Animals We Love and Torture

As many people want a hedgehog in their garden, but don't know why none of these creatures finds their garden attractive, the Dehner-Gartencenter of Metzingen - "Garten" is German for garden, so this shop obviously sells anything that has to do with gardens and pets - now gives away leaflets for free that give us tips what we might do wrong if hedgehogs keep avoiding our garden:

>Already the fence matters as you should choose one an average hedgehog can easily get through without getting hurt and without too much effort. Best choices are wattle fence; slate fence; barbed wire fence, where the first line of wire doesn't start until at least 20 centimeters above ground; a chain-link fence where there is a gap of 20 centimeters between the floor and the web of wire; a picket fence; a roundpole fence; a split rail fence; or - which I consider the most ideal fence on this matter - a fence that consists of a long and thick hedge where hedgehogs can hide.

>Wild hedgehogs feed on worms, insects, eggs and young birds and mice. Birds and mice however sometimes feed on insects, too. Thus everything on this matter depends on the insects and worms. Make sure you avoid pesticides and rodenticides - especially since they can harm a hedgehog, too -, don't mow your grass too often, let at least a few autumn leaves lie around for mice to build a nest and for insects to feed on and be sure that the soil in your garden is okay for insects and worms. Also this means that you shouldn't try to get a trendy monocultural flower bed, but instead also allow wild flowers to grow - and by doing so you may also impress someone who is a fan of the era of "Romantic" when this was considered the ideal.

>For some reasons they avoid gardens with too much concrete. It makes sense that you want a path in your garden, but said path can also be a gravel walk, a path made of wooden plates or a simple dirt track.

>However attracting a hedgehog may be useless if it dies by drowning within the first days. Make sure your swimming pool is always covered at night and if you leave for a longer trip - by the way even your rain barrel should be covered hedgehog-prove as there are stories of hedgehogs that somehow managed to climb into a barrel, but failed to climb out - and that your pond is constructed in a way that a hedgehog could get out easily. Don't worry! They can swim!

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On Friday August 28th in Freiburg the German party "Partei Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz" informed people about animal-cruelty in the circus. This was for free, so I went there to inform myself.

According to what they said:

>Already the fact that there is a circus that keeps a chimpanzee solitarily in its cage or a tiger - that in the wild would have a mating season and a huge territory to defend - alone in a cage for years; these facts alone would prove that most circus don't even try to keep their animals species-appropriate...not that this would be possible for them anyway.

>Elephants and other wild animals are just unpredictable no matter how hard we try to humanize them or to compare them to ordinary pets - like saying that hippos remind you of cows or tigers remind you of your pet cat. In fact this mentality - saying that wild animals can be predictable and can be tamed completely - caused some heavy accidents with circus-elephants, -wildcats etc. in the past. Just this decade alone 26 accidents with people getting injured were caused by wild animals.

>Psychologists proved that wild animals in a circus only do tricks out of fear. Dancing bears for example only do tricks, because during their training they were taught to raise their paws this way unless they wanted to feel some pain inflicted upon them by an overheated ground.>Animal psychologists randomly picked out some circus-animals to be examined. All of them showed signs of for this kind untypical behavior.>Cages are so small that if a zoo in Germany kept its animals in them, the zoo-owner would get into trouble with the law.>Our neighboring country Austria already forbade wild-animals-involving circus.>Whether or not you saw an animal in a circus as a child says nothing about whether or not you will grow up to like this animal, making the argument that a circus makes children more interested into at least some non-human beings pointless. For example a girl when asked what her favorite animal was, replied with horses as she had spent her vacation on a farm with lots of horses. Another child replied with whales despite never having seen them in a circus, a zoo, an aquarium or a whale watching tour.

>FlicFlac, Salomé and Cirque du Soleil prove that with a good show a circus can be just as successful without wild animals.

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that due to the fact that in many marine areas overfishing drives some predatory fish to extinction and also due to the fact that many whales fall victim to pollution, boat accidents or even whaling, the number of enemies jellyfish have decreases rapidly. This leads to an increasing population of jellyfish. Many beaches already forbid vacationers to get into the water due to a dangerously high number of lethal jellyfish.

>Studies published by the German independent IZW already in July (Institute For Zoology and Wildlife) now prove that the fish-eating white-tailed eagle does not endanger commercial fishing by human fishermen. After all this bird hunts close to the shore while fishermen usually throw their nets out far away from the shore. Also this raptor mostly feeds on specimens of fish that at least in Germany aren't popular anyway. Despite this being illegal and despite the high fines you have to pay if you get caught doing so, fishermen sometimes bait-poison this eagle as they falsely see this bird as some kind of concurrence. In fact by spreading baits like these you'll probably do more harm than good. It already happened that children touched these baits and then hurt themselves by accidentally rubbing this into their eyes, into their nose or even onto the lips. Other children simply weren't mature enough to deal with seeing their beloved dog or cat die in a very cruel way after it ate a poisoned bait.

>Many Germans think that laying-batteries are banned in Germany and thus that you can buy chicken or eggs that were produced in Germany without having to worry about animal-cruelty. Fact is that laying-batteries are illegal here, but cages that are similar to laying-batteries - where the individual chicken has about as much room as of the size of a sheet and where it is trapped along with several other chicken that have too little room to avoid conflicts - are still common in this country. My source is "Tierschutzbüro".

>According to "Tagesschau" huge parts of Florida suffer from a slug plague right now. Not only do these beasts destroy the harvest, but they also feed on the stucco of historically important buildings and memorials. The thing is that these 20 to 30 centimeter large animals are an invasive species from Africa. As it seems some brought them to the USA as pets and later abandoned them in the wild while others brought them as a short-lived souvenir to impress people with their knowledge of voodoo-practices some ancient African tribes did on these creatures.

> It happened someday in August. I don't remember when. "Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that in Diepholz /Lower-Saxony 1.500 turkeys burned to death when the feeding-lot they were trapped in caught fire. This area has a very hot August this year, making excrement of these turkeys dry fast and highly inflammable. As this was a very modern building also technical failure is possible...or maybe it was just a sabotage.

>According to "Tierschutz Euskirchen" it was now decided that neither in Lower-Saxony nor in any other German federal state the nests of swallows shall be removed. In Lower-Saxony - where these birds still are rather common - some people argued that with all the excrement swallows spread it should be allowed due to hygienic reasons to remove their nests from houses. The minister of agriculture however argued that to feed their chicks swallows kill many specimens of flies and their eggs that are known to spread diseases that could even be dangerous to adult human beings. Besides in Germany - due to a lack of natural habitat - they usually breed in stables and barns and these are places that regularly need to be cleaned from animal excrement anyway. Thus this law forbidding the removal of nests is in no way harmful to human beings.

>The newspaper "Saarbruecker Zeitung" says that someday in July near "Saarbrücken" three wild hogs fell into a pool belonging to the property of someone who back then was on a rather long journey for several days. There was nothing but water in the pool so the animals had nothing to hold onto. They eventually drowned as nobody heard their screams. It wasn't until the rotting carcasses started to smell that neighbors realized that something was wrong and called the police. This story tells us to always cover your pool with something at night or when you go away! This is not just about the protection of animals, but I think that the same fate that happened to these animals could also have happened to a person sneaking onto this property!

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that when a building of a feeding-lot in Lingen caught fire at the end of July, 17.000 chicks (not grown chickens) died. Again it is unknown what exactly happened. Maybe animal-rights activists set it on fire to set some kind of sign against feeding-lots, maybe something went wrong with all the electricity needed in a modern feeding-lot or maybe due to the intense heat and the always shining sun this week some things that are easily inflammable (corn for the chicken, dry excrement...) caught fire.

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that last Tuesday near Loburg (Germany) a truck carrying 4.000 ducklings to the butcher had an accident. Almost all ducks died, the trucker got injured (albeit not gravely) and the street was blocked for hours.

>Last weekend I went to visit my aunt, uncle and cousin in Unterhausen (close to Reutlingen). My uncle told me about a very delicious and healthy kind of fish they sell in a supermarket nearby. So I decided to go there after my visit and when I went there I saw a leaflet on the blackboard of this shop. Someone from Unterhausen as it seems found a presumably abandoned tortoise in his garden and now wants to know who could be the owner. The theory that this reptile was abandoned is supported by the following facts:

1.) It was found at around the time when summer vacation starts - thus at around the time when most people want to spend some time somewhere far away and thus abandon their pets.

2.) This specimen of tortoise is very demanding as it requires fresh water, fruits and vegetables every day, cleaning of its food bowls almost every day, too, a place to take a sunbath almost every day - which in many parts of Germany is very hard to find -, a place to hibernate and another place with soft soil to lay its eggs.

>If this specimen of turtle isn't held species-appropriate, it usually becomes very lethargic and thus uninteresting.

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that this Monday in Ludwigsburg police officers "had to" shoot a bull of about one and a half years that was to be sent to the butcher. As it seems the animal somehow understood what was going on, because it tried hard to free itself from its chain in the truck that transported it to the butchery, by using all of its strength it managed to kick open the door of this truck, it was brave enough to jump off the truck and then ran away. The police was called immediately! They found the ungulate grazing on a meadow, but decided not to take any risk by capturing the animal alive. One officer shot the bull to death. Later he would state that he heard some stories that were almost urban-legend-like. According to these allegedly true stories there is evidence that cows are smart enough to sense the thoughts and emotions of the people surrounding them. Thus by "reading our mind" they understand they are about to be killed...and in many cases the animal just doesn't want to let it be. Anyway after the bull was dead they sent it back to the butchery where he was prepared to be sold as beef to a supermarket.

However what the police officer who shot the cow to death heard about these animals may be true, because the following day in Crailsheim another young bull fled the butcher and on its escape almost caused an accident on a nearby road. This animal too was taken down by the police.

On Wednesday as well two cows escaped two butcheries in Bavaria - one in Buchloe and the other in Kampten. They both were considered as dangerous and were ordered to be shot by the police. After all both cows were in complete panic and one was heading towards a back then crowded place while the other was already running wild on the streets nearly causing an accident. The animal-aid organization "Tierschutz Euskirchen" reported aboit this in the news-liveticker of their homepage only minutes after both animals were dead.

In fact there were many cases of animal-cruelty towards cows this week: There was a process against a farmer from Bad Segeberg this Tuesday. He bred cows only to sell them to the butcher. According to some incriminating evidence there were many cases of animal cruelty going on at his farm, like he never called a vet, not even when his cows were seriously ill, he rarely cleaned their stables, he removed the horns of some calves when they were already so old and the horns so big it must have hurt them somehow. Last but not least he wasn't even allowed to own cows, since a trial years ago stated that all of the cows he had back then were to be removed, since he couldn't take care of his cows properly. However there wasn't enough evidence of animal cruelty to sentence him for anything, so they just let him go.

As I typed this on a computer in the library of my university, I somehow failed to hear my boyfriend Jörn approaching me with me not noticing until the very last second. He asked me what I was typing there. He knew about my homepage and as he reads the local newspaper every day, I could tell that he already knew about these happenings. So I simply said:"Writing about these cruel accidents where these cows from the butcheries got shot! I'm gonna put this on my homepage! At first I didn't want to, but then so many accidents with cows being involved that could have easily hurt or even killed someone, just made me too worried to ignore this. Also I'm impressed with the strength, bravery and intelligence these animals showed. For love's sake! They literally sensed their own approaching death and then managed to flee the scene!" "You thought that cows weren't that smart?", he asked "Even though you love animals just as much as I do and even though you also follow the news every day?! Are you kidding?" Then he asked me "Didn't you hear about this story? I think you should mention it, too!" Then he told me the story and again my mind sometimes is a bit slippery, so some of the names he said may not be correct or even misspelled, but he told me that according to a TV-station named Buzz60 - which I never heard of - an US-American animal rescue named Edgar's Mission Farm Sanctuary - which I never heard of either - had saved a pregnant dairy cow from the butcher at the beginning of this year. The animal was too old to give that much milk, so the dairy simply wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible even if that meant having the unborn calf killed as well. Luckily the animal rescue bought her - along with the unborn - just in time. Someday - back then they presumed she was still pregnant - they noticed some odd behavior in the cow. As it turned out, the calf was already born. She must have given birth to her on the meadow. The amazing thing is that as it seems the cow not only hid her calf in the tall grass - somewhere were said grass and earth had about the same colour as the calf's coat -, but she also somehow "told" the cow to lie still and not move. They think that after dairy-workers took away all of her calves, she jumped to the conclusion that her new calf was going to meet the same fate if any human being ever saw it.

>10.000 chicken belonging to a laying-battery in Meppen /Lower-Saxony (Germany) were ordered to be killed at the beginning of this week according to "Tierschutz Euskirchen". Some of them were diagnosed with a heavy disease that could be transmitted to human beings.

>In Asterix (France) a dolphin-calf died two weeks after its birth - which both took place in July. Its mother had a fight with another dolphin and as the tank was too small for the calf to back off, it soon got injured during this fight, too. Then it died. That's what the animal-aid organization "WDCS" says.

>At the end of June three wild swan chicks went missing near Cologne - where swan families like these are a well known tourist attraction - and nobody knew what could have happened to them. Not even an entire month later there already was enough evidence and eyewitness-accounts to savely presume that these three swan chicks were hit by a car while trying to cross the road. According to what the newspaper "Kölner Stadtanzeiger" published now some even saw the parents and the remaining siblings standing by the side of the road, not knowing what to do next. Before that most people presumed that the young ones got killed by a predator. Even though in swan families both parents protect their children even domesticated cats sometimes manage to quickly snatch one of these chicks and kill it - which is also why many people tell cat owners to tie a small bell around the neck of their cat or to make them wear a bright collar which would easily give away the cat's position to wild birds.

Since cats however were not involved here, I guess the moral of the story is to drive carefully or to use a slower vehicle - like a bike. Otherwise things may go very cruel for an animal or any other creature.

The idea of feeding and eventually domesticating wild animals may seem cute at first, but a fast-food-restaurant by the train station of Tübingen now got serious problems because of this idea. Customers always tried to attract pigeons by using some of their meal. Some even brought along bread from home to attract the birds while eating there. The result was that not only did they soon have pieces of in some cases even mildewed bread lying all around – and thus even some sick pigeons flying around and infecting customers -, but also that these wild animals suddenly lost their natural fear of human beings and started to disturb customers during their lunch. Thus they now put up a sign saying not to feed the pigeons and to lock the door while entering - while the latter also is a matter of politeness.

>On a farm in Behrendorf /Frisia (Germany) the police found 28 dead cows and sheep, some of which were already skeletonized and lay in stables where a good part of the floor was covered with 40 centimeters of excrement. Of course the remaining few cows and sheep were taken away from the farmer and now are to either find a new owner very quickly or to get slaughtered. ("Tierschutz Euskirchen")

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that last Friday a bear escaped the zoo of Osnabrück and they still weren't able to capture the animal or even just to track it down.

>Last week the police in Oberhausen saved a dog that was about to die of heat stroke. Its owner had it locked up in his car leaving the window only slightly open as he was afraid that somebody might steal from his car if he left more than just one window open. When the police finally arrived the poor animal was already unconscious as in this area when this happened they already had temperatures of more than 35°C even outside cars like these. When "Tierschutz Euskirchen" reported this, they also used this incident to mention in their respective article to never leave a pet, a baby or a very old relative alone in the car with temperatures like these...unless of course you can leave your windows wide open without any risk whatsoever or your car's air conditioner works even when the car is turned off.

>In Blaustein a kangaroo escaped from a circus last week and caused some traffic jam and almost one accident. "Tierschutz Euskirchen" says so.

I couldn't believe it myself, but the manager didn't care whether or not I posted this here as long as I didn't give away the name or location of the restaurant:

The idea of feeding and eventually domesticating wild animals may seem cute at first, but a fast-food-restaurant by the train station of of a nearby city now got serious problems because of this idea. Customers always tried to attract pigeons by using some of their meal. Some even brought along bread from home to attract the birds while eating there. The result was that not only did they soon have pieces of in some cases even mildewed bread lying all around inside and outside the restaurant – and thus even some sick pigeons flying around and infecting customers -, but also that these wild animals suddenly lost their natural fear of human beings and started to disturb customers during their lunch. Thus they now put up a sign saying not to feed the pigeons and to lock the door while entering - while the latter also is a matter of politeness.

>In Svenstrup (Denmark) an elephant managed to escape from a circus last week - and in Germany it is two minutes before Monday starts now, so you know what I mean by last week - and was wreaking some havoc on a playground on Tuesday. Luckily nobody was there at around this time of the day. Thus nobody got hurt.

>This Monday the Chinese dog-meat festival started with mixed to negative critics. While some find it immoral to kill dogs that in many parts of the world are still considered "man's best friend" others argue with their religion forbidding the consumption of dog.

However polls say that some also tolerate this festival. They argue that most people are just against this cultural event as our culture tells us to be repulsed by the idea of dog-meat and people simply have trouble tolerating something that is not in keeping with our culture. Also those who tolerate this culture say that the dogs are treated better than the pigs we hold in feeding lots and that contrary to pigs in feeding-lots they usually have a quick and painless death. Furthermore they say that before we protest against animal cruelty in China we should manage to put an end to the awful treatment of pigs in Europe and North America as they are treated worse than these dogs and are much smarter than dogs.

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that in Saxony the number of nutrias - which are the descendants of individuals that escaped from fur-farms - has become so big and the damage they do to waters and plants has become so big, that just since the beginning of this year hunters killed dozens of animals.

>Some German cities - among them Berlin - now illegalized the feeding of wild ducks. The arguments for this law can be found on signs in any park that houses ducks in Berlin now:

-There is no need to feed them. Even though they seem to be very hungry when they fight for these crumbs of bread, they are not. Their instinct simply tells them to take this food before it's gone and they have to search for food that is harder to access.

-Feeding ducks makes them lose fear of humans and they are likely to cause road-accidents or even attack people on purpose.

-If you throw too much bread in their direction, they will leave it untouched, meaning it will either rot there, start to smell and cause disease or it will attract rats and mice which both can swim and cause disease.

-Bread is no good for the digestive system of ducks, geese, swans and pigeons as it contains too many calories. If you don't pay attention, the bread may even be mildew which can kill small wild birds which don't have a vet to check after them.

>Untouched particles of the bread you throw into a lake will enrich it with nutrients which in return will make the number of algae increase. These creatures however require oxygen to survive. In extreme cases the number of algae in the lake is so big due to too many nutrients that other animals like fish don't get enough oxygen anymore and drown. Their dead carcasses then will float to the riverbend where they will, rot start to smell, spread bacteria and attract rats and other scavengers that spread disease.

"Tierschutz Euskirchen" warns people to be careful when it comes to sending stakes of wood or hay on fire on the typically-German festival of the "Sommersonnenwende". Even though Germans started losing interest into this custom during the last few decades, this burning of stakes still is practiced in some areas to entertain children and for adolescents to have some thrill while setting something big on fire.

Anyway "Tierschutz Euskirchen" warns us that hedgehogs and even birds often hide in these stakes to sleep, to hide when in danger or even to raise cubs. Thus you should always make sure that no animals are hiding in there. For example you could build the stake just moments before setting it on fire or you can just search it for animals by hand - if you do so thoroughly. Meanwhile there even are gadgets any average person could buy to scan these stakes for animals.

In Germany birds and hedgehogs are protected. If there is any evidence that you (accidentally) killed one of these in the process, you will have to pay high fines.

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that in Odenwald an elephant escaped from a circus and viciously attacked and killed a gentleman passing by. The animal was so furious that even after the gentleman's death it took its keepers a while to calm the elephant.

According to the statements of witnesses the retired victim did not provoke the elephant, but simply took a walk and collected deposit bottles like every Saturday morning. Also witnesses who know the elephant state that it showed aggression towards human beings in previous cases.

Now police officers need to find out why the giant mammal was so mad this morning - was it provoked by someone? - and how it could escape from its cage. There are no signs of destruction on the bars of its cage, meaning it either was freed on purpose or a keeper simply didn't close the gate properly. If it was freed on purpose, they need to find out why. Was its liberator someone like a mentally challenged man or an adolescent who was simply looking for the thrill - meaning someone who coldn't calculate the outcome of his actions - or was it someone with darker motives - like someone who used the animal as a tool for murdering this precise man or an extremist animal-rights activist who thought that letting someone die in an incident that involved a circus-animal could change something about public view on circuses.

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that 60% of the elephants that lived in Tanzania at the time of a population counting in the year 2008 are already dead. Most of them fell victim to poaching. People say we should let their customers this superstitious belief according to which ivory can be used as medicine, but even so you should always keep in mind that there are many Europeans and Northern-Americans among their customers who buy ivory simply because they want something fancy and exotic...and because they hope they won't get caught as already possession of ivory is illegal in many countries. Many customers of ivory probably buy this, because they simply don't know how cruel these hunts for elephants are. Most animals don't die after the first shot and need multiple shots; calves that flee in fear after seeing their mother die, dehydrate or starve; elephants are emotional and intelligent enough (judging by EQ and IQ) to be traumatized after a horrible event like this...

Due to a very strict Protection of Animals Act it can be very hard for people living in Germany to get rid of mice, rats, ferrets or fat doormice living on the attic or anywhere else in the house. Thus "Tierschutz Euskirchen" now made a list of tips how to get rid of these pests without having trouble with the German law:

>They all hate the smell of cleaning agent, furniture polish and fuming incense sticks. Just store the first two on your attic or burn one incense stick per day on your attic.

>Buy a live trap and then let them out somewhere far away before anyone can see you caught this animal.

>Don't store food on your attic. Who would do that in the first place?

>Remove all the climbing plants from your wall.

>Make sure your roof is compact.

>Bar your windows.

>Bar your chimney - if you have one that is.

>If you can offer it a species-appropriate life, buy a cat, a ferret or a dog.

Due to current reason - people keep calling them, asking for advice, sometimes even in cases that should be obvious, like that you shouldn't keep turtles in a tank that contains water only - "Kölle Zoo" now decided to spread some leaflets about turtles and tortoises.

Turtles: If you are going to live with a painted turtle in Germany, be sure to bring along a document proving that this animal was not caught in the wild, another document that proves that you are the rightful owner and a third document that gives you the right to sell this animal. Also they usually live for about 50 years, meaning that if you - as the first owner - don't state in your testimony who is to become your successor in owning the turtle and if none of your heirs feels responsible for the reptile, your pet-reptile is likely to end up in a pound - and I assure you that pounds in Germany are already cramped with animals. Also there are special rules for specimens of turtle which are considered dangerous, like some snapping turtles. You've got to be very experienced with reptiles, must have a lot of space for them and -last but not least - you must be very lucky to receive an authorization document to be allowed to keep these turtles. If you keep more than one sternotherus odoratus in one aquarium, you are likely to get into trouble with animal-aid organizations someday as these animals are aggressive towards each other and as soon as they reach maturity at least one of your turtles is likely to receive serious injuries.

About the average pet-turtle: Some grow to be 40 centimeters in length which should be considered while choosing the aquarium - 60x25x25cm per small turtle or 100x50x35 per turtle bigger than 20 centimeters in length will do - and buying the still young turtle in a pet-shop.

All turtles are sensitive when it comes to the quality of the water they live in. Thus the aquarium should have a strong filter and constant temperatures between 24°C and 28°C with the water at least covering the body of the turtle. To avoid that the turtle could tend to atypical behavior the floor of the water-part should contain pebbles, plants and rocks that are huge enough to break through the surface. The turtle should have easy access to the dry part of the terrarium.

The dry part itself should be between 30°C and 40°C warm and it should contain artificial light that also sends off UV-rays. In case you keep a male and a female it would mean a lot of stress for the female if you deny it some soft sand to burry the eggs. You can still dispose of the eggs afterwards. Some specimens also need a place to hibernate during winter.

As your turtles should have access to light and constantly need a thermometer to warn you in case of sinking temperatures around, you should be sure to always have enough money around to buy new bulbs, lamps and thermometers in case one of these fails.

25% of the water should be replaced by fresh water once a week, your filter may need cleaning once a week, too and "Kölle Zoo" recommends you to buy UV water-clearers to ensure good water quality.

To eat many turtles require special turtle-pellets.

Like tortoises, turtles can be carriers of salmonellas that in return can kill you.

Tortoises: If you buy one of these animals and want to live with it in Germany, you firstly should make sure that you have a document which proves that this animal was born in captivity, another document that proves that you are the rightful owner and a third document that gives you the right to sell this animal. Also you should give your tortoise an individual mark, because otherwise they can easily accuse you of having simply replaced your (presumably dead) tortoise with an individual caught in the wild. In addition there are rights for the welfare of animals, saying you should make your tortoise have some access to the outside of your house every once in a while. To avoid stress symptoms, the terrarium and the outside-cage both should have some hideouts.

Most tortoises can live up to 70 years and are likely to outlive their first owner. If you - as the first owner - don't state in your testimony who is to become your successor in owning the tortoise and if none of your heirs feels responsible for the reptile, your tortoise is likely to end up in a pound - and I assure you that pounds in Germany are already cramped with animals.

If you own a male and at least one female, you should keep a second terrarium ready for the mating season as male tortoises show aggressive behavior towards females (of course towards males, too) during this time.

If you don't want your tortoise to fall ill you should always provide it with fresh grass and wild herbs, but - what many owners don't know - never with fruits or clover. Also they require cuttlebones to win their minerals.

The water you give to your tortoise(s) should be renewed every day.

As they are very sensitive, excrements and waste from their last meal, should be removed daily and during exceptionally hot periods you should make sure that at least part of the territory and outside-cage are wet. Also due to their sensitivity, you should have a thermometer where your pet lives to make sure that the reptile lives in temperatures of at least 26°C during daytime and 17 °C at night.

Getting infected by herpes can kill the reptile and if you buy a new one, there is a chance that it may have salmonellas that may not harm them, but can kill a human being.

Also they require outdoor-cages of at least 4 square meters that have a fence they can't climb or undermine - as tortoises are good climbers and diggers.

Rats, cats, ferrets and even some birds can kill a tortoise.

Just a few weeks ago when my family and I went to a restaurant, I ordered lamb without thinking that much about it. I thought that of course the lamb this meat came from must have been so old that they had to separate it from its mother anyway and judging by the not too low price there couldn't possibly be a way that this animal was killed in a way that was against the laws for the protection of animals Germany has. Now however I'm not so sure anymore. "Partei Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz" now published a video which some animal-rights activists filmed in Italy (EU) illegally. It shows lambs that were to be sent to the butcher being dragged away from their mothers. Some lambs that resisted got slapped, kicked and really dragged away by their hooves. During the transport and the minutes before getting killed they were locked in enclosures so small they could barely move. I saw lambs that didn't even receive a narcosis before being pulled up by their hindhooves to make it easier for the butcher to slit their throats.

Cows are a lot smarter - thus more able to show emotions - than sheep and their calves get eaten by us, too. Thus I wonder what a video about the killing of calves would be like.

Last Saturday my elder bro' and I went to a bird-breeder club, because he wanted to buy two little songbirds one of these breeders now had for sale. There was also another breeder who sold parrots - among them cockatiels to be precisely - instead and it was so evident that he either was new to this business or simply didn't care about the animals that were in his care. All the parrots he kept were held separated in cages that maybe would be big enough for a bunch of canaries or budgies, maybe even lovebirds to fly, but these big parrots definitely were unable to fly inside these cages and as all wild parrots live with at least one companion, their solitary life probably resulted in them showing signs of abnormal behaviour. I innocently asked him if there was any special reason why today these parrots were kept separated and in rather small cages. He replied that he indeed always kept them like this, that parrots can be trained to live without a companion - which is wrong even though all parrots are smart and thus can be trained many things - and that he was going to buy bigger cages for them. He excused the size of these cages by saying "When I bought them only recently, they looked very huge and it wasn't until I put the parrots inside that I realized they can't fly in cages of that size!" Okay! This part could be true - although I don't really believe him and say he should have bought new and bigger cages afterwards and even though I would never buy a pet from an unprofessional breeder like this -, since after all there are many would-be parrot-owners who see a cage and think "Never mind that! Books say that a parrot's cage should be bigger than that, but this cage seems to be big enough for the parrot we want to fly!" Only later do they realize that with the huge parrot inside the cage looks very tiny. *

* I know in this paragraph I shouldn't have spoken of a parrot as you should never keep a parrot alone unless you want it to show abnormal and maybe even aggressive behaviour. It's just that I think those who buy a cage of such small stature for a parrot probably won't bother to buy this animal a companion anyway.

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that according to the latest statistics Rheinland-Pfalz ist the German "Bundesland" with the highest percentage of chicks having access to fresh air and grass. Only 5.4% of the 656.000 animals living in that "Bundesland" are treated like that.

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" now warned people that if they have a swimming-pool, they should either cover it at night or hang some nets into the pool to help animals that fell into the pool crawl out. Reason is that a lot of animals now awake from hibernating. It often happens that hedgehogs, cats, foxes - and in a recent case even a deer - fall into the pool and drown as they can't crawl out. Natural waters aren't built like this. There usually is a way to get out or at least a branch or rock to hold onto for a while.

>Believe my story or not, but on Monday I had to free a wild hedgehog that was stuck in a toilet reel. I found the poor animal under a pile of wood and iron. It was completely exhausted from trying in vain to free itself from that thing. When I tried to help, the animal of course got scared and tried to pull up its spikes, making it even harder to free him or her. After a while however it was free and while it still was too weak - or rather too shocked - to run from me, I could examine whether or not it was injured. It wasn't but as the reel was soaked wet although here it hasn't rained for days now I presume the little mammal must have been very thirsty and unsuccessfully attempted to drink.

Another exotic snake was abandoned last week according to "Tierschutz Euskirchen". Despite already being overcrowded the closest pet shelter the police officer who captured the reptile could find took the animal in. In addition to that "Tierschutz Euskirchen" interviewed a gentleman who works for an organization that saves reptiles and insects from irresponsible owners. He said he already experienced many cases of animal cruelty like tortoises being held in ordinary cardboard-boxes without any UV-lamp or small snakes being held in ordinary glasses. He even witnessed how people held scorpions in dark cans. This week the police was called to a flat in Westphalia. A gentleman held dozens of poisonous snakes, spiders, scorpions and saurian in way too small containers. These animals were held in conditions so bad that some even died during their rescue and some would have died had they only stayed a bit longer in the care of this gentleman. Stories like these remind us that some animals just aren't meant to be the pets of people who are either poor, too lazy to care for an animal or unexperienced with animals. These people should either buy one of these modern robotic "animals", ask a pet shelter for permission to participate in the treatment of an animal this shelter takes care of or buy a very tough pet like a rat, mouse, bunny, cat - which you can let go outside to care for itself -, street pigeon - if you put some food for them in one place in your garden, they will go there and after a while trust you making them more or less yours - and maybe some others I don't remember right now, too.

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that in Pingdu (China) someone's pet-tiger cub jumped out of a window when it got scared by a loud noise and it died instantly when it hit the floor. They say that in China - presumably the situation isn't much different in other countries - thousands of tigers are held captive, because - despite accidents like these that happen with wild animals more often than with domesticated pets as pets can be trained easier to lose their fear while wild animals don't - exotic pets are considered as fashionable. Alas some are also held captive to be killed someday as there is an old Asian superstition saying that tiger bones work just fine as medicine.

>This week "Tierschutz Euskirchen" reported three cases of animals that showed unusual behavior. The first example was a wolf that without fearing human beings followed vehicles on the road nearly causing an accident. The second was an eagle owl that for some reason attacked people by clawing its feet into their heads. Actually both owls and wolves are known to be afraid of men, but experts believe that both animals lost their fear because they were fed by human beings. The third example was about rats that showed no fear of human beings living in New York. The rodents found their way through some pipes - they can get even through very small things - and thus invaded some flats in New York. Thus "Tierschutz Euskirchen" recommends you not to feed any predators - in fact rats feed on meat, too -; not even unintentionally. We often throw away food that we don't want to eat anymore into some bushes or pour it down the toilet not knowing that this will attract wild animals which then will associate human beings with food. Only intentionally feeding wild predators - which some people actually do - is worse. The people from "Tierschutz Euskirchen" don't consider it too unlikely that perhaps the owl and the wolf were fed intentionally - by people who just wanted to have a special animal nearby. They probably were influenced by movies like "Tommy and the Bobcat", "Free Willy", "Seabiscuit", "The Black Stallion", the child-friendly adaptation of Jack London's "White Fang" and some other movies that are about the protagonist gaining the trust and friendship of a ferocious animal after feeding it something it likes.

"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that the description "non-textile" on the clothes you buy guarantees that animals were held on fur farms, got mistreated and killed for the making of said clothes. Reason for this statement is that many of the people who see the description "non-textile" on small pieces of clothes - like let's say a small fraction of a woollen hat or a collar - think that perhaps the makers used the pieces of fur some animals produce after loosing their winter coat. Fact is they don't!

>"Tierschutz Euskirchen” says that as a reaction to people protesting against the pollution of Schwerin Palace and the area surrounding this castle due to swallows building their nests there, there now are concrete political plans to hang some nets on the walls of the castle to prevent the swallows from reaching their nets. Not only people who have a sense of aesthetics and thus worry what the palace will look like with all these nets dangling there don't like this decision, but also environmentalists worry about the future of swallows in Germany. The use of pesticides makes it hard for them to find non-lethal food in the fields, trees get cut down while old buildings that were perfect for these swallows to build their nests get bulldozed and replaced by modern ones that are less optimal for these birds, nests get destroyed accidentally or – even though there is a law in Germany – on purpose when renovations are due on houses. Thus environmentalists agree that as disgusting and unhealthy as all this poop caused by the swallows living there may be, there should be a better solution than simply destroying nests.

>“Tierschutz Euskirchen” says that the number of raccoon dogs recently has increased rapidly in the North of Germany. Initially they weren't even native to Germany, but then they decided to breed these animals in fur-farms. Throughout the years many of them escaped from these farms, adapted to the environment they found in the North of Germany and even started breeding in the wild. Meanwhile their population there has increased to such a extent that they are a threat to animals and – since they also spread disease – men alike.

By the way - also according to “Tierschutz Euskirchen“ the situation of raccoons in Germany is pretty much alike. They also were brought to Germany for fur-farming, many escaped and now they disturb ecological systems here. The only difference is that raccoons living in Germany also show some aggression. So far there have been four reports of dogs who succumbed to their wounds after some deadly raccoon-attacks.

>Around Christmas-time five boxes that contained fully-grown cats and three that contained bunnies were found in Saarland. Then early in January they found a box containing puppies. The poor animals neither had food nor water and it was so awfully cold that even in these boxes temperatures were below 0°C. After someone found them they were immediately brought to a pet shelter where they now wait for a new owner. I guess pet shelters are the ideal place if you want a pet that has a dramatic background story. According to “Tierschutz Euskirchen” the situation was even worse in Berlin. Here five dogs, five cats, two guinea-pigs, a chicken and a bunny were either brought to a pet-shelter or abandoned and later brought to the pet-shelter by their finder. The situation may worsen within the next few days or weeks. This is a clear sign that animals – especially those that need a lot of attention and treatment – don't make good Christmas-, birthday-, Easter-presents. It happens all too often that certain statements simply are misunderstood and that the person never wanted a pet for Christmas or any other holiday. Like in that one true story where the teenage son often made remarks that he wanted a pair of guinea-pigs so bad and when a relative finally gave him one for Christmas it soon turned out that the boy didn't even like guinea-pigs. When he stated that wish it was just that guinea-pigs were considered trendy in his class...and especially among teenagers trends change very often. Or that other example when that lady said that her little daughter wanted a Belgian giant - an especially huge breed of bunny - so bad and when the girl's uncle finally gave her one as an Easter-present it turned out that what the mother meant to say was that the family neither had enough room nor the money to fulfil her this wish.

"Tierschutz Euskirchen" says that somewhere in Germany three gentlemen who bred variegated squirrels in order to sell them as pets now died of an unknown virus transferred from some sick squirrels presumably by biting or by scratching. That kind of makes you reconsider if you really want to insist on getting an exotic pet like that.

My Russian friend Darya once told me that in Russia there was a cliche according to which all Germans loved animals and treated them well and in fact I even know Germans who joke that in Germany there are more laws for the sake of animals than for human beings. Thus many Germans only pick geese or ducks that were raised in Germany for their traditional Christmas-goose or duck. Now however “Tierschutz Euskirchen” says that there is evidence according to which a feeding-lot in Brandenburg makes its workers kill the weakest and skinniest ducks by stabbing them or hitting them hard in the head. Obviously the animals shown in the proving footage didn't receive any narcotics sedatives before this was done to them. Furthermore you can clearly see that some of these animals were injured or sick – some even in such an extreme way that they couldn't reach food or water anymore and most likely starved.

By the way in Emsland (Lower-Saxony) 10.000 ducks from feeding lots got killed just this weekend after coming down with the bird-flu.

>The German magazine "Dein Spiegel" now reported a new case of animal torture. They say that - even though it often is claimed that the ducks and geese used in this process are already dead - activists now have found evidence according to which the feathers used for our pillows, jackets, blankets etc. are plugged from living ducks and geese that often have to live in confined and crowded areas with no water to swim in. The plugging-process itself is extremely painful for them and should feel almost as if a person with rather short hair gets torn away loads of hair at one and the same time.

>“WDCS” says that now there is evidence according to which the zoo of Nürnberg (Germany) allowed two monkeys to die of exposure, has water quality so miserable that dolphins already had to be treated with skin leasure and has a huge fish tank that is not save at all and already killed many fish.

>“Tierschutz Euskirchen” says that this year just in South Africa more than 1.020 rhinos got killed by poachers.

>“Tierschutzbüro” says that an egg- and chicken-producing enterprise in Brandenburg ignores several German laws by the way it treats its animals. First of all more chicken than would be legal were kept in one and the same cage that didn't have any litter whatsoever. Then said enterprise even faked logos to make customers believe that these animals had had a species-appropriate life. Then the birds were transported to the butcher in boxes that were so small and crowded that they had to wrench legs and neck in a painful way just to fit into the box. This way of transporting animals is illegal in Germany.

>"NABU" says that in Lausitz (Saxony /Germany) somebody must have abandoned his dog-wolf hybrid. As interesting as it seems to own a dog like this at home these animals are extremely hard to handle, it's almost impossible to train them and they sometimes show signs of agression towards human beings. As it seems dealing with this animal became just too difficult for this dog's owner. He most likely didn't see these troubles coming and in the end he wanted to get rid of his pet as soon as possible by simply dumping it. At least that would explain why no wolf-dog hybrids were reported missing during the last few months and why none claimed to be the master of this creature when photos were published.

> In Mecklenburg and in Hessen there were some protests last weekend which hundreds of people attended. Feeding lots for chicken are to be built there and citizens of these two villages neither want to live with the smell the poop of these birds causes nor do they want their streets to be used by high numbers of trucks every day that drive chicken and waste products out and drive food for the living animals in. Above all they do not wish to be associated with cheap, bad and unhealthy fast-food chicken that was produced in these feeding lots.

The German animal-aid organization “Tierschutzbüro” says that the police of Nürnberg (Brandenburg /Germany) just received a report – with photos as evidence - according to which a pet shop there does acts of neglect and animal cruelty. As these photos prove many of these reptiles show signs of untreated disease and injuries. In some cases the staff even let reptiles starve to death due to malnutrition. The staff didn't know how to feed them properly. Many reptiles were kept in tanks that either were too small or built in a way that wasn't meant for this specimen. For example they saw a snake that was held in a box that firstly was way too small for this animal to move and secondly was closed in a way that maybe very small animals would still get enough oxygen, but a fully-grown snake of that size would sooner or later have trouble supplying its whole body with oxygen. The staff didn't even bother doing something about issues that would clearly disgust visitors, like a dead kind of...lizard I think lying among a bunch of living lizards. One carcass of a rodent that perhaps was meant to be the food of a snake that didn't want to eat this animal already started to rot.

This story teaches us not to buy exotic animals from a pet shop. Who knows how many unexperienced people already bought a sick reptile from there only to lose it to its disease just a few days after paying a lot of money to get it? Breeders and animal shelters – except for a few black sheep of course – at least know how to treat the animals they are going to sell. They may ask for more money than pet shops do, but it is in their own interest to sell healthy and well-treated animals to make themselves a name as good breeders.

>In Luckenwalde (Teltow-Fläming /Germany) a rhino managed to break free two times last weekend. Luckily owners of the circus it belonged to always managed to capture the animal in time. Surprisingly – after all nobody ever cut off the horn of this animal and like all wild animals rhinos can get aggressive – no harm was done...except for a few startled people passing by and a meadow that got stomped upon when the animal decided to take a rest there.

>On Thanksgiving some ladies found an abandoned python in Heilbronn according to “Tierschutz Euskirchen”. The poor animal was locked in a wooden chest and even though it is not cold here from a person's point of view the snake probably would have died of exposure tonight if they hadn't helped this reptile.

Considering that today the USA and Canada celebrate Thanksgiving the two news I'm going to post today shall be about turkeys:

>“Tierschutz Euskirchen” reports that in Germany, England and the Netherlands thousands of turkeys and chickens from feeding lots had to be killed due to having a virus that is transmittable not only to other birds, but also to human beings. With such an aggressive virus and with so many birds being locked in one and the same room it is no surprise that the virus could spread so quickly.

>“Tagesschau” says that 90% of all turkeys from feeding lots in Germany are fed an overdose of antibiotics to make more of them survive until they can get killed – and some of said antibiotics even are illegally fed to these animals as they were never meant for meat-producing animals. Most turkeys in Germany suffer from diseases that affect their bones and organs. In Germany there are no laws for the keeping of turkeys.

"Tierschutz Euskirchen" said on Monday that not only a pet-kangaroo broke free from its cage and caused some trouble on the street, but also a wolf-dog hybrid - and these dogs are known to be hard to handle - escaped from its owner on one and the same day and caused some chaos on the street.

Somewhere in a natural area in Germany a gentleman found two abandoned snakes this week. This specimen of python is known to be hard to handle so “Tierschutz Euskirchen” just presumed that their owner had abandoned them.