Can a sheep be bewildered? And frightened?
Presumably it can. In which case what could be more bewildering for a sheep than to be herded on to a huge
- and it must be said, sinisterly ugly ship - and freighted off to Saudi Arabia or Iraq in nasty little pens. It is
enough to push a chap into vegetarianism, if only to protect himself from a charge of hypocrisy.
The RSPCA and the Portland protesters are right. This cruel trade should be stopped. Even the Man of Steel is
not unmoved by this trade in living creatures. He says: "I do share the distress of many people about this and it
worries me, but we have to have a sense of proportion."
"Sense of proportion" we take to mean weighing the distress of the animals against the profit for the
farmers and traders.
Well, some of us have weighed up the pros and cons and the balance comes down with a thud on the side
of the cons. The facts are that certain persons have bizarre religious superstitions and scruples that prevent
the "humane" slaughter of the animals here. Which means that either our farmers forgo the trade
altogether or the sheep and cattle are exported live. To any ethical person the proportions here seem pretty
simple and straightforward...
[Link]
(03/10/2003) ETHICAL ILLITERACY - AND HOW WE ALL PAY THE
PRICE
South Africa: ADDRESS by Chris Mercer of the Kalahari Raptor Centre, co-author of the book"For the Love of Wildlife", given to the All-Africa Humane Education Conference held at Cape Town 24th of September, 2003.
1. COMPASSION
What is compassion? And why should we care whether we have it or not? Famous people like Mahatma Ghandi, the Prophet Mohamed and Albert Schweitzer have described it.
MAHATMA GANDHI: To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious that that of a human being. The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
PROPHET MOHAMMED: A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animals is as bad as an act of cruelty to a human being.
ALBERT SCHWEITZER: The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another, even the lowliest creature.
I shall focus on wildlife. Let us look at what happens in a country which lacks compassion as an ethic. Let us look at South Africa, where for historical and cultural reasons, we have inherited a population of largely inhumane and ethically illiterate citizens.
2. STALIN'S SOUTH AFRICA
Alexander Solzhenitzyn's prize-winning book "The Gulag Archipelago" related the suffering of mostly innocent people caught up in Stalin's slave camps. Substitute 'South Africa' for 'Siberia' and 'innocent animals' for 'innocent people', and Solzhenitsyn might well have been writing about nature conservation in South Africa.
For just as the slave camps scattered across Siberia were centers of
ghastly cruelty, the captive breeding and canned hunting facilities which
are scattered across South Africa are the same. Night and day, but always
out of sight and therefore out of the public's mind, the brutal
exploitation of our national wildlife heritage drags on, grinding out body
parts called 'trophies' from the slain victims.
Josef Stalin would have been very proud.
South Africa is struggling to overcome the crippling legacy of apartheid in environmental affairs. Affirmative action appointments are intended to transform and democratise nature conservation, but for various reasons, transformation is slow in coming. Caught between the old and the new, South Africa's conservation laws reveal a stark conflict between democracy and autocracy; between kindness and cruelty.
The apartheid regime was nothing if not authoritarian and all power
was concentrated in the hands of petty provincial officials through the
permit system. The regime had three major aims:
a) to exclude the general public from participation in environmental governance: i.e. to monopolise nature conservation.
b) to exterminate the country's predators in the name of problem animal control; and
c) to enslave and exploit those forms of wildlife which could be used as alternative livestock for the hunting industry.
These goals were pursued behind a facade of 'conservation', but in fact, the permit system was used, if not designed, to exclude the general public. Safe behind the laager walls of the permit system, the cruel mindset of petty apartheid officialdom was free to hijack nature conservation for its own financial ends. The provincial nature conservation authorities became, in effect, a protection racket for the landowner rancher/hunters, fostering the hunting industry and the extermination of problem animals. Five decades of cruel apartheid rule in South Africa poisoned everything, and nature conservation was no exception.
3. CRUELTY AND DEMOCRACY.
Because of the lack of compassion within the SA conservation structures, and their dogged refusal to consult with the animal welfare community, issues of animal welfare are omitted from the agenda in decision-making in all aspects of wildlife management. In effect, this conservation regime has taken over an arm of one of the worst governments in modern political history, and said to it 'Just carry on. Carry on with your insane policies and your murderous practices. And by introducing our own brand of utilitarian use, we'll help you make it even worse.'
When he was SA Minister for the Environment, Pallo Jordan made the statement that he regarded the notion of animal rights as 'weird and wonderful'.
1. The words were scarcely out of his mouth when Germany became the
first European state to grant constitutional rights to animals when it
extended the right to exist to animals. The voting in both houses of
Parliament was almost unanimous.
Is it really our government's standpoint that all sixty or eighty million Germans are 'radicals', 'extremists' or 'bunnyhuggers'?
There is a wide gulf between a compassionate, successful society, and our own violent, dysfunctional one.
2. Scotland has banned the traditional sport of fox-hunting on the
ground that cruelty to animals for recreational purposes is morally
unacceptable.
3. The English Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to ban stag
hunting, and is now overriding the House of Lords to do the same for fox
hunting.
4. The Canadian Parliament is passing Bill C-15b which removes animals from the property section of the legal code, and greatly increases the penalties for animal abuse.
5. Canned hunting, or penned hunting as they call it in USA, is being
steadily banned state by state.
And African nations also show compassion as an ethic. Compare Kenya, where trophy hunting was banned as a barbaric relic of colonialism in the seventies, and Botswana, which takes its wildlife heritage seriously enough to mobilize its army to conduct a war against poachers and to ban the trophy hunting of lions.
Just who is out of step here? SA? Or the rest of the world?
4. CRUELTY AND COLONIALISM.
So what, you may ask? Who cares if animals suffer? The answer is this: ethical illiteracy leads to the institutionalizing of cruelty. This in turn enables cruel and ruthless people overseas to continue to colonise SA.
It will impact upon our tourism and trade, and can even affect international relations. It will put thousands of South Africans out of work and may even cause currency collapse in the years ahead.
Look at trophy hunting.
Chucking a few dollars at local landowners in order to pillage our wildlife heritage is not conservation, it is colonialism. When organisations such as Safari Club International in U.S.A. patronise this industry, they export US dollars and colonialism to Africa, and they import misery and bloodshed in the form of trophies. Their dollars are a corrupting influence in the third world, perverting conservation policies away from preservation towards the cruel exploitation of wildlife.
Nor are the colonizers all rich whites. The forests of Indo Asia were
looted to procure tiger bones for the Chinese traditional medicine trade.
The genetically similar lion is already being used for the same purpose.
The fate of the tiger will be the fate of the African lion if we do not
act now to stop it.
The axis of evil of wildlife exploitation now presents a global challenge to our wildlife.
The hopes for a better life of hundreds of millions of Southern
Africans may eventually be held to ransom in this way by a small group of
foreigners and the corrupted soldiers of fortune in South Africa who
supply them with their living targets and/or body parts.
And we allow our treasures to be looted because of the ethical illiteracy of those in conservation who could stop it all tomorrow.
My views cannot be disregarded as white elitism.
Take Credo Mutwa, one of the leading African philosophers and
authors,. Talking about lions, he writes: No one in their right mind would
ever travel to India, and massacre the white Brahmin cattle that roam the
crowded streets of India's cities. No one in their right mind would travel
to Siam and there murder the rare white elephants that we find in that
country. But people come to my motherland, people come to South Africa, to
brutally murder lions in the name of manliness and in the name of sport.
The sacred icons of other races and nations in this world are respected, revered and protected. But the icons of Africa are massacred with cold impunity, sometimes with the connivance of some Africa's own children.
In the past two hundred years or so, the human race has lost much which is of importance in Africa. And it continues to lose much. But what is most terrible, what is most tragic, is that it does not realize what it has lost.
One day, in the dark valleys of the future, people will try to turn back, people will try to investigate, to look into the past of African humankind with wide open eyes, but they will find very little because much has been obliterated.
5. FARMING and PROBLEM ANIMALS.
Few people in South Africa know what hideous cruelty lies behind the
placing of meat and milk upon the supermarket shelf. Not only is there
ongoing cruelty to animals raised in unnatural conditions in concrete
stalls, like pigs, or tiny steel cages, like hens, or broiler farms, or
cattle and sheep mass-produced in feedlots, and in the long transport of
animals, but out of sight is the unspeakable cruelty practiced routinely
upon so-called problem wild animals, such as jackals and caracals.
The justification is always the same: 'They eat me bankrupt, ' and farmers rely on old provincial ordinances to destroy our heritage.
The Problem Animal Control Ordinance, 26 of 1957 is a chilling
reminder of the days when all laws and policies were framed to protect the
narrow commercial interests of a tiny minority, the white livestock-
farming community, at the expense of the population at large. The
ordinance specifically excludes blacks.
Scarcely credible though it may be, our SA government continues twelve years after Nelson Mandela walked to freedom, to enforce a law which begins: "Any six persons who are not black may form a hunt club."
The Problem Animal Control Ordinance of 1957 purports to be a
Declaration of War upon, and an extermination programme for any species of
wildlife which affects the farming community.
Whole species are arbitrarily and unscientifically positioned outside the boundaries of moral or legal concern. Hundreds of thousands of animals, mostly harmless non-target animals, were slain in these terrible hunts. Over a period of three decades, the hunt club known as the Oranjejag exterminated about 106,000 animals in the Free State alone - excluding the numbers of bat-eared foxes. 65,415 were harmless Cape Foxes, 4892 harmless little African wild cats, and 56 Brown hyena.
In short, this is nothing more or less than a selective imposition of martial law. In what other sector of SA society would such blatantly
racist and destructive laws continue to be enforced? What kind of mentality framed such a law? And what kind of democratic government continues to enforce such a law?
The treatment of problem animals by farmers, which is facilitated and approved by
conservation officials, involves the lifting of all controls on inhumane methods of hunting. Poison which takes days of agony to kill. Gin traps that smash legs and hold the victim in a long agonizing death grip.
90 countries have banned the use of these terrible traps, but our farmers and conservation officials use them routinely.
One favourite device for getting animals out of burrows involves the
use of barbed wire. A length of barbed wire is fed into the hole and then
twisted until the barbs catch in the coat of the trapped animal. Twisting
continues until the animal's coat has been rolled around the barbs. Once
impaled in this manner, the animal is hauled out of the burrow, into the
jaws of the waiting dogs.
The public never sees the barbaric cruelty that lies behind the euphemism of 'problem animal control.'
In our whole approach to problem animals, we are morally depraved and environmentally delinquent. There is no such thing as a problem animal - only problem farmers.
6. CANNED LION HUNTING
Let us examine the most extreme form of trophy hunting to see how
ethical illiteracy manifests itself. First, what is canned lion hunting?
Canned hunting is not an event, but a whole process. It is a process where animals are taken out of their natural environment and placed in factory farms to be grown out like broiler chickens for slaughter. It is a process whereby the public's wildlife heritage is transferred out of the public domain into the hands of hunters for business purposes. It is the privatization of our national heritage for cruel profiteering. This is theft on a grand scale.
In accordance with the new adopted policy, JS Safaris will hunt any
predators, large and small, with dogs. Photos show a leopard being savaged
by dogs. Photos also show lions who have been shot with bow and arrow -
after being hunted with dogs.
What has conservation come to when tame lions can be turned out after a life of imprisonment to be set upon by a dog pack and then used for archery purposes? What kind of mentality perpetrates such bizarre atrocities as routine? And what kind of government sees nothing wrong with it?
In our book "For the Love of Wildlife," we describe hunting farms in South Africa as follows:
"By smashing up the wholeness of the natural world (most notably the magnificent predators) and recovering from the wreckage only those life forms which can be used as alternative livestock, hunting farms trivialize the exquisite. and they normalize sadism by making cruelty routine."
7. THE PRO-HUNTING ARGUMENTS
Why does the SA government parade its ethical illiteracy by colluding with the hunting fraternity so undemocratically? It can only be that the government has swallowed the pro-hunting arguments, so let us see if these arguments can be supported by logic or morals.
'Hunting pays for Conservation'. "if it pays it stays" and "give it a
value and it will be preserved".
These are the lies that hide the cruelty and greed.
It is big-game hunting that will save the safari parks of Africa, so
they say. (And in the same vein, they will no doubt expect us to believe
that it is only whaling that will save the whale.)
Any intelligent person can see that giving an animal a value merely serves to increase the commercial exploitation to the point where wild populations can no longer support the industry. Which then has to turn to captive breeding in order to meet commercial demand. The end result is inevitable - the broad mass of South Africans will lose their heritage, while the hunting industry whacks the animals and stacks the profits.
Quote from Wildlife Wars by Richard Leakey & Virginia Morell.
If wildlife and wilderness were regarded solely as items that generate money, their days were surely numbered. Inevitably, someone would find a way to use them to make more money from them than protecting them does. I (Richard Leakey) fear that conservationist who use bottom-line reasoning as the key argument for saving the animals they love are actually dooming them to extinction."
Mathew Scully, talking about SA hunters offering their clients the
chance to ambush elephants at a waterhole for ten thousand dollars an
elephant: And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature
after his kind, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind
and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind... and
God saw that it was good.
How did we get from there to ten-grand-apiece pops at the water hole?
My copy of the Good Book doesn't say, "Go forth to selleth every creature that moveth." It doesn't say you can baiteth and slayeth and stuffeth everything in sight, either, let alone deducteth the cost. 91
8. CONCLUSIONS
The institutionalised culture of animal cruelty will ultimately affect every aspect of civic life in South Africa.
And the culture in South Africa is that life is a disposable resource,
to be exploited for profit or pleasure, preferably both. Life itself is a
market niche.
Greed is the accepted creed, and any contrary view is dismissively branded as radical.
There is a price to pay for every action we take. Unfortunately, those paying the price today are the innocent animals. Those paying the price tomorrow will be innocent South Africans who will inherit the pariah state being built today.
Would decent South Africans like their country to be visited by
foreigners whose sole purpose is to commit grossly inhumane acts that they
could not do in their own countries?
Would they like to be seen as hosting brutal freak shows for money?
Is this country so financially impoverished and so morally bankrupt that this is actually being advertised?
The present unethical conservation regime in SA is an unholy alliance between some of the worst elements of the previous government and a new government acting from a deplorable lack of compassion. For the animals, this is a marriage made in hell. And it can ruin SA.
This government's stupefying indifference to the suffering of animals
may be acceptable in Kimberley and Nelspruit, but it is not acceptable to
hundreds of millions of people in the developed world. It will prejudice
our tourism, our economic development, NEPAD and even the value of our
currency, in the years ahead.
(04/10/2003) No Public Acceptance of Ritual Religious Slaughter
Opinion Poll Overwhelmingly Rejects Throat Cutting of Conscious Animals
Embargoed until: 23.00, Saturday 4 October 2003
Viva! are launching the results of a survey on October 6, Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which shows that more than 70 per cent of people are opposed to farmed animals having their throats cut while fully conscious for religious reasons. NOP questioned 1,000 people in September 2003 for the campaigning animal organisation and found just 22 per cent believed the practice was acceptable, seven per cent didn’t know but 71 per cent thought that killing animals in this way should not be allowed to
continue.
All food animals in Britain are killed by having their throats cut but the law requires that they are first rendered unconscious. However, animals killed for Muslim halal and Jewish kosher meats, can be slaughtered by throat cutting without prestunning.
Severing an animal’s throat involves cutting through skin, muscle, trachea, oesophagus, carotid arteries, jugular veins and a mass of nerves. It can take a cow 60 seconds to lose consciousness – a calf twice this time. Earlier this year, the Government’s advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, issued a report saying: “Such a massive injury would result in very significant pain and distress …” It went on to call for a ban on all slaughter without prestunning. Viva! supports this call and will be holding a lobby of Parliament on Wednesday, November 19, demanding
Government action.
Viva! has filmed both mainstream and religious slaughter for its video Sentenced to
Death. It includes what is believed to be the only available footage of Jewish Shechita slaughter in the UK. A large steer is held in a metal crush while the slaughterer draws his knife backwards and forwards across the animal’s throat 17 times. The steer is still standing, blood pouring from his severed throat, when the filming ends after 30 seconds. The video also includes footage of legal and illegal Muslim slaughter.
“Viva!’s campaign against religious slaughter has helped to end ‘home’ killing and contributed to major changes in the Muslim religion, where 90 per cent of animals are now stunned”, says Juliet Gellatley, Viva!’s director. “The Jewish religion, however, will not accept prestunning for any animals. October 6 is Yom Kippur, the holy Day of Atonement, when no meat is eaten nor leather worn. I think that should tell us something! We are launching our campaign to end religious slaughter on this day because it is marked by forgiveness and compassion. We believe that should also extend to animals. Cruelty based on myths and centuries-old dogma is not acceptable in the 21st century and most people share this view.”
Notes for Editors
The survey was carried out by NOP World in September 2003 amongst 1000 adults aged 15 +. The question asked was: “You may or may not know that in Britain, the law requires that all farmed animals are stunned and are unconscious before being killed by having their throats cut. However, some groups for religious reasons, are allowed to cut the throats of fully-conscious animals without prestunning them. Do you think that this practice should or should not be allowed to continue?”
For more details of the NOP poll, copies of the Sentenced to Death video, copies of Viva!’s fully-referenced, 50-page report on religious slaughter (Going for the Kill) or for further information, contact:
Alistair Currie, Campaigner or Juliet Gellatley, Director on 0117 944 1000
(08/10/2003) Athens Launches Stray Dogs Plan Ahead of Games
ATHENS - Athens, host of the 2004 Olympics, launched a plan last week
to sterilize more than 10,000 stray dogs ahead of the Games in measures
condemned by animal rights groups as ill thought-out and insufficient.
The city said the 1.8 million euro ($2.11 million) project, to be officially unveiled on the weekend, will halt the growth of a huge population of stray dogs roaming the streets of the capital before the start of the Olympics.
"The sight of thousands of stray animals living without care in the city streets constitutes an insult to us as civilized people," Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyanni, who plans to give 20 strays up for adoption on the weekend, said in a statement...
[Link]
(09/10/2003) GREYHOUND ACTION INTERNATIONAL ALERT
Please read the following and help save the greyhounds in Korea
Animal Freedom Korea
www.animals.or.kr
E-mail:
animal@animals.or.kr are working very hard to stop the greyhound industry in Korea. They have stated the following.
'The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has recently promulgated the
bill for the amendment of livestock law and collected people's opinion, in
which there was a clause to make pet dogs and racing dogs registered by
the breed. The reason for them to include racing dogs particularly in the
clause seems that they intend to make regulations on dog racing soon. It
must have been the result of the lobby of the industry.
We protested firmly and that part of the law seems to be removed.' However, that wouldn't mean that we can stop the legislation of dog racing altogether. It seems they are negotiating with some congressmen and going to make a move some time next year.
Several things are going on regarding the dog racing legislation. First of all, KGRC ( Korean Greyhound Racing Club) has achieved the exclusive contract and copyright of the distribution of the motion pictures in the Asian region from NZRB in New Zealand on August 14th. KGRC is broadcasting live racing on their website
(www.dogracing.net)
from 26th. According to them, the time difference for the broadcasting
between NZ and Korea is only about 10 minutes.
KGRC also provides the paid members with a game service they can bet for. In order to make people have more interest in dog racing, the company offers the ones who won with so called 'game money' which cannot be returned in cash and give them presents when the 'game money' reaches a certain point. (e.g. a golden pig, overseas travelling coupon etc.) '
PLEASE TAKE ACTION
1. Write to the NZRB and ask them politely to terminate their contract
with the KGRC. Greyhounds surplus to requirements in Korea will fuel the
dog meat markets. The Australian and New Zealand racing authorities are
fully aware that there is no hope, opportunity or rehoming programmes for
the greyhound that are retired or injured or have failed the grade in
Korea
Every greyhound that races in Korea will end their days being killed.
2. Remind them that the NZRB in accordance with the Racing Act 2003,
must comply and exhibit a sense of social responsibility by having regard
to the interests of the community in which it operates.
3. Contact Greyhounds Australasia Ltd (used to be called ANZGA Australian New Zealand Greyhound Association) ask them to stop the promotion and export of greyhounds to Asia for the reasons stated above.
4. E-mail us at
greyhoundactioninternational@hotmail.com
for the new protest cards directed at the Australian minister for live
export Warren Truss who is responsible for exporting greyhounds from
Australia to Asia.
5. Visit our website www.greyhoundaction.co.uk under the Australian section for sample letters
Please persistently write, e-mail, fax & telephone and express your disgust. One phone call can save a greyhounds life.
Contact details
New Zealand Racing Board
E-mail:
sue.dixon@tab.co.nz
tel: +64 4 568 8866
fax: +64 4 568 9817
New Zealand Racing Industry Board
PO Box 38 899, Wellington Mail Centre,
106-111Jackson Street, Petone, New Zealand
e-mail: nzrib@tab.co.nz,
www.racenz.com
National Office 0-4-576 6999 0-4-576-6942
tel; 64-4-568 8866, Fax 64-4-568 9817 helpdesk@tab.co.nz
- New Zealand 0800 102 106
- Australia 0011 800 10 20 30 44
- United Kingdom 00 800 10 20 30 44
- Hong Kong 001 800 10 20 30 44
- Malaysia 00 800 10 20 30 44
- United States 011 800 10 20 30 44
- Netherlands 00 800 10 20 30 44
- South Africa 09 800 10 20 30 44
- other countries 64 4 576 6281
The Honourable Warren Truss Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT 2600
Australia
E-mail:
W.Truss.MP@aph.gov.au
Steve Rosier, Chief Executive
Greyhound Racing Authority of New South Wales
P.O. Box 138
Lidcombe, NSW 2141
Australia
ph: +61 02 9646 3933, fax: +61 02 9646 4904
E-mail:
srosier@gra.nsw.gov.au
(10/10/2003) Feds Investigating Zoo After Gorilla Escape
BOSTON - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating Boston's
main zoo after a 300-pound gorilla escaped from his enclosure last month
and injured two people, officials said this week.
The department has launched a probe of the Franklin Park Zoo to
determine if there were any violations of the Animal Welfare Act, a
federal law that covers animals on display at zoos, USDA spokesman Jim
Rogers said.
Zoo spokeswoman Melissa Grossenbacher confirmed that federal authorities had inspected the zoo last week after the gorilla, nicknamed "Little Joe," escaped for the second time in as many months...
[Link]
(11/10/2003) Study: Sonar May Cause Bends Disease in Dolphins
LONDON (Reuters) - Sonar may cause a type of decompression sickness in
whales and dolphins similar to the "bends" in humans, scientists said on
Wednesday.
Although it seems an unlikely illness for the aquatic creatures, researchers from the Zoological Society of London and the University of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands have found bubbles in the tissue of stranded whales and dolphins similar to the effects of decompression sickness (DCS) in
humans.
"The only way we can explain these findings is that it is a condition very similar to decompression sickness in humans," Dr Paul Jepson, co-ordinator of the UK Marine Mammal Stranding Project which contributed to the research, said in an
interview...
[Link]
(12/10/2003) New Type of Ancient Lizard-Like Reptile Found
LONDON - Scientists in South America have discovered fossils of an ancient lizard-like reptile that had survived longer than they had they had previously thought.
The fossils are of a new type of sphenodontian, an ancient family of primitive reptiles that roamed the Earth at the time of the dinosaurs and disappeared about 110 million years ago.
The remains uncovered in a quarry in Patagonia are about 90 million years old and could explain how their only living relative, the tuatara, managed to survive...
[Link]
A new scientific study published on September 22 says that commercial
whaling by Japanese and Russian fleets over a half a century ago could be
the cause of a mysterious, massive decline of the ecosystem surrounding
Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
The research team was led by Alan Springer of the University of
Alaska's Institute of Marine Science in Fairbanks, and James Estes, a
coauthor with the U.S. Geological Survey in Santa Cruz.
For years, scientists have been debating the exact cause of
devastating changes to one of the Earth's richest oceanic ecosystems,
setting in motion a chain reaction that has harmed sea mammals and kelp
forests in the North Pacific and Bering Seas.
The researchers said killer whales that once preyed upon the larger
"great" whales had to turn to other food sources to sustain themselves
after the commercial killing of half a million bowhead, sperm, humpback
and other large whales caused a collapse in the food chain.
According to the study, the killer whales (also known as "orcas")
first turned to seal, and then when seals became less plentiful, they
turned to Steller's sea lions. When those mammals also grew rare, the
killer whales turned to otters.
Without otters to eat them, sea urchins seized their chance to
proliferate. The sea urchins, spiny round blobs, have now begun to eat
right through the underwater kelp forests that house many different life
forms along the ocean floor.
"If our hypothesis is correct, either wholly or in significant part,
commercial whaling in the North Pacific Ocean set off one of the longest
and most complex ecological chain reactions ever described, beginning in
the open ocean 50 years ago," said the scientists in their report,
published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They said the chain reaction is still continuing, with the devastation
of huge kelp beds off western Alaska.
Sea lions have declined by more than 80 percent in the last 30 years
throughout a huge area that stretches from Alaska to Japan, according to
the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Harbor seals, fur seals and sea otter populations have also been
decimated in most areas of the North Pacific.
Some scientists believe that commercial fishing has depleted coastal
food resources, leading to malnourished populations that are susceptible
to diseases.
Others believe global climate changes have so altered the ocean that
these animals are finding it hard to survive.
But Springer, an oceanographer, found these theories hard to accept.
So, he contacted Jim Estes, the author of a report that claimed that
killer whales were to blame for the decline of sea otters in the Aleutian
Islands.
"Jim had come to the conclusion, based on a lot of really thorough
research in the Aleutian Islands, that predation was the most probable
explanation for the collapse of the sea otter population," Springer said.
The pair was joined by six other scientists, who discovered that the
collapse of other sea mammal populations could have been caused as a
result of killer whales turning to other sources of nutrition following
the disappearance of the great whales.
Now, years later, the dietary preference of killer whales may have
changed forever.
The study determined that a shift in diet among less than 1% of the
region's estimated 3,900 killer whales would have been enough to cause the
declines in the mammal populations.
The new killer whale diet is not sustainable. The big whales provided
sixty-fold more biomass than the combined totals for seals, sea lions and
otters, according to the report.
"The message," said Springer, "is that over-fishing and massive extraction
can lead to food impacts that are unexpected and unintended."
[Link]
(14/10/2003) Chimp Returns Home After 25 Years Of Circus Slavery
by Sherry Morse
A twenty-five year old chimpanzee named Toto who endured decades of
cruelty in a Chilean circus has finally found a safe, caring home at the
Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage for abused animals in Zambia.
During his years at the circus Toto was chained up all day, every day,
in a tiny, cramped cage with bars on the front. The chimp slept under a
thin blanket.
His only chance to stretch his legs came before his nightly performances, when he was taken out of
his box and led around by a rope attached to a metal collar around his neck.
The long-suffering
chimp was forced to drink tea and smoke cigarettes as part of his daily circus
act.
After several failed attempts to rescue him, Toto was finally seized in a
joint operation by the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture, the Siglo XXI
Centro de Rescate Y Rehabilitation de Primates, and Animal Defenders
International.
After receiving treatment at the rehabilitation center, Toto found
himself headed for sanctuary in Africa, the continent where he had been
born, and from where he had been snatched from his family by illegal
wildlife traders, twenty-five years ago.
DHL Express-Zambia paid the cost of Toto's transportation from Chile
to the 1100-acre orphanage in Zambia, which houses eighty other apes.
Toto had been denied contact with other chimps during the long years of his
circus ordeal.
"Chimps are highly sociable animals, very dependent on their families," said
Jan Creamer, a charity worker at the Wildlife Orphanage. "Denying Toto contact with his own species
for so long must have been torture for him. It's like keeping a human in solitary confinement."
When he finally arrived at the orphanage and encountered another young
chimp there, Toto's relief was obvious to see.
"When a connecting door between their enclosures was opened, Toto
threw his arms open and Madonna rushed into them," said Creamer. "They
hugged for several minutes and the joy on Toto's face was clear to see."
Madonna had been rescued from the exotic animal trade in Qatar before
being brought to the orphanage.
Creamer hopes that Toto will enjoy his new home in Africa.
"We have worked very hard to give this wonderful animal a new life," she said. "After all the
suffering he endured, we can be sure he will live the rest of his days in complete happiness."
Toto and Madonna have stayed together while they are in quarantine, but once
they have passed all their health checks they will both be allowed to roam free at the orphanage.
[Link]
(15/10/2003) Ming Settles In At Ohio Sanctuary
by Patricia Collier and ANC Staff
A 425-pound Bengal-Siberian tiger named 'Ming' who was sedated and
removed from a Harlem, NY apartment on October 4 is now being cared for at
Noah's Lost Ark Animal Sanctuary in Berlin Center, Ohio.
Sanctuary staff are determined to retain custody of Ming, despite
vocal opposition from friends of the tiger's previous owner, Antoine
Yates.
Yates reportedly called police October 1 and told them he had been
bitten by a pit bull. He met authorities in the lobby of his apartment
building and then went to an area hospital to be treated for the bite
wounds.
When medical staff said the bites could not have come from a dog,
Yates left the hospital of his own accord.
Authorities didn't find out that Yates was harboring wild animals
until three days later, after complaints and tips from nearby residents.
Yates was arrested last Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania
Medical Center in Philadelphia, where he was recovering from bite wounds
inflicted by the big cat.
During the widely publicized capture, officers also removed a 5-foot
alligator named Al, a second tiger, some cubs, two Rottweilers, rabbits
and a tarantula from Yates' apartment.
The alligator was relocated to a sanctuary in Indiana. The whereabouts
of the other animals is not known at this time.
Authorities said Yates had been keeping all the animals in his
fifth-floor apartment in the Harlem housing project where he lived.
After his arrest, Yates told officers the tiger had grabbed him and
"tore open my whole leg down to the bone." When asked why he had raised
the wild animals in his apartment, he said he had been "trying to create a
Garden of Eden, something that this world lacks."
According to a WCCO-TV report on Tuesday, Yates claimed he originally
obtained Ming as a 6-week-old cub, from Kenneth and Nancy Kraft, owners of
the BEARCAT Hollow animal park in southern Minnesota.
When contacted, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they are currently
investigating the Krafts in connection with alleged illegal trade and transport of federally
protected species.
WCCO-TV also reported that the Krafts were recently indicted in
Minneapolis for allegedly making an illegal purchase of another tiger,
named "Como," who was later destroyed after biting a small girl.
New York police said Yates has waived extradition, which will allow
the state to charge him with a felony count of reckless endangerment.
They said officers are still searching for a lion who had also been
kept by Yates in his apartment.
Yates apparently told police the lion was dead, but interviews with his family have led police
detectives to suspect the lion is still alive and is being kept somewhere in
Brooklyn.
[Link]
(16/10/2003) Spanish Bear Cubs Not Out of the Woods Yet
MADRID - Four brown bear cubs born this spring in the mountains of northern Spain have survived one of the harshest summers on record, raising hopes for the future of the endangered species in the region.
But the cubs, which have only a 50 percent chance of surviving their first year, still face more menacing threats, not least poachers hunting them for their skins.
"They do face serious danger from hunters, and from the aggression of male adult bears, but with a little luck on their side, I think the cubs could survive," said Guillermo Palomero, president of Cantabria's Brown Bear Foundation...
[Link]
(17/10/2003) Birds Shown to Benefit from Female Promiscuity
LONDON - It may not be condoned in most societies, but scientists said
yesterday that female promiscuity is not all bad because it helps to
create healthier offspring - at least in birds.
Like humans, birds are monogamous creatures that usually choose one mate and stay with them to raise their young.
But scientists at the Max Planck Research Center for Ornithology in Starnberg, Germany said some female birds prefer more than one mate, to improve their chances of producing fitter young, a finding that could have implications for better understanding human sexual behavior.
"I believe there is no reason that the theory we have for birds couldn't apply to humans. It applies to other mammals," said Dr Bart Kempenaers, a behavioral ecologist at the center.
"We know that this social monogamy does not actually reflect the mating that is going on," he told Reuters in an interview...
[Link]
(20/10/2003) Southern Right Whales in Big Comeback
HERMANUS, South Africa - The huge beasts delighted the crowd as they rolled and sprayed in the surf, just meters (yards) from the jagged and rocky shore.
The crowd had come for the annual whale festival in the South African seaside resort of Hermanus, one of the prime spots on the planet to indulge in whale watching from the comfort of dry land.
On this particular morning the viewers were not disappointed, with at least nine southern right whales observed at close range, including two females with calves.
Once pushed to the edge of extinction, southern right whales are now riding the comeback wave...
[Link]
(21/10/2003) Humane Society takes issue with trapping rules
PORTLAND - Oregon voters have already said no to a ban on animal trapping, but how should those animals be treated once they're caught?
Some believe that limits on the time animals spend in the traps are required.
A group, Humane Society of the U.S., videotaped disturbing images of animals caught in leg hold-traps...
[Link]
(22/10/2003) South Africa and Mozambique Bust Rhino Poaching Gang
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa said Monday it had smashed a cross-border
gang of rhino poachers in a joint operation with neighboring Mozambique,
but the incidents have raised concerns about security in a planned
transfrontier park.
The first incident occurred in early September, when a heavily pregnant female rhino was found shot dead with her horn removed in South Africa's famed Kruger National Park, the country's Environment Ministry said in a statement...
[Link]
(Notice) Kampagne gegen den Import von Katzen- und Hundefell
Hunde und Katzen sind die Tiere, denen die Menschen hierzulande am engsten
verbunden sind. In zahllosen Familien sind sie umsorgtes Familienmitglied, Freund
und Liebling der Kinder. Umso mehr erschüttern die Berichte, die seit Jahren vor
allem aus Ostasien aber auch aus Osteuropa über Formen der Hunde-und Katzen
"Produktion" und Tötung zu uns kommen und uns schaudern machen (Denken Sie an
die Karremann-Filme.)
Die Felle der geschundenen Tiere gelangen in mehr oder minder großer
Zahl, man spricht von zwei Millionen jährlich, zu uns, werden auch hier
verarbeitet und häufig unter Phantasienamen verkauft. Die Methode, die
Kunden mit hübschen Namen hinters Licht zu führen, beschränkt sich nicht
auf Hunde- und Katzenfell. So werden z.B. Schweinslederjacken als
Porc-Leder verkauft, z.B. von C&A. Unsere Anfrage warum, wurde bislang
nicht beantwortet. Auch hier gilt, je mehr Kunden entschieden nachfragen
und sich nicht abwimmeln lassen, umso eher werden die Unternehmen
erkennen, daß Ehrlichkeit mehr bringt.
Seit Jahren bemühen sich Tierschutzorganisationen in den westlichen Ländern - so
unter anderem in Österreich auch der Bund der Tierversuchsgegner vor einem Jahr
mit einer Briefaktion -, ihre Regierungen zum Handeln zu bewegen. Diese verhielten sich bis vor nicht allzu langer Zeit oder auch jetzt noch meist ablehnend
und schützten WTO-Verpflichtungen vor.
So lehnten etwa Schweizer Regierung und Parlament vor zwei Jahren eine von
160.000 Bürgern unterschriebene Petition mit der eher kuriosen Begründung ab: Der
Bundesrat ist überzeugt, daß ein gewisser Druck der Öffentlichkeit aus westlichen
Ländern mehr zugunsten der Tiere bewirkt als eine gesetzliche Maßnahme. In
diesem Sinne begrüßt er die Petition "Katzen sind keine Fell- und Lederlieferanten"
Er erachtet es aber als eine ungeeignete Reaktion auf einen Medienbericht und die
darauf eingereichte Petition, wenn er dem Parlament eine Vorlage unterbreiten
müßte, mit welcher die Einfuhr von Katzenfellen verboten würde. Überdies sei die
eingeführte Menge gering. Die Schweiz decke den weitaus größten Teil des
Inlandsbedarfs an Katzenfellen aus eigener Produktion.
Wieviel "Eigenproduktion" es in Westeuropa gibt, ist strittig. Ein
BBC-Bericht über europäische Katzenfarmen wurde von der EU dementiert
(Woher kommt die Schweizer Eigenproduktion? Von gestohlenen Tieren?). Die
Abwehrfront der Regierungen wurde allerdings durch die USA gebrochen. Dort
ist seit Dezember 2000 der Import von Produkten aus Hunde- und
Katzenfellen verboten, was allerdings zu verstärktem Importdruck in Europa
geführt hat. Ebenso hat vor kurzem Italien ein Importverbot erlassen, und
jüngst dem Vernehmen nach Dänemark.
Damit ist jedenfalls das Argument, man dürfe WTO-halber nichts tun, unglaubwürdig
geworden. In Großbritannien soll der Handelsminister, bewegt von aufrüttelnden
Presseberichten, ein Importverbot ins Auge fassen.
Auf EU-Ebene sollen sich vor knapp einem Jahr 10 Landwirtschaftsminister, darunter auch der österreichische, beim zuständigen EU-Kommissar Byrne für ein Verbot stark gemacht haben, der habe jedoch den Ball an die Länder
zurückgespielt.
Wir haben vor Redaktionsschluß in mehr als 20 Telefongesprächen mit
Ministerialstellen und Regierungsbüros versucht, die Meldung zu
verifizieren und etwas mehr darüber und über Zuständigkeiten und Absichten
der Maßgeblichen in Österreich zu erfahren, bislang ergebnislos.
Nur ständiger Druck aus der Bevölkerung kann die Regierung bewegen. Wir bitten darum unsere Leserinnen und Leser, sich der Unterschriftenliste auf unserer
Website (s.u.) anzunehmen und auch durch Briefe an Politiker ihr dringendes Interesse an Importverbot und Kennzeichnungs-Verpflichtung zu dokumentieren
Communiqué de presse
13 octobre 2003
La première capture d'orque russe s'est déroulée le 26 septembre 2003 sur la
côte est du Kamchatka. L'animal capturé est une femelle mesurant 4,30 mètres
pour un poids de 1100 kg. Elle a été transférée le 6 octobre par avion dans
un enclos de la station marine d'Utrish au bord de la mer Noire, station qui
appartient au Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Selon une
lettre adressée au Dr Paul Spong, directeur de l'Orcalab au Canada (www.orcalab.org), par le Dr. Lev Mukhametov
du delphinarium d'Utrish, cette orque est destinée à être utilisée dans
différentes investigations scientifiques.
Selon des informations non officielles, une autre orque serait également morte durant cette opération de capture, emprisonnée dans les filets.
Pour l'année 2003, les autorités russes ont délivré un permis de capture
pour 10 orques au total pour la région du Kamchatka et la mer d'Okhotsk.
Réseau-Cétacés tient à exprimer son indignation et son inquiétude devant
cette capture d'orque (la première depuis 6 ans) destinée à l'industrie de
la captivité. Les orques sont des animaux sociaux et intelligents à qui la
vie en captivité ne convient absolument pas. Sur les 134 orques sauvages capturées depuis 1961, 110
sont maintenant morts. Et pour ces 110 animaux, le temps moyen de survie en
captivité a été inférieur à 6 ans alors que la durée de vie moyenne d'une orque
libre est estimée à 50 ans (certaines femelles pouvant vivre jusqu'à 80 voire 90
ans).
Pour les animaux sociaux que sont les orques, la perte d'un seul individu peut se révéler véritablement néfaste pour le bien-être et la survie du
groupe. La société des orques repose sur des liens étroits entre les individus et est centrée sur les
femelles. Dans certaines populations, les orques restent même toute leur vie auprès
de leur mère.
De plus, il y a à moyen terme un risque que les eaux russes deviennent une
source d'approvisionnement en orques pour les delphinariums, ce qui pourrait
s'avérer très dommageable pour les populations concernées (les études sur
les orques de cette région n'en sont qu'à leur début. Pour l'instant rien n'
est véritablement connu de leurs effectifs et de leur mode de vie).
Pour plus d'informations :
Franck Dupraz, Président de Réseau-Cétacés
Tél: 04-78-87-67-72
06-14-70-43-19
E-mail:
reseaucetaces@free.fr
Dr Paul Spong, directeur de l'Orcalab :
Tel/fax: +1 (250) 974-8068
Email:
orcalab@island.net
Dr. Lev Mukhametov, Delphinarium d'Utrish:
Tel/fax: +7 (095)958-1260
Email:
utrish@online.ru
Dr. Dmitry S. Pavlov, Directeur du Severtsov Institute of Ecology and
Evolution
Tel: +7 (095) 952-2088
Fax: +7 (095) 954-5534
Email:
Admin@sevin.ru
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, Ecuador - They may not be cute like the sea lions that waddle on sandy beaches or the once-endangered giant tortoises featured in campaigns to conserve Ecuador's exotic Galapagos Islands.
But sharks, which draw tourists and scuba divers, are increasingly a cause celebre in Galapagos.
Environmentalists and the tourism industry are lobbying for more protection for sharks from fishermen who see a lucrative business in exporting their prized fins...
[Link]
(24/10/2003) "Ethical Matrix" Launched Today
The ground-breaking online "Ethical Matrix" will be launched
today by Compassion in World Farming Trust (CIWF Trust), in conjunction
with the University of Nottingham Centre for Applied Bioethics, at a
special event to be held at the Institute of Education in London.
The "Ethical Matrix" is an online educational resource which
demonstrates that ethics is not a matter of opinion and that science is
not free of values. Using examples of organic and intensive farming, the
interactive "Ethical Matrix" applies principles of wellbeing,
choice and fairness to farmers, consumers, farm animals and the
environment, to build a matrix which rationalises the ethics behind
different ways of farming animals. The Ethical Matrix is designed for use
in post-16 courses in biology, agriculture, environmental studies, animal
science, food science and applied ethics. It can be found at
www.ethicalmatrix.net.
Professor Ben Mepham, Director of the Centre for Applied Bioethics at
The University of Nottingham, and inventor of the "Ethical Matrix" said,
"The importance of introducing social and ethical dimensions to science
students has been increasingly recognised in recent years, reflecting a
wider appreciation of the need to explain and justify research and its
technological consequences to a sceptical and apprehensive public. The
Matrix shows that these dimensions are quantifiable and measurable".
At the launch event presentations will be made by:
. Professor Ben Mepham, Director, Centre of Applied Bioethics, University
of Nottingham.
. Professor Michael Reiss, Head of School of Mathematics, Science &
Technology, Institute of Education, University of London
. Dr Doris Schroeder, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Centre for
Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire.
The launch takes place at The Institute of Education, University of
London, Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL on Wednesday 22nd October,
commencing at 6:00pm.
Wednesday, 22 October 2003
Compassion in World Farming Trust
Tel: +44 (0)1730 233 904
+44 (0) 7786 734 155
e-mail: press@ciwf.co.uk
(25/10/2003) EU Tells Austria, Portugal to Protect Birds Better
BRUSSELS - The European Commission gave Austria and Portugal a final warning yesterday over their failure to restrict the hunting of wild birds and preserve their habitats.
The European Union's executive said Austria - which joined the EU in 1995 - had failed to write long-standing European rules protecting birdlife into regional law, leaving rare species under threat of hunting and habitat destruction...
[Link]
(26/10/2003) Researchers: 'Pets Are Good For Kids'
by Patricia Collier
Research in recent years has suggested that children raised with pets
are less likely to become asthmatic, more likely to be kind to other
children and more likely to have a healthy sense of self-esteem once they
reach their teens. New research has revealed many more benefits, claiming
that interaction with pets can positively influence children's physical
and emotional development, even their scholastic achievement.
The findings were presented at an international conference hosted
recently by the Society for Companion Animal Studies, (SCAS) in Leicester.
One of the presenters at the conference was Dr. June McNicholas,
health psychologist and senior research fellow at the University of
Warwick. McNicholas said her studies have shown that exposure to cats
and/or dogs in the first year of life reduce subsequent risks of allergic
sensitisation during childhood.
She also noted that of the 338 children she used for her study, 85
percent viewed their pets as a playmate and over half watched TV or videos
with their furry pals. Another presenter, Sue Dawson, a researcher
at Manchester Metropolitan University, (MMU) presented a
"detraumatization" project developed in post-war Bosnia Herzegovina.
Her findings showed that having empathy towards animals helped
children who had experienced such trauma.
Parents and scientists seem to agree pets have helped children learn
responsibility, develop discipline and handle life situations, such as
emergencies, illnesses and even death.
As McNicholas reported, children see animals as peers and identify
better with animals than human beings. They may even communicate more
freely with their companion animal than with the adults in their lives
because the animal eliminates the fear of rejection.
According to Elizabeth Ormerod, chair of SCAS, children tend to form
very special attachments to companion animals, making the relationship a
vital part of their lives.
"For many years, the valuable role of pets in children's development
has been recognized. But recently, the positive health, educational and
therapeutic benefits of pets have been scientifically investigated and
acknowledged," Ormerod said.
The SCAS was formed in 1979 by a group of doctors, social workers and veterinary surgeons from
Britain and the USA to promote interest in human-companion animal relationships.
[Link]
(27/10/2003) Forensic Expert Says Bigfoot Is Real
by Stefan Lovgren, for National Geographic News
It's been the subject of campfire stories for decades. A
camera-elusive, grooming-challenged, bipedal ape-man that roams the
mountain regions of North America. Some call it Sasquatch. Others know it
as Bigfoot.
Thousands of people claim to have seen the hairy hominoid, but the evidence of its existence is fuzzy. There are few clear photographs of the oversized beast. No bones have ever been found. Countless pranksters have admitted to faking footprints.
[Link]
(28/10/2003) New Venezuela Bird Species Found, Loses Island Home
CARACAS, Venezuela - Naturalists Wednesday celebrated the discovery of
a new species of bird - a blue-flecked, seed-eating finch - in Venezuela,
but they mourned that a state electricity company destroyed its only known
habitat to make way for a dam.
U.K.-based BirdLife International, which unites conservation groups worldwide, said the species was first spotted on Carrizal Island, an uninhabited islet on the Caroni river in biodiverse southeastern Venezuela, in July 2001...
[Link]
(29/10/2003) Bloody Animal Trade Thrives in Post-SARS China
GUANGZHOU, China - Two little boys giggle as they play hide and seek among hundreds of filthy cages packed tight with civet cats, dogs, porcupines and squirrels.
Health experts fear that wild animal markets like this one in southern
China's Baiyun district could be the source of the next SARS epidemic that
many fear will emerge this winter, but traders and workers here could not
be more oblivious.
Amid the stench of death and decay, traders of exotic animals - a culinary delight for many southern Chinese - haggle over prices with customers, occasionally turning their attention to their children, pinching their cheeks or tousling their hair...
[Link]
(30/10/2003) APC Annual Review voices concerns regarding
punishments for animal researchers who break the law
BUAV supporters will recall that in November 2001, the BUAV exposed a tasteless and horrific experiment at Cambridge University involving almost
300 mice; half the mice were injected with methamphetamine (speed), the other half with salt water, and then the animals were deliberately exposed
to extremely loud music - Bach and The Prodigy. As a result, some of the mice died during the experiment, others suffered seizures and brain damage,
and some displayed abnormal repetitive behaviour (a sign of severe mental disturbance, suggesting the animals were being subjected to stress of
unmanageable proportions).
The BUAV relentlessly pursued the matter with the Home Office for nine months. Our determined efforts finally revealed that this experiment broke
the law governing animal experiments. The Cambridge researchers were only licensed to conduct research into Huntington's disease but conducted the
"speed" experiments anyway, even though it wasn't authorised and had nothing
to do with their research project. In a letter to the BUAV the Home Office
admitted that the experiment "exceeded the procedures permitted under the authorities of the project licence. Infringement action has been taken."
The Home Office also confirmed that the researchers were simply "admonished".
A recent Annual Report by the Animal Procedures Committee (the APC, which advises the government on animal experiments), acknowledges that punishments
for this and other infringements are "too mild". Read the full story at BBC
News on-line:
[Link]
(31/10/2003) Ordeal Of Stranded Sheep Ends With Secret Deal
by Sherry Morse and Patricia Collier
The Australian press is calling it 'The Red Solution' and its mission
has now been accomplished: to rescue more than 50,000 sheep who have been
stuck on a ship in the Middle East since August 5.
The Australian-conceived 'Solution' was a top secret operation carried
out with help from sources in Egypt and Libya. The Australian government
has agreed to pay the African country of Eritrea the equivalent of
$915,000 to take the sheep.
Eritrea is one of the world's poorest countries. The long-suffering
sheep are to be slaughtered and distributed to the country's citizens.
Details of the plan were announced at a news conference October 25 by
Warren Truss, Australia's Agriculture Minister, shortly after the sheep
had begun unloading at the Eritrean port of Massawa.
"It was imperative that details of the negotiations and movement of
the ship over the past few days remained confidential in order to secure a
satisfactory outcome for the negotiations," said Truss.
Australians had been told the sheep were on their way back to
Australia.
The Australian Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
(Australian RSPCA), appalled by the suffering of the sheep, had been
calling for the surviving sheep to be killed at sea to end their cruel
ordeal, after almost three months of enduring cramped quarters and
temperatures ranging from 113 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prior to the secret deal with Eritrea, the Australian government had
considered dumping the sheep at eight Australian ports and offshore
islands for slaughter.
Farm groups in Australia had protested the return of the sheep, saying
they could threaten their existing livestock.
Upon hearing the sheep had gone to Eritrea, Australia's National
Farmers Federation announced satisfaction, even though they will have to
pay back the $10 million spent on the sheep while at sea.
The animals had been originally bred and sold to Saudi Arabia for
slaughter for the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. But when the animals arrived
in the Middle East aboard the 'Cormo Express', they were refused by the
Saudi government for import because the Saudis said six percent of the
sheep - one percent more than their regulations allowed - were suffering
from scabby mouth disease.
Veterinarians on board disputed the high percentage cited by the
Saudis.
After failing to find another buyer, the Saudi importer offered to
give away the sheep to another country. By that time, the sheep could not
be returned to Australia because of quarantine rules.
Exporters of live sheep from Australia to Saudi Arabia make about $195
million a year, but the trade is often criticized for inhumane treatment
of animals.
It is estimated that each year, approximately 78,000 sheep die on
their way from Australia to slaughter in the Middle East.
Live animals who are exported are particularly likely to contract
scabby mouth disease because they typically undergo their journey in
closely packed, cramped conditions which makes it easy for the viral
infection to spread between them.
Scabby mouth disease is not fatal, and usually heals after several weeks.
[Link]
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