Day: March 1, 2005

UARC wins civil rights settlement

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

Utah Animal Rights Coalition members Aaron Lee and Peter
Tucker in early February 2005 received from Salt Lake County $500
each, $500 for UARC, and $10,000 in legal fees and court costs, in
settlement of a lawsuit alleging that their civil rights were
violated when sheriff’s deputy Sherida Holgate told them on December
7 that they could not protest within a block of a public concert
hall. The settlement allowed UARC to amend the case to challenge an
ordinance requiring a permit and 30-day notice to demonstrate on
public property.

Court of Human Rights rules for “McLibel” duo

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

STRASBURG, France–The European Court of
Human Rights on February 14, 2005 ruled that
British vegetarian activists David Morris, 50,
and Helen Steel, 39, were improperly denied
government legal aid and were convicted of libel
under an unjust law in the “McLibel” trial.
The seven-judge European Court panel
dismissed the 1997 “guilty” verdict, held that
the verdict violated Articles 6 and 10 of the
European Human Rights Convention, and awarded
Morris and Steel damages of $25,934 and $19,451,
respectively.
As members of a defunct organization
called London Greenpeace, Morris and Steel in
1986 distributed flyers, which they did not
author, alleging that McDonald’s Restaurants
sell unhealthy food, produced by means which
cause animal suffering and contribute to
starvation and deforestation in economically
disadvantaged parts of the world.

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Law enforcement

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, on January
18 reassigned four deputies and four civilian investigators to handle
animal abuse cases fulltime, and authorized the county Animal
Cruelty Prevent-ion Unit to immediately arrest and jail suspects.
Arpaio put former Phoenix mayor Thelda Williams in charge of the
unit. Arpaio also disbanded the Maricopa County SWAT team, in favor
of a part-time SWAT unit, and told critics that prosecuting animal
abuse brings better crime prevention for the money than having a SWAT
team.
Arpaio’s web site describes a no-kill animal shelter he
opened in 1999 in a former jail, to house animals seized from
suspects in cruelty cases. The shelter “also houses the pets of
individuals who check into domestic violence shelters that do not
accept pets,” the site says. “Detention officer staff and sentenced
female inmates care for the animals. The shelter is air-conditioned.
Some critics have said that it is inhumane to put dogs and cats in
air-conditioned quarters when inmates don’t have air-conditioning. A
good answer came from one of the inmates assigned to care for the
dogs. When asked if she was resentful about not having
air-conditioning, she gestured to some of the dogs and said, “They
didn’t do anything wrong, I did.”

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Fighting Kenya zoo deal

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

NAIROBI–A deal to export 300 animals from Kenya to the
Chiang Mai Night Safari zoo in Thailand, reportedly personally
arranged by Kenyan president Emilio Mwai Kibaki on an October 2004
state visit to Bangkok, in February 2005 appeared to have become
shaky through the determined opposition of Youth for Conservation.
Retreating from firm commitment to the animal export, acting
tourism minister Raphael Tuju in late January 2005 told the East
African Standard that talk of the deal amounted to “speculation and
rumours from busybodies,” while appearing to weigh whether the Thai
zoo or U.S. and European animal advocates would be most likely to
fund efforts to reduce crop damage from wildlife.
Youth for Conservation, which earlier persuaded Kibaki to
veto a bill that would have reauthorized hunting in Kenya, meanwhile
won backing from overseas organizations including the Humane Society
of the U.S., In Defense of Animals, Born Free Foundation, and PETA.

13 killed, 350 injured in Indian bull events

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

ALANGANALLUR–At least 13 people were killed and more than
350 injured during the third weekend in January 2005 at traditional
“Jallikattu” bullfights and bullrunning events held around Tamil Nadu
state, India, to celebrate Pongal, a Hindu holiday.
“Jallikattu is held at temples,” explained Justin Huggler of
the London Independent. “At the most famous, at Alanganallur, the
spectacle began with young men competing to grab a gold chain tied
around horns of the first bull.
“After that, 500 bulls were released into the crowd, as at
Pamplona,” in the most famous Spanish bullrunning event. “But in
Pamplona the crowd runs,” Huggler continued. “In Tamil Nadu they
compete with each other to try to bring the bulls under control.
“Unlike in Spanish bullfighting, the bulls are not killed.

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Is anyone watching out for Indian wildlife?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

DELHI–“There is no one left to raise hell with,” People for
Animals founder and former Indian minister of state for animal
welfare lamented to ANIMAL PEOPLE on February 15, after disclosures
raised questions as to whether anyone is looking out for wildlife
within the present Indian government.
The most humiliating disclosure, had anyone been paying
attention, was that the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species on December 22 recommended that “all Parties [to
the United Nations-brokered treaty] suspend commercial trade in
specimens of CITIES-listed species with Gambia and India until
further notice.”
The suspension came because Gambia and India failed to submit
legislative plans for strengthening CITES enforcement.
The humiliation might have been acute because the CITES logo
was designed in India and India has three times chaired the CITES
standing committee.
But hardly anyone in India knew about the suspension, Times
of India correspondent Chandrika Mago disclosed on February 18.
“Even seniors in the environment ministry have just heard of
the decision,” Mago wrote. “They hope CITES will relax its stance
in a month or so.”

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Patent on hybrid human denied

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office on February 11, 2005
rejected the 1997 application of New York Medical College professor
of cell biology and anatomy Stuart Newman for a patent on a
theoretical method of combining human embryonic cells with cells from
a nonhuman primate to create a “chimera,” meaning an animal with
traits of multiple species. The Patent & Trademark Office ruled that
the chimera would be too close genetically to a human being to be
patented. This was as Newman hoped, since he filed the application
to seek a precedent against patenting life forms.
“I don’t think anyone knows, in terms of crude percentages,
how to differentiate between humans and nonhumans,” deputy
commissioner for patents John Doll told Rick Weiss of the Washington
Post, adding, “It would be very helpful to have some guidance from
Congress or the courts.”

Trying to aid tsunami victims in Myanmar

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

TAMPA, Fla.–Florida humane worker Carol Childs may have
been the only outside animal rescuer to reach Myanmar after the
December 26, 2005 tsnami.
Better known to the world as Burma, and still called Burma
by most of the residents, according to Childs, Myanmar has been an
isolationist military dictatorship since 1962. News media are
strictly censored. Few visitors are admitted. The
security-conscious Myanmar regime at first denied having any tsunami
casualties, and refused outside aid, but rumors leaked out of at
least 90 deaths.
Childs, planning an intensive Southeast Asian excursion that
also took in parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, in
late 2004 managed to secure a tourist visa to go to Myanmar. A
veteran of Florida disaster relief efforts, including the aftermath
of Hurricane Andrew and four hurricanes in six weeks during the
summer of 2004, Childs realized that her skills might be needed.
She landed in Thailand on January 11 with suitcases of veterinary
supplies, but was unable to connect by telephone with any of the
Thai animal disaster relief organizations. Not a computer user, she
did not try via the Internet.

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