

Viva ! Health newsletter – March 2019.
https://mailchi.mp/viva.org.uk/vivahealth-march19-newsletter?e=26c03356b8




In this emotional compilation, children desperately try to stop adults from slaughtering animals they love.
Some of the tearful kids shield or embrace the animals to protect them. One child scoops up a bird in his arms and walks away. A few brave children even take slaughtering knives away from adults about to kill a furry or feathered friend.
Some of the adults decide not to slaughter the animals, thanks to the brave children who spoke up against the cruel acts that were about to be committed. One adult asserts, “Kids are innocent and have intelligent minds. We actually shouldn’t kill [the animal].”
These intuitive children simply knew it’s wrong to kill innocent animals. Their compassion proves that sometimes, our youngest generation can be our most powerful voice.

As a reminder for all: About five months ago, undercover investigations by the organization SOKO documented the following illegal conditions in a slaughterhouse in northern Germany, Saxony: The cattle got electric shocks. They got them if they did not go to the slaughterhouse by themselves, they got them if they did not want to get up. If they could not get up at all, they put a chain around their forelegs and drag them down the trailer with a kind of winch. Calves were thrown from the trailer into the slaughterhouse. And also dead animals should have been delivered there.
Such animals, which are no longer transportable, the farmer may no longer bring to the slaughterhouse, they may not be used by the slaughterhouse itself. But the disposal of a dead farm animal costs money, the slaughterhouse may bring a few euros. Dead animals must not be brought to a slaughterhouse at all. These are cruel scenes. But what shocks even more: that’s illegal!
A cattle is pulled by cable winch from a transporter. It is a so-called downer. Thus, “spent” dairy cows from intensive farming are called.
Veterinary Officers have not intervened, when cattle trampled and bellowed because they were obviously not sufficiently stunne, and because lame and sick animals are illegally transported to slaughterhouses by cattle dealers.The responsible veterinarians looked away.

And now the reaction of “responsible” politicians!
The Lower Saxony regional chief, ( also minister of economics in Saxony), called Bernd Althusmann, did not understand the problem.
In a press statement, he speaks of the fact that the previous animal welfare measures at slaughterhouses, the animal cruelty “would not have prevented”.
Now the state should take responsibility – and not these “criminal burglars”. This is what Althusmann calls the animal rights activists who have uncovered scandals in three slaughterhouses in Lower Saxony!!
When the responsible veterinary service is confronted with the pictures from the slaughterhouse, confirmed: “The pictures show indeed serious animal protection offenses.” The prosecutor has ordered that in the factory initially no longer allowed to be slaughtered.
This mistreatment does not happen isolated. Their frequency reveals a deliberately organized system that goes far beyond the single case of this slaughterhouse. The proportion of “bad” animals here is oversized, that’s what they have purposefully operated.
And the minister Althusmann?
In his statement, he does not criticize the farmers, who wear the dairy cows so badly that they lack the strength to take a single step.
He does not criticize the transport companies, who still cart these animals into the slaughterhouses.
He also does not criticize the slaughterhouses, which slaughter the animals instead of slaughtering them in the transporter, with full awareness of chains in the slaughter room.
No!! He criminalized the animal rights activists, he calls them “criminal burglars”, without whose commitment, the slaughterhouse -for example- in Bad Iburg would not have been closed.
Actually, he should be grateful to them.
http://www.taz.de/Kommentar-Tierschuetzer-kriminalisiert/!5567495/
My comment: Who benefits from this criminal system? Lots!
The farmer gets hardly a penny for such a cow. But that’s not what it’s about. He calculates differently: for him, it counts that the animal costs nothing more – no food and no fee for the disposal of the carcass, if the cattle were killed in the yard.
Most animals are so emaciated that they hardly give more juicy steaks. These are so-called downer – “spent” dairy cows from intensive farming, who have not lived even 5 years. Their meat goes to low margins to the sausage industry, and also to the dog food.
A lot of people are making money from this illegal animal cruelty. Until a courageous group of people with civil courage documents their crime, and introduces them to the public as an illegal slaughterhouse operators.
And that the Saxon Minister Althusmann is a ridiculous puppet of the criminal agricultural lobby, we would not have known without the animal rights activists!!
My best regards, Venus


Update – Submission to Australian Government re Live Exports.

Mark, we want to thank you for speaking up for Australian sheep.
Today, we delivered our submission to the Department of Agriculture’s review into how heat stress is managed for sheep in live export.
The response to our call to support the important reforms being made through the heat stress review has been INCREDIBLE.
Over 13,000 Australians have joined our submission, on what is a fairly complex and technical issue. These reforms could not only better protect our sheep, but they could ultimately spell the end of the live sheep export industry.
It’s now almost a year after the horrific Awassi Express footage of sheep suffering on journeys to the Middle East was aired, and it’s clear that we as a community feel more strongly about this issue than ever before.
The truth is Australians don’t support live sheep export, and that’s not going to change.
THANK YOU to everyone who has added their voice to our call and made a submission to this review, not to mention the countless other actions you have taken to end the suffering of sheep in live export.

If you see real mink fur eyelashes on sale described as ‘cruelty-free’ or ‘humane’ in store or online, then please let us know.
We have registered complaints with the Advertising Standards Agency about a number of online eyelash sellers over the false description of their real mink fur eyelashes as ‘cruelty free’.
Here is an example of the type of false advertising being used:
“Our mink lashes are made from 100% natural and individually selected mink fur hairs that have been harvested by gently brushing live animals from Russia. We would like to stress that no animals are ever harmed in this process. Our mink lashes are completely cruelty free.”
We have managed to get this particular case removed, but there are still many others out there.
Let’s be clear, there is no assurance able to be given about the standards of the conditions in which the mink are kept, records of veterinary inspections or, importantly, the method of restraint when harvesting the furs that have supposedly been ‘gently brushed’ from live animals. There is no national or international certification available that objectively denotes the production of real mink fur eyelashes as cruelty free.
E mail Respect at: info@respectforanimals.org
Title your e mail – Mink Eyelash Hotline


Saga Furs, one of the most prominent bodies of the global fur trade, has recently recorded a ‘clearly negative’ operating result. According to Saga Furs latest financial statement, the company’s total sales fell by 28% on the previous year, as the price level of mink and fox skins fell by 24% and 20%respectively. World mink production is also estimated to have fallen by 20% in 2018.
Comparing the most recent financial statistics with those five years ago, Respect for Animals can reveal the extent of Saga’s problems. In the period between November 2012 to October 2013, the operating profit before taxes was 26.7 million Euros. In the period between November 2017 and October 2018 the company lost 1.7 million Euros.
In a candid revelation, the company has been forced to admit that the fur industry ‘faces image problems in the western market’.
However, parts of the financial report will sicken those who care more about animals than financial statistics. The number of pelts sold during the 12 months between November 2017 and October 2018 was over 9.3 million.
Mark Glover said: “These figures prove that the anti-fur campaign has this multi-billion dollar industry on the run. But there is no room for complacency. Tens of millions of animals are still being killed each year to meet the demands of this dreadful trade. We still have much to do.”
Confirming the financial woes of the fur trade, Kopenhagen Furs, the world’s largest fur auction house and owned by Danish fur breeders, has just ended its first auction of 2019, recording an average price of 160 Danish Kroner (£19). This suggests a serious economic outlook for the fur industry, given that skin must sell for around 300 Kroner (£35) for a fur breeder to break even.
Thank you for your support.
For the animals,
The Respect for Animals team

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The animal “staff” is used wherever the palms are too high and the work is too uneconomical or too dangerous for humans.
For macaques closely related to rhesus monkeys, the 6-hour day is worked from 7 to 10 o’clock in the morning and from 2 to 5 o’clock in the afternoon on palm trees up to 25 meters in height. There are no rewards. Not diligent are whipped in the old slave style.
First of all, the human being gains respect with the same means that a monkey-bob applies: with blows, strangulation on the collar, and threats.

He and his colleagues load hundreds of coconuts onto the trucks, which transport them from one picking location to the next. There is a lunch break when his foreman makes one, not when he wants. Work is done until five in the afternoon.

Sometimes strangers come by to watch, clap and shout. Then the foreman does not demand the same amount of work as usual.
Some even want to touch him and always, always this leash, so that he does not run away …
We are talking about the modern slaves, the macaca monkeys of Thailand.

Poachers take them away as babies from their breastfeeding mothers who are shot before. Some are also caught in the woods with nets or traps.
Their training, which often includes punches and whips, usually takes up to two years. Every command has to sit. During training and beyond, the monkeys are usually tethered or imprisoned. Sometimes they have little or no opportunity for social contact with other conspecifics. Until they learn to harvest the coconuts, sort them and put them in sacks.
The next time you use coconut milk while cooking, look at the packaging. If they come from Thailand, the nuts were probably picked by monkeys.

Harvest monkeys can hardly be ruled out safely. A guide can be the price. Monkeys are often used for cheap coconut products.
Large organic chains such as Alnatura or dennree have taken the issue seriously and exclude slave monkeys from their products.
https://attentionanimals.de/tag/kokosnuss/
My comment: This corresponds to medieval habits.
Completely devoid of rights and delivered to their fate, these monkeys, they are more like slaves on cotton fields.
And these are unfortunately not the only ones who have to provide their workforce.
I also think of other animals: donkeys as pack animals, who are fully packed and haul themselves through the streets and mountains.
Tormented elephants, whose will as a baby was violently broken, so that stupid tourists can ride on them.
Costumed and made-up monkeys as exotic fun for tourists.
Horses forced to pull carriages through the noisy city traffic to the point of complete exhaustion.
Ponies who have to turn round the day in so-called pony carousels for pleasure every day.
These are the present-day proletarians of this earth, “who have nothing to lose but their chains”.
With no hope for a revolution that would give them rights and free them from slavery.
“The proletarian is exploited. But his situation is not hopeless. He can help himself: He can look for allies, can organize himself, tells his tormentors to fight, so he has a chance to improve his situation. ” said Willi Eichler and that has come true in human animals.
Non human animals can not speak for themselves and certainly not put themselves collectively against their exploiters to defend.
They only have us.
It is all the more important that we speak for them and stand up for them.
Our solidarity is with the animals.
My Best regards, Venus

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More than 200 sheep have died after a lorry transporting the animals overturned on a road in Scotland.
The crash happened on the A76 in Dumfries and Galloway on Monday evening.
Nithsdale Police tweeted an image of the Wm Armstrong transporter on its side near Enterkinfoot.
They wrote online: “Crash happened around 10:50 PM last night (Monday 25th) near to Enterkinfoot, south of Mennock. The driver received minor injuries, however over 200 sheep onboard died. ”
The driver received only minor injuries.
The route has since reopened and officers have appealed for witnesses to the crash at around 10.50pm.

Photographs from our archive and not part of original article – WAV.
The EU Court of Justice said on Tuesday that such labelling aims to ensure products have been obtained in observance of the highest standards in animal welfare.

Paris: The European Union’s top court has ruled that the EU organic food logo cannot be used on meat derived from animals that have been slaughtered in accordance with religious rites without first being stunned.
The EU Court of Justice said on Tuesday that such labelling aims to ensure products have been obtained in observance of the highest standards in animal welfare.

The court says the stunning technique significantly reduces animal suffering
A French animal welfare association brought the case in 2012, arguing that halal beef shouldn’t be labelled organic.
The ruling states that the practice of ritual slaughter as part of which an animal may be killed without first being stunned is authorised by an exception to the general rule in the EU to ensure observance of the freedom of religion.


