NEWS

First university in the Ural region signs formal agreement on stopping animal experiments 4.02.2010

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VITA Animal Rights Center in Russia wishes you a Merry Christmas and happy and compassionate New Year!

SKY News "Russia's Circuses: Cruel Or A Good Show?" / VIDEO October 19, 2009

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Outreach, alternatives awareness and replacement in Russia. Elena Maroueva and Nick Jukes.2008 (zip/pdf. 120 Kb)

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"We want to campaign for new legislation in Russia that would regulate crimes against animal cruelty, which have been spreading quickly in recent times," said Irina Novozhilova, president of Vita.

Activists Kick Off Drive for Animal Rights Law. 24 June 2009. The Moscow Times

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Russian authorities have FULLY BANNED the hunt for
baby harp seals under 1 year of age

VITA Animal Rights Center
www.vita.org.ru
vita-russia@yandex.ru

18.03.09 Moscow

Press-release

Today, March 18th, Russian authorities have fully banned the hunt for baby harp seals under 1 year of age.

The public protest against the hunt for baby harp seals culminated with the campaign started a year ago by VITA Animal Rights Center and involed Russian celebrities (Layma Vaykule, Artemiy Troitskiy, Alyona Sviridova, Alexander F. Sklyar, Victor Gusev) visiting the coast of the White Sea accompanied by a whole helicopter of reporters. The celebrity trip created an unheard-of response in Russian society. The event was heatedly discussed in the Arhangelsk region all through the year, related media stories were followed by numerous phone calls from various regions of Russia. The campaign was joined by dozens of drama and cinema actors, musicians, politicians, scientists, athletes. The protest was boosted by Andrey Arshavin; Viktor Gusev encouraged Russians not to remain indifferent to the problem during the broadcast of football matches of "Zenit"-"Spartak" and "Moskva"-"Zenit" teams, and renowned musician
Andrey Makarevich negotiated with the administration of the region as well as the Executive office of the President. For the first time in Russian history rallies in support of the seals were held all over the country. Finally, other countries learned about the Russian seal hunt,
having previously known only about a similar problem in Canada. The goal of the campaign was achieved, change was on the way. Exactly a year later after Vita's press-conference announcing the start of a unique campaign on the White Sea, Russian prime-minister Vladimir Putin has
announced the full ban on the baby seal hunt: "This is a cruel industry, and it is clear that it should have been banned a long time ago".

Commercial slaughter of whitecoat baby seals BANNED in Russia

VITA Animal Rights Center
www.vita.org.ru
vita-russia@yandex.ru

13.03.09 Moscow

Press-release

On 10 March 2009 VITA organised a second journey to the ice floes of the White Sea

The groundbreaking first visit made by VITA activists and Russian celebrities to the ice floes of the White Sea  (where the whitecoats were slaughtered) in March 2008 (see attached information) and the countless TV clips that followed the event have led to a Russian ban on the commercial killing of whitecoats. On 16 January 2009 the Federal Agency for Fisheries issued an Order banning the slaughter. This decision was confirmed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who stated in an interview to the Russian press: “It is a bloody business and it should obviously have been stopped long ago.” VITA campaign  was greatly appreciated by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia who has  chosen it as the Best Ecological Project of the Year 2008.

However, the ban applies only to baby seals. Now, on the eve of the hunting season for greycoats (young animals whose coats are no longer white), VITA and other animal protection activists are determined to obtain a ban on the commercial killing of all young seals.

With this aim, on 10 March VITA and the “Living Nature” Club organised a flight for journalists to the ice-covered White Sea, where Greenland seals are born.

“The goal of our journey to the ice,” said Alexey Skrobanskiy, VITA’s coordinator in Arkhangelsk, “ is a complete ban on the commercial slaughter of all young Greenland seals. We also want journalists to see for themselves that seal-watching is a unique kind of tourism which is already proving successful and in terms of jobs is a highly effective alternative to the two-week slaughter of whitecoats.”

“We are delighted with the government’s ban; it is an unprecedented victory for public opinion,” said Irina Novozhilova, president of VITA. “The first step has now been taken. However, we want to point out to the government that the commercial slaughter of greycoats is of absolutely no use as a way of ensuring an income for local residents; indeed, not only is it unethical, it is also unprofitable.”

Claims that people living in the region would be made jobless by the slaughter ban are completely unreal. In the first place, a killing season lasting two weeks cannot possibly feed people for the other 350 days in the year. Finding two weeks’ work for 75 people (this is the official total of local people employed in the slaughter) should not be an insurmountable problem, bearing in mind that there are over 50 types of industry in the region which have collapsed in recent years. These include collecting and processing kelp, cultivating various crops, gathering and preparing berries and mushrooms, manufacturing timber products, etc.

In the second place, the commercial slaughter of seals in the White Sea is carried out nowadays by Norwegian companies with the financial backing of Norwegian investors; the local Russian workers are paid a pittance. It therefore seems to us that Russia has better things to do than supply the people of Norway with employment and  Norwegian businessmen with profits.   

For additional information please contact VITA at vita-russia@yandex.ru

VITA and Russian stars have just completed an extraordinary flight to the White Sea to prevent the killing of baby seals

VITA Animal Rights Centre (Moscow) www.vita.org.ru, vita-russia@yandex.ru Phone:

14.03.08. Press-release

Public protests against the killing of newly born Greenland seals in the Archangel region have resulted in a ban on the hunting of baby seals this year. Officially, the reason for the ban was the dangerously thin ice. The real reason was the wave of protests from celebrities and animal protectionists. Now the Russian animal activists and stars are trying to have this year’s ban on the hunt of white-coat pups and “greys” (slightly older pups) translated into a legal ban.

On 10 and 11 March Russian celebrities - singers & musicians Laima Vaikule, Alena Sviridova, leader of the rock group "Va-Bank" Aleksandr F. Sklyar, music critic Artemyi Troitsky, and famous sports commentator 1 tv channel Viktor Gusev, together with film and TV cameramen, made an extraordinary flight in two helicopters to the coastal village of Letnyaya Zolotitsa; here they disembarked on to the ice at a place where the Greenland seals give birth. The event was organised by VITA, the Animal Rights Centre (Moscow). (Photos of the event can be downloaded from VITA website www.vita.org.ru)

This extreme journey, which placed demands of strength and courage on the stars, had to be undertaken in two stages because of the unpredictable weather conditions in the North, and required an ice-reconnaissance by aeroplane the day before the scheduled landing on the ice-floe. A snowstorm on the first day meant the helicopters could not land on the floe, so they all had to make the short flight to the base of the “Living Nature Club”, where they saw for themselves what could be an alternative to hunting, namely, eco-tourism, which employs dozens of local inhabitants. Eco-tours include flights to see the new-born seals, holidays in the pine woods and seeing the ethical “industries” of the North: preparing cloudberries, bilberries, cranberries, mushrooms, seaweed, etc.

On the second day the weather report gave the go-ahead for helicopters to land passengers on the ice several kilometres from Letnyaya Zolotitsa, where seals had been spotted. The activists disembarked close to the place where the seals give birth and discovered several infants had just been born; they were still attached to the umbilical cord. Against the background of an idyllic picture of seals with their new-born infants, the Russian stars, watched by dozens of movie cameras and press photographers, spoke to camera, asking the public to join the protest and demand a legal ban in Russia on one of the cruellest crimes against nature committed by human beings: the killing of defenceless baby seals.
“I went there to say to the public: it is wrong to harm baby seals,” said Laima Vaikule. “But now I’m convinced this must be shouted from the rooftops! Seals, like human beings, carry their unborn babies a long time, 11 months … There I realised that I am one of them. One of those who are murdered thoughtlessly, for the sake of a few kopecks, to make a fur coat, by hired killers who have no sense of pity. How much pain, how many tears in every fur coat!”

Before boarding their helicopter the five celebrities improvised a demonstration against the barbaric seal hunt; they lay on the snow like newly born pups, next to a placard with the slogan, “Russia without cruelty!”

The stars’ descent on the White Sea, which caused the local authorities to ban this year’s hunt, provoked a tremendous furore in the seal-killers’ camp. From the moment of their arrival the stars had to face fierce opposition from the hunters; at the entrance to their Archangel hotel they were confronted by a group of furious seal-hunters carrying banners.

The press conference which took place immediately after the arrival in Archangel, and where hunters were among those present, turned into a stormy two-hour discussion. The three basic arguments of the hunt supporters were as follows; to keep alive the unique traditions of the local people, to control the seal population, and the lack of any ethical alternative employment in the region. Some of the hunters even followed the celebrities to the airfield where one of them tried to board the stars’ helicopter.

“We are sure that this project will attract massive attention to this problem not only among Russian society, but worldwide. We have had our first success – there will be no slaughter of baby seals this year,” said Irina Novozhilova, president of VITA. “However, we want the ban on killing to be made a legal requirement, and one that would cover seal pups of any age.”

Foto

Video: Baby seal massacre suspended, Russian today. March 12, 2008, 11:34

The Painful Truth from Laima Vaikule Passport Magazine June 2008

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First step on the road to victory:
The authorities in the Archangel region have backed the call to ban the killing of baby seals

VITA Animal Rights Centre (Moscow)

www.vita.org.ru, vita-russia@yandex.ru Phone: 007-495-954-92-79

4.03.2008 Press-release

Moscow-based animal protection organisation “VITA” is flying celebrities and journalists to the White Sea ice floes on 9 March, in the hope of ending the seal hunt in Russia once and for all. The flight was the subject of a lively press-conference which VITA organised with the help of Russian stars at Interfax on 28 February. The next day (29 February) the authorities in the Archangel region called on the State Fisheries Agency (Goskomrybolovstvo) to announce a ban on hunting Greenland seals below the age of one year.

Greenland seals swim to the White Sea (Russia, Archangel region) every year in late February-early March to give birth.

The utter helplessness of the baby seals makes them easy prey for seal-hunters, and their white coats are a desirable commodity for the fur trade. Russia is now the only country in the world that permits the slaughter of new-born pups of Greenland seals. (Canada allows the killing of “greys”, slightly older pups.)

There is a widespread myth that hunting baby seals is a traditional practice among the people living on the Russian White Sea coast, but the large-scale slaughter of seals only began in Stalinist times as a way of employing prisoners in the labour camps. Over the years it gradually died out because it was unprofitable; in 2006 no killing took place. However, last year the administrative authorities of the Archangel region signed a contract with the Norwegian firm G C Rieber Skin AS to kill white-coat pups in Russia, announcing the agreement as “a step in the regeneration of the region”. In 2007 the Norwegians equipped four ships with Canadian technology for the slaughter of white-coat pups, intending to build dozens more ships and a factory to process the carcases.This year the Russian authorities set a slaughter quota of 30,000 white-coat pups. There is no limit on the number of grey-coats that can be killed. The hunt is due to take place 1-10 March.

In February VITA began a campaign to stop the cruel slaughter of baby seals. It organised mass petitions, publicised the proposed hunt in the media and asked celebrities for support. On 28 February VITA, Interfax and Russian stars Laima Vaikule, Andrei Makarevich, Elena Kamburova, Konstantin Raikin and Mikhail Shirvindt held a press-conference in defence of the baby seals. It was widely reported in the media.

VITA is organising the helicopter flight to the White Sea ice-floes on 9 March to draw attention to this ethical problem and in the hope of achieving a ban on the killing of baby seals in Russia. The Russian stars prepared to defend the animals, together with VITA and media representatives will land on an ice-floe near the area where the seals are hunted. The journey is not without danger, because this year the ice has not frozen as solid as it usually does. Nevertheless, VITA and the celebrities are determined to get the killing stopped. Even if the State Fishing Agency accedes to the request by the Archangel authorities (which came about following the press-conference) and bans the hunt of white-coats, the flight will still go ahead: the animal defenders want to congratulate the baby seals.

Foto_____________________________________________

Pamela Anderson Asks Russia's Top Designers to Go Fur-Free

Internationally renowned television and film star Pamela Anderson - on
behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment Animals (PETA) and the Moscow center for the protection of animal rights VITA - has sent a letter to Russia's top fashion designers, urging
them to stop using fur. Enclosed with the letter is PETA's shocking video
narrated by Anderson and dubbed into Russian - in which she describes the
horrific suffering of animals caught in traps and raised on fur farms as
graphic images of the animals' painful lives and deaths appear on the
screen. Although Anderson has written to North American designers who use
fur and even travelled to Paris to personally show the video to French
designers, her letter marks the first time that a mailing of this type has
been sent to Russian designers.

"It amazes me that some designers still turn animals into fashion
victims",says Anderson. "I've written to them all to say, 'Foxes and chinchillas
are anally electrocuted, beavers are drowned in underwater traps and minks are
injected with weedkiller, all for a tacky coat that makes women look like
Bigfoot!'"

In the video, Anderson takes viewers on a worldwide undercover tour of fur
farms and trap lines. In Russia, wolves, beavers and raccoons are trapped,
drowned and beaten to death in the wild, and in Europe and the US,
chinchillas and minks suffer electrocution and neck-breaking on fur farms.
In Korea, a top fur-producing nation, foxes are crushed between wooden
planks.

Pamela Anderson's letter to Russian designer (designer's name here)
follows.

For more information, please visit PETA's Web site FurIsDead.com
or contact Moscow center for the protection of animal rights VITA
at (495) 954-92-79, vita-russia@yandex.ru

I am writing on behalf of my friends at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the organization's more than 800,000 members and supporters worldwide. As a fan of fashion, I am always interested to see what top designers are using in their new collections, and I was disappointed to learn that you used real fur in some of your designs this season. Using real fur is completely unnecessary, since there are many fashionable and functional alternatives available.

You may not be aware of the cruelty inherent in the fur industry. Most animals killed for their fur are raised on fur farms, confined to cages hardly bigger than their own bodies. Most are killed while they are still babies, with gruesome methods such as electrocution, gassing, and neck-breaking-and without prior stunning. Some animals are still alive when they are skinned. Animals trapped in the wild are caught in steel leghold traps, and they often wait for days before the hunter comes to beat them to death. Some die of exposure or predation, others chew off their own limbs to escape, only to die later of blood loss or shock.

Enclosed you will find a video that I narrated about the cruel fur industry, which I hope you will take a moment to watch. What you will see on the tape is horrifying, but it is standard fur-farming practice. I hope it will persuade you to change your mind about using fur. Please let me know if you have decided to stop using real fur so that I can share that information with PETA's many supporters around the world. You can reach me by e-mail at PamelaA@peta.org. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,
Pamela Anderson