Egyptian Central Zoos director agrees to use contraception to prevent perennial lion surplus

April 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

CAIRO–Egyptian Central Zoos director and Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species representative Nabil Sidki
announced on April 6, 2010 that Egyptian zoos will begin using birth
control drugs and surgical sterilization to prevent surplus lion
births.
At least three zoos in Egypt, including the 120-year-old
Giza Zoo, have been criticized for decades for doing little to
curtail births of inbred lion cubs, some of whom are believed to be
illegally trafficked, while others contribute to severe overcrowding.
Frequently exposing conditions at the Giza Zoo since 1991,
former London Zoological Society fellow and Cairo resident Richard
Hoath in May 2009 noted in Egypt Today that the Giza Zoo lions are
still “kept in bare concrete cages, without any habitat or
behavioral enrichment,” even though the lion exhibit still includes
an extensive moated veldt that was meant to be the main lion habitat
when the zoo opened in 1891.

Concern for circus lion cubs brings action in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Dubai

April 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

BEIRUT–Concern over the plight of a circus lion cub,
rallied by Animals Lebanon, has persuaded Lebanon to ratify the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The global conservation community had failed for 27 years to
persuade a succession of Lebanese governments to endorse CITES,
brokered by the United Nations in 1973. But Animals Lebanon, a
two-year-old animal rights group, succeeded in less than 90 days,
by showing the Lebanese public, initially skeptical mass media, and
senior officials that inability to enforce CITES rules is a
significant cause of animal suffering.
Along the way, the suffering of the lion cub also helped to
prompt Jordan to adopt a national animal welfare law, taking effect
on April 2, 2010, and led to Egypt introducing a requirement that
henceforth circus animals may be transported out of the country only
by air.

Israel to ban fur?

March 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2010:

TEL AVIV–The Israeli ministerial committee on law and
constitution on February 7, 2009 unanimously approved a bill to ban
the import and export of fur garments, except for shtreimels, a
type of fur hat traditionally worn by Hassidic Jews.
“The bill, prohibiting originally only trade in cat and dog
fur, has been expanded to include all fur from all mammals,”
explained Let The Animals Live founder Eli Altman. “Now the
Education, Culture and Sports Ministry committee will vote on the
amendment,” Altman added. “With their approval the bill will be
put to a second and then third reading before finally being past into
law.”

Space research repeats experiments of 1950s

March 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2010:

TEHRAN, BROOKHAVEN–Iranian State Television on February 3,
2010 showed the launch into sub-orbital space of a missile carrying
two turtles, an intubated white rat, and several worms.
The Iranian State News Agency later said the capsule carrying
the animals returned to earth safely, but did not specifically
describe the condition of the animals, whose behavior was
reportedly monitored throughout the flight by video cameras.
“The turtles were red-eared sliders supposedly just bought
before the launch at a local pet shop,” elaborated HerpDigest editor
Alan Salzberg.

Transporter sinks

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

BEIRUT–Thirty-nine people were rescued, but nine were found
dead, 35 were missing and presumed dead, and 10,224 sheep plus
17,932 cattle died when the livestock transporter Danny F II capsized
and sank on December 17, 2009, 11 nautical miles from Tripoli,
Lebanon, en route from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Tartarus, Syria.
The British captain reportedly went down with the ship.
Launched as the car transporter Don Carlos in 1975, the
Danny F II was renamed when converted to haul livestock in 1994. In
2005 the Danny F II was reportedly detained at Adelaide after
inspectors found holed bulkheads, defective navigation lights and
radio equipment, and defective watertight doors.
The sinking brought the biggest loss of life of any livestock
hauling incident since the sheep transporter Uniceb burned and sank
in September 1996, killing 67,488 sheep who were en route to Jordan
from New Zealand and Australia.

“God is not Dracula”–but sacrifice continues

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

KATHMANDU, MULTAN– “God is not Dracula!” protested Animal
Save Movement Pakistan president Khalid Mahmood Qurashi via posters,
web postings, and press releases as the annual Eid ul Azha began in
Saudi Arabia on November 27, 2009, and continued around the world
for four days.
Qurashi reminds fellow Muslims every year that Islam requires
charitable acts at the Eid, not blood sacrifice. This year Qurashi
found himself reminding Hindus, too, as the Eid slaughters were
compounded by the sacrificial massacre days earlier of more than a
quarter of a million animals in Bariyarpur, a Nepalese village near
the Bijar border.

Disasters strike abroad

September 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:
An electrical fire razed the Qatar Animal Welfare Society on
September 3. The founders evacuated more than 100 animals, but 35
dogs, cats, rabbits, and a possum were killed. “All QAWS now has
is the surviving animals and the collars they were wearing,” said an
appeal e-mailed to supporters. Updates were posted at <www.qaws.org>.
Torrential rains meanwhile inundated much of the Istanbul
region of Turkey. “Besides human casualties, there are many animal
casualties,” reported Linda Taal of the Dutch-based organization
Actiezwerfhonden (Action for Dogs), which assists several Turkish
animal aid projects.
“The dogs in the forest shelter are doing okay,” Taal
continued, referring to the facility at the Kemerburgaz landfill
that ANIMAL PEOPLE profiled in July/August 2001, “but thousands of
strays were drowned, and one shelter was flooded, with at least 130
animals killed. Flooding at a vet clinic killed 40 animals.”
Earlier, Typhoon Morakot damaged 10 animal shelters in two
counties of Taiwan, which among them housed about 1,000 dogs. About
100 dogs were drowned or were missing, the Central News Agency said
on August 10.

Egypt uses H1N1 flu as pretext to massacre pigs

July 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2009:

CAIRO, PARIS–After condemning the pointless massacre of
pigs in Egypt in response to a “swine flu” that swine rarely get and
have yet to verifiably pass to any other species, the 2009 meeting
of the Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on May 24 elected Nihat
Pakdil of Turkey to become OIE European region secretary general.
Pakdil, as Turkish deputy undersecretary for agriculture,
in 2005 ordered a pointless massacre of dogs in response to the avian
flu H5N1, even though dogs have never been infected by H5N1.
Despite Pakdil’s ascent, Africa Network for Animal Welfare
founder Josphat Ngonyo was hopeful, he told ANIMAL PEOPLE, that the
OIE conference discussion would prevent anything like the Egyptian
pig killing “from ever occurring again, through the concerted effort
of OIE, the World Society for the Protection of Animals, and the
international animal welfare community.”

Dogfighters vs. the Taliban

March 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2009:

ISLAMABAD–“Thousands of villagers” attended a dogfighting
tournament in Toba Tek Singh, Pakistan on February 15, 2009,
“chaired by the social and political personalities of the area,”
Ravi Foundation executive director Ashfaq Fateh told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
“At least 34 dogs took part,” Fateh added.
A schoolteacher and prominent advocate of both human and
animal rights, Fateh had reason to be gravely concerned when the the
chief minister of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan announced
on February 16, 2009 that the Pakistani government will recognize
Taliban rule of the embattled Swat valley, in exchange for a
temporary ceasefire. The deal allows the Taliban to enforce an
interpretation of Islamic law that includes keeping women indoors
and prohibiting female education.

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