While the new Animal Protection Act of Croatia knocks on the door of the Croatian parliament, parallel with the beginning of the traditional autumn’s pig-slaughter in Croatian back yards, we inform you about the latest activities of Animal Friends Croatia (AFC).

In this issue:
- Animal Friends Days
- Greyhound Race: Death in the Fast Line
- Primate Farms for Lab Demands
- Animals in Education in Croatia
- Animal Protection on Government's Agenda
- Miscellaneous

Animal Friends Days

The fifth anniversary of AFC was worthily marked with one rich six-days-long program of this year’s Animal Friends Days.

On Friday, September 29, the second time in a row a free concert with vegan tasting was held in the Zagreb’s Boogaloo Club on the occasion of World Vegetarianism Day, where different bands performed: Nervousstand, Scroll, Dead by Mistake, Igut, and Hidden Layer. On the World Vegetarianism Day in Zagreb’s Maksimir Park, within the program that was organized by City's Committee for Agriculture and Forestry, AFC members held a vegan tasting and organized drawing and coloring of animals for the youngest.

On the World Farm Animals Day, on Ban Jelacic Square in Zagreb, a provocative performance with 'naked and bloody activists' in meat packing were held, whilst the World Lab Animals Day was marked by having an info stall in the city center on which a video footage of animals tortured in laboratories was shown along with leafleting of so-called 'black and white list' of companies.

On the World Animal Protection Day, also in the City's Committee for Agriculture and Forestry program, AFC activist marked by installing a whole-day photo-exhibition of animals in their natural surroundings and artificial ones on the Ban Jelacic Square.

During all those days on AFC info stalls two petitions have been signed: one petition for a better vegetarian offer in Croatian shops and chain-stores and another one which is the Animals Matter To Me petition, an appeal to the United Nations to recognize animals as sentient beings.

Greyhound Race: Death in the Fast Line

On October 7, 2006, AFC activists met the first official dog race in Croatia. Because of its cruelty to greyhounds as racing dogs, Animal Friends tried to completely ban dog races with the new Animal Protection Act, while with the photos and leaflets, which they handed out to the visitors of two races on the racetrack in Zagreb, they warned the citizens about brutality of greyhound races.

It is interesting that in the USA, where the dog race problem is quite large, dog races are completely banned in 34 states!

Primate Farms for Lab Demands

Animal Friends Croatia organization notified Croatian public about the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), with which AFC is in the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE) exposure. A 12 month undercover investigation on a macaques breeding farm owned by the company Nafovanny in Vietnam, on video showed footage and stills the grim reality of global lab primate trade to feed the demand for live experiment fodder in Europe and the US. About 10,000 primates each year are used in experiments across the European Union. The European Coalition to End Animal Experiments has launched a new web site 'Save Primates', which, in collaboration with the AFC was translated into Croatian.

Shocking footage and stills from the farms in Vietnam can be seen at
www.buav.org/campaigns/primates/monkeybusiness/flashindex.html.

Animals in Education in Croatia

Regarding the inclusion of the book Look for Me Under the Rainbow into the optional reading by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, Animal Friends Croatia would like to draw attention to five books with animalistic theme, important for the growing vegetarianism and animal rights movement in Croatia: Look For Me Under the Rainbow by Bernard Jan, Animal Liberation by Peter Singer, Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by Charles Patterson, the booklet Doctors Against Animal Experimentation about experiments for scientific purposes, and Vegan – The New Ethics of Eating by Erik Marcus.

Animal Protection on Government's Agenda

After its first reading in Parliament and being returned to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, the Animal Protection Bill was presented to the Government on October 26, 2006 in Sisak.

Out of more significant changes in the final version of the Bill we single out the ban on fur farming, though with absolutely exaggerated proposed transitional period of as much as 10 years, then the extension of the period from 30 to 60 days after which euthanasia is allowed in animal shelters, and leaving out an amendment from the regulation stating that animals in rural households have to be stunned prior to being killed by an expert, which is the primary means of legally protecting animals from the barbaric methods of slaughter.

Miscellaneous

- On October 14 and 15 the South-East European region Animal Rights Conference 2006 took place in Vienna organized by Verein Gegen Tierfabriken (VGT). More than 150 people came from 19 countries! On the first day, all countries summarized the work and state of their movements, while on the second day international campaigns were discussed in some different talks and workshops on all animal rights topics.

Animal Friends once more used the opportunity to thank the VGT for organizing such a stimulating gathering of animal rights activists from a great part of Europe.

- Tens of millions of rabbits, mice and guinea pigs are facing a painful death in laboratory experiments to be imposed next April because of new European Union rules on chemical testing. Current estimates of the number of animals to be affected amount to 45 millions of animals!

- As part of the Fourth Festival of the Firsts at the exhibition DANGER, MINES! in the Gallery Nova in Zagreb, a video and installation 'In Memoriam: This is not my World' by Robert Franciszty (video: Drazen Jeren, music: Igor Bogdanic) can be seen from October 24 through November 18. This interesting video project about mines talks about children casualties, but also about 'mines' man sets to animals.

- Repeated reports to the veterinary, communal, market and farming inspections, which were sent already in 2004, were sent once again because of illegal trade of animals on Tresnjevka market in Zagreb. We also sent a letter to the city government with the request to re-examine the work of authorized institutions and prompt and complete ban on selling companion animals on city markets.

- We realized a collaboration with the magazine Ljubimci (Pets), which provides space for the promotion of animal rights and vegetarianism in every issue, and with the ad-paper Oglasnik which started a section about homeless animals and finding homes for them being run every Monday.

- Our web site is constantly changing and being updated with new issues, so we invite you to visit it and see what is knew, like, which companies do (not) test their products on animals, which new book we recommend to you, see about new links... We also invite you to see for changes in our How You Can Help section, and look forward to interesting articles and advices you can give us in order to improve our work for the animal rights.

Please support us in our work with your kind donation, which make it possible to us to plan our work and further make that change in society for the animals. These changes are more than needed and only together with you and your support we will be able to make them.

Yours,

Animal Friends Croatia