Australia's Dirty Secret

This post is going to be brief and straight to the point - I've written about the Australian Pork Industry before.
I'm still discusted to see no change. 60 Minutes on channel 9 finally told Australians about this disturbing truth.

Factory Farmed Animals. Discusting and cruel. Watch the videos - they speak for themselves. Unfortunetly, most Australians are not aware of the cruelty they are supporting by buying factory farmed products.

People need to know and see exactly what is being done to these animals. I am not saying don't eat them, but please do not support animal cruelty. These pigs have no need to spend their lives in such appalling conditions.

200,00 mother pigs are subject to this awful cruelty each year. It doesn't have to happen. By free range.


Help End Factory Farming at AnimalsAustralai.org


Help End Factory-Farming at AnimalsAustralia.org

Save & Free Dolphins!!

As some of you may or may not know, the slaughter of thousands of dolphins each year has just been exposed to the public in a movie called "The Cove"

I am also here to educate you about this issue I am terribly passionate about. Here is some facts from the coves website.

In Japan, fishermen round up and slaughter hundreds and even thousands of dolphins and other small whales each year.
In the small fishing village of Taiji, entire schools of dolphins are driven into a hidden cove after a prolonged chase. Once trapped inside the cove, the fishermen kill the dolphins, slashing their throats with knives or stabbing them with spears. The water turns red with their blood, and the air fills with their screams.

This brutal massacre — the largest scale dolphin kill in the world — goes on for six months of every year. Even more scandalous, members of the international dolphin display industry take advantage of the dolphin slaughter to obtain some few, show-quality dolphins for use in captive dolphin shows and dolphin swim programs.

It is commonly assumed that Japanese fishermen hunt dolphins to supply a small minority of Japanese people with dolphin meat. But unlike the expensive whale meat, dolphin meat is not considered a delicacy in Japan, and the real reason the Japanese government issues permits to kill dolphins by the thousands every year has nothing to do with food culture. It has to do with pest control. As shocking as it sounds, some Japanese government officials view dolphins as pests to be eradicated in huge numbers. During a meeting at Taiji City Hall, the fishermen of Taiji admitted this to us. "We don’t kill the dolphins primarily for their meat. We kill them as a form of pest control," they told us. In other words, killing the competition is their way of preserving the ocean’s fish for themselves.

The fact is this is unesccesary and the dolphins are slaughtered INHUMANELY!

The majority of people in Japan have no knowledge about the annual dolphin blood bath.

ALSO

Concealing this information from the public is a violation of Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution!

"The Japanese dolphin hunt will continue for as long as members of the international dolphinarium industry continue to reward the hunters for show quality dolphins, thereby making the hunt tremendously profitable."

http://www.takepart.com/thecove/ Is an EXCELLENT site to visit! It shows several ways you can help by signing petitions, spreading the word on facebook, learn more about dolphins in captivity and chosing the best fish to eat.

http://www.savejapandolphins.org/ Is also a great site to visit on how you can help AND educate yourself further.




PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP

Bear Baiting In Pakistan

Please note this is not anything negative about anyone in Pakistan. The main reason I post this is to share awareness and show how we are trying to use money and education to help Pakistan people find OTHER ways to make money other than animal cruelty blood sports...
Bear baiting in Pakistan is possibly the world’s most savage blood sport. With their teeth removed, bears are tied to a post and set-upon by fighting dogs.

Bears sustain more injuries than dogs and usually suffer ripped noses and mouths. Most bears are permanently scarred, but the killing of either animal is avoided, as they are too valuable. Fights are mainly held at local fairs and attract a crowd of up to 2000 spectators.

Life away from the fighting ring is also miserable for these bears. Between events, the bears are commonly tethered on a short chain through the nose and many bears are chronically ill due to poor diet.

Pakistan is the only country where bear baiting takes place, despite the ‘blood sport’ being illegal under the country’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1890 and under the Pakistan Wildlife Act. It is also illegal under Islamic Law to bait animals.

Success so far

We have been working with our member society ‘The Bioresource Research Centre‘ to reduce the number of bear baiting events held. Each year we manage to identify more events and pass information to the authorities to get them stopped. In 2007, we identified over 150 events with 75% of the events being stopped.

Up to 300 bears, and around 1000 dogs were involved when WSPA first undertook investigations in 1993. Today the number of fighting bears has been estimated as around 80.

While opposition to the fights is increasing, there is still much work to be done to save bears caught up in this brutal pastime.

Education and awareness building are key to stopping the demand for this barbaric form of entertainment. Within local communities we can work to change attitudes and make people aware that bears are sentient beings that experience fear and pain. Mobile ‘infotainment’ unit at rural fairs, television advertising and relationship building with religious leaders are some of the ways we are able to reach local communities that engage in this practice. As these events become unacceptable, the demand for bears to be forced into fighting will decrease and the cycle of cruelty will be broken.

The Kund Park Bear Sanctuary

In June 2001, the first bear to be confiscated from a bear baiting event arrived at the sanctuary built by WSPA in Pakistan‘s North West Frontier Province. Rustam, a male Himalayan black bear, believed to be about 15 years old, was confiscated after he was used in a savage bear-dog fight at Khan Bela, in the south of Pakistan, the year before.

At the time of the event in Khan Bela, WSPA alerted authorities to the fight and photographed it from the air. Some time later two of the organisers were arrested and imprisoned. Due to a legal appeal, Rustam was kept in a barren enclosure in a nearby zoo at Rahim Yar Khan. After seven months WSPA finally secured permission to move the bear to the newly built sanctuary, Kund Park.

The sanctuary ensures that on arrival all bears are:

• Quarantined for several weeks
• Vaccinated against infections such as hepatitis and distemper
• Checked for worms and external parasites

Sanctuary Surroundings

Following a period in quarantine, the bears are introduced to one of the large wooded enclosures that form the main part of the sanctuary.

For Rustam, Kund Park will be his permanent retirement home, since as a tame bear without most of his teeth, he could never adapt to life in the wild.

WSPA continues to liaise with the Pakistan government urging it to clamp down on illegal bear baiting activities and re-house confiscated bears in the sanctuary. WSPA is also available to provide technical advice whenever necessary.

Thanks to WSPA Australia & NZ for this information.
If you want to help, please sign a peition or donate 5 dollars to help a bear be rescued!!! here
more info here: BEAR BAITING

Australian Piggery Charged for Animal Cruelty

More videos from Animals Australia


This is one of the worst cases of cruelty at a major Australian piggery. This piggery supplies meat to Woolworths. This cruelty is bad enough that the piggery are being charged with serious cases of neglect and abuse, including a sow who was slowly dying as hundreds of maggots ate at her infected shoulder. Another sows legs were so badly infected she couldn't stand or feed herself. Most of the pigs were so bad they had to be put down. However, laws in Australia still say its acceptable for pigs to be kept in cages like this. We can see what happens to them!

If you buy something that doesn't have a free range label, your supporting these piggeries. Please only buy free range products

Rarest of all sharks found, then eaten

This is an interesting story from nationalgeographic.com
Its a shame the shark was eaten as it is so rare, however this is just cultural difference.

In just a short time, one of the rarest sharks in the world went from swimming in Philippine waters to simmering in coconut milk.

The 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) megamouth shark (pictured), caught on March 30 by mackerel fishers off the city of Donsol, was only the 41st megamouth shark ever found, according to WWF-Philippines.

Fishers brought the odd creature—which died during its capture—to local project manager Elson Aca of WWF, an international conservation nonprofit.

Aca immediately identified it as a megamouth shark and encouraged the fishers not to eat it.

But the draw of the delicacy was too great: The 1,102-pound (500-kilogram) shark was butchered for a shark-meat dish called kinuout.

"While it is sad that this rare megamouth shark was ultimately lost, the discovery highlights the incredible biodiversity found in the Donsol area and the relatively good health of the ecosystem," Yokelee Lee, WWF-US program officer for the Coral Triangle, said in an email.

The Coral Triangle, which spans Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste (East Timor), is home to the richest concentration of marine life—including iridescent corals—in the world, according to WWF.

"It is essential that we continue working with the government and local community on the sustainable management of Donsol's fisheries resources for the benefit of whale sharks, megamouth sharks, and the local community," Lee said.

The megamouth shark species, discovered in 1976 off Oahu, Hawaii, was so bizarre that scientists had to create a new family and genus to classify it. With its giant mouth but tiny teeth, megamouth, like the whale shark, is a filter feeder that preys on tiny animals and appears to be no danger to humans.

Only 40 megamouth sharks, including 7 in the Philippines, have been found since the initial discovery. The shark is so rare that the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the megamouth species as "data deficient."

(Related shark pictures: "Rare "Prehistoric" Shark Photographed Alive".)

Scientists who examined Megamouth 41—the Philippine specimen's official name, bestowed by the Florida Museum of Natural History—before it was eaten found facial scars from past run-ins with gill nets. The shark's last meal was shrimp larvae.

Other shark species in Donsol are valued for conservation rather than consumption: The region hosts a successful ecotourism project that allows people to swim with whale sharks, according to WWF.

—Christine Dell'Amore

hotograph by Elson Q. Aca/WWF-Philippines

beauty

Thought I would post an amazing picture since my last couple of posts have been pretty bleak.

I am getting around to reading everyone's blogs and catching up so sorry I haven't left many comments

x

Canadas Commercial Seal Slaughter

These seals are slaughtered every year. There is a team that have been documenting the slaughter for 11 years and will keep doing so until the slaughter stops. They must show the world this disgusting, sickening brutality.

These seals are 3 weeks old when they are clubbed to death and skinned for their fur.

The Sealers are becoming smart. They know people don't like the images of their dirty work. They now make sure as soon as cameras come they disappear. They leave a couple of survivors behind to shut people up. Still, 19,200 were killed!

From Rebecca Aldworth's blog entry:

" Today was very hard.

Sealers from the Magdalen Islands had already killed most of the seals allotted to them in their quota by the end of yesterday. So it was likely they would kill the rest today very quickly.

We would only have a few hours to film the cruel reality of this slaughter.

Our helicopters left at dawn, battling gale force winds to reach the killing zone. On the horizon, I could see sealing vessels working their way through the ice floes, slaughtering as many seals as they could before the quota was filled. We came closer, and the blood began to appear. Giant pools of it, spread all across the ice. Every few hundred feet, dozens of carcasses were abandoned in macabre piles. "





Please, if you care at all SHARE this story. Do not accept this. It is unthinkable that something so brutal still happens today. You don't have to donate. Just read the updates and see what you can do to help spread the word.

http://www.hsus.org/protectseals.html

Pictures tell the story

So much has happened...One of the biggest things has been the Australian bush fires in Victoria. We all know about the tragic loss of lives and it deeply saddens me. I'm happy to see the strength in people pulling through and helping each other.

Our wildlife has taken a huge blow during this time as well. It is estimated that the wildlife death toll could top one million or more. Owners have been parted from their pets during the panic and rush to leave their homes.

Volunteers have worked around the clock to save the surviving wildlife and companion animals. They have treated burns and infections, respiratory conditions and worse. I shed many, many tears over the loss of people and animals in these fires. I only wish there was more I could do to help. I have no income I cannot donate. I wish I could donate my time and effort to help.

Bless you, all of you hero's and angels donating your time, money, effort, energy to helping fight the fires, save lives of all kinds.

Good luck to all. Here are some photos of the lucky ones to make it through...I think they tell the story better than I can.











If your touched you can help here:
http://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/
http://www.rspcavic.org/
http://www.redcross.org.au/default.asp

Back to blogging world

Just wanted to say thank you all for your support in comments and reading my blog.
I am sorry I have been away for about a month. I have been going through a tough time of late, I'm no longer at my job, I haven't been well. I am back however and feeling strong.

I have been reading your blogs but have not been commenting as much as I would like to, so my apologies.

Here's to many more stories to share

x

12,000 reasons to desex your cat!

This story tells it how it is. straight out. Please be a responsible pet owner... desex, microchip AND register your cat/dog!

story from brisbanetimes.com.au

This woman has killed 100 cats this week.

She had to.

Euthanasing cats and kittens is her business.

Melanie "Minnie" Layton is an animal attendant at the RSPCA's centre at Fairfeld.

Recent moves by the State Government to force councils to make it compulsory for people to register their cats by July 1 may be one small way of making her job easier.

However, if councils don't strongly encourage ratepayers to desex their cats - with hefty discounts for desexed cats in the new cat registrations - her job will continue to be as hard as it really is.

On the day we spoke it had been a hard day.

"The other day we had to euthanase 32 cats, primarily because there are just too many cats," Minnie said.

"And these were beautiful cats. There was nothing wrong with them - they were healthy, really beautiful cats," she said.

"And that is really hard to deal with because they don't deserve that.

"They deserve to live and be happy and healthy."

The irony for the Queensland's peak animal welfare organisation, the RSPCA, is that too many Queenslanders and certainly Brisbanites think cats and kittens are cute, but easily disposable.

When they become an inconvenience, they are dumped.

The RSPCA receives 18,000 cats and kittens each year and kills 12,000 of them by legal injection.

Minnie Layton's job is to clean up that mess.

For five days straight in a month-long roster, Minnie Layton puts cats and kittens to death.

Stray cats have a three-day shelf life, but if someone surrenders their own cat, they have just 24 hours.

And it is not pretty.

Unfortunately, it is pretty necessary.

The RSPCA would choke if she didn't do her job.

Minnie Layton might spend three days looking after cats and kittens and then, on the fourth day come and collect the cats that the vet marks with a big "C" on the chart above their stall.

They all go off to "Central", the centre at the RSPCA's Fairfield home where they are killed.

After that, the cats get an injection in the stomach with a legal mix of barbiturates.

And then there is the disposal.

"After the euthanasing we have to check to make sure that they have passed away," Minnie explains.

"And after that we have to look after each body and dispose of each correctly."

That part gets serious.

Every animal attendant has a soft side.

Later, Minnie says the euthanasing is a hard, but necessary part of her job - something that effects all her colleagues.

"They have images of cats they have euthanased going through their heads at night," Minnie said.

"And they always question themselves. Why? Why that cat?

"You just question the owners of the cats. Why didn't you get your cat de-sexed."

Perhaps surprisingly, Minnie does have pets.

"I have two cats, a dog and a fish."

help out here: RSPCA

Happy Australia Day

Change In Koala Habitat

Firstly is a map of the Koala population in 1788 and 2008.

See it for yourself… the huge impact our urbanised lifestyle has had on our country and the devastating loss the land has felt since Europeans settled in Australia.


These maps depict more than just the trees that we have lost over the last three centuries, they show the mass deterioration of the habitat of over 400 endangered species.

The koala is our nation’s icon and is one of the many species that have been left to survive amongst our toxic urbanised world.

Over $8 million of science simply and powerfully demonstrates the devastation that Australian biodiversity has faced since1788.

This is the hard evidence we can use to awaken the world’s decision makers and ensure they take immediate action to protect the koalas and the rest of Australia’s biodiversity.

Don't take my fur!

I do think it looks better on you.