Cat-skinning in Switzerland

May 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
GENEVA–How many cats are skinned for fur in Switzerland?
Probably not nearly as many as the thousands or even tens of
thousands recently alleged to media by Tomi Tomek, founder of the
Swiss group SOS Chats, and Patricia Dolciani, president of the
French Society for the Protection of Animals in Thonon-les-Bains,
near the Swiss border–but enough to shock Europe as the trade comes
to light.
“As far as we are aware, only a couple of dozen cat furs are
produced annually in Switzerland,” Swiss Federal Veterinary Office
spokesperson Marcel Falk told Tony Paterson of the London Independent
in April 2008.

Accidental rabies imports emphasize value of quarantine

May 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
LONDON, BRUSSELS–Health experts are hoping the prominence
of the most recent rescuer involved in accidentally importing a rabid
dog will emphasize to the international rescue community the need to
quarantine as well as vaccinate.
SOS Sri Lanka founder Kim Cooling and two workers at the
Chingford Quarantine Kennels in northeast London were repeatedly
bitten by an eight-week-old puppy between April 23 and April 25,
2008. The puppy died later on April 25. Rabies was diagnosed a few
hours afterward.

Efforts to restrain island nations’ bird massacres

May 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
LONDON–The Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds and the National Audubon
Society refocused attention on Greenland after
Malta on April 25, 2008 banned spring quail and
turtle dove hunting and trapping.
Malta acted in compliance with a
provisional ruling by the European Court of
Justice that the traditional Maltese spring bird
season violates the 1979 European Bird Directive,
adopted five years before Malta joined the
European Union. The European Court of Justice is
to review the Maltese response to the provisional
ruling in two or three years, reported Agence
France-Presse.

The $64 million question: is Moscow building new shelters promised in 1999?

May 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2008:
MOSCOW–“Moscow Dog Attacks Spur $64 Million Castration
Drive,” the international financial news web site Bloom-berg.com
bannered on April 14, 2008.
The headline, in a publication founded by New York City
mayor Michael Bloomberg, seemed to promise the largest dog
sterilization campaign anywhere, ever.
Bloomberg.com Moscow correspondent Henry Meyer reiterated in
the lead paragraph of his article that the $64 million would be spent
“to castrate as many as 50,000 stray dogs,” in response to dog
attacks now occurring at about an eighth of the U.S. rate.
But reality–as Meyer acknowledged five paragraphs later–is
that Moscow chief veterinarian Natalia Sokolova told a television
audience that the city plans to spend the $64 million to build 15
animal shelters, meant to impound about 2,000 stray dogs apiece per
year. The shelters are to be opened in 2009, ten years after they
were first promised.

Gamekeepers fined for killing protected raptors in both U.K. and U.S.

January 1, 2008 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:
EDINBURGH, LANCASTER (Pa.),
NICOSIA–Prince Harry may have dodged the bullet
for allegedly shooting two hen harriers to
protect captive-reared “game” species, as ANIMAL
PEOPLE reported in November/December 2007, but
gamekeepers have been fined in comparable cases
on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Scottish Borders region cattle and sheep
farmer James McDougal became “the first landowner
in the United Kingdom to have his agricultural
subsidies cut as a punishment,” Guardian Scotland
correspondent Severin Carroll wrote. “The
Scottish executive said it had docked £7,919 from
last year’s single farm payment and beef calf
scheme payments to McDougal–more than the £5,000
maximum [fine] for a wildlife crime,” Carroll
reported on January 7, 2008.

Nowhere in Europe for older elephants

November 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
The successful relocation of numerous U.S. zoo elephants to
the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California and the
Elephant Sanctuary at Hohenwald, Tennessee have repeatedly given
hope to European activists that elephants might be relocated from
many facilities that are much smaller, older, and bleaker than any
but the worst in the U.S.–but reality is that land is so scarce and
costly in most of Europe that there are no European sanctuaries for
elephants, nor for any other species needing much space.
Sanctuaries for former dancing bears operate in Bulgaria,
Romania, and Greece, and one sanctuary for great apes exists in
Spain. Otherwise, animal welfare organizations that accept animals
who are retired from zoos, circuses, and other captive venues
usually have to look abroad to find sanctuary care–like the Austrian
organization Vier Pfoten, soon to open a sanctuary called Lionsrock
in South Africa. It will chiefly house African lions.

Prince Harry dodges the bullet as suspect in harrier shootings

November 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
LONDON–Prince Harry of Britain and two
companions on November 6, 2007 escaped
prosecution for allegedly killing two hen
harriers, but the shotgun blasts suspected to
have been fired by the royal hunting party helped
to blow the cover off the pretense by shooting
estate operators that they practice wildlife
conservation.
“Norfolk Crown Prosecution Service has
advised Norfolk Police there is insufficient
evidence to prosecute anyone over the shooting of
two hen harrier birds, a protected species, at
Sandringham on October 24, 2007,” a Crown
Prosecution Service spokesperson said in a
prepared statement.
“The bodies of the hen harriers have not
been found and there is no forensic or ballistic
evidence. Witnesses also heard unexplained
shooting in the area before the three suspects
said they were present at the scene, so other
people cannot be ruled out,” the CPS
spokesperson added. “The three suspects, who
were interviewed by police, all denied that the
birds were killed by them.”

Birds migrating over the Mediterranean face fire from all directions

November 1, 2007 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
ATHENS–Moving to protect migratory birds
from some of the most prolifigate hunters in
Europe, the highest Greek administrative court
on November 9, 2007 banned hunting until
November 21 in several of the regions where
wildlife habitat was most severely damaged by
August 2007 wildfires.
The Council of State, as the court is
called, was expected to rule by November 21 on
whether the hunting ban should remain in place
longer. The Greek hunting season normally runs
from August through February, but even if the
ban is not extended, it was widely acclaimed for
supposedly protecting many of the most fragile
European migratory birds during the peak weeks of
their passage over the Mediterranean, Adriatic,
and Agean seas.
Aliki Panagopoulou, projects coordinator
for ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection Society
of Greece, was skeptical.

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

November 1, 2007 Archivist 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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