Indian judge rules that wild birds held by vendor must be set free

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

AHMEDABAD, India–Gujarat High Court Justice M.R. Shah on
May 12, 2011 ordered the release to freedom of 494 parrots, doves,
pigeons, lovebirds, dogs, and rabbits who were seized by Surat
police on May 30, 2010 from vendor Abdul Jalal Kadar Sheikh.
The animals have been held at an animal hospital for almost a
year at Sheikh’s expense while he pursued a series of appeals,
expected to continue. “The manner in which the birds are kept in the
small cages, with their wings and tails cut, wings taped together,
and rings put on their feet–nothing can be more heinous,” Shah
said. “It is the fundamental right of a bird to live freely in the
open sky. The only order which can be passed in such circumstances,”
Shah ruled, “would be to set the birds free.”

Russians waive indigenous hunting quota on polar bears

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
MOSCOW–Russian hunters will not kill polar bears in 2011,
The Polar Bear Program announced in mid-April 2011 via Russian prime
minister Vladimir Putin’s personal web site. Founded under Putin’s
patronage, The Polar Bear Program added that “Measures taken by
Russia will ensure that the U.S. will kill at least 70 fewer polar
bears than before, which, according to Russian specialists, will
help to sustain and boost the population of this beautiful Arctic
animal.”

Spiritual leader & vegetarian advocate Sathya Sai Baba dies at 84

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
PUTTAPARTHI–Sathya Sai Baba, 84, died on April 23, 2011
after three weeks in critical condition due to cardio-respiratory
failure.
Called by the London Daily Telegraph “India’s most famous and
most controversial holy man, and one of the most enigmatic and
remarkable religious figures of the last century,” Sai Baba was
“thought to have been born,” the Telegraph said, “as Sathya
Narayana Raju, on November 23, 1926, into a poor farming family in
Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh. According to legend, as a child he
would avoid places where animals were slaughtered and bring beggars
home to be fed.”

Move to reinstate tailpipe gassing in the Philippines

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
MANILA–A tambucho, in Philippine slang, is either a
vehicular exhaust pipe or the human rectal orifice.
If dogs impounded by Philippine animal control agencies are
killed by tambucho gassing, the remains of the dogs may be
clandestinely sold for meat. If dogs are killed by pentobarbital
injection, the remains are considered unsafe for consumption.
Though not acknowledged on the record, the common Philippine
practice of dogcatchers doubling as dog meat dealers may underlie
recent action by the misleadingly named national Committee on Animal
Welfare to undo an August 24, 2010 decision to prohibit tambucho
gassing.

Activists block truck to save dogs in China

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:

BEIJING–Driving on the Tongzhou section of the
Beijing-Harbin expressway at 11 a.m. on Friday, April 15, 2011, a
China Small Animal Protection Association volunteer surnamed An saw a
livestock truck hauling between 430 and 580 dogs, according to
various different news accounts.
As dogs are rarely eaten in the Beijing region, and are not
raised in the Beijing region for sale to the parts of China where
dogs are commonly eaten, An suspected that the dogs were stolen.

BAWA achieves Bali rabies turnaround

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:

UBUD, Bali, Indonesia–Vaccinating 210,000 dogs in the six
months ending on March 31, 2011, the Bali Animal Welfare
Association achieved a 48% reduction in human rabies deaths and a 45%
decrease in dog rabies cases. This was the fastest containment of a
rabies outbreak in the history of Indonesia, achieved even as a
13-year-old outbreak continues in Flores, where officials have
fought rabies mainly by culling dogs.
During the six-month vaccination sweep, BAWA established by
counting dogs from house to house in every village that the Bali dog
population is “just over 300,000 dogs, about 1 dog to 12.5 people,”
BAWA founder Janice Girardi told ANIMAL PEOPLE–exactly the ANIMAL
PEOPLE estimate produced in late 2008 when the rabies outbreak was
first recognized. Government estimates were half again to twice as
high.

Japanese nuclear reactor failure imperils hooved animals even more than pets

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
OSAKA–Difficult as was the plight of dogs and cats in the
no-go zone surrounding the Fukushima nuclear reactor complex, it was
worse for large animals, who are not easily moved, and in most
cases had nowhere to go.
“According to government figures about 3,400 cows, 31,000
pigs and 630,000 chickens were left in the zone, assumed to have died
by now,” reported Animal Refuge Kansai founder Elizabeth Oliver.
“There were around 370 horses in Minami Sohma,” Oliver continued,
“at least 100 of whom died in the disaster. Around 140 horses are
missing.”

Throwing ships aground, tsunami left Japanese coastal whaling high & dry

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
AYUKAWAHAMA–“There was Sea Shepherd, and now this,”
retired whaler Shinobu Ankai told Martin Fackler and Makiko Inoue of
The New York Times. “Whaling is finished,” Ankai assessed.
“This could be the final blow to whaling here,” agreed
fellow retired whaler Makoto Takeda.
‘”Whaling is impossible. Reviving it may take 20 to 30
years,” former whaling vessel stoker Yoshiya Endo told Japan Times
earlier.

Evacuees risk radiation to save pets

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
TOKYO-The Japanese government on April 21, 2011 introduced
penalties of up to 30 days in jail and fines of $1,000 for people
caught infiltrating the 20-kilometer “no-go” zone surrounding the
failing Fukushima nuclear reactors.
The penalties came into effect two weeks after the leading
Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that “An increasing
number of people from the 20-kilometer evacuation zone are defying
authorities to return temporarily to take care of their pets,” four
weeks after a March 11 earthquake of record magnitude and ensuing
tsunami critically damaged the Fukushima nuclear complex.
“Volunteers from animal protection groups also have been entering the
evacuation zone at pet owners’ request for such purposes as feeding
the pets,” Yomiuri Shimbun added.

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