Vets for Ukrainian Pets will cover the cost of veterinary care for the pets of refugees. Charlotte Brocker for HSI
Update: The deadline for this program has been extended to31 December 2024.
Ukrainian refugees who have fled the war with their pets can access free veterinary treatment in countries across Europe thanks to Vets for Ukrainian Pets. Download leaflet.
Vets for Ukrainian Pets will cover the cost of veterinary care of dogs, cats, horses or other pet animals, where care is considered necessary by a professional veterinarian.
What kind of veterinary care is covered by Vets for Ukrainian Pets?
Certification/licensing requirements—legalisation of a pet in a European country where these costs are not already being funded by national authorities. This may include rabies vaccination, rabies serology, parasite treatment, microchip implantation/registration and official documentation.
Standard preventive care—core vaccinations and parasite treatments to ensure the overall health of the animal.
Medication (up to four months’ supply)—medicines previously prescribed by a veterinarian or needed to treat a newly identified condition. This includes previously prescribed medications that did not accompany the pet during evacuation, or for which supplies have been depleted.
Acute care—treatment for acute conditions where the prognosis following treatment is good, such as wounds, ear inflammation or alleviation of pain.
What veterinary clinics participate in this scheme?
All licenced clinics and practicing veterinarians throughout Europe are eligible to participate. Please ask at the nearest veterinary clinic.
What if I have more than one pet requiring care?
The plan covers costs for up to five pets or horses. If you have more than five pets in need of veterinary care, please discuss this with the clinic.
Do I have to pay at the clinic and then ask for reimbursement?
No, the veterinary care is free. We will reimburse the clinic up to €250 for each animal.
What if the plan cannot cover the care my pet needs?
We encourage veterinarians to provide discounted or free-of-charge care where other funding or charity contributions are insufficient to cover the full cost.
How long will the Vets for Ukrainian Pets plan be available?
The plan will be running until 30 June 2023. If you need veterinary care for your pet or horse beyond that date, please contact Humane Society International at VetsUkrainePets@hsi.org.
Vets for Ukrainian Pets is fully funded by Humane Society International, with the generous support of Mars, Incorporated, in collaboration with the Federation of Veterinarians in Europe and the Federation of European Companion Animal Veterinary Associations.
Humane Society International / Global
Vets for Ukrainian Pets покриє витрати на ветеринарне обслуговування домашніх тварин біженців. Charlotte Brocker для HSI
Оновлення: план діятиме до 31 грудня 2024 року.
Українські біженці, які втекли від війни зі своїми домашніми улюбленцями, можуть отримати безкоштовну ветеринарну допомогу у країнах Європи завдяки “Ветеринари для українських тварин”. Скачати листівку.
“Ветеринари для українських тварин” покриють вартість ветеринарної допомоги для собак, котів, коней або інших тварин, для яких така допомога буде необхідною на думку професійних ветеринарів.
Яка саме ветеринарна допомога покривається “Ветеринарами для українських тварин”?
Вимоги сертифікації/ліцензування – легалізація тварини у європейській країні, де такі витрати не покриваються органами державної влади. Це може включати в себе вакцинацію від сказу, серологію на сказ, лікування від паразитів, імплантацію/реєстрацію мікрочіпа та офіційну документацію.
Стандартну профілактичну допомогу — базові вакцинації та лікування від паразитів, щоб забезпечити загальне здоров’я тварини.
Ліки (запас на період до чотирьох місяців)—ліки, що були попередньо прописані ветеринаром, або необхідні для лікування ново виявленої хвороби. Це включає в себе попередньо виписані ліки, які не супроводжували тварину під час евакуації, або запаси яких скінчились.
Ургентна допомога — лікування ургентних станів, при яких прогноз наступного лікування є хорошим, таких як рани, запалення вух або полегшення болю.
Які ветеринарні клініки беруть участь у цій схемі?
Всі ліцензовані клініки та практикуючі ветеринари по всій Європі можуть брати участь. Будь ласка, запитайте у найближчій ветеринарній клініці.
Що, якщо я маю більше одного домашнього улюбленця, що потребує допомоги?
План покриває витрати на допомогу до п’яти домашніх улюбленців або коней. Якщо у вас є більше п’яти тварин, що потребують ветеринарної допомоги, будь ласка, обговоріть це з клінікою.
Чи потрібно мені платити у клініці, а потім просити відшкодування?
Ні, ветеринарна допомога безкоштовна. Ми відшкодуємо клініці до 250 євро за кожну тварину.
Що робити, якщо план не зможе покрити витрати на допомогу, якої потребує моя тварина?
Ми заохочуємо ветеринарів надавати допомогу зі знижкою або безкоштовно в тих випадках, коли інші джерела фінансування або благодійні внески не є достатніми для покриття повної вартості.
Як довго буде достуним план “Ветеринари для українських тварин”?
План діятиме до 31 серпня 2022року. Якщо ви потребуватимете ветеринарної допомоги для вашого улюбленця або коня після цієї дати, будь ласка, зв’яжіться з Міжнародним Гуманним Товариством за адресою: VetsUkrainePets@hsi.org.
Де мені знайти більше інформації про “Ветеринари для українських тварин”?
“Ветеринари для українських тварин” повністю фінансується Міжнародним Гуманним Товариством, за щедрої підтримки Корпорації “Марс”у співпраці з Федерацією Ветеринарів Європи та Федерацією Європейських Асоціацій Ветеринарії для Тварин-Компаньйонів.
Humane Society International
Guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, birds and other animals were used in testing by the thousands.
Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) has introduced a new regulation making it possible for companies to forego two obsolete and scientifically unnecessary animal tests for quality control of veterinary biological products such as vaccines. The move has been welcomed by Humane Society International, which has been working in Brazil and across the globe with regulatory authorities and industry stakeholders to eliminate and replace obsolete animal testing from regulations for both human and veterinary biological products, promoting a global regulatory alignment in the way non-animal tests are accepted and implemented.
The animal tests impacted by the new Brazilian regulation – the Target and Laboratory Animal Batch Safety Tests – were developed nearly a century ago, consumed vast numbers of mice, guinea pigs, birds and larger animals, and are now widely regarded as unnecessary for assuring the safety of veterinary biologicals. Following a comprehensive scientific review, Brazil has decided to join the United States, Europe, Japan and other major economies in allowing companies to waive these tests.
Antoniana Ottoni, federal affairs specialist for Humane Society International in Brazil, said, “This welcome regulatory reform is a true win-win-win – sparing animals needless suffering and death, reducing costs and bureaucracy for companies and authorities, while ensuring a high standard of quality and safety for veterinary medicines in Brazil. We are grateful to colleagues in our Agriculture Ministry for their collaboration and willingness to break from a century old tradition in favour of alignment with the growing international scientific and regulatory consensus.”
Marcos Vinícius Santana Leandro, auditor and General Coordinator of Veterinary Products in MAPA’s Department of Animal Health said, “The Ministry of Agriculture, Supply and Livestock took the decision to install an official process for waiving animal tests for quality control for veterinary products, aware that the safety of these products can be achieved by improving the manufacturing process, which have come a long way over the past few decades, introducing strict controls over starting materials and the development of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), quality assurance and control, and pharmacovigilance systems. These advances have contributed to the creation of a safe environment in which waiving these tests has become a viable and safe possibility. In addition, it will enable the regulatory harmonization necessary to reduce bureaucracy in the registration of health veterinary products of extreme relevance to animal health and the development in our country.”
The animal welfare legislation that the EU put in place around the turn of this century is seriously outdated and incomplete, and fails to sufficiently meet the welfare needs of the billions of sentient beings who are kept and killed in the EU for food.
Thankfully, the European Commission recently committed to revising the existing body of EU animal welfare legislation by 2023, bringing it in line with current animal welfare science, and to broaden the scope of EU rules to protect animal welfare.
The Commission has launched a public consultation asking people what they think about animal welfare and what kind of rules need to be improved.
We need as many animal advocates as possible to seize this opportunity to tell the commission that we want the strongest possible rules for farm animals in Europe.
Those wishing to maintain the status quo and to keep farm animals living under inadequate living conditions will also be making their voices heard. Animal advocates will need to shout louder!
Comment now to help animals
In order to fill in the Commission’s questionnaire, you will need to register on the EC website. An email with activation link for your registration will then be sent to the email address you provide. The Commission’s questionnaire itself is quite complex and can be a bit confusing if you are not an expert on animal welfare. Here are our suggestions for how to respond to the online questionnaire.
Deadline: The public consultation will run until 21st January 2022. But please, don’t wait. Speak out for animals today!
More about the issues under consideration
Animal welfare standards in the EU
While all animals kept for production purposes in the EU are afforded a basic level of protection on farms and during both transport and slaughter, species-specific standards exist only for laying hens, meat chickens, pigs and calves. And even these protections are now out-of-date and need to be brought in line with current animal welfare science.
Having common rules on animal welfare also means that farmers can operate on a more level playing field wherever they live in the EU. Producers often claim that having to follow these rules is burdensome, but protecting the welfare of the animals under their care should always be a priority. Ensuring good welfare is also necessary to achieve good animal health.
HSI/Europe believes that the EU must urgently update existing animal welfare standards and extend the legislative scope to ensure that there are rules for all species kept for food. This must also include an end to caged confinement for all farm animals.
Animal welfare during transport
While we are also working to reduce the consumption of animal products, it is imperative to improve the welfare of the animals being raised and killed for food, especially during their last hours, when they experience immense suffering. Transporting animals for long distances is senseless given that they could be slaughtered more locally and their carcasses transported.
There are EU rules governing live transport, but these are inadequate, outdated and poorly enforced by many Member States. HSI/Europe is of the opinion that maximum journey times should be introduced and more specific requirements are needed for the transport of different species. Transport of unweaned calves and other vulnerable animals should be prohibited.
It is also important that the export of live animals to non-EU countries for both slaughter and breeding be banned. Time and time again, the horrific conditions of animals transported by road and sea for slaughter in, for example, the Middle East, have been exposed. Animal transports also routinely get stuck for days at the EU’s borders, leaving animals to suffer at high temperatures. This must end.
Animal welfare on farms
The billions of animals kept on EU farms deserve better treatment. HSI/Europe strongly believes that action needs to be taken to phase out the caged confinement of farm animals, such as laying hens, within a maximum of five years.
Surgical mutilations, such as tail docking, beak-trimming, dehorning and piglet castration, should be prohibited. These practices are cruel and unnecessary.
Many consumers also do not even realise that there are no species-specific EU animal welfare standards for dairy or beef cattle, let alone for sheep, goats, rabbits, turkeys, ducks, geese or farmed fish. This must change. We need standards tailored to the welfare needs of each species kept for food production. Imported animal products should also be conditionally subject to EU animal welfare requirements.
What HSI/Europe does NOT want to see are welfare standards for mink, foxes and raccoon dogs, as creating minimum standards for animals bred for fur would give legitimacy to the fur industry. It is not possible to achieve good welfare for animals on fur farms. Keeping animals solely for the purpose of fur production is ethically unacceptable and inherently inhumane. The practice is already banned in many EU Member States due to animal welfare concerns.
Aside from regulating the cross-border trade in dogs and cats, legislating for the welfare of these companion animal species is generally deemed to be a competence of EU Member States. However, HSI/Europe is convinced that having harmonised EU rules for both the commercial breeding of dogs and cats and the operation of animal shelters could be helpful to prevent animal welfare problems.
Welfare at slaughter
The EU rules to protect the welfare of animals at the time of killing are outdated and need to be brought in line with current scientific understandings. It is vital that electrical water bath stunning, as well as the use of CO2 as a stunning method for pigs, be prohibited. Slaughterhouses should also no longer be able to use electric prods.
It is also important that specific animal welfare rules for killing farmed fish be introduced. HSI/Europe also believes that the systematic killing of day-old male chicks should be prohibited. This obscene practice stems from the fact these baby birds are deemed economically useless in the poultry industry. It is now also possible to identify the sex of chicks in embryo.
Animal welfare labelling
It is important that consumers be able to make informed choices about purchasing animal products. Any EU labelling scheme should, however, be meaningful and must include information with regard to the method of production used to farm the animals, as well as the welfare standards the animal has been farmed under.
HSI/Europe maintains that an EU animal welfare label should apply to all products of animal origin, not just to animals farmed in cage systems (which should be banned altogether). Broader animal welfare criteria also need to be incorporated into an EU animal welfare label. It is important that consumers be aware not only of the method of production, but also of where the animals are born, raised and slaughtered.
Yves Salomon, Moncler & Max Mara sales staff filmed at Harrods’ fur salon provide misleading information about conditions on factory fur farms
Humane Society International / United Kingdom
Kristo Muurimaa/Oikeutta eläimille
LONDON—Sales staff representing global designers Yves Salomon, Moncler and Max Mara in the fur salon at London’s Harrods department store, provided misleading information about conditions for animals on fur farms to a secret shopper filming for animal protection charity Humane Society International/UK. Sales staff for the fashion companies—all wearing Harrods-branded name badges—made misleading claims about the deprived environment in which caged animals are kept, and the way they are killed, when questioned about farmed fox fur from Finland.
The sales rep for Yves Salomon falsely claimed that foxes on fur farms are not kept in cages, telling the undercover customer that they are kept in “their own private space” in “separate rooms” “exactly” like Battersea (Dogs and Cats Home). The customer was repeatedly told that foxes are not kept in a cage and even that “they have enough space to play and everything”. In truth, the animals are confined in small, barren, wire factory-farm style cages one-metre squared. These pitiful conditions were exposed this week in HSI’s undercover investigation at three Finnish fox fur farms that showed animals in cages barely longer than their body length, nose to tail. Many of the foxes also suffered with deformed feet and diseased eyes.
Another Yves Salomon sales rep at Harrods gave HSI/UK’s undercover shopper the false assurance that before the animals are killed “they put them down with an injection” so that “they are literally put to sleep” when in truth foxes (and raccoon dogs) are anally electrocuted without any anaesthetic. When our shopper expressed concern about some videos she had seen of animals suffering in the fur trade she was told ‘it’s only propaganda, madam’.
Moncler’s sales assistant made the astonishing implication that its Finnish fox fur was just a by-product, saying “we take our fur from animals who were already taken for other purposes, like for example meat or something else”, despite the breeding of foxes for human consumption being illegal in the EU.
Humane Society International/UK which leads the #FurFreeBritain campaign for a UK fur sales ban, and Finnish animal campaigners Oikeutta Eläimille, visited three fur farms in the Ostrobothnia region of Finland, a country that has exported more than £11million of fur to the UK since 2000 despite the same fur farm cruelty being banned in the UK. Photos and video can be downloaded here. Filming took place in October 2021.
Claire Bass, executive director of Humane Society International/UK, who visited the fur farms, said: “It’s hardly a surprise that staff in Harrods don’t want to describe the grim reality of life for animals on fur farms, because it would surely leave their customers horrified. The week before speaking to five Harrods’ sales assistants who all creatively cloaked the cruelty of the fur trade, I visited several supposedly ‘high welfare’ Finnish fur farms and come face to face with the abject misery and suffering of thousands of foxes locked up in barren metre-squared battery cages their whole lives. Before Christmas they will all have been killed by anal electrocution, and the luxury lies of fur trade PR spin will market their lifeless fur to consumers.
The claim that fur farms are ‘like Battersea’, a rescue home for pets, was a whole new level of delusion. Fur farms and Battersea are like night and day in animal welfare terms. A Harrods manager’s claims that their fur is ‘ethically and sustainably sourced’ bears no scrutiny whatsoever. There is nothing ethical about any fur farming, certified or otherwise. We urge Harrods to stop peddling lies and stop selling fur cruelty. And the sooner the UK government bans the import and sale of animal fur, the sooner we can stop bankrolling this brutal industry.”
Max Mara’s sales staff told the investigator that its fur is certified by the fur trade’s SAGA Furs** assurance scheme which, they claimed, means “those ones are not cruel, not made in a cruel way…. It means that the animals don’t suffer.” However, at two SAGA Furs certified fox fur farms visited by HSI/UK, foxes with infected eyes and missing ears were filmed in woefully cramped cages, each one empty but for a single piece of wood or bone which passes for “enrichment”.
Fox fur originating from Finland is used by brands including Fendi, Moncler, Yves Salomon, Woolrich, Herno and Max Mara, and is seen in stores including Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Flannels.
Finland is the biggest producer of fox fur in Europe and the second biggest in the world, exporting millions of pounds worth of fur around the world including to the UK. Since banning fur farming in 2000 on ethical grounds, the UK has imported more than £850million of fur from a range of countries including France, Italy, Poland, China and the United States. Through its #FurFreeBritain campaign, HSI/UK is urging the government to end this by banning UK fur imports and sales, a move supported by 72% of the British public. The government is currently considering a fur sales ban and recently held a public consultation which received 30,000 responses.
More than 100 million animals are killed for their fur every year worldwide: foxes, raccoon dogs, mink, chinchilla and rabbits on fur farms and coyotes, beavers and other animals trapped in the wild—that’s equivalent to three animals dying every second, just for their fur. Finland rears and kills between 1-2 million foxes every year.
Fur farming has been banned and/or is in the process of being phased out in 15 European countries including Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland’s cabinet has approved legislation that would see fur farming banned from 2022; and legislation to ban mink farming is currently being debated by politicians in France. Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain and Ukraine are also considering proposals to ban fur farming.
HSI/UK’s #FurFreeBritain campaign for a UK fur sales ban is supported by NGOs including the RSPCA, PETA UK and Four Paws UK, as well as celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney, Stella McCartney, Dame Judi Dench, Ricky Gervais and Leona Lewis.
In 2021 Israel became the first country in the world to ban the sale of fur. Fur sales are also banned in the U.S. state of California, the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley and West Hollywood, and the towns of Weston and Wellesley in Massachusetts and Ann Arbor in Michigan.
Global fashion designers and retailers who have dropped fur cruelty include Canada Goose, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, Gucci, Burberry, Versace, Chanel and Prada.
A 2020 YouGov opinion poll reveals that 79% of Brits most closely associate fashion brands selling fur with negative words: ‘unethical’, ‘outdated’, ‘cruel’ and ‘out of touch’.
Fur comes with a hefty environmental price tag. All fabrics have an eco-footprint, but when compared to others, fur scores badly in terms of the C02 emissions associated with keeping and feeding tens of thousands of carnivorous animals on a farm, the manure runoff into lakes and rivers, and the cocktail of toxic chemicals such as chromium and formaldehyde used to stop the fur and skin from rotting.
Reference in this article to any specific commercial product or service, or the use of any brand, trade, firm or corporation name is for the information of the public only. Such reference does not constitute or imply endorsement by Humane Society International or any its affiliates of the product or service, or its producer or provider, and should not be construed or relied upon, under any circumstances, by implication or otherwise, as investment advice. The views and opinions of interviewees expressed in the article do not necessarily state or accurately reflect those of Humane Society International or any of its affiliates. Links and access by hypertext to other websites is provided as a convenience only and does not indicate or imply any endorsement with respect to any of the content on such website nor any of the views expressed thereon.
Humane Society International
News welcomed by HSI/Korea, which has saved almost 2,500 dogs from South Korean dog meat farms
Humane Society International
Jean Chung for HSI
SEOUL—The South Korean government has announced that the cabinet will launch a formal discussion next week on how to proceed with actions to address the increasingly controversial dog meat industry, news welcomed by Humane Society International/Korea which has rescued almost 2,500 dogs from South Korean dog meat farms and permanently closed 17 dog farms in co-operation with farmers eager to exit the controversial and dying industry. Of the almost 2,500 dogs that HSI has rescued from South Korea’s dog meat trade, 30 dogs now live in happy homes in the United Kingdom, with the majority adopted out in the United States and Canada.
This announcement issued by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, follows President Moon’s suggestion in September that it could be time for the country to consider a ban on dog meat. Next week’s discussion, reported to be presided over by Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, will be the first time the cabinet is known to have held a formal meeting on the issue of dog meat.
Nara Kim, Humane Society International/Korea’s End Dog Meat campaign manager, lives in Seoul with her two dog meat farm rescues, Blondie and Claire. She has visited dozens of dog meat farms and witnessed first-hand the squalor and deprivation as well as the physical and mental trauma experienced by the dogs.
Nara Kim says: “South Korean society has struggled to come to terms with the difficult reality of dog meat for many decades, but we’re at a tipping point now where people care deeply about animal welfare and cannot reconcile that concern with a tolerance of dog meat. When I was a child growing up, nobody really spoke about dog meat farms, but that’s definitely changed in recent years. Most Koreans don’t eat dog meat, and certainly most young Koreans are horrified by the idea. I don’t think anyone really understands quite how dreadful dog meat farms are though, because it’s so rare for anyone to see inside them like I have. It really is a hellish existence for these animals.”
HSI/Korea’s dog meat farm program helps dog farmers transition to new, more humane and profitable livelihoods such as chili plant growing or water truck delivery. Most of the farmers with whom HSI/Korea has worked experience mounting societal and family pressure to get out of farming dogs, amidst growing concerns for animal welfare, with over six million pet dogs now being raised in Korean homes. As demand for dog meat dwindles in South Korea, it is also increasingly challenging for farmers to turn a profit.
Nara Kim adds: “I’ve spent many hours talking with the dog farmers. They often tell me that it’s almost impossible to make a profit because the market for dog meat is now so small, but they don’t know how to do something different. They know there is no future in this industry, and so ignoring or resisting that reality is really just condemning both farmers and dogs. HSI/Korea’s work shows how it’s possible to support farmers in switching to other livelihoods. It’s better for them and of course better for the dogs who will no longer be born into a life of suffering.”
A 2020 opinion poll commissioned by HSI/Korea and conducted by Nielsen shows growing support for a ban on the dog meat trade, with nearly 84% of South Koreans saying they don’t or won’t eat dog, and almost 60% supporting a legislative ban on the trade. Although most people in South Korea don’t regularly eat dog, the belief that dog meat soup will cool the body during the hot summer and build stamina still holds with some, particularly the older generation.
Although banned in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore, as well as the cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai in mainland China, and Siem Reap province in Cambodia, an estimated 30 million dogs a year are still killed for meat in other parts of Asia.
In South Korea up to 1.5 million dogs a year are raised on thousands of farms across the country. Many of them are sold to butchers for Bok Nal season across July and August, to be killed by electrocution and sold for soup.*
*Since publication of this press release and progress towards the decline of the dog meat industry in South Korea, current estimates suggest that up to 1 million dogs are reared on dog meat farms in the country.
Important note: At times when the Animal Rescue Team is deployed, an extended delay in processing new volunteer applications is likely. Thank you for your patience.
Volunteers work with the HSI/Canada Animal Rescue Team to help animals who have been the victims of cruelty and neglect. They assist in the ongoing care of dogs and cats who have been rescued from harm–whether an out-of-control hoarder or a puppy mill.
When the HSI/Canada Rescue Team responds to a law enforcement action, volunteers are called in to help out at our care and rehabilitation centre. Animal Rescue Volunteers come from all walks of life, generously giving their time to apply their skills and experience in response to animals in need. From animal handling and to cage cleaning, the work of Animal Rescue Volunteers is the true core of HSI/Canada’s mission to save animals’ lives.
Location
The care and rehabilitation centre is located in the province of Quebec, about an hour from Montreal.
Volunteer opportunities
Volunteers provide care to animals in our care and rehabilitation centre. Responsibilities including cleaning cages and enclosures, feeding, watering, re-stocking supplies, washing dishes, walking dogs, or socializing animals as directed.
What our volunteers say:
“To be a part of HSI/Canada Animal Rescue Volunteer Program has been a life-changing experience. Large numbers of dogs and cats are rescued from puppy mills or hoarding situations and brought to the care and rehabilitation centre. They arrive hungry, dirty, scared and in need of veterinary attention. Most of the dogs have spent their entire lives in small, filthy cages. It is so satisfying to provide the proper care and the love that they deserve. The volunteers work as part of a team to care for and to socialize these animals so that they can be adopted into good homes. We all feel such satisfaction in watching their progress and seeing them leave for a better life.”–Ann Giles
Benefits of volunteering
Animal Rescue Volunteers often report that assisting with a rescue operation changed their lives. They never forget the animals they helped get on the road to recovery, or the people who are a part of this important mission. Volunteers gain skills, undertake new challenges and become part of a community.
Becoming a volunteer
Animal Rescue Volunteers are required to be at least 18 years old and come to the care and rehabilitation centre for a full-day training session.
They must commit initially for one year and are requested to participate in at least one deployment per year. Finally, they must meet the requirements outlined in the Essential Capabilities document.
Process
Fill out an application via the link below.
Upon receipt of your completed application, staff will contact you to outline next steps and to have you fill out additional paperwork, including a waiver and release of liability and a volunteer agreement.
Candidates are asked to come to the care and rehabilitation centre for a day of training and as part of a screening process. If the deployment goes well and both parties agree that it’s a good fit, the candidate will be admitted fully into the program as a regular Animal Rescue Volunteer.
Trained, vetted and approved volunteers let us know their preferences about deployment and availability. When animal rescue response is needed, our office puts out the call to all qualified individuals, with details of the event, approximate length of deployment, and any special skills needed. Volunteers reply to indicate their willingness and are then approved for deployment and asked to sign up for shifts.
Animal feet, skulls, legs, ears, claws, bones, hides and full body taxidermy, including threatened and endangered species, show the pitiful results of the trophy hunting industry
Humane Society International / United States
The HSUS
WASHINGTON—A shocking undercover investigation recently conducted in Iowa by the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International found what can only be described as a massive garbage bin of the trophy hunting industry. A four-day event where thousands of animals—including at least 557 hunting trophies of mammals no longer wanted by the people who killed them—were sold to the highest bidders. Shelves and bins were packed with discarded trophies including threatened and endangered species like elephants and polar bears, other imperiled foreign species like giraffes and hippos, and countless trophies of American wildlife like grizzly bears, black bears and mountain lions.
Auction items included grotesque home décor such as tables and lamps made from giraffe legs and feet, tables made from African elephant feet and a juvenile giraffe taxidermy. The auction also included at least 50 rugs made from animals including black bears, grizzly bears, zebras, wolves and mountain lions. The investigator saw piles of giraffe leg bones, sets of hippo teeth and a dusty box labeled “elephant ears and skin.”
Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said: “It is unconscionable that not only are these threatened and endangered species of wild animals killed by trophy hunters, but the souvenirs from these hunts are ultimately mothballed and sold off at a fairground full of unwanted animal body parts. This massive display of animal death is a devastating snapshot of what it looks like when species are being pushed to the brink of extinction.”
The undercover investigator learned that most of the trophies are the result of trophy hunters tiring of their collections, downsizing or dying and leaving these items to family members who don’t want them. One auction staffer said, “Realtors tell homeowners to get rid of those dead critters,” when staging their houses for sale.
Trophies at the auction include:
Four African elephant feet made into tables with elephant skin tops. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the African savanna elephant is endangered, and the African forest elephant is critically endangered. The African elephant is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Two hollowed elephant feet which auction organizers suggest “would make a nice trash can.”
A polar bear (considered vulnerable by IUCN and listed as threatened under the ESA) with a ringed seal sold for $26,000, the highest price of the trophies sold at the auction.
Four giraffe legs made into a matching set coffee table and floor lamp.
A large cardboard box labeled “elephant ears and skin.”
Two giraffe skulls and three full giraffe bodies (IUCN vulnerable) including a baby promoted as “the perfect size that can go in about any room in the house,” sold for $6,200.
Giraffe leg bones promoted as “great for crafts.”
A hippo skull and two hippo (IUCN vulnerable) shoulder mounts (head, neck, shoulders). Two sets of hippo teeth.
Baby zebra taxidermy, six zebra skins and rugs including one from a calf, and several zebra heads for “tabletop display.”
Six monkeys, including a stuffed vervet holding a beer bottle.
Two baby and one adult baboon.
49 bears including five cubs and a mother-cub pair.
18 rugs made from grizzly bears or black bears.
Bear claws promoted as “great for jewelry or crafts.”
Seven bobcats, including two rugs.
Four wolves, including two rugs.
Eight mountain lions, including two rugs.
Jeffrey Flocken, president of Humane Society International, said, “It is deeply saddening to see this final stage of the trophy hunting industry where these majestic species are relegated to an auction house floor instead of fulfilling their role in their respective populations and ecosystems.”
“The United States is the world’s number one importer of hunting trophies and should move swiftly to cast off that gruesome distinction,” says Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund. “Passage of the ProTECT Act in Congress is the most decisive pathway, as it would prohibit trophies of any species listed as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act from importation into the U.S. But the Fish and Wildlife Service should immediately revise its trophy import regulations to support the same conservation goal of ending such imports. No one’s desire for a rec room wall mount, or an elephant foot side table warrants such carnage and waste of animal life.”
Facts:
There are about 68,000 mature giraffes remaining in the wild, and the population is still declining, but more than 40,000 giraffe parts and products were imported into the U.S. between 2006 and 2015.
In October 2021, Humane Society International and the Humane Society of the United States, in coalition with another conservation organization, sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to act on a 2017 petition to provide protections for giraffes under the Endangered Species Act.
The population of African savanna elephants decreased by at least 60% over the last 50 years, yet according to international trade data, American trophy hunters have imported over 700 trophies and 399 tusks from African elephants between 2014 and 2018.
Hippo populations are vulnerable; additional pressure from trophy hunters and for international commercial trade in ivory may lead to population decline, yet according to international trade data, hunting trophies and other parts from 2,500 hippos were imported into the U.S. between 2009 and 2018.
Nearly half a million black bears were trophy hunted in the U.S. between 2010 and 2020 in 33 states.
A leap forward for both animals and humane science
Humane Society International
iStock.com
SEOUL—South Korea’s Ministry of Environment introduced its “2030 Chemical Safety and Animal Welfare vision” last month with the aim of vastly increasing the use of non-animal test methods in what animal protection NGO Humane Society International/Korea welcomes as a leap forward for both animals and humane science. The Ministry’s new vision calls for increased acceptance of non-animal methods with a goal of more than 60% of data use for chemical assessment by 2030 to be using non-animal methods. The new vision emerged from a task force created earlier this year by the Ministry. This task force comprised government officials as well as representatives from HSI/Korea, chemical consulting companies, toxicology institutes and testing companies.
Borami Seo, HSI/Korea’s interim executive director and senior policy manager, says: “Chemical testing is one of the main drivers of animal use in Korea even though more modern methods are available that don’t use animals and are more accurate and real-world predictive for people. We applaud the Ministry of Environment for its leadership in laying out an ambitious vision for both chemical safety and animal welfare, a doubly valuable proposition. We hope that Korean chemical manufacturers and testing facilities will embrace this vision to make it a reality.”
South Korea’s chemical laws—the Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (known as Korea REACH) and Korea Chemical Products and Biocides Safety Act—were amended in 2018 and 2020, respectively, to include clauses for the adoption of alternatives to animal tests. However, momentum from government and local industry has been lacking. HSI/Korea, which works with both policy makers and industry to advance the replacement of animals in science, hopes the introduction of MOE’s Animal Welfare Vision will provide renewed impetus for change.
Professor Seung Min Oh at Hoseo University, who led the Ministry’s roadmap project to promote alternatives and the task force discussion, said, “The importance of cost and time-effective predictive toxicity assessment is increasing in producing chemical information. As well as alternative methods, we need more trained experts to handle non-test approaches such as adverse outcome pathways and read-across toxicity predictions. The Ministry of Environment’s vision will help provide support for these areas and is an important step to advance alternative approaches to animal testing in South Korea.”
The Ministry’s vision aims to increase acceptance of chemical assessment data produced using non-animal methods by more than 60% by:
Recruiting more people qualified to interpret data produced using non-animal methods, establishing a new team with staff members to handle tasks focusing on non-animal methods.
Adopting a new definition of alternatives to animal testing meaning specifically non-animal test methods or non-animal approaches. Traditionally, the term ‘alternatives’ has included those methods that reduce the number of animals used or refine their suffering, but still involve the use of live animals. This new definition will help move the focus away from the refinement of animal procedures and towards the replacement of animals.
Ensuring the prioritization of using non-animal methods for data produced by government funds. Many chemical companies lack the capacity to conduct their own tests, so government laboratories do so. Increasing the uptake of non-animal tests by government-funded labs will hopefully influence larger and better-resourced chemical companies to follow suit.
Providing support to establish infrastructure for testing companies certified with Good Laboratory Practice.
