A field day over elephant polo

November 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
JAIPUR–Elephant polo, by most witness accounts, would seem
to be among the most unlikely of sports to generate controversy. It
is slow-moving, and not televised in bar rooms. Few people watch in
person. Fewer still participate, or could afford to, at a World
Elephant Polo Association-advertised price of $6,000 per team
tournament entry, covering elephant rental, equipment use,
officiating, and insurance.
Only the participants are likely to bet on the games.
An October 2005 “international” match in Jaipur, India,
between teams of three men from the Lahore Polo Club of Pakistan and
three women from the Amby Valley of Germany, ended abruptly when an
elephant stepped on the ball. None of the “world class” players had
ever before ridden elephants.

Elephant birth control introduced in India

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
About a dozen female elephants among the 30 elephants used
for patrol work by the West Bengal Forest Department are soon to
receive birth control implants, senior department official P.T.
Bhutiya told news media in mid-September 2006.
“Our department is suffering a budget cut, so we have been
asked to only maintain those elephants who are useful, and introduce
birth control amongst the whole population,” Bhutiya said. The
forestry department herd formerly produced three or four offspring
per year.
Of the estimated 400 elephants left in West Bengal, about
65-80 are captive work or exhibiton animals.

Walking horse industry quick-steps after failed USDA soring inspections

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:
NASHVILLE–Between allegedly “sored” horses and sore losers,
walking horse competition burst into national view as never before in
late August 2006. But the attention was almost all embarrassing to
breeders and exhibitors in a business whose excesses, a generation
ago, prompted passage of the federal Horse Protection Act a year
before the passage of the Animal Welfare Act.
The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration championship
competition in Shelbyville was cancelled on August 26 after USDA
inspectors disqualified seven of the 10 finalists for alleged soring
violations of the Horse Protection Act. For the first time in the
67-year history of the event, it named no grand champion.
The National Celebration reportedly brings as much as $38.5
million a year into Shelbyville.

Fate of U.K. ex-racing greyhounds exposed

July 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

LONDON–The London Sunday Times on July 16, 2006 exposed the
fate of as many as 10,000 ex-racing greyhounds over the past 15
years. Reporter Daniel Foggo and a photographer documented building
supply dealer David Smith in the act of shooting greyhounds, whom
Smith buried on his property near Seaham in Durham. Smith took over
the business of killing “slow” greyhounds from his father, Foggo
wrote.
About 75% of the racing dogs in Britain are bred and trained
in Ireland, Foggo reported. About 10,000 racing dogs per year are
“retired” and replaced, but the National Greyhound Racing Club can
account for about 3,000 “retired” dogs per year.

PETA, Ringling clash in Austin

July 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

AUSTIN–Members of PETA and Action for Animals claimed on
July 6, 2006 that police improperly seized their videotapes and
refused to take a cruelty complaint that they sought to bring against
the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Activist Robert Hutton reportedly alleged that he saw blood
behind an elephant’s ear, possibly caused by use of an ankus, while
circus staff walked a group of elephants from a performance site to
the Ringling train.
Another activist, Karina Hilliard, “said she called 911 to
report that trainers made sexually harassing comments to her,” wrote
Susannah Gonzales of the Austin American-Statesman. “When police
officers arrived, Hilliard said, they accused Hilliard of lying
about the harassment so that police would respond to the previous
reports of animal cruelty. Hilliard denied the accusation and said
she did not know that complaints of animal cruelty had been made.”

Working Animals

BOOKS: A Shepherd’s Watch

June 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

A Shepherd’s Watch:
Through the Seasons with
One Man and His Dogs
by David Kennard
St. Martin’s Press (175 5th Ave.,
NY 10010), 2005.
184 pages, hardcover. $30.00.

On turning the first pages of A Shepherd’s Watch and looking
at the pictures of the faces of five happy sheep dogs, we knew
intuitively that we would enjoy this book. As animal rights
activists, we were pleasantly surprised to read how author David
Kennard admired for her beauty and cunning a fox he saw trying to
hunt a lamb, instead of shooting her on sight. Here in South
Africa, such an attack would most likely have resulted in the fox
being shot, under an official declaration that foxes are a problem
species, to be exterminated or risk prosecution.

Dogs as drug mules

June 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

Among the grimmest indicators of the
rising value of puppies is the increasing use of
their bodies as live containers for smuggled
illegal drugs–a dodge that can only work if the
animals are in sufficient demand at high prices
that import inspectors are not surprised to see
them in transit.
Such a case shocked France in early May
after the remains of 15 dogs were found among the
trash left after the annual Teknikval rave music
festival at Chavanne, near Bourges. “Most of
the animals had their bellies cut open,”
reported John Lichfield of The Independent. “The
Société Protectrice des Animaux for the
département of Cher said that it hoped to trace
the owners of the dead dogs and investigate the
deaths.”

Working Animals

Used dogs to terrorize prisoners

June 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

FORT MEADE, Md.– A court martial jury of four officers and
three enlisted soldiers on June 1, 2006 convicted former U.S. Army
dog handler Sergeant Santos A. Cardona of aggravated assault and
dereliction of duty.
Cardona, 32, of Fullerton, California, in 2003-2004
allegedly used his dog to terrorize inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison
in Iraq. A 12-year veteran, Cardona was acquitted of improperly
allowing his dog to bite a prisoner, and of conspiring with another
dog handler to terrify prisoners into urinating or defecating on
themselves.
More sensational allegations about U.S. troops using animals
to frighten prisoners during interrogation may surface as result of a
case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights
First against U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in November
2005, on behalf of Iraqi businessmen Thahe Mohammed Sabbar, 37,
and Sherzad Kamal Khalid, 35.

Dogs & donkeys carry bombs

June 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

BAGHDAD–“Even the most virulent clerical opponents of the
U.S. presence in Iraq have decried the use of canines as proxies in
the war,” Los Angeles Times staff writer Borzou Daragahi reported
from Baghdad in August 2005, after several incidents in which
insurgents used dogs to carry bombs.
“Our religion does not permit us to hurt animals, either by
using them as explosive devices, or in any other manner,” Muslim
Scholars Association spokesperson Abdel Salam Kubaisi told Daragahi.
Daragahi described the MSA as “a hard-line Sunni Arab
clerical organization sympathetic to insurgents.”
The bombings by dog reportedly occurred in Latifiya, south of
Baghdad; in Baqubah, in central Iraq; and in and around the
northern city of Kirkuk. Neither the Sunnis nor the Shi’ites seemed
eager to claim the bombings.

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