Category: Farm Animals

U.S. Supreme Court overturns California law requiring downers to be euthanized

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

U.S. Supreme Court overturns California law requiring downers to be euthanized

WASHINGTON D.C.— The U.S. Supreme Court on January 23,  2012 unanimously overturned a 2008 California law requiring slaughterhouses to immediately euthanize non-ambulatory livestock.

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Focused on the issue of federal primacy over state legislation,  the legal reasoning behind the 9-0 verdict signaled that the Supreme Court is likely to favor uniform national standards for livestock handling in any situation where state and federal law are perceived to be in conflict.  This could mean any situation in which states have adopted supplementary humane standards meant to address gaps in federal laws which were last updated by Congress several decades ago. Read more

Australian use of risky drug may drive Indonesian cut in livestock imports

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

JAKARTA,  MELBOURNE–– Australian cattle and sheep exporters barely had time to anticipate ramped up live animal shipments to Islamic nations,  under new protocols announced on October 21,  2011 by agriculture minister Joe Ludwig,  when word came from Jakarta that Indonesia is likely to accept barely half as many live cattle from Australia as were landed in 2011. Read more

Dutch ritual slaughter ban referred for study

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

DEN HAAG, The Netherlands— A proposed ban on slaughtering
animals without pre-stunning that cleared the Dutch House of
Representatives 116-30 in June 2011 was on December 20,  2011 amended
in the Senate into a pledge that undersecretary for agriculture Henk
Bleker’s office will draft standards to ensure that halal and kosher
slaughter,  practiced by Muslims and Jews,  are done in a manner that
minimizes animal suffering.  Pre-stunning has traditionally been
interpreted by most Judaic and Islamic religious  authorities–though
some differ–as a violation of the requirements of Mosaic and Islamic
religious law that animals be conscious when their throats are
swiftly cut with a sharp blade.

Proposed by the Party for the Animals,  which holds two seats
in the House and one in the Senate,  and is a part of the coalition
government,  the ban on slaughter without pre-stunning gained
momentum after being endorsed by the far right Party for Freedom,
whose focal issue is discouraging Islamic immigration.  About one
million of the Dutch population of 16 million are immigrants from
Islamic nations.

13 nations miss the European Union deadline for phasing out battery cages

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

BRUSSELS,  DUBLIN–Allowed 13 years to phase out battery caging for laying hens,  egg farmers in 13 European Union nations nonetheless missed the January 1,  2012 deadline for compliance with the 1999 EU battery cage ban.

In Ireland,  where farmers were mostly compliant,  “the Irish Farmers Association reported to the media that up to 100,000 birds would have to be slaughtered ‘early,’ as 10 farmers did not have the required cages to comply with new legislation,”  e-mailed Vegan Education Centre of Ireland diet and lifestyle coach Sandra Higgins to the U.S.-based organization United Poultry Concerns. Read more

No more live birds sold in Stockton

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

STOCKTON,  Calif.– “Effective on January 7,  the first 2012
market,  live birds will no longer be sold at the Stockton Farmers’
Market!” Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender Compassion founder Andrew
Zollman e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on January 6,  2012.
“We worked with the Animal Services division of the Stockton
Police,”  Zollman said.  “They agreed that California Penal Code
section 597.4,”  adopted in 2011 to control abuse of animals at flea
markets and other public events,  “does not exempt live poultry sold
as ‘food.'” Read more

Correction regarding which Pohlmann son was fined

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ANIMAL PEOPLE has learned,  11 years after publication, that the November 2000 article “Million hens killed in Ohio-twister hits like forced molt” conflated the identities of two sons of Anton Pohlmann,  who built battery egg production complexes in both Lower Saxony,  Germany,  and Ohio.

Both complexes have been in frequent legal difficulty  for decades over a variety of labor,  occupational safety,  and environmental quality issues. Read more

Who has the mandate to speak for farm animals?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2011:

Editorial Feature

 

Controversy continues in this November/December 2011 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE,
as in almost every edition since July/August 2010,  over agreements reached during the past 18 months among animal charities and entities representing agribusiness.  In dispute are both the substance of the agreements themselves, which concern the lives,  suffering,  and deaths of more animals than are involved in all other animal advocacy issues combined,  and the even greater question of who is ethically entitled to speak for the interests of livestock. Read more

A new day dawns for cats and dogs in southern China

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

WUXI,  China–Tipped off at 10 p.m. on August 3,  2011 that truckers planned to illegally haul a load of cats to live markets in Guangzhou,  Guangdong at dawn,  disguised as a cargo of furniture, members of the Wuxi Animal Protection Association in Jiangsu province mobilized overnight to intercept the truck at a toll booth at about 5:00 a.m. on August 4. Read more

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