International Legal Precedents

October 2, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2004:

Justice Richard C. Gates of Ontario Superior Court on
September 7, 2004 struck down a 2002 city of Windsor bylaw barring
exotic animal acts, on grounds that it violates circus performers’
right to freedom of expression, as defined by the Canadian Charter
of Rights & Freedoms. While the bylaw was written as a public
safety measure, Gates explained, and as such could have overridden
the relevant degree of concern for freedom of expression, “because
it was passed for the ulterior purpose of animal welfare, the
Respondent City failed to provide at least a reasonable degree of
evidence to causally link exotic animal performances to public
safety. There was insufficient examination of any evidence to
rationally support the secondary purpose of protection of the
public.” Issued on behalf of the Shriners Circuses, the Ontario
ruling may be cited as a precedent in an anticipated follow-up
lawsuit against animal act bans passed in 1999 by the Town of Mount
Royal and Ville St. Laurent, then independent cities and now
boroughs of Montreal.

Pro-animal coalitions organize to seek new laws in Egypt, Canada

July 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2004:

Ten Egyptian animal charities on June 21, 2004 formed the
Egyptian Federation for Animal Welfare, electing attorney Ahmed El
Sherbiny to be founding chair. “Ahmed is also the chair of the
Egyptian Society of Animal Friends and the driving force behind
creation of the federation,” ESAF volunteer Robert Blumberg told
ANIMAL PEOPLE. “The Federation’s initial mission is, by invitation,
to help draft Egypt’s first comprehensive animal welfare legislation.
The strength of the Federation will now be used to help push the law
through the legislative process.” Contact EFAW c/o Blumberg,
<rblumberg@attglobal.net>.

The Canadian Horse Defense Coalition is “a collective of
national groups that have joined forces to ban the slaughter of
equines for human consumption in Canada, as well as the export of
live horses for the same purpose,” says founder Sinikka Crosland.
Crosland in 2003 formed the Women’s Health and Ethics Coalition “to
bring further attention to the health, humane, and environmental
concerns surrounding the use of Prempro and Premarin,” and to seek
“an end to the manufacture and export” of all products made from
pregnant mare’s urine. In 2002-2003 Crosland led the opposition to
the Ken Turcot Memorial Gopher Derby, a killing contest held to
raise funds for the Saskatoon Wildlife Federation. The event was not
held in 2004. Contact Crosland c/o P.O. Box 26097, Westbank,
British Columbia, V4T 2G3, Canada; 250-768-4803;
<info@defendhorsescanada.org>; <www.defendhorsescanada.org>.

Wars destroy Abidjan Zoo & Gaza Zoo

June 2, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2004:

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast; RAFAH, Gaza Strip– The Abidjan Zoo
was once among Africa’s largest and the pride of Ivory Coast. The
two-acre Gaza Zoo, between the embattled Rafah and Brazil refugee
camps near the border of Israel and Egypt, was among the smallest,
but still offered thousands of Palestinian children their only chance
to see animals other than dogs, cats, and domestic livestock.
War has destroyed them both, the Abidjan Zoo by attrition
since civil war broke out in September 2002, and the Gaza Zoo in a 3
a.m. onslaught by Israeli tanks and bulldozers on May 20 that
reportedly also smashed 43 homes.
“Like much of the other destruction in the six-day Israeli
offensive, the demolition of the zoo seemed more a psychological
attack on Rafah’s population than a military strike against the
Pelestinian guerrillas who maintain a strong presence in the city.
Even people whose homes or shops were destroyed had anger and anguish
to spare on behalf of the zoo,” observed Newsday correspondent James
Rupert.
Israeli military spokespersons said the action was meant to
intercept Palestinian arms smugglers.

Israeli Supreme Court rules on feral cats

June 2, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2004:

TEL AVIV–Recently retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice
Dalia Dorner, still ruling on cases she heard earlier, on June 3
ordered that the Israeli Agriculture Ministry Veterinary Service
“must establish more restrictive rules concerning the authority to
exterminate street cats,” reported Haaretz correspondent Yuval Yoaz
“The killing of street cats…must be the last step, taken
only when the public cannot be protected by other reasonable means,”
Dorner wrote, according to the Haaretz translation of the verdict,
rendered in Hebrew.
The verdict was affirmed by active Justices Aharon Barak and
Asher Grunis, but was promptly appealed. Concern for Helping
Animals in Israel founder Nina Natelson told ANIMAL PEOPLE that a
seven-judge panel would review the appeal within 30 days.
ANIMAL PEOPLE received widely varying interpretations of the
verdict from observers of the case and participants.
The case originated out of the four-year-old attempt of the
no-kill organizations Let The Animals Live and Cat Welfare Society of
Israel to prosecute veterinary technician Na’ama Adler-Blu and her
husband Eyal Blu for killing feral cats. The couple own a firm
called Magen Lahatul that captures and kills feral cats under
contract with the Agriculture Ministry Veterinary Service. The Tel
Aviv SPCA was also a defendant.

How Muslims can wage jihad against “Islamic” cruelty

May 1, 2004 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2004:

How Muslims can wage jihad against “Islamic” cruelty
by Kristen Stilt

The stories have become sadly familiar: a Society for the
Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt volunteer encounters a young boy
on a Cairo street throwing stones at a dog. She restrains the boy
and asks him: “Why are you harming this dog, who is one of God’s
creatures?”
The boy replies: “Because the Imam in the mosque said that
dogs are impure.”
Or SPARE president Amina Abaza sees a group of children
trying to drown a puppy in a canal on the outskirts of Cairo. She
rushes to the edge of the canal and seizes the animal, telling the
offenders that God will punish them for committing a wrong. “We are
doing no wrong,” they reply, “because we heard in the mosque that
dogs are dirty.”
In Egypt such incidents and comments are both common and
tragic. Because of mistaken understandings of Islamic teachings,
some Muslims in Egypt-and beyond-commit cruelty in the name of their
religion. Arguments that call upon religion, even incorrectly, can
only be defeated with proper religious citations. A careful look at
the Islamic texts clearly shows that the behavior of these children
and many others acting like them is completely wrong. But
reprimanding the children by telling them that their actions are
unkind, cruel, or unjust does not counter the underlying motivation
for their behavior.

Australia pays Eritrea to take sheep–and has a new live transport incident

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

PORTLAND, Australia– The Australian live sheep export trade
had just begun to regroup after the three-month Cormo Express debacle
when economic disaster hit again– induced this time by Animal
Liberation South Australia campaigner Ralph Hahneuser.
The Cormo Express sailed Fremantle with 57,937 sheep on
August 5, bound for Kuwait, where they were to be unloaded and
trucked to Saudi Arabia. Arriving on August 22, the sheep were
refused entry to Kuwait, however, because some had developed scabby
mouth disease en route.
After no other nation would accept the sheep, the Australian
government repurchased the consignment from the Saudi buyer for $4.5
million U.S., halted all further sales of livestock to Saudi Arabia,
and investigated means of slaughtering and disposing of the sheep
short of returning them all to Australia, where the sheep industry
no more wanted them than the Saudis did.

No happy endings likely in three-month sheep-at-sea saga

October 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

KUWAIT–The livestock ship Cormo Express was to sail back to
Australia on October 15 with 52,000 sheep who were refused entry into
Saudi Arabia on August 22 after some were found to have scabby mouth
disease.
The return voyage had been delayed for 24 hours by difficulty
in obtaining enough fodder to sustain the sheep en route to a planned
first stop for Australian veterinary inspection at the Cocos Islands,
also known as the Keeling Islands, about 1,500 miles west of
Australia proper.
Australian authorities had not yet decided what to do with
the sheep. More than 100 nations had reportedly refused them, even
as a gift that they were subsidized to take. Options included trying
to slaughter the sheep at sea, disposing of their remains via the
nine-story mincer used to dispose of animals who die individually in
transit; landing the sheep for slaughter on the Australian mainland,
probably at Albany; and repatriating the sheep alive to the Outback,
where they might still be killed and buried.

Baghdad Zoo reopens with Uday’s maneating lions

September 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

BAGHDAD–Back under Iraqi management, the Baghdad Zoo
reopened to the public on July 20, 2003, featuring 86 animals,
including all 19 surviving lions from the previous zoo collection,
the much smaller privately owned Lunar Park zoo, and the personal
menagerie of Uday Hussein, elder son of the deposed dictator Saddam
Hussein, who was killed in a firefight by U.S. troops on July 22
along with his brother Qusay and two other men not yet positively
identified.
SkyNews of Britain reported on July 28 that at least some of
Uday’s lions are confirmed man-eaters. A 36-year-old man calling
himself Abu Ahmad, who said he worked for Uday as an executioner,
described to SkyNews how he and Uday fed two 19-year-old students to
his lions alive after they “competed with Uday where some young
ladies were concerned.”
Objecting that 19 lions were too many, Care for the Wild, the
International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the Wildlife Action Group
of South Africa all told news media including ANIMAL PEOPLE that a
lionness named Zena who birthed five cubs just as U.S. troops were
storming Uday’s former compound would be taken to South Africa, with
her cubs, for release into semi-freedom at the SanWild sanctuary.

Middle East

Speaking up for donkeys in Jordan

September 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

AMMAN, Jordan–Formerly abused and abandoned donkeys
Tinklet, Pushball, and Barney don’t actually speak, but like
Balaam’s ass, who testified nearby, and is remembered in the holy
literature of Judasim, Christianity, and Islam, they do their part
to teach humans decency toward their species.
Chris Larter of the British-based Society for Protecting
Animals Abroad (SPANA), recently sent ANIMAL PEOPLE an update on
their doings, complete with press clippings.
“Jordan SPANA director Dr. Ghazi Mustafa is at present very
busy getting ready to open a new education center in September,”
wrote Larter.
Situated at the Hassanieh School for Girls in Um Quseir, the
center will teach animal care and ecological principles to members of
115 animal care clubs established in Jordanian schools with the
cooperation of the Ministry of Education.
“Our target audience are students from 9 to 13,” Mustafa
told Natasha Twal of the Jordan Times.

« 1 … 9 10 11 12 13 … 19 »