People & Animal Welfare Society
Latest News & Events
Don't hide from the truth
Many ethical consumers excuse their leather purchases on the grounds that skins are simply a byproduct of the meat industry. The reality is not so simple, as Kate Carter reveals
Whether or not you chose to wear leather usually depends on your stance towards meat, be it vegan, vegetarian or carnivore. The issue of whether or not you are at ease with the practices of the meat industry is one for your own conscience: this column aims merely to provide some facts in an area where there is frequent misconception.
Cat-loving Pope urged to stop wearing fur
Italian animal rights campaigners are urging Pope Benedict to stop wearing ermine on his hats and robes, appealing to his reputation as a cat lover.
The Italian Association for Defense of Animals and the Environment, which has a white bunny logo, has started an online petition signed by nearly 1,900 people asking the German-born pontiff to stop wearing fur. Corriere della Sera newspaper had photos Benedict and one of his predecessors, Pope John XIII, wearing an ermine-trimmed hat and cape. It put the shots next to a picture of a live stoat.
The plight of ‘Lucy’ provides a wake-up call for Australians
In an Australian-first, Animals Australia has launched a series of hard-hitting radio ads to alert consumers to the routine and horrific practices that occur in over 1500 factory farms across the country.
More than 90% of pigs raised for Australia’s pork, bacon and ham products are confined in factory farms-a fact not advertised by the pork industry. Caring Australians are buying these products not realising that they are supporting animal cruelty.
Livestock transporter convicted of cruelty
A former livestock transporter has been convicted of animal cruelty.
Greg Dawson was found guilty after a hearing at Fremantle Magistrates Court on Tuesday after he was filmed throwing sheep and using an electric prodder to the face of a sheep.
The incidents took place at the Port of Fremantle while Mr Dawson was loading the livestock vessel, MV Bader III. He was also filmed pulling the leg of another sheep.
Jamie Oliver's new show branded immoral by RSPCA
HARROWING television scenes of Jamie Oliver gassing chicks and electrocuting a chicken have been branded immoral by the RSPCA.
The show, Jamie's Fowl Dinners, which will premiere on Channel 10 this month, is part of the TV chef's crusade to highlight the cruelty of battery farming.
But his plans may have backfired, with animal protection groups angry over the killings.
One scene sees Oliver, 32, electrocute a chicken and drain blood from its neck, to show the way they are slaughtered.
Dog off the menu for Olympics
BEIJING has asked hotels and restaurants in the city to take dog meat off the menu for the duration of next month's Olympics and September's Paralympics.
Dog is eaten by the large Korean community in China's capital and is also popular in Yunnan and Guizhou restaurants.
A directive from the Beijing Food Safety Office issued last month ordered Olympic contractor hotels not to provide any dishes made with dog meat and said any canine material used in traditional medicated diets must be clearly labelled.
Pamela Anderson refuses to go nude on Big Brother
PAMELA Anderson has made a career out of flaunting her figure, but the Hollywood sex siren won't be stripping off in the Big Brother house.
The former Baywatch babe has ruled out a return to her days as a nude model, declaring she won't be showering naked or sunbathing topless.
It was a blur of hair, heels and, er, boobs yesterday as Anderson arrived on the Gold Coast for her Big Brother pay day.
She jetted into Queensland yesterday for a three-day fling in the Channel Ten house which she began last night.
Murray-Darling driest on record
THE drought in the Murray-Darling Basin is getting worse, with June inflows the lowest on record.
"I’m grasping for good news,” Neil Plummer, acting head of the National Climate Centre, said today. Wendy Craik, chief executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission said that if the Murray was a patient, its condition would be “critical”. “We’ve got it on life support,” she said. Inflows into the Murray-Darling Basin in June were just 95 gigalitres, lower than the previous record low of 106 gl in 2006. Inflows during autumn this year were 200 gl, just above the lowest on record of 195 gl in autumn last year. The long-term average is 806 gl.
New Hendra virus hits Brisbane horses
TEN days after being officially cleared of equine influenza, Brisbane has been hit by the Hendra virus that killed trainer Vic Rail and 14 horses in 1994.
The latest outbreak of Hendra has killed two horses and infected at least three others. One thoroughbred racing horse died from the virus and a second horse had to be put down after contracting the deadly virus at a Brisbane Bayside veterinary clinic.
Rodent sperm donors raise issues of paternity
ARE you of a man or a mouse? That is the question that could face those born through infertility treatment in the future following the announcement that mice have been used to make human sperm.
The discovery shows the animals can be used as surrogate sperm producers for men who cannot produce viable sperm of their own. The research could prove controversial, however, because it gives a separate species an intimate role in human reproduction.