Dolphin captures planned in Panamanian waters

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
“The dolphin brokerage operation formally known as Wildlife
International Network is moving closer to capturing 80 dolphins in
Panama,” In Defense of Animals warned in a May 2, 2007 “Action
Alert,” based on findings by Panamanian activists and Dolphin
Project founder Ric O’Barry, who began exposing the operation in
March.
“WIN is now known as Ocean Embassy,” IDA said.
“If Ocean Embassy is successful,” O’Barry told ANIMAL
PEOPLE, “they will be able to supply dolphins to just about any
place that wants them.

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Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak orders report on street dog shooting & poisoning

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

 

CAIRO–Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak has asked the
Ministry of Agriculture to “prepare a report about stray dogs in
Egypt, and to open an investigation into reports published by
various press and animal welfare organizations who have been appalled
by the practice of shooting and poisoning dogs,” the Al Masry-Al
Youm newspaper reported on May 19, 2007.
Unnamed Ministry of Agriculture sources reportedly told Al
Masry-Al Youm that Mubarak “called for applying humane international
measures in dealing with stray animals, instead of shooting and
poisoning, which detracts from Egypt’s status as a land of culture
and center of tourism.”

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ENPA gets ex-Mafia farm

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
ROME–Fourteen years after the late American SPCA president
Roger Caras issued a tongue-in-cheek appeal to Mafioso to leave their
estates to animal welfare, the Italian national animal charity ENPA
has received one–in a manner of speaking. Confiscated from the
Sicilian Mafia, the small farm near Palermo was judicially awarded
to ENPA for use in teaching humane and moral education. The farm
will produce honey, beeswax, and natural silk by methods that do
not harm the insects.

Singapore Zoo to keep green polar bears

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
SINGAPORE–Wildlife Reserves Singapore, operators of the
Singapore Zoo, on May 3, 2007 announced that it has reversed a
September 2006 decision to relocate the polar bear Inuka, 17, who
is believed to be the only polar bear ever born in tropical habitat.
“Transporting a full-grown polar bear to an institution in a
temperate country would be stressful, and carries its own share of
risks, the most extreme being that Inuka might die during
transportation or during the introduction process in the new
facility,” Wildlife Reserves Singapore stated.
Singapore Zoo spokespersons reaffirmed that the zoo will no
longer exhibit Arctic and Antarctic animals after the eventual deaths
of Inuka and Sheba, 29, his now quite elderly mother. Few polar
bears live much beyond age 30. Intending to move Inuka to a more
congenial climate upon Sheba’s demise, Singapore Zoo director Fanny
Lai had asked the Rostock Zoo in Germany to help her find a new home
for him. The Rostock Zoo runs the global captive polar bear survival
plan.

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Marin County HS names Neil Trent

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
Novato, Calif.–The Marin County Humane Society on May 14,
2007 announced that Neil Trent, 56, will succeed Diane Allevato as
executive director. Allevato is retiring after heading the society
since 1980.
Trent spent 21 years in law enforcement, shelter management,
and overseas training with the Royal SPCA of Britain. After five
years as a field officer and regional director for the World Society
for the Protection of Animals, he moved to Humane Society
International in 1997, where he has been executive director since
1998.

Spring 2007 legislative sessions send pro-animal bills to the governors of 14 states

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

 

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has signed a bill requiring
that engine coolant or antifreeze that contains more than 10%
ethylene glycol must include denatonium benzoate, a bittering agent,
to keep animals and children from drinking it by accident.
Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell has signed a bill, based on a
model promoted nationally by the Humane Society of the U.S., that
requires the state to include provisions for pets and service animals
in disaster planning.
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels on May 4, 2007 signed a bill
which makes killing an animal to threaten, intimidate, coerce, or
terrorize a household family member a Class D felony, punishable by
up to three years in prison and a fine of $10,000. The new law also
makes sexual intercourse or deviate sexual conduct with an animal a
Class D felony.
Iowa Governor Chet Culver on May 15, 2007 signed a bill
prohibiting Internet hunting, in which hunters kill animals from
distant locations using web cameras to spot their targets and a
mouse-click to shoot. Model anti-Internet hunting bills have been
promoted nationally in recent years by HSUS.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has signed a bill that bans
chaining dogs outside and unattended in unsafe or unsanitary
conditions, at least the third state-level legislative success for
Dogs Deserve Better and other opponents of chaining. The offense was
made a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up
to 90 days in jail. Before passing the bill, the Maryland Senate
removed language from the original draft which specified that
inclement weather is an unsafe condition, while the Maryland House
of Delegates excised a ban on chaining dogs outside between midnight
and six a.m.
Nebraska Governor Dave Heine-man as of the end of May 2007
had signed bills making reckless animal abandonment a felony offense
and banning Internet hunting. Nebraska became the 30th state to
outlaw “Internet hunting.” Still awaiting Heineman’s attention was a
bill to strengthen state regulation of commercial dog breeding.
Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons on May 23, 2007 signed into law
a bill requiring that pets and service animals must be provided for
in state disaster planning.

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Horse slaughter for human consumption halted

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
SPRINGFIELD, AUSTIN, WASHINGTON D.C.–Horse slaughter for
human consumption appeared to be ended within the U.S. on May 24, as
result of legislation signed that day by Illinois Governor Rod
Blagojevich, killed by the Texas legislature the same day, and
allowed to stand without comment by the U.S. Supreme Court two days
earlier.
Illinois House Bill 1711, introduced by state
representative Bob Molaro and state senator John Cullerton,
prohibits killing horses for human consumption, effective
immediately. Cavel International had operated the last horsemeat
slaughtering plant in the U.S. in DeKalb, Illinois.

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Islamicist factions in Bangladesh fund insurgencies via poaching in northeast India

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

 

GUWAHATI, India–The May 27, 2007 arrest of alleged Naga
poaching kingpin Lalkhang Go “revealed a nexus between the poachers
and the militants across the region,” reported Hindustan Times
correspondent Rahul Karmakar.
Forestry department wildlife officer Surajit Dutta told
Karmakar that a 12-member team tracked Go and two associates for
three days in the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, 60 kilometers from
Guwahati.
“With the help of local people,” Karmakar wrote, “forest
guards caught Go while he was trying to shoot a rhino in the
sanctuary. His accomplices, however, managed to escape.”
Said Dutta, “Go confessed to killing rhinos and other
animals. He said he had received arms training from the National
Socialist Council of Nagaland,” a rebel force that has fougt the
Indian government for 27 years, at cost of about 10,000 human lives.
Go’s confession appeared to confirm the findings of Guardian
reporters Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark in a comprehensive
investigation of wildlife trafficking in Assam published on May 5,
2007.

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Letters [June 2007]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
 
Turtles & foxes

ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection
Society of Greece, has for more than 20 years
conducted conservation projects on the major
nesting grounds of the loggerhead sea turtle
(Caretta caretta) in Greece. Our activities
involve sea turtle and nest protection, habitat
management, rehabilitation, and public awareness
and environmental education.
The success of our work relies heavily on
the participation of volunteers–more than 500
people every year.
Volunteers this year will work on
Zakynthos, where the first National Marine Park
for sea turtles in the Mediterranean was recently
established; at Lakonikos Bay, where sand dune
restoration has begun and nature trails are in
operation; the Bay of Kyparissia, where we
prevent fox predation and have a new nature
information center; Crete, where tourism is a
challenging partner in sea turtle protection;
and Athens, where the ARCHELON Rescue Centre
rehabilitates injured turtles from all over
Greece.
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