Turkish street dog massacres

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

ANKARA–Officials of the ruling Islamic nationalist Justice &
Development Party have denied responsibility for the deaths of
hundreds of street dogs whose remains were found at the Mamek refuse
dump in separate lots on March 12, 14, and 24 by veterinarian Burcu
Iskikalp and local animal advocates. Necropsies indicated that at
least two dogs had been raped. A 64-year-old man was charged a week
earlier with raping a dog at a different dump, in Corum.
Turkish law has since 2003 forbidden killing street dogs
except in response to medical emergency, but the law is reportedly
widely defied due to lack of federal government enforcement.

Asia
Europe

BOOKS: Ivory Markets of Europe

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

Ivory Markets of Europe:
A survey in France, Germany, Italy, Spain & the U.K.
by Esmond Martin & Daniel Stiles

Save the Elephants (P.O. Box 54667, 00200
Nairobi, Kenya), 2005. 104 pages, paperback.
No price listed.

Ivory Markets of Europe is the fourth and
perhaps most startling in a series of regional
reports on the elephant tusk ivory trade produced
by geographer Esmond Martin and anthropologist
Daniel Stiles since 2000.
Martin and Stiles began by looking at Africa, where most ivory originates.
They found that ivory artifacts are still
readily available at leading tourist
destinations, despite the 1989 ivory trade
moratorium imposed by the United Nations
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species. The source of most of the ivory still
available in Africa appears to be elephant
poaching.

A little girl who loved her chickens

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

An irony of the H5N1 global epidemic is that many of the
youngest human victims are those with the most positive attitudes
toward poultry–like Sumeyya Makuk of Van, Turkey.
“Sumeyya Mamuk considered the chickens in her yard to be
beloved pets. The 8-year-old girl fed them, petted them, and took
care of them,” wrote Benjamin Harvey of Associated Press. “When
they started to get sick and die, she hugged them and tenderly
kissed them goodbye.
“The chickens were sick. One had puffed up and she touched
it. We told her not to. She loved chickens a lot,” said her
father, Abdulkerim Mamuk. “She held them in her arms.”
Continued Harvey, “Her oldest brother Sadun said Sumeyya
loved animals and took care of puppies and kittens.
When her mother saw Sumeyya holding one of the dying
chickens, she yelled at her and hit the girl to get her away.
Sumeyya began to cry. She wiped her tears with the hand she’d been
using to comfort the dying chicken,” and fell ill herself.
Prompt treatment at the Van 100th Year Hospital saved Sumeyya
Mamuk, Harvey reported.

Rescuers send lion to canned hunt supplier

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

BUCHAREST, CAPE TOWN–Romania is not
usually regarded as a lion-exporting nation,
South Africa is rarely if ever thought of as a
lion importer, and the animal advocacy groups
Born Free Foundation and Vier Pfoten are unlikely
canned hunt suppliers, but recent lion rescues
have taken some very strange twists.
First, in mid-2004 a young African lion
named Lutu was “found starving to death in a
squalid cage in Romania,” according to Mark
Townsend of the London Observer. Actress Amanda
Holden raised $250,000 to enable the Born Free
Foundation to send Lutu to the Shamwari private
wildlife viewing reserve in South Africa.
Instead, in August 2004, days before Lutu was
to be moved, he disappeared.
“All that is currently undisputed
regarding the fate of Lutu,” Townsend wrote two
months later, “is that his owner broke an
agreement with the Born Free Foundation by
selling Lutu to a mystery buyer for an unknown
sum.”

Jail time for cruelty in Croatia

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

ZAGREB–A Croatian court for the first time jailed an animal
abuser, Animal Friends Croatia e-mailed on January 27, 2006, after
Judge Jasna Zoretic gave Ostoja Babi five months, one month less
than the maximum, for severely beating his dog in December 2004. A
police officer shot the dog to end her suffering.
“Animal Friends Croatia staged a demonstration in front of
Babic’s house and collected more than 2,400 petition signatures in
less than a week,” demanding the prosecution, the AFC e-mail said.
Animal Friends Croatia is now seeking to increase the
Croatian penalties for extreme animal abuse, and bar persons
convicted of extreme abuse from ever again keeping animals.

League Against Cruel Sports gets a break

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

LONDON–The Royal Mail has agreed to
accept £2,000 from the League Against Cruel
Sports in lieu of as much as £500,000 in postage
due fees claimed after hunters hijacked a
fundraising appeal.
“A plea to supporters for donations to a
free billing address ended up involving the bomb
squad, police and Royal Mail fraud
investigators,” recounted Helen Nugent of The
Times of London.
“Problems began when hunt enthusiasts
heard about the drive. A round-robin e-mail was
sent to hunters urging them to send Christmas
cards, empty envelopes, and bulky packages.
Within a fortnight, van loads of bricks,
telephone directories, heavy books, abusive
letters and animal excrement were sent to the
league’s offices in South London. One hunter
posted a dead squirrel.”

Ring-necked parakeets might take over London

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

LONDON–Ring-necked parakeets, brought
to Britain from India as exotic pets in Victorian
times, formed feral populations in London in the
early 20th century. They struggled through the
cold British winters for most of 100 years before
global warming changed the climate in their favor.
The United Kingdom Phenology Network,
described by Independent environmental editor
Michael McCarthy as “a massive database of the
timing of natural events, such as oak leaves
appearing, frogs sprawning, and swallows
returning,” has established that biological
spring comes to Britain three weeks earlier now
than 40 years ago.
Despite the significance of this finding
to agriculture, forestry, and species
conservation, the British government recently
cut off funding for the Phenology Network
headquarters at Monks Wood, in Cambridgeshire,
and also axed the Centre for Ecology and
Hydrology research stations at Winfrith, in
Dorset, and Banchory, near Aberdeen.

Europe

H5N1 may halt European movement to free-range poultry-raising

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

LONDON–The Tower of London ravens will be indoor cage birds
until the H5N1 crisis subsides, says raven keeper Derrick Coyle.
Legend has it that if the ravens ever leave the Tower, the
British monarchy will fall–and keeping the ravens indoors sets an
example for poultry farmers.
Just as animal welfare concerns made “free range” a household
phrase and free range poultry growing began to take market share from
intensive confinement, H5N1 might kill the whole concept.
“In the protection zone,” to be established around all H5N1
outbreaks within the European Union, the European Commission decreed
on February 12, 2006, “poultry must be kept indoors.”
Agreed United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization senior
officer of animal production and health Juan Lubroth, “People need
to ensure that poultry are roofed-in to avoid contact with wild
birds, and should not mix chickens with other species, such as
ducks,” since H5N1 is most likely to mutate into forms that can
easily spread when it has the opportunity to move from one species to
another.

Is Belgrade rabies panic covering for dog /cat skinners?

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

BELGRADE–A dog pogrom started in Belgrade, the capital of
Serbia, just before the January 2006 escalation of dog-killing in
Bucharest.
The Belgrade pretext was an alleged rabies outbreak that
appeared to have been proclaimed by animal control officials trying
to keep a lucrative fiefdom.
“Belgrade activists obtained heavy documentation,” e-mailed
ANIMAL PEOPLE reader Jelena Zaric, “that instead of using donations
for animals’ sake, dogcatchers were killing the animals. There is
no need to remind you,” Zaric opined, “that Serbia is known for dog
and cat fur, and for inhumane treatment of stray animals.
“On January 27,” Zaric continued, “Belgrade animal
advocates obtained information that city officials would announce a
rabies outbreak in two days, after Belgrade activists filed a
complaint about illegal activities that surround a couple of city
officials and one leading animal welfare organization.

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