China Southern Airlines Stops Shipments of Primates for Vivisection
China Southern airlines has announced that it has stopped shipments of primates to laboratories worldwide in response to vigorous campaigning by animal rights organisations around the globe. Prior to this announcement, China Southern was the only airline in China – and the only major carrier in the world other than Air France – still shipping primates to laboratories. Air France is now the only major airline left that is willing to ship monkeys, so it will be extremely difficult and expensive for experimenters to get their hands on monkeys. This means that more primates will remain in the wild with their families instead of being trapped and imprisoned at decrepit breeding farms and terrifying laboratories. Please build on this momentum by urging Air France to join every single other major airline in the world by refusing to ship primates to certain suffering and death in laboratories.
HRT and horses urine
New England Anti-Vivisection Society recently supported the rescue of 3 remarkable horses from a pregnant mare urine (PMU) farm. After facing the horrific fate of a lifetime of confinement or slaughter, the trio is now safe in sanctuary. The oestrogen-rich urine of pregnant mares is a key ingredient in many hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs. Tara would have been repeatedly impregnated her entire life. She would have lived in a narrow stall with limited access to water and chafing-causing urine collection bags attached to her body. She would have watched her male foals be taken from her and sent to slaughter. Her female foals would either share that fate, or be spared only to replace “spent” mothers once they were no longer of use to the industry. The entire PMU pharmaceutical industry is unnecessary because plant-based and synthetic HRTs with comparable benefits and risks are readily available. NEAVS is working to end the use of horses in HRTs. If you take HRT check that it isn’t using PMU. There are better alternatives.
End to US cosmetic tests
A groundbreaking new bill could bring about an end to tests on animals for cosmetics products in the US. Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia has introduced the Humane Cosmetics Act, which, if passed, would make it illegal to conduct tests on animals for cosmetics in the US and to sell cosmetic products that have been tested on animals. This would be huge. The US market is enormous and influential, so banning these cruel and archaic tests would save countless animals from having chemicals rubbed on their skin, dripped into their eyes or forced down their throats in painful and deadly experiments. The ban could also have a wider impact, sending a clear message to international companies that they need to throw their weight behind the use of humane, non-animal testing methods. Since March 2013, selling cosmetics products containing ingredients that have been tested on animals has been banned in the European Union, making it clear that these horrific experiments are on their way out.
Australia will recommence exporting sheep and cattle to Egypt after the government struck a deal with Egyptian importers on animal welfare standards. It’s been two years since cattle was last exported to Egypt after shocking footage of cruelty at two Egyptian abattoirs. It led to an industry-wide live trade suspension.
England (UK): Roll out dropped
Plans to roll out the controversial badger cull pilots nationwide across England have been dropped by Owen Paterson after a damning independent report found the shoots were not effective or humane. The 2 pilot culls, in Gloucestershire and Somerset, will continue with improvements recommended by the independent expert panel (IEP), including more and better-trained marksmen. But plans to start badger culls in 10 other areas have been abandoned, the environment secretary announced, telling MPs he was taking the responsible approach. The shadow environment secretary, Maria Eagle, said the abandoned roll-out was a humiliating climbdown for Paterson. “Consistent with his inept handling of this shambles he has put prejudice before science, secrecy before transparency, conflict before consensus and posturing before good policy,” she said. Prof Rosie Woodroffe, a leading badger expert who conducted a landmark decade-long trial of badger culling, said even the 2 pilot culls should be halted. ” The culls were dismissed by senior scientists as “mindless” before they started and have provoked huge public opposition since, and led to ministers losing a vote in the House of Commons. Paterson said he accepted the IEP recommendations to “improve the accuracy and field-craft” of shooters. He added that if the free-shooting of badgers could be “perfected”, he still wanted to see the culls rolled out in the future. Paterson previously said he wanted 40 culls across the nation. Opponents of the cull have argued that vaccination of badgers and cattle is a better strategy and Paterson said: “I am proposing a scheme for [badger] vaccination projects around the edge of the most badly affected parts of the country, in an attempt to create a buffer zone of TB immunity to stop the disease spreading further.” He also said large-scale field trials of cattle vaccines were being designed, but said a usable vaccine was many years away. Opponents have also argued that stricter testing and controls on cattle movements are the key to cutting TB. In Wales, where a planned badger cull was abandoned, the number of cattle slaughtered has fallen from 11,671 in 2009 to 6,102 in 2013, a 48% drop, following more stringent testing. The number of cattle slaughtered in Great Britain fell by 15% in 2013 following some new controls being introduced in England. The campaigner and Queen guitarist Brian May said: “I am disgusted that David Cameron and Paterson insult us all by continuing this spectacular failure.”
bTB cattle sold on (UK)
A major veterinary investigation is underway after a number of herds across Britain tested positive for bovine TB following a dispersal sale from a Cumbrian dairy herd. More than 100 animals were sold at the end of February at a market in Cheshire to buyers from across England, Wales and Scotland. After some of the cattle sold were found to have tested positive for bTB, AHVLA launched a nationwide operation to trace, isolate and test all animals from the sale, alongside increased surveillance in surrounding herds. The incident has generated significant concern among Government vets and the farming industry and raised fresh questions about the effectiveness of TB surveillance in England’s 4-year testing areas, where pre-movement testing is not compulsory. The disease has been confirmed at the Cumbrian farm which sold the cattle and it has been placed under movement restrictions. TB testing of neighbouring holdings within a 3km radius is underway. An AHVLA spokesman said: “AHVLA has taken robust and rapid action to identify all animals originating from this herd so they can be isolated and tested for TB.” He said it was too early to comment on the likely number of herds involved, or how this could have happened with a herd originating in the relatively clean 4-year area. “This incident highlights how serious a problem TB is for all cattle farmers, regardless of where they farm,” he said. The incident will prompt further debate about cattle TB controls as Defra publishes its long-term TB eradication strategy for England, which covers TB testing and movement controls and includes a proposal for compulsory post-movement testing in the TB Low Risk Area.
1 in 10 people in Sweden is a vegetarian or vegan,
a survey has found. There has been a 4% increase in the number of Swedes adopting a meat-free lifestyle over the past 5 years, according the study commissioned by Animal Rights Sweden (Djurens Rätt).
Above – USA: This is in Oregon, and each crate has a calf in it, taken from their mourning mother, 1 hour after they were born. Their mother had enough time to clean up the birth, lick and initially bond with them, before they were taken away to live in these boxes, destined to die in about 6 weeks, barely able to move to make their “meat” tender until they become veal steaks. Meat eaters…are you proud? Rense.com
Ag-gag – A diverse coalition of civil rights, animal protection, labour, and environmental groups, and a journalist have filed a lawsuit to strike down Idaho’s new “ag-gag” law as unconstitutional. Idaho’s governor “Butch” Otter (the same man orchestrating the annihilation of wolves in Idaho) just signed “ag-gag” into law in Feb. But the coalition is moving quickly to overturn this dangerous bill because it’s a direct attack on whistleblowers, investigators, and journalists. Most importantly, laws like this are an attempt to keep everyone from knowing what really takes place behind closed doors on factory farms and slaughterhouses.
Chicken suffering
One of Canada’s biggest chicken producers will have to spend at least $1m over 3 years to ensure compliance with federal rules after an Ontario judge convicted it of causing undue suffering to the birds. In a case closely watched by animal-rights groups, Ontario Superior Court Justice Nancy Kastner also fined Maple Lodge Farms $80,000 on 2 of 20 counts of failing to transport chickens humanely. Kastner placed the company based in Brampton, Ont., on 3 years probation, suspending the other 18 counts for the duration. Among conditions of probation, the company will have to make public the convictions, sentence and measures it is taking to avoid further offences by “prominent” website posting. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency charged Maple Lodge Farms under the Health of Animals Act with cruelty to chickens after 2,000 of the birds died on 2 trips to slaughter in the winter of 2008-2009. In her decision, Kastner said “lack of adequate training, personnel, or equipment” contributed to the high mortality rate of the transported birds.
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Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 