News
The number of news found: 29.
12/31/2006 POLAR BEAR TO THREATENED LIST!
Polar bears are in deep trouble because of global warming and other factors and deserve federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration is proposing Wednesday. Pollution and overhunting also threaten their existence. Greenland and Norway have the most polar bears, but almost 5,000 live mainly in Alaska and travel to Canada and Russia. The 'endangered' category is reserved for species more likely to become extinct. Such a decision would require all federal agencies to ensure that anything they authorize that might affect polar bears will not jeopardize their survival or the sea ice where they live. That could include oil and gas exploration, commercial shipping or even releases of toxic contaminants or climate-affecting pollution.
12/30/2006 MAJOR JAPANESE SUPERMARKET CHAIN BANS SALES OF DOLPHIN MEAT!
On December 26, 2006, the director of food products for the Okuwa Supermarket Corporation, Mr. Yasunari, banned the sale of all dolphin meat in all of their stores. The ban on dolphin meat is official, and the supermarket chain will decide if the ban is to be permanent after they test their own samples.
12/28/2006 DIDDY APOLOGISES FOR FUR MISTAKE!
P Diddy has issued an apology to an animal rights group following a mix-up with fake and real fur. The rapper's clothing range, Sean John, was recently found to have used raccoon dog fur in the hood of its jackets. The Humane Society Of The United States were naturally incensed, demanding an explanation from the star. Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, claims the incident was accidental, and has promised it will not be repeated. 'I was unaware of the nature of this material, but as soon as we were alerted, the garments were pulled off the Macy's floor and website,' he said. 'I have instructed our licensee to cease the production of any garment using this material immediately.'
12/27/2006 'OPERATION LEVIATHAN' HAS BEEN LAUNCHED!
The Japanese pirate whaling fleet has departed from Japan on a mission to defy international law and international public opinion and slaughter over 1,000 whales in the Southern Ocean in December of 2006 and January of 2007. In 'Operation Leviathan' Sea Shepherd will meet them - with two ships, two crews, and the steadfast determination to stop these whale killers. Their objective is to place themselves in harm's way to protect these gentle, intelligent, and socially complex sentient beings. Sea Shepherd courageous crews are willing to sacrifice their holidays away from their families and willing to risk their lives in one of the most hostile regions on this planet against on of the most ruthless adversaries on this planet.
12/26/2006 ANIMAL STUDIES OF 'LIMITED USE'!
Tests of drugs on animals are not reliable in all cases, a study warns. The British Medical Journal research looked at studies in six areas and found animal studies agreed with human trials in just three. The high-profile London drug trial which left six men ill was carried out after animal studies showed the drug TGN1412 was effective.
12/25/2006 CHINA ENDS DOG CRACKDOWN!
Tens of thousands of letters from concerned animal lovers around the world and across China have persuaded Chinese President Hu Jintao to halt a national anti-dog crackdown. The 'South China Morning Post' quoted the Chinese President as saying he 'was unhappy about the complaints and international media coverage' of the crackdown. Police in Beijing and other Chinese cities sparked outrage by entering the homes of dog owners and confiscating dogs that were either unlicensed or over 35 centimeters (14 inches) tall. Some dogs were reportedly beaten to death in front of their guardians.
12/24/2006 NEW DATABASE OF ALTERNATIVES TO ANIMAL TESTING!
A database of alternative methods to animal experiments has been published online by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), a body within the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). The service provides factual information, presented as evaluated data sheets on various aspects of advanced and alternative techniques for toxicology assessments. It is expected to be of particular interest to national authorities, the scientific community and the animal welfare movement. The database includes method-summary descriptions and protocols for their performance, evaluation studies, details on formal validation studies and individual test results. The facility is likely to take on increased significance with the implementation of the REACH Directive on chemicals. The obligation to test chemicals will mean a rise in animal testing in the short term. The Commission has however stated that it is committed to finding more alternative methods for chemicals testing.
12/23/2006 CHRISTINA RICCI CAVES IN TO PETA OVER FUR FURORE!
The actress, who was named by PETA as one of the worst dressed celebrities of 2006 because of her penchant for animal hide, has vowed to be fur free in the future. Christina, 26, has now written a letter to PETA apologising for her actions, which read: 'After being named on the PETA worst dressed list for wearing fur, I have been deluged with angry and disappointed fans. I never meant to hurt nor anger anyone with my insensitivity. For what it is worth I have received the message loud and clear and will not be wearing fur in the future. I apologise for my offensive actions.' A PETA representative says Christina has now been removed from the worst dressed list. They added: 'We have sent her a basket of cruelty-free goodies to thank her for her compassionate decision.'
12/22/2006 AUSTRALIAN FIRES KILL THOUSANDS OF NATIVE ANIMALS!
Hundreds of thousands of native Australian animals such as koalas and kangaroos have been killed in bushfires that have burnt across southeast Australia in the past two weeks, wildlife officials said on Monday. The bushfires, which are still burning in three eastern states, have been so big and intense that wildlife officials fear some species may become extinct as the fires destroy large swathes of animal habitats.
12/21/2006 20% OF ANIMAL BREEDS ARE AT RISK OF EXTINCTION!
Around 20 percent of animal breeds are at risk of extinction, with one breed lost each month, FAO said. Of the more than 7,600 breeds in FAO's global database of farm animal genetic resources, 190 have become extinct in the past 15 years and a further 1 500 are considered at risk of extinction. Some 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have been lost over the last five years, according to a draft document presented in Rome, when over 150 participants from more than 90 countries met at FAO headquarters to review the report’s findings and to discuss priorities for action to reverse the loss of animal genetic diversity worldwide.
12/20/2006 INDIA: MOON BEAR BURNED ALIVE!
In what must surely rank as one of the most brutal and insensitive cases of animal torture in India, a Himalayan Black Bear (Moon Bear) was encircled by a group of villagers in Pir Panjar in Jammu and Kashmir who stoned, hammered and eventually set the animal on fire alive. Sahara Rashtriya, a national channel, did a special episode on this gruesome incident and aired footage of the killing for well over an hour. The Forest Department personnel and the police were present on the spot but chose not to act. People from all over the country have protested this barbarism and have called for action against the villagers who mobbed the animal. The creature was killed and carried in a cart with hordes of villagers celebrating its death.
12/19/2006 CHINA'S WHITE DOLPHIN CALLED EXTINCT AFTER 20 MILLION YEARS!
An expedition searching for a rare Yangtze River dolphin ended Wednesday without a single sighting and with the team's leader saying one of the world's oldest species was effectively extinct. The white dolphin known as baiji, shy and nearly blind, dates back some 20 million years. Its disappearance is believed to be the first time in a half-century, since hunting killed off the Caribbean monk seal, that a large aquatic mammal has been driven to extinction. A few baiji may still exist in their native Yangtze habitat in eastern China but not in sufficient numbers to breed and ward off extinction, said August Pfluger, the Swiss co-leader of the joint Chinese-foreign expedition. (AP)
12/18/2006 BARCELONA TO BE LEFT WITHOUT BULLFIGHTS!
Spain's second-biggest city Barcelona will be left without bullfights from 2008 onwards, the daily El Pais reported Friday. The company managing the 93-year-old monumental bullring will close it due to loss of more than 24,000 euros ($31,500) per bullfight. The region of Catalonia is known for its critical attitude towards the 'national spectacle' the rest of Spain takes pride in, but the decision to close the bullring was taken by the company without interference from the city council, according to El Pais. Deputy Mayor Jordi Portabella wants to convert the bullring into an open-air market. The Barcelona city council adopted a motion expressing its opposition to bullfights in 2004. More than 20 Catalan municipalities have declared themselves 'anti-bullfight', often closing their bullrings. Polls show that over 70 percent of Catalans back the abolition of the spectacle.
12/17/2006 EU PARLIAMENT PASSES NEW CHEMICAL STANDARD!
Call it the vote heard 'round the world: on 13 Dec the E.U. parliament passed a landmark law that has global bizfolk quivering. REACH - Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals - requires about 30,000 chemicals to be registered with a new agency, with about 1,500 of the most harmful facing extra scrutiny. 'This deal is an early Christmas present for the chemicals industry, rewarding it for its intense and underhand lobbying campaign,' said parliament member Caroline Lucas. 'It's a poor use of time, energy, and resources,' said Steven Russell of the American Chemistry Council. 'A really historic amount of work and expense will have to focus on the implementation.'
12/16/2006 WORLD'S TALLEST MAN SAVES DOLPHINS IN CHINA!
Beijing - The long arms of the world's tallest man reached in and saved two dolphins by pulling plastic material out of their stomachs, state media and an aquarium official said Thursday. The dolphins got sick after nibbling on plastic from the edge of their pool at an aquarium in Liaoning province. Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins' stomachs contracted in response to the instruments, the China Daily newspaper reported. Veterinarians then decided to ask for help from Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia with 41.7-inch arms, state media said.
12/15/2006 DONKEY 'BULLFIGHT' ANGERS SPANISH ANIMAL WELFARE GROUP!
Spanish animal rights campaigners expressed disgust after they found out that a blindfolded donkey was dragged into the ring to 'fight' a bull during a bullfight near Madrid. 'This is really unthinkable and indeed against the law,' said Ivan Salvia, welfare officer for donkey refuge 'El Refugio del Burrito.' The refuge said it discovered footage that appeared at the weekend on the YouTube website from the bullfight with the donkey in a small village north of Madrid in mid-September.
12/14/2006 ILLEGAL HUNTING 'WIPING OUT MONGOLIA'S MAMMALS'!
Illegal hunting and trade is pushing some Mongolian animals like the snow leopard to the brink of extinction, conservationists warned on Tuesday. The saiga antelope, wild camel, and Gobi bear are also highly threatened, along with other mammals and 11 species of fish, according to the first comprehensive Red List for Mongolian mammals. There are fewer than 50 Gobi bears, only about 460 wild camels and an estimated 1,000 snow leopard left in the landlocked country between Russia and China where half the 2.8 million people are nomadic herders.
12/12/2006 VIRGINIA MAN HAS MAD COW DISEASE!
Health officials have confirmed that a Saudi-born man living in Virginia has a human form of mad cow disease. It's the third time such a case has been reported in the U.S., health officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a statement on its website which said the man has variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, a brain-destroying illness believed to be caused by eating beef products from cattle infected with mad cow.
12/11/2006 GLOBAL WARMING WILL STIFLE OCEANS!
Global warming will stifle life-giving microscopic plants that live in the surface layer of the oceans, cutting marine food production and accelerating climate change, according to a study published on Wednesday. Phytoplankton are not only the foundation of the marine food chain, but every day they take more than 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, scientists from Oregon State University, NASA and four other institutions said. But as global warming heats the surface layer of the ocean it becomes lighter and therefore separated from the cooler depths from which the phytoplankton get many of their nutrients.
12/10/2006 OECD SETS NEW GUIDELINES FOR ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS!
An estimated 2.5 million live animal experiments were authorized in Great Britain in the year 2000 alone. Legislation passed in 1822 has significantly limited the procedures and freedom scientists have with laboratory animals. The process is now even stricter - preventing a free-for-all rule overuse of animals. It is clear however, that no amount of policy will prevent the animals from being boarded, experimented on and killed for the sake of science.
12/09/2006 FUR-LOVING MADONNA STEPS OUT IN CHINCHILLA COAT!
Madonnna has infuriated animal lovers by stepping out in a fur coat, according to the reports in London's Daily Mail. She was dining with husband Guy Ritchie at Cecconi's restaurant in Mayfair, wearing a coat made from 40 chinchillas, estimated at £35,000. Madonna, 48, has enraged animal rights activists in the past by not only wearing fur in films like Evita, but also in everyday life. In 2001 the singer wore a fox fur hat in London. The £1000 Cossack-style headgear was made to order by Philip Treacy and would have used the pelts of up to five foxes, the Daily Mail said. The following year Madonna upset her friend Stella McCartney when she wore a coat made of lamb foetuses. A Peta spokeswoman said: 'For that furry look, it's easy to have a look that kills without killing animals by using synthetic fur. We hope Madonna's recent acts of kindness have moved her to extend her compassion to animals.'
12/08/2006 LIDL STOPS SELLING FOIE-GRAS!
Campaigning animal group Viva! has congratulated supermarket chain Lidl for their decision to end the sale of foie-gras in all of their British stores. The move follows Viva! providing the chain with evidence showing the cruelty behind its production. Foie-gras is not produced in Britain, as the Government has made it clear that its production would contravene existing animal welfare regulations. However, it is legal to import it. Its production has also been outlawed in Poland, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Israel.
12/07/2006 DOG TUNNELS THROUGH SNOW TO SAVE GUARDIANS!
A seven year old German Shepherd - Timberwolf mixed dog named Shana is quite a canine hero in Alden as the story spreads of her efforts to save her owners during the October surprise storm. Eve and Norman Fertig, who are both 81 years old, were out treating injured birds in the Wildlife Sanctuary on their Alden property on the night of October 12th. They left as the storm intensified but, were soon trapped by falling trees and heavy snow as they tried to walk back to their home. Eve realized they could die in the bitter cold but, fortunately, Shana was with them. As the cold and snow chilled them both without heavy coats and gloves, Shana started digging under the snow and trees. The dog actually dug a foot wide tunnel about 20 feet to the home. Shana barked but, the couple hesitated, so they say the dog came back and tugged on Eve's jacket. She says the 160 pound dog actually pulled her onto its broad back and crawled through the tunnel. Her husband held on as well as they slowly crawled all the way back to their home. They made it back to the back deck, opened their door and fell in to the house exhausted but safe.
12/06/2006 ANIMALS KILLED WITH CLUBS AND PITCH!
In a Romanian village, stray dogs were thrown alive in a pot hole and let there to die. There were other reports of dogs being savagely beaten with clubs and tortured with molten tar in the nearby city, Cluj-Napoca. Recently, eight dogs were found beaten to death in a unsupervised shelter. Most likely thieves bothered by their barking tried to kill them since the dogs were tied and couldn't defend or run.
12/05/2006 PFIZER ENDS STUDIES ON DRUG FOR HEART DISEASE!
Pfizer announced that it had discontinued research on its most important experimental drug, a treatment for heart disease. The decision is a stunning development that is likely to seriously damage the company's prospects through the next decades. Preliminary research found that the drug, torcetrapib, appeared to be linked with deaths and heart problems in the patients who were taking it. For people with heart disease, Pfizer's decision to stop the trial represents the failure of a drug that many cardiologists had viewed as a potentially major advance in efforts to reduce heart attacks and strokes. Pfizer is the world's biggest drug company, with 106,000 employees and $51 billion in sales in 2005.
12/04/2006 ANIMALS PARTY AT THE UK PARLIAMENT!
Animals Count will be the first UK party ever to put animals at the top of the political agenda. It will encourage other political parties to raise the bar as long as they fail to protect the weaker individuals of our society. 'With half the EC budget going on unnecessary livestock subsidies, there's never been a better time to re-examine tax payers' money spent on unsustainable farming methods that are associated with poor animal welfare and human health,' says Animals Count party founder Jasmijn de Boo, 31, who was a candidate for the Dutch 'Party for the Animals' in the 2004 European Parliament elections. This party won two seats in the Dutch Parliament on 22 November 2006 in their third elections in three years. Public support for animal welfare is growing fast in Britain. Over 3 million people support animal charities and donations total 500 million pounds. Due to public pressure fox hunting, fur farming and testing on animals for cosmetics have already been banned in the UK. This was followed by the enforcement of the new UK and Scottish Animal Welfare Act in November 2006. The Acts include a statutory duty to care for animals, higher penalties for animal abuse and grants extended power to inspectors to seize animals that are suffering or in danger of suffering (preventive action).
12/03/2006 TWO TONS OF PIGS' HEADS SPILLED IN GERMANY!
A truck spilled two tons of pigs' heads on a road in western Germany, giving passing drivers a shock. The truck turned off a highway in Herne, in the Ruhr region. As the driver accelerated away from a traffic light, the door of the trailer opened, spilling the severed heads onto the road. It took emergency workers - with the assistance of a forklift - about two hours to load the heads back onto the truck.
12/02/2006 EUROPE'S FIRST CAPTIVE BORN BELUGA DEAD AT 25 DAYS!
Valencia, Spain - A baby beluga whale born in a Spanish marine park - the first beluga whale born in captivity in Europe - has died at the age of 25 days. Officials at the Oceanographic park in Valencia said Tuesday that the whale had died the previous day. While the exact cause of the young mammal's death remained uncertain, 'the incident probably occurred because the young whale never adapted to artificial milk,' a park statement said. The beluga's 8-year-old mother, Yulka, is the youngest whale to give birth in captivity.
12/01/2006 LIVESTOCK A MAJOR THREAT TO ENVIRONMENT!
According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation. With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairy products every year. Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes.
The number of news found: 29.
