As a member of the Animal Coalition, the Panel opposes indigenous hunting of marine life like turtles and dugongs. The Panel has arranged for legal advice to be tendered shortly to the Animal Coalition on the means to secure this in the face of native title and exemptions from cruelty laws for indigenous custom. The…
Here are the overheads for the Bill Bruce seminars. We thank him for kindly making them available to the Panel for publication. 2012_Animal Services Presentation Chilliwack 2
Baiada (owner of Steggles) and Bartter, which supply meat chicken products, have been fined $400K in respect of their misleading ‘free to roam’ representations by Tracey J of the Federal Court sitting at Melbourne on Wednesday 30 October 2013. The companies together with the Australian Meatchicken Federation had been previously found (in a separate judgement handed…
Victorian duck producer Luv-A-Duck was today fined $360K by the Federal Court sitting at Melbourne for false claims its products were “range reared…in the spacious Victorian Wimmera wetlands” when in fact the ducks were at all times confined to their shed. The claims were taken up by the Panel and Animal Liberation NSW with the…
An investigation by Animals Australia during the Eid religious festival in Jordan in mid-October 2013 shows Australian sheep being dragged along the ground, thrown into car boots or trucks and carved open at the throat. Over 10,000 Australian sheep were sold outside the current Exporter Supply Chain Assurance Scheme (ESCAS), introduced in 2011 following the Indonesian…
Australia’s largest woodchip exporter has stopped logging in areas with high populations of koalas after admitting it had killed and maimed animals in Victoria’s south-west. You can read more here: http://m.theage.com.au/victoria/australian-bluegum-plantations-says-sorry-for-killing-koalas-20131029-2wdnu.html Also, see the footage aired last night on ABC’s 7:30 program:
Associate Justice Derham of the Supreme Court of Victoria yesterday expedited the hearing of Mylo’s appeal by directing, first, that both the application for leave ( permission) to appeal and the appeal be heard together by a Judge of the Court and, second, that the parties file and serve written submissions and a court book…
Animals Australia has exposed yet more evidence of sheep exported from WA being sold outside the federal export supply chain system in Jordan and Kuwait for likely private slaughter in backyards as part of the religious Eid festival. In Jordan 10,000 sheep were found located at places not approved by the federal supply chain, suggesting…
Bobby (male) calves are only 5 days old when transported to the abattoir, solely on the grounds that they are a cost to the dairy farmer and of no use. In the Panel’s view an animal’s life must count for much more than immediate euthanasia or an early death. Read more here: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/call-for-better-life-for-dairys-rejects-20131012-2vff7.html
Woolworths has announced it will phase-out the sale of eggs from caged hens by 2018. The sale of caged eggs by Woolworths has dropped dramatically in recent years as consumers concerned about animal welfare exert their market power. In 2009 caged eggs made up 70% of Woolworths sales; now they comprise just 50%. The plight…
The Panel intervened this week to save a dog, Zeus, from being put down by Brisbane City Council as an alleged restricted breed dog, pending the arrival from interstate in the next fortnight of a veterinarian (arranged by the Panel) to assess Zeus and certify that he is not a restricted breed dog, and if…
The Panel is delighted to confirm that Mr Bill Bruce will be presenting at the following seminars throughout Australia: Sydney (Supported by Australian BSL Protesters and Team Dog) Date: Thursday 17 October 2013 Time: 2-4pm AND 6-8pm (two seminars) Location: The Barnett Long…
The challenge in the Supreme Court of Victoria to save Knuckles and Zeus from euthanasia a few weeks ago by the City of Greater Geelong concluded today with the lives of both dogs spared. But for the Court challenge, these two dogs would have been killed. However there are further legal steps to be taken, including…
There is a limit to what we can say here. But a dog called Lady of a Wolfie/Kelpie mix was seized by local laws officers of a NSW rural council because of her owner’s failure to comply with the requirements of the council’s dangerous dog declaration. But Lady’s owner lived in public housing and was…
The Panel has intervened to attempt the rescue of two dogs, Knuckles and Zeus, on death row at the City of Greater Geelong. An urgent interim injunction stopping the dogs from being put down was obtained by Panel counsel last week. The matter returns for the hearing of an interlocutory (pre-trial) injunction in the Supreme…
Keeping chickens in battery cages and pigs in sow stalls will attract fines under an Australia-first ban on factory farming to be introduced by the ACT Assembly today. In 2007 a bill introduced by ACT Greens MLA, Dr Deb Foskey, to ban the production of battery hen eggs failed to attract the support of…
Scientist claim that a new three dimensional device for depicting cancer tumors stands to reduce the number of animals used in testing of compounds in cancer research by up to a third and offers the prospects that ultimately animals may not be necessary for use in cancer research. Read more here: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/d-cancer-device-cuts-animal-testing/story-e6frfkui-1226716509691
Live export vessel, the Pearl of Para, with 5240 cattle on board has been stranded in Cockburn Sound (off the WA coast), for the past two nights after abandoning a voyage to Israel because of propeller shaft coupling trouble. Mechanical failure on this ship last year led to the death of 400 pregnant cattle on a voyage from US…
‘BREAKING NEWS: Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California’s ban on the production and sale of foie gras, the cruel delicacy produced from the livers of force-fed ducks. The court held that the ban was constitutional, finding the foie gras lobby’s challenge failed to even “raise serious questions” about the law’s constitutionality, The…
The Queensland government has bowed to industry pressure and adopted Coles ‘free range’ definition of 10,000 chickens per hectare. The previous commonly accepted standard that applied under the Domestic Poultry Code (4th edn) was 1,500 birds per hectare. Purported ‘free range’ chickens are thus to be allotted one square metre or the size of your front…
The Panel has raised its concerns with the ACCC over misleading marketing claims by some cosmetic producers that they do not test their products on animals when it is plain that they do. Here the lucrative market of China with its requirement that products be animal tested (that is, on rabbits and mice) has a…
Mylo and his owner lost at the VCAT hearing yesterday before Senior Member Davis. The Panel is arranging for senior counsel to draw Supreme Court appeal papers. Mylo is safe as relevant assurances have been sought and received pending the filing of the appeal application. The Panel thanks in particular Carolyn Burnside of counsel for…
After two days hearing, the appeal by Kerser’s owner, Jade Applebee, concluded late today. Judgement by Croucher J has been reserved. It will be known that that the appeal is from the decision of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria to refuse leave to appeal from the VCAT determination (affirming the declaration of the…
Due to the shortened time frame within which to conduct the cull after the Panel’s intervention on behalf of Australian Society for Kangaroos in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal ( see post of 13 July 2012), some 100 fewer eastern grey kangaroos were shot then permitted by the Tribunal’s decision on 10 July 2013.…
At long last, the Foundation is able to offer memberships and receive donations, but pending fundraising approvals by different State departments over coming days or weeks, memberships and donations can only be presently offered to residents of Victoria, SA, WA, ACT and NT or to persons who live overseas. The Foundation has been compelled to…