Category: North America

Other wildlife cases

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz ruled on January 19,
2005 in San Diego that the Honolulu-based King Diamond II became a
fishing vessel under U.S. law when it collected 32 tons of shark fins
from 26 swordfish and tuna fishing boats between June and August
2002. The prosecution is the first under the five-year-old U.S.
anti-shark finning law. Tai Loong Hong Marine Products Ltd., of
Hong Kong, boat owner Tran & Yu Inc., and captain Chien Tan Nguyen
face up to $620,000 in fines for alleged possession of shark fins
without the bodies of the sharks, which have little sale value. The
King Diamond II operators allegedly paid $300,000 for the fins, with
an estimated retail value of $775,000. They retrieved and sold the
fins after posting bond for that amount.
District Judge David Rice of Havre, Montana, on February
12, 2005 rejected claims by three ex-game ranchers that Initiative
143, approved by voters in November 2000, was an illegal “taking”
of their property because in banning game farming, it put them out
of business. “The state does not owe compensation for injury to the
value of a business that exists only because the Legislature has
allowed it,” Rice wrote. Rice pointed out that the ex-game farmers
are “free to make other economically viable use of their property.”

Garments & the Gorilla Foundation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

SAN MATEO, California– Former Gorilla Foundation employees
Nancy Alperin, 47, and Kendra Keller, 48, both of San Francisco,
on February 15, 2005 sued the foundation in San Mateo County
Superior Court for alleged wrongful dismissal and gender
discrimination, claiming damages of $719,830 and $366,192,
respectively.
Alperin and Keller in January 2005 gave the California
Department of Fair Employment and Housing “identical reasons for why
they were fired: ‘I refused to expose my breast to perform acts of
bestiality with one of the gorillas,’ said San Francisco Chronicle
staff writer Patricia Yollin.
“The lawsuit goes into more detail,” Yollin added. “One
example: ‘In at least two incidents in mid-to-late June 2004,
Patterson intensely pressured Keller to expose herself to Koko while
they were working outside where other employees could potentially
view Keller’s naked body.'”

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United Egg Producers are sued for false advertising

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

TAKOMA PARK, Maryland–Compass-ion Over Killing on February
15, 2005 sued Giant Food Inc. of Landover, Maryland, Lehman’s Egg
Service Inc. of Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and Brookville
Supermarket of Washington, D.C., alleging that their use of an
“Animal Care Certified” logo introduced in 2002 by United Egg
Producers is false advertising.
Under the United Egg Producers guidelines, Compassion Over
Killing points out, farmers may “Confine birds in cages so small
they can’t even spread their wings, slice off parts of their beaks
without painkiller, and starve them [to induce a new egg-laying
cycle by so-called ‘forced molt’] to the point where they have lost
up to 30 percent of their body weight.”
United Egg Producers spokesperson Mitch Head told Gretchen
Parker of Associated Press that about 80% of all U.S. egg farmers
meet the standards.
The Better Business Bureau National Advertising Review Board
in May 2004 upheld a November 2003 ruling by a lower panel that the
“Animal Care Certified” logo is misleading and should either be
dropped or be significantly altered. In August 2004 the BBB asked
the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate the alleged
deceptive labeling.

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Human/animal abuse link cases

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

Tequilla Fields, 34, and Lachan Russell, 29, were on
February 15, 2005 jailed without bond in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
facing charges of criminal homicide, arson, and reckless
endangerment for setting a dog on fire at about 2:15 a.m. on July 11,
1990. Tied to their house, the dog ran onto the porch, igniting
the house and killing Fields’ children, Montelle Thornhill, 2, and
Charita Thornhill, 3. Wrote Joe Mandak of Associated Press, “The
children’s great-grandmother, who has since died, doused the dog
with water, police said. The dog, Fay Lou, then ran inside the
house and was found dead under Montelle’s bed. Their uncle, Andre
Robinson, then 15, tried to save the children but couldn’t find
them in the thick smoke. He jumped from a third-floor window to save
himself, police said.” Police commander Maurita Bryant said the
case was cracked by re-interviewing about 20 witnesses, after which
Fields and Russell each gave statements blaming the other.

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USDA closes C.C. Baird

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

ST. LOUIS–C.C. and Patsy Baird, of Williford, Arkansas,
longtime suppliers of random-source dogs and cats to laboratories,
have paid a record penalty of $262,700 to the USDA for breaking
“practically every regulation and standard applicable to dogs and
cats,” USDA attorney Colleen Carroll told Todd Frankel of the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch on February 1, 2005, three days after the
settlement was finalized.
The Bairds’ daughters Jeannette and Patricia reportedly also
worked in the business.
Wrote Frankel, “The agreement between the USDA and the
Bairds calls for the fine, plus the permanent loss of the family’s
four animal breeding and dealer licenses and the threat of an
additional $250,000 fine if they are caught handling animals in the
next five years. As part of the deal, the Bairds neither admitted
nor denied the allegations.”
Frankel said that about 90 dogs and 120 cats rescued from the
Baird kennels were up for adoption.
In August 2003 federal and state investigators turned over to
rescue groups about 125 dogs seized from the Bairds. Many were
believed to be lost or stolen pets.
Last Chance for Animals called the USDA action a victory,
after an eight-year campaign against the Bairds, “but Carroll said
her office’s investigation did not rely on the group’s work and she
never viewed the videos” that LCA sent her, Frankel wrote.

Law enforcement

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, on January
18 reassigned four deputies and four civilian investigators to handle
animal abuse cases fulltime, and authorized the county Animal
Cruelty Prevent-ion Unit to immediately arrest and jail suspects.
Arpaio put former Phoenix mayor Thelda Williams in charge of the
unit. Arpaio also disbanded the Maricopa County SWAT team, in favor
of a part-time SWAT unit, and told critics that prosecuting animal
abuse brings better crime prevention for the money than having a SWAT
team.
Arpaio’s web site describes a no-kill animal shelter he
opened in 1999 in a former jail, to house animals seized from
suspects in cruelty cases. The shelter “also houses the pets of
individuals who check into domestic violence shelters that do not
accept pets,” the site says. “Detention officer staff and sentenced
female inmates care for the animals. The shelter is air-conditioned.
Some critics have said that it is inhumane to put dogs and cats in
air-conditioned quarters when inmates don’t have air-conditioning. A
good answer came from one of the inmates assigned to care for the
dogs. When asked if she was resentful about not having
air-conditioning, she gestured to some of the dogs and said, “They
didn’t do anything wrong, I did.”

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Patent on hybrid human denied

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office on February 11, 2005
rejected the 1997 application of New York Medical College professor
of cell biology and anatomy Stuart Newman for a patent on a
theoretical method of combining human embryonic cells with cells from
a nonhuman primate to create a “chimera,” meaning an animal with
traits of multiple species. The Patent & Trademark Office ruled that
the chimera would be too close genetically to a human being to be
patented. This was as Newman hoped, since he filed the application
to seek a precedent against patenting life forms.
“I don’t think anyone knows, in terms of crude percentages,
how to differentiate between humans and nonhumans,” deputy
commissioner for patents John Doll told Rick Weiss of the Washington
Post, adding, “It would be very helpful to have some guidance from
Congress or the courts.”

Bill introduced to halt wild horse slaughter; horse lovers rally

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2005:

WASHINGTON D.C., RENO– U.S. Representatives Nick J. Rahall
(D-West Virginia) and Ed Whitfield (R-Kentucky) on January 25
introduced a bill to restore to wild equines the full protection
extended by the 1971 Wild & Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Protection Act.
The Rahall/Whitfield bill, HR-297, would repeal a stealth
rider attached by Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana), to the
Consolidated Appropriations Act passed by Congress on November 18,
2004.
“If allowed to stand, the Burns provision will lead to the
slaughter of thousands of wild horses for human consumption abroad,”
summarized American Horse Defense Fund attorney Trina Bellak.
An impromptu demonstration of the symbolic significance of
wild horses to the American public came on January 21 at Damante
Ranch High School in Nevada.
Fearing that the Nevada Department of Agriculture was
rounding up mustangs to sell to slaughter, 30 to 40 students left
their classes, marched to the temporary corral in two separate
groups, so that if one group was intercepted the other might get
through, and released about a dozen horses who had already been
captured with hay as bait.

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