Dutch dairy cows to be sent to Siberia, in a bid to up milk production

DutchNews, August 29, 2017

French dairy company Danone, owner of Dutch company Numico, is going to export five thousand Dutch and German dairy cows to Russia, the Volkskrant reported on Tuesday. 

The animals will be transported over a distance of 4,500 kilometres to a farm in Tyumen in Western Siberia. 

The reason for the move by Danone, which does not normally trade in cattle, are the rising milk prices in Russia. The country closed its borders to Western European cheese in a reaction to the European boycott over Ukraine. That, in turn, means local milk is now used to make Russian cheese causing milk prices to spike.

This year alone milk prices have gone up by 14% in Russia. ‘ This is endangering the production of dairy products, such as yoghurt,’ head of Danone’s Russian unit told Bloomberg. By having the cattle graze in Russia the company is hoping to bring down the price of milk. 

Palestinian ex-banker devotes her life to West Bank dogs

Yahoo – AFP, Majeda El-Batsh, August 26, 2017

Diana Babish spent much of her own money on setting up the shelter but now
receives funding from international groups, including the France-based Brigitte Bardot
Foundation as well as from British and German charities (AFP Photo/Musa AL SHAER)

Beit Sahour (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian Diana Babish enters a cage full of dogs at a rare shelter in the West Bank and is immediately swamped by puppies clamouring to be picked up or petted.

Babish, in her 40s, runs the shelter in the Israeli-occupied territory, where residents are not all known to be dog lovers.

The shelter opened 18 months ago in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem after Babish gave up a 20-year career in banking to devote her life to care for the animals.

As she makes her way into the shelter, she pats each puppy as she searches for one particular dog that needs an injection for a bite injury.

Babish has no veterinary or medical background, but the shelter, which is now home to around 40 dogs, has become her labour of love and she has learned to give shots and other medical treatment.

About 200 puppies and 130 mature dogs have been treated, given affection, fed and prepared for adoption since the shelter opened.

"In the Palestinian areas animals are subjected to abuse. These animals were created by God," says Babish, who wears discreet jewellery and make-up.

10,000 strays in Bethlehem

"These animals can't talk. So we have to talk for them because they need our help," she says.

Babish spent much of her own money on setting up the shelter, but eventually needed outside help to meet the steep cost of running the refuge.

Now the shelter receives funding from international groups, including the France-based Brigitte Bardot Foundation as well as from British and German charities.

Shelter founder Diana Babish estimates there are about 10,000 stray dogs in the

 Bethlehem district alone, and many people favour poisoning or shooting them (AFP 

Photo/Musa AL SHAER)

The cost of running the shelter is high -- around $60,000 a year, says Babish, as the dogs need 50 kilos of food each day, much of it leftovers from nearby chicken farms.

She says the biggest challenge is not acquiring the funding but "getting people to accept the idea that animals can live in the streets and you should not exterminate them".

Babish estimates that there are about 10,000 stray dogs in the Bethlehem district alone, and many people favour poisoning or shooting them.

The local government has committed to not killing them and Babish says they are working together to find ways to reduce canine birth rates.

Islam generally calls for people to be kind to animals.

A savage attack

The Prophet Mohammed once told the story of a man who saw a dog panting with thirst and gave him water. The man was rewarded by God for his good deed and allowed to enter heaven.

And yet many religious authorities consider dogs to be unclean or impure.

Last year, a shelter opened in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.

Kareema Allan, a Palestinian teacher who lives in a town south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, recalls how she called Babish in a panic when a stray dog had puppies under a tree on her property.

It was during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and she gave the dog food and water.

But one day, "I woke up to the dog's screams" and found the mother "stabbed in the neck, while her puppies were still breastfeeding".

Allan cleaned the animal's wound with iodine and fed the puppies.

She then phoned the shelter and Babish quickly arrived and took both the mother and her puppies to the vet.

They all survived.

An average of two dogs a week are adopted from the Beit Sahour shelter, most of them finding new homes in Israel.

Australian prison provides rehab for inmates and animals

Yahoo – AFP, August 24, 2017

Australian prisoners are caring for animals that have been abandoned, attacked by
 predators, hit by cars or even seized in a drug bust as part of a rehabilitation
programme. (AFP Photo/SAEED KHAN)

Sydney (AFP) - Australian prisoners are caring for animals that have been abandoned, attacked by predators, hit by cars or even seized in a drug bust as part of a rehabilitation programme.

Kangaroos, emus, wombats, snakes and cockatoos are just some of the native creatures being nursed back to health by inmates at a wildlife centre based in the John Morony Correctional Complex outside Sydney.

Officials say the scheme helps instil a sense of responsibility and develops life skills for offenders preparing for the outside world.

"Animals show that (love and respect) unconditionally, they don't judge, so over time they (inmates) form relationships with the animals," the wildlife centre's senior officer Ian Mitchell told AFP.

"It is a real positive impact and the animals can actually sometimes help people heal."

Selected inmates are given responsibility for a particular enclosure and are expected to feed and build shelters for the animals, while being taught how to care for their injuries or condition.

Kangaroos, emus, wombats, snakes and cockatoos are just some of the native 

creatures being nursed back to health by inmates at a wildlife centre based in 

the John Morony Correctional Complex outside Sydney. (AFP Photo/SAEED KHAN)

Some animals never leave as they would be vulnerable to predators having become accustomed to the enclosure.

But most are later released back into the wild, or found a home via the animal rescue organisation that first brought them there.

One of the more unlikely cases the centre handled was a python that was seized in a drug raid, with criminals holding the reptile as a deterrent.

The snake had become addicted to meth after absorbing the narcotic through its skin and required treatment before it was released back into the wild.

"To have watched an animal rehabilitate from something like that, it's just another dynamic," Mitchell says.

Some former offenders who have left prison continue to work with wildlife, with one teaching people how to handle venomous snakes.

Surrounded by about a dozen squawking white cockatoos -- known for their ability to mimic speech -- one inmate said he had discovered "a lot of caring I didn't know I had" working with the animals.

Tasked with feeding the nocturnal wildlife, like the possums and wombats, he added he hopes to continue to care for animals after his jail term ends.

"I'm going to miss this place," he said.

"Each corner you turn, you are greeted -- in their way.

"The ones that can talk will say 'hello' but the other ones that can't talk, they will make a sign to say g'day."

Australian prison rehabilitates inmates by having them care for native animals that have been abandoned or attacked https://t.co/e9HE1pG7qm pic.twitter.com/9d0AMqUzQO

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 24, 2017

Rare white koala born at Australian zoo

Yahoo – AFP, August 22, 2017

This undated handout from the Australia Zoo received on August 22, 2017 shows a
white koala joey on her mother Tia at the Australia Zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast

A koala at an Australian zoo has given birth to a rare white joey, staff announced Tuesday.

Handlers at the Australia Zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast say the pale animal born in January owes its white fur to a recessive gene inherited from mother Tia.

The mother has given birth to light-coloured joeys in the past.

"In veterinary science it’s often referred to as the 'silvering gene' where animals are born with white or very pale fur and, just like baby teeth, they eventually shed their baby fur and the regular adult colouration comes through," said the zoo's wildlife hospital director Rosie Booth in a statement.

Koala fur differs in colour -- from light grey to brown -- depending on their environment. Animals in the south of Australia tend to have thicker and darker fur than those in the north.

But a white koala is incredibly rare, Booth said, and "quite unfortunate" if born in the wild, since it is more visible to predators.

The much-loved koala has been under increasing threat across Australia in recent decades, particularly from habitat loss, disease, dog attacks and bushfires.

The joey is yet to be named and Tourism Australia is set to encourage suggestions.

Rare white elk draws crowds in Sweden -- and a warning

Yahoo – AFP, August 15, 2017

Experts have warned people flocking to catch a glimpse of a rare white elk in
Sweden have urged them to be cautious (AFP Photo/Tommy PEDERSEN)

Stockholm (AFP) - Experts on Tuesday urged sightseers flocking to catch a glimpse of a rare white elk in Sweden to take care, warning that the animal could be dangerous.

Video footage of the animal posted online has gone viral in recent days, prompting people to head for the central Varmland region where it was spotted.

"Elks can get irritated,...and then they're dangerous," said Goran Ericsson, a professor of animal ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

"I would advise people to keep their distance," he told AFP. A typical elk weighed between 400 and 600 kilos (880 to 1,320 pounds), he pointed out.

Authorities in the central Varmland region said Monday crowds of people had been following the elk in the forest and on private property, disturbing locals and nature lovers.

Local politician Hans Nilsson filmed the elk and posted the clip on his Facebook page.

The elk -- or moose, as they are called in the United States -- is completely white, even its antlers, due to a recessive gene that is not uncommon among elks in the area, Ericsson said.

Between 50 and 100 elks in the region are white, and in all of Sweden there are around 1,000 white elks out of a total of 300,000 elks.

Bugs on the menu at Swiss supermarket

Yahoo – AFP, August 14, 2017

Protein-rich mealworms make up the bulk of the "insect balls" due to go on
sale at Switzerland's Coop supermarket (AFP Photo/Dieter Nagl)

Geneva (AFP) - Switzerland's first insect-based food aimed at humans will go on sale next week following a revision of the country's food safety laws, a supermarket chain said Monday.

Switzerland's second-largest supermarket chain, Coop, announced it would begin selling an insect burger, and insect balls, based on protein-rich mealworm.

The products, made by a Swiss start-up called Essento, will be available in a handful of Coop branches, including in Geneva, Bern and Zurich, as of August 21, according to a statement.

Switzerland is the first European country to authorise the sale of insect-based food items for human consumption, a spokeswoman for the country's food safety authority told AFP.

Swiss food safety laws were changed last May to allow for the sale of food items containing three types of insects: crickets, grasshoppers and mealworms, which are the larval form of the mealworm beetle.

These insects, long used in animal feed, must be bred under strict supervision for four generations before they are considered appropriate for human consumption, according to Swiss law.

Local production will thus take a few months to get started.

In the meantime, imports are possible under strict conditions -- the insects must be raised in accordance with the Swiss requirements at a company submitted to inspections by national food safety authorities.

Related Article:

Insect burgers and balls: Swiss supermarket to sell bug-based food

Dutch egg probe widens to chicken meat tests

Yahoo – AFP, Charlotte van Ouwerkerk and Jan Hennop, August 8, 2017

"Chickens have feelings too": Dutch animal activists wave banners and placards
as they stage a protest at a poultry farm in Witteveen (AFP Photo/Erik Brinkhorst)

The Hague (AFP) - In a new twist in Europe's tainted egg scandal, Dutch authorities announced Tuesday they had started testing chicken meat coming from affected poultry farms to determine whether it was also contaminated.

Scientists are looking for the presence of the insecticide fipronil, a substance potentially dangerous to humans, after supermarkets in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland pulled millions of eggs from the shelves.

"We are currently testing chicken meat in the poultry farms where eggs were infected to determine whether the meat is contaminated as well," Tjitte Mastenbroek, spokesman for food security agency NVWA, told AFP.

The probe focuses on "a few dozen" farms that produce both eggs and chicken meat, NVWA said.

Meanwhile, the Dutch Safety Board, the country's agency looking into civilian safety issues, announced it was opening its own probe into why fipronil was not detected earlier in eggs as well as "the role in this of the poultry sector and Dutch government."

"The way consumers have been informed about the risks of fipronil are also being investigated," the Hague-based OVV said in a statement.

Millions of chickens now face being culled in the Netherlands as the scandal widens across Europe.

Hard-hit Germany on Tuesday called on Belgian and Dutch authorities to quickly shed light on what it termed a "criminal network" involved in the contamination of eggs with fipronil.

"When one sees a criminal energy that's almost organised as a network it's unacceptable," said German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt.

He again criticised Belgian and Dutch authorities' tardy response to the crisis.

Belgium's top agricultural official Monday ordered the country's food safety agency to report within a day why it failed to notify neighbouring countries until July 20 despite knowing about fipronil contamination since June.

"It's not in the spirit of the early warning system to be aware in June but only to inform us by the end of July," Schmidt said.

Mastenbroek told AFP that a criminal probe by the NVWA under Dutch prosecution authorities and assisted by Belgium is continuing, looking at the role of companies in contaminating Dutch poultry farms with fipronil.

Meanwhile, the French government said Monday "thirteen batches of contaminated eggs from The Netherlands" were delivered in July to food processing companies located in central-western France.

First egg, now chicken

Mastenbroek said so far her agency's "highest priority" has been the detection of contaminated eggs.

"But now we also have the time to look at meat as a precautionary measure," she said.

Most farms exclusively produce one or the other, said Eric Hubers at LTO, a Dutch farming organisation.

If the meat tests are negative for fipronil, producers will be cleared to resume sales, Mastenbroek said.

LTO said the probability of chicken meat found to be infected was small.

However, if fipronil was detected "farming will be completely suspended," Mastenbroek said.

'Cutting costs'

The contaminated egg scandal erupted last week when up to 180 Dutch farms were shuttered due to the presence of fipronil discovered in some of the eggs.

It is believed the toxic substance was introduced to poultry farms by a Dutch business named Chickfriend brought in to treat red lice, a parasite in chickens.

Dutch and Belgian media reports that the substance containing the insecticide was supplied to Chickfriend -- a small company operating out of the Dutch poultry heartland in the central town of Barneveld -- by a Belgian firm have not been confirmed.

Currently Dutch authorities have closed down 138 poultry farms -- about a fifth of those across the country -- and warned that eggs from another 59 farms contained enough levels of fipronil that they should not be eaten by children.

Belgium has blocked production from 51 farms -- a quarter of those nationwide -- with fipronil found at 21 farms, although levels were ten times below the maximum EU limit, the country's food and safety authority AFSCA said.

Other European countries including Austria, Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal and Romania said they were analysing imported eggs, but so far no contaminated eggs were found.

Enviromental group Greenpeace on Tuesday called for massive reforms in the food supply system to become safer, healthier and more transparent and to do away with so-called "factory farming".

"Factory farming has been at the centre of a number of scandals, from Mad cow (disease) to bird flu, from swine flu to horsemeat," said Davin Hutchins, Greenpeace senior food campaigner.

"These are symptoms of a system trying to cut costs at every corner to maximise profits at the expense of public health and the environment," he said.

Dutch tainted egg probe widens to chicken meat tests https://t.co/8KmjKk8eUs #fipronil pic.twitter.com/RaJ3gTXcFU

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 8, 2017

Related Articles:

Two men arrested in egg scandal following raids in Belgium and NL

Two arrested in Europe as egg scandal spreads east https://t.co/nadjXS4JWM pic.twitter.com/YMTjnlWoy2

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 10, 2017

Icy treat for panda stars' birthday in Dutch zoo

Yahoo – AFP, August 8, 2017

Giant panda Xing Ya celebrated his fourth birthday with an ice cake in Ouwehands
Dierenpark zoo. Xing Ya and Wu Wen are on loan from China and will stay in the
Dutch Zoo for the next 15 years (AFP Photo/Remko DE WAAL)

The Hague (AFP) - Two multi-layered "cakes" made from ice, vegetable juice and fruit greeted a pair of giant pandas at a Dutch zoo Tuesday for their first birthday party since arriving from China.

Female Wu Wen (Beautiful Powerful Cloud) and her male companion Xing Ya (Elegant Star) both turn four this month and officials at the Ouwehands Dierenpark in the central town of Rheenen decided to throw a joint party.

"At first they both approached the cakes with caution, with the male panda giving his an exploratory lick," said animal biologist Jose Kok.

"Then they became curious and realised 'hang on, this is something nice in my enclosure' and not long after that, the cake's layers were separated," Kok told AFP with a laugh.

It took a week to prepare the icy treats, which where also layered with the pandas' favourite food: bamboo shoots.

The two panda "superstars" arrived in The Netherlands in mid-April after an 8,000 kilometre (5,000 mile) journey from China, following years of negotiations in what has been dubbed "panda diplomacy".

Officials decided to hold their birthday on August 8, the eighth day of the eighth 

month, figures which according to Chinese culture means good luck (AFP Photo/

Remko DE WAAL)

Male panda Xing Ya turned four on August 5, while Wu Wen was born on August 11.

Officials decided to hold their birthday on August 8, the eighth day of the eighth month, figures which according to Chinese culture means good luck, Kok said.

Dozens of delighted visitors were also treated to a real birthday cake in the form of a giant panda.

The two pandas will be housed at the zoo for the next 15 years and for now are being kept in two separate enclosures, specially built for them at a price of seven million euros ($8 million).

But Kok said it is hoped that the two bears would mate within the next year to help replenish global panda numbers.

Some 1,864 pandas remain in the wild in China, an increase from around 1,000 in the late 1970s, according to the environmental group WWF.

And just over 400 pandas live in zoos around the world, in conservation projects set up with Beijing.

For guide dogs, 'tough love' is best, even as puppies

Yahoo – AFP, August 7, 2017

Researchers say that the best guide dogs had mothers that showed them
"tough love" when they were puppies (AFP Photo/JACQUES DEMARTHON)

Miami (AFP) - Only certain canines have the discipline to become guide dogs for the blind, and the best ones had mothers that showed them "tough love" when they were puppies, researchers said Monday.

When dog moms allowed their puppies to learn on their own in their first five weeks of life, without coddling them too much, their puppies grew up to be better guide dogs, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Puppies with mothers who doted on them grew up to be anxious and more afraid of new situations, and tended to fail out of a rigorous training program to assist the blind.

The study was done at a facility in New Jersey called The Seeing Eye, which breeds and trains seeing eye dogs.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania essentially embedded themselves at The Seeing Eye, taking video and closely observing 23 mothers and their 98 puppies for their first five weeks of life, said the report.

"We wanted to know if we could differentiate the moms based on how they interacted with their puppies," said lead author Emily Bray.

"We documented things like her nursing position, how much time she spent looking away from the puppies and how much time she spent in close proximity to her puppies or licking and grooming them."

Two years later, researchers went back to catch up with the dogs and found that those with more attentive mothers were less likely to graduate and become guide dogs.

A key measure of success was whether puppies' mothers nursed them while standing, or lying down.

"If a mother is lying on her stomach, the puppies basically have free access to milk, but, if the mother is standing up, then the puppies have to work to get it," said co-author Robert Seyfarth.

"A hypothesis might be that you have to provide your offspring with minor obstacles that they can overcome for them to succeed later in life because, as we know, life as an adult involves obstacles."

Parallels could certainly be drawn to human behavior, as experts warn that "helicopter parenting" can be detrimental to kids' well-being, while fostering independence and grit in the face of adversity have lifelong benefits.

When it comes to dogs, researchers are continuing to study how a mother's anxiety might be passed on to her puppies.

Are the overcoddled puppies picking up on their mother's anxiety? Are they reacting to their upbringing somehow? Or are they inheriting genes that make them more fearful?

"With mothering, it seems like it's a delicate balance," said Bray.

"It's easy to be like, 'Oh, smothering moms are the worst,' but we aren't exactly sure of the mechanisms yet and we don't want to tip too far in the other direction either."

Belgium admits it kept quiet about 'tainted' eggs probe

Yahoo – AFP, August 5, 2017

A laboratory assistant for the Dutch food safety board carries out tests on
eggs on August 1, 2017 (AFP Photo/Piroschka van de Wouw)

Brussels (AFP) - Belgian officials admitted Saturday they knew in early June there was a potential problem over insecticide-contaminated eggs but kept it secret because of an ongoing fraud investigation.

"We knew since early June there was potentially a problem with fipronil in the poultry sector," Katrien Stragier, a spokeswoman for Belgium's food safety agency (AFSCA), told Flemish television VRT.

"We immediately launched an investigation and we also informed the prosecutor because it was a matter of possible fraud," she added.

"From that point on the secrecy of the inquiry took precedent. We understand that people have questions about public health and we are trying to answer them," she added.

Contacted by AFP over the past few days, the prosecutor in Antwerp handling the case refused to give out any information on the specific orders of the investigating judge.

Belgian supermarkets have cleared eggs from the shelves of supermarkets as a precautionary measure while awaiting the results of tests.

In Germany and the Netherlands several million eggs from Dutch farms have already been recalled.

German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt pressed the authorities, particularly in Belgium and The Netherlands, to clear up the situation.

"Someone has clearly proceeded with criminal intent to contaminate (the eggs) with a banned product," Schmidt told the daily Bild.

Dutch officials closed down 180 businesses earlier in the week and after tests, the Dutch food authority (NVWA) said 138 poultry farms -- about a fifth of those in the country -- would remain closed.

One batch of eggs posing in particular posed "an acute danger to public health", the agency said.

Eggs from another 59 farms contained high enough levels of the insecticide, fipronil, for the food authority to warn against any children eating them.

Fipronil is commonly used in veterinary products to get rid of fleas, lice and ticks. It is banned from being used to treat animals destined for human consumption, such as chickens.

In large quantities, the insecticide is considered to be "moderately hazardous" according to the World Health Organization, and can have dangerous effects on people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands.

Farmers throw eggs at a poultry farm in Onstwedde, Netherlands, on August 3, 2017
after the Dutch Food and Welfare Authority (NVWA) highlighted the contamination of
eggs by fipronil, a toxic insecticide outlawed from use in the production of food (AFP
Photo/Patrick HUISMAN)

Related Article:

Tainted Dutch eggs scandal widens across borders

Malawi hails 'historic' relocation of 520 elephants

Yahoo – AFP, August 3, 2017

African Parks officials load elephants into a truck, to be translocated from Majete
Game Reserve in southern Malawi to Nkhotakota Game Reserve to increase the
animal population and boost tourist attraction in the country's central region.
(AFP Photo/Amos Gumulira)

Blantyre (Malawi) (AFP) - Malawi on Thursday celebrated the successful conclusion of a two-year project moving 520 sedated elephants by truck to a reserve where the animals had been nearly wiped out by poaching.

Described as one of the biggest-ever wildlife translocations, the elephants were transported 350 kilometres (220 miles) from two southern parks to the Nkhotakota reserve in the centre of the country.

"We have taken extraordinary measures to secure a future for Malawi's elephants, and at the same time are helping people who live around these critically important wild areas," said Brighton Kumchedwa of the national parks department.

The elephant population in Nkhotakota fell from 1,500 to just 100 in 2015. Since then security work and community relation programmes have made the reserve safe for wildlife.

Africa Parks, a conservation organisation that led the translocation, described it as "historic", adding that 261 elephants were moved last year and the remainer this year.

Only two elephants died in the process, which was completed on August 2.

The elephants were selected family by family and darted from a helicopter, before being winched by their legs into crates on the back of 30-tonne trucks.

They were driven overnight from the two parks, which had a overpopulation of elephants, to their new home in Nkhotakota.

Their new home is now surrounded by a high electric fence and has also re-filled with buffalo, antelope, warthog and zebra.

"This successful translocation is a pivotal moment for Malawi," said Peter Fearnhead, head of African Parks.

"Rehoming more than 500 elephants, and knowing they will thrive in Nkhotakota, is a story of hope and survival, and a real example of what is possible with good collaboration."

Britain's Prince Harry assisted in the first stage of the relocation.

Project organisers said there were more than 10 million African elephants 100 years ago, but only an estimated 450,000 remain today.

About 40,000 are poached every year to feed the insatiable demand for ivory.