Spring 2007 legislative sessions send pro-animal bills to the governors of 14 states

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has signed a bill requiring
that engine coolant or antifreeze that contains more than 10%
ethylene glycol must include denatonium benzoate, a bittering agent,
to keep animals and children from drinking it by accident.
Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell has signed a bill, based on a
model promoted nationally by the Humane Society of the U.S., that
requires the state to include provisions for pets and service animals
in disaster planning.
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels on May 4, 2007 signed a bill
which makes killing an animal to threaten, intimidate, coerce, or
terrorize a household family member a Class D felony, punishable by
up to three years in prison and a fine of $10,000. The new law also
makes sexual intercourse or deviate sexual conduct with an animal a
Class D felony.
Iowa Governor Chet Culver on May 15, 2007 signed a bill
prohibiting Internet hunting, in which hunters kill animals from
distant locations using web cameras to spot their targets and a
mouse-click to shoot. Model anti-Internet hunting bills have been
promoted nationally in recent years by HSUS.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has signed a bill that bans
chaining dogs outside and unattended in unsafe or unsanitary
conditions, at least the third state-level legislative success for
Dogs Deserve Better and other opponents of chaining. The offense was
made a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and/or up
to 90 days in jail. Before passing the bill, the Maryland Senate
removed language from the original draft which specified that
inclement weather is an unsafe condition, while the Maryland House
of Delegates excised a ban on chaining dogs outside between midnight
and six a.m.
Nebraska Governor Dave Heine-man as of the end of May 2007
had signed bills making reckless animal abandonment a felony offense
and banning Internet hunting. Nebraska became the 30th state to
outlaw “Internet hunting.” Still awaiting Heineman’s attention was a
bill to strengthen state regulation of commercial dog breeding.
Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons on May 23, 2007 signed into law
a bill requiring that pets and service animals must be provided for
in state disaster planning.

Horse slaughter for human consumption halted

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

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.

Islamicist factions in Bangladesh fund insurgencies via poaching in northeast India

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

GUWAHATI, India–The May 27, 2007 arrest of alleged Naga
poaching kingpin Lalkhang Go “revealed a nexus between the poachers
and the militants across the region,” reported Hindustan Times
correspondent Rahul Karmakar.
Forestry department wildlife officer Surajit Dutta told
Karmakar that a 12-member team tracked Go and two associates for
three days in the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, 60 kilometers from
Guwahati.
“With the help of local people,” Karmakar wrote, “forest
guards caught Go while he was trying to shoot a rhino in the
sanctuary. His accomplices, however, managed to escape.”
Said Dutta, “Go confessed to killing rhinos and other
animals. He said he had received arms training from the National
Socialist Council of Nagaland,” a rebel force that has fougt the
Indian government for 27 years, at cost of about 10,000 human lives.
Go’s confession appeared to confirm the findings of Guardian
reporters Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark in a comprehensive
investigation of wildlife trafficking in Assam published on May 5,
2007.

Letters [June 2007]

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

Turtles & foxes

ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection
Society of Greece, has for more than 20 years
conducted conservation projects on the major
nesting grounds of the loggerhead sea turtle
(Caretta caretta) in Greece. Our activities
involve sea turtle and nest protection, habitat
management, rehabilitation, and public awareness
and environmental education.
The success of our work relies heavily on
the participation of volunteers–more than 500
people every year.
Volunteers this year will work on
Zakynthos, where the first National Marine Park
for sea turtles in the Mediterranean was recently
established; at Lakonikos Bay, where sand dune
restoration has begun and nature trails are in
operation; the Bay of Kyparissia, where we
prevent fox predation and have a new nature
information center; Crete, where tourism is a
challenging partner in sea turtle protection;
and Athens, where the ARCHELON Rescue Centre
rehabilitates injured turtles from all over
Greece.
Read more

Letters

New shelter & animal protection law in South Korea

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
BOEUN, Korea–Korean Animal Pro-tection Society founder
Sunnan Kum formally opened a new KAPS shelter on April 15, 2007,
seven years after a donation of $25,000 from actor Danny Seo helped
her to acquire the land.
“Back in 1986,” Sunnan Kum recalled, “I purchased land in
Daegu,” her home city, “for the purpose of taking care of abandoned
dogs and cats for the first time. I had expected then that there
would not be so many abandoned animals. I used to believe that
anyone who encountered helpless animals would take care of them with
sympathy.
“I know that I was so naive and foolish to have had that
belief,” she continued. “I found many cats and dogs suffering in
extreme starvation and thirst all over this country. Warm-hearted
people would often bring me such animals instead of selling them to a
market. In no time, my land was fully occupied by cats, dogs, and
even wild animals.”

Asia
Law

Bullfighters seek cultural shield

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
LISBON– The Spanish-based
pro-bullfighting Platform for the Defence of the
Fiesta Nacional debuted just in time to give a
publicity boost to the International
Anti-Bullfighting Summit held in Lisbon,
Portugal, three weeks later.
PDFN director Luis Corrales in late April
2007 introduced half a dozen artists, actors,
and other celebrities who pledged support for his
petition to the United Nations Educational &
Scientific Organization seeking World Heritage
status for bullfighting.
UNESCO recognition, if conferred, would
amount to an internationally influential
declaration that bullfighting is an art form of
global significance.
Corrales claimed to have 1,300 Spanish
signees on a petition favoring bullfighting. He
told Barcelona correspondent for The Independent
newspaper group Graham Keeley that he hopes to
attract 5,000 signees by year’s end.

Editorial feature: Moral leadership, big groups, & the meat issue

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:

Exemplifying moral leadership consists of
departing from typical conduct to demonstrate
standards of behavior which may never be fully
met by most people, yet will be respected,
appreciated, and emulated to whatever degree
others find comfortable and practical.
This is risky business. To lead, one
must step beyond the norms, taking the chance of
ostracism that comes with being different.
Trying to be “better” than most people
incorporates the risk of being perceived as
“worse,” especially if the would-be moral
exemplar is asking others to take the same risk.
Hardly anyone chooses to be considered a
“deviate,” a word which literally means only
varying from routine patterns of conduct, but
connotes perverted menace.
But mostly the behavior and qualities of
moral leadership are not consciously chosen in
the first place, and are not exhibited as the
outcome of an intellectual process.
Despite the labors of moral
philosophers–and editorialists–the study of
behavioral evolution strongly suggests that the
components of “morality” evolved out of the
intuitive gestures and responses associated with
social cooperation. Humans did not invent
codified moral behavior to make ourselves
different from each other; rather, the effort
was to make behavior more standardized, more
predictable, more conducive to social harmony.
“Thou Shalt Not Kill,” “Thou Shalt Not
Steal,” and “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,”
for instance, all seem to have unwritten
antecedents in the social norms of many species
much older than humanity.

Dogs down, monkeys up in India

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
BANGALORE, HYDERA-BAD–Faster up a tree or the side of a
building than a feral cat, biting more powerfully and often than any
street dog, able to leap over monkey-catchers at a single bound,
and usually able to outwit public officials, rhesus macaques are
taking over Indian cities.
The chief reason is the recent drastic decline in street dogs.
The ecological role of Indian street dogs is threefold. As
scavengers, street dogs consume edible refuse. As predators,
street dogs hunt the rats and mice who infest the refuse piles. In
addition, as territorial pack animals, street dogs chase other
scavengers and predators out of their habitat.

Pet food scare may bring trade reform to China

June 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
BEIJING–Furor over the deaths of cats and dogs who were
poisoned by adulterated and mislabeled Chinese-made pet food
ingredients may have protected millions of people as well as animals
worldwide.
Chinese citizens themselves, and their pets, may be the
most numerous beneficiaries of new food safety regulations introduced
by the Beijing government on May 9, 2007.
With 1.5 billion citizens, China is the world’s most
populous nation–and also has more than twice as many pets as any
other nation. Officially, China had more than 150 million pet dogs
as of mid-2005. China is also believed to have from 300 to 450
million pet cats, but the Chinese cat population has never been
formally surveyed.

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