Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

See all the photos as well as the writing at:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/01/15/australia-what-faith-in-lobbyist-leadership/

I think the vast majority of the planets citizens now know what a complete ignorant fool Scott Morrison is – bowing to the lobbyists and coal mining industries, whilst largely ignoring the evidence provided by ecologists, environmentalists, naturalists, protectors of the environment and animal welfare organisations. Well, now he has a problem in Australia; and he and his government are the root cause of it.

Morrison and his government will go down in history – not for the good things (are there any ?) that they have done; but for the fact that their policies have led to Australia experiencing the worst fires in its history – destroying the homes and estates of countless Australian citizens as well as being responsible for the total destruction of an ecosystem and the animals in it – maybe 1 Billion by now !! – all because him and his cronies that he calls ‘a government’ want to sit there and pose with lumps of coal.

Are we not also witnessing this with other (lets not call them) leaders of the world’s nations – ‘Trump Digs Coal’ for example. Maybe his paybacks are waiting in the wings at this very moment !

The saddest part of all this is that just a few dimwits at the top – people who ‘we’ are supposed to put our trusts in to protect and listen to us, are failing to both protect and listen; and as a result; they are destroying the planet and its inhabitants ‘for all mankind’.

Morrison we detest you – you are an eco terrorist of universal magnitude; and hopefully when all this is over, if it will ever be; the Australian people will have the balls to erect a huge monument to you and your failures outside of the national government HQ; so that all can see what happens when an ignoramus and his lobbyists ignore all the evidence presented to them; and only put their own self interests ahead of this.

Have a look at a few of our recent posts – ignoring what the rest of the worlds press and media have to say about it all !

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/01/14/educational-series-australias-fires-are-burning-animals-to-death/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/01/07/australia-what-have-we-learned-from-this/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/01/02/nearly-500000000-animals-have-been-killed-or-become-extinct-in-australias-wildfires-partly-due-to-an-ignorant-government/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/12/30/australia-its-very-hot-but-sydney-harbour-still-gives-go-ahead-for-fireworks/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/01/05/australia-the-time-of-universal-buyability/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/01/08/australia-upcoming-murder-of-10000-camels/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/12/29/australia-thousands-of-koalas-feared-dead-as-massive-australian-wildfires-destroy-habitat-australia-burns-the-government-jets-off-on-holiday/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/12/24/australia-kind-man-provides-life-saving-water-to-a-koala/

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/12/06/australia-cattle-station-abuses-exposed-with-live-exports-a-farming-nation-at-the-top-of-the-tree-when-it-comes-to-animal-abuse/

Below is an e mail that has just arrived at the office. They are not our words; but we repeat the entire mail and links for you to read. We think that a lot of this is very true – what about you ? – if you do, then please support the petition – Note: it CAN be signed by non Australians (such as ourselves) who wish to be a voice for the innocent peoples and animals of Australia. Here below is the mail in full:

Thinking of the good folk of Australia; and very much thinking about the millions of animals now dead due to asshole regulations by an asshole so called ‘government.

Regards Mark.

Dear Mark,

Scott Morrison is failing to address climate change, failing to lead and failing to keep us safe. He physically turned his back on people in fire ravaged communities.

Now he’s turning his back on renewable energy – by watering down the Renewable Energy Target and letting the Australian Renewable Energy Agency run out of money.

After public pressure from bushfire survivors, emergency service leaders, and GetUp members, Morrison says he wants to “evolve” his position on climate change¹ – at the same time his government is quietly killing off support for renewable energy.

We can’t let him get away with this bait and switch.

The very fact that Morrison is acknowledging the role of climate change in the bushfires shows he’s feeling the pressure. So if we call out his hypocrisy now we can force his hand to save these critical supports for renewable energy.

Sign the petition asking your MP to stand for renewable energy and climate action in this time of crisis.

Morrison’s excuses are crumbling.

He says he wants to take “practical steps” to help people. But the most practical thing to do when faced with a national emergency is to stop making things worse.

While the country burns, the Coalition is letting Australia’s only renewable energy agency run out of money, and undermining our international obligations with dodgy accounting tricks.²

Meanwhile, they continue to subsidise the fossil fuel industry to the tune of $29 billion dollars³ – effectively paying for the emergency they say they want to address.

But the Liberals are divided, the Murdoch press is on the backfoot, and everyone from state governments to global hedge funds are calling for significant government action.

If we can translate the anger and frustration we’re feeling right now into a set of clear and common sense demands – we can raise the bar on Morrison’s climate concession.

Make your demands clear – sign the petition now!

This bushfire season has been relentless. It’s taken 27 lives, destroyed thousands of homes, and shuttered countless farms and small businesses. It’s also killed billions of native animals, and destroyed the habitats they rely on.

We can’t expect this government to keep us safe – but they should stop endangering us by:

1. Adopting a more ambitious Renewable Energy Target

2. Extending and expanding funding for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency

3. Ending subsidies for fossil fuel corporations that are contributing to the national emergency we’re in

Add your name to call out Morrison’s hypocrisy.

The time for excuses is over. This needs to be a moment of reflection, and commitment from Federal Liberal MP’s – if they believe the science, they should prove it with action.

In determination,
– for the GetUp team

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https://animalpetitions.org/educational-series-australias-fires-are-burning-animals-to-death/

Educational Series: Australia’s Fires Are Burning Animals to Death

By Nick Engelfried
Covering an area thirteen times larger than that burned during California’s worst fire season, and 46% bigger than the land affected by last year’s Amazon forest fires, devastating bushfires are raging across the continent of Australia, endangering people and animals alike. As of mid January over twenty-five million acres–an area the size of the U.S. state of Virginia–had been scorched by the Australian fires. A much larger area has been affected by the resulting clouds of smoke. Around 2,000 houses have been burned to the ground, and at least twenty-five people have died as hundreds of thousands more were evacuated from dangerous areas. But the largest toll of all has been taken on Australia’s non-human inhabitants, the rich diversity of animal species who call the continent home.

Australia has been geographically isolated from the rest of the world for many millions of years, allowing one of the planet’s most unique assemblages of plants and animals to evolve there. A few, like kangaroos and koalas, are well-known and beloved by people all over the world. However, the vast majority of Australia’s unique species are much less famous. Scientists estimate somewhere between 500,000 and 600,000 animal and plant species–about five percent of all species in the world–live on the continent. More endemic species (those found nowhere else in the world) are found in Australia than any other country. Almost ninety percent of all mammals, reptiles, and amphibians in Australia are not found anywhere else, and close to half its bird species are likewise unique.

Australia’s geology and climate also help make it different from any other place on Earth. It is the driest habitable continent, with large areas being characterized by desert and other arid ecosystems dominated by vegetation adapted to survive with little moisture. Perhaps not surprisingly, seasonal fire cycles are a natural part of many such ecosystems–but this year’s fires have reached a whole new level of destruction with little if any precedent. It’s also clear what one of the major contributing factors to this disastrous season has been: climate change.

Unusually high temperatures and severe drought–exactly the kinds of conditions scientists predict will become increasingly common with climate change–helped set the stage for the 2020 bushfires. An ocean current oscillation event known as the Indian Ocean Dipole has also played a role. Occurring in years when the eastern Indian Ocean is significantly warmer than the western part, a “positive” Ocean Dipole causes rain patterns to shift westward, away from Australia and toward Africa. It’s therefore no coincidence that while Australia has been experiencing record-setting droughts over the last few months, parts of Africa have been drenched in floods and torrential rainfall. Climate scientists predict these positive Ocean Dipole events will become more common as a result of climate change caused by human activity.

The outlook for Australia’s wildlife under such a scenario looks grim. Many millions of animals have already been killed by this year’s fires, with some estimates putting the number at more than a billion. While such predictions come with a high degree of uncertainty–it’s unclear how many animals may have been able to escape by running or flying from the blazes–what is certain is the fires have been a disaster for animals who in many cases already face multiple threats to their survival. Logging, conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural land, and the introduction of non-native species like domestic cats have decimated native animals in Australia, including charismatic species like the koala. This makes them all the more vulnerable to being wiped out by a single disaster like this year’s fires.

It may be months before we know the true extent of the bushfire animal casualties. However, there can be no reasonable doubt that as the climate crisis gets worse, more animals will be put at risk. Nor are the negative effects of a warming climate in Australia limited to fires. Warming of the oceans combined with ocean acidification–a process caused, like climate change itself, by the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere–have already devastated one of the country’s most spectacular natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef. To take just one more example, this January a record-breaking heat wave caused the deaths of at least 23,000 spectacled flying fox fruit bats who were unable to stand the searing temperatures.

In Australia, climate change is not a distant concern for future generations to deal with; its deadly effects are being felt right now. Despite this, the Australian government is one of the most backward in the world when it comes to confronting the climate crisis. Along with the United States and a few other major polluter countries, Australia was one of the main opponents to forward progress at the 2019 U.N. climate negotiations meeting in Madrid. While Australia is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels and has one of the world’s larger per-capita carbon footprints, the country’s human population is so small it contributes only about one percent of global carbon emissions. You might therefore think its inaction on climate change isn’t such a big deal–but Australia’s impact on global efforts to reduce carbon pollution actually involve far more than the fossil fuels burned within its borders.

Much of Australia’s greater climate footprint comes from fossil fuels that it exports to other countries–particularly China and the nations of Southeast Asia. Australia is one of the world’s largest coal exporters, and is planning to open a massive new coal mining project known as the Adani Mine. By exporting fossil fuels abroad–and by pushing for weaker agreements in international climate talks–Australia’s government is worsening the climate crisis that has seen the country go up in flames.

So how sure are we that climate change really is mainly to blame for the bushfire crisis? The answer is: about as sure as it’s possible to get. While it is always difficult to link a specific weather event to a larger trend like climate change, factors like drought linked to the Ocean Dipole event described above have clearly been a major cause of conditions that made the fires possible. This hasn’t stopped climate change deniers from deliberately spreading misinformation. A Queensland University of Technology study using a Twitter bot-detection tool found that a high percentage of claims on Twitter attempting to blame arson for the fires are linked to bot or troll-like accounts. This suggests an organized misinformation campaign whose goal is to cast doubt on the link between climate and fires by suggesting that arson is mainly responsible instead.

Fortunately, animal lovers who care about the living creatures caught up in Australia’s massive fires can help in multiple ways. Donating to organizations working to contain the fires or rescue animals from the flames is one obvious step, but there is much more we can all do. If you are on social media, use your account to push back against the claims of climate deniers and draw attention to the real cause of the bushfire crisis. And perhaps most importantly of all, let your elected officials (whatever part of the world you live in) know you want action to stop climate change from getting any worse. Koalas, kangaroos, and countless other amazing Australian animals are counting on us.

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WAV Comment – we fully support the work and efforts that are being put into this site. As the site says; there is no excuse for animal abuse. We welcome this work and especially think that the archives given will help many organisations with their work in fighting animal abuses.

https://thecrueltylistuk.com/

The aim of The Cruelty List UK is to collect information on animal cruelty prosecution cases  in the United Kingdom: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Our case database #TheList already contains details of hundreds of convictions and, sadly, is  being added to all the time.

Each year the RSPCA investigates over 140,000 complaints of cruelty and neglect in England and Wales. The Scottish SPCA (SSPCA) receives around 1,000 reports of animal cruelty every week while Northern Ireland’s USPCA has averaged three reports per day since 2011.

In 2017 the RSPCA secured 1,492 convictions by private prosecution. Neither the SSPCA nor the USPCA bring prosecutions but still play a crucial role in bringing animal abusers to justice.

The main focus of the Cruelty List UK is on the abuse of companion animals – dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, reptiles and so on – though we also highlight prosecutions involving wildlife – badger crime, for example – and farm animals, including slaughterhouse cruelty.

Visit the site at https://thecrueltylistuk.com/ Animal abuse is a serious crime worthy of harsh punishment

Animal abuse is a serious crime worthy of harsh punishment

As it stands punishments meted out by the courts to animal abusers are woefully inadequate with offenders commonly receiving suspended prison sentences, paltry fines and nominal bans on keeping pets. One of our key aims is to campaign for stronger penalties for animal abuse. A lifetime disqualification order should be mandatory in EVERY case. Are these people really capable of being reformed? We think not.

https://thecrueltylistuk.com/

Why we ‘name and shame’

We think it important that the names and faces of convicted abusers remain in the public eye long after details of them and their crimes have been consigned to newspaper archives.

The information which we publish here may also be a useful resource for pet rescue organisations.

https://thecrueltylistuk.com/

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Dozens of elephants forced to perform for tourists are freed from chains

https://nypost.com/2020/01/09/dozens-of-elephants-forced-to-perform-for-tourists-are-freed-from-chains/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

Dozens of captive elephants in Thailand are finally free to roam.

The Maesa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai has decided to unshackle the pachyderms at its park. Animal rights activists accused camp owners of inflicting “psychological anguish” on the elephants by forcing them to perform for tourists.

The activists, who called the practice “cruel,” shed light on the attraction in November, and claimed that baby elephants had been “ripped from their mothers” and forced to learn tricks, such as painting, kicking soccer balls and throwing darts.

Maesa’s managers now allow several of their elephants to wander the grounds freely, with plans to do the same for all 77 of the animals at their park, according to executive officer Anchalee Kalamaphichit.

“The center has been criticized for a long time about how we chain the animals in here, so we decided to free them,” she said in a statement to Vital Press. “We are glad that they appeared to be happier living without chains and their mahouts, so hopefully we can free the rest of them soon.

“However, living freely is a new thing to these elephants,” she continued. “They need time to adapt into their new way of living, so we chose to start with the eldest and friendliest of the elephants.”

British animal rights organization Moving Animals, who called out Maesa’s treatment of the elephants, said the news is “incredible.”

“Their compassionate decision sends a powerful message to the elephant tourism industry and sets a clear precedent for change,” said its founder Amy Jones.

Last year, Moving Animals shared a video of elephants at the camp swaying and moving uneasily, a “clear sign of the psychological anguish they face,” it said. The video shows them being dragged by their ears and disciplined with sharp bullhooks — a tool used by elephant handlers that resembles a sharp, metal spear.

They further decried the practice of separating calves from their mothers, forced to endure “the traditional and brutal, days or weeks long, process of breaking a young elephant’s spirit.”

Jones added that new ethics guidelines from ABTA, the UK’s predominant travel association, concerning animal abuse at tourist attractions was a step in the right direction.

“We are hopeful that more and more tourist attractions will make positive changes, so that no animals have to suffer for tourists’ entertainment,” she said.

Moving Animals has called for a full ban on “unethical” elephant tours to “places like Maesa Elephant Nursery.”

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Australia – News from Animals Australia:

We are flying plane loads of food into fire-ravaged areas to feed local wildlife populations. You can support these efforts here:

https://secure.animalsaustralia.org/donate/bushfire.php?ua_s=twitter

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We still allow sociopaths to kill for fun.

They pay Big Money for a kill.  Sickos.

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Regards Mark.

Read it all, including photos and video, at:

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/01/13/eu-failing-caged-animals-put-meps-and-commissioners-in-a-cage-for-24-hours-and-then-see-how-quickly-things-would-change/

Put MEP’s and Commissioners in a Cage for 24 hours; and then see how quickly things would change !

WAV Comment: I (Mark) am getting on my soapbox here about this; sorry if I have different views to others, but knowing the EU and how it operates; I don’t think we will see that much in the way of change. Nice words and PR’s; and a pile of EU ‘officials’ working day and night to dress it all up; for basically nothing – which means nothing being done in the way of progress for the welfare of animals in Europe.

Have animal welfare / rights organisations across the EU been saying this for years – that ‘conventional rabbit cages have worst welfare score’; and have they not supported this attitude with vast amounts of evidence / proof of the cruelties involved ?. We note that this report says that ‘conventional cages have the worst overall welfare impact score’ – it says nothing about banning them, just simply that ‘it includes recommendations to improve the welfare of these animals in all the systems currently available in the EU’.

In other words; and in my opinion only for this article, the EU ‘policy’ has basically no intention of ‘ending the cage’ as proposed by campaigns by animal welfare groups across Europe. At best, it is regarded by us as a kind of ‘tinkering round the edges’ strategy; which largely keeps current systems; whilst saying to citizens and the welfare groups that ‘improvements have been made’ !. Oh yeah, like what ? – Rabbits; the most farmed animal throughout Europe, we suggest, rabbits we still be kept in cages throughout the EU, and really the EU will have masses of new ‘yukspeak’ legislation that does very little, changes very little; but keeps the farmers and their lobbyists happy – and that for them is the main thing.

Have we not seen the ‘EU approach’ to all this in the past ? – ‘battery cages’ for chickens suddenly take on the new EU name of ‘enriched cages’ – and they move from each bird in an enriched cage now having at least 750 square centimetres of space rather than the old minimum for ‘battery’ cage systems, which was 550 square centimetres; or in other words, roughly the size of one A4 sheet of paper per bird, for their entire lives !

Read – Enriched cages condemned – CIWF – one of the UK’s leading farm animal welfare organisations:

https://www.ciwf.org.uk/news/2010/08/Enriched-cages-condemned

Lets move on to another ‘farm animal welfare’ issue that the EU is involved with and ignores the wishes of its citizens on – Live Exports (live animal transports). Have a look at all the people in Europe calling for change:

https://stoplivetransport.org/

.. and the European Parliament demands 8 hours – https://animalwelfareandtrade.com/european-parliament-demands-8-hour-limit

Well, the reality is that despite the ‘demands’ of the European Parliament; the EU Commissioner(s) have the final say; and again in this case, they ignore the wishes of the EU citizens in favour of what is best for them; their own nation, and their lobbyists – and that in a nutshell means ‘NO Change’.

Here we are in January 2020 and nothing has changed regarding live animals being transported across / or from the EU to third countries since the Regulation (1/2005) of yes, 2005.. Reg 1/2005 is still the antiquated ‘bible’ which transporters never adhere to, and now we see the EU trying to invent new words and policies to make ‘live animal transport’ things a bit better, whatever that means ! – basically; the EU does not change to the wants of its citizens; it ignores them and does only what it wants at the demands of the un elected Commissioners.

Another example; Tell me about Monsanto / Bayer and the grip that lobbyists have within the EU – you can read a lot of this in our past posts in the subject. In Austria last month, we had:

Austrian leader blocks ban on weedkiller glyphosate, citing technicality

VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria’s caretaker leader on Monday made clear she would not sign into law the European Union’s first national ban on the weedkiller glyphosate due to a technicality, infuriating environmentalists while delighting farmers’ groups.

A large majority in parliament and, polls suggest, the public support banning the chemical because of fears it causes cancer. Austria, a popular tourist destination for its Alpine landscapes, also devotes the largest share of its farmland to organic agriculture of any EU member state.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-glyphosate/austrian-leader-blocks-ban-on-weedkiller-glyphosate-citing-technicality-idUSKBN1YD11Z

We call the ‘technicality’ another name; and that is ‘lobbyists’. All the time the EU sucks up to them and the industry, there is no chance of change, despite what the citizens want. You could say that this is enough to make people want to wave goodbye to the EU; for all its inactions – and you know what, wow, yes, that is exactly what the UK will be doing at the end of January this year.

Taking back control; away from all the EU cow poo.

——————————————–

EFSA concludes conventional rabbit cages have worst welfare score

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published three scientific opinions on the welfare of rabbits kept in the EU for meat consumption. The conclusions show the need for the European Commission to use this scientific evidence to enact long overdue legislation for rabbits and end caged systems. At the same time, the opinions demonstrate the urgent need for better training of staff during stunning and slaughter of rabbits.

Rabbits are the second most farmed species in the EU in terms of numbers, but there is no species-specific legislation protecting their welfare in the EU. EFSA assessed and compared the welfare of rabbits in different production systems – organic, outdoor, floor pens, elevated pens, enriched cages and conventional cages – and concluded that conventional cages have the worst overall welfare impact score. The overall welfare impact scores suggest that animal welfare in organic systems, on the other hand, is generally good. EFSA’s Opinion includes recommendations to improve the welfare of these animals in all the systems currently available in the EU. To facilitate the assessment of the welfare of rabbits kept in different systems it also recommends standardizing the use of validated welfare assessment protocols suitable for on-farm use throughout the EU.

Secondly, in response to two mandates, one from the European Parliament and one from the European Commission, EFSA also assessed the welfare problems like to occur in rabbits during slaughter and killing operations. In its Scientific Opinion ‘Stunning methods and slaughter of rabbits for human consumption’, the Authority identified ten welfare consequences resulting from 32 hazards that rabbits can be exposed to before and during slaughter (i.e. during pre-stunning, stunning and bleeding). These are consciousness, not being dead, thermal stress, prolonged thirst, prolonged hunger, restriction of movements, pain, fear, distress, and respiratory distress. 25 out of 32 of the hazards originated from staff, with most being attributed either to a lack of appropriate skills or to fatigue.

EFSA concluded that the preparedness and performance of staff also plays a crucial role in the case of on‐farm killing for purposes other than slaughter, such as disease control operations, and assessed this scenario in another dedicated Scientific Opinion. It identified 14 hazards which result in five welfare consequences: not being dead, consciousness, pain, fear and distress. Again, the staff were identified as the origin for all the hazards, either due to a lack of skills needed or due to the high kill rate that characterizes these operations and results in fatigue.

For both these opinions EFSA linked the hazards, welfare consequences, animal-based measures, origins and preventive and corrective measures, and also proposed mitigation measures to minimize welfare consequences. In assessing preventive measures, the crucial role played by the staff was also acknowledged.

 https://www.eurogroupforanimals.org/efsa-concludes-conventional-rabbit-cages-have-worst-welfare-score

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