Why the RSPCA and Compassion In World Farming push rose veal

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
LONDON–Animal rights groups worldwide on August 17, 2008
abruptly found themselves explaining that they do not endorse veal,
the Royal SPCA of Britain and Compassion In World Farming had to
explain that they are not animal rights groups, and the public was
probably just downright confused after Rachel Shields, a food writer
for The Independent, wrote that “Animal-rights groups have been
campaigning to get it off the menu for decades, but now, in an
abrupt U-turn, they are clamouring for veal to come back to British
dining tables.
“The RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming are trying to
redeem the meat in the eyes of U.K. consumers,” Shields continued,
“most of whom now view veal as the ultimate ethical no-no.”

WSPA board role of Danish wildlife researcher Bjarne Clausen raises questions

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
World Society for the Protection of Animals board president
Dominique Bellemare is not the only WSPA board member whose history
of associations with prominent defenders of the Canadian fur and
sealing industries has caused ANIMAL PEOPLE to ask questions. Board
member Bjarne Clausen, a Danish biologist, spoke in 1981–the same
year that WSPA was founded–as part of the Northwest Territories
Department of Renewable Resources’ “Fish, Fur, & Game for the
Future” program.
Like Bellemare, Clausen appears to have no public record of
speaking or writing against the fur trade, either in Canada or
Greenland, a Danish protectorate where Clausen formerly did studies
of otters and other wild furbearing mammals.

Infiltrator Sapone exposed again

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
WASHINGTON D.C.– New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg on
August 7, 2008 asked the National Rifle Association to disclose full
details of the alleged espionage activities within gun control
organizations of Mary McFate, 62, also known as Mary Lou Sapone.
McFate/Sapone was exposed a week earlier by James Ridgeway,
Daniel Schulman, and David Corn of Mother Jones magazine.
“According to Mother Jones,” summarized Lautenberg to NRA
president John C. Sigler, “Mary McFate spent more than a decade
rising through the ranks at several gun violence prevention
organizations, including CeaseFire PA, Freedom States Alliance, and
States United to Prevent Gun Violence. At the same time,
McFate-going by the name Mary Lou Sapone-reportedly was a paid
‘research consultant’ for the NRA. As a result, McFate/Sapone was in
a position to learn about, and to report back to the NRA on, the
concerns, plans and strategies of various gun violence prevention
groups.

CITES okays China to buy ivory stocks

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
GENEVA–The Con-vention on International Trade in Endangered
Species on July 15, 2008 authorized China to buy 119 metric tons of
elephant ivory from the official government stores kept by Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
The stockpiles include ivory from elephants culled in the name
of population control or to protect crops and human life, as well as
ivory taken from poachers and illegal traffickers.
“Poaching has already reached a level surpassing that before the
1989 ban on the ivory trade,” said former Kenya Wildlife Service
director Michael Wamithi, now heading the Inter-national Fund for
Animal Welfare elephant program.
“A little legal ivory is sufficient to launder a lot of illicit
ivory,” warned the French conservation group Robin des Bois, “and
there is no doubt the price of ivory will skyrocket after China’s
entry into the ivory stock exchange,” in competition with Japan,
the only other approved bidder.

WSPA president objects to coverage

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
World Society for the Protection of
Animals president Dominique Bellemare responded
as shown at left to the print edition of the June
2008 ANIMAL PEOPLE article “Rise of Quebec
politician to WSPA board presidency raises
questions.”
ANIMAL PEOPLE of course regrets that we
did not learn earlier that Bellemare’s former
legal partner Harry Bloomfield was eventually
acquitted on appeal of the alleged offenses for
which he was convicted four years earlier.
Bellemare could have provided that information
before the press date in response to our
questions, but he did not do so.

Activists & Organizations

SHARK wins a round in court re use rodeo videos

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
CHEYENNE–U.S. District Judge William Downes on July 29, 2008
dismissed a lawsuit filed by Romeo Entertainment Group Inc. against
Show-ing Animals Respect & Kindness, better known as SHARK.
The case alleged that SHARK used “false and misleading
information” and “threats of negative publicity” to influence singer
Carrie Underwood and the band Matchbox 20 to cancel shows at the
Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in 2006 and 2008.
Downes ruled that while the case could not be pursued in
Wyoming, due to lack of jurisdiction, it could be refiled in either
Illinois or Oklahoma. Romeo Entertainment attorney J. Kent Rutledge
told Associated Press writer Bob Moen that either the ruling would be
appealed or the case would be refiled in another state.

Dog racing ban on Massachusetts ballot

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
BOSTON–The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts on July
16, 2008 allowed the Committee to Protect Dogs, co-chaired by Grey
2K cofounder Christine Dorchak, to place on the November 2008 state
ballot an initiative that would ban greyhound racing and would put
the last two tracks in Massachusetts out of business by January 2010.
The first Grey 2K effort to ban greyhound racing in
Massachusetts failed by 1% of the vote in 2000. In July 2006 the
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts rejected as overbroad a
proposed ballot initiative that would have prohibited greyhound
racing and would have provided stiffer sentences for dogfighting and
harming police dogs.
The greyhound industry may have less money this year for
campaigning. The city of Revere, Massachusetts in July 2008
foreclosed on the Wonderland Greyhound Park over $789,293 in unpaid
taxes, and is owed $16,674 in water and sewage bills, reported
Katheleen Conti of the Boston Globe on August 1. “Wonderland is the
city’s eighth-largest taxpayer, and now its largest tax delinquent,”
Conti wrote. “In 1994, Wonderland paid $1.6 million in back taxes.
The city placed a lien on the property in June 2007.”

South Korea begins regulating dogs as livestock under new pollution law

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
SEOUL–The South Korean Minis-try of Food, Agriculture,
Forestry and Fish-eries in mid-August 2008 announced that it will
start regulating dogs as livestock for the purpose of enforcing a
newly revised Livestock Night Soil Disposal Act, effective on
September 28.
The South Korean dog meat industry has long sought to add
dogs to the list of designated meat animals, to overturn the
unenforced 1991 law that was promoted to the world as a ban on
selling dog meat, but only prohibits the public sale of “disgusting
foods.”

To buy or not to buy–that is the question in dealing with puppy millers

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
MILWAUKEE–Southern Wisconsin ClearChannel radio stations on
August 20, 2008 unleashed 14 hours of “Beaglemania” broadcast from
the Wisconsin Humane Society to help Wisconsin Humane find adopters
for the first 300 of more than 1,100 dogs acquired from the former
Puppy Haven Kennel in Markesan.
Wisconsin Humane bought Puppy Haven from breeder Wallace
Havens in July 2008 for an undisclosed sum that WHS board member Tony
Enea told Jackie Loohavis-Bennett of the Milwaukee Journal was
“pennies on the dollar.”
Selling about 3,000 dogs a year at peak, Puppy Haven owner
Wallace Havens was suspended and fined by the American Kennel Club in
2006 for record keeping and care violations.

« 1 … 91 92 93 94 95 … 648 »