Fresh start!

So due to a terrible throat infection and not being able to talk for 2 days while antibiotics take effect, i've been wondering...what shall I do with myself? Wondering around the internet and facebook trying to fill in time. Catching up on old newsletters I haven't read in ages and reading about more and more horrendous animal abuse stories, and the occasional good story. Of course! My blog has been sitting here collecting dust as I have been using my facebook as my main means of sharing information about current animal rights issues.

Facebook is an excellent way to share information with others, however I do miss writing my own feelings about each issue and sharing the whole story and showing ways others can help.

So, with a fresh start in my life - moving from Brisbane to the Gold Coast by the gorgeous beach - new job and new attitude...I have given my blog a bit of a makeover and some TLC and will be packing it with some great stories and lots of information.

So enjoy reading...help out where you can and feel free to comment.

pic taken and edited on my iphone.
Vicky x

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