EDITORIAL: Animal husbandry & the Horn of Africa famine

September 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2011:

Editorial feature:
Animal husbandry & the Horn of Africa famine

“In central and western Kenya, farmers have had a bumper crop of plump ears of corn and earthy potatoes. Yet in the north, skeletal children wait for food aid amid a growing emergency,” recounted Katharine Houreld of Associated Press on September 1, 2011.

Altogether, Houreld wrote, 3.75 million Kenyans are at risk of starvation. Another eight million people are at risk in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia. Read more

Starved dogs eat Indonesian dog meat dealer

September 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2011:

MANADO, Indonesia–-Dog meat dealer Andre Lumboga, 50, was killed and eaten by five of his dogs on September 1, 2011, police said, after Lumboga left the dogs unfed while he went on a two-week holiday. His dismembered remains were found after a neighborhood guard wondered why his luggage remained in front of his house five days after his return. The dogs apparently cannibalized two other dogs earlier. Four of the dogs were shot by police. One dog escaped.

A new day dawns for cats and dogs in southern China

September 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2011:

WUXI, China–Tipped off at 10 p.m. on August 3, 2011 that
truckers planned to illegally haul a load of cats to live markets in
Guangzhou, Guangdong at dawn, disguised as a cargo of furniture,
members of the Wuxi Animal Protection Association in Jiangsu province
mobilized overnight to intercept the truck at a toll booth at about
5:00 a.m. on August 4.
The truckers had nearly convinced the first authorities on
the scene that the load was only furniture, but “Conveniently,
right at that very moment, one little cat stuck her small head and
shoulders out of one of the cages at the top of the truck, looking
around curiously,” said a WAPA media release, translated by
volunteer Joy Gao.

Editorial feature: Who is speaking out for pigs & who is eating them

July 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:

Park described the suicides of some of the workers who performed the live burials, and said she found the scenes she videotaped so depressing that she wanted to jump into the pits herself, but she could not get close enough…”

Mercy for Animals, having already produced more shocking undercover videos of mistreatment of animals on factory farms than all other U.S. animal advocacy organizations combined, on June 29, 2011 shocked television and web viewers yet again with footage from inside an Iowa Select Farms facility in Kamrar, Iowa.

Iowa Select Farms supplies Swift, one of the biggest names in meatpacking. Read more

Humane Society of the U.S. cuts deal with United Egg Producers to seek federal law

July 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:

WASHINGTON D.C.–“For years we’ve been clashing with the United Egg Producers over the treatment of laying hens,” e-mailed Humane Society of the U.S. factory farming campaign manager Paul Shapiro from a July 7, 2011 press conference. “If someone had told me that we’d be doing a joint press conference with the UEP, I’d have thought they’d eaten some bad egg replacer. But indeed, that’s exactly what’s happening right now. We’re announcing that both the UEP and HSUS will endorse federal legislation intended to improve the treatment of the 280 million laying hens used in the U.S. each year.” Read more

Enforcing the Indian ban on forced molts

July 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:

New Delhi–The Indian office of Humane Society International
on June 20, 2011 introduced a confidential e-mail address,
<starvinghens@hsi.org>, for informants to use to report egg farms
that starve hens to induce forced molts, a practice which
metabolically simulates winter and causes the hens to produce more
eggs when they are again fed, metabolically simulating spring.
“The program was launched after the Animal Welfare Board of
India directed all poultry farms in the country to immediately
discontinue starvation force molt regimes, stating that the practice
is in violation of India’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of
1960, and a punishable offence,” said HIS factory farming campaign
manager N.G. Jayasimha. “Once HSI receives a report about starvation
molting on a particular farm,” Jayasimha pledged, “we will work
with the state animal husbandry department, the local SPCA, the
Animal Welfare Board of India, and the state animal welfare board to
investigate.”
The agencies responsible for agricultural law enforcement in
Maharashtra and Karnataka states had already issued orders enforcing
the Animal Welfare Board of India edict against forced molts.
Equivalent agencies in Nagaland and Chandigarh followed within the
next two days, meaning four states had agreed to comply with the
AWBI decree. India is comprised of 28 states and seven “union
territories.”

Dutch bill to ban slaughter without pre-stunning clears lower house

July 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:

DEN HAAG–A bill to require that all animals who are
slaughtered for human consumption must be stunned before they are
killed was on June 28, 2011 approved 116-30 by the lower house of
the Dutch Parliament and passed to the Dutch senate.
The senate is not expected to act upon the bill before fall.
The bill in effect bans traditional kosher and halal slaughter.
Though some Judaic and Islamic religious authorities conditionally
allow pre-stunning, most hold that pre-stunning is a violation of
the requirements of Mosaic and Islamic religious law that animals be
conscious when their throats are swiftly cut with a sharp blade.

Most of the Chinese dog meat traffic is already illegal, lawyers contend

July 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:

Beijing–Most of the Chinese traffic in dogs for human
consumption is already illegal, and therefore should be stopped
immediately, without awaiting passage of a national humane law,
attorneys Lu Xun, An Xiang, and Cai Chunhang told a two-hour press
conference convened in Beijing on June 15, 2011 by the Shangshan
Animal Foundation.
The lawyers joined China Veterinary Association Pet Clinic
Branch vice president Liu Lang to discuss the implications for rabies
control resulting from investigation of an incident on April 14,
2011, when Beijing activists intercepted and eventually rescued
approximately 500 dogs from a truck transporting them from Henan
province to dog meat restaurants in Jilin province.

Sketchy Government Accounting Office report tends to favor horse slaughter

July 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The title of Horse Welfare: Action Needed
to Address Unintended Consequences from Cessation of Domestic
Slaughter hints at the conclusions and recommendations that the
Government Accountability Office report offered to Congress on June
23, 2011.
But the GAO report includes numerous acknowledgements of a
lack of data supporting the conclusions and recommendations. Failing
to discover and use data collected by the humane community about
trends in horse neglect and abandonment, including data collected by
ANIMAL PEOPLE and Pet-Abuse.com which is readily available online,
the GAO authors relied heavily on unsubstantiated anecdotal claims by
sources within the horse and livestock industries, including 17
state veterinarians whose duties are primarily to facilitate horse
and livestock commerce.

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