A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
SAN FRANCISCO––A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on August 30, 2013 unanimously affirmed an earlier Los Angeles district court verdict that a statewide ban on the sale of foie gras may be enforced. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)
Vikrant Singh Yadav, 25, a bank clerk in Khwaspur village, Haryana state, India, was killed on August 25, 2013 while chasing a truck believed to be driven by cattle rustlers who were taking cows to be illegally slaughtered.
Police and the local cow protection society Gae Bachao Samiti had reportedly been tipped that the rustlers were hauling cattle. Yadav trailed the alleged rustlers’ truck on a motorcycle, with other Gae Bachao Samiti members following in a car. After police waved the truck through a checkpoint but briefly detained Yadev, he resumed the pursuit at high speed. He apparently caught the truck, but was then either run over or hacked to death with an unidentified weapon, according to conflicting accounts. The truck drivers escaped. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July-August 2013:
SANTA CLARITA, California––Newly accessible IRS Form 990 filings for 2010 and 2011 from The Gentle Barn Foundation hint at a history of financial irregularities, some of which were also alleged in three lawsuits filed in 2012 by five former staff. The lawsuits were recently settled in mediation on undisclosed terms. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July-August 2013:
WASHINGTON D.C.––A version of the 2013 Farm Bill passed on July 11, 2013 by the U.S. House of Representatives eliminated $80 billion in funding for the federal food stamp program, but included an amendment by Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) which would overturn more than 150 state laws governing aspects of food safety, occupational health, and animal welfare. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July-August 2013:
TRENTON––New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) on June 1, 2013 vetoed a bill approved by the state legislature in May 2013 which would have banned the use of gestation stalls to confine pregnant and nursing sows. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July-August 2013:
DEN HAAG––Dutch state secretary of economic affairs Sharon A.M. Dijksma on June 4, 2013 committed The Netherlands to trying to reverse European Union and other international policies which require culling livestock who have been exposed to contagious diseases of concern, even if the animals are apparently healthy and have been vaccinated against the feared diseases. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July-August 2013:
DEN HAAG––Asked by the Dutch Party for Animals to expedite a ban on trimming the beaks of egg-laying hens, originally to take effect in 2021, Dutch agriculture minister Sharon Dijksma in June 2013 reset the deadline to September 2018. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July-August 2013:
SAN MATEO, California––Local humane society presidents rarely criticize national humane organizations and even less often jump into farmed animal issues, at risk of alienating meat-eating donors, but Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA president Ken White on May 30, 2013 bucked convention on both points. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July-August 2013:
Raising millions of animals per year in close confinement for decades longer than most other nations, The Netherlands has correspondingly had much more experience than almost anywhere else with how contagious diseases spread among large herds and flocks in close quarters. Read more