Animal enterprise cases

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera on June 18 sued
Petco for “cruelty and a pattern of brazen violations of city health
and safety standards, continued over three years,” he told San
Francisco Chronicle staff writer Ilene Lelchuk. Herrera reportedly
hopes to obtain a court order prohibiting Petco from selling animals
within San Francisco. Founded in 1965 with a single store in La
Mesa, California, Petco introduced the practice of allowing local
animal shelters to offer dogs and cats for adoption, instead of
selling puppies and kittens from breeders. Petco now has 573 stores
in 42 states, and only rival PETsMART places more shelter animals in
homes–but Petco is also under PETA boycott for allegedly failing to
enforce high care standards, and for continuing to sell reptiles,
birds, and small mammals from breeders.

Kaitaia District Court Judge Thomas Everitt, of Kaitaia,
New Zealand, on May 17, 2002 fined the Kaitaia Rodeo Association
$10,000 (N.Z.), after the association pleaded guilty to neglecting a
mare and foal so severely in October 2001 that the foal starved to
death and the mare had to be euthanized. The fine was the highest
yet levied under the 1999 New Zealand Animal Welfare Act.

A court in Thessaloniki, Greece, on May 20, 2002 convicted
Barcelona Circus manager Mike Lamar of cruelty and sentenced him to
four months in prison for allegedly forcing an elephant with an
injured leg to perform between January and March 1999. Associated
Press reported that Lamar “will be able to buy off his sentence at
4.4 euros per day instead of serving prison time, an arrangement
common in Greek misdemeanor cases.”