Category: North America

Farm animal cruelty convictions lead to “ag-gag” laws rather than reform

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2013:

Farm animal cruelty convictions lead to “ag-gag” laws rather than reform

RALEIGH,  N.C.,  BOISE,  Idaho––Former Butterball employees Terry Johnson and Billy McBride were on February 24,   2013 convicted of abusing turkeys at a farm  in Shannon,  North Carolina,  in 2011.

 “Johnson and McBride join Butterball workers Brian Douglas and Ruben Mendoza,  who were convicted in 2012 of criminal cruelty to animals arising out of the same investigation,”  said Mercy for Animals founder Nathan Runkle.  Mercy for Animals conducted the undercover video investigation that led to the charges. Read more

NIH begins to retire most of chimp inventory from research

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:

SHREVEPORT––The National Institutes of Health Council of Councils Working Group on January 23, 2013 “agreed that all but 50 of hundreds of chimpanzees kept for federally funded research should be retired from labs and sent to a national sanctuary,” summarized Janet McConnaughey of Associated Press. “Already,” McConnaughey reported a day later, “nine chimpanzees have arrived at Chimp Haven, outside Shreveport, Louisiana, “from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center, which no longer has an NIH chimp research contract.” Another 102 chimps were expected to come from New Iberia during the next few months. Four NIH chimps at New Iberia were said to be too ill to relocate. About 230 chimps belonging to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette are to remain at New Iberia. The NIH pledged in 2011 to phase out most invasive research on chimps. An 86-page set of recommendations released by the Council of Councils Working Group suggests that chimps should henceforth be used in research only if there is no other way to investigate a risk to human health. Read more

Maternal deprivation experiments on macaques in Madison recall Harry Harlow

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:

 MADISON, Wisconsin––Maternal deprivation research appears to be again underway at the Harry Harlow Primate Psychology Laboratory on the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin. “The research in question is a new type of maternal deprivation research designed to study anxiety by creating adverse early rearing conditions and then exposing the maternally deprived young [male] monkeys to a snake and other frightening stimuli. Read more

Roadkill counts, 1937-2006, showed longterm decline

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Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:52:22 +0000

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2013:

 MENTOR,  Ohio––Cathy Strah,  a transportation department employee in Mentor,  Ohio,  from 1993 to mid-2006 logged all roadkills collected by city workers,  forwarding her data sheets to ANIMAL PEOPLE.  Her work,  covering more than 5,000 animal deaths over twelve and a half years,  was the longest-running all-species,  year-round roadkill count known to ANIMAL PEOPLE. Read more

West Virginia Supreme Court upholds pit bull law

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2013:

CHARLESTON,  West Virginia––The West Virginia Supreme Court on January 14,  2013 affirmed the constitutionality of an ordinance prohibiting keeping pit bulls within the Town of Ceredo.

The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the November 2009 convictions of pit bull keepers Steve Hardwick,  Sharon Nalley,  and Glenna Pelfrey,  who were each fined $162 plus court costs. Pelfrey did not appear for an appellate hearing,  but Hardwick and Nalley pursued an appeal aimed at overturning the Ceredo ordinance as “unconstitutional in that it is arbitrary and unreasonable.” Read more

Library raccoon teaches about urban wildlife

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2012:

NEW YORK CITY–The Queens Library at Baisley Park, South
Jamaica, seized the opportunity to educate New Yorkers about urban
wildlife after inadvertently acquiring a resident raccoon during
Superstorm Sandy, safely ensconced in a glass-enclosed atrium garden.
How the raccoon arrived was anyone’s guess, but staff
presumed he would leave the same way when ready. Young visitors
named him “Mr. Rocky Books,” and made a cardboard shelter for him,
placed inside the atrium by library staff, who also supplied him
with fresh food and water.

Read more

Obama administration re-elected, moves quickly to placate hunters

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  November/December 2012:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Barack Obama,  the first non-hunting U.S. president since Harry Truman, was re-elected on November 6,  2012 by a margin of 53% to 47% for opponent Mitt Romney–whose vice presidential running mate,  Wisconsin member of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan,  made much of his enthusiasm for bowhunting.

But,  while Obama probably owed no political debts to the hunting lobby,  the Obama administration on November 20,  2012 reiterated endorsement of the Sportsmen’s Act,  S. 3525, introduced before the election by Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana),  incorporating 19 legislative goals of the National Rifle Association and the pro-hunting National Wildlife Federation.     Read more

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