I (Mark WAV) have tried to attract Goldfinches – See Picture below; into my garden. It worked after a few months of trying; now I get up to 6 on the feeders at the same time. They are beautiful birds as you can see – a host of colour !
Big Garden Birdwatch is the world’s largest garden wildlife survey. Every year, hundreds of thousands of nature lovers like you take part, helping to build a picture of how garden birds are faring.
It’s easy to be part of Big Garden Birdwatch. Simply choose an hour between 26 and 28 January and count the birds you see in your garden, from your balcony, or in your local park. Only count birds that land. Then tell us what you saw. Even if you saw nothing, it still counts.
Please tell us what you saw at www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch before 18 February. By giving us your results online, you’re helping us to spend more on saving nature as it reduces our costs. However, if you prefer to post us your results, you can print and complete the form found in the guide, and send it back to reach us by 13 February. Please take a look at the guide before printing, as it may be that you don’t need to print it all. Every piece of paper saved is better for nature!
Free Guide and ID chart
You can take part in the Birdwatch by simply counting the birds for one hour then going online to tell us what and how many you saw. However, we know some people prefer to use a guide. You can download this year’s free guide below.
The UK Red list for Birds keeps track of population trends in 245 species, with birds listed as ‘Red’ deemed most at risk. In 2021,Greenfinches moved onto the Red List for the first time.
Photos – Pauline
Back in 1979, when Big Garden Birdwatch began, Greenfinches first came in at number seven, but in 2023 they were down to 18. This demonstrates the devastating population declines seen in these charming little finches, caused by a disease called trichomonosis. We now know that Chaffinches are affected too.
You can help stop the spread of this disease by removing old food and cleaning your bird tables, bird baths and feeders weekly. Check here for guidance on cleaning feeders to keep you and your garden birds safe.
An international animal rights charity has worked together with the restauranteur to shut down the cat slaughterhouse for good (Picture: Chau Doan)
A Vietnamese slaughterhouse that drowned 300 cats a month for the Southeast Asian country’s feline meat trade has been closed down for good.
Pham Quoc Doanh, 37, ran the Gia Bảo restaurant in the Thịnh Đán ward of Thái Nguyên, the capital of the northeast province of the same name, for five years.
‘Specialty cat meat,’ the sign outside the eatery on Quang Trung Street once read, with a photograph of a wide-eyed black cat in the top-right corner.
Eating cats is relatively common in Vietnam, where the decade-old appetite for felines has seen their meat be considered an aphrodisiac, lucky charm and even a health-boosting superfood that combats Covid-19.
Our team of fabulous women staff is growing! We currently have 35 incredible women employed in Animal Aid who are essential in making Animal Aid the love-filled place that it is.
Many of our women employees come from rural backgrounds and traditional families where it’s not always encouraged for women to work outside of the house. Indeed, in our early years when we only had male employees we had almost no applications from women. But one by one as women joined, they helped encourage others to do the same. Many of our female staff have overcome many obstacles and are the sole bread-winners of the family, and working at Animal Aid gives them independence. They excel at their jobs here because they understand nurturing from having cared for their own children, and they understand how to get a job done from having managed their households.
Thank you, supporters, for not only saving animals, but also giving employment that has improved so many human lives.
Daffodil was a wilting flower. When she healed from mange, she bloomed.Daffodil was a wilting flower. When she healed from mange, she bloomed.
Daffodil’s red encrusted face looked almost like burn scars from a distance. But once we got closer we could see that her face, throat, chest and arms were fiery red because of an extremely ravaging case of mange. She could barely open her eyes, because the parasites had advanced to her eyelids, and she seemed to be wearing a mask of pure pain. She wouldn’t survive much longer without treatment. We took no chances of her getting away from us and caught her using the net.
But by the time we gently lifted her to the treatment table her exhaustion made her completely docile. She could barely stand. We immediately treated her for pain, and applied soothing cream over all the hurting skin, and then gave her a few hours in the sunshine to rest and adjust to her new surroundings. We treated her with mange medicine including weekly medicated baths. She was an extremely shy girl–at first! But watch this transformation to withdrawn and afraid, to falling in love, beaming in joy. Completely pain-free and all healed, meet delightful Daffodil now!
When he healed, this boy became the world’s sweetest Saber-Toothed Tiger!
When Saber emerged from his hiding place under a car, our rescue team gasped. This beautiful old street dog’s lower jaw at first seemed simply–gone. The skin was entirely detached in a tangled confusion of flesh and maggots. We lifted him gently and hurried back to Animal Aid where our team began assessing his horrible maggot-filled wound. We were extremely worried that the wound could never heal, but he had such a fighting spirit, we knew we had to try.We were surprised and so relieved that his appetite was incredible, and his courage to eat despite the pain humbled our hearts.
This frightful beginning turns into one of THE HAPPIEST endings–or should we say, new beginnings! Meet Saber now, and check out the single tooth on his jaw–you’ll know why we named him Saber. It’s short for Saber-Toothed Tiger!
Courage can best be measured in relation to someone’s fear. This dog had good reason to be afraid, and he showed incredible bravery after a forehead wound became a massive hole filled with life-threatening maggots.
He didn’t give up, although we had to see through his shyness to fully grasp his strength. Melvin remained shy throughout his 6 healing weeks, but the gradual emergence of his smile told us the story in his heart.
Rita (Germany) is travelling with an appetite for the unexpected and spontaneous. We were so all so lucky that when she “stopped in” at Animal Aid to experience volunteering here, she found such a sweet fit that she gave the animals almost two months of the most loving care. We were thrilled to see Rita transform into an Animal Aid “regular” and eagerly await her return.
Stefanie (Germany) has volunteered numerous times over the last 8 years. She returned last month and warmed the hearts of everyone here–such a gentle soul with unbelievable patience, focus, and caring for animals and the people who care for them. We feel so lucky to have amazing Stefanie in the lives of so many dear animals.
Jen (USA) has been a delightful multi-time addition to our volunteer crew, and took time off from her job as an EMT helicopter pilot to swoop down to help the animals once again. We thank Jen for her unwavering good cheer, her deep sensitivity to what animals need one by one, and for brightening all our lives every day she was with us.
Rachel (UK) has graced these newsletter pages several times before; she is a mainstay among our volunteers and can be easily mistaken for staff, given her growing knowledge of our systems here, her charisma with newcomers, and the loving help she lavishes on animals and all the people here.
…Just cuz!
It’s always a great reason to buy a gift
for a friend, or for yourself!
Cuz your purchase here is always a gift of love for the animals.
100% of the proceeds go to our street animal rescues.
For the first time, the welfare of cats and dogs will be protected by EU legislation. The proposal is set to introduce long overdue measures on the traceability of cats and dogs, breeding practices and imported animals, but further work is required to tackle extreme breeding and online sales.
The lack of proper traceability, which hinders controls and enforcement when tackling illicit trade, has finally been addressed through the proposal of national databases that must be interoperable at EU level. All cats and dogs must now be identified and registered by a veterinarian or qualified person.
It is welcoming to see that the five domains concept is fully embraced by the regulation, not only through the absence of negative experiences but by encompassing positive ones. The proposal includes several measures to improve breeding practices, most notably a requirement for breeders to gain approval from competent authorities, with permission only provided after inspection, yet the frequency for such inspections is not yet defined. Approved establishments must be included by authorities in a public list, while caretakers need to obtain certification following mandatory training.
It is positive to see that these requirements would also apply to imports, to ensure that the EU does not feed cruel practices abroad.
In other good news, the legislation addresses the online pet trade, however, there is room for improvement in order to ensure tighter measures for safer and more secure online sales of cats and dogs.
The proposal does fail, however, to address other important measures such as a ban of sale of cats and dogs in pet shops, the abuse of artificial insemination, and sufficient actions to control extreme breeding: “minimising negative welfare consequences” may be too broad to be addressed as it deserves. An ownership ban, as well as a ban on the use of extreme featured breeds in the media and in exhibitions and competitions, could provide much better restrictions.
The need for these measures are highlighted in the findings of the EU enforcement actions on illegal pet trade, published yesterday, which shed light on the major routes for fraud concerns, and identified the challenges in tackling such trade. An estimated 438,000 dogs and 80,000 cats are offered at any given time online, with fraud still rampant. The report highlighted the importance of ongoing collaboration between Member States as well as tools that can facilitate this.
Today marks an important milestone for the welfare of cats and dogs, and the publication of the European Commission’s report on illegal trade further demonstrates the need for this legislation. The overdue measures for animal welfare and traceability within the EU are critical, yet we must address shortcomings, to control the rampant illegal pet trade happening online, through enhanced communication between Member States, training, effective enforcement, and harmonisation of regulations.
Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals
Animal protection organisations reiterate the need for the EC to come forward with a timeline for the missing proposals that were previously announced, in particular the Kept Animals and Slaughter Regulations, which will benefit billions of farm animals each year.
A lucrative underground trade risks undermining research, creating new pandemics and pushing a recently abundant species to the brinkIn 2019, Jonah Sacha, a researcher at Oregon Health and Science University, received a delivery of 20 monkeys from Mauritius. As part of his research into stem-cell transplants as an HIV treatment, he performs tests on long-tailed macaques.
Comedian Ricky Gervais has donated £1.9 million to animal charities across the globe.
The stand-up and creator of television shows such as After Life and The Office, has donated a substantial sum raised from ticket sales from his latest Armageddon world tour.
The money will be split equally between 11 worldwide animal charitiesthat have been chosen by Gervais.
These include All Dogs Matter, Animal SOS Sri Lanka, Catastrophes Cat Rescue, Chaldon Animal Sanctuary, Dogs On The Streets, Helping Rhinos, Millions of Friends, Mira Dogs, Paws2Rescue, PDSA and Wild Futures.
About the move, BAFTA, Emmy and Golden-Globe winning comicGervais, 62, said: “I hope the dogs, cats, rhinos and monkeys invest this money wisely, because when my career goes tits up I’ll need it back.”
In an effort to take action against ticket touts, Platinum Tickets for the Armageddon tour went on sale to guarantee premium seats at market rates, with the extra profits from these ticket sales going to Gervais’s animal charities.
Gervais, a vegan, is a long-standing supporter of animal rights and has put his name to various initiatives in the past.
Earlier this year, he supported a campaign to end bear bile farming in Vietnam, where bears, trapped in small cages, are subjected to a painful method of extracting bile for use in traditional medicine.
We try to avoid using the word “miracle” in our newsletter and social media posts, even though there are plenty of times when we’re tempted to use it–when we thought a cut was too deep, the cancer too advanced, the damage from maggots too pervasive for the animal to heal. But we usually choose not to say “her healing was a miracle” because we feel it discounts all the effort and hundreds of combined hours of human help that make the healing possible. But yet, there is something more than the sum of its parts, taking place in the relationships that make everyone coming together to help animals a family, a team, a group of friends, whose affection is sealed by our shared love of animals.
And now we want to use that very word: the miracle of friendship. There is an unspoken understanding between all who care for animals, many who have sometimes been deeply misunderstood. Your love, our love of animals, is not casual. It hovers within us at all times. An animal’s smile turns our hearts to mush; the abuse of an animal astonishes and ignites us. These are what forge this miracle of friendship we experience together.
May all the blessings of peace rain down upon us all as we continue rescuing these vulnerable animals from injuries, illnesses, and abuse, and may our hearts, too, find deep happiness in their recoveries. Thank you for your gifts of help, and for your gifts of friendship to Animal Aid and to the thousands of others weaving this beautiful blanket of compassion.
A mere rubber band almost ended Chicky’s life.
We were stunned to see that a rubber band could so horribly injure this puppy’s neck. The rubber band penetrated deep into the tissue and caused a horribly painful and deep wound.
As soon as we had Chicky on the treatment table of course we cut the rubber band off, and although the removal stung a bit, we suspect that relief was almost immediate. We then treated the wound like any other serious laceration, and supported her with antibiotics, a hydration drip, food and–yup, cuddles! It took her a couple of weeks to no longer need the bandage, but we were thrilled at how quickly her little body healed.
Turned out, to no one’s surprise, that Chicky is a huge love bug, eager to forget her weeks of pain, ready to leap into a long happy life ahead.
Help us say “We can fix this!” – make a donation today for street animal rescue.
Pihu’s sparkling eyes say “I survived cancer!”
If you’d just looked at Pihu’s eyes, you wouldn’t know she was dying. But the advanced cancerous tumor on her backside was slowly taking this beautiful street dog’s life. The cancer type is called a Transmissible Venereal Tumor, (TVT) and it usually affects the reproductive areas.
A several months’ course of weekly chemotherapy was necessary to shrink the tumor. But such therapy is not always successful, and the more advanced the tumor is, the more difficult the recovery. If a dog’s overall condition has been greatly weakened by the cancer, he or she cannot always be saved. But Pihu is as strong as she is sweet, and she inspires love to last a lifetime–and hers, we hope, will be a long one.
For the ones who need so much more than just medicine to recover – Make a donation today.
Haldi’s tail thumped in hope, just when her life was in gravest danger…
Beyond Haldi’s huge neck wound, her tail wagged, as if pleading for help. When our rescue team arrived, we found her unbelievably gentle despite her terrible pain. She would need surgery as soon as possible, so once back in our hospital we cleaned and put on a temporary bandage at the site of the worst of her wounds (she also had a less serious wound on her hind leg).
Once the operation was complete, Haldi’s rapid healing simply galloped along. And Haldi made her wound dressings a breeze, she was just so full of trust and love. All healed, meet the strong, radiant Haldi now!
When surgery is their only hope, let’s be there. Please donate.
…These are a few of your fav-o-rite things….
Your purchase is a gift to your friends, yourself, and best of all, to animals.
100% of the proceeds go to our street animal rescues.
It was difficult, with many threats from the Serbian government. But, if you believe you are right then you stick with. What we do in life, echoes in eternity.
As a result of continuous “questioning” on the issue; they are now threatening to close the shelter “Alex” as some kind of revenge..
This is not going to stop us – we eagerly await a response from the EU which should definitely give us confirmation that export consignments took place.
World Animals Voice 