Animal Protection Institute Wants Frog Jumping Contest Stopped

The Animal Protection Institute recently circulated a press release calling for an end to the 74-year-old Caleveras Count Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee which is scheduled to take place this weekend in Angels Camp, California.

The frog jump competition was started in the 1920s hand attracts hundreds of participants who compete for the $5,000 grand prize. In a sample letter distributed with its press release, API writes that,

  • Like circuses, cockfighting, and greyhound racing, frog jumping promotes the message that animals exist purely to entertain us.

API also describes the conditions under which the frogs are kept in boxes prior to the event as “certainly cruel and inhumane.”

Source:

Help stop cruel “frog-jumping” contests. Animal Protection Institute, Press Release, May 13, 2002.

Police Conduct Nationwide Operation Targeting Alleged Anti-HLS Extremists

Police in Great Britain today conducted a nationwide police operation at 7 a.m. local time that resulted in the arrests of four individuals, with three additional individuals being sought by police.

The suspects, three men and four women who remain unidentified at the moment, were wanted in connection with a campaign of intimidation directed at a company that anti-Huntingdon Life Sciences activists believed was providing insurance for the beleaguered animal testing firm. Police would not identify the insurance company involved.

Two women, aged 43 and 19, were arrested at separate homes in Leicester. Simultaneously police took into custody a London woman and a Nottingham man. Police are still trying to locate additional suspects in Hampshire, Lancashire, and Leicester.

National Crime Squad detective inspector Terry Pearce told the Leicester Mercury,

Although activity by animal rights extremists is usually concentrated on specific targets, the suspects are based all over the country. We are fortunate to have the support of local forces to mount these complex operations.

No word yet on when those arrested will be formally charged.

Source:

Animal Rights Group Suspects Held In Raid Ciaran Fagan, Leicester Mercury, May 15, 2002.

Cockfighting Set to be Banned in Kansas

The Wichita Eagle reports that the Kansas legislature has approved a bill that will explicitly outlaw cockfighting in Kansas. The new law will make cockfighting a crime punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. A spokeswoman for Kansas Gov. Bill Graves said that the governor plans to sign the bill into law.

The bill passed overwhelmingly 112-10 in the Kansas state House and 36-4 in the Senate.

The new law is aimed at shoring up Kansas’ animal cruelty laws. According to the Humane Society of the United States’ Wayne Pacelle, Kansas was one of six states that do not explicitly ban cockfighting in their legal codes.

Instead, cockfighting was prosecuted in Kansas as a violation of animal cruelty laws which, according to the new law’s supporters, made them difficult cases to prosecute.

Source:

Lawmakers pass cockfighting ban. Mike Berry, The Wichita Eagle, May 14, 2002.

Laura Doyle Is Back With ‘The Surrendered Single’

Laura Doyle, author of the much touted/criticized book The Surrendered Wife, is back with a follow-up directed at unmarried women, The Surrendered Single. Doyle’s advice is predictable — if the way to have a happy marriage is through female passivity, then the way to find the man of your dreams is to be passive during dating.

If Doyle wanted to be honest about her advice, she would title her books The Surrendered Child, since she is essentially arguing that women assume a childlike posture toward women including going so far as to hide their true personalities in order to be more engaging and pleasing to men.

Doyle’s advises women that they should never ask men out. If they are asked out by a man, they should accept even if they do not find their suitor attractive or interesting. Smile at every man they meet, where form-fitting clothes, and keep your mouth shut on dates.

Katha Pollitt hit the nail on the head when she told The Daily Telegraph (London),

A woman who follows this advice will get the man she deserves. Being false and submissive will please only a man who wants someone false and submissive. And what happens when the truth comes out? The man is going to be very angry and bewildered.

I am still trying to figure out what sort of man wants to date Doyle’s submissive single and what sort of woman could follow this advice. According to Doyle,

… control is the enemy of intimacy. When we surrender control of who pursues us and how he does it, we clear the way for the relationship we always wanted.

But there’s no relationship at all here since Doyle’s advice boils down to telling women that they should always present themselves as little more than sycophants to their boyfriends and/or husbands.

Source:

The way to keep a man’s heart — keep quiet. Laurel Ives, The Daily Telegraph (London), April 30, 2002.

United Nations Hopes to Eliminate Iodine Deficiency Worldwide by 2005

Iodine deficiency was eliminated a long time ago in the developed world through fortification of common foods such as milk and salt. In the developing world, however, iodine deficiency has been a major health problem until the last decade. Now, an offshoot of the United Nations General Assembly on Children — the Micronutrients Initiative — hopes to eliminate iodine deficiency worldwide by 2005.

While use of iodized salt is almost universal in developed countries, in many parts of the developing world is not so common. As recently as 1990, for example, only 20 percent of households used iodized salt.

This tends to result in iodine deficiency, which can lead to children having IQs 10 to 15 points lower than they otherwise would be. That poses a serious problem for countries already wracked by poverty and a lack of economic development.

Today, however, 70 percent of households in the developed world use iodized salt, and the Micronutrients Initiative hopes to make that all but universal by 2005.

Currently parts of Eastern Europe and India have relatively low rates of iodized salt use (in central and Eastern Europe, only about 25 percent of households use iodized salt). The Micronutrients Initiative will be concentrating on those regions to try to achieve the sorts of gains seen in China, which went from 50 percent of households using iodine to more than 95 percent today.

As UNICEF’s Werner Schultink told the BBC, “From start to finish, the global effort to eliminate iodine deficiency by universal salt iodination will have taken only 15 years to achieve, making it one of the most effective international public health campaigns in history.”

Source:

Iodine health campaign success. The BBC, May 11, 2002.

Animal Advocate Was on Van der Graaf's Hit List

Animal rights activist Volkert Van der Graaf is the prime suspect in the assassination of Netherlands politicians Pim Fortuyn last week, but what was Van der Graaf’s motive? Was he angered at Fortuyn’s views of fur farming and the environment? So far Van der Graaf is not talking, but details from the police investigation are coming to light that suggest possible motives.

Netherlands newspaper Algemeen Dagblad reported today that the hit list that police recovered from a search of Van der Graaf’s car and home included 19-year-old Joost Eerdmans. Eerdmans was the closest thing that the Fortuyn’s List Party had to a point man on animal protection issues.

Eerdmans is a member of the Dutch Animal Protection Association and e-mails from an environmental/animal rights group called Wakker Dier had been forwarded to Eerdmans. The e-mails inquired about the party’s environmental and animal policies.

Eerdmans replied to the e-mails that since the party had just formed it did not have explicit positions on these issues yet, but as an animal lover Eerdmans promised to fight for animal-friendly positions.

Wakker Dier worked closely with Van der Graaf’s organization, Environment Offensive. Police are investigating whether or not Van der Graaf learned of Eerdmans’ involvement with animal and environmental policy within the Fortuyn List Party from the e-mails exchanged with Wakker Dier.

So far, two of the four people on van der Graaf’s hit list were people within the Fortuyn’s List Party who were likely to have had significant influence over animal and environmental policy in the Netherlands after the May 15 elections and who did not share Van der Graaf’s extreme position on either topic.

Source:

Justitie onderzoekt e-mails van milieuclub. Olof van Joolen, Algemeen Dagblad, May 14, 2002.