More Bali rabies deaths

April 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
Jama Asmara, 46, on March 23, 2009 became the eighth human
victim of a canine rabies outbreak afflicting southeastern Bali,
Indonesia since September 2008. Bitten in November 2008, Jama
Asmara reportedly received post-exposure vaccination on November 27,
plus a later booster, but skipped two further prescribed boosters
because he did not feel ill.
Previous Bali rabies victims have included two
three-year-olds, a four-year-old, two 32-year-olds, and a
45-year-old.

Indian animal advocates beaten

April 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
AHMEDABAD, THRISSUR– The Kerala Elephant Lovers’
Association on March 24, 2009 asked the Indian federal government to
investigate the ambush beating of Thrissur SPCA senior inspector E.R.
Jayan. Jayan was allegedly assaulted by four men on March 19 after
responding to a false report that an elephant was being abused.
Jayan was attacked two weeks after Animal Lovers Emergency
Rescue Team founder Sandra Jhala, 53, of Ahmedabad, “suffered
multiple fractures, cuts and bruises after men went into her yard
and attacked dogs kept there,” reported the Times of India on March
3, 2009. Beaten when she intervened, “Jhala received more than 50
stitches on her head and has five fractures on her left hand,”
elaborated Roshan Kumar of the investigative newspaper DNA.

Is diplomacy making gains against Japanese whaling?

April 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
ROME–Some International Whaling Commission insiders believe
the IWC is close to brokering a deal that would allow the Japanese
government to end so-called “research whaling” without losing
political credibility.
Others believe Japanese actions against whaling opponents
show that the Japanese government believes it has the upper hand and
can force the IWC to reopen commercial whaling, after a 23-year
suspension.
After initially refusing to honor the 1986 commercial whaling
moratorium, Japan in 1988 accepted the moratorium but began killing
whales in the name of “scientific research,” continuing to sell
whale meat. The 2009 self-allocated Japanese “research” quota
includes 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

Russia halts seal hunt

April 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
MOSCOW, OTTAWA–Russian minister of natural resources Yury
Trutnyev on March 11, 2009 told the world that Russia has halted
hunting seals under one year old on the frozen White Sea.
“This bloody hunting is from now on banned in our country,
as in most developed countries,” Trutnyev told media.
Trutnyev described the ban as “an important measure to
preserve Russian biodiversity.” The recent White Sea quota of about
35,000 seals per year was about a tenth the size of recent Atlantic
Canadian sealing quotas, but amounted to a third of the White Sea
seal population. The White Sea seal herd has reportedly declined by
95% since it was first surveyed in 1928. However, the first herd
estimate, produced in the early years of the Communist era to assess
the potential for economic expolitation, may have been grossly
exaggerated.

India high court halts bullfights

March 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2009:
NEW DELHI–The Supreme Court of India on January 30, 2009
reaffirmed a July 2007 ruling that public “bull-taming” exercises
called jallikattu are illegal, and that jallikattu events held under
a limited exemption granted in January 2008 did not meet the Supreme
Court-imposed condition that cruelty to the bulls must be prevented.
Traditionally held during Pongal season festivals, chiefly
in Tamil Nadu state, jallikattu includes bullock cart races,
bullfights, and participatory torment of bulls similar to the mob
attacks on bulls practiced at festivals in parts of Spain, Latin
America, and South Africa.
Acting on a motion by Animal Welfare Board of India senior
advocate K K Venugopal, Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice
P. Sathasivam issued a restraining order against further jallikattu
during the 2009 Pongal season, after 21 people were killed and at
least 1,614 were injured in January 2009 jallikattu events. They
extended the order on February 13. The Supreme Court is to rule on
the Animal Welfare Board’s request for a permanent injunction against
jallikattu later in 2009.

Senior Ragunan Zoo curator speaks out for orangs

January 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:
JAKARTA, Indonesia–Ragunan Zoo senior
curator Ulrike Freifrau von Mengden on December
30, 2008 for the second time in three years put
her unpaid job and her home inside the zoo at
risk by speaking out on behalf of the orangutans
she has looked after ever since the zoo opened.
Prompting von Mengden’s concern each time
were the implications for nearly 50 orangutans
of a long-evolving deal whereby the Ragunan Zoo
is reportedly to acquire a female gorilla from
the Howletts Wild Animal Park in Britain in early
2009, in trade for 12 primates of Indonesian
species.
Brokered by Gibbon Foundation director
Willie Smits, a Dutch-born Indonesian resident,
the exchange was disclosed in February 2006.
Five silvery gibbons and several Javan langurs
were sent to Howletts. Smits credited Howletts
with curing the gibbons of diseases and getting
them out of small cages.
Preparations to receive the female
gorilla are still underway, Ragunan Zoo
spokesperson Bambang Wahyudi recently told
Mariani Dewi of the Jakarta Post.
The female gorilla is expected to arrive
after a Ragunan Zoo veterinarian, a senior
keeper, and a data base administrator complete
three months of training at Howletts. Their
training started in October 2008.

U.S. issues rabies advisory for Bali visitors as control effort stumbles

January 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:
JAKARTA, DENPASAR–The U.S. embassy to Indonesia on January
12, 2009 issued the outbreak notice that the Bali tourism industry
had feared would be coming since mid-November 2008, when reports
first circulated about four human rabies deaths resulting from dog
bites in two villages on the peninsula south of the Denpasar airport.
“Rabies has been confirmed in dogs from at least two villages
near popular tourist destinations on the southern tip of Bali,” the
outbreak notice advised. “At this stage rabies has been identified
in only one district, but the Centers for Disease Control &
Prevention advises travelers to take precautions on the entire
island,” the notice added.
The outbreak notice was distributed two days after Bali
governor Made Mangku Pastika announced, “We are closing the seaports
and airport to any dog trade.”

Dogs among the heroes of the Mumbai attacks

January 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:
MUMBAI, India–Among the most popular heroes of the
three-day terrorist rampage through Mumbai that started on November
26, 2008 are the street dog Sheru, the sniffer dog Jessica, and
the therapy dogs Goldie and Onet.
At least 170 people were killed and 230 were wounded by 10
heavily armed men believed to be Pakistanis, who are believed to
have hijacked a boat to reach Mumbai, killing the crew. On arrival,
they shot up the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, the Taj
Mahal and Oberoi-Trident hotels, a Jewish outreach center, and a
restaurant, and left bombs in two taxi cabs.

Bombay High Court upholds ABC programs

January 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:
MUMBAI–The Bombay High Court, in the most legally influential
judicial ruling yet on dog population control in India, on December
19, 2008 upheld the legal validity of the national Animal Birth
Control program, with two amendments to ensure that dogs whose
behavior imminently threatens human life will be killed.
The verdict was widely misreported. Wrote Swati Deshpande
for the Times of India, in one of the most broadly distributed
accounts, “The fate of lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of dogs was
sealed when the Bombay High Court ruled in a majority verdict that
stray canines who ‘create a nuisance’ by, say, barking too much,
can be killed. The verdict applies not only to an estimated 70,000
stray dogs in the city, but to canines in all of Maharashtra and
Goa.”

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