Category: North America

Industry rejects poultry killing by gas

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

Industry arguments against extending Humane Methods of
Slaughter Act coverage to poultry tend to center on a claimed lack of
acceptable alternatives to the present system of shackling birds
upside down, then dragging them headlong through an electrified
“stunning bath.”
An alternative, controlled atmosphere stunning, is already
widely used in Europe. Slaughterhouses using controlled atmosphere
stunning gas newly arrived birds in their transportation cages,
using either carbon dioxide or a mixture of nitrogen and argon.
McDonald’s Corporation in November 2004 agreed to study the
feasibility of requiring suppliers to shift to controlled atmosphere
stunning, in exchange for PETA withdrawing a shareholder resolution
that sought to require McDonald’s to do the study.
In June 2005 McDonalds concluded that “current standards for
animal welfare are appropriate for the company’s global supply chain
at this time.”
PETA pursued a similar resolution at the May 2005 Applebee’s
International Inc. shareholders meeting, but it drew less than 6%
support.

United Egg Producers’ logo is a loser

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

PHILADELPHIA–Cruelty charges brought against Esbenshade
Farms in January 2006 “are part of campaigns by Compassion Over
Killing and HSUS against the egg industry practice of confining hens
in wire cages without nests or room to stretch their wings,”
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Harold Brubaker noted.
“Under pressure from Compassion Over Killing, the Better
Business Bureau, and the Federal Trade Commission,” Brubaker
recalled, “United Egg Producers agreed last fall to change the name
of its animal husbandry guidelines–along with the label that goes on
certified egg cartons–from “Animal-Care Certified” to “United Egg
Producers Certified.”
United Egg Producers was allowed six months to phase in the change.
Said Compassion Over Killing, “According to the FTC, by March 31,
2006, the ‘Animal Care Certified’ logo will be gone from grocery
store shelves.”
Compassion Over Killing challenged the logo in June 2003, pointing
out to the Better Business Bureau and the FTC that “under the ‘Animal
Care Certified’ guidelines, egg producers are permitted to
intensively confine hens in battery cages so small they can’t even
spread their wings, among other abuses.

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1958 slaughter act protects all species, say lawsuits

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

SAN FRANCISCO, WASHINGTON D.C.–Separate
federal lawsuits filed by the Humane Society of
the U.S. and the Humane Farming Association
contend that Congress meant the 1958 Humane
Methods of Slaughter Act to cover all species who
are routinely killed for human consumption.
Filed in San Francisco one month apart,
both lawsuits place jurisdiction for the first
ruling and first two steps of the inevitable
appellate phase before the Ninth U.S. Judicial
Circuit, a court which has historically been
more friendly toward animals than most other
jurisdictions.
USDA enforcement of the Humane Methods of
Slaughter Act, as well as being sporadic and
uneven, has always exempted poultry, rabbits,
and ranched “wildlife” species such as bison,
deer, and elk. In consequence, more than 95%
of all the animals slaughtered for meat in the
U.S. have had no legal protection from cruelty.

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Ghosts of 9/11 & December 7 haunt animal advocacy

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2006:

Then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that
December 7, 1941 was “A date which shall forever live in infamy,”
because on that morning a Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor
brought the U.S. into World War II.
Unfortunately, as Americans belatedly responded to
totalitarian empire builders, who had already been invading their
neighbors since 1937, some Americans took advantage of the crisis to
behave much like the enemy, aided and augmented by some branches of
the U.S. government itself.
Nothing of note was done to overt Nazi sympathizers, including some
prominent industrialists, but U.S. citizens of Japanese descent were
interned in remote work camps, ostensibly for their own protection.
Conscientious objectors fared little better, including many
of the most prominent ethical vegetarians of their generation.
The excesses on the domestic front during World War II, and
more recent U.S. government abuse of dissidents during the so-called
McCarthy Era and the Vietnam War, resurfaced in public debate
shortly before December 7, 2005.

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PETA wins a round in lawsuit against Ringling Bros. spies

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

VIENNA, Virginia– Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge David
Stitt on December 7 sanctioned Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus
owner Kenneth Feld for failing to provide copies of documents to
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in compliance with the
process of discovery.
PETA sued Ringling and Feld Entertainment Inc. in 2001 for
allegedly funding numerous acts of infiltration and disruption,
beginning more than a decade earlier. The case is scheduled for
trial in February 2006.
Judge Stitt ordered Kenneth Feld to disclose his net worth
and recent tax returns to PETA and to surrender unredacted copies
of documents including a 30-page “Ringling Bros. Long Term Animal
Welfare Plan Draft #5.” Attorney Philip Hirschkop, representing
PETA, testified that a copy previously sent to PETA was mostly
blacked out.
Stitt also ordered Feld to provide copies of any other
documents produced by the Feld “Animal issues department.”
Recalled Associated Press writer Matthew Barakat, “In August
2005, Feld’s lawyers were ordered to pay more than $50,000 in fines
to PETA for contempt of court,” after similar incidents.

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FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA; Other Groups Tracked

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 20, 2005; A11

FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy
groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes,
the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new
FBI records that it said detail the extent of the activity.

The documents, disclosed as part of a lawsuit that challenges FBI
treatment of groups that planned demonstrations at last year’s political
conventions, show the bureau has opened a preliminary terrorism
investigation into People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the
well-known animal rights group based in Norfolk.

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Marine Mammal Center gets new HQ

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

SAUSALITO, Calif.–The Marine Mammal Center on November 10
broke ground for a new $18 million head office and hospital, to open
in 2007 on the site of the aging original facilities.
Handling marine mammal strandings from Mendocino to San Luis
Obispo, the Marine Mammal Center has treated more than 11,000
California sea lions, sea otters, elephant seals, whales,
dolphins, and porpoises since opening at a former Nike missile base
within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, north of San
Francisco, in 1975.
“Retired founder Lloyd Smalley started out using bathtubs,
children’s wading pools, and chicken wire to create makeshift pens,”
recalled San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jim Doyle. “Volunteers
and staff have worked out of buildings composed of freight containers
that were welded together. The pens are too small for the animals
and not large enough for volunteers to maneuver safely around them.
The water filtration system constantly breaks down.”
“The center has been patched, added to and cobbled together
over 30 years,” Marine Mammal Center executive director B.J. Griffin
told Doyle. “We have learned what works and what doesn’t.”
The Marine Mammal Center also has facilities in Anchor Bay,
Mont-erey, and San Luis Obispo, plus a gift shop and interpretive
center in San Francisco. Together, the five sites host about
100,000 visitors per year.

Gorilla Foundation settles two of three lawsuits

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

WOODSIDE, Calif.–Associated Press reported on December 1,
2005 that former Gorilla Foundation employees Nancy Alperin, 47,
and Kendra Keller, 48, have settled a lawsuit they jointly filed
in February 2005, claiming they were fired for refusing to expose
their breasts to Koko, the signing gorilla whose care is focus of
the foundation program. Alperin and Keller also contended that they
worked unpaid overtime and were obliged to work amid unsanitary
conditions.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Alperin had
asked for $719,830 and Keller for $366,192. A parallel suit filed by
a third ex-employee, Iris Rivera, 39, is still pending,
Associated Press said.
Alperin and Keller said they were fired one day after
California occupational health and safety inspectors fined the
Gorilla Foundation $300 for violations that were later corrected,
San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Patricia Yollin reported.

Congressman calls for Fossey fund audit

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2005:

KIGALI, DULUTH–Responding to concerns expressed in July
2005 by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Representative Jim Oberstar
(D-Minnesota) has asked the U.S. Agency for International Development
to audit the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.
The focal issue appears to be whether the organization has
fulfilled pledges to promote community economic development near the
Karisoke Research Center that the late Dian Fossey founded in Rwanda.
“My office has for two months been heavily investigating the
possible misdirection of federal funds by the Dian Fossey Gorilla
Fund International,” Oberstar in mid-November 2005 told Patrick
Bigabo of the Kigali New Times. Oberstar explained that the terms
of USAid grants to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International require
audits, which have not been presented.
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International president Clare
Richardson told Bigabo that she had presented audits to both Kagame
and USAid in March 2005.

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