Animal enterprise cases

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera on June 18 sued
Petco for “cruelty and a pattern of brazen violations of city health
and safety standards, continued over three years,” he told San
Francisco Chronicle staff writer Ilene Lelchuk. Herrera reportedly
hopes to obtain a court order prohibiting Petco from selling animals
within San Francisco. Founded in 1965 with a single store in La
Mesa, California, Petco introduced the practice of allowing local
animal shelters to offer dogs and cats for adoption, instead of
selling puppies and kittens from breeders. Petco now has 573 stores
in 42 states, and only rival PETsMART places more shelter animals in
homes–but Petco is also under PETA boycott for allegedly failing to
enforce high care standards, and for continuing to sell reptiles,
birds, and small mammals from breeders.

Saskatoon gopher derby may go into the hole

June 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2002:

SASKATOON, Saslatchewan–Started on April 1, the Ken Turcot
Memorial Gopher Derby was touted by Saskatoon Wildlife Federation
business manager Len Jabush as perhaps the biggest killing contest in
Canadian history.
Jabush told Karen Morrison of The Western Producer that he
distributed 10,000 entry forms, expecting 2,000 contestants to pay
$20 each to have their “gopher” tails counted, and was “scrambling”
to print more. He did not say, “April fool!”

Fewer fighters, more dogs

May 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

PUEBLO, Colorado–Issuing one of the stiffest sentences yet
given to a convicted dogfighter, District Judge Scott Epstein of
Pueblo, Colorado, on April 15, 2002 sent Brian Keith Speer to
state prison for six years.
Speer, 32, of Colorado Springs, is to serve 18 concurrent
three-year sentences for 18 felony counts of animal fighting, plus
three more years for his felonious mistreatment of one especially
badly injured pit bull terrier found in his possession during a June
2000 raid on his trailer home near Boone.

Dogfighting

May 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 to 3/31_____
Major busts 11 24 54 66 75 27 [projects to 108] Related drugs/homicide 3 9 13 12 16 6 [projects to 24] People involved 76 136 237 297 282 40 [projects to 160] Dogs seized 95 365 791 896 869 428 [projects to 1,612] Felony convictions 1 2 7 25 18 14 [projects to 42]

Cockfighting
Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 to 3/31_____
Major busts 10 15 18 19 35 20 [projects to 80] Related drugs/homicide 0 6 6 3 5 3 [projects to 12] People involved 350 498 389 874 1508 460 [projects
to 11,840] Birds seized 725 763 1023 876 7995 1759 [projects to 7,036] Felony convictions 0 0 3 9 0 1 [projects to 42]

A “major bust” for the purposes of this table is defined as
any police seizure or arrest of any size that was recognized as
newsworthy by local news media. This definition is used because we
have no practicable way of tracking the volume of activity which goes
unreported, and because excluding cases simply because they involve
relatively low numbers of animals or alleged perpetrators might miss
important trends–such as the apparent decline of casual
street-corner dogfighting in 2002, even as the number of “major
busts” is up 33% and the average number of dogs seized per case has
almost doubled from 2001.

Cockfighting tripled in five years

May 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The number of reported U.S. cockfighting
arrests has more than tripled in five years, a review of ANIMAL
PEOPLE file data has discovered.
The number of fighting cocks seized by law enforcement is up tenfold.
Law enforcement agencies throughout the nation are anxiously
looking toward the 2002 Farm Bill for help, as an amendment approved
by the House of Represent-atives in October 2001 and by the Senate
in February 2002 could bring federal aid by outlawing the interstate
transportation of fighting cocks. As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press,
however, cockfighting lobbyists and members of Congress from New
Mexico, Oklahoma, and Louisiana were reportedly still trying to
strip the anti-cockfighting amendment from the reconciled Farm Bill
that was expected to go before the House and Senate for final
approval perhaps as early as April 25.

Farm Bill amended to remove lab rats, mice, & birds from Animal Welfare Act protection

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

WASHINGTON, D.C.–All rats, mice, and birds bred for
laboratory use would be permanently excluded from federal Animal
Welfare Act protection under a last-minute amendment to the 2002 Farm
Bill, approved by the U.S. Senate by voice vote late on February 12
and sent to a joint Senate/House conference committee for final
reconciliation on February 13.
The amendment would affect more than 95% of all warm-blooded
animals used in U.S. laboratories.

Scots ban hunting with dogs

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

EDINBURGH, Scotland–After six-and-a-half hours of debate,
including votes on 107 proposed amendments, the Scottish Parliament
on February 13 gave final approval to the Protection of Wild Mammals
Act, which seeks to ban hunting with dogs, 83-36 with five
abstentions.
“There will not be another [pack] hunting season in
Scotland,” exulted Tricia Marwick, a co-sponsor of the Act. “This
is a momentous day for the Parliament.”
Agreed Les Ward, chair of the Scottish Campaign Against
Hunting With Dogs, “It is a historic day. Scotland has led the way.
It will send a signal to the world that Scotland is a civilised and
modern country.”

Animal advocacy meets The War on Terror

March 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2002:

SALT LAKE CITY–Utah County coyotes got a break from
terrorism during the Winter Olympic Games held in and around Salt
Lake City.
“Because of the no-fly restriction in effect withn 45 miles
of the Games from midnight on February 7 through midnight on February
24, USDA Wildlife Services could not conduct aerial coyote control,”
Deseret News staff writer Sharon Hadlock reported.
Those weeks are usually peak coyote-strafing time for
Wildlife Services, as snow makes their tracks visible to helicopter
gunners.

Bulldogging the Olympic Rodeo

January 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2002:

SALT LAKE CITY–“The Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the
forthcoming Winter Olympic Games was expected to drop the scheduled
February 9-11 Command Performance Rodeo from the Cultural Olympiad
at a January 3 meeting with rodeo foes,” ANIMAL PEOPLE reported in
our December edition, citing coverage from both the Salt Lake
Tribune and the Deseret News, and quoting rodeo protest leader Steve
Hindi, who flew to Salt Lake City in anticipation of the
announcement.

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