Footwear Giant To Launch Vegan Leather Sneakers Made From Wine Waste
The plant-based sneakers also feature mesh made from recycled PET bottles and an algae-based EVA sole.
Mercer Amsterdam is to launch vegan leather sneakers made from Italian wine waste as part of its upcoming Spring Summer ’21 collection.
Dubbed the ‘W3RD Wine Pack’ – the sneaker range also features mesh made from recycled PET bottles and an algae-based EVA sole
Vegea
The company has collaborated with Vegea – who recently partnered with Swiss fashion giant H&M to launch a range of handbags and shoes.
Vegea creates a ‘soft’ and recyclable vegan leather using the skins, stalks, and seeds of grapes left over from the winemaking process.
‘A game-changer’
In a statement sent to Plant Based News, Founder of the fashion brand Pim Mercer said: “For me, it is important for us to try and change the high-end sneaker industry- it doesn’t need to be all-leather all the time.
“The best experience for me is when someone says ‘I love this sneaker’ without knowing the backstory. This goes to show that sustainable, vegan, and plant-based footwear can be as nice and luxurious as real leather – and that is a game-changer in a mostly all-leather and plastic industry.”
Coronavirus: Vietnam bans wildlife trade over pandemic risk
Vietnam has banned the import of wildlife and wildlife products to reduce the risk of new pandemics.
The move also bans wildlife markets for such items, including online sales.
Vietnam has previously been accused of turning a blind eye to the sale of products such as pangolin scales and rhino horns often used in traditional medicine.
The origins of the current Covid-19 pandemic are thought to lie in the wildlife trade, with the disease emerging in bats and jumping to people via another, as yet unidentified, species, which could include rats, civets and pangolins.
“The prime minister orders the suspension of imports of wildlife – dead or alive – their eggs… parts or derivatives,” said the order released on Thursday on the Vietnamese government website.
“All citizens, especially officials… must not participate in illegal poaching, buying, selling, transporting… of illegal wildlife.”
The country will also “resolutely eliminate market and trading sites which trade wildlife illegally”, the order said.
Conservationists welcomed the move.
“Vietnam is to be congratulated for recognising that Covid-19 and other pandemics are linked to the wildlife trade,” said Steven Galster, chairman of the anti-trafficking group Freeland.
“This trade must be banned as a matter of international and public health security,” he added.
However, one group said the ban did not go far enough.
“The wildlife consumption ban mentioned in the directive is insufficient as some uses of wildlife such as medicinal use or wild animals being kept as pets are not covered,” said Nguyen Van Thai, director of Save Vietnam’s Wildlife.
In February, a dozen conservation groups sent a joint letter urging the government to “identify and close markets and other locations where illegal wildlife is on sale”, Reuters news agency reports.
After a corona outbreak with hundreds of sick employees (most of them from Eastern countries), the Tönnies plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück had to close for weeks. Now there is bad news again.
A cold store of Nagel Transthermo GmbH in Dissen, Germany, was cleared due to a rat infestation.Meat from the Tönnies company was also stored there.The animals had apparently been active and able to reproduce there unhindered for more than 5 months. Been active?
Transthermos
Yes!! the meat was cut up there, i.e. a real cutting plant.
Local newspaper journalists wanted to know more. The local newspaper asked more closely, and the spokesman for the Tönnies Group admitted that the cold store was “used sporadically (!!) to a limited extent, for example for storing goods”.
In a press release dated July 22, 2020, the Osnabrück Administrative Court announced:
“In view of the photos submitted and according to the findings made by the specialist company for pest control, there is no doubt that the products which were produced therefrom the cut-off date are unsuitable for consumption.
Fecal pills, walking paths, fur remains and signs of nest building in the rats were found to an extent that indicated a very large rat population”.
But it gets interesting when you take a closer look at the data !!
Because obviously this problem had been known since January.
According to the findings of the veterinary service, rats have been in increased numbers in areas of the cold store since mid-January, the local newspaper quotes. Control measures have so far been unsuccessful, the rodents “populated” the entire building.
Cold store operator Nagel-Transthermoshas announced that it will close the affected site in Dissen.
And I mean … “Well, thank God I cover my purchase of meat products in a village shop”, a commentator wrote.
Naturally! Anyone who still consumes meat after all the reports from the recent past cannot be scare off by the few rats …..
The meat scandals are not getting smaller, the greed for profit and the shamelessness are becoming clearer.
Slaughterhouse workers are exploited, consumers cheated and endangered, but the real victims are the animals.
Just stop lying to yourself and don`t support this shit financially. Don’t buy it.
Not to caress your conscience or to make you feel better, but because it’s the right thing to do.
We joined journalist Hugo Clément and some of France’s most-prominent business leaders in launching the Initiative. Alongside other organisations and numerous high profile individuals, we are attempting to transform animal legislation in France.
The Shared Initiative Referendum calls for six measures to protect animals.
These measures consist of a series of bans on:
fur farming,
hound hunting and other “traditional” hunting methods such as bird traps,
live wild animal shows,
animal research where alternative research methods can be followed,
caged farming from 1 January 2025,
factory farming by 2040. This measure also includes an immediate moratorium on any new intensive animal farms; any new farm planning permissions will have to guarantee animals have outdoor access.
Léopoldine Charbonneaux, our Director of CIWF France said: “We are honoured to be a part of this referendum. Alongside our partner organisations, we could end the cage age in France and become one of the first countries to bring in a ban on the building of new intensive farms, bettering millions of farm animals lives.”
A Shared Initiative Referendum allows citizens to change the law.
It requires four million signatures to be gathered within nine months of its launch, and needs to be endorsed and submitted by at least 185 members of the French Parliament. It’s a participatory democracy tool, similar to the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) we launched in September 2018.
With more than 1.5 million signatures, the End the Cage Age ECI has been the most successful ECI for farmed animals. Such a huge wave of support proves that the welfare and protection of animals is a priority for citizens on a national and European level and, therefore, it should also be a priority for national Governments and EU Institutions.
Last night we put animals back on the agenda at our online event, Political Panel 2020: It’s Time! Ahead of the general election we asked political decision makers the tough questions on issues affecting animals in New Zealand, now and in the future.
Today, we’re launching an ambitious pre-election action to call on our next Government to commit to freeing hens from cages – and we need your help.
In New Zealand, nearly three million hens are confined in cruel cages. Thanks to you, the Government banned tiny battery hen cages, but the new standard ‒ ‘colony cages’ ‒ is just as cruel. Cages prevent hens from carrying out normal behaviour such as dust bathing, foraging and spreading their wings. The reality is – a colony cage is still a cage. In the lead up to this election we need our MPs to know that New Zealanders have lost their appetite for the cruel caging of hens. Over the next few weeks we will be calling on you to give hens a voice so that animals are put back on the election agenda.
In 2014, the Labour Party promised to introduce legislation by 2016 to phase out cruel colony cages ‒ but four years on, we’re still waiting. These cruel cages have no future in New Zealand. Even Parliament’s restaurants have committed to going cage-free, along with all major supermarkets and a growing list of businesses. So, let’s keep movingand banish cages to the history books! It’s time New Zealand put the chicken before the egg.
Debra Ashton Chief Executive Officer
P.S. We know the world can be different for animals. Together, we can create a better, safer Aotearoa New Zealand for all. Read our vision to find out more.
How is the exotic pet trade (un) regulated across the EU? Our report has been updated
22 July 2020
News
An updated overview of the legislation on exotic pets in the Member States is now available on Eurogroup for Animals’ website.
The report, whose first version was published in 2013, analyses the national legislations regarding the keeping and sale of exotic pets in the Member States, as well as the UK, Switzerland and Norway.
The report exposes the large diversity of legislation between the countries, which leads to enforcement issues and disruptions of the European internal market. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic further highlights the importance of more control of the species present in and entering the European territory.
For these reasons, and because of the exploding trend in the keeping of non-domesticated pets, Eurogroup for Animals is calling for the adoption of an EU-wide Positive List clearly stating which animal species are allowed to be kept and sold as pets. This system has already been adopted in five Member States, four more than in 2013 when the first version of the report has been published. Its adoption at EU level would have a positive impact on animal welfare, human health, EU and global biodiversity conservation, as well as on the functioning of the internal market.
Eurogroup for Animals takes the opportunity to thank our members for their input and support with the publication of this report.
Emergency: Stop the Senseless Killing of Washington’s Wolves
As you read this, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) sharpshooters are taking to the sky to find and kill another endangered wolf – a member of the Wedge wolf pack – in response to depredation of cattle on grazing lands in Stevens County.
WDFW currently has an active kill order for the Togo wolf pack as well.
Science shows that killing a wolf can increase the risk that wolves will prey on livestock in the future. It is counterproductive and unsustainable.
Yet WDFW has resorted to killing wolves living in this same spot rugged forest land for years. In fact, they killed the original Wedge pack in 2012 for the very same reason. The original Wedge pack was accused of preying on livestock in the Colville National Forest eight years ago and, under Washington’s wolf management plan, the state opted to issue kill orders in an attempt to protect the livestock. The state killed the entire family of six state endangered wolves.
In the eight years since the original Wedge pack was destroyed, not much has changed. Livestock owners still graze their cows on rugged, forested public lands that are better suited for native ungulates, and WDFW is still killing wolves to benefit the profit margins of private businesses. In fact, 26 of the 31 state-endangered wolves that have been killed since 2012 were shot on behalf of the same livestock operator.
While it’s too late to protect the other 31 endangered wolves WDFW has gunned down since 2012, other Washington wolves still need our help.
Please take action to respectfully call on WDFW Director Kelly Susewind to immediately end the assault on Washington’s wolves.
Today we have launched the second phase of our campaign calling on the UK Government to ban the importation of foie gras made by force-feeding.
The force-feeding of animals is currently illegal on animal welfare grounds in the UK; despite this, imports of products involving force-feeding are permitted.
Will you help us urge the Government to ban this cruel ‘delicacy’ by signing our renewed petition? Our ask is now more urgent than ever, and with a new Government in place since we began our campaign in 2017, we have made the decision to launch a petition specifically directed at influential policy-makers – George Eustice and Lord Zac Goldsmith – who are currently in the position to be able to put in place a ban.
Treasured comedian, TV personality and animal lover, Alan Carr, is the latest celebrity to support our campaign, which was featured in The Mirror today.
Animal Equality has visited several foie gras farms over the years, exposing harrowing scenes of severe animal suffering. Terrified ducks and geese desperately struggle during ‘gavage’, where a metal tube is brutally forced down their throats to fatten their livers up. The birds endure severe physical pain and mental anguish throughout their short lives.
A ban would spare 250,000 birds every year from a lifetime of suffering for this so-called ‘speciality’ dish, but we need your help to make this a reality.
With the Brexit transition period coming to an end on 31st December 2020, the Government has a short and ideal window of time to put in place measures to enact a ban. We are urging Environment Secretary, George Eustice, and Minister, Lord Goldsmith, to take action and commit to a ban, effective 1st January 2021.
“Tönnies meat… what you can rely on!!!”
