Four sealers drown at start of 2008 Atlantic Canada hunt

April 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:
ILES-DE-LA-MADELEINE, Quebec; St. Pierre, Miquelon–
Treacherous ice conditions for the second consecutive year inhibited
the opening of the Atlantic Canadian seal hunt.
Sixteen vessels carrying approximately 100 sealers left
Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, on March 28, heading toward a large
seal rookery in the Cabot Strait. One of the smaller boats,
L’Acadien II, with six men aboard, lost rudder control, possibly
from the rudder striking ice, and was taken in tow by the Canadian
Coast Guard icebreaker Sir William Alexander.
L’Acadien II captain Bruno Bourque and crew members Gilles
Leblanc and Marc-Andre Deraspe were killed and crew member Carl
Aucoin was missing and presumed dead after the boat hit a truck-sized
chunk of ice early on March 29, and flipped over while still under
tow. The sealing vessel Madelinot War Lord, following the tow,
rescued sealers Claude Deraspe and captain Bourque’s son,
Bruno-Pierre Bourque.

SPCA International founder Pierre Barnoti out as head of Canadian SPCA in Montreal

April 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:

MONTREAL–Canadian SPCA president Pierre Barnoti has
reportedly taken an indefinite sick leave, pending replacement, and
board president Michel Poulos and treasurer Howard Scholzberg have
resigned, CTV-Montreal reported on April 2, 2008.
Acting president Nancy Breitman disclosed to CTV that the
Canadian SPCA is $4 million in debt, and is in danger of bankruptcy.
Founded in 1869, the Canadian SPCA is the oldest in Canada,
but has historically served only Montreal and nearby suburbs. It
operates shelters on the island of Montreal and in Laval, just north
of Montreal.

Chimp Haven leadership dispute ends; Chimp Haven appeals verdict favoring Primarily Primates

April 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:

KEITHVILLE, La.–A lawsuit among the founders of the Chimp
Haven sanctuary for retired laboratory chimpanzees was on February
14, 2008 quietly dismissed by the Caddo District Court at request of
the plaintiffs.
“According to court documents, Cathe Neukum, one of the
plaintiffs, appeared in court to say she no longer wishes to pursue
the claims,” reported Vickie Welborn of the Shreveport Times on
March 27.

A brief win for Alaskan wolves

April 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:
ANCHORAGE– Alaska Superior Court Judge William F. Morse on
March 14, 2008 obliged the state to suspend an aerial wolf-killing
program for 10 days, ruling for Friends of Animals, Defenders of
Wildlife, and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance that the Alaska Board of
Game bypassed required steps when it expanded the wolf-killing into
two areas beyond the original scope of the program.
“The Alaska aerial predator control program is in its fifth
year,” recalled Associated Press writer Anne Sutton. “Pilot/gunner
teams have killed more than 750 wolves. The goal is to reduce wolf
populations in each of the specified areas by as much as 80%. The
program has also included bears.”
Alaska voters in Nov-ember 2008 will have the chance to limit
aerial wolf control to so-called emergency hunts by state biologists.
Meanwhile, the Alaska Board of Game held an emergency meeting to
amend the rules governing predator control. Wolf-killing resumed on
March 25.
“Pilot/gunner teams have reported killing 81 wolves in five
control areas thus far this winter,” wrote Tim Mowry of the
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. “The program will be suspended when
conditions deteriorate to the point that pilots can no longer land
planes to collect the wolves.”

Johns Hopkins medical school is last of top 20 in U.S. still using animal labs

April 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:
BALTIMORE–Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is “the lone
holdout among medical schools in the top 20 in the annual U.S. News &
World Report ranking still convening live animal labs,” wrote
Baltimore Sun reporter Jonathan Bor on March 27, 2008.
“Just 10 of the nation’s 126 M.D.-granting medical schools
use live animals during surgical rotations, according to the
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,” Bor added.
Ironically, the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to
Animal Testing, founded in 1981, is the oldest such center in the
world.
Among the other top-ranked U.S. medical schools, New York
Medical College in November 2007 announced that echocardiography and
simulators would replace the use of live dogs to teach heart function
to first-year medical students, beginning in 2008.
Case Western Reserve University announced in December 2007
that it had already quit using live dogs, cats, and ferrets in
medical training, and would eliminate the use of pigs after the
spring 2008 semester.

Bison, wolves, & the wild west

April 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2008:
WASHINGTON D.C., YELLOWSTONE–More than 1,400 bison were
killed after wandering out of Yellowstone National Park into Montana
in early 2008, the largest bison massacre since the 19th century
heyday of William “Buffalo Bill” Cody.
Cody and other hunters hired to kill bison to feed railway
builders shot North American bison to the verge of extinction. Cody
later helped lead the long effort to rebuild a few token herds. The
recovery of bison became the inspiration and template for attempted
restoration and recovery of hundreds of other species, worldwide.
The science of restoration ecology began with protecting the
last handful of wild bison, found hiding deep within Yellowstone,
the first U.S. National Park. The reintroduction of wolves to
Yellowstone in 1995 was touted as affirming the success of the bison
recovery by bringing back the major wild bison predator,
exterminated in the Yellowstone region about 60 years earlier.
Wolf population management in the Yellowstone region was
returned to the state level on March 28, 2008.

U.S. cockfighting busts reveal Philippine connection

March 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:
HONOLULU–Alleged cockfighter Joseph Marty Toralba, 39, on
February 21, 2008 became one of the first persons indicted under the
May 2007 U.S. federal Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act,
prosecutor Ed Kubo told reporters. The act added felony provisions
to existing federal law against transporting animals for fighting or
animal fighting paraphernalia across state or U.S. national
boundaries.
U.S. Customs agents at the Honolulu airport on February 2,
2008 found 263 cockfighting gaffs in boxes imported from the
Philippines that Toralba said held gas stoves, prosecutor Ed Kubo
alleged. Toralba, of Colfax, Louisiana, keeps 650 gamecocks and
breeding hens, Kuba noted.

Dogs Deserve Better founder Grimes sentenced to 300 hours, $3,879 penalties

March 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:
HOLIDAYSBURG, Pa.– Blair County Court Judge Elizabeth Doyle
on February 22, 2008 sentenced Dogs Deserve Better founder Tammy
Grimes to do 300 hours of community service, in a capacity helping
humans rather than animals, and to spend a year on probation, for
removing an elderly and apparently painfully dying dog from the yard
of Steve and Lori Arnold of East Freedom, Pennsylvania in September
2006.
Grimes was unsuccessful in attempting to bring a cruelty
prosecution against the Arnolds, after the Central Pennsylvania SPCA
and Blair County district attorney Richard Consiglio refused to press
the case. Grimes was convicted of theft and receiving stolen
property in December 2007.

British reporter uncovers another greyhound scandal; dog racing in U.S. may be near finish

March 1, 2008 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2008:

LONDON–The Royal Veterinary College pays
the Greyhound Clinic in Essex £10 per dog to
kill healthy racing greyhounds and supply body
parts to the college, revealed Daniel Foggo of
the London Times on March 2, 2008.
The fee paid by the RVC is in addition to
the £30 per dog that the Greyhound Clinic charges
dog owners, Foggo wrote. “The RVC, the oldest
and largest veterinary college in Britain,
admitted that it had similar agreements with
other clinics,” added Foggo.

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