In early October, the Spanish town of Terrassa, north of Barcelona, made headlines for taking an unusual step to protect its feline population. From October 1 to November 10, all adoptions and fostering of cats — particularly black ones — have been suspended. The local animal welfare service said the measure was taken “to prevent possible risk … derived from superstitions, rituals, or irresponsible uses” during the Halloween period.

The announcement, made on October 6, echoes a growing concern among animal-welfare groups in Europe and North America: that black cats face abuse, abandonment, or death around Halloween. The folklore that links them to witches and bad luck still casts a long, dangerous shadow.

According to Noel Duque, Terrassa’s councillor for animal welfare, adoption requests for black cats tend to spike each October. Some people, he told the local Diari de Terrassa, want them “for ritual purposes” or “as decoration because it’s cool.”

On his own Facebook page, Duque sits next to a ginger cat — a small sign of solidarity with the animals he’s sworn to protect.

In previous years, Spanish shelters reported disturbing incidents: cats adopted as “Halloween mascots” and later abandoned, and others used in occult ceremonies. While many of these claims are difficult to verify, the risk is real enough for Terrassa to take precautionary action. “We cannot look the other way when faced with a grim topic,” Duque said.

The stereotype of the black cat as an omen of death dates back to medieval Europe, when cats were believed to be witches’ familiars. Despite centuries of scientific progress, superstition still dictates their fate each October. Social-media trends have made matters worse: black cats are sometimes adopted as props for Halloween photo shoots, only to be discarded afterward.

Terrassa’s policy is not absolute. “Exceptions will be duly justified and assessed by the technical team of the centre, where there is a full safety guarantee and a reliable history of the applicant,” the municipal welfare office said. Regular adoption procedures will resume after November 10, though the city hasn’t ruled out making the seasonal ban permanent.

Terrassa is home to more than 9,800 cats, according to municipal data — a population that lives quietly among its 220,000 residents. The temporary ban forces the town, and perhaps the rest of us, to confront a deeper contradiction. How can a culture that loves animals and fills social media with cat memes still tolerate cruelty in the name of tradition or aesthetics?

Halloween began as Samhain, the Celtic festival marking the boundary between life and death — a time to honor ancestors, not harm the living. Terrassa’s decision reminds us that compassion, not superstition, should guide how we celebrate.

So when the candles flicker this Halloween and black cats cross your path, consider it not a curse but a challenge — to outgrow our ghosts and protect those still paying for them.

The post Black cats banned from this Spanish town – until after Halloween appeared first on Green Prophet.

It’s not being picked up on mainstream media but X users are reporting that the Turkish dog cull has begun.

Earlier this summer President Erdogan announced he’d start culling 4 million stray dogs from the streets of Turkey. The dogs are becoming a nuisance after a failed sterilization program didn’t work. Locals say it was due to lack of enforcement — the same reason why so many new earthquake-proof buildings in Turkey crumbled after the last earthquake. 

Turkish animal activist Insane Huseyin posts thousands of images of abused animals in Turkey. Locals and governments turn a blind eye.

“Has the photo become a poster of the evil that kills innocent animals by injecting them with laundry drugs?” writes Huseyin. “The world is angry and cursing.”

“A man was arrested in Istanbul for trying to stop dog catchers from illegally darting stray dogs without a vet in attendance. People will now end up in prison for trying to stop Presidents Erdogan’s dog genocide,” writes Dominic Dyer.

On Sunday, September 1, 2024, at 15:00 PM, animal rights activists in Turkey will demonstrate to demand justice for Turkish strays and stand in solidarity with Turkish activists risking their lives and liberty to oppose the bloodshed.

They invite all people to join us to call on the Turkish government to repeal the massacre law. This demonstration is hosted by Animal Save Movement and In Defense of Animals. An event will also be hosted in London outside the Turkish Embassy.

“Do not visit Turkey. Go to Greece instead,” says Nioh Berg on X.

It’s not the first time Turkey murdered its stray dogs. In 1910 80,000 strays were sent to a barren island to die. The massacre left a scar on the local psyche and many believed was to blame for the Ottoman defeat in the Balkan Wars & WWI.

Not long ago a Palestinian mayor called for the killing of dogs in Hebron, offering the equivalent of $20 for a truck load of dead dogs. This was until animal rights activist from Bethlehem stepped in – Diana Babish.

Animal abuse is rampant in the Middle East. We have plenty of horror stories from Jordan in our archives on abuse of dogs. Pets are abandoned as people flee climate change and the heat of the UAE.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Read here about Islam’s teachings on animals for inspiration.

The post Turkey’s 4 million dog cull begins appeared first on Green Prophet.

Turkish legislators have approved a law that make it legal to kill any number of the estimated 4 million stray dogs that are on the country’s streets.

Thousands of animal lovers have joined protests across Turkey calling for the removal of an article in the law that would allow for strays to be euthanised. Opposition lawmakers say the bill is a “massacre law”. The law was passed this week.

“Unfortunately this is true… we’re so sorry and angry,” our treehugger and activist friend Gökçe Uygun from Istanbul told Green Prophet. It hasn’t started just yet because it was only approved in the parliament 2 days ago, she said.

The Palestinian mayor in Hebron offered locals $6 USD a dead dog in 2022 to cull local populations in the West Bank from taking over the streets. Our friend and animal activist Diana Babish, from whom we have adopted 2 dogs in Ramallah, shut down the mayor and the ugly practice.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed the measure into law, thanked his ruling party: “Despite the opposition’s provocations and campaigns based on lies and distortions, the national assembly once again listened to the people, refusing to ignore the cries of the silent majority,” he said.

Erdogen is responsible for the Gezi Park protests. Erdogen is building Turkey to be nuclear as Germany shuts down its last reactor. Don’t forget about this couple murdered in Turkey for saving the trees.

Yet there are gentle nature lovers in Turkey who plant forests of trees. There are treehugging journalists in Istanbul. Like Turkey itself which straddles the East and West, there are people actively for and against the killing of pets.

About about 4 million stray dogs roam Turkey’s streets and rural areas. Most are harmless but they sometimes build up in packs and attack people. Many Muslims are terrified of dogs. Turkey is a Muslim majority population.

Why don’t Muslims like dogs?

Dogs are revered in Judaism for not barking when the Jews were escaping Egypt. They are loved by the pharaohs – tomb paintings of the pharaoh Tutankhamun show him in his chariot with his hunting dogs and Rameses the Great is depicted similarly. With Khufu and his companion, dogs were often buried with their masters in order to accompany them closely in the afterlife.

Dog is kalb in Arabic: كَلْب, dog which is similar to “kelev” in ancient Hebrew and there are different views on dogs and Islam. The Sunni Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence says the laws of impurity of dogs are different between wild dogs and pet dogs, and only consider the saliva of the former to be impure; on the other hand, some schools of Islamic law consider all dogs as unclean (najis).

Hundreds of people gathered in Istanbul and issued a message to the government which also supports Hamas terrorists: “Your massacre law is just a piece of paper for us. We will write the law on the streets. Life and solidarity, not hatred and hostility, will win.”

Animal lovers in the capital, Ankara read: “We are warning the government again and again, stop the law. Do not commit this crime against this country.”

Turkey’s main opposition party said it would work to cancel this law at the supreme court.

Endorsement, however, by Turkey’s unstable leader, could provoke locals to kill dogs when no one is supervising.

While Turkey had endorsed a law to catch, spay and then release stray dogs, critics say the law was not enforced. The same way building code laws in Turkey exist, but corners are taken and “safe” building crumble when there is an earthquake.

The post Turkey has approved the culling of millions of dogs appeared first on Green Prophet.

KFC, Nando’s, Greggs, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose are among the 250+ companies in the UK and EU to have committed against Frankenchickens, but supermarkets including Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Lidl are refusing.

Animal protection charity The Humane League UK has filed a Judicial Review against the UK’s The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for its allowance of the widespread use of fast growing breeds of chicken, contrary to legislation that bans the keeping of animals if their breeding causes ‘detriment to their health and welfare’.

The Humane League  argues that the standard industry use of breeds of chicken who grow unnaturally large, unnaturally fast is unlawful, and challenges Defra’s current position allowing the use of these extreme breeds.

Pru Elliott, Senior Campaigner at The Humane League UK, said: ”There’s an assumption that because intensively breeding chickens to grow unnaturally fast is standard practice, it is therefore legal. But looking at the legislation it’s crystal clear that the law is being flouted in standard chicken production.”

The case asks the court to determine that Defra’s policy to permit the current standard of farming fast-growing ‘FrankenChickens’ in the country is in breach of the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007. The rule states:

Animals may only be kept for farming purposes if it can reasonably be expected, on the basis of their genotype or phenotype, that they can be kept without any detrimental effect on their health or welfare.

Elliott continued: “We believe Defra has an unlawful policy in permitting the use of these breeds and should instead be stipulating that they cannot be used. We also believe they have an unlawful monitoring system in place that fails to detect the scale of welfare issues associated with fast growing chickens.”

Broiler chickens have been genetically selected over decades to prioritise for fast growth, to produce as much meat in the shortest possible time. As a result, they can suffer from a wide range of health and welfare issues. Last year an investigation by The Humane League UK revealed that the muscle disease white striping, caused by fast growth, was present in over 8 in 10 standard packets of chicken on supermarket shelves.

The challenge comes after the RSPCA published a scientific report in 2020 comparing the welfare of three different breeds of fast growing chicken. It showed that the fast growing breeds have poorer health and welfare than a slower growing breed. Three further scientific studies by the University of Bristol, the University of Guelph, and the Royal Veterinary College all support these findings.

Despite the clear scientific consensus and the findings from numerous undercover investigations on broiler farms using these breeds, Defra’s position is that fast growing breeds can be kept without detriment to their health or welfare, as stated in its responses to The Humane League UK’s pre-action correspondence.

Edie Bowles, Solicitor at Advocates for Animals and representing The Humane League UK in this case, said: “The law is clear that farmed animals can only be kept if the breed used will not experience detriment to their health or welfare. The science clearly shows that fast growing broilers cannot be kept without such detriment. It is therefore evident that keeping fast growing broilers is unlawful.”

The case also challenges the ‘trigger system,’ Defra’s monitoring system aimed at detecting welfare issues associated with commercial broilers. The trigger system requires vets at abattoirs to report welfare issues, but only if they occur above a given threshold as set out in Defra’s Code of Practice. The Humane League UK believes the threshold set by Defra is too high.

The high threshold results in countless welfare issues not being reported and dealt with. This is contrary to the 2007 farm animal welfare regulations which state: ‘If the mortality rate of the chickens or the results of the post-mortem inspection are consistent with poor animal welfare conditions, the official veterinarian must communicate the data to the keeper of those chickens and to the Secretary of State without delay.’

Charities have been campaigning for food companies to commit to ending the use of fast-growing FrankenChickens by asking them to sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), which demands slower growing breeds, more space, natural light and enrichment, less painful slaughter methods and third-party auditing.

KFC, Nando’s, Greggs, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose are among the 250+ companies in the UK and EU to have committed to the BCC, but supermarkets including Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Lidl are refusing.

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If you’ve traveled to India, Mexico, Amman –– you see that dogs don’t have it so good. They are kicked, wounded, abused, and in some places poisoned or shot on sight––  nursling puppies killed in front of their mothers and then left to rot in a garbage dumpster. Maybe you have heard about litters of puppies and kittens tossed out of the windows of speeding cars? Or puppies kicked around like soccer balls. This is what happens in holy cities like Bethlehem, says Diana George Babish, a devout Catholic who cries about the state of animal rights in her home city, run by the Palestinian Authority. 

Diana has taken it upon herself to save every furry or feathery life she can. And it’s a a challenge when kids there prod donkeys with plastic chairs until their intestines fall out of their anus.  That’s what happened the first week of February, with the donkey recovering nicely after an operation in Israel, Babish reports.

With no stretch of the imagination Diana is the Patron Saint of puppies, dogs, kittens, lame donkeys and even chickens. She has stood up for animals who can’t speak for themselves.

Her organization Animal and Environment Association Bethlehem Palestine finds homes for about 150 puppies every year, and 70 dogs in Israel by transporting them across the green line in a taxi, but save the lives of thousands more, offering them life-saving treatments before they are put back onto the streets or adopted into homes in the West Bank. The horrific details of abused donkeys, puppies, and cats can be seen on her Facebook page here. 

I met Diana through a few of a friend of a friend when I was looking for puppies this past summer. Within an hour she was sending me photos on Whatsapp of scrappy but plump, well-fed puppies. They were all born in backyards of people in Bethlehem or Ramallah, but they were people concerned enough to alert Diana that the animals were there.

We picked two from a pile scrambling around in a pile of garbage in someone’s backyard. A day later Diana arranged the difficult process of sending a taxi to a city she wasn’t at in the West Bank, working as a matchmaker for puppies and people that want them in Israel.

She would find a taxi to pick up the puppies who would cross the Green Line with the driver to bring them to Israel where people are eager to adopt puppies –– and mature dogs. Diana’s dogs come from the West Bank cities and villages around Bethlehem, Ramallah, Hebron, Jenin and Jericho. In some harder cases she can send them to Israeli vets or hospitals for treatment in Israel. But it’s expensive. 

She’s currently raising money to build a shelter on land she has already secured outside of Bethlehem.

The day my puppies arrived, Zuckerberg and Shemesh (sun in Hebrew), there was a bit of a mix up and hoping to help bring a wounded dog in our ride to a pet hospital in Israel, the dog died not reaching the veterinarian in time.

Diana was bawling on the phone, and I thought to myself –– if we all could feel this way about the lives of dogs we could surely build an entirely peaceful Middle East. And in the framework of “peace” we could say that Diana’s initiative is creating peace through puppies.

My vet in Israel says that I am lucky to have received puppies from Ramallah who are generally in much, much better condition than the ones rescued from Bethlehem. 

Diana is not alone in her rescue mission. She is growing a team of volunteers and spotters around her, locals in the West Bank, neighboring Israelis and internationals who all want to get animals off of the streets.

Since our puppies arrived from Ramallah, it turns out that I have several friends who also have Palestinian dogs. The Covid lockdown has definitely increased the interest for puppies in Israel. Having pets around surely increases the love in any home. Mine are below. 

My husband, an Israeli, said what’s happening today in the West Bank –- Ramallah and Bethlehem was how dogs were treated in Tiberias, Israel when he was a kid. The dogs were wild and a local butcher had the job of poisoning them. When the poison didn’t work he would smash the dogs heads in with a rock, sometimes in front of horrified children. As graphic and terrible as it was, this was the reality of the times and place then –- the reality that Diana is living with now, in the less developed Palestinian Authority. 

A picture of Jesus, no doubt her inspiration, graces her Facebook. What would Jesus think of abused donkeys in his birthtown Bethlehem? His hands outstretched to welcome all animals.

Diana sees her mission as God’s work.

There are plenty of passages in the Bible that talk about animal rights. When Balaam was torturing his donkey who wanted to protect him from the Angel of Death. There is another passage about not taking away the eggs from a nest when a mother is watching, or not cooking the meat of a calf in the milk of its mother. 

Despite her abhorrence for animal cruelty and her fight against it, Diana is getting death threats in Bethlehem for her plan to build an animal shelter in the outskirts of the city. There is fighting at home too: Her father does not welcome the nine dogs she has brought home with her, and it’s a major cause for friction in the home.

Diana barely sleeps and is free to answer any message I send her, no matter the time of day: “Many people appreciate me and think I am a saint, but I go to sleep drained of energy, with back pain. The puppies –- they need vaccines against diseases and these cost a lot of money with I cover with my own money if the donations don’t come in,” she says.

Her work life is now mixed with her animal rescue efforts –– the need for more resources has meant that Diana had to take on a job managing a bus station, which is not unlike fielding the dozens of calls and text messages she gets every day between found homeless dogs and people who could save or adopt them. The day when my puppies came I think we exchanged 10 calls and about 50 messages. Diana clearly needs more resources to do this important job and we want to help spread the word so she can focus on it full-time. 

Diana has a Master’s Degree in International Cooperation and Development and a Bachelor Degree in English Literature. She speaks 6 languages, and probably also the secret languages of animals

A calling from God

“Good people call me or reach out to me on Facebook when they find dogs with broken legs, covered in ticks, burned with acid. Nablus is lucky that they have an amazing vet who saves a lot of puppies for us in the entire West Bank it’s not enough,” she explains. 

“What we do is a fight here. It’s really a war. These are difficult times.

“Most of the local authorities support fundraising European Union money for building infrastructure but never do they think about approaching the EU for helping put a stop to stray dogs and taking care of them. Some of my work has been to convince the municipalities that they need to invest in space, land, a clinic, vets.

“I found some land, a big piece of land and I started building a shelter and people there started threatening my life because they didn’t want me to build an animal shelter near them, but if we had it with the help of my volunteers we could find forever homes for all these dogs in Israel. 

“Thousands of dogs are shot and killed by the police every year. Whatever they shoot they just throw in the trash. I’ve found puppies shot and they are terrified and crying and it’s horrible,” says Diana on the verge of tears. 

I can hear men calling her to work in the background. 

“We need awareness here for animal rights. And Covid is making everything worse,” she stresses. “I see more abuse and now have to rescue birds, rabbits, donkeys. Many of these animals I can send to a vegan farm sanctuary in Israel.

“Legally animals are not allowed to cross into Israel. But animals,” stresses Diana, “should not be involved in any human-based conflict. Period.”

“God is pushing me to do this work. I believe it is something sacred,” she concludes.

—

Want to help Diana save more puppies, dogs, donkeys, cats? Visit her Facebook page here. Or donate through links on this page to a GoFundMe, Venmo, PayPal etc. If you are looking to adopt one of Diana’s pups, or to help her with bigger fundraising efforts with the EU please contact her via Whatsapp: +972 59-522-1771.

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A California woman riffed off that old saw of “turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse” when she chose to rebound from a difficult divorce by uprooting to a quiet new home near a tranquil river. She settled on a 6 acre parcel in 1983, where she often mused, “What am I thinking, single woman with no children living in a big house on 6 acres?” The universe soon provided her with the answer. More accurately, with hundreds of furry answers.

A few years into her new address, Lynea Lattanzio‘s father asked her to help replace his two Manx cats who had died of old age. She visited a local animal shelter, and carried home a box of 15 abandoned kittens (none of them Manx!). She was transformed by the experience,and within a year, she rescued and placed 96 homeless cats. Lattanzio had found her calling, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In 1993, she emerged from retirement to train as a surgical veterinary technician, increasing her medical knowledge, and helping to pay for expenses of her growing feline population, which now numbered 150. She next sold her beloved 1973 Mercedes 450SL and her two-carat diamond wedding ring. As explained on her website, these had no place in her newfound life.

In 1997, the Fresno County Board approved a zoning variance for her homestead, now named The Cat House on Kings, allowing it to openly promote itself, attracting new volunteers and needed financial support.

In 2001 her organization achieved non-profit status and – despite receiving no government or public funding – continued to expand, by 2004 its population numbered over 500 animals. A generous donor bequeathed her estate to The Cat House which enabled purchase of six neighboring acres and installation of cat-proof fencing around the entire 12-acre perimeter.

Since its founding 26 years ago, The Cat House on the Kings has saved over 30,000 cats and 7,100 dogs (not counting the 56,000 animals it has spayed and neutered) and currently cares for more than 700 cats and kittens, a dozen dogs and dozens of peacocks.

Lattanzio’s facility is California’s largest no-cage, no-kill, lifetime cat sanctuary and adoption center. It offers a variety of services including advice and education, adoption, and low-cost neutering.

Its mission is to place rescued animals into loving, permanent homes; to provide a safe, happy and healthy home for unwanted cats and kittens in a unique, no-cage facility; to prevent pet overpopulation through spaying and neutering; and to educate the public about responsible pet ownership.

The post Meet the real Catwoman and her mission to protect California’s strays appeared first on Green Prophet.

“Due to extreme hunger, some animals starved to death, and others have eaten each others,” social media user Miss Assnaa posted on Save an Innocent Animal Soul Facebook page Tuesday.

Zoo employees stand accused of feeding starved animals only when visitors offered money. The animals are believed to be lacking all medical care, and they are housed in filthy conditions. The zoo is located in the Sharqia governorate in the Nile Delta.

Zakazik Zoo director Ayman Lotfi denied such social media reports, adding that the 17-year-old baboon was injured after he went on the rampage because his pregnant wife abandoned him for his newly born baboon. Lotfi continued in remarks to Youm7 that the zoo decided to isolate the baboon, the father, to protect the baby, adding that the baboon suffered inflammation of the lymph glands.

Egyptian zoos have long been plagued by problems, with the most egregious offenses occurring in the aftermath of the  January 2011 revolution. Earlier in 2004, Giza Zoo lost its certification from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), largely due to financial ability to maintain the zoo but also because of a spate of suspicious animal deaths.

Animal rights activists have long been concerned about conditions at Egyptian zoos, which echo the nation’s widespread poverty and bureaucratic failings. Zoo employees are underpaid, earning less than $60 a month, have little experience or training, and no incentives to protect the animals they care for. Instead, the employees often trail visitors, offering random commentary about the animals, and offering opportunities to hold them, feed them, or photograph them in attempt to incite tips.

Zoos are prone to bad publicity, especially when animals are injured. Cairo’s government-run Giza Zoo may be particularly susceptible, given Egypt’s floundering economy and an overall poor track record in animal care.

In 2013, a 3-year-old giraffe died after getting fatally tangled in wires dangling inside her enclosure. A media furor ensued when zoo officials asserted that the animal had committed suicide. That same year, three black bears died in a single night in what Zoo authorities called “a bear riot.”  In 2007 and in 2008, local media reported that zookeepers were slaughtering the park’s camels for meat for themselves, and to sell to others.

Mona Khalil, a founder of the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals, which runs two shelters and provides free veterinary care to poor farmers on Cairo’s outskirts, said at the time, “This is not a zoo, this is hell for animals.”

Image from Cairo Post

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Israeli non-profit Modern Agriculture Foundation (MAF) is developing lab-grown chicken meat that doesn’t require the rearing and slaughtering of birds.  Since 2014, they’ve been researching mass production of cultured chicken meat from a single bird cell.  If they succeed, we could soon be asking, Which came first, the chicken…or the chicken?

Chicken is the world’s second favorite meat product after pork, with an estimated 23 million chickens killed daily just to feed Americans. The United Nations estimates that by 2050 world population will exceed 9.6 billion. That’s two billion more mouths to feed, and increasingly, they’ll be meat-eaters. How is the food industry gearing up for demand?

In 2013, Green Prophet reported on the first lab-grown beef, an experiment undertaken by Maastricht University which culminated in a hamburger patty that cost roughly $325,000 to create. We questioned the viability of “victimless meat“: will consumer commitment to food with a lower carbon footprint overcome the “ick” factor of meat born in a petri dish?  Considerable investment will be needed to scale up to commercial manufacture, so for now production of synthetic meat (or shmeat, or tubesteak) is now limited to research labs.

Did you know that ranching and livestock rearing now take up 30% of earth’s surface? Meat production causes negative environmental impacts ranging from soil erosion to deforestation with significant losses in biodiversity.

A report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization found that current levels of meat production contributes up to 22 percent of the 36 billion tons of “CO2-equivalent” greenhouse gases (GHG) generated globally every year. Scientific American put that into perspective, calculating that producing half a pound of hamburger releases as much GHG into the atmosphere as driving a 3,000-pound car nearly 10 miles. The industry is also a voracious consumer of water (4,325 liters of water is required to produce 1 kg of chicken meat, according to the British Institute of Mechanical Engineers ).

“Earth cannot take it. It’s not a prediction or speculation. It’s truth. There’s not enough land on the planet to raise the animals. We are raising 70 billion land animals at the moment. We won’t have space for another 70 billion,” MAF cofounder and biologist Shir Friedman told Mirror Online.

Cultivated meat sidesteps animal cruelty and flock-shared disease such as Avian and Swine flu.

Chickens bred for meat are typically raised in highly efficient (and controversially cruel) intensive factory farms which accelerate the birds’ growth to market weight in six to seven weeks, a rate three times faster than in the mid-1900’s.

Use of growth hormones in poultry is illegal in the US and many other countries, but the animals are fed high calorie feeds to quicken weight gain, which cause all manner of medical problems to the birds including immobility. Proponents of cultivated meat will point out that the fried thigh you are about to tuck into may have been pressed to a feces-packed floor for the few months of its owner’s life, featherless and covered with sores.

Cultured meat is made from stem cells harvested from live animals. The cells are fed with a nutrient cocktail that enables them to grow into muscle tissue, which must be mechanically stimulated in order to develop properly. It is 100% meat, and involves no genetic engineering.

Tissue specialist Amit Gefen (pictured below) from Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering is heading up the MAF study which aims to have devise a lab-cultured chicken meat recipe by January 2016, identifying all associated technologies, resources, and costs.  The goal is to one day produce in factories on a commercial scale, which would require between seven and 45 percent less energy, 90% less fresh water and 99% less land, and would result in 80 to 90% less GHG emissions than the traditional chicken meat industry.

“If 2.5 billion people join us in eating only cultured meat by 2050, we get all those resources back. It’s truly a magic solution,” says Friedman.

Hebrew University Prof. Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, says that if the process becomes economically feasible, “the ecological and ethical considerations would make cultured meat irresistible. Cultured meat is one of the most important revolutions in the history of food and in the history of humankind itself.”

MAF is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization founded in March last year. The project is privately funded.

Lead image of a chicken from Shutterstock, all others from MAF Facebook page.

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Uber will be chauffeuring puppies on-demand across Amman, Beirut, Cairo and Istanbul today for anyone wanting to take a “paws” to refresh. It works like this: open your Uber app between 11 AM and 3 PM today and tap the “UberPUPPIES” option. A car will arrive with cuddly, precious cargo – just as all Uber cars do – with the vehicle and driver fully described, and an estimated arrival time.

Pups will be driven to homes and schools. Visits are open to office workers too. Check with your boss or building that they are cool with canine visitors.  Smart to check with coworkers to suss out who may have allergies, too. You and your friends will enjoy 15 minutes of puppy cuteness before the adorable critters return to their car for their next prepaid playdate.

There’s a JD10 cost per booking – which the car company calls a “snuggling fee” – with all proceeds going to selected animal welfare groups in each participating city. Malath Canaan Rescue is a foster-based NGO that focuses on the magnificent Canaan breed, Jordan’s most common stray dog. Their volunteer rescues, rehabilitates, provides medical treatment and re-homes the local dogs.

Malath says on their Facebook page, “The Canaan dog is the most abused, unwanted and tortured dog in the Middle East. They are one of the most loyal, loving, protective and easy-to-train dogs.”  Malath is the only network in Jordan that rescues this breed, and – due to local cultural views on dogs, and the Canaan in particular – the group works to find the animals homes with foreign owners and in countries other than Jordan.

Amman also boasts the Humane Shelter for Animal Welfare, with a no-kill shelter, vibrant pet adoption program, veterinary clinic and an ambitious program to offer treatment for the kingdom’s working animals.

Istanbul too has a robust animal welfare force.  Last year Green Prophet reported on a volunteer initiative for rescuing and resettling golden retrievers. Uber expects demand will be high.and urges you to be patient and keep trying to make your booking. But if you’re not in one of the named cities, or if your Amman road is underwater today, check out Malath online – (link here) – or visit your local animal shelter – to make a donation directly, or better yet, bring an animal into your life forever.

Image of adorable dog from Uber

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There’s a huge new movement in Israel. Not politics. Food. Specifically, veganism. Of a country totalling eight million people, an estimated 200,000 are now declared vegans (see Karin’s post about the growing movement here). That’s roughly 2.5 percent of the population.

Influential  American animal-rights activist Gary Yourofsky’s recent visits to Israel,  and his videos, tipped the balance towards veganism for many. Another factor is cruelty to animals in slaughterhouses and poultry farms, exposed on the consumer-awareness Kolbotek program in 2012 (link to the animal abuse video in Israel here).

An undercover reporter posing as a slaughterhouse worker filmed animal abuse at a Beit Shean slaughterhouse.  Kolbotek also exposed the frozen fish scandal, which we reported on here – covering the problems of fish from China.

Following widespread public protests and threatened boycotts, the slaughterhouse manager and workers involved were fired, and cameras installed at the location for ongoing inspection.But for many Israelis, the damage was done. Stimulated by Yourofsky’s fiery brand of activism, thousands of vegan-curious and hesitant Israelis have committed to a totally animal-product-free diet in the past two years.

Vegan groups like Vegan Friendly have levered the new vegan popularity into menu choices at restaurants. The Greg chain of cafes now proudly features a vegan-friendly menu, and the Domino’s pizza chain has a pizza with soy cheese. Here’s the Israeli Vegan Dining Guide from the website of Ori Shavit. Vegan Friendly also certifies vegan-friendly eateries with a sticker to place on their windows as a signal to passing hungry vegans. The demand for vegan products is even manifesting in supermarkets, where soy and grain-based milks are on the shelves and tofu cheese sits comfortably next to milk cheeses.

Israel’s cuisine already shines with delicious dishes that contain no animal products, although no one has thought of them as “vegan” until the trend appeared in the country. Muhamarra red pepper spread, ful and humous, baba ganoush and spicy sambusak turnovers are just a hint of  traditional Middle-Eastern foods that would make any vegan feel comfortable in Israel. How about a sweet potato and lentil salad?

More on veganism in Israel:

• 268life Activists Brand Themselves Like Cows
• Veganism Goes Viral In Israel
• 10 Animal-Free Foods That Are NOT Vegetarian

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