Category: North America

Chicago mayor Emanuel replaces pit bull-friendly animal control director Cherie Travis

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2012:

    CHICAGO–Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel on March 21,  2012 abruptly appointed two-time Chicago Animal Care & Control acting director Sandra Alfred to replace incumbent executive director Cherie Travis,  effective immediately.
Travis,  appointed by previous mayor Richard Daley,  had headed Chicago Animal Care & Control since November 2009.  Alfred had been deputy director of Chicago Animal Care & Control since 2001,  after spending 12 years with the Chicago Department of Health.  Emanuel,  formerly chief of staff for U.S. President Barack Obama, praised Alfred as “a champion for animal rights and advocate for animal care,”  who “knows every facet of the department and is a natural choice to lead the department’s efforts.”  Emanuel did not explain why the change was made.  “We simply decided to go in another direction with the leadership,”  mayor’s office spokesperson Sarah Hamilton told media. Read more

FoA wins 15-year-old wrongful dismissal case

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2012:

    WASHINGTON D.C.–The District of Columbia Commission on Human Rights on March 20,  2012 ruled that former Friends of Animals special investigator Carroll Cox “failed to establish Respondent (FoA) terminated him based on his race or retaliated against him in the exercise of rights protected under the D.C. Human Rights Act.”
The ruling appears to end nearly 15 years of litigation resulting from about 140 days of employment.  FoA hired Cox,  a former special investigator for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and, earlier,  for the California Department of Fish & Game,   on a consulting basis on March 31,  1997.  FoA relocated Cox from Hawaii and put him on salary on July 7,  1997.  FoA terminated Cox on August 20,  1997. Read more

Bob Barker funds elephant move & new PETA HQ

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2012:

LOS ANGELES–-The Performing Animal Welfare Society on March 23,  2012 disclosed that former television game show host Bob Barker has donated $870,000 to fund the relocation of three African elephants from the Toronto Zoo to the PAWS Ark 2000 sanctuary in San Andreas,  California.  Barker agreed to fund the transfer in December 2011,  after the Toronto City Council voted to close the zoo’s elephant exhibit.
“Since 1984,  seven elephants have died at the zoo,  four within the past four years.  The oldest was 41,”  reported Linda Diebel of the Toronto Star.
The impending transfer is bitterly opposed by members of the Toronto Zoo staff. Read more

Sealing on thin ice

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2012:

 

CAP-AUX-MEULES, Quebec— Seal clubbing and shooting started on March 22,  2012 for Iles-de-la-Madeleine vessels,  five days ahead of schedule,  because ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence were receding so rapidly that Quebec sealers were at risk of finding no seals to kill.
Canadian Fisheries Department area director Vincent Malouin told Canadian Press that only two to five boats from Iles-de-la-Madeleine were expected to hunt seals in 2012. Iles-de-la-Madeleine was allocated a sealing quota of 25,000,  from a total Canadian quota of 400,000,  the same as in 2011,  despite a lack of evident markets for seal pelts since 2010, when the European Union banned seal pelt imports. Read more

Iowa & Utah are first states to pass ag-gag laws

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2012:

    DES MOINES,  SALT LAKE CITY –-Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and Utah Governor Gary Herbert on March 2,  2012 and March 20,  2012 signed into law the first two U.S. state “ag-gag” bills,  written to suppress undercover video exposés of animal handling.
Following a template introduced into at least eight state legislatures since 2010,  the Utah law creates a criminal offense called “agricultural operation interference,”  committed if a person,  “without consent from the owner of the operation,  or the owner’s agent,  knowingly or intentionally records an image of,  or sound from,  the operation, while the person is on the property where the agricultural operation is located,  or by leaving a recording device on the property where the agricultural operation is located.” Read more

Westminster dog show drops Pedigree over pro-adoption ads

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Westminster dog show drops Pedigree over pro-adoption ads

NEW YORK CITY— Mars Petcare U.S.,  maker of Pedigree brand dog food,  lost the 2012 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show television advertising contract to Nestle Purina Pet Care,  but won the publicity war after Westminster spokesperson David Frei on February 10,  2012 confirmed to Ben Walker of Associated Press that Pedigree was dropped for airing tear-jerking commercials that promoted shelter adoptions of mutts during the 2011 Westminster show. Read more

Seen as "normal" in U.S., "bully breed" attacks on wildlife raise concern in U.K.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Seen as “normal” in U.S.,  “bully breed” attacks on wildlife raise concern in U.K.

DENVER,  HONOLULU,  LONDON–KUSA/Denver television news anchor Kyle Dyer on February 8,  2012 suffered facial injuries requiring 70 stitches from an 85-pound Argentine mastiff named Gladiator Maximus,  called Max for short,  whom she was petting during a live interview with Lakewood,  Colorado firefighter Tyler Sugaski.  Sugaski two days earlier rescued Max after he fell through thin ice while chasing a coyote. Read more

Lawsuits & prosecutions rattle Northeast horse rescuers

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Lawsuits & prosecutions rattle Northeast horse rescuers

SARATOGA SPRINGS,  RIVERHEAD, HARRISBURG,  BINGHAMTON–Four New York and Pennsylvania horse rescue operations,  ranging from one believed to be the largest in the U.S. to some of the smallest,  entered the 2012 spring mud season mired in controversy,  with the possibility of more muck flying as result of lawsuits filed in attempts to restore reputations. Read more

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