Category: North America

Cattle evacuated from U.S. coastal islands

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2004:

Huge cattle rescues are not unheard of in the U.S.–just rare.
A recent example was the November 2003 evacuation of 106 bison from
Santa Catalina Island, led by In Defense of Ani-mals southern
California director Bill Dyer.
Another evacuation, initially described by some sources as a
rescue, removed at least 38 cattle from Chirikof Island, Alaska.
Subsequent investigation revealed that even if live removal could be
made to work, the motivation behind the attempt was to sell the
cattle for slaughter.
In both instances the cattle were moved from both Santa
Catalina and Chirkoff in response to conservationist pressure to have
the feral herds shot, in order to restore wildlife habitat to a
semblance of pre-settlement conditions. The Catalina Island
Conservancy controls 88% of Santa Catalina, while Chirikoff Island
is under control of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
The Catalina bison were descended from a herd of 14
introduced to the island in 1924 during the filming of the 1926 film
The Vanishing American. The herd was later supplemented and built up
as part of a commercial beef ranch operated by chewing gum magnate
William Wrigley Jr.

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Baby seals & bull calves bear the cruel weight of idolatry

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2004:

The 350,000 baby harp seals who were clubbed or shot and
often skinned alive on the ice floes off eastern Canada this spring
had more in common with the thousands of bull calves who were
abandoned at temples in India during the same weeks than just being
days-old mammals subjected to unconscionable mistreatment.
Unlike the much smaller numbers of seals who were killed off
Russia, Norway, and Finland, and unlike the somewhat smaller
numbers of bull calves who were shoved into veal crates here in the
U.S., Canadian harp seal pups and Indian surplus bull calves are
victims not only of human economic exploitation, but also of their
roles as icons and idols.
The words “icon” and “idol” have a common origin in the
ancient Greek word that means “image.” Yet they mean such different
things–and have for so long–that two of the Judaic Ten
Commandments, about setting no other God before the One God and not
worshipping graven images, sternly address the difference.
An icon is a physical image representative of a holy concept,
usually but not always depicting a person who is believed to have
exemplified the concept in the conduct of his or her life. Icons may
also depict animals, abstract symbols, supernatural beings, or
deities. A icon may be venerated for being symbolic of the holy
concept, but to venerate it for its own sake is considered idolatry,
and therefore wrong in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths,
as well as in some branches of other major religions.

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Developments in dangerous dog law

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2004:

DENVER–Colorado Governor Bill Owens on April 21, 2004
signed into law a bill which allows dog attack victims to sue the
legal owners of the dogs “regardless of the viciousness or dangerous
propensities of the dog or the dog owner’s knowledge of those
tendencies,” but prohibits breed-specific municipal ordinances.
Previously Colorado operated under the “one free bite”
standard established in English Common Law, holding that a dog may
not be considered dangerous if the dog had not previously attacked
someone.
Recognizing that the “one free bite” standard is of little
practical use in trying to prevent harm by dogs whose first bite may
be fatal, several states have recently tried to introduce stricter
liability standards.
However, the New York state Court of Appeals in February
2004 ruled in a 4-2 split verdict that a Rottweiler mix who facially
disfigured Matthew Collier, 12, in 1998 could not have been
considered a potentially dangerous dog, even though the dog was
normally kept away from visitors, because the dog had not previously
bitten anyone. The dog attacked Collier while held on a leash by
owner Mary Zambito, who was attempting to introduce the dog to the
boy.

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USDA puts Hawthorn Corp. out of the elephant business–Clyde-Beatty Cole Bros. quits, too

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

RICHMOND, Illinois–Hawthorn Corporation owner John F. Cuneo
Jr., 73, on March 7, 2004 agreed to a 19-point consent decree in
settlement of 47 Animal Welfare Act charges that requires him to
divest of his remaining 16 elephants and have them removed from his
property near Richmond, Illinois by August 15. Cuneo is also to pay
a civil penalty of $200,000.
The consent decree, finalized on March 15, marks the first
time that the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service has
ordered a circus to cease exhibiting elephants.
Hawthorn Corporation will be allowed to keep 60 white tigers,
27 conventionally colored tigers, and an African lion.
None of the elephants’ destinations have been determined.
Dehi, 57, whom the USDA removed from the Hawthorn premises in
November 2003, was sent to the Elephant Sanctuary at Hohenwald,
Tennessee. A 200-acre facility with seven Asian elephants and three
African elephants at present, the Elephant Sanctuary plans to expand
up to 2,700 acres soon, divided between Asian and African elephant
habitats.
The most recent arrival, in March 2004, is Flora, the
17-year star performer of the single-elephant Circus Flora, for whom
circus owner David Balding tried unsuccessfully to found the Ahali
Sanctuary in South Carolina.

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Canadian seal hunt underway

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island–“The Inter-national
Fund for Animal Welfare is out on the ice to monitor sealing and
document hunting violations,” IFAW communications coordinator Kerry
Branon e-mailed on March 24, the first day of the 2004 Atlantic
Canada offshore seal hunt.
The sealing season opened on November 15, 2003, but the
killing does not start in earnest each year until a new generation of
seal pups become accessible on the Gulf of St. Lawrence ice floes.
“The hunt, which is heavily subsidized by the Canadian
government, is expected to take as many as 350,000 seals over the
next few weeks,” Branon continued. “Seals may be killed once they
begin to moult their fluffy white coats–as young as 12 days old.
Ninety-five percent of the seals killed in the hunt are under three
months of age.
“In the last five years,” Branon charged, “IFAW has
submitted video evidence of more than 660 probable violations of law
to the Department of Fisheries & Oceans. Not one has been
investigated. These abuses include skinning live seals, dragging
live seals across the ice with hooks, and shooting seals and leaving
them to suffer.

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Cock & bull stories

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

Oklahoma cockfighting ban upheld

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on March 30, 2004 upheld the
constitutionality of the initiative ban on cockfighting that was
approved by state voters in 2002. Chief Justice Joseph M. Watt and
six other justices ratified the verdict, while two abstained.
The ban passed by a margin of 125,000 votes, but local
judges in 27 counties then ruled that the initiative was
“unconstitutionally vague” and “unjustly deprived cockfighters of
their property.” The Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected both
contentions.
“Next it will be hunting, fishing and rodeos,” complained
state senator Frank Shurden. Shurden for the past two years has
pushed a bill to reduce the penalties for cockfighting from felonies
to misdemeanors.

Bullfight protesters beaten by cops

Members of Corporacion RAYA, also known as Red de Ayuda los
Animales, of Medallin, Colombia, were on February 28 beaten by
police during a protest against bullfighting for the second time in a
month.
“As happened on February 7, the anti-riot squad took
advantage of their jobs and hit the marchers,” an activist calling
herself “Girl From Mars” e-mailed to
<www.hsi-animalia@lists.hsus.org>, an electronic bulletin board
maintained by the Humane Society of the U.S.
“A 15-year-old boy was seriously injured in his eye and was
kept prisoner for about five hours, and so was a 17-year-old girl,”
the report added.

Bullfighting arena built in Beijing

South China Morning Post correspondent David Fang on March 13
reported that “A 3,000-seat bull ring, Asia’s biggest, is nearing
completion in the Daxing district of Beijing, next to the Beijing
Wildlife Park.”
Jiao Shenhai of the Daxing tourist bureau told Fang that the
ring was to host both Spanish-style bullfights and U.S.-style rodeo,
but outbreaks of mad cow disease in Spain had blocked the import of
Spanish fighting bulls.
“Communist China is quick to adopt any vice from any
culture,” commented Chinese animal advocate Peter Li, now teaching
at the Universiy of Houston.
Disagreed Peking University School of Journal-ism &
Communication professor Guan Sijie, “Chinese see the bull as
industrious, honest, and good friends. I don’t think Chinese
people will accept bullfighting.”

Charity Action Team hits charity status of Canadian hunting groups

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

OTTAWA–“The Charity Action Team is
calling for immediate action from the Canada
Revenue Agency to investigate sport hunting and
fishing clubs and potentially revoke their
status,” CAT cofounders Nancy Zylstra, Anita
Krajnc, and Marisa Herrera jointly declared on
March 1, 2004.
“Numerous clubs and federations devoted to
hunting, fishing, and trapping have been awarded
the benefits of charitable status, yet their
activities stretch the bounds of what most
Canadians can be reasonably expected to consider
charitable,” charged CAT in an investigative
report entitled Conservation or Contradiction:
Should Hunting and Fishing Clubs Have Charity
Status?
“We question the validity of these
organizations as ‘charities’ in a number of
areas,” CAT continued, looking in depth at the
Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, the
British Columbia Wildlife Federation, the
Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, the Canadian
Wildlife Federation, and Ducks Unlimited Canada.
Also identified were the Alberta Fish and
Game Association, Manitoba Wildlife Federation,
New Brunswick Wildlife Federation, Newfoundland
and Labrador Wildlife Federation, Nova Scotia
Wildlife Federation, Ontario Wildlife
Foundation, and the Prince Edward Island
Wildlife Federation.

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Tiger sanctuary updates

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

Return of Long’s lost tiger ordered

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio– Mahoning County Common Pleas Court
Magistrate Eugene Fehr on March 25, 2004 ruled that the Noah’s Lost
Ark sanctuary in Berlin Township, Ohio, must return a lion cub
named Boomer-ang to animal advocate Bill Long, of Upper Arlington,
Ohio.
Helping New York Post reporter Al Guart to develop an expose
of exotic cat trafficking, Long on October 11, 2003 bought
Boomerang from a breeder in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Long and Guart
planned to take the cub to the Shambala sanctuary near Los Angeles,
operated by actress Tippi Hedren, to dramatize why the “Shambala
Bill” Hedren was then pushing through Congress was needed. Formally
called the Captive Wildlife Protection Act, the bill is now in
effect.
American Sanctuary Association director Vernon Weir on
October 15, 2003 wrote to the New York Post that when the
eight-day-old cub turned out to be “too young and fragile to
transport, ASA suggested to Guart that perhaps Noah’s Lost Ark would
be willing to provide temporary care. We had no reason to believe
that Noah’s Lost Ark would decide that they wanted to keep this cub,”
as happened, soon after Noah’s Lost Ark enjoyed a publicity bonanza
from taking in a tiger named Ming who had attacked his owner,
Antoine Yates, in a Harlem apartment.

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U.S. Senate Nature Conservancy probe continues

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2004:

WASHINGTON D.C.– The U.S. Senate Finance Committee on March
3 “asked The Nature Conservancy to submit information about land
transactions, program fees and profits, tax advice offered by
attorneys and accounts, and salaries paid to contractors,”
Associated Press reported. “The letter unveiled a prong of the
committee’s broad investigation into donations of land, art, drugs,
automobiles, and other gifts,” Associated press continued. “It
also asks the organization to prove it followed the rules that let
nonprofit organizations and charities avoid taxation.”
In November 2003 Washington Post writers Joe Stephens and
David B. Ottaway reported that U.S. Senate Finance Committee had
become “particularly interested in the ‘valuation of land donations
and the conservation-buyer program,'” according to committee chair
Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).
“The Senate inquiry began,” Stephens and Ottaway continued,
“after a Post series in May 2003 detailed how the charity had sold
scenic properties to its state trustees, who reaped large tax
breaks. Other stories disclosed that the charity engaged in
multi-million-dollar business deals with companies and their
executives while they sat on the charity’s governing board and
advisory council. The Conservancy responded by banning a range of
practices.”

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