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The number of news found: 62.

09/30/2003 POLICE CLASH WITH SHEEP PROTESTERS!

Police and protesters have clashed in Portland in western Victoria during a protest over live animal exports. The protesters want an end to the live animal export trade. Protesters had chained themselves to the gates of a feedlot near Portland to prevent sheep from reaching the port for export. Police asked the protesters to move. When they refused, police cut their chains and towed away their vehicles. The protesters then formed a human chain in front of the gates but were pushed aside by police. Eight trucks full of sheep are now on their way to be loaded onto the ship in the port. After holding the ship Al Kuwait at bay, the protesters allowed the ship into the port.

09/30/2003 DOLPHIN COVE PLANS TO IMPORT OR CAPTURE MORE DOLPHINS!

Dolphin Cove, the seaside nature park in Ocho Rios whose popular "swim-with-the-dolphins" attraction has angered animal rights campaigners, begins construction tomorrow on a second lagoon for 12 additional dolphins. The dolphins would be captured or imported, once appropriate permits are granted. Despite objections from local environmentalists and animal-rights activists, the park's owners received environmental permits last week to construct the 30,000-square-foot enclosed lagoon costing US$4.1 million.

09/29/2003 MAN SHOT WITH HUNTING ARROW!

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) A man was shot in the stomach with a 16-inch hunting arrow by a motorist in a passing sport utility vehicle, police said. Benito Vargas, 48, said he was walking home from work around 1 A.M. Sunday when the driver's side window of a white SUV slid open, exposing the front part of a crossbow. A red, broad-head tipped arrow, generally used for hunting animals, landed in Vargas's stomach. Vargas, a restaurant worker, was released Wednesday from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Police said he had been unable to provide descriptions of four people who were allegedly inside the SUV. The shooting appeared to be random, West Chester Detective Thomas Yarnall said.

09/29/2003 DAWNWATCH: FRONT PAGE STORY ON CIRCUS ABUSING ANIMALS!

The Thursday, September 25, Orlando Sentinel has a front page story headed, "Activists accuse circus of abuse; A new report repeats allegations that Ringling Bros mistreats elephants." The story, slightly edited, also appears in the Thursday Sun-Sentinel (page 12A) under the heading "Circus Abusing Animals; Report Says Ringling Hurts it Elephants." "Kenny the elephant, too weak to stand or eat, died in Jacksonville, bleeding from an infection after performing his third Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey show of the day, according to a report released Wednesday by three animal-protection groups."The ASPCA, The Fund for Animals and the Animal Welfare Institute report also alleges that another elephant, Benjamin, was abused by a trainer with a 'bull-hook' and drowned in a fit of fear while swimming in a Houston pond." The two deaths - Kenny's in 1998 and Benjamin's one year later - are evidence the 133-year-old circus systematically abuses and neglects its elephants, according to the groups hoping to breathe new life into a federal lawsuit against the institution dubbed 'The Greatest Show on Earth.'"

09/29/2003 SCIENTISTS BLAST MONKEY EXPERIMENTS IN UK PRESS!

Scientific opposition to experiments on primates is considerable and growing as evidenced by the following letter, published by the Daily Telegraph on Sept 23. SCIENCE SHOULD STUDY HUMAN BRAINS, NOT MONKEY'S SIR ­John Prescott will soon announce his decision as to whether Cambridge University can build its new primate laboratory in the Cambridge green belt. Tony Blair and the science minister, Lord Sainsbury (chief financier of the Labour Party), have pre-empted the outcome of the public inquiry in their ardent support for the project. The centre would undoubtedly reap financial benefits for Cambridge's "biotech cluster," so favored by Lord Sainsbury. But on the more important question of whether it would benefit human medicine, abundant evidence suggests that it would not. Regrettably, large sums of money spent experimenting on monkey brains in the new facility will mean less money is available for scientists studying human brains ­ both patients' and healthy volunteers'. Unravelling Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurological disorders is dependent on such human studies. They are the key to finding treatments and cures for these terrible diseases. Findings from marmosets and macaques have frequently misled neuroscientists, sometimes with tragic consequences. For example, scores of treatments for stroke have been developed and tested in primates, but all of them havefailed in humans and harmed people in clinical trials. One hundred and fifteen MPs agree with us that "experiments on primates cannot be justified in view of the important biological differences between people and primates."

09/28/2003 DEPUTIES FACE ANIMAL CRUELTY CHARGES!

Two Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies were charged with felony cruelty to animals after a colleague spotted them leaving a bloodied, broken pit bull on a dirt road 13 miles east of Belle Glade, according to an affidavit. Reginald Mickins, 35, and Alton Harrell, 34, were the same deputies that were charged three years ago for attending an organized dogfight. They were fired, but reinstated after an internal review board recommended that they keep their jobs. Around midnight Saturday, a deputy stopped Mickins and Harrell after seeing them in a truck south of County Road 880 in an area that had been hit by thefts of farm equipment. The deputy stopped the truck and found a cage smeared with blood in the cargo area. The deputy drove south on the dirt road to where the vehicle had stopped earlier and found a black pit bull dog bleeding from the head, back and from both front legs. The dog's left front leg was badly injured. However, the dog wasn't captured, said sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller. The dog hobbled away and the deputy couldn't find it. The two men were arrested Monday on felony warrants for animal cruelty and animal abandonment. Both men posted $3,000 bonds. In July 2000, both men pleaded guilty to attending a dogfight in suburban West Palm Beach. The men have been put on paid leave, said Paul Miller, a spokesman for the sheriff.

09/28/2003 POLICE CUT THROUGH AUSTRALIAN SHEEP TRADE PROTEST!

CANBERRA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Australian police removed protesters who chained themselves to fences at a port on Thursday in a bid to stop the loading of a live cargo of sheep amid an escalating row over more than 50,000 sheep stranded at sea.The port protest, staged to highlight the plight of the sheep adrift in the Gulf, ended as police cut through chains to make a path for trucks taking sheep from a feedlot to a ship, which is due to take them on to the Middle East. A shipload of sheep has been in limbo for over a month after it was rejected by Saudi Arabia because of what it said was an unacceptably high incidence of disease. The Saudi importer, aided by Australian officials, is trying to find them a new market.

09/28/2003 500 PRIMATES SLAUGHTERED!

On Monday 22, the biggest German newspaper (10.77 million readers) revealed the shocking truth about the murder of 500 primates at Covance Germany. Mike B. who worked at Covance for 5 years told the local ACT! (Anti-Covance-tierversuche) campaign that he witnessed the killing with this substance, which caused a painful death for the primates. "When the poison was empty, they used formalin which was much cheaper," he says; tuberculosis was used as a pretence, "but if they had tuberculosis they needed to kill all the primates, which they didn't." Doctors against animal testing have now sued Covance for a breach of the animal protection law, "there was no need for the animals, so they used the tuberculosis excuse to kill these beautiful animals, just to save money," says Corina Gericke of the group doctors against vivisection. Covance didn't give a comment on the case and when asked for photos or video footage of the animals they said it wouldn't be possible, "the animalswould get scared."

09/27/2003 LABETTE COUNTY MAN DIES FROM HUNTING ACCIDENT!

A Mound Valley man dies in a hunting accident over the weekend. On Saturday, September 20, at 7:13 P.M. the Labette County Sheriff¹s Office received a report of a hunting accident at the state hunting area at Big Hill Lake, located 1/8 mile south of 20,000 Road and Ford. The deputies found a man identified as Danny R. Dunsing who died as a result of a single gunshot wound to the leg.Apparently Dunsing was in a tree stand deer hunting, and the weapon a 50-caliber muzzle loading rifle discharged striking him in the leg with the shell traveling in an upward manner. Dunsing was pronounced dead by the Deputy Labette County Corner at the scene, and his body has been transported to Topeka for an autopsy.

09/27/2003 NORWAY ANNOUNCES PLANS TO KILL 670 WHALES!

YARMOUTHPORT, Mass. - The Norwegian Government on September 23 announced it will kill 670 whales for commercial purposes next year. Conservation organizations around the world, led by IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) criticized the announcement by Norway, the only country in the world to openly engage in a commercial hunt for internationally protected whales. The latest Norwegian announcement comes in the wake of findings earlier this year that consumption of whale meat could pose threats to human health due to high levels of mercury and other pollutants concentrated in whale meat and blubber. The contamination issue has frustrated Norwegian attempts to re-open the international trade in whale meat. The Government of Japan has rejected attempts by Norway to export whale products to that country due to human health concerns. "The Norwegian authorities are sticking their heads further and further into the sand," said Dr.Christopher Tuite, IFAW Director of Wildlife and Habitat. "This decision needlessly puts both whales and people at risk. Instead of gambling with the health of its citizens and defying the IWC, Norway should join the international effort to save these magnificent creatures from environmental and other threats."

09/27/2003 SUFFERING CATTLE BURIED IN MANURE!

A steer was reportedly "buried up to his head in manure with his skin deteriorated" and another animal's front legs "were grossly deformed and bowed out to its (sic) side" when authorities found a total of 62 cattle who had been neglected in a barn filled floor to ceiling with manure. A veterinarian who worked with police at the scene told reporters he estimated the barn had not been cleaned in about a year. Greg Apfelbeck, of Holton, Wisconsin, faces charges for failing to provide animals with proper food and water and minimal sanitation standards - and for threatening a woman he suspected had alerted authorities to the animals' suffering. He only acknowledged, at a hearing, that he had left about 12 cows miserably confined in his barn.

09/25/2003 USE YOUR VACATION TO SAVE WHALES!

You can help convince Iceland not to resume commercial whaling - simply by making plans to travel there if they end the hunt. On August 6, 2003, the Government of Iceland announced that 38 minke whales would be taken as the start of a so called "scientific" whaling program. The program will expand to take 250 whales, including sei and fin whales as well as minkes, in 2004. The government would like to begin full-scale commercial whaling in 2006, which could lead minke whales to the same fate that has befallen other whale species: the brink of extinction. Within Iceland, whale-watching has become a major tourist industry, and nature tourism of many varieties has flourished on this rugged, volcanic, glaciated masterpiece of an Island. Many people believe that the Government of Iceland should look to other forms of economic development, such as tourism, which don't destroy whales. And some Icelanders believe that their country will attract more visitors by positioning their country as the land of the living whale, and want to see the hunt stopped.

09/25/2003 OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN JOINS PETITION TO STOP THAI ELEPHANT TORTURE!

Australia's Olivia Newton-John has joined other stars in signing a petition to urge Thailand's government to stop the torture of baby elephants used in its tourism industry, an animal rights group said Monday. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) petition also urges a worldwide tourist boycott of Thailand, the group said in a statement released in Hong Kong. "We believe that worldwide exposure of these atrocities and the threat of diminishing tourism revenue will help make them change their tune," said PETA director Debbie Leahy. The group is particularly concerned about the training of the animals, with baby elephants torn from their mothers, confined to tiny wooden crates and trained to perform circus-style tricks and give rides. Other high-profile names on the petition are Daniel Johns of Australian rock group Silverchair, New Zealand singer Neil Finn and Australian singer and songwriter Ben Lee and his wife actor Claire Danes.

09/25/2003 FUR FLIES AS 7,000 MINK RELEASED!

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Some 7,000 mink were released Sunday night from a fur farm in northwest Finland, with no group yet claiming responsibility, officials said Monday. Police said they had no suspects in what fur farmers have called the biggest attack on a Finnish mink farm. Some two thirds of the mink released near the town of Kokkola, around 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of capital Helsinki, remained free by noon Monday. Local residents were joining the hunt to try to catch them. Leif Finne, head of the fur farming organization in the region, told Reuters over telephone from Kokkola that the attack was the biggest in Finland. "This is a farm with seven to eight thousand animals and all of the cages had been opened. This was a well planned attack with many perpetrators," Finne said. "For the farmer, this is an utter disaster. There will also be an impact on the local wildlife as the minks are predators who will try and find food. Some of the minks will face a painful death. This is a terrorist act, nothing else."

09/24/2003 AUSTRALIA RULES OUT TAKING BACK STRANDED SHEEP!

CANBERRA - Australia has ruled out taking back a shipload of 57,000 live sheep that has been stranded for weeks in the Middle East after being rejected by Saudi Arabia, and said it was looking for other countries to take the animals. The sheep left Australia on August 5 but were rejected by Saudi Arabia three weeks later on the grounds that six per cent had scabby mouth, above an agreed level of five per cent, although Australia says only 0.35 per cent had the low-grade disease. Since then the Saudi importer who owns the sheep has been trying to unload the sheep, offering them for free, aided by the Australian government, and ignoring calls from animal groups for their immediate slaughter. Animal rights groups say that at least 3,500 of the sheep have died in searing 40oC heat but Australian industry group LiveCorp says the death toll would remain unknown until the sheep were unloaded.

09/24/2003 "DRUNK" U.S. SOLDIER SHOOTS RARE TIGER IN BAGHDAD ZOO!

BAGHDAD (AP) - A U.S. soldier shot and killed an endangered tiger at the Baghdad zoo after it bit another soldier who had drunkenly reached through the bars of its cage to feed it, a security guard said Saturday. The soldiers had been drinking beer when they entered the zoo Thursday night after it closed, said the guard, Zuhair Abdul-Majeed. After the man was bit, the other American shot the tiger three times in the head and killed it, he said. The head of the zoo confirmed the story in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

09/23/2003 LIONS AND OTHER PREDATORS AT RISK OF EXTINCTION!

Lions are frighteningly close to extinction, wildlife experts have warned. Twenty years ago, 230,000 roamed Africa, but today only 23,000 remain, many of them harboring feline AIDS and bovine tuberculosis.Laurence Frank, a wildlife biologist at the University of California, warns that populations of all African predators are "plummeting" but says lions are particularly threatened. His findings are published in New Scientist.

09/23/2003 SABOTEURS ATTACKED AND LIVE FOX THROWN TO HOUNDS!

Hunt saboteurs who had saved a fox from death told how they were attacked and the fox was thrown live to a pack of hounds at a hunt near Pulborough, West Sussex on September 20, 2003. Hunt saboteur Paul Loder had managed to intervene when 8 hounds from the Chiddingfold Leconfield and Cowdray Hunt were mauling a fox at Pithingdean Farm. The fox was obviously still alive and traumatized, nipping at Paul as he carried it to a nearby colleague. Their intention was to get the animal emergency veterinary attention and save its life. Paul was then throttled by a huntsman. Another saboteur on his first protest at a fox hunt, who now held the fox, was attacked by another member of hunt staff and his mobile phone was broken. Once wrestled from the safety of the saboteur's arms, the fox - still alive - was thrown to the waiting pack of hounds. The protestors have lodged formal complaints of assault and made statements at Pulborough police station. The hunt staff at the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray hunt are infamous among hunt saboteurs for their violent behavior.

09/23/2003 MOVIE ICON BARDOT CONDEMNS "SHIP OF DEATH"!

SYDNEY: Fears were growing over the welfare of a shipload of 57,000 "tainted" sheep stranded in the Persian Gulf, with French movie icon Brigitte Bardot joining attacks on Australia's efforts to solve the crisis. With no port willing to accept the ailing animals, almost 4,000 of the 57,000 sheep have died from heat stress and rights groups fear the Cormo Express vessel could become a "floating charnel house" unless action is taken. Bardot sent an open letter to Australian Agriculture Minister Warren Truss describing the situation as sickening and unbearable. "It is absolutely necessary to find a humane solution in order to avoid the agony of 50,000 sheep on the Cormo Express, which will remain the disgrace of your country," she said in the letter issued by her animal welfare group, Foundation Brigitte Bardot.

09/21/2003 UK COUPLE KEPT 244 DOGS AND 16 BIRDS AT HOME!

A small army of RSPCA officers from all over the country was called to remove 244 dogs and a menagerie of other animals from a small detached house. The RSPCA used a dozen vans to remove the dogs of various breeds, including shih-tzus, dachshunds, lhasa apsos, bearded collies and a corgi. Also taken into the RSPCA's care were 16 birds, including macaws, Amazon parrots and African grey parrots, five cats, two kittens, one rabbit and a chinchilla. It is believed the animals belonged to a couple in their fifties. Villagers in Silverdale are still in shock after the discovery of the animals at the house at Lindeth Close. When The Visitor went to investigate, RSPCA officers were at the scene, filling a large skip with white industrial bin bags. Hundreds of empty dog food boxes littered the garden and there were swarms of flies. The front door was wide open and inside could clearly be seen more empty dog food boxes along the filth-ridden corridor, from which the stenchwas overwhelming. The windows were almost completely blacked out with dirt. In the back garden were five large wooden sheds. Neighbors said they had endured ten years of hell.

09/20/2003 PETA AGAINST IAMS!

PETA launches international campaign against Iams after years of the company's empty promises to improve its treatment of animals used to test Iams products. A recent PETA undercover investigation revealed deplorable conditions at an Iams contract laboratory. At least 27 dogs were destroyed, while others died of illnesses that went untreated, despite assurances from Iams that no animal in any Iams test would ever be deliberately killed.

09/19/2003 KFC DEMO WRAP UP!

The latest Animal Liberation demo against KFC on Friday the September 12 was a great success with numbers growing each time. Hundreds of leaflets were handed out and both the pavement and KFC's windows were festooned with "KFC CRUELTY" posters and placards. The police also turned up due to complaints from KFC management because one of the offensive protesters was standing in the doorway. Nevertheless, after being instructed to move on or be charged, the offender decided to take two paces to the side of the doorway and continue to "talk" to those coming out and going into the "restaurant." The police wished the protesters "good luck" as they departed with smiles on their faces.

09/19/2003 BUAV UNDERCOVER: IN DEPTH INTERVIEW WITH "KATE," A BUAV UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATOR!

The Autumn 2003 issue of Campaign Report, the BUAV's supporter magazine, contains a revealing interview with "Kate," the BUAV undercover investigator who exposed lab animal suffering at Cambridge University. An extract of the interview was published in Real Magazine in June this year, but Campaign Report has the interview in full. Here's an extract: "My last assignment was working for ten months at the marmoset monkeyfacility at Cambridge University... Some monkeys (under anaesthetic) had their head clamped and the top of the skull removed with a surgical saw - one of the researchers described this like "taking a lid off a monkey." Others had holes drilled in their skull and toxins injected into parts of their brain. The nearest I came to having my cover blown was whilst watching the top of a marmoset's head being cut open, his skull being sawn off and then his brain being damaged. As I was secretly filming this operation I just felt so nauseous seeing a live animal undergoing such a horrible procedure that I started to feel I would faint. Around me the researchers were laughing and joking about the whole thing and I had to pretend I was okay about it too, when inside I felt like any moment I might keel over. I knew if I did my hidden camera would be revealed and my cover blown. I just couldn't let this happen and so I forced myself to breathe deeply and concentrated very hard. I kept telling myself that there would be an end to it for me, but not for the animals who never leave the labs except in yellow refuse sacks to go to the incinerator."

09/18/2003 MAN ON JET SKI RUNS OVER BEAR CROSSING RIVER!

WAKEFIELD, Que. - A Quebec woodsman, who wanted a black bear as a pet, ran over a cub several times with his Jet Ski on the Gatineau River this week as the cub's mother snarled from shore. The cub, nicknamed Buddy Bear, was swimming across the river near Wakefield, north of Ottawa, when Denis Ryan grabbed it. The bear broke free several times by clawing at Ryan and tried to swim to shore, only to be dragged back out into deeper water. To wear out the bear, Ryan ran over it with the Jet Ski, forcing the cub's head under water. The 55-year-old woodsman got his best grip on the cub by holding it upside down by one of its hind legs. He then dunked the animal repeatedly to drain the cub's energy. The cub was moaning, desperately trying to breathe. "I just lifted him up and then I could dunk him. Then he couldn't breathe. I kept dunking and kept dunking him," Ryan recalled. "I was never mean to the bear. There was a couple of times I wanted to hit him over the head with a pipe or something but I didn't do that." To stop the cub from jumping off the Jet Ski, Ryan tied a rope around one of its hind legs, kept one hand on a leash, the other on the handle bar. He drove toward a public landing in the heart of Wakefield. He figured a cub on the back of a Jet Ski would make a good picture for the town's weekly newspaper, The Low Down to Hull and Back News. But the rope came loose and the cub escaped. As it swam for shore, Ryan's Jet Ski started to run out of gas. The bear reached shore just as Andrew Wilson, the newspaper's reporter, appeared with his camera. Ryan jumped off the Jet Ski and tackled the bear as it tried to scramble up the bank. Wilson took some photographs, then called Quebec wildlife officers. Wildlife officers eventually took the animal, tagged it and released it into the woods as an orphan near Montebello, Que. Quebec's wildlife protection squad is investigating the incident.

09/18/2003 DOLPHIN PSYCHOLOGY MAY BE SIMILAR TO HUMANS'!

GULFPORT - In dolphins and theoretically in humans, peers may play a more important role than parents in teaching new behavior. This finding was made in a lengthy study conducted by the University of Southern Mississippi psychology department. The research was included in the August issue of Wildlife, a BBC-produced magazine, as part of a larger article on animal intelligence. Student and faculty psychology researchers have been observing play behavior of dolphins at the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport for the past six years. According to Dr. Stan Kuczaj, the chairman of the psychology department at USM, observing the relationships of juvenile dolphins may help better understand childhood psychology. Kuczaj wanted to find out where new behavior originates in dolphins and which member of a dolphin's circle of relationships influences it most.

09/17/2003 WORLD FARM ANIMALS DAY!

World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) was launched in 1983 to expose, mourn, memorialize, and mitigate the suffering of billions of innocent, sentient animals in the world's factory farms and slaughterhouses. The date of October 2 honors the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, foremost champion of humane farming. WFAD marks the one day a year when every person of conscience is honor-bound to help relieve the agony of farmed animals.

09/17/2003 FINES FOR ANIMAL CRUELTY TO DOUBLE!

September 14, 2003 FINES for individuals who commit aggravated acts of cruelty on animals will be doubled to $22,000 this week, a NSW government minister said today. NSW Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Ian Macdonald, announced that the state government would introduce a bill to Parliament this week to double the maximum penalties for the acts of cruelty. "This is a very important piece of legislation, which aims to give even more protection to animals," Mr Macdonald said. "The legislation doubles the fines for individuals who commit aggravated animal cruelty acts, from $11,000 to $22,000, or two years jail, or both." Fines for corporations are also being doubled from $55,000 to $110,000, he said.

09/16/2003 FUR FREE COLOGNE DEMO OCTOBER 4!

The first "fur-free Cologne"-Rally last year has been a great success. About 300 animal rights activists turned it into the biggest anti-fur-demonstration in many years. Just a few days after the event took place Europe's biggest convenience store, KarstadQuelle, announced to stop their fur trading business in order to protect animals. But this has been just a small step in the right direction. In Germany there remain to be several fur-farms and it's still allowed to kill minks, foxes, racoons etc. for the sake of profit using poison, gas, or electric-shock. Ruthless fur traders import the fur of cruelly killed dogs and cats from Asia, or the fur of wild animals who were caught in brutal traps in Canada, Russia, or Scandinavia. And there are still human beings lacking empathy who are out in the streets wearing fur-clothes. These people either don't know how the animals are treated, or they just don't worry nor care about it. In order to let them know that their behavior is not acceptable, campaigners will on October 4 be on the streets of Cologne again!

09/15/2003 DINERS GO TO THE DOGS!

Cambodians are being urged to eat more dogs as part of a crackdown on strays. Dogs, along with spiders, beetles and crickets, are regularly found on menus in deeply impoverished rural areas of the country. But eating them is frowned upon in the relative sophistication of the capital, Phnom Penh. City governor Kep Chuktema is drawing up a policy to control the growing problem of pavement-fouling strays. Mr Kep said city-dwellers should throw off their traditional snootiness towards dining on man's best friend. "Come on, dog meat is so delicious. The Vietnamese and Koreans love to eat dog meat," he said. "Cambodians don't have wine, but poor people can enjoy their dog meat with palm juice." Until now, Phnom Penh dog lovers have had to keep their tastes under wraps. They have had to ask for the "special" or "jogging cow meat" when ordering in restaurants.

09/15/2003 ARCH CHEMICALS, INC., INSISTS ON REPETITIVE ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS!

In a recent EPA high production volume (HPV) chemical test plan for 2-chloropyridine (a substance used in pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical manufacturing), Arch Chemicals documented its plans to conduct several tests that will kill more than 700 animals. In doing so, it disregarded all basic principles to minimize the number of animals killed in the HPV chemical program. Specifically, Arch Chemicals is refusing to wait for the results of a repeat-dose test on the same chemical that is already under way at the National Toxicology Program's (NTP) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences laboratories and is planning, instead, to conduct its own repeat-dose test. (See stopanimaltests.com for a description of this test.) While it is too late to save the animals suffering in the NTP study, it is not too late to convince Arch not to repeat the exact same test.

09/14/2003 PUPPY KILLER JAILED FOR SIX MONTHS!

A catering student who killed two puppies by hanging them by their leads from a tree in a public park has been jailed for six months. Robert Howsam, 28, left the dogs to die after he strung them up in Bankswood Park, Hadfield. A black cross collie and a Labrador cross, were found dead in November last year. Ken Boylett, chairman of the bench at Chesterfield Magistrates Court, said: "This was done in a very public place and the dogs were seen by a number of people, including young people." Howsam, of Hadfield, near Glossop, in Derbyshire, was found guilty of two counts of animal cruelty at his trial at Chesterfield Magistrates Court in August.

09/14/2003 FASHION SHOW DROPS FUR!

A peaceful anti-fur protest at the Nederburg Fashion Week in the Cape Town International Convention Center nearly turned ugly on last Saturday when a man dressed as a gorilla turned up and jumped around chanting "fur is cool" and waving a pro-fur poster. The 100-odd anti-fur protesters, including dogs and a goat, were not impressed as they were there to object to the inclusion of fur garments and accessories in the annual fashion event.Some of the protesters turned on the "gorilla," grabbed his poster and tore it up. They then handed the man one of their anti-fur posters. Obviously realizing the strong sentiment around him, he "gorilla" became an instant convert to the cause. "Okay, I'm converted," he shouted and promptly joined the anti-fur protest. "For fox sake: don't wear fur" Some protesters held a huge poster which read: "May we skin your children Mr Rajah." Gavin Rajah is the convener of the event. Other protesters held up posters that read: "For fox sake: don't wear fur," "It takes up to 40 dumb animals to make a fur coat but only one to wear it" and "Fur! No skin off your back." Two women had the words "How much is my fur worth?" and "Do you want my fur?" scribbled in red ink across their lower stomachs. Beryl Scott, chairwoman of Beauty Without Cruelty, said plans to include fox fur and mink at the fashion shows had infuriated animal lovers. She said there was nothing ethical about fur farming.

09/13/2003 BUSHMEAT CRISIS IN AFRICA THREATENS GREAT APES!

MANCHESTER, England - Africa's multi-million dollar bushmeat industry is threatening species like gorillas and chimpanzees with extinction, conservationists said this week. But the meat from wild animals is a key source of food and livelihood for poor people in countries in central and western Africa with crumbling economies. Scientists at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) told a British conference that better management of the trade is needed to eliminate the threat to great apes without further harming poor rural communities."The bushmeat trade can be very emotive and some of the pictures that come out of the bushmeat markets can be quite horrifying to western eyes but the important thing to remember is that people who are hunting and eating bushmeat generally do not have any other options," said Dr Guy Cowlishaw of the ZSL. "Part of what we are doing is trying to create more options for those people," he added.

09/13/2003 LIVE EXPORT TRAGEDY - TO GIVE AWAY 57,000 AUSTRALIAN SHEEP!

On September 11, Animals Australia has repeated its calls for the Federal government to stop issuing permits for live animals to be exported from Australia. Despite the live export industry's concerted efforts, no port has been found for the 57,000 Australian sheep on the MV Cormo Express that were rejected by Saudi Authorities on 22/8/03. On September 10, a second unnamed country refused permission for the sheep to be discharged. The surviving sheep have now had at least 5 weeks at sea - the last two weeks enduring temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius."It is not difficult to assess the dire plight of these sheep, when even the head of Livecorp Kevin Shiell states that there have been many deaths and that the remaining sheep on board may have to be given away," said Glenys Oogjes, Executive Director of Animals Australia. "The problems that faced this shipment are endemic in this industry. The trade only re-opened with Saudi Arabia in 2000 after similar problems with disease were experienced and 11 shipments of sheep rejected. Now once again, thousands of Australian animals are suffering and dying through becoming the unwitting victims of unethical economic gain, political whims and agendas."

09/13/2003 WHALING LOBBY SAYS GREENPEACE USES "MAFIA TACTICS"!

OSLO - A pro-whaling lobby accused environmental group Greenpeace this week of using "mafia tactics" in a campaign to promote tourism to Iceland if Reykjavik halts whale hunts. The Norwegian-based High North Alliance said Greenpeace was bullying Iceland by asking people around the world to sign up on the Internet to say they "would seriously consider" a vacation in Iceland on condition that Reykjavik stops whaling. "These are mafia tactics. The Greenpeace people must have been studying 'The Godfather'," said Rune Froevik of the Alliance, which represents whalers and coastal communities in the Arctic from Alaska to Greenland. "Greenpeace is not a tour operator," he told Reuters. Iceland resumed whaling last month after a 14-year break, ignoring an international moratorium and prompting criticism from many foreign governments.

09/12/2003 RABBIT SANCTUARY!

In 1978, Caroline Gilbert donated her 30-acre farm in Simpsonville, South Carolina, to The Fund for Animals, for the establishment of a sanctuary specifically for domestic rabbits.The sanctuary is composed of one large, new "rabbitat" and two smaller rabbitats, providing state-of-the-art safety and security for the rabbits. Within these rabbitats are rabbit territories of various sizes, where rabbits live in groups of two to four. Their many activities including running, chasing, leaping, sunning, cuddling, and most importantly, digging. The sanctuary's unique "Home for Life" policy ensures a permanent home for approximately one hundred rabbits, all fugitives from local shelters, commercial breeders, laboratories, and unfit homes, plus a few strays. Health care is provided in the light and airy "bunny health care building" where some of the sanctuary's old-timers are also living out their lives in peace.

09/12/2003 HORRIFYING BUTCHERY OF S.A. SEALS ENCOURAGED BY MCM!

In a throwback to the apartheid era when the public was excluded from all participation in wildlife management, South Africa's own seal whisperer, Cape Town- based Francois Hugo, is being prosecuted by Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) for showing kindness to seals. Francois is a familiar sight at Hout Bay harbour, rescuing stranded seals and treating seals that have been caught up in the nets of the fishing boats. In order to rehabilitate orphaned and injure seals he is obliged to feed them from his platform in Hout Bay and he has done so for years at great personal sacrifice and expense. All his efforts to obtain a permit from MCM for his charitable activities have proved fruitless, notwithstanding the new democratic laws which require all organs of state to promote the participation of the public in wildlife management. In order to crush Francois' Sealalert in the wild Rehab facility, MCM recently passed a regulation to make the feeding of seals an offence, and have now charged him with breaking the "Hugo regulation." Francois joins a growing list of citizens who have been prosecuted by the S.A. conservation regime for showing kindness to animals.

09/12/2003 KFC CRUELTY!

Kweisi Mfume, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), calls upon KFC to adopt animal-welfare improvements recommended by PETA and eliminate practices such as allowing chickens to be scalded to death in defeathering tanks and breeding and drugging birds so that their leg bones splinter under their own breast weight.

09/11/2003 RARE BIRDS AT RISK IN PAPUA'S SMUGGLING PARADISE!

SENTANI - Laying out satellite maps and topographical charts, Dr John Manangsang outlines his vision for a bird sanctuary in Indonesia's Papua province, home to some of the rarest tropical species in the world. In an aviary just outside his medical surgery, two birds of paradise with distinctive yellow and white tail feathers tuck into a fruit breakfast. A deep-blue mambruk, which looks like a peacock, lumbers past as multicolored parrots fly overhead. Six years ago, Manangsang found a new use for his surgical skills when people began bringing in birds that had been shot or speared by poachers, victims of an illegal trade in restive Papua which environmentalists fear could threaten rare species, including birds of paradise, with extinction. "Birds and people can live together, that's what we want," said Manangsang, tracing his finger around the proposed sanctuary in a nature reserve near the Papuan lakeside town of Sentani. But while a fifth of Papua is national parkland or nature reserve, stopping the smuggling of hundreds of protected birds a month - some from these areas - is complicated because soldiers and officials are involved, environmentalists said. There is also little attempt to involve local communities in the preservation of the protected birds in Papua, a biodiversity goldmine nearly the size of France, they added. Environmentalists say these are the sort of issues that have to be tackled at a World Parks Congress to be held from September 8-17 in the South African city of Durban. There, the future of the world's parks and other protected areas will come under the spotlight.

09/11/2003 TURTLES LURED TO DISCO DEATH IN PARK DILEMMA!

LAGANAS, Greece - Disco lights are luring baby turtles to their deaths on the fringes of a Greek marine park in the Mediterranean Sea. Environmentalists say that rare loggerhead turtles scramble out at night from eggs in the sand on beaches in the west Greek island of Zakynthos and instinctively head for the brightest horizon - normally the white foam of waves under the stars. But neon lights from discos and cafes along the back of the beach at Laganas, built for tourists who also go for boat trips in the bay to try to spot turtles, are often fatally brighter. "Some turtles crawl up the beach the wrong way and die of dehydration or get eaten by seabirds or dogs," said Anders Kofoed, a Danish volunteer working for the Greek conservation group Archelon. "The park isn't working properly."

09/10/2003 TOKYO DOLPHINS - NEW PRISONERS!

In Sanuki city, Kagawa prefecture, about 500 km southwest from Tokyo, Japan, a plan to build a big Dolphin Healing Center is progressing. It already experimentally started with two dolphins from Taiji drive fisheries a few years ago. This plan was once suspended, because the town which started this project was mergered with other towns to become a city. However, the project itself was taken over by the new city, whose name is Sanuki, and a number of scientists showed interest in it and started to support the plan. A citizen- organization (NGO) already started sign-on campaigns to promote this plan.

09/10/2003 IFAW TRIUMPHANT AFTER IVORY CONFISCATION JUDGEMENT!

Nearly six years after the Delhi High Court dismissed a petition by ivory traders to clear the ivory stock they held, the Supreme Court of India upheld the same decision and ordered the government to repossess all ivory stocks held by the traders. The ivory, which is in both raw and carved form, weighs at least 20 tonnes and is worth millions of dollars according to official estimates. In the landmark decision last week, the judges dismissed the traders' demands which began in 1991 to be allowed to clear the stocks they held following a 1986 ban on sale, import and export of ivory. The Supreme Court ordered the Indian Government to take possession of all ivory stock including products such as idols and images of God, which, according to the Court, should be kept in museums for aesthetic purposes. "It is very important to sound a clear message that it will no longer be remunerative to deal with ivory, not even for the purpose of one-time sale," read the 48-page judgement issued by the Delhi Court in 1997.

09/09/2003 EUROPEAN COMMISSION SUPPORTS OIE GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON ANIMAL WELFARE!

The OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) is convening a Global Conference on Animal Welfare that will take place in Paris, France on February 23-25, 2004. EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection David Byrne will attend the conference and the European Commission is actively involved in its organization. The conference will provide a forum for various stakeholders (governmental authorities, scientists, industry, non-governmental organizations and consumers) to contribute to the OIE's animal welfare activities. Persons interested in attending the conference should register their interest by October 31, 2003 via the specific conference website where full details concerning registration and the conference program are available.

09/08/2003 INTERIOR DEPARTMENT INTENDS TO LEASE OFFSHORE AREA ADJACENT TO ARCTIC REFUGE!

The Bush Administration's Department of the Interior has announced its intent to lease nine million acres in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, just off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for oil drilling. The Beaufort Sea is a rich and fragile ecosystem, and home to a multitude of species. It provides unique habitat for twenty-five fish species, and Bowhead whales (protected under both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act) migrate to and through the area during the spring and summer on their way to important summer feeding grounds. Beyond the havoc oil and gas exploration can wreak on such an area, environmental groups are concerned that the ability to clean up oil spills or other damage in the broken and solid ice conditions that are characteristic of the Beaufort Sea would be extremely limited, making such exploration all the more dangerous to the local ecosystem. (Defenders of Wildlife)

09/08/2003 LIVE EXPORT BATTLE MOVES TO DOVER!

A shipment of live lambs is expected to leave Dover today after a protest by animal rights activists stopped a similar export elsewhere. Around 2,000 sheep were due to be loaded on to the cargo ship MV Caroline at the Kent port yesterday. Protesters claim it is the same shipment that was due to leave Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland the day before yesterday, but which was abandoned due to a week-long protest. Port authorities in Berwick admitted they were stopping sailings of lambs from the Scottish borders following a "great number" of calls from campaigners. Some of the calls had been threatening, the authorities said. Around 30 members of protest group Kent Action Against Live Exports planned to stage a demonstration at the eastern arm of Dover harbor. A Kent Police spokesman said the situation would be monitored.

09/07/2003 ENDANGERED PYGMY OWL SUFFERS COURT SETBACK!

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court ruled last week that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted improperly in listing the Pygmy Owl in Southern Arizona as an endangered species. The ruling came in response to a suit by the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, which is seeking to develop land currently protected as owl habitat. The ruling, while hailed as a victory by the Homebuilders, was essentially a judgment on the technical merit of the listing and does not question the Pygmy Owls' endangered status or remove the owl from the federal endangered species list. However, it remains to be seen how hard the Bush Administration's Fish and Wildlife Service will work to correct the error and protect the owls' habitat. (Defenders of Wildlife)

09/07/2003 COURT ORDERS NAVY TO LIMIT SONAR USE TO PROTECT MARINE MAMMALS!

A California federal judge ruled last week that a powerful new Navy sonar system could not be deployed because the Navy did not follow federal laws to determine the system's impact on whales and other marine life. Tests of the new system, which acoustic experts liken to standing near the space shuttle at liftoff, have been associated with the deaths of dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals. But while the judge halted deployment of the sonar, she stopped short of imposing a full peacetime ban on the system sought by environmental groups. At the judges instruction, the Navy and environmental groups must now negotiate a plan for use of the sonar, taking into account the need to protect marine life. (Defenders of Wildlife)

09/07/2003 SCIENTISTS HIGHLIGHT FISH "INTELLIGENCE"!

Fish are socially intelligent creatures who do not deserve their reputation as the dim-wits of the animal kingdom, according to a group of leading scientists. Rather than simply being instinct-driven, the group says fish are cunning, manipulative and even cultured. The three experts from the universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Leeds said there had been huge changes in science's understanding of the psychological and mental abilities of fish in the last few years. Writing in the journal Fish and Fisheries, biologists Calum Brown, Keven Laland and Jens Krause said fish were now seen as highly intelligent creatures. They said: "Gone (or at least obsolete) is the image of fish as drudging and dim-witted pea-brains, driven largely by 'instinct,' with what little behavioral flexibility they possess being severely hampered by an infamous 'three-second memory.'"

09/06/2003 NATIONAL PRIMATE LIBERATION WEEK - OCTOBER 25-NOVEMBER 2!

Over 52,000 primates (chimpanzees, rhesus monkeys, baboons, squirrel monkeys, etc.) are experimented on every year in the United States. Another 43,000 are imprisoned in labs for breeding and conditioning. This brings the total number of primates held captive in laboratories to almost 100,000. Many of these primates experience horrible conditions. Recent government documentation has revealed primates dying of dehydration, wasting diseases, hepatitis, encephalitis, and many other severe illnesses. The experiments to which these intelligent animals are subjected are extremely cruel. Many primates are confined to restraint chairs for extended periods (up to 104 consecutive hours). Other primates suffer through the throes of withdrawal from addictive drugs. Devices are often literally bolted to the skulls of primates using steel screws. Infants are ripped away from their mothers and driven insane. This list of cruelties only scratches the surface. These intelligent social animals often suffer terribly from social isolation. Approximately 35% of the animals housed in labs undergo some level of social isolation. Solitary housing has been shown to cause psychologically aberrant behavior in primates within laboratories. In fact, as many as 10% of isolated primates engage in self-injurious behavior, biting and tearing at their own flesh.Right now government officials are seeking to increase the funding of primate experimentation in the U.S. by over $100,000,000. This money is our federal tax dollars. Duplication within the system is rampant, with some experiments being funded 187 times simultaneously.

09/06/2003 PETA FILES SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTION ASKING PETCO TO END ANIMAL SALES!

For years, PETCO has been plagued with lawsuits and complaints citing the company's cruel treatment of animals, while animal sales have accounted for less than 5 percent of the company's business. Therefore, PETA is asking PETCO's board of directors to issue a report reviewing all operational costs and liabilities associated with the sale of animals in order to determine the viability of a policy to end such sales, which would allow PETCO to concentrate on its core business of providing animal supplies, food, and services, as well as expanding its adoption program to include the animal species it currently sells.

09/05/2003 HORSE VIVISECTION HORROR!

Rather than confront the endemic problems that lead to thousands of horses every year failing to make the grade and hundreds more dying from race-related injuries and disease, the industry is looking for "answers" by commissioning grotesque lab experiments on live horses. Many were carried out by the Newmarket-based veterinary charity, the Animal Health Trust. Recently published examples exposed in "Riding for Fall" by Animal Aid include animals being made to walk for months on treadmills and then killed for analysis, and pregnant mares subjected to deliberate wounding or infection with viruses that cause paralysis and abortion. There have also been surrogate birth experiments where embryos were switched between ponies and thoroughbreds. Some of the offspring were born with muscle wastage and freakishly long, deformed legs."Riding for A Fall; the genetic time bomb at the heart of racing" is downloadable from www.animalaid.org.uk. Write to the AHT protesting over their painful and lethal experiments on horses- some paid for by the racing industry. (Ted Chandler, Chief Executive, Animal Health Trust, Lanwades park, Kentford, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 7UU)

09/04/2003 NEW YORK GOVERNOR PATAKI BETRAYS THE ANIMALS!

Despite overwhelming legislative support and thousands of calls flooding his office asking him to support S. 2735a, New York's Canned Hunt bill, Governor Pataki has vetoed the bill. "Governor Pataki has embarrassed himself with this appalling veto of a bill to stop the repugnant practice of shooting animals for a fee in fenced enclosures," states Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of The Humane Society of the United States. "The animal protection community in New York will long remember his pardon of animal abusers and his rebuke of humane advocates." Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals, has also condemned the action, saying, "Governor Pataki has thumbed his nose at New Yorkers, including animal advocates, hunters, and upstate newspapers that called for passage of this humane bill. He has aligned himself with the handful of unscrupulous individuals who would pay big bucks to shoot a zebra ambling up to a feed truck or a Corsican ram trapped in the corner of a fence."

09/04/2003 TOTO - THE CHIMP WHO'S BECOME A GLOBAL SYMBOL FOR ANIMAL CIRCUSCRUELTY!

Toto the chimp begins an incredible journey to Africa this week, after being rescued by Animal Defenders International (ADI) from two decades of abuse in a Chilean circus. This epic voyage is the result of a unique collaboration between ADI and DHL Express, to fly Toto over 7,000 miles to his new home. Stolen from the wild as a baby, Toto toured with Circus Koenig, where he was forced to smoke cigarettes and drink tea to entertain visitors. For more than twenty years, Toto was chained by the neck and lived in a tiny packing crate. He had been castrated, his teeth were pulled out to stop him biting and his gums were severely infected.

09/04/2003 PETA ANNOUNCES VICTORY IN KFC LAWSUIT!

In answer to PETA's lawsuit filed in July against KFC and its parent company, Yum! Brands, accusing the corporations of lying to the public about their animal-welfare policies, KFC and Yum! Brands have conceded defeat by making sweeping changes to their Web sites and their customer service scripts.

09/03/2003 MASSACRE OF HUNDREDS OF WILD BOARS AND WILD GOATS!

The management boards of "Asinara National Park" and "Archipelago of La Maddalena National Park" (Sardinia - Italy), are going to kill hundreds of wild boars (Asinara and La Maddalena) and wild goats (Asinara) because of their ecological impact on the islands. Boar hunting has already been allowed by the management for the last few years in La Maddalena Park.

09/03/2003 THE INFAMOUS CAPTURE OF HUNDREDS OF DOLPHINS TO BE SOLD TO MEXICO!

Mexico has agreed not to import any further dolphins from the Solomon Islands after official approaches from New Zealand. The New Zealand manager of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, Kimberly Muncaster, said Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff had written to her confirming Mexico's decision. "As a result of our approach, Mexico has assured us that, in light of the new information it now has on the situation in the Solomon Islands, it would not, on scientific grounds, authorize further imports," the letter says.

09/03/2003 AUSTRALIANS NET POACHERS AFTER 4,600-MILE OCEAN CHASE!

After a three-week chase in the iceberg-studded seas of the Antarctic, the game was up for a Uruguayan ship suspected of poaching rare Patagonian toothfish in Australian waters. Australian and South African officials boarded the ship and arrested the 40 crew members. The Viarsa prompted the longest maritime pursuit in Australian history when it was spotted apparently poaching the valuable toothfish - known as the "white gold" of the Southern Ocean - in a remote Australian fisheries zone. Australia sent a customs ship in hot pursuit and enlisted the help of the South African tug, the John Ross, and the Dorada, a British fisheries vessel based in the Falklands. After a chase of 4,600 miles, the three vessels closed in on the Viarsa in high seas about 2,000 miles south-west of Cape Town last night. Ian Macdonald, the Australian Fisheries Minister, said: "It's a very expensive operation, but it's important to Australia. The Patagonian toothfish is a very rare and valuable species, and the illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean - we believe - is part of a criminal conspiracy."

09/02/2003 DOCTORS ANNOUNCE VICTORY AS UCSD FINALLY STOPS KILLING DOGS FOR MEDICAL TRAINING!

WASHINGTON - For the first time, students signing up this fall for basic physiology and pharmacology courses at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), School of Medicine will not be performing invasive procedures on live dogs. Until now, dogs were used in six-hour teaching exercises and killed once the class was over. The university has now decided, however, to give the dogs a break. UCSD now joins the nations best medical schools, all of which have done away with crude, obsolete dog labs and replaced them with more exciting, clinically relevant, and humane teaching methods, says Larry A. Hansen, M.D., a professor at UCSD. Medical students are learning to preserve and prolong life, and the lethal dog labs ran counter to that basic goal. A study authored by Dr. Hansen, published in Academic Medicine, found that a majority of U.S. medical schools, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, no longer use live animals in any of their pharmacology, physiology, or surgery courses.

09/02/2003 CORFU, GREECE - A HOLIDAY PARADISE OR A LIVING NIGHTMARE?!

A shelter is a haven. It is reported by credible witnesses that the Tsagaraki Sisters Shelter, (KEPZ) Kerkyraiki Etairia Prostasia Zoon, CORFU, Greece is a hell hole. Dogs of all types, sizes, ages, neutered, un-neutered, dying, ill, well, pregnant, blind, missing limbs, timid, frightened, aggressive are thrown together like garbage in a fenced in piece of barren land. Excrement is everywhere, tiny tongues lap at filthy, green water with dead flies floating on the surface. Live and dead rats abound. Photographs give terrible and very credible evidence to the reports. The local municipality gives carte blanche to the Tsagaraki sisters to do as they wish with Corfu's victims of abandonment and abuse. There are round ups of these poor creatures, who are thrown into this death camp. The dignified and compassionate members of the animal charity, "The Ark," who are desperately trying to initiate humane reform have been threatened, pulled into court by the Tsagaraki sisters and generally harassed for years and years. The government appears to sanction this disgrace. The scene is a living nightmare. Once again, the animals are the innocent victims of federal and municipal indifference.

09/01/2003 MEAT PLANT SUSPECTED OF "DEADSTOCK" SHUT DOWN!

Provincial officials shut down a meat plant in Aylmer, Ont., because it may have been producing beef illegally from dead animals. Beef products from the plant were recalled Monday, but Ontario officials didn't explain why the measure was taken. Canadian food inspection officials say processing or sale of meat from dead animals is prohibited under the Deadstock Disposal Act. The deadstock is supposed to be used for animal feed, not for human consumption.

09/01/2003 $10,000 FINE FOR CRUELTY TO DOGS!

A Buninyong man who kept his dogs living in the squalor of their own faeces while unwatered and grossly underfed was convicted and fined $10,000. Ballarat Magistrates Court heard that five greyhounds and two Akitas belonging to Bernard William Atkinson, 39, were treated in the disgraceful manner for so long that their bones were sticking out, one had mange and another drank six litres of fluid when watered. The skeleton of a sixth greyhound was found curled up in a small enclosure that was covered in dog faeces. It was seen on a video shown to the court which depicted the scene of the cruelty. Atkinson failed to appear in court to answer 20 charges of animal cruelty. RSPCA inspector Guy Gorman said he went to Atkinson's property at South Imperial Mine Rd on September 5, 2002, where he found the animals, including a goat, in a terrible state.

09/01/2003 POP STAR PINK SEES RED OVER PRINCE WILLIAM!

Prince William is a fan of pop star Pink, but animal-lover Pink is no longer a fan of the hunting prince. The heir to the British throne is so keen on Pink's music that he had wanted her to play at his 21st birthday party (she had a previous commitment), MSNBC.com reports. But the chameleon-haired singer is an animal lover and a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). So when she learned that while on safari, the young prince speared and killed a dwarf dik-dik deer, she fired off an angry letter to him. "I was happy to hear that I was your first choice to play at your 21st birthday bash - then disgusted to learn that you hunt and kill animals for fun and that you purposely rammed a spear through a tiny deer in Africa," Pink wrote. "Why? Was it some kind of 'trying to prove you're a man' trip?" Pink, however, is willing to change her mind if the Prince will change his ways and oppose blood sports like his mother Princess Diana did. Her letter continues: "But hey - we all make mistakes in our lives and we can all change. Hopefully you'll have a change of heart and find more interesting things to do with your spare time than kill animals. Call me or PETA if you'd like any suggestions! Then maybe I'll come play at your next birthday!"

The number of news found: 62.

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