Demo in Leeds 18th June 2010

Protest Against the Badger Killers – Leeds

FRIDAY 18TH JUNE 2010

MEET: 12NOON AT THE CORN EXCHANGE, LEEDS

Thomson Ecology is the company responsible for surveying for badgers and sett locations prior to the Welsh Assembly badger killing due to start any day now, i.e. these people are finding out where the badgers are and where best to trap them, then passing the information directly onto the badger killers at WAG who will cage trap them and shoot them. Thomson Ecology may as well be pulling the trigger!

Join us outside its new Yorkshire office in Leeds to tell them what the public thinks of its involvement in the slaughter of innocent badgers, which are supposed to be a protected species. Bad farming practices and the dairy industry are to blame for the spread of TB in cattle, not badgers! Scientific government research has already proven that culling badgers has no positive effect on the number of TB outbreaks in dairy herds.

Demo from 12noon onwards – Friday 18th June at Thomson Ecology, Calls Wharf, 2 The Calls, Leeds, LS2 7JU (Tel: 0113 247 3780)

There will also be a demo on the same day at the Cardiff Office

Beware of snares

Missing cat caught in a snare

25.05.10

A cat who had been missing for three days has been found trapped in a snare, in a tree, near his home.

This male black cat named Shadow, managed to climb up a tree near his home in Auckley, near Doncaster whilst trapped in a snare.  The snare became entangled in the tree leaving poor Shadow stranded.
Fortunately, the owners of the property on Sycamore Drive came home from work and heard him crying. Jean Wilkins, who found him, said:

I heard what I thought was a cat and followed the sound to the pear tree. The poor thing was stuck fast and when my husband tried to get him down he just lashed out. That’s when we rang the RSPCA for help.

Free-running snare

The trap was what’s called a ‘free-running snare’ and is legal if used correctly, however, it shouldn’t ever be able to trap anything other than its target species.
The trap had cut off the circulation to Shadow’s back-end but once he was free of it the movement started to come back and, luckily, he’s made a full recovery.
Our Inspector Carol Neale, who attended to free Shadow, said: “Snares can cause long and painful deaths and terrible injuries to animals caught in them, and cats often fall victim to them,

“Anyone using a snare must ensure they do so legally. Causing unnecessary suffering to an animal in this way could see them brought before the courts.”

Happy ending

Shadow was re-united with his owner after another neighbour recognised him. Owner, Becky Govan, of nearby Hazel Avenue said:

We couldn’t believe it when we were told what had happened. Shadow had been missing for three days and we’d started to fear the worst. We’re so grateful to the people who found him and the inspector who rescued him.

Continued support

Without your continuing support we would not be able to help animals like Shadow.
Thank you.

Investigations are always worthwhile!

http://http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/05/450669.html

After receiving information about the location of a site that has been used by Sheffield University as an animal house for breeding rodents, guinea-pigs, rabbits and cats South Yorkshire ALIU visited to investigate.

We took a good look around at the Lodge Moor animal house site and can confirm that it has now closed down. We distribute this information to keep the grassroots anti-vivisection movement up to date with the status of laboratories and breeding facilities.

We have another site for a possible animal facility owned by Sheffield University and will post updates when we have investigated accordingly.

South Yorks ALIU

Rabbit Awareness Week

All this week rescues up and down the country are tring to show how important it is to look after rabbits properly – and to ALWAYS REMEMBER TO RESCUE DO NOT BUY – no matter how tempting it is.

Rabbit Awareness Week
Can you give a home to an abandoned rabbit?

A hutch is needed for security but all rabbits need their freedom EVERYDAY for as many hours as possible.

With Rabbit Awareness Week kicking off on Monday, 26 April, we are hoping to find new owners for a number of rabbits found abandoned over the Easter period.

More than 20 rabbits have been found since the beginning of March according to just one national rescue – this doesn’t include all the hundreds of others throughout the country. At least one every 24 hours will be found. This is out of the hundreds who have been reported abandoned already this year.

Rabbits throughout Yorkshire (and all the U.K) are now in need of loving new homes to help them make a fresh start.
• Take a look at just some of them in our rehoming pages.
• Or use our pet search facility at the bottom of this post to find rabbits for adoption near you

Caring for rabbits
Rabbits are very sociable animals so we would like to rehome them in pairs, or to a family which already has rabbits. However, we recommend that they are neutered to prevent unwanted litters.

They need a large hutch which is big enough for a rabbit to stand up in and either a very large run that is attached that they can come out into 24 hours a day, a large run in your garden or ideally a large rabbit proff garden or area that is fenced off that they can run and jump in (which rabbits love to do especially at dusk – brilliant to watch!) You can find out more about the care that rabbits need here.

Rescues

Sue’s rabbit rescue

Thornberry Animal Sanctuary

Bunny Burrows

Hull Animal Welfare Trust

Selby Animal Sanctuary – Scalm Lane, Hambleton, Near Selby, North Yorkshire, Y08 9HZ
Tel: 01757 228216

More demos in Leeds!

Week of Action Demo’s in Leeds – PLEASE GET INVOLVED

Activists in Leeds today held a mobile demo against organisations involved in academic animal experimentation in our area.

We begun during lunch hour on the busy steps of the Parkinson Building at the University of Leeds, holding large banners and giving out information to students, staff and passers by. The UoL didn’t really seem to like this after they issued ‘banning orders’ to campaigners, hoping we would simply go away. The fact is whilst a single animal is being tortured in their perversion of science, we will not back down in exposing them.

Next of all, we moved onto the Worsley Building which houses the university’s animal unit on the top floor. Here is where wild caught birds, rodents, rabbits, dogs and other sentient creatures are used in experimentation. The Home Office Inspector has adversly commented on the unit’s standards of housing birds here, saying that cages are too small and the vivisectors themselves stated that they don’t think the animals get enough exercise. Following a short demo, we moved on as it was reletavely quiet.

Covance’s CRU was the next port of call. Not only do Covance conduct their own animal testing, they also breed for others and own a 47% stake in Noveprim, a farm who capture primates in the jungles of Mauritius to be supplied to labs worldwide. They are also heavily involved in vivisection at Leeds, Birmingham and other universities – a truly sick company. A noisey demo was held outside the main entrance to the building, with staff looking out of the top floor windows to see what was happening.

Editor’s note – Covance along with all animal testing labs is a VILE PLACE. People torture animals there EVERYDAY and should be wiped off the face of the earth…..

Our next stop was Yorkshire Universities (Yorkshire Concept Fund) who provide money to the University of Bradford’s animal unit for the planned privatisation. Mark Cleary, Bradford Vice Chancellor, is also on the board of this company. They were informed of the experiments testing Cocaine, Ketamine and PCP at UoB in a visual demonstration which could not be ignored. Passers by stopped to listen to megaphone speeches, showing keen interest whilst YU/YCF were shamed.

Last of all was the Techtran Group, who are invovled in breeding rodents, horses and other genetically altered animals for labs and also fund research at the University of Bradford.

All in all, the day was extremely succesful with lots of support and companies complicit in animal abuse exposed.
[Photos coming shortly]
Leeds Animal Rights

http://westyorkshireanimalrights.wordpress.com/

Exotic and endangered animals stuffed and then sold on ebay

Couple imported and sold carcasses including a lion cub, flying foxes, monkeys and a sea otter

A couple who used eBay to illegally trade in dead endangered species were given suspended prison terms and fined today. Graham Pitchforth, a retired expert in animal care, and his wife Norah imported and sold exotic carcasses from the UK and overseas, including a lion cub, flying foxes, monkeys and a sea otter.

They were given suspended jail terms of five months each and a total of 400 hours unpaid community service by a judge who condemned their business as involving “serious crime which helps the illegal market that feeds the extinction of species”. Both admitted 24 charges of illegally importing, possessing, exporting and selling on eBay and other websites for a profit of £2,329.

Leeds crown court heard that Graham Pitchforth, 61, was an amateur taxidermist who started mounting small animals as a retirement hobby. His wife, 65, suggested selling them online, and from this small and legal sideline the trade turned criminal. Inconsistencies in documents for very rare species acquired by the couple alerted wildlife agencies, and police raided their home in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in December 2006. The court heard that incriminating emails from Pitchforth and his wife were found on a seized computer.

One from Norah Pitchforth told a Norwegian potential buyer of a stuffed snowy owl: “Hi, sorry this has only been mounted three months ago. I have no paperwork for it so it would have to be a private sale saying it’s a gift from me to you.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/15/taxidermist-endangered-species-ebay

Judge Christopher Batty said that the trade was “a deliberate flouting of the regulations for commercial gain”. He told the couple: “You imported species from Indonesia and South Africa, likely to have been hunted from the wild perhaps for the unlawful trade in their carcasses.”

Suggested uses for the stuffed animals advertised on eBay included table decorations and clothes. Other carcasses and animal parts listed included four sparrowhawks, eight owls, a crocodile monitor and a collection of more than 60 skulls. A confiscation hearing will take place later this year.

Bradford University Action!

University Week of Action Kicked Off With Bradford

Security Breached

SAEAB | 10.04.2010 20:07 | Animal Liberation

To kick off the Week of Action Against Vivisection in Universities, activists gained access to a number of buildings at the University of Bradford and split up for maximum effect. No security staff were in sight, so we could effectively swamp the campus without hinder.

To kick off the Week of Action Against Vivisection in Universities (http://vivisectionweekofaction.wordpress.com/), activists gained access to a number of buildings at the University of Bradford and split up for maximum effect. No security staff were in sight, so we could effectively swamp the campus without hinder.

The University of Bradford have banned their staff and students from talking to campaigners against their vivisection practices, so it was our goal to hightlight the true horrors and scientific incompitence of what is happening under the false guise of science in the basement labs of the IPI Building.

Hundreds of leaflets were left literally everywhere around the campus – under the doors of locked offices (both involved in science departments and not), on notice boards, in student mail boxes, lockers, toilets and other places where they would be seen and read. Unfortunately, we ran out of leaflets when arriving at the open executive suite, however we’re sure those involved in Bradford University’s management are well aware of what the animal suffering being conducted.

This kind of action will be repeated on a regular basis and leaves the message clear – the more Bradford try to stop people knowing what is happening, the more we will make it our mission to get relevant information out there.

SAEAB
e-mail: saeab@hushmail.com
Homepage: http://www.academicabuse.wordpress.com

Badger Cruelty in Yorkshire

7:49am Friday 9th April 2010

NORTH Yorkshire Police have appealed for the public’s help in protecting badgers and dogs from illegal baiting.

A disturbed badger sett was recently found in the county and police are now investigating whether this was a result of the blood sport.

Badger baiting, when a badger is forced to fight a succession of dogs, is often fatal to the badger and can result in the dogs also sustaining serious injuries.

PC Vanessa Bateson, wildlife crime officer, condemned the “barbaric” activity, and asked members of the public to contact police if they had any information about it. PC Bateson said: “The terriers used often suffer terrible injuries, usually to the lower jaw, as the badger will swing upwards with its front legs to fight the dog off.

“Unfortunately, these injuries usually go untreated as offenders will not take the dog to the vet for treatment for fear of exposing their illegal activities.”

People involved in badger baiting can be prosecuted under a number of laws, including the Protection of Badgers Act (1992), but police said it was vital suspected incidents were reported.

Interfering with a badger sett carries a maximum fine of £5,000 or up to six months’ imprisonment, and PC Bateson said she wants to see the practise eradicated in North Yorkshire.

She said: “The law is effective in that it gives the police powers to seize and detain anything that may be evidence of an offence under the powers of the Protection of Badgers Act.

“That means we can take a suspect’s dogs, tools and even their vehicle.

“More importantly, any items seized are liable for forfeiture at court which means they will never get them back.”

Anyone with any information about suspected badger baiting should phone PC Bateson on 0845 6060247, or phone Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

The disturbed badger sett being investigated by North Yorkshire Police was found at Ingleton, near Settle.

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/8089823.Police_slam_badger_baiting_after_sett_disturbed/

Help stop the scum that want these cubs dead

Ten Reasons NOT to eat Pigs

Porking You Up
It’s a fact—ham, sausage, and bacon strips will go right to your hips. Eating pork products, which are loaded with artery-clogging cholesterol and saturated fat, is a good way to increase your waistline and increase your chances of developing deadly diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, asthma, and impotence. Research has shown that vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease, and they have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters. Plus, meat-eaters are nine times more likely to be obese than pure vegetarians are. Every time you eat animal products, you’re also ingesting bacteria, antibiotics, dioxins, hormones, and a host of other toxins that can accumulate in your body and remain there for years. Learn more about animal products and your health.

Pigs Have Feelings Too
Ninety-seven percent of pigs in the United States today are raised in factory farms, where they will never run across sprawling pastures, bask in the sun, breathe fresh air, or do anything else that comes naturally to them. Crowded into warehouses with nothing to do and nowhere to go, they are kept on a steady diet of drugs to keep them alive and make them grow faster, but the drugs cause many of the animals to become crippled under their own bulk. Learn more about cruelty to pigs.

Pigs and Playstations
Think that you can outplay a pig on your Playstation? You may be surprised. According to research, pigs are much smarter than dogs, and they even do better at video games than some primates. In fact, pigs are extremely clever animals who form complex social networks and have excellent memories. Eating a pig is like eating your dog! As actor Cameron Diaz put it after hearing that pigs have the mental capacities of a 3-year-old human: “[Eating bacon is] like eating my niece!” Learn more about pigs.

Pigs Prefer Mud, Not Crud
Pigs are actually very clean animals. If they are given sufficient space, pigs are careful not to soil the areas where they sleep or eat. And forget the silly saying “sweating like a pig”—pigs can’t even sweat! That’s why they bathe in water or mud to cool off. But in factory farms, they’re forced to live in their own feces and vomit and even amid the corpses of other pigs. Conditions are so filthy that at any given time, more than one-quarter of pigs suffer from mange—think of your worst case of poison ivy, and imagine having to suffer from it for the rest of your life. Learn more about what happens to pigs in factory farms.

Farming Family Values
Factory farms are pure hell for pigs and their babies. Mother pigs spend most of their lives in tiny “gestation” crates, which are so small that the animals are unable to turn around or even lie down comfortably. They are repeatedly impregnated until they are slaughtered. Piglets, who are taken away from their distraught mothers after just a few weeks, have their tails chopped off, their teeth are clipped off with pliers, and the males are castrated—all without painkillers. 

The Manure Is Blowing in the Wind …
A pig farm with 5,000 animals produces as much fecal waste as a city of 50,000 people. In 1995, 25 million gallons of putrid hog urine and feces spilled into a North Carolina river, immediately killing between 10 and 14 million fish. To get around water pollution limits, factory farms will frequently take the tons of urine and feces that are stored in cesspools and turn them into liquid waste that they spray into the air. This manure-filled mist is carried away by the wind and inhaled by the people who live nearby. Learn more about how factory farming damages the environment.

Bacteria-Laden Bacon and Harmful Ham
Extremely crowded conditions, poor ventilation, and filth in factory farms cause such rampant disease in pigs that 70 percent of them have pneumonia by the time they’re sent to the slaughterhouse. In order to keep pigs alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them and to promote unnaturally fast growth, the industry keeps pigs on a steady diet of the antibiotics that we depend on to treat human illnesses. This overuse of antibiotics has led to the development of “superbacteria,” or antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. The ham, bacon, and sausage that you’re eating may make the drugs that your doctor prescribes the next time you get sick completely ineffective. Learn more about the effect of eating meat from sick, diseased, and drugged animals.

Hell on Wheels
More than 170,000 pigs die in transport each year, and more than 420,000 are crippled by the time they arrive at the slaughterhouse. Transport trucks, which carry pigs hundreds of miles through all weather extremes with no food or water, regularly flip over, throwing injured and dying animals onto the road. These terrified and injured animals are rarely offered veterinary care, and most languish in pain for hours; some even bleed to death on the side of the road. After an accident in April 2005, Smithfield spokesperson Jerry Hostetter told one reporter, “I hate to admit it, but it happens all the time.” Learn more about cruelty to pigs during transport.

Killing Them Without Kindness
A typical slaughterhouse kills up to 1,100 pigs every hour, which makes it impossible for them to be given humane, painless deaths. The U.S. Department of Agriculture documented 14 humane slaughter violations at one processing plant, where inspectors found hogs who “were walking and squealing after being stunned [with a stun gun] as many as four times.” Because of improper stunning methods and extremely fast line speeds, many pigs are still alive when they are dumped into scalding-hot hair-removal tanks—they literally drown in scalding-hot water.

Ditch the Bacon and Get Fakin’
Save pigs from hell and yourself from bad health by feasting on faux pork products instead. Stuff a sandwich full of Yves brand veggie ham slices, or throw some Lightlife Smart Bacon into a sizzling skillet—the freezer and “health food” sections of your local grocery or health food stores are packed full of these and other tasty substitutes. Check out VegCooking.com for hundreds of recipes, product recommendations, vegan meal plans, and a shopping guide.

Think before you eat another sausage link—order a free vegetarian starter kit full of delicious recipes and celebrity features today!

On behalf of all pigs and all animals that are eaten – Ditch the meat and be healthy, smart and compassionate!

Does this give the animals hope?

Quantcast
Technology Aims to Replace Animal Testing
Posted: January 14, 2010

MATTHEW PERRONE,
AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON—Technology allowing cosmetic makers to test for allergic reactions to their products without controversial animal trials is in the works and could be in use by next year.

The technology developed by Hurel Corp., with funding from cosmetics maker L’Oreal, is designed to replace tests on mice and guinea pigs used to predict skin reactions from drugs and cosmetics. The device uses laboratory-grown human skin cells to simulate the body’s allergic response to foreign chemicals. Preliminary experiments show promise, but rigorous tests are still needed to determine the technology’s accuracy.

The standard method for testing allergic reactions involves applying chemicals to the ears of mice, which are later killed and dissected for study.

North Brunswick, N.J.-based Hurel said Thursday it hopes to eliminate the need for such tests, in an announcement with cosmetics giant L’Oreal, which provided funding for the test.

The product from Hurel consists of a glass chip with human skin cells and chemicals that simulate the body’s immune system. When a foreign substance is dropped onto the chip, the cells and chemicals interact to mimic the human body’s natural allergic response.

While the product is still in development, Hurel officials say a working prototype should be available by the second half of next year. In addition to cosmetics, the technology could be used to test household cleaners and pesticides.

Hurel Chief Executive Robert Freedman said it is too early to estimate the price or sales figures for the chip, but he pegs the market for a non-animal allergy test at $2 billion a year.

Like other companies in the cosmetics industry, L’Oreal is racing to develop alternatives for testing wrinkle creams and lipstick to comply with European Union laws. Regulators there have ordered companies to phase out animal skin testing by 2013.

L’Oreal has decreased its use of animal testing over the years, but still relies on the technique to test certain new chemicals.

“I give L’Oreal credit for being willing to explore these types of opportunities,” said Dr. Charles Sandusky, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “This is the first thing I’ve ever seen where the immune system is being mimicked without using an animal component.”

A spokeswoman for L’Oreal said the company has invested heavily in non-animal testing over 25 years, but declined to specify how much went into developing the Hurel chip.

Hurel will be free to license the technology to other companies once it has been proven effective, she said.

Sandusky, a former toxicologist at the Environmental Protection Agency, estimates Hurel’s technology, if successfully applied, could eliminate the need for tens of thousands of test animals each year.

For that reason, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals plans to grant the company an innovation award Thursday for “animal-friendly achievement in commerce.” PETA’s science policy adviser Dr. Kate Willett said the group has been following Hurel’s research efforts.

Hurel was founded in 2005 and has one other product under development: a liver toxicity test. Given that regulators generally won’t approve an experimental drug if there are signs it harms the liver, a liver toxicity test could be a boon to drugmakers who test their medicines in animals before submitting them to regulators.

Animal testing can be slow, and many researchers question how well an animal’s response to a chemical predicts human reactions.

By eliminating the time, money and potential inaccuracies associated with animal testing, Chief Executive Robert Freedman estimates Hurel’s test could shave $100 million off the roughly $1 billion cost of developing a new drug.