Outcry after German zoo culled baboons due to overcrowding
The zoo in Nuremberg had announced plans to kill some Guinea baboons last year, after its population exceeded 40 - more than the 25 that could be housed by a complex completed in 2009.Zoos in other countries that baboons had previously been sent to had also reached capacity and contraception measures had failed to slow the population growth, the zoo said.On Tuesday morning, the zoo announced that it was closing for "operational reasons", triggering demonstrators to climb over the zoo's fence near the entrance, where they were arrested.Later, the zoo confirmed that it had killed the baboons - none of which were pregnant females or part of scientific studies. The animals were shot, samples were taken for research purposes, then their bodies were fed to the zoo's predators.Dag Encke, the zoo's director, said the decision came after "yearslong consideration", and that the culling of animals can be a "legitimate last resort to preserve the population".Encke added that the action was in line with criteria set out by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).Animal rights groups have filed a criminal complaint against the zoo for culling baboons which were in "perfect health". A spokesperson for Pro Wildlife said the decision was "avoidable and illegal", adding: "Healthy animals had to be killed because the zoo maintained irresponsible and unsustainable breeding policies for decades."European zoos have previously sparked controversy for culling animals.In 2014, a zoo in Copenhagen culled a giraffe - named Marius - because his genes were too close to the other giraffes in the zoo's breeding programme.A post-mortem of the giraffe - during which the carcass was skinned, cut up and then fed to the lions - was broadcast live online.
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Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Three tourists dead on Ukraine beach as swimmers set off sea mines
The Black Sea resort of Odesa has been experiencing sweltering 30C conditions - with many locals drawn to the shores to cool off despite Vladimir Putin's bombardment of the city At least three people have been killed after setting off sea mines that had drifted too close to tourist beaches in Ukraine. The horrific double explosion saw at least three beachgoers killed near Zatoka beach in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa. In recent weeks, the Black Sea resort has been seeing searing temperatures of around 30C, leading locals and tourists alike to descend on the city's beaches to cool off. It comes after Putin warns of nuclear war after unleashing another night of hell on Ukraine. But their refreshing dip turned into tragedy when two of the explosives detonated under the water, creating apocalyptic scenes on the beach. In the historic city, where brave locals try to continue their daily lives despite Vladimir Putin's bombs raining down on them, the beaches had previously been closed off until restrictions were lifted recently. Local news outlet Dumskaya reports the victims were a woman and two men who were swimming when the two explosive devices exploded around 165ft from shore. Odesa regional chief Oleh Kiper confirmed: 'All of them have been killed by explosive devices while swimming in areas prohibited for recreation.' The Russian army has been relying on sea mines to attack Ukrainian shipping vessels in the Black Sea after Moscow suffered heavy naval losses at the start of the conflict To defend themselves, Ukraine has deployed its own mines to prevent Russia launching amphibious assaults. The Black Sea, which lies on the coasts of both countries, is particularly dangerous for bathers - with unexploded mortars and aerial bombs found in addition to the sea mines. The mines can be dislodged by strong currents, heavy rainfall and shifting tides, with them being known to drift towards the shoreline. Rallying behind Ukraine, European allies have called for Ukraine to be included in an upcoming meeting between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska. The meeting - which is due to take place next Friday - is being held for Trump and Putin to find a way to end the war, according to the US president. Ukraine's President Zelensky thanked European allies in a post on X, writing on Sunday: 'The end of the war must be fair, and I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people.
Daily Record
a day ago
- Daily Record
Heroin dealers fined just £499 as punishment for Scotland's mounting drug deaths
The Sunday Mail can reveal the shockingly lenient punishments being handed out despite 1065 fatalities last year - the highest of any European country. Heroin dealers are receiving average court fine of just £499 despite Scotland's drug deaths epidemic, we can reveal. The shockingly lenient punishments are being handed out despite 1065 fatalities last year - the highest of any European country. Meanwhile less than a third of those convicted of dealing offences receive a jail sentence according to official figures. Bereaved families along with politicians and campaigners have reacted furiously and demanded custodial sentences for dealers. Linda McVean, whose son Frankie died of an overdose, has demanded prison for heroin dealers while Lib Dem MSP Jamie Greene branded the puny penalties 'pocket change'. Linda, 56, lost her son Frankie after he dabbling with the drugs while staying at a homeless hostel. She later bought illegal street valium herself to show how pushers were operating with impunity. Linda said: 'I will never get over Frankie's death, it will stay with me forever and it makes me sick to think these dealers are being allowed to sell these deadly drugs more or less openly. 'Drug addicts need to be treated with compassion but the dealers are selling death and misery and should face jail. 'If you walk through the city centre of Glasgow you can see deals being carried out in front of your eyes on street corners and it is unacceptable. 'This is an industry that makes millions of pounds for the people at the top - meanwhile thousands of users who end up hooked are dying. 'How do you possibly think that a fine of less than £500 is going to put anyone off, it is ridiculous, they can make that back in a day. 'The police and the courts and the government all have a responsibility to make clear that there will be consequences for drug dealing and that it will result in a custodial sentence.' Linda paid £10 on Glasgow's Argyle Street for 28 street valium pills months after Frankie died in May 2023. She then made a report to Police Scotland, telling detectives she was disgusted the trade in drugs was allowed to go on in full view of shoppers. When Linda bought the drugs close to Glasgow's Central Station, she told the dealer: 'These are the same pills that killed my son. You should be ashamed of yourself.' Linda, from Penilee, Glasgow, added: 'At every level this trade is being allowed to continue despite people dying every day. 'It is ruining thousands of lives, there are families behind every one of these drug deaths who will never get over the grief of losing their child or brother or sister, it is utterly tragic. 'The people responsible for selling drugs need to take responsibility for their actions but that is never going to happen if they are more or less walking free from court even after a conviction.' Frankie, 30, died while staying at the Queens Park Hotel in Glasgow, where several lives have been claimed by drugs. He was not an addict when he entered the homeless accommodation but dabbled with pills believed to have been sold by low level dealers. His was one of a cluster of deaths at the hotel and Glasgow's Rennie Mackintosh Station Hotel. Liberal Democrat MSP Greene said: 'Communities are only too familiar with the damage that drug dealers can do to vulnerable people. 'Given the vast profits and immense misery that heroin can generate, it seems strange that the punishment is a monetary fine of a sum that major players in the drugs business will treat as pocket change. 'Not only that but the punishments for different drugs feel totally arbitrary. The law acts like there's little difference in the harm caused by drugs like heroin and the harm caused by something as common as cannabis.' The average penalty for possessing heroin with intent to supply was just £499 in 2022-23 - similar to the typical fine for dealing cannabis of £485 and £503 for ecstasy. For cocaine dealing the figure was £719. Opioids like heroin are responsible for up to 80 per cent of the nation's overdose deaths, with 1065 suspected drugs deaths in Scotland last year. Drugs campaigner Annemarie Ward, of charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK, branded the average fines for dealing as the 'effective decriminalisation' of illicit substances. She said: 'When dealers for huge criminal gangs who are making millions, arguably billions of pounds in Scotland are getting fined 500 quid, that's effectively decriminalisation. 'This push and the language we have around decriminalisation, as taking a 'public health approach' and a 'compassionate approach', is rhetoric and posturing and it's a farce.' Ward, who says Scotland's focus on harm reduction measures like Glasgow's safe injecting facility has come at the expense of drugs rehabilitation and prevention, added: 'Perhaps a new government in 2026 will tackle this with more balance.' The Scottish Government has stated it wants drug possession to no longer be a criminal offence, although this would require Westminster to change the law. Drug dealing would continue to be a crime under its proposals. Convicted drug pushers can face jail, a community sentence or a financial penalty, or a combination under the Scottish justice system. Some 1489 Scots were successfully prosecuted for drugs possession with intent to supply as their main offence in 2022-23, the latest year for which data is available. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Data shows the rate of dealers being locked up has fallen from 54 per cent in 2013-14 to 29 per cent in the most recent year - or around 400 criminals. Around 800 of cases (54 per cent) end in a community sentence instead, up from 37 per cent a decade ago. And in more than 200 (17 per cent) of dealing cases - including for supplying dangerous Class A drugs like heroin - a fine is the main penalty. In recent weeks, we've highlighted the rise of synthetic opioids called nitazenes being cut into street heroin. One superstrong substance, dubbed 'pyro', has already been linked to dozens of heroin deaths this year. It's raised fears that after a slight improvement in the rate of deaths, Scotland's drugs epidemic - still the worst in Europe - could spiral again. Last week, one recovering drug user told how dealers get off 'scot free' even when a contaminated batch of heroin causes a spate of deaths. The dad in his 30s, from Glasgow, said: 'It's going completely under the radar. 'It's incredibly common across the whole UK for one place to get a strong batch then a bunch of folk die, the dealers go into hiding for a bit but no one ever knows because generally families don't want to talk about it… when things have calmed down the cycle repeats.' The Scottish Government said it 'takes the issue of drug dealing very seriously' and that it is 'determined to tackle drug harms'. A spokesman added: 'Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent courts, taking into account all the facts and circumstances before them.'
Scottish Sun
2 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Russia is running ‘slave catalogue' of Ukrainian ‘orphans' with kidnapped children ‘treated like animals'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) RUSSIA is allegedly running a grotesque online "slave catalogue" of abducted Ukrainian children in occupied territory. The profiles can be searched by hair colour, eye colour and even "personality" in the latest twisted move by Mad Vlad Putin's regime. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 9 Russia is reportedly running a twisted online 'slave catalogue' of abducted Ukrainian children Credit: Reuters 9 Children from an orphanage in the Donetsk region, eat a meal at a camp in Zolotaya Kosa, the settlement on the Sea of Azov, Rostov region, southwestern Russia Credit: AP 9 Ukrainian officials previously warned its children are being trained up to fight in Putin's army Credit: Bring Kids Back Ukraine According to the NGO Save Ukraine, it features almost 300 children labelled as "orphans" or "left without parental care". But campaigners insist many were forcibly taken from their families, re-registered under Russian documents and are now being "matched" with Russian families as if they were animals in a pet shop. Mykola Kuleba, head of Save Ukraine, described it as 'digital trafficking' and a 'slave catalogue'. He warned: "This is not adoption. This is not care. This is digital child trafficking, masked as bureaucracy. "These children are not 'war orphans'. They had names, families and Ukrainian citizenship." According to The Times, the depraved search tool reportedly allows users to filter children by age, gender, health and physical traits - even by whether they are "calm" or "active". The portal is run by Luhansk's so-called Ministry of Education and Science — part of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), a Russian-installed regime in territory internationally recognised as Ukrainian. While some of the children listed were born after Russia seized the area in 2014, Kuleba says most were born before occupation and held Ukrainian citizenship. Kyiv says the catalogue is just the latest stage in Moscow's mass child-snatching campaign — a programme that Ukrainian officials claim has seen tens of thousands of minors abducted since Putin's full-scale invasion in 2022. Yale researchers, UN experts and legal bodies have said the deportations could amount to war crimes. Nazi lies, Vlad's propaganda & troops on border… chilling signs Putin ready to invade ANOTHER European nation after Ukraine In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and his children's commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, over the illegal transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children. Russia has long defended these relocations as "humanitarian" - but Ukrainian officials and returned captives tell a far darker story. Survivors have described being beaten, starved, locked in basements, forced to sing the Russian national anthem, and banned from speaking Ukrainian in re-education camps. Some say they were told their parents had abandoned them. 9 Pictures show children inside Russian 're-education' camps in a bid to rid them of their Ukrainian heritage Credit: Bring Kids Back Ukraine 9 A chamber in Kherson where Ukrainian children were allegedly abused Credit: Security Service of Ukraine 9 Vitaliy was held at a camp in Yevpatroia and spoke of horrors he saw after begging to be released from an isolation cell Credit: BRING KIDS BACK UKRAINE 9 One 11-year-old, Illia, was forced to have shrapnel removed without anaesthetic after he was snatched by Russian soldiers Credit: BRING KIDS BACK UKRAINE Earlier this year, Moscow announced plans to send 60,000 kidnapped Ukrainian children to remote summer camps in the wilderness - a move critics see as deepening indoctrination. Ukraine's presidential adviser Daria Zarivna has accused Putin of 'weaponising' these children, warning they are being groomed to fight for Russia in future wars. She told The Sun: 'It's a threat to global security, to Ukraine's security.' Lvova-Belova - dubbed "Putin's childcatcher" and sanctioned by Britain for her role in the abductions - has openly bragged about "adopting" a boy from Mariupol. 'I was snatched by Russian soldier' ILLIA, 11, was deported from Mariupol after a Russian missile strike killed his mother and left him with horror shrapnel wounds when he was nine. His neighbours buried his mum's body in their back garden before he was snatched by Vlad's soldiers and taken for surgery at a camp in Donestk. The shrapnel was removed without any anaesthetic and he was forced to write and speak Russian and repeat "Glory to Ukraine as part of Russia". He says Russian forces tried to turn him into a "propaganda tool" but that he is not "one to be duped so easily." Illia's grandmother had been searching for her grandson ever since losing contact with her daughter in March 2022. It wasn't until they spotted the young boy in a video from Russia that she realised he was alone and that her daughter had been killed. His grandmother never gave up hope and set about getting her injured grandson back home where he belonged. Months later, Illia returned home to Ukraine and had further surgery to remove more fragments from his leg, while 11 remain. His grandmother Olena said: "He had a school, he had a home, he had a mother and he lost all of that - his entire childhood. "He kept to himself, he was afraid of noise, he was afraid of sirens. He had no memory. He now has dreams of becoming a doctor so that he can help fighters on the frontline as a combat medic. She is accused of overseeing the heartless bureaucratic machinery that strips Ukrainian children of their identities before placing them in Russian homes. Kyiv's Bring Kids Back Ukraine initiative has so far rescued nearly 700 minors, but thousands remain missing. Officials say no peace deal will be struck with Moscow until every abducted child is returned. 'This is genocide,' said Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets. 'These children are not commodities. They are victims of a brutal campaign to erase our nation's future.' 9 Putin meets with Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova Credit: AFP
