SHAC leaders sentenced in Britain & New Jersey

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
LONDON, TRENTON–Five alleged
instigators of property damage and threats
directed at facilities, business partners, and
employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences in
mid-September 2006 drew prison terms ranging from
three to six years.
Northampton Crown Court Judge Ian
Alexander on September 20 sentenced molecular
biologist Joseph Harris, 26, to three years as
the first person convicted under a new British
law against economic sabotage.
“Harris, of Bursledon, Hampshire, broke
into premises in Nottingham, Bicester and
Northampton,” summarized Nicola Woolcock of the
London Times, “where he slashed tires, flooded
offices, and poured glue into locks. He caused
more than £25,000 in damage.” Harris apparently
began the attacks in a futile bid to keep a
girlfriend who left him, the court was told,
because of animal experiments he did in
connection with pancreatic cancer research.

How gassing came & went

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
Gassing pound animals with carbon monoxide gained acceptance
across the U.S. after the American SPCA took over the New York City
animal control contract in 1895 and introduced carbide gassing in
lieu of drowning mass-caged strays in the Hudson River.
Carbon monoxide gassing prevailed over many attempts to
introduce other killing methods partly because it was inexpensive and
easily done, but perhaps mostly because it was perceived as painless.
The most successful challenge to carbon monoxide came from
the introduction of decompression chambers to kill animals, after
World War II, when the San Francisco SPCA developed a side business
in purchasing and adapting to shelter use Navy surplus decompression
chambers originally used to help divers who developed “the bends.”

Could carbon monoxide gas chambers make a comeback?

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
Are the surging numbers of dangerous dogs
entering animal shelters retarding progress
toward abolishing gas chambers?
Warren Cox began to wonder in May 2004
when he arrived for a stint as interim executive
director at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter
in Dayton, Ohio, and found a carbon monoxide
chamber that only a few days before was still in
sporadic use.
Having managed more than two dozen
shelters since 1952, Cox knew he was looking at
an anachronism. The Dayton chamber had
supposedly been decommissioned years earlier.
The Dayton Daily News published exposés of
gassing in nearby Fayette County and Darke County
in 1995 and 1997 without apparent awareness that
animals were still gassed right there in Dayton.
Continued gassing at the Mont-gomery
County Animal Shelter came to light as result of
a September 2003 complaint to county officials by
veterinarian Sue Rancurello and shelter
volunteer Jodi Gretchen, and was discontinued
after a shelter evaluation by American Humane
affirmed the obsolescence of gassing.
“Two top administrators at the Montgomery
County Animal Shelter were removed,” the Dayton
Daily News reported, in part for “using carbon
monoxide instead of lethal injection to euthanize
more than the recommended number of animals.”
Cox had the carbon monoxide chamber
removed. But Cox also took note of who used it,
and why. Throughout the first half of Cox’s long
career in shelter work, carbon monoxide, carbon
dioxide, nitrogen, and decompression chambers
were used to kill animals in high volume. The
Dayton gas chamber was used to kill specific
animals whom some of the staff considered too
dangerous to handle.

Anti-chaining activist is busted for saving a dog

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
ALTOONA, Pa.–Tammy Sneath Grimes, founder of the national
anti-chaining organization Dogs Deserve Better, was released from
police custody in East Freedom, Pennsylvania, at 2 a.m. on
September 12, 2006, about 12 hours after she removed a seriously
debilitated chained dog she called Doogie from the yard of East
Freedom residents Steve and Lori Arnold.
“I’m out,” on unsecured $50,000 bail, Grimes e-mailed to
ANIMAL PEOPLE, for whom she is a part-time assistant web site
developer. Charged with theft, receiving stolen property, criminal
mischief, and criminal trespass, Grimes remained convinced she had
done the right thing.
“I will not take this lying down,” Grimes pledged.
The criminal trespass and criminal mischief counts were
dismissed at a September 21 preliminary hearing, as about 75 Grimes
supporters demonstrated outside. Grimes is to stand trial on the
charges of theft and receiving stolen property on November 27.
The Arnolds call the elderly German shepherd/Labrador mix
Jake. They claim he is 19 years old, an extraordinary age for
either breed. The Arnolds told news media that the dog was in the
condition he was in because he is arthritic and they had hesitated to
have him euthanized. They said they had given him aspirin for pain
relief.

Confusion of names befuddles bequests

September 1, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2005:

Hunter Vernon D. Lybolt Jr., 57, of
Forest, Virginia, born and raised in New York,
unmarried with no children, siblings, or living
parents, died in July 2004, leaving his
$600,000 estate to the “Bedford County ASPCA
Animal Shelter.” The estate is now claimed by
the Bedford Humane Society, the county-managed
Bedford Animal Shelter, the New York City-based
American SPCA, and a coalition of 13 relatives.
As result of a similar case, in which
the Royal SPCA of Great Britain received £250,000
from a Scots estate, the Scottish SPCA recently
surveyed 10,000 donors and found that 87% had
mistakenly donated to the RSPCA. Founded in
1839, one year before the former London Humane
Society became the RSPCA, the SSPCA endured a
cash flow crisis in 2002 that had the trustees
threatening to lay off staff and close seven of
13 regional rescue centers.
Hoping to clear up the confusion, the
SSPCA on August 1, 2005 introduced new colors
and a new logo.

Australia pays Eritrea to take sheep–and has a new live transport incident

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

PORTLAND, Australia– The Australian live sheep export trade
had just begun to regroup after the three-month Cormo Express debacle
when economic disaster hit again– induced this time by Animal
Liberation South Australia campaigner Ralph Hahneuser.
The Cormo Express sailed Fremantle with 57,937 sheep on
August 5, bound for Kuwait, where they were to be unloaded and
trucked to Saudi Arabia. Arriving on August 22, the sheep were
refused entry to Kuwait, however, because some had developed scabby
mouth disease en route.
After no other nation would accept the sheep, the Australian
government repurchased the consignment from the Saudi buyer for $4.5
million U.S., halted all further sales of livestock to Saudi Arabia,
and investigated means of slaughtering and disposing of the sheep
short of returning them all to Australia, where the sheep industry
no more wanted them than the Saudis did.

Death of Keiko may coincide with rise of anti-whaling movement in Norway, Japan

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

TAKNES FJORD, Norway; TAIJI, Japan–Keiko, 27, the orca
star of the Free Willy! film trilogy, died suddenly on December 12,
2003 from apparent acute pneumonia.
His death concluded perhaps the most Quixotic, costly, and
popular episode in 138 years of documented efforts by some humans to
save whales from exploitation by others, beginning with the
post-U.S. Civil War anti-whaling crusade waged in the North Pacific
by Captain James Waddell and the crew of the ex-Confederate cruiser
Shenandoah. Waddell and his few dozen men destroyed 38 whaling ships
and took more than a thousand prisoners without killing anyone before
they were apprehended.
Their mission, recounted by Murray Morgan in Dixie Raider
(1948) inspired Paul Watson to found the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society in 1977.

Actress-turned-politician sends 100 working elephants to camp

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

CHENNAI, TRIVANDRUM– Credit Jayalalithaa, the actress
turned Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state, India, with at least
offering a different sort of animal-related sideshow from the usual
in Indian politics.
Instead of either killing dogs or railing against alleged
Muslim cow slaughter, Jayalalithaa and the Department of Hindu
Religious and Charitable Endowments from November 15 to December 15
hosted a rest-and-recreation camp for working elephants at the
Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary in Thepakkadu, near Coimbatore.
Held against the opposition of federal environment minister
T.R. Baalu, a liquor merchant who like Jayalalithaa comes from
Chennai, the elephant camp attracted 45 elephants from the Forest
Department, 37 from Tamil Nadu temples, and 18 belonging to private
individuals.
It also attracted 10,000 tourists.

Radio Ethiopia investigates dog-shooting at Bale Mountains National Park

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

ADDIS ABABA–The shooting of homeless
dogs at Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia,
and the history behind it, reported on page one
of the November 2003 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE,
reached the Ethiopian public for the first time
on December 15 via Radio Ethiopia.
“The journalist sent to report what was
going on reported the reality,” e-mailed Homeless
Animal Protection Society cofounder Efrem
Legesse, including “the interviews he got from
us, the local community living around the park,
the park warden, and Ethiopian Wolf Conservation
Program director Stuart Williams. It was
broadcast three times at noon, when most
Ethiopians listen to the news.”

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