U.S. Supreme Court endorses seizure of hoarded animals

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

WASHINGTON D.C., Philadelphia–The U.S.
Supreme Court in early December 2005 upheld the
right of humane societies and animal control
agencies to seize animals from alleged hoarders
and charge convicted hoarders for their care, by
refusing to hear the last appeal of Janet Jones,
55, of Hatfield, Pennsylvania.
Jones founded a local animal rescue
organization, Animal Orphans, in 1998,
operating out of her home. In September 2002 the
Montgomery County SPCA seized 96 cats, nine
dogs, several hamsters, rats, and mice, and a
turtle who were found on the premises in
allegedly negligent conditions. Charged in
December 2002 with 105 summary counts of cruelty,
Jones was in November 2003 ordered by the
Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas to pay
the SPCA $45,600 for the animals’ care during the
year while the case was pending, and to forfeit
the animals.
The sum was within $5,000 of the animal
care costs for 2002 declared on the Animal
Orphans Inc. filing of IRS Form 990. But Jones
appealed. After the Montgomery County Court of
Common Pleas convicted her a second time, the
Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld the conviction
in September 2004. The Pennsylvania Supreme
Court in June 2005 refused to hear the case.
Jones then took the case to the U.S. Supreme
Court.

New Legislation: Austria, New Jersey, Ohio

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

Austria no longer allows biomedical research on chimpanzees,
gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and gibbons, effective on January
1, 2006, unless the studies are in the animals’ own interest. The
last apes actually used in experiments in Austria were retired by
Baxter Laboratories in 2002.

Less popular with animal advocates is a new Viennese
ordinance requiring that dogs born after January 1, 2006 must be
insured to a minimum liability of $864,000.

Animal Defense League & L.A. clash over right to protest vs. right to privacy

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

LOS ANGELES–Animal Defense League attorney John J. Uribe and
City of Los Angeles prosecutor Spencer Hart clashed in municipal
court on January 12 in the first 2006 round of a multi-year struggle
between the ADL and the city over the rights of privacy and the right
to protest.
ADL activists Pamela Ferdin and Jerry Vlasak, M.D., both
longtime opponents of the leadership of the Los Angeles Depart-ment
of Animal Regulation, are charged with criminal trespass for
allegedly violating a Los Angeles ordinance in June 2004 that
requires demonstrators to stay 100 feet from the doors of protest
targets’ homes.
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo on December 16,
2005 reinforced those charges by filing another 14 misdemeanor counts
against the ADL and individual members, resulting from 62 alleged
criminal acts. The case alleges that members of the ADL chanted “We
know where you sleep at night” outside Los Angeles animal control
director of field operations David Diliberto’s home, placed the
names of his four children on the ADL web site, left a message on
his home answering machine saying “Resign or we go after your wife,”
typed a “666” text message purportedly symbolic of the devil on his
cell telephone, and posed as mortuary workers in a 3 a.m. visit to
his home, claiming they had come to collect a corpse.

Non-enforcement erodes U.K. pack hunting ban

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

LONDON–Almost a year after the Hunting
Act banned most forms of hunting with dogs in
England and Wales, effective on February 19,
2005, pack hunting participation on Boxing Day
was reportedly undiminished.
As many as 250,000 people either rode to hounds
or followed the dogs on foot on December 26,
2005, the traditional peak of the British pack
hunting season.
“Far from consigning hunting to history,”
Times of London countryside editor Valerie Elliot
claimed, “thousands more are in the saddle or on
foot in pursuit of a fox scent, sometimes
accidentally hunting real foxes.”
Entering 2006, there were still 317 active hunt
clubs in Britain, including 184 that hunt foxes
and 100 that hunt hares. The Aldenham Harriers,
of South Hertfordshire, disbanded in
mid-January, but hunting participation overall
is up an average of 33%, asserted Elliot.

1958 slaughter act protects all species, say lawsuits

January 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

SAN FRANCISCO, WASHINGTON D.C.–Separate
federal lawsuits filed by the Humane Society of
the U.S. and the Humane Farming Association
contend that Congress meant the 1958 Humane
Methods of Slaughter Act to cover all species who
are routinely killed for human consumption.
Filed in San Francisco one month apart,
both lawsuits place jurisdiction for the first
ruling and first two steps of the inevitable
appellate phase before the Ninth U.S. Judicial
Circuit, a court which has historically been
more friendly toward animals than most other
jurisdictions.
USDA enforcement of the Humane Methods of
Slaughter Act, as well as being sporadic and
uneven, has always exempted poultry, rabbits,
and ranched “wildlife” species such as bison,
deer, and elk. In consequence, more than 95%
of all the animals slaughtered for meat in the
U.S. have had no legal protection from cruelty.

PETA wins a round in lawsuit against Ringling Bros. spies

December 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

VIENNA, Virginia– Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge David
Stitt on December 7 sanctioned Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus
owner Kenneth Feld for failing to provide copies of documents to
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in compliance with the
process of discovery.
PETA sued Ringling and Feld Entertainment Inc. in 2001 for
allegedly funding numerous acts of infiltration and disruption,
beginning more than a decade earlier. The case is scheduled for
trial in February 2006.
Judge Stitt ordered Kenneth Feld to disclose his net worth
and recent tax returns to PETA and to surrender unredacted copies
of documents including a 30-page “Ringling Bros. Long Term Animal
Welfare Plan Draft #5.” Attorney Philip Hirschkop, representing
PETA, testified that a copy previously sent to PETA was mostly
blacked out.
Stitt also ordered Feld to provide copies of any other
documents produced by the Feld “Animal issues department.”
Recalled Associated Press writer Matthew Barakat, “In August
2005, Feld’s lawyers were ordered to pay more than $50,000 in fines
to PETA for contempt of court,” after similar incidents.

FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA; Other Groups Tracked

December 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 20, 2005; A11

FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy
groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes,
the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new
FBI records that it said detail the extent of the activity.

The documents, disclosed as part of a lawsuit that challenges FBI
treatment of groups that planned demonstrations at last year’s political
conventions, show the bureau has opened a preliminary terrorism
investigation into People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the
well-known animal rights group based in Norfolk.

Gorilla Foundation settles two of three lawsuits

December 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

WOODSIDE, Calif.–Associated Press reported on December 1,
2005 that former Gorilla Foundation employees Nancy Alperin, 47,
and Kendra Keller, 48, have settled a lawsuit they jointly filed
in February 2005, claiming they were fired for refusing to expose
their breasts to Koko, the signing gorilla whose care is focus of
the foundation program. Alperin and Keller also contended that they
worked unpaid overtime and were obliged to work amid unsanitary
conditions.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Alperin had
asked for $719,830 and Keller for $366,192. A parallel suit filed by
a third ex-employee, Iris Rivera, 39, is still pending,
Associated Press said.
Alperin and Keller said they were fired one day after
California occupational health and safety inspectors fined the
Gorilla Foundation $300 for violations that were later corrected,
San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Patricia Yollin reported.

U.S. Supreme Court refuses to overturn right to sue police who shoot dogs

December 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

WASHINGTON D.C. –The United States Supreme Court on December
5, 2005 refused to review an April 2005 ruling by the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals that law enforcement officers have a duty to
consider alternatives to shooting dogs.
The appellate court refused to block a lawsuit brought by
seven Hell’s Angels motorcycle club members against seven San Jose
police officers and a Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy.
The Hell’s Angels contend that their civil rights were
violated when the police officers and sheriff’s deputy in January
1998 shot a Rottweiler and two other dogs while raiding two homes in
search of evidence pertaining to the 1997 fatal beating of a man at
the Pink Poodle nightclub in San Jose.
The appellate verdict noted that the raid was planned in
advance. Though the investigators “had a week to consider the
options and tactics available for an encounter with the dogs,” the
verdict pointed out, they “failed to develop a realistic plan for
incapacitating the dogs other than shooting them.”
The original case will now proceed to trial.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling followed a 1994
decision by the same court that reversed a lower court verdict and
held that killing a pet without urgent necessity violates the Fourth
Amendment, protecting citizens against unreasonable search and
seizure.

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