Category: North America

USDA-APHIS to regulate online pet breeders

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

USDA-APHIS to regulate online pet breeders

    RIVERDALE,  Maryland–The USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service on May 16,  2012 proposed “to revise the definition of retail pet store and related regulations to bring more pet animals sold at retail under the protection of the Animal Welfare Act.  Specifically,”  USDA-APHIS stated in the Federal Register,  “we would narrow the  definition of retail pet store so that it means a place of business or residence that each buyer physically enters in order to personally observe the animals available for sale prior to purchase and/or to take custody of the animals after purchase,  and where only certain animals are sold or offered for sale, at retail, for use as pets. Retail pet stores are not required to be licensed and inspected under the AWA.”  Publication of the proposed change opened a 30-day comment period. Read more

The American SPCA grants $151,000 to help a poultry producer expand operations

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

The American SPCA grants $151,000 to help a poultry producer expand operations

NEW YORK CITY-American SPCA farm animal welfare campaign director Suzanne McMillan on May 15, 2012 announced a $151,100 grant to the five-year-old nonprofit organization Farm Forward,  to be used “to promote humane poultry welfare at the Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch
in Lindsborg,  Kansas.” Read more

Sierra Club national board takes stand against body-grip trapping

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

Sierra Club national board takes stand against body-grip trapping

SAN FRANCISCO–The Sierra Club national board of directors on May 19, 2012 adopted a new “Policy on Trapping of Wildlife” which may be the 110-year-old organization’s strongest statement yet against any form of hunting.
States the policy,  “Use of body-gripping devices–including leghold traps,  snares,  and Conibear traps–are  indiscriminate to age,  sex and species and typically result in injury, pain,  suffering,  and/or death of target and
non-target animals.  The Sierra Club considers body-gripping,  restraining and killing traps and snares to be ecologically indiscriminate and unnecessarily inhumane and therefore opposes their use.  The Sierra Club promotes and supports humane,  practical and effective methods of mitigating human-wildlife conflicts and actively discourages the use of inhumane and indiscriminate methods.  The Sierra Club recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples under federal laws and treaties granting rights of self-determination and rights to pursue subsistence taking of wildlife.” Read more

Pepsi drops the "Big Lick"

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

Pepsi drops the “Big Lick”

SHELBYVILLE,  Tennessee-– Walking horse trainers are still trying to force horses into taking the “big lick,”  the equine equivalent of a goosestep,  but Pepsi will no longer be paying the Walking Horse National Celebration to associate the “big lick” with Pepsi beverages.

A sponsor of the Walking Horse National Celebration since 2010,  Pepsi had paid $25,000 per year for exclusive rights to sell an estimated $50,000 worth of soft drinks during the event.  Pepsi dropped support of the prestigious “big lick” show on May 17,  2012, less than 24 hours after the ABC News programs Night-line  and Good Morning America aired videotape obtained by an undercover investigator for the Humane Society of the U.S. showing extensive abuse of horses at Whittier Stables in Collierville.   Read more

Trapper shoots horse as bait to trap last breeding wolf from Toklat pack

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

Trapper shoots horse as bait to trap last breeding wolf from Toklat pack

DENALI NATIONAL PARK,  Alaska–Hunting guide Coke Wallace, of Healy,  has acknowledged walking an aged horse to the Stampede Trail near the northern boundary of Denali National Park,  shooting the horse,  and setting snares around the carcass.  The snares killed the last known breeding female wolf from the Grant Creek pack–the pack that roams the area made famous by the 1996 book by Jon Krakauer and 2007 feature film Into the Wild,  about the 1992 death nearby of 22-year-old would-be survivalist Christopher McCandless.
The Grant Creek pack,  also called the Toklat West pack,  is among the three wolf packs most often viewed and photographed by Denali visitors.  The pack has been continuously studied since 1939, first by Adolf Murie until his death in 1974,  then by Gordon Haber from 1966 until his death while spotting wolves from a light plane in 2009, and currently by Anchorage conservation biologist and former University of Alaska professor Rick Steiner. Read more

Chicago-area caretaker is first known mute swan attack death

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

CHICAGO–Anthony Hensley,  37,  on April 14,  2012 drowned at the Bay Colony Drive condominium complex in an unincorporated part of Cook County,  Illinois,  near Des Plaines,  west of Chicago.
Employed for about 10 years by Knox Swan & Dog LLC,   a Great Barrington firm that deploys mute swans and dogs to deter nonmigratory Canada geese,  Hensley was rushed by a mute swan while making a routine check on the swans in his care. Read more

Appellate Court upholds animal fighting ban

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2012:

RICHMOND, Virginia–A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on April 20, 2012 unanimously
affirmed that Congress has the constitutional authority to prohibit
animal fighting. The verdict upheld federal legislation passed in
2007 that created felony penalties for cockfighting and dogfighting
in cases involving interstate transport of participants, animals,
money, or fighting paraphernalia. The 2007 legislation reinforced
sections of the federal Animal Welfare Act which have been in effect
since 1976, but previously carried only misdemeanor penalties.

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Humane Society of the U.S. sends a message via Kreider & Burger King

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2012:

MIAMI, PHILADELPHIA–The Humane Society
of the U.S. on April 12, 2012 disclosed
undercover video of horrific conditions at a
Kreider Farms egg ranch in Man-heim,
Pennsylvania–an erstwhile ally in seeking
passage of HR 3798, the proposed federal bill to
mandate larger cage sizes for laying hens.
On April 25, 2012, less than two weeks
later, HSUS president Wayne Pacelle lauded
Burger King for announcing that by 2017 all
Burger King eggs and pork products are to come
from cage-free hens and pigs raised without use
of gestation stalls.

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