This is plainly not happening under intensive conditions they say
This is plainly not happening under intensive conditions, they say.At on farm, 130,000 ducks live on littered concrete floors with limited access to water, says the Viva and Fawn report, which refers to several producers. should be such that they allow the fulfilment of essential biological requirements of ducks, in particular in respect of water". They say that a European convention states that "the design, construction and main- tenance of enclosures ... Attempts are being made to keep costs down, with results such as the case where one worker, with responsibility for more than 85,000 birds, ended up with many sick and injured ducks, suffering lingering and painful deaths while lying in their own excrement.Activists say the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) pleads commercial confidentiality when refusing to answer queries about the welfare of ducks, but the real reason is a reticence to interfere with a highly lucrative industry. Animal rights activists say the public is unaware that 90 per cent of duck meat consumed in the UK now comes from conditions similar to those found in battery chicken and turkey farming. Entertainers such as Sir Paul McCartney, Joanna Lumley and the former model Twiggy, will take part in high street protests outside stores selling factory-farmed ducks to tell shoppers about the "wretched existence" that the birds endure before they are killed.A report by Viva (Vegetarians' International Voice for Animals) and Fawn (Farm Animal Welfare Network) found that up to 10,000 birds are often packed into one shed, with no natural light, no access to water for swimming and no space to exercise. ANIMAL WELFARE groups have launched a campaign against intensive duck farming, after an investigation revealed that hundreds of thousands of birds are being reared in "appalling, squalid and cruel" conditions.
A switch away from traditional turkeys for Christmas by many has resulted in a large increase in duck farming, with the UK leading the world in scale and intensity. The best was thought to be that in "Layla" by Derek and The Dominoes, played by Clapton.Nevermind, by Cobain's band, Nirvana, was chosen as the millennium's best album ahead of Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and Electric Ladyland by Hendrix.Two of The Beatles' albums were voted into the top 10 - The Beatles (the "White Album" of 1968) and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.. These included Clapton and Van Halen.Hendrix's most-admired performance was on the track "Purple Haze", which was also nominated as the containing the century's second-best guitar riff. Runners up were Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Peter Green, formerly of Fleetwood Mac, and Jeff Beck close behind.Kurt Cobain was one of four musicians polled as both the century's best guitarists and most overrated musicians. The songwriter for the band Oasis, who described his music as "the same old pub-rock bollocks", polled just ahead of "slowhand" Eric Clapton in a survey for the industry magazine Guitar. Others were the late Nirvana star Kurt Cobain at number four and Eddie Van Halen - famed for his hammering-on technique - at number six.Many of the same stars were also named by readers in the best guitarist list - but not Gallagher.Jimi Hendrix was voted best guitarist of the millennium. NOEL GALLAGHER'S low assessment of his own musical efforts has been given a ringing endorsement by fellow guitar players, who have accorded him the title of the millennium's most overrated guitarist.
"We must not let them sell us an inferior system," he said.Professor John Uff, who presided over the inquiry into the Southall crash in 1997, and Lord Cullen, who will chair the Paddington hearing, will also produce joint recommendations in the new year on competing safety systems.. Mr Rix said that an impressive German ATP system, which can be "bolted on" to 20-year-old trains, could be fitted across the British network in five years. "The Germans think we are living in a bloody museum," he said.Peter Rayner, a rail consultant and former British Rail operations manager, said Sir David's endorsement of TPWS would enable Mr Prescott to "save face", but might prove a diversion from the real solution. "I am convinced that ATP should be introduced across the network as quickly as possible, instead of this half-way house," he said. Under plans agreed last week Mr Prescott, who is Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, hopes to introduce TPWS quicker than planned so that a third of trains are protected by 2001, three-quarters by 2002 and all trains by 2003.Mick Rix, the general secretary of the train drivers' union Aslef, registered his opposition to Sir David's proposals. Vernon Hince of the RMT rail union warned Sir David that TPWS would leave 70 per cent of trains without proper protection because it was not effectiveabove 70mph. It would have prevented the Paddington crash, in which 31 people were killed, but not the Southall, Watford or Cannon Street crashes, all of which involved fatalities.Sir David told The Independent yesterday that he was convinced that TPWS was the immediate solution "Nothing could be fitted faster," he said.