Author: Dylan Forest

Wyeth wins mistrial to end second Premarin case

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Norman Ackerman on
October 11, 2006 declared a mistrial in the first phase of a
scheduled two-part trial in which Jennie Nelson, 66, of Dayton,
Ohio, contended that she developed breast cancer in 2001 as result
of taking the Wyeth hormone drug Prempro for about five years.
PremPro is a combination of progestin and Premarin, a brand
name derived from “pregnant mare’s urine.” Producing Premarin
requires keeping mares pregnant, breeding a constant surplus of
foals, many of whom are sold to slaughter. Under boycott by animal
advocacy groups worldwide since shortly after ANIMAL PEOPLE published
investigative findings by the Canadian Farm Animal Concerns Trust in
April 1993, Premarin was still the top-selling prescription drug
worldwide in 2001, but sales plummeted after the Women’s Health
Initiative study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in
July 2002 determined that the Premarin component of PremPro appears
to be associated with increased risk from heart attacks, strokes,
and blood clots forming in the lungs.

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Who can, or will, enforce new Quebec humane legislation?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
MONTREAL–Once a six-year-old pianist at
the Toronto Conservatory of Music, 30-year
broadcast journalist and 20-year CFCF news anchor
Mutsumi Takahashi on her web site says she plays
piano to her dogs to help maintain her on-air
poise.
Serene as she seems, Takahashi makes no
secret of caring about animals, and of being
frustrated at perennially ineffective Quebec
humane law enforcement
On the evenings of August 27-29, 2006
Takahashi introduced Puppies for Profit, a
three-part series by CFCF reporter Annie DeMelt
that exposed the recent rapid growth of the
Quebec puppy mill industry.
“Why is Quebec the puppy mill capital of
Canada?” Takahashi asked Anima Quebec executive
Joan Clark, Montreal SPCA executive director
Pierre Barnoti, and Pet Industry Joint Advisory
Council/Canada executive director Louis McCann.
Their discussion flushed into the open a
running dispute over just who can, or should,
enforce Quebec humane laws–but brought it no
closer to resolution.
Founded in 1869, the Montreal SPCA
historically claimed the mandate but lacked the
budget, the inspectors, and the prosecutors to
reach often or far beyond the Montreal suburbs.
Regional humane societies that tried to
bring prosecutions in the mid-1990s complained of
Montreal SPCA interference, as Barnoti
economically strengthened the organization and
sought to consolidate authority.

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European Parliament moves against dog & cat fur, seal pelts

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The European Parliament on October 13, 2006 approved a ban
on importing and selling dog and cat fur in member nations, as part
of the first European Community plan for animal protection.
Earlier, on September 6, 368 European Parliament
legislators signed a declaration asking the European Community to ban
imports of seal products from Canada. Not formally endorsed by the
European Union assembly, the non-binding request sought to reinforce
legislation already in effect in Belgium, Italy, and the
Netherlands, and adopted in October by Germany. Norway, the
largest European buyer of Canadian seal pelts, is not a European
Community member.

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Mink farm raids

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Midnight raiders on October 14, 2006 released 11,000 mink
from a farm in Oza does Rios, Spain, and released as many as 5,000
from two other sites in Galicia. Galician
farmers produced about 80% of the 400,000 mink who are pelted each
year in Spain, the Barcelona-based animal rights group Fundacion
Altarriba told Associated Press.
About 6,500 mink got past the farm perimeter fences,
Galician authorities said. About 4,550 were recovered within 48
hours, 70% of them dead.
Having fast metabolisms and no hunting experience, ranched
mink rarely thrive after release, but mink who survived in Britain
are blamed for hunting water voles to the verge of extinction.
Efforts to extirpate the mink have not succeeded, but reintroducing
otters is working, reported Laura Benesi of the Oxford University
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit in September 2006.
Bonesi and team released 17 otters into the upper Thames.
“When the otters arrived there were 60 or more mink in this small
area,” Bonesi told Sunday Times environment editor Jonathan Leake.
“The mink did not disappear completely, but within a few months they
were doing much less damage.”

Three states are sued over trapping methods

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Animal Protection Institute, of Sacramento, California,
on September 20 and October 12, 2006 sued the Minnesota Department
of Natural Resources and Maine Department of Inland Fisheries &
Wildlife for permitting trapping by methods that jeopardize
endangered and threatened species.
In Minnesota, API director of wildlife programs Camilla Fox
told Associated Press, “Between 2002 and 2005, at least 13 Canada
lynx were incidentally trapped in snares and traps set for other
species. In Maine, records show that a minimum of five Canada lynx
were caught in traps in 2005 alone. At least two of the lynx were
kittens.”

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Nutria bounty increased

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries has upped
the bounty on nutria to $5.00 a tail, trying to keep trappers active
despite fur prices lagging far behind the rising cost of fueling
boats and off-road vehicles. Paid for by the federal Coastal
Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act, the bounty
program “has removed more than 1.1 million nutria,” reported
Associated Press.

Greyhounds killed at British sanctuary?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
MANCHESTER–The Leigh Ani-mal Sanctuary
in Greater Manchester, Britain, on September
17, 2006 began refusing to accept greyhounds,
the same day that Daniel Foggo of the London
Sunday Times recounted that “a reporter posing as
a trainer who wanted two healthy dogs killed” met
“an employee called David [who] accepted £70 in
cash to kill two young greyhounds,” no questions
asked.
“Three greyhound trainers have given
interviews, on condition of anonymity, stating
that the sanctuary has been the killing ground of
choice for the greyhound racing industry in the
northwest for many years,” wrote Foggo.

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Wanted: 192 missing greyhounds

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
TUCSON–Greyhound Protection League president Susan Netboy
has offered $10,000 for information leading to the discovery of the
fate of 192 ex-racing greyhounds who vanished in 2005 and early 2006
after they were taken from the Tucson Greyhound Park by Richard
Favreau, 37, of Calhan, Colorado.
“All we can do is pray that someone will respond so that
these dogs don’t become casualties of the greyhound racing industry
like the other 15,000 greyhounds who disappear each year,” Netboy
told Anslee Willett of the Chicago Tribune. “They just disappear.
In our opinion, they are destroyed.”

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