Neglect cases fuel drive to restart horse slaughter

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
HELENA–Montana governor Brian Schweitzer on April 3, 2009
vetoed two parts of a bill passed by the state legislature to
encourage entrepreneurs to start a horse slaughterhouse, but on
April 16 both houses of the legislature returned the same bill to him
without amendment.
The provisions of the bill that Schweitzer vetoed would
require anyone filing a lawsuit seeking to stop construction of a
horse slaughterhouse to post a bond worth 20% percent of the
estimated construction costs, would hold plaintiffs liable for
damages incurred by the defendants due to legal action, and would
prevent state courts from halting construction after a horse
slaughterhouse site and design have received the requisite permits.
Schweitzer must now either veto the bill as a whole or sign
it into law. There was no indication, as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to
press, which he would do.

Did new flu emerge from a pig farm?

May 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
MEXICO CITY–Rumors swept the world
during the last week of April 2009 that a newly
detected H1N1 flu virus variant suspected of
killing as many as 149 Mexicans might have
evolved at a factory-style pig farm at Perote,
in Vera Cruz state on the Gulf of Mexico. As
ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press on the night of April
28, however, little medical or veterinary
evidence supported the hypothesis that the
disease is of factory farm origin, and some
evidence seemed to refute it.
Among the first 1,995 suspected Mexican
cases of the new flu strain, only 27 were
laboratory-confirmed. Lab-confirmed human cases
had occurred in 19 other nations, including 64
cases in the U.S., but no deaths were reported
outside of Mexico.
Bloggers and news media usually called
the virus “swine flu,” but although it contained
genetic material of swine origin, nothing linked
it to recent swine infections.
The Perote farm belongs to the Mexican
firm Granjas Carroll, a half-owned subsidiary of
Smithfield Inc., the world’s largest pork
producer. Smithfield spokesperson Keira Ullrich
told media that an internal investigation had
found no clinical signs or symptoms of swine
influenza in animals and employees at any of its
Mexican facilities. A United Nations’ Food &
Agriculture Organiz-ation team reportedly reached
Pecote on April 28 to seek independent
confirmation.

Obama bans slaughtering downed cattle, but judge overturns California downer law

April 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:

WASHINGTON D.C.–U.S. President Barack Obama in his weekly
video and radio address to the nation on March 14, 2009 announced
that the U.S. would reinforce and make permanent a ban on killing
downed cattle at federally inspected meat plants.
“As part of our commitment to public health, our Agriculture
Department is closing a loophole in the system to ensure that
diseased cows don’t find their way into the food supply,” Obama said.
Newly confirmed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called the
ban “a step forward for both food safety and the standards for humane
treatment of animals.”

Can a label make pork “humane”?

March 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2009:
LONDON–Two pork industry fronts, the
British Pig Executive and the National Pig
Association, may not advertise that “British pig
farms have very high welfare standards, assured
by the Quality Standard Mark,” the Advertising
Standards Authority ruled on February 11, 2009.
Pending revision of the BPEx and NPA ads,
the ruling interrupted a two-year promotion
featuring television chef Jamie Oliver. The
Advertising Standards Authority passed no
judgement as to the value of the Quality Standard
Mark used by BPEx and the NPA, but only about a
third of the pigs raised in Britain are raised
according to the requirements of the program.

149 dogs saved from meat market

January 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:
CHENGDU–The last day of 2008 brought the first known mass
seizure of dogs from meat traders in mainland China in almost 70
years. “The 149 dogs were confiscated from the trading station in
Pengzhou, 30 kilometres north of Chengdu, by the local Animal
Husbandry Bureau, after it discovered that the trader was operating
without a licence,” announced the Animals Asia Foundation.
“The officials were notified of the situation by Qiao Wei,
operator of the Qiming Rescue Centre in Chengdu, who had received a
tip-off about the dogs,” the Animals Asia Foundation release
continued.
Best known for operating the China Bear Rescue Center near
Chengdu, “Animals Asia recently built the spacious quarantine area
at the Qiming Rescue Centre to shelter dogs rescued from the May 2008
Sichuan earthquake,” the release explained.

BOOKS: The Fatwa of Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi on Slaughter & Transport of Animals

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

The Fatwa of Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi on Slaughter & Transport of Animals
Egyptian Society of Animal Friends (30 Korshed St. /Rd. 293, New
Maadi, Egypt; <asherbiny@infinity.com.eg>;
<www.animalfriends.info>, 2008.

ANIMAL PEOPLE noted in a June 2008 cover article on the
resumption of live animal exports from Australia to Egypt that even
if Egypt fails to enforce secular law governing animal transport and
slaughter, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the Chief Imam and Shaikh of
al-Azhar, Egypt, had issued a fatwa, or religious opinion, meant
to reinforce the observance of the intent of the hallal slaughter
laws, meant to minimize animal suffering, that are central to
Islamic practice.
The Egyptian Society of Animal Friends has now published the
fatwa as a handbook, also including the “Five Freedoms” and
Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.

BOOKS: Long Distance Transport & Welfare of Farm Animals

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

Long Distance Transport & Welfare of Farm Animals
Edited by Michael C. Appleby, Victoria Cussen,
Leah Garcés, Lasley A. Lambert & Jacy Turner
CABI Publishing (2001 Evans Road, Cary, NC
27513), 2008. 450 pages, hardcover, $150.

“Most people interested in animal welfare
would agree that transporting livestock destined
for slaughter across either an ocean or a
continent is a practice that should be
discontinued,” writes Colorado State University
animal science professor Temple Grandin in her
foreword to Long Distance Transport & Welfare of
Farm Animals.

California Proposition Two passage rattles agribiz cages

December 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:
LENEXA, Kansas–California Proposition Two, overwhelmingly
approved by voters on November 4, requires only that “calves raised
for veal, egg-laying hens, and pregnant pigs be confined only in ways
that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their
limbs and turn around freely,” by 2015.
“The new law is simple and hardly earth-shaking,” observed
Grist columnist Tom Philpott in a post-election wrap-up. “Yet
industrial-farming interests are squawking like hens about to lay a
huge egg. That the industry finds such a commonsense requirement
intolerable reveals just how dependent it is on imposing cramped
conditions. The backlash against Proposition Two also betrays a very
encouraging fear that California’s code will go nationwide.”
Chuck Jolley of the Cattle Network acknowledged as much on
November 19, 2008. Animal agriculture trade organizations, said
Jolley, “should conduct unannounced member audits and be ready to
immediately dismiss any company caught violating the strict
standards. And publicize the expulsion.”

Bovine TB, badgers, dogs, cats & cattle politics

October 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)
LONDON Unable to persuade the public and environment secretary Hilary Benn to cull badgers to control bovine tuberculosis in cattle, the British Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs is touting findings that bovine TB is also now occurring in cats and dogs, who may pass the disease on to humans.
Bovine TB was confirmed in forty-two British cats in 2005-2007, up from 15 in the preceding seven years, according to DEFRA data released in October 2008.
Given that these cases were only identified through post mortems or clinical intervention, the data suggests far greater levels of transmission than we have previously seen, said National Farmers Union animal health and welfare advisor Catherine McLaughlin.
Until one knows with some certainty how these cats got infected, it is scary but not meaningful, responded Martin Hugh Jones, livestock moderator for the ProMed electronic bulletin board maintained by the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

« 1 … 17 18 19 20 21 … 69 »