Direct actions and agents provocateur

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

HUNTINGDON, U.K.–Admitting concern that bombings and arsons put assets at risk, the Royal Bank of Scotland on January 19, 2001 recalled $33 million in loans to Huntingdon Life Sciences–one of the world’s largest contract testing labs. The vehicles of 10 Huntingdon employees had been bombed since May 2000. Five bombs exploded; flames from two bombings also damaged employees’ houses.

Five other banks and investment firms earlier cancelled investments in Hunting-don. On January 21, however, the Arkansas-based Stephens Group kept Huntingdon solvent with a five-year loan. The group holds 15.7% of the Huntingdon shares. Worth a reported $540 million in 1990, with about 850 staff, Huntingdon fell in estimated market value to just $8 million after BBC-4 reporter Zoe Broughton caught workers abusing animals on video in 1997. Then-PETA investigator Michelle Rokke at almost the same time obtained similar video from inside a New Jersey subsidiary.

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African wildlife conservation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:
African wildlife conservation

Hunting for power

Forty thousand hunters from all parts of Mali and the nearby West African nations of Burkina Fasa, Guinea, Niger, and Senecal attended a mid-February festival hosted by Mali president Alpha Oumar Konare in Bamako, Mali. Konare’s motives in bringing the hunters, mostly animists, to largely Islamic Mali, were questioned. “It’s not good, this hunter thing,” one source told Joan Baxter of BBC News. “We fear the president wants to use all the hunters’ powers to extend his mandate.”

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What will Bush do about ferals?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

WASHINGTON D.C.–Meeting the Invasive Species Challenge, the National Invasive Species Council management plan, was sent to the White House on January 18, 2001. Two years in development, the plan offers strategy through 2003 for a Cabinet-led crusade against
non-native wildlife. But the eight Cabinet members who signed it were already on
their way out of Washington D.C. Just two days from leaving office, former U.S. President
Bill Clinton probably never saw the plan. Whether anyone of rank in the George W. Bush administration will ever pay much attention to it remains unclear.

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LETTERS [March 2001]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

HSUS Expo

Ahimsa of Texas tries really hard to table our unique spay/neuter ideas and tools at national humane conventions. We were thrilled to display at both the Spay/USA Waltham conference and the Doing Thing for Animals conference in Tuscon. Because Ahimsa is such a small group, we all work at least one full time job, and we have such a small donation base that we always feel good if we can table at two conferences a year.

Hence, I was excited to see that the Humane Society of the U.S. Animal Expo 2001 was in Dallas. I thought, “I live close enough that we could save on both travel and accommodations.” Imagine my disappointment when I learned that their fee for
non-profit vendor space was almost $500. If HSUS were really working with other nonprofits, wouldn’t it make sense to treat them humanely???

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State Legislation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:
State legislation

Pending in the Oregon legislature is a bill by state senator Ryan Deckert (D-Beaverton) to amend the state anti-cruelty law to give more evidentiary weight to testimony about the behavior of animal victims. The amendment would help in prosecuting cases involving electroshock, improper confinement, and harassment, which may drive an animal insane without leaving physical evidence. Also pending in Oregon is an anti-bestiality bill by state senators Peter Courtney (D-Salem) and John Minnis (R-Wood Village). Minnis unsuccessfully introduced a similar bill in 1995.

Illinois state representative Tom Dart (D-Chicago) on February 5 introduced a bill to allow judges in animal hoarding cases to order psychiatric evaluation of the defendants, and oblige defendants to share the cost of caring for their impounded animals.

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Missouri audit finds flaws in puppy mill inspection

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.–A Missouri Department of Agriculture audit released on February 15 found major conflicts of interest in the state breeding kennel inspection program.

Editorialized the St. Louis Post Dispatch, “State Auditor Claire McCaskill found that state inspectors did not cite a single breeder for any kind of violation in a two-year period. Worse, two men in the state inspection program,” namely chief inspector G.A. Salmon and deputy Tom Hawley, “had puppy mill money flowing directly into their family coffers from facilities run by their wives.” Hawley doubles as regional president of the Missouri Pet Breeders Association.

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USDA to allow quicker rescue

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

WASHINGTON D.C.–An amendment to the federal Animal Welfare Act enforcement regulations taking effect on February 2, 2001 allows the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to “allow animals confiscated from situations detrimental to their health to be placed with non-USDA licensed persons or facilities,” such as humane societies and sanctuaries which are not under USDA jurisdiction because they are not normally engaged in interstate commerce.

“With this new regulation,” said Cat Fanciers Association legislative coordinator Joan Miller, “APHIS inspectors will be able to move more quickly and efficiently to remove animals [from abusive situations] when necessary for their health, and get them into the hands of shelters and rescue organizations that can care for their needs.

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Farm Bureau kills Arkansas felony cruelty bill–again

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2001:

AUSTIN, LITTLE ROCK, ST. PAUL–A bill by Arkansas state representative Jim Wood (D-Tupelo) to make Arkansas the 32nd state to punish especially heinous cruelty to animals as a felony cleared the state house judiciary committee 11-7 on January 30, but was killed by the full house on February 2, 21-66. Though Wood himself is a farmer, the bill was vehemently opposed by the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation.

As with Wood’s first attempt to pass a felony cruelty bill, in 1999, Farm Bureau lobbyists argued that exemptions for “routinely accepted livestock, poultry, or aquaculture management practices or routinely accepted animal husbandry practices” were not strong enough.

Similar bills have been introduced this year in Minnesota, by state senator Don Betold (DFL-Fridley) and Texas, by state representative Manny Najera (D-El Paso).

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