Hurricanes Stan, Tammy, Wilma, & unnamed twisters add to catastrophe

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

WEST PALM BEACH–Hurricane Wilma, after Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita, might have seemed anticlimactic to those who were not hit
by it. To those who were, including Pegasus Foundation program
officer Anne M. Ostberg, whose organization specializes in assisting
humane work in island nations, it was the real thing.
Wilma hit the west end of Grand Bahama island on October 24,
displacing as many as 4,000 people and their animals. The Humane
Society of Grand Bahama suffered only damaged fencing, Ostberg
e-mailed, based on a report from director Elizabeth Burrows, but
needed urgent help to feed and water displaced animals.
“The Bahamas Humane Society in Nassau sent inspector Carl
Thurston to Grand Bahama on November 1 to spend four days assisting,”
Ostberg said. “Inspector Thurston also delivered supplies and
equipment. Humane Society International provided some funding to
Bahamas Humane, and the Pegasus Foundation wired $1,000 to the Kohn
Foundation, a Colorado charity that acts as a fiscal agent for the
Humane Society of Grand Bahama.
“At this end,” Osteberg added, “the barn at the Pegasus
Foundation’s animal sanctuary in Florida lost part of its roof, but
the animals and people were unhurt. The building where our West Palm
Beach offices were located was badly damaged, but again, no one was
hurt.”

Wildlife in the hard-hit Gulf region is most imperiled by human activity

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

Hurricane Katrina first hit wildlife along the east coast of Florida.
“About 200 loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings born on
Hutchinson Island were unable to crawl through deposits of sea grass
washed ashore by the storm,” Palm Beach Post staff writer Kimberly
Miller reported. “Beachgoers from Delray Beach south found about two
dozen hatchlings that experts believe made it into the water, but
were spit back worn out onto the beach by the waves.”
Treated for dehydration and exhaustion by the Gumbo Limbo
Environmental Complex in Boca Raton and the Marinelife Center in Juno
Beach, most were returned to the sea within days.
There they encountered a new threat. After hurricanes the
National Marine Fisheries Service often suspends the requirement that
shrimpers must use turtle exclusion devices (TEDS) on their nets,
because floating debris often fouls TEDS and tears nets.
The timing of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma meant
that the TED rule was continuously suspended from September 26 to
November 23.
Meanwhile, as Katrina roared westward, about 50 sea turtle
nests were destroyed along the Alabama coast. Habitat for the
endangered Alabama beach mouse and red-cockaded woodpecker was also
destroyed.

Visakha SPCA digs out after floods, fights disease outbreaks

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

VISAKHAPATNAM–Already hit by flooding after a September
19 cyclone, the Visakha SPCA was inundated twice more by further
cyclones before the end of October.
Monsoon rains and occasional cyclones are part of the normal
weather cycle along the Bay of Bengal, but fall 2005 brought the
region triple the usual rainfall.
The impact was felt as far south as Chennai, where the St.
Thomas Mount Animal Birth Control Center was badly damaged by flash
flooding, Blue Cross of India chief executive Chinny Krishna told
ANIMAL PEOPLE, and part of the Blue Cross shelter at Guindy was
briefly awash.
“Fortunately, thanks to our volunteer Shanthi, all animals
in the lower-lying enclosures were moved out to the main building,”
Krishna said.
The Visakha SPCA began clean-up and rebuilding at the same
time as extending emergency aid to surrounding areas, then had to
start over after the destruction of a retaining wall by the first
flood allowed a second and third flood.

Carmody caught with clothes on

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

CAREW–Animal Rights Action Network campaigns coordinator
John Carmody, 23, may be the most often exposed activist in
Ireland, but ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett did manage to
photograph him–twice–with all his clothes on.
A more typical portrayal would show Carmody hunched over his
laptop computer wherever he can connect, e-mailing the
effervescently upbeat ARAN newsletter around the world, coordinating
countless events and demonstrations on behalf of half a dozen
international advocacy groups, and answering his cell telephone
every five minutes.
Effectively a fulltime animal rights activist since age 16,
Carmody takes clerical and sales jobs when he must to make ends meet.
The laptop is ARAN’s only “office,” other than Carmody’s bedroom,
at his parents’ home in Carew, a Limerick suburb where goats and
horses graze in green strips, and where, he insists, some
neighbors at times drag horses indoors.

Europe

Betting on all but the dogs

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

DELEVAN, DAYTONA, LACONIA–The 15-year-old Geneva Lakes
Greyhound Track in Delavan, Wisconsin ended live racing on November
6, 2005, with telecasting of races at other tracks due to end in
December.
About 450 of the estimated 1,000 dogs housed at Delavan were
offered for adoption by the local chapter of Greyhound Pets of
America, formed in 1989. Greyhound Pets of America is the largest
U.S. greyhound rescue group to be partially subsidized by the
greyhound industry.
Of the five greyhound tracks opened in Wisconsin during the
early 1990s, only the Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha is still
operating. Geneva Lakes Greyhound Track general manager blamed the
closures on competition from Native American gambling casinos. The
casino operators have managed to keep the Wisconsin greyhound tracks
from expanding into other forms of gambling.
The Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission on October 13 rejected an
application from the National Cattle Congress to reopen the Waterloo
Greyhound Park, closed in 1996, as hub of a riverboat casino
complex.

Irish SPCA looks to a new era

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

KEENAGH, County Longford–When man bites dog, that’s news,
so when Irish SPCA chief executive Helen Dolan hit and killed a stray
dog with her sport utility vehicle on October 21, 2005, the
incident swiftly became tabloid and television news all over Ireland.
Dolan did not discourage the publicity. Instead Dolan took
the occasion to warn pet keepers to keep their animals secure during
the Halloween season, when the Irish traditionally detonate
fireworks to scare ghosts, mostly scaring dogs and cats instead.
Dolan also dispensed tips about avoiding roadkills and finding lost
dogs.
Hired in January 2005, Dolan brought to the Irish SPCA a
global background in hotel management and fundraising for education,
a lifelong love of dogs and horses, and no formal experience in
humane work.
In less than a year, Dolan’s flair for fundraising and
publicity has rattled quite a few cages. Some elder Irish animal
advocates grumble about Dolan’s rapid rise to national prominence.
Others say she is just what animal welfare in Ireland needed–a
charismatic young leader who isn’t afraid to spend money in order to
attract it, seizing the opportunity for humane work in Ireland to
grow with the fast-rising Irish economy.

Europe

U.K. cruelty act update introduced

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

LONDON–British junior environment
minister and minister for animal welfare Ben
Bradshaw on October 14, 2005 introduced a long
awaited new draft Animal Welfare Bill, which if
passed by Parliament would be the first major
update of the U.K. anti-cruelty statute since
1910.
Summarized Amanda Brown of The
Independent, “The bill introduces a duty on
those responsible for animals to do all that is
reasonable to ensure the welfare of the creatures
in their care–a duty which for the first time
applies to non-domestic animals. The bill
simplifies animal welfare legislation by bringing
more than 20 pieces of legislation into one,
strengthening penalties and eliminating
loopholes. Those causing unnecessary suffering
to an animal will face up to 51 weeks in prison,
a fine of up to £20,000 or both.”

Europe
Law

Horse slaughter moratorium weakened

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

U.S. President George W. Bush on November 4, 2005 endorsed
into law an eight-month suspension of federal funding for inspecting
horse slaughterhouses, included as a rider to a USDA appropriation
bill. As originally passed by both the U.S. Senate and the House of
Representatives, the moratorium was to start immediately, having
the effect of suspending horse slaughter for human consumption, and
was to run for a year, but House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Agriculture chair Henry Bonilla (R-Texas) won a 120-day delay of
implementation in conference committee. “Bonilla managed to sneak in
confusing language that may allow horse slaughterhouses to hire their
own meat inspectors and continue their operations,” added Gannett
News Service correspondent John Hanchette.

Anti-chaining & feral cat ordinances

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

The cities of Burnaby and Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, in October and November 2005 adopted anti-chaining
ordinances that Animal Advocates of B.C. founder Judy Stone believes
are “the best in North America.” Animal Advocates of B.C. began
promoting anti-chaining ordinances through advertising in ANIMAL
PEOPLE about seven months before Tammy Grimes formed the U.S.-based
anti-chaining organization Dogs Deserve Better, and 20 months before
Connecticut passed an anti-chaining law sought since 1986 by National
Institute for Animal Advocacy founder Julie Lewin. The Animal
Advocates, Dogs Deserve Better, and NIAA campaigns have now won
banning or restricting chaining in almost as many cities as children
have been killed by chained dogs (58) since Grimes began counting in
2003.

The Indianapolis city council on October 10 voted 26-1 to
make a neuter/return program run by the local organization IndyFeral
a part of the official city animal control policy. “Indy-Feral
charges colony caregivers $20 per cat for their service, compared to
approximately $120 per cat trapped and killed by Indianapolis Animal
Care and Control,” noted Nuvo Magazine writer Mary Lee Pappas.

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