Category Archives: Animal welfare

Spanish court rules against plan to omit bullfights from youth voucher scheme

Posted on by

Supreme court said bullfighting was part of Spain’s ‘cultural heritage’ but opponents see ruling as backwards step

The debate over bullfighting’s place in Spanish culture and society has been reignited after the country’s supreme court ruled that the Socialist-led government had been wrong to exclude bullfights from a list of events available to young people through a free culture voucher scheme.

Introduced last year, the bono cultural joven (youth culture voucher) entitles Spaniards turning 18 to a €400 (£355) allowance – half of which can be spent on attending cultural events such as festivals, concerts, plays, exhibitions and films.

Continue reading...

Fears the Year of the Rabbit could bring about a wave of abandoned pets

Posted on by

Animal welfare groups in Malaysia and Singapore have urged consumers to not buy rabbits on an ‘impulse’ and to look into what it takes to care for them

Pet welfare groups in Malaysia and Singapore have warned consumers not to buy rabbits to mark lunar new year, fearing a plethora of abandoned animals could follow.

High demand for the small mammals is expected as 22 January marks the start of the Year of the Rabbit. Mohideen Abdul Kader, president of the Consumers’ Association of Penang in Malaysia, said it was inevitable considering “the belief that it will bring good luck”.

Continue reading...

Painful and invasive racing greyhound breeding technique should be banned, vets say

Posted on by

‘Horrific’ technique which involves removing the uterus is unnecessary and outdated, animal welfare activists say

Vets want an invasive and painful greyhound breeding technique, which involves removing the uterus, banned across Australia.

About 80% of racing greyhounds in NSW are bred using surgical artificial insemination. The Australian Veterinary Association has released a new policy declaring SAI “must not be performed in dogs”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Three dead boa constrictors discovered at Carbeth Loch near Glasgow

Posted on by

SSPCA says circumstances of incident suspicious as its launches appeal for information about the snakes

An animal rights charity is appealing for information after the bodies of three snakes were found at a fly-tipping spot near Glasgow.

The Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) said the boa constrictors were discovered by a member of the public at a site near Carbeth Loch in Blanefield.

Continue reading...

Cat call: Bolivia state airline enlists psychic to find missing feline

Posted on by

‘Interspecies communicator’ consulted to track down cat lost in transit, prompting criticism of country’s state companies

Bolivia’s state airline has enlisted an “interspecies communicator” – or animal psychic – to track down a lost cat, after a passenger’s pet went missing in transit.

The incident has prompted pointed questions over the performance of Bolivia’s many state companies, a continual source of debate between the leftist government and its opposition.

Continue reading...

Animal ambulances answer growing demand for pet emergency care

Posted on by

Firms such as Animals at Home offer range of care services and can step in when pets are in trouble

The day did not begin as expected for Verity Hope. She had been due to spend a wet November morning making a trip to a vet with a reactive dog, but the client phoned in sick. Then another job cropped up: taking a dead rabbit to a pet crematorium.

It may seem an eclectic set of requests, but for Verity and her animal ambulance it is the norm. Since the start of the pandemic, 4.7m households have acquired a new pet. Changes in work patterns and everyday pressures mean many need support.

Continue reading...

Revealed: US allowing long-tailed macaque imports despite risk of disease

Posted on by

Campaigners urge government to stop ‘cruel trade’ as documents show highly pathogenic agents entered the US with monkeys

US authorities are continuing to allow imports of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia, despite revelations that deadly pathogenic agents, including one deemed to be a bioterrorism risk, are entering the country with primates and recent charges of illegal trafficking of wild macaques falsely labeled as captive-bred into the US biomedical industry from Cambodia.

Animal rights campaigners are urging the US government to stop the “cruel trade”, saying it’s impossible to prove provenance and that the risk of disease is significant.

Continue reading...

New Zealand bans battery cages for hens – but replacement ‘just as bad’

Posted on by

Colony cages are larger but animal welfare campaigners say the birds are still not able to behave naturally

Battery cages for layer hens will become illegal in New Zealand from 2023 but animal welfare campaigners are urging the government to scrap the replacement colony cages, which they say are just as bad.

The plan to ban battery cages has been 10 years in the making – in 2012, the previous National party government committed to phasing them out by 1 January 2023.

Continue reading...

Animal welfare advocates hail New York law banning sale of pets at retail stores

Posted on by

The legislation aims to end the ‘puppy mill-to-pet store pipeline’ for abusive breeders of dogs, cats and rabbits

Animal welfare advocates in New York are heralding the recent approval of a statewide law that prohibits the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits at retail pet stores to “end the puppy mill-to-pet store pipeline and stop abusive breeders” and help more stray and abandoned pets find homes.

The law, which goes into effect in 2024, will not outright bar pet shops from having four-legged friends on display as retailers may charge rescue organizations rent to present ready-to-adopt companion animals. But it has been hailed as a major achievement for animal welfare by its backers.

Continue reading...

Men admit break-in at Hampshire zoo in which giraffes and tigers suffered

Posted on by

Nathan Daniels, 21, and Bradley Green, 24, damaged enclosures and allegedly threw bottle at giraffe’s head

Two men have admitted breaking into a zoo and damaging the penguin and giraffe enclosures during an incident in which a bottle was allegedly thrown at a giraffe’s head.

Nathan Daniels, 21, admitted damaging the penguin enclosure at Marwell zoo, near Southampton, while Bradley Green, 24, admitted damaging an enclosure containing giraffes.

Continue reading...

Italy to let hunters loose against ‘invasion’ of wild boars

Posted on by

Farmers’ lobby welcomes move by Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition, claiming animals are getting ‘ever closer’ to homes

Italy’s ruling right-wing coalition is set to loosen hunting rules to deal with what the country’s farming lobby has called an “invasion” of wild boars.

The boars are common in the countryside, but have recently also been spotted in central parts of Rome, attracted by the Eternal City’s chronically overflowing rubbish skips.

Continue reading...

One in 300 animal welfare complaints at UK farms lead to prosecution – study

Posted on by

Exclusive: charities say animal abusers are not being held to account as figures show small number of inspections

Just one in 300 complaints about animal welfare at UK farms led to a prosecution over the last four years, with half of the accused holdings not even inspected, analysis has shown.

A report by Animal Equality and the Animal Law Foundation also said that fewer than three in 100 of the UK’s estimated 291,000 farms had an annual inspection by a public body between 2018 and 2021.

Continue reading...

Spirit of Tasmania operator found guilty of animal welfare breaches over deaths of 16 polo ponies

Posted on by

Magistrate rules TT-Line made no inquiries to ensure the horses were individually stalled and there was adequate ventilation

Spirit of Tasmania ferry operator TT-Line has been found guilty of breaching animal welfare laws over the deaths of 16 polo ponies on a summer Bass Strait voyage.

The horses had competed in a tournament in Tasmania and were travelling from Devonport to Melbourne in a converted refrigeration trailer on the night of 28 January 2018.

Continue reading...

Farmed fish feel pain, stress and anxiety and must be killed humanely, global regulator accepts

Posted on by

Aquaculture Stewardship Council’s new standards put pressure on the UK to extend its animal welfare laws to fisheries

One of the world’s leading organisations for farmed seafood is to introduce new welfare rules after accepting fish can feel “pain, stress and anxiety”.

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), which oversees a global certification scheme for farmed fish, is consulting on new draft welfare standards, including more humane slaughter practices. The ASC provides certification labelling for British supermarket fish, from sea bass to smoked salmon.

Continue reading...

Trouser snakes: US man accused of smuggling three reptiles in his pants

Posted on by

New Yorker accused of hiding large Burmese pythons in trousers while crossing from Canada in July could face 20-year sentence

A New York City man faces up to 20 years in prison for allegedly attempting to smuggle three large snakes across the US-Canada border – in his pants.

Queens resident Calvin Bautista, 36, is accused of hiding three Burmese pythons while on a bus crossing into the US at the Champlain port of entry in New York state on 15 July 2018, the Associated Press reported.

Continue reading...

US supreme court to hear case on California’s ban on extreme confinement crates

Posted on by

A ruling against the state’s Prop 12 animal welfare law could affect a range of regulations across the country

Next week, the US supreme court will hear oral arguments in a case that could put climate, public health and animal welfare regulations across the country on the chopping block – from California’s ban on gas-powered cars by 2035 to state bans on food packaging that contains BPA or lead.

The case will consider the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 12, a law that bans the sale of meat and eggs from animals raised using certain kinds of extreme confinement. The pork industry has been fighting Prop 12 since it passed by ballot measure in 2018 – with more than 62% of the vote and the backing of animal advocacy groups like the Humane Society of the United States – because it bans gestation crates: metal enclosures where pregnant pigs are kept for most of their lives that are so small that they can’t turn around or stretch their limbs.

Continue reading...

UK retailers blocking moves to end the killing of day-old male chicks

Posted on by

While France and Germany have introduced bans, Britain continues to slaughter 29 million unwanted chicks every year

UK retailers are blocking moves to end the killing of millions of day-old male chicks each year, farmers and breeding companies have said.

The industrial-scale culling of unwanted chicks is common practice around the world, with 330 million males slaughtered by crushing or gassing each year in Europe, according to campaigners, 29 million of those in the UK.

Continue reading...

Australian racing industry ‘failing miserably’ to rehome greyhounds as adoption flatlines

Posted on by

Welfare group says breeding numbers are still too high and surpass the industry’s capacity to rehabilitate the dogs

The rehoming of Australian racing industry dogs has flatlined in the last three years, according to research by the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds.

Just over 2,000 dogs were rehomed annually by industry adoption bodies, a figure that has not increased since 2017-18, a CPG report found.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

No puppy love: post-lockdown lifestyles and cost of living are driving Australians to surrender their pets

Posted on by

Animal shelters nearing capacity are encouraging people to adopt by slashing fees and hosting events to make room for other animals in need

The end of Covid lockdowns and the spiralling cost of living have left animal shelters overflowing, with organisations now forced to host adoption drives and slash their fees in an effort to get more animals out of shelters and into their forever homes.

This was in stark contrast to the high adoption rates and shelter shortages across Australia during the early days of the Covid pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

Continue reading...

WHO stresses monkeypox surge not linked to monkeys amid attack reports

Posted on by

World Health Organization issues statement after reports of animals being poisoned in Brazil

The World Health Organization has stressed that monkeypox outbreaks are not linked to monkeys, following a number of reported attacks on the primates in Brazil.

“What people need to know is that the transmission we are seeing is happening between humans,” a WHO spokesperson, Margaret Harris, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

Continue reading...