News of Note

Big Chicken: Pollution and Industrial Poultry Production in America
Broiler chickens (raised for their meat) are produced by the millions in industrial facilities concentrated in just a handful of states, and much of the waste they produce ends up polluting the nation’s waterways. These are just two issues highlighted in Pew’s new report “Big Chicken: Pollution and Industrial Poultry Production in America”

Environmentalists, government debate wolf in court
Environmentalists went to federal court on Tuesday seeking to restore endangered species safeguards for some 1,200 gray wolves in Montana and Idaho removed from protection by an unprecedented act of Congress.

Bosnian bullfights have animal friendly rules
Bullfights in Bosnia were traditionally bloody affairs that included sharpening horns into pointed tips and beating the animals to enrage them into fighting, but the country’s desire to enter the EU put a stop to that three years ago. Now, bullfights are outlawed except under the supervision of a veterinarian and the animals must be allowed to act as they would in nature — which often means opting not to fight and exiting the ring after a few minutes.

Spain’s controversial bullfights granted special cultural status
Spain’s bullfights are certainly a draw for tourists and are considered a national treasure by many Spaniards. Now the controversial sport has been declared ‘an artistic discipline and cultural product’, protecting it from mounting pressure by animal rights campaigners who want the practice banned. The tradition is already illegal in Catalonia after a law was passed against it last year.

Agony and Ivory
Highly emotional and completely guileless, elephants mourn their dead—and across Africa, they are grieving daily as demand from China’s “suddenly wealthy” has driven the price of ivory to $700 a pound or more. With tens of thousands of elephants being slaughtered each year for their tusks, raising the specter of an “extinction vortex,”

Who Really Benefits from the Egg Industry Deal?
The Humane Society of the United States held an unusual press conference. The group announced an agreement with its long-time adversary, the United Egg Producers, to jointly seek federal legislation that would improve the housing conditions of egg-laying hens…I can’t help wondering, how much more progress might have been made at the local and state level had the reform movement been able to grow further.  Preemption stops that movement in its tracks, which is why industry insists on it.

Biologist explores possible creation of meat in factories
Nicholas Genovese is a lab-coated collection of incongruities. He’s being bankrolled by an animal rights group to make meat.  The molecular biologist is working in a lab at a land-grant university that pulls in millions in grants for its research on livestock. Yet the money backing him pushes the desire to end the use of animals as food.

Commentary: Vegan outrage
Fifteen million is a pretty big number.  That’s how many leaflets that the Vegan Outreach activist group claims to have put into the hands of college students…The majority of the students or young people who grab a Vegan Outreach leaflet aren’t looking to better their health. They’re looking to set the world right.

Growing menace: animal-rights terrorism

SEALs canine commando piques interest in war dogs
Life after the military is looking brighter than ever for America’s four-legged veterans since one of their own helped in the mission to kill Osama bin Laden.

By Sterilizing Stray Cats, City Hopes to Cut Shelter Numbers
New York City has reached an agreement with animal-advocacy groups under which it will avoid having to build full-time shelters in Queens and the Bronx, but will step up its efforts to sterilize feral cats and to require owners to spay or neuter free-roaming cats.

Leave a Reply

