It could be the plot of a heart-wrenching Disney tale – an orphaned badger who follows an animal lover and his dog to safety on a Welsh hillside.
But the lost cub found in Prestatyn in Clwyd, is now finding solace with three other orphaned cubs found across the UK in recent weeks.
United in their abandonment, and too tiny to survive without help, the cubs are being nurtured at an RSPCA centre in Cheshire…
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is proud to announce the launch of Operation Reef Defense, a global campaign to end the destruction of coral reefs and the many threats they face worldwide. Coral reefs represent some of the planet’s most biologically diverse ecosystems providing critical habitat to approximately 25 percent of all marine species, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate due to human-induced activities such as pollution, overfishing, reef wildlife trafficking, coastal development and global warming. Thirty percent of the world’s coral reefs have died in the last 50 years, and another 30 percent have suffered severe damage. Of the reefs remaining, it is estimated that 60 percent could face extinction in less than 25 years.
According to Sea Shepherd Hawaii Director & Reef Defense Campaign Leader, Deborah Bassett, “With the oceans of the world under attack from commercial extraction and pollution, our mission remains steadfast to defend marine habitat and wildlife to the fullest extent — from the smallest of reef species to the largest marine mammals and apex predators. Time is running out for these great rain forests under the sea, so we must act now.”
Although Sea Shepherd is best known for its direct action efforts on the high seas, Sea Shepherd remains committed to protecting marine wildlife in all habitats, including the coastal awareness campaign orchestrated for Operation Reef Defense. Sea Shepherd plans to collaborate with Hawaiian dive shops and the surfing community to bring light to the destruction happening beneath the waves. With the campaign currently underway in Hawaii, Sea Shepherd’s global chapters will soon mirror similar programs in their local waters.
Reef degradation is a global crisis. Of the 100 countries with coral reefs, reef degradation is highest in Southeast Asia where nearly 95 percent of the region’s reefs are threatened, mainly due to overfishing and destructive fishing practices. The loss of underwater life and habitat is also ever-present in our own backyard of Hawaii, where the top ten sought-after species of fish for aquariums have decreased by 59 percent over the last 20 years, while the most popular aquarium fish has declined in abundance from 38 to 57 percent. In Jamaica, it is estimated that almost all of the reefs are dead or severely degraded from overfishing and coastal pollution.
Sea Shepherd’s Vice President Robert Wintner, a veteran campaigner against the aquarium trade and its devastating impact to Hawaiian reefs stated, “Sea Shepherd will champion marine habitat and wildlife from the ravages of urban and corporate effluent and the destruction caused by the aquarium trade. Massive reef wildlife dies every year as disposable ornamentation in the vicious cycle of wildlife trafficking for the pet trade. Death generates continuing demand, driving the aquarium trade to strip reefs bare. Over 25 million sea creatures are in the commercial aquarium pipeline at any given moment – and nearly all will die within a year from the point of capture.”
“Sea Shepherd is very much concerned for this wildlife and needs public support to translate these concerns into action. We may lose support from people who keep captive marine wildlife for a hobby, but as Captain Paul Watson has stated — our clients are the creatures of the sea. We hope that all people who are concerned for the oceans will recognize the importance of protecting reef eco-systems worldwide, and that if any of our supporters do keep marine wildlife in an aquarium, they will care for the wildlife they have and refrain from purchasing any more,” Wintner added.
Coral reefs simply cannot support continued unlimited resource usage or unmanaged global trade. Such drastic ongoing decline of healthy reefs will pose serious consequences for animals both on land and in the water and people worldwide.
Sir Paul McCartney has always been a big supporter of animal rights activists, so it comes as no surprise that The Beatles star has joined a new global campaign to ban cosmetics testing on animals…
…Professor Brown, Director of the Medical Research Council’s Mammalian Genetics Unit at Harwell, was asked by Imperial in April to lead an investigation after the College received the allegations about animal research via a newspaper. His committee comprises scientists, clinical vets and experts….
We’re used to seeing wildlife expert David Attenborough doing really exciting things like reporting from the Arctic or the middle of the jungle.
So what if we told you his latest project was a load of old rubbish… literally!…
Rock ‘n’ Roll Legend Calls On Consumers to Avoid Piccadilly Store
London – Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders, has appealed to Managing Director Ewan Venters to stop Fortnum & Mason selling foie gras – a product so vile that it is illegal to produce in the UK. Hynde’s action comes after PETA showed her undercover video footage, narrated by legendary actor Sir Roger Moore, which exposed terrible abuse on foie gras farms supplying Fortnum & Mason – including at an abattoir, where birds had knives plunged into their throats without prior stunning, in contravention of both UK and French law.
“I’ll stand by you, Mr Venters, just as soon as you stop the sale of foie gras in your store”, says Hynde. “Until then, I’ll be avoiding Fortnum’s like the plague and will be encouraging my friends and family to do the same.”
During foie gras production, huge amounts of grain are pumped into the stomachs of geese through metal pipes, which are rammed down their throats several times a day. Their distended livers – which can swell to up to 10 times their normal size – press against their lungs, causing them to pant constantly. Veterinarians and avian experts agree: there is no humane way to produce foie gras. Animal-protection groups – including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Compassion in World Farming, Animal Defenders International, Animal Aid, Viva!, Four Paws, OneKind, Save Me and the International Veterinary Society – have all joined PETA in calling for Fortnum & Mason to stop selling foie gras.
Tens of thousands of PETA supporters have written to Fortnum & Mason urging it to stop selling the barbaric product. Dame Vera Lynn, Twiggy, Joanna Lumley, MP Zac Goldsmith, Brigitte Bardot, Bill Oddie, Emma Parker Bowles and Arlene Phillips are among the other high-profile people calling on the store to rid its shelves of this “torture in a tin”.
For a photo of Hynde supporting the campaign, please click here. For more information and to view Hynde’s letter, please visit PETA.org.uk.
One-third of common land animals could see dramatic losses this century because of climate change, scientists predict.
More than half of plants could be hit the same way as habitats become unsuitable for numerous species.
The collapse of ecosystems would have major economic impacts on agriculture, air quality, clean water access, and tourism…
8 May 2012, Bogota, Colombia: The Colombian Senate’s Fifth Committee approved a draft bill to end the use of animals in travelling circuses. The 8 to 1 committee vote (4 absent) sends the Bill to the plenary session and was welcomed by Animal Defenders International (ADI), following a six-year campaign after their undercover investigators exposed cruelty and suffering in Colombia’s circuses.
Bill 244, 2012, introduced by Senator Juan de Jesús Córdoba and supported by Senator Camilo Sanchez, Rep. Hugo Velasquez, and President of the House of Representativas Augusto Posada, prohibits the use of animals in circuses. The Committee heard evidence from Eduardo Peña, ADI South America Campaign Coordinator and representatives of the animal circus industry.
Senator Cordoba urged the Fifth Committee members to support the Bill, “The passage of this bill would prevent the public health and safety problems triggered by animal circuses”.
The Bill has widespread public support as well as a number of Colombian public authorities, celebrities and organisations.
Eduardo Peña, ADI South America Campaigns Coordinator, “We urge approval of this important initiative. It is not opposed to circuses, we want to see more humane shows for the benefit of the animals, the people who work in the circus and the public. Audiences can enjoy talented human performances, and cut out the suffering.”
ADI’s investigation horrified the public and exposed: abuse of elephants, tigers, ponies, llamas and shockingly, an elderly female chimpanzee screaming as she is repeatedly punched in the face and beaten with a chain. Dogs, tigers and a horse displayed abnormal, stereotypic behaviour, indicating suffering due to deprivation.
ADI President Jan Creamer: “People are shocked because every time we have sent our investigators to work undercover in the circus industry, they have found abuse. We now believe that the whole culture of the circus industry, worldwide, gives rise to the ill treatment of animals and poor environmental conditions are common. The animals exist to perform, with no regard for their welfare and intrinsic value.”
PETA US Asks Chef to Swear Off Foie Gras After Violent Force-Feeding, Deaths and Slaughter Found on Supplier’s Factory Farm
London – A new PETA US investigation of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, which supplies Manhattan restaurant Gordon Ramsay at The London, has revealed shocking cruelty to ducks at the factory farm, which calls itself the “premier producers of foie gras” in the US. PETA US has sent flamboyant celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay – who has rejected some of the pork industry’s worst factory-farming practices on his show The F Word – a request to stop selling foie gras. PETA US included video footage revealing how Hudson Valley Foie Gras workers shove steel tubes down ducks’ throats and dump huge amounts of grain into their bodies three times a day, every day, for weeks in order to sicken and enlarge the birds’ livers. At slaughter, ducks are hung upside down, have their throats slit and are left to bleed to death.
Experts have found that force-feeding causes oesophageal tears and splits, liver rupture and failure, heat stress and aspiration pneumonia – and by the company’s own calculation, some 15,000 ducks on the farm die every year before they make it to slaughter.
“Every exposé of foie gras farms has revealed how grotesquely cruel it is to jam pipes down birds’ throats and force-feed them until they sicken and die”, says PETA UK Associate Director Mimi Bekhechi. “We hope Gordon Ramsay and other chefs will swear off this particular ‘f-word’ – foie gras – for good.”
This was not PETA US’s first visit to a New York foie gras factory farm. In 1991, at a farm that was later acquired by Hudson Valley Foie Gras, PETA investigators revealed cruel force-feeding and countless sick and injured ducks, including one whose maggot-covered neck wound was so severe that water spilled out of it when he drank.
PETA US’s letter to Gordon Ramsay is available here, and broadcast-quality video footage from PETA’s investigation is available upon request. For more information about the cruelty behind foie gras, please visit PETA.org.uk.
A Texas teenager’s attempt to blow up turtles with a homemade bomb ended badly for him as the 19-year-old suffered severe injuries on Saturday after the unexpected blast.
The male teenager had been making improvised explosives with two other teens in a Kingwood, Texas home around 7 p.m…