Posted on July 5, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
On the Greek island of Santorini,donkeys and mules are used as taxis to carry tourists up and down more than 600 steps to the old town of Firá several times a day.
Despite international outrage when an eyewitness report published by PETA in 2018 revealed that the animals were denied water and shade and many had painful wounds, a new PETA video exposé reveals that the suffering and abuse continue.
Santorini officials refused to run adverts from PETA which highlight the suffering of donkeys and mules used as “taxis” on the Greek island.
PETA Germany has refused to be silenced and has bombarded neighboring ports, ferries, taxis, buses, billboards, and cargo bikes with a powerful campaign.
Over 100 adverts reading “Help stop cruelty: please don’t ride the donkeys and mules!” are now visible in the popular Greek coastal towns of Rafina and Piraeus.
The campaign follows a recent PETA eyewitness exposé revealing that handlers drag animals down steps and whip and hit them with sticks to make them continue walking.
Open Sores and Bloody Injuries
Donkeys and mules were observed suffering from open sores, raw skin, and bloody injuries caused by their ill-fitting and makeshift saddles.
Some animals were forced to wear tight muzzles with sharp wire ends that could easily injure them as well as humans.
Under these laws, animals must have access to water and protection from the weather, but many of those used for rides are tied to a wall or rail for hours in the blistering summer sun with no access to water whatsoever. Some try desperately to find shade.
These conditions are illegal but apparently tolerated by the authorities.
And I mean…around 360 donkeys and mules stand at the port of Santorini every day and wait for the large cruise ships full of tourists to take them around 600 steps from the port to the small town. Their owners sell the ride on the animals for five euros as a special experience and make good money with the holidaymakers.
For years, animal rights activists on the island have complained that the animals have to work too long, carry too heavy loads, get too little to eat and drink – and have been exposed to the scorching sun for too long. But nothing has happened since then.
On the contrary: animal rights activists are not popular on Santorini.
In 2018, when they demonstrated against the cruel shuttle service, they were brutally attacked by donkey transport operators.
Animal rights activists say: ” the business with tourists is just the tip of the iceberg of criminal acts. We are currently gathering incriminating evidence against local authorities. ”
Meanwhile, the local slave keepers refuse to restrict their donkey rides. They claim that their booming business even maintains the endangered original tradition of Santorini (!).
The abuse of the animals continues because no keeper has been punished so far.
Fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose by almost 20% in June – a 13-year high for the month, according to government data.
With such an increase at the start of the dry season, there are concerns that this year’s fires could surpass 2019’s disastrous blazes.
Activists say the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating the problem.
They believe arson is likely to be even less monitored while authorities are stretched.
Many forest fires in the country are started deliberately by illegal loggers and farmers wanting to quickly clear ground.
Brazil has the world’s second-highest coronavirus death toll, after the US, and there are also concerns that increased smoke could have a damaging effect on the breathing of virus patients.
In June, the country’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recorded 2,248 fires using satellite imagery, as opposed to 1,880 fires in June 2019.
The burning usually increases throughout July, August and September.
“We cannot allow the 2019 situation to repeat itself,” Mauricio Voivodic, executive director of the World Wildlife Fund NGO in Brazil, told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, accusing the government of inaction.
Last year’s fires peaked in August, with 30,901 – threefold the number for the same period the previous year.
The 2019 fires led to protests domestically and internationally, with threats of financial penalties from foreign governments, and broad condemnation of President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies.
The president has been criticised for slashing the Ministry of the Environment’s funding, and encouraging business over conservation.
Posted on July 5, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Dog meat trade Nagaland in India announces the end
In a groundbreaking decision, the Indian government of Nagaland ended the brutal dog meat trade.
The decision announced today by the cabinet will end the import, trade, and sale of live dogs and dog meat.
Animal welfare organizations have been campaigning for years to end the Indian dog meat trade and welcome this decision as an important turning point in ending the cruelty of the Indian trade in hidden dog meat.
It is estimated that around 30,000 dogs are smuggled into Nagaland annually, where they are sold in living markets and beaten to death with wooden clubs.
The animal rights activists’ campaign to end the dog meat trade started in 2016 with an investigation that revealed shocking video footage of dogmeat death pits in Nagaland.
Dogs were beaten to death in front of each other and beaten several times in protracted and painful deaths.
Alokparna Sengupta,Managing Director of Humane Society International,India, said: “The suffering of dogs in Nagaland has long cast India in a dark shadow, and this news marks an important turning point in ending the cruelty of the Indian dog meat trade.
Our own investigation in Nagaland found that terrified dogs have suffered horrific deaths in some of the worst inhumanities to animals HSI / India has ever seen. And the dogs we saved from this trade over the years had to learn to trust people again after the cruel treatment they endured. “
Dog meat is banned in India by the 2011 Food Products Standard and Additives.
However, this is insufficiently enforced, and in the states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh thousands of dogs are used every year illegally captured from the street or stolenfrom houses and cruelly transported from neighboring states in burlap to be brutally slaughtered for consumption to be beaten to death.
Earlier this week, the Indian MP Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhiurged the Nagaland government to stop trading and eating dog meat after he received new photos of the trade from an animal welfare organization based in Nagaland. The appeal resulted in more than 125,000 people writing to the Nagaland government.
And I mean…We are very happy about the government’s decision to abolish the brutal trade in dogs.
It is a small success but a step further in the right direction. Our heartfelt thanks!
However, we must not forget that millions of “other” animals are brutally murdered every day. They’re animals too.
A pig is not bred to be grilled and a pet to painting.
We have been manipulated by the media for decades to determine what is “normal” and what is not “normal” when it comes to our food.
Every murder of animals is not normal.
If we want to do our job properly and consistently, we have to see all the victims that meat consumption demands, on an equal footing, and judge none of them as wrong and the other as the right one to eat.
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 