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Click to enlarge Page one news 20 December 2015

Frederic Bastiat and football punditry  – “In the day job I call Arsene Wenger a great economist. I’m making a serious point. … there is a close affinity between economics and sport; each can illuminate the other. I suspect you could learn more about economics from football than you could from the empty suits at Davos this week. “ U.S. Research Lab Lets Livestock Suffer in Quest for Profit  – Animal Welfare at Risk in Experiments for Meat Industry – “Pigs are having many more piglets — up to 14, instead of the usual eight — but hundreds of those newborns, too frail or crowded to move, are being crushed each year when their mothers roll over. Cows, which normally bear one calf at a time, have been retooled to have twins and triplets, which often emerge weakened or deformed, dying in such numbers that even meat producers have been repulsed. Then there are the lambs. In an effort to develop “easy care” sheep that can survive without costly shelters or shepherds, ...

When it comes to the abolition of commercial animal torture, an individual Australian state and territory government can do little more than engage in futile gestures. The ACT Environment Minister Shane Rattenbury explained why when introducing changes to the Animal Welfare (Factory Farming) Bill that became law during 2014. As he explained to the Legislative Assembly: This is now the fifth bill introduced into this Assembly by a Greens member to ban battery hens in the ACT. The first bill was passed in 1997. However, as the bill also included provisions banning the sale of caged eggs in the ACT, under the commonwealth Mutual Recognition Act, it needed approval from all other jurisdictions in Australia before the act could commence. As this did not occur, the act has been sitting on our statute books uncommenced for 16 years. This bill removes those provisions to enable the current bill to commence. So what the ACT ended up with is legislation that bans battery hens by new pro...

Switzerland: Ban Urged on Eating Cats and Dogs – NYTimes.com . By  REUTERS NOV. 26, 2014 An animal rights group has petitioned the Swiss government to ban a traditional, if rare, practice of eating cats for Christmas dinner and turning dogs into sausages. Tomi Tomek, president of the animal rights group SOS CHATS Noiraigue, said 3 percent of the population still eats cat and dog. “You can’t report it to the police because there’s no law against it,” he said

The cause of animal welfare is certainly making political progress. Around the world governments are moving to restrict testing of cosmetics on animals and now the major food producer Nestlé is promising to enforce new animal welfare standards on its suppliers which could affect “hundreds of thousands of farms around the world”. The Swiss headquartered company has entered into an agreement with the NGO  World Animal Protection  (previously known as WSPA – World Society for the Protection of Animals) to ensure that supply Nestlé of its dairy, meat, poultry and eggs complies with tighter animal welfare standards. Nestlé says  it has some 7,300 suppliers from whom it buys animal-derived products directly – everything from milk for its range of yoghurts and ice-creams, to meat for its chilled foods and eggs for its fresh pastry and pasta. Each of these suppliers, in turn, buys from others, meaning that Nestlé’s Responsible Sourcing Gu...

No cosmetics tested on animals under Labour  - “A Labour Government will help protect animals from harm by prohibiting the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals. “ Why Smartphone Breaks At Work Aren’t Such A Bad Idea Almost half of the world actually prefers instant coffee ‘ Hidden From Google’ lists pages blocked by search engine  - “A website has been set up to list items Google has removed after the European Court of Justice ruled people could have articles about them deleted from the results of specific search terms.  Hidden From Google  claims to have had “hundreds” of tip-offs from its users.” How do you pay for a drug that costs $84,000?  – There’s a new $84,000 treatment for hepatitis C that’s giving new hope to patients. But it’s also giving a health-care system strained by limited resources a strong reality check. Since Gilead Sciences unveiled Sovaldi more than six months ago, its $84,000 price tag has ignited a conversation in the...