More than 30 kittens were used in tests funded by taxpayers to find out how the brain responds to sensory deprivation.
Animal lovers across Britain were outraged today after it emerged scientists were sewing up kittens’ eyes for a shocking experiment.
More than 30 kittens were used in tests funded by taxpayers to find out how the brain responds to sensory deprivation.
All of them were put down after the study. Five had their eyes sewn closed for up to a week…
Like a classic riff, a good pop star never lets a great visual image go to waste.
The famous picture of Morrissey with a cat on his head has been doing the rounds for quite a while now, and the ex-Smiths frontman rolled it out again only last year. Well, why not give it another whirl for a good cause?
“In his new ad for PETA, Morrissey continues his crusade for animals and asks you to help eradicate the animal overpopulation crisis by spaying and neutering your companion animals,” PETA said on their website…
The UK dairy industry is in crisis. Milk prices have been driven down to unsustainable levels. And at the same time farmers are battling rising prices for fuel, feed and energy. Margins have been cut to the point of collapse and many dairy farmers are going out of business.
The newspapers are full of stories of unfair pricing. Farmers are holding rallies, protests and demonstrations. Some even feel forced to threaten extreme measures like dumping their milk. And, today, Defra Minister Jim Paice is hosting a meeting between National Farmers Union representatives and milk processing companies in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
But in all the media coverage, arguments and counter arguments, one important voice is missing. Who is speaking up for the vulnerable dairy cow? She needs your help. Email Jim Paice today to call for urgent reform of milk prices and protection for dairy cows’ welfare.
Her situation is perilous. Across Europe she is being driven to higher and higher yields. The higher yielding cow is much more likely to suffer mastitis, lameness and infertility, leading to a shortened life. Cows in many European countries are increasingly kept permanently indoors, unable to express many of their natural behaviours.
Although requiring urgent reform in some areas, the dairy industry in Britain generally has higher welfare than many other countries. Most British cows do get to graze outside for most of the grass growing season, enjoying natural light and having the space to move around as they wish.
But milk prices below the cost of production could place the welfare of our dairy cows at risk. Farmers face stark choices. One ‘solution’ that has been proposed is the further intensification of the UK’s dairy industry. The factory farming of cows is bad for rural livelihoods and will have a negative impact on the environment. But most of all it is bad news for the dairy cow. The real cost of these price wars will fall on her. We must defend her and British dairy farming from being pushed past breaking point.
Despite animal welfare being important to most shoppers, most people are struggling to find higher welfare picnic food in the shops.
And a recent survey found under 44-year-olds are less likely to try their hand at making their own.
That’s why the RSPCA has teamed up with Richard Johnson, TV presenter and food writer, to encourage more people to roll up their sleeves and make their own higher welfare picnic food.
The RSPCA is already working with supermarkets to encourage them to provide higher welfare party and picnic food.
But in the meantime if you want to feel good about what you are eating this summer, our advice is to look for meat that is labelled RSPCA Freedom Food.
Or if you can’t find it, at least buy options like free-range,organic, outdoor-bred or reared and make your own picnic favourites by following Richard’s simple recipes.
So why not download our higher welfare picnic recipes (PDF 294KB)
Lorises appear to be the preferred target of wildlife traffickers, turning up in markets around the South-East Asian region and in seizures-including the dozen found in a traveller’s suitcase at Suvarnabhumi International Airport this morning. Authorities at Thailand’s largest and busiest airport found the lorises stuffed in cloth bags inside the suitcase of a Kuwait bound traveller, who was also carrying 11 pythons and one marmoset in her luggage.
Alert officers at the luggage-scanning counter of the airport noticed something odd about the x-ray images of the woman’s bag and found the animals when they opened it for examination…
The RSPCA are appealing for information after a corn snake was found in a garden in Porthcawl, Wales.
The 30-centimetre long snake was found in the Wellfield Avenue area of the town on Wednesday, 18 July…