Rescuers rock in Sichuan

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
CHENGDU–“People and bears okay although buildings damaged,”
e-mailed Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill Robinson in the first
hours after an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck
northern Sichuan, China.
Based near Chengdu, the Sich-uan capital, the Animals Asia
Found-ation’s China Bear Rescue Centre was far south of the
earthquake epicenter, yet still within the radius of catastrophic
damage. More than 80,000 humans and 12 million livestock died,
according to official estimates. Hitting at 2:28 p.m. on May 12,
2008, the quake was followed by aftershocks for more than three
weeks, many of them of Richter magnitude 6.0 or larger.
“The quake was felt at the sanctuary and everyone ran to the
car park,” Robinson added. “Phone lines are down and communication
by e-mail is sporadic.”

SPCA International controversy heats up after New York Times exposé

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
MONTREAL, NEW YORK– Run an online
search for the web coordinates of the Montreal
SPCA, also known as the Canadian SPCA, and one
is likely to find www.SPCA.com.
This was the Montreal SPCA web address
for years, but somehow it was claimed by Pierre
Barnoti, executive director of the Montreal SPCA
from 1995 to March 2008.
Barnoti transferred www.SPCA.com to SPCA
International, an entity he incorporated in
Delaware, initially using a New Hampshire
mailing address and now using an address in
Washington D.C.
Now, reported Brad Stone of The New York
Times on May 18, 2008, “The new board members
at the Montreal SPCA,” having ousted Barnoti in
March 2008, “are looking at how to get their
domain name back.

Fish & Wildlife Service seeks to leghold trap & shoot feral cats

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
VENTURA–“The U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service is proposing to use padded leg traps and
hunters to eradicate 100 to 200 feral cats now
living on U.S. Navy-owned San Nicolas Island to
protect endangered species,” Ventura County Star
reporter Scott Hadly revealed on June 6, 2008.
“Dogs also would be used to flush out some of the
harder-to-catch cats, according to the plan.
The cats would be shot or given a lethal
injection on the spot,” Hadly wrote.
14,000-acre San Nicholas Island, 60
miles off the California coast, is part of a
U.S. Navy sea test range. The only human
residents are Navy personnel. The Fish &
Wildlife Service contends that the habitat is too
rugged and inaccessible for neuter/return cat
control to be practicable, and that the cats are
much too wild to be tamed for possible adoption.

Sealing protest & media response

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
Conventional activist wisdom is that confrontation attracts
publicity, which builds opposition to a grievance. An ANIMAL PEOPLE
analysis of Atlantic Canadian seal hunt coverage, however, shows a
low yield from ongoing efforts to confront and document the
activities of sealers on the ice, the chief protest tactic since the
1970s.
The New York Times during the first two weeks of the 2008
sealing season published just one brief article about it, and since
1981 has published an average of just 1.4 articles per year about the
hunt. The New York Times total of 39 articles about Atlantic
Canadian seal hunting and related protest contrasts with 312 articles
about Japanese research whaling published in the same years.

Will seizing Sea Shepherd ship help Canada to hold off European seal product import ban?

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

TOKYO; SYDNEY, N.S.-The Institute of Cetacean Research
acknowledged on April 14, 2008 that pursuit of the Japanese whaling
fleet by the Sea Shepherd Conserv-ation Society vessel Steve Irwin
had held their winter “research whaling” catch to just 551 minke
whales, 55% of their self-assigned quota of 985 minke whales and 50
fin whales.
“We did not have enough time for research because we had to
avoid sabotage,” said a prepared statement from the Japan Fisheries
Agency.

About six million U.S. dogs live on chains, Dogs Deserve Better count projects

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
TIPTON, Pa.–How many dogs are chained or penned in
abnormally close quarters as their primary means of confinement?
The quick answer appears to be about six million dogs, 9% of
the U.S. dog population, based on an ANIMAL PEOPLE analysis of data
gathered by Dogs Deserve Better founder Tammy Grimes and public
liaison director Dawn Ashby.
Grimes and Ashby in mid-April 2008 spent 12 days counting
chained or closely penned dogs in a dozen southern and southeastern
states. They found 1,051 chained dogs in 1,483 residential road
miles, or about one mile in 2,648 of the U.S. residential road mile
total.

Order protecting duck said to be a legal first

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
MASTIC, N.Y.–A protective order issued on April 3, 2008
on behalf of a duck named Circles was believed to be a legal first.
Ylik Mathews, 21, a neighbor who allegedly shot Circles in the neck
with a pellet gun, received the order after pleading not guilty to
felony cruelty in Central Islip First District Court. Previously
convicted of first degree robbery, Mathews faces up to two years in
prison. He was held on bail of $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond.
“To my knowledge, it’s the first order of protection for a
pet in Suffolk County outside of domestic violence cases,”
prosecutor Michelle Auletta told Luis Perez of Newsday.

High-tech cameras help to put the Japanese spotlight on Taiji dolphin killing

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

TOKYO–Dolphin Project founder Ric
O’Barry thought the 2007 discovery that the
mercury content of meat from dolphins killed at
Taiji is 30 times higher than the Japanese
government-recommended limit might rouse enough
citizen outrage to end the annual “drive fishery”
massacres.
The main reason why Japanese whaling is
not stopped by the Japanese people, O’Barry has
believed since his first visit to Japan in 1976,
is that most Japanese people don’t know about it.
Neither coastal whaling as practiced at Taiji nor
so-called “research whaling” on the high seas has
ever drawn much Japanese media notice, so while
Japanese donors strongly support causes such as
saving koala bears, Japanese whaling opponents
remain isolated and underfunded.

Spared by court, sea lions are shot by night raiders

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
PORTLAND–The National Marine Fisheries Service is
investigating the early May 5 fatal shooting of six California sea
lions who were trapped in floating cages used by the Oregon
Department of Fish & Wildlife to capture sea lions who are believed
to be contributing to the depletion of endangered salmon runs.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 23, 2008
granted an injunction to the Humane Society of the U.S. and
coplaintiffs which allowed Oregon wildlife wardens to capture sea
lions who eat endangered salmon below the Bonneville Dam on the
Columbia River, but prohibited killing sea lions.
Eight of 61 sea lions targeted for removal were trapped on
April 24, of whom one died while awaiting transfer to Sea World.
Zoos and aquariums had agreed to accept about 20. No others were
impounded before the program was suspended. The National Marine
Fisheries Service had authorized Oregon officials to kill any for
whom homes could not be found.

« 1 … 96 97 98 99 100 … 648 »