Author: Dylan Forest

Report from the National Symposium on Kenyan Wildlife

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Report from the National Symposium on Kenyan Wildlife
by Chris Mercer, www.cannedlion.com
In September 2006 I was invited by the Steering Committee of
the National Symposium on Kenyan Wildlife, appointed by the Kenyan
government, to attend the symposium and present the case against
hunting.
Hunting has been banned in Kenya since 1977, and dealing in
wildlife trophies since 1978.
Attended by about 160 people, the Symposium was held as an
indirect result of a campaign lavishly funded by Safari Club
International in 2004, which involved flying Kenyan
conservationists and officials to elite hunting farms in South Africa
and Zimbabwe in order to persuade the Kenyan government to resume
trophy hunting. No expense was spared. Industry experts regaled the
Kenyan representatives with statistics purporting to show how much
money Kenya could make out of trophy hunting, as opposed to
ecotourism.

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The wildlife program that might make Milwaukee famous

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
MILWAUKEE–The Wisconsin Humane Society handles 5,000 wild
animals of as many as 145 species per year, among total intake of
about 18,000 animals. Almost as much cage space houses recuperating
wild creatures as houses dogs and cats.
Present trends indicate that Wisconsin Humane will within
another few years receive more wild animals than either dogs or
cats–indicative of the success of local initiatives to reduce dog
and cat overpopulation.
Among major U.S. humane societies, only the Progressive
Animal Welfare Society, of Lynnwood, Washington, in the greater
Seattle area, appears to have as rapidly transitioned into
addressing the issues that will affect the most animals– and
people–in a post-pet overpopulation environment, in which
relatively few dogs and cats are either at large or killed for
reasons other than incurable illness, injury, or dangerous behavior.

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Battery cage opponents emboldened by success

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
WASHINGTON D.C., LONDON–Years used to
pass between Humane Society of the U.S.
announcements of progress on behalf of
battery-caged egg-laying hens. In mid-October
2006 two such announcements came just 24 hours
apart.
Nineteen years after HSUS upset consumers
and donors with a short-lived “breakfast of
cruelty” campaign against bacon and eggs, a
younger generation of consumers and donors is
responding enthusiastically to a similar message.
About 95% of total U.S. egg production
comes from battery caged hens, but that could
change fast.
Under comparable campaign pressure,
British caged egg producers have already lost 40%
of the market, the research firm Mintel reported
in August 2006 to the Department of the
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Demand for
cage-free eggs has increased 31% since 2002,
Mintel found.

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Seeking to save “surplus” elephants

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:

As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, Animal Rights Africa was
attempting to translocate 12 “problem” elephants from the vicinity of
Weenan, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, to the SanWild Wildlife Trust sanctuary
in Limpopo province.
Orphaned by culling in Kruger National Park, the elder
elephants in the herd were previously translocated in 1993 to the
former Thukela Biosphere Reserve. Created toward the end of the
apartheid regime in South Africa, the Thukela reserve was recently
dissolved and turned over to the Lindauk-huhle Trust, in settlement
of a land claim by the tribal people who were evicted from their
homes when the reserve was declared.

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Seeking to end sacrifice

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
KOLKATA, CAPE TOWN, LOS ANGELES–Challenging public animal
sacrifice at the Kailghat Temple in Kolkata since 2000,
Compassionate Crusaders Trust founder Debasis Chakrabarti won a
September 15, 2006 verdict from the Calcutta High Court that the
ritual killings may no longer be conducted in open public view.
The 200-year-old Kalighat temple, beside the Hoogly River,
is among the most visited sites of sacrifice to the blood goddess
Kali. Chakrabarti previously tried to persuade devotees that
donating blood to hospital blood drives would be as acceptable to the
goddess.
Anti-sacrifice demonstrations and the blood drives helped to
reduce the numbers of sacrifices, Chakrabarti told news media.
Moving sacrifice inside the temple walls, Chakrabarti hopes, will
reinforce the message that it is not acceptable in modern India.
But the message and reality are somewhat at odds. Karnataka,
Gujarat, Orissa, Himachal, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh states
prohibit animal sacrifice. Yet sacrifice is exempted from coverage
by the federal Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, in effect since
1960, and the Indian constitution guarantees freedom of religion.
The traditionally lesser educated castes who eat meat and
practice animal sacrifice have had a much higher birth rate in recent
decades than the traditionally better educated vegetarian castes.
Seventy years after the caste system was officially abolished, caste
lines have blurred to the point that lower caste origins are no
longer an obstacle to winning economic and political success, and in
some districts are even an advantage. Vegetarianism is still widely
professed, but the population balance in India has shifted in the
space of a generation from approximately half to less than a third
actually not eating meat.

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A field day over elephant polo

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
JAIPUR–Elephant polo, by most witness accounts, would seem
to be among the most unlikely of sports to generate controversy. It
is slow-moving, and not televised in bar rooms. Few people watch in
person. Fewer still participate, or could afford to, at a World
Elephant Polo Association-advertised price of $6,000 per team
tournament entry, covering elephant rental, equipment use,
officiating, and insurance.
Only the participants are likely to bet on the games.
An October 2005 “international” match in Jaipur, India,
between teams of three men from the Lahore Polo Club of Pakistan and
three women from the Amby Valley of Germany, ended abruptly when an
elephant stepped on the ball. None of the “world class” players had
ever before ridden elephants.

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India reaffirms support of Animal Birth Control program

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
NEW DELHI, ISTANBUL, BUCHAREST,
BELGRADE–The historic progress of compassionate
teachings about animals from east to west
appeared evident yet again in September 2006
rabies and street dog population control
developments.
India in September 2006 reaffirmed
neuter/return and vaccination as the official
national anti-rabies strategy.
Turkey was embarrassed by exposés of
inadequate supervision of a similar policy,
brought into effect by law in June 2005.
Several Romanian local governments,
including in the capital city of Bucharest,
appeared to be either ignoring or trying to roll
back animal control holding requirements, to
expedite killing.

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BOOKS: Cousin John: The Story of a Boy & a Small Smart Pig

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

Cousin John: The Story of a Boy
& a Small Smart Pig by Walter Paine
Bunker Hill Publishing (285 River Road,
Piermont, NH 03779), 2006. 95 pages,
paperback. $17.95.

Raised in Brookline, Massachusetts,
Walter Paine found the outdoors and nature an
endless source of interest. He was far happier
roaming the open acres he called “my magic
kingdom’” because of the many fascinating
creatures he found there, than he was playing
with school friends. He had difficulty relating
to other boys his age because he was far more
interested in picking up bugs and inspecting
anything that crawled or flew than in playing
conventional games.
Paine did once try hunting, shooting a
squirrel out of a tree with a BB gun. “As it lay
twitching pathetically at my feet, I felt a
sudden surge of shame and sorrow for taking an
innocent creature’s life,” he writes.

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Obituaries

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
Steve Irwin, 44, was killed when stabbed in the heart by a
stingray on September 4, 2006, while videotaping a series called
“Ocean’s Deadliest” at Batt Reef, north of Cairns. Irwin starred in
the Crococile Hunter television series, aired in Australia since
1992, later carried globally by the Discovery Channel. An outspoken
opponent of recreational hunting, Irwin led a successful campaign
against a government proposal to open trophy hunting for saltwater
crocodiles in the Australian Northern Territory. Irwin’s parents,
Bob and Lyn Irwin, founded the Australia Zoo, north of Brisbane,
in 1970. “In 1991, Irwin took over the zoo when his parents retired,
and began building a reputation as a showman during daily crocodile
feeding shows. He met and married Terri Raines, of Eugene, Oregon,
who came to the park as a tourist,” in 1992, recalled Brian Cassey
of Associated Press. “They invited a television crew to join them on
their camping honeymoon on Australia’s far northern tip. The
resulting show became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter.

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