McCartney, wrestlers slam WWF

January 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

LONDON, U.K.; HARTFORD, Connecticut–Rock star Sir Paul
McCartney opened 2003 by joining an global tag-team of critics of the
World Wildlife Fund.
“I was appalled to learn from PETA that the U.S. office of
the WWF has been a driving force behind the design and development of
one of the largest animal testing programmes in international
history,” McCartney wrote to WWF director general Claude Martin,
accusing WWF of “pressurizing the U.S. Congress to require the
testing of chemicals for hormone-disrupting effects.”
McCartney referred to the High Production Volume Challenge
testing program begun in 2000 by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. The program seeks to fill gaps in the U.S. registry data on
about 25,000 chemical products that were labeled “safe” before
various neurotoxic and ecotoxic effects were suspected, and before
methods were developed to detect them. The program resulted from 31
years of legal work by the Environmental Defense Fund, but is
endorsed by WWF and most other major environmental organizations.

WPIX settles libel claim over dog meat expose

January 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

NEW YORK, N.Y.–The Tribune Co., owner of both WPIX-TV
Channel 11 in New York city and the Long Island Newsday newspaper,
announced in Newsday on January 11 that it had “reached a settlement
over a series of controversial stories that examined if dog meat was
popular in New York,” aired by Channel 11 reporter Polly Kreisman on
November 19-20, 2001.
“The agreement said that WPIX-TV aired the stories in 2001
along with footage of Ju Ho Kim and his wife Roslyn Kim, selling
what a WPIX-TV spokesman said was a mix of canine and coyote meat to
a Humane Society of the U.S. investigator,” Newsday continued. “The
Kims said in a civil lawsuit that the stories by reporter Polly
Kreisman hurt their business and harmed the Korean American
community. ”

MSPCA in a labor dispute

January 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.–Rowley Memorial Animal Hospital, a
branch of the Massachusetts SPCA, has “demanded that newly hired
certified veterinary technicians not be part of” Service Employees
Union Local 285, and that vet techs already on the job “be given an
option to leave the union,” according to Springfield Valley Advocate
reporter Chris Kanaracus.
In addition, the MSPCA is asking Rowley staff to pay 10% of
their health insurance premiums, now entirely paid for them. Local
285 representative Tim Oppenheimer noted that while the MSPCA lost
money in 2001, all six of the top-paid MSPCA officers received
substantial raises, including president Gus Thornton, due to
retire, whose pay was boosted 18% to $258,400.

Big gains for pro-animal issues, candidates may send a message to the White House and Congress

December 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Anxiety intensified on November 5 about the
future of wild animals who depend upon protected habitat, as the
Republican Party won a one-vote U.S. Senate majority to go with their
majority in the House of Representatives.
There is no longer a partisan obstacle to advancing proposals
favored by the George W. Bush administration to weaken federal
habitat protections of every kind.

Farm Sanctuary charged with 210 violations of Florida election campaign funding law

December 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2002:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –Besides being chiefly symbolic, Florida
Amendment 10 may have been won at a price, for Farm Sanctuary,
going far beyond the $1.3 million raised to pass it by Floridans for
Humane Farms.
Farm Sanctuary was one of the four major funders of the
Amendment 10 campaign, along with the Animal Rights Foundation of
Florida, the Fund for Animals, and the Humane Society of the United
States.

Wildlife Waystation settles with the USDA

December 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2002:

Angeles National Forest, Calif.–The Wildlife Waystation
sanctuary on November 1, 2002 settled a five-year backlog of 299
citations for alleged Animal Welfare Act violations by signing a
consent decree which allows the 600 animals on site to remain, but
prohibits accepting more animals, excludes visitors for at least 30
days, and puts the facility–well-regarded by fellow sanctuarians
but long at odds with officialdom– under a two-year probation.
Wildlife Waystation founder Martine Colette said that meeting
all regulatory requitements could cost as much as $5 million.
Her longterm plan is to relocate many of the larger animals
to the Wilderness Edge Wildlife Reserve, a 160-acre satellite
facility to be built in Wikeup, Arizona. She submitted her plans to
the Mohave County zoning board in mid-October.

Wildlife agencies fight game ranchers to halt CWD

December 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2002:

MADISON, Wisconsin; PORTLAND, Oregon–Just a year ago
wildlife agencies thought the biggest threats to the future of
hunting were animal rights activism and the aging hunter population.
Hunting publications and web sites pushed right-to-hunt laws and
youth recruitment.
Discovered among captive-reared deer and elk in Colorado in
1966, after cervids and sheep were raised together for some time at
an agricultural research station, chronic wasting disease was barely
mentioned.

First Freedom of Info ruling since 9/11 favors AV group

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.– U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina
ruled in Washington D.C. on September 3 that the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration failed to prove any legitimate need to withhold
approximately 27,000 records regarding xenotransplantation studies
from Campaign for Respon-sible Transplantation founder Alix Fano.
The ruling, on a Freedom of Information Act request Fano
filed in March 2000, did not end the three-year battle over whether
or not the records should be disclosed. Urbina gave the FDA until
Nov-ember 10 to prepare arguments distinguishing between categories
of records withheld as “trade secrets” and withheld on other claims.
In addition, U.S. District Court verdicts may be appealed to
the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and then to the Supreme Court.
The case could be many years from ended. The Urbina ruling was
significant, however, as the first major test of federal efforts to
withhold information about animal testing since September 11, 2001.

Cockfighting not wanted on reservations

November 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

CARNAGIE, Okla.–Oklahoma voters are expected to approve an
anti-cockfighting initiative on November 5 by a 2-1 margin, say
recent polls– and Native Americans are not going to help
cockfighting continue, tribal leaders warned in September, after
informants within the Oklahoma Gamefowl Breeders Association told
Kiowa attorney Jon Wyatt that someone was trying to sell members
permits to fight cocks on Native American reservations.
“Someone could try it,” Caddo Tribe chair LaRue Parker told
Ron Jackson of The Oklahoman. “But my God, I sure hope not.
Cockfighting goes against everything that is sacred to Indians. We
are the keepers of the land and protectors of the animals.”
Kiowa Tribe chair Clifford McKenzie pledged that any evidence
he discovered linking the Kiowa to cockfighting would be “turned over
to the proper federal authorities” for prosecution.

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