Roger Moore tackles foie gras

Sir Roger Moore has joined the batlle against foie gras and not without success. Selfridges has agreed to drop foie gras! This is a major victory for the animals. Lets hope that many others will follow soon.

Read all about it on ecorazzi: Selfridges drops foie gras

Ecorazzi:

Moore even sent a private letter to Selfridges’ owner, offering to buy the company’s entire remaining stock if they agreed never to carry it again

Now, this is dedication! Way to go...

Peta ad: celebs speak out for seals

Here is a Peta video sporting a host of celebrities speaking out for seals. No more seal hunt!



And one of my favorite actresses Tricia Helfer is in it too. Tricia really has a heart for animals and isn't afraid to speak her mind about it. Great! I wrote a full blogpost about our favorite animal activist cylon here: Tricia Helfer speaks out against fur

Be sure to read this too: European Union bans seal fur

minkbreeders charged with animal abuse

Last week I made a post about the 'battle' between animal welfare / animal rights advocates and the fur trade. Recently Ireland banned the breeding of animals for fur and joined other European countries such as Croatia or England. The last few months gruesome images of the fur trade sparked a ferocious debate in Norway and Denmark (Denmark already banned the breeding of foxes for fur). Animal activists literally crawled over fences in both Norway and Denmark to be able to document the real conditions in which the animals live day to day (so no announced visits like you see on the news).

You can find my previous post here: hope for the future

If you haven't read it yet: do so now...and see with you own eyes how the fur industry responds to criticism (like putting out a bounty on animal activists and such).

The images were made by animal activists of animal rights group Anima in cooperation with Danish TV2 and Extra Bladet. After the images were aired it apparently became clear to the authorities that this could not continue any longer. And yes: fur breeders are being charged for animal abuse.

The fur industry tried everything they could to stop the broadcast of the documentary on TV2...and of course they seize the opportunity to claim how well their animals are being taken care of, never forgetting to mention how extreme and dangerous those vegetarian/vegan animal rights activists really are (fur folk love to do that to divert attention I guess).

But what seems to work in Canada or the US didn't work here in Europe.

According to the Danish newspaper 'Politiken':

De 34 avlere, som blev afsløret i dyremishandling, talte blandt andre Dansk Pelsdyravlerforenings formand, Erik Ugilt Hansen.

So, 34 breeders were charged with animal abuse...among others the chairman of the fur breeders association Erik Ugilt Hansen.

If you read some Danish, you can read it all here: Politiken article on fur

I hope these images and the discussions it will spark in Denmark and other countries will wake up some people to the reality of this unnecessary and cruel product.

Don't wear fur: You don't need it to keep warm, you don't need it to look good (and since when is that an excuse?), you won't die because you aren't wearing fur (animals will, for nothing)...

Here is some more information about the hideous conditions in which fur bearing animals live (danish): fur

Tricia Helfer speaks out against fur

We all know her: Tricia Helfer...better known as Caprica six (Battlestar Galactica). Turns out she is more then just a cold skinjob. This Cylon has a heart for animals and has demonstrated this on multiple occasions. I've covered this before, here is a link to my other blog (lies dormant these days): Tricia Helfer has a heart for animals: kitten rescue

Tricia is speaking up against fur (canadians can be against this sort of stuff too you know!):



Tricia speaks out against seal fur:

Tricia Helfer: save the seals

Tricia Helfer is calling on the Canadian government to end the annual seal slaughter once and for all.

Fur traders beware! You now have to deal with the Cylons...good luck!

hope for the future: but we ain't there yet

In Europe a battle is waging...the struggle between ethics and empathy on the one hand and profits, cruelty and indifference on the other. The last few years have been hard for animal activists, but not without result. Recently Ireland became yet another european nation that banned fur production: Ireland bans fur
Ireland now joined countries such as England, Scotland, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, ...

The struggle against fur is also mounting in traditionally pro fur countries such as Norway or Danmark. Recently Danmark outlawed the breeding of foxes for fur out of ethical concerns, and now the fur industry is again feeling threatened. Danish TV2 plans to air images taken of 32 different Danish fur breeders showing the deplorable conditions in which the animals live, newspaper Extra Bladet will also do an exposé. And just like in the US, the fur industry is going beserk. Norwegian Animal Rights group Nettverk for dyrs frihet (network for animal freedom) made a fitting post about it on their blog. (If you just happen to read norwegian, here it is: Danish minkbreeders panicking

Basically Danish fur breeders are trying everything to counter the truth about their bloody business. They issued a 'bounty'(crazy right?) for information about the people who took the images of the minkfarms,they linked the footage to illegal activities (releasing of minks in the area) ... and more of the same Shenanigans that also happen regulary in the US or Canada. But here comes the good part...Extra Bladet is actually defending the cause of the animals and is fighting back. Even better: journalist Miki Mistrati openly declared that the fur industry is just trying to divert attention from the terrible conditions in which the animals live.

Now why do I find this so exciting and important? Well, for starters this means that we are making progress and that opinions and views are shifting in our society. More so here in the EU then in the US (example: only +- 40% of US citizens are against fur). The climate is also quite different. I have never observed american/canadian reporters defend animal activists, causes or groups (or at least not as explicit as we get here).

What does all of this mean? For one thing: things are looking up for the animals. Now that fur is being tackled even in traditionally pro fur nations, vegetarianism/veganism is on the rise too. In Danmark alone the Danish vegetarian union doubled their memberships. In Ghent and other cities here in Belgium we know have one vegetarian day a week,... I can keep on going like this for quite some time. This tells me that there is hope for the future, and that a step by step approach is helping society evolve.

But what puzzles me is this: how come we don't see such results in Canada, Australia or the US? This is where you come in. I want to know. What do you think is the major difference between the animal activism and the 'climate' in Europe and the US/Canada or Australia. I often wonder about these things and I honestly find it staggering that with so much work and effort, there is so little result. What do you think: How come? Is a different strategy needed for certain countries? Are some countries just hopeless causes? Did something go wrong? Does the opposition (special interest groups) have more power or influence in certain countries and how do we stop them?

This post will be crossposted on the vegansoapbox.

Alannah Hill: intimidated till she ditched fur?

I just read a few blogposts on the Peta watch australia blog that caught my attention...(as usual not in a good way). You can read these posts here: Alannah Hill

Their 'balanced' form of communication made me think of a typical discussion concerning health care reform in the good old USA.

Peta watch blog:

A death threat has been sent to iconic Melbourne fashion designer Alannah Hill from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) or one of its rabid and unstable supporters.

Just one outtake from a hysterical bunch of posts... But how do they know it was done by a peta-supporter or *gosh* Peta itself? And what was in the mail?

contents of the mail:

'Dear Hill, IM(sic) GOING TO KILL YOU SERIOUSLY IF YOU DONT STOP YOUR(sic) DEAD. NO1 WANTS TO BUY YOUR SHIT, Sincerely ssssss ssssss.'

So, we've got a typical bullshit mail in all caps sent by an anonymous idiot online. And what was the return adress?

According to peta watch:

The threat was sent via email from an address listed as: newsmanager@peta.

So, the newsmanager of Peta sent a mail in all caps threatening to kill somebody. Right...

Here is another theory: couldn't the return adress by forged and this whole thing be one of just a gazillion internet hoaxes performed every day? Anybody that knows at least something of computers, knows how easy it is to forge the mail adress to make it look like you are someone else. How about checking the IP adress instead of making wild claims?

Alannah Hill was of course also quick to blame Peta (if you make a living selling fur...). But I have yet to see real evidence.

It follows a recent demonstration outside the designers Chapel Street boutique where PETA followers dressed as Grim Reapers and stalked the designer and her clientele.

So this e-mail is now connected to a legal protest (freedom of expression). Interesting. You folks are following in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes I presume?



They even play Sherlock in the 24th century. oh joy

And concerning the 'Grim Reapers' who were stalking the customers. Well...Read this (and pay attention to the pics!): Grim Reapers versus Alannah Hill

very violent and intimidating blokes!

PETA says the fur was believed to come from China, where there were no laws to protect animals on fur farms and many are killed cruelly.

PETA said it had attempted to talk with the designer about the issue.

No one from Alannah Hill was available to comment on PETA’s claims.

Alannah Hill eventually stopped her use of fur, and apparently had this to say about it:

After 4500 intimidating and abusive emails, the decision not to use rabbit fur AS A TRIM was made for me by the one that threatened my seven-year-old son, Edward. They wanted him to burn in hell.

1. 4500 abusive and intimidating mails? Really? As far as I know this was just an e-mail campaign. just like it said on the peta blog: peta blog

This happens often and is done by: animal rights groups, environmental groups, ... well just about any action group. You do get a lot of e-mails yes. The idea is to show how much support or lack of support there regarding fur or cutting down a forest, ...

Here is another example of such an e-mail protest: end seal slaughter

Very abusive indeed.

2. Even if it was really a peta supporter that sent the e-mail (and there is no way know), that doesn't mean that other peta supporters want Alannah her son to 'burn in hell'... But making distinctions and putting things in context is indeed quite difficult in certain conservative nations like the US of Australia. And that is of course something that comes in handy when you want to bring progress for the animals or the environment to a halt.

And why am I responding to older blogposts in the peta watch blog? Well, because it's happening again:

Gaill Elliot bows to peta pressure

*sigh* I'll guess I'll keep an eye on this story as well. More to follow!

Peter Singer

An interesting video I found:



Peter Singer on eating meat, climate change and world poverty. This is the first part of a seven part lecture. You can find the rest (and other lectures) on this youtube channel: Macquarie University

scare tactics: animal rights extremism

Vegetarian/vegan cookbooks...We all need them and we all love them. What would a vegan/vegetarian site be without giving the proper attention to the art of cooking? But it turns out that these cookbooks are nothing more than vile propaganda. What? Yes, that's right...propaganda!

Some time ago dutch politician Henk Jan Ormel attracted a lot of media attention with his requests to ban a vegetarian cookbook. According to him it was nothing more then a piece of propaganda that attempts to promote a 'vegetarian lifestyle'. To make things even more bizarre, the book was being published by the dutch government itself and was meant to inform people of proper vegetarian nutrition. This didn't bother Ormel apparently, who also demanded that the funds for the book be used to inform the public of the importance and necessity of animal testing! (for those who read dutch, here is a good blogpost about it by Tobias Leenaert of the belgian vegetarian union EVA: Tobias Leenaert )

This might seem strange and hard to believe, but this sort of weirdness is becoming more and more frequent in Europe the last couple of years. Just like in the US we are being branded as nutjobs, terrorists and criminals. The advancements the animal movement has made are being threatened by an artificially created hostile climate, and the real question we have to ask ourselves as a movement is: How do we deal with this?

This is an important question that affects the future of billions and billions of animals. How did we respond in Europe? Animal activists in Holland seized the opportunity to make it clear to the public that meat is bad for your health, the environment and the animals. That was the only positive thing that came from the negative and absurd media publicity we got, and I question if this had any effect. Holland, Belgium (my country) and other Western - European countries have seen good progress in the last decade or so when it comes to animal rights. Of course resistance has been mounting and the climate is getting dangerous and dark.

Two things that took place in Holland this year made this quite clear. Dutch minister Guusje Ter Horst announced that she wants to deal with 'increased' animal rights extremism by forcing all animal right groups (including animal protection groups such as 'de dierenbescherming', equivalent would be RSPCA) to sign a contract in which they vow NOT to use violence anymore. So, in fact all groups are considered violent untill they sign a contract that they aren't violent and won't break the law. So in essence you are considered guilty of breaking the law until you sign a piece of paper. This caused a small legal riot in Holland and eventually all animal rights and protection groups collectively decided to refuse to sign such a document.

Another example is a severely hyped interview in the dutch media of an 'ALF infiltrator' (Adrian Redford) who warned people on prime time TV not to donate to any animal right groups, because most of the money is used to fund terrorist ALF activities. Of course the usual suspects (meat industry, ...) loved this. In this case it was mostly the dutch blogosphere that responded (including myself). If you read dutch, you can read everything here: animal rights extremism (or you can use google translate)

The question is: how do we deal with this? In the US this has been going on for some time, but we see the same problem emerging more and more here in europe. How must we react as a movement against such a storm of scare-mongering, scare tactics and maligning of activists? What can we do? What do you think?

This post will be crossposted on the vegansoapbox: vegansoap box: scare tactics

Gary Francione on sexism and animal rights: again

Gary is at it again...the sexism rant. And this time he isn't just ranting about Peta...he discovered a dutch ad made by animal rights group 'wakker dier'.

A playmate model apparently looses her attire to draw attention to the animal issue. I don't see a problem with it. Gary of course considers this 'exploitation' and one of the many forms of moral decay in our society (oh joy).

You can read gary francione's post here: abolitionist approach: sexism

Here is the clip in question: exhibit A

Playmate Ancilla Tilia strips for Wakker Dier from Revolver on Vimeo.

So, in short. We see a woman take off her clothes in a commercial (something men do as well on Peta posters, anti men in that case?) and then she gets brutally murdered...(unexpected turn of events)

So what does this do? Does this clip promote violence against women and sexism? NO

It is quite shallow to look at it in that way and everybody that logically dissects what is happening in this commercial will realize this. It is a fine piece of work, nothing more. It manages to captivate the audience (and yes nudity - both male and female - can do this) and then in an unexpected turn of events she gets killed. Of course people are shocked to see this...and then they are presented with some facts. Facts about what happens to animals every day.

Gary Francione obviously didn't get it, and made some strange remarks that can be taken in several ways. Here is one such remark:

Wakker Dier hired Dutch Playmate and fetish model Ancilla Tilia to play the part of a stripper who gets clubbed and stripped like an animal.

She got stripped like an animal. Yes, to draw attention to an important issue in an original and funny way (which works better then just blogging and accusing other animal activists FYI). So what is the problem? That she got stripped LIKE an animal. I find the 'tone' of this line quite strange...

In the many years that I have been doing animal work, I have never had anyone come to me to say that they had been moved to consider the animal issue because they saw a naked woman in a cage. Indeed, this is precisely the sort of thing that makes progressive people think that the animal rights movement is a pathetic joke to be dismissed and ignored.

And I have never encountered anyone that said they turned vegan because they had a discussion online or read an abolitionist blog about animal rights. People turn vegetarian/vegan for several reasons and over a certain period of time. I have never encountered anyone that turned vegan overnight because of one poster.

But yes, there could be people out there that get convinced by one message. Maybe I simply haven't met any of them yet. But that also counts for Gary Francione himself. Maybe there are people out there that see this and start thinking about the issue and turn vegetarian/vegan.

I am sure however that this commercial has more positive effect than blogposts on the abolitionist approach site claiming that vegetarians are worse then meat eaters...

The commodification of nonhumans is very similar to the commodification of women. But society has no problem with the commodification of women. Instead of opposing sexism and misogyny, a large segment of the movement actively promotes it. As long as we continue to think of women as meat, we will never see the problem with using animals as meat.

And as long as some people in the movement insist on cheap rethoric to help the cause of animal rights, animals will not be saved.

Both men and women are naked during the Peta protests that Gary Francione is troubled by. It strikes me that he only fixates on female nudity. Just like the media outlets do. But lets think of the running of the nudes in spain. Both men and women are naked.

Is it Peta's fault that both the media and 'anti-sexist' animal activists battling commodification only see naked women whom they need to protect? It is called tunnel vision. I just wonder what causes it.

Peta watch australia and swine flu: update

Loyal readers of this blog will remember that some time ago I made a blogpost about the swine flu (H1N1) outbreak and raised some question about current meat production. I linked factory farming conditions (meat production) with the swine flu outbreak, because the conditions are excellent for the distribution of new pathogens, mutations and so forth...

Apperently the people over at Peta watch blog didn't get what I was trying to say and made a post indicating that I was 'misinformed'.

You can read all about it here: swine flu and meat production

It would appear however that I was indeed right linking meat production to the swine flu pandemic (duh)...

The science section of the danish newspaper 'Politiken' had an interesting article about H1N1. You can read it hear: Swine flu virus (the link is in danish!)

The article basically states that swine flu did indeed originate in swines and eventually infected the human population (something farmers don't like to hear)

important:

Den nye pandemiske H1N1-influenza cirkulerede uopdaget i svin i mindst et årti, før den blev overført til mennesker, og der er behov for langt bedre overvågning, hedder det i en advarsel fra en amerikansk ekspert.

translation: the H1N1 influenza circulated unnoticed in swines for about a decade until it transferred to the human population.

This also makes it clear that the reality is far more complex then what the Peta watch blog portrays on it's blog...

according to peta watch

UPDATE: It's actually humans giving swine swine flu!

Nope, it was the other way around...but of course swines can catch it too, since it originated in swines...makes sense...