Posted on January 31, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Polish lawmaker shares image likening meat industry to Holocaust.
Sylwia Spurek pushes back against criticism with Isaac Bashevis Singer quote: ‘In their behavior toward animals, all people are Nazis’.
A drawing of cows wearing concentration camp uniforms and a yellow star, meant to compare the meat industry to the Holocaust. (Sylwia Spurek/Jo Frederiks/via JTA)
JTA — A Polish lawmaker at the European Parliament shared on social media a drawing showing cows at a slaughterhouse wearing striped uniforms with yellow stars like the ones the Nazis made Jews wear at concentration camps.
Sylwia Spurek, a 43-year-old Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats representative, shared the drawing by Jo Frederiks, an artist who focuses on animal welfare.
Sylwia Spurek (Screen capture: YouTube)
Amid criticism of her actions on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Spurek defended them by quoting “the Jewish Nobel laurate Isaac Bashevis Singer,” as she described him, who once wrote that: “In their behavior toward creatures, all people are Nazis.”
She added about the painting: “Does this art delight me? No, it scares me how people treat other animals and I think that every intelligent person should understand the message of this artist.”
Spurek’s critics charged that the comparison she endorsed is offensive to Holocaust victims.
People involved in Holocaust commemoration and animal welfare activists often have clashed over the drawing of parallels between the genocide and the meat industry.
Image: PETA
From the Depths, a commemoration group in Poland, on Wednesday wrote to complain about Spurek to European Parliament President David Sassoli.
The group’s founder, Jonny Daniels, called it a “hateful post” and asked Sassoli to take “disciplinary actions” against Spurek and to urge her to apologize to survivors and their families.
And then… we want to criticize China for not having freedom of expression …
Thanks to the enlightened and progressive MP, Sylwia Spurek!!
My best regards to all, Venus
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Posted on January 31, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Check out with pictures at:
Friday 31st January 2020. Brexit Day, when the UK leaves the European Union.
Ever wondered why the Brits want to get out of this shambles ? – in celebration of the historic event, Express.co.uk has uncovered some of the European Union’s most bizarre laws that the UK has had to abide by (because it was a member state).
We are not even touching animal welfare issues here. Animal welfare is a story book of its own. So here are a few other EU rules which we have (until tonight) had to adhere top as members of the EU:
· Bananas cannot be too bendy
In a widely ridiculed ruling, Brussels bosses banned rogue bananas with “malformations and abnormal curvature”.
· Illegal to make Stilton in the village of Stilton
The small Cambridgeshire town named after the famous blue-veined cheese for being the first place to sell it is banned from producing Stilton under EU law.
The European law was put in place after officials ruled the cheese originated in another part of England.
· Water does not hydrate you
In 2011 the EU banned drink manufactures from claiming that water can prevent dehydration.
EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove drinking water prevents dehydration.
· Tampon tax
WAV Comment – it is not a ‘luxury non essential’, it IS an essential that should be provided without any tax to ALL girls and women ! – especially when women living on the street have to use dirty old rags, socks, woolen hats and anything else they can get their hands on to help them. Give them some respect and dignity – we say feminine sanitary products should be available free of tax to anyone that needs them.. Deprive female EU MEP’s of any use and see what the result is after 6 months ! – Jesus, they are dumb.
Currently, all sanitary protection in the UK is charged a VAT of five percent, the lowest rate permissible under EU VAT rules.
The UK Government has indicated willingness to scrap the controversial tampon tax, but existing EU laws prevent member countries from introducing a zero percent rate on products.
Britain will be free to scrap the tax, which treats sanitary products as a luxury non-essentials item, from January 1, 2021 – the end of the transition period.
It should be implemented fairly quickly, as David Cameron’s Government included a provision in the 2016 Finance Bill to allow for sanitary protection to be zero-rated, once the UK had discretion to do this.
The European Commission did agree to abolish the tax in 2018 after extensive lobbying from the UK, but it will not come into effect until January 2022.
· Strict fishing quotas
The Common Fisheries Policy sets annual fishing quotas on each type of fish and mandated that if fish of the wrong species were caught accidentally, they had to be thrown overboard.
As a result, thousands of dead fish ended up being chucked back into the sea as fishermen attempt to reach the right quotas of the required species.
This practice was heavily condemned as tonnes of dead fish were being discarded.
In 2019 the EU outlawed the controversial practice and obliged skippers to land unwanted fish.
· Halogen light bulbs banned
The EU banned member states from selling halogen light bulbs, replacing them with LEDs.
The final stage of the EU energy regulations was put in place in September 2018.
LED lights are more efficient and require significantly less power to operate but are more expensive than its predecessor.
Earlier versions of LEDs were criticised for being slow to light up, but newer versions of the light bulb instantly light up.
But since the halogen ban was introduced, scientific studies have found LED lights can permanently damage eyesight and disturb natural sleep rhythms.
Last year the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety warned the “blue light” emitted from LEDs can lead to “irreversible loss of retinal cells and diminished sharpness of vision”.
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Yes, it is all true ! – fortunately we will leave highly paid MEP’s and Commissioners to come up with even more absurd rulings in the future.
Breaking News from the EU !! – a new animal welfare unit on its way ! Here is what the Eurogroup for Animals have to say about it on their site:
One small step from the Commission, or one giant leap for animal welfare? – new Animal Welfare Unit on the way
According to Politico, the European Commission is poised to establish a new animal welfare unit this March as part of a restructuring of its department on Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE).
Eurogroup for Animals welcomes the news, which comes as DG SANTE embarks on a reorganisation so that it can lead on the Commission’s Farm-to-Fork Strategy, which is the agricultural and food policy component of the new von der Leyen Commission’s European Green Deal.
Such a unit existed previously, but was merged with a much larger team dealing with animal health under the previous Juncker Commission.
“This is welcome news indeed, and bodes well for a prominent role for animal welfare actions within the Commission’s Farm-to-Fork Strategy. After all, animal welfare must be an integral component of any transition to a sustainable form of agriculture,” said Reineke Hameleers, Director at Eurogroup for Animals. “Citizens, MEPs and Member States have all now called for stronger animal welfare provisions at EU level, and Eurogroup for Animals wholeheartedly commends the von der Leyen Commission for this development.”
Since they took office six weeks ago, we have heard several encouraging statements on animal welfare, and now we are seeing the first signs of action.
“Of course, what any unit is tasked with doing is even more important than its creation. The list of actions that it could be tasked with is very long indeed, and it will need to be adequately resourced too,” added Reineke Hameleers. “Only when we know this will we be able to sufficiently judge whether this development amounts to one small step from the Commission, or one giant leap for animal welfare.”
Being involved with live animal transport investigation work for a long time; we have a bit to say about this.
See Part 2 which we will be publishing soon to experience some of our experiences. We hope to publish very soon.
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Posted on January 30, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
This Brewery Is Putting Shelter Dogs on Beer Cans to Help Them Find Forever Homes
Posted by Katie Valentine | January 27, 2020
Motorworks Brewing in Bradenton, Fla., is labeling beer cans with dogs available for adoption in a unique promotion of animal rescues.
In partnership with Shelter Manatee, the brewery is selling cans of Kölsch lager featuring dogs in need of forever homes at the Manatee County adoption center. Each label contains a story about the featured dog, as well as information about Shelter Manatee’s plans to build a new shelter.
Since the project’s purpose is to advocate for adoption, there is no guarantee that the dogs on the cans will still be available at the time of purchase, but the rescue has plenty of equally adorable, loving dogs awaiting new families.
Brewery customers who aren’t currently looking to adopt a dog will still be helping animals in need, as a portion of the proceeds are donated to Shelter Manatee and will go towards the construction of its new facility.
“Money is going directly to the shelter for that,” the brewery’s director of sales and marketing, Barry Elwonger told Fox 13 News, “and we want to make sure that the people know about the different dogs that are looking for homes.”
The custom cans debuted last Sunday at an event featuring silent auctions, drink specials, and food trucks. Thus far, the campaign has received an overwhelming amount of support.
The beer is available in four-packs and cases of 24 at Motorworks Brewing in downtown Bradenton until it sells out. For more information, visit the brewery’s website.
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Posted on January 30, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Court Strikes Down Unconstitutional Kansas ‘Ag Gag’ Law
Posted by Jane Wolfe | January 27, 2020
In a triumph for animal welfare, the U.S. Court for the District of Kansas has ruled that the state’s “ag-gag” law violates the First Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional.
Challenged in 2018 by a coalition led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), the law bans undercover investigators from taking photographs or filming animal facilities, such as slaughterhouses and factory farms, ultimately preventing the documentation of animal abuse.
On January 22, the U.S. Court for the District of Kansas rejected the state’s motion to dismiss the case and accepted the majority of the coalition’s motion for summary judgment, thus prohibiting Kansas from implementing the Ag Gag law.
ALDF maintains that the almost 30-year-old legislation prevents undercover activists from investigating inhumane conditions at animal facilities, stifling free speech. This enables unscrupulous companies to hide systemic animal abuse and avoid public scrutiny.
“For 30 years, Kansas lawmakers have suppressed whistleblowers from investigating cruel conditions on factory farms with this unconstitutional law,” explains ALDF Executive Director Stephen Wells. “Today’s decision is a victory for the millions of animals raised for meat on factory farms.”
ALDF explained the importance of undercover investigations in both regulatory practice and public informational awareness.
“It is critical that investigations are not suppressed,” the organization said in a statement. “The public relies on undercover investigations to expose illegal and cruel practices on factory farms and slaughterhouses. No Federal laws govern the condition in which farmed animals are raised, and laws addressing slaughter and transport are laxly enforced.”
“Undercover investigations are therefore the primary avenue through which the public receives information about animal agriculture operations,” ALDF continued. “Investigations also reveal health and worker safety violations. Factory farms and slaughterhouses are major polluters, so undercover investigations are important for learning about violations of environmental laws as well.”
This victory in Kansas follows other federal courts in Idaho, Iowa and Utah ruling that those states’ ag-gag laws also violate the U.S. Constitution.
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Posted on January 30, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
KFC’s Beyond Meat chicken is a damn miracle
By Mark Wilson
In a hip hotel in Chicago’s West Loop, nestled among more Michelin-starred restaurants than I can count, KFC has presented me with a carefully plated presentation of chubby chicken chunks on a rectangular white plate. The first is your standard, plain tan. The second, a honey BBQ. The third, drenched in buffalo sauce. And the final features an oily coating of Nashville hot spice.
Sitting amid lavish bouquets of bell peppers, turnips, Brussels sprouts, and other vegetables, I take my first bite of vegan* KFC.
KFC’s new Beyond Fried Chicken will be available in nearly 100 stores in Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville; and surrounding areas from February 3 to February 23. Produced by Beyond Meat exclusively for KFC, if it sells and customers like it, a nationwide release will follow at an undisclosed date.
Back in Chicago in my fancy tasting room, a 3-foot-tall cutout of the Colonel himself looks on from a green wall as I tried the undressed plant nugget for the first time. My teeth pierce the crunchy fried coating and shred through the meat.
It tastes like a doggone piece of chicken—and not just any piece of chicken, but a KFC piece of chicken with hints of those 11 herbs and spices. I fork and knife my way through the honey BBQ (perfectly too sweet, and the coating still crunchy), the buffalo (a touch vinegary for my taste but offering the uncanny aftertaste of chicken), and the Nashville (the deep pepper flavor has respectable heat that hits me a delightful 10 seconds later).
KFC and Beyond Meat executives are waiting to be interviewed, and I look at the four remaining pieces there on the plate, realizing this is the best faux chicken I’ve eaten in the last five years of eating mostly vegan. Would it be uncouth to keep going, to meet Ethan Brown, CEO of Beyond Meat, with BBQ sauce on my hoodie? (I opt to stop. Though I regret later that I didn’t finish.)
KFC adopting Beyond Meat is not necessarily the biggest coup for fake meats in fast food: Last year, Beyond Meat has already snuck its breakfast sausage into sandwiches and bowls at Dunkin’ (the fourth most popular chain in the U.S.) while fierce competitor Impossible landed the Whopper at Burger King (the sixth). But while KFC is smaller than either of these chains (at 12th place), it certainly feels like a sign of the times that a company that’s literally named “Kentucky Fried Chicken” will be selling chicken with no literal chicken in it. No wonder the alternative meat industry is projected to grow to $140 billion in a decade.
As Andrea Zahumensky, CMO of KFC U.S. tells me, KFC has been eyeing meat replacements for a while, but no product in the category seemed mature enough to work. That was until last year when talks with Beyond Meat began in earnest, and the two companies struck up a deal to co-develop a product. The process has taken about six months.
The target customer isn’t just vegans or vegetarians, but flexitarians—people who might eat meat but would like to cut back on how much they consume. As a recent Kroger study found, 93% of people who bought Beyond Burger had other animal proteins in their cart. And for KFC, which has been posting solid revenue and profits, though failing to have its Popeyes Chicken Sandwich moment, the product offers the opportunity to bring in a new, younger audience.
The chicken is good enough that I suspect it will. But getting to this point was difficult. Beyond Meat’s chicken product is completely custom for KFC—which is unique; the Impossible Whopper at Burger King and sliders at White Castle are the standard blend. The company went through countless iterations on the protein, ultimately opting, not for a ground, spongey protein, but something more akin to whole breast muscle tissue. As Brown demonstrates, picking apart a nugget with his fingers, Beyond Fried Chicken flakes and shreds. (It’s anything but the grill-marked homogenous slabs of Beyond Chicken I bought from the freezer aisle years ago.) The meat is marinated to improve texture and impart extra KFC flavor. Meanwhile, KFC worked on the breading, opting for a coat that was similar to the company’s popcorn chicken. It all comes together in a factory, before the product is shipped to KFC locations and deep fried to food safe temperatures, just like meat would be. This final fry is also key to denaturing the proteins, and giving the chicken the right mouthfeel, I’m told.
I was surprised that KFC is opting to present its plant-based chicken so naked, as a product that could be eaten plain, dipped, or tossed in sauce. Why not release a Beyond Meat Fried Chicken Sandwich that could hide any off flavours with a bun, veggies, and extra condiments? The vegan chick’n sandwiches I’ve eaten at restaurants for years do just this, and often to a convincing effect.
“Our customers expect KFC to have a certain flavour, [and] to be flavourful. Doing it in a form like this allows that flavor to shine and the texture to shine,” says Zahumensky—who implies that a bun or extra accoutrements would have just gotten in the way of this result.
One other curious part of the design is the shape. McDonald’s famously uses “bell, ball, bone and boot” moulds in their nugget designs, to create a sensation somewhere between chicken as factory-processed food and unique, organic snowflakes. For KFC’s Beyond Fried Chicken, each chunk of chicken has a geometry that’s tougher to describe. I jot down the term “warbly square” in my notes. Some pieces look like wing flats. Others look like a sort of fried tamagotchi keychain.
“It’s some kind of nugget-like boneless wing-like, more premium than a nugget [thing],” says Zahumensky. Indeed, originally this shape was even called a “boneless wing” during an early market test in Atlanta. Fans lined up around the block, but they got feedback: Plants don’t have bones so they can’t be boneless. “That’s why we test,” Zahumensky laughs at the company’s error. “We’re trying to learn.”
In the future, Beyond Meat could shape this chicken however KFC wants. For now, it’s clear the company is going for something more premium than a chicken nugget—but they can’t call it a wing. Chicken cube? Chicken tesseract? Don’t be surprised to see more testing from KFC in the future, regarding both the shape of its plant chicken and its branding.
Whatever shape and name Beyond Fried Chicken takes when it eventually hits stores nationwide, the product they have ready to trial today is superb. As I leave the meeting, the flavors of KFC are still left on my tongue. And I’m left with a new revelation about the future of fake meats.
Some people don’t like Beyond Meat for its uncanny resemblance to real meat. Others frown upon eating plant meats when the real stuff is so delicious and plentiful. (Both of these perspectives are fair; what you put into your mouth is entirely your business.) But Beyond Fried Chicken demonstrates that KFC is more food as brand than it is food as chicken. KFC as we know it in our mind’s eye is an experience that transcends the quibbles, “Is this real meat?” to ask, “Is this authentic KFC?” And Beyond Fried Chicken certainly is as guilty, salty, chewy, herbaceous, and umami-loaded of an experience as the KFC you know.
Though now I’d like some the Extra Tasty Crispy and Original Recipe versions, thanks!
* Beyond Fried Chicken is fried in the same fryers as KFC’s meat-based fried chicken. So much like Burger King’s Impossible Whopper, some people may have issue with call this “vegan.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/90455889/kfcs-beyond-meat-chicken-is-a-damn-miracle
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Posted on January 30, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Donald Trump Jr to speak at world’s largest trophy hunt convention
First son to sell a bid for a hunting trip with him in Alaska during convention next we
The first son and top campaign surrogate to Donald Trump was set to attend the Safari Club International’s annual three-day convention in Reno, Nevada, where he was scheduled to speak on 8 February.
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Posted on January 30, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
January 29, 2020
France has announced that it will ban the controversial practice of live-shredding male chicks by 2021, as well as ending the castration of piglets without anaesthesia.
THE DETAILS: Every year around the world, billions of male chicks in the egg industry are killed by industrial agricultural farmers as they are considered useless by both egg and poultry producers since they do not lay eggs and aren’t the breed used for meat production. The practice of chick culling includes the brutal method of live-shredding, where chicks are ground up alive in a giant, high-speed grinder.
Similarly every year, millions of piglets suffer through the horrible procedure of castration without anesthesia to encourage them to grow fatter and prevent a potent smell said to emit from the fatty meat of non-neutered pigs.
A MAJOR VICTORY: Aside from the ghastly process of killing chicks by shredding, many are also gassed, electrocuted, or asphyxiated in plastic bags.
With the announcement from France’s Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume, the country will be one of the first to ban the mass culling of chicks using any of these methods, and the castration of piglets without anesthesia.
France joins Switzerland and Germany in similarly banning chick shredding, though a German court ruled last year that shredding could continue until a method was found to determine the sex of an embryo in the egg.
WHAT WE’RE SAYING: “This announcement is big news for animals and paves the way for the introduction of similar legislation in other countries. Chick culling is a cruel practice that does not belong in modern and compassionate societies.” says Sharon Núñez, President of Animal Equality.
WHAT COMES NEXT: While we celebrate this tremendous victory for farmed animals in France, the reality is that billions of animals suffer every year in countries around the world, and sadly, the United States remains as one of the countries still using the horrible practice of live-shredding. Your voice and consumer choices are crucial to ending these terrible atrocities. Please share this post and encourage your friends and family to stop using animal products.
And I mean…When I turn on the computer every morning, I have a bad feeling about what I’m going to read, mostly it’s a new animal suffering.
It was different today.
We have reported so many times about the fascist system that prevails in most slaughterhouses around the world, which means: massacring live chicks and castrate piglets without anesthesia.
France went a step ahead and decided to abolish these medieval methods.
The meat and milk mafia made in Germany has found a loyal ally, Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner, who supports the massacre and has extended both medieval methods.
We have a humorous so-called “animal protection law” here in Germany. It says:
“Nobody is allowed to cause pain, suffering or harm to an animal for no reasonable reason.”
The farmer’s lobby and making money are reasonable reasons for the Minister of Agriculture and therefore the massacre of these animals goes on.
France/Germany
Thanks France!
My best regards to all, Venus
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Sylwia Spurek (Screen capture: YouTube)
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 