25% of the meat sold in Nairobi is illegal bushmeat, Youth for Conservation finds

November 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

NAIROBI–“Youth for Conservation,
commissioned by the Born Free Foundation,
surveyed 202 Nairobi butcher shops, and
shockingly established that 25% of the meat sold
was bushmeat,” YfC founder Josphat Nyongo
e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on November 1, 2004.
“This is an alarming revelation [for
human health as well as the status of wildlife] in the light of the known health hazards,”
Nyongo explained. “It means that people are
buying uninspected bushmeat unknowingly.”
The YfC bushmeat survey findings were
first disclosed a week earlier by Born Free
Foundation spokesperson Winnie Kiiru, but were
not attributed to YfC in coverage by John Kamau
of the East African Standard. Kamau reported
that, “Up to 51% of the meat sold in Nairobi is
bushmeat or from unknown speciesŠOnly 42% of the
202 samples randomly purchased from different
butcheries was found to be domestic meat.”

Ontario introduces pit bull ban bill

November 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

TORONTO–Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant on October
26, 2004 introduced an amendment to the Dog Owners’ Liability Act
which would ban breeding, selling, and importing pit bull terriers
into the province.
The amendment also doubles to $10,000 the top fine and
provides a possible sentence of up to six months in jail for
possession of “any dangerous dog who bites, attacks, or otherwise
poses a menace to public safety.”
Explained Bryant, “Those who currently own pit bulls will be
able to keep their dogs. However, these dogs will have to be
muzzled and on leashes while in public, and spayed or neutered.
Municipalities can also add further restrictions.”
Kitchener banned pit bulls in 1997. “Since our ban,
Kitchener has sen a dramatic decline in the number of pit bull
attacks from 18 to about one per year,” mayor Carl Zehr told
Canadian Press.

Florida panther biologist fired

November 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

VERO BEACH, Fla.–The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on
November 5, 2004 fired Florida panther biologist Andrew Eller Jr.,
an 18-year employee, two weeks after postponing the scheduled
adoption of a panther habitat protection plan completed in 2002 by a
team of 11 panther experts.
“The agency decided to hold off on adopting the so-called
panther strategy so that it can hire an outside contractor to review
controversial science on which it may have been based,” wrote Pamela
Smith Hayford of the Fort Myers News-Press.
In May 2004 Eller filed an Information Quality Act complaint
“accusing his own agency of knowingly using bad data on panther
habitat, reproduction, and survival to approve eight construction
projects,” reported Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel staff writer David
Fleshler.
On July 31 Eller told media that he had been warned he would
be fired within 30 days.

Amish puppy mills lose two rounds

November 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

LANCASTER, Pa.– Communities in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the puppy mill
hub of the eastern U.S., have twice in three
weeks said “No” to kennel permit applications
from would-be dog breeders and established
breeders seeking to expand.
Penn Township farmer James Hess on
October 20, 2004 withdrew his application to
convert a pig barn into a 225-dog kennel near
Silverwood Estates, an upscale residential
development.
The Providence Township Zoning Hearing
Board on Nov-ember 9 refused to issue a kennel
permit to boxer breeder John King.
“Monica Goepfert, who attends township
kennel application hearings, reported that the
zoning board members were unanimous. The zoning
officer also ordered King to stop dumping dead
farm animals on his property,” e-mailed New
Jersey Consumers Against Pet Shop Abuse.

Appointments

November 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Veterinary gynecologist R. Balasubramanian on October 14,
2004 was appointed Secretary of the Animal Welfare Board of India.
Assistant commissioner for cattle development in the federal
agriculture ministry since 1998, Balasubramanian “is an animal lover
and vegetarian” who was strongly influenced by the late Blue Cross
of India cofounder Captain S. Sundaram, wrote assistant Animal
Welfare Board secretary K. Ramasamy.

Former Compassion In World Farming staffer Philip Russell has
succeeded Joy Leney, who retired, as Director of Operations at the
World Society for Animal Protection, WSPA Director General Peter
Davies told ANIMAL PEOPLE on October 27. Davies also announced two
new posts: Companion Animals Director, filled by Elly Hiby,
formerly with the Anthrozoology Institute at the University of
Bristol (U.K.), and Education & Training Coordinator, filled by
Jasmijn de Boo, formerly with the Department of Animals & Society at
Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Uncategorized

“Typical” first-time fur buyer isn’t buying it

November 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Beth Mersten, 29, of Bloomfield, New Jersey, almost
perfectly fits the profile of the 29-year-old, educated, upwardly
mobile single professional woman, born and raised in the greater New
York City metropolitan area, whom the fur industry expects to buy
her first fur coat this winter.
Obviously some women who fit the profile will. Mersten will not.
Mersten is now Northeast community programs manager for the
Best Friends Animal Society, and previously worked for an animal
shelter, but before that she was employed at an animal research lab.
Mersten seemed to be a potential fur customer, according to
fur industry market research–but how accurate were the fur trade
assumptions about how she and her friends formed their image of fur?
ANIMAL PEOPLE asked Mersten about her first childhood view of fur.
“I thought it was strange and old-fashioned,” Mersten
responded. “Probably my grandmother wore it–a mink shawl.”
Did Mersten ever want to wear it?
“No!” Mersten said. “I learned early on about the cruelties
involved and the sad reality of fur,” an affirmation of the success
of 1980s anti-fur campaigns.

Uncategorized

Human Obituaries

November 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Ann Cottrell Free, 88, died on October 30, 2004, of
pneumonia, in Washington, D.C. Born in Richmond, Virginia, Free
debuted in journalism with the Richmond Times Dispatch in 1936. On
April 9, 1939, Free interviewed African American contralto Marian
Anderson just after she delivered her historic free concert for
75,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The Daughters
of the American Revolution had banned Anderson from performing in
Constitution Hall. Relocating to Washington D.C. in 1940, Free
became the first full-time female national capitol correspondent for
Newsweek, the Chicago Sun and the New York Herald Tribune.
Post-World War II, Free traveled in China as a special correspondent
for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration;
witnessed the ceremony that transferred India from British rule to
the home government formed by Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru;
narrowly escaped the Moslem/Hindu riots that followed; joined the
Marshall Plan in 1948 as a special correspondent, reporting on U.S.
efforts to rebuild western Europe; interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt
during the former First Lady’s successful effort to win the 1948
adoption of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights; and
covered the last days of French rule in Vietnam for the Herald
Tribune and other newspapers. As a roving foreign correspondent,
her stories also included datelines from the Sinai desert,
Palestine, Vienna, Paris, London, and Berlin. In February 1950
she married James S. Free (1908-1996), the longtime Washington D.C.
correspondent for the Birmingham News. James and Ann Cottrell Free
during the 1960s co-wrote a syndicated political column called
Washington Whirligig. Ann Free also wrote for the Washington Star,
Washington Post, Defenders of Wildlife, This Week, the North
American Newspaper Alliance syndicate, and the Women’s News Service.

Obituaries

American Jobs Creation Act includes handouts, charity reform

November 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The most flagrant case of politics making
strange bedfellows in the last days of the 108th Congress may have
been the American Jobs Creation Act.
Combining nonprofit reform with pork barrel politics, the
American Jobs Creation Act was passed by the House of Representatives
on October 8, cleared the Senate on October 11, and was signed by
President George W. Bush just six days before the November 2 national
election.
The act gave $137 million in tax breaks and subsidies to
Republican-favored industries, including hunting, fishing,
greyhound and horse racing, and indigenous whaling.
The framework of the act repealed $49.2 billion in export
subsidies for U.S. goods, held to be in violation of World Trade
Organization rules. This helped Democratic presidential nominee John
Kerry to accuse Bush of subsidizing losses of U.S. manufacturing jobs
to overseas competitors.
To win support for repealing the export subsidies on the eve
of the election, Congress gave the act a misleading title, then
loaded it with giveaways to the point that Arizona Republican Senator
John McCain called it, “The worst example of the influence of
special interests that I have ever seen.”

Ohio Supreme Court partially dumps dog law

November 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

COLUMBUS–The Ohio Supreme Court on September 22 ruled 4-3
that the part of the Ohio law requiring restraint of “dangerous and
vicious” dogs is unconstitutional because it does not allow the
owners to contest the “dangerous and vicious” designation before they
are criminally charged.
“We find it inherently unfair that a dog owner must defy the
statutory regulations and become a criminal defendant, thereby
risking going to jail and losing her property, in order to challenge
a dog warden’s unilateral decision to classify her property,” wrote
Justice Francis Sweeney for the majority.
Janice Cowan, 50, of Mogadore, argued that her German
shepherd and two of the dog’s mixed-breed offspring were unjustly
killed after the two mixed-breed dogs mauled neighbor Margaret
Maurer, on Maurer’s property. The dogs were chained, but the
chains apparently allowed them to range beyond Cowan’s property.
Cowan was subsequently convicted of four misdemeanors for failing to
properly confine the dogs. A three-judge panel from the Ohio 11th
District Court of Appeals rejected two of Cowan’s three claims of
unjust treatment, but agreed 2-1 that Portage County violated her
right of due process.

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