AnimaList No. 43
‘I will say this out loud: I will not wear fur. I love animals and I agree with those who oppose wearing fur products.’ – Miss Universe 2007, Riyo Mori of Japan
Ending of the Project ‘Socialize to Find a Home’
After three months of dog training the project ‘Socialize to Find a Home’ has been finalized. Of five dogs from the City Shelter for Abandoned Animals Dumovec who participated in this project, only Tula is still waiting for her adopters. Everyone interested in adopting Tula can find more information at http://www.prijatelji-zivotinja.hr/index.en.php?id=800. The project ‘Socialize to Find a Home’ was carried out in cooperation with the City Department for Agriculture and Forestry and the City Shelter for Abandoned Animals Dumovec.
Earthlings and 3o/4tet
During September and October we organized concerts in Croatian towns Vinkovci, Vukovar, and Zupanja with the presentation of a documentary ‘Earthlings’ and vegan tasting. This educational and cultural program was organized in collaboration with Municipal Library Vinkovci, Municipal Library Vukovar, and Multicultural Center Zupanja. At the concert of classical music played 3o/4tet (Trio-Quartet), consisting of Ana Kralj (flute) and Robert Medjugorac (guitar).
Animal Friends Days
This year’s Animals Friends Days lasted for ten days (October 1-10, 2007)!
On October 1, World Vegetarian Day, we organized a concert in Zagreb club Boogaloo with the motto ‘With Vegetarianism Against Global Warming’ at which Croatian bands Hakuna Matata, Davorin i Bogovici, Dead by Mistake, SoM, Plan B, October Light, and Things Fall Apart played. Everyone who bought a ticket got a free vegan sandwich.
On October 2, World Farm Animals Day, we had a vegan barbecue in the center of Zagreb, capitol of Croatia, in order to encourage people to stop eating meat on the very World Farm Animals Days and to demonstrate their compassion to animals, while in our new office in Gajeva 47 we showed the video projection of the movie about the life of pigs ‘No Heart for Lucy’.
During ‘Animal Week’, October 4-10, we organized the signing of the petition ‘Animals Matter to Me’ which was started by the world’s biggest animal welfare organization World Society for the Protection of Animals – WSPA. So far over 900,000 signatures were collected worldwide, of which Animal Friends Croatia gathered 33,000 signatures. It is planned to gather one million signatures by the end of this year and therefore we ask everyone to get involved in collecting signatures for this petition. In order to additionaly show our apreciation, those who collect most signatures will be rewarded.
The signatures were also collected on World Animal Protection Day, October 4, on Zagreb main square and on October 7 by Bundek Lake where we had a vegan barbecue. Our Split branch collected signatures on its Saturday’s info stalls as well.
Salsa and Salsa
In order to motivate the public to embrace a vegetarian lifestyle and to emphasize once again the link between eating meat and global warming, in collaboration with Elite dance school in Strossmayer bar in Uptown we organized a party called Salsa and Salsa. Apart from the taste of salsa, the visitors enjoyed dancing salsa and other Latin-American dances, as well as the traditional Indian and belly dances, Viennese and English waltzes, disco fox and many others.
ACCOBAMS Meeting in Dubrovnik
The Animal Friends Croatia representative attended the ACCOBAMS (Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic area) meeting which took place in Dubrovnik from October 21-25. It was pointed out that Croatia is expected to announce the dolphin reserve near Mali Losinj as a permanently protected area while the Croatian Nature Protection Directorate announced the prohibition of keeping dolphins in captivity in Croatia.
In Dubrovnik we also organized a signing of the ‘Animal Matters to Me’ petition on October 26, while Dubrovnik people could enjoy vegan tasting we set on our info stall in collaboration with the first vegetarian restaurant in Dubrovnik ‘Nishta’.
Juliet Gellatley in Croatia
We thank Juliety Gellatley, the British writer and founder of Viva!, for accepting our invitation and coming to Zagreb to promote the second Croatian edition of her book the Livewire Guide to Going, Being and Staying Veggie in Bogdan Ogrizovic library and hold an impressive lecture on the subject ‘Change your diet – change the world’ in Cultural Informative Center during which a projection of ‘Devour the Earth’ video with narration of Paul McCartney was showed.
News and Announcements
– In a case that a prominent Canadian civil-rights lawyer says could have a chilling effect on free speech, Ottawa is taking a group of animal-rights activists to court for coming too close to a sealer while filming the hunt. The five activists of the Humane Society of the United States or the Humane Society International face charges in Quebec for allegedly violating federal marine mammal rules that restrict coming within 10 meters of seal hunters.
– During the Animal Friends Days, Rijeka and Zagreb promotion of the book Those Equal Creatures – 100 Questions and 100 Answers About Animal Rights, written by a group of authors and published by Dvostruka duga in cooperation with Animal Friends Croatia, was held. The book is about the unstoppable worldwide movement fighting for rights of nonhuman animals.
– On October 12, the Lipizzaner horses were returned from Serbia to Croatia. We thank the Belgrade group Freedom for Animals, Karlovac group Animal Voice and other groups and citizens of Croatia and Serbia who stood up for their arrival home. We also thank the minister Petar Cobankovic for his personal engagement and engagement of his ministry.
– At the London meeting, October 11-12, Animal Friends Croatia became a member of the international coalition Fur Free Alliance which gathers over 35 animal rights groups whose aim is ending the exploitation and killing of animals for fur.
– From October 25-27 we participated as their member organization in the ECEAE meeting in Portugal. European Coalition to End Animal Experiments started the Humane Cosmetics Standard and it looks for a highly-qualified lobbyist for dedicated work on lobbying for animal rights at EU MPs in Brussels. Next ECEAE meeting will take place in March next year in Zagreb.
– After our activists on November 5 supported the educational-artistic program ‘Dance and Ecology – Modulation Figure 2’ by handing out our promotional materials to students of elementary schools who visited Kazaliste Tresnja, we announce another performance ‘Modulation Figure 2’ in organization and production of Histeria Nova, which is dedicated to protection of dolphins. The show will take place in Kazaliste Histrioni, Zagreb, on December 10 at 8 P.M.
– New companies on the Croatian White List are Miki and Zana kozmetika. A complete list of companies which do not test their products or ingredients on animals can be found at www.prijatelji-zivotinja.hr/index.en.php?id=335.
– A new book by Bernard Jan January River was also published in Croatian. At our web site, amongst many updates, you can also see new videos in Funny Animations and Adds section.
– At the beginning of elections in Croatia we warned policital parties and politicians about the importance of politicians speaking up for animal rights and protection. In this regard we asked them to publicly announce their standpoint on this issue through their programs, media appearances, plans and promises, and development of non-violent society and sustainable coexistence of humans and other animal species.
– Upon visiting veterinary station in Varazdin, we sent to the media our reaction about conditions in which farm animals live. We reported this case to the veterinary inspection and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management.
– The city of Split also supported our campaign for microchipping of all dogs in Croatia. Right now only 20% of dog guardians in Croatia can be identified through microchips, which makes it difficult to implement the Animal Protection Act.
With colder days at our doorstep, we will direct our activities toward animals being abused and slaughtered for fashion. However, we will also use every opportunity to stand up for the ‘invisible’ animals, too. In hope that we will have your support and participation in that, we remain truly yours.
Animal Friends Croatia