Environmental, General News

Iceland: A Story of Progress Which May Halt Performing Sea Life; and Whaling.

15/10/20.

Yesterday, 14/10; we did a quick post about thee 2 Belugas Little Grey and Little White.

You can see all our posts on this wonderful rescue from performing prison and a journey to freedom below in the ‘Archive’.

For over a decade LG and LW had been ‘performing’ for humans in a very small indoor tank in Shanghai.  It was time to get them out of their prison, and the daily routine of performing stupid tricks for even more stupid people who were prepared to pay and watch them act.

Now meet the whales with much more to smile about !

Two belugas (LG and LW)  are transported from captivity in China to a new ocean refuge over 6,000 miles away in Iceland thanks to British charity – Sea Life (Lies) – https://sea-lies.org.uk/

Very sadly, Iceland is still a whale killing nation along with Norway and Japan.

Japan has been engaged in ‘scientific whaling’ (supposedly for research but it means nothing) since 1987, a year after the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling began. Iceland began “scientific whaling” in 2003 before resuming their commerical hunt in 2006. 

But; many Icelandic people have welcomed LG and LW to their new sanctuary home; and as we have always said with every campaign issue; it is the people that vote to make changes for the future.  Hopefully, with LG and LW now residing in Icelandic waters; people will realise that creatures such as these are not human property and should not be held in captivity performing stupid tricks.   We really hope that by having these new arrivals in their country; Icelandic people will see the whale hunt and killing for what it is – murder – and will instead put their resources into protecting whales rather than slaughtering them.

Norway has surpassed Japan and Iceland in its whale hunting quotas (which do not include dolphins), and now officially kills more whales than any country in the world.  As we know, Japan kills dolphins in the Taiji hunt –  see more at  https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/09/04/japan-taiji-genocide-of-another-species/   and the Faroe islands which belong to Denmark still have an annual whale kill also – see more at https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/08/30/england-london-joint-demo-day-protest-against-faroe-islands-and-taiji-japan-whale-and-dolphin-slaughters/

Below – Taiji Japan

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is taiji-4.jpg
Faroe whale slaughter

Above – Faroe Islands

Further reading on LG and LW:

BREAKING: CRUEL SHOWS FINALLY END FOR SEA LIFE WHALES

And see their new Icelandic sanctuary home here:

Thank you: Beluga whales arrive safely at sea sanctuary

Video link:  https://youtu.be/kWaIjwU2MEQ

Norway has surpassed Japan and Iceland in its whale hunting quotas (which do not include dolphins), and now officially kills more whales than any country in the world.  As we know, Japan kills dolphins in the Taiji hunt –  see more at  https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/09/04/japan-taiji-genocide-of-another-species/   and the Faroe islands which belong to Denmark still have an annual whale kill also – see more at https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/08/30/england-london-joint-demo-day-protest-against-faroe-islands-and-taiji-japan-whale-and-dolphin-slaughters/

And see their new Icelandic sanctuary home here:

Thank you: Beluga whales arrive safely at sea sanctuary

Video link:  https://youtu.be/kWaIjwU2MEQ

All photos below via the Daily Mail – UK newspaper.

Archive – Some of our past posts on Little Grey and Little White:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/08/10/iceland-uk-good-news-of-the-week-beluga-whales-little-grey-and-little-white-finally-arrive-in-iceland-at-new-sanctuary-home-after-years-performing-in-china/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/05/22/thanks-but-no-tanks-in-just-a-few-weeks-little-grey-and-little-white-will-enter-their-new-sanctuary-home-where-they-can-live-a-proper-life/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/06/19/little-grey-and-little-white-have-now-begun-their-journey-to-their-new-sea-sanctuary/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/04/05/beluga-whales-little-grey-and-little-white-moved-to-the-worlds-first-beluga-sanctuary-in-april-2019-confirmed/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/02/21/very-close-now-to-moving-little-grey-and-little-white-to-their-sanctuary-home-in-iceland/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/06/20/update-two-very-special-belugas-have-arrived-at-their-new-sanctuary-home/

John Bishop is an English comedian who has been involved with this rescue for years since its conception. Here below you can see some footage of John’s involvement with the LG / LW recue project:

Enjoy;

Thanks, but NO TANKS;

Regards Mark

The Sea Life Trust team move Beluga Whale Little Gray from a tugboat during transfer to the bayside care pool where they will be acclimatised to the natural environment of their new home at the open water sanctuary in Klettsvik Bay in Iceland. The two Beluga whales, named Little Grey and Little White, are being moved to the world’s first open-water whale sanctuary after travelling from an aquarium in China 6,000 miles away in June 2019.

Environmental

Palm oil and the European fascism in Africa

Rainforest Rescue

Palm oil production in Nigeria is a destructive and violent business. Companies like Okomu Oil Palm Plantation Plc (OOPC) are clearing forests with breathtaking speed and leaving destroyed livelihoods and human rights violations in their wake.

Please support the struggle of local communities for their rights and for nature.

On May 20, 2020, the village Ijaw-Gbene in southern Nigeria was burnt to the ground.

Witnesses identified the Okomu Oil Palm Plantation Plc (OOPC) security force and members of the Nigerian army as the attackers.

Previously, three other villages had been torched under similar circumstances.

The attack in May 2020 left local farmers and fisherfolk homeless and their properties destroyed.

More than 80 villagers had no choice but to seek shelter in neighboring communities and in churches, rendering social distancing impossible and increasing their risk of COVID infection.

OOPC denies the allegations.

OOPC is a subsidiary of SOCFIN, a group controlled by French corporate titan Vincent Bolloré and the Belgian businessman Hubert Fabri.
SOCFIN operates rubber and palm oil plantations in ten countries in Africa and Asia.

Europeans have a bad reputation: whether in Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, or Cambodia, wherever Socfin works, the local population complains about brutal methods.

In Nigeria’s Okomu Kingdom, SOCFIN’s 33,000-hectare plantation is encroaching on communities that never agreed to give their ancestral land away.

It stretches into forest reserves, home to endangered species such as chimpanzees, forest elephants, and red-bellied monkeys.
Logging and industrial agriculture are the major drivers of deforestation in Nigeria, a country that has already lost 96 percent of its forest cover.

In a joint letter dated September 4, local communities asked the Nigerian president to take steps against OOPC. The struggle against the company is not an isolated case – it’s symptomatic for the palm oil business around the world.

Please support the affected communities in fighting for their rights and for the forests with your signature.

Petition: https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/1224/stop-nigerias-lawless-palm-oil-juggernaut

 

And I mean…To clarify once again: First, there is practically no sustainable palm oil. The oil palm cultivation and processing is a highly polluting and dirty industry because it involves a lot of money.
But with the help of the Europeans, people are brutally driven from their countries, even with the help of the military.

The thousands of hectares of monoculture plantations in Asia and Africa are mostly the result of deforestation in the rainforest or the displacement of small farmers.

They leach out the soil, are very water-intensive, and require large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They also prevent smallholder agriculture, are known for the miserable working conditions and wages of palm oil workers, and thus contribute to increased land conflicts, impoverishment, and hunger.

After all, German chemical companies are also among the main buyers of this increasingly important raw material.

Palm oil has been linked to human rights abuses and violence.
Palm oil is forest destruction, human and animal life destruction.

Never buy products that contain palm oil.
With our purchase, we can also resist the big multinational oligarchs and save people and animals.

My best regards to all, Venus

Note: Not all pictures are from Africa.
Most are from Asia, where the dirty palm oil business best blooms

Environmental, General News

Little Grey and Little White Have been Relased Into Their Forever New Home at an Icelandic Sanctuary.

Hi all;

Today 4/10 has been a really crazy mental day.  I have not done any posts for the site – so everything you get today will be from Venus.

Tonight I am starting to prepare something for tomorrow. You may remember in the past we have covered the rescue of Beluga whales Little Grey and Little White as they have started their journey from performing in a indoor show arena in the Far East to their new home in a massive natural sea sanctuary in Iceland.

It has been a massive undertaking for all involved – but the best news ever is that Grey and White have finally been released into the new forever sanctuary home over the last few weeks.

Tomorrow there will be much more, but I leave you now with a video of when John Bishop; a UK comedian, first met the pair in the far east.  As John says, the pair should never be performing as they were; and we fully endorse that.

The sanctuary can take up to about 8-10 Belugas, and we hope this trial will be the first of many to get captive marine animals out of the showground and back into the wild where they belong.

Here is the first video when John meets Little Grey and Little White for the first time.

Hopefully more tomorrow;

Regards Mark

Keep wild in the wild !

General News

legality doesn’t dictate morality

“American slavery was legal. Human genocide was legal. Eating dog meat is legal.
Abusing and murdering non-human animals such as cows, pigs, chickens, and fish is currently legal.

But as we know legality doesn’t dictate morality.
What side of history do you want to stand on when it comes to stamping out this injustice?”

Anonymous for the Voiceless

And I mean…if resistance is to become a reality, then people have to know what injustice is.
And that injustice has the same weight for all living beings, does not depend on color, race, or species.

But we know that people are purposely brought up in a racist manner in their morals, in their selections, in their thinking.
The system leads people to factory behavior – standardized, dependent, systematically managed, and monitored until they are disempowered
Almost everyone sells their soul to the meat industry and is given the freedom to eat meat in return.

That answers the question – that’s all!

Regards and good night, Venus

Farm Animals

Columbia Sportswear Company will no longer use alpaca!

Following talks with PETA, the Columbia Sportswear Company—one of the largest active-lifestyle apparel and footwear companies in the world—is all packing up its alpaca-derived items and has become the latest company to ban alpaca.

The ban will apply across its Columbia, PrAna, Sorel, and Mountain Hardwear brands!

alpaca friends

Here’s Why Companies Are Banning Alpaca

Columbia’s ethical and environmentally responsible decision comes on the heels of a PETA exposé of the world’s largest privately-owned alpaca farm, in Peru, that documented workers violently hitting, kicking, and slamming alpacas (some pregnant) onto tables and strapping them tightly by the legs into a restraining device resembling a medieval torture rack.

Their legs were then stretched in opposite directions, nearly wrenching them out of their sockets.
Workers sheared the animals roughly and carelessly, leaving them with gaping, bloody wounds that they crudely sewed shut.

The animals cried out, spit (a typical response to distress), and vomited in fear as workers grabbed them by the ears.

Now, alpacas will no longer be used for profit by Columbia.

Stealing wool from these docile, gentle, curious, and social animals is not a victimless crime.

Just as the wool industry slaughters sheep, the dairy industry slaughters cows, and the egg industry macerates male baby chicks and slaughters their mothers, the alpaca fleece industry slaughters alpacas who actually are no longer wanted for their coats.

Columbia joins a growing list of companies—including ESPRIT, Marks & Spencer, Overstock.com, UNIQLO, and Valentino—that have banned alpaca following PETA’s unprecedented exposure of the cruel industry.

But some companies are still knowingly profiting from the torment, mutilation, and slaughter of these gentle animals.
Please urge Anthropologie to stop selling alpaca fleece immediately.

Groundbreaking Undercover Investigation: Crying, Vomiting Alpacas Tied Down, Cut Up for Sweaters and Scarves

PETA Persuades Columbia Sportswear Company to Ban Alpaca Fleece

And I mean…That gives us hope, this is very positive news.
The list of companies banning alpaca, fur, and exotic leather is growing every year.

We achieved this through the media, with systematic education and war against the criminal industries of animal exploitation.

Animal welfare needs patience, which you get with the years and experience.
We have patience and fighting spirit, we keep fighting and it will stay that way.

My best regards to all, Venus

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.

Environmental, General News

Indonesia: Please Support BOS Foundation On This Day of Giving for Apes.

WAV Comment – as a reminder for the giving day for apes; we have just donated to one of our favourite rescue centres; the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation.  Please support them with a donation today if you are able.

Thanks

Mark (WAV).

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2018/08/12/indonesia-orangutan-jungle-school/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/08/04/the-bravest-ape-orangutan-who-lost-both-his-arms-on-an-electric-fence-while-trying-to-escape-from-captivity-learns-how-to-climb-and-find-food-using-only-his-legs-as-he-prepares-to-return-to-the-jungl/

Dear Mark


Today is one of the biggest days of the year to show how much you care about the orangutans in our centres.

In honour of #GivingDayforApes, I want to share some important numbers with you:

Our orangutans require a lot of care, while our 38 surrogate mothers work tirelessly in the tropical heat to teach our forest school students how to survive in the wild.

The orphans drink a total of about 15,000 litres of milk and use 10,000 diapers per year. And eat more food than you can imagine Mark, such as yams, melons, eggplants, rambutans, watermelons, and a mountain’s worth of bananas.

All in all, that’s 1,000 tonnes of food per year.

If just 1 in 10 of those reading this email – people like YOU, Mark – gave $25 we could reach our goal to raise $20,000 by midnight tonight to provide milk and nutritious food for all of our orangutans.

So will you help us reach our goal?

Click the donation button below to donate $25 or more right now and help us meet our goal before the midnight deadline.

https://givingdayforapes.mightycause.com/organization/Bosfoundation

DONATE NOW  →

You have my word, Mark, that 100% of the donations will support our orangutan care and conservation activities in East and Central Kalimantan.

For the orangutans we all love,



Dr. Ir. Jamartin Sihite
CEO of BOS Foundation

Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

Estonia: Survey: Support for Banning Fur Farming in Estonia is Greater Than Ever Before.

Survey: Support for banning fur farming in Estonia is greater than ever before

Loomus

According to a survey commissioned by animal advocacy organisation Loomus, 83% of women and 66% of men are not in favour of fur farming.

73% of Estonians and 77% of people from other nationalities are against fur farming.

73% of Keskerakond (Estonian Centre Party) voters are against fur farming. Same goes to 72% of Reformierakond (Estonian Reform Party) voters, 51% of Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond (Conservative People’s Party of Estonia) voters, 85% of Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Erakond (Social Democratic Party) voters, 74% of Eesti 200 (Estonia 200) voters and 93% of the voters of other parties. 79% of the people without a party preference are against fur farming.

The percentage of supporters of closing fur farms is not only high in urban areas, but also in rural areas. 74% of the people living in Tallinn do not support fur farming, same goes to 78% of the people living in other towns and 72% of people living in rural areas.
Compared to a study conducted at the end of December of 2016, the number of people who are against fur farming has grown from 69% to 75%.

Martin Garbuz, the board member of Loomus, says that it is a wonderful result. “The support for banning fur farming is great and it’s constantly growing. The majority of society don’t support an industry where animals are tortured and killed for luxury items. It’s also important information for politicians who are considering the ban of fur farming again,” he added.

In summer, 23 members of Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) initiated the draft Act for the amendment of Animal Protection and Nature Conservation Act which seeks to ban fur farming in Estonia. The draft was compiled in co-operation of politicians and Loomus. The first reading of it is taking place on the 15th of October in Riigikogu.

718 residents of Estonia, aged 18–60, took part in the Kantar Emor national survey and they were asked whether they are in favour of raising and killing animals such as foxes and minks for their fur. The survey was conducted in the middle of September.

Environmental, General News

‘Real and Imminent’ Extinction Risk to Whales.

‘Real and imminent’ extinction risk to whales | Eurogroup for Animals

Steve Halama

‘Real and imminent’ extinction risk to whales

12 October 2020

More than 350 scientists and conservationists from 40 countries have signed a letter calling for global action to protect whales, dolphins and porpoises from extinction.

They say more than half of all species are of conservation concern, with two on the “knife-edge” of extinction.

Lack of action over polluted and over-exploited seas means that many will be declared extinct within our lifetimes, the letter says.

Even large iconic whales are not safe.

“Let this be a historic moment when realising that whales are in danger sparks a powerful wave of action from everyone: regulators, scientists, politicians and the public to save our oceans,” said Mark Simmonds.

The visiting research fellow at the University of Bristol, UK, and senior marine scientist with Humane Society International, has coordinated the letter, which has been signed by experts across the world.

Read more at source

BBC News

Farm Animals, General News

Canada: Inside the Industrial Turkey Machine – Canadians Waste an Astounding 40% of Our Food.

Inside the industrial turkey machine

Additional WAV article:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/10/11/canada-thanksgiving-with-turkey-corpses-is-primitive/

We also know that Canadians waste an astounding 40% of our food.

A few weeks ago I visited one of Canada’s 523 regulated turkey farms. Despite the current global pandemic, I’m staying carefully mobile in my own country with investigative work.

In 2019, Canadians ate 6.3 million whole turkeys. In 2019, U.S. consumption of turkey was 5.3 billion pounds. And this number floors me: 656,309,000 turkeys were slaughtered worldwide in 2018.

I’ve met rescued turkeys and I absolutely revel in their curious and funny natures. They come running to you for company. They like to talk at you – a lot. If only we knew precisely what they were saying! We do know they have easily distinctive and understood calls: the gobble, the spit and drum, the cackle, the warning yelp, the purr.

My favourite interactions with turkeys are when they let me stroke the feathers on their abdomen and under their wings. They love it, and start to preen themselves with pleasure.

Read more at source

WeAnimals Media