The story below ran in Beeld and Die Burger on 30 September 2009
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
By: André le Roux
Media24-Afrika-kantoor
’n Zoeloe-ritueel waartydens jong mans ’n lewende bul met hul kaal hande uitmekaar skeur, is op ’n internasionale konferensie van tien Afrika-lande in Kenia veroordeel.
’n Petisieveldtog is verlede week by die eerste pan-Afrika-konferensie oor dierewelsyn in Nairobi van stapel gestuur om die Suid-Afrikaanse parlement te oorreed om ’n einde aan dié ritueel te maak.
Dit vind volgens me. Louise van der Merwe van die organisasie Compassion in World Farming op die eerste Saterdag van Desember in Koning Goodwill Zwelithini se teenwoordigheid by Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal plaas.
Die ritueel staan bekend as Ukweshwama (die fees van die eerste vrugte) en maak deel uit van Ukubuthwa, ’n groter geleentheid, waartydens die Zoeloe-koning sy militêre regimente saamroep, sê mnr. Sbu Mseleku, ’n kenner van Zoeloe-kultuur.
“Tydens die ritueel word ’n groot, swart bul uit die koning se eie kuddes gekies en in ’n kraal gejaag waar tien jong Zoeloe-krygers hom kaalhand takel, plattrek en verskeur.” Dit vind volgens Mseleku nie meer gereeld plaas nie.
Die internasionale petisie teen dié Zoeloe-gebruik is geteken deur verteenwoordigers van Somalië, Uganda, Egipte, die Demokratiese Republiek van die Kongo, Nigerië, Suid-Afrika, Ethiopië, Tanzanië, Sierra Leone en Zimbabwe.
“Ons agiteer al drie jaar lank in die parlement teen die gebruik,” sê Van der Merwe.
Sy het korrespondensie daaroor tussen haar organisasie en dr. Pallo Jordan, voormalige minister van kultuur, aan Beeld beskikbaar gestel.
In dié e-poswisseling in April vanjaar sê Jordan Suid-Afrika se Grondwet bevestig kulturele en godsdienstige vryheid.
“Sommige mense in Suid-Afrika beskou die fees van die eerste vrugte as heilig. Dit sluit gebruike in wat ander Suid-Afrikaners as afstootlik, wreed, brutaal, heidens en barbaars beskou.
“Sommige Suid-Afrikaners besny hul seuns in die eerste maand ná geboorte. Ander sal dit as kindermishandeling . . . en onmenslik beskou.
“Ja, ons kan wel dink dit (die Zoeloe-ritueel) is barbaars, maar die Grondwet verplig my om dit te respekteer.”
Kommentaar kon nie van me. Lulu Xingwana, huidige minister van kuns en kultuur, verkry word nie.
André le Roux,
Africa Editor Media24
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KZN Bull ritual unbecoming of modern face of Africa
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
With only three months to go before another bull is torn apart to die a terrified and agonising death, animal welfare representatives from 10 African countries have called on the South African Parliament to denounce this annual ritual as unbecoming of the modern face of Africa.
At the end of the first-ever pan-African conference on animal welfare, held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 21- 24 September 2009, delegates unanimously called for the recognition of animals as 'sentient', deserving of care, respect and protection.
Delegates also signed a petition calling on the South African Parliament to halt, with immediate effect, the bare handed killing of the bull at the First Fruit Festival in Kwa Zulu-Natal usually held on the first Saturday in December each year. The petition stated: "We believe that cruelty to animals is not the face of Africa that will see us contributing to global discourse as competent and dignified participants." Countries that took part in the conference included Somali, Uganda, Egypt, DR Congo, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and South Africa. (Click here to view petition 884.94 Kb).
For more about the conference, please go to: www.anaw.org or contact:
Josphat Ngonyo, Director: Africa Network for Animal Welfare.
P.O. Box 3731 - 00506
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 20 606 510
Telefax: +254 20 609 691
Mobile: +254 (0) 722 243 091 / +254 (0) 733 617 286
Email:
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This Press Release is issued by: Compassion in World Farming (South Africa). Compassion's delegate to the conference was Tozie Zokufa.
Letter to President Jacob Zuma
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
THE HUMANE EDUCATION TRUST
incorporating
Compassion in World Farming
(South Africa)
and
Animal Voice
P O Box 825, Somerset West, 7129, South Africa
Tel/fax: (021) 852 8160 E-mail:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Websites: www.animal-voice.org
www.humane-education.org.za
For Kind Attention:
President Jacob Zuma
Tuynhuis, Parliament
P O Box 15
Cape Town
8000
Tat‘ uMsholozi,
An Appeal to you by a recipient of the National Order of Luthuli
Please may I draw your attention to Page 9 of the enclosed issue of our magazine, Animal Voice.
As you will see, Jacqui Daane-van Rensburg, recipient of the National Order of Luthuli in March this year, has made an appeal to you to help educate our nation so that they understand that the way we treat animals is a reflection of who we are as people and that as decent human beings, we need to treat animals humanely. Our organisation is dedicated to creating communities where cruelty and neglect of animals in whatever shape or form, is not acceptable. Thus, we join Daane-van Rensburg in her appeal.
If, on occasion, you could include respect and care for animals in your message to the people, you would be taking a giant step forward for all of us. As Mahatma Gandhi said: The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
As an African myself, I would like to suggest that traditional African culture revered and respected animals. Western culture has demeaned them. The cost is a loss to the soul of Africa and its people.
I attended the Africa Network for Animal Welfare Conference in Nairobi at the end of September. It was attended by 11 different countries in Africa each with their own sickening stories about the plight of animals.
We urge you to be the living example our people need to guide them into the future. Please help spread the message that animals are sentient and although we do depend on them for food and so much else, they deserve to be treated with care and respect. Thank you for your consideration of this appeal. We hope you will respond to us positively.
Ndibonge Ndizithobile,
Tozie Zokufa
Education Outreach Officer
Local Scientists say antibiotic residue is present in the muscle of broiler chickens
Compassion in World Farming's CEO Philip Lymbery calls for a Paradigm Shift in Thinking...
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Over the weekend, leaders from the international animal welfare movement met in Paris to discuss what’s needed to succeed over the coming decades. One answer is that we need a paradigm shift in attitude toward animals at policy level. One that recognises that factory farming is not the way to feed the world sustainably. One that recognises the intrinsic value of animals and that denying this places global food supplies and ecological balances in grave danger.
One key point explored was the need to end factory farming worldwide by 2050. Why 2050? Because the coming decades will change profoundly our current world of plenty as climate change bites and precious resources dwindle.
For decades, environmental arguments against eating meat have been largely the preserve of vegetarian websites and magazines. Just two years ago it seemed inconceivable that significant numbers of western Europeans would be ready to down their steak knives and graze on vegetation for the sake of the planet. The rapidity with which this situation has changed is astonishing.
The breakthrough came in 2006 when the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) published a study, Livestock's Long Shadow, showing that the livestock industry is responsible for a staggering 18% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This is only the beginning of the story. In 2008, Brazil announced that in the 12 months to July it had lost 12,000 sq km (3m acres) of the Amazon rainforest, mainly to cattle ranchers and soy producers supplying European markets with animal feed. There is water scarcity in large parts of the world, yet livestock-rearing can use up to 200 times more water a kilogram (2.2lbs) of meat produced than is used in growing wheat. Given the volatile global food prices, it seems foolhardy to divert 1.2bn tonnes of fodder – including cereals – to fuel global meat consumption, which has increased by more than two and half times since 1970.
Barack Obama on diet and agribusiness. Watch this!
Wednesday, 06 May 2009
Watch this video to see what Barack Obama says about agribusiness and the need for a change in diet.
CNN Headline News - Inhumane Factory Farming Practices to Blame for Flu Outbreak
Friday, 01 May 2009
Swine Flu and Factory Farms: Fast Track to Disaster
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
April 25, 2009 by Michael Greger, M.D.
The H1N1 swine flu virus in North America currently concerning global public health officials is not the first triple hybrid human/bird/pig flu virus to be discovered.
First Found on a Factory Farm
The first was discovered in a North Carolina factory farm in 1998. Since the 1918 pandemic, an H1N1 flu virus has circulated in pig populations, becoming one of the most common causes of respiratory disease on North American pig farms.[1]
In August 1998, however, a barking cough resounded throughout a North Carolina pig farm in which all the thousands of breeding sows fell ill. An aggressive H3N2 virus was discovered, the type of influenza that had been circulating in humans since 1968.
Not only was this highly unusual—only a single strain of human virus had ever previously been isolated from an American pig population—but upon sequencing of the viral genome, researchers found that it was not just a double reassortment (a hybrid of human and pig virus, for example), but a never-before-described triple reassortment, a hybrid of three viruses—a human virus, a pig virus, and a bird virus.[2]
On World Water Day (22nd March) and on every other day, for that matter, we need to remember that meat-eating carries a giant water footprint. Did you know? It takes 13 million litres of water to raise and convert one cow or ox into meat! Did you know? To produce one portion of beef (250g) requires the same amount of drinking water that one person needs (at one litre a day) for 34 years of life!
For further info, go to: http://www.waterfootprint.org/
Click here to view petition 
April 25, 2009