NEW YORK (AP) New Yorkers are split over what to do about 220 of the city's most beloved urban animals the carriage horses that offer rides through Central Park. ''Set them free!'' shouted horse advocates in front of City Hall on Friday during the first public hearing on a proposed ban on the horses and their carriages.
Carriage drivers say the animals are well cared for and happy, and that the legislation would needlessly wipe out 400 jobs during an economic crisis. ''Please, help me keep my job,'' begged Kierman Emanus, a driver and representative of Teamsters Local 553, during he hearing chaired by the city's Department of Consumer Affairs. He said the carriage business feeds his family.
Council member Tony Avella, a Queens Democrat, proposed banning the carriages two years ago after a spooked horse raced through the streets and crashed into a car. It had to be euthanized. Since then, Avella said three more animals have died.
He and activists have argued that Manhattan, with its heavy traffic, exhaust fumes and cramped stables, is no place for horses. The Coalition for New York City Animals said it has collected 35,000 signatures in support of Avella's bill.
City tourism officials and people involves in the carriage industry, though, have said the activists are overreacting. ''We believe horse-drawn carriages are part of the fabric and integrity of New York City,'' said George Fertitta, CEO of the city's tourism organization, NYC & Company. Carriage drivers favor an alternative proposal to raise the price of a ride and set some new regulations to ensure that the horses are healthy.
Yesturday SHACtivists in Birmingham held protests against 2 branches of Barclays Bank in the city centre, these protests were done in co--ordination with Italian activists launching their campaign against Barclays across Italy.
Barclays Plc are currently investing in Huntingdon Death Sciences, a lab which murders 500 animals every single day of the week are experiencing regular protests in which every time they lose more and more business.
We arrived at the first branch, to which we were greeted by sarcastic smiles and laughs from the staff inside. However their smiles suddenly dropped when their newly aware customers learnt of the filth that Barclays has invested in, every single customer in there left their branch and it was left completely empty for a while! Of course we responded with nice big shiny smiles...
The fun went on as their customers went in to close their accounts and made complaints to them for their unethical investments. We're sure that gave them plenty of things to grin about. Obviously they were enthralled by our presence, because soon to arrive were the police, who fortunately didn't have much to say - and so they shouldn't as we were, as always, conducting a legal and peaceful protest. The police then left us to carry on with our protes .
Barclays had customers completely abandoning the bank at regular intervals throughout the protest, because of just who and what this bank has invested in. Plenty of people went in to complain and close their accounts, we had lots of support from the public who took leaflets and some who asked about getting involved with the SHAC campaign.
Similar public support happened with our next protest at the other Barclays branch, and today Barclays in Birmingham have been very named and shamed.
Is Recent Jailing of Anti-HLS Activists a Call to Action?
31-01-2009 Animal Liberation Press Office, USA, IndyMedia, UK
CAMPAIGN AGAINST ANIMAL CRUELTY CONTINUES DESPITE GOVERNMENT REPRESSION Is Recent Jailing of Anti-HLS Activists a Call to Action?
With the recent sentencing of seven activists to long prison terms in the UK for protesting animal torture at notorious contract-testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences, authorities and the animal abusers they protect have drawn a line in the sand. Those who advocate effectively for animals must now either scurry for cover, or rise up stronger to finally abolish the exploitation, oppression, torture and killing of innocent non-human animals for greed, convenience and pleasure.
On January 21, 2009, British courts sentenced seven animal rights activists to prison terms ranging from 4 to 11 years; the sentences totaled an astounding 50 years. The seven activists were members of the group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, better known as SHAC, whose mission is to lead the global campaign to stop the killing of animals by Huntingdon Life Sciences. Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is a contract research organization based in the United States, after fleeing from England as a result of the activist campaign there that exposed the cruelty and animal abuse taking place at HLS. They kill roughly 500 animals daily testing household products like oven cleaner, as well as pharmaceuticals for companies as big as Glaxo and Novartis.
The activists sentenced are: Heather Nicholson – 11 years, Gregg Avery – 9 years, Natasha Avery – 9 years, Gavin Medd-Hall – 8 years, Daniel Wadham – 5 years, Daniel Amos – 4 years and Gerrah Selby – 3 years. Justice Butterfield, who branded the activists "urban terrorists", handed down the sentences after convictions of "conspiracy to blackmail", a charge that requires a low threshold of proof. None of the activists was accused of harming anyone or even causing any property damage.
Upon hearing Justice Butterfield’s remarks, Press Officer Camille Hankins commented: "The real terrorists are the ones that are torturing and killing animals at places like Huntingdon Life Sciences. Justice Butterfield must not have seen the videotape of the atrocities committed at Huntingdon Life Sciences, which included a beagle puppy being punched in the face and a monkey being cut open alive."
Despite the imprisonment of some of the defendants for over 18 months as they awaited trial, SHAC has continued to plague Huntingdon Life Sciences. According to a recent financial statement, with outstanding debt of $75 million and a plummeting share price, Huntingdon Life Sciences recently announced that they were downsizing their company and planning a move back to England in hopes of securing additional financing to keep them afloat.
In November 2008, HLS reported having lost two key contracts, resulting in an immediate and steep drop in share price. Huntingdon Life Sciences, trading under the name Life Sciences Research (ticker symbol LSR on the NYSE ARCA Exchange) had previously reached a high of $39.30 per share. After a steady and rapid decline, on January 27, 2009, they traded at a low of $6.73, their lowest share price in several years. Hankins speculated: "In light of the current economy and the ramping up of the global campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, it would not surprise me if they filed for bankruptcy in the very near future."
News of the sentences elicited an immediate response from the global network of activists working on the campaign. Solidarity actions and demonstrations are being staged throughout the United Kingdom and around the world. In Moscow, sixty activists protested at the Moscow office of AstraZeneca, one of Huntingdon Life Sciences most important clients. In New York City, the group Win Animal Rights held 3 days of solidarity protests at the homes of investors and customers of Huntingdon Life Sciences. One protest was held at the Central Park West home of Andrew Baker, CEO and Chairman of HLS and another at the home of Robert Kelly, CEO and Chairman of Bank of New York Mellon, one of HLS' largest investors.
"This latest sentencing is a wake up call. Those who suffer the brunt of the state’s repression are those who maintain a high profile in the movement, not those who are clandestinely going about the business of animal liberation…." commented Press Officer and physician Dr. Jerry Vlasak "…The message is clear. Stay safe, stay free and stay anonymous and you can continue to fight for animal liberation by destroying those who exploit, torture and murder innocent animals."
Neither activists nor the system as a whole can accept defeat on behalf of the HLS campaign, so it has become a strategic point of engagement affecting all animal activists. If a retreat is staged, all targets of protest will know activists can be waited out or crushed; yet if HLS goes bankrupt, every bloodthirsty multinational corporation on Earth will know people have the strength, the tools, and the strategy to make them next in line for bankruptcy. This means the "Battle of HLS" has become a meeting engagement, and neither activists nor the animals they defend can afford to lose this fight, no matter what the cost.
ZWOLLE/DEDEMSVAART - Een 58-jarige man uit Dedemsvaart wordt er door justitie in Zwolle van verdacht dat hij beschermde diersoorten in bezit heeft gehad. Het gaat om allerlei soorten kraanvogels. Met het bezitten van die dieren zou de man de flora- en faunawet hebben overtreden.
De Dedemsvaarter is aangeklaagd voor bezit van de kraanvogels in maart en in oktober 2007. Bovendien zou hij aanvragen voor vergunningen hebben vervalst.
Het gaat in totaal om 21 kraanvogels. Van Chinese tot Europese en withalskraanvogels. De strafzaak tegen de 58-jarige man werd vrijdag verdaagd naar een andere datum.
MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (AP) — A rare, 30-foot right whale had to be euthanized after it stranded itself on a remote North Carolina beach, officials said. The whale died Thursday near Cape Lookout, a part of a national seashore reachable by boat or helicopter.
Employees from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service have started a necropsy to try to determine why the 2-year-old whale stranded on the island off Morehead City.
Blair Mase, marine mammal stranding coordinator for NOAA's Southeast region, told The Daily News of Jacksonville that euthanizing the whale was the best course of action. "It was in poor condition," she said. "It had been on the beach since Monday and had started to feel the effects."
Mase said a pilot flying over the area reported the whale Monday. Weather conditions prevented NOAA from sending a crew by boat immediately, but the Coast Guard sent a veterinarian and others by helicopter Wednesday. "They went out while the tide was at its lowest and the helicopter was able to land on the sandbar but they weren't able to stay long," Mase said.
In December, a newborn right whale was euthanized after it became stranded on an Outer Banks beach in Dare County. A biologist said the 15-foot baby whale was in poor condition and couldn't survive without its mother.
North Atlantic right whales are an endangered species, and officials believe there are only about 350 to 400 left.
Das letzte Berliner Adlerpaar brütet nicht mehr. Das Weibchen liegt nach Bleivergiftung im Sterben.
Seit 1999 brütet ein Seeadler-Pärchen am Müggelsee. Jetzt liegt das Weibchen im Sterben. Der Grund: Bleivergiftung. Der Förster fand das völlig geschwächte Tier am Donnerstag in der Nähe von Müggelheim auf dem Boden kauernd.
Der Vogel ist völlig geschwächt, eine Folge der Bleivergiftung
Das Tier wurde sofort in die Tierklinik Düppel gebracht und untersucht. Rainer Altenkamp vom Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz (NABU): "Der Vogel zeigt typische Merkmale einer Bleivergiftung. Seeadler sterben häufig daran, da sie Tiere fressen, die von Jägern geschossen, aber nicht gefunden werden. Mit dem Aas fressen die Adler dann auch die Bleimunition."
Der Seeadler (5 Kilo, Flügellänge 50 Zentimeter) zeigt keine äußeren Verletzungen, aber einen schlechten Ernährungszustand. Durch Blei vergiftete Tiere haben Koordinierungsschwierigkeiten, fliegen häufig gegen Bäume und erblinden schließlich.
Der Experte von der AG Greifvogelschutz: "Die Überlebenschance des Greifs liegt bei nur 3 Prozent. Nachwuchs wie in den letzten 10 Jahren wird es in Berlin nicht geben. Für das Männchen ist es zu spät noch in dieser Brutperiode eine neue Partnerin zu finden."
Der Seeadler: ein stolzer Vogel
Die Adler vom Müggelsee waren das letzte Berliner Paar. Bis vor wenigen Jahren gab es noch einen Horst auf der Pfaueninsel. Das Havel-Pärchen zog es jedoch hinüber auf die Potsdamer Seite der Havel.
ALPHEN - Het Staatscircus van Moskou-Holiday stuit voor de voorstelling met wilde dieren op meer verzet dan alleen van de wethouder en de Partij voor de Dieren. De rechtsextremistische groepering Met de Dieren Tegen de Beesten (MDTB) heeft acties aangekondigd.
De leden vinden dat wilde dieren niet langer mogen optreden in circussen. Die opvatting staat haaks op het standpunt van de Commissie Klassiek Circus. Deze organisatie pleit voor behoud van de optredens met olifanten, leeuwen en apen.
Het hooggeëerd publiek dat in Alphen toch de Bengaalse tijgers en olifant Betty wil zien, kan volgens Martens een kijkje nemen bij de kooien van deze dieren. De gemeente staat bij uitzondering toe dat de wilde beesten meekomen naar de stad. De regel is dat zij niet worden toegelaten.
Martens is in gesprek met de politie over veiligheidsmaatregelen. Hij vreest nachtelijke acties van de rechtsextremisten. Een woordvoerster van de politie bevestigt dat het gesprek met Martens nog gaande is. ,,Er zijn namelijk verschillende opties om het terrein te beveiligen.’’
Zo wordt besproken of het staatscircus geen particulier beveiligingsbedrijf moet inschakelen of het terrein aan de Maatschapslaan kan afsluiten met een hoog hek. Gaat het mis, dan grijpt de politie in. De woordvoerster: ,,We weten wat er speelt rond het circus, dus gebeurt er iets, dan wordt daar meteen op gereageerd.’’
Het circus arriveert maandagmiddag. Woensdag 4 februari zijn er twee voorstellingen. Deze worden op 7 en 8 februari vervolgd. Vanwege de grote belangstelling heeft het staatscircus op de slotdag een extra voorstelling ingelast.
Scientists are concerned that the last of Vietnam’s rhinos may be threatened by an ethnic minority group living in the same Central Highlands area. The Lam Dong Province People’s Committee recently announced it would legally recognize 52 Stieng and Chau Ma ethnic families, who for generations have inhabited a 320- hectare area in Phuoc Cat No. 2 Commune of Cat Tien District. The area is also home to the Cat Loc Rhinoceros Reserve.
The reserve was built in 1992 after the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute discovered several rhinos in a 27,530-hectare area of Cat Loc forest. It was then merged into Cat Tien National Park in 1998.
An endangered rhino in the Cat Loc Rhinoceros Reserve
of Cat Tien National Park in Lam Dong Province
The legal recognition of the families means they will now qualify for development funding to improve the community’s infrastructure, but the park’s Deputy Director Pham Huu Khanh said the community has only received an initial development permit. The permit is temporary, Khanh said, while the central government tries to find enough money to relocate the families out of the rhinos’ territory.
Khanh expressed concern that sooner or later “the demand for land for further cultivation and construction will disturb [and reduce] the rhinos’ area.”
In March 2003, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved a plan to move the families from the area but the project was never carried out. During the 1960s, rhinos were thought to be extinct in Vietnam but in 1988 a hunter killed one near the Dong Nai River in the southern eponymous province, prompting scientists to look for more.
Khanh said there are about five rhinos in Vietnam, living only in Cat Loc forest, but the low quality of food in the area threatens their longevity. Scientists have expressed concern that in the 10 years since the reserve was established, no young rhinos have been born.
Disturbance caused by human activity has been blamed for stressing the animals and discouraging them from reproducing.
Cat Tien Park officials are investigating the exact number and structure of the rhino group to find the best way to preserve them, Khanh said. They have also installed a pool filled with mineral salts to help sustain the rhinos’ health and have fenced off an area to keep them away from nearby locals’ rice fields. “The rhinos are a treasure not only of the park but of the whole world,” said Khanh, noting that “Vietnamese rhinos are facing near extinction.”
He added that another concern is the Dong Nai No. 5 hydropower plant, which has been planned for construction next to the rhinos’ reserve.
According to studies by Gert Polet of the World Wildlife Fund-Vietnam and Cat Tien National Park director Tran Van Mui, Vietnamese rhinos belong to the one-horned Javan species, one of the two rarest and most endangered of five rhino species.
There are only 50-70 Javan rhinos left worldwide, living in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the studies.
A sloth bear that escaped from the Van Vihar National Park here Friday has forest officials in a tizzy as the animal could not be traced despite a nightlong search. The bear was lodged at the park's Bear Rescue Centre run by Wildlife SOS, an NGO, under an agreement with the forest department. 'It managed to come out of the enclosure through a weak link,' park sources said, adding that the escape was detected by officials.
The Van Vihar has a six-feet wall with a six-feet chain link fencing that forms a boundary around the park. 'What is however of bigger concern for the park authorities is that the bear can easily cross the boundary and enter human habitations on the other side,' said a park official. 'Most of the staffers were at home on their weekly off Friday, and had to be rushed to the park on hearing about the incident, but their night-long efforts to trace the bear bore no fruits,' he said.
Park authorities who immediately launched patrolling in vehicles fitted with searchlights to search for the bear did see it twice but could not manage to tranquilise it due to low visibility. 'In case we fail to tranquilise the animal, a decision might be taken to shoot it,' he said.
The park has 37 bears - 18 males, 14 females and five cubs - rescued under the Wildlife Protection Act from the custody of their nomadic masters, better known as Kalandars or bear trainers who make the animals perform tricks.
An Indian sloth bear owner makes his bear dance for paying onlookers at a truck stop at Kosi, about 100km south-west of New Delhi. (AFP: Rob Elliott)
The animals were kept in the rescue centre run by Wildlife SOS, which has hired special caretakers and a veterinary doctor to look after the animals, most of them Himalayan sloth bears.
Van Vihar Assistant Director A.K. Khare said the park staffers could not he held responsible since the entire responsibility of managing the bears is with Wildlife SOS. This is the third time a bear has managed to escape from the rescue centre. However, on the previous two escapes, the bears were caught by the park's rescue squad.
Iraanse bloggers mobiliseren voor dierenrechten 31-01-2009 door Hamid Tehrani, News4all
In de zomer van 2007 begon de Iraanse politie met de arrestatie van honden. Geen zwerfhonden, maar huisdieren met eigenaren. Het aantal arrestaties nam af na een paar weken, maar dierenmishandeling is nog steeds wijdverbreid in de Islamitische Republiek.
Gelukkig zijn er een aantal Iraanse bloggers die het initiatief van blogger Mino Saberi om op te komen voor de rechten van honden, vogels, katten en andere schepselen op aarde, steunen.
Dogs arrested in Iran...
Mino Saberi richt haar post (Farsi) aan de Iraanse Nationale TV en directeur Ezetollah Zarghami: “Meneer Zarghami, net als u ben ik geboren in een moslimfamilie. Ik aanbid God en hou van zijn schepselen. Kunnen we van God houden en niet van wat hij geschapen heeft? Uw verantwoordelijkheid is niet alleen het opkomen voor onderdrukte mensen in dit of dat land. Kijk zelf eens rond en kijk eens naar de programma’s die gemaakt worden door uw organisatie. Hoe lang moet vijandigheid tegen dieren nog doorgaan, in het bijzonder in belangrijke organisaties als de uwe? Aandacht voor dierenrechten is niet in tegenspraak met aandacht voor mensenrechten. Wij, een groep bloggers, willen dat de Iraanse Nationale TV programma’s maakt die leren dat je goed moet zijn voor de natuur, dieren en de plantenwereld.” Ze zegt ook dat de profeet Mohammed leerde dat je goed moet zijn voor dieren.
Oren afsnijden Volgens Sadaf-Farahani (Farsi) komt de slechte behandeling van dieren voort uit psychologische problemen of slecht onderwijs.Asalijon (Farsi) protesteert tegen het afmaken van zwerfhonden en hun puppies. De blogger vertelt over wat hij/zij zelf meemaakte met de zwerfhond Magnolia, die op een dag met haar zeven puppies werd doodgeschoten. Asalijon vraagt zich af of het de juiste beslissing was van de Iraanse autoriteiten om deze onschuldige dieren te vermoorden.
Bidari schrijft: “Dierenmishandeling, zoals het uitdrukken van sigaretten op katten, het afsnijden van de oren van zwerfhonden en het verwaarlozen van vogels die steeds verder in aantal afnemen, is langzaamaan onderdeel van onze cultuur geworden. In plaats van programma’s te maken waarin respect voor dieren wordt gepromoot, zendt de nationale televisie programma’s uit die marteling en mishandeling van dieren laten zien alsof het normaal gedrag is.” (GVO/News4all)
Monkeys and camels were among many animals killed by Israeli fire at a Gaza zoo.
The Gaza Zoo reeks of death, a month ago, it was attracting families - he says the zoo drew up to 1,000 visitors each day. He points at the foot-long hole in the camel in one of the enclosures.
"This camel was pregnant, a missile went into her back," he tells us. "Look, look at her face. She was in pain when she died."
Around every corner, inside almost every cage are dead animals, who have been lying in their cages since the Israeli incursion.
Qasim doesn't understand why they chose to destroy his zoo. And it's difficult to disagree with him. Most of them have been shot at point blank range. "The first thing the Israelis did was shoot at the lions - the animals ran out of their cage and into the office building. Actually they hid there."
The two lions are back in their enclosure. The female is pregnant, and lies heavily on the ground, occasionally swishing her tail. Qasim stands unusually close to them, but they don't seem bothered by his presence.
As he takes us around, he is obviously appalled at the state of the animals. The few animals that have survived appear weak and disturbed.
"The foxes ate each other because we couldn't get to them in time. We had many here." There are carcasses everywhere and the last surviving fox is quivering in the corner.
The zoo opened in late 2005, with money from local and international NGOs. There were 40 types of animals, a children's library, a playground and cultural centre housed at the facility.
Inside the main building, soldiers defaced the walls, ripped out one of the toilets and removed all of the hard drives from the office computers. We asked him why they targeted the zoo. He laughs. "I don't know. You have to go and ask the Israelis. This is a place where people come to relax and enjoy themselves. It's not a place of politics."
Israel has accused Hamas of firing rockets from civilian areas. Qasim reacts angrily when we raise the subject.
"Let me answer that with a question. We are under attack. There was not a single person in this zoo. Just the animals. We all fled before they came. What purpose does it serve to walk around shooting animals and destroying the place?"
Inside one cage lie three dead monkeys and another two in the cage beside them. Two more escaped and have yet to return. He points to a clay pot. "They tried to hide", he says of a mother and baby half-tucked inside.
Qasim says that his main two priorities at the moment are rebuilding the zoo and taking the Israeli army to court. For the first, he says he will need close to $200,000(Dh734,000) to return the zoo to its former state - and he wants the Israelis to cover the costs. "They have to pay me for all this damage."
We ask him why it's so important for Gaza to have a zoo. "During the past four years it was the most popular place for kids. They came from all over the Gaza Strip. There was nowhere else for people to go."
Has Israel gone berserk and lost all sense of reasoning? Should it be tried for war crimes at The Hague?
ALF-terroriste Anja Hermans (29) heeft sinds de zomer van 2007 twaalf keer ingebroken in de kerncentrale van Doel. Ze naderde tot op enkele meters de nucleaire perimeter en fotografeerde geheime installaties.
"Het is dat ik niet wist op welke knopjes ik moest drukken, anders had ik een nucleaire ramp kunnen ontketenen", aldus Anja Hermans, die De Morgen een uitgebreid dossier vol foto's van normaliter top secret kerninstallaties bezorgde.
Aangekondigd Volgens Hermans is de beveiliging van de centrale een lachertje. Ze ging binnen door de grote poort, door rioolpijpen, via de Schelde en via verschillende openingen in de omheining. Ze klom ook een paar keer gewoon over de omheining. "Vanuit mijn standpunt, ex-terroriste zijnde, is dit de naam omheining onwaardig."
Anja Hermans kondigde af en toe vooraf aan dat ze zou inbreken, en ook toen ging dat probleemloos. Meermaals verliet ze de centrale zonder dat de bewaking iets merkte, vier keer werd er een proces-verbaal opgesteld. "Maar ik liét met pakken, dat was juist de bedoeling", aldus Hermans. Ze zegt dat ze één keer een uur lang stond te dansen voor een bewakingscamera vooraleer een van de bewakers iets merkte op de monitor. Ze stelde uitbater Electrabel voor om in ruil voor straffeloosheid te bewijzen dat ook de controlekamer en de reactoren in een paar minuten door terroristen konden worden ingenomen, maar de energiereus weigerde en stapte naar het gerecht.
Straatverbod Maandag moet Hermans zich voor de rechtbank in Dendermonde verantwoorden voor inbraak. Electrabel wil haar een straatverbod laten opleggen voor een zone van 500 meter rond de kerncentrale. Het eist ook een schadevergoeding voor schade die Hermans zou hebben veroorzaakt aan de omheining, iets wat de ALF-terroriste ontkent: "Ik beken dat ik over de omheining ben geklommen, niet dat ik die heb beschadigd. Dat was nergens voor nodig, want ze zat vol gaten en de grote poort staat altijd open."
Volgens woordvoerster Lut Vande Velde van Electrabel is de kerncentrale van Doel wel degelijk goed beveiligd: "Mevrouw Hermans is op geen enkel moment tot binnen de nucleaire perimter geraakt. Ze heeft wel een hoop onrust veroorzaakt voor het personeel. Wij konden niet anders dan juridische stappen zetten."
Hermans beaamt dat ze nooit over de nucleaire perimeter ging. "Ik had dat gekund, de foto's bewijzen het, maar ik ben niet gek. Had ik dat gedaan, dan vloog ik direct weer de gevangenis in." (Douglas De Coninck)
Central News Agency - A Taiwan family spent more than 12 hours just to have a 10-minute glimpse of two giant pandas sent as a goodwill gift to the island from China, news reports said Friday. The family of three from the southern county of Chiayi started out from their home Thursday night and was stuck on the island's packed freeways for seven hours before arriving at the Taipei Zoo before dawn on Friday, the United Evening News reported.
Giant pandas Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan still attract a lot of tourists
on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year on Jan. 30.
They then waited outside the zoo in a queue to get a number tag needed to view the pandas for 10 minutes upon the zoo's opening at 8 am.
The paper quoted the father, Lin Yi-min, as saying that they decided to start out so early because the zoo limited the number of panda viewers to 22,000 per day and his 6-year-old daughter wanted so much to see them.
Since the zoo put the pandas on display on Jan. 26, the first day of the Chinese New Year, more than 102,000 people have viewed the animals, the zoo said.
Zoo officials said they were considering reducing the daily quota to allow each visitor more time to see the two pandas after many visitors complained that they were being rushed through the Panda House, giving them less than a minute instead of 10 to see the cuddly animals.
The two pandas, named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, were given by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Taiwan on December 23. After a one-month quarantine and adaptation to Taiwan’s environment, the pandas met the Taiwanese public officially Monday and touched off an islandwide panda fever.
31-01-2009 The Associated Press, The International Herald Tribune
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Rare Sumatran tigers increasingly under threat as their jungle habitat shrinks have been blamed for deadly attacks on three Indonesian farmers, including the mauling of a father and son while they slept, officials said Friday.
The bodies were discovered over the past week within a 25-mile (40-kilometer) range on Jambi province, Sumatra, police chief Tedjo Dwikora said. A 58-year-old father and his 21-year-old son were attacked in their sleep Wednesday in a hut near their village, while another man's body was found a week earlier in a nearby village, he said.
Two old tigers known to roam the area are believed to have carried out the killings, said local conservationist Didy Wurdjanto.
Fewer than 700 Sumatran tigers remain worldwide, according to estimates. The endangered animals are being forced to venture beyond traditional hunting grounds as rampant illegal logging, land clearing and commercial development eats into their jungle habitat. They are also threatened by poaching for the lucrative animal trade.
Only 20 such tigers still live in Sumatra's Jambi province on impoverished Indonesia's westernmost island, once a wildlife heartland.
RAMNAGAR (Uttarakhand): Wildlife authorities in a joint operation with the State Police arrested five poachers and seized tiger skin and bones from their possession at Ramnagar in Uttarakhand.
"One tiger skin, tiger bones, ...cat, trap, which was used for poaching and also the weapons by which the tiger was killed have been recovered," said P C Arya, Sub-Divisional Officer of Ramnagar, Uttarakhand. "We're investigating five persons and we are also gathering information of the involvement of four to five more persons," said P K Patro, Divisional Forest Officer, Ramnagar, Uttarakhand.
The tiger is facing the threat of extinction with early results from a 2007 census suggesting there could be as few as 1,500 tigers left in India, compared to a century ago when there were around 40,000.
Tigers, leopards, rhinos, reptiles, birds and insects as well as rare species of trees and plants are also being smuggled into China, Formosa (Taiwan), Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
There were about 40,000 tigers in India a century ago. A government report on tiger census, published this year, states that the tiger population has fallen to 1,411, down from 3,642 in 2002, largely due to dwindling habitat and poaching.
In 2006, a special panel set up by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh observed that thousands of poor villagers inside India's tiger reserves would have to be relocated to protect the endangered animals from poachers and smugglers.
Helsinki - A group of animal rights activists demonstrated at the Nordic Travel Fair MATKA. The activists are concerned about the trade in monkeys from Nepal to American labs.
As Nepal's main industry is tourism (especially from Europe), it was a great opportunity to inform as many people as possible about the true identity of the Nepalese government. Capturing monkeys in the wild, steeling them from the Tempels, just for a handful of dollars. It's a shame!
People visiting the fair were curious about the subject and many asked questions about nepal's monkey business. Your image is on the line here, Nepal. It´s time to set them free.
Solidarity demo in Day of Action against Bayer in Chile
30-01-2009 No Mas Viviseccion, Chile (26-01-2009)
As part of the Day of Action against Bayer, we protested in front of their building. Workers and neighbor companies were informed about what Bayer is related to if they are customers of HLS, a shameful crime against innocent animals in the name of profit. As usual, people were shocked to see those terrible pictures in the placards.
Some cars and trucks tried to get into Bayer but demonstrators did not allow them to do it at least easily, if you deal with HLS you have to expect protestors! When the demonstration was finishing a police car arrived, the cops talked to someone inside and got out just to tell us we could protest without problems, just without painting walls or standing on the street.
This demonstration was dedicated to the UK SHAC 7 prisoners, who are in jail just for fighting against crimes against life. This repression just encourages activists from places as far as Chile to take part in the SHAC campaign, we are all united in this great struggle and what happens to our animal rights prisoners friends wherever they are is our concern too.
Nine rabbits have been rescued after they were seen being thrown out of a car window in Hampshire. A member of the public alerted the RSPCA after seeing the animals being thrown out of a silver car in Brockishill Road, Bartley, Southampton.
The rabbits will eventually be rehomed (pic RSPCA)
The witness saved seven of the rabbits and another was caught by an RSPCA inspector. The ninth was not found. The rabbits are being cared for at the RSPCA Ashley Heath Animal Centre, near Ringwood, before they will be rehomed.
The car, which was spotted on 19 January, is thought to be a Vauxhall Astra or Ford Escort. RSPCA inspector Jo Story said: "This was a heartless and brutal act and it is lucky that the animals were not badly injured.
"We are concerned that whoever is responsible may have other animals in their care and I would urge anyone with information... to contact us so we can prevent further animals from suffering."
The Supreme Court on Friday put the brakes on the 400-year-old traditional bull-taming sport of Jallikattu, organised in Tamil Nadu as part of Pongal celebrations, saying guidelines to prevent cruelty against animals have been violated.
A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan directed the district collectors in the state not to give permission for holding Jallikattu. "We are not in its favour," the bench said after senior advocate K K Venugopal showed photographs relating to the event in which 21 people died and 1,614 were injured.
Venugopal, appearing for the Animal Welfare Board, which had last year filed a petition against the holding of such an event, said all guidelines have been ignored by the organisers who started holding the event on January 14 and will continue till mid-February. However, counsel appearing for Tamil Nadu sought two weeks' time for countering the allegations.
Indian Bull fight – Jallikattu
The apex court on January 15 last year had permitted holding of Jallikattu on the condition that the authorities will ensure that animals would not be subjected to cruelty. The permission for holding the event was granted after Tamil Nadu government had said there were elaborate guidelines to prevent cruelty against animals and to ensure elaborate security arrangements.
The court had directed the district authorities to take all precautions to prevent injury to spectators or animals. It said any organisation or club which intends to hold Jallikattu will have to inform the concerned district collector three days prior to the event and the officials of the Animal Welfare Board will have to be allowed to witness the event under security.
The administration was asked to make arrangement for the presence of a veterinarian at the place of the event. The event is organised at around 400 places and the court last year had passed interim order for Jallikattu.
In earlier hearings also, the apex court had described the bull-taming sport as "barbaric" and "inhuman". Before passing the interim order, the court had only allowed the Rekla race involving bullock carts under the supervision of the authorities. The Board had said bull fight was in a violation of section 11(1)(a) of the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals Act and it was the duty of the state to prevent such events.
The Board had said there was no doubt that it was an age-old practise but if it takes place in violation of law it must be stopped. It had appealed against the decision of the division bench of Madras high court which set aside the single bench order banning the event during the festival season of Pongal.
The Board had said before the event the bulls are made to drink alcohol and chilli powder was sprinkled into their eyes to make them ferocious and they are chased for several kilometres.
The advocate said owners of bulls leave their animals into a boisterous crowd and people jump over their hump, others try to catch them by their horns while some pull their tails. (Bron: http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/) (Bron foto: http://www.ambimama.com/2008/02/)
Terschelling - De edelherten op Terschelling houden in ieder geval nog dit weekeinde hun vrijheid. De inspanningen om de dieren te vangen worden tijdelijk gestaakt. Na tweeënhalve dag jagen in bos en duin zijn de vier dierenartsen van het ministerie van LNV vermoeid. Ze zijn voor een lang weekend naar huis, ook om daar hun eigen praktijk op orde te houden.
De artsen zijn elk de spil in een vangploeg, omdat alleen zij het verdovingsgeweer mogen gebruiken. Bij hun zoektocht worden ze begeleid door medewerkers van Staatsbosbeheer, de Wildbeheereenheid, politie en gemeente. Bij toerbeurt zijn de afgelopen dagen twintig personen in touw geweest.
Pfffff....eindelijk even rust, toch?
Eén succesje hebben ze al geboekt. Een vangploeg spotte woensdag een groepje van ongeveer vijf herten de buurt van camping De Kooi, ter hoogte van Hee. Vier dieren gingen er vandoor, maar een bokje bleek goed benaderbaar. Dit dier werd met een verdovingspijltje geschoten. Het hert is inmiddels levend naar de vaste wal afgevoerd.
Hoewel de zoektocht naar de overige negen dieren even stilligt, wordt nog wel verder gezocht naar drie verdovingsampullen. Die zijn de afgelopen dagen op een hert afgeschoten, maar hebben doel gemist. De ampullen zijn tot nu toe onvindbaar.
Laten lopen In december ondernamen ploegen ook al pogingen om de dieren te vangen, maar omdat dat weinig succesvol bleek tilden ze het project over de kerstvakantie heen. Een edelhert dat zichzelf vastliep in een steegje lieten aanwezige agenten weer lopen, omdat ze toen niet de juiste vangmiddelen bij zich hadden. Er was toen ook geen dierenarts beschikbaar voor de verdoving. Al is er even een pauze in de zoekpogingen ,,de herten moeten wel gevonden worden’’, benadrukt burgemeester Visser. ,,Want anders zou het halve eiland moeten worden afgerasterd.’’
Ook vanuit het uit oogpunt van verkeersveiligheid, dierenwelzijn en de kans op besmetting van de eilander veestapel vindt Visser het noodzakelijk dat de dieren verdwijnen. De edelherten zijn in november als kroeggrap uitgezet door ten minste twee eilanders. Volgens hun verklaring aan de politie hebben ze tien beesten naar het eiland gehaald. Maar diverse eilanders beweren met stelligheid dat zij wel veertien, zestien of zelfs achttien dieren hebben waargenomen. Maar Visser vindt dat niet aannemelijk. ,,Ik ga vooralsnog uit van tien stuks.’’
Haagse gevoeligheid Vanwege de ,,Haagse gevoeligheid’’, zoals Visser het noemt, bemoeit minister Verburg zich persoonlijk met de vangactie. ,,We moeten begrip hebben voor de lastige positie van de minister’’, zegt de burgemeester. De Partij voor de Dieren heeft het welzijn van de Terschellinger herten al eens ter discussie gesteld.
Visser bevestigt dat de kosten van de vangactie in de papieren zullen lopen. In beginsel moeten de daders voor de kosten opdraaien. ,,Maar dat wil niet zeggen dat álle kosten op hen worden verhaald. Dat is aan de minister.’’
Donderdag werd door de Milieupolitie een controle uitgevoerd bij een weiland aan de Galgenkade in Dirkshorn. In twee weilandjes staan in totaal 18 paarden. Door regenval en het feit dat er veel paarden op een relatief klein stuk grond lopen is de weide veranderd in een modderpoel, die gedeeltelijk bevroren is. De paarden worden echter bijgevoerd.
Op het terrein ligt ook allerlei afval, waaronder een uitgebrande caravan. De verantwoordelijke persoon, een 63-jarige vrouw uit Andijk, werd al eerder aangesproken op het afval, dat zij moest verwijderen.
In overleg met de politie heeft de gemeente Harenkarspel besloten de vrouw nog enig respijt te geven met betrekking tot het opruimen van het afval. Wordt dit binnen een termijn van 3 maanden niet gedaan, dan wordt dit op haar kosten door de gemeente geregeld.
De Milieupolitie en de Landelijke Inspectie Dieren houden de leefsituatie van de paarden in de gaten. Mocht hier aanleiding voor zijn, dan worden de dieren uit de weide gehaald.
Op maandag 2 februari vindt naar aloude traditie het patroonsfeest van de Katholieke universiteit Leuven (KUL) plaats. Dit is voor de universiteit een zeer prestigieuze dag met de uitreiking van eredoctoraten en een optocht door de straten van Leuven.
Het Patroonsfeest van de KU Leuven op 2 februari 2005
Tientallen activisten van de Anti Dierproeven Coalitie zullen die dag hun ongenoegen uiten over de apenexperimenten die nog steeds gebeuren in het KUL laboratorium Gasthuisberg. Met apenmaskers op verzamelen ze vanaf 9.30u op het M. De Layensplein waar ze de stoet van het patroonsfeest zullen opwachten.
Wij zullen nooit tolereren dat dieren misbruikt worden, louter en alleen om het persoonlijke ego van een klein groepje KUL dierproefnemers te strelen.
VLISSINGEN - Het houden van een pony of geit is voortaan verboden binnen de bebouwde kom van Vlissingen. De gemeente krijgt te veel klachten over overlast of schade aan gezondheidsklachten.
Pony in de Zeepeduinen. Foto Dirk-Jan Gjeltema
Varkens, runderen, paarden, pony's, ezels, geiten, schapen, herten, lama's, kangoeroes, struisvogels en emoes komen er niet meer in. Mensen nog maar maximaal vijf kippen houden, en maximaal tien pelsdieren.
In Schouwen-Duiveland leidde dezelfde maatregel vorig jaar tot een ware rel. Daar is de regel inmiddels teruggedraaid.
Noorwegen gaat grootscheeps onderzoek doen naar de vraag of vissen pijn kunnen lijden. Volgens Noorse wetenschappers reageren alle levende wezens op pijnprikkels, maar is het nog steeds niet bekend of ook vissen die pijnprikkels als onplezierig ervaren.
Aan het onderzoek neemt ook de Antwerpse professor Marleen Verhoye deel. Zij is werkzaam op het 'Bio-Imaging Lab' van de Universiteit Antwerpen. Daar staat geavanceerde apparatuur opgesteld om hersenactiviteiten in kaart te brengen. Onder meer ratten en muizen, maar ook zangvogels en krokodillen passeerden al onder haar MRI-scanner. De komende drie jaar wordt de hersenactiviteit van kabeljauwen geregistreerd en geanalyseerd.
Het is vooral de bedoeling om na te gaan welke delen van de hersenen in werking treden als een vis bijvoorbeeld in een haakje bijt. Verhoye garandeert dat de dieren niet nodeloos zullen worden gefolterd. ‘Het zal slechts om lichte pijnprikkels gaan. Daarvoor kan warmtegevend laserlicht worden gebruikt. Bovendien worden de vissen enigszins verdoofd, want ze moeten wel stil blijven liggen.’ (JS)
Deadly attacks shed light on Indonesia's human-animal conflicts
30-01-2009 Borneo Bulletin, Brunei
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP) - A spate of recent deadly animal attacks in Indonesia has thrown the spotlight on growing conflicts between humans and animals triggered by the rapid dwindling of the country's forests.
In the latest attack, two women were trampled to death by a pair of elephants in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island Tuesday after the elephants entered an illegally cleared field from a nearby jungle. The attack, from which another six villagers narrowly escaped with their lives, came just days after a rubber-tapper was reportedly killed by two rare Sumatran tigers as he urinated outside his hut in Jambi province, also on Sumatra.
The attacks are called human-animal conflicts, and they are a rising problem in Indonesia, an archipelago nation with some of the world's largest remaining tropical forests and a swelling population of 234 million people.
As people spread into previously untouched forests, big animals such as tigers, elephants and orangutans are being robbed of the large habitats needed to sustain their populations, Arnold Sitompul, the head of environmental group Elephant Forum, told AFP. "The main reason (for conflicts) is habitat loss. There is a lot of habitat loss going on in Indonesia for plantations, mining," Sitompul said.
Without their habitats, animals such as elephants turn up on newly settled areas at the forest's edge, devouring and trampling crops and terrorising villagers. The result is often deadly for both humans and animals. "Elephants can tolerate some disturbances but if you go there and set up settlements, it will lead to conflict. Why is that? Because elephants don't like humans and humans are scared of elephants, because they're big," Sitompul said.
Poisonings and shootings of animals in conflict areas are a common occurrence. At least 45 elephants were killed in mass poisonings between 2002 and 2006 in Sumatra's Riau province alone, according to environmental group WWF. "In places like Aceh, conflict between humans and elephants and humans and tigers is increasing," said WWF forest programme director Ian Kosasih, who added that there are no solid figures on how many conflicts are happening nationwide. "In some areas you can't say it's increasing but it's still there. I'm sure it's not getting better anywhere."
Sumatra island, blanketed in forests until just decades ago, is the hotspot for the clash between humans, elephants and tigers, Kosasih said.
Kalimantan on Indonesia's half of Borneo island is the centre of a more uneven conflict, with the killing of orangutans who stray onto rapidly expanding palm oil plantations and farms. Local governments and non-governmental organisations are working hard to mitigate the conflicts, but so far have met with mixed success.
In response to the most recent attack in Aceh, the local conservation authority sent a team of 15 people - and four tame elephants - to scare the wild elephants back into the jungle.
But such measures, which in the case of elephants also include techniques such as planting barriers of acacia trees and spiky shrubs, are only a stop-gap so long as forest habitats are being destroyed, Aceh conservation agency head Andi Basrul said.
Thai customs arrested a man who was attempting to smuggle endangered pangolins out of the country
30-01-2009 AsiaOne News, Singapore
BANGKOK,THAILAND - THAI customs on Friday seized 270 pangolins and arrested a man who was attempting to smuggle the endangered animals out of the country, an official said.
An endangered pangolin that was smuggled into Hong Kong in April 2005.
Customs officers intercepted a truck headed towards Bangkok in central Prachuab Khirikhan province on Thursday morning and found the pangolins, or scaly anteaters, hidden in plastic baskets, senior customs official Rakop Srisupa-at told AFP.
The mammals are usually exported via neighbouring Laos to China, where they are eaten as an expensive delicacy. 'The driver claimed he had been paid 5,000 baht to drive the truck to Bangkok where another man would call him on his mobile phone to fetch the pangolins,' he said. The Thai driver was arrested and charged with possessing and smuggling endangered wildlife, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
Trade in Asian pangolins has been illegal since 2000. While their meat fetches high prices in China, the scales are believed to cure a wide range of ailments. -AFP
Opinion: Tits, bums, sex and ivory sell at Amsterdam fashion week
30-01-2009 by ■ Adriana Stuijt, Digital Journal
Amsterdam 's annual fashion week has turned soft porn into a fine art with its constant parade of nude "African-style' male and female models. It's all so much classier than those deeply sad boys and girls in Amsterdam's red-light peep-shows, isn't it?
Top international jewellery designer Bibi van der Velden has not only turned soft-porn into very classy annual fashion shows -- nearly as exquisite as ballet, which of course also used to be a form of soft-porn - -- but also manages to pass off her exquisite, handcarved ivory jewellery as 'mammoth tooth'. How does one get away with this? It's easy: the creative use of fuzzy fashion language.
The super-popular Van der Velden refers to her classy peep-show as 'creations with African accents', and as we all know, African people always have this child-like habit of always hopping about in the hot veldt stark-naked... If you've ever climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, you'd know better but sex sells, so why not?
Mammoth tooth rings, tits, bums and penises do sell at Amsterdam's annual fashion show for top jewellery designer Bibi van der Velden. But haven't mammoths been extinct for thousands of years? Ah well, there's always elephants.
She loves to have her anorexic 'African-style" models trot down the catwalk semi-naked - proving the old adage, so beloved in the advertising world, that sex, tits and bums, and in this case also penises, always do sell.
Some of the world's top fashion photographers were eagerly snapping away to capture every titillating bit in exquisite detail - wasn't this just ever so much classier than those rather pathetic girls and boys from East Block countries pressed into service inside the peep-show windows of Amsterdam's tiny red-light district? see the fashion show pictures here
The artistic Van der Velden, a sculptress by profession, also is a world traveller and is inspired by her sojourns into strange places, turning her annual fashion shows into major happenings in Amsterdam and around the world. This year, she exhibited her recent Fine Jewellery line, which features hand-crafted pieces of gold, platinum, diamonds and 'mammoth tooth' against the bodies of black fashion models who were not wearing much else.
In her jewellery, she uses any material she happens to come across during her travels, from peacock feathers to her 'mammoth teeth'. It's a puzzle though, don't you think? Mammoths have after all been extinct for thousands of years. Where does she dig out enough mammoth teeth to fashion her jewellery from? Ísn't it all just plain old ivory?
But of course not! Isn't that an outlawed material in most countries - because otherwise the elephants of India and Africa would become just as extinct as their gigantic great-great-grand-pappies, the woolly mammoths?
Bibi exhibited her collections at Sotheby's in Amsterdam and at the Leiden Museum of Antiquities this week - but apparently nobody cared to note the fact that her handcarved mammoth tooth fashion rings must all be just plain old elephant ivory. They are aren't they? Mammoths have been extinct for many centuries but people still claim that one can eat mammoth steaks in restaurants... carved from some grubby, half-thawed out tundra somewhere. Of course they are.
Yet the valiant elephant herds, thanks to the official ban on trading their beautiful, coveted teeth, hide and 'mammoth steaks', are still surviving somehow. But for how long, when fashion designers keep on creating a market demand for such precious materials by using them in their trend-setting fashions and restaurant keep advertising the sale of 'mammoth steaks?"
Massive slaughter of nature's most intelligent animals: Between 1979 and 1989, at a time when there was a legal ivory trade, African elephants were poached at such a rapid rate that the continent-wide population was cut from 1.3 million to approximately 600,000. The scale of poaching was so great that it threatened African economies, requiring countries to expend tremendous resources to fight poachers. Many human lives were lost in these ivory wars, both poachers and game wardens.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) tried—but failed—to control the legal ivory trade. Most ivory in trade came from poached elephants. In 1989, CITES agreed to place all populations of African elephants onto CITES Appendix I, thereby banning the international trade in elephants and their parts, including ivory. This widely supported ban halted the devastation of elephant populations and provided the mechanism by which African elephants began their slow, but promising, recovery.
Limited Trade In 1997, responding to repeated requests from Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, CITES transferred the African elephant populations of those countries to CITES Appendix II. CITES also agreed to allow Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe to export ivory on a one-time, experimental basis to Japan.
This trade occurred when 49.5 metric tonnes of government-stockpiled ivory from Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe was exported to Japan in 1999. That represents many tens of thousands of elephants, intelligent creatures who live in close-knit family groups.
Following this export of ivory, between January 2000 and June 2002, at least 2,563 tusks, 14,648 ivory objects or pieces and more than 6.2 metric tones of ivory were seized.
During the same period, 1,059 or more African elephants were found poached just for their tusks. (None of this ivory can be imported legally into the United States because the U.S. African Elephant Conservation Act prohibits such import.)
In 2000 the South African elephant population was also finally placed on Appendix II, and in 2002 CITES agreed to allow Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to export ivory on a one-time basis to approved "trading partners."
Where did Dutch fashion designer Bibi van der Velden find this 'mammoth tooth' to carve her jewellery from? Or is it just plain old elephant ivory? You know, those big, loud things stomping all over the African veld with their big feet.. the ones who are nearly extinct because of their ivory teeth...
Depending on the country, Appendix II also allowed for the export of elephant skins, tourist trinkets made from ivory and skins, and live animals from populations in these countries. In 2006 Japan was approved as the trading partner, but this export of 60 metric tonnes of government-stockpiled ivory has not yet occurred because the conditions established by CITES have not yet been met.
Ivory's connection to Japanese markets Once tusks arrive in Japan, they are chopped into "blanks," which are turned into signature stamps (called "hanko"), and then distributed to thousands of shops.
Japanese law does not require that hanko sold in retail trade bear a mark to designate it as legal ivory. This lapse makes it possible to launder illegal ivory into the retail trade - even sell it as 'mammoth tooth' for instance....
In December 1999, 420 kilograms of worked ivory was seized in Paris, reportedly on its way from Rwanda to Japan. India has stated that some of the ivory seized since 1997 was in the form of hanko "blanks," suggesting a link between the illegal ivory trade and Japanese markets.
Elephants would never be slaughtered but for the fashion industry Poaching and illegal trade continue to threaten the survival of elephants in both Africa and Asia - but this would not exist if the fashion industry stopped creating 'trendy' products from ivory.
Between January 2000 and July 2002, at least 1,063 African and 39 Asian elephants were reported to have been poached for their ivory, while 54,828 ivory pieces, 3099 ivory tusks (equal to 1,550 dead elephants), and 6.2 tons of raw ivory (equal to about 794 dead elephants) were seized.
From October 2004 to April 2007, more than 41 metric tones of ivory have been seized, an amount that roughly translates into 20,000 elephants poached annually to supply illegal ivory markets. Illegal ivory trade and elephant poaching are at their highest levels since the 1989 ban was established.
The Impact on Asian Elephants There are 34,000 to 51,000 Asian elephants in the wild, less than one-tenth the number of African elephants in the wild. Poaching for ivory, which is only found in male Asian elephants, is severely damaging the sex ratios of Asian elephant populations. A thriving ivory trade in Thailand is contributing to the rapid decline of elephants in that country and in neighboring Myanmar and Cambodia.
The Elephant Skin Trade Under the 1997 decision, only Zimbabwe was allowed to export elephant skins. In June 1998, Zimbabwe sold 22 lots of dry, salted elephant hides, ears, trunks, and feet. The hides, accumulated since the 1989 ban, weighed 82.8 metric tonnes. Most of the hides were sold to companies in the United States and Japan. In the United States, elephant-hide cowboy boots are now offered by Tony Lama and Justin.
The Trade in Live Elephants In August 1998, South African animal dealer Riccardo Ghiazza captured 30 baby elephants in Botswana and exported them to his warehouse in South Africa, where he beat them and deprived them of food and water during the "taming" process. Ghiazza hoped to sell the elephants to zoos around the world. The South African National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals discovered the elephants at Ghiazza's facility. The group filed criminal animal cruelty charges against Ghiazza and was granted court permission to seize the calves to prevent further suffering Fourteen of the abused calves have been released into South Africa's Marakele National Park, seven were exported to zoos in Europe,and nine live at a private reserve in South Africa. The case highlighted the cruel techniques used to tame wild-caught elephants for pubic display.
The Number of Hunting Trophies Traded Each year, CITES allows the export of ivory tusks as trophies from up to 960 African elephants from eight countries. The United States is the major importer of elephant trophies; hunters have imported the tusks of more than 400 elephants annually in recent years.At this rate, the elephant population will soon go the way of the mammoth.
NEW DELHI: Wildlife officers from People for Animals (PFA) rescued a rare owl and arrested one woman who was selling it for Rs 22,000 in the market. Posing as a decor customer, a deal was struck between the accused woman and a wildlife officer to purchase the owl.
A case under the Wildlife Protection Act has been lodged at the Kashmere Gate police station. According to activists, the rescued bird a brown fish owl is one of the most rarest birds found in India and is slowly becoming extinct. The bird is commonly found in the dense jungles of Jim Corbett or Uttarakhand. The eyes of the bird are apparently sold for as much as Rs 50,000 in the black market and the bird is much demanded by tantriks for black magic.
"We got a tip-off that a woman was selling a rare owl that she caught from Jim Corbett and planned to sell it in Dubai. We sent a decoy customer and struck a deal with her at Rs 22,000 to purchase the bird. An advance payment of Rs 5,000 was given to her and a meeting point was fixed near the Old Hanuman Mandir in Yamuna Bazaar for the final payment. Once the money exchanged hands, the lady was arrested,'' said Saurabh Gupta, a wildlife officer from PFA.
The bird was found with its beak and feet tied up and in a sack. It has been force-fed alcohol to make sure the bird didn't make any noise, added officers. The owl is now under-going treatment at Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre.
Het ministerie van Landbouw gaat veehouders helpen die als gevolg van psychische of sociale problemen hun dieren verwaarlozen.
De komende jaren wil minister Gerda Verburg van Landbouw zo'n twintig bedrijven gaan helpen. Landelijk zijn er enkele tientallen bedrijven waar de dieren verwaarloosd worden als gevolg van psychosociale klachten bij de eigenaar. Die is vaak niet in staat om uit zijn eigen situatie te komen. Controles, boetes en zelfs ontruimingen veranderen meestal niets aan de situatie.
Verburg kiest daarom voor een intensieve begeleiding van de veehouder die moet leiden tot een betere lichamelijke en geestelijke gezondheid voor de veehouder en tot betere omstandigheden voor de dieren op zijn bedrijf.
The "FOUR PAWS" Foundation had successfully transported the last three registered dancing bears from Serbia to the Bulgarian "Dancing Bears" refuge and park in Belitsa, the Foundation reported.
The bears are going to be housed in a special sector of the park, prepared just for them. The park is located at the foot of the Rila mountain, 20 km from the Bansko winter resort.
Although in both Bulgaria and Serbia, the ownership of dancing bears is forbidden by law, many dancing bears still exist throughout the Balkan countries. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency
FOUR PAWS started the struggle against the torment of bears in Bulgaria in May of 1999. The first three brown bears arrived a month later while the park was officially opened on November 17, 2000.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry gave to Belitsa Municipality 8,6 hectares to be used by FOUR PAWS for its ambitious project. The organization invested in its own land too. The total area of the park is now 12 hectares. In 2007, all registered dancing bears in Bulgaria were relocated to the park and the Foundation focused their efforts to save abused animals in neighboring Balkan countries.
The Foundation representatives further informed that they were fully prepared to relocate the Serbian bears as early as the spring of 2008, but could not do so due to political and bureaucratic obstacles. They finally obtained the permit to take the bears in January The transport has gone smoothly, expect the last 11-kilometer stretch of the road between Belitsa and the park due to the fact that the road is completely pot-holed and deteriorated.
Although in both Bulgaria and Serbia, the ownership of dancing bears is forbidden by law, many dancing bears still exist throughout the Balkan countries. Serbia does not have similar facilities to house the abused animals.
The bears are tamed by the cruel method of training cubs to dance on hot metal plates. The animals jump around in pain, while the same music is playing over and over again. When they hear the music, they "learn" to "dance" immediately because they fear the unbearable pains, caused by the hot metal.
The three newest residents of the Belitsa park are named Seyda, Milena and Natasha.
In addition to being housed in their own sector of the park, the three bears have a special feeding program and would be monitored constantly. Milena's condition is reported as being the worst since she is completely blind, very old and week.
"Milena only has several months to live. Despite that, all efforts to bring her hear and take care of her are well merited because this poor animal would be now able to spend her last days in freedom," Vassil Madokev, leader of the caretakers team said.
The "FOUR PAWS" Foundation is consistently and successfully helping mistreated animals across Europe. Other "FOUR PAWS" projects in Bulgaria include systematic campaigns for the neutering of stray animals.
Southern Oregon couple get jail time for sex with dog
29-01-2009 Newsradio 750 KXL, USA
A southern Oregon couple who videotaped themselves having sex with a German shepherd mix were sentenced Tuesday to 60 days in jail and ordered not to own animals during their two years on probation.
Steven Baker, 54, and Kim Baalbergen, 50, of Klamath Falls pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of an animal, a misdemeanor. Prosecutor Cole Chase said be believes it's the first time anyone in Oregon has been fully prosecuted under that law. Chase said Baalbergen performed oral sex on the dog and received oral, vaginal and anal sex. He said Baker received anal sex.
Baker sold three videos for $12,000 to a company in Amsterdam. Each video netted $4,000. "Their friends in another jurisdiction run a Web site that includes bestiality and said 'Hey, you guys can make some money doing this, and it's great fun too,"' Chase said.
The pair were lodged Tuesday at the Klamath County Jail. Following their release, they will have to perform 40 hours of community service.
The dog, Max, had to be killed. "Because of the way it was taught to interact with people, it couldn't be placed in another home," Chase said.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany - World Cup ski racers don't wear fur, and its bikini-clad protesters are carrying snowboards instead of skis, but neither fact is stopping People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) from taking their anti-fur protests to the World Cup Alpine skiing circuit.
PETA 'Snow Bunnies' protest in Wengen. (Photo: PETA)
Wearing bikinis and holding signs that read, "Warm Your Buns Without Fur", a duo of PETA's Snow Bunnies will greet skiers and snowboarders at the main entrance to the race stadium at Garmisch Patenkirchen this Saturday, holding snowboards emblazoned with the message, "Be Fur-Free!"
PETA's "bunnies" have also visited World Cup events in Wengen, Switzerland and Kitzbuehel, Austria.
"I'll gladly bare my skin in the cold if it will help save animals' skins," says PETA Snow Bunny Lauren Bowey. "With so many stylish and toasty alternatives to fur available, there's no excuse to harm a hair on a bunny's back."
CALGARY -- Kitty graffiti has officials at the Calgary Humane Society spitting mad. Someone's idea of a sick joke has seen at least four stray cats tagged with spray paint arrive at the shelter in the past couple months - including a white feline slathered in pink.
"We've had several cats come in here that have been spray-painted various colours," shelter spokesman Lindsay Jones said yesterday. "It's absolutely horrible." One cat arrived cruelly adorned with blue and green stripes, another a garish shade of neon green.
Some of the victimized cats, the paint matting their coats, had to have their fur shaved off.
In other cases, the eyesore will eventually disappear through shedding.
An ironic twist to the twisted tale is that the unnatural colorations have ensured a ninth life in adoptive homes for each of the meowing quartet. "Luckily enough, our more unusual animals do get adopted and having that kind of colour does get them adopted out because people feel sorry for them," said Jones. There are no suspects identified in the case.
Tamale To Arrest Animals 29-01-2009 Daily Guide Ghana, Ghana
THE WASTE Management Department (WMD) of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly has announced its intention to arrest stray animals and impose heavy fines on their owners as a measure for ridding the city of filth.
Stray animals, according to the assembly, in recent times have taken over most ceremonial streets of the metropolis defecating anywhere and causing needless accidents. The authorities have therefore warned that more drastic measures would be taken against owners of such animals who have constantly failed to comply with directives of the assembly.
The Metropolitan Director of the WMD, Mr. Sampson Akwettey, who disclosed this to the media in Tamale, said despite earlier fines of GH¢20 on the owners for each animal arrested, the situation seemed to have even assumed an alarming proportion, implying that the fines were not deterring enough.
He hinted that more strict measures, including the forfeiting of the animals arrested, would be taken against such recalcitrant animal owners. He suggested that animals arrested could either be donated to the orphanages to feed inmates or given to some government agencies.
Mr. Akwettey said his outfit had already liaised with the Progressive Traders Association (PTA) in the city, members of the GPRTU and the traditional authorities to organise routine massive clean-up exercises, disclosing that several heaps of uncollected waste were being collected. He however expressed worry that in the wake of these positive interventions some residents still resorted to defecating in the open which is likely to bring about diseases associated with filth, warning that such persons could face serious sanctions including public ridicule if they did not stop the practice immediately.
The Metropolitan Director, Mr. A.M. Baba called for a collaborative effort among the media, the assembly and the general public in cleaning the city. He noted that reports of hygiene-related diseases tend to increase during the rainy season, and said this was a clarion call to all stakeholders to help curb the menace. He also appealed to the central government to assist with funds to enable the assembly embark on its clean-up exercise on regular basis.
EINDHOVEN - De boommarter is in Nederland een zeldzaamheid. Naar schatting 400 dieren leven nog in het wild, maar niet in Brabant. De Veluwe is het marterbolwerk. Ook op de Utrechtse Heuvelrug, in het Drents/Friese woud, de Noordoostpolder, de Weerribben en Kennemerland zijn nog populaties.
Heel af en toe worden in Brabant nog doodgereden boommarters aangetroffen. Met name ten zuiden van Tilburg. Volgens bioloog Mulder gaat het dan om jonge mannetjes, de grootste zwervers. Mogelijk komen ze uit een populatie in Vlaanderen.
May laat zich niet zien. Verklaarbaar: hij komt pas bij duisternis in actie. En zo ver is het nog niet, om vijf uur 's middags op een januaridag. Wel is duidelijk waar hij zit. Jaap Mulder heeft dat ontdekt. De piepjes die de antenne en de ontvanger in zijn hand uit de lucht plukken verwijzen onmiskenbaar naar een afgebroken, verrotte populier. Boommarter May houdt van dat soort verblijfplaatsen.
"Vaak zie je van ver al: het zal die boom wel zijn." Maar als je wetenschappelijk onderzoeker bent moet dat natuurlijk wel worden geverifieerd. Dat is wat bioloog Mulder doet, in De Mortelen tussen Oirschot en Boxtel. Vandaar die antenne, die zo van het terreinautootje waarmee hij het gebied doorkruist af te halen is. En vandaar de zenderband om de nek van May. Zoals ook bij soortgenoot Mur.
May en Mur zijn de enige twee nog te traceren boommarters van de zes die in oktober in De Mortelen werden uitgezet. Harrie moet ook nog ergens zitten. Maar die wist zich van zijn halsband te ontdoen. Moes verdronk in een vijver, Mac kwam op de Oude Grintweg onder een auto. En Mew is onverklaarbaar spoorloos. Zender uitgevallen? Gevangen? "We hebben nog met een vliegtuigje gezocht", zegt Mulder (58). "De ontvangstapparatuur daarvan is sterker. Maar tevergeefs." Hij vindt het aantal in leven gebleven dieren 'nog heel netjes'. "Ik had van tevoren gezegd: als we er in december nog twee over hebben is het mooi. Als weesjes komen ze uit een asiel, gevangenschap dus. Ze zijn minder bang voor mensen, verkeer en vossen dan echt wilde marters. Dat maakt ze kwetsbaarder." Het wil niet zeggen dat de roofdieren zich makkelijk laten zien. Mulder zelf ving er in vier maanden maar twee keer eentje op z'n netvlies.
De oren vinden, via de antenne, de marters wel. Nu ook: Mur zit in een dicht bosje fijnsparren op het landgoed Heerenbeek. Hoog in een van die bomen. Nesten van eekhoorns of vogels, vossen- of konijnenholen zijn favoriete plekken. En holtes in bomen dus, bijvoorbeeld een spechtgat.
Mur zit op enige afstand van May. Zoals het hoort. Want boommarters hebben hun eigen territorium, afgebakend door afscheiding uit buikklieren. De mannetjes blijven bij elkaar weg, op straffe van een confrontatie. Vrouwtjes daarentegen, twee of drie, zijn welkom. "Zij kunnen de met geurvlaggen gemarkeerde gebiedjes heel gemakkelijk vinden. De mannetjes zijn voor hen de kwartiermakers. Ze komen in een gespreid bedje." Daarop blijft het voorlopig nog wachten. Vrouwelijke dieren zijn er nu nog niet bij. Misschien later dit jaar. Dan wordt een nieuw groepje dieren in het gebied losgelaten, en het jaar erop nog een. Zo krijgt het onderzoek van Jaap Mulder body. Dat moet antwoord uit de praktijk geven op de vraag of Brabant geschikt is voor herintroductie van de boommarter.
"Deze dieren vertonen al natuurlijk gedrag. Dat is heel bemoedigend", is Mulders eerste voorschotje. "Ze blijven mooi in hun eigen gebiedje van twee vierkante kilometer. Kennelijk vinden ze daar voldoende goede slaap- en voedselplekken. " De bioloog weet het dankzij de peilingen, waarvoor hij regelmatig door de bossen rijdt. Mulder wisselt dat 'als kleine zelfstandige' af met onderzoekswerk elders in het land. Hij is dé vossenkenner van Nederland, en ook de korenwolf kent voor hem weinig geheimen. In dit geval zijn de provincie Noord-Brabant en de stichting Het Groene Woud zijn opdrachtgevers.
"Spannend", noemt hij de ritten van vele uren door De Mortelen, waarvoor hij in het duister zijn tijdelijk verblijf – een krakkemikkig caravannetje – verlaat. "Je bent urenlang bezig zo'n beest te volgen. Opeens realiseer je je: hee, geen signaal. De kunst is om hem dan terug te vinden." Lachend: "Ik heb in dit vak heel snel en behendig leren rijden." De gradenboog aan de antenne op z'n autodak, in combinatie met een geodriehoek op een stafkaart, leiden tot een stip op de kaart die de precieze vindplaats van een marter aanduidt. Om de inmiddels verzamelde stippen is per dier een mooie, bijna rechthoekige lijn te trekken: "Dat is dus het territorium." Om 17.55 uur zijn we terug bij de stomp van de populier. De schijnwerper bovenop de 4x4 gaat aan, in de hoop May over de stam te zien afdalen. Te laat: hij is 'm al gesmeerd. En actief, zo laten de zendersignalen horen. Mulder start de auto, op weg naar de volgende stip op de kaart. De wetenschapper in hem spreekt: "De echte kick, dat is toch het eindrapport."
Polisen i Stockholm har med nya metoder lyckats komma åt några av de djurrättsaktivister som genom trakasserier och hot tvingat en lång rad pälshandlare att slå igen butiken. För Berndt Lundmark i Årsta är det en klen tröst – han orkar inte längre.
1970 fanns det 28 körsnärer, det vill säga yrkesmän som sålde och arbetade med pälsar, på Södermalm. I mitten av februari i år går den siste av dem för sista gången till jobbet.
Körsnär Berndt Lundmark tvingas nu stänga sin butik på grund av trakasserier. Han är 61 år gammal och kan inte pensionera sig:
”Jag måste söka jobb och det kommer inte bli lätt,” säger han.
Allt sedan hösten 2005 har Göran Larssons butik på Hornsgatan varit föremål för demonstrationer och skadegörelse. Nedklottrade och krossade fönster, uthälld tjära, litervis med rödfärg och slagord etsade i syra på skyltfönstret har varit vardag.
–Om vi bara går ett år tillbaka så gav jag inte mycket för polisens insatser. Men under en tid har man haft spaning och nyligen greps några av dem här utanför. Till slut har polisen insett att något måste göras.
De tre som greps har sedan också dömts för skadegörelsen, även om de blev frikända när det gäller föreberedelser till andra brott. Två av de dömda är bosatta i London.
Göran Larsson tror att ett avsnitt av SVT:s Dokument inifrån, som tog upp problemen med djurrättsaktivisterna och polisens bristande resurser, blev en utlösande faktor. –Jag kastar ändå in handduken. När de vid två tillfällen hotade mina döttrar fick jag nog. De tar till väldigt fega metoder.
Vad har du själv för uppfattning om djurhållningen i branschen? –Jag förutsätter att den har blivit bättre – det är något som myndigheterna ska se till. Jag är inte mindre djurvän än någon annan, men ett samhälle där man inte använder sig av djur för föda och kläder tror jag inte att vi kommer att få se inom överskådlig framtid.
Den senaste i raden av pälshandlare som ger upp är Berndt Lundmark i Årsta. Hans butik har ofta varit nedsprejad och tjärad och fönstren har krossats. Nu är det dags för total utförsäljning. –20 februari är det slut. Trakasserierna har eskalerat det sista året. Min bil har blivit förstörd, jag har fått hotfulla sms och bostaden har varit nedklottrad med hotelser. Till och med där mina föräldrar bor har de klottrat. De har också beställt saker i mina föräldrars namn. Nästa steg är att även mina barn blir hotade och det tänker jag inte vänta på, säger Berndt Lundmark.
Det som upprör honom mest är att han fått så lite stöd från polisen. –De tog visserligen några tjejer utanför Larssons butik, men annars betecknas det som oprioriterat klotter och skadegörelse.
Berndt Lundmark är 61 år och kan till skillnad från Göran Larsson inte pensionera sig än. –Nej, jag måste söka jobb och det kommer inte att bli lätt.
Vad har du för syn på djurhållningen i samband med päls- handel? – Jag tror att om de som protesterar använde sig av demokratiska medel, så skulle de kunna förbättra för djuren. Det vore positivt eftersom det säkert finns en del att göra. Men med de här metoderna får de ju inte sympatier någonstans.
Även om Berndt Lundmark och Göran Larsson till viss del är kritiska till polisens agerande har polisen lagt ned mer resurser på trakasserierna av stadens pälshandlare. –Vi har jobbat med problemet under flera år utan att nå ända fram. Därför har vi det senaste året kört en annan typ av insatser som gjort att vi på olika sätt blivit ganska initierade i dessa kretsar, säger Patrick Ungsäter på Citypolisen.
Han menar att det inte är några vanliga ungdomar som håller på med det här. –Det handlar om slutna grupper som genomför välorganiserade attacker. Vi har därför utsett underrättelseansvariga i varje distrikt för att samordna arbetet i hela Stockholm. Nu har även vi ett bra nätverk, säger Patrick Ungsäter.
SvD har utan framgång försökt få en kommentar från Djurens befrielsefront, som uppmanar till och organiserar de olagliga aktionerna.
REYKJAVIK, Iceland, January 28, 2009 (ENS) - Iceland plans to hunt hundreds of endangered fin whales over the next five years, a steep increase over previous self-assigned whaling quotas, although a global moratorium on commercial whaling is still in effect. Iceland has an exemption to the moratorium through the reservation made in 2002.
On Tuesday, the day after Iceland's coalition government resigned, outgoing Fisheries Minister Einar Gudfinsson issued the new whaling quotas. In a brief announcement of the new quotas, Gudfinsson said the total allowable takes of fin and minke whales for the next five years will be according to scientific recommendations of the Icelandic Marine Research Institute.
Workers cut up a large fin whale in Hvalfjordur, Iceland, Sunday, Oct. 22 2006.
For the years 2009 until 2013, Iceland has set the annual quotas for 150 endangered fin whales and 100 minke whales, which are not classed as endangered.
In 2006 Iceland resumed whaling of fin and minke whales. Last year, whalers were permitted to hunt nine fin whales and 40 minke whales.
Sue Fisher, policy director for the UK based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said, "WDCS assumes that Iceland's decision to resume large scale commercial whaling is a desperate attempt to secure income from sales to Japan. Given the status of the government, it is not clear if the Fisheries minister even has the authority to do this, nor is it clear that there is a market for whale meat." "It is a sad day for whales that they now become the latest potential victims of the world economic crisis and we have not seen a hunt of this scale in the North Atlantic since the 1980s," said Fisher. "And there is still a moratorium in place."
Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, managing director of the Association of Minke Whale Hunters, said January 9 that his members were hopeful that the Ministry of Fisheries would issue a quota for 200, even 400, minkes next season, up from 40 last year. "Then we only hunted for the local market but now we are thinking of selling 90 percent of the meat to Japan. Demand is certainly there; we could easily sell the meat from 1,000 animals if we had the permission to hunt them," Jonsson told the "Frettabladid" newspaper.
Fisher said the timing of the announcement, coming as it does after the dissolution of the Icelandic government late Monday, calls into question the legality of the whaling quotas. "WDCS calls on the interim government to immediately reject the ex-Minister's ploy," she said. Meanwhile, discussions on the formation of a minority government between the Social Democrats and the Left-Greens are underway and are expected to conclude tonight or tomorrow.
President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson has requested that the outgoing government remains in office until a new government is formed.
28-01-2009 Andile Moshoeshoe, The Witness, South Africa
The community of Kokstad is threatening to protest outside the courts there if a man who is accused of dragging a dog behind his vehicle on a rope is not prosecuted immediately. The police delay in arresting the man has also angered the Kokstad SPCA.
The man allegedly punished his dog, allegedly for biting his son, by dragging it behind his vehicle and then abandoning it in the bush.
The man is a teacher at a junior secondary school in Mount Ayliff, Eastern Cape, and lives in Kokstad. He is also a well-known politician in the region. His name cannot be published as he has not yet been charged, but seven counts of animal cruelty have been lodged by the Kokstad police.
Local community members are shocked by the incident. Some asked what schoolchildren would learn from a teacher who is capable of committing such brutal acts.
The chairman of the Kokstad SPCA, Douglas Wolhuter, criticised the police’s reaction as being too slow, saying the information provided to the police is more than enough to arrest the man. He said people who can do such things to animals can possibly do the same to human beings.
National spokeswoman of the National council of SPCA Chris Kush was also shocked to hear that the suspect has not yet been charged and arrested. “We are shocked, horrified, and this is completely unacceptable,” she said.
The dog’s tongue was almost severed near the base after being dragged along the tar, and the pads of its paws were cut and grazed, said eyewitnesses.
Kush told The Witness that when SPCA workers arrived on the scene, the injured dog looked up and wagged its tail. It was rushed to the local veterinarian, but had to be put down because of the severity of its injuries.
Police spokeswoman Superintendent Zandra Wiid denied that the police unduly delayed their response, saying they were still waiting to obtain an eyewitness statement. She added that the culprit will be charged soon.
"In the night of January the 25th one of the headbuildings from the WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITEIT (NETHERLANDS) has been tagged bij ALF members. This was to make sure every last person within the university knows what is happening down there.
15.000 TORTURE DEATHS A YEAR!
We left names of specifik animals being tortured at the WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITEIT and of course the number of 15.000 and some ALF tags.
NO ONE WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY OF WAGENINGEN CAN SAY THAT THEY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THIS, THERE HAVE BEEN ENOUGH WARNINGS!!!!!
We call on the help of every other ALF cell that is active in and around the Netherlands. HELP US, THIS HAS TO STOP NOW!
FREE THE ANIMALS FROM THESE SICK FUCKERS WHO CALL THEMSELVES SCIENTISTS!!
29-01-2009 By AMY MILNE - The Southland Times, New Zealand
Invercargill's Oreti Beach has become the bachelor pad for one very big boy. The Conservation Department (DOC) was alerted to a young male New Zealand sea lion at the beach yesterday morning after receiving numerous calls from the public.
The alpha male has stationed himself like a guard dog at the popular recreational beach's entrance, giving some visitors a surprise welcome.
Fisheries officer Peter Meulenbroek checks to see if this big boy hasn't got any undersized fish stored beneath those flippers. The young male New Zealand sea lion has made itself at home at the entrance to Invercargill's Oreti Beach.
DOC biodiversity programme manager Jessyca Bernard it was not unusual for male New Zealand sea lions to come ashore at this time of year. "It's not really a matter of these animals sharing our space, but us sharing their space," Ms Bernard said. For no particular reason, this one had made itself at home near the beach's entrance and, while he appeared calm, people were advised to stay at least 10m away and not get between the animal and the sea.
A provoked animal could potentially deliver a fatal attack in retaliation, she said. "They can get up on their flippers and lunge at you. Their bite is extremely painful." DOC had received up to a dozen telephone calls from concerned members of the public yesterday, most of them worried about the animal's welfare. However, the sea lion appeared healthy and happy, Ms Bernard said.
His dark brown colouring indicated he was a young male and had probably come ashore to rest after possibly gathering food or mating down on the sub-Antarctic islands or Otago coast. Sea lions could hunt up to 175km offshore and could dive to up to 600m. They were typically between 350kg and 500kg but because this one was still very young it may be lighter than 350kg, she said. Anyone caught harassing the animal could face a fine of up to $30,000.
Television network NBC reportedly pulled the plug on a Super Bowl ad sponsored by PETA (the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) over it's supposed "hypersexualized nature," reports CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami.
The New York Times reported the pro-veggie commercials was rejected because it "depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards," according to NBC Universal's advertising standards executive, Victoria Morgan.
The ad, which has the taglines "Studies Show Vegetarians Have Better Sex," shows scantily-clad women getting "intimate" with vegetables.A PETA representative reportedly responded, "PETA's veggie ads are locked out, while ads for fried chicken and burgers are allowed, even though these foods make Americans fat, sick and boring in bed."
South American camera traps in Ecuador have bagged 75 jaguars, so far, in a first census of the rainforest felines. The Wildlife Conservation Society today released images from two Ecuadorian forest reserves, showing jaguars, wild dogs, and peccaries, pig-like jaguar prey.
The photo traps trip when they detect body heat from passing animals, allowing a survey of jungle trails.
“The main threats to jaguars in Ecuador are habitat degradation and loss due to various human activities,” said WCS team leader Santiago Espinosa, in a statement.
“Bushmeat hunting by local communities has increased due to road development that provides access to otherwise isolated areas.” More remote areas harbor five times more jaguars than heavily hunted ones, the survey finds.
Other animals captured on film: white-lipped peccaries, sometimes called javelinas Peccaries travel in herds to fend off attack by jaguars and pumas.
CO2-bedwelming van varkens kan daglicht niet verdragen
28-01-09 Varkens in Nood
Experts zijn het er al jaren over eens: het bedwelmen van slachtvarkens met CO2 is dieronvriendelijk en zorgt voor onnodig lijden. Beelden van de gruwelijke wijze waarop varkens worden verdoofd, voorafgaand aan het slachten, zijn jarenlang geheim gehouden. Een drietal dierenbeschermingsorganisaties heeft met hulp van bedwelmingsexpert dr. Hoenderken de hand weten te leggen op schokkende videofragmenten die zijn gemaakt tijdens meerdere wetenschappelijke onderzoeken aan de universiteit van Zürich.
De beelden tonen op confronterende wijze hoe varkens na blootstelling aan het gas in paniek raken en wilde bokkensprongen maken. Happend naar lucht zakken de dieren na zo’n halve minuut door hun poten om al stuiptrekkend buiten bewustzijn te raken. In meerdere grote slachthuizen in binnen- en buitenland worden per dag duizenden varkens in groepen op deze wijze bedwelmd.
Alleen al bij varkensslachterij Vion in Boxtel ondergaan per week 55 duizend dieren dit lot. Varkens zijn zeer gevoelig voor het prikkelende gas en worden al snel onrustig als de hoeveelheid CO2 in de lucht toeneemt. Net als bij mensen zorgt het gas voor irritatie aan hun luchtwegen en hevige ademnood. Onderzoek heeft aangetoond dat varkens liever dagenlang doorbrengen zonder voedsel of water dan te worden blootgesteld aan hoge concentraties CO2.De verdoving van varkens met CO2 in de slachthuizen vindt plaats in afgesloten ruimtes die geen ramen hebben en waarin geen camera’s zijn geïnstalleerd. Daardoor is het voor de Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit onmogelijk om het lijden van de dieren te beoordelen. Dit gebrek aan transparantie is in strijd met de Europese wetgeving, die stelt dat controlerende instanties te allen tijde toegang moeten hebben tot alle delen van een slachthuis.
Varkens in Nood heeft bezwaar gemaakt tegen de onmogelijkheid om het slachtproces te controleren, maar de VWA ziet er de noodzaak niet van in. Met de videobeelden willen de samenwerkende stichtingen Varkens in Nood, Wakker Dier en Rechten voor al wat Leeft laten zien dat het bedwelmen van varkens met CO2 een inhumane praktijk is die het daglicht niet kan verdragen. Zolang controle onmogelijk is, blijft het varken achter in het donker.
Het eerste edelhert van de roedel die sinds oktober illegaal op Terschelling verblijft is woensdag gevangen. Het ministerie van Landbouw (LNV) begon dinsdag een zoekactie om de grazers van het eiland te halen.
Volgens een woordvoerder van het ministerie ontdekte een van de vier vangteams een klein groepje van vijf herten in de buurt van camping De Kooi. Hier wist een van de specialisten een vrouwtjesdier met een verdovingspijltje te raken.
Het is al de tweede zoekactie van LNV. In december is er al tevergeefs geprobeerd de edelherten te vangen. De viervoeters hebben zich over het hele eiland verspreid. Zodra de dieren gevangen zijn, gaan ze na een korte stop op een geheime plek terug naar het vasteland.
DEN HAAG - Van uitsterven is nog geen sprake maar de honingbij gaat in Nederland net als in de rest van de wereld hard achteruit. De wilde honingbij is hier eigenlijk al uitgestorven, terwijl de dichtheid aan bijenvolken bij imkers dicht bij de ondergrens van het voortbestaan zit. Het bestuiven van planten dreigt onvoldoende te worden, zowel in de landbouw als in de natuur.
Dat is de strekking van een rapport, dat onderzoekers van de Wageningen Universiteit woensdag hebben aangeboden aan minister Gerda Verburg (LNV). Ook de Nederlandse Bijenhoudersvereniging (NBV) kwam woensdag met een rapport. Volgens de imkers is een ‘deltaplan’ nodig om de bij te behouden.
Reden voor alle ongerustheid is de massale sterfte van bijenvolken, waarbij gesproken wordt over wintersterfte en verdwijnziekte. Deze massale sterfte lijkt steeds vaker voor te komen.
De achteruitgang van de natuur, de toenemende bevolking en het gebruik van landbouwgif spelen de bij en andere bestuivers parten. De afnemende vitaliteit van de bijen heeft daarnaast andere oorzaken. Zo is de bijenhouderij in ons land in handen van een sterk vergrijzende groep hobbyisten die er niet zijn brood mee kan verdienen.
Die bijenhouderij wordt al lang geplaagd door de parasiet varraomijt en daar is een tweede gevaarlijke ongevraagde gast bijgekomen; de Nosema ceranae. Volgens de wetenschappers is er een groot gebrek aan onderzoek, dat nodig is om oplossingen te vinden.
Gevreesd wordt voor onherstelbare vermindering van soorten van planten en dieren in de natuur. Ook land- en tuinbouw, inclusief de glastuinbouw, gaan de nadelige gevolgen ondervinden. Minder groenten en fruit gaat ook onze economie bedreigen.
De honingbij is onze belangrijkste bestuiver en die rol kan niet worden overgenomen door andere bestuivers, zoals de hommel. De achteruitgang van de honingbij kan directe gevolgen hebben voor de teelt van hommels, omdat die afhankelijk zijn van van stuifmeel dat door bijen verzameld wordt.
De wetenschappers pleiten niet alleen voor meer onderzoek, maar ook voor professionalisering van de bijenhouderij. Ook zou de tuinbouwsector zijn verantwoordelijkheid moeten nemen en zorgen voor het veilig stellen van de bestuiving in de toekomst.
An Ohio-based animal-rights watchdog group has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate UL's New Iberia Research Center.
In a Tuesday letter to USDA official Robert Gibbens, the group Stop Animal Exploitation Now alleges that nine primates have died at the New Iberia facility in recent years and that others may be suffering from serious undiagnosed illnesses.
"I request you initiate action to levy the most substantial fine allowable and suspend projects, which involve repeat violations," SAEN Executive Director Michael Budkie wrote in the letter. "I find the attitude of callousness and negligence at NIRC to be nothing less than shocking."
In a statement, Johnny Hardcastle, head of animal resources at NIRC, said the center was not aware of any investigation. "The New Iberia Research Center has not been made aware of any USDA investigation concerning issues of animal health and well-being," Hardcastle said. "At such time that we receive information of an investigation, we will cooperate fully with the USDA."
In the letter, Budkie wrote that one chimpanzee that died in November 2007 had only received fiber tablets since 2005, but that several conditions were noted when the animal died. Among those conditions, Budkie said, were muscle atrophy, a distended abdomen, fluid in the abdomen and a heart problem.
Another chimpanzee that reportedly died in August 2006 had undergone a vasectomy only a few days before, Budkie said, despite the fact it reportedly had a heart condition. A third chimpanzee died of gastric bloat, which is often related to an improper diet, Budkie said. "Additionally, his records do not list any treatment for this condition; it was discovered only at death," Budkie said. "I believe that this indicates inadequate observation of this animal."
Budkie also wrote in the letter that four monkeys that reportedly died at the facility had medical conditions that may have gone untreated, including intestinal blockage, enlarged kidneys and septicemia, a blood infection.
Two infant primates also reportedly died because of maternal neglect or trauma, Budkie said. In a phone interview, Budkie said such problems can sometimes arise out of the psychological stress of being in captivity.
"It's not surprising that it would really stress the animals and cause them to engage in self-destructive behavior," he said. "This also caused disruption in the relationship between mother and offspring, and one of the infants killed had serious injuries. It's a mother literally attacking her offspring."
Budkie said the information about the New Iberia center came from the facility's own internal records. SAEN monitors several such facilities across the country and receives documents about many of them on a regular basis, he said.
All of the records said to be from NIRC will be posted on the group's Web site (http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/) in the next couple of days, Budkie said.
According to the site, the group frequently files complaints and investigates animal research facilities across the country, many of them associated with universities.
The NIRC Web site says the center includes "diversified animal housing systems" of varying sizes both indoors and outdoors, extensive diagnostic equipment, a 12,000 square foot diagnostic lab and a surgical suite.
BRADENTON — An animal abuse trial against Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, is set to begin next week in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Opening statements are set Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan.
Four nonprofit national animal rights groups, including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a former Ringling Bros. employee in 2000, sued Feld Entertainment claiming the defendants inhumanely and illegally mistreat their Asian elephants and have done so for decades.
MUMBAI (AFP) — Wasiff Khan has an admission: he used to be scared of dogs, not unusual in Mumbai where strays can have a bite worse than their bark. But Khan runs a deluxe dog food delivery service.
The 29-year-old founder of Homecare Dogfood laughs about it now, as overcoming his fear has seen his unusual business take off, with the pets of Bollywood A-listers and top executives among his select clientele. Just like Mumbai's army of "dabbawallahs" who deliver tiffin boxes of home-cooked food to hungry humans, uniformed Homecare Dogfood drivers criss-cross the city every morning with meals for man's best friend.
"The dogs know that the food is coming. They jump up. It's so nice to see that, to know that they are waiting for the product. They don't need to see a watch. They start barking. They're very intelligent animals," Khan told AFP.
His story began four years ago when he was a struggling commerce graduate, drifting from job to job without any clear sense of direction. He first thought of starting a catering business but realised he had neither the experience nor the skills to make it work in a such a competitive field. Then he noticed the large number of dogs being walked along the seafront and tree-lined streets near his home in Mumbai's upmarket Bandra West district. "It was like a eureka moment, like a light bulb that came on. I thought, 'why not do food for dogs?'" Khan said.
Friends thought he was mad because they knew he was scared of dogs and had never had one as a pet. Undeterred, Khan had name cards printed and set about knocking on doors to gauge interest. Dog owners leapt at his idea. So he took down details of their pets, from their breed and size to what food they ate, researched dog nutrition and spoke to animal health specialists. "I then understood that for their owners, dogs are like a son, daughter, brother or sister. Owners treat them with so much respect," he said.
His first meal -- a simple mix of meat and rice -- was tested on neighbourhood strays. When they suffered no ill effects, the food was given as free samples to the pet owners he had spoken to. The food proved a hit with the dogs, and dozens of owners signed up for a daily delivery service.
-- Dogs eating better than many humans -- In a country where the gap between the haves and have-nots is one of the widest in the world, Khan is catering for animals that live, and eat, better than many of his countrymen. Indeed, India is home to nearly half of the world's hungry, according to the World Food Programme. Some 40 percent of the country's 1.1 billion people live below the global poverty line of less than 1.25 dollars a day.
The daily meal that Khan provides for the pampered canines of India's commercial capital costs more than those 420 million people earn. In the early days of his business, each dog's dinner sold for 15-30 rupees (30-60 US cents) and in the first month, from an initial outlay of just 5,000 rupees on food and petrol, he doubled his money.
Khan said he pursued potential clients like a man possessed, once even chasing a car with a dog in it on his scooter to get the owner to sign up.
As a modest start-up, Khan kept costs low. He used his mother's kitchen to prepare the food and enlisted a helper to deliver the meals on a bicycle to save on petrol costs. After four months, he hired a nearby kitchen, took on more staff and got rid of the bicycle. In its place he bought a motor-scooter and fixed a pizza delivery-style box on the back with the company logo, a long-eared cartoon mutt licking its lips.
Gradually, his reach expanded from Bandra to cover much of Mumbai's vast urban sprawl. Branded uniforms and proper packaging were introduced, helping to establish his product as a recognisable brand.
Now, after dealing single-handedly with everything from cooking to sales and marketing and public relations, Khan employs 24 staff and has an annual turnover of 750,000 rupees, feeding dogs from chihuahuas to Great Danes. Meals now cost 50-100 rupees -- similar to the price of single dishes on an average restaurant menu. Beef, chicken and goat dishes are available as well as vegetarian options for pets in some Hindu and Jain households.
A "premium" range using only the choicest cuts of meat and best ingredients is in the pipeline. Khan admits his achievement is impressive for someone who doesn't hold a masters' degree in business administration (MBA) and didn't even have a detailed business plan. He recently received an award for his innovation and revealed he has had some "very tempting offers" from potential investors as well as interest from New York to set up a similar venture there.
An India-wide franchise is on the cards, while he is also looking to sell his product in retail shops. One thing Khan says he doesn't need is a pet. "I don't need to keep a dog in the house. I take care of them for my clients," he said.
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Two women were crushed to death when wild elephants attacked villagers in Indonesia's Aceh province, an official said on Wednesday. The two women were killed on Tuesday when a pair of elephants trampled the hut in which they were sitting in a field outside the village of Jok in Aceh, a province at the northern end of Sumatra island, local district head Azahari Yacob told AFP.
"One woman was killed at the location and another one passed away on the way to the hospital," Yacob said. "This is the first incident in the area. Before this, no elephants had come in and disturbed the community."
The provincial conservation agency sent a team including four tame elephants to chase away the wild elephants, Yacob said, adding that frightened villagers refused to return to the fields.
Conflicts between wild animals and humans have long been on the rise in Sumatra, where legal and illegal logging activities are rapidly reducing the tropical jungle. The number of Sumatran elephants is also declining, with only 2,440 to 3,350 left in the wild, according to environmental group WWF.
How the State Protects Corporations From Dissent Jailed SHAC activists Receive Indefinite ASBOs
On Wednesday 21st January 2009 the police’s National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit issued a press release celebrating the jailing of seven animal rights campaigners for “over fifty years”. In their press release NETCU are at pains to point out that the sentences have “nothing to do with freedom of expression” and that those jailed are “extremists”.
NETCU, a shady, unaccountable branch of the UK’s expanding political police, have thrown the weight of their press department behind a campaign to present the seven defendants, all active in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign, as extremists. The mainstream media has swallowed NETCU’s spin unquestioningly without seeing the affair for what it is – a political trial with serious ramifications for the right of individuals to voice their dissent against corporate power.
On December 23rd, 4 out of 5 activists on trial at Winchester Crown Court were found guilty of 'Conspiracy to Blackmail' at Winchester Crown Court after a 3 and a half month long trial. Natasha and Greg Avery and Dan Amos had plead guilty during Summer 2008. During the trial much had been made about how each defendant fitted in to what the prosecution described as the ‘hierarchy’ of the SHAC campaign. At the three day long sentencing in January, Judge Butterfield sentenced the defendants according to how he saw them in this ‘hierarchy', not according to the evidence against them. Accordingly Greg and Natasha Avery were given the heaviest sentences possible, but were given credit for their guilty pleas and were sentenced to serve nine years each. Heather Nicholson, who plead not-guilty, received the longest actual sentence, eleven years. Gavin Medd Hall was sentenced to eight years, Daniel Wadham got five years, and Daniel Amos and Gerrah Selby were each sentenced to four years.
One thing that was not reported at all by the mainstream media was the imposition of indefinite anti social behaviour orders (ASBOs) on four of the defendants preventing them from protesting against animal experimentation. These ASBOs make otherwise lawful protest activity into a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison. The use of indefinite ASBOs against protesters is, as far as Corporate Watch knows, a completely new development. The terms of the orders could prevent these four people, all dedicated campaigners against vivisection, from ever voicing their political views again. The orders could even be interpreted as preventing the defendants from speaking or writing against vivisection.
By giving the maximum possible sentences, the Judge was effectively saying that this case represented the most serious form of blackmail. However, the allegations against those convicted would not fit in at all with a layman’s definition of blackmail
As Corporate Watch wrote last month, the charges related to over four years of concerted campaigning against Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). The essence of the blackmail charge is that SHAC called for companies to cease trading with HLS and wrote polite letters to that effect. SHAC also encouraged their supporters to write to and protest against companies working with HLS. In some cases, direct action occurred, but this was never called for by SHAC. Letters were sent to company employees falsely accusing them of paedophilia, threats were received in the post and cars were paintstrippered. Evidence was presented that suggested that some of the defendants may have had knowledge of, or been involved in, some of these activities. However, many defendants were convicted because of what they said on demonstrations against HLS and their suppliers or because of the length of their involvement with SHAC.
Let us look at the case of Heather Nicholson, the defendant who received the most severe sentence, eleven years. Heather is a committed, long-term campaigner for animal rights and had been involved with SHAC since the beginning. She had lived and worked at the SHAC office and been involved with communicating, politely, with companies doing business with HLS. Only the most tenuous of circumstantial evidence linked Heather to any of the activities parroted in the press as attributed to her. Heather was convicted because of her long involvement with SHAC and given the most severe sentence because of Judge Butterfield’s perception of her importance to the campaign.
In the case of the defendants who were newer to SHAC, their convictions stemmed largely from words spoken on demonstrations. These convictions are extremely worrying as threatening words should normally be dealt with, at most, by charges under the Public Order Act. Again, the catch-all charge of ‘conspiracy to blackmail’ meant that the defendants could be dealt with more severely because of their association with others.
Judge Butterfield was not content with the harsh sentence doled out to the SHAC 7. In his sentencing he invited the Department of Public Prosecutions to consider “indefinite detention” in blackmail cases. Surely Judge Butterfield had seen the potential for the state to use this charge in the future as a bludgeon to silence political dissent.
Despite the repression of the SHAC 7, resistance against HLS, Europe’s biggest animal testing laboratory, continues. Protests against financiers of HLS, and in solidarity with the SHAC 7, have taken place across the UK, Europe and the US while a protest against the Bank of England, who have provided HLS with banking facilities since their regular bankers dropped them, is planned for 27th February. (see www.shac.net)
To write to the SHAC 7: Natasha Avery NR8987 and Heather Nicholson VM4859 at HMP Bronzefield, Woodthorpe Road, Ashford, Middx, TW15 3JZ. England. Dan Amos VN7818, Gregg Avery TA7450, Gavin Medd-Hall WV9475 and Dan Wadham WV9474 at HMP Winchester, Romsey Road, Winchester, SO22 5DF. England.
Puducherry (PTI): A rare Albino Monocled cobra with a whitish skin has been caught from a house here by the forest officials. The two and a half-feet-long cobra, rescued on Saturday with the help of a private snake catcher, was rare because of its low skin colour due to lack of melanin pigment, Chief Wildlife Warden P Devaraj told PTI here on Wednesday.
The lack of melanin pigment was due to recessive gene and such a condition exists in one out of 10,000 cobras, he said. The white colour exposed the cobra to the predators, including eagles. The snake has an eye shaped dot on its neck which becomes visible only when it raises its hood.
Normally the forest department would release cobras of common features into the jungles as soon as they were rescued. But the department had decided to retain this cobra in a specially designed enmeshed cabin for display to visitors to the department.
The Albino Monocled cobras feed on eggs of birds, rodents, mongoose and small animals. The department has several other species of the snakes in separate boxes which are meant to be seen by those visiting the department. A long python and Russell vipers and a few other types of snakes are also kept in separate cabins. The Albino Monocled cobras are usually seen in rainforests as they cannot withstand the heat, and in bushy locations.
Devaraj said the department more often than not relies on the help of private snake catchers as was done in the present case while responding to calls for catching the reptiles. He said the department also rescued recently a dog shaped water snake in a mangrove forest here.
28-01-2009 door Dylan de Gruijl en Jan Salden, Brabants Dagblad
Wolfgang Stienes tuurt naar het beeldscherm. Op de monitor van zijn computer staat een foto van een tijgervel, mét opgezette kop. Stienes twijfelt. "Qua strepen zeg ik: hij is echt. Maar ik vind hem wat klein van formaat. Als ik geïnteresseerd was zou ik om meer foto's vragen."
Stienes scrollt verder op veilingsite Marktplaats.nl. "Hier!", roept hij met overslaande stem. "Potvistanden. Die zijn hartstikke beschermd. Alleen als ze aantoonbaar antiek zijn, mag je ze verkopen, maar dat staat er niet bij. Dit is foute boel."
Op internet wordt illegaal gehandeld in bedreigde diersoorten en -producten, zoals ook deze leeuwenkop. Foto Kathy Willens/GPD
Opgezette roofvogels, huiden van katachtigen, leer van slangen en krokodillen, ivoren beeldjes en zelfs levende chimpansees. Op het internet wemelt het van de advertenties voor bedreigde dieren of dierproducten. En dat gebeurt al jaren.
Stienes, werkzaam bij het Hulpcentrum voor Wilde Dieren Limburg, toonde in 2007 met dierenwelzijnsorganisatie IFAW aan dat tientallen Nederlandse websites foute handel dreven. Naast de professionele pagina's - vaak slechts toegankelijk met wachtwoorden - had hij ook grote veilingsites als Marktplaats en eBay onder de loep genomen. Daar telde Stienes in anderhalf jaar tijd bijna zeshonderd bedreigde dieren of dierproducten. Dat leidde tot verontwaardiging in de Tweede Kamer.
Toenmalig minister Cees Veerman van Landbouw, Natuur en Visserij (LNV) kondigde aan dat de Algemene Inspectiedienst (AID) meer aan voorlichting zou doen en harder zou optreden. Drie jaar later blijkt er weinig veranderd. In een steekproef die het IFAW in oktober en november uitvoerde, werden opnieuw tientallen beschermde dieren aangetroffen. Soms was de handel helemaal verboden, vaker was het niet duidelijk of de verkoper over de vereiste vergunning beschikte.
Al met al telde het IFAW 65 aangeboden reptielen, 121 zoogdieren en 29 vogels. "Dat bewijst dat er nog steeds niks is veranderd", zegt Rikkert Reijnen van het IFAW. Hij verwijt de veilingsites én het ministerie een 'lakse houding'."Marktplaats zegt steeds dat het moeilijk te handhaven is. Maar waar een wil is, is een weg. Er moet toch software zijn waarmee je verdachte spullen meteen kunt verwijderen?"
Volgens het Wereld Natuur Fonds (WNF) is de voorlichting aan professionele handelaren de laatste jaren flink verbeterd. Aan de populaire veilingsites is daarentegen weinig aandacht besteed.
De AID spreekt tegen dat het toezicht nog steeds niets voorstelt. Zo stelde de inspectiedienst tussen mei 2007 en augustus 2008 naar 219 advertenties onderzoek in. Tegelijkertijd erkent de AID dat het zaken moet laten lopen. "De focus ligt bij levende dieren", aldus een woordvoerder. "Daarnaast verschuilen mensen zich op internet achter een pseudoniem. We kunnen niet altijd iemands identiteit achterhalen."
Met veilingsites zijn volgens de AID 'goede afspraken' gemaakt. Zo verwijdert Marktplaats maandelijks ten minste tien 'foute' advertenties. Ook Speurders zegt nauw samen te werken met AID en politie. eBay heeft de handel in ivoor volledig gestopt.
Toch is Wolfgang Stienes niet tevreden. Hij ziet nog dagelijks foute advertenties. Groot probleem is volgens hem dat particulieren geen weet hebben van de regels. Handel is alleen toegestaan als het dier in gevangenschap is gefokt of de eigenaar over een vergunning beschikt die aantoont dat de herkomst legaal is.Volgens Stienes ontbeert het de veilingsites aan interesse er iets aan te doen. "Bij het zien van zo'n tijgerhuid denken ze: 'Ach, dat beest is toch al dood'. Maar als je zo denkt, kun je de hele boel wel vrijgeven."
Meet 12 noon, Hyde Park, Reformers' Tree, nr Speakers' Corner (Tube: Marble Arch) (For details of transport and publicity see below)
28-01-2009 World Day for Animals in Laboratories, London, UK
To mark World Day for Animals in Laboratories, campaigners from all over the UK and beyond will be gathering in London on April 25 to call for an end to animal experiments. Following a march from Hyde Park through the centre of London, where we intend to take the anti-vivisection message to large numbers of shoppers, tourists and residents, we will then hold a rally at Parliament to protest against the government’s pro-vivisection policies.
This will most likely be the largest anti-vivisection protest for many years, so please make every effort to attend, see below for details of transport and publicity etc.
It is now over 10 years since Labour was voted into government but any hopes that they would carry out their pre-election promises on animal experiments have long vanished. Soon after coming to power, the Government abandoned plans to hold an official inquiry into animal experimentation claiming this would be too costly. At the same time the Labour Party was accepting millions in party donations from powerful figures in the biotech and pharma industries, who were in return given key government positions and life peerages.
In the intervening years this has allowed the drug companies to wield huge influence over government policy. Far from the promised reduction and end of vivisection, in the past 3 years the number of animal experiments has actually started to increase for the first time since the 1970’s.
Meanwhile the Government continues to ignore growing scientific evidence that animal experimentation is a seriously flawed practice. There are fundamental physiological differences between different species, and even within species, which make animal testing unreliable and dangerous. Side effects from medical drugs are responsible for 18,000 deaths in the UK every year, the fourth biggest cause of premature death after heart disease, cancer and stroke. Yet all of these drugs were passed as “safe” following tests on animals. Animal experiments have no place in 21st century science. The longer the scientific community denies this, the more shame it will bring upon itself.
This is the first time in years that the anti-vivisection movement has held a march in London to mark World Day, in previous years such marches attracted crowds of thousands. The march on 25 April is intended to revive the spirit of those earlier marches, to unite and mobilise the anti-vivisection movement, to attract new campaigners and to take the antivivisection message out to the public and to the heart of government.
It’s clear that we cannot rely on the government or the vivisectors to take the necessary action to put an end to this huge scandal. Please join us on 25 April and let’s make our voices heard for the millions of forgotten victims of vivisection.
Publicity We have posters and leaflets available to advertise the march, which we can send you by post or you can download from the website. Please help us to spread the word by distributing them to friends and fellow campaigners, or by placing them in places such libraries, health food shops, community centres, offices etc.
To order leaflets and posters, please contact us using the details below. We have A5 colour leaflets 2-sided and A3 posters (see left). Download To download leaflet from the website go to http://www.wdail.org/flyer-poster.htm
Transport There will be transport from all over the country to the march and rally, please contact us for more information.
Other events. We are planning other events during the World Day weekend, including a info/social event in the evening in London after the march from 6pm to midnight.
Donations: The march and rally and other events for World Day in London are being organised by a coalition of individuals and grass-roots groups. Please consider making a donation to help us make the events a big success. Send Cheques/PO’s (payable to WDAIL) to WDAIL, BM Box 8623, London WC1N 3XX.
This website will be updated with information over the coming weeks and months, so check in for more info soon, or contact us if you have any questions. We'll also be sending out regular email info updates, if you want to receive these directly let us know.
28-01-2009 Joyce Man, Joshua But and Danny Mok, South China Morning Post, Hongkong
A stray dog trapped between two ancestral halls in a Sai Kung village (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Kung_District) for four days died last night shortly after teams of rescuers, villagers and volunteers pulled her to safety. The three-year-old black female mongrel, named Bogi by someone who feeds her, had been stuck in a narrow 12-metre-long gap since early on Saturday. Villagers had also nicknamed her Hak Mui (Black Girl).
Last night, at about 8.25pm, a vet fired a tranquilliser dart into Bogi from a gun, and onlookers clapped as firemen pulled her out about an hour later. Bogi was sent to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals clinic in Wan Chai. But Rebecca Ngan Yee-ling, the society's communications manager, said the dog showed no signs of life on arrival at the clinic. Vets found she had a tumour, and was not pregnant as people had thought. The cause of death has yet to be determined. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department will conduct an autopsy.
Volunteer Ah Miu tries to reach Bogi, a stray dog, trapped between
two ancestral halls in a Sai Kung village.
Residents of Mang Kung Uk in Sai Kung said Bogi entered the alley, between the Yu and Sing clan ancestral halls on Saturday. For fung shui reasons, the alley is A-shaped - 23cm wide where Bogi entered and 13cm wide at the exit. She got stuck 3 metres from the exit.
Bogi was heard whimpering on Saturday, said resident Au Yin-leung, who called the SPCA and fed the dog.
SPCA staff and firemen arrived that night. On Sunday, they attempted to pour cooking oil on Bogi, and on Monday to push her out with a bamboo pole, SPCA senior inspector Yung Chi-hang said. Yesterday, firefighters tried to push her using an aluminium fire ladder wrapped in blankets. They then rigged a pulley length-wise to drop a net over Bogi to drag her out.
In the afternoon, three successively thinner bystanders - a woman who arrived after seeing Bogi's story in the news, a teenager and a 10-year-old boy - volunteered to loop a rope around her neck.
The teenager, surnamed Lo, who weighs 40kg and has a 69cm waist, said he got to within 1.5 metres of Bogi. Ten-year-old Enoch Kampe, who came with his father, Ulf, to watch firecrackers in the village, also stopped short of the dog. The animal-lover, who weighs 30kg, said Bogi looked "squished".
Bogi drew about 150 onlookers, and a vet and other personnel from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
Dog lovers who read about Bogi's plight came bearing homemade contraptions. Joseph Sze Chun-yiu from Quarry Bay brought a metal pipe, a broom handle, wire and string to fashion a lasso. One couple suggested using KY Jelly to lubricate her belly, sliding a bag beneath her and pushing her out.
Sophia Borbon, from Baguio in the Philippines, who has lived in the village for eight years and fed the dog since she was a puppy, said she and her friends named her Bogi, which means handsome in Tagalog, because they initially thought she was male.
Villagers, who were celebrating the second day of the Lunar New Year yesterday outside the ancestral halls, strongly opposed boring a hole or tearing down the walls.
28-01-2009 Roger Dickson, The Cairns Post, Australia
WILDLIFE officers have slammed the reckless behaviour of people who had been feeding a dangerous 3.5m croc trapped near a busy city boat ramp. The croc, caught near the Edmonton boat ramp on Monday, had shown increasingly aggressive and territorial behaviour since moving into the area about two months ago, Queensland Parks and Wildlife’s Neil Mattocks told The Cairns Post.
Baited traps were set on Saturday. "It had come close to several boats and was becoming too comfortable around humans," he said. "A 3.5m animal is a dangerous animal."
Mr Mattocks said it had been reported that the croc, which had been feeding on fish frames and scraps, had rammed at least one vessel. He said there were two other smaller crocodiles under 2m that were still in the area but not considered dangerous. Mr Mattocks said QPWS was investigating reports people had been deliberately feeding the trapped saltie.
"It is crazy, reckless and could easily contribute to somebody being killed," he said. "It is an ambush predator, that is why we removed it from this location."
Mr Mattocks warned anyone caught feeding crocs faced fines of $4000. He said people who did not clean up after cleaning fish were also causing problems. Mr Mattocks said crocodiles were opportunistic feeders and would take whatever was on offer.
He warned that people using Far Northern waterways and beaches should always be vigilant. "Be croc-wise, do not feed the animals and be aware at this time of year as they were looking for mates and new territory," Mr Mattocks said. The 3.5m croc is being held at the QPW base in Portsmith while officers prepare it for sale to a crocodile farm.
PINE GROVE, Pa. (AP) - January 27, 2009 -- Rescue workers have found at least 70 malnourished cats in the care of an eastern Pennsylvania woman arrested on drug charges. Police were led to the cats after the woman, Virginia Justiniano, was stopped in Pine Grove on Saturday for a traffic violation.
Police Officer Mark Resue describes the house where the woman and her boyfriend lived as "basically a shoothouse," littered with hypodermic needles.
Officials with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals say Justiniano had operated a sanctuary called Cats With No Names since 1996. Justiniano estimated she had between 70 and 100 cats. Some were dead, while several geese, chickens and other animals also roamed the property. Justiniano and her boyfriend are being held on $25,000 bail.
LEMELE/OMMEN - "Hoe kun je die hondjes zoiets aandoen? Ze hebben geen kans gehad op een mooi leven." Carine Hendriks is nog diepbedroefd door de vondst die ze afgelopen zaterdag heeft gedaan in het bos bij buurtschap Archem, tussen Lemele en Ommen. Vijf dode pups, niet ouder dan acht weken, verspreid over het bos. Vermoedelijk door iemand achtergelaten om daar te sterven.
De medewerkster van de Dierenambulance was die dag gebeld door een man uit de buurt, die 's morgens nietsvermoedend een rondje had gemaakt met zijn hond. Tijdens zijn eerste ronde trof hij één dode pup aan, een Mechelse herder of een afgeleide daarvan. Toen hij in de loop van de middag nogmaals het bos introk, vond hij op verschillende plekken nog drie pups. Nadat de man de Dierenambulance inschakelde, besloten Hendriks en de man het bos nog verder uit te kammen. Samen troffen ze nog een vijfde hond aan. "We hoopten nog een levende hond te vinden, maar helaas, ze waren alle vijf dood", vertelt Hendriks.
Voor de dierenliefhebster een gruwelijke ontdekking. "Dit is een beeld wat je niet meer kwijt raakt. Ongelooflijk dat iemand hiertoe in staat is" , vindt ze. De medewerkster van de Dierenambulance denkt met zekerheid te kunnen zeggen dat de pups nog leefden toen ze zijn achtergelaten. "Ze lagen verspreid in het bos. Dat doen ze als ze op zoek gaan naar hun moeder." Eén pup lag tussen het hoge gras, om zichzelf zo warm mogelijk te houden. De andere hondjes lagen opgerold, een houding die ze aannemen als ze beschutting zoeken. Alle vijf geheel doorweekt. Volgens politiewoordvoerder Jannie Nijssingh is daardoor niet uit te sluiten dat de honden in het bos zijn gelegd, nadat ze eerder zijn verdronken.
Vooralsnog is het een raadsel wie de pups in het bos heeft gedumpt. De honden waren niet gechipt, waardoor het achterhalen van de dader moeilijk is. De vinder van de honden en een toevallige passant zeggen een wit bestelbusje te hebben gezien bij het bos.
De politie verzoekt eventuele getuigen om contact op te nemen via 0900-8844. Ook de Dierenambulance wil graag haar steentje bijdragen aan de zoektocht. Hendriks verzoekt mensen die meer weten te bellen met 0546-672012.
De honden zijn zaterdag na overleg met de politie 'uit respect voor de dieren' begraven in het bos.
The Government says it knows nothing about a so-called secret deal that would let Japan to kill more whales in the North Pacific, in exchange for reducing its whaling in the Southern Ocean. Reports in Australian media say New Zealand is involved in the proposal, which is being worked on by the drafting committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
New Zealand and Australia are represented on the committee, along with Japan, the United States, Sweden and Brazil.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully, speaking from Papua New Guinea, told Checkpoint he has not seen the proposal, which is only one of the discussions New Zealand is involved in.
Sydney Morning Herald reporter Andrew Darby, who obtained leaked papers from the committee, has said that the proposal indicates that anti-whaling nations are making concessions to Japan.
Greenpeace oceans campaigner Carley Thomas says it has the potential to legitimise bogus scientific research, which would threaten an endangered whale population around the coast of Japan. Judging by what's on the table at the moment, she says, it doesn't look like the Japanese are negotiating in good faith.
IWC 'close to collapse' A spokesperson for Japanese whalers, Glenn Inwood of the Institute of Cetacean Research, says the IWC has been close to collapse for years and is moving towards a more compromising position in order to survive. Mr Inwood says the proposal should be seen as the lesser of two evils.
"Your Shares, Your Fault," schalmde het gisteren over het Beursplein in Amsterdam-Centrum waar Euronext gevestigd is. Actievoerders van SHAC Nederland gingen gisteren opnieuw de straat op om medewerkers van Euronext te confronteren met het dierenleed dat zij financieren.
Elke laatste maandag van de maand voert SHAC Nederland actie bij Euronext. Euronext verhandelt de aandelen van het omstreden Britse dierproefcentrum Huntingdon Life Sciences. Op een gedigitaliseerde 'bijbeurs' wordt het aandeel van HLS verhandeld. Doordat NYSE/Euronext een podium biedt aan HLS, kan dit bedrijf haar terreur voortzetten op dieren.
Ruim 500 dieren sterven elke dag na maandenlange mishandeling en vergiftiging. Zo'n 70.000 dieren worden dagelijks gebruikt voor dierexperimenten voor chemicaliën, huishoudelijke producten, zoet- en smaakstoffen, medicijnen etcetera.
Het gaat slecht met het aandeel van HLS. Ze heeft bijna het dieptepunt bereikt om van de beurs afgehaald te worden. SHAC Nederland wil niet wachten tot het aandeel inderdaad van de beurs verdwijnt omdat ze door de ondergrens zakken, maar vindt dat Euronext direct haar verantwoordelijkheid moet nemen. Dus niet wachten maar direct het aandeel van de bijbeurs ARCA afhalen.
Het ministerie van Landbouw (LNV) is dinsdag opnieuw een zoekactie begonnen naar de edelherten die sinds oktober illegaal op Terschelling rondlopen. Vier specialisten en medewerkers van Staatsbosbeheer en de wildbeheereenheid bekijken hoe de herten gevangen kunnen worden, meldt een woordvoerder van het ministerie.
In december werd ook al vergeefs geprobeerd om de grote grazers te vangen. De beesten zijn erg moeilijk benaderbaar omdat zij zich verspreid hebben over het eiland.
Edelherten komen normaal gesproken niet voor op Terschelling en daarom werd aanvankelijk gesproken over een mysterie op het eiland. Eilandbewoners zeiden later dat het om een uit de hand gelopen kroeggrap ging waarbij de dieren aan vaste wal werden gekocht en daarna op het eiland zijn losgelaten.
Volgens de gemeente Terschelling hoopt het ministerie met de hulp van ervaringsdeskundigen beter in kaart te brengen waar de roedel zich op een bepaald moment van de dag bevindt, aldus een woordvoerder. ,,Hopelijk hebben ze deze keer meer succes. In het uiterste geval kan het zo zijn dat de herten afgeschoten moeten worden .''
A California firm offers to perk up your pooch or moggy with a range of hairpieces especially designed for animals. Sisters Jenny and Crissy Slaughter from Santa Barbara used to dress up their pets when they were children. But after winning a 2007 doggy parade fashion show by kitting out their dog as a Playboy bunny they realised there might be a business idea in it and set up Total Diva Pets.
"For that year's parade, we really needed little blonde wigs for the dogs to play Hugh Hefner's blonde bombshell girlfriends. We couldn't find any dog wigs so we tried to use human wigs, but they didn't fit," Crissy explained.
"We came up with our own creative design for dog wigs that turned out so cute. People began asking us where we got their costumes." Jenny says: "We realised that creating wigs made for pets was an unusual concept, and fun for everyone.
"Since then we have evolved and the company now offers eight pet wig designs, in five sizes, from Chihuahua size to Great Dane size."
Now the sisters sell $30 wigs with design ranging from an Afro to a green spiky punk wig.
To different people, the cow has differing values displaying the distinctions between different cultures. There is a very interesting joke of cow, which I have modified a little bit to illustrate how different countries and peoples make use of the animal.
There was this American farmer with two cows. He traded one of them for an ox so that the two animals could mate and produce offspring. The farmer made a good fortune and decided to retire early.
There was this Chinese farmer with two cows. He sold one of them and forced the remaining one to produce the milk of four cows. The cow died of exhaustion and the farmer, of starvation.
There was this German farmer with two cows. He gave the animals physical training so that they could produce double as much milk every day, live a hundred years, and be milked automatically with their own feet.
There was this Japanese farmer with two cows. He genetically modified the animals so that their bodies were only one tenth as big but could produce ten times as much milk. He also turned them into an animated feature called Kowkimon.
There was this French farmer with two cows, but unfortunately no one was milking them, as everyone went on strike, demanding that the government give them three cows each.
There was this English farmer with two cows, but both of them mad cows.
There was this Russian farmer with two cows. He did a head count and they became four. After taking another sip of vodka, he counted eight.
Malaysian "A" had two cows, but 200 people were milking them. And the government report said, "No one is out of job in Malaysia." Malaysian "B" had two cows, which were both hauled to the Parliament House for slaughter so that the MPs could savour the meat.
MP "A": Two is never enough. Make it four next time! MP "B": Local beef is not tender enough. Remember to bring in Australian calf or Kobe beef! MP "C": What a waste to make it into curry. Remember to make it into rendang next time!
The Indian farmer was the best. He had two cows, both sacred and for worshipping only.
(By TAY TIAN YAN/Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily)
27-01-2009 By Jennifer Brown, The Denver Post, USA
Eating junk food during pregnancy might have a bigger impact on childhood obesity, liver disease and diabetes than whether a mother is overweight. Monkeys who ate a high-fat diet of potato chips, peanut butter and chocolate had fetuses with fatty-liver disease, a potential precursor to diabetes. And their babies were obese by the time they were 6 months old, according to new research from the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine.
It didn't matter whether the monkeys who ate the high-fat diet actually got fat.
The study is evidence that the childhood obesity epidemic might start in the womb, said Jed Friedman, a CU pediatrics, biochemistry and molecular genetics professor and study co-author. "Maybe there is something in pregnancy that sets you up," he said.
Almost one-third of children ages 6 to 19 and 12 percent of infants are overweight, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. "That is not due to genetics — it has to be due to environment," Friedman said.
Scientists from UCD and the Oregon National Primate Research Center studied about 100 macaque monkeys for five years.
Half of the Oregon monkeys ate a healthy diet of fruits, vegetables and 15 percent fat. The other half got a diet similar to an American human — high-calorie and 35 percent fat.
Livers affected in womb Researchers removed the fetuses from some of the pregnant monkeys in the third trimester to study their organs, finding fatty-liver disease in the fetuses from mothers on fatty diets. Other monkeys were allowed to give birth, and the babies born to moms on high-fat diets became obese.
Monkeys on the junk-food diet lived together and could eat as much or as little as they wanted. Some of them stayed thin, while others grew fat — but their babies all got fat, leading researchers to believe their diet in the womb made them more likely to become obese. "It implicates the saturated fat in the diet as the culprit," Friedman said.
High-fat diet in the womb may also affect the "appetite center" of the brain, meaning baby monkeys might have problems with appetite control after birth, Friedman said. In the next phase of the study, researchers will study what happens when the baby monkeys who've been eating junk food are switched to a healthy diet.
Fatty-liver disease — once typically seen in patients after years of obesity — now is more common in young children, Friedman said. The disease is linked to diabetes and can eventually lead to liver failure, he said.
Advice to women The monkey study could have a significant impact on the advice doctors give pregnant women, said Kristen Nadeau, a pediatric endocrinologist at Colorado Children's Hospital. "We traditionally are targeting more of the obese moms," she said. But "maybe if you are not overweight, it's still important what you are eating in pregnancy." "This might be evidence as to why a healthy diet is important in terms of preventing some of the diseases that develop later in life."
Researchers are looking for noninvasive ways to study human pregnancies and determine the effects of diet on the liver, Nadeau said. Such research is becoming even more important because of the childhood obesity epidemic, which doctors began recognizing in the last decade, she said.
Fatty-liver disease occurs when excess fat in the body ends up in the liver. "We see teenagers who look like they are already on their way to a liver transplant," Nadeau said.
Begin februari start de Katholieke Universiteit Leuven met een nieuwe reeks activiteiten in het kader van hun 'Wetenschap en ethiek' reeks. Meer informatie over dit initiatief : http://wetenschap-en-ethiek.be
Is het niet cynisch dat de KUL pretendeert geïnteresseerd te zijn in ethische kwesties, terwijl ze dag in dag uit ethiek zelf niet al te nauw neemt. Als enige Belgische universiteit gebruikt de KUL nog steeds apen voor experimenten die ondertussen op andere manieren kunnen gebeuren.
Om het kleine groepje neurowetenschappers van het Gasthuisberg laboratorium niet tegen de borst te stoten, tolereert de KUL het onethische onderzoek dat deze mensen uitvoeren. Dat de KUL zich dan nog verschuilt achter de eigen ethische commissies die deze onderzoeken goedkeuren, maakt alles des te meer verwerpelijk. Is er nu echt iemand die verwacht dat deze eigen KUL ethische commissies objectieve adviezen geven?
KUL, de tijd van loze woorden is voorbij. Indien jullie het oprecht menen wetenschap op een ethische manier te willen aanpakken, stop dan meteen alle experimenten op apen!!!
De Anti Dierproeven Coalitie zal opnieuw protesteren tegen de apenexperimenten van de KUL tijdens het patroonsfeest op 2 februari.
ALPHEN - De Partij voor de Dieren in Zuid-Holland steunt b en w van Alphen in hun strijd om wilde circusdieren te weren uit Alphen. Olifanten en tijgers mogen wel naar Alphen komen, maar ze mogen er niet optreden.
De partij vraagt alle Alphenaren die achter het verbod op circusdieren staan een steunbetuiging te sturen naar de gemeente.Op de website van de PvdD in Zuid-Holland is een kant-en-klare e-mail te vinden.
Carla van Viegen, fractievoorzitter van de Partij voor de Dieren in de Provinciale Staten stelt dat dieren niet thuishoren in circussen. ,,Zij moeten onder dwang onnatuurlijk gedrag vertonen en als ze niet optreden, verblijven ze in zeer krappe hokken. Er is daardoor veel dierenleed. Daarom zijn wij zo blij dat Alphen dit ook inziet en circussen met wilde dieren weert.''
Van Viegen roept andere Zuid-Hollandse gemeenten op het voorbeeld van Alphen te volgen. Wethouder Blom kreeg vorig jaar nog een oorkonde van de PvdD vanwege zijn inzet om circussen met wilde dieren tegen te gaan.
27-01-2009 Ruslan Sangadji , The Jakarta Post , Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia
Deep jungle is no longer safe for Sulawesi's endangered "warriors" - the civets - so nicknamed for their daring agility, climbing skill and other unique endowments. The protected species - discovered over a century ago but less popular than anoa or dwarf buffaloes (Bubalus sp) and babirusa or hog deer (Babiroussa babirusa) - is famed for roaming fearlessly at night.
The nocturnal animal sleeps or rests during the daytime under shady trees or deep in the undergrowth. It never roams in a pack, roving in pairs at most or sometimes alone.
As the only endemic carnivore of the region, Sulawesi civets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulawesi_Palm_Civet) are fond of hiding in thickets, stalking their prey with almost inaudible steps. Their small and sharp teeth, like those of cats, as well as spiky claws function as weapons against other predators or prey while serving also as a means of tree climbing.
"Their skill in going up and down trees with their backs straight further justifies their reference as the warriors of the Sulawesi jungle," said Ismet Khaeruddin, director of Nature Conservancy, Central Sulawesi. He said that Sulawesi civets were found, though rarely, in Lore Lindu National Park, Tokalekaju mountain range, the west coast of Donggala, Mount Ambang, Mount Rantemario, Mount Sojol and in several other areas.
They feed on small mammals like rats, squirrels, piglets, small birds, fowls and eggs, in addition to fruits like bananas and palm or sugar palm (Arenga pi*nata) fruits. Feeding at night, civets rely on their excellent night vision and are capable of detecting their prey from only a few meters' distant.
Bigger than those from other regions, Sulawesi civets are seen as giant civets (Macrogalidia musschenbroekii), identified by their blackish-brown skin.
The other smaller species with reddish-gray skin (Viverra tangalunga) can be found in Sulawesi as well as on other islands. People around Mount Sojol nature reserve call civets cingkalung, while the Lore ethnic people in Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi know them as hulaku.
Compared with Viverra, Macrogalidia civets are as big as domestic dogs, reaching an average weight of 10 kilograms and a length of 130 cm - from head to tail. They are nearly as large as Sulawesi cuscuses (Phalanger celebensis) which are the island's other typical mammal of the bear lineage.
Viverra civets are smaller and shorter, the size of adult domestic cats, with an average weight of only seven kilograms. However, both have the physical appearance and basic nature of cats, with their liking for night roaming and inclination to climb trees and to play, thus having some ties of feline kinship to the viverridae family.
Ismet said some villagers in Central Sulawesi believed in civets' hypnotic power in their nocturnal hunting operations. Simply by staring and waving their tails at the drowsy chickens, within minutes the chickens would fall down and be carried off to the woods. But pythons, commonly found in Sulawesi forests, are actually the main predator of fowls.
The wide distribution of sugar palm trees in different forest areas of Sulawesi is inseparable from the role of civets in spreading the seeds of sugar palm fruits. "So, one of the best indications to identify civets' existence is the presence of numerous sugar palm trees.," Ismet said.
Apart from being a source of animal feed, sugar palm trees also produce juice processed by villagers into brown sugar, while their leaves are used for roofs and their young fruit preserved as sweets.
Two Western researchers, Chirs Wemmer and D. Watling, conducted a survey of the habitat and life of civets in the national park and managed to take their pictures using infrared technology, resulting in a book entitled Ecology and the Sulawesi palm civet, Macrogalidia musschenbroekii (1986).
The document served as a resource book for following conservationists, such as those compiling The Ecology of Sulawesi, published by Gajah Mada University Press (1987); Anthony J. Whitten along with Muslimin Mustafa and Gregory S Henderson, however, barely described Sulawesi civets.
Behoa people in the highlands of Lore in the Poso regency believed that their ancestors were fond of raising civets like dogs for boar and deer hunting.
But civets turned out to be difficult to breed and demanded too much attention compared with domestic dogs. Any delay in feeding them would make them attack village cattle and even injure people, particularly if - according to local myth - the number of civets exceeded 99, so the tradition has now been abandoned.
Data obtained from the Lore Lindu National Park show that in the western coastal zone of Central Sulawesi, civets are mostly trapped by accident. Residents frequently set up snares to catch jungle fowls but civets get entangled instead.
Unfortunately, civet's endangered status appeals to some people, who began to be interested in preserving them as stuffed animals in glass cases for souvenirs to decorate sitting rooms.
The world's largest penguins could be pushed to the brink of extinction by the end of this century due to the melting of Antarctic sea ice caused by global climate change, scientists have said.
Emperor penguins, the species of these aquatic flightless birds featured in the Oscar-winning 2005 documentary March of the Penguins, breed on Antarctic sea ice and dive from the sea ice to feed on krill, fish and squid.
THREATENED: Emperor penguins could be pushed to the brink of extinction by the end of this century due to the melting of Antarctic sea ice caused by global climate change.
Researchers led by biologists Stephanie Jenouvrier and Hal Caswell of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts used mathematical models to predict how climate warming and the resulting loss of sea ice would affect a big colony of emperor penguins at Terre Adelie, Antarctica.
Their models on average forecast a decline of 87 percent in the colony's population – from the current 3000 breeding pairs to 400 breeding pairs by 2100. But some models predicted the colony's population would plummet by at least 95 percent, placing the birds there at risk of extinction.
Terre Adelie is one of roughly 40 colonies of emperor penguins. The researchers viewed the fate of this colony as a possible example of what could happen to the entire species, now estimated at about 200,000 breeding pairs in all.
"Presumably, similar kinds of effects will happen in other colonies and other locations around Antarctica," Caswell said in a telephone interview, although he added that some colonies could be affected less dramatically by climate change.
"This is another example of the way in which climate change affects various factors of the habitat of animals adapted to live in really extreme conditions and puts populations at risk. It's very similar to the situation with the polar bears in the Arctic," Caswell said.
Polar bears, the world's largest bear species, also rely heavily on sea ice, albeit on the opposite end of the planet.
Emperor penguins live in some of the coldest conditions on Earth. They are the largest of the world's penguins, weighing up to about 40kg and standing up to about 1.15 metres tall. They dive to depths of 550 metres and hold their breath for up to 22 minutes.
"I hope people will be sensitized by the effect of climate change on such a charismatic species and realise there are strong ecological consequences of climate change," Jenouvrier, whose findings appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said in a telephone interview.
The researchers used climate projections by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and also took into account how emperor penguins were affected by past fluctuations in their sea ice environment.
Since the 1960s, the number of emperor penguins in his colony already has dropped by half, Caswell said.
INKOM - More than a dozen dogs were found in deplorable conditions at an Inkom home – and officials say the animals survived by resorting to cannibalism.
KIFI-TV reports Bannock County Sheriff’s Deputies went to the home Friday afternoon after neighbors reported they hadn’t seen the owners of the home since Christmas. Deputies responded with a search warrant and found 12 animals in “filthy” conditions – and began an animal abuse investigation.
A dozen dogs were found in filthy conditions in an Inknom,
ID home after being left alone for at least a month.
They say the animals survived the past month by eating three other dogs. The surviving animals were taken to the Idaho Falls animal shelter.
Deputies have not released information on the whereabouts of the home’s owners – or the condition of the dogs.
27-01-2009 By Vaimoana Tapaleao, The New Zealand Herald, New Zealand
A New Zealand woman is in hospital after being mauled by a tiger in Thailand. Ruth Corlett, 45, was at an enclosure on Sunday with her family when the female tiger jumped at her and bit her leg.
Mrs Corlett was rushed to hospital, where she received 54 stitches on the wound. Thai media reported that Mrs Corlett touched the year-old tiger's head before it jumped at her in the Khumsu Chiang Mai Tiger Centre.
Ruth Corlett with Pancake the tiger just before the attack.
Mrs Corlett travelled to Thailand with her husband and three children in 2007 to work with an organisation that runs orphanages, emergency relief and development programmes on the Thai border. Her husband, Stuart Corlett, said last night that his wife was still in hospital and was doing "okay". "It was just at one of those tiger places where people are allowed to play with the tigers," he said. "She was near one of them and the thing just jumped up and bit her in the leg. But she's okay now."
The owners of the tiger enclosure have offered to pay for all of Mrs Corlett's medical expenses. A staff member at the enclosure said the tiger that attacked Mrs Corlett - named Pancake - was usually very friendly and had been trained to stay with humans.
"Pancake has never bitten anyone before, despite being played with by tourists very often," the staff member said. "The [New Zealand] woman touched the tiger on its head and suddenly the sleeve of her arm, or the cloth of her shirt, got into the eye of the tiger and the tiger got irritated."
Local Thai media reported that Mr Corlett is looking to sue the Chiang Mai tiger enclosure, but the Herald could not confirm this last night. Staff at the centre have said that the case has not been filed with police.
KERKRADE - Een man in Gelderland is op de bon geslingerd omdat hij tegen de regels van de flora- en faunawet een aap in bezit had. Het dier, een witoorpenseelaapje (http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/common_marmoset), is in beslag genomen, meldt de Algemene Inspectie Dienst (AID) maandag.
Het witoorpenseelaapje is overgebracht naar een gespecialiseerd opvangadres. De AID liet het oog vallen op de verdachte omdat die al eerder de fout in ging met beschermde inheemse vogels, die niet volgens de regels waren geringd. Volgens de AID verklaarde de man dit keer dat hij de aap had gekocht van een Deense handelaar.
De inspectiedienst wijst er op dat alle primaten op een internationale lijst voor beschermde diersoorten (CITES) staan. En dat een ontheffing nodig is om aapachtigen te houden.
STANTON, Mich. (Greenville Daily News) - Montcalm County's contract with R&R Research Breeding in Howard City will be the topic of discussion during Monday's County Board of Commissioners meeting. But a decision likely won't be made then.
The agenda for Monday's meeting includes presentations from four individuals and one duo regarding either the County Animal Shelter or the County Animal Control Department in Stanton.
Montcalm Animal Shelter
R&R Research's five-year contract with the county, which allows the business to take live animals from the shelter to sell for medical research, will expire in February and the commissioners will decide whether to renew it.
R&R Research owner Jim Woudenberg hopes to convince the commissioners that his company's services provide a better benefit to society than simply euthanizing the animals. He sells animals to clients inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture who use them for research on possible human medical advances and veterinarian training. "We only get animals that are about to be euthanized," he said. "They're unwanted and unclaimed animals. If I win (a new contract), I win and more animals go to save lives. If I lose then more animals go to the landfill."
Before R&R Research has a chance to claim animals he said the owner, general public and animal rescue groups all get an opportunity to adopt them. "It's a simple issue," Woudenberg said. "The question is this - if given a choice would you rather have your animal go into the landfill or to research? Choose one or the other."
Sandy Carlton, a Greenville resident and member of the Montcalm County Citizens for Animal Welfare, plans to argue that research involving animals is acceptable but it shouldn't involve former pets. She believes animals that once were pets deserve a comfortable death instead of being subjected to medical testing. "My position is, even if the alternative is to have more euthanasia that is better than having animals released into the pound release (research) system," Carlton said.
She said many animals end up at the shelter because their owners no longer are able to care for them. "I can't stress enough what a betrayal of trust this is," Carlton said. "People have a far better ability to deal with the fear that if they can't keep their animal they can rest comfortably knowing it will be put down comfortably than sold for research. "I'm not arguing against research," she said. "I'm arguing against taking people's pets and profiting from a bad situation."
District 3 Commissioner Ron Retzloff, chairman of the commissioners' Law Enforcement and Courts Committee, which oversees the shelter's operations, said he actively is looking into alternatives for the services R&R Research provides. "I've been looking for information to see what benefit we have from the contract," he said. "Is there something we can put out there that other people can look at and say, 'I can provide that service?' I just don't believe in that contract and just won't vote for it."
However, Retzloff pointed out that R&R Research also disposes of euthanized animals from the shelter in exchange for permission to take the live animals, which Woudenberg estimated could cost the county about $6,000 to $8,000 if the contract is not renewed. "I've asked for numbers and figures to see what it would cost if we don't have a contract and he's not taking the dogs. Then we have to do that one way or another," said Retzloff. "Either he does it and gets rid of them or we have to euthanize and dispose of them. They're going to get euthanized one way or another."
Two giant pandas from rival China are now on display in Taiwan. China presented the four-year-old pandas to mark warming ties between the mainland and the island. (Jan. 26)
26-01-2009 Dineo Matomela HERALD REPORTER, The Herald, South Africa
A LIFEGUARD watched in horror as his friend was savaged to death by a giant shark while they were swimming together at Port St Johns at the weekend. Sikhanyiso Bangilizwe, 25, was bitten in half by a suspected tiger shark at about noon on Saturday while he was catching waves with a friend at Second Beach.
He is the second lifeguard to be killed by a shark in two years in the small Eastern Cape town. Port St Johns police station commissioner Morgan Naicker said the shark had bitten off half of Bangilizwe‘s body, including his right arm, shoulder, back and buttock. “This is a relatively safe beach – this is sad incident.”
Wild Coast Guards managing director Khaya Mjo said the beach had been closed for swimming following the attack, but was opened again yesterday “as it was felt it was safe.” “We have had a successful year so far with no drownings, so this is bad.”
Naicker said the death of Bangilizwe, a qualified member of the Wild Coast Guards, came two years after another lifeguard, Sibulele Masiza, was killed by a shark in January 2007. “We assume that Masiza was bitten by a tiger shark. His flippers were found with shark teeth marks, but his body was never recovered”.
Fellow lifeguard Tshintshekile Nduve said he had gone swimming at a familiar spot with Bangilizwe on Saturday. “He was catching waves further away and I heard his cries. I saw he was in trouble and the shark was on him. I saw blood and went to get help.” Nduve said lifeguards dispatched a power boat but it was too late.
He said he had been battling to sleep after watching his friend die. “To see him die has made it difficult. I wish I could get some pills. I am not well, but I will continue to go into the water as a lifeguard,” he said.
Vuyo Maza, one of the lifeguards who sped to the scene on the boat, said he was in the watch tower when the incident happened. He said he had never witnessed such horror. “When we went out he was already dead. His body was so badly injured, we could see his insides ... it was the scariest thing I ever saw. The shark bit Bangilizwe in three chunks.
Maza recounted how his friend Masiza was killed in 2007. “When Masiza was killed by a shark I never saw his body. Only his flippers were recovered. Seeing Bangilizwe die has broken my heart.” “The spirit is down among the guys, but they will go into the water,” Mjo said. Results from tests by the sharks board would confirm the type of shark that killed Bangilizwe.
In Dirksland dreigt een dierendrama nu de gemeente de kerkgracht gaat uitbaggeren. Tientallen, zo niet honderden, waterschildpadden verkeren in een diepe winterslaap en hebben zich ingegraven in de grond. De diertjes dreigen samen met de bagger te worden afgevoerd.
Bewoners hebben hun zorgen geuit over de schildpadden in de gracht. Tot nu toe zonder succes. De gemeente en het Waterschap Hollandse Delta zijn niet van plan de schildpadden te vangen. Ook het opschorten van de werkzaamheden tot de dieren ontwaakt zijn, is volgens hen geen optie. De schildpadden die door hun diepe slaap veel te sloom zijn om te reageren, dreigen dan ook in hun slaap te worden vermoord.
Niet beschermd Volgens het Waterschap Hollandse Delta zijn de waterschildpadden geen beschermde diersoort. Daarom is er nog geen concreet plan van aanpak om hen uit de bagger te filteren. Het vervuilde slib wordt rechtstreeks in een depot gestort.
Gedumpt De waterschildpadden zijn voorheen als huisdier gehouden en door de bezitters, om welke reden dan ook, in de gracht losgelaten. Dit is verboden, omdat de schildpad een uitheems diersoort is dat niet in het milieu mag worden uitgezet. De dieren zelf trekken zich er niets van aan. In de zomer zijn ze in tientallen te bewonderen op de plateaus die zijn aangelegd in het water. Al zonnend zijn ze voor bewoners en toeristen een heuse bezienswaardigheid. Maar of dat na de baggerwerkzaamheden nog steeds zo is, hangt van de gemeente en het Waterschap Hollandse Delta af. Het lot van de grachtbewoners ligt in hun handen.
A renowned Russian circus trainer is desperately trying to keep two Indian elephants he has devoted 30 years of his life to. If Yury Durov fails to come up with the asking price, Remi and Suzie will be auctioned off on the internet.
The Russian State Circus is demanding more than $100,000 for the animals.
Trapped in this tug of war are the two elephants, locked in a cramped Moscow Animal Theatre, allowed neither to perform nor be moved anywhere else.
After 30 years of training and performing with Remi and Suzie at the Russian circus, Yury Durov quit his job. He took the elephants with him to his new venue, but was not allowed to use the animals in performance.
“They tell me if you want the elephants, buy them. They want to put them up for an internet auction. But whoever buys them has to buy me with the elephants because they just wouldn’t move without my guidance,” Durov says.
Konstantin, a campaigner for animal rights, worries that if the ownership dispute drags on, the elephants’ suffering will grow. “They’re going literally crazy in that place, I’ve been there,” he said. “I could tell that by their movements. The elephants have gone through years of pain and suffering making a buck for the circus. Maybe it’s time to take care of them.”
Animal welfare groups say money seems to be the main priority of everyone involved.
Representatives of the State Circus confirmed plans to sell the elephants online to the highest bidder. Durov also complains about the asking price.
“I don’t know how they could have come up with such a price-tag. What about the years I’ve spent training the animals? Or the money that my theatre has spent to host and treat the elephants over the last 15 months or so? And that’s roughly the same amount they’re asking for the animals, by the way,” Durov said.
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Residents in Somerset County's Franklin Township have a mystery on their hands. Hundreds of dead birds have been falling onto people's homes and cars across the southern part of the township.
Homeowner Andrea Kipec tells the Courier News of Bridgewater that she's counted more than 150 dead birds on her property. She's been told by local officials it's her responsibility to clean them up.
Kipec tells the newspaper that local police informed her they had received an e-mail from the U.S. Department of Agriculture about a program to poison blackbirds and starlings, a fact that could not be immediately confirmed.
Messages left by both the Courier News and the Associated Press for state and federal wildlife officials were not immediately returned.
Cdn delegation presses EU not to ban seal products in upcoming vote
25-01-2009 Canadian Press NewsItem, CBC, Canada
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - A member of a Canadian delegation that travelled to Europe to discuss the annual seal hunt says he's hopeful politicians there won't ban the import of seal products. Senator Fabian Manning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Manning) says meetings with the European Union last week went well.
Manning was trying to convince parliamentarians not to pass proposed legislation that would end the import of seal products and deal a devastating blow to the industry. Manning says the effort is a challenging one as they try to demonstrate to animal rights activists that the hunt is well-managed, humane and sustainable.
Manning believes Canada was given a fair hearing, and that the EU will vote on the proposed legislation sometime between now and April.
If passed, the legislation would allow the import of seal products from countries that can guarantee their hunting practices are "consistent with animal-welfare standards" and that the animals are killed without undue suffering.
MIDDEN-DELFLAND - Een loslopende hond heeft de rust binnen de schaapskudde in het Midden-Delflandgebied tussen Schipluiden en Vlaardingen in het weekeinde danig verstoord. De hond joeg de schapen alle kanten uit, waardoor er vier in de sloot belandden en enkele dieren in prikkeldraad verstrikt raakten.
Er zijn geen schapen doodgebeten, en de vier in het water gevallen schapen zijn door schaapsherder Laura Hoogerwerf op de kant getrokken. Zij heeft aangifte gedaan bij de politie, maar de eigenaar van de hond is nog niet bekend.
De herder is bang dat de zwangere ooien door het voorval getraumatiseerd zijn en problemen kunnen krijgen bij het lammeren.
• Se han manchado con sangre artificial bajo una pancarta con el lema '¿Cuántas vidas para un abrigo?'
25-01-2009 El Periódico, Spain
Unas 100 personas desnudas han simulado hoy en Barcelona ser un montón de animales muertos para protestar contra la industria peletera, un acto que realizan cada año para criticar el elevado número de animales que se sacrifican para elaborar prendas de piel. Los participantes se han manchado con sangre artificial y se han amontonado en las escaleras de la plaza del Rei de Barcelona, con una pancarta en la que se podía leer Cuántas vidas para un abrigo.
Según la ONG Animanaturalis, el 85% de la producción europea de piel es originaria de animales criados en granjas, donde están hacinados en diminutas jaulas y son sacrificados por electrocución anal o genital para no dañar las pieles, lo que les causa un paro cardiaco mientras están todavía conscientes.
Otros métodos de matanza son romperles el cuello o ahogarlos, y en ocasiones, según la ONG, las pieles se arrancan mientras los animales están vivos. Para hacer un solo abrigo de piel, se necesitan 20 zorros, 60 conejos, 70 visones o de 120 a 300 chinchillas.
Jakarta - A wild tiger attacked and mauled to death a farmer in Indonesia's Riau province on the eastern of Sumatra, a local media report said on Sunday. The incident occurred on Saturday morning when the victim, identified only as Rabai, 45, was walking to the rubber plantation in Pemantang Raman village of Muara Jambi district, the Kompas.com online (http://www.kompas.com/read/xml/2009/01/25/09170155/) news portal reported.
Didi Wurjanto, the head of Jambi provincial Natural Resources and Conservation Agency, was quoted as saying residents found the body of Rabai not far from his hut with deep wounds on his chest and waist.
"For a tiger to pounce a man like this is a rare case," Didi said, explaining that tigers generally avoid humans.
The incident occurred at dawn and the tiger probably thought the man was livestock, because it left immediately and did not eat him, Didi said.
He speculated the tiger entered the settlement area looking for livestock, as food sources in the forest are increasingly difficult to obtain. He added that conservation officials had installed carbide bombs to drive the beast back into the forest.
Environmentalists say such attacks result from the destruction of the tiger's natural habitat by logging, noting that the animals would not disturb humans if their habitat were not destroyed. According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are between 400 and 500 Sumatra tigers left in the wild. The Sumatran tiger is believed to be the last remaining sub-species of tiger indigenous to Indonesia. The Bali and Java tigers are believed to be extinct.
Environmentalists blame illegal hunting, which claims an estimated 50 Sumatran tigers per year, and rampant deforestation in Sumatra for the big cats' drastic drop in population.
A Franco-Mexican child bullfighter killed six young bulls in a controversial spectacle that child protection and anti-bullfighting campaigners had hoped to stop. "I'm happy to have achieved this great victory," said Michelito Lagravere, the 11-year-old matador before leaving the bloodied bull ring in Merida, southeastern Mexico.
A local judge earlier gave the go-ahead for the child to fight six calves aged from one to two years after reviewing licenses and permits submitted by the child's father, former French bullfighter Michel Lagravere. Animal rights groups and child protection officials had previously complained to the state human rights commission to suspend the event. A video of the fight will be sent to Guinness for consideration for a world record -- for the number of bulls killed and the age of the bullfighter.
Some 3,500 people, including many young children, gathered at the ring to witness the bullfight. Several bullfights by Michelito were banned in France last summer after protests from anti-bullfighting associations. Michelito has killed dozens of bulls in Mexico since he was six years old.
The anti-bullfighting alliance in France said it had targeted him over other younger matadors because "he fights in corridas aiming to kill."
The last whale from a pod of 48 that became stranded in Tasmania's north-west has died. The pod beached themselves on Thursday night on a sand bar at Perkins Island near Smithton.
Parks and Wildlife Service crews attend to a group of whales stranded
on Tasmania's north-west coast. (Parks and Wildlife Service)
Spokesman from the Department of Water and Environment, Warwick Brennan, says rescuers held little hope that the last sperm whale could be saved.
"Things were looking quite difficult because the chances of a rescue were becoming increasingly remote," he said. "We had staff working there, it was basically palliative care trying to keep the animal cool."
Authorities will now turn their attention to obtaining information from the pod. Mr Brennan says samples will now be taken from all of the whales. "We're looking at ageing the animals, getting sizes, sex of all the animals, looking at stomach content aswell, what have the animals been eating that might help us understand a little bit more about the species and their relationships with other animals out there aswell," he said.
ERMELO - De landelijke inspectiedienst krijgt steeds meer meldingen over paarden en pony's in Gelderland die worden verwaarloosd.
Er zijn in totaal in Gelderland 1100 meldingen over verwaarloosde dieren binnengekomen in 2007. In ruim eenderde van de gevallen ging het om paarden en pony's. In Gelderland is het aantal meldingen hoger dan in de rest van het land.
Volgens de dienst komt het vooral doordat steeds meer mensen een paard kopen, maar niet weten hoe die te verzorgen. De Dierenbescherming start in maart een voorlichtingscampagne.
THE Welsh “urban terrorist” starting a 11-year jail sentence for a hardline animal rights campaign has promised to give up targeting companies who aid testing laboratories. Speaking exclusively to Wales on Sunday from the top security Bronzefield women’s prison in Surrey, Heather Nicholson says she plans to establish an animal sanctuary instead when she eventually gets out.
Despite vowing to end her years of activism against animal cruelty, the 41-year-old from Dunvant, Swansea, defiantly added: “We were right to take a stand against big business torturing animals for profit.”
And she claimed it was “incredible” that as a protester wishing to end cruelty she had landed up in a jail alongside child killers like Rose West, serving life for 10 murders carried out with her husband Fred, who killed himself in jail. She is also adamant she did not carry out any attacks or intimidation herself. She said: “I have never hit or attacked anyone. “Even the judge said I was not accused of actually intimidating anyone. It was just this amazing charge they came up with, ‘conspiracy to blackmail’, that was some kind of catch-all.”
Nicholson, a leader of the international campaign Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court last week after a jury decided she orchestrated intimidation against companies supplying Cambridgeshire animal testing firm Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
Six others jailed for conspiracy to blackmail included fellow Shac leaders, Heather’s 41-year-old ex-husband Gregg Avery and his second wife, Heather’s friend, 39-year-old Natasha Avery, of Hampshire. Both got nine years.
The Shac campaign began after film shot secretly inside Huntingdon, and shown on TV showed staff punching and laughing at the animals in their care.
From 2001 to 2007 hundreds of people whose employers did business with HLS received hoax bombs, sanitary towels allegedly contaminated with the HIV virus, and letters threatening violence. They were also visited by vandals.
Their neighbours were sent letters warning that they lived close to a paedophile and the words “puppy killer” were sprayed outside their homes. More than 270 businesses gave in. The cost to companies of the criminal damage caused and increased security measures was £12.6m and HLS has to bank directly with the Bank of England.
An undercover operation named Achilles involving 700 police officers from the UK, Holland and Belgium, which led to hire cars used by Nicholson and her associates being bugged. was put in place by police in Hampshire where she lived. She was at home with her father George Barwick and 64-year-old mother Shirley at their home in the west of Swansea when more than 30 arrests were made. She drove to Hampshire to give herself up and did not get bail. Her parents now look after her four rescued dogs.
Speaking by phone from HMP Bronzefield she said: “Our Government is big on allowing people the democratic right to protest but when you become effective at protesting they clamp down on you like the worst form of dictatorship.
“We formed Shac because we were genuinely heartbroken that trusting animals were being bred to be led into laboratories to have all sorts of unspeakable things done to them. “We had no trouble raising money because millions of people out there are horrified at what goes on in animal testing but it was extremists, not us, who carried out attacks on people’s homes.
“We went out of our way to ensure our campaign was above board and legal but they found a way to bring us down. “When I get out I plan to establish an animal sanctuary, maybe helping animals who have been tested on. The Government has me targeted so I want to help in any effective way I can. “I find it incredible that as someone exercising a right to protest against cruelty I land up in jail next to people who have killed and tortured children.”
Having served 20 months on remand Nicholson will be eligible for parole in around three-and-a-half years. She said : “I am working as a listener helping vulnerable prisoners while in jail and making the best of it. “My legal team is currently considering an appeal.”
She changed her surname to Nicholson, her mother’s maiden name, on her divorce from Gregg Avery.
Brought up as a lacto-vegetarian, Heather loved animals as a child and as a teenager was devastated when she found the RSPCA at Swansea’s Singleton Park had a policy (now changed) of putting down healthy dogs who could not be re-homed. She began campaigning by helping to defeat plans to export veal from Swansea Airport in 1993 then met Gregg Avery at a similar protest in Coventry Airport.
The pair fell in love and protested together. In 1997, after a 10-month campaign, they caused the closure of Consort Kennels, which bred beagles for animal research. Later that year, they started Save the Hill Grove Cats against Hill Grove farm in Oxfordshire, which bred cats for laboratories. The farm closed after two years.
After seeing the TV footage of animals being abused at HLS they formed Shac and raised millions of pounds to protest and picket the laboratory.
HLS conducts tests on around 75,000 animals every year — including rats, rabbits, pigs, dogs and monkeys testing pharmaceutical products, agricultural chemicals, industrial chemicals, and foodstuffs on behalf of private clients worldwide.
During the Shac campaign Nicholson and Avery got divorced and Avery ended up marrying co-Shac leader Natasha Dellemagne. Nicholson’s father, 73-year-old retired Neath-born teacher George Barwick has accused certain London-based tabloids of trying to “demonise” his daughter and other protesters. He said: “After they split and Gregg and Natasha got together a newspaper said they were involved in ‘threesomes’ while living at the same house. That never happened. They just split up and that was that. “One tabloid even claimed my daughter had become a pal of Rose West when all she ever said to the woman was ‘Can you pass me that brush?’.”
Jailing Nicholson and the other six Mr Justice Butterfield said what they did amounted to urban terrorism. He said the campaign group was a “vehicle used to terrorise ordinary decent traders carrying out perfectly lawful businesses” with the sole aim of closing down HLS.
He told them: “I expect that you will be seen by some as martyrs for a noble cause but you are not going to prison for your beliefs, you are not going to prison for expressing your beliefs. “You are going to prison because each of you has committed a very serious criminal offence.”
Despite the jailings, protests against HLS continue over the world.
Police parade goat as robbery suspect 24-01-2009 Written by Demola Akinyemi, Vanguard, Nigeria (23-01-2009)
*For attempting to ‘steal’ a Mazda car
It was a shocking sight yesterday as men of the Kwara State Police Command paraded a goat as an armed robbery suspect. The goat "suspect" is being detained over an alleged attempt to snatch a Mazda car.
The goat "robbery suspect"
The mysterious goat, according to the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Tunde Mohammed, while briefing bewildered journalists at the Force headquarters, is an armed robber who attempted to snatch the said car, Wednesday night, and later transformed into the goat in a bid to escape arrest.
He explained that men of a vigilance group in Anifowose Ipata/Oloje areas of the state capital had chased two armed robbery suspects who wanted to demobilise the Mazda car with the intention of stealing it, and "while one of them escaped, the other was about to be apprehended by the team when he turned his back on the wall and turned to this goat. They quickly grabbed the goat and here it is.’’ Mohammed said.
The police spokesman said the goat "armed robbery suspect" will not be left off the hook until investigations into the case are concluded.
He also said that no fewer than five stolen vehicles have been recovered by the state Police Command while some suspects were also arrested. Among those arrested, he said was one Idowu Oni of Araromi area of Akure who escaped from Akure Prison. He added that the escaped convict was arrested in Ilorin after stealing a Mazda 323 car belonging to Mrs. Henrietta Ayijesu.
He also said another armed robbery and rape suspect was in their custody, assuring that the suspects will soon appear in court.
SYDNEY (AFP) — Just one sperm whale from a group of almost 50 that beached en masse in Australia's south has survived, and remains sandwiched among the dead, officials said Saturday. The pod of 48 whales became trapped this week on a sandbar 150 metres (500 feet) offshore from Perkins Island on the northwest coast of the island state of Tasmania. By the time they were discovered on Thursday almost all had perished.
High winds and ocean swell prevented rescuers from floating the two whales who survived through Friday night out to sea, and by late Saturday rescuer Warwick Brennan said just one was still alive. "We didn't get a chance to get the whales out so we've just been trying to maintain them, keep them cool, but unfortunately one of them has died during the day so we've only got one alive now," Brennan told AFP.
Officials would remain in the area overnight and return to the site at first light to assess conditions for an attempt to free the sole survivor from the pod of dead whales and get it out to sea, he said. "The tide's coming in, which is always better as it gets more water around it and everything, but obviously now we're dragging into another day, which makes it a lot harder," he said.
"But while the animals are alive we try to maintain them, keep them cool, prevent them overheating and if an opportunity arises and they are strong enough we can give it a go, see if a rescue's possible."
Brennan said the sandbar was in a difficult area which was not accessible for machinery, and it would be difficult to move the corpses, which were "incredibly large".
Male sperm whales can grow to 18 metres and females 12 metres in length, weighing in between 20 and 50 tonnes.
More than 150 long-finned pilot whales died, with many sustaining deep cuts after thrashing onto rocks, after beaching themselves on the remote west coast of Tasmania state in November. Tasmania, Australia's southern island state, experiences about 80 percent of whale beachings in the country, a phenomenon so far unexplained by science.
ALPHEN - Twintig demonstranten bewapend met spandoeken, flyers en megafoons staan woensdag 4 februari bij de ingang van het Staatscircus van Moskou-Holiday. De leden van Met de Dieren Tegen de Beesten (MDTB) vormen een extreem-rechtse groepering. Eerdere protesten bij circusvoorstellingen in het land verliepen niet probleemloos.
,,Het zijn heel agressieve mensen,’’ stelt circusdirecteur Hans Martens van het staatscircus. ,,Wij hebben ze vaker voor onze tent gehad. Het is een stelletje schorem.’’
Om problemen voor te zijn, gaat Martens maandag in gesprek met de Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst (AIVD). Hij wil politiebescherming en meent dat de dienst onderzoek moet doen naar de acties van de extreem-rechtse groep. ,,In overleg wil ik uitvinden hoe de politie ons kan beschermen. Wij zijn immers niet meer dan een dorp met mannen, vrouwen en kinderen.’’
Bij de gemeente hebben de actievoerders een vergunning aangevraagd voor de demonstratie. Een woordvoerster laat weten dat wanneer de regels worden gevolgd, het moeilijk is toestemming te weigeren. Zij verwijst naar een demonstratie van extreem-rechts afgelopen augustus. Ook die mocht doorgaan. ,,De verwachting is dat wij ook dit keer de vergunning zullen afgeven.’’
Teamchef Hil Renema van de Alphense politie laat weten dat er op dit moment geen aanleiding is het circus bescherming te bieden. In overleg met burgemeester De Gelder wordt een inschatting gemaakt van de demonstratie en daar wordt de aanpak op afgestemd. ,,De tolerantiegrenzen komen hierop neer dat geweld tegen personen of goederen en belediging of bedreiging niet wordt toegestaan.’’
Kamerlid Henk Jan Ormel (CDA) betwist het verbod dat Alphen heeft ingesteld tegen voorstellingen met wilde dieren. In vragen aan de ministers Verburg (Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit) en Hirsch Ballin (Justitie) merkt hij op of de stad ‘de extreem-rechtse actiegroep juist niet in de kaart speelt door aan te kondigen met harde hand tegen een circus op te treden.’
De woordvoerster van de gemeente kan zich in die gedachtegang niet vinden. Vooral de dressuur zou een kwelling zijn voor de beesten. ,,Wethouder Blom heeft al met de minister en de staatssecretaris gesproken over het verbod. Hij wil dat het landelijk beleid wordt. Bovendien is bij ons het beleid in 2007 reeds vastgelegd. De wethouder voert dus het beleid uit.’’
De pogingen van Blom om het Alphense beleid landelijk te doen gelden, vallen verkeerd bij Martens. ,,Onze dieren worden goed verzorgd en zijn gezond,’’ stelt de directeur van het staatscircus. Hij laat Alphen niet links liggen. ,,Wij blijven ons best doen om wel met al onze dieren op te treden. Want wat de wethouder wil, is onterecht.’’
En wat als de actievoerders de voorstellingen bederven? ,,Wij hebben de protesten vaker meegemaakt,’’ zegt Martens. ,,Wanneer ze met elkaar ‘Wat willen wij, alle dieren vrij’ roepen door megafoons, zet ik onze radiowagen in om de demonstranten te overstemmen. Daarmee rijden we gewoonlijk door de wijken om reclame te maken. Zo komt hun boodschap niet over en druipen ze af. Dat is vier keer eerder gebeurd.’’
Voor acties van de Partij van de Dieren hoeft Martens niet te vrezen. Hoewel het dierenwelzijn bij uitstek het terrein is van de dierenpartij, zegt Kamerlid Esther Ouwehand anders te werk te gaan. ,,De Partij voor de Dieren is vooral de aanjager van het politieke debat. Wij proberen anderen in beweging te krijgen.’’ Het maakt haar niet uit welke partij dezelfde idealen onderschrijft. ,,Mits binnen de wet wordt geopereerd.’’
Dat het optreden met wilde dieren in circussen steeds meer ter discussie wordt gesteld, bewijst volgens haar het eigen gelijk. ,,Nederland loopt wat een verbod betreft achter bij andere Europese landen en zelfs bij landen van buiten Europa,’’ zegt Ouwehand. ,,Het is daarom goed dat steeds meer gemeenten zeggen: kom met een landelijk verbod.’’
(Bron foto: Algemeen Dagblad, Pepijn van den Broeke, ANP)
(Noot webred.:
De door het Algemeen Dagblad bij dit artikel geplaatste foto betreft niet de extreemrechte MDTB. De foto is van een demonstratie van de dierenrechtenorganistie Respect voor Dieren en heeft dus niets van doen met welke extreemrechtse organisatie of splintergroep dan ook. De foto is een dag later na een geplaatste reactie, die de redactie van het AD attendeerde op de suggestieve foto, verwijderd!)
ALPHEN - Directeur Hans Martens van het Staatscircus van Moskou-Holiday staat voor een dilemma. Liefst schotelt hij het Alphense publiek begin februari optredens voor waarbij zijn groep Bengaalse tijgers en olifant Betty in de piste hun kunsten vertonen.
Kiest hij hiervoor, dan wacht hem echter een dwangsom van de gemeente. Alphen is namelijk tegen het gebruik van wilde dieren in een circusvoorstelling. Deze dwangsom bedraagt 10.000 euro per dag, met een maximum van 50.000 euro.
Daar houdt het niet mee op. ,,Wij zoeken uit of we de wilde dieren buiten onze gemeentegrens kunnen houden. Op dit moment weet ik niet of dat kan,’’ laat een woordvoerster van de gemeente weten.
Martens blijft daarentegen vechten voor behoud van zijn voorstellingen. De extreem-rechtse groep Met de Dieren Tegen de Beesten heeft aangekondigd daartegen te protesteren. Martens: ,,Wij laten ons niet intimideren.’’
(Bron: http://www.ad.nl/) (Bron foto: Algemeen Dagblad, Koen Verheijden)
Truck hits elk herd on I-70; 16 animals killed 23-01-2009 Coloradoan, USA
EVERGREEN, Colo. (AP) — A tractor-trailer rig has plowed into a herd of elk on Interstate 70 in the mountains west of Denver, killing 16 animals. Authorities say the collision early Friday triggered two rollovers, but no humans were injured. Crews had to use snowplows and water trucks to clear away the carcasses.
The accident was about 25 miles west of Denver.Eastbound lanes were closed between Evergreen and Idaho Springs for more than two hours, reopening at 3:30 a.m.
Kenyan rangers slay poacher behind spate of animal killings 23-01-2009 Agence France Presse
NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenya Wildlife Service rangers shot dead a poacher believed to be behind a series of wildlife killings in the country's expansive Tsavo East National park, a spokesman said Friday.
The man had been stalking animals at a watering point in the park before he was killed on Wednesday, while his accomplice escaped, KWS spokesman Paul Udoto told AFP.
An adult African elephant drinking at a watering hole
at Kenya's Tsavo east national park.
The rangers recovered a semi-automatic rifle, 17 rounds of ammunition, a bicycle, food, a bundle of snares and seven poisoned arrows, Udoto said, adding: "Our teams are still hunting for the poacher who escaped."
Kenya had outlawed poaching and the reckless slaughter of wildlife in 1977, while allowing the controlled culling of some game. In 2003 however, activists pushed through further restrictions.
In 2004, President Mwai Kibaki vetoed a law to re-introduce sport hunting and the killing of wildlife straying onto private land, which critics said would have hobbled conservation efforts.
23-01-2009 Van onze verslaggever, David Davidson, Volkskrant
AMSTERDAM - Minister Gerda Verburg (CDA) van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit wil de regels voor de valkerij in Nederland versoepelen, zei ze bij de opening van het nieuwe valkerijmuseum in Valkenswaard.
