A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:
Rebecca Tarbotton, 39, executive director of the Rainforest Action Network since August 2010, drowned on December 26, 2012 at a beach near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where she was vacationing with her husband and friends. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, she interned with the David Suzuki Foundation before joining the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:
Samantha Mullen, 73, of Glenmont, New York, died on December 21, 2012 at the Hospice Inn at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany. Born in Evansville, Indiana, Mullen earned a Ph.D. in French and taught French at the State University of New York’s New Paltz campus before becoming executive director of the New York State Humane Association circa 1982. In that capacity Mullen led a series of raids that eventually closed the Animals Farm Home, at Ellenville, New York. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:
MADISON, Wisconsin––Maternal deprivation research appears to be again underway at the Harry Harlow Primate Psychology Laboratory on the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin. “The research in question is a new type of maternal deprivation research designed to study anxiety by creating adverse early rearing conditions and then exposing the maternally deprived young [male] monkeys to a snake and other frightening stimuli. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:
SHREVEPORT––The National Institutes of Health Council of Councils Working Group on January 23, 2013 “agreed that all but 50 of hundreds of chimpanzees kept for federally funded research should be retired from labs and sent to a national sanctuary,” summarized Janet McConnaughey of Associated Press. “Already,” McConnaughey reported a day later, “nine chimpanzees have arrived at Chimp Haven, outside Shreveport, Louisiana, “from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Center, which no longer has an NIH chimp research contract.” Another 102 chimps were expected to come from New Iberia during the next few months. Four NIH chimps at New Iberia were said to be too ill to relocate. About 230 chimps belonging to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette are to remain at New Iberia. The NIH pledged in 2011 to phase out most invasive research on chimps. An 86-page set of recommendations released by the Council of Councils Working Group suggests that chimps should henceforth be used in research only if there is no other way to investigate a risk to human health. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:
TEL AVIV––The Israeli laboratory monkey supplier Mazor Farm “is expected to close down in two years,” Ilian Lior of Haaretz reported on January 6, 2013, “following environmental protection minister Gilad Erdan’s decision to ban the export of animals born in the wild for experimentation. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:
MELBOURNE––Run since 1861 on the first Tuesday of each November, fourteen years longer than the Kentucky Derby, the Melbourne Cup is marketed as “’The race that stops a nation.” What stopped Australian attention most in November 2012, though, may have been undercover video posted online by the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses, showing injured racehorses being shot dead at the Laverton Knackery west of Melbourne. Read more
Editorial from ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013
By Kim Bartlett & Merritt Clifton
The title character in Life of Pi, possibly the most memorable film in years with a pro-animal theme, is a Hindu vegetarian boy raised in Pondicherry, India, whose parents run a zoo on leased land in the city botanical garden. Pi in adolescence becomes preoccupied with a spiritual quest which leads him to become also–simultaneously– Catholic and Muslim. As Pi explains, “There are 33 millions gods in the Hindu religion..We get to feel guilty before hundreds of gods, instead of just one.” Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica; GABORONE, Botswana; LUSAKA, Zambia––The national legislature of Costa Rica on December 10, 2012 finalized a national ban on sport hunting, provisionally approved in October by a vote of 41-5. The hunting ban, the first Costa Rican law passed by voter initiative, was submitted to the legislature after more than 177,000 Costa Ricans signed petitions favoring it. Read more
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2013:
Letters
Taiwan agriculture official believes omitting strays from mention will solve the problem
Amendments to the Taiwan Animal Protection Act to limit the capture of stray animals to those who pose a threat to human beings were to be introduced on December 26, 2012. The current policy is to capture and kill all stray dogs. Over the past 13 years, approximately 1.4 million stray dogs have been killed. Since the government does not fully support neuter/return, and hopes to make it illegal, the stray population is destined to keep growing. Read more