Bear-baying in S.C.

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:

COLUMBIA, S.C.–Bear-baying, legal in
the U.S. only in South Carolina, exploded into
national visibility on August 23, 2010 through
the near-simultaneous publication of an exposé by
Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard and the
release of undercover video by the Humane Society
of the U.S.
Descended from medieval bear-baiting,
bear-baying consists of releasing hounds to rush
a caged or tethered bear. The dogs, who are
purportedly being trained to hunt bears, are
called off when the bear rises on hind legs,
which would permit a hunter to shoot the bear.

Salmonella egg recalls began with DeCoster

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:
More than half a billion eggs laid between April and August
2010 were recalled in mid-August from stores in 14 states due to
salmonella enteritidis outbreaks that afflicted more than 2,000
people. Wright County Eggs, of Galt, Iowa, recalled 380 million
eggs. Another Iowa producer, Hillandale Farms, recalled more than
170 million eggs several days later.
Salmonella typically infects laying hens via rodent droppings
contaminating feed. Not immediately clear was whether the Wright
County and Hillandale outbreaks began from a common source.
Wright County Eggs owner Austin “Jack” DeCoster “earlier this
year pleaded guilty to 10 counts of animal cruelty over his company’s
treatment of chickens,” recalled Emily Friedman of ABC News. “In
June, DeCoster was ordered to pay more than $100,000 in fines and
restitution,” as result of an undercover investigation by Mercy For
Animals.

American Humane Association deal with egg producer may undercut California standards

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:

SACRAMENTO–Humane Society of the U.S. factory farming
campaign senior director Paul Shapiro rejoiced on July 7, 2010 when
California Governor Arnold Schwarz-enegger signed AB 1437, to
require that all eggs sold in California be produced under conditions
meeting the welfare standards for laying hens kept in California that
were established by the passage of Proposition Two in November 2008.
Shapiro called AB 1437 “a bill that will require all whole
eggs sold in California by 2015 to come from hens who can stand up,
lie down, turn around, and fully extend their limbs. In other
words: cage-free.”
Shapiro was scarcely alone in his understanding.
Editorialized The New York Times, “Since California does not produce
all the eggs it eats, this new law will have a wider effect on the
industry; every producer who hopes to sell eggs in the state must
meet its regulations. There is no justification, economic or
otherwise,” The New York Times added. “Industrial confinement is
cruel and senseless,” the editorialists wrote, “and will turn out
to be, we hope, a relatively short-lived anomaly in modern farming.”

Catalan bans bullfighting Lawmakers reject cultural defense

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:

BARCELONA–Voting 68-55 to ban
bullfighting after January 1, 2012, the Catalan
parliament on July 28, 2010 resoundingly and
deliberately rejected defenses of bullfighting as
central to Catalonian culture.
“Let us create a more humane, more
responsible society. This could be our
contribution to the next generation,” urged
Catalan separatist party leader Joan Puigcercos
in a speech to the assembly members just before
the vote.
The bullfighting ban took the form of a
motion removing from the Catalan animal
protection law an exemption for bullfighting and
similar “cultural” exhibitions.

Defenders of Wildlife stops paying ranchers for livestock lost to wolves

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:
WASHINGTON D.C.–Defenders of Wildlife on August 20, 2010
announced that it will end paying compensation for verified livestock
losses to wolves in most states on September 10.
The 23-year-old Wolf Compensation Trust managed by Defenders
is widely credited with opening the way to wolf reintroduction in the
Rocky Mountains. Defenders has paid $1.4 million since 1987 to
ranchers in six states, for the deaths of 1,301 cattle, 2,431
sheep, and 108 other animals. “Our goal is to shift economic
responsibility for wolf recovery away from the individual rancher,”
said the Wolf Compensation Trust mission statement, “and toward the
millions of people who want to see wolf populations restored. When
ranchers alone are forced to bear the cost of wolf recovery, it
creates animosity and ill will toward the wolf,” which can “result
in illegal killing.”

Rodeos try cultural defense, denial, & erasing cruelty law

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:

CALGARY, CHEYENNE, BRAZILIA–Exempted from prosecution
for 52 animal deaths in 24 years, including the deaths of six horses
in 2010, Calgary Stampede promoters defend rodeo as culture.
Not prosecuted yet, despite repeated attempts by Showing
Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK), Cheyenne Frontier Days promoters
contend that animal injuries repeatedly videotaped and aired tens of
thousands of times on YouTube never happened.
Brazilian rodeo promoters just keep trying to repeal all
legal protection of domesticated animals from cruelty.
The two-week Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo ended in August
without documented fatalities, unlike in 2009 when SHARK founder
Steve Hindi videotaped at close range the fatal injuries suffered by
a horse named Strawberry Fudge during the bucking competition.

Editorial: How expanding animal agriculture swamped Pakistan

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:

Is the world close to reaching finite ecological limits on
the production capacity of animal agriculture?
Flooding inundating more than a fifth of Pakistan in recent
weeks may demonstrate that the limits have already been exceeded,
doing catastrophic harm to more than 20 million displaced people and
30 million livestock, plus untold millions of dogs, cats, and
wildlife.
Critics of industrial agriculture and diets centered on
animal products have been predicting such an impending crisis for
more than 40 years. Among the most influential were Paul Ehrlich in
The Population Bomb (1968), Frances Moore Lappe in Diet for A Small
Planet (1971), and E.F. Schumacher in Small Is Beautiful (1973).
Their insights and dire prophecies helped to build the environmental
movement–but, focused on the collision course of human population
growth and food security, Ehrlich, Moore Lappe, and Schumacher each
hugely underestimated the human capacities for invention,
adaptation, and denial.

Letters

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:

Helping in China

Your April 2010 editorial “How to introduce neuter/return &
make it work” is really informative and useful. I have learnt a lot
from it. Therefore I had it translated into Chinese and have sent it
out to all the Chinese animal groups through the Alliance for Animals
in China, which is nurtured and supported by ACTAsia. Your article
was also distributed to our veterinary practical training program on
companion animal welfare and neutering techniques at the end of July
2010.
This is our second year of operating the vet training
program, to help more vets do better and more humane operations in
supporting the neuter/return projects for cats in Shenzhen and
Beijing. This year the Beijing Husbandry & Veterinary Station, under
the Agriculture Bureau of Beijing, was a joint organiser with us.
Besides the vet training, we also ran a session for animal
groups and neuter/return caretakers. I distributed your article to
them.

Letters

Showdown expected in Ohio over farm standards evolves into a deal

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:
COLUMBUS–Instead of shaking hands and
coming out fighting on the November 2010 Ohio
state ballot, representatives of the Ohioans for
Humane Farms coalition and the Ohio Farm Bureau
Federation on June 30, 2010 shook hands with
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland over a truce that
leaves the proposed ballot issues to be arbited
by the newly formed Ohio Livestock Care Standards
Board.
That the industry-controlled Ohio
Livestock Care Standards Board rather than voters
should control farm animal conditions was a goal
sought by agribusiness for more than two years.

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