Cockfighting foes face hard fight to keep Oklahoma initiative gains

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

OKLAHOMA CITY–Oklahoma cockfighters are not just taking
their battle to stay in business to the state Supreme Court; they
are trying to take the state Supreme Court off the case.
Oklahoma voters approved an initiative banning cockfighting
in November 2002, 56%-44%, but in 57 sparsely populated rural
counties, of 77 counties in all, the majority voted to keep
cockfighting legal.
Local judges in 27 of the 57 rural counties soon thereafter
held the anti-cockfighting initiative to have been unconstitutional.
The first prosecution under the initiative was attempted by
the Kingfisher County sheriff’s department in early December, after
one Luis Rangel was found with more than 100 suspected gamecocks
while sheriffs’ deputies were investigating an alleged case of horse
neglect. But Kingfisher County assistant district attorney Ard Gates
on December 5 refused to press the case against Rangel.

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BOOKS: Heaven and Earth and I

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2003:

Heaven and Earth and I:  Ethics of Nature Conservation in Asia
Edited by Vivek Menon & Masayuki Sakamoto
Penguin Enterprise (c/o Penguin Putnam Inc.,  375 Hudson St.,  New
York,  NY  10014),  2002.
Published in association with the Wildlife Trust of India,
International Fund for Animal Welfare,  and Asian Conservation
Alliance.
223 pages,  paperback.  No U.S. price listed.

Eighteen essayists contribute to Heaven and Earth and I,
including the Dalai Lama,  Queen Noor of Jordan,  the Prince
Sadruddin Aga Khan,  Maneka Gandhi,  and King Gyanendra Bir Bikram
Dev of Nepal–but the famous names discuss the ethics of nature
conservation only in broad and general terms,  for the most part,
with only People for Animals founder Mrs. Gandhi having much to say
about animals.

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BOOKS: For the Love of Wildlife

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2003:

For The Love Of Wildlife
by Chris Mercer & Beverly Pervan
Kalahari Raptor Centre (P.O. Box 1386,  Kathu,  8446 Northern Cape,
South Africa),  2000.  252 pages,  hardcover.
For current ordering info,  e-mail to <enquiries@bookpro.co.za>.

Chris Mercer and Beverly Pervan educated themselves about
wildlife sanctuary management,  before making the Kalahari Raptor
Centre their fulltime “retirement” pursuit,  by closely observing the
operations of the Harnas Lion Farm in Namibia.
Not everything was done there as it should have been done.

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Animal obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2003:

Dolly,  6,  the sheep who was the world’s first cloned
mammal,  was euthanized due to an incurable lung disease and chronic
arthritis  on February 14 at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian,
Scotland,  her lifelong home.  Produced from an udder cell from a
six-year-old ewe,  Dolly was born in July 1996 and named after the
singer Dolly Parton.  At age two she showed signs of premature aging,
and by her death she appeared to be twice her chronological age.
Similar effects have now been seen in all mammals cloned to date.
Researchers now believe that cloned animals are the biological age of
the cells they were made from–a major setback to the theory that
cloning might enable humans to practice self-perpetuation,  as each
clone would in effect be born at the same biological age as the cell
source,  and all would reach elderly decrepitude at the same time.
Dolly’s death “highlights more than ever the foolishness of those who
want to legalize human reproductive cloning,” said Alan Colman,  one
of the scientists whose work produced her.

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Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2003:

Kalpana Chawla,  41,  remembered in
Indian newspaper obituaries right after mention
that she was an astronaut as “A devout Hindu and
fourth generation vegetarian,”  was killedon
February 1 along with all six of her flightmates
when the space shuttle Columbia exploded over
Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s
atmosphere.  Born to Pakistani immigrant parents
in Haryana state,  India,  Chawla married flight
instructor Jean Pierre Harrison soon after
starting aerospace engineering studies at the
University of Texas at Arlington.  She lived in
Texas for the rest of her life,  but maintained
her links to India as well.  Haryana residents
saluted her first spaceflight in 1997 with a
torchlight parade that they hoped she could see
from orbit.

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Cockfighting foes face hard fight to keep Oklahoma initiative gains

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

OKLAHOMA CITY–Oklahoma cockfighters are not just taking
their battle to stay in business to the state Supreme Court; they
are trying to take the state Supreme Court off the case.
Oklahoma voters approved an initiative banning cockfighting
in November 2002, 56%-44%, but in 57 sparsely populated rural
counties, of 77 counties in all, the majority voted to keep
cockfighting legal.
Local judges in 27 of the 57 rural counties soon thereafter
held the anti-cockfighting initiative to have been unconstitutional.

Read more

China wants Olympic tourists to come for tigers too

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

BEIJING–A camera trap set up by staff of the Hunchan Nature
Reserve in early February captured the first known photo of a wild
Amur tiger in northeastern China.
Members of the nature reserve staff positioned the camera
after hearing from a local farmer that an unknown large predator had
killed a mule that morning. The tiger tripped the electric eye that
operates the camera upon returning to the carcass late at night.
The photo provides “strong evidence that tigers are crossing
from the Russian Far East to repopulate previous tiger strongholds,”
said the Wildlife Conservation Society, whose equipment the Hunchan
team used.

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Is Malaysia big and wild enough to keep wild tigers?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

SUNGAI PETANI, Kedah, Malaysia–The mid-January 2003
disappearance of Malaysian oil palm plantation owner Haji Zaitun
Arshad, his family, and the pet tiger he allegedly imported from
Thailand combined into one case the dilemmas surrounding both private
tiger-keeping and wild tiger survival.
Zaitun was photographed a few days earlier in the act of
giving the tiger a jeep ride. Possessing the tiger exposed him to a
fine of up to $4,000 plus four years in jail.

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India loves leopards (with some reservations)

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

MUMBAI–India still has about 6,000 wild leopards,
approximately half of all the leopards of all species left in Asia,
because much of the public is concerned about their survival–and
might even be said to be fond of leopards despite their penchant for
getting into serious trouble.
Since January 1999, when ANIMAL PEOPLE began keeping track,
at least 111 leopards are known to have been poached or otherwise
illegally killed.

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