Author: Dylan Forest

JAAN reaches out to horses in the Gili Islands of Indonesia

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
JAKARTA–Encouraged by success with a working horse aid
program in Jakarta initially funded by ANIMAL PEOPLE, the Jakarta
Animal Aid Network hopes for similar results in the Gili Islands.
Located off the north coast of Lombok, Gili Trawangan, Gili
Meno and Gili Air offer reef diving and night life that attract
tourists from around the world. “No motorized vehicles are allowed
on the islands,” explains JAAN founder Femke den Haas. Horses are
the main means of transport.
Surveying the condition of the Gili horses during the first
nine days of April 2010, den Haas “learned that the horse owners all
came from Lombok in the 1990s,” she told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “Many,”
den Haas found, “started with little to no knowledge about horses,
as they were mostly fishers.”

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AWBI chair Kharb makes an example of Ahmedabad

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
AHMEDABAD–Animal Welfare Board of India chair Rammehar Kharb
on April 20, 2010 warned the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation against
“persisting with the completely outdated, barred practice of dumping,
and even destroying dogs” by capturing them violently with iron tongs
and abandoning them at desert dump sites.
“Not only are the Animal Birth Control rules being flagrantly
violated,” Kharb wrote, “but the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Act is also being violated. Your actions, and the actions of your
employees, constitute an offence under the Penal Code.”
Kharb released his warning to Ahmedabad media less than 60
days after asking the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation “to cancel
your ABC contract awarded to Animal Shelter & Hospital at Ahmedabad
Foundation, which is not recognized or registered with AWBI,
failing which AWBI will be constrained to initiate action in the
matter.”
Kharb notified ABC providers after the 2009 publication of
the AWBI Standard Operating Procedure Manual for Sterilization of
Stray Dogs that they must comply with the SOP to continue to receive
AWBI funding.

Is Zimbabwe loading animals two-by-two to send to North Korea?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
HARARE–“We were recently informed that two of every species
of animal in Hwange National Park are to be sent to a zoo in North
Korea,” charged Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force chair Johnny
Rodrigues in a May 13, 2010 e-mail alert.
“According to the report,” Rodrigues said, “the animals
will include two 18-month-old elephant calves. It is believed that
this is a gift from Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, to Kim
Jong-il, president of North Korea.
“Capture and spotting teams have been seen in the park,”
Rodrigues continued, “and there have been reports of armed men
standing around key waterholes waiting for the animals to appear so
they can radio the information back to the capture teams. There have
also been reports of National Parks vehicles towing cages around.

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New threat to Kenya hunt ban

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
NAIROBI–A draft Wildlife Bill proposed to the Kenyan
parliament but not yet raised for debate would split the Kenya
Wildlife Service into three separate agencies–and ease the way for
reintroducing sport hunting to Kenya, after a 33-year hiatus,
charges African Network for Animal Welfare founder Josphat Ngonyo.
Kenyan wildlife policy formation would be done under the
Ministry for Wildlife, rather than within KWS under ministerial
authority. A new Kenya Wildlife Regulatory Authority would be
created to supervise wildlife management on private land. The
present Kenya Wildlife Service would contract to focus on managing
the 61 Kenyan national parks and wildlife reserves, conducting law
enforcement, and doing wildlife research.

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Gassing in animal shelters nears abolition, but continues on farms & in fields

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

 

Momentum toward abolition of gassing
shelter animals was evident in seven of the last
states where gassing continues as the May 2010
edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, but a
faxed publicity release received near deadline
made clear that abolishing carbon monoxide
chambers will be just the start of abolishing
gassing altogether.
The publicity release touted kits for
connecting the exhaust pipes of cars, trucks,
and lawn mowers to hoses, in order to gas
burrowing animals with unfiltered hot fumes.
The American Veterinary Medical
Association still accepts use of gassing to kill
small animals, including dogs, cats, and
captive wildlife, but not gassing with exhaust
fumes. “Fumes from idling gasoline internal
combustion enginesŠare associated with problems
such as production of other gases, achieving
inadequate concentrations of carbon monoxide,
[and] inadequate cooling of the gas,”
summarizes the AVMA publication Guidelines on
Euthanasia. “Therefore, the only acceptable
source is compressed carbon monoxide in
cylinders.”

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EU General Affairs Council approves new draft rules on animal experiments

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
BRUSSELS–The European Union General Affairs Council on May
11, 2010 approved a new draft directive on animal experiments. The
present directive has been in effect since 1986. The new directive
is expected to be approved by the full European Parliament in
September 2010.
“Under the new provisions member states will be required to
ensure that experiments with animals are replaced, wherever
possible, by an alternative method; the number of animals used in
projects is reduced to a minimum without compromising the quality of
results; [and] the degree of pain and suffering caused to animals
is limited to the minimum,” the council said in a prepared statement.

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Massachusetts bans devocalizing dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
BOSTON–Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick on April 24,
2010 signed into law An Act Prohibiting Devocalization, only the
second state law to ban debarking dogs, the first to cover almost
all dogs, and the first anti-devocalization law covering most dogs
to advance with a strong chance of passage since 2000.
“New Jersey has a law banning devocalization, but there are
a number of broad exceptions that make it generally unenforceable,”
explained Animal Law Coalition attorney Laura Allen, who drafted the
Massachusetts law. “The only exception in the Massachusetts law,”
Allen said, “is for medical necessity as determined by a licensed
veterinarian for disease, injury or a congenital condition that is
causing or could cause the animal harm or pain and suffering.”

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Letters [May 2010]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

Rehoming

I read with interest Doug Fakkema’s January/February 2010
letter headlined “Priorities,” in which he wrote, “Let’s not be
seduced by gurus telling us the problem is our adoption policy. Our
primary problem is too many animals, and the solution is spaying and
neutering.”
What’s missing is talking with people who want to surrender
animals and helping them to present unwanted animals to friends and
family for adoption, as well as to strangers and to small rescue
organization. This is a missing link in animal welfare vis a vis pet
overpopulation, I think. Such help is usually not available to
those who don’t want to surrender animals to municipal shelters.
Just preparing a flyer can make a life or death difference for some
animals. It’s too facile to say we can neuter our way out of the
problem, any more than we can adopt our way out.
–Joanna Harkin
Washington, D.C.
<jharkin@Sidley.com>
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Editorial: Rethinking adoption screening in the computer age

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

 
ANIMAL PEOPLE first examined shelter dog and cat adoption
procedures in depth in our April 1993 edition. Innovations we helped
to introduce have increased the pet acquisition “market share” for
adopted animals from about 15% then to more than 25% now. Older
animals and animals with disabilities, then rarely even offered for
adoption, are now among those who usually find adoptive homes.
Unfortunately, many prospective pet adopters still find the
adoption application process unnecessarily intrusive and invasive,
much as they did in 1993.
In business the customer is always right, and in
facilitating adoptions, competing with breeders and stores that sell
animals from puppy and kitten mills, shelters and rescues must
realize that they are participants in an increasingly competitive
business.

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