Hong Kong evicts big dogs from public housing

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

HONG KONG–The Hong Kong Housing Authority on September 25,
2003 approved new rules, recommended by the regional government,
that will ban from public housing any dogs weighing more than 40
pounds and any dogs acquired after August 1.
Possession of the dogs prior to August 1 must be verified by
licensing, vaccination, or sterilization certificates. All dogs
must be licensed, vaccinated, sterilized, and registered with the
Housing Authority by the end of November.
Dogs will be excluded from elevators from 7 a.m. until 9
p.m., and will be evicted if they occasion two verified complaints.
Pigeons, wildlife, and domesticated farm animals remain
excluded, as under the previous regulations.
Cats, cage birds, rabbits, turtles, and fish continue to
be permitted.
About 30% of Hong Kong residents live in public housing.
Heatedly debated since May, the new rules represent the
first significant update of the Housing Authority provisions
pertaining to animals in 40 years, Hong Kong legislator David Chu
Yu-lin told the Asia for Animals conference in early September.

Ferrets for Schwarzenegger

October 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

“Ferret owners are rejoicing,” American Ferret Association
founder Freddie Ann Hoffman said of the October 7, 2003 election of
actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace recalled California Governor
Gray Davis.
Hoffman credited Schwarzenegger with helping to popularize
ferrets in his 1990 film Kindergarten Cop, while blasting Davis for
pledging to veto any bill to legalize the possession of ferrets that
might clear the state legislature.
Ferrets and many other non-native predators have been banned
in California for more than 70 years, initially as alleged threats
to the poultry industry.
The PawPAC political action committee was less enthusiastic
about Schwarzenegger.
“Like everyone else, we know nothing of Schwarzenegger’s
positions on animals,” said a pre-election PawPAC release. “Former
gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan stated at a recent event that
his friend Arnold ‘loves his dogs.’ Schwarznegger has been endorsed
by the California Farm Bureau, an organization that regularly
opposes animal welfare legislation.”

Prairie dogs with monkeypox blow the whistle on the exotic pet trade

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

CHICAGO, ATLANTA– With sentries ever
vigilant atop burrows, uttering different
whistles to denote flying, four-footed, and
two-footed gun-toting predators, what prairie
dogs do best is alert their whole habitat to the
approach of any danger.
In recent weeks prairie dogs alerted the
U.S. to the risk of little known lethal diseases
arriving from abroad through the exotic pet trade.
The triggering event was the arrival of
monkeypox, a milder cousin of smallpox, with 18
Gambian giant pouched rats and a number of
Ghanian dormice received on April 21 by Phillip
Moberly of Phil’s Pocket Pets in Villa Park,
Illinois.

Dog chaining bill signed in Connecticut

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

HARTFORD–Animal Advocacy Connecticut founder Julie Lewin
announced on July 10, 2003 that Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland
had signed the Confinement and Tethering of Dogs Act and three other
bills endorsed by AACT. To take effect on October 1, the
Confinement and Tethering of Dogs Act is the first state law in the
U.S. to limit how long a dog can be tethered outdoors.
Rowland vetoed a similar bill in 2002 that included specific
restrictions on tethering, but approved this one, spokes-person John
Wiltse told Associated Press, because it requires only that
tethering may not be for an “unreasonable period.” What is
“unreasonable” may vary with the weather and the breed and age of the
dog.

Neutersol hits the market; Third World seeks a price break

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

COLUMBIA, Missouri–Globally anticipated for more than 12
years, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March
2003, and officially introduced to the U.S. veterinary drug market
in May 2003, the injectible sterilant Neuterol is finally here–but
not there yet, overseas, in the impoverished nations where
uncontrolled reproduction of street dogs is most problematic.
As marketed so far by Addison Biolog-ical Laboratories,
Neutersol is only for American puppies, and then only for those
puppies whose caretakers are willing to pay almost as much for
sterilization by injection as for a conventional surgical castration
or vasectomy.
“Work is continuing with the FDA toward a clearance for cats
and older dogs,” Addison president Bruce Addison told Vet Practice
News.

Five convicted of murder-by-dog, three charged in new cases

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

TEMECULA, California–Baby sitter Jackie Batey, 30, was on
July 9 charged with felony child endangerment and involuntary
manslaughter for the June 20 fatal mauling of Sumner Clugston, age
2, in the front yard of her home in Riverside County, California.
Batey allegedly left Clugston and three other children alone with her
pit bull terrier.
The charges against Batey followed five convictions on felony
charges in three other murder-by-dog cases during the preceding 12
days.
The Batey charges came 20 days after Kathleen Josephine
Hansen, 60, and her son Roger Allen Hansen, 35, were jailed and
charged with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a
child, reckless endangerment, and dog law violations after a
similar incident in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. In that case,
Roger Hansen allowed his three Rottweilers to escape while Kathleen
Hansen was playing with her two-year-old granddaughter Lillie
Krajewski of Buffalo.

Legislative Calendar

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

Reviewing proposed amendments to the Fiscal Year 2004
Agriculture Appropriations Act, the House of Representatives on July
14 added $800,000 to the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection
Service budget to support enforcement of legislation banning the
interstate transport of gamecocks and fighting dogs, by a vote of
222-179, but voted 202-199 against an amendment by Representatives
Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Steve Latourette (R-Ohio) that would have
forbidden processing non-ambulatory livestock for human consumption.
This was the closest that Ackerman has come yet in many attempts to
pass “anti-downer” legislation.

“Flushing Nemo” & the soaring threat of “101 Snowy Owls”

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

OAKLAND, California– “Sadly, audiences are missing some of
the most important messages in Finding Nemo,” says Action for
Animals founder Eric Mills, suggesting that activists should leaflet
theatres to help ensure that what the Disney film actually says is
absorbed.
“This popular animated film has a strong vegetarian theme,”
Mills points out, “and one of the characters says that ‘Fish don’t
belong in boxes.’ Nonetheless, there has been a tremendous increase
in the demand for clown fish by hobby aquarists.”
“Everyone who comes in says they want Nemo,” confirmed
Michael Diaz, manager of Jewels of the Sea in West Palm Beach,
Florida, to Jill Barton of Associated Press.

BOOKS: For Bea

June 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2003:

For Bea:
The Story of the Beagle Who Changed My Life
by Kristin Von Kreisler
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam
(375 Hudson street, New York 10014), 2003. 190 pages. $19.95, paperback.

During an evening walk Kristin Von Kreisler encountered a
sick and exhausted stray beagle, and could not just leave the dog
there. She took the beagle home and named her Bea. She could not
understand why Bea was so strongly afraid of humans, even those who
were friendliest. What kind of past could have made her shake from
fear at any human contact?

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