Animal

S'il y a d'autres députés comme Stastny au Parlement européen, ça risque ... p.s.: à propos, comment un ex-joueur de hockey peut-il devenir député du jour au lendemain ?

Mise à jour : 04/02/2009 07h19 (Presse canadienne) - L'ancien joueur-vedette des Nordiques de Québec, Peter Stastny, prend la défense en Europe de la chasse au phoque pratiquée au Canada et au Groenland qui fournissent environ 80% du marché mondial. Monsieur Stastny est député de la Slovaquie au Parlement européen qui étudie la possibilité de bannir les produits dérivés du phoque dans toute l'Europe. En entrevue au journal Le Soleil, l'ancienne vedette du hockey a dit être préoccupée par le bien-être animal, mais davantage par celui de l'être humain. Il s'est dit convaincu que les techniques de chasse des Canadiens respectent les droits des animaux et que la survie de l'espèce n'est pas menacée. Il affirme être dérangé par le fait que l'interdiction des produits dérivés du phoque affecterait des gens qui ne sont pas riches et qui travaillent fort pour gagner leur vie. Il leur accorde le droit de perpétuer ce que leurs ancêtres ont fait pendant des générations. À son avis, ses collègues du parlement européen mesurent mal les conséquences de leurs votes et ne connaissent qu'un côté de l'histoire, contrairement à lui-même. Il dénonce les campagnes médiatiques de la fondation Brigitte-Bardot et d'autres groupes de défense des animaux. Il rappelle que dans l'est du Canada, les pêcheurs assistent à l'effondrement des stocks de morue. Denis Longuépée, président de l'Association des chasseurs de loups marins des Îles-de-la-Madeleine, a rencontré monsieur Stastny il y a moins de deux semaines, en Belgique. Il se réjouit de voir sa cause défendue en Europe. La délégation canadienne dont il faisait partie a multiplié les rencontres avec les députés européens et a pu faire valoir ses arguments devant l'ensemble des parlementaires européens. Qu'en pensez-vous? Écrivez-nous en cliquant ici. http://lcn.canoe.ca/lcn/infos/lemonde/archives/2009/02/20090204-071906.html

Merci à toi

Je crois que ça s'est toujours fait comme ça dans les pays de l'Est, mais on commence seulement à en parler ! Et ça se fait aussi en Asie car j'ai déjà vu des reportages à ce sujet- non seulement les oies étaient-elles gavées, mais elles étaient aussi plumées vivantes ! Tout ça juste pour le fric ! C'est atroce et révoltant !

Mais pour quelle raison ?

La Sophie de Papa est malheureusement décédée avant-hier, chez-elle, à la maison- Probablement d'un arrêt cardiaque ! Elle avait une quinzaine d'années Sophie en 2007

Allo Cath, Je n'ai malheureusement pas eu le temps de traduire la lettre en anglais, mais on peut bien sûr s'en inspirer pour en écrire une en français... p.s. Il est bon mon petit ami cochon

Merci d'avoir corrigé hop

Publié le 30 janvier 2009 à 13h38 | Mis à jour le 30 janvier 2009 à 13h42 La maladie de la vache folle identifiable avant les symptômesTaille du texte Imprimer Envoyer Votre nom Photo: Patrick Sanfaçon, Archives La Presse Agence France-Presse Vancouver Des scientifiques ont annoncé jeudi avoir découvert que des mutations génétiques se produisaient sur l'ADN des animaux atteints de la maladie de la vache folle, ce qui, selon eux, ouvre la voie à un dépistage rapide et économique de cette maladie. L'équipe de chercheurs allemands, américains et canadiens a transmis l'encéphalopathie spongiforme bovine (ESB) à différentes espèces de bovins, en leur faisant ingurgiter quelque grammes de farine animale contaminée. Les scientifiques ont ensuite prélevé chaque mois des échantillons de sang sur les bêtes infectées, afin de tester la circulation des acides nucléiques, a expliqué à l'AFP le professeur Christoph Sensen, qui a dirigé les recherches. Or, quelque mois avant que ne se manifestent les premiers symptômes de la maladie de l'ESB, les scientifiques ont remarqué que le code génétique des animaux infectés possédait des éléments ne se retrouvant pas dans l'ADN des bêtes en bonne santé. «Nous sommes en train d'établir quels sont les gênes qui mutent, et à quel moment» la mutation a lieu, a dit M. Sensen, qui enseigne à l'Université de Calgary. Cette découverte ouvre la voie à un test sanguin permettant «d'éliminer de la chaîne alimentaire humaine les animaux infectés, avant même que ne se manifestent les symptômes de la maladie», est-il indiqué dans l'étude, qui a été publiée ce mois-ci dans le Oxford Journal Nucleic Acids Research. «C'est une découverte très prometteuse car les tests portent sur le sang plutôt que le cerveau, et sur des animaux vivants plutôt que morts», a expliqué M. Sensen, soulignant qu'actuellement, il n'existe qu'une seule méthode pour confirmer, ou infirmer, qu'un animal est atteint de l'ESB: la dissection de son cerveau. http://www.cyberpresse.ca/sciences/200901/30/01-822667-la-maladie-de-la-vache-folle-identifiable-avant-les-symptomes.php

Vous pouvez écrire votre propre lettre ou utiliser le modèle qui figure sur le site de la coalition. http://www.antisealingcoalition.ca/GreySeals/email_campaign_hay_island_2009.php

Une chasse commerciale aux bébés phoque Gris sur l'Ile Hay débutera le 2 février et se poursuivra jusqu'au 14 mars ou jusqu'à ce qu'il ne reste plus aucun bébé phoque Gris vivant. Cette chasse vient d'être approuvée par le ministre David Morse, du département des Pêches et Océans Canada de la Nouvelle-Écosse. Comme l'année dernière où 1,261 bébés phoques avaient été abattus en quelques jours seulement, les phoques seront matraqués à coups de bâtons et dépecés au couteau. S.V.P. Écrivez au gouvernement pour dénoncer cette chasse horrible. Noms et adresses disponibles ici: http://www.antisealingcoalition.ca/GreySeals/email_campaign_hay_island_2009.php

Chasse au phoque Gris sur l'Ile Hay, N.E. NOVA SCOTIA GREY SEALS BETRAYED BY PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT AGAIN Hay Island to become open-air slaughterhouse for second year Alert Date: 29 January 2009 Grey seal pups - photo HSI Canada I received confirmation today from Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans that Nova Scotia's new Environment Minister, David Morse, has authorized a commercial hunt of grey seals to occur on Hay Island again this year. The slaughter is set to begin on February 2 and will run until March 14, 2009, or until there are no pups left alive, whichever comes first. NS fishermen beating grey seal pups to death with wooden bats on Hay Island in 2008 - photo HSI Canada Hay Island, part of the Scaterie Island Protected Wilderness Area in Cape Breton, was the scene of a horrific mass slaughter last year when Nova Scotia fishermen armed with crude wooden bats and boxcutters descended on the island and within just a few short days had bludgeoned to death over 1,200 grey seal pups just a few weeks old. The slaughter on Hay Island marked the first time the killing of grey seal pups in Nova Scotia was witnessed and documented by a third party. Humane Society International and Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition were present on the island and distributed to the public videotape evidence of the cruelty involved in the grey seal hunt. Whitecoat watches helplessly as pup's carcass is dragged past - photo HSI Canada In just a few days, that horrific scene will be repeated, and defenceless grey seal pups in the provincially-held Protected Wilderness Area will be savagely bludgeoned to death with clubs by a crowd of untrained fishermen who bitterly blame the seals for the sad state of the stocks. DFO's own scientists say there is no direct evidence that seals negatively impact cod stocks, and they simply do not know if reducing seal populations will aid in cod recovery. Seals eat a variety of fish, most of which are not commercially fished in Canada. Cod accounts for only 2% of their diet. In fact, seals eat predators of cod, which is beneficial to cod, not detrimental. Grey seal - photo HSI Canada I write this with a heavy heart. I was present on Hay Island last year and witnessed the horrific cruelty inflicted on the defenceless pups. What I saw and heard on that horrible day still haunts me. I know what fate awaits this year's pups, who are at this moment happily lazing in their nursery grounds, calling to their mothers and to each other, unaware of the impending horror that is about to begin. I know all too well the horror, and it breaks my heart. WHAT YOU CAN DO: Please take a moment to send an email to Nova Scotia's Environment Minister to let him know you oppose the slaughter of grey seals on Hay Island. Please send a copy to Premier Rodney MacDonald and Nova Scotia's Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Ron Chisholm. A copy should also go Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Gail Shea, various other government officials and leaders of the provincial and federal political parties. Terrified pups were herded together and beaten inches from each other - photo HSI Canada Everything you need is on this page - names, emails and suggested email text. Please feel free to use the text as is, adapt it to your liking, or draft your own. Please remember that personalized letters work best. Please remain polite in your email, as profanity or threatening language will cause your email to be deleted. For Nova Scotians, please also send a cc to your local Member of Legislative Assembly. You can find the list of MLAs here. For Canadians, please also send a cc to your local Member of Parliament. To find the contact information of your Members of Parliament please visit the Parliament of Canada Directory or use their searchable database. Please also send a bcc to us as action@antisealingcoalition.ca. Please also send us copies of any responses you receive from the Minister. Whitecoat pup, one of the few survivors left on Hay Island in 2008 - photo HSI Canada Thank you for taking the time to speak on behalf of the thousands of defenceless grey seal pups who face a grisly fate at the hands of Nova Scotia fishermen this year. These pups have no voice and rely on us to speak in their defence. We must protect them and urge the Nova Scotia government to do its duty and protect all life in Protected Wilderness Areas. http://www.antisealingcoalition.ca/GreySeals/email_campaign_hay_island_2009.php

Il y a quelques jours, dans pratiquement tous les journaux, on annonçait qu'une école (gérée par L'ONU) et un zoo de Gaza avaient été bombardés par Israël. Mise à jour: Il s'agissait d'une école d'enfants et d'un zoo qui se trouvait juste à côté. Ces deux bâtiments servaient de base de lancement de missiles aux terroristes du Hamas qui auraient eux-mêmes installé des explosifs à l'intérieur: Le tout, relié par un fil qui traversait tous les bâtiments (l'intérieur des salles de classe et le zoo) .... Le Hamas aurait donc lui-même tendu ce piège aux soldats Israëliens afin de leur faire porter la responsabilité. «L’armée israélienne a montré, dimanche 11 janvier, des images d’un détonateur et d’un système d’explosifs complexe dans une école et un zoo de Gaza. La diffusion de ces images fait suite à la polémique née après les tirs israéliens contre une école de l’ONU la semaine dernière, en riposte, selon Jérusalem, à des tirs du Hamas depuis cet établissement. Le Monde » Voir les images filmées par l'armée israélienne en cliquant sur vidéo http://notrejournal.info/journal/Hamas-Israel-Guerre-et-Medias#thetopbhttp://www.lemonde.fr/la-guerre-de-gaza/video/2009/01/12/tsahal-accuse-le-hamas-d-avoir-piege-un-zoo-et-une-ecole_1140668_1137859.html#ens_id=1106055

Pauvre p'tit chou ! Il a dû souffrir car leur queue fait partie de leur colonne vertébrale. J'espère qu'il ne fera pas d'infection

Contrairement à ce qu'affirme l'industrie canadienne de la fourrure http://www.furcouncil.com/ecologique.aspx la HSUS vient à son tour nous prouver le contraire: Voir son rapport et vidéo récents http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/ voir aussi le dossier «Peaux de Chagrin» d'Aequo Animo sur ce même sujet http://aequoanimo.com/elevage2.html

USA Au moins 600 chiens ont été retrouvés dans une usine à chiots... Published: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 Puppy mill investigation started with tip from friend Whole house filthy, says man who triggered the investigation By Scott North and Jackson Holtz Herald Writers GOLD BAR -- Brandon Hatch knew his childhood friend liked to be around dogs, lots of dogs, but he was shocked when he stepped into the Gold Bar man's home earlier this month. Roughly 160 dogs were living there in what authorities have described in court papers as "deplorable" and abusive conditions. "When I went into the house you could not walk 12 inches without stepping in a pile of feces or urine," Hatch, a Web developer from Kettle Falls, said Saturday. "There was no room that was sacred. It was the entire house." Some dogs were locked in small crates. Many roamed at will. Even the attic of the single-story home had been converted into a makeshift kennel. So many dogs were in that space that the ceiling shook when they began to bark and howl. Hatch said he knew children sometimes slept in that home. When he saw their bed, also befouled by the dogs, he called Child Protective Services. "Right is right. Wrong is wrong. And this is just plain wrong, all of it," Hatch said. The phone call touched off a multicounty investigation into what detectives have been told is a multimillion-dollar puppy mill operation, court papers show. So far, roughly 600 dogs have been seized. Many of them reportedly received just enough care to keep them able to breed more puppies. Groomers have spent days trying to clean the animals' feces- and urine-matted coats. Search warrants filed by Snohomish County detectives in the case read like those from a drug investigation. Even before they arrested the Gold Bar man, 37, for investigation of animal cruelty, detectives had determined who owned the property and their history with police. Sheriff's detective Steve Haley confronted the suspect about the paper trail, and how it appeared to connect him to two sisters from Snohomish, both "well known in Snohomish County for operating illegal and unlicensed kennels for the purpose of mass production of puppies for sale," documents show. The suspect told Haley he paid his $2,000 monthly mortgage in cash during meetings with Mary Ann Holleman at a Denny's in Everett, according to court papers. Although the property records show that Holleman owns the home where the dogs were found, Haley told the man he's convinced the property is actually owned by her sister, Renee Roske, the suspected leader of the puppy-breeding group. Roske also is the registered owner of Wags 'n' Wiggles, a Snohomish breeding company. Roske "has openly admitted to myself and other deputies over the years that she is a breeder and that this is her sole source of income," Haley wrote in a Jan. 17 search warrant affidavit. When the deputy accused the man of being paid by Roske to care for dogs, he "immediately became very emotional and began crying," Haley wrote. "He stated that he could be killed for what he was going to tell me. He stated that we were dealing with millions of dollars a year in revenue" for the alleged leader of the group, the deputy wrote. Reached by phone Monday, Roske said her lawyer advised her not to comment. The investigation continues both in Snohomish and Skagit counties. No charges have been filed. Hatch, 34, said he's known the Gold Bar man since they were in their teens and both living near Snohomish. The man used to run a landscaping business and often kept dogs as pets, sometimes up to a dozen at a time. Then Hatch said his friend began talking about making money in the dog business. "He told me, 'I make more than $2 million a year with my dogs. I'm not giving them up.'" Child Protective Services followed up on Hatch's call and on Jan. 16 alerted deputies. Hatch said his friend called to report that he'd come home, spotted an animal control officer outside, and just kept going. The man was worried about going to prison, Hatch said. So Hatch encouraged the man to go home and deal with the situation. The man called later to say that animal control officers had left a notice, warning that he was in violation of county codes for kennels. Hatch said the man asked for help finding property in Eastern Washington, a place with a "big garage" where he could bring 500 dogs. Soon enough, deputies showed up with a search warrant and took the man briefly into custody. There were no children at the Gold Bar home when deputies arrived. Hatch said he cares about his friend but also feels strongly about animals being cared for properly. He and his wife set up a Web site about the case: puppyjustice.com. County laws allow up to 25 dogs on a single property with the proper license, Snohomish County Animal Control manager Vicki Lubrin said. Animal control officers took the dogs to the Everett Animal Shelter, where they remain. Police also searched the homes of Roske and Holleman. They found suspected drugs at Roske's and empty dog kennels at Holleman's, according to court papers. Officials now believe several dogs may have been moved to a Mount Vernon property belonging to Marjorie Sundberg, Roske and Holleman's mother. Sheriff's officials in Skagit County had in the past described Holleman's breeding operation there as a puppy mill, court documents show. Last week, Skagit County deputies effectively shut Holleman down. They removed nearly 450 dogs from the Mount Vernon property. Some of the dogs were diagnosed with coccidiosis, a potentially fatal and contagious intestinal disease. A few of the Snohomish County dogs showed symptoms, Lubrin said. They were tested and found to have a different problem, giardia, a treatable but contagious parasite. Some media outlets have erroneously reported that nearly four out of five of the rescued dogs are pregnant. On Monday, officials said fewer than 20 of the 600 dogs likely are expecting puppies. "About 40 percent of the dogs are male. Another 30 percent are too young to be pregnant," Skagit County sheriff's spokesman Will Reichardt said. Some groups, including Pasado's Safe Haven of Monroe, have challenged Snohomish County for not enlisting their help caring for the rescued dogs. The help isn't needed and the dogs are receiving excellent care, Lubrin said Monday. It's also important to keep the dogs in one place as investigators continue to develop a possible criminal case, she said. In Washington, the distinction between legal breeders and criminal operations is not clear, said Dan Paul, the Washington state director of the Humane Society of the United States. "Those lines are very, very blurry," he said. Breeders who sell to pet stores and animal research facilities are licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Paul said. People who sell animals directly to the public are not as tightly regulated. "That's a major loophole," he said. Paul said he is working with state lawmakers to introduce legislation on puppy mills this year. The law, if passed, would put a cap on the number of fertile animals owned by a single breeder. It also would introduce minimum care requirements. The people under investigation in Snohomish County could face dog and cat license violations and felony animal cruelty and kennel licensing law violations, Lubrin said. Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com. http://heraldnet.com/article/20090127/NEWS01/701279848#Puppy.mill.investigation.started.with.tip.from.friend

Des milliers de sansonnets empoisonnés au New-Jersey Bird Culling Fallout Alarms Central NJ Community 'Rain' of Dead Birds on Central N.J. Lawns Explained; Federal Culling Program Killed Up to 5,000 By VICTOR EPSTEIN Associated Press Writer FRANKLIN, N.J. January 27, 2009 (AP) The Associated Press USDA poisons nuisance birds, leaving N.J. residents to dispose of the carcasses.The black carcasses of dead starlings still pepper the snowy roads and lawns of central New Jersey's rural Griggstown community three days after federal officials used a pesticide to kill as many as 5,000 of the birds. Many residents Monday were still getting over their shock from the sudden spate of deaths. Some were unaware that the deaths resulted from an intentional culling and that the pesticide used was harmless to people and pets. "It was raining birds," said Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine. "It got people a little anxious." The U.S. Department of Agriculture called local police last week and the Somerset County Health Department to warn them that a culling program was under way, but there was no notice that dead birds could fall from the sky, Levine said. "A lot of us are concerned because it's so odd," said Chris Jiamboi, 49, as his vehicle idled along a stretch of road in Griggstown marked with the flattened remains of dead starlings. "There were a lot of them dead in the roads and no one drives fast enough around here to kill a bird. Then they started showing up dead in people's backyards." Griggstown is a community of small farms, narrow blacktop roads and rural homes about nine miles northeast of Princeton. Until this weekend, it was common to pass flocks of starlings that numbered in the hundreds. Carol Bannerman, a USDA spokeswoman, said a bird-specific pesticide called DRC-1339 was used to kill the starlings. It is harmless to people and other animals, she said. Bannerman said the starlings had to be killed because they were plaguing an area farm, where they were eating feed meant for cattle and chickens and defecating in feeding bowls. "We're very sorry that it played out the way that it did," Bannerman said. She said the USDA will try to do a better job of notifying the public in the future. Federal employees dispensed the pesticide on Friday. Birds that ingest it usually die within three days, Bannerman said, so the die-off should have run its course by Monday. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=6738948

Sale of Bear Meat Proposed by Farmers: KARA Protests (A bear farm where bears live in conditions no better than dogs do on a Korean dog farm) Some alarming news has been doing the rounds, as reported on 01-12-2009 in the Korea Times by Staff Reporter Bae Ji-sook: bear farmers want to start selling bear meat--legally, that is. We've already seen a scandal of bear meat being eaten by government officials at a restaurant back in May, 2007. Is it still going on? The Korea Times report refers to opposition by animal and environmental groups against the Bear Farm Association's litigation to legalize the selling of bear meat: The opposition arose amid campaigning to sell bear meat in a desperate attempt to reduce the financial burden of raising the animal. An association for bear breeders said they're victims of ill-fated governmental policy. It said that in 1981, they began to import bears in line with the government's policy to help them supplement their income but in 1985, international trade was suddenly banned out of pressure from animal rights groups. The bear population reached 1,400 in 2006. The association said bear meat is available in Japan and Russia. In Korea, bear gall bladders have been authorized for trade as processed goods but not food. Since bears are designated as endangered animals here, their slaughter is strictly prohibited. Breeders are allowed to kill the animal only when it reaches the age 10 and then take out only the gall bladder. The association claimed that the regulation has made their lives more difficult as it costs about 800,000 won a year to feed a bear, meaning 10 million won is needed to breed a bear until its reaches the age of 10. "Moreover, the price of gall bladders has fallen to between three and 10 million won these days, due to the inflow of cheap Chinese products,'' Kim Mu-eung, an association spokesman said. Therein lies the problem for bear farmers, international pressure and market fluctuations. Why don't they get out of the business? They thought they'd make a "killing" by reexporting bears, but they can only sell the gall bladder. But bear farming began with the importation of 500 bears from countries like Malaysia between 1981-1985, so we can assume plenty of killing has been going on for profit up until now. As gall bladders are the only part farmers can sell, slaughtered bear carcasses are supposed to be incinerated or buried, but has that been the practice? Reading between the lines here we can also gather that the disgusting bear trade typically continues unabated in China. Kim urged the government to permit the use of bear meat for food. "Bears' paws are considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine and we need such measures not to discourage farmers from breeding the animal,'' he said. But animal rights and environmental groups, including Green Korea United (GKU), urged the government not to scrap the policy but to help breeders through compensation. The Ministry of Environment said it has no money in its budget for compensation. "Bears are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora,'' a GKU official Park Hye-young said. "The ministry has been fence sitting. Runaway bears sometimes ruin nearby farms. A complete ban on bear breeding could be the only solution,'' Park added. A ministry official said the government is leaning toward promoting the animal's welfare. Yes, absolutely, a complete ban is all that is acceptable. The bear farmers, thinking they'd make big money through slaughtering bears deserve no sympathy. The only compensation the government should give is to buy the bears and rehabilitate them in a sanctuary. But the government's alleged "leaning" to welfare hardly assuages its guilt. The only reason it does anything in favor of the bears is because of international pressure. This problem has its origins in irresponsible government policy. By allowing farmers to farm bears to enrich themselves, and to allow that to continue for nearly 40 years, only shows a negligent attitude toward animal welfare on the part of the government. It shows a government putting profit over animal welfare, when bears are confined in small prisons for 10 years only then to be slaughter. It is a national disgrace for Korea. It will bring more shame if the government allows for an increase in the trade of bear body-parts and meat, as this will only encourage the unscrupulous increase in bear farming and an expansion of markets for bear products. What the Korean government really needs to do at the point is send our a strong message in favor of conservation and protection of Korean wildlife. It needs to take the initiative and begin dismantling the bear industry and thereby gain respect from the international community. * * * Among the animal rights groups protesting about this is KARA. KARA has protested to the Ministry of Environment and received this ambiguous reply (translated): Our plans are to allow the cessation of the operation of the captive bear industry to come about naturally depending on a decrease in demand. KARA will be submitting another request for clarification of its “natural cessation of the captive bear market industry” policy. Also, attempts have been made to find out more about the progress of the Bear Farm Association's attempts to legalize bear meat and bear paws. However, when KARA asked if an attorney would be able to monitor the court proceedings, the reply was that it would be in violation of privacy rights of the individual who filed the litigation for the right to sell bear meat. That means that if the private party who filed the court documents does not want an outsider to know how the case is proceeding. There is nothing KARA can do but wait for news of what is happening. The last time the Bear Farm Association requested permission to sell bear meat they had no right to do so. Only a bear farmer has that right. Since the issue was made public again by the Bear Farm Association, it would appear that the association is testing to see the public’s reaction. KARA's course of action will be to show to this association, as well as other groups that support the bear gall and meat industry, and the Ministry of Environment that there is strong opposition to selling bear meat and keeping bears in captivity. The bear meat and the dog meat issues have a lot of similarities. It is important to recognize that the countermeasures taken by KARA and other groups for the release of the bears and for closing down the bear meat industry could assist in seeing the demise of the dog meat trade, too. http://animalrightskorea.org/news-articles/

BRAVO !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Run with the herd: Calgary looks at beef-tallow biodiesel for its fleet Last Updated: Thursday, January 29, 2009 | 12:54 PM MT CBC News The City of Calgary's entire fleet of trucks and buses may soon be partly fueled by biodiesel produced from Alberta beef tallow. Tallow is all that's left over after an animal has been processed. The city has been experimenting with tallow from the meat-packing plant in High River, Alta., as part efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. "Anywhere you've got the packing industry, you have a tremendous amount of animal waste that's left over — all of that is perfect for digesting into a biofuel," said Dave Day, the city's environmental director. Not only is the tallow in ready supply locally, turning it into biofuel recycles a product that would normally be thrown away, he said. Tallow-waste biofuel is also more ethical than other alternative fuels, since it does not displace food crops such as corn, which is used in the production of ethanol, he said. "They [council] just don't want us supporting a product that, while it's attractive on the environment side, is associated with a lot of harmful results on the ethical side," Day said. The tallow biofuel is mixed with regular diesel in different amounts, depending on the season, he said. Although the tallow fuel costs more than regular diesel, the city does not have to base all its decisions solely on economics, said Ald. Linda Fox-Melway, who heads the utilities and environment committee. "I think we're leaders in this," she said. "We're setting an example for what can happen environmentally and I think it's really important we do that." Day will present a full report on the beef tallow fuel pilot project to council in October. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/01/29/beef-biofuel.html#articlecomments

Fatal trap in the Arctic ice In November, 600 narwhal whales died stranded in shallow water when they waited too long to return to open ocean and were stranded by the winter freeze-up. It was the biggest such entrapment ever in Canada and the third in three years, leading some scientists to wonder if global warming could be to blame By Ed Struzik, Canwest News ServiceJanuary 24, 2009 StoryPhotos ( 1 ) A narwhal pokes its head out of the sea ice. The whale's spiralled tusk can grow up to three metres long and fetch $3,000 or more.Photograph by: Reuters, Canwest News ServiceIt was late November when Inuit hunters from Pond Inlet were crossing the sea ice on their snowmobiles to take advantage of good weather and the three hours of sunlight available at this time of year. About 17 kilometres north of their hometown, one of them spotted a group of polar bears huddled up in the distance. Curious to see what had attracted the animals, the hunters drove up and found the bears covered in blood and feeding on several narwhal, which had evidently been dragged out of small holes in the ice nearby. The tusked whales had been trapped by a sudden shift in weather that caused the ice to form almost overnight. Bobbing up and down in a hole that was no larger than a child's rubber swimming pool and getting smaller by the hour, dozens of narwhal were desperately jockeying for position, trying to get a gulp of air. A couple of young calves were accidentally tossed out onto the ice by the sheer force of so many animals pushing up at once. Many of the live whales bore wounds inflicted when the polar bears swatted at them as they surfaced. Initially, it was estimated that as many as 200 narwhals might be trapped in this hole and several others that Inuit hunters found in the area the next day. After concluding that nothing could be done to save the whales, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans decided to let the Inuit hunters and trappers harvest the animals. The numbers, however, were far greater than anyone could have imagined. By the time Inuit hunters finished harvesting all of the trapped whales, more than 600 narwhal had been killed, carved up and distributed to people in the community. Dozens, possibly hundreds more, likely drowned and sank to the ocean bottom. It was the biggest whale entrapment ever recorded in the Canadian Arctic. So much maqtaaq (whale blubber) was left over that managers of the Co-Op store in town were boxing it up and selling it to other communities in the Arctic. Jayko Allooloo, the president of the Pond Inlet Hunters and Trappers Association, said he's never seen anything like it. "No one in Pond Inlet remembers anything like this happening around here in at least 75 years," he said in the midst of the harvest. "No one has seen so many whales trapped. This is very new to us." "Normally, we hunt narwhal from boats," said Joseph Maktar, another Inuit hunter. "The narwhal are usually gone by the end of September. But the ice was late coming this year and I guess the narwhal got tricked into staying. Blame it on global warming." Narwhal are one of three types of whale that live in the Arctic year-round. No one knows how many there are, but estimates range between 50,000 and 80,000. Unlike beluga and giant bowhead whales, which are found across the Arctic world, narwhal are found mainly along the coasts of Greenland and Canada's eastern Arctic. There, they are hunted by the Inuit who covet the maqtaaq and the long, spiralled tusk that can grow up to three metres in length and sell for $3,000 or more. Greenland Inuit call these entrapments "sassats," which means "something that is being served." Entrapments like the one outside of Pond Inlet are rare, but likely happen more often than can be confirmed. "It's impossible to say how often they occur because entrapments tend to happen at a time of year or place when it is either too dark, too cold or dangerous for anyone to be on the ice," says Pierre Richard, a Winnipeg-based Fisheries and Oceans scientist who has spent his entire career studying beluga and narwhal. "With so few people living in the Arctic, there are not many eyes to see what is going on. Narwhals also spend the late fall and winter and early spring far offshore in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. I had a chance to fly over that area, and it was amazing to see so many narwhal bunched up in small cracks in all that ice." The only thing really unusual about this entrapment, says Richard, was the number of animals stranded. Usually, it's just several dozen whales, he says. Richard recently co-authored a scientific paper that looked at several Arctic entrapments. The biggest entrapment of narwhal ever recorded occurred in Disko Bay, Greenland, in January 1915, when at least 1,000 got stranded. This is an area where prevailing northwest winds, an influx of warm water from the south and a jagged coastline combine to create very volatile ice conditions. Presumably, this is why entrapments occur here more often than anywhere else. More than 3,000 belugas were trapped at Disko Bay in 1955 and another 1,000 in 1970. Six hundred belugas and narwhals were trapped there in 1968. Each time, the Inuit of Greenland harvested what they could. Comparatively few entrapments have been recorded in Arctic Canada. Richard suspects that the deep freeze of winter and the fact that there is much less warm water flowing this far north makes ice conditions much more predictable. Nevertheless, those that have been recorded in Arctic Canada were memorable. When 40 belugas and one bowhead were trapped off the north coast of Baffin Island in 1999, the stranded whales attracted as many 40 polar bears to the area. By the time polar bear scientist Malcolm Ramsay arrived on the scene by chance, at least a dozen belugas had already been hauled out. Some of the bears were so fat from eating so much whale blubber that they could barely move without dragging their bellies on the ice. Further north, near Grise Fiord, hunters from Canada's most northerly Inuit community broke holes in the ice the same month in a failed effort to save belugas that got stranded in a similar way. This year's entrapment is the third in as many years in Canadian waters. About 20 belugas got trapped in the ice near Grise Fiord last May. In 2006 and again in 2007, dozens of beluga whales were found stranded in the Husky Lakes, a saltwater inlet that juts inland from Liverpool Bay in the western Arctic. The first time it happened, Fisheries and Oceans scientists, working with Inuvialuit hunters in Tuktoyaktuk, considered the possibility of trying to drive the belugas out with boats. But the Husky Lakes are dotted with hundreds of small islands and countless shallow, narrow channels. Finding a way to drive the whales out would have been a nightmare, if not impossible. In the end, the Inuvialuit were allowed to kill what they could. Fisheries and Oceans scientists then went home with samples they needed to find out whether the whales were diseased and what it was they were eating that may have kept them there. The second time it happened at Husky Lakes, the fate of the belugas was left to nature to decide, mainly because the animals harvested the year before were too emaciated to be worth eating. The fact that something like this has happened three years in a row -- years when low-ice-cover records in the Arctic were smashed in 2005 and 2007 -- has some scientists wondering whether climate change and volatile ice conditions are making Arctic whales more vulnerable. "I don't know that anyone can make a clear connection between climate change and what happened near Pond Inlet," says Kristin Laidre, a University of Washington scientist who has been involved in narwhal research in Canada and Greenland for the past decade. "But when I first heard about it, that was the first thing that came to mind." In a way, Laidre saw this coming after she and Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton collaborated with other scientists from around the world to evaluate the sensitivity of Arctic marine mammals to climate change and melting sea ice. They considered everything, including population distribution, feeding patterns, seasonal dependence on ice and reliance on ice for food and predator avoidance. Just months before the latest stranding, their findings appeared in Ecological Applications, a scientific journal published by the Ecological Society of America. In that paper, they concluded that narwhal, the polar bear and the hooded seal were among the most vulnerable marine mammals in the Arctic because of their close ties to ice, which is rapidly melting and becoming unpredictable. Animal-rights activists were highly critical of the Canadian government for not sending an icebreaker up to the Arctic to carve a path through the ice to save the whales. The Russians did this back in 1984-85, when more than 1,000 whales got trapped in the ice inside the former Soviet Union. The dramatic rescue made headlines around the world. Not only was this a good-news nature story, it was also seen as a sign that the evil empire of the Cold War had a heart. So it was inevitable that people would ask why Canada didn't do something similar. There are, however, differences between what happened then and what occurred outside of Pond Inlet last fall. No icebreaker was anywhere near Pond Inlet at the time. And even if one were sent north, says Keith Pelley, the regional director for Fisheries and Oceans, there was no certainty it would be able to get through the ice that was building up with winter's deep freeze. Nor could anyone be assured the narwhal would have followed the lead out. The Russians spent days waiting for the belugas to follow the lead the icebreaker made for them. In the end, or so the Russians say, it was music played through loudspeakers on the deck of the icebreaker that finally coaxed those whales to move. Pelley says the decision to let the Inuit harvest the narwhal was made after it was concluded nothing could be done to save them. Like others, Ian Stirling doubts that anything could have been done to save those whales. However, because this was the third reported entrapment in three years, and because it came after he and Laidre published their paper, he sees it as a cautionary tale, one that should have Fisheries and Oceans thinking about how it responds to entrapments in the future. More than a week passed before anyone in the department was sent up to Pond Inlet. And while there may have been a good reason for the delay, that left the door wide open for critics to pounce on both the government for not responding soon enough. This wasn't the first time Stirling had raised such concerns about Arctic whales. In a scientific paper published in 1980, a year after 100 whales were stranded at Agu Bay in Igloolik, he was similarly critical when Fisheries and Oceans failed to send someone there to gather data that might have shed light on why it happened. That paper raised concerns that the whales' penchant for leaving open water might tempt them to follow the leads made by icebreakers and other ships and become entrapped. Now that the Northwest Passage is becoming more attractive for commercial shipping, Stirling feels more strongly about this than ever. He also wonders if increased weather variations year-round, due to climate change, might make the whales more vulnerable to entrapment by an unseasonal cold snap while they're feeding away from open water. Like Stirling and Laidre, Richard would have liked to know what caused so many whales to stick around for so long. "Climate change may be a factor," he said. "But these entrapments have happened before, so I'm not sure that is the case here. "Was it the open water that tricked them into staying longer than they should have? Maybe, but from our experience, narwhal in the eastern Arctic of Canada are usually long gone before the ice moves in. "The fact is, we know very little about these whales and the habitat they live in. For now and some time to come, this will remain a mystery." EXPLORER BELIEVED NARWHAL WAS THE UNICORN OF THE SEA Inuit legend suggests that the narwhal was created in ancient times when a long-haired woman refused to let go of a harpoon she had pierced into the side of a beluga whale. When the two got tangled up underwater, she continued to get wrapped up with the animal as it was trying to spin away. In death, the two then became one narwhal. The outside world's take on the narwhal has been just as fantastical. In medieval times, many of the narwhal tusks that Viking hunting parties brought home from their travels to Arctic waters ended up in southern Europe and East Asia. Those who weren't aware of their origin speculated that they were the horns of the mythical unicorn. This belief was shared by Martin Frobisher when he set off for the Arctic in 1576 in search of a Northwest Passage to the Orient. Like others at the time, Frobisher believed that for every species of animal on land, there was a twin that lived in the sea. The narwhal was the sea's unicorn. Frobisher returned from his first trip to the Arctic with a tusk that he gave to Elizabeth I, Queen of England in the 16th century. It was reportedly worth £10,000, the value of a castle at the time. The narwhal tusk came to have such universal appeal that it was used as a royal sceptre in England. In spite of all this interest in and infatuation with the narwhal, the whale remains something of a mystery. Unlike the beluga, which does reasonably well in captivity, every narwhal that has been placed in a zoo has died. No one has been able to explain why. Nor is it known why narwhal almost never venture into western Arctic waters, where belugas are plentiful. Scientists are almost certain that the narwhal tusk is not used as a weapon because specimens rarely show any nicks or breaks that might have occurred while fighting. Yet in October 1991, two Inuvialuit hunters from Tuktoyaktuk in the western Arctic found part of narwhal tusk embedded in a beluga whale. What we do know about the narwhal is that it is found mainly in the waters of Hudson Bay, the Eastern Arctic oceans and the Arctic waters of Greenland. Growing up to six metres, it is slightly smaller than the white beluga, the whale it most resembles. Like the beluga, it dives to great depths, up to 1,500 metres or more in the narwhal's case. It can stay underwater for at least 15 minutes. Narwhal migrate into Arctic waters in early summer when they follow the melting ice packs to feed on the Arctic cod that abound along these edges. When the ice reforms in late fall, they retreat once again to the North Atlantic. Males are born with an incisor tooth that can grow to lengths of nearly three metres in rare cases. Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun http://www.timescolonist.com/Travel/Fatal+trap+Arctic/1214370/story.html

23.1.09 Greenpeace, loin des harpons Les baleines des mers du Sud devront se passer de l'aide de Greenpeace cette année. L'association a annoncé dans un communiqué qu'elle ne serait pas présente dans le Sanctuaire Baleinier de l'Océan Austral pour s'opposer aux baleiniers japonais, même si nous pouvons lire sur l'un de ses nombreux sites : ‹‹ Votre don nous aidera à faire cesser pour de bon la chasse commerciale aux baleines. Il faut agir maintenant ››. Heureusement, Sea Shepherd reste fidèle à ces magnifiques créatures. Message du Capitaine Watson (depuis le Steve Irwin au port de Hobart) (23/01/09) : Voici venu le temps du deuxième round dans la bataille pour sauver les baleines dans le Sanctuaire Baleinier de l'Océan Austral. Après un mois et demi de poursuite de la flotte baleinière japonaise, nous avons été forcés de rentrer au port pour nous réapprovisionner en carburant. Mais nous devons repartir vers le Sud aussi tôt que possible. Chaque jour que nous passons loin d'elles, des baleines meurent. Le massacre des baleines dure quatre mois et pour l'arrêter, nous avons besoin de carburant, de provisions et de pièces de rechange pour garder notre navire en mer afin de continuer à intervenir contre leurs activités illégales de chasse à la baleine. Et pour cette raison, nous devrons refaire le plein de carburant et de provisions trois fois pendant cette campagne. La bonne nouvelle, c'est que les coûts sont moindres cette année pour le carburant et les lubrifiants. En fait, nous économiserons cette année 90.000 $ (environ 69.000 €) par rapport à l'an dernier, pour remplir nos cuves de 200 tonnes de carburant. La mauvaise nouvelle, c'est que c'est toujours très cher, et qu'avec la crise économique internationale, il est plus difficile de lever des fonds. Toutes les organisations à but non lucratif en souffrent sur le plan international. Ainsi, nous faisons appel à nouveau à votre générosité pour pouvoir repartir vers le Sanctuaire Baleinier de l'Océan Austral et reprendre nos actions contre la chasse illégale à la baleine par les Japonais. Votre don à Sea Shepherd en réponse à cet appel, sera utilisé pour l'administration, la maintenance, et pour manœuvrer nos navires. Il sera utilisé pour faire le travail pour lequel il a été engagé, là où c'est important, là sur le champ de bataille, où nous avons montré à maintes reprises que nous pouvions arrêter les machines à tuer illégales, et que nous pouvons sauver la vie des baleines, des requins, des tortues, et dauphins, des oiseaux de mer, et des poissons. Merci de donner à hauteur de ce que vous pouvez pour nous aider à continuer d'intervenir dans le sanctuaire Baleinier de l'Océan Austral. (faire un don) Ensemble nous faisons la différence. Ensemble, nous pouvons écarter définitivement les baleiniers du Sanctuaire Baleinier de l'Océan Austral. Jusqu'à présent, nous avons poursuivi les baleiniers hors-la-loi sur plus de 3.000 km dans notre 5e campagne antarctique de défense des baleines. Après un nécessaire retour au port en Australie pour refaire le plein de carburant, de vivres, et de matériel, et grâce à votre soutien continu, nous pourrons repartir en Antarctique et stopper leurs opérations cruelles aussi tôt que possible. Merci de nous permettre de faire cette campagne, ainsi que toutes les autres pour défendre les requins, les phoques, et tous les animaux marins. Pour les Oceans, Captain Paul Watson Fondateur et Président ------------------------ Greenpeace ne poursuivra pas les baleiniers japonais cet hiver TOKYO - L'association de défense de l'environnement Greenpeace a annoncé mardi qu'elle ne poursuivrait pas les navires baleiniers japonais dans l'Antarctique cette année, préférant se consacrer à la défense de deux de ses militants inculpés à Tokyo. Greenpeace avait envoyé un bateau dans l'Antarctique l'hiver dernier pour y dénoncer la pêche aux cétacés, mais veut cette année s'occuper de deux militants accusés de vol de chair de baleine, alors qu'ils tentaient, selon l'association, de mettre au jour un scandale de corruption dans les milieux baleiniers. "Greenpeace n'enverra pas cette année de bateau dans le sanctuaire des baleines des mers du Sud", déclare l'ONG dans un communiqué. Un autre groupe de défense de la nature, Sea Shepherd, a toutefois promis qu'il allait harceler de nouveau les baleiniers japonais cet hiver. Greenpeace explique de son côté vouloir "concentrer ses efforts au Japon pour s'assurer que c'est bien la pêche à la baleine, et non les militants de Greenpeace, qui sera sur le banc des accusés". En mai, l'ONG avait dénoncé un trafic illégal de chair de baleine, affirmant qu'une partie des cétacés tués cet hiver par le Japon terminait sur le marché noir. L'association avait saisi une boîte contenant 23,5 kg de chair de baleine, d'une valeur de près de 2.000 euros, expédiée clandestinement, selon Greenpeace, depuis le Nisshin Maru, navire amiral des baleiniers japonais. Deux militants de l'ONG avaient ensuite été arrêtés et inculpés pour vol de chair de baleine, avant d'être libérés sous caution. La chasse à la baleine à but commercial est interdite par la Commission baleinière internationale qui tolère en revanche la pêche à visées "scientifiques" officiellement pratiquée par le Japon. A ce titre, la vente de la chair des baleines est strictement encadrée dans l'archipel, vendue à des grossistes à un prix fixé par l'Institut pour la recherche sur les cétacés, soutenu par les pouvoirs publics. (AFP / 04 novembre 2008 05h29)

En 2008, la consommation de viande se réduit fortement, alors qu’elle s’était un peu relevée en 2007 grâce à la reprise de la consommation de volailles. Face à la hausse des prix de l’alimentation et craignant pour leur pouvoir d’achat, les consommateurs ont limité leurs achats. La consommation de toutes les catégories de viandes diminue, sauf celle de porc qui est stable, et celle de poulet dont la croissance ralentit toutefois. Moins chères, ces dernières sont donc relativement épargnées. .... http://agreste.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/syntheseviande0901.pdf

Jan 28, 2009 Whale meat sold at half-price TOKYO - AS RETAILERS across the globe struggle to fight the recession, a Japanese department store has launched a bargain sale of whale meat to drum up consumer spending. Hankyu Department Store's main outlet in the western industrial hub of Osaka chose whale meat for price cuts as it believes it was the quintessential food of the nation when it rose from the ashes of World War II. Japan went on to become a vigorous economic power by the 1970s, part of what the nation calls the Showa era (1926-1989). 'These days we see lots of grim news and events amid recession but we want customers to remember the Showa era and blow the gloom away, at least in their sentiment,' company marketing official Tadashi Matsui said. 'Whale meat represents Showa. It used to be food for the common people but prices have soared since the halt on commercial whaling' in the 1980s, he said. 'It would be good if our customers feel nostalgic and cheerful.' Japan has a bitter feud with Western nations, particularly Australia, over its whaling. Environmentalists have dogged Japan's annual whaling expedition in the Antarctic Ocean. Japan kills hundreds of whales a year under a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium that allows 'lethal research' on the ocean giants. The country argues that whaling is part of its culture, although environmentalists note that most Japanese do not eat whale on a regular basis. Mr Matsui did not comment on whether the store had been losing money before starting the offer but said sales have more than doubled since the prices were cut on Tuesday. The discount sale will continue to the end of month. The store now sells 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of red meat of sei whale at 248 yen (S$4.20), less than half the regular price of 630 yen and roughly the level of 30 years ago. The same weight of skin goes for 420 yen, compared with 945 yen. -- AFP http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Asia/Story/STIStory_331355.html