News
The number of news found: 29.
11/30/2006 SOUTH KOREA BEGINS SLAUGHTERING POULTRY!
Agriculture ministry official Kim Chang-sup was cited as saying that South Korean quarantine officials on Sunday began slaughtering more than 200,000 poultry after an outbreak of the virulent H5N1 form of bird flu at a chicken farm, and that a total 236,000 poultry within a 1,650-foot radius of the outbreak site in Iksan will be slaughtered to keep the virus from spreading. The story notes that South Korea killed 5.3 million birds during the last known outbreak of bird flu in 2003. (AP)
11/29/2006 PETER SINGER HAS PUBLICLY BACKED THE USE OF ANIMALS IN EXPERIMENTS!
One of the most important figures in the animal rights movement has publicly backed the use of living creatures in medical experiments. The endorsement - by the philosopher Peter Singer, who coined the phrase Animal Liberation and whose Seventies book on the subject led to the creation of the animal rights movement - has surprised observers. Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton, is renowned for insisting animals should have equal rights with humans but is quoted, on camera, backing research in which experiments on monkeys are carried out to develop surgery for Parkinson's and other patients.
11/28/2006 WELL-KNOWN TAXIDERMIST DROWNS IN TILLAMOOK BAY!
Well-known waterfowl hunter and taxidermist David Boys of Molalla drowned during a duck hunting trip at Tillamook Bay, authorities said Thursday. The body of Boys, 63, was found near a bay jetty at 7:11 P.M. Wednesday. Boys' body was found about 40 minutes after his hunting partner, Worth Matheson of Amity, reported him missing. A U.S. Coast Guard report said the men had taken separate boats into the bay, where they were separated by wind and outgoing tides. Matheson said Boys was wearing a life jacket. The Coast Guard and local fire and rescue teams searched for Boys by boat and helicopter. Boys ran Artistic Taxidermy at 5700 S.E. Foster Road in Portland. The Tillamook County Sheriff's Office said it will continue to investigate the death.
11/27/2006 ETHIOPIAN ZOO POISONS LION CUBS IT CAN'T AFFORD!
Addis Ababa - Rare Abyssinian lion cubs are being poisoned at a zoo because staff cannot afford to keep them, a wildlife official said Wednesday. The dead cubs are sold to taxidermists for $170 each to be stuffed and sold as decorations, said Muhedin Abdulaziz, the administrator at the old imperial Lion Zoo in the capital, Addis Ababa. Ethiopia's lions, famous for their black manes, are the country's national symbol and adorn statues and the local currency. Abdulaziz said it costs around $6,000 a month to run the zoo, but it only receives $5,000 in revenues from entrance fees. He added that the poisoning has been going on at least since he arrived two years ago; the number of cubs that have been killed was not immediately clear.
11/26/2006 SMUGGLED ORANGUTANS RETURNED TO INDONESIA!
Forty-eight orangutans rescued from an amusement park in Thailand returned home to Indonesia Wednesday and will soon start a new life in a jungle reserve on their native Borneo island, officials said. The animals who were forced to perform in daily boxing matches in Thailand before being confiscated in August 2004 were flown to the capital, Jakarta, on board an Indonesian military transport plane. Their plight has highlighted Southeast Asia's thriving black-market animal and plant trade, which officials say generates some US$10 billion in revenue each year third only behind illicit arms and the drug trade. While much of the trade goes on behind closed doors, many markets across the region sell rare or endangered animals, from parrots to black bears to gibbons that often end up in safari parks or circuses.
11/26/2006 ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS RALLY TO STOP FUR-USE!
About 120 animal rights activists marched along Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills Friday to urge Christmas shoppers not to buy clothing made with fur. Sgt. Mike Foxen of the Beverly Hills Police Department said the protest was peaceful. The event, which started at Rodeo Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard at noon and went south to Wilshire Boulevard, where some of the large department stores sell fur products, had the biggest turnout in 10 years, Bill Dyer of In Defense of Animals said. Dyer said that some of the protesters were augmented by people from Last Chance for Animals, a group headed by Chris De Rose. The protest has become an annual event in upscale Beverly Hills on the day after Thanksgiving since the first demonstration 19 years ago, he said.
11/24/2006 PARTY FOR THE ANIMALS GAINS 2 PARLIAMENTARY SEATS IN THE NETHERLANDS!
On Wednesday, November 22, the Dutch political Party of the Animals gained 2 seats in the 150-member legislature in The Netherlands. This makes the Netherlands the first country in the world in which a party for animal welfare is elected into a representative body of the people. 'We are thrilled with such a wonderful result of our campaign', says party leader Marianne Thieme. 'Finally we can start realizing our party's highest priority, namely ending all animal suffering. We want a constitutional amendment, guaranteeing animals the right to freedom from pain, fear and stress caused by humans. Let's begin with easing the suffering of the hundreds of millions of cows, pigs and chickens stuck in factory farming', she said. Thieme feels success in the Netherlands could help the movement elsewhere. One of the party's purposes is to be an inspiration for other countries and animal rights activists.
11/23/2006 SHANGHAI CANCELS 'ANIMAL OLYMPICS' AFTER CRUELTY COMPLAINTS!
A Shanghai zoo said Tuesday it had canceled a show dubbed the 'Animal Olympics' following accusations of cruelty from animal welfare groups. The show was scrapped 'out of consideration for the safety of our visitors,' said a woman who answered the phone at the Shanghai Wild Animal Park's publicity department. However, the Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted a park official, Su Feilong, as saying that a negative public response had prompted the cancellation. The show had featured animals in athletic-type situations, such as boxing matches between kangaroos and their keepers, bears fighting and riding bicycles, and an elephant tug-of-war.
11/22/2006 EU PROPOSES TO BAN SALE OF DOG AND CAT FUR!
The European Union's executive commission proposed Monday to extend a ban on the sale, import and production of dog and cat fur to all 25 EU nations, saying the measure was taken a response to an overwhelming public outcry. 'Just the idea of young children playing with toys which have been made with dog and cat fur is really something we cannot accept,' said Markos Kyprianou, the commission's consumer protection commissioner. 'In Europe, as you know, cats and dogs are considered companion animals and nothing else.'
11/21/2006 SCIENTISTS CALL FOR DEEP-SEA TRAWLING BAN!
Scientists have called for a worldwide ban on deep-sea trawling following a major UN-backed report on the damage it is causing to vulnerable deep-sea corals. Scientific evidence has been mounting that deep-sea bottom trawling, which involves dragging nets over the summits of submerged mountains called seamounts, can do long-lasting damage to the ecosystems. But countries such as Spain, Russia, Canada and South Korea have defended the practice, arguing that no one could be sure which areas to avoid. The UK government supports a moratorium. The US, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Germany and France are some of the countries which support a temporary ban.
11/20/2006 500 CALVES REPORTED ABUSED AND KILLED!
The Let the Animals Live organization reported the death of some 500 calves that were being held at the Veterinary Services' Ayalot and Tzofar quarantine stations in the Arava. According to the animal rights group, the calves, which arrived in Israel from Australia by ship at the beginning of the month, had been subjected to much abuse and mistreatment on their journey. The calves had been destined for accelerated feeding over a number of months and then slaughter. A statement released by Let the Animals Live described the matter as the routine practice of the abuse of sheep and calves that are shipped to Israel from Australia under very crowded conditions and without sufficient air. The journey, the organization notes, also exposes them to disease.
11/19/2006 COMPANY RECALLS MEAT DUE TO BREACH OF BSE SAFETY RULES!
A Northern Ireland company is recalling thousands of cuts of meat sold in the UK, France, Italy and Spain after a breach of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) safety procedures allowed an untested cow into the food chain. The incident comes only months after the EU relaxed restrictions on the sale of UK meat to the continent on the condition that it maintained stringent testing controls and it occurred because of human error when a 54-month-old cow was wrongly identified as being less than 30 months old.
11/18/2006 10-MILLION HEN COMPLEX PLANNED!
China's Dalian Hanwei Group announced it plans to establish a new layer complex with capacity of 10 million commercial birds, in Fuxin in northeast China's Liaoning Province. The company explained the details of the project during the 2006 China Animal Husbandry Expo. More than 100 relevant suppliers from around the world are attending the expo. The Hanwei Group says the new complex will include facilities from grandparent breeding to commercial farming, as well as an egg powder factory and a meat processing plant. The total investment will be around CNY 1.8 billion (USD 228.6 million). According to Han Xingqi, Vice President of Hanwei Group, the complex is due to be operational in the next two years. Headquartered at the peninsula of Dalian in east Liaoning, Hanwei Group is already the largest egg producer in China. It currently produces 58,000 metric tons of eggs a year with 3 million commercial layers. Its products are sold to other Asian countries including Japan and Korea, under the 'Gegeda' brand.
11/17/2006 WARM WEATHER WRECKS BEARS' WINTER SLUMBER!
Moscow, (Reuters Life!) - Insomniac bears are roaming the forests of southwestern Siberia scaring local people as the weather stays too warm for the animals to fall into their usual winter slumber. The furry mammals escape harsh winters by going to sleep in October-November for around six months, but in the snowless Kemerovo region where the weather is unseasonably warm, bears have no desire yet to hibernate. 'Due to weather conditions, bears didn't go into the winter sleep in time,' said Tatiana Maslova, chief expert at a regional environmental agency in the city of Kemerovo, about 3,500 km southeast of Moscow. 'Our teams are making sure there is no damage to farming and to local residents,' she told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that every patch of land is watched by a specially assigned inspector.
11/16/2006 JAPAN PUBLICLY ANNOUNCES FLEET DEPARTURE!
Japan's research whaling fleet is planning to kill 850 minke and 10 fin whales on its annual hunt in the Antarctic, the Fisheries Agency announced the day before yesterday. The six-ship fleet left from the southern port of Shimonoseki to begin this year's hunt, the agency said in a statement. It said the fleet had a target of 850 minke whales, a relatively small and plentiful species, along with 10 of the fin species, which is larger and more rare. It will return to Japan next April. Japan, the world's largest consumer of seafood, is strongly opposed to the global ban on commercial whaling imposed by the International Whaling Commission 20 years ago.
11/15/2006 HUMAN-ANIMAL MIXING GOING TOO FAR!
Scientists are going too far in creating mixed human-animal organisms, a Scottish organization is warning. The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, a professional group based in Edinburgh, has published a report on the ethical implications of the practice in the journal Human Reproduction and Genetic Ethics. An array of experiments have produced animals with some human cells. Such procedures 'mix human and animal biological elements to such an extent that it questions the very concept of being entirely human,' the report said. This raises 'grave and complex ethical difficulties.' Some ethicists worry that the experiments might force society to make confounding decisions on whether a human-chimp mix would have human rights. The report is online at www.schb.org.uk.
11/14/2006 BEIJING EXECUTES DOGS IN MASS CULL!
On Tuesday, November 7th, the Beijing Municipal government started a massive canine killing campaign aimed at eradicating large-breed dogs, unregistered dogs and smaller dogs who exceed the one dog per family quota. At this time, it is not known how many dogs have been killed or will be killed in the coming days as the cull continues. Beijing's brutal actions are reminiscent of a rabies cull conducted in August of this year in the southeastern county of Mouding in Yunnan Province. Officials there ordered the brutal execution of nearly 55,000 dogs – 90% of the region's canines – over a five-day period because of a rabies scare. Authorities bludgeoned most of these dogs to death right in front of their guardians, while poisoning, hanging or electrocuting others.
11/13/2006 GOATS KILLED BY MOD IN TESTS ON SUBMARINES!
British military scientists routinely subject goats to severe pain and fatal injury as part of their research on navy submarines, the government has admitted. Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, confirmed in parliament that live goats were placed in chambers which were then depressurised to simulate an emergency aboard a submarine. Ministry of Defence scientists use goats in the test because, they say, their reactions are similar to those of humans.
11/12/2006 ANIMAL-FRIENDLY MARIAH CAREY GIVES AWAY FUR COATS!
Mariah has given away a mink fur coat to a Mongolian yak herder because she hates wearing fur. The diva was given two long mink coats by a member of the Russian Government after she performed at his birthday celebrations earlier this year, but she donated them to animal rights group PETA. PETA kept one of the coats to use as part of its protests, but the second coat was donated to a Mongolian yak herder to help keep him warm in winter. But the coat got lost in the post on the way to him. PETA says the shipping company responsible have agreed to pay $7,500 for the lost coat, which 'will buy a lot of paint'.
11/11/2006 NAVRATILOVA PROTESTS 'GAY SHEEP' RESEARCH!
Tennis icon Martina Navratilova has condemned hormone-altering experiments on 'gay sheep' at Oregon State University and Oregon Health and Science University. The research seeks to manipulate the sheep's sexual preferences and make them heterosexual. The tests are funded by taxpayers through the year 2008. According to the animal rights group PETA, Oregon Health and Science University experimenter Charles Roselli is medicating sheep to prevent the actions of hormones in their fetal brains. Roselli is also dissecting the brains of 'male-oriented' (homosexual) rams in order to find the hormonal mechanisms behind homosexual tendencies. Once found, he hopes to change them.
11/10/2006 JAPANESE WHALERS MURDER 35 PIKED WHALES!
The outlaw whalers of Japan have illegally slaughtered 35 Piked whales off the Japanese Island of Hokkaido. The killing over the last month was justified as 'scientific whaling' although the meat was sent directly to market upon landing. The Japanese whalers attempted to kill 60 whales but were foiled by bad weather. Japanese whaling is out of control and illegal whaling is escalating. The Japanese Antarctic fleet departs this month with the objective of slaughtering 1070 Piked whales and 170 Bryde's, Sei, Sperm and Fin whales in the Southern Oceans. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society intends to confront the Japanese fleet in December.
11/09/2006 CITIZEN ATTACKED FOR WANTING TO ADOPT A DOG!
On November 3rd in town Sviljanac, Serbia, a member of four Serbian NGOs for animal protection Goran Gruin in his attempt to save his dog from 'shinters-dog catchers' was attacked and beaten up by workers of communal Enterprise 'Morava'. After whole ordeal, Goran and his family went to the doctor where they were diagnosed with severe stress condition, Goran with several bruises on his neck. His two daughters were in big shock and were crying trough the night… All that Goran wanted to do was to save a life, and he got nightmare to come, as dog he wanted to rescue was killed later.
11/08/2006 NLG OPPOSES ANIMAL ENTERPRISE TERRORISM ACT!
Washington – The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) strongly opposes the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (H.R. 4239/S. 3880 (as amended and passed by the Senate)). On September 29, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved S. 3880, the Senate version of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). If enacted into law, the Act could define as a terrorist act any activity causing a business classified as an 'animal enterprise' to suffer a profit loss-even if such financial decline is caused by peaceful protests, boycotts, media campaigns or leafleting. 'The government is engaging in Orwellian newspeak by labeling activists as terrorists. It's wrong to enact legislation that punishes the same action more severely if it is committed for political reasons. The AETA is a misguided and dangerous piece of legislation,' said Guild Executive Director Heidi Boghosian.
11/08/2006 FARMER GOES TO JAIL FOR ANIMAL CRUELTY!
A farmer convicted of animal cruelty has been sentenced to 28 days' jail - while the State confiscates the entire stock of his farm. Martin McAndrew of Cornhill, Pollatomas north Mayo had earlier been ordered to dispose of all of his cattle and sheep within six weeks. But when he appeared again before Belmullet District Court he agreed he still had 25 sheep and 25 cattle, as well as 'four pet sheep'. An Agriculture Department inspector who visited the farm on October 2 said many of the animals were lame, emaciated and blind.
11/07/2006 AFTER 132 YEARS PHILADELPHIA SENDS OF ITS ELEPHANTS!
When the Philadelphia Zoo, the nation's first, opened in 1874, its curators bought an elephant from a traveling circus and chained it to a tree, delighting children and adults who had never seen such an animal up close. Over the ensuing 132 years, elephants have been a big part of the zoo's attraction. This spring, though, the zoo's affair with elephants will end. Instead of expanding the space for the exhibit, the zoo's board of directors has decided to put the money elsewhere. The herd of four elephants will be split between the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore and an elephant sanctuary in central Tennessee. The current thought among experts in the animal world, particularly the members of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, is that elephants need room to roam. Even with conscientious veterinarians and keepers, they say, quarter-acre habitats like the one in Philadelphia are not sufficient for the world’s largest land mammal. Zoos in Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco and the Bronx have also decided to eliminate their elephant exhibits.
11/05/2006 DUTCH RESCUE SUCCEEDS IN SAVING HORSES!
A herd of horses marooned on a lowland knoll for three days by rising floodwaters waded to safety on Friday, led by wranglers following an underwater path marked out by half-submerged stakes. The horses were neck deep at times and had to swim at some spots, especially the foals. But they began to canter as they neared the edge of the brackish water, and burst into a gallop once they reached solid land, apparently relieved at being able to stretch their legs. The plight of the herd of about 100 horses has gripped the Netherlands since a storm surge Tuesday night pushed sea water into the wilderness area outside the dikes of Marrum, a town 90 miles northeast of Amsterdam. Before they could be saved, 19 of the horses drowned or died of exposure. Several rescued by boat earlier in the week have contracted lung infections.
11/04/2006 MONTENEGRO SEIZES SIBERIAN TIGERS FROM SMUGGLERS!
Montenegrin police have seized two Siberian tigers and arrested three people for trying to smuggle the endangered animals. The tigers, a male and a female, were found in a van at Petrovici village, near the town of Niksic on a road that connects Montenegro and Bosnia, in a regular police check on the vehicle, police told Dan newspaper Wednesday. The three suspects, two of them from Serbia and a Montenegrin national, face charges of trafficking a protected species, which the daily added were each worth around 300,000 euros (380,000 dollars). They were detained after police inspected their papers and discovered that they had illegally crossed the border with Bosnia, probably using a mountain road route. Siberian tigers, the largest of all tiger subspecies, were hunted nearly to extinction by the mid-20th century. Fewer than 400 of the animals remain in the wild.
11/03/2006 ELEPHANT WASTING AWAY AT ST. LOUIS ZOO!
As the St. Louis Zoo celebrates the birth of a new baby elephant, Clara, a 53-year old elephant at the zoo, slowly and painfully wastes away. Captured from the wild as an infant, Clara has spent her life in St. Louis confined to the Zoo's tiny yards and concrete barn stalls. She suffers from painful arthritis, chronic foot abscesses and sole erosions as a direct result of the cramped and unnatural zoo environment.
11/02/2006 KANGAROO MEAT NOW POPULAR MENU ITEM IN AUSTRALIA!
Adelaide - In the 1960s, kangaroo was sold mostly as dog food, making it an odd but cheap eat for students. These days, the lean red meat - curried or otherwise - is ubiquitous, appearing as steaks, sausages and meat pies at grocers and fine restaurants here nationwide. Rachel McNamara, a lawyer and mother from Sydney, was quoted as saying, 'It used to be a bizarre thing served up (at huge cost) to tourists. Now Safeway stocks kangaroo sausages and patties as an everyday item.' The selling of kangaroo for human consumption has been legal in South Australia since 1980, and for the rest of the country only since 1993. Since then, the eating of kangaroo has grown considerably, fuelled in part by tourism. Exports have grown, too, going from almost nothing in 1989 to US$20 million in 2001, according to a report commissioned by the federal government. Even the nation's food magazines have caught on, showcasing recipes for 'roo lasagna or 'roo stew.
The number of news found: 29.
