A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
BARCELONA–– Among the more unusual and useful offerings at the 2013 International Companion Animal Welfare Conference was a session entitled “Ethical decision making,” presented by Dorothy E.F. McKeegan, British Veterinary Association Animal Welfare Foundation senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
BARCELONA, BUCHAREST–– “Stray Dog Ecology: Back to the Basics” is for Dutch humane volunteer Nathalie Klinge not just the title of a talk, but a summary of her way of life. Addressing the 2013 International Companion Animal Welfare Conference, the ninth Klinge has attended but the first at which she has spoken, Klinge brought to her presentation the experience of 13 years on the road in Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, observing the lives and sometimes the deaths of street dogs from an actuarial perspective. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000, at age 30, Klinge resolved to spend the rest of whatever time she had left to live working for animals. Klinge left her career in the life insurance industry to become a driver for eastern European animal charities, helping to relay dogs to western Europe for adoption. At first Klinge just drove, looked, and listened. But eventually Klinge realized she was recognizing realities that seemed to elude the credentialed experts, government officials, and directors of animal charities who kept failing to resolve street dog issues. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
By Merritt Clifton
Two days after Dutch animal advocate and rescuer Nathalie Klinge addressed the ICAWC conference in Barcelona about her observations of dog population control in Romania, I tested her findings by doing 1,500 kilometers of dog-censusing in Romania myself. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
Nathalie Klinge offered the 2013 International Companion Animal Welfare Conference a model of street dog population management based on real-life experience in Romania that paralleled a model I have used for about 15 years to project the probable outcomes of neuter/return programs for either street dogs or feral cats in many different communities and parts of the world. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
GEORGETOWN––A nationally heralded attempt to make Delaware a no-kill state ended ignominiously on November 14, 2013 with the closure of the Safe Haven no-kill shelter in Georgetown, the euthanasia of 19 pit bulls who flunked behavioral screening, and the evacuation of 22 more dogs, mostly pit bulls and pit mixes, by the American SPCA. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
NORFOLK––Documents received by PETA in February 2013 through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the FBI investigated the organization in 1997-1998 for allegedly plotting to release anthrax at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
ORLANDO––SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc on November 13, 2013 reported partial recovery from a year-long attendance slide, plus record third quarter revenue of $538.4 million. The financial data cooled speculation that the July 2013 theater release of the award-winning documentary Blackfish might have marked the beginning of the end of profitable marine mammal exhibition. Blackfish had won increasing critical acclaim since debuting at the Sundance film festival in January 2013. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
TAIJI, Japan––Notorious as scene of the dolphin massacres shown by the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, Taiji “has begun researching a plan to section off part of a cove and turn it into a place where people can swim in the water and kayak alongside small whales and dolphins,” Agence France-Presse reported in October 2013, confirming rumors circulating since March 2012. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
The Korean Animal Welfare Association in July 2013 celebrated the successful release of the bottlenose dolphins Sampal and Chunsam, shown en route to release, and Jedol, who were the surviviors among 11 dolphins who were illegally captured in 2009 for the Jeju Pacific Land marine park. Jeju District Court Judge Kim Kyeong-seon in April 2012 fined Jeju Pacific Land $9,000, issued suspended jail sentences to the company president and one employee, and ordered that the five dolphins from the illegal capture who were still alive and still at the marine park be released. Five dolphins had died. Jedol had reportedly been traded to the Seoul Grand Park Zoo for two sea lions. Read more