Study confirms chicken cognition

July 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2005:

SILSOE, U.K.–Hens pecking buttons to
earn food rewards may have a better awareness of
passing time and be better able to assess the
prospects of future gain than human slot machine
gamblers, a new British study suggests.
Silsoe Research Institute Bio-physics
Group animal welfare scientist Siobhan
Abeyesinghe varied the “payout” for pecking so
that her hens would get only a small amount of
food if they pecked quickly, but would receive a
large amount if they delayed their pecks for 22
seconds, long enough to demonstrate the ability
to mentally clock their own behavior and show
deliberate self-restraint.
Researching poultry welfare since 1996,
Abeyesinghe emphasized the welfare implications
of her findings in describing them for the
journal Animal Behavior.

Land reform threatens Hato Piñero

June 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

Owners of private wildlife conservancies
worldwide told themselves after the destruction
of the SAVE Valley Conservancy that the
Zimbabwean land invasions were a phenomenon
unique to Zimbabwean socio-political
circumstances.
That belief was shaken when the
Venezuelan National Land Institute ruled on March
12, 2005 that the 80,000-hectare Hato Piñero
ecotourism refuge and beef ranch is eligible for
seizure under a 2001 law allowing redistribution
of private land which is either under-utilized or
held under dubious title. Hato Piñero may be
expropriated even though the Branger family,
operating Hato Piñero since 1951, claims to hold
deeds to a title established in 1794.
Like Robert Mugabe, Venezuelan president
Hugo Chavez rose to power on the promise of land
reform. Like Mugabe, Chavez is bitterly opposed
by large private landowners. But unlike Mugabe,
Chavez is disfavored by the George W. Bush
administration, which backed a failed 2002 coup.

Anti-dog meat & fur movement building momentum in China

June 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

HONG KONG–“We are tackling dog and cat eating in China by
freely distributing our video Dr. Eddie: Friend….or Food? in a
pack which includes a pet care leaflet, stickers promoting dogs and
cats as friends and helpers, and a letter from Animals Asia
Foundation founder Jill Robinson explaining why we believe dogs and
cats should not be on the menu,” Animals Asia Foundation executive
director Anne Mather e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on May 29, 2005.
“We are happy to say that the response to the pack has been
absolutely overwhelming,” Mather continued. “The initial 10,000
packs, which we expected to last a year, were finished in just six
weeks! We are receiving calls from pet clubs all over China whose
members have heard of the packs and are requesting their own. Thus
we are in the midst of producing a further 40,000 for free
distribution. In addition, <www.sina.com>, (China’s biggest web
portal), is streaming the Dr. Eddie film for free on their pet site.”
The Dr. Eddie video, also available in an English version,
tells the story of a dog whom Robinson rescued from a live meat
market in Guangdong a few years ago. Eddie is now part of the Dr.
Dog therapy program in Hong Kong, one of many Dr. Dog programs begun
by the Animals Asia Foundation in major cities of Southeast Asia to
help raise appreciation of dogs wherever they might be on the menu.

Sheep export protester Hahnheuser is acquitted

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

GEELONG, Australia–A Geelong County Court jury on May 6,
2005 acquitted Ralph Hahnheuser, 42, of “contaminating feed to
cause economic loss.”
Hahnheuser admitted adding shredded pork to the water and
feed given to sheep at a feedlot in Portland, South Australia, on
November 19, 2003, as he immediately afterward announced to news
media. Hahnheuser pleaded innocent by reason of having committed the
act to prevent cruelty to the sheep, who were to have been shipped
to Kuwait the next day.
Islamic dietary law forbids eating pork or having contact
with it. Hahnheuser hoped that the sheep would not be exported if
they were known to have possibly consumed pork. The shipment of
about 70,000 sheep was delayed for two weeks. Represent-atives of
two sheep exporting firms estimated that the action cost them $1.3
million (Australian funds).

Rosebud Sioux Tribe hog factory & Israeli foie gras cases

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe has reached an out-of-court
settlement with the U.S. Department of Interior that will limit the
Sun Prairie hog farming development on the reservation to just the
two 24-barn farms that are already operating, instead of the 13 that
the Bureau of Indian Affairs authorized on behalf of the Rosebud
Sioux Tribal Council in 1998, reported David Melmer of Indian
Country Today on May 9, 2005. In addition, the existing barns may
operate for only 20 years under the current lease, not 50 years,
Melmer wrote. Approval of the settlement by U.S. District Judge
Richard Battey is anticipated. “The two existing farms have 24 barns
that produce 2,000 hogs each per year and will continue to produce a
combined 96,000 hogs per year,” summarized Melmer. “Since the hog
farm lease agreement was announced, Concerned Rosebud Area Citizens,
the Humane Farming Association, and the South Dakota Peace & Justice
Center have tried to shut the project down. In 1999 a new tribal
council began trying to stop the growth of the hog farm, and in 2003
the BIA was asked to close it. The Department of Interior withdrew
the lease; Sun Prairie fought the tribe and the federal government
to keep the hog farms open. Nearly two years ago, Battey ruled that
the lease termination did not comply with due process and found the
lease to be valid.”

H5N1 & Marburg outbreaks

April 1, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2005:

HANOI, LUANDA–If an epidemiologist’s worst nightmare isn’t
the avian influenza strain called H5N1, it might be Marburg
hemorrhagic fever, a virulent close cousin to the better known Ebola
virus. Both are zoonotic diseases, meaning that they spread to
humans from animals. With a quirk or two of virus evolution, both
could depopulate continents. The worst-ever outbreaks of each are
raging right now in Southeast Asia and Central Africa.
H5N1, discovered after it killed three people in Hong Kong in 1997,
apparently crossed from migratory wild birds to ducks and geese
reared in huge outdoor pens and paddies in southern China, crossed
to indoor-raised chickens, then raced throughout Southeast Asia with
the mostly illegal but lightly prosecuted commerce in gamecocks.
Killing about 70% of the humans who contract it from birds,
H5N1 has not killed millions chiefly because it has not evolved into
a form that spreads easily from human to human, and does not spread
easily from bird to human. Only the estimated 25 to 40 million
Southeast Asians who raise poultry are believed to be at risk of
becoming infected by the bird-to-human route.

Promoting peace for pigs

March 1, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

STANWOOD, Washington– The very name of the Pigs Peace
sanctuary seems to express an impossible dream.
Founder Judy Woods, 50, admits that. She works small, on
34 acres, but dreams big, understanding that her first mission is
not rescue but education. Saving the lives of the 100-odd resident
animals enables her to teach appreciation of their species. Most
common domestic species are represented, but the emphasis is on
pigs– though Woods is also quick to introduce and discuss the
virtues of chickens, turkeys, dogs, horses, goats, and feral
cats, among many others who often as not wander up and compete for
her attention.
Pigs are by nature a peaceable lot, content to eat garbage
and sleep in mud on warm days. But few pigs enjoy much peace.
Globally, 864 million pigs per year are killed for human
consumption, 133 million of them in the U.S. Most are raised in
stress-inducing close confinement.
Harold Gonyou of the Prairie Swine Center in Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, Canada, in late January 2005 told the Manitoba Swine
Seminar in Winnipeg about progress toward improving factory-farmed
pigs’ quality of life.

Barn & kennel fire deaths are preventable

March 1, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

Catastrophic fires at the end of January and beginning of
Febuary 2005 illustrated yet again the importance of avoiding fire
hazards at animal facilities and developing contingency plans that
allow for fast smoke-venting and/or animal evacuation.
Three fires erupted on January 24.
The first was discovered at 2:45 a.m. at the Shepherd’s Way
Farm near Nerstand, Minnesota, the largest producer of sheep’s milk
in the U.S., founded by Stephen Read and family in 1994. Of the
flock of 800, about 113 ewes and 228 lambs were killed outright.
University of Minnesota veterinary students and volunteer faculty
later euthanized another 80-plus, chiefly due to lung damage from
smoke inhalation.
Believed to have been an arson, the fire came four days
after someone torched a stack of 30 round hay bales in a roadside
pasture. There were no immediate suspects.
Smoke inhalation is the chief cause of death of both humans
and animals in fires, but is somewhat more preventable in barns than
in houses, if hay is stored away from the animals, if large doors
can be opened on all sides, and if the large exhaust fans often used
to vent manure fumes remain operable after a fire begins. Relatively
few barns meet these requirements.

United Egg Producers are sued for false advertising

March 1, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

TAKOMA PARK, Maryland–Compass-ion Over Killing on February
15, 2005 sued Giant Food Inc. of Landover, Maryland, Lehman’s Egg
Service Inc. of Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and Brookville
Supermarket of Washington, D.C., alleging that their use of an
“Animal Care Certified” logo introduced in 2002 by United Egg
Producers is false advertising.
Under the United Egg Producers guidelines, Compassion Over
Killing points out, farmers may “Confine birds in cages so small
they can’t even spread their wings, slice off parts of their beaks
without painkiller, and starve them [to induce a new egg-laying
cycle by so-called ‘forced molt’] to the point where they have lost
up to 30 percent of their body weight.”
United Egg Producers spokesperson Mitch Head told Gretchen
Parker of Associated Press that about 80% of all U.S. egg farmers
meet the standards.
The Better Business Bureau National Advertising Review Board
in May 2004 upheld a November 2003 ruling by a lower panel that the
“Animal Care Certified” logo is misleading and should either be
dropped or be significantly altered. In August 2004 the BBB asked
the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate the alleged
deceptive labeling.

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