Black Wolf Rescue conviction

June 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

Black Wolf Rescue founder Robert Clifton Artois, 56, of
Triangle, Virginia, was convicted on June 1, 2005 of neglecting
the 11 wolf hybrids and 18 other dogs who were removed from his
premises by animal control officers on April 18. Volunteer caretaker
Cheryl Grenier discovered and reported the conditions, including a
dead dog, after Artois was jailed in Alexandria on April 13 and
called from jail to ask her to feed and water the animals. Artois
had already been warned to improve his care regimen in October 2004,
and was charged with one count of neglect in November 2004. In
December 2004, Prince William General District Court Judge Peter W.
Steketee continued the original neglect case until June 2005, and
ordered animal control officers to inspect Black Wolf Rescue weekly.
Artois allegedly then refused to allow animal control personnel to
enter his property.
Founded circa 1992, Black Wolf Rescue raised funds through a
web site. Artois was convicted of felony larceny in 1983, and was
convicted of contributing to the delinquency of minors in 1997 and
2003, according to Maria Hegsted of the Potomac News. The 2003 case
involved a 15-year-old boy whom Artois met via the Internet. Artois
was in a sex offender treatment program, Hegsted indicated, and may
be facing fraud charges for falsely claiming on his web site that
Black Wolf Rescue has IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.

Denver pit bull terrier ban is reinstated by court & is again enforced

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar’s office on April 20,
2005 announced through spokesperson Kristin Hubbell that his office
will not appeal an April 7 ruling by Judge Martin Engelhoff that the
Colorado state legislature had no right under the state constitution
to usurp the authority of local governments to enact breed-specific
animal control ordinances.
The verdict reinstated the Denver ban on possessing pit bull
terriers, in effect from 1989 until it was overturned by the
legislature in May 2004. In the interim, Denver largely avoided the
eight-fold surge in pit bull terrier attacks and four-fold surge in
animal shelter admissions of pit bulls that has afflicted most of the
rest of the U.S.
Engelhoff previously upheld the Denver ordinance in December
2004, but city officials did not resume enforcing the ordinance
while it was still under state appeal. Denver Animal Control
received six pit bulls as owner surrenders and animal control
officers picked up six on May 9, the first day of resumed
enforcement. The Table Mountain Animal Center in Golden and the
Humane Society of Colorado in Englewood also reported receiving more
pit bulls than usual.

Wisconsin hunters, birders vote to shoot cats

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

MILWAUKEE–A brown tabby named Junior and three unidentified
cats found shot on a road near a Sheboygan cemetery on April 11 were
apparent early casualties of a Wisconsin Conservation Congress
proposal to allow hunters to shoot feral cats. On April 11 the
statewide Conservation Congress caucuses ratified the proposal,
6,830 (57%) in favor, 5,201 (43%) against.
Junior, normally an indoor cat, escaped on Easter Sunday,
April 3, from the home of Kirk and Liz Obear, and their daughters,
ages 9 and 12. They put up posters and searched for him. A neighbor
found his remains, and the remains of the other cats, while walking
her dog about a mile away.
Before shooting cats becomes legal in Wisconsin, the
proposal must be formally endorsed by the Wisconsin Natural Resources
Board, which was to consider it on May 13. The Wisconsin
Legislature would then have to pass it in the form of a law.
Governor Jim Doyle would have to sign the law.
“I don’t think Wisconsin should become known as a state where
we shoot cats,” Doyle said.

North America

Judges rap canned hunts

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

The Tennessee Court of Appeals in Nashville on May 3 upheld
the 1991 state ban on private possession of white-tailed deer. Game
ranchers first brought the law before the Tennessee Court of Appeals
in 1997, lost, and tried again with different arguments in 1999 and
2004.

District Judge Dorothy McCarter, of Helena, Montana, on
May 2, 2005 ruled that Initiative 143, which in 2000 outlawed game
farming, was not an illegal “taking” of private property. Her
verdict paralleled the February 12 reasoning of District Judge David
Rice, of Havre, in a parallel case.

Rosebud Sioux Tribe hog factory & Israeli foie gras cases

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe has reached an out-of-court
settlement with the U.S. Department of Interior that will limit the
Sun Prairie hog farming development on the reservation to just the
two 24-barn farms that are already operating, instead of the 13 that
the Bureau of Indian Affairs authorized on behalf of the Rosebud
Sioux Tribal Council in 1998, reported David Melmer of Indian
Country Today on May 9, 2005. In addition, the existing barns may
operate for only 20 years under the current lease, not 50 years,
Melmer wrote. Approval of the settlement by U.S. District Judge
Richard Battey is anticipated. “The two existing farms have 24 barns
that produce 2,000 hogs each per year and will continue to produce a
combined 96,000 hogs per year,” summarized Melmer. “Since the hog
farm lease agreement was announced, Concerned Rosebud Area Citizens,
the Humane Farming Association, and the South Dakota Peace & Justice
Center have tried to shut the project down. In 1999 a new tribal
council began trying to stop the growth of the hog farm, and in 2003
the BIA was asked to close it. The Department of Interior withdrew
the lease; Sun Prairie fought the tribe and the federal government
to keep the hog farms open. Nearly two years ago, Battey ruled that
the lease termination did not comply with due process and found the
lease to be valid.”

Changings of the guard at Best Friends, Alley Cat Allies, Farm Sanctuary, Toledo Zoo, et al

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

Bonney Brown, founder of the Neponset Valley Humane Society
in Massachusetts in 1992, and outreach director for the Best Friends
Animal Society since 1998, has taken a similar post with Alley Cat
Allies. “Alley Cat Allies and Best Friends have always had a strong
working relationship. We look forward to future collaboration,”
Brown said. Southern Animal Foundation co-founder Paul Berry, with
Best Friends since 2001, will fill Brown’s former position.

Farm Sanctuary cofounder Lorri Bauston, who left the
organization in July 2004 and resigned from the board in March 2005,
has announced that she will open a new 26-acre sanctuary called
Peaceable Kingdom in September 2005. Contact info: 5200 Escondido
Canyon Road, Acton, CA 93510; 661-269-0986;
<info@peaceablekingdomsanctuary.org>;
<http://peaceablekingdomsanctuary.org>.

North America

Welfare experts quit KFC posts

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

Animal welfare consultants Temple Grandin of Colorado State
University and Ian Duncan of the University of Guelph, Ontario,
Canada, resigned from positions as advisors to the KFC fast food
chain during the first week of May 2005, after the parent firm, Yum
Brands, asked them to sign a confidentiality agreement that would
have required them to refer all media inquiries to the KFC corporate
headquarters. “I resigned because there is a document that I can’t
sign,” Grandin told Nichola Groom of Reuters. “I feel very strongly
that I [should be able to] talk freely to the press.” Grandin has
also advised McDonald’s, Wendy’s International, and Burger King
about animal welfare matters, but told Groom that none of them ever
asked her to sign an agreement to not speak to the press. Added
Duncan, “The way that I read it, it wouldn’t allow me to talk in
general terms about animal welfare. If someone phoned and said ‘You
are on the KFC animal welfare committee,’ I was bound to say ‘No
comment.”‘ KFC spokesperson Bonnie Warschauer said the company would
try to work out a new confidentiality agreement with Grandin and
Duncan, who have each advised KFC for about three years.

North America

Editorial: Lessons from finding the ivory-billed woodpecker

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

At least one ivory-billed woodpecker still inhabits the Big
Woods region of Arkansas, the world learned on April 28, 2005.
Yet, 60 years after the brightly colored big bird was believed to
have been hunted to extinction, it is almost certainly still on the
brink.
Gene Sparling, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, first saw the
officially rediscovered ivory-billed woodpecker on February 2, 2004
in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, a relatively dense and
impenetrable swamp, not far from U.S. I-40, which runs in an almost
straight line from Memphis southwest to Little Rock.
Ornithologists Tim Gallagher of Cornell University and Bobby
Harrison of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, confirmed the
Sparling sighting after accompanying him to the vicinity. David
Luneau, of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, on April 25,
2004 videotaped the ivory-billed woodpecker taking off from the trunk
of a tree.
Before announcing the find, the scientists enlisted the help
of The Nature Conservancy to purchase more habitat.

Seal hunt ends with “thin ice” incidents

May 2, 2005 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

HALIFAX, ST. JOHNS–Sealers on the Labrador Front were
expected to complete their 2005 quota of 319,500 seal pelts, the
most in 50 years, in early May. The first phase of the 2005
Atlantic Canada seal hunt, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, killed
107,000. Another 103,000 were killed along the Labrador Front by
April 18.
The Sea Shepherd flagship, the Farley Mowat, tried to
monitor the Labrador Front killing, but was pushed away from the ice
by a storm that delayed the opening of the second phase of the hunt
for three days, and was obliged to give up the pursuit on April 15.
Confused by the delay, the Boston Globe on April 12
published a fabricated article about the Labrador Front opening by
freelance Barbara Stewart. Following an extensive apology and
retraction, the Globe published a long pro-sealing commentary by
indigenous sealing industry spokespersons Kirt Ejesiak and Maureen
Flynn-Burhoe.

« 1 … 91 92 93 94 95 … 321 »