Awards & Honors

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton on October 10, 2010
received the 15th annual ProMED-mail Award for Excellence in Outbreak
Reporting on the Internet, presented by the International Society
for Infectious Diseases for contributions to the identification and
control of emerging disease. Past winners include leading members of
the teams who identified mad cow disease in humans, the H5N1 avian
influenza, Nipah virus, and Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Clifton was honored for contributions that led to identifying fruit
bats as the host species for Nipah virus in April 1999; helping to
identify the roles of cockfighting and falconing in the migration of
H5N1; identifying aspects of halal slaughter as the probable source
of outbreaks of the tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever among
Central Asian meat industry workers in 2009-2010; and especially,
said ProMed-mail editor Larry Madoff, for contributions to
epidemiological understanding of the cultural factors involved in the
spread and control of canine rabies in India, China, Indonesia,
and Vietnam.

Read more

Serenity Springs cofounder Nick Sculac convicted

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

COLORADO SPRINGS–Serenity Springs Wildlife Center cofounder
Nick Sculac, 60, was on October 26, 2010 sentenced to serve six
years in a halfway house, with probation possible in six to eight
months. The conviction was Sculac’s third for felony theft, but
Colorado mandates a life sentence for a third felony conviction only
if the felonies involve violence.
“When a volunteer was mauled by a tiger last year,”
explained R. Scott Rappold of the Colorado Springs Gazette, Sculac
bilked the man out of $40,500 by falsely claiming– according to
court documents–that he faced fines from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and that amount was his share. The USDA is still
investigating the April 2009 mauling and has not issued a fine. The
Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the sanctuary
$7,000,” Rappold added.

Read more

Fired founder Carol Buckley sues Elephant Sanctuary

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)
NASHVILLE–Carol Buckley, cofounder of the Elephant
Sanctuary at Hohenwald, Tennessee, has sued the sanctuary, board
member Janice Zeitlin, and then-acting chief executive Mary Baker
for wrongful dismissal.
Placed on involuntary leave of absence on November 21, 2009
and fired on March 17, 2010, Buckley filed suit on September 10,
2010, but word of the case did not reach news media until October 7,
when separate reports appeared from Liz Potocsnak of Courthouse News
Service and Chris Echegary of the Nashville Tennessean.

Read more

Pete Bethune vs. Paul Watson

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)
FRIDAY HARBOR, Wa.–A split between Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson
and Pete Bethune, captain of the sunken racing
trimaran turned anti-whaling vessel Ady Gil,
flared into view on October 5, 2010, attracting
global notice as result of statements Bethune
made to New Zealand National Radio, but vanished
from his web site and that of the Sea Shepherds
just a few days later.
Joining the Sea Shepherd fleet for the
winter 2009-2010 campaign against Japanese
whaling, the Ady Gil caught up to the whalers in
early January 2010, joined on January 6 by Sea
Shepherd vessel Bob Barker. Later that day the
Ady Gil was cut in two when rammed by the
whale-catcher Shonan Maru #2. The Bob Barker
took the aft part of the Ady Gil under tow, but
the tow proved difficult as the Ady Gil took on
water. The Ady Gil was stripped and scuttled on
January 8.

Read more

Humane Society Legislative Fund candidates did well

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)
WASHINGTON D.C.– Among 298 midterm election candidates
endorsed by the Humane Society Legislative Fund, 238 were declared
winners by noon on November 3, 2010, 46 lost, and 14 were in races
still undecided.
In Washington state the HSLF endorsement of incumbent
Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, may prove pivotal. Murray held a
1% margin over Republican challenger Dino Rossi as ANIMAL PEOPLE went
to press, with a recount certain.

Read more

Honors & Titles

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2010:
(published October 5, 2010)

 

The Home Box Office biographical film Temple Grandin on
August 30, 2010 won Emmy Awards for Best Actress, Best Supporting
Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture.
A Colorado State University professor of livestock handling and
psychology, Grandlin has for more than 30 years worked to reform
slaughterhouse management and design, consulting often with both
animal welfare organizations and the meat industry.

Read more

Net-cutting claimed by German activists fails to free dolphins from “The Cove”

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2010:
(published October 5, 2010)
TAIJI, Japan–Japanese authorities, coastal whalers,
longtime opponent of coastal dolphin-killing and capture Ric O’Barry,
and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society observers at the Taiji
dolphin-killing cove Scott and Elora West all appeared surprised on
September 28, 2010 by a web-posted announcement that “Divers from
the European conservation organisation Black Fish last night swam out
and cut the nets of six holding pens in Taiji, Japan, that were
holding dolphins caught during a dolphin drive hunt a few days
earlier.

Read more

American Humane Association approves decompressing chickens

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2010:
(published October 5, 2010)
DENVER–Former Pew Charitable Trusts
deputy director of philanthropic services Robin
Ganzert took office on August 31, 2010 as new
chief executive officer of the American Humane
Association with a statement distancing the AHA
from “extreme ideas purported by those who argue
thatŠpeople have no right to raise animals for
food.”
Ganzert in her next sentence mentioned
“the inhumane farming practices that contributed
to the massive egg recall” due to salmonella
contamination of eggs produced primarily by farms
owned by Austin “Jack” DeCoster, whose abusive
methods on some of those same farms were exposed
only weeks earlier by the vegan advocacy group
Mercy for Animals.

Read more

Editorial feature: “Zero grazing” vs. the Five Freedoms

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2010:
(published October 5, 2010)
Few animal advocates doubt these days
that the use and misuse of more than 47 billion
farmed animals worldwide is the most urgent and
critical issue before us. Whether one favors
ushering humanity toward vegetarianism or
veganism, or only more nuanced efforts to reduce
and mitigate animal suffering in husbandry and
slaughter, animal agriculture involves many
times more animals and more misery than all other
human activities combined.
Indeed, from a third to half of all the
birds in the world are factory-farmed chickens.
Farmed mammals far outnumber all companion
animals and probably all wildlife larger than a
dog. Even the highest estimates of the numbers
of animals used in laboratories per year appear
to be lower than the volume of animals
slaughtered for human consumption on most days of
the week.

Read more

1 25 26 27 28 29 250