In an important step toward an animal rights victory, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act (H.R. 737) last week.
Representatives Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan of the Marianas Islands and Michael McCaul of Texas introduced the bill in January. It amassed 288 cosponsors and passed by a vote of 310-107.
If the act passes through the Senate, it will effectively ban the sale, possession, and purchase of shark fins within the United States. Nearly 200 restaurants throughout the country offer shark fin products, despite prohibitive legislation in several states, according to a database maintained by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI).
Canada passed a similar ban in June, as the world’s largest shark fin importer outside of Asia. The legislative move speaks volumes about how people around the world are increasingly valuing the welfare of animals over profit and culinary tradition.
Every year, 73 million sharks lose their lives to the global shark fin trade. Fins are often harvested from sharks while they’re still alive, and the helpless animals are tossed back into the ocean to bleed, suffocate, fall victim to a predator, or otherwise suffer and die.
“Sharks have existed for hundreds of millions of years on this planet, and yet these remarkable apex predators now face one of the biggest threats to their survival because of the demand for their fins,” AWI President Cathy Liss remarked in a recent press release.
Twelve states and three U.S. territories have already banned shark fin sales. By enacting this commonsense legislation, Congress would demonstrate an unwillingness to contribute to the threats facing sharks worldwide — a cause that politicians from “both sides of the aisle” have gotten on board with.
Lady Freethinker’s petition to ban the cruel shark fin trade has garnered over 20,000 signatures so far.
On 28.11.2019, a sperm whale stranded and died on the beach of Seilebost on the Scottish island of Harris.
The male cub unfortunately could not be saved. At the weekend, the dead whale was examined, with a frightening result: According to the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme report, this included a range of plastics such as fishing nets, rope bundles, plastic cups, bags, gloves, harnesses and tubes.
Opening the stomach showing some of the material balled up inside
The whole material was like a huge bullet in the animals’ stomach and part of the mourning. The general condition of the sperm whale was not that bad. And although this stomach content certainly caused problems, it could not be proven that the garbage was responsible for beaching; The gastrointestinal tract was not clogged with garbage.
All this plastic rope and debris was in the stomach
What in the end has always caused the death of the sperm whale, so these pictures and test results again clearly show what people are doing to the oceans and the animals with their littering.
Stomach, containing ropes and other marine debris. The multiple small black ‘beaks’ are from squid, sperm whales usual prey.
Section of net recovered from stomach
100 kg plastic garbage in the stomach, of all kinds and origin, which no living thing deserves.
And I mean…There is the # COP25 in Madrid, where delegations from 196 countries arrived by plane and participate in the UN Climate Change Conference 2019.
Since 1992 this circus takes place annually – and in the end it is called bla – bla – bla! We talked about the climate, it was a nice company and good food.
Meanwhile, rainforests are being flared, jungles are being turned into palm oil deserts, natural disasters are taking place everywhere, and while the well-paid idiots are enjoying their expensive meat menus of murdered animals fed with soy from poor countries in the Third World, the Planet clock beats five past twelve!
This is how it is done year after year – and while the ice thaws in the Arctic, Greenland becomes green again, these delegates and their companies are happy that the ice releases the raw material that the industry needs!
We are experiencing the dictatorship of criminal oligarchs.
As 2019 comes to end, we at Turtle Island Restoration Network hope you know how much we appreciate your support. We are a small organization, so it’s only with people like you by our side that we are able to leverage and amplify our voice — to make those in power listen and take action. When you sign an action alert or make a donation, you are taking a critical step to protect our planet and all the animals and others who depend on healthy ecosystems to survive. We can’t do it without you!
VICTORY! Council Votes Against Opening New Longline Fishery off California
We won! Because of you, the agency responsible for proposing fishery regulations in U.S. waters voted to NOT open a new longline fishery in the Pacific Ocean. This is a big win for our oceans and all marine wildlife, and it was not possible without your support! Turtle Island Restoration Network attended the Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Costa Mesa, California — where your government considered opening a new longline fishery in the Pacific Ocean. We stood proudly with environmental activists, eco-tourists, recreational fishermen, divers, surfers, animal lovers, ocean enthusiasts, and more to demand the council say NO to opening up this deadly fishing practice off California.
First Cold-Stunned Turtles of the Season Rescued
Our team in the Gulf of Mexico saw the first cold stunned sea turtles of the season mid-November. When the water temperature drops drastically and rapidly, juvenile green sea turtles that have been foraging in the bays cannot find their way out to warmer water. As cold blooded reptiles, they rely on the surrounding temperatures to maintain their body temperature and will act very lethargic when too cold. They might be found floating or washed up on shore and are susceptible to boat strikes, predation, pneumonia and death. If you find any along the coast, please call your local animal rescue hotline for instructions. Thank you Justin Williams for assisting and sending in photos!
Groups Renew Push for Single-Use Plastic Bag Ban
Turtle Island Restoration Network and the Galveston Chapter of Surfrider Foundation unveiled new signs in November thatshowcase the Bring the Bag campaign and remind customers to bring their reusable bags when grocery shopping to reduce single-use plastic bags in the environment. The program aims to eliminate waste from single-use plastic bags in Galveston, despite a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court in 2018 that declared it a violation of state law for local governments to impose bans on plastic bags. We’re hoping to install the signs in other places around Galveston Island to prevent a source of single-use plastic from entering our ocean.
Ask Congress to do the RIGHT Thing for Right Whales
North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialisare) are dangerously close to extinction. There are less than 400 individuals remaining on earth, and only 95 are reproductively active females. In order to prevent extinction we must work to recover these numbers and halt any actions that lead to right whale mortality. Right now, the U.S. Senate has the opportunity to prevent extinction by supporting bipartisan legislation that seeks to target and alleviate the main threats to right whales—entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes—before it’s too late. Ask your Senators to vote in favor of SAVE Right Whales Act.
Shop to Support: A New Way to Help Save Species
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our online store! Shark shirts, turtle hats, and many other delightful items are available now for purchase on our website. All proceeds will directly support our species-saving campaigns around the globe. As lovers of nature, we believe it’s vital to consider the environmental quality and impact of the products we buy, which is why every item in the store was carefully selected to adhere to our own eco-conscious standards. Make it a green holiday season and give the gift of our planet’s future!
Second Ghost Town Transformed to Salmon Habitat
In October, our California-based initiative that is dedicated to protecting endangered coho salmon completed the second phase of our floodplain and riparian restoration project at the ghost town of Jewell in Northern California. The project is re-creating floodplain wetlands along Lagunitas Creek to help recover key populations of endangered Central California Coast coho salmon and other threatened species.
Koalas ‘functionally extinct’ after Australia bushfires destroy 80% of their habitat!
Toni Doherty, the woman who rescued a badly burnt and wailing koala from an Australian bushfire was reunited with the koala now known as Lewis on Wednesday (November 20) at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.
Doherty told local broadcaster Network Nine that it was ‘just natural instinct‘ for her to rush to Lewis’ aid, wrapping the animal in her shirt and a blanket and pouring water over it.
At the hospital, Clinical director Cheyne Flanagan said he was badly burnt but was on fluids, oxygen, eating and enjoying the five-star service.
The koala populations around Port Macquarie have been a major victim of the flames, with more than 350 of the marsupials feared killed in a major habitat.
As Australia experiences record-breaking drought and bushfires, koala populations have dwindled along with their habitat, leaving them “functionally extinct.”
The chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation, Deborah Tabart, estimates that over 1,000 koalas have been killed from the fires and that 80 percent of their habitat has been destroyed.
“Koala Conservation Australia” President Sue Ashton told the “Sydney Morning Herald” on Monday: “We think most of the animals are burned – it’s a huge cremation, like in a crematorium. They burn sitting in the trees. “
However, some researchers call into question whether koalas are actually functionally extinct, noting how difficult it is to measure total koala populations and populations could be a much larger than estimated by the AKF.
Recent bushfires, along with prolonged drought and deforestation has led to koalas becoming “functionally extinct” according to experts.
In Australia, a heat record of 125 years ago is expected to be broken
Functional extinction is when a population becomes so limited that they no longer play a significant role in their ecosystem and the population becomes no longer viable. While some individuals could produce, the limited number of koalas makes the long-term viability of the species unlikely and highly susceptible to disease.
Deforestation and bushfires destroy the main nutrient source of koalas, the eucalyptus tree. An adult koala will eat up to 2 pounds of eucalyptus leaves per day as its main staple of nutrients. While eucalyptus plants will grow back after a fire, it will take months, leaving no suitable food source for koalas and starvation a likely scenario for many.
Many are urging the Australian government to enact the Koala Protection Act, written in 2016 but never passed into law and molded after the Bald Eagle Protection Act in the U.S. The Koala Protection Act would work to protect habitats and trees vital to koalas as well as protect koalas from hunting.
Recent viral videos of Australians rescuing koalas has led to increased donation to support hospitalization and help for burned koalas.
To draw attention to these threats, the ” Australian Koala Foundation” calls for the “Save the Koala”month each September.
The aim should be to raise people’s awareness of the issue and to persuade them to do something about the destruction of plant and animal life.
The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital setup a Go Fund Me page seeking donations to help the hospital treat injured koalas. To date, they have raised $1.33 million, well over their $25,000 goal. This comes from over 30,000 donors.
My comment: The fire department had already warned in April.
Twenty-three former fire chiefs and chiefs of action published a letter cautioning the government against “increasingly catastrophic extreme weather events.”
They demanded a meeting that was rejected by the government.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack even outrageously went so far as to dismiss climate change completely as a web of “crazy, inner-city leftists.” “We have always had a fire in Australia,” he told media representatives.
Australia is known for its lack of environmental protection. Time and again, the government is being asked to do something about environmental protection, especially since Australia is suffering the most from the effects of climate change.
Australia has over 160 million sheep and 24 million cattle – so it does not take much imagination to understand what these millions of animals can do to the fragile ecosystem of dry soil.
Anyone who has ever traveled through Australia has seen it with their own eyes.
The agricultural lobby is also very strong in Australia, as the first pillar of Australian agriculture is sheep farming, followed by cattle breeding.
Industrial agriculture needs a lot of water, so large dams are built to drain the rivers in Queensland.
They not only pump water from the rivers, they also pollute it with their pesticides and other chemicals.
What if the last water reserves are running out, the rivers are dehydrated or so polluted that any life is impossible ?
Nowhere is it more evident than in Australia.
The earth is burning and we are the culprits.
In Hawaii, the “experimental laboratory” of the chemical giants Monsanto, the year-long struggle of the Hawaiians was worthwhile, because Monsanto pleads guilty in court to have used a banned pesticide.
Finally, in the US, Bayer / Monsanto is being overrun by an ever-growing process avalanche over the controversial herbicide Glyphosate (there are already 42,700 plaintiffs), and lawyers in Canada are launching a $ 500 million class action lawsuit against Roundup creators.
With more and more people protesting in Hawaii, especially as the disease has been proven to increase, Monsanto invested millions of dollars in anti-protest campaigns. Finally, Monsanto has agreed to pay a fine of ten million dollars.
Far too little, considering that Hawaiians became guinea pigs without first being informed. The “paradise” has the highest birth defects. Actually, the EU should respond now, but you were aware that it would be contrary to EU law, if an EU country pronounces a ban on the glyphosate-containing weed killer Roundup?
It is not only unbelievable, it is criminal!
There are already 42,700 claimants in the US. They went to court because the weed killer Roundup is said to cause cancer. Bayer / Monsanto is also being sued in Australia for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Now, Canada is adding a class action lawsuit.
The air for Bayer is getting thinner and thinner. The large-scale PR campaigns do not help either.
For years people in Hawaii have been fighting against Monsanto.
The scientific and medical evidence of the dangers to human health posed by pesticides is staggering in Hawaii.
When sprayed and the wind blows down from the fields into the city, the inhabitants complain of burning eyes, headaches and vomiting. Hawaii is Monsanto’s agricultural center and at the same time a huge experimental field for its new products. With 1,381 fields in the state of Hawaii, Monsanto tests chemicals, genetically modified plants and sells seeds to other agricultural companies.
With more and more people protesting in Hawaii, especially as the disease has been proven to increase, Monsanto has invested millions of dollars in anti-protest campaigns, and now has to pay a fine of $ 6 million and $ 4 million to non-profit organizations of the Hawaiian government.
And another message is likely to shake the chemical giant Bayer, there are more lawsuits against glyphosate added.
Diamond & Diamond, a national personal injury law firm in Canada, is filing a $ 500 million class action lawsuit against various Roundup manufacturers, including the pharmaceutical company Bayer, the owner of Roundup’s Monsanto.
“Diamond & Diamond” manages this largest class action lawsuit in Canada against Roundup makers. Currently, more than 60 people are named as plaintiffs, but the law firm announces that it believes that thousands of plaintiffs could come. Darryl Singer, director of commercial and civil litigation at Diamond & Diamond, says the plaintiffs involved in this class action sought not only financial compensation but also what he calls “behavioral change” so that the same thing will not happen to others in the future products in Canada repeated.
“If there are not those lawsuits that force companies like Monsanto to issue these large checks, the giants have no incentive to change their business practices,” says Singer. Singer says the plaintiffs have also been diagnosed with other forms of cancer, including brain tumors and lung cancer.
More and more outrages are coming to light. It has recently become public that the Group operates a so-called “Intelligence Fusion Center” to discredit journalists and critics.
Revelations show that the billionaire Monsanto spent a lot of time, money and staff to silence unpleasant journalists and critics, but to no avail, as the many complaints show.
My comment: There was a man from the farmer Association on TV, who said that you could drink glyphosate without hesitation, completely non-toxic, nothing happens.
Pity! that he has not even taken a sip in front of the camera!
Now the good news from the newspaper onvista: Bayer: Next glyphosate defeat – jury demands over $ 2 billion – share crashes on the stock market at € 54.35!
Hopefully it goes more down below, then the Chairman is gone, gone, gone!
For me personally; doing nothing is NOT an option !
I just wanted to show you some photos from my collection about great animal campaigning days I had in Europe.
I think Monica took this photo of ‘my back’ when we were touring the EU back in 2005.
There were both Summer and Winter tours – I was involved with both, and the Summer one at least allowed you to wear just a T shirt rather than wrapping up in thermals for the Winter. It was cold, real cold; unlike the mild winters we seem to always get now.
Above – the thorn between 2 Roses – me with Monica (right) and Nanda (left).
Working on behalf of CIWF https://www.ciwf.org.uk/ we took the tour truck all over the EU – the truck was fitted out as a special walk through display where you entered at the back, met the veal calves in transport; then progressed on to a complete mock up of a battery cage system as used in the EU. Also shown were pig farming methods complete with fake pigs and farrowing crates and stalls.
‘Welcom’ to our road tour – the greeting for Dutch visitors.
Finally you moved on into the front section where you were shown ‘good and bad’ foods to purchase at the supermarket; outlining their impact (good or bad) for animal welfare. Outside the truck we had video screens continually showing footage of the systems; and the truck was kitted out externally to look like an animal transporter at the read; moving forward to systems which were better and did not involve intensive farming, A 2 view truck, bad at the rear, good at the front.
It was a good, productive tour, spreading the ‘intensive’ system word to many tens of thousands of people. In the Netherlands we even had personal permission from Her Majesty the Queen to park the tour truck in front of the Royal Palace for a few days to get the maximum attention; which we did, with thousands of people passing through to learn more about intensive systems and animal factory farming. The Dutch police were very supportive and helped us a lot.
Above – Eco Centre; beautiful de Kleine Aaarde in Boxtel
We had a great time on the tour, spreading the word (with examples) of the real bad things relating to animal intensive farming. I can remember sitting down by the canals having a pizza with Monica, Nanda, Geert, John and Wayne after a busy days campaigning on the road. Memories which will always stick with me.
Wonderful John https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/04/25/england-another-terrible-loss-john-callaghan/ from CIWF came out for a while to visit us; and it was here that he and I spent many good hours in my car checking out the veal institutions of the NL; as well as a bit on live horse transport. John; taken way too early like all good people; he more than did his bit.
I was then and am still an angry young Turk when it comes to animal suffering; I hope this inspires you to get out and campaign !
Super memories; fantastic people; all dedicated to stopping suffering.
Regards Mark.
Above – waiting near a school for all the children to come and visit – and learn about it all.
Above – when we got back to England, we used the calves to stick the them Prime Minister, John Major, into a veal crate to give him a feel for what he was sending British calves to Europe for.
Like this below – a British calf is restrained in a European veal crate.
Above – ‘Scania Rules ok !’ – me taking time out with the tour truck at a free range chicken facility.
Urge Automakers to Withdraw Support for President Trump’s Dirty Cars Rule
Dear Mark,
Auto manufacturers just turned their back on science.
The hypocrisy is astounding. After decades of trying to create an image of themselves as a “green” automaker—thanks to the popular Prius, one of the first mainstream gasoline-electric hybrids for sale in the United States—it’s appalling to see Toyota working against strong clean car standards.
Toyota recently joined General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, and other automakers to back the Trump administration’s efforts to revoke California’s and 13 other states’ strong clean car standards—tell these automakers they are in the wrong.
Not only would this move prevent the 14 states plus the District of Columbia from protecting their residents from vehicle pollution—and from working to address global warming—it would prevent other states from adopting stronger standards as well.
This must not go unchallenged—it is up to American consumers to fight back against this corporate negligence. Urge the automakers to reverse course and support California’s right to set and other states’ right to adopt strong vehicle emission standards.
The existing emission standards were implemented in 2012 with significant input from stakeholders—including these automakers. Now automakers are throwing in the towel on their commitments to address global warming emissions from cars. And cars emit A LOT: the transportation sector is the largest source of global warming pollution in the United States and cars account for the largest share of this sector.
That’s why we’re joining more than half a dozen other organizations—including environmental, consumer protection, and labor groups—to get as many people as possible to sign our petition. Act now to tell these auto manufacturers to stop putting short-term gains ahead of the public and the climate in their support of the Trump administration’s attack on clean car standards.
Sincerely,
Eyal Li
Campaign Associate
Clean Transportation Program
Union of Concerned Scientists
Englishman Shaun Ellis has joined a pack of wolves, living and behaving like them. Abandoned at birth, three wolf pups are raised by Shaun who then teaches them the ways of the wild. As they grow up, he feeds, sleeps and breaths the same air as his wolves and in return they give him a place in the pack. Seeing the world as a wolf, Shaun takes a step further and comes up with a plan to help wild wolves threatened in Poland.
Three people from the rural village of Xilingol League have been diagnosed with different forms of the disease in November.
A 55-year-old man has become the third person to be diagnosed with a form of plague in China this month.
The unnamed man, from the rural village of Xilingol League, became infected with bubonic plague after killing and eating a wild rabbit on 5 November.
He is being treated at a hospital in the city of Huade in Inner Mongolia, a statement from the health authority in the region said.
The statement added that 28 people who had close contact with the man were quarantined, but none have a fever or are showing other plague symptoms.
Two patients, also from Xilingol League, were diagnosed with pneumonic plague in Beijing on 12 November.
Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague and is caused by the bite of an infected flea.
The bacteria travels to a lymph node which becomes inflamed and painful, causing a “bubo”.
Pneumonic plague, the most severe form of the infection, can develop from bubonic plague and results in a lung infection, causing shortness of breath, headaches and coughing.
Both types of plague are caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, and the infections can be fatal in up to 90% of sufferers who are not treated.
The pneumonic variant – where the bacterium is breathed into the lungs – is more dangerous because it is spread through coughing.
Septicaemic plague is a rare third variant which infects the bloodstream.
China has largely eradicated plague, but occasional cases are still reported, especially among hunters who come into contact with fleas that carry the bacterium.
The last major known outbreak was in 2009, when several people died in the town of Ziketan in Qinghai province on the Tibetan Plateau.
Plague has killed tens of millions of people around the world in three major pandemics, with about a third of Europe’s population wiped out in the 1300s by bubonic plague, known as the Black Death.
The bacterium is believed to have originated in Yunnan in southwest China, where it remains endemic.
Rodent populations have risen in Inner Mongolia after persistent droughts, worsened by climate change. An area the size of the Netherlands was hit by a “rat plague” last summer, causing damages of 600 million yuan ($86 million), Xinhua said.
Suddenly they were there. The green crosses of wood, covered with white signs. But what is behind it?
On 4 September 2019, the State Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner and Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze have decided, inter alia, that the cancer weed killer glyphosate from 2024 completely, and particularly harmful pesticides in most nature reserves will be already banned.
The insect killing is to be contained with it. The farmers should also create retreat areas for insects, the federal government wants to identify more biotopes. With 100 million euros, research on insect repellent is to be supported.
Even the controversial animal welfare label will come.
In addition, more agricultural subsidies, which have so far been paid mainly for the simple possession of land, should finance environmental projects by farmers, for example.
The farmers have organized a rebellion under the “Farmer Willi”.
Currently, the “farmer Willi” calls all farmers to protest with green wooden crosses in their fields against the “agricultural package” of the Federal Government.
But in his statements he often advocates the interests of agrochemical companies such as Bayer AG.
“Bayer / Monsanto, Syngenta, Gene-Lobby & Co. see their profit interests by the “agricultural package” massively endangered, but psychologically clever as they are, do not act on their own, but send targeted “farmer Willi, the small farmers & rural women “before.
Behind the ridiculous crosses is actually a nationwide campaign.. “Protect the farmers by a yes to the poison and factory farming”.
Similar PR actions and the enormous power of the agricultural lobby in the past have led to massive groundwater problems with nitrate in Germany.
The farmers say, “The package is” so closely tied up “that it takes away the air of many companies to breathe.
In agriculture, this would result in a significant land loss of many areas, and the use of many resources should be massively reduced. This is an encroachment on our property values, as areas would be worthless and could no longer be used for food production.
Furthermore, there is a high risk of “falling yields” and threatens a decline in regional products.
At last, a high price for an animal welfare indicator, in view of the many already existing labels on the market, no one needs more “!!
And we say: In reality, it’s the other way around:
If the soil continues to be poisoned,
the insects continue to die,
the groundwater continues to be contaminated
and our food continues to deteriorate,
then our diet will destroy our lives.
So we see the crosses in the fields as a symbol of death, exploitation, and destruction of the animal and nature world. And we consider this abuse of Christian symbols for poison, glyphosate and factory farming not only ridiculous, but a sign of farmer primitiveness.
In Australia, a heat record of 125 years ago is expected to be broken
World Animals Voice 