Horse show abuse updates

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders & Exhibitors Association
on October 16, 2006 cancelled the alternate “grand champion”
competition it had announced on September 21.
To have been held in Mur-freesboro, Tennessee, the
alternate competition was to have replaced the final judging at the
Tennessee Walking Horse National Celeb-ration in Shelbyville on
August 21, which never took place. Of the 10 horses selected for
the final judging, seven were disqualified after USDA inspectors
detected scarring that may have shown the horses’ hooves were sored
to train them to use the high-stepping walking horse gait.
“The decision [to cancel the alternate competition] came
after weeks of criticism by horse trainers, many of whom threatened
to boycott the show,” reported Nashville Tenn-essean staff writer
Brad Schrade.

Wyeth wins mistrial to end second Premarin case

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Norman Ackerman on
October 11, 2006 declared a mistrial in the first phase of a
scheduled two-part trial in which Jennie Nelson, 66, of Dayton,
Ohio, contended that she developed breast cancer in 2001 as result
of taking the Wyeth hormone drug Prempro for about five years.
PremPro is a combination of progestin and Premarin, a brand
name derived from “pregnant mare’s urine.” Producing Premarin
requires keeping mares pregnant, breeding a constant surplus of
foals, many of whom are sold to slaughter. Under boycott by animal
advocacy groups worldwide since shortly after ANIMAL PEOPLE published
investigative findings by the Canadian Farm Animal Concerns Trust in
April 1993, Premarin was still the top-selling prescription drug
worldwide in 2001, but sales plummeted after the Women’s Health
Initiative study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in
July 2002 determined that the Premarin component of PremPro appears
to be associated with increased risk from heart attacks, strokes,
and blood clots forming in the lungs.

Law
Medicine

Who can, or will, enforce new Quebec humane legislation?

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
MONTREAL–Once a six-year-old pianist at
the Toronto Conservatory of Music, 30-year
broadcast journalist and 20-year CFCF news anchor
Mutsumi Takahashi on her web site says she plays
piano to her dogs to help maintain her on-air
poise.
Serene as she seems, Takahashi makes no
secret of caring about animals, and of being
frustrated at perennially ineffective Quebec
humane law enforcement
On the evenings of August 27-29, 2006
Takahashi introduced Puppies for Profit, a
three-part series by CFCF reporter Annie DeMelt
that exposed the recent rapid growth of the
Quebec puppy mill industry.
“Why is Quebec the puppy mill capital of
Canada?” Takahashi asked Anima Quebec executive
Joan Clark, Montreal SPCA executive director
Pierre Barnoti, and Pet Industry Joint Advisory
Council/Canada executive director Louis McCann.
Their discussion flushed into the open a
running dispute over just who can, or should,
enforce Quebec humane laws–but brought it no
closer to resolution.
Founded in 1869, the Montreal SPCA
historically claimed the mandate but lacked the
budget, the inspectors, and the prosecutors to
reach often or far beyond the Montreal suburbs.
Regional humane societies that tried to
bring prosecutions in the mid-1990s complained of
Montreal SPCA interference, as Barnoti
economically strengthened the organization and
sought to consolidate authority.

European Parliament moves against dog & cat fur, seal pelts

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The European Parliament on October 13, 2006 approved a ban
on importing and selling dog and cat fur in member nations, as part
of the first European Community plan for animal protection.
Earlier, on September 6, 368 European Parliament
legislators signed a declaration asking the European Community to ban
imports of seal products from Canada. Not formally endorsed by the
European Union assembly, the non-binding request sought to reinforce
legislation already in effect in Belgium, Italy, and the
Netherlands, and adopted in October by Germany. Norway, the
largest European buyer of Canadian seal pelts, is not a European
Community member.

Philippine crack-down on dog meat

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Baguio City, Philippines–Embarrassed by reports that
Benguet province might attempt to repeal or circumvent enforcing the
1998 Philippine national ban on selling dog meat, officials of the
National Meat Inspection Service, Baguio police, and
representatives of the Animal Kingdom Foundation in early October
seized 104 kilos of dog meat from the public market stalls of vendors
Lita Dizon and Victorino
Montano, “who are reportedly known as dog meat vendors,” wrote Jane
Cadalig of the Baguio City Sun Star.

Tethering restrained in Scotland, California

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Animal Health & Welfare Scotland Act,
taking effect on October 6, 2006, increases the
potential penalty for cruelty to a fine of up to
£20,000 plus a year in jail; authorizes animal
health officers, state veterinary officers, and
Scottish SPCA inspectors to warn suspected
violators and initiate animal seizure
proceedings; restricts tethering dogs; and
prohibits docking dogs’ tails. “Let us hope
that the new obligation on animal owners will
mean no more animals kept in conditions which are
barely tolerable,” Advocates for Animals
spokesperson Libby Anderson told BBC News.

The 28-Hour Law & timely influence

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Among the most encouraging regulatory developments for farmed
animals ever was the USDA disclosure on September 28, 2006, in a
letter to the Humane Society of the U.S., that since 2003 it has
recognized that Congress meant the Twenty-Eight Hour Law of 1873 to
limit the time that any hooved animals could be kept aboard any kind
of vehicle.
Less encouraging was that the USDA for three years avoided
having to enforce the reinterpretation of the Twenty-Eight Hour Act,
and 1906 and 1994 amendments, by keeping knowledge that it had been
reinterpreted to themselves.
“The USDA clarified its position in a 2003 internal memo
distributed to government veterinarians,” explained Cristal Cody of
the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “The policy change came to light in
response to a legal petition that HSUS filed in October 2005 to
extend the law to trucks.”
Said USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service
spokesperson Jim Rogers, “We never considered the 1906 law as being
applicable to the transport of animals by truck,” Rogers said. “Now
we see that the meaning of the statutory term ‘vehicles’ means
vehicle.”

Hunting ranch breakout may bring elk farming ban to Idaho

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
BOISE–Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on October 25, 2006
joined Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal in asking Idaho Governor Jim
Risch to pursue a legislative ban on hunting captive-bred elk.
“In Montana, we said it’s a bad idea to pen up elk, feed
them oats, and have fat bankers from New York City shoot them with
their heads in a grain bucket,” Schweitzer told Associated Press
writer Christopher Smith.
Risch, whose term will end in January 2007, has said he would
support the legislation that Schweitzer and Freudenthal requested.
Wrote Smith, “The two major party candidates running for Idaho
governor, Republican Representative C.L. “Butch” Otter and Democrat
Jerry Brady, have said they would sign legislation prohibiting
domestic elk businesses.”
Risch on September 7 signed an executive order decreeing the
“immediate destruction” of about 160 captive-bred elk who escaped in
August from a private hunting ranch operated by Rex Rammel, DVM, of
Ashton.
“While special hunts by state agents and the public killed 33
of the escaped elk,” along with seven wild elk found among them,
“Idaho Fish and Game biologists believe the domesticated animals have
already crossbred with wild herds,” wrote Smith. “Elk farming and
‘shooter bull’ hunting are banned in Wyoming and Montana.” The
Wyoming ban was adopted in the 1970s. The Montana voters approved a
ban in 2000. Idaho, however, has 78 elk farms and 14 penned
hunting camps, according to Associated Press.

N.J. Consumer Affairs prosecutes another coin-can fundraiser

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
HACKENSACK, N.J.–Exiting New Jersey Office of Consumer
Affairs director Kimberly Ricketts on August 2, 2006, her last day
with the agency, appealed for public help to locate and impound an
estimated 1,400 to 1,500 coin collection canisters believed to have
been placed by an entity calling itself Lovers of Animals.
The Office of Consumer Affairs has filed suit, reported
Newark Star-Ledger staff writer Brian T. Murray, alleging improper
accounting for about $7,500 raised and spent in 2005.
The case followed the state shutdown of coin can fundraiser
Patrick Jemas in June 2006. Jemas did business as the National
Animal Welfare Foundation.
“Lovers of Animals was incorporated when Russell Frontera,
49, of Beachwood was furloughed from state prison in late 2004 after
serving two years of a seven-year sentence for loan sharking,” wrote
Murray. “His name appears on documents filed with the Internal
Revenue Service and the state that year, when he also opened a post
office box for the charity.

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