COURT CALENDAR

November 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

Activism
Defended by attorney Richard Halpern, Mike
Durschmidt of Chicago on October 16 became one of the
few animal rights protesters ever to win aquittal with a
“necessity” defense, in which the defendant contends it was
necessary to break a law to prevent a greater harm from
occurring. A Lake County Circuit Court jury agreed that
Durschmidt was justified in lying down in the ring at the
1996 Wauconda Rodeo to prevent children from racing on
the backs of sheep, and was therefore not guilty of trespass,
but did convict Durschmidt of resisting arrest for not leaving
at police direction. Sentencing was deferred.
Acquitted by a lower court, Brigitte Bardot
was convicted on appeal on October 9 of inciting racial
hatred in a 1996 newspaper column for complaining of
alleged “foreign overpopulation” in France at the same time
she denounced lamb slaughter in connection with the E i d
a l – A d h a Islamic religious holidays as “torture” and “most
atrocious pagan sacrifice.” Bardot was fined $1,600 and
was ordered to pay a symbolic 20¢ to the Movement
Against Racism and for the Friendship of People, which
pursued her prosecution.

Direct action crackdown

October 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1997:

Noel Molland, 36, of
Okehampton, Devon, Paul Rogers, 33, of
Southsea, Hampshire, Steve Booth, 38, of
Galgate, Lancashire, Saxon Birchnall
Wood, 24, of Sandhurst, Berkshire, and
Simon Russell, 33, of Pevensey, East
Sussex, pleaded not guilty on August 30 in
London, England, to allegedly conspiring
together and with previously convicted
Animal Liberation Front press officer
Robin Wood to incite persons unknown to
commit criminal damage between January
1991 and January 1996. All five, and Robin
Wood, were associated with Green Anarchist
magazine. Booth also produced his own magazine,
Lancaster Bomber, as did Molland,
who called his Eco Vegan. Burchnall Wood
allegedly distributed manuals on making
bombs and sabotaging vehicles, the Crown
said. Russell was for several years the electronic
voice of the British ALF. The group,
whose trial continues, are believed to have
been the core of the British ALF in the 1990s.
Attacks on some targets the defendants
allegedly directed activists toward continue.

LAB ANIMAL UPDATES

October 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1997:

The American Humane Association on September
16 took custody of 40 beagles who were scheduled for use in
osteoporsosis research at Huntingdon Life Sciences Inc. in
Franklin, New Jersey, but became surplus instead when the
firm that hired the study, Yamanouchi Inc. of Japan, cancelled
it in response to a May public appeal by actress Kim
Basinger. Basinger tried to collect the beagles in person in
July, but Huntingdon would only release them to an accredited
sheltering organization. AHA arranged for them to be
accepted for socialization and eventual adoption through nine
local shelters.
Responding to a Humane Society of New York
petition asking that the USDA require research facilities to
scan incoming dogs and cats for identification microchips,
USDA assistant secretary for marketing and regulatory programs
Michael Dunn announced in August that Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service officials “are launching a
pilot program to use microchip scanners in inspections to
determine their effectiveness, accuracy, and the frequency of
the use of microchips in cats and dogs.”

Animal control & rescue

October 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1997:

Potbellied pigs
A study by Linda Lord and Thomas Wittum,
published in the September 1 edition of the Journal of the
American Veterinary Medical Association, found that 802
U.S. humane societies reported receiving 4,380 requests to
accept owner surrenders of Vietnamese potbellied pigs in an
18-month period, taking in 3,149, including 615 found running
at large. The major reasons for owner surrenders of pigs
were large size (58%), zoning restrictions (34%), and
aggressive behavior (19%). Of 485 hog slaughtering plants
surveyed, 255 had been asked to kill potbellied pigs, and
had among them slaughtered 2,640, refusing to slaughter
another 1,407. Commented Jim Brewer of PIGS: A
Sanctuary, “It’s even worse than that. We’re actually
receiving more distress calls these days from would-be pig
rescuers who are in over their heads than from individual
owners––and we’re still getting plenty of those calls, too.”

EUROPEAN UNION RESCINDS TRAPPED FUR IMPORT BAN

September 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1997:

BRUSSELS––The European Union General
Affairs Council on July 22 approved agreements with
Canada and Russia on “humane” trapping standards
which as Associated Press put it, “will insure use of the
cruel leghold trap for an indefinite period of time.”
The EU council also asked the European
Commission to strike a similar deal with the U.S., which
holds that it cannot federally supersede state trapping regulations,
and that any international regulation of trapping
violates the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs.
The July 22 deal allows Canada and Russia to
continue the use of steel-jawed leghold traps for another
two to four years, and allows the use of padded leghold
traps for either eight more years or indefinitely, if they
meet as yet unformalized international standards.
For Canada and Russia, the deal nullifies an
EU ban on the import of fur from animals usually caught
by leghold trapping, initially approved in 1991 to take
effect in 1995, but repeatedly postponed by all member
nations but The Netherlands.
Letters opposing further EU concessions to
reach agreement with the U.S. may be sent to the
European Commission, 200 Rue de la Loi, B1049,
Brussels, Belgium; fax 011-322-299-4686.

Lynx sacrified to free trade and leghold trapping

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

WASHINGTON D.C.––The Department
of Commerce and U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service have escalated efforts to avert the long
pending European Union ban on imports of pelts
which might be taken by leghold trapping––and
the U.S. population of Canadian lynx may
become the first species extirpated by the Bill
Clinton/Albert Gore administration defense of
free trade at any cost, as on May 23 the USFWS
ruled in that an endangered species listing of the
lynx is “warrented but precluded” by other priorities.
The ruling came in response to a
March 27 verdict by U.S. District Judge Gladys
Kessler that the USFWS did not properly weigh
the evidence that the lynx is endangered in
refusing to list it in 1994.
Officially, the so-called other priorities
precluding listing the lynx involve a backlog
of other species awaiting listing. Unofficially,
the USFWS top priority may be avoiding the
necessity of protecting the lynx from hunting,

Paul and the pirate

July 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

BREMERHAVEN––A pirate whaler is at large in the central
Atlantic, Captain Paul Watson is out of jail, and the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society has a ship and crew at Bremerhaven, Germany, almost
ready to sail. “We don’t know if we’ll be able to find it,” Watson told ANIMAL
PEOPLE from Washington D.C., after addressing the Animal Rights
‘97 conference and attending a banquet in honor of Animal Rights
International founder Henry Spira, “but we’re going that way anyway to chase
some driftnetters, and we might as well have a look.”
The Portuguese Navy was reportedly already looking with a warship––but
the last time there were pirate whalers in the region, the Portuguese
Navy protected them. The most notorious was the S i e r r a, operating from
Lisbon with impunity. On July 16, 1979, Watson, Peter Woof, and Jerry
Doran overtook the Sierra with the original Sea Shepherd vessel, then rammed
her twice as she ran for the protection of a Portuguese destroyer. The destroyer
apprehended the Sea Shepherd after a high seas chase, but Watson, Woof,
and Doran all eventually escaped, while inspired Sea Shepherd sympathizers
sank the damaged Sierra and three other whalers. The rest left the Atlantic.

Watson awaits verdict on Norwegian extradition attempt

June 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

AMSTERDAM––Judge Van der Pijl of the
Haarlem District Court in the Netherlands on May 26 rejected
Norway’s April 18 request to extradite Captain Paul
Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society,
to face charges of alleged “reckless navigation” and “illegal
entry into Norwegian waters” during a July 1994 clash with
the Norwegian patrol ship Andennes during which the
Andennes rammed Watson’s vessel, the Whales Forever.
Watson remained at the Lelystad prison pending a
ruling on a further charge of allegedly sending a false distress
signal. A ruling is due by June 10.
“Even if he’s found guilty of that charge,” Sea
Shepherd international director of operations Lisa Distefano
said, “the public will be reminded that Norwegian commandos
dropped four depth charges, fired on our boat with cannon,
and sheared the bow off our ship by ramming us.”

World Week demonstrations go ape

June 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Rowdy World Week for Laboratory Animals protests made headlines
in four nations––but only the April 25 sledgehammering of a steel
baboon cage at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa seemed
to draw broad public sympathy. Isaac Mavundla, 16, struck the first blow
after spending 17 days inside the cage to publicize cruel experiments.
The London Daily Telegraph and London Times headlines on April
21 read, respectively, “Pro-animal activists smash family home” and
“Mother and two children cower as house is stormed,” after brick-and-bottlehurling
hooded demonstrators the previous day broke just about everything
that could be broken and extensively vandalized the family car at the residence
of Consort Kennels manager Adam Little, 30, his wife Alison, 28,
four-year-old son Lawrence, and seven-month-old daughter Amber. Consort
Kennels breeds beagles for laboratory use. Adam Little was at the kennels at
the time, beseiged by about 250 demonstrators who managed to take one
puppy, later recovered, before police cleared the scene with tear gas. One
officer was knocked unconscious, several others were injured, and 24
demonstrators were arrested.

« 1 … 40 41 42 43 44 … 69 »