“Doggie in the window” singer hopes to sing the swan song for puppy mills

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:
WASHINGTON D.C.– “At the time,” in 1952, “‘Doggie in the
Window’ seemed like a sweet and harmless message,” recalls singer
Patti Page. Selling more than a million copies in five months, the
song became Page’s fourth recording to top the charts in five
years–and became the unofficial anthem of the pet industry.
Opening with the question “How much is that doggie in the
window? I do hope that doggie is for sale,” the song helped to
popularize the concept of purchasing commercially bred puppies from
pet stores, at a time when the overwhelming majority of pet dogs in
the U.S. were mongrels and about 30% of the U.S. dog population were
street dogs, as in much of the developing world today.
Page recorded “Doggie in the Window” for a children’s album,
early in the “Baby Boom” that doubled the U.S. human population and
brought a trebling of the pet population within a generation of the
end of World War II. By the time the “Baby Boom” children began
raising families and acquiring pets of their own, the U.S. street
dog population had been eradicated by the combination of improved
sanitation, more vehicular traffic, and more aggressive animal
control. Nearly half the dogs in the U.S. were now purebreds, and
U.S. animal shelters were killing seven times as many dogs as in 1952.

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California Proposition Two passage rattles agribiz cages

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:
LENEXA, Kansas–California Proposition Two, overwhelmingly
approved by voters on November 4, requires only that “calves raised
for veal, egg-laying hens, and pregnant pigs be confined only in ways
that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their
limbs and turn around freely,” by 2015.
“The new law is simple and hardly earth-shaking,” observed
Grist columnist Tom Philpott in a post-election wrap-up. “Yet
industrial-farming interests are squawking like hens about to lay a
huge egg. That the industry finds such a commonsense requirement
intolerable reveals just how dependent it is on imposing cramped
conditions. The backlash against Proposition Two also betrays a very
encouraging fear that California’s code will go nationwide.”
Chuck Jolley of the Cattle Network acknowledged as much on
November 19, 2008. Animal agriculture trade organizations, said
Jolley, “should conduct unannounced member audits and be ready to
immediately dismiss any company caught violating the strict
standards. And publicize the expulsion.”

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Montreal SPCA sues SPCA International to try to get back web name

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)

MONTREAL Proceedings in a lawsuit filed by the Montreal SPCA to try to recover the use of the domain name <spca.com> from SPCA International have been delayed because the plaintiffs are having difficulty finding valid legal addresses at which to serve notice on some of the defendants, plaintiff s attorney Pierre Lessard told ANIMAL PEOPLE on October 24, 2008.
Served as of the original scheduled court date in October were Pierre Barnoti, who was executive director of the Montreal SPCA from 1994 until July 2008 and is founder of SPCA International; SPCA International itself, incorporated in Delaware since 2006; Raouf Dallala of Montreal, who according to the lawsuit acted as consultant for over 10 years to the Montreal SPCA during Barnoti s tenure, and was paid during that period fees of over $500,000 ; former Montreal SPCA board members Howard Sholzberg and Michel Poulos; the Montreal firm Magi Graph Concept Inc.; the New York City firm Quadriga Art Inc., currently acting as a fundraising intermediary for the benefit of SPCA International, according to the lawsuit; and the Virginia firm Network Solutions, identified as registrar for the domain names <spca.com> and <spcamontreal.com>.

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Michelson won case against U.S. Surgical

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)
Animal advocates may enjoy the irony that some of the money that Gary Michelson has posted to promote developing a non-surgical method of sterilizing dogs and cats came from U.S. Surgical, via Michelson’s successful 1995 lawsuit against the company.
U.S. Surgical founder Leon Hirsch, who retired and sold the company in 1998, was for more than a decade a frequent target of animal rights protests led primarily by Friends of Animals, for using dogs in sales demonstrations of surgical products. Hirsch in response founded the pro-animal research organization Americans for Medical Progress in 1992 and helped to fund it for six years.

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Puerto Rico gains a new humane law; prosecution of animal control contractor fails

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:

 

BAYAMON, Puerto Rico–“With very little fanfare in the rest
of the U.S., Puerto Rico has enacted a landmark animal protection
law, based, in large part, directly on Animal Legal Defense Fund’s
model laws,” announced ALDF director of legislative affairs Stephan
Otto on September 12, 2008.
“Included,” Otto said, “are felonies for neglect,
abandonment, cruelty and animal fighting; and statutory recognition
of the link between cruelty to animals and violence toward humans
through increased penalties for those with prior animal abuse
convictions,” or convictions for domestic violence, child or elder
abuse, and/or committing cruelty in front of children.
The new Puerto Rican definition of animal abuse “includes
emotional harm,” enables judges to grant protective orders on behalf
of animals, and creates a duty to enforce anti-cruelty laws, Otto
said.

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Courts restore federal protection to wolves in all Lower 48

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:
WASHINGTON D.C.–Wolves are again a federally protected
species throughout the U.S., after U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman
ruled in Washington D.C. on September 29, 2008 that the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service improperly removed wolves in Michigan, Minnesota,
and Wisconsin from the endangered species list in 2007.
Anticipating the similar verdict in a pending case in
Missoula, Montana, the Fish & Wildlife Service on September 22,
2008 asked U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy to return the estimated
1,455 wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains to Endangered Species
Act protection.

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Shelter manager sold cadavers for lab use

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:
VISALIA, Calif.–After an eight-day trial and two days of
deliberation, a Tulare County Superior Court jury on September 24,
2008 convicted former Tulare County Animal Control Shelter manager
William Harmon of two felony counts of accepting bribes, a felony
count of embezzlement and a misdemeanor charge of accepting an
unlawful gratuity.
“The jury found him not guilty of falsifying public
documents,” reported Brett Wilkison of the Visalia Times-Delta.
“The jury found Harmon accepted and requested restaurant gift
certificates from Michael Sargeant,” allegedly in exchange for
providing Sargeant with the remains of dogs killed at the shelter.
Sargeant’s business, Wholesale Biologicals of Bakersfield, sells
animal carcasses to laboratories. The transactions allegedly
occurred from 2002 through 2006.

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Murder-by-dog Conviction reinstated & other dog attack case

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:
SAN FRANCISCO– San Francisco Superior Court Judge Charlotte
Woolard on September 22, 2008 sentenced former attorney Marjorie
Knoller, 53, to serve 15 years to life in prison for causing the
January 2001 dog attack death of lacrosse coach Diane Whipple, 33,
in the hallway of the apartment house where both dwelled.
“Knoller, who has served three years in prison, will have
to serve 12 more years before she can apply for parole,” reported
Associated Press writer Paul Elias.
Whipple bled to death from at least 77 wounds inflicted by
one and possibly both of two Presa Canarios kept by Knoller and
Robert Noel, her husband and law partner, for white supremacist
Paul “Cornfed” Schneider. Serving a life sentence in the California
penitentiary system, Schneider was legally adopted by Knoller and
Noel as an adult inmate.

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Austrian activists freed after 104 days, still face charges

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:
VIENNA–Association Against Animal
Factories founder Martin Balluch, Vier Pfoten
campaign director Jürgen Faulmann, and eight
other Austrian animal advocates were released
from jail on September 2, 2008, 104 days after
they were arrested in a series of dawn raids on
May 21.
Three other activists who were arrested
at the same time were released earlier.
The ten who were released on September 2
were arraigned in July for alleged involvement in
a variety of “direct action” offenses between
2002 and 2007. All have pleaded innocent.

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