“It’s not enough just to love the ocean – you have to fight for what you love.” (Captain Peter Hammarstedt)
Regards and a good night from Venus
Wild deer in the Hörnli cemetery in Basel cause ever greater costs. Individuals are now to be shot, as the city garden center explains to “Schweiz aktuell”.
The Basel Hörnli cemetery is the largest in Switzerland with 54 hectares. It lies on the outskirts of the city and borders on the forest.
That is why deer live there.
For them, the cemetery is a land of milk and honey: practically every day graves have fresh flowers to eat, and there are no enemies – neither dogs, cars nor disturbing bikers.
“Deer breed terrific”
Even the visitors do not scare the animals away, but behave extremely calmly. “The deer are multiplying terrific,” says Emanuel Trueb, head of the Basel city garden center.
In recent years, the population has increased from around 15 to around 25 animals (!!!). They live in the cemetery, many were also born there.
As cute as the deer look: they cause great damage. On the one hand, the graves would have to be repaired, on the other hand, one tries to keep the deer away, for example with butyric acid, says Emanuel Trueb. The costs for all countermeasures and maintenance measures would now amount to CHF 100,000 per year.
Deer cannot be driven away
That is why the city must take action now, Trueb told “Schweiz aktuell”, and targeting individual roebucks.
Because the previous measures would have brought little or nothing. “We also tried repeatedly to drive the animals out of the area, but they were back the next day.”
Because the cemetery is in the area of Riehen, it is responsible for a kill. The town council of Riehen therefore investigated the matter.
“The focus was not on the damage caused by the deer, but on the welfare of the animals” (!!!), says councilor Christine Kaufmann.
“We found that the number of roe deer in the cemetery is three times larger than in the forest in a corresponding area,” says Kaufmann, who is also a veterinarian (!!!). And that leads to stress in the animals.”
That is why Riehen supports the cemetery’s wish to kill the deer population with kills.
Special approval required
However, since the cemetery is a hunting ban area, where shooting is not permitted, Riehen has submitted a shooting application to the canton. This is now with the Basel Security and Justice Department and should be answered shortly. There is nothing more to be learned.
https://www.srf.ch/news//grosse-schaeden-basler-friedhof-will-rehe-abschiessen
And I mean…Why can’t the city of Riehen protect the cemetery with a fence?
The Swiss also do it with their motorway, a method which is good for the animals as well as for drivers.
The deer did not come from heaven.
We take away their living space, their houses, their food, hunters kill their children and destroy their families.
The animals try to find peace and security in the cemetery.
“The deer are multiplying terrific,” said the gardener
People too!
“Deer cannot be driven away and cause great damage”
People too!
So… do we want to use the killing method for human pests too?
To regulate the population, as the hunters would say!
My best regards to all, Venus
BY MATT CARTY
Global News- Canada
[Press Office note: No claim for this action has been received by the Press Office as of this posting.]
Wellington County OPP say vandals broke into the University of Guelph’s swine research site in Puslinch, spraying paint onto walls and equipment with animal rights messages.
Officers were called to the facility on Arkell Road on Tuesday morning to find walls and a tractor spray-painted. Red spray paint reading “stop exploiting animals” in capital letters was scrawled on an interior wall.
OPP believe that someone entered the facility between 3 p.m. Monday and 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and wrote messages that “consisted of profanity and slogans in support of animal rights.”
A vehicle captured on surveillance is described as a metallic blue four-door Ford Focus from either 2008 or 2009.
https://animalliberationpressoffice.org/NAALPO/2020/05/06/university-of-guelph-research-site-vandalized-with-animal-rights-graffiti-2/
And I mean…No slogan, no graffiti from the ALF can be as brutal as animal testing.
As soon as you write the truth on the wall of a horror laboratory, that’s vandalism.
When animals are tortured, massacred or cruelly killed in laboratories, the perpetrators speak of freedom of research.
The freedom of research stops when others have to suffer.
On behalf of the animals, thank you ALF!
Best regards to all, Venus
🐰💔
Those who love animals do not kill them
If you love your children, educate them to love animals and don’t tell them fairy tales!
Regards to all and good night from Venus
A new investigation from Animal Equality shows the pain and torment of Spanish lambs as they are shipped across long distances, with journeys lasting up to ten days, and slaughtered while fully conscious after arrival.
THE DETAILS: In distressing footage shot by our investigators, we documented how lambs, all less than a year old, are treated during their live transport from Spanish farms.
Tens of thousands of lambs are first shipped hundreds of miles by truck to Spanish port cities and then forced to travel by sea to countries in the Middle East to meet the demand for meat coinciding with Ramadan and the feast of the Sacrifice of the Lamb. Lambs are particularly sensitive animals that become paralyzed when they are afraid.
During the journey, workers are shown throwing the animals and grabbing them by their legs to prevent them from retreating.
COVID-19 A FACTOR: The meat industry is utilizing the exports of lambs to Middle East countries as a way of compensating for the lack of domestic demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as 90% of these animals are consumed in bars and restaurants. Data indicates that this year alone more than 250,000 lambs will be sent to countries in North Africa and the Middle East for Ramadan celebrations.
BILLIONS OF ANIMALS ENDURE CRUEL LIVE TRANSPORT: Worldwide, more than two billion farm animals undergo long-distance of travel each year as a means of transporting live meat. Thousands also die during long sea journeys, with their bodies thrown overboard, appearing on beaches days later.
In a 2019 report following an accident in which 14,000 sheep drowned in the Black Sea while being transported from Romania to Saudi Arabia, the European Commission acknowledged numerous deficiencies in this type of long-distance transport.
The report points out that the welfare of these animals depends largely on the conditions of the ship and because there are no suitable inspections carried are carried out, there are no guarantees that these ships have an adequate drainage or ventilation systems.
In fact, for ships bound for Saudi Arabia, port operators or livestock owners are not even allowed access to the vessels’ interior.
WHAT WE’RE SAYING: “Our investigations have clearly documented the mistreatment of lambs on these trips. It’s time to demand that both the Spanish government and the European Commission ban long-distance travel of live animals,” says Silvia Barquero, Executive of Animal Equality Spain.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE SAYING: “From farms to slaughterhouses, animals exploited for food suffer tremendously. What is often forgotten in this never-ending cycle of violence is the immense cruelty that happens when these animals are transported to be slaughtered. It’s more than time for this cruelty to be stopped and Animal Equality will continue to use its investigations to expose these truths,” says Sharon Núñez, President of Animal Equality.
LIVE TRANSPORT OF ANIMALS OUTSIDE OF THE EU MUST END: In Europe, Animal Equality launched a petition addressed to the European Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries calling for an end to long-distance transport to countries that do not guarantee basic EU animal welfare standards (!!)
We are hopeful that our efforts will lead to much-needed change and will prevent the suffering of hundreds of thousands of animals every year. In the meantime, you can make a difference for animals by sharing out our investigations and ditching animal products.
Saving lives starts with consumer choices, and you can help end suffering by making the switch plant-based.
The animals, the planet, and your health will thank you.
https://animalequality.org/news/investigation-animal-equality-shows-torment-of-eu-animals-shipped-for-slaughter/
And I mean…Since the judgment of the European Court of Justice in April 2015, the legal situation has been clear: The EU animal welfare transport regulation No. 1/2005 must be observed until the animals’ final destination, even if it is outside the EU.
The longer the transport, the more the animals suffer.
The lower the financial ‘value’ of the animals, the worse the transport conditions – mostly with live exports from the EU.
In order to get rid of the overproduction of animals, the member states of the European Union export over three million animals per year to countries outside the European Union, especially cattle and sheep.
Sooner or later the animals will be slaughtered in the countries mentioned without anesthesia. The methods for fixing animals are inconceivable and far from the EU animal welfare laws for animal transport.
And now the following question arises: Why do we need EU law if it is constantly broken?
Has the EU Commission considered what happens to the ships that want to enter the ports of non-EU countries and are not allowed if the countries close their borders because of Corona?
Who will check whether Regulation 1/2005 is complied with in these countries?
The EU Commission has so far confirmed that they are indifferent to the suffering of animals in transports, farms, laboratories, circuses, aquariums, zoos…
Close the altar that worships power, excess, animal torture and tyranny
Let the bloated bureaucrats find real jobs in the fast food industry.
Turn these palatial EU buildings into nature wildlife parks for zoos animals
A Europe without an EU will be a win for everyone!
My best regards to all, Venus
That’s how it’s done, little wild boar!
Today the alleged murderer has to do without his roast pork.
Best regards Venus
Many people seem to be under the impression that by buying a glass of milk is somehow “different” to buying a steak—not true.
The reality is that dairy is beef and beef is dairy.
You CANNOT fund one without funding the other.
Here’s how: when you buy a dairy product like cheese or milk, you pay for a cow to be fisted in order to impregnate them (so they can lactate) and create someone’s future steak.
Males will be murdered shortly after birth, and females will grow up as sex slaves having that whole process repeated to them until they, too, are sent to the slaughterhouse.
And the same is true of the other products of abuse that people buy.
The egg industry is the chicken industry.
The wool industry is the lamb industry.
To buy eggs or wool is to fund murder and slavery.
Stop being a cog in the evil machine.
Anonymous for the Voiceless
Regards and good night from Venus
The blood of this animal is worth almost 15,000 euros per liter.
The pharmaceutical companies owe their bulging accounts to horseshoe crab – a creature that is older than the dinosaurs and that floats in our oceans as a “living fossil”.
For decades, the pharmaceutical industry has been harvesting blood commercially from an animal with the scientific name ‘Limulus Polyphemus’ – the Atlantic horseshoe crab (also called Moluccan cancer or horseshoe cancer), for a very special reason: its “blue gold”, as they call it can bring tens of thousands of dollars per liter, Bloomberg reports.
The blue blood of the crayfish is used to detect germs in vaccines and infusions as well as on medical devices. It contains a protein molecule that works like a primitive immune system: as soon as it comes into contact with disease-causing coli bacteria or Salmonella, it clots like sour milk.
No substance in the world displays bacteria better.
The uniqueness of their blood, which was to revolutionize medicine, was discovered in the 1960s in these crab species, which are 450 million years old.
Unlike vertebrate blood, horseshoe crabs do not use hemoglobin to carry oxygen through their bodies. Instead, the blood ( called is called Limulus Amebocyte Lysate ) contains hemocyanin, a protein that transports oxygen, stains the blood blue, and has specialized immune cells that are extremely valuable.
That is what makes these animals so valuable.
And then there’s the pharmaceutical industry!!
Around 430,000 American horseshoe crab are caught and forced to donate blood on the US coast alone, reports the English Guardian. A lucrative business: The lysate made from blood is one of the most valuable liquids on earth. A liter costs up to 15,000 euros.
As soon as the blood is drawn, the horseshoe crabs are released back into the ocean. However, it is estimated that 15% to 20% of them die from the consequences of the process.
According to Bloomberg, horseshoe crab stocks have plummeted by 80% in the past four decades.
Up to a fifth of horseshoe crabs did not survive «blood donation».
In the procedure, the shell of the animals is pierced near the heart. The animals must leave 30 percent of their blood in the laboratory before being released again.
A professor at the National University of Singapore developed a synthetic solution two decades ago that would replace the blood of horseshoe crabs.
Apparently, however, the pharmaceutical industry prefers to bleed horseshoe crab until this animal too, at some point, like the dinosaurs, belongs to the animals that have become extinct.
https://unserplanet.net/blaues-gold-das-blut-dieses-tieres-ist-fast-15-000-euro-pro-liter-wert/
And I mean…A million dollar business, isn’t it?
The animals have even survived the dinosaurs but they will not survive the bloodsuckers.
They are in the hands of the pharmaceutical mafia, which draws blood from them in masses.
This is mainly about the ethical problem, above all because of the way in which this procedure be practiced. In Japan, for example, they are squeezed alive in order to obtain the maximum amount of blood.
So another animal with which the pharmaceutical mafia fills their accounts with billions.
The human species is the only species that is mostly responsible for the extinction of another species.
My best regards to all, Venus
As many of you are aware, live animal transport (live export) is one of our major hates and something we have been involved with for decades; personally acting as investigators into this sordid business – https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/about-us/ – thus we feel that we do have experience in; and feel we have some degree of knowledge to talk about this trade.
After the two articles we have reproduced from ‘the conversation’ which you can read below; with further links in the articles; we have reproduced a few links specifically relating to our own work monitoring sheep exported live from Romania (EU) to the Middle East. We published updates every day of the position of the vessel on its shipment, along with conditions and temperatures for the sheep which were clearly outside of EU regulation 1/2005 on the so called ‘Protection’ of animals in transport.
As we have said many times before, the EU regulation is just a smokescreen behind which all the authorities and regulators can hide, whilst really doing nothing. As always, in the end it is the animals that suffer terribly.
Regards Mark (WAV).
Here are just a few of our recent posts relating to Romanian sheep being exported to the Middle East in extreme temperatures:
New findings show Australian sheep face dangerous heat stress on export ships
May 4, 2020 8.50pm BST
It’s been almost three years since thousands of Australian sheep died during a voyage from Australia to the Middle East. My group’s new research provides insight into the heat stress faced by sheep exported in recent years and casts further doubt on the industry’s future.
We found sheep experienced heat stress on more than half of voyages to the hottest port in the Middle East, Doha, over three summers from 2016 to 2018.
This is the first time the extent of heat stress in live sheep exports from Australia has been quantified, and the findings do not bode well. A federal government ban on exports during the Northern Hemisphere summer is already hurting the industry. And COVID-19 looks likely to affect the annual Hajj pilgrimage and Eid al-Adha religious holiday, when our sheep meat is in high demand.
The future of Australia’s live sheep export industry appears bleak. Sheep farmers would be wise to seriously explore alternatives.
Severe heat stress exposed
Australia to the Middle East is one of the world’s longest sea transport routes of live sheep for slaughter, usually taking about 20 days.
The welfare risk to sheep from heat stress is highest on voyages departing Australia in our winter, and arriving in the Persian Gulf in the Northern Hemisphere summer.
In April 2018, whistleblowers released video footage filmed the previous year showing shocking live export conditions on the Awassi Express ship. More than 2,400 sheep died on the voyage from Fremantle to the Middle East.
The footage triggered public outrage. As part of its response, the federal agriculture department established a committee, of which I was a member, to assess the heat risk facing sheep exports to the Middle East.
The committee recommended measures to ensure sheep experienced heat stress on fewer than 2% of voyages. Subsequent research by my group would reveal just how far the industry is from that target.
Alarming findings
The federal government granted us access to temperature and mortality data from 14 voyages from Australia to the Middle East in May to December, between 2016 and 2018.
We wanted to know at what temperatures the welfare of the sheep began to be affected by heat stress.
To determine this, we analysed so-called “wet bulb temperatures” on the sheep decks. This measures not just air temperature but water vapour, which affects the levels of heat stress actually experienced at a particular temperature.
Wet bulb temperatures typically increased from 20℃ to 30℃ during the 14 voyages in the Northern Hemisphere summer. Ten out of 14 ships stopped at Doha in Qatar, the hottest of the four Gulf ports. There, daily maximum wet bulb temperatures from July to September exceed 27.5℃ half the time, at which point heat stress in sheep increases.
The wet bulb temperatures at Doha exceeded 32.2℃ 2% of the time, at which point sheep deaths are more common.
Ships docking at Doha sit in the sun for about a day and a half while some sheep are unloaded, exposing those left on board to high temperatures.
The ban is not enough
The federal government recently banned sheep exports to the Middle East between June 1 and September 14 this year, due to heat stress risks. Shipments to Doha are banned from May 22 until September 22.
The government has argued that a longer ban would have too great an impact on the industry. But our results show mortality increases during voyages from September to November, compared with May. This suggests more sheep will die as a result of the shorter ban.
The government introduced other measures this year to try to improve sheep welfare on ships.
First, it will require temperature data to be recorded at two sheep pens per deck. However my group has shown this does not produce representative results.
Read more: Grattan on Friday: Live sheep exports tarnish Australia’s reputation and should be stopped
Second, sheep can be unloaded at no more than two ports. But our results suggest that it is not the number of ports that influenced sheep deaths, but whether sheep were kept in hot conditions on board at Doha.
The COVID-19 pandemic has struck a further blow to sheep welfare. The federal government requires that animal welfare audits are conducted at holding facilities in the destination countries. But quarantine requirements have made these checks difficult.
It’s also worth remembering that heat stress is not the only challenge sheep face en route to the Middle East. They usually have very little space and likely get stressed by ship motion.
A double whammy
The Australian live sheep export trade has declined from about 7 million per year in the late 1980s to about 1 million per year now.
Australia has recently been unable to meet the Middle East’s demand for sheep meat – a problem the industry blames partly on the export ban. Middle East buyers are increasingly turning to the horn of Africa, Europe and Asia.
Compounding this, COVID-19 looks set to force the cancellation of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia culminating in Eid al-Adha – a sheep-eating festival usually celebrated by millions of Muslims.
The double whammy will particularly hurt Western Australia, which in 2019 handled 97% of sheep leaving Australian ports.
If the festival is not cancelled, Australian sheep may be sent early to be stockpiled alive in the Middle East, to avoid the export ban. This would leave them exposed to the high temperatures the Australian government has sought to protect them from on ships.
Looking ahead
Some Western Australian sheep farmers have seen the writing on the wall. In the short term, some are turning to alternative livestock, such as prime lamb or beef cattle for domestic consumption or export as carcasses. This has the added benefit of keeping processing jobs in Australia.
In the long term, farmers would do well to look at the rising popularity of vegetarianism and veganism, and the threat to conventional meat production posed by “clean” meat grown in labs.
Some sheep grazing has already been replaced by cropping, and this is likely to increase in future.
There is no quick fix to the problems facing live sheep exports from Australia. The sooner we shift our economic reliance to more humane alternatives, the better.
Read more: Can meat exports be made humane? Here are three key strategies
The ban on live sheep exports was only ever intended to be temporary. The Australian government enacted the ban earlier this year to prevent sheep from being shipped to the Middle East from the beginning of June through to September 22 – the highest heat stress risk period.
During this time, sheep are adapted to the cooler temperatures of a southern Australian winter. And for this reason they find it difficult to cope with the sudden increase in temperature and humidity as the transport vessels undertake the two week journey to the Persian Gulf region
This ban affected any voyages where the vessel would travel through waters in the Arabian Sea north of latitude 11°N at any time – effectively stopping the Middle East sheep trade as the entrance to the Gulf of Aden is at 12°N.
Why are Australian sheep shipped to the Middle East?
It seems outwardly strange to ship live animals (and their feed) across an ocean just for them to be slaughtered for meat shortly after arrival.
But there is a demand for live Australian sheep in the Middle East, which means it’s economically viable for exporters to ship animals from southern Australia, particularly out of Fremantle, but also from ports including Portland and Adelaide.
Read more: Government suspends licence of biggest live sheep exporter
Western Australian farmers received an average price of A$117 for each exported sheep during 2018, so the price of each sheep at the other end must be substantively greater.
There are significant animal welfare challenges in successfully live exporting sheep. Part of the problem has been that the location of the greatest concern for animal welfare is the Australian public. But the Australian public have no consumer power, they’re not the ones buying the sheep.
So, the Australian government has been required to “push” animal welfare requirements down the industry supply pipeline, rather than having these requirements being “pulled” through by market demand.
What we do not know is how the economics would change and whether additional market lines would open up for boxed meat – rather than live sheep – if the live trade were to be stopped.
Why was the ban put in place for the first time in 2019?
The ban was one of the consequences for the live sheep trade after disturbing video footage was revealed in April 2018. The graphic video showed sheep suffering and dying due to apparent heat stress on voyages from Australia to the Middle East.
The government immediately commissioned a review into the conditions for the export of sheep to the Middle East during the northern hemisphere summer.
Read more: Government to announce increased penalties for live sheep trade
That review made a number of recommendations, which were then implemented by the government, including increases in space allowance for sheep on board and independent auditing of ship ventilation systems. Government-appointed observers were also included on voyages, and the notifiable mortality threshold reduced from 2% to 1% of animals during a voyage.
Since government-appointed observers were included on voyages the notifiable mortality threshold on voyages reduced from 2% to 1% of animals.Trevor Collens/AAP
A key recommendation was that the regulatory framework should change from minimising mortality from heat stress to, instead, safeguarding animal welfare.
The government then commissioned further reviews to determine how to implement this recommendation, including an independent technical reference group.
This report was released on September 20, and the government has stated it will be used along with other information to determine the regulations for how (or if) live sheep shipments occur during the northern summer of 2020.
Are the changes sufficient?
The live export industry argues they have succeeded in making substantial changes to how it operates since the original footage was revealed in 2018.
Whether these will be sufficient to prevent further revelations of heat stress incidents or other adverse animal welfare outcomes remains to be seen.
Read more: Australia’s history of live exports is more than two centuries old
Including independent observers on voyages to keep an eye on animal welfare should increase the transparency of what happens to sheep during live export shipments. Although, there has been criticism of the delay in reporting from this initiative.
The new arrangements in place since 2018 and the temporary ban from June to September are unlikely to satisfy animal welfare advocates who are against live exports. On the other hand, the live export industry argues the sector is important for Australian livelihoods, including supporting sheep farmers.
What’s more, the current coalition government has repeatedly stated its commitment to maintaining a live export industry. Interestingly, the 2019 federal election was the first time there was a clear policy difference on the issue between the major parties, with the ALP committed to a phase-out of the live export sheep trade.
It will be interesting to watch whether this policy difference will remain after the ALP’s review of its 2019 election policies.
Read more: The ALP promises to phase out live sheep export
But in terms of what more needs to be done, it’s likely impossible for policy-makers to satisfy all parties in the live export debate.
New overarching standards for the export of livestock from Australia are scheduled to be introduced soon, covering more than just heat stress risk.
However, those who are against the trade in live animals are unlikely to be persuaded to desist in their efforts. A repeated history of damaging incidents and revelations serves as a reminder of what may happen again in the future if the industry does not get to grips with its animal welfare responsibilities.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/05/business/wendys-beef-shortage/index.html
New York (CNN Business)The national meat shortage has come for Wendy’s. The fast food chain says some menu items are unavailable, and one analyst estimates nearly one in five of Wendy’s restaurants are out of beef.
Around 1,000, or 18%, of Wendy’s 5,500 US restaurants are not serving any hamburgers or other meat-based items, according to an analysis of online menus at every location conducted by financial firm Stephens. Wendy’s is “more exposed” to the shortage sparked by the coronavirus pandemic because of its reliance on fresh beef compared with its competitors, the note said.
Wendy’s (WEN) said some of its menu items might be “temporarily limited at some restaurants in this current environment.” The company said its delivery schedule remains unchanged, but supply has been tight because beef suppliers across North America face production challenges during the pandemic.
Many meat suppliers have temporarily closed their factories because workers are falling ill from Covid-19.
“We’re working diligently to minimize the impact to our customers and restaurants, and continue to work with our supplier partners to monitor this closely,” a Wendy’s spokesperson said.
Continue reading via the link given above.
