Posted on August 30, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Here is some footage of the protests against live animal exports at Ramsgate, Kent, England, on 24/8/17.
English campaigners have stopped the live export trade after more than 25 years of campaigning; but now there is still one (periodic) exporter left – Johannes Onderwater; a Dutchman who exports British sheep to the EU.
The animals here in the video mainland are going for ritual slaughter in mainland Europe for the festival of Eid which starts on 31/8.
There are no English exporters (hauliers) involved – they were stopped by protest and legal action a long time ago. Only Dutch Onderwater remains now, but he will probably stop once Eid gets under way. He has not exported from the UK for many months, but is now doing a trade with live sheep for sacrificial slaughter at Eid. He has been using Ramsgate for the last week or so, getting out as many sheep to the EU as he can.
A good turn out by UK protesters as always, those who detest this trade and let it be known. Large turn out by the police also but they really do not know how to handle it now. They are protecting a trade in live animals which is legal under EU rules. This is why it will be so much better when the UK gets out of the EU, which will be within the next few years. The UK will be in charge of its own regulations and not have to put up with crap from the EU as we do currently. The EU makes the rules but cannot enforce them, even when presented with clear evidence of abuses.
UK campaigners will fight to ensure that on the day the UK officially leaves the EU, UK legislation will be in place and ready to stop live animal exports from the UK.
If other nations in the EU did the same, then the trade could be slowed. But who else is currently leaving the EU ? – nobody.
So the UK goes it alone at the moment; but other member states will leave over time – we think that is a definite !
Posted on August 28, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Dear Mark,
I also got the news that for the moment the merger Bayer / Monsanto was put on hold.
This is certainly a success, but far from the end of the story. The situation looks like this: the four major conglomerates Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Bayer control roughly 70 percent of world trade with agricultural raw materials. If the merger Bayer / Monsanto were to be achieved, three companies would determine more than 60 percent of the global market for seeds and pesticides: Bayer / Monsanto, DuPont / Dow and ChemChina / Syngenta (The merger of the two last couples has already been approved).
With the help of the EU, they want to contain and patent seed and food diversity to a manageable extent. Stubbornly, the corporations are working on a law that cements their power: the European Seed Regulation. Under this Regulation, no more seed which has not been tested, certified and registered may be passed on. Worse still, the offspring of these crosses are particularly productive, but only in the first generation and as seed unusable. Seed must therefore be purchased from the breeder every year.
The four major players in the agricultural industry will determine the market for seeds, pesticides, fertilizers and feed. An unimaginable power concentration, which is completely foreign to the interest in plants, animals, human life.
Until now, the population and politicians in Austria, and German environmental associations, have been fighting against this dictum of the giants. New petitions have been launched, which is necessary, because the negotiations are not yet finished.
The EU has already offered the first compromise, we have seen it.
But the letter from the deputy Vestager makes it clear that the provisional postponement of the Bayer / Monsanto merger has not been decided on “Risks for human health, food safety, consumer protection, the environment and the climate“, but “is limited to competition (Merger assessment): concerns about potential negative effects of the merger on consumers and farmers”.
Within 90 days, the EU Commission will make its final decision after “the antitrust law” tests have been completed. We need to mobilize further, not just pushing Vestager, but also the other EU bodies and local politicians.
I have therefore attached (link below) a new petition from the Umweltinstitut Deutschland.
It goes to Mrs Vestager, to the German Minister for Economic Affairs, Brigitte Zypries, and to the President of the Bundeskartellamt Mundt. It already has 34,000 signatures, but we still need many more.
And we must continue to think positively and, above all, remain alert and informed.
SAV. We have had the following in from Venus in Germany. The German General Election is in September; but whatever your political bias; things are not looking very positive for animals and their welfare. We share in the despair – no better with Trump in the US; the EU does nothing positive; just people looking after their own interests – not even considering others !
But the fighting and campaigning will go on regardless.
The following is the in edited message from Venus:
Dear Mark,
the association animal public e:V has made a survey to the five parliamentary parties.
They wanted to know how these parties were thinking about animal protection, and what they would decide about the lives of millions of animals. So that the German citizen knows who to give his voice to.
I find the results catastrophic, especially from the parties, which unfortunately and most likely will come to the coalition.
Just for reference, here is another of our recent posts and why Venus will not vote – have a look:
On September 24, the federal elections are held in Germany.
The association animal public.e.V has sent a list of ten questions to all parties which are expected to move into the Bundestag, with a request to tick with “yes” or “no”.
Some of these questions were in the past the subject of petitions here in Germany, which were ignored by the Merkel government.
Sure, many animal protectionists remember how many petitions and demonstrations for the ban on wild animals in circus we have done. Without success.
The parties in order, are:
Christian Democrats (Conservatives),
the Socialists,
the Liberals,
the Left and
the Greens.
The extreme right did not answer.
The questions were:
ban on wild animals in circuses,
the end of the dolphinariums,
amendment of the Hunting Act,
import ban on wild animals for private purposes,
prohibiting commercial animal exchanges,
positive list for the private keeping of wild animals,
recognizing the fundamental rights of great apes,
the right to legal action for animal welfare associations,
Federal Commissioner for animal welfare,
amendment of the zoological legislation.
One notices of the many “no” of the strongest parties of Germany that after the elections everything will be like before the elections, namely absolutely nothing new and certainly nothing good for the animals.
I predict a stupid and harmful coalition between Merkel and Schulz, and this will also be fatal consequences not only for Germany, but for many other countries of Europe that are politically and economically dependent on Germany. Because Germany is Europe.
Above – Merkel;
Below (left) – Schultz – the other person is Junker – Mr EU.
And there will be no good for the animals. The only parties who have responded with the most “yes” are “the Left” and the “Greens”; But the first has no power, and the second has not shown any political fairness.
I really do not know who is hoping for something good against animal suffering and the animal miseries in Germany with these elections. I certainly do not!
Posted on August 13, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
On July 8, 2017, a dead wolf was retrieved from the lake Schluchsee in southern Germany, near my village.
He was shot. It is the 24th wolf shot illegally since the resettlement of the wolves in Germany in the year 2000. Of these 24 murders, there were only three convictions up to now – in all cases, the perpetrators had posed themselves.
After each murder there are always the same discussions:
“These are the poachers,” say the hunters, “we are very sorry,” say the friends of the hunters, the politicians, and the peasants who have nothing against wolves but want to protect their flocks.
As soon as the cruel battle of the whales and dolphins in Denmark begins, the German press hasten to report about it and tries to harass a reader-friendly readership against the “criminals”.
It is always the other countries that are criminally dealing with animals, there are always the others who are corrupt and proficient, it is the Chinese who massacre the dogs, and the rich safari hunters who cull our elephants.
It is terrible to exterminate animals, you have to do something!!!
Petitions are signed, donations flow without end to the protection of the threatened animals !!!
And so the German citizen always points to other people who illegally kill wild animals because their governments are corrupt.
Always the others!
The Green Minister of the Environment, Franz Untersteller, has taken a ridiculous position on the subject:
“Shooting a wolf is a criminal offense. I very much regret that a man has extinguished the life of this rare creature by force. “
Thus an incapable politician wants us to declare that the 24th murder of a strictly protected animal provokes only his sadness, and he even reminds us that it is a crime. They are the politicians who will continue their co-operation with hunters, the meat mafia, the circus industry, laboratory labs directors, etc … in the coming elections of Germany with the blessing of a dumbed people and want to persuade us that they do it all for our benefit!
I have absolutely no hope that in Germany that any government can work for my good – and I am a German citizen; a citizen of the gutless EU !
But if I at least knew that a (political) party wants to take the welfare of the animals into account and improve it where they can, then I would go to the elections.
So far, however, I am not aware of this political animal saviour, and the German animal protection party plays no essential role in the political scene.
With Angela Merkel and now also Martin Schultz (President of the European Parliament from 2012 to 2017) as 2 of the main political contenders, it is very unlikely that the ‘animal welfare voice’ will start to be listened to in Germany.
Merkel does not listen, and Schultz, ex EU Parliament President – what more does one need to say; he is ex EU – and the EU policy ‘is what we have experienced with live animal exports to Turkey, for example, “there is nothing we can do”.
What faith in politicians to make the world a better place for all !
Venus has kindly been looking into this more – and has provided a lot more information which we think you will fine interesting.
Dear Mark,
I promised you to write a post about the “Pig Baron” Straathof, here it is.
The story is old, as old as corruption in the meat business and the boundless exploitation of the animals of the system and its servants.
And unfortunately, the story repeats itself.
The case Straathof and the Holocaust of 24,000 pigs
On the 27th of July 2017 about 24,000 nonhuman beings were burnt alive at the “Knorhof” in Erichem (NL).
Adriaan Straathof
Owner of the animal barracks: the Dutchman Adriaan Straathof, the “pig baron”.
For years this barracks has been under criticism, it was actually built as a poultry shed.
Straathof converted this barracks into two floors and got the permission for:
-2,000 sows with suckling piglets, -7,600 rearing piglets and -9,600 Fattening pigs
Adrianus Straathof is one of the largest pig producers in Europe.
He produced 1.5 million piglets per year in Germany alone, when he was still allowed to work there.
Since 2016, Straathof has been forbidden to work in Germany.
Here the chronology:
December 2014: Against Straathof, a ban on feeding and caring has been imposed.
March 2015: Evidence of serious animal welfare violations; Criminal officers carry out a major raid in the pig farm ‘Gut Thiemendorf’.
April 2015: Nevertheless, the ban on banning animals is canceled by the Supreme Administrative Court. The evidence is not sufficient.
June 2015: Straathof remains in the sights of the authorities: 100 officials searched the breeding farms of his pig empire!
June 2016: In Magdeburg, the professional ban against the pig owner Adrianus Straathof is being tried in court.
July 2016: The Administrative Court in Magdeburg confirms the ban on the profession against Straathof. Straathof appealed against the judgment of the Administrative Court Magdeburg.
On 4 November 2016, the Senate of the Higher Administrative Court of Saxony-Anhalt rejected this request for appeal.
Since then, he has been forbidden to work in Germany.
And so Straathof returns to his home country, the Netherlands, and builds a new barracks for 20,000 pigs in a two-storey poultry stable.
Straathof ignores in his new home, as in Germany, every precept which concerns the animal husbandry.
And so there is the burning of 24,000 living beings in Strathof’s barracks.
But, is Straathof a single offender?
No! No way!
Straathof only does what is allowed to him. Politicians and authorities, these are the main guilty, these are our enemies.
The problem is the system.
The state and no one else is responsible for checking whether all, even fraudsters such as Straathof, adhere to animal welfare.
And this control is traditionally weak, you might say miserable.
Because in the lobby republics, the interests of the big businessmen are always taking their place.
Straathof is nothing more than the controlled actor of a corrupt system.
I still trust 24,000 creatures who were unfortunate enough to be born, bred, tortured, and burned in the barracks of Adriaan Straathof.
Posted on August 8, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
I read this news in “Spiegel.de/panorama” a few days ago, here is the translation:
“Indonesia: Army should stop monkey invasion”!!
Indonesia has the army marched up – against naughty monkey bands. The animals are increasingly becoming a problem for the residents of the Boyolali district on the island of Java. The military should now help.
The chief of the district, Seno Samodro, spoke of an “invasion of hundreds of monkeys”, which could only be met with firearms. The long-tailed macaques fell massively over plantations, they steadied maize and fruits and sometimes even attacked people, complained Samodro. Alone this year monkeys had bitten eleven local residents.
The district administration therefore mobilizes soldiers, policemen, hunters and members of shooting clubs, who are to go on patrols and kill the monkeys. A local shooters’ association sends ten members every day. According to “Newsweek” against the animals however only rubber boots are used.
In the region is currently dry season, the food in nature is scarce. This forces the monkeys to look for food in humans.
And here is my response to the article:
Why the animals walk around hungry and “steal” fruit or maize the journalist does not tell us, of course.
If he had told us that Indonesia is one of the main cultivators for palm oil, and every day countless hectares of the jungle would be burnt for this shit palm oil, he might lose his job, the palm oil industry does not joke!
And only who gets this information knows that monkeys and other animals lose their homes, their food their families every day. At the beginning of the 1990s, some 150,000 orangutans still lived in Sumatra and Borneo. Today there are only 49,000.
SAV Comment
– see pictures below – the journalist does not tell us that 300 soccer fields sized areas are deforested every hour – and that 50 Orangutans are killed every week doing this.
He claims to be a journalist but his writing is very much one sided; that in defence of the palm oil industry and of the destruction caused by the monkeys to humans who have invaded the monkeys homelands !. What about the destruction caused by the humans in the rainforest every hour ? – tell us about that Mr Journalist. Or do you not want people to know about an industry which kills so many wonderful animals ?
The journalist has not told us this, because he is paid neither to write truth nor real facts. For this reason, he tells us in the end that the cause of this “invasion” is the dryness.
The most successful way to cover up the truth is to confuse effect with cause. The press writes of aggressive monkeys and threatened people. And so the mass murder against the expellees is justified. We experience a lie shock every day, in the television, in the press on the radio.
I think the German press is a typical case of presstitution.
Posted on August 1, 2017 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
SAV Comment – Kevin Pietersen is a very well known England cricket player. Well done him for speaking up in support of the animals and against hunting.
Above – ‘Dim’ and ‘Dimmer’ Trump.
———————————————
Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke branded ‘scum’ by Kevin Pietersen, who urges fans to ‘drive him’ out of the club
Exclusive: The American billionaire is facing a fierce backlash after launching a television channel that documents trophy killings of endangered animals
The former England cricketer, who is raising awareness about illegal poaching of rhinos in South Africa, has also called on Arsenal supporters to do everything they can to ensure majority shareholder Kroenke is “driven out” of the Premier League club.
Kevin Pietersen – A Voice Speaking Out Against Hunting.
“I find it sickening that anyone could want to endanger these animals whatsoever, but for someone to turn it into a TV show for entertainment absolutely boils my blood,” Pietersen exclusively told The Independent. “The guy, and those who contribute and support those practices, are scum.
“Enough is enough. These stunning animals are being slaughtered to the point of extinction and for anyone to celebrate it is absolutely repugnant.
“I’ve had so many messages from Arsenal fans telling me they hate him as much as anyone, so if that’s the case, he has to be driven out. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want this person representing something I love.”
These animals don’t have a voice, but we do.
If we don’t do anything, no-one will.
Kevin Pietersen
Kroenke faced a heavy backlash following revelations in The Times that his company, Kroenke Sport Entertainment, is responsible for the UK launch of My Outdoor TV [MOTV] through its entity Outdoor Sportsman Group.
The channel will screen shows that follow hunters across the globe, primarily in Africa where big-money hunting trips are available, and involve various ways of killing wild animals that includes by bow and arrows and by guns.
One programme shows a presenter shooting a critically endangered African elephant before the bull turns and charges at him. Two more shots are heard before the animal falls to the ground and dies.
“There’s no other feeling in the world quite like walking up on your bull elephant,” the man says to the camera.
Another show, called Dark Continent Quest, features huntress Jana Waller and her travels across the world killing animals with a bow and arrow. One episode shows Ms Waller killing a hartebeest in South Africa, with the arrow hitting the animal before it runs away. Ms Waller and her guide, John Faul, wait for the animal to bleed to death before approaching it.
“It’s a good shot. Definitely, some liver and some lungs hit,” says Mr Faul while the animal is still alive.
Ms Waller adds “the shot was a little far back for me, but one shot did it,” before holding up the hartebeest’s “beautiful heart shaped horns”.
It has caused a wave of criticism aimed at Kroenke, particularly from Arsenal supporters given that the American billionaire owns 67 per cent of the club’s shares. The channel has also been dubbed the “Netflix of the hunting world” by its supporters, who are willing to pay $9.99 [£7.60] a month for the subscription.
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 