How to protest against killing contests without promoting them vexes animal defenders

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2013:

MIAMI,  Fla.,  HOLLEY,  N.Y.,  ADIN,  Calif.,  CHICAGO,  Ill.––The Python Challenge was pushed by the Florida Wildlife Commission in the name of conservation,  albeit without strong scientific support.  The Hazzard County Squirrel Slam in Holley,  New York,  and the Pit River Rod and Gun Club’s Seventh Annual Coyote Drive in Adin,  California,  were promoted as opportunities to introduce young people to recreational killing,  though older hunters were more in evidence. Pigeons netted off the streets of Chicago at instigation of Alderman James Cappleman were allegedly killed at pigeon shoots in Indiana. Read more

EDITORIALS: Why boycotts are not the answer to cruelty called "culture"

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

Editorial feature: Why boycotts are not the answer to cruelty called “culture”
Animal people at this writing has received a barrage of e-mails from both irate individual activists and several international online activist networks soliciting a boycott of Spain over the torture-killings of “fire bulls” at village fiestas.
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There are few less defensible public practices involving animals than the ancient and widespread custom of attaching a flammable material to the horns of a bull, setting it alight, and then further tormenting the bull as he strives to escape the fire. Read more

Pigeon shoot video appalls cattle industry magazine columnist

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

 READING,  Pennsylvania–Video from a September 30,  2012 pigeon shoot at the Wing Pointe hunt club near the Pennsylvania state capital in Harrisburg taken by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi and investigator Stu Chaifetz did not persuade a Berks County judge to issue an injunction against further shoots on October 24,  2012.  But the judge “did relay that he would soon be issuing some sort of rules or guidelines that Wing Pointe would have to obey,”  SHARK said in a media release. Read more

Bullfights back on Spanish state TV

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2012:

MADRID--Live bullfights returned to the Spanish state TV network, Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (RTVE) on September 5, 2012 at 6:00 p.m., the traditional time slot since RTVE debuted by airing a bullfight in 1948.

TVE ended a six-year suspension of live bullfight broadcasts just 18 months after the 2011 updated edition of the corporate stylebook advised in a chapter titled “Violence against animals” that it stopped broadcasting live bullfights in 2007 to avoid upsetting children. Read more

Who is helping to fight bullfighters?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2012:

Why are none of the major international animal advocacy
organizations currently campaigning against bullfighting?
This should be priority #1. Bullfighting is nothing more
than a traditional spectacle of sadism. It keeps the floor of animal
welfare at a low level. For example, how can one criticize brutal
treatment of animals in slaughterhouses when bulls are allowed to be
tortured to death in public? There is no place on earth where people
have not seen pictures of bleeding bulls and “brave” matadors and
cheering crowds, and such representations have a desensitizing
effect on children everywhere. Bullfighters have tried to stage
bullfights in such places as China, where there is no tradition of
it, trying to whet the appetite for sadistic spectacles.

Read more

Bogotá bans arena bullfights, but participant bullfights continue in Colombian hinterlands

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2012:

Bogotá bans bullfights, but “corralejas” continue in Colombian hinterlands

BOGOTA, Colombia— Bogotá mayor Gustavo Petro “has stated that he will end bullfighting after bullfight organizers Taurine Corporation refused to agree that animals would not be killed during the fights,” announced Animal Defenders International chief executive Jan Creamer on June 15, 2012.

“We are close to seeing an end to bullfighting in Bogotá, thanks to cultural and social change,” said ADI Colombian representative Eduardo Peña. Added ADI spokesperson Matt Rossell, “It is envisaged that the Plaza La Santamaría, where bullfights are currently held, and the surrounding area will developed into a cultural hub.” The Petro administration has already published a four-year plan for redeveloping Plaza La Santamaría. Read more

Houndsmen are convicted by video in Maine & worried in Indiana

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

Houndsmen are convicted by video in Maine & worried in Indiana

BELFAST,  Maine;  LINTON,  Indiana–A Superior Court jury in Waldo County,  Maine on April 23,  2012 deliberated for less than an hour before convicting Randall Carl of Knox,  46,  of aggravated cruelty for setting four bluetick coonhounds on an illegally trapped and tethered bobcat in February 2009.  The bobcat was killed.     Read more

Appellate Court upholds animal fighting ban

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2012:

RICHMOND, Virginia–A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on April 20, 2012 unanimously
affirmed that Congress has the constitutional authority to prohibit
animal fighting. The verdict upheld federal legislation passed in
2007 that created felony penalties for cockfighting and dogfighting
in cases involving interstate transport of participants, animals,
money, or fighting paraphernalia. The 2007 legislation reinforced
sections of the federal Animal Welfare Act which have been in effect
since 1976, but previously carried only misdemeanor penalties.

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Trying to save fighting dogs five years after the Michael Vick case

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2012:

MANILA, COLUMBUS, Ohio– Incidents on opposite sides of the
world have rekindled debate over the wisdom of expending humane
resources to try to rehome dogs of known violent history and behavior.
Within the space of 10 days:
* The Philippine Animal Welfare Society took temporary
custody of 266 pit bulls who were seized on March 30, 2012 from a
dogfighting ring in San Pablo, Laguna, the Philippines.
* Three small children and an 18-year-old woman in different
parts of the U.S. suffered disfiguring injuries inflicted by recently
rehomed pit bulls.

Read more

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