KINSHASA - Take a monkey, disembowel it and gently smoke it over a fire
for two days. Once blackened sufficiently it can be served as a main dish
or stewed in a broth.
"It is very
tasty with a tomato and garlic sauce, over a bed of rice," says
monkey dealer Marie-Jan at the meat and fish section of Kinshasa's central
open air market.
On the table in front of her, five monkey corpses stare back, their faces
permanently contorted and stiffened by days of charcoal cooking. Shoppers
bustle over slime and fish guts mashed into the tile flooring while a
young, bound crocodile tries to make a break for it under the tortoise
shelf.
Severed goat heads stare up vacuously from a table and two men haggle over
the price of a bucket of squirming grubs.
Giant snail and various species of antelope are other delicacies shipped
down the Congo river to the Congolese capital Kinshasa, once hailed as the
Paris of Africa...
[Link]
(18/08/2003) Chinese Tiger Cubs to Take a Walk on the Wild Side
BEIJING - Two endangered south China tigers will be sent to the wilds
of South Africa to help them rediscover their killer instincts, a
government official and state media said.
The cubs, born at the Shanghai zoo this year and weighing 22 and 26 pounds, would be taught how to hunt and "regain their long-lost wild nature," the Beijing Star Daily reported.
"Chinese tiger cubs go to South Africa to 'study abroad,' the headline read... [Link]
(19/08/2003) Iceland whalers begin hunt
Icelandic whale hunters have left port for their first hunt in 14 years, angering animal welfare groups and
environmentalists.
The first of three boats left port in the early hours of Sunday, having been
delayed by stormy weather on Friday.
The two other boats left on Sunday
afternoon - their routes kept secret...
[Link]
(20/08/2003) Hippos
End Up as Steaks on Burundi Dining Tables
BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - Dusk falls over Burundi's lakeside Cercle Nautique
Bar Restaurant, and the drinkers settle back for the evening show -- a
visit from a hippopotamus family.But only one young animal is bold enough
to surface and play hide and seek with the onlookers, bobbing and diving
between yachts anchored on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.
"You know why the hippo hides?" said waiter Benoit Mazuru.
"It fears to be killed. Hippos are being slaughtered."
Locals say the amphibious animals are being wiped out by soldiers who earn
extra cash by selling the meat to restaurants where middle-class gourmets
pay highly to taste its flesh...
[Link]
(21/08/2003) Icelandic Whalers Harpoon First Whale
REYKJAVIK, Iceland - Icelandic whalers harpooned their first minke whale in
14 years Monday, the marine scientist in charge of the controversial hunt said.
The United States immediately threatened to consider
slapping a trade embargo on the North Atlantic island.
"They have caught the first whale," Gisli Vikingsson, of the Icelandic Marine Research Institute, told
Reuters.
The whale was caught in waters west
of Iceland by whalers on board the ship Njordur, one of three vessels taking
part.
"It all went very well. Now
they are doing measurements and research," said Vikingsson, on board one of the other two boats...
[Link]
(22/08/2003) Swaziland to Ship 11 Elephants to US Zoos
MBABANE, Swaziland - Swaziland prepared to fly 11 baby elephants to zoos in
the United States late Wednesday, despite a campaign by activists to keep them in the wild.
A military-style convoy transported
the tranquilized 2.5-ton elephants, each in a cargo container, to Matsapha Airport for the
overnight flight.
Their sale for $1.1 million to Lowry Park Zoo in
Florida, and the San Diego Zoo drew criticism from U.S.-based animal welfare groups,
including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals which threatened to lead a boycott of Swaziland's tourist trade if the deal
went through....
[Link]
(23/08/2003) Video Shows Shocking Conditions At Primate Center
The UK's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) says
it is shocked and appalled by a government decision to allow a breeding center in Mauritius to become a supplier of primates for research and
testing in the UK.
The Society is calling for information on how such centers are assessed to
be made publicly available.
Conditions at the Centre de Recherches Primatologiques (CRP) were heavily criticized by the Society last year after it obtained distressing video
footage and photographs of monkeys in squalid and barren cages that appeared
to fall far short of International Primatological Society guidelines on acceptable husbandry and care.
The RSPCA submitted a detailed report to the Home Office setting out these
and many other concerns about the primate trade. The Society expressed serious concerns about the way such centres are assessed and the lack of
information made available to the public.
Details of the minimum standards required by the UK Home Office are not published.
"We just do not know what standards the government applies and the RSPCA cannot therefore assess the scale of the problem," said Dr Penny Hawkins,
deputy head of the RSPCA research animals department.
However, if the conditions shown in the Society's undercover video footage
(see More Information link) are in any way representative of breeding centers in general, then this provides a graphic illustration that standards
are unacceptably low, the RSPCA said.
Many of the primate centers overseas capture animals from the wild for use
as breeding animals. Taking these animals from the wild causes them a great
deal of suffering and distress.
The use of wild caught primates for research was banned in the UK in 1995
after an RSPCA campaign.
However, the majority of monkeys imported to the UK
are the first generation offspring of wild caught primates while other countries still use wild caught animals.
The RSPCA stated that it is appalled that the trapping of wild primates and
the housing of these intelligent and complex animals in cages, where they have little or nothing to do, could be considered acceptable by anyone, let
alone the government.
Dr Penny Hawkins said: "The ultimate aim has to be to replace experiments on
primates with humane alternatives. However until this is achieved, reducing
the suffering associated with their breeding and supply must be an urgent and immediate priority for scientists, industry and the government."
[Link]
(24/08/2003) Lion Dung on Train Tracks Keeps Deer Safe
TOKYO - Railway officials in Wakayama, a largely rural prefecture in western
Japan, racked their brains for months for a way to keep wild deer from running onto train tracks and getting killed.
Finally, inspiration struck:
scare them off with lion dung.
Taking hints from research by forestry
experts, who found that deer shunned the aroma of the king of beasts, officials at the local branch of West Japan Railway Co (JR West) got the
material they needed from a local amusement park...
[Link]
(25/08/2003) Rescued Big Cats Getting New Homes
by Patricia Collier
Relocation efforts have begun for a large group of tigers, lions and leopards who were seized by the authorities after being found in poor
condition at Tiger Rescue in Colton, California on April 22.
Tiger Rescue, home to 54 exotic cats, was originally founded as a retirement
home for animal actors.
The California Department of Fish and Game ordered the owner of Tiger Rescue, John Weinhart, to move the animals by mid-June after finding
numerous violations at the facility and at Weinhart's Glen Avon home.
During the April raid, state agents seized 13 tiger and leopard cubs who were being kept in the attic of the house, and two alligators who were found
in a bathtub.
Officials also found carcasses of large cats scattered around the property
and the bodies of 61 cubs packed into a freezer.
Behind a gate in the front
yard, authorities said they had found 30 dead adult tigers, some with their
legs tied together.
Weinhart did not comply with the June deadline for relocating the animals,
and state officials stepped in. An attempt by Weinhart to get a court order
blocking the relocation was unsuccessful. On July 29, eleven leopards and two African lions were loaded into a special tractor trailer for the trip to
their new permanent sanctuary homes.
Five more cats, two lions and three leopards were transferred to the Rocky
Mountain wildlife Conservation Center in Colorado.
The remaining eight leopards were taken to the Exotic Feline Rescue Center
in Center Point, Indiana. Another leopard was determined by veterinarians to be too old and fragile to make the trip and
had to be euthanized.
Weinhart and his companion, Marla Smith, who lived in a house on the property with her son, face 63 criminal charges, including one felony count
of child endangerment and 16 felony animal cruelty charges.
They have pleaded not guilty to all charges. A trial date has been set for September
22.
Weinhart also faces 14 misdemeanor counts in San Bernardino County, including improper care for the exotic cats, breeding without a permit and
keeping improper records.
Mike McBride, assistant chief for the Department of Fish and Game in Chino
Hills, said Weinhart no longer has a valid license that allows him to keep
the exotic felines in California and there are no plans to renew it in the
immediate future.
Weinhart's lease on the sanctuary property was revoked in July by Colton officials.
According to the Fund for Animals, a U.S. animal welfare organization, 39 adult tigers remain at the Colton facility and are being cared for by Chuck
Traisi.
Many younger cats are being housed at the Fund for Animals' facility
in Ramona.
The Fund for Animals has taken on the task of caring for the cats and finding and funding new homes for them, and is in need of support and
assistance from the public to make this possible.
[Link]
More information about how individuals can volunteer and/or donate to help
the Fund rehome the big cats is available at
www.savethetigers.com
(26/08/2003) ANIMAL RIGHTS - All Creatures Great and Small
Nedim Buyukmihci's tireless work for animal rights is slowly paying off at
vet schools nationwide
The goats were uninterested in the pigs. The pigs were busy rooting out morsels from the mud. Occasionally, a swine would stop foraging, drop to the
ground, roll over and await a belly rub. Not far away, a steer sat lakeside,
stoic as a bovine Buddha, taking it all in...
[Link]
Not many would have thought so after Quentin, a 30-pound Besenji mix, entered a St. Louis gas chamber which was packed with unwanted
dogs.
But when the death chamber doors opened again, Quentin greeted
animal-control supervisor Rosemary Ficken with his tail and tongue wagging.
Quentin - named for the San Quentin State Prison - beat the odds, and so Ficken didn't have the heart to put him back into the gas chamber. Instead,
she turned him over to Randy Grimm, the founder of Stray Rescue of St. Louis.
Grimm said that Quentin's "bad days are behind him for good." And with that
thought in mind, Grimm took Quentin's story public.
"To me, it's a miracle or divine intervention," Grimm said. "I can't help but think he's here to serve a higher purpose."
Grimm felt his thoughts were confirmed when In Defense of Animals, a Mill Valley, California-based organization, asked Grimm if Quentin could be their
"spokesdog" in their campaign to educate the public about the plight of millions of dogs facing euthanasia.
About 5 million dogs are euthanized each year because no one is willing to
adopt them, In Defense of Animals founder, Elliot Katz, said.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates that
between 5 and 9 million companion animals are euthanized each year.
As for Quentin, hundreds of people have been looking to adopt him since his
story went public. Two days after his ordeal, Grimm said that Quentin was a
little malnourished but "in very good condition."
"You can tell he's really digging it," Grimm said. "He has a bed, love, food
and water."
In Defense of Animals will donate $5,000 to start a fund to eliminate the gas chamber as St. Louis' primary means of euthanizing stray dogs, Katz
said.
[Link]
(Notice) NATIONAL DEMO - FUR-FREE COLOGNE
Saturday, October 4th 2003, Heumarkt Cologne
The first "fur-free Cologne"-Rally last year has been a great success.
About 300 animal rights' activists turned it into the biggest
anti-fur-demonstration in many years. Just a few days after the event took
place Europe's biggest convenience store, KarstadQuelle, announced to stop
their fur trading business in order to protect animals.
But this has been just a small step in the right direction and we are still far away
from our final goal. In Germany there remain to be several fur-farms and it's still
allowed to kill minks, foxes, racoons etc. for the sake of profit using poison, gas,
or electric-shock.
Ruthless fur traders
import the fur of cruelly killed dogs and cats from Asia, or the fur of wild animals who were caught in brutal traps in Canada, Russia,
or Scandinavia. And there are still human beings lacking empathy who are out in the
streets wearing fur-clothes.
These people either
don't know how the animals are treated, or they just donīt worry nor care about it
Let them know that their behaviour is not acceptable!!
Let's go out on the streets again and give our voice to the voiceless.
Please check out this demo-homepage
www.koeln-pelzfrei.de, where you
will findregularly updated information about the demo.
SCHEDULE
10.00 - animal rights' market at HEUMARKT
11.00 - speeches (please e-mail us if you would like to deliver a speech)
12.00 - anti-fur rally through Cologne
17.00 - end
On Sunday, October 5th, a bus-roundtrip to fur farms is planned from 10 am
to 6 pm (please e-mail us if you would like to join / costs: approximately
10 Euros, )
HOW TO GET THERE
You can buy very cheap flights if you book early:
for example www.hlx.com (from Manchester to Cologne) www.germanwings.com (from Stansted or Edinburgh to Cologne)
(28/08/2003) Mexico Shuts Criticized Park After Dolphin Death
MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government said this week it had closed an aquatic
theme park in the resort of Cancun at the center of an international dispute
over the trade in wild dolphins.
The environmental protection agency Profepa
said in a statement the Parque Nizuc marine park had been shut down after the death of a dolphin at the weekend.
Environmentalists had criticized the park for importing 28 wild bottlenose
dolphins from the Solomon Islands in July. Activists had said the wild mammals could infect local dolphins and other wildlife off the Yucatan
peninsula with diseases...
[Link]
(29/08/2003) Whale Leaps On Top Of Yacht
by ANC Staff
An English family who were enjoying a sailing trip in a chartered #150,000
yacht off the coast of Australia had a hair-raising experience Wednesday when a 30ft humpback whale suddenly leapt out of the sea and landed on top
of their boat.
"We knew there were whales in the area and were told there was a small chance we might see one in the distance," said skipper Trevor Johnson, 61.
"Well, I guess we saw one alright. I was below deck when there was a hell of
a crash from port as it leapt out of nowhere."
"It wiped out all the rigging and the mast, which was 40ft high, followed shortly after. One of the lads shouted 'It's a whale', and I saw this shape
slide down the side of the boat and disappear into the sea on the stern side, uttering a long, eerie groan as it went."
"It left behind a scene of devastation and also bits of itself," he said.
The extent of the whale's injuries could not be ascertained, but a
photograph taken shortly after the incident showed the wounded mammal floating just below the water's surface, with blood billowing out around her
body.
Whale experts said it is possible that the Johnson family inadvertently sailed their boat between a mother whale and her calf, alarming the mother
and prompting her to take drastic measures to protect her calf.
Johnson's son Mark, 27, said, "There was a bang and a thud, and a whale came
about 12 feet out of the water and slid down the side. My brother pushed himself away from the whale, because we didn't know if it might fall our
way."
"It was shedding barnacles from its tummy and caught itself on the rigging,"
he said.
The family's own injuries were slight, but they found themselves facing the
dismal prospect of becoming shipwrecked on nearby rocks.
"Helen got a bump on the head but otherwise we were unhurt, which is
incredible," Johnson said. "But I couldn't believe what I was seeing as I looked at the damage [to the boat]. The rigging, sails, mast, all gone."
"There was #30,000 of damage and because the mast was broken off the radio
didn't work...We were 10 miles out to sea in choppy waters and had no equipment to radio for help."
"Luckily the police arrived just in time and towed us back," he said.
Humpback whales normally migrate to the Antarctic to give birth, and then
bring their offspring back to the Arctic where the water is warmer.
The whale may have been making her way back from the Antarctic with her new
calf when the boat ran between them, experts said.
"Whales are usually very placid animals, but if the boat did disturb a mother and her calf there is a possibility that she could have taken
exception to this and jumped at the boat," said John Gould, a marine mammals
expert at Bangor University.
"Whales do jump out of the water as a social display or to delouse themselves, so it is normal behaviour in that respect. But I have never
heard of a whale jumping on to a boat before," he said.
It is not yet known whether the whale survived the incident.
[Link]
(30/08/2003) Letter to Prince William from Nitin Mehta
Dear Sir,
We have come to know that during your recent trip to Kenya you killed an animal with a spear. This news has made us very sad. You are a role model to
young people everywhere and inflicting pain and violence on an animal sends
a wrong message.
According to the law of Karma, when one inflicts pain and suffering on other
living beings who are at our mercy, one builds up negative Karmas which bring misery and unhappiness. For our own happiness
we have to be compassionate to others.
We request you not to participate in such activities which cause
suffering to animals - indeed we would like you to support initiatives to
reduce the exploitation of animals by mankind.
Scientists working in the jungles of Venezuela have discovered 10 new
species of fish and a previously unknown species of shrimp.
Among the new
discoveries, revealed by US-based Conservation International, was an armoured catfish whose spiky head earned him the nickname "punk" and a
piranha that eats fruit as well as flesh.
The group are now calling on the
Venezuelan Government to protect the Caura River Basin, where the species were found, designating the 4,500-hectare (11,115-acre) area a wildlife
reserve...
[Link]
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