New draft Egyptian constitution guarantees “protection of animal welfare”

November 1, 2013 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

CAIRO––The 50-member constituent assembly responsible for
establishing the new Egyptian constitution has included recognition of
animal welfare in Article 45 of a redraft that is expected to be
ratified in early 2014.
Announcing the inclusion of the animal welfare clause on
December 1, 2013, Cairo animal advocate Dina Zulfikar forwarded two
different translations of Article 45 from the Arabic original,
diverging in idiom but parallel in apparent intent.

Malawi & Kenya act against substandard crocodile farms

November 1, 2013 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

LILONGWE, Malawi; NAIROBI, Kenya––The Lilongwe SPCA,
Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, the Malawi Department of Animal Health
Livestock Management, and local police on November 8, 2013 confiscated
more than 200 crocodiles from the Koma Crocodile Farm at Monkey Bay,
Mangochi, and filed cruelty charges against the owner.
“There was no food or water for the crocodiles, their cages
had very little shade, and all the ponds were dry,” Lilongwe SPCA
director Richard Ssuna told Sophie Gomani of the Malawi News Agency.

BOOKS: Rhinos and Elephants on the brink of extinction

October 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)

The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World’s Greatest Treasures by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence Thomas Dunne Books, c/o St. Martin’s Griffin (175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010), 2012. 333 pages, paperback. $16.99.

Kony’s Ivory: How Elephant Poaching in Congo Helps Support the Lord’s Resistance Army by Kasper Agger and Jonathan Hutson Co-produced by the Enough Project, The Resolve, Invisible Children, & the Satellite Sentinel Project (with DigitalGlobe), January 2013. 16 pages. Free download from Enough, 1333 H St. NW, 10th floor, Washington, DC 20005; <www.enoughproject.org>.

The Last Rhinos, by the late South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony and his brother-in-law Graham Spence, and Kony’s Ivory, by Enough Project staff members Kasper Agger and Jonathan Hutson, offer superficially opposite perspectives on the role of the Lord’s Resistance Army in poaching, particularly of elephants for ivory, in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Read more

Nairobi terrorist strike alerts the world to new threat to elephants

September 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)

NAIROBI, Kenya––Four days of shooting at the Westgate Mall in Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya introduced the world to yet another poaching threat to elephants. Read more

The usual suspects try again to reintroduce trophy hunting to Kenya

September 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)

It is now official that cropping, defined as “harvesting of [wild] animals for a range of products,” including meat, horns, and hides, may be re-introduced to Kenya through the newly proposed Wildlife Conservation & Management Bill, 2013. Read more

Zimbabwean courts hand long sentences to poachers, but condemn a ranger to hang

September 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2013: (Actually published on October 8, 2013)

HARARE––Sentencing three convicted elephant poachers to long prison terms and a game ranger to hang for shooting an alleged poacher, Zimbabwe courts appeared to send mixed messages about protecting elephants in late September 2013––but the facts leading to the death sentence may have been more nuanced than headlines that touched off a flurry of online petitions and activist alerts on behalf of ranger Maxwell Bowa, 53. Read more

Zoo elephant returns to the wild

May 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May/June 2013:

CAPE TOWN––“Thandora, the elephant recently re-introduced into the wild at Gondwana Game Reserve after being held in captivity for 23 years, is slowly acclimatising to her new home,” Wallace du Plessis of News24 in Johannesburg, South Africa reported on April 29, 2013. Read more

Hunters & ranchers push legal rhino horn traffic as response to poaching

May 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May/June 2013:

MILWAUKEE, LONDON, JOHANNESBURG––As the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sees it, the critical issue in rhinoceros conservation is not rhinos are being killed in record numbers, but rather, who gets the money from killing them. Anyhow, this was the reasoning that emerged from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service explanations of why trophy hunter David K. Reinke, 52, of Madison, Wisconsin, was recently allowed to become the first American to legally import the remains of a black rhino since the species was federally listed as endangered in 1980. Read more

South African National SPCA fights crocodile farming

March 1, 2013 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2013:

PONGOLA, KZN, South Africa––Fined the equivalent of $33,000 U.S. dollars by the South African Department of Agriculture & Environment for housing crocodiles in single pens shorter than the length of their bodies, Metroc Broedery owner Coen Labuscagne of Pongola, KwaZulu-Natal, “nevertheless has applied for permission to expand his operation to incarcerate 1,500 crocodiles,” South African National SPCA information officer Chris Kuch e-mailed to media on January 17, 2013. Read more

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