Humane Society of Central Missouri runs into conflict with shelter makeover contest sponsor

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:
COLUMBIA, Missouri–Yet another animal shelter has run into
difficulty after winning a makeover contest hosted by the social
networking web site ZooToo.com.
“Richard Thompson, the chief executive officer of
ZooToo.com, refused to sign off on the plans sent to him” in early
December 2009 by the Humane Society of Central Missouri, reported
Daniel Cailler of the Columbia Daily Tribune. “Instead, he sent to
the board revised version that had some members shaking their heads.”
Thompson’s version “has less room for cats and cuts down on
the existing dog population,” Humane Society of Central Missouri
interim executive director Alan Allert told Cailler.

Long-pending Ringling elephant case is dismissed due to lack of standing

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:
WASHINGTON D.C.–U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on
December 31, 2009 ruled that former Ringling Bros. and Barnum &
Bailey Circus animal handler Tom Rider and a coalition of four animal
advocacy groups lack legal standing to pursue a nearly 10-year-old
case alleging that Ringling use of elephants violates the U.S.
Endangered Species Act.
Ringling has 54 Asian elephants, who are an endangered
species in the wild. About half of the Ringling elephants are on
tour at any given time, while the rest are at the Ringling captive
breeding facility in Florida.
The case was filed in 2000 by the American SPCA, the Animal
Welfare Institute, The Fund for Animals (merged into the Humane
Society of the U.S. in 2005), and the Animal Protection Institute
(merged with Born Free USA in 2007).
To win the case, the plaintiffs had to establish first that
they were in some manner sufficiently harmed by Ringling use of
elephants to have a right to bring the suit. However, wrote Sullivan
in a 57-page opinon, “The court finds that Mr. Rider is essentially
a paid plaintiff and fact witness who is not credible, and therefore
affords no weight to his testimony.”

N.Y. Racing Assn. bans selling horses to slaughter

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

NEW YORK–The New York Racing Association on December 11,
2009 announced that it would bar from competition any horse owner or
trainer who is caught selling horses for slaughter. The association
“also urged horsemen who are part of what is widely considered the
premier racing circuit in the nation to support rescue and adoption
efforts, and to find humane ways of dealing with horses who are
unable to continue racing,” reported Joe Drape of the New York Times.
The New York Racing Association governs horse racing at three
of the most prestigious tracks in the U.S.: Aqueduct, Belmont Park,
and Saratoga. The two latter host the second and third events in the
horse racing Triple Crown series, which begins each spring with the
Kentucky Derby in Louisville.
The racing association crackdown came after more than 170
starving horses were found in April 2009 at Center Brook Farm in
Climax, New York. Property owner Ernie Paragallo was barred from
racing in New York, and in August 2009 was charged with 35 counts of
cruelty.

Cats removed from “Island of the Blue Dolphins”

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

VENTURA–Birders and feral cat defenders
both claim victory over the outcome of a cat
eradication program on San Nicolas Island, 65
nautical miles west of the California mainland.
The semi-arid 24-square-mile island was
occupied by the Nicoleño people when discovered
by Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno in 1602.
The Nicoleño were evacuated in 1835 by Spanish
missionaries who hoped to save them from bloody
raids by Russian-led Aleut sealers. None
survived exposure to mainland diseases for more
than a few years.

2010 BLM wild horse gathers start early

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

RENO–The most aggressive year of Bureau of Land Management
wild horse captures since the passage of the 1971 Wild Free-Ranging
Horse & Burro Protection Act started early, with a first gather
apparently timed to try to evade activist notice.
Explained Martin Griffith of Associated Press, “The roundup
of 217 horses and burros along the Nevada-California border ended the
day before a BLM advisory board ignored advocates’ request for a
moratorium on such gathers. It also began shortly after the BLM
postponed a nearby roundup of thousands of wild horses in Nevada
because of a lawsuit.”

Killing owls in the name of saving owls

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

PORTLAND, Oregon– Public comment on a U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service proposal to shoot barred owls to see if killing them helps
spotted owl recovery closes on January 11, 2010.
Barred owls would be shot in spotted owl study areas near Cle
Elum, Washing-ton; the Oregon Coast Range mountains; and the Klamath
mountains of southwestern Oregon. The experiment would repeat on a
larger scale a 2005 study in which seven barred owls were shot in
habitat recently vacated by spotted owls in northern Calif-ornia.
After the larger and more aggressive barred owls were killed,
spotted owls returned. The California study became the rationale
for a rewrite of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan produced in mid-2008
by appointees of former U.S. President George W. Bush. Blaming
barred owls and wildfires rather than logging for the decline of
spotted owls, the Bush administration plan reduced the designated
critical habitat for spotted owls by 1.6 million acres, and would
have increased timber sales in the region fivefold.

Neuter/return requires impact study, says Los Angeles judge

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:

LOS ANGELES–California municipal governments may not
assist or promote neuter/return of feral cats without first
completing an environmental impact report, ruled Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge Thomas McKnew on December 4, 2009.
McKnew ruled on behalf of five organizations representing
birders that the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services was in
violation of the California Environmental Quality Act for issuing $30
sterilization vouchers to neuter/return practitioners and for
referring people who call to complain about feral cats to charities
that do neuter/return.
“Despite official denial, the implementation of the program
is pervasive, albeit informal and unspoken,” McKnew wrote.
McKnew did not address the value of neuter/return as a feral
cat control method, or the virtues of neuter/return as public
policy. The McKnew verdict lacks precedental weight until and unless
affirmed by appellate courts.

Editorial feature: 21st century began with 10 years of hard-won gains

January 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2010:
Most ANIMAL PEOPLE readers are probably buried lately in a
blizzard of appeals reviewing the deeds of animal charities during
the past year and decade. Recipients will be cheered by recaps of
“victories,” no matter how transient. Some may notice, though,
that “defeats” are seldom mentioned.
Comprehensive assessments of progress tend to be fewer–and
can be discouraging, in view of frequent contradictory indicators.
But the animal cause does not advance primarily through obvious
“victories,” or fail through the unmentioned defeats, which most
often result when legislation is proposed before sufficient
groundwork is done to pass it, or when resources are inadequate to
achieve an ambitious goal.
Fundraisers and campaigners like to evoke imagery suggesting
that at some point a cause will “triumph,” perhaps after someone
blows the right horn to bring all obstacles tumbling down. This is a
tried-and-true appeal format, but reality is that if any “war”
metaphor is appropriate to advancing the cause of animals, it is
that of trench warfare.

Toronto Humane Society raided, execs arrested, by Ontario SPCA

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:
TORONTO–Nearly 30 years of turmoil over
control of the Toronto Humane Society reignited
on November 26, 2009 when Ontario SPCA
investigators backed by Toronto police arrived at
the THS shelter with search warrants and led THS
president Tim Trow, veterinarian Steve Sheridan,
general manager Gary McCracken, and senior staff
members Romeo Bernadino and Andy Bechtel out of
the building in handcuffs.

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