Dogs as drug mules

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

Among the grimmest indicators of the
rising value of puppies is the increasing use of
their bodies as live containers for smuggled
illegal drugs–a dodge that can only work if the
animals are in sufficient demand at high prices
that import inspectors are not surprised to see
them in transit.
Such a case shocked France in early May
after the remains of 15 dogs were found among the
trash left after the annual Teknikval rave music
festival at Chavanne, near Bourges. “Most of
the animals had their bellies cut open,”
reported John Lichfield of The Independent. “The
Société Protectrice des Animaux for the
département of Cher said that it hoped to trace
the owners of the dead dogs and investigate the
deaths.”

Read more

Poll shows loss on testing

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

LONDON–“The proportion of people approving of animal testing
in medical research is at an all-time high. More than three quarters
believe that the more extreme elements among animal rights activists
deserve to be called terrorists,” wrote Anthony King of The Daily
Telegraph on May 29, 2006.
Agreed Daily Telegraph home affairs editor Philip Johnston,
“Campaigns such as intimidating scientists and threatening
shareholders in pharmaceutical companies appear to have backfired
badly.”
King and Johnston based their analysis on a May 2006 YouGov
poll of 2,102 British adults, sponsored by The Daily Telegraph.

Read more

New laws on dogs, s/n, bestiality, factory farming

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on May 31 signed three
bills into law which create a felony penalty for allowing dangerous
dogs to run loose or failing to keep them securely enclosed; also
create a felony penalty for failing to sterilize a dog defined as
dangerous by past behavior; add a felony penalty for failing to
follow orders pertaining to keeping a dangerous dog; allow civil
penalties for possession of dangerous dogs; prohibit convicted
felons from keeping dangerous dogs or any unsterilized dog; add
penalties for using dogs in the commission of crimes; increase the
penalties for attending dog fights; add a felony penalty for taking
children to dog fights; and ease the requirements for convicting a
person of illegal dog fighting.

Read more

Alaska steps up predator killing

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

The Alaska Board of Game at a three-day mid-May 2006 meeting
expanded predator killing to increase huntable moose and caribou
populations to cover about 9% of the state; eased restrictions on
land-and-shoot bear hunting using aircraft and bait piles; expanded
five areas that are open to land-and-shoot and aerial wolf-killing,
tripling one of them; added incentives for killing grizzly bears in
two areas; and adopted amendments intended to limit the ability of
opponents of predator killing to challenge the changes in court.
Alaska is now persecuting predators more aggressively than at any
time in approximately 30 years.

People & organizations

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

Horst Kleinschmidt, 60, former deputy director general of
the South African environment department and former deputy chair of
the International Whaling Commission, has joined the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society advisory board and became a sitting member of
Sea Shepherd South Africa, Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson
announced on May 15, 2006. “In 1998, Horst was awarded the Order
of the Polar Star, First Class, and was knighted by the King of
Sweden,” Watson recalled. “In 1991, he was awarded the Bruno
Kreisky Prize for Services to Human Rights, in recognition of his
decades of struggles against apartheid in South Africa.”

The Philadelphia Zoo in early May announced that longtime
banking executive Vikram H. Dewan, 51, would succeed Pete Hoskins,
58, as executive director, effective June 12. Hoskins headed the
zoo for 13 years, after serving as the Philadelphia city streets
commissioner.

Animal advocacy court calendar

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

A Utah law requiring a two-thirds majority to pass a
wildlife-related ballot initiative is constitutional, the U.S. 10th
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on May 17, 2006, upholding a 2001
verdict by Utah U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell . The law
was itself passed by ballot initiative, gaining 56% of the vote.

U.S. District Judge William Shubb ruled in late May 2006 that
Alfredo Kuba of In Defense of Animals and up to 10 other activists
could protest in front of Six Flags Marine World over the Memorial
Day weekend despite a Six Flags policy against permitting protests on
high-traffic days.

Read more

Two major donations

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

Bob Barker, 83, host of The Price Is Right TV game show
since 1972, on May 5, 2006 donated $1 million to the Georgetown
University Law Center for the study of animal rights law. Barker
previously established $1 million endowments for the study of animal
rights law at Harvard, Columbia, UCLA, Stanford, Northwestern,
and Duke universities. “Barker’s donation will be used to strengthen
and expand the Law Center’s animal rights law curriculum, provide
opportunities for students to work in the field, support
student-initiated animal rights projects, and sponsor conferences
and symposia on subjects related to animal protection,” said Elissa
Free, who made the announcement for the university. Her mother,
the late Ann Cottrell Free, devoted much of her life to advancing
legal protection for animals.

Read more

Progress against dog & cat fur in China

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

“Senior officials in the Chinese
government yesterday vowed to stamp out the trade
in cat and dog fur which they described as
‘illegal and barbaric,'” European Parliament
member Struan Stevenson’s office announced from
Brussels on May 24, 2006.
The announcement appeared to represent a
major milestone in the long march toward the
passage of humane laws in the world’s most
populous nation.
According to Stevenson, the officials he met
with described the cruelties of the cat and dog
fur trade as violations of general humane
statutes which do not yet exist.
From a western perspective, pledging to
enforce laws which do not exist might be taken as
an empty propaganda ploy. In the Confucian
context of Chinese government, the ploy might be
as much toward the Chinese public as toward the
outsiders.
Either way, the Chinese officials
reportedly acknowledged the importance of humane
concerns.

Read more

What’s become of Persian Gulf bird habitat?

Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

SAN FRANCISCO–Iraq was known for attracting some of the
world’s largest and most varied congregations of migratory birds,
before becoming a war zone, and especially before former dictator
Saddamn Hussein drained the northern swamps to crush political foes.
Sergeant First Class Jonathan Trouern-Trend of the
Connecticut National Guard, 38, wondered what might be left when he
started a year-long deployment to Iraq in March 2004. He found many
species still thriving amid the destruction.
A birder since age 12, Trouern-Trend began a web log devoted
to his sightings in Iraq, continued with frequent postings until his
rotation home to Marlborough, Connecticut, in February 2005.
Excerpts from the web log were compiled as a book at the
suggestion of Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope, and
published by Sierra Club Books in May 2006 as Birding Babylon: A
Soldier’s Journal from Iraq.

Read more

1 … 239 240 241 242 243 … 720