Articles

Animal Liberation Queensland: Liberating Animals Or Entrenching Their Subjugation

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vp02Over the past few months, regular readers to this site would have noticed that I am not particularly supportive of Animal Liberation Queensland. I have even gone as far as saying that the group is fraudulently attracting members and donations from people who believe that the organisation will be working towards liberating animals.

I have been accused of having a vendetta against the hard working people of this organisation who are the only ones that are actually ‘doing something’ in this state. It is unfortunate that people seem to confuse ‘doing something’ with ‘achieving something’.

I am sure that those in Animal Liberation Queensland will be more than eager to include the following in their list of achievements for 2013.
* Protest at Gold Coast City Council Chambers, regarding the vote to reverse the ban on exotic animals in circuses on public land
* Protest on the Gold Coast about Lennon Bros Circus’ use of exotic animals.
* Handing over of x letters supporting a ban on live export to the electorate office of Kevin Rudd (The protest was in conjunction with Coast To Coast Animal Friends, and Animal Justice Party, with signatures collected by an individual unconnected to any of the above groups)
* Being added to the waiting list to be able to hold a fundraising BBQ at Bunnings Cannon Hill selling vege sausages.

It seems that Animal Liberation Queensland is a lot like the RSPCA, in the way that only some animals are worthy of the organisations attention, whilst others are totally neglected.

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Other Animals: The Pawn In The Game Of Politics.

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With Australia’s federal election a matter of weeks away, and a majority of the candidates being announced, the country’s ‘animal protection’ groups are trying to politicise the plight of other animals.

Animals Australia has even gone as far as to create a page that allows a person to put in their electorate and find out how the current MP stands on the issue of Live Export, and/or The Independent Office of Animal Welfare. They have even sent out a number or tweets trying to tell the major parties that based on polling, a positive position on both will get them the vote.

Sadly, there are going to be a number of voters who will get hoodwinked into believing that just because a current MP or candidate says that they support the Independent Office of Animal Welfare, or that live export should be phased out that that is actually the way that they will vote.

As we saw when bills were presented to parliament to end live export in 2011, they were both defeated with only the two who proposed the bills, Adam Brandt, and Andrew Wilkie. All other members of the House of Representatives either voted against it or abstained from voting.

And yet, if you have a look at the Animals Australia page titled “Put Animals On The Political Map” it list all those who support the two ‘policies’ with a green tag, those who don’t a red one, blue for those who support one policy, and grey for those whose position is unknown.

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Screw You! At Least We Are Doing “Something”

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There seems to be a growing phenomenon within the animal advocacy movement where activists seem to be under the impression that as long as they are doing something, then that has to be good for the animals.

Whilst these activists may believe that every little bit helps, I do wonder if they have put any thought into the possible damage that their “little bit” may do.

Let’s consider the following example for a minute and see what you think.

Shanae Wyatt is a leader of a Facebook group, Shore To Shore Animal Buddies, that claims to be ‘for the animals’. The group is made up of anyone who wants to call themselves an ‘animal lover’, despite whether they eat/use them or not. Unbeknownst to most of the people in that group, Ms Wyatt and her husband, who is also active in the group, consume a ‘mostly vegetarian’ diet. I am guessing that means that they are vegetarian except for the times a piece of steak ‘accidentally’ falls into their mouth, or whilst hubby is out fishing with his mates.

Somehow Ms Wyatt is able to whip other advocates in the area into such a frenzy that they will all fly off half cocked and do whatever it is that Ms Wyatt wants them to do. After being bored at home one night Ms Wyatt is surfing the internet where she comes across a group that says that We Fly You There Airlines is involved in the transportation of Animal X for research purposes. Ms Wyatt knows that it has to be true because it is on the internet, and the internet is NEVER wrong.

Later the next day Ms Wyatt rounds up her posse of other activists and tells them that We Fly You There Airlines has an office in Brisvegas. It is highly unlikely that Ms Wyatt would have told the rest of her posse that the office is only a corporate one, and probably has no input or control over what offices in other countries do.

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Stuff The Truth, Let’s Tar And Feather The Bastard

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It seems that Tuesday’s article about activists claiming to be from “Gateway To Hell” storming the Brisbane office of China Southern Airlines has upset quite a few people.

As you can see by the comments at the end of that article, all sorts of accusations have been thrown at me yet very little discussion about what I actually wrote.

As is always the case, a few vocal people haven’t allowed the facts get in the way of a good condemnation, so I will summarise them here.

  • The footage of the ‘protest’ was published on YouTube for all to see
  • One of the people involved in the activity tagged all of those involved in a Facebook status update, congratulating each other on the day’s ‘achievement’.
  • The clip was publicly posted on the Facebook page of Coast To Coast Animal Friends, with those involved in it defending what they did when comments were made.
  • There was also a similar defence of the protest in the comments section of the YouTube clip.
  • The behaviour of the protestors is nothing more than bullying of innocent people.
  • It is highly doubtful that the small Brisbane offive has any influence on the commercial decisions of the offices in China or the United States.

In the article, I also asked the following questions, which have gone unanswered.

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How Can We Stop Live Export?

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By now almost Australian’s will know that this country’s so called  animal protection groups want live export banned, even going so fas as to try and make it an election issue, with the help of the Australian Greens.

If there is as much public support for live export ending as these groups claim there is, how would Australia go about ending the trade in live animals?

As with most items that are tradeable, there are three ways to stop the trade in those items. Legislate against it; Reduce demand; and Reduce supply.

Legislate Against It
Despite there being an election due in a few weeks time, and the claims of people holding up placards that say “No Ban, No Vote”, it is highly unlikely that there will be a government imposed ban on the live export of animals, because there is just too much for the government to lose. Whether it be the support of the farmers’ lobby group, or the loss of export revenue. Then there is the corresponding or potential loss of employment for those who make an income from the trade.

Reduce Demand
To reduce demand, these organisations either need to improve conditions in the importing country, whether it be refrigeration for imported chilled meat, or education on was to consume a plant based diet. There is nothing on the Animals Australia website that indicates that they are working with local organisations to improve refrigeration standards. This means that all that is left is educating the local people on the benefits of a plant based diet, though considering that Animals Australia has said that they won’t tell people what to do, it doesn’t look like they will be working to reduce demand any time soon.

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Gateway To Hell Visits China Southern Airlines

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On Monday August 5, 2013, eight activists claiming to be representatives of Gateway To Hell, stormed the Brisbane offices of China Southern Airlines in a bid to get the airline to stop transporting primates for use in vivisection.

The office invasion began with Lauren Taylor blowing an airhorn to announce their arrival with the other 6 activists, Shane Waett, Annelies Craig, Jennie Sakamoto, Kara Sanders, Gabrielle Davies Antney, and Linda McDowell  following close behind. Video footage was provided by Carol Slater.

For some reason these protestors seemed to believe that by creating the ruckus that they did in the Brisbane office, that this will somehow have an impact on the decisions made by the US and China offices.

Whilst the people protesting claim to be “Gateway To Hell”, it is obvious that they are the same people who are prominent and possibly influential members of Coast To Coast Animal Friends. This is despite the best attempts by Shane Waett trying to hide her face when the camera is near her.

As I have written in previous articles, Shane Waett and members of Coast To Coast Animal Friends have no hesitation in bullying and harassing members of the public and other activists, and Monday’s ‘protest’ could potentially represent a change of tactics for the group.

No longer being content with holding placards and shouting at people, or bullying them they have now resorted to trespass.

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What Is So Bad About Live Export?

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Now that the Australian federal election has been called, the Australian Greens inspired slogan “No Ban, No Vote” is being trumpeted about in a vain attempt to get politicians to change their mind on the issue of live export.

Sadly for the animals, I doubt that there will be any sort of ban or phase out of the live export of other animals within the next decade, if not more.

So, what is it about live export that makes it so bad?

I would like to say that those who are against live export are doing so because of the way that the exported animals are killed when they reached their final destination, which we are told is without stunning to render them insensible to pain. Except there are 12 slaughterhouses in Australia that have an exemption on ‘religious grounds’ from the pre-stunning requirement.

In 2011, it was estimated that those 12 slaughterhouses killed approx 250,000 sheep per year this way. Though considering that it is now 2013, there is a very good chance that this number has increased. Possibly dramatically too.

Could it be the way that the animals are transported to their overseas destination?

Years ago, I would have said yes. Though with todays exporter knowing that for every animal that dies or gets sick during transport, the lower their profit is going to be, things have changed dramatically. Which is why the focus by these alleged animal protection groups is now on the way that the animals are killed once they reach their destination.

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