Legislation to require pet evac plans

November 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
WASHINGTON D.C.–U.S. President George W. Bush in early October
2006 signed into law the Pets Evacuation and Transportation
Stand-ards Act, requiring all states to produce pet evacuation plans
in order to qualify for Federal Emerg-ency Management Agency funding
for disaster preparedness.
“The law also authorizes FEMA to provide additional money
to create pet-friendly shelters and provide special assistance to pet
owners,” said American SPCA spokes-person Shonali Burke.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco signed a bill implementing
pet evacuation planning on June 23, 2006. The bill was passed
unanimously by both houses of the Louisiana legislation.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized a similar
bill on September 27, 2006.

Chicago pioneered urban wildlife habitat conservation, but not “be kind to animals”

November 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:

CHICAGO–Urban wildlife habitat conservation is often traced
to the 1914 creation of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.
Foresighted planning bequeathed to Chicago and surrounding suburbs a
protected greenbelt and wildlife migration corridors that today hosts
an abundance of animals of most species common to the midwest.
Unlike in Milwaukee, however, an hour’s drive or train ride
to the north, the major Chicago-area humane societies and animal
control agencies have yet to become deeply involved with wildlife.
Focusing on dogs and cats is still enough to keep them busy.
Yet this means ceding the primary role in responding to public
concerns about wildlife to other institutions, whose focal message
is not “be kind to animals,” of all species, and whose agendas are
often at odds with humane concerns.
Henry Bergh, who founded the American SPCA in New York City
in 1866, also inspired through correspondence the 1879 formation of
the Wisconsin Humane Society. The only known statute of Bergh stands
in front of the Wisconsin Humane shelter.

The 28-Hour Law & timely influence

November 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Among the most encouraging regulatory developments for farmed
animals ever was the USDA disclosure on September 28, 2006, in a
letter to the Humane Society of the U.S., that since 2003 it has
recognized that Congress meant the Twenty-Eight Hour Law of 1873 to
limit the time that any hooved animals could be kept aboard any kind
of vehicle.
Less encouraging was that the USDA for three years avoided
having to enforce the reinterpretation of the Twenty-Eight Hour Act,
and 1906 and 1994 amendments, by keeping knowledge that it had been
reinterpreted to themselves.
“The USDA clarified its position in a 2003 internal memo
distributed to government veterinarians,” explained Cristal Cody of
the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “The policy change came to light in
response to a legal petition that HSUS filed in October 2005 to
extend the law to trucks.”
Said USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service
spokesperson Jim Rogers, “We never considered the 1906 law as being
applicable to the transport of animals by truck,” Rogers said. “Now
we see that the meaning of the statutory term ‘vehicles’ means
vehicle.”

Did poachers really kill Lucy, the sign language chimp?

November 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
ANIMAL PEOPLE in June 2006 published a
review of Hurt Go Happy, a novel by Ginny Rorby,
said to be based on the true story of Lucy, a
chimp who was taught American sign language and
was later sent to the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation
Trust in Gambia. The review stated as fact that
“Lucy was killed by poachers in 1987.” The truth
is that we have no idea how she died. Illness,
a fall, snake bite, or even lightning strike are
all more likely causes of her death than being
killed by poachers.
Dale Peterson in Chimp Travels was almost
certainly paraphrasing Janis Carter, who was
greatly responsible for putting Lucy through her
rehabilitation ordeal, when he wrote of Lucy
that “Šher hands and feet [were] brutally severed
and her skin simply stripped offŠ” He certainly
quotes Carter in “ŠWe can only speculate that
Lucy was killed–probably shot–and skinned…”
Carol Jahme’s Beauty and the Beast states
as fact that Lucy “was killed and skinned by
fishermen.”

Hunting ranch breakout may bring elk farming ban to Idaho

November 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
BOISE–Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on October 25, 2006
joined Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal in asking Idaho Governor Jim
Risch to pursue a legislative ban on hunting captive-bred elk.
“In Montana, we said it’s a bad idea to pen up elk, feed
them oats, and have fat bankers from New York City shoot them with
their heads in a grain bucket,” Schweitzer told Associated Press
writer Christopher Smith.
Risch, whose term will end in January 2007, has said he would
support the legislation that Schweitzer and Freudenthal requested.
Wrote Smith, “The two major party candidates running for Idaho
governor, Republican Representative C.L. “Butch” Otter and Democrat
Jerry Brady, have said they would sign legislation prohibiting
domestic elk businesses.”
Risch on September 7 signed an executive order decreeing the
“immediate destruction” of about 160 captive-bred elk who escaped in
August from a private hunting ranch operated by Rex Rammel, DVM, of
Ashton.
“While special hunts by state agents and the public killed 33
of the escaped elk,” along with seven wild elk found among them,
“Idaho Fish and Game biologists believe the domesticated animals have
already crossbred with wild herds,” wrote Smith. “Elk farming and
‘shooter bull’ hunting are banned in Wyoming and Montana.” The
Wyoming ban was adopted in the 1970s. The Montana voters approved a
ban in 2000. Idaho, however, has 78 elk farms and 14 penned
hunting camps, according to Associated Press.

The king, the baron, a celebrity & hunting “sportsmanship”

November 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Russian business daily Kommersant on
October 19, 2006 published a written allegation
by Vologda region deputy hunting chief Sergei
Starostin that a “good-natured and joyful bear”
named Mitrofan was in August 2006 taken from his
home at a local holiday resort, “generously fed
vodka mixed with honey,” and “pushed into a
field” where “His Highness Juan Carlos of Spain
took him out with one shot.”
The king, 68, “neither hunted with
Russian President Vladimir Putin nor killed a
bear,” a palace spokesperson told Paul Haven of
Associated Press. Haven noted that the
Kommersant account never mentioned Putin.

Report from the National Symposium on Kenyan Wildlife

November 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Report from the National Symposium on Kenyan Wildlife
by Chris Mercer, www.cannedlion.com
In September 2006 I was invited by the Steering Committee of
the National Symposium on Kenyan Wildlife, appointed by the Kenyan
government, to attend the symposium and present the case against
hunting.
Hunting has been banned in Kenya since 1977, and dealing in
wildlife trophies since 1978.
Attended by about 160 people, the Symposium was held as an
indirect result of a campaign lavishly funded by Safari Club
International in 2004, which involved flying Kenyan
conservationists and officials to elite hunting farms in South Africa
and Zimbabwe in order to persuade the Kenyan government to resume
trophy hunting. No expense was spared. Industry experts regaled the
Kenyan representatives with statistics purporting to show how much
money Kenya could make out of trophy hunting, as opposed to
ecotourism.

The wildlife program that might make Milwaukee famous

November 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
MILWAUKEE–The Wisconsin Humane Society handles 5,000 wild
animals of as many as 145 species per year, among total intake of
about 18,000 animals. Almost as much cage space houses recuperating
wild creatures as houses dogs and cats.
Present trends indicate that Wisconsin Humane will within
another few years receive more wild animals than either dogs or
cats–indicative of the success of local initiatives to reduce dog
and cat overpopulation.
Among major U.S. humane societies, only the Progressive
Animal Welfare Society, of Lynnwood, Washington, in the greater
Seattle area, appears to have as rapidly transitioned into
addressing the issues that will affect the most animals– and
people–in a post-pet overpopulation environment, in which
relatively few dogs and cats are either at large or killed for
reasons other than incurable illness, injury, or dangerous behavior.

Battery cage opponents emboldened by success

November 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
WASHINGTON D.C., LONDON–Years used to
pass between Humane Society of the U.S.
announcements of progress on behalf of
battery-caged egg-laying hens. In mid-October
2006 two such announcements came just 24 hours
apart.
Nineteen years after HSUS upset consumers
and donors with a short-lived “breakfast of
cruelty” campaign against bacon and eggs, a
younger generation of consumers and donors is
responding enthusiastically to a similar message.
About 95% of total U.S. egg production
comes from battery caged hens, but that could
change fast.
Under comparable campaign pressure,
British caged egg producers have already lost 40%
of the market, the research firm Mintel reported
in August 2006 to the Department of the
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Demand for
cage-free eggs has increased 31% since 2002,
Mintel found.

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