RSPCA Freedom Food under scrutiny

Apparently the RSPCA (for non-Brits: it is the UK’s main animal welfare organization and one of the oldest in the world) is under scrutiny for its Freedom Food campaign.

The animal protection charity has just published a report to coincide with its Freedom Food's Farm Animal Week (25 Sept - 1 Oct). Entitled Everyone's a winner, the 30-page document describes the terrible conditions in which chickens reared for their meat (broilers) are kept on intensive farms.

It then compares the Assured Chicken Production (ACP) standard (Red Tractor logo), the chicken industry’s own assurance scheme, covering over 90% of UK chicken producers, providing a “baseline”, the minimum requirements that allow factory farming of poultry to go unchallenged, with the RSPCA Freedom Food scheme.

It goes on to say that the the RSPCA standard is better not only for the welfare of chickens, but also for the consumers and the producers and retailers, hence the title of the report.

The problem is that farms that had been certified by Freedom Food have been found in the past guilty of neglecting their animals, and have been the subject of BBC Watchdog investigations. Animal rights campaigners say Freedom Food is still large-scale industrial farming with terrifying consequences for animals.

In fact, organic (certified by the Soil Association) and free-range broilers have a better life than Freedom Food birds, but these are reared in better conditions than is the norm for the industry and its own ACP standard.

In Support of U.N. Drug Awareness Day, Scientology Churches Call for Unity

"A drug prevention campaign is a grass-roots movement made up of people-Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike - who are united in the commitment to take action to combat drug abuse through effective education."

read more | digg story

SPOKESMAN FOR THE GLENDALE CHAPTER OF YOUTH FOR HUMAN

September 24, 2006
War and terrorism may dominate the world headlines, but Glendale, California, has its sights set on peace, and fourteen-year-old Alexis Mathes is right at the center of that movement.

Spokesperson for the Glendale chapter of Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) Alexis Mathes has been editing the International YHRI newsletter for the past two years.

Alexis joined thousands of children all over the world in celebrating the International Day of Peace 2006 when she gave the following keynote speech to a group of forty children and teens at the City of Glendale’s historic "Oak of Peace" in Verdugo Adobe Park.



The forty children who attended, ranging in age between 6 and 16, all share the common goal of peace through education of youth on human rights.
Today, we in Glendale are participating in a global event, the International Day of Peace. There are 3,500 similar events happening around the world today in 187 different countries. We all want peace.

In 1981, the United Nations proclaimed the opening day of its regular session as the International Day of Peace and invited all groups and individuals everywhere to observe the Day.

In New York at United Nations Headquarters, the Day is marked with a special ceremony near the Peace Bell. The Bell, which was cast from coins donated by people from some 60 countries, is a gift to the United Nations by the United Nations Association of Japan.

Each year, the United Nations Secretary-General delivers a special message before ringing the bell and calls upon people throughout the world to reflect for a moment on the universal goal of peace.

Later on in the day, during the opening ceremony of the United Nations, at 3:00 p.m. local time, a minute of silence will be held.

This will coincide with our own moment of peace to be held in Glendale at noon.

Youth for Human Rights is an organization that joins with the United Nations in the goal of peace through education of youth on human rights. Knowledge is power and those that do not know their rights, can easily lose them or never achieve them. We want to educate youth everywhere on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.