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FOUR PAWS Statement: Live Animal Transport Is a ‘Black Box’ of Hidden Animal Suffering

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© RSPCA South Australia

FOUR PAWS Statement: Live Animal Transport Is a ‘Black Box’ of Hidden Animal Suffering

The weeks-long journey of the Spiridon II carrying pregnant cattle as a symptom of cruel transport conditions

Global animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS is alarmed by the ongoing case of the livestock vessel Spiridon II, that was denied entry to Türkiye due to ear tag documentation issues. 

The vessel left Uruguay for Türkiye in mid-September, carrying over 2,000 cattle. After weeks of being stranded at sea awaiting a decision, the weakened animals may now be forced to return to Uruguay. According to the exporter, half of the carried animals were pregnant, raising alarms about the well-being of the cattle and calves born on deck. The exact number of animals that gave birth, lost a calf or died during the journey remains unknown. As this crisis continues to unfold, another livestock vessel carrying around 7,000 animals has departed from Uruguay to Türkiye, raising serious concerns that the same tragedy could repeat itself.

“Not only is it questionable why cattle were sent on such a long transatlantic ordeal in the first place but also why they could be forced to repeat this journey. The cattle finally deserve rest but instead they are reduced to lifeless cargo that is being shipped around. Their basic needs are completely denied. But sadly, the Spiridon II is no isolated case but part of the bigger issue of substandard transport conditions and insufficient documentation. And now, another vessel with even more animals has embarked on the same journey.

Live animal transport resembles a ‘black box’ of hidden animal suffering. We may know where animals depart, stop, and arrive, but not how they were treated along the way. The lack of transparency is unacceptable and allows animal welfare violations to happen with little repercussions. It needs strong transport laws to counter this and put an end to cruel transports via sea for good,” says Corinna Reinisch responsible for animals cruelly traded and transported at FOUR PAWS.

Source: FOUR PAWS

FOUR PAWS on Early Avian Influenza Surge

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© FOUR PAWS

FOUR PAWS on Early Avian Influenza Surge

Mass killings are mere symptom control

This year’s avian influenza season started unusually early and at an alarming rate, with outbreaks reported in the United States, Japan, and several European countries, where unprecedented levels for this time of the year have been observed. The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain is also suspected to have reached Australia for the first time, following the discovery of hundreds of dead seal pups on sub-Antarctic Heard Island. The rapid spread has sparked fears of a new avian influenza crisis. Since the avian influenza season began in October, the virus has taken a heavy toll on animals, resulting in the mass killing of hundreds of thousands of poultry birds worldwide and a significant loss of wildlife. According to data from the World Organisation for Animal Health, approximately 907,222 poultry birds either died or were killed due to the highly pathogenic virus in September, most of them in the Americas.

“It is deeply concerning that mass killings of animals have become the new normal in the fight against avian influenza. To truly end the suffering, we must move beyond symptom control and address the root causes of the problem. Fur farming and factory farming are breeding grounds for pandemics: overcrowded, cruel and unhygienic conditions accelerate the transmission, circulation, and mutation of viruses, like highly pathogenic avian influenza. We urgently need to reduce the number of farmed animals and end fur farming. Transitioning to smaller farms with higher animal welfare standards can lower disease risks, limit killings, animal suffering and financial loss for farmers,”

-Nina Jamal, responsible for Global Affairs at FOUR PAWS

While biosecurity, monitoring and surveillance, movement control and vaccinations are important tools to contain outbreaks of avian influenza, they don’t address the underlying causes, the global animal welfare organisation emphasises.

Data indicates that the intensification of farming since 1940 has been linked to more than half of all zoonotic diseases in humans. “To protect human and animal health, prevention at the source is key. We urge all governments to sign, ratify and implement the Pandemic Agreement after it is open for signature. By embracing the One Health approach, the Pandemic Agreement represents the first legally binding instrument to recognise the deep interconnection between human, environmental health and animal welfare. It captures binding commitments to help prevent the spillover of pathogens, before humans and animals suffer,” adds Jamal.

Source: FOUR PAWS

Paving the Way for Major Animal Welfare Reform in Japan

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Paving the Way for Major Animal Welfare Reform in Japan

Wild Welfare recently visited Japan to drive forward a plan to improve the lives of countless captive wild animals across the country. The visit included a programme of high-level engagements with national NGOs, government representatives, and prominent academics. The core focus of the engagement was to promote a compassionate and scientifically informed approach to human-wildlife interactions, strengthening protections for kept exotic species in Japan’s many zoos, aquariums and exotic animal cafes.

In late September, Wild Welfare’s Executive Director, Simon Marsh, and Animal Welfare Consultant, Georgina Groves, travelled to Tokyo to address a public symposium at the University of Veterinary and Life Sciences in collaboration with the Japanese Coalition for Animal Welfare (JCAW). The Wildlife Husbandry Management and Human-Wildlife Contact event explored the current status and challenges of keeping wild animals in captivity.

During Simon’s presentation, he highlighted the trend towards increased public and tourism industry awareness of animal welfare issues both internationally and domestically in Japan. He noted that growing public awareness of what constitutes good animal care and welfare is a key component of reforming unethical behaviors and common practices. Simon referenced key factors that can result in poor animal care, drawing upon commonalities identified in published research, building on his evidence-based case for change. Georgina Groves followed up by discussing the negative welfare impacts of human-animal interactions, such as those commonly seen at exotic animal cafes across Japan. Georgina explained how ‘novel’ and ‘intimate’ human-animal interactions negatively normalise the objectification of wild animals, making them appear nothing more than props for human entertainment. She expressed how, aside from the poor welfare, this sort of interaction was ineffective for achieving educational or conservation goals and contributed to further disconnecting the public from positive wildlife engagement.

In total, over 50 individuals attended the symposium in-person and online; including representatives from other NGOs, local authorities, zoos, animal-related schools, national press, and the general public. Also in attendance was the Chair of the Government’s Animal Welfare Committee and a prominent Kokkai from the Ministry of the Environment. Such an audience positively indicated how collaborative advocacy efforts are starting to gain real momentum within the country.

Following the symposium, key stakeholders held a followup meeting to solidify partnerships and coordinate strategies for driving forward actions to bring about robust welfare reforms. Wild Welfare representatives met with partner organisation, the Japan Coalition for Animal Welfare (JCAW), to discuss coordinating advocacy efforts, with discussions centring on leveraging momentum in cooperation with engaged political figures within the country. Focus was placed on discussing how a robust national licensing system should ideally be introduced to significantly improve standards for zoos and aquariums across the country. “The integration of strong welfare considerations across conservation, research, and education frameworks is paramount for positive progress within this area” Georgina explained.

Further discussions continued in collaboration with JCAW, JAZA (Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums), and WWF Japan to explore areas of collaboration to address urgent issues such as zoonotic disease risks in animal cafés and the exotic pet trade, as well as animal welfare concerns. WWF Japan shared valuable insights from their recent risk assessment on animal cafés, reinforcing the need for policy to be guided by both animal welfare and public health considerations. This supported the findings from a collaborative research paper from Wild Welfare, Nippon Life Sciences University and Nottingham Trent University, on animal cafes in Japan, which is due to be published soon. Wild Welfare reaffirmed its commitment to providing technical expertise and capacity-building resources to support partners in driving these essential reforms into fruition.

Wild Welfare Director, Simon Marsh explained that, “As part of our ongoing research and advocacy against the use of wild animals for purely entertainment purposes, we are committed to seeing an end to the exploitation of wildlife in animal cafes across Japan ”. The charity is now calling for much-needed regulation to be implemented to protect animals housed in these establishments. “It has become clear that thousands of exotic species are being kept in significantly poor and inadequate conditions, causing mass unnecessary animal suffering” Simon concluded.

Overall, the visit was highly productive, reinforcing Wild Welfare’s dedication to supporting Japan’s growing animal welfare movement. Cooperation between NGOs, government officials, and industry bodies, is laying out a clear roadmap towards stronger, more compassionate protection for all captive wild animals across Japan.

Sources: Wild Welfare

‘What I saw as a worker at a monkey breeding facility for animal testing and research’

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‘What I saw as a worker at a monkey breeding facility for animal testing and research’

For more than two decades, Kathleen Conlee, our vice president of Animal Research Issues in the U.S., has been working to end the use of animals in testing and research. But before she became an advocate for animal protection, she worked at a breeding facility that supplied primates to laboratories for research and testing. In this guest blog, I’ve invited her to tell us more about how this shaped her perspective and what life is like for animals inside these places. 

It all started when I was in class as an undergrad and heard people talking about feeding fig bars to monkeys. Before I knew it, I was studying rhesus monkeys in a lab on campus, and I was so fascinated by them. I wanted to spend my days learning about and working with primates.

But when I visited a facility that had monkeys living in small, barren cages, and I saw how they trained the animals to sit in a restraint chair for procedures to serve some scientific inquiry, I couldn’t picture myself doing that directly. At the time, though, I still wanted to work with primates and believed primate research was important for human health; seeking another avenue, I ultimately landed at a monkey breeding facility in South Carolina within weeks of graduating college.

The company I worked for had thousands of monkeys, mostly macaques, that they would breed and sell to research laboratories. I thought animal testing and research was necessary, but I also felt that the animals needed someone to look out for them. Over several years, I saw how millions of dollars in government grants were funneled in to support a system that inflicted terrible suffering on animals. I stopped believing that this was the best we could be doing for human health. Still, I stayed because I became fearful of what would happen to the monkeys if I left.

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Kathleen Conlee at the facility where she worked with primates used in animal testing.

The goal at this facility was to make sure the animals produced as many babies as possible. I remember being proud that I reduced the infant death rate and could identify thousands of individual monkeys and their family members. I didn’t think about the fact that while I was preventing their death as infants, I was ultimately sending those animals to a life of prolonged suffering. I was handed lists of numbers and told to pick which animals would be sent out next, filling orders as if they were a product.

We would sometimes receive monkeys from laboratories, and some of them suffered from severe psychological trauma. One, a rhesus macaque named Able, was terrified of anything but his “chow” biscuits and would mutilate himself—tearing his skin—when given anything new, even something as delicious as an apple or banana.

Laboratories with breeding colonies will often share images of monkeys in large social groups in big enclosures. These images are good optics for those who understand that primates are extremely social and need room to play. But there is a lot that is deliberately hidden. Some animals are stuck in small cages for quarantine or particular research protocols—a terrible cruelty for social creatures—or ripped from their families. The company would do “processing” during which the members of each group would be tattooed on their faces and chests, given physical exams and either returned to their group or pulled out for a shipment to another lab. The youngsters, who the day before were bonding with their family, would be put in a small cage and prepped for shipping. Mothers would wake up looking for them, crying out. You could hear the youngsters from a building across the property returning their calls. I can still hear their mournful cries—those will haunt me forever.

While I worked at the facility, I tried to improve the conditions for the monkeys in my care, such as incorporating an environmental enrichment program, adding fresh fruits and vegetables to their diet (they were only receiving “chow” biscuits each day), requiring a physical and behavioral assessment of each of the thousands of individuals every day and ensuring prompt medical or behavioral treatment when needed, and eliminating the use of facial tattoos. The company was ultimately caught illegally importing monkeys captured from the wild—I will never forget how terrified those animals seemed in confinement. I finally decided I just couldn’t do it anymore.

I then went to work for a great ape sanctuary, which was an amazing experience. But I still felt I had to do more for those animals who had not yet been rescued, for those countless others I left behind in the system. Thankfully, Humane World for Animals, when it was still called the Humane Society of the United States, took a chance on me. I remember in my first year at the organization, I read a paper about a painful dental experiment; I realized the macaques came from the lab where I had worked and from the very time when I worked there. I had helped raise them—for that. That was just one group of many—what did the other animals endure because of what I had done? It was painful to consider this, but I felt immensely relieved that I was at last in the right place, doing something to fix it.

I have been working for more than 20 years to move society away from using animals in harmful research and testing and toward the use of non-animal methods that are more effective and relevant to humans. To this day, I still care about human health AND animals. The good news is that choosing one doesn’t mean hurting the other and, in fact, investing in non-animal methods will ultimately benefit both. Non-animal methods that use human cells or are based on human data can more accurately and effectively predict how the human body will respond to drugs, chemicals and treatments.

I’m proud of the work my team at Humane World for Animals has accomplished: ending chimpanzee research in the United States, securing a commitment by the Environmental Protection Agency to end mammalian testing, passing state laws that prohibit the sale of animal-tested cosmetics, getting 32 dogs who were being used in a pesticide test released from a lab into loving homes, and so much more.

I still have nightmares about the facility where I worked. In them, I am trying desperately to go back there to help the animals, to make sure they are safe, but every nightmare involves some impossible obstacle. I am relieved when I wake up that I don’t work there anymore but I also face the reality of how much more there is to do in real life. It can feel like an endless sprint. When we have a victory and I think, “okay, maybe I’ve done enough to pay my dues,” the thought doesn’t last. And I don’t think it should. The victories won’t be enough until the day when no more animals suffer in labs. It will take all of us to make that happen.

Kathleen Conlee is vice president of Animal Research Issues at Humane World for Animals in the U.S.

Source: Humane World For Animals

No Future For Factory Farming

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No Future For Factory Farming

Factory farming is a global problem that requires a global solution

Every year, factory farming condemns billions of animals to lives of cruelty and suffering for a fast profit.

Farm animals experience relentless suffering at the hands of factory farming – trapped in cages, mutilated, and pumped full of antibiotics to stay alive.

The problem will get worse before it gets better.

The rapid growth in demand for cheap meat and dairy means large increases are expected globally including in Africa, Asia and Latin America in the imminent future.

At World Animal Protection, we work tirelessly to ensure farmed animals live good lives by transforming the global food system and attitudes towards farm animal welfare.

A moratorium on factory farms is urgently needed to safeguard farm animal welfare, our climate, health and the environment.

Wild animal habitats

Cruel factory farming is destroying wild animal habitats to grow crops to feed farmed animals, this is having a devastating impact by:

  • Killing wildlife
  • Worsening the climate crisis
  • Poisoning our rivers
  • Creating superbugs and diseases that can transfer to humans

We believe that the welfare, treatment and attitude towards farmed animals’ lives across the world must change. Forever.

Farm animal welfare focus: Stopping the destructive animal feed trade

Cruel factory farming relies on a global trade in crops to feed farmed animals. Tropical forests are destroyed to make way for crops destined for factory farms around the world.

The special dietary needs of factory-farmed animals bred for profit drive the global trade in destructive animal feed.

Almost 80% of the world’s soybean crop is fed to farmed animals, not people. Pesticides are also used extensively, contaminating rivers and killing people and wild animals.

A moratorium on factory farming and a shift in farm animal welfare legislation would:

  • Free up land for communities to grow food for people
  • Support global food security and address the climate crisis
  • Relieve growing pressure on wild animal habitats and give wildlife a fighting chance

Factory farming is putting an extreme risk on public health and the planet’s future. Click the link below to read more in our latest report: Five worst health impacts of factory farming

Factory-farmed animal treatment

Animals in factory farms are bred to grow fast, have large litters, lay high numbers of eggs, or produce a maximum amount of milk. This causes great suffering over their short lifetimes.

Chickens are bred to reach their slaughter weight about twice as quickly as 40 years ago, and their legs cannot keep pace with the rapid body growth. As a result, many chickens suffer from painful, sometimes crippling leg disorders.

Ending irresponsible antibiotic use in farming

Three-quarters of the world’s antibiotics are used in animals, most on factory farms to stop stressed animals from getting sick. Antibiotic overuse causes superbugs to emerge. These can escape from farms via workers, into the food chain and our environment and waterways.

Already, the superbug crisis is responsible for 1.27 million deaths every year due to antibiotics no longer being effective.

The same low farm animal welfare conditions that give rise to superbugs can also cause diseases like bird flu or swine flu to emerge from factory farms and transfer to humans.

A moratorium and shift in farm animal welfare legislation on factory farming is the most effective way to safeguard public health and our environment.

This will lead to fewer farmed animals living in high welfare conditions, and no longer being subjected to harmful antibiotics.

Putting a stop to the future of factory farming

We protect the welfare of farmed animals by raising awareness of the harmful host of activities that are causing them to suffer.

The safeguarding of farm animal welfare is paramount. We must put an end to the devastation caused by factory farming to ensure farmed animals live better lives, we achieve this through raising awareness of:

  • The animal feed trade: The spike in cruel factory farming growth has a devastating impact on farmed and wild animals. There’s no bigger threat to the world’s animals, farmed and wild, than the expansion of factory farming
  • Improving animal welfare on farms: We work with the food industry to improve animal welfare and keep animals in an environment where they can benefit from a life worth living
  • Meat reduction: Encouraging less consumption of animal products to reduce animal suffering and protect our planet
  • Sustainable finance: A shift in attitude from fuelling destructive factory farming to investment in humane and sustainable systems
  • Promoting humane slaughter of farmed animals: To reduce animal cruelty and suffering

We are taking strides towards tackling the global problem with a global solution by:

  • Proactive campaigning to help safeguard farm animals and encourage a global food system shift
  • Producing and distributing animals in the wild and animals in farming reports
  • Forming strategic alliances with like-minded supporters that want change
  • Developing and building the case for humane sustainable alternatives
  • Raising awareness and knowledge of animal cruelty and protection
  • Ending the commercial exploitation of wildlife and farm animals

Our ambition

Factory farming and animal cruelty caused by current global food systems must end. For good.

Through shifting attitudes, safeguarding the way farm animals are treated, and implementing sustainable investment and practices, we can protect farm animals ensuring they live better lives as well as protecting our planet.

Are you ready to take action?

Join our mission and change the way the world works through people’s power. Take action today and support our efforts to stop farm animal cruelty and suffering. Forever.

Find out how you can get involved

Take Action

Source: World Animal Protection

Dog Fighting: More than the Abuse of Dogs

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Dog Fighting: More than the Abuse of Dogs

Dog fighting conjures up images of cruelty, animal suffering, and greed – but that’s not the full picture. To that, add crime, gangsterism, violence, and drugs, and then the realities of dog fighting become clearer. 

It’s a problem of dangerous, disturbing proportions: people who flout animal protection laws flout other laws, too – just as those who violently hurt animals have no problem with violence towards people, too.

As dog fighting is illegal, the Cape of Good Hope SPCA works with the City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement (Animal Control Unit) to enforce the law and educate communities about the harms of dog fighting and ways to spot it and report it.

This work pays off, as we saw in March when our Inspectors responded to a tip-off about youngsters inciting their dogs to fight – a regular occurrence, according to the Lotus River resident who reported the matter.

Young people become desensitised to animal suffering by witnessing dog fighting in their communities and imitating it with their own dogs. Numerous studies have also identified how animal abuse is often linked to child abuse and gender-based violence – two of the greatest societal ills in South Africa.

Please help us keep up the pressure to end dog fighting by supporting our anti-dog fighting campaigns. It takes teamwork and a united front to dismantle a secretive system that operates in the shadows of our communities – and in the darkest corners of the human psyche.

Source: SPCA