U.K., Ireland may stiffen dog regs

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

LONDON–Stricter regulation of dog
breeding may be imminent in the United Kingdom
and Ireland, after an exponential increase in
dangerous dog incidents. London deputy mayor
Kit Malthouse has asked that all “bull breeds” be
banned, to curb the proliferation of “canine
weapons that terrorise the streets of Peckham,
Toxteth and Moss Side.”
The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 banned “pit
bull terriers,” but exempted Staffordshire
terriers, and imposed on police a cumbersome
procedure for distinguishing illegal pit bulls
from legal Staffordshires. Thus the ban has never
been vigorously enforced.

Viet pol asks South Korea to help stop bear bile trade

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

SEOUL–Vietnamese National Assembly member Nguyen Dinh Xuan
on October 28, 2009 confirmed to Moon Gwang-lip of the South Korean
newspaper Joong Ang Daily that he has asked the South Korean
government to cooperate with Viet efforts to halt bear bile farming.
“Nyuyen Dinh Xuan said that Korean visitors are involved in
illegal bear bile sales in Vietnam,” South Korean environment
ministry senior deputy director Kim Won-tae told Gwang-lip. “He
requested that we instruct Koreans to refrain from these illegal acts
when they travel to Vietnam.”

Quebec to regulate dog breeders

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

QUEBEC–Quebec Agriculture Minister
Claude Béchard pledged recently to CBC News that
the provincial government will act upon all five
recommendations issued on October 7, 2009 by a
Task Force on Companion Animal Welfare appointed
in February 2009 to investigate the Quebec puppy
industry.
The task force was empaneled a month
after the Montreal SPCA impounded 367 dogs in
three raids on alleged puppy mills.
Chaired by Geoff Kelley, Member of the
National Assembly from Jacques-Cartier, the task
force recommended that 15 new inspectors should
be appointed to enforce humane laws, quadrupling
the present inspection force, at cost of about
$500,000; that $1 million should be invested in
improving animal shelters; that new regulations
should more explicitly define proper care of
animals; that fines for animal abuse and neglect
should be increased; and that the task force
should continue working.

Greyhound racing comes to end in Wisconsin

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

MILWAUKEE–Greyhound racing will end in Wisconsin on December
31, 2009, 20 years after it started, with the closure of the
Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha.
“In 1989, state regulators with dollar signs in their eyes
approved five operating licenses for pari-mutuel greyhound racing,”
recounted Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Tracks
opened in Geneva Lakes, Kaukauna, Lake Delton, Hudson and Kenosha,
attracting 3.5 million visitors in 1991, the first year all five
tracks were open. But by 1994, four of the five tracks reported
losses. Costing $45 million to build, Dairyland was the last
survivor, but lost $17 million in the last seven years that it
operated. Attendance dropped 19% in 2009; wagering dropped 29%.

Eight California cities ban declawing

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

MARIN, Calif.–Racing to beat a January 1, 2010 deadline
imposed by the state legislature, cities including about a sixth of
the population of California had banned declawing cats by December 8,
2009, and Marin County was expected to join them.
“I’m leaning very heavily toward going for it, given the
cruelty issue,” Marin County supervisor Charles McGlashan told
Richard Halstead of the Marin Independent Journal. McGlashan
indicated that declawing might be banned at the county board meeting
of December 15, 2009, one day after the 102nd anniversary of the
founding of the Marin County Humane Society. Marin County is also
home of national animal advocacy organizations including In Defense
of Animals, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the Humane Farming
Association.

Animal Cruelty & Dehumanization in Human Rights Violations

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:
Animal Cruelty & Dehumanization in Human Rights Violations by Wolf Clifton
Almost annually people who care about animals are shocked by
accounts of how the U.S. military prepares combat medics to work in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Petty Officer Third Class Dustin E. Kirby, for example,
described his training to C.J. Chivers of The New York Times in
November 2006, almost a year after Kirby himself was severely
wounded on Christmas Day 2005.
“The idea is to work with live tissue,” Kirby explained.

Biggest cat rescue yet succeeds in China

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

BEIJING–More than 200 animal advocates on November 24, 2009
converged on the Hongqiao district of Tianjin, about 70 miles from
Beijing, to free more than 800 cats from a trader who intended to
export them to Guangzhou, far to the south, for sale to cat meat
restaurants.
More than 200 people surrounded the caged cats for more than
24 hours and beseiged the Shaogongzhuang police station for three
hours, reported Li Qian of the Global Times, before Qin Xiaona,
head of the Beijing-based Capital Animal Welfare Association,
managed to meet with police and arrange for the cats’ release. The
trader claimed the cats were strays, but the rescuers pointed out
that they were clean and many wore collars and bells.
The mass cat rescue was the latest and largest of many such
incidents occurring in China since 2007.

Letters [Nov/Dec 2009]

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

Japan beyond Tokyo

Your mention in the July/August 2009 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE
that a man who was arrested in Japan in 2006 for dumping butchered
dogs’ heads was of South Korean descent does not surprise me. Nor am
I surprised that dog-eating persists in Japan. But it is not the
Japanese who eat dog meat; it is Korean residents. The Japanese,
except during World War II when dogs almost became extinct because
they were eaten by the starving population, have never had the
custom of eating dogs.
Kansai (West Japan) and particularly Osaka is home to a large
Korean population, but since most have adopted Japanese names, it is
hard for outsiders to recognize them. They live in Korean areas of
Osaka city, and dog meat is on the menu of restaurants that serve
these communities. Perhaps because there is not enough dog meat to
buy in Korea, most of it is imported from China.
Read more

Letters

Efforts continue to ban the “elephant hook”

November 1, 2009 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

BOSTON–“All ears to the plight of the
GOP symbol,” according to Boston Herald reporter
Jessica Van Sack, Massachusetts state senator
Robert Hedlund has tried since 2004 to ban
keeping elephants in chains and striking them
with the ankus, or bullhook. The 2006 edition
cleared the Massachusetts senate, but not the
house of delegates. The 2009 edition reached a
legislative hearing on November 16.
A Republican representing Weymouth,
Plymouth and Norfolk, Hedlund distances himself
from those he calls “politically correct
left-wing do-gooders,” but concerning chaining
and the ankus, “”The more I got involved in the
issue, the more I became passionate about it and
emotionally tied to it, knowing the abusive
conditions these animals have to endure,” he
told Van Sack.

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