Since 2013 the Conservative Government and the National Farmers Union have spearheaded a policy that has led to the barbaric deaths of 140,830 badgers, an almost unimaginable figure.

In 2020 alone more than 40,000 badgers were killed in 54 cull zones from Cornwall to Cumbria and from Lincolnshire to Cheshire.

Badger in trap

Almost the entire South West – Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Wiltshire is now a giant cull zone as the dairy industry looks to scapegoat and wipe out one of our best loved mammals.
Although there have been media stories suggesting the cull is coming to an end there are 7 new zones starting killing in 2021 bringing the total to 61.

Shooters

Despite these awful figures the picture on the ground is more positive.

In the eleven new zones in 2020, five failed to hit the original minimum kill figure and in the other thirty three zones that were in years two, three or four, eleven of them failed to hit their minimum target.
his means that of the forty four zones still in the first four years of culling, sixteen failed to hit minimum targets.

As usual the Government and NFU (National Farmers ‘Union) moved the goalposts halfway through culling and quietly reduced the targets for zones, when it became clear that the original minimum target couldn’t be hit, in a desperate attempt to turn failure into success.

Trap

Once the four years intensive killing is completed then zones become supplementaries and have an extended kill period of 6 months in order to keep a low badger population.
There are currently 21 supplementary zones, a figure which will increase every year as more zones finish their four year intensive culls.

This year, as they have every year since 2013, local sab groups will mobilise to fight the cull.
They’ll use military grade night vision and thermal imaging equipment, funded by the HSA (Hunt Saboteurs Association), to find and stop shooters and they’ll walk thousands of miles looking for and neutralising traps.

The HSA will again be providing thousands of pounds to support them with fuel and equipment.

Hunt Saboteurs

Hunt saboteurs and other anti-cull activists are making the badger killers fight for every life they take.
If it wasn’t for the stiff resistance they’re meeting on the ground, the number of deaths would be far higher and localised extinction would have taken place in large parts of the West Country.

We’ll keep fighting until this cruel cull is gone for good.

https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/the-badger-cull-coming-to-a-county-near-you/

And I mean…The publicity surrounding the culls has led to an influx of new members and supporters for the HSA, many of whom have become active saboteurs who go into the fields to intervene directly between the hunters and their prey.
The life of the Hunt Saboteurs Association looks more and more positive.
In contrast to the hunter’s job, which is becoming more and more difficult.

Without the Sabs the animal killers would have had it much easier

They themselves say: “We have more Sabs, more groups, better vehicles and equipment, more supporters and more money. This means that we can save more wild animals and be a louder voice for those who cannot speak for themselves”.

We wish that with all our hearts.

The larger the group, the greater the support in case of danger.
Because the police do nothing if the hunters are aggressive or attack saboteurs, but arrest people without justification whenever the hunters want it.

My best regards to all, Venus

Legalized trophy hunting has corrupted Swedish hunting management to such an extent that the Swedish Environment Agency is actively undermining the purpose of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)!
It issues export permits for all trophies to attract foreign hobby hunters.

As of August 21, more than 500 brown bears are to be killed before their annual hibernation.

The European Commission and the international animal welfare community must address Sweden’s repeated violations of the Habitats Directive and ban the unethical trophy hunting of large predators, which is escalating in Sweden.

Trophy hunting is increasing worldwide, including Sweden.
Hunting seriously jeopardizes the survival of large predators.

Even so, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) increases the quota for legal trophy hunting every year.
Almost 7,000 bears, lynxes, wolves and wolverines have been legally killed since 2000.
In the first half of 2021 alone, permits for the killing of more than 720 predators were already issued in Sweden.

The cruel and unethical trophy hunting with which the Swedish Federal Environment Agency wants to regulate the populations, however, violates the aim and purpose of the EU species and habitat directive (92/43 / EEC).

Sweden blatantly abuses these stringent protection laws by adjusting its own national loopholes and unrestrainedly interpreting the limited hunting exemptions in order to sustain the trophy hunting industry.

The Swedish bear population is currently less than 2,900 wild animals

This month, more than 500 bears will be targeted for trophy hunting in seven Swedish counties, although 107 bears, including females and young, have been killed in helicopter hunts this spring.

Bears that wake up from hibernation and get too close to reindeer are condemned in advance by the reindeer owners.
Even so, the reindeer industry receives significant government subsidies to accept the predators.
Martial and usually illegal methods such as snowmobile chasing, 24-hour hunting and being shot down from helicopters are approved by the district administration.
It is even possible to track females with young animals in their burrows.

These brutal practices against predators are increasing every year in northern Sweden.
A region where illegal hunting is widespread, sometimes with extremely sadistic methods, as the hunting scandal in Norrbotten in 2017 showed:

Torturing lynx in traps, strangling lynx and bears on metal wires in trees, provoking dogs on trapped and injured animals.
This proves that legalized trophy hunting neither creates respect for wildlife nor reduces conflict.

Continue reading “Brutal trophy hunt in Sweden” →

“I’m an asshole, I shoot animals.”

© District hunters in Wesel

Hundreds of green stickers with this slogan have been sticking for days in a medium-sized town of Neukirchen-Vluyn in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Even election posters did not spare the unknown perpetrators. Corona is a reason for the city.

“In the course of the pandemic, the number of cases of property damage and vandalism has increased overall,” said Mayor Ralf Köpke.

The local hunters have also been struggling with vandalism for months, a hunter says
“We have even found stickers like this on high seats,” says the press spokesman for the Wesel District Hunters’ Association, he assumes that there are juvenile perpetrators.

“The stickers are piling up in front of schools in particular.”

Both the city and the affected hunters have now filed charges against unknown persons.

https://www.jagderleben.de/news/anti-jagd-vandalismus-sticker-graffiti-neukirchen-vluyn-712930

And I mean…We thank the activists very much.
We would also like to thank the Wesel District Hunters’ Association for the nice photo with the sticker.
Truth is hard to bear, but baptizing it as vandalism is sacrilege

My best regards to all, Venus

Gabonese minister takes part in patrol after terrifying footage of two humpback whales in a fishing net.

On August 4, a Sea Shepherd drone flew over a purse seine net laid out by a European fishing vessel around a school of tuna.
Terrifying images of two humpback whales were captured within the net trying to break free.

Despite repeated requests to open the net, the humpback whales fought desperately for over an hour to escape.

Sea Shepherds inflatable boat and the PONT SAINT LOUIS

The drone was operated from Sea Shepherd’s ship BOB BARKER, which is currently patrolling Gabonese waters for the sixth year in a row.
As part of the partnership with the Gabonese authorities, fishing vessels with a fishing license are inspected in Gabon’s territorial waters to ensure compliance with the law.

When OPERATION ALBACORE – the campaign to end illegal, unregulated and undocumented fishing in Gabonese waters – began in 2015, fishery observers regularly reported of purse seine vessels using whales and whale sharks as live attractants.
The animals were deliberately enclosed with nets in order to catch the tuna that gathered around them.

As a result, the Gabonese government, led by Fisheries Minister Biendi Maganga-Moussavou, banned this practice.
Purse seiners have been required to open the nets immediately if there are whales or whale sharks in them – even if it means losing a tuna catch.

Minister Biendi Maganga-Moussavou and Captain Peter Hammarstedt

“Even if the two endangered humpback whales were ultimately released, every minute of added stress reduces the chances of survival after liberation,” said Captain Peter Hammarstedt, Sea Shepherd’s Director of Campaigns.

In purse seine fishing, a large net is laid out in a ring around a school of fish.
Then the net is pulled together at the lower end and closed.

When Minister Maganga-Moussavou was shown the harrowing footage, he decided to join the Gabonese fisheries inspectors, environmental officers, marines and the Sea Shepherd crew on patrols on board the BOB BARKER for a few days (!!)

Minister Biendi Maganga-Moussavou and Captain Peter Hammarstedt.

“I wanted to see the practices of the purse seine fleet with my own eyes.

At the same time, I wanted to send a clear message that illegal fishing activities in the waters of Gabon will not be tolerated.
I drove over 190 kilometers from Libreville to the maritime border with the neighboring country São Tomé and Príncipe to show that the Gabonese government monitors every square kilometer of its territorial waters and that OPERATION ALBACORE has my full support and that of the head of state Ali Bongo Ondimba “ said Minister Maganga-Moussavou

Minister Maganga-Moussavou has also decided to impose penalties on the ship that refused to open its nets.

Minister Biendi Maganga-Moussavou inspects the cargo from a purse seine ship.

“The publication of these shocking imagery, the punishment of the ship and my own participation in the patrol will have a deterrent effect on future illegal activities”, Minister Maganga-Moussavou said.

https://sea-shepherd.de/news/zwei-buckelwale-im-netz-gefangen/

We thank the Minister Maganga-Moussavou ♥️
Perhaps we should send some of our unfit ministers 👉 to him for training.

My best regards to all, Venus

Brigitte Bardot describes the decision of the Prefect of the Department of Oise, who approved the killing of 3,000 foxes a week ago as a “massacre”.

3,000 of the predators are supposed to be hunted in the French department of Oise, but the former actress wants to prevent that.
Brigitte Bardot is outraged.
The former diva of the French film and meanwhile radical animal rights activist wants to prevent a “massacre” in her own words. 3,000 foxes are to be shot north of Paris, in the French department of Oise, in the next few months.

In an open letter on Wednesday, August 18, 2021, Brigitte Bardot denounced the “stupid decree” and wants to take it to court.

“Your murderous decree is nothing more than submission to the hunting lobby”( Brigitte Bardot )

“These animals are a wealth for biodiversity,” writes Brigitte Bardot to Corinne Orzechowski, the prefect of the region.
She trusts that the pressure from hobby hunters will not be given in.
The decree was simply issued in the town hall, without a public hearing – which is mandatory.

The hunters defend themselves against the allegations

The dispute over foxhunting had already started in the spring. It was then announced that the number of wild animals was to be decimated.
But animal rights activists in France made the matter public, threatened with protests and the decree was unceremoniously withdrawn by the administration in view of the public attention.
So now follows the second attempt to open the hunt for the foxes in the Oise department, write the “Stuttgart News”

However, the wild animal killers are now speaking out vehemently and are unjustly pilloried.
Guy Harlé d’Ophove, President of the Oise Hobby Hunters Association, admits that of course no animal in the forest is really harmful.
But above a certain number it becomes problematic.
“The fox has no natural enemies and reproduces quickly,” explains Guy Harlé d’Ophove with his hunter ramblings.
It is not about exterminating the foxes. It is even useful because the robber eats sick animals and carrion.
But in nature there has to be a balance between the species, and in this case hobby hunters take care of that (!!!)
The aim is to limit the fox population that has grown due to the canceled hunts during the corona lockdown.

A petition on the Internet aims to stop the massacre

Brigitte Bardot and her colleagues, however, consider this to be an advanced argument. Because for the hobby hunter, the foxes are an unwelcome competition.
The predators would also prey on small game such as hares or partridges, these are the preferred targets of the numerous wild animal killers in France.

Numerous associations and citizens were outraged about the approval to kill 3,000 foxes. A petition has so far collected over 45,000 signatures against the decision of the Oise Prefecture.
Brigitte Bardot has now joined forces to defend the foxes.

https://wildbeimwild.com/kunterbunt/brigitte-bardot-wehrt-sich-fuer-fuechse/49994/2021/08/19/

Petition (sign and share): https://www.mesopinions.com/petition/animaux/abattage-renards-oise/155017

And I mean: The hunters have in fact failed.
Therefore they try to justify the approved massacre with lies
I mean, you don’t have to be an anti-hunter to find such arguments shitty.

In nature it is intended that every living being becomes food so that every species can survive. Those who have a lot of “predators” produce a lot of offspring in order to preserve their own species.
That is normal.
If this were not the case, an imbalance would arise.
However, this balance is severely disturbed by hunting.

It is a deliberate lie to claim that hunting can significantly reduce the fox population. The opposite is the case, as scientists and wildlife biologists can show.
That means: the hunt favors high fox populations!

The more vehemently these animals are chased, the higher their reproductive rate.
They compensate for the losses through more births and / or increased immigration.
Nature arranged it that way.

The hunters have absolutely no interest in the fox population.
They only want to decimate hawks, weasels, foxes and the like because they want to beat and collect their prey themselves.
They hunt because they enjoy shooting animals, leaving them bloody on the ground and letting them die in agony.

The times are apparently finally over when the hunters in the woods could do what they wanted.
And anyone who disagreed was intimidated “eclectic”.

There is no hunter ideology,only a fraction of what the majority of the population wants is implemented
Not what a minority of militant animal killers would like.

My best regards to all, Venus

North American Animal Liberation Press Office: Received anonymously:

ENG: The ALF destroys a larsen trap and releases a magpie in Italy.
A second trap was also destroyed and it will not be the last because we are everywhere. We have run out of patience, the traps are just the begining.

SPA: EL Frente de Liberación Animal destruye una trampa larsen y libera una urraca en Italia.
Otra jaula fue destruida, y no será la última, porque estamos en todas partes. La paciencia tiene un límite, las jaulas son solo el aperitivo.

ITA: ALF distrutta gabbia larsen e liberata gazza.
Un’ altra gabbia distrutta, e non sarà l’ ultima, perchè siamo ovunque. La pazienza ha un limite, le gabbie sono solo l’ antipasto.

https://animalliberationpressoffice.org/NAALPO/2021/08/02/magpie-liberated-traps-destroyed-by-alf-italy-2/

Thank you ALF!
The hunters must slowly realize that the days of their hideous atrocities are numbered

My best regards to all, Venus

The UK’s grouse shooting season has officially begun, with the first shoots taking place yesterday.
The day is called the ‘glorious twelfth’ by people who enjoy shooting primarily ground-dwelling birds.

This year over 100 hunt sabs disrupted multiple grouse shoots in the Yorkshire Dales, the Hunt Saboteurs Association has claimed.

Shoots in Wensleydale, Swaledale and Arkengarthdale were targeted.

Stand-off
Police were called and a stand-off between shooting parties and the saboteurs took place on several moors.
The Hunt Saboteurs Association said in a post on its website:

“We found our first driven shoot located above the village of Healaugh on Reeth Low Moor.
A stand off ensued whilst the shooters called in the police and we held them there for several hours and monitored them for the rest of the day”.

https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/not-so-glorious-12th/

Reactions
It is unlikely that many of the hunting community were big fans of the direct action, but there was a lot of support on social media for the sabs.

We’ve rounded up the best of it below:
1.
Hit report from yesterday’s mass sab of the inglorious 12th! https://t.co/gFcXrRBSVi pic.twitter.com/IF9P6Rysb0
— West Yorkshire Hunt Sabs (@wyhuntsabs) August 13, 2021
2.
You’re all brilliant. Donation on it’s way. Thanks to all
— Susan 💙 (@Sueblueocean) August 13, 2021
3.
Wow. 100 of you turned up.
Im impressed. Thank you
We will clean up the countryside yet.
— Michael Smith (@albionau) August 13, 2021
4.
Just thank you.
— the Brexitarian (@AMaddock4) August 13, 2021
5.
Northern sabs killing it today! 👊🏽#NoMoorMyths https://t.co/n9mmNzAgeM
— Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs (@WiltsHuntSabs) August 12, 2021
6.
Still feeling the love for yesterday’s successes..https://t.co/SVFa2dDoYI
— South Wales Hunt Sabs (@SWalesHuntSabs) August 13, 2021

7.
Well done to all sabs out yesterday.https://t.co/hZZAnGUcaO
— Lee Moon (@PressHsa) August 13, 2021

https://fb.watch/7EW5rW4oyL/

Related: Prince William says being dad spurred him to protect natural world but took son on Grouse shoot

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/grouse-shooting-a-glorious-12th-for-hunt-saboteurs-285871/

We also say “Thank you” to the Hunt Sabs for disabling the traditional beginning of Grouse’s murder.
We show solidarity with everyone who combats and prevents the murder of innocent animals without violence.

Many thanks also to the author of this article.
There are apparently some journalists who have not yet sold their professional ethics because of their careers

My best regards to all, Venus