Month: November 2003

Effort to Rebuild Horse Slaughterhouse Attracts Controversy in Illinois

In September, Cavel International finalized plans to rebuild a horse slaughterhouse in DeKalb, Illinois. The slaughterhouse burned down in 2002 in a fire whose cause has never been determined.

The slaughterhouse killed horses both for meat which was exported to Europe, as well as for rendering by-products.

Animal rights groups asked DeKalb to revoke the permit to rebuild the slaughterhouse, but that seemed unlikely. Both of the DeKalb area’s representatives to the Illinois state house, for example, said they would oppose proposed state legislation that would ban horse slaughter in Illinois.

Rep. Brad Burzynski (R) told The DeKalb Chronicle that, “It’s a job issue. It’s an issue of keeping a company viable in this district.” Once rebuilt, the slaughterhouse would create about 40 jobs.

Sources:

Plans finalized to rebuild Illinois slaughterhouse. BloodHorse.Com, September 15, 2003.

Horse-slaughter bill won’t affect Cavel’s decision. Chris Rickert, DeKalb Daily Chronicle, November 1, 2003.

Horse Slaughterhouse, Candelight Vigil. United Animal Nations, September 17, 2003.

Vigil in Protest of Slaughterhouse Rebuilding. Habitat for Horses, September 2003.

PETA Takes On Pig Racing

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has been trying to stop a couple who bring the Robinson’s Racing Pigs and Paddling Porkers act to state and county fairs.

Mike and Kathy Warren are promoters for the act that features eight pigs who race on a miniature race track, and the pigs also race across a 24-foot long, 2-foot-deep swimming tank.

PETA objects to the pig racing maintaining that it is unnatural for pigs to swim and that the Warrens might be using cruel methods to train the pigs. But several news stories on the pig racing competition reported that local law enforcement officials in several states inspected the operation and found no evidence of animal cruelty.

Which, of course, to PETA is simply more proof that there must be some cruelty going on. As Amy Rhodes told the Boston Globe,

Oftentimes, these people use food deprivation or electric shock or beatings to train them. But we don’t get to see that, and law enforcement officials don’t get to see that.

Got that — animal law enforcement officers across the country regularly inspect these pigs and this operation and the fact that they don’t find evidence of any animal cruelty is simply a sign of just how insidious and deceitful this act must be!

For their part, the Warrens say they never use physical coercion to force the pigs to race. MIke Warren told the Boston Globe,

We had a pig last year who didn’t want to go into the water. She would just go to the edge of the tank and just look left and right. We called her Pokeyhontas. But the crowds seemed to love it. Because she wouldn’t swim, it was so funny.

Not that PETA’s complaints didn’t have any effect. Here’s how the Globe described the results of PETA’s complaints when the pig racing act appeared in Spencer, Mass., (emphasis added),

A law enforcement officer from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reviewed the charge on Thursday, but after witnessing a mock race, inspecting the horse trailer the pigs were transported in, and interviewing the Warrens, Sergeant Peter Oberton found no cause to press charges.

Still, thanks to the PETA complaint and the ensuing media coverage, this year’s pig races have been a bigger draw than ever. At yesterday’s 2 p.m. race, about 125 fair-goers filled a section of bleachers and encircled the track.

. . .

“They end up complaining about it, and it increases my business,” said Mike Warren.

Sources:

PETA protests pig races, but MSPCA finds no fault. Peter DeMarco, Boston Globe, August 31, 2003.

PEA protests pig swimming race. News 14 Carolina, September 7, 2003.

NIH Renews Grant for Primate Cloning Project

In August the National Institutes of Health announced a five-year, $6.4 million grant to the Pittsburgh Development Center to continue its research into cloning monkeys and other primates.

In 1998 the NIH awarded funding to PDC developer Gerald Schatten to pursue issues surrounding the cloning of non-human primates. Schatten is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine.

According to Schatten, the ability to clone monkeys and other non-human primates would allow for the creation of new and more accurate models of human disease while also reducing the number of animals needed for such research. Actually cloning primates, however, has proven difficult.

Most animal cloning has involved variations on that used to clone Dolly the sheep — the nucleus of a fertilized cell is remove and replaced with one from an adult cell. That works relatively well in sheep, mice, rats and other species, but in primates the removal of the nucleus also has the unfortunate side effect of removing the mechanism responsible for separating chromosomes during cell division. The upshot is that when the cell divides, the resulting cells have the incorrect number of chromosomes.

Schatten told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that in efforts using this method of cloning on 700 fertilized eggs from rhesus macaques that they were not able to produce a single pregnancy.

Schatten and his colleagues will use this latest NIH grant to explore alternative methods, such as inserting the adult nucleus before removing the fertilized egg’s own nucleus.

Sources:

Pitt gets $6.4 million to clone monkeys. Anitra Srikameswaran, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 30, 2003.

NIH renews $6M grant to study monkey cloning. Pittsburgh Business Times, August 29, 2003.

Arson Hits Home of Scottish Hunt Ban Opponent

In April, Roy Innes, 26, became one of the first people charged with violating Scotland’s ban on fox hunting. Innes was charged with participating in a fox hunt in October 2002, but maintains he is innocent of the charges.

In September, Innes home was set on fire while he and has girlfriend slept in the upstairs level of the house. The arson took place a day after an article about Innes’ alleged violation of the fox hunt ban appeared in a local newspaper.

Innes told The Express,

The fire-raisers took my hunting gear, including my breeches, which were hanging on the washing line to dry, and had stacked them at the door.

They then lit them and left them to burn. If my girlfriend hadn’t woken up, we could have died.

I believe they have just gone a step too far this time.

Police confirmed that they were treating the fire as an arson. A police spokesperson told The Express, “The door of the house had been set on fire and the owner had put it out. It has been listed as arson and we are investigating.”

Sources:

Master of hunt claims he was target for arson. Billy Briggs, The Herald (Glasgow), September 12, 2003.

Hunt Master’s Home ‘Targeted By Arsonists’. Ben Mitchell, Press Association, September 1, 2003.

Netherlands Police Arrest Dozens of Activists in Fur Farm Attack

Dutch police arrested dozens of animal rights activists after a September 5 attack on a fur farm that resulted in the release of more than 6,000 animals.

According to Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, a group of about 120 animal rights activists from several different countries arrived at the fur farm in Putten, The Netherlands, arriving in two buses and several personal vehicles.

According to witnesses, the activists clashed with the farmers and neighbors, broke an alarm system at the farm, damaged vehicles, threw stones at buildings, and released about 6,000 mink.

Forty-nine activists were eventually arrested after a quick-thinking farmer blocked one of the buses by parking his tractor across a road that the bus was attempting to leave by. Another bus, however, managed to leave the area.

Unfortunately, Helsingin Sanomat never publishes the names of accused criminals, but it did report that,

Helsingin Sanomat has information according to which the group compromises hard-line activists who have been arrested or convicted of crimes related to animal rights activism.

Seven of these previously registered activists are believed to be Finns. One of them faces charges related to a farm raid in Finland two years ago.

The arrests apparently also generated quite a bit of controversy in The Netherlands from farmers who wonder why the attack wasn’t prevented since Dutch police admitted they were aware the activists were meeting in The Netherlands as part of an event sponsored by Justice for Animals and, moreover, were aware of threats of just such raids. As Dutch Member of Parliament L.J. Griffith asked,

If the police cannot even trace animal activists, when [sic] what about al-Qaeda?

Sources:

Finnish animal rights activists arrested after mink farm raid in The Netherlands. Helsingin Sanomat, September 10, 2003.

Four Finnish animal rights activists still held in Dutch jail. Helsingin Sanomat, September 12, 2003.

Dutch mink farmer upset by Finnish animal rights activists. Helsingin Sanomat, September 16, 2003.