New threat to Kenya hunt ban

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
NAIROBI–A draft Wildlife Bill proposed to the Kenyan
parliament but not yet raised for debate would split the Kenya
Wildlife Service into three separate agencies–and ease the way for
reintroducing sport hunting to Kenya, after a 33-year hiatus,
charges African Network for Animal Welfare founder Josphat Ngonyo.
Kenyan wildlife policy formation would be done under the
Ministry for Wildlife, rather than within KWS under ministerial
authority. A new Kenya Wildlife Regulatory Authority would be
created to supervise wildlife management on private land. The
present Kenya Wildlife Service would contract to focus on managing
the 61 Kenyan national parks and wildlife reserves, conducting law
enforcement, and doing wildlife research.

Gassing in animal shelters nears abolition, but continues on farms & in fields

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

Momentum toward abolition of gassing
shelter animals was evident in seven of the last
states where gassing continues as the May 2010
edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, but a
faxed publicity release received near deadline
made clear that abolishing carbon monoxide
chambers will be just the start of abolishing
gassing altogether.
The publicity release touted kits for
connecting the exhaust pipes of cars, trucks,
and lawn mowers to hoses, in order to gas
burrowing animals with unfiltered hot fumes.
The American Veterinary Medical
Association still accepts use of gassing to kill
small animals, including dogs, cats, and
captive wildlife, but not gassing with exhaust
fumes. “Fumes from idling gasoline internal
combustion enginesŠare associated with problems
such as production of other gases, achieving
inadequate concentrations of carbon monoxide,
[and] inadequate cooling of the gas,”
summarizes the AVMA publication Guidelines on
Euthanasia. “Therefore, the only acceptable
source is compressed carbon monoxide in
cylinders.”

EU General Affairs Council approves new draft rules on animal experiments

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
BRUSSELS–The European Union General Affairs Council on May
11, 2010 approved a new draft directive on animal experiments. The
present directive has been in effect since 1986. The new directive
is expected to be approved by the full European Parliament in
September 2010.
“Under the new provisions member states will be required to
ensure that experiments with animals are replaced, wherever
possible, by an alternative method; the number of animals used in
projects is reduced to a minimum without compromising the quality of
results; [and] the degree of pain and suffering caused to animals
is limited to the minimum,” the council said in a prepared statement.

Massachusetts bans devocalizing dogs

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
BOSTON–Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick on April 24,
2010 signed into law An Act Prohibiting Devocalization, only the
second state law to ban debarking dogs, the first to cover almost
all dogs, and the first anti-devocalization law covering most dogs
to advance with a strong chance of passage since 2000.
“New Jersey has a law banning devocalization, but there are
a number of broad exceptions that make it generally unenforceable,”
explained Animal Law Coalition attorney Laura Allen, who drafted the
Massachusetts law. “The only exception in the Massachusetts law,”
Allen said, “is for medical necessity as determined by a licensed
veterinarian for disease, injury or a congenital condition that is
causing or could cause the animal harm or pain and suffering.”

Letters [May 2010]

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

Rehoming

I read with interest Doug Fakkema’s January/February 2010
letter headlined “Priorities,” in which he wrote, “Let’s not be
seduced by gurus telling us the problem is our adoption policy. Our
primary problem is too many animals, and the solution is spaying and
neutering.”
What’s missing is talking with people who want to surrender
animals and helping them to present unwanted animals to friends and
family for adoption, as well as to strangers and to small rescue
organization. This is a missing link in animal welfare vis a vis pet
overpopulation, I think. Such help is usually not available to
those who don’t want to surrender animals to municipal shelters.
Just preparing a flyer can make a life or death difference for some
animals. It’s too facile to say we can neuter our way out of the
problem, any more than we can adopt our way out.
–Joanna Harkin
Washington, D.C.
<jharkin@Sidley.com>
Read more

Letters

Editorial: Rethinking adoption screening in the computer age

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

ANIMAL PEOPLE first examined shelter dog and cat adoption
procedures in depth in our April 1993 edition. Innovations we helped
to introduce have increased the pet acquisition “market share” for
adopted animals from about 15% then to more than 25% now. Older
animals and animals with disabilities, then rarely even offered for
adoption, are now among those who usually find adoptive homes.
Unfortunately, many prospective pet adopters still find the
adoption application process unnecessarily intrusive and invasive,
much as they did in 1993.
In business the customer is always right, and in
facilitating adoptions, competing with breeders and stores that sell
animals from puppy and kitten mills, shelters and rescues must
realize that they are participants in an increasingly competitive
business.

Undercover footage of horse slaughter shocks the world

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
FORT MacLEOD, Canada; FRANKFURT,
Germany–Undercover video of horse slaughter in
Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, and horse
transport for slaughter from the U.S. shocked the
world in April 2010, after broadcast by the
leading Canadian and European networks and
postings of graphic clips to YouTube.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
aired video obtained by the Canadian Horse
Defence Coalition three days after networks in
The Netherlands, France, and Belgium aired
video from Animals’ Angels, a 12-year-old
organization with offices in Germany, Britain,
and the U.S.

Gulf oil spill rescuers prepare & wait

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:
NEW ORLEANS–Almost a month after the British Petroleum
drilling platform Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, 2010 in
the Gulf of Mexico, 45 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana,
rescuers from Texas to Florida were still awaiting an anticipated
influx of animals from a disaster projected by many experts as
perhaps the worst-ever oil spill for wildlife.
“I think we ruined every child’s summer in New Orleans,
because we bought all the kiddie pools,” Louisiana state marine
mammal and sea turtle stranding coordinator Michelle Kelley told
Associated Press writer Janet McConnaughey.

U.S. Supreme Court strikes down law that banned cruelty videos

May 1, 2010 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The U.S. Supreme Court
on April 20, 2010 by a vote of 8-1 struck down
18 U.S.C. § 48, the 1998 federal law that
prohibited interstate sales of video depictions
of illegal cruelty to animals.
The law was written to ban “crush
videos,” a form of pornography in which the
participants trample small animals, but the only
case brought to court under 18 U.S.C. § 48 was
U.S. v. Stevens, a 2004 federal prosecution in
Pennsylvania of Virginia resident Robert G.
Stevens for selling videotapes of Japanese
dogfighting and “hog/dog rodeo.”

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