Scotland Raises Maximum Penalty for Animal Cruelty to Five Years Imprisonment
The Scottish Government has strengthened its Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 by introducing several new measures, including upping the maximum prison sentence for the most serious animal welfare crimes from one to five years.
The Government has also introduced an unlimited fine and raised the maximum penalties for some wildlife offenses. In addition, it will enforce ‘Finn’s Law’ — which is already being implemented in England and Wales — to toughen protection for service animals.
The changes were announced in the country’s Programme for Government, which states: “The Bill will also provide powers to make regulations for fixed penalty notices in relation to animal welfare offenses and provides a new process to allow animals that have been taken into possession on welfare grounds to be sold or rehomed without the need for a court order.” This aims to decrease the time that animals involved in lengthy court cases will have to wait to find new homes.
The Government says it is continuing work to protect the welfare of animals in Scotland and is recruiting members to its interim Scottish Animal Welfare Commission to provide advice on the welfare of sentient animals. It is also planning to launch a media campaign to put an end to the barbaric and cruel puppy farming trade.
“The positives this will bring to animal welfare in Scotland are genuinely transformational. From the thousands of court cases we’ve been involved in, its evident sentencing is wildly inconsistent,” says Mike Flynn, chief superintendent of the Scottish SPCA, which welcomes the move. “A number of Sheriffs have recently stated that they thought their current powers were inadequate. It’s clear that the courts would benefit from the ability to hand down lengthier custodial sentences to protect animals and deter other people from acts of mistreatment.”
“For years, we have worked hard to reform animal welfare legislation with MSPs and Government officials,” adds Scottish SPCA chief executive, Kirsteen Campbell. “Credit must go to the Scottish Government for identifying the need for reform, taking on board both the invaluable expertise of the Scottish SPCA and our partners and the overwhelming public support for this and acting on it.”
In the Greek Island of Paros, locals tie animals’ legs to their heads to disable them from walking in an incredibly cruel process called hobbling. The ropes and chains cut into the helpless animals’ skin, creating wounds that become painfully infected. The animals are so desperate to escape, they often break their bones trying to get free.
Hobbled donkeys, cows, and sheep are kept in areas without shelter or water, left to suffer in the baking sun or freezing cold. This often leads to an agonizing death.
Hobbling is illegal in Greece, but still prevalent. A Lady Freethinker eyewitness described seeing the shocking practice firsthand, along with further cruelty to animals in Paros.
“Dogs with heavy metal chains around their necks, burning in the sun, with no water available, nowhere to hide from the heat and sun or from bad weather. Stray cats, sick, living in garbage, being driven over often on purpose by locals,” reports the eyewitness.
The witness saw locals drowning newborn animals and poisoning stray cats, along with a general lack of animal welfare enforcement on the island.
It’s time to stop the suffering.
Sign this petition urging Mayor Koveos to enforce the law and end all hobbling, and work to drastically improve the way all animals are treated in Paros.
Former DEFRA Secretary Michael Gove ordered the move in the summer despite the sickening practice being rare in the UK.
Dog groups persuaded him that it would send a powerful message to South East Asian countries where the practice is still rife, matching a similar law passed in the US last year.
But The Sun can reveal that nervous civil servants have stepped in to halt the ground-breaking move.
‘CULTURALLY INSENSITIVE’
Campaigning Tory MP Giles Watling was told by the MoJ that one of the reasons it acted was that it would be “culturally insensitive” of the Government to dictate to other nations what they should eat.
Mr Watling told The Sun last night: “Dogs are our companion animals. We do not eat them, and that is a very important message to send to the rest of the world.
“It’s not culturally insensitive because we’re not telling them what to do – we’re just telling them what we do.
“We shouldn’t be worrying about that, so I was surprised that was the MoJ’s objection.”
Justice officials also argued that it would be difficult to enforce the law and the current ban on transporting or exporting dog and cat meat suffices.
Eating dog is already banned in Germany, Austria, Taiwan, South Australia and Hong Kong.
An estimated 30 million dogs a year are slaughtered to be eaten, across China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Most are stolen off the street.
Their meat it is considered both a delicacy and a health tonic.
The World Dog Alliance mounted a campaign in the UK last year for a full ban on any activity relating to the eating of dogs.
A series of MPs back a ban, including former Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan who dubbed it “a disgusting habit”.
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “We currently have some of the strongest animal welfare laws in the world.
“The government is currently considering whether any changes are needed in this area in the UK and will set out any plans in due course.”
Posted on September 17, 2019 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, China is considered the largest aquarium in the world and opened in 2014.
This huge factory also includes a full theme park with rollercoasters and co and a walk-in underwater observation dome.
The aquarium should have cost the equivalent of about 2.4 billion euros.
Nine Russian orcas were first introduced at Chimelong Ocean Kingdom Park in 2017, and at least two more entertainment venues will open in the next few years, the park said.
On July 10, 2017, six dolphins, one male and five female, were transferred from Japan to Qinhuangdao Lertao Ocean Kingdom
This dolphin female lies on a dry cloth, his eyes exposed to the bright, artificial light. She had just been flown from Japan to China when the picture was taken, and she looks exhausted and miserable.
Brain sick people are gathered around her, taking pictures and touching her backs.
These poor wild dolphins are dragged out of the water in Japan, taken to an airplane, hung there simply, with no water at terrible noise and stuffy, and those who survive it then end up in a Chinese “seaworld” for the amusement of the Chinese.
Incidentally, the second largest aquarium in the world is in Portugal.
Oceanario de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal was created as part of Expo98.
João Falcato, CEO of Oceanário de Lisboa, says: “We are honored that our visitors continue to value our work and mission to protect the oceans. Thanks to our large and dedicated team we can offer you a unique and unforgettable experience. Twenty years after the inauguration, it is a source of pride and motivation to continue to promote the sea, if you consider it the best aquarium in the world. “
By the way, the operators call it “for the protection of the oceans” (!!)
One of the largest aquariums in Europe is in Spain
My comment: It may not be known to many that the largest animal parks that still harbor whales are in Europe.
Why are there laws in Europe that are supposed to protect animals?
Nowhere else is the profit with animals made so much as in the entertainment industry!
Obviously, Europe is not only the largest meat producer in terms of factory farming, but with huge animal parks, whales and dolphins make a huge profit in Europe.
A shame for a continent that wants to assert itself progressively in education, enlightenment and animal welfare !! And that is being financed with taxpayers’ money.
But after the worldwide and strong protests, even the biggest aquarium industrialists get into trouble. We stay active and alert!
Posted on September 17, 2019 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Surely most of you have signed the petition “End the Cage Age”.
For non-EU citizens and readers: This European Citizens’ Initiative aims to end the use of cages in EU agriculture by calling on the European Commission to consider new legislation in this area.
With 1 million signatures alone, the European Commission would be asked to propose legislation prohibiting the use of:
• Cages for laying hens, rabbits, pullets, chickens for fattening, laying hens, quails, ducks and geese; • farrowing crates for sows; • Sections, if not already prohibited; • Individual calf pens, if not already prohibited.
The petition ended with a great result: instead of the one million needed, over 1.5 million people signed the European Citizens’ Initiative against livestock caging. Now the European Commission has to deal with that: what’s next?
The collected signatures are checked first. Subsequently, the citizens’ initiative will be submitted to the European Commission. The Commission must then deal with the demands to abolish cages.
In addition, the initiators of the petition will be invited to a public hearing in the European Parliament.
This does not mean, however, that the caging ban automatically comes. Although the European Citizens’ Initiative fulfills all the criteria, the European Commission has the choice: it can accept the proposals of the initiative, change them or do nothing.
The last seems to me the most likely.
Not because I am a pessimistic person or because I have seen so much bad in my long-standing fight for the rights of animals and expect nothing positive.
But, from experience.
Because the 8hours campaign of 2013, with the requirement of 1.2 million people to limit animal transports to 8 hours, never came true. The animal transports became even worse, the controls weaker, the times longer, the victims more.
Instead of realistic improvements by the EU Commission for more humane animal transports, we got animated films with instructions on how have to be transported the animals. And blood still flows from the trucks to the streets and the ships.
Irresponsible, unethical, unprofessional has the EU Commission reacted.
On September 12, 2019, we read on the official website of Eurogroups for Animals: “With the largest European petition ever for farm animal welfare ending at 23:59 last night, today is one of the most significant days for farm animals….
…With more than 1.5 million signatures so far, End the Cage Age’s success should be more than enough to persuade the European Commission to start the legislative procedure to end the use of cages for farm animals across the continent.
…“Today we have crossed the finish line in the biggest political push in farm animal welfare history. But the fight to get animals out of cages isn’t over yet,” says Reineke Hameleers. “Now it’s time for the Commission to make the changes that the citizens demand and bring us closer to the day when cages are relegated to the history books.” (https://www.eurogroupforanimals.org/more-than-a-million-people-want-to-see-the-end-of-cages-for-farmed-animals)
Eurogroup and all those who render their services to the European Community for high salaries, all these must now mobilize theirselves strategically and actively so that the 1.5 million will not become bankrupt again, as they did then.
Now diplomacy, media work and commitment is announced.
If they really want to experience the day, like other 1.5 million citizens too, that “the cages are banned to the history books”, they must do everything so that the commission decides against the cages. Without compromise and consideration.
They are the ones who work closely and confidently with the commissioners, and that is why they know best that their bosses are the strongest agrarian lobyists, who not only allow painful mass animal husbandry, but demand and protect it by law.
Therefore, the question arises, what will they do if the European Commission does nothing?
In that case, we would demand of them that they give up their jobs, they leave that mendacious institution and, like us, fight on the streets for the abolition of the cages.
This is an effective and honest job.
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 