Author: Dylan Forest

Illegal horse track busted

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

 

ALBUQUERQUE––New Mexico State Police, Valencia County
Sheriff’s detectives and the Department of Homeland Security on
November 20, 2013 raided an unlicensed horse racing track near Las
Lunas that had allegedly held twice-a-month racing cards attracting
hundreds of bettors for years.
“The facility includes starting gates and a well-maintained
track surface,” reported Crystal Gutierrez of KRQE-TV in Albuquerque.
“They were set up for photo finishes at the end,” said New
Mexico State Police Major Ryan Suggs.
The raid came a year after KQRE reporter Larry Barker included
the Las Lunas track in an exposé of illegal activities associated with
horse racing throughout New Mexico. “Barker’s undercover
investigation showed it wasn’t just the horses that drew many to the
events; it was also the money. The investigation revealed the jockeys
also scored big, the races were fixed, and horses were often drugged,”
recounted Gutierrez.

Protests close beagle lab

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

 

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil–– The Instituto Royal in Sao Roque,
Sao Paulo state on November 6, 2013 announced that it would go out of
business.
Protesters on October 18, 2012 stormed the lab, seizing 178
beagles who had been used in pharmaceutical testing. About 500
activists allegedly including members of the Black Block anarchist group
fought police outside the lab the following day, torching a police car
and two cars belonging to a local TV station.
The Instituto Royal operating permit had been suspended by the
Sao Roque city government pending completion of an investigation of
alleged animal abuse.

Scientist who identified global warming threat to polar bears wins settlement

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

 

WASHINGTON D.C.––Charles M. Monnett, 65, whose observation
of four polar bear carcasses floating in the Beaufort Sea in September
2004 drew global attention to the effects of global warming, on
November 15, 2013 accepted a six-point retirement agreement negotiated
by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in settlement of a whistleblower
complaint against the U.S. Department of Interior.
Monnett, then a senior scientist for the Bureau of Ocean &
Energy Management, discovered the polar bear remains while doing an
aerial search for endangered bowhead whales with colleague Jeffrey
Gleason, who later left the BOEM. The bears were 125 to 185 miles from
the nearest sea ice. Only 12 polar bears had been observed swimming in
the preceding 25 years of aerial marine mammal surveys, and none had
ever been found dead at sea.

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Longmont Humane Society convicted of possession of a dangerous dog

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

 

LONGMONT, Colorado––Longmont Humane Society executive
director Liz Smokowski on December 12, 2013 pleaded guilty on behalf of
the society to misdemeanor possession of a dangerous dog––a pit bull
with prior aggressive history––and paid $900.52 in restitution for
injuries the dog caused in a June 2013 attack after escaping from a
foster home.
The pit bull “attacked a leashed Weimaraner,” reported
Pierrette J. Shields of the Longmont Times-Call. “The man walking the
Weimaraner intervened, and the pit bull reportedly turned and bit him on
the hand. Animal control officers ticketed the humane society after
researching the dog’s history and finding that he had a documented
record of aggression with other dogs and people in Mesa County.”
The pit bull was surrendered to the Longmont Humane Society by
judicial order.

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Bullfighting fails to draw crowds in Mississippi––and Spain & France

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

 

JACKSON, Mississippi––“A small crowd” attended a
heavily promoted December 7, 2013 attempt to introduce Portuguese-style
bullfighting to the U.S., understated Roslyn Anderson of Mississippi
News Now.
` “Based on the amount of cars at the event, we think there
were probably only 100 attendees,” said Shelby Parsons, one of 10
protesters who stood vigil outside the 2,500-seat Kirk Fordice Equine
Center. More than 8,000 people signed an online petition posted by
Kimberly Spiegel of Oxford, Mississippi in opposition to the so-called
“bloodless bullfight.”

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Merchandising isn’t big money-maker

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

How much are merchandising programs worth to major animal
charities?
Surprisingly little, ANIMAL PEOPLE learned from checking recent
IRS Form 990 filings and annual reports of seven of the U.S. and British
animal charities with the most visible merchandising programs during the
2013 holiday season. Of the six whose investment in merchandising
could be ascertained, only the Royal SPCA merchandising campaign netted
more than it cost to operate. The rates of return on investment for the
American SPCA and the Best Friends Animal Society would probably not
have covered the cost of hiring staff to fill orders, had they been
for-profit businesses, unable to use volunteers.

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World’s oldest tiger dies at Popcorn Park Zoo in New Jersey

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:

 

FORKED RIVER, New Jersey––Bengali, 24, believed to be the
oldest tiger on record, died on January 18, 2013 after undergoing
surgery to remove a tumor from his pancreas. Bengali had spent the last
decade of his life as the emblematic animal at the Popcorn Park Zoo, a
sanctuary for wildlife and large domestic species operated since 1977 by
the Associated Humane Societies of New Jersey.
Reportedly bred and raised to be shot at a Texas hunting ranch,
Bengali was said to have escaped that fate when in 1990 the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service cracked down on “canned hunts” featuring species
listed as endangered or threatened by the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species.

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Suzanne Saueressig, DVM, worked 55 years for the Humane Society of Missouri

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:

Suzanne Saueressig, DVM, 89, died on February 8, 2013 in
Richmond Heights, Missouri. Born in Nuremberg, Germany, Saueressig
“grew up with cats and dogs,” remembered St. Louis Post-Dispatch
reporter Michael Sorkin. “One day a cat went missing. Suzanne,
then 10, suspected the family’s maid, who hated cats. Suzanne
caught a collection of mice and put them in the maid’s drawer. After
that, the cat returned. Saueressig’s great-grandfather founded a
construction business and behind it built the family home. Suzanne, the
eldest of four siblings, was educated at a Catholic cloister. She
rebelled at having to wear a school uniform. At 17, she attended one
session of a typing school. That evening, the Allies bombed the school.

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