Category: Farm Animals

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

USA: Iowa State Finally Sees Sense And Strikes Down ‘Ag Gag’ Law. Animal Cruelty Investigators Can Now Do Their Work.

 

USA-Flagge

 

Iowa “Ag Gag” Law Criminalizing Undercover Animal Cruelty Investigations Struck Down

Posted by Kristen Arnim | January 14, 2019

 

 WAV statement-

All photographs are not associated with the article – they are publicly available via Google  “no copyright infringement is intended”

Animals in Iowa just got a little safer.

A law was struck down that would have made it illegal for a person to get a job at a livestock farm, slaughterhouse, or puppy mill with the purpose of conducting an undercover investigation on animal welfare, environmental health and safety, or working conditions. A person doing this type of work could have faced up to two years of jail time.

This “ag gag” law was passed in 2012 and supported by the livestock industry. A federal judge found the law violated the First Amendment right to free speech.

ag gag 1

Challengers to the the law were the ACLU of Iowa, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, PETA, and Bailing out Benji, as well as others.

Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for the ACLU of Iowa, said, “Ag gag clearly is a violation of Iowans’ First Amendment rights to free speech. It has effectively silenced advocates and ensured that animal cruelty, unsafe food safety practices, environmental hazards, and inhumane working conditions go unreported for years.”

Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells said in a statement, “Ag-Gag laws are a pernicious attempt by animal exploitation industries to hide some of the worst forms of animal abuse in the United States.”

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Since the law went into effect in 2012, no undercover investigations have been conducted. However, investigations in the past have revealed Iowa workers throwing piglets onto a concrete floor and beating pigs with iron rods.

Ag gag laws inhibit not only journalists and activists from conducting investigations, but also prevent other employees from reporting code violations, pollution, and cruelty.

The Iowa Attorney General’s office stated it is considering whether or not to appeal the decision. The Iowa Pork Producers Association said they would continue to fight, feeling the need to protect their production from those who would reveal what really goes on.

ag gag 3

Laws in other states banning undercover work for animal cruelty have also been stuck down. Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming all passed similar legislation that failed to stand up in federal court. North Carolina is currently defending yet another attempt to stifle activists’ work for animals.

But the precedent has been set that undercover work is legally protected, and as ag gag laws fail in court again and again the hope is that the livestock industry will no longer be able to use this type of legislation to prevent the truth about conditions to get out.

Although this doesn’t end the suffering of the thousands of animals suffering in factory farms and puppy mills right now, it is a positive step moving forward. Those with the best interest of animals, the environment, and communities at heart have the ability to bring transparency and awareness in the future.

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Farm Animals, General News

USA: Dairy Farm Burns Calves’ Heads Without Painkiller – Take Action !

USA-Flagge

 

 

A breaking PETA eyewitness exposé of Heifer Solutions, LLC, a Porterfield, Wisconsin, facility that keeps and raises approximately 1,000 calves and heifers for various dairy farms, reveals that hot irons were used to burn sensitive tissue off calves’ heads—without any anesthetics or pain relief.

As you can see in the video footage, the calves kicked and cried out in agony as they attempted to pull their heads away from the hot irons and escape the metal restraints.

In December 2018, a PETA eyewitness documented an extremely painful procedure known as “disbudding,” in which a worker burns the highly sensitive horn-producing cells off calves’ heads.

The animals struggled and bellowed in obvious distress as they attempted to pull their heads away from the hot iron and escape the metal restraints.

The third-degree burns that are incurred can cause pain for weeks.

The worker said that providing the calves with local anesthetics before burning them would make the disbudding “a lot easier, but where’s the fun in that?” He even said that keeping the hot iron pressed against the calves’ heads as they jumped around and kicked made the process “more exciting” to him.

Veterinary and dairy industry experts agree on the need for pain relief before and after this agonizing mutilation. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) agrees that disbudding is “quite painful” and that “[m]inimizing pain associated with disbudding … is important.”

One veterinarian who reviewed the footage, said, “The calves in these scenes struggle violently … in a manner indicative of extreme distress, pain, and suffering. In my professional opinion, disbudding a calf without adequate anesthesia or pain relief is cruel and causes unnecessary and excessive pain and suffering” [emphasis in original].

Experts also point out that because horn buds grow and attach to the skull at about 8 weeks of age, disbudding after that point can cause holes in the sinuses and subsequent bleeding and infection. The worker said that one of the approximately 12-week-old calves he burned had “bigger” horn buds, which he said made the torturous process take even longer.

Another veterinarian who reviewed the footage said, “[T]hese calves suffered extreme forms of pain and distress” [emphasis in original].

PETA has submitted its evidence to the Marinette County, Wisconsin, sheriff and requested a criminal investigation.
Take Action – https://support.peta.org/page/8773/action/1?ea.url.id=183515

 

Smoke rose from their charred flesh.

The third-degree burns that they incurred from this agonizing mutilation can cause pain for weeks. The worker admitted that providing the calves with anesthetics before burning them would make the process “a lot easier, but where’s the fun in that?”

He even said that he found it “more exciting” when the calves jumped around and kicked.

Please take a moment today to tell Danone North America—the makers of Dannon Yogurt and Horizon Organic milk—to phase out cruel disbudding in its supply chain.

The most important thing that you can do to help spare calves this kind of pain and suffering is to stop buying cow’s milk and other dairy “products” and go vegan today.

Thank you for your compassion for animals and for your willingness to take action.

Sincerely yours,

Sarah Deffinger
Evidence Analyst
Cruelty Investigations Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

 

 

 

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

Global: ‘Planetary health diet’ would prevent millions of deaths a year and avoid climate change.

 

translator

New plant-focused diet would ‘transform’ planet’s future, say scientists

‘Planetary health diet’ would prevent millions of deaths a year and avoid climate change

The first science-based diet that tackles both the poor food eaten by billions of people and averts global environmental catastrophe has been devised. It requires huge cuts in red meat-eating in western countries and radical changes across the world.

sexy vegan 2

 

Read the full article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/16/new-plant-focused-diet-would-transform-planets-future-say-scientists

 

veganuary 2 sexy vegan 1

cow fart 1

Contribute to Global Warming ? – Nah, Not Me !

 

 

Farm Animals

the bio-lie

 

The bio- lie is invented by the meat and milk mafia. To calm the conscience of the population.
It is created for those  who are afraid to look at pictures.

It is for those who avoid responsibility and action against animal crime.

The meat mafia knows it and systematically tries to develop distraction strategies.
One of these is the bio-lie.
There is nowhere human slavery, so there is nowhere humane animal farms.
There is nowhere a human murder, so there is nowhere humane slaughter.
Eating meat is murder.
Eating animal products is murder.
This machine of death needs helpers, these are the carnivores.
Do not join.

Best regards, Venus

Farm Animals

Essex, UK: The suffering of turkeys in an award-winning turkey farm!

 

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The organization Animal Equality has published on 16.01.2019 a video.
It shows how the meat mafia works: with lies and deceit for the meat consumers, and with torture and suffering for the animals.

Consumers are cheated that they have animals from animal-friendly attitude on their plate, and pay accordingly expensive.
But the turkeys are kept and maltreated like the other turkeys of a non-award winning farm next door.

Eating animals is not just a crime against animals.
It is also politically wrong.
Because so cooperates the carnivore with a fascist system that uses animals as claves and consumers as useful idiots.

(It follows the translation of the video, the video is without sound):

This award winning company in Essex, UK advertises large, airy stables.
In fact, the turkeys live to a thousand, in crowded halls.

The only employment material for the animals in this barren environment is this old chair. Boredom causes the curious and the intelligent birds to pick each other.

Therefore as a precaution they are cut off sensitive beaks.

But! This painful procedure does not prevent the animals from developing aggression in such an un-natural environment.

The wounds become easily infected and usually remain untreated.

Hidden cameras show how this turkey is picked again and again for 15 hours by its conspecifics.

Lack of control by the workers means lasting pain and certain death for them. Some birds are even eaten alive by conspecifics.

The floors are littered by the bodies of those who have not survived.

The workers just let them lie between the living.

Some were eaten to the bone..

These birds had to stay in a van all night. That’s how they spent the last hours before they died.

Their lives end up like the lives of these birds from another farm nearby.

Without checking that the turkeys are dead, their bodies are torn apart.

The End.

Best regards, Venus

 

Farm Animals

There is no ethical murder!

 

switzerland

 

These images are from the slaughterhouse of Moudon in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. In this local slaughterhouse, the body parts of the slaughtered animals are supplied to companies like “HappyMeat” who claim that it is an ethical solution for consumers.

However, behind this facade hides a reality they would rather keep a secret: scared, struggling animals who try to escape, who have a will to live and want to avoid death. Even though the Swiss legislation on animal welfare is respected, the killing of individuals who have a will to live is unjustifiable.

There is no ethical murder.

Credit: https://swiss-slaughterhouses.ch

Best regards, Venus

 

 

 

 

Farm Animals, General News

England: Positive News for Badgers – The National Trust Will NOT Allow Culling On Its Land.

 

England

 

Learn a great deal more about the Badger cull in England by reading the following link data:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badger_culling_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

Badger cull: Blaming wildlife while neglecting cheap farming improvements ‘severely hampering’ bovine TB fight, review finds:

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/badger-cull-bovine-tuberculosis-tb-cow-cattle-farm-defra-bacteria-a8630511.html 

 

Finally; a positive move for Badgers who are supported on the whole by the British public; but who are unfortunately culled at present due to misinformed government and advisors.

badger artwork

The National Trust says it will NOT bow to pressure from the industry and allow badger culling to take place on its land as part of government efforts to eradicate TB.

In a statement, a National Trust spokesman said: “As a major landowner with many farming tenants, we understand how devastating an outbreak of bovine TB can be.

“That’s why it’s important for us to play our part in tackling this disease by finding a practical solution to prevent its spread among badgers, between cattle and badgers and among cattle.

“Given the evidence currently available, we don’t believe that the widespread culling of a protected species is the right approach to managing bovine TB.”

 

Read more on this story at:

https://www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/health-welfare/livestock-diseases/bovine-tb/national-trust-blocks-badger-cull-request-and-favours-vaccination

badgers north west hunt sabsbadgers this is somerset.co.uk

Farm Animals, General News, Hunting, Uncategorized

Scotland (UK): January 2019 News from ‘Onekind’.

scot

 

https://www.onekind.scot/

Dear Mark,

We’re very pleased to let you know that the Scottish Government has announced a series of animal welfare commitments this week. The Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, Mairi Gougen MSP revealed the Scottish Government will be introducing CCTV in abattoirs, strengthening the fox hunting ban, and increasing the maximum sentences for cruelty to animals. Other commitments include legislation to regulate animal sanctuaries and re-homing centres, and licensing dog, cat and rabbit breeding.

In her opening statement, Mairi Gougen MSP commended groups like OneKind for their hard work stating that she was “heartened and impressed by their commitment.” You can watch the full statement here.

 

CCTV in Slaughterhouses

Following our campaigning, we’re thrilled that the Scottish Government has committed to introducing compulsory video recording in all relevant areas of slaughterhouses in Scotland. We launched our campaign for mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses in 2016 and worked closely with Animal Aid on it. We presented a 10,000-signature petition to the Scottish Government, held a briefing event for MSPs, and our supporters responded to the government’s consultation on the issue .  This is a fantastic move, and we’d like to thank everyone who supported us on this campaign. We couldn’t have done it without you all!

 

Fox Hunting

Significantly on the issue of fox hunting, the Scottish Government will reduce the maximum number of dogs that can be used to flush a wild mammal towards a gun for shooting to two, and intends to discourage trail hunting, which is used in England as a pretext for hunting foxes.

The Scottish Government intends to implement the recommendations made by Lord Bonomy in his review of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002. These include improved definitions of hunting, removal of the word “deliberately” from the main offence, tightening up on the drafting of exceptions and reversing the burden of proof so that an individual is required to show that an exception applies.

Speaking on the announcement, OneKind’s Director Bob Elliot said:

“At first sight we welcome the reduction of the number of dogs permitted for flushing to two, but obviously we remain concerned at the proposal to license greater numbers in some cases. There will be no gain for animal welfare if this provides a new loophole for fox hunts to exploit, although we entirely accept the Minister’s intention is to prevent this happening.

“The changes will make the legislation more effective and enforceable, but ultimately we support a full ban on all use of dogs to chase and kill sentient wild mammals. We continue look forward to the proposed Member’s Bill expected from Scottish Green MSP, Alison Johnstone, and very much welcome the Minister’s acknowledgment of those proposals.”

 

Animal Welfare Commission

We’ve been pressing for the establishment of an Animal Welfare Commission for Scotland to provide expert advice on the welfare of domesticate and wild animals in Scotland, so we’re delighted that it has been announced by the Scottish Government. We expect the commission, which will be the first in the UK, to be founded on the recognition that animals are sentient beings and therefore there is a duty on the government and its agencies to pay full regard to their welfare.

Overall, we’re delighted by the commitments but of course there’s more that we want to call for. We’ll be looking for an outright ban on fox hunting and a full ban on the use of snares. We’ll also be calling for regulating on the use of animals in displays, like reindeer at Christmas, and pushing for a ban on mountain hare culling and continue to fight the welfare issues concerning the intensive farming of salmon .

Yours,

Sarah