5 Reasons to be Hopeful at the Start of 2013

With the start of a new year, there are ample reasons for animal rights advocates to be discouraged. Yet there are also reasons to be hopeful. Here are five:

1. As of midnight on January 1, 2013, Israel has banned the import and sale of all cosmetics and cleaning products that have been tested on animals. (Source)

2. Last month, firefighters in Boynton Beach, Florida, saved four rabbits from the inside of a burning house. One of the rabbits was suffering from smoke inhalation, so one of the heroic rescuers used an oxygen mask to help restore the animal's breathing. (See the image above.) (Source)

3. At the Barry Room, a popular restaurant serving the House of Lords in London, England, foie gras - the horrendously cruel delicacy made from the liver of force-fed ducks and geese - has been removed from the menu following protests by animal rights activists. (Source)

4. Here in Canada, the provincial environmental ministry in Ontario is launching a probe into mass animal burial sites near Marineland, which - along with the sustained protests against cruelty at that theme park over the past several months - will continue to shed negative light on the Niagara Falls tourist attraction. According to former Marineland staffers, the park has been burying huge numbers of animals - more than a thousand in four mass graves - without any public scrutiny. The graves are located close to the Welland River, which connects with the Niagara River. (Source)

5. Mexico City has strengthened its laws so that now people found guilty of animal cruelty will be made to serve up to two years in prison and a $500 fine if the animal is injured, or four years in prison and a $2000 fine if the animal is killed. These represent some of the strictest animal protection laws in this hemisphere. (Source)

The world presents us with ample evidence to be deeply pessimistic. Here are five reasons to keep fighting the good fight. It pays off. It may not seem like it, but it does.

Good news: Hunting may soon be banned in Israel!

The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that hunting might soon be banned in Israel. According to the Post, a bill banning all hunting was recently approved by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, the government body that must screen all bills going before the Knesset. Right now, there is a list of animals in Israel that receive "protected species status" and therefore cannot be hunted. If this bill is passed, "nearly all animals would receive that status," notes the Post.

Of all the world's countries, Israel has been leading the way in the fight for animal rights, and this law would be yet another major breakthrough on behalf of animals. Over the years, Israel's Nature and Parks Authority has been refusing to grant additional hunting permits, and the number of Israelis with these permits has dropped from 6,000 to 2,000.

This could be a major victory.

"We praise the advancement of the bill, which includes banning sport hunting in Israel," said the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. "Development pressures already do a lot of damage to nature and therefore there isn't room anymore for sport hunting. There is a unique and rich biodiversity in Israel and it is our responsibility to protect it rather than damage it through unnecessary activities."

The bill, said the Post, is expected to go through swift passage in the Knesset.

Great News From Our Brothers and Sisters in Israel!

You know me. I love to balance bad news with good news.

Now for the good news!

Israel, I have said many times in this Blog, is one of the leading countries in vigorously promoting animal rights. Israeli laws have long been strong in forbidding the worst sorts of abuses of animals. And, unlike what we see happening so often in North America, those caught abusing animals in Israel are almost always punished under these laws.

The Israeli Supreme Court has already banned the force feeding of ducks and geese, which was a real blow to the foie gras racket there. There is now a bill in the Israeli Knesset seeking to "outlaw the production, processing, import, export and sale of fur from all animal species not part of the meat industry." (Source) Passage of this bill would be a colossal victory for the global anti-fur movement.

And it was with great joy that I read this article, posted by my comrades at Anonymous for Animals, Israel's leading animal rights group.

Israel's largest veal-farm in Bazra has closed down

The owners of the farm, the Leicht Family, decided to stop the cruel production of "special-fed"or "milk-fed" veal. They announced that their decision comes in the wake of a public relations campaign against them and the new regulations that have passed following the pressure on the government applied by Anonymous for Animal Rights. The new regulations put substantial limitations on calves' husbandry and consequently on the production of veal.

The Bazra veal-farm became a prime target for animal rights lobbyists, because of its sheer size and the fact that it is located close to Israel's economic hub, Tel Aviv. Protests were held at the farm and animal rights activists gave water to the dehydrated calves (dehydration is part of the production method). Anonymous for Animal Rights visited the farm repeatedly for documentation, and filed complaints against the owners for ignoring laws and regulations, to both the police and the Ministry for Agriculture. The Leicht Family was greatly agitated by critical articles in the local press and the lasting public pressue, and even threatened to file a libel suit against Anonymous for Animal Rights, but eventually decided to stop the veal production. Part of the farm is being dissolved now and the last "special-fed" calves have been sent for slaughter. However, the Leicht Family's other business, raising calves by common methods, is continuing. (Source)

Chalk this up to yet another triumph for animals in Israel. Their example is one that all nations around the world should seek to emulate. (Note: The image above is a veal farm in Israel; the Bazra veal farm actually closed last year, but this is such a great development - one I haven't noted on my Blog - that I couldn't resist commenting on it. - A.H.).

Encouraging Signs from Israel: The Earth's First Fur-Free Nation?

(Above: A video from the Anti-Fur Coalition, one of the groups campaigning for a fur-free Israel.)

What a thrill it is to see that Israel is leading the way in the struggle to end the fur trade. There is currently a bill in the Israeli Knesset that, if passed, will ban the fur trade in Israel. If all goes according to plan, Israel might be the first nation on earth to ban the fur trade. A fur-free Israel. My, but that has a wonderful ring to it!

Our comrades in Israel have made great strides, thanks to such organizations as Anonymous for Animals and other groups that are on the forefront of the global struggle for animal rights. The fact that Israel has a thriving democracy makes it possible for animal rights groups to exercise great influence.

The group Anonymous for Animals, based Tel-Aviv, chose their name, according to their website, "out of deep solidarity with the suffering of those sentient beings, without name or identity, known to us only in their unimaginable numbers, who are subjected to systematic abuse. They are imprisoned in laboratories, circuses, municipal pounds - but above all: in factory farms. They are all anonymous. They all need our help."

Thanks to such groups, Israel has very stringent animal welfare and protection laws. Animal dissection is banned in public schools. Circuses are not allowed to force trained animals to perform for audiences. And the highly controversial dish foie gras has been outlawed in Israeli restaurants.

Paul McCartney, musician, singer, animal rights activist and vegetarian, is praising Israel for leading the way in the struggle against the fur trade. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quotes McCartney's Website as saying:

"By banning such a cruel industry Israel would provide a shining example in care and compassion that others would be sure to follow." (Source)

I also quote Michal Lewin-Epstein's excellent column on Huffington Post:

A survey, commissioned by the International Anti-Fur Coalition and Let the Animals Live, conducted immediately after the February 2009 media investigation, showed that 86% of Israelis believe killing animals for fur is immoral. Moreover, nearly 80% back a bill calling for ban of fur trade in Israel. This media exposure and public support, together with the long-standing joint efforts of the International Anti-Fur Coalition and the Israeli organization Let the Animals Live, recently pressured Israeli Members of Knesset to endorse a law that would limit or eliminate the fur trade in Israel.

If this anti-fur bill is approved in the Knesset - and many seasoned political observers believe it will be - Israel will be the first fur-free country in the world. Israel, as Paul McCartney points out, will lead the way in the struggle for animal rights. This has a lot to do with the country's pluralistic democracy, which allows advocates for animals to fight the good fight without any repression or hindrances from the government. And if Israel goes fur free, this will be a huge, huge victory - and an example for all other nations.

The International Anti-Fur Coalition has been one of the groups involved in the struggle to ban fur in Israel. They're a great group and they have a lot of support among the Israeli people. I will let them have the final say:

Israel takes a giant step, approving expansion on anti-fur bill to include all animals

The Israeli Government approves unanimously a bill that brings Israel one step closer to becoming the first fur-free country

In one of the most important achievements in the combined efforts of the ‘International Anti-Fur Coalition’ and ‘Let the Animals Live’ in their endeavors to protect fur bearing animals, the ministerial committee for legislative affairs accepted their request and approved unanimously the expansion on MK Ronit Tirosh’s bill. The bill prohibiting originally only the trade of cat and dog fur and was approved on its first reading; has been expanded by amendment to include all fur from all mammals. The ban includes an exception on specific fur hats worn by a few people for cultural identity. This bill is a global and historic precedent.

The total ban on all fur from all animals in addition circumvented the anticipated complexity that would have behooved the customs authority in distinguishing the animal of origin of each particular fur item.

Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon and Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Arden addressed the Ministerial Committee with the assistance of Minister of Education, Gideon Saar. Jane Halevy of the International Anti-Fur Coalition and attorney Joshua Rotbert, legal adviser of Let the Animals Live are the ones that initiated the matter with the help of MK Nitzan Horowitz via bringing to the government’s attention the cruel truth behind the needless fur trade.

Now that the legislative committee unanimously approved the amendment, the Education, Culture and Sports Ministry committee will hold a vote on the amendment later in the month and following their approval the bill will be put to a second and then third reading before finally being passed into law. The vast majority are hopeful that the Israeli government will continue on the path to end needless animal cruelty.