First Freedom of Info ruling since 9/11 favors AV group

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.– U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina
ruled in Washington D.C. on September 3 that the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration failed to prove any legitimate need to withhold
approximately 27,000 records regarding xenotransplantation studies
from Campaign for Respon-sible Transplantation founder Alix Fano.
The ruling, on a Freedom of Information Act request Fano
filed in March 2000, did not end the three-year battle over whether
or not the records should be disclosed. Urbina gave the FDA until
Nov-ember 10 to prepare arguments distinguishing between categories
of records withheld as “trade secrets” and withheld on other claims.
In addition, U.S. District Court verdicts may be appealed to
the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and then to the Supreme Court.
The case could be many years from ended. The Urbina ruling was
significant, however, as the first major test of federal efforts to
withhold information about animal testing since September 11, 2001.

Cockfighting not wanted on reservations

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

CARNAGIE, Okla.–Oklahoma voters are expected to approve an
anti-cockfighting initiative on November 5 by a 2-1 margin, say
recent polls– and Native Americans are not going to help
cockfighting continue, tribal leaders warned in September, after
informants within the Oklahoma Gamefowl Breeders Association told
Kiowa attorney Jon Wyatt that someone was trying to sell members
permits to fight cocks on Native American reservations.
“Someone could try it,” Caddo Tribe chair LaRue Parker told
Ron Jackson of The Oklahoman. “But my God, I sure hope not.
Cockfighting goes against everything that is sacred to Indians. We
are the keepers of the land and protectors of the animals.”
Kiowa Tribe chair Clifford McKenzie pledged that any evidence
he discovered linking the Kiowa to cockfighting would be “turned over
to the proper federal authorities” for prosecution.

Dog law updates

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

Dog attacks

Police in Melbourne, Australia, confirmed on September 6
that a charge of reckless conduct would be brought against a
defendant believed to be alleged illegal marijuana grower Debra Susan
Marks, 39, of Moe, for the February 1999 fatal mauling of her
former landlord, Holocaust survivor Leon Tarasinski, 75. Director
of public prosecutions Paul Coghlan recommended the charge in April
2002, after a three-year campaign by Tarsinski’s widow Shelley, 62,
and the Crime Victims Support Association. The prosecution will be
the first attempt in Victoria state to win a criminal conviction for
a fatal dog attack, and the second attempt anywhere in Australia.
Giovanni Pacino, 35, of Western Australia, was convicted of
manslaughter in 1998 after his Rottweilers killed neighbor Perina
Chokolich, 85, but his conviction was reversed on appeal.

Animal control & sheltering

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

Authoritarian regimes trying to keep a lid on dissidence have
reportedly ordered the massacre of all cats in Tehran, Iran, and
all dogs in Lhasa, Tibet. Neither city has a functional animal
advocacy group, nor an official U.S. presence to direct protest
toward. In each case the killing is done in the name of rabies
control, but is not combined with a vaccination strategy, and
actually appears to be an application of the Chinese proverb, “Kill
the dog to scare the monkey.” House pets are not common in Tehran,
but feeding feral cats is popular among women; killing cats warns
women to stay home and be quiet. In Lhasa, free-roaming Lhasa apso
dogs are widely believed to be the reincarnations of high lamas.
Thus when the Chinese Commun-ist occupiers kill Lhasa apsos, they
strike at Tibetan Buddhism and traditional leadership.

Sanctuaries, wildlife feel the heat from global warming

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

Already afflicted by economic drought pushing more than 100
nonprofit animal shelters and sanctuaries into dissolution, the
animal care community was hit during summer 2002 by fires, floods,
and drought too.
Disaster often overtook refuges and sanctuaries with unimagined speed.
Darlene Kobobel, 40, was just barely able to move 12 wolves
and wolf hybrids on short notice from her 8.5-acre Wolf Rescue Center
in Lake George, Colorado, in June, Baltimore Sun correspondent
Stephen Kiehl wrote. Housing the animals temporarily in a barn near
Colorado Springs, Kobobel fed them meat from elk and deer caught by
the flames.

A new deal for street dogs on the Turk beach where a Greek god turned dog to win a girl

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

FETHIYE, Turkey–Known for a balmy climate, golden beaches,
and ruins representing many of the most important episodes in the
past 3,000 years of human civilization, the coastal Mediterranean
town of Fethiye, Turkey, has since Roman times been a popular
vacation spot.
The work of the Fethiye Friends of Animals Association may
also some day be seen as historically significant. The FFAA is
operating the first successful sterilization-and-release program to
control street dogs in Asia Minor. The FFAA program has already
become a regionally influential demonstration of how to changing the
often cruel dynamics of the Turkish animal/human relationship. As
the program expands, it could become a catalyst for changing the
prevailing models of animal care and control throughout western Asia.

Turkey lacks humane fundraising tradition

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

ISTANBUL, Turkey–“Although Perihan Agnelli is only
scratching at the surface of the stray dog problem on the south
coast, she is doing a very good job of self-promotion and of winning
governmental endorsement. She is showing a lot of initiative and
business sense in soliciting donations,” British garment
manufacturer Robert Smith wrote in a September 17 e-mail to the
Society for the Protection of Stray Animals (SHKD), whose Natural
Dog Shelter at the sprawling Kemerburgaz Rubbish Dump Project outside
Istanbul he has sponsored for nearly three years.

BOOKS: The Parrot’s Lament

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

The Parrot’s Lament
and Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity
by Eugene Linden
Dutton (375 Hudson St., N.Y.,, NY 10014), 1999. 224 pages,
paperback; $12.95.

The Parrot’s Lament and Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue,
Intelligence, and Ingenuity may sound noncontroversial, but as
author Eugene Linden points out, the issue of animal consciousness
is “contentious,” meaning it cannot be argued without reference to
ideology.

BOOKS: Minding Animals

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

Minding Animals: Awareness,
Emotions, and Heart by Marc Bekoff
Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016),
2002. 230 pages, hardcover. $27.50.

More than 30 years ago Marc Bekoff was the first researcher
to study coyotes in the wild for reasons other than to find more
efficient ways to kill them. His reports about coyote play were
instrumental in reversing the once wholly negative public image of
coyotes. Informed about the care that coyotes take to play fair with
each other, few people other than sheep ranchers could continue to
see them as mere killing machines.

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