Pennsylvania Bureau of Dog Law shake-up worries anti-puppy mill campaigners

July 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:

HARRISBURG–Jesse Smith, heading the Pennsylvania Bureau of
Dog Law Enforcement since 2006, was on June 15, 2011 transferred to
the Office of Chief Counsel, where she said she would be “putting
together a USDA-sponsored agricultural mediation program.”
Replacing Smith, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
secretary George D. Greig announced, is Lynn Diehl. Greig
introduced Diehl as “a lifelong animal lover with a magnitude of
management skills.” Greig also announced that Pennsylvania Governor
Tom Corbett is “transitioning the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement to
the Dog Law Enforcement Office. The office will report directly to
the department’s Executive Deputy Secretary Mike Pechart,” Greig
said, “ensuring its functions are handled at the highest level.”
Read more

Sketchy Government Accounting Office report tends to favor horse slaughter

July 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The title of Horse Welfare: Action Needed
to Address Unintended Consequences from Cessation of Domestic
Slaughter hints at the conclusions and recommendations that the
Government Accountability Office report offered to Congress on June
23, 2011.
But the GAO report includes numerous acknowledgements of a
lack of data supporting the conclusions and recommendations. Failing
to discover and use data collected by the humane community about
trends in horse neglect and abandonment, including data collected by
ANIMAL PEOPLE and Pet-Abuse.com which is readily available online,
the GAO authors relied heavily on unsubstantiated anecdotal claims by
sources within the horse and livestock industries, including 17
state veterinarians whose duties are primarily to facilitate horse
and livestock commerce.

VictoryLand greyhound track closes

June 11, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

SHORTER, Alabama–Greyhound racing ended at VictoryLand in
Shorter, Alabama on May 30, 2011, 27 years after the track opened
in September 1984.
Then called the Macon County Greyhound Park, the track at
peak employed 2,000 people. Only 200 people worked there when
spokesperson Bill Cunningham announced the end of daily racing on May
10, 2011. Five more racing days were held to fulfill contractual
agreements. The track was reportedly six months in arrears on
property taxes. “The only viable way to keep the live greyhound
racing was to have electronic bingo,” Cunningham said.

Pennsylvania SPCA closes two more shelters, renegotiates Philadelphia contract

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
PHILADELPHIA–Downsizing for the fourth time in four years,
the Pennsylvania SPCA on April 30, 2011 closed its Wellsville
shelter and transferred the Montrose shelter in Susquehanna County to
a new organization which will operate the shelter as True Friend’s
Animal Welfare Center.
The Pennsylvania SPCA in January 2008 closed its former
shelter in Clarion County, and closed its Monroe County shelter in
Stroudsburg at the end of January 2009. Managing six branch shelters
at the close of 2007, the Pennsylvania SPCA now has only two branch
shelters, in Danville and Centre Hall.

Dogs Deserve better lands ex-Vick property

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
Tipton, Pennsylvania–The anti-dog chaining organization Dogs
Deserve Better on May 27, 2011 closed a deal to buy the site of
football player and convicted dogfighter Michael Vick’s Bad Newz
Kennels, on Moonlight Road in rural Surrey County, Virginia.
The property is to become the new Dogs Deserve Better head
office and rescue center, called the Good Newz Rehab Center for
Chained & Penned Dogs.

Verdicts split in recent cases with implications for animal shelter liability

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:
SACRAMENTO, SALT LAKE CITY, ST. LOUIS–Three court cases
with implications for animal shelters and adoption agencies that hold
and rehome dogs who subsequently attack a person recently split with
one verdict for the defendant, two for the plaintiffs.
In the one case actually involving an animal shelter, the
Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District on April 26, 2011 upheld
a previous circuit court ruling that the Humane Society of Missouri
should not share liability with adopter Linda D. Rich of St. Louis
for a dog attack that occurred more than a year after Rich adopted
the dog.

Texas fatal dog attacks bring proposed life sentence & new breed-specific injury data

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

AUSTIN, SAN ANTONIO–The Texas House of Representatives on
May 4, 2011 approved by a vote of 123 to 7 a bill which could send
the keepers of a dog who kills a child or a senior citizen to prison
for life.
Assigned to the Texas Senate criminal justice committee on
May 5, the bill appeared to be unlikely to advance before the May 30
close of the Texas legislative session, but appeared to have public
as well as political favor, and–if stalled–is likely to be
reintroduced in the next session.

ESA protection lifted, wolf killing accelerates

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

WASHINGTON D.C.–“Interior Announces Next Steps in
Protection, Recovery, and Scientific Management of Wolves,” Kendra
Barkoff of the U.S. Department of the Interior and Chris Tollefson of
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service headlined a May 17, 2011 joint
press release.
What “protection, recovery, and scientific management”
meant was that wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, western Great
Lakes region, and Oregon may now be shot, trapped, poisoned, and
strafed from aircraft as state governments see fit, so long as they
do not actually reduce wolf populations to the verge of regional
extinction.

Missouri & Oklahoma puppy mill legislation is diluted before taking effect

June 1, 2011 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

JEFFERSON CITY, OKLAHOMA CITY– Missouri
Governor Jay Nixon and Oklahoma Governor Mary
Fallin on April 27, 2011 and May 17, 2011 each
endorsed into law two-bill packages substituting
weaker regulatory packages for anti-puppy mill
legislation passed in 2010. The substitution
means the laws passed in 2010 never took effect.
In Missouri, wrote Kansas City Star
correspondent Jason Noble, “parallel bills
constituted an agreement between the Democratic
governor and the Republican-led General Assembly
to overhaul Proposition B, approved by voters
last November. Nixon signed SB 113, which
substantially watered down the restrictions
enacted by Proposition B. In exchange,
lawmakers quickly pushed through SB 161, which
contained compromise language brokered by Nixon.”

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