Day: April 2, 2006

Investigator has a history of conflict with nonprofit organizations

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

Undercover investigations are rarely disclosed to the world
by the sponsors while still underway–at least not on purpose.
Findings, however, are typically intensively publicized,
especially when produced on behalf of major international nonprofit
organizations.
The publicity blitz usually starts after all undercover
personnel are out of harm’s way, often after a brief embargo while
findings are shared with law enforcement.
Standard operating procedure may have been inverted by some
of the sponsors of the Jason Mier/Karl Amman probe of alleged Kenya
Airways involvement in wildlife trafficking–depending on whose
version of what happened one accepts.

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HSUS endorses neuter/return

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

“The Humane Society of the U.S. advocates community-based
trap/neuter/return programs with on-going responsible management as
the most viable long-term approach available at this time to reduce
feral cat populations,” HSUS declared in a March 20 policy update.
The HSUS guidelines for neuter/return drafted with the aid of Bryan
Kortis of Neighborhood Cats are substantially the same as the
guidelines produced by ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett in 1992.
Having recommended in 1994 that neuter/return practitioners should be
prosecuted for abandoning animals, HSUS gradually withdrew active
opposition to neuter/return, beginning in 1998.

Post-Katrina conflicts & rescues go on

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

BATON ROUGE–A Louisiana source involved in undercover law
enforcement against illegal animal fighting alerted ANIMAL PEOPLE
late on February 21, 2006 that state attorney general Charles Foti
had begun investigating Humane Society of the U.S. fundraising and
expenditures in connection with Hurricane Katrina.
Named the lead agency for animal relief by the Fed-eral
Emergency Management Administration, HSUS raised more than $30
million for Katrina aid, and had as many as 200 workers in the
disaster area in September and October 2005.
HSUS confirmed the report within 24 hours, but Foti’s office
said nothing until spokesperson Kris Wartelle acknowledged the “basic
beginning of an inquiry” to Robert Travis Scott of the New Orleans
Times-Picayune on March 16. “She said Foti has made no accusations
of wrongdoing, and declined to give more details,” Scott wrote.
“There’s no question that cockfighters, hunters, and others
in Louisiana are constantly looking to damage our credibility,” HSUS
president Wayne Pacelle told ANIMAL PEOPLE on February 22. “Since
they cannot compete with our message that cockfighting is cruel, they
attack the messenger.”

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A planned chimpanzee rescue is thwarted in Lebanon

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

While trying to expose the clandestine chimpanzee traffic to
Cairo, Jason Mier told ANIMAL PEOPLE on February 17, 2006, “I have
[also] been working in Lebanon to get some chimps confiscated. I
knew of two when I went there in January,” he said. “Since then one
more has been found.”
Having arranged–Mier thought–for the chimps to be seized by
the Lebanese authorities and flown “to a sanctuary in South Africa,”
he praised “the complete difference between Lebanon and Egypt.
Lebanon is not a member of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species,” Mier noted. “They have no animal welfare laws
or regulations for keeping animals, but animals need to be declared
upon entry with the proper customs duty paid. As this did not
happen, the government will confiscate. This has been the most
positive experience possible,” Mier enthused.

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Ohio Supreme Court rules for OSU

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

COLUMBUS–Ruling against an appeal by the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine, the Ohio Supreme Court held
unanimously on March 15, 2006 that photographs and video recordings
of animal experiments made by researchers for their own use are
protected from disclosure under the Ohio open records law because
they are considered “intellectual property.”
PCRM sought to obtain copies of documentation of spinal cord
research done by the Ohio State University College of Medicine.
PCRM “argued that the records already had been publicly released and
therefore were no longer exempt,” summarized Associated Press. “Ohio
State acknowledged that it had loaned some of the records to
scientists and research trainees, and had shown a small number of
the records to scientists at medical conferences. But the court
accepted the university’s argument that those disclosures related to
conducting the research itself.”

Turkish street dog massacres

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

ANKARA–Officials of the ruling Islamic nationalist Justice &
Development Party have denied responsibility for the deaths of
hundreds of street dogs whose remains were found at the Mamek refuse
dump in separate lots on March 12, 14, and 24 by veterinarian Burcu
Iskikalp and local animal advocates. Necropsies indicated that at
least two dogs had been raped. A 64-year-old man was charged a week
earlier with raping a dog at a different dump, in Corum.
Turkish law has since 2003 forbidden killing street dogs
except in response to medical emergency, but the law is reportedly
widely defied due to lack of federal government enforcement.

Ex-Ohio State University laboratory chimp dies on arrival at the Primarily Primates sanctuary

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

COLUMBUS, SAN ANTONIO–Kermit, 35, one of nine chimpanzees
sent by Ohio State University to the Primarily Primates sanctuary in
Leon Spring, Texas, died under sedation on March 2 as sanctuary
staff tried to move him from a transport cage to larger holding
quarters.
Ohio State has donated $324,000 to Primarily Primates to
build permanent facilities for the chimps that will be about five
times larger than their university housing, and to provide for their
maintenance.
“Veterinarian Thomas Vice had administered a shot of
anesthesia, followed by two smaller doses, when Kermit collapsed in
a sitting position,” reported Kevin Kidder of the Columbus Dispatch,
based on the account of Ohio State laboratory animal resources
director William Yonushonis.
A necrospy done at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical
Research in San Antonio found that the cause of death was a “heart
attack associated with pre-existing heart disease, pulmonary
congestion and tissue swelling associated with handling. The
necropsy did not address tranquilizers in Kermit’s body,” wrote Mike
Lafferty of the Columbus Dispatch.

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Six SHAC suspects convicted–five for “animal enterprise terrorism”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

TRENTON, New Jersey–Six individuals
associated with “direct action” animal advocacy
and the organization Stop Huntingdon Animal
Cruelty were convicted on March 2, 2006 of
criminal acts against employees of Huntingdon
Life Sciences and companies that did business
with Huntingdon.
“Convicted of conspiracy to commit animal
enterprise terrorism and interstate stalking were
Joshua Harper of Seattle, Andrew Stepanian of
Huntington, New York, and Lauren Gazzola,
Jacob Conroy and Kevin Kjonaas, who lived
together in Pinole, California,” reported John
P. Martin and Brian T. Murray for the Newhouse
News Service. “A sixth defendant, Darius
Fullmer of Hamilton, New Jersey, was found
guilty only on the conspiracy charge,” Martin
and Murray added.
All six had previous arrests in connection with animal advocacy.
Harper, 31, and Conroy, 30, were arrested in
May 1999 for allegedly interfering with an
attempt by members of the Makah tribe to kill a
grey whale in Puget Sound.

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U.S. government intensifies spying on animal advocates

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

WASHINGTON D.C., NEW YORK CITY–Pending federal legislation
may intensify covert U.S. federal government surveillance of animal
advocacy.
The Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006 was introduced on
March 16, 2006 by Republican U.S. Senators Mike DeWine of Ohio,
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, and
Olympia Snowe of Maine.
Deemed likely to pass easily through the Republican-dominated
Senate and House of Representatives, and to be signed by President
George W. Bush, the bill was described by DeWine’s publicist, Mike
Dawson, as “a measure that would provide a statutory framework, with
Congressional and judicial oversight, for the President to conduct
electronic surveillance on the international communications of
suspected terrorists, while protecting the rights and liberties of
American citizens.”

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