Category: Law

SHAC leaders sentenced in Britain & New Jersey

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
LONDON, TRENTON–Five alleged
instigators of property damage and threats
directed at facilities, business partners, and
employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences in
mid-September 2006 drew prison terms ranging from
three to six years.
Northampton Crown Court Judge Ian
Alexander on September 20 sentenced molecular
biologist Joseph Harris, 26, to three years as
the first person convicted under a new British
law against economic sabotage.
“Harris, of Bursledon, Hampshire, broke
into premises in Nottingham, Bicester and
Northampton,” summarized Nicola Woolcock of the
London Times, “where he slashed tires, flooded
offices, and poured glue into locks. He caused
more than £25,000 in damage.” Harris apparently
began the attacks in a futile bid to keep a
girlfriend who left him, the court was told,
because of animal experiments he did in
connection with pancreatic cancer research.

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Anti-chaining activist is busted for saving a dog

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
ALTOONA, Pa.–Tammy Sneath Grimes, founder of the national
anti-chaining organization Dogs Deserve Better, was released from
police custody in East Freedom, Pennsylvania, at 2 a.m. on
September 12, 2006, about 12 hours after she removed a seriously
debilitated chained dog she called Doogie from the yard of East
Freedom residents Steve and Lori Arnold.
“I’m out,” on unsecured $50,000 bail, Grimes e-mailed to
ANIMAL PEOPLE, for whom she is a part-time assistant web site
developer. Charged with theft, receiving stolen property, criminal
mischief, and criminal trespass, Grimes remained convinced she had
done the right thing.
“I will not take this lying down,” Grimes pledged.
The criminal trespass and criminal mischief counts were
dismissed at a September 21 preliminary hearing, as about 75 Grimes
supporters demonstrated outside. Grimes is to stand trial on the
charges of theft and receiving stolen property on November 27.
The Arnolds call the elderly German shepherd/Labrador mix
Jake. They claim he is 19 years old, an extraordinary age for
either breed. The Arnolds told news media that the dog was in the
condition he was in because he is arthritic and they had hesitated to
have him euthanized. They said they had given him aspirin for pain
relief.

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New Jersey Consumer Affairs prosecutes another coin-can fundraiser

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 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 charity 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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League Against Cruel Sports wins first Hunting Act foxhunting conviction

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

DEVON, U.K.–The League Against Cruel
Sports on August 3, 2006 won the first
conviction for fox hunting under the Hunting Act
of 2004, which banned fox hunting throughout
England and Wales. Barnstaple Magistrates’ Court
District Judge Paul Palmer fined Exmoor Foxhounds
huntsman Tony Wright, 52, £500 plus prosecution
costs of £250 after an intensely publicized
week-long hearing. Wright allegedly hunted a fox
with dogs on April 29, 2004.
“The League brought the case at a total
cost of more than £100,000 after Avon and
Somerset Police declined to take the case,”
reported BBC News.

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California animal transport exemption leaves livestock to cook

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

SACRAMENTO–The California legislature on August 14, 2006
sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill to criminalize leaving
pets unattended in weather that puts the animals’ health at risk–but
specifically exempted “horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, poultry or
other agricultural animals in motor vehicles designed to transport
such animals,” a clause excluding from protection more than 99.9% of
all the animals who die in transit from either excessive heat or cold.
Violators of the California bill could be punished by fines
of up to $500 and up to six months in jail. The bill specifically
empowers animal control officers to break into cars to rescue animals
in distress.
But Virginia Handley of Animal Switchboard, the senior
animal advocacy lobbyist in California, did not join other humane
leaders in claiming an apparent victory. She pointed out that many
California agencies have already successfully prosecuted people who
left pets in hot cars under the state anti-cruelty statute–which
permits stiffer penalties.

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Court kills Massachusetts “Dog Protection Act” fall 2006 ballot initiative

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

BOSTON–The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts on July
13, 2006 barred a proposed ballot initiative called the Dog
Protection Act from the November 2006 Massachusetts ballot. If
approved by the voters, the Dog Protection Act would have prohibited
greyhound racing, and would have provided stiffer sentences for
dogfighting and assaulting police dogs.
The court upheld the contention of Raynham-Taunton Greyhound
Park owner George Carney that the initiative improperly combined
unrelated issues.
Massachusetts secretary of state William Galvin Jr. in
December 2005 certified that Dog Protection Act backers had gathered
83,431 bona fide signatures from voters in support of the initiative,
about 18,000 more than were needed in the first step of the two-step
petitioning process, but after the Massachusetts legislature failed
to enact the Dog Protection Act itself, the act supporters were
required to gather at least 10,971 new signatures to put the
initiative before the voters.
Grey 2K cofounder Christine Dorchak told ANIMAL PEOPLE that
the goal was reached on June 16, five days ahead of the deadline.

Lab dog dealer C.C. Baird is sentenced

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

LITTLE ROCK–Former laboratory dog and cat suppliers Chester
Clinton “C.C.” Baird Jr. and his wife Patsy Baird, both 59, were on
July 14 sentenced for multiple violations of the federal Animal
Welfare Act. U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes gave C.C. Baird three
years on probation including six months of home detention, and fined
him $7,500. Holmes gave Patsy Baird two years on probation, and
fined her $2,000.
The Bairds and two of their five daughters in August 2005
paid $262,700 in fines to settle civil charges against them,
forfeited $ 200,000 cash from “ill-gotten gains,” paid more than
$40,000 in restitution to animal welfare groups that rehabilitated
and placed 215 dogs and 145 cats seized from the Bairds in 2003 and
2005 USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service raids, and turned
over their home, land, and kennel, worth about $1.3 million, to
the USDA.

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Progress against docking dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

EDINBURG, JOHANNESBURG–The Scottish Parliament on May 31,
2006 approved inclusion of a ban on tail-docking dogs in a pending
Animal Health & Welfare omnibus bill, while leaving open the
possibility of exempting working dogs. The Scottish language
parallels language approved by the British Parliament in March 2006,
as part of a general update of anti-cruelty legislation. Similar
language was introduced in 2005 but not put to a vote in New Zealand.
The South African Veterinary Association ruled meanwhile that
vets who dock dogs’ tails after June 2007 may be charged with
“unprofessional, improper or disgraceful conduct.”
Australia banned tail-docking dogs except for medical reasons
in 2004. Tail-docking dogs was already prohibited in Sweden,
Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Denmark. Nations
including Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Luxembourg, and Switzerland
have ratified the Convention on the Protection of Pet Animals
proposed in 1987 by the Council of Europe, which includes a
tail-docking ban, but have not adopted anti-docking legislation of
their own.

Israeli foie gras ban now is in force

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

JERUSALEM–“Foie gras production has ended in Israel,”
Israeli activist Adela Gertner affirmed on July 13, 2006.
“Suspected delinquents are being investigated. Otherwise, producers
are obeying the law.”
ANIMAL PEOPLE had asked Gertner to find out if Israeli foie
gras producers were at last complying with court rulings against
force-feeding. Most recently, the Israeli High Court of Justice
ruled on February 22, 2006 that force-feeding geese was to end by
April 15, 2006, “while expressing harsh criticism against the
state for not enforcing” an earlier ruling that force-feeding was to
have ended in March 2005, attorney Keren Klar told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Klar represented Let the Animals Live and Anonymous for Animal Rights.

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