meat is murder

Read the article below and note how the protection of game birds allows hunts to continue to pursue foxes…

HUNT SABOTEURS ASSOCIATION
BM HSA, London, WC1N 3XX www.huntsabs.org.uk
Tel: 0845 450 0727 (General) 07904 387559(Press)

Police stand by and watch as hunt illegally dig out and shoot hunted fox -then arrest two protestors!

Hunt monitors in West Sussex today expressed their disgust and dismay at the actions of Sussex Police after they allowed a hunt to dig out and shoot a fox, in contravention of the Hunting Act 2004, and then simply arrest two anti-hunt monitors rather than investigate illegal hunting. The incident took place at the Heaselands Estate (home of Lady Lucinda Kleinwort), near Haywards Heath, West Sussex after the Crawley & Horsham Hunt met at 11am.
Around 1pm monitors saw the hunt chasing a fox, which then went to ground by entering a badger sett. Besides being illegal to chase a fox in the first place, it is also illegal to interfere with a badger sett and, under the Hunting Act 2004, illegal to dig out and shoot a fox unless done to protect game birds. Hunt monitors were present on and around the estate throughout the day and saw no sight of any game birds or any evidence thereof.

Dawn Preston, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteurs Association, stated ‘The Crawley & Horsham Hunt are believed to have been flouting the hunt ban since it was brought in, and here we have a clear example of their sheer arrogance - and cruelty. They were seen blatantly chasing the fox and forcing it to take refuge underground, and then had the audacity to dig it out and shoot it as if the Hunting Act 2004 didn’t exist. And not only that, but the hunt were so desperate to get the fox they spent over 2 hours digging, and didn’t get it until after dark. Sad individuals indeed.’

She continued ‘Sussex Police weren’t much better in their uselessattitude
on arrival. How can the law be enforced if the police themselves don’t even know what it entails? The RSPCA, called by the Police due to the presence of the badger sett and threat to the fox, also seemed clueless as to the law, and left before the sad conclusion of the death of the cornered animal. The hunt monitors called the police as they hoped they would deal with the situation, but instead they found themselves arrested as they moved in to see what had happened on hearing a shot ring out. The Officers simply arrested them, we suspect they will say to ‘Prevent a Breach of the Peace’, and let the hunt literally get away with murder.’

· For further comment please contact Simon Wild on 07990 522712
· The HSA was set up in 1963 and has over 40 years experience of getting between the hunters and their quarry. Traditionally this was by using non-violent direct action, but since the Hunting Act the new tool of
sabotage is the video camera, as activists seek to get evidence of illegal
hunting.
· Further information on the HSA and previous press releases can be found at
www.huntsabs.org.uk

Bird flu continues to dominate headlines as new strains appear and more people die. The danger to any birds involved always reported either only as inconsequential or financial. And all this despite it being modern farming practices that have helped cultivate this crisis in the first place…

A previously unknown and dangerous strain of the H5N1 bird flu has emerged from southern China and has spread from birds to people in South-east Asia, marking a third wave of avian flu and rekindling fears of a global pandemic.

Seventh Egyptian dies from bird flu
A woman has died from bird flu, bringing to seven the number of Egyptians killed by the disease, the semi-official Middle East News Agency has reported.
Hannan Aboul Magd, 39, died Monday in a Cairo hospital where she had been receiving treatment since October 4, MENA quoted Health Ministry spokesman Abdul-Rahman Shahin as saying.
Magd contracted the lethal H5N1 virus while slaughtering and cleaning chickens at her home in Gharbiya province, north of Cairo, the agency said.
Egypt’s previous six fatalities were also females. In Egypt, women and young girls tend to look after chickens and turkeys kept in the backyard, making them more vulnerable to avian flu.
Sixteen Egyptians are known to have contracted avian flu, including Magd. Nine have recovered from the disease.

GRAIN is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people’s control over genetic resources and local knowledge. This NGO is now advising that the current bird flu crisis is the fault of factory farming in the poultry industry…

Backyard or free-range poultry are not fuelling the current wave of bird flu outbreaks stalking large parts of the world. The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is essentially a problem of industrial poultry practices. Its epicentre is the factory farms of China and Southeast Asia and — while wild birds can carry the disease, at least for short distances — its main vector is the highly self-regulated transnational poultry industry, which sends the products and waste of its farms around the world through a multitude of channels. Yet small poultry farmers and the poultry biodiversity and local food security that they sustain are suffering badly from the fall-out. To make matters worse, governments and international agencies, following mistaken assumptions about how the disease spreads and amplifies, are pursuing measures to force poultry indoors and further industrialise the poultry sector. In practice, this means the end of the small-scale poultry farming that provides food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of families across the world. This paper presents a fresh perspective on the bird flu story that challenges current assumptions and puts the focus back where it should be: on the transnational poultry industry. Full article.

“In my opinion, if most urban meat eaters were to visit an industrial broiler house, to see how the birds are raised, and could see the birds being “harvested” and then being “processed” in a poultry processing plant, they would not be impressed and some, perhaps many of them would swear off eating chicken and perhaps all meat.”

Peter Cheeke, PhD, Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture, 1999 textbook

Broiler | Bird Flu Resources at GRAIN | Wikipedia Bird Flu

Another of these posts where speciesism is highlighted. The gentleman in the article below loves one non-human animal - because he has come to know him - but spends his days in the meat processing business.
If only he could spend time with the bodies he processes before their lives are taken away he could learn to appeciate them as individuals as well.

Dog Shot With Hollow Points
Jason Beck

A Sampson County man is calling his dog a living miracle, after it survived being gunned down last weekend and left for dead. The 1-year-old border collie mix is clinging to life in a Dunn veterinary office after being shot more than five times.
“This is a miracle dog,” he said choking back tears. “I thought he was dead.”

Speck is a fun-loving dog that looks like an adult and still plays like a puppy. He is one of three border collies owned by Terry McLamb.
On Saturday, Speck was running around a neighbor’s yard while Mr. McLamb was cooking some dinner on the grill in the back yard of his home on Crystal Sand Road near Dunn.
Suddenly, shots rang out across the small country neighborhood of manufactured homes. Mr. McLamb called out for Speck to come, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
After finding the dog in a neighbor’s yard, Mr. McLamb got straight to work trying to save its life. Blood poured out of the dog’s open wounds, filling the rear compartment of McLamb’s SUV as he drove the short distance back to his yard.
“I got the dog and took it to the house. I thought he was dead,” he said. “His eyes were rolled back in his head.”
His brother-in-law Dave, who is a vet, came to the house to help out. The two tried to stabilize Speck.
“We picked out a bullet and Dave said he wouldn’t make it,” Mr. McLamb said.
He cared for the dog feeding it sugar and water with a syringe and cleaning its wounds constantly. He didn’t want to give up on his friend that easily.

“These dogs are my family. I’ve been nursing the dog and babying the dog,” he said. “They emptied a .9 millimeter in him. Hollow point bullets went in him and just mushroomed.”

But the resilient little dog clung tightly to life. Mr. McLamb was just going to let Speck die at home where he was comfortable, but after a few days realized the collie mix had a chance. He took him to the closest vet’s office - Vets for Pets.
Speck’s vet, Dr. Guy Beretich, said he sees wounded dogs all the time.

“It’s my monthly dog shooting,” he said. “It happens quite often.”
Mr. McLamb said he knows of four dogs now that have been shot in his Crystal Sand neighborhood alone. Earlier this year, a neighbor shot another neighbor’s teacup Chihuahua for doing its business in his yard.

Dr. Beretich said shooting a dog is always the wrong choice.
“It’s always senseless; it’s not accidental,” he said. “There is no excuse to shoot a dog. It’s just a moment of anger. It’s probably the same reason why you shouldn’t carry a gun around.”
However, The neighbor who shot Speck may not face any trouble at all. According to Chief Tim Bass of the Sampson County Animal Control, it is not always illegal to shoot a dog in the county.
“Say your dog or my dog goes to your yard or makes you feel threatened, you have the right to protect yourself and your property,” he said. “If a dog is just over there visiting or just walking through and not bothering you and you shoot it, you could get in a lot of trouble.”

Mr. McLamb said Speck was only passing through his neighbor’s yard when he was shot. However, the neighbor, when confronted by Mr. McLamb, said the dog was “aggressively approaching.”
Either way, Mr. McLamb said he is not going to let the issue die until Speck’s shooter faces his actions.

“Animals have rights too,” he said. “I’m in the meat packing business and I even know that.”

He said he is going to press charges or take legal action against the man who fired the shots. He also is posting a sign at the end of his street - no dog killers allowed.

Dr. Beretich gives Speck about a 50 percent chance of survival. His shoulder is destroyed and bullet fragments are still lodged all over his body. He said it is amazing Speck survived the gunfire.
“He has about 10 bullet wounds, but we don’t know what is entrance wounds and what is exit wounds,” he said. “It’s unusual. He is a tough dog.”
Dr. Beretich’s services do not come cheap. Fixing the dog and restoring his life is going to be costly for Mr. McLamb. Still, he knows he will do whatever he can for his speckled buddy.
“He told me it was going to be expensive, but we could all go to the moon if we had enough money,” he said. “I raised that dog from a puppy. I held him in my hands and bathed him and doctored him and nursed him through some tough times not just to watch someone shoot him.”

Like with Monday’s post, I’ve spent the day watching people get upset by what foreign people do to beautiful animals…

Iceland criticised for hunting whales, defying Global Moratorium

REYKJAVIK, (AND) The government of Iceland has announced today that it will commercially hunt whales for the first time in more than two decades, contravening a moratorium established in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission

(IWC). The announcement has drawn sharp criticism from the global community including the UK government, which today called on Iceland to reconsider its decision, and experts with IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare).

The announcement was made by Iceland’s Ministry of Fisheries, which said permits had been granted for the commercial hunting of 30 minke whales and nine endangered fin whales.

While Iceland has not officially hunted whales commercial over the last two decades, it has hunted whales for what it calls “scientific” purposes that are allowable through an IWC loophole — though the meat from the whales is sold commercially within Iceland — generating outcry from both the global conservation and scientific communities.

In criticizing Iceland’s decision to resume the commercial hunting of whales, the U.K. government noted today in an official statement that: “Few Icelanders eat whale meat regularly; there is limited, if any, world market for the meat; and there is little scientific support for the theory that whales have a significant impact on the depletion of fish stocks.

Furthermore, a growing number of jobs in Iceland depend on the developing whale-watching industry. In the past year, thousands of visitors from overseas (over 70.000 were British) have experienced the joy and excitement of sailing off the coast of Iceland to see whales swimming in their natural habitat.” IFAW’s Director of Wildlife and Habitat Protection, Dr. Joth Singh, agreed, saying, “Commercial whaling is an out-dated and unnecessary industry that should have ended a century ago with the use of whale oil lamps.

The government of Iceland should be supporting its nation’s thriving and growing whale watching industry rather than sinking money and its political reputation into promoting the hunting of whales.” Recent Gallup polling commissioned by IFAW confirmed how unnecessary commercial whaling is to Iceland, revealing that only 1.1 percent of Icelanders eat whale meat once a week or more, while 82.4 percent of 16 to 24-year-olds never eat whale meat.

Contact:
Jennifer Ferguson-Mitchell - 508-737-1584
or
Michele Duff - 508-744-2235
both of the International Fund for Animal Welfare

But everyone who is appalled by this activity will equally happily tuck into a Sunday roast or grab a quick pasty at lunchtime; we’re back to that old argument again that if abbatoirs had glass walls (or newspaper campaigns) everyone would be a vegetarian…

The slaughter of farmed animals in the UK

In the UK, there are over 350 licenced slaughterhouses. Secrecy surrounds the killing business and individuals and animal welfare organisations are rarely permitted to visit slaughterhouses. Even the government’s own advisory body, the

Farm Animal Welfare Council, has been refused access to some of the larger plants.

Viva! has been able to obtain video footage of stunning and killing and we have also reviewed the latest scientific research on slaughter. As a result, we have built up an extremely disturbing picture of the reality of Britain’s killing factories.

How many animals are killed?

The total number of animals killed in British slaughterhouses in 2003 was approximately 900 million.

This included 9.35 million pigs, nearly 15 million sheep, 28 million turkeys, 20 million ducks, over 850 million chickens and 2.25 million cattle.

This equates to 2.4 million animals slaughtered every day; 100,000 an hour; 1600 per minute and 26 every second +++

People won’t like this photo that’s in the news at the moment…

Photo taken October 13, 2006. REUTERS/Stringer (PHILIPPINES)
Some 80 dogs, that were muzzled and found in a vehicle which was intercepted by enforcement officers, are seen crammed in a crate in Baguio City, north of Manila
October 13, 2006. Authorities said the dogs were to be delivered to a restaurant in Benguet, north of Manila.
But are happy to pay for this…

Packed into crates on trucks that typically carry around 6,000 birds, the journey to the slaughterhouse can be horrific.
Each year in the EU alone, up to 33 million chickens may die en-route to slaughter.
The dead-on-arrival figures are only the tip of the iceberg. Many of those that survive suffer terribly from extremes of temperature (bitter cold in winter, suffocating heat in summer), broken bones and bruises.
During the journey the birds experience sudden jolting movements, vibration, loud noises, deprivation of water and food and overcrowding. All these can lead to distress and extreme fear.
and this…

Cattle who survive feedlots, dairy sheds, and veal farms face a hellish trip to the slaughterhouse. The animals are packed onto trucks where they go without food for duration of the journey, which sometimes takes days. In hot weather, many cows collapse in the heat, and in the cold, cows sometimes freeze to the sides of the truck until workers pry them off with crowbars.
Cows who are too sick or injured to walk, known as “downers,” may have ropes or chains tied around their legs so that they can be dragged onto and off of the trucks. According to former Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, roughly 400,000 “dead and dying” cattle are forced onto trucks bound for slaughter each year.
Former USDA veterinary inspector Dr. Lester Friedlander explains, “In the summertime, when it’s 90, 95 degrees, they’re transporting cattle from 1,200 to 1,500 miles away on a trailer, 40 to 45 head crammed in there, and some collapse from heat exhaustion. This past winter, we had minus-50 degree weather with the windchill. Can you imagine if you were in the back of a trailer that’s open, and the windchill factor is minus-50 degrees, and that trailer is going 50 to 60 miles an hour? The animals are urinating and defecating right in the trailers, and after a while, it’s going to freeze, and their hooves are right in it. If they go down—well, you can imagine lying in there for 10 hours on a trip.” more