Serbia: ** Save ‘Stara Planina’ Update ** – June 2012. Serbian Environmental Protection Legislation Has Been Changed Twice In The Last Few Years, Simply To Satisfy The Requirement of Investors, Or At The Personal Request Of Companies – Here Are The Real Facts !

As can be seen from all the previous SAV links provided at the end of this news, we have been helping Serbian campaigners / environmentalists to be active with the campaign to save Stara Planina from environmental destruction for quite a while now.  For them this campaign has been one of over four years.  Please look at the individual links to witness how a beautiful area full of flora and fauna is being systematically destroyed – lost forever – there are many, many photographs; please take your time to witness the environmental destruction that is happening – approved and with the full approval of the Serbian government.

31/05/12 – The following report arrived at SAV within the last few days from Serbian environmental campaigners.  We are reproducing the report in full, with no editorials apart from additional bolding and underling of text in areas which we consider are especially important.

We have given our information in the past (November 2011) regarding Stara Planina to both the EU Commission for the Environment – Commissioner Janez Potocnik, and also to the EU Commission for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy – Commissioner Stefan Fule.

Copies of both the response provided to us by the EU, and also that provided to the EU (Nicholas Hanley) by the Serbian Ministry of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning are provided below:

Below – the two page response to the EU by the Serbian Ministry of Environment, Mining

and Spatial Planning

 

Below – the two page response by the EU to SAV regarding the issue of Stara Planina:

We question the comments made by Assistant Minister Pokimica in his letter to the EU (first above), where it is declared:

“the Ministry of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning pays special attention to this sensitive and very important issue for our country, in particular since it affects both, the status of biodiversity and ecosystems and sustainable economic development of the entire country.  Furthermore, the Government of Serbia reconfirmed the tremendous values of protected areas in recently adopted national strategy for Biodiversity Conservation and also in the new law of Nature protection which is harmonized with relevant EU legislation in this field”.

From the latest information provided to us from environmental campaigners (and reproduced below), it would appear that the policy of the Serbian government is to actually ensure that the Article 35 which has been used for environmental protection in the past, and which has now been modified twice in the last 3 years, has been amended specifically for the benefit of investors, at the personal request of companies which have already made illegal constructions previously on protected natural areas (Stara Planina, Kopaonik, Golija etc…), and in forbidden areas, breaching the laws on the Environment, Planning and Construction.

One could argue that this is hardly reconfirming the alleged government policy of “the tremendous values of protected areas”.

Please review the latest report from the Serbian environmentalists / campaigners and make your own views on the situation.

We have been to the EU about this issue before, and we will now be going back to the EU regarding this latest report from environmental campaigners in Serbia.  Further, we will be in contact with Green MEPs making them fully aware of this current situation from a government which declares it is “harmonized with relevant EU legislation in this field”.

Maybe the actual reality is that Serbian ministries wish to change the laws and get illegal constructions under way PRIOR to becoming an EU member state – a case of doing the damage now before we are prevented from being allowed to do it in the future !

There is a lot associated with this current situation, and we will be providing further information very soon in associated posts on this site.

SAV.

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Here is a copy of some of the data we have been provided with by Serbian environmentalists. 

This is an un-edited copy of the information provided.

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Dear Mark,

As we have promised, if we receive new proof of the breach of laws, during the construction of the mega ski centre in the Park of Nature “Stara Planina”, such an information, we shall immediately forward to the EU, relevant Commission, Mr. Nicholas Hanley, Mr. Janez Potochnik and Mr. Barosso.

Since our Ministry for the Environment, Mr. Nebojsa Pokimica, assistant to the Minister Dulić sent a report to the EU Comission, to Mr. Hanley that there was no breach of laws during the construction of the mega ski centre on Stara Planina, we acquired different information and in our view, consider it necessary to inform the truth to the EU Commission and Mr. Hanley. 

At the end of last year, we were in doubt and filed a complaint on the 21st of November, 2011, to the relevant government officials about the construction of the hotel on Jabučko Ravnište, construction of the gondola and ski lift with four seats to “Babin Zub” which are under construction and last winter in function. Relevant to this and for the construction of the partition on the Debesticka River on Stara Planina, and making the artificial accumulation for the needs of artificial snow, we filed a complaint (in Attachment).
 
On the 20th of December, 2011, we sent an urgent request to:  Inspection of the Environment, Construction Inspection, and Urban Inspection of the Ministry for the Environment, Minining and Spatial Planning. In Belgrade, as officially they must act since these are their fields of responsibility.

On the 27th of December, 2011, we sent our request for the information of Public Importance, ie. copies of our log/notes on the behaviour of the Inspections.

Only on the 10th of April 2012 have we received only a partial answer on the issue brought by the Construction Inspection for the removal of the objects of the four-seat lift and gondola, as they have been constructed without lawful construction agreement.

For the hotel on Jabučko Ravnište, we have received no reply and we suspect that it has been constructed also unlawfully.

We question the legality of this hotel, as no evaluation of its impact on the environment has been analysed (as officially required ba law in Serbia) and further more, there was no infrastructure, electricity, water etc. necessary by Serbian Law (at least on paper), necessary for the construction of such an object in a protected area as is the Park of Nature “Stara Planina”.

The construction of this hotel and mega ski centre was paid out of the budget of Serbia, Public Company “Ski Resorts Serbia”, which with the money of Serbian tax payers together with the violation of laws, built and destroyed the officially protected natural site. Only the hotel on Jabucko Ravniste was constructed with an amount of about 35.000.000 EUR!!!!

We requested by official means on the 27th of December, 2012, copies of reports-agenda on the activities of the Construction Inspectors, but as we have not yet obtained them, we spent a lot of time waiting for this information.

Now we send part of the information received from the Ministry, proving that our suspicion on the legality of this construction is really illegal.
 

Due to the fact that we have not received the information, we filed a complaint to the Office for Information of Public Importance and we must now wait. This Office is burdened by many files including those from citizens, and we wait when the Office will act and force the Ministry to forward us this information.
 
As a supplement, we send the translated text forwarded by an official person from the Ministry  of Environment, Mining and Spatial planning, Belgrade, responsible for handing out information of public concern, Radmila Padežanin, via email.
 
What we wish to point out to the EU Commission is the fact that the Law for the Protection of Nature from the year 2009, (Official Gazette RS No 36/2009) has been changed already twice, for the requirement of investors, on personal request or companies, which already made illegal constructions previously on protected natural areas (Stara Planina, Kopaonik, Golija etc…), forbidden areas, breaching the laws on the Environment, Planning and Construction etc. 

For the first time, the Law on Nature Protection has been changed, amendments to the Law (Official Gazette RS No 88/2010) the Article 35 has been changed concerned with the regime of protection in the already protected areas. With this, various activities have now been allowed in the II and III degree of protected areas, previously not allowed by laws in 2009, Gazette 36/2009. 

By these new by-laws, all illegal actions have been actually legalized and the investors have spare time to apply and legalaize their activities.

As a supplement we send the disputable Article 35 of the Law on Nature Protection (“Official Gazette RS” No 36/2009 and 88/2010) which by changes and amendments of the Law in 2010, severely degraded and reduced the protection in the already lawfully protected natural areas.

Formulations used to express all that is allowed but restricted, without specifying to whom and how, opens the door to corruption and invites to the further destruction of protected natural sites. 

By changing and amending the Law of Nature Protection, (“Official Gazette RS” No 88/2010), according to Article 35, in the areas designated as the II degree of protection, it is not forbidden ie. one may dam waterways, create hydro accumulations for various purposes, meloration, construction of hydroelectric plants, construction of tourist capacities-hotels, construction of ski lifts, construction of tourist, traffic, energy, communal and other infrastructure. construction of housing objects, fishponds, agricultural farms, farms for breeding domestic and wild animals, hunting, fishing, collecting mushrooms, other plant and animal species, explotation of rock, clay and other natural raw materials, the formation of forest and agricultural monocultures, application of chemicals and introduction of alochton species.

According to the same Article 35, in areas designated as degree III of protection, it is not forbidden to construct industrial and energy projects, asphalt bases, tourist capacities and ski resorts, infrastructure objects, warehouses  for industrial goods and building materials, holiday houses, exploitation and processing of raw minerals, forming areas for processing garbage, construction of habitation areas and the widening of construction areas, hunting, fishing, formation of agricultural and forestry monocultures, application of chemical compounds etc.
All this additionally legalizes the current state in protected natural areas, which in the meantime, various individuals and companies did and built illegally and for years destroyed these natural areas.

There is no protected natural site in Serbia that has not been destroyed in these ways, which were legalized by Law in 2010.

More than 90% of the protected areas in Serbia are now in the categories II and III.

It is a fact that in Serbia only 6% of the territory is protected as natural heritages; aiming at saving the biological and environmental diversity and general natural heritage and that these 6% under protection have already been divided under various regimes of protection, in which the I regime occupies only 0.50% of these 6% of protected areas !!

Under the current laws, in the II and III regime of protection, numerous activities are allowed, making it impossible to protect these regions, including those under regime I.

All this is in practice not mentioned and there is general chaos in all the protected areas, all this is now being currently legalized

Besides all this, our Government has in April 2012 brought a new Decree on the regimes in protected areas, although it already entered the pre-election campaign, and such actions are not acceptable.

This Decree additionally degrades the valuable natural heritages of the I degree of protection, confirming and explaining how the natural sites of I degree will be degraded and initiating further, with confusion allowing everyone to act at will with various permissions, spurring new corruption already in existence, not only in this case, but within Serbia as a whole.

Nature protection has been reduced to satisfying megalomaniac requirements of suspectful capital of the “ Business sector”.

The decree concerning the regime of protection published in the Official Gazette 31/2012 enabled that protected areas may be further destroyed in various ways, and that the energy lobby and similar lobbies, have open doors for the further destruction of the environment and protected areas (just to mention, Serbia is the top country in wasteful energy consumption).

The new Decree on the regime of protection, with which new problems are opened, as the Decree is in contradiction with Laws and Acts of proclaiming a protected area, opens the door to increased corruption etc.

The situation is precarious for many already existing protected areas in Serbia, since it is now allowed to perform activities in regimes II and III which have up to now been forbidden.

This will destroy the small areas and the protection of regime I. If all above listed activities are now allowed in areas designated as II and III, the question arises how much territory is really protected.

Also it is a question if protected natural sites under the circumstances really deserve to be considered as protected under the designated categories.

Although only 6% of the territory of Serbia is protected, there are endless attempts to build and destroy just in these regions.

A much higher percentage of Serbian territory deserves protection. Unfortunately, the Government is not interested in increasing the areas deserving protection.

All these activites show that our Government opened a new season and gives support for the destruction of the remaining protected natural areas. Applying such measures as proposed by current Laws is unacceptable and will result further degradation of the biodiversity for which the protected sites were established in the first place.

It should be mentioned that a number of professionals, including expert Serbian meteorologists, warn that in the future, Serbia will be faced with droughts, due to general warming, lack of water, reduced agriculture production etc.

For the Government, this warning is not enough and the next plan is to build a ski resort on Radan Mountain close to Kosovo. This mountain is in the warmer South, and only 1409m above sea level.

One should really pay attention to how donations are spent, what activities are undertaken with this money and is it used for the further destruction of the Serbian Environment, not to mention the possible corruption behind all this.

*** All these activities and Laws should be carefully analysed by the responsible bodies of the EU and corrections should be made by the Serbian Government before any further financial aids are allowed or talks of membership in the EU continue. ***

As a supplement, we send all articles of the Law on the Protection of the Environment and copy of the Official Gazette RS with the published amendments and regimes of protection.

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Links to previous SAV posts relating to Stara Planina. 

Please look at the photographs within them to see how beautiful natural environments of both flora and fauna are being systematically destroyed:

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/serbia-eu-environment-and-eu-enlargement-commissions-stara-planina-serbia-update-december-2011-do-eu-commissioners-speak-the-truth-or-simply-weasel-words/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/serbia-and-the-eu-does-the-eu-dog-wag-the-environmental-tail-or-the-serbian-government-eu-accession-tail-actually-wag-the-eu-dog/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/eu-serbia-are-they-both-leading-us-up-the-environmental-garden-path/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/serbia-does-it-now-realise-that-law-implementation-is-a-serious-issue/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/serbia-stara-planina-update-the-governments-illegal-environmental-destruction-continues-full-news-and-pictures-in-this-post/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/serbia-campaign-for-the-protection-of-zvezdara-forest-in-belgrade/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/golema-reka-draft/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/240809-global-launch-of-campaign-to-save-stara-planina-animals-and-plants-international-supporters-your-individual-help-is-essential-please-copy-and-send-letter-given-in-post-below/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/serbia-save-stara-planina/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/stara-planina-200809-few-days-till-launch-of-next-campaign-phase/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/serbia-campaign-to-save-flora-and-fauna-at-stara-planina/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/serbia-more-major-environmental-destruction-planned-your-help-needed-to-raise-global-awareness/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/serbia-please-give-your-petition-support-to-save-serbian-beautiful-river-rzav-from-government-and-industry-abuse/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/serbia-beautiful-environmental-region-of-serbia-to-become-ski-centre-please-read-and-take-action/

Below – Pictures from Stara Planina prior to the Government of Serbia changing the environmental regulations for its own convenienceas the above photos show, we have now entered a time when:

“the Government of Serbia reconfirmed the tremendous values of protected areas in recently adopted national strategy for Biodiversity Conservation and also in the new law of Nature protection which is harmonized with relevant EU legislation in this field”.

Hmm  !!!

 

Remember Luca Magnotta Who Proudly Posted Cat Killings on the Internet ? – It Started With Animals, and As We Always Say, Leads to Human Abuses. Again, Welfare People Appear Correct. And the Politicians ? ….. Ignorant As Is Often the Case.

Nationwide manhunt underway for Luka Rocco Magnotta as police search for missing body parts

Luka Rocco Magnotta, left, is alleged to have killed a man and left the torso in a suitcase.

Top-right: Janitor Eric Schorer looks at liquid in a fridge at Magnotta’s apartment. Bottom-right: Police investigate the scene where the body was found.  Photo – National Post.

SAV Comment – Despite overwhelming proof, time after time, that people who commit sadistic crimes on other people, ie. Murderers, abusers, torturers etc, start their ‘early work’ by abusing animals – see the Luka Rocco kitten killings as early evidence of what happened here.

When are politicians actually going to take notice of the crystal clear evidence that is presented to them and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ?, rather than live with their heads up above the clouds or on another planet.

Maybe the real headline here should be – “Don’t only blame Luca Magnotta – blame the ignorants in politics who forever turn the other way, despite the evidence ! ”

WANT SOME PROOF ???

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4349658/Magnottas-disturbed-disturbing-disgustingbrlooking-in-his-eyesbr-left-me-shaken.html

Young animals

By MATT WILKINSON
SOME of the world’s worst serial killers slaughtered defenceless animals as children.

BOSTON STRANGLER Albert DeSalvo, who molested and murdered 13 women from 1962 to 1964, trapped dogs and cats as a child and shot them dead with arrows.

As a boy, hitchhiker killer EDMUND KEMPER — convicted in 1973 of murdering eight womendecapitated cats and put their heads on spikes.

JEFFREY DAHMER murdered and dismembered at least 16 men and boys from 1978-91 in the US. When young he dissolved a squirrel in chemicals.

SON OF SAM David Berkowitz shot dead six people in New York in the 1970s. He killed dogs as a boy and said he was commanded to kill by a possessed dog.

TED BUNDY watched his father torture animals. He admitted 30 US murders in the 1970s. As a boy, ANDREW CUNANAN, who killed designer Gianni Versace in 1997, burned out crabs’ eyes with matches.

CROSSBOW CANNIBAL Stephen Griffiths, 42 — who killed hookers in Bradford in 2009-10 — once ate a live RAT.

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Remember Luca Magnotta?

The guy whose snuff videos surfaced on the internet?
 
That was with the kittens he suffocated in a vacuum bag, and the other where he stuck the kitten in a Christmas hat and gave it to a snake to kill.

And now this.
 
This is what happens when people like that and their animal abusing actions are not taken seriously.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/30/luka-rocco-magnotta-manhunt/
 
Nationwide manhunt underway for Luka Rocco Magnotta as police search for missing body parts
Graeme Hamilton  May 30, 2012

WARNING: Story contains graphic content
The police had finished their work inside and Apartment 208 was pretty much stripped bare, but the stomach-turning stench and darkened red stain on the mattress left little doubt that something terrible had happened here.
“The smell of death is not funny,” Eric Schorer, the building’s superintendent, said as he opened the door Wednesday afternoon. “If you look at the bed, that’s where it happened.”

Within hours, Montreal police would issue a wanted bulletin for the tenant of the one-room apartment, 29-year-old Luka Rocco Magnotta, sought for one of the most gruesome killings in Montreal in recent memory.
Not only was the unidentified victim dismembered, not only were two body parts apparently mailed to political parties in Ottawa, but it has emerged that the killer filmed his crime and posted it on the Internet. The snuff film titled 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick, depicting the dismemberment of an Asian male body and various indignities to the remains, has provoked online debate about its veracity since it was posted last week. Police have confirmed the video depicts the actual crime.
A janitor had stumbled on the victim’s torso Tuesday when investigating a foul smell coming from a suitcase thrown out in an alley behind an apartment in Montreal’s Snowdon neighbourhood. The same day, federal Conservative Party headquarters in Ottawa received a Canada Post parcel containing a human foot, and police discovered a second package containing a hand in an Ottawa postal station. That package was addressed to the Liberal Party of Canada.
Montreal police said in a statement that “concrete elements allow police to believe” that the Ottawa and Montreal incidents are connected, but pathology tests are being conducted for confirmation.

Mr. Magnotta, who has also been known as Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, has left abundant traces on the Internet. A Toronto native, he had worked in gay porn and as a model, but more recently he attracted attention after being linked to a 2010 online video showing kittens being suffocated with the aid of a vacuum cleaner.
A blog attributed to him and titled “Necrophilia Serial Killer Luka Magnotta” included this March 2012 post:
“It’s not cool to the world being a necrophiliac. It’s bloody lonely. But I dont (sic) really care, I have never cared what people thought of me, most people are judgemental idiots. I’m unable to talk to anybody about it and there’s always the knowledge that 99% of people would be repulsed by me if they found out about my feelings. Some people would even want to harm me.”

In another blog post from 2009, Mr. Magnotta offered step-by-step instruction on starting a new life in another country
“A minimum of four months is really necessary to carry out the heroic actions necessary to leave your old life behind,” he wrote, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
Mr. Magnotta denied online rumours that he was in a relationship with notorious schoolgirl killer Karla Homolka. Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafrenière said Wednesday that police believe he “could have been a good friend” of Homolka in the past.

He had moved into his Décarie Boulevard apartment about four months ago, Mr. Schorer said. The building, built as an apartment-hotel for Expo ’67, now rents out furnished flats for $490-a-month and attracts residents from newly arrived immigrants and students to drug addicts. After the janitor found the torso Tuesday, police went over the building’s five security cameras and asked Mr. Schorer to identify a man putting something in the building’s garbage. “I said, that’s the guy in 208,” he said.

After a Google search turned up evidence of Mr. Magnotta’s film career, he had become known in the building as Porn Star. He rarely spoke to the other residents, but Mr. Schorer said he was friendly enough and always paid his rent on time.
“He seemed like a really nice guy, really,” he said. “It’s like you see on TV all the time.… It’s almost a cliché or a joke.”
Neighbour Derek MacKinnon, an actor whose best-known role was as a killer in the 1980 slasher film Terror Train, was one of the few people who struck up a conversation with Mr. Magnotta.

“One day we talked, and I said, ‘You and I have something in common. We’re both in film, but I’m not in the same kind of film world you’re in.’ He just laughed,” Mr. MacKinnon said. Later Mr. Magnotta confided that he was worried about his porn career haunting him forever and asked for advice about getting into “legitimate” movies.
Then about five days ago, he invited Mr. MacKinnon up to his apartment as they sat on the front step, where residents gather on warm nights to drink beer. “He said, ‘You’ve never been to my apartment, why don’t you come up?’ And I didn’t, thank God.”

Richard Payette was running his air conditioner full blast Wednesday to fend off the smell coming from Apt. 208 across the hall. He said he never got so much as a hello out of his neighbour, but nothing in recent days suggested crimes were being committed a few metres away.

“Believe me, if there were screams or anything I would have notified somebody, but he was quiet as a mouse, this guy,” he said. Looking out his back window, he had recently noticed the suitcase among the garbage bags in the back alley. “I was telling myself maybe I should pick that suitcase up. You know, one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t, but it looked too new to be in the garbage.”

The online video shows a naked male, tied to a bed frame, being attacked with both an ice pick and a kitchen knife, according to the description on a website called Best Gore. The victim is stabbed, has his throat slashed and is later decapitated and dismembered. The video was posted on Best Gore on May 25, but it is unclear when, or where, it was filmed.
“1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick is without a doubt the sickest thing you will have ever seen in your entire life,” Best Gore writes.
At the end of the video, a photo is shown of a person dressed in a purple hooded jacket or sweater, leaning over while holding what appears to be an ice pick. His or her face is mostly obscured — the only details that can be made out are the individual’s light skin, dark hair of cheekbone length and a poster for the movie Casablanca on the wall.

Montreal police have issued a Canada-wide warrant for Mr. Magnotta’s arrest. Cmdr. Lafrenière said police had not recovered all of the victim’s body and have not been able to identify him. In addition to the torso in the suitcase and hand and foot found in Ottawa, other body parts were found at the apartment building, he said.
“It’s sick in the head,” he said of the crime. “I’ve been talking to investigators who have been doing this for more than 30 years, and they have never seen anything like that.”

One of Mr. Magnotta’s relatives told the Ottawa Citizen the family spent Wednesday night close to the phone in case Canada’s highest-profile fugitive calls while on the lam. “He hurt us when he was younger and we haven’t been in contact with him in a while,” the relative said. ”We heard about all of this on the news and then the police called and asked us to let them know if he calls us.”
National Post, with files from Armina Ligaya, Allison Cross and Vidya Kauri and Postmedia News
 
 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/police-find-grisly-scene-in-apartment-of-body-parts-suspect/article2447319/
 
Police find grisly scene in apartment of body-parts suspect
INGRID PERITZ AND  STEVEN CHASE AND DANIEL LEBLANC
MONTREAL, OTTAWA AND OTTAWA— From Thursday’s Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, May. 30, 2012 8:55AM EDT

The scene inside Apartment 208 bears the marks of gruesome violence. A stain spreads across the double mattress and a crumpled pink sheet atop it is streaked in dried blood.

The studio apartment, located in a boxy, brick building overlooking an expressway in Montreal, became the focus of a police investigation into what has emerged as a sordid and bizarre crime that has ricocheted to federal political party offices in Ottawa.

The second-floor apartment was the home of Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, the leading suspect in a murder and dismemberment case that began after a man’s torso was found stuffed in a locked suitcase in Montreal.

Police say Mr. Magnotta, a model and adult-film actor, is believed to be from Toronto and repeatedly used aliases and changed his name over the years. He was Eric Clinton Kirk Newman until he changed his name in 2006.
He is wanted in connection with the delivery of a human left foot to the Conservative Party of Canada headquarters.
A packaged hand, intercepted by Ottawa police, was also addressed to be delivered to Liberal Party offices, a source said.

Montreal police believe that the macabre murder and dismemberment was captured on video and posted on a website that specialized in gore, gaining widening circulation as the extent of the crime became public Wednesday.

“It is a video of the murder,” a Montreal police official confirmed to The Globe.
Police warn that not all of the murder victim, a male, has been recovered but refuse to say whether they believe more pieces of his body are still in Canada Post’s mail system.

“We are still missing a few parts of the puzzle in terms of body parts, so yes, this is a special crime scene,” Montreal police spokesman Commander Ian Lafrenière said.

The Montreal police confirmed that the torso found in Montreal is likely from the same body as the hand and the foot that were mailed to political parties in Ottawa, although an official DNA match is still in the works.
“We have all the reasons to believe that it is linked to our homicide,” Cdr. Lafrenière said.
The Conservative Party, meanwhile, offered more details on the grisly unpacking of a foot in their offices Tuesday, revealing that Stephen Harper’s campaign manager, Jenni Byrne, witnessed the opening of the bloody parcel.
The incident left Tory staffers traumatized.

“The package was brought to Ms. Byrne because it looked suspicious,” Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said. “It was opened, Ms. Byrne examined it, saw the blood and smelled the odour and made the decision to call police.”
He added: “It was such a horrible odour I’m sure many of us will not forget it.”
Tory sources said that package, which bore the drawing of a red heart, was addressed to the Conservative Party rather than a particular person.

CTV News reported that a note was enclosed with the severed foot indicating a total of six body parts had been distributed, and that the sender planned to kill again.
Montreal police said the murder was not a random act, as the suspect and his victim knew one another. Cdr. Lafrenière did not want to go into details about allegations that Mr. Magnotta was captured killing kittens on a video that circulated on the Internet.

“We’ve heard about it, but we don’t have confirmation. Our main priority is to find our suspect,” Cdr. Lafrenière said.
Mr. Magnotta is also reported to have dated notorious sex killer Karla Homolka.
The video shows someone repeatedly stabbing a young man, then dismembering the corpse and committing cannibalistic acts on it.

And the Montreal police official said what the force found in Mr. Magnotta’s apartment was horrific.
“For most of the officers who have been there all night long, this is the type of crime scene that they have never seen in their lives, in their career.”

Police had spent Tuesday combing through the second-floor apartment in Montreal’s Snowdon district, and on Wednesday afternoon, black fingerprinting powder still covered the table and chairs. Orange police tape flew from the balcony railing over Montreal’s noisy Décarie expressway.

Whatever had happened inside in recent days had left behind a grisly trail. Building superintendent Eric Schorer came in to cart away the stained mattress; small puddles of blood lay on the box spring beneath it. More splotches of blood covered the floor of the fridge, leading to speculation that body parts may have been stored there.
A gut-turning stench filled the room.

“When I first opened the door, I almost heaved,” Mr. Schorer said. “It’s the smell of death.”
Mr. Magnotta moved in three to four months ago, Mr. Schorer said. He told the building’s management he had come from Toronto to take a job caring for seniors in Montreal’s Côte St. Luc district; he also said he had a child in Montreal. However, shortly after moving in, residents in the building Googled his name and thereafter nicknamed him “Porn Star.”
 Mr. Magnotta paid his $490-a-month rent by cheque and rarely spoke to his neighbours, according to accounts from those living in the building.
 

On Wednesday, police began circulating a photo of a man linked to the crime whom they described as “missing.” He was an Asian man who appeared to be in his 30s, Mr. Schorer said.
 The suitcase containing the victim’s remains was left at the end of a driveway behind the apartment building, along with the tenants’ regular garbage. Mike Nadeau, the building janitor, says he first noticed the suitcase last Friday, and thinks it had been there several days. One tenant said the suitcase looked brand new.
 Normally, Montreal garbage crews would have taken the bag away during regular garbage collection on Fridays. However, perhaps because there was an unusual amount of old furniture and other detritus left out that day, the luggage was left behind.
 

Mr. Nadeau approached the locked suitcase, which smelled and was swarming with flies. When he broke it open, he found a torso and shoulders without a head. The body appeared to have been dismembered.
 Mr. Schorer said police seized footage from security cameras around the building. 
 
Further link:

Alleged Cat Killer Turns Alleged Murderer In Canada

http://news.petpardons.com/alleged-cat-killer-turns-alleged-murderer-in-canada/

Ukraine: Philipp Lahm, German Team Captain Calls for Better Human and Animal Rights – Platini (UEFA President) Replies; “I do not care what Lahm says – I am doing football”.

BOYCOTT EURO 2012 if this is Platini’s attitude.

The REALITY of what Platini is ignoring for ‘his’ football:

*** WARNING – Graphic Footage ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT05XhOX5TQ

Dog killings in the Ukraine do not stop.

The captain of the German national team, Philipp Lahm, has sharply critisised the UEFA for ignoring the entire situation in the Ukraine – human rights, animal welfare, etc. – and has demanded the UEFA finally take a stand.

Platini – I do not care what Lahm says – I am doing football – picture: Telegraph.

Platini has replied (on behalf of the UEFA) that he did not care what Lahm said. “He is not my boss – he’s got nothing to demand from me. He’s captain of his national team, not captain of the UEFA. I am doing football, not politics, If I wanted to do politics, I would.”

The REALITY of what Platini is ignoring for ‘his’ football:

*** WARNING – Graphic Footage ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT05XhOX5TQ

 

Video Links

Here’s the first link, with an ugly video of a poisoned dog dying in the arms of an activist.

http://www.tierarztblog.com/2012/05/23/uefa-platini-kritik-lahm/
This is the longer version of the video: the dog, healthy only 5  mins. earlier; has been given an “antidote” against the poison; but they say once the cramps have started the chance for survival are slim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkNAoyTj1Vg&feature=relmfu

30 dogs poisoned within a week at Chernovci – Ukraine-26.04.2012.

The lady shown on the second video at 6:30 min has herself lost 3 of her own dogs; one, still warm, lies in the plastic bag.

The REALITY of what Platini is ignoring for ‘his’ football:

*** WARNING – Graphic Footage ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT05XhOX5TQ

 

Further Links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/ukraine-stray-dogs-soccer_n_1028047.html

http://www.rt.com/news/animal-cruelty-ukraine-euro-2012-929/

http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/ics/2011/157378.htm

http://www.piaberrend.org/ukraine-mass-killings-of-strays-are-intensified-in-order-to-show-the-world-a-clean-country-at-eu

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2147385/Horrific-moment-thugs-attack-head-gay-rights-group-Ukraine-forced-cancel-parade-hijacked-neo-Nazi-zealots.html

http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/ukraine

http://humanrights.einnews.com/country/ukraine

http://amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/ukraine-needs-accountability-human-rights-violations-2010-04-14

A Comment on SAV Comments.

Dear all;

comments about the site and the animal issues covered are more than welcome.

We welcome them even though they cannot each be replied to individually.

Each comment is reviewed by SAV prior to being posted on the site.

But although we have mentioned it before, we are still sometimes receiving a lot of bad language in some comments; not aimed at us, but more regarding specific issues or peoples covered in certain posts.

We all get angry about animal abuse (tell us about it), but this anger does not need to be put into abusive words for the world to see.  Words yes, but not abusive ones please.

In fact, the ability to see abusive comments by our global visitors is NOT what will happen; our policy is that anything with bad language in it will immediately be trashed and will not be published.

So please, make as many comments as you wish, but respect everyone else who is going to gain access to your comment(s).  In other words, be consturctive but KEEP IT CLEAN and printable !

We are averaging over 10,000 hits each month, and we want to encourage folks to visit us, not be turned away by lots of bad language left in the comments.

I hope and trust you agree.

Mark – Founder SAV.

Here is a baby bird which I rescued over the weekend – still trying to get its wings and do a first flight. It was returned back into the wild within half hour when the area was secure so that mum could continue to feed and train it to fly.  It is a Great Tit – identified by the black stripe running down its chest – common in Europe; but a life well worth saving !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Tit

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greattit/index.aspx

Germany: New Video To FREE PAUL WATSON.

Global Support to Free Captain Paul Watson 
 
New Video Link:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rVCXRIlhKM0


 
In May, 2012, Captain Paul Watson, Founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was arrested in Germany and may be sent to Costa Rica in a politically motivated extradition guised as a ‘navigational violation’.

This ‘violation’ occurred whilst Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was responding to a government-appointed call for help to stop illegal shark finning in the waters surrounding Cocos Islands, Costa Rica…

Paul is now under ‘house arrest’ in Germany, waiting to hear whether he will be extradited or set free.

Write, call and email the German Minister of Justice politely calling for the release of Captain Paul Watson, one of the most influential marine conservationists in history.
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
Federal Minister of Justice

Deutscher Bundestag
Platz der Republik
1
11011 Berlin

Telephone 030 – 227 751 62

Fax 030 – 227 764 02
E-Mail: sabine.leutheusser-schnarrenberger@bundestag.de

 

Film by Nicole McLachlan
www.nicolemclachlan.wordpress.com

Music:
Secession Studios- Days

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News – May 24, 2012
Captain Paul Watson Meets with the Foreign Minister of Costa Rica Enrique Castillo
http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/2012/05/24/captain-paul-watson-meets-with-the-foreign-minister-of-costa-rica-enrique-castillo-1386

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Past SAV posts to FREE Paul Watson:
https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/sea-shepherd-update-220512-greetings-from-germany-by-captain-paul-watson/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/germany-180512-latest-on-capt-watson-german-prosecutors-late-motion-gives-german-ministers-more-time-to-free-captain-paul-watson/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/petition-please-sign-now-save-paul-watson-from-the-german-authorities-angela-merkel-ss/

India: Indian State to Let Forest Guards Shoot Poachers on Sight.

Indian state to let forest guards shoot poachers on sight

Maharashtra government says killing poachers will no longer be considered a crime after eight tiger deaths in the state this year

Associated Press in New Delhi
guardian.co.uk,  Wednesday 23 May 2012 12.14 BST


A tiger in India’s Corbett national park. Photograph: AP

A western Indian state has declared war on animal poaching, allowing forest guards to shoot hunters on sight to curb attacks on tigers, elephants and other wildlife.
The government in Maharashtra says injuring or killing suspected poachers will no longer be considered a crime.

Forest guards should not be “booked for human rights violations when they have taken action against poachers”, the Maharashtra forest minister, Patangrao Kadam, said on Tuesday. The state will also send more rangers and jeeps into forests, and will offer secret payments to informers who give tips about poachers and animal smugglers, he said.

India has about half of the world’s estimated 3,200 tigers in dozens of wildlife reserves set up since the 1970s. But illegal poaching remains a serious threat, with tiger parts sought in traditional Chinese medicine fetching high prices on the black market.

According to the Wildlife Protection Society of India, 14 tigers have been killed by poachers in India so far this year – one more than for all of 2011. The tiger is considered endangered, with its habitat range shrinking more than 50% in the last quarter-century and its numbers declining rapidly from the 5,000-7,000 estimated in the 1990s, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Eight of this year’s tiger poaching deaths in India occurred in Maharashtra, including one whose body was found last week chopped into pieces with its head and paws missing in Tadoba tiger reserve. Forest officials have also found traps in the reserve, where about 40 tigers live.

Tiger parts used in traditional Chinese medicine are prized on the black market, but dozens of other animals are also targeted by hunters across India. Rhinos are prized for their horns and male elephants for their tusks, while other big cats such as leopards are hunted or poisoned by villagers afraid of attacks on their homes or livestock.

Encounters are rare between guards and poachers, who generally hunt the secretive and nocturnal big cats at night, according to Maharashtra’s chief wildlife warden, SWH Naqvi.

“We hardly ever come face-to-face with poachers,” he said on Wednesday, predicting few instances when guards might fire at suspects.

Instead, he predicted that the state’s offer to pay informers from a new government fund worth about 5m rupees ($90,000) would be more effective in curbing wildlife crime. “We get very few tips, so this will really help,” Naqvi said.

Uk: Stop the UK Government from Legalising the use of Stray Pets in Lab Experiments!

The person responsible – David Cameron – Prime Minister and Huntsman. Picture – Telegraph.

Stop the UK Government from legalising the use of stray pets in lab experiments!
If it isn’t bad enough that many animals are already tortured in UK labs, now our stray animals in the UK are also going to be used! 
Please sign the petition below, worldwide signatures needed now please to stop this barbaric act-

“The Home Office proposes for the first time to allow stray pets to be caught and used for experiments, for “environmental” or scientific reasons. This was despite unanimous submissions by animal welfare groups supported by many research establishments that the change was both unnecessary and unwelcome. No proposals are made for ensuring that an attempt be made to rehome lost pets rather than subject them to laboratory testing”.- 
 
SIGN HERE-
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/976/371/155/stop-the-uk-government-from-legalising-the-use-of-stray-pets-in-lab-experiments/
 
Read the alarming article here from the ‘BUAV’-
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/michelle-thew/government-opens-laborato_b_1535640.html?ref=uk-politics&just_reloaded=1

————————————–

Article is as follows:  By Michelle Thew.

Chief Executive of BUAV, The Campaign to End Animal Experiments –  http://www.buav.org/

The Home Office last week released a statement on its plans to bring in a new EU law on animal experiments. The plans, such as maintaining larger minimum cage sizes than strictly necessary, have been heralded by some as good news. The overall picture is very different.

The Home Office proposes for the first time to allow stray pets to be caught and used for experiments, for “environmental” or scientific reasons. This was despite unanimous submissions by animal welfare groups supported by many research establishments that the change was both unnecessary and unwelcome. No proposals are made for ensuring that an attempt be made to rehome lost pets rather than subject them to laboratory testing.

Furthermore, by refusing to ban particular experiments, the government is content that grim procedures which would be more at home in a chamber of horrors than a civilised country may continue to be allowed.

For example, the new EU law specifically contemplates that animals in laboratories can be given electric shocks they cannot escape from, to induce “learned helplessness”. Highly social animals such as dogs and primates can be locked in “complete isolation for prolonged periods”. Organ transplantation where organ rejection is “likely to lead to severe distress or impairment of the general condition of the animals” is allowed, as are all manner of poisoning tests and surgery leading to severe pain or distress and “forced swim or exercise tests with exhaustion …”. The consultation heard not only from animal protection groups but also researchers that there should be a list of experiments that would never be sanctioned, but the Government has refused to rule anything out. Thousands of animal experiments for trivial purposes will continue.

To top it all off, a review of secrecy in animal research begun in 2004 has been further extended, leaving animal experiments hidden from public scrutiny, despite the government’s admission that current law is insufficient in terms of EU transparency.

As taxpayers, we have a right to know what goes on, in our names, behind the closed doors of our laboratories – with due regard being paid, naturally, to personal and confidential information. As things stand, we risk lagging behind other European countries in maintaining our obsessive secrecy. Most respondents – including the animal research industry – favoured amending or repealing the clause that allows researchers to hide information about animal experiments from Freedom of Information requests. The government claims to have been reviewing this clause for the last eight years but still refuses to come to a decision. What does it have to hide?

The European public has made it overwhelmingly clear, in a YouGov poll in 2009, that it wants to see far greater openness and bans on all experiments causing severe suffering and any suffering for primates, dogs and cats. Even those respondents who will tolerate some animal testing want experiments which are not for serious medical conditions banned. Once again, the Government is intent on disregarding public opinion. But at this late hour it is not too late for the Government to bring the animal research industry into line with public opinion. If you think it is wrong to electrocute and poison animals, which could now include lost pets, please write to your MP.

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What YOU can do to be a voice for these stray animals destined to be tortured in UK experimental labs-
 
1- Please write to your MP to protest, asking them to do everything within their power to stop this, please see link here to find your MP- http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

Alternatively the link below also gives all politicians in the UK but if you use this site to write to your MP etc. – it spams out copied and pasted text and standard pre written letters, so best to just use the site just to find the name of your MP if you don’t know it and then google search their contact details and then write  to them direct!
http://www.writetothem.com/

2-Write to your MEP to protest (Member of European Parliament) please see link here to find your MEP- http://www.europarl.org.uk/view/en/your_MEPs/List-MEPs-by-region.html;jsessionid=62CD12DB77A30A8FDAB8C3CD62E808E5
 
3- write to UK Prime Minister David Cameron here to voice your disgust and tell him to stop these barbaric proposals- CameronD@parliament.uk
 
or you can use the No.10 Downing Street online form to make your complaint- https://email.number10.gov.uk/

PLEASE NOTE-once into the link above to contact number 10 please choose the subject ‘contact the Prime Minister’s office’. 
4- Write to the letters to the editor page of your local paper to expose this to the general public to gain more support for the campaign to stop this cruelty, most  people in the UK will be horrified to learn of these new proposals. You can google search contact details for your local paper.
5- If you are an animal campaign group in the UK please highlight this campaign to your own supporters and contact your own personal journalist contacts that you deal with to gain more publicity and public support against this new proposal.
6-Write to the RSPCA to get them to try and stop this immediately- Enqserv@rspca.org.uk

PLEASE REMEMBER TO KEEP ALL CORRESPONDENCE POLITE