Posted on July 14, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
This week our good friends at Farm Animal Rescue were forced to go public with a petition calling on the Queensland Government to abandon its plans to force the charity to pay $300,000 for road upgrades!
Farm Animal Rescue (FAR) is a registered charity and sanctuary for animals that have been rescued from starvation, danger, and abuse. We can’t speak highly enough of the work the team at FAR do for the animals.
The Government has made the decision to ban visitors from Farm Animal Rescue unless they spend $300,000 adding an additional lane to Dayboro Road, a highway managed by Queensland Transport and Main Roads. With the charity unable to come up with such a huge amount of money, it would mean an end to visitors like you at the sanctuary, and make the future of the sanctuary uncertain.
Please sign the petition, spread the word and keep an eye on social media for further steps you can take to help save FAR in the coming weeks!
For the animals,
Chay and the team at Animal Liberation Queensland
McDonald’s uses a staggering 3.5 million plastic straws every single day — and that’s just in the UK. Used for a few seconds, then thrown away, many end up polluting our oceans.
Small, light, and hard to avoid, it’s no wonder plastic straws dumped into the sea get stuck in sea turtles’ nostrils, lodged in the stomachs of baby seabirds, and end up in our food chain after being eaten by fish.
Just recently a UK based pub chain stopped routinely giving out plastic straws — but its 100,000 straws per month is a drop in the ocean compared to McDonald’s 3.5 million a day habit.
Just image what a difference 3.5 million straws a day out of circulation would make to our oceans and the animals that live in them.
Plastic pollution is one of the biggest threats to our oceans, and straws are one of the most common plastic items found in beach cleanups, according to Greenpeace.
A total of 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our seas every year — that’s the equivalent to five shopping bags of waste on every foot of coastline in the world! And as a result it is estimated that every yeara million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals — such as sea turtles — die.
Plastic doesn’t degrade, but is broken up into ever smaller pieces. So if that straw isn’t swallowed whole by a large bird or turtle the bits it breaks into can be eaten by fish or fed to chicks starving to death with stomachs full of plastic.
Taking 3.5 million plastic straws per day out of use would be a major step towards cleaning up our seas and protecting wildlife from this plastic menace.
We’ve faced huge and powerful corporate players before, and we know that when SumOfUs members like you stand up for what’s right, together we can force them to change. After all we’ve done it before.
We’ve forced McDonald’s — along with companies like Starbucks, and KFC — to commit to sourcing 100% responsible palm oil. When we expose the ugly side of corporate giants — like McDonald’s — they take action to protect their brand. And in doing so we score a massive victory for our planet.
1. Bear bile does have medicinal uses but there are cruelty-free alternatives
Bear bile has been used in traditional Asian medicine for thousands of years. It contains high levels of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) known to be useful for treating liver and gall bladder conditions. However, there are now many readily available herbal and synthetic alternatives with the same medicinal properties. Traditional medicine practitioners agree, nobody’s health will suffer due to a lack of bear bile.
In the past bear bile would be obtained by hunting bears in the wild and killing them to remove their gall bladder. It would have been a particularly rare and prized ingredient at the time used sparingly for specific medical conditions. In the 1980s however, bear bile farming began to be practiced as a way of constantly extracting bile for the duration of a bear’s life. Today more than 12,000 bears are believed to be kept on bear bile farms in China and Vietnam
2. Extracting bile from bears is as cruel and painful as you would imagine
The extraction of bear bile from live bears causes unimaginable suffering and long term health problems for these physically and psychologically damaged animals.
A number of techniques exist, all of which are particularly gruesome. While the techniques vary between Vietnam and China, each involves bears being kept in tiny cages. Extraction methods range from “free drip” where the bear suffers a hole in their gall bladder, to the insertion of permanent catheters.
Crush cages and bears locked into metal jackets have now been made illegal in China – but are likely to still be used in poorer farms. Bears literally grow up in tiny cages to the point where their bodies have contorted to fit the bars. Most have few teeth left due to literally trying to chew their way out
In China some farms have breeding programmes, but also rely on these being added to by poaching bears from the wild. Many bears can be caged as cubs and never released, suffering up to 30 years of continuous torture by bile extraction.
Most farmed bears however are starved, dehydrated and suffer from multiple diseases and malignant tumours that ultimately kill them.
3. The Chinese people don’t want bear bile farming
A 2011 poll by Animals Asia found that a staggering 87% of Chinese people interviewed disagree with the cruel practice of bear bile farming
The medical community too is shunning bear bile farming, with thousands of pharmacies recently pledging never to stock bile products as part of Animals Asia’s Healing Without Harm programme.
This year the owners of Nanning Bear Bile Farm asked us to take over and convert it into a sanctuary. They were in agreement that the industry must end – because, in their words, bear bile farming is both cruel and hopeless.
Meanwhile Kai Bao, the biggest single buyer of bear bile, recently announced they were pursuing research into bear bile alternatives with government backing. The suggestion remains that the market is reducing.
4. It’s still legal in China but not in Vietnam
Unfortunately, bear bile farming is still completely legal in China – albeit with regulations aimed at curbing the worst cruelty of the industry. Regulations that are circumvented or ignored time and again – so far, with no prosecutions being made.
In Vietnam, bear bile farming has been technically illegal since 1992, but it wasn’t until 2005 that species-specific legislation was introduced banning the exploitation of these endangered animals. Sadly, bear bile farming persists in the country due to legal loopholes as well as the fact that demand still exists.
5. We won’t stop fighting until bear bile farming is ended for good
Since being set up in 1998 Animals Asia has continuously campaigned to end bear bile farming in China and Vietnam. Thanks to the staunch support of people all over the world, we have been able to take bear bile farming from a dark secret to an international outrage. We have rescued more than 500 bears in Vietnam and China from the cruelty of bear bile farms and are absolutely committed to ending this cruel trade.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your help and the help of everyone you know to condemn this barbaric industry to the history books. So please, tell your friends, share this article and support our work. Together we can end the cruelty.
Posted on July 12, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Dear Mark,
After the summit meeting G20 in Hamburg I send you my personal criticism and my subjective opinion about this fiasco.
I was also there and could judge the things myself.
Best regards from Venus
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The show with the G20 is over, at least in Hamburg.
The fact that the 19 great states (+ EU representative) have decided nothing important seems to surprise no one.
According to reports from serious journalistic sources (RT), about 76,000 demonstrators protested. Engaged, combative people from every political direction, people with Animal Liberation t-shirts were also there, social democrats, greens, citizens’ initiatives, vegans, carnivores … it was all represented!!
The police have denied elementary democratic rights of peaceful protesters and journalists, and they (protesters) were attacked with pepper spray and sticks; There have been many injured persons.
Among the protesters were not only anarchists who reject any government (of any kind). Most people knew that it was a struggle for world power, between American and European capitalists.
More or less independent were only India, China and Russia.
The interesting thing about the current development of capitalism is that the old imperialists (the G7 countries) now need the approval of other, smaller countries. What to achieve?
To keep capitalism running around the world! – After the economic crisis of 2008 they are no longer so sure of their cause.
At this meeting, Merkel understood the growing rejection of the world against Trump as an opportunity to present herself as the “leader of the free world”; The media is involved. In the G20 summit she has proved that she is capable of forming coalitions against Trump.
No matter what we will read in the final declaration of the G20 summit, the informal alliance against Trump is on the road, and everyone knows that. The German-European breakthrough in world politics has begun.
I find it terrifying that the fate of this world will be left either to a paranoiac like Trump or a power hungry Chancellor like Merkel!
LOZNICA RESCUES NEED HELP WITH THEIR VACCINATION’S, SPAYING’S AND NEUTERING’S: LET’S DO THIS RIGHT FOR THESE DOGS!
After those celebrating moments when we had your breathtaking support and we were fighting together to save as many lives as possible, came the time when isolation period was over and the need for vaccinations, testings, spaying’s and neutering’s has started.
All 49 last saved dogs plus almost 90 previously rescued are now ready for their first vaccination against infectious diseases and each every one of them needs 4D testings, ultra sounds, neutering’s and spaying’s.
WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF SPAYING’S AND NEUTERING’S, BUT WE WERE FORCED TO STOP AS ALL FUNDS ARE AT THE ROCK BOTTOM, CONSUMED BY THE COSTS OF THE RESCUE AND IMMEDIATE AFTERCARE AT THE VETS.
Many of the dogs who were already brutally butchered with primitive surgery in the kill shelter, need their neuter and spaying redone properly. On the top of our worries, that time of year has come and many unspayed females are currently in the heat, which makes our kennels very hard to control – and males clash.
WE CANNOT DO ANY OF THIS WITHOUT YOUR VERY KIND CONTINUED HELP AND SUPPORT .
For Your kind donations, PayPal address: humanimalserbia@gmail.com or just click the PayPal button bellow:
The cost of each vaccine is 12.50 euros, the cost of each 4D test is 20 euros and the cost of reworking the tens of botched neutering and spayings varies from 25 euros up to 90 euros for some of the badly botched females to be redone and cleared of infections, plus 20 euros for previous ultra sounds.
It is a lot when numbers add. It is a lot for anyone to do this alone. But, we are not alone!
WE HAVE YOU! THE GREATEST DOG LOVER TEAM IN THE WORLD AND TOGETHER WE ALREADY MANAGED MIRACLES TO HAPPEN. WE CAN DO IT AGAIN!
PLEASE HELP US TO DO THIS RIGHT!
We are desperate to raise the funding now to continue with what needs to be done next. Can you help them go to their forever homes. Any donation, no matter how tiny, helps a dog in our care.
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT BOTH PAST AND PRESENT. YOU REALLY ARE THE BACKBONE OF OUR RESCUE. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU.
Together we took on the world’s largest tuna company and won!
With your help, we confronted Thai Union at sea, on land — in every continent it operates, and took the fight directly to its headquarters in Thailand as only Greenpeace can do.
This is good news for turtles and sharks, sea birds and tuna. It is also great for hundreds of thousands of workers at sea, many of whom have been victims of horrendous working conditions and human rights abuses.
You signed petitions, shared with your friends, and demanded that supermarkets carry better products, and it paid off.
Thai Union, the owner of global brands like Chicken of the Sea, Mareblu, Petit Navire, and Sealect, has committed to real changes that will help make its supply chains safer for both our oceans and workers at sea.
Thai Union now joins the likes of Greenseas and John West Australia as seafood companies that you’ve taken on and won against!
This is a huge win for people power – but the fight doesn’t end today. While Thai Union’s commitments are substantial, we must keep the pressure on. We must monitor Thai Union’s progress to ensure compliance and we must expand this fight to the rest of the out-of-control seafood industry.
Here are three things you can do right now to help mark this momentous occasion:
Thanks to your hard work, Thai Union is going to reduce its dependence on fishing methods that kill sharks and turtles, scale up its reliance on more sustainable fishing methods, and work to ensure all vessels in its supply chains are living up to strict standards for workers.
Not only that, the company will increase transparency so you can find where tuna was caught and which fishing method was used. It will also allow for independent observers and auditing on its vessels to help address human rights abuse at sea.
These are major changes that set a new standard for the seafood industry. But it is up to us to demand that other companies act immediately. Can you help build on this momentum and support all of Greenpeace’s important work?
For far too long, the seafood industry has profited off destruction and human rights abuses. This victory shows that people power can change the biggest seafood companies, but we need to keep up the fight.
Your work got us this far. Let’s continue the fight to protect our oceans in the years to come. We are winning!
Sincerely,
Graham Forbes
Global Seafood Markets Leader, Greenpeace
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 