Prairie dogs

September 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The National Wildlife Federation on June 26,
2002 asked the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to protect blacktailed
prairie dogs throughout its holdings, but continued to withhold any
denunciation of the 2002 Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation “gopher”
derby, which killed more than 63,000 blacktailed prairie dogs and
Richardson’s ground squirrels.
The SWF is an affiliate of the Canadian Wildlife Federation,
which shares programs and policies with NWF.
Seven other U.S. conservation groups in early July asked the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list whitetailed prairie dogs as a
threatened species. Utah and Mexican prairie dogs are already listed
as a threatened species, and the Fish and Wildlife Service has
acknowledged that blacktailed prairie dogs are eligible for listing,
but has not assigned them a high priority on the waiting list of
candidate species.
Pressured by ranchers and prairie dog shooters, the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission on July 24 voted 5-1 against protecting
prairie dogs on state lands.

No-kill success and fiscal reality collide in Reno

September 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

Succeeding the No-Kill Conference, after seven annual events
that transformed the ambitions of the global animal care and control
community, will be the much less provocatively named Conference on
Homeless Animal Management and Policy, convening in Reno on August
22, 2002.
Retiring the term “no-kill” in deference to the sensitivities
of conventional shelter directors, CHAMP hopes to attract a broader
constituency to learn new approaches, and join the worldwide trend
away from accepting high-volume killing of homeless animals as an
inevitable part of animal control and humane work.

Congress delivers 9/11 to the Animal Welfare Act

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

Monday, May 13, 2002, was a date which should live in
infamy among American animal advocates. On that day, U.S.
president George W. Bush signed into law a new federal Farm Bill
which erased Animal Welfare Act protection of rats, mice, and birds
used in laboratories.
Rats, mice, and birds constitute more than 95% of all of
the warmblooded animals who suffer and die in U.S. biomedical
research, testing, and teaching: about 30 million per year.
Entrusted with enforcing the Animal Welfare Act, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture in truth never actually did protect rats,
mice, and birds as the law directed. Yet for 32 years the Animal
Welfare Act did say that the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service was supposed to protect rats, mice, and birds.

“Hog producers are greater threat to U.S. than Osama bin Laden,” says RFK Jr.

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.–Four months after telling an April 5
rally in Clear Lake, Iowa, that “Large-scale hog producers are a
greater threat to the U.S. and U.S. democracy than Osama bin Laden
and his terrorist network,” Waterkeeper Alliance president Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. shows no sign of backing away from his remarks–and has
posted not just one but two denunciations of factory-style hog
farming originally issued in April at the <www.keeper.org> web site.
The conservation-oriented Water-keeper Alliance is only
peripherally involved with animal issues other than protection of
habitat from pollution, and Kennedy himself has rarely said much
about animals, but after other Waterkeeper Alliance spokespersons
tried to tone down his Clear Lake statements or claim they were taken
out of context, Kennedy spoke equally forcefully on April 18 at
Briar Cliff University, a Catholic institution in Sioux City, Iowa.

Canadian anti-cruelty and Species-at-Risk bills die twice

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

OTTAWA–A once promising session of Parliament for Canadian
animal protection bills adjourned on June 21 in Ottawa with both an
update of the 107-year-old federal anti-cruelty law and the proposed
Species-at-Risk Act effectively dead.
Both bills actually appeared to be dead by mid-April,
between the concerted opposition of the Canadian Alliance, the
minority party which dominates western Canada, and the opposition of
Liberal Rural Caucus chair Murray Calder.

The costs versus benefits of making a big bust

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

Four almost simultaneous June cases spotlighted the costs and
often unpredictable risks to humane societies of confiscating large
numbers of animals in cruelty and neglect cases:

On June 6, the city of Edgewater, Florida, severed an
animal control impoundment contract with the Southeast Volusia Humane
Society because the shelter killed 14 dogs and cats who were taken in
April from the home of Valerie White, 38. The animals were killed
within hours after Volusia County Judge Mary Jane Henderson issued a
handwritten order that, “The City of Edgewater may advise the Humane
Society that those animals are available for adoption.” Edgewater
officials disputed the contention of shelter director Suzy Soule that
the animals were in poor health. White was charged nearly two weeks
later with three counts of unlawful abandonment or confinement of
animals, and one county of cruelty.

Another mega-bucks pit bull attack award

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

BINGHAMPTON, N.Y.–A New York State Supreme Court jury on
June 3 awarded $208,750 in damages to Maressa Ann Zawisky, 9, for
severe injuries to her nose, cheek, and jaw suffered when in March
2000 a chained pit bull terrier belonging to neighbor Willie Harris
jumped a fence and mauled her in the yard of her mother and
stepfather, Cookie and Robert Rieger.
The apparently unattended pit bull, who had attacked a
nine-year-old boy in 1999, gave birth to seven puppies earlier
during the morning of the attack.

San Francisco judge voids murder-by-dog verdict

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

SAN FRANCISCO–Overturning the March 21 verdict of a Los
Angeles jury, San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren on
June 17 voided the second degree murder conviction of attorney
Marjorie Knoller, 46, for allowing two Presa Canario dogs to escape
her control and kill neighbor Diane Whipple, 33, in January 2001.
“There is no question in this court’s mind that in the eyes
of the people, both defendants are guilty of murder,” Warren stated
on live television. “In the eyes of the law, they are not.”

Did alleged nonresponse to pit bull calls lead to addiction and murder?

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla.– Involved in a landmark case more
than a decade ago pertaining to the legal liability of a humane
society for dog attacks, the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society was
sued again in June 2002 in another case which, if successful, could
extend the liability of animal care and control agencies to indirect
effects of traumatic incidents.
Arthur Cheney, husband of murder victim Rhonda Kimmons
Cheney, 42, contends that PAWS and county officials improperly
ignored complaints about aggressive and vicious behavior by a pit
bull terrier who lived near Florosa in Santa Rosa County.

« 1 … 125 126 127 128 129 … 321 »