Austrian activists on hunger strike after arrests

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
VIENNA–Association Against Animal Factories founder Martin
Balluch and 13 other Austrian activists associated with at least
seven organizations–and the Animal Conference 2006 held in
Vienna–were reportedly arrested without charges on May 21, 2008,
in dawn raids on as many as 24 homes and offices. The raids were
noteworthy for the lack of information disclosed by Austrian
authorities about the reasons for them and the findings of the police
investigators.
“Ten people are being held in pre-trial detention, which
could last for months, accused of ‘forming a criminal organization,'”
said the Farm Animal Reform Movement in a supporting statement.
“Seven, including President of the Austrian Association Against
Animal Factories Professor Martin Balluch, are on a hunger strike
and becoming very weak,” FARM added. Balluch, hunger striking
for 20 days as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, was said to have been
hospitalized.

Rodeo cowboys sued

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
CHICAGO–The Electronic Frontiers Foundation, founded in
1990 to protect freedom of speech and press in cyberspace, on June
14, 2008 sued the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association on behalf
of Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK), of Geneva, Illinois.
“SHARK videotapes and photographs rodeos to expose animal
abuse, injuries, and deaths,” EFF explained. “SHARK posted more
than two dozen videos to YouTube to publicize animal mistreatment.
But the PRCA filed takedown demands for 13 videos under the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act. YouTube removed the videos and canceled
SHARK’s YouTube account, even though the PRCA has no copyright claim
in live rodeo events.”
Said EFF Intellectual Property Fellow Emily Berger, “Those
bringing meritless copyright claims must be held accountable.”

Addenda to Swinging Canadian elections keeps the sealers swinging clubs: Animal Alliance of Canada pursues electoral strategy

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
Addenda to Swinging Canadian elections keeps the sealers swinging clubs:
Animal Alliance of Canada pursues electoral strategy

Commentary by Merritt Clifton
Long before University of Texas at El Paso philosophy
department chair Steven Best became a popular speaker at animal
rights conferences, noted for fiery defenses of “direct action”
vandalism, film maker Stephen Best of Shelburne, Ontario became
quietly known to animal advocacy insiders–and the political
opposition–as one of the most astute strategists in the cause. When
defenders of the seal hunt produced strategy papers, obtained
eventually by news media, Best was repeatedly identified as one of
the voices most essential to isolate and neutralize, even though few
grassroots activists had ever heard his name.
Grassroots activists knew his work. Best’s 1973 documentary
Seal Song, commissioned by the International Fund for Animal
Welfare, “became part of the long-running British television series
Survival,” he remembers. More than that, Seal Song put the annual
Atlantic Canada seal hunt into living rooms worldwide. Eighteen
years earlier, film maker Harry Lillie brought back the first film
of the seal hunt, inspiring an informed few to revive anti-sealing
campaigns that had previously been waged in the early 1900s, late
1920s, and late 1930s, but it was Seal Song that turned the cause
into a cultural phenomenon.

Victories over Portuguese-style bullfighting

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:

LISBON–A Lisbon court on May 30, 2008 granted the
Portu-guese organization ANIMAL an injunction prohibiting the
state-owned television station RTP from broadcasting bullfights
“before 10.30 p.m. and without displaying a sign indentifying the
program as violent and capable of negatively influencing the
personality development of children and teen-agers,” e-mailed ANIMAL
president Miguel Moutinho.
Presenting as witnesses two clinical psychologists, a
biologist, and a university professor of ethology, ANIMAL convinced
the court that bullfighting broadcasts in prime time violate
Portuguese law governing what may be aired when young people are
likely to be watching.

Raising funds in hard times

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
Raising money during crises is an area that I have had a
particular interest in since college-not just the impact of the
economy on donations, but also the effects of war, natural
disasters, terrorism and even positive “good feeling” events such
as, for example, the 1969 first human landing on the moon.
Today animal charities are asking, “What impact will the
recession in the United States have on donations?” There is a
prevailing fear that the effects will be considerable. However,
this fear is not well grounded. While recessions have a definite
impact, historically charitable giving, overall, has not declined
during recessions.
Different sectors of donors and potential donors react
differently, and different types of charities are affected
differently.

Balancing fundraising needs with program work in the developing world

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
Last year after forwarding our annual accounts to Animal
People for inclusion in your annual Watchdog Report on Animal
Charities, I received a stinging e-mail from editor Merritt Clifton
pointing out that if we wished to survive we simply had to invest
more money in fundraising and marketing. He pointed out that
successful charities usually reinvest between 20% and 30% of their
income on such activities.
Whilst accepting the validity of this statement, I pointed
out that as a small foundation working in the third world, we like
many others depend almost entirely on a few volunteers to do the
work, and with increasing demands on our resources, every cent we
raise goes directly to assisting the animals we help. Working in a
poor community, we are almost entirely reliant on overseas donors.
Although there are many wealthy expatriates living in our region,
most are interested only in making money, not in helping animals.
We would love to employ a high-powered marketing manager on a
six-figure salary, but unfortunately if he did not deliver, that
would be the end of the foundation.

No need to apologize for helping animals

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:

Once upon a time at the earliest edge of recorded memory,
the earth shook, the sky caught fire, the sea rose, a tidal wave
swept away anything standing, and for forty days and forty nights a
torrential rain and wet ash covered everything left.
The myths of at least 35 ancient cultures representing every
inhabited continent and many remote islands recall that event, in at
least 175 different versions of the story, which appears to be among
the oldest, most ubiquitous, and still among the most popular of
all stories. Many peoples date their history from whatever happened.
The number of human survivors is said to have been anywhere from just
one pregnant woman to 30 scattered individuals –and their animals.

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.

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