Category: General News

Environmental, General News

India and its live animal markets

PETA India exposes Illegal Indian wildlife Markets, dogs sold for meat.

For Immediate Release: 19 November 2021

Contact: Hiraj Laljani; HirajL@petaindia.org
Pradeep Ranjan Doley Barman; PradeepB@petaindia.org

Guwahati – As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on and during World Vegan Month (November) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India is releasing its latest findings regarding dogs used for meat and wildlife meat markets in northeast India.

The video documentation reveals filthy conditions risking disease transmission and rampant violations of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972;
The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960; and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

The video footage is available for download upon request.

“Filthy, illegal meat markets torture animals and act as petri dishes,” says PETA India Advocacy Associate Pradeep Ranjan Doley Barman.
“PETA India is calling on officials to do a sweep and shut them down, for everyone’s sake.”

At Nute Bazaar in Manipur, the flesh of barking deer, wild boars, and frogs was illegally sold and buyers and sellers touched the charred animal parts with their bare hands.

At Senapati Bazaar, an illegally hunted deer’s severed head was passed around.
At markets in Nagaland, live eels, mice, frogs, and birds were openly sold and workers handled dead animals without wearing gloves.

Live dogs were also illegally sold for their meat – puppies were caged, and older dogs’ mouths were tied shut as they were offered for purchase and slaughter.
At Itanagar Market in Arunachal Pradesh, meat of mithun – the state animal – was openly sold.
At every market, blood, sinew, and innards were everywhere.

PETA India has sent letters to the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change regarding these markets, urging them to take action against them.

Copies of the letters are available upon request.

COVID-19 is largely believed by experts to have stemmed or spread from a live-animal meat market, and SARS, swine flu, and bird flu have also been linked to the practice of confining and killing animals for food.

Last year, PETA India also released video footage of captured dogs killed and sold for meat in Nagaland, sellers in Manipur handling the charred remains of wild animals – including monkeys, wild boars, porcupines, and deer – and other incidents at other animal markets in the country.

A team from Assam University recently found that numerous primate species are being killed in northeast India over medicinal property myths.

The next pandemic could start in India (???)

All such markets are potential breeding grounds for and opportunities to spread zoonotic diseases (diseases that jump from animals to humans).
COVID-19, H5N1 bird flu, SARS, and H1N1 swine flu are among those zoonotic diseases linked back to the treatment of animals used for food.

The only way to make these markets safe is to close them.

Blood, excrement, and other bodily fluids can easily get on sellers’ and customers’ shoes and be tracked into homes. As the video footage shows, workers who handle the animals often don’t wear protective gear.
Flies swarm around decomposing bodies, and the countertops and floors are bloodstained from slaughtering animals.

PETA India has already written to the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare; Environment, Forest and Climate Change; and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying requesting that they close these cruel and dangerous operations immediately.

https://www.petaindia.com/media/new-video-peta-india-exposes-illegal-indian-wildlife-markets-dogs-sold-for-meat/

https://www.petaindia.com/features/help-us-shut-down-disease-prone-indian-wet-markets/

And I mean…There is an opinion (including among animal rights activists) that the coronavirus originated in the wildlife markets of Wuhan, China.

It’s an opinion – it’s not yet proven. Not because it is not possible, but because these live animal markets in China and Asia have generally not existed since yesterday, and certainly not since December 2019, when the pandemic broke out.

So we do not know whether “the next pandemic could start in India” and whether closing the animal markets alone will remove this risk.

Finally, the biggest problem in fighting the pandemic is the cramped habitat of many Indians. In some large cities, a third of the population lives in slums, and up to 30 people share a toilet or bathroom.
Access to running water is very limited.

What is certain, however, is that dealing with animals in such markets is particularly cruel.
And that such markets, no matter where in the world, are places of horror for animals.
THAT is the main reason why we need to end animal markets for wild or farm animals around the world.

If we don’t stop destroying nature through factory farming, deforestation, species loss, urbanization, climate change, agribusiness and wildlife trafficking (legal and illegal), then we will not win the battle against viruses.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News

UK: No routine checkups on welfare of fish at slaughter, officials admit.

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in a salmon farm cage
Campaigners are calling for farmed fish to be given similar rights to other farmed animals. Photograph: Bluegreen Pictures/Alamy

No routine checkups on welfare of fish at slaughter, officials admit

Campaigners say fish farmed in England, Wales and Scotland face cruelty, with no penalty for those who fail to meet welfare needs

The government has admitted there are no routine checkups on fish welfare at slaughter, after an investigation found no department would take responsibility.

Campaigners have said this means fish face cruelty with no repercussions for those who fail to meet their welfare needs, and have asked that fish are given the same oversight as other farmed animals.

An undercover investigation by Animal Equality into a Scottish salmon slaughterhouse this year showed fish having their gills cut while conscious and being repeatedly and painfully clubbed, with it taking up to seven blows to stun the animals.

Campaigners said the fish faced “vicious and imprecise bludgeoning”, and many fell to the floor to suffocate. Unlike farmed land animals, which have legislation for them to be slaughtered as humanely as possible, the fish farming industry sets its own standards regarding humane slaughter.

A government spokesperson admitted that in England and Wales, there was no routine animal welfare inspection programme at farmed fish processing premises.

While they claim the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) did checkups in Scotland, freedom of information requests submitted by the Humane League to the Scottish government reveal there is no established process for regular welfare inspections at fish processing sites. The Humane League did not include Northern Ireland in the scope of its investigation.

Apha confirmed that it did not have “a routine programme of official inspections at fish processing sites”.

Scotland is the third biggest producer of farmed salmon in the world. The biggest, Norway, has a law mandating the pre-slaughter stunning of farmed fish. Scotland, England and Wales do not. The most recent estimate, from 2017, was that 22-52 million farmed salmon are farmed and slaughtered in the UK each year.

The same issue applies to trout farming in England. The trout industry has its own certification scheme, Quality Trout UK (QTUK), including standards for pre-slaughter stunning, but these are not enforced by the government and there are no routine checks.

Responses to freedom of information requests show not one public body has a clear understanding of what regime is in place, with the Food Standards Agency, the Fish Health Inspectorate, local government environmental health departments and Apha all confirming they do not conduct checks on fish farms in England. This means no government officials are monitoring fish welfare at the time of killing.

Cordelia Britton, the head of campaigns at the Humane League UK, said: “It is alarming that apparently zero government officials are inspecting fish welfare at slaughter. From our correspondence it seems clear that no relevant agency knows what’s going on, with each institution passing the buck to another. Without proper oversight, cruelty goes unnoticed. It is time for the government to take responsibility for how farmed fish are slaughtered, as they do for other farmed animals.”

Campaigners are calling for farmed fish to be given similar rights to other farmed animals. In the last few years there has been debate among scientists over the extent to which fish can feel pain, which is a growing area of research. In 2018 the science writer Ferris Jabr found that “the collective evidence is now robust enough that biologists and veterinarians increasingly accept fish pain as a reality”.

Dr Vicky Bond, the managing director of the Humane League UK, said: “Fish are often forgotten in discussions and decisions on animal welfare, and this is wholly unjustified. The scientific and public consensus is that they feel pain, so refusing farmed fish the same protections afforded to land animals is completely irrational. The government animal welfare committee suggested the law be updated with detailed stunning requirements back in 1996, and 25 years later farmed fish still have the same inadequate safeguards. This needs to change.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “The UK has some of the highest animal welfare protections in the world, including when animals are slaughtered or killed. We are carefully considering issues raised in the review of the welfare of animals at the time of killing (England) regulations, including detailed protections for the welfare of farmed fish.”

No routine checkups on welfare of fish at slaughter, officials admit | Fish | The Guardian

Guardian – England.

Regards Mark

Environmental, General News, Hunting

UK: UK Ministers Accused of ‘Dithering’ as Trophy Hunting Law Delayed Again.
A taxidermy workshop in Namibia, where animal trophies are stuffed.
A taxidermy workshop in Namibia, where animal trophies are stuffed. Photograph: Ton Koene/Alamy

UK ministers accused of ‘dithering’ as trophy hunting law delayed again

‘Animals abroad bill’ aimed at clamping down on trophy hunting and harmful animal experiences pushed back

A law that will clamp down on trophy hunting and prevent people buying harmful animal experiences such as elephant tours meant to be introduced in parliament this autumn been delayed, the Guardian has learned.

The measures should be contained in the animals abroad bill – one of several new pieces of legislation the government has planned to improve animal welfare standards.

However the start of its passage through parliament has been postponed, with ministers accused of “dithering”. The bill was first hoped to be published before the summer recess in July, but has since been pushed back repeatedly.

Frustration at the delay has further been compounded given a public consultation on restricting the import of hunting trophies closed in February 2020, and sources said it was unlikely the government’s response and the bill being published would happen before February 2022.

he hold up was blamed on the pandemic by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which said the final bill would be informed by “continued discussions” with experts.

There are understood to be technical rather than fundamental policy disagreements remaining.

Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting group, said he had been assured the bill is “still alive” but expressed concern there appeared to be “no timetable or target date for bringing it to parliament”.

He said: “The pledge has been in every Queen’s speech since 2019, the prime minister confirmed it at the dispatch box, there’s been an extended public consultation, so the question is how much longer is this going to take?

“Every week that goes by means more animals being senselessly slaughtered for a sick souvenir. There’s a feeling of deja vu among the more sceptical observers. They point to the fact that the government said it would ban lion trophies after the Cecil furore, and then quietly dropped it …

“The government has put in a lot of work to develop appealing policies on conservation and animal welfare, and deserves to get the credit for it. There’s a risk, though, that its reputation could take a hit if it’s seen to be dithering without clear cause.”

Luke Pollard, Labour’s shadow environment secretary, called the delay “another broken promise from this government” and warned it would mean more endangered lions, tigers and other precious wild animals would die.

He said ministers were “failing to deliver” having “abandoned” their initial timetable for passing the bill, and added: “Labour would consign trophy hunting to the history books.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “Our recently published action plan for animal welfare sets out the government’s vision to introduce a range of world-leading reforms to improve the welfare and conservation of animals at home and abroad.

“This year we have already introduced our animal sentience and kept animals bills to parliament and we intend to legislate further to protect animals abroad as soon as parliamentary time allows.”

UK ministers accused of ‘dithering’ as trophy hunting law delayed again | Wildlife | The Guardian

Regards Mark

General News, Hunting

Wales (UK): Wales Landowner Bans Trail Hunting After Use As Foxhunting Cover.

Dogs follow the trail of wild boar through a wooded area in south-western France.
Dogs follow the trail of wild boar through a wooded area in south-western France. Photograph: Valentine Chapuis/AFP/Getty

Wales landowner bans trail hunting after use as foxhunting cover

Natural Resources Wales says it cannot be sure trail hunting will not be used as smokescreen for illegal activity

One of the biggest landowners in Wales has banned trail hunting after a court ruled that a leading huntsman had encouraged the practice as a smokescreen for illegal foxhunting.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW), a government-sponsored body, said it could not be sure that trail hunting was not still being used as a “cover” for illegal activity so had decided to ban it completely.

The decision was welcomed by hunt saboteurs and animal rights campaigners who say the conviction in October of Mark Hankinson, the director of the Masters of the Foxhounds Association (MFHA), showed that trail hunting was a “fiction”.

Hankinson (below) was found guilty of encouraging or assisting others to commit an offence over his comments in two webinars in front of an audience of more than 100 MFHA members.

Mark Hankinson found guilty of telling others how to hunt illegally!

UK: Director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, has been charged with intentionally encouraging or assisting others to commit an offence under the Hunting Act 2004.

In trail hunting, devised after the Hunting Act banned the hunting of foxes with dogs, a “trail layer” goes out ahead of the hunt, dragging a rag coated in an animal scent. Huntsmen cast the hounds to this scent, and follow it to the end of the trail.

Dominic Driver, the head of land stewardship for NRW, said: “The outcome of the court case against a senior leader of the MFHA has resulted in a loss of confidence in the organisation’s ability to ensure its activities are carried out within the law and terms of its agreement.

“In order to assure ourselves properly that trail hunting on our estate wasn’t being used as a cover for illegal activity, we would have to invest in skills and resources that we currently don’t have, to police it properly.

“Given what has historically been a minor use of the land we manage, this does not represent good use of our limited resources. All trail hunting activity on the NRW-managed estate will end with immediate effect.”

Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, said: “The fallout from the leaked webinars continues and these landowners now realise they’ve been duped by the hunting community. It’s only a matter of time before more large landowners follow suit leading to the loss of millions of acres of land and the total demise of some hunts.”

Chris Luffingham, deputy chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “For such a major landowner like Natural Resources Wales to permanently end trail hunting on its land is hugely significant.”

The League is urging other major landowners such as Forestry England, United Utilities, the Church of England, the crown estate, the Duchy of Cornwall, local authorities, the national parks authorities, and the Ministry of Defence to permanently end hunting on their property.

NRW was formed in April 2013, largely taking over the functions of the Countryside Council for Wales, Forestry Commission Wales and the Environment Agency in Wale

Wales landowner bans trail hunting after use as foxhunting cover | Hunting | The Guardian

Regards Mark

General News, Uncategorized

England: Regular Visitor Back.

This is a regular visitor to the garden, but we were concerned as we had not seen him for a while.

Anyway, back now and looking beautiful – colours are amazing !

Had a good feed with all the other birds; I took these through the window, hence bad quality.

Welcome back my friend !¬

Regards Mark

Across the Northern hemisphere, we are heading into Winter now.  Things have been pretty mild here in the UK until the last few days, when it is noticeably colder.

But the weather has been cold and clear, so a good time for photos.  I ventured into the garden a few days back to see the amazing colours.  Here are a few shots;

Regards Mark

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

Live Animal Transport – A New Petition has Been Launched in the Czech Republic by Animal Campaigner Friends – Please Support.

WAV Comment – As many of you know. The stopping of live animal transport is one of our main issues.  It is great to see our Czech Republic friends have now set up a petition to support the stopping.  Below we have given all the links to the petition; please add your voice by supporting it.  Note – a ‘translate’ message should automatically appear when you go to the petition.

Regards Mark

Open petition to end long-distance live animal transport in Czech Republic

18 November 2021

Společnost pro zvířata

A new petition has been launched in Czech Republic by Společnost pro zvířata to demand a ban on long-distance live animal transport. They already have collected 4.000 signatures and they need to reach 10.000.

Back in June, our Member Organisation Společnost pro zvířata lit candles for the animals, victims of cruel transport practices, in front of the Czech Republic Ministry of Agriculture sending a strong message to the representatives. 

MEP Jiří Pospíšil, member of the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of animals, also sent his support and lit a candle for the animals. 

The ceremony was also an opportunity to launch a petition calling the Czech government to :

  • Ensure maximum journey times of 4 hours for chickens and 6 to 8 hours for cattle, pigs, sheep and other mammal (including waiting, loading and unloading hours),
  • Work on a strategy to shift from live transport to a trade of meat and carcasses as well as genetic material only,
  • Ensure the protection of animals at the time of slaughter or killing by enforcing mandatory stunning.

The petition is nearing its goal of achieving 10,000 signatures. 

Read more and support the petition here.

Wording:

Petition for an end to long-distance transports with animals and for the export
of meat, for the breeding and life of animals as close as possible to their place of birth

for the Government and Parliament of the Czech Republic

motto: Animals are living sentient creatures, just like we humans. They are not goods.

Therefore, we, the undersigned citizens of the Czech Republic, ask the Government and Parliament of the Czech Republic to adopt legislation and its implementation in practice, which will ensure:

  • that the animals (used for farming purposes) live and live in or near the place of birth;
  • a maximum limit of 4 h (poultry) and 6 to 8 h (bovine, pig, sheep and other mammals) for transport to slaughterhouses, fattening and rearing/rearing, without exception and including waiting, loading and unloading;
  • the replacement of long-lasting transport of animals by the transport of meat, half-carcases and other animal products;
  • the creation of economic incentive tools for the above requirements;
  • the slaughter and killing of animals at their place of birth, as quickly as possible and brought unconscious by prior stunning, without exceptions;
  • severely penalise natural and legal persons for infringements relating to the protection of animals during transport and during the slaughter/killing of animals.

Regards Mark

General News

Solidarity with the demonstrators in Austria


In Austria, the pressure on unvaccinated people is enormous.
There is a 3G rule in the workplace, a 2G rule that excludes unvaccinated people from large parts of public life, as well as a lockdown for EVERYONE from Monday!

While this measure is expected to end on December 13 for vaccinated and convalescent people, it will then continue to apply for unvaccinated people indefinitely.
After the protests against the new Corona measures in Austria, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer warned against further radicalization of the opponents.
That is his impression due to the controls of the 2G rule and incidents during the demonstration of around 40,000 people in Vienna.

around 40.000 People protest against COVID-19 measures in Vienna, Austria, on November 20, 2021. © Reuters / Leonhard Foeger

There are death threats against the Chancellor and the Minister of Health.
Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg has been compared with the concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele. Mengele had killed many Jews through medical experiments during the Nazi regime.

“Tens of thousands have taken to the streets today in one of the largest protests in the history of Vienna, Austria, after the government implemented a new COVID lockdown and became the first in the world to announce compulsory vaccination.pic.twitter.com/FFriWCZioG”
— Michael P Senger (@MichaelPSenger) November 20, 2021

https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/proteste-wien-103.html

And…I have no comment to give but I picked up a very accurate one from the enlightened press (https://qpress.de/2021/11/16/oesterreich-verschaerft-den-zwang-zur-freiwilligkeit/) in Germany.

“Greetings from the good old days.
This time you don’t even send the brown staff into the neighborhood to save the world, now you do it at home.
Austria’s Chancellor A. Schickelberg does the honors and locks away those who are symptom-free.
They are a danger to the program and since there can be no more health or immunity without the pharmaceuticals, one simply has to weed out these cross drivers.
As a test, there is initially a test inclusion or exclusion of 10 days for the unwilling.

There can be no more grace.
The police are instructed to sweep all asymptomatic healthy people who can be shown to be walking around freely without an injection or a health certificate from the street on the spot.

There were no special blocking times here, unlike in Germany back then, in order not to allow malicious comparisons to arise.
Freedom should clearly prevail here.

Paths to work and the work itself are of course approved for the lepers in order to increase the gross national product.
Leisure activities of all kinds, on the other hand, can no longer be tolerated, as the virtual viruses have been shown to be particularly virulent and dangerous in such an environment.

The reality is that seven billion people have to be injected through … voluntarily and no matter what the cost.
Austria must not be left out.
From the point of view of the Austrian government, the current measure is suitable to significantly promote this voluntariness.
And no, of course there will be no vaccination Gestapo, it is all intolerable scaremongering”.

My best regards to all, Venus

General News

Germany and the dog fight mafia

Dog fighting is a heinous crime, but when it comes to monitoring their own platform for dog fighting videos, YouTube is falling far short of its obligation.

In just a few clicks, visitors to YouTube may find instructional videos about dog fighting and hours upon hours of material related to it.

A 2021 investigation conducted by animal welfare organization Lady Freethinker found 2,053 videos that depicted animal abuse, garnering a collective 1.2 billion total views.

The videos were posted across approximately 146 channels amassing 30.8 million total subscribers, covering wildlife, companion animals, and farmed animals in categories such as animal fighting, eating animals alive, hunting animals with other animals, monkey torture, and fox-hound hunting.

The charity also found channels on YouTube hosting videos of falsified animal rescues.
The controversial videos show cats and dogs placed in contrived “dangerous” situations in the wild, such as near predators including snakes and crocodiles, only to be “saved” just in time by a human2.

“YouTube must do a better job at monitoring and removing all videos that violate its terms and standards, alerting local law enforcement to illegal content, and holding channels accountable for their actions with suspensions and terminations,” said Nina Jackel, founder and president of Lady Freethinker told the Guardian.

From April to July 2020, YouTube removed 185 of the 2,053 videos identified in Lady Freethinker’s report, but that accounts for only 136.5 million out of 1.2 billion views related to dog fighting.

Often, these disturbing content creators simply rebrand themselves under a different name and continue to upload videos to YouTube.
In bringing these facts up to the company, YouTuber Charlie White, also called penguin0, found that learned that inquiries about removing channels with alleged animal abuse were directed to a separate manual review team.

The idea that the rest of these violent videos cannot be pulled down is an egregious lie, especially a year after the platform succeeded in removing hundreds of videos showing robots battling other robots under claims that they pictured animal abuse.

YouTube should not allow these videos to be featured anywhere on the site as they only promote violence and carnage.

Sign the petition below and demand YouTube’s CEO prohibit dog fighting videos on their platform!

https://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/clicktogive/ars/petition/YoutubeDogfighting

https://www.facebook.com/marschfuerdietiere/posts/590604385613367

And I mean…Dog fights will still be held illegally in secret in Germany in 2021.

Behind this cruelty to animals is an animal torture mafia, which secretly gets in huge amounts of betting income with the horror.

Dead dogs that are thrown away like rubbish with heartbreaking injuries and entire dog fight rings that are picked up are not uncommon for the everyday police force of the German executive.

Dog fighting isn’t even a “sport” as is so often referred to. It is a criminal business devised by unscrupulous people where two highly bred attack dogs are let loose on each other, usually until one of them is seriously injured or dies.

The dogs are made fit by using bestial practices for weeks for their “work”. They train up to four hours a day on treadmills, fully pumped with anabolic steroids and vitamin cocktails. Baby cats are used as bait and are usually torn to pieces by the tortured dogs.

Some dogs do not take part directly in the fights, but are used as bait to test the fighting dogs’ ability to fight. Often the animals are stolen from private individuals, and most of them have little chance of survival.

In illegal dog fights in Germany, fanatical masters pay up to 500,000 euros to the winner.

Some die after the fight. Others recover or need to be taken to the vet. But one can imagine that a criminal would not be willing to take his dog to the vet every week.

The worst fighters are often hanged, drowned, or left to die in the forest.

And the worst part is – these fights can actually take place anywhere, it’s usually a place where people don’t care what they hear or see.

In 2012, in the basement of a residential building in Ettenheim (a town in Baden-Wuerttemberg), the police discovered a prepared battlefield and eleven pit bull terriers that were being trained there.

In addition to 11 confiscated pit bull terriers, the police found an arena in a cellar that was completely built for the purpose of dog fights, blood-soaked carpets, various medicines and drugs, bolt guns to release half-dead dogs, as well as beer tent sets and alcohol for the well-being of the primitive spectators and bettors.
A cannabis plantation was also secured.

The following year, during a house search in Bayreuth, seven Kangals were found in the premises of the rocker gang “Black Jackets”, as well as video evidence that documented the diabolical hustle and bustle of the competitions.
These two examples are only two of the many that take place in the middle of Germany.

Unfortunately, dog fights do not only take place in Germany, but in many other countries as well.

China, the USA, the Phillipines, Turkey and also European countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary are plagued by these criminal machinations.

A criminal community of their own was also formed, spreading these bloody battles on social media. Against this must be proceeded with the full severity of the law, and above all with draconian increased penalties.

Dog fights are a symptom of a larger criminal community-internationally, these swamps of crime and animal suffering must be drained.

My best regards to all, Venus

General News, Hunting

France: Hunter Killer Pensioner Attacked By Brown Bear Whilst Hunting Wild Boar. He Shoots Bear Dead ‘Acting In Self Defence’. No Hunter, No Attack !

Pensioner in France kills bear with rifle after part of his leg torn off in attack (msn.com)

WAV Comment:  If there was no hunter in the first place then there would be no need for the alleged ‘self defence’. Did he care that the female bear may have had cubs when he killed it ? – Note this ‘pensioner’ is not just someone (an older person) out for a weekend stroll; it was an animal killing hunter who was out attempting to slaughter wild boar.  This puts a complete alternative angle to the heading of this newspaper story – not just a pensioner, but a hunter, killer pensioner.  Karma ? – possibly.

 

Pensioner in France kills bear with rifle after part of his leg torn off in attack

A brown bear has been shot dead by a man hunting wild boar after it attacked and tore part of his leg off in southwestern France, according to reports.

The 70-year-old is said to have fired his rifle twice in self-defence – killing the female animal instantly.

He was airlifted to hospital by helicopter and is described as being in a serious condition.

The authorities in France have launched an investigation into the incident happened near Seix, in Ariège, on Saturday afternoon.

A member of the local hunting association told the news website La Depeche said: “I was a little further away, I didn’t see what was happening but I heard the call on the radio.

“The bear attacked him and grabbed his leg, he tore his calf off and injured him in the other leg too.

“One person managed to stop the bleeding until the arrival of help.”

He added: “It doesn’t surprise me, they are coming closer and closer because there is nothing left to eat in the mountains.

“But he shot him only for the sake of himself.”

The attack is set to reignite the debate over the reintroduction of brown bears to the Pyrenees.

The move was controversial among farmers who believe the animals pose a threat to their livestock.

In last year’s census, 64 bears were counted across the Pyrenees.

Critics argue as numbers grow they are increasingly finding it more difficult to get food, bringing them into closer contact with people.

Local media report between January and October of this year, bears killed or are thought to have killed 625 sheep, 16 cattle, 17 horses and a dog.

Regards Mark

Fur and Fur Farming, General News

England: Fur News and Features.

Fur News

Check out all the latest global fur news from our good friend Mark Glover at ‘Respect for Animals’; Nottingham England.

Want to know more about nations and if they have banned fur production, are in the process or will be in future ?

Use the guide to fur bans around the world by clicking on the following link:

A Guide To Fur Bans Around The World | Respect for Animals

The fur industry has been condemned for pursuing a COVID-19 vaccination scheme for factory farmed mink in Finland, diverting key resources needed in the development of vaccines needed to save human lives. The fur trade intends to expand the program around Europe as soon as possible.

Read the full story by clicking on this link:

Fur trade uses key materials needed for human vaccinations | Respect for Animals

Fur industry guilty of ‘greenwashing’ in new report

A new report detailing the environmental impact of fur has criticised the fur industry for ‘greenwashing’, as Respect for Animals calls for governments to take action.

Download the new report here:

Fur industry guilty of ‘greenwashing’ in new report | Respect for Animals

Check out the excellent ‘Respect’ site by visiting at 

Respect for Animals | Campaign against animal fur – Fur for Animals

Regards Mark