Month: December 2006

Awards & honors

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
Phil & Trix Wollen, of Melbourne, Australia,
administrators of the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust, on October
28, 2006 awarded Animal Liberation cofounder, Pulling The Wool
author, and Help In Suffering chief trustee Christine Townend a gold
medal for distinguised lifetime achievement. Victoria state governor
David de Kretser on November 16 named Phil Wollen Victoria’s
Australian of the Year. “Philip promotes kindness to all living
creatures and strives to make this a key trait in the Australian
character,” said de Kretser.

The Fur Free Alliance on October 30, 2006 awarded the
“Design Against Fur” juried grand prize for anti-fur poster art to
Maria Rhodes Castro, of Spain, who is studying at the Accademia di
Communicazione in Milan, Italy. FFA also honored Yu-Tru Chung of
the Pratt Institute in New York City with a “People’s Choice” award,
for getting the most votes from web site visitors who viewed the work
of the 18 finalists at <http://inFURmation.com>. The Fur Free
Alliance is an international coalition of more than 30 anti-fur
organizations. The 2006 poster theme was “Protect Seals.” The 2007
theme will be “Fashion Victims.”

The American SPCA on November 2, 2006 honored Chicago Police
Sergeant Steven Brownstein as “Law Enforcement Officer of the Year”
for work against dogfighting. “The 24-year police veteran has served
on the city’s animal abuse control team since 1999,” wrote Chicago
Tribune staff reporter Tony C. Yang. “Since then, the team has
seized more than 5,000 animals, mostly dogs, and has made more than
700 arrests for cruelty and dogfighting,” according to ASPCA
spokesperson Anita K. Edson.

REVIEWS: Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:

Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures
Buena Vista Productions & R.K.O.Productions, 2006.
Four volumes; $32.95 each.

True Life Adventures, the first release
in the new Walt Disney Legacy DVD collection,
features 13 wildlife documentaries which among
them won eight Academy Awards and created a whole
new genre of cinema. Originally filmed fifty
years ago in 16 millimetre format, the films
have been digitally restored, are presented in
four 2-disc volumes with collectible packaging,
and include commentary by Roy E. Disney, nephew
of Walt Disney and son of Walt Disney Studios
founding partner Roy Oliver.

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Fur trim trade exploits ambiguous attitudes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
LONDON–Fashion superstar Kate Moss
designs garments for Topshop, a firm with a
policy against using fur–but as a model, the
role that propelled her to fame, Moss wears furs
for Burberry. Her paradoxical alignments reflect
the ambiuity of a fashion market in which
traditional highpriced fur coats have been “out”
for nearly 20 years, yet cheap imported fur trim
is selling as never before.
The London Independent in a series of
November and early December 2006 features
reported “a growing backlash against soaring
sales of fur,” which has yet to show much sign
of reversing the fur trim boom.
British fur sales are up 30% in two
years, The Independent said, “with £41 million
of new fur products,” about 1,000 tons’ worth,
“imported every year into a U.K. market now worth
an estimated £500 million.”

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Who Gets The Money? — 17th annual edition

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
Starting on page 15 is our 17th annual report on the budgets,
assets, and salaries paid by the major U.S. animal-related
charities, plus miscellaneous local activist groups, humane
societies, and some prominent organizations abroad. We offer their
data for comparative purposes. Foreign data is stated in U.S.
dollars at representative exchange rates.
Most charities are identified in the second column by what
they do and stand for: A for advocacy, C for conservation of
habitat via acquisition, E for education, H for support of hunting,
I for supporting the eradication of “invasive” feral or non-native
species, L for litigation, P for publication, S for
shelter/sanctuary maintenance or sterilization project, U for
favoring either “sustainable” or aboriginal lethal use of wildlife,
and V for focus on vivisection.
As most listed charities do some advocacy and education, the
A and E designations are used with others only if advocacy and
education use more of the charities’ time and budget than other roles
for which they may be better known. Charities of obvious purpose may
not have a letter. While many charities pursue multiple activities,
space limits us to offering no more than three identifying letters.
Most of the financial data we cite for U.S. charities comes
from IRS Form 990 filings, usually covering fiscal year 2005. Form
990s from most U.S. charities are available– free–at
<www.guidestar.com>.

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Press coverage, “animal rights,” and “terrorism”

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 From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  December 2006:



	Among the 1,216 newspapers archived at News-Library.com, the 
word "terrorism" appeared in under 2% of all  coverage of "animal 
rights" until  after the 2001 Al Qaida attacks on New York City and 
Washington D.C.--but "terrorism" has been mentioned in more than 6% 
of "animal rights" coverage ever since.
	Total coverage of "animal rights"  topped 6,000 articles for 
the first time in 2000,  and has remained higher than in any year 
before 2000.


Year   AR in    AR linked
     articles  to "terror"

1980 -    10    0  0%
1981 -    18    0  0%
1982 -    39    1  2%
1983 -    84    2  2%
1984 -   212    5  2%
1985 -   454    4  1%
1986 -   594    7  1%
1987 - 1,058   12  1%
1988 - 1,604   27  2%
1989 - 2,881   31  1%
1990 - 4,979  102  2%
1991 - 4,691   52  1%
1992 - 4,530   41  1%
1993 - 4,639   46  1%
1994 - 4,133   23  0%
1995 - 3,808   73  2%
1996 - 5,081   46  1%
1997 - 5,385  124  2%
1998 - 5,587   73  1%
1999 - 5,871  145  3%
2000 - 6,450   74  1%
2001 - 5,664  263  5%
2002 - 5,900  342  6%
2003 - 6,691  423  6%
2004 - 6,262  358  6%
2005 - 6,618  483  7%
2006 - 6,629  392  6%

Canadian local & regional humane societies call “national” appeals misleading

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
MONTREAL–An old grievance of U.S. local and regional humane
societies has erupted across Canada in response to appeals by the
shelterless Toronto-based Humane Society of Canada and the
Montreal-based Canadian SPCA, which operates a shelter and
sterilization clinic in Montreal.
Both organizations are widely seen as poaching on local turf,
but Canadian SPCA mailings have raised the most visible ire.
“Fundraising appeals sent by the Montreal SPCA list local
postal boxes on the donation pledge form, so that donors in Nova
Scotia would mail to a Halifax address and those in Saskatchewan to a
Moose Jaw address,” wrote Toronto Globe & Mail Montreal
correspondent Tu Thanh Ha.
“We find it quite annoying. We have a hard enough time
fundraising for ourselves,” Moose Jaw Humane Society director Ray
Whitney told Tu Thanh Ha.

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Bush inks amended version of Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:

WASHINGTON D.C.–U.S. President George W.
Bush on November 27, 2006 signed into law the
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. AETA extends to
animal industry workers the provisions of the
1982 Animal Enterprise Protection Act, which
covered only property.
Sent to Bush in final form on November
13, AETA is expected to be the last major piece
of animal-related legislation passed by the
Republican majority who had controlled both the
U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives
since the 1994 midterm Congressional election.
Control of both the House and the Senate
passed to the Democrats in the November 2006
midterm election. Opponents declared immediately
their intent to challenge AETA in court and seek
amendments in the next Congress, but support for
AETA was strong among both parties, and despite
allegations that AETA may infringe on civil
liberties, in final form it was not opposed by
the American Civil Liberties Union.

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Dutch Party of the Animals wins 2 seats

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
AMSTERDAM–Two candidates fielded by the Dutch Party of the
Animals on November 22, 2006 won seats in the 150-member Dutch
legislature.
“We are thrilled,” party leader Marianne Thieme said.
“Finally we can start realizing our party’s highest priority, namely
ending all animal suffering. We want a constitutional amendment
guaranteeing animals the right to freedom from pain, fear and stress
caused by humans. Let’s begin,” Thieme suggested, “by easing the
suffering of cows, pigs, and chickens stuck in factory farms.”

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