Taking water from puppies?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
SACRAMENTO–California Governor Arnold Sc-warzenegger on
October 14, 2007 endorsed into law a new set of regulations for pet
stores.
As with other legislation adopted in the most populous U.S.
state, the new regulations may become the default standard for the
pet industry throughout the U.S. Whether that would be good remains
a subject of bitter debate among California animal advocates.
The new law, introduced as AB 1347 by Assembly member Anna
Caballero, somewhat parallels a bill promoted by the Animal
Protection Institute that Schwarzenegger vetoed in 2006.
Said the API victory announcement, “AB 1347 was brought forth
by Petco and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council as a result of
API’s sponsored legislation introduced in 2006. The original
language in AB 1347 would have protected the pet industry, but
failed to protect animals in custody of the industry. API and other
animal protection advocates invested considerable effort in helping
to transform AB 1347 into legislation that actually elevates the
standards of care for pet shop animals.”

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Legal path clear for California communities to ban declawing

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
SAN FRANCISCO–California cities and counties may ban
declawing cats, the California Supreme Court affirmed on October 10,
2007, refusing to hear an appeal filed by the California Veterinary
Medical Association against a West Hollywood ordinance adopted in
2003. The West Hollywood ordinance is the only local anti-declawing
law in California, but other communities are expected to adopt
similar legislation now that the legal path is clear.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, for instance,
passed a non-binding anti-declawing resolution in 2003, and filed a
brief in support of West Hollywood when the CVMA case reached the
appellate level. Matt Dorsey, spokesperson for San Francisco city
attorney Dennis Herrera, told San Francisco Chronicle staff writer
Bob Egalko that the state Supreme Court “preserved the right of San
Francisco to enact an ordinance like this if it chose to in the
future.”

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Non-native species extermination bill clears U.S. House unopposed

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:

WASHINGTON, D.C.–HR 767, possibly the
most sweeping feral animal extermination mandate
ever put before Congress, unanimously cleared
the U.S. House of Representatives on October 23,
2007, completely eluding any visible notice from
national humane organizations.
No national humane organization issued a
legislative alert about HR 767. No national
humane organization even mentioned it in online
lists of animal-related bills under
consideration–not even Alley Cat Allies, whose
concerns are most directly targeted.
Introduced by Representative Ron Kind
(D-Wisconsin), HR 767 is officially titled the
Refuge Ecology Protection, Assistance, and
Immediate Response Act, or REPAIR Act.
Informally, it is called the Kind Act, but the
closest approach to kind language in it is a
passage requiring that funded extermination
programs must minimize “adverse impacts to the
structure and function of national wildlife
refuge ecosystems and adverse effects on
nontarget species.”
No restrictions are placed on the species
that may be targeted or the methods that may be
used to kill them.
An October 22 press release from Kind’s
office promoting HR 767 mentioned only purple
loosestrife, black locust, and zebra mussels as
examples of invasive species, but the bill
appears to have originated chiefly out of birder
antipathy toward feral cats.
“In response to the exploding threat that
invasive species pose to the health and abundance
of many birds,” said publicist Steve Holmer of
the American Bird Conservancy, an organization
built on fierce opposition to neuter/return feral
cat control, “Kind championed legislation which
provides grants to states to identify harmful
non-native species and establish priorities for
preserving native birds, fish, other wildlife,
and their habitats. The REPAIR Act now moves to
the Senate, where ABC hopes to see quick
passage.”
A native of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Kind
still has one of his two constituency offices in
LaCrosse–the same city where birder Mark Smith
in 2005 organized a campaign to authorize hunters
to shoot feral cats.

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Canada takes seal product bans to WTO Canadian trade minister will not oppose dog & cat fur imports to avoid precedent

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2007:
GENEVA–Defying the court of world
opinion, Canadian international trade minister
David Emerson on September 26, 2007 appealed to
the World Trade Organiza-tion to try to stop
Belgium and the Netherlands from banning Atlantic
Canadian seal products.
Emerson asked the WTO to hold “formal
consultations” with the European Union on the
Belgian and Dutch actions, “which is the first
step in the organization’s dispute settlement
process,” explained James Keller of Canadian
Press.
Belgium banned seal product imports in
January 2007, allowing an exemption for Inuits
in the Far North who hunt seals by traditional
methods. The Netherlands published a similar ban
in July 2007, taking effect in September.
Both bans are symbolic, since neither
nation has recently imported seal products, but
Emerson “said Canada is worried the bans will
encourage other countries that have expressed
similar concerns, including Austria, Germany,
and Italy, to follow with their own bans,”
wrote Keller.
Dutch agriculture minister Gerda Verburg
responded that the Dutch law “fits within the
rules established by the WTO.”
European Union trade commissioner Peter
Mandelson said in a written statement that he is
“naturally disappointed by this move” on the part
of the Canadian government. Mandelson “said the
EU would defend its member states before the WTO,
while continuing to study whether a EU-wide ban
on seal products is justified,” summarized
Keller.

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Malaysia plans to export street macaques to labs & live markets

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

 
KUALA LUMPUR–Malaysian natural resources and environment
minister Seri Azmi Khalid at a September 5, 2007 press conference
asserted that the government had not lifted a 23-year-old ban on
exporting long-tailed macaques, but admitted that plans are
proceeding to export macaques captured in cities to laboratories and
Chinese live markets.
“I did not use the word ‘lift.’ The media quoted me wrongly,” Seri
Azmi Khalid claimed, according to Loh Foon Fong of the Malaysia Star.
Bernama, the Malaysian National News Agency, reported on
August 17, 2007 that “Malaysia has lifted the ban on the export of
long-tailed macaques.”
“The cabinet has decided to lift the ban because we want to
reduce the number of long-tailed monkeys in urban areas. The lifting
of the ban is only for peninsular Malaysia and does not cover Sabah
and Sarawak,” Seri Azmi Khalid was quoted as saying.
Reporting about the same speech, Elizabeth John of the New
Straits Times wrote that Seri Azmi Khalid said the export ban had
been “lifted.”

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New animal protection laws in Texas, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maine

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

 

New Texas legislation permits felony prosecution of people
whose dogs kill or maim other humans, but attorneys familiar with
handling dog attack cases and representatives of the animal control
officers who will have the primary duty of enforcing the new law told
Roy Appleton of the Dallas Morning News that it does not actually
eliminate the ancient “one free bite” rule for determining if a dog
is vicious, and will require animal control officers to do criminal
investigation, whereas the typical animal control offense is a
summary infraction. “This is better than what we have now,” said
Dallas attorney and Animal Legal Defense Fund president Robert
Trimble, “but whether it solves the problem, I guess we’ll have to
wait and see.”
Texas also banned keeping dogs tethered between 10 p.m. and 6
a.m., and limited tethering to three hours within any 24-hour
period. Waco police department animal control chief Clare Crook
noted to Waco Tribune-Herald staff writer David Doerr that
enforcement may be complicated by thin animal control staffing during
night hours, but felt the law would be helpful.

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How does Wal-Mart reconcile selling live turtles in China with “sustainable” policy?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

 

BENTONVILLE, Arkansas–In October 2005, Wal-Mart chief
executive officer Lee Scott declared that as the world’s largest
retail store chain, Wal-Mart has a special responsibility to be a
“good steward for the environment.” In October 2006, Newsweek
published a gruesome account of how live turtles, fish, crabs, and
clams are sold and killed to order “in the grocery section of a
Wal-Mart in north Beijing.”
In January 2007, Care for the Wild International chief
executive Barbara Maas suggested to Clifford Coonan, Beijing
correspondent for The Independent, that Wal-Mart and other retail
chains including Carrefour of France, Metro of Germany, and Tesco
of Britain should set better examples in China by not stocking
turtles and frogs.

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Editorial feature: How to eradicate canine rabies in 10 years or less

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

 
“Rabies could be gone in a decade,” BBC
News headlined worldwide on September 8, 2007.
“Rabies could be wiped out across the world,”
the BBC report continued, “if sufficient
vaccinations are carried out on domestic dogs,
according to experts.”
BBC News went on to quote staff of the
Royal Dick Veterinary School at Edinburgh
University in Scotland, who were among the
cofounders of the Alliance for Rabies Control and
promoters of the first World Rabies Day, held on
September 7, 2007.
None of the Alliance for Rabies Control
spokespersons appear to have actually set any
sort of timetable for possibly eradicating
rabies, but no matter. Experts have recognized
for decades that rabies is wholly eradicable from
all species except bats through targeted mass
immunization–and the chief obstacle to
eradicating bat rabies is that no one has
developed an aerosolized vaccine that could be
sprayed into otherwise inaccessible caves and
tree trunks. Inventing such a vaccine is
considered difficult but possible.

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Wildlife Waystation founder Martine Colette says sanctuary is broke

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2007:

LOS ANGELES–The Los Angeles Daily News and KNBC-4 television
on August 30, 2007 amplified emergency appeals from Wildlife
Waystation founder Martine Colette for funding she said was urgently
needed to keep the 31-year-old sanctuary operating.
“We are $1 million in debt, and we have no funds left,”
Colette told Daily News staff writer Dana Bartholomew. “Things as
they are today will not continue for the next week, or two weeks,
without help.”
Colette suggested that if an immediate infusion of cash was
not forthcoming, the 400 Waystation animals would “become the
county’s problem, the state’s problem,” a threat she has issued
before in years of disputes with regulatory agencies.
Closed for 110 days by the Calif-ornia Department of Fish &
Game in 2000, Wildlife Waystation never fully regained the permits
it needed to host donors’ visits, which until then were the
sanctuary’s chief revenue engine. More than just generating
on-the-spot donations, visits tended to inspire new donors to give
regularly, and established donors to give more.
“Trying to obtain a permit is a long process,” Colette told
KNBC. “There are many regulations we have to meet in order to get a
permit, and we cannot meet those regulations at all. In the
meantime we have gone broke trying to run the sanctuary without being
open to the public.”
Colette estimated that Wildlife Waystation operating costs
currently run at about $5,000 a day. This is consistent with the
most recent Waystation filings of IRS Form 990. ANIMAL PEOPLE has
found that determining the balance of Waystation program expense,
fundraising costs, and administrative expenditures has been
difficult, however, because of idiosyncracies in how the forms have
been completed.
“Last month,” wrote Bartholomew, “five of the eight
Waystation board members quit, apparently burned out over troubles
at the beleaguered agency.”
Colette at the end of August laid off general manager Alfred
J. Durtschi, who was paid $107,153 in the most recently reported
fiscal year, and also laid off half of the 48 Waystation caretakers
and groundskeepers.
Colette told news media that Southern California Edison had
threatened to cut off the sanctuary electricity due to unpaid bills,
and that the Waystation was also about to lose propane delivery.
Former Waystation board chair Robert Lorsch resigned on July
1, 2007, after five years of intense involvement.

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