tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34824271328572366282024-03-13T14:29:19.591+02:00Vegan AnimalUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-10313519262448207362010-11-03T00:44:00.004+02:002010-11-03T00:55:14.105+02:00Vegan Animal Website<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifukVnDUDkhuxamqYZKsQJ3ur3OOItitfVeMdS5RjFJP6YmFTS3PrZkMFteXsXALFoaIWifhOuj2In1SDcQwID1d4BVYO6wBw3ZoCdPBfBkS_LDdJn0zoX5GP1SqKoZwJwwxeNO-NuL-4a/s1600/vegananimal_logo_2010_400x100.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifukVnDUDkhuxamqYZKsQJ3ur3OOItitfVeMdS5RjFJP6YmFTS3PrZkMFteXsXALFoaIWifhOuj2In1SDcQwID1d4BVYO6wBw3ZoCdPBfBkS_LDdJn0zoX5GP1SqKoZwJwwxeNO-NuL-4a/s400/vegananimal_logo_2010_400x100.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535087697406162690" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">The Vegan Animal website can be found here : </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><a href="http://www.vegananimal.co.za/">http://www.vegananimal.co.za</a></span><div><br /></div><div>Twitter : <a href="http://www.twitter.com/vegananimal">http://www.twitter.com/vegananimal</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Vegan Mofo 2010 Blogroll : <a href="http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/412/">http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/412/</a></div><div><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6OuBbfaNkDiPRBNaMvPaKOruo-ZXA8Eg1e5rWJ1R0Z_yIvONcHM9RicljI88VroNDj2HNE3yOcC3T6at4w_-WFHyNiLNC7haoa8IWQwi-J4XqkepXae2W0qwM5tMWeVmfyrFD9tiqavQf/s400/VeganMofo_rect.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535088775979086402" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 84px; " /></span><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-26468605151010362752009-12-04T12:29:00.004+02:002009-12-04T14:38:09.643+02:00WHITE RHINOS KILLED IN FREE STATE<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Two white rhinos were killed for their horns by poachers at a farm outside Ficksburg in the Free State, the farm owner said on Thursday. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The carcasses of the two rhinos were discovered with their horns cut off outside the Kenyana Game Lodge home on Wednesday,</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">said Anita Hughes. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">They were about eight to 10-years-old. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">"No one saw anything but we found the exit through which they (the rhino) went out and eventually found them killed. Police are handling the matter," said Hughes. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">She said these were the last two remaining rhinos in the game park. Two others were sold years ago. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">"We sold the two older ones and kept the young ones but now they are gone" said Hughes, adding that she was" really upset" about the incident.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Police could not be immediately reached for comment. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Dec 3 2009 Sap</span><span style="font-style: italic;">a</span> </span>animalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04836704607654482316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-40227737496370423882009-11-10T21:56:00.002+02:002009-11-10T21:59:30.282+02:00Robben Island culling 'on track'<span style="font-style:italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><b>Courtesy of News24.com<br />Original article </b></span></span><a href="http://www.news24.com/Content/SciTech/News/1132/b966b48fffb042db9330de0b180667eb/02-11-2009-02-06/Robben_Island_culling_on_track"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><b>HERE</b></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Cape Town - Sharpshooters have culled about 1 600 of Robben Island's burgeoning rabbit population, and 174 fallow deer, an official said on Monday.<br /><br />The island museum's heritage manager James Makola said the culling, which started just under three weeks ago, was "on track".<br /><br />The vegetation of the 475-hectare island has been ravaged by 25 000-plus rabbits and around 500 deer, both of them alien species.<br /><br />Makola said the shooting was being done by a team of experienced professionals, working after the last tourist of the day had left, and in the early mornings.<br /><br />The rabbit carcasses were currently being buried on the island, while the dead deer were being shipped off by an organisation that was making use of the meat.<br /><br /><b>Cat sanctuary</b><br /><br />Though the team had begun shooting the island's cats, thought to number about 20, it had stopped in order to give the Cat Trapping and Sterilisation Network a chance to catch them and take them to a sanctuary in Hout Bay. This would be reviewed after a month.<br /><br />Island authorities were also looking at the possibility of trapping and relocating the island's guinea fowl, which were originally also on the culling list.<br /><br />Island environmental officials said in September the rabbits and the deer had stripped virtually all its the edible vegetation, and that the rabbits had actually started eating stinging nettle.<br /><br />They said the cats were on the hit list because they ate the chicks of penguins, the swift tern and Hartlaub's gull, of the threatened oystercatcher, and of the highly endangered bank cormorant.<br /><br />Pressure group Animal Rights Africa (ARA) said on Monday it was outraged at the "illegitimate" killing of animals, which it said formed an integral part of the island's heritage.<br /><br />It was confident that there were more humane solutions to the environmental degradation.<br /><br /><b>'Legal action'</b><br /><br />The culling was in breach of the Animals Protection Act, ARA said.<br /><br />"We are appealing to the public to assist us as we would like to take legal action to prevent the management of the Robben Island Museum from executing the ill-advised contract they have entered into to kill the animals.<br /><br />"It seems that the Robben Island management is determined to desecrate this internationally acclaimed heritage site and once again turn it into a place of oppression, injustice, exploitation, suffering and death."<br /><br />Makola said however that the island authorities were working closely with the SPCA and Cape Nature, and had based its decisions on their advice.<br /><br />What was being done was the best option given the conditions on and challenges facing the island, he said.<br /><br />Rabbits were brought to the island by early sailors, to breed as a source of meat. The fallow deer, which come originally from Europe, were introduced in the mid-20th century.<br /><br /><i>- SAPA</i></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-73117543184151238902009-11-10T20:50:00.002+02:002009-11-10T21:59:42.943+02:00Police investigating ivory smuggling network network<font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><i>ThisDay, Dar Es Salaam</i></b><br /><br />POLICE in Dar es Salaam are investigating a suspected ivory smuggling syndicate following the arrest of four people this week in possession of over 30 elephant tusks.<br /><br />According to sources within the wildlife industry, the ivory weighing more than 100 kilogrammes is believed to have come from at least 18 elephants killed recently by poachers within the vast Selous Game Reserve stretching over 54,600 square kilometres to the south of the country.<br /><br />Other sources within the police force have described the latest seizure of poached elephant tusks in Dar es Salaam as further proof that the city is now a major transit point for ivory smuggling.<br /><br />This latest development comes just days after THISDAY published a detailed expose on how the world-famous Selous has been turned into a veritable killing field where hundreds of jumbos are regularly slaughtered for their ivory.<br /><br />The tusks, numbering 33 in total, are currently in the custody of Chang’ombe Police Station in Temeke District pending completion of investigations, said the police sources who preferred to remain anonymous.<br /><br />The Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander, Suleiman Kova, on Wednesday named the arrested suspects found with the impounded tusks as Donast Mungi (73), Hassan Rashid (30), Salum Said (32), and Akram Masaki.<br /><br />Kova said the four were apprehended in Mbagala Kizuiani on the outskirts of the city, following a tip from a member of the public in nearby Mbagala Nzasa.<br /><br />He said they will be thoroughly questioned to reveal the exact origin, destination and would-be buyers of the seized ivory.<br /><br />This looks like a chain network of poachers and ivory smugglers at work. Investigations are ongoing to track down any other members of the network. With enough cooperation from members of the public, we hope that by properly uncovering this network, we will have countered the problem of ivory smuggling in the country once and for all, Kova told THISDAY.<br /><br />According to the THISDAY expose, there has been a fresh spike in elephant poaching in recent years, with some disgruntled game scouts believed to be either turning a blind eye to illegal hunting activities or themselves taking part in killing the same animals they were hired to protect.<br /><br />”An average of 50 elephants are being killed in the Selous each month...and that is a conservative estimate,” an official working in the Selous told this newspaper, adding that the hardcore poachers appear to be collaborating closely with ”an army of demoralized game scouts.”<br /><br />Ironically, as the country buckles under this latest wave of elephant poaching, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism now wants the worldwide ban on ivory trade lifted.<br /><br />Tanzania and Zambia have jointly petitioned the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to further open up the trade by allowing them to sell off their ivory stocks.<br /><br />The CITES ban on ivory trade was imposed some 20 years ago. Animal rights campaigners say the ban has been instrumental in allowing the elephant population in Tanzania to recover from the massive poaching of the 1980s.<br /><br />According to wildlife industry experts, poaching is a sensitive issue that often involves powerful and dangerous syndicates.<br /><br />It is understood that the wildlife division in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism used to pay game scouts a working allowance of between 250,000/- and 300,000/- a month, but due to budgetary constraints that allowance was suspended a couple of years ago.<br /><br />Sources have described finding heaps of jumbo carcases minus tusks left lying on the mud roads within the Selous since the beginning of this year alone. One source told THISDAY he himself counted up to 60 carcasses.<br /><br />This is organized poaching masterminded by disgruntled game scouts, which is more dangerous than the previous poaching of the 1980s, said the source, warning that if no action is taken urgently to halt the trend, we will have no elephants in two years to come.<br /><br />Miguruwe (Kilwa District), Matambwe (Morogoro South), Liwale (Lindi Region), Msola (Morogoro Region), Ilonga (Mahenge), Kingupira (Utete), and Mtemere (Rufiji) were described as the most popular poaching areas within the Selous.<br /><br />Industry observers have meanwhile described the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism as being literally crippled and the anti-poaching unit as being in the ICU (intensive care unit) due to their joint failure to control poaching.<br /><br />Possible solutions suggested by the observers include the transfer of game scouts from their current work stations within the Selous Game Reserve, and recruitment of new scouts. Also the revival of Operation Uhai, which involved soldiers of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces in fighting poaching in the 1980s.<br /><br />The worst period of elephant poaching experienced in the country was probably 1977-87, when the elephant population dwindled from 184,000 to 55,000.<br /><br />A joint crusade mounted by TPDF, the wildlife department, police and customs authorities resulted in the confiscation of more than 10,000 guns and at least 700 people prosecuted in connection with poaching activities in 1988 alone.<br /><br />Contacted for comment this time around, the director of wildlife in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Erasmus Tarimo, said the latest reports of elephant poaching in the Selous were exaggerated.<br /><br />A recent aerial count found 41 carcases of elephants. But 41 dead elephants is minimal compared to the total Selous elephant population of around 40,000, he said, adding that some elephants had died of natural causes.<br /><br />Said Tarimo: Our intention is to have zero poaching, but to maintain zero poaching is impossible. It is not easy to control poaching 100 per cent.<br /><br />He also acknowledged reports of demoralized game wardens participating in the poaching activities, saying: It is very difficult to pin down those wardens involved in the malpractice.<br /><br />Tarimo called on members of the public with information about game scouts involved in poaching to come forward and give such information to relevant authorities so that preventive action can be taken</span></font>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-36025383245956639502009-11-10T20:45:00.002+02:002009-11-10T21:59:42.946+02:00US tycoon fights for white rhino trophy<font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tony Carnie, November 06 2009<br />Courtesy of </span></b></i></font><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://www.iol.co.za</span></b></i></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />One of the richest men in America is embroiled in a heated legal battle with South African wildlife officials to recover the trophy head of a white rhino bull.<br /><br />The twist to the story is that the rhino at the centre of the row appears to be alive and healthy in Mkhuze game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal after surviving a hunting attempt more than three months ago by Texas property tycoon H Ross Perot jr, son of H Ross Perot, 79, former US presidential candidate who stood against George Bush (sr) and Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential elections.<br /><br />The animal was apparently shot and wounded by Perot jr in late July, but the bull ran off and wildlife officials have been unable to find any sign of a carcass or a wounded animal - indicating that it suffered a flesh wound or was not seriously injured.↓<br /><br />A professional hunter acting for Perot then engaged lawyers to allow a "follow-up" operation and it was agreed that Perot could have the animal's head if it was tracked down during a hunting operation scheduled to start this weekend.<br /><br />But in a dramatic about-turn last night, conservation authorities pulled the plug on the second hunt and declared that Perot was no longer entitled to his trophy horns in any circumstances.<br /><br />The initial decision to allow Perot's agents to have a "second bite at the cherry" drew strong opposition after it emerged that the animal would be shot by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife if there was a visible bullet wound from Perot's large-calibre hunting rifle.<br /><br />Despite initial opposition, Ezemvelo later agreed that the trophy head and skin would become the property of Perot and could be shipped back to Texas. But last-minute discussions were held last night between Ezemvelo chief executive Bandile Mkhize and Andrew Zaloumis, chief executive of the IsiMangaliso Wetland Park world heritage site.<br /><br />Shortly before The Mercury was about to publish the story, Mkhize and Zaloumis announced that there would be no second hunt and if Ezemvelo were to track down the animal and find that it was suffering they would put it out of its misery - but Perot no longer had any claim to its head.<br /><br />Garry Kelly, the South African professional hunter who was sub-contracted to accompany Perot on the first hunt, had insisted that the primary purpose of the follow-up operation at Mkhuze was to ensure the wounded animal was tracked down and destroyed to spare it further pain and suffering.<br /><br />Other sources felt the decision to allow a follow-up was "morally absurd" and merely a pretext to obtain the animal's head. They said the animal had suffered a flesh wound and was unlikely to bear any remaining visible wounds.<br /><br />Kelly said the fate of the trophy head was irrelevant to him and he was simply completing his professional duty to follow the hunt to its conclusion. However, his attorney has stated that the current health status of the animal became immaterial to the trophy contract the moment it was struck by a bullet.<br /><br />"The American client of my client (Kelly) has paid a vast sum of money, so there is an issue of getting the trophy... the legal issue is that there is a contract which says they are entitled and obliged to do what they are doing. The (American) client says he can't come back (to South Africa) and feels: 'I've paid for it and I want it (the trophy).'"<br /><br />The Mercury has established from correspondence that Perot jr, 47, was accompanied on the recent African safari by one of his sons, Hill Perot, 27.<br /><br />While Perot jr apparently bungled his shot in the controlled hunting zone of the Mkhuze reserve, Hill Perot is understood to have succeeded in bagging his own rhino trophy.<br /><br />Judging from pictures posted on his "Facebook" and "MySpace" online networking sites, Hill Perrot already has an extensive trophy collection.<br /><br />Neither Kelly nor his Pietermaritzburg attorney, Pat Dewes, would confirm the identity of their American client, but a spokesman for Perot confirmed his involvement through an e-mail message which referred all queries to Kelly.<br /><br />Dewes said the American client (Perot) was "not a novice" and was required by the Ezemvelo hunting contract to undergo a marksmanship proficiency test before he was allowed to proceed with the hunt.<br /><br />A flurry of legal letters was exchanged between Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and Kelly, reportedly with the support of Perot jr.<br /><br />He insisted on an opportunity to do a follow-up hunt for the injured animal. But Ezemvelo CEO Bandile Mkhize declined this request on the basis that hunting rules and codes of conduct did not permit this. If an animal was wounded and could not be recovered it was considered forfeit. Mkhize also expressed concern about the difficulty of tracking and identifying the bull.<br /><br />Last month, however, Ezemvelo acceded to Kelly's requests and allowed him permission for "one final search".<br /><br />In a subsequent letter, Mkhize made it clear that the rhino could be shot only if the animal was identified according to agreed criteria and "if there is any doubt the animal will not be shot".<br /><br />It made no mention, however, of the current health status of the animal being a factor in the decision to hunt it a second time.<br /><br />Kelly's attorney has taken the view that if the animal was identified and shot by Ezemvelo officials his clients were automatically entitled to possession of the trophy head and skin.<br /><br />Perot jr is listed on the Forbes list of America's richest people, although he is not quite as rich as his more famous father. Perot jr's wealth fell from $2,2bn to $1,25bn in the most recent Forbes list.<br /><br />It is not known how much Perot jr paid for the hunt, but sources suggest a single rhino trophy hunting package would cost in the region of R500 000.<br /><br />While the issue of rhino hunting remains contentious, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife offers at least two hunts in the Mkhuze reserve every year on a tender basis, and an average of 30 white rhinos are also auctioned annually to private buyers, including hunters.<br /><br />Several conservation authorities have acknowledged the role of hunting and private ownership in boosting the species' recovery. But now the failed hunting attempt by Perot jr has raised fresh concerns around the issue of rhino hunting. </span></font>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-30173882438360060382009-10-04T16:13:00.004+02:002009-10-04T16:17:02.353+02:00Pan African condemnation of upcoming KZN Bull killing ritual<span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>PRESS RELEASE
<br /></strong>Courtesy of : <a href="http://www.animal-voice.org/">www.animal-voice.org</a>
<br />
<br />With only three months to go before another bull is torn apart to die a terrified and agonising death, animal welfare representatives from 10 African countries have called on the South African Parliament to denounce this annual ritual as unbecoming of the modern face of Africa.
<br />
<br />At the end of the first-ever pan-African conference on animal welfare, held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 21- 24 September 2009, delegates unanimously called for the recognition of animals as 'sentient', deserving of care, respect and protection. </span></span>
<br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br />Delegates also signed a petition calling on the South African Parliament to halt, with immediate effect, the bare handed killing of the bull at the First Fruit Festival in Kwa Zulu-Natal usually held on the first Saturday in December each year. The petition stated:
<br />
<br /><em>"We believe that cruelty to animals is not the face of Africa that will see us contributing to global discourse as competent and dignified participants."</em>
<br />
<br />Countries that took part in the conference included Somali, Uganda, Egypt, DR Congo, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and South Africa. (See attachment for signatories).
<br />
<br />For more about the conference, please go to: <a href="http://www.anaw.org/">www.anaw.org</a> or contact:
<br />
<br />Josphat Ngonyo, Director: Africa Network for Animal Welfare.
<br />
<br />P.O. Box 3731 - 00506
<br />Nairobi, Kenya
<br />Tel: +254 20 606 510
<br />Telefax: +254 20 609 691
<br />Mobile: +254 (0) 722 243 091
<br />+254 (0) 733 617 286
<br />Email: jos@anaw.org
<br />
<br />
<br />This Press Release is issued by: Compassion in World Farming (South Africa). Compassion's delegate to the conference was Tozie Zokufa.
<br />
<br />The signatures referred to in the Press Release are at
<br /><a href="http://www.animal-voice.org/images/stories/pdf/petition_re_bull_kill.pdf">http://www.animal-voice.org/images/stories/pdf/petition_re_bull_kill.pdf</a>
<br />
<br />Our letter to President Zuma can be seen at
<br /><a href="http://www.animal-voice.org/News-2009/Letter-to-President-Jacob-Zuma">http://www.animal-voice.org/News-2009/Letter-to-President-Jacob-Zuma</a>
<br />
<br />For more information:
<br />
<br /><strong>Louise van der Merwe</strong>
<br />SA Representative: Compassion in World Farming
<br />Editor: Animal Voice
<br />Managing Trustee: The Humane Education Trust
<br />CEO: Humane Education Publishers
<br />Tel./Fax +27 21 852 8160
<br /><a href="http://www.het.org.za/">www.het.org.za</a>
<br /><a href="http://www.animal-voice.org/">www.animal-voice.org</a><strong></strong></span></span>
<br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-47485688673702835482009-10-04T16:03:00.003+02:002009-10-04T16:06:26.744+02:00Rhino run down in park<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"><strong>2009-10-01 08:06
<br />The Witness
<br /><em>Ingrid Oellerman</em></strong>
<br />Pietermaritzburg - A white rhino was knocked down and killed by a bakkie and subsequently dehorned in a baffling hit-and-run accident in the Weenen Game Reserve on Tuesday night.</span>
<br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">
<br />Wildlife investigators are looking into the unusual circumstances surrounding the death of the animal, and the subsequent removal of one of its horns, which was discovered hidden in the bush some 100 metres from where the collision occurred.
<br />
<br />Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesperson Maureen Zimu confirmed the incident, but referred The Witness to top EKZNW official Bheki Khoza, who said he is awaiting a written report before commenting.
<br />
<br /><strong>Lost its horn</strong>
<br />The Witness learned that the white rhino female - believed to have been pregnant - was struck by a white Toyota Hilux bakkie on the main road leading through Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Weenen Game Reserve shortly before 19:00 on Tuesday.
<br />
<br />When police arrived at the scene about three hours later, in response to a report, they discovered the rhino carcass and the bakkie still at the scene.
<br />
<br />There was no sign of the driver or any other occupants of the bakkie.
<br />
<br />Stranger still was the fact that the dead rhino appeared to have lost its horn.
<br />
<br />The horn had not been hacked off in the usual manner employed by poachers, but probably came loose as a result of the collision, after which it appears it was pulled off.
<br />
<br />A member of the Pietermaritzburg Organised Crime Unit, Inspector Riaan van Rooyen - who is assigned to a task team investigating wildlife crime, including the recent rhino poaching epidemic in the province - said guards had been stationed at the site until daylight.
<br />
<br /><strong>Driver traced</strong>
<br />At first light, an extensive search of the area was made and the missing horn was found concealed in a thorn tree in the bush.
<br />
<br />The driver of the bakkie has since been traced by the police, but his name is being withheld pending further police investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
<br />
<br />A full forensic examination of the bakkie and the recovered rhino horn will be carried out.
<br />
<br />Van Rooyen said the driver of the Hilux returned to the accident scene on Wednesday. He did not sustain any serious injuries as a result of the collision. The Hilux was badly damaged, however,
<br />A veterinary surgeon carried out an autopsy on the rhino carcass on Wednesday to determine whether or not the animal had been shot, but reportedly found no evidence of gunshot injuries on the rhino.
<br />
<br /><strong>Alarming increase in poaching</strong>
<br />According to evidence led earlier this month during a bail application by four alleged rhino poachers at Kwambonambi, rhino horn currently sells for between R35 000 and R45 000 per kilogram on the black market.
<br />
<br />Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife investigator Rod Potter gave evidence of an alarming increase countrywide in rhino poaching in 2008 and 2009, which is likely to impact on tourism.
<br />
<br />In KZN, private game reserves are showing reluctance to stock rhino because of the threat of poaching by syndicates.
<br />Rhino horn is usually destined for the international market as there is a limited demand for it in SA traditional medicine.
<br />
<br />It is especially popular as an ingredient in Chinese traditional medicine.
<br />The four accused, who were arrested in possession of freshly hacked off rhino horns linked to a carcass in Umfolozi game reserve, were each granted bail of R10 000.
<br />
<br /><strong>Another rhino death</strong>
<br />Police are also looking into the circumstances in which a white rhino died in Hluhluwe Game Reserve.
<br />The animal’s skull was recovered last week with the horns missing. An extensive search of the area has failed to uncover the horns.
<br />
<br />Although predators such as hyenas may have carried them away, experts say that they should have been found in the vicinity of the carcass. The rhino probably died at least a month before the skull was discovered.</span>
<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-70453132671604248322009-10-04T12:43:00.003+02:002009-10-04T12:51:02.274+02:00Huge seizures of 1169 kgs of elephant ivory in Kenya and Ethiopia<span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">From</span> </span><a href="http://www.wildlifeextra.com/"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">http://www.wildlifeextra.com</span></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXYyliamFrzaSnzloipCXoPcJm8PEwyG6lFiBBYBSmH1i1tGrONWg5AVuZlwYzLKy8xLV8MXf1MlUKO8qYMqoRLRAXsUqlBU_ZsROaJpg4I7pQzQMNQuyY9Hmq1TGW2QefYwsnnISwBdyz/s1600-h/image001.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388694877380161650" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 260px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 172px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXYyliamFrzaSnzloipCXoPcJm8PEwyG6lFiBBYBSmH1i1tGrONWg5AVuZlwYzLKy8xLV8MXf1MlUKO8qYMqoRLRAXsUqlBU_ZsROaJpg4I7pQzQMNQuyY9Hmq1TGW2QefYwsnnISwBdyz/s320/image001.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"><br />Are fears being realised that the auction of ivory from Southern Africa will increase elephant poaching? </span></div><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"><br /><p><br /><strong>More than 1 tonne of ivory seized in East Africa in days.</strong></p><p>September 2009. The Kenya Wildlife Service has seized the largest haul of ivory in recent history at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi. </p><p><strong>61 tusks</strong></p><p>The interception of 61 whole tusks of raw ivory weighing about 532 kg at a Kenya Airways warehouse at 6pm followed joint efforts by the Kenya Wildlife Service Dog Unit, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and Airport Police as well as the Nairobi-based regional wildlife organisation Lusaka Agreement Task Force.</p><p>The unaccompanied luggage was to be air-freighted to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the way to Bangkok, Thailand. The ivory had been falsely declared as "Polishing bench" on the Air Bill and was packed in four boxes.</p><p><strong>Second seizure in Addis Ababa</strong></p><p>This follows closely on the seizure of another consignment of 637 kg of ivory that was intercepted by Ethiopian authorities just two days earlier on Sunday (September 27, 2009) at Addis Ababa. This consignment had also originated from Nairobi and was destined for Bangkok via Addis Ababa by the same consignee. This consignment had been labelled as "Dye polishing bench". This makes a total of 1169 kg of ivory seized within two days in Addis Ababa and Nairobi, all suspected to be from Kenyan elephants.</p><p>In the past, illegally obtained ivory from Kenya usually transited out of the country through porous borders and Moyale has long been suspected to be a point of exit. From Ethiopia, the trophies would find their way to the lucrative black markets in South East Asia.</p><p><strong>Intensified surveillance</strong></p><p>Kenyan laws allow confiscation and seizure of illegal goods while on transit. Kenya Wildlife Service has intensified surveillance at all the international airports in the country using sniffer and tracker dogs to enforce these provisions. 24-hour surveillance has been mounted at JKIA and will be extended to Mombasa and Eldoret, the other international airports in Kenya. KWS intend to ensure that it's almost impossible to leave Kenya with any ivory and other illegal trophies.</p><p>Poaching on the risePoaching for Elephant ivory has been on the rise across the continent since the partial lifting of international trade in ivory in 2007 to allow the one-off sale to China and Japan by four South African Countries: Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.</p><p><strong>125 elephants killed in 2009 by poachers in Kenya</strong></p><p>The recovered ivory is suspected to have been sourced locally and from the neighbouring countries. Kenya has this year lost 125 elephants through poaching but most of the poached ivory has been recovered by KWS through security operations. Kenya lost 47 elephants to illegal killings in 2007 and 98 last year. In absolute terms this is not alarming. However, the percentage increase in illegal killings within the last three years is worrying. The current prolonged drought has also taken its toll on the elephant population but has mainly affected the young and sub-adult elephants, about 70.</p><br /><p>KWS is concerned that the CITES decision to allow the one-off sale of ivory was not well supervised and has led to the death of other species like rhinos, buffalos and antelopes. Investigations show that killers of elephants take everything in their wake.</p><br /><p>Our message to the world is: "Please don't wear ivory. It belongs to elephants"</p><br /><p>Investigations have been launched to ascertain the origin of the ivory and the culprits behind this illegal trade in wildlife.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-53858090049260045852009-09-18T07:50:00.003+02:002009-09-18T07:53:33.975+02:00Kin Under Skin : What elephants and humans have in common.<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">G.A. Bradshaw, 09.13.09, 12:01 AM EDT</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Taken from : </span></span><a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/12/science-elephants-humans-opinions-contributors-neurobiology.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/12/science-elephants-humans-opinions-contributors-neurobiology.html</span></span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNVCWbZtUPeSLxUK72jV2SqQRnmgvyRc_DVk0Eq5cdgphBj8cxWark6oKvfboozHXK4VseQ6VZJ6b9g30awC4ucZvnLrYn_Q6J2B_nKgv56Wq65-J1z9197zaIwCAKXhyczXQHn6kWOuIv/s320/gabradshaw_170x170.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 170px; height: 170px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382681424063689778" /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">William is an executive at a Wall Street firm. He has three children, is on the arts board, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and is easily the club's best </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">tennis player. No one would guess that the pressed white shirt he wears every day hides cigarette burns and the ragged scars of abuse. William never knew a father's love or a secure home until his mother remarried. It was then he learned how to play tennis, laugh and watch television on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, a stepfather's arm around his shoulder and a mother's hand on his knee.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">When William made partner, his wife booked him a ticket to Africa to celebrate his achievement. It was there he first met Kani. The safari guide had pointed out Kani in camp. Without words, there was a flash of recognition. Kani had also suffered as a child; he was orphaned after witnessing his family hacked to death by angry villagers. Fortunately, a loving family took him in. The first years were hard, but eventually he matured into an upstanding member of the community with children of his own.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Both William and Kani had brothers who were less fortunate. Brian and Mukiri never had the opportunity to heal from their violent wounds. Each grew up on his own, lacking the love and reassurance of a father figure who could guide him to manhood. At age 16, Brian was killed in a drug deal gone bad. At 14, Mukiri was gunned down by authorities.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Standing beside the Land Rover, William gazed out over the savannah at the awesome bulk of an African bull elephant. The giant, Kani, turned his head and the two locked eyes. “We survived,” they said. “We survived.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">An elephant's brain is nearly four times the size of a human's. The added volume affords elephants the prodigious memory needed to store a vast knowledge of elephant society and the complexities of African life. Elephant matriarchs recognize over 100 different relatives and friends, and when conditions are harsh, they can navigate scores of miles to lead their families safely to food and water.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Despite the difference in size, human and elephant brains are surprisingly similar. Neuroscience reveals there are no appreciable differences in brain structures and mechanisms between humans and other animals. Even birds, with evolutionary history that took a separate path, have brain functions and capacities convergent with their mammalian counterparts.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This cerebral overlap accounts for the similarities between William and Kani. Though man and elephant grew up in different skins and on different continents, they share similar stories and endings because of a common neurobiology. Brain science also explains why they became who they are today and their brothers did not. Mental receptivity and brain plasticity endow the elephant matriarch with wisdom--and allow human children to learn Japanese, Swahili and English simultaneously while adults stumble through their menus in Paris, trying to recall college French. Sadly, it is the same plasticity that makes humans and elephants vulnerable to suffering. Abuse and neglect leave enduring scars. What we experience in the outside world penetrates deep inside, even to the point of turning genes on and off.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Traumatic memories persist, but wrongs can be righted with love. For William, it came in the form of a stepfather he could trust. For lucky orphans like Kani, it is the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, outside Nairobi. There, from infancy to teenhood, orphaned elephants are nurtured and taught elephant ways and values by caregiving African men so that they are able to rejoin their pachyderm kin in the wild expanses of Kenya.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Science increasingly reveals that nature has a face. The stories of William and Kani suggest that what we do and how we treat each other can leave a long-lasting legacy on the neurons and synapses of the brain. A polar bear drowning in Arctic waters, a parrot alone in a metal cage and a child abandoned are variations on the same theme. Saving the elephant or the whale is a way to save ourselves and our children. We are kin under skin.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i>G.A. Bradshaw, Ph.D., is director of the Kerulos Center and the author of <b>Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us About Humanity</b>, to be published Oct. 6, 2009 by Yale University Press</i></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-65661966748067506382009-09-18T07:44:00.002+02:002009-09-18T07:46:41.221+02:00Culling 'a last resort' in Ezemvelo's elephant control plans<div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mercury: September 16, 2009 Edition</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> 1</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tony Carnie</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><div>EZEMVELO KZN Wildlife has become the first conservation agency to submit new elephant management plans - including the option of culling elephants at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, Tembe, Isimangaliso and Ithala game reserves.</div><div><br /></div><div>But Ezemvelo says no culling is on the cards yet as other methods of limiting elephant populations are being tested, including contraception at Tembe Elephant Park on the Mozambique border.</div><div><br /></div><div>South Africa has more than 17 000 elephants in 80 national, provincial and private reserves. Most are in the Kruger National Park, which suspended culling 14 years ago.</div><div><br /></div><div>A new elephant management policy was finalised last year and included the resumption of culling as a last option.</div><div><br /></div><div>Responding to recent questions from DA environment spokesman Gareth Morgan, the national Environmental Affairs Department said no elephants had been culled since the new policy came into force in January last year.</div><div><br /></div><div>Environment affairs director-general Nosipho Ngcaba confirmed that Ezemvelo had submitted management plans to the department for the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, Isimangaliso, Ithala and Tembe reserves, and that they provided for culling.</div><div><br /></div><div>She said, however, that the new policy stipulated that culling would be approved only as a last resort.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the exception of a small herd on the border with Mozambique, elephants were wiped out in KwaZulu-Natal in the early 1900s.</div><div><br /></div><div>More than 200 elephants were reintroduced to KZN's parks from 1981 to 1994. From a founder population of 160 orphans, the number in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park has grown to about 470. Tembe Elephant Park now has 270 elephants, Ithala about 110, Isimangaliso (St Lucia) 60 and Mkhuze about 50.</div></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-26892135176044885232009-09-18T07:42:00.001+02:002009-09-18T07:43:12.225+02:00Appeal to the Dutch Government Who wants Emergency Act Against Environmental Defenders Sea Shepherd<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can view this petition at: </span></span><a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/5519958"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/5519958</span></span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Message from jose kersten: I just signed the petition "Appeal to the Dutch Government Who wants Emergency Act Against Environmental Defenders Sea Shepherd". I'm asking you to sign this petition to help us reach our goal of 6,000 signatures. I care deeply about this cause, and I hope you will support our efforts.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-19996673026228828902009-09-18T07:39:00.001+02:002009-09-18T07:41:09.816+02:00Gambia: Thirteen Wild Animal Species Extinct<div><a href="http://www.observer.gm/enews/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Daily Observer</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (Banjul)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Gambia: Thirteen Wild Animal Species Extinct -Minister Cham</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hatab Fadera</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">14 September 2009</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Banjul — Momodou Kotu Cham, the minister of Forestry and the Environment, last Thursday, informed members of the National Assembly that 13 species of wild animals have gone extinct. Among them, he said, include elephant, giraffe and lion.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Minister Cham was responding to a question posed to him by the National Assembly member for Banjul South, Honourable Baboucarr S Nyang, who wanted to know the reason behind the extinction of wild animals in the country, especially in regions such as the Central and Upper River Region, which he said, were in the past endowed with lots of animals.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Forestry and Environment minister said as in all other natural processes, extinction could be both natural and human driven. For most of the wild animals of The Gambia, he said, the major cause of extinction has been loss of habitat by basically human beings. "To a large extent, our human population has been responsible for the extinction of a large number of wild animals because as the population increases, so is its demand on land to settle, to cultivate, and indeed to conduct all other human development needs," he said.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">He then went on to inform the members that species like the elephant and lion need hundreds of kilometres of land as their home range. But as their habitat gets destroyed as a result of human activities, he said, these wild animals that require large home ranges are forced to migrate, or get killed, and eventually go extinct.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Reintroduction of some species</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Also responding to a related question from the same NAM, on whether there are plans or programmes geared towards re-populating some of the designated national parks with animals such as leopard, antelopes, bucks, and cheetah amongst others, the Forestry and Environment minister told deputies about plans to re-introduce certain species of these animals into some of the nature reserves and parks. "But it must be noted that reintroduction has both technical and financial implications. Game reserves for viewing, and nature tourism including safaris could become an additional high class tourism product for the country, and at the same time enhance and increase the value of wild species," stated Minister Cham.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This, he told members is the reason why the government has invited the private sector, both Gambian and foreign to invest in the parks since the private sector could provide both technical and financial requirements. "As I speak, we are studying several requests from some investors who have expressed interest," concluded the Forestry and Environment minister.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-19981353479061472432009-09-08T00:41:00.004+02:002009-09-08T00:44:19.017+02:00‘Mabunda smear tactics a low blow’ (Sunday Independent 6 September 2009)<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Animal Rights Africa (ARA) is dismayed at the unwarranted attack on ARA by SANParks CEO, Dr David Mabunda in his opinion piece, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anti-hunting groups have misfired, </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sunday Independent, 30 August 2009. But clearly, in </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">our dedication to ending the unnecessary suffering of oppressed and exploited sentient beings, and to the total liberation of human animals, nonhuman animals, and the Earth, ARA has struck a </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">raw nerve.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Let us start with Dr Mabunda’s simplistic and patent attempt to side-line and discredit ARA. By implying that ARA is part of some kind of international illuminati-type conspiracy from the North, Dr Mabunda makes use of apartheid-style smear tactics, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a-la-</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">PW Botha. Why i</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">s it so difficult for Dr Mabunda to accept that ARA is a “proudly South African” initiative that is simply part of a global trend towards the expansion of justice and respect for all animals (humans included)? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The liberation struggle in South Africa was part of a global momentum towards recognizing the dignity and integrity of oppressed people the world over. Why are the same principles, when applied to the animal liberation struggle, so difficult for him to comprehend? It is clear that Dr </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mabunda has not bothered to understand what the guiding principles of the animal liberation and animal rights movement are. It is therefore absurd and disingenuous in the extreme that he tries to link our movement to colonialism and imperialism. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We are a new global breed of activism and we are part of the new social movements: seeking new relations with the natural world and an end of hierarchies. As a South African advocacy and campaigning organization that is trying to </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">contribute to policy debates and formulation in relation to wildlife, </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ARA obviously welcomes robust engagement, but Dr Mabunda’s vitriolic response is worrying because at its core it damages constitutional democracy in South Africa. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">By striking out at NGOs like ARA he is showing unacceptable intolerance for those that he perceives as not totally in support of SANParks – the kind of censoring “if you are not with us you are against us” position. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Not everything can and should be State-driven. </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">By taking such an intolerant stand Dr Mabunda is directly making a cynical and comprehensive </span></span><em><span style="font-weight:normal; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">attack</span></span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> on the rights of civil society to legitimately organize themselves. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom: .0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The irony is that it is current government neoliberal conservation policies which are </span></span></span><span style="font-family:DFSPPH+Palatino-Italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">reproductions of old colonial e</span></span></span><span style="font-family:ODLNNL+Palatino-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">conomic logic where the unfettered exploitation of natural and human resources was (and is) the norm.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> So it does not s</span></span><span style="font-family:ODLNNL+Palatino-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">urprise us that in</span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> South Africa it is pro-utilization lobby organisations, donors, individuals</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and governments from the North </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that rule the roost and with whom government conservation agencies partner with. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom: .0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom: .0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Along with Dr Mabunda, members </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of the IUCN and other aligned organisations are largely proponents of so-called “wise use” interest groups, the very antithesis of “progressive conservation”. Rather than consider the sustainability of wildlife and ecosystems, wise-use emphasizes sustaining the maximum human consumptive use of the animals and the environment. </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom: .0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dr Mabunda’s unwarranted swipe at Kenya and its wildlife policies, which he says have been hijacked by animal rights and welfare NGOs is patronising and dismissive of Kenya’s sovereignty. </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It is far-fetched to claim, as he does, that </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">animal rights and welfare NGOs have </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the financial and political clout to influence the views of Kenyans on such a grand scale. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Kenya will no doubt reply to this poisonous allegation itself. But, let us be clear, </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">through a consultative process, it is the majority of communities living with wildlife in Kenya who are overwhelmingly opposed to the resumption of trophy hunting , believe that it will negate conservation and provide even fewer returns for local communities in wildlife areas. The fact that Kenyans seem to be weighing up the arguments and then choosing to take a more measured and respectful is laudable. It is Kenya who leads the fight at every CITES meeting against countries, such as South Africa and Namibia, and “wise use” lobby groups, that are trying to</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> weaken protection at CITES meetings and who push trophy </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">hunting and the trade in wildlife as the panacea for protecting wildlife. Is this the real reason why Dr Mabunda is so keen to misrepresent Kenya? </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom: .0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ARA will continue to positively contribute and push for vigorous public debate and policy change that will build our growing democracy and not stifle it, and we can only hope that SANParks will be gracious enough to accept that. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom: .0001pt;line-height:normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal"><b><i><span lang="EN-US"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Michele Pickover (Coordinator: Animal Rights Africa)</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-35862684036665405442009-09-08T00:35:00.004+02:002009-09-08T00:40:24.835+02:00IN THE PRESS (Week of 6 September 2009)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Click on the news article that interests you.<br /><br /><b>Number of slaughtered white rhinos in Kruger up to 33 </b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn20090903035154141C960833"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Bolivia bans all circus animals</b><br />Click <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/31/bolivia-bans-circus-animals">HERE</a> to read more.<br />or<br />Click </span></span> <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20090731020235123C290960"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Farm dumps 'economically worthless' male chicks </b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-08-12-farm-dumps-economically-worthless-male-chicks"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Animal cruelty charges for ex-agriculture MEC</b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20090814150703594C462593"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Claims of monkey business in baboon contract</b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn20090822124407798C193863"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Rhino horns give the game away</b> <br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=27233"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Leopard skin haul case is delayed yet again</b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20090814035248171C634366"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><b>46 Black rhinos moved to safer areas in Zimbabwe </b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/zimbabwe-rhinos772.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Six critically endangered western lowland gorilla orphans released onto an island</b><br />Click <a href="http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/lowland-gorillas039.html">HERE</a> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Congo’s wildlife rangers launch offensive against armed groups trafficking charcoal in gorilla zone of Virunga </b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/virunga-charcoal009.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Amboseli elephants dying in worst drought for 50 years</b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/amboseli-elephants009.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Brutal Namibian seal hunt caught on film – Journalists attacked</b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/namibia-seals009.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /><br /><b>Big cat hunting has disproportionate affect on populations</b><br />Click </span></span><a href="http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/sport-hunting009.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">HERE</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> to read more.<br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-45869204732561435862009-07-23T21:41:00.000+02:002009-07-23T21:42:27.040+02:00Permanently Ban the Sale of Ivory<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can view this petition at: </span></span><a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/4979981"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/4979981</span></span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The growing demand for ivory has lead to skyrocketing rates of illegal poaching, and unless ivory sales are permanently banned, elephants and rhinos are likely to go extinct. In fact, Kenyan Wildlife Authorities recently seized $1 million worth of elephant tusks and rhino horns bound for ivory markets in Asia. Please sign this petition today to call for a permanent, total ban on ivory sales to save elephants and rhinos!</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-21439097424729078422009-07-23T17:38:00.003+02:002009-07-23T18:03:28.715+02:00Seal killing in Namibia<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Bart Smithers, film maker extraodinaire, has despite being beaten up, arrested and thrown in jail, managed to get out footage of the Namibian seal killing.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KL3SchbHFkI&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KL3SchbHFkI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The footage can be viewed here: <a href="http://www.bontvoordieren.nl/">http://www.bontvoordieren.nl</a></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Please be aware that the footage is upsetting and traumatic. However, it is incredibly important to get this out to the world. This is the only new footage which is available. The last footage which was release was back in the late nineties beginning two thousands when Namibia threw</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">open the doors to let the media see how "humane" the killing is. After that, there was a complete ban on anyone witnessing the process.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-10445875427559364362009-07-21T16:49:00.010+02:002009-07-21T17:37:18.387+02:00Leopard Number 29 is dead !<div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: justify;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Courtesy of Landmark Foundation : </span></span><a href="http://www.landmarkfoundation.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">http://www.landmarkfoundation.org</span></span></a></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: justify;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-family:verdana;font-size:small;">29 NOW DEAD, 29 NOW LEFT!</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Press Release: 16 July 2009</div></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><img src="http://www.fair-game.co.za/newsletter/july2009/Picture1.jpg" style="text-align: justify;float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 253px; height: 190px; " border="0" alt="" /></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: left;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This large territorial male leopard, of 41kg, was killed on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth yesterday. It was caught around the neck in a cable snare and died of suffocation. It was likely a dominant male that command</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ed a territory of larger than 25 000 hectares. The snare was made from a bicycle break cable</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: justify;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: justify;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: justify;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: justify;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: justify;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" face="verdana,sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-weight: bold; ">Killed on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth</span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The damage to the already stretched genetic stock of the species in the region and the social structures of this population of leopard is incalculable.</span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><img src="http://www.fair-game.co.za/newsletter/july2009/Picture2.jpg" style="text-align: left;float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 251px; height: 264px; " border="0" alt="" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div style="text-align: left;">This leopard's death is of major concern, as a recently completed Rhodes University study indicated that this cat would have been part of a core population of territorial leopard that lived in a 300 000 ha area in and around the Baviaanskloof Reserve. The study indicated that only about 30</div><div style="text-align: left;">territorial leopards remained in this region (between PE/Uitenhage and Uniondale, Eastern Cape, South Africa). Over the past 6 years we know of at least 29 killed leopards in this area. It does not require a rocket scientist to realize that this species is under severe stress in this</div><div style="text-align: left;">region, and that perhaps we are past the 11th hour for its survival.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Such snaring and agricultural productio</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">n practices such as gin traps, poisons and hunting dogs continue to threaten these species and hundreds of others across the country.</span></span></span></div></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Such events are now so common that it is almost not newsworthy. Yet, we still live in a country where we have legislation that makes it legal to</div><div style="text-align: left;">set leg hold traps (such as gin traps), to use poisons and even to hunt predators from helicopters. We have many other less charismatic species suffering similar and worse fates, and at far greater rates. We have production bodies like the National Woolgrowers, the South African Mohair Growers and Red Meat Producers Organization calling for more lethal controls of predators through indiscriminate methods. We as consumers must vote with our wallets and support produce that is not</div><div style="text-align: left;">tainted with this abuse of our wildlife! Please support Fair Game(tm) <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:serif;font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wildlife Friendly produce w</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">hen it appears on your supermarket shelves later in the year, as it will be produce that does not destroy our</span></span></span></div></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;">wildlife in its production, and it will reward producers that comply with audited and acceptable production standards that are ethically and ecologically acceptable.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Cubs rescued on Sunday 12 July 2009 in the Baviaanskloof</div></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;"><img src="http://www.fair-game.co.za/newsletter/july2009/Picture3.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 443px; height: 145px;" border="0" alt="" /></span></div></span></div><div class="gmail_quote" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;">The Landmark Foundation has tried to create some respite for the leopard in this corner of South Africa, and working with willing farmers, especially in the Baviaanskloof River Valley of the Baviaanskloof Mega-reserve, to counter the persecution of the leopard in this region. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div style="text-align: left;">It has seen us now rescue 27 leopards since 2004, of which 24 cases have taken place in the last 30 months in an around the Baviaanskloof and the Garden Route areas. The last of these rescues occurred on Sunday 12 July 2009, where 2 leopard cubs were rescued in a cage trap - unusually</div><div style="text-align: left;">caught together. This area had been totally cleared of gin traps which had been the method of predator control previously, and which in the past would certainly have resulted in the death of at least one of these cats. The cubs were released and reunited with their mother who was seen</div><div style="text-align: left;">with them at the release.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">--end press release--</div></span></span></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;">Issued by: Dr Bool Smuts, Director Landmark Foundation</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="mailto:bool@landmarkfoundation.org.za"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "></span></a><a href="mailto:bool@landmarkfoundation.org.za"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">bool@landmarkfoundation.org.za</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> | </span></span><a href="http://www.landmarkfoundation.org.za/" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">www.landmarkfoundation.org.za</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> |</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family:verdana, sans-serif;" class="gmail_quote"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">+27 (0)83 324 3344</span><br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-16782789516164051992009-02-10T14:47:00.004+02:002009-07-23T21:50:36.713+02:00YOUR HELP NEEDED TO STOP GREYHOUND RACING - PLEASE ATTEND HEARINGS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP0lTHDjkOWvAeVrKsZwnRV-NoIxgIGVuLKuPzIjI9lTmaqZl6kQdDAnZ3cvUgm8PPbz6SXnv5wB8tXkLRilwPh2iRcStiqhVNVO2JRaEFpEIa1akTnE8KF8kyJmK2pMddQDqqrXvCHmtv/s1600-h/greyhound_small.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP0lTHDjkOWvAeVrKsZwnRV-NoIxgIGVuLKuPzIjI9lTmaqZl6kQdDAnZ3cvUgm8PPbz6SXnv5wB8tXkLRilwPh2iRcStiqhVNVO2JRaEFpEIa1akTnE8KF8kyJmK2pMddQDqqrXvCHmtv/s320/greyhound_small.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301149561538304098" /></a><p><b><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">WHY CONDEMN DOG RACING?</span></span></span></span></b></p> <p><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The introduction to South Africa of abhorrent practices that surround this activity as they exist in other countries globally ultimately would result in enormous untold suffering and deprivation of welfare for thousands of animals in the future. Empirical research shows that the greyhound racing industry is in rapid decline around the world, for good reason, in that progressive societies are realizing the extent of cruelty involved in the sport, and thus a greater lack of support for the practice. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Global evidence reveals that ultimately only a few interested stakeholders will profiteer enormously off the back of suffering not animal amongst the animals, but amongst the millions of impoverished citizens for whom gambling merely adds to their economic deprivation. If South Africa is to thrive both economically and as a prosperous democracy, both government and its citizens should be engaging in positive economic opportunities, not encouraging a lose-lose industry whereby both the poor and the animals will be the resultant casualties at the hands of a few profiteering opportunists. In so many other respects, South Africa continues to hold its head high globally for its extremely progressive constitution and democratic practices, which many fought and sacrificed so much in order to achieve. It would be a very sad day indeed if South Africa slid back to darker days involving oppressive practices that involve causal suffering, both economically and socially. </span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As a country, we should continue to serve as an example to the rest of the world as a thought leader and that we reject all forms of regressive practices, however lucrative they are to a small pool of self-interested business proponents who have no self-regulatory system to combat welfare issues or concern for the poor.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Please call and/or forward this to as many people as you know who will be likely to attend and object to greyhound racing<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></b><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br />Your help is needed now to stop dog racing and we only have a few weeks left to do it. However, it is not in the form of an e-mail, SMS or petition but your presence is needed at a hearing to state your objection to the introduction of greyhound racing.<br /><br />The DTI is holding public consultations so that members of the public and interested groupings can submit their input. The process is neither confrontational nor a debate, and all that citizens are required to do is give their name, state whether or not they support greyhound racing, and why.<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">How?<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Simply by attending the hearing nearest to them and participating in the process and saying NO to greyhound racing. In this instance as your presence and input are required inside the actual hearings to make a difference.<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Where and when?<br />CAPE TOWN<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">13 FEBRUARY 2009 : 09h00-12h30<br />PROTEA SEAPOINT HOTEL<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">PORT ELIZABETH<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">20 FEBRUARY 2009 : 09h00-12h30<br />PROTEA MARINE HOTEL<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">BLOEMFONTEIN<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">26 FEBRUARY 2009 : 09h00-12h30<br />GARDEN COURT HOTEL<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">PRETORIA (HATFIELD)<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">27 FEBRUARY 2009 : 09h00-12h30<br />PROTEA MANOR HOTEL<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">EAST LONDON (ESPLANADE)<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">6 MARCH 2009 : 09h00-12h30<br />GARDEN COURT HOTEL<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">POTCHEFSTROOM<br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">13 MARCH 2009 : 09h00-12h30<br />WILLOWS GARDEN HOTEL<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">BE THERE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE</span></span></span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 112, 192); font-size:15px;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-89150688165799331342009-01-08T12:32:00.008+02:002009-01-08T13:53:38.520+02:00Elephant Culling Documentary<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Elephant culling documentary posted on the Southafricull website :</span><a href="http://southafricull.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> http://southafricull.blogspot.com/</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Part 1: </span></div><div><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3jZ-k1KKXu0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3jZ-k1KKXu0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:-webkit-monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: normal; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:-webkit-monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: normal; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Part 2:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: normal; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;font-family:-webkit-monospace;"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/igcauTJ06OY&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/igcauTJ06OY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Direct YouTube links : </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Part 1 : </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jZ-k1KKXu0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jZ-k1KKXu0</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Part 2 : </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igcauTJ06OY"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igcauTJ06OY</span></a></div></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-31102625251849254752008-09-13T11:15:00.003+02:002008-09-13T11:19:40.174+02:00Statement from Martin Balluch after his release<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />It’s now been a week since I was released from prison. 104 days in a prison cell are over! It is seriously shocking to see how far police repression will be taken in order to stop legitimate and successful protest for animals in the name of a majority of the population, just because it runs contrary to the profit interests of a powerful minority.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Many many thanks to each and every one of you for all you have done for me. I am deeply humbled by the immense amount of solidarity and support we prisoners have received from the international animal’s rights community.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />I was released without the keys to my home, my car or my office being returned to me. I was also not given my computer, access to my bank account or even my wrist watch! If it had not been for friendly folk supporting me, I would have had to sleep rough during the last week, without any money. Our office – and the offices of 6 other animal rights groups – are still empty. Nothing has been handed back so far, no video material or photo cameras, no computers, no data of our membership, no photo- or film archives, and no book keeping. The intention is obvious: since the jailing of us had to be stopped, depriving us of any material is the next move to silence VGT and prevent us from being effectively active.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> Let me briefly remind you how all this came about.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />In 1997, we developed the idea in Austria of confrontative – but fully legal – grass roots campaigns including all means of civil disobedience in order to achieve reformist changes. The campaign targets were pragmatically chosen on the grounds of being practically achievable and supported by a majority of the electorate. The aim was, though, to see real changes, and not just symbolic gestures, i.e. changes that would make a world of a difference for the animals concerned – and for the people exploiting them.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />In 1998, fur farming was banned and 43 fur farms had to close down. By 2002, a law had been introduced to ban all wild animals in circuses. In 2004, the campaign to ban cages for laying hens – including enriched ones – reached its peak. It was then that powerful interest groups felt our pressure for the first time. We confronted the governing Conservative Party, which was the only party opposed to a battery farm ban, during 2 provincial and 1 presidential election. The agricultural spokesperson of the Conservatives in the southernmost province reacted so angrily to our anti-election rally, that he actually attacked me on the podium during my speech and punched me in the face. The Conservatives lost all 3 elections and eventually gave in to the pressure. From that time onwards, it was not only death threats by farmers and their agents that became part of our lives. The secret service was put on our tracks. No demo went by without plain clothes guys with listening devices, watching and photographing us.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />But the ministry of the interior went ever further. Our demos were banned to a large extent, we were fined huge amounts of money for the most minor law infringements and the ministry warned all schools about our “radicalism”. In addition, in 2005 the secret service arranged for a raid on our office to secure our accounts to try to charge us with some kind of tax fraud. We now have documents of meetings between secret service agents and our political enemy whereby they discuss suggested strategies against our demos and actions and arrange for coordinated media work to libel us. A spokesperson of the secret service called animal rights the biggest threat to national security and the minister of the interior named VGT publicly as a violent organisation. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />When, on 2 occasions, some criminal damage was done to a car and the shop of a furrier, the secret service aided the furrier in publicising this damage widely in order to set up animal rights groups like VGT for being the target of police attacks in the future. Also, contrary to the spirit of the constitution, secret service advised our political enemy to register demos at places where we wanted to do demos, in order to give police a reason to ban our demos as, on paper, the space is already “booked”. These pseudo demos never actually took place.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />When all this didn’t do the trick, another step of escalation was decided upon. At the end of 2006, the owners of Kleider Bauer and representatives of the Conservatives as well as high ranking police officers met and spoke about how to destroy VGT. The minutes of those meetings are now in our hands and make for gruesome reading. It says that there is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing and that banning our demos cannot be upheld, so a special police unit consisting of more than 32 agents from the secret service, the murder division and from the anti-terror police locally and nationally was formed with the sole purpose of framing us.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />This special unit started the largest operation of spying on political activists ever conducted since World War 2. For almost 2 years, 2 private houses, a pub as a meeting place as well as the VGT office were bugged. The telephone and the email conversation of more than 30 people were listened in on. Two cars, among them mine, had tracking devices put on them. 17 people were followed and watched 24 hours a day. 3 private homes had video cameras filming their entrances. And undercover agents were put into VGT to infiltrate us. Further, more than a dozen potential targets of animal rights activists were under permanent surveillance.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />To justify this operation, secret service drew up a list of 240 acts of criminal damage and arson (including ripping up illegal circus posters) from the last 13 years, which might have had something to do with animal rights, and claimed there was one big international criminal organisation responsible for all of them. In order to inflate the damage, a number of cases of accidental fire were presented as animal rights related arson, and one butyric acid attack on a Kleider Bauer shop was enlarged to a damage of 500,000 euro, which later led to civil law suits because the insurance company made it clear that this figure was about 50 times too large. Most likely, that was another dirty trick out of the hat of the secret service, to inflate the damage out of proportion in order to be able to justify a violent police attack later on.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Since by May 2008, this huge surveillance operation had not come up with any hint of any criminal activity, the ministry of the interior escalated the police terror even further. On 21st May 2008, 23 police squads of between 30 and 50 officers each attacked as many homes and offices of animal rights activists in the early morning hours. The doors were smashed open and masked officers surrounded people in their beds pointing guns at their heads and went on to turn the places upside down. Since the law against criminal organisations, which was used in this case to justify the operation, states that at least 10 members are necessary to make the law applicable, exactly 10 people were put on remand while almost 40 were arrested and questioned for up to 10 hours.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Since police and public prosecution had absolutely no evidence against any of us, they spoke to media as well as the judges responsible for extending the incarceration and pretended that they had a huge amount of evidence, but it had to be kept secret since the operation and investigations were ongoing. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />The judges complied and continually extended the remand detention without any charges being brought due to there being suspicion of a criminal organisation.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"> This suspicion was described as follows:<br />• The use of non-public internet platforms to discuss issues<br />• Encryption of emails and computers<br />• The use of non-registered fully legal mobile phones<br />• The expression of supposedly radical opinions on internet discussions in the last 11 years<br />• Campaign work involving emails which demand changes and threaten the use of demos<br />• International contacts, especially international meetings and gatherings with foreign animal rights activists</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />This utterly ludicrous list of “evidence” of suspicion of a criminal organisation was seriously put forward by the judges to extend the remand detention. No criminal act was in any way connected to the 10 held in prison, but the judges argued that this was not necessary. The criminal acts were committed with the same spirit – to further animal rights – and that was sufficient. The mere existence of criminal acts committed somewhere at some time by persons unknown completely unconnected to the accused was used to turn legal groups into supposedly criminal ones. That criminal acts were never the issue is proven by internal protocols that surfaced, which showed that the special police unit concerned with the case had met 4 weeks into our prison stay to debate nothing but the issue how to further damage VGT. A number of ideas were put forward and an additional meeting on the same topic was agreed upon for 4 days later. Obviously, the question on how to destroy VGT – and not how to solve any crime – was highest priority in police meetings.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />But police and state prosecution lost the media battle for public sympathy. An unprecedented wave of international protests in front of Austrian embassies in countless countries shamed the Austrian government. Throughout the whole 104 days of incarceration, daily demos were held outside the prisons and additional vigils and protests took place, including large protest marches drawing in 800 participants. The Green Party and the Social Democrats criticized the police actions with increasing impatience. A huge amount of protest letters were sent to the ministry of justice as well as to other politicians, heads of state and newspapers. Eventually, the Green Party decided to nominate myself as a candidate for the next Parliamentary elections.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />At this stage, there was no sign of any legal moves succeeding in liberating the imprisoned. The case of whether the remand imprisonment was legal is still pending at the Supreme Court. A decision is expected within the next 2-4 weeks. In the meantime, political pressure was mounting, which suddenly led to our release on 2nd September, after 104 days.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />The release was not justified by stating that there is no evidence, albeit that this is so obviously the case. The release was instead justified by saying that the time already spent in prison was out of proportion with the prison sentences expected if a guilty verdict were reached. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />A weird move to save face! Instead of saying the truth that there is no evidence, the reference to an expected sentence was used, although the charge of criminal organisation carries a maximum sentence of 5 years – and arson 10 years.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />The case is not over yet, though. The damage has been done, the threat of the law §278a criminal organisation is still looming above anyone being politically active. We are still accused, even if not charged. However, the longer this status is being drawn out, the longer police have the opportunity to claim that we are serious suspects, which they widely do in the press. A political trial would have the media watching, and then this ludicrous “evidence” would not stand a chance. In order to safeguard animal rights activism and, more generally, political activism in Austria, 3 things must be achieved. Firstly, those responsible for this police terror must be brought to account for what they did. Secondly, the damage inflicted must be fully compensated for. And thirdly, the law §278a must be revoked.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Exactly 40 years ago, the tanks of the then Soviet Union broke into the Czechoslovakian Republic to destroy with violence what has been called the “Prague Spring”, the new socialist system with a humane attitude. Dissidents were locked up and the tiny seedlings of a new society were violently uprooted. This attack on fundamental basic rights has been justly criticized all over the globe. Western democracies boast of being so different and defending liberal principles. But our case proves them wrong. New laws including bans on fur and battery farming, as well as the removal of fur and battery eggs from ever more department stores and supermarkets, were the animal rights seedlings marking the dawn of a new attitude. Dissident animal rights thinking was infiltrating ever more areas of society. And the tanks of a “democratic” system smashed it all up, and locked up the most active critical thinkers. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Yes, we have the right to free speech and to protest and to associate freely. But those freedoms end when they are used to effectively change society. You can express your opinion – as long as not enough people listen and act correspondingly. You can protest – as long as profits are not touched by it. And you can freely associate – as long as you only debate and do not influence society significantly by action. Austria has a relatively low level of animal rights related criminal activity, but a very high level of animal rights related successes. And Austria saw the largest and most violent police operation ever conducted against animal rights anywhere and anytime in the world. Is it not obvious that there is a direct connection?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Internal papers clearly reveal that the senior officers in the secret service consider any effect of political campaigning outside Parliament a threat to national security. Only Parliament is justified to direct society through electoral majorities. Political pressure from groups outside Parliament are not justified in principle, and therefore amount to terrorism. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />If social activism seriously affects the profits of powerful cliques, the secret service is set in motion to smash this movement. However, in reality, outer parliamentarian pressure groups are the most important corrective of the abuse of power by influential cliques, they are the lifeblood of democracy and the safeguard to national security. Indeed, it is the secret service that poses the biggest threat to our constitution.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />But so far, police violence has had the opposite effect on our movement than what they aimed for. We now have more activists than ever before. Animal rights is being taken seriously as a new social movement. It is being talked about everywhere. And the public sympathises ever more with us. Since having been released from prison, I have been approached countless times on the streets by strangers who congratulated me and wished me luck, and many even put money into my hands. People, who I mostly do not know, bought me a new computer, a watch, a mobile phone and a bike and even offered me a new flat to live in for a while. The bike shop gave me a 100-Euro-bikelock for free in solidarity.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />The movement stood up in solidarity behind us prisoners. Now, as a movement we are more united and willing to cooperate than ever before. And the events prove beyond any doubt that our approach to achieving animal rights in the long run is effective. If the reforms we achieved had been welcomed by animal industries, surely they would not have sent the boys round to punch us up.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><br />This year, our campaigns might have suffered a drawback. But when the case is won, we will push on with more energy than ever before. I am determined to see this through and am looking forward to new advances towards animal rights in the years ahead<br /></span><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-75525467489318973132008-09-08T21:58:00.002+02:002008-09-08T22:03:46.462+02:00From "Dominion" to Domination: The Crimes and Duplicity of Matthew Scully<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">An excerpt from a blog by Dr Steve Best posted on the Institute for Critical Animal Studies Blog [ </span></span><a href="http://criticalanimalstudies.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://criticalanimalstudies.blogspot.com</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> ]<br /><br /></span></span><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In 2002, arch-conservative Matthew Scully wrote a book called, Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and The Call to Mercy, that was universally and uncritically acclaimed by the animal advocacy movement. Because this movement is overwhelmingly single-issue in its focus, and in most cases doesn’t care about a person’s views or politics except how they relate to animals, no one had a problem with the fact that Scully was a senior speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He wrote some of the key fear-peddling diatribes that got Bush elected and he also was re-enlisted recently to help Bush sell the Iraq war “surge” to the American people.</span></span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />View the complete blog here:<br /></span></span><a href="http://criticalanimalstudies.blogspot.com/2008/09/sleeping-with-enemy-unbounded-treachery.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://criticalanimalstudies.blogspot.com/2008/09/sleeping-with-enemy-unbounded-treachery.html</span></span></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-3134446641907314322008-09-08T21:18:00.010+02:002008-09-08T21:53:44.984+02:00Shun meat, says UN climate chief<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBHDebU7eHIAI1yCz-SXNFzWjeRi-WN8_1WSTpgfXPoR_tItIoCgjsvXGJVoWEIXoVbs6jH2RmFORGVo0UA7YGk9KHsh737nnN6X1AVULkVBk57HUkvDC4Mw3SzTEFWgU19MvtotGxiNzS/s1600-h/image002.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBHDebU7eHIAI1yCz-SXNFzWjeRi-WN8_1WSTpgfXPoR_tItIoCgjsvXGJVoWEIXoVbs6jH2RmFORGVo0UA7YGk9KHsh737nnN6X1AVULkVBk57HUkvDC4Mw3SzTEFWgU19MvtotGxiNzS/s320/image002.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243734371787915570" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"> <div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-US"> <div> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"></p><p style="line-height:16.8pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-weight: bold;"><table style="width: 349.5pt;" width="466" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 0in;" valign="bottom"><p><span><span style="color:#666666;"><span style=" ;" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">By Richard Black </span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="color:black;"><span style=" ;" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Environment correspondent, BBC News website </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color:#464646;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style=" color: rgb(70, 70, 70);" lang="EN-ZA"></span></span></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Livestock production has a bigger climate impact than transport, the UN believes</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p></p><p style="line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN-ZA" style=" mso-ansi-language:EN-ZA;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">People should consider eating less meat as a way of combating global warming, says the UN's top climate scientist.</span></span></span></span></b></p> <p style="line-height:16.8pt"><span lang="EN-ZA" style=" mso-ansi-language:EN-ZA;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), will make the call at a speech in </span></span></span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">London</span></span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> on Monday evening. </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height:16.8pt"><span lang="EN-ZA" style=" mso-ansi-language:EN-ZA;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">UN figures suggest that meat production puts more green house gases into the atmosphere than transport.</span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height:16.8pt"><span lang="EN-ZA" style=" mso-ansi-language:EN-ZA;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But a spokeswoman for the </span></span></span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">UK</span></span></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">'s National Farmers' Union (NFU) said methane emissions from farms were declining. </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height:16.8pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><div style="mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:2.25pt;mso-element-wrap: around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal: page;mso-element-left:117.05pt;mso-element-top:35.7pt;mso-height-rule:exactly"> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" align="left"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" align="left" style="padding-top:0pt;padding-right:2.25pt; padding-bottom:0pt;padding-left:2.25pt"> <p style="line-height:15.6pt;mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:2.25pt; mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal: page;mso-element-left:117.05pt;mso-element-top:35.7pt;mso-height-rule:exactly"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b></b></span></span></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" align="left"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left" style="padding-top:0pt;padding-right:2.25pt; padding-bottom:0pt;padding-left:2.25pt"><p style="line-height:15.6pt;mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:2.25pt; mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal: page;mso-element-left:117.05pt;mso-element-top:35.7pt;mso-height-rule:exactly"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">People may not realise that changing what's on their plate could have an even bigger effect</span></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height:15.6pt;mso-element:frame;mso-element-frame-hspace:2.25pt; mso-element-wrap:around;mso-element-anchor-vertical:paragraph;mso-element-anchor-horizontal: page;mso-element-left:117.05pt;mso-element-top:35.7pt;mso-height-rule:exactly"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Joyce D'Silva<br />Compassion in World Farming</span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span><div style="text-align: -webkit-left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height:16.8pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height:16.8pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height:16.8pt"><span lang="EN-ZA" style=" mso-ansi-language:EN-ZA;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dr Pachauri has just been re-appointed for a second six-year term as chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning IPCC, the body that collates and evaluates climate data for the world's governments.</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height:16.8pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that direct emissions from meat production account for about 18% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions," he told BBC News. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"So I want to highlight the fact that among options for mitigating climate change, changing diets is something one should consider."</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><b><span><span style="font-weight: bold; " lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Climate of persuasion</span></span></span></span></span></b><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The FAO figure of 18% includes greenhouse gases released in every part of the meat production cycle - clearing forested land, making and transporting fertiliser, </span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">burning fossil fuels in farm vehicles, and the front and rear end emissions of cattle and sheep.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The contributions of the three main greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - are roughly equivalent, the FAO calculates. </span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGW1nYrggnJlY54KNslECVKwplC66f8d7Fcl8LmpAVui7kave5BKLjP-B0IasZXDzjP89C2yT-1aIipueniROqs7SMVkdsuE9hoZMXDC2MZcSntfblpYzQK4yodEfvd5Kx-UqmvC8KGBKi/s320/image006.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243735616003216386" /></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Transport, by contrast, accounts for just 13% of humankind's greenhouse gas footprint, according to the IPCC.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: right;line-height: 16.8pt; "><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dr Pachauri has chaired the Nobel Prize-winning body since 2002</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dr Pachauri will be speaking at a meeting organised by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), whose main reason for suggesting people lower their consumption of meat is to reduce the number of animals in factory farms.</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">CIWF's ambassador Joyce D'Silva said that thinking about climate change could spur people to change their habits. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"The climate change angle could be quite persuasive," she said. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Surveys show people are anxious about their personal carbon footprints and cutting back on car journeys and so on; but they may not realise that changing what's on their plate could have an even bigger effect." </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><b><span><span style="font-weight: bold; " lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Side benefits</span></span></span></span></span></b><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There are various possibilities for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with farming animals. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They range from scientific approaches, such as genetically engineering strains of cattle that produce less methane flatus, to reducing the amount of transport involved through eating locally reared animals.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"The NFU is committed to ensuring farming is part of the solution to climate change, rather than being part of the problem," an NFU spokeswoman told BBC News.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"We strongly support research aimed at reducing methane emissions from livestock farming by, for example, changing diets and using anaerobic digestion." </span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaD0-PNe0hoIuMaw4OldzUjQTIvHlRGCjM9G15K0Jr2VMXuX4GNQvzTRy0ct-3pYgziy0fRU9gJsc-o9cGV95rHXYNY81n2D2RGqZSpnfyPbw33gNoTumaX7AyCQ7HcCOmVMk-OIIvnB2C/s320/image007.gif" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243736259065011874" /></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><p style="line-height: 15.6pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7517509.stm" target="_blank"><span><span style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Unnatural roots of the food crisis</span></span></span></span></span></span></a></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 15.6pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7496036.stm" target="_blank"><span><span style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">Snared in a homemade 'NitroNet'</span></span></span></span></span></span></a></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 15.6pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=5315" target="_blank"><span><span style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Send us your comments</span></span></span></span></span></span></a></span></span></p></span><p></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Methane emissions from UK farms have fallen by 13% since 1990. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But the biggest source globally of carbon dioxide from meat production is land clearance, particularly of tropical forest, which is set to continue as long as demand for meat rises. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ms D'Silva believes that governments negotiating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol ought to take these factors into account. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"I would like governments to set targets for reduction in meat production and consumption," she said.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"That's something that should probably happen at a global level as part of a negotiated climate change treaty, and it would be done fairly, so that people with little meat at the moment such as in sub-Saharan Africa would be able to eat more, and we in the west would eat less."</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Dr Pachauri, however, sees it more as an issue of personal choice. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"I'm not in favour of mandating things like this, but if there were a (global) price on carbon perhaps the price of meat would go up and people would eat less," he said. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"But if we're honest, less meat is also good for the health, and would also at the same time reduce emissions of greenhouse gases." </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 16.8pt;"><span><span style="" lang="EN-ZA"><i><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /><br /><a href="mailto:Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk">Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.</a></i><br /><br /> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></p><p></p></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3482427132857236628.post-32320133815985775392008-09-04T22:47:00.001+02:002008-09-04T23:24:05.579+02:00Banged-up animal rights campaigners released<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ULGr_6N41GoLuBGZELiW2nkX2rKebTpTTziO3FTHuJkS3RFhkL8-dy4VnVSUMxPdBC2XHaj9RzLQT-UAC-vPcGDCEy9klD0Crteqk0HlPC1yenN6bwRzFYsvP2YmfZpnEBtJiHhfOitS/s1600-h/image001.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ULGr_6N41GoLuBGZELiW2nkX2rKebTpTTziO3FTHuJkS3RFhkL8-dy4VnVSUMxPdBC2XHaj9RzLQT-UAC-vPcGDCEy9klD0Crteqk0HlPC1yenN6bwRzFYsvP2YmfZpnEBtJiHhfOitS/s320/image001.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242271428789833906" /></a><br /><p><b><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=" font-weight: bold; font-size:12pt;" lang="EN"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">From the Austrian Times</span></span></span></b></p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;" lang="EN"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">02. 09. 08. - 17:00</span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></p> <h1><b><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;" lang="EN"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Banged-up campaigners released</span></span></span></b></h1> <p><span><span style=" ;" lang="EN"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Austria</span></span></span></span><span><span style="" lang="EN"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">'s State Prosecution has ruled that the animal rights protesters imprisoned without charge by the government for over 100 days are to be released.<br /><br />The State Prosecution explained that the government had run out of time and were no longer entitled to keep the campaigners locked up whilst it tried to build a case against them.<br /><br />Erich Habitzl, spokesman for the State Prosecution in Wiener Neustadt, said that the release of the nine campaigners has no effect on the ongoing investigations and that evidence will now be checked to find out whether there will be a trial or not.<br /><br />After being released, Dr Martin Balluch, the head of the group, said that he cannot understand at all why he was detained. Balluch had already announced he will continue campaigning for tortured animals.<br /><br />Balluch, who worked alongside physicist Steven Hawking for eight years at Cambridge University, said: "I am not a criminal. Everything I did is 100 per cent legal. I did not destroy anything, I did not cause or incite and violence. I would do everything I did exactly the same again."<br /><br />Yesterday, Greens party boss Alexander Van der Bellen asked Balluch to run as an independent candidate for the party in the 28 September election.<br /><br />One of the ten accused activists had been released on 13 August while the other nine have been kept in detention until today (Tuesday). </span> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=" ;font-size:12pt;" lang="EN"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">David Hill</span></span> </span></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0