Please help stop the proposed foie gras production unit in China.

Image from The Telegraph Newspaper.

It's back to the Far East again, this time it is geese that are being cruelly treated.  

HSI and CIWF have learnt of plans to open a huge foie gras producing unit which just happens to be next to a vital wildlife habitat and water source.  

The facility aims to confine millions of geese with a goal of producing 1,000 tonnes of foie gras each year.  In order to produce foie gras, ducks and geese are force fed an unnatural amount of food via a long pipe which reaches directly into their stomachs.  This causes the birds livers to become enlarged and diseased.

This practice is prohibited in most of Europe as well as Argentina, Israel and more recently in the U.S state of California.

Despite this, a British company has recently been exposed by CIWF and HSI as helping to fund the development of this foie gras factory farm.  Creek Projects Investments PLC has invested millions of pounds into the project, both organisations have written to Creek Projects urging them to stop funding animal cruelty.

Please click on this link to ask the Chinese government to stop plans for the cruel foie gras production facility.

Stop the illegal dog meat trade.

  
After digesting the shocking news and witnessing the horrific images of 505 dogs destined to be served up as food in Chinese restaurants rescued in China's Yunnan Province last month, I was alarmed to hear of smugglers in North Eastern Thailand exporting around 30,000 stray dogs to Vietnam each month charging $10 per dog.  Although eating dog meat is regarded as being uncivilized in Thailand, grilled dog meat sells for three times the price of pork in Vietnam.

Echoing the disturbing images from China, stray dogs are crammed into wire cages and smuggled through illegal river borders.  Most are sent to Vietnam but a minority are butchered and sold as "meat" in Thai open markets despite residents complaining about the disgusting practice.

Wit, the boss of a dog collecting crew, says "We have to pay the police to leave us alone."

Please sign this petition to encourage the authorities in Tae Rae to crack down on the dog meat trade.

Big Animal News! Giant Pandas in Scotland

 Source.

I was amazed yesterday to hear that after five years of negotiation two Giant Pandas will be loaned to Edinburgh Zoo for a period of 10 years.  The pandas are a breeding pair named Yangguang and Tian Tian (pictured).  Both pandas currently reside at Wolong Panda Breeding Centre in China’s Sichuan Province which altogether houses 250 breeding giant pandas. Yangguang is a male and Tian Tian is a female and they are both 7 years old.

Whilst living in Edinburgh Zoo they will be housed in separate enclosures and brought together only for mating season which is annual and will last only between two days and a week, between March and May.  Any offspring Yangguang and Tian Tian do produce will return to China soon after birth.

Initially I was thrilled to hear that I may finally get the chance to see not one but TWO Giant Panda's in the flesh but I do have a few reservations and I am waiting to see how things develop, I would hate to think this is all about business, politics and Edinburgh Zoo's visitor figures instead of conservation.  

I also can't help but think of Mercedes the Polar Bear who lived in Edinburgh Zoo for 25 years before being rehomed in the Highland Wildlife Park, Kingussie.  When we went to visit her she seemed very depressed and just paced up and down in her enclosure, I really hope Yangguang and Tian Tian are very happy in their new home and aren't too unsettled by their long journey from China to Scotland.

Article about Yangguang and Tian Tian.
Interesting article on Giant Pandas.

Fluffy Friday #8

A baby panda was born this week at a reserve in Sichuan Province, China. Eight year old Ju Xiao gave birth to twins but only nursed the first cub, the second born was taken to a nursery to be looked after.

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