so lets see them as potential politicians give a damn for once.,
We wish to see immediate changes from all those posting these current election papers, and more importantly, from those in power as OUR political representative MP’s, to take this issue much more seriously; to give the national county police forces the time and the money to take wildlife catapult killings more seriously; as THIS ISSUE IS NOW BECOMING A SERIOUS ONE.
Further, the social media platforms need to constantly check, and instantly remove where necessary, all people and posts associated with this issue – social media talks the talk about ‘controls’ when it comes to issues such as this wildlife killing; but in my personal opinion, these so called controls are about as useful as a chocolate fireman. Social media needs to step up to the plate and act; seriously act, to close down everyone and everything who lives in ‘sickoland’.
The British public support us and our cause; it is as usual the people in power, those who have the ability to implement real change, who are failing to listen once again. So with elections round the corner we can smile at them and say, ‘IF YOU DO NOT TAKE ACTION ON THIS ISSUE, A CONCERN OF MINE; THEN YOU DO NOT GET A VOTE FROM ME’. Simple,
They are supposed to work for you; so make them do it.
Regards to you all – I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon – Mark.
Translation of above text: An excerpt from a biased article in late 2016 about the adequacy of the conditions in the live transports (since then, countless horrors have been documented, all of which turn out to be adequate):
“The issue of animal cruelty is very important to the Ministry of Agriculture and to me personally,” Uri Ariel clarified. “We decided to conduct a surprise inspection of a shipment of calves arriving in Israel, in order to see the reality up close. The conditions on the ship were adequate.”
According to him, the professionals in veterinary services are doing a sacred job to reduce harm to animals, “We are constantly examining new ways to see what else can be done to reduce harm to animals imported into Israel.”
“Animal cruelty is a well-known prohibition in Judaism, an example of which is the rule ‘You shall not muzzle an ox,’ which was already written in the Torah thousands of years ago. Judaism taught humanity not to harm animals, and we as a country see this as a moral and professional obligation,” emphasized the Minister of Agriculture.
Thanks to many reports we received in these days, we are aware disturbing videos and images showing scenes of violence against animals are circulating on internet. The suspect, a Bulgarian woman, was arrested on charges of money laundering, criminal conspiracy, and cruelty towards animals.
What the girl is accused of is unbelievable. You can watch scenes of animals tortured and killed, mutilated and abused for hours, subjected to unimaginable pain for profit. It is thought that it’a about fetishistic practice known as “crush fetish,” where individuals derive sexual pleasure from witnessing the crushing of living beings. These acts were filmed and distributed on a fee on platforms like Telegram.
In one instance, the perpetrators, woman with another guy, rented a space in Sofia, where they filmed themselves committing these acts. The footage reveals them forcing animals into distressing positions, including tying cats to leashes and running them over with vehicles.
The explicit nature of these viral animal cruelty videos has caused immense indignation among animal welfare communities and the general public. For this reason in Bulgaria there are protests since the last Friday in every city and, perhaps there will be many more.
OIPA in the face of this horror could not remain silent. Yesterday we sent the Bulgarian Minister of Justice Mr. Georgi Georgiev a letter calling for greater protections for animals and increased penalties for those guilty of mistreatment.
Below, the text of our email.
Dear Minister of Justice of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Georgiev Milan, 20th March 2025, Minister of Justice of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Georgiev, We would like to express our concern about the case involving Gabriela Sashova e Krasimir Georgiev (Габриела Сашова и Красимир Георгиев). We are aware Mrs. Sashova was arrested on charges of money laundering, criminal conspiracy, and cruelty towards animals. It is claimed that this couple tortured innocent victims for years and recorded the scenes to then sell them on the internet. Our Organization, active internationally with longstanding experience in the field, wants to highlight how cruelty towards animals is indicative of social danger. For this reason, many countries have intervened on a legal level, by introducing new crimes against animals or by increasing sentences. As Bulgarian citizens have communicated to our Organization there is the need for Bulgaria to support this fight to legally defend animals in response to increasing cultural awareness for this issue. Finally, we would like to remind you that Bulgaria subscribed to the European Convention for pets’ rights therefore showing interest in animals’ wellbeing. We look forward to seeing a fast legal response in terms of punishment and prevention. We offer our support for any additional activities and initiatives your country will undertake. Best regards
****************************
Now, we feel we must add a comment of our own to this .. So-called “crush videos” are directly linked to the “cat torture rings” originating in China. We have mentioned this on the site previously:
It was, as we’ve already said, only a matter of time until this would spread, and “copycats” (an unfortunate term given the victims) in other countries would follow suit. Individual cases in the US have been known for some time, Europe less so. Alas, no longer …
With the curse of social media allowing worldwide access to this crap, to underage “consumers” also. This is indeed the only handle there is in China against this – the involvement of minors, which is illegal. As to the animal victims, there exists no legislation to protect them.
For me personally seeing this below is quite enough. This little chap is trembling with fear, likely because he/she has seen what was done to his/her siblings. Without a doubt tortured to death like so many others, although FG (Feline Guardians) has not released details. For those of us who have seen the worst, there is no need …
Source: Feline Guardians
Make no mistake: There can be NO place for this sort of thing, not in China, nor anywhere else. As already declared elsewhere on the site: An Eye for An Eye.
Dear President Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Prime Minister of Algeria Mr. Nadir Larbaoui and President of The National Economic Social and Environmental Council Mrs. Rabéa Kharfi,
With this letter, we appeal to your kind attention and compassion expressing our deep concern and indignation about how stray animals are treated in your country.
We sincerely demand to consider our proposal of employing humane and not cruel methods for managing and monitoring the population of stray dogs and cats in Algeria, as well as implementing national laws and local regulations on the issue to avoid cruelty and abuse on animals.
Now is the right time to make a great change and you can be the driver of that change by banning the terrible practise of “Galoufa” – القالوفة”. It is time to listen to the plead of all your citizens who are asking to end this brutal and insane mass slaughter of sentient beings. We are now living in the 21st century and not in the 19th century, when Galoufa was firstly introduced. A compassionate approach to deal with the strays’ overpopulation exists and may be easily implemented. Animal welfare organizations, like OIPA, hope that the Algerian government will adapt to a now widespread international culture that respects animals through the adoption of bloodless and modern methods in the fight against stray animals, resulting in positive international media prominence.
We hopes that Algeria will incorporate into its legislation the principles of Brambell’s internationally recognised Five Freedoms of Animals, namely: freedom from hunger/thirst; right to a suitable environment; freedom from disease; right to exhibit normal behavioural characteristics; and freedom from fear.
If you decide to make Algeria a compassionate country for animals, many of your citizens will thank you and trust you.
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Two people involved in a harsh animal cruelty case were arraigned in Albany City Court Friday morning. Both Christopher Maxwell, 32, from the Bronx, and Latisha Ellis, 32, from Albany, pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty charges. The courtroom was filled with animal rights advocates, who arrived at the hearing early to stand in support of the dog that died.
The pair allegedly tortured and killed their one-year old female pit bull in a parking lot in the area of 4th Avenue and Franklin Street in February. Investigators said the two left the dog Inside a crate at a home for several days with no food or water. Police said Maxwell and Ellis then took the dog, while still inside the crate, to the parking lot, poured lighter fluid over her, and set her on fire.
The pair came to court both wearing face masks, which, to one activist, Jeanette McLean, shows their guilt.
“They know they did this,” McLean said. “They hid themselves behind masks to come to court. Yes, they did walk right through us this morning and tried to get us to not know who they were.”
Before the hearing, the crowd held signs calling for change.
“Unfortunately, the justice system isn’t strong enough for the dogs, McLean said. “That’s really what it comes down to, animals, dogs in general. We need stricter laws for people who do animal cruelty. They hurt a poor, defenseless animal. She had no choice but to burn.”
The prosecutor told the judge a grand jury is expected to meet next Friday regarding the case, which could result in an upgrade in charges.
Petition demands maximum penalties in Albany dog killing
Kumi Tucker WNYT Updated: March 25, 2025 – 5:51 PM Published: March 12, 2025 – 11:54 PM
Ring camera video shows a man dragging a covered crate near Fourth Avenue and Franklin Street in Albany last month, then walking casually away, with the crate in flames.
Albany police say they found a one-year-old female pitbull dead inside.
“When I first saw the video I cried,” said Sidney Scacchetti, vice president of the animal group Bark, Brew & Tattoo. “I could not stop thinking about that poor baby that was stuck in that crate and had to unfortunately go out of this world like that. I could not help but think about my own pitbull at home and how sweet, beautiful, and joyful, and the unconditional love that they give. I can’t fathom how somebody can take a soul like that.”
Police say 34-year-old Christopher Maxwell of the Bronx left the crated dog at home for several days without food or water before heading to the parking lot, pouring lighter fluid, and setting the crate and the dog on fire.
“We’re looking for the full penalty for this man,” said Monica Willette, founder and event coordinator of Bark, Brew & Tattoo. “I think that we had the perfect opportunity as a country to make Michael Vick a prime example of why we don’t treat animals this way. And instead we gave him a slap on the wrist and public community service.”
Bark, Brew & Tattoo raises money and awareness for bully breeds. It fights the negative stigma attached to those dogs. The group began a petition demanding Maxwell be held accountable to the fullest extent.
Animal advocates say things like pitbull rings still exist.
“I think we like to turn a blind eye to it, but it’s something that we definitely need to wake up and realize that it’s still happening in our area,” said Willette.
Maxwell is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, arson and criminal mischief.
“When I first saw the video, I did cry to think about how this animal was brought into a public space, confined, and then lit on fire. I can’t imagine a worse way of having to suffer and die,” said Bark, Brew & Tattoo President Amanda Wolf. “There are a lot of reasons a person doesn’t want to have an animal. There are a lot of resources available to people that want to surrender their animals and this should never be a solution to that problem.”
Maxwell is scheduled to appear in Albany City Court on March 21.
Albany, New York – In the early morning hours of February 23, Christopher Maxwell,34, dragged his year-old puppy to a church parking lot in a cage. He doused the pup and cage with an accelerant and set it on fire – killing the confined young dog in one of the most horrific ways possible.
According to the Albany Police, before setting his pup on fire, he had starved her for days – leaving her crated without food or water.
In a news release, the authorities said:
Upon further investigation by our Special Operations Unit, it was discovered that Maxwell, the dog’s owner had left the dog inside a crate in his residence for several days without food or water. Upon Maxwell’s return, he took the dog, still in the crate, to a parking lot in the area of Fourth Avenue and Franklin Street, poured lighter fluid over the crate and the dog, and set it on fire.
The video captures the horrifying moments before and after the pup is set on fire.
Animal Victory wants to ensure that Christopher Maxwell faces the maximum consequences for his abhorrent actions. Please add your name to the petition and help us get justice for the young dog who suffered a horrific death at Maxwell’s hands.
Update 3/25/2025: Animal Victory sent petition to the DA.
Update 3/25/2025: This case has now been moved to the Albany County Criminal Court. It is very high profile and the case number will be changing. It is our understanding that the Grand Jury is in session this week – Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The D.A. will be presenting the case to the Grand Jury (they are unsure which date specifically).