Category: North America

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

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

Obama signs the Shark Conservation Act, meant to stop killing sharks just for fins

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2011:

Washington D.C. – U.S. President Barack Obama on January 4, 2011 endorsed into law the Shark Conservation Act,  passed unanimously by both the Senate and the House of Representatives during the last days of the 111th Congress.

“The legislation requires that sharks be landed with their fins still naturally attached,  the only sure way to enforce a ban on finning,”  summarized Humane Society Legislative Fund president Mike Markarian. Read more

What does the Food Safety Modernization Act mean for farmed animal welfare?

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2011:

WASHINGTON D.C.–-U.S. President Barack Obama on January 4,  2011 signed into law the Food Safety Modernization Act,  the most extensive update of U.S. food safety legislation since 1938.  The enforcement regulations are due to be completed by 2014.

Though not specifically an animal welfare bill,  the Food Safety Modernization Act has huge implications for animal welfare,  especially in regard to livestock and poultry disease control. The Food Safety Modernization Act specifically does not amend or supercede the Federal Meat Inspection Act,  the Poultry Products Inspection Act,  the Egg Products Inspection Act,  and the Packers & Stockyards Act.  However,  the act includes 28 specific mentions of animals.  Most of the mentions stipulate that the provisions of the Food Safety & Modernization Act extend to protecting animal health as well as human health. Read more

U.S. whaling negotiator hinted to Japan that IRS might pull Sea Shepherd Conservation Society nonprofit status

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2011:

 

MADRID--U.S. State Department messages published on January 3,  2011 by WikiLeaks and the leading Spanish newspaper El Pais disclose that U.S. diplomats in negotiation with senior Japanese officials entertained the possibility of asking the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the nonprofit status of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

The State Department messages also confirm the belief widespread among whale conservationists that current White House policy seeks as a first priority to lower the profile of confrontation with Japan over whaling. Read more

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

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

Whole Foods introduces multi-tiered animal welfare certification

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.

Read more

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

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.

Read more

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

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.

Read more

Calgary agencies are concerned about online sales of suspected fighting dogs

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.

Read more

1 … 28 29 30 31 32 … 321