News
The number of news found: 26.
02/28/2014 VEGAN CUISINE TO GLASSWARE, "OSCAR NIGHT" HAS GONE "GREEN"
The Oscars have gone eco-green. The largest, star-studded event in Hollywood has an environmental conscience. It all began in 2007 when late producer Laura Zislin partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the infamous awards show. The Oscars has been meticulously planned down to the finest detail, with the intention of leaving the smallest footprint on the planet as possible. From the replacement of halogen lighting, using lights with timer switches, drinking water from glasses instead of plastic bottles, using recyable materials, and if they can figure out how not to wrinkle the celebrity gowns, are willing to trade in the limousines for hybrid cars, the academy has gone eco-friendly. "The Academy is reaching tens-of-millions of people across the world with a message that cleaner, more sensible energy choices and a simple commitment to environmental stewardship are Oscar-worthy endeavors for everyone,” said NRDC president Frances Beinecke.
02/27/2014 ZULU LEADERS SACRIFICE CEREMONIAL FURS TO PROTECT LEOPARDS
For members of the Shembe church (officially known as the Nazareth Baptist church) in South Africa leopard skins are a symbol of pride and royalty, an essential element of religious ritual. However, Shembe believers have agreed to phase out the wearing of real leopard skins in an effort to protect these endangered big cats. The Guardian reports that conservationists and church leaders have recently entered into a pact designed to preserve Shembe religious ceremonies without supporting the poaching and habitat loss currently driving leopards to extinction.
02/27/2014 WOLFGANG PUCK PREPARES 2014 VEGAN OSCAR MENU OPTION
The 86th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony is set to take place on March 2nd, and this star studded event is sure to produce the glitz and glam we all look forward to watching. But the party doesn't end after the ceremony closes. The official Oscars after-party, The Governor's Ball, will be held in the Ray Dolby Ballroom on the top level of the Hollywood & Highland Center. Wolfgang Puck, the mastermind behind the Governor's Ball menu, is cooking up the usual omnivorous fare this year. But thanks to several vegan celebrities taking plant-based living to the mainstream, there will once again be vegan/vegetarian options for plant-based attendees and nominees, like Jared Leto, to enjoy. Wolfgang Puck said about the magnificent feast he planned, "We have risotto with black truffles. We have some great pasta dishes; some wonderful rice noodles like some Chinese style rice noodles with vegetables for the vegan people; for the vegetarian people so there will be something FOR everybody."
02/26/2014 CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SHARK RESCUED OFF COAST OF AUSTRALIA
A critically endangered Grey Nurse shark has been rescued in the waters just off of Maroubra Beach, located in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. According to the Manly Sea Life Sanctuary, "[t]he distressed shark was initially reported by local diver, Peter Simpson, while diving at Magic Point, off Marouba Beach, which is home to one of a small and ever-dwindling number of Grey Nurse Shark colonies, on the east coast of Australia." Three marine life specialist teams swiftly moved into action. The head and gills of the "1.5m long juvenile shark" were tightly entangled in industrial strength elastic cord. The shark was "facing a slow and painful death, with the cord continually tightening as the young animal grew in size." Although, they knew that the mission could be dangerous, the team was determined to carry out the intervention as quickly as possible.
02/25/2014 WHALE RESCUED FROM FISHING NET OFF GEORGIA COAST
A four-year-old male right whale was rescued from heavy fishing ropes off the coast of Georgia after being spotted Sunday off Jacksonville, Florida, during an aerial survey. The marine mammal was entangled in fishing nets from an unknown source. Nets similar to these have and will continue to pose a threat to ocean wildlife everywhere. University of North Carolina Wilmington researchers for the U.S. Navy found the whale dragging yards of fishing net behind it and immediately contacted the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for help. The rescuers cut away 280 feet of entangled fishing rope late in the day Monday. Despite their heroic efforts, they were unable to cut away all of the netting and did notice some injuries to the whale.
02/24/2014 OCEANA GRANTED $3 MILLION FROM LEONARDO DICAPRIO FOUNDATION
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation has provided a three million dollar grant to be spread over a three-year period for the largest international advocacy group of the world's oceans, Oceana. The generous grant is aimed at protecting threatened ocean habitats and wildlife and advocating for more environmentally responsible fishing measures. The generous grant will support Oceana's work to preserve ecologically important ocean environments from the south of Chile to the north of Alaska. It will also support the movement to ban drift gillnets off California so that whales, turtles, dolphins and other marine wildlife will not be caught and killed in the netting.
02/21/2014 RUSSIAN OLYMPIAN AND VEGAN ALEXEY VOYEVODA WINS GOLD
Russian gold medalist, Alexey Voyevoda, is not only winning medals at this year's Russian Winter Games, but he is a champion for animals as well. A native of Sochi, he competed in this year's Winter Olympics on a plant-based diet, making both his country and his fellow vegans proud. Voyevoda's large frame and arm-wrestling world champion status contradicts the popular myth that one must eat animals to build muscle and strength. As a professional arm wrestler, and an Olympic bobsledding gold medalist, Voyevevoda needs to be in prime condition, and attributes becoming a vegan in helping him achieve this level of physical excellence.
02/21/2014 NATIONS PLEDGE TO MAKE POACHING A "SERIOUS CRIME"
In a renewed effort to stop the dramatic rise in poaching that is devastating African wildlife, politicians from around the world agreed on Feb 13 to significantly toughen their stances on the crime. With more than 20,000 elephants and 1,000 rhinos poached in the past year in Africa, and an estimated global illegal trade in wildlife products of US$20 billion a year — a figure that does not include timber and fisheries — the problem as never been more pressing. Following a meeting in London of heads of government and senior ministers, countries including Kenya, Gabon, Tanzania, the United States, China, Germany and the United Kingdom, pledged to strengthen their legislation to ensure that the trade of wildlife is regarded as a "serious crime" — a technical definition under United Nations rules that should ensure tougher penalties for those convicted of dealing in elephant ivory, rhino horn and other animal products. They also agreed to halt any government procurement of species threatened with extinction, and to support an existing ban on international trade in elephant ivory.
02/20/2014 PRINCE WILLIAM WANTS "ALL ROYAL IVORY DESTROYED"
The Duke of Cambridge wants to strip all the ivory from Buckingham Palace and destroy it, The Independent on Sunday can reveal, in a move conservationists hailed as "extremely significant" in the fight against elephant poaching. Some 1,200 items containing ivory are listed in the royal collection, including a throne from India that incorporates elephant-ivory plaques. The move would seek to encourage other heads of states to give up their ivory stocks and collections. The revelation comes days after the Duke attended the world's largest ever conference on the illegal wildlife trade, which called for an end to the £12bn trade in animals and their parts, including ivory. At least 45 tons of ivory were seized in 2013, believed to be the biggest annual haul in a quarter of a century.
02/19/2014 POLAR BEAR DIES AFTER EATING PURSE AND COAT AT GERMAN ZOO
A polar bear has died after eating a coat and a purse that fell into its zoo enclosure, officials said last Tuesday. Zookeepers in Stuttgart, Germany, realized the 25-year-old animal, named Anton, had swallowed the items after he began acting strangely and spitting out bits of material, according to Britain's Times newspaper (paywall). They tried to save the bear's life by feeding him vomit-inducing drugs but he died from severe internal injuries. He could have lived for another 15 years. The animal's death has prompted the zoo to ramp up their warnings to visitors not to drop items into its enclosures. In the polar bear's area alone, some 200 children's shoes have been found in the past 25 years, along with countless other items.
02/18/2014 U.S. OLYMPIC SKIER GUS KENWORTHY RESCUES SOCHI PUPS
Two thousand stray animals were slated for extermination in Sochi prior to the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics, but it looks as though many more dogs may have become culling victims. According to Kelly O'Meara, director of companion animals and engagement for Humane Society International via NY Daily News, over 5,000 dogs "may have already been killed." However, official estimates still remain unknown as Sochi's city government has yet to release them. Russian volunteers and animal lovers from all over the world are scrambling to save as many of Sochi's stray dogs as possible. Even U.S. Olympian Gus Kenworthy, a freeskier from Telluride, Colo. and recent silver medal winner, has decided to partake in rescue efforts, adopting four of Sochi's stray pups and their mother himself. Kenworthy recently posted photos on his Twitter showing off his new adorable companions.
02/18/2014 MILLIONS OF BIRDS KILLED ANNUALLY DUE TO WINDOW COLLISIONS
365-988 million birds are killed in the U.S. each year in collisions with buildings, estimates a review published last month in the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications. The research, based on some 92,869 records across 23 studies, finds that low-rise buildings (56 percent) and residences (44 percent) rather than skyscrapers (1 percent) are responsible for most of the toll. The results suggest that building collisions are the second largest cause of death from anthropogenic sources in the United States after domesticated and feral cats, which kill 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds per year according to a study published last year. The study also identified species that are most prone to building collisions — the White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Ovenbird, and Song Sparrow — as well as birds that are most vulnerable relative to their population size: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Brown Creeper, Ovenbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Gray Catbird, and Black-and-white Warbler.
02/17/2014 CANADIAN VEGAN FIGURE SKATER WINS SILVER
Canadian vegan Meagan Duhamel won a silver medal in team figure skating at this month's Olympic games in Sochi, Russia. With this victory, she adds to a wave of passionate athletes who are overcoming stereotypes and proving that plant-based diets can fuel strong bodies and world champions. According to her Twitter account, Duhamel is a proud "Olympian, Vegan, Yogi and Nutritionist" and it's pretty clear that her healthy lifestyle has paid off. The figure skater now joins the ranks of many world-famous athletes – including bodybuilders, Ironmen, tennis legends, football stars and many more – who have chosen to live and win on a plant-based, whole food diet.
02/17/2014 OVERFISHING AND POLLUTION LEAVE TURKISH WATERS BARE
Once rich fishing grounds in seas and waterways the size of New Zealand, Turkish fish production is in sharp decline, a victim of commercial ambitions and lax regulation. Over fishing, illegal netting and pollution threaten the industry. Anchovy production, which accounts for around two-thirds of the annual catch, fell by 28 percent in 2012, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. In a bid to replenish stocks, the government has banned fishing in the summer months when fish reproduce and says it is tightening supervision. But it appears too little, too late.
02/14/2014 EIGHT ARE CHARGED AFTER A COCKFIGHTING CRACKDOWN
Five people were charged after investigators raided a bloody late-night cockfight in the squalid basement of a vacant Queens storefront where birds waiting for later rounds were kept in sacks hanging from the walls. The raid, conducted on Saturday and led by investigators from the New York State attorney general's office, smashed a cockfighting ring that held brutal fight nights in the basement twice a month, witnesses and officials said. Investigators also arrested a Brooklyn pet shop owner who they said had taken birds to the fights in Woodhaven, Queens, near the Brooklyn border. Then on Sunday, investigators stormed a farm in Plattekill, N.Y., about 70 miles northwest of New York City in upstate Ulster County, where they said birds had been raised and trained. They said they found more than 3,000 birds in cages there. In all three places, investigators said, they found birds that had been altered to inflict maximum damage in the ring. In all, eight of those arrested were charged with felonies.
02/13/2014 SECOND DANISH GIRAFFE AT RISK OF BEING PUT DOWN
The Danish Jyllands Park Zoo said on Wednesday it might put down one of its giraffes, which by coincidence is also named Marius, just as the giraffe Copenhagen Zoo slaughtered on Sunday to the disgust of animal lovers around the world, according to Danish news agency Ritzau. Staff at Copenhagen Zoo have received death threats after the zoo killed the 18-month-old healthy male giraffe because the animal's genes were already well represented in an international breeding program that aims to maintain a healthy giraffe population in European zoos. Jyllands Park Zoo in western Denmark might put down its seven-year-old Marius if the zoo manages to acquire a female giraffe, which is most likely, zoo keeper Janni Lojtved Poulsen told Ritzau. She said that it might be possible to find another place for the giraffe to live, but that the probability is small.
02/13/2014 ANOTHER MEP SIGNS THE ANIMAL WELFARE PLEDGE
Following Sandra Petrovic Jakovina, Tonino Picula, Marino Baldini and Nikola Vuljanic, Oleg Valjalo also proved his support to the principles of the Animal Welfare Pledge. MEP Valjalo signed the Pledge yesterday, on February 12, in his office in Zagreb, Croatia. Animals Friends welcomes the interest that Croatian MEPs show for this important national and European topic and urges other MEPs to sign the Pledge too, thus not only supporting this European campaign but also showing their dedication to animal welfare and protection in general. The goal of Eurogroup for Animals' campaign is to make animal welfare a topic that encourages citizens to vote in the coming European elections and to initiate changes.
02/12/2014 RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRE SAVES OVER 2000 STRAY DOGS FROM DEATH IN SOCHI OLYMPICS
Dismayed that more than 2000 strays would be put down by authorities after a pest control company at the Winter Olympics was handed a contract to rid the area of the animals, Oleg Deripaska, one of Russia's richest men, decided put his hand in his rather deep pockets and fund a dog shelter in the hills above Sochi. An army of construction workers on the Olympic site in the run-up to the games attracted the dogs, which were fed and looked after. But after one animal interfered with a rehearsal run for the Olympic ceremony, and others bit children, according to the company charged with catching them, authorities decided to take action. Following a string of media reports the billionaire Russian aluminum tycoon decided to intervene and a team of animal welfare workers began to rescue as many dogs as they could.
02/11/2014 "SURPLUS" GIRAFFE PUT DOWN AT COPENHAGEN ZOO
A bid to save a young giraffe from destruction at Copenhagen Zoo has failed, and the giraffe was put down on Sunday morning. Thousands of people had signed an online petition appealing for a change of heart over the two-year-old called Marius. The zoo said it had no choice because of its duty to avoid in-breeding. Marius was killed by a bolt gun, not a lethal injection, which would contaminate the meat. A post-mortem examination was broadcast live on the internet. A crowd of visitors, including children, watched as the carcass was skinned, cut up and fed to the lions. The zoo's scientific director, Bengt Holst, told the BBC he had received death threats but would not alter his style of animal management.
02/10/2014 U.S. DECLARES ICELAND IN DEFIANCE OF GLOBAL TRADE BAN ON WHALE PRODUCTS
Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell issued a formal declaration that Iceland is undermining the effectiveness of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora's (CITES) and its prohibition on international commercial trade in whale products. On December 12, 2013, Iceland's Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture announced that it would allow commercial whaling to continue for at least the next five years. As many as 154 endangered fin whales and 229 minke whales could be killed each year under Iceland's self-allocated quotas which are set to run from 2014 to 2018. February 6 decision starts a 60-day period for the President to decide whether or not to impose economic measures, including trade sanctions, against Iceland under conservation legislation known as the "Pelly Amendment." Iceland killed 35 minke whales and 134 fin whales, massive animals second only to blue whales in size, during the 2013 whaling season.
02/08/2014 SEA SHEPHERD STRIKES DEAL WITH GUATEMALA TO PATROL PACIFIC
The Brigitte Bardot, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's 35-meter interceptor vessel, arrived at Guatemala's Port San José last week for an unexpected mission: to help the Guatemalan Navy patrol the Pacific for marlin poachers. Sea Shepherd directors had come to Guatemala to discuss with officials the group's work in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, France and Senegal, among other countries. But they didn't expect to walk out of the secret meetings with a joint-patrol deal starting immediately. The joint-patrol agreement is a first for Sea Shepherd in Central America, after a similar arrangement to patrol Costa Rica's Cocos Island was scrapped 12 years ago in a now-infamous scuffle between the conservation group and a Costa Rican fishing vessel off the Guatemalan coast. For the next several weeks, the Brigitte Bardot will be based out of Port San José, on Guatemala's southern Pacific coast in the department of Escuíntla, with eight Sea Shepherd crew on board, along with Guatemalan Naval and police officers.
02/07/2014 WORLD'S LARGEST WHALE SHARK SLAUGHTERHOUSE UNCOVERED
The largest slaughtering facility for Whale sharks ever seen has been uncovered in southeastern China by Hong Kong based WildLife Risk. The slaughterhouse, operated by China Wenzhou Yueqing Marine Organisms Health Protection Foods Co Ltd, is estimated to butcher over 600 Whale sharks - an internationally protected endangered species - every year. The trade with Whale shark products - a large part of which ends up in beauty products such as shark oil health supplements, lipstick and moisturisers in the West - continues. Despite international agreements The Pu Qi factory, which was discovered near Wenzhou - in China's southeastern Zhejiang Province - operates openly. A manager at the factory, whom they identified as Li Guang, said shark products were being labeled as tilapia, a commonly farmed fish.
02/06/2014 DISTRESSED HIPPOS FORCED TO PERFORM IN FREEZING CONDITIONS
A trio of distressed hippos are being forced to entertain audiences in Eastern Europe, dancing the conga and climbing ladders. The three seven-year-old females are top billing at a new show put on by the Belarusian State Circus in the former Soviet republic's capital, Minsk. Minsk's sub-zero temperatures are a far cry from the warm rivers of the hippo's native Africa. The circus' publicity shamelessly boasts of its new Hippo Show, which is due to run for almost three months.
02/05/2014 BEING VEGETARIAN CAN CUT HEART DISEASE RISK BY UP TO A THIRD
A new study from the University of Oxford has found that the risk of hospitalization or death from heart disease is 32 percent lower in vegetarians than people who eat meat and fish. Heart disease is the single largest cause of death in developed countries. The new findings suggest that a vegetarian diet could significantly reduce people's risk of heart disease. "Most of the difference in risk is probably caused by effects on cholesterol and blood pressure, and shows the important role of diet in the prevention of heart disease," explains Dr Francesca Crowe, lead author of the study at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford. This is the largest study ever conducted in the UK comparing rates of heart disease between vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
02/04/2014 ECEAE SURVEY REVEALS VERY LOW NATIONAL FUNDING OF ALTERNATIVES TO ANIMAL TESTS DESPITE OBLIGATIONS UNDER EU LAW
The survey, published by online science journal, Altex, was conducted by member organizations of the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE), and asked national governments to formally state how much funding they were committing to the development of alternative methods in order to see if they were honoring their legal requirements. According to the new EU law on animal experiments, Directive 2010/63/EU, which entered force in January 2013, national governments should contribute to the development and promotion of alternative methods. The survey found that only half of EU countries were prepared to answer; of those, only seven reported specific funding; Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the UK. Reported funding of alternative methods in these seven countries totalled € 18.7 million in 2013. The remaining countries that responded; the Czech Republic, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Spain did not allocate any funds for 2013 or in previous years.
02/03/2014 NAOMI CAMPBELL GOES VEGETARIAN FOR HEALTH
Supermodel and coach/judge on the television show, "The Face," Naomi Campbell revealed in a Harper's Bazaar exclusive that she "just became a vegetarian." The piece, titled "24 Hours with Naomi Campbell," follows Campbell through a typical day from waking to bedtime. At the 7 A.M. portion of her day, she reveals her newly adopted vegetarianism. "I just became a vegetarian, and I find it a little hard to figure out what to eat, so I just bring stuff from home. I went to this place where they teach you how to take care of your body and clean it inside and out. After that I decided I didn't want to eat pork, chicken, or anything I felt was unhealthy. I never thought I would ever do it. It was just something I decided to do," says Campbell. "I don't know how long it's going to last, but I feel lighter and just easier. I think once you clean your intestine, you wanna try and keep it clean. I do juice cleanses two or three times per week."
The number of news found: 26.
