Author: Dylan Forest

Undercover footage of horse slaughter shocks the world

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
FORT MacLEOD, Canada; FRANKFURT,
Germany–Undercover video of horse slaughter in
Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, and horse
transport for slaughter from the U.S. shocked the
world in April 2010, after broadcast by the
leading Canadian and European networks and
postings of graphic clips to YouTube.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
aired video obtained by the Canadian Horse
Defence Coalition three days after networks in
The Netherlands, France, and Belgium aired
video from Animals’ Angels, a 12-year-old
organization with offices in Germany, Britain,
and the U.S.

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Gulf oil spill rescuers prepare & wait

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
NEW ORLEANS–Almost a month after the British Petroleum
drilling platform Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, 2010 in
the Gulf of Mexico, 45 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana,
rescuers from Texas to Florida were still awaiting an anticipated
influx of animals from a disaster projected by many experts as
perhaps the worst-ever oil spill for wildlife.
“I think we ruined every child’s summer in New Orleans,
because we bought all the kiddie pools,” Louisiana state marine
mammal and sea turtle stranding coordinator Michelle Kelley told
Associated Press writer Janet McConnaughey.

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U.S. Supreme Court strikes down law that banned cruelty videos

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The U.S. Supreme Court
on April 20, 2010 by a vote of 8-1 struck down
18 U.S.C. § 48, the 1998 federal law that
prohibited interstate sales of video depictions
of illegal cruelty to animals.
The law was written to ban “crush
videos,” a form of pornography in which the
participants trample small animals, but the only
case brought to court under 18 U.S.C. § 48 was
U.S. v. Stevens, a 2004 federal prosecution in
Pennsylvania of Virginia resident Robert G.
Stevens for selling videotapes of Japanese
dogfighting and “hog/dog rodeo.”

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Tadpoles screaming underwater show unsuspected sentience

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
BUENOS AIRES–The ethical significance of the discovery that
tadpoles scream when threatened may take some time to occur to
scientists, ethicists, and animal advocates. A breakthrough in
scientific recognition of animal sentience, the finding took more
than three years just to win widespread notice after formal
publication in a leading journal.
Tadpoles might have been audibly screaming when threatened
for more than 200 million years before Guillermo Natale, Ph.D. of
the National University of La Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina heard
the multi-note metallic sound emitted by tadpoles of the horned frog
Ceratophrys ornata.

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Suicides of suspects may be trend in animal cases

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
MISSOULA–A coroner’s jury on April 16, 2010 ruled that
accused cat torturer Gary Lee Bassett, 63, shot himself on February
4, 2010, seconds after Missoula police with a warrant for his
arrest on felony charges kicked his door open.
Bassett was among four animal cruelty and neglect suspects
who were found to have shot themselves in February 2010, while
accused in cases that provoked community outrage. Criminal suspects
in cases that bring strong public shame have long been known to be at
steeply elevated risk of suicide. Crimes against animals have
usually not been associated with suicide, but the flurry of recent
cases suggest that this may be changing.

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U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds 2008 California anti-downer law

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

SAN FRANCISCO–The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit on March 31, 2010 upheld both California legislation
prohibiting the slaughter of downed livestock and the principle that
states may enforce livestock handling and slaughter standards more
stringent than those required by federal law.
Introduced by assembly member Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank) at
request of the Humane Farming Association, the California law made a
misdemeanor of buying, selling, processing, or butchering a
non-ambulatory animal for human consumption. Downed animals must
instead be euthanized.

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Blue Cross of India cofounder Usha Sundaram, 86

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

Usha Sundaram, 86, died on April 6, 2010 in Chennai.
Taught to fly at age 20 by her husband Captain V. Sundaram, who was
among the first pilots for Tata Airways, Usha Sundaram initially
flew the VT-AXX that was personal aircraft of the Maharaja of Mysore,
Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur, a noted patron of music. The name of
his plane has recently been revived for an Air India jetliner. From
1945 to 1951 the Sundarams were pilots for the first Indian prime
minister, Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru. After Usha Sundaram became the
first graduate of the Indian government flight training school in
Bangalore in 1949, she continued alone as Nehru’s pilot while her
husband devoted more of his time to airline business. Flying a

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Gyrocopter pilot acquitted of killing huntsman

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

BIRMINGHAM, U.K.–A Birmingham Crown Court jury on March 17,
2010 acquitted anti-fox hunting gyrocopter pilot Bryan Griffiths of
alleged manslaughter by gross negligence in connection with the March
9, 2009 death of Warwickshire Hunt owl keeper Trevor Morse at Long
Marston airfield. Morse, 48, was killed when the gyrocopter
propeller vertically cleaved his head.
The Hunting Act of 2004 banned hunting with dogs, but with
many exemptions, including a provision allowing the use of dogs to
flush out prey for falconers. Traditional fox hunts have continued
since then by carrying raptors, including owls, who would not
normally hunt by daylight.

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Obituaries [April 2010]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, 81, died of an apparent heart
attack on March 10, 2010 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. After 10 years
as Grand Mufti of Egypt, Tantawi was in 1996 named Chief Imam and
Shaikh of the al-Azhar Mosque at al-Azhar University in Cairo,
considered the leading center of religious study in Sunni Islam.
Tantawi led the funeral prayers for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
in 2004, but argued against indiscriminate attacks on Israelis, and
condemned suicide bombers, Saddam Hussein, and al Qaida. Tantawi
issued frequent fatwahs, or religious opinions, upholding the
rights of women, including in opposition to veiling in classrooms
and genital mutilation. At request of Egyptian Society of Animal
Friends cofounder Ahmed el-Sherbiny, Tantawi on April 24, 2008
issued a fatwa meant to reinforce observance of the intent of hallal
slaughter. “Any action incompatible with kindness to animals or
treating them any way other than with mercy at the time of slaughter
is forbidden and sinful, and is inconsistent with the kindness to
animals that Islam requires,” Tantawi wrote. “This includes
transporting animals. Transport must be done in a way that is
comfortable and ensures the animal’s safety.”
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