Australia halts “six month” suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia after 30 days

July 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:
CANBERRA–Australian agriculture minister
Joe Ludwig on July 7, 2011 lifted a 38-day
suspension of live cattle exports to 11 specific
Indonesian slaughterhouses and a 30-day
suspension of live cattle exports to anywhere in
Indonesia without visibly and demonstrably
accomplishing anything to improve animal welfare.
Ludwig on June 8, 2011 announced a
six-month suspension of livestock exports to
Indonesia, and a review of live exports to all
overseas buyers, including those in the Middle
East. Ludwig had suspended exports to the 11
specific slaughterhouses on June 1, 2011, hours
after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
program Four Corners aired video documentation of
alleged halal slaughtering procedures in Jakarta,
Bogor, Bandar Lampung, and Medan which “crossed
the boundaries of ignorance and cultural
difference into the realm of sadistic brutality,”
assessed Penelope Debelle of the Adelaide Advertiser.

Another mega-cat rescue in China

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
YUNCHENG–“If cats could talk, perhaps the matter could be
much simpler,” observed the Qianjiang Evening News on May 3,
2011–and that was before the latest mass rescue of cats being
trucked to slaughter in Guangzhou became much more complicated.
The incident began on the evening of May 1, the Qianjiang
Evening News reported, when Hangzhou Public Security officials
spot-checking vehicles at a busy intersection intercepted a
conspicuously stinky truck. The truck was found to be hauling 2,000
cats and kittens, both alive and dead. Some kittens appeared to
have been born in the transport cages. The five men in the cab had
papers indicating that they acquired the cats in Anhui province.

Mercy for Animals video brings charges in Texas & fuels “ag gag” debate

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
LUBBOCK–Castro County, Texas district
attorney James Horton on May 26, 2011 issued
felony warrants for five former employees of the
E6 Cattle Company, in Hart, and Class A
misdemeanor warrants for E6 owner Kirt Espenson
and foreman Arturo Olmos. All seven defendants
could receive jail time. The charges resulted
from undercover video collected by the Chicago
organization Mercy for Animals, disclosed to
media on April 20, 2011.

Australia halts cattle sales to 11 Indonesian abattoirs

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
CANBERRA–Australian agriculture minister
Joe Ludwig on June 1, 2011 suspended live cattle
exports from Australia to 11 Indonesian
slaughterhouses, and warned that exports to more
slaughterhouses may be suspended as an
investigation proceeds. “I will appoint an
independent reviewer to investigate the complete
supply chain for live exports up to and including
the point of slaughter,” Ludwig told media.
Ludwig acted within hours after the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Four
Corners aired undercover video collected by
Animals Australia campaign director Lyn White, a
former police officer, during investigations at
the 11 randomly selected halal slaughterhouses in
Jakarta, Bogor, Bandar Lampung, and Medan in
March 2011.

No more live birds sold at San Francisco farmers’ markets

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

SAN FRANCISCO–Live bird sales ended at the Heart of the City
Farmers’ Market on May 27, 2011–the only one of the three San
Francisco farmers’ markets at which live birds were sold.
Two vendors, Raymond Young Poultry and Bullfeathers Quail,
were notified on May 3 that live bird sales would no longer be
allowed. “The market has announced that it plans to expand 25% and
is seeking new vendor applications, so we can look forward to the
area that was previously filled with abused animals and filth to be
used for something better!” exulted Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender
Compassion founder Andrew Zollman, 43, who with fellow live market
protester Alex Felsinger, 25, had picketed the twice-weekly market
for about two years.

Editorial feature: Slaughtering animals, crime, & societal health

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
Phillip Danforth Armour (1832-1901) is
today remembered only for the meatpacking company
he founded, but in his own time was lauded for
allegedly contributing to the progress of
civilization by moving animal slaughter out of
sight, smell, and sound of women, children,
and decent men.
Born into an upstate New York farming
family, Armour drove barge-hauling mules
alongside the Chenango Canal in his teens, then
walked all the way to California at age 19 to
join the Gold Rush. He soon discovered that more
gold was to be made by starting a Placerville
butcher shop than in mining.

Cattle disease rinderpest, which once killed millions, is declared to be extinct

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

PARIS–The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) on May
25, 2011 formally announced the eradication of rinderpest–the first
time an animal disease has been extinguished through human efforts,
and only the second time that any disease has been eradicated. The
first, smallpox, was last reported in 1977.
“It was rinderpest that led to the formation of the OIE in
1924, following a new incursion of the rinderpest virus in Europe,
via the port of Antwerp,” recalled British Veterinary Medical
Association spokesperson Helena Cotton.

Trade magazine Feedstuffs offers first livestock industry critique of GAP standards

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:

MINNETONKA, Minnesota–The March 28, 2011 edition of the
agribusiness trade magazine Feedstuffs offered the first extensive
critique from within the conventional livestock industry of the
five-step Global Animal Partnership standards for raising cattle,
pigs, and chickens for slaughter.
Introduced on November 15, 2010, the GAP standards were
rolled out in January 2011 by the 300-store Whole Foods Markets
chain, whose founder, John Mackey, also founded GAP.

Japanese nuclear reactor failure imperils hooved animals even more than pets

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
OSAKA–Difficult as was the plight of dogs and cats in the
no-go zone surrounding the Fukushima nuclear reactor complex, it was
worse for large animals, who are not easily moved, and in most
cases had nowhere to go.
“According to government figures about 3,400 cows, 31,000
pigs and 630,000 chickens were left in the zone, assumed to have died
by now,” reported Animal Refuge Kansai founder Elizabeth Oliver.
“There were around 370 horses in Minami Sohma,” Oliver continued,
“at least 100 of whom died in the disaster. Around 140 horses are
missing.”

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