On January 16, a judge ruled that dozens of dogs seized by authorities will not be returned to defendant Elmer James Givens Jr.
Givens is suspected of first-degree animal cruelty and animal fighting after a tip led to authorities searching his garage in Tacoma, Wash., and finding 49 pit bulls locked inside small, dark cages. The dogs looked starved and lived in their own excrement.
Malnourished, injured and scarred, the dogs are believed to have been used in dogfighting activities. Authorities uncovered items related to dogfighting at the accused’s home, including first-aid kits, medicines, and training apparatuses.
After being released without charge, Givens went to court to try and convince the judge to return the seized dogs. Fortunately, Pierce County Judge Jeanette Lineberry refused his request because “the court has serious concerns about [the dogs] suffering future neglect or abuse.”
The recent ruling is great news, but no formal charges have been filed against the perpetrator.
A Lady Freethinker petition calling for justice for these maltreated dogs has garnered over 25,500 signatures. Thank you to everyone who signed and supported this ongoing case, but more signatures are needed to ensure that these innocent, abused dogs get the justice they deserve.
Please, sign this petition urging Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett to prosecute the culprit to the fullest extent of the law.
Posted on January 22, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Animal experimenter Logothetis, Director at the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen for biological cybernetics,flees to a country without press freedom and without animal protection law, to China.
In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which likes to print propaganda from the animal experiments lobby, a fan complains about the loss of the “skull drill”Logothetis. One would have misrepresented his animal experiments …
Image: SOKO Tierschutz
So it continues to tinker with the victim myth. So let’s get to the facts.
1) The experiments were carried out illegally under Logothetis, because the voluntary freedom of the animals according to the application and approval was not given, but the experiments were forced through violence, anesthesia or liquid deprivation.
Image: SOKO Tierschutz
2) In the Logothetis laboratory, the monkeys suffered the most severe side effects, such as meningitis, strokes and paralysis, among other things due to sluggish surgical methods and poor hygiene.
Image: SOKO Tierschutz
3) In the Logothetis laboratory, dying, sick monkey Stella was carried out cruel attempts to the end despite the stroke and hemiplegia, even though the animal should have been euthanized. Stella was not an isolated case.
Image: SOKO Tierschutz
4) In the laboratory, an intern without any knowledge was allowed to carry out serious animal tests on rats which were fatal due to the lack of practice.https: //youtu.be/40j3ULTjOs0 ((unfortunately in German!!)
Image: SOKO Tierschutz
We have reported about this several times in the past:
5) There was a severe outbreak of disease (TBC) in the Logothetis laboratory and potentially dangerous diseases for humans, including multi-resistant germs. However, hygiene was poor and was not taken seriously.
6) These bad practices have a long tradition. A notification by an authority was pending against the institute under Logothetis in the period 2010-2012.
This ad was due to poor practice, poor knowledge – for example in surgical sutures that had bad consequences for an animal.
The only answer to these facts came in the form of a dirt campaign by animal experiment fans.
Instead of facts and arguments, there were lies, murder and even a crime. A senior MPI employee was convicted of pretending to be a criminal offense. She had claimed to have been attacked by animal rights activists (!!!)
It is logical that Logothetis, after retiring and after the majority of German researchers rightly refused to support him, seeks refuge in a country without animal welfare law, criticism and free media.
Because there he can drill monkey heads free and continue his bad research without obstacles.
He does it like other industries that go to China to exploit people uninhibitedly or to poison the environment. In this case with animals only.
But he shouldn’t be wrong!
Animal torture cannot hide in China either.
And Logothetis should not be surprised if the determined Chinese want to see success, and will not be fed off with almost nothing for decades, like the Germans with their taxpayer millions. Some innovative young researchers in China will shake their heads in disbelief at what has been bought from Germany.
My comment: Logothetis: “My research was destroyed with strong effects on my health. !! I would have liked to have stayed in Germany, but given the circumstances, it is no longer possible for me to continue my work in Tübingen”.
We can breathe a sigh of relief and just say: One less asshole in Germany’s laboratory industry!
As far as I know, no more monkey trials will take place at the MPI in Tübingen in the future.
Posted on January 21, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
As it says in Article 13 of the Lisbon Treaty:“… animals are sentient beings. The overall goal is to ensure that the animals do not suffer any avoidable pain or suffering. ”
The Spanish Galgeros don’t give a shit about it!
A cruel fate awaits over 50,000 galgos in Spain at the end of the hunting season.
They are traditionally bred for hunting and used for pleasure and greed by the so-called galgueros (hunters). Without food and water, the galgos live their sad lives in dirty, narrow bunkers without daylight.
Every day is hell for them.
They are always the same pictures: Galgos, emaciated to the bone, whose ribs can be counted with the naked eye. Then there are those with obviously broken legs and open flesh wounds as well as those for whom – hung on the tree – tragically all help comes too late.
These pictures can only mean one thing: The hunting season in Spain is officially over.
The hunting season with galgos goes from October to late January, but their abuse is ubiquitous all year round.
But at the end of January, when the hunting season ends, the situation for the galgos gets worse than ever.
What now with the many hunting dogs that are no longer needed? Nobody wants to bear the costs for food, accommodation, water and veterinarian until next year. Then these animals are killed en masse.
New mass graves are discovered every day with galgos.
In Spain, the Galgo is pure goods. Its value depends on its performance. In the classifieds market, the price starts with one euro for a Galgo puppy.
Animals that have won a few races or have champions in the ancestral row quickly make it to a few thousand euros.
Training takes place behind cars and motorcycles in summer.
Hunting and coursing for four months, always running, rushing, hunting, alone, in pairs, in a pack, four months of top performance. And top performance takes a toll.
The dog is too tired? Take another one!
The dog is too slow? Take another one!
The dog got hurt? Take another one! It’s about honor, it’s about pride, no galguero can get along with two dogs, an average of 10 to 15 are used per season by a galguero …
Animals that no longer achieve the desired performance are disposed of ice cold. The galgueros break their legs so that they become useless.
They throw them into wells where the galgos starve to death.
The hanging of the galgos even has a name, “tocar el piano”, in English “playing the piano”, since the galgo just touches the ground with its paws and struggles for its life, like when a piano player hits the keys, but it does is not a game, it is a cruel, cowardly murder by hand of a brutal, human scum!
The galgo hangs strangled from a tree so that it can barely tap its feet on the ground. Not so that he can survive, but so that he can prolong his agony himself a little.
The dog was hung up because it did not catch a rabbit while hunting. This goes against the hunter’s pride and must be paid for with death.
Hunting with the Spanish greyhounds “Galgos” is prohibited in the rest of the EU. Only not in Spain.
You can see that this is systematic cruelty to animals by the fact that around 50,000 galgos dangle from the trees every year.
The protest against the handling of greyhounds is getting louder and louder: In a petition called “Galgo Massacre” to the European Parliament, animal rights activists, for example, ask EU politicians:
“Stop hunting with Galgos in Spain.”
The international petition the Change.org platform has already been signed by more than 127,000 people.
Hunting with galgos is particularly widespread in the regions of Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla and León, Madrid and Andalusia, i.e. in the middle of the country and in southern Spain.
The dogs are kept in remote crates in the hinterland where tourists don’t notice!!
Hunting is a popular sport in Spain, a license is easily available. But hunting events across Spain have also become big events that serve entertainment and machismo.
Animal rights activists appeal to the European Parliament
The protest against the handling of greyhounds is getting louder and louder: In a petition called “Galgo Massacre” to the European Parliament, animal rights activists, for example, ask EU politicians: “Stop hunting with Galgos in Spain.”
The international petition the Change.org platform has already been signed by more than 127,000 people.
And I mean…There has never really existed a civilized Spain.
The Spanish Inquisition was founded on November 1, 1478.
It was only abolished on July 15, 1834 under Isabella II.
How much does it do? 365 years !!
The 320 years of the Conquista y Colonización and the 36 years of the Franco dictatorship naturally have to be counted towards this.
The “few” million murdered indigenous of Latin America are also due to the civilized Spain.
Because the Spaniards always claimed that the Indians had no soul and were not part of the human species, they also played executioners in this continent.
That was the black past, but the present doesn’t look better.
50,000 galgos per year brutally executed by hunters and breeders in Spain.
Approximately 200,000 animals are abandoned each year.
In Spain, an animal is thrown onto the street every 6 minutes, the official number of strays is 200,000 per year, but the dark number is much higher.
According to RSPCA statistics, Spain is the country with the highest animal cruelty rate in Europe.
Don’t forget the bullfighting – in November 2013, the corrupt People’s Party, together with the bullfighting mafia, declared animal fighting to “world heritage”.
We must also mention other blood fiestas! the Toro de la Vega, the Toro del Fuego, the slow death of horses in Galicia due to wooden truncheons, they are also part of the “cultural heritage” of the country!
The Bullfights in Spain – under the guise of “agricultural subsidies”- are financed with our money, from the EU’s subsidies pot.
According to a Spanish MP, around 130 million euros flow from the EU to Spanish bull farmers each year.
Around 27 million euros of this comes from Germany.
A little hope arises after the election of the new government, in which the left-wing party “Podemos” also participates.
Not that we have had any great support for animal rights from the left to date … but at least we have one less fascist government in Europe.
‘It would be kinder to shoot them’: Ireland’s calves set for live export
It would be “kinder to shoot” the hundreds of thousands of unwanted male dairy calves due to be born in Ireland this year, rather than export them to the Middle East or let them die on the farm, experts have told the Guardian.
Irish farmers have hit a streak of gold on dairy exports, and as a result the industry has rapidly expanded, with the national dairy herd rising from about 1m in 2010 to 1.6m this year.
But that creates a whole new problem. Dairy cows generally give birth every year in order to maintain their milk output. But male dairy calves are no use to the farmer as they cannot produce milk, which means that Ireland will need to deal with as many as 800,000 unwanted male calves this year, in what has been described by the Irish agricultural press as a “calf tsunami”.
A Chinese theme park has triggered a wave of outrage on social media after it forced a pig to bungee jump off a 68-metre high tower.
Video footage shows the pig tied to a pole, carried by two men to the top of a tower before being pushed off.
The theme park located in Chongqing said the stunt was held to mark the opening of the new bungee attraction.
Local media outlets said the pig was sent to a slaughterhouse afterwards.
The stunt caused anger online – reflecting the growing importance of animal rights among China’s population.
The theme park has since put out a statement, saying that it accepted the “criticism” it had received.
“We sincerely accept netizens’ criticism and advice and apologise to the public,” it said. “We will improve [our] marketing of the tourist site, to provide tourists with better services.”
‘Vulgar marketing tactic’
The incident took place on 18 January at the Meixin Red Wine Town theme park in the sprawling Chinese municipality of Chongqing in south-western China.
The publicity event – which organisers called the golden pig bungee jump – was held to celebrate the opening of the theme park’s bungee attraction.
The pig, which according to local reports weighed 75kg (165 lbs), is seen being pushed off the tower with a purple cape tied around its shoulders. In one video of the incident, what sound like pig squeals can be heard.
What happens to the pig afterwards is not shown, though many local media reports say it was eventually sent to a slaughterhouse.
Animal cruelty is not punishable by law in China. However, there has been growing awareness of animal welfare issues in recent years.
Though a handful of people defended the incident on social media, saying it wasn’t any different to “killing a pig for food”, the majority of users condemned the company’s actions.
“This is a super vulgar marketing tactic,” said one commenter.
“Killing animals for consumption and treating them cruelly for entertainment are two different things,” another said. “There is no need to torture them like this.”
Animal protection organisation Peta condemned the incident, calling it “animal cruelty at its worst”.
“Pigs experience pain and fear in the same ways that we do, and this disgusting PR stunt should be illegal,” Jason Baker, Peta senior vice-president of international campaigns, told BBC News.
“The Chinese public’s angry response should be a wake-up call to China’s policy-makers to implement animal protection laws immediately.”
Further reading – The mentality of the theme park CRETIN management has made the news in many UK press articles – here are some:
Posted on January 20, 2020 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
In New Zealand, Rodeo becomes an entertaining family day where burly participants imitate their Texas counterparts by throwing ridiculous big hats are tying into an arena and torturing three-month-old calves to impress the audience.
It’s time to end rodeos in New Zealand. That’s what many are saying as rodeo season in the island nation starts again.
Hundreds of people have gathered at local rodeos around the country to protest the sport’s cruelty and abuse towards the animals required to perform.
Join them in their protests. Add your voice by signing the petition and demanding that New Zealand ban rodeos on a national level!
For the riders and the spectators, rodeos are just a fun game. But for horses and cows, it seems like a matter of life and death.
They are prey animals, so when they feel another living being on their backs, they can only imagine that their lives are in danger. Imagine that feeling – would you want another living being to feel that, day after day?
For those animals that don’t cooperate, rodeo riders use various tools to get them to buck and put on a good, entertaining show.
They may prod them with an electric shocker to provoke a buck, poke them with spurs, or fit them with “flank straps” – a rope tied tightly around the animals’ abdomen.
If handlers and riders need all these horrible tools just to make an animal jump, that should tell you that it is not a great experience for the animal.
But even worse than the pain they endure, some rodeo animals never make it out alive. According to Safe, an animal protection organization, four animals died in rodeos just last year. That’s four animals that were used as tools and then discarded once their use had expired.
This “sport” is cruel and should be outlawed. It’s just that simple. Tell New Zealand that there is no bucking reason to abuse animals.
Sign the petition and ask for the sport to be banned nationally.
My comment: Just like rap music, rodeo is a product of American “pop culture” that New Zealand has adopted with open arms. So it’s not a tradition at all, it’s an import. Bad examples are quickly adopted by people, good ones are not.
Cruelty will always have its supporters. It always has and it always will. Rodeo (this primitive demonstration of Cowboy’s potency) has worked hard to expand its support base.
They call this animal abuse a “sport”, but these brutal shows are part of the entertainment industry. It is often also a matter of gambling, such as greyhound racing, horse racing and so is rodeo too. The people involved in riding the rodeo animals are fit and healthy young people who want to signal and prove their potency.
It’s very clear that rodeo is a sadistic act of torturing animals.
Without pain, distress and fear, these animals could not be ridden.
The rodeo animals are victims of abuse and anyone who loves animals should boycott this brutal theater of indigenous cowboys.
Every year in the UK, the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) has a special weekend where everyone is invited to participate. It is called the Big Garden Birdwatch; https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/ and it allows anyone to spend just a hour in their own garden; or from the house etc; to log and count the types of birds which are visiting the area. We are all ready to do our bit; taking part in this free count, which only takes an hour of time; a yet provides a huge amount of data to scientists who research how bird numbers and species are increasing or declining across the whole of the country.
What’s also very important – it links people with garden birds; tells them about care and how to provide types of food for the different types. A big win-win for the garden birds of the UK; and with over half a million people signed up for this years event, the data provided by the watch will be a massive insight or window into the bird situation in the UK.
There is still time to take part if you live in the UK – just follow the links we have given below;
Happy watching – Mark (WAV).
For over 40 years, we’ve (RSPB) have been asking you to count the birds in your garden – and you’ve been brilliant at it.
With over half a million people now regularly taking part, coupled with 40 years worth of data, Big Garden Birdwatch allows us to monitor trends and helps us understand how birds are doing.
As the format of the survey has stayed the same, the scientific data can be compared year-on-year, making your results very valuable to our scientists.
With results from so many gardens, we are able to create a “snapshot” of bird numbers across the UK.
For four decades, the Big Garden Birdwatch has highlighted the winners and losers in the garden bird world. It was one of the first surveys to alert the RSPB to the decline in the number of song thrushes in gardens. This species was a firm fixture in the top 10 in 1979, but by 2019 numbers of song thrushes seen in gardens had declined by 76%, coming in at number 20.
Your results help us spot problems, but more importantly, they are also the first step in putting things right.
It’s so easy to take part. An hour with the birds is a wonderful opportunity to sit back, relax and spend time with nature. So, pop the kettle on, put your feet up and start counting!
Watch the birds for one hour
Choose an hour between 25 and 27 January to watch the birds in your garden or local park.
Count the most birds that land at once
Only count the birds that land in your garden or park, not those flying over. The same birds may land more than once, so you can avoid double counting by recording the highest number of each bird species you see at any one time – not the total number you count over the hour.
Tell us what you saw
Every count is important, so don’t worry if you don’t see anything. Observing which birds aren’t around is as important as seeing the ones that are. You can submit your results online at rspb.org.uk/birdwatch from 25 January until 16 February.
If you’d prefer to send us your results by post, you can download a submission form from rspb.org.uk/birdwatch. Please make sure you post your findings back to us by 11 February.
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 