Rodeo cowboys sued

June 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:
CHICAGO–The Electronic Frontiers Foundation, founded in
1990 to protect freedom of speech and press in cyberspace, on June
14, 2008 sued the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association on behalf
of Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK), of Geneva, Illinois.
“SHARK videotapes and photographs rodeos to expose animal
abuse, injuries, and deaths,” EFF explained. “SHARK posted more
than two dozen videos to YouTube to publicize animal mistreatment.
But the PRCA filed takedown demands for 13 videos under the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act. YouTube removed the videos and canceled
SHARK’s YouTube account, even though the PRCA has no copyright claim
in live rodeo events.”
Said EFF Intellectual Property Fellow Emily Berger, “Those
bringing meritless copyright claims must be held accountable.”

Sealing protest & media response

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
Conventional activist wisdom is that confrontation attracts
publicity, which builds opposition to a grievance. An ANIMAL PEOPLE
analysis of Atlantic Canadian seal hunt coverage, however, shows a
low yield from ongoing efforts to confront and document the
activities of sealers on the ice, the chief protest tactic since the
1970s.
The New York Times during the first two weeks of the 2008
sealing season published just one brief article about it, and since
1981 has published an average of just 1.4 articles per year about the
hunt. The New York Times total of 39 articles about Atlantic
Canadian seal hunting and related protest contrasts with 312 articles
about Japanese research whaling published in the same years.

Will seizing Sea Shepherd ship help Canada to hold off European seal product import ban?

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:

TOKYO; SYDNEY, N.S.-The Institute of Cetacean Research
acknowledged on April 14, 2008 that pursuit of the Japanese whaling
fleet by the Sea Shepherd Conserv-ation Society vessel Steve Irwin
had held their winter “research whaling” catch to just 551 minke
whales, 55% of their self-assigned quota of 985 minke whales and 50
fin whales.
“We did not have enough time for research because we had to
avoid sabotage,” said a prepared statement from the Japan Fisheries
Agency.

About six million U.S. dogs live on chains, Dogs Deserve Better count projects

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
TIPTON, Pa.–How many dogs are chained or penned in
abnormally close quarters as their primary means of confinement?
The quick answer appears to be about six million dogs, 9% of
the U.S. dog population, based on an ANIMAL PEOPLE analysis of data
gathered by Dogs Deserve Better founder Tammy Grimes and public
liaison director Dawn Ashby.
Grimes and Ashby in mid-April 2008 spent 12 days counting
chained or closely penned dogs in a dozen southern and southeastern
states. They found 1,051 chained dogs in 1,483 residential road
miles, or about one mile in 2,648 of the U.S. residential road mile
total.

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.

Booking agency sues SHARK for dissuading entertainers from performing at rodeo

May 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
CHEYENNE–Romeo Entertainment, incorporated in Omaha but
based in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, on April 16, 2008 sued the
animal advocacy organization SHARK, of Geneva, Illinois, for
allegedly using “false and misleading information” and “threats of
negative publicity” in successful efforts to dissuade singer Carrie
Underwood and the band Matchbox 20 from performing at the Cheyenne
Frontier Days rodeo in July 2006 and July 2008, respectively.
SHARK founder Steve Hindi sent video of alleged animal abuse
at past Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo performances to both Underwood
and Matchbox 20, he acknowledged. Romeo Entertainment, headed by
Bob Romeo, “has arranged for night show entertainers for Cheyenne
Frontier Days at times over the last 20 years,” says the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed nine days before Cheyenne Frontier Days
animal care committee chair Bob Budd announced a ban on “the use of
hand-held electric shock devices at the rodeo except in emergency
situations where they are needed to prevent injuries,” according to
Cary Snyder of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

Shocked, shocked by rodeo tactics

March 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:
TUCSON, DENVER, LAS VEGAS–Exposing three major rodeos in
as many months for electro-shocking so-called bucking horses, SHARK
founder Steve Hindi and investigators Janet Enoch and Mike Kobliska
are wondering just what it will take to persuade prosecutors to put
their videotaped evidence in front of a jury.
To Hindi, the SHARK videos unequivocally demonstrate
intentional cruelty. Time and again rodeo stock contractors
furtively press a black two-pronged device against the flank, rump,
or sometimes the face of a horse, and the horse bolts, then erupts
into spasmodic jumping.

Big puppy mill raids “barked up the right tree” for mass media

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Raids on alleged puppy mills in at least
five states closely followed the November 1, 2007 launch of a Humane
Society of the U.S. pre-holiday media blitz against lax regulation of
dog breeders.
A five-month HSUS investigation found more than 900 active
dog breeders in Virgina, of whom only 16 held USDA permits to breed
dogs for sale across state lines, summarized HSUS publicist Leslie
Porter.
“To sell puppies to pet stores, breeders with more than
three breeding females are required by federal law to have a
license,” Porter said. “The HSUS investigation found that many
breeders are violating this law,” often by selling directly to the
public through web sites.
An HSUS undercover team “documented puppy mills throughout
the state,” Porter said, “including in Hillsville, Jewel Ridge,
Atkins, Ferrum, Staunton, and Lynchburg, and pet stores who buy
those dogs, including in Fredericksburg, Ashland, Midlothian and
Waynesboro. The HSUS found dogs being harmed and abused; laws being
ignored, and consumers being duped over and over again.”

RSPCA & the League Against Cruel Sports show U.K. pack hunting ban can be enforced

November 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

LONDON–Nearly three years after the
Hunting Act 2004 nominally banned fox hunting and
other forms of pursuing wildlife with packs of
dogs, more people are reportedly participating
than before the act took effect. Only one hunt
club has disbanded; two new clubs have formed.
“Half of the 10 prosecutions brought
under the Hunting Act have not even been against
formal fox or stag hunts,” scoffed Daniel Foggo
and Nic North in the November 4, 2007 edition of
The Times of London. “The most recent
conviction, in October, was against a gang
hunting rats. The police have made clear that
they do not see enforcing the hunting ban as a
priority. Most of the cases that have come to
court have been private prosecutions.”
Similar reports appeared a year earlier,
18 months after the passage of the Hunting Act
2004. “The Hunting Act is failing,” alleged Guy
Adams of The Independent. “Last week, The
Independent was invited to follow a typical hunt
in a remote corner of Wales. It killed nine
foxes, almost all by illegal methods; the
previous week’s bag had been 13. Supporters of
field sports believe the Hunting Act 2004 to be
unenforceable, poorly drafted, and riddled with
loopholes. Opponents say it is being ignored by
many of Britain’s 300-odd hunts.”

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