Niger activists oppose Arab hunting

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

NIAMEY, Niger–“Animal rights campaigners in Niger are
protesting against the Niger government’s decision to allow visitors
from the Persian Gulf to hunt protected animals and birds,” Idy
Baroau of BBC reported on January 9. Barou said the activists, led
by environmentalist politician Ibrahim Sani, had filed a formal
complaint against the issuance of permits to kill gazelles and
capture birds of prey.
“The Gulf princes have been using big-caliber guns and cargo
planes to carry their booty,” Baroau added. “In response to the
criticism, Abdou Mamane, a spokesman for the Ministry of Animal
Resources and the Environment, said that the Arab guests had paid
$300,000 to get carte blanche to hunt in Niger.”

Will Sakhon Nakhon province governor Panchai keep promise to ban dog meat?

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

BANGKOK–Recently elected Sakhon Nakhon provincial governor
Panchai Borvornratanapran reportedly retreated on July 18 from a
mid-June promise to abolish the sale and slaughter of dogs for meat.
Following a protest rally by about 300 dog meat traders and
butchers from Tha Rae, the impoverished northeastern district where
dogs are most often eaten, provincial spokesperson Raksit Wathayotha
told Agence France-Press that the governor met with representatives
of the dog meat industry and “said he doesn’t want to impose the
opinion of the entire province, which favors ending dog meat
trading, on Tha Rae. He wants them to make their own decision and
will not object if the majority of Tha Rae people still want to
practice dog meat eating and selling.”
Agence France-Presse attributed directly to Governor Panchai
an estimate that 17 dog slaughter houses in Tha Rae kill 300 to 400
dogs per day, selling up to 4,000 kilograms of dog meat per day.
[At 300-400 dogs killed per day, however, the average daily sales
volume would be only half as large.] About 90% of the dog meat was
sent to Bangkok, Governor Panchai reportedly claimed. Some is known
to be exported to China and Vietnam.

What happened to Algerian cats?

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

HOUSTON–Members of the Houston Animal Rights team and PETA
picketed the Houston headquarters of the oil exploration firm
Halliburton on January 12 to protest the alleged poisoning of 200
feral cats at a remote work site in Algeria.
Former Halliburton employees said that the Halliburton
construction subsidiary KBR, Andarko Petroleum, and an Algerian
subcontractor brought cats to the site to control rats, but failed
to sterilize the cats before releasing them. The cats were poisoned
after Halliburton withdrew from the project. The demonstrators
argued that Halliburton had a moral obligation to ensure that the
cats were treated humanely.

Farm Sanctuary fined $50,000 in Florida

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

TALLAHASSEE, Florida–The Florida Elections Commission has
fined Farm Sanctuary $50,000 for 210 alleged willful violations of
campaign fundraising laws in connection with the passage of Amendment
10, a November 2002 initiative which banned the use of farrowing
crates to raise pigs in a state which had only two working pig farms.
One of those farms was already going out of business, and
state and federal water quality regulations virtually ensure that no
others can be started in Florida.

Dogs and gamecocks take their revenge

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

For 40 years dogcatcher Manuel Pascual, 61, of Bulacan city
in Bulacan province, The Philippines, caught stray dogs and
reputedly sometimes stole freeroaming pets, selling them to
restaurants in Malolos, Marilao, Bocaue, and Baliuag, the
Philippine Inquirer reported on February 1, 2003. Eventually,
however, a dog caught Pascual, who died from rabies on January 26.
His was the second turnabout death in the Philippines in just
two weeks. On January 12 gamecock handler Elmer Mariano of Zamboanga
had just strapped spurs to the legs of a cock in preparation for a
fight when the cock wrested one leg free and fatally stabbed him in
the groin.

Progress at the Kabul Zoo

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

KABUL, Afghanistan–“The bear Donatella’s nose is looking
much better,” Whipsnade Wild Animal Park senior curator Nick Lindsay
reported to Kabul Zoo relief effort coordinator David M. Jones on
December 20, 2002.
That is not the latest information ANIMAL PEOPLE has from the
Kabul Zoo by far, nor the most important in terms of the future of
Afghan animal welfare, but it answers the question most asked about
the war-torn zoo and the resident animals, who became familiar to TV
viewers worldwide during the military campaign that ousted the former
Taliban government of Afghanistan in December 2001, then dropped out
of sight after the fighting mostly ended and most of the visiting
news media returned to the U.S. and Europe.

Rocky Mountains “Witch hunts & wildlife” panic is resolved

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2003:

SALT LAKE CITY, DENVER– A 13-month two-state panic over
alleged cat mutilations by purported sadists officially ended on
August 1, 2003, when police chief Ricky Bennett of Aurora,
Colorado, told news media that, “There are definite signs and
markings that all were caused by predators.”
Twenty-nine of the 46 cats who were supposedly mutilated in
Colorado were found in Aurora, but the panic actually began after
the remains of a dozen cats with similar injuries were found in the
same Salt Lake City neighborhood from which Elizabeth Smart, 14,
was kidnapped on June 5, 2002.
Smart was recovered alive on March 12, 2003. David Brian
Mitchell, 49, and his wife, Wanda E. Barzee, 57, are charged
with kidnapping Smart from her Salt Lake City bedroom, raping her,
holding her prisoner until their capture, and attempting to kidnap
Smart’s 18-year-old cousin.
Mitchell’s stepson Mark Thompson, who helped bring Mitchell
to justice, told Newsweek that Mitchell had a history of cruelty to
animals “He shot our dog in front of us. He killed our bunny and
made us eat it,” Mitchell recalled.

Wolves, seals, kangaroos, & other scapegoats for economic failure

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

ANCHORAGE, ST. JOHN’S, LIMA,
SYDNEY–Political strategy in response to
economic stress in Third World dictatorships
often includes declaring a rabies crisis and
putting troops on the streets to intimidate the
public by shooting dogs.
In the underdeveloped democratic nations
the strategy varies. Instead of sending out
soldiers, armed citizens are authorized to vent
their frustration by shooting whatever animals
are most easily blamed.
In Atlantic Canada this spring the
“scapegoats” are seals, accused of keeping cod
stocks low, though there is little serious
scientific doubt that overfishing during the
1980s caused the cod population to crash.
In Australia, kangaroos are the
“scapegoats.” They even thrive like goats amid
dry conditions that kill sheep.
In Alaska, both troops and armed citizens are sent out to kill wolves.
The wolves, as political cartoons indicate,
are surrogates for environmentalists.

Slaughter in the streets

March 1, 2003 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

MULTAN, Pakistan–“I have been much in vexation since
February 11, 2003,” Animal Save Movement Pakistan founder Khalid
Mahmood Qureshi e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on February 16, seemingly
speaking for the world.
Al Qaida terrorist attacks were anticipated, following the
annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca by the Muslim faithful and appeals for
strikes against the U.S. by Islamic militant leader Osama bin Laden.
A U.S. military effort to depose Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein was
imminently expected as well.
But the violence vexing Qureshi had already occurred.
“Millions of cows, camels, oxen, sheep, and goats were
slaughtered on the day of Eid Ul Azha, after the day of Haj in
Saudia Arabia,” Qureshi wrote. “It is a religious custom,” in
which male heads of households attempt halal slaughter with often
haphazard and bloody results, “but it is a tyranny and cruelty,”
Qureshi continued. “I see it as a genocide of animals. The Animal
Save Movement of Pakistan not only strongly protests this terrible
and uncivilised operation, but wants to abolish it.

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