News from December 2022
December 06th 2022: Raptor Persecution UK has just highlighted a case where a Red Kite was found poisoned beside a poisoned bait on a Scottish grouse moor. Over a year after the incident Police Scotland have closed the case but have not released much information. Animal Concern has gone to the top of the legal profession in Scotland in a bid to use Freedom of Information laws to find out more. Details here.
December 05th 2022: While other organisations were busy raising petitions and generating publicity for the makers of that puerile TV programme “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here”, which specialises in the persecution of animals and humiliation of some very well paid “celebrities”, Animal Concern was busy campaigning behind the scenes.
The “jungle” set is leased to TV programme makers from around the globe and is used many times a year for different versions of the show.
AC identified three probably breaches of the Australian Prevention of Cruelty o Animals Act 1979 and raised these with the Chief Constable of New South Wales Police and the State Minister for Police. The Police have given us a reference number and should be investigating now.
As the “celebrities” are paid to participate that makes them employees of the programme makers who have a legal duty of care to their staff. Exposing your workers to close contact to many species of animals which can carry a number of lethal diseases which can be passed to humans does not strike us as in keeping with Health and Safety legislation. AC called in the New South Wales equivalent of our Health and Safety Executive and they are investigating. They have asked programme makers for full details of their safety protocols and have told me that a visit to the site is under consideration.
AC contacted the New South Wales Branch of the Australian RSPCA twice but (at the time of writing) still await a response.
This is not the first time we have used these subtle tactics on a reality TV show. In 2006, lots of groups were urging supporters to phone premium rate Big Brother telephone numbers to get Pete Best evicted for wearing a jacket he said was made from gorilla skin (illegal). AC simply contacted the nearest police station to the studio and they went in and confiscated the jacket!
Watch our News section to find out if our latest efforts have helped stop the abuse of both nonconsenting animals and consenting chunky cheque chasers in the name of entertainment.
December 04th 2022: A UK made Netflix Xmas movie, “Christmas on Mistletoe Farm” has a scene in which a dog runs wild among a flock of sheep. This gives out a very wrong message at a time of year when, during the holidays, people are likely to be walking their dogs near pregnant ewes and cows. We have asked Netflix to add a warning to the film. If you are a Netflix customer, or even if you are not, you might want to ask them as well. Details here.
December 01st 2022: Animal Concern have made comments in The Ferret magazine about the deeply concerning discovery of a bullet shell on one of the walkways of Groatay fish farm off North Uist. An investigation by Marine Scotland is underway and we await their findings. Read the full story here.
December 01st 2022: On November 11th, John Robins of Animal Concern asked the Scottish Government how much the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) had repaid on the £500,000 the Government loaned them in 2020 (on top of a £2M grant) to build a new enclosure to house the Giant Political Prisoner Pandas in Edinburgh Zoo. The RZSS had leased the Pandas from the Chinese Government for US$1,000,000 a year for a decade (RZSS are paying “only” US$500,000 per annum for the two year extension to the lease).
John just had a reply and can report RZSS have so-far repaid £202,500, including interest of £2,500. John makes that 1.25% interest on the £200,000, and, despite having an excellent credit rating, the best interest rate he could get on a loan of “just” £50,000 over 5 years was 7.9%. The £2M grant and £500,000 loaned to the RZSS was from the NHS budget as it related to the sale of NHS property adjacent and the old Giant Panda enclosure. Surely Scot Gov could have struck a better deal and made a more realistic investment for our cash-strapped health service? By the way John didn’t borrow the £50k so nae tapping him for a fiver! You can read the Scot Gov response to the FOI request here.