WAV Comment:  Big Wow ! – congratulations to President elect Joe Biden, Deb Haarland, and Michael Regan on the award of their new positions which will overturn all the environmental destruction caused by loser Trump over recent years.  It is especially wonderful to see Deb Haarland; a Native American, to serve with such an important position in the cabinet; with her department’s jurisdiction covering tribal lands and vast tracts of protected American wilderness, including jewels such as Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks.

Mr. Regan will be a leading member of the new, expanded Biden team focusing on reversing Trump’s environmental rollbacks and address the climate crisis with a plan for bringing the US economy to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Super choices for an America and its wildlife that very much needs protection from the bad muppets that we have seen from Trump and ‘his mates’ over the past years.

We at WAV very much welcome these appointments; as do the vast eco warrior tribes of the world.  Haarland, a lady who originated from peoples who loved and protected the environment.  We hope she will right all the Trump wrongs in the coming years.

Superb news !

 

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Biden picks Deb Haaland as first Native American interior secretary

President-elect will also nominate regulator Michael Regan to head Environmental Protection Agency

Joe Biden has chosen the US lawmaker Deb Haaland as interior secretary and will nominate the North Carolina official Michael Regan to head the Environmental Protection Agency, in two diverse and influential picks to handle crucial issues such as public lands, pollution and the climate crisis.

Haaland, a progressive Democratic congresswoman from New Mexico since 2019, would be the first Native American cabinet secretary and one of the first Native Americans ever to serve in a US cabinet. The department’s jurisdiction covers tribal lands and vast tracts of protected American wilderness, including jewels such as Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks.

In a tweet on Thursday evening, Haaland said she was “honored and ready to serve” as interior secretary.

“A voice like mine has never been a cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior,” she added.

Haaland is a member of Pueblo of Laguna and would become the first descendant of the original people to populate North America to run the interior department, which has often had a difficult relationship with the 574 federally recognized tribes in the US, the Washington Post reported.

And she has told the Reuters news agency she would seek to usher in an expansion of renewable energy production on federal land to contribute to the fight against climate change, and undo Donald Trump’s regressive focus on bolstering fossil fuels output.

Progressives hailed the selection of Haaland as “perfect choice” and a “fierce ally” of the environmental movement.

“Rep Deb Haaland’s appointment as secretary of the interior is a historic moment for every Native American and the Green New Deal movement,” said Varshini Prakash, the executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement.

She added: “With a progressive leader at the helm, we can make real progress on stopping climate change and ensure sovereignty and dignity for all Native people and justice for all.”

Climate activists, joined by progressive members of Congress, tribal leaders and Hollywood celebrities, had mounted a public campaign in support of Haaland. The interior secretary will be critical to enacting Biden’s ambitious climate plan as well as playing an important role leading discussions between the federal government and tribal nations.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, had issued a statement on Wednesday saying: “Congresswoman Haaland knows the territory, and if she is the president-elect’s choice for interior secretary, then he will have made an excellent choice.”

The retiring New Mexico senator Tom Udall, a Democrat who was also reportedly under consideration for the role, was among the first politicians to congratulate Haaland, calling her appointment a “watershed moment for Native communities, and for our nation”.

In a statement, Udall praised her as someone who would use the position to “undo the damage of the Trump administration, restore the department’s workforce and expertise, uphold our obligations to Native communities, and take the bold action needed to tackle the accelerating climate and nature crises.”

“I am confident that she will be both a historic interior secretary and an excellent one,” he added.

Theresa Pierno, the president and CEO for the National Parks Conservation Association, said Haaland would be ready for the job “on day one” and was a congressional “champion” who had helped hold the line on conservation.

“Amid a global pandemic and climate crisis, we need a department of interior secretary who is ready to address 21st-century challenges with bold solutions … to protect our national parks and public lands for the benefit of all Americans,” she said.

Meanwhile, Biden plans to nominate Regan, North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, to head the EPA, according to Reuters.

If confirmed by the US Senate, Regan would become the second Black person to run the EPA, after Lisa Jackson, who served during Barack Obama’s presidency. He would be a leading member of the new, expanded Biden team focusing on reversing Trump’s environmental rollbacks and address the climate crisis with a plan for bringing the US economy to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Regan brings years of experience dealing with fossil fuel industries in his home state, including overseeing a roughly $9bn settlement agreement with utility Duke Energy for the nation’s largest clean-up of coal ash. Regan has also previously worked at the EPA and worked on climate change and pollution initiatives for the Environmental Defense Fund, a green advocacy group.

“Regan understands that tough environmental goals tempered with economic and technological reality produce the best approach on everything from climate change to more local problems,” said Scott Segal, an attorney for the law firm Bracewell, which has petroleum companies as clients.

Jim Marston, the former head of the Environmental Defense Fund state initiatives program, said: “He could talk with, work with industry. And his own personal history allows him to really relate … to working-class folks who are the workers in plants that need to be regulated,” Marston said.

Democrats have a very narrow majority in the House, so losing Haaland to the cabinet is a risk, making three Democratic members of the House that will be leaving the chamber to join the new administration.

Marcia Fudgewill be nominated to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Cedric Richmondwill serve as the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/17/deb-haaland-joe-biden-interior-secretary

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Animal Liberation Press Office- Filed under Communiqués in the News

According to local media reports, Father Jordan Neek, living in St. Norbert Abbey, 1016 N Broadway, De Pere, WI 54115, United States, has been repeatedly harassed since starting hunting in the grounds of the Abbey.

The police report of the incident explains that his hunting seat was vandalized, trees were spray-painted, and trail cams stolen in an attempt to dissuade the priest from hunting deer in Abbey’s land.

 

“It does hurt, I’m not going to lie, every morning I wake up sick to my stomach thinking about the hatred towards me,” says Father Neeck.

Hunter-Priest Harrassed in Wisconsin, Tree Stands Vandalized (USA)

And I mean…Hatred makes you sick, Father Neeck?
But shooting makes animals into corpses and that’s worse.

Why do murder innocent animals in the forest?
Have you no respect for the fifth commandment, which says …, “Thou shalt not kill”?
This also applies to non-human animals, Father Neeck!

If you stop killing animals, no one will harass you anymore, and instead of hatred you will reap love

Regards and good night, Venus

 

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Eyes so big and cute that they fall out of the animals’ heads when they jump off the sofa, joint problems, organ malformations, and difficulty breathing: dealers make a lot of money with so-called torture breeding.

These people do not care that the animals, which are bred to death in the truest sense of the word, suffer from massive health problems that only get worse from generation to generation.

They are fully absorbed in the racial madness. That’s why the torture breeding business is so terrible.

 

What is currently “in” is bred
Many people buy pets of certain breeds because they hope for specific characteristics or because a breed is currently in fashion.
“Fashion dogs” such as bulldogs or pugs often have problems getting enough air because of their shortened noses. In summer they often pass out.
There are cats whose legs are briefly bred so that they can no longer keep their balance and certainly no longer jump. As funny as it may look on Instagram, it’s a disaster for the animals.

Animals are seen as goods that have to be “optimized”

As long as people buy animals based on characteristics such as coat color, face, nose, or leg shape, they support and encourage torture for animals. Many breeders then produce their goods – because that’s exactly how they often see the animals – in response to precisely this demand.

Often this happens through inbreeding, whereby not only optical properties but also bad diseases are passed on.

Adopt instead of buying!

If such “fashionable animals” do not meet the expectations or if their humans can no longer hold them, for example, because the vital operations would be too expensive, the living beings end up in the animal shelter.

In German animal shelters alone, 350,000 animals wait for a loving home every year.

There are so many different dogs, cats, and other animals waiting for a new home that everyone can find the right animal companion for themselves.

For every animal that you buy from the breeder, another one remains in the shelter.

This does not only apply to for-profit large breeders, online traders, and pet stores, but also to small breeders.

Anyone who likes animals should therefore not go to the breeder, but adopt one from the animal shelter.

https://www.petazwei.de/qualzucht

And I mean…Never buy breeding animals.
Never support breeders, with this you pay animal abusers.
Never give animals as gifts for Christmas, neither to children nor to other people.

Thousands of victims of human ignorance and infantilism are waiting in shelters.

Anyone who takes an animal out of the shelter corrects this crime.
And stay true to the moral principle that … You don’t buy friends!

My best regards to all, Venus

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Committee against Bird Murder e.V.

Current petition against bird murder in Cyprus: The government of the EU member state Cyprus has drastically reduced the penalties for illegal bird trapping.

Instead of a maximum of € 2,000, as was previously the case, you now only have to pay € 200 for catching or shooting up to 50 songbirds – that’s just € 4 for a protected bird!

The specialty of the island: “ambelopoulia”

14 species are affected, precisely those that are popular as classic “delicacies”, such as warblers.

A penalty of this amount is little more than a “bird catching fee” and is incompatible with the regulations at the EU level. Our partner BirdLife Cyprus started a petition against this scandal today – please join us!

PETITION: https://www.change.org/ampelopouliaSOS

https://www.facebook.com/Komitee.CABS/

And I mean…Trappers place their lures at night.

Early the next morning, they return for their grisly harvest, ripping the terrified birds from the fine-mesh ‘mist’ nets or glue-covered branches, often leaving the entangled feet behind, then killing them with a cocktail stick or a penknife to the throat.

Many of the victims will be used in the perverse menü “Ambelopoulia”, in which the boiled or fried birds are eaten whole, save for the beak.

A platter of a dozen birds sells for € 40–80 (the US $ 44–87), and the trade-in songbirds are responsible for an estimated annual market of € 15 million.

The “delicacy” is so prized and lucrative that it is suspected to be linked to organized crime, and those trying to stop it have been subject to intimidation and violence.

“We’ve had people who put bombs in the private cars of game wardens, and cases where the houses of game wardens have been burnt down,” says Panayides, an officer in the police force.

About 30 trappers are believed to dominate the trade.
Mafia figures with links to prostitution, drugs, and gambling are suspected to be among their number.

Stopping that poaching is extremely difficult. The illegal practice in some cases is overtly or very often tacitly supported by people in very high political and administrative positions.

What’s more, officers trying to tackle trapping can find themselves threatened or worse.

In December 2015, Evgenios Hamboullas, Famagusta member of parliament for the incumbent Democratic Rally party, posted a photo of himself on Facebook seated in front of a plate of songbirds with the caption: “Soon in our restaurants! Happy holidays!”

The post received nearly 600 likes in 5 days!

Even if trappers are caught, the mild sentences passed by the courts are not effective deterrents, says Panayides, an officer in the police force. In reality, most poachers get out with a fine of a few hundred euros.
The officer tells of a poacher, who his team has caught and prosecuted eight times in the past ten years.
“What else can we do as a department?”

We got it! The island of Aphrodite, where once even gods were guests in antiquity, is now a big poachers center, run by “serious organized criminals”.

My best regards to all, Venus

 

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Mink buried in mass graves may have contaminated groundwater in Denmark

18 December 2020

Millions of mink massacred and buried in mass graves in Denmark due to coronavirus fears may have contaminated the groundwater — as parliament announced it would probe the ordeal.

Officials determined last month that all of the country’s more than 15 million mink would need to be slaughtered, after a mutated version of COVID-19 — with the potential to weaken the effectiveness of vaccines — was discovered in fur farms and factories. 

Authorities, who could not handle incinerating so many dead animals at once, instead buried many of them just three feet deep in a military training field in West Jutland, The Guardian reported. 

Some have even risen from their graves like zombies, propelled by gases released during the decomposition process.

As a result of the mass burials, groundwater in the area may have already been polluted by the carcasses of the furry critters, local station Radio4 reported, citing a study for the environmental protection agency.

Read more at source

New York Post

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Shocking footage from mink gassing, minks dying in agony on a Polish farm

18 December 2020

Otwarte Klatki

Video here:

https://youtu.be/GYVEmVPCj2Q

Slow death in a gassing box, beating the animals to death with a metal rod, crushing the still breathing minks by the dead ones – shocking footage from a mink farm in Długie Stare near Leszno, the Greater Poland Voivodeship, was published by Otwarte Klatki. The activists informed the prosecutor’s office about the incident.

The investigation was conducted at the turn of November and December 2020 by the activists from Open Cages Poland (Otwarte Klatki) and the German organization SOKO Tierschutz. Hidden cameras were installed at the mink farm in the village of Długie Stare. For several days, they recorded the slaughter of mink – both inside and outside the gassing box. These are the first recordings of this type from Polish fur farms.

The videos show three people who carry out slaughtering with a gas box. They throw the minks into the gassing box carelessly, and the animals who survived the gassing are hit with a metal rod or killed by hitting against a wooden joist. It is also visible that one mink is killed by kicking. In the cart, into which dead animals are thrown, you can clearly see the minks, which are still breathing, and their bodies are crushed by the bodies of their companions.

Read more at source

Anima

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The fact is that governments cannot be counted on to end the misery; we will have to rely on people power; count us in.

Mark, this is what animals in factory farms would dream of:

It’s now 12 days since we launched our new television campaign on behalf of farmed animals, and we’re thrilled with the response from people of all ages and from all walks of life:

I can’t tell you how much it means to read those words, Mark. If you haven’t yet experienced the ad,

you can watch it here:

Thanks to the magnificent support of Animals Australia donors, we’ve brought this message of kindness and hope to prime time TV, and it’s sparking meaningful conversations in living rooms and around dining tables across the country.

Many of the calls, emails and comments our team has been so touched to receive are highlighting the value of seeing these animals just before Christmas: a time when pigs, turkeys and other ‘food’ animals suffer so greatly in factory farms and slaughterhouses.

Thankfully, awareness is growing that the ‘traditions’ advertisers and animal industries encourage us to uphold have led to a tragic outcome — Christmas becoming one of the two peak times of animal suffering in the world each year (the other is the Festival of Sacrifice).

At a time that people are bombarded with advertising that reduces these animals to products and ‘roasts’, we knew we needed to give them a living presence on television and remind people that they too are beings with beating hearts.

Our powerful ‘Somewhere’ television commercial is so beautifully achieving this. It is evoking an all-important emotional connection with these unique and precious animals and within that a desire to create a new family tradition is born — one based on kindness, care and compassion for all beings.

Mark, showing what animals in factory farms endure presented us with a great challenge; with the ever-present risk of factory farm vision being knocked back by the broadcasting authority for being “too graphic” or people changing the channel because they “don’t want to know”. That is why the magical needs to be entwined with the sad reality that these animals face: to ensure people could and would watch, while empowering their hearts to have an all-important say.

The strategy is working. Hearts are opening and responding. People are realising just how greatly governments have failed these animals and are seeking out the numerous ‘plant-based’ alternatives that now exist, knowing that within them lies the key to freeing these animals from suffering.

Getting ‘Somewhere’ on prime time was our first challenge; allowing it to have a transformational presence in 2021 is an even greater one.

Help him fly !

Donate to keep this ad on TV (animalsaustralia.org)

We know that this little pig has the potential to change the future for so many of those like him. Every time he’s seen or heard, he’s doing so on behalf of every animal locked away from view and denied a voice.

Mark, inspiring a new tradition of kindness and heart-based living has to start ‘Somewhere’… 🙂 How wonderful it would be if it can start with us. I so hope you will join us on this journey.
My warmest wishes to you and your family for a kind, peaceful and joyful festive season.

For the animals,

Lyn White AM
Director of Strategy

P.S. You might be wondering how farmed animals like our little flying pig can be subjected to routine cruelty when we are supposed to have laws to protect animals in Australia. I know I was shocked when I discovered this was the case. Here are answers to questions that you might have about this and our ‘Somewhere’ campaign.

P.P.S. If this little piglet has inspired you and your family to think differently this holiday season, you might enjoy this useful list of delicious plant-based festive foods we’ve put together.

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