Month: November 2009

KaZulu-Natal bull sacrifice continues, but Bali sea turtle sacrifice is prevented

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

 

JOHANNESBURG, DENPASAR–Opponents of animal sacrifice failed
to halt ritual bull-killing at the annual First Fruits Festival in
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, but thwarted an attempt to revive sea
turtle sacrifice in Bali.
Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Nic van der Reyden on
December 4, 2009 rejected the request of Animal Rights Africa for
either an injunction against the bull-killing or authorization to
witness and videotape it. Van der Reyden accepted the testimony of
Zulu professor Jabulani Maphalala that the ARA complaint was based on
inaccurate second-hand information, which ARA members could not
personally confirm because only Zulus are allowed to see the ceremony.

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BOOKS: Search for the Golden Moon Bear

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

Search for the Golden Moon Bear

by Sy Montgomery
Chelsea Green Publishing (85 N. Main St., Suite 120, White River
Jct., Vermont 05001), 2002, 2009.
336 pages, paperback. $19.95.
No bear like the golden moon bear is known to science, says
Sy Montgomery–but science, so far, says the golden moon bear is
just a rare color morph of the Asiatic black bear, also known as the
moon bear for a crescent-shaped patch of light-colored chest fur.
Hoping that the golden moon bear might be a new species or a
subspecies, Montgomery and Northwestern University professor of
evolutionary biology Gary J. Galbreath in 1999 trekked through much
of Southeast Asia seeking material evidence. They found none, yet
Montgomery’s 2002 book Search for the Golden Moon Bear became a
cryptozoological classic. Rarely mentioned during the 40 years that
the U.S. had troops and aircraft in Southeast Asia, the golden moon
bear has become one of the best-known undocumented animals that
anyone still seriously contends might once have existed.

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BOOKS: Walking with the Great Apes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

Walking with the Great Apes
by Sy Montgomery
Chelsea Green Publishing (85 N. Main St., Suite 120,
White River Jct., Vermont 05001), 1991, 2009
264 pages, paperback. $17.95.

Jane Goodall, asserts Walking with the Great Apes author Sy
Montgomery, is the most easily recognizable living scientist in the
western world, primarily from her 50 years of researching and
advocating for chimpanzees.
Dian Fossey, who began her work at about the same time but
reached global prominence sooner, was murdered in 1985. Though her
killer has never been prosecuted, popular belief is that she was
killed in retaliation for her efforts to protect mountain gorillas
from poachers in Rwanda.

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Monkey research moving abroad to escape stricter standards & activism

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

 

STILLWATER–Oklahoma State University
president Burns Hargis personally vetoed anthrax
experiments on baboons planned by the university
veterinary school and funded by the National
Institutes of Health, revealed Susan Simpson of
The Oklahoman on November 30, 2009
“This research was not in the best
interest of the university. Testing lethal
pathogens on primates would be a new area for
OSU, outside our current research programs,”
OSU spokesperson Gary Shutt told Simpson.

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Toronto Humane Society raided, execs arrested, by Ontario SPCA

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:
TORONTO–Nearly 30 years of turmoil over
control of the Toronto Humane Society reignited
on November 26, 2009 when Ontario SPCA
investigators backed by Toronto police arrived at
the THS shelter with search warrants and led THS
president Tim Trow, veterinarian Steve Sheridan,
general manager Gary McCracken, and senior staff
members Romeo Bernadino and Andy Bechtel out of
the building in handcuffs.

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U.K., Ireland may stiffen dog regs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

 

LONDON–Stricter regulation of dog
breeding may be imminent in the United Kingdom
and Ireland, after an exponential increase in
dangerous dog incidents. London deputy mayor
Kit Malthouse has asked that all “bull breeds” be
banned, to curb the proliferation of “canine
weapons that terrorise the streets of Peckham,
Toxteth and Moss Side.”
The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 banned “pit
bull terriers,” but exempted Staffordshire
terriers, and imposed on police a cumbersome
procedure for distinguishing illegal pit bulls
from legal Staffordshires. Thus the ban has never
been vigorously enforced.

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Viet pol asks South Korea to help stop bear bile trade

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

SEOUL–Vietnamese National Assembly member Nguyen Dinh Xuan
on October 28, 2009 confirmed to Moon Gwang-lip of the South Korean
newspaper Joong Ang Daily that he has asked the South Korean
government to cooperate with Viet efforts to halt bear bile farming.
“Nyuyen Dinh Xuan said that Korean visitors are involved in
illegal bear bile sales in Vietnam,” South Korean environment
ministry senior deputy director Kim Won-tae told Gwang-lip. “He
requested that we instruct Koreans to refrain from these illegal acts
when they travel to Vietnam.”

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Quebec to regulate dog breeders

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

 

QUEBEC–Quebec Agriculture Minister
Claude Béchard pledged recently to CBC News that
the provincial government will act upon all five
recommendations issued on October 7, 2009 by a
Task Force on Companion Animal Welfare appointed
in February 2009 to investigate the Quebec puppy
industry.
The task force was empaneled a month
after the Montreal SPCA impounded 367 dogs in
three raids on alleged puppy mills.
Chaired by Geoff Kelley, Member of the
National Assembly from Jacques-Cartier, the task
force recommended that 15 new inspectors should
be appointed to enforce humane laws, quadrupling
the present inspection force, at cost of about
$500,000; that $1 million should be invested in
improving animal shelters; that new regulations
should more explicitly define proper care of
animals; that fines for animal abuse and neglect
should be increased; and that the task force
should continue working.

Greyhound racing comes to end in Wisconsin

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

 

MILWAUKEE–Greyhound racing will end in Wisconsin on December
31, 2009, 20 years after it started, with the closure of the
Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha.
“In 1989, state regulators with dollar signs in their eyes
approved five operating licenses for pari-mutuel greyhound racing,”
recounted Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Tracks
opened in Geneva Lakes, Kaukauna, Lake Delton, Hudson and Kenosha,
attracting 3.5 million visitors in 1991, the first year all five
tracks were open. But by 1994, four of the five tracks reported
losses. Costing $45 million to build, Dairyland was the last
survivor, but lost $17 million in the last seven years that it
operated. Attendance dropped 19% in 2009; wagering dropped 29%.

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