Principle Must Come First

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

Principle must come first, by Patrice Greanville
ANIMAL PEOPLE board of directors

“Downplaying the ‘animal rights angle’ will be
counterproductive,” ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett advised
animal advocates who were preparing their lobbying strategy for the
spring 2002 legislative sessions.
“If the legislators believe the charade,” Kim continued,
and reiterated in the March 2002 ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial, “it
perpetuates the notion that nobody cares much about animals. If they
don’t buy it, it confirms the view that animal suffering is so
inconsequential a concern that even animal advocates are afraid to
acknow-ledge their true interests.”

Read more

LETTERS [July/August 2002]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

Building a safety net for pets
“How do we get the word out that pet ownership is a
commitment for the entire life of the animal? How do we educate
people to not give up or dump their animals?”
We at Maricopa County Animal Care & Control were asking
ourselves these questions just over a year ago, but chose not to
find fault with the people we encounter and instead find ways to help
these people and their animals.
We began by reducing the days in which we would accept owner
relinquishments to Tuesday through Friday. We are inundated with
lost pets over the weekend and typically had to euthanize
owner-relinquished animals to make room for the lost pets picked up
by animal control or found by the public, whom we are required to
hold.

Read more

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

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.

Read more

Seeking a safer way for farm animals–safest would be out of the supermarket

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

NORFOLK, Va.; DAVIS, Calif. –McDonald’s, Burger King,
and other fast-food restaurant chains are international symbols of
the meat-heavy American diet, but the 1,750 U.S. Safeway
supermarkets and 17 meat and dairy processing plants generates three
times as much U.S. revenue, reminds PETA vegan outreach coordinator
Bruce Friedrich.
The Kroger chain is even bigger, and Albertson’s is also a
major competitor.

Read more

Donkey heaven by Bonny Shah

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

SIDMOUTH, DEVON, U.K.– Fifteen minutes from Exeter, ten
minutes from Sidmouth, a seaside resort town, The Donkey Sanctuary
is approached along winding roads arched with massive trees, with
lush green fields rolling into the hills beyond. The effect is of
entering an enchanted storybook land.
We had seen and heard much about The Donkey Sanctuary during
our own years of looking after donkeys and other animals at the
Ahimsa of Texas sanctuary we founded in Bartonville, Texas, and the
Dharma Donkey Sanctuary we recently started in India, but our first
visit, actually almost a pilgrimage, came in June 2002.

Read more

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

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.

Read more

Infiltration and disruption of activism

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

A federal court jury in Oakland, California, on June 11
ordered the FBI and the Oakland Police Department to pay $4.4 million
in reparations and damages to Earth First! activist Darryl Cherney,
46, and the estate of Judi Bari, who died of cancer at age 47 in
March 1997. On May 24, 1990, as Bari and Cherney drove through
Oakland on their way to Santa Cruz to rally fellow anti-old growth
logging activists, a nail bomb detonated under the seat of Bari’s
car. Cherney escaped with minor injuries, but a shattered pelvis and
lower back injuries left Bari permanently disabled. Although no
evidence ever linked Bari and Cherney to the bomb, both were
arrested within hours for allegedly possessing it.

Read more

Meat is murder

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

Arms dealer Carl DeSchutter, livestock dealer Germain
Daenen, cattle breeder Alex Vercauteren, and traveling fair worker
Albert Barrez were convicted on June 3 in Brussels, Belgium, of the
1995 murder of veterinary inspector Karel Van Noppen. Van Noppen was
investigating Vercauteren in connection with alleged use of the
banned synthetic steroid clenbuterol to expedite the growth of veal
calves. “Van Noppen’s zeal drew criticism from a superior, who
hanged himself after Van Noppen’s murder,” Agence France-Presse
revealed. An informant identified DeSchutter and Barrez, who were
former jail cellmates; DeSchutter implicated Vercauteren and Daenen
after his arrest in 1996.

Read more

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.

Read more

1 2 3