Environmental, Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

EU: Animal welfare: Publication of the Evaluation of EU’s Strategy. When Do They Enter ‘Real World’ ?

WAV Comment – as we have said in the past, the EU is very good at making itself try to look very good; publishing endless reports and evaluations, but on the other hand, failing drastically to move on basic issues such as live animal transport.  What exactly did we see in the first part of this year when hundreds of live animals were shipped around the Mediterranean Sea for over 3 months ?-  Live Transport – World Animals Voice

Changing live transport across the EU, in accordance with the wishes of vast numbers of EU citizens; should be a fundamental strategy of the Union.  Instead, they ok Irish producers to export live animals to Libya, where they are ritually slaughtered, and the EU itself, as the biggest live exporting syndicate in the world, also export endless live animals to 3rd nations such as Turkey.

And what are we seeing and hearing about all the reports and investigations which are supposed to have been undertaken by member state Romania, with regard the capsize of the ‘Queen Hind’ after leaving Midia ? – Search Results for “romania queen hind” – World Animals Voice – where is the EU when it comes to member states not coming clean with animal welfare incidents ? – Nowhere, that’s where.

Here below is a new PR from the EU which has been sent to us today (7/4/21). We have followed this ‘Strategy’ with the ‘Evaluation of the EU strategy on Animal Welfare’ information; which you can further investigate (via links on the site) should you wish.

EU revealed to be world’s biggest live animal exporter. – World Animals Voice

Regards Mark

Secret decks found on ship that capsized killing thousands of sheep | Romania | The Guardian

Animal welfare: Publication of the Evaluation of EU’s Strategy

The European Commission has published an evaluation of the European Union Strategy for the Protection and Welfare of Animals. The report, which covers the years 2012-18, notably assesses how effective, efficient, and beneficial the strategy has been. It notes that compliance across Member States, which are in charge of implementing the Animal Welfare legislation, remains a challenge, in particular in risk areas such as animal transport, routine tail docking of pigs and stunning. The study also flags the need to improve coherence not only with the CAP, but also with fisheries, trade, environmental and transport policies, in line with the goals of the Farm to Fork strategy. The evaluation also pointed towards the strategic use of consumer information, international cooperation and CAP as relevant tools to improve animal welfare standards both in the EU and on a global level. The findings of the study will now feed into the on-going evaluation of the animal welfare legislation and inform any potential future initiatives in the context of Farm to Fork. The forthcoming review of the animal welfare legislation will therefore look at the legislative gaps identified in 2012 and at any new gaps that could emerge from the ongoing evaluation of the rules in force. Launched almost 50 years ago, the Animal Welfare policy of the EU concerns millions of animals. The EU has a substantial population of livestock including, at present, 88 million bovine animals, 148 million pigs, and around 100 million sheep and goats, as well as an estimated 4.5 billion chickens, egg-laying hens and turkeys.

Extra Decks Found on Capsized Livestock Carrier

Evaluation of the EU strategy on Animal Welfare

Following a recommendation from the European Court of Auditors (i.e. Special report No 31/2018 on Animal welfare in the EU), the Commission has started an evaluation of the EU Strategy for Protection and Welfare of Animals (2012-2015).

The outcome of the evaluation is published in the form of a Staff Working Document here:

This evaluation assessed the extent to which the strategy delivered on its objectives and whether they are relevant and consistent today. It looked at efficiency and whether the strategy usefully complemented national efforts in this field.

The evaluation found that the strategy contributed to setting common priorities that led to improvements on animal welfare across the EU. It also contributed to improve knowledge and sharing of best practices, as well as to enforcement of EU legislation in specific areas.

However, none of the strategy’s objectives has been fully achieved. The forthcoming evaluation and review of the animal welfare legislation will look at the legislative gaps identified in and after 2012 and will seek to make the animal welfare acquis more fit for purpose. As regards enforcement, special attention will be given to compliance risk areas identified by this evaluation.

This evaluation draws from a study carried out by an external contractor, which applied a mixed-method approach to address the evaluation questions. The methods used included desk research, an online public consultation of 13 weeks, targeted surveys and semi-structured interviews to ensure broader coverage of stakeholders. In addition, eight case studies were carried out to further support the analysis.

The study report is published here:

Fur and Fur Farming

Fur farming in Belgium will end soon – first Flemish farms close

In Flanders, eleven of the 16 fur manufacturers want to close earlier, and the only producer of foie gras in Flanders is also going out of business.

From the end of 2023, such establishments will be banned in Flanders.

Those who close earlier receive a bonus. A special commission will determine the value of the company and the premium will be calculated on this basis.

In order for the businesses to close as early as possible, the premium will decrease over time.
“Fur-farming is still profitable, but animal welfare comes first,” says the Flemish Minister for Animal Welfare, Ben Weyts (N-VA).

Fur farming has been banned in Wallonia since 2015, but at that time there were no longer any farms.

Foie gras can still be produced in Wallonia.

https://brf.be/national/1473788/

And I mean… From a legal point of view, fur animals are either not protected at all or completely inadequately, and this applies worldwide.

In 1999 the Council of Europe adopted a “Recommendation” on fur animals on farms.

However, this was completely inadequate, as cage management remains permissible in a confined space.


Wire mesh floors live, the animals spend their entire lives in narrow mesh cages living on wire mesh floors, without a sheltered place to sleep, without opportunities to retreat from their own species, without opportunities to move around, and without variety.
In many EU countries, there are no further regulations for fur farms, and in order to continue to earn money with animal cruelty, the mink breeders even ignore the minimal requirements of the legal situation.

While the fur farms in Europe are gradually becoming fewer, the Chinese fur farmers benefit from the non-falling demand and therefore the low supply of European farms is lucrative for them.

Since their biggest competitor Denmark is currently “paralyzed”, prices and products on the Chinese market are rising.

The Chinese government banned the trade in wild animals at the beginning of the corona pandemic, but by reclassifying mink, fox, and raccoon from wild animals to “special farm animals” in April, these animals can still be traded and killed for the fur industry.

The list of countries that pave the way for a fur-free future continues to grow: Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Great Britain, Japan, Croatia, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Norway, Austria, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic …

In September 2020, France announced a mink farm ban with a five-year transition period.

Strictly speaking, the commercial breeding and killing of fur animals are not prohibited in Germany.
However, from 2022 onwards, the minimum requirements for keeping animals have been tightened to such an extent that keeping fur animals is no longer economically viable.

Coronavirus kursiert erneut in Pelzfarm - HeuteTierisch - heute.at

One can only hope that the economic losses in the fur industry caused by Corona will turn things around.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

Poland, Romania, Italy: New investigation on the transport of lambs for Easter: Animal Equality, Animal Welfare Foundation and ENPA denounce unacceptable situation.

Easter investigation together with Members of the European Parliament: Inspection of lamb transports – YouTube

Easter investigation together with Members of the European Parliament: Inspection of lamb transports

“Well, if you tell me that these are still rather good conditions, then I don’t want to know what the bad conditions look like,” says Tilly Metz, MEP for the Greens. With her parliamentary colleagues Caroline Roose and Thomas Waitz, she and our in Easter investigation together with Members of the European Parliament:

New investigation on the transport of lambs for Easter: Animal Equality, Animal Welfare Foundation and ENPA denounce unacceptable situation | Eurogroup for Animals

Tilly Metz, Caroline Roose and Thomas Waitz during the investigation

Tilly Metz, Caroline Roose and Thomas Waitz during the investigation – © Animal Welfare Foundation

New investigation on the transport of lambs for Easter: Animal Equality, Animal Welfare Foundation and ENPA denounce unacceptable situation

1 April 2021

AWF

The transport of lambs for Easter continues this year, three trucks from Poland and Romania identified in illegal conditions, stopped by the police and sanctioned

New images collected by the investigators of Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) and the Zoophile Guards of ENPA, and released in collaboration with Animal Equality, show once again the transport of live animals drama, in particular for lambs on the holidays occasion.

In the last few days, close to the Easter period, AWF and ENPA, in collaboration with Animal Equality, have followed three trucks coming from Poland and Romania carrying thousands of lambs between two to four months old.

Three Members of the European Parliament joined the investigations: Tilly Metz, Caroline Roose and Thomas Waitz, also members of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport (ANIT), went to Italy to verify the real problems these animals face during transport.

The images clearly show:

  • Overcrowding, with animals heads pressed to the trucks roofs 
  • A lamb having a leg stuck between the metal bars of the truck sidewall (the lamb was never controlled by the driver, who should instead periodically check the internal situation)
  • Inadequate, malpositioned and insufficient drinkers 
  • Animals dehydrated and exhausted by travel length and conditions 
  • Lack of appropriate litter 

One of the trucks coming from Poland was stopped by the police and the driver was fined over 1,300 € for poor transport conditions, while another driver admitted that he did not provide the animals with water for the all duration of the trip.

All three trucks traveled over distances up to 1,700 km, reaching almost 30 hours of travel in terrible conditions, without providing adequate care for the animals. 

The trucks were directed to the ILCO slaughterhouse in Acquapendente, Palo del Colle, and to the town of Badia Tedalda, in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany.

Every year in Italy more than 2 million lambs are slaughtered, of which 300,000 during the Easter period. To date, most of them are imported on the routes of Eastern Europe, thus involving a journey full of suffering for these young animals in inadequate transporters, built for other species. Very often unweaned animals are loaded. 

“This is not the first time we denounce a similar situation, quite the contrary. We have been monitoring this travel route for several years now: it entails enormous suffering for the lambs”, the associations declare.

“As recommended by scientific bodies and researchers, these animals should not be transported for welfare and health reasons. Additionally, the fact that neither sanctions nor NGOs’ official complaints to the relevant Member States and to the European Commission have led to significant improvements, shows that there is a general problem with the implementation and enforcement of Regulation (EC) No 1/2005. We hope the upcoming revision of this Regulation will put an end to these transports”, they conclude.

The Animal Welfare Foundation e.V. is an independent, non-profit, and internationally active animal welfare organisation. With our own investigation teams and animal welfare projects, we are committed to improving the lives of so-called farm animals.

Animal Equality is an international organisation working with society, governments, and companies to end cruelty to farmed animals. Our teams in the United States, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, and India consist of highly qualified professionals with years of experience in undercover investigations, corporate campaigns, legal advocacy, and the development of large-scale education programs. Using these values to launch innovative projects and strategic campaigns, we work to expose and abolish the cruel practices of the animal agriculture industry.

Regards Mark

Farm Animals

The EU Commission’s new farce: Farm-to-Fork strategy

A “SOKO animal welfare” comment:

EU plan for the massive feeding of animals to animals!
The EU intends to radically soften the rules on feeding animal protein to livestock.

The main goal is to create a new kind of animal exploitation.
Insects are intended to replace soybeans and to be produced industrially for factory farming of pigs and chickens. Here, of course, it is pointed out again that insects would feel less or different pain.

This derogatory argument is also known from fish and marine invertebrates.
The goal is maximum exploitation with minimal consideration for living beings that we barely understand and whose sensory perceptions we have absolutely no idea.

The factory farming groups are already looking forward to it.
Can they sell themselves as sustainable at the expense of countless living beings?

The motto remains the same: They are different, they are alien to us, so they may be killed en masse just to slaughter more animals for a senseless and cruel industry.

Values ​​EU: One does not break this fatal and deadly cycle if one exploits and kills a further trillion animals.
Here you can write your opinion to the EU.

Make it factual, otherwise, they won’t take it seriously.

https://www.facebook.com/sokotierschutz.ev/

https://ec.europa.eu/…/have…/initiatives/11640-Ani%5B…%5Disation-to-feed-poultry-with-meat-from-farmed-insects-and-pigs

About this initiative- Summary

Since the enforcement of a total feed ban, in 2001, the epidemiological situation regarding BSE has considerably improved in the EU with no classical BSE case since 2016 and 24 Member States having a negligible BSE-risk status.

In addition, the Farm-to-Fork strategy aims at making better use of the protein and other feed material produced in Europe. With a view to addressing this dual context, the proposal mainly allows the use of insect protein and non-ruminant protein in poultry and pig feed.
The Commission would like to hear your views.

This draft act is open for feedback for 4 weeks. Feedback will be taken into account for finalizing this initiative.

Feedback received will be published on this site and therefore must adhere to the feedback rules.

https://ec.europa.eu/…/have…/initiatives/11640-Ani%5B…%5Disation-to-feed-poultry-with-meat-from-farmed-insects-and-pigs

And I mean...If we have understood correctly, should another factory farming be created for factory farming?

What will “insect breeding” ultimately feed on?

And all of this to keep meat production running.
Obviously, it was not enough for the EU that almost a third of the Amazon was destroyed for animal feed, it was not enough that insects are destroyed with poisons approved by the EU … now the meat producers want to feed animals with animals

Instead of really tackling the global problem of CO2 emissions at the root, abolishing factory farming, and creating a different awareness of life, the EU Commission continues to abuse and use animals for consumption and even add another species.

Ergo: even more CO2 emissions … because such mass production systems will certainly not be environmentally friendly and CO2 neutral …

Once more we can see how much power meat producers wield over the EU.

My best regards to all, Venus

Uncategorized

USA: Lawsuits pile up over endangered species decisions made by Trump administration.

PHOTO: In this 2014, file photo, a monarch butterfly, an iconic pollinator species, alights on a plant.

Lawsuits pile up over endangered species decisions made by Trump administration

Ten species have been left in “regulatory purgatory,” according to the lawsuit.

ByJulia Jacobo

The Biden administration is continuing to field lawsuits filed over Endangered Species Act decisions made by the Trump administration.

The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Thursday over its failure to provide protections under the Endangered Species Act for 10 species “it admitted needed them,” according to the organization.

MORE: Fate of monarch butterfly still hangs in the balance after endangered species decision

Among the species are the monarch butterfly, which in December the Trump administration decided that adding it to the list of threatened species was “warranted but precluded.” This meant that while the monarch butterfly became a candidate for listing as an endangered species, it was not yet listed as the agency prioritizes other candidates.

The monarch butterfly was added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species in 2014 after it was determined that 90% of its population had declined from its original levels. While millions of the butterflies spent winters in the coastal groves of California in the 1980s, just 30,000 were counted in 2019.

The iconic butterfly’s numbers have drastically diminished.due to increased use of farm herbicides, climate change and the destruction of milkweed plants, which is what monarch caterpillars eat and where monarch butterflies lay their eggs.

MORE: Government refusal to protect wolverines sparks lawsuit from conservation groups

Continue reading on page 2

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Hunting

Germany: A.L.F renovated shooting range!

Animal rights activists ”are committed to the latest arson attack (Translation of the old article from the “Naturally Hunting” blog.
To avoid misunderstandings: All translated wording comes from the author of this article, which is in the link, below)

Photo: Thomas Hohendahl

After a cowardly arson attack on a shooting range in Lower Saxony (we reported) there is a letter of confession.
Again the sender is the “Animal Liberation Front” (ALF).

The spelling and style match the letters confessing responsibility after arson attacks on sleeping facilities in Hildesheim (we reported) and Göttingen.
The subject of the letter is hard to beat in audacity and arrogance.

The self-proclaimed “animal rights activists” headlines: A.L.F renovated shooting range “.
Again, the criminals do not shy away from personal threats and advise the association “to continue operating the shooting range if there is interest in renovations in the private sector”.

Photo: Thomas Hohendahl

To the background:
During the night from Friday to Saturday (in May 2016), several perpetrators left a trail of devastation on the shooting range in Banteln (Lower Saxony)

The 100-meter run was completely destroyed by incendiary devices, and the technology on the “running wedge” shooting range also has to be completely renewed.
In addition, the perpetrators glued locks destroyed a lawnmower, and clogged the chimney with construction foam.
The damage is estimated at a good 150,000 euros.

The club intends to resume regular operations in mid-June. Not only hunters from the area train at the shooting range, special police units (SEK and MEK) also practice there regularly.

Photo: Thomas Hohendahl

You can read the letter of confession from A.L.F, which can hardly be surpassed in audacity and complacency, below:

“alf renovated shooting range

after visiting two training facilities in Hildesheim and göttingen in the past few months, we renovated the shooting range on the oberg in banteln (Lower Saxony) free of charge during the night from friday to saturday.
after all, the hunters should be able to really feel at home with practice shooting on the following saturday.

We advise the operating club to continue operating the shooting range if there is interest in renovations in the private sector.

After observing the property in need of renovation for several weeks, we could finally get started.
We hope that glued locks, a lawn tractor that has been converted to a foot drive, and the use of the shooting lanes as a campfire were able to give the hunters a warm welcome so that they can spend an eventful day on this beautiful shooting range with friends and acquaintances (the club’s website). were able to practice real driven hunt situations and prepare perfectly for the hunting season ”(the club’s website).

Excursus: driven hunt

driven hunt is a great activity for anyone who finds it entertaining to drive hundreds of individuals into a corner with the help of so-called hunting dogs and then to murder them.
in addition to the hundreds of deaths, it is also an exciting event for the survivors.

Finally, the own reference group is clearer again and the orphaned children are also happy that they are finally on their own.

At this point, a big thank you, from us to you, for all your efforts! and please be careful not to blow each other over.
we would be really very sad if we couldn’t continue to support you with this great fun.

we will continue to look after the members of the club closely if the shooting range should continue to operate.
because we, too, would like to continue to practice hunting individuals so that the next real murder goes as planned, regardless of the senseless and unacceptable motivation

weidmanns heil (common greeting among German hunters)

your alf-“

https://www.natuerlich-jagd.de/news/tierrechtler-bekennen-sich-zu-neuestem-brandanschlag.html

driven hunt-Germany

And I mean…It is interesting that the shooting range is used not only by several hunters in the region but also by various police units.

According to the chairman of the association, Thomas Hohendahl, “all members and users of the shooting range are particularly shocked because the association “Schießstand Oberg” is very socially committed and repeatedly supports variously charitable (!!!) projects in the region”.

So far, however, there has been no suspicion of who might have committed the act, and the activists remain, luckily, unknown to this day.

Although the association offered a reward of 5000 euros for “useful information”.
Obviously, the association is not so popular as its chairman Hohendahl thought, otherwise the many denouncers in the village would have done a “charitable act”- because of such a reward- and would have whistled the activists.

A big Thank you, alf!

My best regards to all, Venus