We have got a GREAT chance to end
caged farming for good.
Let’s take it, and eliminate the
depressing and horrific conditions of our farmed and other animals
for ever.
Over 342 million animals suffer in
cages in Europe for the production of food - rabbits, ducks, calves,
pigs and others.
Over 1.4 million people signed the
citizen initiative to #EndTheCageAge. And last Friday the European
Agricultural Commission voted for a ban on this cruel, outdated and
unnecessary practice!
This week the entire European
Parliament will vote on this issue. So the time is now!
Let's push our MEPs to take the
right decision and vote for a EU-ban on keeping animals in cages!
What can YOU do?
Please email / Tweet/ use Instagram
to message our Irish MEPs (names and email addresses below), as it
is imperative that they are inundated with emails from the public.
This will be in conjunction with
our sister parties in Europe, to push this legislation through.
Ireland has at least 2,017,304 caged animals!
Somewhere between 7th and 10th of June the European Parliament will
vote on ‘End the Cage Age’ resolution, which would end the use of cages in the animal exploitation
industry. It will be an important vote.
Over 1.4 million people have already signed the European Citizens'
Initiative asking to end cages.
We worked together to secure over 1.4 million signatures
for the European Citizens’ Initiative against cages.
This movement is representative of the 94% of people in
Europe who believe protecting the welfare of farm animals is
important, and 82% who believe farm animals should be better
protected. Cages are a desolate reflection on our society.
Now is the time for the European Commission to show
that they really listen to European people.
Gráinne
Armstrong poses the question - should Ireland
have an ANIMAL CRIMES REGISTER?
We have a sex offender’s
register; we also have a points system for driving offences.
Registers are society’s way of keeping people in check. We
have crime statistics released each year. We can see how
many people are killed yearly, also the figures on rape,
burglaries, how many children are in care and domestic
abuse. But we have no way of knowing how many animals are
murdered each year by humans.
Recently a picture surfaced of a dog’s body dumped
on waste ground. A white fertiliser bag is its final
shroud. It elicited the usual hue and cry for a few
days, but still, the body lies there rotting. What
is clear from this photo is that the dog was not
loved. Did it die from natural causes, or was it
murdered? The fact it was discarded in such a way
would suggest the latter. Nobody in Authority cares
enough to find out the answer; it is, after all, a
‘littering’ offence. There are many cases of animals
dumped, obviously murdered, their carcasses
‘littering’ the countryside, evidence of a cruel and
violent death.
I vividly remember reading an article about
‘Phoenix’ a female pit-bull terrier that was doused
with petrol then set on fire. I remember it took me
three times to read it in its entirety. My mind
couldn’t comprehend this wanton cruelty. But out of
her ashes, good people responded quickly. I have
attached a link to the story if people want to read.
There are numerous studies linking animal abuse with
interpersonal abuse and violence, and yet in
Ireland, there is reluctance by lawmakers and
enforcers to acknowledge this. Our current laws in
regards to animal welfare and abuse are adequate.
Still, it is shameful that the full weight of
appropriate sentencing is not handed down to the
perpetrators, if they are apprehended.
Increasingly in some Countries such as America, Law
Enforcement, Judiciary, Child Protection and Psychological
services are beginning to work together. They see the
correlation between animal abuse/murder and other crimes.
Animal abuse is more often than not a sign or a warning of
other abhorrent deeds carried out on humans by humans.
There seems to be an unwillingness or total ignorance to
explore these concepts in Ireland. Daily we see social media
posts of animals mistreated starved left to the elements or
murdered. It’s rare to see cases coming before a Court and
if they do sentencing is lenient, usually a fine, a ban from
keeping animals for a few years, or a short (as in weeks)
prison sentence. This is mind-boggling; would you allow a
child abuser/murderer to take care of children again? Hoping
that they have magically changed their callous ways healed
their violent psyche, without any therapeutic intervention
or rehabilitation. There are reasons for parole hearings.
They evaluate if the prisoner has made an effort to reform,
and is ready to contribute to society purposefully. Yet
nothing on this scale is offered to a persistent animal
abuser, just a slap on the wrist! Again, there is a 65 per
cent chance that if someone mistreats/murders an animal,
they will go on to do the same to a human being.
We have a sex offender’s register; we also have a points
system for driving offences. Registers are society’s way of
keeping people in check. We have crime statistics released
each year. We can see how many people are killed yearly,
also the figures on rape, burglaries, how many children are
in care and domestic abuse. But we have no way of knowing
how many animals are murdered each year by humans. We need
to register animal crimes in Ireland to show precise data of
how common these heinous crimes are. We need it as a
deterrent, also as a means to convince judges that their
sentencing is to light. Think about it, if you come before a
judge for a driving offence your licence could be revoked
for life. If you injure/kill someone while driving, you may
never drive again. Sentences handed down are listed
throughout agencies so that you can never get a licence or
insurance back. With lesser offences, you may be forced to
undergo driving instruction once more. The same applies to
child abuse grievous harm or murdering another human being.
You will not be allowed to reconnect with society until you
undergo many years in prison with rehabilitative training.
When you are released your crime is still attached to your
name, you can never lose it. So why can’t we do this with
wanton animal abusers? Again we know they are massive
correlations between animal murder and a propensity to cause
severe damage to human beings at a later stage.
It is incredible how many Councillors at a local level have
said ‘sure we don’t have a problem really’ that’s because we
have no comprehensive data on file to make them see.
Politicians need facts and figures to work from; they need
to see in data form how common these misdeeds are. They need
to see if interventions to abate crime are working.
Would it be too outlandish to ensure that when an animal is
found dead that a vet and a Garda forensic person attends,
takes at least some samples, tries to determine the cause of
death? Probably I hear you say, just for an animal. Yes
just for an animal because next time it could be a child. If
the public are aware due diligence is happening, it might
act as a deterrent. We regularly see that some animals are
now dumped at rescues instead of being discarded in the
‘good old fashioned’ way. The message is slowly getting
through that society will not tolerate these awful sights
anymore.
An animal crimes register should then be accessible to
animal rescues, breeders, park rangers I.S.P.C.A, and other
organisations that deal with animal/child welfare daily. It
should be added to by Courts /Police if a conviction is
secured. Rescues can then check up to see if ‘potential
adopters’ are without a conviction, before handing over
defenceless animals.
You may think this is over the top, and you may be right
because it will be your taxes that would fund someone in
Authority to keep this register. But remember next time
these people take a bag of kittens and drown them, or buy
piglets to blood greyhounds, or adopt small dogs using them
as bait in dog fighting, you are also condoning the vast
sums of money that is earned underground from these
activities. And when they finish murdering these defenceless
animals, there is a high probability that they will then
injure or murder a human being. We cannot turn a blind eye
anymore, or show our disgust for a day or two. We need to
start getting this data recorded so that the Authorities are
forced to do their jobs also. As Melinda Merck (forensic
veterinarian) once said “People who commit animal cruelty
are usually criminals in other ways.”
Who am I? I’m not
sure when I was brought to this place, but I know I’ve been
here a long time. I live in a concrete room, with 4 walls,
no door, no way out. A prison. The roof above me is very
high, there is no sunlight, no windows, no escape. There is
only darkness. I have never seen a blue sky, never felt the
heat of the sun on my manky flea infested filthy body. I
sleep in a plastic box. I have no cushions, no blankets, no
comfort I have no life. I spend all day everyday in this
hell hole. There are many others around me but I cannot see
them. I guess they live like this too. Most days the monster
comes, it pours water into my already filthy bowl and some
disgusting nuts into the other filthy bowl. I try to hide
when the monster comes, I try to make myself as small and
quiet as I possibly can. I have learnt not to look for
attention. The bruises and lumps and broken bones beneath my
stinking skin have taught me not to look for attention.
Sometimes the monster doesn’t come. Sometimes there is no
food, no water. Sometimes my little body aches and cries so
loudly I pray the monster never comes for fear it will hear
my aches. Every now and again I am taken away. I am dragged
and kicked and thrown into a pen with another dog. I am then
held so tightly by the monster, it’s hands gripping my
emaciated little body so tightly I fear I might break in
two. My ears are so dirty and heavy but I can still hear the
laughing and shouting so I stay still until it’s over and I
am being dragged again.
Back to my concrete
room, back to my hell. I hear babies all around me crying
for their mothers, I hear mothers all around me crying for
their babies. Soon I will be one of those mothers. I wait in
my concrete room and plastic bed for my babies to come. I
wait in a sea of faeces and urine to welcome my babies into
this hell. My eyes are so heavy and tight, I must use my
filthy paw to try to open them. The smell, the smell is so
bad..... My babies come...4,5,6 the pain is excruciating but
I love them all. I clean them as best I can, choking not on
their afterbirth but on the dried faeces embedded in my own
rotting teeth. The monster comes around a bit more now, it
grabs my babies hard, they scream in pain but the monster
does not care. It throws them back to me. They are safe
again...in this cess pit with me they are safe. I have a
light over my bed now and some dirty newspaper. I feel warm
again. But not for long. Soon my babies will leave me. Soon
I will have nothing again to keep me company except the
aches in my body and the cries all around me. I will cry for
my babies, I will add those tears to the cold and the hunger
that will come back to me once they have left. I hope my
babies have better lives than I. I do not know what I have
done to deserve this, I hope that one day I will close my
eyes and never open them again. WHO AM I? I AM A PUPPY MILL
DOG. I AM SOMEONE.
Hormone replacement therapy is a term
widely know to women of a certain age, it is also a term
know to their partners albeit for different reasons! BUT . .
. do you know where these hormones originate from and
exactly how they are sourced? HRT is medically know as
PREMARIN. The name is taken from 3 words, PREgnant MARe
UrINe. Which is exactly what it is. Pregnant horses used to
produce this hormone are called PMUs. In the 1940s it was
discovered that oestrogen taken from a pregnant mares urine
helped relieve the symptoms of menopause. Now more than 60
years on it is an industry. As if on an assembly line,
impregnated mares are tethered in narrow stalls, unable to
turn or lie down fitted with uncomfortable bags and
regularly denied access to water so as to make the urine as
concentrated as possible. They stand like this for the best
part of 6 months.
After giving birth to their foals,
they are allowed a short period of time to nurse, maybe a
couple of months after which the foals are torn from their
mothers and simply sent for slaughter and the mare is
impregnated again for her urine and returned to her stall.
In 2002 a study by the Womens Health Initiative linked long
term use of Premarin to increased risk of stroke and blood
clots. Yet still the drug is made widely available.
Many animal welfare organisations have
described the practice of sourcing Premarin as both
“unthinkable and unforgivable“. Even more unforgivable is
that this whole cruel process is completely unnecessary.
There are an abundance of plant based alternatives and
synthetic oestrogens that are not only safe and effective
but some are also considered superior in both performance
and patient tolerance. In conclusion one must agree that the
cruelty of this industry is beyond reproach, subjecting the
animals to a lifetime of absolute unrelenting misery,
forcing them to produce offspring and then slaughtering said
offspring as babies. There is no justification for this kind
of barbarism. When a mare has passed her breeding years she
is discarded, like that of a dairy cow or a sow and loaded
onto the truck for slaughter. Mankind truly is an
abomination.
The following drugs all contain Premarin: Prempro,
Prephase, Prempac
The following are the generic alternatives: Estrace,
Estraderm, Ogen, Orthoest, Estratab, Menest
. . . and synthetic oestrogen: Cenestin
All cited as an advancement that eliminates the need
for animal derived oestrogen.
