animal rights

Director of Alphadog AnimalArmy, Marcus Fillinger speaks about his research looking at multiphase kangaroo fertility control, undertaken in collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney. Marcus discusses remote delivery (darting) of contraceptives to kangaroos and the kinds of problems which have arisen where people with little training in marksmanship have targeted kangaroos.

On Friday the 13th of February I attended the “Great Debate: To Collapse or Not to Collapse,” hosted by the Sustainable Living Festival at the Deakin Auditorium. The following Wednesday I attended a screening on the movie Cowspiracy, hosted by Animal Liberation Victoria, which explored the impact of industrial animal agriculture on the environment and the resistance from environmental groups to address the issue in a meaningful way.

Both events painted a grim picture of the environment and society if we don’t make considerable changes, however as in most events that prescribe change, they did a good job of focusing on particular issues whilst ignoring others. I have reflected considerably over the past week, and after summarising the two events I will share three points that I feel get overlooked by the environmental and social change movements. I believe these points must be acknowledged if we are to sustain the planet for successive generations.

Fourteen activists from the hardline animal rights group Sea Shepherd, including an Australian, were arrested in Denmark’s Faroe Islands while trying to halt a dolphin "hunt".

For the first time ever right across Australia ( except NT and Tas) Australians will at this election have the opportunity to vote for a party dedicated to animals. At a recent presentation by the AJP in Victoria, I found out that their principle policy is 'kindness'.

There are a record number of 54 political parties represented in the Senate in these elections.
There are obviously glaring "gaps" in concerns and policies not being addressed by the mainstream parties, the ALP and the Coalition.
Each party below, and the list is not exhaustive, was searched for policies on:
wildlife
environment
population growth/immigration
animal rights
asylum seekers
(if any are absent it's because no policy was found)

Back in 2010, the Victorian Government made a pre-election promise to increase penalties for breeders found committing acts of cruelty and to eliminate illegal and/or poorly run puppy farms. Considering this, it is appalling that the Government is recommended "revisions" to its Code of Practice for the Operation of Breeding and Rearing Businesses. This code sets out the minimum standards of accommodation, management and care required by breeding and rearing establishments. This revision would legalise some of the abhorrent conditions and practices regularly seen by RSPCA Inspectors at puppy factories.
(images are the property of Oscar's Law)

The article below was published on 5  June 2013. That article, was, in turn, reprinted from CounterPunch of 12 January 2011. Since the article was first published, Washington has added the slaughter of Libyans, Yemeni, and Syrians along with that of wolves to its accomplishments. An addendum describes the wicked new "sport" of "canned hunting."

See also: Americas greatest affliction: the Presstitute media of 2 Jun 2013 by Paul Craig Roberts.

Dale Peterson begins his thesis with the execution of elephants for crimes of murder against humans. An unusual, well-argued and inspiring book. Peterson co-authored the famous Demonic Males, an anthropological study in their own environment of several kinds of apes, including humans. I expected him to come up with something new on the subject of animal morality, and I was not disappointed. This is a real thesis, a slow burning one that reaches a high temperature.

Magnificent, significant, relevant, a happy elephant ...

We wonder if Bob Carr, Australia's Foreign Minister, has any idea of the utter distress he has given to wildlife carers all over Australia in his endorsement of the kangaroo-meat industry for export?

Did you know that the very last battery hen has been freed from her cage in the UK? Sadly, Australian Governments are still refusing to act. History was made on January 1st this year when barren battery cages were banned throughout the European Union. There are about 12 MILLION battery hens in Australia.

There is a move by a GoldCoast mayor to ban rodeos. Animal rights defenders want you to support this move. One way you might consider doing this is to vote on line for banning rodeos from Gold Coast City Council land and cutting funding for such events.

On Tuesday, 8 February 2011, Member for the Victorian Opposition, Martin Pakula (ALP) pointed to the effective cartel which a supermarket may form in its own right, in a bad situation for farmers which, to me is a danger signal that cows will suffer even more (although Mr Pakula did not mention the suffering of cows).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5xdwrMRNXo

Traditional Chinese Medicine should be banned in Australia. It relies on animal cruelty worse than animal experimentation. The importation of TCM animal products should also be banned from Australia since it is illegal trade in wildlife. This would send a clear message that

practices involving animal cruelty and wildlife trade are not tolerated in Australia.

This planet has a wide variety of life forms and incredible diversity BECAUSE most living things eat other living things, including ones we classify as "animals". Without the predation, there would have been no life, no evolution and no ecosystem. Without bird-shit, phosphorous would not be recycled, without ferns potash would not be drawn up and recycled, and nitrates would not move around throughout the soil without the actions of the vast underground net of the mycelium.

Photo of big male by Brett Clifton

Picture by Sheila Newman. Wild kangaroo using a recreational boxing bag under a mango tree at a kangaroo re-release centre in Queensland run by Anne-Marie Dineen.

Click here to see an excellent film interview with Christopher Cook, who wrote, Diet for a Dead Planet about the industrialised world's grossly inefficient industrialised food processing and distribution system (notably the US branch.) A quite rivetting book that goes into the destruction of small f

Australia's native Brushtail Possum is a small mammal which in nature lives in forests and woodlands and like many Australian mammals; they are marsupials, meaning they carry their young in a pouch.

Jumps racing in Victoria will cease at the end of 2010 but key stakeholders say they will fight the decision announced on Friday by Racing Victoria Ltd. 
The "death knell" of jumps racing in Victoria will mean a reprieve for horses from the ugly public deaths 10 have had on the race track this year.

In 2008, 12 horses died during hurdle and steeplechase races.

Film

ABC Australian news reported that someone somehow placed rocks on the road where rally cars would pass at some time prior to the Repco Rally event. Apparently stones or rocks were also thrown.