The Cookie and Coco Caper

If you get an email that someone has been evicted from their home and desperately has to find homes for their beloved labs Cookie and Coco, don't hop on your computer and contact everyone you know. It's a hoax.

How do I know? Let me tell you my short tale.

Yesterday my boss told me that he'd forwarded an email to me about an evicted couple that was trying to find a home for their two labs Cookie and Coco who were totally attached to each other. They only had until March 5 because the apartment they were moving to would not allow dogs. My boss couldn't take the dogs because he already has a very needy dog, a cat and a new baby. But he was worried.

So, I read the email and there was a contact and everything. I have 5 cats and 3 hamsters, but still emailed my husband asking if we could take 2 labs. It was a very effective email and so believable. So many people are being evicted and my boss received the email from someone he knew so it had to be true right????

Luckily, I have a coworker who volunteers with Seattle Purebred Rescue. Before I did anything else, I went over to ask for suggestions.

Apparently, she had received the same email from someone else and she had contacted Seattle Purebred Rescue to speak to the Lab rep for help. The Lab rep told her that the email was real...but TWO YEARS OLD. They had rehomed Cookie and Coco and they were fine. She was being inundated with calls in the meantime by concerned rescuers.

Later in the day, we found out that the message is surfacing as far away as ENGLAND. It morphs in dates and circumstances to make it sound like a local rescue. People are wasting a lot of time with this.

Apparently someone is responsible because someone is responding to the contact email.

Why would someone do this?

It boggles the mind. There is no money to gain. Some rescuers think it's simply a dog-hater. Who knows? But what a stupid, idiotic thing to do.

Happy Friday

"Sick" Vick to Get Out of Jail

Already?

Imprisoned NFL star Michael Vick will be allowed to finish his sentence under home confinement because there is no room at a halfway house for him, a government official told The Associated Press Thursday.

Vick is serving a 23-month sentence at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., after pleading guilty to bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in eastern Virginia's Surry County. He also admitted to participating in the killing of several underperforming dogs.

Vick's lawyers have said they expected him to be moved any day into a halfway house in Newport News. But because of a lack of space, Vick will be released instead to his Hampton home at some point on or after May 21...

Vick will be on electronic monitoring and will only be allowed to leave home for activities approved by his probation officer, the official said. He is eligible for release in July.

He plans on resuming his NFL career. Jerk.

The Other Side of the Egg Debate

I am a firm supporter of reforming factory egg farming. I believe that chickens should have room to stretch and walk around. And I'm willing to pay for more expensive eggs if it allows for that.

However, I'm also aware that I'm fortunate to have a job that allows me to pay for that. Not everyone has that luxury. Organic eggs are more expensive than the standard egg carton. It's unfortunate and, hopefully, short-term, but it's the current reality. I'm not willing to compromise my beliefs, but I can sympathize with concerns of those who fear the possible rising cost of anything. Especially in these economic times.

This short article reports that Vancouver, BC is considering a measure similar to Prop 2 in California, but there are concerns amongst advocates of the poor.

Hetty Alcuitas, a volunteer with Grassroots Women, said she sympathizes with the environmental and animal-rights arguments against caged chickens. But with battery eggs costing about $2 a dozen and organic free-range eggs costing between $5 and $6 a dozen, the impact of the proposed change goes beyond poultry.

“For some families who are struggling, eggs are a common staple that you can feed a lot of mouths without a lot of money,” she told the Straight. “This is not the best time to be putting these kinds of restrictions on affordable food.”

The motion, which comes to the Metro Vancouver board on Friday (February 27), encourages stores and restaurants to promote organic free-range eggs; makes Metro Vancouver caterers and operators use organic free-range eggs; and will result in letters to Victoria, Ottawa, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency opposing current practices “based on the inherent cruelty of confining egg-laying hens in battery cages”.

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies!

A great dessert from Vegan Nutritionista!

Quote of the Week

"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."

~ Pythagoras, Pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher

Montana Legislature Proposes Horse Slaughter Facility

Great, just after we managed to get rid of the last one

"It doesn't mean you have to do it. It's that if you don't have the funds, and you don't have the feed, and don't have the place to keep them, and they are old, and they are no longer going to work for what you need them for, it's a place for them to go," said Billings Livestock and Horse Sale's Jenn Parker.

A place for them to go? Maybe then can call it Horse Haven.

National Justice for Animals Week

From the better late then never category, the ALDF is having a National Justice for Animals Week to raise awareness about animal abuse. They sent me an email on the 21st, but I just got around to reading about it.

Here is the full press release:

During its first-ever National Justice for Animals Week, February 22 – 28, 2009, the national non-profit Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) is recognizing some of the top law enforcement professionals in the nation for getting real justice for animals who are victims of abuse. With the theme “Fighting Animal Cruelty, Honoring Animal Victims,” the week will be an annual event dedicated to raising public awareness nationwide about how to report animal abuse—and how citizens can work within their communities to create stronger laws and assure tough enforcement. The week, co-sponsored by Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), the author of Tennessee’s T-Bo Law (named in honor of his beloved Shih Tzu) and numerous other successful pro-animal laws, will also celebrate significant legislation in the push for animal justice in the halls of Congress.

The mascot for this year’s National Justice for Animals Week is Adam, a spunky black cat who was set on fire by two teenage girls in a vicious attack in Santa Rosa, California, as an eight-week-old feral kitten. Adam survived third-degree burns on 45% of his body and the case grabbed headlines around the world. Adam was rescued by an 11-year-old boy who also later identified the girls who committed the crime, allowing them to be charged with felony animal cruelty. ALDF is honoring Adam and all those who came to his rescue with a special video profile that will be available on www.aldf.org.

The week, also co-sponsored by former California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, who sponsored a California bill that would have required mandatory spaying and neutering of cats and dogs, will encourage all citizens to get active in their own communities, and ALDF is providing downloadable resource guides designed to help animal advocates navigate the criminal justice system. “Animal victims of abuse cannot speak for themselves—so concerned citizens and our legal system must speak up for them,” says ALDF Executive Director Stephen Wells. “From the young boy who rescued Adam and identified his abusers to the prosecutors who oversee a unique Animal Cruelty Prosecution program within the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, ALDF wants to applaud those who are fighting animal cruelty and honoring animal victims during National Justice for Animals Week.”

ALDF was founded in 1979 with the unique mission of protecting the lives and advancing interests of animals through the legal system. ALDF’s Criminal Justice Program provides free legal assistance—including legal research and strategy suggestions, location of expert witnesses, and sample pleadings—to prosecutors handling cruelty cases and works to strengthen state anti-cruelty legislation. Camera-ready artwork and web banners for National Justice for Animals Week are available upon request. For more information, please visit www.aldf.org.

Cameroon Sets Up Park for Gorillas

Let's keep our fingers crossed that it provides effective protection.

Cameroon, with one of Africa’s highest rates of deforestation, has set up a new national park to protect gorillas, chimpanzees, elephants and a rare type of antelope called bongo.

Deng Deng National Park extends 580 square kilometres (224 square miles), an area about the size of Chicago, and will help conserve some 600 western lowland gorillas, one of four sub- species of the great ape, said the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which helped in the park’s creation.

Western WA Puppy Mills Had Troubled History, But Still Allowed to Operate

This is a good article about the puppy mills operated by a Western Washington woman and her parents. She kept being given "one more chance" with the end result of about 600 dogs finally being seized from the establishments.

This is definitely a situation that could have been stopped early on. How much suffering and death resulted from this family's practices?

The article is particularly thorough and damning.

Captive Primate Safety Act Passes House

The Captive Primate Safety Act was passed by the US House by a vote of 323 to 95. Mark Markarian, as usual, has an excellent roundup.

Special shout out to Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) for sponsoring the measure that will prohibit the trade in non human primates. The bill amends the Lacey Act to include non-human primates as prohibited species for which:

`(1) IN GENERAL- It is unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce any live animal of any prohibited wildlife species.

There is a list of reasonable exemptions, which you can read about here.

Canadian Fishermen Save Trapped Dolphins

Yay! I had read about their predicament a few days ago, but didn't have the time or the heart to post about it.

Glad to see they've been rescued!

Fishermen and a teenage boy from an eastern Canadian town rescued three exhausted dolphins that had been trapped behind drifting pack ice for nearly a week, the wife of the town's mayor said Friday.

Sadie May said the men cut a path through the sludgy ice in Newfoundland's Seal Cove harbor with their 18-foot trawler Thursday night, freeing the dolphins from an oval-shaped hole in the ice they had been swimming in for days.

Two dolphins followed the open channel immediately, but the third was too weak and tired, May said.

"He could barely swim about, the little guy, and the men knew something had to be done. A kid, 17 years old with a survival suit, jumped into the water and the dolphin just kind of attached to him and wrapped his flippers around him, like a friend or a mate," the mayor's wife told The Associated Press.

The teenager, Brandon Banks, helped tow the animal to open water, where it swam away, said May.

House Bill to Prevent Primates as Pets

No! Ya think?

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) announced that, at his request, the House of Representatives will consider on Monday, February 23, the Captive Primate Safety Act (H.R. 80). Consideration of the needed legislation comes just one week after a woman was critically injured in a vicious chimpanzee attack in Stamford, Connecticut - leaving no doubt that the danger of nonhuman primates in homes and to communities must be addressed.

Keeping primates as pets threatens public health and safety, as well as the welfare of the animals. The legislation is a proactive federal response that would amend the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to prohibit individuals from buying or transporting primates across state lines as pets. While the bill does not prohibit possession of chimpanzees and other primates, it would serve as a needed complement to state laws outlawing primates as pets and to federal health regulations banning the import of these animals into the country. H.R. 80 would not affect the transportation of animals for zoos and licensed research facilities.

The Captive Primate Safety Act is bipartisan legislation introduced by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Mark Kirk (R-IL), along with 17 other co-sponsors.

Environmental Groups Call For End To USDA Wildlife Killing

Environmental groups have called on Obama to get rid of the USDA's Dept. of Wildlife Services, which is involved in mainly predator control programs (coyotes are a big target). Ranchers oppose the move.

From WildEarth Guardians:

WildEarth Guardians’ research reveals this agency is:

• Biologically Unsound - Wildlife Services uses a “sledgehammer approach” to wildlife management, meaning over one million animals are killed each year using non-selective killing controls such as poisons, traps, and aerial gunning. Animals killed also include threatened and endangered species, a number which has steadily increased since 2005. The number of carnivores killed has also increased since 2005, which is of particular concern to conservation biologists, since these animals play vital roles in ecosystems;

• Dangerous - Between 2002 and 2006, Wildlife Services failed several federal audits to safely inventory, store, and control access to chemical weapons, and in 2007 the agency itself admitted that it had experienced a “wake of accidents.” The aerial gunning program has killed at least 10 agents and injured 28 more. In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency charged Wildlife Services for its illegal placement of a sodium cyanide M-44 (a highly lethal booby trap) on public land, which harmed a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and killed his dog. Additionally, Wildlife Services puts little emphasis on using non-lethal methods, and puts few resources towards developing new, ethical non-lethal research;

• Unnecessary and Fiscally Unsound - Taxpayers are paying the bill for these activities, and Wildlife Services fails to protect the businesses it supposedly helps. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Services shows that most livestock losses come from weather, disease, illness, and birthing problems, and not predation. Carnivores killed less than 1% of cattle (0.18%) and approximately 3% of sheep produced in the U.S.;

• Out of Step with American Values - Americans value wildlife and abhor animal cruelty. Yet, Wildlife Services not only kills tens of thousands of targeted wild animals annually, their activities also result in the unintentional deaths of many others, including pets, using indiscriminate and agonizing poisons, torturous traps, and even dynamite.

This is what the USDA APHIS website has on the program:

The goal of the WS program is to manage the damage caused by wildlife, not to eradicate wildlife populations. Upon request, WS wildlife professionals implement or recommend effective management methods to alleviate or minimize predation. WS employees strive to remove only the predators that are causing the damage. To accomplish this goal, they direct control methods at only the specific animal or local wildlife populations in the area where damage has occurred. The WS program operates in accordance with its program wide Environmental Impact Statement, local environmental assessments and workplans, and Federal, State, and local laws and regulations, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Estimates of predator populations by State fish and game officials indicate that the number of predators removed by WS is small compared with overall predator numbers. Lethal control efforts of WS professionals typically remove less than 5 percent of a species' overall population. In many situations, the number of animals removed amounts to less than 1 percent of their total population. This amount is considerably less than the number of animals taken by hunters and trappers annually. The USDA's extension service, APHIS' National Wildlife Research Center, and the Federal Government's General Accounting Office confirm that lethal controls used by WS do not unduly threaten the well-being of Statewide predator populations.

Washington State to Cut Fish and Wildlife Jobs

I expect we'll see this in a lot of other agencies as well.

More than 100 employees at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife could lose their jobs.

Fish and Wildlife managers will tell employees this week that their jobs may be eliminated to meet an expected multi-million-dollar budget shortfall.