A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
Gassing ended in Macon, Georgia in early April 2009.
Central Georgia CARES funded dismantling the city gas chamber and
building a euthanasia room, and is covering other conversion costs
through 2009. Georgia law prohibited installing new gas chambers
after 1990, but allowed shelters that already had them to continue
using them.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
TURIN–An arson claimed by the Animal Liberation Front with
spray-painted slogans and a posting to the Florida-based Bite Back
web site on February 25, 2009 razed the newly built Zoom Zoo near
Turin, Italy. The zoo was to open in April.
“Several bottles filled with petrol were used to start the
fire, which killed some 40 hawks, buzzards and owls,” Europe News
and Italian media reported. The ALF claimed to have released about
30 birds.
Also killed were two hedgehogs, but firefighters kept the
blaze from harming several tigers who were also on the premises.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
SAN ANTONIO–Judge Solomon Casseb III of
the 288th Judicial District Court of Bexar
County, Texas, on March 11, 2009 rejected
Primarily Primates’ motion for a summary
judgement dismissing the latest round of four
years of PETA-funded litigation against the
sanctuary.
Primarily Primates has since August 2006
been a program of Friends of Animals.
“This order only means that Judge Casseb
believes there are issues to be decided by a
factfinder,” FoA president Priscilla Feral told
ANIMAL PEOPLE. “We have not yet discussed a
trial setting with opposing counsel,” Feral
said, “but we believe the earliest jury trial
setting will be in December 2009 or January 2010.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
Donald D. Chambers, 40, of Amherst, Ohio, on January 30,
2009 was sentenced to serve a year in prison, was fined $1,000, and
was ordered to pay $62,124 in restitution to the Best Friends Animal
Society, of Kanab, Utah. Chambers on October 24, 2008 pleaded
guilty to defrauding Best Friends by taking 28 dogs rescued after
Hurricane Katrina, plus $1,000 apiece for their care and feeding,
on the promise to find adoptive homes for them.
“The relationship between Chambers and Best Friends began
when he presented himself as Don the Dog Guy, who had a kennel and
training facility in Lorain County,” wrote Cleveland Plain Dealer
reporter Donna Miller. “He traveled to Best Friends’ sanctuary and
spent time with the dog trainers there.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
LONDON–Mike Baker, chief executive
officer of the Brooke Hospital for Animals since
June 2001, will in June 2009 succeed Peter
Davies as director general of the World Society
for the Protection of Animals, WSPA announced
on March 6, 2009.
“I hope still to be active in the
movement,” Davies told ANIMAL PEOPLE. WSPA had
announced Davies’ retirement in July 2008.
Davies, previously director general of the Royal
SPCA of Britain, had headed WSPA since mid-2002.
Baker, 44, served as political manager
for the British Union Against Vivisection,
1989-1994, and then headed the BUAV in
1995-1998, after an interlude with Amnesty
International. From November 1998 until Baker
became the Brooke chief executive he was United
Kingdom director for the International Fund for
Animal Welfare.
Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.–“We have
received a written agreement from Dancing Star
Foundation to enact a moratorium on killing
animals under their care,” e-mailed Farm
Sanctuary communications director Tricia Berry on
February 26, 2009, affirming earlier statements
to ANIMAL PEOPLE by Farm Sanctuary attorney Russ
Mead.
“We are now monitoring the situation to
ensure that Dancing Star abides by the
agreement,” Berry added. “If they fail to do
so, Farm Sanctuary will have no other recourse
than to contact the California Attorney General
and urge that Dancing Star be investigated.”
Berry forwarded a brief message from
Dancing Star Foundation president Michael Tobias.
“While it is our obligation to our animals to
regularly assess their quality of life,” Tobias
said, “there are no plans to put any to rest at
this time.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
The Scottish SPCA in February 2009
published £100,000 worth of full-page ads in
several Scottish newspapers that accused the
Royal SPCA of Britain of “stealing food from the
mouths of Scotland’s defenseless animals.”
Alleged Scottish SPCA chief executive
Stuart Earley to the BBC, “Many people do not
know that the RSPCA does not rescue or rehome any
animals in Scotland. By advertising here it has
been intentionally adding to the confusion to
make money. We are a completely separate charity
and have asked the RSPCA to make it clear it does
not save animals in Scotland so people can make
an informed choice about who to donate to. After
six months of talks we are no further forward.
This has increased the huge pressure on our
resources for many years.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
PHILADELPHIA–The Pennsylvania SPCA board of directors on
February 19, 2009 unanimously accepted the February 11 resignation
of chief executive officer Howard Nelson, 45, effective immediately.
“One-year board member Beth Ann White, 43, a former banker,
was named interim chief executive,” reported Philadelphia Inquirer
staff writer Gail Shister. White will serve while the PSPCA conducts
a national CEO search.
Hired in May 2007, Nelson “engineered PSPCA’s successful
bid late last year for the city’s $2.9 million animal-control
contract,” recalled Shister. “He increased staff and oversaw major
improvements in the deteriorating Feltonville shelter.”
But Pocono Record senior managing editor Susan Koomar took a
more critical view of Nelson’s performance. “Nelson is responsible
for closing the Monroe County shelter at the end of January,” Koomer
wrote. “Local rescue groups took charge of the shelter’s animals.
Unwanted pets have been abandoned at a pet shop and veterinarian’s
office since the closing.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
WANTAGH, New York–The 94-year-old Bide A Wee Adoption
Center in Wantagh was closed for financial reasons on March 8, 2009.
Founded in 1903 by Flora Kibbe of Manhattan, Bide A Wee continues to
operate shelters at the original site in Manhattan and in Westhampton.
Thirty-six of the 135 Bide A Wee staff were laid off, Bide A
Wee chief executive Nancy Taylor told Christina Hernandez of Long
Island Newsday. Taylor said donations had dropped 30% since October
2008, while Bide A Wee lost $2 million in investments. Bide A Wee
had revenue of about $8 million per year in recent years, with
nearly $14 million in financial reserves.
Bide A Wee was the second of the oldest and wealthiest humane
societies in the U.S. to announce shelter closures in early 2009.
The Massachusetts SPCA announced earlier that it will close shelters
in Springfield, Martha’s Vineyard, and Brockton on March 31, May
1, and September 30, respectively.