European Union trapped fur import ban still uncertain

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

BRUSSELS––Just a week from the
twice deferred January 1 target date for
enforcing a European Union ban on imports
of fur from animals possibly caught by
leghold trapping, “the issue of whether or not
it will be implemented is still very much up
in the air,” Animal Welfare Institute executive
director Kathy Liss told ANIMAL PEOPLE
at deadline.
The politics of the ban were never
fiercer. The step-by-step procedure to either
enforce or scrap the ban started with the presentation
in September of draft international
trapping standards, prepared by a quadrilateral
committee including delegations from
Canada, Russia, the U.S., and the European
Union. Next was to come approval or rejection
of the draft standards by the European
Commission, followed by ratification or
rejection of the decision by the appropriate
European Council of Ministers––a critical
fork, Liss said, since “The Council of
Environment Ministers has been pretty favorable
toward the ban, but the Council of
Trade Ministers is just interested in the trade
issues.”

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Zoos

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

The zoo management and animal rights communities shared mixed
shock, outrage, and grief on December 17 at the revelation by Newsweek that
the San Diego Zoo and the Chengdu Zoo in Sichuan province, China, had concealed
since July the deaths from dehydration and exposure of two extremely rare
white rhinos whom the San Diego Zoo had purchased from the Pittsburgh Zoo,
then sent to China in a deal that looked mighty like an even-up swap for the two
pandas who arrived at the San Diego Zoo from China a few weeks later and went
on public display November 1. Though aware that the rhinos were going to China,
the Pittsburgh Zoo sold the rhinos to the San Diego Zoo in part because of the San
Diego Zoo’s internationally recognized rhino breeding and handling: 77 rhinos
have been born at the San Diego Zoological Society’s Wild Animal Park in
Escondido, and of the 67 rhinos the zoo has transported to other facilities, the
only previous death it acknowledged in the aftermath of the losses was a rhino who
was shipped to Taiwan 18 years ago. Pittsburgh Zoo rhino curator Les Nesler
escorted the pair as far as New York City, saw them safely aboard a commercial
Boeing 747 cargo flight to Shanghai, and believed all would be well. However,
the arrangements were two weeks behind schedule, and in that interval, heavy
flooding hit central and eastern China, complicating ground transportation.

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RELIGION & ANIMALS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

Brigitte Bardot, 62, renowned as a film
star but working fulltime for more than twice as long
in animal protection, went to trial on December 18
for allegedly inciting ethnic bias by attacking amateur
sheep slaughter by Moslem immigrants to France in
commemoration of Eid al-Adha, the holiday marking
the end of the month in which pilgrimages are made
to Mecca. Chief defense witness is expected to be
Leila El Fourgi, president of the Tunisia SPA.
“Perhaps the spirit of God that breathed
forth life into the Earth was a lower animal,”
Cardinal John O’Connor told the devout in a
November 24 sermon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in
New York City, following up on Pope John Paul II’s
October declaration that the theory of evolution is
“more than just a hypothesis.” Both the Pope and the
Cardinal stopped short, however, of suggesting that
animals share with humans the dimensions of a soul.

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ANIMALS IN ENTERTAINMENT

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

Tracks hounded out of business

BRIDGEPORT, Ct.– – Grey-
hound racing foes are torn between
rejoicing that the $30 million Shoreline
Star track has shut for the winter and perhaps
forever, after just one year, and
mourning the dogs who may be destroyed
because the closure of eight tracks in
three years has glutted the demand for
greyhound pets.
About 200 dogs were believed
to have been at Shoreline Star when the
track, still open for simulcast betting, on
November 30 suspended live racing until
at least May 1. Owner Robert Zeff filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization
last summer. The track reportedly
generated just $14 million in revenue,
less than 25% of the $60 million first projected.

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CITES experts have a leak on Zimbabwean elephant ivory strategy

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

The possibility of resumed ivory trading has meanwhile
demonstrably stimulated poaching, say Clark and David
Barritt, African director of the International Fund for Animal
Welfare. Barritt recently visited the scene of the September
massacre of 250 elephants near the Congolese border with
Gabon. “The poachers told the local inhabitants, whom they
hired, that it was all right to kill the elephants,” Barritt
explained to Inigo Gimore of the London Times, “because next
year the trade in ivory is going to be resumed legally.”
Indeed, the trade never stopped. “The preliminary
report of the CITES Panel of Experts,” FoA president Priscilla
Feral wrote on December 6 to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
chief of management authority Kenneth Stansell, “claims that
there is evidence that Zimbabwe has been engaged in large volume
commercial export of raw, worked, and semi-worked
ivory to eight countries, including the United States. Other
countries identified as having imported commercial volumes of
elephant ivory from Zimbabwe are Japan, China, Thailand,
Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Africa.
FoA is alarmed,” Feral said, “especially in light of significant
U.S. assistance to Zimbabwe’s elephant conservation programs,
as well as in light of persistent Zimbabwean claims of being
able to exercise vigorous control over the ivory trade.”

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Animal control & rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

The multi-party Home Affairs Committee recommended to the
British Parliament on December 18 that the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act be amended
to eliminate mandatory death penalties for alleged pit bull terriers and other
dogs of purportedly dangerous breed who haven’t committed an offense; provide
“bail” for dogs pending a hearing; allow owners to visit dogs kenneled for cause
more often; and reintroduce national dog licensing, scrapped as unenforceable
about a decade ago.

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PetsMart buys 50 British stores

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

PHOENIX––PetsMart, only founded in
1989 but already operating 311 U.S. stores in 33
states, on October 25 expanded to Great Britain,
purchasing the 50-store Pet City Holdings chain for
$239 million. PetsMart CEO Mark Hansen said the
acquisition “provides a platform for expansion in
Europe,” which he said “represents a 900-to-1,000-
store opportunity,” about the same size as the niche
PetsMart seeks in the U.S. market.
One secret of PetsMart success is privatizing
and making profitable at affordable prices some
of the otherwise money-losing functions of nonprofit
humane societies. PetsMart stores provide local
humane societies with an adoption venue, rather
than selling purpose-bred dogs and cats, and frequently
include in-house low-cost neutering clinics.

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CHILDREN & ANIMALS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

“Let’s put this in perspective,” said football
coach Tom Smythe of McNary High School in
Salem, Oregon, to Portland Oregonian correspondent
Cheryl Martinis on November 25, after 18-
year-old linebacker Thomas Shepard was arrested
and charged with felony animal abuse for allegedly
clubbing a stray cat to death. “He didn’t rape,
maim, or pillage anyone. He committed a foolish
act that cost a dumb animal its life. So let’s not drag
this out forever.” Charged with Shepherd was Darle
Dudley, also 18. In October 1995, seven McNary
students including four football players were charged
with aggravated animal abuse for beating an opossum,
then burning her alive. They videotaped the
killing and showed the video in a classroom while
the teacher was out.

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Whale-watching

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

University of Queensland PhD. candidate Ilze
Brieze reported in late October, after a year of study, that the
dolphins of Moreton Bay, off Brisbane, Australia, and at the
Australian Sea World are behaviorally unaffected by human
contact, even though the bottlenose dolphins at Sea World
appear to enjoy swimming with humans and being hand-fed.
Studies by other researchers have indicated that the wild dolphins
who interact with humans at Monkey Mia in western
Australia may have become excessively dependent upon handfeeding,
and that one result is dolphin mothers who so fixate
on humans that they neglect their infants. Studying the same
Moreton Bay dolphin population as Brieze, Mark Orams of
Massey University joined her in warning that even when there
are not obvious ill effects from contact, wild dolphins should

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