A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
LONDON––Though culling predators has come to be recognized as one of the larger ecological mistakes of the Romans, the Normans, the Georgians in the 18th century, and 20th century British governments, British environment secretary Owen Paterson on February 27, 2013 announced that badgers will be culled this summer in Gloucestershire and Somerset. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
PETALING JAYA, Malaysia––Malaysian natural resources and environment minister Douglas Uggah “has ordered an immediate investigation by a team from his ministry into the alleged inhumane massacre of wild monkeys by its contractors,” Michelle Chun of the Sun Daily reported on March 29, 2013. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
Your January/February 2013 editorial “Pi, Dorothy, and the qualities of humane leadership” gave me stuff to ponder that I hadn’t seriously considered before, such as the emphasis on adopting one’s way out of shelter euthanasias versus the likely better bang for the buck approach of focusing even more than currently on spaying and castrating. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
Letters
Farm animal welfare in Vietnam
Several months ago I was asked by Humane Society International to help them to establish some collaborative relationships concerning farm animal welfare in Vietnam. As mentioned in previous letters to ANIMAL PEOPLE, I used to work at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, and continue to work with a number of groups involved in animal protection and youth development, so I jumped at the chance. We set up day-long workshops with the veterinary and animal science faculties at Hanoi Agricultural University and Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture & Forestry. The principal aim of these workshops was to discuss the impacts of Vietnam’s industrial farm agriculture trends and to begin a conversation about what could be done to alter the trajectory of policies that not only greatly undermine non-human animal welfare, but will also lead to disastrous consequences for the environment and public health. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
TOKYO––The Japanese whaling fleet in 2013 killed just 103 minke whales out of a self-assigned quota of 935, and killed none of the 50 humpback and 50 fin whales they had hoped to kill, acknowledged Japanese agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at a homecoming media conference. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
MADRID––Defying Parliamentary efforts to re-establish bullfighting nationwide, the largely Basque city of San Sebastian in March 2013 adopted new rules for leasing the municipal bullring which exclude bullfights. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
BEIJING, BANGKOK––Stopping a truck hauling 250 dogs to slaughterhouses in Maoming, Guangdong on April 7, 2013, Kunming Yixin Stray Animal Shelter volunteers had kept the truck surrounded at An Ning, in Kunming, for 48 hours as the April 2013 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, despite acts of attempted physical intimidation by the truckers and reinforcements called by the truckers. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
BALTIMORE, RALEIGH––Hunter, trapper, and fisher William Edward Small, 20, who died of an undiagnosed rabies infection in September 2011, transmitted rabies as an organ donor to a Maryland man who died of rabies in early March 2013––the first human rabies death in Maryland since 1976, and one of just a very few cases on record in which rabies was transmitted from human to human. There is only one other known case of rabies being transmitted in the U.S. via organ transplants. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2013:
PHILADELPHIA––Five years into an ongoing campaign to stop pigeon shoots held at the Philadelphia Gun Club for at least 125 years, Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi on March 26, 2013 made public his frustration with 101 years of inaction against the gun club by the Bucks County SPCA, founded in 1912, and 97 years of inaction by the Women’s Humane Society, following the 1916 death of founder Carolyn Earle White. Read more