Another chance to show the horrendousness of the treatment of animals, and the confused attitudes of the meat-eating public. A German zoo has alledgedly been killing animals and selling the bodies for meat. This has caused outrage. Presumeably because zoo animals are somehow divine and far more important than all other deer stocked for venison.

German Zoo Embroiled in Scandal Over Illegal Meat

It all started when an eagle-eyed employee noticed declining animal stocks at Erfurt Zoo. It ended with a scandal, sackings and a criminal investigation into an illegal meat operation. Some zoos aren’t as lucky as the one in Berlin. Most don’t have superstar polar bear cubs and the potential to exploit cuteness through marketing deals and promotions which would make even David Beckham seem like a media-shy hermit with no business sense. There are no tie-ins, no plush toys flying off the shelves, no hordes of expectant children and insatiable paparazzi stampeding through the turnstiles. For those zoos lacking star-quality, life is bleak. The future is under-funded and the staff and animals suffer accordingly. However, some animals — like those at Erfurt Zoo — suffer more than others.

For these poor creatures, their suffering was not caused by a reduction of enclosure space due to a budget cut or an enforced diet due to spiraling feed costs. No, it came courtesy of those unscrupulous members of staff who, instead of looking after the beasts, were killing them and shipping their carcasses out the back door as meat. While other establishments were relying on merchandise to boost income, the evil workers at Erfurt were lining their own pockets with a grisly sideline in exotic animal flesh. Bambi steaks could be tip of meat iceberg More buck for your buck: Deer meat proved very popular.

Apparently, the staff responsible had been turning petting zoo deer into venison as part of a clandestine business for a number of years. Now it is feared that Bambi steaks will turn out to be just one specialty on the macabre menu. “We are worried this is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Wolfgang Apel, president of the German Animal Protection League, who also called for a thorough review of controls at the zoo and at all other institutions with animals in the eastern state of Thuringia. The secret meat trade was revealed after an anonymous zoo employee noticed that the number of animals was declining.

…read more of story at dw-world.de

This is a stupid story where the artist’s bidding is done by sites such as this one and the controversery discussed. The artist says that he will eat a corgi to protest the death of a fox. The artist is very knowing and aware of the stink this will cause think. What the story does do is again highlight speciesist attitudes. He is doing this because the public will be disgusted by the act of eating a dog. Not an innocent individual that has been murdered. If this was a chicken or a pig being used to make this protest, the news would never have seen the light of day, and yet the use of any of these animals would have been as ridiculous. And the comments section at The Scotsman also does a great job of showing how xenophobia feeds this speciesism.

Artist with taste for publicity to eat corgi in protest over royal hunting

An artist has caused outrage among animal activists by announcing plans to eat a corgi dog on live radio in a protest against the Royal Family.

Mark McGowan says he will tuck into the dead animal next week to highlight the death of a fox on a royal shoot.

The performance artist made his name by sitting in a bath full of baked beans and sausages to defend the English breakfast and pushing a monkey nut round London with his nose.

He said: “I know some people will find this offensive and tasteless. But I am doing this to raise awareness about the RSPCA’s inability to prosecute Prince Philip and his friends for shooting a fox earlier this year, letting it struggle for life for five minutes and then beating it to death with a stick.”

The incident at a pheasant shoot, where a beater allegedly beat and stamped on a wounded fox, was widely reported.

But Libby Anderson, political director of Advocates for Animals, said of McGowan’s plan: “It’s completely abhorrent, pointless and exploitative. To try to use an animal that’s done nobody any harm to make a political protest is virtually the same as exploiting children.

“There are so many sensible ways of making protests, but we wouldn’t exploit one animal in the name of an animal cause.”

McGowan’s art usually takes the form of self-publicising stunts where it is hard to tell fantasy from truth.

At last year’s Glasgow International Art Fair, his claims to have scratched the paintwork of 17 cars for an artwork spurred outraged phone calls and a police investigation. Later he said he had made the story up.

He set out to ride a shopping trolley from Glasgow to London, but gave up due to “bad weather”.

He would not commit a crime by eating a corgi, as long as it was not treated cruelly. Klare Kennett, a spokeswoman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said: “If the dog was killed in a proper way there’s no law against it.”

“We did look at the incident with Prince Philip and the fox and decided no offence had been committed. Mr McGowan, if he wanted to, could launch his own private prosecution against Prince Philip.”

She added: “It’s unlikely that he will actually eat a corgi.”

Earlier this year McGowan supposedly ate a swan at a London art gallery in front of television cameras. But an RSPCA inspector spoke to the artist and “it transpired there was no swan”, she said.

In 2003, McGowan earned headlines by pushing a monkey nut along the ground with his nose to 10 Downing Street.

The plan is that the corgi will be cooked and eaten during a show on the London radio station Resonance.

A spokesman for the Royal Family said: “This is not something we would comment on.”

Guy Hilton, of the Guy Hilton Gallery, which hosted the swan performance, said: “It was a swan. Two ladies who owned a smallholding found it on their land one morning.

“It’s not particularly the act of eating the animals that makes it art, it’s the way it’s presented and used in the media. Often the act is almost irrelevant.”

Francis McKee, curator of the Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art, laughed when he heard of McGowan’s plan.

“There is a certain attraction to it. I’m all for it. If there are any remains he can put them in a doggy bag. Is it art? I think it qualifies. It scrapes through on the strength of the fantasy.”

Cooking up a storm over animal dishes

DOGS are a popular item on the menu in Asia. The South Korean dog-meat industry is said to involve as many as one million dogs and supporters say it is no different from eating pigeons or snails in Europe.

Dogs are popular in China too, though people may be moving more from eaters to owners.

Horsemeat is said to be undergoing a renaissance in France. As many as 5,000 horses are being slaughtered in the UK a year, it is claimed, with their carcasses shipped to France.

Gordon Ramsay’s Channel 4 show The F Word faced an outcry after it carried a segment praising the qualities of horsemeat. The journalist Janet Street-Porter was shown travelling to France, selecting a horse for slaughter, and then cooking up the meat.

Whale-meat burgers and steaks are on the menu in some Japanese restaurants, though some say the national appetite for the meat is falling.

People like dolphins. Screw anything else with flippers but dolphins are ok. People care about populations. Not the indivinduals, just the total number, like a real life game of top trumps.Well here’s a news story that everyone can get worked up about. Fishing is now endangering the dolphin population of Britain as well as the fish.

Experts call for action to save Britain’s dolphins

Guardian Unlimited

Bottlenose dolphins at play. Photograph: Stephen Frink/Getty
 

Dolphins could disappear from part of the UK’s coastline unless action is taken to protect them from commercial fishing, researchers warn.

More than a dozen species of dolphin, whale and porpoise are regularly seen off the coasts of Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

But a report analysing 14 years of cetacean records from south-west England shows an alarming decline in the sighting of some species - particularly bottlenose dolphins.

It also shows an increase in the number of dead dolphins washed up on beaches.

The problem was highlighted when numerous dolphin carcasses were found along the south-west coastline after the container ship Napoli was grounded a mile off Sidmouth in Devon in January.

The joint report by Marine Connection and the Wildlife Trusts highlights the 14 species of whale, dolphin and porpoise that are regularly spotted off the south-west coast, dubbed England’s Dolphin Coast.

Lissa Goodwin of Marine Connection said: “Entanglement in fishing gear is the number one cause of death in stranded dolphins, particularly common dolphins and harbour porpoises.

“If we want to reduce human impacts on dolphins and protect the region’s dolphins then we need to take urgent action.”

The report shows that, overall, more cetaceans are reported now than in 1990. But this may be because more people are aware of the importance of reporting sightings rather than an indicator of an increase in numbers.

Sightings of bottlenose dolphin have decreased since 1990 and many scientists believe the south-west population is in decline.

Experts believe the number of dead dolphins and porpoises found on the south-west’s beaches is less than 1% of the total biocatch - dolphins caught in fishing nets.

Dr Goodwin said: “What we are seeing now really are the last dolphins to frequent our shores.

“Certainly with bottlenose dolphins I think we could be seeing the last of them in the south-west.”

She added: “It’s difficult to set any specific timeline but it is really quite worrying.”

The South West Dolphin Report recommends a number of urgent actions to save the dolphins including the use of acoustic alarms on fishing nets, known as pingers, that emit warning sounds every few seconds to alert nearby animals to the presence of nets.

It also calls for research into why dolphins and porpoises get caught in fishing nets and for postmortems to determine the cause of death of those washed ashore.

The report also says that more power should also be granted to fishery management bodies enabling them to close down fisheries known to catch dolphins.

Search the internet for news at the moment and it is awash with themes that are a constant presence here at meatismurder:contemptable celebrity chefs, a public confused with speciesism, and the horse meat trade. Yes, despite the recent news about the decline of horse meat industry in the US (with the sadly unfortunate animal welfare consequences of the ineterim period) it appears that a push is being made to sell the stuff to the British public. The public are generally disgusted by horse meat but perhaps worryingly they will also be a little bit thrilled - screw convention I’m eating a horse. I’m like a pirate, I’m so daring I might make a little girl cry. This danger of a foothold to a new market is why campaigns like that by PETA (below) need to be mounted. No one is saying that eating cows and baby sheep is ok and that horses hold some special reserved place because they have been protagonists in novels, but a stand needs to be taken before individuals of another species end up as regular Friday night curry filling and all the horror it takes to turn their limbs and asses into slices and cubes.  [news article source]

The night Janet Street-Porter ate horse meat

Last updated at 10:53am on 16th May 2007 Journalist and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter lined up for a course of horse - well, at least a few mouthfuls - during a controversial episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Channel 4 programme The F-Word.

Ms Street-Porter, who cooked the meat and tasted it, was also seen at Cheltenham during Gold Cup week offering passers-by samples and asking for their opinions about such a dish.

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Janet Street-Porter: so hungry, she ate horse

The journalist also offered the meat to the public during one segment of the programme

She later engaged in a studio exchange with the chef, who remarked that horse meat tastes “quite gamey” and is packed with protein.

The program received a swift backlash from animal activists: demonstrators dressed as horses from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Europe dumped a tonne of horse manure on the pavement outside Ramsay at Claridge’s in central London.

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Protestors dump their load of manure outside Claridges

Anita Singh, of PETA Europe, accused the chef of mounting a ratings-grabbing stunt.

She said: “Ramsay has really landed himself in deep dung with his latest ratings gimmick.

“Will it be a family dog next? Chickens, pigs, cows and horses all suffer fear and discomfort when they are robbed of their lives for nothing more than a fleeting taste or a TV rating.”

Gordon Ramsay again finds himself knee deep in controversy

PETA making the point that we are all animals and all made of meat. More of that damn speciesism deciding what peope find as acceptable. Here in the west humans, cats, and seals all bad, cows, baby sheep, and pigs all good. People really should examine why they feel this way.

Dutch porn actress Zara Whites lies on a pavement in packaging labelled ‘flesh’ to promote vegetarianism for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) outside the Agriculture Fair in Paris March 7, 2007. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier (FRANCE)
 

More farmers going out of business as their meat trade becomes uneconomical. More biarre speciesism as states ban horse slaughter but allow other routine murder of farm animals to continue. More evidence of the abuses of modern farming

STAFFORDSVILLE, Ky. — The bidding for the black pony started at $500, then took a nose dive. [src]

There were no takers at $300, $200, even $100. With a high bid of just $75, the auctioneer gave the seller the choice of taking the animal off the auction block. But the seller said no.

“I can’t feed a horse,” the man said. “I can’t even feed myself.”

Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, is being overrun with thousands of horses no one wants–some of them healthy, but many of them starved and broken-down. Other parts of the country are overwhelmed too.

The reason: opposition to the slaughter of horses for human consumption overseas.

Public backlash–and state bans of slaughters or the threat of them–have led to the closing of several slaughterhouses that used to take in horses no longer suitable for racing or work. Auction houses are glutted with horses, and many rescue organizations have run out of room.

Horses have been reported chained in eastern Kentucky and left for days without food or water. Others have been turned loose in the countryside.

It is legal in all states for owners to shoot their unwanted horses. But it can cost as much as $150 for a veterinarian to put a horse down, and disposing of the carcass can be costly. Many places ban the burying of horses because of pollution fears.

Sending horses to a glue factory isn’t an option; adhesives are mostly synthetic nowadays, said Lawrence Sloan of the Adhesive and Sealant Council. And because of public opposition, horse meat is no longer turned into dog food, said Christopher Heyde of the Society for Animal Protective Legislation.

Anti-slaughter groups insist the market eventually will sort itself out, meaning fewer unwanted horses.

“I can’t absorb the price,” said Nelson Francis, who raises gaited horses. “You try to hang on until the price changes, but it looks like it’s not going to. . . . What do I do? I’ve got good quality horses I can’t market.”

“Kill buyers” formerly paid pennies a pound for unwanted horses; they packed them into trucks bound for slaughterhouses, which would ship the horse meat to Europe and Asia.

However, public opposition to the eating of horse meat has caused the number of horses slaughtered each year in America to drop to about 90,000 in 2005 from more than 300,000 in 1990, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Only one–in DeKalb, Ill.–still butchers horses for human consumption.

“What do you do with them all?” said Lori Neagle, executive director of the new Kentucky Equine Humane Center in Lexington. “What do you do with 90,000 head of horses?”

California expressly bans horse slaughter; similar measures are under consideration in Kentucky, Maryland, New York and Illinois. Meanwhile, as the market price for horses has plummeted, the cost of food, lodging and health care has not.

Kathleen Schwartz, director of Days End Farm Horse Rescue in Lisbon, Md., which adopts abused and neglected horses, said rescue operations that choose not to euthanize horses are generally full.

“We had one horse . . . that was a rack of bones–in pain from starvation and parasite infestation and injury,” Schwartz said. “His owner thought life was better than going to slaughter. Well, life is–if you’re going to feed it and take care of it.”