Lunch Time Links #8

How is your week going so far? 

This Lunch Time Link is just one action, nothing too taxing but all the same very important.  Kick back, relax with a cup of tea and simply enter a few details after following the link below....

Ask Danish designer "By Malene Birger" to go fur free

Thank you!

Do you live in a Badger Cull area?

www.savebadger.co.uk

As you know, despite many of us contacting our MPs and urging the government to rethink plans for a badger cull they have ignored our please and announced a badger cull in England.  This will initially go ahead in two pilot areas.

The RSPCA says that "badgers are now in serious danger and widespread culling could see populations decline by more than 70% in some areas".

The RSPCA continues to campaign for badgers on a local level but needs help from anybody who lives in the pilot or surrounding areas.

The first pilot cull will take place in the district of West Somerset, partly in Taunton Deane.

The second is mainly within the Forest of Dean and Tewkesbury and partly in the districts of Wychavon, Malvern Hills and West Gloucestershire.

If you or your friends and family live around any of the areas mentioned above and would like to help please contact campaigns@rspca.org.uk

Thank you.

Tell Defra that farm animal welfare is important.

Around 80% of animals farmed in the EU each year are factory farmed.  The image portraying happy animals chewing the cud on green pastures couldn't be further from the truth.  What really happens is that these farm animals spend their lives shut in sheds, pens and even cages with many growing unnaturally and having not much else to do but eat before eventually dying in slaughterhouses or prematurely from injury or exhaustion.

The current EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform proposals fail to protect farm animals, in fact, Compassion in World Farming tell us that they are a backwards step for animal welfare and a huge missed opportunity for us to move towards more humane and sustainable farming practices.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are currently conducting a consultation into the CAP reform proposals and it is now time to take this opportunity and tell Defra that animal welfare is an important part of the EU agricultural policy.

Read More.

Please can you spare a little time to fill in a few details here and send the readily prepared response to Defra's consultation on these proposed reforms?  Every response increases the pressure on Defra to act in the best interest of farm animal welfare so please ask your friends and family to do the same.

Thank you!

Update on Proposed Beagle Farm (More Good News!)

More good news!  Do you remember this?

This proves how what you do makes a real difference to the lives of animals, if you signed BUAV's petition back in October you were one of the 28,000 people who encouraged the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, to reject plans by Bantin & Kingman Ltd to build a breeding facility in Grimston, Yorkshire with the aim of supplying beagles for experiments in the UK and overseas.

BUAV's petition contained over 28,000 signatures which were collected in just over two weeks, they submitted this along with a document explaining why there was no justification for another dog breeding facility and although Bantin & Kingman appealed the decision Eric Pickles has declined the planning application thus saving the lives of thousands of beagles.

Read more.

(on behalf of the Beagles!)

Fluffy Friday #45

This Fluffy Friday is dedicated to all the animals who have sadly been dumped now that Christmas is well and truly over and the reality of owning a living breathing pet has sunk in.


A lot of the animals disregarded are dogs. Some cross breed puppies that were bred specifically to sell around Christmas time for prices as much as £500 have been dumped after not being sold.  The recession is being blamed for this, but I blame people for not preparing themselves properly to get a pet in the first place and for treating animals like disposable toys.  


A few days ago I was horrified to see someone on Facebook friend asking if anyone wanted to adopt his two puppies.  At the end of last year I witnessed another person on Facebook trying to get rid of her elderly and unwell cat which was very sad and seemed very callous.

Ashley, a Staffie Cross. 

Shih Tzu Crossbreeds Jim and Jane with their puppies Jade, Jess and Jack.
Found dumped in a cardboard box.

Seven Staffies seeking new homes.

Sam, a 12 week old Springer Spaniel who is recovering from a painful case of mange.

To enquire about any of the above dogs please contact North Clwyd Animal Rescue on 01745 560546. 

This is Bunny, aged 1 year from The Blue Cross.

There are hundreds of dogs, cats and rabbits needing homes at the rescue centres listed below.  Please check them out!

Oldies Club
RSPCA
RSPCA Special Appeals
Dogs Trust
Cats Protection
The Mayhew Animal Home
Scruples
The Blue Cross
Retired Greyhound Trust
Farplace Animal Rescue
Fat Fluffs Rabbit Rescue

There are also countless more animals being given away to strangers, sold or even swapped(!) on websites  like Gumtree and Facebook.  Please do consider opening your home to a rescue pet and giving them a new lease of life.


If you do see or know of any friends trying to off load pets using sites like Facebook and Gumtree please do say something.  Be polite but firm and let them know that letting their pet go to a stranger without a home check is basically sentencing them to a potentially unhappy, unhealthy and even life threatening future.

Thank you.

Born to Suffer Update

{Source}

I received a message from the RSPCA this week with regards to their Born to Suffer campaign.  A new report was released last week suggesting some of the UK's native breeds including the Red Setter are heading towards extinction because of the rise in popularity of more exotic breeds.

The "handbag dog" craze fuelled by our increasing obsession with celebrities is the most likely cause for the spike in popularity of dogs like the chihuahua.  The RSPCA says that small dogs bred to look a certain way regardless of their health, can be prone to breathing problems and broken bones because of their tiny physique.

Read more about celebrity pets and their exaggerated features in the RSPCA's special flip book.

If you haven't already, please add your name to this petition calling for the health and welfare of dogs to be prioritised over their looks and for breed standards to be changed.

Don't forget to tell your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

Thank you!

VICTORY: Air France Backs Down!

Source.

We welcome February with some excellent news!  

Thank you to all of you who read and acted on yesterdays post asking you to contact Air France and ask them not to transport 60 live primates from Africa to the USA for vivisection purposes.  Within just 24 hours of Peta finding out about the planned Air France transportation and prompting all of us to take action, 68,000 e-mails, thousands of Facebook and Twitter posts along with hundreds of calls were generated in support.  Peta has now confirmed that Air France has cancelled their plans!

This once again proves that there really is strength in numbers and simply sparing a moment of your time to sign a petition or send an e-mail really makes a difference!

As always, there is still work to be done and we now need to continue to work on Air France and ask them to create a formal policy prohibiting future shipments of primates to animal testing labs.  Please click here in order to contact the Home Office and urge them not to weaken protection laws for animals in laboratories in the future.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

January: In Review

As we say goodbye to the long and grey month that is January and welcome a brand new month, here is what you may have missed!

Happy New Year for Hens: Barren battery hen cages are now illegal in the EU but some countries are flouting the ban.


Puppy Farming Petition: A proposal has been made for a new puppy farm in Wales, it is vital that this is stopped in its tracks.


Born to Suffer: RSPCA has piloted a campaign asking people to put an end to the breeding of dogs simply due to how they look.

End Live Animal Exports: CIWF is asking for support in their campaign to put an end to thousands of animals being transported for long journeys in appalling conditions.

Protection for Wild Animals in travelling circuses in the USA: This needs to be banned in the US as well.

Oscar's Law: An Australian campaign looking to change the way animals are kept, bred and sold.

The Pigs Directive: A ban on individual sow stalls is due to come into force at the beginning of 2013, read about it here.

Don't Blame the Breed:  After an unfortunate incident certain dog breeds are wrongfully accused of being unsafe and aggressive when in reality it is dog owners that should change their behaviour.  My friends on Twitter provided me with some adorable photos of their dogs so this is well worth checking out!

Fluffy Friday included a cheeky Panda, some wintry creatures and Rusty, Suki and Charlie's Christmas snaps.

Lunch Time Links was back with plenty of quick actions so if you haven't checked these out yet, please do so.

Thank you for stopping by!

URGENT Stop Air France from transporting live Primates TOMORROW!

{Source: VOX Magazine}

Tomorrow, Air France will be transporting a shipment of 60 live monkeys from Africa to the USA where they will be used for experiments.  

The monkeys will be shipped in small wooden crates from an African breeding facility to Paris, they will then travel to Chicago and be transported by truck to the notorious Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL).  In December SNBL was exposed by Peta as particularly cruel to animals after many of them were physically and psychologically abused, deprived of veterinary care and left to suffer untreated wounds.

Almost every major airline refuses to participate in the transportation of primates for animal testing, however, Air France continues to profit from this industry.

If we act now there is still a chance to stop Air France from transporting the monkeys, please click here to contact Air France officials and ask them to cancel this shipment and ban all future transportation of primates for animal testing purposes. 

Please also ask your friends and family to do the same to ensure Air France are pressured to put a stop to their planned journey tomorrow.

Thank you.

Keep Cruelty History

Source: League Against Cruel Sports

Eight years ago hunting wild animals with dogs for sport was banned.  The process to make it legal again has begun with MP's being asked to vote and pro hunting groups doing everything in their power to bring back this blood sport.  Hence, we need to do EVERYTHING in OUR power to keep the ban.

If you are in the UK please click here, enter your postcode and be taken to a webpage showing your MP and how he or she intends to vote.  Unfortunately my MP wants to repeal the ban which means he wants bloodsports to become legal again.  I have also checked my parents' MP's views and she too wants to repeal the ban.

If your MP also plans on voting to repeal the ban and you wish to contact them to ask that they reconsider their vote, or to applaud them for voting to keep cruelty history, simply enter your name, address and e-mail in the readily prepared form and this will automatically bring up a message for you to quickly send to your MP.  I strongly advise that you personalise the message as much as possible to encourage them to read it, please be polite yet persuasive!  

Please let me know how your MP is planning on voting and please encourage everyone you know to contact their MP and express their views, as well as sharing this on Facebook and Twitter please talk to people in the older generation who may not necessarily use social networking applications.



Thank you.




UPDATE:


A while after typing this post I received a response from my MP stating the following "I am not sure where you have obtained information that a vote or debate is imminent. I have seen press reports but as yet I am not aware of any proposals to bring the issue back before the Commons."  


I forwarded the response to James Dixon at the League (JamesDixon@league.org.uk) who advised me to inform my MP that; 


"The urgency for this campaign is prompted by the Prime Minister’s comments on Countryfile on January 15^th this year in which he said, “I always thought the hunting ban was a pretty bizarre piece of legislation, I think there should be a free vote in the House of Commons.”


I responded to my MP telling him this and also explaining why I think he should decide to keep cruelty history when a vote is inevitably called.