An extensive undercover investigation by Network for Animals (NFA) has discovered utter cruelty at a Tanzanian donkey slaughterhouse where hundreds of donkeys are bludgeoned to death every day. We desperately need your help.Please don’t stop reading…
We have just a few weeks to close the slaughterhouse where up to 1,000 donkeys a day are being brutally and illegally killed. We need to raise funds to pursue these criminals and have them brought to justice, and to meet with authorities to point out the massive amount of cruelty and criminal behavior that is taking place. The slaughterhouse permit is up for review, and if we can raise $6,000 (£4,300), we can take experts to a critical meeting with Tanzanian authorities and reveal to them the true horror of what is going on. We are sure they will listen because what is happening is so barbaric that they will be forced to take action.
Once the slaughterhouse is closed, the next challenge will be providing the long-term care the surviving donkeys will require. We have to be frank here; This is a financial challenge because of the remoteness of the area and because we don’t know how many donkeys there will be. We also have to consider that the government may not listen, in which case we have to take them to court. Please, this is a time when your donation is really needed if we are to end this nightmare.
The Chinese use donkey skins to make a cosmetic called ejiao (pronounced “uh-jee-ow”), a pointless waste because the cosmetic has never been proven to work. 4.8 million donkeys are being killed each year – at this rate, donkeys will be extinct in under ten years! As the number of Chinese donkeys plummeted because of the demand for ejiao, traders turned to Africa, with devastating consequences for donkeys and rural communities that depend on donkeys for their livelihoods.
NFA has been fighting the trade for four years and has rescued donkeys from the Chinese in South Africa and Zimbabwe. A two-year-long investigation has led to a Chinese-run slaughterhouse situated in a remote and desolate region of Shinyanga, in northern Tanzania. We joined forces with the Arusha Society for the Protection of Animals (ASPA) to investigate after receiving reports of cruelty on a massive scale.
We discovered that tens of thousands of donkeys are bludgeoned to death there EVERY MONTH, in a scene of utter cruelty and contempt for compliance with Tanzanian law.
Against the law and against common decency, the donkeys are bludgeoned to death with a hammer, even though the slaughterhouse has a humane killing device.
Donkeys bludgeoned who do not die immediately are left to suffer, with blood running down their faces, with blood running down their faces, until they succumb to their injuries.
The Chinese only have a permit to kill 20 donkeys a day, but kill up to a thousand daily.
We witnessed truckloads of donkeys being delivered. Donkeys were dragged off the trucks by their ears or simply kicked off, tumbling to the ground on top of each other. One had a broken hip, and many were emaciated.
In many cases, donkeys arrive for slaughter in horrific conditions, some with broken legs, severed hooves or maggot-infested wounds, and many in states of near starvation and collapse.
To fuel the trade, donkeys are stolen in neighboring countries of Kenya and Uganda and illegally smuggled across the borders. Donkeys are often transported long distances in poorly constructed, overcrowded vehicles with little or no access to food or water. Journeys may be as long as 72 hours without rest periods. These animals are kept in such shocking conditions that many die along the way from hunger, stress or injuries.
We witnessed pregnant mares, young foals, and sick and injured donkeys being rounded up for slaughter, and because injury and illness often do not affect the quality of the hide, traders have little incentive to ensure humane treatment.
Our team was advised that donkeys are sometimes deliberately starved because people falsely believe that emaciated donkeys are easier to skin.
When challenged about the conditions at the slaughterhouse, the Chinese woman running it is caught on camera telling her interpreter to lie about what actually happens there.
This sickening slaughter of donkeys and trade in donkey ‘products’ is LEGAL in Tanzania. But we have a chance to end it!
The slaughterhouse’s permit expires in October this year. We are working with ASPA to seek justice for the donkeys by persuading the government to end this shame on the face of the Tanzanian nation.
We will take the responsible people to court if immediate action is not taken!
We cannot allow this daily massacre of donkeys to continue, but, we need your help to stop it. The sheer scale of the tragedy is overwhelming.
Literally, as you read these words, donkeys are waiting to be bludgeoned to death with a hammer. In the name of human decency, this must stop right now. If you possibly can, please help us end this horror by making a generous donation to Network for Animals right now.
WAV Comment – This (England) is ‘my patch’. Abuse like this at the family-owned G & G.B Hewitt Ltd. in Chester, England is not acceptable; it should not be acceptable anywhere. The video footage below says it all. When I have reviewed, I am going to do what I can about this – contact various parties and ask for responses; we want answers.
When the letter is written I will copy it onto the site; and any responses if we get some. Or will this be another Danish mink letter and just be ignored by all parties concerned ? – knowing animal rights in the UK; I think the lid is now off and people will be after scalps. Lets hope so. More to come on this soon.
Regards Mark
‘Shocking’ Animal Abuse Recorded At Government-Approved Abattoir, Investigation Reveals
The footage shows a torrent of illegal animal abuse on a UK abattoir despite holding a government approval rating for several years in a row…
A two-month investigation at an abattoir with government approval has revealed ‘shocking’ animal abuse.
Moreover, the 200 hours of footage uncovers illegalities inside the UK animal agriculture facility.
This is despite it holding a ‘generally satisfactory’ rating for six years.
Government-approved abattoir
Key findings included piglets appearing to be scalded in a hot water tank whilst still alive, and cows beaten with electric prods.
One particularly distressing scene shows a bull being violently prodded hundreds of times. It was filmed over January and February this year inside the family-owned G & G.B Hewitt Ltd. in Chester, England.
Moreover, the organization behind the investigation is Animal Justice Project – a non-profit working to expose animal exploitation.
They claim an Official Veterinarian was appointed by the Food Standards Agency. Their job is to ‘ensure that all animal welfare requirements are met, to ensure that animals are spared avoidable pain, distress or suffering’.
However, in the footage, the professional is not present in the rooms where animals are killed.This means they will have missed ‘pre-stun shocks on animals, poor handling, failing stun equipment, insufficient stun times, and signs of consciousness’.
Findings have since been sent to the FSA.
The still from the footage shows a member of staff abusing an animal with an electric prodder
Illegal activity
The investigation also shows stunning equipment fail, resulting in panicked pigs and sheep.
“The overall impression given is of routine poor practice in premises barely fit for purpose.”
Alick Simmons, Former Deputy Cheif Veterinary Officer
Moreover, the slaughtering process fell out of the recommended 15 seconds by the Humane Slaughter Association. And, the investigators claim no worker was seen checking for consciousness, displaying yet another breach.
Alick Simmons is a former Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer for the UK government.
In a statement, Simmons said: “There are a number of instances where apparent breaches of the law are shown: incorrect use of electric goads, cattle repeatedly struck with a stick – one appears to be pointed and the law prohibits the use of pointed sticks – a sheep dragged by the horns, severely lame cattle, and one severely lame pig being presented for slaughter.
“Such animals are not fit to be transported. In several instances, immediately after ‘sticking’, slaughtermen are seen to start dressing pig carcasses.
“The law requires that pigs are bled for a minimum of 20 seconds. The overall impression given is of routine poor practice in premises barely fit for purpose.
“The circumstances are made worse by poorly trained and poorly supervised operatives. For example, the handling, stunning, and killing of piglets is barely adequate.
“The stunning equipment appears to fail on several occasions, repeated shouting by the operatives simply adds to the animals’ distress. And, at no time, are operatives seen to monitor the effectiveness of the stun.”
UK abattoirs
As a result of the footage, Animal Justice Project is calling for an ‘urgent’ independent review of UK slaughterhouses. Additionally, it urges the cessation of public funding under the new Agriculture Bill.
Currently, abattoirs nationwide are eligible for financial aid under the new act. It comes following a wealth of small-scale slaughterhouse closures in the country, with less than 100 left.
Animal Justice Project’s founder Claire Palmer declared the findings both ‘law-breaking’ and ‘extensive’ in suffering and abuse.
This was ‘right under the nose of the vet, and CCTV’, Palmer added.
Now, the charity is calling for the Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, to oversee a review.
Below – just some of the reviews that have been left by the public on the ‘professional, speedy service with the highest quality of work’ !! – ALL gave 1 star out of 5 – which is the lowest that can be given.
Reviews
15 Jul 2021
Holocaust
We condemned the holocaust but we allow it to happen in epic proportions here at Hewitts,this is hell on earth for these poor animals. 14 Jul 2021
Disgusting pieces of ..
Disgusting practices, untrained vet, and breaks the animal welfare laws consistently. Truly terrible people, especially the vet and manager. 13 Jul 2021
Disgusting human beings.
You should be ashamed of yourself. These poor babies deserve so much better. 13 Jul 2021
Barbaric treatment of animals
Total barbaric behaviour shown, no respect for these poor innocent sentients being sent to their deaths! You should hang your heads in shame, and I hope your action haunts you on your deathbed! Beware of KARMA 😡. 12 Jul 2021
Undercover investigation shows extreme cruelty
You should all be ashamed of yourselves for the cruel, violent abuse you have inflicted on 1000s of beautiful, living beings. You could have shown them compassion at the end of their already horrific short existence but instead you showed nothing but contempt and abuse towards these defenseless souls. Shame on you all. 12 Jul 2021
DISGUSTING TREATMENT OF ANIMALS!!!! THIS PLACE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN IMEDIATELY.
DISGUSTING TREATMENT OF ANIMALS!!!! THIS PLACE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN IMEDIATELY.12 Jul 2021
Proud Of Their Abuse of defenceless Animals
High Standards??? Are you having a laugh Footage has been released of the abhorrent cruelty and suffering you cause defenceless animals at the final moments of their lives. I hope you lose all your funding and your licence for the suffering you have caused. You are the worst of the worst. 12 Jul 2021
STOP THE ABUSE AND CRUELTY
When the animal rights activists get hold of them they will really regret their disgusting treatment of defenceless animals. Hope Hewitt gets his just deserts and the company suffers a severe loss of custom. Time to stop eating corpses everyone then people like the Hewitts will go out of business. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING GOOD TO SAY ABOUT THIS TRAVESTY OF A BUSINESS!!. 12 Jul 2021
Hell Hole!
I have just read and seen undercover video footage from Animal Justice the most appalling animal abuse… Pigs with open sores clearly in pain evident from the pain in their eyes and shallow breathing..collapsed pigs unable to walk being kicked forward by abusers…pigs covered in flies, pigs living in filth clearly suffering indescribable trauma… CLOSE THIS HELL HOLE DOWN …YOU DISGUSTING PEOPLE SHOULF BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!🤬🤬🤬. 12 Jul 2021
Get rid of this place as soon as possible
If I could give no stars I would. I hate animal cruelty. I hope they are prosecuted but even if they are, the punishment will likely be paltry. 11 Jul 2021
sick animal torturers
should have the option to score minus stars. psychopaths is the word that springs to mind. No man is better than any animal. You will lose business now you have been exposed to be the depraved evil animal torturers and murderers that you are. decent companies will not want to associate themselves with you. Hope you get closed down. 11 Jul 2021
Abhorrent cruelty
This company has been exposed by Animal justice Project as published in The Independent, for unspeakable cruelty to animals. “Cows beaten with electric prods and pigs cut while still alive” by the vile criminals who own and work here. This abhorrent and disgusting cruelty to sentient beings has to stop and people need to be educated about what is going on behind their backs. 11 Jul 2021
Appalling Cruelty
Appalled by what I have read today about the cruelty in this abattoir. I am going vegetarian. 11 Jul 2021
Sickening
Sickening footage of the most disgusting and deliberate cruelty has been released. These people need to face charges. 11 Jul 2021
These people need help!
The owners and people that work here are obviously suffering from mental health problems and need to have their freedom taken away and administered medication. 11 Jul 2021
A shameful family!.
I’m sick to my stomach that this has been ALLOWED to happen. NO business out there should be using company!!. Does make me wonder what sort of family they are!!. DISGUSTING!. 11 Jul 2021
Cruelty to the animals.
This evil place needs to be shut down and the workers jailed for the abuse the animals were subjected to. 11 Jul 2021
Slaughterhouse of horror
Just been reading about this vile company and the disgraceful, inhumane way they treat the poor animals. Beyond vile. Shame on anyone that does business with them. Had to put one star rating in order to submit this review, but wouldn’t even give them that. 11 Jul 2021
Protect the animals you slaughter not the ones you employ.
How do you sleep at night knowing some of your employees treat the animals you slaughter, with a psychopathic fervour? Check your CCTV and start caring about the creatures your families have profited from for over half a century. 10 Jul 2021
Horrifying
Never use cruel people for anything!!!
How can Hewitt family sleep at night or eat at anyone’s table given their complacency in the suffering caused????
10 Jul 2021
Abhorrent cruelty to animals
Abhorrent cruelty to animals from disgusting psychopaths. Should be shut down with immediate effect. 10 Jul 2021
Shameful
This is a minus one star review…appalling. This establishment needs to be shut down and prison sentences issued. Horrendous. 10 Jul 2021
Disgusting cruelty
Disgusting cruelty to animals. They should be closed down. Please do not use them. 10 Jul 2021
Animal abuse on an obscene scale.
Disgusting. Unbelievable cruelty shown to living creatures. This place needs to be shut down and the owners jailed. See the report in The Independent. 10 Jul 2021
THE UNSPECIFIED VERMIN SPECIES WHO RUN THIS NEED A SERIOUS WAKE-UP CALL….
PLEASE REVIEW THE JULY 2021 ‘INDEPENDENT’ NEWS ARTICLE COVERING THIS ABHORRANT, HEINOUS AND ILLEGAL SO-CALLED BUSINESS, THEN UTTERLY RIP INTO & BOMBARD THE BREED OF NON-HUMANS WHO RUN THIS VIA THEIR PERSONAL EMAIL USING THE WEBSITE COMPANY ADDRESS… 10 Jul 2021
Abusive and uncaring.
Cause deliberate unnecessary suffering to innocent creatures. Business should be closed down and owners/employees involved in the abuse be put down. There is no place in society for those who think that it is OK to inflict suffering. Such people are obviously wired incorrectly and should not be allowed to pass on their genes. 10 Jul 2021
Abusive creeps
Illegally abuse animals while they are still alive, whoever works there deserves the same treatment. 10 Jul 2021
Author Peter Robinson clearly gottit right
Inhumane treatment of living creatures will only turn more of us off to eating flesh & turning to a healthier diet. 10 Jul 2021
an unspecified species, nonentity breed of callous vermin that exist in this hell-hole….
There is a special kind of hell for all you unspeakable race of non-humans operate this trash can (so-called ‘family’?) business!! Upon this recent newsfeed, I’m keeping the faith that anger and fury is now mounting far & wide – everyone knows just how despicable and abhorrent you vermin operate there – justice will be served no doubt and hopefully sooner rather than later with like-for-like treatment for you all during your final gasps of breath..!! Roll on your much-deserved demise, then may you all rot even further in the darkest of hell that is reserved especially for the loathsome ‘breed’ that you are – how dare you even breath the same fresh oxygen as the standard human race…. 10 Jul 2021
Cruelty to animals in their slaughter house
The hidden cameras at family-owned G & GB Hewitt in Cheshire captured 200 hours of footage that AJP says reveal shocking animal abuse and suffering, extensive breaches of the law and a failure of a government vet to prevent cruelty. 10 Jul 2021
Worthless animal abuse c unts.
Worthless animal abuse c unts. Karma will be calling on you soon. 10 Jul 2021
Evil
Vile evil torturers of innocent animals Real men would never do that Real men would treat the animals with dignity and respect. Professionals would respect the law and standards. You heinous evil men…… 10 Jul 2021
Shutdown immediately
This place should be shut down!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Discusting!!!!!!!!! 10 Jul 2021
Abuse of animals.
The footage of the abusive and disgusting way animals are treated in your facility was upsetting and shocking but not surprising. This is what happens in abattoirs and occasionally they are caught out, all involved should hang their heads in shame but they have no shame, I hope for prosecutions. 10 Jul 2021
Animal welfare crimes.
This place needs to be shut down and the perpetrators prosecuted. 10 Jul 2021
High standards?
“The highest standards?” Indeed. The highest standards of atrocious animal cruelty conceivable. Their approach to their work is one of utter disregard for animal suffering, any legislation to mitigate this suffering and an evident policy of sadistic violence to animals. 10 Jul 2021
Wicked violence
There’s video footage revealing scenes of atrocious animal abuse and gross negligence by the staff of this place, including the slaughterhouse manager – a character called Mark Hewitt.
In a scene lasting 40 minutes, a fat man can be seen tormenting two docile bulls with an electric device and a pointed stick, prodding them more than 200 times. The unfortunate animals are trapped in a confined space, unable to avoid their abuser’s implements – clearly terrified, their torment only ends when they are shot.
Hewitt was caught on film abusing tiny piglets. As the pigs kicked and jolted after having their throats cut, Hewitt can be seen cutting their ankles down to the bone and snapping them, far sooner than than the the length of time stated within slaughter legislation. The agony that these piglets must have endured during their final moments is beyond imagination.
[NB: No stars at all would be preferable – but it’s not an option available here.]
Yesterday, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and Representative Ro Khanna of California reintroduced their landmark legislation, the Farm System Reform Act. This crucial bill would decrease the number of farmed animals kept in extreme confinement and subjected to brutal mutilations, as well as reduce the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture.
Animals raised on factory farms are among the most abused in the world. Yet, there are hardly any federal protections for them in the United States. Big corporations turn massive profits by cramming these animals into barren sheds and massive feedlots. As a result, billions of them suffer miserable lives, not to mention the environmental toll factory farming has on our planet.
In addition to reducing the number of animals raised in low-welfare factory farms, the Farm System Reform Act also calls for uplifting independent family farmers, protecting workers, rural communities and public health, and overhauling our broken food system.
We’ve made it incredibly easy to contact your members of Congress with just one click.
New investigation by Essere Animali on a dairy farm producing milk for Grana Padano. The footage documents the treatment of calves, separated from their mothers at birth, isolated in small pens and brutally treated by farm workers.
The organisation Essere Animali today released a new video investigation documenting the conditions of calves on a dairy farm located in Lombardy, in the province of Bergamo.
The farm under investigation is a producer of Grana Padano cheese, the most widely consumed P.D.O. cheese in the world, with the cheese plant located next to the barns which house 2,700 animals, including cows and bulls, as well as some 300 calves.
The investigation documents the first weeks of the calves’ lives, from their birth to their confinement in small pens, casting a dark shadow over the conditions in which they are kept on dairy farms. The undercover investigation released by Essere Animali shows:
Calves being separated from their mother
Insults aimed at male calves
Housing in individual pens
Feeding of the calves, deprived of their mother’s milk
Rough behaviour by workers and alleged irregularities
For the production of milk, even that intended for products of “Italian excellence” such as Grana Padano, calves are raised in conditions of social deprivation and are subjected to stress and suffering. Change is possible, also in view of the growing number of European citizens demanding higher welfare standards for farm animals. For this reason, together with 77 NGOs all over the world, we are urging the European Commission to undertake a complete revision of the legislation on the protection of farm animals.
Simone Montuschi, President, Essere Animali
By disseminating this investigation, Essere Animali is relaunching the No Animal Left Behindcampaign, coordinated by Eurogroup For Animals, an organisation that brings together 77 NGOs for animal protection in 27 EU Member States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Serbia, Norway, Australia and the United States.
The organisations are calling on the European Commission, committed with the Farm to Fork strategy to make the European food system fairer, healthier and more environmentally friendly, to revise the legislation on the protection of farm animals, which is currently considered seriously inadequate to guarantee them a life free from unnecessary suffering.
One of the demands made to the Commission isthe application of farming conditions that would allow all farmed species to express their natural behaviours, including the intake of real food.
Allow contact between the calves and their mothers for at least the first eight weeks of age, during which the animals must be kept in a half-day contact system – at least – with suckling permitted.
Provide housing conditions and a diet that meet the behavioural and physiological needs of calves, who should be raised in groups with appropriate spaces and have access to outdoor areas.
This hard-hitting investigation provides a harsh wake-up call regarding the conditions in which calves are reared on dairy farms. However, we have a unique opportunity: by September, we can convince the European Commission to undertake a complete revision of the legislation on the protection of farm animals, and provide much better protection to calves and other species. It is incredible that the current legislation still permits the isolation and confinement of newly born animals: these are cruel and avoidable practices. We are asking for truly higher welfare standards which leave no animal behind.
Born to die: this is the fate of millions of male chicks in France’s farms.
Every year 50 million male chicks in France are shredded, gassed or suffocated in garbage bags. Because they don’t lay eggs – and don’t make any profits.
German chicks are still suffering this fate – but from 2022 chick shredding will be banned in Germany!
France also promised an end to the killing of chicks in 2019 – but nothing has happened so far.
SumOfUs members in France are calling on their government to follow Germany’s example – let’s support them now and ensure that chick shredding will soon come to an end across Europe.
Male chicks of laying hens are regarded as waste in the food industry: They put too little meat on for fattening and do not lay eggs – they therefore do not make any profit for the agricultural corporations.
The sex of the chicks can be determined three days after birth – during these 72 hours the chicks develop a level of consciousness similar to that of a three-month-old baby.
As a SumOfUscommunity, we have claimed the rights of many animals – from bees to orangutans and orcas.
Today we can together save the day-old chicks in France from the cruel death!
Call on French Agriculture MinisterJulien Denormandie to stop chick shredding!
And I mean…Worldwide, around seven billion male chicks are killed on the first day of their lives because they are not wanted in the egg industry, and the egg industry has enjoyed a steadily increasing consumption of chicken eggs for years.
In poultry production, rearing male chicks is not worthwhile.The chicks do not lay eggs and put on less breast meat.
The female chicks, on the other hand, are raised as laying hens.
But how do you get rid of the approximately 50 million male chicks that hatch each year in Germany?
The legislature has regulated that: chicks must not be older than 72 hours afterwards they are forgotten or shredded. However, this is valid until January 2022!
In May 2021, the Federal Council passed a ban on the cruel killing of male chicks in German laying farms. It will come into force in 2022.
The predominant method used is the gasification of the chicks with highly concentrated carbon dioxide (CO2)
An “alternative” method is to grind the animals. The chicks are thrown alive into rotating blades and thereby massacred.
The new law stipulates that killing the chicks in their millions shortly after hatching is prohibited from January.
Instead, methods should be used that determine the sex in the egg so that male chicks do not hatch in the first place.
In a second stage from January 1, 2024, the law provides for further regulations to avoid pain for the embryo.
Then methods for gender recognition in the egg should only be allowed if they are used at an earlier stage of the incubation.
Finally, the Federal Councilhas to deal with the law, which can delay the project but not stop it, although the poultry industry does not want to accept that!
The poultry lobby is promoting a voluntary industry agreement between food retailers and the poultry industry; and only from 2023!!
One of the industry’s pseudo arguments is that if Germany were to go it alone, the domestic economy would lose out and eggs would be imported from other countries with lower animal welfare standards to meet demand.
It sounds very suspect that suddenly the poultry industry is interested in animal welfare of other countries, although it has never shown interest and protection for the welfare of the animals in its own country…
The most effective way to protect chicks and other “farm animals” is to avoid consuming animal products.
Everyone who wants to work consistently for animal welfare must ban animals and animal products from their plates
Is the EU actually starting to listen to its voting citizens ?
On 23 June 2016 an EU referendum took place and the people of the United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the European Union (EU).
The UK formally left the EU at the end of 31 January 2020, after being an EU member state since joining on 1st January 1973, along (at that date) with other nations Denmark and the Republic of Ireland.
Why did the UK vote ‘out’ – or ‘Brexit’ ? – a lot of UK citizens were seeing the EU and many (most) of its MEP politicians and Commissioners, as monolithic invertebrates who did little for the wishes and demands of the electorate; the requests of the ‘normal’ EU citizen, it was simple a case of the politicians riding the EU ‘gravy train’; often bettering themselves (in many ways), whilst dismissing the wishes of good European people with ‘yukspeak’ returns to their letters and e mails, asking them why this and that was not being addressed in the EU Parliament.
So, after years of basically very little worthy of mention from the EU, the vertebrate citizens of the UK said they had been given enough rubbish by the EU; and so they voted out, to leave, Brexit. People wanted their personal parliament back with regards rules and regulations, free to decide rather than be told to by the EU.
Personally I was one of them – an ‘outer’. It was not a simple question to ask yourself at tea time one day – do I stay or do I go ? type thing; I debated the issue with myself for months in advance; largely keeping my opinions to myself. There were reasons for this which only other animal campaigners probably understand.
As an animal activist, and having been to the EU in Brussels many times on animal issues; and authoring endless amounts of complaints, reports and investigations into animal suffering issues within the EU, I had over the years, simply been lied to, given false promises, and made to believe time and time again that there were all the regulations and rules in place by the EU masters which thus prevented the evidence I presented at the table from being ‘true’. In other words; the EU political system was basically calling me a liar, and the evidence which I personally presented, along with many other wonderful groups and people in the EU, was simply being dismissed and put into a file known as the ‘EU trash bin’.
As a person with decades of experience dealing with animal transport abuses along with many others; a voice had to be shouted and my opinion noted. Consequently, I voted out of the EU, monolithic, invertebrate, gravy club; and decided that ‘going it alone’ would be the only way for the UK to get back the legislation needed as required by the citizens of the UK. For example; for decades I had been attending demonstrations all over England asking for a ban on the live transport of animals. But, under EU rules, and this is still the case for other EU member states; they (member states) are not allowed to introduce their own national legislation to ban live animal transport. The EU says ‘No’, so no it is; despite overwhelming evidence from a multitude of EU animal welfare organisations showing the EU legislation, in the form of Reg. 1/2005 for the so called ‘protection of animals in transport’, simply was not working. It never has worked, it does not work now, and it never will work in the future. ‘Yukspeak’ to the EU citizen from Brussels; as I have said before.
So, I have been somewhat surprised and amazed to read over the last few weeks, that there is going to be progress in the form of bans on animal cages in the EU.
And the news this morning, 12/7/21; that the European Parliament, is answering to a call from cross party MEPs to clarify how the Commission is planning to deliver on its commitment to proactively reduce and replace the use of animals in EU laboratories
Finally, is the requests of the EU citizen; the ‘normal’ person; being listened to, and more importantly, acted on, by the hierarchy in the ivory tower known and EU Brussels ?
Is there a reason for this ? – are all the years of bullshit and non sensical returns from the EU starting to show them that there are dissident things brewing around Europe ? – is it finally a case of bullshit no longer; the common man now sees clearly through the smokescreen that we, as a EU Parliament and Commission(s), have hidden behind for decades ? – is the emperor starting to lose his clothes ?
The link (source) given at the end is very interesting reading:
Italy would be the most likely of the “Big Four” member states to consider exiting the European Union if Brexit proves to be beneficial to Britain, according to a Euronews-commissioned poll.
Data from the Redfield and Wilton Strategies survey found that nearly half of Italians would be likely to support their country leaving the EU if the UK and its economy are regarded to be in good health in five years.
In the event, France and Spain both showed moderate support for changing its relationship with the bloc, while Germany was the member state least likely of the four major players to consider leaving the Union.
The time came many years ago when the EU should have listened and acted to the wishes of its voting electorate. They failed big time; and only now are we witnessing this rash of new promises and proposals which should make life a bit better for suffering animals. The truth will be in the results and the realities.
On animal transport; as always, there is nothing in the way of real improvement. I read nothing about a ban on live animal long distance transport; instead, I am fed spoonful’s of ‘farm to fork strategies’ on how things are going to be so much better – or in other words; am kind of acceptance by the EU masters that the current system does not really work. Hmm; has this not been said by many for decades ? – why now does the sleeping monolith awaken ?
With the UK being out of Europe, it does not mean that we wipe our hands of EU animal issues; far from it. It does mean though that by getting out, we can set our own better standards in the UK as well as continuing the fight for animal rights with all of our wonderful friends in Europe.
Oh, and by the way; since the UK left the EU a little while ago; the UK government is now putting legislation through parliament which will BAN the export of live animals from British shores.
There is hardly a farm in Lower Saxony that earns its money raising and selling pigs, chickens and cows.
Most farmers have specialized in keeping one species of animal in order to meet the world’s highest standards.(!!)
For many farmers, however, the legal requirements and standards were also a reason to give up their animal husbandry.
For example, the strict regulations of the new fertilizer ordinance, the prohibition of non-anesthetized castration and the renouncement of the docking of curly tails in pigs as well as the requirements for keeping sows in crate stalls.
This trend has accelerated especially in the past three years, writes the “Landvolk =(one of the largest regional farmers’ associations in Germany)- press service”.
Image: SOKO Tierschutz
“Before the farmers convert or renew their stables with high investment sums in an uncertain market situation, they prefer to opt out, especially since there are usually major hurdles to overcome for building permits,” says “Landvolk” Vice President Manfred Tannen, who only gave up sow farming a few years ago .
He and his professional colleagues miss clear, reliable statements on how they can face the challenges of the future.
According to the results of the 2020 agricultural census, of all 35,348 farms in Lower Saxony, only 25,431 farms (71.9 percent) kept livestock in 2020. This means that the number of livestock farms has fallen by 22.3 percent over the past ten years.
The number of dairy cow farms has fallen by 41.8 percent over the past ten years.
On the dairy farms there is a clear structural change towards fewer but larger farms.
The number of pig farmers decreased even more than the number of dairy farmers.
Therefore, more and more pet owners would also opt out due to the immensely increased construction costs and the lack of planning security.
And I mean …The world’s highest standards?
In Germany? in the pig farms?
In the last few years one scandal chases the next other, corrupt veterinarians and authorities sell the “black- sheep”– theory and cover animal cruelty and the worst animal abusers.
Undercover activists who bring this to the public are being criminalized.
The “Landvolk” do not mention it.
These abuses in German companies can be found on almost every farm, but the Ministry of Agriculture is silent in order to enable the slaughterhouses to do their business.
This is how perpetrators are made victims
Well.. from now on, when the farmers cannot sleep, forget the sheep, because from today only pigs will be counted!
The “Have you met” is a monthly interview to raise awareness for our Member Organisations, their work, main battles and achievements for animals.
Let’s start this first edition with an interview of Guillermo Moreno, Equalia’s co-founder and Executive Director.
Tell us a bit more about Equalia and its main battles.
Equalia is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the living conditions of farmed animals with the lowest standards of animal welfare.
Our mission is to achieve agreements with companies, institutions and stakeholders that positively impact the greatest possible number of farmed animals.
Our vision is a world where intensive animal farming and intensive aquaculture makes way to food production models that respect sustainability and animal welfare.
We have 4 lines of action:
Awareness rising,
Effective animal advocacy (movement construction and capacity building),
Corporate outreach,
Political campaigning.
Our main battles this year include:
Mandatory CCTV in all Spanish Slaughterhouses,
Cage-Free Initiative,
Higher welfare standards for broilers within the European Chicken Commitment initiative,
We also cooperate closely with international coalitions, such as Aquatic Animal Alliance and Open Wing Alliance, in order to generate a global positive impact for farmed animals.
What about you Guillermo Moreno? Tell us a bit more about your role within Equalia.
I am the co-founder and current Executive Director of Equalia. I come from a social background, with almost 15 years of experience in the animal welfare movement. I am a psychologist and I put all my knowledge at the service of the organisation.
My role is to be at the service of the employees and to surround myself with employees, volunteers and advisors who have more knowledge than me and complement me.
When did Equalia join Eurogroup for Animals and why?
Equalia joined Eurogroup for Animals at the beginning of 2021 with the aim of creating collaborative synergies to give a voice to European proposals in Spain.
The political lobby of the Spanish agri-food system in Europe is very strong, therefore it was required to strengthen the presence of a Spanish group to create effective collaborative ecosystems between Europe and Spain.
One of our main achievement this year is the fact that after two and a half year of intensive campaigning, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs published earlier this year a draft Royal Decree that will oblige the ~700 Spanish slaughterhouses to install video surveillance cameras.
The Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition-AESAN (an autonomous body of the Spanish Government, attached to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs), has announced that the Royal Decree will be approved by the end of this year.
Spain will become the first EU country to approve the mandatory installation of CCTV in all slaughterhouses.
How can the public act for Equalia? (e.g. donation, sign campaigns, volunteering, ect.)
If, after learning about our work, anyone is interested in making a one-time donation or becoming a member of Equalia, it can be done here.
If any philanthropist or philanthropic entity is interested in making a donation, please contact our Fundraising Manager at joseramon.mallen@equaliaong.org.
Also, anybody can find skilled volunteering opportunities with us or other effective animal advocacy nonprofits in Animal Advocacy Careers’ Skilled Volunteering Boardhere
What is your life motto?
It comes from a great friend:
In a world as fragmented and individualistic as this one, where we also have endless responsibilities and live under constant stress that prevents us from even feeling, weaving authentic and deep relationships is almost like a miracle of life.”
Austria’s Minister of Agriculture, Elisabeth Köstinger, in a broadcast called for the “removal”, i.e. killing, of wolves that keep killing sheep and goats.
This is legally possible (!!)
Elisabeth Köstinger
The wolf debate also reached the federal capital.
Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger of the Austrian People’s Party(ÖVP) took a political stand on Friday against the demands of the green coalition partner and behind those of the farmers who are calling for problem wolves to be shot down.
“If no action is taken now and problem wolves are removed, the local alpine pastures will soon no longer be able to be cultivated,” the minister said in a broadcast (!!!)
Across Austria, wolves had killed around 200 animals in the past few weeks.
In Salzburg, three wolves killed at least 75 sheep – around 25 are still missing.
The alpine farmers see it as “cruelty to animals such as would not have happened in the past hundred years” (!!!)
On Thursday they vented their anger at a rally in Salzburg’s old town.
Again and again they speak of the fact that the wolf falls into a “blood frenzy” when it rips off their animals.
Hubert Stock, the state’s wolf commissioner, describes this as a natural hunting behavior. “It seems irrational, but as long as something is moving, the wolf hunts.”
In order to protect their animals, many farmers have not driven their sheep and goats up to the alpine pastures this year – or have already driven them down again.
Instead of in the heights, the animals are now housed on the fenced winter pasture near their farms.
ÖVP Provincial Councilor Josef Schwaiger points out the consequences for tourism: If animals no longer graze on the alpine pastures, the hiking trails would be covered with bushes.
Minister Köstinger also emphasizes the possible consequences of wolf cracks for the tourist use of alpine pastures and hiking trails.
“The peaceful coexistence of wolves and alpine farming is an illusion. Wolves are predators that often strike indiscriminately and kill alpine cattle.” (!!)
The Minister of Agriculture also points out that the “removal” – that is, killing – of individual problem wolves is legally “entirely possible”.
Even if the wolf is strictly protected according to the EU nature protection directive, the fauna-flora-habitat directive.
It says that all “deliberate forms of capture and killing” are banned in the EU.
Exceptions to this guideline are possible, however, if individual wolves would lead to “damage in particular to crops and animal husbandry as well as to forests”.
The State Council now wants to define conditions and areas of action by ordinance.
However, he should not get the necessary approval from the Greens. They spoke out against the regulation in advance.
The nature conservation organization WWF also criticized the demands of Agriculture Minister Köstinger.
“The wolf is a strictly protected species and an important part of intact nature,” says the WWF.
Instead of discussing the shooting of problem wolves, there should be nationwide coordinated herd protection programs as well as “a revival of shepherd life based on the Swiss model”.
And I mean…Shepherds howl when wolves, bears or eagles steal a sheep from them, but I have never seen a shepherd cry in front of a three-story truck that carries sheep hundreds of miles on top of each other through a heat of 35 ° or even 40 °.
They are the same animals that the farmer gives for slaughter anyway.
Because the farmers keep animals for economic reasons.
Grazing animals are also ultimately brutally killed in slaughterhouses without any control and carted into the mobile coffins on all the highways of the world.
And that is also subsidized.
Wolves make grazing animals impossible?
Whta an outrageous lie!
Wild animals make up just 3% of the total biomass of terrestrial vertebrates on earth!
The rest is “useful” animals + people!
According to the Federal Statistical Office, an average of more than two million animals are slaughtered in Germany every day.
Per day!
So … not even whole wild animals around the world would be able to do that in a hundred years !!
Wolves do not practice brutal mass animal husbandry, they either eat what is there or starve to death.
But the farmer’s knitting pattern is always the same: dissemination of incorrect or incomplete information, coupled with targeted scaremongering.
Köstinger is Vice President of the Austrian Farmers’ Union.
That can explain some of the reasons why she calls for the “removal” of the wolf.
To date, no Minister of Agriculture in Austria has supported farmers and hunters as outrageously as Köstinger.
Perhaps the Minister’s “removal” would be the best choice for humans and animals.
A bipartisan proposal in the U.S. House would ban the farming of mink fur in the United States in an effort to stem possible mutations of the coronavirus, something researchers have said can be accelerated when the virus spreads among animals.
The bill introduced this week is an effort from Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C. It would prohibit the import, export, transport, sale or purchase of mink in the United States.
Researchers have said that spread of COVID-19 among animals could speed up the number of mutations in the virus before it potentially jumps back to people.
Last year, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control issued new guidance to curb the spread of the coronavirus between minks and humans. The agency warned that when COVID-19 starts spreading on a mink farm, the large numbers of animal infections means “the virus can accumulate mutations more quickly in minks and spread back into the human population.”
Denmark reported last year that 12 people had been sickened by a variant of the coronavirus that had distinct genetic changes also seen in mink.
“What we want to do is ban the inhumane practice of farming mink for fur,” Mace said Friday during an interview with The Associated Press. “At the same time, it’s also a public health crisis, so it helps fix both of those situations.”
“Knowing that there are variants, and being someone who cares about the humane treatment of animals, this is sort of a win-win for folks,” she added. “And I believe that you’ll see Republicans and Democrats on both sides of the aisle work on this together.”
According to Fur Commission USA, a non-profit representing U.S. mink farmers, there are approximately 275 mink farms in 23 states across the United States, producing about 3 million pelts per year. That amounts to an annual value of more than $300 million, according to the commission.
There have been several mink-related coronavirus cases in the U.S. In December, a mink caught outside an Oregon farm tested positive for low-levels of the coronavirus. State officials said they believed the animal had escaped from a small farm already under quarantine because of a coronavirus outbreak among mink and humans.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a mink on a Michigan farm “and a small number of people” were infected with a coronavirus “that contained mink-related mutations,” something officials said suggested that mink-to-human spread may have occurred.
While mink-to-human spread is possible, CDC officials said “there is no evidence that mink are playing a significant role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to people.”
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines.
Image: SOKO Tierschutz
Elisabeth Köstinger
World Animals Voice 