Chinese activists rescue more than 400 cats from Tianjin butchers

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
TIANJIN, BEIJING– As many as 100 volunteers rallied by the
I Love Cats Home in Tianjin stormed a cat meat market on February
10, 2007 to rescue 444 cats, of whom 415 were taken in by the China
Small Animal Protection Association, of Beijing.
“It was a true battle,” China Small Animal Protection
Association volunteer Dan Zhang told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “The Tianjing
volunteers bravely fought for the lives of the cats with the butchers
and police for more than 10 hours. Some volunteers were injured and
sent to the hospital,” one of whom was still hospitalized two days
later, rescue organization Wang Yue of the I Love Cats Home told Ng
Tze Wei of the South China Morning Post.

Smithfield & Maple Leaf Farms will phase out gestation crates

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
SMITHFIELD, Virginia–Smithfield Foods, the largest U.S.
pig farming conglomerate and a major producer abroad, on January 25,
2007 announced that it will begin a 10-year phaseout of gestation
crates.
Gestation crates are used to keep pregnant and nursing sows
immobile for more than three years of their typical four-year
lifespan before slaughter. During that time the sows usually birth
and nurse five to eight litters of about a dozen pigs each.
Smithfield captured 26% of the U.S. pork market in 2006,
raising 14 million pigs at U.S. facilities, and killing 27 million
of the 60 million who went to slaughter. Smithfield revenues came to
$11.4 billion.

Animal Birth Control is fixing the dogs faster than anti-dog attitudes

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:

AGRA, AHMEDABAD, BANGALORE, CHENNAI,
DELHI, THIRUVANATHAPURAM, VISAKHAPATNAM–The
Koramangala pound in Bangalore may have been the
quietest location in India having anything to
with street dogs in the aftermath of a January 5,
2007 fatal pack attack on a nine-year-old girl
named Sridevi.
The Coalition for a Dog-Free Bangalore
and similar groups nationwide made Sridevi’s
death focal to ongoing efforts to reverse the
nine-year-old central government commitment to
sterilize street dogs instead of killing them.
(See guest column on page 7.)
In Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state,
also called Trivandrum, a February 10, 2007
confrontation between dogcatchers capturing dogs
for extermination and proponents of the local
Animal Birth Control program reportedly burst
into violence.

BOOKS: Forensic Investigation of Animal Cruelty

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:

Forensic Investigation of Animal Cruelty:
A Guide for Veterinary & Law Enforcement Professionals
by Leslie Sinclair, DVM, Melinda Merck, DVM,
& Randall Lockwood, Ph.D.
Humane Society Press (c/o Humane Society of the U.S., 2100 L St.,
NW, Washington, DC 20037), 2006. 262 pages, paperback. $59.95.

Cruelty investigators and shelter veterinarians who take
their jobs seriously will read Forensic Investigation of Animal
Cruelty cover to cover, then wear it to tatters re-reading and
referencing it. The $59.95 price tag is steep for a paperback book,
but the information within it can save the cover cost many times over
in resolving even one cruelty case, by saving investigative time,
helping investigators to avoid false alarms and dead ends, bringing
more perpetrators to justice, and winning more convictions on
stronger charges.

Law
Reviews

Rescuing kites & other birds from kite string

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
AHMEDABAD–Power lines over Ahmedabad looked like concertina
wire after a World War I trench charge on January 15, 2007, the day
after Makar Sankranti, the Hindu “Festival of the Sun.”
Wrecked kites fluttered everywhere, trailing deadly loops of
glass-coated nylon twine. More than 100 Animal Help volunteers
answered calls about wounded birds. Twelve ambulance teams stationed
at central points around the sprawling city relayed birds to the
Animal Help Foundation hospital, beside the River Sabarmati.
For 11 months the 28 Animal Help veterinarians did Animal
Birth Control program surgery at an unprecedented pace, sterilizing
more than 45,000 dogs in retrofitted city buses. In early January,
however, the ABC program shut down, to enable Animal Help to
refocus on birds.
Makar Sankranti is celebrated in western India and nearby
parts of Pakistan with kite-flying contests. Tens of thousands of
participants send kites aloft over most major cities. Reputedly more
than a million kites soar over Ahmedabad.

Defending Animal Birth Control after a fatal dog attack

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
Defending Animal Birth Control after a fatal dog attack
by Poornima Harish

None of us are as smart as all of us. This was illustrated
in how the animal welfare organizations of Bangalore handled a recent
fatal dog attack.
Bangalore electrocuted street dogs until 1999, killing about
200 dogs per day, yet still suffered nearly 40 human rabies deaths
per year, plus dog population growth commensurate with the rising
human population.
Finally, in keeping with the Indian national policy adopted in
December 1997, the city opted to stop the killing and instead
support an Animal Birth Control program.
Beginning in October 2000, Banga-lore was divided into three
zones for ABC, to be handled by the Animal Rights Fund, Compassion
Unlimited Plus Action, and the Bangalore SPCA. At about the same
time the Krupa 24-Hour Helpline for Animals was commissioned to
counsel people about animal welfare and the ABC program.

Pet market bombings & dog abuse reflect the low price of life in Iraq war zone

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:

BAGHDAD–Who bombed the Ghazil pet market? Four times? Why?
The anonymous perpetrators of the Ghazil mayhem against both
humans of animals may pretend to motives rooted in religion and
ideology.
Yet, killing and maiming both Sunnis and Shiites, of both
genders and all ages, along with countless animals of multiple
species, the Ghazil bombings exhibited the same depraved disregard
for others’ lives as the alleged deeds of former U.S. Army private
first class Steven Dale Green.
Green, 21, is soon to stand trial in U.S. federal court in
Kentucky, facing the death penalty, for allegedly leading four
other soldiers in the March 12, 2006 gang rape and murder of Abeer
Qassim Hamza, 14. First, testified the other soldiers, Green shot
her parents and her five-year-old sister. Then, after the rapes,
Green shot Hamza several times in the head at close range, and set
her hair on fire before fleeing the scene.

KFC owner tries to buy PETA warehouse

March 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
NORFOLK, Va.–Yum Brands, the owner of the Kentucky Fried
Chicken restaurant chain, recently offered $1 million to buy a
warehouse in Norfolk, Virginia, Andrew Martin reported in the
January 17, 2007 edition of New York Times.
Unknown to Yum, the warehouse belongs to PETA.
“‘PETA would be willing to give Yum this warehouse, free and
clear,” PETA responded, “if KFC requires its chicken suppliers to
adopt the recommendations made by members of its own Animal Welfare
Advisory Council on March 11, 2005. A copy of these recommendations
is enclosed for your reference.”

Livestock gift charities do not help poor nations, say global critics

January 1, 2007 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:
LONDON–Sixty years after Heifer
International founder Dan West pioneered the idea
of soliciting donations to give livestock to poor
families in disadvantaged parts of the world,
criticism of the practice at last cracked major
mainstream news media during the pre-Christmas
2006 peak giving season.
At least three major British newspapers
and news syndicates amplified critiques of
livestock donation programs, quoting most
extensively from a prepared statement
distribu-ted by Animal Aid director Andrew Tyler.
“This year about a dozen agencies are
using your money to punt goats, chickens,
sheep, camels, donkeys, pigs and cows to the
world’s starving,” Tyler warned donors. “Prices
vary: £70 will get you a cow from Help The Aged.
Send A Cow demands £750 per animal. Farm Friends
wants £30 for a goat, whereas World Vision will
settle for £91 for a whole herd.

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