Author: Kristin Stone

International animal protection organisation Humane Society International and the Korean Society for Alternatives to Animal Experiments are encouraging the country’s new administration to prioritise investment in more predictive, human-specific approaches to testing and medical research instead of cruel and often poorly predictive animal models [1]. In a joint submission to the Citizens Advisory Committee for Presidential Transition, the organisations contend that greater investment in leading-edge technologies such as human organs-on-a-chip, computational systems biology and related infrastructures are essential for advancing public health and economic growth alongside the European Union and the United States [2].

The main points of the proposed policy include:

• Mandatory use of validated non-animal test methods by governmental ministries and industry, and support for improving infrastructure to promote the practice of these new methods
• Support of human biology-based science with cooperation of ministries, academics and industries

In 2016, Korea revised its cosmetics legislation to require the use of animal testing alternatives where available. However, industries say that infrastructure and training are not sufficient in practice. In addition, the number of chemicals that requires submission of test data has extensively increased since the Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (K-REACH) came in to effect in 2015. Yet unlike in the EU, the use of methods replacing animal testing in Korea is not widely encouraged, even though these methods are in general more predictive and have the potential to be more cost effective. Although Korea strives to be a world leader in bioscience research, more active effort is needed to share new technology across ministries and to harmonise with international policies, particularly in fields where animal use for testing is highest, such as medical research, pharmaceutical and pesticide testing.

Prof Lim Kyung-Min, HSI Korea science advisor and executive board member of KSAAE, said “Our organizations look forward to working with the Moon Jae-in administration to advance science development policies that respect all lives and for Korea to lead the world in biological and medical research.”

HSI is undergoing legislative discussion with Assembly members to prioritise the use of non-animal methods with increased support for infrastructure and to prevent repeat and redundant animal testing.

Contact:
Borami Seo, bseo@hsi.org

Note to editors:

1. Despite unprecedented investments worldwide, development of new drugs and other potential disease interventions remain elusive and immensely expensive, with more than 90 percent of compounds entering clinical trials failing to gain regulatory approval, despite appearing safe and effective in pre-clinical animal tests

2. Examples of large-scale, human-focused research in developed countries:

• US Tissue Chip for Drug Screening – five-year, US$142 million collaboration between the US National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the military to develop human tissue chips that accurately model the structure and function of human organs to help predict drug safety in humans more rapidly and effectively
• EUToxRisk – six-year, €30 million European project aimed at driving toxicological testing away from ‘black box’ animal testing towards a toxicological assessment based on human cell responses and a comprehensive mechanistic understanding of cause-consequence relationships of chemical adverse effects
• BD2K – US$55.5 million ‘big data to knowledge project’ aimed at supporting and the development of innovative tools to maximize and accelerate the integration of ‘big data’ and data science into biomedical research
• STEMBANCC – five-year, €55.6 million project aimed at engineering human stem cells for biological assays of novel drugs and predictive toxicology

Humane Society International is hailing an announcement by a major Japanese online retailer that it will ban all sales of elephant ivory. The move by Rakuten follows calls by animal protection and conservation groups including the Environmental Investigation Agency and HSI to take action to protect elephants from poaching.

Poachers kill as many as 50,000 African elephants every year to supply the illegal ivory trade, and online sales of ivory is a major concern contributing to those killings. This decision by Rakuten will be a major boost to international efforts to end the ‘blood ivory’ problem.

Iris Ho, wildlife program manager for HSI said: “Rakuten’s decision to ban elephant ivory items sets a prime example that an environmentally and ethically responsible business does not support a trade that decimates one of the earth’s most beloved creatures. We urge other e-retailers such as Yahoo! Japan to follow Rakuten’s step and call on the Japanese government to shut down its domestic ivory market. We hope that Rakuten’s conservation decision brings about the beginning of the end of Japan’s ivory market.”

At last year’s meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, member states  passed a resolution calling on CITES nations to close their domestic ivory markets. Despite being a party to CITES, Japan’s response was to claim that their domestic market for ivory does not contribute to poaching of elephants or illegal trade and thus is not subject to closure. Japan’s domestic ivory market remains open, and is now the largest remaining in the world. 

In 2014, the EIA in conjunction with HSI released a report called “Blood e-Commerce: Rakuten’s profits from the slaughter of elephants and whales” revealing that Rakuten Ichiba’s website was carrying more than 28,000 ads for elephant ivory products. EIA and HSI research identified more than 90 percent of the ivory products sold on Rakuten Japan as “hanko” – name seals used in Japan to sign official documents. Large amounts of ivory hanko are known to have been produced from illegal ivory in Japan.

The company owns Rakuten Shopping in the U.S., Play.com in the U.K., Canadian e-book reader Kobu and popular chat app Viber, as well as being a major shareholder in Pinterest.

Media contacts: Raúl Arce-Contreras, rcontreras@humanesociety.org, +1-301-721-6440

Korean-American actor Daniel Henney has taken time out of his filming schedule to support a campaign in South Korea close to his heart – protecting dogs from the dog meat trade. The ‘Criminal Minds’ actor stars alongside Clint, a dog rescued from a dog meat farm, in a new advertising poster hitting the Seoul subway this week calling for all dogs to be treated with compassion. The campaign for Humane Society International will also see a PSA video of Henney and Clint launch across social media, as well as a revealing interview in which the star talks fondly of his love for canine ‘best friend’ Mango. The campaign is timed to hit during the hottest days of summer in July and August, known as the Bok Nal days, when the majority of dog meat is eaten in South Korea.

In his video interview with HSI, Henney talks about his dog Mango, a 14-year old golden retriever. Mango is originally from South Korea where more than 2.5 million dogs a year are bred and killed on thousands of dog meat farms for human consumption. Henney said: “Mango is from Korea and I only speak Korean with her and although she’s been very fortunate, she didn’t have to live a difficult life, she just as easily could have. So I think in my personal opinion every dog out there in Korea is my Mango and they deserve to live a life like she has, they all deserve to be a companion, to be loved because they all have that potential to be amazing like she is.”

Henney also reflects on when he was first confronted by the dog meat trade, whilst filming in Korea in 2007. He said: “I looked down this road and it’s a row of restaurants, and each restaurant in front they all have these bins or cages. And they had dogs inside of them, probably 20 dogs in each cage just piled on top of each other. The restaurant owners come out one by one, open the top of the bin, rip out a dog and take them into the restaurant clearly to be butchered, killed, slaughtered. I didn’t know what I’d seen and it was very affecting to me.”

Humane Society International has rescued more than 800 dogs, including golden retrievers just like Mango, as part of its ongoing campaign to see an end to the industry. Working in co-operation with dog farmers keen to get out of the trade, HSI has so far permanently closed down eight dog farms where dogs are confined their whole lives in barren metal cages with little food or protection from the harsh climate. The charity plans its ninth dog farm closure in mid July.

Henney’s campaign co-star, Clint, is a Tosa rescued by the HSI team in 2015. He was languishing on a dog meat farm in Chungcheongnamdo along with 119 other dogs. If not for HSI, Clint would have ended up at one of South Korea’s live dog markets or slaughterhouses where his grim fate would have been to be killed by electrocution for meat. HSI hopes that seeing Henney with Clint and hearing him talk about his love of all dogs, will prompt South Koreans to rethink the common misconception of ‘dog meat’ dogs as stupid and soulless.

Nara Kim for HSI said: “Daniel and Clint are the perfect partnership for our efforts to end the cruel dog meat trade. Clint’s photo will be seen by millions of people across Seoul, representing the millions of dogs not as lucky as him to have escaped the cruelty. Every dog on a dog meat farm is as special as Clint, capable of being loving and loyal friends if only given the chance. Daniel is helping us spread that message of compassion to change hearts and minds.”

Henny’s posters are the first of a raft of public awareness raising initiatives that HSI will be rolling out in South Korea across the summer. You can support their campaign by signing their global petition. Together with local partner group Korea Animal Rights Advocates, HSI is calling on the South Korean government to end the dog meat trade for good.

HSI believes that no culture in any country, East or West, must ever be used as an excuse for cruelty. More and more South Koreans want a new culture of compassion and are challenging the so-called tradition of dog meat. Whilst dog meat consumption remains contentious, a growing animal protection movement within the country is rightly opposing traditional practices that cause animal suffering. Change is coming from within South Korea and HSI supports that change, actively partnering with South Korean animal protection groups.

Facts:

• Most people in South Korea don’t regularly eat dogs, and the practice is increasingly out of favour with the younger generation who is rejecting dog meat.
• During the Bok Nal days, 70-80 percent of dog meat is eaten in South Korea, mainly as a peppery soup called bosintang that is believed to improve stamina and virility.
• Most people in South Korea never visit a dog meat farm and are unaware of the suffering experienced by the dogs. HSI is keen to dispel the widespread misconception that farmed dogs are somehow different in nature to companion dogs.
• There are an estimated 17,000 dog meat farms in South Korea, breeding more than 2.5 million dogs annually.
• In addition to their life of suffering on the farm, the method used to kill the dogs is brutal – death by electrocution is most common, with dogs usually taking up to five minutes to die, although there have been instances of dogs taking up to 20 minutes to die. Hanging is also common. Dogs are killed in full view of the other dogs, and their final moments will be terrifying and extremely painful.
• The dog meat industry is in legal limbo in South Korea, neither legal nor illegal. Many provisions of the Animal Protection Act are routinely breached, such as the ban on killing animals in a brutal way including hanging by the neck, killing in public areas or in front of other animals of the same species.

For more information on our campaign visit hsi.org/dogmeat

Media contacts:
HSI (South Korea): Nara Kim, nkim@hsi.org
HSI (United Kingdom): Wendy Higgins: whiggins@hsi.org, +44 (0)7989 972 423

Humane Society International is applauding Mexico City Governor Miguel Ángel Mancera for signing into law a reform to the city’s Animal Protection Law, creating a new Animal Protection Agency that will serve as a policy hub to coordinate animal welfare policies. The new agency will oversee policies spanning from stray animal population surveys and spay/neuter campaigns to humane education programs and guidelines to respond to extreme cruelty cases.

The creation of this agency builds on the recently enacted Mexico City Constitution, which recognizes animals as sentient beings whose welfare must be protected. HSI/Mexico offered technical assistance during the drafting discussions of both the constitution and the animal protection reform.

Claudia Edwards, programs director for HSI/Mexico, said: “We applaud Mexico City Governor Miguel Ángel Mancera for signing this important bill into law. The new Animal Protection Agency is an innovative mechanism to continue advancing animal protection in Mexico and sets an important example in Latin America. We look forward to working with the Animal Protection Agency to help it fulfill its new mandate.”

Become an All Animals Defender. Donate now.

Governor Mancera announced during the signing ceremony that the Government of Mexico City will create a new public veterinary hospital. He also announced that his government will advance regulations to close down any establishment in which dogfights take place. 

The reform to the Animal Protection Law also:

• Enshrines the five freedom principles that define animal welfare as freedom from hunger and thirst; from discomfort; from pain, injury or disease; from fear and distress; and for animals to express their natural behavior.
• Requires that kennels register before the Animal Protection Agency, and spay/neuter their animals.
• Requires people who leave their animals in an animal shelter to pay for sterilization and vaccination.
• Prohibits the sale of animals in public markets.

Media contact: Raúl Arce-Contreras, rcontreras@humanesociety.org, +1-301-721-6440

On the eve of China’s annual Yulin dog meat festival, Chinese activists have rescued up to 1,000 dogs and cats in Guangzhou from a truck headed to slaughterhouses in southern Guangdong. The rescue provides the world with a timely reminder that the cruel dog and cat meat trade is not restricted to the Yulin festival but is a year-round and nationwide problem. While the dogs and cats were not headed to Yulin, they are an example of the estimated 10-20 million dogs and four million cats killed annually for human consumption across China.

Dr Peter Li, Humane Society International’s China policy specialist, said: “This was an audacious rescue, the single largest dog and cat truck rescue that we’ve seen so far in China. We applaud the brave work of the men and women animal lovers who saved the lives of these terrified animals who were headed towards a brutal slaughter.”

More than 100 activists participated in the rescue, with HSI’s Chinese partners among the first on the ground and leading the rescue operation. As activists negotiated with the truck driver and local police for the latter to enforce the nation’s animal disease control and prevention laws, others provided life-saving aid and water to the exhausted and dehydrated animals. It is one of the largest dog and cat rescues that HSI’s Chinese partner groups or indeed any Chinese groups have operated to date.

“What has made this rescue of far-reaching significance is that hundreds of young people from Guangzhou, the once so-called ’world capital of dog and cat meat consumption,’ have participated in the rescue,” said Li. “These young activists are the hope of a new China that will be free of the dog meat trade cruelty. The activists found the dogs and cats wailing out of pain and despair, stuffed into tiny cages and hardly able to move. Many were sick and starving, with disease spreading rapidly in the tight confines of their cages.”

As a global spotlight falls on the mass slaughter of dogs and cats at the Yulin dog meat festival, Li says this is a timely reminder that for millions of these animals across China, every day is like Yulin and the focus needs to be on shutting down this cruel trade across the country.

Facts:

• The truck reportedly originated in southern Gansu province, an area that has long been associated with rampant dog theft, and had apparently travelled 1,948 kilometres before reaching Guangzhou.
• Reports from the activists state that the truck driver did not have health certificates for the dogs, which Chinese animal transport regulations require for each animal.
• Most surviving dogs displayed behaviours common in companion animals. The various breeds of the dogs on the truck also suggested that they had been pets and were not raised to be killed for their meat.

Media contacts:

UK: Wendy Higgins, Director of International Media, whiggins@hsi.org
US: Raúl Arce-Contreras, rcontreras@humanesociety.org, +1-301-721-6440

EU Member States have approved the inclusion of 12 additional animal and plant species on the European Union’s list of Invasive Alien Species of Union Concern. This list includes the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), a species that is exploited by the fur industry and inappropriately marketed as an exotic pet species.

Joanna Swabe, Humane Society International/Europe’s senior director of public affairs, issued the following statement:

“We warmly welcome the inclusion of the raccoon dog on the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union Concern. This non-native species, which has spread throughout many EU Member States, poses a significant threat to biodiversity in Europe. Most of these animals are escapees, or their descendants, from the fur industry. Additionally, irresponsible owners who kept the animals as pets deliberately released or abandoned them.  Humane Society International/Europe originally pushed hard for this legislation because it created the possibility to prohibit the sale, breeding, keeping and transporting of certain species that are currently traded as exotic pets. Regrettably, as a result of heavy fur industry lobbying, the Regulation was weakened to include a provision to allow commercial activities, such as fur farming, involving invasive alien species to continue to operate under a strict system of authorisation and permitting. We are, however, pleased that Member States did not bow to fur industry pressure to remove the raccoon dog from the list. This decision was also the litmus test for the future inclusion of the American mink, another species used by the fur industry and like the racoon dog is presently wreaking havoc in European eco-systems and causing significant biodiversity loss.” 

Facts

• The raccoon dog is indigenous to East Asia and, despite its name, bears no relation to the raccoon. It is exploited by the fur industry. Each year, hundreds of thousands of these animals are forced to lead miserable short lives in wire cages, primarily in Finland and Poland. 
• EU Regulation No. 1143/2014 entered into force in January 2015. This legislation allows the EU to more effectively tackle the environmental and economic problems caused by animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms that have been introduced outside their natural range and whose introduction or spread has been found to threaten or adversely impact biodiversity.
• Member States collectively decide whether each species proposed by the European Commission and/or Member States for listing meets the criteria for inclusion, working on the basis of risk assessments of their invasiveness and ability to establish themselves in several countries. 
• The initial list of IAS of Union Concern was adopted in July 2016 and covered only 37 species. The inclusion of 12 additional species is the first update of the list.
• HSI/Europe has also called for clear guidelines to be developed for EU Member States with regard to the management of invasive alien species on the list, placing emphasis on humane control methods, to avoid or minimise pain, suffering and distress as explicitly requested by the Regulation.

Media Contact: Raúl Arce-Contreras, rcontreras@humanesociety.org, 301-721-6440