Rescuers rock in Sichuan

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
CHENGDU–“People and bears okay although buildings damaged,”
e-mailed Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill Robinson in the first
hours after an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck
northern Sichuan, China.
Based near Chengdu, the Sich-uan capital, the Animals Asia
Found-ation’s China Bear Rescue Centre was far south of the
earthquake epicenter, yet still within the radius of catastrophic
damage. More than 80,000 humans and 12 million livestock died,
according to official estimates. Hitting at 2:28 p.m. on May 12,
2008, the quake was followed by aftershocks for more than three
weeks, many of them of Richter magnitude 6.0 or larger.
“The quake was felt at the sanctuary and everyone ran to the
car park,” Robinson added. “Phone lines are down and communication
by e-mail is sporadic.”

High-tech cameras help to put the Japanese spotlight on Taiji dolphin killing

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

TOKYO–Dolphin Project founder Ric
O’Barry thought the 2007 discovery that the
mercury content of meat from dolphins killed at
Taiji is 30 times higher than the Japanese
government-recommended limit might rouse enough
citizen outrage to end the annual “drive fishery”
massacres.
The main reason why Japanese whaling is
not stopped by the Japanese people, O’Barry has
believed since his first visit to Japan in 1976,
is that most Japanese people don’t know about it.
Neither coastal whaling as practiced at Taiji nor
so-called “research whaling” on the high seas has
ever drawn much Japanese media notice, so while
Japanese donors strongly support causes such as
saving koala bears, Japanese whaling opponents
remain isolated and underfunded.

New AVMA elephant standards may help the working elephants of India

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
SCHAUMBURG, THRISSUR, BANGALORE–Far from India, and
perhaps not even thinking of Indian temple elephants, the American
Veterinary Medical Association executive board on April 12, 2008
issued a new policy on the humane treatment and handling of elephants
which may eventually influence the care of more working elephants in
India than the entire elephant population of the United States.
“Elephant handlers and veterinarians generally use two tools
in handling and training elephants, tethers to restrict movement
temporarily, and a shaft with a blunt hook near one end known as a
guide,” explained a May 6, 2008 AVMA press release.
The “guide,” in India, is called an ankus, and in the U.S.
is more commonly called an elephant hook.
“Elephant guides are husbandry tools that consist of a shaft
capped by one straight and one curved end,” states the new AVMA
policy. “The ends are blunt and tapered, and are used to touch
parts of the elephant’s body as a cue to elicit specific actions or
behaviors, with the handler exerting very little pressure. The ends
should contact but not tear or penetrate the skin. The AVMA condemns
the use of guides to puncture, lacerate, strike or inflict harm
upon an elephant.

Caught to eat, then abandoned

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
WINDHOEK–The all-volunteer Cat Protection Society in
Windhoek, Namibia in mid-April 2008 rescued hundreds of cats who
were abandoned in company housing after the Malaysian firm Ramatex
closed a clothing factory that at peak operation employed 7,000
workers. Many other cats died from neglect before the rescuers
learned of their existence, wrote Denver Isaacs of The Nambian.
Opened in 2002 with heavy government subsidies,
Ramatex-Namibia tried to impose Asian sweatshop conditions, claimed
labor organizers. When the Namibian employees unionized, Ramatex
quickly settled a strike, but then hired “trainers” from China, the
Philippines, and Bangladesh to take over much of the work.

Pet theft-to-eat cases prosecuted in China, Korea, Hawaii

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
ZHENGZHOU–Eating dogs and cats is legal
in China, but stealing them isn’t, a Zhengzhou
judge emphasized recently, fining “a man
surnamed Zhang” $214, about two weeks’ wages,
for “killing and cooking what he thought was a
stray dog,” the Zhengzhou Evening News reported.
The dog was actually a lost pet belonging to a woman surnamed Liu.
Summarized China Daily, distributing the
story nationwide, “Zhang, who likes to eat dogs
and cats, hung the dog’s skin from a fence over
a bridge so that he could dry and sell it. Upon
seeing the skin, Liu tracked down Zhang and
demanded that he pay her for killing her pet.
The woman recognized her pet’s skin because she
had dyed his fur.”
Chinese state-run media have reported
increasingly critically about dog and cat
consumption in recent years. Reportage linking a
disapproved practice to crime is a frequent
prelude in China to regulatory discouragement.
Also seen recently in connection with wildlife
consumption, this trend is more familiar to
westerners in reference to praise of the Dalai
Lama, the practice of Falun Gong, and uses of
Google and Yahoo search engines to research
banned topics.

South Korean capital defines dogs as “livestock”

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
SEOUL–Acknowledging the existence of at least 528 Seoul
restaurants that sell dog meat, plus 70 more that may offer dog meat
as a summer special, Seoul city health officials on April 12, 2008
announced that they would begin inspecting dog carcasses.
“The city will take samples of dog meat from about 530
restaurants and examine them to see if they contain harmful
substances such as heavy metals, antibiotics, and bacteria,” wrote
Korea Times staff reporter Kim Tae-jong.
The unilateral city inspection initiative follows years of
efforts by the dog meat industry to have dogs recognized as a “meat”
animal, on the pretext that traffic in species not so recognized
cannot be regulated under the existing hygiene laws.
Selling dogs’ meat for human consumption has been technically
illegal since 1983, but the law has never been enforced, and
provides no means for it to be enforced.

Nepalese royals misused National Trust for Nature Conservation, says audit report

April 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:

KATHMANDU–A three-member audit committee on March 26, 2008
confirmed years of rumors that the Nepalese royal family had
extensively misused the King Mahendra National Trust for Nature
Conservation.
Examining financial records from 2000-2006, the audit
committee reported that, “Millions [in Nepalese rupees] were spent on
travels abroad and lavish parties,” summarized the Nepal Horizons
News Service, in an account also internationally distributed
verbatim by the Indo-Asian News Service.

AAF China Bear Rescue Project halfway to 500

April 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:
CHENG DU–“Madam Xiong, literally Madam Bear, of the
Sichuan Forestry Department has kept her promise of closing a bear
bile farm before the end of March–and 28 newly rescued bears are
here!” Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill Robinson e-mailed to
supporters at 8:09 p.m. on March 31.
The new arrivals brought the number of ex-bile farm bears
handled by the China Bear Rescue Project since July 2000 to
248–almost halfway to the total of 500 whom Robinson agreed to
accept if the Sichuan government closed the smallest, oldest bear
bile farms in the state. The survivors have become nationally
publicized witnesses against the cruelty of keeping bears in close
confinement to extract bile from their gall bladders. Bear bile is
used for a variety of purposes in traditional Chinese medicine, but
chiefly to relieve fever. About 7,000 bears remain on bile farms.

Tracking bear rescue & rehabilitation in India

April 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:

RAJGIR, AGRA–Ten years into a deep
disagreement over how best to rescue and
rehabilitate former dancing bears, and other
bears confiscated from poachers and smugglers,
the score is approximately 460 bears accommodated
by the three bear sanctuaries now operated by
Wildlife SOS, to two Asiatic black bears claimed
to have been successfully returned to the forest
by the Wildlife Trust of India, with five more
Asiatic black bears and five sloth bears in
various stages of preparation for release,
according to a WTI project summary issued on
April 4, 2008.
WTI in March 2005 announced the release
into the Pakke Reserve Forest in Arunchal Pradesh
of two Asiatic black bears named Lucky and Leela.
Their fate is unclear. The release of two more,
Seppa and Seppi, was announced in March 2008.
“Seppa and Seppi were monitored in the wild for
over seven months last year,” WTI said, “and
when monitoring through radio collaring was
stopped as planned, this was considered the
first successful release of bears in the project.”

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