There is already a lot of meat coming to Europe from South America, where the animals are kept up to 40,000 in a loth of cattle and you can imagine what is being cut down there because we Europeans buy their meat.
(to see the video, click on the picture)
A large part of soy production is not used to make tofu, but to feed animals:
In order to manage their 30-40 liters + a day, the cows have not been given grass for a long time but also high-energy soy.
Less than 10% of the soy produced worldwide is also consumed by humans.
Most of the rest goes as fodder for the cattle of the rich countries
Therefore: When carnivores accuse vegans and vegetarians of being responsible for rainforest deforestation, it shows clear cynicism.
There is no basic right to eat meat every day.
We are by no means dependent on meat, otherwise we would probably have been extinct long ago or would never have been able to spread as we actually did.
We can turn ourselves upside down, search for and invent exceptions, but today with a world population of 7.5 billion and an economic system designed for competition and profit, there is no longer any product for which animals are domesticated and which do not suffer infinitely.
And because this system cannot be reformed in the short and medium term, it is entirely up to the consumer to reduce and end this endless suffering through his consumption.
Meat consumption is one of the greatest ecological problems on the planet.
Those who deny this are lying to themselves consciously and shamelessly.
Veganism, on the other hand, is a promising way to soon be able to feed 10 billion people adequately without completely destroying the earth.
It would be time to pull the emergency brake, otherwise a potentially catastrophic climate change and the sixth mass extinction of biodiversity can no longer be prevented.
PETA– Update: July 6, 2021
If Brown University is vying for the title of “Worst School for Animals Imprisoned in Labs,” it’s well on its way to glory.
PETA has obtained federal reports proving that the school still can’t manage to feed and give water to all the animals in its laboratories, euthanize them when their suffering becomes unbearable, or prevent its experimenters from going rogue.
Here are just some of the atrocities that recently took place:
– Workers’ negligence resulted in the deaths of eight mice by starvation and another 12 mice by dehydration.
– Experimenters failed to euthanize animals in a timely manner—resulting in exacerbated suffering. In one case, after experimenters ignored a veterinary technician’s directive to euthanize a mouse, the animal was found in what was described as a “moribund state”—likely with labored breathing, sunken eyes, and the inability to reach food or water.
– Experimenters failed to monitor animals after they’d been used in surgeries, and one failed to provide “thermal support” to help relieve the animals’ pain. In a separate incident, an experimenter injected a substance into mice’s feet without first securing approval.
The mice developed footpad swelling so severe that they had to be euthanized.
– After a mouse was gassed with carbon dioxide, workers failed to ensure that the animal was dead. Other workers found that mouse still alive in a refrigerator intended for dead animals.
– Seven mice escaped from their cage as a result of a missing grommet. Four mice were recovered, one of whom had to be euthanized. Three mice were never found.
The shoe brand Crocs has announced that it will be completely vegan by the end of 2021! 👏
We are happy about this animal-friendly decision. ❤
Do you also stand up for people, animals and the environment and choose vegan shoes in the future. 🙌
PETA Germany
And I mean…“Nowhere is the lack of sustainability in the shoe industry more evident than in leather production”.
This quote is from the book “Foot Work. What your shoes are doing to the world ” by Tansy E. Hoskins.
According to Hoskins, around 24.2 billion shoes – especially sneakers – are produced each year, the majority of which are made of leather.
One cannot imagine how many animals have their faces marked with a branding iron and the throats cut with a knife in the slaughterhouse.
In her book, Hoskins describes how many cattle are simply sold to the highest bidding slaughterhouse – no matter how far away it is.
We recommend this book.
For the production of leather, animals are transported from Brazil to Turkey, Iran or Lebanon and killed there – including animals from Germany and Austria. During transport, they stand in their own feces and urine for weeks without adequate food and water.
Weakened animals that can no longer stand or walk are forcibly dragged from transporters and, when unloading ships, are even lifted from board with cranes hanging on one leg.
The hides that are processed in the shoe and bag industry today come to a large extent from cattle, but not only. The hides of sheep, horses, goats, pigs and even cats and dogs (from China) are also used.
According to research by the animal welfare organization PETA, the growing leather industry in India is perhaps one of the cruellest in the world.
Here the spectrum ranges from beatings, chillies in the eyes to slaughter with full consciousness amidst dead animals.
Europe is one of the main importers of cheap Indian leather.Even the shoe made in Italy is very likely made from a non-European animal skin.
We are pleased with the decision of the shoe label Crocs, and we hope that many other companies will soon make the same decision.
Anyone who buys leather should be aware that they are supporting this unethical cycle.
Every purchase of leather goods promotes criminal factory farming and the meat industry. And since factory farming is one of the biggest causes of global warming, every leather shoe makes its contribution to climate change.
Animal-free leather alternatives based on apples, cork or polyurethane (PU) are a thorn in the side of the leather industry.
They are now an increasingly popular alternative to animal skins.
Vegan leather is significantly more ecological and, above all, is produced without animal suffering.
vegan eco-shoes NOAH
With the large and varied selection of vegan shoe and bag products that already exist on the market, the topic of previous leather shoe procurement has been shelved.
As more and more people realize how cruel bullfights are, the interest in the sadistic events decreases and with it the income.
But the bullfighting industry is kept alive, among other things, by EU subsidies.
The EU continues to promote the breeding of “fighting bulls” – and with it the suffering and death of countless animals.
Millions of euros from Germany for the bullfighting industry
Agricultural businesses in Spain that breed “fighting bulls” receive around 130 million euros in agricultural subsidies for their land from the European Union.
These subsidies contain around 31 million euros in tax money from Germany, as it contributes 24 percent of the EU budget.
This means that German taxpayers – whether intentionally or unintentionally – help finance the cruel bullfights in Spain. Austria also supports the horrendous subsidies.
Bullfights are against the European Convention
The European Convention for the Protection of Animals in Agriculture stipulates that animals must not be exposed to unnecessary or prolonged pain.
However, the breeding of “fighting bulls” means that the animals are slowly tortured to death with great pain and suffering.
In bullfights, the bulls are beaten to exhaustion with lances and wooden sticks with barbs.
In their agony, they are incited again and again and chased through the arena.
The supposedly redeeming stab in the back does not kill the animals immediately. Conscious, paralyzed in pain, they are dragged out of the arena by their horns with chains.
They are then hung upside down and their necks cut open so that they slowly bleed out.
Many thousands of bulls are tortured to death in arenas in Spain every year.
PETA hands over petition to MEPs
In October 2015 we from PETA Germanyhanded over a petition with over 11,000 signatures to the German and Austrian MEPs for an end to EU subsidies for the bullfighting industry.
At the end of October 2015, the EU Parliament voted on whether Spanish fighting bull breeders would continue to receive agricultural subsidies from the EU.
Unfortunately, the amendment intended to abolish subsidies for the bullfighting industry was rejected in November 2015.
WAV Comment – Sounds better than it has been, but we want more than words; like actions ! – we will be watching and reporting any issues that do not take animal welfare to ‘the next level’. Do things right – stay out of the news; do them wrong, make headlines for all the wrong reasons – simple really.
Tyson takes animal welfare to next level with its ‘Five Domains’ platform
SPRINGDALE, ARK. – After making the decision to take the next step in its animal welfare approach from the industrywide adoption of the “Five Freedoms” framework, Tyson Foods Inc.’s Office of Animal Welfare team is leading the company’s global transition to adopting the “Five Domains” science model, which focuses on assessing the mental state of animals to determine their needs and improve animal welfare practices.
By implementing the Five Freedoms across the company’s global operations officials from Tyson’s Office of Animal Welfare said the company can realize its vision to lead the industry in animal welfare by combining compassion with science.
“Part of being a leader means being open to creative thinking, innovation, and evolving knowledge and practices,” Tyson said.
While the Five Freedoms focused on avoiding the negative aspects of animal care, the Five Domains focus on how nutrition, physical environment, health and behavioral opportunities ultimately play a role in the mental state of animals.
“For decades, the Five Freedoms have provided an essential foundation for conceptualizing animals’ welfare needs,” said Candace Croney, PhD, professor of animal behavior and well-being and director of The Center for Animal Welfare Science at Purdue University. “As animal welfare science has advanced, however, the importance of promoting positive (physical, behavioral, and mental) states of welfare in addition to minimizing negative states is increasingly recognized. Incorporation of the Five Domains reflects the leadership mindset needed to facilitate thought processes, actions, and outcome measurements aligned with achieving these goals.”
According to Tyson, research-based learning and the evolution of ideas is part of continuous improvement, and the Five Domain program facilitates a better understanding of assessing how a range of factors effect animals’ mental state and how they influence anima welfare outcomes.
“Incorporating the Five Domains into our daily conversations and actions is essential for Tyson Foods to drive continuous improvement in our welfare program and culture throughout our global operations,” said Ken Opengart, DVM, vice president of global animal welfare at Tyson Foods.
The Five Domains spotlight positive opportunities versus the emphasis on the negative experiences of animals that have been the hallmark of the Five Freedoms for the past 25 years. The new approach focuses on the components effecting the mental welfare of the animal to assess its overall welfare and apply the knowledge-based science to each species’ behavior, biology and ecology.
“Tyson’s adoption of the Five Domains represents an admirable commitment to embrace animal welfare improvements in a scientifically sound, evidence-based way,” said Dorothy McKeegan, PhD, senior lecturer in animal welfare and ethics at the University of Glasgow. “The Five Domains model represents the forefront of current efforts to conceptualize and assess animal welfare.”
For more information on Tyson Foods’ animal welfare and sustainability practices, please visit tysonsustainability.com.
Pedro the bull with Olivia Gómez de Zamora. Photograph: Ana Palacios
‘They had a date to kill the cow. So I stole her’: how vegan activists are saving Spain’s farm animals
Spain may be famous for its love of meat – but sanctuaries across the country are coming to the rescue of its doomed cows, bulls, pigs, sheep and geese
In the north-east Spanish region of Catalonia, an enormous bull called Pedro is poking his head over a barn door to look at some sheep. He’ll stay there for two hours if the sanctuary volunteers let him; he’ll have to be tempted away with treats so that the sheep can be let out to graze. Pedro knows the routine; he’s been here since he was a calf, when he was bottle-fed by volunteers. He lives a charmed life – he is fed, he roams, he watches sheep, he sleeps; and when he dies, it will be of natural causes.
“He’s enormous!” I say to Olivia Gómez de Zamora, a veterinary assistant from Madrid who spends a lot of time coaxing Pedro from the barn.
Gómez de Zamora tells me this type of cattle is bred for its milk. “The adult males are slaughtered for meat,” she says. “So we never see them.”
Fundación Santuario Gaia, where Pedro lives, and El Hogar are two of about 20 animal sanctuaries in Spain where vegan activists dedicate themselves to rescuing animals, creating a place where they can live without being put to work or slaughtered. The employees and volunteers spend a huge amount of time in each other’s company. Some might call it intense: they live and work together, cook and eat together, and there are leisure activities such as movie nights and debates. The sanctuaries are connected via WhatsApp, where they share veterinary information and coordinate animal rescues.
We’re used to seeing dogs and cats saved from abuse or neglect, but at Gaia and El Hogar – around two hours’ drive apart on either side of Barcelona – most of the animals are pigs, cows, goats and chickens. Gaia co-founder Coque Fernández Abella, 43, an animal rights activist and vet, says: “We wanted it to be for so-called farm animals because they are the most forgotten. No one takes care of them because they’re seen as products.
“Growing up,” he adds, “it was typical to kill pigs to eat at home. Since I was small I had to help with it – it was horrible, because of the screams, but you had to do it. I remember when we rescued our first pig, the memories of the killings came back to me. After everything bad I’ve done in the past, it’s right that I should help animals now.”
The sanctuaries are havens for animals that, rather than being killed for meat or shackled for dairy production, live happily and freely. They are fed and exercised, given medicine if they’re sick, rehabilitated if they’re injured and – the main privilege denied to most farm animals – allowed to live long lives.
Veganism and such care for animals may seem surprising in Spain. Matador directly translates as “killer”. Surely animal-rescuing vegans are an oddity in the land of bullfighting and pata negra?
“It’s true we are very much into ham and bullfighting,” says photographer Ana Palacios, who stayed at both sanctuaries for two weeks, capturing their daily goings-on. “But in the UK, you guys hunt foxes!” While the carnivorous tradition is there, especially in the south, “it isn’t that popular among young people,” Palacios says. But veganism is increasing in popularity in many countries – even the ham capital of the world. Between 2017 and 2019, Spanish study the Green Revolution found a trend towards plant-based eating. In 2017, 0.2% of Spaniards identified as vegan; by 2019, it was 0.5%. Vegetarians account for 1.5% of Spain’s population. Animal welfare was the second most common reason cited for going vegetarian or vegan (23.8%) after health (67%).
Gaia employee Marta Sampaio, 24, says her parents were concerned when she made the decision to stop eating meat, aged 15. Now, any time she’s ill, her enthusiastically carnivorous father is convinced her diet is to blame. She travelled to Spain from Lisbon to find a place to work with animals. After training for a few months as a veterinary assistant, she Googled vegan sanctuaries in Spain, and started as a volunteer at Gaia. She found herself empathising, unexpectedly, with chickens. Her first was a chick called Angie, brought in by a girl who found her wandering alone in the road. Because chickens are bred to produce eggs every day, all year round (rather than in cycles of a week or so, two or three times a year), they’re frequently sick. Sampaio has gained a reputation as the “crazy chicken lady” for her habit of taking the sick ones home. “Angie was a baby and didn’t have any brothers or sisters, so she couldn’t be with the other chickens,” she says. “I kept her at home and she slept with me, in the crook of my shoulder.”
Gómez de Zamora left her veterinary assistant job in Madrid to work at Gaia, and stayed for two years. Now back in Madrid, she still collaborates with the sanctuary, but is filled with grief for one animal she cared for there. Her eyes well up and her voice cracks as she remembers Juana the goat, who had a mass on her spine that caused paralysis. “The time I spent with Juana was very beautiful and very painful, because we were aware of her complicated prognosis and that the moment was coming when we wouldn’t be able to do any more,” she says. “It was hard: you had to be OK for her, because her mind was still OK, even if her body wasn’t. You had to make sure she was still enjoying life, and going out in the sun in her wheelchair.”
It’s easy to imagine vegan animal sanctuaries as soft, emotional places, but there is a steely side. Animals aren’t just rescued from the sides of roads: sometimes they’re swiped from state execution. In 2017, the El Hogar sanctuary made headlines after rescuing a bullfighting cow called Margarita.
Margarita had an irresponsible owner. “When he got drunk with his friends, they would chase her on horseback,” says El Hogar founder Elena Tova. “She is still afraid of men.” The authorities discovered he hadn’t legally registered Margarita; under Spanish law, unregistered cows must be killed as without a vaccine record, there is a risk their meat could make people ill, or even cause a pandemic.
“They couldn’t be reasoned with,” says Tova, who explained again and again that she wanted to take Margarita to a vegan sanctuary to live out her natural life; they could guarantee she would never be used for meat. “They didn’t want to change the law or make exceptions. So we created a page on change.org calling for Margarita not to be killed. It got 190,000 signatures in less than a month.” She convinced the owner to let them take Margarita. “But it wasn’t enough: the vets still wanted to kill her. They made excuse after excuse and drowned us in red tape, until a judge who felt for us wrote to me to say, ‘They’re not going to give you the cow’ – they already had a date to kill her. So I went one night, under cover of darkness, and stole Margarita.”
Australian crocodiles to be cruelly slaughtered on new Hermès farm
French luxury brand Hermès plans to greatly expand their farming of Australian saltwater crocodiles in the Northern Territory, if plans for an additional crocodile facility proceed.
The report outlines that three to four crocodiles are killed to produce skins ‘fit’ for high-end items such as Hermès handbags.
Our new report Fashion Victims finds that 50,000 more Australian saltwater crocodiles could be cruelly farmed and killed for their skins unless the Federal Government acts. Australia already accounts for 60% of the global production of saltwater crocodile skins, with two thirds coming from the Northern Territory.
The report outlines that three to four crocodiles are killed to produce skins ‘fit’ for high-end items such as Hermès handbags.
These sentient animals are farmed in crowded, plastic-lined enclosures to protect their skin from damage before a brutal slaughter.
Crocodiles experience pain and pleasure and in the wild will live for around 70 years but in captivity are killed at around two to three years of age.
Head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection, Ben Pearson said:
“Farmed crocodiles are wild animals, not handbags. They are sentient beings who deserve to enjoy a wild life, not languish in plastic-lined pens for the profits of French fashion houses. They don’t deserve to pay the hefty price of their life for an expensive handbag.”
“We are calling on the Minister for Environment, Sussan Ley, to stop the expansion of this cruel and barbaric industry, by rejecting an export permit for the Hermès crocodile farm. As Environment Minister she has obligations to promote the humane treatment of wildlife. Crocodile farming is the exact opposite”.
The new Hermès farm comes as the use of exotic skins is becoming increasingly controversial.
Leading brands such as Chanel, Victoria Beckham, Mulberry, Karl Lagerfeld, Vivienne Westwood and Tommy Hilfiger have committed to, or are moving away from, using exotic skins and wild animals in their products, shifting to humane and sustainable alternatives.
WAV Comment – Here we go, MBR also sorting out Covid 19 – everyone is on this bandwagon to justify their actions.
I (Mark – WAV co founder) have lived with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) for the last 22 years; and around 15 years ago I was told by the MS Society / Neurologists that it (the cure) would all be sorted within 5 years. 10 years after the ‘closing date’ and I still have MS; like many other sufferers, waiting for the day.
Talking of good ‘Cure’ – here is one of my favourite English bands – ‘The Cure’ live at ‘Pinkpop’ in the Netherlands:
Worthy of note – Animals DO NOT suffer from MS, which is an illness where your immune system wrongly attacks the nerves of your body, instead of protecting them. It is called ‘demyelination’. So why artificially make animals have MS (when they naturally dont) and then use them to find a ‘cure’ for humans ? – it makes no sense, never has and never will. For me, positive research would find out why animals dont get MS and humans do get the illness. Even as a sufferer who wants a cure, I will NEVER support the use of any animals in any medical research to find that golden fleece cure. Medical cures will only come through non animal research; the last 15 years of bullshit about a MS cure have told me that animals suffer in research for nothing. Big Pharma keeps the bucks rolling in with the promise, but never really delivers. You could say that they have got it all wrong and are making big bucks by thrashing out false promises to us all.
I have and take NO medication for my MS. I control things by living a vegan diet, well away from meat and dairy. I think it works – I think I can still do things on WAV !
Regards Mark.
Ricky
Ricky Gervais lobbies for ban on all animal experiments after calls for breeding centre to close
Fellow actor Peter Egan calls for inflicting suffering on laboratory animals to be made illegal
Animal rights campaigners set up a protest camp at a “factory farm” that breeds puppies for laboratory experiments after comedy actor Ricky Gervais launched a campaign to ban all tests on animals in the UK.
The protesters said they wanted to close down the site in Cambridgeshire, which breeds beagles that are sold when they are 16 weeks old for chemicals and drugs testing.
The centre denied claims that it trains the puppies to be “laboratory-ready”, including offering a paw for injections and accepting paper cups on their faces, ready for wearing gas masks.
Animal rights campaigners set up a protest camp at a “factory farm” that breeds puppies for laboratory experiments after comedy actor Ricky Gervais launched a campaign to ban all tests on animals in the UK.
The protesters said they wanted to close down the site in Cambridgeshire, which breeds beagles that are sold when they are 16 weeks old for chemicals and drugs testing.
The centre denied claims that it trains the puppies to be “laboratory-ready”, including offering a paw for injections and accepting paper cups on their faces, ready for wearing gas masks.
Gervais and fellow actor Peter Egan are lobbying against all animal experimentation and calling for laboratory animals to be included in the Animal Welfare Act, which outlaws causing animal suffering.
Activists who monitored the breeding site at Huntingdon for more than a year described “harrowing” scenes.
They said they saw workers grabbing dogs by the scruff of the neck and piling them into overcrowded trolleys, and dogs in crates cried “pitifully” as they were loaded onto a lorry.
The site, called MBR Acres, owned by US company Marshall BioResources, breeds up to 2,000 puppies every year, most of which are sent for toxicology tests at UK laboratories.
Toxicology testing often involves force-feeding animals with chemicals or making them inhale pesticides.
Critics say this can be done every day for up to 90 days with no pain relief or anaesthetic, before the dogs are killed.
But the company says most experiments are mild, such as taking a blood test, and the results are used to develop vaccines, such as the Covid-19 jab.
He is patron of a group called For Life on Earth (Floe), which wants the government to launch a pioneering “public scientific hearing” on whether animal experiments can predict responses in human patients, with independent scientific experts as judges.
Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall has backed the idea, and SNP MP Lisa Cameron has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for the hearing.
Louise Owen, founder of Floe, told The Independent that if the science hearing took place, animal experiments would end “because the government would recognise they were out of step with current scientific knowledge and harmful to human patients”.
She pointed out that the government’s new Animal Sentience Bill enshrines in law the ability of animals to feel joy, suffering and pain.
Gervais said: “I’m deeply shocked to learn that thousands of beautiful beagles are intensively bred, right here in the peace of the British countryside, for painful and terrifying toxicity experiments that are also now proven to entirely fail the search for human treatments and cures.”
Mel Broughton, of the Free the MBR Beagles campaign, said: “Increasingly, there is scientific opinion that these experiments are not valid in terms of finding cures for human diseases, and these dogs suffer greatly in toxicity tests. They’re poisoned to death slowly.”
A spokeswoman for MBR said the company bred animals raised to be healthy, content and comfortable in laboratories, adding: “It does not undertake regulatory toxicology or other experiments and has only animal care staff working on its sites.
Peter and Ricky
See the short video with Ricky and Dr Ray Greek here:
Signed by a person who became a life member of the Lord Dowding Fund for Humane Research andthe National Anti-Vivisection Society in 1972′. = Celia – Woking, Surrey, UK
True words by Peter Singer (born July 6, 1946 in Melbourne, Australia), Australian philosopher and ethicist.
“Either the animal is not like us, then there is no need to do the experiment; or / but the animal is like us and in this case we should not carry out an experiment with the animal that would make us indignant if it were carried out on one of us”. (Peter Singer)
Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies abusing, torturing and killing animals for diabolical animal experiments.
By now it should be well known globally that animal experiments are never and will never be 1: 1 transferable to humans.
Then why this ordeal of innocent beings?
There are numerous alternatives to the ungodly experiments on breathing creatures.
But the profit and the unholy research mania of many scientists prevent their widespread use.
Whether for the medicine and pharmaceutical industry, for the tobacco and food industry, the cosmetics industry or whatever: Animal experiments are wrong.
No medication, no vaccine, no cigarette, no short culinary pleasure and not even the latest make-up justify letting animals enjoy this hell on earth.
And here, too, the consumer has it in their hands by doing without blood and pain-stained animal torture products and only buying goods that are free from animal testing.
There are alternatives for almost everything, you just have to find out more and, above all, you have to want to.
NO TO BARBARIAN ANIMAL TESTING! THE FIGHT CONTINUES UNTIL EVERY CAGE IS EMPTY IN ALL THE TEST LABS !!!
Text: Together for the animals
And I mean…Wherever people take the right to enslave suffering-capable animals as research tools, to torture them and finally to let them die miserably, we speak not only of an injustice, but of a crime.
In suffering, the animals are our equals but despite this hard fact theabnormal experimenters continue their senseless tyranny
(to see the video, click on the picture)
They are then hung upside down and their necks cut open so that they slowly bleed out.
World Animals Voice 