On Saturday 6th April, we’ll be taking to the streets to demand a ban on foie gras imports!
We’ll be holding a peaceful protest outside a restaurant which serves foie gras in central London, and events will be happening in towns and cities across the country in solidarity.
If you’re interested in joining us, just click the link below and respond to our Facebook event to receive more information in the coming weeks.
Despite foie gras being illegal to produce in the UK due to the cruel force-feeding involved, we still import around 200 tonnes of it every year. Although feedback from the government about the possibility of a ban has been positive, we have yet to receive a firm commitment.
Now is the time to up the pressure and ensure the import of this barbaric product is banned as soon as possible!
Events are taking place in Bath, Cambridge, Cheltenham, Grimsby, Peterborough, Portsmouth and Worthing, as well as the protest in London.
Activists will be gathering petition signatures and encouraging people to send postcards to Michael Gove to show their support for a foie gras-free Great Britain.
If you’d like to organise an event near you, just email us and we’ll provide you with everything you need to make it a success!
Press Release from our animal friends at GAIA in Belgium.
Flemish Parliament approves ban on fur farming and force feeding
Thursday, March 14, 2019 — Brussels, 14 March 2019–
“It’s a great day for hundreds of thousands of minks who suffer each year in Flanders and are gassed for their fur. Flanders will also end the cruel practice of foie gras production.”
Global Action in the Interest of Animals (GAIA) applauds yesterdays unanimous decision by the Flemish parliament to ban fur farming and force feeding for fois gras production. The members of the Flemish parliament unanimously agreed the decision proposed earlier by the Flemish government on the initiative of Flemish animal welfare minister Ben Weyts (N-VA). GAIA president Michel Vandenbosch, who was involved 30 years ago in founding the very first anti-fur association in Belgium ‘Comité Anti Fourrure’, witnessed this reward after more than a quarter of a century of actions and campaigning against the suffering and abuse of hundreds of thousands of minks and ducks. Michel Vandenbosch: “Yesterdays agreement to forbid the practice in Flanders follows bans in Wallonia (in 2015) and the Brussels Region (in 2017) and means that the entire country will be free of fur farming by 2023 at the latest. Moreover, by banning force feeding, Flanders also joins the European top when it comes to animal welfare.”
By 1 December 2023 at the latest, the last of the 17 remaining fur farms and the only company in Flanders still to force feed ducks for the production of foie gras will have disappeared. The companies concerned will receive degressive compensation from the Flemish government. The sooner they stop, the higher the compensation will be. The government is to provide a total of 10 million euros for this purpose.
No support for fur
Wallonia and Brussels already banned mink farming in their regions back in 2015 and 2017 respectively. In Flanders there are still 17 active mink farms holding an annual combined total of around 200,000 minks (mothers and young) in captivity. The animals live for 7 to 8 months in a tiny cage before being gassed and ending up as a garment or accessory in the shops. These are wild animals and display highly neurotic behaviour in captivity (incessantly jumping up and down, self-mutilation, etc.). “It pays to persist. Breeding and killing animals for their fur alone is completely outdated”, stresses GAIA president Michel Vandenbosch. “A great majority of the Flemish people shares this opinion.”
The fact there is no social support for fur production is repeatedly demonstrated in surveys. The last survey, conducted by Ipsos in 2015 on behalf of GAIA, showed that 85% of the Flemish people agreed to the ban on the breeding and killing of animals for fur.
Jean-Claude Van Damme and Pamela Anderson
GAIA stepped up its fight against mink farming in Flanders over the years with numerous campaigns. In 2011, the organisation teamed up with Jean-Claude Van Damme to launch the campaign ‘The Victims’. At the end of December 2017, none other than Pamela Anderson wrote a letter to the Flemish minister Ben Weyts calling him to take urgent action on the ban.
So far a ban has been enforced in eleven other European countries: the United Kingdom, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Croatia, Slovenia, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg. Big fashion labels like Gucci, Armani, Hugo Boss, etc. are also excluding fur from their collections. The list keeps growing. “Fashion and ethics go increasingly hand in hand. We are delighted that Flanders will now contribute to a fur-free world”, says Vandenbosch.
Ban on force feeding
The ban on force feeding calls a halt to a cruel form of animal abuse in Flanders which remained in only one West-Flemish company. The Brussels Region already enforced a ban on force feeding for the production of foie gras in 2017. Resistance to force feeding is also growing across Europe: 12 European countries have already launched a formal ban or interpret the law for the protection of animals in such a way as to condemn the practice. Only 5 EU countries are still producing foie gras (France, Spain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Belgium). “We are committed to continue our campaigning in Wallonia, where 9 producers continue the use of force-feeding methods.”
If successful, AB 572 would require all contractors in the state who are sourcing products considered to be “forest-risk commodities” to certify that these products have not played a part in the destruction of tropical rainforests, or illegal land conversion. Contractors would “have to develop and maintain a No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation Policy (NDPE).”
The legislation will apply to products such as wood, paper, palm oil, soy, beef, leather, coffee, cocoa, rubber and more — all of which are produced in rapidly dwindling rainforest areas throughout the world. If passed, the new regulations would come into effect on January 1, 2021.
Bill AB-572 acknowledges that California — along with the entire planet — is at risk due to climate change, and notes that as the fifth-largest economy in the world, the state has the power to reduce deforestation significantly through its supply chains.
With earth’s rainforests now only covering seven percent of the planet’s surface, they still hold an astounding 50 percent of the earth’s species. A staggering 18,000,000 acres of tropical forests are being razed every year. If we can’t cease this destruction, the rainforests will be gone within 100 years, along with the thousands of species within them.
The importance of this piece of legislation should not be underestimated; it has the potential to save critically endangered animals such as orangutans, rhinos, elephants, and tigers — all at risk of extinction due to land clearing in Indonesia, primarily for the palm oil, paper, and pulp industries.
“When a species is wiped out, it’s forever,” says Katie Cleary, founder of Peace 4 Animals. “With this important bill, California has the chance to stop contributing to this global epidemic, encourage ethical purchasing, and help restore a healthier planet that includes the protection and preservation of our world’s most iconic animals.”
We commend the authors, co-authors, and co-sponsors of this crucial bill for their commitment to protecting tropical ecosystems, and will continue to follow the progress of AB-572 through the Senate.
WAV Comment:
We respect and send our congratulations to Californian Assembly member Ash Kalra on the introduction of a new bill tackling habitat destruction and deforestation.
Unlike Trump; California appears to recognise the problems that exist on this planet; and as a result are trying to change things for the better.
Above – Mark ‘Enjoys the Silence’
Below – ‘Enjoy the Silence’ video – DM – England.
I (Mark) have had so many good times in America’s South West – California, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado etc; and as an English alien; I am amazed and dumbstruck that your current President (or that’s what he calls himself) is going out guns blazing to destroy the beautiful wild animals and natural habitat that you have in such states. All because he thinks of money and nothing else – his head is blank and devoid of absorbing specialist advice and thinking of positive solutions to environmental issues.
I send greetings to the folk of California for taking a stand to make good environmental change by state legislation; – your policies and legacies will (fortunately) be around a lot longer than the muppet you have at ‘the top’ at present.
In Thuringia, an East German state, lies Germany’s only battle hotel. The guests pay here to see how the knife swings in slaughter!
The day at the “Hotel zum Eichsfelder Fleischer”begins with death, punctually at eight o’clock. That’s no surprise! So it was announced, as the first program point, after all, the guests arrive here to be present when a pig is slaughtered!!
The first shock is on both sides. In the sow, because she meets ten strangers in a white tiled room. In the guests, because the animal reaches them with its 290 kilos to the hip and it runs so suddenly through the metal door, that must be avoided.
Then everything goes fast.Marco Fritschpacks with the electric tongs, the pig sank within just a second, just falls over, his groan is amazingly deep. The reflexes make the animal fidget briefly in the air, like a dog dreaming of running.Then Fritsch sets the throat cut to bleed the sow.
Participation in a live slaughter with Marco Fritsch costs about 100 Euro. Including overnight stay in a double room, breakfast plate, beer and gentian flower, and a bag full of sausage specialties: smoked Eichsfeld sausage, sausage ring, liver sausage, sausage jelly in the glass.
The Eichsfelder Butcher in Thuringia is Germany’s only battle hotel: with this idea, the Fritsch family won the Thuringian Prize “Founder’s Prize for Innovative Ideas”.
Many guests take hundreds of kilometers to get there, the slaughter weekends are fully booked until the end of 2020. “If you are planning a birthday with us, the next year will be nothing, even for 2025 are already family celebrations in the calendar,” says Fritsch to the question of how the business is running.
The cultivated handling with meat has become increasingly bad over the years, says Fritz. The Eichsfeld is one of the few regions where – contrary to the usual hygiene requirements – meat can still be sold warm from slaughter, with special permission from the EU and out of respect for tradition!!
My comment: There is no “cultured” handling of the meat, and animals are not “flesh” but living beings.
Battles are never “culture”.
There is only crime and criminals here.
Dreadful?
Much worse: … a garbage heap of psychopaths!
“The human being, as a species, is no progress compared to another animal” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
WAV Comment – Please give your support to Jose Carlos Lorenzo asking the Ministry:
That they teach empathy, respect and care of animals at school
Addressed to: Ministry of Education (Argentina)
The new generations have to learn that it is wrong to mistreat an animal, that they feel pain and love just as we do. We can not allow our children to grow up seeing how an animal is mistreated and to say that it is okay depending on what animal it is, because it seems that a dog is not the same as an animal that they allow to hunt like a deer. If we did to the dogs what they do to the deer or birds that hunt, surely we would have the repudiation of the society, or at least of a part of it, but then why with hunting everything is fine and with the dog it is mistreatment , if both are animals that feel the same?
How do we explain to our children that one thing is good and the other is wrong, because they in their immense innocence can not distinguish. For this we need our children to learn to care for animals, to respect them and to treat them as living beings as we do.
I ask the Ministry of Education to put a subject in the primary and secondary schools where the children are taught empathy, respect and care of the animals.
WAV Comment – Great News – good on the People’s National Congress. we are sure that Chinese citizens will find medicinal alternatives to Pangolins without the need for animal and environmental destruction. We are certain that alternatives already exist for bear bile products. It just needs people to wake up and seek out cruelty free alternatives. Photos below are not associated with the article.
China Proposes Ban on Pangolins in Traditional Medicine
Published: Monday, 11 March 2019 16:31
Written by Lucy Papachristou
Members of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, announced a proposal to ban the use of pangolin products, the world’s most trafficked animal, in traditional Chinese medicine.
The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), a pro-Beijing conservative political party, released a series of 24 proposals for this year to be presented at the annual NPC sessions in March, which included the pangolin ban.
In addition to outright banning the use of those animals in traditional medicine, lawmakers are advocating for increasing “investment in the research and development of pangolin tablets substitutes” and “promoting the protection of pangolin resources.”
“The position taken by China’s lawmakers proposing a ban on the use of pangolins in TCM is an encouraging sign,” said Chris Hamley, Senior Pangolin Campaigner for the Environmental Investigation Agency, a UK-based NGO.
Pangolins, often referred to as “the scaly anteater,” are the only mammals entirely covered in scales. All eight species of pangolin—four are found in Africa and four in Asia—were granted protection under international law in early 2017, according to WildAid, a US-based environmental NGO.
A 2015 report by WildAid found that 70 percent of Chinese citizens surveyed believed pangolin scales could cure rheumatism, skin disorders and infections. They are also thought to cure cancer and arthritis.
China currently permits the legal use of pangolin scales in clinical treatment and in pharmaceutical manufacturing, and they are listed as an official drug in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, according to WildAid.
The new proposal could have a significant impact on the fate of pangolins, 100,000 of whom are taken from the wild every year across Africa and Asia.
Early last month, authorities in the Malaysian province of Sabah discovered two high-volume facilities containing thousands of boxes of pangolin meat, the biggest such seizure in the country to date.
Also included in the 2019 proposals were a number of other pieces of environmental legislation: strengthening the fight against illegal fishing; banning the trade and use of rhinoceros and its products; improving the system of protected natural lands; and the “protect[ion] [of] animals to promote environmental protection.”
We have covered this project before but feel it is worth looking at again as the 360 degree panorama made available gives un an insight directly into the world of the animal at the facility. At the end of this post we give details on how to view in 360 degrees if you are not familiar;
Regards Mark – WAV
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Dear Mark,
In 2016 we launched our virtual reality project iAnimal. This innovative project provides a unique and immersive view behind the scenes of the meat and dairy industries.
To see the world through the eyes of an animal, to feel their fear and desperation, to share their suffering – iAnimal has the potential to change our attitude towards animals permanently.
iAnimal is narrated by our famous animal-loving friends: Evanna Lynch, Amanda Abbington and Peter Egan. The modern 360° technology literally places the viewer in the world of a farmed animal. For many people it is a life-changing experience.
With the help of our generous supporters and volunteers, we take iAnimal to events, festivals, universities and other public places to raise awareness about farmed animal suffering.
