Free Republic

Claiming that its animals have a choice in the matter, the Toronto Zoo has begun vaccinating animals against COVID-19. The zoo is using Zoetis, which is a coronavirus vaccine made for animals, according to Canadian TV station CP24. “These are voluntary inoculations. The animals choose to come over and interact with the animal care staff and then are delivered the vaccine. Some days they participate. Some days, they don't. So we'll keep working at it until we get all 120 inoculated,” Toronto Zoo CEO Dolf DeJong said. A zoo video shows that animals have been “trained to participate voluntarily in...

Neumünster Zoo in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, has drawn up a slaughter list of its animals as part of its coronavirus emergency plan. “Yes, we do have a list of animals that we would have to slaughter first,” said Verena Kaspari, director of Neumünster Zoo, confirming initial reports in German media. The animals on the list would be fed to the zoo’s lynx, eagles and “Germany’s biggest polar bear” Vitus, who is 3.6 meters (over 11 ft) tall. Goats and deer are on the slaughter list “but none of the endangered animals,” Kaspari explained. “It’s a worst-case scenario, we don’t see it...

Branson along with Bill Gates, Cargill, and Kimball Musk, backed the Memphis Meats clean-meat startup in its $17 million Series A round, which went on to raise in excess of $22 million. Memphis Meats will join a cadre of sustainable food businesses such as the three Israeli companies — Meat the Future, Future Meat Technologies, and SuperMeat — which will supply food to China as part of a $300 million deal. Branson, who gave up meat in 2014, appears to be investing in alignment with his beliefs and predictions about the future, all while trying to act against the deforestation...

The mayor of the southern French town of Alès has shut down operations at a local slaughterhouse following the release of a video showing the mistreatment of animals inside the facility. The secretly shot footage, which was released Wednesday by animal rights group L214, shows animals regaining consciousness while they are being slaughtered. The graphic video shows animals having their throats slit, being bled while hanging by one leg or being left to bleed to death on the slaughterhouse floor. "A person who had access to the slaughterhouse contacted us, knowing that we had already looked into this matter," explained...

Wood-chipper slaughter stirs debate Animal activists push for changes By NADA EL SAWY Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- The owners of a Southern California egg farm insist they did nothing wrong when they slaughtered 30,000 chickens, quarantined because of a virus, by throwing them into wood chippers. State authorities agreed and decided not to file animal cruelty charges. That decision has incensed animal-rights advocates -- and some producers -- who say it's an example of the need for stricter laws and enforcement to stop what they consider inhumane slaughter of livestock. "It's not what we do," said Paul Bahan, owner...