Visakhapatnam Animal Rescue Center helped to save a troubled zoo

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
VISAKHAPATNAM–Built to a then-state-of-the-art plan in 1972,
the 625-acre Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in Vis-akhapatnam is among
the world’s most spacious zoos, and is among the few in India with
authentic conservation breeding credentials.
“Captive breeding for species survival” is the mission touted
on page one of the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park brochures. Captive
breeding successes include the December 2007 births of eight dholes,
Asian cousins of the better known African wild dog.
Yet while captive breeding may have enhanced the prestige of
the Indira Gandhi Zoo among fellow zoo professionals, the mission
that really saved the zoo appears to have been opening one of the
first CZA-accredited Animal Rescue Centres for ex-circus animals, in
February 2001.

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Anti-gassing verdict

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Atlanta–Fulton County Superior Court Judge Cynthia D. Wright
on March 23, 2007 ordered the Georgia Department of Agriculture to
enforce the 1990 state Humane Euthanasia Act, which requires that
animal shelters must use sodium pentobarbital to kill dogs and cats,
and prohibits leaving dying animals unattended. The law allowed
county animal control agencies that used carbon monoxide gas chambers
in 1990 to continue using them, but did not allow new gas chambers
to be installed. It exempted counties of under 25,000 residents.
The case was filed by former state representative Chesley
Morton, author of the Humane Euthanasia Act, and veterinary
technician Jennifer Robinson, whose dog Pacino was gassed by Clayton
County Animal Control after being hit by two cars.

Euro Commission sues Greece

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

BRUSSELS–The European Commission on March 21, 2007
announced that it “has decided to refer Greece to the European Court
of Justice for failure to properly implement and enforce European
Union legislation on animal welfare in transport and at slaughter.
The Commission first initiated an infringement procedure against
Greece in 1998,” the announcement explained, “but terminated it
following commitments from Greek authorities to improve matters.
Food & Veterinary Office visits carried out between 2003 and 2006
revealed no substantial improvement.”

RSPCA of Australia offers beer for cane toads

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
SYDNEY–” Hops for hoppers plan likely to croak,” the Sydney
Morning Herald headlined on February 27, 2007.
A year after the Royal SPCA of Australia began offering cane
toad hunters a free beer for every toad delivered to RSPCA shelters
alive, the offer has reportedly had few takers–while hunters
continue to club cane toads, shoot them, spear them, and sometimes
lick them, to get a potentially lethal high from a poison they
secret that has reputed psychadelic effects.
Native to the Amazon rain forest, 101 cane toads were
released in Queensland in 1935 to combat cane beetles, native to
Australia, who were attacking sugar cane crops. Ignoring the cane
beetles, cane toads instead became the most successful predators of
mosquito larvae Down Under.

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Indian humane societies clash with PETA & government over wildlife rescue role

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Indian humane societies clash with PETA & government over wildlife rescue role

by Merritt Clifton

BANGALORE–PETA/India, the Karnataka state forestry agency,
and the Central Zoo Authority of India are aligned against all five
of the local humane societies in a turf war over who has the right to
house and treat wildlife.
Summarized The Hindu on February 27, 2007, “In a petition before
the Supreme Court, PETA seeks the closure of all unrecognised zoos
and unauthorized rescue and rehabilitation centers,” allegedly
because “poor infrastructure has led to unnecessary pain and
suffering of animals housed in them.”

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Placing predators in land of 1.1 billion people

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

Indian tigers, lions, and leopards who menace humans or
livestock are killed, as predators are in other nations–but Indian
animal advocates have long sought alternatives.
The tiger conservationist Jim Corbett, born in India of
British parents, first won fame by shooting the tigers he
memorialized in his 1946 memoir The Man-Eaters of Kumaon. Yet far
from boasting of his kills, Corbett pleaded for tiger habitat to be
set aside, within which tigers could be tigers, safe from the
threat of human encroachment.
Though tiger reserves were eventually created, as Corbett
recommended, and one of the largest was named in his honor,
poaching and encroachment have diminished most of them. The Sariska
tiger reserve, formerly among the most accessible to tourists, was
apparently poached completely out of tigers in 2003, as was
officially confirmed in November 2004. Poachers admitted killing 10
of the 20-odd tigers who were believed to have inhabited Sariska.
The rest appeared to have existed only on paper as result of counts
inflated to keep tourists coming.

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Animal Planet pulls White Lions video

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
The December 2006 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE mentioned that the
Animal Planet cable television channel had come under criticism from
canned hunt opponents for airing a documentary called White Lions:
King of Kings.
The documentary, said ANIMAL PEOPLE book reviewer and
Cannedlion.com founder Chris Mercer, “presented Marius Prinsloo, a
notorious canned lion breeder in South Africa, as a paragon of
conservation working to preserve the white lion gene.”

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Horse slaughterhouse closes after verdict

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
DALLAS–Horse slaughter in the U.S. for human consumption
appeared to be closer to an end on March 23, 2007, when the Dallas
Crown slaughterhouse in Kaufman, Texas, temporarily laid off staff.
“We have decided temporarily not to process, because we have
some changes to make here,” Dallas Crown spokesperson Chris Soenen
told Michael Gresham of the Kaufman Herald. Soenen said that “just
about everyone other than administration” had been sent home, but
said this did not mean Dallas Crown would be going out of business.
“This is just temporary as we restructure,” Soenen said.

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People & positions

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
The Mohawk & Hudson River Humane Society, serving Albany,
New York, since 1887, on March 19, 2007 introduced new executive
director Brad Shear. Shear was previously shelter manager and animal
care and control director for the Humane Society of Boulder Valley in
Colorado, managed the Brooklyn shelter for the New York City Center
for Animal Care & Control, and was director of operations for the
Atlanta Humane Society. Shear succeeds interim director Warren Cox,
who has headed 24 humane societies and animal control agencies in 55
years. His seventh post was as founding director of the Animal
Rescue League in Marshalltown, Iowa, whose director since 1976,
Wendy Fields, in March 2007 announced her retirement. Fields began
working at the Animal Rescue League at age 16 to pay off her dog’s
impoundment fees. She succeeded then-director Bob Brandau, recalled
Greg Pierquet of the Marshalltown Times-Republican, after showing
her dedication by bottle-feeding two orphaned skunk babies. The
skunks remained her pets for eight years.

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