[Animal Rights Petitions] Stop EU subsidies to livestock industry

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In the last fifty years, in Europe and elsewhere in the developed countries, there has been an exponential growth in the consumption of animal products (meat, fish, eggs, milk and dairy products). These foods are consumed at each meal in every household; quite unlike 50 years ago, when these were rare food items. Today these items cost extremely little, with respect to production costs, often even less than vegetable products, which inevitably require far less raw materials, energy and labor.

This is because farmers and fishermen receive direct and indirect funding both from the state and the European Union; in effect, what we do not pay for at the cash register we pay for in taxes. It is also paid for by those who choose not to buy animal products.

This is all the more serious as the consequences of the high consumption of meat, food and other animal products are greater on the environment, on human health and on the development of poorer countries. It would be justifiable and positive if individual states and the European Community supported and promoted only the consumption of foods that are healthy and have little environmental impact. Instead they do so with foods whose production has a devastating impact... and this is neither acceptable nor justifiable. It is up to us citizens to put an end to this situation and press for a more farsighted, sensible and sustainable policy in this matter, which will protect the environment and human health rather than harm them as it does now.

What we propose is to reverse this self-destructive trend, resulting in the following steps.

1. Put an end to every kind of subsidy for breeding, fishing, crop cultivations intended for farmed animals feed;

2. Charge for the purchase of farmed animals feed;

3. Ensure that the animal products the final consumer buys show their real price, not distorted by subsidies and other facilities granted to the producers and that also includes the environmental cost for the enormous negative impact of breeding (internalization of costs).

4. Put an end to campaigns for the promotion of animal products consumption financed by public money;

5. To support, with subsidies and information campaigns, the consumption of healthy plant-based food, to be less expensive for the final consumer, an easily obtainable result after the withdrawal of the enourmous costs of subsidies to farming and fishing.

We propose in the meantime a petition in support of Point 1 of this series of proposals.

The petition has the purpose to both bring forward this issue with the European Parliament and to raise the matter in various areas, because not enough attention is ever put to how damaging the practice of farming is and how therefore unacceptable it is to finance it with public funding.

Visit the Animal Blogs:

http://ppl4animals.blogspot.com

http://allanimalpetitions.blogspot.com

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Posted By PEOPLE FOR ANIMALS to Animal Rights Petitions at 11/12/2008 10:23:00 AM

Animal Abuse and the Olympics

We recently finished up with our petition on the animal abuse in China and the one specially related to the Olympic Cleaning up...
Thanks for the supporters..

For the ones who wish to read more on this act.. Here's an excerpt...

...Chinese restaurants carry at least 20 different dog dishes, with “fried long dog tails” being the latest craze among upscale Beijing yuppies. The market is so substantial that—similar to Burger King in America—there’s an outfit in China called Dog Meat King whose specialty is self-explanatory.

Researchers have published gruesome photographs of dead dogs being hung from hooks in meat lockers, while others showed butchers slitting dogs’ throats to drain the blood. Usually, Chinese diners prefer to eat puppies between the ages of 6-12 months because they are most tender. Over 300,000 dogs are slaughtered nationwide, many of them processed into a garish type of stew.

Some restaurants submerge live dogs in boiling water and pull their skin from the carcass in one swift motion. Other chefs will gut a dog from throat to stomach; then hold the “prize” aloft by the tail in front of their clients before cooking it. Many of those slaughtered are actually family pets (with collars still intact) that are stolen by poachers and transported in trucks without food or water.

After being pulled from their cages, videotaped footage shows them being brutalized with knives and clubs, or having their heads smashed on the ground to stun them. Ted Kerasole of Salon magazine describes the helpless dogs being gutted, strung aloft by wires, then skinned alive—a torturous process that takes up to seven minutes.

In China, dog meat is considered a delicacy that purportedly increases one’s sexual prowess and “warms their blood.” Another two million dogs and cats are murdered each year to supplement the international fur trade. Yes, felines are also eaten in China, as well as monkey brains and bird eyes......

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People for Animals

Whaling Effect!!

A Minke whale and her calf being towed up the rear ramp of the Japanese whaling vessel in the Southern Ocean. Australia released pictures of whales killed by a Japanese fleet ahead of a possible legal challenge to stop the annual slaughter, fuelling public anger over the practice. A photo of an adult Minke whale and her calf being towed up the rear ramp of a Japanese factory processing ship in Antarctic waters prompted headlines including 'They call it science'. (Reuters Photo)

Source: Times Of India

Contributor: Nikhil Jain

People for Animals

Over 5,000 turtles killed in Orissa since '07 BHUBANESWAR: Despite a ban on fishing along Orissa coast, a large number of rare Olive Ridley Turtles were killed and their carcasses found scattered on the beaches from Chilika lake to Paradip port, official sources said. While conservation groups claimed that at least 12,000 turtles were killed from November 2007 till date, the state government put the figure at 5,000. Over two lakh turtles visit Orissa coast every year for annual nesting. They lay eggs at Gahirmatha beach, Devi region and Rusikulya river mouth. According to international NGO, Greenpeace, over 4,000 carcasses were found in Devi region alone till February. "This is well above the average mortality figure of 2,470 recorded in the area in the last seven years", Sanjiv Gopal, oceans campaigner of Greenpeace said. The conservation group apprehends that turtle mortality could be more than the previous years with two months still left for completion of the nesting season of turtles. While lauding forest department for containing turtle mortality in Rushikulya river mouth, Greenpeace alleged that it had failed in checking movement of trawlers in Devi region. Gopal alleged that a large number of turtles were killed due to unchecked trawler movement near shore water disrupting turtle congregation leading to their death. The claims of the conservation group were supported by the Wildlife Society of Orissa which also blamed the state government for the large scale turtle mortality in the state's coast.

Contributed By: Nikhil Jain

Source : Internet

People for Animals