Month: November 2025

BAD EGGS – with Anna Malia founder of North East Animal Rights

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Sadly, some schools are still using egg-hatching programmes as a misguided way to educate children on life cycles of animals or using them as a treat to the children in their care explained Anna.

As more and more schools realise the problems these awful programmes cause, the companies who exploit these live young animals have extended their business model to include care homes where they aim to use them in so-called enrichment activities for residents.

Anna added…Despite the companies saying they will take back and home all unwanted chicks and ducklings produced from these programmes, the reality is very different. Even in the small print of the contracts they say that hirers have to be realistic about the fact that ‘some’ will end up as food and males will be culled.

Male chicks turn into very noisy cockerels and every year rescues are swamped with both male and female chicks and ducklings who are abandoned once they grow out of their useful ‘cute’ stage.

Our local wildlife and domestic animal rescue centre ‘Pawz For Thought’ who are based in Sunderland, are inundated every year with abandoned chicks from egg-hatching programmes.  

A spokesperson for Pawz said “Every year we are inundated with calls from concerned parents of pupils who aredoing hatching projects. School hatching projects are often presented as education, but the reality is far from kind.”

“Chicks are hatched in the name of learning, yet the process has become a form of lazy teaching. For a few weeks, children view these animals as entertainment—then the chicks are handed away, this teaches young people that living beings are disposable and exist for our pleasure.”

“Every year, we are asked to take in chicks to save them from being culled. Around half of all chicks hatched are cockerels, and there are simply no homes for them. They face a terrible fate.”

“Schools often believe they are rehoming them to willing parents, but with no follow-up, many unwanted cockerels eventually end up dumped once they mature. This cycle of suffering must stop.” 

Anna said…As part of their Animal Protection Charter, South Tyneside Council have contacted all of their schools and asked them not to use these programmes. They confirmed recently that none of their primary schools will book these programmes again making them an ‘egg-hatching programme free borough’!

Cllr Judith Taylor Chair of the Animal Protection Charter Working Group at South Tyneside Council said “South Tyneside Council is committed to the highest standards of animal welfare. We have taken decisive action by contacting all our schools to urge them not to use egg-hatching programmes.”

“We believe there are far more compassionate and educational ways to teach children about life cycles, and we encourage all educational settings to consider the welfare of animals in their care.”

Anna added…These programmes bear no resemblance to the actual life cycle of chicks and ducklings – they are not hatched in sterile metal and plastic incubators for a start. They do not have the warmth and love from their mother and of course they don’t show students where the birds end up and how they are slaughtered for food. 

What are we doing now? We are currently campaigning across the North East and also have a group working in the North West and a group in the West Midlands coming on board. We want schools and care homes to know the misery these programmes cause.

We are also encouraging people to contact their MP and the Education Secretary to ask them to update the curriculum to remove the suggestion of egg-hatching programmes as an educational tool.  

Thank you to South Shields artist Sheila Graber for the animation.

For further information about the work of North East Animal Rights contact >>>

Facebook @northeastanimalrights

Instagram @northeastanimalrights

TikTok @northeastanimalrights 

Bluesky @neanimalrights.bsky.social

Threads @northeastanimalrights

North East Animal Rights – YouTube

https://linktr.ee/northeastanimalrights

Alikivi   November 2025

RETURN TO MEMPHIS – new single from Teesside Rhythm & Blues singer & songwriter Emma Wilson

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Emma at BBC Radio 2 with Cerys Mathews December 2023

Magazine front covers, BBC Radio 2, awards, tours, record releases – this past few year Emma has been prolific. In 2023 she released ‘Memphis Calling’ recorded in Sam Phillips studio in Memphis, USA, earlier this year she talked about her third album ‘A Spoonful of Willie Dixon’. Recently she got in touch about her latest single…

I’m stablemates with American band Chris Wyze and the Tellers. We’re both signed for distribution with ‘Select-O-Hits’ in Memphis. Chris found out I was in Tennessee for a few days in September so asked me to co-write and sing a duet with him. We recorded ‘Hearts Blue Christmas’ at Royal Studios in Memphis with the Hi Rhythm Section.

At the end of the recording session producer Boo Mitchell said ‘We have an hour left“. Chris turned to me and said ‘Do you want to do anything?’ I’ve previously recorded with pianist Charles Hodges (who is part of the Hi Rhythm Section) on my record ‘Memphis Calling’ and we have a good friendship and work well together.

I asked Charles if he knew the song “What are you doing New Years Eve”? The track was written by Frank Loesser in 1947. I think I must have first heard the Lena Horne’s 1966 version as my Mum played a lot of her music when I was little.

Charles strolled over and started playing it so beautifully on the grand piano. That piano has been in the same position at Royal studios for decades. Goodness knows how many iconic songs it has featured on!

Charles and I spent about ten minutes getting a key to suit and having a run through, then he called Steve Potts to play some lovely light drums and then we taped it.

L to R – Charles Hodges, Steve Potts, Hubbie Turner, Emma Wilson, Boo Mitchell, Lina Beach, Chris Wyze and Leroy Hodges at Royal Studio, Willie Mitchell Boulevard, Memphis on 25 September 2025.

Along with promoting the single now Emma is already looking forward to 2026…Recently I won the UK Blues Challenge at Marshall Studios which means I go to Memphis in January to represent the UK in the International Blues Challenge and for the European Blues Challenge I go to Poland.

‘What Are You Doing New Years Eve’ is out on 21st November 2025 as digital download and a very limited run of CDs which are available from the official website >>>

Emma Wilson – award winning rhythm & blues singer from the UK

Alikivi   November 2025

SHIELDS CLOSEST ENCOUNTER

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As requested, readers of this site have contributed stories featuring supernatural phenomena. Researcher & Historian, and regular contributor to the site Dan Green, got in touch to pass on an interesting story he came across.

Report in The Shields Gazette 2013.

A visit to South Shields by three unexplained lights in the sky in October 1967 seemed to be very convincing as it was witnessed and recorded by policemen. But what occurred the previous year might be an even better UFO episode.

It began when a Shields resident agreed to tell her story to local newspaper The Shields Gazette in 2013 on the proviso that her identity was kept anonymous.

It was a cold night in late autumn, a black starless sky between 10-10.30pm when she and half a dozen of her girlfriends, all teens, were walking home from Harton village past Harton cemetery when they noticed a huge circular ‘flying saucer’ hovering approximately 20’ above the ground, coloured lights pulsated underneath with a humming noise.

It suddenly shot up into the air to a height of about 60-70’ staying stationary for a while then swooping down over the cemetery. Three times it repeated this climbing and ascending motion until it finally shot up into the sky disappearing in an instant.

The shaken girls stood there motionless and speechless and never said a word as they continued home. Little did they know that it appears that on the same night the unidentified aerial phenomena was also seen and witnessed by a Mr Alton, then aged 20, and his wife.

The object was first spotted as they were walking to their home near the old Westoe Colliery. It wandered slowly around the sky towards Tyne Dock where the following year the three lights above the flats were witnessed.

Disappearing from their view it was next seen 10 minutes later suddenly flying almost directly over Mr Alton. They could hear a soft humming sound as the black circular shaped craft blocked out the stars. A circular white light was centrally located on the underbelly of the craft, around the circumference was an aurora of soft, colourful light. It then flew off towards South Shields Town Hall nearby.

Mr Alton estimated it to be travelling at about 15mph and was at least 40’ diameter. They watched for about two minutes as it skimmed above the Westoe Road rooftops.

I recently contacted Mr Alton now 79 and living in Whitburn, to see if he was still clear with his story and indeed he is – there is no doubt in my mind that he is telling the absolute truth and in accurate detail.

Was this the same UFO witnessed on the same night as seen by the girls in Harton? Two remarkable close encounters begging the question, why was South Shields being visited by UFO’s during 1966 and 1967?

More revelations of supernatural phenomena will feature on this site. If you want to share your experience don’t hesitate to get in touch.

October 2025