News
The number of news found: 28.
03/31/2006 JERRY VLASAK SEEKS PERMISSION TO ENTER CANADA TO SERVE HIS JAIL SENTENCE!
On the official first day of the 2006 Canadian seal hunt, 25th March, 2006, Dr. Jerry Vlasak journeyed to Prince Edward Island, Canada to surrender to authorities on a conviction of violations of the inappropriately named "Canadian Seal Protection Act". Eleven activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat were arrested, charged, and convicted on the 11th of January 2005 for violating the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) regulations that prevents citizens from witnessing the slaughter of the seals without a permit. Dr. Vlasak was allowed to cross the the Canadian border in Vancouver at 4:00 AM Sunday, 26th March. He is continuing on to Prince Edward Island where he faces a jail sentence of 22 days. He said he wanted to serve his sentence in conjunction with this year's seal kill in protest against both the unethical convictions of himself and his fellow crew members, and the egregious massacre of the seals who are right now being mercilessly clubbed and shot to death for greed and profit.
03/31/2006 SCIENTISTS BIOENGINEER PIG TO BE RICH IN OMEGA-3!
Scientists have successfully inserted a gene from an ocean worm into pigs, creating a new kind of swine that produces high levels of a nutrient-rich oil found primarily in fish.The results offer a potential new strategy for producing meat high in the beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids and to establish a model for studying the biological effects of the nutrient.
03/30/2006 CROATIA BANS THE IMPORT OF SEAL PELTS!
According to the Directive of the Council of Europe No. 83/129/EEC on March 27, 2006 Croatia banned the commercial import of skin and other products derived from the species of seals Cystophora cristata - hooded seals and Phoca groenlandica - harp seals. With this ban of the Ministry of Culture, Croatia joined Mexico, the United States, Greenland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Luxembourg, which already banned or are in a process of introducing a ban on import of pelts and other products derived from seals.
03/29/2006 MORRISEY HAS JOINED WITH PROTESTERS OF THE SEAL HUNT!
Morrissey has joined with protesters of the seal hunt, saying he won't tour Canada until the "barbaric slaughter" ends. "I fully realize that the absence of any Morrissey concerts in Canada is unlikely to bring the Canadian economy to its knees, but it is our small protest against this horrific slaughter," the former Smiths front man wrote in a statement posted on his website. Aside from not including Canada on his upcoming tour, Morrissey asked fans to boycott Canadian goods. "It WILL make a difference. As things stand, Canada has placed itself alongside China as the cruelest and most self-serving nation," he wrote.
03/28/2006 AUSTRALIAN WOOL FARMERS FACE PRISON FOR MULESING!
Wool farmers could face a year in prison for mulesing sheep under a new law, the National Animal Welfare Bill, proposed by the Australian democrats and introduced by Senator Andrew Bartlett. "Mulesing" is a crude practice in which farmers flip lambs onto their backs, restrain them between metal bars, and use gardening shears to cut large chunks of skin and flesh from the area around the animals' rumps without any painkillers whatsoever. The new bill calls for the immediate ban of mulesing and a fine of A$30,000 or one year's imprisonment for anyone who performs the horrific procedure. It is currently before a Senate committee, which will make recommendations on accepting it within the next three months.
03/26/2006 CANADIAN SEAL HUNT BEGINS AMID PROTESTS!
Gulf of St. Lawrence - Sealers took to the thawing ice floes off the Atlantic Ocean on the first day of Canada's contentious seal hunt Saturday, sparking confrontations with animal rights activists who claim the annual cull is cruel.Protesters dodged flying seal guts pitched at them by angry hunters on the first day of the spring leg of the world's largest seal slaughter. Reporters and activists tried to get as close as permitted to the hunt on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but their presence infuriated sealers hunting for scarce animals on small, drifting ice pans.
03/25/2006 PUPPY TRAFFICKERS EXPLOIT DEMAND FOR PEDIGREE DOGS!
Berlin - More than 100,000 puppies a year are being smuggled into Germany from eastern Europe in a hugely profitable racket by gangsters using similar methods to human traffickers. Although Germany is regarded as the main gateway, the trade is growing in many north European countries. Animal rights activists in Germany claim that the illicit business, designed to exploit a shortage of dogs, is booming as never before.
03/24/2006 NOVIGRAD ALSO BANS CIRCUSES WITH ANIMAL ACTS!
After Mursko Sredisce, Varazdin, Donji Miholjac, Velika Gorica, Rovinj, Split, Delnice, Gospic, Cakovec, Kraljevica, Prelog, Ploce, Bjelovar, Ozalj, Klanjec, Zabok, Pozega, Novi Marof, Nin, Varazdinske Toplice, Dugo Selo, Krizevci, Lepoglava, Vukovar, Sisak, and Karlovac, Novigrad also banned circuses with animal acts and thus joined the family of ethicaly aware Croatian towns.
03/23/2006 ACTIVISTS CALL BODY SHOP BOYCOTT!
Animal welfare activists have called for a boycott of the Body Shop after its founder Anita Roddick and fellow shareholders sold out to French cosmetics giant L'Oreal for £652m. The boycott was called by Naturewatch and backed by Uncaged. The animal welfare groups oppose L'Oreal's policy on the testing of cosmetics ingredients on animals.
03/22/2006 UN REPORT WARNS OF OVERUSE OF WATER!
The overuse of water for farming is the biggest environmental threat to the world's freshwater resources and damage is likely to worsen until 2020, according to a new international report. The UN-led Global International Waters Assessment, a review compiled by 1,500 experts, also concluded overfishing was the main problem affecting the health of the oceans. The report said rising demand for fresh water was caused partly by demand for food from an increasing human population of 6.5 billion and a "shift to more water-intensive food such as meat rather than vegetables and fruit rather than cereals."
03/21/2006 CANADA - FISHERIES MINISTER INCREASES SEAL HUNT QUOTA!
With this year's annual seal hunt about to get underway off Canada's East Coast, Ottawa has enraged animal rights groups by announcing new higher quotas. Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn announced the catch limit for 2006 has been increased to 325,000, an additional 5,000 from last year. The hunts will go ahead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the Front, off the north coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. A date for the Gulf hunt will be set in the next week, while the Front hunt does not typically open before April.The hunt has received high-profile criticism in the past, and most recently from former Beatle Paul McCartney, who visited ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence earlier this month. McCartney called the hunt "barbaric" and a "stain" on the country, and urged Ottawa to replace it with subsidies for fishermen and an eco-tourism industry.
03/20/2006 US ACTIVISTS TARGET AUSSIE SHEEP EXPORTS!
US animal rights activists have launched a new campaign aimed at shutting down Australia's lucrative live export of sheep to Egypt, Kuwait and Oman. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have called on the Agriculture Ministers from the three Middle Eastern nations to stop importing live sheep from Australia. PETA claims gruesome video footage from an undercover operation with another rights group, Animals Australia, exposed "the suffering of sheep exported from Australia".PETA is asking Egypt, Kuwait and Oman to only accept chilled Australian meat, instead of live sheep which are slaughtered on arrival in the Middle East.
03/19/2006 SIX TAKEN ILL AFTER DRUG TRIALS!
Six men remain in intensive care after being taken ill during a clinical drugs trial in north-west London. The healthy volunteers were testing an anti-inflammatory drug at a research unit based at Northwick Park Hospital when they suffered a reaction, that is, multiple organ failure. Two men are said to be critically ill. The men were being paid to take part in the early stages of a trial for the drug to treat conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and leukemia until they were taken ill on Monday within hours of taking it. Altogether eight volunteers were involved in this test.
03/17/2006 SISAK AND KARLOVAC BANNED CIRCUSES WITH ANIMAL ACTS!
Sisak and Karlovac are towns no. 25 and 26 that banned circuses with animal acts in Croatia! With these decisions that were made in Fabruary this year, Lepoglava and Vukovar joined Mursko Sredisce, Varazdin, Donji Miholjac, Velika Gorica, Rovinj, Split, Delnice, Gospic, Cakovec, Kraljevica, Prelog, Ploce, Bjelovar, Ozalj, Klanjec, Zabok, Pozega, Novi Marof, Nin, Varazdinske Toplice, Dugo Selo, Krizevci, Lepoglava, and Vukovar, which already banned circuses with animal acts before.
03/16/2006 SOY NOW COMES IN TEDDY BEAR FORM!
New York - The teddy bear's fluffy, cream colored fur looks like that of a typical stuffed animal. But this teddy's fur has something more in common with health foods than children's toys - it comes from soy. 'Tofu Bear' is part of Biltmore World Trade Inc.'s line of SoySilk Pals, stuffed animals whose fur is made out of soy fiber that is extruded from soybean cake, or tofu. The small Tempe, Arizona-based company said the dolls give toy companies a chance to offer an eco-friendly, natural alternative to the plush dolls of today, whose synthetic fur is petroleum-based.
03/15/2006 'MAD SHEEP DISEASE'
The European Commission has ordered more tests after scientists warned they may have found so-called 'mad cow' disease in sheep. Experts working at the EU's laboratories in Weybridge, Surrey, have been studying the brains of two sheep from France and one from Cyprus amid concerns that they could contain the first detected cases of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in sheep. The expert panel from Weybridge overseeing the work recommended continued investigations and on Thursday the Commission approved the decision.
03/14/2006 SCIENTIFIC REVIEW PROVES THAT LOBSTERS FEEL PAIN!
A new report by Advocates for Animals, a Scottish animal protection organization, presents a wide array of scientific evidence that lobsters, like other animals, are capable of experiencing pain and suffering. The report arrays 15 years of available research showing that lobsters respond behaviorally as if they are in pain, have biological structures for mediating pain, and demonstrate mental cognitive processes such as learning, memory, association, and generalization-all of which would require that they have the brain capacity sufficient to feel pain.
03/12/2006 McCARTNEY IN ANIMAL-TESTNG LAB FIGHT!
Animal rights campaigner Paul McCartney is appealing to the governor of Arizona to oppose plans to build an animal-testing laboratory in the state. The former Beatle owns a ranch in the area and wants Governor Janet Napolitano to reject testing company Covance's plans to build a facility in Chandler.The Help! hitmaker was swayed towards the cause after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claimed to have filmed an undercover video exposing the abuse of monkeys in Covance's Vienna, Virginia, clinic. McCartney is taking on the cause on behalf of his late wife Linda, who spent some of her final days at the ranch before she passed away in 1998.
03/11/2006 BRITAIN TO BAN SOME WILD CIRCUS ANIMALS!
London - The British government said Wednesday it intends to ban the use of some wild animals in traveling circuses. New provisions to the Animal Welfare Bill would outlaw the use of yet-to-be named species "whose welfare needs cannot be satisfactorily met" in a traveling circus. Animals in permanent circus venues, zoo performances and in the "audio visual" industry would be exempt, Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said in a written statement to the House of Commons.Animal rights groups hailed the proposal as a positive step and urged lawmakers to quickly pass the bill so it could be implemented by the fall.
03/09/2006 MICE ARE KEY TOOL IN QUEST FOR NEW DRUGS!
Bar Harbor, Maine - When it comes to the price of mice, you pay more for defects. A mouse with arthritis runs close to $200; two pairs of epileptic mice can cost 10 times that, while three blind mice cost about $250. And for your own custom mouse, with the genetic modification of your choosing, expect to pay as much as $100,000. Always a mainstay of scientific research, mice have become a critical tool in the quest for new drugs and medical treatments.As many as 25 million mice are now used in experiments each year, coming from the mouse industry.
03/08/2006 WILDLIFE WELFARE TO BE IMPROVED!
Beijing - China will introduce new regulations aimed at improving the living conditions of animals raised for the fur industry, a forestry official announced. "The State Forestry Administration (SFA) has enacted a series of regulations on wildlife rearing techniques," said Zhuo Rongsheng, director of the wildlife and plants protection department of the SFA, at a press conference on last Monday. Along with new regulations the administration is set to offer training courses for fur-farming factories.Some fur-farming factories have been found to rear animals in poor living conditions and their slaughtering and skinning practices are also below the authorized standards, according to an official's report.
03/07/2006 THREE INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES GO FUR-FREE!
In February 2006, three Swedish owned international companies - Boomerang, Svea, and Newhouse - confirmed that they and all their retailers in Europe will stop using real fur. The decision came after discussions with the network 'Swedens animal rights activists', the network of local animal rights groups and individuals all over Sweden.
03/06/2006 IFAW AND INTERPOL TEAM UP TO COMBAT WILDLIFE CRIME!
Nairobi - The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Interpol have formulated new strategies to combat international wildlife and environmental crime which has become a serious global concern, Kenyan Tourism and Wildlife Minister Morris Dzoro said on February 28. Dzoro said wildlife related crime was getting more sophisticated, going beyond Kenya's borders. Cross-border, regional and international linkages are therefore crucial in dealing with the problem, the minister told a workshop for investigation and intelligence officers involved in wildlife observation and management.
03/05/2006 EBAY STOPS DOG FUR SALE!
Internet auction giant eBay removed a Korean dog fur coat from its site on March 2 - thanks to the Mirror. Animal lovers were alarmed to discover that an unidentified Slovenia-based owner had put the gold size 14 jacket up for sale on the web. Described as being "in great condition", it had an asking price of £50 and appeared alongside a photo with the heading: "Fur coat - Korean dog". A concerned reader tipped off the Mirror before any bids were made - and eBay chiefs removed the item from the site. Welfare groups including the RSPCA welcomed the decision.
03/04/2006 ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUP TAKES CIRCUS TO COURT!
The owners of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's circus hired undercover agents, conspired and tried to ruin animal rights groups, according to an attorney involved in a civil jury trial that began on February 27 in Fairfax County Circuit Court. "It was a massive, classic conspiracy," said Philip Hirschkop, an attorney for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a Norfolk-based animal rights group that filed the lawsuit in 2001. Feld Entertainment Inc., which owns the circus and several other entertainment acts, began taking action against PETA and other animal rights organizations because the groups' demonstrations were hurting ticket sales and income for the circuses, Mr. Hirschkop argued.
03/03/2006 CIWF WELCOMES SUSPENSION OF AUSTRALIAN EXPORTS OFLIVE ANIMALS TO EGYPT!
The showing on Australia's TV current affairs programme '60 Minutes' of some of the most horrific cruelty ever recorded in an abattoir has led to the Australian Government suspending live animal exports to Egypt. The initial Animals Australia investigation into a Cairo abattoir was assisted by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and followed similar findings by CIWF during an earlier investigation.
03/02/2006 CAT IN GERMANY HAS BIRD FLU!
Berlin - The deadly strain of bird flu was confirmed Tuesday in a cat in northern Germany, the first time the virus has been identified in a mammal in the 25 nations of the European Union. The cat was on the northern island of Ruegen, where most of the more than 100 wild birds infected by the H5N1 strain were found, the Friedrich Loeffler institute said.The cat was found dead over the weekend and then tested positive for H5N1, laboratory leader Thomas Mettenleiter said.
03/01/2006 LEPOGLAVA AND VUKOVAR ALSO BAN CIRCUSES WITH ANIMALS!
Lepoglava and Vukovar are towns no. 23 and 24 that banned circuses with animal acts in Croatia! With these decisions that were made in Fabruary this year, Lepoglava and Vukovar joined Mursko Sredisce, Varazdin, Donji Miholjac, Velika Gorica, Rovinj, Split, Delnice, Gospic, Cakovec, Kraljevica, Prelog, Ploce, Bjelovar, Ozalj, Klanjec, Zabok, Pozega, Novi Marof, Nin, Varazdinske Toplice, Dugo Selo, and Krizevci, which already banned circuses with animal acts before.
The number of news found: 28.
