Romanian activists are wary of newly passed U.S.-style animal control law

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2011:

 

BUCHAREST--Romanian animal advocates fear that a new national
animal control law ratified on November 22,  2011 by the national
Chamber of Deputies will initiate dog population control killing at a
pace unseen since then-Bucharest mayor Traian Basescu in April 2001
unleashed the most notorious dog pogram since the fall of Communism.
Basescu has since 2004 been president of Romania,  elected in
part because the 2001 dog killing helped to establish his reputation
for enforcing law-and-order.  The Chamber of Deputies is dominated by
the Democratic Liberal Party,  of which Basescu is a founder.  The
Democratic Liberal Party collected half a million petition signatures
in support of the new animal control law before bringing it to a
final vote. Read more

Letters

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2011:

Letters

Euthanasia

I am responding to the letter by Doug Fakkema in the
September 2011 edition of Animal People concerning “euthanasia.”
Without in any way impugning Fakkema’s motives and sincerity,  he is
either in denial or is unaware of the definition of the word.  I do
not argue that the death must be “good,”  as stated by Fakkema,  but
his definition leaves out the most important aspect:  the death
should be in the interests of the individual dying.  Of necessity,
this means that the individual dying would benefit from death by
ending a situation that is causing intractable suffering.  Ideally,
the individual would be able to indicate that he or she prefers death
to continued life.  In the case of cats, dogs or other nonhuman
animals,  this may not be feasible because of our inability to
communicate with the individual.  In these situations,  it becomes
especially important that the person ending life must be clear on her
or his motives which must derive only from a sincere belief that
ending the life will end suffering that cannot be relieved otherwise.
Using a defense that one is somehow preventing future suffering does
not even warrant consideration, being patently absurd. Read more

Who has the mandate to speak for farm animals?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2011:

Editorial Feature

 

Controversy continues in this November/December 2011 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE,
as in almost every edition since July/August 2010,  over agreements reached during the past 18 months among animal charities and entities representing agribusiness.  In dispute are both the substance of the agreements themselves, which concern the lives,  suffering,  and deaths of more animals than are involved in all other animal advocacy issues combined,  and the even greater question of who is ethically entitled to speak for the interests of livestock. Read more

Other captive wildlife cases illustrate the risks

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2011:

The release of 56 large exotic and dangerous animals from the
Muskingum County Animal Farm and subsequent killing of 48 of the
animals on October 19,  2011 was not unprecedented.
Fifteen lion/tiger hybrids called ligers were on September
21,  1995 shot by a neighboring landowner and a 50-member sheriff’s
posse after breaking out of the Ligertown Game Farm in Lava Hot
Springs,  Idaho. Read more

Many red lights flashed about Terry Thompson

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2011:

ZANESVILLE–After Terry W. Thompson released 56 tigers, lions,  bears,  and other dangerous animals on October 19,  2011, and then shot  himself,  and after Muskingum County sheriff’s deputies shot 48 of the animals,  practically everyone agreed that  Thompson should never have had his animal collection in the first place. Read more

Another Burton Sipp fire raises questions

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2011:

SPRINGFIELD,  N.J.--A three-alarm fire killed two giraffes,
three dogs,  four cats,  and 15 parrots at the Animal Kingdom Pet
Store & Zoo on October 31,  2011 in Springfield Township,  New
Jersey.  About 20 puppies were reportedly rescued.  Owner Burton K.
Sipp,  67,  told George Mast of the Cherry Hill Courier Post that he
was in Arizona on horse racing business at the time of the fire.  The
fire started at about 8:45 p.m.,  about half an hour after Sipp’s
brother George said a Halloween party in the store had ended.
“Some kind of explosion must have ignited it,”  George Sipp
told Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Darran Simon. Read more

BOOKS: Our Lives Have Gone to the Dogs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2011:

Our Lives Have Gone to the Dogs
by Audrey Spilker Hagar & Eldad Hagar
Hope For Paws (8950 W. Olympic Blvd. #525,
Los Angeles,  CA 90211),  2010.
Free download from <www.eldadhagar.com/>.

An anonymous caller pleads with Our Lives Have Gone to the
Dogs author Audrey Spilker Hagar and photographer Eldad Hagar to help
a dog crouched beneath an abandoned house in a gang-infested Los
Angeles neighborhood.  Drug dealers threaten to kill the dog.  But
this dog escapes.  So does a kitten who appears on the scene.  They
are eventually rescued and adopted.  The Hagars are the founders of
Hope For Paws,  one of several hundred animal rescue charities in Los
Angeles whose work augments that of the Los Angeles city and county
animal control agencies. Read more

BOOKS: Legislative & regulatory options for animal welfare

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2011:

Legislative & regulatory options for animal welfare
by Jessica Vapnek & Megan Chapman
for the Development Law Service,  FAO Legal
Office.   FAO Legislative Study 104.
Free download from:  http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1907e/i1907e00.htm

“Because food animals are important to
human welfare–as a source of nutrition and
income–concern for animal welfare is
inextricable from concern for human needs,”  open
United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization
researchers Jessica Vapnek and Megan Chapman in
Legislative & regulatory options for animal
welfare.  “This is particularly the case in
countries with developing economies,”  Vapnek and
Chapman continue,   “where current and expected
population increases are putting pressure on food
security and economic growth.  Increased food
animal production,”  Vapnek and Chapman assert,
“is often a necessary part of attaining both
goalsŠThe key challenge is to find ways to
increase food animal production while
simultaneously improving or ensuring good animal
welfare and protecting food security.” Read more

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