ENOUGH OF SADISM DISGUISED AS TRADITION!

Another spectacular anti-bullfight billboard, measuring 13 X 8 metros, was placed over the junction of Avenida Universidad with Miguel Laurent in Mexico City on August 13 . It is well sited near two shopping centres and cinemas, with much passing vehicle traffic.

Bullfighting is not a tradition for the majority of Mexicans – on the contrary, it symbolises violence and social backwardness.

“Por un mundo libre de crueldad”  – for a cruelty-free world

~ Ara Ferris.

www.amedea.org.mx     www.MexicoAntitaurino.org

Dr. Waseem Shaukat  of Vets’ Care Organisation in the University of Lahore, sent us the following news:

The recent flood in Pakistan is the worst ever flood in the history of Pakistan and has affected about 12 million people so far. Due to the sudden onset of the rains in Khayber Pakhtoonkhwa province, no early warnings could be given to the people. Punjab province is also badly affected, impacting on humans, animals, agriculture and infrastructure. The flood has now started in Sindh province also.

 The affected areas of the Punjab have a higher population of animals affected by the flood, but there is as yet no exact idea of how many have been died, but the surviving animals are facing severe challenges to their health and feeding. As land is fully flooded, there is no fodder available for the animals, so they are quite hungry. Disease may quickly follow.

taking wheatstraw to the stricken animals

the animals need more nutritious feed than wheatstraw

Vets’ Care Organisation in the University of Lahore has sent out 25 volunteer vets and students in four teams for the rescue and relief operation in the flood- affected areas of Punjab, along with medicines and vaccines. One team is working in Mianwali, the others are working in Layyah, Muzaffar Garh and Dera Ghazi Khan districts. Our major focus is to vaccinate the animals against Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS) and provide treatment and relief to the injured and sick animals. Provision of feed to the animals is still a major issue. We are trying to do our best with our limited resources and any help in this regard will be greatly appreciated.

a bull calf being checked

goat vaccinated against enterotoxaemia

…As an update to this news, I would like to inform you that two teams which were working around Muzaffar Garh were recalled yesterday, because the water level was again rising and a massive amount of water is heading over to Muzaffar Garh, which will cause severe flood in the already flooded areas. For this reason, the government issued a flood warning and ordered the complete evacuation of Muzaffar Garh. Both teams came back safely last night. More veterinary students from the veterinary department volunteered for the relief work. So, two new teams have been sent out to Rahim Yar Khan district today.

and a buffalo calf

without protection, with animals and belongings

Dr. Waseem Shaukat DVM (UVAS), RVMP (Pak)

 drwaseemshaukat@yahoo.com

 On July 17 2010, at the Animal Rights Conference in Alexandria, Virginia, Eileen Weintraub gave the following address about the abuse of animals in India:

Hello everyone, I am Eileen Weintraub from Seattle and for the past 7 years have volunteered to be an  outreach person for India’s animals via the organizations there that serve them — mostly by working online, although I have also made five tours of India’s animal shelters. I chose the VSPCA or Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals located on the Bay of Bengal on the east coast of India, as the  main group I help as they were doing amazing things and needed the most help – they are off the tourist track and receive few western visitors.    In 2008 I formed “Help Animals India”, a nonprofit group to aid and represent VSPCA and other hard working  Indian animal groups.

 Like many of you here, I have always helped animals with rescue and advocacy.  A vegetarian since I was 21, I have also been a practitioner of Eastern religions.  It was in India that I was able to find the people who could help me make a difference and make the best use of my passion to help animals.

 The title of this presentation uses the word abuse, but it is also animal  suffering due to a lack of resources that is the problem.  For example,  this past January I was in an animal sanctuary in Bodhgaya  with a puppy who had been attacked by another dog – there was no vet not only in the animal sanctuary but none was  available in the entire impoverished Indian state of Bihar – so I had to frantically make overseas calls to learn what drugs could be given to alleviate his pain.  I never felt so alone.  Other pups I have rescued in India have died of distemper or other diseases that might have been avoided through proper quarantine, vaccination and animal birth control programs.  However, many animal shelters have recently made extraordinary gains.   Just about 5 years ago VSPCA instituted training for the shelter vets to learn cat spay/neuter , as this is not taught in Indian vet colleges.

 Article 51 of the Indian Constitution says . . .
” It shall be the duty of every citizen . . .  to have compassion for all living creatures . ..

 There is a heritage of reverence for life in India, yet this is a country where countless animals suffer severe neglect. Overpopulation, poverty, pollution, superstition, apathy and ignorance all contribute to their plight. In a country where human misery and impoverishment remain high, the welfare of destitute animals is a low priority.

 The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act was added to the Indian constitution in 1960.  Every item of cruelty or abuse I am going to mention now is illegal; however, these laws are not followed or enforced.

more…

Only half as many cattle were slaughtered in Dyfed because of bovine TB in the first four months of this year than in the same period last year [1] with no badgers killed. This is the county where up to 1,500 badgers were under threat of extermination until the Appeal Court quashed the plan in June. The number of herds infected in Dyfed also fell by a healthy 14 percent between the same periods [2].

Although these Defra figures are provisional and subject to revision the reductions were far from marginal. They were in line with longer-term statistics showing a consistent downward trend of about seven percent over the last two and a half years both in Wales and Great Britain as a whole.

The stringent controls in Wales on the movement and sale of live cattle are designed to achieve results such as those above. The Trust says they should also be implemented across England and without the wasteful distraction of killing badgers. Elsewhere, Scotland has now been given TB-free status by the EU, and Northern Ireland has announced it has no plans to kill badgers. 

Despite bovine tuberculosis figures continuing to fall without any badgers being killed, not just in Wales but in Great Britain overall, the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) makes new claims that culling could be effective. The Badger Trust says the FUW should be wholeheartedly encouraging its members to back cattle-based measures in the light of the improving figures. The FUW has now asserted (in a statement it did not see fit to have independently validated [3]) an assumed drop in bTB of 30 percent if badgers were killed for over five years in North Pembrokeshire and 32 percent for a further two and a half years. But even the Welsh Assembly Government has calculated only a supposed nine percent reduction in bTB.

The Court of Appeal recently found that a nine percent reduction would not be sufficiently “substantial” under the Animal Health Act to justify killing wildlife, but the Trust emphasises that the court did not establish a threshold for an expected “substantial reduction” in disease as would be required under the Animal Health Act. In any case, the diminishing level of bTB over the last two and a half years with no badgers killed confirms the pointlessness of culling [4].

 NOTES:

[1] 3,313 down to 1,752; a drop of 47 percent (Defra)

[2] From 87 to 75.

[3] http://www.fuw.org.uk/tl_files/FUW/article_images/PolicyDepartmentPapers/FinalRBCTAnalysis19thJuly2010%20.pdf (Independent validation involves the process of peer review and subsequent publication in a recognised scientific journal).

[4] In Great Britain as a whole the fall in confirmed new herd incidents (CNIs) was six percent (2,633 to 2,468) in the two years from January 2008. In Wales, the drop was five percent (from 541 to 513) over the same period. In the first four months of this year cases in Great Britain fell by another eight percent (from 1047 to 964).

~ Jack Reedy

Badger Trust is the only charity solely dedicated to the conservation of badgers across Great Britain.

PO Box 708, EAST GRINSTEAD, RH19 2WN

press@badgertrust.org.uk    www.badgertrust.org.uk