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A monthly Magazine edited and published by Maria Lopes - July 2005 For the Animals
Maria Lopes Coordinator of the International Movement Against Bullfights "Nothing will benefit human health and
increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a
vegetarian diet. It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its
purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially
influence the lot of mankind."
Albert Einstein (Nobel Prize) FRANCE To stop the geese torture involved in the production of "foie
gras".
Source: Mark Richards Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Alimentation, de la Pêche, et
des Affaires Emails: communication@agriculture.gouv.fr, grand-public@agriculture.gouv.fr There is no festive season for birds used in the production of "foie gras". Foie gras (French for "fatty liver") is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. To deliver the huge amount of food required to produce these swollen livers, most birds are kept permanently in cages so small that they can't stretch even one wing or stand properly. Their necks stick out, allowing feeders to grab them and pump up to 2 pounds of food per day into their stomachs through long metal pipes. This ordeal often bruises or tears the birds' necks, making it painful for them to drink. The process of forced feeding is so traumatic and the
confinement and conditions on foie gras farms so debilitating that the
pre-slaughter mortality rate for foie gras production is up to 20 times the
average rate on other cruel duck factory farms. Because these cramped conditions
prevent them from turning around, these sensitive birds are not even allowed to
The production of foie gras is outlawed in many countries. Please follow their ethical lead and ban "foie gras" production. It is time to consign the force-feeding of birds to the history books. Yours sincerely,
Please also contact your local French embassy. Many embassies can be found at http://france.embassyhomepage.com/ There is no festive season for birds used in the production of "foie gras". Foie gras (French for "fatty liver") is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. To deliver the huge amount of food required to produce these swollen livers, most birds are kept permanently in cages so small that they can't stretch even one wing or stand properly. Their necks stick out, allowing feeders to grab them and pump up to 2 pounds of food per day into their stomachs through long metal pipes. This ordeal often bruises or tears the birds' necks, making it painful for them to drink. The process of forced feeding is so traumatic and the confinement and conditions on foie gras farms so debilitating that the pre-slaughter mortality rate for foie gras production is up to 20 times the average rate on other cruel duck factory farms. Because these cramped conditions prevent them from turning around, these sensitive birds are not even allowed to preen - one of the most basic instinctual driving forces for birds. Not only are these flock animals prevented from forming social groups, their indoor, factory-farm conditions also prevent them from spending even one moment of their short lives basking in the sun or water. When they are slaughtered, these ducks and geese have livers that are swollen to up to 10 times their normal size. The production of foie gras is outlawed in many countries. Please ask the French Government to follow their ethical lead and ban "foie gras" production. It is time to consign the force-feeding of birds to the history books. Yours sincerely, JAPAN Cyber campaing to urge Japan to stop whaling Source: http://www.seashepherd.org and http://www.seashepherd.nl/ Sea Shepherd Europe is launching a cyber campaign to urge Japan to stop whaling. The whales need your urgent help and need you to write to the Japanese ambassador in your country and urgently ask him not to double the intended kill quota in the Antarctic region to 800 Minke Whales, 50 Humpback and 50 Fin Whales. And we need you to ask the ambassador to stop whaling in the Antarctic. To find the Japanese embassy in your country: Embassy of Japan France: The Netherlands: BELGIUM: Subject : Doubling of Killing Whales in Antarctica. Dear Ambassador, As we all know, Japan is a beautiful country with a rich
culture and tradition, and nowadays many of that culture find its way to the
west, and attracts many western people. Numerous people practice Japanese budo,
have Also Japan is without doubt a highly developed nation concerning technology and economy, and is for those reasons the leading nation in the Asian region. However, from the viewpoint of environmental issues or animal protection, Japan is not playing a leading role, it is globally on a very low level, and sadly Japan doesn't make much effort to improve. Japan lacks international environmental and animal protection laws such as there are in any western nation. And it grossly disrespect international treaties concerning endangered animals, such as the trade in ivory (which is openly sold) and killing of whales for "scientific" reasons, which seems a mere loophole for commercial whaling. We want to stop the killing of whales for any reasons, now and in the future. Those creatures have been hunted for centuries until the brink of extinction halfway the last century. They have a mere two decades of relative peace without large scale commercial hunting. For any animal that produces young so slowly and so little, it needs much more than a few decades to recover from a slaughter that continued for centuries. Western nations who used to whale for centuries, such as U.S.A, Great Britain, and Australia, all stopped. We often hear "whaling and eating whale meat is part of our
culture". Well, I think most young Japanese people never ate whale meat and are
not interested in it. Many young people don't know what their country is doing
And there is nothing traditional or cultural about hunting with modern ships and modern equipment. Nowadays modern whaling is just a bloody commercial activity about earning much money, raping and destroying the oceans, it is killing animals who have no change at all in a brutal, bloody and very cowardly way. It is not at all a "tradition" and it is nothing to be proud of. The only thing any modern and civilized nation can do, is to
put "whaling" into a museum, and to change from "whaling" into "whale watching",
for people to enjoy, and get more respect for the natural world and the planet
Your country has announced that it intends to double the kill quota of Minke Whales and that you will target for the first time in decades - the endangered Humpback and Fin Whales. Your country will be in violation of the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling set by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and you will be whaling illegally in the Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary. In addition, Japan will be targeting endangered species. We urgently ask you not to double your intended kill quota in the Antarctic region to 800 Minke Whales, 50 Humpback and 50 Fin Whales. We ask you to stop whaling in the Antarctic. We are very happy, and fully supporting the view of the Australian Prime Minister John Howard with his standpoint against whaling. We also urgently ask you to stop the mass slaughter of the dolphins near Taiji, Futo and other places. In this aspect we fully support the American "Senate Resolution 99" that strongly condemns the Japanese dolphin slaughter. Regards
PAKISTAN 500,000 dogs in Karachi, Pakistan about to be poisoned Source: Engineers and Scientists for Animal Rights (ESAR) In the city of Karachi (Pakistan) where I had spent a good part of my life, some terrible things are about to happen. It is hard to believe that just a few years back when I visited Karachi, I was able to raise Animal Rights awareness among the citizens of Karachi to the point that one of Pakistan's prestigious journal SOUTHASIA published two issue on the subject, one of which was an exclusive on Animal Rights. The SOUTHASIA magazine then received a commendation award from the Ark Trust during its Genesis Award ceremony at Beverly Hills,California. These awards are given to media for their works in promoting the cause for Animal Rights. During my visit Pakistan Art Council, Pakistan Medical Association,and my own group Engineers and Scientists for Animal Rights also sponsored an art exhibit where young children presented powerful graphics addressing the issue of Animal Rights. This tells me the Karachi's citizens are sensitive compassionate people. But today the Mayor of Karachi is about to go on a rampage of
poisoning Karachi's 500,000 stray dogs by showing total disregard to the
alternatives that are being presented by Pakistan Animal Welfare Society(PAWS)
along with a large number of doctors, health officials and Karachi citizens. As
I leaned that the City of Karachi under the direction of its mayor is preparing
500,000 capsules of strychnine to kill than many dogs. Please send your e-mail to the President of Pakistan General Parvez Musharraf who is a dog lover himself. http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/WTPresidentMessage.aspx The following web-site has more details and also has the contact numbers for the Pakistani officials and the Pakistani embassies around the world http://www.pawspakistan.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=6 president_pml@msn.com;tourism@isb.comsats.net.pk; Parepcanberra@internode.on.net;parepottawa@rogers.com; pareptoronto@sprint.ca;parepmontreal@sprint.ca;contact@finbyte.com; parepcopenhagen@hotmail.com;info@pak-embassy.gr; info@pakistanembassy.se; pareplondon@supanet.com, edohealth@karachicity.gov.pk,governor@governorsindh.gov.pk,
Dear Mr. President I was appalled to learn that the mayor of Karachi Mr. Niamatullah Khan has decided to poison Karachi’s 100,000 dogs in an effort to solve the city’s stray dogs problem. Please note that such measures are barbaric and ineffective. There are humane and more effective solutions available and were being presented to him by the concerned citizens of Karachi, and by the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society. Name/Country letters@dawn.com;news.post@thenews.com.pk;letters@dailytimes.com.pk; observer@isb.comsats.net.pk I have been informed by the Pakistan Animal Welfare Society that “thousands of stray dogs who have long roamed the streets of Karachi, Pakistan, may soon be the target of an extensive and cruel campaign to eliminate them.” It is said that the authorities will spread capsules of strychnine in the streets. I must protest against this kind of cruel action. Strychnine is a very violent poison which causes a slow death. Populations of stray dogs and the rabies must be controlled, but certainly not by a slaughter. I urge the authorities concerned to reconsider their plan and discuss it with the Pakistan animal welfare associations in order to find ways to resolve the problem of rabies without cruelty. Yours sincerely,
SOUTH AFRICA CALL TO BAN GUNS AT SEA - GUN FREE FISHING Source:Seal Alert-SA Helen Bamford, a reporter for the Weekend Argus Newspaper wrote the following article on the 23rd July 2005 - "Plea to ban guns being taken on sea fishing trips". Mike Meyer an official tasked with protecting Cape Fur Seals from the department of Marine and Coastal Management had the following comment "They were powerless to prevent skippers taking weapons to sea because it was their constitutional right" The shooting of Cape Fur Seals at sea, has a long and sad history. Beginning with the first European explorer to our shores in 1497. Vasco Da Gama the famous Portuguese explorer was reported to have fired his ship's cannon on seal colony off Mossel Bay for no apparent reason. So began the era of seal abuse in South Africa. As more and more seafarers arrived at the Cape, more and more seal colonies were attacked, evolving slowly into the commercial harvest of seal pups for their skins and large bulls for their genitalia. By the start of the 1900's, millions and millions of seals had been slaughtered, all the offshore island seal colonies over 3000 km of coastline had slowly been exterminated, this species of seal had become virtually extinct. In 1897 the seals received their first legal protection, but as we see, the leaders of our country are as much a part of the problem as the seal killing skipper fisherman. On the 25th March 1911, Noel Janisch, Provincial Secretary of the Cape wrote, "A party of about 30 members of Parliament have arranged to go on a steamer to Saldanha ....... they are anxious to have a little sport amongst the porpoises and seals along the way. Application is therefore made for a special permit to shoot some of these animals during the trip." In 1973, the Cape Fur Seals became protected under the Sea Birds and Seals Protection Act no.46 and it became a criminal offence to "pursue or shoot at or wilfully disturb, kill or capture a seal. After years of campaigning for an updated Seal Protection Act, the Department of Environmental Affairs in March 2004, gazetted and released it's new draft policy on the Seals and Seabirds Protection Act. It now states, Killing of Seals (3.1.1.10) - Policy will general prohibit the killing of seals, and Incidental capture by fisheries (3.1.1.3) - Restrictions will be implemented on the use or carrying of fire-arms, ammunition or explosives abroad fishing vessels, with a view to the control of the illegal shooting of seals at sea. On behalf of Seal Alert-SA in 2001, advocate Gary Pienaar of the Public Protectors Office raised the question with MCM's Dr Jeremy David (He has since retired). The official rely from Dr David's was as follows "Guns are required by fishing companies and skippers to be taken to sea, in order to keep unruly crew in order and because of sea-pirates". In 2002, Debra Patta of 3rd Degree E-TV in the program titled "Who is butchering our Seals", put the question to Deputy Director of MCM, Horst Kleinschmidt, who stated "That MCM is aware of this problem, is totally opposed to fisherman shooting seals". In a debate letter to the Cape Times by Horst Kleinschmidt in 2003, he wrote "Some fishers shoot seals, injurying or killing them. We are equally opposed to such conduct. They do this believing that seals consume catches they feel are theirs. Their behaviour is uninformed and demands unequivocal condemnation. We prosecute if wild animals on land are shot at or trapped. The same holds true for seals. If anyone shoots at seals, we will prosecute. We do not condone conduct of this kind and ask people to come forward with evidence of this". In the Weekend Argus in 2004, "Trigger-happy fisherman target seals". The article states "Fisherman who shot seals almost always used shotguns - and often out of sight of other boats and witnesses on land - so even where a suspect could be identified and the pellets recovered, it was impossible to link the killing ballastically to a specific weapon." The carcasses sometimes washed up long after the seals have been shot. "Ninety-nine percent of the time it is a shotgun they use," Marine and Coastal Management Port Elizabeth station manager Eugene Swart said. "it is not accidental, they are shooting at these seals deliberately but it is not easy to track down the culprits". There are approximately 2900 licenced South African Fishing boats, of which 2500 are Handline boats. It is these skippers in this handline fishing industry that are the most notorious, for shooting seals illegally, although almost all fishing skippers throughout the industry are known to be involved in this unacceptable criminal activity, skippers from big trawler fleets, deep sea trawlers, in-shore and mid-water trawlers, long line boats, ski-boats and sportsfisherman. Although the seals have been protected for over 34-years, and hundreds if not thousands of seals have been illegally shot year after year, not one single fisherman has ever been arrested or convicted for shooting a seal. A simple assessment of the potential gravity of this situation in South African waters, can be obtained by reviewing the seal population surveys for the same period, on assessment it found that over the past 30-odd years, over One Million Seals have disappeared without sound scientific explanation, with 42 000 seal pups being born in 1971 on the offshore islands in South Africa, and after 26-years, the seal population has not only shown no growth, but has actually decline to 40 000 seal pups being born in 1997. The statement in the press by the official tasked with protecting seals is clearly wrong, for in the Constitution of South Africa, no mention is made of guns. However under the Bill of Rights it clearly states, Environment, everyone has the right a) to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being; and b) to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that ii) promote conservation. I therefore ask that the following Sample Letter being copied (or a letter of your choice) and to send it to the following email addresses. Public Protector - Advocate Gary Pienaar Editor of ETV NEWS Reporter of the Weekend Argus Letters Editor of the Weekend Argus Legal Official at MCM - Marius Diemont **********************************
mwillemse@deat.gov.za,garyp@pprotect.org,Andy.Duffy@etv.co.za, Helenb@incape.co.za,wealet@ctn.independent.co.za,
It has come to my attention, that although the Cape Fur Seals in South Africa are a protected species, that fisherman licenced by your department of Marine and Coastal Management (MCM), have been engaged in illegally shooting seals for the past 34-years. I completely concur with the media statement of your former Deputy Director of Marine and Coastal Management, Mr Kleinschmidt in 2004, when he stated "Some fishers shoot seals, injurying or killing them. We are equally opposed to such conduct. They do this believing that seals consume catches they feel are theirs. Their behaviour is uninformed and demands unequivocal condemnation. We prosecute if wild animals on land are shot at or trapped. The same holds true for seals. If anyone shoots at seals, we will prosecute. We do not condone conduct of this kind and ask people to come forward with evidence of this". I also understand that in the new Seal Protection Draft policy, that this is being further addressed and your department is to be congratulated on bringing in the section, Incidental capture by fisheries (3.1.1.3) - Restrictions will be implemented on the use or carrying of fire-arms, ammunition or explosives abroad fishing vessels, with a view to the control of the illegal shooting of seals at sea. However, as per this latest incident reported in the Weekend Argus, and the numerous other media articles published, it is clear that the laws or restrictions proposed are ineffective in addressing these criminal activities, confirmed further by the non-arrest or conviction of any seal killing fisherman in over 34-years. I therefore ask that with immediate effect a ban is placed on taking guns to sea during fishing trips. South Africa should pride itself on being a civilized country, it is already known for it's high crime rate, and clearly guns have no place being at sea during licenced fishing trips. Yours Sincerely
PETITIONS To recognise animals as sentients beings in South Africa Support PAWS: Pet Animal Welfare Statute https://community.hsus.org/campaign/2005_PAWS2 Save Hedgehogs from Annual Cull "Bring me home..." Repatriation of orangutans from Bangkok
Safari World Take Action to Save the Amur Leopard! DOES THEIR BLOOD WORTH YOUR MONEY? To end suffer of Animals in Belgrade Zoo: Help STOP "Cruelty 101" Stop the Omak Suicide Race. Save the horses! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/906165664?ltl=1122558035 Disclaimer: All items published in this magazine were received by us and we pass them on in good faith. We are not responsible for incorrect email addresses, errors, omissions etc. by the originators.
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT AGAINST BULLFIGHTS
This Magazine published by Maria Lopes |
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