We begin this issue of our e-newsletter with the appeal for help regarding the change of the Animal Welfare Act of Croatia. After two years of lobbying for the change of it and rejection of our bill proposal by Croatian parliament last October, we have achieved the cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management on their own proposal. Hence we ask everyone who is in the position to help us with suggestions to get in touch by replying to this e-mail. Thanks in advance.

After the rescuing and homing of the 32 beagles from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb, new actions of animal 'rescuing' have followed. The oddity is that this time the farm animals were in question! The chronology of our activities is as follows:

- Protest against Gärtner in Sisak
- Demo in Ljubljana against animal experimentation
- Animal Friends stood up for the sheep in project Stado
- Homing of Vietnamese pig from the Big Brother show
- Animal Friends Days 2005
- Protest against slaughter of the dolphins in Japan
- Various

Protest against Gärtner in Sisak

The protest against the national circus of shame called Gärtner doesn't differ much from other protests in Croatian towns if our activists hadn't rushed from Zagreb on the Idis parking lot in Sisak with two cars stiffed with activists, in order to, annoying as mosquitoes, pester the organizers of the afternoon and the evening shows, thus giving support to the local activists and members of our branch in Sisak. The comparison with mosquitoes is more than suitable in this case, because during the second show the mosquitoes pricked our activists all over who, during the protest, performed a funny-looking 'dance', trying to defend themselves from this little annoyance.

Demo in Ljubljana against animal experimentation

After a very successful and by media well-attended demo in Maribor at the end of June, Animal Friends Croatia also visited Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 15 September to support their Slovenian colleagues and activists, that call themselves Ljudje za – People for (www.ljudjeza.org), in raising Ljubljana's citizens' consciousness regarding a lifestyle without cruelty.

After the demo, two of our activists headed for London, where they took part at the ECEAE-a (www.eceae.org) meeting from 16 to 19 September. Member organizations exchanged their experiences and success in the field of fight against vivisection and also considered Animal Friends Croatia's joining this coalition.

Animal Friends stood up for the sheep in project Stado

Were the seven sheep from the reality show Stado (flock) of the artist Sinisa Labrovic in the old factory in Zagreb supposed to end up slaughtered, in case the lucky 'winners' refused to home them upon their elimination, was the question which intrigued the Croatian public until our report of the show to the Veterinary inspection, which, quite unlikely to it, reacted the same moment and prohibited inflicting any pain to animals during the project and demanded more intensive health care of the animals.

Although the sheep from the project Stado stayed alive and were homed, as promised by the artist himself, it is questionable in what hands they ended up. The reaction of the public, our organization and the Veterinary inspection clearly showed that exploitation of animals for artistic, cultural, movie and entertainment industry purposes, as well as public promotions, must not be tolerated. In regards to the artist Labrovic, we hope that he will not anymore use animals in his projects.

Homing of Vietnamese pig from the Big Brother show

The little pig Frida was given to the clinic for internal diseases of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb for intensive care, after being bought by RTL television for their reality show Big Brother. After negotiation between Animal Friends Croatia and RTL Frida remained in intensive care, although she was supposed to return to the Big Brother house where she almost starved out and showed disturbed behavior being unable to stand on her feet. To protect the small pig's health, Animal Friends Croatia demanded that after her treatment would be over she should be homed, since forcing her to further participate in the show would be fatal for her. That was also confirmed by the veterinaries.

After the intensive veterinary care, Frida arrived in the home of her new caretakers. Animal Friends Croatia organization wants to thank RTL for giving Frida into their hands for adoption and for showing responsibility and sensibility for Frida's wellbeing.

Animal Friends Days 2005

The fourth Animal Friends Days were marked with numerous vegan tastings and info stands, as well as lectures and video projections, not only in Zagreb but also in our branches in Split, Varazdin and Sisak. As part of World Farm Animals Day in Zagreb we organized a children's workshop. Children of the visitors of Maksimir Park painted and drew farm animals and got vegan cakes as reward, whilst the students who listened to the lecture of our guest from England Anne Ashley and watched the video projection about experiments on animals in the High school for Classical Languages got the cosmetic products as gifts, which were not tested on animals. On the World Day of Animal Protection our activists performed an interesting show 'Let's Protect All Animals From Slavery', which attracted many passers-by on the main square in Zagreb. The photos can be seen on our web page www.prijatelji-zivotinja.hr.

Without a doubt, the peak of Animal Friends Days was a rock-punk-ska-raggea-hip hop concert in Zagreb's club Boogaloo on the World Vegetarian Day, which attracted a record-breaking 2000 visitors! We would like to use this opportunity once more to thank the bands for their great playing which warmed up the crowds – Scroll, Fraktura mozga, Flyer, Brain Holidays, Antenat, Stillness, and Hakoona matata, as well as the sponsors who helped us realize this concert – Boogaloo, Iskon, Bosch, Lush, Annyer, Euro Unit, Encian, and Anapurna and our junior activists who did the all the work of organization professionally and responsibly.

Protest against slaughter of the dolphins in Japan

Thirty-odd activists of Animal Friends Croatia and Morigenos from Slovenia gathered in front of the Japanese Embassy in Zagreb on 8 October on the Japan Dolphin Day, thus joining other cities worldwide that raised their voices against the slaughter of the dolphins in Japan. During the protest the activists symbolically showed how the Japanese fishermen force the dolphins in the shallow by creating noise, where they massacre them with the knives and machetes. Animal Friends and Morigenos sent a report and photos from the demo to the Japanese Embassies in Zagreb and Vienna in order to appeal to the Japanese Government to ban the slaughter of the dolphins.

Various

- On 25 September in Zagreb a lecture about animal experiments was held for the caretakers of the beagles from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Beside the Inside Biosearch video projection, the word was about vivisection and specific needs of the animals subjected to experiments. We thank all caretakers who responded to our invitation and showed interest to join us in our fight against animal experimentation.

- Animal Friends Croatia reacted on the agreement of the Committee for Monitoring the Population of Large Predators that it is necessary to kill four wolves in Croatia because of alleged too large number of wolves. The whole announcement can be seen on our web page under section Campaigns.

- District Matulji made an absurd decision in which it limits the number of companion animals in the apartments and court-yards in Matulji, on which, amongst others, also reacted Animal Friends Croatia.

- On 24 September, Animal Friends delegation went to Trieste to the book promotion and the lecture of Tom Regan, who simply inspired us with his instructive lecture about animal rights and veganism. We hope that great books of this animal rights advocate will soon be translated in Croatia too.

- After the Animal Friends Days, our activists continued with the series of lectures. Thus, after the lecture in the Golden Hall of Komaja society we held a lecture 'A Thin Line Between Racism and Specieism' in the premises of Croatian-American Society and also a lecture and video projection about animal rights in one students home.

- The World Peace Summit, on which our organization also participated, was held on 9 October in Zagreb. Hundreds of participants from around the world took part on the Summit, including high-ranking state officials, representatives of the civilian society, and religious organizations.

- On the World Anti-McDonald's Day, 16 October, Animal Friends from Split will hold a protest in Split, whilst Animal Friends from Rijeka will hold a free projection of the movie Super Size Me.

With new actions and new protests, Animal Friends Croatia carries on with its work, thanks to the unselfish support of all of you who are helping us in all kinds of ways and the dedication of our activists.