Posted on November 11, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Legislation to Create NIH Center for Advancing Non-Animal Research Introduced in US Congress
9 November 2020
A New York-based nonprofit group, CAARE, that led the drive to create legislation to promote “cutting-edge methods” of research superior to animal-based testing, today lauded the announcement that the “Humane Research and Testing Act of 2020” has been introduced in US Congress.
Landmark bipartisan legislation to promote and fund scientifically advanced, human-relevant, non-animal methods through the establishment of a dedicated center under the National Institute of Health (NIH) was introduced by Congressional members Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL).
Barbara Stagno, president of Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research & Experimentation, commends the effort, noting: “CAARE is grateful to Representatives Hastings and Buchanan for introducing this legislation that has great promise to change the current paradigm of routine use of animals in laboratories when there are available alternatives, and gives real impetus to reducing animals by establishing a center exclusively for that purpose.”
The “Humane Research and Testing Act of 2020” would create a “dedicated center under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide resources, funding and training to advance humane, cost-effective, and scientifically suitable non-animal methods,” Stagno added.
Because the exact number of animals used in U.S. research is unknown, ranging between 17 million and 100 million annually, the “Humane Research and Testing Act of 2020” is also designed to obtain that data, and requires the NIH to outline a plan for reducing those numbers.
Posted on November 11, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
France’s National Assembly adopts European resolution on animal welfare
9 November 2020
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation reports that France’s National Assembly has adopted a European resolution on the protection of animal welfare within the EU. This grants them a stronger position when negotiating with the European Commission.
On November 1st, in full confinement, France’s National Assembly adopted a European resolution following the fact-finding mission entrusted to deputies Typhanie Degois and Christophe Naegelen. The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, a member of Eurogroup for Animals, was auditioned for this in April 2020. The resolution comes in the form of various recommendations addressed to the European Commission, in fields as varied as agriculture, research, the pet trade, animal transport, etc. The Brigitte Bardot Foundation summarized all 37 recommendations theme by theme. Overall, they are in favour of all the recommendations in this resolution, although they would like to see a ban on certain practices rather than a strengthening of the legal framework (e.g. exploitation of wild animals in circuses, cetaceans in dolphinariums…). From now on, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation will be able to rely on this resolution in order to intervene with the European Commission, as they feel it remains insufficiently active on the subject of animal welfare within the European Union.
Posted on November 11, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
ALDI to join European Chicken Commitment in Germany and Spain
9 November 2020
Supermarket giant ALDI has taken a far-reaching decision to improve animal welfare. ALDI is the first major food retailer in Germany to join the European Chicken Commitment and thereby increases its commitment to sustainable retail practices by telling suppliers to treat chickens better.
Aldi has pledged to end the worst abuses suffered by tens of millions of chickens in their supply chains. The company will also work toward improving conditions for its locations in the US and elsewhere by continuing negotiations with The Humane League, an international nonprofit based in Philadelphia that advocates against animal abuse.
According to that group, “by 2026, a chicken raised for Aldi in one of these regions will be less likely to struggle to stand and walk, because they won’t be bred to reach market weight at just five weeks old. They won’t live their entire lives suffering in perpetual darkness. And they won’t be violently flipped upside-down and electrocuted, then have their throats slashed while potentially still conscious.”
Posted on November 11, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
“Man worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping.” Hubert Reeves
Banks Facing Calls To ‘Stop Funding Factory Farming’ To Protect Animals, The Planet, And Public Health
The livestock sector is not on the radar of many development banks when it comes to reducing emissions despite being such a large contributor
Development banks are facing calls to stop funding factory farming, which is playing a significant role in existential crises facing humanity including the climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and antibiotic resistance.
This is the message coming from Sinergia Animal, an international animal protection organization set up to ‘end the worst practices of industrial animal agriculture’. It works in countries of the Global South – Southeast Asia and Latin America.
The organization has scored some significant victories for animals. In addition, it was recognized as one of the most effective animal protection NGOs in the world by Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) in 2018 after just over a year of work. It retained this recognition in 2019.
Animal agriculture
Sinergia Animal points out that factory farming is responsible for significant Amazon deforestation as well as 14.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The dirty and inhumane conditions in which industrially-farmed animals are kept cause tremendous animal suffering and are a major risk for the transmission of new zoonotic diseases similar to COVID-19.
Another public health threat in which animal farming plays a significant role is antibiotic resistance. According to the WHO, the ‘high volume of antibiotics in food-producing animals contributes to the development of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, particularly in settings of intensive animal production’.
Despite intensive animal farming being a major factor in these existential threats, money – to the tune of billions of dollars – has been poured into the sector by development banks.
Development banks
The role of development banks is to invest medium and long-term capital into industries in poorer countries in a bid to boost economic growth. What many may be troubled to learn is that taxes fund development banks.
Two of the world’s biggest development banks are the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Despite pledging to tackle climate change, both have pumped billions of dollars into animal agriculture over the last decade.
They have invested $2.6bn (£2.1bn) into beef, pig, and poultry farming, as well as dairy production and abattoirs between them. This is in the last decade alone.
Development banks
This support goes against what these institutions should do, says Sinergia Animal. “A development bank’s mission should be to support the sustainable development of a country or a region,” spokesperson Carolina Galvani told Plant Based News.
“It does this with taxpayers’ money. Therefore, the projects, companies, and activities they finance should benefit the common good. Therefore, development banks should refrain from financing activities that hamper the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals and the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
“Industrial livestock is such a sector. This is due to its contribution to deforestation, GHG emissions, and pollution. And that’s not all. Other issues include zoonotic diseases, antibiotic resistance, unhealthy diets, and employees’ exposure to bad working conditions.
“Moreover, it also causes immense animal suffering. Development banks should support countries in developing sustainable and fair food production systems, instead of financing intensive livestock projects.”
‘Crazily disjointed’
Sinergia Animal is not alone in its condemnation of these investments. Jeremy Coller is the head of investment firm Coller Capital and founder of responsible finance network FAIRR.
Coller has described the investment of public funds into intensive animal agriculture by these banks as ‘crazily disjointed and inconsistent’. This is because intensive agriculture is ‘one of the world’s highest-emitting industries’.
On the issue of the money coming from public funds, Sinergia Animal says: “Many taxpayers might not be so aware of the impacts of the industrial livestock sector. Still, in general, taxpayers would like their tax money to be invested in genuinely sustainable projects that benefit the common good and not in projects that benefit only a few corporations and contribute to many problems.”
‘A radical shift’
So how are development banks able to get away with pumping cash into these operations when they are so harmful?
Sinergia Animal puts it down to a lack of knowledge. Galvani said: “For many banks, the livestock sector is still not really on their radar. They think about energy and transport when they think about reducing emissions, but not about livestock. This is strange, considering it is such a large contributor to GHG emissions.”
She added that while development banks have ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) policies in place, these are ‘narrow-focused’. And, they only look at the impacts of individual projects. This means as long as these respect certain impact limits, and certain GHG emissions, banks are able to finance them.
“But looking at projects at an individual level does not show the full picture,” said Galvani. “To meet the Paris Agreement’s goals and the SDGs, the world needs a radical shift in how it produces food. And it should be the role of a development bank to help countries, especially the ones from the Global South ones, to achieve this shift.”
Massive rainforest destruction for animal feed, factory farming, manure, destruction of the rainforest for palm oil plantations, wild animal markets and and and.
More and more monocultures are being grown and land grabbing, especially rainforests is being sacrificed for this.
The loss of the “green lung” of the Amazon is irrevocable and no government takes action to stop it.
Primarily responsible: Customers of the animal industries of leather, fur, feathers, wool, and the consumers of animal products, i.e. milk/milk product, meat/meat products, eggs…
The farmers deny it again and again, but currently, 85-90% of global soy yields end up in animal husbandry.
The greed for animal products grows every day and carries many risks, not only for animals.
The environmental organization Germanwatch shows very clearly: 35 percent of the chickens examined were contaminated with germs that are resistant to so-called reserve antibiotics.
This, our greed is also the alleged propagator and cause of many pandemics:
Ebola, Spain flu, swine flu, bird flu, Malaria, HIV, SARS-COV-2 SARD-COV (new).
The next pandemics are on the march and will come out of a stable again if we carry on as before.
The latest example: Denmark! where coronavirus mounted on mink farms and passed on to humans.
This is where the topic of multi-resistant germs comes into play, which was mentioned above.
We finally have to see the connections.
But we deny it! Instead, we slaughter millions of animals to protect the disease breeding grounds of the meat/milk/fur industry and in the end, we only fight the symptoms of self-created diseases.
There is only one way to counteract this trend:
An immediate exit from intensive animal husbandry.
Tax incentives for businesses that rely on future-oriented, plant-based agriculture.
Tax relief for vegan products.
The tax burden on animal products.
All of this must be decided immediately.
Einstein said: “You can’t solve a problem if you think the same way you did when you created it”
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 