League Against Cruel Sports wins first Hunting Act foxhunting conviction

September 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

DEVON, U.K.–The League Against Cruel
Sports on August 3, 2006 won the first
conviction for fox hunting under the Hunting Act
of 2004, which banned fox hunting throughout
England and Wales. Barnstaple Magistrates’ Court
District Judge Paul Palmer fined Exmoor Foxhounds
huntsman Tony Wright, 52, £500 plus prosecution
costs of £250 after an intensely publicized
week-long hearing. Wright allegedly hunted a fox
with dogs on April 29, 2004.
“The League brought the case at a total
cost of more than £100,000 after Avon and
Somerset Police declined to take the case,”
reported BBC News.

California animal transport exemption leaves livestock to cook

September 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

SACRAMENTO–The California legislature on August 14, 2006
sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill to criminalize leaving
pets unattended in weather that puts the animals’ health at risk–but
specifically exempted “horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, poultry or
other agricultural animals in motor vehicles designed to transport
such animals,” a clause excluding from protection more than 99.9% of
all the animals who die in transit from either excessive heat or cold.
Violators of the California bill could be punished by fines
of up to $500 and up to six months in jail. The bill specifically
empowers animal control officers to break into cars to rescue animals
in distress.
But Virginia Handley of Animal Switchboard, the senior
animal advocacy lobbyist in California, did not join other humane
leaders in claiming an apparent victory. She pointed out that many
California agencies have already successfully prosecuted people who
left pets in hot cars under the state anti-cruelty statute–which
permits stiffer penalties.

Quick rabies containment

September 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

WASHINGTON D.C.–PetSmart Charities suspended cat and dog
adoptions at 22 stores in Virginia and Maryland in early June 2006,
after two kittens adopted from the Greenbelt store in the Washington
D.C. suburbs proved to be rabid. The kittens were in the store for
five days, beginning on May 14, Greenbelt PetSmart manager John
Marsiglia told Washington Post staff writer Hamil R. Harris.
The adoption shutdown limited human exposure to animals who
may have had exposure to the kittens. Those animals were quarantined
successfully.
The two rabid kittens and four litter mates of the first
kitten were euthanized, Last Chance Animal Rescue director Cindy
Sharpley told Harris. Six humans from two familes who adopted the
kittens and several store employees received post-exposure
vaccination.

Another OBE for animal welfare work

September 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

Alan Knight, chief executive of International Animal
Rescue and chair of British Divers Marine Life Rescue, is the third
animal advocate to receive the Order of the British Empire in 2006,
following Daphne Sheldrick, founder of the David Sheldrick Wildlife
Trust elephant and rhino orphanage in Kenya, and Stella Brewer
Marsden, founder of the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Association
sanctuary in Gambia.
Earlier recipients include Care For The Wild founder Bill
Jordan, now heading the Bill Jordan Wildlife Defence Fund (2005);
Dogs Trust chair Clarissa Baldwin (2003); and Animals Asia
Foundation founder Jill Robinson (1998).

QuickSpay en Español

September 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

Animal People in October 2005 reviewed a
DVD called QuickSpay, which shows Marvin
Mackie, DVM of Los Angeles performing real-time
sterilizations of both pre-pubescent and adult
dogs and cats. Produced by Animal Issues
Movement founder Phyllis Daugherty, the DVD is
distributed free of charge to either humane
organizations or individual veterinarians.
QuickSpay has now been translated into
Castracion Rapida by Martha Carrasco, DVM of
Jalisco, Mexico, with a voiceover in Spanish
by Guillermo Perea of Los Angeles. The DVD is
available in Spanish or English just by sending a
self-addressed mailing envelope with adequate
postage to the Animal Issues Movement, 420 N.
Bonnie Brae St., Los Angeles, CA 90026, or by
contacting <QuickSpay@-aol.com> or
<animalissu@aol.com>.
Both the English and Spanish versions of
“QuickSpay” are viewable on the Animal People
website at <www.animalpeoplenews.org>.

Medicine

Letters [Sep 2006]

September 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

Taiwan law

Even for the most serious cruelty, an animal abuser in
Taiwan can only be fined up to about $1,500 U.S. maximum.
We are asking for cruelty toward animals to be considered a
criminal offense, punishable by up to one year in prison, and a
fine up to $9,000 U.S.; for animal protection inspectors to have the
right to rescue animals from property where they are neglected or
abused; for more effective regulation of pet breeders and shops;
and for farm animal transporters and slaughterers to be licensed.
We hope that draft legislation will be published in October
and passed in early 2007.
Perhaps statements of support from other pro-animal
organizations would be helpful.

Letters

Jackson County stops selling pound animals to labs

September 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

JACKSON, Michigan–Two less Michigan county animal shelters
are selling animals to laboratory suppliers, as result of mid-August
2006 policy change.
Gladwin County became involved in the practice only three
weeks before the Jackson County commissioners voted 10-1 on June 18
to stop selling animals to longtime purchaser Fred Hodgins of Hodgins
Kennels in Howell. Anticipating the Jackson vote, Hodgins
approached Gladwin County Animal Shelter director Ron Taylor. Taylor
reportedly favored selling dogs to Hodgins if they would otherwise be
killed at the shelter.
On June 27 the Gladwin County commissioners voted 6-1 to
authorize Taylor to sell dogs to Hodgins. Hodgins bought two dogs on
August 1, just as local activist Cindy Krycian and Humane Education
And Legislation PAC founder Eileen Liska disclosed the arrangement to
the public through telephone calls and e-mails. Their efforts were
amplified internationally by Marietta Nealey Sprott of Heart of
Michigan Rescue.

Editorial: Culture, coonhunting, & child hunters

September 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

Americans who express broad disgust toward Asian cultures
over the many cruelties of dog-eating and cat-eating might usefully
compare the persistence of those behaviors in South Korea and China
to the persistence of American participation in sport hunting.
About three million (6%) of the 50 million South Koreans eat
dogs, consuming about 2.6 million dogs per year at present. If the
same ratio of consumption applies to the estimated annual production
of about 10 million dogs for slaughter in China, about 11.4 million
Chinese eat dogs–or less than 1% of the human population of 1.4
billion. Cat-eating in both China and South Korea continues at a
much lower level.
Among about 300 million Americans, the U.S. now has slightly more
than 13 million active hunters: 4.3%. Another five million people
identify themselves as hunters but no longer hunt, chiefly due to
advancing age.
A traditional if often elusive goal of deer hunting is to effect a
quick kill, but causing prolonged animal suffering is built into the
method of many other forms of hunting.

Editorial: Crabs are animals too

September 1, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

The poster for an August 27, 2006 crab feast planned by the
Prince Rupert SPCA looked like a bizarre parody. A grinning cartoon
crab, pink as if already burned, sprawled beneath a beach umbrella.
“Live crab, cooked to eat at the park or cooked to take home,” the
poster advertised. A photo of a real crab affirmed that real animals
were really to be boiled–until on August 17 the parent British
Columbia SPCA cancelled the event under pressure personally directed
by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson. Watson
then pledged to personally make a donation and urged others to donate
to the BC/SPCA.
Though the crab feast was averted, the episode raised issues
of posture and strategy which should be of pre-eminent concern to
every humane organization.
“Our mission,” the Prince Rupert SPCA web site predictably
proclaims, is “the prevention of cruelty to animals, and promotion
of animal welfare.”

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