LouFlat

For the definitive answer, Defra is your safest bet:  http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/index.htm The links on these pages will give you all the info you need. They were also very helpful when I contacted them by phone    [:)]  

Hi Magnolia, I think this might be the charity you were thinking of http://infosheet.angloinfo.com/laprotectiondeschats Good luck  

Thank you for the replies.  Next stop le docteur veterinarian.  It's worth a try.

What a wonderful, happy ending for all & a huge WELL DONE to all involved. This is probaby really a question for Christine, or if anyone else knows the answer, please let me know. Our dog spends a lot of time with us here in France.  He is chipped but not tattooed.  He always wears a collar with two tags on it: One has our French address & phone number & "Puce", the other the English details. My question:  Can I register two addresses against the microchip? If so, how do I go about it? Many thanks.  

[quote user="Rob Roy"] I'm sorry but I think this is getting a bit out of hand. "It was a re-run of the worst case of immature schoolboy bullying, in the hands of licensed killers - and that was all you could describe them as.  They made Josef Mengele look like a respectable research scientist.  It wasn't the slaughter that was offensive, it was the behaviour of 'civilised' man that was contemptible" Lou, I find it incredible that you could compare the practices in an abattoir (however dreadful you think it) to the horrific treatment of human beings at the hands of the Nazis. [/quote] For the record, my father was a major contractor (technical) to several abbatoirs in what was my local area.  I have witnessed the varying practices involved in converting cutesie farm animals into tomorrow's evening meal.  There was and still is, an enormous disparity between the professionally and / or humanely operated slaughter houses and those run at, perhaps, a more reduced cost, or without adequate controls and supervision. Josef Mengele was, arguably, if not misguidedly (and utterly wrongly, in my humble opinion), genuinely interested in "what happens if..." .  Let us pray that the actions of the so-called 'Master Race' are never repeated. The individuals I wrote of were, quite simply, interested in their own entertainment. It wasn't the killing of the animals, it was the goading, torment and inane torture, totally unecessary and extraneous.  Most offensive was their very obvious delight in their actions. As I wrote previously, I am a meat-eater.  I just prefer to do the best that I possibly can to ensure that my chosen meal has had as dignified a life and death as possible. We are all entitled to our opinions and those which do not match our own are not, necessarily, the incorrect ones.

Thank you for that, Christine - isn't the internet a wonderful thing... sometimes?! I just did a search for the Charente & came up with a couple of interesting possibilities, so that was worthwhile Downside was the addition of a couple of foie farms too... and an article about gavage hey ho! As for local merchants, our commune has a church and a bar.....  If one doesn't work, then you can always seek salvation in the other, I suppose!!

I sat & watched Earthlings, no mean feat as my wireless connection is capricious at best - how did humans get to be SO inhumane?  I accept that when we were running around in loincoths hunting for dinner and killing it, that education was a little short of what we have at our disposal today.  How many steps backwards have we taken since then?  I have to admit to a wry smile when the elephant trampled the humans - if they HAD to shoot it (and they probably did have to), WHY use such a small rifle??  Similar to trying to kill a human with several poorly aimed air-rifle pellets. I am a meat eater, & when in the UK, I know where my chicken & beef is farmed & I know where they go to be slaughtered and I have a very good working relationship with my butcher... & I do not buy my meat from supermarkets.  Here, however, I know that I am subscribing to everything I find morally wrong, each time I buy meat, purely because I can't say I know anything about the origins of my evening meal. In a similar vein, a documentary was aired in the UK last year, following the working lives of some of the employees of an abbatoir in Yorkshire.  The deaths of the animals involved became almost an irrelevance next to the utter contempt with which they were treated.  It was a re-run of the worst case of immature schoolboy bullying, in the hands of licensed killers - and that was all you could describe them as.  They made Josef Mengele look like a respectable research scientist.  It wasn't the slaughter that was offensive, it was the behaviour of 'civilised' man that was contemptible. Jamie Oliver hosted a TV programme, last year, with the popular 'green' lifestyle advocate, Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall; all about chicken farming.  To precis the programme, he explored the various routes by which the roast chicken arrived at the table, asking a cross-section of diners to reveiw the taste differences, even obtaining his licence to slaughter chickens - which he undertook to do in front of said invited dinner guests {unsurprisingly not actually aired on prime time tv!}  to underline his point.  Which was, quite simply, not asking people to give up meat, but to care about the meat they ate and notice the difference in taste between the mass-produced bird and the humanely-reared counterpart.  He also gave a few of the UKs biggest supermarkets a severely uncomfortable ride.  One of the biggest still sells its 'cheap' chicken - a product which farmers cannot produce caringly for the price that supermarkets are willing to pay.  It became clear that the consumer wasn't the biggest bad guy, but, in fact, the supermarket buyers.  Many of the farmers interviewed would have preferred to give their chickens the better life, albeit short, but would have lost their supermarket contracts had they done so. Earthlings is a wake up call to all of us who have become complacent about life in general.  I'm not advocating vegetarianism or veganism, just a conscience and a little caring.  There ARE better ways.  It is the responsibility of the consumer to start asking the questions and voting with their feet. And, Christine, you are right:  the glossy, blood-free, sterile environment we enter in a supermarket, makes us forget, for a moment, about the life that was once in the styrofoam container.  I used to think that I could never raise an animal from infancy and then kill it to eat it.  Recently, however, I wonder if maybe I could- knowing that that animal had lived a peaceful and unmolested life thus far.  Perhaps all we meat eaters should try it? Phew!  Sorry about the rant!  Time for a glass of wine (organic! - an accident, I promise) to soothe the fevered brow!  Soapbox back on shelf - but only til next time.      

As unpleasant as the content of the links posted by Christine were / are, it is important that we, Joe public, become more aware of things that are classed as acceptable in our world If ever there was a website which could jolt the most hardened mind into shunning horsemeat, it has to be horsekillers.com  <- not a weblink, sorry, but most browsers will find the site.  It also gives another slant on the American rodeo circuit and the consequences of 'entertainment' - not a pleasant one either.  A word of caution: The welcome page is distressing enough, most of the filming in the clips available has been done covertly and is horrific.  It is most definately NOT for the faint hearted.  I thought I had seen it all, until I saw some of theses videos.  Please do not watch them if you are easily upset.