Supreme Court of Canada rules for seals

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

OTTAWA–The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 9-0 on February 22
that the authority of the federal government “to preserve the
economic viability of not only the seal fishery, but the Canadian
fisheries in general” gives Ottawa the constitutional right to ban
the sale of whitecoated harp seal and bluebacked hooded seal pup
pelts–as has been done since the 1995 resumption of offshore
commercial sealing, to protect the public image of the hunt. The
verdict allows Ottawa to resume prosecuting 101 sealers for allegedly
killing seal pups in 1996. About 25,000 pelts were seized from them.
Funded by the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ Union, sealer Ford
Ward, of La Scie, Newfoundland, challenged the federal right to
pursue the case.
The current sealing quotas are 275,000 for adult harp seals
and 10,000 for adult hooded seals–but only 91,000 seals were killed
in 2001, as pelt prices collapsed years ago and Viagra cut into
Asian demand for seal penises.

Will the end of Spring bring change to the Humane Society of Indianapolis?

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

INDIANAPOLIS–Marsha Spring, 59, executive director of the
Humane Society of Indianapolis since 1988, resigned on February 21,
four days after Indianapolis Star reporters Bill Theobald and Bonnie
Harris revealed that Spring had used credit cards and checks issued
by the humane society to pay for “purchases from high-end women’s
clothing stores, gas stations, a spa, and animal product
suppliers, among others, including items bought during personal
vacations on Florida’s Sanibel Island.”
Spring even used a humane society check to pay for
reupholstering her dining room chairs in November 1996, Theobald and
Harris reported.

Animal advocacy meets The War on Terror

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

SALT LAKE CITY–Utah County coyotes got a break from
terrorism during the Winter Olympic Games held in and around Salt
Lake City.
“Because of the no-fly restriction in effect withn 45 miles
of the Games from midnight on February 7 through midnight on February
24, USDA Wildlife Services could not conduct aerial coyote control,”
Deseret News staff writer Sharon Hadlock reported.
Those weeks are usually peak coyote-strafing time for
Wildlife Services, as snow makes their tracks visible to helicopter
gunners.

More “Loki” elephant case

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

NEW DELHI–A three-judge panel from the Supreme Court of
India on February 12 directed the Tamil Nadu forest department to
allow James Mahoney, DVM, to resume treating a tuskless bull
elephant on behalf of the India Project for Animals and Nature.
Mahoney had begun regular visits to the elephant in January, but was
later barred by forest department officials.
Known to IPAN donors as “Loki,” but called either Murthy or
Makhna in Tamil Nadu, the elephant was captured in July 1998, after
killing 18 people in a series of rampages. He is believed to be an
ex-logging elephant who also killed 18 people in earlier incidents.

Shelters & labs

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

The Inland Valley Humane Society, of Pomona, California,
has ceased supplying dogs and cats to veterinary technician training
programs at Mount San Antonio College, after 30 years, and to Cal
Poly Pomona, after four years, executive director Bill Harford
confirmed in mid-February 2002 to Los Angeles Times reporter Danielle
Samniego. Harford blamed criticism from PETA for ending the
arrangements, which he said often led to the animals finding homes
with the vet tech trainees–a contention PETA disputes.

Dog & cat licensing compliance, costs, and effects

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

Regulations of any kind seldom succeed unless a large
majority of the people or institutions to be regulated are already
voluntarily in compliance or willing to become compliant with
relatively little nudging at the time that the regulations start to
be enforced. If more than a small percentage object to a regulation
enough to become scofflaws, the enforcement burden becomes
overwhelming, and the regulation eventually tends to be ignored or
repealed.

Sentenced

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

Religious conservative Mark Warren Sands, 50, of Phoenix,
Arizona, drew an 18-year prison sentence on February 11 for burning
seven luxury homes under construction between April 2000 and January
2001. Sands claimed credit for the ELF-like arsons in communiques
from environmental advocacy activist cells that existed only in his
own imagination. A former publicist for University Hospital in Salt
Lake City and a Phoenix-area health care organization, Sands more
nearly fit the profile of an agent provocateur than that of a radical
activist, having no public history of the open space advocacy that
he said was his motive. But Sands also acknowledged committing the
arsons to obtain a sense of adventure, and no evidence emerged to
link him to any kind of conspiracy.

Bush & the beasts

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Cultivating an image as an animal-lover,
U.S. President George W. Bush on February 12 signed into law the
Congressional reauthorization of the Asian Elephant Conservation Act.
Five weeks earlier, on January 8, Bush signed
reauthorizations of the African Elephant Conservation Act and the
Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act.
The devil was in the details.

Gas in Pakistan

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

KARACHI, Pakistan–Natural gas exploration and extraction in
Kirthar National Park is apparently proceeding quietly, five months
after the Sindh High Court on October 4 dismissed a petition against
it brought by a coalition of nine Pakistani nonprofit organizations.
The verdict came as U.S. President George W. Bush pressured Pakistan
to crack down on public displays of anti-Americanism, but it crushed
an unusually American-like expression of dissent, in a nation with
little history of activism on behalf of animals and habitat.

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