Three Issues: Two Fur, One Human Rights, please send protest messages, thank you.

1. Please send automatic message to Husk requesting they discontinue selling fur

2. Please send sample message (below) to Danish political party protesting their assertion that animal rights organization, ANIMA, be penalized for exposing fur cruelty on Danish fur farms

3. Please send automatic message to Austrian government officials protesting the judicial abuse and human rights violations of animal rights activists in Austria

1. BACKGROUND | From PETA

Australian store Husk is selling items made from rabbit fur. On fur farms all around the world, rabbits – who are sensitive and intelligent animals – spend their entire lives in tiny, filthy cages and suffer physical and psychological distress before they are killed by neck-breaking or skull-bashing.

In their natural habitats, rabbits live with their families in underground burrows called “warrens.” They can hop faster than a cat, human, or white-tailed deer can run. Rabbits love nibbling on alfalfa, timothy hay, apples, carrots, and crisp, green veggies, and they chew vigorously to trim their front teeth, which never stop growing. They communicate through body language, marking their territories like cats by rubbing their chins on twigs, rocks, or other landmarks.

What You Can Do

Please use the form HERE to urge Husk to join forward-thinking designers Stella McCartney, Alannah Hill, Calvin Klein, Kenneth Cole, Gail Elliott, and Tommy Hilfiger and department store David Jones and stop selling fur. Let Husk know that there are many fashionable alternatives to fur that don’t involve the slaughter of innocent animals.

Personalized letters always work best, so feel free to add your own thoughts and opinions!

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2. BACKGROUND | From Facebook

ANIMA, Danish Animal Rights Organization (translation):

Dear animal lover – this time we really need your help! Danish People’s Party are trying these days to eliminate government subsidies to Anima, because we revealed cruelty in Danish fur farms last fall. The most important thing you can do in this mail is to write a protest to the Danish People’s Party – read more below and find contact information at the bottom of the mail. TO DISCLOSURE OF COST cruelty? Anima and TV2’s revelations of highly dubious circumstances in Danish fur farms have had major consequences. Despite the subsequent public control of the farms have shown that there are massive problems in complying with laws and want politicians from several parties now is to eliminate government subsidies to Anima. Politicians have argued that there should be a trial of Anima, but this is totally wrong and the police have no case or investigation of Anima for our disclosures of mink abuse or something else.

So why would any politicians now to remove Animas support from lottery funds that go to our peaceful awareness activities for the animals? Perhaps most of all to avoid being targeted a critical gaze to locations where animals are abused systematically. Most surprising is perhaps that one of the initiators of this attack on Anima is Kristian Thuelsen Dahl from the Danish People’s Party, a party that more than any other party have marketed themselves to be animal friends. But it is not true animal lover to buy business advertising, if you simultaneously attempt to stop those who uncovers cruelty. Animal cruelty must be detected and stopped wherever it occurs, it can no animal friends disagree in. Send an email to the Danish People’s Party’s finance policy Dahl and ask him to stop the unfair smear campaign against Anima and show that the party stands on the livestock side. Write a personal email and send it to him.

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Where to send your message

dfkrtd@ft.dk

Sample Message

Kære  Kristian Thulesen Dahl, Dansk Folkeparti.

Jeg er blevet gjort bekendt med at du ønsker at fjerne tilskuddet til dyreorganiationen Anima.Dette vil du gøre fordi Anima har afsløret ufattelig dyremishandling i pelsindustrien.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2O2rXONyas

Hvordan kan I som såkaldt dyrevenlig parti straffe en dyreorganisation, der afslører disse grusomheder. Er penge vigtigere end dyrevelfærd?

I hævder at der skulle være en retsag mod Anima, men det er forkert. Politiet har ingen sager eller efterforskning af Anima for deres afsløringer af minkmishandling eller andet.

http://anima.dk/emailnews/polstats.pdf

Så hvorfor ønsker nogen politikere nu at fjerne Animas støtte fra tipsmidlerne, som går til deres fredelige oplysningsarbejde for dyrene? Måske mest af alt for at forhindre, at der bliver rettet et kritisk blik mod steder, hvor dyr mishandles systematisk?

Hele verden ved, hvordan vores dyr behandles i pelsindustrien. I stedet for at straffe Anima bør I straffe de pelsavlere der ikke overholder loven om dyrevelfærd og rette op på det dårlige ry, vi har fået rundt om i verden for vores dyremishandling i pelsindustrien. Dette kan I gøre ved at lukke pelsindustrien i stedet for at bifalde den. Det er dybt uetisk at avle dyr udelukkende for pynt. I dag behøver intet menneske at iklæde sig dyrs pels.

I håb om et svar takker jeg for at du tog tid til at læse dette brev.

Med venlig hilsen

Name   Country

English Translation

Dear Mr. Dahl, Danish People’s Party.

I have been informed that you want to remove subsidy for interbranch organization Anima.This will do because Anima revealed unimaginable cruelty in fur industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2O2rXONyas

How can you as a so-called animal-friendly party punish an animal organization that reveal these atrocities? Is money more important than animal welfare?

You argue that there should be a lawsuit against the Anima, but it is wrong. Police have no case or investigation of Anima for their exposure of mink or other mistreatment.

http://anima.dk/emailnews/polstats.pdf

So why would any politicians now to remove Animas support from lottery funds that go to their peaceful awareness activities for the animals? Perhaps most of all to avoid being targeted a critical gaze to locations where animals are abused systematically?

The whole world knows how we treat animals in the fur industry. Instead of punishing Anima you should punish the fur breeders who fail to comply with the law on animal welfare and correct the bad reputation that we have received around the world for our cruelty in fur industry. This can be done by closing the fur industry, rather than welcome it. It is deeply unethical to breed animals solely for decoration. Today need no man to wear animal fur.

Hoping for an answer, I thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,

Name  Country

 

3. BACKGROUND | From Shame On Austria

…animal protection campaigners are now facing up to 5 years imprisonment because of activities such as organising demonstrations, expressing opinions or documenting the conditions on livestock farms.

The Austrian animal protection movement was long considered one of the most successful in the world. Between 1998 and 2008, it managed to significantly reform Austria’s animal welfare legislation, achieving a ban on fur farming, a ban on using wild animals in circuses, a ban on experiments on great apes, a ban on battery farms for hens and rabbits, and an introduction of the institute of animal solicitors. All parliamentary political parties pledged to implement animal protection in the federal constitution. These successes were achieved by smart campaigning, with use of regular demonstrations, media work, lobbying, and acts of civil disobedience.

However, not everyone was happy about the successes of the movement. Laws improving animal welfare, like the ban on battery farming, clashed with business interests of animal industries, which made many politicians reluctant to endorse them. But the campaigners managed to use public support to generate pressure on these politicians, which forced them to accept the laws eventually. Understandably, this led to an ever increasing tension between the animal enterprises and the politicians on one side and the successful campaigners on the other side.

» Read more » Act now

Letter Text:

I have always considered Austria to be an established constitutional state. However, what I have just read about Austria’s treatment of social activists has deeply undermined my trust in the rule of law in this country.

It is highly disturbing to read that, in Austria, animal protection campaigners are now facing up to 5 years imprisonment because of activities such as organising demonstrations, expressing opinions or documenting the conditions on livestock farms, which is apparent from the charge sheets the activists have released.

As a member of parliament and a representative of a major political party, you share a great deal of responsibility for this situation. Although I appreciate that you are not empowered to interfere in the judicial proceedings, you do share the power over the legislation by which the court is bound. It is an essential aspect of a functioning democracy that any misuse of law for anti-democratic practices is promptly corrected by the legislature amending the law to make sure that such misuse shall not continue.

Making a person stand a six-month long trial, and especially imposing remand custody, is something that is only admissible if serious evidence of criminal behaviour can be presented. When the prosecution, instead, bases the charges on activities like organising demonstrations, it is indeed a totalitarian excess, which requires the use of all legitimate means for its remedy.

Therefore, I urge that your political party support the amendment of Sec 278a of the Penal Code, on which the persecution of the activists has been based. The existence of Sec 278a is justified by the need to fight organised crime, but its wording does not follow the EU and the UN definition of organised crime, which requires the intent to enrich oneself rather than to “exert influence over politics and the economy” to be present. Following the internationally recognised standard would surely not compromise Austria’s security but would prevent further misuse of Sec 278a against political activists.

Furthermore, I urge that your political party reject any new provision whose interpretation could lead to similar excesses. I am especially concerned about the proposed widening of the anti-terrorist legislation, which has already been criticised by Amnesty International for providing too vague a definition of incitement and terror training, which could create another opportunity for persecution of inconvenient political activists.

I urge you to take this situation seriously. Persecuting citizens for their opinions and political activities is a practice that does not belong to the 21st century Europe.

Yours sincerely

Please click on and send automatic letter Human Rights for Austria

Related, using the upper drop-down arrow (after Resources), please select the Fur/Skin and Human Rights sections for previous alerts, thank you:

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as we enter the holiday season
i am sitting, here
praying for reason
that mankind finally opens
it eyes
and learns that cruelty is
not the prize
that the greatest gifts
one can impart
are the gifts of kindness
and a gentle heart

Karen Lyons Kalmenson