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Greenpeace, Sea Shepherds chase whalers

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

SOUTHERN OCEANS WHALE SANCTUARY–Neither Australia, New
Zealand, nor the United Nations defends the Antarctic whale
sanctuary declared in 1974 by the International Whaling Commission,
so Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society did it
themselves in December 2005 and January 2006, while the Japanese
whaling fleet sought to kill 935 minke whales and 10 fin whales
within the sanctuary limits –which Japan does not recognize.
Greenpeace pursued the whalers with two ships, the Esperanza
and the Arctic Sunrise, a helicopter, and combined crews of 60
people, including two photographers and two videographers. For
Greenpeace, wrote Geoff Strong of the Melbourne Age, “the most
important weapon is not the water spray designed to confuse the
harpoonists’ aim,” a new tactic used to reported great effect, “but
the new satellite Internet link that allows them to send fresh
broadcast-quality images.
“Sea Shepherd has a different method of disseminating the
message,” Strong continued. Aboard the Farley Mowat were “an
embedded contingent of independent media, including representatives
from Australia’s Seven network, National Geographic, and
documentary filmmakers from the U.S., France, Brazil, and Canada.
“The whalers have a public relations machine too,” Strong
noted. “For the first time they too have been releasing images.”

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So why doesn’t the Belgrade Zoo cage the war criminals & leave the elephant in India?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

BELGRADE, Serbia–Belgrade Zoo director Vukosav Bojovic
sought publicity in mid-January 2006 for his intended acquisition of
an elephant named Djanom from an unnamed zoo in Punjab, India.
The Belgrade Zoo got publicity on January 11, 2006 as scene
of Associated Press file photos showing former Croatian Serb
paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic kissing a brown bear named
Kninja and her two cubs. Vasiljkovic visited the zoo on Sept-ember
19, 2005 to visit Kninja, formerly mascot of his militia unit.
Croatia on January 11 issued an international warrant seeking
Vasiljkovic’s arrest for alleged 1991 war crimes including torturing,
killing, and expelling Croatian civilians as well as soldiers from
their homes, plus arranging the assassination of Egon Scotland, 43,
who documented some of Vasiljkovic’s actions for the Munich daily
newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Believed to be living in Perth, Australia, Vasiljkovic,
51, “had petty convictions against him and was involved in
Melbourne’s brothel industry in the 1970s,” reported Natasha Robinson
of The Australian.

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1958 slaughter act protects all species, say lawsuits

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

SAN FRANCISCO, WASHINGTON D.C.–Separate
federal lawsuits filed by the Humane Society of
the U.S. and the Humane Farming Association
contend that Congress meant the 1958 Humane
Methods of Slaughter Act to cover all species who
are routinely killed for human consumption.
Filed in San Francisco one month apart,
both lawsuits place jurisdiction for the first
ruling and first two steps of the inevitable
appellate phase before the Ninth U.S. Judicial
Circuit, a court which has historically been
more friendly toward animals than most other
jurisdictions.
USDA enforcement of the Humane Methods of
Slaughter Act, as well as being sporadic and
uneven, has always exempted poultry, rabbits,
and ranched “wildlife” species such as bison,
deer, and elk. In consequence, more than 95%
of all the animals slaughtered for meat in the
U.S. have had no legal protection from cruelty.

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Ghosts of 9/11 & December 7 haunt animal advocacy

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

Then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that
December 7, 1941 was “A date which shall forever live in infamy,”
because on that morning a Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor
brought the U.S. into World War II.
Unfortunately, as Americans belatedly responded to
totalitarian empire builders, who had already been invading their
neighbors since 1937, some Americans took advantage of the crisis to
behave much like the enemy, aided and augmented by some branches of
the U.S. government itself.
Nothing of note was done to overt Nazi sympathizers, including some
prominent industrialists, but U.S. citizens of Japanese descent were
interned in remote work camps, ostensibly for their own protection.
Conscientious objectors fared little better, including many
of the most prominent ethical vegetarians of their generation.
The excesses on the domestic front during World War II, and
more recent U.S. government abuse of dissidents during the so-called
McCarthy Era and the Vietnam War, resurfaced in public debate
shortly before December 7, 2005.

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BOOKS: Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual
by Donald S. Heintzelman
Friends of Animals (777 Post Road, Suite 205, Darien, CT 06820),
2005. 16 pages, illus. $4.00.

“Just as world-renowned ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson
opposed mute swan egg-addling, Friends of Animals opposes addling
Canada goose eggs,” the FoA Canada Goose Habitat Modification Manual
opens. “Addling–destroying eggs by shaking, piercing, or coating
the eggs with oil–is invasive and traumatic for these famously
protective nesters.”
Many humane organizations including GeesePeace reluctantly
promote addling as at least less invasive and traumatic than killing
geese. The moral issue involved is comparable to the question of
whether or not to spay a pregnant cat or dog, when the alternative
is that more homeless cats or dogs may be killed by animal control.
In New Jersey, for instance, with 4.3 non-migratory Canada
geese per square kilometer, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
recommends that as many as 57,000 geese should be killed during the
next 10 years, to try to achieve a 40% population reduction.
Intensive egg-addling is also part of the plan.

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PETA wins a round in lawsuit against Ringling Bros. spies

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

VIENNA, Virginia– Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge David
Stitt on December 7 sanctioned Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus
owner Kenneth Feld for failing to provide copies of documents to
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in compliance with the
process of discovery.
PETA sued Ringling and Feld Entertainment Inc. in 2001 for
allegedly funding numerous acts of infiltration and disruption,
beginning more than a decade earlier. The case is scheduled for
trial in February 2006.
Judge Stitt ordered Kenneth Feld to disclose his net worth
and recent tax returns to PETA and to surrender unredacted copies
of documents including a 30-page “Ringling Bros. Long Term Animal
Welfare Plan Draft #5.” Attorney Philip Hirschkop, representing
PETA, testified that a copy previously sent to PETA was mostly
blacked out.
Stitt also ordered Feld to provide copies of any other
documents produced by the Feld “Animal issues department.”
Recalled Associated Press writer Matthew Barakat, “In August
2005, Feld’s lawyers were ordered to pay more than $50,000 in fines
to PETA for contempt of court,” after similar incidents.

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FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA; Other Groups Tracked

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 20, 2005; A11

FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy
groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes,
the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new
FBI records that it said detail the extent of the activity.

The documents, disclosed as part of a lawsuit that challenges FBI
treatment of groups that planned demonstrations at last year’s political
conventions, show the bureau has opened a preliminary terrorism
investigation into People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the
well-known animal rights group based in Norfolk.

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Six months of struggle for Swiss anti-vivisection umbrella culminate in silent march

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

ST. GALLEN, Switzerland–Striving to regain stability after
operating under three presidents and undergoing a complete board
turnover since July 2005, the Swiss antivivisection society
Aktionsgemeinschaft Schweizer Tierversuchsgegner on December 17,
2005 led the silent march against animal experiments in St. Gallen
that has traditionally been the focal AGSTG activity.
The march was to be followed by the AGSTG annual membership meeting.
Formed as an intended collective voice for Swiss
antivivisection organizations, the AGSTG throughout the latter part
of 2005 posted the march and meeting schedule and otherwise asked web
site visitors to come back later.
The 2005 turmoil developed out of a financial crisis worsening for at
least five years. After experiencing investment portfolio losses of
1.5 million francs in 2001, and 1.75 million francs in 2002, the
AGSTG lost 1.74 million francs in just the first quarter of 2003,
according to financial statements obtained by ANIMAL PEOPLE.
In March 2003 the AGSTG hired a new chief executive,
Thorsten Tonjes, 34, on a half-time salary. Tonjes succeeded Peter
Beck, who is also president of Animal Life Germany and remained as
AGSTG vice president. Working from a home office, Tonjes more than
doubled AGSTG spending. This apparently stimulated AGSTG income,
but huge deficits continued.

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Marine Mammal Center gets new HQ

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

SAUSALITO, Calif.–The Marine Mammal Center on November 10
broke ground for a new $18 million head office and hospital, to open
in 2007 on the site of the aging original facilities.
Handling marine mammal strandings from Mendocino to San Luis
Obispo, the Marine Mammal Center has treated more than 11,000
California sea lions, sea otters, elephant seals, whales,
dolphins, and porpoises since opening at a former Nike missile base
within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, north of San
Francisco, in 1975.
“Retired founder Lloyd Smalley started out using bathtubs,
children’s wading pools, and chicken wire to create makeshift pens,”
recalled San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jim Doyle. “Volunteers
and staff have worked out of buildings composed of freight containers
that were welded together. The pens are too small for the animals
and not large enough for volunteers to maneuver safely around them.
The water filtration system constantly breaks down.”
“The center has been patched, added to and cobbled together
over 30 years,” Marine Mammal Center executive director B.J. Griffin
told Doyle. “We have learned what works and what doesn’t.”
The Marine Mammal Center also has facilities in Anchor Bay,
Mont-erey, and San Luis Obispo, plus a gift shop and interpretive
center in San Francisco. Together, the five sites host about
100,000 visitors per year.

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