Vacation

I am going on vacation on 31st August and will be back on 17th September, when I'll restart posting here regularly.

Live Goat Fed to Lions for Entertainment in Chinese Zoo

Throwing a live goat into an enclosure of hungry lions and watching the poor animal trying to run, being caught and then torn to pieces is considered a form of entertainment for children in China.

"Oohs" and "aahs" filled the air as the children watched the goat being ripped limb from limb. Some started to clap silently with a look of wonder in their eyes.

The scenes witnessed at Badaltearing Safari Park in China are rapidly becoming a normal day out for many Chinese families.

Baying crowds now gather in zoos across the country to watch animals being torn to pieces by lions and tigers.

Just an hour's drive from the main Olympic attractions in Beijing, Badaling is in many ways a typical Chinese zoo.

Next to the main slaughter arena is a restaurant where families can dine on braised dog while watching cows and goats being disembowelled by lions.

The zoo also encourages visitors to "fish" for lions using live chickens as bait. For just £2, giggling visitors tie terrified chickens onto bamboo rods and dangle them in front of the lions, just as a cat owner might tease their pet with a toy.

During one visit, a woman managed to taunt the big cats with a petrified chicken for five minutes before a lion managed to grab the bird in its jaws.

The crowd then applauded as the bird flapped its wings pathetically in a futile bid to escape. The lion eventually grew bored and crushed the terrified creature to death.

The tourists were then herded onto buses and driven through the lions' compound to watch an equally cruel spectacle. The buses have specially designed chutes down which you can push live chickens and watch as they are torn to shreds.

Once again, children are encouraged to take part in the slaughter.

"It's almost a form of child abuse," says Carol McKenna of the OneVoice animal welfare group. "The cruelty of Chinese zoos is disgusting, but think of the impact on the children watching it. What kind of future is there for China if its children think this kind of cruelty is normal?

"In China, if you love animals you want to kill yourself every day out of despair."

But the cruelty of Badaling doesn't stop with animals apart. For those who can still stomach it, the zoo has numerous traumatised animals to gawp at.

A pair of endangered moon bears with rusting steel nose rings are chained up in cages so small that they cannot even turn around.

One has clearly gone mad and spends most of its time shaking its head and bashing into the walls of its prison.

There are numerous other creatures, including tigers, which also appear to have been driven insane by captivity. Predictably, they are kept in cramped, filthy conditions.

"Zoos like this make me want to boycott everything Chinese," says Emma Milne, star of the BBC's Vets In Practice.

"I'd like to rip out everything in my house that's made in China. I have big problems with their culture.

"If you enjoy watching an animal die then that's a sad and disgusting reflection on you.

"Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by their behaviour towards animals, as the value of human life is so low in China."

East of Badaling lies the equally horrific Qingdao zoo. Here, visitors can take part in China's latest craze, tortoise baiting.

Simply put, Chinese families now gather in zoos to hurl coins at tortoises.

Legend has it that if you hit a tortoise on the head with a coin and make a wish, then your heart's desire will come true. It's the Chinese equivalent of a village wishing well.

To feed this craze, tortoises are kept in barbaric conditions inside small bare rooms.

When giggling tourists begin hurling coins at them, they desperately try to protect themselves by withdrawing into their shells.

But Chinese zoo keepers have discovered a way round this: they wrap elastic bands around the animals' necks to stop them retracting their heads.

"Tortoises aren't exactly fleet of foot and can't run away," says Carol McKenna.

"It's monstrous that people hurl coins at the tortoises, but strapping their heads down with elastic bands so they can't hide is even more disgusting.

"Because tortoises can't scream, people assume they don't suffer. But they do. I can't bear to think what it must be like to live in a tiny cell and have people hurl coins at you all day long."

Even worse is in store for the animals of Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village near Guilin in south-east China.

Here, live cows are fed to tigers to amuse cheering crowds. During a recent visit, I watched in horror as a young cow was stalked and caught. Its screams and cries filled the air as it struggled to escape.

A wild tiger would dispatch its prey within moments, but these beasts' natural killing skills have been blunted by years of living in tiny cages.

The tiger tried to kill, tearing and biting at the cow's body in a pathetic looking frenzy, but it simply didn't know how.

Eventually, the keepers broke up the contest and slaughtered the cow themselves, much to the disappointment of the crowd.

Although the live killing exhibition was undoubtedly depressing, an equally disturbing sight lay around the corner: the "animal parade".

Judging by the rest of the operation, the unseen training methods are unlikely to be humane, but what visitors view is bad enough.

Tigers, bears and monkeys perform in a degrading "entertainment". Bears wear dresses, balance on balls and not only ride bicycles but mount horses too. [Emphasis added]

Any comment would fail to describe the horror of this. Despite its economic advancements, China has a few millennia to catch up with the West in terms of civilization. So much for Buddhism being an animal-friendly religion, if these are the results! In fact, the irony is that some of the world's worst countries for animal abuse - China, Korea, Japan - have a Buddhist tradition.

Source: Daily Mail

Dogs and Pigs Are Unclean for Islam

Islam considers certain animals impure, notably dogs and pigs. This is not a “cultural” thing, it’s a “religious” thing: the Koran says this explicitly and repeatedly.

There have already been many cases of Muslim taxi and bus drivers who have refused to accept even blind passengers with guide dogs, because they consider the animals impure. This makes you wonder: what future will dogs have in a Muslim-majority UK, or Holland, or Germany, or Italy and so on?

Generally speaking, what will be the future of all animals, not just dogs, in a Muslim-majority Europe? Will the conquests (albeit small but still conquests) already made for the animals continue, will they be maintained or will they be eroded?

I very much doubt that we can be optimistic, if we look at how animals are treated in the rest of the world.

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Anti-Halal-Meat on Facebook

I have posted on my other blog Enza Ferreri Anti-Halal-Meat Campaigns on Facebook:

There is a new flurry of activity of mostly British anti-halal-meat campaigns on Facebook. I have liked, joined, friended, subscribed to all I found, signed petitions, encouraged them and posted on their walls.

I invite you to do the same if you like them. Here they are.

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UK Circus with Animals Closes Down, Few Remain

The Great British Circus, one of just four remaining circuses that use wild animals in the UK, has announced that it will close down.

The Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS), as we all, is happy at the news but reminds us that there are still six other circuses using wild or domestic animals in performances in the UK.

Liz Tyson, Director of the CAPS, said that her organization will follow the developments to find out what will happen to the animals when the Great British Circus closes down, which is a matter of concern.

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Much More than Instinct

Complex emotions and behaviours are not very easily explained with the sole concept of "instinct".

Otters holding hands

Man Faces Animal Cruelty Charge for Abandoning Dog on Colorado Mountain

We are on the right track. Charges like this should be levelled more often, followed by just punishments.

A man left on the mountains his dog Missy, who was then found moribund by a couple who intend to adopt her although the man would like her back.

Upon their return, the hikers entrusted the dog to a local vet, who told Washburn that it was “the miracle dog of the century, and although she was severely dehydrated she has, miraculously, no long-term or permanent damage.”

... The sheriff’s department also has a rescue team, and other hikers told them about Missy being stranded on Mount Bierstadt during the weekend. However, the rescue team was unable to respond because it is solely reserved for human rescues.

It shouldn't be. That is obviously not right.

What is particularly shocking in this story is that Missy would probably, like so many other dogs, have given her life for her human companion who abandoned her to what he knew was a probable death.

Source: ABC

Say NO to Halal Slaughter in Skegness

There is a new Facebook page: Say NO to Halal slaughter in Skegness. It campaigns against the opening of a Halal slaughterhouse in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England.

It started on 27 July of this year and it alreday has 114 likes (including mine) and 164 talking about this.

You can also sign the relative petition to the East Lindsey District Council. I signed it and encourage you to sign too.

If you're worried about this being an implicit endorsement of other methods of slaughter, you can write in the optional "reason" field what I wrote, or something to that effect:

"All slaughter of animals for food is wrong, distressful and painful for the animals. I oppose all slaughter, halal and non. The halal and kosher methods are more agonizing than the more 'humane', or rather less cruel, alternative."

Also check this website:

Boycot Halal

People are doing something for the animals. It's becoming a rather large, if not mass, movement. If you are for the animals, if you want to help them, what valid reason have you got not to contribute to it?

This anti-halal movement also has the great merit of putting animals on the map. Far from being an endorsement of non-halal slaughter, it makes people reflect on slaughter and what it does to animals.

Furthermore, it gives us an opportunity to explain what's wrong with all forms of slaughter, as in the example of the above petition.

Related posts:

Wake Up, Animal Rights People!

Anti-Halal is Our Battle Too

Intelligence and Bravery of Dogs Shown Yet Again

Explain this by mere instinct, if you can! How did the dog understand that the fire truck was the right place for the rescue of her pups?

Amanda, a heroic, intelligent mother dog, saved her 10-day-old puppies from a house fire in Santa Rosa de Temuco, Chile.

Realizing that her babies were in danger, the German Shepherd mix picked them up in her mouth, carried them one by one away from the burning house, and gently placed them onto the steps of the nearby firefighters' truck.

Mother and babies were then taken to the vet's. Although one of the puppies, Amparo, did not survive her burns, the other four were fine.

The vet, Felipe Lara, said that Amanda had been defensive of her puppies when people tried to take them away from her to look after them. Eventually she let them check over her pups but she remained with injured Amparo and never wanted to let her from her sight.

Anti-Halal is Our Battle Too

The opposition to halal meat in the UK is gathering momentum every passing minute.

A CAMPAIGN group opposing halal slaughter at a Skegness abattoir has gathered almost 100 members in a matter of days.

As I explain in my other blog, it's simply absurd that the animal rights movement does not get involved in the anti-halal campaigns.

All the politically correct or abolitionist objections are ridiculous.