Category: Asia

Blue Cross of India is cleared by the Central Bureau of Investigation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
CHENNAI–Notified by telephone on November 12, 2007 that it
had been completely cleared of allegations of fiscal impropriety,
the Blue Cross of India on November 29 was still trying to retrieve
files taken on September 28 by inspectors from the Central Bureau of
Investigation.
The CBI raid on the Blue Cross followed a series of raids on
the offices of the Animal Welfare Board of India and the homes of
current and former AWBI staff. Blue Cross of India chief executive
Chinny Krishna had served on the Animal Welfare Board in the past,
but not since the board was reconstituted after the election of the
present Indian national government in mid-2004.

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Monkeys blamed for fatal fall by New Delhi deputy mayor

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
NEW DELHI–New Delhi deputy mayor Sawinder Jeet Singh Bajwa
died on October 20, 2007 from head injuries reportedly suffered when
he fell from a balcony at his home while trying to avoid aggressive
rhesus macaques.
Whether that is really what happened, however, is unclear.
“Baiwa fell while reading a newspaper on the terrace at about
7:00 a.m., according to his family,” reported Times of London Delhi
correspondent Jeremy Page. “They said they thought he had been
attacked by monkeys and lost his balance while trying to chase them
away.”

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Why did the Central Bureau of Investigation raid the Animal Welfare Board of India?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
CHENNAI, MUMBAI, MYSORE, DELHI, THIRUVANATHAPURAM–One of
the noisiest and farthest-reaching scandals in the often
controversial 47-year history of the Animal Welfare Board of India
may prove to be less about corruption and bribery, when the Central
Bureau of Investigation concludes months of digging, than about
pursuit of mostly symbolic tribute by some AWBI appointees, and
redress of injured pride by some who have been rebuked.
Disputes over the allocation of grant money, partisan
politics, and enforcement of laws governing livestock transportation
and slaughter have become involved.
Yet–from statements and copies of inside correspondence
obtained by ANIMAL PEOPLE–pursuit of public stature and vengeance
for past frustrations and humiliations appears to have most visibly
motivated the persons whose charges instigated CBI raids on several
animal welfare organizations, the homes of their officers, and the
Animal Welfare Board of India offices in Chennai.

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The legacy of a winged monkey army

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
CHENNAI–The Central Bureau of Investigation raid on the Blue
Cross of India came about two weeks after chief executive Chinny
Krishna prominently criticized a government plan to breach Ram Sethu,
or Adam’s Bridge, an underwater rock formation linking India to Sri
Lanka.
Krishna wondered after the September 28, 2007 raid whether
the intense political controversy over breaching Ram Sethu might have
been involved, but ANIMAL PEOPLE found no hint that it was.
Krishna pointed out, as many others have, that Ram Sethu
helped to break the force of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Promoted by the Congress Party, which presently heads the
Indian federal government, the breach would cut about 30 hours and
considerable fuel use from the itineraries of coastal cargo vessels.
But it would also considerably alter the aquatic ecology of the
strait between India and Sri Lanka, and would be considered an act
of sacrilege by many Hindus. Controversy over the proposal
reportedly could be a factor in forcing the Congress government to
call early elections.

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Conservationists give cover for Mauritian monkey sales to labs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
PORT LEWIS, KUALA LUMPUR, HANOI–Nearly 500 years after
Dutch sailors are believed to imported the first macaques to
Mauritius, claims of a need to control them as an alleged invasive
species have become a front line of defense for the booming Mauritian
macaque export industry– which captures some macaques from the wild,
but breeds them in captivity to comply with U.S. and international
laws that prohibit or restrict the use of wild-caught animals in labs.
Six Mauritian companies export macaques. The largest may be
Noveprim, founded in 1980. “Monkeys are not indigenous to
Mauritius,” emphasized Noveprim chief executive Gerald de Senneville
in an October 2007 interview by Nasseem Ackbarally of the Inter Press
Service, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ackbarally found quick agreement from Mauritian Wildlife
Foundation executive director Jacques Julienne and conservation
manager Vikash Tattayah.
“The monkeys are a nuisance from a conservation point of
view,” said Julienne. “They eat birds’ eggs, kill small and adult
birds alike, and attack indigenous plants.”

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Progress toward abolishing animal sacrifice in Nepal and India

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
KATHMANDU–“Though a ceasefire between the government and the
Maoist guerrillas has held for over a year now,” India News Service
reporter Sudeshna Sarkar wrote from the Nepalese capital city of
Kathmandu on October 19, 2007, “Nepal is passing through one of
its goriest periods with thousands of animals being sacrificed daily
on the occasion of Dashain, the biggest Hindu festival in the
country.
“On the eighth day of the nearly fortnight-long
celebrations,” Sarkar explained, “animal killings reach a
crescendo, with buffaloes, goats, and chickens being slaughtered.”
But since the recent dissolution of the Nepalese theocracy,
Sarkar noted, dissent against the sacrifices–formerly personally
led by the king–has emerged.

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Malaysia plans to export street macaques to labs & live markets

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

 
KUALA LUMPUR–Malaysian natural resources and environment
minister Seri Azmi Khalid at a September 5, 2007 press conference
asserted that the government had not lifted a 23-year-old ban on
exporting long-tailed macaques, but admitted that plans are
proceeding to export macaques captured in cities to laboratories and
Chinese live markets.
“I did not use the word ‘lift.’ The media quoted me wrongly,” Seri
Azmi Khalid claimed, according to Loh Foon Fong of the Malaysia Star.
Bernama, the Malaysian National News Agency, reported on
August 17, 2007 that “Malaysia has lifted the ban on the export of
long-tailed macaques.”
“The cabinet has decided to lift the ban because we want to
reduce the number of long-tailed monkeys in urban areas. The lifting
of the ban is only for peninsular Malaysia and does not cover Sabah
and Sarawak,” Seri Azmi Khalid was quoted as saying.
Reporting about the same speech, Elizabeth John of the New
Straits Times wrote that Seri Azmi Khalid said the export ban had
been “lifted.”

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How does Wal-Mart reconcile selling live turtles in China with “sustainable” policy?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

 

BENTONVILLE, Arkansas–In October 2005, Wal-Mart chief
executive officer Lee Scott declared that as the world’s largest
retail store chain, Wal-Mart has a special responsibility to be a
“good steward for the environment.” In October 2006, Newsweek
published a gruesome account of how live turtles, fish, crabs, and
clams are sold and killed to order “in the grocery section of a
Wal-Mart in north Beijing.”
In January 2007, Care for the Wild International chief
executive Barbara Maas suggested to Clifford Coonan, Beijing
correspondent for The Independent, that Wal-Mart and other retail
chains including Carrefour of France, Metro of Germany, and Tesco
of Britain should set better examples in China by not stocking
turtles and frogs.

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Supreme Court of India upholds bullfight ban

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

NEW DELHI–A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India
on July 27, 2007 overturned a March 9, 2007 Madras High Court
judgment dismissing a petition seeking enforcement of the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals Act to prohibit harvest festival bullfights and
bullock cart races.
Called jallikattu, the bullfights and bullock cart races as
practiced mostly in rural Tamil Nadu somewhat resemble the mob
attacks on bulls practiced at festivals in parts of Spain, Latin
America, and South Africa.
Participants beat the bulls and throw chili powder in their
eyes, ears and mouths to enrage them, Animal Welfare Board of India
witnesses testified. Spectators and participants are often gored or
trampled to death, “and the number of injured fighters has often run
into the hundreds,” noted Reuters.

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