A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:
The American Humane Association was still operating
short-handed at the beginning of April 2010. Six-year president
Marie Belew Wheatley resigned on January 8, 2010, succeeded on an
interim basis by past board member George C. Casey. Four animal
protection division staff were laid off, including the shelter
services manager and training manager. All four positions remained
unfilled.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:
WASHINGTON D.C.–Japan is likely to be authorized to engage
in commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and
coastal waters, and Norway and Iceland are likely to be allowed to
continue commercial whaling, now with International Whaling
Commission approval, at the 2010 IWC meeting in Agadir, Morocco,
to be held June 21-25.
Japan has engaged in “research” whaling at commercial levels
throughout the global whaling moratorium declared by the IWC in 1982,
and has killed whales within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary ever
since the sanctuary was designated in 1994. The IWC has not
previously addressed Japanese coastal whaling, which mostly kills
species smaller than those regulated by the IWC. Norway has killed
minke whales in coastal waters since 1993. Iceland has wobbled
between authorizing and prohibiting whaling.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:
HOHENWALD, Tennessee–Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee
cofounder Carol Buckley, ousted from the organization on March 17,
2010, in early April announced the formation of a new nonprofit
umbrella for her work called International Elephant Aid.
“Over the next year I will travel internationally seeking
projects and problems, brainstorming with others involved in elephant
welfare and assisting those in need,” Buckley posted to her personal
web site. “My goal is to be a resource, bringing to the table all
that my work has taught me over these past 36 years. Providing
sanctuary is a worldwide need, and now I plan to make it a reality.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:
YONKERS, N.Y.–New York state attorney general Andrew Cuomo
on March 9, 2010 won a court order disbanding the Yonkers SPCA.
“The court ordered all Yonkers SPCA members to surrender
their weapons, badges, and identification cards, and to forward
any assets to a legitimate organization that prevents animal abuse,”
reported New York Daily News staff writer Helen Kennedy.
Founded in 1912, the Yonkers SPCA in 1955 transferred
operations and assets to the Westchester SPCA and disbanded. In
2007, however, former Greenburgh police officer Sean Collins, 43,
revived the organization–on paper and at a web site.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:
HARTFORD–Investigating the management of the Connecticut
Humane Society since January 2010, Connecticut attorney general
Richard Blumenthal on March 30, 2010 released preliminary findings
that were highly critical of how the society was managed during the
20-year tenure of former Connect-icut Humane president Richard
Johnston, who resigned on March 23.
But Blumenthal did not find evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
“The investigation has focused primarily on Connecticut
Humane’s alleged misuse of charitable funds, but touches on several
other issues,” Blumenthal’s office said in a prepared statement.
“The investigation continues, particularly with respect to the
handling of charitable funds and allegations of improper treatment of
animals,” the statement added.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:
GENEVA–Approximately 70% of the Swiss electorate on March 7,
2010 rejected a referendum proposal by Swiss Animal Protection to
require each canton to designate a public prosecutor to handle animal
cruelty cases–exactly opposite to the outcome that opinion polls
reportedly predicted.
The chances of the proposal passing appeared to be harmed when
the first designated prosecutor of animal cases, Antoine F.
Goetschel of Zurich, brought a cruelty charge against an angler who
took 10 minutes to land a pike in February 2010.
Swiss Animal Protection collected 140,000 signatures to place
the proposal on the ballot. Swiss Animal Protection director
Hansueli Huber told Associated Press writer Eliane Engeler that
cruelty case reports in Switzerland increased by 20% from 2007 to
2008.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:
WAFRA, Kuwait–Electrical fires on March 12 and March 24,
2010 razed most of the Animal Friends League of Kuwait shelter
complex. The facilities, featured in a presentation on shelter
design at the first Middle East Network for Animal Welfare conference
in 2007, were widely praised as the best in the Middle East.
The first fire destroyed the residential quarters and all
personal possessions of four live-in staff members. The second fire
killed eight dogs and 31 cats, and badly injured others, some of
whom died later.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:
SINGAPORE–The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society
on March 24, 2010 won an order from Singapore High Court Justice Kan
Ting Chiu that ANA Contractor Ltd. must pay damages for building most
of the ACRES wildlife rehabilitation center on a footing of woodchips
contaminated with toxic materials believed to be residue from
sandblasting.
ANA Ltd. subcontracted the job of filling and leveling the
site in Choa Chu Kang to another firm, Lok Sheng Enterprises.
“Shortly after the land was filled, the area was plagued by a foul
stench and brackish water started to seep through the surface,”
recounted K.C. Vijayan of Straits Times. Toxic leachate also
polluted the nearby Kranji Reservoir, and appeared to menace a
commercial fish farm.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:
DOHA, Qatar–Leading a last-minute rally to keep ivory
billiard balls out of fashion, the Kenyan delegation ran the table
on behalf of African elephants at the 15th triennial meeting of the
signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species, held in Doha, Qatar from March 13 to March 25, 2010.
Formed by the United Nations in 1973, CITES in 1989 banned
international traffic in elephant ivory, but CITES triennial
meetings have several times authorized exemptions allowing Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe to sell stockpiled ivory from
legally culled elephants, confiscated from smugglers, and collected
from elephants who died of natural causes. The exemptions–and
rumors that exemptions may be granted–have repeatedly been followed
by resurgent poaching throughout the wild elephant range in Africa
and Asia, as illegal traffickers respond to the opportunity to
market poached ivory under forged legal cover.