Press Release: WSPA New Zealand 

International Conference on the Trade Opportunities Animal Welfare has to Offer

A conference showing the benefits higher standards for animal welfare have to offer to international trade will take place in Brussels on 20 and 21 January 2009. The Conference on Global Trade and Farm Animal Welfare will bring together anyone from farmers, retailers, politicians, academics, international institutions and animal welfare organisations to present positive experiences of inclusion of animal welfare in the trade environment. This event, which follows a forum held in Brussels last April, is being organised by the Directorate-General for External Trade and the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers of the European Commission, together with Eurogroup for Animals, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Compassion in World Farming, and World Society for the Protection of Animals.

Dr Andy Thorpe, an economist at the University of Portsmouth, explained that a herd of 200 cows burp the annual equivalent amount of methane to the energy produced by a family car being driven 180,000km using 21,400 litres of petrol.

He added that while carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased by 31% during the past 250 years, methane, which has a higher warming potential and a longer lifetime in the atmosphere, has increased by 149% during the same period.

Sources: Breakingnews  - 21 October 2008

Traditional practices increase yield by 128 per cent in east Africa, says UN.

New evidence suggests that organic practices - derided by some as a Western lifestyle fad - are delivering sharp increases in yields, improvements in the soil and a boost in the income of Africa's small farmers.

Organic farming offers Africa the best chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition it has been locked in for decades, according to a major study from the United Nations to be presented today.

Sources: The Independent World - 22 October 2008

This fall, California voters will consider the most comprehensive farm animal rights law in the United States. The measure would ban cramped metal cages for egg-laying hens, metal gestation crates for pregnant sows, and veal crates for calves, all practices in which animals are kept so confined that they can barely move.

Earlier this year, the Colorado Legislature became the first in the nation to prohibit the use of gestation crates for pregnant pigs and veal crates for calves. Florida and Oregon voters have banned gestation crates, and Arizona voters banned both gestation crates and veal crates.

California's egg industry, which is the fifth largest in the country, is preparing an all-out campaign to defeat the measure. The United Egg Producers and the Pacific Egg & Poultry Association are arguing that the measure would threaten the health of hens and eggs, since hens allowed to roam free might contract avian diseases from exposure to the outside.
Sources: International Herald Tribune July 28, 2008

Compassion is pleased to announce the 2008 Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture:
Global Warning: The impact of meat production and consumption on climate change
To be given by Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

BUY TICKETS ONLINE AT CIWF.ORG
In London on Monday 8 September 2008 from 5.45pm: Savoy Place (The Institution of Engineering & Technology), 2 Savoy Place, London WC2R 0BL

Leading climate change expert to give ground-breaking Lecture for Compassion:
Compassion in World Farming is delighted to announce that this year's Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture, held in memory of the charity's founder, is being given by Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the IPCC, joint winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.

From: http://www.njfarms.org/

"The Court therefore strikes as invalid the definition of 'routine husbandry practices'"

TRENTON, NJ—July 30, 2008— In a unanimous landmark decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court today struck down the New Jersey Department of Agriculture's (NJDA) regulations exempting all routine husbandry practices as "humane" and ordered the agency to readdress many of the state-mandated standards for the treatment of farm animals. A broad coalition of humane organizations, farmers, veterinarians, and environmental and consumer groups, led by Farm Sanctuary and represented by the public interest law firms Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal, Washington, D.C., and Egert & Trakinski, Hackensack, N.J., brought the case to the state's Supreme Court.

In this monumental case, the Court ruled that factory farming practices cannot be considered humane simply because they are widely used, setting a legal precedent for further actions to end the most egregious abuses on factory farms throughout the U.S. The Court also rejected the practice of tail-docking cattle, and the manner in which the NJDA had provided for farm animals to be mutilated without anesthesia.

Dear Animal Friend – Please pass this email on to anyone you think may be interested. 

National Animal Week is fast approaching and will be celebrated, as usual, between October 4th - 12th. In addition, October 2 is International Farmed Animal Day and coincides with the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.   

We would like to draw your attention to the wonderful humane education resources that are now available to all educators who want to play a role in developing a sense of respect for all life, among our young citizens. 

Please see our resource list by going to www.het.org.za or email us for further information. 

This letter was sent to The Newspaper Editors: Cape Times, The Argus, Daily Mail, Pretoria News, The Star, The Citizen, The Mercury, Die Burger, Natal Witness and Mail & Guardian.

Dear Editor -
           
When Wally pulled through his open-heart surgery, screened live on SABC3 Television on Saturday night, it was as if Nando’s was as much a part of the proceedings as the team of doctors. I personally found the chicken heart-beat that accompanied Nando’s' every appearance during the hours’-long procedure utterly inappropriate. 

Wally’s bad life-style was the reason for his heart condition, yet the message was ‘Eat more chicken; eat more chicken’. 

Not only should Wally be eating a whole lot less chicken in future (and more vegetarian alternatives), but there are other compelling reasons for this apart from health considerations: 

In a world in which animal rights are gaining ground, barbecue season should make me feel guilty. My hunch is that in a century or two, our descendants will look back on our factory farms with uncomprehending revulsion. But in the meantime, I love a good burger.

This comes up because the most important election this November that you’ve never heard of is a referendum on animal rights in California, the vanguard state for social movements. Proposition 2 would ban factory farms from raising chickens, calves or hogs in small pens or cages.

Livestock rights are already enshrined in the law in Florida, Arizona, Colorado and here in Oregon, but California’s referendum would go further and would be a major gain for the animal rights movement. And it’s part of a broader trend. Burger King announced last year that it would give preference to suppliers that treat animals better, and when a hamburger empire expostulates tenderly about the living conditions of cattle, you know public attitudes are changing.

Read the full article here

Date: July 31st, 2008   

The Thursday, July 31, New York Times includes a powerful column by Nicholas D. Kristof headed, "A Farm Boy Reflects." (pA21). The column is in support of California's Prop 2, which Kristof describes as, "the most important election this November that you've never heard."

Kristof also calls it "a referendum on animal rights in California" and tells us, "Proposition 2 would ban factory farms from raising chickens, calves or hogs in small pens or cages."

While "small" may be a relative term, it actually bans raising those animals in cages so small that they cannot turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs.