BOOKS: The Plight of Pakistani Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

The Plight of Pakistani Animals
by Khalid Mahmood Qurashi
President, Animal Save Movement, Pakistan

In Pakistan even human beings are not accorded fundamental
rights. But the condition of animals is worse and miserable.
Both birds and land animals are so frequently hunted as if
they were an enemy army, including by some of the persons and
organizations whose jobs are to protect animals. and their lives.
Members of our wildlife and forestry departments often aid the
hunters, and even participate in the killing.
Bankers, industrialists, and politicians invite their
foreign business partners, including Arabian princes, to come hunt
even our rarest species–and to capture our vanishing wild falcons,
to turn them into hunting weapons. Local leaders and merchants
show their influence by hosting cockfights, bear-baiting, and other
kinds of animal fight.

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Wolves, grizzlies lose protection– and Alaska resumes wolf bounty

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Wolves and grizzly bears, the iconic
predators of the North American frontier, lost their Endangered
Species Act protection within the continental U.S. within days of
each other in March 2007, opening the possibility that both may soon
be legally hunted.
Demonstrating how wolves and grizzlies became endangered in
the first place–and what has historically always happened when rural
states are allowed jurisdiction over large predators–Alaska Governor
Sarah Palin’s office on March 20 introduced a $150 bounty on wolves.
The bounty is open only to the 180 pilots and aerial gunners who are
registered volunteer participants in the state’s predator control
program.

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New Mexico bans cockfighting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

SANTA FE–New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson on March 12,
2007 signed into law a bill banning cockfighting, leaving Louisiana
as the last U.S. state that allows it.
“Today, New Mexico joins 48 other states in affirming that
deliberately killing animals for entertainment and profit is no
longer acceptable,” said State Senator Mary Jane Garcia (D-Dona Ana),
who pushed prohibiting cockfights for 18 years.
Thirteen New Mexico counties had already individually banned
cockfighting.
Taking effect on June 15, “The bill makes participating in
cockfights a petty misdemeanor on first offense, a misdemeanor on
second offense, and a fourth-degree felony– punishable by up to 18
months in prison–for a third or subsequent offense. Spectators
could not be charged,” summarized Deborah Baker of Associated Press.
“The push for change was homegrown,” reported Los Angeles
Times staff writer Nicholas Riccardi. “When Garcia took office in
1989, a male colleague suggested she try to ban cockfighting. Her
bill was easily defeated” Riccardi recalled, “and Garcia soon
learned that the ban suggestion was a sort of hazing to which veteran
legislators subjected young female colleagues.”

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South Africa regulates–but does not ban–killing captive lions

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
CAPE TOWN–“We are putting an end, once
and for all, to the reprehensible practice of
canned hunting,” insisted South African
environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk at a
February 20, 2007 press conference in Cape Town.
“South Africa has a long standing
reputation as a global leader on conservation
issues. We cannot allow our achievements to be
undermined by rogue practices such as canned lion
hunting,” van Schalkwyk continued.
Effective on June 1, 2007, van Schalwyk
said, the new regulations will prohibit “hunting
large predators and rhinoceros who are ‘put and
take’ animals–in other words, a captive-bred
animal who is released on a property for the
purpose of hunting within twenty-four months.
Hunting should be about fair chase,” van
Schalkwyk said. “Over the years that got eroded
and now we are trying to re-establish that
principal.”

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Getting the show off the road

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Dancing bears, monkey acts, and big
cats leaping through hoops of fire are almost
history now in India, where such acts appear to
have started in Vedic times, spreading
throughout the world.
Some dancing bears, monkeys, and circus
lions, tigers, and leopards are still on the
back roads, or are stashed in sheds by
exhibitors who imagine that the Wild Life
Protection Act of 1972 might be repealed or
amended, but for most the show is over.
The Supreme Court of India turned out the
lights on May 1, 2001. Six years later, the
significance of the Supreme Court ruling against
traveling animal shows is just becoming evident,
as the possible foundation of a paradigm shift in
Indian and perhaps global attitudes toward
keeping wildlife in captivity.

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Iditarod musher not charged for beating dogs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

ANCHORAGE–Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters on
March 19, 2007 told news media that 2002 and 2003 Iditarod dog sled
race runner-up and 1999 Yukon Quest winner Ramy Brooks, 38, of
Healy, Alaska, would not be investigated or charged with cruelty
for allegedly beating his team about 90 miles from the end of the
2007 Iditarod.
Twenty-two miles from the end, one of Brooks’ dogs, named
Kate, died. A necropsy on the three-year-old dog was inconclusive,
race marshall Mark Nordman told Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen.
“Brooks admitted to spanking each of his 10 dogs with a trail
marker after two refused to get up and continue running outside the
checkpoint of Golovin on the Bering Sea coast,” reported Associated
Press writer Jeannette J. Lee.

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Animal Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Duke, reportedly 19, also called Jake, and called “Doogie”
by Dogs Deserve Better founder Tammy Grimes, died on March 1, 2007
at the home of a foster caretaker. Grimes on September 11, 2006
took Duke, who was seriously debilitated according to veterinary
reports, from the yard of Steve and Lori Arnold, of East Freedom,
Pennsylvania, after the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society failed
to return calls about his condition. Unknown to the callers, a
humane officer had been assigned to investigate the case. Grimes,
who is also a part-time assistant web site developer for ANIMAL
PEOPLE, was charged with theft, receiving stolen property, criminal
mischief, and criminal trespass. The case, which made national
headlines, has yet to be tried. “Video of Doogie’s condition at the
time of his rescue has been viewed over 43,000 times on You Tube,”
Grimes said.

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Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

 

Sara Whalen, 64, died of cancer on March 19, 2007 in
Horton, New York. “The Pets Alive founder broke her back trying to
move a pony she had rescued and brought to her Wallkill sanctuary,”
wrote Kristina Wells of the Middletown Times Herald-Record. “Doctors
using a rod to stabilize her back discovered a tumor had started in
her lungs and spread.” Recalled Debra West in a 1995 New York Times
feature, “Whalen’s mission to rescue stray animals began in 1972,
when she inherited a golden retriever from a dying neighbor. She
credited the dog with saving her son Adam as a toddler, when he
strayed into the woods near her home.” Remembered Wells, “Whalen
took in the throwaways–ill, injured, neglected and abused cats,
dogs, horses, even potbellied pigs,” and she took in homeless
people at times, too, including Maggie Cogan, featured in an
award-winning documentary about her life in New York City’s Central
Park with a collection of dogs. Cogan returned to Central Park five
weeks later. “Whalen’s love for animals began in her youth, growing
up in Binghamton,” recounted Wells. “Her brother Bill Seiden
recalled that as a teenager she tackled a state trooper who shot a
black Labrador who had been hit by a car.” Whalen’s ex-husband,
insurance executive Leo Whalen, bought the former Ravenwood Kennels
for her, their two sons, and 47 dogs as part of a 1986 divorce
settlement. Often financially struggling, and nearly foreclosed in
both 1989 and 1995, Whalen operated Pets Alive as a no-kill shelter
before the idea was popular. In recent years she often counseled and
encouraged others, worldwide, who were starting no-kill
organizations. “At Pets Alive, she found homes for some, but not
all,” Wells wrote. “The unwanted, unadoptable always lived out
their days in peace, with her. Bill Seiden spoke about his sister’s
work with the kind of admiration that led him to establish an animal
rescue of his own in Avon, Connecticut.” Often providing news tips
to ANIMAL PEOPLE, assisting with several investigations, Whalen in
April 2001 called to confirm that for half a day she had walked
around an employee who died on the job, while doing his work as well
as her own. Why? Because, Whalen admitted, even though he
appeared to be napping on paid time, she did not want to wake him.

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Surprising NAIA conference speakers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
PORTLAND, Oregon– Known in recent years for opposition to
international animal adoption programs, the National Animal Interest
Alliance has announced a 2007 conference speakers roster that may be
most notable for including speakers usually heard at mainstream
humane conferences.
Founded in 1993 by Port-land dog breeder Patti Strand,
author of a 1992 book called The Hijacking of the Humane Movement,
the National Animal Interest Alliance has in the past featured such
speakers as tuna fishing and fur trade representative Teresa Platt;
Joan Berosini, wife of former Las Vegas orangutan trainer Bobby
Berosini; Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council attorney Marshall
Meyer; and biomedical researcher Adrian Morrison. Each has been a
longtime board member.

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