Biggest cat rescue yet succeeds in China

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

BEIJING–More than 200 animal advocates on November 24, 2009
converged on the Hongqiao district of Tianjin, about 70 miles from
Beijing, to free more than 800 cats from a trader who intended to
export them to Guangzhou, far to the south, for sale to cat meat
restaurants.
More than 200 people surrounded the caged cats for more than
24 hours and beseiged the Shaogongzhuang police station for three
hours, reported Li Qian of the Global Times, before Qin Xiaona,
head of the Beijing-based Capital Animal Welfare Association,
managed to meet with police and arrange for the cats’ release. The
trader claimed the cats were strays, but the rescuers pointed out
that they were clean and many wore collars and bells.
The mass cat rescue was the latest and largest of many such
incidents occurring in China since 2007.

Letters [Nov/Dec 2009]

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

Japan beyond Tokyo

Your mention in the July/August 2009 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE
that a man who was arrested in Japan in 2006 for dumping butchered
dogs’ heads was of South Korean descent does not surprise me. Nor am
I surprised that dog-eating persists in Japan. But it is not the
Japanese who eat dog meat; it is Korean residents. The Japanese,
except during World War II when dogs almost became extinct because
they were eaten by the starving population, have never had the
custom of eating dogs.
Kansai (West Japan) and particularly Osaka is home to a large
Korean population, but since most have adopted Japanese names, it is
hard for outsiders to recognize them. They live in Korean areas of
Osaka city, and dog meat is on the menu of restaurants that serve
these communities. Perhaps because there is not enough dog meat to
buy in Korea, most of it is imported from China.
Read more

Letters

Efforts continue to ban the “elephant hook”

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

BOSTON–“All ears to the plight of the
GOP symbol,” according to Boston Herald reporter
Jessica Van Sack, Massachusetts state senator
Robert Hedlund has tried since 2004 to ban
keeping elephants in chains and striking them
with the ankus, or bullhook. The 2006 edition
cleared the Massachusetts senate, but not the
house of delegates. The 2009 edition reached a
legislative hearing on November 16.
A Republican representing Weymouth,
Plymouth and Norfolk, Hedlund distances himself
from those he calls “politically correct
left-wing do-gooders,” but concerning chaining
and the ankus, “”The more I got involved in the
issue, the more I became passionate about it and
emotionally tied to it, knowing the abusive
conditions these animals have to endure,” he
told Van Sack.

“Swine flu” infects cats, ferrets, & dogs

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

A cat in Des Moines, Iowa, a cat in Lebanon, Oregon, nine
ferrets in Rice Hill, Oregon, four ferrets in Nebraska, and two
dogs in Beijing in November 2009 became the first household pets
known to have contracted the pandemic H1N1-2009 “swine flu” virus,
which is believed to have evolved in humans from swine flu strains.
Humans have passed the H1N1-2009 strain back to pigs on at least 12
different occasions in as many nations.
Each infected pet lived with humans who displayed H1N1-2009
symptoms earlier. The humans all recovered, as did the 13-year-old
Iowa cat and both Beijing dogs. The 10-year-old Oregon cat, one of
the Oregon ferrets, and one of the Nebraska ferrets died.

Editorial: No-kill sheltering & the quest for the holy grail

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

PetSmart Charities, as the November/December 2009 edition of
ANIMAL PEOPLE goes to press, is celebrating four million adoptions
achieved through the Luv-A-Pet adoption centers located in each
PetSmart store, the first of which opened in February 1992.
“That’s four million lives saved, thanks to the
collaborative efforts of PetSmart Charities, more than 2,500 local
animal welfare groups and shelters across the U.S., and PetSmart,
Inc.,” said PetSmart Charities communication manager Kim Noetzel.
PetSmart Charities is also expecting to grant $10.3 million
to “local animal welfare agencies, shelters, and rescue groups to
support their pet adoption efforts” this year, Noetzel
mentioned–an increase of $1.3 million from 2008, when PetSmart
Charities was already granting more money to small animal charities
than any other grant-giving institution.
Few other funders have increased their aid to animal
charities at all in the past two years. Many foundations have cut
their grantmaking. Some have ceased operation.
Yet Friends of the Plymouth Pound, on Cape Cod, called a
boycott of PetSmart because, after 10 years, the PetSmart store in
Hyannis chose to work with a different adoption partner. Friends of
the Plymouth Pound had placed 49 cats through the Hyannis store in
2009. Other adoption partners had placed 821 cats through the
PetSmart store in Plymouth.

Dog dealers raided at jet speed

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

PHILADELPHIA–Will air power trump horse-and-buggy in the
courts of law and public opinion?
Main Line Animal Rescue founder Bill Smith on October 7,
2009 bet that it will, relying on jet speed to gather evidence that
he hopes will finish the image of Pennsylvania puppy millers as
plain, simple people who are just out of step with modern times.
Amish dog breeders in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and
upstate New York have come to dominate the dog breeding industry in
the northeastern U.S. during the past 20 years. The Amish reputation
for producing quality handcrafted furniture, growing pesticide-free
fruit and vegetables, and managing farms that look like those of a
century ago has helped the dog breeders–but traditional commercial
dog-breeding practices were unacceptable to the humane community even
120 years ago, and are much less so in light of vastly increased
knowledge about what dogs need to become happy, healthy,
well-behaved pets.

India bans keeping elephants in zoos & circuses

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

NEW DELHI–The Central Zoo Authority of
India on November 9, 2009 sent a rumble
throughout the world with a decree that elephants
may no longer be exhibited by zoos and circuses.
Rumored to be coming for more than 18
months, the order came from the government of
the nation with the most captive elephants,
about 3,500 in all; the oldest history of
elephant use and exhibition, about 3,500 years;
the largest population of wild Asian elephants,
approximately 28,000; and the longest record of
protecting both elephants and elephant habitat,
beginning about 2,240 years ago.

“God is not Dracula”–but sacrifice continues

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

KATHMANDU, MULTAN– “God is not Dracula!” protested Animal
Save Movement Pakistan president Khalid Mahmood Qurashi via posters,
web postings, and press releases as the annual Eid ul Azha began in
Saudi Arabia on November 27, 2009, and continued around the world
for four days.
Qurashi reminds fellow Muslims every year that Islam requires
charitable acts at the Eid, not blood sacrifice. This year Qurashi
found himself reminding Hindus, too, as the Eid slaughters were
compounded by the sacrificial massacre days earlier of more than a
quarter of a million animals in Bariyarpur, a Nepalese village near
the Bijar border.

“Reality TV” & Rescue Ink Unleashed

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:
“Reality TV” & Rescue Ink Unleashed
National Geographic Channel: 10 p.m. Fridays. Debuted September 25, 2009

After the success of Animal Precinct, Rescue Ink Unleashed
was inevitable. Since the beginning of television, each successful
series theme has been followed by variations, trying to emulate the
aspects of the prototype that captured an audience, while adding
twists that the producers hope might attract even more viewers.
Typically the successful prototype is a gritty realistic
drama. After knock-offs exploit that approach to the point of
running out of ideas, caricatures follow. Some are forthrightly
cartoons: The Flintstones (1960) followed The Honeymooners (1955).
Others are merely cartoonish in live-action format: Charlie’s Angels
(1976), for instance, was a distant descendant of the cop show
format pioneered by Dragnet (1951).

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