Bird traders face fine, jail for dyeing parrots different colours

DutchNews, February 19, 2020 

A yellow-headed Amazon. Photo: Lizzy Foulkes via Wikimedia Commons

A father and son from Zaandam accused of fraudulently exporting parrots by dyeing their feathers and beaks different colours and falsifying paperwork are facing a €7,500 fine and a year in prison respectively, broadcaster NOS reports. 

The public prosecutor said the pair, who trade in exotic birds, had been flaunting export rules for years, particularly when it came to health tests and certificates. The paperwork is necessary, officials say, to protect countries against bird flu, virulent Newcastle disease and psittacosis, which can also affect people. 

The son also stands accused of dyeing certain parrot species different colours in order to export them to countries which restrict the import of some parrots but not of others. 

Apart from dyeing the animals’ feathers he also dyed the beaks of 28 yellow headed Amazons so they would look like a yellow-crowned Amazon which are subject to less stringent import rules. 

In 2015 and 2016 the son was caught at Schiphol trying to ship a consignment of painted birds to Taiwan, many of which dead or dying. 

Complaints about fraudulent dealings by the two have been accumulating since 2008, NOS said.

Chinese turn to social media to feed stranded pets in virus city

Yahoo – AFP, February 3, 2020

A man carries his dog in a shopping bag at a pet fair in Shanghai. China is home
to a growing population of pet owners, with pet-related spending in China reaching
nearly $24 billion in 2018 (AFP Photo/JOHANNES EISELE)

Beijing (AFP) - China's unprecedented quarantining of virus-hit Wuhan has separated millions from their families -- and many from their pets, prompting worried owners and kind strangers to take to social media to ensure left-behind animals are looked after.

The virus that has killed more than 360 in China emerged during the Lunar New Year when hundreds of millions were travelling across the country, and the subsequent lockdown on Wuhan and central Hubei province has left many stranded.

The hashtag "save the pets left behind in Wuhan" became the third-most searched term on the Twitter-like Weibo platform Monday, receiving millions of views from those unable to return to the city, where the virus is believed to have originated, and others willing to help.

"Please help me feed my cat", one user posted on January 30.

On Monday, he used the hashtag to post the happy news he had found a "young man" who had agreed to go and feed his cat Maomao.

"In the video chat, after the man opened the door Maomao meowed so miserably, no one has been home for more than a dozen days..." he said.

More than 2,000 people also joined a group created by the Wuhan Small Animal Protection Association on Chinese chat app QQ to look for "kind-hearted people" willing to feed pets left behind in Wuhan by owners unable to enter the city.

One member on Monday asked if anyone would be willing to feed a pet snake. "I'm worried to death" the user, who posted anonymously, said. "I didn't let him hibernate this winter because he's a baby snake."

That post had no takers as of late Monday.

"If any cats and dogs are stranded and you can let me in, I can help you feed them on livestream," wrote Katherine Cui in eastern Zhejiang province -- where the city of Wenzhou was placed under a similar lockdown to Wuhan on Sunday.

"I have many pets at home, and plenty of cat food, dog food and kitty litter, I know too well how important fur babies are."

The drive to save pets comes after multiple Chinese media reports said apartment complexes had banned pets to stop the spread of the virus, as well as unverified reports that people had thrown animals to their deaths for similar reasons.

While the novel coronavirus is believed to have crossed over from animals to humans at a Wuhan market known for selling live wildlife, the World Health Organization has said on its Weibo account there is "no evidence that dogs, cats and other pets can catch the novel coronavirus."

China is home to a growing population of pet owners, with pet-related spending in China reaching 170.8 billion yuan ($23.7 billion) in 2018, according to a report by Pet Fair Asia and pet website Goumin.com.

Pigs beaten in undercover images from Dutch slaughterhouse

DutchNews, January 31, 2020 

An animal welfare group has published undercover footage of pigs in a slaughterhouse being beaten with paddles and an apparently crippled animal being pulled by the tail.

Ongehoord claims that the hours of images were made in August 2019 by ‘Johan’, a volunteer for the group working at the Westfort slaughterhouse in IJsselstein. 

The slaughterhouse, whose website says it sells ‘sustainable meat from the Netherlands’ told RTL Nieuws that it was investigating the images and implementing immediate measures to ensure poor treatment does not happen in future. 

‘Harsh herding and beating pigs isn’t allowed and shouldn’t be allowed,’ it said in a statement. ‘We take full responsibility for this and will implement [a set of] measures. The permanent camera supervision will also be intensified and a team including two of our own vets will monitor the images.’ 

However animal welfare experts told RTL Nieuws that beating animals in order to herd them – especially using the sharp side of a paddle – would count as ‘abuse’ and contravene European guidelines. 

Carla Schouten, agriculture minister, called the images ‘unacceptable’ and pledged to reduce the speed of slaughter at such factories.