ROUGH STUFF IN CANADA

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

Pat Houde, reputedly the biggest
horse feedlot operator and buyer of horses
for slaughter in Manitoba, was reportedly
charged on March 17 with assault, theft, and
uttering threats against Project Equus
founder Robin Duxbury and Walter Powers,
a freelance photojournalist who apparently
caught most of the incident on video.
Duxbury and Powers were videotaping for a
documentary about the Premarin industry,
they said, and were taking video from the
road of the Houde feedlot at Elm Creek when
Houde used a truck to run them into a ditch,
took the keys from their car, tried to take
Powers’ camera, and hit Duxbury in the head.
Powers called police from a cell phone while
still videotaping. “Both Powers and Duxbury
had to receive minor medical treatment at the
Victoria Hospital in Winnipeg,” said Project
Equus assistant director of cruelty investigations
Anita Vongelsang. “Powers suffered a
few minor cuts to his face, leg, and back.

COURT CALENDAR

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

Genetic patents
New York Medical College cellular biologist Stuart A. Newman,
cofounder with biotechnology critic Jeremy Rifkin of the Council for
Responsible Genetics, revealed in the April edition of Nature that on
December 18, 1996 he and Rifkin applied for a patent on three techniques of
mixing human embryonic cells with the embryonic cells of other species to produce
part-human, part-animal “chimeras,” named for beasts of Greek myth
who had lion heads, goat bodies, and snake tails. Explained Newsweek, “The
two activists hope that a patent would give them the legal means to block scientists
from using any of the methods they lay out in the application.” Patent
Office verdicts, N e w s w e e k continued, “can be appealed all the way to the
Supreme Court––a prospect that delights Rifkin and Newman. Bioethicists say
that the ensuing court battles may force the first real legislation on what constitutes
a human,” thereby legally limiting many potential uses of both human and
animal genetic material in research.

Classroom dissection

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

New curriculums introduced this academic
year exempted first-year medical students from live
pig dissection at the St. Louis University School of
Medicine and made participation in live dog dissection
optional at the University of Colorado School of
M e d i c i n e. The new St. Louis University curriculum
introduces observations of demonstration surgery on
live pigs at the second-year level, and hands-on work
as an option later. About 35 pigs were spared by the
change, pharmacology and physiology chair Thomas
C. Westfall told James Ritchie of the St. Louis PostDispatch.
The University of Colorado policy amendment
allows medical students to opt out of three 10-
week dog laboratories traditionally held each spring.
An Islamic student, Safia Rubaii, in 1993 challenged
mandatory participation as an alleged violation of her
faith, and sued the university Health Sciences Center
when the administration threatened to flunk her. In
1995, recalled Denver Post medical writer Ann
Schrader, “University officials agreed to pay Rubaii
$95,000, and promised to establish a review process to
accommodate future students whose religious beliefs
don’t allow doing experiments on animals.”

WTO dumps turtle protection

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

GENEVA, VISAKHAPATNAM,
WASHINGTON D.C.––The World Trade
Organization ruled on April 6 that the U.S. in
barring the import of shrimp from nations
whose fleets are not required to use turtle
excluder devices on their nets is violating the
General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs.
The WTO held that even under the
international treaty that allows exceptions to
GATT rules to protect the environment, the
U.S. may not force other nations to safeguard
endangered species. The WTO particularly
objected to the part of the U.S. TED law which
requires TED to be used in all shrimping, not
just shrimping done for export to the U.S.
U.S. trade representative Charlene
Barshefsky said the ruling “does not affect our
efforts to protect endangered sea turtles.” As
many as 150,000 sea turtles a year are
drowned in shrimp nets not equipped with
TED. But Barshefsky did not explain how the
U.S. can continue to prevent foreign shrimpers
from competing unfairly with U.S. shrimpers
who by law must use TED.

Maneka faces wise-users: FIRST ACTS IN NEW INDIA GOVERNMENT ARE FOR BEARS AND BEAGLES

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

NEW DELHI––Koose Muniswamy
Veerappan, perhaps the most notorious
alleged poacher at large in the world, on April
11 reportedly sent three former henchmen to
police with a cassette containing an offer of
surrender. But Indian authorities were reportedly
unexcited. According to the Press Trust
of India, Veerappan has often in the past
offered to surrender in trade for clemency. He
is believed to be the world’s leading trafficker
in poached Asian elephant ivory and illegally
logged sandalwood.

“Puppy mill” cases come to a head

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

BUNA, Texas––Scheduled to make
a court appearance on March 25 to answer
neglect charges, dog and horse fancier Joyce
Goodrich, 59, of Buna, Texas, instead killed
herself with a fatal dose of phenobarbital. The
Beaumont Humane Society had seized 17 horses,
including several starving former show
champions, and about 20 dogs from Goodrich
a week earlier. The dogs were reportedly
mostly purebred Australian shepherds and
King Charles cavalier spaniels, both varieties
in strong demand, but whether Goodrich was
trying to breed them was unclear.
Reputedly a former veterinary assistant,
Goodrich most recently worked at a fast
food franchise, evidently not earning enough
to keep the animals fed.
The Goodrich case was one of several
going to court in March and April that
involved blurred distinctions among alleged
puppy-milling, backyard breeding, and animal
collecting. Humane society literature generally
defines puppy-millers as persons who keep animals
in poor conditions simply to maximize
profits; backyard breeders as smalltime puppymillers;
and animal collectors as animal lovers
and sometimes even rescuers whose good
intentions get far out of control.

British rural leaders of (criminal) conviction

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

George Lyon, 41, of Kildavannan
Farm, Rothesay, Isle of Bute, newly
elected president of the National Farmers’
Union of Scotland, was fined £250 on
March 30 for allowing seven ewes to be
transported while sick and unfit, and £150
more for allowing a ewe with a damaged
knee joint to suffer pain and distress.
David Watkiss, 58, owner of the
unincorporated Rare Breed Animal
Conservation Trust in Prestwood, Buckinghamshire,
was jailed for three months
and banned from keeping animals for life on
March 26, after conviction on 36 counts of
cruelty for starving a herd of pigs. Watkiss’
business partners, Jeremy Smith a n d
James Cozens were fined £1,200 and
£1,450, respectively, for allowing the suffering
to continue.

Seeking legal weapons

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

Save The Doves, after gathering
100,000 petition signatures failed to
persuade Ohio legislators to restore a
state ban on dove hunting, repealed in
1995, has until June 5 to gather another
140,000 signatures to put the matter
directly to the voters. Coordinator
Ritchie Laymon welcomes help at 1-
800-868-DOVE, or POB 21834, Columbus,
OH 43221. Save The Doves’
chief backer is reportedly the Humane
Society of the U.S., said to have contributed
$70,000 over the past three
years. Leading the opposition is the
Wildlife Legislative Fund of America,
which entered the fight with assets of $2
million––but WLFA vice president Rick
Story boasted in March that his group
has already raised about $1 million of
the $2.5 million it expects to need to
“own the airwaves” before the voting.

Hindi learns the meaning of honor among thieves, HSUS, and Hollywood

May 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1998:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.––Awaiting introduction
from the stage by Ark Trust founder and Genesis Awards host
Gretchen Wyler at the March 28 Genesis Awards ceremony in
the Beverly Hilton, Chicago Animal Rights Coalition founder
Steve Hindi might have thought he didn’t have to watch his
backside among the assembled celebrities and animal protection
organization leaders.
After serving five weeks of a five-month sentence in
the McHenry County Jail, for allegedly committing contempt
of court by asking hunters to stop killing geese, Hindi had been
released on appeal bond two weeks earlier by order of the
Illinois Supreme Court.
Now Hindi was to be acknowledged, for the first
time outside of ANIMAL PEOPLE, for his extensive undercover
video documentation of the use of electroshock to make
bulls buck at rodeos. Not credited on the air, Hindi’s work
was the basis for two Genesis Award-winning September 1997
episodes of the TV news magazine show Hard Copy.

« 1 … 100 101 102 103 104 … 169 »