Progress against public bullfighting in Tamil Nadu but not in Uttarakhand

January 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2011:

CHENNAI, Dehrudun–The first weekend of 2011 Pongal harvest festivals in Tamil Nadu, India, brought a drop in reported deaths and injuries in jallikattu, the predominant Indian form of participatory bullfighting–but chiefly because new rules discouraged many communities from hosting jallikattu. Relative to the unrestrained mayhem at Bunkhal village in Uttarakhand state a month earlier, that was major progress.

Where jallikattu proceeded, deaths and injuries continued, despite enforcement of the new rules by the Animal Welfare Board of India at direction of the Supreme Court of India. Injuries to bulls are seldom tabulated, but may be inferred from the counts of human deaths and injuries, chiefly suffered in attempts to tackle bulls. Read more

Coffee fad revives civet farming (long version)

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010

DENPASAR, HANOI–Just seven years after
China banned civet farming because of the
association of civet consumption with more than
800 human deaths from Sudden Acute Respiratory
Syndrome, a vogue for pricy civet coffee has
brought the industry back perhaps bigger than
ever–and certainly in many more places.
Sold to coffee snobs as kopi luwak, the
Indonesian word for it, civet coffee is brewed
from the beans that civets excrete after eating
coffee berries, one of their favorite foods.
Civet coffee is by reputation stronger and
usually more aromatic than most coffees.
Collecting and salvaging the excreted
beans from wild civets is so laborious that civet
coffee, known for centuries, has historically
been so costly to produce as to be consumed only
in small amounts by the very rich and jaded. But
civet farming in coffee-growing country has
brought civet coffee within occasionally reach of
the merely affluent–at prices of from $50 to
$100 a cup.

Haj & Eid abuses exposed again

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010:

Live transport, crude amateur slaughter
at the November 16, 2010 celebration of the Eid
“Feast of Sacrifice,” slaughter in front of
children, poor animal welfare leading to the
spread of disease–including the often deadly
tick-borne Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever–and
misuse of the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca as a cover
for wildlife trafficking all came to light in
2010 post-Haj reportage. The most encouraging
sign of change may have been simply that much of
the critical reportage was done by leading media
in Islamic nations.

Coffee fad revives civet farming

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010:

Culturally Rationalized Forms of Chicken Sacrifice: The Kaporos Ritual & the Chicken Project

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010:

by Karen Davis, Ph.D., president & founder, United Poultry Concerns

The idea that some groups were put on the
earth to suffer and die sacrificially for a
superior group or ideal goes far back in time.
This idea is deeply embedded in human cultures,
including the culture of the West, which is
rooted in ancient Greek and Hebrew modes of
thought, incorporated into Christianity, where
these roots combine.

Spanish Senate defeats bill to protect bullfighting as cultural heritage

October 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)

MADRID–The Spanish Senate on October 6, 2010 by a 129-117
vote rejected a motion to seek to have bullfighting protected by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on a
list of monuments, artifacts, and practices defined as part of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The intent of the
bullfighting industry in seeking UNESCO protection of bullfighting
was to thwart legislation prohibiting or restricting traditional
practices.
Introducing the motion, Pio Garcia Escudero of the
opposition Popular Party contended that bullfighting is an art.
“Bullfighting is decadence and this decision today means a
popular rejection of this activity,” rebutted Senator Josep
Maldonado of Catalan. The Catalan parliament on July 28, 2010 voted
68-55 to ban bullfighting after January 1, 2012. The Canary Islands
banned bullfighting in 1991, and Extremadura has banned several
practices associated with bullfighting, including tormenting
tethered bulls and setting fire to objects attached to their horns.

The “bloodhounds” feared in the 19th century were a different breed of dog

October 1, 2010 Dylan Forest One comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)
Wrote Jim Gorant of pit bull terriers in The Lost Dogs:
Michael Vick’s dogs & their tale of rescue & redemption:
“In the 19th century a different breed of dog was considered
so vicious and insidious that it inspired almost universal fear and
loathing. That breed was the bloodhound.”
Gorant merely restated a claim often made for decades by pit
bull advocates and opponents of breed-specific legislation, but
anti-dogfighting blogger Dawn James–an animal rights activist for
more than 30 years– found this difficult to believe.

Rodeos try cultural defense, denial, & erasing cruelty law

July 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2010:

CALGARY, CHEYENNE, BRAZILIA–Exempted from prosecution
for 52 animal deaths in 24 years, including the deaths of six horses
in 2010, Calgary Stampede promoters defend rodeo as culture.
Not prosecuted yet, despite repeated attempts by Showing
Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK), Cheyenne Frontier Days promoters
contend that animal injuries repeatedly videotaped and aired tens of
thousands of times on YouTube never happened.
Brazilian rodeo promoters just keep trying to repeal all
legal protection of domesticated animals from cruelty.
The two-week Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo ended in August
without documented fatalities, unlike in 2009 when SHARK founder
Steve Hindi videotaped at close range the fatal injuries suffered by
a horse named Strawberry Fudge during the bucking competition.

Iranian cleric issues fatwa against keeping pet dogs

June 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2010:

TEHRAN–Acknowledging that the Koran does not explicitly
prohibit contact with dogs, the Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem
Shirazi, 86, nonetheless decreed in a June 19, 2010 fatwa
published by the Iranian newspaper Javan Daily that dogs are
“unclean” and should not be kept as pets.
“We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are
unclean,” Shirazi said in his fatwa, or religious opinion,
disregarding that most mentions of dogs attributed to the Prophet
Mohammed himself are favorable and that some of his inner circle kept
dogs.

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