Sealers desperate to find markets BEIJING, HALIFAX–Canadian Fisheries Minister Gail Shea on January 12, 2011 announced to news media by teleconference call from Beijing that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Chinese Administration of Quality Supervision have reached an agreement which will allow Canadian sealers to export seal meat and oil to China for human consumption. Struggling to find new markets […]
South Korea kills 1.6 million pigs, cattle, & dogs in fight against foot and mouth disease
Water taps spat blood SEOUL––Water taps spat blood on New Year’s Day 2011 in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, “just one day after some of nearly 1,000 pigs within a 500-meter radius of a foot-and-mouth-hit livestock farm were buried alive to prevent further spread of the disease,” reported Park Si-soo of […]
Indiana to allow chase pens
Issues permit to one existing chase pen & gives others a year to start INDIANAPOLIS–The Indiana Natural Resources Commission on November 16, 2010 voted 9-2 to issue an operating permit to the only coyote and fox chase pen currently in the state, and to prohibit others from starting after January 1, 2012–which leaves other would-be Indiana chase pen proprietors […]
Alleged rhino poaching gang served trophy hunters as well as Asian medicinal demand
Rhino industry insiders in the dock JOHANNESBURG––Startling photos of the September 22, 2010 arraignment of 11 alleged members of an international rhino poaching syndicate reached the world despite the officially unexplained efforts of police to keep photographers out. News photographers Werner Beukes of the South African Press Agency, Herman Verwey of Beeld, and Lewellyn Carstens […]
How Shelter Pets Are Brokered for Experimentation: Understanding Pound Seizure
by Allie Phillips Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. (4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706), 2010. 220 pages, hardcover. $34.95. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton American Humane Association director of public policy Allie Phillips has in How Shelter Pets Are Brokered for Experimentation written by far the best researched report on pound seizure to appear between book covers […]
German zoo staff convicted of cruelty for killing hybrid tigers
Director and three employees fined MAGDEBURG, Germany––Magdeburg Zoo director Kai Parret and three members of the zoo staff were on June 17, 2010 convicted of cruelty for killing three tiger cubs at birth in May 2008 because their father was found to be a hybrid of the Siberian and Sumatran tiger subspecies. A fine of […]
Ingesting bear bile can kill, warns top Vietnamese traditional doctor
Treated 10 bear bile users for poisoning; two died. HANOI––People’s Doctor Nguyen Xuan Huong, chair of the Traditional Medicine Association of Vietnam, on July 21, 2010 warned that consuming bear bile products can cause potentially fatal liver and kidney damage. Huong, who served two terms in the Vietnamese National Assembly, “joined Animals Asia’s campaign to end bear bile […]
Toronto Humane Society raided by Ontario SPCA
Executives arrested TORONTO––Nearly 30 years of turmoil over control of the Toronto Humane Society reignited on November 26, 2009 when Ontario SPCA investigators backed by Toronto police arrived at the THS shelter with search warrants and led THS president Tim Trow, veterinarian Steve Sheridan, general manager Gary McCracken, and senior staff members Romeo Bernadino and […]
Off-exhibit secrets of troubled zoos
by Merritt Clifton UBUD, GIANYAR–The Bali Zoo, featuring exhibits from which animals often “go walkabout,” might be described as emphasizing form over substance. Occupying a six-acre forested ravine in a residential neighborhood in Singapadu, a suburb of Ubud, the Bali Zoo has been described by tourism media as a “hidden jewel”–and it is, at a […]
Dog bite prevention weak
At Risk Dogs bill tabled in Indianapolis ALBANY, CHICAGO, DENVER, INDIANAPOLIS, NEW YORK CITY, WASHINGTON D.C.–Dog Bite Prevention Week 2009 opened with opponents of breed-specific legislation claiming victories in Indianapolis and Highland Park, a Chicago suburb, but closed with a 13-page verdict against pit bull advocates in Loudoun County, Virginia. The Indianapolis city/county council on May […]