Category: Law

Three years for using dog to “discipline” kids

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2004:

PORTLAND, Oregon–Washington County Presiding Judge Marco
Hernandez on September 23, 2004 sentenced David E. Hoskins, 46,
of Hillsboro, to serve three years in prison for disciplining his
7-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son for at least two years by
allowing a dog named Nigel to attack them.
After completing his prison term, Hoskins is to have contact
with the children during the next two years only with the written
consent of child welfare workers.
The sentence was widely seen as far too light, especially in
comparison to the 10-year sentence given earlier in September to
dogfighter Carey D. McMillian, 23, of Dallas, Texas, who was
charged with a single incident. (Page 14.)
Hernandez indicated that he would issue an even lighter
sentence on October 14 to the children’s mother, Joyce Hoskins, 47,
“based on the woman’s limited mental abilities,” wrote Holly Danks
of the Portland Oregonian.
Neighbor Voight Barnhardt called police on March 19 in
response to screams from the girl.
“Officers found Joyce Hoskins more worried about the animal
than her daughter, who was bleeding on a bed” from at least 12 bite
wounds that will cause permanent scarring, summarized Danks of
testimony by deputy district attorney Andrew Erwin.

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Thai crackdown on animal trafficking hits high officials as CITES nears

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

BANGKOK–Delegates arriving in Bangkok for the 2004 meeting
of the parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species, to start on October 1, will find the clandestine animal
traffic thriving, despite a year-long crackdown.
The good news is that the crackdown is still underway,
reaching higher and farther into the web of corrupt officials who
have enabled Bangkok to persist as a global hub of illegal animal
dealing.
Wildlife Conservation Office director Schwann Tunhikorn will
head the Thai CITES delegation, replacing Manop Laohapraser, who
was removed from his post in July 2004 for alleged misconduct in
authorizing the export of 100 tigers to the Sunya Zoo in China two
years earlier. The zoo is owned by the Si Racha Tiger Farm.
An investigation headed by National Intelligence Agency
director Joompol Manmai concluded that the tiger sale was a
commercial transaction, not a breeding and exhibition loan as
defined by CITES.
“Some believe [the tigers] were destined for human
consumption,” London Observer correspondent Mark Townsend reported
on September 13.

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Doctor fined up to $70,000 for buying Cuban dolphins

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

MIAMI–Graham Simpson, M.D., 53, in late August 2004 told
Miami Herald correspondent Charles D. Sherman that he is “negotiating
a fine of up to $70,000″ for violating the U.S. trade embargo against
Cuba by purchasing six wild-caught dolphins from Cuba to stock the
Dolphin Fantaseas swim-with-dolphins facilities that he and his wife
formerly owned in Antigua and Anguilla.
Originally from South Africa but now a naturalized U.S.
citizen, Simpson said several years ago that he traveled to Cuba
under a British passport, and paid $45,000 each for the six dolphins.
Simpson and his wife recently sold Dolphin Fantaseas to Dolphin
Discovery, of Cancun, Mexico.
Owned by U.S. citizens, Dolphin Discovery has purchased “at
least 33, maybe 70″ Cuban dolphins over the years, Dolphin Project
founder Ric O’Barry told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Having brought the Dolphin Fantaseas dolphin acquisition from
Cuba to light, O’Barry and Gwen McKenna of Toronto are now targeting
Dolphin Discovery.
“If they got even a $1 million fine, it would not put a dent
in that operation,” said O’Barry.
The Dolphin Project, now sponsored by the French group One
Voice, is currently “campaigning in the Cayman Islands trying to
keep Dolphin Discovery from expanding into that country,” said
O’Barry, who has been trying to end dolphin captivity since 1970.

Judge upholds tuna/dolphin standard–again–and raps Bush cabinet “meddling”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

SAN FRANCISCO–U.S. District Judge
Thelton Henderson on August 10, 2004 upheld the
“dolphin-safe” tuna labeling standard against
government attempts to weaken or scrap it for the
fifth time in 14 years.
Ordered Henderson, “Dolphin-safe shall
continue to mean that ‘no tuna were caughtŠusing
a purse seine net intentionally deployed on or to
encircle dolphins, and that no dolphins were
killed or seriously injured,'” on the voyage that
caught the tuna.
Henderson rapped Commerce Secretary
Donald Evans and the George W. Bush
administration for “a pattern of delay and
inattention” in failing to enforce the
dolphin-safe labeling standard.
“The record is replete with evidence that
the secretary was influenced by policy concerns
unrelated to the best available scientific
evidence,” Henderson wrote.
“This court has never, in its 24 years,
reviewed a record of agency action that contained
such a compelling portrait of political meddling.”

Sanctuaries sue Powerball lottery winner over unpaid pledges

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

EPPING, N.H.–Mary Ellen Sanderson, co-winner of a $66
million Powerball lottery in 1997, has been sued by a second animal
charity to which she pledged annual funding. Sued earlier by the
Oasis Sanctuary Foundation, a tropical bird sanctuary located at
Cascabel, Arizona, Sanderson was also sued in July 2004 by Equine
Protection of North America–which Sanderson helped to create,
reported Manchester Union Leader correspondent Toby Henry.
The original EPONA directors, Henry indicated, were
president Susan Fockler and director Ronald Levesque, both of
Epping, New Hampshire, and Mary Ellen and James Sanderson, then a
married couple. As with the Oasis Sanctuary, Mary Ellen Sanderson
helped EPONA to obtain a sanctuary site. The EPONA facility, near
Dover, New Hampshire, houses about 25 horses at a time, Hnery said.
According to Henry, the lawsuit alleges that Mary Ellen
Sanderson agreed to give EPONA $70,000 a year, amounting to more
than 80% of the organization’s entire budget. The Oasis Sanctuary
suit claims Mary Ellen Sanderson was to donate $100,000 a year.
Both organizations were cut off at the end of 2003, after
the Sandersons divorced.

Judge rules against mining in Florida panther habitat

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

FORT MYERS–Ruling that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and Army Corps of Engineers improperly issued a finding of “no
jeopardy” to the endangered Florida panther, U.S. District Judge
James Robertson on August 20, 2004 invalidated the federal permits
issued to Florida Rock Industries Inc. to develop a 6,000-acre mine
site in Lee County.
“In isolation, most individual projects would impact only
small portions of potential panther habitat,” Robertson wrote.
“Multiplied by many projects over a long time, the cumulative impact
on the panther might be significant.”
The lawsuit against the mine was filed by the National
Wildlife Federation, the Florida Wildlife Federation, and the
Florida Panther Society.
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel staff writer David Fleshler
reported that the case “received support in May 2004 when Andrew
Eller, a biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service, filed a
formal complaint accusing his own agency of knowingly using bad data
on panther habitat, reproduction, and survival to approve eight
construction projects.”

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Norway hits cruelty to fish but not whales

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

OSLO–The Norwegian Food Safety
Auth-ority on July 27, 2004 “revealed rampant
violations of animal protection laws after an
inspection of a plant that stores live wild cod.
The NFSA says fish are being tortured,” wrote
Frodis Braathen and Jonathan Tisdall of
Aftenposten.
The crackdown on cruelty to fish came
three days after Norway and Japan failed once
again to lift the global moratorium on commercial
whaling in effect since 1986.
Norway has permitted coastal whaling
since 1994 in defiance of the moratorium, but
has not been able to develop the commerce in
whale meat to Japan that was expected to make
whaling profitable.
Before the annual meeting of the
International Whaling Commission, held this year
in Sorrento, Italy, the Norwegian parliament
considered raising the self-set national minke
whale quota to 1,800, from 655, before settling
on 745.

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Lance-Watson perjury case

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

SEATTLE–Federal perjury charges against Allison
Lance-Watson, 45, wife of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
founder Paul Watson, were dropped on September 9, 2004, said
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Bartlett, because the prosecution
inadvertently shredded the transcripts of grand jury proceedings that
were the evidence.
“In dropping the case,” wrote Seattle Post-Intelligencer
reporter Paul Shukovsky, “the government agreed Lance-Watson will
not be prosecuted for any crimes based on evidence now in possession
of the U.S.,” and agreed not to subpoena her about any current
investigation.
A related contempt of court case continues against activist
Gina Lynn for refusing to testify to the grand jury.
The grand jury is investigating an arson in Olympia,
Washington, and the theft of 228 chickens from a farm in Burlington,
Washington, on the night of May 7, 2000. The FBI says a
convenience store security camera caught Lynn and fellow activist
Joshua Trenter as they dumped evidence, and puts them in a truck
that Lance-Watson rented to help the Sea Shepherds relocate from
Santa Monica, California, to Friday Harbor, Washington.
Jailed on August 26 for contempt of court, Lynn commenced a
hunger strike that was apparently still underway as ANIMAL PEOPLE
went to press on September 15. She has engaged in hunger strikes of
up to 22 days during previous jailings for refusing to testify before
grand juries.

Who killed hunting profits in Zimbabwe?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

HARARE–The search for someone to blame is underway in Zimbabwe.
“We have a situation where the previous hunting season earned $24
million U.S. and then suddenly the last hunting season earned only
$13 million,” fumed National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority
chief executive Morris Mtsambiwa to Isadore Guvamombe of the
government-controlled Harare Herald in mid-August 2004.
“Our question is, what happened to the other $11 million?
Investigations are in progress,” Mtsambiwa continued.
Mtsambiwa said nothing of land occupations by mobs of “war
veterans,” confiscations of especially attractive properties by
corrupt public officials, uncontrolled poaching, and the near
complete destruction of many of Zimbabwe’s renowned private wildlife
conservancies. His remarks, however, hinted at a pretext for
further seizures.
“Hunting proceeds are paid in advance to the safari
operators,” Guva-mombe wrote, “but last year many operators,
working in cahoots with white former farmers, devised methods of
circumventing foreign currency declaration procedures.”
Hwange safari operator Headman Sibanda meanwhile sued
Zimbabwean environment and tourism minister Francis Nhema for
allegedly improperly awarding a hunting concession to a company
headed by a Nhema associate named Marble Dete.

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