Following Born Free’s formal response to the government’s call for views on new measures to reduce transmission of bovine TB among cattle, we are pleased to report that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has issued a positive response.

Despite efforts from the National Farmers’ Union to get this process shelved or watered down, new measures will include improvements in TB testing for cattle, speeding up TB cattle vaccine trials, expanding badger vaccination and ending intensive cull licences – although not until 2024.

However, we could still see tens of thousands more badgers brutally killed before the barbaric cull policy finally ends.
Since 2013, over 140,000 badgers have been trapped and gunned down, with many most likely suffering a prolonged and painful death, and at a public cost of over £70m, in the UK government’s ill-advised effort to control tuberculosis in cattle.

“This debacle is the largest slaughter of a protected species in living memory,” explains badger expert Dominic Dyer, Born Free’s British Wildlife Advocate & Policy Advisor. “Badgers have been shot across a huge area of England stretching from Cornwall to Cumbria, pushing the species to the verge of local extinction in parts of the country which they have inhabited since the Ice Age.

“Despite the huge cruelty and cost of the badger cull, the government has provided no reliable scientific evidence to prove that the mass destruction of badgers is making any significant contribution to lowering bovine TB in cattle in or around the cull zones.
The levels of bovine TB in cattle herds within cull zones remains virtually the same as that outside of the killing fields. The cull policy has made no difference, yet thousands more badgers will lose their lives before it is finally brought to an end.

“There are over 9.6 million cattle in Britain and we move more cattle than anywhere else in Europe, the movement of cattle is a key driver for the spread of bovine TB in both cattle and badgers.

For too long the government and the farming industry have wrongly blamed the badger for spread of bovine TB in cattle, which has become a dangerous distraction from tackling the root cause of the disease in the cattle industry.

Despite push back from the National Farmers’ Union, the government is now waking up to this reality and is finally getting serious about an exit strategy from badger culling.
But it can’t come soon enough.

“It’s time the government stops playing the badger blame game and brings an immediate end to all further killing of badgers.”

https://www.bornfree.org.uk/news/badger-culling-to-go-on

And I mean…Badger culling licences have been granted across 44 areas in England, Natural England published a list of regions where badger culling licenses have been issued on September 7, 2020.

Tens of thousands of the animals have been killed in a government-backed scheme lasting nearly a decade that has left campaigners fearing badgers could become extinct in parts of England.

New licences have been issued in areas in Lincolnshire, Wiltshire, Warwickshire, Somerset, Shropshire, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Derbyshire and Avon.

This is no longer a badger control policy, it’s a badger eradication exercise.

The tragedy is, that the “vast majority” of badgers being killed were TB-free, with no impact from their deaths on reducing the disease in cattle.

Badger Trust executive director Peter Hambly said: “New national polling shows that only 15% of people in England support the ongoing badger cull, and yet the cull is bigger than ever and the Government continues to chaotically expand and intensify the killing.

“There is simply no let-up in the way the cull continues to expand and claim more badger lives.

“When the Government releases the 2021 cull figures, people will be shocked at the huge number of badgers killed and increasing areas of the country will be empty or near-empty of badgers.

“This is a national wildlife tragedy happening right before our eyes.”

This is the usual way to “solve” problems, most of which are caused by humans.
This is what the government in Denmark did with the millions of mink, and Germany is also practicing the cruel culling of thousands of chickens because of bird flu

The cruel irony is that such diseases will continue to affect us in the future, as long as we want to engage in factory farming and animal exploitation
Man is the only animal on the planet that doesn’t learn from his mistakes.

My best regards to all, Venus

These are images that animal abusers do not like.

Hobby hunters in southern France are distraught.
Within a short period of time, their animal cruelty facilities were repeatedly destroyed because of a technique they practiced in Provence for trapping blackbirds and thrushes, which is very controversial.

“That’s a real command,” Eric Camoin rants.
“There are several who came here to reconnoiter and then destroy everything – on a full moon night!”
A fortnight earlier similar destruction had been recorded in the departments of Vaucluse and Var.
Near the destroyed posts were found signs calling hunters murderers or animal rights activists.

The chairman of the national association for the defense of the traditional thrush hunt, who invited the local press to express his “weariness”, said: “This is the tenth time this has happened.”
He said: “Whether one likes these practices or not, that’s another debate. I’m not asking you to love the hunt.
Everyone is free in their opinion. But at a certain point you can’t take it all and just destroy it.”

A hunt that sparks debate

“Hunting with glue is part of our heritage,” says Gérard Guidice, President of the Marignane Hunting Society.
“Here we are in Provence. If you attack this kind of hunting, you attack our culture!”
In fact, glue hunting, practiced mainly in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, is regularly denounced by environmentalists and animal rights activists.

At the end of August, Emmanuel Macron decided to suspend the hunt with glue for this season, denounced by environmentalists and bird conservationists.
The gesture was also in response to orders from the European Commission that gave France three months in early July to phase out this illegal hunting method, which a 2009 directive bans barring an exemption.

“There are clubs that stir up hatred against this practice and groups behind it do the dirty work,” according to Eric Camoin.

“We’ve filed complaints,” says Eric Camoin. “However, the gendarmes and police officers don’t even come by.
They don’t care. They receive the complaints and file them. We can’t go on like this.”

“One day we will attack the perpetrators,” says a hunter from Marseille, who prefers to remain anonymous.
We’ll get her. We manage to hunt every kind of animal, so we’ll get them!
This is not a death threat, but a warning…”. (!!!)

Eric Camoin is concerned: “There will be drama. There will be a catastrophe because sooner or later we will find it.
We won’t give up and we’ll manage to find out who it is.
If a hunter comes across a guy destroying a post, I don’t know how the guy will react!”

France remains the only EU country that still allows glue hunting. The hunters are demanding urgent intervention from the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, at the risk of the amateur hunters becoming the police themselves.

https://wildbeimwild.com/unkultur/frankreich-jagdstationen-zerstoert/56857/2022/01/28/

The activists anonymously left the following “message”:

English : Action Stop Hunting Animals in France
“The murderers and animal killers are still cracking down, which is why the members of ALF came back to destroy 21 hunting houses. Real structures in nature with concrete roof steel beams … empty cartridges left to pollute the community.

Armed psycopathes who cut open and put perches to kill all kinds of animals such as thrushes and blackbirds!
You degenerates, have you not seen that there are almost more birds …

For the birds, mumps and other animals you raise, feed and hunt, ALF will always be there.
Also learn to count band of “shit hunters”, not 18 but 21 more cisterns”

And I mean…Hunting birds with so-called limesticks fundamentally violates EU law.
Limestick hunting was once used throughout France to capture and eat songbirds.
Hence the trick with the sticky mass.
This is how you can catch birds without hurting their bodies.

Today, however, the hunt has become more of a competition of murders, where it is all about who catches the most blackbirds or other thrushes.

We’ve been protesting the brutal and illegal method of killing birds with limesticks for decades.
Even the EU Commission warned France’s hunters in July 2020 to end this “illegal form of hunting”.

Apparently, however, the hunters of France do not want to civilize and they still practice their murderous and illegal hunting techniques in the 21st century, in the heart of Europe, in the name of tradition and heritage..

If the hunters from Provence want to take revenge, then they still have to practice a bit.

We show solidarity with the courageous activists.
We say “Thank you”!

My best regards to all, Venus

30 years ago today, on the 9th of February 1991, hunt saboteur Mike Hill was killed at a meet of the Cheshire Beagles.
Towards the end of the days hunting, with sabs having prevented any kills, the huntsman boxed up his hounds in a small blue trailer being towed by an open-top pick-up truck.

The kennel huntsman, Allan Summersgill, along with another man, jumped into the pick-up and on impulse, three sabs who were nearby, jumped onto the back of it to prevent them driving the pack to another location to continue hunting.

Summersgill drove off at high speeds down winding country roads for 5 miles with the terrified sabs clinging onto the back.
It is thought that Mike jumped from the pick-up as it slowed to take a bend but failed to clear the truck properly and was caught between the truck and the trailer, which crushed him.
Mike died where he lay in the road.

Despite the thud, and the screams of the other sabs, Summersgill continued driving for a further mile.
The truck only came to a halt when one of the sabs smashed the rear window of the cab.
The sab was hit with a whip as he tried to stop the truck. Once it had stopped one sab ran back to Mikes prostrate body while the other ran to a nearby house to call for an ambulance.
Summersgill drove off.

Allan Summersgill was never charged

He later handed himself in at a police station. No charges were brought against him and in a travesty of justice, a verdict of Accidental Death was brought at the inquest.
Summersgill is still hunting hares.

Here, a long-standing member of Liverpool Hunt Saboteurs remembers Mike, and the extreme violence that sabs were met with generally throughout that period and which, although to a lesser extent, still continues to this day:

Mike cared deeply about injustice and cruelty towards animals and humans alike.
A naturally kind and caring person who was willing to put hard work into fighting for what he believed in. He loved being with animals and doing rescue work.
It was a natural thing for him to get involved with the anti-hunt movement.
We would talk about the danger of disrupting the hunts.

Sometimes we would make light of it as a coping mechanism but very often the conversation would focus on who was the latest person to be attacked or what we could do to protect ourselves.

So although it was a shock to hear that Mike had been killed, it came as no surprise to most of us.
In fact it was a miracle that we had survived the violence for so long without a fatality.

Continue reading “Remembering Mike Hill” →

Iceland plans to end all whaling from 2024, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Svandis Svavarsdottir said in a column in the Morgunbladid newspaper on Friday.

“There are few justifications to authorize the whale hunt beyond 2024,” the minister said, adding that, as things stand, it is highly likely that the practice will be banned when the current quotas end.

Whaling, which was re-authorized for commercial purposes in 2006, is becoming less economically justifiable, with only one whale killed in the past three years.

“There can be several reasons for this, but perhaps the simple explanation is that there have been sustained losses from this type of fishing,” she said.

Demand for whale meat from Iceland has dropped massively since Japan re-authorized whaling in 2019 after it withdrew from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Whalers in Iceland have also been required to go further afield to hunt the creatures after a no-fishing coastal zone was extended.

Iceland-Whale hit by exploding projectiles bleeds to death slowly and painfully – That’s how cruel whaling is

Social distancing due to the coronavirus has also rendered Iceland’s whale meat processing plants inoperable.

Amid widespread condemnation of the industry, Iceland is one of the few nations, along with Norway and Japan, that still allows commercial whale hunts.

2018 was the last full whaling season, with 146 fin whales and six minke whales killed.

https://www.rt.com/news/548371-iceland-whale-hunt-ban/

And I mean..Those responsible in the Icelandic government should have come to this good decision much earlier, because the demand for whale meat has fallen sharply.

There is absolutely no justification for getting involved in this incredibly cruel industry.
Iceland’s government generally allows minke whales to be caught as a sideline for fishermen, but it also gives the monopoly on the killing of the world’s second largest species, the fin whale, to an one alone millionaire, Kristján Loftsson.

No other country hunts this endangered species, no other country has exported such mountains of whale meat in the last 20 years as the northern European island state.
Iceland used to be one of the most active whaling countries.

Thousands of blue, fin and humpback whales died in Icelandic waters from the early 20th century to 1989. The small country benefited primarily from exports of whale products to Japan.

Luckily the harpoons have been dormant since 2019, the fishing fleet has been in port ever since and the chances of ending this massacre forever and ever are good; we only hope that Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir sticks to his sensible decision.

Like Japanese whaling, whaling in Iceland was just a bloody massacre, benefiting very few and harming very many.
First of all the animals.

“Scientific research” as a hunting ground for whaling has always been a cynical joke.
It’s about jobs and subsidies.
But developments in Iceland suggest the last remaining whalers have gone out of business

What the Icelandic government has done to these animals up until now has been a moral bankruptcy.
High time to abolish that

My best regards to all, Venus

From German Media (translation)

The sight of the destroyed, sawn-down hunting high seat, which lies on the ground on the country road between Rheinfelden and Möhlin, annoys Willy Itin, hunting supervisor in the Rheinfelden area.

“2000 francs are over,” he says and adds: “It’s a bottomless impudence – just destroying someone else’s property. (!!!)

” With red paint, the alleged perpetrator has sprayed her abbreviation on the high seat: “ALF” – Animal Liberation Front; to German: Animal Liberation Front.
Their goal is to prevent animal testing and killing of animals. This is done, for example, by attacks on laboratories and animal farms by means of sabotage or arson attacks.

Danger to life and a queasy feeling it is hard to imagine, according to Itin, what could have happened if the perpetrators had only sawn on the stilts or the ladder and a hunter in the seat had fallen as a result.

He says: “In the worst case, you can break your back – or a shot can come loose. In general, it would be anything but easy for hunting today to fulfill its mission of keeping game damage to a minimum (!!!). Animal rights activists don’t want us to hunt anymore and according to some farmers, we can’t hunt often enough,” says Itin.

Two more high seats destroyed it was not the only action against the hunting parties in the lower Fricktal in the night from Saturday to Sunday.
Also in the hunting ground Möhlin-Süd in the Röti area at the foot of the Sonnenberg tower, the ALF allegedly sawed a high seat, a third fell near the brewery Feldschlösschen in the hunting ground Olsberg.

In the past, the three hunting societies had no problems with the said animal liberation front. In principle, one could be against hunting, says Paul Mahrer, deputy supervisor in the Möhlin Süd district.
But: “You should then please collect signatures, but not commit a crime.”

“In the future, you have to check carefully whether the high seat is not manipulated before you climb on it”, warns Mahrer.
He hopes that the police can identify the perpetrators and that they will have to bear the costs on which the hunting party would otherwise remain seated.
The other hunting societies also hope for this in unison. Thus, the reassembly is not only associated with costs, but also with time and work.
Police have started the investigation yesterday afternoon, it was still unclear whether further high seats had been destroyed.

As Corina Winkler, spokeswoman for the cantonal police, says, the police have started the investigation and secured the first traces.Call for witnesses persons who have noticed suspicious persons in the vicinity of the crime scenes from Saturday to Sunday are asked to report for information by telephone…

https://animalliberationpressoffice.org/NAALPO/2022/01/24/alf-topples-hunting-towers-germany-2/

And I mean…In principle, anyone with a license to hunt can set up such high seats.
This makes a high seat one of the very few structures that do not require a permit in Germany, which means that anyone can build wildly.
Where and as much as anyone wants.

Even on someone else’s property, and if the owner on whose property such a building stands does not agree to the construction, he has to calculate with a long process, with costs for lawyer, trouble..etc.
Even though it’s his property.

Most of the time, in front of such murder seats there are feeding barrels for the animals that will soon be executed.
By feeding them, with which they literally fatten up some wild animals and bring them through the winter, they just want to shoot a deer quickly and not sit in their seats for hours and wait for one to run by.
Hunter Willy Ittin claims “hunting today fulfills its mission of keeping game damage to a minimum”.

Hunting is not wildlife management – genocide is not humanitarian aid.
Mentally, morally, socially sane people with decency don’t need the disgusting, murderous hunt.
Thanks to the activists of ALF

My best regards to all, Venus