Guest guest Posted August 8, 2003 Report Share Posted August 8, 2003 Animal Campaign Express E-newsletter No 35 Dear All, Welcome to the latest edition of the ACE e-newsletter! The e-newsletter is sent in addition to our snail-mail monthly bulletin and features different campaigns, those which are predominantly e-based or are on a strict time limit. If you are interested in receiving our snail mail bulletin, let us have your name and address (UK only - sorry) and we'll add you to our mailing list. Where we have included some fax numbers with some of the alerts, please remember to add international dialling codes. Many thanks to all those who continue to keep in touch and welcome to those who receive this for the first time. -- Our campaign against pet markets has gathered enough support to enable us to shut down or prevent most bird or reptile sales with relative ease. So we thought that the time was ripe to try to finish off the big one. The big, bad, bird market takes place over two days annually - usually in December - at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), near Birmingham. It is organised by the magazine, Cage & Aviary Birds. At last year's event it is believed that around 70,000 birds were subject to trade. Of those, it is estimated that at least 50,000 had been trapped in the wild. It can be safely assumed that for every bird that survived brutal capture and transportation, a further three would have died. This indicates that around 200,000 birds may have been snatched from their natural habitat for this one event alone and that three quarters of that total would have died en route. These shocking figures have failed to convince Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council not to license this year's fair. Neither has the fact that the event itself is illegal, since the law does not allow traders to carry on a business of selling pet animals in a public place. Bizarrely, the council is claiming that the National Exhibition Centre is not a public place! The council was apparently provided with legal advice from an independent barrister. However, a senior local authority officer advised Animal Aid that the council did not wish to make the advice public in case it was used as 'ammunition' against them. The fact that the council has been highly secretive about their legal advice will hardly inspire confidence and if anything will fuel suspicion about the council's decision-making process. Local authorities are obliged to justify any decision that they make and therefore their commissioned legal opinion should be in the public domain. Maybe Solihull Council did not want to take on the might of IPC Media, the publisher of Cage & Aviary Birds? (We are doing that for them anyway!) Or maybe the Council failed to reckon on the strength of public feeling against the vicious trade in wild birds? We intend to mobilise this sympathy and intensify the campaign against Solihull MBC until it is compelled to revoke IPC's licence. The protest begins In March, we organised a well publicised protest outside the council offices of Solihull MBC, which involved dumping a net of synthetic 'dead birds' on their doorstep. We hoped that it would make them think carefully about sanctioning the destruction of thousands of real living creatures and their habitat. We then leafleted the town centre and broke the news to shoppers that their council were in favour of granting a licence for an illegal wild bird sale. Although IPC claims that the welfare of birds at the NEC event is paramount, they don't actually keep records of the total number who die over the two days. How then, can they measure how high, or low, the standards are? We guess that this data would be so damning that it would not be in their interest to keep figures. For a start, it would certainly call into question the claim that last year there were only 8,000 birds offered for sale and that most of these were captive-bred canaries and budgerigars. Our expert ornithologist, Peter Robinson, agreed that most, if not all, of the budgerigars and canaries would have been captive-bred. So would a small number of the larger parrots and some of the finches. However, there were many other species on sale who were recent imports from Africa, Southeast Asia, South and Central America and elsewhere. Several of these were internationally classified as under threat of global extinction. More evidence against the trade Removing birds from their natural habitat involves the use of cruel trapping methods. Sometimes birds are used as decoys, tethered to the ground in order to draw in others of their kind who are attracted by distress calls. Decoys are used repeatedly until they die. Other birds are trapped on branches coated with powerful sticky glue (bird-lime), or are trapped in nets and snares. After capture, they then pass through a series of dealers, exporters and importers and end up eventually in the EU (mainly Belgium, Holland and Germany). >From there, many enter the UK. Once dealers acquire them, they are transported around the country and offered for trade at various events until they are either sold or they die. This is the fate of countless thousands every year. As part of our submission to Solihull Council we produced a video in which we interviewed a number of experts, including a vet, an animal and public health consultant, a biologist, a bird behaviourist, an ornithologist and a barrister. They all put forward a very strong case. We also showed undercover footage from last year's sale - taken by the Captive Animals' Protection Society - plus film of the wild bird trade obtained by the Environmental Investigation Agency. 'Jumble sale' of birds The NEC event itself could best be described as a huge jumble sale of birds. Visitors go along out of curiosity, to see species that they haven't seen before, or else to get a good bargain. Much of the trade relies on impulse purchases and buyers' ignorance. Traders are rarely experts on bird husbandry and will not know or care whether their customers have the first idea how to look after their new pet. At other bird fairs we have monitored, no guarantees are given and often sales are made without a receipt - despite the fact that some species will be sold for many hundreds or even several thousands of pounds. When birds become sick or die within a few days of purchase, the buyer often cannot trace or contact the vendor. This is typical of most pet markets. At the NEC itself, birds are frequently kept overcrowded in cages that are too small. Groups of parrots are seen huddled together; obviously petrified by their experience. Wild-caught species are especially frightened of humans and will view people as predators. They will feel trapped and vulnerable. Others offered for sale are clearly sick. It is illegal for pet animals to be subjected to these levels of suffering. Stringent controls? Although Solihull Council claim to have been satisfied that IPC can fulfil all the stringent conditions of its licence, it was clear during a licensing committee meeting at the end of March that they could not. With a team of around a half a dozen vets charged with the well-being of over 70,000 birds, the problems are patently obvious. The vast majority will not receive any veterinary inspection or attention. This is particularly disturbing as the NEC event also provides a perfect environment for the spread of a number of diseases. Thousands of stressed, immune-deficient birds are brought together in the same air space for two to three days, subject to cross-contamination from a number of infections. Amongst the possibilities are salmonella, psittacosis, psittacine beak and feather disease, polyoma virus, aspergillosis, exotic Newcastle disease and fungal crop infections. Some of these have the capacity to cross the species boundary and may have profound implications for human health. Help us to deliver a blow that will knock the UK bird trade sideways. For the many thousands of birds whose lives have already been claimed by the NEC event, please support our campaign. a.. Write to Solihull MBC and ask them to revoke the licence for the NEC wild bird sale. Mr S Lawson, Principal Environmental Officer, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, PO Box 19, Council House, Solihull B91 3QT, email slawson. b.. Support our boycott of IPC magazines and write to IPC to explain why. Sylvia Auton, Chief Executive, IPC Media Ltd, Kings Reach Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LS, email carolinegodfrey. -- To absolutely no one's surprise, the NJ Fish and Game Council has made N.J.'s black bear hunt official. Voting to approve the game code, and all the terrible killing that is inscribed within it, including the bears, was a mere technicality. The bear hunt was really approved months ago, when the Council first brought it up. And, when they did, we struck hard and fast with a successful fax campaign focused on Governor McGreevey. With the Council's vote now official, we must strike again. Last time we set up a system in which people could email their names and addresses to us, and we would send the actual fax. We are offering this service this time as well. We sent out over 500 faxes when the Council first proposed the hunt, and now we need to do more, far more, and we desperately need your help. Email: Veganman - you can email me with the names and addresses of people who want letters faxed. If you sent me your info previously, you don't need to send it again, just give your permission for another fax to be sent. We have to give the Council and their hunt a big hit right now. If we don't, then it will seem as if the opposition has faded. And that means the hunt will happen. This year has had more than it's share of ups and downs, victories and defeats. We have to stop this hunt, and then tear the Council apart through legislation, so that they pay a price for their arrogance and cruelty. Governor James McGreevey State House PO Box 001, Trenton NJ 08625, USA Phone: 609-292-6000 Fax: 609-292-3454 -- The Municipal office of Tegucigalpa (The Capital City) in Honduras, issued an order prohibiting ownership of the following dog breeds: American Staffordshire Terrier Bull Terrier Staffordshire Bull Terrier Dogo Argentino Fila Brasileiro American Pit Bull Terrier A period of 45 days after the publishing of this order is given to the owners to GET RID of these dogs. Those who do not comply will be fined and have their pets destroyed by the mayor's office (via cyanide gas and ground glass or similar barbaric forms) in co-ordination with the Office of Public Health. Please email the Mayor of Tegucigalpa, MIGUEL RODRIGO PASTOR, to protest this legislation: Email: amdc This is the website of the city of Tegucigalpa www.alcaldiadetegucigalpa.com Plus, please email the Honduran Embassy in Washington DC: Email: embassy Regards, Poul Poulsen, American Canine Foundation Euro-WAF (www.waf-legislation.org) Please send a letter to the Mayor, and a cc to the Embassy. Thanks! Sample letter Dear Mayor, I am writing on behalf of the dog breeds that are being banned in your city, and the owners of these dogs! Which include the American Staffordshire Terrier Bull Terrier Staffordshire Bull Terrier Dogo Argentino Fila Brasileiro American Pit Bull Terrier It has never been proven, that these breeds of dogs are more dangerous, than any other breed of dog! On the contrary, it has been proven that these breeds are not genetically dangerous. Out of 185 dog breeds, these breeds have been proven to have the best temperaments. It is the people, who make the dog vicious. They are the criminals, not the animals. The Municipal office of Tegucigalpa has ordered the owners of these dog breeds, to get rid of their pets, within 45 days. Anyone who fails to comply with the order will be fined, and the dogs destroyed by inhumane methods, such as via cyanide gas, ground glass, or similar barbaric ways! This treatment of the dogs, and the people who love them, is unfair and unjust! Tegucigalpa will not be looked upon as a compassionate, caring City, if this order is carried out! This is the behaviour of a backward nation, not a progressive, modern one! I respectfully ask that you rescind this order, and allow the owners of these dogs to keep them. Please do not make the dogs, and their owners pay, for the wrong doing of people who make these dogs vicious, by the way they treat them! Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your reply. Sincerely, -- Seismological research project will likely injure or kill marine mammals A massive international (US/Canada/Japan) seismological research project is planned for late August and early September, 2003, off the south coast of Vancouver Island. This project will use an extremely large air cannon, firing at a volume of 243dB. We understand that this level is higher than the seismic tests in Baja that killed beaked whales. Severe trauma to marine mammals will almost certainly result from this project if it is allowed to continue as planned, including the Southern Resident Community of Killer whales which are listed as Depleted in the US and as Endangered in Canada. The website and area planned for this Seismological project, called the CASSIS project can be found at: http://geosun1.seos.uvic.ca/cassis/intro.html The planned explosions could seriously harm marine mammals that inhabit the south end of Vancouver Island. NOAA Fisheries started getting information about this project only about two or three weeks ago. Canadian DFO had received a permit application, apparently containing inaccurate information, and issued a permit on May 30, giving some guidance to the Canadian researchers in charge of the project including some information on safety buffer zones. DFO has since realised their error with respect to issuing the CASSIS permit, and have now rescinded the earlier 'recommended mitigations' they had submitted. The matter is being discussed at the highest levels in Washington. The Japanese research vessel Kairei is scheduled to arrive in Victoria on August 7 and the work is slated to begin on approximately August 27 - a time when the Orcas, Humpbacks and several other species are known to be in the area. Last year a US district court judge ordered the National Science Foundation (NSF) to stop using high decibel airguns in the Gulf of California, citing concern over possible harm to whales. Further details on this can be found at: http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2002/2002-10-29-10.asp Time is of the essence here so please drop an email to Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Robert Thibault, to prevent this new and unnecessary threat to these marine mammals and ideally, send him a hard copy. Email: Min Honourable Robert Thibault House of Commons , Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Parliament Buildings, Wellington Street ,Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6, Canada -- We have been contacted by a supporter who came across Bizarre magazine in W. H. Smiths on Saturday 21st June - bizarre. On the cover it said "bear & dog fight". She looked inside, and without warning she saw the most horrendous photo of a bear torn, gashed and bleeding, lying pitifully on the ground. This was obviously a photo of a bear baiting event in Pakistan, which has been made illegal but is still taking place illegally. This magazine apparently publishes "sick" photos of animal abuse and deformed people, people involved in accidents and dead bodies, for entertainment value. Please call the head office of W. H. Smiths, the number on 0870 444 6444. Bizarre magazine was being sold along with Harry Potter, on low shelves where any child could have looked at it. Please ask W. H. Smiths not to stock this magazine. The publishers are: Ifield Goods ltd., 9 Dallington Street, London EC1V 0BQ. Please also write to the Press Complaints Commission, 1 Salisbury Square, London EC4Y or e-mail: complaints -- Honourable Minister Yisrael Katz Ministry of Agriculture, P.O. Box 30, Beit, Dagan, Israel fax: 03-9485835 email: yiskatz SAMPLE LETTER: Support Ban On Animal Circuses Minister Katz: Please accept this letter as a petition requesting a ban on circuses that use animals to execute tricks, fight or otherwise perform for the amusement of an audience. I commend Israel's Ministry of Agriculture for evaluating this issue and strongly encourage you to issue a ban on all permits for circuses that employ animals. Comparable legislation is under review throughout the United States. The Animal Protection Institute lists 17 U.S. cities and municipalities, 19 Canadian provinces and five countries as animal-free under the "Big Top." Over several decades circuses around the world have accumulated innumerable violations of animal welfare laws, including citations for trauma, physical harm and behavioural stress to animals; deficient veterinary care; and insufficient sanitation, exercise, space and shelter. To subordinate animals, trainers must keep them "constantly in pain or in fear of pain," claims Tufts University veterinarian Paul Waldau. Circus reps argue that animal acts offer children a glimpse of exotic creatures. In reality, forcing captive beasts to perform unnatural stunts does not teach children about life in the wild. For example, elephants naturally roam 20 to 50 miles everyday, pausing to indulge in mud and dust baths. In the circus, they perform up to three shows a day, with 50 weeks of travel in frigid or sweltering boxcars. Performing wild animals pose a real threat to public safety, precisely because they are wild and therefore unpredictable. No amount of training or affection can eliminate this danger. Jack Hanna, world-famous zoologist, is quoted as saying, "The first thing I tell people is a wild animal is like a loaded gun. It can go off at any time. This is the kind of business we are in." (5/13/02, Surgeons Cannot Reattach Woman's Arm, By Vickie Chachere) Regulations under the Israeli Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act essentially negate permits for any exhibit that inflicts animal suffering during performance, training, travel or confinement. There can be no animal circus without suffering. Please enact a ban on permits for all travelling acts that exploit animals. Thank you for your valuable time and consideration. Sincerely, -- Cambridge Primate Lab - time for action Cambridge Primate Laboratory - Time For Action (Please see below for important diary dates) The government is to decide in the next few weeks whether to approve plans to build a new primate testing laboratory for Cambridge University at Girton. Despite strong local opposition, Tony Blair has spoken out in favour of the laboratory, as has the multimillionaire science minister Lord Sainsbury, a Blair crony with vested interests in genetic technology, who has paid for his title and his job with £8.5 million in donations to the Labour Party. Given this, it seems that the decision to go ahead is now a foregone conclusion. This issue is a watershed for the anti-vivisection movement as well as for the vivisectors themselves. Professor Roger Lemon, the director of the Institute of Neurology at University College London, is on record as saying that should the proposals fail to go through "it would be a signal to the whole medical research community that new developments" are "no longer possible - not just the Huntingdon Road development. It would effectively be a signal that would block any new animal-research facility for the foreseeable future." After 6 years of government broken promises and lies, the number of experiments on animals is rising year by year. Now this corrupt and disgraced government is trying to force through plans for a primate laboratory in the face of fierce opposition from the public, the local council, campaigners and even the police. It is absolutely vital that we now draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. The movement must mobilise as one to oppose the building of this laboratory, fighting them brick by brick, stone by stone, if necessary. If they are allowed to get away this one, it will be a setback for the animals and the movement of huge proportions. With the decision imminent, now is the time to begin planning our campaign in earnest. Over the next few months we will be gradually increasing the pressure. We must leave the government and the university in no doubt about the anger and determination they will face should they attempt to go ahead with this plan. The first date for the diary is a day of actions/publicity/mass leafleting in Cambridge on Saturday August 23rd. The plan is to stage a series of actions on the day, ranging from publicity and press stunts, leafleting shoppers, tourists and door to door, to demos and home visits. This will allow groups and individuals to select the actions which best suit them. As well as publicising the issue, we will also be advertising the forthcoming public meeting in Cambridge, and importantly the National March and Rally in Cambridge on October 11th. Additionally we will be organising co-ordinated email/phone/letter campaigns against key individuals and organisations and encouraging individuals to organise their own initiatives on this most vital of issues. Remember it is much easier to prevent a hellhole like this being built than it will be to close it once it is established. Stop Primate Experiments At Cambridge (Speac) Diary Dates: Saturday 23rd August, Day of Action/publicity/mass-leafleting in Cambridge, to highlight the proposed primate lab and to publicise the forthcoming national demo and public meeting. Meeting from 12noon, in Cambridge. Transport from London, Phone 07957 588253 for details. Wednesday 3rd September, Public Meeting at in Cambridge. This will an important step in building up local opposition to the primate lab. Bear in mind this will be a PR exercise, so we will also be highlighting non-animal issues such as destruction of green belt and threats to public order. Phone 07957 588253 for details. Saturday 11th October, National March and Rally in Cambridge. Details are being planned now, but please keep this date free, and start spreading the word and organising transport. Details 07957 588253 -- Hi, all you animal lovers. This seems pretty simple. Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "feed an animal in need" for free. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know. http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com AGAIN, PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS!!! -- DEMONSTRATION AGAINST LIVE EXPORTS IN DOVER SATURDAY 2ND AUGUST 2003 (MIDDAY- 3PM) EASTERN DOCKS ROUNDABOUT, DOVER We are expecting Live Exports from Dover to re-start at any time. Please join Compassion in World Farming on Saturday 2nd August and help us stand united in our opposition to this trade in misery. We are delighted to have Andrew Tyler from Animal Aid give a speech on Live Exports and possibly other speakers. Please bring a soft toy representing a species of animal that is exported (sheep, calf, horse, pig and so on) for our European long distance transport campaign. Also we invite you to bring with you and recite any poetry you may like to compose or have already written which you feel reflects your feelings about live exports. We hope you will write a poem and join us at this peaceful event. Call Marie at the office on 01730 237362 to register your attendance or email marie Thank you for your support. Nearest Train: Dover Priory -- Many thanks for your continued support. Until next time... For the animals.....ACE -- If you wish to be removed from this e-newsletter mailing list, please send an email to a.c.e with the word "" in the subject line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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