AR-News: Polish Animals URGENTLY need your help

Tue Feb 24 21:19:50 EST 2004

From: lepetitchien at uwnet.nl 
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 8:11 PM
Subject: FW: Polish Animals URGENTLY need your help

Original message came from: TeresaAfW [mailto:teresa_afw at wp.pl] 
Subject: Polish Animals URGENTLY need your help

Dear Animal Friends
I have asked you often to act on behalf of animals, and you might have guessed by now that I will ask you again and again. Today I am asking with even more desperation than usually, as animals who need your help are from my home country. Animal defenders in Poland have a very difficult role to play, as till not long ago in Poland animals were hardly mentioned in any legislation what-so-ever and conditions in which animals are forced to live in (especially in rural areas) are just abhorrent. Please help Polish animal defenders, who struggle against all odds, with very little financial support, to change the life of Polish animals for the better. Please act on these 3 separate alerts ASAP.

-Teresa

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1)Testing on animals

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski has vetoed proposed changes to the Polish Animal Welfare Act, taking a strong stand in favor of animals against the powerful and aggressive cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and chemical industry lobbies. The Polish Parliament, or Sejm, must now vote to uphold the president’s veto in order to keep the changes from becoming law.  

The proposed changes would end the ban on experiments that test the effects of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and chemical agents on animals and would also end local ethics committees’ oversight of animal experiments, allowing vivisectors to do as they wish.Please write a polite letter to the Parliament Clubs of the Sejm urging their members to uphold the veto. Apparently a decision will be made any day so please act now!

Your letters will help to prevent the suffering of tens of thousands of animals in Poland.

More info:
www.arka.strefa.pl 

http://www.arka.strefa.pl/list_Prezydent-ang.html (English version)

http://www.peta.org/alert/automation/AlertItem.asp?id=923 (Peta's page)

Please write the letters to:

To: (copy and paste to your To:field)
kp-sld at sejm.pl ; kp-up at sejm.pl ; kp-psl at sejm.pl ; kp-po at sejm.pl ; kp-pis at sejm.pl ; kp-lpr at sejm.pl ; kp-skl at sejm.pl ; kp-prs at sejm.pl ; kp-pbl at sejm.pl ; kp-pld at sejm.pl ; kp-rkn at sejm.pl ; kp-pp at sejm.pl ; Marek.Borowski at sejm.pl

; Tomasz.Nalecz at sejm.pl ; Donald.Tusk at sejm.pl ; Janusz.Wojciechowski at sejm.pl

and copy to: (copy and paste to your Cc:field)
Cc:
 gs at prezydent.pl ; zgp at prezydent.pl

Below is an example of the letter, but your own letter however short will have a much stronger impact then the 'pre-set' one, so please try to write in your own words. 
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Dear members of the Polish Parliament Clubs and Speakers of the Lower House of Polish Parliament,
I understand that the Polish parliament has voted to reverse prohibitions on animal experiments for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, with no controls whatsoever. This is indeed disturbing news. When one considers that many of the EU countries have already banned testing chemicals on animals, for Poland to allow this would be retrogressive and very unfortunate indeed for the image of your country.
Please do not allow Poland to become a haven for animal testing in a world that is changing rapidly in its ethos towards animals, from one of dominion and cruel exploitation to one of compassion. Your citizens do not want Poland to become a place of even greater suffering for animals by allowing this practice, and nor does the rest of the civilised world - >>  we are watching, please do what is right..
Do not reject this VETO but ACCEPT it, on behalf of animals that can suffer but cannot speak for themselves.
Thank you,
Respectfully,
---------------------------------

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2) Shooting wolves 
Although wolves in Poland are under protection, the Minister of the Environment decided to shoot some wolves in the region near Bialowieza primary forest. Your action might save their lives. ACT NOW!!! 
Please write email to Minister at mos.gov.pl (with a copy to mailto:waldek at wolfpaper.pl ) and tell him what you think about killing wolves.
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3) Hunting Dogs
In 2002, despite numerous protests by the citizens, animal lovers, and social organizations, a notation was made in the Animal Protection Law allowing the hunters to shoot at the "wild dogs" more than 200m from buildings. The hunting lobby is very strong in Poland - numerous politicians and members of Parliament are hunters themselves or at least support hunting. The number of hunters exceeds 100 thousand ! 
Unfortunately, problems such as homelessness, abandonment in the woods or letting dogs free in the countryside have to be solved in Poland every day. But shooting is not the solution, it cannot replace education and penalty systems. It is not an effective method to deal with irresponsible owners as it causes suffering to innocent animals. Very often they die in unimaginable pain in woods or on fields when shot by the hunters.

The President did not give his veto to these changes (as they were proposed together with other ones in the same package) but he promised to put forward a motion to withdraw this notation. It was 1.5 years ago - since then, nothing happened, there is no such motion. But the ordeal of dogs and their owners has started. From time to time the media inform about dogs killed when walking with their owners. Last year children playing on the yard saw their pet being killed. A pregnant doberman was shot when walking on the path in front of her owners. A Piccolo Levriero Italiano was killed - also when being in the woods with his carers - as well as many other dogs off leash. 

Polish law forbids dogs off leash in the woods but it regulates it in one way only - by financial penalties. Yet such a notation gives the hunters freedom to shoot any dog they meet in the forest, on the road or fields. This year on January 29th Neli was killed - a medalist belonging to the hunter !! Neli and another dog were walking with their owner on the country road where they lived. They were both shoot at when they crossed the magical 200 m. The other dog was seriously injured - one of his legs was even amputated. Here is the link to this terrible event:

Neli http://www.wyzel.pl/doxa/fotki_doxy.html
Neli killed http://www.wyzel.pl/doxa/fotki_dowody.html

the other dog-Iga http://www.wyzel.pl/doxa/fotki_iga.html

" Dogs were running first - my father was walking after them. The shots were heard - by him as my father thought. The same moment small Iga run home, limping and crying with pain. My father, scared, ran after her .... Iga was operated, her hindquarter was stitched, and her forequarter ? there was nothing to be stitched, she will be impaired till the rest of her life.
And Neli ?.... "hunter" on the filed who shot her "as a sport". She was killed with one bullet - most probably she stood in front of the man as the bullet went from the blade to the hip. Neli who loved the hunters probably wanted to greet him but was shot ..... This murderer did not kille the dog - he killed our friend and a member of our family. What was left is the pain and red collar." 
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Therefore, we ask you to send letters to the Polish President and members of the Parliament with the following text (or even better write your own letter)

We shall not spend our holidays in your countryside although it becomes more and more popular abroad. We shall not visit your natural resources nor admire your wildlife. We are afraid your hunters might mistake us for a dog. We do not want to see these dogs being killed. It is a threat to our safety and a violation to our dignity - our attitude to animals. We do not want to be the witnesses of dog murdering. There were too many accidents with dogs being killed, to feel safe in your country.

President of Poland Mr.Aleksander Kwasniewski
mailto:gs at predydent.pl

mailto:zgp at prezydent.pl

The addresses Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament:
Marszalek Sejmu (Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament)
Mr. Marek Borowski: mailto:Marek.Borowski at sejm.pl

Wicemarszalek Sejmu (Vice Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament) Mr. Tomasz Nalecz: mailto:Tomasz.Nalecz at sejm.pl

Wicemarszalek Sejmu (Vice Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament) Mr. Donald Tusk:  mailto:Donald.Tusk at sejm.pl

Wicemarszalek Sejmu (Vice Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament) Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski: mailto:Janusz.Wojciechowski at sejm.pl

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