Animal-Voice-December-2012

December 2012

ANIMALVOICE Official mouthpiece in South Africa for Compassion in World Farming

Angus McIntosh wins first-ever

Good Earth Keeper Award of Excellence for his hum a n e tre a tm e nt o f f arm e d a nim a ls.

Postal Address Animal Voice PO Box 825 Somerset West 7129 RSA International: +27 21 852 8160 Tel: 021 852 8160 Fax: 021-413-1297

Read more inside

World Food D ay... Compassion in World Farming SA Angus McIntosh, biodynamic farmer at Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, has been awarded Compassion in World Farming's first-ever Good Earth Keeper Award for his humane treatment of farmed animals.

The award was presented to him at a Green Tie fundraising dinner-dance/ auction event in Klein Constantia, Cape Town on 20th October.

Organised by Compassion in World Farming in partnership with Soil for Life, with famous Xhosaspeaking Jewish comedian Nik Rabinowitz as Master of Ceremonies, the event was part of the United Nation's World Food Day commemorations.

Accepting his award, Angus McIntosh said: “It is really an indictment on society that we have an organisation called Compassion in World Farming. One would assume that compassion is a given in farming. But it's not.

“We don't realise it, but we are all farmers by proxy. Proxy is basically the right to participate — and we are all farmers by proxy because every time we lift a fork, we vote - and we can choose an agricultural system that either exercises compassion, or doesn't.

Said Tozie Zokufa, corepresentative in South Africa for the international NGO Compassion in World Farming: “Angus McIntosh puts commercial farming with animals into a class of its own. He has demonstrated that giving farmed animals lives worth living can be done at a competitive price.

“This event puts the spotlight on the suffering of the tens of millions of animals in factory farms throughout South Africa and focuses on an urgency for us to come to the table, literally, and relieve their suffering by making humane choices at the supermarkets.”

2

“In South Africa, about 97% of eggs, for example, are produced in factories. These are called battery eggs. The chicken lives on a space allowance that is the size of an A4 page. The chicken is debeaked, declawed, and she is stimulated by light to lay.

“Alternatively,” said Angus, amid much laughter from the audience, “you can buy my eggs! My chickens are not debeaked, not declawed. I am one of only two people in the country who doesn't have debeaked chickens. We open our egg-mobiles in the mornings and the chickens range on the pastures and then at night they go back into the mobiles for protection from the Rooikat.

Angus’s eggs

“What you buy is a choice that you make. Nobody's forcing you to make that choice. You make it for yourselves.”

See Angus delivering his acceptance speech at:

http://www.animal-voice.org

and Soil for Life host a fund-raising event Right: Angus McIntosh is pictured here with well-known Professor Tim Noakes, Director of the UCT/MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine.

Prof Noakes believes that factory farmed meat, eggs and milk contribute to the incidence of human disease.

Above: Die Burger journalist CarrynAnn Nel interviews Angus on becoming the first farmer to win Compassion's Good Earth Keeper Award of Excellence.

He explains: “In industrialised farming where animals are fed grain, the composition of fats in their bodies changes, increasing the polyunsaturated omega 6 content, at a significant cost to our health. But grass fed animals produce meat, eggs and milk with a high omega 3 content and this is what we, as humans, need and thrive upon.�

Right: Food and wine journalist Norman McFarlane received a Good Earth Keeper Award for his systematic promotion of ethical eating in the Press.

Above: TV personality, extreme sportsman and conservationist Braam Malherbe and his partner Hedda Inderthal, a zoologist and microbiologist. Braam recently received the prestigious Eco-Warrior Award for 2012. Braam booked an entire table for the event.

Above: Long-standing Compassion supporter Mea Lashbrooke (right) raised funds to book an entire table for the event.

With her is Raquel Gianotti, wife of the Spanish Consul to SA.

Above: South African environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh. He is the first person in the world to complete a long distance swim in every ocean of the world.

Above: Pat Featherstone, founder and Operations Director of Soil for Life, is greening and feeding townships around the Cape with food gardens.

See http://soilforlife.co.za/ Soil for Life and Compassion in World Farming (SA) jointly hosted the event.

3

Thank you

to all the wonderful people and businesses that gave us items to auction for this event. In total Soil for life and Compassion in World Farming netted R100 000 to share.

Dr Greg Simpson La Petite Ferme Restaurant Cellar tour, meal for 2, inhouse cookery book

Avatara Guest House – Two-day job shadowing this animal doctor in the heart of the bushveld

Artwork by

Cameo Media –

Hein van Huysteen

Artwork by

Mandy Brockbank

2-night stay for two

Professional portrait on DVD

Sumi Bezuidenhout

– double-bed hand-made quilt

Rudi Liebenberg - Cookery lesson on the art of the slowcooked egg

Spier – 120 bottles of wine

MSC Starlight Cruises – four day cruise Cape Town – Walvis Bay – Cape Town.

Zen Point Hammocks – luxury hammock

SARU

– two free tickets to the Curry Cup

4

The Green Tie event was one of the most enjoyable outings we’ve had in a long time.

— Lynn Stacey The Villa Rosa Guesthouse Sea Point

To: T

HE

EDI TO

R

Fion a All e nb erg

SA Businesswomen say 'Enough'!

Advertising and Marketing specialist, Johannesburg, says:

Factory Farming is a nightmare not a fairytale Eil e e n Ch a pm a n Principal of Jedd Realty, Johannesburg, asks: “Who is going to ensure that the horrendous plight of our calves at the hands of the dairy industry is halted!

Who is going to take responsibility to bring about the change?

“I have written to CEO's of large dairy farms and large retailers (the latter having the power to place pressure upon their suppliers) with no constructive conclusion and all the while the truth of the matter continues to be deliberately hidden from the public – even twisted into a fairytale where consumers are led to believe that dairy cows are ‘happy’ cows.

“Clearly, profits in business should always be built on sound moral principles or does this not apply to industries where animals are merely considered a commodity? I do not believe that it can be moral to consistently impregnate any sentient animal with the deliberate intention of her giving birth to young, and then to disregard the welfare of the young because he happens to be a boy. It is barbaric! One needs only to visit a dairy farm where calves have been separated from their mothers to realize the enormous emotional trauma the mother suffers, and to be haunted by her desperate bellowing for her young.

“If there are dairy farmers or retailers who have the ethical fibre to stand up against inhumane practices, I appeal to them to come forward and make themselves known. Let them vouch that their boy calves are not killed at birth, are not sent to feedlots while they are too fragile to survive, are not auctioned or sold to the poorest of the poor where they often die of starvation or the winter cold.”

Express your concerns...

Email: Tom McLaughlin, Good Business Journey Project Manager: TomMcLaughlin@woolworths.co.za Suzanne Ackerman, Director Transformation: sackerman@pnp.co.za Whitey Basson, CEO Shoprite Holdings saritavanwyk@shoprite.co.za You could say: I depend on you to insist that your suppliers achieve lives worth living for farmed animals as a matter of urgency. This means your suppliers must be: > Cage-free for laying hens; > Crate-free for breeding sows; > Responsible and humane in regard to boy calves; > Responsible for the humane treatment of chickens at live markets serving informal settlements; > In addition, I ask for trained shepherds to look after the flocks of sheep.

Signed...

“I have always known that if only animals could plead their own cases, with their own voices, then factory farming would have ended long ago.

And that is why I love the Animal Australia TV commercial “Make It Possible” showing the cruel and desperate conditions of pig factory farming and the little piglet that learns to fly away. Please take the time to view this wonderful ad – google “Somewhere” by FSM - Animals Australia- Pigs Fly or http://vimeo.com/51967590.

“Here at home, Compassion in World Farming (South Africa) has even gone undercover to show us the realities of pig farming. I wish the South African consumer would take on this cause of animal cruelty like their Australian counterparts are doing. Let's lift the lid on an industry that thrives only because nobody knows what they are up to. We do have the ability to create real and lasting change, using the media and especially social media, for the most used and abused of animals – those in factory farms.

Please support us on Facebook www.facebook.com/compassion.za and Twitter, and help wherever you can to send a message to the pork industry that gestation crates for pregnant pigs can be tolerated no longer.”

Nicol a Vernon, Event Organiser and Project Manager,

lives among the magnificent rolling hills of the Boland. It is sheepfarming country.

“But,” says Nicola, “I've had it with watching lambs suffer in the fields around me. I'm currently looking after some orphan lambs and I constantly wonder at how sheep are kept in this country.

“There don't seem to be any shepherds, or any real care given to the animals. I see ewes wandering around with lambs hanging out of their backsides and nobody brings a vet to them. I must have saved countless animals over the past few years. It usually doesn't take more than a few minutes to sort each crisis out and, even if one doesn't give the hardened farmer any hope of compassion for his animals, to help his sheep must make economic sense to him, surely?

Auction e d a t f our hours old, his umbilic a l cord still dripping we t.

C o p yrig ht CIW F(S A)

“Please join me in lobbying for better farming practices with regard to sheep - it's very difficult to live amidst these fields of sheep and to stand by and watch them suffer.

We need shepherds.”

5

Prominent South Africans who have signed Compassion's Vision for Fair Food and Farming, are...

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu leads a new era towards humane farming.

Dr Mamphela Ramphele, world renowned human rights activist.

“To the extent we brutalise animals, we brutalise ourselves.”

Zakes Mda, multi-award-winning novelist and playwright.

Compassion in World Farming (SA)'s Tozie Zokufa spoke out in support of a world free of factory farming at an international conference in Johannesburg on November 15 & 16.

Organised by The Economist and held at the plush Hilton Sandton Hotel, the conference on Feeding the World – Africa's role in solving the global food crisis, was attended by some 200 international delegates.

Lewis Pugh, environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer.

Noteworthy facts included: > The world is facing a food crisis with 1,2 billion people being micro-nutrient deficient > In 2011, more people died as a result of obesity-related diseases than from hunger

Angus McIntosh, Compassion’s award-winning farmer for humanity to animals.

Both former First Lady Graca Machel and Sheila Sisulu, Deputy Executive Director of the UN's World Food Programme, told the conference that 80% of farmers in Africa were small scale farmers. About 500 million of them, mainly women - were already responsible for providing food to the African continent. Government and corporate support was vital for these farmers.

Braam Malherbe, extreme conservationist and adventurer and 2012 recipient of the prestigious Eco-Warrior Award.

Dr Shenggen Fan, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute, suggested a tax be imposed on unsustainable, environmentally-unfriendly farming methods and this would include a tax on meat, particularly those rich in saturated fats and with negative health consequences.

Rev. Siyabulela Gidi, Director of the SA Council of Churches.

During a panel discussion, Tozie pointed out that current research indicated the food from factory farming was micro-nutriently inferior. Only last week research by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) had shown that samples of battery eggs were inferior in folic acid content compared to samples of free range eggs.

Richard Haigh, hailed by Worldwatch Institute and Slow Food International farms in KZN with indigenous breeds.

To read more about Compassion's Vision for Fair Food and Farming, got to www.ciwf.org.uk/vision/ 6

Feeding the World – Africa's role in solving the global food crisis

(see SABS report opp.)

Jay Naidoo, Chair of the Board for Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), pictured with Tozie (right), told the conference that quality food was a right of impoverished people as well.

The world is facing a food crisis

with 1,2 billion people being micro-nutrient deficient...

while more people now die of obesity-related diseases than of hunger

Warning!

The Department of Health issued a statement in October 2012 warning consumers that “a large number” of frozen chicken portions on the SA market have had brine injected into them. The statement added: “The Department is further concerned that in some instances the percentage of brine based mixtures/ solutions added to chicken portions is as high as 30% of which 29% normally consists of water.”

This negatively affected the “quality characteristics from a nutritional perspective” as well as “increased the level of salt present” in these products.

The Department of Health said it felt compelled to issue the statement so that consumers could make informed decisions regarding the purchasing of chicken portions. Disturbingly, porcine peptides (proteins), derived from pork products, were sometimes included in the brine.

For further information, please contact the Health Department's Fidel Hadebe on 012 395 8493.

Botox for chickens

Deceptively similar on the outside!

The products of factory farming are often nutritionally inferior.

In this SABS report (below) the ‘Nulaid’ were battery eggs while the Boschveldt were free-range.

Breaking News!

Russia is proposing a tax on ‘unhealthy’ meat to tackle the problem of high-fat content and antibiotics in meat production.

Fast foods such as burgers would be included in the proposed tax.

According to GlobalMeatnews.com of 27th November 2012, the Russian treasury will receive an additional US$3.3bn annually following the introduction of the new tax.

FNB gets behind meat-free Mondays

First National Bank has joined the expanding number of institutions and businesses adopting Meat-Free Monday. FNB CEO, Michael Jordaan, in a newsletter to company employees said: “If every South African had one meat-free day a week, the saving of carbon emissions would be the equivalent of taking one million cars off the road for a year.”

7

When Compassion in World Farming (SA) started out as Humanity for Hens, 23 years ago, there was not a single free range egg (or free-range anything) to be found in any supermarket anywhere in the country.

Thanks to our endeavours and your support, today, annually, 780 000 laying hens and 20 million broiler chickens feel the sun on their faces and the earth beneath their feet. In addition 40 000 sows are now out of crates and into loose housing.

New label will provide... Traceability

from farm to fork

Concerned consumers frequently telephone Compassion's office asking if we can guarantee that the eggs/milk/meat in the various supermarkets around the country, are genuinely what the box or label says they are. In other words, are they truly free range? Recently, a group of organic farmers met in Stellenbosch to discuss a new quality assurance label that will allow consumers access to farms, to see for themselves. Animal Voice Editor, Louise van der Merwe, attended the meeting.

Konrad Hauptfleisch, Academy Manager at the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), led the meeting. “Consumers want traceability from farm to fork,” he said.

“This is why IFOAM is introducing the new PGS label. PGS stands for Participatory Guarantee System and it is a label that will not only guarantee that the food is organic and complies with the highest animal welfare standards, but will also invite consumer participation.”

He said that consumer participation and scrutiny was the only way to ensure ‘product integrity’, with the consumer him or herself becoming the eyes and ears of the organic farm.

Mr Hauptfleisch said that the future of food security lay in farmers’ markets. “Farmers’ markets - not supermarkets - have fed society for thousands of years. We need to return to traditional agriculture and support the local farmers in our areas,” he said.

For more information, please email Liz Eglington on lizeglington@netconnect.co.za Get your ORGANIC FOOD ON-LINE Animal Voice wishes to thank The Organic Emporium in Gauteng for matching each and every donation made to Compassion in World Farming (South Africa) by its customers.

Organic Emporium Tel: 011 706 1765 Mobile: 083 255 0861 E-mail: debbie@organicemporium.co.za Website: www.organicemporium.co.za

The B io d y n a mic A gric ultural A s s o ciatio n of S o uth ern A fric a, connects farmers with each other, and consumers with the source of their food.

For more information, please contact Liesl at info @ b d a a s a.org.z a / www.info@bdaasa.org.za / 021 8813628.

Also see www.afrikara.co.za 8

Now on sale! R200 Please contact

promos@animalsindistress.org.za or animals@animalsindistress.org.za

How legitimate is it to care about the pain and suffering of animals when a country is reeling from the brutality of Marikana?

By MARLISE RICHTER

This week I drove into a local shopping centre to pick up some last-minute groceries. Parked next to me was an open bakkie with a flat cage balanced on the back.

The cage was narrow, roughly made and crammed full of chickens. I walked closer and noticed about 40 roosters squashed against each other. They were in an appalling condition and a number of them were slowly dying or already dead. I stuck my finger through the wire and tried to rouse the rooster closest to me.

His eyes were closed and he was barely breathing. There was no space, and the rest were a living or dying mass on top of him. The driver walked out of the shops with a drink in his hand.

“Baba,” I said, “these chickens are suffering.”

He grunted that they were fine and got into the cabin. I stood with my arms helplessly hanging next to my side, not knowing what to do. I tapped at the driver's darkened window to try and engage the owner again. I could see nothing inside except my own reflection.

The driver quickly reversed and sped off, thus squashing the remaining chickens even tighter against the exposed cage.

women trying to interfere with his evening, and his livelihood. I wondered if he thought I might harm or threaten him in any way.

Whether I was officiously poking my nose into his business, where it did not belong. Perhaps that I was being hypocritical; I was possibly on my way to buy chicken nuggets, frozen chicken breasts or eggs myself – all those items displayed in the aisles, brightly packaged and neatly processed to shroud the fact that they had originated in conditions not dissimilar to those I had just seen on the bakkie.

Why should I single him out for questioning, when the multimillion rand poultry industry in South Africa – probably still mainly owned by white money while he is trying to make a living with a bakkie-full of caged chickens - continues to produce cruel food on a daily basis?

A dog was chained to a pole – neck bleeding from the rope around it.

No water, no food, no shelter.

With some distance, I speculated about the driver's response and what the black, working-class man thought of a white, middle-class

outside a makeshift cafe in the shade. They asked me what I was doing. I explained about the distressed dog and wanting to help.

One of my research field trips to an utterly desolate and dirt-poor squatter camp clamped to the periphery of a Rustenburg mine in 2010 recurred to me. No running water, no electricity, no roads. We spent a day at the clinic conducting focus group discussions with sex workers.

Throughout the day, I could hear the terrible cries of a dog. Later in the afternoon, I followed the sound towards a shack.

I retreated into the shop, and almost vomited in the vegetable section.

Marlise has a BA (Hons) and LLM degree from Wits University. A Fulbright scholarship enabled her to study for a masters degree in International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame (USA). She worked as a researcher for the AIDS Law Project, Treatment Action Campaign and the Reproductive Health & HIV Research Unit. Her research interests lie in feminism and HIV/AIDS with a particular focus on sex work and gender based violence.

Marlise is currently working towards a PhD in public health at the International Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Ghent, Belgium and is a visiting researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society, Wits.

Rustenburg winters – as its midday sun - can be brutal. I knocked at the shack door and asked if it would be possible that the dog could be untied, or given some water and shade. I was met with a puzzled look and a disengaged response.

On returning to the clinic, I passed a few (unemployed?) men sitting

One of the men looked at me intently and said “What about us?

Why don't you help us?”

I had no answer ready.

How does one negotiate and renegotiate the unmet needs and suffering of South Africa of 2012?

How legitimate is it to care about the pain and suffering of animals when a country is reeling from the brutality of Marikana? When the front page of one's daily newspaper is taken up by the bloody, beaten face of a young woman trying to escape from her ex-boyfriend? Wide-scale unemployment, the greatest inequality gap in the world, (cont. overle af)

9

With your support, Compassion's campaign to have South Africa's breeding sows set free from their metal straightjackets called crates or stalls, is gaining ground! In the last year, 40 000 sows have started experiencing life on loose housing, as seen in the photograph on the right.

Help set the remaining 63 000 sows FREE!

Please donate generously for our campaign to achieve a crate-free South Africa by 2015.

Please identify your donation with the words 'crate-free SA’ Name of Account: The Humane Education Trust Account Number: 9094070046 Bank: ABSA Branch No.: 632005 Swift Code: ABSAZAJ J 10

A Better Life

Learners’ marks improve by 20%!

- School Principal gives the credit to Humane Education In mid-2012, the principal of Golden Grove Primary School, Mr Tony Austen, gave The Humane Education Trust an opportunity to bring humane education to a class of Grade 7 learners.

After two terms of humane education, this is what he said: “In the time that our learners in Grade 7HS received humane education, their marks for Life Orientation improved by a full 20%.

“It became apparent that humane education strongly improved their ability to express themselves, to read, write and discuss issues intelligently and to think creatively.

“What humane education achieved for these learners is remarkable.

“The Golden Grover learners are truly honoured to have the opportunity to interact and engage with Humane Education.”

Expert Drawing Analysis Internationally accredited handwriting and drawing analyst, and behavioural therapist, Yossi Vissoker, was asked

by Humane Education to take drawings from the learners before the start of the Humane Education programme, and again on completion of the programme.

“What I could see in the drawings taken at the end of the programme compared to those taken at the beginning,” Yossi said, “was a lesser degree of 'attitude'.

As part of Humane Education, the learners of Golden Grove’s Grade 7HS class authored and illustrated their own book of stories on animals.

Humane Education has published this collection as a keepsake for the learners to take with them on their life’s journey ahead.

What is Humane Education?

Humane Education widens our circle of compassion and respect to include each other, animals and the environment at large. Learners begin to consider a range of ethical issues using resources and lessons designed to generate creative and critical thinking, and, of course, empathy which is believed to be the critical element missing in society today.

Humane Education is about the development of core values beginning with our duty to care and take responsibility for ourselves and those in our care, namely our domestic animals. This is where it begins. As Humane Education progresses, the circle of our understanding becomes ever wider, like a ripple, and eventually we become Good EarthKeepers.

“There were no miracles as such, but it was amazing to discover an impressive decrease in negativity, especially amongst those learners whose drawings had shown this tendency before the programme began. Although the drawings of the control class have not been assessed yet, this does not detract from the positive outcome as described above for Grade 7HS.” Right: Becoming informed consumers!

The learners in Grade 7HS were intrigued (and shocked) to learn about the different methods of egg production.

They wrote extensively about this experience in their EARTH-KEEPERS book (mentioned above) and they also wrote to PnP’s Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, Transformation Director.

11

Cape Town Businessman challenges Big Business to come on board for Humane Education

Cape Town businessman Tony Gerrans, CEO of GROTTO Stainless Steel Tank Manufacturers, and his wife Lorraine donated R10 000 to Humane Education at Soil for Life/Compassion's fund-raising event on 20th October.

Said Tony: 'Education and social responsibility are two key foundations of our future society. All entities who care about the future should be investing in these foundations. I'd like to see more support for this very worthwhile initiative.'

4 Manchester Road, Airport Industria 2 Cape Town + 27 (0) 21 386 1555 www.grotto.co.za info@grotto.co.za Louise van der Merwe with Kayamandi teacher, Doreen Chiware and a learner. Said Doreen: “I am very excited to be part of this project.”

NTT Volkswagen Stellenbosch donates R3980 to Humane Education in Kayamandi Thanks to NTT Volkswagen Stellenbosch, all 79 learners at Kayamandi Primary School who took part in a colouring-in exercise to promote animal care and awareness, received pencil cases in November, complete with ruler, pencil, sharpener, pen and eraser.

“Since many of the learners are accustomed to breaking pencils in half in order to be able to write, the pencil cases were received with delight,” said Louise van der Merwe who is spear-heading Humane Education in several Cape Town schools.

Stellenbosch VW 1 Stoffel Smit Street, Plankenbrug Stellenbosch 7600 +27 21 808 6000

12

www.stellenboschvw.co.za

Das Auto

eeve@nttgroup.co.za

Pictured with the learners is Kayamandi teacher Pamela Mantanga and Humane Education's Yossi Vissoker who gives workshops for teachers on understanding and effectively dealing with disruptive behaviour, bullying and abuse. The learners have also received readers and wall charts on animal care and Humane Education will continue its support in 2013.

(Please see Pondering Panda survey on page 15)

e uwe l

ane E du c

at iph

Hum

in Action

Kl

C a ring C lassr o oms

a

n tio

Wh a t t e a ch ers a nd ve t erin a ri a ns s ay a bout Hum a n e Educ a tion... “... Before you approached our school, my learners were unaware of the importance of animals in the community. They disregarded animals and the significance thereof. Our communities are infested with thoughts of using animals as a means to an end. Even I have come to realise how important they really are.

Thank you for all you have done and will still be doing.” - Mrs R. Allie, Grade 6A educator, Fairview Primary School. “... Our educators feel that they are blessed with such a good resource in order for them to educate the learners on the caring of pets... The text is learner friendly. Vocabulary is on the learners' level. The stories are short. During an oral lesson most learners indicated that they would love to become veterinarians or work with animals.” – Mrs Margot Kiewit, Principal, Die Duine Primary School.

“I came across all your work for educating school children about animal welfare while I was at a meeting on the Kayamandi project.

Wow, outstanding! Well done!” – Dr Marc Walton, veterinary surgeon.

“... Materials supplied, as well as interactive service are first class and we feel privileged to be associated with them (Humane Education).”

– Dr Annelise Roos, EnviroVet CVC. “... What a wonderful collection of stories. They give our disadvantaged learners the confidence to talk about their experiences at home. Humane Education Trust, you’ve done an outstanding job.

You get an outstanding ovation.”

– Klipheuwel Primary School. “... I especially like the fact that the stories impart sound, humane values to the learners.”

— Esme Solomon - remedial teacher, Eerste River and Blackheath schools.

In 2012, Humane Education donated 1771 readers on animal care, totalling R80 758.00, to 12 schools in communities where animal neglect and abuse is prevalent. THANK YOU to all our individual donors who made this possible.

Wh a t you c a n do!

Please email Premier Zille and request that she channels some of the multi-million-rand funding allocated to the mass sterilization of pets in the Western Cape, to Humane Education's programme in schools. Only with a mind-set change amongst our young people of today will the mass sterilization of pets become a long-term solution to pet over-population and misery. Mass sterilization on its own is nothing more than a quick-fix with a short-term prognosis. Premier Zille's email is: Premier.WesternCape@pgwc.gov.za 13

The Hum a n e Educ a tion Trust is chosen as the ch arity o f choic e by leading Johannesburg preparatory school One of South Africa's leading prep schools, The Ridge School in Westcliff, Johannesburg, has chosen Humane Education as its charity of choice for this year's donation of Task Money.

Explained Mandy Herold, the school's Head of Junior Prep: “Each term we choose a charity to donate our Task Money to. The boys are encouraged to do a task at home from clearing dinner plates, to loading/unloading the dish washer to feeding the pets and in return they earn the R2 (or more!). In other words they are 'working' not for themselves but for others.

Samantha Bouilliart, whose son attends The Ridge, said that whatever The Ridge donated, the Bouilliart family would double! “I have decided that as a family we will match the donation made by The Ridge to Humane Education when it is made at the end of term.

“In a world where there is so much evil, I sometimes get incredibly despondent and cynical by what I see and read, and it is only through awareness and education that this imbalance will shift.”

14

Cours e in Hum a n e Educ a tion soon to b e ava il a bl e A training course in Humane Education is in the pipeline which will soon be available for South Africa. Thereafter, it will be adapted to become part of an internationally-available on-line certificate course.

The international course will be offered by World Animal Net (WAN), through the Cambridge eLearning Institute (CEI). CEI, which is based in Cambridge in the UK, has a number of animal welfare courses on offer through the Internet, with a ‘virtual campus’ and down-loadable course materials.

Their courses include subjects such as: General Concepts in Animal Welfare, Animal Behaviour and Welfare, Farm Animals, Animals in Research, Wild Animals, Working and Companion Animals, Animal Welfare Legislation and Animal Ethics.

“What’s missing,” says Janice Cox, Co-Founder and WAN Director, “is a course in Humane Education”.

“Because of her extensive experience in Humane Education (HE), WAN has invited Animal Voice editor Louise van der Merwe to develop teachers’ training courses in humane education in a South African context which can then be developed into an international course to meet the burgeoning demand by teachers and animal welfare personnel for courses in Humane Education.”

Janice added that the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) which held its third global conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in November, reached an agreement that the development of animal welfare was a global issue that required action in terms of legislation, education and awareness. The conference was attended by over 300 delegates from 74 countries.

WAN is an international network of animal welfare societies, with affiliates in more than 100 countries and consultative status at the United Nations.

To learn more about our Humane Education Programme or to participate, please contact Louise on 021 852 8160 or avoice@yebo.co.za.

Also see the HE website at www.humane-education.org.za.

Local children's book

enjoys readership in the UK

Book Review

by Samantha Chandler, Secretary for the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals http://www.aswa.org.uk/

Astrid Chapel

There's a chapel that stands alone amid the rolling hills of the Free State. Albert Schweitzer's words are encrypted on a plaque in the pulpit. Roy Jankielsohn tells the story behind Astrid Chapel...

“Shah Jahan constructed the Taj Mahal for his third wife Mumtaz Mahal to illustrate his love for her in 1648. The Astrid Chapel is similarly a monument for a woman whose husband and son could not afford a monument as grand as the Taj Mahal but would have built it if they could.

“Astrid Chapel is named after my wife. It is a monument to God's creation and our responsibility as humans to respect all of God's creatures. This is what our son Tristan and I have learnt from Astrid.”

Note from Ed: Roy Jankielsohn is the leader of the DA in the Free State. He has openly expressed his disappointment that Mayor Patricia de Lille has scrapped the City of Cape Town's official meat-free day once a week.

See video clip of the City's 2010 official launch of one meat-free day, in the name of human health, mitigation of climate change and animal welfare, by clicking here: http://www.animal-voice.org/category/quick-clips/

This children’s book is a real little gem. I sat and read it in about half an hour one afternoon. It had been sent to me by our South African Representative – Anne Hemmings. If you want to give a book to a child with a real moral message about life from the perspective of a captive animal then this is the book for you!

The foreword to the book is written by Jonathan Balcombe – animal scientist and behaviourist. As he says: 'Animals' lives matter to them.

Their most precious possession is their freedom'.

The book sells for R65,70.

Please order at avoice@yebo.co.za

Bullying still tops the ‘Problem List’ for SA’s learners Bullying remains the most significant cause for concern in South African schools, according to a media release by Pondering Panda on 4 December 2012, with 13 to 14-year-olds feeling the most impact from this scourge.

In total, 7324 SA learners, their family members, and teachers were interviewed across the country and asked to identify the biggest problems at their schools. 28% identified bullying as the biggest problem while 25% said there was not enough parental involvement and 24% said lack of decent toilets.

For more information, contact: Johan van der Merwe Cell: +2778 668 7872 | Office: +2721 888 7083 johan@ponderingpanda.com | ponderingpanda.com 15

P h oto: A u k e-B o n n e v a n d er Weid e