PETA loses espionage lawsuit vs. Ringling

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

FAIRFAX, Virginia–A Fairfax County Circuit Court jury on
March 15 found Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus owner Kenneth
Feld not guilty of illegally conspiring to infiltrate and harm People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals between 1988 and 1998.
The verdict may not conclude a lawsuit that PETA first filed
in May 2001. PETA attorney Philip Hirschkop told Brian Westley of
Associated Press and Matthew Jones of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
that PETA would appeal. Hirschkop, soon to retire, later told
ANIMAL PEOPLE that the decision to appeal would have to be made by
PETA president Ingrid Newkirk–“But I know what I would do,” he said.
Hirschkop said the case was only the second loss of his
career in a jury verdict. “The jury asked for instructions from the
judge on the difference between harm and injury,” Hirschkop recalled.
“During the nine-day trial, Ringling internal documents
showed that the circus hired private investigators who infiltrated
animal rights groups, obtained credit card and other personal data,
and stole stacks of confidential papers, such as donor lists and
strategy memos,” summarized Tom Jackman of the Washington Post.

New Jersey dismantles Office of Animal Welfare

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

TRENTON–New Jersey Office of Animal Welfare director Cheryl
Maccaroni was on February 16 returned to her former job as deputy
attorney general.
All three inspectors were transferred to the Infectious &
Zoonotic Disease Program under state vet Faye Sorhage.
“That is where shelter inspections were handled until June
2004, when then-Health Commissioner Clifton Lacey authorized
$200,000 to develop the Office of Animal Welfare,” wrote Brian T.
Murray of the Newark Star-Ledger. The Office of Animal Welfare and
the Infectious & Zoonotic Disease Program are both under the state
Department of Health and Senior Services.
New Jersey Animal Welfare Task Force member Gordon Stull,
DVM, recalled that before the Office of Animal Welfare was formed,
“There were serious problems with inspections of shelters, pet
shops, and kennels. In just the past year,” Stull said, “the
office conducted over 400 inspections.”

CVS drops glue traps

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

WOONSOCKET, R.I.–The 5,400-store CVS drug chain on March 1
ceased stocking glue traps for small rodents, spokesperson Mike
DeAngelis confirmed to Providence Journal staff writer Paul Grimaldi.
PETA spokesperson Stephanie Boyles told Grimaldi that PETA
first asked CVS to stop selling glue traps in August 2005. The
Humane Society of the U.S. asked chain stores to stop selling glue
traps in 1985-1990, but whether any complied is unclear.
“We are currently trying to persuade E-Bay to stop selling
glue traps and leghold traps. Perhaps this latest major development
will encourage them to do the right thing,” said Philip Kiernan of
Irish Council Against Blood Sports.”

Investigator has a history of conflict with nonprofit organizations

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

Undercover investigations are rarely disclosed to the world
by the sponsors while still underway–at least not on purpose.
Findings, however, are typically intensively publicized,
especially when produced on behalf of major international nonprofit
organizations.
The publicity blitz usually starts after all undercover
personnel are out of harm’s way, often after a brief embargo while
findings are shared with law enforcement.
Standard operating procedure may have been inverted by some
of the sponsors of the Jason Mier/Karl Amman probe of alleged Kenya
Airways involvement in wildlife trafficking–depending on whose
version of what happened one accepts.

Africa
Law

HSUS endorses neuter/return

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

“The Humane Society of the U.S. advocates community-based
trap/neuter/return programs with on-going responsible management as
the most viable long-term approach available at this time to reduce
feral cat populations,” HSUS declared in a March 20 policy update.
The HSUS guidelines for neuter/return drafted with the aid of Bryan
Kortis of Neighborhood Cats are substantially the same as the
guidelines produced by ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett in 1992.
Having recommended in 1994 that neuter/return practitioners should be
prosecuted for abandoning animals, HSUS gradually withdrew active
opposition to neuter/return, beginning in 1998.

Post-Katrina conflicts & rescues go on

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

BATON ROUGE–A Louisiana source involved in undercover law
enforcement against illegal animal fighting alerted ANIMAL PEOPLE
late on February 21, 2006 that state attorney general Charles Foti
had begun investigating Humane Society of the U.S. fundraising and
expenditures in connection with Hurricane Katrina.
Named the lead agency for animal relief by the Fed-eral
Emergency Management Administration, HSUS raised more than $30
million for Katrina aid, and had as many as 200 workers in the
disaster area in September and October 2005.
HSUS confirmed the report within 24 hours, but Foti’s office
said nothing until spokesperson Kris Wartelle acknowledged the “basic
beginning of an inquiry” to Robert Travis Scott of the New Orleans
Times-Picayune on March 16. “She said Foti has made no accusations
of wrongdoing, and declined to give more details,” Scott wrote.
“There’s no question that cockfighters, hunters, and others
in Louisiana are constantly looking to damage our credibility,” HSUS
president Wayne Pacelle told ANIMAL PEOPLE on February 22. “Since
they cannot compete with our message that cockfighting is cruel, they
attack the messenger.”

A planned chimpanzee rescue is thwarted in Lebanon

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

While trying to expose the clandestine chimpanzee traffic to
Cairo, Jason Mier told ANIMAL PEOPLE on February 17, 2006, “I have
[also] been working in Lebanon to get some chimps confiscated. I
knew of two when I went there in January,” he said. “Since then one
more has been found.”
Having arranged–Mier thought–for the chimps to be seized by
the Lebanese authorities and flown “to a sanctuary in South Africa,”
he praised “the complete difference between Lebanon and Egypt.
Lebanon is not a member of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species,” Mier noted. “They have no animal welfare laws
or regulations for keeping animals, but animals need to be declared
upon entry with the proper customs duty paid. As this did not
happen, the government will confiscate. This has been the most
positive experience possible,” Mier enthused.

Ohio Supreme Court rules for OSU

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

COLUMBUS–Ruling against an appeal by the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine, the Ohio Supreme Court held
unanimously on March 15, 2006 that photographs and video recordings
of animal experiments made by researchers for their own use are
protected from disclosure under the Ohio open records law because
they are considered “intellectual property.”
PCRM sought to obtain copies of documentation of spinal cord
research done by the Ohio State University College of Medicine.
PCRM “argued that the records already had been publicly released and
therefore were no longer exempt,” summarized Associated Press. “Ohio
State acknowledged that it had loaned some of the records to
scientists and research trainees, and had shown a small number of
the records to scientists at medical conferences. But the court
accepted the university’s argument that those disclosures related to
conducting the research itself.”

Turkish street dog massacres

April 2, 2006 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

ANKARA–Officials of the ruling Islamic nationalist Justice &
Development Party have denied responsibility for the deaths of
hundreds of street dogs whose remains were found at the Mamek refuse
dump in separate lots on March 12, 14, and 24 by veterinarian Burcu
Iskikalp and local animal advocates. Necropsies indicated that at
least two dogs had been raped. A 64-year-old man was charged a week
earlier with raping a dog at a different dump, in Corum.
Turkish law has since 2003 forbidden killing street dogs
except in response to medical emergency, but the law is reportedly
widely defied due to lack of federal government enforcement.

Asia
Europe

« 1 … 247 248 249 250 251 … 720 »