Animal rescue abroad

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

A wide-ranging new anti-cruelty bill
introduced in Victoria state, Australia, on
September 7 by agriculture minister Bill McGrath
would give greater powers of intervention to prevent
cruelty to police, Royal SPCA, and state government
inspectors; extend the definition of animals to cover
fish and crustaceans; apply to the use of animals in
reasearch; remove religous-based exemptions to
existing laws governing the humane slaughter of fowl;
and ban the transport of untethered dogs in the backs
of trucks and trailers unless they are helping to move
livestock. The provisions pertaining to aquatic life,
McGrath said, are “not intended to intrude on existing
commercial practices in the fishing industries, but
will enable inspectors to investigate the transport and
display of crayfish and the preparation of fish and
crustaceans for the table.”

Bezalel Tabib, mayor of Arad, Israel, on
September 12 responded to a deluge of faxes of
protest over a plan to poison the city’s estimated 1,800
homeless cats by announcing the poisoning had been
cancelled. Four days later, however, an emergency
alert issued by Nina Natelson of Concern for Helping
Animals In Israel advised that, “This was only a tactic
by the mayor to quiet the protest. He only postponed
the campaign, and fully intends to carry out the poisoning.
Sources tell us that Dr. Simchon, Arad’s
municipal veterinarian, plans to use alpha-chloralose,
a poison banned for euthanasia purposes in the U.S.
because it causes paralysis before the animal loses
consciousness. It also causes strychnine-like symptoms
such as convulsions. Eventually the animal suffocates.”
Tabib may be reminded of the humane
tenets of Judaism at fax 972-7-954-265.
Shocked by TV depictions of dogcatchers
using strychnine to kill some of an estimated 200,000
stray dogs in Bucharest, Romania, in an effort to prevent
the spread of rabies, teams of German and
Austrian volunteer veterinarians spent their summer
vacations neutering and vaccinating as many of the
dogs as they could grab. Most of the dogs were then
returned to the streets, for want of demand for pets in
a nation where the average monthly wage is about
$100. The city government feeds each stray dog half
a loaf of bread per day. A city-commissioned opinion
poll recently found that most Romanians would rather
the dogs were neutered and fed than killed.
Richard Amery, agriculture minister for
the province of New South Wales, Australia, on
August 11 proposed an exotic animal licensing bill to
deal with growing numbers of roadside zoos and
potentially dangerous pets.
The city council of Burnaby, British
Columbia, will in October reportedly consider adopting
breeding control legislation modeled after that of
King County, Washington.