WWF splits over links to corporations

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

GENEVA, Switzerland–World Wildlife Fund U.S. president
Kathryn Fuller has reportedly refused to resign at request of WWF
International president Claude Martin.
Martin asked Fuller to quit after she abstained from voting
in her capacity as a board member of Alcoa, rather than oppose a
company plan to build a dam complex that will flood 22 square miles
near Karahnjukar, Iceland, submerging nesting and feeding areas for
barnacle and greylag geese who migrate from Greenland to Britain.
The dam project is opposed by the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, as well as by WWF
International.

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Why animal advocates’ “war on terror” must be nonviolent

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

Why animal advocates’ “war on terror” must be nonviolent
by Steve Hindi, founder, SHARK

It has happened again. Thugs misappropriating the name of
“animal rights activism” have struck another blow against all animal
advocates and the animals for whom we toil. This time the crime
occurred in Villa Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, where during
the first weekend in February 2003 someone reportedly cut the brake
lines of as many as 40 trucks owned by a company that sells live
lobsters.

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People & projects

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

British Columbia activists Anthony Marr, Brenda Davis, and
her son Cory Davis have rescheduled their HOPE-GEO “Compassion for
Animals Road Expedition” across the U.S. and Canada “due to U.S.
Immigration temporary visa requirements.” The new scheduled starting
date is September 1, 2003. The 25-week tour of 40 states and four
provinces in a van equipped to display pro-animal videos to the
public was to have begun on January 8, but the HOPE-GEO team “were
not permitted to enter the U.S.,” they told supporters. Marr is
widely known for his investigations of wildlife trafficking, both in
British Columbia and abroad. Davis, a registered
dietician/nutritionist, is author of four books on vegetarian and
vegan nutrition and health. More HOPE-GEO/CARE information is posted
at <www.hope-care.org>.
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Sweeping pro-animal bill in Turkey

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

ANKARA, Turkey–The Parliamentary Domestic Affairs
Commission on January 15, 2003, adopted a draft national animal
protection bill which would provide prison terms for animal torture,
allowing animals to starve, and bestiality; would prohibit all
forms of animal fighting; would prohibit killing animals by
electrocution, cervical dislocation, drowning, burning, and
boiling; would forbid training animals by methods that cause
avoidable injury or distress; and would prohibit killing animals for
population control unless necessary to halt the spread of an epidemic.
The draft bill would require drivers to make every reasonable
effort to avoid injuring animals on the road, and to take any
animals they hit to a veterinarian and pay for the necessary
treatment.

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Niger activists oppose Arab hunting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

NIAMEY, Niger–“Animal rights campaigners in Niger are
protesting against the Niger government’s decision to allow visitors
from the Persian Gulf to hunt protected animals and birds,” Idy
Baroau of BBC reported on January 9. Barou said the activists, led
by environmentalist politician Ibrahim Sani, had filed a formal
complaint against the issuance of permits to kill gazelles and
capture birds of prey.
“The Gulf princes have been using big-caliber guns and cargo
planes to carry their booty,” Baroau added. “In response to the
criticism, Abdou Mamane, a spokesman for the Ministry of Animal
Resources and the Environment, said that the Arab guests had paid
$300,000 to get carte blanche to hunt in Niger.”

Will Sakhon Nakhon province governor Panchai keep promise to ban dog meat?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

BANGKOK–Recently elected Sakhon Nakhon provincial governor
Panchai Borvornratanapran reportedly retreated on July 18 from a
mid-June promise to abolish the sale and slaughter of dogs for meat.
Following a protest rally by about 300 dog meat traders and
butchers from Tha Rae, the impoverished northeastern district where
dogs are most often eaten, provincial spokesperson Raksit Wathayotha
told Agence France-Press that the governor met with representatives
of the dog meat industry and “said he doesn’t want to impose the
opinion of the entire province, which favors ending dog meat
trading, on Tha Rae. He wants them to make their own decision and
will not object if the majority of Tha Rae people still want to
practice dog meat eating and selling.”
Agence France-Presse attributed directly to Governor Panchai
an estimate that 17 dog slaughter houses in Tha Rae kill 300 to 400
dogs per day, selling up to 4,000 kilograms of dog meat per day.
[At 300-400 dogs killed per day, however, the average daily sales
volume would be only half as large.] About 90% of the dog meat was
sent to Bangkok, Governor Panchai reportedly claimed. Some is known
to be exported to China and Vietnam.

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What happened to Algerian cats?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

HOUSTON–Members of the Houston Animal Rights team and PETA
picketed the Houston headquarters of the oil exploration firm
Halliburton on January 12 to protest the alleged poisoning of 200
feral cats at a remote work site in Algeria.
Former Halliburton employees said that the Halliburton
construction subsidiary KBR, Andarko Petroleum, and an Algerian
subcontractor brought cats to the site to control rats, but failed
to sterilize the cats before releasing them. The cats were poisoned
after Halliburton withdrew from the project. The demonstrators
argued that Halliburton had a moral obligation to ensure that the
cats were treated humanely.

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Farm Sanctuary fined $50,000 in Florida

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

TALLAHASSEE, Florida–The Florida Elections Commission has
fined Farm Sanctuary $50,000 for 210 alleged willful violations of
campaign fundraising laws in connection with the passage of Amendment
10, a November 2002 initiative which banned the use of farrowing
crates to raise pigs in a state which had only two working pig farms.
One of those farms was already going out of business, and
state and federal water quality regulations virtually ensure that no
others can be started in Florida.

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Dogs and gamecocks take their revenge

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

For 40 years dogcatcher Manuel Pascual, 61, of Bulacan city
in Bulacan province, The Philippines, caught stray dogs and
reputedly sometimes stole freeroaming pets, selling them to
restaurants in Malolos, Marilao, Bocaue, and Baliuag, the
Philippine Inquirer reported on February 1, 2003. Eventually,
however, a dog caught Pascual, who died from rabies on January 26.
His was the second turnabout death in the Philippines in just
two weeks. On January 12 gamecock handler Elmer Mariano of Zamboanga
had just strapped spurs to the legs of a cock in preparation for a
fight when the cock wrested one leg free and fatally stabbed him in
the groin.

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