Animal Defense League & L.A. clash over right to protest vs. right to privacy

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

LOS ANGELES–Animal Defense League attorney John J. Uribe and
City of Los Angeles prosecutor Spencer Hart clashed in municipal
court on January 12 in the first 2006 round of a multi-year struggle
between the ADL and the city over the rights of privacy and the right
to protest.
ADL activists Pamela Ferdin and Jerry Vlasak, M.D., both
longtime opponents of the leadership of the Los Angeles Depart-ment
of Animal Regulation, are charged with criminal trespass for
allegedly violating a Los Angeles ordinance in June 2004 that
requires demonstrators to stay 100 feet from the doors of protest
targets’ homes.
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo on December 16,
2005 reinforced those charges by filing another 14 misdemeanor counts
against the ADL and individual members, resulting from 62 alleged
criminal acts. The case alleges that members of the ADL chanted “We
know where you sleep at night” outside Los Angeles animal control
director of field operations David Diliberto’s home, placed the
names of his four children on the ADL web site, left a message on
his home answering machine saying “Resign or we go after your wife,”
typed a “666” text message purportedly symbolic of the devil on his
cell telephone, and posed as mortuary workers in a 3 a.m. visit to
his home, claiming they had come to collect a corpse.

Gretchen Wyler to retire

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

Gretchen Wyler, 73, on December 20, 2005 announced that
she will retire after hosting the 20th annual Genesis Awards ceremony
in June 2006. The awards honor film and TV recognition of animal
issues. Involved in animal causes since 1966, Wyler founded the
Genesis Awards in 1986 as a program of the Fund for Animals,
continued the program through her own organization, the Ark Trust,
1990-2002, and then merged the Ark Trust into the Humane Society of
the U.S.

Uncategorized

Marsden wins OBE

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

Stella Brewer Marsden, who founded the Chimpanzee
Rehabilitation Association in Gambia in 1969, was on New Year’s Day
2006 awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
The CRA now looks after 78 formerly captive chimps in Gambia National
Park. Brewer Marsden’s sister Heather Armstrong founded the Horse &
Donkey Association of Gambia in 2002. Their father, conservationist
Edward Brewer, also was awarded the OBE.

United Egg Producers’ logo is a loser

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

PHILADELPHIA–Cruelty charges brought against Esbenshade
Farms in January 2006 “are part of campaigns by Compassion Over
Killing and HSUS against the egg industry practice of confining hens
in wire cages without nests or room to stretch their wings,”
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Harold Brubaker noted.
“Under pressure from Compassion Over Killing, the Better
Business Bureau, and the Federal Trade Commission,” Brubaker
recalled, “United Egg Producers agreed last fall to change the name
of its animal husbandry guidelines–along with the label that goes on
certified egg cartons–from “Animal-Care Certified” to “United Egg
Producers Certified.”
United Egg Producers was allowed six months to phase in the change.
Said Compassion Over Killing, “According to the FTC, by March 31,
2006, the ‘Animal Care Certified’ logo will be gone from grocery
store shelves.”
Compassion Over Killing challenged the logo in June 2003, pointing
out to the Better Business Bureau and the FTC that “under the ‘Animal
Care Certified’ guidelines, egg producers are permitted to
intensively confine hens in battery cages so small they can’t even
spread their wings, among other abuses.

Industry rejects poultry killing by gas

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

Industry arguments against extending Humane Methods of
Slaughter Act coverage to poultry tend to center on a claimed lack of
acceptable alternatives to the present system of shackling birds
upside down, then dragging them headlong through an electrified
“stunning bath.”
An alternative, controlled atmosphere stunning, is already
widely used in Europe. Slaughterhouses using controlled atmosphere
stunning gas newly arrived birds in their transportation cages,
using either carbon dioxide or a mixture of nitrogen and argon.
McDonald’s Corporation in November 2004 agreed to study the
feasibility of requiring suppliers to shift to controlled atmosphere
stunning, in exchange for PETA withdrawing a shareholder resolution
that sought to require McDonald’s to do the study.
In June 2005 McDonalds concluded that “current standards for
animal welfare are appropriate for the company’s global supply chain
at this time.”
PETA pursued a similar resolution at the May 2005 Applebee’s
International Inc. shareholders meeting, but it drew less than 6%
support.

End of E.U. live cattle export subsidies may change Eid al-Adha

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

BERUIT, BRUSSELS–Eid al-Adha slaughters on January 10,
2006 marked both the end of the haj, the season of pilgrimage to
Mecca for the Islamic devout, and the end of nearly $80 million per
year in European Union live cattle export subsidies.
Much of the money underwrote the sale of cattle killed during
the annual Eid al-Adha ritual bloodbath.
Most of the cattle killed for Eid al-Adha this year were
shipped before the European Union cancelled the subsidies on December
23, 2005.
European Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development
Mariann Fischer Boel emphasized the importance of animal welfare
considerations in persuading the electorate.
“This is tremendous news for the welfare of cattle,” added
United Kingdom Member of the European Parliament Neil Parish.
“British taxpayers have been unwittingly sponsoring this abhorrent
trade for too long. The subsidy is not necessary,” Parish asserted,
“as cattle can be slaughtered under humane conditions in the E.U. and
shipped abroad on the hook, rather than on the hoof.”

Letters [Jan/Feb 2006]

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

Scoring system

This letter is to address reviewer Kim Bartlett’s concerns
about the numerical scoring system for slaughterhouse evaluation that
I described in my book Animals In Translation. She was concerned
that many animals would suffer because a plant can pass even when it
makes some mistakes. Audits by restaurants that hold a plant to a
numerical standard have resulted in great improvements. The audit
criteria allow a plant to pass if 1% of the cattle fall down. In
2005, the 20 largest beef plants that were audited by more than one
restaurant company had 0% of the cattle falling. Cattle slipped in
only three plants. These plants have been in the audit system for
five years. This is a big improvement compared to my 1996
pre-restaurant audit data in 11 beef and veal plants. In two plants
(18%) a total of 8% and 12% of the animals fell down.
Reducing vocalization (moos and bellows) from distressed
cattle has also been greatly reduced. In 1996, the worst plant had
35% of the cattle vocalizing and in 2005 the worst vocalization score
out of 43 plants was 6%. In the 20 most heavily audited beef plants
the worst vocalization score was only 3%.
In 2005 the average scores for the heavily audited beef plants were:

Letters

Kites vs. kite-birds & other species in the skies of India & Pakistan

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

AHMEDABAD–As many as a million kites soared aloft over
Indian cities on January 15, 2006 as Hindus celebrated Makar
Sankranti, the Day of the Sun.
Festivals throughout India featured kite-fighting contests, in which
flyers tried to saw through each other’s strings.
Celebrity kite-fighters included Sonia Gandhi, president of
the ruling Congress Party, and recently retired former prime
minister and Bharatija Janata Party president Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
who met in Jaipur.
Everywhere kites rose through the air space occupied by
sidewalk and garden bird species such as sparrows and bulbuls, up
past ringnecked parakeets and house crows patrolling at treetop
height, on to baffle the kite-birds and vultures whose
congregations, circling on thermal currents, are often the first
sign that Indian airline pilots see of their destination cities,
while the cities themselves are still beyond the horizon.

Non-enforcement erodes U.K. pack hunting ban

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

LONDON–Almost a year after the Hunting
Act banned most forms of hunting with dogs in
England and Wales, effective on February 19,
2005, pack hunting participation on Boxing Day
was reportedly undiminished.
As many as 250,000 people either rode to hounds
or followed the dogs on foot on December 26,
2005, the traditional peak of the British pack
hunting season.
“Far from consigning hunting to history,”
Times of London countryside editor Valerie Elliot
claimed, “thousands more are in the saddle or on
foot in pursuit of a fox scent, sometimes
accidentally hunting real foxes.”
Entering 2006, there were still 317 active hunt
clubs in Britain, including 184 that hunt foxes
and 100 that hunt hares. The Aldenham Harriers,
of South Hertfordshire, disbanded in
mid-January, but hunting participation overall
is up an average of 33%, asserted Elliot.

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