Outraged researchers oust Maneka Gandhi from Indian lab supervision

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

NEW DELHI–“I am exhausted by this year,”
Maneka Gandhi e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on New
Year’s Eve. “I lost three jobs, two of my
oldest dogs, both 17, and all the elections in
my constituency. The only thing that I kept this
year was my temper, but I would be happy to lose
that as well! The only thing I gained was
weight.”
Technically Mrs. Gandhi lost the first of
the three jobs in November 2001, when Prime
Minister of India A.P. Vajpayee reassigned her
from Minister of Culture to Minister of
Statistics, after she clashed with the Korean
ambassador over his allegedly eating dogs.

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Greece considers new national animal control law in anticipation of 2004 Olympic furor

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2003:

ATHENS-Greek deputy agriculture minister Fotis Hadzimichalis
on December 19,  2002 introduced a proposed national animal control
bill which according to Agence France-Press “would discourage Greeks
from abandoning their animals,  while allowing local authorities to
collect,  sterilize,  and in certain cases kill stray dogs.”
Hadzimichalis told Agence France-Presse that,  “This is the
practical answer to those who malignly accused our country of
creating crematoria for strays ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games.”
The proposed law reportedly stipulates that dogs found at
large will be vaccinated,  sterilized,  held for a reclaim period,
and then be returned to the capture point if deemed healthy and not
dangerous.  Those suffering from incurable illness or infirmity and
those considered dangerous will be killed.

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China learns from Korean World Cup bashing

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

BEIJING, CHENGDU–Closing 35 small bear bile farms and
taking 97 bears into sanctuary care since October 2000, Animals Asia
Foundation founder Jill Robinson was shocked in early December 2002
when International Fund for Animal Welfare acting China director
Zhang Li and World Society for the Protection of Animals director of
wildlife Victor Watkins insinuated to London Sunday Times Beijing
correspondent Lynne O’Donnell that her work might have provided cover
for expansion of the bear bile farming and poaching industries.

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Zimbabwe mob cruelty continues

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

HARARE-Communications from the embattled Zimbabwe National
SPCA have been few since soon after the Robert Mugabe regime
intensified censorship of outbound mail and e-mail in September 2002,
but brief messages received and forwarded by contacts in other parts
of the world indicate that Meryl Harrison and team are still doing
what they can to relieve animal suffering.
Animals kept by Zimbabweans of European descent continue to
be targeted for abuse by pro-Mugabe mobs, London Daily Telegraph
correspondent Peta Thorneycroft wrote on December 17.
At Forrester Estates, owned by German citizen Heinrich von
Pezold, wrote Thorneycroft, “Several hundred head of cattle were
recently driven into an artificial lake to drown. Others were penned
into paddocks, in searing heat, to starve. The cattle were sent to
their excruciating end by about 20 hysterical farm workers,
encouraged by government supporters. Police were unable to say if
anyone was arrested, at a time when a beef shortage is imminent and
almost half the population is on the brink of starvation.”
Little or no meat was salvaged. The carcasses were burned.

BOOKS: Welfare Ranching

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

Welfare Ranching:
The Subsidized Destruction of the American West
edited by George Wuerthner and Mollie Matteson
Island Press, (P.O. Box 7, Covelo, CA 95428), 2002.
346 pages. $75.00 hardback, $45 paperback.

As a southerner now living in the West, I am intrigued by
the similarities between what is happening today to the Western
cattle culture and what happened more than a century ago to the old
Southern plantation culture.
Both were products of an entrepreneurial spirit that
exploited people and the environment for economic gain. Both
developed romanticized veneers that appealed to Americans trying to
formulate a national identity–but Southern genteel society attempted
to mimic European aristocracy, while the rugged individualism of
pioneering Westerners symbolized, to some degree, an escape from
Old World trappings.

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Big gains for pro-animal issues, candidates may send a message to the White House and Congress

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Anxiety intensified on November 5 about the
future of wild animals who depend upon protected habitat, as the
Republican Party won a one-vote U.S. Senate majority to go with their
majority in the House of Representatives.
There is no longer a partisan obstacle to advancing proposals
favored by the George W. Bush administration to weaken federal
habitat protections of every kind.

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Cow-slaughter hits flashpoint

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2002:

MUMBAI, DELHI, India– Animal welfare inspector Abdul
Sattar Sheikh, 45, of People for Animals/Mumbai, was hospitalized
and “struggling for his life,” the Times of India reported, after a
gang of illegal butchers beat him with iron rods on October 16.
Whether Sheikh would ever walk again unassisted was in
considerable doubt.
PfA-Mumbai, partnered with Beauty Without Cruelty-India, had
just raided an unlicensed slaughterhouse. The investigators
proceeded to the Bandra police station afterward to file criminal
charges against the alleged offenders.

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Dutch animal welfare measures threatened

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2002:
 
Den Hague–Dutch agriculture minister C.P. Veerman, a
Christian Democrat, on October 9 told Parliament that he intended to
repeal laws adopted by the previous government which would phase out
fur farms over the next 10 years and improve conditions for broiler
hens and laying hens.
The Veerman position was consistent with the platform of the
rightist Lijst Pim Fortuyn party, which won a place in the coalition
government with the Christian Democrats and the Liberals by placing
second in the May 2002 election. The election was held nine days
after Pim Fortuyn himself was allegedly assassinated by a maverick
antifur activist who is now awaiting trial.

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Action Down Under on 20th World Farm Animals Day

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The 20th annual observance of World Farm
Animals Day was perhaps most effectively marked by Australian and
Philippine officials who probably never heard of it. The occasion
honors and mourns the 47 billion animals raised and killed for food
each year, 10 billion of them in the U.S.
Meant to be celebrated each year on Mohandas Gandhi’s
birthday, October 2, which this year fell on a Wednesday, World
Farm Animals Day was actually observed on both the preceding and
following weekend, as well as in midweek.

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