The DSI dogs were so hyper and needy today. I don’t think anyone’s given them any attention since I cleaned the room on Thursday morning. Today when I opened their cage doors they literally threw themselves at me and didn’t want to be put on the floor to run. 1190 always has such a worried look on his face. 1272 spends a lot of time sitting on his haunches and he still keeps the weight off his left hind leg. I think his sciatic nerve may have been injured during the surgery.

- Michelle Rokke, a secret investigator who eight months worked in Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest animal testing lab in which more than 500 animals are killed every day for the purpose of testing chemicals, pesticides, cleansers and cosmetics.

In this issue:
- Horses and Fish in HNK
- Action in Varazdin Against Animal Experiments
- With 'Running of the Nudes' Against Bull Runs and Bull Fights
- Injured Horses in Bregana, Croatia
- Family to the Seaside, Dog to the Street 2006
- Meatless concert at Zagreb's Salata!
- News and Announcements

Horses and Fish in HNK

On June 19 we held a protest in front of the Croatian National Theater (HNK) urging to stop the exploitation and torture of horses as life-scene in the 'Ero s onoga svijeta' show, prompted by a statement of HNK employee telling that some years ago years ago a horse broke his leg during the show and was killed afterwards. Two weeks later we sent a thank-you-note to a soloist Vitomiru Marofu and commissary Ana Lederer for stopping fish slaughter by Slovenian project group Via Negativa during their performance for Eurokaz in Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. We would like to see more good examples like this one in the future not only in this theater but also in other cultural institutions in Croatia.

Action in Varazdin Against Animal Experiments

One month after the extremely successful demo in Zagreb on the Global Day of Action Against P&G, on June 23 we held another action in Varazdin so as to educate people of Varazdin about the horrors of animal experiments for testing cosmetics and cleansers inviting them to buy products from the white list.

With 'Running of the Nudes' Against Bull Runs and Bull Fights

A bus with forty odd activists from Croatia and neighboring countries was on July 3 off to Spain to join more than 1,000 opponents of bull fights from around the world that ran through the streets of Pamplona, most of them wearing nothing more than red bandanas and plastic horns. Two days before the city's annual 'Running of the Bulls', participants of 'Running of the Nudes' wanted to show that there is a win-win alternative to inciting a stampede amongst panicked animals who are later tormented and slaughtered in bullfights.

Injured Horses in Bregana, Croatia

After numerous citizens have reported on horrible sights of horses pulling wood every day from the forest for the Sumarija Samobor (Samobor Forestry Office), we reported Dario Juric to the veterinary inspectorate for overworking animals and have also brought charges against Mr. Juric for willfully abusing and torturing animals.

Family to the Seaside, Dog to the Street 2006

This years' summer campaign against abandoning companion animals before the summer holidays, the fifth in a row, which bears the title 'Don't leave me', was supported by the City Department for Agriculture and Forestry, NOKIA Cro-a-Porter and the Croatian celebrity TV host Tatjana Juric. At the Regent Esplanade Zagreb Hotel we announced the beginning of the campaign and called attention to the fact that caring about animals is our lifelong duty and responsibility.

Meatless concert on Zagreb’s Salata!

Morrisey, one of the most eminent musicians, on July 6 gave a 'meatless' concert on Zagreb's Salata and thus once again proved himself to be a real animal rights advocate. We were pleasantly surprised when a member of Morrissey’s band approached us just before the beginning of the concert and showed interest in our work and T-shirts with AR messages. In agreement with him, all five members of the Morrissey's band wore T-shirts with the message in Croatian 'Meat is Murder' during the whole concert, whilst Morrissey himself had sticker on his temple and pins on his clothes with the animal rights message.

News and Announcements

- June 24: After passers-by notified us we called a police in order to report a street musician on Zagreb's Petar Preradovic Square who had left to the nearby cyber cafe and left his rabbit tied to a leash and without supervision for more than one hour. By the time our activists and the policeman came, the rabbit, who served to the musician as an attraction, died. The police will press charges against the street musician.

- June 28: Because of shameless claim that a dog that has been shot died from poisoning, we demanded from the Ministry of Agriculture prompter inspection supervision on the work of the Veterinary Institute Vinkovci and the revision of the autopsy report of a dog Kodi who was at the end of May killed in Slatina, Croatia.

- July 3: Our Virovitica branch, upon being informed that a good-natured dachshund bitch with amputated hind leg was wandering the town, on June 24 informed the local media in order to find her a home. Even though we found a person who wanted to give her home, our activists were shocked when they found out that city municipally firm Flora caught the unfortunate dog and euthanized her immediately.

- July 10: We reported to the veterinary inspection a new night club Pasha in Selce, Croatia, because of abusing a tiger, which is confined in a cage, exposed to mistreatment of passers-by and negligence of personnel. The veterinary inspection in Zagreb already prohibited the owner of the club Milan Rajic to use a tiger for commercial purpose, because he breached the Animal Welfare Act and the Nature Protection Act.

- July 11: We brought the dogs of Romany communities in Medjimurje county in Croatia into spotlight, which veterinarians take away and put down, thus breaking the law. We demand from the Medjimurje county and town of Cakovec to solve the problem of stray dogs by financing spay/neuter programs, building shelters, organizing homing and punishing irresponsible and cold-hearted people who abandon dogs.

- Again we remind all of you not to forget to leave some fresh water on these sultry and hot days to help the animals that live in our neighborhood to more easily endure the heat. The birds, abandoned dogs, cats and other animals can barely find some water on the red-hot sidewalks. It is not recommendable to take dogs on long walks during the scorching heat, and animals should not be left in a car with closed windows.

- We joined the world campaign Animal Matters To Me launched by the World Society for the Protection of Animals and we invite you to sign a petition (http://www.animalsmatter.org/AFC_HR) and help us reach 10 million signatures. The aim of this largest petition in history is achieving a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare at the United Nations that will recognize that animals matter, that they can feel pain and can suffer.

- Our web site continues to work under a completely new design and new conception thus becoming better, more professional, but also a more interesting source of information on animal rights and protection.

- We invite you to the protest for a final ban of all experiments on animals, which will take place in Zagreb on Friday, July 21, 2006, at 12 noon, Prilaz baruna Filipovica 29, in front of the main entrance to Glaxo Smith Kline – the notorious and unscrupulous animal torturer, which recently bought Croatia’s Pliva's 'research' center. The route of the protest will be: Zagrebacka ulica, Ilica and Ban Jelacic Square. The protest will happen on the anniversary of the rescue of the beagles from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb, Croatia, and Animal Friends Croatia thus starts to mark the first Day of Fighting Animal Experiments.

- On the occasion of the Day of Fighting Animal Experiment, July 21, in Bogdan Ogrizovic library in Zagreb the promotion of the booklet 'Doctors Against Animal Experiments' will take place at 6 P.M.

- We published a leaflet with 33 facts against animal experiments, whose printing was supported by the Croatian company Atea which does not test its products on animals.

- Because of the bad financial situation of our organization we need experienced assistance in fund raising, a yet not perfectly developed sector in our organization. If you feel you could aid us, please get in touch.

Animal experimentation is not necessary. It is expensive. It is inaccurate. It is misleading. It consumes limited resources. And further, it is detrimental to the very species it professes to be working to help – humankind' - Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals, by C. Ray Greek, MD and Jean Swingle Greek, DVM 2000.

Yours Animal Friends Croatia