Category: Working Animals

Elephant polo debate overshadows introduction of microchipping

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:
BANGKOK, MUMBAI–The Tourism Authority of Thailand on
Nov-ember 19, 2007 named the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament one
of Thai-land’s must-see “Seven Amazing Wonders.”
The announcement reignited a debate over elephant polo that
has raged for more than two years through the Asian Animal Protection
Network electronic forum. Opponents, chiefly in the northeast of
India, where elephant polo has never been played, hold that the
game is cruel exploitation. Others see it as a chance for the
elephant participants to enjoy a day of light work on grass, as a
pretext for affluent humans to party.
The game itself consists of only two ten-minute chukkars,
in contrast to the elephants’ usual daily labor of either hauling
tourists or waiting for customers.

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Fungus in feed kills thousands of Saudi camels

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

RIYADH–Contaminated feed is suspected of killing more than
5,000 of Saudi Arabia’s 862,000 domestic camels in less than a month
from mid-August to mid-September 2007, along with hundreds of sheep
and cattle. The deaths have occurred across most of the southern
half of the country, from Mecca to the Yemen border.
Demand for camel meat fell steeply, the Saudi online
newspaper Arab News reported. Driving the decline was concern that
the toxin might be passed from camel to human, amid rumors of camel
breeders selling sick animals for any price they could get.
A probable effect of a decline in Saudi camel slaughter would be an
increase in slaughter of imported cattle, sheep, and goats, but
since camels are usually not slaughtered if they can work, the net
effect on live transport of other species would be slight.
The camel deaths may have caused more political unrest than
economic impact.
“Breeders are venting their anger at government officials,”
Agence France-Presse reported. The daily newspaper Al-Watan quoted
a camel breeder who alleged that “officials of the Agriculture
Ministry have remained with arms folded despite this unprecedented
disaster,” which other media have described as a “national tragedy.”
“Many owners have attributed the deaths to the bran fed to
the animals recently instead of barley, whose price has been
spiraling,” said Agence France-Presse.

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Camel jockey civil rights case refiled in Kentucky after Florida dismissal

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:
LEXINGTON, Ky.–Plaintiffs including the parents of five
unnamed boys who were allegedly enslaved in Dubai as camel jockeys
filed a class action lawsuit during the second week of September 2007
against Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum, brother of the ruler of
Dubai.
The ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bid Rashid al Maktoum, was in
Lexington, Kentucky, to attend the annual Keeneland September
Yearling Sale, where the family has reportedly paid as much as $3
million for highly regarded thoroughbred horses.
The lawsuit alleges that Sheikh Hamdan was complicit in
enslaving as many as 30,000 children during the past 30 years for use
as camel jockeys–a misnomer, since the children, sometimes as
young as four years of age, are tied to the backs of the racing
camels, and have no ability to control them. Many are thrown and
injured, or even killed.

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Horse slaughter for human consumption halted

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
SPRINGFIELD, AUSTIN, WASHINGTON D.C.–Horse slaughter for
human consumption appeared to be ended within the U.S. on May 24, as
result of legislation signed that day by Illinois Governor Rod
Blagojevich, killed by the Texas legislature the same day, and
allowed to stand without comment by the U.S. Supreme Court two days
earlier.
Illinois House Bill 1711, introduced by state
representative Bob Molaro and state senator John Cullerton,
prohibits killing horses for human consumption, effective
immediately. Cavel International had operated the last horsemeat
slaughtering plant in the U.S. in DeKalb, Illinois.

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Judge says horse slaughter violates National Environmental Policy Act

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:

WASHINGTON D.C.–U.S. District Court Judge Colleen
Kollar-Kotelly on March 28, 2007 ruled in Washington D.C. that the
USDA violated the National Environment-al Policy Act by allowing
horse slaughterhouses to continue killing horses for human
consumption, after Congress in 2005 cut off funding for mandatory
USDA inspections.
The USDA responded to the Congressional budget cut by
allowing the three horse slaughterhouses left in the U.S. to fund
their own inspections. Judge Kollar-Kotelly held that this action
should have been subject to an environmental impact review.

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Getting the show off the road

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Dancing bears, monkey acts, and big
cats leaping through hoops of fire are almost
history now in India, where such acts appear to
have started in Vedic times, spreading
throughout the world.
Some dancing bears, monkeys, and circus
lions, tigers, and leopards are still on the
back roads, or are stashed in sheds by
exhibitors who imagine that the Wild Life
Protection Act of 1972 might be repealed or
amended, but for most the show is over.
The Supreme Court of India turned out the
lights on May 1, 2001. Six years later, the
significance of the Supreme Court ruling against
traveling animal shows is just becoming evident,
as the possible foundation of a paradigm shift in
Indian and perhaps global attitudes toward
keeping wildlife in captivity.

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Iditarod musher not charged for beating dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

ANCHORAGE–Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters on
March 19, 2007 told news media that 2002 and 2003 Iditarod dog sled
race runner-up and 1999 Yukon Quest winner Ramy Brooks, 38, of
Healy, Alaska, would not be investigated or charged with cruelty
for allegedly beating his team about 90 miles from the end of the
2007 Iditarod.
Twenty-two miles from the end, one of Brooks’ dogs, named
Kate, died. A necropsy on the three-year-old dog was inconclusive,
race marshall Mark Nordman told Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen.
“Brooks admitted to spanking each of his 10 dogs with a trail
marker after two refused to get up and continue running outside the
checkpoint of Golovin on the Bering Sea coast,” reported Associated
Press writer Jeannette J. Lee.

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BOOKS: The Dogs of Windcutter Down

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

The Dogs of Windcutter Down
by David Kennard
St. Martin’s Press (175 Fifth Ave., New York,
NY 10010), 2006. 277 pages, paperback. $24.95.

The Dogs of Windcutter Down is British sheep farmer David
Kennard’s sequel to his first book, A Shepherd’s Watch, which we
reviewed in the June 2006 edition of Animal People.
It is a nostalgic look at the vanishing traditional farming
lifestyle. Dog lovers will enjoy Kennard’s descriptions of sheep
dog trials, but the hardships of sheep farming may surprise many
readers. Besides long, arduous hours of working with sheep through
often miserable weather, Kennard laments the declining market value
of sheep, the intrusion of European Union bureaucracy at every
level, and the slaughter of millions of sheep and cattle in 2004 in
a failed government effort to halt the spread of hoof-and-mouth
disease without resorting to vaccination.

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Appeals Court upholds Texas horse slaughter ban

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
NEW ORLEANS–The 5th U.S. Circuuit Court of Appeals on
January 20, 2007 ruled that Dallas Crown Inc. of Kaufman, Texas,
and Beltex Corp., of Fort Worth, have killed horses for human
consumption in violation of a 1949 state law. The ruling in effect
reinstated the law, but halted horse slaughter at the two facilities
for only two weeks.
Holding about 100 horses who were already on the premises or
en route when the court ruled, Dallas Crown refused an offer from
the Humane Society of the U.S. to take them to a sanctuary, and
killed them on February 5, said HSUS media contact Polly Shannon.
“A trailer from Cosco Container Lines Americas, Inc. was seen parked
outside the plant,” Shannon said, but what was actually done with
the horses’ meat was unknown.

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