Author: Dylan Forest

Dogs unchained by the book this time

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
TIPTON, Pa.–Three years after seizing a chained dog without
a warrant, and paying a high price for it, Dogs Deserve Better
founder Tammy Ci Thayne on September 6, 2009 freed four dogs from
chains and did it all by the book.
Receiving an anonymous tip that “at least two starved,
chained German shepherds were abandoned at a property in Centre
County near Tyrone, Pennsylvania,” Ci Thayne recounted, she
“journeyed to the location to assess the situation and document the
neglect” on September 5, “armed with camera, food, and water.” She
found not only the two German shepherds, “covered in fleas, with fly
strike on their ears and lacking food and water,” but also “one
blind and deaf Pomeranian in a pen with only a crate for shelter,
and a chained black Lab/border collie mix.”

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1990s HFA campaign still bringing vealer convictions

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
MILWAUKEE–Brown Packing Company, a leading U.S. veal
producer, on August 10, 2009 agreed to plead guilty to felony
conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, and to pay a fine of
$2 million for illegally giving hormones and steroids to veal calves
between 1997 and 2004, while marketing the meat as “all natural.”
The case was the latest of a 15-year series of successful
prosections of major players in the veal industry for misuse of
hormones and steroids. An informant tipped the Food & Drug
Administration to the violations in 1989, but serious
investigation did not start until February 1994, after an outbreak
of poisoning caused by the synthetic steroid clenbuterol hit at least
140 people who ate contaminated veal in an unrelated case in Spain.
Pressured by the Humane Farming Association, the U.S. Department of
Justice eventually won convictions of at least eight executives of
leading veal firms. Among them were the Dutch entrepreneurs who
brought the crated veal industry to the U.S. in the first place,
circa 1962.

Philippine opponents win a “hold” on greyhound racing with help of Massachusetts allies

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

 

MANILA–The Philippine House of Representatives on September
7, 2009 “agreed to hold in abeyance its approval of a second
franchise for greyhound dog racing after animal protection groups
prevailed upon the Senate to defer action on the first franchise,”
reported Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Romblon representative Eleandro Jesus Madrona “said the House
was forced to make the move after seven senators vowed to block the
introduction of greyhound racing in the country because it is
‘immoral’ and ‘cruel to animals,'” Cabacungan wrote. The Philippine
House approved the nation’s first greyhound racing franchise in
December 2008.
Actually, “Thirteen Senators sent pledges to vote no to the
introduction of greyhound racing in the Philippines,” e-mailed Anna
Nieves Cabrera of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society. Cabrera
added special thanks to Senator Jamby Madrigal and Cardinal Ricardo
J.Vidal of Cebu for helping to lead the campaign, and to the
Massachusetts-based anti-greyhound racing organization Grey 2K, for
rallying supprt beyond the Philippines.

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All-India dogs thrive at Chennai exhibitions

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

CHENNAI–Nature selected the humble All-India street dog as
the best-suited dog for the Indian environment at two of the most
renowned Indian dog shows, in a manner no exhibitor wanted.
“Heat and humidity took a toll at the Madras Canine Club’s
championship show, where a Rottweiler collapsed and died due to
dehydration and two mastiffs were hospitalized,” reported Shalini
Umachandran for the Times of India on September 14, 2009.
“We had a vet and emergency facilities available, but we
were informed too late,” said Madras Canine Club committee member
Sanjay Reddy.
The show included 350 purebed dogs, many of them reportedly
visibly suffering. “As the afternoon progressed, German shepherds
and golden retrievers lay panting on sheets, St. Bernards rolled in
the mud while handlers tried to groom them, Great Danes stood
patiently as owners squirted water to keep them cool, and
Chihuahuas, miniature Pomeranians and pugs looked exhausted,”
Umchandran wrote.

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Pro-animal White House appointee is at last confirmed

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
WASHINGTON D.C.–The U.S. Senate on September 10, 2009
confirmed the appointment of legal scholar Cass Sunstein to head the
Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs, one of the most
influential non-cabinet positions in the Barack Obama
administration. Repeatedly denounced as a would-be
“czar” by Fox network commentator Glenn Beck, Sunstein had become
one of Obama’s most controversial appointees, largely for views
about animal rights. Sunstein has argued for expanding the ability
of humans to file lawsuits on behalf of animals, and has called
sport hunting morally unjustifiable.

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De-worming makes a real-life “slum dog millionaire”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

De-worming makes a real-life “slum dog millionaire”
Commentary by Merritt Clifton

“I walk through Kalhaar daily with my own
two former roadway dogs, so I know all the
street dogs here,” e-mailed Lisa Warden on
August 1, 2009 from the suburbs of Ahmedabad,
India.
“The dog pictured here just turned up
three days ago. I guess it’s safe to say that
he’s one of those who isn’t going to make it,
don’t you think?”
Perceiving emaciated street dogs, cats,
cattle, horses, and donkeys as starving and
irrecoverably suffering is the usual response of
Americans and Europeans to those whose bones
protrude as much as this dog’s did–but I
recognized a different issue.

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Barking over Animals & Society fellowship

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
ANN ARBOR, Mich.–The Animals & Society
Institute had difficult questions to answer in
August 2009 after awarding a “Human-Animal
Studies Fellowship” to Jere Alexander. Alexander
in November 2008 resigned as director of the
Fulton County Animal Shelter following an exposé
of shelter conditions by Randy Travis of Fox 5 TV
and several follow-up exposés by the Atlanta
Journal Constitution.
The exposés, summarized in the November/
December 2008 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE, focused
on allegations that Alexander refused to
euthanize pit bull terriers deemed dangerous by
staff, housed other dogs with pit bulls who
killed them, removed 83 cats from the shelter in
the name of a rescue group whose existence could
not be verified, admitted having attended
dogfights in connection with academic research,
hired the wife of a convicted dogfighter, and
maintained other associations with alleged
dogfighters.

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Nepal halts monkey exports to labs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

KATHMANDU–Nepalese animal advocades on August 27, 2009
celebrated success in preventing Nepal from entering the fast-growing
traffic in exporting monkeys from developing nations to research labs.
“Around 300 monkeys who were to be exported to the U.S. will
be able to find their food in freedom, in their own country,”
headlined the Kathmandu Post.
“We have decided not to allow the monkeys to be exported,”
announced Nepal forestry minister Deepak Bohara. “We will ask
Pravesh Man Shrestha,” the prospective monkey exporter, “to release
the monkeys within a week.”

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Busting puppy mills vs. busted budgets

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
LANSING, MI; WASHINGTON D.C.– Impoundments of dogs from
alleged puppy mills are coming at a pace, entering the last quarter
of 2009, that could top 10,000 for the year–up from about 8,000 in
2008 and 3,000, then the most on record, in 2007.
Many of the seizures are enabled by the passage of new
legislation regulating conditions at dog breeding facilities, at pet
stores, and in transit. The impoundments are in turn attracting the
attention of lawmakers, bringing further regulatory reinforcement.
Among the last acts of the 2009 California legislature was
sending to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger “The Responsible Breeder
Act of 2009, ” limiting the number of dogs and cats an individual or
business may keep to breed for the pet market.
“Arizona, Indiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington passed
legislation [earlier] this year to address puppy mills. In 2008,
Virginia, Louisiana and Pennsylvania passed similar laws,”
recounted Humane Society Legislative Fund president Mike Markarian,
celebrating the passage of a second round of legislation in
Pennsylvania.

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