Letters to the Editor

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2008:

 

 

Letters to the Editor

 

[Asian topics only.]

 

 

WSPA funded the Wildlife SOS bear sanctuary

 

I thought your article " Tracking bear rescue & rehabilitation

in India " in the April 2008 edition of Animal people was fair. Parts

of the story remain a muddle and probably will never be fully

resolved to your and my satisfaction. I still remain suspicious that

there is some dirty work at the crossroads involved.

You reported that, " WSPA eventually provided about half of

the initial cost of building the first Wildlife SOS bear sanctuary,

near Agra, but was no longer part of the project by the time it

opened in December 2002. Most of the rest of the Agra sanctuary

construction and start-up funding came from the Australian charity

Free the Bears, One Voice of France, and International Animal

Rescue of Britain, all still project partners. "

WSPA actually funded the whole of the Agra construction to

enable it to open and to start taking in bears, at a cost of around

$250,000. The other groups you list funded additional work and

extension work later on after WSPA had handed over the sanctuary to

WSOS at the end of 2002. WSPA had a written agreement with WSOS and

the Indian authorities for the handover to WSOS in 2002.

Also Libearty was never " suspended. " After the Agra

construction was completed we went straight on to finishing our WSPA

Pakistan sanctuary and work on our bear farm campaign. However,

latterly we have ceased to use the title " Libearty " and do all our

bear work under the generic WSPA title.

--Peter Davies general

World Society for the

Protection of Animals

89 Albert Embankment

London, SE1 7TP

United Kingdom

Phone: +44-20-7587-5000

Fax: +44-20-7793-0208

<wspa

<www.wspa.org.uk>

 

 

Results from Kobe

 

The Animal Rescue System Fund opened our clinic here in Kobe,

Japan at the end of 2006. Since then, we have sterilized 1710 cats,

of whom 1,412 (82%) were ferals. Of those, 825 were returned to

their habitat.

The Kobe City Pound on May 15, 2008 announced that the

number of kittens killed at the shelter declined 21% in the first

quarter of 2007, compared to 2006, and fell 13% for the whole

fiscal year 2007, in which 2,239 kittens were killed, down 334 from

2,569 in 2006.

--Hiro Yamasaki

Animal Rescue System Fund

3-9-1-1F Kusugaoka-cho, Nada-ku

Kobe 657-0024, Japan

Phone: 078-856-3229

<spay

 

 

 

 

 

Ecological issues to stress in promoting meatless diet

 

Kudos on your comprehensive May 2008 front page article

" Meat-eating drives global grain crunch. " I think it is essential

that the vegetarian movement make a major goal of educating the

public about that message and the many other ways that animal-based

diets and agriculture endanger the planet.

Among the issues to stress:

* While the world is increasingly threatened by global

warming, animal-based agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (in CO2

equivalents) than all means of transportation worldwide combined (18%

vs. 13.5%);

* Animal-based diets require up to 14 times as much water

and 10 times as much energy as vegan diets;

* Production of meat contributes significantly to species

loss, destruction of tropical rain forests, loss of coral reefs,

and the erosion and depletion of soil;

* Making the situation more serious, consumption of animal

products is projected to double in 50 years. If this happens, it

will be difficult, if not impossible, to reduce greenhouse

emissions enough to avoid very severe effects from global climate

change.

In summary, it is essential that we increase awareness that

a major shift toward plant-based diets is essential to avoid

unprecedented catastrophe and to move our precious but imperiled,

planet to a sustainable path.

--Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

College of Staten Island;

President

Jewish Vegetarians

of North America

and Society of Ethical &

Religious Vegetarians

Phone: 718-761-5876

Fax: 718-982-3631

<rschw12345

 

 

 

Hot car warning

 

The temperature inside our Helen Woodward Animal Center van

hit 139 degrees this afternoon during our 6th annual Summer Heat

Danger demonstration in our " barking lot " on May 20, 2008.

When I stepped into the van at 2:15 p.m. the air temperature

was 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Within the first minute after closing the

doors and windows it rose to 89 degrees. By 2:22 the temperature was

100. At 2:26, just 11 minutes after I got in and closed the doors

and windows, the temperature reached 110 degrees.

This was when I became in danger of heat stroke and got out.

I closed the door behind me and we continued to monitor as the

temperature inside the van rose even more. Just four minutes later,

at 2:30, the thermometer sitting on the dashboard hit 119. At 2:49

the reading was 132 degrees. At 2:55, 40 minutes after the

demonstration began, the temperature inside the van was 139 degrees.

A chocolate candy bar I had left on the dashboard was melted,

and the flowers beside the candy had wilted.

Thank you for telling this story. Someone will pay attention

and decide not to leave their dog or children in the car while they

run into a store " for just a minute " to get a carton of milk and a

loaf of bread. That small decision will save lives.

--John Van Zante

Public Relations Manager

Helen Woodward Animal Center

P.O. Box 64

Rancho Santa Fe CA 92067

858-756-4117 x335

<JohnV

<www.animalcenter.org>

 

 

 

Brick-hauling donkeys in Nepal

 

We at Kathmandu Animal Treatment recently rescued two injured

donkeys who were dumped on the far side of the city, and lay along

one of Kathmandu's busiest roads for five days. Kind people tried to

help them by giving them grass and covering them with plastic to

protect them from heavy rain.

Unfortunately, one donkey succumbed. We worked far into the

night to recover the other donkey, who had not only a broken leg and

many huge open sores, but also multiple untreated old injuries to

her other legs.

Israeli veterinarian Asi Dar, who had just arrived to

volunteer for KAT, and Kiran Panday, our local vet, agreed that

the donkey had also suffered from starvation. Dr Ishwor Pradhan, a

leading bone specialist, very generously came on his weekend to give

his opinion. She will recover and walk again, he said, but will

always be a cripple.

Sources from charities working with laborers in the brick

factories on the south side of Kathmandu have informed us that

approximately 1,000 donkeys have arrived in the past year, and their

numbers are growing rapidly. They work under horrendous conditions,

and as the brick factories destroy the nearby vegetation, they are

starved until they drop.

--Jan Salter

Kathmandu Animal

Treatment Centre

Chapali Gaon

Budanilkantha

GPO Box 8975

EPC 4120

Kathmandu, Nepal

Phone: 977-1-4373169

<jsalter

<www.katcentre.org.np>

 

Editor's note:

 

Abuse of donkeys by the brick industry is unfortunately

ubiquitous. ANIMAL PEOPLE in 2007 visited a hospital for brick

industry donkeys operated in Ahmedabad, India by The Donkey

Sanctuary of Great Britain, and--after ANIMAL PEOPLE president and

administrator Kim Bartlett arranged the rescue of a badly injured

donkey who had been abandoned near Agra, funded the acquisition of a

mobile equine clinic operated in the vicinity of brick factories

between Agra and Delhi by the Delhi-based Friendicoes Society for the

Eradication of Cruelty.

 

 

Elephants vs. Indian Railways

 

Thanks for your revealing as well as informative May 2008

article " New AVMA elephant standards may help the working elephants

of India. "

Are you aware that an elephant with a lantern hooked on her

trunk is the official symbol for Indian Railways and yet, the most

elephant deaths occur in India due to speeding trains, as the

hapless beasts get run over? A comprehensive report on this would be

highly welcome.

--Raja Chatterjee

Secretary

The Junglees

Kolkata, India

 

 

Editor's note:

 

At least 20 elephants have been killed by speeding trains

since 1996 in Rajaji National Park, in Uttaranchal. Ten elephants

have been killed since 2005 in the Dooars region of North Bengal. At

least eight elephants have been killed since 2006 near the Deepor

Beel bird sanctuary on the outskirts of Guwahati, Assam. ANIMAL

PEOPLE has also received reports within the past three years of

trains killing elephants in Orissa, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka

states.

The West Bengal chapter of World Wildlife Fund/India recently

reported that more than a third of the major elephant migration paths

in North Bengal cross railways, and noted that a third of

elephant/train collisions occur at dawn, 42% in the evening, and

17% at night. Only 8% occur in broad daylight.

The West Bengal forest department has identified 16 points at

which elephants are especially likely to be hit.

Indian Railways has been reluctant, however, to slow down

or re-route heavily used trains to avoid elephant corridors.

The Indian ministry for forests and the environment in

February 2008 named a committee to study the matter.

The problem is similar to the problem of trains hitting bears

and moose in the northern Rocky Mountains, western Canada, and

Alaska. Provid-ing safe crossing places helps little, as the

animals tend to use the cleared and elevated railways themselves as

quick, easy ways through difficult habitat.

Fencing railways well enough to deter animals the size of

bears, moose, and elephants would be an engineering feat comparable

in cost and effort to building the $1.2 billion barrier to illegal

immigration now under construction along 700 miles of the U.S./Mexico

border. The George W. Bush administration in April 2008 waived more

than 30 U.S. environmental laws, many of them having to do with

wildlife migration, to enable the border fence to proceed. At that,

environmental mitigation, mostly on behalf of wildlife, is expected

to cost $50 million--and all of this is in a region where there are

no wild animals capable of knocking down almost any fence less sturdy

than a tank trap.

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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