News
The number of news found: 42.
04/30/2007 BAN ON COMMERCIAL SLAUGHTER OF WILD HORSES AND BURROS!
Washington - The House voted on Thursday to prevent the government from selling off for slaughter any wild horses and burros that roam public lands in the West. The 277-to-137 vote would restore a 1971 law preventing the Bureau of Land Management from selling the animals for commercial processing. The protection was removed in 2004 when former senator Conrad Burns, Republican of Montana, inserted a measure in a spending bill allowing their sale. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee passed a bill Wednesday that would outlaw horse slaughter nationally.
04/30/2007 WHALES RECRUITED AS OCEANOGRAPHERS!
Scientists have enlisted narwhals, a deep-diving arctic whale famous for the males' long, spiral tusk, to retrieve important data on one of the most remote and inhospitable places on earth. University of Washington marine biologist Kristin Laidre and colleague Mads Peter Heide-Jorgensen of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources have equipped three narwhals with sophisticated satellite transmitters to send data on water temperatures in ice-clogged seas between Greenland and Canada. The whales are collecting data about Baffin Bay, their winter habitat between northeast Canada and Greenland. The devices placed on their backs record water temperatures at various depths and track narwhal movements and diving behavior, adding to the understanding of these elusive whales. The devices transmit 400 readings a day. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Greenland Institute of Natural Resources back the research. The aim is to equip eight to 10 whales with the devices.
04/30/2007 NZ FARMERS END MERINO MULESING!
New Zealand farmers have stopped mulesing their fine wool merinos in a bid to capture United States textile markets. Animal rights activists regard mulesing, which involves the removal of skin from around a sheep's tail to avoid flies laying eggs in the area, as inhumane. Now, three million fine wool merinos in New Zealand have been selectively bred to have bare breeches. Australian farm consultant Bob Reed says Australia needs to adopt a similar approach in the lead up to a 2010 deadline to end mulesing. '(New Zealand) have got very lucrative contracts for this fine wool into America and they've got protocols agreed with those marketers that they won't be mulesing from now on, and they will limit chemical use, so that is a huge challenge laid down to us,' Mr Reed said. The move in New Zealand follows a 2005 declaration of commitment between the United States, Britain and regional wool growers to set out a timetable to find an alternative to mulesing.
04/27/2007 THREE MILLION ANIMALS IN BRITAIN'S LABS!
Three million cats, dogs, monkeys and other animals are experimented on in Britain's laboratories every year with many suffering extreme and often unnecessary pain, say animal campaigners. Government claims that the experiments are tightly controlled are rejected by Science Without Suffering, which is backed by celebrities such as Dame Judi Dench and Joanna Lumley. Wendy Higgins of the antianimal research charity, the Dr Hadwen Trust, said: 'We believe that if the public was aware of just how much suffering animals in laboratories are allowed to experience they would be extremely alarmed. It's time the Government started taking meaningful action to stop the suffering.' Among the experiments exposed in the report is the infecting of 96 guinea pigs with fatal kidney disease. Around 4,500 experiments were found to have taken place on 3,000 monkeys in 2005. Some were injected with toxic chemicals to cause brain damage. Thousands of dogs were said to have been experimented on in the same year, with some trials lasting up to two years. Under the 1986 Animals Act, labs should only get a licence to experiment on animals if they can show that the benefit of their research is outweighed by the suffering.
04/27/2007 INDIAN STATE TO SHOOT RHINO POACHERS ON SIGHT!
An Indian state has ordered the wardens of a national wildlife park to shoot poachers of endangered one-horned rhinos on sight, officials said Monday. 'A massive anti-poaching operation has been launched with orders issued to shoot-on-sight any unauthorised person inside Kaziranga's premises,' Rockybul Hussain, northeastern Assam state's forest minister, told AFP in the reserve. Six rhinos have been killed by poachers in the 430-square-kilometre Kaziranga park since January, including two in the past 10 days.
04/26/2007 AUSTRIA GIVES FULL SUPPORT TO THE SEALS!
The nation of Austria yesterday voted unanimously in support of a complete ban on the importation, processing and distribution of all seal pelts from all species of seals. Austria joins Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Croatia in banning seal pelts with bills before the governments of all the other European nations pending. Austrian Minister for the Environment, Josef Proll (OVP), stated that he will also work for a ban on the EU-level. Despite decades of worldwide protests, the Canadian government has continued to allow the slaughter of more than a million harp seals in the last three years. In response many countries are now introducing national bans on seal products in order to close the markets and send a clear message to Canada. The Canadian government has wasted countless thousands of taxpayer dollars sending delegations to Europe in support of Canada's commercial seal hunt. Millions of more dollars have been spent on subsidies and Coast Guard icebreaker assistance and providing the sealers with cigarettes and food while they are stranded on the ice by their own folly. Yet Europeans are listening to the facts and the facts are that this is a cruel, unsustainable and wasteful hunt which must be stopped, and they want no part of it.
04/25/2007 KANGAROOS UNDER THREAT FROM MEAT INDUSTRY!
Animal rights activists say the kangaroo meat industry is putting kangaroos under threat by killing a large percentage of females and leaving joeys to fend for themselves. Animal Liberation says a two-year investigation of the kangaroo meat industry has uncovered a range of unsafe and unsustainable practices. Spokesman Mark Pearson says a delegation will now take the findings to Europe and Russia to raise awareness of what they claim is the decimation of the kangaroo population. Mr Pearson says 70 per cent of kangaroos killed are female. 'Once you start killing females and getting over 40 to 50 per cent, you are having a devastating impact on the gene pool and the sustainability of that species,' he said.
04/24/2007 FOOD POISON MAY HAVE BEEN INTENTIONAL!
For the first time, investigators are saying the chemical that has sickened and killed companion animals in the United States may have been intentionally added to pet food ingredients by Chinese producers. Food and Drug Administration investigators say the Chinese companies may have spiked products with the chemical melamine so that they would appear, in tests, to have more value as protein products. Officials now suspect this possibility because a second ingredient from China, rice protein concentrate, has tested positive for melamine. So has corn gluten shipped to South Africa. That means there is a possibility for another round of recalls. The FDA's top veterinarian, Stephen Sundlof, says finding melamine in so many products 'would certainly lend credibility to the theory that it was maybe intentional.' The revelations have led the FDA to expand the number of products it is testing as they enter the United States.
04/23/2007 SEALER ADMITS KILLING SEALS FOR FUN!
Desmond Adams was quoted on Saturday in the Newfoundland media as saying, 'we all go out for the love of it rather than the money, which isn't there anymore,' which means that the Canadian taxpayer is now currently paying the bill in millions of dollars to provide four full time ice-breakers to assist a bunch of thugs who sadistically bash in the heads of seal pups for pleasure. Some 400 sealers on about 100 small boats remain trapped in heavy ice off the Eastern coast of Newfoundland in one of the heaviest ice jams in memory. Unable to break the boats free, the Canadian Coast Guard has turned errand boys for the sealers flying in groceries to the stranded boats. The sealers are complaining of boredom according to the Newfoundland newspaper the Western Star. Over 60,000 seal pups are available under the quota of 275,000. Over 200,000 have already been clubbed or slaughtered. This does not take into account the estimated 250,000 pups killed by diminished ice conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence last month. Adams also said that the hunt continues not for the money but because the government wants it to continue. No one's getting rich from the seal hunt, he said, 'at least not among the hunters. The price of pelts is down to about $55, about half what it used to be.' These comments from a veteran sealer certainly contradict the position of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans that the seal hunt is an economic necessity.
04/23/2007 BOLLYWOOD STARS WANT ANIMAL CRUELTY TO STOP!
Bollywood stars are lending their time and energy to highlight cruelty faced by India's animals. From being chained and caged, they want this to stop. Rahul Khanna, an actor joined the lost list of stars, including Aishwarya Rai, Shilpa Shetty and Madhuri Dixit, to publize the unfair treatment of animals. Dressed up in a torn T-shirt and shackled in chains with bruises painted all over his body, he posed with the tagline 'Beaten, shackled, abused - elephants do not belong in zoos' for PETA. On the behalf of PETA, Aishwarya Rai wrote a letter to save an endangered black rhinoceros in South Africa. Shilpa Shetty donned a body hugging, tiger stripped bodysuit and was urging people to boycott circuses. Madhuri Dixit wrote to the government in the support of Elephants. John Abraham and dancer Rakhi Swant are the other stars helping out. Abraham was seen posing in an open cage, saying 'Let birds fly free'. Swant stood for 5 hours to have her body painted with tiger stripes for an anti-circus ad. In their latest campaign, PETA, with Khanna, is promoting awareness of treatment of elephants in cities and zoos.
04/23/2007 76% OF TAIWAN SLAUGHTERHOUSES KILL PIGS INHUMANELY!
The Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) claim that more than 70 percent of public slaughterhouses still adopt inhumane methods to kill pigs, and call for local consumers to boycott pork products sourced from such slaughterhouses. The EAST made the remarks when releasing findings of its survey study of slaughterhouses around the island conducted over the past three years. The EAST joined forces with dozens of animal rights protection organizations to investigate 72 slaughter lines of public slaughterhouses in 21 counties and cities around the island between June 2005 and March this year. They found that some 76 percent or 55 slaughter lines still use traditional cruel methods to kill pigs. This equates to some 6.5 millions pigs being brutally slaughtered in Taiwan each year.
04/22/2007 MDLR TO POSITION ITSELF AS INDIA'S FIRST VEG AIRLINE!
Gurgaon-based MDLR group's soon to be launched passenger airline, MDLR Airlines, will be marketing itself as India's first pure vegetarian airline. Headed by the group's chairman Gopal Kumar Goyal, the airline promises to provide a wide variety of multi-cuisine vegetarian specialities. According to a company source, the decision to go pure vegetarian was a company decision and was driven by the forerunners of the MDLR Group.
04/22/2007 ARMANI STOPS USING ALL FUR EXCEPT RABBIT!
Designer Giorgio Armani recently announced that he is not using fur in his collections, with one big exception: rabbit fur. This means millions of rabbits will suffer and die every year so that they can be made into jackets, hats, glove linings, etc. Rabbits in factory farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages, where they are exposed to all weather conditions. They often go without adequate shelter, clean water, and veterinary care, and they are denied the opportunity to engage in even the most basic, natural behaviors, such as stretching their legs and burrowing. Fur farmers use the cheapest methods available to kill rabbits, including hitting them on their heads with heavy objects and breaking their necks. These crude killing methods aren't always effective, and sometimes animals 'wake up' while they are being skinned. Rabbits are intelligent, clean animals with unique personalities. They are individuals with feelings, families, and friendships. They are more than just scraps of skin to be sewn onto collars and cuffs.
04/21/2007 BELGRADE HORSES MAY BE DRUGGED FOR STONES GIG!
Preparations to sedate as many as 300 horses stabled at Belgrade's racecourse to keep them calm during a Rolling Stones concert have enraged Serb animal lovers who are lobbying to have the gig moved to another venue. The concert is expected to draw more than 100,000 people to the Hippodrome, Belgrade's largest fenced space. The horses will be only a few meters from the stage. 'Horses differ, the same as people. Some are more nervous, more skittish,' said hostler Jovanka Prelic. 'If they get too nervous or start to panic during the concert, they'll get sedatives.'
04/20/2007 CANADIAN SEAL HUNTERS TRAPPED BY ICE!
Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers smashed through a massive expanse of ice off Newfoundland's northeast coast Wednesday in a bid to free about 100 seal hunt vessels. About 15 vessels were in danger of having the Atlantic ice pierce their hulls, said Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokesman Phil Jenkins. The thick, moving ice poses the danger of sandwiching and cracking the boats. The Newfoundland part of Canada's controversial seal hunt is the third and largest stage of the hunt. The total quota for all three phases is 270,000 animals. Brian Penney, a superintendent with the Coast Guard in Newfoundland and Labrador, said helicopters could be called in to rescue stranded crews as a northeast wind continues to jam the ice floes together. The coast guard is trying to get supplies to those vessels that are 'in most dire straits,' said Penney, who added that fuel and supplies are running low. Penney said many of the crews are reluctant to abandon their vessels as most sealers consider that option a last resort.
04/20/2007 TURKEYS WITH AVIAN FLU KILLED WITH FIREFIGHTING FOAM IN WEST VIRGINIA!
On April 1, 2007, a University of Delaware researcher named George Malone was asked to exterminate thousands of turkeys using firefighting foam on a farm in West Virginia. The reason given was that the birds were infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, H5N2. According to an article in Lancaster Farming (04/12/07), a total of 15,000 turkeys confined in four different houses were subsequently exterminated with the foam. That the birds died a horrible death can be inferred from Malone's description of how the kill crew 'struggled with their equipment,' faced 'foam quality issues, pump failure and worker fatigue.' In addition, he said, 'there was not a consistent single brand of foam.' In one case, the foam 'was 20 years old and had 'sludge' in the bottom of the container.'
04/19/2007 LARGEST MEAT PRODUCER TO PRODUCE DIESEL FUEL FROM ANIMAL FAT!
Oil major ConocoPhillips and Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat producer, said Monday they're teaming up to produce and market diesel fuel for U.S. vehicles using beef, pork and poultry fat. The companies said they've collaborated over the past year on ways to combine Tyson's expertise in protein chemistry and production with ConocoPhillips' processing and marketing knowledge to introduce a renewable diesel fuel with lower carbon emissions than conventional fuels.
04/18/2007 DUKE UNIVERSITY ENDS LIVE ANIMAL LAB!
North Carolina - Duke University School of Medicine recently confirmed that it has stopped using live pigs in its third-year surgery course. This means that only 13 medical schools (of 125)continue to use live animals in medical student courses. PCRM physicians worked hard to explain the educational and ethical advantages of non-animal alternatives to the school, and Duke deserves praise for this wise and compassionate decision.
04/17/2007 LIVE-ANIMAL SCULPTURE BY CHINSESE-FRENCH ARTIST CLOSED!
A controversial sculpture that pitted live caged animals against each other will close Sunday, after the Chinese-French artist was accused of cruelty. Internationally-known artist Huang Yong Ping, a Chinese who now lives in Paris, announced the animals in a enclosure will be removed 'to maintain the integrity of the artwork.' The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) had ordered Huang and the Vancouver Art Gallery to drastically modify the exhibit. By provincial law, the agency can investigate and lay charges of animal cruelty. Since opening a week ago, the 'Theatre of the World' sculpture housed lizards, scorpions, tarantulas and other animals together in a cage.
04/15/2007 HOUSTON DEPUTIES RESCUE ABANDONED CHICKENS!
For the second time in a month, Montgomery County Precinct 5 Constable's Office Livestock Deputy Don Smith found himself in a poultry roundup after 44 abandoned chickens were discovered Tuesday. Smith and other deputies rounded up the birds on Pollok Drive, located off Farm to Market 3083 east of Conroe. The hens will be put up for adoption, he said. All of the chickens were tagged, making it possible to trace their origin, he said. 'They looked like show chickens from the Montgomery County Fair,' Smith said. According to Smith, whoever is responsible for dumping the chickens could be charged with 44 counts of animal cruelty, if that person is found. 'They were pretty hungry and pretty thirsty,' he said. Animal cruelty is a Class A misdemeanor in Texas; however, if a person has already been convicted twice of animal cruelty, it then becomes a state jail felony, according to the Texas Penal Code. A Class A misdemeanor carries a penalty of up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $4,000 or both. The penalty for a state jail felony is 180 days to two years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
04/14/2007 DENMARK HALTS LONG-DISTANCE EXPORTS OF LIVE ANIMALS OUTSIDE THE EU!
The Danish Agricultural Council halted Monday all live animal transports that last longer than 24 hours outside the European Union and said that a new ethical code would be agreed on with hauliers. The transport ban was imposed with immediate effect after Danish broadcaster DR over the weekend screened images of pigs being transported under shocking conditions including lack of water and food on a truck stopped near the Latvian-Russian border. The report said Latvian customs officials found some 33 dead pigs among the 1,150 pigs on the truck. In addition, several pigs had broken bones and other injuries, and 36 had to be put down immediately.
04/14/2007 MEPS VOTE TO BAN SALE OF CAT AND DOG FUR IN EU!
Green party MEP Caroline Lucas has welcomed a vote by the European Parliament's Internal Market Committee calling for an EU-wide ban on the trade in cat and dog fur. Dr Lucas said she hoped the vote would enter into force as quickly as possible, and that it should be extended to other animal products where different EU states have different rules – notably seal products.
04/13/2007 MYSTERY CAT TAKES REGULAR BUS TO THE SHOPS!
Bus drivers have nicknamed a white cat Macavity after it has started using the No 331 several mornings a week. The feline, which has a purple collar, gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings - he then jumps off at the next stop 400 m down the road, near a fish and chip shop. The cat, nicknamed Macavity, has one blue eye and one green eye. The cat was nicknamed Macavity after the mystery cat in T.S Elliot's poem. He gets on the bus in front of a row of 1950s semi-detached houses and jumps off at a row of shops down the road which include a fish and chip shop.
04/13/2007 TAINTED FOOD MAY HAVE HURT 39,000 ANIMALS!
Companion animals food contaminated with an industrial chemical may have sickened or killed 39,000 cats and dogs nationwide, based on an extrapolation from data released Monday by one of the nation's largest chains of veterinary hospitals. Banfield, The Pet Hospital, said an analysis of its database, compiled from records collected by its more than 615 veterinary hospitals, suggests that three out of every 10,000 cats and dogs that ate the pet food contaminated with melamine developed kidney failure. There are an estimated 60 million dogs and 70 million cats in the United States, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. The hospital chain saw 1 million dogs and cats during the three months when the more than 100 brands of now-recalled contaminated pet food were sold. It saw 284 extra cases of kidney failure among cats during that period, or a roughly 30 percent increase, when compared with background rates.
04/12/2007 ANIMAL FIGHTING BILL HEADS TO PRESIDENT BUSH!
On April 10, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act. The House of Representatives passed the same bill, H.R. 137, late last month by a vote of 368 to 39. What this means is that after an almost six-year battle, the struggle to enact meaningful federal penalties for animal fighting has passed its final congressional hurdle. The legislation now is headed to the desk of President Bush, who is expected to sign the measure into law. The new law will take effect immediately. The cockfighting lobby was organized, and its leaders poured hundreds of thousands of dollars to derail the legislation.
04/12/2007 EASTER BUNNY RESCUES BATTERY HENS!
As a gesture of goodwill this Easter, the Easter Bunny, helped by animal rights activists from the Open Rescue Collective, broke into a South Auckland battery hen farm and rescued 10 battery hens from their cages. Farm workers were left vegan Easter eggs and a Happy Easter card
explaining the reasons for the rescue. The Easter Bunny explains that while eggs are traditionally a symbol of new life, this symbol has been perverted as eggs laid by hens kept in battery cages are the product of a lifetime of suffering and deprivation. 'The rescued battery hens have been placed into good homes and are enjoying grass, fresh air and sunshine for the first time in their lives,' says Open Rescue spokesperson Deirdre Sims.
04/11/2007 VIETNAM PM APPROVES TIGER FARMS!
Hanoi - The government was cited as saying Friday that three private tiger farms in southern Vietnam will be allowed to keep 43 of the endangered animals, handing the breeders a victory over environmental groups. The story says that Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung decided that, while the owners had breached a ban on keeping the tigers, they were better equipped than Vietnam's zoos to take care of the animals which cannot be released into the wild.
04/11/2007 A VEGETARIAN CHAMPION OF BASKETBALL!
The former international basketball player Angelos Koronios declared to the Greek daily TA NEA (5 April, 2007) that he is a vegetarian since the age of 25. Aged 37, the former Greek champion is today the coach of the Sporting basketball team in Athens, Greece. Koronios said that vegetarianism has been beneficial to his high level basketball player career. The Greek national basketball team is one of the world's strongest.
04/10/2007 MAJOR CLIMATE REPORT EXPECTED!
Hundreds of scientists have been scrambling in Brussels to finish a landmark international report on climate change. It is expected to declare that climate change is already discernible and could wreak devastation on human settlement and wildlife within this century. Whereas Europeans sought to include stronger language and hard numbers warning about the dangers of global warming, the United States favoured general statements about trends. China and Russia have sought to remove some passages from the summary asserting that climate change had already had negative effects around the globe, arguing that the data in the 1,400 word main study is not solid enough to be included in the key policy document. China, which is set to overtake the United States within the next decade or so as the world's single largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas driving global warming, is coming under increasing pressure to curb its use of fossil fuels.
04/10/2007 PETA USES POPE IN CAMPAIGN AGAINST KFC!
In its unbridled effort to get Yum Brands Inc.'s (YUM) KFC chicken chain to accept its views on handling and killing poultry, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has used former Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and bikini-clad girls as messengers. Now, during Holy Week, the group is calling on Pope Benedict XVI to help spread the word. The activists' KentuckyFriedCruelty.com Website features a photo of the pope along with a quotation attributed to him saying, 'Animals, too, are God's creatures...Degrading (them) to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.' The group said it plans to distribute leaflets on the street and online with the pope's image and the headline 'Boycott KFC'. Under the words 'KFC's religious scandal,' the leaflet says that KFC's top executives 'boast about being good Christians. The suffering of the more than 850 million chickens killed each year for KFC...mocks basic Christian and moral values.'
04/09/2007 INDUSTRY CONSIDERS FEATHERLESS CHICKENS!
A few weeks ago Professor Avigdor Cahaner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Department of Agriculture in Rehovot, Israel gave at a congress of the World Poultry Science Association in Bangkok a presentation on his many years of researching the advantages of featherless chickens. According to him, no feathers means no waste, less processing costs and less water use during processing. In addition these birds show a higher meat yield and better meat quality. Furthermore when featherless birds are held in hot climate zones, they suffer less from heat stress, show lower mortality rates and a better health status, making the concept even more convincing. That these birds also can grow on low protein and low energy diets without any negative effect on their growth rate makes them even more attractive. But as soon you open your eyes again the attractiveness of the featherless bird is completely gone. It is right then where your emotions are switched on again and all technical en economic advantages get a different dimension. We all know that naked birds are a freak of nature, and the question arises would the consumer allow the industry to make use of this bird commercially.
04/08/2007 IN ONLY SIX DAYS SLAUGHTERED 2,133,888 PIGS!
From March 12 to 17, 2007, in only six days, 2,133,888 pigs were slaughtered in the US alone. That's more than 2 million intelligent, feeling beings who are smarter than dogs and have been found by scientists to have IQs at the same level as 3-year old human children. And virtually all of them were raised in factory farms. And in a year, over 100 million pigs are eaten in the US.
04/08/2007 COMPANION ANIMALS WELFARE ACT COMING INTO FORCE!
The Animal Welfare Act, which became law in Wales last week, includes harsher fines of up to £20,000 and jail terms of up to a year for cruelty. The RSPCA is raising awareness of the act, which has been dubbed a bill of rights for companion animals, ahead of its official introduction on Friday. The government says existing laws are outdated and too inflexible. The Act, which raises penalties for cruelty from the previous maximum of six months in prison or a £5,000 fine, is the most significant new law on animal welfare for 94 years. It imposes a duty of care for non-farm animals, for the first time. The duty of care includes making sure that animals have a proper diet, are housed with or apart from other animals according to their need, have the ability to express normal behaviour and are protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease. Under the Act the minimum age for buying a companion animal will rise from 12 to 16, and under-16s will not be allowed to win a pet as a prize. The Act also bans the docking of dogs' tails for cosmetic reasons, with the exception of 'working' dogs used by the police, armed forces, search and rescue, and gun dogs. Persistent offenders would be deterred by stronger penalties.
04/07/2007 250 ANIMALS SACRIFIED IN MAHA TEMPLE IN INDIA!
The 'holy altar' of Panchubaraha temple at Satabhaya village in Kendrapada's Rajnagar block turned into a virtual pool of blood as around 250 animals were sacrificed on the occasion of Chatya Purnima on Monday. Hundreds of devotees came from nearby villages to watch the 'sacred spectacle' of 'slaughter', a custom being observed here for years. The animals, which included goats, lambs and a buffalo, were lined up near the sacrificial pole before the mighty stroke of Babaji Dalei's sword did it all, one after another. But the man was unperturbed. 'It's a divine duty which was passed on to me after my father died 20 years ago,' he said.
04/07/2007 FREED LAB CHIMPS TO GET OWN ISLANDS OFF AFRICA!
Six remote African islands are to be turned into sanctuaries for chimpanzees, released from research laboratories after years of experimentation. The islands, off the coast of Liberia, have been taken over by the New York Blood Centre (NYBC) to release more than 70 animals used in its hepatitis research programmes. This example might inspire the creation of other sanctuaries to house retired research animals, especially great apes. The centre is one of many research institutes to abandon experiments on chimpanzees because it now considers such work unacceptable on ethical and welfare grounds. The African sanctuaries are initially being set up for the exclusive use of animals released from NYBC's Vilab facility at Robertsfield, Liberia. If they succeed they could become a model for similar releases of animals from zoos and laboratories.
04/06/2007 PETA TO CAMPAIGN AGAINST EATING EGGS!
With Easter just round the corner, an animal rights group in Kerala is to launch a campaign Wednesday urging people not to eat eggs. Volunteers of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) maintain that an egg eaten means a life taken away. The campaign comes a few days before Easter when Christians across the state consume eggs lavishly after the Sunday Easter mass. Rohini Kamath, campaign coordinator of the programme, told IANS: 'Tomorrow at 12 noon we will hold a symbolic action in front of the state secretariat where a girl would come out from an egg. This is just to show that eating an egg means a life is taken away.'
04/05/2007 CELEBS MOBILIZE AGAINST SEAL HUNT!
Joaquin Phoenix, Julio Iglesias, Sylvie Vartan, Jane Birkin, Twiggy, Maria de Medeiros, the Canadian Anthony Kavanagh, Didier Bourdon, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Jean-Luc Lahaye: These ten celebrities have raised their voice to alert the French government of the announced massacre of 270,000 seals on Canada's ice floes. Even the death of thousands of newborn pups in the Gulf of Saint-Laurent due to global warming has not prompted the Canadian authorities to cancel the hunt as recommended by the experts. In this particular respect, Canada's attitude can be qualified as highly irresponsible. When called upon by IFAW and SPA in an open letter to Ms. Nelly Ollin, the French Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development and to Ms. Christine Lagarde, the French Minister for International Trade, the ten celebrities have expressly urged the French government to ban all import, entry and marketing of seal products in France.
04/04/2007 MP CALLS ON PARLIAMENT TO BACK COUNCILOR'S FOIE GRAS CAMPAIGN!
City of York MP Hugh Bayley has stepped in to the 'ban foie gras' campaign and called on his fellow MPs to sign his Early Day Motion supporting a ban. Foie gras - French for 'fatty liver' - is produced by placing metal pipes down the throats of ducks and geese, force-feeding them until their livers become enlarged. The EDM calls upon the Government to prohibit the sale of foie gras in the UK, and sets out what campaigners say is the cruelty involved in foie gras production. It has already been signed by twelve MPs - Betty Williams, Chris McCafferty, Paul Flynn, Colin Burgon, David Taylor, Mike Wood, Kelvin Hopkins, Lynne Jones, Alan Meale, John Grogan, and Peter Bottomley. The campaign has also received backing from leading animal welfare organisations, including RSPCA, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Animal Aid, Advocates for Animals, and Uncaged.
04/03/2007 VULTURE STARVATION IN SPAIN!
In march 2003 the Fast Forward Foundation reports through the Eurogroup for Animalwelfare in Brussels that carcasses of dead pigs are being dumped at a large scale near the Spanish village Robres. In the past years thousands of dead pigs, sheep, goats and cows have been dumped here which is absolutely irresponsible considering the risks of spreading animal deseases. After publication of the report the authorities have closed the dump site in great haste by covering it up with a 2 metre thick layer of sand. With reference to the above incident and supposed rules from Brussels, the Spanish authorities have decided to close all traditionally existing feeding sites for vultures (muladares) as of the beginning of this year. The situation for the endangered and moreover legally protected scavengers has deteriorated in such a way that the starving vultures now also try to catch living sheep and their lambs from the stables. Even dogs and other small mammals are attacked.
04/03/2007 FIRST BABY SEAL KILLED YESTERDAY MORNING!
Yesterday morning, the silent beauty of Canada's icy waters was shattered and transformed into a killing field. The annual slaughter of baby seals has begun and seals are being clubbed to death in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Already, the disappearing ice caused by global warming has devastated seal populations. It's estimated that more than a quarter of the seal pups have died. And the survivors are now being targeted in the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet.
04/02/2007 270,000 SEALS TO BE HUNTED IN CANADA THIS YEAR!
Canada's fisheries minister said Thursday 270,000 harp seals would be killed in its annual commercial hunt, deemed 'the largest marine mammal massacre in the world' by animal rights groups. The harvest is down 65,000 from last year due to 'poor ice conditions' in seal breeding grounds in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Minister Loyola Hearn said in a statement. Up to 20 percent of the Atlantic herd usually nests on thick ice floes in the southern Gulf region in February or March. But this year authorities and animal rights groups found only slush and ice fragments too small to support a newborn pup. Ice floes in the northern Gulf and around Newfoundland province where most of the seal hunting occurs remain in 'good' condition, the minister said. 'We realize mortality will be higher than normal this year (in the southern Gulf),' a fisheries official said. 'The ice continues to deteriorate, but there are seals there.' In the past three years, one million seals have been killed in the commercial hunt in eastern Canada. Demonstrators in Europe and Canada have denounced the 'cruelty' of seal hunting.
04/01/2007 SNU TEAM CLONED WOLVES!
A Seoul National University team said Monday that it became the first in the world to successfully clone two female wolves back in October 2005. The team said that cloning the rare gray wolves could shed light on the preservation of endangered animal species.Aalthough they have yet to confirm whether the animals are capable of reproducing. The same team produced the world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, in April 2005.
The number of news found: 42.
