Month: January 2008

Wildlife Waystation to relocate

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

PALM SPRINGS–Wildlife Waystation has signed a 99-year lease
on a 50-acre lot near Interstate 10, board president Dean Seymour
told Stefanie Frith of the Desert Sun on December 21, 2007, and
expects to relocate about 400 animals from the 160-acre tract the
Waystation has occupied since 1976 in Angeles National Forest.
“We are negotiating with nearby colleges,” Seymour added.
“We will have a full-blown veterinary school with veterinarians and
vet techs on staff.”
As of January 15, 2008, however, the Waystation was still
more than $1 million in debt, according to the sanctuary web site,
and was still seeking funds to build at the proposed new location.
Founder Martine Colette disclosed the extent of the debt in an August
2007 emergency appeal.

Primarily Primates wins appeal

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
SAN ANTONIO–The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on
January 16, 2007 upheld the agreement by which Ohio State University
transferred a research chimpanzee colony to Primarily Primates in
early 2006. The verdict affirmed the earlier finding of the trial
court in Bexar County, Texas. Opposed by both researcher Sally
Boysen and PETA, the transfer touched off a two-year legal battle
that escalated after one chimp died on arrival and another died soon
afterward, both from pre-existing heart conditions.
The dispute included the forced resignation of Primarily
Primates founder Wally Swett; a merger with Friends of Animals; a
six-month court-ordered receivership, during which Primarily
Primates was staffed largely by PETA personnel; and the transfer of
the surviving OSU chimps to Chimp Haven, in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The receivership was terminated in May 2007, after the Texas
Office of Attorney General agreed in an out-of-court settlement to
“fully and completely release, acquit, and forever discharge
Primarily Primates” of allegations brought by PETA. FoA is now
pursuing litigation to recover the chimps, plus animals who were
sent to other sanctuaries.

Send zoo cats to sanctuaries?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
SAN FRANCISCO–Carlos Souza, 17, on
Christmas Day 2007 may have meant to provoke a
violent response from a San Francisco Zoo tiger
named Tatiana, though that may never be known
for sure. His ensuing death provoked heated
global debate over the ethics of exhibiting
wildlife.
Apparently making an unprecedented and
unwitnessed leap from her enclosure, Tatiana
killed Souza, then pursued and injured his
companions Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir
Dhaliwal, 24, before police shot her in an open
air café, about 300 feet from Souza’s remains.

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Gamekeepers fined for killing protected raptors in both U.K. and U.S.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
EDINBURGH, LANCASTER (Pa.),
NICOSIA–Prince Harry may have dodged the bullet
for allegedly shooting two hen harriers to
protect captive-reared “game” species, as ANIMAL
PEOPLE reported in November/December 2007, but
gamekeepers have been fined in comparable cases
on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Scottish Borders region cattle and sheep
farmer James McDougal became “the first landowner
in the United Kingdom to have his agricultural
subsidies cut as a punishment,” Guardian Scotland
correspondent Severin Carroll wrote. “The
Scottish executive said it had docked £7,919 from
last year’s single farm payment and beef calf
scheme payments to McDougal–more than the £5,000
maximum [fine] for a wildlife crime,” Carroll
reported on January 7, 2008.

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Letters [Jan/Feb 2008]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

 
Re “Greenpeace says ‘Eat roos'”

Saw your most interesting article “Greenpeace says ‘Eat
roos'” in the October 2007 edition of your fabulous Animal People
newspaper. However, the film made by Greenpeace in 1986 against
killing kangaroos was actually called Goodbye Joey, not “Goodbye to
Joey,” as Paul Watson recalled. I was involved in making the film
in West Queensland, as I was then employed as a kangaroo campaigner.
I resigned in 1992, after Greenpeace dumped their roo campaign and
several other pro-animal campaigns. Their recent promotion of roo
meat for human consumption is a disgrace. I could not agree with
Watson more in denouncing it.
I met Jet Johnson during the film making, and completely
understand and support his view on the kangaroo issue. Greenpeace
does not want to say “Don’t eat any red meat–this would be vitally
important to lowering greenhouse gasses.” One can only ask why not.
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Guest column: A close look at the “bully movement”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
Guest column

A close look at the “bully movement”
by Phyllis M. Daugherty, director, Animal Issues Movement
ANIMALISSU@aol.com
The November/December 2007 ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial “Adding
consideration to compassionate acts” was heartwrenching in its
truth. It is so hard for kind, caring humans to ignore or forget
the eyes of a hungry or suffering animal. But our need to “save” the
animal must be tempered with realistic consideration for the animal,
rather than be done to boost our own egos. This is especially true
when our personal resources or future access will be limited. Thanks
for your diplomatic handling of a sensitive topic.

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Indian Supreme Court flipflops on bullfights

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

NEW DELHI–As many as 400 villages in the
Madurai region of Tamil Nadu held traditional
mass participation bullfights called jallikattu
during the Pongal harvest festival on January 17,
2008, after a three-judge panel of the Supreme
Court of India on January 15 reversed an order
halting jallikattu issued by a two-judge panel of
the Supreme Court just four days earlier.
The original order kept in effect a ban
on jallikattu rendered by the Supreme Court in
July 2007, reversing a verdict by the Madras
High Court that allowed it. The Supreme Court is
to hear an appeal of the July 2007 verdict filed
by the government of Tamil Nadu later in 2008.
Jallikattu was allowed this year under
condition, summarized the Deccan Herald, that
“the authorities shall take all precaution that
the animals are not tortured. There would be no
cruelty on the animals. No liquor, no injury to
any of the bulls.”

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Beijing bans selling songbirds

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

BEIJING–Trafficking in song thrushes and
six other bird species often kept as caged pets
is now banned throughout China, effective since
January 1, 2008.
Birds already in private possession may
remain with those who have them, but may not be
sold or traded.
The seven prohibited bird species, also
including parakeets, larks, and mynahs, were
reportedly the first additions since 1989 to the
Chinese list of protected wildlife.

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Egyptian humane movement strives to grow as quickly as the nation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
CAIRO, LUXOR–Percentage-wise, the Egyptian humane movement
may for the first time be growing faster than the Egyptian
populations of street dogs and feral cats. The numbers of
organizations, shelters, mobile clinics, animal hospitals,
volunteers, and local donors are all increasing at an unprecedented
pace.
The Brooke Hospital for Equines, operating in Cairo since
1934, now serves more than 200,000 horses and donkeys each
year–more than it did in all of the first 60 years that it existed.
The Brooke, though the oldest continuously operating animal
welfare society in Egypt, was scarcely the first in Egypt. Eight
Egyptian humane societies were represented at the first
International Humane Congress, held in Washington D.C. in 1910.

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