Stop the Possum Cull

The St Kilda Catani Gardens is renowned for its friendly possum community, who gratefully accept fruit directly from the hands of human visitors and tourists. Until recently they have lived in the tall palms that line the gardens, but now Port Phillip Council have been placing metal bands around the trees to prevent the possums from returning to their homes in a bid to reduce their numbers. Protectors of Public Lands Victoria reports that Council has been trapping the possums and euthanizing them, claiming the possums are destroying the trees. However the trees have supported the possums for years without difficulty. These photos of the Catani possums were taken by ALV on Wednesday night April 11, 2007. A week prior ALV sighted only 30 possums (from an estimated normal population of 90), last Wednesday fewer than twenty were sighted. TAKE ACTION! Contact the City of Port Phillip Mayor Janet Bolitho (e-mail, phone 9209 6431 or 0411 096 400, or fax 9536 2711) on behalf of these defenceless animals. Insist these gentle native inhabitants be allowed to remain in their homes. Tell the City of Port Phillip congratulations they are finally protecting the colony of fairy penguins off the St.Kilda Pier and that it's just as important to protect the possums as well. St Kilda is known as being a friendly, tolerant and welcoming destination for all, so it's time to stop the possum bloodbath.

ALV New Members Induction

The next ALV Induction program will take place this Saturday, April 21st. The aim of the Induction program is to provide an informative overview of ALV, discussing the 'Statement of Purposes', and providing information on current campaigns and how to get more involved as a volunteer, for those interested. It will be an informal afternoon and a great way to meet other members. Existing members and those new to ALV are all welcome! If interested please RSVP via email sally@alv.org.au or call 0412 305 697 if you have any questions. DATE: Saturday, 21st April. TIME: 11am-1.30pm. LOCATION: ALV office, 394 Russell Street, Melbourne.

World Lab Animal Day

ALV activists will take to the Bourke Street Mall this Saturday 21st April to mark World Lab Animal Day. The total number of animals used for research and teaching in 2004 in Australia was a staggering 6,489,005. ALV maintains that animal experiments are barbaric, unscientific and archaic. For this demonstration we will be targetting the popular cosmetics chain 'The Body Shop' who present themselves as a Cruelty Free alternative, but in fact this is far from the truth. In the past TBS had held a strong stance against animal testing, but this has been undermined as they have been bought by cosmetic giants L'Oreal.

In communication with national cruelty free accreditation company CCF, a Loreal spokesperson stated "At the moment, I can pretty much guarantee that L'Oreal won't be in compliance with the CCF criteria." Come along and join ALV in sending a message to The Body Shop that discerning customers are not happy with their profits going to L'Oreal to spend on animal testing. Assemble outside the Body Shop in Bourke St mall at 2:15pm. Please wear black.

ALV in Cosmo!

In the animal friendly May 2007 issue of Cosmo Magazine, the winners of the "Fun, Fearless, Female Awards" for the year's most inspiring young women include ALV's own Jamie Yew, who talks about her veganism and animal advocacy (the photo and write up can be read here). Other winners of the awards include designer Stella McCartney who talks about the 'myth of leather' and how it is possible to make sexy and cool accessories from a more ethical viewpoint, and Pink! who talks about her work supporting animal rights. The same issue also features a photo of Alicia Silverstone wearing a VEGAN hoodie, and cover model Eva Longoria mentioning how she is trying veganism.

Happy Hens Rescue

ALV's Open Rescue team was recently featured in a full page Sunday Herald Sun article In the name of Animal Liberation, which helped expose the massive cruelty behind the battery egg industry: "Protesters this week evaded a giant electric fence, guard dogs and security lights in a raid on Happy Hens farm at Meredith, about 40km north of Geelong... 'The birds were screaming, bodies were rotting in cages, bins of dead bodies are left in the sheds and sick and exhausted birds are left to fend for themselves in tiny cages,' Ms Mark, founder of Animal Liberation Victoria, said." The full story and the unanimously positive comments from Sunday Herald-Sun readers can be read here.

Rodeo Cruelty Protest

The International State of Origin Rodeo is due to hit Melbourne on May 5 at the Vodaphone Arena. Rodeos are senseless, violent and viciously cruel events. ALV is helping fund the work of Jeannie Walker of NoRodeo.org in South Australia to highlight the horrific torment inflicted upon rodeo animals. Some of the terrible cruelty Jeanie has documented at recent Victorian rodeos includes: Electric prods used to shock animals out of chutes to make them buck, sometimes jammed into their anus, a bull with a spinal injury from 'over bucking', dragging himself around the arena on his front legs while bellowing in pain due to paralysis in the rear end, and horses with legs caught through the chutes kicking madly and causing horrendous injuries. She also documented horses taking shocking falls and landing on their heads, unable to get off the ground while cowboys drag, kick and twist their necks so that the pain will make them stand. ALV RODEO PROTEST: Please email patty@alv.org.au if you can be part of a protest against the cruel State of Origin Rodeo on Saturday, May 5th. TAKE ACTION! Write to Joe Helper, Minister of Agriculture (Level 22, 1 Spring St, Melbourne 3003. E-mail) responsible for issuing rodeo permits, telling him that hosting rodeos is cruel and will damage Melbourne's International reputation as the peak epicenter for Arts and Culture. Refer to the ongoing, consistently documented incidents of cowboy cruelty to animals, and that you oppose the torture of animals for entertainment. Make sure you also forward a copy of your letter to Premier Steve Bracks (1 Treasury Place, Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia. E-mail) so that he is well aware of the upswell of opinion against rodeos.

ALV Activists Live in Battery Cage

ALV members Jamie Yew and Noah Hannibal spent several days living in a cage outside the State Library of Victoria to draw attention to the constant suffering and torment that over ten million battery hens in Australia endure for their entire lives. Up to 80,000 hens are crammed in each battery hen shed. They never experience sunshine, fresh air, grass under their feet or dust to bathe in. Hens closely confined peck each other to death from boredom so their sensitive beaks are burned off with a hot blade, all without pain relief. Up to 90% of battery hens suffer broken bones from a lack of exercise, calcium depletion and rough handling. Hens now lay 320 eggs a year instead of 20 due to routine antibiotics, high protein feed and genetic selection. Battery hens suffer severe feather loss when their bodies rub against wire cages and from calcium depletion after producing hundreds of egg shells. In the wild hens live 10 years or longer, but commercial egg-laying hens live a maximum of 2 years before they are killed when their "economic productivity" declines. Male chicks, which are useless to the egg industry, only live a day before their tiny bodies are dropped into industrial blenders and liquefied. The protest received great media coverage nationally in Australia and throughout Asia. Over four thousand leaflets containing information on the suffering of battery hens were handed out to passers by. Click here to read one of the newspaper reports.

International Fur Day Report

On February 13 ALV members organised a protest as part of the International day of protest against Fur outside the Chinese Consulate, to protest against the extreme brutality, including live skinning, of the Chinese fur industry. Over half of the world's fur today is produced by China, a country with no animal welfare laws where millions of dogs and cats are killed for fur every year. Undercover video investigations (WARNING: extremely graphic footage) have shown fur farm workers skinning animals alive without concern for their pain, and leaving them to a slow and agonizing death. The Herald-Sun story about our protest can be read here: news.com.au.

AGM Results

ALV held it's 2006 Annual General Meeting on Saturday, March 31, 2007 at Ross House, Flinders Lane Melbourne. Members of committee were duly elected. Many thanks to all the members who attended or who sent in their proxies! Your support for the work and direction of Animal Liberation Victoria is greatly appreciated! Profiles of the 2007 ALV Committee of Management can be viewed here: http://www.alv.org.au/committee.php