More than 250 Greenpeace activists hijacked Total’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Paris to protest at the oil company’s plans to drill in the mouth of the Amazon and French Guiana.
Four activists descended by ropes from the ceiling above the stage, as the Total chief executive, Patrick Pouyanné, began his presentation, with at least 20 more gaining access to the Palais des Congrès. Some of the activists chained themselves to fixtures in the hall with the proceedings disrupted by chants and the blowing of whistles. The remainder of the 250-strong group protested outside the venue.
Edina Ifticene, who was invited by Pouyanné to address the annual meeting to explain the protest, said direct action had been planned after Total ignored the activists last year.
“We have been campaigning for more than a year and a half,” she said, speaking to the Guardian. “Last year at the annual meeting we had a share [of stock] and so asked questions of the company and provided a lot of evidence and arguments. They said everything is fine and there is no ecological risk. This year we decided to take direct action, we want Total to listen to us.”
Posted on May 31, 2018 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
In the Opera Production “Against the Wall”, of the German Ludger Vollmer, the director had the “ingenious” idea of a symbolic “ritual slaughter” from a living sheep on the stages.
Clear! The real “ritual slaughter” could never be, according to the law it is forbidden, and the director said, he is informed!
Every evening, a sheep should lie on the stage with bound legs (for safety reasons) and then be pulled up with a stroke from the back legs of the desired scene.
It would burst an ampoule of “theater blood” on the floor to simulate the offering.
It looked harmless, but it was not.
I also participated in this production and I was very unhappy.
At that time, I decided to have a private conversation with the director.
I told him that the action would scare and terrify the animal, and with the loud music and the crowd of people on stage it would be (almost) torture. And that all every evening, in 15 scheduled theater performances.
He said he had discussed the whole thing with the management of the theater, and they were informed about the law, so … there was no problem for animal and theater. To intimidate me, he said that a member of the theater, a woman, had already ordered the sheep from her uncle’s farm.
He remained stubborn on his “brilliant” idea. Me too. “I’m warning you,” I said. “I have good connections to the animal rights scene, the thing will come to the press and then you can forget your production”! “But I love animals, you know …” he said. “If you love animals, let the scene go” was my answer.
I have contacted a well-known animal rights organization. “That’s not possible, we cannot allow that” was the answer.
Until the summer break, he rehearsed the scene without the sheep. He had now distanced himself from me, and our collaboration was purely formal, without emotion. Then came the summer and we were all on vacation, the samples were canceled.
When we started rehearsing in September, the director called a General Assembly of the production team on the first day of work: “I am very sorry to inform you that the scene with the ‘ritual slaughter‘ can not take place. There are some reasons for that, but I will not go into that ” he said, glaring at me with hatred. Some colleagues immediately turned their heads to my direction, others whispered and said nothing.
For me, it was one of the happiest day of my life.
After this incident the theater management announced that the theater will stop bringing live animals to the stage. The theater did not keep this promise, and one year later it put on stage a living Swan for the opera “Lohengrin” by R. Wagner. In that case, I had organized a real spectacle, which has led to the fact, that the theater actually never brought back living animals on the stage; but I think I’ll tell that another time.
Conclusion from my 30 years of experience in the theater: art and animal welfare actually have little to do with each other.
Most artists see their job (on or off the stage) as a great service to society and firmly believe in the naïve idea that art can change the world, that art even has a political impact!!
But as far as animal rights are concerned, most artists see it as a strange “stage”, an “uncomfortable subject.”
And that is why most of them, when it comes to animals, act according to the mentality “Cosi fan tutti”!
Posted on May 30, 2018 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
News just in from FRIEND Lesley – founder OF EoA in the Netherlands.
Minks from Holland transported in horrible conditions
Recently we were in Poland conducting inspections of animal trucks. We stopped a horrible transport truck originating from The Netherlands with hundreds of mink on board in tiny dirty wire cages. They were heading to fur farms in Poland. The animals were completely stressed.
They were trying to break free of their cages, performing stereotypic behaviour such as repetitive biting and licking at their cages and making heart-breaking sounds.
The cages were stacked in a sloppy way, with many animals having to endure standing on a sloping floor. Some of the mink had escaped and were running around the truck.
Eyes on Animals together with our partners TSB|AWF are now in touch with the Dutch and Polish authorities about this, and we are going to expose it via the media.
It is completely unacceptable that, in 2018, animals be transported in such a way.
SAV Comment
– The price of a fur coat ! – disgusting; and this is even before they suffer at the farm !
