22/2/16 – To further support what we say below about the EU / Turkish border issue, watch the very disturbing new video of conditions for EU animals in transport at the EU – Turkish border:
https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2016/02/22/very-disturbing-video-of-conditions-for-eu-animals-at-the-eu-turkish-border-the-eu-system-fails-animals-politicians-and-meps-take-note-of-what-is-shown-you-are-the-very-reason-for-this/
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Breaking news – 1800 hrs 21/2/16
In one of the great capital cities of the world, London Mayor (Boris Johnson) delivers massive blow to David Cameron and gives his full support to the campaign to EXIT from the EU.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-boris-idUKKCN0VU0F2
UPDATE – UK Referendum Date – Thursday 23rd June 2016 – 23/6/16.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35621079
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqH21LEmfbQ
Well all the news in the UK at the moment relates to the UK in / out referendum on (the UK) continuing to be a member state of the European Union (EU). The following links from the BBC give a very good overview of the current situation and the major problem / issue that most UK voters will have within the next year or so – that being: does the UK leave the EU or does it stay ?
Although we watch news bulletins very regularly and try to keep up with issues affecting the referendum, there are other issues to those ‘main’ ones which do not get any attention but which many people in the UK feel very strongly about. Animals and their welfare are one of those such issues.
Lets be clear, the British voting public have NOT been consulted at all on the issues in the EU which are of concern to them. David Cameron has ‘his’ issues; and these are all that are debated at this present time. To hell with everyone else and what they consider as important – global warming, the environment etc, etc. All issues such as these, concerning what the British public would actually like to see really addressed by the EU top people re EU changes are completely ignored. And yet the British public will still be expected to vote in the coming months on just a handful of debated issues; mostly pretty useless and unimportant to many, while ‘theirs’ (or in our case animal welfare); are just thrown on the scrap heap and do not even appear on the list for debate.
At the present time; many of our national (UK) animal welfare regulations are set by the EU, which we do not have a problem with; that being AS LONG AS every nations which is an EU member state abides by the rules and does what is required of them as members. Sadly this very often not the case; and so one has to question the entire ‘EU thing’ when only 50% of its members even bother to comply strictly with any particular animal welfare legislation. When it comes to animals and their welfare, we in the UK have a proud history; the normal consensus being to do what is best for the welfare of the animal.
For example, the EU has ‘Regulation 1/2005’ which is supposed to enforce strict (but in our opinion still very wrong and grossly outdated) regulations for the so-called ‘protection’ of animals during long distance transport. Basically, and as persons at SAV have been very involved with live animal transport investigations for many years; ie. 25+, it is very much clear to us to say that the existing EU regulations for animals in transport do NOT work. Some better nations of the EU try to enforce the regulations as best they can; others simply do not care – they are going for slaughter anyway being the rhetoric ! We only have to see for example the evidence obtained by good friend Lesley at ‘Eyes on Animals’ http://www.eyesonanimals.com/category/our-inspections/transport/ in the Netherlands regarding many EU animals being exported from the EU across to Turkey, a (current) non EU state. At the border between the EU and Turkey, animals are forced by non-compliance of the EU regulations to wait for days to cross the border into Turkey for their slaugter. http://www.eyesonanimals.com/inspection-of-eu-livestock-trucks-heading-to-turkey/ The length of time they have to wait to cross borders is completely non compliant with the EU Regulation 1/2005 on the welfare of animals during transport – yet the regulation is constantly ignored by all involved (to ensure ‘welfare’) and the EU seems to do very little about the evidence from welfare groups which clearly (and time after time) shows non compliance with these regulations !
As you can see from the ‘About Us’ tab on the top of this site; several years ago we produced a report (with a group of leading EU animal welfare organisations) for the EU Parliament / Commission specifically about the live calf trade between Ireland and mainland Europe. The report, which concentrated on some 5 independent trails (of livestock vehicles) and investigations of live calf transporters; clearly showed each and every time that the were blatantly clear breaches and non compliances with the regulations set by the EU in their Regulation 1/2005.
If you care to click on the following link you will see just 1 of the 5 trails which was undertaken and clearly proved that Irish calves were not being given adequate food and rest at an approved Staging Post facility after they had made the crossing from Ireland to France. Remember, this is just 1 of the 5 investigation reports that we produced in our ‘overall’ document; and all the non compliances with the EU Regulation 1/2005 for this specific trail / investigation are given at the end of this specific investigation report. Remember also that these investigations and reports do not just appear by magic. Many people, their time, money and several vehicles are often involved – they all take effort and time to record all the exact details which you can see detailed in the report. Thus, it can be annoying in the least when all this work is undertaken, compiled and presented to the EU, and then they do nothing about it ! – something is wrong somewhere; hence our gripes as detailed in the rest of this article. This is typical of the work involved to ‘do the trail / investigation job’ properly; and when you do and then get completely ignored at EU level you begin to ask questions about those same people and the organisation who are supposed to be ‘enforcing’ the ‘animal welfare’ regulations.
Photo – PMAF (from one of the report investigations)
Click on the following link to read a very small part of the overall trail / investigation report:
JH.04.03.2010_REPORT on NON-COMPLIANCE with RESTING TIMES in relation to CONTROLPOST at F-HEAUVILLE
COVER
Photos – PMAF (from one of the report investigations)
So what has happened about this ?, what note has been taken of the (our) investigative report to try and help suffering calves on the road ? – basically, sod all; we have been ignored, that’s what; our evidence, time, money and efforts to show the cruelty but reality of the trade were utterly ignored by the EU. So, was there any real use in producing the report in the first place we ask ? There is no change and no progress – years on from our report of 2010, Irish calves are still being exported to mainland EU, the hauliers are still breaking the rules as we originally exposed those years ago, and the EU masters conveniently turn a blind eye to it all; just like they do when informed about the very long waits at the Turkish border. So, what is the point of ‘EU rules and regulations’, when we show how they are constantly being broken and yet the EU is doing nothing about it !! We all know that David Cameron, the British PM and ‘chief negotiator’ at the EU meetings, does not care about animal welfare; after all, as a huntsman he wants to bring back hunting which has been banned in the UK for approximately 12 years now. Such are his animal welfare concerns – so who is he to represent us, the UK / British public at a meeting in Europe – especially anything relating to animal welfare !
The same could be said about stray animals and new EU member states which are currently listed as ‘EU candidate countries’. This includes Serbia. Ever since our foundation back in 2005, SAV has pushed at EU level that Serbia should not be allowed to become an EU member state until it fully addresses its own laws correctly does something positive towards stray animal welfare legislation, the management and long term reduction of stray animals within Serbia. As Serbia is so very corrupt at both local and national political level; we are hardly ever witnessing Serbia actually applying its own ‘rules of law’ (which is actually an EU membership requirement under the Copenhagen Criteria we are informed by the EU Enlargement Commission – http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/policy/policy-highlights/rule-of-law/index_en.htm ) in advance of any EU candidate country membership. So again here we have another animal welfare problem – Serbia simply ignores its own existing national legislations for the treatment of stray animals, whilst at the same time it is also supposed to be showing the EU that it IS enforcing its own national laws (the rules of law) under ‘Copenhagen’ in order to become a new member state of the EU !! – read more about the rules and regulations in ‘About Serbian Animals’ – one of the main top tabs which you can find on this site.
So, we have calves being shipped all over the EU by Irish hauliers (and others) who do not adhere to EU animal transport regulations as they should (being from existing EU member states), and we have am (EU) ‘candidate country’ named Serbia which is not enforcing its own animal welfare legislation but which is aiming for EU membership in the very near future; even though it is not complying at all with the ‘rule of law’ as required by the EU for all new member states to show that they are !
To non Europeans (many of whom visit this site), we ask; would you personally vote ‘yes’ to remain in a farcical team called ‘the EU’ which says one thing and yet almost always turns a blind eye, or ignores all the very realistic evidence on non-compliances when it is presented to them ? – this is the situation British EU animal welfare citizens and voters are in at the moment; what way exactly do we / they vote ?
On a SAV basis, the more we currently look into EU animal welfare, the more we see that regulations are not being enforced to prosecute member states across the whole of the EU by the EU seniors in their ivory towers at Brussels. The situation is really a very bad joke; but sadly, a joke which sees millions of animals being abused by the ‘EU system’, when in reality, it, in the form of EU legislation and national enforcement, should be offering them some degree of protection in their very fragile and often very short ‘lives’.
As we have shown on this site many times, David Cameron (British Prime Minister) is a hunter; and one who wishes to bring (animal) abuse in the form of hunting back into the UK at the very earliest opportunity. He is not in any way, shape or form a supporter of animal welfare. Some 11 years or so ago about 94% of the British public voted that wild animals should not be allowed in British circuses. This was the result of a formal public consultation by the UK government (then called ‘MAFF’) at the time. Eleven years on, and under David Cameron’s Conservative government, we still have no movement on preventing wild animals from being used in UK circuses. 27 other nations around the World have stopped it – This shows how much ‘concern’ Mr Cameron has for animals – ie. none – and yet he now wants us all to rally round him when he returns from the EU in the next few days by voting ‘yes’ to his pitiful negotiations, and in his opinion, thus getting the UK to remain in the EU.
And lets take the EU Commissioners – non elected by the citizen people of Europe and yet the very persons who sit in the EU towers to decide ‘what is’ and ‘what is not’ when it comes to ‘their’ particular sector.
For example, lets look at Irishman Phil Hogan – the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. http://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/hogan_en
When questioned about live animal transport a few years back by a welfare group, for which he was sent over 500 texts in just one day on the subject issue, Hogan responded that ‘he would not be bullied on animal farming or animal welfare issues’ – http://www.thejournal.ie/phil-hogan-love-exports-texts-1978127-Mar2015/ – no doubt Commissioner Hogan supports the export of live calves to Europe from Ireland, despite the non compliances with regulations that we presented in our report years ago; and so what results – nothing ! – he is an EU Commissioner who should actually be listening to the request of the people of the EU; instead he is in a very pivotal position of just speaking up to defend Irish farmers at whatever cost to the rest of the animals of Europe. Would you have faith in such people ? – we certainly do not – and yet here is a typical example of how un-elected by the people politicians rule the way the EU is going in; by simply getting what they alone want and sod everyone else !
Many people will see the (UK) in / out vote in the near future as a clear message to the British government that they (the government) really are on another planet to the majority of citizens of the UK. Many of these people will vote ‘out’ just to send a simple but very clear message to Mr Cameron and the cronies that work around him that they are sick of his principles. One thing is fairly sure, if the UK votes to leave the EU, David Cameron cannot remain as the UK Prime Minister; he and his campaign will be torn to shreds and he will have to walk head bowed from Downing Street. Just the thought of this spectacle alone will make many people vote for the UK to get out of Europe; these being the disabled; those who cannot get council housing, as the government is still selling it (council housing) off, the situation where sick and disabled people are screwed by the government on the ‘bedroom tax’; as well as the whole saga relating to wonderful pay rises for MP’s when they are telling everyone else that they cannot have big pay rises as the system does not allow it ! – a ‘one rule for some and the same rules not applying to others’ one could say.
The EU is in a mess – the few (and often un-elected, such as Commissioners) running and deciding on what happens, completely ignorant to the wishes of the normal and many EU citizens ask. Does this help animal welfare ? – No; but then does staying in the EU and getting told by people like Hogan to go away when he should be listening to the people and taking note of their evidence aka our live export investigations report or the evidence of livestock transporters waiting for days at the Turkish border ?.
We do not know how UK citizens will eventually vote; although at the moment (19/2/16) it is looking more like getting OUT of the EU rather than staying in – but this may change. Whatever the result, the UK government will have to acknowledge that there are around half of the people in the country who are not happy with whatever the final outcome is – it is that close at present.
David Cameron; only some have any faith in you. Time will tell what results you bring back to the UK as something fabulous for the people of the UK. We think it will be a damp squib. 27, 28, 32 nations (as the EU could be) just do not harmonise – we all as independent nations have our own ways and standards. Don’t view things as the EU does, that the UK is as Sweden, which is as Italy, which is as Greece, which is as Latvia, which is as Serbia, which is as Denmark etc, etc. Wake up to the real world before it is too late.
Whatever, the UK has a proud and VERY vocal, campaigning animal rights / welfare lobby – we will continue to fight for the better treatment of animals regardless of us being in or out of the EU.
We can make the effort and be the animals voice as per the trail / investigation link given above; it is hard work and takes a lot of time, but we do it for the animals. And what’s more; we are getting pretty good at what we do in this field now !!
Regards Mark (founder SAV) !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32810887
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum
*** UPDATE – 20/2/16 *** – PM Secures An EU ‘Result’ for the people of the UK – so he thinks; but many disagree !
Well, however the people of the UK feel about the issue, one thing is more than clear, we are going to get nothing but press and media jargon right up until voting day – then there will be the post vote analysis !
Here are a few samples of what happened yesterday – UK press coverage from Sat. 20/2/16
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3455546/PETER-OBORNE-accepts-charade-believe-Cameron-signing-political-death-warrant.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/12166097/david-cameron-cabinet-leave-brexit-EU-referendum-june-23-live.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6943833/Cameron-reaches-deal-in-Brussels-but-will-put-Brexit-decision-to-the-nation.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/645597/EU-renegotiation-David-Cameron-Brussels-summit-referendum-Brexit
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/645770/EU-referendum-TNS-poll-Brexit-David-Cameron-renegotiation
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Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 