It was a pretty cool sky here tonight in SE England – I managed to get these pictures; – Nature holds secrets we will never, ever understand.
Enjoy ! – Depeche and The Cure – 2 great bands – Regards Mark
Category: Uncategorized
WAV Comment – I saw this today and thought that I would share it with you. Cornwall is a county in the South West of England. It shows a secluded little chapel hidden in the woods, and dedicated to St. Francis, the patron saint of animals.
Regards Mark
Inside Cornwall’s hidden woodland chapel that’s just for animals – Cornwall Live
All images – Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)
Inside Cornwall’s hidden woodland chapel that’s just for animals
The tiny chapel, no bigger than a garden shed, is dedicated to the patron saint of animals and was built almost 100 years ago
If your puppy is in need of a prayer, or you have a horse hoping for heavenly intervention, there is a sanctum offering spiritual space for all creatures, great and small, hidden deep in a beautiful Cornish woodland.
The tiny, stone building, no bigger than a garden shed, must be the smallest chapel in Cornwall.
At the bottom of a pretty footpath lined with snowdrops and bluebells through Pengwedhen woods, near Helford, is St Francis’s Chapel.
Built in 1930 in memory of local man, Dr Leo O’Neill, and dedicated to St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, the chapel, which is not signposted, is an unexpected destination on the tranquil circular walk through the woods.
And for first-time visitors, the initial glimpse inside upon opening the doors can be a little unnerving.
The first thing visitors are met with as they open the doors of the chapel, is the fixed, hard stare of St Francis of Assisi.
With remarkably lifelike eyes, he looks up towards the entrance from behind a dog, which is stood on its hind legs, resting its front legs upon his lap.
Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone in 1181, Francis of Assisi, as he became known, was made a saint by Pope Gregory IX in 1228, two years after his death.
Originally St Francis was designated as patron saint of Italy, but he later became associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment. It became customary for churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4.
Surrounding the seated St Francis, who appears far less stern once you are inside the chapel, are all kinds of animals, including a frog, a cockerel, a hare, a jackdaw and the dog at his lap
A small spaniel sits on a shelf, as a more recent addition to the chapel’s menagerie, its paw guarding a personal card.
The wooded slopes of Pengwedhen, which means ‘head of the fair stream’ in Cornish, lie just to the north of Penarvon Cove. The woods were donated to the National Trust by the daughters of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Frederic Jerram.
The Colonel, who was a Royal Marine in both World Wars, is said to have spotted a ‘For Sale’ sign on the land when he was sailing down the Helford. According to accounts, he was so ‘horrified at the idea that a post-war housing estate might be built in this tranquil haven, he bought the 34-acre piece of land, building himself a small and private bungalow here in 1926.’
Sybil Jerram’s brother, Dr Leo O’Neill, was also a keen sailor on the Helford River, and it is in his memory that St Francis’s Chapel was built in 1930, following his death in 1927.
A small brass plaque inside the chapel, in memory of Leo O’Neill, includes a passage from the poem about the regrets of a mariner who shoots and kills an albatross, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
“He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.”
Constructed with local Constantine granite and Delabole slate on the roof, St Francis’s Chapel is clearly well-maintained and cared for.
This little-known chapel hidden away in the woods gained some more notoriety recently when it made a brief appearance on ITV’s ‘Cornwall and Devon Walks with Julia Bradbury’.
As well as Julia Bradbury, there are many walkers who stumble across the chapel, some of whom have written in a visitors’ book, including a recent entry which reads: “What a place – beautiful. Here with our new rescue dog, Otis, after dear old Charlie passed away 4 months ago, bless him.”
Whilst surrounded by trees, St Francis’s Chapel is also perched on a cliff edge, above a tiny beach on the Helford River. Sadly, it was on this beach, whilst visiting the chapel, that I discovered a recently deceased common dolphin. As should be done if you discover a dead marine animal, I reported its position to the Cornwall Marine Strandings Network on 0345 201 2626
A sad end to an otherwise beautiful walk, but strangely there was some comfort to be taken from the dolphin’s final resting place, directly below the chapel, with St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, watching over it.
Have a Super International Women’s Day
i
Regards Mark
Stop Circus Suffering – call for an EU ban
2 March 2021
Press Release
On 3 March we celebrated World Wildlife Day with the official launch of the “EU Stop Circus Suffering” campaign, calling for an EU Ban on the use of wild animals in circuses. A new opinion poll confirms that this is what the 68% of Europeans are asking for.
For immediate release: Brussels 3 March 2021
23 Member States have already adopted national legislation restricting the use of either all, or exclusively wild, animals in circuses, reflecting the public’s position on ethical and animal welfare grounds. Statements from animal experts and veterinary bodies backed up these decisions.
However, France, Germany, Italy and Spain don’t have any national restrictions and Czech Republic, Finland and Hungary only adopted restrictions on the use of some species of wild animals.
Eurogroup for Animals commissioned an opinion poll to Savanta ComRes who interviewed citizens from Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain.
The results clearly show there’s no more room for this cruel entertainment:
- The use of wild animals in circuses is cruel and wild animals should not be used for public entertainment – 68% agree
- The European Union should ban the use of all wild animals in circuses – 62% agree
- The European Union should guarantee that cruel uses of animals are not allowed – 83% agree
- Circuses that still use wild animals must reinvent themselves by developing high quality shows with human performers – 69% agree
- Circuses showing wild animals is educational – 20% agree
Circuses are travelling entertainment services moving around Europe, and performing wild animals are transported across Member States, where circuses pose severe public safety and animal health and welfare risks. That’s why we call for an EU wide ban on the use of wild animals in circuses, since bans at the national level won’t prevent these movements with all the risks and distresses for the animals.
Only an EU wide ban can guarantee the end of this outdated entertainment and provide a coherent and effective solution to the physical and emotional suffering of wild animals in circuses. The Commission should take the wishes of EU citizens very seriously and use their powers to finally end this unnecessary suffering while confirming the EU as the International leader for animal welfare.
Well said fella !!
Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals.
Nearly 1 million citizens have already signed the Infocircus petition, with the “Stop Circus Suffering” campaign we will keep backing the strong public support and move a step further bringing this request at the institutions level.
ENDS
Read more on the Stop Circus Suffering website
Read the opinion poll full results
Regards Mark
Please add your voice to the Anna Maria petition at petition: Nearly 2,500 cows are sick and dying after having been stranded at sea for 2 months and counting, demand help! (thepetitionsite.com) and leave a comment on this in the box – thank you.
WAV Comment: we have been attempting to give the latest updates on the situation of the stranded and abused cattle for a few weeks now.
See Search Results for “karim allah” – World Animals Voice for Karim Allah
See Search Results for “elbeik” – World Animals Voice for Elbeik
There is an old saying which goes “a picture says a thousand words”. Have a look at these 2 pictures of the ‘Karim Allah’: are they not fairly indicative of the majority of the live animal transport maritime situation now ? – rust bucket ships that should have been scrapped years ago still transporting innocent, sentient beings to their (often) barbaric deaths the world over.
Have a look at this picture – this is Mr Bernard Van Goethem.
Here below is the (link for the) organizational chart for the Commission of Health and Food Safety – Sante. Mr Van Goethem is the ‘leader’ responsible for ‘Crisis Preparedness in Animals’, which includes ‘section G2 – Animal Health’. You can see all of this on the right hand side of the chart.
Health and Food Safety Organizational chart link –
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/organisation_charts/organisation-chart-dg-sante_en.pdf
Further; on the Health and Food Safety site they make the following statement; and we include the link as proof:
https://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/welfare/practice/transport_en – it says:
Animal welfare during transport
In 2015, the European Commission launched a three-year Pilot Project aiming at improving animal welfare during transport by developing and disseminating Guides to Good and Best Practice for the transport of the main livestock species.
In September 2017, the contractor of the project published five extensive guides to good practices (only in English) as well as 17 technical fact sheets focusing on the most practical information in A4 format. Fact sheets are available in eight EU languages (English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Spanish).
This publication is followed by a road show in eight Member States and presenting the guidelines to the professionals concerned (transporters, drivers, farmers, official veterinarians, etc.). The project will also produce five videos (one per species in eight languages).
For more details please visit the Project website.
See the final report
Council Regulation EC 1/2005 defines the responsibilities of all actors involved in the transport chain of live animals entering or leaving the EU. It lays down efficient monitoring tools and stricter rules for the transport and for the specific checks to be carried out by officials. It also provides for non-discriminatory inspections of animals, means of transport and accompanying documents.
EU countries are required to submit to the Commission, by 30 June each year, an annual report for the previous year on the non-discriminatory inspections together with an analysis of the major deficiencies. Click here to access the annual reports.
In order to reduce the administrative burden on EU countries, Commission Implementing Decision 2013/188/EU, which came into force on 1 January 2015, established an harmonised model form for the annual reports.
We at WAV, as of 28/2/21, make the following statement: Is the situation where hundreds of live EU animals have been stranded in the Mediterranean on 2 different ships not a ‘crisis’ ? – and should we have not seen intervention by the EU ‘Crisis Preparedness in Animals’ team, led Mr Mr Van Goetyhem, on this issue several weeks ago ? If this is not a crisis, then what is ?
If the EU crisis team are not going to get involved and take action at times of a crisis, then what is the point of them even existing ?
As you can see from the various EU links above; they at EU Commissions are specialists at blowing their own trumpets; leading the reader / web site visitor all over the place to find information (or maybe confuse them !) on their highly constructed, expensive, and detailed website; (at EU taxpayers expense); in some wildly bland attempt to make the reader think that they are completely and utterly in charge of the situation when it comes to controls and regulations for the welfare of animals in transport.
Well they are not – the website and all the sub sections and statements are simply massive smokescreens because they, the EU Commission, are utterly incapable of having any controls over the international situation of ensuring live animals welfare during transport throughout the EU, and way beyond into third countries such as Turkey and Libya.
In the past, and going back more than a decade, we have called for the resignation of Mr Bernard Van Goethem – Mr Van Goethem Resign Now !! | Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
This was in relation all those years ago to the EU having no control of the welfare of animals during transport; here is a video produced at the time to show that:
Here are a few other links we published on this issue at the time:
So what changes over all these years at the EU ? – very little it seems. Plenty of waffle; plenty of PR; plenty of web news; people are doing this, and people are doing that; when in reality, nothing actually changes for animals in transport.
As you can see in the above links, in the past we have called for the resignation of Mr Van Goethem; we think that with these terrible situations over the last few months and not a whisper from the EU on the crisis from the crisis management section of the EU Commission; maybe it is time to get another petition underway calling for resignations due to incompetence. When we get this organised we will publish.
Regards Mark
Latest news:
Saturday 27/2/21:
More than 850 cows that have spent two months at sea on a ship crossing the Mediterranean are facing slaughter, following a report from Spanish vets.
The cattle have suffered “hellish” conditions, according to animal rights activists.
The Karim Allah vessel originally left the Spanish port of Cartagena to deliver the cattle to Turkey but were refused entry due to fears over bluetongue.
The insect-borne bovine virus causes lameness and haemorrhaging among cattle but does not affect humans.
After being turned away from Turkey, owners failed to find a new buyer for the animals.
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The ship was subsequently rejected by several more countries, even to replenish animal feed, leaving the cows to go several days with just water.
The ship became a pariah vessel and it has now returned to its starting point in Cartagena.
The confidential report by Spanish government veterinarians and seen by Reuters says the animals have suffered from the long journey and should be killed.
While it did not confirm whether the animals were suffering from bluetongue or not, it said they should not be allowed into the EU.
Ownership of the cattle is unclear.
Animal rights activist Silvia Barquero, director of the Igualdad Animal NGO, called the crossing “hellish” for the cattle and questioned what had happened to the waste produced by the cows during the crossing.
“We are sure they are in unacceptable sanitary conditions.”
Twenty-two cows are believed to have died at sea, and while 20 of the corpses have been chopped up and thrown overboard, two dead cows remain on board.
A lawyer representing the ship owner Talia Shipping Line, which is registered in Lebanon, said he believes the slaughter will now definitely go ahead.
Meanwhile, a second ship, the ElBeik, which also set sail from Spain in December with a cargo of nearly 1,800 cows, is currently moored off the Turkish Cypriot port of Famagusta.
The agriculture ministry has been approached for comment
Victims of Crisis Management INACTION by the EU ‘Crisis Management’ Team at the Commission:
We had a pretty cool sunset here tonight; and I only managed to grab the camera last thing; but few shots; must do better tomorrow !
Regards Mark
Enjoy
All photos – Metro London / PA Real Life.
That looks tasty – when no one is looking …………….…………….
Psychiatric nurse quits job after 20 years to open her own cat cafe
Psychiatric nurse quits job after 20 years to open her own cat cafe | Metro News
After spending two decades working her way up the ladder as a psychiatric nurse, Kay Allen, 58, decided to pack it all in and do something radically different: open her own cat cafe. The former nurse from Holloway, North London, was inspired to make a change when she visited a cat cafe for the first time and was blown away by how relaxed she felt.
In 2018, she took the plunge and opened up ‘Whiskers and Cream’, a space where people can watch and play with nine gorgeous cats. Kay said: ‘I had often joked about the idea of running my own cafe and baking cakes but, having done something as full on as I had before with the level of pressure and stress, it felt almost not enough of a challenge, in the right way, for me.
‘Then I came across the idea of running a cat cafe and I traded in my old job, that was 24/7 and where I was never really off duty, with 24/7 responsibility for a cat cafe.’ Kay qualified as a psychiatric nurse in 1998 and spent two decades as a clinician, working her way through the health service to end up managing a large inpatient psychiatric unit in the capital.
Read more with extra text and lots of photos at:
Psychiatric nurse quits job after 20 years to open her own cat cafe | Metro News
‘It’s a calming and therapeutic space and even in lockdown I can be sat there in the cafe and people walking past can go from having a straight face to an almost overacted “oh my god” and a huge grin and smile. ‘That for me, from my background treating people’s mental health, gives me so much pleasure.’
Regards Mark
Watch the video below:
South Korean Meat Dogs.
View the latest newsletter and actions to take via the following links. \Please watch the video above as it shows the reality of what a disgusting animal abuse situation this is. So much for action and promises by people in power !! – they do nothing.
There are 2 newsletters here, not 1:
https://r.newsletter.koreandogs.org/ajc350odtht7e.html?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=_Dogs_left_to_starve_and_freeze_to_death_on_dog_farm_in_Yeoju_Take_action_to_stop_the_unimaginable_cruelty_TODAY!_&utm_medium=email https://r.newsletter.koreandogs.org/ajcsf8odtht7e.html?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=_Daegu_Chilseong_Dog_Meat_Market_slaughters_dogs_while_you_wait__Help_stop_the_cruelty_to_our_loving_friends!_&utm_medium=email
Regards Mark
Promises, Promises, from the man who does nothing.
Some of the visitors to the garden today. Tomorrow we (UK) have a warm front coming in from the Atlantic; so temperatures will rise by about 12 degrees; gradually clearing the snow.. Last cold night tonight guys; warmer day tomorrow; but at least you have all had a really good feed up today to help you get through the night just fine. See you all in the morning !
Regards Mark
…………………….. and before the snows came; a real pleasure to feed and see all the garden visitors – it shows what you can attract by putting out some food …………….
STAY FOXY !! – Mark
I did a post recently about making sure all the garden birds are fed and watered during the Winter time:
England: Keep Our Birds Fed (and Watered) This Winter. – World Animals Voice
Well this week (8-13/2) it has been very cold here in England; with snow affecting everywhere and temperatures down to -22 degrees in the North.
Apart from my usual (above link) I have been doing extra food for our feathered friends – as they really need to take in food and extra fat to help them survive the very cold nights.
11/2 – A sunnier day today and nice to see everybody enjoying their food in the garden. Here are the Doves of Peace:
Mr Fox has been around also during the night – maybe it was the leftover cat food and slices of cake that he stopped off for iin the early ours. He left his tracks in the snow as clear evidence that he had been around. Note the pictures are not good as they were taken later in the morning when some of the snow was melting.
Below – Mr Fox leaves his tracks.
But keep feeding your birds when you can; they need to put on reserves so that they can get through the night ok. For us; it will be getting significantly warmer at the weekend; which will help the birds survive the night; but we will ensure they still get their daily feeds.
Here are a few shots from this morning of the ‘diners’; and the Red Legged Partridges sitting on the fence after they had fed up last evening. They are looking really good !
Winter is a good time for spotting wildlife in your area.
Regards Mark
Below – the ‘Red Legers’ sit on the gate at nightfall after they have had their feed.
Below – a graphic of the Red Leg Partridge – from ‘Whatbird’ UK
