The Unimaginable Suffering Of Mother Pigs And Their Babies

Pet Cats In Vietnam Are Stolen, Slaughtered And Eaten.
While the eating of dog meat in Asia is widely known, the trade in stolen cats in Vietnam is not so much.
Every year a million cats are killed, by repeatedly bludgeoning the animal, then plunging them into boiling hot water before being thrown into a machine that strips their fur.
Many of the cats are pets and owners live in constant fear of cat snatchers who swipe thousands a day to fuel this lucrative and ­international crime network.
Black cats are particularly targeted for their apparent ­medicinal value.
Rahul Sehga, from Soi Dog, an ­organisation that put an end to the dog and cat meat trade in Thailand in 2014, said: “This year has been declared the Year of the Cat in Vietnam, with felines hailed as symbols of protection and good luck. It is time they were treated accordingly. The cats are stolen from outside loving homes and the streets before being transported in terrible conditions and ­slaughtered in view of one another using the crudest methods. Each point of the trade involves close contact between humans and these scared animals and therefore possible exposure to diseases.”
The World Health Organisation has warned cat and dog meat is a threat to public health with the risk of rabies, trichinellosis and zoonotic diseases – viruses which jump from animals to humans.
( Nada Farhoud, 19.07.2023 )  ..  mirror.co.uk

The Unimaginable Suffering Of Mother Pigs And Their Babies.
The factory farming system is corrupt, cruel, and wildly inhumane.
Despite this, many people continue to consume meat and other animal products that are produced by these horrific systems.
A report released by Animal rights organisation, Mercy For Animals, on August 5, 2023, reveals the unbelievable cruelty that takes place on pig farms.
In the report, investigators detailed the unimaginable suffering of mother pigs and their babies.
The mothers are forced into tiny gestation crates which barely allow the pregnant creatures the chance to lie down or turn around.
They will be forced to spend the entirety of their pregnancy in these crates.
These crates are often covered in excrement and the mother pigs must give birth in these unhygienic conditions.
Despite common misconceptions, pigs are very clean creatures who are careful to keep their waste far away from their eating areas when allowed to live naturally.
Once a mother pig gives birth, her babies are quickly taken away.
Pigs are naturally wonderful mothers who carefully care for their babies.
Yet, mother pigs on these factory farms are barely allowed to care for their young.
Imagine the distress this must cause these incredibly intelligent beings.
After being removed from their mother, the piglets are raised for breeding or slaughter.
Mother pigs are artificially impregnated repeatedly to keep up with consumer demand for pork products.
They are overbred without proper medical care.
The report says that mother pigs are kept “Lying in their own waste, often denied water and dehydrated, and dying in pain over many hours, having been forced through labour several times during their short lives.”
No creature should have to endure such horrifying conditions in their brutally short lives.
Yet in 2021, roughly four pigs were slaughtered each SECOND in the United States alone.
Millions of smart, feeling creatures are tortured and killed each year to feed consumer hunger for pork.
( Willow Lynn, August 2023 )  ..  onegreenplanet.org

More Wolves Are Killed In Minnesota Than In All Other States Combined.
It’s not easy being a wolf in northern Minnesota, USA.
Every year dozens of the animals die of starvation, disease, parasites, vehicle traffic and poaching.
But the number one killer of Minnesota wolves are the agents of the federal government, acting with the full force of the law.
In 2022, there were 174 documented wolf deaths in Minnesota.
Of those, 142 were killed by a relatively obscure arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture called the Wildlife Services division.
Wildlife Services is tasked with mitigating conflicts between humans and wild animals.
In Minnesota, the agency’s staffers answer complaints from ranchers who lose cattle and other livestock to wolf predation.
The agency documents and verifies those complaints, and looks for non-lethal ways to protect threatened livestock, like wolf-proof fencing.
If those options don’t work, the agency traps and kills wolves deemed responsible for the loss.
USDA officers kill more wolves in Minnesota than in all other states combined.
That work is effectively a government handout to ranchers, who receive publicly funded protection for their privately held livestock.
The ranchers also receive cash compensation from state taxpayers for their lost cattle, which in 2022 totaled $100,000 for 78 wolf predation claims, or an average of about $1,300 per claim.
( Christopher Ingraham, 18.08.2023 )  ..  minnesotareformer.com

The Holiday Island Of Mauritius Is The World’s Largest Exporter Of Wild-Caught Monkeys For Research And Testing – And Thousands Are Flown Into The UK.
In the past three years nearly 6,000 monkeys have been flown into the UK for laboratory testing.
Campaigners say these primates have to undergo long and stressful journeys starting in Africa and Asia – some kept in stopover spots in Europe – before being sent to laboratories in the UK.
They warn that the animals are denied the lush foliage of their jungle homes and spend their lives behind bars on concrete, while their offspring are exported overseas.
The figures are just the tip of the iceberg as full data in Vietnam is not available.
The holiday island of Mauritius is now one of the largest suppliers of long-tailed macaques and the world’s largest exporter of wild-caught monkeys for research and testing.
Although Britain has banned tests on wild primates, it still allows their offspring to be imported for research.
Action for Primates say the capture and removal of wild primates from their native habitats and social and family groups is “extremely cruel and inflicts great suffering and distress”.
It also warns that by allowing the import of the offspring of wild-caught monkeys, or those from facilities that trap wild monkeys, “the UK is continuing to fuel the cruel wild-caught trade”.
Globally, the long-tailed macaque is the most heavily traded primate and the most widely used in research.
( Nada Farhoud, 27.08.2023 )  ..  mirror.co.uk

The UK Has Become Home To Millions Of “Frankenchickens”.
The term “Frankenchicken” was coined by animal welfare campaigners to describe genetically selected, fast-growing breeds.
According to Kate Parkes, a poultry expert at the RSPCA, the standard organic chicken grows to its weight for slaughter in 81 days.
In fast-growing breeds it’s just 35 days.
The Eating Better Alliance (which comprises organisations including the RSPCA, WWF and Friends of the Earth) say 850 million chickens are reared for meat in the UK each year.
Of those, 95% are said to be reared in intensive indoor units.
The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) states England produces 90 million chickens a month.
According to an Eating Better Alliance report, poultry overtook red meat sales for the first time in 2017.
It now accounts for more than 50% of overall meat consumption.
Celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall told Radio 4’s Today programme: “They [Frankenchickens] have been bred to eat at an extraordinary rate so they put on this completely inappropriate weight gain just to get to market as quickly as possible. People really need to know this is the standard life of way over 90% of the chicken we eat.”
TV naturalist Chris Packham has called the practice “cruel beyond belief”.
Campaign groups such as The Humane League UK and Open Cages condemn the use of fast-growing breeds to satisfy consumer demand.
In August 2023, Open Cages said it secretly collected footage at three farms in Lincolnshire showing chickens in poor health between August and November 2022.
It claimed the pictures and videos showed deformed, injured and filthy birds.
One of the farms told us that it had healthy, well-cared for birds, had been independently audited for welfare compliance three times in 14 months and complied with all legal standards.
( Linsey Smith, 08.09.2023 )  ..  bbc.co.uk

Man Jailed After One Of The Most Extreme Examples Of Physical And Psychological Suffering Inflicted On An Animal.
A “sadistic” kitten killer was jailed for 27 months after receiving what the RSPCA say is one of the longest-ever prison sentences of its kind.
He was also banned from keeping animals for life.
Lewis Hudson, from Netherley, Liverpool, UK, abused the kitten – called Binx – for eight months between 2021 and 2022.
He eventually caused injuries so serious an animal welfare expert had to rule out whether Binx had been hit by a car.
Hudson, 23, shot the kitten with a BB gun, stamped on her with steel toe cap boots, covered her in bleach, and hit her with a shovel.
An RSCPA Inspector examined Binx, after Hudson’s partner called police.
They found the kitten was covered in cuts and bruises and had suffered fractured ribs and a punctured lung.
The latter led to her death.
RSPCA Inspector Anthony Joynes said Hudson had inflicted “stomach churning and sadistic levels of cruelty over a prolonged period.”
He added: “This is one of the most extreme examples of physical and psychological suffering inflicted on an animal I’ve seen in 14 years with the RSPCA.”
( itvNEWS, 28.07.2023 )  ..  itv.com

Thousands Of Chickens And Pigs In The UK Died From Extreme Heat On The Way To The Slaughterhouse.
New data obtained by UK publisher Carbon Brief exposes the devastating impact of extreme heat on farmed animals during last summer’s soaring temperatures.
In July 2022, the UK reached 40°C for the first time on record.
On that day, almost 10,000 chickens died from heat stress in a single journey to a slaughterhouse
.Between June and August 2022, 18,500 chickens died in transport, compared to 325 in the same period the previous year.
Pigs, too, felt the heat with at least a dozen deaths in one case leading to “cannibalistic behaviours” among the animals.
The alarming figures shine a light on the cramped, poorly ventilated conditions suffered by animals in transport and on farms, and the pressing need to address them as temperatures continue to rise.
( Angela Symons, 04.08.2023 )  ..  euronews.com

Destruction Of The Amazon Rainforest By The Meat Industry.
More than 800 million trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest in just six years to feed the world’s appetite for Brazilian beef, despite dire warnings about the forest’s importance in fighting the climate crisis.
The beef industry in Brazil has consistently pledged to avoid farms linked to deforestation.
However, the data suggests that 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of the Amazon was destroyed near meat plants exporting beef around the world.
The investigation is part of Forbidden Stories’ Bruno and Dom project.
It continues the work of Bruno Pereira, an Indigenous peoples expert, and Dom Phillips, a journalist who was a longtime contributor to the Guardian​​.
The two men were killed in the Amazon last year.
theguardian.com
( Andrew Wasley, Elisângela Mendonça, Youssr Youssef and Robert Soutar, 02.06.2023 )