BULLETIN AUTOMNE 2006 (3)

[Animal 0]

18 juin 2006 à 20 h 32


Un pas de plus vers la reprise de la chasse
Photo: AFP/Greenpeace/Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

Les partisans d'une reprise de la chasse commerciale à la baleine ont remporté une victoire symbolique, dimanche, à la réunion annuelle de la Commission baleinière internationale (CBI).

Une résolution jugeant que le moratoire sur la chasse commerciale, imposé en 1986, n'était « plus nécessaire dorénavant » a été adoptée par 33 voix contre 32.

Cette résolution a été présentée par Saint-Kitts-et-Nevis, pays hôte de la réunion. Elle ne signifie toutefois pas une reprise de la chasse commerciale du cétacé, puisque la levée du moratoire nécessite l'approbation de 75 % des pays membres de la CBI.

Il s'agit cependant d'une victoire politique pour le Japon, partisan d'une reprise de la chasse commerciale, qui pourrait faire valoir qu'une majorité d'États membres de la CBI souhaitent la fin du moratoire. Tokyo soutient que le moratoire a été si efficace que les baleines sont maintenant assez nombreuses pour reprendre la chasse commerciale.

De plus, les partisans d'une reprise de la chasse commerciale à la baleine avancent que cette activité permet aux pays en développement de générer des revenus. Cet argument est toutefois rejeté par la délégation du Brésil, qui souligne que l'observation des cétacés peut s'avérer lucrative pour l'industrie touristique.

Parmi les signataires de la résolution adoptée dimanche, on retrouve le Japon, l'Islande et la Norvège. Les deux premiers prétendent chasser la baleine à des fins scientifiques, ce que de nombreux pays et organisations écologistes remettent en question. De son côté, la Norvège est le seul pays à faire fi du moratoire de 1986 et à poursuivre la chasse à des fins commerciales. Les trois pays chassent au total quelque 2000 baleines par année.

http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/International/2006/06/18/005-CBI-dimanche.shtml

[Animal 0]

Whole Foods bans sale of live lobsters


By LIZ AUSTIN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jun 15, 7:55 PM ET



AUSTIN, Texas - Customers craving fresh crustaceans will have to look beyond Whole Foods Market Inc. after the natural-foods grocery chain decided Thursday to stop selling live lobsters and crabs on the grounds that it's inhumane.




The Austin-based grocer spent seven months studying the sale of live lobsters from ship to supermarket aisle, trying to determine whether the creatures suffer along the way.

In some stores, they experimented with "lobster condos," filling tanks with stacks of large pipes the critters can crawl inside. And they moved the tanks behind seafood counters and away from children's tapping fingers.

Ultimately, Whole Foods management decided to immediately stop selling live lobsters and soft-shell crabs, saying they could not ensure the creatures are treated with respect and compassion.

"We place as much emphasis on the importance of humane treatment and quality of life for all animals as we do on the expectations for quality and flavor," John Mackey, Whole Foods' co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.

Animal rights activities were thrilled with the decision, not just because of the way lobsters are harvested, shipped and stored but because of the fate that awaits many of them — being dropped alive into a pot of boiling water.

"The ways that lobsters are treated would warrant felony cruelty to animals charges if they were dogs or cats," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

In making its decision, Whole Foods pointed to a November report from the European Food Safety Authority Animal Health and Welfare panel that it said concluded all decapod crustaceans, including lobsters and crabs, appear to have some degree of awareness, feel pain and can learn.

But other scientists and seafood industry officials said Thursday that lobsters have such primitive insect-like nervous systems they don't even have brains and can't experience pain the way animals and humans do.

For example, lobsters can shed a claw that's stuck between two rocks and move on like nothing happened, said Diane Cowan, a marine biologist who studies lobster behavior in Maine.

"They certainly have a nervous system and respond to external stimuli, but whether you can call it pain I don't know," Cowan said.

About 183 million pounds of lobster are caught each year in the United States and Canada, and about 25 percent of that is sold live, according to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine.

"People who want lobster will have lobster," said Bill Adler, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association. "If this particular chain does not want to serve it, people will go elsewhere."

From now on, Whole Foods will only sell frozen raw and cooked lobster products at its more than 180 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, said Margaret Wittenberg, vice president of quality standards. And the chain will only deal with suppliers meeting their standards for humane treatment, handling and processing.

Whole Foods leaders will reconsider the decision if they see evidence that it's possible to ensure lobsters and crabs are treated humanely throughout the supply chain, she said.

___

On the Net:

Whole Foods Market Inc., http://www.wholefoods.com

Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association, http://www.lobstermen.com

Lobster Institute, http://www.lobsterinstitute.org

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060615/ap_on_bi_ge/live_lobsters

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Citation :

.... the natural-foods grocery chain decided Thursday to stop selling live lobsters and crabs on the grounds that it's inhumane.

Woar !!!!! C'est quand même toute une nouvelle !!!!!

[Animal 0]

Ben oui Cé ! Je suis contente qu'on n'en ait pas encore parlé ailleurs, car ça sera une bonne nouvelle à ajouter dans notre bulletin

[Animal 0]

Thursday » June 22 » 2006

Lobsters pampered, potted
'Lobster U', humane handling are keys to large U.S. deal for Nova Scotia
company

Richard Foot
CanWest News Service


Thursday, June 22, 2006


HALIFAX -- The lobster business used to be a simple matter of traps and
pots -- traps for catching and pots for cooking.

But now, a Nova Scotia company, eager to appease finicky Americans worried
about the welfare of the lobsters they eat, has added a "lobster condo" to the
system: A humane holding tank where caught lobsters can live stress-free in
happy solitude before being eaten.

Clearwater Seafoods has also developed a "Lobster University" to teach
humane lobster-handling practices to its fishermen and staff, as well as a new
high-tech, high-pressure killing chamber that serves as a politically correct
replacement to the old fashioned method of dunking the slippery beasts in
boiling water.

Last week, Clearwater's cutting-edge practices paid off. Whole Foods
Market, a high-end national U.S. grocery chain, named Clearwater its exclusive
supplier of lobster meat, in keeping with the grocer's efforts to sell only
humanely harvested animal products.

"We handle lobsters differently from the rest of the industry," says Colin
MacDonald, CEO of Halifax-based Clearwater. "We employ full-time biologists, who
have developed methods to reduce the stress on the animal and handle lobsters in
a manner consistent with their fragile nature and their survival."

Although the value of Clearwater's deal with Whole Foods hasn't been made
public, MacDonald calls it "a feather in our cap to be recognized" by the U.S.
company.

Whole Foods announced last week that it would no longer sell live lobsters
in its stores. A seven month internal task force -- perhaps prompted by Lobster
Liberation, an anti-lobster campaign mounted by People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals (PETA) -- convinced Whole Foods that selling live lobsters out of
holding tanks was inhumane and bad for its public image.

Margaret Wittenberg, a Whole Foods vice-president, said: "Many lobsters
are held in storage facilities for several months," adding that it was
impossible to "ensure the health and well-being of lobsters outside their
natural environment for such a long period of time."

Whole Foods will continue to sell uncooked, frozen lobster meat -- but
only that supplied by Clearwater, whose "different handling techniques," the
grocer says, "support the natural conditions to help lobsters thrive."

While Clearwater still sells live lobsters to other customers, the
flash-frozen lobster meat it packs for Whole Foods comes from animals
instantaneously shocked to death in a high-pressure water chamber.

The Clearwater deal did not sit well with New England lobstermen.

Fumed Maine lobsterman Jim Holden, in an interview on U.S. National Public
Radio last week after Whole Foods announced its decision: "This is out of
control. Anybody with a cause today, people are against everything. I think
they'd have us all eating radishes -- and pretty soon those radishes will have
feelings too."

The Vancouver Sun 2006



Debra Probert
Executive Director
Vancouver Humane Society
303-8623 Granville Street
Vancouver, B.C. V6P 5A2
604-266-9744

[Animal 0]

jeudi 22 juin 2006, 17h41
Pays-Bas: second cas de nouveau variant de Creutzfeldt-Jakob


LA HAYE (AFP) - Un second cas de nouveau variant de la maladie de Creutzfeldt-Jakob (nvMCJ), la forme humaine de la "maladie de la vache folle", a été enregistré aux Pays-Bas, a annoncé jeudi le ministère de la Santé.

Le premier diagnostic a été posé "récemment", selon un communiqué du ministère précisant qu'il a été confirmé notamment par le laboratoire européen spécialisé à Edimbourg (Grande-Bretagne).

Aucun détail n'a été fourni sur l'identité de la victime ni sur l'éventuel mode de contamination. Le ministère a toutefois précisé que le malade n'avait reçu ni organe ni transfusion et que l'hypothèse la plus probable était "la consommation de viande de boeuf contaminée".

La victime n'est ni donneur d'organe ni donneur de sang, a-t-on précisé de même source, excluant donc une transmission de la maladie.

Le premier cas néerlandais de cette maladie pour l'instant toujours mortelle avait été révélé en avril 2005, et la victime, une femme de 26 ans, était décédée en mai de la même année.

Le nouveau variant de la maladie de Creutzfeldt-Jakob (nvMCJ), forme humaine de la maladie bovine (ESB), est une maladie neurodégénérative mortelle. Dix ans après sa découverte, on ignore encore sa réelle durée d'incubation et la fréquence des contaminations. Moins de 200 cas ont été comptabilisés dans le monde, dont 161 au Royaume Uni et 17 en France.

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/22062006/202/pays-bas-second-cas-de-nouveau-variant-de-creutzfeldt-jakob.html

[Animal 0]

Jun. 22, 2006 18:56
Simhon to establish animal welfare committee
By JPOST.COM STAFF


Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon on Thursday ordered the establishment of a working committee inside his ministry that would advance the welfare of animals in Israel.

Simhon made the decision to form the committee in a Thursday meeting with dozens of representatives of animal rights groups.

The committee would include representatives of advocacy groups, veterinary services and the Ministry of the Environment.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150885829560&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Animal 0]

Catalonia moves to abolish bullfighting
By Fiona Govan in Madrid
(Filed: 22/06/2006)



Catalonia's parliament is poised today to take the first step to abolishing bullfighting throughout the autonomous region in north-eastern Spain.

The campaign against what many see as a cruel and unnecessary part of Spanish culture has intensified in recent years, with the people of Catalonia at the forefront of the movement.


Bullrings cannot be closed down without a change in the law


Barcelona, the capital of the region, declared itself "an anti-bullfighting city" two years ago following a series of public protests and a petition of more than 250,000 names.

Another 22 Catalan municipalities followed suit. Despite these public declarations the bullrings can be closed only by a change of the law, a process that ERC, the pro-independence party of the republican Left, will initiate today with a motion to amend existing animal cruelty legislation, from which bullfighting is currently exempt.

''We want to change this anomaly and include bullfights within the law," said Oriol Amors, a spokesman for the party and a member of the Catalan parliament.

The motion is thought to have the majority of support in the parliament, not least because it is seen as a means to assert Catalonia's independence from Madrid, the Spanish capital, where the sport remains highly popular.

The amendment is aimed at banning only bullfighting and does not extend to other spectacles involving bulls such as "corre bou", where the public chase bulls through the streets and "bouembolat", which involves putting lighted fires on the bulls' horns.

''At the moment we want to ban only bullfighting. In a few years, we will stop these other forms of cruelty to bulls," said Mr Amors.

Manuel Cases, the director of the animal protection group ADDA, which has spearheaded the campaign to abolish bullfights, said yesterday: "We have worked hard to show the government that the majority of the Catalan people don't want bullfights any more.

''This fact is clear and there is every chance that it will be banned by the end of the year."

According to a survey conducted by the group, 71 per cent of Catalans are opposed to bullfights. "The plaza at Monumental [in Barcelona] is virtually empty most Sundays during the bullfighting season," Mr Cases added.

''It's mainly old men and curious tourists from the Costa Brava who fill the seats and then leave horrified after they've seen a couple of bulls killed."

The minority who do support "las corridas de toros" condemn legislative moves towards a ban.

''It would be a cultural and intellectual loss if bullfights were banned," said Luis Corrales, the director of Defensa de la Fiesta, an organisation set up to protect and promote bullfighting.




sport.telegraph

[Animal 0]

Pigeon Condo is developing luxury housing for pigeons at the desirable intersection of Yonge Street and the Lakeshore Boulevard, in the heart of Toronto's revitalized waterfront.

http://www.pigeoncondo.com/

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

YES !

Sur Lakeshore, à Dorval, il y a des condos pour hirondelles. Il en faudrait aussi pour pigeons.

[Animal 0]

Pêcheries
Des truites d'élevage abattues par millions


Mise à jour le mardi 13 juin 2006, 17 h 22 .

Des millions de truites d'élevage ont été abattues ces dernières semaines au Québec parce qu'elles contenaient des traces d'un produit antifongique cancérigène.

Le vert de malachite, un produit utilisé depuis des lustres pour prévenir les infections à champignons, est à l'origine de cette situation, qui touche notamment plusieurs piscicultures de l'Estrie.

Le Canada en a banni l'usage de ce produit en 2005 pour les élevages destinés à la consommation humaine, à cause d'un risque minime que le produit provoque le cancer.

Au Québec, l'interdiction est venue plus tard, ce qui fait que des pisciculteurs ont continué à utiliser le produit. Ces derniers mois, on en a trouvé des traces dans au moins 25 piscicultures.

Le ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec a ordonné l'abattage de 100 tonnes de truites. Chez Albert Castonguay, par exemple, le quart des 300 000 truites arc-en-ciel ont dû être éliminées.

Sur les neuf étangs qu'ils possèdent, quatre ont été placés en quarantaine en attendant le résultat de tests et deux sont condamnés. Dans un seul bassin, 12 000 truites sont passées de vie à trépas.


La situation ne va pas sans conséquence pour leurs clients. Plusieurs clubs de pêche, des pourvoiries et des associations riveraines s'arrachent en ce moment les réserves de truites arc-en-ciel qui restent.


http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/estrie/2006/06/13/006-malachite.shtml