Category: General News

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

India (Peta): Animal / Vegan Related Documentaries for You and Your Family to Check Out.

From our animal friends at Peta India.

When you go vegan, it’s great to share your new, kinder way of living with family and friends. Many people are completely unaware of the impact that their food choices have on animals, the environment, and their own health – but you can help open their eyes. An easy way to do that is by inviting them to watch one of the following documentaries with you.

  • Dominion: Created by Australian director Chris Delforce, this powerful feature-length film shows footage from farms and slaughterhouses across Australia, crushing the myth that what happens to animals used for food, clothing, or entertainment is in any way humane. You can stream this documentary for free online.
  • Earthlings: Many vegans consider Earthlings to be essential viewing for all meat-eaters. The powerful documentary takes an in-depth look at the way we treat other animals, showing viewers why we’ve got to be more compassionate towards other sentient beings.
  • Cowspiracy: This film offers a comprehensive look at the effects of food production on greenhouse-gas emissions, deforestation, water consumption, species extinction, ocean “dead zones”, and pollution – and it’s available to stream on Netflix.
  • What the Health: Promoted as “the health film that health organizations don’t want you to see”, What the Health exposes the consequences of eating meat, eggs, and dairy and makes you wonder, Why isn’t this common knowledge? We hope it will be soon, especially since the documentary is available on Netflix.
  • Forks Over Knives: This documentary examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods.
  • Lucent: This feature-length documentary explores the darker side of Australia’s pig-farming industry through a combination of hand-held and hidden camera footage, highlighting the day-to-day cruelty accepted by the industry as standard practice.
  • Unity: Despite the advent of science, literature, technology, philosophy, religion, and so on, nothing has prevented humankind from killing one another and other animals and despoiling nature. Unity is a film that explores why we can’t seem to get along, even after thousands and thousands of years.
  • Fast Food Nation: This film was inspired by the book of the same name, which examines the fast-food industry. It covers everything from cruelty to animals to the treatment of employees.
  • Gods in Shackles: This one is not food-related – it’s about the shocking cruelty to elephants who are used in processions and temples in Kerala.
  • Blackfish: This one isn’t food-related, either, but it’s an excellent film for raising awareness of the plight of animals among people you’re introducing to the concept of eating vegan. It’s about Tilikum, a now-deceased orca who was held at the US-based captive animal marine park SeaWorld. This powerful documentary resulted in a tremendous backlash against the park, once one of America’s more celebrated attractions.
  • Okja: This Netflix original movie directed by Bong Joon-ho (also known for Snowpiercer and Parasite) and starring Ahn Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, and Jake Gyllenhaal is fiction, but it has helped many people consider the plight of real animals and led them to eat vegan. It follows Mija, a young girl who fights to save her best friend – a massive “super-pig” hybrid named Okja – from the meat company Mirando.
  • The Game Changers: A UFC fighter’s world is turned upside down when he discovers an elite group of world-renowned athletes and scientists who prove that everything he had been taught about protein was a lie. It’s available to stream on Netflix.

Sharing your vegan pledge with family and friends can help you stay on track and be a very rewarding experience. Remember: the more people who take the pledge, the more animals will be protected.

Thanks for all you do for animals,

Sincerely,
PETA India

General News

UK terrorism chief calls for ‘national debate’ on criminalizing doubts about Covid-19 vaccine

 

The UK’s top counter-terrorism cop has suggested society stop allowing people to question the wisdom of a rapid Covid-19 vaccine rollout, regarding such skepticism to being life-threatening “misinformation.”

Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu has pointedly questioned whether it is “the correct thing for a society to allow” the sharing of “misinformation that could cost people’s lives” — demonizing all doubts about quickly developed Covid-19 vaccines whose potential long-term effects are not yet known and tying them to extremist radicalization efforts.

While he didn’t go so far as to call for a law to be passed banning such content, his suggestion of a “national debate” will presumably light a fire under ministers already mulling such legislation.

Basu also expressed worries about a “sharp increase in extremist material online in the last few years” during Wednesday’s press conference, warning of a “new and worrying trend in the UK” of young people being radicalized.

Officials told UK media that Islamic extremists and far-right groups were using “false claims about coronavirus” to radicalize their followers.

Social media users are already wary of the rush to roll out the vaccine were disturbed by the attendant rush to criminalize criticism of it.

Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu

 

“Am I alone in finding this more worrying than the virus itself?” one user asked.

The counter-terrorism chief’s concerns have added to the growing chorus of government entities calling for the blanket censorship – or even criminalization – of vaccine skepticism.

The Labour Party earlier this week demanded the government adopt emergency legislation to impose civil and criminal penalties on social media platforms that don’t immediately remove posts that question the safety of the jab and other “false” materials.

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth demanded government “deal with some of the dangerous nonsense, nonsensical anti-vax stuff that we’ve seen spreading on social media, which erodes trust in the vaccine” even though no vaccine has yet passed review by UK health authorities and speculation from either “side” of the debate is fully hypothetical.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has refused to rule out making vaccination mandatory, and ministers are reportedly considering issuing QR codes to people who receive the jab that will allow them to attend sports, theatre, and other events.

https://www.rt.com/uk/507207-vaccine-hesitancy-terrorism-question-basu/

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/met-police-terrorism-coronavirus-anti-vaxxers-b73161.html

 

Now we have to watch out for what we write, what we say, what we think.
We don’t live in a democracy, that is clear.
China could copy a lot from us, we are doing better than China.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

Ireland’s Mink to be Culled and Not Replaced – Effectively, the End of Fur Farming In Ireland.

WAV Comment – https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/11/20/denmark-mink-massacre-costs-ministers-the-job/

WAV Comment – So it takes something like Covid before ‘experts’ like Dr Holohan, the Chief Medical Officer; decides that something needs to be done. It sounds idiotic to us – if Ireland had banned the industry years ago, then they would not be in the situation they are now – Denmark and all that.

Still they ignore all the advice, thinking they know better; being a ‘Dr’ and all that. Sounds like a fool to us; as he ignored all the evidence and requests for a ban for so long. Karma ! – as the Chief Medical Officer; what is the next trick he is going to pull out of his weary hat ?

As Mark says, terrible that so many animals will die; but their deaths will not be in vain. A very hard lesson to the Danish and Irish governments who think (?) they know best; but have been shown to be fools. If these deaths mean the demise of the Irish fur trade then we welcome that; if only government fools would listen earlier; like years ago !

Ireland’s mink to be culled and not replaced 

The Republic of Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer has advised the government to cull the mink on Ireland’s three mink farms, as a precautionary measure. The government is likely to follow this advice. 

Further, it is expected that the mink farmers will not be allowed to replace the animals, so it appears that fur farming is about to end.

Official confirmation has not yet been issued but Respect for Animals understand that fur factory farming in Ireland will finally cease. There is already a commitment in the Programme for Government to phase out mink farming in Ireland.

According to the World Health Organisation,  health authorities in Denmark reported cases of Covid-19 that were caused by a mink fur farm associated strain of the novel coronavirus.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control confirmed, on 12 November, that the mink Covid mutation “could also have an impact on the effectiveness of developed vaccines”.

In a letter to the Department of Agriculture, Dr Holohan, the Chief Medical Officer, said the presence of farmed minks presents “an ongoing risk to public health” if the Covid variant found in Denmark was to become “the dominant strain of the virus”.

He said all mink should be culled “as a matter of urgency”.

Respect for Animals has been a leader of the #FurFreeIreland campaign for a number of years. We are now working to get this development converted into a fur farming ban with the utmost urgency.

On Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue confirmed that they will “in due course commence the process of preparing a Bill to provide for the phased introduction of a ban on fur farming which will include a prohibition on mink farming. The Bill will make it illegal for any new fur farms to be established and will put in place phase out arrangements for the small number of current operators.”  

Campaigns Director Mark Glover said:

“The news that thousands of mink will be killed is shocking and sad. However, the fact that fur factory farming- a cruel, unjustifiable industry- will cease in Ireland has to be welcomed.

We have campaigned for a Fur Free Ireland for many years and we are finally on the brink of a fur farming ban. Thank you to our friends at NARA and all campaigners and supporters who have helped make this possible.

It is now clear that fur farming is a disaster for animal welfare and a risk to human health.

It is a shame that it has taken a devastating pandemic to bring the cruel and unnecessary fur trade to its knees, but we now must ensure that this barbaric industry is stopped once and for all.”
 

Read more at ‘Respect for Animals’ web site:

Ireland: mink to be culled and not replaced after Covid-19 mink mutation | Respect for Animals

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

Australia: Australian Farm to Hold 50,000 Crocodiles for Luxury Hermès Goods Questioned by Animal Welfare Groups.

This is a bit more on the issue of Australian crocodile farming that was originally covered by Venus on 12/11/20 – https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/11/12/australia-the-crocodile-mafia-expands/

More from ‘The Guardian’, London/

Australian farm to hold 50,000 crocodiles for luxury Hermès goods questioned by animal welfare groups | Environment | The Guardian

Australian farm to hold 50,000 crocodiles for luxury Hermès goods questioned by animal welfare groups

Farm to supply skins to make handbags and shoes would be one of the biggest in Australia under plan approved by Northern Territory government

The high-end French fashion brand Hermès wants to build one of Australia’s biggest crocodile farms in the Northern Territory that would hold up to 50,000 saltwater crocodiles to be turned into luxury goods such as handbags and shoes.

But the proposal has come under fire from animal welfare groups, who say other fashion brands have moved away from using exotic animal skins on cruelty grounds. Advocates told Guardian Australia they had concerns about the welfare of the crocodiles, and that farming animals for luxury goods was “no longer fashionable.”

The territory, a significant global supplier of crocodile skins, is already home to several crocodile farms owned by major fashion brands.

Northern Territory crocodile industry figure Mick Burns is leading the proposal on a former fruit farm near Darwin purchased earlier this year by the company PRI Farming, of which he is a director.

The NT government has already granted development approval for the project, with documents showing the farm would include an egg incubator laboratory, a hatchery, and growing pens, as well as wastewater treatment plants and a solar farm.

According to documents submitted to the territory’s Environmental Protection Authority, the farm would employ 30 people and build from an initial 4,000 crocodiles to 50,000, which the ABC has reported would make it one of the biggest crocodile farms in Australia.

An EPA statement to the Guardian said the project had been granted environmental approval, and that PRI had also indicated it would apply for a wildlife trade permit.

Dr Jed Goodfellow, a senior policy officer at RSPCA Australia, said the society remained opposed to killing of any animal “where the purpose of their death is primarily to produce a non-essential luxury item like fur or skin”.

Read more on Page 2:

Continue reading “Australia: Australian Farm to Hold 50,000 Crocodiles for Luxury Hermès Goods Questioned by Animal Welfare Groups.” →
Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

England: ‘Million Dollar Vegan’ and ‘Viva!’ Will Distribute Vegan Meals Across the City of Bristol; Promoting Healthy Living, Animal Welfare and the Environment.

Volunteers distributing hot vegan meals

Vegan Groups Pledge To Provide 2,000 Plant-Based Meals To Those In Need Amid COVID-19

Million Dollar Vegan and Viva! will distribute the vegan meals to charities and foodbanks across the city of Bristol

Million Dollar Vegan and Viva! have pledged to provide 2,000 vegan meals to those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Campaigners from both groups say their generosity will also help ‘highlight the risks of animal agriculture to public health’. 

Vegan meals

Hot vegan meals will be distributed to charities such as FareShare and Bristol Soup Run Trust, as well as food banks across Bristol, throughout November.Both organizations have been praised by local politicians including Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East.

‘The impacts of climate change’

In a statement sent to PBN, McCarthy said: “Already, we’re seeing the impacts of climate change – forest fires, droughts, floods, storms, and heatwaves. These will only worsen over the coming years. 

“Especially, if companies and governments continue with deforestation linked to the production of food and other commodities. “Thankfully, none of this is inevitable. But, to prevent it, we must make some changes in how we live – and eat – right now. 

“I’m really pleased to see this support for Bristol organisations. [They] have done a brilliant job in responding to food poverty in the city, especially during the recent pandemic.”

‘Veganism is empowering’

Kate Fowler is the Director of Communications at Million Dollar Vegan.

She said: “What we choose to buy and eat has profound consequences. It goes way beyond our taste buds and waistlines.

“It affects our own health, the health of our planet, how long we will have workable antibiotics, when another pandemic will come and whether we will be able to slow down climate change. “

Will Sorflaten, Campaigner at Viva!, added: “Veganism is empowering. It’s the most beneficial change any individual can make on the climate crisis, food hunger, our health.”

Soflaten added that a vegan lifestyle can ‘massively reduce’ the risk of another pandemic.

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Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

England: London – Danish Embassy Letter – Lack of Progress Report.

Members of Danish health authorities assisted by members of the Danish Armed Forces dispose of dead mink in a military area near Holstebro in Denmark, 09 November 2020 (issued 10 November 2020).

(Lack of) Progress Report.

Just to inform you all; we recently wrote to the Danish Ambassador in London re the killing of millions of Mink in Denmark:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/11/12/england-wav-writes-to-the-danish-ambassador-in-london-re-denmarks-mass-mink-murders/

As of today, 20/11/20; we have still had nothing back on the issue.

We wait and will provide you with an update if we ever do hear.

Regards Mark

Members of Danish health authorities assisted by members of the Danish Armed Forces dispose dead mink in a military area near Holstebro in Denmark, 09 November 2020
Environmental, General News, Hunting

USA: Big Asshole American Trophy Hunter Takes More Than 5 Shots (In The Head) To Kill His Trophy Elephant – What A Useless Shit !

WARNING – Disturbing Video – what disturbed and warped trophy hunter minds do for ‘fun’.

WAV Comment:  This is a very disturbing video to watch.  Elephants are protected within Kruger National Park but once they cross the ‘invisible border’, they are the target of fucking dead bead, super shit American trophy hunter turds such as the one which you see here – who takes at least 5 shots in the video, which even then does not kill the animal.

Trophy hunting shit; thats what they are. Rich boys with nothing between their ears; a bit like the current President and his sons.

Above – Dim and Dimmer Trumps with a trophy ‘prize’

Below – ‘He Man’ Trump after a kill.

Fortunately the Trumps have been sent a clear message about it all now – and that is ‘Fuck Off’.

Trophy hunters and those who make a living selling hunting trips and accessories like to claim that they kill animals in the name of “conservation” or, patronisingly, to support “natives” – but as this just-breaking PETA  video shows, hunting has nothing to do with respecting wildlife and everything to do with taking sadistic pleasure in killing animals. 

Following a  secret investigation, PETA has revealed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s hidden connections to and investments in the trophy hunting industry and obtained video footage of an American trophy hunter who was incapable of making a clean kill, even with coaching from hunting guides, as he felled a young elephant just outside Kruger National Park. 

See the shocking footage for yourself, and then take action to help stop elephants, lions,  hippos, rhinos, Cape buffaloes, and other wonderful, vulnerable animals from being shot in cold blood and dying in agony just to give hunters a sick thrill and a trophy. 

Click here to take action for the elephant:

Tell UPS to Stop Shipping Hunting Trophies | PETA Australia

Farm Animals, General News

EU: How to revise the Broiler Directive: science and best corporate practices lead the way to improve the lives of broiler chickens.

How to revise the Broiler Directive: science and best corporate practices lead the way to improve the lives of broiler chickens

19 November 2020

Press Release

Today a groundbreaking new report was launched presenting the first comprehensive scientific overview on the welfare of broiler chickens. Science and best corporate practices show improvements are feasible, urgent and should inform future EU legislation.

For immediate release: Brussels 19/11/2020

On November 19th, the Intergroup on the welfare and conservation of animals organised the event From minimum legal standards to “good lives” What needs to change for broiler chickens in the EU? 

Broiler chickens are the most numerous terrestrial farmed animals in the EU: 7.4 billion were slaughtered in 2018, of which the vast majority coming from intensive farming systems. While minimum standards for the protection of broiler chickens are laid down in various pieces of EU legislation, the current rules are clearly insufficient to guarantee broiler chicken welfare as they fail to address the main problems that are intrinsic to the industry. 

The European Commission is going to propose a revision of the current animal welfare acquis as part of the EU Farm to Fork strategy, and this meeting presented the science and practices that can inspire new standards for higher-welfare broiler chicken rearing. We asked six independent researchers to present the available scientific evidence on the welfare issues experienced by broiler chickens, from breeding to slaughter: a comprehensive report, launched during the event, entitled The welfare of broiler chickens in the EU: from science to action.

The report co-authors also shared their ideas for the future of broiler chicken farming in a short publication entitled A vision for the future broiler farming.

Policy makers will need to have answers and see concrete solutions to propose new science-based legislation fit for purpose and for the future. What needs to change to give broiler chickens good lives? The report, first of its kind, presents concrete science-based solutions: using slower-growing higher-welfare breeds, providing the right rearing environment, protecting parent birds and newly hatched chicks, best practices around transport and slaughter, and including wider societal issues. 

In the EU every year we rear billions of fast-growing broiler chickens. For the most part, these social, inquisitive and intelligent birds are deprived of the possibility to enjoy good welfare, let alone experience “good lives”. The science is clear, and this new report confirms that it is time to move to slower-growing breeds and higher welfare systems and to update relevant EU legislation. The coming years offer a very important window of opportunity for us MEPs to accelerate such change for broiler chickens and other farmed animals, thanks to the objectives of the Farm to Fork Strategy. I am personally committed to making this happen.
 

Anja Hazekamp MEP (GUE/NGL, NL), Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and President of the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals

The economic and animal welfare benefits of adopting higher welfare rearing systems using slower-growing breeds are clear. This will require designing a successful supply chain and involving consumers in the transition, while also taking into account sustainability. The audience had the opportunity to virtually visit Nijkamp Farm, a state of the art facility for higher-welfare broiler rearing, and heard from its owner Robert Nijkamp how animal welfare can meet sustainability. 

What we need is a paradigm shift, currently chicken is marketed as a cheap and ever-present commodity. As the report highlights, science and market opportunities make it possible to change the lives for broiler chickens. The Broiler Directive is not fit for purpose to make this happen, that’s why it should be revised to include breeding objectives for health and welfare, introduce animal welfare rules for broiler breeders, and improve rearing conditions for all broiler chickens. 

Reinke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals

ENDS

Download The welfare of broiler chickens in the EU: from science to action

Download A vision for the future broiler farming

Environmental, General News

USA: News from the Center for Biological Diversity – Endangered Earth – November 2020.

News from the Center for Biological Diversity

Endangered Earth – November 2020.

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

Trump Pushes Oil Industry for More Arctic Drilling

With his presidency now nearing its end, Trump is rushing through a process to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain to lease for oil drilling.

The administration has invited oil companies to name the areas they’d like to drill in one of the nation’s most iconic and sacred landscapes. The Center for Biological Diversity joined Indigenous groups this week in condemning the move.

“On his way out the door, Trump is trying to lock in climate chaos and the extinction of polar bears and other endangered Arctic species. This is unconscionable,” said the Center’s Kristen Monsell. “The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge can’t be replaced, so we can’t let this president give it away to Big Oil.”

Learn more and speak up for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Tell the EPA: Choose Pollinators Over Poisons

We can thank pollinators like bees for 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat. We owe a lot to them — and now they urgently need our help.

The Environmental Protection Agency is about to approve yet another toxic pesticide. Called tetraniliprole, it’s acknowledged by the agency to be “highly toxic” to bees and aquatic insects. This new approval for its use on many pollinator-attractive plants — including peppers, tomatoes, peaches, cherries and oranges — will likely fall to the next administration.

Roughly 40% of the world’s insects may be facing extinction. The last thing they need is another poison to contend with. Tell the EPA in the Biden administration to keep tetraniliprole off our food and away from our bees.

Legal Roundup: Montana, Wyoming and the Virginias

The Center’s legal work of the last few weeks has focused on protecting interconnected resources: habitat, climate, and clean air and water.

In Montana we filed a legal protest challenging a massive logging project that would clearcut thousands of acres — including old-growth trees — and threaten an imperiled population of grizzly bears and protected Canada lynx habitat.

In Wyoming we challenged a plan to approve the sale of fracking leases on 275,000 acres of public land. Fracking those leases would destroy habitat for greater sage grouse, worsen air quality and cause up to 43 million tons of climate pollution.

And an appeals court has sided with the Center and partners by issuing an immediate stay of Mountain Valley Pipeline’s stream and wetland crossing permits in northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia: a win for both people and imperiled species.

 

Center Op-ed: What’s Next for Wolves

Gray wolves face an uncertain future after the Trump administration’s recent move to strip their Endangered Species Act protections.

But as the Center’s Collette Adkins writes in a new Chicago Tribune op-ed, President-elect Biden will now have the chance to break from the path taken by his predecessors. He can direct federal wildlife agencies to embrace a science-backed, full recovery of wolves in the lower 48 states.

And if Biden chooses instead to let the delisting to stand? Well, we’ve been in that fight before. Whatever comes next for wolves, we’ll be on the front lines to protect them.

Saving Humboldt Martens — New Hopes, New Threats

“Martens belong to the weasel family and look a bit like squirrels that have been stretched out and trained for battle: cute, but ferocious.”

That’s one of our favorite sentences from this engaging new article on the plight of Humboldt martens, secretive carnivores usually associated with old-growth forests. One marten population, however, has managed to survive in the sand dunes of Oregon in a tiny strip of shore pines.

Follow along as a conservationist and her marten-tracking dog sniff out these rare, fascinating little mammals. You’ll learn the latest on the species’ plight, including from the Center’s Tierra Curry, who’s helped lead our successful decade-long campaign to win federal protection for Humboldt martens.

Wild & Weird: Testing Facial Recognition for Bears

Silicon Valley developers have teamed up with biologists and conservationists to develop artificial intelligence software that can identify, with some success, the faces of individual bears. The app they developed, BearID, could one day be used to monitor the health of bear populations around the world.


Read more at The New York Times.

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

England: Keep Ramping for the Amazon. Over 24,000 Messages Sent – Keep It Going !

Please keep it going !

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/11/13/england-ramp-it-up-e-mail-tescos-new-ceo-and-tell-him-to-stop-destroying-the-beautiful-amazon-for-meat-products-in-his-stores/

Greenpeace tell us that he has had over 24,00 messages sent to his inbox.

If he does not get the message now then what hope for him ?

Click on the link above and tell him to stop destroying the Amazon.