Sorry all you innocent sentients – I and the others would have saved you all if it had been possible.
Your numbers were in the hundreds; there were just a few of us. All these years later I don’t (ever) forget your suffering.
So, it was time to take the export campaign to Europe. Very soon I will write again on the roadshow in the Netherlands; education is the real thing about all this – and educate we did.
On the road in the Netherlands – photo MarkA transporter loaded with sheep arrives at Dover – photo Mark
Sheep going for export (and death) – photo Mark
British calves being exported out of Dover – photo Mark
He used to stay awake to drive the dreams he had away …..
The drive home in the early morning hours was always bad – you always felt you had failed them.
We have been sent some videos celebrating some of the animal achievements this year.
Enjoy watching the videos and celebrate your victories; but please remember, at this time, there are still animals confined to cages and stalls, and bears confined to horrific cage systems in order to be milked daily for their bile.
The fight for animal rights is not over – will it ever be ? – but we must celebrate our wonderful results this year and the new lives that are happening for so many animals.
Regards Mark and Venus.
The first video is from Jill at ‘Animals Asia’; who says:
In Vietnam, 16 precious bears are celebrating their first-ever Christmas at our sanctuary.
And in China, 99 bears who made the long journey from the ex-bear bile farm in Nanning to our Chengdu Sanctuary will be celebrating Christmas with their new furry friends outside of concrete enclosures and surrounded by lush green trees.
What an incredible gift you’ve given these beautiful brave survivor bears. They may be thanking Santa Paws, but we are thanking you.
As a small gift to you, we’ve put together a special Christmas video that we hope will bring festive cheer and leave you grinning from ear to ear.
Some supporters sent baubles with touching notes of love and peace to Tuong Lai. You’ll see we made sure she received them.
And you’ll spot Goldie, Wonder, Yen and more joyful bears opening their Christmas gifts and filling up their big round bellies with some of the most deliciously sweet festive treats…
Once again, thank you so much. Your love and dedication to Asia’s animals are the reason so many bears have been freed from pain and suffering this Christmas. And it’ll be the reason no bear is left behind as we work towards ending bear bile farming in Vietnam.
I’d like to wish you and your family a bear-y merry Christmas, on behalf of everyone here at Animals Asia, including, of course, the rescued, contented bears whose lives you’ve changed for the better.
With festive bear hugs,
Jill Robinson MBE, Dr med vet hc, Hon LLD Founder and CEO
The second video is from live export campaigner friend of several decades, Phil at ‘Compassion In World Farming’ (London.
Philip says:
Every petition you have signed, every letter you have written and every £1 you have donated has contributed to making big changes for farmed animals this year that will significantly improve their lives in future. Without you, none of our work would be possible, so thank you.
To show you just how incredible you are, please have a look at this short video highlighting some of the wonderful changes you have helped to achieve.
I do hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas and I look forward to the great things we can achieve together in 2022. Once again, on behalf of everyone at Compassion: thank you so much for being wonderful! With my warmest wishes,
I do hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas and I look forward to the great things we can achieve together in 2022. Once again, on behalf of everyone at Compassion: thank you so much for being wonderful!
With my warmest wishes,
Philip Lymbery Global CEO, Compassion in World Farming
Despite our personal aims as an organisation for major changes to the better with animal transport in mainland EU; everyone in the form of anti transport campaigners were dealt a really bad hand with regard the EU ANIT meeting of 3/12/21.
Here following is the post meeting PR from the ‘Eurogroup for Animals’; who like us, had high hopes of major, positive changes and transport reforms:
Read the Eurogroup PR (post meeting) by clicking on the following:
As echoed by us at WAV; the ANIT meeting of 3/12 was very much a missed opportunity which massively failed in the helping of live animals in transport big time, but additionally, which also blatantly ignored the wishes of so many EU citizens calling for drastic improvements for live animals undergoing transportation.
As we have said before, the EU does what it wants to do and to hell with everyone and everything else. The ANIT catastrophe witnessed this week is a typical example; with the livestock industry and its lobbyists basically ensuring that they continue to get what they want; a status quo; effectively resulting in no real ‘wow’ changes for animal welfare, whilst simply ignoring the wishes of a vast number of EU citizens calling for better legislation for animals; including a shout for a maximum one off journey time of no greater than 8 hours.
In an ongoing campaign and petition, GAIA is calling on the three regional Ministers for Animal Welfare in Belgium to introduce a ban on the cooking of live lobsters, as is already the case in Switzerland, as well as a ban on cutting lobsters in half.
Each year, Belgium imports an average of 3.8 million live lobsters, mainly from Canada. Belgians are the largest consumer of lobster in the world per capita.
The whole journey of the lobster from capture to death is agonising. The lobsters are transported from Canada to Belgium in polystyrene foam boxes with gel ice packs. They are held vertically with their claws held upright. On arrival, the lobsters are at best kept alive in water tanks, sometimes for months. At worst, they are simply placed on ice. Exposed to air, they are unable to excrete bodily waste products, and their condition weakens significantly leading to a slow death. The animals are commonly then boiled alive or cut in half without being stunned.
Recent scientific research has concluded that that crustaceans, such as crabs and lobsters are sentient beings that feel pain. GAIA is therefore collecting signatures for a petition to introduce a ban on the live boiling or cutting of lobsters without stunning.
Such a ban would receive the support of a large part of the population. GAIA reports that 83% of Brussels residents are aware that lobsters feel pain. In addition, four in five Brussels residents believe that lobsters feel pain when they are boiled alive and consider that this is also the case when they are cut up alive. 80% of Walloons agree that there should be a legal ban on killing lobsters without stunning them.
Crustastun is an electrical stunning and killing device developed to render crustaceans unconscious without impacting the quality of the meat.
WAV Comment 1345hrs 02/12/21. No further news yet; but we are monitoring this very important issue and will bring you further news when we have it. Regards Mark
Photo: Jane J – Kent, England
NGOs and MEPs protest against live animal transports in the EU
Wednesday, 1 December 2021
A protest action took place on Tuesday in front of the European Parliament ahead of a crucial vote in the European Parliament against live animal transport over long distances and live export.
The action was organised by animal welfare NGOs in Brussels and accompanied by speeches from a a number of MEPs across party lines.
For the past year the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport (ANIT) has analysed the implementation of EU rules by member states and the correct enforcement by the European Commission.
The draft Report and relevant recommendations are going to be voted in the Committee on Thursday (2 December) and put forward for adoption by the plenary in January 2022. In the pipeline is also a revision of the Transport Regulation, for which a new legislative proposal is expected in 2023.
Animal welfare NGO Eurogroup for Animals told The Brussels Times that it has been campaigning for decades to stop live transport and has issued a white paper how it should be done in line with recommendations made by the European Food Safety Authority, the World Animal Health Organisation and the Federation of the Veterinarians of Europe.
For the time being, every year over one billion animals are transported in the EU and from the EU to third countries without effective protection. EU has become the world’s biggest live animal exporter, according to the NGOs.
“Over the years we witnessed endless and avoidable suffering: animals crammed on overcrowded and unsuitable trucks and vessels, and animals unfit for transport, such as pregnant, young or injured ones. The tragedies at sea and on the road have given the ANIT Committee plenty of evidence to stop live transport”, commented Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals.
MEP Anja Hazekamp (The LEFT) is Vice Chair of the ANIT Committee and President of the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals. “The way animals are transported in the EU is heart-breaking, devastating and unbelievably brutal and cruel,” she said. “The investigation of the ANIT Committee confirmed that animals are currently not protected during transport and that changes are urgently needed.”
“I expect from my colleagues in the ANIT Committee that they give a strong message to the European Parliament: long-distance transport, live export and the transport of vulnerable animals, such as unweaned animals, so-called ‘end-of-career’ animals and pregnant animals, must be stopped,” she added.
Live animal transports are extremely important from an animal welfare viewpoint, Swedish MEP Emma Wiesner (Renew Europe) told The Brussels Times. “Our patience is running out. Transports take place in poor conditions where the temperature is not regulated, there is not enough space for the animals and they don’t get water during the transport. In addition, the transport distances are far too long.”
Which member states are most in breach of current regulations?
“There are many member states that violate current regulations. Romania, Greece and Spain are some that occur relatively frequently. Member states that do not comply with the law must be sued. The European Commission has every legal opportunity to do this, but has repeatedly failed to use this tool.
“In our compromise proposal, we set a limit of eight hours in transport. That is the current limit that already exists in Sweden,” she added.
Is there a majority in the parliament for changes to the legislation and for better compliance with the regulations?
“In the committee of inquiry, there is now a majority behind the compromises and I hope that they will go through. Europe must become better at taking animal welfare seriously. It’s about countries complying with laws and regulations already in place and about the total time that live animals can be transported. We need also to ensure that we control transports that go outside the EU,” MEP Wiesner concludes.
Update: The article has been updated to include an interview with MEP Emma Wiesner.
MEP’s Make Their Voices Heard Against the Live Animal Business.
WAV Comment – I (Mark) have been witnessing and fighting this vile, disgusting, abusive, cruel, abhorrent, insulting bloody business for over 30 years. December 2nd sees the chance for the EU to start to put something into practice; ie legislation, regarding something it has avoided for so many (too many) years; to now finally make a real legislative issues on live animal transport.
Now, finally, we have so many MEP’s who support change; but it is the non-elected Commission which has the final say. There will be opposition, we expect that, from the industry and the abusive animal transporters who haul innocents all over the EU, and beyond to third states such as Turkey.
Fingers crossed that 2nd December 21 will be a major turning point for live animal transport across the EU and beyond.
Would I give it another 30+ years of fighting if needed ? – you bet I would. If the political leaders of the EU were herded into a 3 tier transporter; spent 48 hours crapping and urinating onto each other; without adequate food and water; then you see how quickly the legislation would change !
Now is their chance – lets hope for their benefit, they meet all the demands set out below. If they don’t, then one has to ask what they are about; certainly not meeting what is required of them by EU citizens.
Regards Mark
On December 2nd the ANIT members can contribute to the building of a truly sustainable transport system by supporting key amendments to the ANIT Report and Recommendations.
To make sure that human and animal health and welfare will be effectively addressed in the revised Transport Regulation, Eurogroup for Animals urges to:
Replace terrestrial farmed animals transport with the export of meat, carcasses and genetic materials to non-EU countries.
Introduce species- and category-specific maximum journey times with a maximum travel time of 8 hours for adult bovine, swine, and ovine, and 4 hours for poultry and rabbits.
Prohibit the transport of unweaned and pregnant animals (for which 40% of the pregnancy stage has already passed).
Introducespecies-specific requirements for the commercial movements of fish and invertebrate, laboratory animals, equidae, cats and dogs.
Introduce clear definitions and species-specific rules for the Intra-EU movement of animals, including stricter and centralised systems for the approval of livestock vessels used to move animals within the EU
Stopping animal exploitation doesn’t require human benefit, but that it DOES and humans still radically embrace animal cruelty as their “right/choice/blahblahblah” is disturbing. You literally drink the breastmilk of a different species, beyond infancy and with teeth, that requires the suffering, pain, misery, and violent death of the other species.
Animals don’t belong to you; what comes out of their bodies doesn’t belong to you. That you can be ethical but deliberately choose to not be is a perversion. Stop defining others’ suffering in manners that brings you comfort but does nothing to ease the suffering of your victims. I recently read about how adding cameras in slaughterhouses will help to decrease cruelty. In SLAUGHTERHOUSES. A slaughterhouse is INHERENTLY CRUEL, it’s where animals die in fear, blood, and often torturous manners in some grotesquely defined “humane” ethic slander. Slaughterhouses do not attract people who care about animals, and the evidence is in: animals experience abject fear; they smell and hear the death of their death-mates; and they die in often agonizing, torturous manners.
Euphemistic morals serve only those whose intentions are the absolute antithesis of morals but do nothing to help their animal victims: HUMANS.
MILKEDis a topical feature documentary that exposes the whitewash of New Zealand’s multi-billion-dollar dairy industry.
Young activist Chris Huriwai travels around the country searching for the truth about how this source of national pride has become the nation’s biggest threat. It’s rapidly gone from a land with no cows to being the biggest exporter of dairy in the world, but the industry seems to be failing in every way possible.
Featuring interviews with high-profile contributors such as Dr Jane Goodall, environmentalist and former actress Suzy Amis Cameron, and Cowspiracyco-director, Keegan Kuhn, MILKEDreveals the behind-the-scenes reality of the kiwi dairy farming fairy-tale. It uncovers alarming information about the impacts of the industry on the environment and health, leading up to the discovery that we’re on the edge of the biggest global disruption of food and agriculture in history.
An impactful global story told with a local eye, the film also points to what New Zealand and other countries can do to change their fate.
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copyHERE
Searching for Cruelty-Free Cosmetics, Personal-Care Products, Vegan Products, or more? Click HERE to search.
Free PDF of Vegan & Cruelty-Free Products/Companies HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend:
Photo – Mark WAV – If you look carefully on the rear trailer especially, you can see the baby calves, desperate for milk from their mums; which they will never experience again. They suckle the bars to try and get milk – milk for them, NOT us. The dairy industry really gets me – I say to them, come down and see this, hear their cries, smell the smells – Go Vegan Now.
All the above photos were used for a report I presented to the EU – 5 undercover investigations with EU animal welfare organisations on the live calf transport trade between Ireland and France (EU member states).
I may upload the report for you to view soon. In the meantime here is just one of the investigation reports which I know will show you how absurd the EU live animal transport regulations are.
WAV Comment – As many of you know. The stopping of live animal transport is one of our main issues. It is great to see our Czech Republic friends have now set up a petition to support the stopping. Below we have given all the links to the petition; please add your voice by supporting it. Note – a ‘translate’ message should automatically appear when you go to the petition.
Regards Mark
Open petition to end long-distance live animal transport in Czech Republic
A new petition has been launched in Czech Republic by Společnost pro zvířata to demand a ban on long-distance live animal transport. They already have collected 4.000 signatures and they need to reach 10.000.
Back in June, our Member Organisation Společnost pro zvířata lit candles for the animals, victims of cruel transport practices, in front of the Czech Republic Ministry of Agriculture sending a strong message to the representatives.
The ceremony was also an opportunity to launch a petition calling the Czech government to :
Ensure maximum journey times of 4 hours for chickens and 6 to 8 hours for cattle, pigs, sheep and other mammal (including waiting, loading and unloading hours),
Work on a strategy to shift from live transport to a trade of meat and carcasses as well as genetic material only,
Ensure the protection of animals at the time of slaughter or killing by enforcing mandatory stunning.
The petition is nearing its goal of achieving 10,000 signatures.
Petition for an end to long-distance transports with animals and for the export of meat, for the breeding and life of animals as close as possible to their place of birth
for the Government and Parliament of the Czech Republic
motto: Animals are living sentient creatures, just like we humans. They are not goods.
Therefore, we, the undersigned citizens of the Czech Republic, ask the Government and Parliament of the Czech Republic to adopt legislation and its implementation in practice, which will ensure:
that the animals (used for farming purposes) live and live in or near the place of birth;
a maximum limit of 4 h (poultry) and 6 to 8 h (bovine, pig, sheep and other mammals) for transport to slaughterhouses, fattening and rearing/rearing, without exception and including waiting, loading and unloading;
the replacement of long-lasting transport of animals by the transport of meat, half-carcases and other animal products;
the creation of economic incentive tools for the above requirements;
the slaughter and killing of animals at their place of birth, as quickly as possible and brought unconscious by prior stunning, without exceptions;
severely penalise natural and legal persons for infringements relating to the protection of animals during transport and during the slaughter/killing of animals.
WAV Comment: Lets see the EU now put its money where its mouth is; and act !
A European Commissioner for Animal Welfare? 70% of Europeans want it
15 November 2021
GAIA – Belgium
Press Release
The numbers are clear: 70% of EU Citizens want to appoint a European Commissioner for animal welfare, as shown in an international survey conducted in June 2021. Now, Members of the European Parliament have started the process to support the proposal with the signatures collection for an oral question.
Back in June 2021 IPSOS asked 3,500 European adults between 18 and 65 years old whether they think there should be a European Commissioner for Animal Welfare. The study was conducted in the ten largest EU countries, covering 81% of the EU population: France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Romania, Hungary and Sweden. In all these countries 7 out of 10 citizens think there should be a European Commissioner for Animal Welfare.
Currently there is no European Commissioner for Animal Welfare and the responsibility is attributed to the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety. However, some countries, like Belgium, appointed a minister explicitly in charge of this domain.
This decision triggered important effects: a clear responsibility in the government for all legislation related to animal welfare, more transparency, and the allocation of adequate human and financial resources to provide concrete responses on this important topic.
In March 2021, Eurogroup for Animals member GAIA, based in Belgium, launched the campaign #EUforAnimals with the support of over forty other animal rights and welfare organisations across Europe, asking the European institutions to finally give animal welfare the attention it deserves, by integrating it explicitly in the job title of the relevant EU Commissioner.
The #EUforAnimals campaign has already received the support of over 130,000 citizens and 133 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
Twelve MEPs have also launched the signature collection to table a cross-party oral question supporting the demand. The process was initiated by the Niels Fuglsang MEP (S&D, Denmark) and is co-promoted by Sylwia Spurek (Greens/EFA, Poland), Petras Auštrevičius (Renew, Lithuania), Manuel Bompard (GUE/NGL, France), Michal Wiezik (EPP, Slovak Republic), Emmanouíl Fragkos (ECR, Greece), Anja Hazekamp (GUE/NGL, the Netherlands), Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR, Belgium), Emma Wiesner (Renew, Sweden), Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP, Finland), Maria Noichl (S&D, Denmark) and Francisco Guerreiro (Greens/EFA, Portugal).
Members of the European Parliament have often well represented the EU citizens’ will to improve the way animals are treated in Europe. It is my hope and the hope of the other MEPs who are co-promoting this oral question, that many colleagues will join us and that the European Commission will respond positively to our proposal, to see as soon as possible Ms Kyriakides’ title changed into EU Commissioner for “Health, Food Safety and Animal Welfare”
Niels Fuglsang MEP
The survey clearly shows that the campaign’s demand is supported by a great majority of EU citizens. The EU Commission should not delay giving a positive answer to a proposal that can bring great and lasting benefits to animal welfare both at the continental level and beyond. We hope that Commissioner Kyriakides will decide to support #EUforAnimals and become the first EU Commissioner for Animal Welfare.
14 animals die during sea transport from Portugal to Israel
10 November 2021
AWF
Live animal transport from Portugal to Israel: livestock vessel stuck off the Italian coast for two days, 14 animals died during the trip.
NGOs call on the ANIT Committee to ask for a ban of live animal transport at sea.
The vessel Phoenix III, heading to Israel with a cargo of 1,200 young bulls and 5,644 sheep, was dangerously stuck for two days at sea near Mazara del Vallo, Italy.
Portuguese authorities were informed by PATAV (a Portuguese civic movement) that the vessel had stopped for 48 hours. The ship, which left Sines (Portugal) on October 22nd and stopped on 27th near Italy, then left again after two days and reached its destination port in Israel on November 4th.
A coalition of NGOs, which followed the ship and filmed the animals while they were unloaded in the port of Haifa, wrote to the ANIT Committee (Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport) urging to support a ban of live export.
The images taken during the unloading process show stuck and exhausted animals in high overcrowded conditions, with animals on top of each other, and very dirty bulls with broken horns. Some of the animals also showed heat stress symptoms. The animals were quickly loaded again on trucks. They will spend eight days in quarantine in the region of Mehola (90 km from the port), and then they will be transported again to different feedlots in Israel for 4-8 months before slaughter.
This case, as in the well-known cases of Karim Allah and Elbeik at the beginning of 2021, shows again how dangerous sea journeys can be for the animals.
In this incident, 14 animals were reported dead, but if the vessel were stuck for more days, we could have witnessed another tragedy.
In the letter to the ANIT committee, the NGOs referred to the importance of contingency plans and the need, by competent authorities and organisers, to take into account the forecast weather conditions until final destination when authorising a transport. Lack of feasible contingency plans and lack of weather verification have the potential to negatively affect animal welfare when unexpected situations arise.
Phoenix III is a 43 years old livestock vessel (Ex-reefer converted in 2011 at the age of 33 when it should have been already scrapped). Most of the livestock vessels operating in the EU are under similar age and conversion situation, andsince 2017, they are the No. 1 category for the number of detentions worldwide, and considered as a high risk in Paris MoU risk profiling.
Furthermore, according to a recent study published in 2021, 36%of EU-approved livestock vessels have suffered major incidents, failures, or loss.
Besides that, there are concerns regarding the Phoenix III authorisation: according to the Romanian central authority Phoenix III had been transporting live animals without authorisation from April to August 2021 when it made 8 journeys exporting animals from Croatia, Portugal and Romania to Israel. On August 18 the vessel was re-authorised to export animals by Croatia.
Aside from the reason for the stopping, this episode is again a good example of how the welfare of exported animals remains largely unknown during the sea part of the journey, and during transport in third countries to the final destination.
The many tragedies already happened in the past (the Queen Hind, Karim Allah, Elbeik vessels among others) show that the protection of animals during transport at sea is not possible for various reasons: bad weather and technical failures can cause delays, most ports are not able to shelter the animals, and conditions at sea can deteriorate suddenly with no possibility to escape putting both animals and crew at great risk.
Given the comprehensive work that the ANIT did on transport via sea, the NGOs are now asking for the Committee to recommend a phase out of extra-EU sea transport and to urge stricter and refined rules on intra-EU sea transport.
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World Animals Voice 