Author: Sandra Kyle

Malia’s Story

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 2 Comments on Malia’s Story

This is a mother, being dragged inside a slaughterhouse to have her throat slit.

Look at her poor, humped body, marked in indelible pen by the farmer who decreed her no longer profitable. She has spent her life in Hell from the moment she was born, but she is still afraid of death, and drags her feet desperately as she tries to resist her fate.
Inside her heart is pounding and the blood is rushing to her head. In mere moments, that blood  will be spilled on a filthy slaughterhouse floor, and splashed upon the aprons of those paid to murder her.
She was selectively bred to produce as many piglets as possible, and she has given birth to dozens of babies.   She was first impregnated when she was only eight months old. 
She spent her entire life in cages, lined up with hundreds of other sows in an enormous, barren, foul smelling shed. Bars separated her from her sisters. She could never seek comfort or security from pressing against the flesh of her kind. She could not escape. She could not retreat. She could not turn around.
All day every day this naturally clean girl lay in her own excrement on the hard concrete floor.  Her muscles ached and drew tight, and she developed sores from rubbing against the steel bars. In the pain and intense stress that this confinement caused her, she bit the bars of the steel cage that surrounded her, and her mouth filled with white foam that spat from her mouth when she cried out her distress.
All day every day this naturally clean girl lay in her own excrement on the hard concrete floor.  Her muscles ached and drew tight, and she developed sores from rubbing against the steel bars. In the pain and intense stress that this confinement caused her, she bit the bars of the steel cage that surrounded her, and her mouth filled with white foam that spat from her mouth when she cried out her distress.
After enduring her pregnancy in this prison the size of a household fridge, she was moved to yet another cage – a birthing cage, or ‘farrowing crate’, in preparation for having her babies. Prompted by her natural instincts, she immediately looked around for something to build a nest with – but could find nothing.
She was so stressed and tense that the birth was all the more painful for her. When her piglets arrived, the steel bars prevented her from interacting with them. Her babies latched onto her teets as she lay motionless on her side, sinking ever deeper into despair. She longed to satisfy her natural yearning to care for her babies properly, but she never could, and a normal mother-piglet bond was never formed.
When her babies were just three weeks old, they were forcibly weaned and taken from her. She was then returned to another cage to be made pregnant again, and the painful cycle repeated a number of times until she was ‘spent’ and no longer any use to the farmer. She was then sent to the slaughterhouse.
Which is where you see her now.
This girl never had a name, just a number.
So I will call her Malia, which means ‘Beloved’

 

–    Sandra Kyle

 

Sandra Kyle is the owner of End Animal Slaughter, website, which she started in 2018

with the goal of closing all slaughterhouses in the Western World by 2025. 

Why Do We Only Cry When Puppies Die?

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 5 Comments on Why Do We Only Cry When Puppies Die?

New Zealand is a veritable picnic of animal abuse – so why do we only cry when puppies die?    End Animal Slaughter contributor Lynley Tulloch asks the question. 

 

A recent case in the Waikato region of New Zealand resulted in a public outcry when three puppies were drowned in a weighted-down bag.   The black and white puppies had their mouths taped shut and their feet also bound together. They are reported to be male Pitbull Staffordshire crosses.

 

The young family who found the puppies called the SPCA. The find has generated a cash reward for anyone who can identify the culprit. The deaths of these innocents is hard to stomach.

 

It raises important issues around our treatment of animals and the public’s tolerance of such acts of cruelty.

 

It is notable that drowning of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens used to happen frequently in New Zealand, particularly in rural areas. A quick trip to the pond with a sack full of puppies or kittens and a brick to weigh them down took care of unwanted population explosions.

 

The SPCA says that drowning is a painful death, made even worse in young mammals who have a dive reflex, prolonging the agony. We now know (even if we didn’t in the past) that drowning is not a nice way to go.

 

Yet it seems some people have not got the memo. The SPCA is still busy dealing with animal welfare concerns. So what is going on? Why is animal cruelty such a problem in New Zealand, when we are said to be a country of animal lovers?

 

If we regarded (animals) as sentient beings with rights to life and to agency over their life, it would help to ensure that they are treated with respect.

 

In my view, the problem lies in the way we see animals as ‘lesser beings’, categorizing them according to their use for humans.  If we regarded them as sentient beings with rights to life and to agency over their life, it would help to ensure that they are treated with respect.

 

Any violence toward animals could then be consistent across the species. Their capacity to suffer, is what we need to be focusing on. It should be a crime to maim or kill them for our own perceived needs, or to enslave them for our own ends. They are an end in themselves – not a means to an end. They have intrinsic worth.

 

In addition, we need to regard violence as a continuum instead of an isolated act. Violence against animals is committed day in and day out in  animal farming. Yet few people bat an eye – let alone offer a reward to bring the perpetrators to justice as happened with the puppies.  

 

Animal farmers have a broadly utilitarian view of animals, valuing them mainly for the money that can be made from them. This is not to say that farmers do not care for their animals, or even grow fond of them. But frankly, if animal farmers thought of cows in the same way as many city people think of dogs then they would never get sent to slaughter. 

 

For rural people it is often regarded as admirable to be able to accept the fate of the animals in your care, even to take pride in it.

But farm animals do suffer – it is an inevitable outcome of being raised for death. Think about the hens crammed into cages their entire short lives before being killed when they go off the lay temporarily.  Chickens bred for meat often go lame and have heart attacks because they grow faster than their legs and hearts can support.

 

And their death is often not humane either. In fact, layer hens and meat chickens in New Zealand get killed by electrical stunning before having their throats slit by an automated knife and then plunged into scalding water to have their feathers removed. Some hens don’t get stunned first and endure the whole process while conscious. So really, if you eat eggs and chicken and support those industries you are saying that you are happy with that.

 

If we are ok with that, why are we not ok with drowning puppies? It seems a bit hypocritical. Is it because hens are seen to have a use value that trumps any consideration of their sentience?  We all like to believe in the mythology of humane slaughter. We think that animals bred for their meat or milk or eggs have a purpose. But it is not so – all animals are sentient and feel negative emotions like pain and fear, as well as positive ones like joy. Any farmer will tell you that.

 

We think that animals bred for their meat or milk or eggs have a purpose. But it is not so – all animals are sentient and feel negative emotions like pain and fear, as well as positive ones like joy. Any farmer will tell you that.

 

Many dogs on farms are considered ‘working dogs’ in the same way that hens are considered to have a job to do – laying eggs. If a dog has become old and unproductive on the farm they are often disposed of with a bullet to the head. Just like the hens at the end of their working life.

 

What is the lesser evil? Drowning unwanted litters, electrifying and slitting the throats of chickens or shooting a dog in the head? They are all violent acts, and yet we accept some and not others.

 

As a teenager I had the horrifying experience of being shown through a hatchery for laying chickens. Right in the middle of the room was a giant blender with blades glinting in the bright lights. One day old male chicks are macerated in this contraption while fully conscious.

 

Could you put the puppies in the blender?

 

What about bobby calves? They get taken from their mothers, transported for up to 12 hours in a truck (legally) and go for up to 24 hours without milk before having a bolt driven through their brains and their throats slit. Sounds pretty violent to me. Yet, may people in New Zealand who speak out against the drowning of puppies will also use dairy products with wild abandon. I see it all the time – a slice of Camembert here, a white coffee there, lashings of chocolate and smoothies. It’s a veritable picnic of animal cruelty.

 

I am not in any way justifying the horrendous drowning of the puppies. It is a disgusting and despicable act. But before we make any real inroads into addressing animal cruelty we have to take a more complete look at the picture. We need to be consistent in our attitude and treatment of all animals.

 

Violence begets violence, and in terms of suffering, a puppy is a chick is a calf.

 

 

    Dr Lynley Tulloch is an animal advocate, and Lecturer in Education

 

Mega farms in Europe affecting well-being of neighbours

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

Key Points:

–  All over Europe small-scale operations with a diversity of crops and livestock are disappearing, being replaced by mega farms such as a 23,000 cow dairy farm in Spain and enormous piggeries in Denmark, one of the world’s biggest producers of pork.

–  This growth of Europe’s animal farming sector has seen it exceed what scientists have claimed are safe bounds for greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient flows and biodiversity loss.

–  Greenpeace campaigners visited animal farms and their surrounding communities in France, Denmark, Spain and Italy between December 2018 and March 2019 to find out what is happening.

–  They discovered many of these European mega farms are near small towns, and are affecting the health and well being of their close neighbours in a variety of ways.  These include possible toxic substances through manure and air.  

–  Residents next to one giant Danish pig farm frequently see pigs in rubbish bins, for weekly collection.   

Read The Guardian article here

 

 

 

Why Do Slaughterhouse Vigils?

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

It will soon be five years that I have been standing outside slaughterhouses on a weekly basis.  I do my vigils as part of the Worldwide Save movement. 

These peaceful vigils to ‘bear witness’ to the lives of the animals, take place outside slaughterhouses.    The aim is to say goodbye, and give comfort to the animals who are being taken to their brutal deaths. When we see the animals in the trucks, we tell them we’re sorry.   We apologise on behalf of the human race for the atrocities we commit against the animal kingdom.  We tell them we love them.

We take photographs and videos, and share these on social media, to help meat eaters make the connection that the meat they consume was once a living, breathing, feeling animal.  We stand on the roadside, so passing motorists can read our signs.   When we can we ask the drivers if they could stop for a moment while we say goodbye to the animals.   From time to time a truck driver will stop, but in the majority of cases they do not.

The two slaughterhouses I do my vigils at in Whanganui, New Zealand, are Land Meats, that kills cattle and pigs, and AFFCO Imlay, that kills sheep and bobby calves.  I am usually at the cow and pig slaughterhouse, and have seen countless trucks of cows arriving over the years.   The animals are visibly distressed.  Many are covered with mud, and also their own excrement.  The smell is often overpowering.    I have seen many foam at the mouth and others rolling their eyes so you can see the whites.  Some desperately try to get out of the truck.  Just last week when I was joined with friends from another centre, we saw one cow ramming his head against a wall, and another kicking his back legs against the locked door.

If we make eye contact with the animals, we often think about them for hours and even days afterwards, after they have met their gruesome end.

While vigils can be emotionally exhausting we feel it’s important that we keep this happening.  We refuse to turn a blind eye to the terrible animal holocaust that goes on every single day, when it is completely unnecessary.

When you look into the eyes of an animal you can feel their souls.   Pigs especially have human-looking eyes.  Pigs are said to be as intelligent as three-year-old human children.  I have sometimes heard them screaming at the slaughterhouse, a heartbreaking, bloodcurdling sound that is impossible to forget.

Over the years I have mainly seen cows arriving, and because I know they like music, I sing to them, or play music for them.  I seek to give them a little gentleness and comfort, possibly the only expression of love they have had in their lives.  It is distressing for me to see how the drivers and ground staff handle them, using an electric prod.   From a distance, I have witnessed how they beat them to get them to move up the chute to the stunbox.

I and my friends in the Save Movement here in New Zealand, and all over the world, are proud to take this stand for the animals.  The animals need us.   We are their voice.   They depend on us to act on their behalf.

If you think that this kind of deeply compassionate action and outreach is for you, wherever you may be in the world, then you can learn more about it from thesavemovement.org

Follow the Save Movement on FB: Animal Save Movement

Follow the SAVE Movement on Instagram: @thesavemovement

Follow the SAVE Movement on Twitter: @animalsavemvmt

All photos taken at a vigil at Land Meats slaughterhouse, Whanganui, New Zealand, 24 May 2020.

–  Sandra Kyle 

Sandra started endanimalslaughter.org in 2018 with the aim of having all slaughterhouses in the western world closed by 2025.

‘Not Your Feathers, Not Your Food’

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

In this article End Animal Slaughter contributor Lynley Tulloch agrees that chicken feathers do not belong in KFC packets.  Neither does the chicken.  (All photos accompanying this article were taken in 2018 when activists from Direct Animal Action entered a Tegel (New Zealand) Broiler Chicken factory).

 

An anonymous UK mother from Blackpool who served her son KFC with feathers in it has complained to the KFC branch concerned. She also posted pictures on Facebook with the offending feathers (feature photo).

This customer was so appalled that she wrote ‘I won’t ever eat KFC again’.

I don’t get it. Chicken is a bird. Last time I looked they came complete with feathers.

A healthy ‘Cobb’ chicken, the same breed commonly used as chickens reared for meat on factory farms.

 

If you think your chicken should have the feathers removed before you consume them then perhaps consider what you are eating. Which, to be fair, she has – but it took the presence of the bird’s feathers to engender such outright disgust.

I’m offended as well. I’m offended for the chicken. What, seriously, do you think the chicken felt when his life was brutally ended in a medieval assembly line torture chamber?

In the UK chickens bred for their meat are killed though electrical systems or gas systems. Electrical systems involve hanging the chickens upside down on metal shackles and stunning them using electrified water. They then have their throats slit with an automated knife.

Due to individual variation in resistance to the stunning process, some birds are inevitably only electro-immobilized (paralyzed but fully conscious). They are then bled out and plunged into a tub of scalding water to remove their feathers. I guess the poor chicken in the KFC box of the UK woman just didn’t get all his feathers removed.

Chickens in New Zealand are also killed by this system of electrical stunning and throat slitting. It is notoriously inhumane, considering that many birds are not unconscious during the process and get their necks cut while paralyzed. They also may break their legs while being shackled.

If you are happy to gamble on which bird you are eating (the stunned or electro – immobilized) then hands – up I am offended. I’d write a letter, for all the good it would do me, to complain to the factories that raise (and I use that term very loosely) these birds to be killed and send them to slaughter.

And that is the problem isn’t it? Consumers get heard, they get listened to and apologies and refunds.

Thrown onto the barn floor at a few days old, the little chicks at first have some room to run around.   However, as they are bred to grow rapidly to reach slaughter week at just 6 weeks old they become so cramped that they can barely move.  

 

Animal activists, on the other hand, have to actually twist themselves inside out to get footage of animal suffering, document it, analyse it to see if it breaches welfare standards – before they even complain. And they have to use their own money. And then more often than not, it does not get taken seriously. They definitely don’t get a refund.

Walk into any ‘broiler’ factory farm and you will find a percentage of dead birds.  The overburdening of the birds’ underdeveloped cardiopulmonary systems often causes congestive heart failure before they reach slaughter weight.

 

Take for example, Direct Animal Action who investigated a chicken factory farm owned by Tegal in 2018. This farm was a KFC supplier. The investigators found countless lame chickens unable to reach water, slowly dying. Ammonia in the shed from chicken waste was so strong the activists had to wear masks. The crowded sheds housed dead and live birds together.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) did not take action against this farm. There is really not a lot I can say about that, because it is so devastating that the people responsible for ensuring the animal welfare code is adhered to choose to look the other way. But I guess that is what you get when they have a vested interest in the ongoing continuation of animal agriculture.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) did not take action against this farm. There is really not a lot I can say about that, because it is so devastating that the people responsible for ensuring the animal welfare code is adhered to choose to look the other way. But I guess that is what you get when they have a vested interest in the ongoing continuation of animal agriculture.

Basically, the suffering of chickens is a necessary evil if you want your KFC. You simply cannot raise that many animals, that quickly without factory farming them.

So yes, I am offended. Every chicken in that shed is quite literally a dead chicken walking (if they are not lame). They all have a target on their feathered backs, and live a life of misery while they wait. Well, when I say a life, I mean six weeks. These birds are bred to reach slaughter weight fast – too fast for their legs which collapse under them.

A chicken unable to right him or herself will die from dehydration, because they are physically unable to even reach the water nozzles in their sheds. 

 

A chicken is a sentient being – meaning they have feelings including fear, joy, and pain. We may associate such emotions with humans, but our emotional repertoire is not unique to us. We have more in common with animals than we don’t. In fact, the emotional make-up of animals is very similar to that of humans.

I can’t begin to think what they are going through during their time incarcerated in a factory and the slaughter process. It’s a horror film.

So back to the UK scenario of the fried feathers. Reading further in the article it says: ‘It doesn’t meet the Colonel’s usual high standards, and it’s certainly not the reunion we want people to have with their favourite fried chicken after some time apart!’

Say, what? A reunion with fried chicken after some time apart because of lockdown? Seriously?

KFC is using this Covid-19 situation to continue their marketing line that the Colonel (who is now dead along with the chickens in the boxes) has high standards. High standards for who? Not for the chicken who hobbles around, lame from the excess weight his legs cannot support the plump juicy breasts of your favourite meal.

I remain incredulous that people can consider meat of chicken as something they have grown emotionally attached to. In reality, they are attached to the fried batter, the oils and herbs and spices. Give them a plain chicken breast and they would not be so excited.

There is nothing wrong with the enjoyment of herbs, spices, oils and so forth. This can be wrapped around a fake meat if you like. Just please leave the chickens, and their feathers out of it.

As well as lameness and heart failure, other common causes of death pre-slaughter are heat prostration, cancer—in an animal less than seven weeks old—and infectious diseases.  Ammonia blindness and ammonia conjunctivitis are eye conditions the birds can suffer from.

 

Not your feathers, not your body, not your food.

So to the ‘angry Mum’ in this article – get angry about the suffering of the chicken and the destruction of our planet caused by fast food outlets like KFC. Don’t be angry at the feathers. They are poignant and sad reminder that someone once lived.

They belonged to somebody. Just not you.

 

 

Dr Lynley Tulloch is an animal advocate, and a Lecturer in Education

UK Doctors: We Need A Food System Change Now

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle
  • UK-based Plant Based Health Professionals (PBHP) say the connection between major disease outbreaks and factory farming is being ‘swept under the carpet’ amid the coronavirus pandemic.
  • While former coronavirus epicentre Wuhan has introduced a law against the breeding, hunting and consumption of wild animals this week,  this is not just a problem for China.
  • The vast majority of new infectious diseases that have appeared in humans over the past century have been caused by tampering with farmed animals and their habitats, including Swine Flu (pigs), Avian Flu (birds) and Spanish Flu (poultry). 
  • In the UK demand for cheap meat has fuelled a huge expansion of factory farming – providing the perfect conditions for the generation of novel infections with epidemic and pandemic potential, as well as an antibiotic resistance among humans.   
  • A vaccine won’t solve the problem, because of the risk of mutations.   
  • A growing body of evidence shows a balanced vegan diet can provide all nutrients the body needs and improve human health by minimising the potential for cardiovascular disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
  • The coronavirus crisis has seen a record number of sign-ups in PBHP’s ‘No Meat May’,  but while such campaigns are important, effective, change will only come about if it is implemented from the top. 
  • We need a food system change now. 

Read the metro.co.uk article here

A Tale Of Two Sheep

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

In this true story End Animal Slaughter contributor Maya Cohen-Ronen recounts the heart of a mother…. and the altruism that can exist between sentient beings.  

 

 

A couple of days ago as I was scrolling through my Facebook feed somewhat absentmindedly, one story managed to capture my attention. It was a beautiful story with a substantial ‘feel-good’ element to it. A story of two sheep.

Somewhere in the United States of America there is a sheep farm. There is nothing particularly interesting about this farm. It is owned by a couple I know nothing about, and their children participate in the American 4-H programme, in which farming children are encouraged to raise ‘their own’ animals, invest in them emotionally, then once ready – sell them off to slaughter. I’ll get to that bit a little later.

In this said farm, there live two sheep. Of course, there were more sheep, but only these two are of interest to this story. To refrain from referring to them as ‘Sheep One’ and ‘Sheep Two’ I shall hereby name them Agnetha and Anni-Frid.

Like all sheep in farms around the world, Agnetha and Anni-Frid were bred to serve a purpose. This purpose is monetary. Their female reproductive systems are exploited for man’s financial benefit. Like their sisters, Agnetha and Anni-Frid are routinely forcefully impregnated, so that a new generation of lambs can then be ‘harvested’ to feed people who enjoy feasting on decomposing young flesh.

Agnetha and Anni-Frid were pregnant together. In silence they carried their babies to full term. I don’t know about you the reader, but as a mother who experienced this miraculous phenomenon first hand, I know the magical feeling of having a baby inside your uterus. Sensing it grow, the first tingling bubbles, the movements and the kicks, the hormonal storm, the growing heaviness of the breasts as their feeding role nears. As fellow mammals, I have no reason to doubt that Agnetha and Anni-Frid experienced such emotions as well, to some degree.

It was Agnetha who felt the pain of child birth first. It was early, her lamb was not yet due. In sadness she gave birth to her son. He was dead. In the morning, the farmer took away the lifeless little body.

I have another secret to share with you. I have experienced a silent birth. My son Gilead was born and died at twenty-week gestation. I know the emotional blow this tragic event causes. The deep sense of loss, the sorrow, the longing. One might think only human mothers can be riddled with the severe pain of a baby’s loss, but that is a very selfish and cynical human-centric view. All mammalian mothers are similar. Sheep are no different.

I have another secret to share with you. I have experienced a silent birth. My son Gilead was born and died at twenty-week gestation. I know the emotional blow this tragic event causes. The deep sense of loss, the sorrow, the longing. One might think only human mothers can be riddled with the severe pain of a baby’s loss, but that is a very selfish and cynical human-centric view. All mammalian mothers are similar. Sheep are no different.

Agnetha was devastated. Her grief was palpable. She didn’t stop crying. For days she kept calling for her baby, but he never came back.

A couple of weeks later, it was Anni-Frid’s turn to give birth. In pain she delivered two healthy lambs. Twins.  Indeed, a happy occasion for the farmer; the birth went smoothly, without any losses to bear. Mazel Tov.

It was a few days later that an astounding discovery was made. On the sun-kissed field there stood Agnetha and Anni-Frid. But low and behold – BOTH were gently licking and tending to a precious little lamb! It was not down to a miracle, but rather a very poignant display of deep care and selfless love. Moved by the immense grief of her distraught friend, Anni-Frid has gifted one of her new-born lambs to Agnetha!

Agnetha (l) with the newborn lamb given to her by Anni-Frid (r) after her own was still-born. They are Suffolk sheep, one of the most popular of English breeds.  

From the update I have read, the little lamb and Agnetha have deeply bonded. She mothers him gently, and he in turn follows here everywhere. She is his mother, and he is her baby. Forever.

Hold on a minute. Forever?

Well, no. In an ideal world the ending should have been “and they lived happily ever after…” but this is the real world, and this is a sheep farm, and there are no happy endings to these sheep.

One day soon-ish, as the lambs grow and fatten enough, they will be taken away from Anni-Frid and Agnetha. Imagine the horror and the desperation Agnetha will experience all over again. How many nights will she call him? I don’t know. A broken heart of a sheep must feel the same as that of a human. It was her miracle child. The epitome of the most beautiful friendship. But there is no mercy in the industry of flesh harvesting. How many more lambs will Agnetha be forced to deliver before her time is up and she and Anni-Frid are loaded on the truck that takes them to their horrific death? I couldn’t tell you. But the ending is a given. They will not escape it.

Now, I could have finished the story here, and allow you the reader to make the connections yourself, to draw the conclusion about the cruelty of flesh eating. To realise the insanity in sentencing such incredible beings to death simply because that’s what we’re used to. But there is another point I still wish to make.

As mentioned, the particular farm where Agnetha and Anni-Frid’s tale took place, promotes the 4-H programme. This programme, like the AAF and probably others, encourages children to raise animal friends all the way to slaughter. Children are assigned a young animal, be it a calf, a lamb, a kid etc., and they raise it with the devotion only a child can show when they want to prove themselves to adults. As can be expected, with time a bond is formed between the two children, the human and the non-human. The animal child learns to trust their human friend, and the human child cannot help but deeply connect with ‘their’ animal. But the time comes when the animal is ready to be sold for slaughter and it is the child’s duty to prove maturity as they are forced to say goodbye to their animal friend and leave them behind. Social media is full of soul-destroying images of distraught children crying, while their disconnected parents are full of praise for their children who managed to handle the devastating situation so well.

Saying goodbye to a beloved animal is the hardest thing for children.   As part of the 4-H pledge, (4H stands for ‘head, hart, hands and health’) members vow to use these four things for the betterment of “my club, my community, my country and my world.”   But what does it tell them about values such as compassion? Empathy? Loyalty? Trust?   

 

When I first came across this travesty, I couldn’t believe it at first, but I’ve been on social media for long enough to have come across this insanity time and time again. What does it really teach children, this practice of allowing them to connect with animals, knowing that this bond is doomed, and their trusting friend is scheduled to die sooner or later? What does it tell them about values such as compassion? Empathy? Loyalty? Trust?

What it does is desensitise these children to violence in the most abhorrent way possible. It makes them betray their friends whom they love in such an unforgivable manner, while the adults around them cheer on. These children’s natural sense of compassion is being actively lobotomised out of them, replaced with cold apathy and detachment from the cruelty they are directly responsible for. It is hard to comprehend how it’s not legally considered as parental child abuse.

And so, while Agnetha and Anni-Frid have shown us the kindest, deepest form of selfless love between two beings, what farming clearly shows us is that it’s time for it to end.

 

 

Maya Cohen-Ronen is an animal rights activist, and author of two dystopian suspense novels.

Related links

‘The Shed’

‘Liberation’

‘Your Pain Is Mine’ Q&A: Indian Politician and Animal Activist, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 14 Comments on ‘Your Pain Is Mine’ Q&A: Indian Politician and Animal Activist, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

When End Animal Slaughter’s Sandra Kyle visited India in 2018 as the recipient of the Philip Wollen Animal Welfare Award, she was presented with her certificate by Maneka Gandhi, then Minister for Women and Child Development in the Narendra Modi government.  Her brief meeting with the formidable Mrs Gandhi left a lasting impression on her:-  

“At the back of her office was an enormous whiteboard filled up with animal campaigns she was currently working on, a ‘to-do’ list that covered every aspect of animal rights and welfare in India.  Of this long list, only a few had been marked as completed, reflecting the difficulty of the work she grapples with every day.  I was so impressed that this one individual, through force of character and hard work, and despite her enormous governmental responsibilities, had achieved so much for animals in India, earning her an international reputation.  Maneka no doubt has a brilliant mind, but what she does also requires vision, imagination, patience and determination.    For much of our meeting she was businesslike, even a bit brusque, but every now and then the sweetest smile broke through.   In her presence I could feel the breadth of her intelligence, but also her compassion.  As Eileen Weintraub, founder of Help Animals India, describes her:  ‘Maneka has a golden heart”. 

 

1. Have you always loved animals?  

I don’t know whether what I felt or feel was love . It is respect and compassion and a sense of oneness and a desire for fairness that drives me. I feel each animal/insect/bird  stuck in this man-made world, bewildered, grappling to survive, is part of my soul. I simply cannot see the difference between me, a leaf, a crow, a goat, or an elephant. I cannot understand how the human species can create so much pain around them and expect to be happy.

2. When did you start actively campaigning for animal rights and welfare in India?

I made the first animal shelter in India with the money that my husband, who died when I was 23, left me. I ran the shelter first and then because I was in politics, used that platform always to change things for animals.

3 You have enormous responsibilities, and have achieved much in your political career.  And yet you also manage to be so productive for animals, through the Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre, and in your writing and other activist platforms.  You are the longest serving Member of Parliament in India, having won 8 times.    How do you manage to do so much?

I don’t stop for a minute. And I do everything that I can.  I study very hard every day to improve my knowledge of animal issues so that I can speak/do with correct information.

I feel the heart is a door. When it opens, it opens for every being. My heart and energy is open for all kinds of pain, and I endeavour to lessen it for as many beings as I can. That is what gives me the ability to work hard.

4 What is the hardest thing about your work advocating for animals? What are the main obstacles you face?

Ignorance, the ignorance of politicians and bureaucrats especially. When I started, it was considered the domain of “little old ladies”. Now fortunately the movement is coming into its own, with groups starting everywhere.

5 What are some of the campaigns you are currently working on?

I work on 50-100 things at the same time . At this exact moment we are getting pet shops and dog/cat breeders banned.

6 At the beginning of the Covid-19 Lockdown you issued a press release saying that people should continue to feed stray dogs and cows, and even gave your personal number out all over India to help people get special passes to feed animals without the police hassling them.   Can you put into words what drives you to work so hard to fight animal cruelty and injustice?  

The fear of pain. Your pain is mine, so I need to get rid of it.

7 Are things beginning to change for animals in India?  If so, why?

Some things change. But for every good thing, some politicians will make sure three more policies are made that are bad. But last year I made the government give money for the scientific exploration of making clean meat (meat by cell multiplication). We are the first government to do so . That is going on now, and if we can do this, it will change the world as we know it.

8  What would you like to see happen in the future?

Clean meat, clean milk – milk/meat made without animals.  The banning of any meat exports until we get there. A sharp rise in veganism.  Compulsory training in animal welfare in schools… I have a booklet in which I have listed 170 things I want to do or I want to see happen before I die.

Of course they will not be all done but even if I can get half, I shall die happy and not have to come back!

Duck Shooting Season A Licence To Kill Endangered Native Species

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 6 Comments on Duck Shooting Season A Licence To Kill Endangered Native Species

On the Eve of the New Zealand duck shooting season opening, End Animal Slaughter contributor Paul Judge calls for an end to the carnage.

 

As I write, the murderous mayhem of duck-shooting season has been given the go-ahead by the government during New Zealand’s level-2 Covid-19 lockdown.

I walk down to my favourite spot on the Waikato River most evenings. I hear the ducks as I approach, quacking away and going about their duck business. And there they are, on the river’s edge sitting calmly in their flock, or sometimes, led by a brave duck, waddling up the bank to look for food. Something will suddenly spook them and they all take off into the air as one, swooping past me with flapping wings, circling way out over the river before settling again on the sandy beach. These are the lucky ones, I think to myself. As long as they stay here they will escape the horrors of the hunters’ guns.

How I loathe duck shooting. It is so obviously cruel I cannot understand how it is still legal. Australian studies show that around one in four ducks are not killed outright, but instead fall to the ground mortally wounded, dying an agonising, lingering death. While a good percentage of geese and swans are monogamous, ducks can also pair bond for extended periods.   If a single duck manages to survive the carnage duckshooting causes, then they will ‘mourn’ the partner they bonded with.

The mayhem and murder is not only normalised by the media but is celebrated. Blokey, camouflaged duck-shooters are shown stocking their maimais (concealment huts) with beer and talking about how it’s the best thing since Christmas. Small children are dressed up in identical camouflage to their proud dad’s and declare on camera that they have shot their first duck. Often the children will speak with trepidation in their voice, not understanding fully why they have killed a beautiful living bird.

Duckshooting family.  Teaching our children violence from an early age. (Photo credit: TVNZ)

When it comes to duck shooting, the law is truly an idiot. The large numbers of maimed, wounded ducks flies in the face of humane slaughter laws in the Animal Welfare Act. Duck-shooting should be banned on these grounds alone. I know it will be a long battle, given the powerful enculturation of the practice, and I will never give up the fight to see it happen. But there is another Act of Parliament that can and should be properly updated – the Wildlife Act 1953.

When it comes to duck shooting, the law is truly an idiot. The large numbers of maimed, wounded ducks flies in the face of humane slaughter laws in the Animal Welfare Act. Duck-shooting should be banned on these grounds alone.

All New Zealanders should know that some species of native duck, which are in decline or classified as endangered, are allowed to be shot under the Law.

Notwithstanding the regional variations regarding bag limits, the hypocrisy of killing our native species is absurd. We spend millions of tax-payer’s dollars – expensive aerial poison drops, hours upon hours of both government paid work and unpaid volunteer work – protecting our precious native birds. To allow our native species to be slaughtered makes absolutely no sense.

The only ducks that are legally protected in New Zealand are the Brown and Grey Teals, (Patekeke and Tete Moroiti respectively),  NZ Scaup (Papango), and Blue Duck (Whio).  Native species so recklessly assigned to the carnage are the Grey Duck (Parera), the Shoveler (Kuruwhengi) and the Paradise Shelduck (Putangitangi).  

The Grey Duck is in rapid decline and has been declared “critically endangered”.  It is thought to be extensively hybridised with the mallard, and this hybrid is allowed to be hunted.  Good luck with telling the difference!   The true Grey Duck is in danger from being shot by hunters as both sexes look similar to the female mallard.   The Grey Duck has a pattern of stripes from the bill and over the head.  The general similarity of appearance to the mallard is one very good reason to ban all duck-shooting.

The female Grey Duck (Photo credit: NZ Birds Online)

The introduced Mallard is, of course, the most common duck. We see them almost everywhere, the female with her uniform, dull brown feathers, the male with his handsome, dark green, iridescent head and neck feathers. These ducks are considered pests. They apparently disturb the replanting programmes along the waterways and they overcrowd the wetlands for native species. What? Hang on a minute. We are shooting the native species! And as for overcrowding, wetland habitats have been devastated in this country, largely due to intensive agriculture. 90% of our original wetlands have been destroyed. And it’s the duck’s fault?

Male and female Mallard ducks  (Photo credit: NZ Birds Online)

Conservation of remaining wetlands is a contentious issue in the duck-shooting debate. The hunters become ‘greenies’ in regard to wetlands, but only in order so there will be plenty of game next year to carry out their blood-sport.

The native Shoveler duck also deserves immediate protection.  It is estimated about 30,000 of these birds are killed every hunting season. That’s around 20% of their total population. That is not sustainable and certainly not acceptable. Once again, the females look quite similar to the plainly embellished female mallard. The male Shoveler, however, must be New Zealand’s most handsome waterfowl, with his blue-grey head with white vertical stripe between eye and bill, his striking reddish-brown breast and blue wings.  It is inconceivable that such a bird, endemic to New Zealand, can be legally shot.

The Shoveler duck (Kuruwhengi) (Photo credit: NZ Birds Online)

The Paradise Shelduck is sometimes mistaken for a goose, possibly due to the male’s goose-like honk or the female’s white head. The male Shelduck is a uniform black or dark grey with green iridescent head feathers, while the female is a chestnut brown with a distinctive pure white head and neck. After the mallard the Paradise Shelduck are the most abundant waterfowl in New Zealand. Ironically, they have increased their numbers since colonisation due primarily to their ability to adapt to feeding on grassland. Thus farmers see them as a pest and shoot these beautiful creatures relentlessly.

Of an estimated population of 700,000 about 200,000 are shot annually. And this is a native bird! Under this logic, Will we see the hunting of kiwi if the conservation programmes are hugely successful and their numbers increase?

Male and female Paradise Shellducks  (Putangiangi) (Photo credit: NZ Birds Online)

The Paradise Shelduck was listed in 2008 as “not threatened”. That, of course, seems an absurdity given the overall decline of all waterfowl species since that date. Habitat loss, predation, overhunting and extreme weather events due to climate change are taking their toll on even the abundant mallard, so much so that the 2015 season was shortened to one month, with bag limits for all duck species reduced.

And why is the beautiful, iconic Pukeko, another native to Aotearoa, allowed to be killed en masse? Large numbers of these stunning birds are killed ‘for fun’ by duck-shooters. Conservation groups have estimated 50,000 are killed each season. But Fish & Game say this is wrong, and that only 20,000 are killed. Hold on a minute. That’s a bit like saying the use of napalm in the Vietnam War was not so bad because the civilian death count was over-estimated.

Pukeko and chick

The Pukeko is almost as iconic a bird as the kiwi. Check out any tourist trinket shop and there they will be, adorning ceramic tiles, headscarves, countless prints and paintings. Killing the Pukeko is as dumb as the Australians killing the kangaroo, an animal that adorns the tail of the Qantas aeroplanes, the national symbol. Shhh! Keep quiet, we don’t tell the tourists anything about this.

All duck shooting is unacceptable, but native birds still being shot in this country is a total outrage and simply beggars belief. The Wildlife Act of 1953 is in urgent need of extensive revision.

The most well-known of our protected ducks, thanks to the media coverage of conservation efforts, is the Blue Duck (Whio). But here’s an idea; let’s protect all the native ducks shall we? Or better yet, all the ducks, native or otherwise.

But here’s an idea; let’s protect all the native ducks shall we? Or better yet, all the ducks, native or otherwise.

Blue duck (Whio)  (Photo Credit: NZ Birds Online)

COVID-19

With the Covid-19 pandemic the world is in crisis, but are we learning anything? Are we looking at the root causes of this catastrophe? Are we examining our relationship to our evolutionary partners who we exploit and maim and kill in the most horrendous ways?

Can we not even develop a new empathy for those we define as our prey, when we ourselves are experiencing the horrors of becoming prey to a biological enemy out to destroy us?

And before the Covid-19 crisis there was the biodiversity crisis. Well guess what? That is still happening, and overhunting, along with habitat loss, pollution and climate change, is a root cause.

There is so much morally and ethically wrong with duck shooting – the scale of the suffering of the birds, the enculturation of children into violence, the poisoning of the environment with lead (yes, still used, not to be phased out until 2021), the list goes on. But to put endangered native species in harm’s way every duck shooting season is incomprehensible, and cannot be allowed to continue.

 

Paul Judge (seen here with his beloved companion goat, Robert) is a filmmaker and animal rights activist. He taught film production in the tertiary education sector for 17 years.  

It’s Time To Wash The Blood Off Our Hands

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

We will never find peace within ourselves until we stop treating other animals so appallingly, writes End Animal Slaughter contributor, Paul Stevenson. (Featured art by Lynda Bell (artbylyndabell.com).

 

Although the nature/nurture debate has raged for decades, recent studies have shown convincing evidence that humans are innately moral: we are born with the capacity to care about others.  In fact as far back as 1871 Darwin countered theorists who argued that humans are naturally selfish, identifying components of a ‘moral sense’ throughout the tree of life.  As a product of evolution, we would expect that moral behaviour is within other animals as well, not just humans, and so it appears to be the case.  Primatologists like Frans de Waal, Jill Pruetz, and Christophe Boehm have shown that our closest kin in the animal kingdom, from chimps to bonobos, possess within themselves the building blocks of morality and moral goodness, treating treat each other with empathy, compassion, and self-sacrifice. And it by no means only found in primates, as Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce show in their book ‘Wild Justice.’

As humans, this moral sense culminates in us, and our caring and morality extends beyond people to include other animals, plants and the wider environment.   When we go against our fundamental nature by ignoring our humanity and unnecessarily harming others, we consequently feel bad inside, and cannot experience peace of mind. As we can never know real happiness or contentment when we are not at peace within ourselves, it is the greatest of follies to harm others when there is no need to do so.

The less we care about others the lower our humanity, and the lower the quality of our own lives. The criminal destroys himself for this reason, because the more he takes from others the more he steals from himself, by robbing himself of his own humanity and self-respect. He may have lots of material things – quantity – in his life in the form of money and possessions, but he lacks all quality. That is because our quality of life is almost entirely an inner thing, non-material, the product of our mind, and largely to do with our opinion of ourselves. It depends on our self-esteem and integrity, which in turn is related to how much we care about others.

Killing and eating other creatures not only destroys their entire existence for something as trivial as our food habits, it also subjects them to unspeakable suffering and indescribable horrors.

Killing and eating other creatures not only destroys their entire existence for something as trivial as our food habits, it also subjects them to unspeakable suffering and indescribable horrors.

But unnecessarily causing other animals to suffer and die for our palate also has a direct effect on us.   It is self-sabotage, because such actions are contrary to our fundamental caring nature, and rob us of our humanity as well as all hope of achieving the contentment we crave.  So if we want to be kind to ourselves we must first treat others, including other animals, with kindness and respect.   The natural consequence of this is that we must stop supporting all forms of animal agriculture, as well as fishing.

Our treatment of animals that we raise for food is horrendous.   We treat them as if they were nothing.  They are sensitive, intelligent cousins of ours, but we regard them as no better than lumps of rock, sacks of coal, logs of wood, good only for cutting up, cooking up, and eating up.  For the dead-hearted people involved, these sentient beings represent nothing more than money.

Yet as intelligent creatures with the brains to examine our actions, to self-inspect, and evaluate our behaviour, change is always possible.  Because our nature is fundamentally good, we know in our heart when we see how animals are raised for food, that we are committing terrible crimes that cannot be justified on any grounds.  We can never rest with a clear conscience while we abuse others so terribly.

Because our nature is fundamentally good, we know in our heart when we see how animals are raised for food, that we are committing terrible crimes that cannot be justified on any grounds. 

These days it is easy to adopt a vegan diet, that is just as delicious as any other, and is healthier both for us and the planet.  Covid-19, and all other ‘spillover’ diseases, came from eating animals, not plants.   This is a good time to start transitioning to a cruelty-free vegan diet.   We will discover how much better we feel about ourselves.

Paul Stevenson has a lifestyle block in Northland, New Zealand, and is Dad to a number of kunekune pigs.