Category: General News

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

“Man Worships an Invisible God and Destroys a Visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s Destroying is this God he’s Worshiping.”

Dying Earth - Ebuyer Blog

EBuyer.com

Pfizer’s CEO cashed out 60% of his stock on the same day the company unveiled the results of its COVID-19 vaccine trial | Markets Insider

  • Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla sold 62% of his stock in the company on the same day the drugmaker announced the results of its COVID-19 vaccine trial.
  • Bourla sold $5.6 million in stock on Monday as part of a predetermined trading plan adopted on August 19.
  • His stock sale was carried out at $41.94 a share. The 52-week-high for Pfizer stock is $41.99, which means the CEO cashed out his shares close to their highest this year.
  • Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are the first to post positive results from pivotal COVID-19 vaccine trials.

“Man worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping.” Hubert Reeves

Banks Facing Calls To ‘Stop Funding Factory Farming’ To Protect Animals, The Planet, And Public Health

The livestock sector is not on the radar of many development banks when it comes to reducing emissions despite being such a large contributor

Development banks are facing calls to stop funding factory farming, which is playing a significant role in existential crises facing humanity including the climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and antibiotic resistance.

This is the message coming from Sinergia Animal, an international animal protection organization set up to ‘end the worst practices of industrial animal agriculture’. It works in countries of the Global South – Southeast Asia and Latin America.

The organization has scored some significant victories for animals. In addition, it was recognized as one of the most effective animal protection NGOs in the world by Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) in 2018 after just over a year of work. It retained this recognition in 2019.

Animal agriculture

Sinergia Animal points out that factory farming is responsible for significant Amazon deforestation as well as 14.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The dirty and inhumane conditions in which industrially-farmed animals are kept cause tremendous animal suffering and are a major risk for the transmission of new zoonotic diseases similar to COVID-19.

Another public health threat in which animal farming plays a significant role is antibiotic resistance. According to the WHO, the ‘high volume of antibiotics in food-producing animals contributes to the development of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, particularly in settings of intensive animal production’.

Despite intensive animal farming being a major factor in these existential threats, money – to the tune of billions of dollars – has been poured into the sector by development banks.

Development banks

The role of development banks is to invest medium and long-term capital into industries in poorer countries in a bid to boost economic growth. What many may be troubled to learn is that taxes fund development banks.

Two of the world’s biggest development banks are the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Despite pledging to tackle climate change, both have pumped billions of dollars into animal agriculture over the last decade.

They have invested $2.6bn (£2.1bn) into beef, pig, and poultry farming, as well as dairy production and abattoirs between them. This is in the last decade alone.

Development banks

This support goes against what these institutions should do, says Sinergia Animal. “A development bank’s mission should be to support the sustainable development of a country or a region,” spokesperson Carolina Galvani told Plant Based News.

“It does this with taxpayers’ money. Therefore, the projects, companies, and activities they finance should benefit the common good. Therefore, development banks should refrain from financing activities that hamper the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals and the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

“Industrial livestock is such a sector. This is due to its contribution to deforestation, GHG emissions, and pollution. And that’s not all. Other issues include zoonotic diseases, antibiotic resistance, unhealthy diets, and employees’ exposure to bad working conditions. 

“Moreover, it also causes immense animal suffering. Development banks should support countries in developing sustainable and fair food production systems, instead of financing intensive livestock projects.”

‘Crazily disjointed’

Sinergia Animal is not alone in its condemnation of these investments. Jeremy Coller is the head of investment firm Coller Capital and founder of responsible finance network FAIRR.

Coller has described the investment of public funds into intensive animal agriculture by these banks as ‘crazily disjointed and inconsistent’. This is because intensive agriculture is ‘one of the world’s highest-emitting industries’.

On the issue of the money coming from public funds, Sinergia Animal says: “Many taxpayers might not be so aware of the impacts of the industrial livestock sector. Still, in general, taxpayers would like their tax money to be invested in genuinely sustainable projects that benefit the common good and not in projects that benefit only a few corporations and contribute to many problems.”

‘A radical shift’

So how are development banks able to get away with pumping cash into these operations when they are so harmful? 

Sinergia Animal puts it down to a lack of knowledge. Galvani said: “For many banks, the livestock sector is still not really on their radar. They think about energy and transport when they think about reducing emissions, but not about livestock. This is strange, considering it is such a large contributor to GHG emissions.”

She added that while development banks have ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) policies in place, these are ‘narrow-focused’. And, they only look at the impacts of individual projects. This means as long as these respect certain impact limits, and certain GHG emissions, banks are able to finance them.

“But looking at projects at an individual level does not show the full picture,” said Galvani. “To meet the Paris Agreement’s goals and the SDGs, the world needs a radical shift in how it produces food. And it should be the role of a development bank to help countries, especially the ones from the Global South ones, to achieve this shift.”

You can find out more about Singeria Animal’s campaign to stop development banks investing in factory farming here. The organization is looking for voices worldwide to become advocates of this campaign and help spread this message.

*This content is supported by Singeria Animal International.

Banks Facing Calls To ‘Stop Funding Factory Farming’ To Protect Animals, The Planet, And Public Health
Environmental, General News

Corona measures: we only cure to the symptoms

Pandemics, environmental destruction, resistant germs …
Massive rainforest destruction for animal feed, factory farming, manure, destruction of the rainforest for palm oil plantations, wild animal markets and and and.

More and more monocultures are being grown and land grabbing, especially rainforests is being sacrificed for this.
The loss of the “green lung” of the Amazon is irrevocable and no government takes action to stop it.

Primarily responsible: Customers of the animal industries of leather, fur, feathers, wool, and the consumers of animal products, i.e. milk/milk product, meat/meat products, eggs…

The farmers deny it again and again, but currently, 85-90% of global soy yields end up in animal husbandry.
The greed for animal products grows every day and carries many risks, not only for animals.

The environmental organization Germanwatch shows very clearly: 35 percent of the chickens examined were contaminated with germs that are resistant to so-called reserve antibiotics.
This, our greed is also the alleged propagator and cause of many pandemics:
Ebola, Spain flu, swine flu, bird flu, Malaria, HIV, SARS-COV-2 SARD-COV (new).

The next pandemics are on the march and will come out of a stable again if we carry on as before.
The latest example: Denmark! where coronavirus mounted on mink farms and passed on to humans.
This is where the topic of multi-resistant germs comes into play, which was mentioned above.

We finally have to see the connections.

But we deny it! Instead, we slaughter millions of animals to protect the disease breeding grounds of the meat/milk/fur industry and in the end, we only fight the symptoms of self-created diseases.

There is only one way to counteract this trend:
An immediate exit from intensive animal husbandry.
Tax incentives for businesses that rely on future-oriented, plant-based agriculture.
Tax relief for vegan products.
The tax burden on animal products.
All of this must be decided immediately.

Einstein said: “You can’t solve a problem if you think the same way you did when you created it”

Rethinking has a top priority!

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News

ALDI to Join European Chicken Commitment in Germany and Spain.

ALDI to join European Chicken Commitment in Germany and Spain

9 November 2020

Supermarket giant ALDI has taken a far-reaching decision to improve animal welfare. ALDI is the first major food retailer in Germany to join the European Chicken Commitment and thereby increases its commitment to sustainable retail practices by telling suppliers to treat chickens better.

Aldi has pledged to end the worst abuses suffered by tens of millions of chickens in their supply chains. The company will also work toward improving conditions for its locations in the US and elsewhere by continuing negotiations with The Humane League, an international nonprofit based in Philadelphia that advocates against animal abuse.

According to that group, “by 2026, a chicken raised for Aldi in one of these regions will be less likely to struggle to stand and walk, because they won’t be bred to reach market weight at just five weeks old. They won’t live their entire lives suffering in perpetual darkness. And they won’t be violently flipped upside-down and electrocuted, then have their throats slashed while potentially still conscious.”

Read more at source

Progressive Grocer

General News

France’s National Assembly Adopts European Resolution on Animal Welfare.

France’s National Assembly adopts European resolution on animal welfare

9 November 2020

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation reports that France’s National Assembly has adopted a European resolution on the protection of animal welfare within the EU. This grants them a stronger position when negotiating with the European Commission.

On November 1st, in full confinement, France’s National Assembly adopted a European resolution following the fact-finding mission entrusted to deputies Typhanie Degois and Christophe Naegelen.

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, a member of Eurogroup for Animals, was auditioned for this in April 2020. The resolution comes in the form of various recommendations addressed to the European Commission, in fields as varied as agriculture, research, the pet trade, animal transport, etc.

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation summarized all 37 recommendations theme by theme. Overall, they are in favour of all the recommendations in this resolution, although they would like to see a ban on certain practices rather than a strengthening of the legal framework (e.g. exploitation of wild animals in circuses, cetaceans in dolphinariums…).

From now on, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation will be able to rely on this resolution in order to intervene with the European Commission, as they feel it remains insufficiently active on the subject of animal welfare within the European Union.

Read more at source

Brigitte Bardot Foundation

Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

Denmark: ‘Karma Fur Coat’ – Danish Mink Cull Descends Into ‘Political Chaos’ Over Legality.

Please check out all our old posts on the Danish Mink issue by going to https://worldanimalsvoice.com/?s=denmark

WAV Comment – Naturally as we so often see; animal welfare comes a poor second to the financier driven governments.  We now hear that the abusive fur trade and untold suffering of millions of sentient animals plays a second fiddle to the ‘more than’ €1bn in annual exports gained by the fur trade for Denmark. 

Now, the price of a fur coat is (fortunately) coming back to hit the Danish government in a multitude of ways – the mink cull has descended into ‘political chaos’ by its actions.  We, as a group, have no time for animal abusers; and that includes the Danish government who put their own financial gain up above the welfare of sentient beings suffering in the farms. 

To say ‘Karma’ or ‘just desserts’ seems quite an apt statement at present.  Denmark is now putting itself on the map as the ‘Second Wuhan’; due to its ignorance of the suffering caused by the fur trade.  We have no sympathy for the Danish government who are now reaping what they sowed over many years. 

Only with a complete and utter fur ban throughout Denmark which should be permanent; will the Danish government ever gain any respect from civilized people of the world.  But then they still kill whales in the Faroe islands don’t they ? – Denmark; out of touch with reality and the wishes of the majority of decent people of this world.

Regards Mark

 

Visit Mark and the crew at ‘Respect for Animals’ to get all the news on fighting the fur industry and the latest on the Danish situation at:

Coronavirus and the fur trade: news stories round-up

Danish mink cull descends into political chaos over legality

Government lacks backing for bill to kill 17m animals to stem coronavirus mutation

Denmark’s plan to cull its entire mink population to stop the spread of a mutated form of coronavirus has sparked political chaos following revelations that the government lacks the legal basis for the order.

The Social Democrat-led minority government in Copenhagen plans to introduce emergency legislation on Tuesday to kill up to 17m mink, including those that are healthy. But it lacks parliamentary backing to pass the measure after the country’s centre-right contingent said it would not vote in favour.

Mette Frederiksen, prime minister, announced last Wednesday that a mutated form of coronavirus had passed from mink to 12 people in Denmark and could threaten the effectiveness of a future vaccine against Covid-19.But some international scientists have questioned that claim, and, with more than 2m mink already culled, opposition politicians and mink farmers are now sounding the alarm.

“The government is gambling with Danish democracy and they must stop,” Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, head of the largest centre-right opposition group the Liberals, told broadcaster TV2 as he said his party would not back the emergency law.  The government’s website still calls for all mink in the country to be killed. But Mogens Jensen, minister for food, agriculture and fisheries, apologised late on Monday for the confusion and said the government should have been clearer on which actions had a legal basis and which did not.

Under Danish law, any infected mink and those within an 8km security zone can be killed, but not healthy mink outside these limits. Due to a lack of capacity at incineration plants, mass graves for the animals have been dug on land belonging to the Danish military.

Emergency legislation requires a two-thirds majority in Denmark’s parliament, which the government does not have in support of the measure. The law could still pass with more time for debate or if the government introduces normal legislation, which requires only a simple majority.  Mr Jensen insisted that there had been “no time to waste” after health authorities warned of a risk to public health. “We are in a global health crisis, and therefore the government chose to take a resolute decision,” he said.

Troels Mylenberg, political editor of TV2, called the admission that the cull has no legal basis “a tremendous scandal, and quite simply sensational”.  The UK has closed its borders to non-British citizens from Denmark, while Norway toughened its quarantine rules for Danish arrivals following news of the virus mutation. Danish health authorities said the mutated virus could already have died out.

Tage Pedersen, head of the Danish mink breeders’ association, said he was “shaken” by the “completely insane handling” of the affair for an industry that accounts for more than €1bn in annual exports for Denmark. Amid reports of mink farmers halting the cull, Mr Pedersen added that they should continue as “it will still eventually result in the closure of the entire industry”.

General News

Never forget that YOU make the difference

ALF Champion of the Night

Never forget why YOU do what you do.
Never forget why YOU could not do anything else than giving your voice to the weakest, the exploited, the enslaved, the forgotten, the lost, those who are in the dark.


Never forget that YOU are a bright light that shines far and wide in this society in which the people who stand up for the rights of ALL living beings are ridiculed, insulted, fought, ridiculed, and marginalized.
Never forget, even if YOU feel worn down, sad, alone, tired, and bruised that there are countless out there who are counting on YOU.


Never forget that it was YOU who escaped the ignorance, monotony, stupidity, brutality, and heartlessness of society and who have now taken the path of consistent nonviolence.

Never forget that it was YOU who tore the cloak of indifference that had wrapped itself coldly around your heart.

Never forget that the most important impetus for the development of modern societies has always come from those who have not gone with the flow; those who were brave enough wholeheartedly “No! Not in my name! ” to scream.

Never forget that YOU make the difference.

Night Champion
#animalliberationfront #streiterdernacht

What do I mean? the same thing!

My best regards to all, Venus

Environmental, Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

Denmark: ‘Mutant coronavirus’ seen before on mink farms, say scientists. The Price of a Fur Coat !

First – a must watch:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/11/09/there-was-a-killing/

‘Mutant coronavirus’ seen before on mink farms, say scientists – BBC News

Mink

Photo- Getty Images.

Denmark Mink Murders – WAV posts:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/11/05/denmark-announces-cull-of-15-million-mink-over-covid-mutation-fears/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/11/08/mink-massacre-in-denmark-for-the-benefit-of-the-perpetrators/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/11/07/denmark-danish-covid-19-mink-variant-could-spark-new-pandemic-scientists-warn/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/10/20/denmark-minks-with-mutated-virus-can-destroy-the-effect-of-covid-19-vaccine/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/10/17/denmark-the-killing-boxes-arrive-to-murder-at-least-2-5-million-mink-after-covid-19-was-reported-on-at-least-63-danish-fur-farms-other-farms-to-do-it-themselves/

‘Mutant coronavirus’ seen before on mink farms, say scientists – BBC News

Mink culling, Denmark

Photo – Getty Images.

Further news 09/11/20.

‘Mutant coronavirus’ seen before on mink farms, say scientists

A mutant form of coronavirus found in Danish mink has arisen before, scientists have revealed.

The mutated virus, which appears to have spread from animals to humans in Denmark, has been detected retrospectively at a mink farm in the Netherlands, according to a leading Dutch expert.

The mink were culled and the mutation did not infect humans there, he said.

Six countries have reported coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms.

They include the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the US.

Mink are known to be susceptible to Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, which can spread rapidly from animal to animal in mink farms.

Animals have become infected by farm workers during the pandemic, and have occasionally passed the virus on to humans, raising the risk of the virus acquiring mutations.

Danish scientists are worried that genetic changes in a mink-related form of the virus, infecting a dozen people, has the potential to make future vaccines less effective.

‘Mutant coronavirus’ seen before on mink farms, say scientists – BBC News

Mink at a farm in Denmark

Getty Images.

The genetic change is in the spike protein of the virus, which is important in the body’s immune response, and a key target for vaccines.

The Danish genome sequences were recently released on a public database, allowing scientists in other countries to look for evidence of the mutation.

Go to Sheet 2 to read more on this.

Continue reading “Denmark: ‘Mutant coronavirus’ seen before on mink farms, say scientists. The Price of a Fur Coat !” →