Dogs and gamecocks take their revenge

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

For 40 years dogcatcher Manuel Pascual, 61, of Bulacan city
in Bulacan province, The Philippines, caught stray dogs and
reputedly sometimes stole freeroaming pets, selling them to
restaurants in Malolos, Marilao, Bocaue, and Baliuag, the
Philippine Inquirer reported on February 1, 2003. Eventually,
however, a dog caught Pascual, who died from rabies on January 26.
His was the second turnabout death in the Philippines in just
two weeks. On January 12 gamecock handler Elmer Mariano of Zamboanga
had just strapped spurs to the legs of a cock in preparation for a
fight when the cock wrested one leg free and fatally stabbed him in
the groin.
A similar incident occurred at Kampung Murni, Nabawan
district, Malay-sia, on January 29. According to The Star of
Malaysia, cockfighter Tungkaling Ratu had also just strapped the
spurs to a cock when the bird escaped, fatally slashing the thigh of
his 12-year-old son Henrysius, who had crowded close to the ring to
watch the fight.

Progress at the Kabul Zoo

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

KABUL, Afghanistan–“The bear Donatella’s nose is looking
much better,” Whipsnade Wild Animal Park senior curator Nick Lindsay
reported to Kabul Zoo relief effort coordinator David M. Jones on
December 20, 2002.
That is not the latest information ANIMAL PEOPLE has from the
Kabul Zoo by far, nor the most important in terms of the future of
Afghan animal welfare, but it answers the question most asked about
the war-torn zoo and the resident animals, who became familiar to TV
viewers worldwide during the military campaign that ousted the former
Taliban government of Afghanistan in December 2001, then dropped out
of sight after the fighting mostly ended and most of the visiting
news media returned to the U.S. and Europe.
Marjan the lion, who survived 20 years of nearby combat and
deprivation, died in January 2002, but Donatella, the Asiatic
brown bear with the pitifully inflamed and infected nose from
frequent torture by stick-wielding Taliban and militia visitors, now
has two smaller bears for company. All three bears have newly
re-excavated dens, into which they can retreat to avoid visitors,
and within which they may hibernate for part of the winter.

Middle East

Cockfighters spread Asian killer bird flu

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004:

BANGKOK, BEIJING–Cockfighters, cock
breeders, and public officials kow-towing to
them tried to pass the blame for spreading the
deadly H5N1 avian flu virus throughout Southeast
Asia to pigeons, sparrows, and even open-billed
storks.
Bad vaccines took some of the rap, too.
An attempt was even made, as the death
toll increased on factory farms, to attribute
the epidemic to free range poultry producers.
But as the H5N1 “red zones” expanded in
at least eight nations, the evidence pointed
ever more directly at commerce in gamecocks–and
at the efforts of cockfighters and cock breeders
to protect their birds from the culls and disease
outbreaks that had already killed more than 100
million chickens who were raised to lay eggs and
be eaten, as well as 22 people, most of them
children.
The pattern of the H5N1 outbreak
paralleled the spread of exotic Newcastle disease
through southern California and into Arizona
between November 2002 and May 2003.
Approximately 3.7 million laying hens were killed
to contain the Newcastle epidemic, but USDA
investigators believe it began among backyard
fighting bird flocks, advancing as gamecocks
were transported between fights. It apparently
invaded commercial layer flocks through
contaminated clothing worn by workers who
participated in cockfighting.

G.I. pets banned as “biosecurity risk”

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004:

BOSTON–Dogs and cats who help U.S. military personnel endure
the stress of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are the latest urgent
biosecurity risk to the United States, according to some
bureaucrats, who are now trying to keep the troops from bringing
their companions home.
Comparisons are in order. Published accounts indicate that
U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the past two
years have brought home fewer than 100 dogs and cats in total. None
are known to have carried any serious disease.
Just a handful of dogs and cats are believed to have been
imported from Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. None of them
carried any serious disease, either.
Illegal imports of wildlife and wildlife parts into U.S.,
worth about $1 billion in 1991, are now worth $3 billion, estimates
the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal and state agencies have yet
to even visibly slow the clandestine wildlife traffic, every item of
which is an uninspected, untested potential biosecurity hazard.

Cockfighting notes

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004:

Louisiana District Judge Charles Scott on February 3 ruled
that Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator may not enforce a local
ordinance to halt cockfights at the ArkLaTex Game Club near Ida and
the Piney Woods Game Club near Vivian because cockfighting is legal
in Louisiana, one of only two states that allow it, and a local
ordinance may not supersede state law.

Alleged cockfighter Efrain Aguilar and a land owner not named
by police were arrested on February 2 after a brawl at an illegal
cockpit in Tepeyac, Mexico. One man was beaten to death and six
were shot dead, including three men from one family and three
brothers from another.

Animal Obituaries

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

Rusty, 35, a 308-pound orangutan born at the Chaffee Zoo in
Fresno in 1967 and donated to the San Francisco Zoo in 1968 by the
late Carroll Soo Hoo, died on January 8. Rusty sired a daughter
named Violet, after Mrs. Carroll Soo-Hoo, with his former companion
Josephine. Rusty is survived and mourned by his companion of the
past several years, Lipz, 20.

Shuzee, 53, the oldest chimpanzee in Japan, born at the
Hamburg Zoo in Germany but brought to the Tennoji Zoo in Osaka in
1951, died on January 6. The oldest chimp on record was Jimmy, 55,
of the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, New York, who died in 1985.

Charlie Brown, 11, a dog whose annual birthday parties
raised about $4,000 for the Animal Refuge Center of North Fort Myers,
Florida, was euthanized due to incurable cancer on January 6. He
was the pet of Danielle Weiner, owner of three local ice cream
stores.

Obituaries

“The company doing the ‘mail-outs’ gets most of the money”

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

“The company doing the ‘mail-outs’ gets most of the money”
–another ex-Eberle client

McLEAN, Va.-Fundraiser Bruce Eberle, representing many of
the animal protection charities with the highest ratios of
fundraising to program expense of all those whose IRS Form 990
filings ANIMAL PEOPLE monitors, has apparently both gained and lost
animal protection clients since ANIMAL PEOPLE last listed those known
to be associated with him.
Discontinuing a relationship with Eberle is the Dream Catcher
Farm, Sanctuary, of Rocky Mount, Virginia.
“We are no longer using any type of fundraising company,”
founder Catherine Sutphin wrote in an open letter to donors. “We
tried using one for a couple of ‘mail-outs,’ but not all the money
went to the sanctuary for the horses. We would net about 8%-10%…
The company doing the ‘mail-outs’ gets most of the money for mailing
list rentals, bank statements, designing, printing, [and] stuffing and mailing letters.

Highland Farm & Gibbon Sanctuary animals seized in Thai crackdown

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

Phop Phra, Tak, Thailand–Thai forestry officials trying to
halt illegal wildlife farming on November 27, 2002 raided the
Highland Farm & Gibbon Sanctuary, where on May 10 cofounder William
Emeral Deters, 69, housekeeper Ratchanee Sonkhamleu, 26, her
three-year-old daughter, Hmong worker Laeng sae Yang, and a Thai
worker known only as Subin were massacred during a botched robbery.
The forestry department on November 28 seized 126 sambar elk
from an alleged illegal antler farm in Kanchanburi province, and may
have been confused by the use of the word “farm” in the name of the
Highland Farm sanctuary.

Bonus for failure?

January 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

LOS ANGELES-The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association kept $7.3
million over the past five years that should have been given to the
city-operated zoo, Los Angeles city controller Laura Chick reported
in December 2002 after completing an audit. GLAZA is the independent
nonprofit entity that conducts fundraising activities for the zoo.
“Chick is seeking a legal opinion from the City Attorney as
to whether the city should try to recover the funds,” Los Angeles
Daily News staff writer Harrison Sheppard reported.
Even before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001
brought a nationwide collapse of nonprofit fundraising, GLAZA
“missed its fundraising goals twice since 1998 and a third time this
year,” Sheppard wrote.
The 2001-2002 fundraising goal was $7.5 million, but GLAZA
raised just $2.2 million, falling 71% short.
However, Chick revealed, ex-GLAZA president Don Youpa was
given a performance bonus of $20,000 on top of his $175,000 salary.

« 1 … 280 281 282 283 284 … 648 »