Month: March 2008

Animal advocates work to bring peace to Kenya

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:

NAIROBI–“The situation in Kenya is calm, Youth for
Conservation president Steve Itela told ANIMAL PEOPLE on January 28,
2008, “especially in areas where violence was high such as Kibera
and Mathare, but tension continues with ethnic groups still fighting
in Nakuru, Naivasha, and Nyahururu. We are hopeful that violence
will not spread to other areas. I have not heard gun shots for two
weeks now.”
The worst of the post-election mayhem was over, but the
struggle for the Kenyan animal protection community was just
beginning. From trying to stay alive themselves, Kenyan animal
advocates transitioned rapidly to trying to help keep lost,
abandoned, injured, and frightened animals from suffering further
as result of the national plunge into chaos after the disputed
outcome of the December 27, 2007 voting.

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Baseball greats caught at cockfight

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:
SANTO DOMINGO, D.R.–Pedro Martinez, a
three-time Cy Young Award winner as the best
pitcher in his league, and Juan Marichal, the
first Latin American player elected to the
National Baseball Hall of Fame, are at the
center of a controversy bringing cockfighting in
the Dominican Republic under probably more
scrutiny and criticism than at any point since it
was introduced by Spanish sailors nearly 500
years ago.
“Martinez and Marichal were shown in a
video posted this week on YouTube releasing
roosters just before they engaged in a fight at
the Coliseo Gallistico de Santo Domingo, in the
country’s capital,” summarized Jorge L. Ortiz of
USA Today on February 7, 2008.
Organized animal advocacy has little
presence in the Dominican Republic, but
Ameri-can denunciations of Martinez and Marichal
were soon quoted by Dominican media that closely
follow the deeds of 99 current Dominican major
leaguers–more than 10% of the major league work
force.

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U.S. to phase out animal testing

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:

BETHESDA, Maryland–Animal testing to meet U.S. federal
regulatory requirements is officially on the way out at last.
“The Environmental Protection Agency, the National Toxicology
Program and the National Institutes of Health have signed a
memorandum of understanding to begin developing the new methods,”
reported Elizabeth Weise of USA Today on February 14, 2008,
scooping most other media by about 24 hours. “The collaboration is
described in a paper in the February 15 edition of the journal
Science.”
“We propose a shift from primarily in vivo animal studies to
in vitro assays, in vivo assays with lower organisms, and
computational modeling for toxicity assessments,” wrote National
Humane Genome Research Institute director Francis S. Collins, EPA
research and development director George M. Gray, and National
Toxicology Program associate director John R. Bucher.

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Whalers spend winter hiding

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:
HOBART, TOKYO–Sea Shepherd Conservation Society captain
Paul Watson on March 2, 2008 reported that the crew of the Sea
Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin had pitched two dozen bottles of rancid
butter onto deck of the Japanese whaling factory ship Nisshiin Maru
in Porpoise Bay, off Antarctica.
The stink bomb attack came toward the end of a winter-long
campaign that saw Sea Shepherds, joined at times by Greenpeace and
the Australian coast guard, stalking the Nisshin Maru since the
Steve Irwin sailed from Melbourne on December 5, 2007. The Nisshin
Maru, four whale-catching vessels, and the supply ship Oriental
Bluebird spent most of the winter trying to elude observation,
rather than killing whales. The Japanese coast guard vessel
Fukuyoshi Maru #68 had shadowed the Steve Irwin since January 15,
but was ultimately not able to keep the Sea Shepherds away from the
Nisshin Maru.

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“Right to rescue” cases in Michigan, Texas, and Ontario, Canada

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:
The nationally publicized prosecution and sentencing of Dogs
Deserve Better founder Tammy Grimes was only the most prominent of
several similar cases attracting significant regional attention at
almost the same time.
“Two dogs chained for five frigid weeks outside an abandoned
home in Eaton County [Michigan] are now in compassionate hands at the
Capital Area Humane Society,” reported John Schneider of the Lansing
State Journal on February 23, 2008. “After arguing with concerned
neighbors for more than a month that he had no legal right to
intervene, Eaton County Animal Control Director Larry Green seized
the dogs Friday morning and delivered them to the humane society.
“Green had been telling residents urging him to act on behalf
of the abandoned animals–and who, out of pity, had been giving
them food and water–that as long as they were being fed and watered,
Animal Control couldn’t use ‘neglect’ as grounds for intervention,”
Schneider recounted.

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