Reproduced from ‘Metro’, London. To read the full article and see all the photographs, please click on the link above.
WAV Comment – We shed no tears, apart from those for the millions of innocent animals that have been obliterated by the wrongdoings of man (called the Australian Government) once again. It is pretty clear from what has happened that PM Scott Morrison and ‘Environment’ Minister Sussan Ley have just sucked up to destructive industry for years whilst failing to listen to the environmentalists. Now they pay the price. These 2 people should have been the first to be destroyed in the flames; idiots who by their ignoramus attitudes are now responsible for obliterating entire species from the face of the planet. They are the government so called ‘environmentalists’ who have provided extinction for species rather than working to protect them. And still they will probably gripe that it has nothing to do with global warming !
In our opinion; it is a kind of ‘Karma’ time by the animals. Fools like Morrison have supported the live export industry; now the animals have gone, been destroyed and hopefully put the final nail in the coffin of this business. Morrison and Ley have got everything they deserve; their self opiniated importance is now charred and mixing with the burnt out embers of their country.
We have no feelings for them, apart from saying that they ignored the evidence, and now everyone else is paying the price. They must go to a burned out bare patch of land in the bush with nothing to eat or drink – they deserve no better ! – WAV
Bet these clowns are not laughing now !
The ‘Symbol’ of Australia stands amongst the ignorance of the human government
Nearly 500,000,000 animals have been killed in Australia’s wildfires
Almost half a billion animals have been killed in Australia’s raging wildfires with fears entire species may have been wiped out.
Ecologists from the University of Sydney now estimate 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been lost since September with the figure likely to continue to soar.
Harrowing pictures and videos have captured kangaroos desperately attempting to flee great walls of flames while rescue teams have been met by the charred bodies of thousands of koalas.
Others reported seeing cockatoos falling dead out of trees and farmers have fled only to return to their burned land and find it littered with the bodies of livestock.
Koalas have been among the hardest hit of Australia’s native animals because they are slow moving and only eat leaves from the eucalyptus tree, which are filled with oil, making them highly flammable. Up to 8000 of the animals — a third of the entire koala population of the NSW mid-north coast — are believed to have been killed in less than four months.
Nature Conservation Council ecologist Mark Graham told the Australian parliament that the fires have burned ‘so hot and so fast’ that there has been ‘significant mortality’ of animals, particularly in trees.
Stand Up for Nature, an alliance of 13 organisations, is calling for an immediate halt on logging of native forests in NSW until the impacts of the catastrophic bushfires on species and habitat are understood. In an open letter, it warned that the impact of the fires is ‘extreme and ongoing’ and the scale of the loss will ‘probably never be known’ but will certainly be in the millions.
The alliance acknowledged a moratorium could have impacts on native forest timber industry workers and have called on the government to support them in the meantime.
Ley – You can cry – down in history now as an ignoramus responsible for species extinction !
Environment Minister Sussan Ley said true animal death figures would not be known until ‘the fires have calmed down and a proper assessment can be made’.
Well here we are again drawing this time to the end of another decade – and despite all the bad issues that we have shown on the site; after all, that is what we exist for; to inform people about the bad stuff; with the hope of change; looking back it has also been a very productive year in 2019 for the welfare of animals.
Looking back; the recent disaster at Midia which took the lives of so many innocent sheep is one issue that I cannot forget. The authorities want us to, but after many years involved with live export; it is an issue very much engrained in my ‘system’; I hate it and will forever fight to stop it; all the way to the grave.
Animal Aid Unlimited in India are an organisation that I have so much respect for. Where do you start with them ?
23,550 calls requesting help for sick or injured animals in Udaipur. Each year more and more people in the city are becoming aware that they can do something when they see an injured animal, by a simple call for help, they are making their first step into becoming an animal protector.
9,384 animals were admitted in Animal Aid’s hospital to receive life-saving medical treatments for serious injuries and illnesses. About 26 new patients were taken in each day. We attempt to cover many of the stories here on WAV; just type in ‘Animal Aid Unlimited’ into the search box to get links to all the past videos.
In addition to the work back at base, AAU also provided 1,092 street treatments for animals who did not require full hospitalization. 1,317 dogs were spayed and neutered once they healed from their injuries. 3,728 incredible volunteers and visitors enriched the lives of animals, many of whom served the animals more than 2 weeks!
AAU also vaccinated 8,266 dogs against rabies both in their hospital and also directly on the street. Finally, 40 animal activists from across India have learned first aid principles and techniques from the intensive AAU First Aid Training Program.
Now that is something to be proud of, and we wish Erika and all the crew there an even better 2020 with their work.
Bloodbath
Also, 2019 can be viewed as the year in England when the Hunting Act of 2004 was given long term protection and we will never legally return to the old days of wild animals being hunted to death by those with nothing more than a ‘bloodbath’ blood lust.
We must never forget Jill and the team at ‘Animals Asia; – it is probably best that we give their link as so many positives are covered. https://www.animalsasia.org/uk/our-work/ – with the young and a new positive view on how animals should be treated, we look forward to the day when bear bile farming and the dog meat trade in the Far East are confined as atrocities carried out in past times – rightly in history books where they belong.
The destruction of the Environment is a massive concern for every one of us. The deaths and suffering that is going on in Australia at this very moment, combined with recent events in Amazonia largely to increase space for cattle grazing at the cost of the indigenous peoples only shows that those in power there have one thing on their mind, and nothing else; and that is called ‘money’.
Circuses and sea life centres are really being shunned by the educated public now; and we very much welcome that. It is fantastic to see that some dolphins are even being returned to purpose built sanctuaries for them; where they can once again return to the type of lives that were cruelly taken from them in the past.
Turning to Serbia; it has been a positive year with regard the fur industry. We personally worked with the team at ‘Respect for Animals’ http://www.respectforanimals.org/ in England, and with Slavica and Serbian activists, supplying lots of information and undertaking lots of research which led to getting the fur farming ban introduced at the start of 2019; saving tens of thousands of Chinchilla in the process – http://www.respectforanimals.org/serbian-fur-farming-ban-comes-into-force/
Chinchilla – Saved by the Ban.
In the United States, there have been some really positive moves; and we thank all our US visitors for the work they have done behind the scenes. California has become the first US state to ban the sale of animal fur products http://www.respectforanimals.org/history-made-as-california-fur-ban-becomes-law/ The new legislation, AB44, bans the manufacture and sale of new fur products across the state and is already considered to be the most ground-breaking moment for the anti-fur campaign for many years. We hope and look forward to other states following the example of California.
Staying in the USA, we have seen a lot of positives with regard ‘killing contests’ – where animals are deliberately killed for prizes etc. In recent months we have seen bans introduced in Massachusetts, Arizona, as well as Coyote killing contests in New Mexico.
Food has been a big issue in America; with many major food chains now providing plant based options as part of the menu. This is great news and reflects the huge amount of people that have decided to change to a plant based diet, thus contributing to cutting down on global warming which is an intrinsic part of the meat production system; and which is very much responsible for some of the huge fires that we have witnessed this year in Amazonia due to forest clearance to make more grazing area for meat cattle. Many of America’s largest food chains have now moved to producing Vegan foods for consumers as part of their range – https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/03/20/usa-americas-biggest-food-companies-are-moving-to-meatless/ .
We thank Stacey at Our Compass https://our-compass.org/ for working with us, and giving links to many issues and videos associated with a meat free Vegan diet. Thanks Stacey; and keep up the great work !
We also say “thank” to our companion commentator Slavica; under the name “eparslavicaepar”, (we know who she is) for the faithful accompaniment (almost) for each article. Comments are a strengthening of our work, even if they are critical!
Whizzing over to South Korea, we wants to give thanks and credit to Korean Dogs.org https://koreandogs.org/ for all their tireless work aimed at stopping the live dog and cat meat trade. On the site given, you can find endless ways to give your support to their work, and we encourage you strongly to do that.
Back here in England, we need to highlight the huge amount of work being done by CIWF all over the world on so many different farm animal issues; https://www.ciwf.org.uk/our-campaigns/ from the ban the cages campaign in Europe, through to helping pig producers in China to be more animal welfare considerate and change (improve) their methods of farm animal husbandry.
All in all; we have just skimmed the surface of what has been a very positive and productive year (in 2019) aiming at helping animals across the world. We cannot cover everything as it would take far too long, but we know that you, our friends and supporters are able to investigate a lot more about specific issues that may be of concern to you.
To try and give you a little assistance, we have provided on our site an A to Z listing of major animal welfare organisations, complete with their web site links, in order that you can hopefully find out a bit more much easier. Here is the link to this section:
… and for me (Mark), I especially wish to give support to free Tibet from the current rule of China which is covered so fantastically by London based ‘Free Tibet’ – https://www.freetibet.org/
Be a voice and fight the fight – results are never immediate and campaigns can take a long time to win – just look at the League Against Cruel Sports (London) – formed in 1924; but it was not until 2004 that they managed to get Hunting with dogs stopped for wild animals – https://www.league.org.uk/about-us
You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide !
Happy New Year for 2020 – Regards Mark and Venus xx.
In memory of 2 great campaigners against live export: Sadly Missed.
Police say a grinch, or grinches, made off with 130 pigs from a southern Ontario farm in November.
According to an OPP release, police received a report about 130 pigs stolen from a farm in South-West Oxford Township on Thursday at 7:30 a.m.
The six-month old pigs weigh approximately 300 pounds each.
Police believe that the thefts took place between Nov. 9, 2019 and Nov. 29, 2019.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Oxford County OPP at 1-888-310-1122. To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or www.oxfordcrimestoppers.com, through which you may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000.
Multinational coffee company Dunkin’ just announced a rollout of the Beyond Sausage Sandwich to more than 9,000 U.S. locations on November 6! Hungry patrons will be able to veganize the sandwich by ordering the sausage on an English muffin without cheese or egg.
We are extremely proud of our partnership with Beyond Meat and thrilled to be the first U.S. quick-service restaurant to offer Beyond Breakfast Sausage nationwide. Dunkin’ is the brand that democratizes trends for America, and this latest addition to our menu gives consumers more choice to meet their evolving needs. As we continue to transform our brand, we’re proud to use our platform to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy the great taste and benefits of plant-based protein.
Beyond Meat seemed equally thrilled with the partnership. Founder and CEO Ethan Brown said in a statement:
We’re excited to introduce the Beyond Sausage Sandwich nationwide and in doing so, offer an option with fewer calories, less total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, while delivering more protein and iron than a comparable pork sausage sandwich. We are excited that everyone who runs on Dunkin’ now has the option to make a delicious plant-based sausage sandwich part of their day.
As the world’s appetite for plant-based meat grows, huge companies like Dunkin’ are taking notice. McDonald’s, the largest restaurant company in the United States by sales, just partnered with Beyond Meat to start testing a plant-based burger in 28 restaurants in Ontario, Canada. In August, Kentucky Fried Chicken tested Beyond Meat fried chicken in Atlanta, even painting the restaurant green in honor of the launch.
With more and more companies adopting plant-based meals, it’s never been a better time for you to do the same. For delicious meal ideas and recipes, order a FREE Vegetarian Starter Guide today.
Lesley is a personal friend and we have worked together on live export issues in the past.
Here is her Christmas message about the great work she has been doing (at Eyes on Animals – Netherlands) for animal welfare in Turkey;
Regards Mark (WAV)
Dear donors and friends,
I am writing from the airport in Istanbul, about to fly back home. I hope you don’t mind that I will only write in English.
Five years ago we started our project in Turkey to change the way animals were being treated inside slaughterhouses. Since then we have visited many slaughterhouses and witnessed unspeakable horrors. I am often asked how we do this work, facing such animal suffering. The answer is that we care too much to be able to now look away. Focusing on achieving results keeps us driven.
In 2019 we achieved a major breakthrough in Turkey. Who could have thought that two cattle slaughterhouses would now be stunning animals before slaughter? Who could have thought that we could now import captive bolt stunning pistols into Turkey? Putting stunning into practice in Turkey was a major step, and the most challenging one.
It took dozens of meetings with religious authorities, giving numerous talks at Turkish universities and to officials of the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture, editing hours of film material, visiting and inspecting Turkish slaughterhouses and educating their employees as well as organizing conferences for Turkish veterinarians and butchers. Now that the first major step has been taken, we just have to keep the ball rolling. In 2020, this will be one of our top priorities.
When I think back to the horrors of my first visit of a cattle slaughterhouse in Turkey in 2014, where French cattle were being chained by one leg, hoisted fully off the floor and left hanging like that for up to 2 minutes before having their throats cut open, I am so relieved to now know that change is possible.
Looking back at 2019
This year was a busy and intense year. Aside from Turkey, we were active in many other places to improve animal welfare and decrease suffering.
In Ghana, together with WACPAW, we improved conditions inside 5 slaughterhouses by teaching the butchers how to use a captive bolt pistol and giving them one. In Poland we trained over 80 Official Road Inspectors and stopped and fined dozens of animals trucks together.
In the Netherlands several major pig slaughterhouses invested in new equipment (industrial fans and roofed parking areas with shade) to help tackle heat stress in the summer. Two major egg companies in The Netherlands have fully abandoned the brutal commercial way of catching “spent” laying hens and switched over to the EonA upright method and now a UK company is also interested in it (we will be meeting with them in January).
Together with the French organization L214 we exposed the horrible cruelty in the trade of unweaned calves from Ireland via French control posts to veal farms in the Netherlands. One of the employees in France was prosecuted and the story got in major international press. Our inspections were reported in Le Monde, Le Parisien, Het Parool, de Volkskrant, BBC World, The Guardian, the Irish Times, NPO Radio 1 and more.
THANK YOU!
Dear donor, your generous support have made the improvements for all these animals possible. Thank you for believing in our efforts and for being patient with us. Your support gives me and my team the opportunity to spend our time and energy into what we all hold as being so important – to make this world a gentler place for animals.
We still do hope for a day when society peacefully switches over to an agricultural system not dependent on killing animals, but as long as there are animals inside barren barns, overcrowded trucks or frightening slaughterhouses, we will do our very best to make sure animal-suffering is noticed and decreased.
On behalf of everyone at Eyes on Animals, I wish you a joyous and peaceful winter holiday season.
On behalf of myself, I wish all of the hard-working volunteers and freelancers of Eyes on Animals a time to rest and look back on the achievements.
With warm wishes from us all at the Eyes on Animals office in Amsterdam,
Well better late than never – the UK Royal Family are watched and followed across the world; especially in the USA; so any progress to stop the wearing of fur is good news as far as we are concerned. Hopefully will influence many others around the globe that Fur Is Out !
For all the great news from Respect for Animals, please visit their web site by clicking on:
The Queen of England Goes Fur Free In Future Clothing Lines.
One will not wear fur
–Queen’s new outfits will now be fur free Respect for Animals has welcomed the news that the Queen will no longer be wearing fur in her new outfits. Her personal adviser and senior dresser Angela Kelly wrote in her new memoir that Her Majesty will only wear fur-free new items for engagements due to changing attitudes in the country. Any outfits designed for the Queen now will use fake fur
–Queen’s new outfits will now be fur free
Respect for Animals has welcomed the news that the Queen will no longer be wearing fur in her new outfits.
Her personal adviser and senior dresser Angela Kelly wrote in her new memoir that Her Majesty will only wear fur-free new items for engagements due to changing attitudes in the country.
Any outfits designed for the Queen now will use fake fur instead.
In her book, titled The Other Side Of The Coin: The Queen, The Dresser And The Wardrobe, Ms Kelly says a coat worn by the Queen in Slovakia in 2008 has since been altered.
The coat’s trim, which originally used mink fur, has been replaced with fake fur.
However, this is likely to be an exception, as reports now suggest that fur on current clothing will not be replaced, and the Queen will continue to re-wear existing outfits in her wardrobe.
LISTEN: Respect for Animals Campaigns Director, Mark Glover, discusses the Queen’s shift away from real fur on Talk Radio’s Breakfast Show with Julia Hartley-Brewer: https://talkradio.co.uk/radio/listen-again/1573021800# (from around 20:00 in the 09:30-10:00
For all the great news from Respect for Animals, please visit their web site by clicking on:
… has so many churches and so many Christmas decorations and so many people that claim to be Christians, and yet so much unnecessary horrific animal cruelty and no complaint of it, or effort to do anything to stop it …
The Letter to the Editor that follows this Introduction was written by Shane Zoglman and published Nov. 20, 2019 by The Dubois County Herald in Indiana, a mid-Western state with a large poultry and egg industry. In granting permission to UPC to share his letter with our readers, Shane added some information about his own evolution:
Howdy, sure, post away. For some history, back when I was a teenager, and didn’t have any good examples or guidance in the form of grownups, I worked for about 4 years on a chicken farm, that is, an egg farm, gathering eggs from the mega-sized houses, taking out the dead and crippled chickens and also taking out the old ones, loading them on semis and putting the new young birds in the cages.
I also did a few part-time jobs of working for a farm where I helped load turkeys into the semis. I have to say I didn’t think about the animals’ suffering, it just didn’t enter my mind. So I am someone who has seen both sides and has changed a lot over the years. The thing I do not understand is people that never wake up. I think a big help in my waking up to animal cruelty was stumbling onto the Shark Online YouTube channel years ago. I had been to a couple rodeos as a kid, but again, never was aware of the cruelty as I see it now after seeing their videos of rodeo cruelty.
These days I do not buy guns and ammo to kill animals with. I buy binoculars to enjoy watching them with, and instead of putting effort into killing, I put effort and money into taking in animals (who) need a home as well as trying to spread some of the message in my own way that things need to change.
– Shane Zoglman
The following is Shane’s letter in The Dubois County Herald, Nov. 20, 2019:
Well, it is wintertime in Dubois County again, and once again the turkey manufacturing industry has done nothing to alleviate the suffering of turkeys being trucked down the highways at night in open cages, going 60-mph with no protection from the horrific freezing cold.
The profiteers of the turkey manufacturing industry cannot be bothered to spend a few bucks to lessen the cruelty they inflict on their product. After all, a healthy profit margin is what life is all about, right?
After their freezing cold, 18-wheeled torture trip, many of the turkeys are thrown still alive into boiling hot water. Then they are sold and shipped to China, where most turkeys “manufactured” in America end up. It’s so great that China gets the food and people in Dubois County get the pollution, the stink and the humanity-degrading, low-paying jobs of inflicting cruelty on animals while a few rich people at the top get the money.
What does it say that Dubois County has so many churches and so many Christmas decorations and so many people that claim to be Christians and yet so much unnecessary horrific animal cruelty and no complaint of it, or effort to do anything to stop it?
You cannot look at humans in middle America and convince me that monsters do not exist. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
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WAV Comment – I have been more than pleased to be a member / supporter / donator to SPANA over many years, because they really are the FREE TO PEOPLETHAT NEED A lifeline to helping sick, badly treated and ill working animals in places where ‘normal’ vets would not go. Free service to people with the working animals paid for by members and supporters. Combined with their education programme to teach young kids about animal welfare; they really are making strides in some of the most remote and underprivileged places on the planet. Please watch the uplifting videos of their work and become a member / supporter if you can.
This year we’ve been able to treat over 300,000 animals, train more than 50,000 animal owners and teach over 92,000 children about animal welfare. None of this would have been possible without your incredible and generous support. Thank you!
We’re incredibly proud of everything we’ve achieved this year and we’d love for you to click the button below to watch our latest video highlighting our work.
Thanks to you, we’ve had a fantastic 2019 helping working animals all over the world, and we’re determined to make a huge difference in 2020. From everyone at SPANA, we hope you have a lovely Christmas, and a happy New Year!
World Animals Voice 