Obituaries [May-June 2013]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

Obituaries

“I come to bury Caesar,  not to praise him.  The evil men do lives after them.   The good is oft interred with their bones.”  ––William Shakespeare

Bowatte Indrathana Thera,  a Buddhist monk of the Porambe temple in Pelmadulla,  Sri Lanka,  died on May 26, 2013 at the Colombo National Hospital,  two days after setting himself on fire outside the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.  “The monk had been heard making a statement saying his effort was not to take his life,  but to sacrifice it,  in a bid to end cattle slaughter.  Indraratana Thera had been an active campaigner against cattle slaughter, and had launched a number of animal rights campaigns,”  Ceylon Today reported.  Added the news portal Ada Derana, “Certain media aired videos of the monk issuing demands such as putting an end to the killing of cattle for meat and Buddhists being converted to other religions.  Indrarathana Thera informed those media of his intentions before committing self-immolation,  while they recorded the incident.”  The fiery suicide,  apparently the first on record by a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk,  was followed by conflict among Buddhist factions over which would perform last rites for Indrarathana Thera.   Read more

Wolf hunting expands even as delisting from federal protection is delayed

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

WASHINGTON D.C.––”A recent unexpected delay” has indefinitely postponed the anticipated removal of gray wolves in the Lower 48 states from U.S. endangered species list protection,  Associated Press reported on May 21,  2013,  citing only “a court filing” by “government attorneys.”   Read more

Harvard to close primate lab

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

BOSTON––The New England Primate Research Center is to close by 2015,  the Harvard Medical School announced on April 24,  2013.   The center houses about 2,000 monkeys,  among them about 1,500 rhesus macaques and colonies of cotton-top tamarins and squirrel monkeys,  and hosts about 130 current studies, employing 200 scientists and primate caretakers. Read more

Rewritten federal “crush video” law is overturned in first courtroom test

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

HOUSTON––U.S. federal prosecutors on May 16,  2013 dropped the last two of seven obscenity charges filed in October 2012 against alleged “crush video” producers Ashley Nicole Richards,  22,  and Brent Wayne Justice,  51,  and filed a notice of appeal on five counts that were dismissed on April 17,  2013 by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake. Read more

Hunters & ranchers push legal rhino horn traffic as response to poaching

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

MILWAUKEE,  LONDON,  JOHANNESBURG––As the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sees it,  the critical issue in rhinoceros conservation is not rhinos are being killed in record numbers,  but rather,  who gets the money from killing them. Anyhow,  this was the reasoning that emerged from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service explanations of why trophy hunter David K. Reinke,  52,  of Madison, Wisconsin,  was recently allowed to become the first American to legally import the remains of a black rhino since the species was federally listed as endangered in 1980. Read more

Rhino conservationist Anna Merz dies in South Africa

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

Anna Merz,  83,  died on April 4,  2013 at a hospital in Melkriver,  South Africa,  her home since 1996.   Born in England,  Merz was among the many London children who were relocated to Cornwall during the Nazi bombing attacks of early World War II. Studying politics and economics at Nottingham University,  she read for the bar at Lincoln’s Inn,  but instead of practicing law,  she relocated to Ghana with her first husband.  There,  recalled The Times of London,  she “owned a crankshaft grinding workshop,  developed a love of riding,  worked as honorary warden in the game department and took off on expeditions across the Sahara and around Uganda and northern Kenya.” Read more

Letters

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

About Experiencing Animal Minds

Debra J. White’s review of Experiencing Animal Minds,  in the March 2013 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE,  came to my attention at just about the same time as I received my copy of the book.  I was shocked to see the sentence in the review which states,  “Mount Royal University psychology professor Alain Morin in a chapter entitled ‘What Are Animals Conscious Of?’ asserts that ‘Wild animals have never been observed worrying and do not seem to experience sleeping difficulties as a result.”  In the actual essay Professor Morin begins this sentence,  on page 249 of the book,  with the caveat, “To the best of my knowledge wild animals …” Read more

Pack hunters struggle to explain how setting dogs on wildlife differs from dogfighting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

RICHMOND,  MADISON––Since dogfighting is a felony in all 50 U.S. states,  why is allowing a dog to kill or injure other animals outside of a fighting pit not subject to criminal penalties in any state?

Why is introducing dogs into enclosures to chase coyotes and foxes not only legal but licensed in several states?  Why does the pretense persist in law that the mauling deaths of coyotes and foxes in chase pens is accidental? Read more

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