Million Paws Walk 2007 - Your Help Needed!

Help us help all animals at the Million Paws Walk this Sunday May 20. Each year, Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV) attends the RSPCA's annual fundraising event to give the public the full details on how the RSPCA uses and doesn't use the millions upon millions of dollars in donations they receive.  At this annual fundraising event that caters for up to 10,000 people, countless animals are cooked up on the barbeque. Animals who have led miserable lives and brutal deaths at abattoirs. ALV focuses attention upon the RSPCA only because it is the only animal welfare organisation in Victoria with the power to legally prosecute claims of animal cruelty. This is a great responsibility, and sadly the RSPCA's disgraceful track-record speaks for itself. Something has to be done to help the animals who need the RSPCA's protection but who aren't getting it. (Please visit our website www.RSPCAwatchdog.org for more information). If you can volunteer from 9am to early afternoon on the day please contact noah@alv.org.au and we'll let you know how you can help.

Bracks Wastes Taxpayer Money on Duck Killers

The Bracks government has allocated $200,000 of taxpayers money in an attempt to teach Victoria's dwindling number of duck shooters to shoot accurately. Coalition Against Duck Shooting campaign director Laurie Levy said today: "The Bracks Government is finally acknowledging that waterbird wounding rates are unacceptable during duck-shooting seasons. But instead of pandering to duck shooters and wasting taxpayers’ money on a dying activity, the Bracks Government should immediately ban duck shooting. The Government’s own Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (AWAC) has repeatedly recommended that duck shooting be banned because of cruelty. Three State Labor Governments have already banned the recreational shooting of native waterbirds, WA in 1990, NSW in 1995 and Queensland in 2005. Both NSW and Queensland banned the activity following recommendations from their AWACs. A 2003 ACNielsen poll showed that 70 percent of city and country Victorians want the recreational shooting of native waterbirds banned... Waterbirds are declining worldwide, Australian waterbird numbers are dangerously low, climate change has already decimated native waterbird numbers and the situation is only going to get worse." YOU CAN HELP! Write to Premier Steve Bracks (1 Treasury Place, Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia. E-mail) and let him know that it is not only ridiculous, but extremely irresponsible of the goverment to pour taxpayer's money into encouraging the destruction of even more native waterbirds, just so Victoria’s few remaining duck shooters can get their thrills.

World Lab Animal Day Report

As part of World Lab Animal day last month ALV held a protest outside The Body Shop, to highlight the fact that the company's profits help fund animal experiments. ALV highlighted the fact that The Body Shop is anything but a 'cruelty free' business as they are now owned by L'Oreal, who continue to use animal tested ingredients. In March 2006, The Body Shop was bought by cosmetics giants L’Oreal. L’Oreal do not oppose animal testing for cosmetics and do not meet the Australian criteria for Cruelty Free status under the guidelines of Choose Cruelty Free and have said as much in a statement. ALV’s Vice President Noah Hannibal said, “We want people to know that every time they make a purchase at The Body Shop they may in fact be financially supporting animal tests. It is irrelevant whether products sold there are tested on animals or not, what is more relevant is where the money is going. It is going to L’Oreal who do not support cruelty free ethics and wish merely to profit from it with one hand and then support animal testing with the other.” The protest received fantastic media coverage with Fox and Triple M radio covering the story and over 20 papers around Australia running an article: http://tinyurl.com/2wng4f.

ALV tells the Rodeo to Buck Off

Eight ALV activists wearing signboards that formed letters spelling BAN RODEO on the front and CRUELTY! on the back protested against the International State of Origin Rodeo last week. The huge 'walking billboard' was accompanied by activists handing out literature (http://www.alv.org.au/banrodeos.jpg) to the public making it abundantly clear that cowboys abusing animals are not wanted in Melbourne. Rodeos are cruel bloodsports condemned by major animal protection organisations around the world. The Melbourne City Council, lead by Mayor John So, voted on March 27 this year to "write to the relevant Victorian Ministers requesting that the government review the permission of rodeos in Victoria, specifically the event planned for Vodafone Arena in May 2007". ALV joins every major animal organisation in the country, including the RSPCA, in calling for rodeos to be banned in Australia.

Stock contractors at the back of the chutes use concealed electric prods that sear the animals with a 4,000 volt bolt of electricity prior to them being released into the arena. This causes enormous pain and terror to an already frightened animal. Riders also wear sharp spurs that repeatedly jab and cut into the animals skin causing pain and injury. Many spectators are not aware that in many events the riders must brutally spur the animals a set amount of times to even be part of the 'competition'. Spurs, as well as the painful cinch straps tightened around the genitals of horses and bulls, are used to send animals into a bucking frenzy that can and often does cause them to fall, crash into gates and other obstructions, breaking their legs and backs. Footage taken at rodeos around Australia by activists often hit the TV screens showing the nation the horrific suffering of these animals. National news in early 2006 showed a bull at the Carrick Bull Ride in northern Tasmania suffer a broken back. The downed animal couldn't walk yet he was kicked and beaten in the head to get him onto a truck and away from the arena. This badly injured animal had to wait two hours until a vet attended to put him out of his misery. ALV President Patty Mark said: "Melbourne's international reputation as a progressive, compassionate community is being destroyed before our eyes by tolerating this particularly vicious display of barbarism. Rodeos should be regarded no differently than the illegal practices of dog-fighting or cock-fighting. Would people take their children and friends to watch competitors slam dogs or cats to the ground, often breaking their bones and bodies in the process? The ACT was the first Australian state to ban rodeos, and now it's time Victoria gets its act together and follows suit." YOU CAN HELP! Write to Premier Steve Bracks (1 Treasury Place, Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia. E-mail) and let him know we don't want rodeo animal abuse to continue in the state of Victoria.

Loving Home Needed

Two special dogs need a permanent loving home. Will only release to an ALV member who understands dogs and how to care for them. Jack is a young West Highland Terrier cross, who is very social and loves praise and attention. Eskimo (Esky) is a sleak Pomeranian cross (taller and slimmer than a pomeranian with short hair) who loves to run and play. For more information and photos please email Jason at jbeks@hotmail.com or call on 0401 540 546.