Swiss voters reject special prosecutors for animal cases

April 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

GENEVA–Approximately 70% of the Swiss electorate on March 7,
2010 rejected a referendum proposal by Swiss Animal Protection to
require each canton to designate a public prosecutor to handle animal
cruelty cases–exactly opposite to the outcome that opinion polls
reportedly predicted.
The chances of the proposal passing appeared to be harmed when
the first designated prosecutor of animal cases, Antoine F.
Goetschel of Zurich, brought a cruelty charge against an angler who
took 10 minutes to land a pike in February 2010.
Swiss Animal Protection collected 140,000 signatures to place
the proposal on the ballot. Swiss Animal Protection director
Hansueli Huber told Associated Press writer Eliane Engeler that
cruelty case reports in Switzerland increased by 20% from 2007 to
2008.

Europe
Law

Scottish SPCA & Royal SPCA reach truce

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

EDINBURGH, LONDON–The Scottish SPCA and
the Royal SPCA have signed a joint memo of
understanding under the auspices of the Institute
of Fundraising to “avoid any future confusion,”
Scottish SPCA chief executive Stuart Earley
confirmed to BBC News on December 15, 2009.
“Under the new agreement,” BBC News
said, “the Royal SPCA will add a line to all its
advertisements making it clear that it only
operates in England and Wales. It will also send
all donations made out to the ‘Scottish RSPCA’ or
‘RSPCA Scotland’ to the Scottish SPCA.”
“We want people in Scotland to support
the Scottish SPCA. Even more importantly, if
there is an animal in distress in Scotland, we
want people there to contact the Scottish SPCA to
get help,” Royal SPCA chief executive Mark Watts
told BBC News.
The Scottish SPCA in February 2009
published £100,000 worth of full-page ads in
Scottish newspapers and posted a web site–still
up in early January 2010–that accused the Royal
SPCA of Britain of “stealing food from the mouths
of Scotland’s defenseless animals” by advertising
to Scottish television audiences.
“We have asked the RSPCA to make it
clear it does not save animals in Scotland.
After six months of talks we are no further
forward,” said Earley then.

International Rights Film Festival awards

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:
KHARKOV–Nineteen films on human rights and animal rights
themes were honored at the Third International Rights Film Festival
in Kharkov, Ukraine, during the week of December 12-19, 2009.
Another 22 films won honorable mentions.
“Steps to Freedom” statuettes for best films in category were
awarded to three films on animal rights themes. “Best short film on
animal rights” was He’d never do that, directed by Anartz Zuazua of
Spain. “Best documentary on animal rights” was “I’m an Animal: the
Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA,” directed by Matthew Galkin of the
U.S.

Boxing Day brings confrontation over U.K. Hunting Act enforcement

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

LONDON–The British ban on pack hunting is at risk if the
Conservative slate led by David Cameron wins a majority in the 2010
Parliamentary elections, but Labour environment secretary Hilary
Benn served notice in a Boxing Day op-ed column for The Independent
that the Hunting Act, passed in 2004, will not go down without a
fight fully backed by Labour leadership.
Along with Christmas, Benn wrote, “We should also celebrate
the fifth Boxing Day without the sight of foxes being torn to pieces.
In years to come I think we will look back with horror at a time when
hunting wild animals with dogs was viewed as respectable
entertainment. Like badger-baiting and cock-fighting, ripping
animals to shreds with dogs will become a relic of history.”

U.K., Ireland may stiffen dog regs

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

LONDON–Stricter regulation of dog
breeding may be imminent in the United Kingdom
and Ireland, after an exponential increase in
dangerous dog incidents. London deputy mayor
Kit Malthouse has asked that all “bull breeds” be
banned, to curb the proliferation of “canine
weapons that terrorise the streets of Peckham,
Toxteth and Moss Side.”
The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 banned “pit
bull terriers,” but exempted Staffordshire
terriers, and imposed on police a cumbersome
procedure for distinguishing illegal pit bulls
from legal Staffordshires. Thus the ban has never
been vigorously enforced.

Namibian seal hunt proceeds despite E.U pelt import ban & only buyer’s attempt to sell out

July 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2009:

BRUSSELS, WINDHOEK, CAPE TOWN–The European Council of
Ministers on July 28, 2009 voted 24-0 to implement a ban on
importing seal products into the European Union within nine months.
Approved by the European Parlia-ment on May 5, 2009, the
ban will take effect before the next sealing season in Atlantic
Canada, but might not be enforced in all European Union nations
before the end of the 2009 Namibian sealing season.
“The ban was approved without debate,” wrote Constant Brand
of Associated Press, “although Denmark and Romania abstained from
backing the measure, which Ottawa is protesting as an unfair trade
restriction. Austria also abstained because it wanted an even
stricter ban.”

Marooned dogs’ howls echo in Turkey

June 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2009:
Marooning the dogs of Palau Ketam had two notorious
precedents near Istanbul, Turkey, recalled by Companion Animal
Network founder Garo Alexanian in the November/ December 2008 edition
of ANIMAL PEOPLE.
The first marooning off Istan-bul occurred at some point
prior to 1869, when Mark Twain described it in The Innocents Abroad,
along with “the howl of horror” from citizens that stopped the
practice.
The second marooning came in 1910. “This act so disturbed
the modern Turkish republic,” Alexanian wrote, “that newspaper
columnists have attributed difficult economic times in Turkey to the
curse of Turks having done it.”

European Union bans seal products

June 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2009:
RAMKIN INLET, Nunavut; BRUSSELS–The European Union on May
5, 2009 banned the import of seal pelts and other sealing
byproducts. Canadian governor general Michaelle Jean on May 27,
2009 responded by taking a bite from the heart of a freshly killed
seal.
“Hundreds of Inuit had gathered for a community feast in
Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, the first stop on Jean’s trip to nine
remote northern communities as Canada’s head of state and
representative of Queen Elizabeth II,” recounted Agence
France-Presse. “Jean reportedly knelt above the carcass of a freshly
slaughtered seal and used a traditional ulu blade to slice meat off
the skin. She then asked one of her hosts: ‘Could I try the
heart?”’ Jean swallowed one piece, according to Canadian Press,
pleasing her Inuit audience, the Atlantic Canadian sealing industry,
and the Canadian fur trade.

Rapid progress against Dutch vealers

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
AMSTERDAM–The Dutch animal advocacy organization Wakker
Dier–“Awake Animal”–appears to be quietly making unprecedented
gains against the crated veal industry in the nation where it
originated.
“Within six months of Wakker Dier launching a peaceful
company-targetted campaign against ‘pale veal’–produced by keeping
male calves penned up, fed on low-iron milk diets–nearly all Dutch
supermarkets have stopped selling it,” reported Adriana Stuijt for
Digital Journal on March 15, 2009.
Recently retired after covering public health for the
Johannesburg Sunday Times and the Rand Daily Mail in South Africa,
now living in Dokkum, The Netherlands, Stuijt found that 14 leading
Dutch supermarkets chains “have all undertaken to stop selling the
pale veal within the next few months, because the Wakker Dier
publicity campaign created a high level of consumer awareness, and
people stopped buying it.”

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