Another L.A. Animal Services chief quits

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

LOS ANGELES–Ed Boks, general manager of the Los Angeles
Department of Animal Services since December 2005, on April 24 2009
advised Los Angeles mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa that he will
resign, effective on June 30.
Boks was ousted from his previous position as executive
director of the New York City Center for Animal Care & Control after
entertaining an offer from Los Angeles.
“I have an offer I’m considering and a couple of options I’m
thinking about,” Boks told ANIMAL PEOPLE on April 27, “but for the
next week or two I just want to free myself from Los Angeles’
relentless irrational oppressive nonsense.”
Boks, 57, was the fourth Los Angeles Department of Animal
Services chief to leave since 2003. The late Dan Knapp resigned
after a prolonged sick leave he attributed to job stress. His
successor, Jerry Greenwalt, retired after enduring months of
intense online criticism and demonstrations outside his home. Boks’
immediate predecessor, Guerdon Stuckey, was fired by Villaraigosa
after just 13 tumultuous months on the job, only days after
Villaraigosa took office. Villaraigosa had promised to replace
Stuckey during the mayoral election campaign, and had reportedly
hired Boks even before terminating Stuckey.

European seal pelt import ban will hit fur trade already in decline

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
STRASBOURG–The European Parliament is likely to approve a
ban on the import of seal pelts at a May 5, 2009 plenary session,
but is expected to allow Canada and Norway to continue exporting seal
pelts through the European Union member nations to reach markets in
China and Russia.
The ban will also exempt seal products made “for cultural,
educational or ceremonial purposes” by the Inuit people of northern
Canada.
Information leaked to ANIMAL PEOPLE at deadline indicates
that the draft ban approved on March 2, 2009 by the European
Parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee was
amended before presentation to the plenary session to mitigate
concerns that Canada and Norway will appeal the legislation to the
World Trade Organization.

New Mexico ends gassing just ahead of big gamecock bust

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

SANTA FE–New Mexico Gov-ernor Bill
Richardson on April 7, 2009 signed a bill making
New Mexico the 18th U.S. state to ban gassing
dogs and cats.
The bill allocates $100,000 to help the
last four shelters in the state that use gas
chambers convert to using lethal injection.
Richardson also endorsed a bill that will
permit state-licensed euthanasia technicians to
buy and use euthanasia drugs. The technicians
need not be veterinarians and need not work in
the presence of a vet.

Macon shelter ends gassing

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
Gassing ended in Macon, Georgia in early April 2009.
Central Georgia CARES funded dismantling the city gas chamber and
building a euthanasia room, and is covering other conversion costs
through 2009. Georgia law prohibited installing new gas chambers
after 1990, but allowed shelters that already had them to continue
using them.

21 polo ponies die of overdose

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
OCALA, Florida–Franck’s Pharmacy chief operations officer
Jennifer Becket on April 23, 2009 admitted in a prepared statement
that the custom drug-mixing firm had erred in preparing a vitamin
mixture that was given to the polo ponies on the Lechuza Caracas
team just before the start of the U.S. Open polo tournament on April
20 at the Inter-national Polo Club Palm Beach. The mixture was
apparently significantly stronger than it was supposed to have been.
Twenty-one horses died from lung hemorraging after receiving
the overdose. The vitamin mixture was reportedly similar to Biodyl,
a supplement not approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Humane Society of the U.S. director of equine protection
Keith Dane called on the U.S. Polo Association to introduce a policy
restricting the use of drugs in polo ponies.

Neglect cases fuel drive to restart horse slaughter

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
HELENA–Montana governor Brian Schweitzer on April 3, 2009
vetoed two parts of a bill passed by the state legislature to
encourage entrepreneurs to start a horse slaughterhouse, but on
April 16 both houses of the legislature returned the same bill to him
without amendment.
The provisions of the bill that Schweitzer vetoed would
require anyone filing a lawsuit seeking to stop construction of a
horse slaughterhouse to post a bond worth 20% percent of the
estimated construction costs, would hold plaintiffs liable for
damages incurred by the defendants due to legal action, and would
prevent state courts from halting construction after a horse
slaughterhouse site and design have received the requisite permits.
Schweitzer must now either veto the bill as a whole or sign
it into law. There was no indication, as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to
press, which he would do.

Ontario pit bull ban appealed to Supreme Court

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
TORONTO–Civil rights lawyer Clayton Ruby on April 16, 2009
petitioned the Supreme Count of Canada to appeal an October 2006
Ontario Court of Appeal verdict which upheld the breed-specific Dog
Owners Liability Act.
The 2005 act forbids breeding, selling, or keeping a pit
bull within Ontario, except for pit bulls who were already licensed
in Ontario when the act took effect. Those dogs must be sterilized,
and must be kept leashed and muzzled when in public. A lower court
weakened the act in March 2007, holding the term “pit bull terrier”
to be too imprecise, but the Ontario Court of Appeal restored the
act as written.

U.S. Supreme Court to review “crush video” ruling

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
WASHINGTON D.C.–The U.S. Supreme Court on April 20, 2009
agreed to hear an appeal by the U.S. Solicitor General of a Third
Circuit Court of Appeal ruling that in July 2008 overturned the 1999
federal Depiction of Animal Cruelty law and reversed the conviction
of “crush video” and dogfighting video dealer Robert Stevens, of
Pittville, Virginia.

Camp Lejeune follows Army, bans pit bulls

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. –The U.S. Marine Corps on April 16,
2009 banned pit bull terriers, Rottweilers, wolf hybrids, and “any
other breeds [of dog] with dominant traits of aggression” from Camp
Lejeune, the largest Marine base on the Atlantic Coast.
Camp Lejeune commanding officer Colonel Richard P. Flatau
Jr. signed the order just over three months after the U.S. Army
banned pit bulls, Rottweilers, wolf hybrids, chows, and Dobermans
from Army base housing throughout the world.
The Camp Lejeune order covers the housing of approximately
50,000 active duty Marine Corps personnel, plus more than 100,000
civilian dependents of Marines and civilian base staff.

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