Posted on February 4, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
SAV Comment – Credit where its due – a petition to thank the NY police for saving the lives of many rabbits in the recent freezing weather.
Please sigh this petition to thank the valiant work of the police.
Target: New York Police Commissioner, William J. Bratton
Goal: Praise the police department for saving over 174 rabbits from frigid temperatures.
Authorities seized a large number of rabbits that were spotted living in an unsheltered garden yard in Brooklyn, New York. They took the rabbits to keep them safe from New York’s frigid winter temperatures. Over 174 rabbits were taken to a shelter and were being examined by a veterinarian at Animal Care and Control of New York City (AC&C).
The police were responding to a 911 call from a witness who saw the rabbits running around in snow. They called the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and AC&C to the owner’s home to assist with the investigation and to decide if the environment was suitable for the animals. The authorities warned the owner of the animals, Dorota Trec, that the yard was not a safe environment for that number of animals. They instructed her to provide a more suitable shelter for her pets.
After their initial visit and warning to the owner, they received more complaints from witnesses.
The police returned to the yard and with the advice of animal welfare organizations, deemed that the animals were not living in a suitable environment.
They obtained warrant to seize 74 rabbits. On January 29, 2015, the authorities came back to the garden yard and seized over 100 more rabbits. Reports state that the rabbits suffered from a number of diseases, including syphilis.
Please sign this petition to thank the NYPD, ASPCA, and AC&C for saving these rabbits from their unsuitable living conditions.
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere ! | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 4, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Posted on February 4, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Photo – via MFA website.
Mercy For Animals article on expose of Nebraska based
U.S. Meat Animal Research Center:
MFA link:
by Sarah Von Alt – Jan 21, 2015
An investigation by The New York Times has exposed a little-known institution in Nebraska called the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, where farmed animals are subjected to cruelty beyond imagination.
Not surprisingly, the facility’s mission is to help producers of beef, pork, and lamb turn a higher profit.
…….. This research has included efforts to breed cows who produce twins or triplets and sheep who are easier to care for and less domesticated. There have also been numerous attempts to breed pigs to be bigger and leaner and produce larger litters.
Read the full story by clicking on the MFA link given at the start of this post.
Check out other MFA campaign issues on their blog – http://www.mfablog.org/
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 3, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Demand that Baylor School pull cruel “African Safari” hunting auction item!
Stop the killing of badger cubs in the UK!
Stop Abusing Elephants for Tourist Shows in Thailand
Bring Irish Greyhound Racing Regulations in line with the UK
Filed under: GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere ! | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 3, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
3/2/15 – Kent, England based Animal Aid (Kent – also SAV territory) have today released undercover footage of animal suffering at the hands of Halal slaughtermen.
We have supported calls for ages to have cctv fitted into EVERY slaughterhouse across the entire EU, to ensued that there are more controls on the abuses that animals suffer at their time of death. Via the Animal Aid data provided below, you can take several lines of action. We suggest you watch the video footage prior to taking the actions.
Animal Aid – Latest News & Campaigns
Undercover: inside a UK non-stun slaughterhouse
Animal Aid has today made public footage it took covertly from inside Bowood slaughterhouse in Yorkshire. The footage, which was taken over three days in December, showed:
Sheep kicked in the face; smashed into solid objects headfirst; picked up and hurled by legs, fleeces, throats and ears.
A worker standing on the neck of a conscious sheep, then bouncing up and down.
Slaughterhouse workers erupting into laughter at a sheep bleeding to death with spectacles drawn around her eyes in green paint.
A worker holding a sheep by her throat and pulling back a fist as if to punch her.
Slaughtermen taunting and frightening the sheep by waving knives, smacking them on the head and shouting at them.
Slaughtermen hacking away at the throats of still-conscious sheep.
– The petition currently has over 86,000 signatures. If we can achieve 100,000+ then it is possible that this issue would have to be debated in UK Parliament. Therefore please sign now.
HM Government e petition wording is as follows:
Make CCTV mandatory for all slaughterhouses
Responsible department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We urge the government to make CCTV installation mandatory for all slaughterhouses, with selected footage independently monitored by welfare experts.
Animal Aid investigated nine randomly chosen UK slaughterhouses and found breaches of welfare laws in eight. Animals were shown being kicked, slapped, stamped on, beaten, punched, burned with cigarettes, and picked up by their fleeces and ears and thrown into pens. It showed inadequate, botched and multiple stunning, and the sadistic use of stunning equipment to ‘punish’ animals.
Neither the government-appointed on-site vets nor the slaughterhouse operators detected a single illegal act that we filmed.
Properly monitored CCTV would deter abuse, encourage best practice, help with staff training, and provide evidence for prosecutions.
CCTV won’t end slaughterhouse suffering, but it is an invaluable tool to help vets and welfare officers protect animals from gratuitous abuse and incompetent or negligent workers.
This e-petition has received the following response:
As this e-petition has received more than 10 000 signatures, the relevant Government department have provided the following response:
The Government encourages the highest standards of welfare at slaughter. Both EU Regulation 1099/2009, on the protection of animals at time of killing, and the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 (WASK), as amended, contain strict requirements to protect the welfare of animals being slaughtered. In slaughterhouses, these requirements are monitored and enforced by Official Veterinarians of the Food Standards Agency to ensure that animals are spared unnecessary suffering, distress or pain during the slaughter process.
Some of the undercover evidence has been gathered in premises which already had CCTV which implies CCTV may not be an effective monitoring tool though it could be helpful as a verification tool for audit purposes after a welfare breach has taken place in a particular slaughterhouse. The Government is not convinced of the need for further legislation at this time but will be keeping the need for CCTV under review in the context of the new monitoring requirements required under Regulation 1099/2009 which came into direct effect in January 2013.
This e-petition remains open to signatures and will be considered for debate by the Backbench Business Committee should it pass the 100 000 signature threshold.
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The ‘Guardian’ (UK National Press) Link with detailed video footage – WARNING – animal abuse shown.
Halal slaughterhouse staff investigated over alleged animal cruelty
Video footage from animal rights group appears to show sheep being kicked, hacked at and hurled into structures at Bowood Lamb abattoir in Yorkshire
Secret CCTV footage exposes halal abattoir cruelty
Undercover video shot by an animal welfare group appearing to show the brutal treatment of sheep at a Yorkshire abattoir has rekindled the debate over whether animals need to be stunned before they are killed.
The footage gathered by campaigning group Animal Aid shows sheep being kicked, threatened with knives and thrown into solid structures. In one case a worker appears to be pinning a sheep’s head down with his foot. Four slaughtermen at Bowood Lamb, a halal slaughterhouse in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, have had their operating licences suspended and the company said one worker had been sacked.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has launched an investigation into the footage, saying there is “no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video” and adding that prosecutions could follow.
Over three days in December, activists from Animal Aid used hidden cameras to record footage which appeared to show:
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A worker hacking and sawing at animals’ throats, in direct contravention of Islamic practice. In one instance it took up to five attempts to sever blood vessels.
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Sheep being kicked in the face and head, lifted by their ears, fleeces or legs and hurled into solid structures.
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A worker standing on the neck of a conscious sheep and bouncing up and down.
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Staff erupting into laughter over a sheep bleeding to death with spectacles drawn around her eyes in green paint.
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Employees taunting and frightening animals by waving knives, smacking them on the head and shouting at them.
The law requires abattoirs to stun animals before slaughter to prevent unnecessary suffering, but there are exemptions for Jewish and Muslim producers.
Under the halal code, animals are supposed to be killed quickly, with a single sweep of a surgically sharp knife.
They should not see the knife before they are slaughtered, or witness the death of other animals.
Footage from the Animal Aid video of the halal slaughterhouse.
Photograph: Animal Aid/PA
The video footage appears to show that these rules were not adhered to at Bowood, where more than 4,000 sheep were filmed being killed, the animal rights organisation said.
Sheep appeared to have knives sharpened in front of them and watched their flock-mates bleeding to death before being shackled and hoisted.
Responding to the allegation from Animal Aid that the alleged abuse captured on film was “routine”, Jamie Foster, solicitor for Bowood Lamb, said that was not correct.
Speaking on the BBC’s Farming Today programme, Foster said one employee had been sacked and added the company took animal welfare extremely seriously.
“We have very limited access to the footage … but clearly the piece we saw which involved a slaughterman standing on the neck of a sheep was something that fell far below the standards that Bowood would find acceptable and that individual was immediately dismissed for gross misconduct.”
Kate Fowler, head of campaigns at Animal Aid, said the scenes were “inexcusable”.
Animal Aid also criticised the poor design of the slaughterhouse. The group said that sheep fell some distance from a chute on to a slippery floor in the kill area and were often unable to stand.
They were then frequently thrown head first into a solid structure, Animal Aid said.
The group is calling for independently monitored CCTV cameras to be compulsory at slaughterhouses.
Slaughterhouses in the UK are regulated by the FSA, which provides operating licences and carries out inspections.
The FSA said: “The Food Standards Agency takes animal welfare at abattoirs very seriously, which is why we immediately suspended the licences of the slaughtermen involved.
“There is no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video and we are therefore investigating the footage with a view to prosecution.”
Last year, 2.4m sheep and goats were killed without being stunned in halal and Jewish shechita abattoirs, according to the British Veterinary Association.
Animal Aid said it recognised there was a risk of the video stirring up anti-Muslim feeling, but added: “Withholding release of the footage would be a betrayal of our key mission: to expose and combat animal cruelty.”
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Past SAV posts relating to Halal:
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 1, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Jill Phipps (15 January 1964 — 1 February 1995) was a British animal rights activist who was crushed to death in Baginton, Warwickshire, England by a lorry transporting live veal calves heading for continental Europe via Coventry Airport.
See Jill’s film here – we start with part 4, the final part – which involves the actions at Coventry airport – fighting live exports – and the death of Jill on 1st February 1995.
It has taken some 20 years since her death, but there are currently NO live animal exports from the UK to Europe. They may return, but when they do, campaigners on the English SE coastal ports will be ready to take action.
See Jill’s film (4 Parts) – Note that this film is now several years old, and many issues have changed; some for the better, some are still as they were and some, well, have possibly declined even more !
Fatal accident
On 1 February 1995, Phipps was one of 35 protesters at Coventry Airport in Baginton, protesting at the export of live calves to Amsterdam for distribution across Europe.
Ten protesters broke through police lines and were trying to bring the lorry to a halt by sitting in the road or chaining themselves to it when Phipps was crushed beneath the lorry’s wheels; her fatal injuries included a broken spine. Phipps’ death received a large amount of publicity, being brought up at Prime Minister’s question time in the House of Commons.
The Crown Prosecution Service decided there was not enough evidence to bring any charges against the driver. Phipps’ family blamed the police for her death, because the police appeared determined to keep the convoy of lorries moving despite the protest. The inquest heard that the driver may have been distracted by a protester running into the road ahead of him, who was being removed by a policeman.
The policeman in charge of the protest speculated that Phipps had chosen “deliberately [to] fall” under the wheels of the truck, but Phipps’ father insisted that she did not want to die as she had a young son to live for.
Aftermath
Veal calf exports from Coventry Airport ended months later, when the aviation firm belonging to the pilot responsible for the veal flights, Christopher Barrett-Jolly, went bankrupt following accusations of running guns from Slovakia to Sudan in breach of EU rules.
In 2006 he was charged with smuggling 271 kg of cocaine from Jamaica into Southend airport.
The continuing level of protest was such that several local councils and a harbour board banned live exports from their localities. All live exports of calves later stopped due to fears of BSE infection. In 2006 this ban was lifted, but Coventry Airport pledged that it would refuse requests to fly veal calves.
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 1, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
On my dad’s behalf Rev James Thompson I would like to thank you for your lovely tribute to him he would be over the moon with your kind words!!!
Anne
The Rev James Thompson, known as ‘the Animals Padre’, has died. He was 84 and died in hospital of pneumonia and other complications.
He conducted the animals service at the animals memorial in London every year.
He was also at Hillgrove where he carried out services for the cats.
He was a lovely man, devoted and committed to helping animals all over the world.
We hope he is now over the Rainbow Bridge and reunited with all the creatures he prayed for in this world.
RIP James, the world has lost a wonderful friend for the animals.
Sharon
SAV Comment – we had the pleasure of seeing and hearing the animals padre at several events in the past. He regularly held church services where he allowed all animals into church for a blessing – see photos above.
We thank Rev. James for his devoted love of all animals and for being one of the church who spoke out in the defense of animals. RIP Rev. James – a kind man who will be greatly missed, but always remembered as a true friend of all living species.
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 