U.S. retail fur industry didn’t get big holiday bounce–& did get Truth in Fur Labeling Act

January 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2011:

WASHINGTON D.C.-– Experiencing sales declines of 15.5% in 2008 and 7% in 2009, U.S. retail furriers ballyhooed hopes for a big comeback during the 2010 holiday season. But the first available sales data suggests they didn’t get it.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that apparel sales were up 2.7%. But the increase came mostly at department stores, whose sales were up 2.8%, not at high-end luxury boutiques.

The department store contribution to the U.S. retail fur trade consists chiefly of selling inexpensive fur-trimmed garments, mostly made abroad.

The biggest news for that branch of the fur trade during the 2010 holiday season was that U.S. President Barack Obama on December 18 signed into law the Truth in Fur Labeling Act.

Taking effect in March 2011, the Truth in Fur Labeling Act “finally closes a loophole in federal law that currently allows some animal fur garments to go unlabeled if the value of the fur is $150 or less, leaving consumers in the dark as to whether they are buying faux or animal fur,” explained Humane Society Legislative Fund president Mike Markarian. Read more

Montana Large Animal Sanctuary becomes largest-ever sanctuary failure

January 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2011:

HOT SPRINGS, Montana–The 400-acre Montana Large Animal Sanctuary, among the largest in the world, once regarded as a showplace, is finishing a 15-year existence as the subject of the largest sanctuary evacuation ever undertaken.

Starting with almost 1,000 animals in urgent need of care and better homes, AniMeals founder Karyn Moltzen, the on-site rescue coordinator, had only 249 of 603 llamas left to place after almost a month of camping on site. Herds of horses, goats, sheep, donkeys, two bison, two camels, and 11 emus were all either moved out to other sanctuaries or were “spoken for,” Moltzen told ANIMAL PEOPLE. Read more

SHARK Octocopter drone allegedly shot down while documenting Pennsylvania pigeon shoot

January 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2011:

HAMBURG, Pennsylvania–An Octocopter drone video camera platform snagged in a tall tree guarantees that Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK) will continue to keep an eye on the Wing Pointe gun club near Hamburg, Pennsylvania for some time to come, while pursuing legal action to get the Octocopter back.

The case appears likely to ensure that SHARK and Wing Pointe will meet in court, but not necessarily in connection with the cruelty prosecution SHARK has tried to press against Wing Pointe since retrieving 21 wounded but living pigeons from a “dead pile” after a pigeon shoot on December 5, 2010. Read more

Penn State faculty start industry-backed poultry transport certification program

January 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2011:

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.–Pennsylvania State University faculty in the first week of 2011 introduced what they termed “a certification program believed to be the first to offer third-party quality assurance training on poultry handling and transportation for ‘catch crews.'”

The program was developed as a collaboration among 12 organizations and government agencies which operate in support of agribusiness, among them the National Chicken Council, United Egg Producers, National Turkey Federation, USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, and American Veterinary Medical Association. Read more

New Jersey attorney general files suit seeking to dissolve NJ Horse Angels

January 1, 2011 juanitoG Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2011:

NEWARK--New Jersey attorney general Paula T. Dow and Thomas R. Calcagni, acting director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, on December 2, 2010 charged in a civil lawsuit that “Through the Internet, and in particular through Facebook, Sharon Catalano Crumb and a charitable organization known as NJ Horse Angels raised at least $145,132, purportedly to rescue horses from slaughter between September 2009 and September 2010. Read more

Whole Foods introduces multi-tiered animal welfare certification

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010:
AUSTIN, WASHINGTON D.C.– The 300-store
Whole Foods Markets chain and the Animal
Compassion Foundation, begun by Whole Foods
founder John Mackey, on November 15, 2010
introduced a new system of identifying how
animals slaughtered for meat were raised. The
first standards are for pigs, cattle, and
chickens raised for meat. After a trial interval
the system is to be extended to laying hens and
dairy animals.

Cockfighting seizures up 20%– & more “rescue” hoarding in 2010 than puppy mill neglect

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010:

With more than a month of 2010 remaining, U.S. animal
agencies had already impounded record numbers of gamefowl in alleged
cockfighting cases and dogs and cats in alleged mass neglect cases,
but impoundments in alleged breeder neglect cases were down 58% from
2009.
The numbers of dogs and cats taken in from failed animal
shelters and nonprofit shelterless rescues in 2010 appear likely to
exceed the numbers impounded from breeders for the first time in the
19 years that ANIMAL PEOPLE has kept track. About 4,600 dogs and
cats had been taken in from failed shelters and rescues as of
Thanksgiving 2010, almost the same as the then-record number taken
in from failed shelters and rescues in the whole of 2009. The 2010
figure projects to a total of nearly 5,000 for the year, or 25% of
the total number of dogs and cats impounded in neglect cases.
About 3,840 dogs and cats had been impounded from breeders at
Thanksgiving 2010, projecting to 4,200 for the year: 22% of the
dogs and cats impounded in neglect cases.

Retired judge asks Texas lawmakers to ban pit bulls after two deaths in 15 days

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010:

TYLER, Texas–Two pit bull terrier attack fatalities in 15
days appear to have put momentum behind retired Tyler district judge
Cynthia Stevens Kent’s campaign to ban pit bull terriers in the state
of Texas.
Both fatalities came within 20 miles of Tyler. Both came
after Kent in September 2010 won a record $7 million liability award
in another local fatal attack case, and after repeated courtroom
failures of Lillian’s Law, a “punish the deed not the breed” statute
passed by the Texas legislature in 2007.

Calgary agencies are concerned about online sales of suspected fighting dogs

November 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2010:

CALGARY–Discoveries of scarred, earless pit bull terriers
and proliferating online ads apparently worded to sell fighting dogs
in early November 2010 caused Calgary Humane Society executive
director Patricia Cameron and Calgary Animal Services director Bill
Bruce to appeal for community vigilance against dogfighting.
Cameron and Bruce asked the online trading post Kijiji.ca to
block dog ads using phrases such as “large head size” and “fearless,
aggressive and strong,” reported Kenyon Wallace of The National Post.
Kijiji.ca already claimed to have blocked ads for pit bulls.
“When there’s a suspicion that we’re dealing with such ads where a
poster might be trading a dog for the purpose of fighting, we’re
going to take down the ad,” Kijiji head of customer support
Christian Jasserand told Wallace.

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