Officially established in 1998, Animals Asia campaigns for improved conditions and rights for various species across Asia. It operates award-winning sanctuaries in Vietnam and China (and is the only organization with a bear sanctuary in the latter).

These sanctuaries are home to hundreds of bears who were rescued from the bile trade.

What is bile farming?

In order to extract bile from their gallbladders, bears are subject to invasive, painful procedures. The bile, thought to have healing properties, is used in traditional Chinese medicine. It also appears in some household products like shampoo and toothpaste.

Demand for bile products comes predominantly from Asia, but such items are also found in Australia, Canada, and the US.

According to Animals Asia, the “cruel” trade is a source of “extreme suffering” for thousands of bears across the world’s largest and most populous continent.

One of the most “humane” bile extraction methods involves creating a permanent open passage in the animals’ gallbladder via their abdomen. The surgery – rarely performed by a veterinarian – often results in infections, many of which become fatal.

The way the animals are housed is similarly disturbing, the charity says. Bears are permanently kept in metal cages; many are so small that bears are left unable to turn around or stand on all fours.

Some bears are caged as cubs, and held captive for up to 30 years.

Rescuing bears from bile farms

Animals Asia has rescued 640 bears from the trade to date. With its bear rescue center in Tam Dao, Vietnam, approaching capacity, the nonprofit has announced a new sanctuary that will take in all of the remaining farmed bears in Vietnam.

The 12-hectare sanctuary, situated in the mountainous surroundings of the Bach Ma National Park, will be unveiled tomorrow (May 27). And when all farmed bears in Vietnam are freed and released into the sanctuary, the country’s bear bile trade will officially be history.

“This is a proud moment for humanity, Animals Asia, Vietnam, and our supporters around the
world”, commented Animals Asia founder and CEO Jill Robinson. “Together, in collaboration with the Vietnam government, we bring about this milestone in protecting wildlife across the country.”

In 2017, Animals Asia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Vietnamese government, committing to the closure of all bear farms in Vietnam.

The MOU outlined an agreement between the two parties, which would see them working together to free the then-1,000 animals who were still in the industry.

Speaking on the new sanctuary, Robinson added: “Today we show that courage, empathy, tenacity, and determination have brought about significant change, as we step up and demonstrate the way forward in helping to save the world’s vulnerable species.”

Celebrity support

A wealth of high-profile names have thrown their support behind Animals Asia and its efforts, including Dame Judi Dench, Alan Cumming, Stephen Fry, James Cromwell, Slash, Kesha, and Peter Egan.

Actors Tara Buck (True Blood), Torrey DeVitto (The Vampire Diaries, Chicago Med), and Marina Squerciati (Chicago P.D) are all in Vietnam to celebrate the unveiling of the sanctuary. They’re joined by television personality Josh Packham (Love Island), photographer Katarina
Benzova, and actor Tang Thanh Ha (Mỹ Nhân Kế).

In a video seen by Plant Based News, Ricky Gervais (who just donated £142,414.47 to Animals Asia), asked the public to “stand by them in this mission” and “raise their paw for the moon bear.”

Dr. Jane Goodall offered her “warm congratulations” to the nonprofit. “Animals Asia is ending bear bile farming in Vietnam,” she said. “To protect these beautiful moon bears, please help Animals Asia build this last bear sanctuary and make sure that in Vietnam, there will be no bear left behind.”

The post Vietnam’s Bile Trade Will Soon Be History As Last 310 Bears Are Rescued appeared first on Plant Based News.

Happy, a 51-year-old Asian elephant, was captured from the wild in the early 1970s. She was shipped to the US, arriving at the Bronx Zoo in 1977.

She is one of two Asian elephants living in captivity at the zoo – they are kept in separate enclosures and can only touch each other through a fence with their trunks. Throughout the ’80s, the elephants were forced to give rides at the zoo, perform tricks, and participate in tug-of-war competitions.

Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) – a nonprofit defending the civil rights of elephants, dolphins, great apes, and whales – is campaigning for Happy’s release. The organization insists that Happy’s captivity mimics that of solitary confinement, and robs the animal of her right to express her natural instincts.

This is especially concerning given the species’ high intelligence and sociability, NhRP says. In the wild, Asian elephants form complex relationships that last a lifetime, often working together to raise their children.

In fact, female Asian elephants are considered “social butterflies” with numerous friendships that stay intact even after long periods of separation.

NhRP also notes that in 2005, Happy became the first elephant to pass a mirror self-recognition test, which researchers say indicates self-awareness.

Elephant rights

NhRP first filed a petition against the Bronx Zoo in 2018. The charity asked the court, on the grounds of habeas corpus, to grant Happy her “common law right to bodily liberty.”

This, according to the charity, would require the immediate release of the senior animal to an elephant sanctuary “so as to prevent future unlawful deprivations of her liberty and allow her to exercise her autonomy to the greatest degree possible.”

Elephant researcher Joyce Poole says keeping elephants confined “prevents them from engaging in normal, autonomous behavior and can result in the development of arthritis, osteoarthritis, osteomyelitis, boredom and stereotypical behavior.”

“Held in isolation elephants become bored, depressed, aggressive, catatonic and fail to thrive,” Poole added.

The Bronx Zoo responds

The Bronx Zoo, which opened its gates in 1899, has a different perspective. In a statement released on May 18, the zoo accused NhRP of “blatantly exploiting” Happy to “advance their coordinated agenda.”

And, that the nonprofit is “willing to sacrifice Happy’s health and psychological well-being to set precedent.” The zoo cautioned that should the NhRP win the case, there may be a surge of legal actions brought forward on behalf of animals in zoos.

The Bronx Zoo concludes that Happy – like all of its 4,000 animals – is, like her namesake, happy.

The facility is no stranger to controversy. In 2018, the Bronx Zoo ranked #1 on the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants. It was the eighth time the zoo had appeared on the list.

Happy has received coverage of her own, featuring in a New York Post piece about her “sad life alone at the Bronx Zoo.” There, the publication said, “Happy spends most of her time indoors in a large holding facility lined with elephant cages, which are about twice the length of the animals’ bodies.

“The public never sees this.”

The New York Court of Appeals heard arguments for and against Happy’s release last week. The court is expected to announce its decision in the next four to six weeks.

The post Landmark Court Case Could Grant ‘Happy’ The Elephant Human Rights appeared first on Plant Based News.

An undercover investigator for Mercy for Animals, a non-profit animal protection charity, captured the footage at a contract farm for the supermarket chain.

This comes soon after the charity exposed the names of major retailers that are lagging behind in their efforts to address welfare issues associated with chickens raised for meat.

Aldi is among the companies that ranked the lowest for standard practices in the chicken industry.

Animal cruelty on chicken farms

The hidden-camera footage shows tens of thousands of chickens packed into overcrowded sheds, forced to live in waste-soaked litter for weeks. The investigator also documented countless birds, including day-old chicks, suffering from severe open wounds, twisted necks and beaks, and other serious injuries.

Many of these conditions arise from the way chickens are routinely bred to grow unnaturally large over a short space of time. This inflicts a huge amount of physical and mental stress on the birds.

In the hard-hitting video, workers are seen hurling sick and injured live birds into buckets to die. Some were crushed under the weight of corpses piled on top of them.

In light of the footage, Mercy for Animals is calling on Aldi to adopt meaningful animal welfare standards for all its chicken suppliers. The charity is urging Aldi to undertake the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), which requires extra space, litter, and lighting, as well as environmental enrichments. 

As a way for individuals to take action, Mercy for Animals encourages eliminating animal products altogether. It states on its Aldi Uncovered website: “We can end this cruel, unsustainable system. By choosing plant-based foods, we can build a food system that is good for animals, people, and our planet.”

The post New Investigation Uncovers Severe Animal Cruelty In Aldi Supply Chain appeared first on Plant Based News.

Winter stars in a new PETA campaign, which urges the public to “Show a Bear How Much You Care.” It features the reality star, 26, posing naked in front of a Union Jack while holding a large teddy bear. 

The photo was shot by fashion photographer Ruth Rose and features wording urging the Ministry of Defence to replace bearskin with animal-friendly faux fur. 

“It takes the skin of at least one bear to make a single cap for the Queen’s Guard,” Winter said in a statement.

“It makes me so angry that defenceless black bears are still being slaughtered. … [And] nursing mothers also get killed, leaving behind their young cubs. PETA has already developed a faux-fur cap … so there’s no excuse for it not to be used.”

An ethical faux alternative

The red and black uniforms of the Queen’s Guard have remained mostly unchanged since they were first introduced in the 1800s. They continue to feature a tall black hat made from the fur of Canadian black bears. 

The hats cost around £650 each and have cost taxpayers around £1 million in the last seven years. The bears are either shot or caught in painful traps and are often left to suffer in agony for days before dying. 

Despite repeated calls from animal rights groups and the general public, the government has so far refused to replace the fur with an ethical faux alternative. In 2014, they claimed this was because fake fur caps they’d trialed had become “waterlogged.”

PETA recently developed a vegan alternative in collaboration with luxury faux furrier ECOPEL. It proved to be 100 percent waterproof in a Ministry of Defence copyright test. 

A petition in support of PETA’s campaign has garnered more than 86,000 signatures, meaning it’s fast approaching the 100,000 needed to trigger a debate in parliament. Those interested can add their signature here.

The post Love Island’s Faye Winter Campaigns To Ban Fur From Queen’s Guard Caps appeared first on Plant Based News.

In 2017, following expensive animal abuse-focused court cases and amid falling attendance, the circus shut down its big top for good. But now it’s back. And it seems to have learned its lesson, because its new traveling show is totally animal-free.

According to Ringling Bros, the new show will launch next year in September, before embarking on a 50-city tour in North America.

The circus ran for nearly 150 years before it shut down in 2017. But, with a new and improved approach, the updated version hopes to match that legacy.

“We are innovating all aspects of the live show and modernizing the franchise,” said Kenneth Feld, the CEO of Feld Entertainment, the company that owns Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. “[We want] to create an engaging property that is built for today’s families and will last another 150 years.”

According to Feld Entertainment, the new circus will focus purely on human acts, and its entertainers will “push the limits of human potential and create jaw-dropping moments.” It is currently searching for new talent, with rehearsals beginning at the end of June 2022.

An animal-free circus industry

Feld Entertainment’s decision to focus on human acts over animals isn’t just an ethical one, it’s also a smart business move. Including wild animals in its acts again would limit the states it could visit with its new traveling show, as several (including California, Illinois, and New Jersey) have outright bans or restrictions on circus animal acts.

Entire countries have also banned the use of wild animals in the circus. Most recently, the French parliament voted in favor of legislation that would protect wild animals from becoming circus acts.

The French ecology minister said of the move: “To act in support of animal well-being is the mark of a conscious society and of its responsibility towards a fragile natural world. It is a sign of mature civilization.” 

The post The Infamous Ringling Bros. Circus Is Back Again – This Time, Without Animals appeared first on Plant Based News.

Local meat

Vegan activist Joey Carbstrong recently called out the same slaughterhouse in an op-ed for Plant Based News.

He described an investigation into the facility, stating that cows were “terrified” and the owner was swearing and threatening them. He added that the footage proves that meat bought from “local farms” is no more ethical than any other meat on the supermarket shelf.

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A post shared by Joey Carbstrong (@joey_carbstrong)

“You may often hear people say, ‘I only buy meat from my local butcher, and the animals are from local farms,’” writes Carbstrong. 

“Well, the animals who were killed at C.J. Byford & Son were from the surrounding local farms. And, the business supplied only to local butchers, not supermarkets. This place was about as local and family-run as you can get.”

Cruelty at slaughterhouses

This is far from the first investigation to uncover abuse at slaughterhouses. But these facilities don’t just hurt animals, they harm people too.

Last year, Jack Hancock-Fairs, who is a vegan advocate and the son of a slaughterhouse worker, announced a documentary called The Dying Trade. The film shines a light on human and animal suffering in slaughterhouses.

He said at the time: “The suffering experienced within slaughterhouses is huge in scale and clearly neglected.”

“I really hope this film can open people’s eyes to the animal cruelty and poor worker treatment that exists within the walls of slaughterhouses all over the world. By raising awareness about these issues, we can help lay the groundwork for future progress.”

The post Petition To Shut Down ‘Family-Run’ Slaughterhouse Exceeds 80,000 Signatures appeared first on Plant Based News.

According to the NGO Eurogroup for Animals, around five liters of blood is taken from pregnant horses every week in Iceland. When they give birth, their foals are often sent to the slaughterhouse.

The blood farming process is inherently exploitative. But on top of this, animal rights activists recently discovered horses being abused on the farms. They obtained footage of the animals being hit before their blood was taken.

They also discovered bite marks inside the horse enclosures, which they say is an indication of anxiety and distress.

#DYK? Huge amounts of blood are taken from pregnant mares to produce a hormone called #eCG.

This is used to increase fertility in farm animals.

We call on the to stop this cruel practice and ban the production/import/use of eCG.https://t.co/44MawgLzdl

— Eurogroup For Animals (@Act4AnimalsEU) May 16, 2022

Growing opposition to blood farms

Animal rights activists aren’t the only ones against blood farms. 

The European parliament wants them to be banned too. In fact, a 2021 Motion for a Resolution called “on the Commission and the Member States to halt the import and production” of Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin. It called for the use of “animal-friendly alternatives” instead.

Applying more pressure on Iceland and the European Commission, Eurogroup for Animals recently partnered with 16 animal protection organizations to file a complaint against blood farming to the European Free Trade Association’s Surveillance Authority.

The complaint argues that Iceland is not applying its laws on the protection of animals used in science to blood farms. Despite claims to the contrary, Iceland does not see the extraction of the hormone as an animal experiment.

Many Icelandic people are also against blood farming.

Rósa Líf Darradóttir, who lives in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, and owns horses, told the Guardian: I would like people to know that Iceland is actually stabbing semi-wild pregnant mares. [They’re] taking their blood in extreme volumes and frequency, just to make pigs have more pigs.”

The post Iceland Faces Calls To Ban Blood Farms That Exploit Pregnant Horses appeared first on Plant Based News.

Whilst reviewing the footage, I saw terrified cows who were desperately trying to escape the knock box. One bellows out in fear, and another tries to avoid the bolt gun for nearly 40 seconds, tearing off their horns in the process. One cow even knocks the bolt gun off the shelf, in what seems like an attempt to hide the weapon.

An angry, frustrated slaughterhouse worker comes in to take revenge on that same cow, who apparently hurt his hand whilst he was herding them in. We hear the man swearing and threatening the cow, before aggressively grabbing them by the nostrils, pulling their head downwards, and bolting them in the head.

The cow bellows out in shock, yet appears to still be conscious. This is made even more evident when the man begins to cut the cow’s throat. The animal’s legs are still moving around and the cow is heard gasping for air through the hole in their neck. The man then proceeds to decapitate the cow, throwing their severed head, which slides across the floor.

Confronting the facility

After seeing this footage, I took a camera crew down to speak to the slaughterhouse staff, who were not aware I had already seen footage from inside. The woman who owned the facility was a grandmother, and her son was the main slaughter worker who had been aggressive towards the animals. This was truly a family-run operation. 

The grandmother was polite and well spoken, but was a bit spooked when she saw the cameras. She proceeded to reassure me that nothing bad was going on inside and that no animal there was mistreated. We began to discuss the methods at her slaughterhouse, and she told me that no animal sees another animal be killed; they are completely oblivious.

The footage paints a completely different picture, as you can clearly see cows witnessing other cows being dismembered, and that is what understandably freaks them out and prompts their subsequent cries for help and escape attempts.

She also told me that the animals inside are treated with respect. If that is the case, her son has a very warped idea of respect, as shown in the damning investigation footage. It seems as soon as her son is frustrated, he takes his anger out on the innocent animals who cross his path. I asked her if it would be “respectful” to put me in her slaughterhouse, a question she preferred to avoid.

The main thing that frustrated me about my conversation with the slaughterhouse owner, was not the fact that she constantly lied, denied reality, and gaslit me – that part I was ready for. It was the fact that when a pig rolled in on a truck while we chatted, ready to be slaughtered, she insisted that I didn’t scare the pig and that the pig could get afraid easily if I approached them.

The audacity of a slaughterhouse owner telling an animal protector not to “scare” the animal she’s about to send inside, to be decapitated by her violent son. What a sick joke. 

Are local farms actually ethical?

You may often hear people say, “I only buy meat from my local butcher, and the animals are from local farms.”

Well, the animals who were killed at C.J. Byford & Son were from the surrounding local farms. And, the business supplied only to local butchers, not supermarkets. This place was about as local and family-run as you can get. But look at what our cameras uncovered there!

When people speak about “local meat,” it can sometimes be hard to understand what they really mean by it. Do they mean that just because a facility is in your general proximity, there isn’t any cruelty happening there? I have a large factory chicken farm 30 minutes away from me – it’s local, does that mean it’s ethical? Or when they say “local” do they mean a family-run place like C.J. Byford & Son, that only kills animals from nearby small holders?

‘Humane slaughter’

When people hear that a farm or abattoir is local and family-run, they automatically think that it means it is humane. When I analyze the concept of “humane slaughter,” I always break it up into two categories: practical and principle. 

The practical point is that when these “higher welfare” facilities are investigated, animals are often found in fear, struggling to escape, incorrectly stunned, or most notably in the case of pigs, stunned using the most “humane” method available, which is CO2 gas.

Research has shown that the CO2 method is aversive to pigs and causes them fear, pain, and suffering. So from a practical viewpoint, the industry’s current humane slaughter methods are not even humane by its own standard, and definitely not by the standard of the average meat consumer.

Can meat be ‘humane’?

But for me, we don’t need to spend time debating the practical point. Because the principle point overrides it and is by far the most important.

Even if the animals weren’t terrified or tortured before their death, even if we could isolate and solve every single welfare issue involved in the mass killing of animals for food, it will still always be fundamentally wrong to kill someone against their will.

You see, if it is not in the best interests of the animal to die (for example, in the case of euthanasia for a suffering animal who can’t be helped), then to take away the animal’s experience of life can only be described as an injustice.

Content warning: the following video contains graphic depictions of animal abuse and may disturb viewers.

In principle, humane slaughter is a myth, a fairytale. It only serves to make the killer feel more comfortable about killing. It has nothing to do with the rights of the victim, because if the animals’ rights were truly being respected, then so too would their right to continue living.

When navigating these moral issues, I’ve found it helpful to put yourself in the victims’ position. Would X be humane if it were done to YOU?

C.J. Byford & Son is a very good example of how a quaint little family-run slaughterhouse might not necessarily meet the animal welfare expectations it promotes. The fact is, these slaughterhouses, whether local and family-run or not, are nothing more than killing factories. Animals go into them against their will and come out hacked into pieces. Why would we believe that something humane happens to them along the way?

The post OPINION: Are Small, Family-Run Slaughterhouses Really More Ethical? appeared first on Plant Based News.

One pilot scheme, which will span across three European countries, is the result of a partnership between Danish-Swedish dairy giant Arla and Royal DSM, a Dutch health, nutrition, and materials company.

DSM invented Bovaer, a food additive that, when fed to cows, suppresses the enzyme that triggers methane production.

An individual cow produces an estimated 220 pounds of methane every year. As of 2022, there are more than one billion grazing cows on the planet.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere at approximately 25 times the rate of carbon dioxide.

Adding ¼ of a teaspoon of Bovaer to a cow’s daily feed is thought to reduce the cow’s methane emissions by up to 30 percent. 

Modified feed to be tested on 10,000 cows

Bovaer – which has been extensively tested in 14 countries over the last decade – is the first feed additive to be approved by the EU. It will be added to the feed of 10,000 dairy cows on 50 farms across Denmark, Sweden, and Germany as part of Arla’s pilot scheme.

If preliminary results are in line with Arla’s expectations, the conglomerate will double the number of cows involved in the scheme to 20,000 in 2023.

Hanne Søndergaard, Arla’s head of agriculture and sustainability, said: “Climate change requires urgent action, and we believe that dairy is part of the solution.”

“This is a great example of innovative scientific solutions and actions we are taking to create a sustainable and resilient future for dairy and I am excited to see how far this will take us,” Søndergaard said.

Dairy vs plant milk

Arla claims that its farmers are “among the most climate efficient dairy producers in the world,” estimating that one kilogram of its raw milk produces 1.15kg of carbon dioxide.

In 2013, one liter of dairy milk (equivalent to around 1.03kg) had a carbon footprint of 3.15 kg, in comparison to almond milk at 0.7 kg per liter, rice milk at 1.18 kg per liter, oat milk at 0.9 kg per liter, and soy milk at 0.98 kg per liter.

Dairy milk production also requires much more land and water than plant-based milk alternatives. For instance, pastureland and crop production to feed livestock amounts to 77 percent of the planet’s farmed land.

In fact, reducing meat and dairy is proven to be one of the most effective ways that individuals can lessen their impact on the planet.

Methane masks for cows

Meanwhile, in the UK, a different type of methane-reducing technology is being piloted at a beef farm in Shropshire.

The Zero Emissions Livestock Project (ZELP) teamed up with ABP Food Group – the UK’s largest beef producer – to invent a face mask for cows that converts their methane emissions into carbon dioxide and water.

The device recently received Prince Charles’ royal seal of approval at Terra Carta Design Lab’s Sustainable Markets Initiative. There, the invention won the grand prize of £50,000 along with three pioneering concepts.

The other winners were Aerseeds (artificial seed pods made from food waste), AMPHITEX (a recyclable textile), and The Tyre Collective (a device which collects tire wear particles and microplastics).

ZELP estimates that 95 percent of methane emitted by cows is from their mouths and nostrils. The start-up’s website claims that the cow mask will “reduce emissions while improving animal welfare.”

However, animal protection charity PETA has slammed the company for the “inhumane” and “medieval-looking” creation.

Talking to MailOnline, PETA Director Elisa Allen said: “The Prince of Wales should be royally ashamed to give this medieval-looking device an award instead of condemning it with at least the force he reserves for modern architecture.

“The creators of this inhumane contraption claim it is ‘comfortable’, but that’s akin to calling meat, eggs, and dairy ‘gifts to the environment’ when they cause it inarguable harm.

“The last thing our society needs is to inflict more suffering on animals, when what is needed is a rapid retreat from cruel and environmentally damaging animal agriculture.”

The post Farmers Test Modified Animal Feed And Methane Masks On Cows To Reduce Emissions appeared first on Plant Based News.

He noted that the incident was “deeply disturbing.”

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The end of live sheep exports?

Back in 2019, the Labor party committed to phasing out the trade, which is worth around $92 million AUD. Now, the party has again spoken up on the issue as Australia heads towards its federal elections on May 22.

Anthony Albanese, the leader of the Australian Labor Party, rivals current Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

A Labor statement reads: “An elected Albanese Labor government will phase out live sheep exports in consultation with the industry and the West Australian government on what needs to happen given this decline.”

The Animal Justice Party, an Australian animal rights-focused political party, has consistently campaigned for the end of the live sheep export trade. 

In an Instagram post announcing Labor’s confirmation, the group wrote: “Victory is within our sights. We are overjoyed that these beautiful, innocent animals will be spared the living hell that is live export.”

After urging followers to vote for the Animal Justice Party, the post continued: “We won’t stop fighting till there is a full ban on all animal exports. So let’s get a voice for animals into federal parliament.”

The post Australia Might Be About To Ban Live Sheep Exports For Good appeared first on Plant Based News.