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Action alert!Animal Aid respectfully requests that all letters, emails and phone calls made in support of our campaigns are polite. To receive email alerts for urgent actions, please join our email list. |
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ALERT 1: If you have not already asked your MP to sign Early Day Motion (EDM) 92, please do so now. To date, EDM 92 has been signed by 234 MPs who are concerned about animal experimentation and who endorse the idea of an independent evaluation. This is a momentous step in the campaign to end all animal experiments and, as such, is under attack by proponents of vivisection. Please act now to ensure that EDM 92 remains well supported. Contact your MP via email, fax or letter, or send a pre-written postcard: please see www.curedisease.net for details. |
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ALERT 2: The EU parliament is nearing the vote on adopting the REACH* chemical testing programme. Animal Aid is especially alarmed that, despite constant lobbying from animal protection groups across Europe, animals will still be poisoned to death to test chemicals under REACH. The exact number remains unknown but estimates range from 3.9 million to 45 million. A massive 20 per cent of the total testing is expected to take place in the UK. Please write to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department of Trade and Industry immediately and urge them to do everything in their power to stop the animal tests under REACH (see addresses below). Points you may like to consider when writing:
* [REACH = Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals]. The aim of REACH is to assess the harmful potential of 30,000 chemicals currently on the market. The Second Reading for the REACH programme is scheduled to take place at the EU parliament in November 2006. AddressesRt Hon David Miliband MP Robin Mueller |
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ALERT 3: The recent conviction of two farm workers who were caught pitching and batting live turkeys by an undercover investigator has shown that we know little of the cruelty meted out inside intensive farms. In their defence, the men talked of a culture of indifference to the welfare of animals. To combat this institutionalized cruelty, we are calling on DEFRA (The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) to make it compulsory for intensive farms to install CCTV in their premises. We recognise that policing livestock farms is currently an impossible task and many animals suffer appalling cruelty and neglect with no chance of the perpetrators being caught or prosecuted. The installation of cameras would make policing animal cruelty cases that much easier and provide increased protection for farmed animals. Please write to: |
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ALERT 4: The National Trust has given permission for the Devon & Somerset Staghounds to come onto its land, although only to 'flush out and kill', rather than to chase sick, injured deer. But a disturbing newspaper report from 28 August suggests the same hunt has been caught chasing and killing a stag on another piece of land owned by the Trust. Chasing and killing any deer is unacceptably cruel. Please email or write to The National Trust asking them to immediately revoke permission for the Devon & Somerset Staghounds to come onto their land. You may also like to remind them of the cruelty involved in hunting, and ask them to stand by their policy of banning hunts from their land. Fiona Reynolds fiona.reynolds@nationaltrust.org.uk If you are a member of The National Trust, you will have recently received your voting information for the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Some members have proposed a resolution proposing to ban all deer hunting on National Trust land. When you return your voting papers, or attend the AGM, please vote in favour of this resolution. The AGM is on 4 November, and voting papers must be returned by 27 October. |
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ALERT 5: A small number of New Forest residents have 'commoners rights' which allows them to graze animals freely in the forest. These rights began in the sixteenth century when the animals could move about the forest safely. Now, the large volume of traffic means that many horses, ponies and cows - around 100 every year - are killed on the roads. Those who are severely injured are shot and their bodies shipped off to the knacker's yard. Hundreds of New Forest ponies are also rounded up and slaughtered to supply the horse meat trade every year. Please contact Ben Bradshaw at DEFRA, asking for:
Ben Bradshaw |
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ALERT 6: The Berwick Advertiser newspaper has started a campaign asking readers to back proposals to kill Berwick-upon-Tweed's gull population. Gulls have been forced to search for food in the town centre as their natural food supply of fish and marine organisms has been depleted. Litter dropped on the streets and open rubbish bins are now regarded as a food source by the birds. Local ornithologist Graham Bell told the Berwick Advertiser: "It's a declining species overall because their [natural] food supply ... is also declining. So the gulls are taking advantage of the situation in Berwick where lots of tourists, and residents as well, put their fish and chip papers down in the street. If you were a herring gull you would do the same." What is needed is implementation of a proper waste-management programme whereby the streets are clear of litter and rubbish bins are secure. Action:
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ALERT 7: With an estimated four million vegetarians in the UK and thousands more turning veggie each week, it is important to have easy access to non-animal foods. This is why Animal Aid is launching a survey to find Britain's most veggie-friendly supermarket. Anyone who would like to take part in the survey can download the questionnaire or email kelly@animalaid.co.uk. With the size of the vegetarian food market growing rapidly this important survey will provide positive feedback to the supermarkets and, of course, provide benefits for veggie consumers! Please complete and return your questionnaire as soon as possible to: Kelly Slade, Animal Aid, The Old Chapel, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1AW. |
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ALERT 8: The Independent on 8 August 2006, reported that the National Trust is planning to kill wild goats in the locality of Nantgwynant in the Snowdonia National Park. The wholly feeble reasons given are that the goats are eating shrubs and that they are getting in the way of passing traffic! Of particular note is the fact they are an annoyance to the many motorbike riders who tear up the area. The 'culling' of animals is not only cruel, but also ineffective. Culling amounts to nothing more than a short-term stopgap, and species' populations invariably soon return to their previous numbers. Additionally, there is the likelihood of a knock-on effect for other species. Please demand that the National Trust sees sense and makes long-term plans to manage the goat population. Of priority are the following: clearing up properly after tourists to ensure there is no left-over food or rubbish to attract the goats; investing in suitable fencing as and where necessary; and providing suitable food sources and habitat for the goats to attract them away from the village. Action: Please write to Fiona Reynolds: |
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ALERT 9: The government has announced that £3.3million of public money will be used for the mass slaughter of Britain's ruddy ducks. Not only is this a vicious, insane and massively expensive exercise, but it is also logistically impossible to eradicate a whole population spread over a thousand UK sites and across 20 countries. Introduced to Britain in the 1940s, ruddy duck escapees have successfully bred and some have migrated to Spain where they are said to have mated with the endangered white-headed duck. The resulting offspring are considered 'impure' by conservationists and bird watchers. Ruddys have, therefore, been sentenced to death in the name of blood purity. Hunting and habitat loss are the reasons the white-headed duck is endangered and conservation should start with habitat protection, but it's far easier to target a small duck. STOP PRESS: Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has organised a cull at Filey Dams Nature Reserve, due to commence any day. We need your urgent help to stop it. Action: Write to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Rob Stoneman Tel: (01904) 659570 You might also like to write to your local Wildlife Trust who may be supporting the ruddy duck cull. Contact Animal Aid for their details - specifying your county and nearest major town/city. Please also contact: Barry Gardiner MP Express your opposition to the demonisation of the ruddys. Urge Defra, even at this late stage, to change its mind. |
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ALERT 10: A TV programme featuring celebrity animal activists Paul McCartney and Heather Mills McCartney reported about the horrific trade in the skins of domestic cats and dogs, who are raised and killed in Asia. These skins are now finding their way onto the EU market, and the McCartneys, along with MEP Struan Stevenson, are calling for an EU-wide ban on the import of cat and dog fur. Fur farming was outlawed in the UK in 2002 because so many people opposed the practice. However, fur imported from abroad is still available and, worryingly, the programme revealed that even some 'fake' fur on sale in the UK is, in fact, real fur. Action: Lend your voice to the campaign and sign Heather Mills-McCartney's petition Please also write to Ian Pearson, Minister of State for Trade, Department of Trade and Industry, Response Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET, or email dti.enquiries@dti.gsi.gov.uk. You may also wish to contact Markos Kyprianou, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, The European Commission, Rue de la Loi B-1049, Bruxelles urging him to implement a total EU ban on the import of cat and dog fur. |
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ALERT 11: The grey squirrel is the latest species to be added to Defra's cull list. Biodiversity Minister Jim Knight blames the grey squirrel for damaging woodland and for the decline of the red squirrel in England. However, the grey is being used as a scapegoat for the environmental and animal welfare problems caused by humans. Thanks to climate change, disease, woodland destruction and hunting the red squirrel was already in decline long before the grey was introduced, more than 100 years ago. The grey is better adapted to life in broadleaved woodland, which is predominant in England. If we want to preserve the red squirrel we should be conserving the coniferous woods in which they are presently thriving. If the grey squirrel cull goes ahead, thousands of squirrels will be horrendously killed. One government approved method involves the use of a blood-thinning drug which causes the animals to die a slow and painful death from internal bleeding. Other squirrels are cage-trapped, stuffed into sacks and battered to death. Action: Please contact Barry Gardiner MP, the biodiversity minister for Defra, who announced the cull, asking him to take grey squirrels off death row! Email Barry Gardiner or write to him at:
Barry Gardiner MP |
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