WAV Comment – So now the government are suddenly going to change their goalposts again. Big talk from the new Minister; who is known to most as ‘Useless Eustace’; about how effective the cull has been; but the reality is that the government has quite literally murdered thousands of animals for very little gain – and now they know that the British public hate them for what they are doing, suddenly, out of the hat; that ‘no can do’ ‘vaccination’, which welfare groups have been calling for over many years; suddenly appears on the doorstep and is going to be introduced. Once again; the government (Conservatives) have now been pushed into a corner and have no way of getting out – other than to do what was asked years ago; and for which they said ‘never’.

Funny how things change when you get no results of your mass murders; farmers that don’t do biosecurity, especially at markets, and the public turns against you en masse – that is the Conservatives and Mr Useless.

https://news.sky.com/story/badger-culling-to-tackle-tb-in-livestock-to-be-phased-out-govt-announces-11950062

Badger culling to tackle TB in livestock to be phased out

The government also has plans to vaccinate more badgers, which can transmit TB to livestock.

Intensive badger culling to tackle TB in livestock will be gradually phased out and a cattle vaccine for the disease will be deployed, the government has announced.

The next phase of the government’s strategy to tackle bovine tuberculosis in cattle will involve field trials of a cattle vaccine – expected to be deployed within the next five years.

There are also plans vaccinate more badgers – which can transmit TB to livestock – against the disease as well as a “gradual phasing out of intensive culling” of the wild animals, the Environment Department (Defra) said.

Badger culling in the UK is currently permitted under licence within a set area and timescale in a bid to reduce badger numbers to control the spread of bovine TB, which devastates with the beef and dairy industries.

The disease affects cattle and other farm animals including pigs, goats and sheep, as well as some species of wildlife including deer and a few domestic pets.

Badger culling, using “free shooting”, was trialled in two pilot areas in west Gloucestershire and west Somerset in 2013 with the aim of assessing its humaneness.

Despite wildlife and animal welfare groups arguing that culling is inhumane and ineffective, the badger cull has been rolled out to 40 areas of England.

The government said culling has led to a decline in TB cases in herds of 66% and 37% over the first four years in Gloucestershire and Somerset.

But its new strategy intends to phase out the intensive culling policy and replace it with badger vaccination schemes supported by the government.

Culling would remain an option where disease assessment indicated it was needed.

The move has been made possible by a breakthrough by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha), allowing for field trials of a cattle vaccine to be deployed within a few years.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said: “The badger cull has led to a significant reduction in the disease as demonstrated by recent academic research and past studies.

“But no-one wants to continue the cull of this protected species indefinitely so, once the weight of disease in wildlife has been addressed, we will accelerate other elements of our strategy, including improved diagnostics and cattle vaccination to sustain the downward trajectory of the disease.”

UK Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss added: “Whilst there is no single way to combat this damaging and complex disease, cattle vaccination will be a new tool for our multi-pronged approach to tackle it and, importantly, prevent it, providing vital support to our farming communities.”

The government also has plans to improve the cattle testing regime to intercept the disease earlier and remove it from herds more quickly.

Previous culling methods included trapping badgers in cages before shooting them.

More reading:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/badger-culling-bovine-tb-phased-out-a4379316.html

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dead-badger-left-grans-home-21604146

https://news.sky.com/story/chris-packham-dead-badger-strung-up-outside-presenters-home-11939344

The badger made a mess of the perfume section after it dropped in:

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/people/wild-badger-rescued-after-crashing-through-northampton-superdrugs-ceiling-1426739

Sometimes things go wrong with murders…

Best regards and good night from Venus

We want to say ‘Hi’ to everyone that visits the site – and send thanks for you all sticking with us. We (WAV) are just about 18 months old now and still very much feeling our way as to what we do each day. We ask ourselves; what is best ? – lots of smaller posts or a few larger ones ?

I think at the moment, we are going to work with posting a few articles each day, as a lot of smaller articles can easily lead to larger, and maybe more important stuff, being overlooked or completely by passed.

We are literally going ‘World’ now – as you can see from our Clustrmap which shows where visitors are located; we have a truly international and wide range of visitors; which we very much welcome. Note that the red dots shown here are only for March – it is a fresh start each month.

https://clustrmaps.com/site/1a9kn

We cannot individually thank all our friends from ‘everywhere’; there are just too many; but it is great to see visits from the USA, where we get lots; to friends in locations such as Egypt, Finland, Nepal, Burkina Faso, Taiwan, Bahrain and Azerbaijan – to mention just a few.

What gives us satisfaction is knowing that by having such friends and visitors, the issue of animal rights / welfare has now become a global phenomenon. The beauty of the internet and e mail now allows us to download videos to support our work; whilst also enabling our posts (for example) to be sent anywhere in the World at just the click of a mouse button. We have the technology now and so we are going to use it; especially video links / footage to further support what we are writing about.

There is a big world out there – so hit the road and spread the word !

Thanks for your continued support – and welcome to new advocates who have recently joined with us on this long road to giving animals more of a voice.

You can also visit our ‘sister’ site called ‘Serbian Animals Voice’ which was set up in 2005 to be a voice for strays in the Balkans, especially Serbia.

Here are a couple of links to the site so that you can check it out if you wish to find out more, and see how the ‘dream’ of being a voice for the strays all started from nothing. There is a lot of info; so check it out. From working on military jets and changing paths to the rights of animals; as the song by the brilliant Led Zepp says – ‘there’s still time to change the road you’re on’.

Our great advocate friends in the Balkans led by folks such as Slavica and Goran are still fighting the fight; and we thank them for that and their tenacity to never give up. We will still publish some updates of the Serbian shinter actions on both sites when we have up to date info.

Serbian Animals Voice main link – https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/

Serbian Animals Voice ‘About Us’ – https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/about-us/

Serbian Animals Voice ‘Facebook’ – https://www.facebook.com/groups/SerbianAnimalsVoice/

Serbia – latest (February 2020) news and actions. Please copy and send the sample letter provided if you can:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/02/21/serbia-mass-animal-poisonings-letter-1-of-2-to-copy-and-send-to-the-chemical-review-committee-crc-in-switzerland-asking-them-to-intervene/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/02/22/serbia-letter-no-2-to-send-to-serbian-embassies-worldwide-re-dog-murder-please-copy-and-send/

Be a Voice for the voiceless !

Regards Mark (England) and Venus Germany).

WAV comment – Being the daughter of Sir Paul, huge animal rights campaigner, ex Beatle, and veggie campaigner; protecting the environment and animal rights have always been the trademark of Stella’s products. What else would you expect ?

“These animals are the ingredients of everyone else’s fashion shows. We are the only luxury fashion house in the world that isn’t killing animals on the runway. I wanted to make that point, but in a joyous way.”

The Stella McCartney brand has worked without leather, fur, skins, feathers or animal glues since its launch in 2001.

Don’t the (humans dressed up as) animals on the catwalk look great as well as sending a clear message to the fashion houses of the world – that you don’t have to kill to promote your products and designs now. Fortunately, the world is changing; people are ditching products that involve the suffering and killing of animals for ‘looks and so called ‘beauty’.

We thank Stella for putting on such a great promotion of showing that you don’t need dead animal by-products now days to look good – there is so much ‘cruelty free fashion’ out there for people to buy now.

Fur is dead; leather is dying out, and people are finally waking up to the cruelties involved – so bring it on !

Regards Mark

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/mar/02/stella-mccartney-paris-fashion-week-goes-wild-animal-friendly-message

Stella McCartney goes wild to drive home animal-free message

Paris show features wildlife costumes to emphasise the label’s planet-friendly ethos

The singer Janelle Monáe and actor Shailene Woodley were in the front row, but two rabbits, a fox, a horse, two cows and a crocodile stole the show. People in lifesize animal costumes, of the kind more usually seen at theme park parades than at Paris fashion week, joined models for the finale of Stella McCartney’s show, swinging their new-season handbags and posing for the cameras.

The optics were fun, but the message was serious – that there are animals on almost every catwalk, it’s just that they are usually dead. The half-moon shoulder bag carried jauntily by a brown cow here was made from a vegan alternative to leather, while other bags were created from second-life plastic.

“What we try to do here at Stella is to sugarcoat a powerful, meaningful message in a little bit of humour and fun, to make our point in a palatable and digestible way so that people listen,” said McCartney. “These animals are the ingredients of everyone else’s fashion shows. We are the only luxury fashion house in the world that isn’t killing animals on the runway. I wanted to make that point, but in a joyous way.”

The Stella McCartney brand has worked without leather, fur, skins, feathers or animal glues since its launch in 2001, “but it has taken me my entire career to get the fabrics to the stage they are at now, where our animal-free leather is soft enough, and has enough luxury to it,” the designer said after the show.

This collection featured more leather alternatives than ever before, not only in bags and shoes but in decoratively perforated lightweight trench coats and fluffy shagpile shearlings. “We do it like this because it’s better for the animals and better for the planet.”

Last year, McCartney sold a stake in her brand to LVMH in a deal that gave her a role as special adviser on sustainability to the luxury group’s chairman and chief executive, Bernard Arnault. The role poses a challenge – Arnault was widely criticised last year after describing Greta Thunberg as “demoralising” – but McCartney is confident she can have an impact.

“I think the sheer fact that he has invested his time and his money and mindset into a different business model [at Stella] already has an impact. You don’t come onboard at Stella and not start to think differently. My goal is to make changes more broadly at LVMH. Mr Arnault’s goal is to respond to what people are asking for today, and to learn, and to change.”

McCartney described her role so far as “about bringing information, talking about alternatives in manufacturing and sourcing. I’m introducing the technologies and techniques and suppliers that we use here at Stella to the other LVMH brands.”

Coats, a focal point of every Stella winter collection, looked strong this season. In dense twill melton wool, with high storm collars and cosy tie belts, the coats and jackets were an appealing blend of utility and chic.

Knitwear was another strong point, with three-piece looks – a tunic, a midi skirt and a polo neck worn beneath – in toning lumberjack checks.

Petition – Jail to all those responsible for the mistreatment of the lion Jupiter

Addressed to: Government of Colombia

As a child he was saved from an unworthy life and constant mistreatment in a circus, and thanks to a beautiful woman the lion could be raised knowing love and care.

But one day the Administrative Department of Environmental Management said that the animal could not live in that place because it was not “safe” and he was transferred to a shelter in Córdoba, where he ended up almost dead for having left him without attention, that’s why I ask that those responsible for DAGMA respond to the Law for the mistreatment of this beautiful animal.

Petiion link – https://www.sosvox.org/en/petition/jail-to-all-those-responsible-for-the-mistreatment-of-the-lion-jupiter.html?utm_source=highlight&utm_medium=title&utm_campaign=campaign-p020320

 
If you get too close to an enslaved animals, there is a high risk.
But crocodile was generous … at least the owner could keep his head!

Best regards and good night from Venus