Well now we have some great news that he has finally left his adaptation facility in Bulgaria and that he is now in his new sanctuary home – feeling grass under his feet for the first time.
Here is the update from the Four Paws team that did the rescue:
Hi Mark,
I recently sent an email (below) about the Albanian bear Riku.
Rescued from private keeping in December, Riku embarked on a long journey from Albania to Bulgaria earlier this month. After his arrival at our bear sanctuary in Bulgaria, Riku remained in an indoor adaptation enclosure until he was ready to move into his permanent outdoor enclosure.
As you can see by the picture below, Riku is finally able to enjoy the feeling of grass beneath his feet in his new home!
A massive thank you for making a donation to FOUR PAWS in response to Riku’s plight.
It’s only because of your kindness and generosity that we can continue give bears like Riku a better life – thank you for making our work possible.
Posted on May 15, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
China now eats twice as much meat as the United States, which is far too much on both counts !
“It is not possible to feed everyone so much meat,” said Wen Tiejun, the dean of Renmin university’s Agriculture school a leading advocate of rural reform. “People must simply eat less (meat)”.
Over the last 30 years, the Chinese demand for meat has quadrupled, according to figures from the USDA. China alone now eats a quarter of the world supply, approximately 71 million tons a year.
With lots more money in their pockets, the majority of Chinese citizens have turned away from their traditional diet of rice and vegetables, flavored with only a small quantity of meat. They now embrace Western diets and have become fast food junkies. But Chinese farmers are unable to keep pace with the demand, and imports of meat, breeding stock and animal feed have risen dramatically.
The average Chinese still only eats half the meat that his American counterpart does. But American and European meat consumption has now started to fall, while it is still rising strongly in the developing world, of which China is considered one. Leading water scientists have also issued warnings that the world may have to switch almost completely to a vegetarian diet over the next 40 years to avoid catastrophic shortages.
So what is China doing about it ? – New dietary guidelines could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 BILLION tonnes by 2030, and could lessen country’s problems with obesity and diabetes.
The Chinese government has outlined a plan to reduce its citizens’ meat consumption by 50%, in a move that climate campaigners hope will provide major change in the effort to avoid runaway global warming of the planet.
New dietary guidelines for citizens drawn up by China’s health ministry and only released once every 10 years recommend that the nation’s 1.3 billion population should consume between 40g to 75g of meat per person each day. The measures are designed to improve public health but could also provide a significant reduction to global greenhouse gas emissions.
The Chinese Communist party has released a series of new public information adverts encouraging Chinese citizens to consume less animal flesh each day to help the environment. If the new guidelines be followed, carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from China’s livestock industry would be reduced by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, from a projected 1.8 billion tonnes in that year.
14.5% of planet-warming emissions emanate globally from the keeping and eating of cows, chickens, pigs and other meat animals – this is more than the entire global emissions from the transport sector. Livestock produce and release methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. Land clearing and the use of fertilizers also release large quantities of carbon into the atmosphere.
Tackling climate change involves many routes – scientific judgement, political decisions, entrepreneurial support, but in the main, it still very much relies on involvement of the general public to change their meat consuming behaviour. Every single meat eating person around the globe has to believe in the low-carbon concept and slowly adapt to it by making changes to their diet and cutting down on, or preferably eradicating, meat consumption.
Meat has gone from a rare treat to a regular staple part of daily diet for many Chinese people. In 1982, the average Chinese person each year ate just 13kg of meat, nicknamed “millionaire’s meat” due to its scarcity. Beef consumption was almost non existent.
But the emergence of China as a world economic power has radically altered the diets of a newly wealthy population. The average Chinese citizen now eats 63kg of meat a year, with a further 30kg of meat per person expected to be added by 2030 if nothing is done to stop or amend the trend. The new guidelines set out in government guidelines would reduce this to between 14kg and 27kg a year – a reduction of more than 50%.
But, China still lags behind more than 12 other nations in ‘per capita’ meat consumption, with the average American or Australian consuming twice as much meat per person compared to China.
According to a new report by Wildaid – http://wildaid.org/ – the predicted increase in China’s meat consumption would add an extra 233m tonnes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere each and every year, as well as put an increased strain on the country’s water supply, which is already blighted by polluted and denuded rivers and groundwater.
The report also warns that unchecked Chinese meat consumption will degrade its arable land and much worsen the country’s problems and costs relating to obesity and diabetes. Already (2017) an estimated 100 million Chinese people have diabetes, more than any other country.
Research released by the think tank Chatham House in 2014 predicted that China alone is expected to eat 20 million tonnes more of meat and dairy a year by 2020 and warned that “dietary change is essential” if global warming is to not exceed the 2C limit eventually imposed at the Paris climate accord recently.
China’s potential move to cut meat consumption in half would not only have a huge positive impact on its public health, it would also be a massive step towards drastically reducing carbon emissions and reaching the global goals set out in the Paris agreement. Animal agriculture emits more than all transportation combined. Reducing demand for animal-based foods is essential if we are to limit global warming to 2C as agreed at COP21.
Despite the Chinese government’s commitment to reducing meat consumption by 50% or more, it may be very difficult to convince the country’s big spending, rising middle classes to cut down on their meat intake. There are strong cultural traditions attached to the eating of many animals, especially pigs, which will be difficult to change.
Recently, Chinese companies have been buying farms in the United States and Australia to provide feed for their country’s dairy and beef industries. In late 2013 a Chinese company, (Shenghui), purchased the largest US pork producer, named ‘Smithfield Foods’, to help keep up with demand.
China’s demand for meat could potentially continue to grow and support hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US meat industry. Sounds good for the USA; but also think; from a climate perspective, the methane produced by the animals will still continue to be created, but it will be shifted to the United States rather than remain in China. We wonder what President Trump would have to say about this if he cared – but then does he not think climate change is a non-reality invented by the Chinese ?
Posted on May 14, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
In honor of the animal Mother’s Day
(By Venus – Germany)
Every year on this day, I think of the animals who have never seen their mothers.
To the new-born calves who brutally snatched from their mother while the mother is still bleeding on her chains with the function to satisfy our pathological greed for luxury, sadism, and power. I think of all the mothers, who are legally tortured as swine-mothers against their will in the individual cells of modern animal barracks.
I think of the cow mothers who never see their children and only hear them screaming from far, because the second hand murderers of our society have ordered this crime.
I am thinking of the pain of the monkey mothers in the forest, whose children are snatched from her and end up in the labs, so that some criminal idiots can tear their bodies piece by piece and use them to secure their careers. I think of all mothers who cannot defend their children when they lie helpless around them and watch them die a slow death.
Every year, on May 14, we have the Mother’s Day. So we, the rulers, have set it up, and exchange gifts and thanksgiving among us;
Because the ruling species always remains unified and strong, and uses a Mother’s Day as a monopoly of love and gratitude only for human animals with the help of the well-known advertising industry, which sentimentalize and instrumentalist this with the purpose of selling them best.
And so, I trust on this day also to a society, which by the monopolization of freedom and the right to life on its own, has long since reached the moral bankruptcy of the human species.
Posted on May 13, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
AUSTRALIAN DONKEYS FACE BEING BLUDGEONED TO DEATH WITH SLEDGEHAMMERS IN CHINA!
Update via another source – 15/5/17.
Dear Louise, Mark and Kent Action Against Live Exports,
Louise – Thank you for forwarding Mark’s/KAALE’s email with link to Serbian Animals Voice webpage about the possibility of Australia (NT) exporting donkeys to China.
All – We are aware of this and are in touch with various people in Australia who are keeping tabs on the situation there, already writing articles, raising awareness etc against such a plan, and will lobby as hard as possible against it if it ever looks like becoming a reality. Whilst we cannot deny the truth of the articles linked in the Serbian Animals Voice page, many of them are several years (or even decades) old, and in the case of flesh being cut off live donkeys, we had reassurance some years ago from a reliable contact in Beijing that this was rare to start with, and now no longer happens. Whilst we do not condone the roadside slaughter of donkeys by sledgehammer, although it is brutal, as long as it is performed by someone who knows what they’re doing and does it well, it can be quicker and more humane than what goes on behind closed doors in some abattoirs rather closer to home. The photos shown first circulated widely in a Daily Mail article a few years ago and have reappeared at regular intervals since – they are guaranteed (and therefore deliberately used) to shock our western senses. Many of us are happy to eat meat, wear leather, etc, but close our eyes and ears to how it comes to be there and are then upset when the stark truth is laid out before us.
The media statement from Australia is dated 2009 – 8 years ago. Whilst the opening sentences are clearly (in my opinion) written in such a way as to provoke reaction, the Australians had not at that time investigated thoroughly into the logistics or economic viability of such a plan.
There are currently no protocols in place for the export of Northern Territory donkey hides or meat to China.
“Most importantly, we’ve also been doing some economic analysis to see whether the dollars stack up,” Mr Trier said.
“We undertook some economic analysis, using some assumptions drawn from a range of mechanisms about the value of donkeys in China and their productive turn-off.
“Our analysis, using Australian feral donkeys, is that it doesn’t seem economically viable [to farm them for export], however using Chinese donkey genetics, there could be some economics in it.
“But then, stacking that up against an existing industry, such as cattle, which [donkeys] would have to displace unless it was on other land, cattle appear more profitable.
“From our point of view, donkeys present a diversification opportunity, but it would be a mid to long-term process.”
In short, whilst it is true that Northern Territories have been, and to our knowledge still are, considering the possibility of export of donkeys to China, as far as we know this is not looking imminent. Furthermore, the indications are that if it should happen (which currently looks unlikely), that donkeys would be slaughtered in licensed abattoirs in Australia, not transported live to China.
We have a whole section of our website dedicated to the global issue of the rapidly increasing Chinese demand for donkey products, mainly skins (used in the production of a Traditional Chinese Medicine called ejiao), which is threatening donkey populations around the world, along with the communities that depend upon them for their livelihoods. To read our extensive report on this, and news and updates since it was published in January this year, please go to: www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/under-the-skin. Please feel free to circulate this link and the information contained therein to as many people and organisations as you like, and help us to raise support for our campaign.
Again, thank you for your concern. The threat to donkeys around the world is real, and we have a special, cross-departmental taskforce working specifically on this issue.
AUSTRALIAN DONKEYS FACE BEING BLUDGEONED TO DEATH IN CHINA IF THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT HAS ITS WAY.
Just when Australian’s thought the live animal export trade couldn’t possibly get any worse, there is now a possibility that donkeys will be live exported to China, a country known for it unspeakable cruelty towards animals.
Courtesy of Viral Spell:
Donkeys are butchered and sold by the curbside as customers watch:
In June 2009 a media statement was released by the Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries and Rural and Regional Queensland. The Honourable Tim Mulherin expressed his desire for Australian donkeys to be live exported to China. Mr Mulherin’s first sentence really says it all.
Picture shows : Horrifying sights of the animals bashed over the head with a sledgehammer
Picture this: “balmy afternoon in Beijing, donkey steaks sizzling on the barbeque, a little romance in the air aided by some traditional Chinese medicine made from donkey skins.” He went on to say that “the best part of this scenario is the donkey has been imported from Australia”.
It is extremely unlikely that ‘the best part of this scenario is the donkey has been imported from Australia’, when there are NO animal welfare laws in China for any animal, including Australian animals. Mr Mulherin may think there will be romance in the air while Australian donkey steaks sizzle on the barbeque, but the reality is donkeys in China are killed in the most unspeakable, incomprehensible ways.
There is NOTHING romantic about the horrors donkeys face when slaughtered in China.
THE REALITY SETS IN AS AUSTRALIA ONCE AGAIN DISCUSSES ITS PLANS TO LIVE EXPORT DONKEYS TO CHINA
Alister Trier, chief executive of the NT’s Department of Primary Industry, said over the past two years, the government had been approached by several Chinese companies wanting access to feral donkeys in the Northern Territory.
“The interest has been quite significant; we’ve had well over a dozen enquiries from different Chinese interests,” Mr Trier said.
“There [are] still numbers of feral donkeys in the NT — and too many for a lot of people’s liking — but not the numbers that investors from China were led to believe.”
Mr Trier toured a donkey processing factory in the Shandong province of China this year and said the industry was expanding and the demand for donkeys was incredible.
For decades Australia has been live exporting animals to the Middle East and South East Asia, this has resulted in the most horrific treatment and slaughter of Australian animals. The Australian government and the live export industry, has grossly failed to protect animals from being slaughtered in ways that are heinous. How can the government ensure that Australian donkeys are not killed in such ways if recent talks of starting up a donkey trade to China become a reality?
The answer is it cannot. Investigators have repeatedly exposed the live export trade for exactly what it is! Barbaric beyond belief…Investigators have filmed the most sickening treatment of Australian sheep and cattle on overseas soil, yet this cruel trade continues. Recently Investigators exposed footage of Australian cattle being bashed to death with sledgehammers, the same barbaric method used to kill donkeys in China.
A major campaign has now started in the build up to the UK General Election on 8th June 2017.We must not let the Conservatives repeal the hunting act which has been in place for around the last 11 years.
Support Vinny the fox and show your disgust at animal abuse in hunting.
Okay, I’m a fox cub, I’m not actually taking part in the election – don’t be daft.
·But a Vote for Vinny means that you care about animals – and you think your human government should care for animals too. I don’t just mean foxes, I mean all animals (even dogs – it’s not their fault peoples make them chase me)
·A Vote for Vinny means that you’ve moved from the dark days when peoples liked to kill animals like me for fun.
·And a Vote for Vinny means that you think humans should protect animals like me by punishing those bad peoples who hurt us.
Some clever humans tried to ban hunting long before I was born. It wasn’t just foxes who were grateful – deer, hares and those funny little minks were meant to be saved too.
But now I hear there’s a danger your people in power might want to start hunting us again?
In response to the Prime Minister’s renewed commitment to hold a free vote, League Against Cruel Sports CEO, Eduardo Goncalves said:
“Britain’s voters have been waiting to hear what the next government will be doing on key issues like the NHS, education and Brexit. It’s a shame that Parliamentary time will be spent on trying to make fox hunting legal again. Given that 84% of the public – and 72% of Conservative voters – want fox hunting to remain illegal, this smacks of a small minority with a cruel hobby wielding an inappropriately large influence over the people in charge. “Personally I want to live in a caring Britain, a country that cares for its people, its countryside and its animals. I want people who are cruel to animals to face a maximum penalty of five years, not six months as it is now. I want us to be compassionate and care about animals dying in the name of sport, such as trophy hunting and hare coursing. I think most people want the same. Are we really going to turn the clock back to a time when killing animals for fun was legal? I’m sure many current and future MPs of all colours feel the same way, so we hope they stand up and be counted when the time comes.”
Posted on May 12, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
This story just breaks our hearts into a million little pieces. Lana is a two-year-old Labrador who was given up by her first family in October of 2015. Once again back at the shelter, the photo of Lana looking depressed when she was returned went viral, with dog lovers dubbing her the “saddest dog in the world.”
Lana’s plight touched the hearts of millions, but thankfully due to the success of the story, 4,000 adoption applications were filed and $15,000 in donations came pouring in to cover Lana’s care. Lana was adopted by a second family in Ontario, Canadia and we wish the story ended there. Sadly, this sweet pup was once again returned to the shelter by the second family after just a few months.
Now, to make matters even worse, Lana faces euthanasiaon May 20th at her current shelter due to overcrowding issues. Someone, please help Lana!
Rescue Dogs Match, a Canadian non-profit pleaded on Facebook for a foster or forever home for this sweet girl. “May 14th is Lana’s birthday (she will be three). Please help find her a Foster or Forever home. Lana only has until May 20th.” Look at that gorgeous smile!
Lana loves to be outdoors and not in “tight” quarters. Rescue Dog Match explained, “‘The best environment for her would be a horse or hobby farm where she can be outside most of the time ‘helping’ her person with the chores around the property.”
The rescue team is committed to supporting Lana and aims to find a family with the training and time to ensure Lana’s third home is her last. Rescue Dogs Match said on their Facebook page that they are currently reviewing all of the applications that have been submitted thus far and will provide an update soon.
Fingers crossed for Lana! If you’re interested in submitting an application of your own, click here.
Sadly, Lana’s story is not uncommon and 2.7 million dogs and cats are euthanized every day due to shelter overcrowding and limited funds. If you find this figure shocking, consider the positive fact that by adopting a dog you not only save a life but gain a loyal best friend. Whether you’d prefer a mixed breed or purebred, a young pup or an elder dog, a shelter near you probably has the companion you’re looking for.
If you’d like to get involved with your local animal shelter and help out dogs just like Lana, check out our guide to volunteering. And please, always adopt and never buy!
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 