Category: Stray Animals

General News, Stray Animals, Uncategorized

Pakistan: Islamabad High Court Holds that Animals DO Have Legal Rights. A Groundbreaking Approach.

Islamabad High Court Holds that Animals Have Legal Rights

By Nicole Pallotta, Senior Policy Program Manager

 Summary: The Islamabad High Court has held that animals have natural rights and are entitled to protection under the Pakistani constitution. The case before the court was threefold, involving an elephant held in solitary confinement at a zoo, a rescued bear who had been forced to “dance” and perform tricks, and the killing of stray dogs. Despite at times anthropocentric framing, the ruling unequivocally recognizes that animals have legal rights and is highly critical of humanity’s treatment of wild animals in particular.

“Do the animals have legal rights?

The answer to this question, without any hesitation, is in the affirmative…. Like humans, animals also have natural rights which ought to be recognized.

It is a right of each animal…to live in an environment that meets the latter’s behavioral, social and physiological needs.”
– Justice Athar Minallah, Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court (p. 59)

In a groundbreaking decision, the Islamabad High Court in Pakistan1has recognized that animals have legal rights and are entitled to protection under the nation’s constitution. In a 67-page ruling — dealing mainly with the treatment of an elephant at a zoo — Justice Athar Minallah asked whether animals have legal rights and found, “the answer to this question, without any hesitation, is in the affirmative.”

The ruling contains striking language about the rights of animals. In addition to their physiological needs, Justice Minallah repeatedly references animals’ social and behavioral needs and their right to an environment in which these needs can be met. He is highly critical of zoos that keep wild animals (whom he refers to as “inmates”) in captive conditions that are nothing like their natural habitats, and thus prevent them from engaging in normal behaviors.2

Although the decision — which draws on religious doctrine and quotes extensively from the Quran3 — repeatedly refers to humans as “superior beings,”4 and at times frames animals’ rights in the context of human survival,5 it unequivocally recognizes that animals have natural and legal rights.

In addition, despite its at times anthropocentric framing, the ruling is highly critical of humanity’s treatment of wild animals — e.g., destroying their natural habitat and consigning them to zoos — and refers to humans as an “invasive species.”6

The case before the court combined three separate petitions. The first involved an elephant named Kaavan,7 who was being kept in deplorable conditions at the Marghazar Zoo, and whom petitioners sought to relocate to a sanctuary. The second petition involved a rescued black bear who had been abused and forced to perform tricks.8

The third petition, discussed in least detail, regarded “the killing of stray dogs allegedly in a cruel manner.“

An Opportunity to Rethink our Relationship with Animals

Continue reading “Pakistan: Islamabad High Court Holds that Animals DO Have Legal Rights. A Groundbreaking Approach.” →
Pages: 1 2
Environmental, Farm Animals, General News, Stray Animals

South Korea: Pre Election Promises That, Once Elected, Become Non Reality.

Pre election promises that, once elected, become non reality.

President Moon of South Korea was elected in 2017; one of his election promises was that he was going to tackle, and make ‘war’ with those involved in the live dog meat farming business.  We all remember him smiling while holding the little dogs – here was the hero who would tackle the trade.  See one of our past posts with pictures of him cuddling dogs at:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/03/03/south-korea-closing-stable-doors-and-bolted-horses-president-moon-failed-the-dogs-in-hell-hole-meat-farms-now-south-korea-pays-the-karma-price-for-its-ignorance/

In our post; which related to Covid disease, we stated:

“President Moon; you have failed your nation and you should have lived up to your pre election promises to take action for meat dogs. Kind of ‘Karma’ from the dogs one could say” !

Image result for south korea dog meat farms
Image result for south korea dog meat farms

We know that Covid came from wet markets and from deplorable conditions for animals who had to suffer in them.  Korean dog meat farms are NO different – animals constantly under stress; no hygiene, no veterinary care – the perfect breeding ground for disease and Covid 19.

President Moon failed to tackle the dog meat industry early on when he was elected.  Illegal dog farms continue to be exposed to this very day.  Covid is still a major issue to this day.  Would you not have thought that unsanitary conditions such as those at illegal dog meat farms would have been tackled early on in 2018; rather than the constant ignorance we have witnessed from the Korean government ?

As we said in our post, the suffering that Korean citizens have endured due to Covid is a kind of ‘Karma’ from the dogs on the illegal farms; the government failed them since the 1027 elections, fails them now and probably will continue to fail them.

TAKE ACTION

Korean dog campaigners have this to say:

We were very hopeful when South Korean president Moon Jae-In, took office in 2017. President Moon Jae-In has a pet dog, and we hoped that he might finally bring the dog and cat meat trade to an end in South Korea. However, President Moon has done absolutely nothing to improve the lives of companion animals.

The dog and cat meat trade continues while President Moon’s administration supports the shameful and illegal industry by turning a blind eye and taking no action to end it. Let’s urge President Moon to end the unethical and cruel dog and cat meat trade in his country once and for all, and to bring honour to his country and their citizens. Please take action today!

Click here for further action for the dogs:

President Moon Jae-In, please help your country’s “animal friends”: end the horrific dog and cat meat trades.

Please do what you can to spread the word for action to stop the dog meat trade.

Thanks and regards

WAV.

Visit the Koreandogs.org website at  https://koreandogs.org/  for a huge range of actions that you can get involved with.  Select your language from the list at the top.

General News, Stray Animals

Spain: the stone age is over

The province of Guadalajara has experienced a traumatic episode.

The Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard is investigating the appearance of numerous canine corpses in an area of the Montezarzuela urbanization in the town of El Casar.

The bodies of at least 20 animals have been thrown into the sewer inside sacks, some decapitated to prevent their identification through the microchip.

As detailed in a press release by the Civil Guard, it is urbanization whose construction was paralyzed, leaving only the roads and the sewage system built and where everything indicates that it has been used by many people as a place to dispose of dead domestic animals.

The proceedings began after a complaint filed by the Association ‘Amores Peludos’ whose collaboration with Seprona has been essential for the successful completion of the proceedings.

Once the skeletal remains had been collected, some put in sacks, others scattered inside the sewer and even several decapitated corpses, Seprona specialists have carried out the obtaining of the data of the animals and their owners through the identification system individual of CLM animals (SIIA-CLM) to file the appropriate administrative complaints.

Legislation on animal health and municipal ordinances require the owners of domestic animals to notify the competent administration of the deaths of the animals for their corresponding discharge, as well as to proceed to the disposal of the carcasses in an established manner, usually in a licensed incinerator.

Two agents of the Civil Guard examining the animal remains found. CIVIL GUARD

In addition, dead animals can pose a risk to animal health, public health, or the environment. In this case, the fines can amount to 3,000 euros.

From the Civil Guard, they stressed that “society needs to evolve and develop and one of the characteristics that make this difference compared to the most primitive societies is to protect animals more”.

“Dead animals should be treated with respect, they should never be abandoned. Let your advice, vet, or Seprona know and they will tell you how to behave,” they advised.

 

https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/4426519/0/seprona-encuentra-cementerio-ilegal-animales-habia-restos-perros-decapitados/

 

And I mean..It is not certain that the dogs have been disposed of as dead.

But even in the case of an illegal cemetery, there are two fundamental problems to be considered.

The one problem is the judiciary, which is usually criminal-friendly, and most perpetrators get away with a fine of a few hundred euros.
The other problem is the silence of the population in the case of animal abuse, people are intimidated not to testify as a witness, or they will not endanger the “good” relationship with the neighbor.

A population that is passive against animal suffering, that is permanently divided and kept in fear, is the enemy of animals.

And we cannot expect that people will change their moral principles of themselves.
Only severe punishment can change it.
And the civil courage of courageous citizens of society.

My best regards to all, Venus

General News, Stray Animals

We have to help the pigeons

We meet them everywhere, every day.

They are abandoned, homeless house pigeons, the strays in our cities.
The way we deal with them is a scandal, a shame.

We take the right to domesticate, breed, exploit, abandon, scare, torture, starve, and kill these animals because we mean that their existence harms us.

Pigeons used to be on the rocks, we humans caught and bred them.

Because of the excessive expansion of the human population, pigeons have lost their houses and are therefore settled in the cities.
That is where their misery began.

They eat our waste to avoid starvation, they get sick, they are injured and die in agony because of our traps
People constantly blaspheme against their excrement, but no one blasphemes against the plastic waste by the sea and in barbecue areas

Stadttaube Schnur Beine

We accuse pigeons of transmitting diseases to us humans, but the Robert Koch Institute has proven the opposite

You don’t have to speculate for long as to who instigated the “arguments” against the pigeons … those responsible always refer to the so-called experts, such as hunters, falconers, and scare-off companies who fill their pockets with the suffering of the animals!

They are peaceful, harm no one.

They recognize faces, at least my face, as soon as I go to the train station in my city to feed them under strict discretion.

For most people, animal welfare ends when pigeons are fed.
That is why they are hunted, kicked, and arbitrarily harassed.

The only animal-friendly solution is dovecotes, which are built where pigeons live: in the city centers.
Animal rights activists (who are not paid for it) would provide them with species-appropriate feed and water as well as suitable breeding sites.
By exchanging pigeon eggs with gypsum eggs, an animal welfare-friendly and sustainable control of the population takes place.

Tauben Taubenschlag

Some cities have already started to successfully control pigeon populations in this way – but most of them still treat pigeons like strays in southerners.

We have to finally stop waging war against the pigeons, we have to make peace with them by helping them and giving back what we took from them: A roof over their head and appropriate food!

They love wheat, lentils, flax seeds, birdseed.


It is finally time to take responsibility for these animals.
Please feed the pigeons.

My best regards to all, Venus

General News, Stray Animals

Italy: Wild Boar Family Being Fed By Children Killed by Police in Rome Playground.

Wild boar family killed by police in Rome children’s playground

The mayor of Rome has ordered an investigation after a family of wild boar were shot and killed by police in a children’s playground.

A female boar and her six piglets wandered into the playground near the Vatican last week, and crowds of children soon came to feed the animals.

But when police arrived on Friday, they shot the boar with tranquiliser darts and gave them lethal injections.

Their killing prompted anger from residents and animal rights groups.

“It was decided to hastily kill [the animals] who had found shelter in the Aurelio play area, instead of saving their lives given the alternative solutions that had been offered,” a statement from the International Organization for Animal Protection said.

“I was offering to capture, transfer and host [the] wild boars,” Michela Brambilla, an MP who heads an animal rights group, told the Corriere della Serra newspaper. “I was proposing a non-bloody choice.”

But, in a statement, one local official said the decision to kill the boar was taken because there were no cages available to capture them.

“The preferred choice is to capture them with special cages,” councillor Laura Fiorini wrote on Facebook. But the regional authorities had not prepared them, she said.

The city’s investigation is expected to examine why the decision to kill the animals was made and whether official protocol was followed, local media report.

What happened?

The boar are believed to have entered the Mario Moderni park in the west of the city after they were attracted by overflowing rubbish bins.

Police closed off the area on Thursday, but children continued to feed the animals through gaps in the fencing.

Animal rights groups say they offered to assist with the relocation of the boar but their suggestions were ignored.

On Friday, there were scuffles with riot police near the park. Some officers arrived with rifles and people reportedly shouted “Assassins!” as the incident unfolded.

Vets were on hand to provide the lethal injections before the boar were removed from the park.

Protesters gathered in the area over the weekend, and flowers and hand-painted signs have been left at the scene.

Wild boar are commonplace in Rome and much of Italy, but their presence is controversial. They are believed to be responsible for thousands of traffic accidents a year and people have been injured or killed in attacks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54599913

 

Regards Mark

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News, Stray Animals

South Korea: A Call to Action to Ask You to Join Forces With Korean Activists to Close the Dog Meat Farms and Businesses.

WARNING – click on the link below to see the reality of this industry.  This is

why your action is needed NOW !

https://koreandogs.org/

A few minutes of your time, may help save a life!

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

The e-People petition is the South Korean government’s official petition site and your petition will receive a response from the Korean government.

Anyone from all countries can file a petition using the e-People petition.  It’s quite simple to file e-People petitions, but you can find help on (1) how to file e-People petition and (2) how to check the status of your e-People petitions on our website.

Please help save millions of Korean animals from horrific cruelty by taking this action today.  Click below Take Action buttons to file e-People petitions for each cities in South Korea.

Click HERE to see the list of cities we are campaigning.

Then you will see a large table – on the right side in RED is the call for action.

Where it says ‘Click’ on the right side you can do just that – you will then be taken to a further page giving you actions you can take info on the specific region / dog farm you have selected.  There are ghastly videos; local government contact e mails to write to, as well as a sample letter for you to copy and send (to the contact address list given).

There are many action links – about 290 to be precise; so please add this to your favourites and return to it to take more action when you have time.

Information:

Despite the fact that dog and cat meat consumption is an everyday occurrence and is being carried out all over South Korea, it is NOT LEGAL in that country.

Their Government does nothing to stop this illegal practice and they seem happy to ignore it; many Korean citizens are just as apathetic and must also be held accountable.

This is the 21st Century, and it is high time that all South Koreans, leaders and general public alike, stand up and take responsibility to enforce their own country’s laws. South Korea and South Koreans cannot continue to ignore these brutal and unethical trades, so let us campaign to urge each of South Korea’s cities to enforce their laws and to put an immediate end to these illegal dog and cat meat trades.

Below are the most populous cities in South Korea. Please sign our petitions and send postal letters to these cities calling for an end to these illegal trades. Postal addresses for the Mayors are shown in the change.org petition. You can use our petition as sample letter (just copy and paste) or use your own words.

Please note: We will be adding more petitions so please check back with us often. Thank you!

Please help us to help the wonderful South Korean activists with their massive campaign to shut down the dog meat in South Korea.

Regards Mark

General News, Stray Animals

England: Unite !

Back in the 2005 / 06 period, when I (Mark) was deep into fighting for the rights of Serbian stray dogs and cats with a few Serbian activists – you can see most of the work at WAV’s other site which is ‘Serbian Animals Voce’ – https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/  – go to the archive on the left side; I got a lot of support from Maria Daines; an English singer.

Above – ‘Shinters’ Catch a stray dog (Serbia).

Above – Maria.

One day I asked Maria (and husband musician) Paul if they could do something about the suffering animals in Serbia.  As a result they penned the song ‘Unite’ – which as you can see starts immediately with the flag of Serbia.

In traditional Maria style, it is a song for the animals; something for which she is very well known.  This is a song for all animal activists the world over; declaring that we must unite in order to achieve victory.

Enjoy the song;

Regards Mark

About Serbian Animals.

SAV is not run directly as a site for Serbian strays any more; instead we still get many visitors each day rather than visit us at WAV,  so we also put all the WAV posts onto the SAV site each day – extra work but we have the advantage of getting the word out about issues via 2 different sites each day; and that’s a winner !

About Us.

Regards Mark and Venus.

Serbia – More stray dog catching by Shinters.

Stray Animals

Make no mistakes

 

The next time you walk out with a puppy, a cosmetically designed breed, from a breeder, from a puppy mill, a pet store, another dog is being walked somewhere else, for the last time.

Street animals are not FROM the street. They are ON the street.

Stray animals were once family members. They were faithful, happy, thankful for giving them a home.
Brainless people, without moral education, without any responsibility for the fate of the weaker ones, have put them on the street.

Therefore there is endless misery ON the street.
Don’t make this misery greater, make no mistake, and never buy your friend from a breeder.

Visit the animal shelter in your area and there will be someone waiting for you to be your friend for life.

“saving a street dog will not change the world but, without a doubt, the world will change for him”

Have a good night, Venus

Farm Animals, General News, Stray Animals

South Korea: Seven dogs have been rescued from a dog farm in Paju, and the dog farm is now shut down!

 

Seven dogs have been rescued from a dog farm in Paju, and the dog farm is now shut down! 

Sharing for Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA).

 All phots courtesy of KARA.

Odo-dong dog farm in Paju was operated by an illegal pig farmer who fed animals nauseating food wastes. This dog farm was not even identified by the city of Paju when the first African Swine Fever outbreak occurred last year in South Korea.

After inspecting the dog farm, KARA paid a visit to Paju City Hall and strongly protested the fact that the site, which was feeding animals with unknown food wastes, was becoming a serious quarantine problem. We also complained that leaving the dogs unattended obviously constituted animal abuse. Paju, however, responded that there was no abuse at the site and the dog farms were not subject to quarantine. Meanwhile, the dogs continued to disappear.

It was only when people, supporting KARA, began to file e-People petition complaints that the City of Paju began to take action. KARA was finally able to go to the site yesterday with a city official and get a waiver of ownership of the dogs, and at last rescue the remaining seven dogs.

Three of the dogs rescued were siblings about 4 months old – brown haired Annie, May, and Sean. Each time we visited the dog farm in the past, these three young puppies had been left eating disgusting food waste, locked in a raised wire cage, without a sip of fresh water to be found.

Dark-haired Judy, Bonnie, and Hobbs also look like siblings. They are estimated to be between one and two years old.

Bobby, appearing to be about eight years old, is the oldest dog rescued yesterday. His teeth are severely worn, presumably because he had been biting on the iron bars of the cage for a very long time. How long had it been since Bobby had been dragged to that dog farm and locked in a cage biting at the iron bars until his teeth were worn down? The poor animal also had a wound on his leg, likely from the sharp wires sticking out all over the inside of the cage.

After their rescue, Annie, May, Sean, Judy, Bonnie, Hobbs, and Bobby were given baths and received medical care. They no longer have to eat rotten food waste. They don’t have to lick their wounds or gnaw at the iron bars of the cage.

Dozens of empty spaces were found at the rescue site. The owner himself admitted that before he was caught there had once been dozens of dogs on the farm, and that they had been sold as “dog meat.” The dog farm in Odo-dong has now been closed down.

And yet, there are still too many dog farms in Paju alone, and the city persists in responding passively. KARA will continue to speak out until the final demolition of the cages left at the Odo-dong site; until the fate of the missing dogs has been determined; and until the Paju administration reverses its passive attitude.

We’ll be back with more details on the seven rescued dogs. We ask for your support to provide for the futures of Annie, May, Sean, Judy, Bonnie, Hobbs, and Bobby, who have been saved thanks to the actions of many caring people.

Click HERE to see more photos.

KARA is funded entirely by donations.

To support & donate to KARA via PayPal, please click this link.
👉 https://www.ekara.org/support/donate  🐶🙏🐕🐱

KARA is an animal rights group that has received perfect scores in non-profit transparency evaluation and is fully committed to honest donation management through external accounting audits.

ACTIONS which you can take to help the dogs:

Calls for ACTION:

Call for Action!

Petitions Page:  Click on each line to sign.https://koreandogs.org/petitions/?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=_Seven_dogs_have_been_rescued_from_a_dog_farm_in_Paju_and_the_dog_farm_is_now_shut_down!_&utm_medium=email

Please support the wonderful work of KARA with a donation if you can.

Regards Mark