Humans, whales, and the ghosts of high seas drifters

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

The Whaling Season: An Inside Account of the
Struggle to Stop Commercial Whaling, by Kieran
Mulvaney
Island Press (1718 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite
300, Washington, DC 20009), 2003. 349 pages,
hardcover. $26.00.

Between Species: Celebrating the Dolphin-Human
Bond, edited by Toni Frohoff & Brenda Peterson
Sierra Club Books (85 Second St., San Francisco,
CA 94105), 2003. 361 pages, hardcover. $24.95.

From the title, and from the longtime
role of author Kieran Mulvaney as the main
Greenpeace media liaison at annual meetings of
the International Whaling Commission, one might
guess that The Whaling Season: An Inside Account
of the Struggle to Stop Commercial Whaling is an
exposé or defense of backroom politics.

Finding the sentience of fish

June 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2003:

Credit scientific discovery. Credit
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Credit Finding Nemo, the latest pro-animal
animated production in a 64-year string from Walt
Disney Productions.
Whatever the reason, humans around the
world are suddenly talking about the suffering of
fish as never before.

Bear sanctuary at the Taj Majal

May 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

AGRA–The future of captive wildlife
protection in India is at Agra, People for
Animals founder Maneka Gandhi believes, near the
east gate of the Taj Mahal.
There, at Soor Sarovar village,
Wildlife SOS cofounders Kartick Sayanar-ayan and
Geeta Sheshamani in December 2002 opened a
30-acre sanctuary for former dancing bears.
Nearly two years into a sustained effort
to enforce provisions of the 1972 Indian Wildlife
Protection Act that prohibit the traveling
exhibition of lions, tigers, leopards, monkeys,
apes, and bears, Mrs. Gandhi sees in the
Wildlife SOS project the start of a sanctuary
network to provide quality care-for-life to
hundreds of seized former circus animals.
The drive to end the use of lions,
tigers, leopards, monkeys, apes, and bears in
traveling shows began in 2001. As then-minister
of state for animal welfare, Mrs. Gandhi won a
series of verdicts from the Supreme Court of
India against exhibitors who had for a decade
used protracted lawsuits to defy seizure order
she originally issued in 1989, during a stint as
environment minister.

Can a third grader identify a third-rate circus? Courts weigh activist rights

May 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

SCRANTON, Pa.–A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Third Circuit on April 15 unanimously upheld the
dismissal of a lawsuit against the Lacka-wanna Trail School District
in Scranton, Pennsylvania, alleging that Amanda Walker-Serrano,
then a third grader, was denied her First Amendment right to freedom
of expression in February 1999 when her school stopped her from
petitioning against a class trip to the Shriners’ circus in
Wilkes-Barre.
Amanda Walker-Serrano is the daughter of Scranton animal
advocates Lisa Walker and Michael Serrano. Her rights were not
violated, Judge Anthony J. Scirica wrote, because she was allowed
to distribute coloring books and stickers about animal abuse.

Suarez Circus polar bears saved at last

December 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2002:

YABUCOA, Puerto Rico–Fifteen months after the Suarez
Brothers Circus of Guadalajara, Mexico, brought seven polar bears
to Puerto Rico, and eight months after confiscating one bear named
Alaska, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on
November 4 took the remaining six bears into custody, charged the
circus with five violations of the Animal Welfare Act, and initiated
seizure proceedings.

Pakistan conference

October 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

“A great peaceful gathering was organized in Multan,
Pakistan, on 19th July, 2002, under the leadership of Khalid
Mahmood Qureshi, chief editor of The Tension weekly newspaper,”
reported Shahzad Ahmed Khan in an e-mail to ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Topics of concern, according to Khan, included “the safety
and survival of rare animals and birds which are on the verge of
extinction”; the weakness and nonenforcement of Pakistan’s 1890
animal protection act; and animal fighting for entertainment,
involving cocks, quail, pheasants, bulls, camels, dogs, and
dogs set against tethered bears.
Participants in the gathering including Supreme Court
advocate Nafees Ansari and Arif Mahmood Qureshi, managing trustee of
Animal Rights International/Pakistan, raised banners bearing slogans
such as “Animals are the beauty of our earth,” and “Love the
animals–don’t tease or torture them,” Khan said.
“Banners also protested,” Khan wrote, “that the District
Court Bar of Multan and the Municipal Corporation of Multan recently
poisoned street dogs and feral cats.”

Free Willy/Keiko swims to Norway

October 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

OSLO–Swimming up to 100 miles a day with pods of 40 to 80
wild orcas, spending 41 consecutive days at sea, Keiko in August
2002 seemed to be a free whale at last –or so said the Humane
Society of the U.S., which took over his care in June 2002, about
six months after the top funder of the former Free Willy/Keiko
Foundation quit the project.
Then Keiko on September 1 swam into Skaalvik Fjord, Norway,
250 miles northwest of Oslo.
“The orca surprised and delighted Norwegians, who petted and
swam with him, and climbed on his back,” reported Doug Mellgren of
Associated Press.

Refuge for former dancing bears allows Bulgaria to enforce bear protection law

October 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

BELITSA, Bulgaria–Nine years after Bulgaria first tried to
ban training and exhibiting so-called dancing bears, bears are still
shuffling in chains to music on street corners. But the show is
almost over, officials say, because new legislation adopted in July
2002 substantially reinforces the 1993 law –and, as important, the
not-quite-two-year-old Belitsa Dancing Bear Park in the woodland
reserves of the Rila mountains at last gives police a place to take
bears they confiscate.
Like many other animal protection laws hastily adopted within
the former Eastern Bloc after the collapse of Communism, the
original law protecting bears went unenforced because there was no
way to make it work.

Banning exotic & dangerous wildlife for the animals’ sake

October 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

WACO, Texas–As the living conditions of large carnivores
and exotic wildlife in private hands go, the mascot bears at Baylor
University in Waco, Texas, are better off than most. The
six-month-old baby bear has a toy: an orange cone. Some say it
resembles a Baylor cheerleader’s megaphone. Others call it a dunce
cap. The 18-month-old senior bear has a multi-level enclosure. Both
bears have pools. Few roadside zoos or backyard menageries offer
comparable amenities–but few are as visible to as many well-educated
people, who might recognize conditions falling far short of optimal
for the animals.
Baylor recently did something about that, after the bears’
stereotypical pacing, filthy water, and lack of any way to get off
the bare concrete drew protest: someone put up a plywood fence to
inhibit casual viewing.

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