Month: October 2003

New York Gov. Pataki Vetoes Canned Hunt Legislation

Despite lobbying efforts by a number of animal rights groups, New York Gov. George Pataki (R) vetoed legislation designed to outlaw so-called canned hunts.

In 1999, Pataki signed a bill that made it illegal to hold canned hunts on areas of ten acres or less. Not surprisingly, this had led to no less than 110 canned hunt operations in New York located on 11 or more acres.

The legislation vetoed by Pataki would have banned (emphasis added),

. . . the shooting or spearing of a non-native big game mammal that is confined in a box, pen, cage or similar container [of ten or less contiguous acres] or in a fenced or other area from which there is no means for such mammal to escape;

Animal rights activists denounced the veto.

In a press release, Humane Society of the United States senior vice president Wayne Pacell said,

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. The animal protection community in New York will long remember his pardon of animal abusers and his rebuke of humane advocates.

Michael Markarian, The Fund for Animals president, added,

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.

Pataki, meanwhile, said that the bill would not only have applied to the 110 canned hunt operations operating on more than 10 acres, but also would have banned 340 deer and elk farms throughout the state.

Supporters of the bill said that last part was nonsense, which puts the activists in a very odd position. For example, here’s a paragraph from a press release put out by The Fund for Animals addressing the issue of whether or not deer and elk farms would have been impacted,

Governor Pataki mistakenly believes that a ban on canned hunts would devastate white-tailed deer farms. The legislation is consistent with the current law which only deals with non-native mammals, and does not change the current exemption for domestic game breeders who raise white-tailed deer and have shoots on their properties. The bill would not apply to bird shooting preserves — only to operations offering the shooting of non-native big game mammals. Moreover, the bill memo indicated that it had no fiscal implications for state or local governments.

Hmmm . . . so The Fund for Animals’ position is that shooting a zebra at close range in enclosed space is inhumane, but screw the native deer and elk species? I’m just not following the logic there. Shouldn’t The Fund for Animals response to Pataki be that hunting deer and elk in enclosed spaces is cruel and that Pataki should want to outlaw the practice? The “don’t worry, we don’t care if you kill deer or elk” line is a bit strange coming from an animal rights group. Especially so since The Fund for Animals’ Dora Schomberg issued a brief press release about the veto that among other things claimed,

Governor Pataki may attempt to masquerade as an animal advocate by occasionally signing some non-controversial legislation to protect dogs or cats, but his decision to veto this much-needed legislation will result in untold suffering for wild animals and it reveals that he is not a genuine advocate of humane treatment.

So Pataki is not a genuine advocate because he only favors cats and dogs, while we’re supposed to believe The Fund is even though it hangs out deer and elk to dry? Could we see just a little consistency from these groups on occasion?

The full text of the vetoed legislation can be read here.

Source:

Pataki Endorses Cruel Treatment of Wildlife–Governor Vetoes Popular Canned Hunt Bill. Press Release, The Fund for Animals, August 27, 2003.

Activists out to can hunt. Amy Sacks, New York Daily News, September 13, 2003.

New York Governor Pataki Betrays the Animals. Press Release, Humane Society of the United States, August 28, 2003.

New York Governor Pataki Endorses Cruel Treatment of Wildlife. Press Release, Dora Schomberg, The Fund for Animals, August 27, 2003.

China Lifts Ban on 54 Species Despite SARS Concerns

Despite continuing concerns over the origins and transmission of SARS, China in August announced the lifting of a ban on the trade and sale of 54 species of wildlife. This includes the civet cat which is known to be a carrier of the disease.

More than 800 people worldwide have died from SARS since it first emerged in China in late 2002.

So far researchers have not yet been able to say whether SARS jumped from non-human animals to humans, but transmission from civets or other animals to human beings somewhere in southern China is a leading hypothesis for the disease’s emergence at the moment.

The World Health Organization, which is trying to pinpoint the source of the disease, opposed China’s move. Dr. Hank Bekedam, WHO representative to CHINA, said, “We think it’s a little early to lift the restrictions.”

Source:

News shorts. MeatNews.Com, August 19, 2003.

SARS: China to lift wildlife ban. Associated Press, August 14, 2003.

Animal Rights Activist's Home Raided in San Diego Fire Case

Law enforcement officials investigating a San Diego fire that destroyed a five-story apartment complex on August 1 raided the home of animal rights activists David Agranoff and Cari Beltane on August 14.

Agranoff and Beltane run an animal rights group called Compassion for Farm Animals. In May 2003, Agranoff was forced to submit hair, saliva and fingerprints to a Indiana grand jury investigating an arson at an Indiana poultry case.

Agranoff and Beltane later led a protest attended by about 30 activists complaining of the “harassment” they faced from police. Agranoff said at the protest,

We are not guilty of anything. Neither was Martin Luther King when he was targeted by the FBI. People have the right to an opinion without being subject to criminal investigation.

Most news outlets, however, failed to note that Agranoff has faced legal troubles before this related to his animal rights activism. In 1996, Agranoff, then 22, was sentenced to 6 months in jail and fined $1,000 after being convicted of resisting arrest and unlawful assembly during a protest at a New York fur store. At the same trial, Nicole Rogers, 19, was sentenced to two months in jail and a $500 fine, and Christopher Tarbell, 20, to one month in jail and a $500 fine for trespassing and unlawful assembly.

Agranoff’s sentence was thrown out on appeal to the New York State Supreme Court, but Rogers and Tarbell’s sentences were affirmed.

Oddly enough at trial, lawyers for the trio complained that they were being unfairly associated with Anima Liberation Front-style actions, so it was a bit surprising to see that among other things that apparently drew the attention of law enforcement to Agranoff is his role in arranging an appearance of Rodney Coronado to speak in San Diego the day of the arson.

Source:

Judge Sentences Fur Protesters To Jail Three Animal-Rights Activists Were Convicted Of Misdemeanors For Their Actions During A Demonstration At Georgio’s Furs. The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), August 2, 1996.

Animal Rights Activist Sentenced To 7 Months Convictions Of Two Other Members Of The Group In Separate Incident Upheld. Jim O’Hara, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), March 1, 1997.

Agents raid activists’ home in arson probe. San Diego Union-Tribune, August 2, 2003.

They call search by agents harassment. Ray Hubbard, San Diego Union-Tribune, August 24, 2003.

Chicken Killed as Part of Play's Performance in South Africa

To add to the list of animals killed during art performance, South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals announced in August that charges will be filed in the on-stage killing of a chicken during the performance of a play.

The cast of the play iMumbo Jumbo which appeared at the Baxter Theater in Cape Town had apparently been using a live chicken for its three-week run. For the final night, the actors purchased a second chicken to kill onstage (apparently the killing had only been simulated in previous performances). The animal was killed by an individual that South African newspaper The Star characterized as “a traditional healer who said the animal was slaughtered as part of ancestral worship.”

According to the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, however, the claim that the chicken’s slaughter was part of some traditional ceremony is “spurious and misleading.”

Source:

Requiem for a dead chicken. Lynn Altenroxel, The Star (South Africa), August 15, 2003.

Ingrid Newkirk's Letter-to-the-Editor on "Holocaust On Your Plate"

Ingrid Newkirk was displeased enough with a column in the Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington) that slammed People for the Ethical Treatment for the Animals’ Holocaust on Your Plate campaign that she penned a letter in response,

It’s hard to imagine a meaner, smaller-minded piece of writing than Mr. Clark’s “PETA stoops to new low with exhibit” (Aug. 7).

Well, Ingrid must not be thinking very hard. There’s that interview from Genre in which PETA’s Dan Mathews said he admired Andrew Cunanan “because he got Versace to stop doing fur.” Or who can forget Newkirk’s repeated defense and support of the Animal Liberation Front. I’m sure if she tries really, really hard, Newkirk can find plenty of more noxious stuff without even leaving her small-minded office.

Our Holocaust exhibit is funded and designed by caring Jewish people who wish human beings to widen their circle of compassion to those who are misunderstood and mistreated even today. To greet this exhibit, as Mr. Clark did, as a “clucking, oinking” shame shows deep disrespect for those who lost relatives in the Holocaust and could not stop it, but do not feel powerless now to stop the cries, the anguish and fear, cannot be dismissed simply because the victims are different species. To call caring souls “the lunatic fringe” is just cheap.

I think the word Newkirk was looking for there is “accurate.” PETA keeps claiming that the exhibit is funded by Jewish individuals (some of PETA’s best friends are Jews!) but until she’s willing to identify who is funding “Holocaust On Your Plate,” we only have Newkirk’s word for that. And, frankly, Newkirk doesn’t have a track record that makes her very credible.

I have stood on the floor of slaughterhouses in this country and overseas and even held the heads of animals whose throats were being slit. To laugh off their suffering as “chicken poop” is not something one expects to read in a respected newspaper. Shame, indeed. But not on the PETA exhibit or those trying to reduce the sum total of pain in the world.

In fact, Newkirk advocates creating fear and suffering. As she said after an animal rights extremist group sent razor blade-laced letters to medical researchers, “I hope it frightens them [the researchers] out of their careers. If experimenters feel afraid now, that’s nothing compared with the fear, harm and death they have inflicted on their victims.”

It’s hard to imagine a meaner, small mind person than Newkirk.

Source

PETA column cheap, disrespectful. The Spokesman Review, August 15, 2003.

NIH to Fund Zebrafish Laboratory

According to The Scientist, the National Institute of Health will break ground in October on a 5,000 square foot zebrafish lab that will eventually house more than a half million zebrafish. The lab is scheduled to open sometime in 2005.

The zebrafish is growing in importance in a variety of medical research projects as it can be used as a substitute or supplement to mice in an increasing number of animal models, and in addition has a number of advantages that mice lack. Zebrafish are ideal, for example, for research into embryo development because the 200 or so eggs zebrafish lay are relatively large and develop outside the female’s body. Zebrafish are also easier to care for and less expensive to raise than mice.

Work is currently in progress to sequence the zebrafish genome and is expected to be completed by the end of 2005. There are also efforts underway to create gene knockout zebrafish in much the same way that gene knockout mice have been produced to study the effects of specific genes.

So far, animal models using zebrafish have been developed to study everything from deafness to leukemia, and that number will greatly increase in the coming years.

Sources:

NIH to build zebrafish lab. Ted Agres, The Scientist, August 19, 2003.