The Prime Minister David Cameron is handing over to Home Secretary Theresa May – who was sat alongside him on the front bench during the half hour session – after announcing his resignation on 24 June, the day after Britain voted to quit the EU.
Mr Cameron told MPs he had clocked up 5,500 questions during his six years as prime minister, joking that he would leave it to others to decide how many he has answered.
We in animal welfare do not really have many good things to say about Mr Cameron at all. He is a hunter; wanted to overturn the hunting ban introduced in the UK over ten years ago; he is behind all the killing (culling) of badgers in several counties in the UK – the badger being a ‘protected species’ under UK law; unless you are the government that is, then you can kill them at your leisure !!
Despite many promises, including written ones from our very own Member of Parliament, there has never been any action to ban the use of animals in UK circuses; despite a public consultation over 10 years ago which saw more than 85% of the British public at the time calling for an immediate ban on the use of animals in circuses.
To cut a long story short, David Cameron has been no friend to the animals. We welcome his demise today (13/7/16) when he visits her majesty the queen to officially declare his resignation. He will be replaced by Theresa May, the current Home Secretary; who will become the new Prime Minister. We do not currently have much information on her and her views, but we hope that she will be better for the welfare of animals in the UK.
SAV.
Below – Hetty the fox shows her appreciation to friends at the UK press:
Posted on July 13, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Cruelty Conviction
A Foster Farms slaughterhouse employee caught torturing chickens has been convicted of criminal animal cruelty. The conviction stems from a recent Mercy For Animals hidden-camera investigation.
by Lina Cohen – July 6, 2016
Yesterday, Gabriel Cevallos, a Foster Farms employee, was convicted for criminal animal abuse after being caught on hidden camera ripping out fistfuls of feathers from live birds, repeatedly hitting a bird with a severed chicken leg, and tossing live birds around like basketballs. Cevallos pled no contest to one count of criminal animal cruelty. His conviction stems from a 2015 Mercy For Animals undercover investigation at a Foster Farms chicken slaughterhouse in Fresno, California, which revealed birds scalded alive and several Foster Farms employees punching, throwing, and slamming birds.
Cevallos was sentenced by the Fresno County Superior Court to three years of probation and a fine of $600, and is required to attend 12 sessions of mental health counseling.
Although animal abuse is pervasive in Foster Farms’ poultry supply chain, American Humane Association has certified Foster Farms—one of the largest poultry producers in the country—as “humane.” AHA’s standards, which cover more than 1 billion animals, are far less stringent than those of virtually every other humane certification program. In fact, AHA standards barely exceed the minimal standards set by the factory farming industry itself. In other words, these standards are essentially meaningless.
MFA is calling on Foster Farms and AHA to stop misleading the public and implement meaningful animal welfare requirements, including replacing live-shackle slaughter methods with less cruel systems that eliminate the appalling suffering caused by dumping, shackling, shocking, and slitting the throats of conscious animals. Additionally, birds should be provided with more space, clean litter, access to adequate light, and environmental enrichments. Video monitoring systems that live stream to the internet should also be installed to deter future violence against animals.
Last week, Perdue Foods, one of the nation’s largest poultry producers, announced a precedent-setting animal welfare policy. MFA is calling on AHA and Foster Farms to stop paying lip service to animal welfare and do the same.
Convictions send an important message that animal cruelty will not be tolerated. The best way to protect animals, however, is not to eat them. Visit ChooseVeg.com to get started with some tips and recipes.
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Washington Post – Meat Is Horrible
by Joe Loria – July 5, 2016
“Meat is horrible,” a new article in The Washington Post, highlights the negative impacts of a Western diet.
Author Rachel Premack discusses the environmental, ecological, and health reasons Americans must give up or cut back on meat. Featuring multiple graphs, her compelling argument destroys common myths and seems to support a meat tax.
Premack writes:
By 2050, scientists forecast that emissions from agriculture alone will account for how much carbon dioxide the world can use to avoid catastrophic global warming. It already accounts for one-third of emissions today — and half of that comes from livestock.
She also notes that it takes “48 times as many liters of water to produce the same amount of beef as veggies” and we could save “a collective $730 billion in health care by reducing meat consumption.”
The debate over climate change and animal agriculture’s role in it is over. We know how raising animals for food damages our planet, and it’s time world leaders took action.
In the meantime, you can help protect the planet, your health, and animals by switching to a plant-based diet.
Click here to order your FREE Vegetarian Starter Guide
Posted on July 12, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
It’s common for elephants used in the tourism industry to be separated from their mothers as babies, tied down with ropes, beaten mercilessly, and gouged with sharp weapons.
These intelligent, complex, sensitive animals are forced to spend their entire lives shackled in chains and give rides to people, even in extreme heat.
Travel companies Classic Journeys, Goway Travel, and SITA World Tours know this, but they still offer elephant rides as part of some of their tours.
When people go to Thailand and ride on an elephant, most of them have no idea that elephants are often separated from their mothers when they’re babies, tied down with ropes, beaten mercilessly, and gouged with sharp weapons. If they knew, they probably wouldn’t do it.
But travel companies Classic Journeys, Goway Travel, and SITA World Tours can’t say that they didn’t know, because PETA told them about the industry-standard abuse, but they still offer elephant rides as part of their tours.
Life for these elephants is hell: Trainers at some camps wave flaming sticks in baby elephants’ faces, just to terrify them. The animals are often deprived of food and water during training, which can last for days and leave them injured and traumatized. Some don’t even survive.
The survivors will spend the rest of their lives like slaves, chained up and forced to carry tourists on their backs through sweltering heat and exhaustion, all while being jabbed and pulled with weapons such as bullhooks or other sharp objects.
If this makes you mad, think about how the elephants feel—then you might be able to understand why they sometimes lash out. Earlier this year, a man vacationing in Thailand was gored to death in front of his daughter. In March, captive elephants killed at least four trainers in Thailand alone. Plus, elephants throughout Asia are known to carry tuberculosis, a deadly disease that can be spread between elephants and humans.
Riding elephants hurts animals and humans, and there’s no reason for it. Animals are not ours to capture, beat, enslave, and ride.
ACTION
Tell Classic Journeys, Goway Travel, and SITA World Tours to stop supporting the abuse of intelligent, sensitive elephants.
Posted on July 11, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Update – new addition (12/7) as follows:
At Tri-State Zoological Park, a roadside zoo in Cumberland, Maryland, deplorable conditions make life miserable for the animals—including tigers whose cages contain disgusting, murky pools and a solitary capuchin who has pulled his own hair out, apparently in sheer frustration.
It’s time that these animals get the care and attention that they deserve at reputable sanctuaries.
The largest swath of protected ocean ever (!) could be created in weeks, simply with President Obama’s signature.
But Hawai’i’s powerful fishing lobby is ferocious and is working hard to stop the deal from closing and without a wave of voices supporting the dolphins, sharks, turtles, and more who depend on this sea, everything could be lost.
Insiders say that Obama wants to hear from the international community, knowing that protecting the ocean is a global task, and a failure not only threatens the majestic creatures in the sea, it threatens all of our survival. Add your name to the petition below with just one click to show him we’re all in this together — when enough people have signed we’ll deliver our voices directly to the White House and to the local leaders in Hawai’i who need our support:
To President Obama, Hawai’i Governor Ige, and Senators Hirono and Schatz: “To secure the future of our planet, we need to protect the beautiful biodiversity that sustains it. The proposed marine national monument at Papahānaumokuākea is an opportunity for your government and the world to take the kind of dramatic steps we need. As concerned citizens with a stake in our seas, we call on you to make Papahānaumokuākea the largest protected space in the world, one with the maximum possible boundaries, a place we can look to for hope and inspiration.”
To save our oceans, experts say we need to set aside as much as 30% in protected areas as soon as possible. This reserve — in a sacred place Hawaiʻians call Papahānaumokuākea and that some see as the source of humans’ connection with the holy — would be a huge step in that direction, protecting 1.6 million square kilometers of ocean habitat home to over 7,000 species. A quarter of these can’t be found anywhere else on the planet — it’s a stunning piece of our precious biodiversity that we can’t afford to lose.
But Papahānaumokuākea is also unique because experts say it’s an exceptional ‘climate refuge’. As our oceans heat up, marine life is traveling to cooler waters — and this reserve is big enough and placed perfectly to span both tropical and more temperate ocean. That means it could maintain coral reef — and the critical biodiversity it sustains — in a way that most other places on Earth won’t be able to.
President Obama — who is from Hawaiʻi, a local hero — has overseen the creation of several critical protected areas, but this could be a new crowning achievement — one that he could announce at home in Hawaiʻi at a major conference in September.
We’ve fought for and won protected areas around the world, including off the coast of Hawaiʻi just two years ago — where we beat these very same lobbyists. Let’s show everyone from the locals behind the project to Obama himself that the world is 100% behind this plan. Add your name to the petition now with just one click, and protect Papahānaumokuākea:
The fishing industry doesn’t have a leg to stand on in the debate. They want to be able to keep fishing big-eye tuna in the area — but they’ve already fished out 86% of the world’s stock of the species. And not only that, they only get about 5% of their catch from within these waters, and would be free to keep fishing elsewhere. But they’re powerful lobbyists and they’re making their case heard — let’s make sure we drown them out!
With hope,
Danny, Nick, Luis, Lisa, Nell, Risalat, Ari, Emma, and the rest of the Avaaz team
PETA has pulled back the curtain on rampant abuse on factory farms and in slaughterhouses for the chicken meat and egg industries many times over the years. Every time, people wake up and changes are made, sometimes even by the companies involved.
This time, a PETA exposé of a massive hatchery operated by Sanderson Farms, Inc., which supplies chicken to Kroger, Sysco, Arby’s, Chili’s, and others, has provided shocking footage of unwanted chicks there born alone and left to languish before finally being ground up alive.
When chicks hatched later than expected, including this one named Jessie by the eyewitness, they were left alone for hours, deprived of warmth, before finally dying or being killed.
Click here to learn more about this eyewitness exposé and find out what you can do to help animals like Jessie who suffer in the meat industry.
Thanks for everything you do to help animals!
Danielle Katz
Associate Director of Campaigns
PETA
The news was shocking – a coyote in Los Angeles, gunned down by a sniper on a residential street. As reported on July 1st in the Los Angeles Times, the gunman shot the coyote in the city’s Silver Lake neighborhood, in what the Times called an act of “coyotecide.”
As Los Angeles’s Animal Cruelty Task Force looks into the shooting, and the Department of Animal Services investigates, Project Coyote is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect(s) responsible.
Our reward offer is helping to generate news coverage about this act of barbarity, while exposing the stark reality that coyotes are the target of so much hatred and violence and have no protections as afforded their domestic cousins.
Had the killer shot a domestic dog, it would be considered a felony under state anti-cruelty laws.
Ironically, just last week Project Coyote’s Southern California Representative, Randi Feilich testified before the Los Angeles City Animal Welfare Committee in support of a proposed non-lethal coyote management plan being considered by the Committee. The plan emphasizes public education and coexistence. At the meeting, Feilich offered the support of our Coyote Friendly Communities program, which provides tools and expertise to peacefully live with coyotes and other wildlife.
Since the shooting, media coverage has increased public awarness of the cruelty suffered by coyotes and other wildlife, as well as the threat this poses to human safety.
Please help us prevent such senseless acts and help us change laws so that coyotes are no longer treated as vermin that can be killed in unlimited numbers.
With your support we can continue to equip communities across the country with the information, support and tools they need to live peacefully with wild animals who also call this planet home.
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 