Jumps racing is BIG news down here in Vic at the moment. It has been splashed across newspapers and evening news bulletins throughout the year, with some pro-jumps people threatening to cut off their horses' heads if the sport is banned! Talk about losing your cool, butchy.
Just a quick rundown on the issue:
13 horses have already died in jumps racing this season, many more have fallen and been seriously injured.
Despite a review and yet more 'safety' measures, this jumps racing season has had the highest death rate on record.
3 out of 4 horses that raced in 2008 have not reappeared in 2009 and are presumed dead.
So now for some good news: After writing to self-noted animal lover Livinia Nixon about owning a jumps horse, she has withdrawn her support of the controversial sport. The channel 9 weather presenter (who has also been the face of a host of programs such as Getaway and Temptation) relinquished her share in a jumps horse after I wrote a letter to her alerting her that the horse fell during a trial. Her withdrawal of support for this so-called 'sport' is yet more proof that jumps racing has no future – and will send a strong message to those responsible. Good onya Liv!
So my message to you: Speak up! You just never know how much weight one letter can carry. Hell, you might even get a celebrity to withdraw their support from jumps racing ;)
And if you live in Vic and want to see jumps racing 'put down' as much as I do, then you will want to keep yourself free this Sunday (August 30th) for the biggest day in jumps racing for the whole year. It's the Grand National (ie. The 'Melbourne Cup' of jumps racing) and you can be sure we won't let this one go by quietly. A huge crowd of demonstrators will be outside the event to send a strong message that jumps racing must be banned - it's gonna be mammoth. If there is one rally you go to this year, this is it – this will be a day you will look back to and tell your grandchildren about it! :P
Congrats to Jack for being the second winner of the Unleashed Activist Challenge. At 13 he may be young, but he's already having a huge impact. Not only has Jack successfully campaigned his school to give students the choice not to dissect, he has also helped developed class content for a term in animal ethics, which is now taught in years 5 - 12 at his school. And now he's got his sights set on getting his school to stop using cage eggs. Top work Jack! I can't wait to hear about your next victory!
If you're inspired by Jack's efforts and want to let us know how you're helping animals, why not enter the Unleashed Activist Challenge. You could be the next winner of our activist prize pack, not to mention much kudos.
This just in! After receiving thousands and thousands of emails from outraged Animals Australia and Unleashed members, Broome Shire Council held an emergency meeting where they agreed to suspend their sister-city ties with the Japanese town of Taiji, where next month thousands of dolphins will be brutally butchered as part of an unspeakably cruel mass annual dolphin slaughter.
During the slaughter, which every year kills 23,000 dolphins, authorities erect barricades and prohibit photography and videotaping of the brutal event. Not even the Japanese public are aware of the scale or cruelty that goes on in Taiji, or that dolphin meat is often mislabelled and consumed by unknowing Japanese citizens!
This move by Broome sends a strong message to Japan that the international community will not tolerate this dark, bloody secret. With more pressure, we hope that the Japanese government will soon wake up and realise that along with the dolphins, Japan's reputation and appeal as a tourist destination is being bludgeoned to death by callous Japanese fishermen!
Thanks to everyone who took action recently by writing Broome and asking them to sever ties with Taiji! Please also take a moment to write to the Ambassador of Japan to Australia and express your disgust at Japan's annual mass slaughter of dolphins. Let them know that you will not consider visiting Japan whilst this gruesome slaughter continues!
H.E. Mr Taka-aki Kojima
Ambassador of Japan to Australia [email protected]
You learn something new every day... unfortunately!
So I thought by now I was pretty aware of international animal cruelty, but a new documentary I saw last week really shocked me. The Cove, which is being launched in Australia next week, exposes the mass slaughter of Dolphins in a little Japanese town called Taiji.
"Mass dolphin slaughter?? What the!!" Yes, that's right, each year, starting on the 1st of September a whopping 23,000 terrified dolphins are herded into a secret cove. They are netted in, unable to escape and are slowly speared or stabbed to death!
And why haven't we heard of this before? Because the Japanese Government has gone to painstaking efforts to keep the slaughter a secret, even from it's own people. Dolphin meat is being labelled and sold as other types of seafood and the vast majority of Japanese citizens have no idea this is happening, or that they are eating it!
International dolphin expert and former trainer Richard O'Barry has gone to incredible efforts to expose this terrible secret. In creating The Cove he took an elite team of scientists, filmmakers and free-divers to Taiji. He hopes the international outrage The Cove will create will put a stop to this barbaric practice... HOPEFULLY before this September's slaughter begins.
So what can you do? Fortunately, as Australians we're in a unique position to help! Taiji just so happens to be the Sister-City of Broome in WA. By putting pressure on Broome to sever it's ties with Taiji we will expose the slaughter and shame Japan. The good news is that most Japanese people see dolphins the same way westerners do – as intelligent, graceful animals who should never be hurt or eaten – but whilst the slaughter remains a secret sadly it will continue.
[UPDATE: Some great news! After a flood of letters, Broome Councilors met over the weekend and decided to sever their ties with the Japanese town of Taiji.
We still have a couple of 2-for-1 passes to giveaway to see The Cove (opening this week)! If you want to score yourself a pass then please write to Broome to thank them for taking a stand against the dolphin slaughter in Japan and severing their ties with Taiji. Then leave a comment below to let us know you've written.
What was in your lunch box today? How would veggie pizza with whole grain crust, rice and beans, veggie subs, and lentil sauce with pasta sound for lunch? According to the US School Nutrition Association that's the veg options that are most popular at US schools. I'll have one of each thanks!
Their recent survey found that almost 2 out of 3 US schools have regular veg options on offer. I don't know about you but my school tuckshop had mostly meat pies, sausage rolls and sweets (ok! so you won't hear me complaining about sweets :P).
It's about time we had more veg options in schools here as well! And it seems I'm not the only one who thinks so. The World Cancer Research Fund is now urging parents not to pack their kids' lunchboxes with ham and other processed meats. This follows a report by them earlier this year in which they concluded: "The scientific evidence linking processed meat [ie. ham, bacon, salami, etc] and bowel cancer shows that the best amount to eat is none at all." Go WCRF!
What's your school's veg tuckshop selection like? Might be a good time to suggest they add a few more options!
There are heaps of reasons not to eat chicken – for your health, for the environment or for the animals. For me, the fact that chicks are forced to grow much faster than their bodies can cope, with some dying from organ failure and others starving to death, unable to lift their own body weight, was always reason enough not to eat them. But now I think this one takes the cake...
Number one reason not to eat chicken: Because your housemate might just douse you in boiling oil!
Yep, the Herald Sun has reported that a dispute over Nando's chicken has ended in a man having boiling oil poured over him in his sleep. Sure, I'd be pretty annoyed if you ate all of my delicious mock chicken, but as far as I’m concerned violence has no place on or off my plate.
So anyway, what vegan treat do you find so delicious it’s just impossible to share?
The NSW Shooters Party are presently pushing for changes to animal cruelty laws to legalise 'canned hunts' – where hunters pay thousands of dollars for the privilege of shooting trapped animals, including endangered species. One member of the Shooters Party is a Mr Bob McComb.
Over the last 3 years Dubbo Zoo has sold 24 blackbuck antelope - a seriously endangered species - to Mr McComb. If the Shooters Party's bill passes, then these 24 blackbuck antelope may be the first visitors to Mr McComb's planned 'private game reserve' (ie. canned hunt).
Hmm. Where to begin?!
As if it weren't enough that Australia is driving our own native species to extinction faster than the rest of the world, now we need to breed other countries' endangered animals just so they can be shot?
I've heard many a zoo pat themselves on the back for their 'conservation' work, through breeding programs. So when the Dubbo Zoo says these 24 endangered antelope were 'not required' for their collection, and sells them to a hunter, you've got to wonder if they've checked the definition of conservation in a dictionary lately!
Of course, Mr McComb seems to be a little confused about what the word means as well, "I see private game reserves as a very effective way to achieve that conservation". I tell you what – if I were an endangered animal Mr McComb (and the Dubbo Zoo for that matter!) would be the last person I would want to see running to my rescue!
I could rant about this all day, but instead, I'll ask you to join me in writing to Dubbo Zoo to tell them how appalled you are that they would sell any animal (endangered or otherwise) to a hunter.
And if you feel like you're on a roll after that letter, you might also like to write to the NSW Premier and Environment Ministers to ask them to reject the Shooters Party's bill.
It was only a matter of time – raising animals for food in filthy overcrowded sheds was bound to come and bite us in the backside, but when Swine Flu broke out in Mexico we didn't expect to see it in Australia any time soon. And before we knew it, we became one of the nations with the greatest swine flu count per capita. And now it's been found on a factory farm in NSW – the very place it originated (ie. a factory farm in Mexico).
Pork representatives are trying to convince us that it's still safe to eat pig products, but really, was it ever safe?!
If you ask the World Cancer Research Fund: "The scientific evidence linking processed meat [ie. ham, bacon, salami, etc] and bowel cancer shows that the best amount to eat is none at all."
Eating pigs is not only dangerous for our health, but the conditions they are raised in (confined in cages surrounded by their own waste products) is just a breeding ground for disease – a disaster waiting to happen.
Anyway, who's the one telling us it's safe? It's the Australian Pork Industry (surprise!) – the same people who make a buck off selling it. I kind of see it like a thief telling you it's safe to leave your bag with him.
Personally, I'm content to chow down on my FLT (facon, lettuce and tomato sandwich) and leave the pigs in peace.
Disclaimer:
We’re supposed to let you know that the ideas expressed here are the views of the individual authors, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Animals Australia or Animals Australia Unleashed. So now you know.
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