Legal action against ocean fishing

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson on April 10 held for
the fourth time in 13 years that 1988 amendments to the 1972 Marine
Mammal Protection Act oblige the U.S. to exclude imports of tuna
netted “on dolphin,” a method often used by foreign fleets because
dolphins and tuna feed on the same fish species and often swim
together. Surrounding feeding dolphins with nets therefore usually
captures tuna–as well as dolphins who do not escape before the nets
close. Henderson in May 1990 banned imports of yellowfin tuna from
Mexico, Venezuela, and Vanuatu. After Congress reinforced the 1990
verdict by introducing “dolphin-safe” labeling, Henderson in January
1992 banned $266 million worth of tuna imports from 30 nations. A
General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs panel in 1995 ruled that the
U.S. “dolphin safe” law is an improper trade barrier. The law was
eased by the 1997 International Dolphin Conservation Program Act,
but Henderson and U.S. Court of International Trade judge Judith
Barzilay issued conflicting verdicts when then-Commerce Secretary
William Daley tried to admit non-“dolphin-safe” tuna to the U.S. In
December 2002 the Commerce Department moved to allow U.S. firms to
market tuna netted “on dolphin” as “dolphin-safe,” if no dolphins
are known to have been killed during the netting, but Henderson
ruled that the 1990 definition of “dolphin-safe” must stand unless
the law is changed.

Read more

The dogs of war & other animals in liberated Iraq

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

BAGHDAD; CAMP PATRIOT, Kuwait–Mine-detecting dolphins and
war dogs were the nonhuman heroes of the U.S. liberation of Iraq from
Saddam Hussein.
It was an evolutionary homecoming of sorts. Fossils found in
Pakistan indicate that the common ancestors of dogs and dolphins may
have first differentiated in this very region circa 70 million years
ago.
Nine U.S. Navy dolphins were sent to the Persian Gulf from
San Diego. Makai, 33, and Tacoma, 22, performed briefly for news
media before patrolling the port of Umm Qasr, Oman with three
anonymous dolphins. Their team alternated shifts with Kahili, Kona,
Punani, and Jefe. Among them, they reportedly found 22 underwater
mines during their first two weeks of guarding Navy supply ships.
The U.S. Navy previously deployed six dolphins each to Cam
Ranh Bay in 1970 during the Vietnam War and off Bahrain in 1991
during the Persian Gulf War.
The German shepherds Ranny and Brit led the U.S. Army K-9
Corps into Tallil Air Base in Iraq. Handled by Staff Sergeant John
Logie and Sergeant Michael McDonald, their job was guarding Iraqi
prisoners.

Read more

Dutch assassin gets 18 years

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

AMSTERDAM–Volkert van der Graaf, 33, who confessed to
killing anti-immigration and pro-fur politician Pim Fortuyn on May 6,
2002, in the first Dutch political assassination since World War II,
was on April 14 sentenced to serve 18 years in prison.
Seeking a life sentence, the prosecution said it would appeal.
Likening the assassination to shooting Adolph Hitler before
he could rise to power, van der Graaf testified that he shot Fortuyn,
54, because he was “a threat to weaker groups in society,”
including asylum-seekers, Muslims, the disabled, and animals.
Fortuyn’s political party, named for himself, gained a substantial
sympathy vote in the first election following the assassination, but
soon self-destructed due to factionalism and fell out of the
governing coalition in late 2002.
Founding the organization Environmental Offensive in 1992,
the militantly vegan van der Graaf “before the assassination worked
up to 80 hours a week litigating against commercial animal farming,
and was described by other activists as a fanatic,” wrote Toby
Sterling of Associated Press.
If van der Graaf is not re-sentenced to prison for life, he
is expected to be eligible for parole in 2014. Dutch courts have
sentenced only 21 people to prison for life since 1945, most of them
serial killers.

Ed Sayres to head American SPCA

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

NEW YORK CITY, SAN FRANCISCO–Edwin J. Sayres, 54,
president of the San Francisco SPCA since January 1, 1999, was on
April 8 introduced as new president of the American SPCA in New York
City, to succeed Larry Hawk on June 2.
Hawk on February 3 was named to succeed Gus Thornton, who
retired, as president of the Massachusetts SPCA.
Sayres debuted in humane work as successor to his father,
Edwin Sayres Sr., who was longtime executive director of the St.
Hubert’s Giralda shelter founded by Geraldine Dodge Rockefeller on
her estate in New Jersey.
Sayres headed the American Humane Association animal protection
division 1995-1997, and then headed PETsSMART Charities for a year
before succeeding Richard Avanzino at the SF/SPCA, who retired after
24 years to lead Maddie’s Fund.
Succeeding Sayres as acting president of the San Francisco
SPCA will be current vice president Daniel Crain, also hired in
1999, while Jeffrey Proulx, DVM, the SF/SPCA director of
veterinary services since 2000, will take over direction of the
Roberts Medical Center, described as “the community’s first
comprehensive, multidisciplinary specialty veterinary center,
scheduled to begin construction in December 2003.”

Will new Kenya government lift hunting ban?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

NAIROBI–Kenya has a new President, National Rainbow
Coalition candidate Mwai Kibaki, succeeding Daniel arap Moi,
President since 1978.
Kibaki, a longtime leading member of the parliamentary opposition to
the arap Moi regime, almost immediately replaced the entire Kenya
Wildlife Service board of directors, fueling concern that Kibaki may
next move to overturn the national ban on sport hunting enforced
throughout arap Moi’s tenure as–according to Ghosts of Tsavo author
Philip Caputo–a gesture of respect to Daphne Sheldrick, widow of
Tsavo National Park founder David Sheldrick and pioneer of successful
rehabilitation of orphaned elephants.
The removal of two-time KWS director Richard Leakey from the
KWS board is of particular concern, International Fund for Animal
Welfare regional director Amed Khan told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “We know for
sure that the sport hunting crowd couldn’t be happier, as they have
long felt that Leakey was the only person standing in their way”
post-Moi, Khan continued.
KWS chief Michael Wamithi, who previously headed the IFAW
office in Nairobi, “is going to need all the help he can get,” Khna
added.

Read more

Embezzling in Germany

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

MUNICH–Wolfgang Ullrich, 58, head of the 230,000-member
German animal welfare society Deutsches Tierhilfswerk 1994-1999, was
on April 1, 2003 sentenced to 12 years in prison for embezzling $28
million.
Reported Reuters, “Thai police first arrested Ullrich, who
ran a restaurant in the resort of Pattaya, after investigating him
for tax evasion. Subsequent probes into his finances uncovered a
front company Ullrich had set up in Switzerland, into which he
channeled donations from animal lovers.”
Deutsches Tierhilfswerk is now expected to sue seeking
recovery of the money.

Helping donkeys in Middle East & Central Asia

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

PETA president Ingrid Newkirk offended numerous Jewish groups
in January 2003 with a letter to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
protesting the use of a donkey as an unwitting “suicide bomber” on
January 26.
Newkirk also mentioned “stray cats in your own compound” who
“fled as best they could” from Israeli forces, but made no objection
to the human toll in the ongoing Israeli/Palestianian strife.
The recorded history of harsh treatment and overwork of
donkeys in the Middle East dates at least to the time of Moses, when
Balaam’s donkey reputedly spoke out on her own behalf.
However, the London-based Society for Protecting Animals
Abroad now operates clinics for donkeys and other equines in Algeria,
Jordan, Mali, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia.
The Brooke Hospital for Animals, also of London, has active
equine clinics in Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Jordan,
and Pakistan.
Maintaining a presence in refugee camps along the
Afghanistan/Pakistan border throughout the Taliban regime,
1996-2001, and in Kabul since soon after U.S. troops forced the
Taliban out, the Brooke in March 2003 opened another free clinic for
equines in the southern Afghan city of Jalalabad.

Read more

McDonald’s lawsuit award still in dispute

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

CHICAGO–Cook County Judge Richard Siebel on March 25
disqualified three of the 26 organizations that were named to share
the $10 million settlement of a class action brought against
McDonald’s Corp. for concealing from vegetarians that its French
fries are seasoned with beef broth.
Dropped due to alleged conflicts of interest involving
attorneys who worked on the case were the National Ramah Commission,
representing Conservative Jews; Arya Pratinidhi Sabha America, a
Hindu group; and the Department of Nutrition at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Whether new organizations will be named to replace these
three is reportedly undecided. Plaintiffs opposed to the settlement
indicated that they would appeal.

Can a third grader identify a third-rate circus? Courts weigh activist rights

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

SCRANTON, Pa.–A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Third Circuit on April 15 unanimously upheld the
dismissal of a lawsuit against the Lacka-wanna Trail School District
in Scranton, Pennsylvania, alleging that Amanda Walker-Serrano,
then a third grader, was denied her First Amendment right to freedom
of expression in February 1999 when her school stopped her from
petitioning against a class trip to the Shriners’ circus in
Wilkes-Barre.
Amanda Walker-Serrano is the daughter of Scranton animal
advocates Lisa Walker and Michael Serrano. Her rights were not
violated, Judge Anthony J. Scirica wrote, because she was allowed
to distribute coloring books and stickers about animal abuse.
“Absent punishment for expression, a significant pattern of
concrete suppression, or some other form of clear suppression of the
expression of elementary school students, a federal First Amendment
action is not an appropriate forum for resolution of disputes over
schools’ control of third graders’ conduct,” opined Scirica.
Circuit Judge Morton I. Greenberg wrote, “I think it is
unlikely that the third-grade children here could have had knowledge
of how a circus treats its animals. After all, I have no such
knowledge myself.”

Read more

1 2 3 4 7