Posted on June 3, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Well done everyone who wrote, petitioned etc
– you have won !
Hi Mark, You did it!
Betty Crocker has ditched dirty palm oil!
I thought you’d want to know as soon as possible that my colleagues in the US spoke to parent company General Mills this afternoon.
They confirmed they will stop buying from palm oil giant IOI.
Thanks for all your help,
Jamie
Greenpeace
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »
Posted on June 3, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
URGENT HELP NEEDED!
Unfortunately Ian is a lot sicker than we thought. Other than a hairline fracture of the lumbar spine and an air rifle pellet close to the lungs, he also has severe hemoplasma and feline herpes virus.
We’re supposing the recent injury to his spine was the trigger to the weakening of his immune system and all of the health issues he’s currently experiencing are just a consequence. He’s been receiving IV fluids for hours every single day, the vet is giving him two different antibiotics, vitamins, minerals and amino acids and only now, after almost a week of aggressive treatment, is he beginning to show some improvement.
He is FIV positive, thus not expected to make a speedy recovery, but we hope he is finally on the mend even though the vet refuses to give any prognosis.
Clearly Ian is not out of the woods just yet. Please help us cover the rapidly increasing costs of his treatment! Ian is extraordinarily brave, cuddly and as sweet as they come. He definitely deserves every chance we can give him! https://www.youcaring.com/cat-shelter-felix-512392
Niki was operated on a couple of days ago and everything went well. She will have her stitches taken out in about two weeks’ time.
She’s wearing an Elizabethan collar right now (which she hates, of course) but she has a good appetite and behaves normally, although she’s maybe a little grumpier than usual 😉 https://www.youcaring.com/cat-shelter-felix-512392
Filed under: Animals Requiring Adoption or Homes - Worldwide, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia, SHELTER - Information, The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE | Leave a comment »
Posted on June 2, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
1944: A boy doing his school lessons watched by his pet squirrel. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Voting in? You have the blood of Spanish bulls on your hands
The fact is that we care more about animal welfare. And if we left the EU, we could act on that.
Camilla Swift
4 June 2016
We British have always had a strange relationship with animals.
We spend £5 billion a year on our pets and it is often said that we love our dogs more than our children (perfectly understandable, in my book). It makes sense, then, that we have some of the world’s highest animal welfare standards. Our European neighbours don’t always have quite the same attitude. If we could ask our four-legged friends how they’d vote in the EU referendum, I’m pretty sure they’d woof, miaow or moo for ‘out’.
Take the Maltese, for example, who enjoy shooting turtle doves as they migrate every spring (a banned sport for which Malta has been given special dispensation). The French prize gastronomy far above animal husbandry, so force-feed their geese to make foie gras. Bullfighting, meanwhile, is still a popular pastime for many Spaniards.
The fact is that Britain is better at animal welfare, with or without the EU. And in many ways, being in the EU holds British farmers back. Why? Because, as with all the other legislation handed down to us from Brussels, we stick to the rules, while many other countries treat them as no more than vague suggestions.
Take sow stalls — narrow metal cages in which female pigs are kept while breeding. The UK banned them in 1999; the EU finally followed suit in 2013. The trouble is, many countries simply ignore the EU ruling. More than two years after the legislation was put in place, six countries had still failed to officially comply, and the National Pig Association believes that other countries which claim to stick to the rules are also flouting them.
The continued use of sow stalls isn’t just an animal welfare concern. They cut costs — that’s why they were invented — so EU countries that tacitly allow them can produce cheaper pork and still sell it into the British market. Our farmers struggle to compete: they’re being punished for obeying the law.
Similar cases are not hard to find. In 2013 Italy ran into trouble with the European Court. The Italians had known for 13 years that a ban on battery cages for egg-laying hens would apply from 2012 — but claimed they hadn’t had enough time to ensure all farms complied. They lost that argument, but all they had to pay as a result was the legal costs of the case — no fine was levied.
Furthermore, as a member of the EU, the UK cannot prevent the transportation of live animals, which are subjected to needlessly long, stressful and cramped journeys to be slaughtered on the Continent. Banning the practice might hinder inter-EU trade, so tens of thousands of British lambs are exported live and bleating to be killed in abattoirs which wouldn’t meet our welfare standards.
EU rules also allow for the free movement of pets thanks to pet passports. Animal charities believe the system is being abused, with hundreds if not thousands of puppies brought here each year on fake papers. Bred in terrible conditions, they are crammed into lorries (or sometimes suitcases) and shipped across the Continent for up to 40 hours — at less than eight weeks old. Our own Defra should of course do more to stop this, but the sad fact is the EU doesn’t care about the breeding of dogs half as much as we do.
Another welfare issue is Boris Johnson’s favourite hobby horse: the funding of bullfighting. In 2013 it emerged that payments were being made under the Common Agricultural Policy to Spanish farmers rearing bulls for bullfights — more ‘oh no’ than ‘olé’. The practice might well be part of Spanish culture, but it’s hard to see how it doesn’t break all kinds of animal welfare codes. MEPs voted last year to stop EU money going to breeders of fighting bulls — but under CAP rules the vote was ‘not executable’. Unless those rules are changed, it will continue to fund bullfighting. One has to ask: why would animal lovers choose to stay in a union where we have no control over where our money goes — and it’s virtually impossible to change things?
If we left the EU, then we would of course have to comply with the regulations of any country to which we exported. But we would have the option of refusing to trade with countries that didn’t meet our welfare standards, thus encouraging a better standard of welfare everywhere, not just at home.
Leaving the EU would let us make the most of our reputation as animal lovers.
Rather than compromising our standards, we could brand ourselves as a beacon of higher-welfare farming — and set an example not just to Europe but to the world.
Filed under: GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, LETTERS, The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE | Leave a comment »
Posted on June 2, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Photo – CIWF.
In the winter of 2015/16, Compassion in World Farming visited farms, cage-makers and slaughterhouses in France, Italy, Portugal and Greece.
Our target: European quail farming.
In this groundbreaking investigation – a ‘first of its kind’ international exposé – we’ve lifted the lid on an industry that cages millions of animals every year, creating enormous suffering, yet markets its products as ‘luxury’. Please take a moment to watch our short film, and call on the European Commission to End the Cage Age for quail.
Each year in Europe, over 140 million quail are farmed for meat, confined to factory farm floors or densely packed in cages. They often try to leap in these cages and invariably hit their heads on the cage roof.
Of the 400,000 quail farmed every year for their eggs, over 90% are also kept in crowded, barren cages where they are unable to express even the most basic of natural behaviours.
These birds have no earth or undergrowth to explore, nowhere to dustbathe, nowhere to hide, and barely space to move. The space allowance per factory farmed quail can be no bigger than a beer mat.
Quail are the third most caged farm animal in Europe, and there is no species-specific legislation to protect them. They desperately need your help. But the good news is that there is hope.
Compassion staff have visited an alternative system; an egg farm where the quail are raised in naturally lit barns with the space and freedom to explore, dustbathe, hide and peck at straw bales. This is no hobby farm, but a large commercial operation.
Higher welfare quail farming is possible. Please take action now to give ALL quail a life worth living.
Quail are the smallest animals to be intensively farmed, but this comes at a big price. Will you help to end this factory farming in miniature?
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE | Leave a comment »
Posted on June 2, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Hi Mark,
Earlier this year, nearly 500,000 of us told big name brands they needed to do more to stop the destruction of Indonesia’s forests at the hands of palm oil companies. And they listened.
When a huge palm oil company – IOI – recently had their sustainable palm oil certificates pulled for repeatedly destroying forests and peatlands, all the big brands like Nestle, Unilever and Mars have said they will stop buying from them. All, that is, except one. General Mills – makers of Betty Crocker cake mixes and Jus-Rol pastry – think it’s still ok to buy palm oil from IOI and have refused to stop doing business with them.
ACTION
IOI has been draining peat swamps and tearing down forests – creating the perfect conditions for the fires which swept across Indonesia last year. These forests are also prime orangutan habitat, and this magnificent ape is already threatened with extinction. And yet General Mills is still doing business with them. Even the industry’s own sustainable palm oil group – the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – thinks IOI is bad news and pulled IOI’s sustainable palm oil certificates.
The RSPO almost never takes action against its members, which shows just how poor IOI’s track record is. The bosses at General Mills have a half-baked idea that if they keep buying palm oil from IOI, they can persuade the forest destroyer to change. But time and again, IOI have left a trail of devastation and the only way they will change is if their customers take a stand and stop buying their palm oil.
Let’s make it happen. Jamie Greenpeace PS The only way IOI will end the destruction is if their customers walk away. Other big brands have dropped them, but General Mills is still using their palm oil.
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Posted on June 1, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
In the latest installment of the factory farming industry’s breeding-deadly-diseases saga, scientists have identified a new strain of the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), one that is just as virulent as the original strain.
Spread from pig to pig via infected feces, which cover just about every surface of unsanitary farm facilities, PEDv is nearly 100 percent fatal and has claimed the lives of at least 8 million animals (about 10 percent of the U.S. pig population) since it was discovered in 2013.
Researchers believe the new form of the virus mutated to outpace any immunity pigs developed to the first strain. Filthy conditions on factory farms have fanned the flames and allowed the disease to spread to epidemic proportions.
Even if the millions of PEDv victims had survived the disease, they would have been slaughtered only weeks or months later to satisfy people’s appetites for ham, bacon, and other pork products.
You can spare pigs from both deadly diseases and needless slaughter by choosing a compassionate vegan diet.
Recipes, meal plans, and health tips on ChooseVeg.com can help you get started.
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »
Posted on June 1, 2016 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
This has come as a real sudden shock to me.
As you can read in
Mark – Animal Work – A History Of
Mark is an Englishman who has been involved directly with live animal transport investigations and campaigning in England, UK, for around 26 years. In 2003 he made formal presentations to the UK Government Ministry – DEFRA (previously MAFF) in their London HQ regarding his investigation work into the export of British horses to mainland Europe for meat, although he / it was proven that the animals were not identified as officially going to Europe for slaughter.
Our beloved friend and animal rights campaigner, Carla Lane, died on Tuesday 31st May 2016. Mark has many very fond memories of Carla; especially when she helped act as the ‘middle man’ between Mark and Sir Paul McCartney many years back in the early days of SAV to buy a delivery truck for one of dog rescue shelters.
Regarding the animal work, Mark still fondly remembers the day in London when he met up with Carla at MAFF HQ; and together they went up to see the (then) Minister at the time, and present all the info on the investigations into the export of live horses from the UK into mainland Europe. “It was literally a case of sitting across the table from the Minister, and banging the table real hard to show all our blatantly clear evidence” remembers Mark.
Carla had a real passion for all animal welfare; but especially that of stopping live animal exports. For many months, she joined Mark and others at offices in Dover to present information to MAFF officials and Kent Trading Standards regarding the situation for live animals being exported from the port to mainland EU. Mark remembers – all of us (normally 5 people) on the ‘welfare’ side usually were much more switched on about regulations and the general situation for live exports than all the paid officials who represented the other side. We made our case and we made it good; ripping the opposition apart every time with the information that we had. Carla was always there with us, making her feelings known when necessary.
When calf exports resumed from the UK as a result of the beef ban being lifted, (put in place due to CJD at the end of 1995); it was very difficult for UK farmers to start exporting their livestock once again. In retribution, angry farmers turned up at Carla’s one day and dumped several dozen young calves at her home. They wanted the publicity of having an animal rights campaigner who would have to kill all the calves as they were of ‘no use’. Carla being Carla decided there and then to keep each and every calf; and over the years they became a big attraction at her ‘Animaline’ sanctuary open days. Carla even let Mark name one of the calves – and it was called ‘Hope’ with the hope that live exports of animals would decrease to nothing over the coming years.
‘Hope’ – Named (by Mark – cared at Carla’s) in memory of the future and all the calves exported over the years – with the hope of change.
Little Hope became just one symbol of the fight to stop live exports from the UK. This was happening at the time of the Shoreham export demonstrations on the South England coast, which was attended by many hundreds of protestors and which forced the government to bring down police from London and other areas completely alien to Shoreham. It was a time when protestors came up against well armed and protected police who made every attempt to get the live animal cargo onto the export ship – and the phrase ‘I’ve met the Met, and got the bruises to prove it !’ became the phrase of the day amongst the Shoreham protestors.
Appointed an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1989, she returned the insignia in 2002 in protest at the CBE awarded to Brian Cass, head of Huntingdon Life Sciences, which runs laboratories where drugs are tested on animals.
She received a handwritten note from the UK Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, saying she could have it back at any time she cared to ask. She never did.
Carla links:
Here you can see one of Mark’s favourite photographs of Carla:
And another showing her fighting the good fight against the live export of animals. The loud hailer hidden but ready for use !
So thank you Carla for just being you and for being a massive voice for the animals.
We have happy memories and we have sad memories, but they will remain with us always.
Take care, we know you are still watching (and with) us
– and Thank You.
Mark xx
… and some news Carla would have love;
According to The Telegraph, a new survey shows people are avoiding animal products in record numbers. In fact, the number of vegans in Britain is up 360 percent from 10 years ago.
The survey, conducted by Ipsos MORI for the Vegan Society and Vegan Life magazine, polled nearly 10,000 people and was the largest of its kind.
Around 542,000 people aged 15 and over — more than 1 percent of the total population — have adopted a plant-based diet. This is up from 150,000 in 2006. The Vegan Society cites the survey as proof that veganism is one of Britain’s “fastest growing lifestyle movements.”
Health benefits are believed to be the force driving people to ditch animal products and live a more natural lifestyle. Studies have shown that people on plant-based diets typically have reduced risk of death from heart disease and cancer and lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and body mass indexes. People are also motivated to go vegan by environmental and animal welfare concerns.
Jasmijn de Boo, chief executive officer of the Vegan Society, states:
To have over half a million vegans in Britain is fantastic. More people than ever are now acting upon the health and environmental benefits of veganism, and finding out what really goes on in the meat and dairy industries and deciding they do not want to contribute to the pain and suffering of animals.
Britain is yet another place where troves of people are embracing a healthy and compassionate vegan lifestyle.
Above – Autobiography.
Above – a book of poems – many related to animal rights.
Above – Credits from ‘Someday’ (above) – SAV Mark as a ‘comrade in the fight against live animal exports’.
Mark sometimes travelled round with Carla when she did book talks and signing sessions; he only ever spoke with her about ‘their’ combined fight for animals and the hatred of the live export trade.
One night whilst on a talk in Brighton; England; Carla gave Mark a copy of ‘Dreams’ (above) and had written the message in the front of the book for him as a keepsake – it was his Birthday – March 11th.
Below – a poem from ‘Dreams’ – about live export campaigning and fighting !
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