Missouri & Oklahoma puppy mill legislation is diluted before taking effect

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

JEFFERSON CITY, OKLAHOMA CITY– Missouri
Governor Jay Nixon and Oklahoma Governor Mary
Fallin on April 27, 2011 and May 17, 2011 each
endorsed into law two-bill packages substituting
weaker regulatory packages for anti-puppy mill
legislation passed in 2010. The substitution
means the laws passed in 2010 never took effect.
In Missouri, wrote Kansas City Star
correspondent Jason Noble, “parallel bills
constituted an agreement between the Democratic
governor and the Republican-led General Assembly
to overhaul Proposition B, approved by voters
last November. Nixon signed SB 113, which
substantially watered down the restrictions
enacted by Proposition B. In exchange,
lawmakers quickly pushed through SB 161, which
contained compromise language brokered by Nixon.”

Criminal case opened against former Kyiv Zoo director

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
KYIV, Ukraine–The Kyiv Prosec-utor’s Office on May 3, 2011
announced that it had opened a criminal case against former Kyiv Zoo
director Svitlana Berzina, who now heads the city dog licensing
bureau. “Berzina is suspected of embezzling some $47,000 from the
zoo by commissioning projects that weren’t fully carried out, if at
all,” reported Associated Press.
“Berzina was fired last year,” Associated Press recalled,
“after nearly one-half of the zoo’s animals either died or
disappeared. Rights groups claimed the deaths were caused by
mistreatment, with rare animals illegally sold to private
collectors.”

Mercy for Animals video brings charges in Texas & fuels “ag gag” debate

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
LUBBOCK–Castro County, Texas district
attorney James Horton on May 26, 2011 issued
felony warrants for five former employees of the
E6 Cattle Company, in Hart, and Class A
misdemeanor warrants for E6 owner Kirt Espenson
and foreman Arturo Olmos. All seven defendants
could receive jail time. The charges resulted
from undercover video collected by the Chicago
organization Mercy for Animals, disclosed to
media on April 20, 2011.

No more live birds sold at San Francisco farmers’ markets

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

SAN FRANCISCO–Live bird sales ended at the Heart of the City
Farmers’ Market on May 27, 2011–the only one of the three San
Francisco farmers’ markets at which live birds were sold.
Two vendors, Raymond Young Poultry and Bullfeathers Quail,
were notified on May 3 that live bird sales would no longer be
allowed. “The market has announced that it plans to expand 25% and
is seeking new vendor applications, so we can look forward to the
area that was previously filled with abused animals and filth to be
used for something better!” exulted Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender
Compassion founder Andrew Zollman, 43, who with fellow live market
protester Alex Felsinger, 25, had picketed the twice-weekly market
for about two years.

Editorial feature: Slaughtering animals, crime, & societal health

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
Phillip Danforth Armour (1832-1901) is
today remembered only for the meatpacking company
he founded, but in his own time was lauded for
allegedly contributing to the progress of
civilization by moving animal slaughter out of
sight, smell, and sound of women, children,
and decent men.
Born into an upstate New York farming
family, Armour drove barge-hauling mules
alongside the Chenango Canal in his teens, then
walked all the way to California at age 19 to
join the Gold Rush. He soon discovered that more
gold was to be made by starting a Placerville
butcher shop than in mining.

Indian judge rules that wild birds held by vendor must be set free

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

AHMEDABAD, India–Gujarat High Court Justice M.R. Shah on
May 12, 2011 ordered the release to freedom of 494 parrots, doves,
pigeons, lovebirds, dogs, and rabbits who were seized by Surat
police on May 30, 2010 from vendor Abdul Jalal Kadar Sheikh.
The animals have been held at an animal hospital for almost a
year at Sheikh’s expense while he pursued a series of appeals,
expected to continue. “The manner in which the birds are kept in the
small cages, with their wings and tails cut, wings taped together,
and rings put on their feet–nothing can be more heinous,” Shah
said. “It is the fundamental right of a bird to live freely in the
open sky. The only order which can be passed in such circumstances,”
Shah ruled, “would be to set the birds free.”

National Zoo bird researcher is charged with attempting to poison feral cats

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
WASHINGTON D.C.–Alley Cat Allies and
Alley Cat Rescue on May 26, 2011 asked the
Smithsonian Institution to suspend National Zoo
Migratory Bird Center researcher Nico Dauphine.
Dauphine was charged three days earlier with
attempted animal cruelty for allegedly trying to
poison feral cats. If convicted, Dauphine could
be fined up to $1,000 and could be sentenced to
180 days in jail.
Dauphine denied the offense in a brief
statement issued by her attorney.

Mississippi felony cruelty law

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
JACKSON–Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour on April 27,
2011 signed into law possibly the weakest of the 47 state felony
cruelty statues now in effect. The law permits filing felony charges
only if a person previously convicted of intentionally torturing,
burning, starving, or physically disfiguring a cat or dog is
convicted again within five years of the first conviction. “In other
words, they get away with it the first time,” Pearl River SPCA
president Maria Diamond told Jeremy Pittari of the Picayune Item.

Proposed compromise on Missouri puppy mill bill pleases few

May 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
JEFFERSON CITY–For 24 hours Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and
Humane Society of Missouri president Kathryn W. Warnick thought they
had brokered a deal to preserve key provisions of the Puppy Mill
Cruelty Prevention Act, an initiative approved by Missouri voters in
November 2008, but dismantled by the state legislature on April 13,
2011.
Overwhelmingly supported by urban voters, the Puppy Mill
Cruelty Prevention Act did not win approval in rural districts,
whose representatives hold the majority of seats in both the Missouri
House and Senate.

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