Month: June 2006

Progress against dog & cat fur in China

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

“Senior officials in the Chinese
government yesterday vowed to stamp out the trade
in cat and dog fur which they described as
‘illegal and barbaric,'” European Parliament
member Struan Stevenson’s office announced from
Brussels on May 24, 2006.
The announcement appeared to represent a
major milestone in the long march toward the
passage of humane laws in the world’s most
populous nation.
According to Stevenson, the officials he met
with described the cruelties of the cat and dog
fur trade as violations of general humane
statutes which do not yet exist.
From a western perspective, pledging to
enforce laws which do not exist might be taken as
an empty propaganda ploy. In the Confucian
context of Chinese government, the ploy might be
as much toward the Chinese public as toward the
outsiders.
Either way, the Chinese officials
reportedly acknowledged the importance of humane
concerns.

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What’s become of Persian Gulf bird habitat?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

SAN FRANCISCO–Iraq was known for attracting some of the
world’s largest and most varied congregations of migratory birds,
before becoming a war zone, and especially before former dictator
Saddamn Hussein drained the northern swamps to crush political foes.
Sergeant First Class Jonathan Trouern-Trend of the
Connecticut National Guard, 38, wondered what might be left when he
started a year-long deployment to Iraq in March 2004. He found many
species still thriving amid the destruction.
A birder since age 12, Trouern-Trend began a web log devoted
to his sightings in Iraq, continued with frequent postings until his
rotation home to Marlborough, Connecticut, in February 2005.
Excerpts from the web log were compiled as a book at the
suggestion of Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope, and
published by Sierra Club Books in May 2006 as Birding Babylon: A
Soldier’s Journal from Iraq.

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Used dogs to terrorize prisoners

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

FORT MEADE, Md.– A court martial jury of four officers and
three enlisted soldiers on June 1, 2006 convicted former U.S. Army
dog handler Sergeant Santos A. Cardona of aggravated assault and
dereliction of duty.
Cardona, 32, of Fullerton, California, in 2003-2004
allegedly used his dog to terrorize inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison
in Iraq. A 12-year veteran, Cardona was acquitted of improperly
allowing his dog to bite a prisoner, and of conspiring with another
dog handler to terrify prisoners into urinating or defecating on
themselves.
More sensational allegations about U.S. troops using animals
to frighten prisoners during interrogation may surface as result of a
case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights
First against U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in November
2005, on behalf of Iraqi businessmen Thahe Mohammed Sabbar, 37,
and Sherzad Kamal Khalid, 35.

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Islamic PETA attorney leads D.C. demonstration

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

WASHINGTON, D.C.–PETA attorney Bina Ahmed in early May 2006
won extensive exposure for pro-animal Islamic teachings in Arab News,
an internationally distributed print and electronic newspaper based
in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by staging a protest in Washington D.C.
against Austral-ian live exports of sheep and cattle for slaughter in
the Middle East.
Ahmed told Barbara Ferguson of Arab News that she became involved in
animal rights “because of lessons we are taught in Islam about
kindness to people and animals and all living things.”

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French veterinarian becomes legend in Saudi Arabia

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

JEDDAH–Asked by Arab News to comment about avian influenza
H5N1, Tahlia Internation-al Veterinary Clinic owner Deborah Zahid was
characteristically direct and professional.
“Most city dwellers don’t realize how much feces surround
them every day,” Zahid remarked. Then Zahid described the fecal
habits of caged pigeons.
Raised and educated in France, Zahid married into an
influential Saudi family known for investments in the travel,
transportation, and heavy equipment industries.
A small woman, she dresses conservatively, with just a wisp
of blonde hair escaping from under her head covering in a much
reprinted Arab News photo showing her with a baby bear. The photo
was taken in May 2003 when Zahid donated emergency care to the
neglected animals of the Jeddah Zoo, whose plight Arab News exposed.

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Dogs & donkeys carry bombs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

BAGHDAD–“Even the most virulent clerical opponents of the
U.S. presence in Iraq have decried the use of canines as proxies in
the war,” Los Angeles Times staff writer Borzou Daragahi reported
from Baghdad in August 2005, after several incidents in which
insurgents used dogs to carry bombs.
“Our religion does not permit us to hurt animals, either by
using them as explosive devices, or in any other manner,” Muslim
Scholars Association spokesperson Abdel Salam Kubaisi told Daragahi.
Daragahi described the MSA as “a hard-line Sunni Arab
clerical organization sympathetic to insurgents.”
The bombings by dog reportedly occurred in Latifiya, south of
Baghdad; in Baqubah, in central Iraq; and in and around the
northern city of Kirkuk. Neither the Sunnis nor the Shi’ites seemed
eager to claim the bombings.

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Center for Animal Lovers active in Iran

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

ANIMAL PEOPLE profiled the debut of the Center for Animal
Lovers in the suburbs of Tehran, Iran, in January/February 2005.
“We recently opened the first Iranian shelter for dogs in
Koosh-kezar, and the first for cats in Karadj. Both cities are
suburbs of Tehran,” wrote Center for Animal Lovers founder Fatemeh
Motamedi, whose efforts were encouraged by the Best Friends Animal
Society.
In September 2005, ANIMAL PEOPLE helped Motamedi to obtain
training from the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe,
California, and at the Conference on Homeless Animal Management &
Policy in Anaheim, sponsored by the North Shore Animal League
America.
In early 2006, political conflict obliged the Motamedi
family to relocate to Canada. Despite the disruption of leadership
and funding, the Center for Animal Lovers’ shelters remained open,
now sponsored by a U.S. support group, Friends of Center for Animal
Lovers, 3614 Fessenden St. NW, Washington, DC 20008;
<info@friendsofcal.org>.

Educational items in Arabic

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

LONDON–The International Network for Humane Education in
February 2006 launched an Arabic version of the Inter-NICHE web site
providing alternatives to animal use in life science education.
First posted by InterNICHE founder Nick Jukes in 1997, with
many subsequent updates and expansions, the site is already used
worldwide, but Cairo University professor Fawzy El-Nady anticipated
that the Arabic version might reach an especially receptive audience
which has had little previous access to antivivisection materials.
“In Islam,” said El-Nady, “imprisoning animals is a sin,
and cutting or injuring animals whilst alive is also forbidden. By
analogy and inference, this applies to science and science
education. It is also specifically forbidden [in Islam] to harm
frogs,” El-Nady added. “The use of alternatives fits well with
Islamic science.”

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Turkish serum lab is caught killing horses

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

ANKARA–Undercover video aired in Turkey and parts of Europe
in March 2006, posted by PETA in April, showed workers at the
government-run Refik Saydam Hygiene Center in Ankara slashing the
throats of terrified horses and slowly bleeding them to death to take
blood for use in serum products.
A spokesperson for Refik Saydam told ANIMAL PEOPLE on June 6,
2006 that the video was made in 2005, and that as of October 29,
2005 the company had switched to drawing horse blood just as blood is
drawn from humans. Several litres of blood may be taken from each
horse.
The spokesperson said that the nine horses from whom blood
was drawn on October 29, 2005 are still at the center, “in natural
and proper life conditions, with regular care and feeding.” If the
horses are properly looked after, they can give blood weekly for
decades.

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