Guest column: A close look at the “bully movement”

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
Guest column

A close look at the “bully movement”
by Phyllis M. Daugherty, director, Animal Issues Movement
ANIMALISSU@aol.com
The November/December 2007 ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial “Adding
consideration to compassionate acts” was heartwrenching in its
truth. It is so hard for kind, caring humans to ignore or forget
the eyes of a hungry or suffering animal. But our need to “save” the
animal must be tempered with realistic consideration for the animal,
rather than be done to boost our own egos. This is especially true
when our personal resources or future access will be limited. Thanks
for your diplomatic handling of a sensitive topic.

Indian Supreme Court flipflops on bullfights

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

NEW DELHI–As many as 400 villages in the
Madurai region of Tamil Nadu held traditional
mass participation bullfights called jallikattu
during the Pongal harvest festival on January 17,
2008, after a three-judge panel of the Supreme
Court of India on January 15 reversed an order
halting jallikattu issued by a two-judge panel of
the Supreme Court just four days earlier.
The original order kept in effect a ban
on jallikattu rendered by the Supreme Court in
July 2007, reversing a verdict by the Madras
High Court that allowed it. The Supreme Court is
to hear an appeal of the July 2007 verdict filed
by the government of Tamil Nadu later in 2008.
Jallikattu was allowed this year under
condition, summarized the Deccan Herald, that
“the authorities shall take all precaution that
the animals are not tortured. There would be no
cruelty on the animals. No liquor, no injury to
any of the bulls.”

Beijing bans selling songbirds

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

BEIJING–Trafficking in song thrushes and
six other bird species often kept as caged pets
is now banned throughout China, effective since
January 1, 2008.
Birds already in private possession may
remain with those who have them, but may not be
sold or traded.
The seven prohibited bird species, also
including parakeets, larks, and mynahs, were
reportedly the first additions since 1989 to the
Chinese list of protected wildlife.

Egyptian humane movement strives to grow as quickly as the nation

January 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
CAIRO, LUXOR–Percentage-wise, the Egyptian humane movement
may for the first time be growing faster than the Egyptian
populations of street dogs and feral cats. The numbers of
organizations, shelters, mobile clinics, animal hospitals,
volunteers, and local donors are all increasing at an unprecedented
pace.
The Brooke Hospital for Equines, operating in Cairo since
1934, now serves more than 200,000 horses and donkeys each
year–more than it did in all of the first 60 years that it existed.
The Brooke, though the oldest continuously operating animal
welfare society in Egypt, was scarcely the first in Egypt. Eight
Egyptian humane societies were represented at the first
International Humane Congress, held in Washington D.C. in 1910.

Most recent Baghdad pet market bombing is solved, says admiral

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
BAGHDAD–U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Gregory Smith on November 24,
2007 told reporters that four members of an Iranian-backed Shiite
“special groups cell” had confessed to bombing the al-Ghazl pet
market in central Baghdad the preceding day.
The bombing, the fourth attack on the al-Ghazl pet market in
two years, killed at least 15 people and wounded 56, along with
killing and injuring countless birds, fish, and other animals.
The four suspects were captured overnight by U.S. and Iraqi
troops, Smith said. They were linked to the bombing by “subsequent
confessions, forensics, and other intelligence,” Smith explained.
Reported CNN, “Smith said the attackers wanted people to
believe that the bomb, packed with ball-bearings to maximize
casualties, was the work of al-Qaida in Iraq so that residents would
turn to Shiite militias for protection.”

Nowhere in Europe for older elephants

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
The successful relocation of numerous U.S. zoo elephants to
the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California and the
Elephant Sanctuary at Hohenwald, Tennessee have repeatedly given
hope to European activists that elephants might be relocated from
many facilities that are much smaller, older, and bleaker than any
but the worst in the U.S.–but reality is that land is so scarce and
costly in most of Europe that there are no European sanctuaries for
elephants, nor for any other species needing much space.
Sanctuaries for former dancing bears operate in Bulgaria,
Romania, and Greece, and one sanctuary for great apes exists in
Spain. Otherwise, animal welfare organizations that accept animals
who are retired from zoos, circuses, and other captive venues
usually have to look abroad to find sanctuary care–like the Austrian
organization Vier Pfoten, soon to open a sanctuary called Lionsrock
in South Africa. It will chiefly house African lions.

More heat on zoos to end elephant exhibits after Maggie leaves Alaska

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
SAN ANDREAS, Calif.–The long-awaited relocation of the lone
Alaska Zoo elephant from Anchorage to the Performing Animal Welfare
Society sanctuary near San Andreas, California was completed on
November 1, 2007 without complications.
Maggie, 25, had been alone at the Alaska Zoo since the
December 1997 death of her companion, Annabelle–with whom Maggie
reputedly did not get along.
Annabelle, 33, died from complications of a chronic foot
ailment common to elephants who spend most of their lives standing on
hard surfaces. A similar fate was widely predicted for Maggie, who
arrived at the Alaska Zoo from Kruger National Park in South Africa
in 1983. Her family had been shot in a cull.
The Alaskan climate obliged Maggie to spend most of her time
indoors. In California, “By mid-morning, Maggie was swinging her
trunk around her new barn, checking out the unfamiliar sights and
sounds,” wrote Megan Holland of the Anchorage Daily News. “By
mid-afternoon, she was sunbathing, eating green grass, and chasing
birds. On the sanctuary’s webcam, viewers watched other African
elephants meander up to a fence that separated them from Maggie. By
late afternoon, Maggie was walking up close to them, even raising
her trunk over the fence, seemingly to touch them.”
Retired television game show host Bob Barker donated $750,000
to fund the relocation–$400,000 for immediate expenses, the rest
for longterm care.

History & PetSmart Charities adoption data shows the value of doing holiday adoptions

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

RANCHO SANTE FE, Calif.– Helen Woodward Animal Center
president Mike Arms has been telling everyone who would listen for
more than 40 years that the winter holiday season should be the peak
season for shelter adoptions.
Arms demonstrated the potential for boosting adoptions during
the winter holidays during 20 years as shelter manager for the North
Shore Animal League, in Port Washington, New York, and then took
his campaign global by founding the Home 4 the Holidays program at
the Helen Woodward Center in 2000.
“I have always thought that the idea we shouldn’t do
adoptions during the holiday season was a plot by the puppy mill
industry to protect their profits,” Arms asserts.

Concern spreads about U.S. Navy sonar harm to dolphins

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
SAN FRANCISCO, TEHRAN–Ruling on behalf of the Natural
Resources Defense Council, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals on November 13, 2007 allowed the U.S. Navy to
finish a training exercise off the coast of California that was
already underway and was to conclude on November 22, but ordered the
Navy to reduce the harm done to whales by sonar anti-submarine
detection equipment before beginning a new exercise near the Channel
Islands in January 2008.
Eight other planned Navy exercises may also be delayed by the
ruling, reported Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Three
anti-submarine exercises had already been held,” Egelko wrote,
“when U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ordered a halt on
August 7, saying the Navy’s protective measures were ‘woefully
ineffectual and inadequate.’ She said the underwater sound waves
would harm nearly 30 species of marine mammals, including five
species of whales. Overruling Cooper on August 31, an appeals court
panel said she had failed to consider the need for military
preparedness.” But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed
the earlier panel.

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