Baghdad deploys gunmen to kill dogs

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:
BAGHDAD–More than 42,000 of the estimated 1.25 million
stray dogs roaming Baghdad were shot in the 60 days preceding June
11, 2010 according to the London Daily Mail foreign service.
The pace of dog-shooting had apparently increased sixfold
since Sam Dagher of the The New York Times reported in March 2010
that about 10,000 dogs had been shot since December. The shooting,
Dagher said, augmented “a program begun late last year in which the
national Ministry of Agriculture’s veterinary services teamed up with
the municipality, the police, and even the army in some of the
tougher neighborhoods. Mostly the dogs are killed with rotten raw
meat laced with strychnine.” Dagher described a poisoning crew
“being harassed a bit over whether dogs are really Iraq’s biggest
worry.”

Seabird rescues revive debate over whether oiling victims should be cleaned

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

GRAND ISLE–The disaster for pelicans predicted ever since
the Deepwater Horizon burned and began leaking oil on April 20, 2010
hit in full force when large amounts of oil at last reached the
coastal islands of Louisiana six weeks later.
Queen Bess Island, near Grand Isle, “is the worst-hit area
in the state in terms of wildlife,” state biologist Michael Carloss
told Allen Johnson of Agence France-Presse on June 5.
The Queen Bess Island pelican rookery is home to
thousands of birds, many of them oiled, but too lightly to permit
safe capture, Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries
ornithologist Michael Seymour told Mira Oberman of Agence
France-Presse.

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill meets the Gulf hypoxic dead zone

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:
NEW ORLEANS–Sixty-three days after the Deepwater Horizon oil
spill started on April 20, the documented toll on wildlife included
997 dead birds, only 265 of them oiled; 749 oiled live birds; 400
dead sea turtles, only eight of them oiled; 128 live sea turtles,
84 of them oiled; and 51 mammals, 47 of them dead, including 38
dolphins, but only four of them oiled.
“These are the consolidated numbers of collected fish and
wildlife reported to the Unified Area Command from the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration,
incident area commands, rehabilitation centers, and other
authorized sources operating within the Deepwater Horizon/BP incident
impact area,” prefaced the online report, updated daily at
<www.ibrrc.org/gulf-oil-spill-birds-treated-numbers-2010.html>.

Petco to pay $1.75 million to settle case alleging neglect

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:
SAN DIEGO–Petco Animal Supplies Inc. on June 2, 2010 agreed
to pay $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit alleging a persistent
pattern of animal neglect and overcharging customers, brought by the
city of San Diego and the counties of San Mateo, Marin, San Diego,
Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
Petco is a 1,000-store national chain, but all of the
plaintiffs are on California.

BP burns pledge to wildlife fund, too

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:
NEW YORK CITY–Less than 24 hours before British Petroleum
began burning oil recovered from the Deepwater Horizon leakage
capture pipe at sea, BP president Tony Hayward announced that BP had
created a wildlife fund that would receive any profits made from
selling the recovered oil.
“BP is committed to protecting the ecosystems and wildlife on
the Gulf Coast. We believe these funds will have a significant
positive impact on the environment,” Hayward told New York Daily
News staff writer Meena Hartenstein on June 8, 2010.

Special prosecutor to probe University of Wisconsin use of decompression

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:
MADISON–Dane County Circuit Court Judge Amy Smith on June 2,
2010 found probable cause to believe that nine University of
Wisconsin at Madison researchers and faculty members have for more
than 20 years violated state law by killing sheep in a hyperbaric
chamber, also known as a decompression chamber.
Judge Smith appointed attorney David A. Geier to serve as
special prosecutor in determining whether the scientists and their
supervisors should face criminal charges.
Of 303 sheep exposed to decompression since 2000 in
experiments performed at the university’s diving physiology
laboratory, funded by the U.S. Navy, three sheep have died while
still in the hyperbaric chamber. Another 23 sheep have died within
24 hours of being removed from the chamber.

Iranian cleric issues fatwa against keeping pet dogs

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

TEHRAN–Acknowledging that the Koran does not explicitly
prohibit contact with dogs, the Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem
Shirazi, 86, nonetheless decreed in a June 19, 2010 fatwa
published by the Iranian newspaper Javan Daily that dogs are
“unclean” and should not be kept as pets.
“We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are
unclean,” Shirazi said in his fatwa, or religious opinion,
disregarding that most mentions of dogs attributed to the Prophet
Mohammed himself are favorable and that some of his inner circle kept
dogs.

Appellate court upholds warrantless entry and seizure to save animal’s life

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

LOS ANGELES–A three-judge panel of the California Second
District Court of Appeal ruled on June 3, 2010 that warrantless
entry of private property and seizure of an animal may be permitted
if necessary to save the animal’s life. The verdict was among the
first to recognize “exigent circumstances” in an animal-related case
reaching an appellate court.
Wrote the court, “Where an officer [of law enforcement] reasonably believes an animal is in immediate need of aid due to
injury or mistreatment, the exigent circumstances exception to the
warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment may be invoked.”
William Heyman, attorney for defendant Keith Chung, pledged
to further appeal the verdict.

Burning the oil spill evidence

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

NEW ORLEANS–Rumors flew for weeks that British Petroleum
clean-up crews were secretly incinerating the remains of wildlife
oiled by the April 20, 2010 wreck of the Deepwater Horizon drilling
rig. Often obstructed by BP personnel, despite an order from U.S.
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen that media were to be allowed access
to all areas normally open to the public, reporters wondered just
what they were not being allowed to see–especially since many gained
access to heavily oiled habitat despite the BP interference.
But some of the first claims that oiled remains were being
burned on beaches turned out to have been recycled from the aftermath
of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. A similar rumor traced to Salt
Lake City, where a 500-barrel spill into Red Butte Creek and the
Jordan River on June 11 oiled about 280 ducks and geese. About 10
birds were killed. The Hogle Zoo saved the rest.

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