Burning the oil spill evidence

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

NEW ORLEANS–Rumors flew for weeks that British Petroleum
clean-up crews were secretly incinerating the remains of wildlife
oiled by the April 20, 2010 wreck of the Deepwater Horizon drilling
rig. Often obstructed by BP personnel, despite an order from U.S.
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen that media were to be allowed access
to all areas normally open to the public, reporters wondered just
what they were not being allowed to see–especially since many gained
access to heavily oiled habitat despite the BP interference.
But some of the first claims that oiled remains were being
burned on beaches turned out to have been recycled from the aftermath
of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. A similar rumor traced to Salt
Lake City, where a 500-barrel spill into Red Butte Creek and the
Jordan River on June 11 oiled about 280 ducks and geese. About 10
birds were killed. The Hogle Zoo saved the rest.

BOOKS: Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters by Leslie Irvine
Temple University Press (1852 N. 10th St., Philadelphia,
PA 19122), 2009. 176 pages, hardcover. $24.50.

Who fills the ark in time of disaster? Leslie Irvine in
Filling the Ark examines who is evacuated and who is left behind?
Practically everyone old enough to watch TV remembers
gut-wrenching scenes of National Guard troops yanking bewildered dogs
and cats away from the arms of hysterical children during the
evacuation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit in late August
2005. Some pets were shot in the streets by sheriff’s deputies.
Charges against the deputies were dropped in 2008. Other animals
were tied up and shot sadistically in a school that had served as an
evacuation center. No one was charged with those killings. Tens of
thousands of pets were left to fend for themselves. Many were
rescued by the largest and longest sustained animal rescue operation
in the U.S. ever, but many others died before help could arrive.

Kinship Circle & Chilean coalition help in earthquake aftermath

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
ST. LOUIS–While U.S. animal rescuers watched and waited for
the Deepwater Horizon oil slicks to drift ashore and wreak havoc,
Kinship Circle founder Brenda Shoss tried to alert the world to a
little noticed humane crisis in Chile–including a growing risk that
dogs might be massacred in the tent cities housing much of the
displaced population of Talquahano.
Aftershocks from the February 27, 2010 Chilean earthquake
and tsunami continued into May. The initial earthquake measured 8.8
on the Richter scale, among the strongest ever recorded. The entire
captial city of Santiago was moved 11 inches to the west.

Gulf oil spill rescuers prepare & wait

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
NEW ORLEANS–Almost a month after the British Petroleum
drilling platform Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, 2010 in
the Gulf of Mexico, 45 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana,
rescuers from Texas to Florida were still awaiting an anticipated
influx of animals from a disaster projected by many experts as
perhaps the worst-ever oil spill for wildlife.
“I think we ruined every child’s summer in New Orleans,
because we bought all the kiddie pools,” Louisiana state marine
mammal and sea turtle stranding coordinator Michelle Kelley told
Associated Press writer Janet McConnaughey.

Fire hits Animal Friends League of Kuwait

April 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

WAFRA, Kuwait–Electrical fires on March 12 and March 24,
2010 razed most of the Animal Friends League of Kuwait shelter
complex. The facilities, featured in a presentation on shelter
design at the first Middle East Network for Animal Welfare conference
in 2007, were widely praised as the best in the Middle East.
The first fire destroyed the residential quarters and all
personal possessions of four live-in staff members. The second fire
killed eight dogs and 31 cats, and badly injured others, some of
whom died later.

Editorial: Humane education lessons from the Haiti disaster

March 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2010:

Inquiries to ANIMAL PEOPLE about how to help the animals of
Haiti began even before the dust had settled from the collapse of the
Haitian presidential palace and parliament buildings. At this
writing at least 170,000 people are known to have been killed by the
January 12, 2010 Haitian earthquake, with the toll still rising as
more bodies are found beneath the rubble in Port au Prince, the
Haitian capital city, and in surrounding suburbs.
As after the Indian Ocean tsunami of late December 2004,
Hurricane Katrina in late August 2005, the Sichuan earthquake of May
2008, and other disasters of recent years, animal charities rushed
out emergency alerts and dispatched rescue teams in the direction of
Haiti without waiting to get particulars as to what might be needed
or how best to get it there.

Dogs & cats off the job–rats storm flooded Manila

October 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2009:

MANILA–Rats may leave a sinking ship, but not a flooded city.
Humans, the pets they could carry, work animals, and many
street dogs fled Manila, Rizal, and their suburbs by the thousands
after tropical storm Ketsana dumped a typical month’s worth of rain
in only nine hours on September 26, 2009.
Cats and dogs who were not evacuated and found no escape
routes climbed to high places, if they could, above the torrents,
but water spilling over 80% of the Manila metropolitan area kept most
of them wherever they ended up for at least the next four days, when
the flood began receding. Some were stranded for weeks. Much of the
metropolis was left to the rats and mice–and the Philippines are
known for rat and mouse biodiversity, with 62 native mouse and rat
species. Many are found in the greater Manila area, along with
non-native but ubiquitous Norway rats and at least three problematic
species who were accidentally imported from mainland Asia.

Southern California sanctuaries survive wildfires

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
LOS ANGELES– Winds gusting over 50 miles per hour drove the
second major wildlife in the Los Angeles area in less than a month
south from Fillmore toward the city of Moorpark as ANIMAL PEOPLE went
to press on September 22, 2009. Evacuations of large animals were
ordered in three areas believed to be in the path of the fire.
Ironically, the animals included some of the more than 600
horses who were moved earlier from the path of the 160,000-acre
Station Fire, east of Los Angeles, a few weeks before. The Station
Fire on September 22 was reportedly 94% controlled, after ravaging
the Angeles National Forest for four weeks, but threatened to blow
up again due to the wind storm.
“Some horses were taken to the Santa Anita racetrack,”
ahead of the Station Fire. “Others were trucked to a community
college in the San Fernando Valley. Others were transported north to
Ventura County. The Los Angeles Equestrian Center, in Burbank,”
accepted 330 evacuated horses, wrote David Finnigan of Agence
France-Presse.

Disasters strike abroad

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
An electrical fire razed the Qatar Animal Welfare Society on
September 3. The founders evacuated more than 100 animals, but 35
dogs, cats, rabbits, and a possum were killed. “All QAWS now has
is the surviving animals and the collars they were wearing,” said an
appeal e-mailed to supporters. Updates were posted at <www.qaws.org>.
Torrential rains meanwhile inundated much of the Istanbul
region of Turkey. “Besides human casualties, there are many animal
casualties,” reported Linda Taal of the Dutch-based organization
Actiezwerfhonden (Action for Dogs), which assists several Turkish
animal aid projects.
“The dogs in the forest shelter are doing okay,” Taal
continued, referring to the facility at the Kemerburgaz landfill
that ANIMAL PEOPLE profiled in July/August 2001, “but thousands of
strays were drowned, and one shelter was flooded, with at least 130
animals killed. Flooding at a vet clinic killed 40 animals.”
Earlier, Typhoon Morakot damaged 10 animal shelters in two
counties of Taiwan, which among them housed about 1,000 dogs. About
100 dogs were drowned or were missing, the Central News Agency said
on August 10.

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