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The Watchdog monitors fundraising, spending, and political activity in the name of animal and habitat protection—both pro and con. His empty bowl stands for all the bowls left empty when some take more than they need.

March 2007

Kenyan reporter flushes out USAid effort to repeal national ban on hunting

NAIROBI--"Killing wildlife for fun may be re-introduced in Kenya if the government implements a new wildlife policy believed to have been influenced by the U.S.," wrote John Mbaria in the February 24 edition of The Nation, the leading Kenyan newspaper.

"The draft policy calls for lifting the 1977 ban on hunting, and asks the government to allow game ranchers and communities in wildlife areas to crop, cull, and sell animals and their products," Mbaria said.

"These recommendations are a radical deviation from what communities in 18 of the 21 wildlife regions in the country proposed during a nationwide views gathering exercise carried out by the National Wildlife Steering Committee," Mbaria continued.

Affirmed Akamba Council of Elders representative Benedict Mwendwa Muli. "We overwhelmingly said no to sport hunting. We requested the government to restock wildlife so that we can start receiving tourists."

The draft policy, however "advises the government to give ranchers the right to kill and use animals at will," Mbaria wrote.

Mbaria said he was told by unnamed insiders that the draft policy was framed "by game ranchers operating under the auspices of the Kenya Wildlife Working Group, as consultants seconded to the committee by the United States Agency for International Development. Tourism & Wildlife assistant minister Kalembe Ndile is believed to have supported the ranchers," who come from Laikipia, Nakuru and Machakos, Mbaria said.

"Besides bankrolling the process with 41 million Kenya shillings, USAid is reported to have hand-picked four consultants to draft the policy," Mbaria alleged. "According to sources in the Kenya Wildlife Service, the four are business development specialist Nderitu Wachira, wildlife ecologist Wilbur K. Ottichilo, and lawyers Patricia Kameri-Mbote and Kanyi Kimondo.

Admits the draft policy preamble: "The ministry with the support of USAid Kenya appointed the financial management agency to manage the process and provide technical support."

"Together with a Dr. Brian Child," Mbaria said, "the experts worked for USAid as consultants on a project that assessed the status of the country's wildlife and which also asked Kenya to lift the ban on sport hunting and other uses that require killing of wildlife." Brian Child, originally from Zim-babwe, was the architect of the USAid-funded Zimbabwean hunting scheme called the Com-munal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources, CAMPFIRE for short, named by Child's colleague Rowan Martin.

From 1989 through 2004, USAid pumped more than $40 million into CAMPFIRE, essentially subsidizing trophy hunts. CAMPFIRE raised about $2.5 million per year in revenue, mostly from hunting. Mostly, though, CAMPFIRE rewarded Mugabe regime insiders for neglecting the leftist goals that brought them to power--until Mugabe encouraged the land invasions, beginning in 2000, to placate supporters who had anticipated land allocations for nearly 20 years.

Child, in a paper recently published by the Property & Environment Research Center, a so-called "wise use" front based in Bozeman, Montana, acknowledged that as of 2003, "The central [CAMPFIRE] institutions had all but collapsed in function and, fueled by vast amounts of donor money especially from USAid, had become bloated."

But Child insisted that CAMPFIRE was still a success, because "Almost half the money generated from the sale of wildlife was still getting to the communities, albeit this was down from about three-quarters" eight years earlier, when Child left Zimbabwe to push the CAMPFIRE approach in Zambia.

Zambia, reported Bwalya Nondo of Zambia Daily Mail on January 27, 2007 "has launched a campaign to lobby the U.S. government" to allow more hunters to import trophies from Zambian elephants. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service presently issues permits under the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species for up to 500 elephants shot in Zimbabwe, but only 20 shot in Zambia.

U.S Fish & Wildlife Service assistant director for international affairs Ken Stansell, at the 2007 Safari Club International convention in Reno, "assured the Zambian delegation that U.S. authorities would study the Zambian case," Nondo wrote.

Minister supports ban

The new Kenya draft policy emerged from a team appointed by Tourism and Wildlife minister Morris Dzoro.

Dzoro told Mbaria that USAid "came in and asked to facilitate the process."

However, wrote Mbaria, "He denied that the agency had taken part in drafting the policy," and "ruled out the resumption of hunting" in Kenya.
Kenyan vice president Moody Awori made similar statements in November 2006, while accepting a donation of 10 million Kenya shillings from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, toward the cost of putting up solar-powered electric fencing to protect crops from wildlife in Laikipia.

"Wild animals in Laikipia, Nakuru and Machakos" are "highly coveted by the global hunting fraternity represented by elitist clubs such as Safari Club International," Mbaria observed, noting Safari Club influence in the White House.

"In 2004," recalled Mbaria, "a protracted U.S.-backed campaign culminated in the repeal of the [Kenyan] Wildlife Conservation & Management Act," including the prohibition on hunting.

Kenyan President Mwai Kbaki vetoed the repeal after the indigenous Kenyan organization Youth for Conservation mobilized nationwide last-ditch opposition.

The Safari Club, pointed out Mbaria, had "sponsored a number of Members of Parliament, some media personalities, and government officials for a trip to countries in southern Africa that allow wild animals to be killed for fun: Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and Zambia. "Twenty-two African countries allow killing animals for fun," Mbaria wrote.

Many are now aggressively competing for some of the hunting business lost in recent years by Zimbabwe as result of land invasions and unrestrained poaching.

PETA defendants in North Carolina animal killing are acquitted of cruelty, convicted of littering

WINTON, N.C.--A Hertford County jury on February 2, 2007 cleared PETA staffers Adria J. Hinkle and Andrew B. Cook of cruelty charges, after a two-week trial, but convicted both of littering for leaving dead dogs and cats in a dumpster.

The animals were taken from animal control holding facilities in Hertford, Bertie, and Northampton counties.

"The two were each given a 10-day suspended sentence, 12 months of supervised probation, 50 hours of community service, and a $1,000 fine. They will split the $5,975 restitution costs," reported Lauren King of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.

"Their van will be confiscated," added Samuel Spies of Associated Press.

"The important thing is the jury recognized they were never guilty of cruelty," said PETA spokeswoman Kathy Guillermo. "We're relieved, we're happy."

Hinkle, 28, of Norfolk, Virginia, and Cook, 26, of Virginia Beach, were arrested by an Ahoskie police stakeout on June 15, 2005. The Ahoskie police had been investigating abandonment of animal remains in the dumpster since May 2005.

Hinkle and Cook acknowledged killing the animals by lethal injection in the back of a PETA van, but contended that the killing was necessary euthanasia.

Each initially faced 21 felony cruelty counts, plus seven counts of littering. Hinkle was additionally charged with three counts of obtaining property by false pretenses from Hertford Colunty veterinarian Patrick Proctor.

Superior Court Judge Cy Grant reduced the charges to eight misdemeanors before sending the case to the jury. Grant ruled that the prosecution failed to prove malice, essential for a felony conviction.

"Employees of the Ahoskie Animal Hospital testified that Hinkle had asked whether a mother cat and two kittens had names, and promised everyone in the office, including a 9-year-old girl, that she would find them homes," summarized Raleigh News & Observer staff writer Kristin Collins.

"Hinkle euthanized them a few minutes after leaving."

Wrote Spies, "Hinkle testified that she told the hospital she would take good care of the animals," without stipulating how.

Much of the trial focused on similar cases. "A Bertie County animal control officer testified that Hinkle said she would have 'no problem' finding homes for two Dalmatians named Annie and Toby," recounted Collins. "The dogs were dead before they left the shelter's parking lot. The same officer said he handed over his own dog, a terrier named Happy, because he had had trouble housebreaking the dog. Hinkle sent him a picture of the dog in a garden, standing in front of a house, but didn't mention that the dog had been euthanized upon arriving at PETA headquarters," Collins added.

Wrote King, "The defense called veterinarians, PETA staff members, and a former local police officer who initially asked PETA for help at the Bertie animal shelter. They testified that PETA's euthanasia policy was not a secret, even to those who testified for the state. The defendants apologized for dumping the animals, but said it was a very hot day, and the smell in their van was unbearable. Hinkle also admitted using the trash bin at least one other time to dump animals," King added.

PETA director of domestic animal and wildlife rescue Daphna Nachminovitch testified that PETA policy is to keep animals' remains at the PETA headquarters in Norfolk until they can be cremated, and that records describing each animal and the drugs used for killing the animal are kept on file, as required by federal and state law.

"However, records were not kept of the animal carcasses when they were deposited in the freezer," King recounted of the testimony, "so Nachminovitch said she had no way of noticing if animal carcasses were not being returned to Norfolk. Nachminovitch also testified that PETA has a policy that requires people to sign a form when surrendering animals," King continued.

"In Virginia, that form gives the agency the authority to immediately euthanize the animal. Nachminovitch could not produce any forms signed by any Bertie County officials or the Ahoskie Animal Hospital, but said the form is not required in North Carolina."

PETA drug use also came under scrutiny. "Brian Reise, division group supervisor for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Greensboro, testified that although PETA is registered to use controlled dangerous substances in Virginia, that does not transfer to North Carolina," King reported.
But PETA general counsel Jeff Kerr testified that in 2000 he was told by the Drug Enforcement Agency office in Washington D.C. and several Virginia and North Carolina authorities that PETA staff could use pentobarbital to kill animals in North Carolina.

Hertford and Northampton county officials admitted to Collins of the News & Observer before the trial that they did not ask many questions when PETA volunteered to take animals from them.

"All I knew was they came in, they said they had X-amount of animals, and they were carrying them to Virginia, and I didn't question them," said Hertford County animal control chief Charles Jones, who is also the county fire marshal and head of emergency medical services and emergency management.

"The verbal agreement was, if they felt like the animals could possibly be adopted, they would be," said Northampton County animal control director Sue Gay. "We thought at least some of them were being adopted."

"Soon after the arrests" observed King, "Bertie, Northampton and Hertford counties discontinued or suspended work with PETA. PETA continues to offer services in the region, but Bertie County has taken back full control of its animal shelter. The dog shelter has been renovated. New fencing surrounds the area," King said, "and a metal roof shades half of the open dog run. A small puppy pen is similarly outfitted. In all, capital improvements cost the county about $9,200.

"PETA's cat shelter is still on the property but rarely filled with cats," King continued. "Most are taken to the Powellsville Pet Clinic, which tries to arrange for their adoption. Dogs can be adopted by contacting shelter director Barry Anderson or animal control officer Skip Dunlow. Animals who are not adopted are euthanized by a veterinarian who visits once a week."

Bertie County manager Zee Lamb told King that the county is planning to build a shelter in partnership with the local SPCA.

Hertford County has also reclaimed its animal control program from PETA. "County manager Wayne Jenkins said a new shelter is in the five-year capital plan, and will be a topic of discussion when next year's budget is drafted," King wrote.

While Hertford, Bertie, and Northampton counties "no longer give animals to PETA," Collins noted, "the town of Windsor, in Bertie County, still turns over all its stray animals to the group. " Even after the prosecution, Collins wrote, "Town administrator Allen Castelloe said he has never checked into what PETA does with the animals."

People & positions

The San Francisco SPCA on February 7, 2007 named Jan McHugh-Smith to become only the eighth president of the SF/SPCA since 1868, but the third since 1998, when Richard Avanzino crossed San Francisco Bay to head Maddie's Fund, in Alameda. A 23-year veteran of humane work, McHugh-Smith had headed the Humane Society of Boulder Valley in Boulder, Colorado, since 1995.

One Voice has left the www.SaveJapan-Dolphins.org coalition "to concentrate on French issues," coalition founder Ric O'Barry told ANIMAL PEOPLE at the start of 2006. "The new coalition includes the Animal Welfare Institute, Elsa Nature Conservancy, In Defense of Animals, and the Earth Island Institute," O'Barry said. The coalition opposes the capture and slaughter of dolphins at Taiji, Japan, one of the focal campaigns that O'Barry began in 1970 under the name the Dolphin Project.

The American SPCA has hired former Humane Society International European director Betsy Dribben as senior managing director of legislative services, Melinda Merck, DVM, as forensic veterinarian (the first employed by any U.S. humane organization), and former Humane Society of the U.S. and Humane Farming Association investigator Robert Baker to do cruelty investigations.

The World Wild Fund for Nature/South Africa, a World Wildlife Fund affiliate, in early February 2007 named conservation director Rob Little as interim successor to chief executive Tony Frost. Frost told Cape Argus environment and science writer John Yeld that he was leaving "sooner than planned."

Former Los Angeles Times writer John Balzar, author of Yukon Alone (1999), about the Yukon Quest dog sled race, on January 22, 2007 became senior vice president for communications at the Humane Society of the U.S.