Orangutans Saved From Murderous Attack With Seconds To Spare – SAFELY RELEASED TODAY!

Kalimantan / Borneo / Indonesia – On Sunday January 22nd FOUR PAWS rescued two orangutans (mother and daughter) from almost certain death at the hands of local people who have been paid by palm oil companies to hunt down and slaughter the animals.

Photographs taken at the scene show the terrified mother cuddling and comforting her young daughter. The mother was found to be pregnant.

The FOUR PAWS team has today moved the orangutan mother and her daughter in to a remote and safe area of the rainforest and released them there into the wild. The mother has been equipped with radio senders to enable monitoring of them both to ensure they are adapting well to the new environment.

Before finding the mother and daughter FOUR PAWS had scoured the area for orangutans in imminent danger from attack. Sadly no other orangutans had survived the earlier slaughter.

Orangutans, very close relatives of humans, are threatened by losing their entire habitat due to rainforest deforestation.. A few decades ago there were 250,000 orangutans. Today there are 50,000. But deforestation is not the only threat: Some palm oil companies are determined to rid the newly created farmland of orangutans who they see as a pest.

The orangutan massacres have recently come to the attention of the media in Indonesia. For the first time authorities have decided to arrest people including a senior manager at one oil palm company called Khaleda. It is alleged that Khaleda had offered a reward of 1million Indonesian Rupiah (£70) for each orangutan killed.

Over the course of the last couple of years hundreds of rewards have been claimed. The allegations are that certain palm oil companies paid up to £70 to their employees for the killing of orangutans found in their plantations. At first these stories were denied. However last September graves and bones were found by investigators and the scandal has now hit the Indonesian media with the welfare of wild orangutans quickly becoming a major political issue.

Killing orangutans is illegal in Indonesia, but the law is lacking enforcement. Before November 2011 only two low level arrests had ever been made. In the last two months 10 more arrests have taken place including the arrest of the senior manager of the plantation where the worst graves have been found.

With so many adult orangutans being slaughtered the hunters keep the babies alive and sell them to the pet trade. FOUR PAWS and its partner BOS do everything they can to rescue the traumatised little babies who are being illegally kept as pets. The orphans are then taken to the Samboja orangutan sanctuary where they are taught skills they will need in order to return to the wild and fend for themselves.

“Our investigation could not have been more timely. It is extremely fortunate we arrived when we did – a few minutes later and the orangutans could have been dead”, said Dr. Signe Preuschoft, FOUR PAWS’ primate expert. “We discovered a gang of young men surrounding the two orangutans. Both victims were clearly petrified and the gang were jubilant in anticipation of their rewards for catching and killing the animals. We hope that the public attention to our rescue action will help many more orangutans than the two we are about to release.

“For the first time in Indonesian history, the fate of the orangutan has become a genuine political issue. The massacres must not be allowed to continue. Orangutan habitat in the lowland rainforests needs adequate protection. Those breaking the law should be paying for their crimes, not charities and most of all not the orangutans themselves.”

This Weekend…Prepare For Your Birdwatch

The countdown to the Big Garden Birdwatch is on! It’s now just three weeks until it’s time to sit down, perhaps in your favourite chair, and look out your window for just one hour, counting the birds in your garden.

For more information visit: RSPB

Sly And Arnie ‘Killing Thousands Of Bats’

London Evening Standard:

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are under fire from animal activists after they woke up one of Europe’s biggest colonies of hibernating bats to film their latest movie.

They say the bats may starve in their thousands because the lights and cameras disturbed their winter sleep, leaving them disorientated and confused.

Stallone, Schwarzenegger and their crew entered the Devetashka cave in Bulgaria to film The Expendables 2, due to be screened this summer…

Farmers’ Concerns Over New Livestock Illness

BBC News:

Farmers say they are “very concerned” about a new animal illness which can cause birth defects in livestock.

The Schmallenberg virus (SBV), which emerged in the Netherlands and Germany last year, was confirmed in the UK for the first time on Monday.

Cattle farmer Roger Long said: “We know so little about it. But of course we are concerned and the last thing we need is another virus to come over here.”

Mr Long said his farm at East Dereham in Norfolk was “not a million miles away” from one of two sheep farms in the county where the disease has been detected…

Animal-Rights Activist Wins $15,000 In Leafleting-Arrest Lawsuit

Philly:

Edward Coffin  said yesterday was “bittersweet,” even though he ended it $15,000 richer.

The city agreed to pay Coffin, an animal-rights activist, that sum as a settlement. He sued the city last year with the help of the state’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union after he was illegally arrested during a supermarket protest in 2009…

California Animal-Slaughter Law Struck Down; Activists Pin Hopes On Federal Bill

Los Angeles Times:

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a California law against slaughtering pigs and other animals unable to walk, activists are pressing forward with efforts to get a tough federal measure passed.

The 2008 state law had made it illegal for slaughterhouses in California to “receive a non-ambulatory animal.” Any animal that could not stand on its own was to be returned to the farm or “humanely euthanized.”

But the court’s 9-0 decision Monday held that since Congress had already adopted its Federal Meat Inspection Act, California was not free to enforce differing rules or standards. Justice Elena Kaganwrote that “the California law runs smack into” the federal regulations…

Third Monkey Death At Harvard Triggers Federal Probe Of Primate Research

Bloomerang:

Harvard Medical School’s New England Primate Research Center is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the October death of a monkey in a lab.

The case reflects both the widespread use of primates in research laboratories and the efforts of federal officials to enforce animal-welfare laws…

Four Paws Protest Action Against Celebrity Hunt In Transylvania

Activists call on the event’s host Mr Ion Tiriac to play tennis instead of killing animals.

Balc, Romania – 21 January 2012. Activists of the international animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS symbolically blocked the entrance to the annual VIP-hunting event hosted by business tycoon Ion Tiriac. Activists from the UK, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and Romania played tennis in front of the entrance to the hunting enclosure. With the action they called on the hunting guests to exchange the guns for tennis racquets and stop killing animals for fun.

The activists revealed a 6 metre banner with the message “STOP KILLING! PLAY TENNIS”. The message was an invitation to the guests to try the game of tennis instead of killing animals. The message is addressed to Ion Tiriac who has hosted this annual hunting session since 2005. He is a former successful international tennis player. At least 1400 wild boars have been killed at Balc in the previous hunting sessions.

“Today we want to highlight that killing animals for pleasure is unacceptable in the 21st century. As the former sportsman Mr. Tiriac is aware, fair play within sports is essential. All the animals at Balc are enclosed with no chance of escape. Therefore this is not fair play. We call on the Romanian Ministry of Environment and Forestry to ban hunting of wild animals in captivity”, said Angelique Davies, head of programs at FOUR PAWS in London.

Several notorious international and national corporate VIP’s have lined up to attend the event over the years. Previously the guest list has included top businessmen such as Wolfgang Porsche, Klaus Mangold (DaimlerChrysler), Franz Rauch, the former tennis player Boris Becker, Elan Schwartzenberg, George Marsan (city major of Monte Carlo), Erich Hampel (Unicredit Bank Austria), Alfred Baumhauer (fabricant Cartier), Siegfried Wolf (Magna Europe), Rudolf Streicher (former Austrian Minister), Inigo Herrera. Also former Romanian politicians have attended this hunting event in the past.

“We are concerned that many animals may often be shot but not killed instantly and they are left to suffer a slow and painful death. The Balc event does not respect any ethical or animal welfare principles. We believe that the time has come for Mr. Tiriac and his guests to look for ethical and nonviolent settings for such business events. We urge Mr. Tiriac to give tennis lessons rather than promoting blood sports”, said Angelique Davies, head of programs at FOUR PAWS in London.

Farmers Urged Not To Do Defra’s Dirty Work In Badger Cull

Cull areas announced in West Gloucestershire and West Somerset

The League Against Cruel Sports is urging farmers to distance themselves from the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) proposed badger culls following the announcement that two areas have been selected to pilot the controlled shooting of badgers.

Two locations in West Gloucestershire and West Somerset have been chosen where farmers and landowners can now apply for licenses allowing badgers to be shot on their land as part of proposals to prevent the spread of bovine TB. However the League is calling on farmers to boycott the culls on the grounds that theses unpopular trials will bring far more problems than benefits.

The League’s chief executive Joe Duckworth said: “This is a clear cut case of Defra making a bad decision and leaving farmers to do their dirty work. There is no doubt that the public will react strongly to badgers being shot on their own doorstep but Defra has cleverly distanced themselves from this leaving farmers to deal with any backlash”.

Culling will take place over a six week period in the autumn and will be paid for by farmers. The trials will test the safety, effectiveness and humaneness of controlled shooting of badgers. The League believes culling is not the solution to prevent the spread of bovine TB with evidence showing that culling can in fact increase the spread of the disease rather than curb it. Mr Duckworth added: “This decision is wrong on every level, not only will it have a devastating impact on badgers, which are being slaughtered needlessly but has huge cost implications for farmers and the police who will be left to deal with the consequences of this botched attempt to address the serious issue of bovine TB.”

Polling by YouGov for the League found that only 16% of people believe there should be a cull of badgers, whereas 67% – more then four times as many – believe they should be vaccinated instead. Members of the public are being encouraged to respond to a Natural England consultation with communities in cull areas.

Badger Cull: Animal Rights Activists Could Target Somerset Site

This Is Somerset:

Animal rights activists are expected to descend on two areas in the West next autumn after they were chosen as the sites for controversial badger cull trials.

As the Daily Press predicted this week, one pilot is in Gloucestershire and the other in Somerset, both bovine TB hotspots…