Anti-veggie ad? The following ad ran this morning of WBIG/FM in Washing-ton D.C.:
“I’m a hypocrite. No, I’m not a vegetarian who wears leather
shoes. You see, I used to smoke pot, and when I found pot in my kid’s
room I confronted him about it.”
Why is the Office of National Drug Control Policy
singling out vegetarians for criticism?
I am an animal protection advocate, and a vegetarian,
and I don’t wear
leather shoes. But I suspect that if everyone in the U.S. stopped wearing leather,
it wouldn’t save the life of a single animal, given that millions of
animals are slaughtered every year for food production.
Picking a fight with vegetarians is a really poor method of discouraging
drug use.
–– Frank Branchini
Edgewater, Maryland
Testimonial Thank you for keeping everyone honest, or at least trying. Nobody
else does what Animal People does.
As you well know, it is hard enough finding the
funding to free the dolphins without having to compete with bogus
claims.
––
Ric O’Barry
Marine Mammal Specialist
One Voice - Miami
Phone/fax: 305-6681619
< ricobarry@bellsouth.net>
< www.onevoice-ear.org>
< www.dolphinproject.org >
Ukraine outlaws spring bear hunts
Please find enclosed the latest edition of our Ukrainian newspaper
Time To Protect Animals. This time we are informing our readers
that on April 21, 2004 the Supreme Rada of Ukraine banned spring
bear hunting. This means that our country is the first of the
former Soviet socialist Republics to put an end to this cruel
and foolish business. The campaign to stop spring bear hunting
was supported by many Ukrainian pro-animal groups, including ours.
We have also written about the terrible Canadian
and Russian seal hunts. Killing seal pups is legal in Russia,
and this year more than 40,000 harp seal babies
were killed.
The complete edition is accessible at our web site.
–– Igor Parfenov, President
Center for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Leo Tolstoy Chapter
Stepnaya str. 23
Malaya Danilovka, Kharkovskaya Oblast 62341
Ukraine
Phone: 380-576-358321
Fax: 380-576-331-825
< ceta@bi.com.ua >
< www.cetalife.h10.ru>
Jihad vs. cruelty
Thank you very much for publishing “How Muslims can wage
jihad against ‘Islamic’ cruelty,” by Kristen
Stilt––a valuable article that helps to clarify some
of the misconceptions about Islam.
Mahdi Bray, Director
Muslim American Society
Washington, D.C.
< director@masmail.org >
The Gambia Horse & Donkey Trust
We have been receiving ANIMAL PEOPLE since shortly after we
set up the Gambia Horse & Donkey Trust 20 months ago, and
I thought you might be interested in our work.
My sister Stella Marsden and I grew up in Gambia,
where our father, Eddie Brewer, established the Wildlife Department.
Stella continues to work in Gambia, running
the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Trust, which is now almost 30 years old. Stella
feels very strongly that it is impossible and possibly unfair to expect very
poor people to embrace conservation unless they see some kind of benefit from
it. As a result, the CRT has become involved in many community projects, including
an education center for conservation, and school sponsorship scheme, and the
Alexander Edwards clinic.
Through the close relationship enjoyed by CRT and
the local community, Stella began to see the huge problems that
were developing with the growing equine population.
In June 2002 she returned to the United Kingdom with photos of animals in appalling
condition, and asked me, as the horse-lover of the family, if we could do something
about it. The Gambia Horse & Donkey Trust developed as a result.
We are approaching the problems from many angles,
education being the most important. We sought assistance from
some of the major British charities working in this
field, and without exception they have been very supportive.
The Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad
gave us an outreach grant to help us set up the charity. They
have also been exceptionally helpful in providing
training manuals for our students and kind equine bits to exchange for the harsh
bits used locally.
The Donkey Sanctuary very kindly paid for our Gambian
para-vet to go to Ethiopia for a training course on donkeys,
and has given us a grant to build stables for
donkeys at our headquarters. They have also supplied us with donkey dentistry
equipment.
A new organization called Worldwide Veterinary
Services, which coordinates vets who want to do volunteer work,
has come to help us in training para-vets. [Worldwide
Veterinary Service, 3 New Borough Rd., Wimborne, Dorset BH21 1RA, U.K.; 44 (0)
7870-642948; <luke@wvs.org.uk>; <www.wvs.org.uk>.]
There are very few vets in Gambia, and the country
relies heavily on para-vets
called “livestock officers” for veterinary assistance. They are supposed
to have taken a two-year training course at The Gambia College, but the recent
explosion in use of equines to replace many of the oxen formerly used as work
animals has caught them by surprise, as there is no equine content in the course.
We hope to address this.
The International League for the Protection of
Horses responded to our pleas by setting up training courses
for farriers and harness makers, and in equine
nutrition and management, and now plans to visit four times a year. Already
the Gambians are seeking out farriers with training, rather
than using a machete
to trim hooves. The trained farriers are delighted because already they are
able to earn some money. On successfully completing training,
each student receives
a full set of tools, so as to set up in business.
We hope that the students we now have in harness-making
courses will reduce the harness problems we see in the future.
Meanwhile, we collected hundreds of headcollars,
bridles, bits, and harnesses in the U.K. and Germany. These are sold to farmers
for a nominal price to discourage them from being resold and to establish an
ethos of paying for goods, so that the harness-making students can earn money
when qualified.
Our “up-country” headquarters is very close to the CRT. We are seen
as one of their projects. We have modest stables, where sick and injured animals
are treated. Apart from our Gambian staff of seven, manager Chrissy Foley is
our only paid employee.
Foley also runs a donkey club for the small boys
who take care of donkeys. They are encouraged to name their
animals, as this helps them to regard the animals
as living things. From time to time we have a little show, in which animals are
judged for condition, handling, and games are held. The winning animals receive
rosettes, which are highly prized, and the children each receive a lollipop.
We also have a good relationship with the district
school. Children visit to observe and learn. We in turn send
our visiting vets, farriers, and trainers
to the school to talk to the children. It is our hope that these children will
become the vets, doctors, and teachers so badly needed by the community.
We recognize that we have a great deal of work
ahead of us. According to the latest estimates, there are now
26,000 horses and 40,000 donkeys in the country.
Of course fundraising is always a problem. Our
plans are always ahead of our finances. We are lucky in that
a lot can be done on relatively little in Gambia.
–– Heather Armstrong
The Gambia Horse & Donkey Trust
Brewery Arms Cottage, Stane Street
Ockley, Surrey RH5 5TH United Kingdom
Phone: 01306-627568
< gambiahorseanddonkeytrust@hotmail.com>
Elephants & the Nambor reserve
In this land where conflicts between humans and elephants have
reached alarming heights, the Forest Department instead of finding
solutions is making things worse.
Elephants have now been denied the right to drink
water out of Mother Nature’s
very own hot spring in the wilderness of Assam. The Garampani hot spring by the
side of National Highway 39 in Karbi Anglong district, Nambor Reserve forest,
is now guarded by a huge ugly concrete wall. The area is an elephant corridor
which the jumbos use almost on a regular basis.
Nambar is our oldest forest reserve. Two-thirds
have already been encroached. The same applies to adjoining
forest reserves, including Doyang, Diphu, Rengma,
and upper and lower Doigrung. Everything is in a shambles.
The Nambar reserve is still host to many rare and
endangered animal species, including 19 varieties of mammals
in addition to elephants, at least eight birds,
and 12 reptiles. However, the rare plants are vanishing day by day, and the places
for the animals to live and wander is decreasing in an alarming way.
–– Azam Siddiqui
Master Trainer in Animal Welfare, Animal Welfare Board of India
107-C, Railway Colony, New Guwahati 781021
Assam, India
< azamsiddiqui@animail.net>
Phone: 91-84350-48481
Mass cattle seizure follow-up
Regarding the 305 cattle we rescued from slaughter on December
15, 2003, mentioned in your June article “Why cattle ‘offerings’ prevail
where cow slaughter is illegal,” almost immediately the
36 lorry drivers, owners, and others who were arrested
admitted to their crimes. They were released on bail, and were
later fined.
The court placed the cattle in custody of the Karuna
Society and appointed a committee to auction them,
as they are government property. We were planning to buy all
of them, but
on the auction day so many butchers turned up that
the auction was called off.
The judge declared a second auction day but the
Karuna Society won a stay against the decision
of the lower court. This means that the cattle
are still government property in the
custody of Karuna Society, awaiting permission
for us to buy them.
Meanwhile, we have spent over $17,000 on food and
maintenance for them. It will take quite some time
before the expenses will be partially reimbursed
by the government.
We felt that we could not wait any longer to adopt
the bullocks to good farmers who act as “caretakers” for
us. The farmers use the bullocks for work and feed
them, but they are still the responsibility of the Karuna Society.
We still have 30+ buffaloes to give and plan
to implement the same caretaking program, giving the
m
only to women.
At present, there is less transport of cattle to
slaughter by truck in Anantapur District. But we
have seen cattle being walked from the markets
to far-away loading places, and
even to Bangalore and Kadiri, which is very cruel
in the soaring heat. We have to think about the
next step to take. Meanwhile
we have filed petitions in the High Court about
the cruel practices and illegal overloading at
the cattle markets in the district.
–– Mrs. Clementien Pauws
President
Karuna Society for Animals & Nature
Karuna Nilayam, Enumalapalli
Prasanthi Nilayam, AP
515 134, India
< karuna_arp@yahoo.co.in>
Cesar Chavez: compassionate veg
In the tradition of Tolsoy, Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer, the
venerable Mexican/American social justice advocate
Cesar Chavez adhered to a compassionate vegetarian
world view. He was the impetus
behind forming the United Farm Workers’ union, and rightly
opposed unfair wages, harsh working conditions,
and ecological destruction caused by greedy profiteering and the
pernicious use
of insecticides. Chavez had deep respect for Martin
De Porres, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King’s philosophies,
which were all rooted in pacifism. He became a strict
vegetarian who eschewed bullfights, rodeos, cockfighting,
and the inhumane treatment
of any sentient creature.
Chavez was buried in close proximity to his beloved
dog Boycott.
–– Brien Comerford
Glenview, Illinois
< Bjjcomerford@aol.com >
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