Kerala capital to obey Indian dog law?

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
THIRUVANATHAPURAM–Three years of defiance of the Indian
national dog policy may be at an end in Thiruvanathapuram, the
capital city of Kerala state.
Both The Hindu and the Indian Express on April 25, 2009
reported that mayor C. Jayan Babu on April 3 reluctantly suspended
killing street dogs after receiving notice from the Animal Welfare
Board of India that the program violates a December 2008 ruling by
the Supreme Court of India.
From the ruling until obliged to stop, the Indian Express
said, the Babu administration paid 18 dogcatchers two and a half
times the previous rate per dog caught.

Irate chimp shot at alleged puppy-mill

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
ST. LOUIS–Responding to a “loose chimpanzee” call from
Winston, Missouri, 60 miles north of Kansas City, Daviess County
sheriff’s deputy Larry Adams on March 30, 2009 initially tried to
help Brent Hudson, 49, Cherace Hudson, 41, and Mary Overton, 52,
to get the chimp back into secure premises.
When the chimp opened the door of Adams’ patrol car, grabbed
his leg, and tried to hit him, Adams fatally shot the chimp, a
nine-year-old male named Timmy.
Adams reported seeing three other chimps and 100-200 dogs at
the scene, but when the Missouri Department of Agriculture and
Humane Society of Missouri arrived two days later with a
search-and-seizure warrant, they found only 15 dogs and three cats.

Letters [May 2009]

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

Trust funds

Your April 2009 editorial “Trust funds lost when most needed”
points out some issues vitally important to any non-profit, and for
that matter, for any individual hoping to provide sustenance for a
charity.
–Ruth Gobeille
Executive Director
Animal Rescue League
of Southern Rhode Island
P.O. Box 458
Wakefield, RI 02880
Phone: 401-792-2233
Read more

Letters

Indianapolis considers requiring pit bulls to be sterilized

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
INDIANAPOLIS–Indianapolis city/county council member Mike
Speedy on April 24, 2009 introduced an ordinance to make
Indianapolis the biggest city in the U.S. to mandate sterilizing pit
bull terriers.
The introduction comes three years after a breed-specific
ordinance proposed by another Indianapolis councillor met intense
opposition. Her ordinance was watered down into a conventional
dangerous dog law, providing penalities of only $50 for the first
violation and $100 for the second, with impoundment coming only on
third offense.
“An Indianapolis Star review of dog bite data for 2008
revealed that pit bull bites soared 33% from the previous year and
were three times higher than in 2006. Pit bulls also account for
more bites and more severe bites than any other breed,” reported
Heather Gillers of the Star.

Hunted turtles need more than a shell

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
LITTLE ROCK, TALLAHASSEE–The Florida Fish & Wildlife
Conserv-ation Commission on April 15, 2009 unanimously voted to ban
capturing or killing freshwater turtles. The proposal–if ratified
in June 2009–would bring into effect the strongest restriction on
turtle hunting in the U.S.
But the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission on March 29, 2009
rejected a proposal to stop “commercial harvest, sales and export”
of turtles.
Commission director Scott Hender-son acknowledged that, “We
have seen a lot of pressure on turtles in the last three years.”
The most recent available data indicates that Arkansas turtle
hunters are exporting about 200,000 turtles per year. However,
Henderson told the Conway Log Cabin Democrat, “Our staff
recommendation is that it is not an emergency and should be included
in our regular fishing regulations process.”

Did new flu emerge from a pig farm?

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
MEXICO CITY–Rumors swept the world
during the last week of April 2009 that a newly
detected H1N1 flu virus variant suspected of
killing as many as 149 Mexicans might have
evolved at a factory-style pig farm at Perote,
in Vera Cruz state on the Gulf of Mexico. As
ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press on the night of April
28, however, little medical or veterinary
evidence supported the hypothesis that the
disease is of factory farm origin, and some
evidence seemed to refute it.
Among the first 1,995 suspected Mexican
cases of the new flu strain, only 27 were
laboratory-confirmed. Lab-confirmed human cases
had occurred in 19 other nations, including 64
cases in the U.S., but no deaths were reported
outside of Mexico.
Bloggers and news media usually called
the virus “swine flu,” but although it contained
genetic material of swine origin, nothing linked
it to recent swine infections.
The Perote farm belongs to the Mexican
firm Granjas Carroll, a half-owned subsidiary of
Smithfield Inc., the world’s largest pork
producer. Smithfield spokesperson Keira Ullrich
told media that an internal investigation had
found no clinical signs or symptoms of swine
influenza in animals and employees at any of its
Mexican facilities. A United Nations’ Food &
Agriculture Organiz-ation team reportedly reached
Pecote on April 28 to seek independent
confirmation.

Editorial: Learning from the Glendale Creek beaver disaster

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

ANIMAL PEOPLE is headquartered at the top of a steep hill
rising above Glendale Creek. Formed from 5,000 to 9,000 years ago by
runoff from a melting glacier, Glendale Creek cut a deep ravine
through which it flows for about three miles before draining into
Puget Sound at the 10-house village of Glendale.
Glendale a century ago was the chief link between South
Whidbey Island and the mainland. Steam-powered ferries stopped
there. The first car dealership on the island perched precariously
beside Glendale Creek. A narrow gauge railway, built in 1900, ran
from the water’s edge at low tide into the interior of the island.
Eventually about 10 miles long, it hauled huge cedar logs down to
the Sound, where they were floated off of flat cars and tied into
rafts to be tugged to Seattle.
The logging predictably created soil erosion. Loss of
topsoil led to loss of ground covering vegetation and flash floods,
but the loggers, the farmers who followed them to work the land,
and the hunters and fishers who came from the mainland for holidays
of recreational mayhem were all preoccupied with killing most of the
wildlife who survived the tree-cutting.

Obama family accepts a “second chance” dog from Ted Kennedy

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
WASHINGTON D.C.– Massa-chusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and his
wife Victoria in early April 2009 ended months of speculation that
President Barack Obama and family would adopt a shelter dog for
daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, by giving the Obamas a
purebred Portuguese water dog– not a shelter dog, but a “second
chance” dog, who was returned to the breeder after reportedly
failing in at least one previous home.
Originally named Charlie, according to the anonymous
FirstDogCharlie web site that leaked the news on April 10, 2009,
the dog was renamed Bo by the Obamas.

Scientists confirm– Hurt crabs feel pain

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:

BELFAST–Hermit crabs feel pain when
injured and change their behavior to avoid the
source of pain, reported Robert Elwood of the
School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s
University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on
March 27, 2009.
“With vertebrates we are asked to err on
the side of caution and I believe this is the
approach to take with crustaceans,” concluded
Elwood.
“Ripping the legs off live crabs and
crowding lobsters into seafood market tanks are
just two of the many practices that may warrant
reassessment,” warned Jennifer Viegas of the
Discovery Channel.

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