Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Monday, October 31, 2011

Toronto Zoo's Remaining Elephants to Go to Sanctuary

This is excellent news. Not only is Toronto closing its elephant exhibit, but the City Council voted to send the remaining elderly elephants to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary instead of another zoo.

Yay!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Sad Story about Exotic Animals in Ohio

The owner released them and killed himself. Now, 48 of the 56 animals have been put down. Tragic. These animals include endangered species.

What was he thinking?

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Foie Gras to Be Banned in California

Apparently, this will happen in 8 months. I had no idea!

Excerpted from The New York Times.....
In eight months, the sale of foie gras will be banned in California. But for seven hours on Friday night, at a restaurant appropriately known as Animal, three chefs presented an eight-course meal that was nothing short of a glorification of this soon-to-be-outlawed delicacy. There was smoked foie gras, roasted foie gras, steamed foie gras and liquefied foie gras, injected into agnolotti. It was served with veal tongue, yogurt, prosciutto, mustard ice cream and truffles. There was even a foie gras dessert: a brownie sundae with foie gras Chantilly.

With all its gluttonous excess, and with the backdrop of the animal rights protesters, the sold-out dinner became the fattiest of food as political protest, offering a clash of competing passions in a battle that has reverberated across the nation but finally settled here, the first state in the nation to criminalize the sale of foie gras, the fattened liver of a goose or a duck.

It was also a perhaps belated realization by these chefs and their fans that a law signed eight years ago is truly taking effect and is about to change the way they do business drastically, putting California on the front lines of the battle about force-feeding ducks and geese to produce the silky liver delicacy.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Dutch Whale Denied Freedom; Must Go to Spanish Amusement Park

Unfortunate, but the court decided she would not survive being returned to the wild.

Here's an excerpt from the online Boston Globe...
Morgan, a 4-year-old killer whale, has lost her bid for freedom

Agriculture Secretary Henk Bleker ruled Wednesday that the orca, rescued last year ailing and emaciated from the Wadden Sea off the northern Dutch coast, should be transferred to an amusement park on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

A Dutch court had suspended the government's export permit after an animal rights coalition presented a plan to release her to the wild in stages. A judge ordered the coalition, the Agriculture Ministry and the Harderwijk Dolphinarium, which put her ondisplay after nursing her back to health, to review the scientific evidence and work out a solution.

Bleker said after hearing arguments from both sides that Morgan's chances of survival were too slim if she were freed.

"This feels like a defeat because an animal like this really belongs in the sea and not a zoo," Bleker said in a statement. "Morgan belongs in the wild, but not at all costs."

Friday, October 7, 2011

Canada's Military Goes Back to Fur Hats

I think this is just stubbornness.

Excerpted from UPI.....
Canada's military is reverting to issuing real fur winter hats to soldiers, replacing synthetic tuques for winter use, the Department of Defense announced.

An initial order for 1,000 of the new "Yukon" hats with muskrat fur has been placed at a cost of $65,000, the Globe and Mail reported.

As late as the 1990s, female soldiers were issued winter hats made from mink and the ceremonial guard in Ottawa still wear the tall bearskin hats known as a "busby" by their British counterparts in London.

Defense spokeswoman Josee Hunter told the newspaper "the uniforms worn by the Canadian Forces are a reflection of Canada's proud heritage," although animal rights activists had a different take on heritage.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Group Seeks to Ban Chinese Fur Trade with Australia

GRUESOME!

Excerpted from the International Business Times....
Humane Society International (HSI) called on Wednesday for a ban on the fur trade to Australia. The call was issued after the animal rights group discovered that the fur were sourced from the raccoon dog in China, ABC Radio Australia reports.

About 10 million dogs in China are killed for their fur, prompting an animal rights group to seek a ban on fur trade to Australia. The dog fur are used are inside lining for ugg boots.

What angered the society were reports that Chinese workers skinned the dogs while still alive. The dog's fur is used to make Ugg boots, a popular fashion brand in Australia, to line the inside of the shoe. However, the fur is passed off as sheep skin.

Besides raccoon dogs, other types of domestic dogs are also suffering because of the high demand for their fur. Verna Simpson, director for Asia Pacific of HIS, estimated about 10 million domestic dogs in China are killed yearly for their fur.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Lucy the Elephant's Case to be Heard by Canadian Supreme Court?

Could be.

Excerpted from CTV News....
The Supreme Court of Canada could be getting involved in the battle over the fate of an ailing elephant in an Edmonton zoo.

Animal rights groups are seeking leave to appeal to the high court in their ongoing fight to have Lucy the elephant moved to a warm-weather U.S. wildlife sanctuary.

PETA and Zoocheck have applied to challenge an Alberta Court of Appeal split decision last month that ruled against their plan to sue the City of Edmonton over Lucy.

One of the appeal court justices wrote a dissenting opinion, saying the groups should have public standing in the case and it should go to trial.

In their Supreme Court application, the groups say private citizens have a right to seek legal remedies to ensure that governments enforce animal protection laws.

"Every day that Lucy spends at the Valley Zoo, her condition continues to deteriorate," Jeffrey Kerr, a lawyer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said Wednesday
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