Home » Blog » Posts Published in: 2009 » April

ACTION FOR THE OLIVE RIDLEY TURTLES IN INDIA

Greenpeace India reports:

A Tata customer from Moscow called Mr. Ratan Tata’s office a month ago to tell him exactly what she thought of his destructive port in Dhamra and the effect it was having on endangered Olive Ridley Turtles. She called back again. This time she was told that Mr. Tata was travelling and couldn’t take her call. She was put on hold for five minutes. That’s a very expensive call if you’re calling from Moscow.

So she called Greenpeace and suggested we set up a voice mailbox, record all calls, and then broadcast them to Mr. Tata, which we thought was a brilliant idea.

At 9am last Thursday, we went round to Mr. Ratan Tata’s Bombay office in a rented car decked up as an Olive Ridley Turtle, playing back amplified recordings of all the messages that had poured in for him over the past few weeks.

As we finished the third round of broadcasting, the police appeared, booked all three of us, confiscated our equipment, as well as the video camera we were using to document the event, and hauled us away to the lock-up.

We’re all out now, with no pictures and no video until our lawyers can retrieve them from the police, but we’ve got a recording of all the messages that we broadcast.

To listen to some of the other voices that joined yours outside Mr. Ratan Tata’s office last Thursday morning, just click here.

April 29, 2009MHPermalink

MAHAVEER AWARD

On April 18 09, at the invitation of our patron Nitin Mehta, founder of The Young Indian Vegetarians, I spoke about the work of QCA and a little about the Quaker faith to members of the Jain Samaj in Manchester.

The event began with an address and chanting by a Hare Krishna monk from the Manchester temple in Moss Side.

Nitin spoke about the many advantages of a vegetarian/vegan diet – respect and compassion for the animals, health benefits, environmental advantages – and we watched the VIVA! DVD Not in my Name.

A Finnish vegan spoke about his change of diet – he had even been a hunter in earlier days – and we were not surprised when he told us that he and his wife had set up a Vegan Fitness group, so well built and healthy he appeared.

The Hare Krishna monk mentioned that he was well acquainted with Quakers and was complimentary about our beliefs. He spoke about cows – considered holy, our mothers – and Hare Krishna support of a cow sanctuary in the south of England. He made the point that the bulls work in the traditional fashion, the milk is used but that the calves are not taken from their mothers. He stressed that the current intensive method of raising cows was appalling. He invited Jains to join in setting up another Happy Cow shelter in the northwest.

Lesley Tarleton then received the Mahaveer Award for her thirty years of work for animals in the two Freshfields Shelters near Liverpool and in north Wales. She told us a little about how the work started – this is described in last year’s post about the QCA Day in Wales, where Lesley was our guest speaker. She has never received an award before, so it was wonderful to have nominated her. Something I did not know when her name occurred to me was that she helps to support an animal shelter in Mumbai – also called Freshfields – and when Nitin heard this, he said it was karma.

Khalid and I were made very welcome by the community and I was so pleased to meet up again with our QCA member Stuart Hartley from Blackburn. His shaggy dog Bertie delighted the half dozen or so young people there – the youngest a boy of 8.

We made a brief visit to the beautiful Jain temple and would like to thank everyone for inviting us. We hope that QCA can perhaps work together with the Jain Samaj on an animal event at some future date.

~ Marian.

Images courtesy of Jain World. http://www.jainworld.com

April 28, 2009MHPermalink

AN EXCELLENT PROJECT IN GUATEMALA

Our friend Selaine d’Ambrosi, formerly of Mayan Families Healthy Pets in Guatemala was approached by a friend anxious to sponsor a sterilization clinic in the village of Santa Catarina Palopo.

She writes: “The clinic was held on April 17 09 at the Health Clinic and it was a perfect day in all respects. Ramiro and Alma from the clinic gave rabies and combo vaccines and translated information from Spanish into the local language, Kackiquel; there was a 4-person surgical team on hand and the catching of street dogs, intake/discharge of dogs, bathing of puppies, distribution of collars and leashes, transportation and distribution of donated medicines & flea treatments were dealt with by members of the team. The Municipality sponsored lunch and Hotel Villa Santa Catarina provided rooms and breakfast for the visiting surgical team members.

The turnout was fantastic for the first-ever sterilization/vaccination clinic sponsored specifically for the residents of Santa Catarina.

This was the work done:

Sterilizations: 39

Rabies Vaccines: 77

Combo Vaccines for Dogs: 43

Worm treatments for dogs & cats: 20

Flea & Tick treatments: 20

Puppy Flea Baths: 5

Take-home Antibiotic Regimes: 4

Take-home Eye Ointments: 3

Take-home Pain Medications: 4

Collar/Leash Sets: 35

Lbs. of Puppy Food Given Out: 20

Smiles and Thank You’s: COUNTLESS!

And all this for under $1100!

Currently, we are an informal group of professionals who provide services when money is in place. We are in the process of becoming a registered NGO in Guatemala. If you are interested in helping us, please contact me directly for further information.”

Note from the clerk: As with Mayan Families, it is wonderful to see children being involved in this excellent work.

selaine.atitlan@gmail.com

The Clinic Director checks out an arrival.

Young helpers. Local boys dry pups as mom awaits them. They have all been vaccinated and wormed. When the pups are weaned, the mother will be sterilised.

This young girl sat patiently by her dog Oso – “Bear” – while he was in recovery: santa-catarina-clinic-17-april-09-0112

April 25, 2009MHPermalink

FIRST CAPITAL IN THE WORLD TO GO ANTI-CORRIDA

Caracas goes anti-bullfight.

On April 21 09, after listening to the arguments of local resident Nicolás Álvarez, the councillors of Libertador district voted in favour of his motion to make the Venezuelan capital an Anti-Bullfight City.

The Nuevo Circo in Caracas, a square built in 1919 originally for the corrida, is now devoted to culture and the arts.

Nicolás Álvarez requested that the council should make an official rejection of bullfighting in the city. He spoke for Asociación Pro Defensa de los Animales (APROA) y its president, Cristina Camilloni.

The municipal council voted immediately, accepting Álvarez’s 4 proposals, and appointed two councillors to draft the legal texts to this effect.

Celina Vega, council vice president, gave her full support to Álvarez.

Caracas, is now the second Venezuelan city to go anti-corrida - Carrizal in Miranda state was the first – the fifth in the American continent – and the first capital in the world to do so.

QCA has written to Nicolás Álvarez to thank him for his excellent work.

April 25, 2009MHPermalink

SUMMARY OF INFORMATION ON KANGAROO SLAUGHTER

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A beautiful video about caring for kangaroos:

http://tiny.cc/kangasanctuary

You might need to choose whether to use Play with Flush Player or Play with Windows Media

To see what is happening to kangaroo families every night in Australia please visit:

http://tiny.cc/kanga

Please be aware that this is upsetting.

To learn more, please visit:

http://www.stopkangarookilling.org

and http://www.kangaroolives.com

The following petitions have different specific requests/goals. It will only take you less then minute per petition.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/kangaroo-extinction.html

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-proposed-cull-of-kangaroos-at-majura-act.html

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/urgent—stop-the-killing-of-more-babies-like-this

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-australias-wildlife-slaughter.html

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/save-the-kangaroo

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/14/stop-the-killing-of-kangaroos

Also please visit:

‘Australia‘s Dirty Secret’ – http://www.cvfaf.org/CVFAF-Australia.html

April 25, 2009MHPermalink

SILENCE

SILENCE

We cannot find God in noise and agitation.

Nature: trees, flowers, and grass grow in silence. The stars, the moon, and the sun move in silence.

What is essential is not what we say but what God tells us and what He tells others through us.

In silence He listens to us; in silence He speaks to our souls. In silence we are granted the privilege of listening to His voice.

Silence of our eyes.
Silence of our ears.
Silence of our mouths.
Silence of our minds.
…in the silence of the heart
God will speak.

~ Mother Teresa, from No Greater Love

The photo below – by kind permission of a good friend, Hanna Moorcroft, is of a small stone discovered in the graveyard of the church in Port Sunlight, Cheshire.

April 19, 2009MHPermalink

RESCUED JOEYS

This is Pino as a baby.

Brett Clifton, who kindly gave permission for us to use his photos fell so much in love with kangaroos after rescuing the first baby – whom he called Sirocco – that he sold up and bought 200 acres as a sanctuary.

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Miffy is shown, having just being rescued, has had a feed, and now is sucking her pouch liner. The pouch is specially made and hangs so the baby feels secure and safe, as in her mum’s pouch. They like to be U- shaped in the pouch with legs up – they dive in headfirst and do a flip round.

Brett Clifton rescues baby joeys from their dead mum’s pouch, after they’ve been hit by cars.

When old enough, the released kangaroos have a safe, hunter-free 200 acres for the rest of their lives.

A passionate kangaroo campaigner, Robyn, is in the photo below. Annie is sitting with her and holding her hand… Annie’s been released, but still loves cuddles. Among the 3 hopping in the background is Pino – but much bigger now!