A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
MUMBAI, LONDON–The most ambitious dog
and cat surgical sterilization training program
in India has rapidly expanded into the most
ambitious rabies eradication program in India.
The multi-directional project began with
a 2009 visit to the India Project for Animals &
Nature by Luke Gamble, founder of Worldwide
Veterinary Service, to film the pilot for Vet
Adventures.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
JAKARTA, BANTUL, UBUD–Amid rumors that
the Bali government will reinstitute aggressive
dog-killing when a new fiscal year begins in May
2011 came two hints from Jakarta that Indonesian
authorities may be starting to realize that only
high-volume vaccination lastingly reduces rabies
transmission.
More than 150 people have died from
rabies on Bali since October 2008, more than 90%
of them infected before the Bali government
authorized the Bali Animal Welfare Association to
vaccinate dogs throughout the island, funded by
the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
MANAMA– Thousands of opponents of the regime of King Hamad
bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain reoccupied central Manama on February
20, 2011 after troops were withdrawn, following gunfire that left
at least five protesters dead and 25 missing.
Amid the demonstrations, which began on Valentine’s Day,
“Residents across Bahrain have come out in force with suggestions on
how to tackle the increasing number of stray dogs plaguing the
country,” reported Basma Mohammed of Gulf News. “Dozens of e-mails
have been sent to Central Municipal Council chair Abdulrazzaq Al
Hattab following his appeal,” on February 8, “for ideas to find a
solution to the problem. The animals have been accused of attacking
cattle and leaving many residents too afraid to leave their homes at
night.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
TEHRAN–A Russian/Iranian zoo animal exchange reportedly
promoted by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin came to grief, the
Iranian National News Agency and the Russian ITAR-TASS agency
disclosed in January 2011, after an Amur tiger sent from the
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Zoo in Russia to the Eram Zoo in Tehran died from
the bacterial disease glanders. Fourteen African lions were later
euthanized after also becoming infected.
Russian natural resources minister Yury Trutneve and Iranian
counterpart Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh brokered the deal in early
2010. In April 2010 a Russian aircraft flew a pregnant female Amur
tiger and a male to Tehran, picked up a pair of Persian leopards,
and returned to Moscow.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
BANGKOK–A year after the notorious Thai “tiger temple” sued
Wildlife Friends founder Edwin Wiek and representatives of the
Bangkok Post for defamation, Wiek is still speaking out about how
the temple keeps the tigers it exhibits and the case appears to be
dead.
Located in Kanchanaburi, about two hours by tourist bus from
Bangkok, the Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery
claims it “started in 1999,” with “a sick baby tiger, orphaned by
poachers,” and expanded to house other tiger orphans.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
Guangdong–Defying a nationally publicized order from
Beijing–and claiming it was never received–the Shenzhen Safari Park
and Xiaomeisha Sea World have continued daily animal acts using
birds, tigers, lions and dolphins, the Guangdong Daily Sunshine
reported on February 2, 2011, without hinting at what the Chinese
federal authorities might do about it.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development,
responsible for zoo regulation in China, on October 26, 2010
“suggested” in an official web posting that zoos should adequately
feed and house animals, should stop selling wild animal products and
serving wild animal parts in restaurants, and should stop staging
circus-like trained animal acts, including feeding live prey to
carnivores, because “These activities go against the public good.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
HONG KONG–Will the Year of the Rabbit bring anything good for rabbits?
Starting on February 3, 2011, the Year of the Rabbit is
recognized throughout the world by ethnic Chinese people, and by
many other Asians who share Chinese traditions. If nothing else,
the Year of the Rabbit afforded activists an opportunity to raise a
voice for rabbits.
“There’s no better time to help rabbits than during the Year
of the Rabbit,” declared Beijing-based PETA campaigner Maggie Chen to
Agence France-Presse, urging readers to “not support the pet trade
that causes so many animals to suffer.” PETA also “launched an ad
campaign imploring Chinese movie star Gong Li to curb her penchant
for wearing rabbit and other furs,” reported Denis D. Gray of
Associated Press, from Bangkok, Thailand. “The ad shows a woman’s
foot stepping on the neck of a dead rabbit next to the words, ‘Where
Does Gong Li Stand on Fur?’
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
HONG KONG–Trying to shake bad publicity and attract
investment, a leading Chinese bear bile producer apparently planted
news items with two Wall Street Journal subsidiaries in 2009 that
paralleled bear bile farming with the work of a U.S. company founded
to develop a synthetic analog of a hormone produced by North American
black bears.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2011:
TOKYO–“It’s official. The Japanese whaling fleet has called
it quits in the Southern Ocean, at least for this season,” the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society cautiously acknowledged on February 17,
2011, a week after the whalers suspended operations in Antarctic
waters on February 10, and two days after global media declared the
Sea Shepherds the winners after seven winters of stalking the whalers
through the ice fields.