With unique access to remote communities in the snow-capped landscape of Norway, this film follows characters on either side of a fierce debate on whether to cull the wolf population. For decades the topic has split political parties, families and communities across the country, with environmentalists world-wide criticising Norway for how it handles its tiny population of critically endangered wolves. Here, a group of hunters await news from the government on whether their yearly hunt will be permitted, while the environmentalists anticipate the worst. With angry threats on both sides, the film takes a deep dive into what’s at stake for both groups, as well as the wider world
Continue reading...Category Archives: Animal welfare
Cher greets ‘world’s loneliest elephant’ in Cambodia
US star joined campaign for Kaavan to be moved from Islamabad zoo accused of substandard care
An elephant described as the “world’s loneliest” has landed in Cambodia after a seven-hour flight from Pakistan, receiving a warm welcome from Cher, who will accompany him to a sanctuary housing potential mates.
The case of Kaavan – an overweight, 36-year-old bull elephant – prompted global uproar from animal rights groups, who petitioned for him to be moved from an Islamabad zoo accused of substandard care and conditions.
Continue reading...Denmark could dig up and cremate mink killed in Covid cull
Fears nitrogen and phosphorus could be released in large quantities into soil at grave sites
Denmark’s government is considering exhuming and cremating the remains of millions of culled mink after decaying carcasses started to emerge from a hastily dug grave.
After a mutated version of Covid-19 was found in the animals, the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, announced a cull in early November of the estimated 15-17 million mink in Denmark, the world’s biggest exporter of mink fur.
Continue reading...Romania accused of ‘silence’ over ship that capsized killing 14,000 sheep
An investigation into the Queen Hind sinking a year ago is yet to be published and the live export trade continues to boom
Romania has been accused of “complete silence” over its investigation into the sinking of the Queen Hind last November, which resulted in the deaths of more than 14,000 sheep.
Rescuers who rushed to the sinking Queen Hind vessel, which left Romania’s Black Sea port of Midia a year ago, managed to save just 228 sheep out of a total 14,600, but only 180 ultimately survived the ordeal.
Romania’s prime minister Ludovic Orban vowed on television last year to end live exports in the “medium-term”. However, since the Queen Hind disaster more than 2 million live animals have been exported from Romania – mostly to north Africa and the Middle East.
Romanian authorities have claimed the vessel was 10% below capacity and that the animals were “clinically healthy and fit for transport”. But campaigners say the vessel was overloaded and this ultimately led to the thousands of sheep drowning in the Black Sea.
The only information to emerge since the sinking has been the discovery of secret compartments onboard with dead animals inside, by the company hired to remove the ship from the water.
Romania’s transport ministry told the Guardian this week that investigations are concluded and said a summary of the report will be published on the ministry’s website. They also said that the purpose of the technical investigation was to establish maritime safety issues and to prevent future accidents, and “not to establish guilt in people involved”.
EU law stipulates that investigations into maritime accidents should be reported in full within 12 months, but that if a final report is not possible in that timeframe, then “an interim report shall be published within 12 months of the date” of the event.
Shocking footage of ‘severely injured’ pigs on Spanish farms released
Calls for EU animal welfare rules to be enforced as country set to overtake Germany as Europe’s biggest pork producer
Footage that appears to show newborn piglets lying in faeces, pigs with pus-covered wounds and pig carcasses in varying states of decomposition has been published by animal welfare campaigners in Spain.
Spain is expected to overtake Germany this year as the EU’s biggest pork producer. In 2019, a record 53 million pigs were slaughtered across the country, fuelling demand for products such as chorizo, tenderloin and lard across the EU and around the world.
The photos and videos, recorded during undercover visits in 2019 and 2020 to more than 30 pigs farms across Spain, were published by Tras los Muros, which translates as Behind the Walls, a personal project launched by Spanish photojournalist Aitor Garmendia. Tras los Muros said the farms were in the Spanish regions of Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León, home to around 17% of the country’s more than 86,000 pig farms.
Some of the pigs they found appeared to be “severely injured”, said Garmendia, who led the undercover team, and were thought to be showing signs of issues such as “hernias, abscesses, prolapses, arthritis or necrotic tissue”.
Travel to UK from Denmark to be banned amid worries over Covid in mink
Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, understood to be concerned by new strain
All travel to the UK from Denmark is being banned amid mounting concern over an outbreak in the country of a mutation of coronavirus linked to mink, the Guardian understands.
Downing Street had already taken action to remove Denmark from the travel corridor, forcing arrivals to quarantine for two weeks from Friday at 4am.
Continue reading...Fur is out of favour but stays in fashion through stealth and wealth
As mink comes under the spotlight, many stars wouldn’t be seen dead in fur – but it remains a feature of certain luxury brands
Fur has never been less fashionable. In recent years a raft of designer labels – Gucci, Chanel, Versace, Armani, Coach and Prada, to name a few – have gone fur-free. In 2018, London fashion week banned fur from its catwalks.
Celebrities have given up fur too, from the queen of social media, Kim Kardashian West, who announced that she had “remade” all of her fur coats in fake fur in 2019, to the Queen of the UK, Elizabeth II, who renounced fur in “any new outfits” the same year.
Continue reading...Gimme shell-ter: Thai hermit crabs face housing crisis
Population of crustaceans at one national park has exploded amid drop in tourist numbers
Hermit crab numbers in southern Thailand have boomed as foreign tourists have stayed away – so much so that the national park authority are appealing for the public to donate extra shells for them to live in.
The population of the crustaceans, which protect themselves by wearing and living inside the discarded shells of other animals, has exploded on some islands in the Mu Koh Lanta national park, and marine biologists believe the lack of tourists could be a factor.
Continue reading...Danish Covid mink cull and future disease fears will kill fur trade, say farmers
Mutation that led to government order fuels debate about future of fur and safety of farms
John Papsø is devastated. You can hear it in his voice over the phone from Jutland. Like every other fur farmer in Denmark, he has 10 days to kill his mink.
“It’s horrible. I’m not even sure it’s dawned on me how grave the consequences will be for us. We are shellshocked. I was up at 4am because I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been pacing up and down the floor, and I’ve cried. It’s a state of shock,” said Papsø, who has more 30,000 mink on his farm.
Continue reading...Denmark tightens lockdown in north over mink Covid outbreak
Twelve people infected so far with new strain against which vaccines may be ineffective
An outbreak among farmed mink of a mutant form of Covid-19 with the potential to be resistant to future vaccines has led to the Danish government bringing in tougher lockdown measures in parts of the country.
The measures were announced following the discovery of a new strain of the disease in animals bred for fur in the country’s northern regions.
Continue reading...UK will not import chlorinated chicken from US, ministers say
Britain will also ‘not negotiate to remove ban’ on hormone-fed beef in post-Brexit trade deal
The government has finally vowed not to allow chlorinated chicken or hormone-fed beef on British supermarket shelves, defying demands from the US that animal welfare standards be lowered as part of a future trade deal.
The international trade secretary, Liz Truss, and the environment minister, George Eustice, have also revealed the government will be putting the recently established trade and agriculture commission on a statutory footing with a new amendment to the agriculture bill.
Continue reading...‘Not just a dog bite’: why India is struggling to keep rabies at bay
The government is being urged to dispel myths and ensure drugs are available – and take responsibility for the millions of stray dogs
By the time the patient, a young man, reached Dr Ramesh Masthi at a Bengaluru hospital, it was too late to save him. After being bitten by a pack of stray dogs as he went out to buy some milk, his family had applied a paste of green chillis, then lime juice and finally, when the wound looked gruesome, turmeric.
“He came about a week after he was bitten. The wound was serious, and we couldn’t save him. There is so much ignorance about dog bites and myths. A rabies shot in time would have saved him,” Masthi says.
Continue reading...‘World’s loneliest elephant’ allowed to leave zoo for better life
Kaavan, who lives in a Pakistani zoo, lost his partner in 2012 and is now medically clear to travel
An elephant who has become a cause célèbre for animal rights activists around the world will be allowed to leave his Pakistani zoo and be transferred to better conditions, the animal welfare group helping with the case has said.
Dubbed the “world’s loneliest elephant” by his supporters, Kaavan has languished at a zoo in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad for more than 35 years.
Continue reading...Landmark ruling sees Ugandan poacher jailed for killing Rafiki the gorilla
Six-year sentence following death of one of country’s best-known silverback mountain gorillas is first of its kind
In the first conviction of its kind, a court in Uganda has jailed a poacher for six years after he admitted killing one of the country’s best-known silverback mountain gorillas in a national park.
Felix Byamukama, from Murole in the south-west district of Kisoro, pleaded guilty to illegal entry into a protected area and killing the gorilla named Rakifi and a duiker antelope. Byamukama had said earlier that he killed the animal in self-defence after he was attacked. It is the first time Uganda, home to 50% of the world’s mountain gorillas, has jailed someone for such an offence and the sentence has been widely welcomed by wildlife groups.
Continue reading...‘Horror scene’ in Canada after 38 dead puppies found on plane
Bodies of French bulldogs were among about 500 dogs discovered on flight from Ukraine at Toronto airport
Canada has launched an investigation after some 500 puppies – 38 of them dead – were found on board a Ukraine International Airlines plane at the Toronto airport, officials said Saturday.
The surviving French bulldogs, a popular breed in Canada, were suffering from symptoms including dehydration, weakness and vomiting when they were found on the flight from Ukraine that landed at Toronto Pearson airport on 13 June, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a statement.
Continue reading...Cabinet unrest over U-turn on animal welfare in US trade talks
Leaked letter instructs ministers to have ‘no specific policy’ on the issue
Downing Street has been accused of reopening the door to imports of chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef, after a leaked memo instructed ministers to have “no specific policy” on animal welfare in US trade talks.
The letter from No 10 states that the ministerial mandate for the US negotiations was “being updated to reflect” the fact that the UK was to have no policy position on animal welfare. The revelation will raise more concerns about the government’s commitment to upholding “high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards”.
Continue reading...‘Unstoppable’: African swine fever deaths to eclipse record 2019 toll
With world’s attention on Covid-19, warnings that lack of measures to contain pandemic could lead to culling of record number of pigs
The African swine fever (ASF) pandemic will be even worse this year than in 2019, say experts, warning that the spread of the highly contagious virus, which is fatal to pigs, is unrelenting.
With world attention on the human viral pandemic of Covid-19, concern is growing that countries are not focusing enough on halting the spread of ASF through better biosecurity practices, cooperation on intensive vaccine development, or transparency regarding outbreaks.
Continue reading...Cher sheds tears of joy as Pakistan’s loneliest elephant wins freedom
Kaavan, a 33-year-old elephant living a sorry existence in Islamabad zoo, to be released after campaign by pop icon
The plight of an animal known as Pakistan’s loneliest elephant is set to come to an end after a court declared he should be freed from Islamabad zoo – to the delight of his longtime champion, pop icon Cher.
Kaavan, a 33-year-old Asian elephant from Sri Lanka, has been the focus of a four-year campaign by Cher to secure his release from Murghazar Zoo in Pakistan’s capital, after the singer saw pictures of the elephant living alone and held miserably in chains in a small enclosure, with only a small dirty pond to play in.
Continue reading...Secret footage shows calves from Ireland beaten and kicked in France
Video by activists appears to show cruel treatment of weeks-old cattle transported on long journeys to Europe for veal
Footage which appears to show Irish calves being beaten and kicked at a French feeding station has been published by animal campaign groups.
The video, published by Eyes on Animals (EoA) and French welfare organisation L214, appears to show workers repeatedly beating calves that are a few weeks old with sticks. One is kicked and another is dragged away, unable to stand. The calf was euthanised by a vet, said an EoA observer.
Continue reading...Wildlife rescue centres struggle to treat endangered species in coronavirus outbreak
Shortages in funds, medicines and masks threaten charity work around the world
Last Thursday morning Louisa Baillie drove down the five-kilometre dirt track that connects her jungle home in the Amazon rainforest to the main road. At the junction, she parked, hiking the rest of the way into Mera, a town of about 8,000 people.
After filling her backpack with fruit and vegetables from local sellers, she grabbed some leaves and set about plucking termites off trees along the roadside, stuffing them into a bucket containing small fragments of the insects’ nests. Baillie works as a veterinarian at Merazonia, a wildlife rescue centre in Ecuador. The termites were dinner for Andy the anteater, a baby recently confiscated at a police checkpoint.
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