Animal Wrongs

“The animals who are poisoned, drugged, mutilated, and killed in British laboratories all feel pain and fear, just like we do, but experimenters continue to treat them as disposable tools rather than intelligent, sensitive beings.” http://www.peta.org.uk/blog/damning-report-reveals-animals-suffered-3-94-million-british-experiments-2016/

The animal research paradox: if other animals don’t feel as we would in those intolerable circumstances, then they’re not good models for human physiology. If they do, then subjecting them to these abhorrent practices is unethical.

Pangolicide

“The true scale of the slaughter of pangolins in Africa has been revealed by new research showing that millions of the scaly mammals are being hunted and killed.
Pangolins were already known to be the world’s most trafficked wild mammal, with at least a million being traded in the last decade to supply the demand for its meat and scales in Asian markets.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/20/scale-of-pangolin-slaughter-revealed-millions-hunted-in-central-africa-alone

Large scale poaching.

Ocean Oxymoron

“Japanese whale hunters have finished their latest so-called ‘scientific’ expedition off the coast of Abashiri, Hokkaido, killing 47 minke whales.
The Japanese Fisheries Agency will now analyse the age and stomach contents of the whales.” http://uk.whales.org/news/2017/07/forty-seven-minke-whales-killed-to-see-how-old-they-were

Japanese research is greatly advancing knowledge of what diet doesn’t tell us about life expectancy.

Square meal

“Free range chickens are allowed a square metre each.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/17/close-to-the-sheds-the-smell-is-overpowering-inside-a-herefordshire-mega-farm

250 laps is a whole kilometre!

Tuna sauce

“Supporting more sustainable and socially responsible fisheries, particularly those that are small-scale, is an essential part of any sound tuna sourcing policy.” http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/winning-worlds-largest-tuna-company-means-oceans/

Small-scale is defined as less than 2mm – or, in the realm of sound tuna, an octave in a minor key.

Homo sapiend

“There is no doubt that the rate at which species are dying out is very high, and we could well be in for a “Big Sixth” mass extinction. … [Yet] the current rate at which new animals and plants (such as the apple fly, the Italian sparrow and Oxford ragwort) are coming into existence is unusually high – and it may be the highest ever. We are already on the verge of Genesis Number Six – a million or so years from now, the world could end up supporting more species, not fewer, as a consequence of the evolution of Homo sapiens.” https://theconversation.com/the-sixth-mass-genesis-new-species-are-coming-into-existence-faster-than-ever-thanks-to-humans-80527

…but possibly minus Homo sapiens. Who’s next for Presidency of the planet?

Hunting Fact

“Hunting was the fourth most-shared topic, ahead of Brexit. … After social care, the most commonly mentioned manifesto commitment was the Hunting Act.” https://www.league.org.uk/blog/fox-hunting-played-major-election-role

Both issues where Tory ‘separate the wheat from the chaff’ policy failed to persuade the majority of the British public.