Category: North America

Hormel, Smithfield, & McDonald’s agree to end keeping pregnant pigs immobilized in stalls

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Hormel,  Smithfield,  & McDonald’s agree to end keeping pregnant pigs immobilized in stalls

AUSTIN,  Minnesota–Hormel Foods,  producers of the pork product Spam since 1937,  on February 2,  2012 followed Smithfield Foods in pledging to phase out immobilizing pregnant sows in gestation stalls by 2017.

The Hormel and Smithfield pledges appeared to be strategic positioning in advance of a February 13,  2012 announcement by McDonald’s Corporation senior vice president Dan Gorsky that “McDonald’s wants to see the end of sow confinement in gestation stalls in our supply chain.  We are beginning an assessment with our U.S. suppliers to determine how to build on the work already underway to reach that goal,”  Gorsky said.  “In May,  after receiving our suppliers’ plans, we’ll share results from the assessment and our next steps.” Read more

Federal laying hen standards bill goes before Congress

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2012:

Federal laying hen standards bill goes before Congress

WASHINGTON D.C.–Awaited for seven months,  a proposed federal law governing the care of laying hens was on January 23,  2012 introduced by Oregon Member of the House of Representatives Kurt Schrader.  Assigned bill number HR 3798,  the draft legislation results from a July 2011 pact between the Humane Society of the U.S. and United Egg Producers,  the largest trade association representing U.S. egg farmers.  Under the agreement,  HSUS withdrew ballot initiative campaigns seeking laying hen standards in Washington and Oregon,  in exchange for UEP collaboration in pursuit of a weaker federal standard which would govern the entire U.S. laying hen industry.

Read more

Russians will not buy Canadian seal pelts

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

YARMOUTHPORT,  Mass.–“The Customs Union of Belarus,
Kazakhstan,  and the Russian Federation has banned the import and
export of harp seal skins,”  International Fund for Animal Welfare
anti-sealing campaign coordinator Sheryl Fink announced on December
19,  2011.

Not announced by the nations involved,  the ban was described
in “World Trade Association documents unearthed by IFAW,”  said
Friends of Animals Canadian correspondent Dave Shishkoff.
Russian president Vladimir Putin ended Russian sealing in
2009,  but Russia remained the largest buyer of Canadian seal pelts.

NIH to quit funding new chimp studies– but broke past pledges

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 2012

By Merritt Clifton, Animal People

 

WASHINGTON D.C.–Deferring without delay to recommendations from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council,  issued just hours before,  the National Institutes of Health on December 15,  2011 suspended making new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimpanzees.  The NIH also agreed,  for the first time,  to apply uniform scientific and ethical criteria to evaluating chimp studies.

Reported the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council,  “Recent advances in alternate research tools have rendered chimpanzees largely unnecessary as research subjects.” Read more

L.A. shelter deal transfers cash crunch to Best Friends

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:


LOS ANGELES–“There is progress in Los Angeles!” exulted City
of Los Angeles Animal Services general manager Brenda Barnette on
January  5,  2012,  anticipating the imminent transition of the idle
Northeast Animal Care Center from a costly liability to an operating
asset,  run by the Best Friends Animal Society.

“The contract between the city and Best Friends for the
operation of an adoption and spay/neuter services center at the
Northeast Animal Care Center in Mission Hills was completed over the holiday break,”  elaborated city spokesperson Jason Killeen.  “Our goal is to have the facility open to the public by the end of
January.” Read more

No more live birds sold in Stockton

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

STOCKTON,  Calif.– “Effective on January 7,  the first 2012
market,  live birds will no longer be sold at the Stockton Farmers’
Market!” Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender Compassion founder Andrew
Zollman e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on January 6,  2012.
“We worked with the Animal Services division of the Stockton
Police,”  Zollman said.  “They agreed that California Penal Code
section 597.4,”  adopted in 2011 to control abuse of animals at flea
markets and other public events,  “does not exempt live poultry sold
as ‘food.'” Read more

Who is behind "Humane Society for Shelter Pets" campaign against HSUS?

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2012:

WASHINGTON D.C. –Full-page ads in USA  Today,  the Los Angeles Times,  the Chicago
Tribune,  and New York Times on November 31,  2011 marked the public debut of the Humane Society for Shelter Pets.

 

Incorporated on February 2,  2010  as the HSAP Operating Fund,  with IRS employer
identification number 27-1814295,  the original HSSP mission was “to provide grant support to needy local shelters across the U.S.”  The organization later changed missions,  “from
financial to educational support for shelters,” according to IRS Form 990. Read more

Correction regarding which Pohlmann son was fined

Leave a comment

ANIMAL PEOPLE has learned,  11 years after publication, that the November 2000 article “Million hens killed in Ohio-twister hits like forced molt” conflated the identities of two sons of Anton Pohlmann,  who built battery egg production complexes in both Lower Saxony,  Germany,  and Ohio.

Both complexes have been in frequent legal difficulty  for decades over a variety of labor,  occupational safety,  and environmental quality issues. Read more

1 … 17 18 19 20 21 … 321