Category: General News

Environmental, General News, Hunting

Finland proceeds with plans to kill wolves.
Photo – Act

6 January 2022

Susiryhmä

In December, the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry announced a proposal to kill 20 wolves from 4 packs outside the reindeer herding area this winter, with the supposed purpose of “regulating the growth of the wolf population, preventing damage and promoting the acceptability of the wolf”.

This proposal goes against Finland’s legal obligation to prohibit the deliberate killing of wolves as specimens of a strictly protected species listed under the Annex IV(a) of the Habitats Directive.

Members of the European Parliament from the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals recently sent a letter to Minister Jari Leppä, calling for withdrawal of the Ministry’s proposal.

File

Letter from the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals RE: Call to withdraw the proposal to kill twenty wolves698.84 KB

Our member organisation Luonto-Liiton Susiryhmä also took action to stand against the plans, highlighting the fragility of Finland’s endangered wolf population, and the public’s support for the protection of wolves.

Despite these efforts, the Finnish Ministry has not withdrawn the plans.

The actions from the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry under Minister Jari Leppä are promoting wolf persecution and conflict. The decision from the Ministry to kill 20 wolves next winter goes against EU legislation which Finland has the legal obligation to comply with. The wolf is a highly endangered and strictly protected species in Finland and according to the rulings of the CJEU, this protection applies not only in its natural habitat but also near human settlements. In this time of crisis for nature, Finland should be a role model for protecting it´s endangered species according to the law instead of focusing on finding the legal “loopholes” to make it easier to kill these animals. Quota-based wolf hunting is not a measure that promotes tolerance or coexistence with wolves, but quite the opposite. Preventing conflicts with large carnivores is possible – as shown in many European countries with much bigger wolf populations – by the effective use of preventive measures. Killing a wolf should always be an exceptional and last resort, used when no other option exists and after all other alternative means have been exhausted.

Francisco Sánchez Molina, Luonto-Liiton Susiryhmä

Eurogroup for Animals, along with Luonto-Liiton Susiryhmä, strongly condemns this action and encourages humane alternatives to be employed in order to encourage successful coexistence with large carnivores, and to protect this highly endangered species. 

Read more at source

http://www.luontoliitto.fi/susiryhma/in-english

Luonto-Liiton lausunto maa- ja metsätalousministeriön luonnokseen koskien suden…

Regards Mark

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

EU: The new Common Agricultural Policy: One small step for agriculture policy, one giant leap for animal welfare.

WAV Comment: Phil Hogan is Irish; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Hogan and has, although not legally permitted in his position as EU Commissioner, been a very vocal supporter of the Irish agriculture industry. This should not be permitted by the EU of ‘their’ Commissioners; but hey, we all know the EU and how it operates. Phil Hogan has been a big voice for Irish Agriculture and probably not much else – full stop !

5 January 2022

On 2 December, the Slovenian Minister of Infrastructure and the President of the European Parliament formally signed into law three new regulations that, taken together, form the basis of the new Common Agricultural Policy for 2023 — 2027 (and possibly beyond).

This new CAP has been derided, disparaged and denigrated by environmental groups and agricultural producers alike, and not without good cause from the former. At a time when Europe aspires to lead the world in a green revolution, we have a policy that, whilst a big improvement on the current CAP, still fails to live up to the lofty ambition of the von der Leyen Commission’s Green Deal.

In a large part, this can be blamed on the fact that the proposals were not born of the current Commission at all, but were legacies of the Juncker Commission, and in particular of an Agriculture Commissioner (Phil Hogan) who was more interested in agricultural orthodoxy than environmental originality. Blame should also be levelled at the doors of Member States. In order for any legislative package to be adopted, it needed support from a minimum of 15 countries, representing 65% of the Union’s total population. Politics is still, ultimately, the art of the possible, and sometimes there is no point in reaching for the stars when you can only get as far as the moon.

EU Ag Commissioner Phil Hogan – A Promotional Voice for Irish Agriculture.

And so to the detail. Ultimately we needed a CAP that rewards a new set of environmental and animal welfare provisions: cleaner water, better soil quality, higher biodiversity, better grazing and housing standards. Farmers are custodians of our landscape; more of them need to be encouraged to follow best practice and behave as such. We needed a shift to rewarding the outcome, not the activity. Did we get this?

Yes, and no. Voluntary coupled support, which allows Member States to target ‘aid’ to a specific agricultural sector, survives. Although capped at 13% of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (otherwise known as the “first pillar”) — i.e. those funds that go straight to farms to support their incomes — this remains to be a remnant of the original CAP that is neither just nor justifiable. The use of voluntary coupled support in 2018, for instance, totalled €3.99 billion, of which 40% went to support beef production and a further 21% to support milk production. Furthermore, new “good agricultural and environmental conditions” (known as GAECs) — standards for environmental protection which directly impact on habitat protection — were watered down by Member States and MEPs.

However, it’s also not all bad. A full 25% of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund will, for the first time, be composed of new incentives for farmers, obliging them to deliver outcomes that go above and beyond minimum requirements. Crucially, thanks to our efforts and collaboration with both European Parliamentarians and Member State diplomats, these new ‘eco-schemes’ also include measures to drive improvements in animal welfare. On top of this, the wholly discretionary European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development — the so-called “pillar II” — also remains available to improve animal welfare.

We should not underestimate the impact that these eco-schemes can have for millions of animals. For the first time in the history of the CAP, animal welfare can now be incentivised through direct payments, providing farmers with a pot of money worth over €10 billion per annum. Eco-schemes, which ultimately must be used, have already been identified as a key mechanism to enable farmers, for instance, to transition to cage-free systems. Several Member States have already identified their use to support pasture-based grazing for their cattle herds.

Indeed, under the new CAP, it is now over to Member States to make the best use of this new funding, and to ensure that animal welfare is prioritised. However, governments can no longer point fingers at Brussels and complain about a lack of funding for higher animal welfare. The money is there. Now it must be used.

The new CAP, taken as a whole, is certainly not perfect. The challenges for the next reform will be to do away with coupled support entirely, to ensure eco-schemes form the backbone of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, and to oblige all Member States to use some of the funds available to drive animal welfare forward.

However, this CAP still has the power to improve the lives of millions of animals across our European Union. It’s a big step in the right direction. We are not where we need to be yet, but we are, at least, on the right path. 

Regards Mark

Photo – Mark (WAV)

General News

Dogs and cats instead of babies – Pope Francis criticizes childless couples

From the Vatican there is sharp criticism that many couples keep dogs and cats instead of children
– “So many couples don’t have children because they don’t want one,” said Pope Francis.
– He criticized the fact that in many families pets would take the place of children.

At his first general audience in 2022, Pope Francis found clear words about the falling birth rate in Italy and general childlessness.
The decision to adopt is a commitment to the highest form of love, he said.

In his first general audience in 2022 on Boxing Day, the head of the Roman Catholic Church had already spoken of a “demographic winter” when the Italian birth rate, which had fallen again, was published.
According to media reports, the number of births in Italy has fallen by 29.8 percent since 2009.

Civilization is getting older and older and it lacks humanity because one loses the wealth of parenting, warned Francis on Wednesday.
A country without children suffers.

He is quoted as saying:
“Many couples don’t have children because they don’t want to, or they only have one because they don’t want to anymore, but they have two dogs, two cats … Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children.”

“Civilization is getting older and older and it lacks humanity because one loses the wealth of parenting”, warned Francis on Wednesday.

He understands that this would make people laugh, but “that’s the reality,” said Pope Francis.
In this context also belongs the social criticism in connection with animals, “which are received like real ‘children’ and are often treated as such”.
He also stated: “The denial of motherhood and fatherhood makes us small, it takes away humanity.”
The Catholic leader emphasized: “Having children is the fullness of a person’s life.”

“A country without children suffers”, emphasized the pontiff in his general audience: “Whoever lives and marries in the world must remember to have children”.

https://de.rt.com/europa/129403-papst-franziskus-kritisiert-kinderlose-und/

And I mean…The representative of God on earth has to define exactly in which corner of the world the population should grow.
Because a child in Europe is, because of its high consumption, much more harmful to the climate than a child who is now growing up in Kenya or Tanzania.

But … If Dad is interested in children, then we would know a better field of activity.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News

USA: Pigs To The Slaughter – What Man Will Do To Intelligent, Sentient Beings.

With thanks as always to Stacey at ‘Our Compass’ – Stacey | Our Compass (our-compass.org)

WAV Comment:  When you are in your 50’s and have been involved as an activist for a very large part of your life; you get to see and witness a lot of things.  But this has struck me as one of the most barbaric things that I have come across for a while – On April 15, 2020, four weeks after the first American city was locked down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a gruesome experiment was performed. The experimenters filled a trailer, specially fitted with heaters capable of bringing the temperatures inside to lethal levels, with pigs, and turned the heat on. The experimenters wanted to know how long it would take for the pigs to die. The answer, for some of them, was over an hour.

For the animals themselves, it resulted in what the industry deceptively calls ‘euthanasia,’ but that is, in fact, in many cases an excruciatingly slow and torturous death.

Pigs are known as the ‘horizontal man’; really because all their internal organs are located in the same place as the body of a vertical human.  Are pigs less intelligent ? – certainly not after some folk that I have met in my years – so what then is the difference in killing a trailer load of pigs to that of a trailer load of humans ?

But they are just pigs I hear some say; With IQ equal to a Fifth Grader, Are Pigs Smarter Than We Think? | Gaia

Pigs Are Intelligent, Emotional, and Cognitively Complex | Psychology Today

I will not go on – instead, I suggest you read the following and decide for yourself if these abuses of sentient beings; the horizontal man; has been, is now, and will ever acceptable by the so-called civilized society of the humankind. No, it is animal abuse, pure and simple. There are and can never be excuses such as Covid for the suffering of intelligent beings.

Mark

Comment by Stacey:

As long as people consume animals and their secretions, biologically intended for infants of the species making the breastmilk (like cows for calves, not like cows for aging humans with teeth, even human infants cannot drink cow’s milk; get weaned, people, it’s embarrassing and violently abusive), then you don’t care about animals, it’s beyond nauseating to listen to people stumble around their euphemisms desperately searching for ANY word that provides them forgiveness and only landing on, “It’s illegal to be cruel to animals/animals are killed painlessly/when it’s done humanely/…/…/…” An endless rambling litany of preposterous excuses that benefits only the species – humans – that kill non-human animals.

Killing an unwilling being is inherently, violently abusive and cruel, dancing cows in party hats going to school notwithstanding. Taking a life that is not yours to take, is inherently, violently abusive and cruel. Subjecting another being to control, confinement, violation, and deliberate butchering is inherently, violently abusive and cruel.

The thing is, I don’t get paid anything to advocate on behalf of animals. Me asking you to not cause animals harm brings me zero profit. Conversely, humans are so willfully ignorant and complicit, believing the anag charlatans who rely on anthropomorphized English-singing cows to sell you milk you don’t need but that causes the violent death of all the animals including the infants who actually DO need the milk AND their mothers but who are stolen and butchered at a young age because males are unprofitable……you’ll give THOSE PEOPLE money, the ones with the actual “agenda”.

You don’t kill those you care for about, and even if you don’t care about any animals, you still have no right or legitimate reason to kill them.

It’s like, you don’t consume animals violently, fearfully, painfully humanely-butchered because you honestly believe that NOT consuming animals is INhumane.

When did you lose your decency and empathy? SL

Continued on next page.

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Environmental, General News, Hunting

Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting (W.R.A.T.H.) – January Protests; Washington D.C., New York, Las Vegas and London. The Protests Coincide with the Safari Club Int’l Annual Conference in Las Vegas (Jan. 19th – 22nd).

Comment: Hi Mark! Hi Venus!

Happy New Year!

I am wondering if your readers know of the anti-trophy hunting protests in Washington D.C., New York, Las Vegas and London. The protests coincide with the Safari Club Int’l annual conference in Las Vegas (Jan. 19th – 22nd).

The Organizer is Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting (W.R.A.T.H.) on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/endtrophyhunting

Details on the London Rally– scheduled Jan. 19th– Noon to 3:00, before Statue of George V, Westminster. Or click this link: https://fb.me/e/3J0sg1VM4

Tamara Bedic, Esq.

Animal Rights Committee, Chair

National Lawyers Guild, NYC

Home

https://www.facebook.com/NLGNYC.Animal.Rights/

Regards Mark

General News

Murder victims unvarnished at #KFC

British woman finds fried chicken head in her meal

The head of a chicken is usually not part of the offer at KFC.

An English woman still finds one in her meal and is shocked. The fast food company apologizes – and justifies itself.

She certainly hadn’t ordered that: when an English woman reached into her fast food order from KFC at the beginning of December, she pulled out a fried chicken head in horror.
Dinner is a mess.
This literally applies to most KFC orders, but when it comes to this find, the customer actually lost her appetite.

Shortly before Christmas the Twitter handle @TakeawayTrauma shared a screenshot of the woman’s review, along with the repelling picture of the chicken head.

The woman had written in her review, “I found a fried chicken head in my hot wing meal, put me off the rest, ugh.”
The photo of her meal clearly shows the head, beak and eyes of the chicken.

The explorer Gabrielle left her rating on a delivery service.
What stands out: Despite her horror at the chicken head, which “spoiled her lust for the rest of the meal”, Gabrielle even gave the order two out of five stars.
This surprises the Twitter community and quickly reaches those responsible.

“We serve real chicken”

The British KFC representative then expressed a detailed apology under the tweet entitled “Probably the kindest two-star rating of all time”.

“We are really surprised and shocked by this photo and have this incident investigated immediately.”However, the company does not want to be ashamed:
“To be clear: We serve real chicken – and we are proud of it.” (!!)
Something like this can and will occur in rare cases despite strict controls.

For Gabrielle, the story seems to have a happy ending after all: The company contacted her and offered her one free KFC food – she agreed. While she is certainly hoping for a headless order, according to her own statement, KFC never wants to cause a “takeaway trauma” again and will soon receive top ratings from her loyal customer again.

Bon appetit then!

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/britin-findet-frittierten-huehnerkopf-im-essen-17701671.html

And I mean… Yes the chicken you eat has a head…. was even alive at some point.

And here the corpse showed his face!

“To be clear: We serve real chicken” –
And what exactly would be a fake?

KFC – we ask for clarification.

My best regards to all, Venus

Environmental, General News

Brasil: It Is Either the Amazon or Bolsonaro. There Is No Space For Both.”

General elections are scheduled to be held in Brazil on 2 October 2022 to elect the President, Vice President, and the National Congress. Elections for state Governors and Vice Governors, State Legislative Assemblies, the Federal District Legislative Chamber and the District Council of Fernando de Noronha will be held at the same time.

Brazil: Will Bolsonaro Win the 2022 Elections? | IE Insights

This article is more than 5 months old

Brazilian academics and activists issue warning amid fresh assault on environmental protections

Amazon rainforest ‘will collapse if Bolsonaro remains president’ | Amazon rainforest | The Guardian

The collapse of the Amazon rainforest is inevitable if Jair Bolsonaro remains president of Brazil, academics and environmental activists have warned amid a fresh government assault on protections for the forest.

Despite evidence that fire, drought and land clearance are pushing the Amazon towards a point of no return, they say the far-right leader is more interested in placating the powerful agribusiness lobby and tapping global markets that reward destructive behaviour.

The onslaught on forest safeguards has picked up pace. On Wednesday the lower house was due to vote on legislation that would reward land grabbers by legalising ownership of property that had been illegally invaded and cleared before 2014.

The previous day, the government shifted responsibility for forest fire satellite monitoring away from the National Institute for Space Research, a scientifically-robust organisation that had carried out the task for decades. Control has been given to the National Institute of Meteorology, which is under the influence of the agriculture ministry and the farming sector.

In the past few months, Congress has also diluted standards for environmental impact assessments and a committee has approved a bill – PL 490 – that has been described as the greatest assault on indigenous rights since the launch of the Brazilian constitution in 1988.

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Environmental, General News

Sands of time are slipping away for England’s crumbling coasts amid climate crisis.
Houses left perilously close to the cliff collapse in Mundesley
Houses left perilously close to the cliff collapse in Mundesley. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Sands of time are slipping away for England’s crumbling coasts amid climate crisis | Climate crisis | The Guardian

From a distance, the beach at Winterton-on-sea in Norfolk looks like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, with hundreds of grey bodies lying motionless across the sand. On closer inspection, it becomes clear they are not fallen soldiers but a huge colony of seals taken to the land for pupping season.

It’s an amazing annual sight that draws tourists and nature-lovers from across the country, but another process is taking place that is pushing people back – the growing threat of coastal erosion. Just along from where the armies of grey seals lay with their white pups, there used to stand the Dunes Cafe, a much-loved beach facility with a large and loyal clientele.

A year ago it was demolished to prevent its imminent collapse as a result of land lost to sea and storms. The ground where it stood is, like the cafe itself, no longer there. It’s a story of disappearance taking place all along the eastern coast of England, but particularly in East Anglia, that bulbous protrusion jutting into the North Sea.

That climate change and rising sea levels take their toll on the landscape is an old story, but one with an urgent new twist. “The sea level’s been rising since the last ice age, 20,000 years ago or so,” says Jim Hall, professor of climate and environmental risk at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. “And it’s going faster. We’re probably not seeing its effect very much yet on the coast, though we will in the future.”

Chalets teeter on the edge following tidal surges in Hemsby, Norfolk, in 2013
Chalets teeter on the edge after tidal surges in Hemsby in 2013. Photograph: Nature Photographers Ltd/Alamy

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Environmental, General News

England: We Brought The Pandemic On Ourselves – Jane Goodall Is Interviewed by Plant Based News.

In an exclusive new interview, Dame Jane Goodall sat down with Plant Based News’ own Robbie Lockie to discuss her new book. The renowned ethologist – referring to the study of animals in their natural habitat – delved into the food system, animal suffering, and hope.

Goodall penned the new release, called The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, alongside Douglas Abrams, the internationally bestselling co-author of The Book of Joy. In The Book of Hope, the pair take an intimate look at humankind’s complex relationship with planet Earth. This includes the ways in which humans have wronged the planet, but also, and importantly, the ways in which we can start making amends.

Regards Mark

General News

we are advocates of animals

Animals have no voice. They can’t ask for help.
They cannot ask for their right to freedom and self-determination.
They can’t ask for protection.
We have to be their voice.

All animals feel and think.
They feel fear and pain, joy and hope, lead a conscious life and want to grow old with their feelings and thoughts.
They have a natural right to their life and to protection from exploitation

Because Animal welfare laws determine human rights to animals, not animal rights….
…therefore, we have decided to be loyal advocates for the other animals and with the best of our knowledge and belief to stand up for their interests and only for their interests.

regards, Venus