BOOKS: The Dogs of Bale, Ethiopia

May 1, 2001 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:
The dogs of Bale, Ethiopia
by Efrem Legesse, with Zegeye Kibret
Bale Mountains National Park, P.O. Box 107, Bale Goba, Ethiopia

Bale Mountains National Park in Ethiopia, where I now work,
is a majestic landscape of unique flora and animals, home of the
last viable population of highly endangered Ethiopian wolves.
I was born and raised, in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian
capital. It was not as big then. I lived in a wooded district. A
company made trophy mounts of wild animals and birds nearby. My
older friends hunted birds for sale to this company. I learned to do
the same.

Primates freed for World Week

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:

CAPE TOWN, NEW ORLEANS, AMSTERDAM, SAN ANTONIO, PORTLAND
(Ore.)–April 25 brought freedom for the luckiest four of 14 baboons
who were rescued from neglect in October 2000 at the Centre Africain
Primatologie Experimentale in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Seized under a warrant obtained by the Centre for Animal
Rehabilitation and Education, the four adult male baboons were
released into a private reserve in the Waterberg district of Northern
Province.

Testing common gases

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:

WASHINGTON D.C.–American Petroleum Institute chief
toxicologist Lorraine Twerdok doesn’t like to do animal testing, she
told ANIMAL PEOPLE on April 12. Twerdok said the Petroleum HPV
Testing Group headed by the American Petroleum Institute would do
animal testing to the extent required to satisfy concerns about
public health and safety, but stipulated that using animals was
never their first choice of methods if another approach could be used.

Editorial: Vaccination and Count Dracula

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:

Fast losing support in a city afflicted by corruption,
inflation, unemployment, fuel and food shortages, ethnic strife,
and no quick remedies, Bucharest mayor Traian Basescu on April 18
ordered “the killing of all dogs in city shelters,” e-mailed
activist Liviu Gaita to ANIMAL PEOPLE. Associated Press confirmed
the report.
In August 2000 Basescu made a similar show of force by
bulldozing street vendors’ kiosks. Students and labor unions got the
message. This time, however, Basescu sparked “street protests
attended by Parliament members and hundreds of citizens,” Gaita
said. “The President of the Republic and the Prime Minister asked
Basescu to switch to more humane methods. In response, Basescu
threatened on April 21 to use riot police to disband any further
protest. ‘A few sticks’ on the backs of the ‘the ladies from the
protection organizations’ would be quite appropriate, he said, as a
lesson on authority and public order.”

LETTERS [May 2001]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:

Letters

Tirana

I am writing again to publicize the plight of stray dogs in Tirana, Albania. The situation is reverting again to the conditions I described in the letter you published in November 1999. The Albanian public TV station has proudly informed the people of Tirana that “mass shooting of stray dogs has begun,” and has advised people to “please do not be afraid to try eating dog meat instead of beef, swine, or poultry, because the city of Tirana has taken all the necessary measures” to insure that it is safe for human consumption.

Letters

Animal care & rescue abroad

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:

The adamant opposition of bird advocacy organizations to neuter/return stalled feral cat sterilization projects this spring from the Street Cat Rescue Program of Saskatoon to the Bermuda Feline Assist-ance Bureau–with the result that far fewer cats were spayed approaching “kitten season” than could have been, causing more kittens to be born at large. The Saskatoon SPCA, as animal control contractor to the city of Saskatoon, proposed to fine Street Cat Rescue Program president Linda Gubbe about $200 U.S. for each cat found at large with identification markings. Why? Because the act of identifying the animal, according to the Saskatoon animal control bylaw, acknowledges ownership–and makes releasing the animal an act of abandonment.

Japan lacks humane shelters

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:

YOKOHAMA, Japan–Horri-fied to learn that hunters had begun visiting Enoshima Island, a popular recreational site off Yokohama, Japan, to shoot feral cats, Kamakura resident Toshiko Matsumoto in February and March raised enough money from other island visitors to spay 165 cats. The island has become a popular place to abandon unwanted cats because in most of Japan there are no shelters which offer animals either a reasonable chance of adoption or quality longterm care.

Explained Ark Animal Refuge Kansai founder Elizabeth Oliver, in a recent e-mail to ANIMAL PEOPLE, “There is no public office dealing with the protection or welfare of animals. Hokenshoes, as the offices of Public Health and Hygiene are called, run kanri centers, or pounds, for catching and exterminating stray animals. Although the kanri centers employ token veterinarians to sit in their offices, they in practice do not handle the animals, let alone treat the sick and injured or euthanize the suffering. The job of killing is subcontracted to outside companies that make money on the side selling animals to laboratories for experiments, or selling the meat and hides.

Botswana lions are ex-President Bush meat

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:
Botswana lions are ex-President Bush meat: Old George Bush lobbies for Safari Club; young Bush attacks ESA

GABORONE, Botswana; JOHANNESBURG, South Africa; HARARE, Zimbabwe; WASHINGTON D.C.–“You might call the lions of southern Africa potential Bush meat,” wrote Manchester Guardian correspondent Chris McGreal from Johannesburg on April 27. “Former U.S. President, George Bush, father of the current President, and his old Gulf War ally, General ‘Stormin’ Norman’ Schwarzkopf, are pleading with the government of Botswana to be allowed to revive their old alliance,” McGreal explained, “this time in pursuit of Africa’s endangered big cats. Bush is among the prominent members of Safari Club International who have asked Botswana to lift a ban slapped on the trophy hunting of lions in February. Bush’s former vice president, Dan Quayle, is also a signatory.”

Institutional cases

May 1, 2001 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:

Walla Walla, Washington county prosecutor Jim Nagle has “determined that criminal prosecution was not warranted” for alleged violations of humane slaughter and anti-cruelty laws at the Iowa Beef Packing plant in Wallula, the Washington State Department of Agriculture announced in mid-April, 11 months after receiving undercover video from the Humane Farming Association which showed cattle being skinned and dismembered while alive and conscious. The WSDA case summary said that Nagle “concluded there was insufficient admissible evidence to prove criminal corporate liability” because “the acts were not done by employees in the course of employment,” and “unedited video showed that employees took corrective action” when conscious animals were seen. Therefore, the WSDA continued, Nagle “could not conclude that the alleged activity would benefit IBP or that there was evidence of intent to benefit…Neither was there any basis for imputing the alleged acts to” IBP, though the improper stunning allegedly resulted from trying to kill cattle at too fast a pace. Nagle was said to be “particularly concerned that the unedited video demonstrated HFA’s intent to promote a particular agenda through the edited tape, such that all evidence developed by HFA was discredited.” The ruling appeared to contradict the precepts of criminal law that crimes cannot be retracted and that physical evidence is not necessarily negated by observer bias.

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