Category: North America

The Terminator kills proposal to terminate animals sooner

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2004:

SACRAMENTO–“I realized last night that I made a mistake on
the budget,” California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted at a
hastily convened June 26 press conference. “My daughter called me.
I have reinstated the six-day waiting period for lost animals,”
Schwarzenegger said.
Schwarzenegger spoke 24 hours after media revealed that his fiscal
2004-2005 budget included repealing the 1968 Hayden Act. Humane
organizations responded almost immediately, but irate individual
citizens were already flooding the Capitol with messages of protest.
The Hayden Act requires shelters to hold impounded animals
for at least six business days before killing them, unless they are
deemed incurably injured, ill, or vicious. The Hayden Act also
requires that impounded animals be scanned for microchip
identification, and bars animal abusers from adopting shelter
animals within three years of conviction.
Schwarzenegger had initially endorsed a December 2003
recommendation by the California Legislative Analyst’s Office that
the holding time for dogs and cats be cut back to 72 hours, the
pre-Hayden requirement, and that there be no required holding time
at all for small mammals, reptiles, and livestock. Facing a budget
deficit of $15 billion, the Legislative Analyst’s Office advised
that repealing the Hayden Act could save the state $10 million a year
in reimbursements paid to animal control shelters.

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Another investigator sues Friends of Animals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2004:

ANIMAL PEOPLE on July 14 received a copy of a lawsuit
alleging “gender and sexual orientation discrimination and
retaliation” recently filed against Friends of Animals, FoA
president Priscilla Feral, and FoA Washington D.C. office director
Bill Dollinger by Virginia Leone Bollinger, who was FoA director of
investigations from May 2001 to November 2003.
The lawsuit itemizes 10 claims of alleged abusive behavior by
Dollinger, and charges that FoA president Priscilla Feral failed to
protect Bollinger from his actions.
“FoA, Dollinger, and Feral deny the allegations and believe
the claims are entirely unfounded,” FoA operations director Bob
Orabona told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “The court has already dismissed the
claims against Feral,” which overlapped the case against FoA. “As
the matter is pending litigation,” Orabona added, “we decline to
comment further.”
Bollinger worked for PETA from 1986 to 1993, including five
years as an investigator and one year as chief investigator, before
becoming director of investigations for the Humane Society of the U.S.
In August 1995 Bollinger and former PETA and HSUS legal
investigator Cristobel Block sued then-HSUS vice president for
investigations David Wills for alleged sexual battery. Wills,
widely seen as successor-in-waiting to then-HSUS president John Hoyt,
was fired two months later, was sued by HSUS in a case parallel to
the Bollinger/Block case, and was convicted of embezzling from HSUS.

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PetCo tests adopting out rabbits instead of selling them

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2004:

SAN DIEGO–In lieu of selling rabbits, four PetCo stores in
the Minneapolis area have begun offering rabbits for adoption from
the Minne-sota House Rabbit Society.
Since 1965 PetCo has offered dogs and cats for adoption from
shelters, instead of selling puppies and kittens from breeders.
PETsMART has done likewise from inception in 1986. Neither chain,
however, has felt before that rescue groups for small mammals,
birds, and reptiles could provide a sufficiently reliable supply of
animals to enable the stores to hold market share.
The test of rabbit adoptions brought PetCo some good
publicity in an otherwise difficult year, including a PETA pledge
to boycott PetCo until it quits selling animals.
Settling suits brought by five California communities, PetCo
in May 2004 agreed to pay a total of $711,754 in fines and
investigative costs for allegedly neglecting animal care and
overcharging customers, and to spend at least $202,500 to improve
store equipment.
In January 2004 Texas district judge Darlene Byrne ordered
PetCo to pay $47,000 to Carol Schuster of Austin, including $10,000
each for emotional anguish, loss of companionship, and punitive
damages. Schuster’s minature schnauzer had escaped from a PetCo
employee while being walked after grooming, and was killed by a car.
The verdict was overturned in June by the Texas 3rd Court of
Appeals, upholding an 1893 precedent limiting damages for the loss
of a dog to material costs plus legal expenses.
Schuster’s attorney told Veterinary Practice News that the
case will be taken to the Texas Supreme Court.

Raccoon rabies spreads to Cape Cod, Rhode Island

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2004:

YARMOUTH, EAST PROVIDENCE–Massachusetts state budget cuts
that reduced funding for oral anti-rabies vaccination of raccoons
from $209,000 in 2001 to just $60,000 in 2004 left the Cape Cod
Rabies Task Force nearly penniless at the end of June. Rabies first
hit raccoons in Massachusetts in 1992, but a decade of successful
vaccination kept the disease from jumping the Cape Cod Canal until
March 2004. Twenty-two rabid raccoons were found in four Cape Cod
towns by June 13.
The rabies outbreak also hit Rhode Island. The East
Providence Animal Shelter on May 6 reportedly impounded five
raccoons, in violation of protocol; left them with a foster family
for a month; and then exposed them to a sixth raccoon who was found
acting strangely at a golf course.
That raccoon turned out to be rabid. All of the raccoons
were killed. At least 46 people who handled the raccoons were given
post-exposure vaccination.
Raccoon rabies spread into the northeast from the
mid-Atlantic states after a group of coonhunters and trappers
translocated 3,500 raccoons from a rabies-endemic part of Florida to
the Great Smokies and Appalachia in 1976.

Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society will no longer keep dogs & cats during animal control holding period

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2004:

CHICAGO, NEW YORK CITY–Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society
president Gene Mueller, DVM, in early July 2004 announced that
starting in November the Anti-Cruelty Society will no longer house
stray or feral animals brought by the public during the five-day
holding period when they can neither be adopted or killed.
Those animals will instead be redirected to the Chicago
Animal Care & Control Department. Owner-surrendered pets will still
be accepted, since they can be offered for rehoming right away.
“In exchange,” reported Claire Loebs Davis of Best Friends
Online, “the Anti-Cruelty Society plans to substantially increase
the number of legally adoptable animals it transfers out of animal
control to its facility, and to direct more resources toward its
spay/neuter, feral cat, and anti-dogfighting programs. “
The Anti-Cruelty Society already operates one of the dozen
most active nonprofit sterilization clinics in the world, handling
12,000 dogs and cats in 2003.
“The Anti-Cruelty Society also plans to construct the
Bruckner Animal Rehabilitation Center,” wrote Davis, “which will
feature over 100 spaces for long-term rehabilitation of animals with
treatable illnesses and behavior problems, as well as kittens and
puppies too young to adopt.

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Dope on dog racing

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2004:

TALLAHASSEE–Florida attorney general Charlie Christ does not
have the authority to probe why 117 dogs who raced on Florida tracks
in 2000-2003 tested positive for cocaine, deputy attorney general
George LeMieux told GREY2K USA and the Humane Society of the U.S. in
an early June written opinion.
The 117 positive tests were among moe than 104,000 tests on
dogs for drugging done during the three years in question. During
that time Palm Beach Kennel Club trainers Bernie McClella, Joy
Mayne, and Mark St. Pierre were suspended because their dogs tested
positive, but have continued to claim the tests were in error.
In May, Florida Division of Parimutuel Wagering chief David
Roberts said his office has “found no evidence that anyone has given
cocaine to a dog.”
Greyhound advocates otherwise enjoyed a successful first half of 2004.
New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson in May 2004 vetoed a bill
to require greyhound trainers to track injuries to dogs,
euthanasias, interstate transfers, adoptions, and sales of
dogs–but on June 16 the state legislature overrode the veto, 290-52
in the house and 18-6 in the senate.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell on May 24 signed into law a
pre-emptive statewide ban on greyhound racing.
The New Hampshire and Pennsyl-vania legislative victories
followed the defeat of bills to authorize the use of other forms of
gambling and tax cuts to subsidize greyhound racing in Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Texas.

Petco settles neglect & overcharge cases

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2004:

SAN DIEGO–The 655-store Petco Animal Supplies Inc. chain on
May 27, 2004 agreed to pay $661,754 in fines and investigative costs
for allegedly neglecting animal care and overcharging customers.
“The company also will spend $202,500 to install better
equipment in its California stores to eliminate overcharging,”
reported San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Mike Freeman of the
settlement reached with district attorneys in San Diego, Los
Angeles, Marin, and San Mateo counties. Petco also agreed to pay
$50,000, formally train staff in animal care, and allow inspection
by independent veterinarians to settle a separate case brought by the
city of San Francisco.
A PETA boycott of Petco will continue, said spokesperson
Christy Griffin, until Petco quits selling birds, reptiles, fish,
and small mammals. Petco, like larger rival PETsMART, does not
sell dogs and cats.

Did whipping cost Smarty Jones the horse racing Triple Crown?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2004:

BELMONT PARK, N.Y.–Did Smarty Jones
lose the Belmont Stakes and his chance to win the
horse racing Triple Crown on June 6 because
jockey Stewart Elliott whipped him?
Counterpunch writer Becky Burgwin thinks
so, and said so in her column of June 9 from a
perspective of expertise.
“I am a huge animal lover,” Burg-win
began, “and though I come from a long line of
jockeys, trainers, and breeders, I think
thoroughbred racing is inhumane. Track racing
especially bothers me because it’s so unnatural.
And then there’s the part where the horses get
whipped. There they lose me.
“When I heard that Smarty Jones had won
the Preakness by seven lengths without having a
crop laid on him,” after winning the Kentucky
Derby,” Burgwin continued, “I was intrigued.
I’ve watched that race [on video] and they’re
right. Elliott never touched him. So I was
thinking, maybe this small, mellow,
sweet-as-all-get-out horse can make it look cool
to win with no whippings, thus affecting change
for all horses in future races.”

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Spring 2004 state legislation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2004:

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco on June 3 signed a bill
banning so-called hog/dog rodeo, in which dogs attack penned pigs,
to take effect on August 15, but efforts to ban cockfighting failed
to clear the state house agriculture committee. Louisiana and New
Mexico are the last two states to allow cockfighting.
Vermont Governor James Douglas and Tennessee Governor Phil
Bredesen have signed 2004 bills creating felony penalties for cruelty.
The Tennessee bill, however, only allows a felony penalty
for a second offense, exempts animals who are injured while being
“trained,” and exempts animals who are being used for work or
hunting. Further, the cost of jailing convicted offenders is to be
taken from the Tennessee pet overpopulation fund, raised by license
plate sales. Jailing just a few offenders could drain the fund. The
original purpose of the Tennessee bill, retained in the final
version, was to require peace officers who may encounter dangerous
dogs to be trained about dog behavior.
The Alaska legislature passed a felony cruelty bill on May 9,
but it had not been signed by Governor Frank Murkowski. as of June 23
The Humane Society of the U.S. reported on June 15 that more
than 90% of animal cruelty prosecutions involve neglect. Seven
neglect cases were prosecuted as felonies in 2002; 23 in 2003, only
seven of which brought convictions; and eight in 2004 through May 1.

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