Bureau of Land Management on Rampage to Destroy Famous Wild Horse Herd

August 10, 2009

Cloud and the wild horses of Montana’s Pryor Mountains are world famous but fame it appears is not going to protect the herd from a drastic government round up planned to begin September 1st in their spectacular wilderness home.

There are currently only 190 wild horses (one year and older) living in the Pryor Mountains. The BLM plans to remove 70 of them, plus foals. According to the foremost equine geneticist, Dr. Gus Cothran, 150-200 adult horses are needed in the herd to ensure their genetic diversity, which is vital to their long term survival.

These 70 horses would be placed in jeopardy. Any horses over 10 years of age can be bought directly by killer buyers and transported over the Northern border to Canadian slaughterhouses or south into Mexico. Younger horses not adopted would be put into government holding with 33,000 others that the BLM has removed from the wild and has proposed killing because they can no longer afford to feed them.

BLM cites poor range condition as the reason to remove the horses but abundant snow and rain for the past two and a half years has produced wonderful range conditions according to all who have visited Cloud and his herd. The Agency is not listening to anyone. They want this herd gutted. Nearly all the mares returned to the range would be given an experimental two-year infertility drug, PZP-22.

Chile confirms swine flu in turkeys

By Federico Quilodran

Associated Press

POSTED: 12:54 p.m. EDT, Aug 21, 2009

SANTIAGO, CHILE: Chile said today that tests show swine flu has jumped to birds, opening a new chapter in the global epidemic.

A top United Nations animal health expert said the infected turkeys have suffered only mild effects, easing concern about a potentially dangerous development. Chile’s turkey meat remains safe to eat, the expert said.

Chile’s health ministry said it ordered a quarantine today for two turkey farms outside the port city of Valparaiso after genetic tests confirmed sick birds were afflicted with the same virus that has caused a pandemic among humans.

So far, the virus — a mixture of human, pig and bird genes — has proven to be very contagious but no more deadly than common seasonal flu. However, virus experts fear a more dangerous and easily transmitted strain could emerge if it combines again with avian flu, which is far more deadly but tougher to pass along.

The farms’ owner, Sopraval SA, alerted the agriculture ministry after egg production dropped at the farms this month. After initial tests on four samples, further genetic testing confirmed a match with the subtype A/H1N1 2009, the agriculture and health ministries announced.

”What the turkeys have is the human virus — there is no mutation at all,” Deputy Health Minister Jeannette Vega told Chile’s Radio Cooperativa today.

The Health Ministry said it ordered a complete quarantine today and alerted the U.N.’s World Health Organization. The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, meanwhile was working closely with Chilean government scientists, said Dr. Juan Lubroth, the head of infectious diseases for FAO in Rome.

Chile is sending some samples outside the country for more genetic sequencing to confirm that it matches the pandemic strain, Lubroth said. ”As a scientist, I want to touch, smell, feel, taste it” before agreeing that it’s a match, he said.

There are some encouraging signs that this particular outbreak remains mild. Egg production and water consumption among the birds dropped — prompting the company to take action — but the birds aren’t terribly sick, let alone dying in large numbers, Lubroth said.

”My understanding is that with the ones that were sick, it was a very mild disease,” Lubroth said. ”It’s significant in that we don’t need to recommend any drastic measures, as far as culling the population of turkeys. Let them go through their illness and recover — 7 to 10 days — and if they are sound and healthy, they could enter the food chain.”

Sopraval veterinarian Andrea Campos said that won’t happen because the outbreak has been limited to birds raised to lay eggs, not those being fattened for meat.

”In all of the birds raised to be fattened to produce meat, we have not found any illness. This is an illness entirely limited within a reproductive group,” Campos said.

Lubroth praised the company and the Chilean ministries for the actions they’ve taken.

”If it were highly virulent then we would recommend stronger measures,” Lubroth added.

Chile, meanwhile, is acting to contain the outbreak by limiting the turkeys’ contact with people and wildlife, Lubroth said. But given the mildness of this particular outbreak, he said ”I don’t see that there is going to be a large risk from what we know today of this type of transmission occurring.”

The virus has infected at least 12,000 people in Chile and is responsible for 128 confirmed deaths.

Foie Gras Protest Tomorrow at Christopher’s Restaurant and Crush Lounge

Aug. 14 2009
Foie gras is on menus at some of the best restaurants in the Valley.
But tomorrow, a group of protesters will do their best to shed a different light on the culinary delicacy — and they’ll do it in front of a well-respected Phoenix restaurant, James Beard Award-winning chef Christopher Gross’ Christopher’s Restaurant and Crush Lounge.
From 6 to 7 p.m. on Saturday night, a group of people led by activist Dani Thumma will hold up signs and pass out literature in protest of the restaurant’s use of foie gras on its French bistro-style menu.
Thumma, a 49-year-old grandmother who lives in Peoria, wrote Gross a letter, informing him about the production of foie gras, and later spoke to him on the phone. “They’re going to keep foie gras on the menu,” she says, “so we decided to protest.”
When Thumma informed Gross that they would be protesting, “He said he couldn’t wait to meet me,” Thumma says.
She has just begun to put together a small group of concerned citizens in Arizona who are working to educate the public on foie gras production — and to get chefs to remove the dish from their menus. She says that her group, which is so far made up of about 10 people, gets a lot of help from the Animal Protection and Rescue League as well as an organization called In Defense of Animals. This will be their very first protest.
“Why me?” Gross asked one of the protesters in an on-going email conversation. He says it’s mostly because of location.
When confronted with this issue, as he has been before, Gross says his first question is always, “Are you a vegetarian?” They usually say yes. Then, he asks, “Do you eat eggs?” If they say yes, as they often do, Gross tells them, “You should maybe look at an egg farm.”
He says, considering the number of people who actually eat foie gras, and the amount of money and time that goes into fighting it, the resources could be better spent elsewhere.
“Sometimes I think it’s funny,” Gross says, “that so much money is being spent on something that affects so few.”
Gross also says that he buys his foie gras from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, where the ducks are not kept in cages (one of the complaints of anti-foie gras activists) but in corrals.
Though Thumma has had no luck with Gross, she was successful once before. After writing a letter to Louis Germain, the chef and owner of Le Sans Souci in Cave Creek, Thumma says that he replied with a note saying that he would indeed stop serving the dish as of December 24, 2008. When she checked back on the due date, she found that he had done it.
“I was really surprised,” she says. She was ready to take action.
So, why all the fuss?
Male ducks and geese are force-fed grain through pipes that are put down their throats, in order to make their livers enlarge. The enlarged livers are what you eat when you order “fat liver,” or foie gras, at a restaurant.
Foie gras production has been banned in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Isreal, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic because it is considered inhumane.
In the United States, foie gras has only been banned in California, a law that will be implemented in 2012. The city of Chicago overturned their ban on it last year. But there is no national ban in the U.S, and, here, it’s up to the chefs whether or not to serve the dish. In any case, animal rights groups are fighting hard against it — and they’ll be out this weekend at the Biltmore in Phoenix.
Thumma says they are expecting 17 to 20 people at the protest, which will be repeated at the same time next Saturday.
It may be a small group, but, according to Thumma, “Someone has to say something.”
Gross is taking it all in stride.
“I might go out and bring them water,” he tells us, adding, “I was contemplating having an employee dress up as a duck.”

Owner roasts family pet in barbecue

Last updated 10:12 16/08/2009

SPCA inspectors have removed the partially-charred body of a pet dog being cooked in a backyard barbecue.
But they cannot prosecute anyone over its death because it had been killed “humanely”.
Frustrated SPCA Auckland chief executive Garth Halliday revealed it isn’t illegal to kill and then eat a dog in New Zealand if the animal is slaughtered in a swift and painless manner.
Halliday said shocked inspectors had evidence that backyard dog barbecues were becoming more common.
Paea Taufa, found roasting the pitbull terrier-cross in an umu at his Mangere home, said dog was a Tongan culinary delicacy.
“If we eat heaps of… pig you get a (sore) stomach. But when we eat … dog, it doesn’t matter how much you eat, nothing is wrong with the tummy,” Taufa told Sunday News. Mary Lyn Fonua, managing editor of the Nuku’alofa-based Matangi Tonga news website, said dogs were eaten in Tonga but usually by desperately poor people.
“People do eat dog. But you can’t go to the market and buy dog meat,” Fonua said.
“It is because they have no other choice. If you have no money to buy other meat, you will go and eat a dog.
“It is generally associated with a level of poverty. It is the last resort.”
Halliday slammed the practice. “Although we appreciate the difference of cultures that exist in a place like New Zealand, the SPCA finds this sort of treatment of any animal to be totally unacceptable,” he said.
“Even though the law says you can humanely kill an animal, you should not be treating any animal like this.”
But Halliday said the Animal Welfare Act didn’t prohibit it.
He added: “What is acceptable to one person isn’t acceptable to another person. But the law says that you can humanely kill an animal.” SPCA Auckland team leader Sue Baudet said that the Mangere case was not an isolated one.
“After we had finished the formal interview (over the pitbull-cross’s death and preparation for the barbecue) I was just curious to know how prevalent it is,” Baudet said. “And it is quite prevalent by the sounds of it.”
SPCA inspectors were informed about the umu at Taufa’s home in February by firefighters called out after reports of heavy smoke at the property.
“I was pretty shocked. I have heard stories about it but I didn’t think it happened,” said Baudet, who went to the house.
“Once they would have charred the dog enough for the skin to dry, they would have taken him off the heat, removed the skin and fur, gutted him and then cooked him,” she added.
Taufa was “surprised” when the Fire Service and the SPCA closed down his backyard roast.
He said the dog had originally belonged to a family member, but he took over ownership as it was “too skinny”. The decision to cook it was made after it became unruly.

“My wife did not like that dog, it was too messy and sometimes he tried to bite some people that came home,” Taufa said.
“I didn’t know I couldn’t cook the dog. In Tonga, anytime there I cook the dog and it is okay. Dog is good food.” Inspector Derek Haddy, who headed the SPCA’s investigation, said: “It was his (Taufa’s) cousin’s dog so he adopted the dog and looked after it.
“His wife gave him some hassle about the dog’s noise and mess and he decided he would get rid of the dog by killing it.
“He killed it by striking it to the head which is a lawful way, or a humane way, of stunning an animal in order to then slit its throat and then bleed it… that is within the law.”
Baudet added: “One of the main ingredients we have to prove is pain and suffering. Because (the pitbull-cross) was rendered unconscious prior to being stabbed…we can’t prove pain and suffering.”
Taufa said he wouldn’t put another dog in the umu pit.

Pesky Camels Will Be Shot From Helicopters

Thousands of camels will be shot from helicopters and turned into burgers in a bid to halt their trail of havoc across Australia.
Marksmen plan to gun the animals down amid concern the thirsty dromedaries are barging into people’s homes and ripping up their bathrooms looking for water.
Government officials plan to wipe out 650,000 of the feral population in the remote Outback area of the country.
The creatures were first introduced to Australia in the 1840s to help explorers travel through the Australian desert.
There are now about one million camels roaming the country.
They compete with sheep and cattle for food, trample vegetation and invade remote settlements in search of water.
On a number of occasions they have scared residents – tearing apart bathrooms and ripping up water pipes.
Last month, the federal government set aside £9.5m for the cull.
Besides sending in sharpshooters in helicopters and on foot, officials are planning to turn many of the creatures into camel burgers and other treats.
Glenn Edwards, who is working on drafting the government’s camel reduction program, said the camel population needs to be slashed by two-thirds to reduce catastrophic damage.

But some remain opposed to a mass slaughter.
Camel exporter Paddy McHugh, who runs camel catching operations throughout Australia, said a cull would be ineffective.
“What happens in 15 years when the numbers come back again? Do we waste another £9.5m,” McHugh said.
But Tony Peacock, CEO of the University of Canberra’s Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Center, said: “To be shot from a helicopter is actually quite humane, even though that sounds brutal.”
“If I was a camel, I’d prefer to just get it in the head.”

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Canisius adds animal behavior major

Monday, August 3, 2009,

Canisius College will offer a degree in animal behavior, ecology and conservation starting this fall.
The program will be based on lectures and hands-on learning experiences in required and elective courses. It will be directed by biology professor Michael Noonan.
Students will learn about the science of animal behavior, with an understanding in the “ethical and moral considerations” of animal behavior disciplines, the college says.
“It is for students who want to thoroughly understand the facts and theoretical underpinning of animal behavior and who also want to use that understanding to promote animal welfare and wildlife conservation,” Noon said in a statement.
The program is part of the college’s Institute for the Study of Human-Animal Relationships, one of three institutes established by Canisius officials in the past 12 months.

Report: California must adapt to changing climate

By SAMANTHA YOUNG, AP
Even if the world is successful in cutting carbon emissions in the future, California needs to start preparing for rising sea levels, hotter weather and other effects of climate change, a new state report recommends.
It encourages local communities to rethink future development in low-lying coastal areas, reinforce levees that protect flood-prone areas and conserve already strapped water supplies.
“We still have to adapt, no matter what we do, because of the nature of the greenhouse gases,” said Tony Brunello, deputy secretary for climate change and energy at the California Natural Resources Agency, who helped prepare the report. “Those gases are still going to be in the atmosphere for the next 100 years.”
The draft report to be released Monday by the California Natural Resources Agency provides the state’s first comprehensive plan to work with local governments, universities and residents to deal with a changing climate. A final plan is expected to be released in the fall after the public weighs in.
The report was compiled after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger directed agencies in November to devise a state climate strategy. It comes three years after the Republican governor signed California’s landmark global warming law requiring the state to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Most countries have focused on cutting greenhouse gases in the future, but researchers say those efforts will take decades to have an effect while the planet continues to warm. States have only recently begun to look at what steps they must take to minimize the damage expected from sea level rise, storm surges, droughts and water shortages because of the climate changes.
Over the last century in California, the sea level has risen by 7 inches, average temperatures have increased, spring snowmelt occurs earlier in the year, and there are hotter days and fewer cold nights.
The report warns that rising temperatures over the next few decades will lead to more heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods.
“We have to deal with those unavoidable impacts,” said Suzanne Moser, a research associate at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz. “We can’t pretend they are not going to happen and we have to prepare for that.”
To minimize the potential damage from climate change, the report recommends that cities and counties offer incentives to encourage property owners in high-risk areas to relocate and limit future development in places that might be affected by flooding, coastal erosion and sea level rise. State agencies also should not plan, permit, develop or build any structure that might require protection in the future.
The report suggests the state partner with local governments and private landowners to create large reserves that protect wildlife threatened by warmer weather. Similarly, wetlands and fish corridors should be established to protect salmon and other fragile fish.
The report says farmers should be encouraged to be more efficient when watering their crops, and investments should be made to improve crop resistance to hotter temperatures.

British retail giant bans Aussie wool

A US-based animal rights group has stepped up its fight against defiant Australian farmers, recruiting British clothing giant Next Retail Ltd to join a boycott of Australian wool from mulesed sheep.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which has led the global campaign against Australian farmers who use the controversial mulesing technique on sheep, applauded Next’s decision “to source wool from outside Australia or from Australian sources which guarantee that mulesing with shears or clips has ceased”.
Next, with annual sales of $US5 billion ($A5.94 billion) a year, follows global retailers Hugo Boss, Adidas, Abercrombie & Fitch, Timberland, H&M, American Eagle, Liz Claiborne and Perry Ellis International in boycotting wool from Australian mulesed sheep.
Last month, Australian wool body Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) and the NSW Farmers Association announced they were walking away from a 2010 deadline to phase out mulesing.
Next believes that the continuation of mulesing beyond the 2010 deadline previously self-imposed by the Australian sheep industry is unacceptable,” Next announced in a statement.
PETA and Australian wool farmers have been locked in a battle for more than five years over mulesing.
Mulesing is a technique used by farmers where skin is removed from the rear end of the sheep to prevent maggot infestation that can lead to the animal’s death.
PETA claims mulesing is cruel and has lobbied for more humane methods.
Clip mulesing, an alternative method supported by AWI, was rejected by PETA and some major retailers.
“For (autumn-winter 2009) production onwards Next has put in place a preference for non-mulesed, including non-clip-mulesed wool,” Next announced.
“Due to the practice of mulesing, including clip-mulesing in Australia, this preference is leading us to source wool from outside Australia or from Australian sources which guarantee that mulesing with shears or clips has ceased.”

New law bans animals in the ring

La Paz – Bolivia has enacted what animal rights defenders are calling the world’s first law that prohibits the use of animals in circuses.

A handful of other countries have banned the use of wild animals in circuses, but the Bolivian ban includes domestic animals as well.

The law, which states that the use of animals in circuses “constitutes an act of cruelty”, took effect on July 1 and operators have a year to comply, according to the bill’s sponsor, Representative Ximena Flores.

The law was proposed after an undercover investigation by the non-profit London-based group Animal Defenders International, or ADI, found widespread abuse in circuses operating in Bolivia.Flores said authorities are seeking to keep circus operators from killing animals they can no longer use.

“About 50 animals are circulating in national and international circuses at the moment (in Bolivia) and we want to negotiate to make sure that the animals aren’t eliminated,” she said.

ADI chief executive Jan Creamer called the law “groundbreaking”.

The group’s undercover investigators in Bolivia worked side-by-side with circus workers and filmed disturbing mistreatment, she said, adding that poorly paid and trained workers routinely abused animals.

“If they wanted an animal to move, their immediate reaction was a kick or a punch or a shove,” she said.

She said circus animals suffer everywhere – including in wealthy countries such as the United States – from living in tight quarters and being constantly transported.

“It’s rather as if you and I were asked to spend the rest of our lives living in our bathroom,” said Creamer. “In Bolivia there were three brown bears being kept in tiny compartments that were just 2m by 3m.”

The law sets fines for infractions and allows for animals to be confiscated by authorities, said Flores. – Sapa-AP

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