U.K. cruelty act update introduced

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

LONDON–British junior environment
minister and minister for animal welfare Ben
Bradshaw on October 14, 2005 introduced a long
awaited new draft Animal Welfare Bill, which if
passed by Parliament would be the first major
update of the U.K. anti-cruelty statute since
1910.
Summarized Amanda Brown of The
Independent, “The bill introduces a duty on
those responsible for animals to do all that is
reasonable to ensure the welfare of the creatures
in their care–a duty which for the first time
applies to non-domestic animals. The bill
simplifies animal welfare legislation by bringing
more than 20 pieces of legislation into one,
strengthening penalties and eliminating
loopholes. Those causing unnecessary suffering
to an animal will face up to 51 weeks in prison,
a fine of up to £20,000 or both.”

Europe
Law

Horse slaughter moratorium weakened

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

U.S. President George W. Bush on November 4, 2005 endorsed
into law an eight-month suspension of federal funding for inspecting
horse slaughterhouses, included as a rider to a USDA appropriation
bill. As originally passed by both the U.S. Senate and the House of
Representatives, the moratorium was to start immediately, having
the effect of suspending horse slaughter for human consumption, and
was to run for a year, but House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Agriculture chair Henry Bonilla (R-Texas) won a 120-day delay of
implementation in conference committee. “Bonilla managed to sneak in
confusing language that may allow horse slaughterhouses to hire their
own meat inspectors and continue their operations,” added Gannett
News Service correspondent John Hanchette.

Anti-chaining & feral cat ordinances

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

The cities of Burnaby and Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, in October and November 2005 adopted anti-chaining
ordinances that Animal Advocates of B.C. founder Judy Stone believes
are “the best in North America.” Animal Advocates of B.C. began
promoting anti-chaining ordinances through advertising in ANIMAL
PEOPLE about seven months before Tammy Grimes formed the U.S.-based
anti-chaining organization Dogs Deserve Better, and 20 months before
Connecticut passed an anti-chaining law sought since 1986 by National
Institute for Animal Advocacy founder Julie Lewin. The Animal
Advocates, Dogs Deserve Better, and NIAA campaigns have now won
banning or restricting chaining in almost as many cities as children
have been killed by chained dogs (58) since Grimes began counting in
2003.

The Indianapolis city council on October 10 voted 26-1 to
make a neuter/return program run by the local organization IndyFeral
a part of the official city animal control policy. “Indy-Feral
charges colony caregivers $20 per cat for their service, compared to
approximately $120 per cat trapped and killed by Indianapolis Animal
Care and Control,” noted Nuvo Magazine writer Mary Lee Pappas.

Will Thai zoo crowd eat Kenya wildlife?

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

BANGKOK, NAIROBI–A long-controversial sale of 135 wild
animals from Kenya to the Chiang Mai Night Safari zoo in Thailand on
November 10 appeared to be almost a done deal.
Kenya president Mwai Kibaki and Thai prime minister Thaskin
Shinawatra ceremonially signed the agreement at the State House in
Nairobi.
The transaction is to include both black and white rhinos,
elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, servals, hippos,
and at least 14 hooved species.
But the deal was originally to have included more than 300
animals, as described in July 2005. It was scaled back after Youth
for Conservation rallied international opposition to the animal sale,
over a variety of humane, tactical, precedental, and conservation
considerations.

Rescued donkeys bring peace to bloodsoaked ancient battlefields

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

LISCARROLL, County Cork–In time the
Donkey Sanctuary of Ireland may be remembered as
the most significant institution in the history
of the blood-soaked rolling hills of Liscarroll.
The 350 donkeys peacefully grazing at the
impeccably tidy 30-acre visitor center and the
equally well-managed 70-acre donkey retirement
farm together form a living monument to a
globally influential turning point in
animal/human relations.
Donkeys are known to have lived at
Knockardbane, the farm that became the visitor
center, since 1926, when Donkey Sanctuary
manager Paddy Barrett’s grandfather retired from
a career as a police officer, and took up
grazing livestock instead.
But in all likelihood donkeys have
inhabited the site for almost as long as donkeys
have been in Ireland.

Animal Friends Croatia halts beagle experiments & wins circus animal act bans, but who are they?

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

ZAGREB–The difficulty of getting from one part of Croatia to
another may have kept Animal Friends Croatia from attending the
International Companion Animal Welfare Conference in Dubrovnik–but
they were busy.
Between October 10 and November 11, Animal Friends Croatia
won bans on circus animal acts in ten cities: Mursko Sredisce,
Varazdin, Donji Mholjac, Rovinj, Velika Gorica, Split, Delnice,
Gospic, Cakovec, and Ozalj.
The string of victories started 81 days after Animal Friends
Croatia exposed and ended a series of debilitating surgical
experiments on 32 beagles at the University of Zagreb Medical School,
following just six days of campaigning.
The campaign was amplified by all radio and TV stations in
Zagreb, five days in a row, and was endorsed by 15 leading Croatian
public figures, including national president Stejepan Mesic.
Eventually the beagles were surrendered to Animal Friends Croatia.

ESA rewrite author Pombo took junket funding from anti-animal welfare front

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

WASHINGTON D.C.– Central California
rancher and House of Representatives Resources
Committee chair Richard Pombo (R-Tracy) enjoyed
the biggest victory of his political career on
September 29, 2005, when the House passed his
“Threatened & Endangered Species Recovery Act”
229-192, with 96 co-sponsors and little debate,
just eight days after introduction.
Rolling back the 1973 Endangered Species
Act, the chief feature-of the Pombo rewrite is a
requirement that property owners must be
compensated for any loss of land use that results
from protecting animals or habitat.
“It establishes an extraordinary new
entitlement program for developers and
speculators that requires taxpayers to pay them
unlimited amounts of money,” House Democratic
leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) told
Zachary Coile of the San Francisco Chronicle.

International animal legislation

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

Twenty-three nations with native chimpanzees, bonobos,
gorillas, and orangutans on September 9, 2005 signed a Declar-ation
on Great Apes in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, committing
themselves to protecting great apes and ape habitat in terms similar
to the language of the 1982 global moratorium on commercial whaling
and the 1997 Kyoto protocol on climate change.
The treaty was brokered through four years of negotiation by
the Great Apes Survival Project, formed by the United Nations
Environment Program and the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation. “GRASP has convinced nearly all of the range states
that saving great apes is very much in their interests, by stressing
that apes can bring enormous economic benefit to poor communities
through eco-tourism,” summarized Michael McCarthy, envronment
editor of the London Independent. “The new agreement places ape
conservation squarely in the context of strategies for poverty
reduction and developing sustainable livelihoods.”

New state laws

November 2, 2005 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on October 7, 2005
signed into law a bill by state senator Jackie Speer (D-Hillsborough)
that allows local governments to enact breed-specific dog
sterilization ordinances. Cities and counties including San
Francisco are reportedly rushing to have mandatory sterilization of
pit bull terriers and other breeds commonly used in fighting in place
when the state law takes effect on January 1, 2006.

North Carolina Govern-or Mike Easley in late September 2005
endorsed into law a felony penalty for anyone who is convicted in any
way of participating in a cockfight, including spectating.
Cockfighting is now illegal in 48 states and a felony in 32 of them.

New York Governor George Pataki and Michigan Governor
Jennifer Granholm in September 2005 signed into law bans on hunting
via web sites.

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