You can watch Bill’s story and cast your vote at Ban Live Export

(Please note that the second half of the video is very difficult to watch.)

If you can’t bear to watch all of the video, you can still protest about this. There is a form letter to sign, or you can write your own, and you can share it through Facebook or Twitter. Please do this – we can make a difference from here.

Since PCRM launched its public effort on Mass General in October 2009 with a peaceful demonstration in Boston, you and others have sent more than 38,000 e-mails to hospital leadership. Now we need to keep that momentum going. Please take a moment to ask the president of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., to end its use of pigs in ATLS training immediately.

Baystate is currently the only ATLS program in Massachusetts—and one of the last in all of the United States and Canada—that continues to use live animals. The American College of Surgeons, which oversees ATLS courses, has approved the use of human patient simulators such as the TraumaMan System to teach these courses, but at Baystate, trainees learn on live animals. After numerous invasive procedures are practiced on the animals, they are killed. Baystate continue to use pigs for this training despite the fact that it already owns the TraumaMan System simulator.

So far, the responsible faculty members and administrators have ignored our pleas to change their methods. Please contact the president of Baystate today.

Thank you for all of your help and for all that you do for animals.

This Animal Aid site is for Christchurch people who have lost or found animals following the catastrophic earthquake. Please BECOME A FAN too, then SHARE with friends to help us unite people with their beloved animals. Let’s help lessen their worry and suffering.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Animal-Aid-Christchurch-Earthquake/128399143899998#!/pages/Animal-Aid-Christchurch-Earthquake/128399143899998

The plight of New Zealand’s three million battery hens has prompted a daring lock-on demonstration on top of two silos at a battery hen farm in Tuakau, south of Auckland, at first light this morning.

Two activists, who are chained to two seven-metre high metal fixtures, say the sound of tens of thousands of battery hens in the sheds below is keeping them motivated and determined to stay overnight. One of the chained activists, Deirdre Sims, says while their occupation is unlawful they are prepared to be arrested in the interest of helping caged hens in New Zealand.

Local SAFE campaigners have joined a crowd of 20 demonstrators protesting outside the farm along the roadside. The national animal advocacy group says it wholeheartedly supports this peaceful demonstration as it coincides with its own NoCages campaign launched last week, calling for a ban of battery cages.

“We totally understand their frustration and conviction, given the scale of animal abuse happening inside factory farms like the one they are occupying. It should be the battery hen farmers being challenged by the law, not those advocating for the better treatment of battery hens,” says SAFE campaign director Eliot Pryor.

“The New Zealand public is growing ever frustrated that two decades of Government inaction and failures to adequately amend animal welfare legislation still has the majority of layer hens in cruel cages. New Zealand claims to be a world leader in animal welfare but three million hens suffering inside cages is nothing to be proud of,” says Mr Pryor.

The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC), which reports to the Minister of Agriculture, issued the draft welfare code for layer hens on 8 February for public consultation.

“NAWAC is foolishly recommending simply replacing existing battery hen cages with another cruel system called colony cages. This is a totally ridiculous position for NAWAC to take, which is why SAFE is calling on the public to make submissions calling for a total ban on all cage systems. Over 3000 e-card submissions have been sent to the Government since the code review process began,” says Mr Pryor.

For more information contact SAFE campaign director, Eliot Pryor, on 021 1899 226.

In a pediatric trauma training course in Hamilton, Ontario, trainees made an incision between live rabbits’ ribs and inserted a plastic tube into the animals’ chest cavities. In another course at Hamilton Health Sciences, up to 91 pigs per year were used in a course in which needles were inserted into the animals’ chest cavities and the sacs around their hearts. Pigs were also used in a trauma training course at Saint John Hospital in New Brunswick. Both hospitals now teach these crucial lifesaving procedures with medical simulators modeled on the human body.

PCRM urged course directors and administrators at both medical centers to adopt nonanimal training methods. We also filed a federal complaint against Hamilton Health Sciences with the Canadian Council on Animal Care before the hospital confirmed that it had replaced animal use.

These victories are part of PCRM’s highly successful United States- and Canada-wide effort to replace the use of animals in Advanced Trauma Life Support courses. With your help we have saved thousands of animals from being used in these courses and advanced medical training at dozens of facilities across North America. Please help us make Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., the next program to replace animal use by e-mailing its CEO and chief of trauma.

Thank you for your continued work on this important effort and your support of PCRM.

Very truly yours,

Ryan Merkley
Manager of Research and Education Programs

Over the last few years, several aid agencies and organisations have been offering alternative gifts for the caring consumer or the person that has it all, in the form of a donation which will provide something for those desperately in need – solar panels for the eco warrior in your life or a symbolic ‘urine bottle’ for those into activism. In New Zealand, there is Oxfam’s ‘Unwrapped’ scheme which tenders gifts for ‘Animal Lovers’, effectively offering an animal’s life as a present. You can load the gift basket with goats, ducks and donkeys! On sale are piglets for $40 each or a pair of chickens for $14. The idea is that these animals will be farmed or eaten in third-world countries, providing both an income and food for impoverished communities. Handily, the animals pictured on the website are also dressed in funky clothing just so we know they’re having a good time too!

Although these schemes may seen a great idea at first, behind the bright colours and friendly theme is a more serious issue that raises many questions. Such as, what type of situation does this pose for the animals? Are we placing the animals at risk in an attempt to help poor communities? Does this form of donation really help solve the issues? And what about the way the animals are pictured dressed up?

Of course many thoughtful shoppers will happily purchase these ethical gifts in the belief they’re doing some good at a time when most people are buying their least favourite uncle yet another pair of unwanted socks. However there are some important issues you should consider before hitting that ‘buy now’ button.

Quite simply, these schemes cannot offer animals a life that meets all their needs. Absolute essentials to animals are space, proper nourishment, water, shelter, access to veterinary care and an ability to exhibit their natural behaviour. Resources are in critically short supply in many third-world countries, exactly the reason why aid agencies are actively trying to help, so it is unreasonable to expect impoverished communities to be able to provide adequately for the animals in their care.

SAFE as an animal advocacy organisation will always speak up for our furry (and not so furry!) friends but this is not all about animals, this kind of gift doesn’t help people either. Livestock farming uses up agricultural land, water and other resources that could be far more efficiently used for growing food for people to eat directly. One example is it takes over seven kilograms of grain to produce less than 500 grams of edible animal flesh, making meat consumption a very inefficient use of grain. Another reason not to encourage meat eating is the growing evidence that it can cause serious diseases such as cancer.

There is something demeaning about picturing the animals dressed up also. Not only do we potentially fate them to a life of suffering, but they are humiliated at the same time – dressing up the very serious issue of dealing with world hunger in a funny wig and sunglasses. Charities must work together to make a better world, and campaign on issues which will benefit humans, animals and the environment for the betterment of all.

So what’s the alternative to ‘the alternative’ present for the ethically-minded person? I suggest still donating to your favourite charity, just check that your money is going to the campaign you want it too! Be really in-keeping with that Christmas spirit and do something positive and proactive, but costs little, such as planting a tree with your family (try Google for schemes near you, or Aucklanders visit volunteer in parks. Another alternative is the Karori Sanctuary Trust. Why not think about New Zealand’s own animals this Christmas and pledge to go veg? Check out SAFE’s new Go Veg Starter Kit. This helps not only animals and your own health and wellbeing, but also reduces the pull on the world’s resources.
Have a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful new year!

PS. If you have some spare time to give this Christmas too, please consider signing up to be a collector during SAFE’s annual appeal in December!

“The majority of New Zealanders will be appalled to know that the Government was in a position to ban cruel farming practices last night yet it deliberately stood in the way of those calling for a change and voted against Green Party MP Sue Kedgley’s Animal Welfare Amendment Bill,” says SAFE director Hans Kriek.

“Ms Kedgley gave a passionate speech about the importance of this Bill and how it would greatly improve the lives of tens of thousands, if not millions, of animals. Despite the Bill being supported by Labour, United Future, the Maori Party and the Green Party, the Government failed to see its importance and dismissed it without any serious consideration,” says Mr Kriek.

The Bill was intended to close loopholes in the Animal Welfare Act that allow the ongoing cruel confinement of millions of battery hens and tens of thousands of crated pigs. Speaker Lockwood Smith refused to allow a conscience vote, claiming that animal welfare is primarily an economic issue.

“The Government seemed too afraid to let MPs vote with their conscience on this important animal welfare issue, as if they were well aware that this Bill would have been voted through,” says Mr Kriek.

“The Government has passed up a great opportunity to improve the lives of millions of factory-farmed animals by siding with the vested interests of those wanting to continue abusing animals for profit. Eight out of ten New Zealanders want battery hen cages and sow crates banned,” says Mr Kriek.

SAFE will step up its factory farming campaign with the help of the recently established two million dollar Animal Justice Fund. A public awareness campaign will see consumers informed about the cruelty in the meat chicken, battery egg and pig farming industries.

“The public will be urged to boycott factory-farmed products as the most effective way to end this suffering,” says Mr Kriek.

For more information contact SAFE director Hans Kriek: 027 446 2711.

A two-million-dollar fund is being launched today to challenge cruel factory farming practices in New Zealand in an effort to stop widespread animal suffering on factory farms. National animal advocacy group SAFE will administer the fund and says the Animal Justice Fund (AJF) will act as a national watchdog for factory pig, chicken and battery hen farms.

The Animal Justice Fund has been established to promote animal protection through strategic litigation, public awareness campaigns and the prosecution of persons or businesses who commit offences against animals on factory farms or through commercial practices.

The Animal Justice Fund is financed by former Kathmandu founder and philanthropist Jan Cameron. Ms Cameron and SAFE are confident that the AJF will have a significant impact on cruel farming practices in New Zealand.

“Ms Cameron is a passionate supporter of SAFE’s factory farming campaigns and has, over the last four years, donated more than A$35million to various human and animal-related causes in Australia and New Zealand,” says SAFE director Hans Kriek.

“The Animal Justice Fund will enable SAFE to step up its public awareness campaigns and provide a strategic opportunity to take court action against companies who mislead consumers about the origins of their products. SAFE may even challenge, in the High Court, welfare codes that allow ongoing abuse of animals,” says Mr Kriek.

The Animal Justice Fund will also provide rewards of up to $30,000 for information provided by farm workers and other industry insiders who expose animal cruelty that leads to a successful prosecution or a significant animal welfare outcome.

“In New Zealand, no routine inspections of factory farms are carried out by animal welfare enforcement agencies. This means that animal welfare standards are not properly monitored, let alone enforced, and the suffering of millions of animals goes unnoticed. The need to encourage those who witness cruelty to come forward is more critical than ever,” says Mr Kriek.

Ms Cameron has initiated a similar Animal Justice Fund in Australia where she has contributed A$5million. SAFE is extremely grateful for Ms Cameron’s generosity and willingness to help factory-farmed animals in New Zealand.

“Ms Cameron has a proven track record as an astute business woman and she will bring that same level of determination to the campaign to improve the lives of millions of abused factory-farmed animals in New Zealand,” says Mr Kriek.

For more information contact SAFE director, Hans Kriek on 027 446 2711.

Photographs of animal cruelty on New Zealand factory farms or examples of SAFE’s new ‘Animal Justice Fund Whistleblower’ advertisements, that will soon be appearing in rural newspapers, are available on request. For more information visit: The Animal Justice Fund