Even “Shangri-La” needs animal sanctuaries & rabies control

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
THIMPHU, Bhutan–Touring the U.S. to raise support for the
Jangsa Animal Saving Trust, Lama Kunzang Dorjee hesitated to call
his work in Bhutan uniquely difficult.
Yes, Kunzang acknowledged, it is difficult coordinating the
activities of half a dozen animal sanctuaries scattered throughout a
nation which is still connected mainly by footpaths, especially when
dozens of long-horned bullocks have to be moved to and from their
summer pastures over swaying single-file suspension bridges–but all
of the Jangsa locations are now connected by mobile telephone,
Kunzang quickly added.
Yes, the Jangsa Animal Saving Trust needs money, Kunzang
explained. Money is needed to start an Animal Birth Control program
in the capital city of Thimphu. This will be modeled after the
Animal Birth Control program directed by Help In Suffering
veterinarian Naveen Pandey in Darjeeling, India. Money is needed
for equipment, vehicles, vaccines, and surgical supplies, all of
which must be imported.

Bogus vaccines contribute to human rabies death toll in China

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
BEIJING–Counterfeit human post-exposure rabies vaccine has
resurfaced as a factor in the fast-rising human rabies death toll in
China, Chinese media reported in late July 2007. The fake vaccine
reappeared two years after officials believed it had all been
destroyed, following the deaths of two boys who received worthless
“post-exposure” treatment.
Human rabies deaths in China have increased from 163 in 1996
to 3,215 in 2006, with 1,043 in the first five months of 2007. The
rise is roughly parallel to the increasing popularity of dogs as
pets–but the rabies cases are overwhelmingly concentrated in the
southern and coastal areas where dogs are raised for meat. So-called
“meat dogs” are not required to be vaccinated, unlike pet dogs.
For the second consecutive year dogs were massacred amid
spring rabies panics in Qhongqing province. News coverage of the
killing was suppressed, unlike in 2006, when the officially
directed dog purges were much criticized by both official news media
and on public Internet forums.

Fire hits Dubrovnik shelter

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
DUBROVNIK–Rescuers evacuated 200 dogs from the Drustvo Za
Zastitu Zivotinja dog shelter just ahead of one of the worst of the
midsummer 2007 forest fires that ravaged the Croatian/Serbian border
region.
The shelter occupies a fort dating to Napoleonic times, used
by Serbians who shelled the walled city of Dubrovnik in 1991-1992,
killing about 250 residents. Little changed since the 13th century,
Dubrovnik is a United Nations-designated World Heritage landmark.
“The fire damaged parts of the shelter, but no animals were
injured,” reported Vier Pfoten founder Helmut Dungler on August 8.
Based in Vienna, Austria, Vier Pfoten has helped Drustvo Za Zastitu
Zivotinja to sterilize dogs, and also aids a Dubrovnik feral cat
project.

Who is killing the Virunga gorillas?

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

GOMA, DRC–Seeking the killers of endangered mountain
gorillas in Virunga National Park, near the eastern border of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNESCO and the World Conservation
Union on August 14, 2007 sent out a posse.
“The killings are inexplicable,” said a United Nations press
release. “They do not correspond to traditional poaching,” and
“have taken place despite increased guard patrols and the presence of
military forces.
“Seven mountain gorillas have been shot and killed this year,
four of them last month, more than during the conflict that wracked
Africa’s Great Lakes region in the late 1990s,” the release
continued. “Some 700 gorillas are estimated to still survive in the
area, about 370 of them in Virunga.”

RSPCA changes guard

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

Jackie Ballard, the former Member of Parliament who has
headed the Royal SPCA of Great Britain since 2002, will on October
22, 2007 become chief executive of the Royal National Institute for
the Deaf, RNID announced on July 30, 2007. The RSPCA reportedly
will not begin seeking her successor until after she has left.

FoA acquires Whale Rescue Team, seeks to reclaim Primarily Primates animals

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
The Whale Rescue Team, founded in 1984 by Peter Wallerstein,
on July 1, 2007 became Marine Animal Rescue, a project of Friends
of Animals. Marine Animal Rescue will continue to rescue and
rehabilitate stranded marine mammals and birds from Marina del Rey,
the beaches of Venice and Santa Monica, and the port of San Pedro.
FoA, based in Darien, Connecticut, acquired the Whale
Rescue Team 11 months after reaching an agreement to take over the
Primarily Primates sanctuary near San Antonio, Texas, but only two
months after taking possession of the sanctuary, which was directed
by a court-appointed receiver from mid-October 2006 through April
2007.

Donations for animals rise

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
Donations to U.S. animal welfare charities have cumulatively
increased 28% over the past three years, according to data released
by the Boston direct marketing consulting firm Target Analysis Group.
In the 12 months from April 2006 through March 2007, animal welfare
charities achieved an 8.5% increase in revenue, a 10% increase in
number of donors, and an 8% increase in the number of new donors.
Animal welfare charities were 5.6 times more successful than
environmental charities. Reported by Holly Hall in the July 26,
2007 edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the findings came
from an analysis of 68 million donations made by 38 million
individuals, who cumulatively gave more than $1.7 billion in
2006-2007.

Activists & Organizations

ANIMAL PEOPLE goes to nine editions per year

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
Because of a drastic increase in U.S. nonprofit postage rates
in May 2007, the cost of mailing our June edition instantly rose
almost $1,000. We will have to dig deeper into general operating
funds to cover the postal rate hike, but have made a decision to try
to reduce costs by scaling back our production schedule to nine
issues of ANIMAL PEOPLE per year instead of ten.
This way we hope to avoid increasing our subscription price,
and to avoid raising our advertising rates substantially.
Subscribers who have paid for ten editions will receive them, but
all new subscriptions and renewals will be for nine editions a year.
At inception, ANIMAL PEOPLE determined that if we were going
to make a real difference in how effectively the humane community
responds to problems, we would have to reach the entire humane
community with every edition-and we knew that the people and
organizations most in need of our information tend to have the least
resources with which to buy a subscription. Many organizations
abroad–especially in the underdeveloped nations of Africa, Asia,
and Latin America–simply could not buy a subscription, no matter
what.

Activists & Organizations

Dolphin captures in Solomon Islands are linked to Panama, Dubai

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

GAVATU– As of July 24, 2007, Canadian dolphin broker
Christopher Porter was reportedly holding as many as 50 recently
captured dolphins in sea pens at Malaita in the Solomon Islands.
“Ocean Embassy, also known as the Wildlife International
Network, is in the Solomon Islands trying to export the dolphins to
Dubai,” Dolphin Project founder Ric O’Barry told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Five new dolphin facilities in Dubai want dolphins, whales, polar
bears–every marine mammal they can get. Ocean Embassy is the broker.
“Somehow Ocean Embassy has been able to stay out of the media
regarding Dubai,” O’Barry added. “They brokered the deal but Porter
gets all of the attention. Ocean Embassy represents big money,”
O’Barry continued. “They dwarf Porter’s operation. The parent
corporation began selling securities via a private placement offering
in the United States in late 2003. At present, the parent company is
represented by 195 investors from the United States, Mexico, the
United Kingdom, and France.

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