Action Alerts
Help Austrian Activists
According to reports, the Austrian Minister of Justice is planning to charge 30 people, as well as the 10 people imprisoned for four months last year, without any direct evidence of criminal activity by these individuals. Charges will be brought merely on the basis of acts of civil disobedience and snippets of intercepted conversation taken out of context. Please politely contact the Austrian Minister of Justice, the President and the Chancellor to express your concerns about what appears to be a repression of the Austrian animal advocacy movement.
Austrian Minister of Justice
Claudia Bandion-Ortner
Bundesministerin für Justiz
Palais Trautson,
Museumstraße 7
Vienna 1070 Austria
Email:minister.justiz@bmj.gv.at
Chancellor (Head of government)
Bundeskanzler Werner Faymann
Federal Chancellery
Ballhausplatz 1
Vienna 1014 Austria
Email: buergerservice@bka.gv.at
President (Head of State)
Bundespräsident Heinz Fischer
Office of the Federal President of the Republic of Austria
Hofburg, Leopoldinischer Trakt
Vienna A-1014 Austria
Email: buergerservice@hofburg.at
Stop the mass inhumane killing of pigs in Egypt
The Egyptian government is currently killing all of the pigs in Egypt in a reaction to the swine flu outbreak. No other country has taken similar action and it has not been recommended by either the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) or the WHO (World Health Organisation).
Live pigs are being transported several layers deep in trucks and then dumped in mass graves where they die a slow and painful death. Egyptian media reports that 'When the lorry is filled with an average of 400 pigs, it sets off for the burial ground in Abou Zabal. Once there, something like soft sand is sprinkled on the pigs inside the lorry. This material is made up of factory wastes, such as quicklime. The pigs start to scream because of the searing pain until they die some 30 or 40 minutes later.'
Please contact the Egyptian Ambassador and ask him to urge Egypt to halt the killing and to abide by the OIE Guidelines on humane slaughter, which Egypt endorsed in 2005. Remind him that such inhumane treatment of animals not only contravenes the OIE Guidelines, but is also contrary to Islamic teaching which regards animals as 'communities like you' (Qur'an 6:38).
Email the Egyptian AmbassadorWrite to the Egyptian Ambassador
H.E. Hatem Seif El Nasr
Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Embassy of Egypt
26 South Street
London
W1K 1DWA
Free Lolita!
Lolita is an orca who has been kept at a Miami marine park since 1970, in a tiny tank that is illegal according to America's Animal Welfare Act. Such a small tank is completely inappropriate for an animal that typically swims 75-100 miles a day, and can dive repeatedly to several hundred feet. Now she cannot dive at all, as her tank is not even as deep as she is long. Orcas are naturally sociable animals, who remain with their family for their entire lives, so this solitary confinement is particularly cruel. Campaigners know where her family members are, so it is possible to re-introduce her to her natural habitat. Please contact the US Department of Agriculture and the Miami Seaquarium, and ask that Lolita be allowed to return home:
Email Miami Seaquarium Email the US Department of AgricultureWrite to:
Miami Seaquarium
4400 Rickenbacker Causeway
Key Biscayne FL 33149
America
US Department of Agriculture:
Kevin Shea
Acting Administrator Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Administration Building
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20250
Urge the Co-op not to fund animal research
Recently, the Co-op donated £150,000 to research into falling honeybee numbers, thought to be due, in part, to pesticides. An Animal Aid supporter contacted the Co-op to enquire whether this research would involve animals, and they replied that at the present time they do not know. They are currently reviewing outline research projects, so we are asking people to politely contact the Co-op and urge them to stick by their ethics and not support research projects that involve animals.
Email the head of campaign marketingPlease write to:
Paul Hemingway
Head of Campaign Marketing
Campaign Marketing
The Co-operative Financial Services
1st Floor, 1 Balloon Street
Manchester M60 4EP
Telephone: 0161 829 4359
Stop Mass Killing of Stray Animals in Europe
In some European states, the growing number of abandoned and free-roaming cats and dogs has become a problem. All too often these animals are poisoned, inhumanely killed or abused due to the lack of legal protection for strays. In May 2009, the European Parliament will be voting on a new animal health strategy for the European Union. Part of this strategy includes draft guidelines on stray dog population control, as recommended by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The fastest solution for solving the stray problem according to the OIE guidelines is euthanasia of the animals. The 'humane' methods accepted by the OIE for eliminating stray populations include the insertion of a captive bolt into the head followed by pithing ('scrambling' the brain with a rod), gasing and electrocution. According to the draft guidelines, local authorities will be responsible for the fate of strays, which creates a danger that Europe will create killing shelters for stray animals.
Please contact your MEP and ask them not to adopt the recommended 'euthanasia programme' of the OIE, but instead to adopt new humane measures to control stray populations such as sterilization, vaccination, education, supporting animal shelters etc.
Contact your MEP Sign the petitionFight the Badger Cull
The Welsh Assembly has decided to go ahead with a trial cull of badgers in an attempt to halt the spread of bovine TB, despite prominent local and national opposition and evidence that such a cull will do little to solve the problem. The real problem lies with intensive dairy farming leaving cows susceptible to infection, and inaccurate TB tests allowing infected cows to spread the disease further.
Please contact Welsh Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones to politely protest this cruel and ineffective decision.
Write to:
Elin Jones
Minister for Rural Affairs
National Assembly for Wales
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff
CF99 1NA
Ban Glue Traps
Animals who get stuck on glue traps suffer horrendous pain, often for days, as the trap is not designed to kill them quickly. As trapped mice and rats struggle to free themselves they may pull out their own hair - exposing bare, raw skin, break bones and chew off their own legs. The glue causes their eyes to become badly irritated and scarred and the animals become covered in excrement as they defecate and urinate due to their severe stress and fear. Animals whose faces become stuck in the glue slowly suffocate and all trapped animals are subject to starvation and dehydration.
Please contact Gordon Brown and politely ask him to ban the manufacture, sale and use of these barbaric traps.
Write to:
Gordon Brown PM
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Demand a Ban on Animal Circuses
The continuing exploitation of wild animals such as elephants and tigers in circuses is shocking. These unfortunate animals are kept in cramped, unnatural conditions, and made to endure brutal training regimes and performances, causing both physical and psychological suffering. Such treatment cannot be allowed to continue.
Please contact your MP and ask them to sign Early Day Motions 976 and 948, urging the government to introduce a ban on animal use in circuses.
Find your MP Read the full text of EDM 976 Read the full text of EDM 948Please also write to DEFRA Minister Hilary Benn and ask him to implement a ban on the use of animals in circuses
The Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
DEFRA
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR
For more information on the use of animals in circuses, or demonstrations against animal circuses in your area, please contact the Captive Animals Protection Society: Telephone: 0845 330 3911 Email: info@captiveanimals.org
Ask Macmillan to drop Fishing event
In June, the Macmillan Cancer Support charity is holding its annual 'Big Fish' event to raise funds, where people are sponsored to fish and can win prizes such as for the heaviest fish caught. It is disappointing that a charity dedicated to helping prevent suffering is using such a barbaric means of fundraising. Multiple studies show that fish do feel pain, and even those who are released back into the water after being caught often die from their injuries. Other wildlife such as swans and ducks can also be injured, or even killed, by discarded hooks and lines.
Please contact Macmillan Cancer Support and politely complain about this event.
Write to:
The Big Fish Team
Macmillan Cancer Support
132 Rose Street
Edinburgh EH2 3JD
Email: fishing@macmillan.org.uk
You can contact the Chief Executive at:
Chief Executive
Macmillan Cancer Support
89 Albert Embankment
London
SE1 7UQ
Tel: 020 7840 7840 Complain to Macmillan online
Ask your MP to sign EDM 678 Protection for Seals
Seal numbers in UK waters are diminishing, and Animal Concern estimates that 5,000 seals are shot annually in Scottish waters by the salmon industry. Please contact your MP and ask them to sign Early Day Motion 678 Protection for Seals, which calls on the government to implement an immediate ban on the deliberate killing of all seals.
Find your MP See the full text of EDM 678Save the Market Rasen pigeons!
It has recently been announced that Market Rasen Town Council are considering a pigeon cull in the local area to prevent slippery street surfaces under a rail bridge where they roost. Culling is a cruel method of controlling wildlife numbers, and is also ineffective, as numbers can return to pre-cull levels within just a few weeks.
Please contact councillors Steve Bunney and Chris Padley, who have spoken in favour of a cull, and politely ask them to consider non-lethal methods of pigeon control.
Market Rasen Town Council
Caistor Road
Market Rasen
LN8 3JA
Make Micro Chipping a Legal Requirement
Thousands of animals go missing each year - either by becoming lost or being stolen - and the emotional and physical suffering they might endure during that time can be terrible. Micro chipping is a sensible, practical and responsible way to ensure your dog has the best chance of finding his way home again, should the unthinkable happen. Speak Out For Animals are campaigning to make micro chipping of dogs a legal requirement in order to reduce animal suffering and encourage people to take their responsibilities to their companion animals seriously.
Sign the petitionStop Tesco Animal Cruelty
In addition to selling live turtles in China, Tesco has now started selling foie gras in its stores in Hungary. The production of this so-called delicacy is banned in the UK because of the cruelty involved. Ducks and geese are force-fed through a long metal pipe until their diseased livers swell up to ten times their normal size. Many birds die during this painful process.
Please contact Tesco to politely complain and ask that it stops selling foie gras in all of its stores:
Sir Terry Leahy
CEO Tesco
Tesco House
PO Box 44
Delamare Road
Cheshunt
Herts
EN8 9SL
Freephone: 0845 600441
Email TescoAsk Your MP to Back Early Day Motion for Racehorses
Every season the clock ticks down to death and destruction for thousands of race horses. Hundreds are shot in the head on racecourses or during training due to catastrophic injury, whilst thousands more who lack the ability to race meet the same fate in the slaughterhouse.
Now, Portsmouth South Lib Dem MP, Mike Hancock, has tabled an important Early Day Motion (EDM) calling on the Government to undertake a full audit of racehorse production, death and injury, and to make its findings public. He has also urged the government to curb the industry's over-breeding of Thoroughbreds.
Animal Aid already collates details of race horse deaths (see http://www.horsedeathwatch.com/ ) but we recognise that not all injuries and fatalities come to our attention.
The racing industry is largely self-regulated. It is, therefore, vital that it should present detailed information on the fate of Thoroughbreds so that an informed public and political debate can take place.
- Approximately 18,000 foals are born into the closely-related British and Irish racing industries each year, yet only around 40% go on to race.
- Some horses who do not make the grade are used in other equestrian events but many others are slaughtered for meat or repeatedly change hands in a downward spiral of neglect.
- Around 6,000 horses leave British racing every year. The industry provides an insultingly small amount for their care.
- Each year, more than 400 horses die or are destroyed due to racecourse or training injuries.
Lobby your MP to sign EDM 137
In both 2009 and 2013, additional regulations are due to come into force which should lead to a total ban on the sales of cosmetics containing ingredients or combinations of ingredients which have been tested on animals. This momentous Cosmetics Directive could save thousands of animals every year if allowed to come into force fully. However, concerns have been expressed that the British government does not have adequate checks in place to determine whether cosmetics manufacturers are obeying existing laws and that further legislation may therefore also be ignored. Consequently, they may continue with animal testing as they always have done. Additionally, cosmetics manufacturers are already lobbying to push the next deadline back - despite widespread public opposition to the testing of cosmetics on animals. An Early Day Motion has been raised condemning the testing of cosmetics on animals, supporting the transparent and thorough implementation of the ban, and urging the government to resist attempts to water down or postpone it.
Enforce the ban
Despite the much-welcomed ban on hunting with dogs, many hunts are continuing to kill foxes and other wild animals as normal. Often they escape prosecution by claiming that the deaths were accidental - even when they have deliberately led the hounds through areas where they know foxes will be. To try and put a stop to this blatant flouting of the law, an Early Day Motion has been put forward to add an amendment to the Hunting Act to include a 'reckless behaviour' clause. Please contact your MP and urge them to sign EDM 122.
Contact your MP Protect Our Wild Animals websiteChallenge Council's Lifting of Animal Circus Ban
Wycombe District Council recently voted to lift the ban on performing animal circuses in their area. This is a sad and retrograde decision to take, especially as more and more councils are banning such circuses due to the animal cruelty they embody. Circus animals are often kept in cramped conditions, with much of their natural impulses and behaviours frustrated. They may be forced to endure brutal training, and then perform for our entertainment. Such exploitation of animals is cruel and immoral.
Please voice your complaints about the council's decision to:
Wycombe District Council
Queen Victoria Road
High Wycombe
Buckinghamshire
HP11 1BB
Telephone: 01494 461000
Shame on the Danes
We have had many emails recently expressing disgust at the annual slaughter of thousands of innocent pilot whales in the Danish Faeroe Islands. Entire pods are driven into shore where they are brutally killed. This senseless murder of beautiful, intelligent creatures is inexcusable and must be stopped. Please complain.
Email The Danish Embassy in London Email The Faroes Representative Sigmunder IsfeldSave Australia's Kangaroos
Kangaroos are now 'quasi-extinct' across much of Australia, yet they are still being killed for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. Many of the animals killed are juveniles, and this killing is a serious threat to the survival of this beautiful creature. Not only that but the senseless murder of sentient beings is always wrong, whether they are threatened with extinction or not.
Sign the petition to the Australian ParliamentChannel 5 Animal Cruelty
Our attention has been drawn to Channel Five's ‘Unbreakable’ programme as a paradigm of animal cruelty. Monday's edition featured contestants cutting open a dead alligator, and then later wrestling a live one in order to be declared ‘unbreakable’. Mealtimes also consist of a variety of animals being slaughtered as they attempt to prove they can survive in the wild. Please voice your complaints to Channel Five at:
Five
22 Long Acre
London
WC2E 9LY
Telephone: 020 7421 7270
Protest the O2 Arena's Use of Animals
The O2 Arena is going to feature a stage production of Ben-Hur next year, using 100 animals including horses, camels, donkeys, chickens, falcons and eagles. Inevitably this will involve a huge amount of animal suffering, as the animals will be forced to endure intensive training, are likely to be kept in cramped, unnatural conditions, and will potentially be exposed to the light, sound, water, wind and pyrotechnic effects that the production will involve.
Please voice your concerns to:
Customer Services and Public Enquiries
The O2
Peninsula Square
London
SE10 0DX
Telephone: 020 8463 2000
Defend Threatened Sharks
The UK is currently one of five EU member states allowing their fishermen to remove the fins of live sharks at sea. After their fins are removed the sharks are dumped in the water to bleed to death in agony. Over half of the 30 species of shark found in British waters are threatened with extinction, and yet this barbaric practise continues.
Please contact Huw Irranca-Davies, Minister for the Natural and Marine Environment at DEFRA, to express your concern at:
DEFRA
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR
Stop the Bulgarian Dog Massacre
Despite the Bulgarian animal protection act having come into force in January 2008, stray dogs are still being abused, slain and poisoned. The former ‘isolators’ (death camps) are now called ‘animal shelters’. Docs for Dogs has a petition to urge politicians to end the cruelties of the death camps.
Find out more and sign the petitionFree the Dubai Whale Shark
A young whale shark has been taken from the ocean and dumped into a tank to entertain tourists at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai. This poor girl will spend the rest of her life in a bowl after having the entire ocean as her home. She is unlikely to acclimatise and may die as a result. All they need to do is just release her back into the sea again.
The hotel maintains that it ‘rescued’ her but it is reported that the fishermen who ‘saved’ her are employed by the hotel.
Please make your complaints to info@atlantisthepalm.comFood not Feed
The European Vegetarian and Animal News Alliance (EVANA) has launched an appeal to the United Nations and its agencies to channel available food resources to needy people and not to farmed animals. The petition states:
‘It is not acceptable that even in a grim situation with hunger and malnutrition killing nearly six million children each year, huge percentages of available crops are still being fed to farm animals.’Please sign the petition
Scrap Livestock Subsidies
The Nutrition Ecology International Centre (NEIC) has launched a Europe-wide petition calling for an end to every kind of animal production-related subsidy, whether for breeding, fishing and crop cultivations intended for farmed animals' feed. NEIC estimates that in 2007, the annual support for animal farming across the EU was £2.75 billion – and that does not include promotional costs or subsidised animal feed costs.
In the last 50 years, in Europe and elsewhere in the industrialized world, there has been an exponential growth in the consumption of animal products. Today these items cost little to buy, sometimes even less than vegetable products, which inevitably require far fewer raw materials, energy and labour.
This is because farmers and fishermen receive direct and indirect funding, both from the state and the European Union. What we do not pay for at the cash register we pay for in taxes. And those who choose not to buy animal products pay, too.
This is all the more serious because the negative consequences of high consumption of animal products are greater on the environment, on human health and on poorer countries.
Given the huge health and environmental costs of animal product consumption, the European Community should, instead, support and promote only the growing and consumption of foods that are healthy and have little environmental impact.
Please sign the NEIC petitionHelp end the killing of Scottish seals
Scotland is fortunate to be the guardian of around 90 per cent of the UK's internationally-important seal populations - yet some colonies have already declined by around 40 per cent.
Thousands of seals are needlessly shot by the fish and farming industries in Scotland every year. The Conservation of Seals Act 1970 permits seals to be shot during the closed season, which means that pregnant seals or those with dependent pups can legally be shot. There is no requirement for shooters to meet any standard of proficiency, resulting in additional suffering.
The Scottish government is currently consulting members of the public about a new Marine Bill. Please contact them and ask for the Marine Bill to include full protection for seals.
Email the Scottish governmentHelp to Get Jumps Racing Banned in Australia
Animal Aid is supporting the Ban Jumps Racing campaign in the Australian States of Victoria and South Australia.
You can assist us by writing to the two politicians below. Please tell them you have seen the internet videos (links are pasted below) and that Australia's international reputation is being damaged by allowing jumps racing to continue.
Mr John Brumby
Premier of Victoria
1 Treasury Place
Melbourne
Australia 3000
john.brumby@parliament.vic.gov.au
Mr Rob Hulls
Minister for Racing
473 Keilor Road
Niddrie
Victoria
Australia 3042
rob.hulls@parliament.vic.gov.au
Watch 'Horse Racing Kills (Again)' (This is the ABC's evening news coverage on 28th June).
Visit www.animalsaustralia.org to find up to date information about the campaign.
Protest Against Reintroduction of Shooting on Ilkley Moor
Bradford Council plans to reintroduce grouse shooting to Ilkley moor a decade after it was banned. The Bingley Moor Partnership, which operates grouse shooting on the neighbouring Bingley and Burley moors, has been granted permission by Bradford Council to run shoots on Ilkley Moor for the next 10 years.
Read about the plansBradford Council's own Environmental Policy states that they will make every effort to: 'Safeguard natural habitats and species and preserve the nature and character of the district' and 'Prevent environmental pollution arising from its own operations and use its powers to minimise the impact of others within the District.'
These objectives are not compatible with grouse shooting or the burning and draining of moors. Not only is the shooting of live quarry cruel, but there is good evidence to show that many so-called 'pest' species are killed to encourage grouse populations, and that moorland 'management' actually harms the natural landscape and may be environmentally damaging.
Read the full Environmental PolicyThere is also concern over safety, as many people currently enjoy the natural beauty of the moor with their families, free from the noise and potential risk of shotguns.
Please contact Bradford Council's Chief Executive, Tony Reeves politely asking the council not to put profit before the welfare of people, animals and the environment. Please also copy your communication to the Leader of the Council, Kris Hopkins to Ilkley Town Hall, and to Ann Cryer MP.
Email Tony Reeves, Kris Hopkins and Ann CryerTony Reeves (Chief Executive)
Bradford Metropolitan District Council
City Hall,
Centenary Square,
Bradford, BD1 1HY
Tel: 01274 432111 (switchboard) 01274 432240 (licensing)
Kris Hopkins (Leader of the Council)
Leaders Office
City Hall
Bradford
BD1 1HY
Ilkley Town Hall
Station Road
Ilkley
LS29 8HB
Tel: 01943 436 212
Ban Electric Shock Collars
Electric shock collars for dogs will now be banned in Wales, thanks to pressure from concerned individuals and groups. With Wales leading the way, it's time these cruel and unsuitable training methods are made illegal in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland too. Shock collars consist of a small battery fitted to the collar, which has two blunt metal probes that make contact with the dog's neck. To teach the dog not to do something, the owner can administer an electric shock - that can be increased in strength - using a remote control. In addition to causing pain, electric shock collars can cause behavioural problems, as the dog may associate anything they happen to see in front of them with the shock. Many dogs can be turned into nervous wrecks as a result. Dogs love to learn so training should always be enjoyable and rewarding, not a frightening or painful experience. Please contact your MP and ask them to ban these unnecessary, cruel and outdated devices and instead promote responsible training methods.
Contact your MPKeep Giant Pandas Out of Edinburgh Zoo
As part of its centenary anniversary in 2009, Edinburgh Zoo is planning to rent a pair of giant pandas from China for exhibition and captive breeding over the next 10 years.
Giant pandas are extremely popular with the public and, according to The Scotsman, Edinburgh Zoo estimates its visitor figures could increase from 750,000 to over one million each year.
However, animals in zoos lead miserable lives and exhibit repetitive behavioural patterns resulting from the stress of their unnatural confinement, and from being gawped at by zoo visitors. Giant pandas can also become overweight in captivity and unable to mate naturally.
In captivity, only around 28 per cent of pandas breed, whereas in the wild around 100 per cent appear to be involved in breeding. There have been no successful reintroductions to the wild of captive-bred pandas. The best way to help these animals is by conserving their natural habitat.
Parliamentary ministers in England and Scotland have expressed concern at the plans by Edinburgh Zoo. Scottish Green MSP Robin Harper has tabled a Motion in the Scottish Parliament and MP Mike Hancock has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) in Westminister, urging the 'Scottish and UK Governments not to become involved in using live animals as currency in the course of diplomatic exchange.'
If you live in England, Wales or Scotland, please write to your MP and ask her or him to sign Early Day Motion 1588 – Pandas from China – tabled by Mike Hancock MP.
If you live in Scotland, please also write to your MSP and ask him or her to sign Motion S3M-1906 – Better Policies for Giant Panda Conservation, Breeding and Welfare – tabled by Robin Harper MSP.
Find your MP or MSPStop Export of Nepalese Macaques for Experimentation
A coalition of groups - known as Stop Monkey Business - are campaigning against the export of Rhesus Macaques from Nepal to the United States, where they will be used in biomedical research (especially in the development of vaccines for diseases such as HIV/AIDS). The Nepalese macaques are in demand as they are genetically similar to the Indian macaques traditionally used in this type of research. India banned the export of all macaques in 1978, resulting in the increased interest in Nepal's monkeys. In 2003, the Nepalese government enacted a policy allowing the use of captive-bred animals for scientific research.
In Nepal, there is a groundswell of support for the campaign to ban the export of these animals as the monkeys are revered as sacred in both Hinduism and Buddhism. As export licences for the monkeys are still pending, it would seem possible that the government are deliberating about whether to issue the permits.
This is not a call for a boycott of Nepal, but instead to support the Nepalese activists who are putting pressure on their own government.
Please send a polite message of protest to the Embassy of Nepal
12A Kensington Palace Gardens
London
W8 4QU
Labour Supports Bloodsports
Although Labour pushed through a ban on hunting with dogs, the government is trying to appease bloodsports fanatics by promoting 'gamebird' shooting.
At the 2007 Labour Party conference, Ministers - including the Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe; Rural Affairs Minister, Jonathan Shaw; and Home Office Minister, Vernon Coaker - gave their support to the shooting industry at a reception organised by the British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC).
Every year, around 40 million pheasants and partridges are factory-farmed to be shot for so called 'sport'.
Take Action:
Please write to your MP of whichever party to register your disgust with Labour’s promotion of shooting, and ask your MP to contact Hilary Benn (Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) to demand an end to the mass production of birds to be shot for sport.
write to your MP See the leaflet Contact us More infoSend this page to a friend
Read about how we treat your data: privacy policy.
