Category: Activists & Organizations

ARM!/Chicago to stand down, but ARM!/PAC stands up

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2001:
DENVER, CHICAGO–Just as the last visible remnant of Animal Rights Mobiliz-ation! seemed to be fading from the movement it helped to launch, the ARM! Political Action Committee emerged seeking felony penalties for extreme cruelty to animals in Colorado and Wyoming.

ARM!/PAC claimed a preliminary victory on July 6 when Circuit Judge Randal Arp of Torrington, Wyoming, sentenced Travis Wilson, 20, to serve eight months in jail for beating, mutilating, and burning alive his ex-girlfriend’s basset hound. Wilson may get two to five years more for stealing the hound. More than 1,000 letters and 300 telephone calls resulting from ARM!/PAC alerts had urged an aggressive prosecution and stiff sentencing.

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Shark fins

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2001:
WildAid, one of the newest international wildlife protection groups, announced on July 3 that 70% of a sample of shark fins it bought in Bangkok during May 2001 contained mercury, and one fin had 42 times the recommended limit for human consumption. “Sales of shark fin soup in Bangkok’s Chinatown plunged 70%” within the next week, Associated Press reported. Anchalee Kongrut of the Bangkok Post on July 14 said that “Restaurants selling shark fin soup lost up to 40% of their income,” despite Thai government and restaurant industry claims that their own tests of shark fins found no significant mercury content.

WildAid was formed in late 1999 by Suwanna Gauntlet of the San Francisco-based Barbara Delano Foundation, in whose honor the Suwanna Ranch sanctuary operated by the Humane Farming Association is named; Steven Galster of the Global Survival Network; Environmental Investigation Agency cofounder Peter Knights; and Steve Trent, who also in 1999 started the Environmental Justice Foundation. WildAid has offices in San Francisco, Washington D.C., Thailand, Cambodia, and Russia.

New groups and projects

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2001:

World Animal Net, best known for maintaining a globally comprehensive online directory of animal protection groups at <www.worldanimalnet.org>, “has recently been granted consultative status with the United Nations,” cofounder Janice Cox announced on June 1. “This gives us a great opportunity to work for the improved welfare and status of animals at appropriate U.N. meetings,” especially the World Summit for Sustainable Development, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in September 2002. “However,” Cox cautioned, “we must make inputs on animal welfare now if they are to be considered.” For further particulars about getting animal protection concerns on the agenda, contact Cox c/o <worldanimalnet@yahoo.com>.

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Animal care & control

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2001:

The San Francisco SPCA on June 1 announced a 22-position, 10% staff cut and termination of the contract it has held for about one year to provide night veterinary care at the San Francisco Animal Care and Control shelter, both effective on July 1 as part of a 15% budget cut. The budget cut was reportedly the first for the SF/SPCA in more than 20 years. Critics of SF/SPCA president Ed Sayres noted that the cuts closely followed recommendations issued by former SF/SPCA operations director Nathan Winograd in an October 27 memo to SF/SPCA vice president Daniel Crain.

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Court Calendar

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2001:

Court Calendar

A World Trade Organization tribunal ruled on June 19 that the U.S. ban on imports of shrimp caught by vessels which do not use Turtle Excluder Devices does not unfairly restrict trade, and may therefore stand. The U.S. ban was introduced as an enforcement regulation under the Endangered Species Act in 1987, but was held by the WTO to be an unfair trade barrier when challenged in 1996 by Thailand, Malaysia, India, and Pakistan. The U.S. then amended the import ban to allow exceptions from the import ban for shrimp caught by boats pulling TEDs, even if the exporting nations do not require TEDs. The WTO ruling takes away perhaps the best-known activist objection to the WTO system of resolving trade disputes, which allows WTO to rule against national environmental protection, animal protection, labor, human rights, and public health standards, if the standards are found to be unjustly discriminatory.

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Gandhi’s AV legacy

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2001:
BRIGHTON, U.K.–Anti-vivisectionist C.K. Yoe won a year-long battle on June 8 when the Imperial Cancer Research Fund pulled a TV spot depicting the Indian vegetarian statesman Mohandas Gandhi. The ICRF won an appeal to the Independ-ent TV Commission, as the use of the image was approved by the New Delhi charity Gandhi Smarak Nidhi–but GSN withdrew the okay upon learning that the ICRF funds vivisection, which Gandhi abhored.

Companion animals and raising animal welfare consciousness in Southeast Asia

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2001:

Companion animals and raising animal welfare consciousness in Southeast Asia
by Sherry Grant, cofounder, Bali Street Dogs Foundation

Westerners are often appalled by the plight of animals in Asia and the other less developed parts of the world. It is unimaginable to most of us, for example, how orangutans, Sumatran bears, tigers, many bird species, sharks, tapirs, and sea turtles have been poached to the verge of extinction for meat and body parts, and the disregard for animal suffering evident in any marketplace is an even more immediate shock. Police and public officials often benefit from the illegal traffic and the cruelty, and are thus less then enthusiastic about enforcing whatever laws exist.

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Cats & dogs in Israel

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2001:

The May 2001 article “Cats & dogs in Israel,” summarized two ongoing Israeli court cases involving feral cat rescue. It drew more response than any other single item ever published in ANIMAL PEOPLE. This is a representative selection. Please note the often directly conflicting claims and perspectives of the letter-writers.

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Era of SPCA cops may end in N.J.–might be good news for animals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2001:

TRENTON, N.J.–“The time has come to repeal the government
authority vested in Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, and place the function of enforcing cruelty laws within the
government’s stratified hierarchy of law enforcement,” the New
Jersey State Commission of Investigation reported on April 25 to five
state and federal law enforcement agencies and numerous state
regulatory boards.

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