A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May/June 2013:
SINGAPORE– The Singapore High Court on May 27, 2013 awarded the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society the equivalent of $19.4 million U.S. for damages resulting when the construction firm ANA Ltd. built most of the ACRES wildlife rehabilitation center on a footing of woodchips contaminated with toxic waste. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May/June 2013:
HANOI––Longtime Tam Dao National Park director Do Dinh Tien on April 30, 2013 lost his job, after losing a two-year effort to evict the Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre from park property and redevelop the site as a “bear rescue and breeding center” open to the public, adjacent to a hotel and other tourist accommodations and attractions. The facilities were to be developed by the Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company, which listed Do Dinh Tien’s daughter Do Thi Ngan as one of four investors. The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development on May 1, 2013 named former Tam Dao National Park deputy director Ha Cong Khai to succeed Do Dinh Tien, reported An Dien of Thanh Nien News. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May/June 2013:
DELHI––“We will not allow dolphinariums,” Indian environment and forest minister Jayanthi Natarajan on May 8, 2013 told Chetan Chahan of the Hindustan Times. Read more
From Animal-People May/June 2013
CHENGDU––Guizhentang Pharmaceutical, China’s largest producer of bear bile, in April 2013 for the second time in two years withdrew a proposal to sell stock to raise the capital needed to increase the number of bears it keeps from 400 to 1,200. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
BEIJING, BANGKOK––Stopping a truck hauling 250 dogs to slaughterhouses in Maoming, Guangdong on April 7, 2013, Kunming Yixin Stray Animal Shelter volunteers had kept the truck surrounded at An Ning, in Kunming, for 48 hours as the April 2013 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, despite acts of attempted physical intimidation by the truckers and reinforcements called by the truckers. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
PETALING JAYA, Malaysia––Malaysian natural resources and environment minister Douglas Uggah “has ordered an immediate investigation by a team from his ministry into the alleged inhumane massacre of wild monkeys by its contractors,” Michelle Chun of the Sun Daily reported on March 29, 2013. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
TOKYO––The Japanese whaling fleet in 2013 killed just 103 minke whales out of a self-assigned quota of 935, and killed none of the 50 humpback and 50 fin whales they had hoped to kill, acknowledged Japanese agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at a homecoming media conference. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
CHENNAI––The Animal Welfare Board of India on January 14, 2013 ordered state governments and wildlife agencies to deny permits to anyone who “proposes to import or capture any cetacean [whale or dolphin] species for training, to use as a performing animal for commercial entertainment, private or public exhibition, private or human interaction, educational or research purposes.” The directive formalizes policies which have informally prevailed against would-be marine mammal exhibitors since 1998, when a now defunct Chennai aquarium called Dolphin City imported four dolphins from Bulgaria. All four died within six months. Whether the AWBI directive can be enforced is likely to be tested by would-be developers of dolphin parks in Mumbai, Delhi, and coastal Kerala state.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:
BEIJING––China Daily on February 22, 2013 spotlighted an Internet campaign against the fast-spreading practice of keeping seals in tanks as an attraction at hotels and restaurants. The campaign was initiated by the Panjin Harbor Seal Protection Volunteer Association, of Panjin, Liaoning province, and the Green Beagle Environment Institute of Beijing, whose volunteers have documented the presence of 43 captive seals at 20 facilities––most of them small and severely substandard.