September 7 2015 - Hundreds of farmers from many EU countries protest in Brussels because they get paid prices so low that many of them are selling at a loss. [video]/[video]/[video]
I decided to make a new blog, a little bit different from this one, but surely better made, more personal and with better content, soooooo if u r interested just search for verrga.tumblr.com! Anyway won’t be using this account anymore so, bye :33
Humane is one of those fluffy words people love to toss into arguments without ever having really thought about what their criteria for “humane” would mean. It was put better by someone else than I ever could: “When you’re trying to decide if something is humane, first decide whether or not you would want it done to you.”
1945 - A survivor of Dachau concentration camp attacks one of the former SS guards after the liberation of the camp. [video]
As I expected this had another bunch of Nazis and holocaust deniers crawl out from under their rocks. Reminder to my followers, don’t forget to use the excellent Block function Tumblr has nowadays if you see nazis/fascists/racists commenting on your posts :]
I’m loving this video from FARM. Concise and not gory, perfect for passing around on all forms of social media. I encourage everyone to watch and share it!
Ever heard of anyone say: ‘I am against Orcas being held captive’ and then paying to go to Seaworld? No. Because if they are willing to give Seaworld business then obviously they do not give one single shit about Orcas. It is exactly the same when people say ‘I can eat meat and still love animals’. No, I’m afraid you can’t. You are giving money to industries that torture and murder them. That doesn’t sound like you love them very much.
This is the simple truth that people won’t let themselves understand.
This is Garra rufa, a species of fish
related to carp and minnows. They are native to the Central and Northern Middle East. In their natural habitats, they eat aufwuchs, the combination of algae and very small animals that grows on things in fresh water. They use their flat round mouths to suck their food off logs and rocks. (link)(link) Adult G. rufa can reach a length of 16cm (6 inches) and they are active, social fish that love to explore and hide in their surroundings. (link)
When there’s plenty of food around, they are happy to just scrape up algae, but when the food supply is scarce and unreliable, they suck on to other fish to try to get some algae off their scales.
This behaviour is the reason behind their common name: “doctor fish”. When G. rufa are very hungry, they will very gently eat dead skin flakes from human feet, even though this is not their usual diet or an ideal food for them. A spa treatment involving placing your feet in a tank full of G. rufa has recently gaining popularity in the UK and some states in the US, however it is illegal in some states.
The fish pedicure involves a great deal of abuse.
The fish only scrape dead skin from feet when they are very hungry. They must be starved in order for them to perform the pedicures. (link)(link)
The natural diet of G. rufa is algae and small bugs, not old foot skin. Even if their diets are supplemented, they can’t survive on skin flakes.
The adult size of G. rufa is 16cm, but the individuals used in salons are only a couple of cm long. They are babies. Due to the stressful conditions, they die before reaching adulthood.
G. rufa rarely breed in captivity as they have very specific requirements for breeding. As it is the easiest way, some facilities that breed the fish for the salons force the fish to breed by injecting them with hormones and manually spawning them. (link)(link) (cw: The second link is a video of the process. It’s not graphic but it does include footage of fish out of water and receiving injections.) The injections are painful and physically damage the fish. The procedure involves removing them from the tanks which is stressful for fish.
Despite their dwindling numbers in their natural habitats in Turkey, free-living fish are captured for export and use in salons.
G. rufa are imported for use in salons. Who knows what kinds of conditions they are kept in during the days of travel time.
Testing of G. rufa imported to the UK from Indonesia for use in spas revealed that the fish were carrying several strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which were not only harmful to fish, but also cause serious infections in humans. (link)
These are inquisitive, active, social fish who love to explore their surroundings and hide in logs and under plants.
(link) In salons, they are kept in overcrowded and completely barren tanks with nowhere to hide and nothing to explore. This must be extremely frustrating and stressful for them.
The biggest claim that salons make about the benefits of fish pedicures is that they are a treatment for psoriasis. People with psoriasis are at a higher risk of contracting an infection from the fish.(link)
When G. rufa are hungry and there is no other food source, they will latch onto other fish to try to scrape some algae off their scales. Unfortunately, they can injure other fish by doing this as they can suck off their protective layer of slime, or even their scales. (link) The fish kept in salons must be starved, and are kept in very crowded conditions, so they are very likely to harm each other in this way.
As it is difficult to breed G. rufa, some fish suppliers sell other species in their place. A species of cichlid called a Chin Chin is the most common fake. When they are a few months old, they grow teeth which allow them bite through skin. At only 5 months old, to prevent them from biting people, they are killed and replaced with babies. (link)
When you pay for a fish pedicure, you are supporting an industry that starves fish and denies them their full and natural lives in their own habitats. Fish pedicures have no proven benefits except to temporarily alleviate the symptoms of psoriasis - but people with psoriasis are at risk of contracting an infection from the procedure.
Fish pedicures are dangerous for you and mean short miserable lives for hundreds of fish.
In the secret articles of the circus master, we find that young circus workers are taught that “working with horses is much more dangerous than working with tigers”.
A special story is the circus. In brief there is all that same special equipment that there is in sports, all that same stupidity and cruelty, but it is a secret world, one that is secret and closed. It is a world in which even the air, it seems, has a fundamentally different chemical composition than everywhere else.
The circus is for the fool, for the lout, the circus knows everything about itself and knows how to defend itself against unnecessary eyes and ears.
The defence has developed over the centuries.
Only the insiders, those who make up the circus, see the circus from within.
And do you know how they get horses into the pesade?
Well, with their fingers crossed they make the horse rear.
It is very simple.
They bring the horse.
They hook her up with a long rope to the iron in the mouth. To the right or left ring of the bit, it isn’t important.
They extend the rope upwards, beneath the canopy, in the darkness, where they throw across a pulley. That pulley with which they safeguard the trapeze artist.
They draw the end of the rope, which has already has been passed through the pulley, into the arena in front of the horse or behind it.
Three to four circus workers who are somewhat huskier, all in gloves in order not to burn their hands, grab the rope.
The trainer makes a smacking sound with his lips, cracks his lunging whip and the trio in gloves yank the rope toward themselves, downwards jerking the horse across the big top’s pulley by the iron in her mouth until she has been lifted fully vertical.
From behind two more flog the horse on the back as a preventative measure in order that she not move backwards and not fall back.
The trainer thrashes her from the front so the horse does not even think of dropping down.
The horses mouth in such an undertaking usually is torn until it bleeds.
The most powerful horse lips do not survive the jerks and the blood covered eyes pop out of their sockets.
A common trainer joke afterwards (while laughing) “put her eyes back”.
And, I forgot when it all ends, they shove a carrot sliced into rings into the torn mouth of the trembling, wet horse.
The carrot, covered in blood, falls out at once and tumble around the arena.
Let this scene come to mind the next time you take your nephew to the circus!.
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“September 7 2015 - Hundreds of farmers from many EU countries protest in Brussels because they get paid prices so low that many of them are selling at a loss. [video]/[video]/[video]
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“September 7 2015 - Hundreds of farmers from many EU countries protest in Brussels because they get paid prices so low that many of them are selling at a loss. [video]/[video]/[video]
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“September 7 2015 - Hundreds of farmers from many EU countries protest in Brussels because they get paid prices so low that many of them are selling at a loss. [video]/[video]/[video]
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“September 7 2015 - Hundreds of farmers from many EU countries protest in Brussels because they get paid prices so low that many of them are selling at a loss. [video]/[video]/[video]
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![kropotkindersurprise:
“ kropotkindersurprise:
“ 1945 - A survivor of Dachau concentration camp attacks one of the former SS guards after the liberation of the camp. [video]
”
As I expected this had another bunch of Nazis and holocaust deniers crawl...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/abb610cca8140e3eb447c1329d845511/tumblr_ntm7ywosO01tsf68ao1_400.gifv)
