Category: Environmental

India: Wet Markets and the Biggest Covid Daily Spike From the WHO. Spot the Link ? – copy link and ask questions.

INDA0001

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8516939/World-Health-Organization-records-biggest-daily-spike-Covid-19-cases.html?ito=push-notification&ci=22583&si=11327722 

 

 

Hi all;

 

Both Venus and myself have been having some issues over the last few days, hence the restricted ability at the moment to try and post several posts regarding animal issues each day.

 

Hopefully later this week we will e better health wise and will be able to get more back to normal.

This morning I have had contact with our friends at Peta in India.  I am copying their words and showing the very disturbing video which goes with it – re the continuing existence of wet markets; this time in India itself.  Personally, I have major concerns that many national governments who are trying to do their best with Covid / Coronavirus, do not have the guts to make contact with overseas nations and governments which still allow wet markets to exists.  Watch the video and what is happening – then tell me that Covid will reduce; I doubt it !

 

As of today, 13/7/20; India has 879,888 cases of Coronavirus; and currently 23,200 deaths.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/india/

 

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/over-28-500-coronavirus-cases-in-india-in-last-24-hours/1908303

 

Look at the article from the BBC (UK) 4 days ago:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-53284144

 

And yet still; there seems to be no movement from governments to completely shut down wet markets.  We are constantly informed that the original source of the virus was at a wet market Wuhan in China; see some of our past links:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/06/27/yes-wet-markets-are-still-open-and-in-all-reality-the-who-talks-loud-but-actually-does-nothing/

 

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/05/28/filthy-wet-markets-still-peddling-animals-and-flesh-despite-covid-19-who-and-world-governments-do-nothing-to-resolve-a-world-issue/

 

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/05/21/china-wuhan-bans-eating-wild-animals-five-year-rule-brought-in-after-global-coronavirus-pandemic-was-linked-to-citys-wet-markets/

 

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/05/04/usa-wet-markets-breed-contagions-like-the-coronavirus-the-u-s-has-thousands-of-them-by-rooney-mara-and-joaquin-phoenix/

 

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/04/26/coronavirus-australia-urges-g20-action-on-wildlife-wet-markets-the-who-as-always-years-behind-on-actions-they-should-have-taken-in-the-past-but-hey-whats-new/

 

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/04/16/coronavirus-live-animals-are-stressed-in-wet-markets-and-stressed-animals-are-more-likely-to-carry-diseases/

 

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/04/14/they-might-as-well-be-letting-off-atomic-bombs-sir-paul-mccartney-blames-medieval-chinese-wet-markets-for-coronavirus/

 

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/04/02/un-petition-tell-the-united-nations-to-ban-wet-markets-please-support-and-crosspost/

 

…  and there are more; but the above provide enough info on the issue.

 

All we can ask is that people contact their own national governments / representatives; and supply them with the video link issued by Peta India.

 

 

Here is the link if you wish to copy and send to your ‘masters’;-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdH-yfZ31rE&feature=youtu.be

– does the very start of this video not make it clear why the world is in crisis ?

 

Only when governments have the guts to contact others and start asking questions about why wet markets STILL continue, and Coronavirus cases are on the rise in some of these nations; will we really start to address the issue.  I really think that until we witness decisive action from the WHO, and national governments which still allow the existence of these wet markets; we will all globally be confined to a life which is now very different to what we have experienced in the past.  For how long have the animal rights movement been trying to show problems associated with wet markets ?  – they were ignored, abut now the world is suffering big time as a result.

 

Regards Mark

 

Gold fever, Covid 19 and the genocide of the Yanomami indigenous people of the Amazon.

Image – Barbara-Navarro

 

 

Gold fever, Covid 19 and the genocide of the Yanomami indigenous people of the Amazon.

 

I found this article on Barbara’s site tragic; and at the same time very informative about what is happening right now; today, in the Amazon; how the ancient peoples of the jungles are being destroyed.  At the end I copy a quote which sadly, is so very true, issues so very ignored by those in power who haver the possibility to change things for the better, but fail to do so.

Please read the full article – link given below; and learn more about the suffering of the indigenous people of the Amazon.  Rage and repent, but above all – read it !

Regards Mark (WAV)

 

Yanomami leaders say that wildcat gold miners are responsible for bringing coronavirus into their communities. They are very concerned because over 25,000 gold miners are now operating in their preserve, destroying the forest to clear spaces for mining pits, polluting the rivers with mercury and contaminating fish.

Deafening noise from their machines and high powered hoses scare off game animals, leaving nothing for the Yanomami to hunt.

As the virus spreads throughout Brazil, the gold rush in the Amazon continues unabated, accelerating the devastation among the 850,000 indigenous people in the country. 

 

 

Read the full and disturbing article at Barbara’s site –

 

Link:

https://barbara-navarro.com/2020/06/27/gold-fever-covid-19-and-the-genocide-of-the-yanomami-update/

 

“When you cut down the trees you assault the spirits of our ancestors.

When you dig for minerals you impale the heart of the Earth. And when you pour poisons on the land and into the rivers – chemicals from agriculture and mercury from gold mines – you weaken the spirits, the plants, the animals and the land itself.

When you weaken the land like that, it starts to die. If the land dies, if our Earth dies, then none of us will be able to live, and we too will all die.” – cacique Raoni Metuktire

 

 

Destruction of Amazon rainforest increases | Port Macquarie News ...
Why visit the Amazon Jungle? | FAQ | Hiking | andBeyond
Illegal mining in the Amazon 'not comparable to any other period ...
Above image – the result of illegal Amazon gold mining.

London – Animal rights activists turn Trafalgar Square’s fountains blood red and claim coronavirus could have been averted if humans stopped eating meat

England

 

WAV Comment – the Conservatives who are supposed to be led by Boris Johnson and have a large majority in parliament which can vote through legislation; have routinely failed in their protection of animals.  They have done nothing to stop Badger killings; have done nothing to stop live exports, despite their own CAWG harping on about how terrible it is, but again not doing anything about it;  and they have done nothing to stop trophy hunting and more.  From all this it can be deduced that the Conservatives and Mr Johnson are all talk and in reality; NO action.  People dont forget.

 

Animal rights activists turn Trafalgar Square’s fountains blood red and claim coronavirus could have been averted if humans stopped eating meat – as police arrest two for criminal damage

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8512859/Trafalgar-Square-fountains-turn-blood-red-Animal-Rebellion-activists-pour-dye.html

 

All photos via Daily Mail newspaper.

 

The waters of Trafalgar Square's fountains have been dyed red by activists who are claiming the coronavirus crisis could have been prevented by going vegan

 

 

  • Animal Rebellion dyed waters of Trafalgar Square’s fountains red today
  • Protesters claim coronavirus crisis could have been prevented by going vegan
  • Activists are demanding end to ‘climate-destructive and exploitative industries

 

Two activists have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after the waters of Trafalgar Square’s fountains were dyed blood red.

Animal Rebellion are claiming the coronavirus crisis was caused by eating meat and the activists called for an end to ‘climate-destructive and exploitative industries’ which they claim caused the pandemic.

 

Demonstrators held placards reading 'the government has blood on their hands' as they waded knee-high into the red waters today

 

Demonstrators held placards reading ‘the government has blood on their hands’ as they waded knee-high into the red waters today.

Photographs show a female activist standing knee high in the red water wearing a face mask and holding a pink placard.

She was then approached by Metropolitan Police officers who talked her out of the fountains before escorting her away.

London Metropolitan Police said: ‘Two people have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage following an incident at the fountains in Trafalgar Square earlier today.

‘They remain in custody. ‘

Animal Rebellion tweeted: ‘Animal Rebellion have now dyed the Trafalgar Square fountains red, symbolising the blood that is on the hands of the UK Government

‘We are here today to demand that the government prevent future pandemics by ending animal farming and transitioning to a plant-based food system.  

‘This crisis could have been prevented.

 

London Metropolitan Police have said two activists were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage Animal Rebellion  the Government has 'blood on their hands'

 

The science tells us that 3 out of every 4 new infectious diseases originate from animals.

‘The UK Government must protect the people, not support climate-destructive and exploitative industries’.

Stephanie Zupan, a representative of Animal Rebellion said: ‘The Government must now begin a transition towards a plant-based food system, or risk future zoonotic pandemics of catastrophic proportions.’

Animal Rebellion said the action was coordinated with protests in 20 cities, including Bristol, Brighton and New York.

Kieran Blyth, another representative for the group, said: ‘These unsatisfactory and dangerous measures will only increase the risk of future pandemics.

‘The Government are playing with the potential of tens of thousands more deaths.’

 

Photographs show a female activist standing knee high in the red water wearing a face mask and holding a pink placard

An Animal Rebellion protester stands in the fountains at Trafalgar Square in London this afternoon

Protesters holding signs gather around Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square today to protest against animal farming

An animal rights and environmental activist holds a sign inside a fountain whose water was turned red after protesters poured coloured dye into the clear water

People relax around the fountain by Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London, this afternoon

 

 

 

badger artwork

 

Boris and the Conservatives continue to slaughter badgers.

 

scott8.jpg

 

Boris and the Conservatives continue to fail on live animal transport.

 

d906fa7b-16fa-416e-b3d8-4e5a463b2c3e

 

Boris and the Conservatives continue to fail on trophy hunting legislation.

 

eu crisis 2

 

Conservatives on a good day.

 

Thumbs up Boris – you should be ashamed !

Boris Johnson's most hilarious moments
Photo MSN.

USA: Walter Palmer; the Dentist Who Murdered Cecil the Lion, Now Hunts Endangered Sheep In Mongolia on a £80,000 Murder Spree.

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WAV Comment – The ‘Daily Mirror’ is a UK national newspaper; and they have an exclusive here on US dentist, and the killer of Cecil the lion; Walter Palmer; returning this time to Mongolia to kill sheep with a bow and arrow.  The HIS, who we very much respect, have made a statement about this below.  They have to be politically correct because of their position; we don’t; so we call this utter tosser nothing but a soiled asshole; just like his President and the members of his family who do the same ‘he man’ activities !

All photos with courtesy of the Daily Mirror.

 

Palmer

trump1

Above – dim and Dimmer Trump

 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/dentist-who-killed-cecil-lion-22337583

 

Dentist who killed Cecil the lion back hunting as new photo shows sick slaughter

 

Above – Cecil the lion

 

EXCLUSIVE: Walter Palmer, 60, sparked global backlash after killing much-loved lion Cecil in Zimbabwe, almost exactly five years ago – now he’s been pictured showing off a slaughtered sheep

The dentist who slayed Cecil the lion five years ago is hunting again.

Walter Palmer, 60, paid up to £80,000 to slaughter a huge ram in Mongolia.

But after the outrage over the death of Cecil, the American “driller killer’s” face is hidden on photos boasting of the hunt.

Humane Society International said: “Clearly the killing for kicks continues”.

In a new photo – with his face hidden from view – the man who killed Cecil the lion shows off a slaughtered wild sheep.

 

 

The image was taken on a sickening trip that proves dentist Palmer has returned to trophy hunting.

It comes despite the global backlash the American sparked after slaying much-loved lion Cecil in Zimbabwe, almost exactly five years ago.

Palmer paid up to £80,000 for the trip to hunt Altai argali – the world’s biggest type of sheep – in Mongolia.

Dr Teresa Telecky, wildlife vice-president at Humane Society International, said: “For trophy hunters to travel to Mongolia to kill a beautiful and ­endangered ram is an absolute outrage.

“The argali ram is a species in danger of extinction, so the idea that these animals can be killed for pleasure is abhorrent.

“The killing of Cecil the lion five years ago caused international shock. But clearly the killing for kicks continues.

“It’s time for the law to stop wildlife killers in their tracks by banning trophy hunting.”

The Mirror is campaigning for an end to trophy hunting and calling on the UK Government to ban the import of animals killed for pleasure.

Palmer’s trip to Mongolia last August is thought to have lasted up to a week, after travelling 5,800 miles from his home state of Minnesota.

Palmer and his friend Brent Sinclair met local guides before heading into the mountains to track their prey.

The two men have travelled the world together to kill animals for fun.

It is understood the ram, said to be a “much older male”, was killed with an arrow from around 30 yards.

A source claims Palmer has several more trips planned.

The insider said: “At the time of Cecil’s death, Walter took a back seat. But he’s been hunting ever since he was a boy. It’s a way of life to him. Walter has undertaken several hunts since Cecil’s death.

“The trip to Mongolia was his idea. The ram was on his list of hunts he wanted to complete.”

The sheep is still in Mongolia for now.

US officials have yet to grant the permit for it to be exported to America.

Of their hunt to kill the Altai argali, Sinclair was careful not to name Palmer on social media posts, instead calling him “amigo”.

Writing on his public Facebook page, Sinclair said of the driller killer: “I have booked more hunting trips with this guy over the past 20 years than I can count.

 

“Together, we have travelled to many far reaches of the world.”

He talked about them once killing an elephant, but said the trip to slaughter the sheep may be “at the top of the pinnacle and hard to beat”.

He added: “Thanks, Amigo for the adventure… look forward to our next one.”

 

 

The Mirror spoke to Palmer as he emerged from a bar in Bloomington, Minnesota, after he had taken an early lunch.

He smiled at first, but his face turned to anger when shown the pictures of his hunt in Mongolia.

He refused to talk, driving off in his £95,000 Porsche Cayenne Turbo.

Dad-of-two Palmer refuses to hunt with a gun, using a bow and arrow instead.

He is known to spend hours practising at his million-dollar five-bedroom home in Eden Prairie, near Minneapolis, and his holiday house in Marco Island, Florida.

Palmer was with Sinclair, who arranges hunts for wealthy Americans, when Cecil the lion was killed.

The magnificent creature was a huge attraction in Hwange National Park.

At the time, he was being tracked through a GPS satellite collar by a research team at Oxford University as part of a long-term study.

The 13-year-old black-maned lion was wounded with an arrow, then tracked and killed with a second dart the following morning, around 12 hours later.

Police investigated after a claim that Cecil was slaughtered illegally. There were accusations bait was used to lure him out of his protected habitat.

 

However, Zimbabwe’s High Court threw out charges against Palmer’s guide Theo Bronkhorst.

The court agreed with the defence that it could not have been a crime because the American had a legal permit to hunt.

It is thought the trip cost Palmer around £40,000. Afterwards, the dentist said: “If I had known this lion had a name and was important to the country or a study, obviously I wouldn’t have taken it.

“Nobody in our hunting party knew before or after the name of this lion.”

Two weeks after Palmer’s trip to Mongolia last year, the US President’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr also ­travelled there to hunt the sheep.

It cost American taxpayers £60,000 for the cost of secret service agents.

Critics argue that Trump Jr’s love of killing big game is the reason why his dad has rolled back restrictions on imports of hunting trophies.

Trump clown 4

Above – the asshole sleeps

Far East: Yet More Abuse Putting Wildlife at Risk.

A Rainbow of Frog Eyes" by ReptileAmphibia | Redbubble

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CzKP3AUM-A&utm_source=Political+Animal+Lobby&utm_campaign=c259cab90b-PAL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_08_01_21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_198ee26491-c259cab90b-98630962ideo Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CzKP3AUM-A&utm_source=Political+Animal+Lobby&utm_campaign=c259cab90b-PAL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_08_01_21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_198ee26491-c259cab90b-98630962

 

Right now, as you read this, billions of frogs across the world are being tortured, maimed, and killed. Stolen from the wild, they die in pain. It is estimated that in Asia alone, between 180 million and a billion frogs are currently stolen each year for use in traditional ‘medicine’.

  • In Laos, tiny rice paddy frogs are dipped into boiling oil and fried alive on sticks. Or they are put into blenders and liquidized before being added to curries and stews, boiled in soups or barbecued on an open flame. 
     

In Vietnam and Japan, live bullfrogs are served to diners, filleted while their hearts are still beating.  

 

  • In China, Asiatic grass frogs – a protected species – are butchered for use in traditional ‘medicine’ (hasma is made with the fallopian tubes of dried-up female frogs and is supposed to help consumers “look younger”). 

Video footage from Cambodia shows frogs kicking and squirming in pain as their snouts and rear legs are cut off with scissors. Still alive, they are thrown in a pile of other maimed frogs and left to endure a slow death. These frogs are not only massacred for their legs, they are also turned into trinkets and curios for the tourist industry.

  • In Europe and the United States, an exploding exotic pet trade sees glass frogs plucked from tropical rainforests and stuffed into tiny glass containers, destined for the pet trade. Many frogs die before reaching their destination and those that don’t die later perish from the long-term effects of capture and transport.
  • Across the world, aquatic African clawed frogs, semiterrestrial bullfrogs, and terrestrial toads are still used in classroom dissections and teaching exercises in a harrowing process known as “pithing”. Pithing leaves the frogs defenceless while students cut them open, apply drugs to their beating hearts, and attach electrodes to their exposed leg muscles after peeling off their skin.

The cruelty being inflicted on frogs for cosmetics or when they are barbarically killed for a sick frill for diners is so blatant, so abhorrent and so dangerous that governments must act now.

The havoc with nature caused by this trade has potentially irreversible negative consequences for the entire planet.

Frogs play a vital role in the food chain, as both predators and prey. As tadpoles, frogs eat algae, reducing the chances of algal contamination and they, in turn, are an important source of food for birds, fish, monkeys and snakes.

Their diet includes mosquitoes, lowering the transmission risk of killer diseases including Dengue fever, malaria, West Nile fever and Zika.

Right now, frogs are racing headlong to extinction, but if we act fast to stop the international trade, we will give the frogs a better chance of survival and save billions of creatures from merciless cruelty.

Every single animal life is important. Please support us in our efforts

 

 

Taiwan

 

and Taiwan – your action needed to drag these primitives into a cruelty free modern world.  Read on and sign.

 

https://support.peta.org/page/19728/action/1?utm_source=PETA::E-Mail&utm_medium=Alert&utm_campaign=0720::viv::PETA::E-Mail::Taiwan%20the%20World%20is%20Changing%20Stop%20Pushing%20Tests%20on%20Animals::::aa%20em::rs2

 

The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA)

is currently accepting public comments on its proposed new regulation

that would recommend—and allow—that food and beverage companies conduct painful and deadly experiments on animals in a misleading attempt to support dubious health claims for their products and ingredients.

The experiments are undoubtedly cruel—and also scientifically useless because of the significant biological differences between rats and humans. Numerous countries around the world—including the U.S. and Canada and those in the European Union—don’t suggest that animal tests be conducted in order to make health claims for foods.

Taiwan needs to get in sync with the global community and eliminate these experiments, not recommend or allow them. Please ACT NOW to speak up for animals before the July 26 deadline.

 

Regards Mark

USA: Coyote Pup Illegally Trapped & Fatally Maimed in Cruel Leghold Trap.

american-flag-120402148

 

 

WAV Comment – This is disgusting and illegal; yet cretins of the human race pump money into a go fund me site to clear wildlife from their area.  It just shows what some are like – as we say; cretins; probably too good a word for them.  Lets hope that all involved in this terrible crime to wildlife have the full force of the legal system thrown at them.

Also; .lets hope that all the residents who funded this killing spree of an innocent animal NEVER get their donations back – we hope the money will be given to Project Coyote by an act of law  Disgusting humans !

 

proj coyote media release

 

For Immediate Release: July 9, 2020

 

Coyote Pup Illegally Trapped & Fatally Maimed in Cruel Leghold Trap

 

Incident Under Criminal Investigation ~ Wildlife Protection Organizations Call for Justice

VALLEY VILLAGE, CA—California-based Project Coyote has released a video depicting a coyote pup captured in an illegally set leghold trap in the upscale neighborhood of Valley Village (adjacent to North Hollywood), and law enforcement agencies are currently investigating the incident for possible criminal violations.

The video shows—in graphic detail—the coyote pup struggling in the trap, desperate to free itself, with no cover in the searing summer heat. It is believed that the pup suffered in the trap for days before local residents heard it crying in pain and came to its rescue. The animal’s distress was so great, as is evident in the video, that at one point a caring girl felt compelled to offer water to the pup, but it suffered such severe injuries from the trap that it was later euthanized by Los Angeles Animal Services.

“Ironically this coyote was trapped through a GoFundMe campaign organized by Valley Village resident Lisa Johnson Mandell who solicited money from neighbors for ‘humane wildlife removal,’” said Project Coyote’s Southern California Representative Randi Feilich. “In talking to neighborhood residents, I found they were shocked to learn that donations were used to hire a trapper to set cruel, indiscriminate and illegal leghold traps. According to Feilich, the GoFundMe page has since been deactivated.

The trapper is believed to have violated multiple state laws and is now under investigation by Los Angeles Animal Cruelty Task Force and the California Department of Wildlife. “Leghold traps were banned by California voters in 1998 so this trap set is clearly in violation of that law,” said Camilla Fox, Project Coyote Founder and Executive Director. “Moreover, California law requires that trappers check their traps daily and obtain written permission from property owners when setting traps less than 150 yards from a residence, which this trapper clearly failed to do.”

“We commend the multiple law enforcement agencies involved in this case for their due diligence in investigating this incident, and we hope the trapper and anyone else responsible will receive the stiffest sentence possible under the law,” said Feilich, who spoke to authorities and neighborhood residents in producing the video released on Project Coyote’s YouTube page and on Valley Village’s Nextdoor site. “We also believe many residents who generously donated money to this GoFundMe page were misled by the organizer into thinking they were hiring a humane wildlife control business to remove the coyote, but instead their donations were used to fund the worst type of illegal animal cruelty, resulting in a slow and painful death to a young coyote pup.”

“Despite a state law banning leghold traps, many private trappers and ‘pest’ control businesses continue to use them in clear violation of the law,” said Fox. “Until these trappers receive more than a slap on the wrist, they will continue to flagrantly violate the law. We must crackdown on this unconscionable cruelty so another animal does not suffer such a painful and needless death.”

 

Watch the video of the captured coyote here.

Warning: Graphic Content

 

 

Project Coyote’s Coyote Friendly Communities program offers humane and proactive educational resources, tools and expertise to help communities peacefully and safely coexist with coyotes and other wild neighbors. Learn more here.

 

Regards Mark – and as they say:

 

Trump clown 4

 

 

 

Brazil: Amazon fires at 13-year high for June.

Brazil

 

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Click on the following link to see a disturbing video of a reporter flying over the devastation:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-53262565

Amazon fires at 13-year high for June

 

Fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose by almost 20% in June – a 13-year high for the month, according to government data.

With such an increase at the start of the dry season, there are concerns that this year’s fires could surpass 2019’s disastrous blazes.

Activists say the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating the problem.

They believe arson is likely to be even less monitored while authorities are stretched.

Many forest fires in the country are started deliberately by illegal loggers and farmers wanting to quickly clear ground.

Brazil has the world’s second-highest coronavirus death toll, after the US, and there are also concerns that increased smoke could have a damaging effect on the breathing of virus patients.

 

 

In June, the country’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recorded 2,248 fires using satellite imagery, as opposed to 1,880 fires in June 2019.

The burning usually increases throughout July, August and September.

“We cannot allow the 2019 situation to repeat itself,” Mauricio Voivodic, executive director of the World Wildlife Fund NGO in Brazil, told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, accusing the government of inaction.

Last year’s fires peaked in August, with 30,901 – threefold the number for the same period the previous year.

The 2019 fires led to protests domestically and internationally, with threats of financial penalties from foreign governments, and broad condemnation of President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies.

The president has been criticised for slashing the Ministry of the Environment’s funding, and encouraging business over conservation.

 

BBC analysis in 2019 showed that a sharp drop in fines for environmental violations during his administration had coincided with the increase in fires.

 

However, the president has consistently rejected criticism from abroad. “Certain countries, instead of helping … behaved in a disrespectful manner and with a colonialist spirit,” he said in September, rejecting the “misconception” that the Amazon is the lungs of the world.

The Amazon – which spans multiple South American countries but is 60% in Brazil – is a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming.

 

 

It is home to about three million species of plants and animals, as well as some one million indigenous people.

 

Last year, the BBC reported how an area of Amazon rainforest roughly the size of a football pitch is now being lost every single minute, according to satellite data.

 

Scientists say it could be close to “the tipping point“, when its nature completely changes.

This will happen when total deforestation reaches between 20% and 25% – which could be in the next 20 or 30 years.

 

England: COVID-19 – STOPPING THE ABUSE OF SENTIENT ANIMALS – BY PHILIP LYMBERY (CEO CIWF London).

England

 

Mark (WAV) and Phil (CIWF) campaigned together for many years regarding the live export of animals from English ports.  They are still friends and communicate on current animal issues when necessary.  Although (I am) not religious; I find this article by Phil interesting – and feel that it should be included in our posts.  I have included the link below should you wish to see the pictures, and have also included the un amended article also..

Regards Mark.

 

Article Link:

https://catholic-animals.com/uncategorized/covid-19-stopping-the-abuse-of-sentient-animals-by-philip-lymbery/

 

COVID-19 – STOPPING THE ABUSE OF SENTIENT ANIMALS – BY PHILIP LYMBERY

 

Philip Lymbery is the Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming and Chair of Eurogroup for Animals. He is author of the books Farmageddon and Dead Zone.

Here he describes how Covid-19 demonstrates why we must ban wildlife markets and improve farming standards if we are to prevent the next pandemic or Farmageddon.

 

Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat: Amazon.co.uk: Lymbery ...
Dead Zone: Where the Wild Things Were: Philip Lymbery: Bloomsbury ...

 

In early April whilst most of the world was coming to terms with the horror of the Covid-19 pandemic, Compassion in World Farming, along with some 200 other organisations, signed an Open Letter to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

We called upon the WHO to take actions including recommending that governments worldwide institute a permanent ban on live wildlife markets, drawing an unequivocal link between these markets and their proven threats to human health.

Covid-19 is just the latest example of an infection that has made the leap from animals into humans – and when infections do this, they can be particularly deadly. Three out of four new or emerging infectious diseases in people came from wild animals, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Ebola, MERS and HIV.

The risk of transmission of new and deadly diseases is heightened by the ways in which wild animals are typically farmed or captured and exacerbated by the inhumane and unhygienic conditions in wildlife markets, where close proximity provides the perfect opportunity for pathogens to spread between humans and animals.

Whilst our call for action has received widespread support, it has also received criticism on the grounds that wildlife trade bans might risk increased illegal trade, increased involvement of organised crime and be detrimental to livelihoods. Frankly I’m astonished by such arguments. I could not agree more with Jill Robinson, Founder and Chief Executive of Animals Asia, who has spent over three decades investigating the wildlife trade and wildlife markets. Responding to criticisms of the Open Letter to WHO, Jill commented, “The trade is already controlled by organised crime. Far better to spend millions or even billions on defeating and ending this crime and ending the trade now, rather than the trillions in the next pandemic caused by the very same dysfunctional and largely corrupt components of the wildlife trade”.

During my own investigations around the world, and particularly in Asia, I’ve seen the suffering of wild animals, caged and confined in markets. I’ve been forced to watch as they’ve been treated with no more regard than would be afforded vegetables or tin cans.

In the 1970s Peter Roberts, Compassion in World Farming’s founder, feared that by adopting a violent attitude to Nature, man would find himself “threatened on all sides by disease, hunger and pests”. Today the world faces an onslaught of health issues, often linked to the abuse of animals, both wild and farmed.  The Coronavirus tragedy, like SARS before it, is demonstrating to the world how treating animals as mere commodities is like playing Russian Roulette with peoples’ health.

 

 

Reconnecting with our Humanity to Animals

A key component of reducing the risk of devastating diseases tomorrow is to reconnect with our humanity for animals today. Our cruel abuse of animals, both wild and farmed, is damaging our health and will continue do to so unless we fundamentally reassess our relationship with animals and recognise our ethical obligations to treat them with respect.

As a first step, I’d like to see governments around the world acting to ban wildlife markets and instituting the other measures called for in the Open Letter to WHO, as a matter of urgency.  There are many examples of successful bans that have been combined with measures that address cultural practices and provide alternative livelihoods for those in need, for example the ban on dancing bears in India.

As we move away from wet markets and the use of wildlife for food, some will call for these food sources to be replaced by factory farming. But this too is a hot house of disease linked to the emergence of deadly diseases, including highly pathogenic Avian and Swine flu strains. Indeed, I fear that factory farms may be the source of the next global pandemic.

Everyday we understand more and more how the health of animals and people are closely intertwined. As Albert Schweitzer once said, “Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, Man will not himself find peace”.

 

 

Factory Farming – A Health Crisis for the Future

With the world gripped by the worst pandemic in a lifetime, questions are starting to be asked about how our treatment of animals is storing up health crises for the future.

Whilst Covid-19 is thought to have its roots in wildlife, future pandemics may be triggered by the way animals are factory farmed. The sad fact is that factory farming is not only extremely cruel, but also a major public health risk. Keeping animals packed into cages and confined provides the perfect breeding ground for disease.  Factory farms are a ticking time-bomb for future pandemics.

Hundreds of coronaviruses are in circulation, most of them amongst animals including pigs, camels, bats and cats. Sometimes those viruses jump to humans – called a spill-over event – and can cause disease. When SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) emerged from China in 2002, it swept across the globe – largely through air travel – causing deadly illness. More than 8,000 people fell ill and 774 died, numbers surpassed by Covid-19 within two months. The 2009 Swine flu pandemic was linked to the factory farming of pigs in Mexico. Within a year, according to the WHO, the virus was linked to over 18,000 deaths worldwide.

Three out of four new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals, including Swine flu, Avian flu, HIV, Ebola, MERS and SARS. They are known as zoonotic diseases. The Wuhan coronavirus is the latest example of an infection that has jumped from animals into humans – and when infections do this, they can be particularly deadly.

 

 

Breeding Grounds for New Pandemics

The caged, crammed and confined conditions of factory farms provide the ideal breeding ground for new and more deadly strains of virus. Swine flu and highly pathogenic Avian flu being just two examples. When faced with a disease crisis involving farmed animals, the industry’s reaction is to fall back on locking animals inside. After all, if they are confined indoors then they are surely protected in ‘biosecure’ units that can keep out vectors of disease transmission.

What is overlooked is that those very same ‘biosecure’ intensive farm buildings are the cause of the problem. The perfect breeding ground for disease. The hothouse where new and more dangerous strains of disease emerge, often with devastating consequences for both animals and people alike.

 

 

Playing Russian Roulette with our Earth

Keeping too many animals in too small a space, often in darkened, filthy and crowded conditions, provides viruses like Avian Influenza the conditions they need to spread rapidly. As they replicate at speed, mutations can occur in the virus’ DNA, causing new strains to emerge. This allows new and deadlier strains to form and spread quickly. So, contrary to the myth levied by the industrial farming industry, keeping animals indoors simply increases the risk of disease.

The coronavirus tragedy, and Swine flu a decade earlier, have shown that treating animals as mere commodities – be they domesticated or wild – is like playing Russian Roulette with peoples’ health.

 

 

One Health, One Welfare

What I’ve come to see is that a key component of reducing the risk of devastating diseases tomorrow, is to reconnect with our humanity for animals today. The coronavirus epidemic is not a warning, but a potent demonstration of what is going wrong, what life could become. A global lifestyle that just months ago seemed invincible, suddenly seems extremely fragile. The way that the wellbeing of people, animals and the environment are interlinked have become increasingly clear. Factory farming is a public health disaster waiting to happen and it is clear that future generations will be well served by its abandonment.

Your help is vital. Thank you for your support in our movement to end factory farming. For animals, people and the planet, let’s take action today.

 

USA: Project Coyote PR – County Residents Urged to Oppose Killing of Wildlife in Mendocino County.

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Regards Mark

 

PCMR

 

For Immediate Release: July 2, 2020

County Residents Urged to Oppose Killing of Wildlife
in Mendocino County

Board of Supervisors to vote on Controversial USDA “Wildlife Services” program

Ukiah, CA – The Mendocino Non-lethal Wildlife Alliance (MNWA) and Project Coyote urge Mendocino County residents to virtually attend the July 14th County Board of Supervisors meeting via the tele-meeting option and express their strong opposition to the County’s likely renewal of their $170,000 contract with USDA Wildlife Services. Those who are unable to attend the meeting on the 14th are encouraged to urge their Supervisor to oppose the renewal of the contract.

 

Residents are also encouraged to sign a related petition urging the Board to end their contract with Wildlife Services at this link:

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/842/567/041/stop-the-killing-now/#published

 

“The Public Trust Doctrine holds that wildlife is to be managed for the benefit of the public, and yet Mendocino County continues to spend tax dollars to contract with Wildlife Services to trap, shoot, and kill hundreds of bears, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, mountain lions and other wildlife each year at the behest of private ranchers and other agricultural interests,” said Camilla Fox, Executive Director of Project Coyote. 

For more than a century, Wildlife Services has killed millions of wild animals annually using shockingly cruel and inhumane methods. These methods include aerial gunning, body-gripping traps, poisoning, strangulation neck snares and M-44s (mini-cyanide bombs that explode in an unsuspecting animal’s mouth, causing an excruciating death). Wildlife Services only refrains from using these barbaric killing methods when they are forced to do so by lawsuit, ballot initiative or public pressure. 

“We do not believe that public tax dollars should be used to support an agency that has no moral code and a history of brutally killing not only native wildlife but also our beloved pets who get caught in their traps,” said Carol Misseldine, MNWA Steering Committee member.

A bare majority of the County Board has signalled their interest in not only renewing their contract with this rogue agency, but in actually expanding permissible killing methods to include neck wringing, cervical dislocation and the use of CO2—all of which can cause extreme pain and suffering. The intended private beneficiaries of the public tax dollars funding these contracts are primarily ranchers and their livestock. However, the scientific research is overwhelming and clear: killing wildlife to reduce livestock predation is not only ineffective, it is often counterproductive in that livestock predation often increases as a result of predator social systems being destabilized when older or alpha members are killed.

Counties throughout the country, including neighboring Marin and Sonoma, have already ended their contracts with Wildlife Services and have instead brought in non-lethal wildlife management methods and services to protect property and livestock. Such non-lethal wildlife exclusion techniques, including fencing, night corrals and Foxlights, have proven far more effective than senseless killing by Wildlife Services.

Gowan Batist, a fifth-generation Mendocino County resident and the farm manager at Fortunate Farm in Caspar, is a devout champion of using non-lethal strategies to protect her livestock. “I raise sheep, which are extremely vulnerable to predation; some say that lambs are basically nature’s tater tots.  But since implementing non-lethal control methods on my farm six years ago, I have not had a single loss to a coyote. The only loss I’ve had in those six years was to a mountain lion, and that was by a hungry teenage lion in the immediate aftermath of its mother being killed by a neighbor or Wildlife Services, which goes to what the science tells us: killing predators only increases livestock predation,” she said.

Maureen Mulheren and Mari Rodin are running for the County Supervisor seat currently held by John McCowen. McCowen, a strong proponent for the continuation of Wildlife Services’ killing program, is retiring at the end of his current term in January 2021.

Mulheren agrees that the County should not be spending public dollars on behalf of private interests. “The lethal predator control methods that the USDA Wildlife Service employs are ineffective and outdated. As Supervisor, I will vote to terminate the County’s contract with Wildlife Services and instead use that $170,000 in tax dollars on education about and implementation of non-lethal techniques.”

Rodin said, “I base my decisions on sound scientific data and in this instance the science indicates that the methods used by USDA Wildlife Service are both ineffective and counterproductive. Moreover, they appear to be unethical. As Supervisor, I will vote to terminate our contract with Wildlife Services and instead support the use of non-lethal methods to manage human conflicts with wildlife by a local entity.”

Due to the Covid-19 health emergency, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors is conducting all business virtually. To provide public comment, individuals must fill out the “comment request form” at the link below no later than 8:00 am on the day of the meeting. Once the form has been received and reviewed, instructions will be sent for how to call into the Zoom meeting and provide public comment.

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/board-of-supervisors/agendas-and-minutes

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