Tag: Cats

Canadian Police Locate Alleged Cat Torturer

In June 2001 two Canadian college students were arrested and charged with animal cruelty after a videotape of them and an unidentified man torturing and killing a cat was discovered. The students maintained they made the tape as part of an art project in order to highlight animal cruelty.

The third man in the tapes was finally arrested in March. Matthew Kaczorowski, 21, was arrested in Toronto and charged with mischief, theft under $5,000 and possession of stolen property.

The theft and stolen property charges stem from the fact that the cat that Kaczorowski and the other men killed for the video was a house cat that Kaczorowski stole in order to make the video.

Sources:

Man accuses of appearing in videotaped torture and killing of cat denied bail. The Canadian Press, March 12, 2003.

‘He’s not smiling now, eh’. Mike Strobel, Toronto Sun, March 13, 2003.

U.S. Court of Appeals Rules for Private Breeders

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia handed small, residential breeders of cats and dogs a victory in January when it ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not need to subject them to the same licensing and inspection regimen that it applies to larger commercial breeders.

The Doris Day Animal League and other animal rights groups had sued the USDA arguing that residential breeders should be regulated just like larger commercial breeders under the Animal Welfare Act. A lower court agreed with that claim, but the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that people who breed small numbers of cats and dogs in their homes are more like retail pet stores — which are not regulated under the Animal Welfare Act — rather than large animal wholesalers which are subject to federal oversight.

In its ruling, the Appeals Court wrote,

The [Agriculture] Department has decided to focus on wholesale dealers, where its resources are likely to yield the greatest benefit. This is a reasonable choice, keeping in mind the purpose of the act to promote animal welfare.

The USDA argued that small residential breeders are already sufficiently regulated by state and local authorities, as well as by breed and registry organizations.

The full text of the Appeals Court’s decision can be found on this site here.

Source:

Appeals court supports USDA, AKC. American Kennel Club, Press Release, January 15, 2003.

Court rules private dog breeders not subject to federal licensing. Sam Hananel, Associated Press, January 14, 2003.

West Hollywood Considers Ban on Cat Declawing

A year after becoming one of the first cities to declare pet owners “pet guardians,” West Hollywood, California, will soon take up a proposed ban on cat declawing.

Although cat declawing is banned in 13 European nations, West Hollywood would become the first city in America to ban the practice in which part of the toes of cats are cut off to permanently remove the claws.

An Associated Press report on the proposal cited an unnamed People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals source as saying that it intended to lobby other cities for similar bans.

Source:

West Hollywood may adopt nation’s first ban on cat declawing. Laura Wides, Associated Press, January 17, 2003.

PETA Protests Animal Research at Chiropractic University

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is complaining about animal research involving cats that is being conducted at Palmer Chiropractic University.

PCU is conducting spinal research on cats as part of a federally-funded study. In a prepared statement, Dr. William C. Meeker, vice president for research at PCU, said,

We are intensely focused on preventing suffering and distress in laboratory animals when animals are part of investigations. . . . The animals in both projects are thoroughly anesthetized using humane, standardized protocols. The mere fact of the federal government’s support, which involves a rigorous application process to attain, argues that the experiments are considered well worth doing.

PETA’s Peter Wood told The Daytona Beach News-Journal,

If it’s anything remotely related to what they do to the rats [in similar spinal research], we believe it’s cruel and inhumane. . . . I think there is going to be some protests in Palmer’s future. They are supposed to be about healing and doing no harm, and what they are about to do is harmful to animals.

Meeker described PETA’s claims as “typical of the emotional tactics they have used to attack scientific research in university settings for decades.”

Sources:

Animal rights group protests school’s plans to test on live cats. Cindi Brownfield and Andrew Lyons, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, January 9, 2003.

In Defense of Animals Organizes Protest Against Planned Feral Cat Trapping

In Defense of Animals organized a protest that drew dozens of animal rights activists to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach, California. The activists were protesting plans by the hospital to trap up to 75 feral cats and turn them over to a local animal pound.

IDA along with a group calling itself the Feral Cat Caretakers’ Coalition objected to the plan because the feral cats will almost certainly be euthanized. Bill Dyer of IDA told The Press Telegram,

Death is not a solution. They will always have cats her unless this can be managed.

VA officials countered by noting that the number of feral cats on its property had increased significantly over the past few years and was beginning to pose a potential health threat. In a prepared statement, the hospital said that “wild animals imposing a health threat must be handled in a humane fashion that lends itself to the reduction of such health hazard(s).”

But IDA and the FCCC claim that there is no evidence that any of the feral cats has passed on a disease to any patients, employees, or volunteers at the hospital.

The activists favor a trap, neuter and release program and offered to pay for the costs of doing this. The VA turned them down, saying it would be willing to cooperate with a plan that relocated the cats, but that it could not tolerate a feral cat colony on its property.

Source:

Hospital’s cat plan protested. Ian Hanigan, Press Telegram (Long Beach, California), December 15, 2002.

OSU's HIV Feline Research Will Continue

In June, Ohio State University researcher Michael Podell left his position after a sustained campaign directed against him by animal rights activists. Activists claimed that his research, which involved looking at FIV infection in cats who were administered methamphetamines, was cruel and unnecessary. The research, in fact, produced important findings about the progression of HIV-like illnesses as well as HIV-related dementia.

OSU didn’t effectively defend Podell from animal rights activists while he was at the university, but have decided that they will continue the research that Podell started. Podell conducted his research as part of a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

OSU President Karen Holbrook said that, “Projects such as this one facilitate the design of treatments for humans and animals alike against many deadly viral diseases.”

Protect Our Earth’s Treasures, an animal rights group that regularly protested against Podell, announced that it will renew its protests beginning Nov. 1 until the university abandons such research.

POET director Rob Russell told The Columbus Dispatch, “It’s still the same wasteful project it was before.”

Source:

HIV Study That Uses Cats Will Continue At OSU. David Lore, The Columbus Dispatch, October 30, 2002.