News
The number of news found: 25.
07/31/2009 FRESHWATER CRABS UNDER THREAT
Pollution and habitat loss are wiping out the freshwater crab, one of the essential guardians of the world's river systems, according to researchers from the Zoological Society of London. A sixth of all the world's freshwater crab species are now considered threatened with extinction. The scavenging creatures help to keep tropical aquatic ecosystems healthy by recycling animal and plant remains. But now the crabs are said to be feeling the pinch. Their disappearance would break the nutrient cycle and have knock-on effects on water quality, animal populations, and human communities.
07/31/2009 ARMY OF FLYING ANTS DESCEND ON BRITAIN
The warm, wet summer may have created havoc for countless picnics, but it has created perfect conditions for Britain's flying ants, which have come out in their millions over the last few days. People have reported seeing "swarms" of the flying insects over the weekend, coming out from under paving stones and flying into people's hair, particularly in the south of England. However, insect experts said there is no need to panic – it is part of annual summer mating ritual for Lasius Niger, the common garden black ant.
07/30/2009 WHALE IMPALED ON CRUISE SHIP IN VANCOUVER
A cruise ship pulled into the Port of Vancouver on Saturday morning with a dead fin whale impaled on its bow. Jeff MacDonald, who was at Canada Place watching the ship come in, said seeing the impaled mammal "was a shock. You don't expect to see something like that and, you know, there's a lot of people staring at it it's a very sad thing to see and you kind of wonder how it would happen in the first place. It wasn't something you wanted to see on a nice Saturday morning in Vancouver." Martha Weber, visiting from Florida, said she was scheduled to board the ship Saturday afternoon. She said the sight was "very sad." "I'm a conservationist so that makes me pretty upset and sad. I came here to see them alive in the wild, and this is not what I wanted to see."
07/29/2009 UK HAS TO GROW ITS OWN FOOD TO HELP THE WORLD
A committee of MPs released a report that stated Britain will need to start growing more of its own food supply including vegetables, fruit, and cereal if it wants to be able to feed the extra 2.7 billion people that are anticipated to populate the globe by 2050. The report details that there will be about 9 billion people in the world in just forty years which will mean food production has to double in the face of oil price rises, climate change, and any new animal and plant diseases. Head of the Food and rural affairs committee Michael Jack said that hunger will destroy political stability which was clearly evident by the global rise in food prices last year.
07/29/2009 NORTH KOREA PROMOTES DOG MEAT
North Korea is promoting the virtue of dog meat as a way to beat the summer heat and says customers are packing Pyongyang restaurants which serve the traditional dish. The North has been hosting dog meat food contests to help develop the traditional cuisine, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Saturday. Dog meat is called dangogi, or "sweet meat", a euphemism coined by North Korea's founder Kim Il-Sung in the early 1980s. Dangogi-jang is dog meat soup. Dog meat is enjoyed in both North and South Korea, especially during hot summer days. But while dog meat restaurants in the South are assuming a low-profile because of international criticism, in the North dangogi cuisine is a source of pride and a mark of national identity.
07/28/2009 POLICE FIND 150 DEAD DOGS IN DEARBORN HOME'S BASEMENT
An estimated 150 dead animals have been found in freezers in the basement of a home where more than 100 live Chihuahuas have been rescued since Wednesday. City workers, along with Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter, removed 42 ailing and feces-covered dogs from the home. They returned Thursday and found more than 60 more dogs. The 56-year-old man living in the house was taken to a local hospital for observation. His family, which lives in Florida, was involved in his care and cooperating with officials. The man could face criminal charges, including animal cruelty, Haddad said. "Aggravated animal cruelty is a four-year felony," Haddad said. "It would be up to the prosecutor or the courts to render how many counts." Neighbors had complained of an odor, but this week was the first time Dearborn officials got inside. As authorities searched the home, area residents brought food donations and filled out adoption applications at the Dearborn Animal Shelter, which was housing the rescued dogs.
07/27/2009 CRUEL RABBIT SKIN IRRITATION TEST IS FINALLY REPLACED
The European Commission on Thursday adopted the first amendment to the regulation on test methods for chemicals. The regulation was modified to add four new test methods and update two existing ones. These include a new in vitro test method which will reduce the number of animals used in testing chemicals for skin irritation, specifically rabbits which are most commonly used. Conventional tests can require up to three rabbits per chemical tested. The Commission is committed to replacing, reducing and refining the testing of chemicals on animals with alternative test methods. This first amendment to the regulation on test methods for chemicals, adopted in May 2008, reflects the Commission's commitment to speed up the availability of alternative test methods. The regulation sets standards for determining whether certain substances are hazardous to human health and the environment and is fundamental for the operation of the European Union's chemicals legislation REACH. Legislation on cosmetics, detergents and biocides also makes use of the test methods in this regulation. The amendment will enter into force three days after its publication in the Official Journal.
07/24/2009 VIDEO SHOWS RINGLING BROS. ABUSING ANIMALS
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on Wednesday released a secretly recorded video showing handlers striking elephants backstage. PETA says someone affiliated with the group made the recording during a circus tour earlier this year. Circus spokeswoman Amy McWethy denied PETA's abuse claims. "Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey loves its elephants," she said. The four-minute video shows circus trainers using bullhooks — tools with a 4 to 8 pound handles and pointed metal hooks — to strike elephants across the head, legs and body. In one section of the video, a trainer curses at an elephant then strikes it with a bullhook while telling it to "back up." McWethy said bullhooks " ... are used harmlessly by elephant trainers throughout the world."
07/23/2009 NEARLY 3.7 MILLION EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED ON ANIMALS LAST YEAR
The number of medical experiments involving animals has shown its largest rise in the UK since modern records began, the latest government figures reveal. Nearly 3.7 million experiments were performed on animals last year, a rise of 454,000 or 14% on the previous year, the Home Office said. The increase marks the greatest leap in animal use in medical research since 1986, when the government introduced new auditing procedures. The growth in animal experiments reflects an expansion in biomedical research in Britain.
07/21/2009 MONKEY ABUSED FOR TEN YEARS BY WRESTLERS
A ten-year-old ar-old female Japanese Macaque named Kora has been abused for ten years by wrestlers belong to Dragon Gate, a Japanese professional wrestling group. Ryoma (his real name is Yohei Fujita), one of the wrestler, is writing the appearance of the cruelty to enough humour very amusingly on his blog. When Kora had started escaping, the neck was wrung by vomiting of the bubble from the mouth and defecation. Kora was drunk by force and it was tired out. Keeping monkeys without permission is illegal in Japan and Dragon Gate had kept the monkey illegally.
07/20/2009 EUROPEANS CONVICTED FOR FILMING SEAL HUNT
Two European journalists were fined on Friday by a court in Namibia for filming the annual seal hunt along the coast of the southern African nation, their lawyer said. British investigative journalist Jim Wilckens and South African cameraman Bart Smithers were found guilty of violating the Marine Resources Act by entering a restricted area without permission, lawyer Raywood Rukoro said. Both were released after paying a fine of 5,000 Namibian dollars ($625) each, he said, adding that they intended to leave Namibia soon, even though they are not being deported. The duo was arrested by police whilst documenting the Namibian seal cull. They were kept at police cells at Henties Bay, about 400km from the capital Windhoek. Wilckens, a reporter with the British-based Eco-Storm agency, and Smithers were working with the Dutch non-governmental organisation Bont Voor Dieren.
07/17/2009 JOURNALISTS ATTACKED AND ARRESTED WHILST COVERING NAMIBIAN SEAL HUNT
A British investigative journalist and his South African fixer have on Thursday been violently assaulted by seal hunters and arrested by police whilst documenting the controversial Nambian seal cull. Jim Wickens, a reporter with the Brighton-based Ecostorm agency, and Bart Smithers, a freelance cameraman and fixer, were yesterday morning attacked by a group of seal hunters armed with clubs before having their video camera equipment stolen in the Cape Cross Seal Reserve, Western Namibia. The team, working with Dutch NGO Bont voor Dieren, are understood to have been filming the killing of seals for some twenty minutes before a group of hunters approached and assaulted them - reportedly punching them to the ground and hitting them with clubs. Their cameras and video footage were also seized in the incident, which happened about 7 A.M. yesterday morning. Police subsequently arrived before arresting the pair on suspicion of trespass and obstruction. According to Jim Wickens, a seal hunter again attacked them whilst they were being held in a police vehicle. They pair are currently being held at a local police station.
07/16/2009 BOLIVIA BANS WILD AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN TRAVELING CIRCUSES
Bolivian President Evo Morales has signed the world's first law prohibiting the use of both wild and domestic animals in traveling circuses. This is the first national law to ban the use of both domestic and wild animals in circuses. To date, Croatia, Singapore, Austria, Israel and Costa Rica have all banned wild animals in circuses. Similar bans on animal use in traveling circuses in Costa Rica, Finland and Denmark only prohibit the use of wild animals or certain species.
07/14/2009 BOSTON ZOO MAY BE FORCED TO CLOSE DOORS AND EUTHANIZE ANIMALS
The Franklin Park Zoo might be forced to close its doors and possibly euthanize some of its animals as a result of the deep budget cuts imposed by Governor Deval Patrick, zoo officials said Friday. Without more state funding, those zoo officials said, they will run out of money by October and have to close both the Franklin Park Zoo and its smaller counterpart, the Stone Zoo in Stoneham. They would lay off most of their 165 employees and attempt to find new homes for more than 1,000 animals, the officials said. The zoo officials, in a written statement that echoed a letter sent earlier to legislative leaders, said they would be unlikely to find homes for at least 20 percent of the animals, "requiring either destroying them, or the care of the animals in perpetuity."
07/13/2009 KITTEN SURVIVES WASHING MACHINE ORDEAL
A seven-week-old kitten has survived after being trapped in a washing machine for a full cycle. Toby is thought to have crawled into the washing machine before it was switched on, to escape the summer heatwave. It was only after the machine had completed its 30-degree cycle that Toby's owner discovered him. The seven-week-old black kitten was rushed from his owner's home in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, to a local vet. Staff at the Kirkton Veterinary Centre warmed the kitten and provided him with oxygen. Vet David McLaren said: "The kitten was unconscious and hypothermic with an exceptionally low temperature and had clearly swallowed a lot of water. As well as the problems caused by the cold water, we also suspected it might have suffered fractures or internal injuries as a result of being spun during the wash."
07/11/2009 WWF CALLS FOR STRICT LIMITS ON MEAT CONSUMPTION
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has has called on retailers to introduce front-of-pack labelling on meat products advising shoppers to eat only three portions a week. The environment charity claims that the UK is "overconsuming" red meat and says people should limit consumption to the portions recommended by the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) Eatwell Plate. The recommendations are part of an imminent WWF report which explains why people should eat less red meat and outlines strategies to reduce UK meat consumption. In addition to asking retailers to encourge shoppers to eat less meat by labelling packs, reformulating ready meals and providing advice on meat-free meals, the report calls for a clear directive from the UK government. It asks the government to update FSA guidelines to include WWF One Planet guidelines, support greenhouse gas reduction at farm lelvel and re-consider taxation of high carbon foods.
07/10/2009 ZOO EVACUATED AFTER CHIMPS ESCAPE
A zoo was evacuated on Sunday after about 30 chimpanzees escaped from their enclosure. The animals escaped from "Chimp Island" and found their way into a keeper area where their food is prepared, the zoo said. More than 5,000 visitors were asked to leave Chester Zoo, near Liverpool, shortly after the break-out as keepers rounded up the chimps. "In the interests of public safety Chester Zoo was evacuated today, Sunday July 5, as a precautionary measure. This decision was taken due to an escape of chimpanzees from Chimp Island into a keeper area," the zoo said. In a statement, it apologized for the disappointment caused to guests and offered to provide a refund or free future visit to the zoo.
07/09/2009 MONTANA INSISTS ON ANOTHER CANNED HUNT
In spite of the dangerously low population count of America's last wild bison population, and the fact that wild bison have no year-round habitat in Montana, the state is once again going ahead with another canned hunt. Yellowstone National Park estimates the population at approximately 3,000 individuals, however BFC believes that this figure is inflated. In either case, this low population number is alarming because prior to European encroachment, the American buffalo represented the largest concentration of land mammal on the North American continent, existing in the tens of millions. Now a little green dot on the map is all they have left, and even here they aren't safe from harm. But, the "hunt" will proceed because apparently Montana feels the only good bison is a dead bison. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks will allow 144 bison to be killed by hunters at Yellowstone's border. At least twice as many bison may be taken, totaling possibly more than 288, if Native American tribes, hunting under treaty right, decide to conduct their own hunts.
07/08/2009 AIR CANADA ALLOWS COMPANION ANIMALS IN CABIN
Dogs and cats in containers can now join their guardians in executive or economy class on Air Canada flights. Starting Wednesday, animals in approved carriers are allowed on both regular Air Canada and regional Jazz flights, provided the container fits under the seat. The decision to allow companion animals on board was announced last month. Companion animals in kennels or cages previously had to travel as checked baggage. Travellers are required to pre-register their animals with Air Canada reservations within 24 hours of booking a ticket, and pay a $50 fee each way within Canada and the U.S., or $100 each way on international flights. Only one animal is allowed on board for each traveller. Only two to four animals will be allowed in the cabin on each flight, out of consideration for passengers who are allergic to animals, the airline said. Animals in carriers may also travel as checked baggage on flights where temperature-controlled and ventilated baggage compartments are available for a fee of $105 each way within Canada and the U.S. or $270 each way on international flights.
07/07/2009 POLICE DOGS DIE IN CAR AS TEMP HITS 29C
Two police dogs have died after being left in a car parked outside a police headquarters as temperatures soared during the heatwave, it has emerged. RSPCA officers were called after the German Shepherd dogs were discovered in the vehicle at Nottinghamshire's force HQ. The (Independent Police Complaints Commission) IPCC said it received a referral from the force and is deciding whether to investigate. The RSPCA confirmed it has launched an investigation. Police said no one has been suspended over the incident. It is believed the dogs' handler was not on duty at the time and had called in to the Sherwood Lodge headquarters, leaving the dogs in the parked car. It is not known how long they were left in the car but temperatures in Nottingham hit 29.4C.
07/06/2009 DUTCH GOVERNMENT WANTS TO BAN SEA SHEPHERD
The Netherlands wants to ban the anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd from sailing under the Dutch flag. Public Works State Secretary Tineke Huizinga said she wants to amend the law quickly to make this possible. The American organization Sea Shepherd has two ships sailing under the Dutch flag. The Netherlands provided the necessary certificate of registry for this in 2007, after Sea Shepherd had promised in writing not to use violence and to comply with the safety rules. Nonetheless, a number of incidents have taken place between Sea Shepherd ships and Japanese whalers in the Antarctic. Japan has repeatedly complained to the Netherlands about the Sea Shepherd. It appears difficult at the moment to take action against ships that do not comply with the rules, so the cabinet wants to speedily extend its legal options for withdrawing certificates of registry, according to Huizinga.
07/05/2009 RUNAWAY PIG FOUND LOUNGING IN SWIMMING POOL
Last week a truck carrying 90 pigs overturned on an Arkansas interstate, closing the road for most of the morning. After the accident only 50 of the hogs were accounted for. One of the remaining 40 fugitive swine was found in the swimming pool of a local couple. The 800-lb. porker had been marked for the slaughterhouse before the accident, but because no one knows what kinds of terrible things he ate during his week on the run he will now live out the rest of his natural life on a farm - no doubt reflecting on his glorious glimmer of freedom.
07/04/2009 12-YEAR-OLD BULL RIDER DIES AFTER BEING THROWN
A 12-year-old Colorado boy died after he was thrown off the bull and trampled in a bull-riding competition hosted by the Little Britches Rodeo at the Boulder County Fairground. The Denver Post reports that 12-year-old Richard Wayde Hamar of Yuma was killed at the rodeo, a two-day event for bull riders aged 8 to 18. After Hamar was thrown, the bull stepped on his abdomen while he was on the ground. Emergency personnel were on the scene and attempted to treat him, but he died after being taken to the hospital. The National Little Britches Rodeo Association describes itself as "the standard bearer of junior rodeo in the United States." Hamar is at least the fourth child in the last four years to be killed while bull riding.
07/03/2009 EU TAKES LEGAL ACTION AGAINST ANIMAL SUFFERING IN SPANISH ZOOS
Eurogroup is pleased that after years of complaints by animal welfare NGOs, the European Commission is finally referring Spain to the European Court of Justice for not respecting the EU rules on the protection of animals in zoos. The EU Directive adopted in 1999 requires that from April 2005 all zoos had to be inspected and licenced to ensure that the animals are housed in suitable conditions and that the zoos contribute to conservation and education purposes. Eurogroup Spanish member ANDA investigations' revealed the sad faith of animals kept in many of the 120 zoos and already resulted in the closure of 12 parks. Eurogroup additionally filed a complaint against Portugal and is also concerned about the situation for zoo animals in other member states.
07/02/2009 ANIMAL RIGHTS OUTCRY AT EURO SLAUGHTER DECISION
Animal rights groups have reacted with outrage at a European Union ruling protecting Jewish and Muslim methods of slaughtering animals. Jews practise a form of ritual slaughter called shechita, while Muslims practise dhabiha. Neither will have to involve stunning the animal before slaughter under the ruling, a factor many animal rights advocates consider objectionable. The new EU rules require all slaughter techniques to make sure animals do not suffer "any avoidable distress or pain," but they make an explicit exception for "cultural traditions and religious rites."
The number of news found: 25.
