Month: June 2010

SHARK files charges against Philadelphia Gun Club & exposes National College Rodeo Finals horse shocking

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

 

CASPER, PHILADELPHIA– Seeming to be in two distant places
at the same time, Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK) founder
Steve Hindi on June 17, 2010 pressed a criminal case against the
Philadelphia Gun Club in Bensalem, Pennsyl-vania, for alleged
cruelty to a pigeon during a February 2010 pigeon shoot, and posted
video clips to YouTube showing bucking horses being shocked that very
day at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming.
Both Hindi’s case against the Philadelphia Gun Club and the
College National Finals rodeo video received extensive local news
coverage–and upstaged his unveiling, two days earlier, of a drone
helicopter capable of documenting events such as pigeon shoots and
rodeos that exclude cameras from the spectator areas. (See page 12.)

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Animal defenders win seven major environmental conservation awards

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:
Save The Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton is to
receive the $100,000 Indianapolis Prize and accompanying Lilly Medal
on September 25, 2010. The awards are presented by Cummins Inc.,
maker of diesel engines. The 2009 winner was longtime Wildlife
Conservation Society field biologist George Schaller.
“Four decades ago,” recalled the award announcement,
“Douglas-Hamilton pioneered scientific study of elephant social
behavior. He led emergency anti-poaching efforts in Uganda to bring
the elephant population there from the brink of extinction. In
September 2009, Douglas-Hamilton worked to rescue a rare herd of
desert elephants in northern Kenya and Mali, threatened by one of
the worst droughts in nearly a dozen years. In the spring of 2010, a
devastating flood destroyed the Save the Elephants camp
in Kenya including staff tents, computers, and years of field
research notes. With a team of local researchers, the camp is now
being rebuilt.”

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Resistance to Indian company plan to site animal lab in Malaysia

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:
KUALA LUMPUR, DELHI– Protesting a variant on the chemical
and pharamceutical industry practice of outsourcing animal testing to
developing nations with lax regulation, “Animal lovers, activists,
a senator, and Miss Malaysia/World 2009/2010 Thanuja Ananthan were
among those who gathered in front of the Indian High Commission” in
Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysia capital city, on June 10, 2010 “to
protest a plan by Vivo Bio Tech to build an animal testing laboratory
in Malacca,” the Star of Malaysia reported.
Leading the demonstration were the SPCA Selangor, Sahabat
Alam Malaysia, which represents the international organization
Friends of the Earth in Malaysia, PETA/Malaysia, and
representatives of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection
and the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments.

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What do past spills predict for Deepwater Horizon impact?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

The Deepwater Horizon oil discharge, after 62 days, was
believed by the U.S. Coast Guard to have reached a volume of as much
as 156 million gallons–making it the second worst oil disaster in
history, 15 times larger than the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill in
Prince William Sound, Alaska. The Deep-water Horizon spill is
expected to reach 250 million gallons by the time BP completes
drilling four pressure relief wells in August 2010 and finally caps
the undersea gusher.
The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean Sea
receive more than four times as much sunlight per year than the
Prince William Sound, however, and that translates into
exponentially greater activity by wind, waves, and microorganisms
to mitigate the effects of oil spills.

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Reckoning the wildlife losses

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

Who is compiling the Deepwater Horizon body count?
“Within each of the animal rescue stations set up along the
Gulf Coast is a makeshift morgue for oiled and ill creatures that
didn’t make it,” reported Katy Reckdahl of the New Orleans
Times-Picayune. “Pathologists and laboratory staff are carefully
cataloging each dead creature as part of larger criminal, civil and
scientific inquiries into how the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has
affected animals and their habitats.
“The operations cannot be photographed or observed by
outsiders,” Reckdahl said, “because they are part of a massive body
of evidence outlining the harm that the spill has caused wildlife,
in violation of federal laws such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,
Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act.”
Estimates that the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill killed 250,000
sea birds and 2,800 sea otters were developed from collecting and
evaluating the remains of more than 35,000 birds and 1,000 sea
otters. Exxon eventually agreed to pay $100 million as criminal
restitution for harm to wildlife, plus $900 million over 10 years in
settlement of damage suits.

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BP partnered with The Nature Conservancy & other big green groups

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:
WASHINGTON D.C.–“The Nature Conservancy lists BP as one of
its business partners,” observed Washington Post staff writer Joe
Stephens on May 23, 2010. “The organization also has given BP a
seat on its International Leadership Council and has accepted nearly
$10 million in cash and land contributions from BP and affiliated
corporations over the years.
“The Conservancy,” wrote Stephens, “already
scrambling to shield oyster beds in the region from the spill, now
faces a potential backlash as its supporters learn that the giant oil
company and the world’s largest environmental organization long ago
forged a relationship that has lent BP an Earth-friendly image.
Until recently, the Conservancy and other environmental groups worked
alongside BP in a coalition that lobbied Congress on climate change
issues. And an employee of BP Exploration serves as an unpaid
Conservancy trustee in Alaska.”

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Defective search & seizure warrants typically keep cases from going to trial

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

Cases involving defective warrants, or none, are usually
dismissed before actually going to trial. The most commonly cited
error is that the investigators overstep legal limits in seeking
probable cause to obtain warrants.
For example, Justice Robin Clute of Ravalli County, Montana
on June 8, 2010 dismissed three counts of cruelty filed in 2008
against Paula Fisher, of Victor, Montana, after Ravalli County
sheriff’s deputies impounded 10 horses, 17 goats, and two cats from
her property. All but three of the horses were later returned to
Fisher, said Perry Backus of the Ravalli Republic. In the Fisher
case, the deputies obtained a search warrant, but only after
entering her property to inspect the animals more closely, having
seen them first from a road. The deputies passed a “No trespassing”
sign.

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Irish Supreme Court in 2009 rejected attempt to use a “no warrant” defense

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

DUBLIN–Globally, defenses based on alleged warrantless
search and seizure are usually considered a quirk of U.S. law, since
the U.S. Fourth Amendment protection against warrantless entry is
uniquely strong. The Irish Supreme Court on May 1, 2009 rejected a
rare non-U.S. attempt to use lack of a warrant as a defense.
Barrister and customs officer Donba Sfar, of St.
Bronagh’s, Lisdoo, Dundalk, contended that Irish SPCA inspector
Paul Mellon and the Louth SPCA improperly seized 17 dogs from the
yard and outbuildings of a house she owned in Oaklawns, Dundalk, in
December 1998. The dogs were allegedly starving and had cannibalized
another dog.
Sfar conducted her own defense and appeals. The Irish
Supreme Court ruled that while her home was on the Oaklawns property,
the places from which the dogs were seized were not part of her
actual dwelling, and were therefore not subject to a warrant
requirement.
U.S. law holds that all properties are subject to warrant
requirements, except under “exigent circumstances.”

SHARK flying videocam

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:
SHARK, a longtime pioneer of the use of both video and
aviation to investigate and expose animal abuse, on June 15, 2010
unveiled “Angels for the Animals,” a squadron of remote-controlled
helicopters in development for about six months, funded by Bob
Barker, longtime host of The Price Is Right and other television
game shows.
“Because of the cowardly nature of animal abusers, cruelty
often occurs unseen on private property or otherwise away from public
access. The air, however, is open to the public, with certain
restrictions,” said SHARK founder Steve Hindi. “Armed with high
definition video and still cameras, the Angels will expose animal
abuse as never before. Abusers will no longer be able to hide away
in woods or behind fences. Our cameras will catch them.”

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