I want to share this video with you from our great friends at ‘Animal Aid Unlimited’ (AAU) in India.
AAU say – We got a call to rescue a street dog who was suffering from severe mange and dehydration. She was unable to stand when we found her curled up in a ball on the side of the street.
Her skin was covered with painful scabs and she had completely lost hope. After several months of treatment, meet beautiful Helen today.
We’ve rescued thousands of animals, yet we are still in awe of each and every animal’s uniqueness. Some animals take time to get to know, while others wear their heart on their sleeve. We’ll never know what an animal is really thinking, in a human sense, yet the presence of life and of feeling, not different from ours, is unmistakable. They probably don’t know that they feel better because of the injection we just gave them, or the splint now stabilizing their fracture, but in the moment when their worried eyes become soft, and their tense shoulders relax, we rejoice in just knowing that we’ve helped them feel better.
Watch these wonderful recovery videos below and know that you, wherever you are in the world, have helped a tail wag, given a peaceful night’s sleep, made a hungry belly full, and surrounded a worried animal with love.
Despite a ruptured eye,Sunny hugged his rescuer!
Sunny’s tail wags in every single frame of this video. Unusual under any circumstances, but incredible that he shared joy even with the excruciating pain he suffered having a completely ruptured eye. His eye was damaged beyond repair, but he pulled through surgery with flying colors and immediately seemed to show–not fear, but gratitude! It’s simply awful to imagine such a joyful puppy suffering in pain. Without rescue, his tail would soon have stopped wagging forever.This little sweetheart is simply Love Itself in a puppy package.
Rose’s love helped heal her baby Petal’s horrific wound
Rose’s little boy, Petal, was terribly injured on the back of his neck with a deep wound filled with maggots. We knew they needed to be together but the day we rescued him we didn’t have room in our ambulance to bring them both. The next day our ambulance pulled in with a big beautiful surprise for this little angel: his mommy! Happily together with Mom, his healing process galloped along! Daily wound cleaning and fresh dressings enabled that awful wound to close within a couple of weeks.
Giving peace and safety to sweethearts like Shaney who have a long healing journey ahead
When Shaney arrived she was a suffering sweetheart who had a fracture on her shoulder. Her ears were also wounded in the accident. She needed medical care for her ears, and for her fracture, she needs rest and limited mobility. Here she is now,completely at home in the our sheep and calf area where there are, of course, no passing vehicles and where tension is completely lifted and all her energy can go into further healing and strengthening her leg.
Thank you for giving us the means to provide complete rehabilitation for those who need time to heal.
Compassion in our Community
A community street animal care-giver often evolves beginning with giving the adorable dogs outside their home leftovers and table scraps. Gradually the bright eyes of the dogs or cows invite irresistible pets and cuddles. For many people, this blossoms into a friendship.
Photographed here, this elegant boy’s guardian brought him in their car and drove him to Animal Aid when they noticed he had a puncture wound that looked infected. Sure enough it was infected, but with antibiotics and their close monitoring, he did not need to be admitted into the hospital and he could heal happy in his own neighborhood with his caregivers near by.
Biggest thank you to the people in Udaipur and across India who have opened their hearts and hands to the angels on their path.
On February 10, wildlife advocates across the U.S. celebrated a federal district court ruling to relist wolves after the Trump administration removed federal protections for wolves in January 2021. The Biden administration failed to reinstate emergency federal protection, thereby opening up expanded slaughter across their range. Last week’s ruling reinstates federal protections for gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act across the lower 48 except for three separate groups of wolves. The first two groups, Mexican gray wolves and red wolves, are already federally protected. Tragically, the third group of wolves in the Northern Rockies states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, are not included in that ruling and still face intense persecution under state management with new laws allowing liberalized killing through trophy hunting, trapping, snaring, baiting, aerial gunning and night hunting. We’ve been advocating for wolf protections for a long time and now is no time to let up
Project Coyote‘s new billboard campaign in Idaho and Montana challenges this egregious mismanagement, calling for the relisting of wolves in the Northern Rockieswhere populations continue to attract millions of visitors to famed Yellowstone National Park from all over the globe to glimpse a wolf in the wild.
At the base of this mismanagement of wolves and other apex predators is a governance system that is out of sync with current science and public sentiment. Such a broken system is reflected in myriad other states where wildlife commissions continue to allow and even expand the wanton killing of wild carnivores. Some recent examples of where we’ve been countering the actions of commissions that simply shills for a small contingent of hunting and agricultural interests include: expanded opportunities to trophy hunt black bears in California and North Carolina, hound hunting of coyotes in Vermont, wildlife killing contests in Virginia and trophy hunting of wild cats in Colorado. We’re also part of a newly formed coalition called Wildlife For All that aims to reform state and federal wildlife agency governance structures and institutions pushing for change that reflects diverse values for wildlife, more democratic decision-making and recognition of wildlife as a common good to be conserved for the benefit of all. Across all these issues and more, Project Coyote is on the front lines, advocating on behalf of North America‘s wild carnivores who have no voice and are often still seen as vermin needing to be expunged from the landscape.
On another front, we’re excited to expand our reach into the Midwest through the Big River Connectivity project in collaboration with The Rewilding Institute, the Half-Earth Project and BeWildReWild. Through this partnership we aim to restore at least 9 million acres in the Midwest to create a wilder, more beautiful, more biologically diverse and more enduring Mississippi River watershed. We will do so by shifting the paradigm from traditional agricultural practices to a more holistic, sustainable and humane approach of interacting with land and wildlife.
Our work is defensive and offensive — working to stop wanton wildlife killing while concurrently seeking to educate, empower and inspire action for wildlife and wildlands. Read more about these efforts below and our expanded team who will help bring these bold goals to fruition.
We could not do this work without you — our supporters and the many foundations who believe in our vision for a wilder world. Thank you for helping foster compassion for the other beings with whom we share this planet.
The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries has shared a list of Romanian Animal Shelters who are accepting refugee animals from Ukraine (some offer shelter for any species, including farm animals):
The National Veterinary Health and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) also informs about the temporary abolition of compliance with certain conditions for the entry of pets from Ukraine to Romania.
Due to the exceptional conditions generated by the situation in Ukraine and in order to avoid possible difficulties with refugees coming from this country with pets, in accordance with Article 32 of Regulation (EU) 576/201 3 on the repeal of the conditions for non-commercial animal movement as a company, Romania authorizes non-commercial traffic on their territory as follows:
Animals that meet the conditions for entry into the EU (identified, vaccinated, with/or without the title of antibodies) will be allowed to enter.
For animals that :
are not correctly identified by microchip/tattoo,
are not vaccinated against rabies or whose vaccination is no longer valid,
the responsible person will fill in the animal tracking form, which can be downloaded from the ANSVSA website.
The owner of the animal will be able to carry out all formalities and procedures after his entry into Romania.
To facilitate the access of refugees from Ukraine with animals, ANSVSA has sent instructions on the territory and at the border crossing points.
As investigated by Eurogroup for Animals’ member, Four Paws, every year over 10 million dogs and cats are killed for their meat in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam hosting the most robust dog meat trade in the region.
Animals of unknown health status are sourced to supply the trade from multiple locations. Traumatised, diseased, with depleted immune systems and without food and water they are transported in poor hygiene conditions, in many cases, for thousands of kilometres and cross-border, often mix with other species at marketplaces, slaughterhouses and restaurants. Why should it matter to the EU to bring this trade to an end?
MEP Petras Auštrevičius, is Chair of Companion Animals Working Group of the European Parliament Intergroup on Animal Welfare and Conservation.
Many people do not realise that while in the EU most cats and dogs are treated as companion animals, there are other parts of the world where cats and dogs would be qualified as farm animals. Would you be able to elaborate on that? Why is such meat imported and what are the countries that import it?
It is estimated that annually 10 million dogs and cats are killed for human consumption in Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia. The trade involves extreme animal cruelty during capture, transport, holding and slaughter with dogs and cats often stolen or forcefully taken from their owners. In Vietnam the trade kills approximately 5 million dogs and 1 million cats, in Cambodia 3 million dogs and an unknown number of cats, and in Indonesia 1 million dogs and hundreds of thousands of cats. The trade is also existent in Africa, although poor data on the topic are available. The meat is largely found as a delicacy, however, there is quite poor social support for continuation of this trade. A great majority of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Indonesian citizens do not see the future for the cat and dog meat trade. The speakers and participants agreed that now is the time for ASEAN countries to ban the cat and dog meat trade and enforce their legislation on animal movement and rabies eradication to protect the consumers and prevent future pandemics.
Looking at the immediate impact on animals, why is it a particularly cruel trade for the animals?
Animals of unknown health status are sourced to supply the trade from multiple locations. Traumatised, diseased, with depleted immune systems and without food and water they are transported in poor hygiene conditions, in many cases, for thousands of kilometres and cross-border, often mix with other species at marketplaces, slaughterhouses and restaurants.
Why does the dog and cat meat trade matter to Europe? What risks does this trade bring?
The cat and dog meat trade and consumption pose a significant human health risk and severe diseases like rabies, cholera and trichinellosis are associated with it. Moreover, the meat contains high levels of antibiotic residues leading to antimicrobial resistance. Finally, mutated canine influenza or canine coronavirus carry a potential of infecting and spreading to humans giving sufficient ground to future pandemics. While human health risks are largest in the source countries, EU citizens can be affected as well. Disease outbreaks and zoonoses can jeopardise European travellers in Southeast Asia. Mutated viruses can be imported through pets rescued from the meat trade. Therefore, the EU has a direct interest to stop the cat and dog meat trade. Nobody expected the outcomes of COVID-19, that is why we must not be complacent.
Are there regulations in place at EU level to address this situation? Have these been sufficient?
ASEAN Delegation outlined the need for the European Parliament to address this issue, as well as for the ASEAN Delegation to commit relevant ambassadors to change. There are certainly things the European Parliament has and will be calling for, however the initiative for any concrete action lies with the European Commission. As there is currently no exchange of data on the movement of cats and dogs, as well as no tracking of animals, even across the EU, it is quite easy to imagine the worst case scenario. In particular, with the increase of demand for cats and dogs, and trends across the foreign rescue animals which is concerning when the health status of the animals is not properly screened.
Is there a way that we can encourage the EU and Member States to improve their response and finally put an end to this trade?
Certainly, the EU and the Member States must raise awareness among their citizens. A ban on the trade and consumption of dog and cat meat and introduction of legislation, as regulation would not resolve the cruelty involved therein and alleviate all health risks are the way forward. Such bans exist in China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
Want to learn more about the dog and cat meat trade?
Were you to follow the life of a pangolin, you’d begin life riding around the jungle clinging to your mother’s scaly tail, eating ants, climbing trees and generally keeping yourself to yourself.
When danger approached she’d wrap you under her tummy, forming a barrier impenetrable to bear claws and tiger teeth alike – a technique that’s kept pangolins alive since the dinosaurs disappeared.
But from then – if you were like over 1,000,000 others in the last 20 years – you’d be headed for a whole new world of horror.
You’d enter the world of humans.
It would begin as you curled up in fear at the sound of approaching human footsteps. Exploiting your inability to fight or flee, the owner of those footsteps would pick you up, imprison you, and proceed to trade your existence to a wildlife dealer.
You’d then be frozen and shipped across the world to have your corpse floated in wine or caged alive outside a restaurant ready to be slaughtered at a dinner table in front of wealthy diners hoping to impress their guests.
Your scales – just like those of your mother you clung to – would be ripped from your body, ground to a powder and uselessly consumed as a mythical medicine
.
Almost every step of this obliteration of your species would be formulated and facilitated by networks of ruthless traffickers, fattening their purses at the expense of pangolin after pangolin after pangolin after pangolin.
This has to end – we must bring this crooked industry down.
Your £25 could help support undercover operatives taking on those traffickers and putting them where they belong – prison. That way we can bring down the barbaric networks and save countless pangolin lives.
So please donate now, because unless we act – unless we end this spiral of utter destruction – it will be ended for us. By extinction.
PS With the rate of slaughter so unbearably high, the clock is ticking. Please send whatever you can afford.We do not have much time to turn this dreadful situation around, and save elephants from total extinction.
WAV Comment: We communicate with Erika almost every week and are always more than pleased to watch some of the latest monthly rescues which get sent through to us. The dedication of the team is amazing, so please give them your support if you are able – donation links are given below.
Little Adoo is amazing – watch the video and see how this little guy was saved just in time and brought back from the edge of death.
Regards Mark
Dear Mark,
Animals bring out our best in so many ways. Those of us who are shy around people, may chatter with delight to an animal. We might be upset, but one look into the eyes of a dog and our bad mood melts away.Feeling a little anxious or sad? Meet Tulip in the video below.
Tulip wasn’t an old lady after all!
At first you might think this dog is an elderly frail old lady, but she is a puppy who was suffering from advanced mange and starvation.
To our amazement she greeted her rescuers with the trust and affection of someone not defeated, but with a strong will to live. We hurried her into treatment, knowing that in this desperate condition, her immune system was very weak and at any moment she could take a turn for the worse. Her innocent eyes peered up at her caregivers with so much hope from the first moments. And thankfully, her appetite was strong and she dove right in.
We named her Tulip and watched with joy as day by day her health improved and a playful puppy emerged.
When we warmed Adoo up, he turned into a bright little star!
If we couldn’t warm up little Adoo quickly he was going to die from the cold.
Somehow he had gotten wet, and his body went into hypothermia–a life-threatening condition that affects the heart and other organs. We rushed him to our hospital and placed him in a nest of hot water bottles and blankets and started him on warm IV fluids. But all we could do was wait to see if his little body would respond to the external warmth.
By the next morning, we met a new little guy–his eyes were sparkling and he even ate on his own before going back to his mama.
Warm a little soul through rescue and medical care. Donate today
Balveer’s will to live was even bigger than his wound…
One of the most difficult cases we’ve treated, this quiet dog had a wound filled not only with maggots, but a resistant bacteria that continued to cause damage.
We were alarmed that even once we had removed the maggots and cleaned the wound, it continued to grow larger by the day.Even before the wound responded to the antibiotics, this boy had unusually gentle perseverance. He kept very still throughout his weeks of daily wound dressings. He seemed to be waiting patiently for his body to heal. It was incredible to see that as his wound shrank, his happiness rose to the surface.
WAV Comment: Ask many people around the world what they consider to be an ‘iconic’ representation of Australia; and you will probably often get a reply of either the Koala bear or the Kangaroo.
You would thus think then that after all these years / decades of Australian government environmental destruction and habitat loss for the Koala, something would (or certainly should) have been done by either past or current Australian governments to protect and retain such an icon as the Koala.
You would like to think also that the current so-called ‘Environment Minister; one Sussan Ley, would care a little more about protecting the environment and its flora and fauna (including the Koala) rather than prioritising her own ascension of the political ladder; but I think we are wrong.
S. Ley – Environment Minister
Instead, Scott ‘Coal Hugger’ Morrison, the Prime Minister, and Ms Ley both appear to have their own survival at the top of their priorities, rather than the environment and the protection of wonderful animal species such as the Koala, who are now in dire (survival) straits and, according to reports, face extinction by 2050 if very drastic if urgent action is not taken.
So what do we hear ? – now, with Koala on the brink of extinction and the global witnessing of its habit being slashed and burned, the Morrison government announces $50m to help the species – wow, $50m !! – very much a case of ‘closing the stable door after the horse has bolted’.(in this case a bolt of 20 years ago) as we say in the UK. And they think this paltry sum of cash is going to resolve the issue and make them look like ‘environmental heroes’ ? –this amount of money is Australian peanuts when compared to the amount that the Australian government has invested / subsidised into the coal industry for example – Coal production subsidies cost Australians $1.8bn a year | RenewEconomy – Coal production subsidies cost Australians $1.8bn a year.
And Australian voters; don’t they ever get a grip on how they are seen around the world; putting ticks in boxes for politicians who appear to care very little about environmental issues – Morrison, a modern day ‘Nero’ playing with coal whilst Australia burned, literally. History tells us that not only did Nero play music while his people suffered; but he was also an ineffectual leader in any time of crisis. I can see the obvious similarities between the two; can you ? and much more importantly; can the Australian voters ?
A badly burned Koala rescued from Blazing Environmental Destruction
Terrible live animal exports continue, the massive over usage of antibiotics in farmed animals continue to be used in farming, iconic species heading for extinction continue; coal production continues to be subsidised by a carefree government; whilst Australian politicians also try to escape from having to appear at COP environmental conferences held recently in Scotland (UK); and still the Australian public vote them in !! – amazing, or stupid.
Who is the ‘crazy Nero’ one has to ask ? – the slash and burn Australian politician, or the care less Australian voter.
Morrison Uses More Coal To Burn Australia and Destroy Flora and Fauna.Smile While the Nation and Fauna Burn
The Australian government has officially listed the koala as endangered after a decline in its numbers due to land clearing and catastrophic bushfires shrinking its habitat.
The environment minister, Sussan Ley, accepted the recommendation of the threatened species scientific committee that the koala populations of Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory should have their conservation status upgraded.
The stronger listing under national law is recognition that the koala’s plight has become more urgent and that successive Australian governments have failed to turn the much-loved animal’s circumstances around since it was listed as vulnerable in 2012.
It comes after the Morrison government last month announced $50m to help the species. The funding was welcomed by environment groups but described as a “drop in the ocean” if the root causes of the species’ decline were not addressed.
Ley said in addition to the endangered listing, the government planned to adopt a long-awaited national recovery plan for the koala.
“Today I am increasing the protection for koalas in NSW, the ACT and Queensland, listing them as endangered rather than their previous designation of vulnerable,” Ley said.
“The impact of prolonged drought, followed by the black summer bushfires, and the cumulative impacts of disease, urbanisation and habitat loss over the past twenty years have led to the advice.”
Environment groups have long argued the koala’s conservation status should be upgraded. Three organisations – Humane Society International (HSI), WWF-Australia and the International Fund for Animal Welfare – nominated it for the endangered listing.
“The koala has gone from no listing to now being declared endangered on the Australian east coast within a decade,” said Dermot O’Gorman, WWF-Australia’s chief executive.
“That is a shockingly fast decline for one of the world’s most iconic animals. The endangered status is a grim but important decision by minister Ley.
“There is still time to save this globally iconic species if the uplisting serves as a turning point in koala conservation. We need stronger laws and landholder incentives to protect their forest homes.”
The endangered listing will provide additional protection for koalas because it lowers the threshold at which a development must be assessed under national laws for potentially significant impacts on the species.
The recovery plan sets out the key threats to the koala and actions needed to prevent its extinction.
Such a plan had been identified under national environmental laws as a requirement for the species for the past nine years but no Australian government had developed one, making it one of almost 200 recovery plans for Australia’s threatened species and habitats that were overdue.
It took the black summer bushfire disaster to prompt consultation on a draft, with a final version delivered to the minister late last year.
Once a recovery plan is adopted, ministers are legally bound not to make decisions that are inconsistent with it, however governments have no obligation to actually implement the plan.
The koala is under pressure from multiple ongoing threats including disease, global heating and clearing of its habitat for development.
In 2020, a NSW parliamentary inquiry found the species would be extinct in that state by 2050 unless governments took urgent action to protect its habitat and turn the declines around.
Alexia Wellbelove, a senior campaign manager at HSI, said Ley’s decision should prompt Australian governments to do more to address the declining state of the country’s environment.
“Although it’s devastating for the koala it’s an important action for their protection,” she said.
“It’s a cue for governments really to take a stand against continued habitat clearing for koalas. We can’t just continue business as usual.”
Wellbelove said the decision needed to be followed by action on the review of national environmental laws by the former competition watchdog head, Graeme Samuel.
Samuel found Australian governments had comprehensively failed in their duty to protect the environment and the country’s iconic wildlife had suffered because of it.
He made 38 recommendations to transform the act, including a proposal for new national environmental standards that require clear outcomes for Australia’s plants and animals.
“Until such time that we have strong national environmental standards that specify no-go areas around critical habitat for species such as the koala, habitat destruction will continue and this must be addressed urgently,” Wellbelove said.
World Animals Voice 