Is The UK Proud To Have The Biggest Beagle-Breeding Facility In The World?

Undercover Investigation Reveals How Pigs Suffer In UK Slaughterhouse.
Undercover footage showing British pigs being gassed prior to slaughter show the utterly inhumane nature of using gas to stun pigs before being killed.
The images were obtained using hidden cameras at Pilgrim’s Pride abattoir in Ashton-under-Lyne, England, UK, in February 2021.
They show pigs in groups of five or six being mechanically herded into a cage and then lowered into a Butina gas chamber in a ferris wheel-like system.
The pigs appear to be in distress as the gas concentration increases, with one still kicking after more than three minutes.
Donald Broom, an animal welfare professor at the University of Cambridge said: “The pigs in the video react to the first inhalation of carbon dioxide with fear and obvious discomfort. They try to escape but cannot. The gasping can be seen in all pigs where the mouth is visible. Gasping indicates poor welfare. The period of poor welfare continues until the pig loses consciousness.”
Paul Roger, a vet and founder member of the Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law Veterinary Association, said: “Some pigs appeared to start waking from the gas prior to slaughter. If this is the way animals are treated in this plant, they’re not being handled humanely. It’s an unacceptable way to treat any animal, and that really concerns me.”
Animal activist Joey Carbstrong, who captured the footage for the film Pignorant, said: “The continued use of CO₂ arises from the favouring of corporate profit over the interests of the animals. We urgently need to stop using animals as resources because this kind of horror show is the result.”
In 2003, a government advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, said that CO₂ stunning/killing “is not acceptable and we wish to see it phased out in five years”.
However, its use has instead increased to 88% of all pigs in 2022.
( Claire Colley and Andrew Wasley, 02.05.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

We Do To Animals What The Nazis Did To People.
As I became more familiar with animal farming and slaughter operations, I noted more striking similarities between what the Nazis did to us and what we are doing to animals today.
The branding or tattooing of serial numbers to identify the victims.
The use of cattle cars to transport people to their deaths.
The crowding and housing of victims in wood crates.
The vilification and abuse of the victims to make killing more acceptable.
The callous, disrespectful dumping of victims bodies in open pits.
The deception about the horrors behind death camp and slaughterhouse walls.
The arbitrary designation of life and death: Christian lives, Jew dies; dog lives, pig dies.
( Alex Hershaft, 03.09.2020 )

UK Government Ditch 25-Year Animal Testing Ban.
The UK Conservative government has allowed animal testing for cosmetic and makeup ingredients to resume despite a 25-year ban.
More than 80 brands have said they are “dismayed” by the government’s new position.
Animal testing for makeup or its ingredients had been completely banned in the UK since 1998.
Animal testing had only been allowed if the benefits gained from the research outweighed any animal suffering, for example for medicines.
But in 2020 the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), an EU agency which oversees chemical regulation, ruled that companies needed to test some ingredients used in cosmetics on animals to ensure they were safe for workers manufacturing the ingredients.
Since 2019 the UK government have been issuing licences for animal testing of cosmetic ingredients in line with EU chemical rules, which it retained despite leaving the EU in 2020.
But manufacturers still cannot undertake any animal testing to check the safety of the makeup for consumers.
This should be done using other methods.
This could include testing chemicals commonly found in foundations and concealers by forcing rats to inhale or ingest them.
It is not known how many such licences were issued or to whom.
( Esme Stallard, 10.05.2023 )  ..  bbc.co.uk

Avian Flu Is Killing Large Numbers Of Wild Birds.
According to data, Avian flu has killed more than twice the number of wild birds previously estimated in the UK.
The highly infectious variant of H5N1 has caused Europe’s worst bird flu outbreak, resulting in the most significant and sudden loss of birds in decades.
Conservationists are warning that it could mean the extinction of some seabird species, as breeding colonies have been particularly badly hit.
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) estimates that “many more than 20,000” wild birds have died in the UK since the current outbreak began in October 2021.
Data from devolved governments and nature organisations shows the actual figure is at least 50,000 between October 2021 until the start of April 2023.
Experts say this number is still likely to be a gross underestimate as there is no national monitoring and most carcasses are never found and not counted.
( Phoebe Weston and Sophie Kevany, 05.05.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

The UK Has One Of The Biggest Beagle-Breeding Facilities In The World.
Dozens of caged dogs were lined up on the tarmac in Denmark waiting to be flown to the UK and used in labs for medical research.
The desperate-looking beagles were among more than 1,000 to have been imported from the U.S. via Copenhagen in the past two years.
They are jetted in despite the UK having one of the world’s biggest beagle-breeding facilities.
MBR Acres in Wyton, Cambridgeshire, is owned by U.S. firm Marshall BioRescources and produces about 2,000 of them a year for experimental use.
Robert Cogswell, of the Beagle Freedom Project UK, said: “Not only are beagles forced to endure painful experiments inside UK labs, their misery begins at the point of birth. They are born into what can only be described as industrial-size puppy farms where they are merely objects for profit and no consideration is given to their welfare and bred in conditions that would be considered illegal if the dogs were being bred as domestic pets.”
”We currently have a situation where beagle dogs are being flown halfway around the world, landing at Copenhagen airport before being transferred to another plane and flown to the UK.”
“It begs the question of why dogs are being put through additional torment when a Marshall Bio facility already exists in the UK. Not only that but why are the dogs being forced to endure such long journeys? If the welfare of the animals was paramount, why not transport them directly into the UK?”
( Nada Farhoud, 03.05.2023 )  ..  mirror.co.uk 

Oppressing Animals Is The Gateway To Oppressing Humans.
When we tell a child that the family dog on his couch is to be loved and cherished, but the pig on his plate is to be tortured, slaughtered, dismembered, and consumed as food, we are giving that child his very first social permission to oppress others.
It’s the same type of social permission that Nazi children received that the Christian can live, but the Jew must die!
( Alex Hershaft, 03.09.2020 )

Tens Of Millions Of Farm Animals In The U.S. Are Dying Before They Reach The Slaughterhouse.
Every year around 20 million chickens, 330,000 pigs and 166,000 cattle are dead on arrival, or soon after.
A further 800,000 pigs are calculated to be unable to walk on arrival.
Official records of how the animals died are not published, but veterinarian and welfare specialists say the main causes were likely to be heat stress, especially during the summer months, and freezing temperatures and trauma.
The numbers of deaths were likely to have been increased by the long distances some animals are forced to travel and the rising frequency of transporting them.
( Sophie Kevin, 15.06.2022 )  ..  theguardian.com

Run To The Rescue With Love, And Peace Will Follow.
The greatest gift that it’s given me, and many people in this industry, is the opportunity to use our voice for the voiceless.
I’ve been thinking about some of the distressing issues that we’ve been facing collectively.
I think at times we feel or are made to feel that we champion different causes.
But for me, I see commonality.
I think, whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice.
We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender, one species, has the right to dominate, use and control another with impunity.
I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world.
Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we’re the centre of the universe.
We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources.
We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable.
Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.
We fear the idea of personal change, because we think we need to sacrifice something, to give something up.
But human beings at our best are so creative and inventive, and we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and the environment.
I have been a scoundrel all my life, I’ve been selfish.
I’ve been cruel at times, hard to work with, and I’m grateful that so many of you in this room have given me a second chance.
I think that’s when we’re at our best: when we support each other.
Not when we cancel each other out for our past mistakes, but when we help each other to grow.
When we educate each other; when we guide each other to redemption.
When he was 17, my brother, River, wrote this lyric.
He said: “run to the rescue with love and peace will follow.”
( Joaquin Phoenix, Oscars 2020 )

Animals Are An Integral Part Of Our Fondest Childhood Memories.
Toy animals were the very first objects we handled.
Our favourite fairy tales revolved around animal lives.
Our family dog gave us unconditional love, when our schoolmates or even our siblings would not.
It was only the greed and callousness of the meat and dairy industries that turned our favourite living beings into a commodity to be exploited and oppressed.
( Alex Hershaft, 03.09.2020 )

You Can’t Trust The Tories To Deliver On Animal Welfare.
Legislation designed to protect pets, farm animals and wild animals has been scrapped by the UK Conservative Government.
Environment minister Mark Spencer said the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, which had almost completed its passage through the Commons, will no longer go ahead over concerns that the Labour Party was seeking to widen its scope.
The Bill sought to tackle puppy smuggling by reducing the number of pets (dogs, cats and ferrets) that can travel under pet travel rules and see a ban on the export of live animals for slaughter and fattening.
Other policies within the Bill would have banned the keeping of primates as pets, protect farm animals from dangerous and out of control dogs and ensure zoos are doing more to contribute to conservation.
Mark Spencer insisted the government remained “fully committed to delivering” on those promises but would do so by taking the measures forward individually rather than collectively.
Labour said the move is “further proof that you can’t trust the Tories to deliver on animal welfare”.
( Lewis Denison, 25.05.2023 )  ..  itv.com