VictoryLand greyhound track closes

June 11, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

SHORTER, Alabama–Greyhound racing ended at VictoryLand in
Shorter, Alabama on May 30, 2011, 27 years after the track opened
in September 1984.
Then called the Macon County Greyhound Park, the track at
peak employed 2,000 people. Only 200 people worked there when
spokesperson Bill Cunningham announced the end of daily racing on May
10, 2011. Five more racing days were held to fulfill contractual
agreements. The track was reportedly six months in arrears on
property taxes. “The only viable way to keep the live greyhound
racing was to have electronic bingo,” Cunningham said.

Gojira is now Brigitte Bardot

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
LA CIOTAT, France–The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
fast interceptor and scout vessel that pursued Japanese whalers in
the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in 2010-2011 as the Gojira,
Japanese for “Godzilla,” was on May 25, 2011 renamed in honor of
French actress-turned-activist Brigitte Bardot. The owners of the
Gojira and Godzilla film monster trademarks had objected to further
Sea Shepherd use of the names. Launched as the Cable & Wireless
Adventurer, the vessel now called the Brigitte Bardot in 1998 set a
record for powered craft by circling the world in 74 days.

Activists & Organizations

Pennsylvania SPCA closes two more shelters, renegotiates Philadelphia contract

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
PHILADELPHIA–Downsizing for the fourth time in four years,
the Pennsylvania SPCA on April 30, 2011 closed its Wellsville
shelter and transferred the Montrose shelter in Susquehanna County to
a new organization which will operate the shelter as True Friend’s
Animal Welfare Center.
The Pennsylvania SPCA in January 2008 closed its former
shelter in Clarion County, and closed its Monroe County shelter in
Stroudsburg at the end of January 2009. Managing six branch shelters
at the close of 2007, the Pennsylvania SPCA now has only two branch
shelters, in Danville and Centre Hall.

Dogs Deserve better lands ex-Vick property

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
Tipton, Pennsylvania–The anti-dog chaining organization Dogs
Deserve Better on May 27, 2011 closed a deal to buy the site of
football player and convicted dogfighter Michael Vick’s Bad Newz
Kennels, on Moonlight Road in rural Surrey County, Virginia.
The property is to become the new Dogs Deserve Better head
office and rescue center, called the Good Newz Rehab Center for
Chained & Penned Dogs.

Verdicts split in recent cases with implications for animal shelter liability

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
SACRAMENTO, SALT LAKE CITY, ST. LOUIS–Three court cases
with implications for animal shelters and adoption agencies that hold
and rehome dogs who subsequently attack a person recently split with
one verdict for the defendant, two for the plaintiffs.
In the one case actually involving an animal shelter, the
Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District on April 26, 2011 upheld
a previous circuit court ruling that the Humane Society of Missouri
should not share liability with adopter Linda D. Rich of St. Louis
for a dog attack that occurred more than a year after Rich adopted
the dog.

Texas fatal dog attacks bring proposed life sentence & new breed-specific injury data

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

AUSTIN, SAN ANTONIO–The Texas House of Representatives on
May 4, 2011 approved by a vote of 123 to 7 a bill which could send
the keepers of a dog who kills a child or a senior citizen to prison
for life.
Assigned to the Texas Senate criminal justice committee on
May 5, the bill appeared to be unlikely to advance before the May 30
close of the Texas legislative session, but appeared to have public
as well as political favor, and–if stalled–is likely to be
reintroduced in the next session.

BOOKS: Suryia & Roscoe

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
Suryia & Roscoe:
The true story of an unlikely friendship
by Bhagavan “Doc” Antle & Thea Feldman
Henry Holt & Company, Inc. (175 Fifth Ave., New York,
NY 10010), 2011. 32 pages, hardcover, illustrated. $16.99.
The color picture on page one of Suryia & Roscoe sold me on
this children’s book before I read a single word of the text. The
image of a smiling orangutan, Suryia, with hairy arms draped around
a dog named Roscoe, is priceless. According to the story, narrated
by South Carolina wildlife exhibitor Bhagavan Antle and Thea Feldman,
an author of numerous children’s picture books, Roscoe wandered into
Antle’s premises where Suryia was riding Bubbles the elephant.

Reviews

Avoiding leopard trouble

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
NEW DELHI–Relocating leopards increases human/leopard
conflict, as the leopards try to find their way back to their home
ranges through unfamiliar habitat, while other leopards move into
the temporarily vacated territory, emphasize new Indian national
guidelines for preventing leopard trouble. Introduced in April 2011
by minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh, the
guidelines seek to reduce the rising death toll from avoidable
incidents among leopards, humans, and livestock.

Some Zimbabweans begin to question the wisdom of promoting trophy hunting

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
HARARE–Seven years after USAid quit subsidizing the Communal
Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources program to
promote trophy hunting in Zimbabwe, some Zimbabwean sources are
cautiously beginning to recognize that CAMPFIRE was a boondoggle
which chiefly benefited insiders of President Robert Mugabe 31-year
authoritarian regime–as long pointed out by ANIMAL PEOPLE.
“Reports from the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force and the
World Wildlife Fund clearly indicate that the country’s wildlife
population continues to dwindle drastically,” wrote Chipo Masara for
the Zimbabwe Standard on May 1, 2011.

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