Police Officers Sentenced For Kicking Their Dogs

BBC News:

Two North Wales Police officers have been given community sentences after being filmed kicking and throwing their pet dogs around their back yard…

Wycombe Council Vote To Allow Animal Circuses Is A Disgrace

Animal Defenders International:

Animal Defenders International (ADI) has expressed bitter disappointment over Wycombe District Council’s marginal vote to allow performing animal circuses to be allowed on council land.

Circuses using animals have been banned in the district since 1992. However, after calls from a circus to allow them on council property, councillors narrowly voted through the proposal with the Chairman using his casting vote in favour of overturning the ban.

Circus owners claim there is no scientific evidence to suggest animals should not be used. However, ADI has produced a wealth of film footage and photographs, taken by undercover officers in the UK and worldwide. Our findings reveal animal welfare is inevitably compromised by the travelling and temporary nature of the circus, with animals often confined in small spaces, and some animals suffering physical and psychological abuse. In addition, scientific studies of the effects on animals in captivity and transport in a range of industries have provided evidence of suffering and compromised welfare. The circumstances that cause suffering in other industries are present in circuses.

After the Government missed an opportunity to ban animal circuses with the Animal Welfare Act 2006, a Circus Working Group (CWG) was established by DEFRA to gather and evaluate evidence. However, this has been roundly condemned for discounting much of the evidence before it could even be considered.

More than 180 cross-party MPs have signed a parliamentary petition criticising the CWG, and calling for the Government to fulfil its commitment to ban wild animals in circuses and to set up a proper licensing system for domesticated animals. EDM 965 is the animal welfare parliamentary petition with the third highest number of signatures, putting it in the top one per cent.

Circus animals are not currently given protection under the Animal Welfare Act as circus regulations have not yet been written. Any council that acts to allow animal circuses is getting ahead of the law.

ADI Chief Executive, Jan Creamer, says “It is extraordinary that, while worldwide awareness of animal suffering in circuses has never been greater and an increasing number of countries like Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia are seriously considering bans on animals in circuses, an English council would go backward in history. 80 per cent of the British public finds animals in circuses unacceptable, so it is a disgrace that councillors have turned their backs on animals.”

The proposed change in policy will now be put before the council’s cabinet and full council.

BUAV Say Cambodia Allows The Capture Of Monkeys For Research

Reuters:

An animal rights group says Cambodia is flouting international conventions by allowing the cruel capture of monkeys for research in the United States and China…

Sea Eagles Could Return To The UK

Plans to reintroduce the sea eagle in Norfolk after a 200 year absence from the UK could go ahead next summer.

Find out more: RSPB

Wild Beavers Return To Britain After 400 Years

AFP:

Four families of beavers have arrived in Britain for a landmark project which will see them introduced into the wild here for the first time in over 400 years, experts said Friday…

Baby Sparrows Are Starving To Death

The RSPB say that too few insects in summer means that baby sparrows are starving to death. Ornamental plants and the concreting of gardens to provide parking are being blamed.

Read more: RSPB

AnimalBlog must be doing something right, we counted over 40 house sparrows (spoilt and plump) in our tiny garden!

To find out how you can turn your garden or even window box into a wildlife haven visit the RSPB’s: Homes For Wildlife

Essex Man Fined For Possessing Wild Birds

A 65 year old Essex man was given 120 hours community service and charged £8,000 court costs for the illegal possession of 40 wild British birds.

John Stanley Brockis ran a business from his home called Woodlea Birds, he sold the birds through classified ads. The RSPCA carried out a ‘test purchase’ at the beginning of October last year buying three wild goldfinches, the police then visited with a warrant at the following month.

Test were carried out finding that none of the bird were bred legally in captivity.

RSPCA Inspector Cliff Harrison said:

‘This is a very serious case as it involves a large number of birds and clearly a profit is being made on the back of their suffering.

‘It is a sad fact that large numbers of wild British birds are being trapped, often by cruel methods, and reduced into captivity, causing the birds shock and stress just so that people can make money.’

Full article: RSPCA

Whalers Defy Whale Trade Ban

Campaign Whale:

Reports from Tokyo suggest that Japan will allow the import of 65 tonnes of whale meat sent from Iceland last June. The meat, which was impounded by customes on arrival, consists of around 60 tonnes of fin whale meat from Iceland’s whaling company Hvalur hf, and about five tonnes of minke meat exported by the Norwegian company Myklebust Trading…

900 Oven-Ready Owls Seized In Raid

At the beginning of this month a house was raided in Jahor, Malaysia by the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks, staff found nearly 900 ‘oven-ready’ owls and 7,000 live lizards. A local man was arrested, pleaded not guilty and was released on bail.

Full article: Wildlife Extra

A Dog Should Be Part Of The Family

A suggestion by the Thames Valley Police that people should get a dog to deter thieves at Christmas was criticised by the RSPCA:

‘You’ve got to get a dog for the right reason. We strongly oppose people buying dogs as gifts and are against keeping dogs as guard dogs, because an animal should be part of the family.’

The RSPCA also said that dogs bought for their hard image such as Rottweilers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and German Shepherds are the most likely to be abandoned – and the most difficult to re-home.

Read more: Buckinghamshire Advertiser