Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Attempted Delay in Toronto Elephants Transfer to Sanctuary

The zoo keepers at the Toronto are desperately trying to get the City Council to reconsider its decision to move three aging elephants to a sanctuary. They presented the Council with a petition with 1,100 signatures.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Controversial Elephant Death at San Diego Zoo

Here's the full article from the Los Angeles Times.....
An animal rights group has called for a federal investigation into the death of an elephant at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Umoya, a 21-year-old African elephant, died Thursday, possibly due to injuries suffered during an attack by another elephant.

The Northern California-based In Defense of Animals called for the Department of Agriculture, which does inspections of zoos, to investigate Umoya's death.

"This elephant's shocking death is another tragic example of how elephants suffer in inadequate and artificial zoo exhibits," said Catherine Doyle, elephant campaign director for the group.

As part of standard procedure, Umoya's death has already been reported to federal officials by the zoo.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also criticized the zoo in the wake of the death. "Umoya should never have been removed from her home to begin with," said PETA spokesman David Perle.

Umoya was one of seven elephants brought to the Safari Park -- then known as the Wild Animal Park -- in 2003 from the African nation of Swaziland. The Safari Park has 18 elephants, including Umoya's two offspring.

PETA and In Defense of Animals oppose keeping elephants in zoos.
iego Zoo over death of elephant
November 19, 2011 | 8:28 am 6116

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Mexico and US Go at it Again Over Dolphin-Labeling and Tuna

From the Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest....
The long-running dispute between the US and Mexico over Washington’s ‘dolphin safe’ labelling practice for tuna products is likely to see a WTO appeal, after the two parties together asked for an extension of the appeals deadline. Meanwhile, animal welfare and consumer advocacy groups in Washington are urging the US to look into options outside the global trade body for resolving the trade row.

WTO appeals deadline extended to January

At its last meeting on 11 November, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) decided to extend the deadline for submitting an appeal on the latest Tuna-Dolphin (DS381) ruling issued in September (see Bridges Weekly, 21 September 2011).

.....Washington had partially lost its claim in this high-stakes dispute over the US “dolphin safe” label for tuna products when a panel ruled the US practice unnecessarily trade restrictive (for further analysis on the tuna-dolphin case, see Bridges Trade BioRes Review, November 2011).

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Animal Welfare in the State of California

California really is at the forefront of animal welfare and this is an excellent article detailing what's going on in the State and the challenges animal welfare faces. It also does a great job at profiling Jennifer Fearing who led the victory of Proposition 2. She sounds amazing.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Followup: Some Zoo Keepers Fighting to Stop Elephant Transfer to Sanctuary

Excepted from the Toronto News....
War has erupted between Toronto Zoo elephant keepers and the animal rights group helping to co-ordinate a move of three aging elephants to a California sanctuary.

Zoocheck Canada’s Julie Woodyer told the Star she has rescinded an offer to pay for one of the dozen keepers to fly to the PAWS sanctuary this weekend with her and two councillors, Michelle Berardinetti and Raymond Cho.

She is also considering shutting the keepers out of training the pachyderms for the risky trip — a move the keepers say would be foolish and potentially dangerous for the animals they know better than anyone.

Woodyer said last week a trainer would be welcome on the trip, which follows council’s vote to override a zoo board decision to first look for an accredited zoo as a new home for Iringa, 42; Toka, 41; and Thika, 31.

That changed, she said, last Friday when one of the keepers started calling councillors directly, urging them to hold another vote and reverse the decision to send the animals to the 80-acre PAWS sanctuary in San Andreas.

“That’s insubordination — city staff can’t go above their managers’ head and do those kinds of things,” Woodyer said. “They were trying to sabotage the process. We’re happy to work with them but need them to be straight up and upfront with us.”

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Followup: Witherspoon Will Stop Carrying Python Purse

I don't know what she's going to do with it, but at least she'll stop carrying it. She's supposedly a vegetarian and is friends with Walk the Line co-star Joaquin Phoenix who is a huge animal rights activist and vegan.

I still don't understand what she was doing. She knew it was an animal skin....and she spent $4,000 on it? CRAZY!

PETA is very happy.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Witherspoon in Trouble for Python Purse

For some bizarre reason (hopefully just ignorance), Reese Witherspoon has pissed off animal rights activists by purchasing and carrying around a purse made out of python skin. Python skinning is horrible, brutal and repulsive. And it's illegal for her to have it at least in the State of California.

And she paid $4,000 for it. Sorry, but that's stupid enough on its own. $4,000 for a frigging purse?!
blog stats