Despite the overwhelming wishes of the Australian people to stop live exports; the government seems to ignore them and continue to bow and make excuses for support of the trade. If I lived in Freemantle and heard this news I don’t think I would be very impressed with this situation.
Sems that the Health Minster and the WA Premier have now got a bit of a problem here.
The authorities want to ‘remove the ship so that it can be cleaned’ !
If Australia did not have the live animal export trade then there would be no (live export ship) crew infections; no risk to the people of Freemantle (Health Minister Roger Cook said authorities were working to get as many people as possible off the ship and into hotel quarantine) – so sick crew now being taken ashore into a hotel reduces the risk, does it ?
We say Karma to the government – sadly, people may die as a result of all this; livestock ship crew being taken ashore ? – increasing the chances of infection to other land based folk no doubt. If the government has to keep on dreaming up excuses for the vile trade to continue; them let them dream up excuses for this new situation.
If the citizens of Australia don’t like it – then get them out !
You know how ‘Mr Coal’ failed you in the recent fires !
Further to our very recent post re Covid on a livestock ship docked in Freemantle:
It now seems to be getting much larger within a day – 24 crew now seem to have tested positive.
Coronavirus outbreak on Al Messilah livestock carrier at Fremantle Port sees 24 more crew members test positive
Another 24 crew members on board a livestock carrier docked at Fremantle Port in Western Australia have tested positive for coronavirus,as a move to phase 5 of eased COVID-19 restrictions has again been delayed in the state.
Key points:
The 24 infected crew members remain on the Al Messilah in Fremantle
Authorities want to remove people from the ship so it can be cleaned
WA’s phase 5 restrictions have been delayed but there is relief for venues
One crew member from the Al Messilah ship had already been diagnosed and brought onshore to quarantine in a hotel.
The other 51 crew from a number of countries remainon the ship, which was scheduled to be loading stock but has now been delayed.
Health Minister Roger Cook said authorities were working to get as many people as possible off the ship and into hotel quarantine to allow for deep cleaning of the vessel.
WA Premier Mark McGowan said it was possible there could be “further positive results in coming days”.
“It is becoming clear that ships arriving with COVID-19 on board is one of the weakest links and the biggest risk to our way of life in Western Australia,” he said.
Mr McGowan demanded the Commonwealth “step up” and work with other jurisdictions on the issue, saying WA received around 30 vessels to its ports every day.
“We need a coordinated, international approach to this and we need our Federal Government to take international action,” he said.
Move to phase 5 restrictions delayed
WA’s tentative date to move to phase 5 of eased COVID-19 restrictions had been pencilled in to begin this weekend.
It would have seen the 2-square-metre-per-person rule abolished along with the 50 per cent capacity limit at major venues.
Mr McGowan said WA would extend phase 4 restrictions for now, but the 2-square-metre rule would be modified.
On top of the new cases confirmed from tests overnight, Health Minister Roger Cook today confirmed a crew member from the Al Messilah livestock carrier docked in Fremantle has tested positive for COVID-19.
WAV Comment – Banksy is a more than fabulous anonymous English street artist. He has been known also for his involvement with animal rights. True to form, below you can see a couple of his ‘projects’ in New York relating to live animal transport (one of our main issues), and the abuse of animals linked to the pet industry.
Banksy’s name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. In a 2003 interview with Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian,
Banksy is described as “white, 28, scruffy casual—jeans, T-shirt, a silver tooth, silver chain and silver earring. He looks like a cross between Jimmy Nail and Mike Skinner of the Streets.”
Banksy began as an artist at the age of 14, was expelled from school, and served time in prison for petty crime. According to Hattenstone, “anonymity is vital to him because graffiti is illegal”. For 10 years in the late 1990s, Banksy lived in Easton, Bristol, then moved to London around 2000.
He does all this and he stays anonymous. I think that’s great. These days everyone is trying to be famous. But he has anonymity.
Banksy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director, active since the 1990s. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges throughout the world. Banksy’s work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.[5]
Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self-built physical prop pieces. Banksy no longer sells photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti, but his public “installations” are regularly resold, often even by removing the wall they were painted on. A small number of Banksy’s works are officially, non-publicly, sold through Pest Control. Banksy’s documentary film Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the film. In 2014, he was awarded Person of the Year at the 2014 Webby Awards.[10]
WAV Comment – For Years we and many others have given the utter proof that animal welfare does not work in the EU at this current time. 20/10/20 will be a real tester of the EU and its Parliament to see what happens.
Will the voices of 94% of EU citizens who believe it is important to protect the welfare of farmed animals be heard and acted on ? – or will they be sidetracked and ignored ?
We will report on what happens after the date.
Regards Mark
Will the European Parliament make the Future of CAP animal welfare-friendly?
14 October 2020
On 20 October 2020, the European Parliament will vote on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2021-2027. With a lot at stake, MEPs will also vote on whether the new CAP will finally be able to deliver toward its objective of ‘promoting animal welfare’.
An overwhelming majority (94%) of EU citizens believe it is important to protect the welfare of farmed animals. Additionally, in the most recent EU wide survey on European, Agriculture and the CAP in the latest Eurobarometer, citizens listed animal welfare as the second most important responsibility farmers should have in today’s society.
The reform of the CAP provides numerous opportunities to take into consideration these citizens’ demands on animal welfare.
On 20/10/20, Members of the European Parliament will vote on what the future CAP will look like and whether animal welfare will be an integral part of the programme from 2021 to 2027.
Eurogroup for Animals and its members call on the MEPs’ support of improving enforcement of animal welfare legislation (conditionality measures), and promote best practices on farm animal welfare (in the newly created eco-schemes and under the in Pillar II listed measures for rural development plans).
What is the CAP ?
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the first, biggest, and one of the few pieces of legislation entirely decided at the EU level. The CAP accounts for almost half of the EU’s entire budget – around 58 billion euros yearly. In paying European farmers in exchange for producing food in a certain way, the CAP determines which type of farming practices are likely to thrive in the EU.
What we call the “CAP” is in fact a series of regulations: four regulations under the current CAP; reduced to three for the next CAP reform. The Regulation on Strategic Plans, which determines rules for payments to farmers (so called “Pillar I”) and the measures for rural development plans, which are essentially bonuses afforded to producers who undertake good practices (so-called “Pillar II”). The Common Market Organisation (CMO) Regulation relates to technical measures supporting production and consumption, such as promotional measures, regulation on denomination of food products, and all the measures actionable during crisis (surplus stocking for instance). Unlike the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation, the CMO regulation is not regulating payments, but technical measures to regulate the agri-food market. Finally, the Horizontal Regulation mostly provides for penalty measures. All three regulations have tremendous effects on the number of animals produced, and the ways in which they are treated.
Does the present CAP take animal welfare into account ?
Yes. The EU is the only jurisdiction in the world to include an animal welfare component in its agricultural policy. This, more than the enactment of animal welfare legislation, contributes to the exceptionalism of the EU when it comes to the taking into account of animal welfare in policies. The articulation between the CAP and animal welfare is instrumental to achieve the objectives set in EU animal welfare laws, since the CAP is the one piece of legislation which most affects the lives of the seven billion farm animals raised and slaughtered each year in the EU.
Even though the CAP contains only a few provisions on animal welfare, these provisions affect greatly the treatment of farm animals in our union.
To understand the extent to which CAP and animal welfare intersects, it is important to know how it is structured. The CAP is divided into two main “pillars”, with:
Pillar I, which grants farmers subsidies in exchange for producing agricultural products: crops for human or animal consumption, and livestock. Under Pillar One, EU law requires that all farmers receiving payments should be submitted to additional inspection to ensure they comply with minimal legislation on animal welfare. A livestock producer who fails to comply with certain minimal requirements – such as providing enrichment materials for pigs – will receive a reduced amount of subsidies. This measure is popular among EU citizens, with 82% in favor of reducing subsidy payments for noncompliance (Eurobarometer, 2016).
Pillar II provides additional funding for good practices that go beyond legal requirements. Member States have the possibility to offer a series of financial aids to those farmers who commit to improve animal welfare beyond legal requirements, by providing them support to help them transition to or maintain more humane production models. For example, to farmers who raise free range chickens.
The CAP as. In fact, animal welfare requirements as an eligibility criterion for subsidies were included in the CAP in the early 2000s, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the proliferation of intensive farming.
As a result, cruel practices are becoming increasingly common on European farms – in France, the UK, Poland and Spain, to name a few countries. The present CAP will expire in 2020 and a new one is being discussed in the European Parliament and Council.
The EU’s subsidy scheme is in need of reform to ensure it meets our societies’ biggest challenges and expectations concerning our food system. Yet the reforms addressed so far are limited to the administrative intricacies of payment redistribution by the European Commission and the Member States: a shame, given the considerable effect the CAP has on animal welfare and its potential to improve food policies.
What are the limits to the inclusion of animal welfare into the CAP ?
Circling back to the compliance requirements on animal welfare under Pillar I, the CAP doesn’t cover all species – poultry welfare requirements are still excluded, for instance, despite the fact that there are two specific pieces of EU legislation imposing minimum welfare standards for laying hens and for broilers. Even for animals which are included in the CAP’s welfare provisions, compliance is not always guaranteed. For example, the EU Court of Auditors recently found that not all farms receiving money from Pillar I were being checked for adherence to the CAP’s welfare provisions, with some Member States’ inspection systems leaving farms – sometimes those most in risk of violations – outside their scope.
As for Pillar II, even though some Member States may have specifically chosen to fund animal welfare practices that go the extra mile, not all of them actually spent according to that express intention under the current CAP – 16 out of 28 Member States only, and for an amount totalling only 1.5% of the entire pillar. Secondly, while you would think if a farmer is getting Pillar II subsidies for the extra animal welfare measures, he or she would also be complying with the legal requirements of Pillar One, the EU Court of Auditors has revealed that this is not the case. Examples include farmers who are providing more space per pig than is required by EU law while not complying with minimal legal requirements in other areas, such as painful tail docking. An additional issue is that in listing the best practices they choose to fund under Pillar Two, Member States often incentivise those that are detrimental to animal welfare. Funding for modernisation could lead to the building of a state-of-the-art intensive farm, for example.
In fact, the issue of animal welfare in the CAP goes beyond gaps in enforcement, and has more to do with the general objectives of the CAP itself.
Since its creation in the early 1960s, the CAP has incentivised the increase in production of animal-based food products; first as a way to ensure EU’s food security, and more recently to gain global market share. By doing so, it has undermined an already weak animal welfare policy objective. At its current level, the CAP gives revenue to farmers for raising animals for consumption purposes to such an extent that animal agriculture accounts for 40% of the EU’s agricultural production, according to Eurostat’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery statistics from 2018. As a result, production methods have been further industrialised, making extreme confinement and painful mutilations the norm in EU animal agriculture. By incentivising the production of animals for food, the CAP also influences consumer patterns. Firstly, the more animals are produced for food, the more consumers will find animal products in supermarkets, and the cheaper those products will be. Secondly, to maintain consumption levels of animal products, certain intensive producers benefit from opportunities available under the CAP such as the EU’s marketing campaigns to promote and sell their products. For instance, certain Italian PDO pork producers have continued to benefit from these opportunities despite repeatedly violating minimal EU animal welfare standards. Similarly, the CAP gives privileged access to specific markets with programmes such as the EU “School Scheme,” providing milk to school kids across the EU, but also enabling producers to use European schools as a dumping ground for an overproduced commodity while influencing young Europeans’ food habits.
What can MEP’s do to make sure the new CAP will be fairer for all; including animals
Not only has the CAP neglected to properly take animal sentience into account, it has led to a broken food system which fails animals, farmers, consumers and citizens alike. The CAP reform is a unique opportunity to reverse the trend of industrial farm animal production. To further the EU’s mandate to respect animal sentience, we must demand that the cruelest forms of animal exploitation must be ineligible for any type of public funding (subsidies and market measures), higher welfare systems rewarded and inspection systems in EU States strengthened throughout the Union. Only this would make the CAP consistent with the EU Treaty, and the EU a credible role model for animal welfare for the rest of the world.
The European Parliament, therefore, needs to (1) support enhanced conditionality on animal welfare; all directives on animal welfare should be included in conditionality, and conditionality should be extended to both pillars; (2) support funding to incentivise producers to transition towards more humane systems; under Pillar I with the newly-created eco-schemes; under Pillar II by making Animal Welfare Measure (“Measure 14”) mandatory in all national rural development plan.
Regards Mark.
For those old fossils in the UK like me; you will know about Led Zepp.
There were plenty of livestock trucks at Rosslare Port yesterday evening boarding the Stena Line Horizon – you can hear the calves bawling, already hungry and tired. Over 24 hours with no feed is not only inhumane it is illegal
There were plenty of livestock trucks at Rosslare Port yesterday evening boarding the Stena Line Horizon – you can hear the calves bawling, already hungry and tired. Over 24 hours with no feed is not only inhumane it is illegal @StenaLine@McConalogue#BanLiveExportpic.twitter.com/Xtg7Cp1flY
In the immortal words of Jim Morrison of the doors. “The time for hesitation’s through. There’s no time to wallow in the mire. We can only lose….& our love become a funeral pyre”. #BanLiveExports it’s time to act, be brave & stand up to the bad guys once & for all.
BBC news sheds light on UK calves exported to the Middle East
8 October 2020
Animals International
Eurogroup for Animals’ member organisations, Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) and Animals International, gathered footage this summer, which for the first time confirmed that UK calves exported to Spain, are often shipped to the Middle East for slaughter.
With segments on Radio 4’s Farming Today, BBC 2 News, and the BBC News Channel, the BBC has released evidence gathered over the summer by Eurogroup for Animals’ members Animals International and the AWF.
Despite the UK’s claim of not exporting animals for slaughter purposes and the active campaign carried out by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) to Ban Live Exports, the investigations carried out by Eurogroup for Animals’ members clearly show that it happens to UK animals to end up in Third Countries’ abattoirs.
Indeed, the footage shows that calves exported on long journeys from the UK (Northern Ireland) to Spain to be fattened for beef are often then exported on further journeys to the Middle East.
“We found animals with UK earring tags being slaughtered in Lebanon as well as a UK bull at the harbour in Cartagena (ES) ready to be loaded on a vessel headed for Libya”, said Gerit Weidinger, EU-Coordinator Animals International that for many years has investigated the awful conditions of the EU animals in Third Countries’ abattoirs. The footage published by BBC shows animals being thrown onto the floor and being dragged or suspended by their limbs while still conscious.
The UK currently exports some animals for breeding. Unweaned male calves are considered by-products of the dairy industry and their transport is particularly problematic because of the extremely fragile conditions of these young animals and their needs. AWF has been working on this issue for many years and restlessly reported about the animal welfare issues behind this trade. Only in 2019, the UK exported around 17,000 calves to Spain, the majority from Northern Ireland. Once reached Spain these animals are typically fattened on farms before being slaughtered or re-exported. In June this year, AWF filmed a UK calf being moved outside of its pen and left to die. “The calf was suffering from a respiratory illness, which is common after long, stressful journeys with little food or milk replacement”.
To avoid animal suffering and avoid the law being circumvented, it is key to stop any EU and UK export to non-EU countries
The UK has a lot of very old and excellent organisations which campaign long and hard for improvements to animals welfare. Here ids a link to our other site, Serbian Animals Voice (SAV), which has a section devoted to animal organisations; including links to their own web sites. Check it out sometime:
The good animal welfare conscious people living in the UK made the subject just one of the reasons why the UK voted to divorce itself from the uselessness of the EU a few years ago. We (WAV and SAV) have always attempted to show the utter failures of the EU when it comes to improving standards for animals. EU Regulations mean nothing, are hardly ever enforced, which results in massive animal suffering.
The UK voted ‘out’ of the EU after 40+ years as a member, so that it could take back control of pathetic legislation which ‘member states’ are forced to comply with. We wish many other current member states had the willingness to do the same.
The UK officially leaves the EU at the end of 2020.
This will be with or without a trade deal. If there is no deal, then the UK moves over to WTO rules regarding the EU. So until the end of 2020; the UK still has to comply with EU regulations; including the pathetic ones associated with animal ‘welfare’. ‘Welfare’, which includes live animal transport; stalls in which sow pigs are forced to rear their young, rabbit farming, foie gras and much more.
In 2021 the UK will be able (through UK government legislation) to introduce new laws which will meet the wishes of the public and greatly improve animal welfare standards as they wish; one being to stop the live transport (export) of farm animals; an issue we have campaigned about for the last 30+ years.
The current UK government is ‘Conservative’; and will probably remain so for the next 3 or 4 years. It has a big majority of MP’s (Members of Parliament) – around 80; who should be able to vote through legislation with a degree of ease.
It is only through intensive lobbying and providing the evidence that we, as welfare groups, can be a voice for animals – a voice that eventually brings change. We trust that from 2021 onwards when the UK is free from the uselessness of the EU, stronger and larger animal welfare laws will be passed into UK law.
Here is a video just released by the ‘Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation’ (CAWF) which outlines the future prospects for UK animals and their legislation. There are many speakers from the UK government; people who will help to get the new legislation through into (UK) law.
Animal Welfare Matters is a new film by the CAWF filmed by a Cannes Film Festival award winning film maker. It urges for an end to live animal exports for slaughter and fattening, pig farrowing crates, cages for egg laying birds and calls for the introduction of clear mandatory labelling so consumers can make an informed choice.
Speakers include:
Rt Hon Lord Goldsmith, Minister of State (Minister for Pacific and the Environment)
Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP
Rt Hon Sir Roger Gale MP
Sir David Amess MP
Henry Smith MP
John Flack former MEP
Elise Dunweber Chairman, Esher And Walton Conservative Women’s Organisation
Peter Hall (AM) Director, Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation
Lorraine Platt Co-Founder, Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation
Chris Platt Co-Founder Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation
It is never easy; you don’t give over 30 years of your campaigning life only to fail; global live animal transport bans have been that for me and I am still fighting. People and campaigners have the tenacity to fight through to the end; and they will – eventually winning.
Sentient animals deserve better; and with our input we hope they will get it.
Please watch the video below; and gain strength that we in the UK are moving forward now into 2021 for changes.
If only the EU was not ‘all talk and do nothing’ then animals throughout the EU would do better. That is a matter for citizens of existing member states to vote and make the changes.
Regards Mark.
We are not politically associated with any plitical party – we simply provide the data and let you, the voters, make the choices.
Unpublished and shocking images inside the ships transporting live animals from Portugal to Israel
5 October 2020
The images were collected inside the ships that regularly transport cattle and sheep from Portugal to Israel.
The videos reveal the shocking reality of live export by showing animals huddled together, without space, injured and sick. The videos also show serious and repeated violations of national and international legislation.
The images are starting to be released within the framework of the newly created European Parliament’s commission of inquiry, which will investigate violations of European legislation that regulates the transport of live animals. Additional images will be delivered to the European Commission, the media and the national authorities that requested them.
These images are unpublished and were captured on several trips throughout 2019. The videos show the animals’ ear tags, confirming their Portuguese origin. The responsibility of the Portuguese State for compliance with the applicable legislation only ends at the moment of disembarkation, no inspection is foreseen on board.
WAV Comment: I have personally been involved with the Ireland / France live calf issue for many years.During 2010–I worked with Dutch investigator friends at ‘Eyes on Animals’ http://eyesonanimals.com/ , as well as with ‘Animals’ Angels’ (Germany) http://www.animals-angels.de/startseite,en_ORG.html and PMAF (France) http://www.pmaf.org/ to produce a 125 page official investigation report for the EU Legal Affairs team in Brussels, Members of the European Parliament (MEP’s) and UK Parliamentarians (MP’s) – a report which specifically investigated live animal (calves) transport between Ireland and France; the very issue here.
Read more about it; plus a copy of one of the investigation reports, at:
Circulate and sign the petition to ask Stella Line to stop the horrific conditions of transport of calves between Ireland and France.
Ireland is a major milk producer in the EU, which means that many calves are born by the country’s dairy cows. Every year, 100 000s of Ireland’s dairy calves are exported alive and unweaned (about three weeks old) to the European continent, via France for further fattening/veal production in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. The sea voyage often goes from Rosslare in Ireland to Cherbourg in France through the Swedish shipping company Stena Line.
The transport takes place with animal transport trucks and usually takes between 23-29 hours from loading to unloading. During this time, the calves receive no milk substitute, only drinking water. This is a violation of EU Animal Transport Regulation 1/2005, which states that non-weaned calves must be fed at least every 18 hours. The EU regulation’s feed interval in itself is very long, Swedish guidelines are that non-weaned calves should receive milk replacement at least every 8 hours.
The Swedish Animal Welfare Association (Svenska Djurskyddsföreningen) and our partners Eyes on Animals, Ethical Farming Ireland and L214 have since August 2019 repeatedly informed Stena Line that their sea transports of unweaned calves violate EU animal transport rules. We have urged the shipping company to stop accepting these trucks for animal welfare reasons, but Stena Line has chosen to continue the transports. The Irish authorities unfortunately do not seem interested in protecting the calves.
We who sign this petition now call on Stena Lina to stop all maritime transport of calves from Ireland to continental Europe, as long as the EU’s animal transport rules are not followed. We ourselves will boycott Stena Line’s ferries until the shipping company stops the calf transports.
This petition will be handed over to the management of Stena Line by the end of 2020.
1.4 billion animals are transported in the EU every year, as far as North Africa and the Middle East. For years, the main customers for German and EU cattle have been third countries such as Lebanon,Libya, and Egypt, but also Turkey.
As if animal transports within the European Union weren’t bad enough: If animals are transported to countries outside the EU, they are often exposed to extreme heat or cold. Not only long travel times but also long waiting times at the borders do their part.
It’s criminal, it’s a political shame to let them cart to countries where there is no animal protection law.
Lebanon
As soon as animals leave the EU on trucks or ships, animal welfare is usually over.
Immediately after the journeys to hell, their tendons are cut or their eyes gouged out to make them defenseless – many of them fight for their lives for minutes in the slaughterhouse because of imprecise cuts in their necks.
Although the European Court of Justiceruled in 2015: “Animal welfare does not end at the border of the European Union. The welfare of the animals must be ensured until the final destination – whether stables or slaughterhouses”.
But at the destinations of animal transports, for example in Lebanon or Egypt, nobody is interested in the regulations of Europeans.
Controls are missing.
The following applies: where there is no plaintiff – there is no judge.
In 1990 the filmmaker Manfred Karremann made his first film about animal transports: his pictures of tortured farm animals from Germany and Europe resulted in millions of protests.
Lebanon
Tied bull from the Czech Republic shortly before slaughter in Lebanon (Photo: © Animals International)
German bull with severed tendons in an Egyptian slaughterhouse (Photo: © Animals International)
World Animals Voice 