Another motion by fundraising counsel Bruce Eberle vs. ANIMAL PEOPLE is denied by court

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

FAIRFAX, Va.–Circuit Judge Gaylord L. Finch of Fairfax
County, Virginia, on December 19, 2003 denied the latest in a
series of motions filed against ANIMAL PEOPLE since July 2003 by
fundraising counsel Bruce Eberle and Fund Raising Strategies Inc.,
one of several firms that Eberle owns or controls.
The case is now closed in the Circuit Court and the time for
filing appeals has expired.
The series of motions, each denied, sought injunctions
against distribution of the June 2003 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE and
accused ANIMAL PEOPLE of contempt of court, for causes originating
out of having published a table that disclosed proprietary financial
data about FRS and Eberle’s other companies.
The table accompanied a detailed account of the judicially
encouraged settlement of a libel suit brought by Eberle and FRS
against ANIMAL PEOPLE in July 2002. The settlement required ANIMAL
PEOPLE to correct two statements quoted and paraphrased from Wildlife
Waystation founder Martine Colette, an Eberle client, which were
never presented as anyone’s position other than hers, plus two brief
garbled summaries that never actually appeared in the ANIMAL PEOPLE
newspaper, nor at our web site. ANIMAL PEOPLE had long before
corrected and clarified all of the items at issue.

Perjury charge v.s. Allison Lance-Watson, wife of Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

SEATTLE–Allison Lance-Watson, 45, wife of Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society founder Paul Watson, was on January 14, 2004
arrested, briefly shackled, charged with lying to a federal grand
jury, and released pending a February preliminary hearing without
being required to post a cash bond.
Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Fernando Gutierrez
alleged in a written complaint that Lance-Watson knew more than she
admitted about events that included a 2:30 a.m. arson at the
headquarters of Holbrook, Inc., a timber firm in Olympia,
Washington, on May 7, 2000, and the unauthorized removal of 228
chickens from 57 cages the same night at the Dai-Zen Egg Farm in
Burlington, Washington, a 30,000-hen complex located about two
hours’ drive to the north. The farm is not far from the intersection
of the primary route from Friday Harbor, home of the Watsons, to
the mainland and Interstate 5, which passes through Olympia.
The hen removals were claimed almost immediately in the name
of the Animal Liberation Front, via ALF press officer David
Barbarash, of Courtenay, British Columbia.

Heart jab illegal in New Mexico

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

ALBUQUERQUE–“You asked whether it is a violation of [New
Mexico] anti-cruelty laws to use intracardiac administration of
euthanasia on a conscious animal in an animal shelter or humane
society facility,” attorney general Patricia Madrid wrote to New
Mexico senate president pro tempore Richard M. Romero on December 8,
2003.
“In my judgement,” Mad-rid said, “this procedure–which
causes immediate trauma and death and which is not preceded by
medication that anesthetizes or puts the animal to sleep first–is
unlawful.”
Madrid quoted the applicable law to Romero, underlining the
phrase “tormenting an animal.”
“I am aware,” Madrid wrote, “that my legal opinion may
economically adversely impact the majority of animal shelters and
humane facilities in our state. It is not my intention to overly
burden these facilities or portray them as inhumane institutions.”
Madrid said she would be pleased to support a bill that
specifically bans the so-called “heart jab” method of killing animals.
“We believe a case could be made under the animal cruelty
statute,” clarified Samantha Thompson, spokesperson for Madrid,
speaking to Isabel Sanchez of the Albuquerque Journal. “However, it
is not explicit under the law, nor is there legal precedent.

Chinese dog-killer sent to labor camp

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

BEIJING, HONG KONG– “A Wuhan man was sentenced to 18 months
in a labor camp for poisoning more than 80 pet dogs, the Chutian
Metropolis Daily reported circa December 15, 2003. “The man had
been poisoning the dogs and selling them to local restaurants. A
farmer was detained for supplying the rat poison.”
Reprinted by other news media throughout China, the brief
item indicated the fast-rising status of dogs in much of a nation
which remains deeply divided among fear of dogs, love of dogs, and
the belief that dogs are to be eaten.
The significance of the Wuhan case includes acknowledgement
that enough dogs are kept as pets that a criminal can make a business
of stealing them; acknowledgement that killing pet dogs is a crime
warranting punishment as severe as is typically given for poisoning
pets in the U.S.; and the implication that the dog meat business is
not law-abiding and respectable. Also of note is that the offender
was convicted of killing the dogs, not of harming people who might
have eaten their meat.
In some parts of China a citizen might still be officially
praised for killing 80 pet dogs, but not now in Wuhan– and, since
the state-controlled Chinese media tend to publish news to make a
point, maybe not in the future anywhere.

New Jersey gets stiffer cruelty law; veal crate ban to be reintroduced

January 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2004:

TRENTON, N.J.–New Jersey Governor James McGreevey on
January 10, 2004 signed into law a bill raising the maximum penalty
for cruelty to animals to five years in prison and a fine of $15,000
for a criminal conviction, and increasing the civil penalties that
may be collected by state-chartered SPCAs to a maximum of $5,000.
The bill was introduced by state assembly members Doug
Fisher, John Burizichelli, and Robert Smith.
McGreevey signed it one day after activist Barbara Shuts
heckled him at a meeting with about 500 members of the American
Association of Retired Persons. Shuts reminded McGreevey that he
pledged to oppose bear hunting when running for governor, but then
authorized the first bear hunt in New Jersey since 1970. The six-day
hunt last November killed 328 bears.
New Jersey assembly majority leader Joe Roberts meanwhile
killed a bill to ban veal crating by refusing to put it to a vote
during the final days of the 210th legislature.
“The measure, which already passed in the New Jersey senate,
had enough votes to pass in the assembly,” Farm Sanctuary claimed.
The bill was immediately reintroduced in both the assembly
and the senate when the 211th legislature convened.

National Legislation — U.S. & world

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The U.S. military is exempted from complying
with the Marine Mammal Protection Act under a rider to the 2004
defense construction authorization bill, signed on November 22 by
President George W. Bush. The rider enabled the U.S. Navy to try to
overturn an October 2003 legal settlement in which it agreed to
extensive restrictions on the use of low-frequency sonar, believed
to be lethal to whales.
WASHINGTON D.C.–Associated Press reported on December 8 that
U.S. President Bush is expected to sign the Captive Wildlife Safety
Act, despite the opposition of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service,
which will be mandated to enforce it. The bill, requiring a federal
permit to sell exotic cats across state borders, cleared Congress on
December 7.

Thailand hits traffickers in wildlife & dog meat

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

BANGKOK–Thai national police raided two major zoos, seized
33,000 animals from suspected poachers and wildlife traffickers, and
arrested bunchers for Laotian and Vietnamese dog meat vendors as well
during the first six weeks of an unprecedented national crackdown on
illegal animal sales.
Caught in the dragnet were three major exhibition venues:
Safari World Inc., raided on November 22 and found to be missing 14
tigers supposed to be on its inventory; the Si Racha Tiger Farm,
raided on November 27; and the Phuket Fantasea theme park, owned by
Safari World Inc., where the 14 missing tigers were discovered on
December 4.

Verdict against Makah whaling upheld; new rulings on Native hunting rights

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

SEATTLE–The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on
December 1, 2003 upheld a December 2002 ruling by a three-judge
panel from the same court that the National Marine Fisheries Service
failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act in
permitting the Makah Tribal Council of Neah Bay, Washington, to
exercise a claimed treaty right to hunt gray whales.
“The plaintiffs in the case–the Fund for Animals, the
Humane Society of the U.S., and other groups and individuals–argued
that the government failed to adequately study the ways in which the
Makah whale hunt could set a dangerous precedent and adversely affect
the environment,” explained Fund for Animals spokesperson Tracy
McIntire.

Court calendar

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

The Constitutional Court of South Africa in November 2003
upheld the September 2001 conviction of Kalahari Raptor Center
co-director Chris Mercer for violating the Nature & Environmental
Con-servation Ordinance of 1974 by rescuing three baby caracals
instead of killing them, as mandated by the Problem Animal Control
Ordinance of 1957. Initially convicted and fined, Mercer won a
discharge and waiver of the fine on appeal to the High Court, but
was unsuccessful in seeking to overturn the 1957 law through the
Constitutional Court because the court held that he had only been
charged under the 1974 law. Publicity about the case helped to win
amendments to the Gauteng Province wildlife law, which no longer
requires that “problem” animals be killed without specific cause.

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