Christmas Day 2013 – and Venus set us the following very thoughtful message:

I have long ago ceased to send conventional Christmas and New Year greetings.
On the one hand, because I do not believe that Santa Claus will bring a better future for the animals.
On the other hand, because I know that the “Feast of Love” in reality is only associated with battles, blood and exploitation.

But, at the end of the tunnel, appears a little star, it shines hopeful!

It is brought by all good magicians who fight for the rights of all inhabitants of the earth! Organizations, animal rights activists, people with courage and morality, knights in constant crusade ride for the renaissance of animal history.

I believe in all of these and I think on them in Christmas and with every New Year.

To all these, to you dear Marc, and to the SAV team, I send my heartfelt wishes for a better future for the animals, because I firmly believe that this fight will make us all better people too.

Venus

SAV Comment:

Thank you Venus for your very special message; we really appreciate it.

I do not have to say to you; but man is the most vile creature on this beautiful planet.

He, and only he, is the species that brings shame, hatred and cruelty to this world.

The animals are harmless innocents who have to endure the cruelty of mankind.

But, there are many of us who try to fight back in defence of the innocent creatures.

We are very happy to be a little star of hope which shines at the end of the tunnel.

Hopefully, by spreading the word of the suffering of our fellow animals, we can make the star shine brighter and brighter each day.

This has been our aim for many years in the past and it is our aim for the future – starting in 2014.  The cruelty will never stop completely; man will not allow that to happen; but by sharing information between activists and our supporters; by spreading of the word, we can and will take on all the evils that exist in the form of humankind.  We will endeavour to help and protect the innocent of this world – the animals.

Thank you for your kind words Venus – if the world was full of people like you, it would be a much better place.

Take care;

Regards Mark.

WORTH FIGHTING FOR ….

AND WE WILL !!

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They Want to Make a Game of Killing Wolves

Tell the Forest Service and BLM No Wolf-Killing Contests on Public Lands

The anti-wolf crazies are smelling blood and now they’ve organized a wolf-killing contest on public lands in Idaho.

A small anti-wolf group in Idaho is even trying to appeal to kids and families as if a body-count, wolf-killing contest is somehow a wholesome thing to do.

We’re trying to stop the hunt before it’s scheduled to occur on December 28 and 29 near Salmon, Idaho.

Join us in our outrage in telling the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to not allow the bloodshed to happen. They can stop this game of killing wolves. Tell these agencies they need to reverse course, follow their own rules, and prohibit contest participants from killing wolves and coyotes on federal lands.

If the hunt proceeds, participants would kill wolves and coyotes in a competition for prizes, including cash awards. Children as young as 10 can participate in the kill-fest. And event organizers are expecting up to 300 participants. Imagine the blood they could spill with that many people!  

Wildlife killing contest are ethically indefensible events – they are biologically and ecologically reckless, demean the immense ecological and economic value of predators, and teach children to trivialize the lives of animals.

Both federal agencies have regulations and policies that prohibit commercial, competitive events on national forests and other public lands without special permits, but both agencies are allowing the Idaho contest participants to hunt on their lands without complying with federal law.

Ironically, Dec. 28 is also the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, our nation’s safety-net for wildlife and the law that brought wolves back from the brink of extinction. We should be celebrating the return of wolves on that date, not slaughtering them for prizes. Demand that the federal agencies in charge of our public lands stop facilitating these killing contests and, instead, comply with their own rules and policies.

Time is running out for wolves in Idaho.

Join us in telling these federal leaders that contest hunts—especially one involving wolves—don’t belong on America’s public lands—in Idaho or anywhere for that matter.

For the Wild,

Bethany Cotton

Wildlife Program Director
WildEarth Guardians
bcotton@wildearthguardians.org

** Important – Non US citizens can also sign and send a letter – just scroll down and select ‘other countries’ rather than a US state.

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SAV Christmas

Please click on the above link.

Well, what can you say ?; another year has whizzed past and we are now in the last few days approaching 2013 Christmas.

Over this year, as always, SAV has attempted to bring you information relating to a range of animal welfare issues from many places around the world.  Despite the name of ‘Serbian Animals Voice’, wings have spread much wider than the specific issue that SAV was originally founded for.  Work for Serbian animals and the Serbian environment (with the EU) are regularly taking place off line; info which has to be kept between respective parties for obvious reasons.  The simple fact is that we are in the business of putting ourselves out of business – but that will only happen when there are no more animal abuse issues to focus on globally.  But, I think it quite easy to say that as long as there are the human species on this planet, that will never happen unfortunately.

If you are still looking for those last minute presents, then why not consider giving a donation to one of the animal charities we cover on our site in the name of your family member or friend.  Animal welfare groups and organisations need all the help and support they can get – please help them if you are able.  SAV is a volunteer run group and so we do not ask for your money; instead we attempt to publish animal welfare organisation and web links where possible in order that you can follow up and give to those organisations if you so wish.

The campaigning goes on and will continue into 2014.

This December has been a very hard time personally as I lost my beloved ‘Golda’ (photo below) in the early part of the month.  https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/12/08/beautiful-golda-081213/

She was a beautiful, loving dog who gave everything to me – I want to continue the fight for justice for all animals in 2014 in her name and in her memory.  She was so very special to me.

Thoughts are also with Danica and in memory of little Archi (above) who also crossed the bridge this year.  https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/10/28/archi/ – just two out of millions of animals who leave us every day of each year; they were two who were special to us personally and who were very much cared for – unlike many millions who pass without even a second thought about their pitiful, suffering and abused lives trying to survive on the streets, in factory farms, in long distance transport, suffering abhorrent slaughter practices, hunting and in vivisection labs etc, etc, etc.

Thank you for visiting us this year and for your overwhelming support.  You only have to look at our global map on the left hand side of this site to see that word about so many animal issues are reaching all corners of the world.  You are all doing your bit by spreading the word on suffering even further – well done and congratulations !

Wishing you all the very best for the season and I hope and trust you will stick with us and visit regularly in 2014.

Best regards and thanks;

Mark – SAV Founder;

Kent, England UK.

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UK (England) Badger Cull (What a Complete and Utter Farce) News

SAV Comment –

In many ways that you can see in the following badger cull articles; the same can easily be applied to the very wrong stray dog killings as we have said for so many years in places such as Serbia and Romania, to name but two.  For the very short term; a matter of weeks, local government and politicians may rejoice in the fact that their killing all or many stray animals in their local area may appear to be the ‘perfect solution’ for stray animal eradication in a region.  But within a very short time, a matter of just a few weeks, as we see with UK badgers; the ‘void’ created by animals ‘removed’ from a region by a cull simply acts as a lure to animals in other areas / regions who see the opportunity for better conditions and the possibility of accessing more food.  In their migration to newly culled areas, animals from outside the region may bring with them new diseases which have not previously been experienced in the ‘cull zone’.  Without sterilisation, the animals which are new to the area then commence reproduction to get stray numbers back up to, or even higher than they were per-cull.  In addition, a cull region may now have additional diseases in stray animals in their area which it did not have pre-cull.

So, does simply killing stray animals en masse in any region or city make sense ? – NO.

Sterilising strays and working with a management plan to sterilise, identify (tag) animals as having been sterilised; and perform general health checks on every animal at the time of their sterilisation.  Over time this application will gradually reduces stray populations.

Sterilised animals do NOT reproduce – a cull may look like it has done the job, but when un sterilised strays migrate into the region from other areas, the issue starts again; and the stray animals numbers do NOT reduce over time; if anything, they increase !

So why do regions and their governments not do effective stray animal population management ? – the word is ‘CORRUPTION’, and in politics, that is a difficult disease to cure.

Maybe in this case we would make an exception and support a cull – of corrupt politicians !!!

 

The UK Badger Cull

Badger culling is to be banned on Derbyshire County Council land. The Labour-led authority has made the decision on the back of scientific evidence which suggests a badger cull would actually increase the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

 

Hampshire councillors too overwhelmingly backed a motion to ban badger culling on county-owned land. And in Sussex the Green administration at Brighton and Hove City Council said it will look to block any proposed culling in the city and surrounding Downland should the Government look to expand the programme from its current pilot test area.  

Labour figures in the city have also called on the Government to axe their plans to cull badgers across the UK.  Sussex Wildlife Trust has already announced that it would not support any cull on its land although doubts have been raised by Government officials whether any locally stated ban would be enforceable.  Hove Tory MP Mike Weatherley signed an early day motion registering concerns about the cull and calling on Environment secretary to hold a Commons vote before any decision on a wider roll-out of the pilot badger cull is taken. He said: “Although I understand that many people are concerned about the effect that Bovine TB is having on farmers, I am not convinced that the culling of badgers is the right approach.

 

A programme to vaccinate badgers is forging ahead as Hampshire & Isle of Wight Trust fight back against the Whitehall cull. Late last year the Trust launched an urgent Badger Vaccination Appeal to raise £45,000 for a care package to protect local badgers and cattle from Bovine tuberculosis. And volunteers around W. Cornwall. Licensed volunteers trapped and vaccinated 7 badgers against the disease at a horse sanctuary near Pendeen.

 

Assault arrest – Gloucestershire police have arrested a man after a late-night incident in which a badger cull protester is alleged to have been assaulted and her car dented and wing mirrors ripped off.  Meg Jones, a badger cull protester, was with 2 other activists who were monitoring a badger sett when they heard shooting in the area. The group split up to look for the marksmen, with the aim of disrupting the shooting.  Ms Jones said she was following a public footpath when a car with 4 men in it pulled up beside her. “2 got out the car and were shouting and screaming at me,” she said.  She alleges that the men tried to stop her calling the police. “One of the men was shaking my shoulders and hitting my arm, trying to prevent me from making a call to the police,” she said. “I backed away, screaming my lungs off. I was pretty scared. I was on my own; I thought I was going to get beaten up.”  When she got back to her car, parked on a nearby road, it had been vandalised. When Ms Jones and one of the other activists tried to photograph the incident, they were assaulted by one of the men in the car, she claimed. “We tried to take photos of the men and I went towards their car with a male companion. A man with a beard jumped out of the car to try and get our phones. He was attacking my friend, had him in a body lock bear hug, punching him in the head. I was totally terrified.”  Roger Warner, master of the Ledbury Hunt, who is alleged to have been present at the altercation, has declined to comment.  Gloucestershire Police said officers working as part of Operation Themis were called to an incident around 11.30pm. A 38-year-old man from the Gloucester area was arrested on suspicion of common assault. He has been bailed until 4 Nov. 

 

On Mon 7^th Oct, after 6 weeks of night-time shooting, the marksmen’s guns fell silent and the Somerset badger cull officially ended.  BUT the government has said they’ll extend the cull by 3 weeks in order to try and achieve the target figure

 

An online petition, begun by (Queen guitarist) Dr. Brian May, which called for an end to a cull of badgers has become the most signed e-petition on the Government’s website.

More than 258,700 people added their name to the e-petition since it was started in Aug 2012.  It closed on 7^th Sept.

 

See some of our previous posts about Brian and the English badger cull in general via the following links:

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/11/17/england-uk-20-minute-video-see-the-work-of-team-badger-and-wounded-badger-patrol/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2010/12/08/uk-dr-brian-may-queen-guitarist-tells-why-he-has-to-speak-for-the-animals/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/03/20/uk-england-hunt-sabs-attacked-by-hunt-supporters-whilst-saving-foxes-also-brian-mays-save-me/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2010/04/13/uk-london-brian-may-launches-save-me-anti-hunting-campaign/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2010/04/08/uk-england-queen-rock-legend-brian-may-fumes-over-queen-song-used-in-pro-hunt-video/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/12/06/england-uk-another-conservative-government-u-turn-cruel-badger-cull-meets-embarrassing-end-animal-advocates-right-all-along/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/10/17/england-badger-update-now-badgers-to-be-gassed-pro-hunt-paterson-and-cameron-go-from-farce-to-shambles-to-inept-but-conveniently-stay-as-multi-millionaires-we-are-all-in-thi/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/10/15/uk-england-badger-cull-snippets-the-government-increase-kill-time-to-meet-failed-animal-numbers/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/09/15/england-badger-cull-update-no-badgers-tested-for-bovine-tb-but-tests-are-to-see-if-badgers-can-be-shot/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/09/13/england-uk-the-badger-cull-is-it-as-effective-as-what-the-government-are-telling-the-public-not-that-much-is-being-said/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/08/29/uk-england-the-badger-cull-is-under-way-despite-massive-public-opposition/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2013/06/02/england-london-march-against-the-badger-cull-1st-june-2013/

 

Back in 2008 The Badger Trust welcomed the decision of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg not to back a cull of badgers in a futile attempt to control bovine TB in cattle.  

Mr Clegg said of the recent badger culling trials: The bias and evidence of that 10 year review was badger culls simply move the problem to other areas.  It only appeared to work in the cases they looked at where you had full badger cull hemmed in by coast or river boundaries. “Secondly Defra just doesn’t have the money to do it.  We can’t move forward in the absence of clearer evidence and in the absence of better resources for Defra.” 

 

Officers policing the badger culls in England have been accused of “highly questionable” actions by civil liberties lawyers after they told protesters their personal details would be passed to the National Farmers’ Union and handed out NFU-produced leaflets about the union’s civil injunction.  The NFU, which represents the private companies carrying out the cull, obtained a civil injunction prohibiting harassment of people linked to the cull, as well as the blowing of whistles and waving of torches to disrupt shooting. Gwendolen Morgan, a solicitor at Bindmans, said: “The police‘s actions here appear highly questionable. The passing of personal information to a private body, without any apparent legal basis, is a serious concern. Since when did the police become the enforcers of the NFU’s civil injunction?”  

The NFU’s relationship with the government is also causing controversy, after Defra refused to disclose information on the cull on the grounds that communications with the NFU constituted “internal communications”. 

 

Humane?  Fresh doubt has been cast on the humaneness of the pilot badger cull after a Somerset councillor claimed a “steady trickle of botched kills” has been found outside the zone. Mike Rigby, an independent county councillor representing Bishops Lydeard on the edge of the cull area, fears injured badgers are not being killed instantly, as the Government claims, but are escaping and dying elsewhere.

 

 High policing costs already mean that the cull is more expensive than a badger vaccination programme, according to one expert analysis. Then there is the possible cost to civil liberties being incurred by the cull. Finally, the pilot culls are failing even on their own terms, as far too few badgers are being shot. All this leads to an obvious question: when the costs outweigh the benefits, isn’t it time to stop? Damian Carrington, The Guardian Oct 1^st

 

Cull stupid – The ongoing cull of badgers, intended to curb tuberculosis in cattle, is stupid; it has already been shown to be ineffective as a policy; and the Government is surely only doing it to shut farmers up, rather than out of any conviction that it will do any good. Lord (John) Krebs, the president of the British Science Association and the former chairman of the British Food Standards Agency, ran a well-designed 10-year trial into badger culling. “The science is as clear-cut as it can be,” he told Radio 4’s The Life Scientific earlier this year, “and it shows that culling badgers is not a very effective way of reducing TB in cattle.”  From article by Tom Chivers, Science comment The Telegraph 4^th Sept

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