General News

4/10/20- Today is World Animals Day.

4/10/20- Today is World Animals Day

 

WAV Comment – today, ‘World Animals Day’, we have been sent some disturbing images from a rubbish dump in Oluvil, Sri Lanka, which shows majestic elephants scavenging for something to eat because all their habitat has been destroyed; or they are not allowed into ‘their’ territory by the human race.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1221&bih=542&ei=-qd5X8D2OYTgkgXy0Yv4Aw&q=sri+lanka+elephants+on+dump&oq=sri+lanka+elephants+on+dump&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoCCAA6CAgAELEDEIMBOgUIABCxAzoGCAAQCBAeOgQIABAYOgQIABAeUPsIWKtjYMxoaABwAHgDgAHHDYgBwI4BkgERMC41LjQuMy4wLjEuNS42LjKYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZw&sclient=img&ved=0ahUKEwjA27Ob4ZrsAhUEsKQKHfLoAj8Q4dUDCAY&uact=5#imgrc=kaJGgISB1wSFpM

How sad is this to see what man has done to the planet and all the other creatures which are now dominated by him ?

On this day we must all strive to give animals more of a voice in the world; and most importantly; attempt to free them from the ravages of humankind who is quite simply, exploiting and destroying them.

Regards Mark.

 

 

 

Here are just a few links – you can get more by typing in ‘World Animals Day’ on Google search:

https://www.thebrooke.org/our-work/donkey-skin-trade?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj__0wN6a7AIVDKh3Ch1WDg6yEAAYAiAAEgL_UvD_BwE

 

 

https://naturewatch.org/campaign/world-animal-day?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj__0wN6a7AIVDKh3Ch1WDg6yEAAYAyAAEgKzAfD_BwE

 

https://www.worldanimalday.org.uk/about_us

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Animal_Day

 

https://www.indiatoday.in/information/story/world-animal-day-2020-date-history-and-significance-1728144-2020-10-04

 

https://spana.org/blog/what-is-world-animal-day/

 

https://news.janegoodall.org/2017/10/04/6-great-ways-celebrate-world-animal-day/

 

https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/campaigns/animals-wild/demand-end-global-wildlife-trade?utm_source=google_grant&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=uk_wildlifetrade&utm_content=20036GGR001&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-Oy479-a7AIVSemyCh0ZkwlSEAAYAyAAEgIe5fD_BwE

 

https://wildwelfare.org/world-animal-day-making-change-happen-for-animals/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIooryj9Sa7AIVTdiyCh0SfgOBEAAYASAAEgKj4vD_BwE

 

World Animal Day is the day set aside each year for raising the status of animals around the world in an effort to help improve their welfare.

A day when people, communities, organisations and countries unite as one, becoming a stronger force for animals, one with the power to make positive change. This World Animal Day we were thinking, what if we could make just one change for animals that really made a difference to their lives? What single thing could we do?

Is it even possible to make a single change and have an impact?

General News

Basic rights for all sentient individuals

As long as people still kill animals, they will also wage wars.

As long as people eat animals, they will torture their innocent victims to death: by the hundreds of thousands in laboratories and mass breeding establishments, by the millions in the slaughterhouses of cities, by the myriads in the oceans.

Their bloodstream must no longer serve as food, their body no longer as raw material, their life no longer as food for us humans.

‘Eugene Drewermann’

Video: unknown

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News

World Animal Day – we need a new moral

Chickens in dirty cages, pigs that are brought to the slaughterhouse in dark trucks, cats that are abandoned, laboratory animals that suffer from excruciating experiments and never a dear hand caresses them – what else should we say about the suffering of the animals, what we haven’t said yet?

For most people it is just one reason to buy the cat Bijou’s favorite food for the day, the pig with no name is still eaten at the restaurant.

Because this society divides animals into edible and inedible.

This year we want to dedicate this day to farm animals.
Where politics have failed the most in every country.

Agricultural crime is an institutionalized crime that systematically acts with impunity.

Governments and EU leaders are responsible for the misery of farm animals. Because they are the lobbyists of the agricultural mafia.
This system works like this everywhere.

Basically, the entire factory farming system violates the law. The suffering of farm animals must finally come to an end.
Despite 15 years of the national goal of animal welfare, the interaction between legislation, enforcement, and jurisdiction does not work in the case of animal welfare offenses.

It is therefore imperative to rethink: we have to fight more massively, smarter, and more directly for animal rights; our fight has to be organized politically, like the fight for human rights back then.
The goal must be the abolition of murders, captivity, and exploitation rather than reform of animal slavery.
Animals don’t need pity, they need rights.

We don’t have any nice words or hopeful pictures to post for the day.
Not even on this day.
We can only take this opportunity to repeat that we will continue to fight for the animals  365 days a year.

My best regards to all, Venus

General News

Solidarity with the 17 arrested DxE activists

Hi,
I am at the California State Capitol right now and I just watched over a dozen of my friends get arrested for asking Governor Newsom to enact a moratorium on new factory farms and slaughterhouses.

Three activists are still on the balcony looking down to get an answer from the Governor. After months of delivering letters asking the Governor to take immediate action, we were forced to take action in their own hands.

Watch the video of activists being arrested and share the action to help us reach Governor Newsom.

Earlier this week, DxE activists chained themselves at the entrance of a massive pig slaughterhouse in California, blocking trucks from coming inside.

Armed security guards assaulted nonviolent activists on lockdown who stood in the way of pigs being slaughtered. Now, the government is ramping up their use of force and sending peaceful protesters to jail.

Instead of punishing nonviolent activists, Governor Newsom could lead the way. We’re calling on him to take the first step toward shutting down this dangerous industry and enshrining rights for all animals.

You can help by sharing today’s action!

Almira, DxE.

Direct Action Everywhere DxE is a global network of activists working to achieve animal liberation in one generation

 

And I mean…The system is afraid of 17 activists?
Why?
Why aren’t those arrested who steal children’s food in Africa and Asia for the flesh of rich countries?
The financial bandits who plunder and starve Africa, who assist in the murder of thousands of children every day, the murderous oligarchs who are responsible for the cruel factory farming?
Why aren’t they arrested?

Because they are the pillars of this system, it works with them.
This system couldn’t be more criminal, but governments only see the danger in 17 actors demonstrating for animal rights in front of the State Capitol!
Every citizen who passes in front of the Capitol and does not show solidarity, be it out of fear or conviction, should know that he is complicit in the misery of the world, that he is a collaborator with this fascist system, which in the future, not only animal rights activists but will arrest anyone who prevents it from carrying out its mass extermination of humans and animals.

Solidarity to the activists of DxE and we say respect and thank you

My best regards to all, Venus

Vivisection

USA: the Mengele’s of the Primate Center in Wisconsin

For six months, PETA USA covertly investigated at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC).

It is one of the most famous primate laboratories in the United States, which keeps nearly 2,000 monkeys in barren steel cages and bleak, windowless rooms. The investigation shows: The highly intelligent animals were grossly neglected, driven insane by the extreme conditions of their captivity, and attacked by traumatized conspecifics.

Baby monkey Cocoa was attacked by a stressed adult monkey who made deep, painful cuts on his face.

Monkeys at WNPRC spend every day and every night locked inside barren metal cages. They never feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or the earth beneath their feet. Stripped of their autonomy, they’re unable to make decisions regarding the most basic aspects of their lives. Constant, unremitting captivity causes these smart, sensitive animals extreme psychological distress, leading some to injure each other and themselves.

Incompatible animals were forced to live together in just a few square feet of space, and a monkey named Ellie lost part of her ear in a fight with a cage mate. A baby monkey named Cocoa by PETA’s investigators was attacked by a stressed adult macaque. Little Cocoa had deep cuts on her face that had not healed properly even months later.

The fingers, toes, or tails of many monkeys were so badly injured that some of them had to be amputated. One employee said some of the animals were kept solitary “because they are assholes who do not contract with the others”!!

Macaques roam wide grasslands and lush forests in their natural habitat. In the test laboratory of the WNPRC, however, they ran back and forth or in circles, screaming loudly.

Continue reading “USA: the Mengele’s of the Primate Center in Wisconsin” →

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

1.4 million signatures call the EU to act on farmed animal welfare.

1.4 million signatures call the EU to act on farmed animal welfare

1 October 2020

CIWF

Press Release

Today, on World Day for Farmed Animals, the European Commission received the signatures collected across the EU by the End The Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI): 1.4 million people are calling on the EU to put an end on the use of cages in animal farming. 

End The Cage Age was launched in September 2018 by CIWF in partnership with Eurogroup for Animals, and promoted by 170 NGOs. It closed exactly one year later, having gained over 1.4 million signatures. The ECI easily exceeded the required threshold of 1 million signatures, with a total of 1,397,113 validated signatures across the EU. It also outstripped the minimum number of signatures threshold in 18 EU Member States. This makes the End the Cage Age the:

  • 1st successful ECI on farmed animal welfare
  • 3rd with the highest signature count
  • 6th to succeed among 75 registered initiatives in the last eight years

Today’s hand-in of the End the Cage Age is the culmination of a great effort by 1.4 million European citizens who came together to call on the EU to end the cruelty of confining farmed animals in cages. The massive public backing for the Initiative confirms the overwhelming level of interest EU citizens have in animal welfare. Now, the EU Commission must listen and come forward with substantive legislative proposals to phase out the use of cages in EU animal farming.

Commented Reineke Hameleers, CEO at Eurogroup for Animals.

The aim of the End the Cage Age is to end the use of cages for farmed animals across the continent, where over 300 million pigs, hens, rabbits, ducks, quail and calves are imprisoned. Most cages are barren, cramped, and deny animals the space to move freely. Cages are cruel and completely unnecessary since alternatives are available.

Making history for farmed animals has been a collaborative effort, with Eurogroup for Animals joining forces with 170 NGOs from across Europe: environmental, consumer rights and animal protection groups formed a broad-based coalition to rally citizens from every corner of the continent.

Today, we crossed the finish line of the biggest political push in the farmed animal welfare history. We are extremely proud of this collaborative victory. Of all the terrible contraptions used to farm animals, cages are one of the worst. It is high time for the EU Commission to evolve past such cruelty and free farmed animals kept behind bars. A life in a cage is no life worth living.

Added Hameleers.

ENDS

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

Call to Stena Line: Stop Illegal Calf Transports.

WAV Comment:  I have personally been involved with the Ireland / France live calf issue for many years.During 2010–I worked with Dutch investigator friends at ‘Eyes on Animals’    http://eyesonanimals.com/ , as well as with ‘Animals’ Angels’ (Germany)    http://www.animals-angels.de/startseite,en_ORG.html  and PMAF (France)  http://www.pmaf.org/  to produce a 125 page official investigation report for the EU Legal Affairs team in Brussels, Members of the European Parliament (MEP’s) and UK Parliamentarians (MP’s) – a report which specifically investigated live animal (calves) transport between Ireland and France; the very issue here.

Read more about it; plus a copy of one of the investigation reports, at:

About Us.

Scroll down until you see the photographs of the Irish calves during transport in France.

PMAF Inv 7

Click to access cover.pdf

Regards Mark

https://www.eurogroupforanimals.org/news/call-stena-line-stop-illegal-calf-transports

Call to Stena Line: stop illegal calf transports

2 October 2020

Svenska Djurskyddsföreningen

Petition Link:

https://www.change.org/p/stena-line-freight-management-call-to-stena-line-stop-illegal-calf-transports

Circulate and sign the petition to ask Stella Line to stop the horrific conditions of transport of calves between Ireland and France.

Ireland is a major milk producer in the EU, which means that many calves are born by the country’s dairy cows. Every year, 100 000s of Ireland’s dairy calves are exported alive and unweaned (about three weeks old) to the European continent, via France for further fattening/veal production in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. The sea voyage often goes from Rosslare in Ireland to Cherbourg in France through the Swedish shipping company Stena Line.

The transport takes place with animal transport trucks and usually takes between 23-29 hours from loading to unloading. During this time, the calves receive no milk substitute, only drinking water. This is a violation of EU Animal Transport Regulation 1/2005, which states that non-weaned calves must be fed at least every 18 hours. The EU regulation’s feed interval in itself is very long, Swedish guidelines are that non-weaned calves should receive milk replacement at least every 8 hours.

The Swedish Animal Welfare Association (Svenska Djurskyddsföreningen) and our partners Eyes on Animals, Ethical Farming Ireland and L214 have since August 2019 repeatedly informed Stena Line that their sea transports of unweaned calves violate EU animal transport rules. We have urged the shipping company to stop accepting these trucks for animal welfare reasons, but Stena Line has chosen to continue the transports. The Irish authorities unfortunately do not seem interested in protecting the calves.

We who sign this petition now call on Stena Lina to stop all maritime transport of calves from Ireland to continental Europe, as long as the EU’s animal transport rules are not followed. We ourselves will boycott Stena Line’s ferries until the shipping company stops the calf transports.

This petition will be handed over to the management of Stena Line by the end of 2020.

Read more at source

Change.org

Environmental, General News

England: A ban on single-use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds has come into force.
A collection of colourful drinking straws

A ban on single-use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds has come into force in England.

The measure, originally due to start in April, makes it illegal for businesses to sell or supply the items.

People in England use an estimated 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million plastic stirrers and 1.8 billion plastic-stemmed cotton buds each year.

Environmental campaigners welcomed the ban but called for a crackdown on further single-use items.

An exemption will allow hospitals, bars and restaurants to provide plastic straws to people with disabilities or medical conditions that require them.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said the government was “firmly committed” to tackling environmental “devastation” caused by single-use plastics.

Campaigners welcomed the move but said the items formed only a “fraction” of the plastic waste littering the environment.

Sion Elis Williams, of Friends of the Earth, said ministers “must also do more to challenge our throwaway culture by forcing a shift away from all single-use materials in favour of reusable alternatives”.

Tatiana Lujan, of environmental law charity ClientEarth said straws, cotton buds and stirrers were “some of the most pointless plastics out there” and the ban on them was “a no-brainer”.

But they remained “a tiny fraction” of single-use plastics, she said, adding that countries such as Ireland and France had “shown far more ambition” with targets on reusable packaging and deposit return schemes.

Mr Eustice said the government was “building plans” for a deposit return scheme to encourage recycling of single-use drinks containers.

The Welsh government has said it is also considering a similar ban on plastics.

A number of national restaurant chains ditched plastic straws before the ban was announced.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-54366461

Sky news – https://news.sky.com/story/plastic-straws-cotton-buds-and-stirrers-banned-in-england-from-today-12086176