(left) “I am a hunter and animal protector”
(right) “I can’t do anything useful either”
Regards and a good night from Venus
Category: Hunting
Much has been written about the decimation of rhino populations in Africa due to poaching. Due to COVID-19, the problem has worsened as gangs in Mozambique take advantage of the lack of tourists and guards in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, killing nine rhino already.
Since lockdown, six rhino in Botswana has been slaughtered for their horn.
Why do the poachers do it? In all the coverage of the rhino disaster — about the demand from China, the gangs who control the racket and the horrific on-the-ground images — the people who commit the actual murder of the animal have largely remained silent, until now.
In 2016, award-winning journalist Godknows Nare spent six months in the epicenter of rhino poaching, around the perimeter of Kruger National Park, interviewing poachers and their families.
Shortly after he returned, I talked with Nare about his time with the poachers. (Nare, who had received death threats for several years due to his work exposing the inhumane prison system in Zimbabwe as well as his investigations into corruption in South Africa, was shot and killed outside his home by Johannesburg Metropolitan Police in 2017. Three officers were arrested and put on trial for murder, later to be acquitted.)
“At first I thought [poachers] were just cruel criminals,” Nare told me. “But then you engage with the people, you live with the people … There are villages just around the Kruger National Park, [where people] live on social grants because there is no more land to farm … You just need to fill up your stomach. Then you can think about other things.”
https://worldanimalsvoice.com/?s=trophy+hunter
“If this book doesn’t get trophy hunting banned I don’t know what will. This is an incredible investigation that reveals everything the industry would rather you didn’t know.” – JUDI DENCH
“A society which allows sentient creatures to be killed for entertainment has serious questions to answer. ‘Trophy Hunters Exposed’ asks those questions and then answers them in devastating fashion.” – PETER EGAN
“If there’s one book to buy about animals this year, this is it. Trophy hunting is legalised animal abuse on an industrial scale. ‘Trophy Hunters Exposed’ tells us why we must abolish it. Now.” – JOANNA LUMLEY
Thousands of animals threatened with extinction were shot by trophy hunters last year. Attempts to protect dwindling lion and elephant populations have been thwarted by hunters. They are now allowed to shoot twice as many critically endangered black rhinos. How has this happened?
‘TROPHY HUNTERS EXPOSED – Inside the Big Game Industry’ is an explosive investigation into the trophy hunting industry, its key players and donors, and how it is stripping endangered animals of the protections they need.
It reveals how a top fundraiser for Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin’s right-hand man, the head of a paramilitary death-squad and a former WWF Director have shot record-breaking lions, elephants, rhinos and leopards.
It exposes the identities of over 500 hunters who have won industry awards for shooting all the ‘African Big Five’; the leading figures in the UK industry including a salesman who helps hunters shoot juvenile lions in enclosures; and the extraordinary kill tallies and trophy collections of hunters around the world.
It also lifts the lid on how household brands – and our taxes – are funding lobbyists, how the Boy Scouts and Salvation Army in the US are helping the industry recruit a new generation of child hunters, how lobbyists are posing as ‘conservation’ groups … and how the industry boasts it ploughs more money into US elections than some of the world’s biggest corporations.
Read how psychologists and criminologists fear trophy hunting could be fuelling violent crime, and how the industry could spark devastating outbreaks of diseases in local communities …
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eduardo Goncalves is an award-winning campaigner, journalist and conservationist. He has been a consultant to WWF and CEO of a national animal welfare charity. In 2018, he founded the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, which is today supported by some of the world’s biggest names in music, sport, film and TV. In 2019, the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting persuaded the UK government to support a ban on imports of hunting trophies.
Eduardo was awarded the Animal Heroes Award for services to wildlife in 2019. A short film about Eduardo’s work – with endorsements from Kevin Pietersen, Stanley Johnson, Lorraine Kelly, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips – can be viewed HERE.
Proceeds from the sale of ‘TROPHY HUNTERS EXPOSED – Inside the Big Game Industry’ will be donated to the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting
BOOK REVIEW
by Charlie Moores, War on Wildlife
The Daily Mail has described Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting (CBTH) as “Britain’s most prominent anti-hunting activist”. Whether they mean that as a compliment is difficult to tell, but it does show just how busy Eduardo has been given that he only set up CBTH two years ago. Prior to that he was chief-executive of the League Against Cruel Sports of course (which, not that disclaimers are needed, is where I first met him), but Eduardo – it seems – has indeed become one of the most recognisable faces and voices in a movement arrowing in on one of the most cruel, wasteful, and disturbing examples of humanity’s war on wildlife.
In a remarkably short time Eduardo (who is seemingly everywhere and knows everyone) has brought together a broad coalition of supporters and researchers, become an almost permanent fixture in the media, and – it turns out – has also somehow found time to write a book. Or at least, written the sort of minutely-detailed, reference-packed work that an organisation like Ethical Consumer might produce if they were to write a book. Stripped of anything superfluous, of anything subjective or gratuitous (there are no images – can you imagine the hunters writing their manual without including selfies of dentists with dead lions?), “Trophy Hunters Exposed: Inside the Big Game Industry” slams into trophy hunting with the force of a meteorite.
Published today and presented in three parts, ‘THE’ precisely dissects the Industry (“one of the world’s most powerful political lobbies”), dispassionately lists the worst of the world’s self-glorifying hunters, before finally detailing exactly why these apparently sexually inadequate, delusional, ‘freedom fighters’ only feel alive when they’re killing something (in the name of ‘conservation’ of course). It’s all done so forensically. Fact after fact delivered like charges in an indictment. Page after page of condemnation of an industry that shouldn’t exist, that is built from an alt-right shopping list of God, money, gun rights, and machismo, a skewed eighteenth-century vision of white men sorting out the wilderness, and a biblical ‘dominion’ belief that animals are just there for us to do what we want with.
Eduardo doesn’t go in for such rhetorical flourish though, and ‘THE’ is all the better for it. There is a noticeable absence of opinion or personal pronouns. It is in essence a distillation of factual material, minutely researched and referenced, that brings together absolutely every good argument against trophy hunting. Trophy hunting’s proponents will seize on that last point as the book is unconcerned with presenting any of what they would see as the good arguments for trophy hunting. But, I would hazard a guess, that was never the intention. Eduardo’s response might be to point out that the industry has had years to lobby, obfuscate, blur, and lie, so why should he give their arguments (which revolve almost entirely around land-use) another airing, but I think it’s more likely that he simply neither respects nor agrees with any of them.
And why should he? Anything trophy hunters might trot out about respect for wildlife, local people, or conservation is undermined by their own words and actions. While ‘THE’ is not filled with what Eduardo thinks, feels, or has experienced, it does collate the most apposite quotations of others. There are damning lines picked from, for example, hunting forums, from unguarded discussions at hunting shows, and from the tone-deaf posturings of hunters on social media. There is an enormous amount of material in the public domain. Much of it no doubt resonates with fellow psychopaths, but to the rest of us it is just revealing. From glorifying trophy rooms (external representations of an individual’s total lack of empathy with the natural world) to organ-swelling gun porn (“…[the gazelle] swayed back and forth a bit and then turned and I saw the blood pouring out of his nose”), the appalling world of treating sentient life as the urinal wall in a pissing contest is laid bare.
Will ‘THE’ end trophy hunting? For all its gimlet-eyed focus on this ego-stroking ‘sport’, the answer is no, of course not. As the book details, heads of industry, the uber-wealthy, and sons of presidents and royalty fill voids in their lives by blasting holes in animals. Hunting has shored itself up with vast bank accounts, infiltrated legislature and conservation organsations, and is now chasing children to ensure the flow of emotionally-stunted gunmen doesn’t dry up. It sells itself as freedom, and uses an image of masculinity that appeals to a primal desire to slaughter that many of us acknowledge but have turned away from in disgust. More than all of that, it is about making profit. Corrupt officials have made absolute fortunes selling wildlife to the vainglorious. Trophy hunting will not simply lie down and go away, but much like how Dr Mark Avery’s ‘Inglorious’ stripped away the veneer of tradition and glamour that the grouse industry had wrapped itself in, “Trophy Hunters Exposed: Inside the Big Game Industry” does exactly what it sets out to do: expose, strip bare, shine a light that trophy hunting will at first sneer at but – as the evidence piles up – will ultimately be desperate to shrink away from.
Another question might be, where does ‘Trophy Hunting Exposed’ sit in our post-Covid world? Is it a perfect post-Covid book, arriving bang on time as we seek to re-examine our relationship with the environment and with nature? I don’t think so. Not because ‘THE’ is not an invaluable resource or primer par excellence (it definitely is), but because none of what ‘THE’ exposes is made worse by global pandemic. We already knew that habitat and biodiversity loss was destroying nature, that we’re emptying the planet of large mammals (especially large carnivores), and that unregulated trophy hunting (and Eduardo has plenty to say about CITES incidentally) is slashing-and-burning its way through whole populations of supposedly protected wildlife. Trophy hunting was horrible and self-serving long before the virus emerged, and the seeds of this book were surely planted almost as soon as Eduardo began gathering his facts and statistics for the launch of CBTH. There was simply so much damning material that it had to go somewhere, and a book that all of us can use as a reference or guide to silence or infuriate trophy hunters is the logical format.
Like all campaigns that tackle such complex issues it will take a huge, multi-agency effort to end trophy hunting, but those of us that love wildlife should be incredibly grateful that there are campaigners like Eduardo Goncalves prepared to stand so visibly on the front line. Genial and all smiles on the surface, he is like a human cruise missile, powered by cold fury and laser-locked on the appalling trophy hunting industry. I suspect the industry hates him. Which is perhaps reason enough to own ‘Trophy Hunters Exposed’, but more importantly it’s all the information you need to marshal your thoughts, talk persuasively to your family and friends about trophy hunting, and to rebut the claims of pro hunters that they do no harm, love animals, and are true conservationists. It’s important to note, too, that any profits from ‘THE’ will go straight back into funding the work of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting.
As stated above, no single book, no single effort, can stop something as embedded and well-financed as trophy hunting. But have no doubt that each barbed fact, each truth, each honest analysis will unpick the threads holding this disgusting edifice together and convince more and more of us that it is dishonest, untruthful, and bereft of legitimacy. And that – in the end – is how it will be brought down.
Charlie Moores – May 25, 2020
If Only …..
China wants to severely punish illegal hunting and wildlife trafficking.
Reuters Staff, 22. Mai 2020
This emerges from the government’s working report published on Friday for the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
This is intended to implement a ban that was imposed in January as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
The novel virus had spread to a market in Wuhan at the end of 2019, selling wild animals such as bats and pangolins. The virus could have spread from such animals to humans.
Wuhan, Shanghai and other major cities have already banned the consumption of wild animals. Several provinces have also adopted plans to contain hunting, breeding and trade. ”
And I mean…Criticism is already booming on Facebook:” you shouldn’t believe the Chinese, they won’t stick to it”.
Why should one believe the Chinese a little less than the German government?
In Germany, improvements in animal protection have been announced many times and nothing has happened. Or it got worse.
The keeping of pigs in illegal boxes, for example, has been extended for 17 years.
Shredding male chicks continues as before.
Lawsuits against veterinarians, who idly watched when slaughterhouse workers tormented a cow 80 times on the anus and head with the stun gun, were terminated!
Justification: “We cannot prosecute the veterinarians because they would not be able to stop such animal suffering in the slaughterhouse anyway. They lack the opportunity to intervene directly” !!!
Image: SOKO Tierschutz-Germany
Before criticizing other countries, we should fight to ensure that OUR Animal Welfare Act (we claim we have the best in Europe!) is finally properly complied with in OUR own stables.
My best regards to all, Venus
From the Animal Liberation Press Office: “Received anonymously: 3 hunting towers destroyed in Poland”
“3 hunting towers destroyed. Government has banned blocking hunting so we have no choice.”
And I mean…From an ethical point of view, hunting is and remains murder.
Therefore, it is not wrong to destroy towers and it is not forbidden to be happy about them.
My best regards to all, Venus
Watch this video and share as much as possible … the world needs to know that this is still happening.
Abuse and killing of galgos must stop !!
Spain is one of the few countries where it is legal to hunt with greyhounds. At the end of the hunting season, many dogs are eliminated or abandoned.
Lax laws allow this practice to be maintained.
After the hunting season, galgos and podencos are still slain, hung up, thrown into wells, tied up somewhere where they starve, thrown alive in crevices or disposed of in some other bestial way.
It’s the damn hunters who use these practices.
The most common method of killing animals is hanging from trees; this type of killing is called “playing the piano”.
The name refers to the dogs’ desperate attempts to stay alive when hung so that their hind feet still lightly touch the ground (this is to maximize animal suffering).
It can take hours for the animals to die painfully.
An obvious new way to get rid of their “beloved” dogs, mostly hunting dogs, is this: the animals are tied to the tracks to be killed by a train!
Dozens of carcasses still attached to the tracks have been found in Seville, or in the villages!
Some were smashed by the train. Some of the dead dogs are even marked with a chip.
(The documentation in the video is from February 2018).
A terrible sight! the discoverers of the mass grave were horrified when they discovered the 30 partially preserved, decayed or skeletonized galgos that lay in a hidden trench in Tarancón (Cuenca- Castilla region)
The dogs were all hunting dogs, mostly galgos. After initial investigations, the Seprona confirmed that due to the state of decay, some of the carcasses have been in this mass grave for a long time, others only recently.
The officials also assume that some of the animals were certainly thrown into the pit alive so that they suffer a slow and painful death, there is no escape from the trench!
Many of the galgos have been shipped, and one is confident that the animal torturers can be identified.
And I mean…It is important to know that every Spanish autonomy has its own animal protection laws.
Other regions may also come up with the idea of excluding hunting dogs from animal welfare, just as bullfighting -as a tradition- is also excluded from animal welfare at EU level. (On November 7, 2013, bullfighting was declared as cultural heritage in Spain, thus legally protecting this bloody slaughter).
Hunting is a hobby for psychopaths that is run by the circles of governments, judges, lawyers, doctors and other financially well-protected sadists and moves millions of euros annually.
But Spain also has many animal welfare organizations and animal rights activists who save as many dogs as possible each year.
We would like to thank them from here for their great work and we wish them a lot of strength in their tough fight.
Spanish writer Chesús Yuste delivered a moving speech about this tragedy in Madrid in 2018.
He complains of animal abuse, speaks of shelters that collapse due to the large number of abandoned dogs, and above all he complains about the impunity of hunters who abuse their animals and a society that ignores these crimes.
Excerpt from Chesús Yuste’s speech:
“The government must act immediately. The Galgos tragedy must be history. And when that day comes, it will come thanks to the work of many people in many communities who do things big and small.
Organizing demonstrations by activists who use it to expose the crimes of hunting, document them in films, spread the message and provide them on social networks, the people who offer rescue and home for these dogs and do a thousand other things.
On behalf of the animals, let me thank them for that.
Friends, friends! As Víctor Hugo said: “There is nothing stronger than an idea whose time has come”. Have no doubt. If the 19th century was the end of human slavery and the 20th century was equal rights for women, we are absolutely convinced that the 21st century will be the recognition of animal rights.
We are working to achieve this. We will all make it together.
We’ll all make it together “.
My best regards to all, Venus
When we talk about poaching, there are pictures of bloody rhinos that poachers have cut off the horn. Mountains of ivory, tiger skins.
But! who would have thought that we face similar problems here in the middle of Germany and Europe?
Poisoned female lynx Tessa © Bavarian Forest National Park
Illegal killings of wolves, lynxes and birds of prey have been around for a long time.
The modern poachers often come at night and by car.
They blind the game with strong headlights, then shoot. In order not to attract attention, they use relatively quiet, small-caliber weapons – or crossbows, because anyone can buy them freely. The animals are often injured, flee and die days or weeks later.
Continue reading “There is only the crime and the criminals”
People have asked me about some of my past animal campaign experiences. First and foremost; I am a live animal transport person. But as with this site; there are other issues which I also feel strongly about; and the slaughter of innocent baby seal pups in Russia was one of them. So here goes – memories of some of the work revolving around being a voice for the baby seals. It was a long campaign as you can see, but eventually the effort paid off; Russian seal pup slaughter was stopped.
Revised 30/4/2020:
One issue that I was very pleased (and proud) to have been involved with in the past was that regarding the saving of thousands of baby Whitecoat seal pups in the Archangelsk region of Russia. I campaigned with a fantastic animal advocate; and someone who became a very good friend; Robert Mouland, (pictured below) from the town of Folkestone in my home county of Kent which is located directly South East of London.
After many years of intensive campaigning; we finally had a victory for the pups – the Russian authorities stopped the slaughter of all whitecoat pups. My written records of the campaign say nothing more at the end of a massive fight other than a simple ‘Job Done’. The baby seals were saved.
I vividly remember many things that were done on that campaign; as they are with so many issues; but one in particular was when Bob (Robert) dressed up as Father Christmas in order to get into the Russian Embassy here in London. He made it, got through security and I think he even got to meet the Russian Ambassador here at the time; to give his objections to the hunt.
We never had any support for the massacre from the then Prime Minister, John Major. He just ignored all requests and literature that was sent to him asking for help. So years later, after John Major had quit politics and instead turned to his memoirs in book form, Bob decided once again to pounce. Mr Major was at a book signing ‘thing’ in Folkestone; and being a good citizen, Bob joined the queue for the book signature. When he got to the table after a while, Mr Major asked him who he wanted the book signed for. ‘For all the baby Russian seal pups you committed to death’ was the response – and Bob let further rip telling John Major that he was ‘evil’. The whole place turned blue and security arrived en masse to eject Bob from the facility. I thought it was great – all those years on and still John Major was being reminded of his failings for the baby Whitecoats ! – the incident made the local press:
The following is a part of Mark’s written memories of the Russian seal pup campaign. Photographs show the Russian seal pup farms, Mark and Robert campaigning at Downing St., London, as well as with senior MEP’s from the European Parliament when they took their campaign to Brussels, Belgium. That was another incident which started the day with Belgian police pulling and aiming their guns at us. Things like that sometime happen; as we say in England ‘shit happens’; and after some discussions with members of the European Parliament and the Belgian police; things calmed down and we were allowed to do our protest. Read more later on about this in Part 2.
The netted seal pup photo shows how baby seals, if they were not killed on the ice, were transported back to seal farms; to be killed at a later date when their coats had changed colour. This ‘farming’ issue was the biggest difference to the Canadian seal pup murders which are still happening as I write this in 2020. – where young suckling babies are killed on the ice directly rather than being ‘farmed’ for a short period before they were killed.
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Harp Seal – sub order: Pinnipedia.
There were basically 3 separate major seal populations within Russia; the Eastern, Central and Western herds, with original numbers probably around the 3 million mark, A very limited number of European nations engaged in taking harp seals in the Spring months to supplement their catch of bow head whales during the rest of the year. As seal stocks gradually became depleted, hunting was controlled by the former USSR, Denmark, Norway and Greenland.
In doing this control, the White Sea herds of the Russian White Sea region recovered gradually to its level of around one half of a million. In 1965, commercial sealing was stopped in the former USSR except for the hunting of the seal pups. Harp seals can live naturally for over 35 years; they feed mainly on herring and polar cod, and also crustaceans if possible.
In the January / February months of each year, pregnant females eat heavily due to the requirement to put on large amounts of blubber which is then converted to produce milk for baby pup offspring. Pregnant females give birth to their young pups once they have come onto the winter ice pack during late February or early March, following a gestation period of around 10 months. The new born pups are approximately 80 to 90 cm in length and weigh anywhere between 5 and 11 kg. At first, their coat colouring is yellow rather than a pure white; it is only after approximately 2 to 3 days post birth that the pups fur turns into what we familiarly know as a ‘whitecoat’.
As the milk on which they feed contains up to 45% fat, as compared to approximately 4% from typical cows milk, the young pups almost triple their weight in the first 12 days of their lives. They are nursed for about 12 days by their mothers, before being abandoned. Weaned pups usually weigh anywhere between 34 and 40 kg at 18 days of age; more than half of this weight is comprised of blubber. After reaching 18 days, the young pup completely sheds it whitecoat; this is replaced by a short silvery coat which is flexed with dark spots. At this stage in their life the pups are being called ‘Beaters’.
The beater period usually lasts for approximately one year; with full moulting taking place after around four weeks during early April. By the time it has reached its sixth week, a young pup can swim and take on regular food in the form of crustaceans. Over the next four years up until the age of approximately 5, that the beaters gradually lose their spots.
In the mid-1990s, in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia, were located approximately 19,500 out of a total of 30k to 31,000 seal pups to be hunted. The remainder were allocated to other regions within Russia; however, these quotas were sold back to the Arkhangelsk region, who took the whole quota. of Russia’s 31,000+ quota. Approximately 4,500 pups were taken alive and delivered by helicopter to what was known as ‘seal farms’.
The remainders not shipped to the farms would be killed directly on the ice as baby whitecoats. The size of the annual quota was recommended by scientists at the Arkhangelsk branch of the Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography. One of the key parameters in setting an annual quota for the seal pup hunt was directly related to fish stocks, which had declined to the pre-mid-90s due to overfishing; though not by seals !. The final decision was primarily political, taking in a joint Russian / Norwegian forum style. Any contracts were supposed to be fully enforced by fisheries inspectors with a group of four or five inspectors counting every animal caught. Allegedly, if it was noted that more animals were caught than allowed for under the quota, there were supposedly supposed to be heavy fines. But as the quota enforcement was undertaken by a local fishery collective, it was often the case that it was very difficult to enforce any of the quotas originally set.
Above – Typical Seal Pup Farms
A typical Russian seal pup farm contained approximately 4,500 pups which were delivered alive to seal farms located on the White Sea coast. The remaining 26,000+ animals were killed directly on the ice as whitecoats. Hunts normally took place in early March, with reconnaissance being undertaken by scientists who identified the optimum time for the hunt. This was when pregnant females had travelled down into the White Sea area and began breeding en masse on the ice flows; hunters were delivered to the ice flows by chartered helicopters belonging to national airline.
Weather permitting, approximately 7-8 helicopters were used, flying on average around 4 to 6 hours each per day. Whitecoats which were killed directly on the ice, were killed by a blow across the top of the head or blows made by the blunt end of a gaff. One blow was usually sufficient to kill the animal, but inexperience on the part of some sealers meant that more than one blow had to be used. The initial blow to the nose or skull was followed by a ‘brain spiking’ which was supposed to prevent a return to consciousness.
The baby seals were not bled on the ice as there was a fear that this process would ‘spoil’ the fur; but when a certain number of dead or unconscious pups were collected, these were all loaded into a special net device which was collected by any one of the helicopters. On arrival at the collection point, the helicopter would disperse an empty net, whilst at the same time collecting a full net of dead seals to be delivered back to base.
A Netted Pup
Once the full quota of whitecoats had been taken from the ice, the operation was stopped and the attention turned instead to the catching of the moulders to be taken to the seal farms. The capturing, transportation, confinement and eventual inhumane killing at the farms meant that pups were continually inflicted with a great amount of stress and suffering.. Seal farming was started because there was a market for pelts from beater pups; with these pelts being soft and silver grey covered with black spots. Around this time the coat becomes thicker and stronger and the quality of the fur generally improves. And so some live pups had to be kept until they became beaters; and this was done on the farms.
The basic theory of the seal farming policy is that young pups are captured shortly after abandonment by their mother; they are held in fenced enclosures until they are fully moulted; at which time they are killed and pelted. It is generally agreed that the practice of seal ‘farming’ causes more stress and suffering to the seal pups rather than the direct killing of them on the ice. In the farms, many pups who was still underage and not fully weaned, would try to suckle from other pups.
For the capturing of the farm pups, groups of sealers were taken to the ice flows by helicopter; individual pups were restrained in individual sack type nets, after which they were emptied into larger metal containers. Around 20 pups could be transported in one metal container, which were flown back to the farms where the seal pups were unloaded and restrained in a series of fenced ‘pens’ each about the size of a tennis court. During confinement at the farm the pups were not fed; with many succumbing to disease which was generally attributed to both overcrowding and stress of their capture and transportation.
Mouth Bleeding – A typical Sign of Stress In Young Seals
On the farms many of the pups would suffer from mouth infections which was considered a typical sign of extreme stress. Congealed blood combined with ice was often seen to be hanging from their mouths; something which was never seen under normal circumstances in the wild. On the farms the pups were under constant 24-hour guard, with tall watchtowers and guards overlooking each of the penned / court sized areas. When the coats of the pups had reached the correct stage, the pups were killed, normally in batches of about 50 by injection under the flipper using a drug named Dithyllinum.
This drug produces death by immobilising the skeletal respiratory muscle; in other words the animal suffocated to death because it is unable to breathe. As a sideline, this is fairly typical of the type of drugs and systems used to kill stray dogs in Serbia and the Balkans; something which we have also worked hard on for years. When any animal is given a dose of this drug, it only becomes paralysed in its breathing function, and as such it is impossible to see whether the animal is actually dead or alive.
Above – A ‘Beater Coat’ Pup
Information – Read more about the Serbian strays at our other site; SAV – https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/about-serbian-animals/
As an animal welfare campaigner, there are one hell of a lot of issues that currently involve animals and absolutely disgust m each and every day. Anything and everything to do with the fur industry is just one of those issues; and this was one of the major factors that influenced me to try and help out Robert with his fight for justice for the young / baby seals of the White Sea region of Russia. There is nothing hidden in fact that the fur from beater pups is one of the most popular furs used in both peaked caps (pictured below) and some forms of fur coats. A lot is sold within Russia, but beater further is also popular both in Norway and in Denmark, two nations which regularly take part in Russian fur auctions. The Norwegians were alleged to have processed Russian beater pelts and then sold them on after further processing; most probably within the EU.
The pitiful end product of a baby White coat seal is its fur being used in hats and earflaps etc. There were / are allegations that it whitecoat pelts from Russia were reportedly sold direct to Norway. At the time of my deep involvement in this issue with Robert, many whitecoat pelts from the White Sea region of Russia were being dyed in order to improve and develop wider markets. It was really almost an impossibility for anyone at the time to detect the origin of any such furs, as furs from many different sources are mixed at the auctions; combine this with the fact that whitecoats furs were often dyed brown before sale and you have (as low budget animal welfare groups will tell you) an almost impossible task to get any real proof of what you’re after.
Boxed Beaters Delivered for Skin Processing
Dead Seal Pups in Box
Processing Skins
Processed Skins
At the time in the mid-90s, Norway itself had a ban on the killing of seal pups of the year; ie. those being under six months of age; and yet it, Norway purchased furs from Russia for sale. Denmark was bound by the European Commission (EU) ban on the import of whitecoats furs, and yet at the time really took no action to prevent the purchasing of beater furs which are generalised as causing even more suffering. There was always a question of, unknowingly, the fact that Denmark had purchased whitecoat furs at auctions and imported them into the EU by this method. This was our gripe with the EU and we wanted to change it !
At the time in the mid-90s, the effectiveness of the EU was up for question, (it still is in 2020) as it was possible that Russian seal pups could be captured and moulted, and then their whitecoat furs be dyed colours such as Brown; only then to be traded within the EU by nations such as Denmark. Back in Russia, the blubber from these farmed seals was used as feed for poultry farms, with meat being sold on to fur farms where it was rendered down and used as food for other captive fur bearing animals. Investigations found out that some of the meat from Russian seal pups was used to manufacture a product known as ‘Backtophoc’; which was a medium used for medical purposes. Little was really known about this as the product was labelled as ‘commercial in confidence’, and as such, very little was available for further investigation. However, it was known and documented that the drying equipment for the process of ‘Backtophoc’ production had oddly enough, been provided by Denmark.
It was not uncommon for the capacity of ‘normal’ Russian fur farms to be able to deal with over 20,000 Arctic foxes and over 120,000 mink. Some Russian experts were open in admitting that the killing of seal pups on both the ice and in seal farms were inhumane, and that the development of ecotourism was viewed as much more viable alternative. Ecotourism also gained widespread local support as an initiative from many sectors of the Russian communities. And so, having knowledge of this information and the real expertise on the subject from Robert, the view was taken that something further had to be done at EU level.
Cut to late Summer 1996 – I (Mark) am in the back garden of a friend and fellow campaigner (Clare and her husband David) who runs a cat sanctuary at Kingsdown which is near to Deal on the Kent coast – it still exists to this day – https://www.kingsdowncatsanctuary.org/ .
It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon and a group of us are having tea and biscuits (how very typically English !) whilst discussing possible routes to be taken for further Russian seal pup actions. Robert is there and very much casually directing us through his thoughts and views on where we go and what we do. After a short while we have basically produced an action plan – firstly, we tackle the UK government at Downing Street (London) to try and get the (then) Prime Minister John Major to bring up the issue of Russian sealing when he either visits Russia, or he uses the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office for communications directly with the Russian authorities, or also, when he has Russian diplomats to visit him at Downing Street.
Secondly, we take our campaign directly to the heart of Europe; the EU in Brussels, Belgium, with the hope of meeting a Commissioner to discuss the trade and the import of pelts (into the EU) from non EU states such as Norway.
Whatever we were to do, we need some publicity; as anything good and decent always does. So, what was it ? – to cut a long story short, we end up planning the Downing Street efforts into something for Easter the following year.
By planning ahead we can take a few months to produce and obtain signatures for the thousands of individual petition cards which we would personally deliver to PM Major. And as it will be Easter, what shall the cards all be delivered in ? – a very large Easter egg; that should go down well with the ever present mass of media photographers in ‘the Street’, and obtain a much needed boost to our fight for the Russian baby seals. After the London efforts we can then divert our campaign into Europe and hopefully with the support of Members of the European parliament (MEP’s), get a foot in the door towards a meeting with the EU trade commissioner.
It is going to be hard work and the timescale for producing and printing the petition cards was short, as well as getting them all individually signed (by people on the street) was rather a tall order; but we were committed and decided without hesitation to go for it. Robert gets full backing from all present ‘in the garden’ to move ahead with his plans. Mr. Mark Watts MEP; a great guy and animal advocate had volunteered his time to support Robert and us with our presentation of all the cards in Downing Street in an attempt to try and make the subject a little more attractive to all the photographers who wait directly opposite Number 10.
I decided that for the day in London I would try and take on the role of a Russian seal pup Hunter. To do this I borrowed a couple of Roberts life-size soft seal pup models, who had their backs covered in a substitute fake fur (by my mum) which I then covered with fake blood obtained from a local theatrical shop. It looked okay and, in our opinion, would have been quite good for gaining attention of the photographers; who once had given you their attention, often followed up with interviews and reports on the particular issue that you were dealing with.
![mark-and-robert-downing-street[1]](https://worldanimalsvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/mark-and-robert-downing-street1.jpg?w=687&h=567)
Myself – Mark- (Left), Mark Watts (Centre) and Brilliant Bob (Right) – at the entrance to Downing Street, London with ‘that egg’ !.
I had a black beanie hat, and made up a Russian flag which was stuck across the front. Using this theatrical blood once again, I spattered it all over a white T-shirt which was going to be worn over another shirt typical of those which I had seen on photographs taken of the Russian hunters. My Black ‘tank trousers’, thick black knee length socks and a good sturdy pair of veggie boots completed my outfit. As I had expressed some concerns at the ‘garden meeting’ about being dressed like this and carrying a pick (typical of that which was used to kill the pups) through the streets of London, I decided that a large wooden baseball bat was probably the better thing and kind of just as effective, whilst still getting the message across.
So the big day was finalised and Number 10 accepted our request to deliver all of the petition cards.
Cut to Charing Cross station sometime around Easter 1997. – I had made the short journey up to London from my home in North Kent, to the place where everybody on the campaign that day had planned to meet, which was just outside the entrance to Downing Street. Once off the train, I shot down into the underground toilets at Charing Cross station, where I changed from my travelling clothes into those of this ‘Russian seal hunter’.
I must admit, the walk from the station through Trafalgar Square and up the Mall to Downing Street did get me a few glances from all sorts of people going about their normal business in the city area. The fact that I was dressed as a Russian sealer, carried a baseball bat, and had two life-size whitecoat seal pup models splattered with blood and wrapped in transparent plastic bags under my arm sort of added to my ‘interest appeal’ from the city goers.
But what the hell, I was there to get attention for the campaign to stop Russian seal pups being butchered, so what did it matter how I personally looked like walking the streets of London ?; After all, there are probably many people who walk around the city dressed in similar kind of garb every day.
London is known as the home of the Brash, Outrageous and Free, so I guess this day was my turn to be a little ‘outrageous’.
But who cares; there was a job to do ? – I did not give a hoot how I looked. I got to the entrance of Downing Street where I met up with Robert, Mark Watts MEP and a few of the girls who travelled up on the train with Bob from SE Kent.
We posed in Whitehall for a few photographs with some of the guys from the press, and then made our way up to the (security) gates of Downing Street for the ritual inspection and verification by the Met. police that we had an official invite to present our petition. Once the police saw us coming with our giant Easter egg full of petition cards, things took on a negative approach. After some discussions, the police informed that we were not allowed to take the Easter egg into Downing Street; and that instead, all of the petition cards contained within it would have to be instead placed into carrier bags which could then be manually transported up to the door of number 10 for presentation.
This was, in our opinion, just a feeble attempt to destroy everything that had been planned and agreed on with the authorities prior to the day. But it was really nothing new to us – animal campaigning delivers bad times sometimes.
With a giant egg being involved I guess you could say that someone did not want to be left and with yolk on their face, but it could also be argued that in going through the process of having to take all of the postcards out of the egg in order to place them into the many bags, the police were in a position where they could verify / certify that a bomb or something in their fantasy dreams was not hidden away at the bottom and would not blow the PM to kingdom come – God forbid !! -so reality proved that it was effectively ok to use; but they said ‘no’ regardless.
Regardless of being able to see the complete interior of the egg before we even entered Downing St., the police refused to accept our argument and insisted that the egg be left at the entrance gates. And so, in a rather undignified manner, the postcards forming the Russian seal pup petition were delivered to the steps of number 10 by several campaigners each carrying as many plastic bags full of petition cards as they could. At the entrance to Downing Street, the police also took me aside and told me that I would not be allowed into Downing Street carrying a large baseball bat such as I had on my person. “You might try and get through the door (of No. 10) and bash somebody’s brains out with it” was the rather pathetic argument that was put forward by the police on duty Oh, don’t tempt me, Mr Major had tried all in his power to cull us, how about I start here ?, was the feeling that I had deep down inside; knowing just how much Robert had been ignored and pushed aside by the British government and Prime Minister John Major over many years regarding this issue of the seal babies.
The ‘Met’ Badge we used to wear during live animal export proitests
And so thanks to the Metropolitan police that day, things went a bit pear shaped and to a point, our presentation of the petition at the door of number 10 was dealt a blow that made it rather less effective than it should have been. Regardless of their attempts to cause us problems, plastic bag after plastic bag of petition cards against a Russian seal pup cull, and more importantly, 10,000 signatures calling on the British government led by Mr Major to act, were delivered unceremoniously in through the door of number 10.
One good thing which had been planned in advance by us anyway, and which did happen as a result of events at Downing Street, was that the giant empty Easter egg was afterwards taken by us to one of the nearby London children’s hospital where it was handed over to one of the children’s wards to be used as, I think, a big storage container for their toys on the ward to go into. There were no quibbles at the hospital regarding special security activities and the egg was simply accepted for what it was, which was a gift for the sick children in the hospital ward. At least we had no problems there. Who are the real children in this case, you have to ask ! – the Met police; those in government in Downing St. or the sick youngsters at the hospital ? – I say the former two.
Thinking ahead, we also had plans for action in Europe. Surely things will go better there – wont they ? – hopefully !
Regards Mark
https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/about-us/
‘Europe’ is in Part 2 – to be published soon.
After all that; Enjoy a few tracks from one of my favourite English bands – ‘The Cure’:
I don’t have many ‘Heroes’ – and if I do, they are animal people:
In memory of Robert Hunter – Seal Man and campaigner – taken way too early !
Hero – Robert Hunter RIP
The Swiss anti-hunting blog “Wild beim Wild” has done a study about the pseudo-hunter:
First we analyze what a hobby hunter is and then the pseudo hunter exactly.
According to Wikipedia, a hobby is a leisure activity that the person pursues voluntarily and regularly, which serves their own pleasure or relaxation and contributes to their own self-image, that is to say, forms part of their identity.
The word “hobby” is derived from the English hobby horse, which is translated as “hobby horse” in both meanings – children’s toys and leisure activities.
In our latitudes, hunting in the present is an activity that is mainly carried out in the free time by working people. The reason for this is that no one has to go hunting anymore to eat. The stone age is over.
Today, however, there is no ethics in favor of killing animals or eating meat, since we have been able to eat non-violently and healthily for a long time without having to go through the forest and fields in a murderous way.
When people used to hunt, this was done with respect for life and only to feed their own clans. For fun, foxes, birds and the like were not killed because one felt bored, was looking for relaxation through a misunderstood experience of nature.
You can turn it around as you like, hunting in German-speaking countries mainly takes place in the free time. This is not an invention by radical animal rights activists, but simply a fact.
Hobby hunters will always remain amateurs because they are not professional hunters or professional game keepers.
A pensioner in a shooting club who spends many hours a day in the forest is also a hobby hunter because he does this in his spare time.
Both the hobby hunter (indoctrination) and the gamekeeper (scientific expertise) can be well trained. However, theory is not everything.
A gram of practice is worth more than tons of theories.
It would not come to anyone’s mind to give a grump tournament with amateur footballers a higher quality standard than the Champions League with professional footballers.
It is crystal clear that with professional gamekeepers a completely different level takes the place of hobby hunters.
Many hobby hunters are apparently already overwhelmed with these simple connections and have great difficulties in classifying them mentally.
Hobby hunters claim: “The term ” hobby-hunter “ was constructed by militant opponents of the hunt to disparage the demanding activity of hunters”.
Can he also prove this or is it just nonsense again?
In any case, there is nothing to complain about in the term “hobby hunter”, “leisure hunter”, “amateur hunter”, etc., because the term describes a factually precise and flawless fact.
The pseudo-hunter
Pseudo is often used to express that a person or thing only appears to be something or someone, which in reality is not.
Hobby hunters are not real hunters as we know them from natural people, but always pseudo-hunters, who in their free time simply pursue a decadent, sadistic or even cruel hobby, which the right hunters of the natural peoples never approve or would do.
Today’s killing of animals by the modern hunter mainly results from greed, addiction, stupidity, enjoyment, indifference, anger, jealousy, pomposity, ostentation, showing off, jealousy, arrogance, ignorance, greed, selfishness, resentment and disregard for Living beings in general.
According to well-known scientists, researchers, wild biologists and case studies, it is easily possible and ethically responsible to leave game stocks in the modern, human-determined and designed environment.
The Canton of Geneva has known this modern wildlife management for over 40 years.
What hundreds of hobby hunters used to do badly, there is now done by a good dozen professional gamekeepers,do not massacre foxes, who intervene if necessary, and do not massacre foxes, badgers, birds and the like based on arbitrary hunting seasons or because of the joy of killing.
For good reason, we don’t have pedophiles teaching in schools either, although they could certainly also perform “demanding” tasks.
However, both pedophiles and hobby hunters have a disturbed relationship with the social norm.
Both groups have always targeted the weakest in society in an unchristian way, to relax, switch off, be one with nature, etc.
https://wildbeimwild.com/weiterbildung-fuer-jaeger/pseudo-jaeger-was-ist-das/17390/2018/03/11/
This is a hunter This is an asshole
And I mean…Hunters kill for pleasure
Psychopaths too
What kind of person can enjoy taking the life of another living being?
Those who inflict pain and torture on defenseless animals with indifference also lose their humanity and compassion for their fellow human beings.
My best regards to all, Venus
The death of a strictly protected lynx is currently causing outrage in the Czech Republic. The wounded animal caught the eye of a former forest ranger and could still be caught, but despite veterinary care, the wildcat died a little later, as was known on Friday.
“The animal was stressed and emaciated, it must have suffered from pain and hunger, “ said Frantisek Jaskula, head of the Beskydy landscape protection area in the east of the country (see map in the link).
It has been the fourth lynx in the region to fall victim to poachers since 2000.
Olda- (Image: selmy.cz)
Animal rights activists had been watching the lynx for years and baptizing Olda. Since his birth in 2011, he has appeared around 800 times in camera trap images in the region.
In the Czech part of the Beskids, a mountain range of the Western Carpathians, there are barely a dozen lynxes left.
Popular fur: Lynx almost eradicated centuries ago
The Eurasian lynx is the largest cat species in Europe and can be recognized by its long brush ears.
In earlier centuries, the lynx was hunted for its fur and almost wiped out.
https://www.krone.at/2150915
And I mean … No! They weren’t poachers, they were hunters.
There is no difference either; no matter by whom, it was a crime.
This could have been commissioned by a wealthy collector so that Olda would decorate a psychopath’s living room as a carpet.
This gang of murderers is supported by important politicians.
Most hunters come from the wealthy social classes.
They are doctors, lawyers, judges, industrialists, politicians, the military … psychopaths who pay a lot of money for their sick, bloody pleasure.
Lynxes and many other wild animals are threatened with extinction.
Nevertheless, they are killed out of sheer lust for murder. Mostly as trophies.
For this, these “people” are willing to pay a lot of money.
The more endangered an animal is, the more expensive it is to shoot.
The hunting lobby also seems to have enormous power in the EU, for example, trophy hunting is even supported by the EU.
For your information: Safari Club International is also available in Germany!
This is where the hunting enthusiasts meet regularly for a “round table” in Munich.
By now at the latest everyone should know why the EU does not want to ban the trade in trophies.
Certainly very few people know that despite protests from their own ranks, the EU Parliament has spoken out in favor of a legal and sustainable trophy hunt.
Damned Oldas killer!
And hopefully his life will soon end in unbearable pain-
to put it in the language of the murderers!
My best regards to all, Venus
World Animals Voice 