Posted on August 20, 2019 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Rich Hardyhas been an undercover investigator and ‘visual evidence gatherer’ in the animal protection movement for 20 years. His upcoming book, ‘Not As Nature Intended’, follows his journey, telling the stories of the animals he’s met, and the people behind their suffering.
We spoke to him about the power of story-telling, the importance of visual recording, and what it’s like to be close enough to see everything, but just far enough away not to be noticed.
You call yourself a “visual evidence gatherer” rather than a photographer. Can you describe the nature of your work?
Rich Hardy: I learnt to use cameras as a way of gathering evidence for animal protection groups in my role as an undercover investigator. I think a ‘visual evidence gatherer’ is a more honest appraisal of what I’ve done.
The focus of my assignments has been to document systemic problems, law-breaking and to show what animals have to endure when farmed for food, bred for fashion, trapped for science or held captive for entertainment. Capturing images has been a big part of it, but it was also about gathering insider information to bolster campaigns. The resulting documentation has been used as evidence to create new laws, to support prosecutions, or has been released as part of media exposés to the press.
For nearly two decades I committed myself to go undercover for animals. The work varied, depending on the assignment. A project could be trailing live animal transport trucks across Europe for several days, or a week of surveillance at a circus, filming from the boundary of a hedgerow.
But my main specialisation was infiltration and getting close enough to the people and industries who are responsible for the cruelty animals endure that they would share their secrets with me.
Image, Rich Hardy: Left to die. A factory farm in Italy.
What do you enjoy most about your work? What do you find most challenging?
RH:There’s not much to like during the projects. At times I felt pretty powerless swallowed up in situations of immense suffering.
During these moments, I just had to put those feelings aside, and focus on the task that had been asked of me. The natural instinct is to want to intervene when you see an animal suffering, but on investigations, particularly those that put you in direct contact with the people that own them, you have to take a step back.
I guess in some ways it’s a bit like theatre. You’re watching the cast perform, and you’re sitting in the front row of the audience. You’re out of the spotlights, but only just. Close enough to see everything, far enough away to not be noticed.
Image, Rich Hardy: Out of the cage but always a prisoner.
I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed any of this work. I never expected to do it for so long either. I never set a timeline for how long I was going to do it, so perhaps that’s why it’s gone on so long.
I just kept answering the call when it came, and putting regular life on hold.
Does anyone need a comment about it?
No! We sincerely thank Rich Hardy for his courageous and well-planned investigative work that brings to light the suffering of the animals and the unscrupulous animal industry that produces it.
Posted on August 19, 2019 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
World Orangutan Day
Mark – did you know that over 100,000 Bornean orangutans were lost between 1999 and 2015 mainly due to deforestation and poaching? And now these orangutans are critically endangered.
To help prevent further habitat loss, WWF Malaysia led a project in Sarawak to provide a sustainable habitat for orangutans as well as create a stable income for the local communities living alongside these great apes.
The Gaharu Tree
At the centre of this project is the Gaharu tree – a native plant to Sarawak that traditionally provided valuable wood to the local people. It was then discovered that the tree leaves could be made into a tea which can be farmed and sold.
Great news for both the local people and the orangutans, as the tree no longer needs to be cut down and can continue to grow with only its leaves being trimmed for the tea.
Because of this, the Menyang Taih people planted 8,000 Gaharu trees on empty and degraded land which prevented further deforestation – and with the help of WWF volunteers a further 3,000 trees were planted.
Encouraging tree planting means that the orangutan habitat can be protected and hopefully orangutan populations will grow and thrive in Sarawak.
This has changed for the positive within the last 24 hours.
The following is from Viva! who undertook the investigation and have been campaigning against conditions and treatment of animals at Hogwood for years.
First – the good news;
Mon 19/8/2109 – Tesco drops one of its biggest pork suppliers after animal rights campaigners release footage of shocking abuse at pig farm including animals being kicked and hit with metal rods
Tesco banned meat from Hogwood Farm in Warwickshire after an exposé
Activist group Viva! filmed images they claim expose ‘systematic animal abuse’
Campaigners released shocking footage of pigs screeching in terror as farm workers kicked them, slammed gates on them and hit them with metal rods
Viva! – before the announcement – This is their words:
Against all odds, we return to Hogwood pig farm to expose shocking conditions at Tesco-approved hell hole for the third year running.
You probably know the story – we’ve told it twice before. Back in June 2017, I went inside one of Britain’s largest pig farms: Hogwood. The horrors that my team and I filmed were impossible to forget.
This year, we left hidden cameras.
Just last month, we went back – this time armed with hidden cameras to capture round-the-clock surveillance. What we discovered was shocking: pigs ruthlessly kicked by farm workers and struck with metal riding crops and hand tools.
We filmed a farm worker slamming a metal rape rack onto a confined sow – she screamed as he administered a painful injection, then she was hit over the head.
Hogwood: The Story
It was June 2017 when I first went into Hogwood Farm – and it’s a farm I’ve since come to know well. A huge industrial unit in Warwickshire, Hogwood houses over 16,000 pigs and supplies Tesco.
We have submitted official complaints to the RSPCA, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Red Tractor and Tesco – none of it resulted in action being taken to protect these pigs. All we received were worthless assurances.
Big business and the meat industry don’t care about the distress and misery at Hogwood farm. We need you to stand up and help us expose this horror.
Posted on August 19, 2019 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Germany is the largest milk producer in Europe. More than 33 million tons give our cows a year. Lots of milk, yoghurt, cheese – all at low prices.
Cows have to give more and more milk. That makes most animals sick. According to BR24 research, more than one and a half million dairy cows are “sorted out” nationwide each year.
Veterinarians and scientists speak of torture.
On average, a cow today has to give twice as much milk as in the 1970s. This means an increase from 4,000 kg to 8,000 kg per animal. The high performance has its price, says the agronomistMatthias Gau ly of the University of Bolzano:“We have problems with animal health and, accordingly, with animal welfare, and that’s something we urgently need to change.”
“The higher the performance of the animals, the sooner animals go off.”
Every year 1.7 million dairy cows are sorted out
According to research by the bavarian broadcasting, according to the latest figures, around 1.7 million dairy cows are sorted out each year, ie slaughtered or disposed of in animal carcass disposal. Most because of injuries, illnesses or too low milk yield. This resulted in a query in associations of the dairy industry in all 16 federal states.
Torment breeding: the cows are milked to death!
What does it mean for a cow to perform well? This great animated film from the news channel BR24 makes it clear to us in a short and realistic way. The film is also very suitable for children.
The translation follows below.
…bloody milk…
Dairy cows are bred to perform well.
They give up to 50 liters per day
To produce a lot of milk, the cow has to give birth regularly
Usually the calf is then removed from the mother immediately
Because the mother’s milk is to be sold
Female calves later become dairy cows themselves
Male calves are a waste product to be fattened and slaughtered there
Irene Weiersmüller, Animals Angels: “Often the calves are not weaned, that means they are used to milk, not to hay or cold water, and the trucks can not give that to the animals
unsupported animals and calves die on the streets …
Animal rights activists and veterinarians have been observing such ills for years
But even the adult high-performance animals suffer, giving viuel milk makes the cows ill:
mastitis
Metabolic problems
Claw and joint diseases
This causes veterinary costs and more effort in the stable”
Matthias Gauly, agricultural scientist: “There are many farmers who are overwhelmed with the high-performing huh, because they can no longer afford this balancing of keeping, feeding and care of the animal”
Sick animals become unprofitable in this system, they often come too young in the slaughterhouse
Lots of milk, a lot of animal suffering. Does Germany have an animal welfare problem?
My comment: Animals are tortured until they get sick.
The milk of the sick animals makes people sick.
And the unhealthy milk from the sick animals is still advertised as healthy and given subsidized by the state as school milk in the schools to the children.
And the environment and climate are also ruined by animal feed, liquid manure and methane.
A shick, criminal system that only ministers, farmer associations, abattoirs, animal transport industry, and stupid human carnivores, the victims of advertising want that.
Can someone else want that? If so, who?
2018 marked the 20th anniversary of the first We Animals photo and a year of tremendous achievement in the world of animal photojournalism.
Photography: Jo-Anne McArthur
Film: Kelly Guerin, 2019
Narration: Jo-Anne McArthur
We Animals Media Mission
We Animals Media recognizes the invisibility of animals in our world and seeks to give their lives and stories a place in the public conscience.
Through compelling photography, journalism, and filmmaking, We Animals Media illuminates the lives of animals used for food, fashion, entertainment, work, religion, and experimentation. We are committed to telling these stories through an empathic lens – collectively widening our circle of compassion to include all animals.
We Animals Media also seeks to mentor the next generation of media makers, create bridges between social movements, and inspire solutions that will result in a kinder and healthier world for all.
Thousands of photographs and videos are available to individuals, organizations, and media outlets around the world via our We Animals Archive.
Posted on August 18, 2019 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
The world’s largest roof farm will open soon in Paris. 14,000 square meters vegetable garden on a roof! Agriculture is different too!
Large roof farms are not new.
The advantage: no long transport routes and old, forgotten vegetables, which can be stored only for a limited time, find their way back to the table.
Urban gardens and community gardens are a worldwide phenomenon. More and more people are coming together to shape their environment together and grow organic food.
After French Minister of AgricultureDidier Guillaume announced that France will stop using glyphosate and also encourage organic fruit and vegetables, Paris will open the world’s largest rooftop farm with around 14,000 square meters.
Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume recommends organic and biodynamic agriculture and urges producers to return to the farming practices used by their grandparents, which have been forgotten.
With success, because in France, 3,000 producers of fruit and vegetables have joined in one year, avoiding pesticides using nets, different agronomic techniques and crop rotation.
The plants are grown in the air like on a traditional farm, but in vertical watchtowers similar to those used in indoor farms like Plenty, a robotic farm in Silicon Valley. On the sides of the towers sprout plants that allow to grow more food in a small space. The system is aeroponic, ie no soil is used, and the plants are fed with a nutrient-filled mist that meets biologic standards and uses little water.
Vertical agriculture – fields and pastures should no longer extend to the horizon, but into the air: floor above floor, in the middle of the city. The hope is a revolution in agriculture and an answer to the question of how we feed humanity. More than seven billion people inhabit the earth today, and in the year 2050 it will be over nine billion, according to United Nations estimates. 70 percent of them will live in cities.
Can we produce enough food for everyone on the planet? A question many scientists around the world ask themselves. In Singapore, “Skygreen” provides an example of how this is possible, not just technically, but also economically.
Increasing food safety through this food production, also due to the impact of global climate change, is 10 times more productive per square meter than conventional agriculture, according to the Skygreen video.
The Singapore Vertical-Farmsthat herald an Agricultural Revolution –Take a look, it’s worth it.
My comment: I would like to try the salad from the Roof Gardens, but if we want to talk seriously about global hunger and solving this problem, it certainly is not a suitable solution for world food.
The cause of misery on this planet, hunger, massacre, climatic catastrophe, destruction of the forest and the oceans is primarily due to the uncontrolled, inexorable proliferation of human species.
And more and more children are being made, who in future will have a large share of blame for the climate catastrophe and the rise of animal misery.
Because also the man of the future needs his food, his wood, his plastic, his house, his car … the more people the more climate and animal misery, that’s how easy it is.
To put a child into the world today has less to do with love than with cruelty.
Therefore, such projects do not really help. What really can help us is rethinking about overpopulation around the world.
Posted on August 17, 2019 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
From an interesting article of the German newspaper“taz”:
“Since April of this year, the “Climate Cabinet” of the Federal Government has been struggling to find sustainable solutions for transport and agriculture. German society is debating meat abstinence, and consumption of beef and pork is slowly declining. Only the chicken has none of it.
622 million broiler chickens landed in slaughterhouses in 2018, 23 million more than in the previous year. 81 percent of all slaughtered animals in Germany are broiler chickens. Chicken breast fillet, 300 grams for 4 euros. Never before has so much poultry been consumed as it is today.
Not only in Germany, but worldwide.
The chicken has become a mass product. The super-bred chicken that grows faster and delivers more meat and eggs than ever before.
“TheRoss 308 is recognized worldwide as a broiler that delivers consistent performance. Producers appreciate the growth rate, feed efficiency and robust performance of the Ross 308. “
This is how it is in the product description of the animal.
Read on the website of the American company Aviagen, one of the largest broiler breeders in the world. There is also a manual for the Ross 308, called “Broiler Manual.”
In addition to tips on temperature control in the house and the recommended amount of feed and the performance of the animals is recorded. Four kilos in 40 days!
The American company belongs to the German Erich Wesjohann Group,EW Group for short, a network of 28 German and 81 foreign companies.
The group is the world market leader in chicken genetics.
Through breeding, the EW Group has succeeded in turning the chicken from a tender little bird into a chunk of meat.
In a machine whose body weighs about three kilos more than in 1957, and almost twice as many eggs laid as in the 1960s, today about 300 pieces per year.
My comment: What we see in the photo is what’s be eaten all around the world.
The offer responds to demand; The buyer is responsible. Every animal killed is a murder that we order!
And companies like Wiesenhof or Aviagen are the ones who commit this murder.
The argument that torment breeding is the result of the demand for cheap meat is wrong and hypocritical!
The price has nothing to do with the conditions of keeping or the conditions of production of meat or other animal products.
Foie gras e.g. is (allegedly) a delicacy, is offered at maximum prices. The “production” is hard to beat every disgusting animal cruelty.
Just like the caviar. The sturgeons are slashed alive, the eggs removed, the animal thrown away.
Lobster is often thrown alive in boiling water (in Germany even the prescribed killing species).
Just because something is expensive does not mean that the animal has not to suffer.
Likewise, no one can guarantee that expensive chickens on the shelf had a nice life in the stable!
Whether it’s a conventional or a “Ross 308” chicken, in the end, all animals die a cruel death.
It is high time to finish the murderous work of the chicken barons and butchers.
Image, Rich Hardy: Left to die. A factory farm in Italy.
Image, Rich Hardy: Out of the cage but always a prisoner.
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 