I have made no changes to the text, or added any further additions; the translation is via the system, so this is directly as supplied. With the above web link, there is an ability to translate if you wish.
Regards Mark
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Dear friends,
the institutions of the European Union are also busy because of the animal inhabitants of the member states.
At the beginning of October, we informed you that the European Commission is forgetting about the promises of changes to the regulations to improve the conditions of kept and transported animals.
Later this week, we expect an important breakthrough regarding other missed regulations. Whether it will be good or bad for the animals, we will write to you.
Specifically, these are proposals for regulations on the labelling of animal foodstuffs according to the methods of animal husbandry, changes on the slaughter of animals and on the methods of animal husbandry (so-called farm animals). The last one reflects on the successful European citizens’ initiatives End the Cage Age and Fur Free Europe.
An injured white mink. The chilling exposé titled ‘This is Fur Farming in the EU’ lays bare the grim reality of fur factory farming across six EU nations
Horrifying truth of fur industry revealed in footage from largest ever undercover investigation involving dozens of farms where animals engaged in cannibalism, had limbs gnawed off and were left with maggot-infested wounds
Wounded animals can be seen battling to survive in cages. The harrowing material was captured by independent animal rights investigators in more than 100 farm visits
The horrifying truth of the fur industry has been revealed in footage from the largest ever undercover investigation on European fur farms.
The chilling exposé titled ‘This is Fur Farming in the EU’ lays bare the grim reality of fur factory farming across six EU nations.
The harrowing material, captured by independent animal rights investigators in more than 100 farm visits, shows animals including mink, foxes and raccoon dogs in disturbing conditions.
Read the full article and see video footage by clicking on the link above.
Tiger King’s Doc Antle, Owner Of Myrtle Beach Safari, Pleads Guilty To Federal Wildlife Trafficking Charges
Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, featured in the Netflix series TigerKing, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and conspiracy to launder money.
Animal welfare and environmental organisations came together on 4 November to spread awareness about the sentience of octopuses, and inhumane plans for the world’s first octopus farm.
Scientific experts and activists took to the stage to speak about magnificent, intelligent, and complex octopuses. Among these experts were Dr. Elena Lara from Compassion in World Farming and Keri Tietge from Eurogroup for Animals. This was in stark contrast to the repeated mentions of unethical farming practices, industrial-level suffering, and environmental destruction.
As summarised in our case study released earlier this year, there are numerous concerns around Nueva Pescanova’s farm. Notably, there is currently no effective method for reducing the amount of pain these animals will feel when they are killed for human consumption.
During a panel discussion with the experts, there was a lot of frustration related to one issue; why is there a lack of transparency with the local community?
The Canary Islands government has not updated the public regarding the status of Nueva Pescanova’s octopus farm
Before construction of an industrial aquaculture facility begins, there are several permit processes that must be adhered to. These processes relate to both EU and national legislation and, in theory, allow for public participation at several different stages.
In the case of Nueva Pescanova’s farm, everything has been kept quiet.
In September 2023, it was revealed that Nueva Pescanova’s simplified environmental impact assessment was denied.This means the autonomous body in charge of conducting the environmental evaluations concluded that there could be significant threats to the environment. Nueva Pescanova now must undergo the more exhaustive environmental impact assessment process.
Scientists and campaigners around the globe have already warned about the significant environmental damages that could come from this farm, but what is alarming is the lack of publicly available information about this process. The Canary Islands government is legally obligated to share notifications about such developments, which has still not happened.
This lack of transparency may be related to the suspected usage of EU public funding for the farm, which has not been disclosed by national authorities in Spain.
The EU parliamentary elections are just around the corner. It is critical for citizens to participate in order to bring voice to aquatic animals, including octopuses.
It is also clear that this new industry goes against the EU’s Strategic Aquaculture Guidelines and would exacerbate a wide range of sustainability issues. Now is the opportune time to ensure that the EU acknowledges the overwhelming scientific evidence and protects these fascinating and unique animals.
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Sounds as if they are doing all they can to stop NGO and the public from obtaining the truth – now the info is known we will have to see what happens next.
In a move that flies in the face of evidence that we must reduce industrial farming and increase plant-based diets, Italy has announced a ban on the production, sale or import of cultivated meat as well as the use of meat-related wording on labels to describe plant-based foods.
The Italian parliament passed the bill with 159 votes in favour to 53 votes against. MEPs in favour of the bill claimed it would help to protect national traditions and prevent “synthetic” foods from entering the market.
Whilst no cultivated meat is currently commercially available in the European Union, the ban is aimed at preventing novel foods from developing in the country. Breaching the law would result in a fine of up to €60,000.
As the European Commission continues to evaluate novel foods such as cultivated meat, the ban could later be challenged at EU level.
The bill also prohibits the use of meat-related wording on labels to describe plant-based foods. This will hinder producers of plant-based products with expensive re-labelling, and will prevent consumers associating the relevant language with plant-based products.
The measure is a deliberate attack on progress, preventing Italy from evolving despite the direction more and more European and non-European states are taking instead, with a significant push towards food transition. We are in front of the legalisation of an anti-scientific stance, which allows the livestock lobby to continue to exploit, violate and kill millions of animals, moreover, harming the health of all people, opposing transformation in every way.
Domiziana Illengo, LAV
The passing of this bill is a clear sign of resistance against the critically needed move towards better food systems for people, animals and the planet.
A joint team of UK and South African researchers carried out a survey on public opinion toward trophy hunting. The survey involved 1,000 people from countries that most frequently visit South Africa, both from within the African continent and overseas. It indicated universally strong opposition to the killing of South Africa’s lions for sport and revealed a desire to finance the protection of the nation’s iconic wildlife through paying a ‘lion protection fee.’
The key findings of the research revealed that 84.2% of those surveyed stated that being asked to pay an inbound tourist ‘lion protection fee’ was a ‘good’ or ‘great’ idea. The highest support was from overseas with the UK, U.S., and many European Countries in favor at92.3%. Those who live in Mozambique were in favour at 88.9%.
Viva! Campaigns has investigated another large dairy farm in Wales and sadly documented some of the worst cases of physical violence against animals we have ever seen. At the time of filming, the farm, Tafarn Y Bugail, supplied one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the UK.
The first time we entered the farm, at the dead of night, the sight of a rotting cow and four calves hit us. Their bodies had been left outside, uncovered and accessible to wild birds and animals. As we crept closer, we could see that they had been eaten down to the bone – a clear indication that these animals had been abandoned and dead for some time.
On another visit, I saw the pathetic sight of baby calves isolated in hutches. Some were less than 12 hours old. These babies had been ripped from their mothers and were confined and shivering in the bitterly cold night. They had no love, warmth, comfort or stimulation and nowhere to go. It was the middle of winter!
Inside the maternity pens, conditions were chaotic, noisy and disgusting. We were shocked to find a colony of feral cats sleeping in the straw beds. They were devouring afterbirth; it was like a scene from a horror film. The fetid stench was horrendous.
Desperate for their mothers One of the most distressing things we filmed were newborn female calves isolated from their mothers, crying out and desperately sucking our fingers for comfort.
Calf Pulling We filmed a cow having difficulty giving birth. The worker’s solution was to tie a rope to the calf’s protruding feet and forcibly haul him out, causing agony for the mother. Afterwards, the worker kicked the cow in the spine with his heel to force her to stand. Such cruelty is incomprehensible.
Repeatedly Beaten Cows were repeatedly and mercilessly beaten. We recorded one poor animal being hit harder and harder – a sickening 55 times. Other cows were subjected to being kicked in the udder and suffering blows to their legs, backs and faces.
Shocking footage shows ‘half-eaten dead cows’ at UK dairy farm
The gentle mother, who simply didn’t know what was wanted of her, was pushed around and her tail twisted. The worker became angry very quickly, hitting the cow with increasing force to make her stand in position for milking. The cow had nowhere to escape, and it was absolutely harrowing to witness her pain.
A second cow was kicked in her already swollen udder – in a final act of indignity. The violence delivered to these poor animals was the worst I have seen, with blows landing on their legs, backs and to the sides of their faces. In another instance, one of the farm workers used a knife to burst a huge abscess on a cow’s rump during milking. A stream of pus oozed onto the milking parlour floor for over three minutes.
We saw 17 cows in the parlour wearing hobbles on their back legs. These chains are to stop cows ‘doing the splits’ when they have suffered damage from birthing or falling, usually on dirty, wet floors. These sad and ill animals could barely walk. But they were still being milked.
Please donate to our campaign and you’ll be helping fund justice for these animals!
We’re organising the biggest Day of Action Against Dairy in history where we will air our hard-hitting undercover investigations that expose the truth about dairy farming. We’ll be calling on the general public to stand up against animal cruelty and choose vegan.
Help us cover every single city, town and village across the country by organising an event on your local high street. The animals need you to speak up for them! Together we can make this the biggest protest against dairy the industry has ever faced.
Mark, thank you for being a part of Viva!
Please, give what you can so we can continue to expose the vile practice of UK dairy farming and get the message out there. Any money you can donate – no matter how little – will help us in our fight against this appalling abuse of mothers and their babies.
With your help we can fight dairy consumption and its inherent cruelty.
We can’t do it without you! Yours for the animals,
The Kingdom Of Bhutan Becomes The First Country In The World To Achieve 100% Dog Sterilization & Vaccination
The Kingdom of Bhutan has become the first country in the world to declare that its entire street dog population is fully sterilized and vaccinated following years of investment in a humane dog management program with global animal charity Humane Society International (HSI).
At the formal closing ceremony of the National Dog Population Management and Rabies Control Project in the capital Thimphu, presided over by Bhutan’s Prime Minister, Dr. Lotay Tshering, the Royal Government of Bhutan announced this historic achievement for animal welfare and human health.
At the ceremony, Prime Minister Tshering presented HSI with a plaque in recognition of what he called HSI’s ‘consistent and unwavering support’ towards Bhutan’s street dog welfare success from the beginning in 2009 until its closure – thereby honoring a decade and a half of intensive, targeted spay/neuter work and community engagement initiatives carried out by Bhutan in partnership with HSI.
Since its inception, the project has successfully sterilized and vaccinated more than 150,000 street dogs and micro-chipped 32,000 pet dogs.
Back in 2005 I worked with Slavica (Serbian) to set up ‘Serbian Animals Voice’ in order to be a voice, and campaign for much better treatment of stray dogs and cats in Serbia. From the start it was difficult as we were up against a government which viewed endless killing as the only way to ‘control’ stray numbers.
This is an utterly wrong way to view stray animal management and instead we fought to have the government / regional authority ‘killing money’ redirected into covering costs for stray sterilisations, vaccinations and genera health check ups. Anyone with anything between their ears will agree that sterilised animals cannot produce more young; and that was the basis on which we fought. Their ‘final solution’ of just continually killing and doing nothing else does not reduce numbers as new animal young are being born on the streets all the time. A catch, neuter and re release scheme after vaccinations and a good health check is the only way forward to reduce stray numbers.
Sadly the Serbian government just ignored our proposals and continued with their policy of simply killing anything on the streets that they could. Killing simply creates a void in different areas into which strays will wander; looking for food and probably more dogs to reproduce with. If they are sick and have illness or disease, then they always have the chance by moving to a new area of taking ‘that’ illness into an area in which stray dogs may not have suffered from before.
Health checks, sterilisations and vaccinations against disease is the all round solution to stray dog / cat management. Killing is simply a short term ‘fix’ which may show a reduction in numbers for a few weeks; but with un-sterilised strays reproducing all the time we soon see a situation where ‘local mass killing’ returns stray numbers to what they were before, or even higher.
Serbia needs to learn stray dog management from Bhutan.
Thus to see this superb news from Bhutan is amazing – mega big well done to them for seeking and taking the right advice and way forward with stray animal management.
You can see all of our Serbian work by visiting the old site at
serbiananimalsvoice.com
Well done Bhutan; Serbia dragging years behind as always.
After years of campaigning by many animal welfare organizations, the announcement of a ban on live exports is a significant moment in the history of the animal welfare movement in the United Kingdom.
Above – more fighting at the EU, Brussels, Belgium.
The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill will prevent the horrendous shipment of calves and other farmed animals for days or even weeks on unsuitable transport vessels that have seen dreadful accidents in the past with thousands of animals dying.
Unweaned calves that were sent from the UK to Spain for fattening suffered from injury, stress, and exhaustion. Global animal welfare organization FOUR PAWS said that it would fortify its efforts to advocate in next year’s EU elections, where a revision of Animal Welfare legislation is more than overdue.
“The last few years have seen too many fatal accidents with farmed animals being transported alive with countless documented infringements against existing legislation that are not prosecuted. The suffering the animals have to endure due to excessive temperatures in cargo, nonexistent veterinary care, and a constant shortage of water and feed is unimaginable,” said Corinna Reinisch, Program Lead Farm Animal Welfare at FOUR PAWS.
“Therefore, this milestone announcement in the UK shines a light on the upcoming proposals for transport that the European Commission has announced for December of this year. Eventually, the EU Parliament and the Council of the EU have to take those proposals, which raise the significance of live animal transport forward in the upcoming EU elections in 2024,” continued Reinisch. “This strong signal shall be the door opener for an urgently needed improvement for billions of farmed animals that are transported outside the EU to third countries every year. FOUR PAWS keeps advocating for animal welfare worldwide.”
Every year, millions of cows, pigs, birds, and sheep are exported from the EU to non-EU countries. This year alone, there have been several fatal accidents with animals being transported. After a three-month ordeal through the Mediterranean Sea, around 1,600 young bulls were killed in Spain after the transport ship Elbeik was not allowed to enter the Middle East due to feared bluetongue cases among the bulls on board. Almost 900 young bullsfrom the transport vessel Karim Allah experienced the same fate some weeks earlier, and only recently, 14 sheep diedafter the Phoenix III was stuck off the Italian coast due to bad weather conditions.
I (Mark) have fought the export of live animal exports from the UK (via English ports) for around 35+ years. A ‘been there; done it; got the T shirt’ type of scenario. Over those 30 or so years the ‘fight’ has taken me into Europe investigating the trade; to the EU no good hierarchy in Brussels; and to many ports around England which, to their regret, got involved with the live export trade.
We have experienced the countless, wet; windy; cold and tearful nights at the docks; bearing witness to all the suffering – the noise of the calves having travelled from all over the UK; the smells of days old urine on the transporter floors; and the sights of helpless animals (pigs, sheep, calves and horses) through the slats on their way to meet barbaric deaths in the far corners of Europe and beyond. Yes, despite Ministry promises; horses were exported to Europe under the guise of going for riding; when in fact they were going for slaughter. How can I say this ? – one way or another I got the paperwork (export certificates) and we trailed the transporters into Europe. The Ministry said one thing; and we had the evidence for another. See more on it all at:
The corruption of the system bummed me off enough; that one night; after witnessing the horses going out through an English port; I had to get something down to show what an utter sham it was – hence:
Sometimes you worked alone; for me also, sometimes with a female campaigner; sometimes more; and I cannot even start to count all the wonderful folk that have shared this journey of compassion with me – folks who; if you need it; would give you the shirt off their back to help you out.
I lost a wonderful campaigner friend; Mike Tucker; see his photo – from London, a few years ago. He was a stalwart in the fight for the ban on live animal exports. Sadly he passed before this great news has broken today. It would have been his dream to know that this issue has now reached UK government for action; with the very real prospect of a positive result soon. Like me; the fight got deep into his veins; and the tenacity to be a voice for the suffering animals stayed with him until his final minute. You don’t forget people like him.
I can remember meeting up with him many times in Ol’ London town over the years to fight this bloody, barbaric trade in sentient beings. Despite his disability from an accident many years earlier, Mike would always dress ‘dapper’ in suit and bowler hat; and would take his bucket of water and a mop to wash the steps of the Agriculture Ministry (responsible for authorising the exports); telling them to ‘clean up’ their act and stop the trade regarding live animal transport.
The EU, for what little it is worth; has a policy of ‘member states’ never being allowed to stop the trade. With the UK sensibly voting to leave a few years ago; and our relationship with the EU hopefully coming to an end this month in 2020; the UK, as an independent nation, can now take the action to stop the live export trade; re the action starting in Parliament tomorrow (3/12/20). Things will not change overnight; we know that; but the UK government; unlike the EU; is listening to its citizens; and hopefully in the near future, will introduce legislation to stop the trade. If other member states of the EU cannot go independent and enforce their own nation legislation; then it is a sad state of affairs; especially as so many citizens of the EU (who’s wishes are ignored) wish to see the business / trade stopped for good.
Mark
Above – Livestock transporters wait at Dover harbour.
Fighting in Dover and Brussels, Belgium
Above – in all the cruelty, we had some fun nights as well- you have to !!
World Animals Voice 