Today we have heard that we have made history for mother pigs.
In June this year, SAFE partnered with our friends at the New Zealand Animal Law Association to challenge the use of cruel farrowing crates in the High Court. This was the first time in New Zealand history that such a challenge had taken place.
The High Court has ruled this morning that the minimum standards and regulations for the use of farrowing crates are unlawful.
Simply put – the High Court agrees that using farrowing crates to house mother pigs is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act.
As I write this, our hardworking legal team from the New Zealand Animal Law Association are working together with the team here at SAFE to go through the judgment in detail and plan the next steps. I will be in touch next week when we have more information to share.
The High Court has ruled that the use of farrowing crates is unlawful. This is a historic judgment for mother pigs.
From every generous donation, every petition signature, every contact with an MP, every letter to the editor and every share on social media – your support of mother pigs and your belief in justice has had a real, life-changing impact on the way we treat animals in New Zealand.
Debra Ashton Chief Executive Officer
SAFE for animals – New Zealand.
WAV Comment – Brilliant News – well done to all the team for getting justice for pigs.
This is mainly for UK supporters; but we guess international e mails are also accepted – which strengthens the case.
As our many UK supporters will know; Tesco, a major food store and supplier, have a saying that ‘Every Little Helps’.
How about that is changed to ‘Every E mail Helps’. Click on the link below and send a clear message about Amazon rain forest destruction to the new Tesco CEO Ken Murphy.
Tell him; we don’t want the beautiful Amazon forests destroyed for the production of cheap meat that is sold in your stores – simple as that !
Regards Mark
(sent to us by Liza in London – animal campaigner buddy)
Last month Tesco announced that they’re going to increase their sales of plant-based meat alternatives by 300%. [1]
But unless they also reduce the amount of industrial meat on their shelves, forests like the Amazon will continue to burn. For the first time in six years Tesco now has a new CEO, and we have a real opportunity to make sure he does the right thing.
Will you email Tesco’s new CEO, Ken Murphy and ask him to stop supporting deforestation?
Opportunities like this don’t come around very often and a new CEO could mean a fresh start. Ken Murphy has the chance to do something positive with his time in charge, but he needs to act fast.
As you’re reading this email South American forests like the Amazon continue to be destroyed to produce industrial meat, and the situation is getting worse. [2] As the UK’s biggest supermarket, Tesco is directly involved in this destruction by selling unsustainable amounts of meat, and by doing business with forest-destroying companies.
Earlier this year over 60,000 of you emailed Tesco’s former CEO, which helped lead to their announcement on plant-based meat alternatives. Now there’s a new CEO in charge, we need to keep up the pressure to make sure Tesco doesn’t stop there.
Please email Ken Murphy now and tell him personally about why we need to protect our forests.
With a new CEO in charge, this is a unique opportunity to make our voices heard. And the more of us who get in touch, the louder the message will be – Tesco should lead by example and stand up to deforestation.
I’ve drafted an email to new CEO Ken Murphy that you can send or edit. It asks him to cut ties with forest-destroying meat companies and halve the amount of meat that Tesco sells.
Adding a line at the start of the email to express why you care about deforestation will have an even bigger impact on Ken Murphy. You can also edit the subject line.
The killing of pigs using CO2 is barbaric, as you can read and see in the video below. We are not friends of the EU; but we do welcome the new Parliament approval of funding to move away from the cruel and disgusting practice.
Information:
Pigs are stunned using a 70% to 90% carbon dioxide concentrate. … Once the animals have been stunned, they should be bled within 15 seconds to avoid the risk of them regaining consciousness.
The slaughter method in question involves lowering pigs into a gas chamber containing CO2, causing them to gasp for breath and hyperventilate, causing pain and panic amongst the terrified animals. This often goes on for 30-60 seconds or more.
UK – Now, at least half of Britain’s pigs are killed this way.
Instead of being discarded as some terrible anachronism, CO2 stunning has instead become industry standard. The convenient way of killing pigs. Yet, it’s not only major supermarkets and industry assurance schemes like Red Tractor that are allowing it: even some organic pigs can be killed this way.
As it stands, consumers have no way of knowing whether meat comes from pigs gassed or stunned by any other method. There’s nothing on the label. There’s no obvious way of choosing one supermarket over another, in this case, as most if not all have gone down this route. You can’t even tell by choosing higher welfare labels like ‘outdoor bred’, ‘outdoor reared’ or ‘organic’. Consumers are left with the very real assumption that if you’re buying pork or bacon, then it may well be from an animal killed in a gas chamber.
High-concentration CO2 stunning of pigs: the European Parliament approves funding to move away from the cruel practice
12 November 2020
Press Release
Research project to find alternatives to high-concentration CO2 stunning or killing of pigs receives budget approval from the EP. Now the European Commission will invest 2 million euro in applied research in an effort to move away from the inhumane procedure.
For immediate release: Brussels 12/11/2020
On November 12, the European Parliament (EP) voted in favour of a preparatory action, initially tabled by MEP Fredrick Federley (RE, SE), aimed at finding alternatives to high-concentration CO2 stunning or killing of pigs. The EC will then invest in applied research to move away from this method, which, in spite of being inherently inhumane, is the most frequently used in all major EU pig slaughterhouses.
Already in 2019, Eurogroup for Animals published a position paper urging the European Commission to fund research into alternatives, with a view to phasing out this method by 1 January 2025. The use of high-concentration CO2 for the stunning or killing of pigs is allowed by EU Regulation 1099/2009 (the Slaughter Regulation). However, exposure to CO2 is highly aversive for the animals and causes acute pain and severe distress from first exposure to the gas to loss of consciousness.
This was recently confirmed by the latest EFSA opinion on the welfare of pigs at slaughter, which concluded that “There are no preventive or corrective measures to the pain, fear and respiratory distress caused by the exposure to high CO2 concentrations as this is inherent to the stunning method. The only way to prevent the hazard related to exposure to high CO2 concentrations is to use other gas mixtures like inert gasses or mixture of inert gases containing low CO2 concentrations”.
By voting in favour of this research project, the European Parliament sent a strong signal on the importance of EU-funded research into animal welfare friendly alternatives to CO2 stunning of pigs. For the first time, a substantial sum will be invested by the EC in an applied research project to find painless alternatives for pig stunning. The outcome of the study should lead to a prohibition of CO2 stunning of pigs through the updating of the legislation.
The European Commission is going to propose a revision of the current animal welfare acquis as part of the EU Farm to Fork strategy, and the rules on slaughter will be updated in the light of the latest scientific evidence. It is expected that the findings of this preparatory action will contribute to guiding this revision process.
A French fashion house has teamed up with Northern Territorian (NT) Mick Burns to buy a former garden farm near Darwin that will be building Australia’s largest crocodile farm.
The Northern Territory’s crocodile farming industry (NT) will be given a major boost with the finalization of a land deal outside Darwin where a $40 million development is planned.
Important points:
-The proposed farm will house up to 50,000 saltwater crocodiles and was purchased for $ 7.25 million
-During full production, 30 people will be employed on the farm -Hermès and Louis Vuitton control most of the NT crocodile farms and prefer Australian saltwater crocodiles
PRI Farming – ultimately controlled by French high fashion label Hermès – has bought The Sweet Life, a former melon and banana farm in Lambells Lagoon, for $ 7.25 million.
The Lambells Lagoon fruit and vegetable farm.
A veteran of the NT crocodile farming industry, Mick Burns,is the director of PRI Farming along with three French nationals who are also directors of Hermès.
The company plans to build a facility for 50,000 saltwater crocodiles to be raised for skin and meat products.
The stated development costs amount to around 40 million US dollars.
The proposed crocodile farm is said to be Australia’s largest crocodile farm.
If Burns’ plan is carried out, it will increase the number of crocodiles bred in the NT by 50 percent.
Hermès’ crocodile leather handbags can sell for over $ 30,000. (Supplied: Mario Anzuoni / REUTERS)
French fashion labels Hermès and Louis Vuittonown or control the vast majority of crocodile farms in the NT.
“They look for the crocodile eggs in the Northern Territory, raise them on their own farms – according to their own standards – and these standards are very high because the skin of the animals must not be damaged so that a very high-quality product can be made from it,” explains Geoff McClure, a crocodile farm advisor, to “ABC”.
Both Hermès and Louis Vuitton tend not to put their crocodile farm holdings in the spotlight – none of their websites mention they are in the industry.
“ABC” Rural believes that crocodile farmers who have been bought up by luxury brands often do not need to talk about sales through nondisclosure agreements.
According to McClure, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton like Australian saltwater crocodiles because they have “more scales per unit area on their stomach” (!!!)
“The NT was traditionally the home of crocodile breeding due to climatic factors – it’s warmer there,” he said.
“In the NT the egg harvest is well established … and the number of eggs that can be removed under license is increasing. Hence, there is some certainty about the consistency of egg supply that you will not get in Queensland or Western Australia.
In 2018/2019, over 24,600 crocodile skins were exported from the NT, according to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), with the industry valued at $ 26.7 million for the NT economy.
This means high income for the Australian region, as it is a growing industry that is also interesting for tourists, the report said.
Mick Burns, the director of PRI Farming declined ABC Rural’s request for comment.
And I mean…That the human species completely disrupts the natural order is undeniable – the depth and scope of our crimes are unpredictable and incalculable.
We would therefore like to thank the pandemics for intervening and perhaps achieving what we are currently unable to do – namely, weakening or even stopping the crimes of the most dangerous and vicious predators.
Ducks sold by Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco by were brutally hung from shackle lines and dragged by their heads, necks, and wings while still alive in a series of violent breaches of guidelines caught on camera.
Workers were filmed rough-handling ducks, ramming them with force into the shackles.
Staff at the Red Tractor-endorsed Gressingham Duck – which also supplies the Co-op, Asda and Morrisons – even used live ducks to hit torn-off birds’ feet from the shackles, investigators claim.
Several workers were seen yelling heatedly at one another, which experts say led to their aggressively manhandling the ducks – many of which are thought to be destined for freezing ahead of Christmas dinners.
The Co-op suspended Gressingham as a supplier after seeing the footage, and others said they were launching investigations.
Food standards chiefs are to investigate the allegations against the company, which is the UK’s largest duck producer, killing around eight million birds a year.
Undercover footage reveals ducks being grabbed roughly by workers from crates, hung upside down and sent along shackle lines into an electrical waterbath, according to the Animal Justice Project (AJP) group, which filmed inside the slaughterhouse.
Use of shackles is legal, but government farm animal welfare advisers called in 2009 for live shackling to be phased out, saying it “may cause considerable pain and distress”.
But rough handling, causing birds distress and pulling them by their body parts all break codes on animal welfare at slaughter – which is illegal.
The investigators claim they saw “a staggering” 15 breaches of EU, UK government and Red Tractor guidelines in just one day at the Suffolk-based abatare poultry processing plant” with “no clear evidence of abuse or neglect”.
Sales of duck and geese had been predicted to rise this Christmas with the “rule of six” meaning smaller family gatherings.
AJP claims ducks arrived at the slaughterhouse with huge sores and in filthy crates.
“Workers were caught on camera brutalising and rough-handling ducks, ramming them with force into shackles, which is likely to cause extra pain and injury to their delicate legs. Ducks were also filmed being grabbed and dragged by their heads or necks, one leg and wings across crates. Another breach of guidelines,” said spokeswoman Claire Palmer.
The birds are seen in the video sometimes still flapping as they are sent to an electrical waterbath – practices the group says are condemned by UK and European authorities. “Shackling and involuntary inversion appeared to cause the ducks significant distress,” said Ms Palmer.
Once on the shackles, video footage showed some birds were left hanging for two periods well over the legal time limit of two minutes: once for at least 14 minutes and once for almost 12 minutes, investigators say.
The European Food Safety Authority, as well as the Farm Animal Welfare Council, has urged that live shackling and waterbath stunning be replaced as soon as possible “to spare birds from severe welfare consequences”.
The Food Standards Agency said it would seize Gressingham’s CCTV to inspect it.
Guidelines say people must not drag animals by the head, ears, tail or handle them in a way that would cause pain or suffering; birds being shackled must be relaxed and not touch each other or be distressed, and poultry must not get a shock before touching a waterbath.
Alick Simmons, former UK government deputy chief vet and former Food Standards Agency veterinary director, said: “The video shows a cramped hanging-on bay and a slaughter line being run too quickly for the available space, resulting in the ducks being frequently handled inhumanely and without due care.
“Operatives argue with each other; they are distracted and hence take poor care.
“Shackled birds are allowed to touch each other meaning that birds further up the line will receive pre-stun non-lethal shocks.”
WAV comment – having argued the case for animals in transport for over 30 years whilst also calling for a ban on live exports; we have always declared that the EU is utterly useless at enforcing (its own) legislation when it comes to live animal transports. The video here; the first of 3; shows this.
EU = junk = animal abuse.
Welfarm to release three shocking videos to call for a long-overdue end to the export of live animals
12 November 2020
WELFARM
It only takes three videos for Welfarm, Animals International and Animal Welfare Foundation to show the French government the horrifying state of play of what exporters and livestock breeders do to animals they export to North Africa and the Middle East.
From European ports to Lebanese slaughterhouses to Moroccan cattle markets – four NGOs captured the dreadful fate of the thousands of French cows shipped across the Mediterranean every week. These investigations will be released by Welfarm over the next three weeks.
In a petition to the French government, Welfarm calls for the suspension of live animal exports to third countries. “The Ministry of Agriculture, exporters, breeders and the port of Sète are aware of these violations, yet they continue to export animals” states Adeline Colonat from Welfarm. And for good reason as cattle exports generated nearly 1.5 billion euros in 2018, of which 118 million went to third countries.
“France cannot even detect and solve problems in its own slaughterhouses, so how can we imagine that we can have the slightest influence on what happens on the other side of the Mediterranean? The truth is that France no longer has any control as soon as the animals leave our soil. The only way to avoid their suffering is not to send them there alive. ”
Eurogroup for Animals and its members urge the EU to stop live transport especially to Third Countries and to prepare a strategy to shift to a meat and carcasses and genetic material only trade.
Video 1: Death before boarding the boat
The first video of the investigation series is from July 2020 and sets the scene in Port of Cartagena, Spain, which calls itself a “pioneer in animal welfare”: A cattle with fractured legs is dragging itself along the foot of a ship. Born in the Puy-de-Dôme, exported to Spain for fattening, it is to be shipped to Libya.
A tractor will have to drag the paralysed and screaming animal into a lorry. Heading for the slaughterhouse. By law, it should have been euthanised on the spot, but in this case, it would be impossible to profit from his meat… Like this cattle, 425,000 French cattle are exported every year to Spain for fattening. How many then embark in Cartagena? “It’s impossible to say since they disappear from French statistics”, explains Adeline Colonat, head of the project team on transport in Welfarm, “but we are the leading supplier of cattle to Spain, which in turn is the leading exporting country in Europe.”
Maria Boada (Animal Welfare Foundation), who captured these images alongside Animals International and Welfarm explains further: “In European ports as well as in Third Countries, the lack of controls, infrastructures and sanctions is disastrous for animals. The presence of a veterinarian is not even compulsory on board of ships leaving the EU. Thousands of animals are deprived of care for days or even weeks”
Today, 12/11/20, we at WAV have written to the Danish Ambassador in London; Ambassador Lars Thuesen, to express our concerns regarding the current situation (re Mink) in Denmark and generally its involvement in being a very big player in the fur industry.
We reproduce an un edited copy of our letter here for you to read. Despite wanting to loose it sometimes; we have remained polite but expressed our views and possible future actions quite openly. Hopefully, the letter makes it clear where we stand on the issue of fur farming and that we will continue to fight for a complete ban anywhere that it still continues.
Also enclosed in our letter to the ambassador were a few pictures of the current mink ‘burial’ situation and one picture of the whale slaughter in the Faroe islands – just to keep him aware that this still goes on in Danish territory; the nation which he represents.
When, and if we get a response to our letter, then we will naturally publish for you all to read.
Regards Mark and Venus.
The letter is as follows; un edited from the original:
Dear Ambassador Thuesen – Danish Ambassador to the United Kingdom, London;
I write to you as the co founder of ‘World Animals Voice’ which is located here in England and also in Germany – https://worldanimalsvoice.com/
From the start of the problems in Denmark, we have been following and reporting daily on the issue of mink farming and culling as a result of the Covid virus. You can see all of our posts via this link: https://worldanimalsvoice.com/?s=denmark+mink
The association with the fur industry, and the involvement of Denmark in the fur trade and on the issue of fur farming is a shame on your nation.
There was an international shock last week when Denmark decided to cull all its mink – over 17 million animals, because of the spread of coronavirus and ‘mutations’ which stem from fur farming. That national (Danish) mink cull has turned into a political outcry now that the Prime Minister has admitted the plan was rushed through and had no legal basis. Basic issues which national governments should be associated with and which do not present Denmark as a respected and world leading nation which we, as Europeans, know it is.
As Danish politicians continue to argue over the mass murder of millions of minks, huge grave trenches are appearing in the Danish countryside which are / will be filled with the sentient, slaughtered animals. As there are far too many animals to incinerate; which amounts to millions, we also question the issue of water contamination to the Danish citizens by the burial in the ground of so many mink carcasses.
Basically, the fur industry and fur farming has had its day. As the ambassador to the UK, you may (or may not) be aware that the UK was the second country (after Austria) in Europe to ban fur farming in 2000; something which we as an animal welfare organisation are very proud of. This achievement strengthens our commitment to take up the side in defence of being voices for suffering animals.
Denmark adopted legislation in 2007 to improve the welfare of fur-bearing animals that included a number of welfare improvements for foxes on fur farms. In 2009, Denmark passed a ban on fox farming, with a phase-out period that lasted until 2017 for a majority of farms, and a longer period until 2023 for farms where the main income originates from fox farming. Unfortunately; and to their shame; Denmark farms more than just fox animals for their fur – being ‘home’ to more than 1,000 fur farms.
The Danish fur industry had a reported turnover of almost $1bn (£750m) in 2018-19; with many furs being sold to the garment industry, but with also some being used in some false eyelash products, with China and Hong Kong in particular providing some of the biggest markets.
Danish animal rights groups such as ‘Animal Protection Denmark’ (APD) believe it is now time to follow the example of several other European countries and phase out the trade of animal fur and its farming completely. We as an organisation give APD our full support and will continue to name, shame and expose to the world all the suffering of the fur industry which takes place on Danish fur farms. As mentioned above; we have a large global audience who can continue to be informed of the wrongdoings of Denmark.
I suggest to you sir; that despite the ‘waffle and jargon’ put out by the Danish led fur industry and its farmers; you, as a nation (Denmark), are actually putting national financial gain way ahead of undertaking adequate animal welfare. With a fur trade turnover of almost $1bn (£750m) and the sudden / proposed culling of over 17 million sentient fur bearing mink animals, how can you as a representative of your nation’s government deny to me that finance comes way before animal welfare ?
With these figures of financial profit and the mass murder of animals, we can only decree that in this respect, Denmark is a very sick nation. With your undertakings in both fur farming and the mass killing of animals, be it farming or culling, you bring huge shame on yourselves; on the EU, and shame on the decent people of Denmark who are attempting to eradicate this ‘fur farming disease’ from your nation.
Covid-19 originally came from a wild animal, worked its way through disgusting ‘wet markets’ in the Far East; was then transmitted to humans and, later, passed on to farmed mink, before jumping back to a number of humans.
Several different mutations have been discovered in the virus found in mink that do not arise in humans. But one called “Cluster 5” is of particular concern, as at least 12 people are known to have caught it in Denmark. More than 200 other people have contracted other mink-related strains of the virus. This sir, is all as a simple result of Denmark wishing to undertake massive fur farming. It could easily be said that you, as a nation, are now reaping what you sowed many years ago. The innocent farmed animals have now finally struck back; and you have no answers to this strike back; other than to do mass killings. Why don’t you do something with long term positive results and ban fur farming ?
Scientists from Slaten’s Serum Institute in Copenhagen recently raised the alert after detecting mutations in strains of coronavirus found in mink. “Mutation happens all the time, but once in a while these mutations happen in the spike protein,” said Prof. Anders Fomsgaard, SSI’s head of virus research.
That spike protein of the coronavirus is the target of some vaccines in development. “So we are a little nervous once we see mutations that change amino acids and the shape of this protein,” it was reported to the BBC.
Again; and I say clearly and openly; you are now reaping what you sowed all those years ago by undertaking fur farming, and your association and ‘very deep’ relationship with the fur business.
I close by telling you formally, here in writing, that we (WAV) as an organisation, will never stop exposing and reporting on the cruelties and suffering inflicted daily on millions of sentient animals in the Danish fur farming business.
You, Denmark, as a nation have a simple choice; you can stop and abolish all fur farming and associations with the fur business; or otherwise continue to reap the bad national publicity (such as now) as you are getting from us and other organisations worldwide by simply continuing to associate Denmark with its allies in the fur trade.
The choice is a simple one; and we hope that you undertake the former and utterly abolish the trade. If you do not; then you have a big fight in the future; and we are very happy to be part of that fight for those who have no voice; the fur bearing animals which you continue to cause suffering to each and every day.
Get back Denmark the respect that it truly deserves and do not associate yourselves with a barbaric and disgusting reputation of being one of the world’s major players in the fur farming and animal abuse business.
You have a choice – please make it the right one !
There is hardly any other animal in agriculture that the general public knows as little as about geese. The clever and watchful birds can easily live to be 20 years old. They spend hours swimming and can travel thousands of kilometers as migratory birds.
Every year 32,000 tons of goose meat is consumed in Germany, 95% of it in the period from October to Christmas.
Only 4000 tons are produced in Germany.
28,000 tons come from abroad, mostly from Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
There the geese are fattened cheaply in intensive industrial farming, under cruel circumstances without any animal welfare conditions in just 12 weeks, and they are also often – despite an EU-wide ban – cross-subsidized by the down industry through painful live-plucking.
There is hardly a delicacy that is more controversial than foie gras. It can be found on the menus of many gourmet restaurants for the “well-off upper-class citizen”.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to describe the horror of foie gras farming and the ethical assessment of this production method is accordingly: At the age of eight to ten weeks, the animals are given a 50-centimeter long tube in their necks two to four times a day Stomach pushed through which about a kilo of corn or cereal porridge is pumped.
The animals are kept in tight cages to prevent them from squirming or escaping.
After two to three weeks of systematic plugging, the torture of the geese is over and they are slaughtered. When it is ready for slaughter, the liver is abnormally swollen up to ten times its normal size. The fat content is then 40 to 50 percent of the mass.
This high percentage of fat in the liver makes foie gras a delicacy.
To date, France is by far the largest producer of foie gras and, together with Hungary and Bulgaria, produces more than 24,000 tons of foie gras every year.
Not surprisingly, France is also the main consumer, foie gras has become “part of the cultural and gastronomic heritage”, and every butcher and delicatessen who thinks he is something special has goose or duck liver on offer.
In truth, it is about industrial export production, a lot of suffering, a lot of money, and 100,000 jobs: 40 million ducks are fattened in France every year, making around 19,000 tons of foie gras. France accounts for around 70 percent of global production.
Actually, the production of foie gras should not be an issue in the “civilized” EU.
The EU Directive 98 / 58CE (in particular Annex 24 to Article 4) has banned the production of foie gras since 1999. According to this, the type of feeding of animals must not cause “unnecessary suffering or harm” §.
However, the import of foie gras is still permitted within all EU countries.
To further protect itself, France even declared foie gras a “national and gastronomic heritage” in 2005.
In California and India, the import of such products is prohibited.
In Germany, according to all the rules of hypocrisy, the production of foie gras is prohibited, but importation is permitted.
The only way for an import ban in the EU seems to be via Brussels and Strasbourg. The latter city is known to be in France.
So that everyone understands how far it is until a Europe-wide production ban, we only need to look at the Christmas menu from MEPs from 2014.
The multi-course menu also included the popular foie gras on the menu.
You don’t have to be a vegan to refuse animal products from torture factories, like Foie Gras.
It is enough if you are a civilized person.
Let the barbarians take care of their national and gastronomic heritage.
Don’t become a barbarian either and leave the goose off your Christmas menu.
The tradition of the Christmas goose or foie gras is the tradition of the primitive millions and far removed from education and morality.
WAV Comment: We are currently preparing a letter to the Danish embassy in London expressing our disgust at what is going on in Demark regading the mink murders. Along with many other (animal welfare) organisations; we will be asking the Danes to immediately introduce legislation to stop all fur farming in Denmark; and just for once to put animal welfare above financial importance – something they are not doing at present. Here in the UK, legislation is currently being produced to stop the import of fur products into the UK. We will remind the Danes that whilst we wish to remain friends with them; we (as a nation) do not want to be involved with supporting their disgusting fur farming businesses. It is 2020 and we strongly suggest to the Danes that they follow other EU nations (NL, Poland) at present by introducing a total fur production ban and moving to better, non cruel business.We as a group are in full friendship with, and give our full support to Animal Protection Denmark. Bring on the ban !
Coronavirus: Denmark shaken by cull of millions of mink
There was shock last week when Denmark decided to cull all its mink – up to 17 million animals – because of the spread of coronavirus. That national cull has turned into a political outcry, now that the prime minister has admitted the plan was rushed and had no legal basis.
Danish authorities worry that a mutated form of coronavirus found in mink could potentially hamper the effectiveness of a future vaccine.
As the politicians argue, mass graves have appeared in the Danish countryside filled with the slaughtered animals.
‘A hard blow’
Police and the armed forces have been deployed and farmers have been told to cull their healthy animals too -but the task will take weeks.
“We have 65,000 mink. In the coming week all will be put down,” says Martin From, pointing to rows of long huts housing thousands of mink on his farm in rural Funen. A Danish flag flies at half-mast in his garden.
Overnight he has seen his livelihood wiped out. “It seems very unjust,” he adds.
Mr From is a third-generation fur farmer, and after 60 years of the family business, the cull has devastated him. He is not alone. Farmers have appeared on Danish TV in tears.
Denmark’s mink cull has in fact been going on for several weeks, with 2.85 million already put down. By Tuesday, coronavirus had been reported on 237 farms in Jutland with further cases suspected on another 33.
The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration says the cull is complete on 116 farms and the work continues.
Why the cull was ordered
Denmark is not the first country to report outbreaks on fur farms but it is the world’s biggest producer. Spain, Sweden, Italy, and the US have all been affected, as has the Netherlands, where mink farming will be outlawed by spring next year.
Here in Denmark, more than one in five farms have reported infections.
Scientists from Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen first raised the alert after detecting mutations in strains of coronavirus found in mink. Then came the order for a mass cull last Wednesday and a four-week lockdown for people living in the northwest of the country.
“Mutation happens all the time, but once in a while these mutations happen in the spike protein,” says Prof Anders Fomsgaard, SSI’s head of virus research.
That spike protein of the coronavirus is the target of some vaccines in development. “So we are a little nervous once we see mutations that change amino acids and the shape of this protein,” he tells the BBC.
‘Cluster 5’
Covid-19 originally came from a wild animal, it was then transmitted to humans and, later, passed on to farmed mink, before jumping back to a small number of humans.
Several different mutations have been discovered in the virus in mink that do not arise in humans. But one called “Cluster 5” is of particular concern and 12 people are known to have caught it in Denmark. More than 200 other people have contracted other mink-related strains of the virus.
Prof Fomsgaard stresses that the worry about a vaccine is hypothetical so far. But tests have found that patient antibodies responded less well to Cluster 5 and further laboratory investigations are being carried out.
“We are working hard to find if this has any biological effects and vaccine issues. Therefore we have to look into it immediately before this potential problem grows.”
The infections have attracted widespread international attention, and prompted the UK to ban travellers from Denmark.
However there’s also concern that Denmark may have overreacted and scientists at home and abroad have tried to assess the risk.
While scientists told Denmark’s Berlingske Tidende newspaper that Cluster 5 had not been detected since September, the head of Denmark’s health authority, Soren Brostrom, said the risk was too great when the virus was spreading among the mink population.
‘Mistakes have been made’
The government admitted on Tuesday it lacked the legal framework for a nationwide order and only had jurisdiction to cull infected mink or herds within a safety radius.
“It is a mistake. It is a regrettable mistake,” said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen as she apologised to parliament.
The government has tried to remedy that by rushing through emergency legislation, but opposition parties say they are unlikely to support the new bill and getting it through parliament could take time.
Liberal Party chairman Jakob Ellemann-Jensen called it “shocking” and criticised a lack of transparency. Compensation for farmers should have been in place first, he said. Even parties allied to the government have called for an investigation.
“Mistakes have been made,” said Mogens Jensen, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. “But that does not change the fact that there is a great risk of having mink breeding in Denmark under corona.”
Farmers were recently sent papers telling them to cull their herds by 16 November but some have refused to co-operate.
But Martin From says with coronavirus spreading between farms he cannot afford to wait. “We are just carrying on. it makes no difference.”
Is this the end of the mink business in Denmark?
Denmark is home to more than 1,000 farms, so the head of trade body Kopenhagen Fur has termed the nationwide cull a disaster.
“It is a de facto permanent closure and liquidation of the fur industry,” said its chairman, Tage Pedersen, who predicted 6,000 jobs could be affected.
The industry had a reported turnover of almost $1bn (£750m) in 2018-19. Furs are sold to the garment industry but also used in some false eyelash products. China and Hong Kong in particular provide the biggest market.
Coronavirus outbreaks have already spelled the end of the mink industry in the Netherlands. The UK and Austria banned fur production years ago, Germany has phased it out and Belgium, France and Norway plan to as well.
Across Europe there are some 4,350 mink farms, with Poland, Finland, Lithuania and Greece also part of the sector.
Industry group Fur Europe insists demand for natural fur is still strong. “The market has already reacted to next year’s reduced supply with higher pelt prices,” it told the BBC.
But Danish animal rights groups believe it is time to follow the example of other European countries and phase out the trade completely.
“It’s highly unacceptable to treat animals the way that mink are treated in the industry,” says Birgitte Iversen Damm of Animal Protection Denmark.
Tell the Danish Government to shut down fur farming:
Five mutations of the novel coronavirus have been found in minks on Danish fur farms and have spread to over 200 humans since June 2020, and the latest one may be resistant to a vaccine, prompting a proposal by Danish officials to cull all minks on fur farms. An outbreak of this strain could have “devastating consequences” worldwide.
Pfizer’s CEO cashed out 60% of his stock on the same day the company unveiled the results of its COVID-19 vaccine trial | Markets Insider
Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla sold 62% of his stock in the company on the same day the drugmaker announced the results of its COVID-19 vaccine trial.
Bourla sold $5.6 million in stock on Monday as part of a predetermined trading plan adopted on August 19.
His stock sale was carried out at $41.94 a share. The 52-week-high for Pfizer stock is $41.99, which means the CEO cashed out his shares close to their highest this year.
Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are the first to post positive results from pivotal COVID-19 vaccine trials.
“Man worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping.” Hubert Reeves
Banks Facing Calls To ‘Stop Funding Factory Farming’ To Protect Animals, The Planet, And Public Health
The livestock sector is not on the radar of many development banks when it comes to reducing emissions despite being such a large contributor
Development banks are facing calls to stop funding factory farming, which is playing a significant role in existential crises facing humanity including the climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and antibiotic resistance.
This is the message coming from Sinergia Animal, an international animal protection organization set up to ‘end the worst practices of industrial animal agriculture’. It works in countries of the Global South – Southeast Asia and Latin America.
The organization has scored some significant victories for animals. In addition, it was recognized as one of the most effective animal protection NGOs in the world by Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) in 2018 after just over a year of work. It retained this recognition in 2019.
Animal agriculture
Sinergia Animal points out that factory farming is responsible for significant Amazon deforestation as well as 14.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The dirty and inhumane conditions in which industrially-farmed animals are kept cause tremendous animal suffering and are a major risk for the transmission of new zoonotic diseases similar to COVID-19.
Another public health threat in which animal farming plays a significant role is antibiotic resistance. According to the WHO, the ‘high volume of antibiotics in food-producing animals contributes to the development of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, particularly in settings of intensive animal production’.
Despite intensive animal farming being a major factor in these existential threats, money – to the tune of billions of dollars – has been poured into the sector by development banks.
Development banks
The role of development banks is to invest medium and long-term capital into industries in poorer countries in a bid to boost economic growth. What many may be troubled to learn is that taxes fund development banks.
Two of the world’s biggest development banks are the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Despite pledging to tackle climate change, both have pumped billions of dollars into animal agriculture over the last decade.
They have invested $2.6bn (£2.1bn) into beef, pig, and poultry farming, as well as dairy production and abattoirs between them. This is in the last decade alone.
Development banks
This support goes against what these institutions should do, says Sinergia Animal. “A development bank’s mission should be to support the sustainable development of a country or a region,” spokesperson Carolina Galvani told Plant Based News.
“It does this with taxpayers’ money. Therefore, the projects, companies, and activities they finance should benefit the common good. Therefore, development banks should refrain from financing activities that hamper the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals and the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
“Industrial livestock is such a sector. This is due to its contribution to deforestation, GHG emissions, and pollution. And that’s not all. Other issues include zoonotic diseases, antibiotic resistance, unhealthy diets, and employees’ exposure to bad working conditions.
“Moreover, it also causes immense animal suffering. Development banks should support countries in developing sustainable and fair food production systems, instead of financing intensive livestock projects.”
‘Crazily disjointed’
Sinergia Animal is not alone in its condemnation of these investments. Jeremy Coller is the head of investment firm Coller Capital and founder of responsible finance network FAIRR.
Coller has described the investment of public funds into intensive animal agriculture by these banks as ‘crazily disjointed and inconsistent’. This is because intensive agriculture is ‘one of the world’s highest-emitting industries’.
On the issue of the money coming from public funds, Sinergia Animal says: “Many taxpayers might not be so aware of the impacts of the industrial livestock sector. Still, in general, taxpayers would like their tax money to be invested in genuinely sustainable projects that benefit the common good and not in projects that benefit only a few corporations and contribute to many problems.”
‘A radical shift’
So how are development banks able to get away with pumping cash into these operations when they are so harmful?
Sinergia Animal puts it down to a lack of knowledge. Galvani said: “For many banks, the livestock sector is still not really on their radar. They think about energy and transport when they think about reducing emissions, but not about livestock. This is strange, considering it is such a large contributor to GHG emissions.”
She added that while development banks have ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) policies in place, these are ‘narrow-focused’. And, they only look at the impacts of individual projects. This means as long as these respect certain impact limits, and certain GHG emissions, banks are able to finance them.
“But looking at projects at an individual level does not show the full picture,” said Galvani. “To meet the Paris Agreement’s goals and the SDGs, the world needs a radical shift in how it produces food. And it should be the role of a development bank to help countries, especially the ones from the Global South ones, to achieve this shift.”
World Animals Voice 