Author: Dylan Forest

Attorney general investigates Connecticut Humane; 20-year president resigns

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

HARTFORD–Investigating the management of the Connecticut
Humane Society since January 2010, Connecticut attorney general
Richard Blumenthal on March 30, 2010 released preliminary findings
that were highly critical of how the society was managed during the
20-year tenure of former Connect-icut Humane president Richard
Johnston, who resigned on March 23.
But Blumenthal did not find evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
“The investigation has focused primarily on Connecticut
Humane’s alleged misuse of charitable funds, but touches on several
other issues,” Blumenthal’s office said in a prepared statement.
“The investigation continues, particularly with respect to the
handling of charitable funds and allegations of improper treatment of
animals,” the statement added.

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Swiss voters reject special prosecutors for animal cases

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

GENEVA–Approximately 70% of the Swiss electorate on March 7,
2010 rejected a referendum proposal by Swiss Animal Protection to
require each canton to designate a public prosecutor to handle animal
cruelty cases–exactly opposite to the outcome that opinion polls
reportedly predicted.
The chances of the proposal passing appeared to be harmed when
the first designated prosecutor of animal cases, Antoine F.
Goetschel of Zurich, brought a cruelty charge against an angler who
took 10 minutes to land a pike in February 2010.
Swiss Animal Protection collected 140,000 signatures to place
the proposal on the ballot. Swiss Animal Protection director
Hansueli Huber told Associated Press writer Eliane Engeler that
cruelty case reports in Switzerland increased by 20% from 2007 to
2008.

Fire hits Animal Friends League of Kuwait

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

WAFRA, Kuwait–Electrical fires on March 12 and March 24,
2010 razed most of the Animal Friends League of Kuwait shelter
complex. The facilities, featured in a presentation on shelter
design at the first Middle East Network for Animal Welfare conference
in 2007, were widely praised as the best in the Middle East.
The first fire destroyed the residential quarters and all
personal possessions of four live-in staff members. The second fire
killed eight dogs and 31 cats, and badly injured others, some of
whom died later.

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ACRES wins wildlife center pollution case

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

SINGAPORE–The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society
on March 24, 2010 won an order from Singapore High Court Justice Kan
Ting Chiu that ANA Contractor Ltd. must pay damages for building most
of the ACRES wildlife rehabilitation center on a footing of woodchips
contaminated with toxic materials believed to be residue from
sandblasting.
ANA Ltd. subcontracted the job of filling and leveling the
site in Choa Chu Kang to another firm, Lok Sheng Enterprises.
“Shortly after the land was filled, the area was plagued by a foul
stench and brackish water started to seep through the surface,”
recounted K.C. Vijayan of Straits Times. Toxic leachate also
polluted the nearby Kranji Reservoir, and appeared to menace a
commercial fish farm.

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CITES protects elephants but not sharks & polar bears

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

DOHA, Qatar–Leading a last-minute rally to keep ivory
billiard balls out of fashion, the Kenyan delegation ran the table
on behalf of African elephants at the 15th triennial meeting of the
signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species, held in Doha, Qatar from March 13 to March 25, 2010.
Formed by the United Nations in 1973, CITES in 1989 banned
international traffic in elephant ivory, but CITES triennial
meetings have several times authorized exemptions allowing Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe to sell stockpiled ivory from
legally culled elephants, confiscated from smugglers, and collected
from elephants who died of natural causes. The exemptions–and
rumors that exemptions may be granted–have repeatedly been followed
by resurgent poaching throughout the wild elephant range in Africa
and Asia, as illegal traffickers respond to the opportunity to
market poached ivory under forged legal cover.

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Sultan bans hunting in Johor Baru, Malaysia

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

JOHOR BARU, Malaysia– Johor state ruler Sultan Ibrahim Ibni
Almarhum Sultan Iskandar on March 5, 2010 ordered a halt to hunting
and called for gun licensing to be tightened.
Sultan Ibrahim said that alleged nuisance wildlife, such as
boars or crows, should be reported to the Johor Wildlife Department,
which might still use lethal measures in specific situations.
Personally involved in breeding endangered species and
rehabilitating injured wildlife, Sultan Ibrahim reportedly has as
many as 18 tigers, several panthers, and 400 deer on his property.

Egyptian Central Zoos director agrees to use contraception to prevent perennial lion surplus

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

CAIRO–Egyptian Central Zoos director and Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species representative Nabil Sidki
announced on April 6, 2010 that Egyptian zoos will begin using birth
control drugs and surgical sterilization to prevent surplus lion
births.
At least three zoos in Egypt, including the 120-year-old
Giza Zoo, have been criticized for decades for doing little to
curtail births of inbred lion cubs, some of whom are believed to be
illegally trafficked, while others contribute to severe overcrowding.
Frequently exposing conditions at the Giza Zoo since 1991,
former London Zoological Society fellow and Cairo resident Richard
Hoath in May 2009 noted in Egypt Today that the Giza Zoo lions are
still “kept in bare concrete cages, without any habitat or
behavioral enrichment,” even though the lion exhibit still includes
an extensive moated veldt that was meant to be the main lion habitat
when the zoo opened in 1891.

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Concern for circus lion cubs brings action in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Dubai

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

BEIRUT–Concern over the plight of a circus lion cub,
rallied by Animals Lebanon, has persuaded Lebanon to ratify the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The global conservation community had failed for 27 years to
persuade a succession of Lebanese governments to endorse CITES,
brokered by the United Nations in 1973. But Animals Lebanon, a
two-year-old animal rights group, succeeded in less than 90 days,
by showing the Lebanese public, initially skeptical mass media, and
senior officials that inability to enforce CITES rules is a
significant cause of animal suffering.
Along the way, the suffering of the lion cub also helped to
prompt Jordan to adopt a national animal welfare law, taking effect
on April 2, 2010, and led to Egypt introducing a requirement that
henceforth circus animals may be transported out of the country only
by air.

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Editorial: How to introduce neuter/return & make it work

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

Even before publication of our first edition, in September
1992, ANIMAL PEOPLE advocated and demonstrated the use of
neuter/return in place of catch-and-kill animal control. Our very
first project proved the efficacy of neuter/return plus vaccination
to keep raccoon rabies from spreading among feral cats at eight sites
in Connecticut.
Witnessing, documenting, and reporting about the success of
neuter/return in controlling dog and cat populations worldwide often
provides a sense of accomplishment. Yet a frequent source of
frustration comes from seeing the failure of poorly planned, ineptly
executed, and negligently maintained neuter/return projects.

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