Month: October 2011

Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, 71

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

 

Wangari Maathai,  71,  winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize,  died of cancer on September 24,  2011,  in Nairobi,  Kenya.

Maathai “won a scholarship to study biology at Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison,  Kansas,  receiving a degree in 1964,” wrote New York Times obituarist Jeffrey Gettleman.  “She earned a master of science degree from the University of Pitts-burgh.  She went on to obtain a doctorate in veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi,  becoming the first woman in East or Central Africa to hold such a degree,”   Gettleman continued. Read more

A new day dawns for cats and dogs in southern China

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

WUXI,  China–Tipped off at 10 p.m. on August 3,  2011 that truckers planned to illegally haul a load of cats to live markets in Guangzhou,  Guangdong at dawn,  disguised as a cargo of furniture, members of the Wuxi Animal Protection Association in Jiangsu province mobilized overnight to intercept the truck at a toll booth at about 5:00 a.m. on August 4. Read more

Horse whipping

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

LONDON--The British Horseracing Authority on September 27,  2011 ruled,  after a 10-month review of whipping rules,  that jockeys who whip a horse more than seven times in a flat race,  more than eight times in a jumping race,  or more than five times down the home stretch,  will after October 10,  2011 be suspended for at least five days and forfeit their riding fees plus prize money (if any).  The rule change came three weeks after University of Sydney professors Paul McGreevy,  David Evans,  Andrew McLean,  and Bidda Jones won the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for scientific research that contributes to animal protection by showing that race horses run faster when they are not whipped.

Horse hauling

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

WASHINGTON D.C.–-A new USDA rule amending enforcement of the Commercial Transport of Equines to Slaughter Act to cover horses at every stage of transport to slaughter took effect on October 7, 2011.  The old rule,  in effect since 2001,  prohibited hauling horses to slaughter on double-decked trailers,  and required that horses going to slaughter must receive food,  water,  and six hours of rest before each travel segment,  but horses “never move directly to slaughter,”  USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service farm animal welfare coordinator Gary Egrie told Heather Johnson of the North Platte Telegraph.  “Buyers move them to feedlots or other assembly points until they have a full truck,”  Egrie explained.  The rule now covers collecting horses to be slaughtered,  as well as the final haul.

Feral animals in Hawaii: pig hunting leads to dog abuse

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

Commentary by Kim Bartlett

 

Visiting Hawaii in early 2011,  I was driven around the island of Hawaii 1.5 times and the island of Oahu once,  but I never caught sight of one of the pigs who are said to be wreaking so much havoc.

Feral pigs are blamed for  nibbling crops,  including macadamia nut trees,  and also for eating from people’s garbage cans. On a bus tour of the island of Hawaii,  in a forested stretch of highway north of Hilo,  the driver called out that a pig was crossing the road ahead of us,  but the pig was gone before I saw him.  The driver seemed surprised to have spotted one. Read more

Shipping live calves from Hawaii is twice as big a trade as shipping pigs to Hawaii

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

HONOLULU–The Hawaiian live calf export trade may have become the world’s largest seagoing trade in calves almost without notice. Though most of the calves move through U.S. and Canadian west coast container ports almost under the windows of major animal advocacy groups,  there appears to have never been an undercover investigation of the trade,  never a protest,  never a lawsuit,  and never a mailing. Read more

Rick Perry appears to dance a little sidestep on wild burro shootings

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

 

AUSTIN–What Texas governor and candidate for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination Rick Perry knows about wild burros under fire from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department in Big Bend Ranch State Park is uncertain.

But some of Perry’s online backers have made what they know clear:  burros are emblematic of the Democratic Party,  the party of incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama,  and for that reason alone should be shot,  along with “Liberals in Big cities,”  as one poster to the Drudge Report web site put it. Read more

Farm Sanctuary annexes Animal Acres as second California location

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

ACTON,  California–The brief  but eventful history of Animal Acres came around full circle when Farm Sanctuary on September 15, 2011 announced that the southern California farm animal sanctuary would become a third Farm Sanctuary location.

 

Animal Acres,  located in Acton,  an hour from Los Angeles, “is presently home to rescued cows,  pigs,  sheep,  goats,  turkeys, geese,  and chickens,”  the Farm Sanctuary announcement continued. Read more

Sealing verdict

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

LUXEMBOURG–The European General Court on September 14,  2011 ruled that the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami,  representing Canadian indigenous sealers,  lacks standing to challenge the 2010 European Union ban on imports of seal products.  The Fur Institute of Canada is reportedly pursuing a similar case,  targeting the seal import ban enforcement regulations,  while the Canadian government is appealing the ban to the World Trade Organization.  Read more

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