Canada launches investigation after 38 dead puppies found on plane

Yahoo – AFP, June 20, 2020

French bulldogs, like those pictured here, are a popular breed in Canada
(AFP Photo/Gary Gershoff)

Montreal (AFP) - Canada has launched an investigation after some 500 puppies -- 38 of them dead -- were found on board a Ukraine International Airlines plane at the Toronto airport, officials said Saturday.

The surviving French bulldogs, a popular breed in Canada, were suffering from symptoms including dehydration, weakness and vomiting when they were found on the flight from Ukraine which landed at Toronto Pearson Airport on June 13, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a statement.

The agency "will determine next steps once the investigation is complete," it said.

A dog handler who was picking up another animal from the airport cargo area where the puppies were discovered last Saturday told the CBC of a "horror scene," adding: "It was a nightmare."

UIA offered its "condolences for the tragic loss of animal life on our flight" and said on Facebook that it was working with local authorities.

Puppy sales are "lucrative" in Canada, Scott Weese of the University of Guelph told the CBC.

Most buyers believe the animals are bred in Canada, but the reality is "we have no idea how many dogs come in, where they go, where they come from," he said, adding that there was "potentially some organized crime component."

"You mentioned 500 French bulldogs. If those are going for sale at $3,000 to $4,000 a dog, that's a massive amount of money," he told the broadcaster.

Singapore Airlines bans lion bones in cargo

Yahoo – AFP, September 21, 2018

Singapore Airlines says it has banned lion bones as cargo on its planes
(AFP Photo/GREG BAKER)

Singapore (AFP) - Singapore Airlines said Friday it has stopped accepting lion bones for cargo after the carrier was singled out in a report for transporting the animal parts from South Africa.

Campaigners have long called for a ban on the controversial trade in big cat bones, which are sought after for medicine and jewellery in Southeast Asia.

Singapore Airlines was the sole carrier importing lion bones from South Africa to Southeast Asia last year, according to a report released in July by the non-profit EMS Foundation and animal rights group Ban Animal Trading.

At least 800 lion skeletons had been exported with the blessing of the South African government in 2017, the report said, making it the world's largest exporter of lion bones.

The airline told AFP it had stopped accepting lion bones as cargo, but did not say when the policy had come into effect.

"Singapore Airlines does not accept the carriage of lion bones as cargo following a review which took into account increasing concerns around the world," the company said in an email.

EMS Foundation director Michele Pickover said her organisation had sent the report to the airline and "appealed to them to immediately stop its involvement in this terrible trade".

"I believe that once they were informed about what this trade entails they took the correct and logical decision not to support it," she told AFP.

South Africa has been sending lion bones to Southeast Asia since at least 2008 and it was likely that Singapore Airlines had been transporting them since that year, Pickover added.

Lion bones and other body parts are highly sought after in parts of Southeast Asia -- particularly Laos, Thailand and Vietnam -- for use in jewellery and for their supposed medicinal properties.

In Vietnam, lion bone is cooked and turned into balm while claws and teeth were used as body ornaments, the report said.

While trade of body parts from wild lions is banned, international treaties allow the sale of parts taken from lions bred in captivity.

More animals killed on the roads is ‘good news’ for wildlife

DutchNews, February 12, 2016

The fact that more animals are being killed on the Dutch roads is often cause for celebration, Maurice La Haye – a researcher at the Dutch mammal society Zoogdiervereniging – told the Algemeen Dagblad. 

An increase in accidents is a sign that conservation efforts are working and the wildlife population in the Netherlands is increasing, La Haye told the paper on Friday. 

An estimated ten million animals are killed on Dutch roads every year, but millions more survive, mate, and multiply. This is at least partly thanks to the Netherlands’ network of 1,725 green passages, viaducts, and walking ledges that allow animals to safely cross roads in certain places. 

Green passageways

Since the mid-1980s, the Netherlands has been building these structures in an effort to preserve dwindling wildlife stocks, including the endangered European badger, and several species of wild boar and deer. 

One of these ‘ecoducts’ – the Natuurbrug Zanderij Crailoo – is the longest such structure in the world. Some 50m wide and 800m long, the ecoduct takes animals safely over a railway line, roadway, business park, sports complex and a river. 

The ecoducts allow animals to expand their habitats past the barriers of roads, rivers and railways. And it’s been successful. In 1950, the total deer population of the Netherlands was around 5,000. Now it sits nearer 110,000, Gijs Van Ardenne, chairman of the Wildlife Collision Foundation Netherlands told the AD. 

Healthy and thriving

As well as an increase in sheer numbers, Dutch wildlife now appears to be in better health than before.

‘Ditches and canals are no longer the open sewers of last century, but fish-rich waterways,’ Hugh Jansen, of research institute Alterra told the AD. ‘Dead animals we find and analyse are in very good condition. They are top athletes who encountered a car.’

Major US airlines ban transport of hunting trophies

Three US airlines have announced that they will no longer accept lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo trophies as cargo. The move comes after an American dentist killed a well-known lion in Zimbabwe last month.

Deutsche Welle, 4 Aug 2015

Delta, United and American Airlines have banned the shipment of big game hunting trophies on flights, following similar measures taken by Emirates and South African Airways.

The decision comes in the wake of a global uproar over the death of a well-known lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe last month in an allegedly illegal hunt. The man linked with the death, dentist Walter James Palmer, lives in the US state of Minnesota, a major hub for Delta.

Delta, the only American airline to fly directly between the US and Johannesburg, also said Monday that it would review its acceptance policies for other hunting trophies with the appropriate government agencies and other organizations.

Even before the killing of Cecil, activists had urged major airliners not to carry endangered species killed by trophy hunters. German airline Lufthansa Cargo halted the shipment of such animals from Africa in June, while Emirates SkyCargo took the step in May.

As recently as May, Delta said that it
would continue to allow such shipments

'Big PR gain'

Although most animals are transported by ship, the new bans are expected to make it harder for hunters to get their trophies home.

Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry consultant, noted that airlines like Delta were probably acting in response to pressure following the news of Cecil's killing.

"I don't think there was much of this shipment taking place, so there is minimal revenue loss and big PR gain for them," he told the Associated Press.

av/cmk (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Walt Palmer, left, and one of his many trophies.

Related Article:

Killer of Cecil the lion was dentist from Minnesota, claim Zimbabwe officials

Indian court bans Mumbai's horse-drawn carriages

Yahoo – AFP, 9 June 2015

Mumbai's ornate horse-drawn carriages are nearing the end of the road after a

 court in the Indian city ruled them illegal, saying owners must wind up operations

within a year (AFP Photo/Punit Paranjpe)

Mumbai's ornate horse-drawn carriages are nearing the end of the road after a court in the Indian city ruled them illegal, saying owners must wind up operations within a year.

The silver-coloured Victorias -- styled on open carriages used during Queen Victoria's reign -- have been plying Mumbai's streets since British colonial times, and for years have been a tourist attraction.

But on Monday the Bombay High Court agreed with animal welfare groups, who had petitioned for a ban citing poor treatment of the horses, that the practice was cruel.

"We hold that the use of horse-driven carriages... for joy rides is completely illegal," read the court verdict.

It ordered the city government to "ensure that the use of such horse-driven carriages... shall be completely stopped on expiry of a period of one year from today".

The court also ruled that all related stables must be closed down and directed local authorities to come up with a scheme to help the estimated 700 people involved in the trade.

The jazzy carriages were once a mode of transport for former Bombay's wealthy classes, but they now carry tourists around the historic Colaba district and Marine Drive promenade in the south of the city.

A horse-drawn carriage is pictured on the city's iconic Marine Drive promenade

in Mumbai (AFP Photo/Indranil Mukherjee)

They are often seen outside the luxury Taj Mahal Palace hotel and Gateway of India monument and have also appeared in several Bollywood movies.

But concerns over unlicensed stables and poor treatment of the horses saw the Animals and Birds Charitable Trust, with the support of PETA India, lodge a case in Mumbai's top court.

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, had claimed the horses were often malnourished, denied adequate rest or veterinary care and were forced to stand in their own waste in sub-standard stables.

Manilal Valliyate, from PETA India, applauded the decision, saying "Mumbai's Victoria industry is inherently cruel and dangerous".

Related Article:

Culture or Cruelty?

Airlines struggle to serve sustainability

Airlines around the world are trying to reduce their ecological footprint by serving locally-produced and sustainable food. While the trend appears to be growing, experts say more needs to be done.

Deutsche Welle, 3 Sep 2014

Consumer awareness and demand are driving the food industry in industrialized countries toward sustainability - locally sourced food and waste reduction are among the top trends for restaurants in 2014, according to a US restaurant association survey. Demand for regional and organic food continues to increase in Europe, including in Germany.

Despite ever more organic bistros sprouting up, it is still not standard practice to serve sustainable or locally-sourced food on airline flights. But this is starting to change.

"Increasingly, customers want to know where their food is from and how it's been sourced," explains Sinead Ferguson, a menu design manager for British Airways. "So we've embraced this."

Sustainability taking off

In the UK, one percent of all food transport is done by plane, but it accounts for 11 percent of carbon emissions, according to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs statistics. By using food grown locally that doesn’t have to be flown to the airport before being served to passengers, airlines can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced.

Airline meals typically come with
plenty of packaging

Today, cookies served on British Airways flights come from an organic bakery located on the Scottish island of Mull. The fish, tea and coffee served are sustainably sourced, and the airline says its bottled water comes in packaging that is entirely renewable.

In October 2012, China Airlines began labeling food on flights from Taipei to Frankfurt with its respective carbon footprint, becoming the world’s first airline to do so. The carbon footprints are calculated by the Taiwan-based Industrial Technology Research Institute. Items such as the "Authentic Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup" for business class passengers and "Plain Omelette with Mini Sausage and Hash Brown" meal for economy class range from between 0.43 and 3.52 kilograms (one to 7.76 pounds) of equivalent carbon dioxide emissions per meal.

Another airline using sustainable food and beverages is KLM. "We want to set the standard for sustainable aviation," says Roel Verwiel from KLM. "Instead of getting the chicken [on our flights] from South America or Thailand, we've replaced that by locally-sourced chicken."

And Bobbie Egan from Alaska Airlines says that utensils on the US carrier's flights are compostable - and the airline's coffee mugs are made from recycled water bottles.

Coming back down to earth

But despite these projects, Simon Heppner - founder of the Sustainable Restaurant Association - says airlines still have a way to go before being truly sustainable in the food and drinks they serve.

He sees the main problem as the tight profit margins in the aviation industry, which make prioritizing sustainable food products and packaging a low priority. This is combined with the fact that airlines tend to tackle one issue of sustainability at a time.

"I think there have been lots of examples in the past couple of decades of airlines that have focused on a specific issue within sustainability," Heppner told DW. "But no one's looked at it holistically and said 'we want to push forward on all of these, and all at the same time.'"

KLM uses uses beef from "free cows"

Food waste is another issue, Heppner says. Due to international regulations, uneaten airline food and the containers they are in must be incinerated, used as fuel or disposed of in a landfill. This is done to avoid spread of nonnative animal or plant species that could harm local ecosystems.

"The reality is that everything you see on board is not able to be recycled," says Heppner.

Sharing sustainability

With the continued growth of worldwide air travel - airlines carried more than three billion passengers in 2013, according to the International Air Transport Association, with the according to the Carbon Neutral Company's roundtrip flight from Frankfurt to New York emitting more than a ton of carbon dioxide - British Airways' Ferguson says focus on sustainable food and drinks may increase in the future.

And, indeed, some German airlines are beginning to include sustainable food on their flights. Lufthansa's "Discover Slow Food" campaign, in cooperation with the sustainable food advocacy group Slow Food, served business class passengers on European flights local German specialties such as Diepholzer Moorschnucke, a breed of sheep from Lower Saxony.

Related Article:

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Philippine Airlines Quits Flying Shark Fins Amid Outcry

Jakarta Globe – AFP,  Apr 24, 2014

A family eats shark fin soup at Vancouver's Grand Honor Chinese restaurant
 in Vancouver, British Columbia, in this file photo. Philippine Airlines (PAL) said
on April 24, 2014 it has stopped flying shark fin cargoes. (Reuters Photo/Ben Nelms)

Manila. Philippine Airlines (PAL) said Thursday it has stopped flying shark fin cargoes, joining a number of other Asia-Pacific carriers in taking a stand for marine conservation.

The fins are used in shark fin soup, a much-valued delicacy in Hong Kong and China.

Conservationists say booming demand for such fins has put pressure on the world’s shark populations, prompting calls for measures to restrict their trade.

“PAL values the issue on protection and conservation of endangered marine life seriously, recognizing that the company’s long-term interest is and should be consistent with sustainable and responsible business practices,” a PAL statement said.

Air New Zealand as well as South Korea’s two largest airlines, Korean Air and Asiana, separately announced last year that they would ban shark fins from their cargo flights, a year after Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific also stopped shipping them.

Fiji Airways announced last year it would no longer carry “shark fins and shark-related products sourced from unsustainable and unverified sources”, and would only carry fins from species not threatened with extinction.

Agence France-Presse

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New Zealand to ban shark finning

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China Bans Shark Fin Soup From Official Receptions

Hong Kong Bans Shark Fin at Official Banquets

Garuda Bans Shark Fin Transport on Flights: WWF-Indonesia

Fiji's Air Pacific bans 'unsustainable' shark fins

Korean Air Joins Cathay Pacific in Curbing Shark Fin Transport

Garuda Bans Shark Fin Transport on Flights: WWF-Indonesia

The Jakarta Globe, November 15, 2013

In this file picture taken on January 2, 2013 shark fins drying in the sun cover
the roof of a factory building in Hong Kong. (AFP Photo/Antony Dickson)

The World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia praised the nation’s flagship carrier Garuda-Indonesia on Friday for banning the transportation of shark fins aboard all flights.

The blanket embargo, effective on Oct. 8, has Garuda joining a growing list of international airlines taking a stance against the destructive practice. Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Emirates Airlines, Fiji Airways and Korean Air are among the carriers to ban the transport of shark fins, the statement read.

“WWF-Indonesia commends this move by Garuda Indonesia,” Nazir Foead, conservation director for WWF-Indonesia, said. “Their policy to cease transporting shark fin products is a positive step that should generate further momentum in the shark conservation movement.”

The airline’s commitment represents a major step in curbing the global trade of shark fins. Garuda previously transported some 36 tons of shark fins a year, WWF-Indonesia said. Indonesia is the world’s leading source of shark fins — which are used as the main ingredient in a popular, and expensive, Chinese soup.

The practice has grabbed the attention of conservations as global shark populations decline.

WWF-Indonesia has launched a “Save Our Sharks,” campaign and is working with the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries to work on drafting a national shark conservation plan.

Related Articles:

Indonesia, India named as biggest shark catchers

New Zealand to ban shark finning

EU tightens ban on shark finning

Hong Kong Bans Shark Fin at Official Banquets

Fiji's Air Pacific bans 'unsustainable' shark fins

Korean Air Joins Cathay Pacific in Curbing Shark Fin Transport

Korean Air Joins Cathay Pacific in Curbing Shark Fin Transport

Jakarta Globe, Jasmine Wang and Kyunghee Park, June 24, 2013

Shark fins dry in the sun on the roof of a factory building in Hong Kong
 (AFP Photo/Antony Dickson)

Shark fins’ ride in plane bellies is beginning to end.

Last week, Korean Air Lines Co. said since March it had stopped moving the delicacy used in soups. The Seoul-based company joined Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Air New Zealand Ltd. in saying no to transporting the commodity.

The airlines’ ban on carrying the cargo may aid steps by environment lobbies to protect sharks, whose fins can cost as much as $800 per kilogram ($364 per pound). Hong Kong is the transit point for about half of the global shark fin trade, which largely goes to the Chinese market, said Alex Hofford, executive director at MyOcean, a marine conservation group.

“The airlines know it’s good to be seen as doing the right thing as passengers become more environmentally aware,” Hofford said. “Economically speaking, it doesn’t affect them one bit as it’s so tiny compared to all the other things they carry, electronics, phones or other cargoes.”

About 10 percent of global shark-fin trade is freighted through air with the rest moving by ships, Hofford said. Hong Kong imports shark fins from all over the world including Africa, Europe, south Pacific, Indonesia, Japan and the Middle East, he said.

Fishermen obtain the fins by slicing them off sharks and leaving them back into the ocean, a process called “finning”, Korean Air said in a June 20 statement. More than 73 million sharks are finned around the world every year, it said, citing research data.

Higher-Value Goods

Korean Air’s decision came after a similar move by Air New Zealand last month and Cathay’s September announcement to only carry shark products from sustainable sources.

Asian airlines and airports are aiming to move to higher-value goods to counter a weak global air-freight market, which declined for a second straight year in 2012 amid a slump in demand across Europe.

Changi Airport, Southeast Asia’s largest freight airfield, plans to attract more gold bars, tuna and vaccines to Singapore as it seeks to increase handling of high-value cargo to make up for slowing trade.

Cathay Pacific, the world’s biggest international air-cargo carrier, aims to replicate its business-class strategy in a cargo trade upgrade. The airline said in February it wants to fly more diamonds and medicines rather than T-shirts.

Shark Rescue

Environmental groups, including Shark Rescue and MyOcean, last month also sent a letter to Fiji’s Air Pacific, urging it to stop the carriage of shark fins and related products from the south Pacific on flights to Hong Kong.

They plan to lobby Qantas Airways Ltd and Air France-KLM Group to urge them to stop carrying the fins, Hofford said.

Air New Zealand suspended the carriage of shark fins on May 21, while a review of this issue is underway, the carrier’s spokesman Andrew Aitken said in an e-mailed statement last week.

Cathay Pacific in September announced a restrictive policy that it will only accept independently verified sustainable shark and shark-related products. While the carrier is still working on the implementation of the policy, it has reduced the volume of shark fins carried to 3 tons in the six months ended March from about 300 annually before the announcement, according to an e-mailed statement from the carrier on June 20.

Wedding Banquet

“We will only ship from sustainable sources and will continue to do so,” its Chief Executive John Slosar said last week in Hong Kong.

Transport restrictions could make a soup, made with 76 grams of shark fins, pricier than the HK$1,320 ($170) it sells at the Fook Lam Moon Group restaurant in Hong Kong.

Shark fin consumption in Hong Kong is going down as young people have increased awareness of protecting endangered species, Hofford said. The older generation of people continues to consume shark fins, he said.

Cissy Ho, a 27-year-old who is getting married next month in Hong Kong, said she had to agree to her family members’ decision to include shark fin soup in the menu for her wedding banquet.

“I would choose bird’s nest dish over shark fin soup, but I failed to convince the elders,” said Ho, who works at a Hong Kong-based company. “They still think shark fin soup is a must-have item to show their generosity towards guests.”

Bloomberg

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