Killings Begin a National Dialogue in Puerto Rico

The tragic killings of the dogs thrown over a bridge last year shed light on Puerto Rico's poor treatment of animals.

I'm glad to see the media is still writing about it. This detailed article is from the New York Times.

News of the event became an international embarrassment for Puerto Rico and something of a vindication for animal rights advocates here and on the United States mainland who had long tried to draw attention to the plight of animals on the island.

Animal rights advocates contend that the inhumane disposal of animals was routine, with unwanted dogs, cats and even farm animals hurled from bridges, intentionally crushed by vehicles or butchered with machetes. Government nonchalance, they say, has allowed this to go on.

Now, international attention is having some impact. Not only is it spurring some government action, but it has unified animal welfare groups and brought the issue to the attention of Puerto Rico's citizens.

“In our culture we have not addressed these issues because, probably, we did not think they were important,” said Carlos M. Carazo, director of the animal disease division of Puerto Rico’s State Office for Animal Control, in an interview in San Juan last month. “In Puerto Rico, we have so many issues to address, we haven’t had the leisure time to think about animals. But this is probably the time to start thinking about it.”

Puerto Rico, among United States territories, has long had a poor international reputation for the treatment of animals. There is no government program for mass sterilization or registration of pets and little animal welfare education in the schools. The island has only about a half-dozen animal shelters, and while municipalities are charged with rounding up strays, that duty has largely been ignored, government officials and animal advocates say.

The key is to keep the pressure on the government and to work together. Groups get too easily fragmented over turf. This is too important for the animals (and let's not forget tourism dollars!)

Photo by amaliasoto.

Seattle Columnist Points Out that ALL Torture is Bad

I really like Robert Jamieson Jr., a columnist with the Seattle P-I. I may not always agree with what he says, but he is always thoughtful and fair.

A lab at the University of Washington is under investigation for animal cruelty by the National Institutes of Health. PETA complained to the NIH, which reopened an investigation and found that "instead of one researcher and three monkeys subjected to too many experimental surgeries there were 14 monkeys, five UW researchers and 41 unauthorized surgeries".

Last week, about 100 people protested in front of the building where the experiments are occurring.

Robert Jamiesen laments the fact that the same amount of attention is not paid to cruelty against humans (this common opinion is unfathomable to me.) But I appreciate his closing remarks.

The UW maintains there was no cover-up.

Then again, dead monkeys tell no tales.

I don't agree with animal rights folks on everything. Some research is necessary to ensure the safety of drugs for human use, but science must occur within guidelines. This is why the UW is in hot water. Rules are rules.

Animals shouldn't be unnecessarily or unlawfully tortured in the name of science.

Just like human beings shouldn't be unnecessarily or unlawfully tortured in the name of war.

Walking away from the protest, I wondered about the thin line between animal abuse and people abuse.

Both types of torture are wrong -- both warrant protests.

Photo by kweervegan.

Canada to Kill 275,000 Harp Seals

Canada has set a quota of 275,000 harp seals that will be clubbed or shot. This despite a large outcry from environmental groups. They have, however, adopted new "humane" slaughter methods. Club it, check if it's dead, and then slit an artery if they aren't. That last part is their new innovation. Real nice.

Hunters will be allowed to kill 275,000 young harp seals on the ice floes off eastern Canada this year, the government said on Monday, a number that animal rights activists said was totally unsustainable.

The quota is slightly more than last year's 270,000, when ice conditions were poor, but considerably below the 335,000 set in 2006.

Phil Jenkins, a spokesman for the Fisheries and Oceans Department, dismissed suggestions that the harp seal herd was in danger of shrinking.

"The seal herd is healthy and abundant right now at about 5.5 million animals. We want to see it continue to be healthy and so over the years we have brought back the total allowable catch," he said.

Photo by Yeimaya

Let the Cat Killing Begin! China Gets Ready for Olympic Games

Well this was utterly predictable. Chinese authorities have begun rounding up any stray animal they can get their hands on so they can kill them. This is their way of putting on a pretty face for the rest of the world for the Olympics.

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.

Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.

The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.

People Keep Wearing Fur

After all the public education campaigns and media exposure, people are still wearing furs. In fact, thanks to China and Russia, the purchase of furs is actually increasing.

According to the International Fur Trade Association, retail sales of fur hit $13.49 billion in 2006, growing 5.6 per cent from the year before.

In mid-February, pelt prices reached record highs at auction in Seattle on the back of a cold winter, according to Everest.

The uses of fur have expanded, experts say, and growing sales of luxury goods worldwide has also helped fur sales. But the key factor in the growth trend has been the emergence of Russia and China as major fur markets.

Zilberkweit estimates that Russia accounts for about 40 per cent of fur sales and China makes up about 30 per cent.

It's frustrating to me. I understand that there are parts of the world, like China and Russia, where there are weak animal rights movements and awareness is lagging. But there are other parts of the world where people are sick of knowing about the cruelties of the fur trade. Perhaps it's because of the fashion designers who are using fur, or perhaps it's because of the displays of shallow fur-wearing celebrities like Beyonce. Fundamentally, thought, people should know better and I get the impression that they do. They just don't care.

What a vain bunch of idiots we are as a species.

Photo by ezraitaly.

Australia Has Poor Record Preserving Wildlife

And, no, this isn't push back from the Japanese over whaling. This is according to an article in the Independent.

Australians love their wildlife – after all, who could fail to warm to a koala, or a wombat, or a kangaroo? But few Australians know that they have the worst record on the planet for conserving their beautiful and unusual animals.

Of all the mammal species that have become extinct in the past 200 years, nearly half are Australian. Since the British arrived, 27 mammals – about 10 per cent of the total – have disappeared. These are statistics that "embarrass many conservationists, myself included", says Tammie Matson, head of the species programme at WWF Australia.

Photo by Just-jen

Australia Rejects Talk of Compromise on Commercial Mailing

Australia has rejected any talk of allowing Japan to resume coastal whaling in return for discontinuing the discredited "Scientiffic Whaling" that Japan now currrently engages in. Other members of the 78-nation International Whaling Commission, however, might be more agreeable to such a compromise.

The gulf between Australia and Japan over whaling has deepened as some other conservation nations shift towards a compromise with the Asian power.

A possible trade-off of commercial whaling off Japan's coast for the end of its discredited "scientific" whaling has resurfaced at talks in London. Such a deal was rejected by strong anti-whaling countries, including Australia, which also stiffened its censure of Japan over the conduct of its Antarctic whaling.

Fathead Alert!

Bullfighting World Promotes Boy Matador

So, there's this 10-year-old Spanish boy being allowed to fight in bull rings in Mexico and Peru. He has scars from being gored in the leg and face. He uses a cloak and sword to kill bulls, like regular matadors. Supposedly, he has fought 56 bulls, slicing off 106 ears and seven tails as trophies.

Look at this picture that I found on flickr. Is this a real bull? Looks like a little calf to me!

Either way, this is not just animal abuse, but CHILD ABUSE as well, in my opinion.

A graceful entertainer since age five, Michelito, whose full name is Michael Lagravere Peniche, works mostly in Mexico because he says he is too young to perform in Spain.

"Ever since I was young, lots of bullfighters visited my house and I went with my dad to the fights," he told reporters. "That's how I developed a taste for bullfighting."

Over the weekend, Michelito defeated four bulls at Lima's bullring, considered the oldest in the Americas, after a young Peruvian matador he was supposed to compete against pulled out because of an illness.

Photo by Vladimir Terán.

Japan's Bizarre Whale "Research"

Scientists in Australia have conducted a study on Japanese whaling "research" papers, and have found them to be both strange and essentially useless.

Some of the experiments involved injecting dead minke sperm into cow eggs, others attempt to produce test-tube whale babies and thawing frozen whale sperm to see if it remained fertile.

Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research also injected cow and pig egg cells with minke cells as part of its whaling program.

Uh, yeah. That's real groundbreaking stuff there.

Japan Bribes Small Nations to Vote in Whaling Commision

We've always known this, but now the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands has come out and admitted it.

One of the whaler's key Pacific supporters, the Solomon Islands, has frankly admitted to Australia that Japanese interests normally finance its trips to the whaling commission, which is finely balanced between pro and anti-whaling groups.

"Usually Japan pays for our attendance," Prime Minister Derek Sikua said. But he said the Solomons had declined to attend a special closed meeting on the future of the IWC that wound up in London last night.

The Economist Looks at Illegal Wildlife Trade

Leave it to The Economist to provide an insightful analysis of CITES' effectiveness in actually preventing illegal trade in wildlife and their parts. It's a good article and worth your time and thought...whether you agree with it or not.

The point is not that bans never work. They can, especially in the short term or when species are in dire danger. But their longer-term success depends on three factors. First, they must be coupled with a reduction in demand for the banned products. If a ban helps to shift people's tastes, so much the better. Second, they must not undermine incentives to conserve endangered species in the wild. Third, they have to be supported by governments and citizens in the countries where these species live. If these conditions are not met, bans are unlikely either to reduce trade or to maintain endangered species. They may even make matters worse.


Photo by IFAW Think Twice.

Animal Rights Takes Root in China

Animal rights in China is a very, very small movement, but it's there. It's all we can hope for in a country where even a human being is devalued.

Jill Robinson, a Briton, spends most of her time in Sichuan province, caring for bears rescued from bile farmers, who are compensated in return for shutting down their operations. She says support from local young people is rising fast, and attitudes are starting to change. If China can stop binding women's feet, she asks, why should it not abandon cruelty to animals?

Photo by North Sullivan.

Sea Shepherd Claims Japanese Whalers Tried To Kill Paul Watson

According to Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson was shot in the chest, and was only protected because of a kevlar vest. If true, this would be a shocking development.

From their site:

Today around 3:45pm Australian Eastern Standard Time in the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone of Antarctica, an attempt was made on the life of Paul Watson, Captain of the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin.

A single bullet was fired by what must have been an expert marksman at Paul’s chest, which embedded in his Kevlar vest and also damaged a metal badge worn behind the vest. Fortunately, this stopped the bullet penetrating his flesh.

The ships’ doctor was emphatic that without protection, the shot would have been lethal.

At the time the shot was fired, the Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru was moving parallel to the Steve Irwin in stormy seas. The high level of movement indicates that the shot must have been fired by an expert.

They also threw flash grenades at the Steve Irwin. The Japanese are admitting that they fired "warning shots".

Tales from the Animal Rights Trenches, 1.2

Last month we posted about the coyote in Discovery Park, Seattle. The park is about 500 acres of urban forest on the western edge of Seattle. There is a limited amount of private housing there and there are residential streets outlining the edges of the park.

A coyote killed a couple of cats and was seen approaching porches. There was a panicked outcry and, first, traps were set out to trap and kill the coyote. Then, a USDA guy came out to kill it with a rifle.

More outcry followed.

Finally, the City of Seattle stepped in and settled things down. With several partner groups, it held a "Living with Wildlife" workshop for the neighborhood. Because we live near the park, we got an invite too. So we went!

The meeting was very well run. Here were the represented groups, all with tables and information: Seattle Parks and Recreation, Washington Fish and Wildlife, Woodland Park Zoo, Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), and the Seattle Animal Shelter. I saw plenty of board members from Friends of Discovery Park too.

The meeting was effective because there was one presentation with a slide show....and then, instead of opening up the meeting to a shout fest (believe me, I was ready for it!), the meeting was disbursed for citizens to approach the represented groups for one-on-one talks about concerns. Brilliant, really. It diffused what could have been an angry confrontation into opportunities for real conversations and education.

There were a couple of people there ready to call for this coyote's death. One woman interrupted the presenter THREE times because two of her cats were presumably killed by the coyote. She was quite irate when he suggested she keep them INDOORS!

Another man sitting next to me said his wife was concerned about their three-old daughter. Obviously, this child is left alone in an urban forest where mentally ill and homeless people sometimes wander. But it's the COYOTE that is dangerous. My husband had to pull me away from that one.

Because we complain so much on this blog (for good reason!) I wanted to point this out as a good meeting, strategically planned for maximum effectiveness. As for the coyote, he (or she) is exhibiting normal urban wildlife behavior. As long as he doesn't threaten humans, he won't be shot.

Here's hoping we move onto another topic in Discovery Park.

Photo by Hard_Rain.