Posted on May 9, 2018 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
The harp seal slaughter in Canada has ended, with 59,076 seal pups “landed.”
This official number does not include the seals who were “struck and lost” – in other words, seals who were shot but only injured and slipped away, only to die later. The total number of seals killed by sealers this year could be about 65,000, if about 10% were “struck and lost.”
Looking on the bright side, the death toll is much less than last year, when almost 81,000 seal pups were “landed” and also higher than the year before, when the official number was 66,800.
Update on Our Truth About Sealing Campaign
Although surveys of Canadians have found that the majority oppose the seal “hunt” – when the questions are asked the “right” way, in reality, many Canadians hesitate to speak out against the commercial seal slaughter because they are under the false impression that sealing is necessary – for the financial welfare of the fishermen/sealers, to control the seal population, or for the survival or welfare of the Inuit.
Our ongoing Truth About Sealing campaign, which includes ads on Canadian TV and Facebook, has already reached hundreds of thousands of Canadians. On TV, we have aired our “Nothing to Be Proud of” commercial on both broadcast and cable (“specialty”) channels, with over half a million impressions.
On Facebook, our ad that addresses the propaganda conflating Inuit sealing (in which mostly adult ringed seals are killed for food and clothing used in the communities) and the east coast commercial seal “hunt” has been shown over 445,000 times, reaching over 345,000 Canadian Facebook users. Our “Nothing to Be Proud of” commercial has been shown on Facebook over 70,000 times, to over 50,000 Canadians.
All this advertising has generated awareness and debate. We have received hundreds of comments on Facebook, including comments by people who were misinformed and believed false propaganda of the government and sealing industry. This enabled us to educate these people, along with many others, and correct their misconceptions. This is what it will take to finally end the seal “hunt” in Canada.
Sealers are Desperate
As the demand for seal pelts declines, Canada’s sealers are getting desperate. Some are calling for a cull, against the advice of DFO’s own scientists. At this point, Canada’s DFO has not indicated any movement in this direction. We will monitor this situation vigilantly.
In addition to calling for a cull, the Canadian Sealers’ Association has asked the government to allow new sealing licenses to be issued. They are concerned that sealing may die out as sealers get old and retire. We are urging the government not to allow new licenses to be issued; and you can help by sending an email to Canadian officials.
Thank you for caring and taking action.
For the seals,
Diana Marmorstein, Ph.D.
CEO
Donate to help us save the seals
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »
Posted on May 9, 2018 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
The Yaarab Shriners are planning to bring a cruel and dangerous elephant and bear show to Jim Miller Park in Marietta, Georgia.
The elephant exhibitor for the circus has a history of failing to meet animal-welfare regulations and of endangering the public, and an expert who observed the bears at another Shrine circus reported that they suffered from ongoing physical and psychological trauma.
Please use the link below to tell the Shriners and the venue to cancel the animal acts.
Shrine circuses should be fun for everyone, right? Well, they’re not fun for the suffering elephant coerced into performing confusing and difficult tricks or the muzzled bear forced to ride a bicycle … yet that’s on the schedule for the Yaarab Shrine Circus performances at Jim Miller Park in Marietta, Georgia.
The elephant exhibitor for the circus, Tarzan Zerbini Circus, has a history of animal-welfare citations and endangering the public. Animals used by the circus have seriously injured children, and an elephant even killed a trainer following a performance.
Then there’s Castle’s Bears—a company that forces bears to perform demeaning and possibly painful tricks. A video surfaced last year showing one of the bears urinating in apparent distress when being pulled by a leash and forced to walk on his or her front legs.
Tell the Yaarab Shriners and Jim Miller Park to drop the animal acts!
Bears and Elephants Don’t Want to Perform for the Yaarab Shrine Circus
This month, the Yaarab Shrine Circus will perform at Jim Miller Park in Marietta, Georgia. The problem? It’s planning to force muzzled bears and suffering elephants to perform confusing and difficult tricks.
The bears are provided by Castle’s Bears, a company that dresses them in ridiculous costumes, muzzles them, yanks them around on leashes, and forces them to do demeaning and possibly painful stunts. In a recent report, an expert who observed Castle’s Bears noted that the animals were managed through “fear, coercion, and punishment,” weren’t provided with proper care, and suffered from ongoing physical and psychological trauma.
As if that weren’t reason enough to drop the animal acts, Tarzan Zerbini Circus—the elephant exhibitor for this circus—has been cited for violating federal animal-welfare regulations, including by failing to provide animals with the minimum required space. Animals used by the circus have seriously injured children, and an elephant trainer was trampled to death by one of the elephants following performances at a Shrine circus.
Please tell the Yaarab Shriners and Jim Miller Park to ensure that the performances go forward without animals.
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, CIRCUS, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering) | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 9, 2018 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Honored and tormented: An undercover research by Animal Equality in more than 100 Indian dairy companies brings unimaginable animal suffering to light.
Animal Equality has spent more than two years researching 100 dairy farms, 11 live animal markets and eight slaughterhouses in India. The result is the report Honored and tormented – The suffering of India’s “sacred” cows for milk, the most extensive research in the Indian dairy industry so far. This is directly related to the Indian leather industry – and Germany is one of the major buyers of this leather from India.
The recordings of our investigators reveal shocking:
-Cows are inseminated by inexperienced workers with contaminated equipment and unhygienic conditions.
-Due to the emotional stress of cow and calf separation, some animals stop producing milk; These cows are placed by the workers next to dead, straw-stuffed calves. So they should believe that it is their own calf.
-The animals are beaten by workers with sticks and chains, they are kicked and sometimes even sexually abused.
-In none of the farms examined are the cows cared for by veterinarians; they either remain untreated or farmers use their own medication to cut costs.
-On the way to the slaughterhouse, up to 30 animals are loaded on a transporter, which is actually only allowed for a maximum of six animals.
-Traders twist or break the tails of the animals, rubbing chilies into their eyes and ramming sticks into their genitals to force them into slaughter transports.
-In the slaughterhouse the cows and cattle are repeatedly cut through the throat; Hardly a worker kills the animals already with the first cut.
-Many animals are fully conscious during the slaughter process and also experience the subsequent mounting.
Already in 2016, Animal Equality presented the findings of this research to the Indian government and made recommendations on how to ensure a higher standard of animal welfare in the dairy, meat and leather industries. As a result, India’s government initially enacted a number of bans, particularly for live animal markets, to protect cows and buffaloes from extreme but commonplace suffering. However, following resistance from some Indian regions, animal markets have returned to some practices, such as the sale of disused dairy cows for slaughter. In dairy farms and slaughterhouses, torture states still prevail.
We have launched a petition to convince the Indian government to finally take the necessary steps to protect the cows, calves and buffaloes from this agony. Support our claims today with your signature.
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | 1 Comment »
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 