Category: Law

Judges & prosecutors weigh dog attacks

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

Civil law

Issuing one of the first court verdicts to weigh a conflict
between the right of a legally disabled person to keep a companion
animal and the duty of landlords to protect tenants from dangerous
dogs, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled on August 8, 2002
that the San Francisco landlord of Guy Lowe, 38, met the
requirements of federal law and the California Fair Employment and
Housing Commission by allowing legally disabled persons to keep small
dogs, and that Lowe, whose claimed disability is severe depression,
acted unreasonably in demanding to keep a pit bull terrier. “The
potentially catastrophic consequences of a pit bull attack must be
considered, even if the risk of that attack is remote,” Judge Alsup
wrote.

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Refuge for former dancing bears allows Bulgaria to enforce bear protection law

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

BELITSA, Bulgaria–Nine years after Bulgaria first tried to
ban training and exhibiting so-called dancing bears, bears are still
shuffling in chains to music on street corners. But the show is
almost over, officials say, because new legislation adopted in July
2002 substantially reinforces the 1993 law –and, as important, the
not-quite-two-year-old Belitsa Dancing Bear Park in the woodland
reserves of the Rila mountains at last gives police a place to take
bears they confiscate.
Like many other animal protection laws hastily adopted within
the former Eastern Bloc after the collapse of Communism, the
original law protecting bears went unenforced because there was no
way to make it work.

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Crackdown on SHAC hits activist for child porn, brings Boston busts

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2002:

BOSTON;  CAMBRIDGESHIRE,  U.K.–A year after Stop Huntingdon
Animal Cruelty activists thought they were on the verge of victory,
the campaign appears to be collapsing under the weight of the
ruthless and often violent tactics that have characterized it.
British campaigner Robert Moaby,  33,  in mid-August 2002
pleaded guilty to two counts of threatening to kill executives of
Huntingdon and other firms,  and 17 counts of making pornographic
pictures of children.
According to BBC News,  “Moaby sent e-mails containing
violent threats to financial backers of the Cambridgeshire-based
animal research organization,  Southwark Crown Court was told.  The
messages were full of obscene language and threats of sexual assault,
the court was told.  When police examined his computer,  they also
found that he had more than 2,800 pornographic imagines of children,”
reportedly as young as age five.

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Banning exotic & dangerous wildlife for the animals’ sake

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

WACO, Texas–As the living conditions of large carnivores
and exotic wildlife in private hands go, the mascot bears at Baylor
University in Waco, Texas, are better off than most. The
six-month-old baby bear has a toy: an orange cone. Some say it
resembles a Baylor cheerleader’s megaphone. Others call it a dunce
cap. The 18-month-old senior bear has a multi-level enclosure. Both
bears have pools. Few roadside zoos or backyard menageries offer
comparable amenities–but few are as visible to as many well-educated
people, who might recognize conditions falling far short of optimal
for the animals.
Baylor recently did something about that, after the bears’
stereotypical pacing, filthy water, and lack of any way to get off
the bare concrete drew protest: someone put up a plywood fence to
inhibit casual viewing.

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Animal advocates lead in preventing hot car deaths

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

ATLANTA–The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
reported on July 3, 2002 that at least 78 children died in accidents
associated with parked cars during 2000 and 2001, more than a third
of whom died from heat trauma.
The CDCP data indicates that animal advocates are doing a
much more effective job of communicating the risk of leaving pets
alone in cars than child protection agencies are accomplishing in
reaching parents.
The dangers to either animals or small children are the same:
heat trauma is the most common cause of death or injury, followed by
accidents when a child or animal accidentally puts the car in gear,
accidents in which the child or animal escapes from the vehicle, and
cases of kidnapping or pet theft.

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“Invasive” means any species that somebody hates

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Australia and New Zealand may be the most
bioxenophobic of nations, with Britain (page 9) not far behind, but
environmental eugenics have a strong following in the U.S. as well.
Attempting to eradicate non-native species from land holdings
is in fact official policy of the U.S. National Park Service, The
Nature Conservancy, and many other government agencies and
non-governmental organizations involved in conservation.
Paradoxically, some government agencies and nonprofit
hunting clubs are still translocating and introducing populations of
the same species that others are attempting to get rid of. Even as
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moves to reclassify nonmigratory
giant Canada geese in the Great Lakes region as an “invasive” pest
species, for instance, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources
translocated 4,100 of the geese from the Detroit area to Chelsea,
Iowa, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources translocated
262 geese from Horicon to Black River Falls.

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Status-of-animal verdicts in U.S., Britain

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2002:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on
July 9 that a 10-year-old dog named Barney may
not be subject of a suit seeking visitation
rights,  filed by Anthony DeSanctis against his
ex-wife Linda Hurley Pritchard,  as the dog is
not a legal person.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Lillian Y.
Lim on July 5 ruled that jurors may be told that
a 38-year-old pony named Lucy who was euthanized
in 2000 by the San Diego Humane Society had no
market value,  but may not hear about her
emotional value to Herb Niederheiser,  of Ramona,
California,  who is suing the humane society for
allegedly unlawfully seizing her.  Niederheiser
had Lucy  for 25 years.

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New laws abroad

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

The Bulgarian Parliament on July 10 declared brown bears a
protected species, who may no longer be hunted, bought, sold, or
displayed to a paying audience. About 800 bears inhabit the
Bulgarian mountains, 30 bears are in zoos, 21 are kept by gypsy
exhibitors of “dancing bears,” 11 are in breeding colonies set up to
maintain the zoo population, and four belong to circuses, according
to the International Bear Foundation. The Dutch-based IBF in 2000
paid for microchipping all 66 captive bears, while the Fondation
Brigitte Bardot and the Austrian group Vier Pfoten founded a 2.7-acre
bear sanctuary near the Rila monastary, founded in the 13th century
at the reputed site of the grotto of the 10th century animal-loving
vegetarian saint John of Rila.

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United States legislative roundup

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2002:

California Governor Gray Davis in mid-July signed into law a
bill by state assembly member Virginia Strom-Martin (D-Duncans Mills)
which encourages human services personnel to report any suspected
cases of animal abuse they may encounter on the job.  Animal cruelty
investigators are already required to report any suspected cases of
child abuse that they discover.  The Strom-Martin bill was introduced
to mandate cross-reporting,  but was amended to be non-binding after
child welfare agencies testified that the cumulative cost of the
extra paperwork would be about $200,000 statewide per year.

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