Vealer drops crating

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
HARLEYSVILLE, Pa.–Wayne Marcho, founder of the 36-year-old
Marcho Farms integrated veal production empire, on January 29, 2007
announced that his company has already moved thousands of calves from
veal crating to loose housing, and will shift entirely to loose
housing within the next few years. Marcho is believed to supply 15%
to 20% of the U.S. veal market.
“Smithfield and Marcho Farms were both strong proponents of
keeping animals in narrow crates,” said Farm Sanctuary president
Gene Bauston. “Their back flip begs the question: what else are
pigs, calves and other farm animals rightfully entitled to?

What will be the future of cow shelters in computer-age India?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
What is to become of Indian cow shelters?
Enduring frequent spasms of reform and reinvention ever since
automobiles began to replace ox carts, cow shelters are among the
most distinctive Indian traditions, and are the oldest form of
organized humane work.
Perhaps more ubiquitous in India than either schools or
firehouses, often endowed with substantial inherited assets, cow
shelters appear certain to survive in some form, but their future
role and relevance is a matter of intensifying debate.
Among the issues are whether cow shelters should be religious
or secular institutions, whether they should be supported by
taxation or strictly by charity and the sale of milk and byproducts,
and whether they should lead cultural reform, becoming actively
involved in politics, as many do, or merely endure as quaint
cultural symbols.

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Chinese activists rescue more than 400 cats from Tianjin butchers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
TIANJIN, BEIJING– As many as 100 volunteers rallied by the
I Love Cats Home in Tianjin stormed a cat meat market on February
10, 2007 to rescue 444 cats, of whom 415 were taken in by the China
Small Animal Protection Association, of Beijing.
“It was a true battle,” China Small Animal Protection
Association volunteer Dan Zhang told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “The Tianjing
volunteers bravely fought for the lives of the cats with the butchers
and police for more than 10 hours. Some volunteers were injured and
sent to the hospital,” one of whom was still hospitalized two days
later, rescue organization Wang Yue of the I Love Cats Home told Ng
Tze Wei of the South China Morning Post.

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Smithfield & Maple Leaf Farms will phase out gestation crates

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
SMITHFIELD, Virginia–Smithfield Foods, the largest U.S.
pig farming conglomerate and a major producer abroad, on January 25,
2007 announced that it will begin a 10-year phaseout of gestation
crates.
Gestation crates are used to keep pregnant and nursing sows
immobile for more than three years of their typical four-year
lifespan before slaughter. During that time the sows usually birth
and nurse five to eight litters of about a dozen pigs each.
Smithfield captured 26% of the U.S. pork market in 2006,
raising 14 million pigs at U.S. facilities, and killing 27 million
of the 60 million who went to slaughter. Smithfield revenues came to
$11.4 billion.

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KFC owner tries to buy PETA warehouse

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
NORFOLK, Va.–Yum Brands, the owner of the Kentucky Fried
Chicken restaurant chain, recently offered $1 million to buy a
warehouse in Norfolk, Virginia, Andrew Martin reported in the
January 17, 2007 edition of New York Times.
Unknown to Yum, the warehouse belongs to PETA.
“‘PETA would be willing to give Yum this warehouse, free and
clear,” PETA responded, “if KFC requires its chicken suppliers to
adopt the recommendations made by members of its own Animal Welfare
Advisory Council on March 11, 2005. A copy of these recommendations
is enclosed for your reference.”

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Livestock gift charities do not help poor nations, say global critics

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:
LONDON–Sixty years after Heifer
International founder Dan West pioneered the idea
of soliciting donations to give livestock to poor
families in disadvantaged parts of the world,
criticism of the practice at last cracked major
mainstream news media during the pre-Christmas
2006 peak giving season.
At least three major British newspapers
and news syndicates amplified critiques of
livestock donation programs, quoting most
extensively from a prepared statement
distribu-ted by Animal Aid director Andrew Tyler.
“This year about a dozen agencies are
using your money to punt goats, chickens,
sheep, camels, donkeys, pigs and cows to the
world’s starving,” Tyler warned donors. “Prices
vary: £70 will get you a cow from Help The Aged.
Send A Cow demands £750 per animal. Farm Friends
wants £30 for a goat, whereas World Vision will
settle for £91 for a whole herd.

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Rabbit fur farming exposed

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:

The Portuguese animal rights group ANIMAL on December 9,
2006 unveiled a nine-minute video showing conditions in the
Portuguese rabbit fur farming industry.
“The film finishes showing the rabbits in the skinning
factory, tied upside down in a line before being skinned alive,”
said ANIMAL president Miguel Moutinho. Live skinning, Moutinho
said, follows “slaughter without proper stunning, with the rabbits
still conscious when having their throats slit.

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Boar panic grips Great Britain

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:
LONDON–“Police in Fife have issued a
warning after a wild boar escaped from the
abattoir in St Andrews,” BBC News reported on
November 28, 2006. “The public has been urged
not to approach the animal, which has large tusks
and teeth and may attack if it is cornered or
threatened.”
In truth, any pig can deliver a
bone-crunching bite, and any frightened boar or
sow can become deadly.
But the BBC warning was relatively
understated compared to much recent Fleet Street
hyperbole about feral European boars.

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Indian street pigs are mostly not feral

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:
DELHI, MYSORE, BANGALORE–India easily leads the world in
numbers of street pigs, but relatively few are completely feral.
Much of the Indian domestic pig population roams the streets to
forage, loosely attended by herders who may be blocks away.
Relatively few pigs are raised in confinement, in a nation whose
upper caste Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Muslims have
traditionally shunned pork.
Historically, only what are now called the “scheduled”
castes, “tribals,” and the Christian minority ate pork. For
millennia, pig-herding was accordingly a minor and not very
profitable branch of animal husbandry. This has recently abruptly
changed. A high birth rate among “scheduled” castes, increasing
affluence among “scheduled” caste members who have pursued subsidized
education, enabling them to buy more meat, and weakening caste
barriers throughout Indian society have enabled pig herders to
rapidly expand their markets.

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