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Last year, GAIA launched its ‘Save the kangaroos’ campaign. By sharing shocking images and hard facts, the animal rights organisation has already managed to convince several major supermarkets – including Delhaize – to remove kangaroo meat from their shelves. ‘The current forest fires break our hearts’, says GAIA Director, Ann De Greef. ‘Despite everything that’s happened, kangaroos continue to be hunted in Australia. Over the past few days, we’ve done everything in our power to convince the rest of the supermarkets to stop selling kangaroo meat. And it’s paid off. Yesterday, Carrefour Belgium decided to discontinue its sale of kangaroo meat.’ A few days later Cora and Makro followed their decision.
In October 2019, GAIA field researchers examined the situation at three turkey farms in West Flanders. What they found were distressing situations in an unregulated sector: thousands of turkeys crammed into tight spaces, severely weakened, dying and injured animals, covered in all manner of wounds, turkeys with severely damaged feathers, animals with dead skin on their backs and flanks, carcasses in an advanced state of decomposition, poultry house floors covered with faeces, turkeys smeared with faeces, etc.
Update on the achievements of GAIA during the periode of september - december 2019.
In an open letter to Carrefour Belgium, Carrefour France, Cora and Auchan, Brigitte Bardot condemns the sale of kangaroo meat in their stores. By doing so, the world-renowned actress has aligned herself with GAIA’s ‘Save the kangaroo’ campaign.
Brigitte Bardot—who celebrated her 85th birthday on 28 September—has received the GAIA Lifetime Achievement Award. The award itself reveals why she is the one to receive it: two open hands lifting up seven animals, including a horse, lamb, and seal. Plus the inscription: ‘And God created the advocate for animals rights’, as a symbol of her tremendous efforts and activities.
In close collaboration with GAIA, Continental Foods - the Belgian leader in agri-food - commits to no longer sourcing chickens bred to grow extremely quickly in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany and Sweden by 2026.
On 25 July, GAIA launched its summer campaign in Brussels, attended by an outstanding ambassador: the Belgian sprinter Kevin Borlée. Hundreds of ‘Cage Fighters’ have been imprisoned in 12 Belgian cities.
Wallonia and Flanders both decided to ban slaughtering without stunning within their own regions. Brussels Region alone has not yet reached a decision on the subject. 17 associations demand a ban in an open letter to the Government and Brussels Parliament.
On 18 July, Brussels-Capital Region got a new government. Good news: responsibility for animal welfare now comes within the remit of a Minister, Bernard Clerfayt (DéFI) instead of a Secretary of State (Bianca Debaets, CD&V in the previous legislature).
On the 10th of July, Cruelty Free Europe was launched in Brussels. This new coalition, represented in Belgium by GAIA, aims to end animal testing in Europe.
KFC decided, in close co-operation with GAIA, to raise the welfare standards of its chickens. The chain is promising to end the use of rapid-growth breeds of chicken for its restaurants in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands and United Kingdom, by 2026.
The road American horsemeat follows to get to our country is still strewn with an enormous amount of abuse, neglect, and fraud. This has been shown by new investigation carried out in Uruguay, Argentina, and Canada by the Tierschutzbund Zurich and Animal Welfare Foundation, both partner organisations of GAIA.
Based on its close cooperation with GAIA, the meat processing company Aoste has decided to gradually switch to the 1-star ‘Beter Leven Keurmerk’ (Better Life Label) for all its poultry products.
Global Action in the Interest of Animals (GAIA) applauds yesterdays unanimous decision by the Flemish parliament to ban fur farming and force feeding for fois gras production.
On 25 April 2019, the VAT reduction was approved by the Chamber.
The Brussels-Capital Region approved the first reading of a draft proposal to ban breeding, selling and keeping hybrid cats and the ‘Fold’ cats.
On 3 April the Flemish Parliament unanimously approved the decree proposal that forbids the use of fireworks, crackers, carbide cannons and sky lanterns unless a municipal or city government has given express permission for their use.
Is it possible to produce real meat without slaughtering animals and as such without the mass killing of animals? That is precisely the point of ‘cell-based meat’ or ‘slaughter-free meat’, a technological revolution that GAIA is proposing by way of a new website: www.kweekvlees.be and www.viandecultivee.be.
Each year, about 1.6 million kangaroos are hunted and killed in particularly cruel conditions. This statistic makes the kangaroo the most hunted wild animal in the world. Unfortunately, Belgium is partly responsible for maintaining this commercial hunt, as it is the world's largest importer of kangaroo meat for human consumption.
On January 1, 2019, many things will change in terms of animal welfare.
