HSUS/HSI expand operations in India

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

MUMBAI–Speaking with the Dalai Lama on World Compassion Day,
November 28, 2012, Humane Society of the U.S. president Wayne
Pacelle announced an official linkage of three formerly separate
Indian projects of the HSUS subsidiary Humane Society International.
“We’ll have our campaigns office in Hyderabad, focused on
factory farming and ending animal testing for cosmetics, our
veterinary training center in Jaipur, and our Asia-wide street dog
management program grounded in Ahmedabad,” Pacelle said.
Maintaining a presence in India since 1996, HSI has sponsored
some of the work of the Help In Suffering animal hospital and shelter
in Jaipur since 2001, began sponsoring veterinary work by the Animal
Help Foundation of Ahmedabad in 2005, promoting Animal Help founder
Rahul Sehgal to become HSI Asia Pacific director in 2007, and also
in 2007 opened the Hyderabad office, under regional media contact
N.G. Jayasimha.
Said the Dalai Lama, 77, “A vegetarian diet is the
most healthy one for you. We must respect all forms of life. Animals
deserve our compassion. We must know their pain. I was not vegetarian
till about five decades ago,” he added, “but when I saw hens being
abused on an animal farm, I decided to become vegetarian.”
The Dalai Lama admitted, however, that he has not consistently
maintained vegetarianism, and is not vegetarian now.

No sign of comeback in new fur trade data

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

 

ROME, OTTAWA, BEIJING– Furriers and sealers have again
pinned their hopes of an industry revival to trends in China, but
actual Chinese sales data and the rapid rise of animal advocacy in
China suggest they will be disappointed.
The International Fur Trade Fede-ration opened the 2012-2013
winter “fur season” by claiming record global retail fur sales, but
offered data showing a continuing decline. The IFTF predicted that
world fur sales would exceed $15 billion in 2012, the same total the
IFTF claimed annually since 2008, up from $9.1 billion in 2000 and
$13 billion in 2005.

Read more

Wildlife SOS ended dancing bear acts in India–but WSPA claims credit

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2012:

 

   NEW DELHI–Three years after Wildlife SOS took custody of the last known dancing bear in India in December 2009,  having rescued 460 bears in seven years, Wildlife Trust of India founder Vivek Menon and World Society for the Protection of Animals director general Mike Baker claimed credit for the accomplishment at the 21st International Conference on Bear Research and Management in New Delhi. Read more

BOOKS | The Peaceable Forest: India’s Tale of Kindness to Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2012:
The Peaceable Forest:  India’s Tale of Kindness to Animals by Kosa Ely, illustrated by Anna Johansson Insight Editions (POB 3088,  San Rafael,  CA  94912),  2012. [Order c/o <http://peaceableforest.com/>.] 32 pages,  hardcover,  illustrated.  $16.99.
Kosa Ely has in The Peaceable Forest:  India’s Tale of Kindness to Animals recast into a story for very young children the parable of how the wandering sage Narada transformed the sadistic hunter Mrigari into an animal-loving vegetarian.  Significant in Hare Krishna teachings as a demonstration that sinners can achieve personal redemption,  this simplified version of the parable might help vegetarian parents to explain why their families do not eat meat. Read more

Thousands of dogs seized from Thai meat traffickers have no safe place to go

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2012:

NAKHON PHANOM,  Thailand— Police Colonel Sakchai Sadmarerng, chief of Ban Phaeng station in Nakhon Phanom province,  Thailand,  on November 7,  2012 described to media the seizure of yet another truckload of dogs from smugglers hauling them to Laos across the Mekong River.  From Laos,  most would have been trafficked on to markets in Vietnam and southern China. Read more

Exhibitors increase efforts to acquire wild-caught whales & dolphins

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)

MANILA,  SINGAPORE,  TAIJI,  ATLANTA–Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Evangeline Marigomen on October 18,  2012 vacated a 72-hour temporary environmental protection order against exporting 25 captive dolphins from the Philippines to Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.  Quezon City Regional Trial Court first executive judge Bernelito Fernandez issued the temporary environmental protection order on October 12,  2012 at request of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society and Earth Island Institute. Read more

Wildlife Friends is still fighting charges after nemesis retires

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.)

 

BANGKOK–Thailand Department of National Parks,  Wildlife & Plant Conservation chief Damrong Phidet retired on September 31, 2012 after deploying 3,000 staff on July 28 to demolish nine resorts that were allegedly illegally built within Thab Lan National Park in Nakhon Ratchasimi;  raiding 10 Phuket resorts on August 15 for allegedly encroaching on Sirinath National Park;  raising the entrance fees by 150% at 29 of the 148 Thai national parks on August 23;  revisiting the Phuket resorts,  plus two more,  on Sept-ember 25;  and transferring several national park chiefs only weeks after their appointment. Amid all that,  Damrong Phidet and five of his senior officials were on August 22,  2012 called to face a Parliamentary Committee on Law & Human Rights hearing in Bangkok,  “to answer to allegations and questions on abuse of power,  selective enforcement, slander and harassment filed by several groups,  people and companies,  one of which was the Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand,”  posted Wildlife Friends founder Edwin Wiek to the WFFT web site. Wiek,  his wife Jansaeng “Noi” Sangnanork,  veterinarian Chuthamas Moh Teui,  and Roger Lohanan of the Thai Animal Guardians testified against Damrong Phidet. Wiek,  who helped to lead disaster relief operations after the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2011 Bangkok flooding, presented details of three recent cases in which wildlife disappeared from allegedly unlicensed zoos in Sraburi province,  Huahin city, and on Phuket,  after Wildlife Friends presented evidence of the violations to Damrong Phidet’s administration.  In each case Department of National Parks investigators claimed to have found no animals,  but after Wildlife Friends followed up the Phuket case, officials said 11 missing orangutans were “found along the highway” between Phuket and Phang-nga. Wiek first clashed with Damrong Phidet after 115 orangutans were confiscated from the Safari World zoo in Bangkok in 2003,  but were not actually removed from the site.  DNA testing found in 2004 that at least 72 of the orangutans had been smuggled from Indonesia. Fifteen of the orangutans died in custody.  Only 41 were repatriated to Indonesia in 2006.  Most of the rest vanished.  Twenty-two turned up performing kickboxing exhibitions in Cambodia.  Five were loaned to the Chiang Mai Night Safari Zoo,  a scandal-plagued facility politely described by Associated Press as “a project initiated by [former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in his home town,”  several years before a military coup deposed him for alleged corruption. “Night Safari has veterinarians and everything to take care of them,  so we lent them temporarily,”  Damrong Phidet said. Damrong Phidet meanwhile helped to send eight Thai elephants to the Taronga and Melbourne zoos in Australia,  in trade for 21 Australian animals,  including kangaroos and koalas,  for exhibit at the Chiang Mai Night Safari Zoo.  Friends of the Asian Elephant founder Soraida Salwala alleged that the elephants were illegally captured from the wild,  but Damrong Phidet claimed they were born in “elephant shelters.” Wiek in a January 2012 op-ed column for the Bangkok Post accused Damrong Phidet’s administration of trying to cover up the killing of six wild elephants at the Kaeng Krachan and Kui Buri national parks.  Damrong Phidet alleged that the six elephants might have been killed to obtain meat for wealthy visitors to Phuket resorts. This,  said Wiek,  “might be looking away from the real problem:  the killing of elephants to take elephant babies from the forests to be trained for tourism,”  Wiek responded. Elephant Nature Park founder Sang-duan Lek Chailert supported Wiek’s charges.  Alleging wildlife permit violations,   Damrong Phidet within days ordered eight separate raids on Wildlife Friends, seizing 103 animals,  and seized more animals in four raids on the Elephant Nature Park.   Then,  under media scrutiny,  Damrong Phidet made a show of cracking down on elephant trafficking. The raids on Wildlife Friends came just after the organization started procedures to obtain a permit from the Thai Livestock Department to operate an animal hospital. Wildlife Friends passed the inspection to get the permit on March 22,  2012,  and received the permit on April 30,  the Wildlife Friends web site said, but on March 23,  2012,  “an official of the Department of Livestock entered the wildlife hospital without permission and photographed the facility,  then pressed charges against Jansaeng Sangnanork and the foundation for illegally running an animal hospital.”  The official allegedly told Wiek that this was on orders of Damrong Phidet. “The provincial prosecutor has told us not to worry about the case in court,”  Wildlife Friends posted on October 8,  2012,  “but he is under a lot of pressure to proceed. Noi has been summoned to turn herself in on October 26 to be jailed in Petchaburi,  but will be allowed to file for bail the same day.  Edwin will revoke his bail to make it possible for Noi to be bailed out instead.” Added Wildlife Friends on October 25,  “All other issues have now finally been dropped,”  but as well as struggling to fund their defense and their rescue work,  Wiek and Jansaeng Sangnanork hoped to help Chuthamas Moh Teui,  who was arrested on October 21,  2012 “for helping and treating the monkeys of Lopburi,”  the posting concluded.

Biggest foie gras farm stopped

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.) 

 

BEIJING,  LONDON–A plan to build the world’s largest waterfowl farm and foie gras factory in Jiangxi province,  China,  appears to have been scuttled by global cooperation among animal advocates.  “China’s Central People’s Broadcasting Station,  quoting a local official,  confirmed an end to the planned project,”  Humane Society International China policy specialist Peter Li told ANIMAL PEOPLE on October 5,  2012.  The Chinese state radio network report affirmed months of rumors that a project suspension announced in April 2012 would be made permanent. Read more

Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre fights takeover attempt by zoo promoter

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2012: (Actually published on November 1,  2012.) 

HONG KONG,  HANOI–The Animals Asia Foundation is fighting an audacious scheme allegedly advanced by Tam Dao National Park director Do Dinh Tien to evict Animals Asia and 104 moon bears from the Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre,  on the edge of the park,  and turn the facilities built at Animals Asia donor expense into a zoo. The Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre,  modeled on a similar site operated by Animals Asia in Chengdu,  China,  rehabilitates bears rescued from bile farms.
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