Philippine opponents win a “hold” on greyhound racing with help of Massachusetts allies

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

MANILA–The Philippine House of Representatives on September
7, 2009 “agreed to hold in abeyance its approval of a second
franchise for greyhound dog racing after animal protection groups
prevailed upon the Senate to defer action on the first franchise,”
reported Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Romblon representative Eleandro Jesus Madrona “said the House
was forced to make the move after seven senators vowed to block the
introduction of greyhound racing in the country because it is
‘immoral’ and ‘cruel to animals,'” Cabacungan wrote. The Philippine
House approved the nation’s first greyhound racing franchise in
December 2008.
Actually, “Thirteen Senators sent pledges to vote no to the
introduction of greyhound racing in the Philippines,” e-mailed Anna
Nieves Cabrera of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society. Cabrera
added special thanks to Senator Jamby Madrigal and Cardinal Ricardo
J.Vidal of Cebu for helping to lead the campaign, and to the
Massachusetts-based anti-greyhound racing organization Grey 2K, for
rallying supprt beyond the Philippines.

De-worming makes a real-life “slum dog millionaire”

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

De-worming makes a real-life “slum dog millionaire”
Commentary by Merritt Clifton

“I walk through Kalhaar daily with my own
two former roadway dogs, so I know all the
street dogs here,” e-mailed Lisa Warden on
August 1, 2009 from the suburbs of Ahmedabad,
India.
“The dog pictured here just turned up
three days ago. I guess it’s safe to say that
he’s one of those who isn’t going to make it,
don’t you think?”
Perceiving emaciated street dogs, cats,
cattle, horses, and donkeys as starving and
irrecoverably suffering is the usual response of
Americans and Europeans to those whose bones
protrude as much as this dog’s did–but I
recognized a different issue.

Barking over Animals & Society fellowship

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
ANN ARBOR, Mich.–The Animals & Society
Institute had difficult questions to answer in
August 2009 after awarding a “Human-Animal
Studies Fellowship” to Jere Alexander. Alexander
in November 2008 resigned as director of the
Fulton County Animal Shelter following an exposé
of shelter conditions by Randy Travis of Fox 5 TV
and several follow-up exposés by the Atlanta
Journal Constitution.
The exposés, summarized in the November/
December 2008 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE, focused
on allegations that Alexander refused to
euthanize pit bull terriers deemed dangerous by
staff, housed other dogs with pit bulls who
killed them, removed 83 cats from the shelter in
the name of a rescue group whose existence could
not be verified, admitted having attended
dogfights in connection with academic research,
hired the wife of a convicted dogfighter, and
maintained other associations with alleged
dogfighters.

Mercy For Animals

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

DES MOINES–The Iowa egg production giant
Hy-Line North America admitted on September 8,
2009 that an independent audit found “animal
welfare policy violations” at a hatchery in
Spencer, Iowa, where a Mercy for Animals
undercover operative videotaped unwanted male
chicks being killed for two weeks in May and June
2009.
“But West Des Moines-based Hy-Line North
America said that it won’t release further
details,” Associated Press reported.
Summarized Associated Press writers
Frederic J. Frommer and Melanie S. Welte, “The
video shows a Hy-Line worker sorting through a
conveyor belt of chirping chicks, flipping some
of them into a chute like a poker dealer flips
cards. These chicks, which a narrator says are
males, are then shown being dropped alive into a
grinding machine.

Film spotlights Taiji dolphin killing

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

TAIJI, Japan–The Cove has not stopped the annual Taiji
dolphin massacres– not yet, anyhow. But the award-winning film did
appear to slow down the killing at the start of the 2009 “drive
fishery” season, and–even before release in Japan–is bringing the
massacres to the attention of the often shocked Japanese public as
nothing before ever has.
“Moviegoers who have seen The Cove, directed by Louie
Psihoyos, said they were stunned by the cruelty of the killings,
captured by concealed cameras. Many newspapers have blasted the
traditional coastal whaling practice in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture,
which is not subject to the International Whaling Commission’s ban on
commercial whaling,” summarized Toshihiro Yamanaka for Asahi
Shimbun. The second largest newspaper in Japan, Asahi Shimbun
reaches about 8.2 million readers daily.
“When I found out, I cried,” Osaka resident Keiko Hirao
told John M. Glionna of the Los Angeles Times.
Director Louis Psihoyos, a former National Geographic
photographer, has pledged to keep the spotlight on Taiji by making
The Cove available in Japan as a free download, if he fails to
secure a commercial distributor. The Cove has won more than a dozen
awards, including the audience award at the 25th annual Sundance
Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and has aired widely in other
parts of the world, but despite much media notice in Japan, has not
yet been screened there.

Decade of adoption focus fails to reduce shelter killing

July 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2009:
A decade that began with giddy hope that the U.S. might soon
become a no-kill nation is ending with the numbers of dogs and cats
killed in animal shelters still stubbornly hovering at 4.2 million,
right where it was in 2002, with the average for the decade at 4.5
million, where it was in 1999.
The numbers repudiate the emphasis of campaigns that seek to
reduce shelter killing chiefly by increasing adoptions, instead of
preventing the births of the cats and dogs who are most likely to
enter shelters and be killed.
In fact, dog acquisition “market share” has barely changed
in almost 30 years, when shelter adoptions are combined with
adoptions of found strays.

Shelters in every region are killing fewer dogs & cats –but just barely

July 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2009:


Shelters in every region are killing fewer dogs & cats
--but just barely


         Animals killed    YEAR   1,000s   Animals
         per 1,000 people       of people  killed
------------------------------------------------

New York City        2.0  2008   8,275    16,489
NEW HAMPSHIRE        2.1  2007   1,316     2,737
------------------------------------------------
NORTHEAST (29%)      1.9        34,444    66,296


TENNESSEE (prjctd)  25.1  2006   6,039   151,329
Knoxville           29.9  2006     405    12,090
Kanawha/Charleston  34.1  2007     192     6,553
------------------------------------------------
APPALACHIA (41%)    25.3        15,144   383,143


NEW JERSEY           4.5  2007   8,682    38,742
Pr. George Cty, MD   7.1  2007     841     6,000
PaSPCA-served sbrbs 18.3  2007     408     7,478
Philadelphia        19.9  2006   1,448    28,774
Camden/Gloucester   21.9  2008      86     1,886
------------------------------------------------
MID-ATLANTIC (41%)   7.2        27,638   197,546



Broward County       5.9  2007   1,788    10,500
Richmond, VA         7.9  2007     193     1,516
West Palm Beach      9.5  2007   1,351    12,820
VIRGINIA            10.8  2008   7,769    83,907
St. Johns Cnty, FL  13.0  2007     169     2,201
Alachua Cty, FL     15.4  2008     240     3,695
Lee County, FL      19.1  2007     571    10,907
Tampa area          19.9  2006   2,489    49,557
Duval County, FL    23.5  2007     838    19,662
Columbia, SC        23.5  2007     468    11,000
Charleston, SC      24.1  2007     332     8,000
NORTH CAROLINA      24.7  2007   8,856   218,350
Clay County, FL     27.3  2007     179     6,542
York county, SC     37.7  2006     199     7,500
Rome/Floyd Cty, GA  42.3  2006      95     4,034
Macon, GA           42.3  2007      94     3,970
Volusia County, FL  42.3  2007     497    21,000
Clay County, FL     44.7  2007     179     8,000
Orangeburg Cty, SC  49.5  2006      91     4,500
------------------------------------------------
SO. ATLANTIC (59%)  18.6        44,716   826,544


San Juan Capistrano  1.3  2007      37        48
San Francisco        1.3  2008     809     1,031
Huntington Beach     2.5  2006     194       485
Los Angeles city     3.7  2007   4,018    15,009
Orange County, CA    4.3  2007   3,002    13,000
San Diego            4.0  2007   2,942    11,700
WASHINGTON           6.6  2006   6,132    40,722
Los Angeles total    6.8  2007   9,503    64,457
Tehama County, CA    6.8  2006      62       421
Portland/Multnomah   6.7  2008     715     4,795
OREGON               8.4  2006   3,641    30,528
Los Angeles County   8.5  2007   5,082    43,373
Anchorage            9.1  2007     275     2,490
San Bernardino Cty  11.3  2007   2,028    22,900
Merced Cty, CA      12.2  2006     246     3,011
Long Beach          13.0  2007     469     6,075
Monterey County, CA 14.4  2006     412     5,912
Visalia, CA         16.4  2006     420     6,896
Spokane             16.8  2008     463     7,824
Kern County, CA     23.3  2006     802    18,669
Stanislaus Cty, CA  23.4  2007     512    12,000
Fresno, CA          40.9  2006     787    32,147
------------------------------------------------
PACIFIC (72%)        8.5        49,070   417,095


Dallas              11.7  2008   2,346    27,355
Austin/Travis Cty.  11.9  2008     921    10,916
Jefferson Parish    16.9  2008     456     7,720
Houston             18.4  2007   3,886    71,395
San Antonio         19.6  2008   1,329    26,000
LOUISIANA           20.1  2006   4,410    92,000
Fort Worth          21.3  2007     682    14,546
MISSISSIPPI         24.8  2007   2,939    73,000
ALABAMA             25.7  2007   4,662   120,000
Conroe area, TX     26.8  2006     378    10,120
Waco/McLennan Cty.  27.0  2008     230     6,204
Mobile              31.0  2008     404    12,516
Tuskaloosa, AL      31.1  2008     178     5,536
Baldwin County, AL  32.9  2008     172     5,664
Odessa/Ector Cty.   71.4  2008     132     9,423
------------------------------------------------
GULF COAST (58%)    21.0        36,338   763,098


Reno                 5.4  2008     406     2,186
COLORADO             9.1  2007   4,753    43,000
UTAH                11.9  2007   2,700    32,000
Phoenix/Maricopa    14.8  2008   3,880    57,287
Las Vegas/Clark Cty 22.1  2007   1,997    26,500
Albuquerque         23.8  2007     505    12,029
Tucson              25.3  2008   1,014    25,600
Fallon/Lyon Cty, NV 29.6  2007      43     1,272
NEW MEXICO          33.7  2007   1,978    66,709
------------------------------------------------
WEST (88%)          15.2        19,048   289,530


Mason County, MI     3.9  2007      30       116
Chicago              6.7  2006   2,833    19,000
Porter County, IN    8.7  2007     160     1,384
Macomb County, MI    7.2  2007     833     6,000
Oakland County, MI   8.2  2006   1,214    10,000
MICHIGAN            11.7  2006  10,096   117,919
Sangamon Cty, IL    14.4  2007     194     2,800
Columbus/Frnkln Cty 14.6  2006   1,096    16,000
St. Clair Cty, MI   15.3  2007     170     2,600
Indianapolis        16.7  2007     866    14,470
Oklahoma City       28.0  2007     691    19,365
Shelby County, IN   29.4  2008      44     1,293
Independence, MO    29.7  2006     113     3,361
Tulsa               39.2  2006     383    15,000
------------------------------------------------
MIDWEST (24%)       12.8        70,204   898,611


U.S. TOTAL          13.5     3,079,939 4,157,918


	(The regional and national totals appearing in bold are not 
tallies of the data used to produce them,  but are rather estimates 
proportionately weighted to reflect demography.  The percentage 
figure in parenthesis is the percentage of the human population 
encompassed within the shelter service areas from which the totals 
were derived.)

Helmsley estate case

July 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2009:
NEW YORK CITY–The Humane Society of the U.S., Maddie’s
Fund, and the American SPCA on August 11, 2009 asked the Manhattan
Surrogate Court to overturn a February 2009 ruling by Judge Troy K.
Webber that allowed the trustees of the late hotelier Leona
Helmsley’s estate to allocate about $5 billion to human service
charities, instead of for the benefit of dogs, as Helmsley asked in
her will. The trustees in April 2009 distributed $136 million to
human service charities, $900,000 to charities that train guide
dogs, and $100,000 to the ASPCA, the only animal charity named.

Kenya SPCA director awarded MBE

July 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2009:
Jean Gilchrist, in her 40th year as director of the Kenya
SPCA, was in August 2009 named to the Order of the British
Empire–the eighth animal advocate named since 1998, following
International Primate Protection League founder Shirley McGreal
(2008); International Animal Rescue cofounder Alan Knight, David
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust founder Daphne Sheldrick, and the late
Stella Brewer Marsden, founder of the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation
Association sanctuary in Gambia (all 2006); Care For The Wild
founder Bill Jordan, now heading the Bill Jordan Wildlife Defence
Fund (2005); Dogs Trust chair Clarissa Baldwin (2003); and Animals
Asia Foundation founder Jill Robinson (1998).

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