Month: July 2006

Court kills Massachusetts “Dog Protection Act” fall 2006 ballot initiative

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

BOSTON–The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts on July
13, 2006 barred a proposed ballot initiative called the Dog
Protection Act from the November 2006 Massachusetts ballot. If
approved by the voters, the Dog Protection Act would have prohibited
greyhound racing, and would have provided stiffer sentences for
dogfighting and assaulting police dogs.
The court upheld the contention of Raynham-Taunton Greyhound
Park owner George Carney that the initiative improperly combined
unrelated issues.
Massachusetts secretary of state William Galvin Jr. in
December 2005 certified that Dog Protection Act backers had gathered
83,431 bona fide signatures from voters in support of the initiative,
about 18,000 more than were needed in the first step of the two-step
petitioning process, but after the Massachusetts legislature failed
to enact the Dog Protection Act itself, the act supporters were
required to gather at least 10,971 new signatures to put the
initiative before the voters.
Grey 2K cofounder Christine Dorchak told ANIMAL PEOPLE that
the goal was reached on June 16, five days ahead of the deadline.

Rosalba

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

Rosalba (1991-2006) died of cancer on July 10, 2006. Born
in inner Bridgeport near a Catholic school that was closing down,
she appeared to be the last survivor of an early 1991 litter. Her
mother, called Maybelline by the nuns, was trapped at the same
time, pregnant. She gave birth to four kittens the next day.
Rosalba shook as if she had palsy, and her eyes constantly blinked.
She was the most pathetic cat I had seen. I thought our veterinarian
would recommend euthanasia. I wanted to feed her and give her some
comfort before she died, and I thought she needed a pretty name,
because she looked so dreadful. Her fur was grey with dirt, but I
could see she was white, and I named her Rosalba–“white rose” in
Spanish–after a Mexican friend of mine. To my surprise her
condition quickly improved with feeding. She was quite robust for a
time. She had to have all her teeth taken out quite young, then she
developed a chronic skin problem that lasted for most of her life,
but–always a stoic–she seemed to enjoy her life.
–Kim Bartlett

BOOKS: Wild Horses: The world’s last surviving herds

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

Wild Horses: The world’s last surviving herds
by Elwyn Hartley Edwards
Hylas Publishing (129 Main Street, Irvington, NY10533), 2006. 144
pages, hard cover. $24.95.

Well-researched and beautifully presented, with inspiring
photos of exquisite horses, this book presents a wealth of
information about feral horses around the world.
Feral horses persist in places as remote as the Namib desert
in Africa and as seemingly unlikely as the saltwater marshes of the
Camargue region in southern France.
Unfortunately, there are now no longer any true wild horses,
except for Africa zebras and Asiatic wild asses, and their numbers
too have declined because of hunting.
Page after page describes how various wild horse herds were hunted
out of existence.

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Obituaries

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

Shannon Hartwick Moore, 36, of
Metairie, Louisiana, committed suicide on May
30, 2006. A New Orleans certified public
accountant, Moore was displaced herself by
Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, but focused
on animal rescue, volunteering with Alley Cat
Allies, Animal Rescue New Orleans, and Kinship
Circle, forming the organizations Supporters of
Save Our Pets and Hay There to assist household
pets and farm animals. Later she organized a
“People & Pets March” in Baton Rouge in support
of a bill to facilitate pet evacuation after
disasters.

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Progress against docking dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

EDINBURG, JOHANNESBURG–The Scottish Parliament on May 31,
2006 approved inclusion of a ban on tail-docking dogs in a pending
Animal Health & Welfare omnibus bill, while leaving open the
possibility of exempting working dogs. The Scottish language
parallels language approved by the British Parliament in March 2006,
as part of a general update of anti-cruelty legislation. Similar
language was introduced in 2005 but not put to a vote in New Zealand.
The South African Veterinary Association ruled meanwhile that
vets who dock dogs’ tails after June 2007 may be charged with
“unprofessional, improper or disgraceful conduct.”
Australia banned tail-docking dogs except for medical reasons
in 2004. Tail-docking dogs was already prohibited in Sweden,
Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Denmark. Nations
including Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Luxembourg, and Switzerland
have ratified the Convention on the Protection of Pet Animals
proposed in 1987 by the Council of Europe, which includes a
tail-docking ban, but have not adopted anti-docking legislation of
their own.

Lab dog dealer C.C. Baird is sentenced

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

LITTLE ROCK–Former laboratory dog and cat suppliers Chester
Clinton “C.C.” Baird Jr. and his wife Patsy Baird, both 59, were on
July 14 sentenced for multiple violations of the federal Animal
Welfare Act. U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes gave C.C. Baird three
years on probation including six months of home detention, and fined
him $7,500. Holmes gave Patsy Baird two years on probation, and
fined her $2,000.
The Bairds and two of their five daughters in August 2005
paid $262,700 in fines to settle civil charges against them,
forfeited $ 200,000 cash from “ill-gotten gains,” paid more than
$40,000 in restitution to animal welfare groups that rehabilitated
and placed 215 dogs and 145 cats seized from the Bairds in 2003 and
2005 USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service raids, and turned
over their home, land, and kennel, worth about $1.3 million, to
the USDA.

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Fate of U.K. ex-racing greyhounds exposed

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

LONDON–The London Sunday Times on July 16, 2006 exposed the
fate of as many as 10,000 ex-racing greyhounds over the past 15
years. Reporter Daniel Foggo and a photographer documented building
supply dealer David Smith in the act of shooting greyhounds, whom
Smith buried on his property near Seaham in Durham. Smith took over
the business of killing “slow” greyhounds from his father, Foggo
wrote.
About 75% of the racing dogs in Britain are bred and trained
in Ireland, Foggo reported. About 10,000 racing dogs per year are
“retired” and replaced, but the National Greyhound Racing Club can
account for about 3,000 “retired” dogs per year.

New mobile S/N record

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

GREAT FALLS– Thirteen veterinarians and nearly 300 volunteers
tried from June 15 through 19, 2006 to break the Montana Spay/Neuter
Task Force record for most dogs and cats sterilized in five days by a
mobile surgical team, but fell barely short.
The final total of 370 dogs and 866 cats sterilized, for a
total of 1,236, was third best for the task force, whose top figure
was 1,354 achieved during Lewis & Clark Count Pet Care Week in 2004.
That broke the 1998 record of 1,336 sterilizations done in six days
during Salish & Kootenai Love Your Pet Week.
The Great Falls City Council and Cascade County Commission
pledged to fund a follow-up task force visit to sterilize 800 animals
who were left on a waiting list, said Montana Spay/Neuter Task Force
founder Jean Atthowe.
Great Falls was the last Montana city of at least 5,000
people to receive a task force visit. On the road since 1996, the
team has noted results including a 76% drop in intake at the Wolf
Point Dog Pound on the Fork Peck Reservation, after four visits,
and a 26% drop in intake plus a 42% drop in killing at the Billings
Animal Shelter, after just a single two-day visit.

Gains against shelter killing come hard in the Gulf states, West, & Midwest

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

Animals killed YEAR 1,000s Animals
per 1,000 people of people killed
—————————————————
CONNECTICUT 0.8 2003 3,483 2,647
Ithaca, NY 2.2 2003 97 214
New York City 2.6 2005 8,086 21,171
Onandaga County, NY 4.2 2003 311 1,300
Oswego, NY 7.5 2003 18 135
Madison County, NY 7.8 2003 70 548
—————————————————
NORTHEAST (36%) 2.2 33,495 72,322

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