H5N1 may halt European movement to free-range poultry-raising

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

LONDON–The Tower of London ravens will be indoor cage birds
until the H5N1 crisis subsides, says raven keeper Derrick Coyle.
Legend has it that if the ravens ever leave the Tower, the
British monarchy will fall–and keeping the ravens indoors sets an
example for poultry farmers.
Just as animal welfare concerns made “free range” a household
phrase and free range poultry growing began to take market share from
intensive confinement, H5N1 might kill the whole concept.
“In the protection zone,” to be established around all H5N1
outbreaks within the European Union, the European Commission decreed
on February 12, 2006, “poultry must be kept indoors.”
Agreed United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization senior
officer of animal production and health Juan Lubroth, “People need
to ensure that poultry are roofed-in to avoid contact with wild
birds, and should not mix chickens with other species, such as
ducks,” since H5N1 is most likely to mutate into forms that can
easily spread when it has the opportunity to move from one species to
another.

Hong Kong tries again

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

Hong Kong banned keeping chickens and ducks as pets,
effective on February 20, 2006, after H5N1 was confirmed in 10 wild
birds of four different species.
Hong Kong tried to ban and cull other bird species kept as
pets when H5N1 first appeared in 1996, killing six residents, but
many people released their pets rather than allowing them to be
killed–which might have spread the disease if any of the pet birds
had been infected.
Doing door-to-door inspections, the Hong Kong Agriculture,
Fisheries and Conservation Department found 42 illegal bird-keepers
with 180 chickens and 57 other fowl in their possession, among the
first 43,600 households visited. They also found 1,000
chickens at an illegal slaughterhouse.
The Hong Kong Health, Welfare, & Food Bureau asked the
Legislative Council to ban live poultry sales by 2009, a goal the
bureau has pursued for more than 10 years. Under a permit buy-back
plan introduced in 2004, 272 of 814 live chicken vendors and 30 of
200 Hong Kong chicken growers have gone out of business, the bureau
said.

Is Belgrade rabies panic covering for dog /cat skinners?

March 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

BELGRADE–A dog pogrom started in Belgrade, the capital of
Serbia, just before the January 2006 escalation of dog-killing in
Bucharest.
The Belgrade pretext was an alleged rabies outbreak that
appeared to have been proclaimed by animal control officials trying
to keep a lucrative fiefdom.
“Belgrade activists obtained heavy documentation,” e-mailed
ANIMAL PEOPLE reader Jelena Zaric, “that instead of using donations
for animals’ sake, dogcatchers were killing the animals. There is
no need to remind you,” Zaric opined, “that Serbia is known for dog
and cat fur, and for inhumane treatment of stray animals.
“On January 27,” Zaric continued, “Belgrade animal
advocates obtained information that city officials would announce a
rabies outbreak in two days, after Belgrade activists filed a
complaint about illegal activities that surround a couple of city
officials and one leading animal welfare organization.

Trafficking brings H5N1 threat home

December 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

NEW HAVEN–Pickled “jellyfish” could bring the potentially
deadly H5N1 avian flu virus to the U.S., a courtroom learned on
December 15 in New Haven, Connecticut. Food King Inc. owner
Vichittra “Vicky” Aramwatananont pleaded guilty to smuggling more
than 27,600 pounds of chicken feet into the U.S. from Thailand,
mislabeled “jellyfish” to evade inspection. The chicken feet were
sold in 11 states.
“Aramwatananont faces up to six months in prison, but is not
expected to receive jail time when she is sentenced on March 24,”
reported Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo. “Food King will pay
$170,000 as part of a plea agreement.”
Still passing mostly from bird to bird, rarely crossing into
humans and even more rarely into other mammals, H5N1 has killed 71
people in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Cambodia since
2003: just over half the total number of people known to have become
infected. Most victims were poultry workers, cockfighters, or
members of the families of poultry workers and cockfighters, who
shared their homes with sick birds.

Visakha SPCA digs out after floods, fights disease outbreaks

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

VISAKHAPATNAM–Already hit by flooding after a September
19 cyclone, the Visakha SPCA was inundated twice more by further
cyclones before the end of October.
Monsoon rains and occasional cyclones are part of the normal
weather cycle along the Bay of Bengal, but fall 2005 brought the
region triple the usual rainfall.
The impact was felt as far south as Chennai, where the St.
Thomas Mount Animal Birth Control Center was badly damaged by flash
flooding, Blue Cross of India chief executive Chinny Krishna told
ANIMAL PEOPLE, and part of the Blue Cross shelter at Guindy was
briefly awash.
“Fortunately, thanks to our volunteer Shanthi, all animals
in the lower-lying enclosures were moved out to the main building,”
Krishna said.
The Visakha SPCA began clean-up and rebuilding at the same
time as extending emergency aid to surrounding areas, then had to
start over after the destruction of a retaining wall by the first
flood allowed a second and third flood.

Humane reps can’t get to H5N1 sites in Croatia

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

DUBROVNIK–Concern that the potentially human-killing avian
flu H5N1 might hit Croatia during the October 18-19, 2005
International Companion Animal Welfare Conference in Dubrovnik proved
premature.
Though the spread of H5N1 from nearby parts of Romania,
Russia, and Turkey was considered inevitable, the first cases were
not actually detected until October 21, when six swans were found
dead at a fish farm near Zdenci National Park.
Tissue samples from the dead swans were rushed to Britain for
further testing, but Croatian officials did not wait for the
results before killing all 10,000 chickens and other domestic fowl
kept within three kilometers of where the swans were discovered.
Poultry product sales fell by hal

REVIEWS: QuickSpay: 1-hour DVD

October 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2005:

QuickSpay: 1-hour DVD, featuring Marvin Mackie, DVM
Animal Issues Movement (420 N. Bonnie Brae Street, Los Angeles, CA
90026; <QuickSpay@aol.com>), 2005.

The City of Los Angeles in 1974 took over the operation of a
low-cost sterilization clinic opened a year earlier by Mercy Crusade,
and started the first city-subsidized sterilization program in the
U.S.
Working for that clinic, Marvin Mackie, DVM, developed
high-volume sterilization. Teaching his methods to others, Mackey
eventually founded a string of low-cost, high-volume sterilization
clinics, emulated by many others, including Jeff Young of Planned
Pethood Plus in Denver, and Mary Herro, now retired, who started
the Animal Foundation of Nevada in Las Vegas.
When Mackie started in veterinary practice, under 10% of all
pet dogs in the U.S. and under 1% of pet cats had been sterilized.
Today more than two-thirds of all pet dogs and upward of 80% of all
pet cats are sterilized, mostly by vets using the Mackie methods.
With practice, Mackie method vets routinely sterilize from
30 to 50 dogs and cats per day–and their productivity commands
salaries of upward of $100,000 a year.

South China kills dogs to send a message

October 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2005:

GUANGZHOU–The Guangdong provincial government seized the
2005 National Day weekend, the first in October, to send messages
to both pet keepers and Beijing.
The message for pet keepers was that the rising popularity of
pet dogs will not be allowed to jeopardize the dog meat industry,
either by spreading rabies, the pretext used for killing pet dogs in
the streets, or by building a human constituency for treating dogs
kindly.
“The Guangzhou campaign follows similar crackdowns in
Shanghai and other cities across the mainland, as dog attacks and
rabies cases increase and more urban dwellers keep pets,” noted
Simon Parry of the South China Morning Post. But Parry failed to
note that the dogs most at risk from rabies are so-called “meat
dogs,” raised in close confinement and not required to be vaccinated.
The Guangdong message for Beijing was that even as the
central government strives to build a more animal-friendly image in
advance of the 2008 Olympic Games, in the part of China where dogs,
cats, and wildlife are relatively rarely eaten, the Cantonese
southern and coastal regions are quite capable of spoiling the effort.

Panic drives avian flu response– dogs blamed, but never had disease

October 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2005:

BUCHAREST, ISTANBUL– Fears that the H5N1 avian flu virus
had spread to Romania “may be wrong,” the London Daily Mail reported
on October 10.
A suspected outbreak in Turkey was likewise unconfirmed.
Amid rising public panic, the veterinary authorities of both
Turkey and Romania nonetheless ordered the immediate slaughter of
tens of thousands of domestic fowl to keep the presumed outbreak from
spreading.
“In western Turkey, military police set up roadblocks at the
entrance to a village near Balikesir,” reported C. Onur Ant of
Associated Press. “A two-mile radius was quarantined as
veterinarians and other officials began destroying poultry at two
turkey farms. Other fowl–including pigeons–and stray dogs in the
village would also be killed as a precaution, said Nihat Pakdil,
undersecretary of Turkey’s Agriculture Ministry.”
Pakdil did not explain why dogs would be targeted, since
there is no record of dogs ever contracting or carrying H5N1, but a
new national humane law making neuter/return rather than killing dogs
the official prescribed method of animal control has been widely
defied on the pretext of disease control. The most recent of many
dog massacres reported since the new law took effect in mid-2005 was
discovered in Aliaga, Izmir, on October 6, where 24 dead dogs were
found in a wooded public park.

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