Animal welfare was Welcome to new member linda

[Guest guest]

Hi linda, just to reply to your mail of 2 weeks ago - I hadn't done earlier not

having anything meaningful to add, but I just read in this week's Portugal News

of new legislation coming into effect here immediately, which forbids ownership

of a long list of animals except by certain authorized users e.g. zoos and other

official centres, NOT circuses and NOT pet shops. So this looks like the end of

parades of lions, tigers, elephants, monkeys and all the rest by circuses, as

well as private ownership of various animals as pets. The reasons given are

environmental protection, public safety, animal welfare and conservation, not in

any special order. Those in possession of these animals don't have to give them

up straight away (what would the state do with them?) but have to register them

and are prohibited from buying new ones or allowing them to reproduce.

 

What do you (and others) think of this legislation - going too far or not far

enough? It seems well received here in Portugal, except of course for circus

owners who see it as the end of their tradition and greet it with sarcastic

remarks about how to prevent a tiger from reproducing. My view is that it's a

tradition " more honoured in the breach than in the observance " - I'm not really

sure about zoos, but I guess they have an important function as a walking

(swimming, flying, crawling etc.) library of the animal kingdom (or is it a

republic?) and as such can contribute to our education and so to a better

understanding of our relationship with the animals.

 

Piers

 

, " linda " <lclark947 wrote:

>

> Thank you for the warm welcome. Looking forward to gleaning the information

from others that they feel comfortable in sharing. I do know what you mean about

the zoos and circuses. Wonder how we will like it when aliens land here and

think we are odd specimens of animals and cage us up or have us for a snack. LOL

But to be serious, nowadays it is just plain easy to be a vegan and to have

choices that are animal free and no testing either in both the food world and

the non-food world. Just plain easy.