South Africa, Zimbabwe claim need to cull elephants

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
ADDO NATIONAL PARK– South African environmental affairs and
tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk on February 28, 2007
announced that culling elephants may resume soon after a 12-year
suspension, under a draft policy open for public comment until May 4.
“If culling is allowed after the process of public comment,
and if it is included in the final draft,” van Schalkwyk said,
speaking cautiously to media at Addo National Park on the Eastern
Cape, “it would really depend on the management plans and
management objectives of each of the parks” where elephants might be
killed.
Addo and Kruger National Park, South Africa’s oldest and
largest, are most often mentioned as sites of alleged elephant
overpopulation.
“We have about 20,000 elephants in South Africa,” van
Schalkwyk said, of whom “more or less 14,000 are in Kruger National
Park. In 1995, when we stopped culling we had around 8,000
elephants. The population growth of elephants is six to seven
percent [per year]. This is the hard reality,” Van Schalkwyk
explained.

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Editorial: Media relations & the Bangalore dog crisis

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

 
The Bangalore dog crisis, extensively covered in both this
and the previous edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE, has underlying meaning
for almost every reader.
Heavily publicized dog attacks, in Bangalore and elsewhere,
may cause India to rescind or weaken the decade-old policy mandating
civic participation in the national Animal Birth Control program,
and forbidding indiscriminate massacres of street dogs.
This would be a reversal of momentum toward achieving no-kill
animal control of global influence–and would come even though ABC
has cut the street dog population of India by as much as 75% in 10
years, according to the most recent World Health Organization
estimate. Dog attacks are down proportionately, including in
Bangalore, which has 74% fewer dog attacks per 1,000 citizens than
the national average.

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BOOKS: The Plight of Pakistani Animals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

The Plight of Pakistani Animals
by Khalid Mahmood Qurashi
President, Animal Save Movement, Pakistan

In Pakistan even human beings are not accorded fundamental
rights. But the condition of animals is worse and miserable.
Both birds and land animals are so frequently hunted as if
they were an enemy army, including by some of the persons and
organizations whose jobs are to protect animals. and their lives.
Members of our wildlife and forestry departments often aid the
hunters, and even participate in the killing.
Bankers, industrialists, and politicians invite their
foreign business partners, including Arabian princes, to come hunt
even our rarest species–and to capture our vanishing wild falcons,
to turn them into hunting weapons. Local leaders and merchants
show their influence by hosting cockfights, bear-baiting, and other
kinds of animal fight.

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Wolves, grizzlies lose protection– and Alaska resumes wolf bounty

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Wolves and grizzly bears, the iconic
predators of the North American frontier, lost their Endangered
Species Act protection within the continental U.S. within days of
each other in March 2007, opening the possibility that both may soon
be legally hunted.
Demonstrating how wolves and grizzlies became endangered in
the first place–and what has historically always happened when rural
states are allowed jurisdiction over large predators–Alaska Governor
Sarah Palin’s office on March 20 introduced a $150 bounty on wolves.
The bounty is open only to the 180 pilots and aerial gunners who are
registered volunteer participants in the state’s predator control
program.

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New Mexico bans cockfighting

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

SANTA FE–New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson on March 12,
2007 signed into law a bill banning cockfighting, leaving Louisiana
as the last U.S. state that allows it.
“Today, New Mexico joins 48 other states in affirming that
deliberately killing animals for entertainment and profit is no
longer acceptable,” said State Senator Mary Jane Garcia (D-Dona Ana),
who pushed prohibiting cockfights for 18 years.
Thirteen New Mexico counties had already individually banned
cockfighting.
Taking effect on June 15, “The bill makes participating in
cockfights a petty misdemeanor on first offense, a misdemeanor on
second offense, and a fourth-degree felony– punishable by up to 18
months in prison–for a third or subsequent offense. Spectators
could not be charged,” summarized Deborah Baker of Associated Press.
“The push for change was homegrown,” reported Los Angeles
Times staff writer Nicholas Riccardi. “When Garcia took office in
1989, a male colleague suggested she try to ban cockfighting. Her
bill was easily defeated” Riccardi recalled, “and Garcia soon
learned that the ban suggestion was a sort of hazing to which veteran
legislators subjected young female colleagues.”

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South Africa regulates–but does not ban–killing captive lions

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
CAPE TOWN–“We are putting an end, once
and for all, to the reprehensible practice of
canned hunting,” insisted South African
environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk at a
February 20, 2007 press conference in Cape Town.
“South Africa has a long standing
reputation as a global leader on conservation
issues. We cannot allow our achievements to be
undermined by rogue practices such as canned lion
hunting,” van Schalkwyk continued.
Effective on June 1, 2007, van Schalwyk
said, the new regulations will prohibit “hunting
large predators and rhinoceros who are ‘put and
take’ animals–in other words, a captive-bred
animal who is released on a property for the
purpose of hunting within twenty-four months.
Hunting should be about fair chase,” van
Schalkwyk said. “Over the years that got eroded
and now we are trying to re-establish that
principal.”

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Getting the show off the road

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Dancing bears, monkey acts, and big
cats leaping through hoops of fire are almost
history now in India, where such acts appear to
have started in Vedic times, spreading
throughout the world.
Some dancing bears, monkeys, and circus
lions, tigers, and leopards are still on the
back roads, or are stashed in sheds by
exhibitors who imagine that the Wild Life
Protection Act of 1972 might be repealed or
amended, but for most the show is over.
The Supreme Court of India turned out the
lights on May 1, 2001. Six years later, the
significance of the Supreme Court ruling against
traveling animal shows is just becoming evident,
as the possible foundation of a paradigm shift in
Indian and perhaps global attitudes toward
keeping wildlife in captivity.

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Iditarod musher not charged for beating dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

ANCHORAGE–Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters on
March 19, 2007 told news media that 2002 and 2003 Iditarod dog sled
race runner-up and 1999 Yukon Quest winner Ramy Brooks, 38, of
Healy, Alaska, would not be investigated or charged with cruelty
for allegedly beating his team about 90 miles from the end of the
2007 Iditarod.
Twenty-two miles from the end, one of Brooks’ dogs, named
Kate, died. A necropsy on the three-year-old dog was inconclusive,
race marshall Mark Nordman told Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen.
“Brooks admitted to spanking each of his 10 dogs with a trail
marker after two refused to get up and continue running outside the
checkpoint of Golovin on the Bering Sea coast,” reported Associated
Press writer Jeannette J. Lee.

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Animal Obituaries

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Duke, reportedly 19, also called Jake, and called “Doogie”
by Dogs Deserve Better founder Tammy Grimes, died on March 1, 2007
at the home of a foster caretaker. Grimes on September 11, 2006
took Duke, who was seriously debilitated according to veterinary
reports, from the yard of Steve and Lori Arnold, of East Freedom,
Pennsylvania, after the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society failed
to return calls about his condition. Unknown to the callers, a
humane officer had been assigned to investigate the case. Grimes,
who is also a part-time assistant web site developer for ANIMAL
PEOPLE, was charged with theft, receiving stolen property, criminal
mischief, and criminal trespass. The case, which made national
headlines, has yet to be tried. “Video of Doogie’s condition at the
time of his rescue has been viewed over 43,000 times on You Tube,”
Grimes said.

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