Off-exhibit secrets of troubled zoos

September 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:
UBUD, GIANYAR–The Bali Zoo, featuring
exhibits from which animals often “go walkabout,”
might be described as emphasizing form over
substance.
Occupying a six-acre forested ravine in a
residential neighborhood in Singapadu, a suburb
of Ubud, the Bali Zoo has been described by
tourism media as a “hidden jewel”–and it is, at
a glance.
A closer look reveals
species-inappropriate exhibits, neglect of
animal health, and potentially deadly accidents
to visitors and neighbors lurking just around
many of the bends of the zoo’s winding paths.

CITES okays China to buy ivory stocks

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
GENEVA–The Con-vention on International Trade in Endangered
Species on July 15, 2008 authorized China to buy 119 metric tons of
elephant ivory from the official government stores kept by Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
The stockpiles include ivory from elephants culled in the name
of population control or to protect crops and human life, as well as
ivory taken from poachers and illegal traffickers.
“Poaching has already reached a level surpassing that before the
1989 ban on the ivory trade,” said former Kenya Wildlife Service
director Michael Wamithi, now heading the Inter-national Fund for
Animal Welfare elephant program.
“A little legal ivory is sufficient to launder a lot of illicit
ivory,” warned the French conservation group Robin des Bois, “and
there is no doubt the price of ivory will skyrocket after China’s
entry into the ivory stock exchange,” in competition with Japan,
the only other approved bidder.

South Korea begins regulating dogs as livestock under new pollution law

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
SEOUL–The South Korean Minis-try of Food, Agriculture,
Forestry and Fish-eries in mid-August 2008 announced that it will
start regulating dogs as livestock for the purpose of enforcing a
newly revised Livestock Night Soil Disposal Act, effective on
September 28.
The South Korean dog meat industry has long sought to add
dogs to the list of designated meat animals, to overturn the
unenforced 1991 law that was promoted to the world as a ban on
selling dog meat, but only prohibits the public sale of “disgusting
foods.”

ABC halts, street dog numbers rise in Bangalore

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:
BANGALORE–Unpaid by the city in four months, Krupa Loving
Animals, Karuna, and Compassion Unlimited Plus Action have
suspended doing Animal Birth Control program surgeries for Bangalore
municipality, and the Animal Rights Fund will stop on September 1,
2008, Afshan Yasmeen of The Hindu reported on August 15, 2008.
A fifth animal charity, Ahmedabad-based Animal Help, has
sterilized more than 5,000 dogs recently in outlying parts of
Bangalore, demonstrating the efficacy of same-day release of dogs
after surgery, in lieu of the multi-day holding periods for
post-surgical recovery that are practiced by most ABC programs. The
Animal Help approach, abbreviated as CNVR, requires using
high-speed, small-incision surgery under much more strictly aseptic
conditions than is the ABC norm.

No big Olympic wins for animals –but some quiet gains

July 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:

BEIJING–Political stress over Tibet and controversies
arising from the aftermath of the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake
appear to have deferred expectations that China would introduce a
national humane law as a goodwill gesture just ahead of the 2008
Olympic Games in Beijing.
The anticipated introduction, all but promised by state
media for several years, did not happen. Instead, as the 2008
Olympics approached, speculation about the possible content of a
national humane law and reportage about controversial animal issues
nearly vanished from state media–except for warnings that Beijing
restaurants should not serve dog meat during August and September,
while visitors filled the city to attend the Olympics and the
Paralympics for handicapped athletes, to be held afterward.
But the Beijing Pet Dog Management Office. a branch of the
police department, in mid-July summoned Animal Rescue Beijing
founder Wu Tianyu and China Small Animal Protection Association
founder Lu Di “to discuss the situation of pet dog control in
Beijing,” Animal Rescue Beijing volunteer Irene Zhang told ANIMAL
PEOPLE.

Livestock took biggest quake hit

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
CHENGDU–The most numerous sentient victims of the May 12,
2008 Sichuan earthquake were livestock. Fourteen million chickens
and rabbits, 3.8 million pigs, 178,000 goats, and 60,000 cows died
in collapsed or inaccessible barns, the Chinese agriculture ministry
updated on June 4, nearly doubling the estimate of pig losses.
Sichuan pig slaughter will drop 10% in 2008 due to the
earthquake, the agriculture ministry estimated.

BOOKS: Sacred Animals of India

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:

Sacred Animals of India
by Nanditha Krishna
C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre
(c/o C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation,
1 Eldams Road, Alwarpet,
Chennai 600 018, India), 2008.
Order c/o <www.ecoheritage.cpreec.org>.
244 pages, paperback, illustrated. $21.00 U.S.

“Sacred Animals of India was to have been
ready in time for the Asia for Animals conference
held in January 2007 at Chennai,” prefaces
author Nanditha Krishna. “However, when I began
researching the subject, I discovered a wealth
of material that was impossible to ignore. So I
decided not to rush, and to cover the subject in
greater depth.”

Five caretakers & one panda dead

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:

WOLONG NATURE RESERVE– The devastating May 12, 2008
Sichuan earthquake killed five Wolong Panda Reserve staff members and
one giant panda, Mau Mau, a mother of five cubs, whose remains
were found almost a month later. No information was available about
the status of the less closely monitored red pandas who share the
772-square-mile Wolong habitat.
Mau Mau and five other giant pandas were for weeks believed
to have escaped from the heavily damaged Wolong Giant Panda Breeding
Centre–but all the rest were soon found alive and well nearby.
Forty-seven people were killed near the Wolong Panda Reserve,
located 20 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake. Initial
reports relayed by satellite telephone said that all 86 giant pandas
at the reserve were safe, but State Forestry Administration forestry
spokesperson Cao Qingyao soon updated to the state-run Xinhua news
agency that at least three were unaccounted for.

What did the Sichuan quake zone animals know–and how soon did they know it?

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:

BEIJING–Unusual animal behavior was widely noted before the
May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake, but how much of it might have
anticipated the quake is anyone’s guess.
“Three days before the earthquake, thousands of toads roamed
the streets of Mianzhu, a hard-hit city where at least 2,000 people
have been reported killed,” wrote Henry Sanderson of Associated
Press. “Mianzhu residents feared the toads were a sign of an
approaching natural disaster, but a local forestry bureau official
said it was normal, the Huaxi Metropolitan newspaper reported May 10,
two days before the earthquake.

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