In
addition to the
millions
of target animals trapped and sold for their
pelts, there are also many more “accidental” catches of
animals whose pelts are not valuable. And there are
also animals whose pelts are damaged so badly by the time
the trapper returns, that they are not valuable enough to
use.
Dogs and cats are frequent
victims of these cruel traps. Owls, ducks, jays,
porcupines, flying squirrels, rabbits, etc. are also caught.
They are “unwanted” and are thrown away, or
let free, often painfully and sometimes fatally injured.
Although it is encouraging that the number of animals
trapped in North America per year has dropped from about
31-33
million
down to
about 5-6
million
there is still much
work to be done.
www.banlegholdtraps.com
Our Primate Hunting Casualties
Great apes -- gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos -- are
being hunted to extinction for commercial bushmeat in the
equatorial forests of west and central Africa. A ragged
farflung army of 2,000 bushmeat hunters supported by the
timber industry infrastructure will illegally shoot and
butcher over 3,000
gorillas and 4,000
chimpanzees this year. That's five times the number of
gorillas on Rwanda's Mt. Visoke and 20 times more
chimpanzees than live near Tanzania's Gombe Stream. People
pay a premium to eat more great apes each year than are now
kept in all the zoos and laboratories of the world.
Our Whaling Casualties
Japan and Norway are killing over 1000 whales between
them each year in defiance of a global ban on commercial
whaling that is not enforced. Japan also kills tens of
thousands of dolphins each year. Smaller whales like these
receive no international protection at all and face
extermination. Norway plans to hunt dolphins too.
http://www.campaign-whale.org
Our seal casualties
Marine
Mammal Science concluded that in 1998 the actual number of
harp seals killed was somewhere between
406,258
and
548,903.
As reported by Animal people, June 2001, of the many
of tens of thousands of seals brutally killed annually: "
Five veterinarians affirmed the fact "that sealers hook,
drag, and skin alive up to 42% of the seal pups they kill "
Extraterritorial
atrocities in the
Global Village may be posted as received.
Croatia
According
to a law in Croatia, any cat or dog more than 300 meters
beyond town limits is considered strayed and therefore is
allowed to be killed. In the last couple of days, cats and
puppies are being killed and hung by the branches of the
trees in Medjimurje area in Croatia. However, throughout the
last year, numerous were cases of puppies, dogs and cats
being intentionally shot by hunters.
This letter was
received September 30, 2001
This summer, I
visited the island of Hvar in Croatia on the Adriatic coast.
I was sickened by the widespread abuse of dogs and cats.
Although not everyone abuses and kills animals, there seems
to be a cultural practice of treating cats the same way many
cities in the West treat rats. I stayed in the
residential section of the city of Stari Grad. Every night I
listened to cats being tortured and killed. I saw kittens
tied up in airtight plastic bags and thrown in garbage cans.
(I was told this was one of many methods of controlling
their cat population), I watched cats intentionally
run over by cars and I listened to two week old kittens cry
all day and night after they were dumped off on vacant land
without their mother and left to die.
After
listening to a kitten cry all night and afternoon, I found
it behind a museum near the house where I stayed. Mind you
this was in the center of a densely populated town. Not one
person came to rescue or feed this kitten. Many of the
employees at the tourist bureaus and business owners or
managers who spoke English denied any knowledge of these
practices. Others would say they were from elsewhere in
Croatia and animal treatment was better in the rest of the
country. However, if I spoke to them at length, they would
occasionally slip and let on that similar abuses also
occurred in their hometown. Others were more truthful and
admitted that they had a terrible problem with the cat
population. Common methods of controlling the cat population
were taking cats, especially kittens, on ships and throwing
them into the sea. Another type of animal control is done in
the winter, when the tourists are gone. That is when the
government places poison throughout the town. I was told
this form of animal control had been practiced for over
twenty years.
Over the past ten years, owning purebred dogs has become
fashionable in Croatian society. During my stay I learned
that many people take these dogs to the coast using them as
a status symbol only to aba ndon them when their
holiday is over. When I asked the town’s veterinarian if
there were any laws against cruelty to dogs and cats, I was
informed that there wasn’t. His excuse was that Croatia is a
poor country and doesn’t have the means for better animal
treatment. But, establishing laws protecting cats and dogs
isn’t expensive. Croatia, might be considered to be a
developing country but is much more developed than other
countries in Europe, such as Byelorussia or Ukraine.
Homelessness is uncommon. If Croatia’s society and
government refuse to change their treatment of animals,
perhaps people can help persuade them to do so. Since one of
their biggest industries is tourism, the threat of a boycott
might get their attention.
To
observe these practices, one has to live with the natives in
their neighborhoods (they keep the tourist areas clear of
strays.) Speaking a Slavic language was helpful so that I
could understand what the people said.
Every small action will help. Please take the time to let
the Croatian government know you do not approve of this
behavior. Also spread the word to others who might be able
to help. Posting this letter on a web site or reprinting it
in a newsletter will help spread the word. The situation on
the Adriatic coast of Croatia is horrible. Please spread
this information, inform everyone you know. Help put
pressure on the Croatian government.
Thank
you, Alexandra Yurkiw
CROATIAN CONTACTS
U.S.A
Embassy of the Republic of
Croatia in the United States of America
Contact: Ambassador Ivan Grdesic
E-mail: amboffice@croatiaemb.org
public@croatiaemb.or
Tel:202 588 5899
Fax: 202 588 8937, 588 8936
THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU)
SHOULD BE NOTIFIED OF THESE PRACTICES. THE CROATIAN
GOVERNMENT IS DESPERATELY TRYING TO BECOME EU MEMBERS.
EU Trade e-mail:
trade-A3@cec.eu.int
EU Public Opinion e-mail:
eurobarometer@cec.eu.int EU Agriculture e-mail:
agri-library@cec.eu.int
EU Education e-mail: eac-inf@cec.eu.int
.............................................
Spain
The spanish way
...................................................
A
HOLIDAY
IN
GREECE
?
Slowly starving
A
tempting idea, but if you are an animal
lover ...
Poisoning of stray - and
owned - dogs and cats is widespread throughout
Greece
and it occurs on a daily basis. Those responsible for
spreading around poisoned bait are rarely caught in the act
and usually the bodies of their victims are picked up by
garbage collectors in the early hours of the morning. The
poisoning is often excused as a necessary and cheap cleaning
up operation of the large numbers of stray dogs and cats
which are seen as a problem. Some people fear the strays
would ‘spread disease’, others consider them a nuisance,
especially when their numbers increase.
Sterilisation is not common for household companion
animals, because it is regarded as a negative intervention
in the animals’ nature, but their owners refuse to take
responsibility for the unwanted litters of puppies and
kittens, which are usually abandoned. In short, many people
seem to view poisoning as a ‘fact of life’. The poison used
can be anything from strychnine and rat poison to farm
pesticides and herbicides; even crushed glass.
WHEN THE
TOURISTS LEAVE ...
The
average life-span of a stray dog in
Greece
is less
than two years, as most of them perish during the winter
months, if not shortly after the holiday season comes to an
end. The last charter flights depart from the islands at the
end of October, by which time most of the hotels and
tavernas have closed down for the winter.
The strays, so dependent on
the tourists for food during the summer, are left to fend
for themselves, not knowing where their next meal would be
coming from ... poisoned bait may be their last morsel, if
they are not shot, or hit by a car, or hanged first ...
Millions
of tourists from all over the world visit
Greece
every
year and many are shocked by the sights of animals in
distress. They often befriend and feed the strays, who are
generally very friendly and loving ... they just want to
'belong' and they try very hard to find somebody to adopt
them ... the lucky few succeed.
http://www.petitiononline.com/OG2004/petition.html .
Australia
The largest
massacre of wild land animals the world has ever known is
taking place in Australia right now. Imagine this. A
mother kangaroo with her beautiful joey at night in the vast
outback. It’s a scene millions of years old. What’s new is
the roar of a four-wheel drive. She turns towards the noise
and is transfixed by a searchlight. A rifle cracks and a
bullet tears a hole in her neck. She falls, in pain and
unable to save her joey, who retreats into her pouch for
safety. The first thing the hunter does is to search the
pouch and, feeling a joey inside, pulls him out. The hunter
tosses him to the ground and stamps on his head. The joey
writhes in agony. The mother struggles as her leg is slit
open and a hook inserted through it. She is hauled up on to
the truck and slowly dies. The scene is repeated all night
long. Older joeys frantically hop away when their mother’s
are shot - to die a slow and lonely death from cold or
starvation. This is the reality of kangaroo killing. But the
killing continues. Every store, restaurant and cafe that
sells kangaroo meat or skin supports this massacre. And they
are all fed a string of excuses by the Australian
government. Not one of them stands up to scrutiny.
..............................................................
February 13, 200
April 2001,The General
Mayor of Bucharest Romania, Mr. Train Basescu decided that
the stray dogs have to be liquidated.
Romania -Street Dog's
Hell!!!
| This is, perhaps, the
fourth letter received from Rolda. |
Cruelty in Romania,again!
Subj: Rolda-Special Newsletter
Date: 1/14/2003 1:20:47 PM Central America Standard Time
From: RoldaRomania@canineworld.com
To: jbsuconik@aol.com
Poland
BACKGROUND: Wieliczka (Poland) is the oldest in the world,
continually operating, salt mine. It has been in operation
since the Middle Ages. Now, it is also a tourist attraction
and a sanatorium.
According to Kamila Julliard, who has recently visited the
salt mine, a solitary horse is kept in the mine just like
during the Middle Ages. The tour guide has explained that
the horse is taken out every 3 months and s/he is provided
with florescent light to prevent blindness. Apparently,
keeping a horse in such conditions is against the Polish
anti-cruelty law, but either the law is not enforced or the
law enforcement is unaware of the situation.
Please send letters to the officials of the Wieliczka salt
mine and demand that the horse be sent to a sanctuary.
Kopalnia Soli "Wieliczka"
Trasa Turystyczna sp. z o.o.
32-020 Wieliczka, ul. Danilowicza 10 Poland
Website: http://www.wieliczka.com.pl/info.htm
Email address: marketing@kopalnia.pl
..................................................
There are many fiddlers, but not everyone fiddles
while animals burn, their genes are showing.
Thus a
book was written for reasons of universal
magnitude too numerous to cite on these pages, but a pruned
outline may suffice to indicate the extent of human
generated tyranny suffered by animals: On our factory
farms, by veal calves, in our abattoirs, by our military, in
our testing, and vivisection laboratories, by
sadism, in our puppy mills and fur farms.
It was written because any war warrants serious discussion
by concerned publics and individuals, except the permanent
universal war on animals in which the brutal torture, and
killing of billions of animals annually is the norm
It was was
written because it's reasonable to infer from the ghastly
evidence that the savagery will continue unless the
necessary and sufficient conditions of change are perceived
and made to prevail. Namely: A dyad of prudent effort
predicated on a standard of justice, which derives from
outside the pro, and anti animal disputants. It was written
because our war on animals can be brought to an end.
You
came, you saw, and ?
J.B.Suconik@aol.com
Copyright © J.B. by
Suconik 2000
nly
used animals are mice and rats, millions of animals from other
species including guinea pigs, rabbits, ferrets, cats, dogs,
monkeys, and chimpanzees are widely used in research labs. These
animals can be subjected to a myriad of painful procedures. They
are burned, starved, irradiated, shocked, mutilated, kept in
isolation, poisoned, drugged, electrocuted, and he list goes on
and on.
