India tries, but cannot find a humane way to kill poultry to stamp out H5N1

May 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

JALGAON, India–Veterinarian Abdul Kalim Khan died of
jaundice, not the H5N1 avian influenza, Maharashtra state animal
husbandry commissioner Bijay Kumar told media on April 24, 2006.
Khan fell ill soon after helping to kill nearly 200,000 chickens in
the Jalgaon area to contain an H5N1 outbreak, Kumar explained, but
his illness had a different origin.
Through May 2, 2006, India had not yet had any of the 113
reported human H5N1 fatalities worldwide, but at least seven poultry
farmers committed suicide after losing their flocks and/or customers.
Indian poultry sales were reportedly down 40% to 60%, after
averaging 17% growth in recent years. India has the world’s sixth
largest poultry industry, with about 500 million birds on farms at
any given time.

Hong Kong seeks to end live markets & pig farming

May 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

Hong Kong–Citing H5N1 prevention as an urgent pretext, the
Hong Kong Health, Welfare, & Food Bureau in February 2006 asked the
Legislative Council to ban live poultry sales by 2009, a goal the
bureau has pursued since 1997.
Under a permit buy-back plan introduced in 2004, 272 of 814
live chicken vendors and 30 of 200 Hong Kong chicken growers have
gone out of business, the bureau said.
The Hong Kong government is also trying to buy out and close
all 265 local pig farms, which raise 330,000 pigs per year,
producing 520 metric tons of waste per day. Pigs have in the past
been an intermediary host for avian flus that spread to humans.
However, the Legislative Council panel on Food Safety and
Environmental hygiene on April 11 rejected the Health, Welfare, and
Food Bureau’s plan to require all poultry sold in Hong Kong to be
slaughtered at a central plant to be built in the New Territories,
the semi-rural district between the mainland and the cities of
Kowloon and Hong Kong. The plan was also voted down by the North
District Council–because incoming poultry might bring in H5N1.

Risk of cats giving H5N1 to humans is small, says Euro Centre for Disease Prevention & Control

May 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

ROTTERDAM, STOCKHOLM, LONDON– “Cats could fuel bird flu
pandemic,” headlined the April 5 edition of The Times of London,
sparking similar headlines worldwide–but the risk is small,
responded the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in
Stockholm, Sweden, after reviewing the evidence.
“A distinction needs to be made,” reminded the European
Centre, “between species which can occasionally be infected by a
particular influenza, but who rarely transmit it,” such as cats,
“and those species in which it seems that the viruses are better
adapted and transmitted,” such as birds.
Cats were first known to be vulnerable to H5N1, the European
Centre response continued, in December 2003, “when a few leopards
and tigers died in a zoo in Thailand after being fed infected
poultry.” Later came “a much larger H5N1 outbreak in zoo tigers,
also in Thailand, who had been fed chicken carcasses. Over 140
tigers died or were euthanised. There was convincing evidence of
tiger to tiger transmission.

“Sylvester & Tweety” go global

May 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

Robben Island Museum, responsible for managing Robben
Island, South Africa, is again trying to eradicate feral cats.
Sharpshooters killed cats on the island in 1999 and 2005, when 58
cats were shot, but as many as 70 cats remain, environmental
coordinator Shaun Davis recently told Cape Argus reporter John Yeld.
The shooting was suspended for a time to allow animal advocacy groups
including Beauty Without Cruelty/South Africa to trap the surviving
cats and take them to mainland sanctuaries. BWC/ South Africa
spokesperson Beryl Scott told Yeld that the initial effort was “not
that successful,” partly through lack of official cooperation, but
on April 24 Davis announced that the number of traps set for cats
would be expanded from 10 to 50, and that no cats would be shot
before June. The cats are blamed by University of Cape Town avian
demographer Les Underhill for killing all but three of the fledgling
population of about 60 endangered African black oystercatchers during
the past breeding season. Allan Perrins, chief executive officer of
Cape of Good Hope branch of the South African National SPCA,
suggested that the actual culprits might have been some of the feral
rabbits on the island, who might have turned carnivorous and become
nest predators. Seals are also blamed by some observers. Seals have
been kept from re-establishing haulouts on Robben Island in recent
years to protect seabird colonies, but on April 21, 2006 “Both
Robben Island and the department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
agreed to allow the return of Cape fur seals,” e-mailed Seal
Alert/South Africa founder Francois Hugo. Robben Island, designated
a World Heritage site by the United Nations Environmental Program,
provides habitat to 132 bird species in all.

BOOKS: How Animals Talk And Other Pleasant Studies of Birds and Beasts

May 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

How Animals Talk And Other Pleasant Studies of Birds and Beasts
by William J. Long
Bear & Co. (1 Park Street, Rochester, VT
05767), 276 pages, paperback. $18.00.

William J. Long (1867-1952), was a
United Church of Christ minister who became one
of the best-known U.S. authors of nature books of
the early 20th century.
How Animals Talk followed earlier Long
hits including Ways of Woodfolk, Beasts of the
Field, Fowls of the Air, and Secrets of the
Woods. It appeared 12 years after Theodore
Roosevelt, then U.S. President, enduringly
identified Long as the most egregious of the
alleged “nature-fakers,” in remarks amplified by
Roosevelt’s hunting buddy Edward B. Clark, White
House correspondent for the Chicago Evening Post.
Naturalist John Burroughs had already
been attacking Long for propounding “sham natural
history” since 1903, with Roosevelt’s warm
endorsement, but it was Roosevelt’s invention of
the term “nature-faker,” that demolished Long’s
stature well beyond his own lifetime, even
though Long far outlived all of his critics.

Lebanon chimp case exposes traffic

May 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

BEIRUT–“A recent botched attempt to rescue three endangered
chimpanzees and a baboon who were smuggled into Lebanon has exposed a
lucrative market for exotic animals, flourishing due to lax
enforcement of laws on animal importation and ownership,” opened
Meris Lutz in the April 19, 2006 edition of the Daily Star of
Lebanon.
Lutz affirmed in much greater detail the allegations of
would-be chimp rescuer Jason Mier, published in the April 2006
ANIMAL PEOPLE article “A planned chimpanzee rescue is thwarted in
Lebanon.”
Mier’s claims were also affirmed by Animals Beirut.
“Any chimpanzee held here is being held illegally,” Lebanese
agriculture ministry representative Fadallah Monayer told Lutz. Yet
the three chimps were openly exhibited.

Stock shows keep kids away from drugs?

May 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

DENVER–Eleven years after scandals over use of the banned
growth-enhancing synthetic steroid clenbuterol embarrassed livestock
shows from coast to coast, the issue is back bigtime.
Eighteen of the top 35 exhibitors at the January 2006
National Western Stock Show Junior Market Lamb competition in Denver
were disqualified, National Western Stock Show spokesperson Kati
Anderson announced on April 5, after Colorado State University at
Fort Collins pathologists “concluded that the lambs had been injected
with a substance that caused inflammation and swelling of tissue,
making the animals appear more muscular,” said Denver Post staff
writer Jim Kirksey. The symptoms describe the most readily evident
effects of clenbuterol.
The 18 exhibitors “will get neither prize money nor the
proceeds from the sale of their lambs,” and may be banned from
future National Western competitions, Kirksey reported. They may
also face charges of cruelty to animals, tampering with livestock,
attempted theft, and conspiracy, deputy district attorney Diane
Balkin told Kirksey.

Spain may introduce law to protect great apes

May 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

MADRID–The Socialist Workers Party of Spain, leading the
ruling parliamentary coalition since 2004, on April 24 announced
that it intends to introduce legislation to protect great apes.
Responding to news stories that linked the proposal to the
Great Ape Project goal of extending human rights to great apes,
Pamplona archbishop Fernando Sebastian reportedly called it
“ridiculous,” while Amnesty International representative Delia Padron
told the Indo-Asian News Service that she was “Surprised” that apes’
rights might be protected when some basic human rights still are not.
“We are not talking about granting human rights to great
apes, but about protecting their habitat, avoiding ill-treatment
and preventing their use in circuses,” clarified environment minister
Cristina Narbona.

Spring 2006 brings notable legislation in seven states

May 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius on April 17, 2006 signed
into law the state’s first felony cruelty penalty. Persons convicted
of felony cruelty must serve at least 30 days in jail, pay a fine of
from $500 to $5,000, must undergo a psychological evaluation, and
must complete an anger management course before being released. The
law also requires persons convicted a second time of misdemeanor
neglect of animals to spend at least five days in jail.
Maine Governor John Baldacci on March 31, 2006 signed the
first state law specifically giving judges the authority to include
pets in a protective order against domestic violence. “Baldacci
called it ‘unconscionable’ that 76% of victims who seek safety at
domestic violence shelters report that their abusers either harmed or
threatened their pets as a tool to control and intimidate them,”
reported Sharon Kiley Mack of the Bangor Daily News. Anne Jordan of
the Maine Animal Welfare Advisory Council cited data published by the
California-based Latham Foundation showing that 87% of Wisconsin
domestic violence victims reported that animal abuse occurred in
their presence; 70% of animal abusers convicted in Massachusetts had
previous records for violent crimes; and animal abuse occurred in
88% of the families involved in New Jersey child abuse investigations.

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