Most wanted poachers busted in India & Nepal

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

DELHI, KASARA–The two most notorious living poachers on the
Asian subcontinent were arrested on June 30 and July 20,
respectively, as result of separate investigations.
The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation apprehended Sansar
Chand, 47, after tracing him to his Delhi home by identifying his
newspaper reading habits: a native of Rajasthan, Chand read
Rajasthani papers in a neighborhood where few others did.
First arrested for poaching and wildlife trafficking at age
16, in 1974, when he was found in possession of 676 animal pelts
including those of tigers and leopards, Chand worked with at least
five close relatives. He was reportedly convicted 15 times without
serving any significant sentence, even after he was caught with
28,486 contraband pelts in 1988. Fifty-seven cases are pending
against him in nine Indian states, wrote London Independent Delhi
correspondent Justin Huggler.
Apprehending Chand became an Indian government priority after
he was linked to the annihilation of the tiger population at Sariska
National Park. The loss of tigers, confirmed in November 2004 after
months of suspicion, destroyed the tourism appeal of one of India’s
former top visitor attractions.

Transforming Phuket animal conditions post-tsunami

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

PHUKET, Thailand–Urbanization is hitting Phuket much harder
than the tsunami of December 26, 2004.
What that may mean for animals on the 400-square-mile resort
island near the extreme south of Thailand is anyone’s guess.
The Soi Dog Foundation and Gibbon Rehabilitation Project,
among Phuket’s most prominent pro-animal organizations, are
guardedly optimistic.
More development may mean more homes for dogs and cats, and
more donors to support animal charities.
Paradoxically, more development could even mean more
protected wildlife habitat. Tourism employs one Phuket adult in
four. The August-to-November bird migration season drives tourism
from midsummer until the winter holidays. That makes safeguarding
bird habitat, at least, a high priority for planners.
Yet more people might mean more traffic and less tolerance of
street dogs, already considered a nuisance by much of the Buddhist
majority, and mostly abhored by Muslims.

Letters [July/Aug 2005]

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

Kindest fate

The April 2005 edition of Animal People included the
subheading “Dog Meat Farms Spread Rabies.”
Perhaps the kindest fate for dogs who are raised for
consumption is to be killed to prevent the spread of disease, rather
than being put through the horrors of the dog meat markets.
Some years ago, I watched a local TV program regarding cats
bred and sold for human consumption, probably in southern China.
What shook and haunted me more than anything else was the picture of
cats being skinned alive at the market and being carried away alive
for the pot.
As a Christian I believe that animals have souls, and I
believe that regardless of personal beliefs, we will each be
accountable to God for the cruelty we perpetrate upon His glorious
creation.
–Dave Thorpe
Cape Town, South Africa
<davidbthorpe@yahoo.com>

Letters

Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust takes over in Sri Lanka

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

Colombo, Sri Lanka–The Tsunami People/Animal Welfare
Coalition on July 26, 2005 wrapped up emergency relief operations
begun after the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, rolling all
remaining assets over into the Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust.
Coalition and Trust cofounder Robert Blumberg arranged that
ANIMAL PEOPLE officially sponsored the last of a six-month series of
vaccination missions by Pets V Care mobile clinics into refugee camps
and tsunami-stricken coastal villages.
“ANIMAL People recognized almost immediately after the
tsunami that something of major consequence had taken place regarding
animal welfare,” Blumberg wrote in the last Coalition update.
“Within days after the tsunami hit, Animal People sent financial
assistance to start the Tsunami People/Animal Welfare Coalition.
This allowed us to get on the road, assessing, treating and
vaccinating. So far the Coalition itself has vaccinated more than
14,000 animals in the tsunami zones,” Blumberg said. “Animal People
sponsored our first trips and now our last vaccinating trip, and is
now supporting the Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust as it
sterilizes and vaccinates in the tsunami zones and refugee camps.”

Pound electrocutions stopped in Manila

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

MANILA–Seeking a cheaper, faster way to kill dogs than
either lethal injection or use of an antiquated carbon monoxide
chamber, Manila Veterinary Inspection Board members Manuel Socorro
and Condenio Panogan reportedly electrocuted approximately 100 dogs
from mid-May 2005 to mid-July before word of their work leaked out.
“Socorro “said they were given a one-year permit by the
Bureau of Animal Industry to conduct a study of electrocution as a
tool to put down dogs,” wrote Evelyn Macairan of The Philippine Star.
“This involved conducting a series of tests wherein the voltage would
be set starting at 100 volts and be slowly raised to 500 volts.”
Four days after Philippine Animal Welfare Society volunteer
and veterinary student Emil Reban witnessed some of the
electrocutions and described what he saw, the Bureau of Animal
Industries’ Committee on Animal Welfare revoked the permit
“immediately and indefinitely upon hearing PAWS president Nita
Lichauco’s petition to cancel it,” e-mailed PAWS member Ramona
Eliza T. Consunji on July 11.

82% of caged broilers are burned by urine

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

LONDON–Examining the carcasses of 384 broiler hens raised
according to the British Farm Standard and offered for sale on
supermarket shelves, an investigation commissioned by the Royal SPCA
and directed by Cambridge University professor Donald Broom reported
in July 2005 that 82% had been burned on their legs or bodies by
prolonged contact with ammonia from feces.
“Lack of space and fast-growing bodies that can become too
heavy to be supported by their legs increases the likelihood of birds
receiving painful burns, as the birds spend more time in contact
with floor litter,” said RSPCA scientific officer Marc Cooper.
Among 25 organically raised free range chickens whose
carcasses were inspected, 42% had burns, the researchers found.
The RSPCA findings were released five weeks after the BBC
Programme Com-plaints Unit upheld a British Poultry Council complaint
that the BBC “Food Police Programme” showed bias against the poultry
industry in a 2004 expose of ammonia burns.
“The use of surreptitiously filmed material and reference to
Compassion In World Farming campaign efforts did not of themselves
give rise to bias” the Complaints Unit said, “but, together with
other features of the item, they implied criticisms of the
poultry-rearing industry which there should have been an opportunity
to address.

Obituaries

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

Ed Piukowsky, 52, died of a heart attack on July 9, 2005,
at home in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The son of a police dog
handler, Piukowsky and his wife Bonnie Lanzen-dorfer Piukowsky
founded the Jollyman Animal Sanctuary in 2002. Blairsville Dispatch
reporter Jeff Himler in April 2005 listed the residents as “16 dogs,
50 cats, six chickens, three goats, a dozen each of geese and
ducks, two peafowl, a rabbit and a parrot.” Recalled Dogs Deserve
Better anti-chaining group founder Tammy Grimes, “Ed was very
supportive of me and my work, and had me speak at their fundraisers
each of the past three years. The first time was my first time ever
speaking, and I was so nervous I thought I’d die. I spoke for a
whole 30 seconds, but it was enough to get me past the point of
trying. He told me each year, ‘See, I knew you were going to go
far, didn’t I tell you that?’ He was so proud of me and the
progress we have made.”

Obituaries

Compromise & the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

Editorially favoring hunting, trapping,
fishing, ranching, logging, rodeo, and animal
use in biomedical research, the Spokane
Spokesman-Review has probably never in recent
decades been mistaken for an exponent of animal
rights.
Yet on September 15, 1952 the
Spokesman-Review became perhaps the first and
only daily newspaper in the U.S. to editorially
endorse “A Charter of Rights for Animals,”
drafted by the World Federation for the
Protection of Animals.
The oldest of the three organizations
whose mergers eventually produced today’s World
Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA),
the Dutch-based World Federation then represented
“humane societies in 25 countries,” the
Spokesman-Review editors noted.
“Most civilized countries already have
laws to cover most of the protection for animals
that the federation asks,” the Spokesman-Review
continued. “Beating animals, forcing them to do
work beyond their strength, transporting them in
a manner to cause pain or without adequate food,
all are punishable now in the U.S., for example.”

PETA staffers face 62 felony cruelty counts in North Carolina

July 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

WINTON, N.C.–The scheduled first court appearance of PETA
staffers Adria Joy Hinkle and Andrew Benjamin Cook on multiple
cruelty charges was on July 19, 2005 postponed until August 16.
Hinkle, 27, and Cook, 24, are charged with a combined 62
counts of felony cruelty to animals and 16 counts of illegal disposal
of animal remains.
Police sources have indicated that other persons associated
with PETA may be charged as result of ongoing investigation.
The court date was delayed, reported Darren Freeman of the
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, because the prosecution was “waiting for
lab results on chemicals found in a van the two suspects were using
when they were arrested, and the results to determine the cause of
death of one of the animals.”
Ahoskie, North Carolina police detective Jeremy Roberts told Freeman
that the van was registered to PETA.
Roberts announced the next day that the tests had confirmed
that the chemicals were ketamine and pentobarbital. Ketamine is
commonly used to immobilize animals before surgical procedures or
lethal injection. Pentobarbital is the standard drug used for lethal
injection. Both drugs are regulated by the federal Drug Enforcement
Agency, and in North Carolina may only be purchased and used by a
licensed veterinarian.

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