A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2012:
Royal SPCA of Britain, world’s wealthiest humane society, will lay off staff
LONDON–-Struggling with a revenue decline of about £4 million per year since 2008, and an
operating deficit of £7.3 million in 2011, the Royal SPCA of Britain–the wealthiest humane society in the world–is following three years of downsizing with a new round of budget cuts and staff reductions. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2012:
The American SPCA grants $151,000 to help a poultry producer expand operations
NEW YORK CITY-American SPCA farm animal welfare campaign director Suzanne McMillan on May 15, 2012 announced a $151,100 grant to the five-year-old nonprofit organization Farm Forward, to be used “to promote humane poultry welfare at the Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch
in Lindsborg, Kansas.” Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2012:
Sierra Club national board takes stand against body-grip trapping
SAN FRANCISCO–The Sierra Club national board of directors on May 19, 2012 adopted a new “Policy on Trapping of Wildlife” which may be the 110-year-old organization’s strongest statement yet against any form of hunting.
States the policy, “Use of body-gripping devices–including leghold traps, snares, and Conibear traps–are indiscriminate to age, sex and species and typically result in injury, pain, suffering, and/or death of target and
non-target animals. The Sierra Club considers body-gripping, restraining and killing traps and snares to be ecologically indiscriminate and unnecessarily inhumane and therefore opposes their use. The Sierra Club promotes and supports humane, practical and effective methods of mitigating human-wildlife conflicts and actively discourages the use of inhumane and indiscriminate methods. The Sierra Club recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples under federal laws and treaties granting rights of self-determination and rights to pursue subsistence taking of wildlife.” Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2012:
The Center for Animals & Public Policy on May 29, 2012 confirmed the appointment of former associate center director for education Allen T. Rutberg as permanent director, and named as assistant director Emily McCobb, DVM. Rutberg had for three years been interim director of the center, founded in 1983 within the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. A zoologist, Rutberg is best known for overseeing deer contraceptive research funded by the Humane Society of the U.S. at sites including Fire Island, New York, and the 578-acre National Institute of Standards & Technology campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The first two years of the Fire Island project cut the deer population by 46%. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2012:
MIAMI, PHILADELPHIA–The Humane Society
of the U.S. on April 12, 2012 disclosed
undercover video of horrific conditions at a
Kreider Farms egg ranch in Man-heim,
Pennsylvania–an erstwhile ally in seeking
passage of HR 3798, the proposed federal bill to
mandate larger cage sizes for laying hens.
On April 25, 2012, less than two weeks
later, HSUS president Wayne Pacelle lauded
Burger King for announcing that by 2017 all
Burger King eggs and pork products are to come
from cage-free hens and pigs raised without use
of gestation stalls.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2012:
MADRID–King Juan Carlos of Spain is for
the time being still honorary president of the
Spanish arm of the World Wildlife Fund, as he
has been since it was formed in 1968, but an
April 20, 2012 public apology for participating
in an ill-fated $60,000 elephant hunt in Botswana
did not quell calls for his ouster or
resignation–even from within the pro-hunting WWF.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2012:
No deal for Macau greyhounds
MACAU–It was a cruel April Fool for dozens of greyhounds, the U.S. organization Grey 2K, Animals Aust-ralia, and the Macau animal rescue society Anima. Macau media reported on April 1, 2012 that Anima and the Macau Yat Yuen Canidrome Company Ltd. had signed an agreement to allow Anima to rehome ex-racing greyhounds, a first in the 82-year history of the Macau Canidrome. Nevada casino owner Steve Wynn had reportedly donated $250,000 to build kennels for the rescued dogs. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2012:
Former HSUS president John Hoyt, 80
John Hoyt, 80, died of the rare brain disorder progressive supranuclear palsy on April 15, 2012 at his home in Fredericksburg, Maryland.
Born in Marietta, Ohio, Hoyt wrote that he was influenced by a vegetarian grandmother who had a farm in West Virginia, knew each of her 40 sheep by name, and lived to age 106. Though Hoyt also kept a hobby farm, he was not a vegetarian. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2012:
WWF/Sweden head wants to cull wolves
STOCKHOLM— Officially opposed to hunting any of the estimated 200 wolves living in Sweden, World Wildlife Fund/Sweden has been headed since 1988 by Swedish King Carl Gustaf–who in October 2008 urged a wolf cull. Wolf hunting resumed in Sweden in 2011, after a 46-year hiatus. Twenty wolves were killed before Swedish environment minister Andreas Carlgren halted the hunt under pressure from European Union environment commissioner Janez Potocnik. Read more