Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

Photo: Animals Asia

Direct Petition link:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/43/please-save-fukushima-farm-animals/

Fukushima farm animals left to die

Lack of access hampers rescue efforts

The situation grows more desperate by the day, as animals left alone in the no-go area around the Fukushima nuclear power plant, continue to die in droves.

While farmers are working anxiously to try to make arrangements to move their animals to a safe area, they are now hampered by the extension of the no-go area, and strict restrictions on access, with nobody but authorised personnel permitted to enter the area. As a result, the animals are dying – with no food or water available, they are slowly starving to death.

On 24 April the Fukushima government decided to euthanize farm animals who were severely ill, injured or in distress within a 20 km (12 mile) radius (the no-go zone) of the power plant, and planned to start disposing of animals by permission of their owners on 26 April.

Without access to the area, volunteers and owners cannot recover the thousands of animals still healthy.

Animals Asia is supporting local rescue groups in their appeal to the Japanese authorities to allow willing volunteers into the area to carry out rescue and removal of these animals. Some 30,000 pigs, 630,000 chickens, 2,500 beef cattle, 870 dairy cattle and significantly more animals are still at risk and need help urgently.

What you can do
Donate: Please send you donations directly to Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (JEARS). This is a coalition formed by Japan animal welfare groups in response to the earthquake, to co-ordinate rescue efforts and direct assistance. More information is available on their Facebook page.

Write a letter: Please write to the relevant Japanese authorities to request they allow willing volunteers – veterinarians, farmers, animal welfare groups – into the no-go area now to do what they can to help these hundreds of thousands of animals.

Please address your letters to the following:

Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
Kasumigaseki 1-3-1, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo, Japan 100-8986
Director-General TERASAKA, Nobuaki (Mr.)
Fax: +81-3-3580-5971

Governor of the Prefecture of Fukushima – Mr. Yuhei Sato
2-16 Sugitsuma-cho, Fukushima City 960-8670, Japan.
Fax: +81-024-521-7901

Naoto KAN – Prime Minister of Japan
Email: https://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment_ssl.html

Michihiko KANNO – Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Email: https://www.contact.maff.go.jp/maff/form/114e.html

Please also send an e-mail/letter to your local Japanese embassy. Click here to find details of your nearest embassy.

Sign a petition: Urge the Japanese government to capture and relocate as many healthy farm animals as possible: Please save Fukushima farm animals.

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http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?UID=VL02IFLCARJ

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »

Link:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdLgEK6OtrQTprAOnpFRiHY5kMGw?docId=97a4460a98874930a986ebe1637574ba

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Kosovo hunters shoot dogs at city’s request

(AP) – 19 hours ago

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The video was shocking: Wounded dogs yelping in pain as they tried to escape the hunters gunning them down.

Authorities in Kosovo’s capital of Pristina say 190 street dogs have been shot and killed in the first three weeks of a culling campaign that has been harshly criticized by animal lovers.

Urban areas in the tiny Balkan nation, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, have been plagued by packs of dogs that often attack people. An infant died last year after being bitten by several dogs, sparking calls for authorities to do something.

Their solution has provoked an outcry.

The local council was “unwillingly forced to undertake an inhumane approach” and hire a hunter’s group to kill the strays after no animal rights groups bid for a government project to shelter the dogs, Pristina spokesman Muhamet Gashi said Wednesday.

In response, an animal rights group has presented a petition signed by over 2,000 Pristina residents urging a stop to the slaughter.

“It’s not humane and it’s not always a quick kill. Often it’s a slow agonizing death,” said Dennis Capstick, a spokesman for Animal Friends of Kosovo.

“It’s a quick fix and it only creates more problems, because you then create a vacuum and many more dogs from surrounding areas come,” he added. “You end up having a bigger problem than you’ve started with.”

Hunters hired to do the shooting have refused to talk to journalists or allow them on their nightly killing sprees since harrowing images of the shootings appeared on Kosovo’s Klan television last month.

The shootings are supervised by Kosovo’s police, and the dead dogs are disposed of at a site outside Pristina. The program will go on until the problem is solved, authorities said.

Serbia, which has pledged not to give up its claim to Kosovo even though 75 countries recognize it as independent, also has a massive stray dog problem, fueled by years of war, poverty and the lack of any government strategy to neuter or control strays.

“These dogs need a shelter and not a bullet,” said Aridan Agaj, 27, a resident of Pristina. “We’ve had enough shooting in this part of the world anyhow.”

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »