Ex-Thai forest chief indicted for tiger sale

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
BANGKOK, BEIJING–The National Counter Corruption
Commission of Thailand on August 10, 2007 unanimously indicted
former Thai forest department chief Plodprasop Suraswadi for a
variety of alleged criminal offenses in authorizing the 2002 export
of 100 tigers from the Sri Racha Tiger Zoo in Chon Buri to the Sunya
Zoo in Hainan, China.
“Under the [Thai] Wildlife Protection Act, exports of
protected wildlife can be made government-to-government for research
and conservation purposes,” the Bangkok Post explained. “However,
the NCCC found that the tiger export was commercial, because Sri
Racha Tiger Zoo and Sunya Zoo are private entities.”
Responded Plodprasop, “The tigers were not from the wild and
not native to Thailand. The Sri Racha Tiger Zoo imported Bengal
tigers and raised and bred them for 10 years.”

Noah’s Wish settles with California A.G.

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
SACRAMENTO–The animal disaster relief charity Noah’s Wish is
back in business, after six months of investigation and
restructuring mandated by California attorney general Jerry Brown.
“We have entered into an agreement that will permit Noah’s
Wish to continue serving the animal victims of disasters,” the
Noah’s Wish board of directors posted on July 27, 2007.
“Under the settlement agreement,” reported Associated Press
writer Laura Kurtzman, “the state will take control of the $4
million,” of about $8.4 million raised in appeals for help for the
animal victims of Hurricane Katrina, “that has not yet been spent.
It is supposed to be given to help the animal victims of Katrina,
which happened nearly two years ago, as well as to build a new
animal shelter in Slidell, Louisiana.”

Shanghai cat rescue is biggest yet in China

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
SHANGHAI–Rallied by Duo Zirong, 39,
“cat lovers in suburban Shanghai’s Xinzhuang area
stopped a truck carrying more than 800 cats to
diners in Guangdong Province,” reported Zhang
Kun of China Daily on July 10, 2007. The rescue
was at least the third by opponents of cat-eating
since June 2006, when activists stormed and
closed the newly opened Fang Company Cat Meatball
Restaurant in Shenzhen, winning a promise from
the owner that he would no longer sell cat meat.
“Duo called the police and stopped one
truck,” Zhang wrote. “According to Duo, three
trucks loaded with cats left before the police
took action. Duo claimed many of the cats were
hers, but the cat dealers presented documents
showing they were from a farm in Anhui Province,
with inspection and vaccination papers.”

Animal control reform in Kyiv

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
KYIV–Kyiv mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi on July 4, 2007
announced at a public hearing that was broadcast on live television
that he had fired city animal control director Myron Kuchynskyi for
cruelty to animals and multiple counts of veterinary and financial
misconduct.
“This announcement was wildly applauded by those
present–300-plus persons,” SOS Ukraine founder and television
journalist Tamara Tarnavska told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
“The number of telephone calls to the TV station and ratings
of the program were overwhelming,” Tarnavska continued.
Encouraged by the response, Chernovetskyi and vice mayor
Irena Kilchytska at a second public hearing held on July 11, also
broadcast live, endorsed a mass animal sterilization program,
adding a sterilization clinic to the municipal shelter in Borodianka,
and opening a shelter with 30 to 50 kennels in every district of the
city.

Saving wild burros in their native habitat

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
OLANCHA, California–Wild Burro Rescue founder Diana Chontos
has in common with the film ogre Shrek that she lives in a stone
house in the middle of nowhere, is a seldom-seen legend, and puts
saving her asses ahead of the comfort of a damsel in frequent
distress.
Among the differences are that Shrek memorably saved one ass,
in his 2001 screen debut. Chontos had already saved hundreds,
beginning in 1984. Shrek lives in a swamp, with abundant water.
Chontos lives in the high desert near parched Owens Lake, drained in
the early-20th century water diversion scandal dramatized by Jack
Nicholson in the 1974 film Chinatown.
Chontos herself could play the damsel in distress, possibly
with significantly greater fundraising success, but the role never
suited her.

Even “Shangri-La” needs animal sanctuaries & rabies control

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
THIMPHU, Bhutan–Touring the U.S. to raise support for the
Jangsa Animal Saving Trust, Lama Kunzang Dorjee hesitated to call
his work in Bhutan uniquely difficult.
Yes, Kunzang acknowledged, it is difficult coordinating the
activities of half a dozen animal sanctuaries scattered throughout a
nation which is still connected mainly by footpaths, especially when
dozens of long-horned bullocks have to be moved to and from their
summer pastures over swaying single-file suspension bridges–but all
of the Jangsa locations are now connected by mobile telephone,
Kunzang quickly added.
Yes, the Jangsa Animal Saving Trust needs money, Kunzang
explained. Money is needed to start an Animal Birth Control program
in the capital city of Thimphu. This will be modeled after the
Animal Birth Control program directed by Help In Suffering
veterinarian Naveen Pandey in Darjeeling, India. Money is needed
for equipment, vehicles, vaccines, and surgical supplies, all of
which must be imported.

Bogus vaccines contribute to human rabies death toll in China

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
BEIJING–Counterfeit human post-exposure rabies vaccine has
resurfaced as a factor in the fast-rising human rabies death toll in
China, Chinese media reported in late July 2007. The fake vaccine
reappeared two years after officials believed it had all been
destroyed, following the deaths of two boys who received worthless
“post-exposure” treatment.
Human rabies deaths in China have increased from 163 in 1996
to 3,215 in 2006, with 1,043 in the first five months of 2007. The
rise is roughly parallel to the increasing popularity of dogs as
pets–but the rabies cases are overwhelmingly concentrated in the
southern and coastal areas where dogs are raised for meat. So-called
“meat dogs” are not required to be vaccinated, unlike pet dogs.
For the second consecutive year dogs were massacred amid
spring rabies panics in Qhongqing province. News coverage of the
killing was suppressed, unlike in 2006, when the officially
directed dog purges were much criticized by both official news media
and on public Internet forums.

Fire hits Dubrovnik shelter

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
DUBROVNIK–Rescuers evacuated 200 dogs from the Drustvo Za
Zastitu Zivotinja dog shelter just ahead of one of the worst of the
midsummer 2007 forest fires that ravaged the Croatian/Serbian border
region.
The shelter occupies a fort dating to Napoleonic times, used
by Serbians who shelled the walled city of Dubrovnik in 1991-1992,
killing about 250 residents. Little changed since the 13th century,
Dubrovnik is a United Nations-designated World Heritage landmark.
“The fire damaged parts of the shelter, but no animals were
injured,” reported Vier Pfoten founder Helmut Dungler on August 8.
Based in Vienna, Austria, Vier Pfoten has helped Drustvo Za Zastitu
Zivotinja to sterilize dogs, and also aids a Dubrovnik feral cat
project.

Who is killing the Virunga gorillas?

July 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:

GOMA, DRC–Seeking the killers of endangered mountain
gorillas in Virunga National Park, near the eastern border of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNESCO and the World Conservation
Union on August 14, 2007 sent out a posse.
“The killings are inexplicable,” said a United Nations press
release. “They do not correspond to traditional poaching,” and
“have taken place despite increased guard patrols and the presence of
military forces.
“Seven mountain gorillas have been shot and killed this year,
four of them last month, more than during the conflict that wracked
Africa’s Great Lakes region in the late 1990s,” the release
continued. “Some 700 gorillas are estimated to still survive in the
area, about 370 of them in Virunga.”

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