Animal Friends Croatia halts beagle experiments & wins circus animal act bans, but who are they?

November 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

ZAGREB–The difficulty of getting from one part of Croatia to
another may have kept Animal Friends Croatia from attending the
International Companion Animal Welfare Conference in Dubrovnik–but
they were busy.
Between October 10 and November 11, Animal Friends Croatia
won bans on circus animal acts in ten cities: Mursko Sredisce,
Varazdin, Donji Mholjac, Rovinj, Velika Gorica, Split, Delnice,
Gospic, Cakovec, and Ozalj.
The string of victories started 81 days after Animal Friends
Croatia exposed and ended a series of debilitating surgical
experiments on 32 beagles at the University of Zagreb Medical School,
following just six days of campaigning.
The campaign was amplified by all radio and TV stations in
Zagreb, five days in a row, and was endorsed by 15 leading Croatian
public figures, including national president Stejepan Mesic.
Eventually the beagles were surrendered to Animal Friends Croatia.

Russian circus animals killed in fire during controversial visit to India

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

MUMBAI–Seven trained Siberian huskies, seven cats, and four
sea lions belonging to the financially struggling Rosgoscirc circus
died in an April 5 fire at the Chitrakut Grounds in the Mumbai suburb
of Andheri West.
Animal Welfare Board of India representative Bhavin Gathani
alleged that the fire was an arson, but that suspicion lifted after
animal caretaker Jasmin Shah and Chitrakut Grounds manager Rajvir
Dhillon confirmed that the $200,000 insurance policy on the animals
had expired two days earlier. Dhillon attributed the blaze to a
short circuit.
Colonel J.C. Khanna of the Animal Welfare Board of India and
Mumbai PETA representative Anuradha Sawhney on February 5, 2005 won
a stay on Rogoscirc performances with a petition to the Bombay High
Court alleging that the circus was operating in violation of Indian
animal welfare laws.
In mid-March, wrote Surojit Mahalanobis of the Times of India
News Network, “The court accepted the Rosgoscirc plea that the
Indian laws for animal use in circus shows apply only to Indian
animals, and not to foreign species.”

U.S. Senators make USDA subpoena for Siegfried & Roy video disappear

October 2, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2004:

LAS VEGAS–The USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service
in mid-September agreed to settle for viewing a Feld Entertainment
Inc. videotape of the October 3, 2003 mauling of tiger trainer Roy
Horn at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas, without actually
obtaining a copy of the tape.
USDA/APHIS in April 2004 subpoenaed the videotape while investigating
whether Horn and his performing partner, Siegfried Fishbacher,
broke the Animal Welfare Act. Feld Entertainment, owners of both
the Mirage and the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, offered to
show the video to USDA/APHIS inspectors, but refused to give them a
copy lest it be obtained by animal rights activists or TV magazine
shows via the Freedom of Information Act.
When the USDA/APHIS continued to seek a copy, U.S. Senators Harry
Reid (D-Nevada) and John Ensign (R-Nevada) threatened to introduce an
amendment to the USDA budget which would have prevented use of any
funding to obtain the video.

USDA puts Hawthorn Corp. out of the elephant business–Clyde-Beatty Cole Bros. quits, too

April 23, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

RICHMOND, Illinois–Hawthorn Corporation owner John F. Cuneo
Jr., 73, on March 7, 2004 agreed to a 19-point consent decree in
settlement of 47 Animal Welfare Act charges that requires him to
divest of his remaining 16 elephants and have them removed from his
property near Richmond, Illinois by August 15. Cuneo is also to pay
a civil penalty of $200,000.
The consent decree, finalized on March 15, marks the first
time that the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service has
ordered a circus to cease exhibiting elephants.
Hawthorn Corporation will be allowed to keep 60 white tigers,
27 conventionally colored tigers, and an African lion.
None of the elephants’ destinations have been determined.
Dehi, 57, whom the USDA removed from the Hawthorn premises in
November 2003, was sent to the Elephant Sanctuary at Hohenwald,
Tennessee. A 200-acre facility with seven Asian elephants and three
African elephants at present, the Elephant Sanctuary plans to expand
up to 2,700 acres soon, divided between Asian and African elephant
habitats.
The most recent arrival, in March 2004, is Flora, the
17-year star performer of the single-elephant Circus Flora, for whom
circus owner David Balding tried unsuccessfully to found the Ahali
Sanctuary in South Carolina.

Marineland of Canada sues Niagara Action for Animals

April 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

St. Catherines, Ontario– Niagara Action for Animals has
appealed for financial help in defending against a lawsuit brought
against it by Marineland of Canada.
Opened in 1961, Marineland of Canada was the first
oceanarium residence of Keiko, the orca star of the Free Willy!
films. Captured off Iceland in 1979, Keiko lived at Marineland of
Canada for approximately two years before he was sold to El Reino
Aventura in Mexico City, where the first of the Free Willy! films
was made in 1993. Keiko died in a Norwegian fjord in December 2003
after an only partially successful return to the wild.
The Niagara Action for Animals web site and published
references to the group indicate that it is chiefly involved in
sterilizing dogs and cats.
Niagara Action for Animals has been involved in protests
against Marineland of Canada for approximately 10 years, coordinator
Daniel K. Wilson said, but the ANIMAL PEOPLE files indicate that it
neither started the protests nor was particularly prominent in
leading them until 2001.

15-year-old puts bill to ban circuses on the ballot in a longtime Ringling stronghold

March 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004:

DENVER–Denver voters on August 10 will
be asked to approve an initiative to ban circus
performances, placed on the ballot through
petitioning by Heather Herman, 15, and Youth
Opposed to Animal Acts, a group she founded.
Herman is challenging Feld Entertainment,
owners of the Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey
Circus, in a Ringling stronghold.
“The Ringling circus has performed in
Denver since 1919,” noted Cindy Brovsky of
Associated Press, “The city’s Barnum
neighborhood is named after circus founder P.T.
Barnum, who bought 760 acres in 1882 as a winter
respite for his showŠCity officials estimate the
circus’ annual two-week stint pumps $8 million
into the local economy.”
Herman will be working against ruthless
as well as influential and affluent opposition.
PETA in a lawsuit filed in May 2001 and refilled
after amendments in 2002 alleged that Ringling
and Feld Entertainment hired the private security
firm Richlin Consultants to infiltrate and
disrupt PETA from 1989 until 1992.

Thailand hits traffickers in wildlife & dog meat

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

BANGKOK–Thai national police raided two major zoos, seized
33,000 animals from suspected poachers and wildlife traffickers, and
arrested bunchers for Laotian and Vietnamese dog meat vendors as well
during the first six weeks of an unprecedented national crackdown on
illegal animal sales.
Caught in the dragnet were three major exhibition venues:
Safari World Inc., raided on November 22 and found to be missing 14
tigers supposed to be on its inventory; the Si Racha Tiger Farm,
raided on November 27; and the Phuket Fantasea theme park, owned by
Safari World Inc., where the 14 missing tigers were discovered on
December 4.

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.

“Flushing Nemo” & the soaring threat of “101 Snowy Owls”

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

OAKLAND, California– “Sadly, audiences are missing some of
the most important messages in Finding Nemo,” says Action for
Animals founder Eric Mills, suggesting that activists should leaflet
theatres to help ensure that what the Disney film actually says is
absorbed.
“This popular animated film has a strong vegetarian theme,”
Mills points out, “and one of the characters says that ‘Fish don’t
belong in boxes.’ Nonetheless, there has been a tremendous increase
in the demand for clown fish by hobby aquarists.”
“Everyone who comes in says they want Nemo,” confirmed
Michael Diaz, manager of Jewels of the Sea in West Palm Beach,
Florida, to Jill Barton of Associated Press.

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