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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: June 2007

Letters to the Editor

 

Turtles & foxes

ARCHELON, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece, has for more than 20 years conducted conservation projects on the major nesting grounds of the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) in Greece. Our activities involve sea turtle and nest protection, habitat management, rehabilitation, and public awareness and environmental education.

The success of our work relies heavily on the participation of volunteers--more than 500 people every year.

Volunteers this year will work on Zakynthos, where the first National Marine Park for sea turtles in the Mediterranean was recently established; at Lakonikos Bay, where sand dune restoration has begun and nature trails are in operation; the Bay of Kyparissia, where we prevent fox predation and have a new nature information center; Crete, where tourism is a challenging partner in sea turtle protection; and Athens, where the ARCHELON Rescue Centre rehabilitates injured turtles from all over Greece.

--Dina Soulantika
Volunteer Section
ARCHELON
3rd Marina, Glyfada
166 75 Athens
Greece
Tel./Fax: : +30 210 8982600
<volunteers@archelon.gr>
www.archelon.gr

 

Editor's note:

ANIMAL PEOPLE asked about the ARCHELON methods of preventing fox predation on sea turtle nests. Responded Aliki Panagopoulou of ARCHELON, "We are trying to keep predation to not more than 10%. After all, turtle eggs are part of the foxes' natural diet. We fence the nests with a metal frame and bamboo. We would really not be an environmental organisation if we meant to save one species at the expense of any other. We believe that it is this kind of human attitude that has brought the planet in this state in the first place! I am glad that you care enough to make sure that we do not use any unethical methods."

 

Serbian pound

We are shocked by the atrocities being done this very moment to dogs and cats in Serbia, especially in Nis, where many are caught and killed contrary to our Veterinary Law and Criminal Code.

For two weeks at this writing, dogcatchers have hanged dogs in parks in front of children, put both cats and dogs in the same cages, and kept them for three days and killed them after feeding cages full of dogs (and some cats) with one handful of dog food. Dogs with distemper are put together with puppies on purpose so that they get infected as well.

The vet in charge of this concentration camp gets a good sum to run it. The vet inspectors allow him to do it and tell the media that everything is perfect, that people should bring their own pets if they can`t take care of them, because they will have two meals a day and veterinary supervision!

We tried to bring criminal charges against everyone involved, but the public attorney and police would not act.

We have sent out many photos and other evidence. We are tired of taking pictures. Please come and see for yourself.

--Jelena Kostic, APS
Nis, Serbia
--Snezana Tadic, APS
Zov, Serbia
--Milan Djuric, IZVOR
Centar, Serbia
--Oliver Velickovic, CEIRI
--Goran & Marija Grujin,
Network of Independent Activists
for Animal Rights
--Zvezdana Radojcic, APS
Srecko, Serbia
--Jelena Zaric, Vegan Portal
Belgrade, Serbia
<jeza.jeza@gmail.com>
--Slavica Mazak Beslic, EPAR
Subotica, Serbia
<epar@yunord.net>

 

Editor's note:

The nine prominent Serbian animal advocates who co-signed these allegations sent a more detailed version to senior officials in three different branches of the Serbian government.

 

Lionsrock

To update your May 2007 report about Lionsrock, "Vier Pfoten buys South African game lodge to turn into sanctuary," we will finish the first construction phase in July. In September we will transfer the 13 lions from the former Safaripark Gaenserndorf near Vienna to Lionsrock. In November we plan to have the official opening.

--Helmut Dungler
President
Vier Pfoten
Schönbrunner Strasse 131
A- 1050 Wien, Austria
Phone: 43 -1- 545-50-20-0
Fax 43 1 545 50 20 99
<info@vier-pfoten.org>
<www.vier-pfoten.org>

 

Zoos

The May 2007 ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial feature "The lessons zoos teach" was terrific-comprehensive, informative, and balanced.

Something I have always found missing in zoos is that no tools are offered to move observers beyond a passive position.

No matter how well the animal on exhibit is treated, no matter how authentically the animal's natural environment is recreated, and no matter how much information is given about threats such as habitat loss, the bush meat trade, climate change, etc., usually not a word is said about how to take an active role to help animals.

Although recommending specific organizations or publications might create some difficulty for zoos, most zoo visitors will do nothing to help wildlife without tangible help. The educational potential of a zoo visit is lost in a day's entertainment.

--Irene Muschel
New York, N.Y.
<benirv@hotmail.com>

 

Ethiopian lion is rescued

 

In "Help at last for the Addis Ababa zoo" in your October 2006 edition, you mentioned that I hoped to rescue "a common lion who was captured young and has been held ever since" by a local exhibitor "in a small cage, restrained by chains, in the southern region of Ethiopia near the Somali border."

I am happy to report to you that after a long campaign, networking with different animal groups and the Ethiopian wildlife department, the Dolo lion is finally free from his chains, and has been transferred to a temporary shelter in one of the national parks in Ethiopia.

This was made possible by growing world awareness of the situation of wildlife in Ethiopia, and especially about the poisoning of Atlas lion cubs at the Lion Zoo in Addis Ababa ("Ethiopian zoo poisons lion cubs," December 2006).

A sanctuary for lions is now be established in Ethiopia by the Born Free Foundation, with the support of the Ethiopian wildlife department.

The rescue of the Dolo lion was conducted by the Ethiopian wildlife department with the support and assistance of the Born Free Foundation. We undertook the obligation to raise the funds required to care for the lion. We are now working on this with the help of ZooCheck Canada.

Although the lion is not yet in an optimal facility, he is out of the chains and can now breathe freely and walk around. He is properly fed and receives veterinary care. He suffers from an abnormal gait and stunted growth, due to the cruel conditions he was held in since he was young. The Dolo lion is expected to stay in the temporary shelter for one year and then we hope he will become the first lion at the Born Free sanctuary.

Thanks for your involvement and support in bringing this matter to public awareness.

--Einat Danieli
Toronto, Ontario
<einatdanieli@hotmail.com>

 

Moral Menagerie

Reviewer Chris Mercer in the May 2007 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE described Marc. R. Fellenz' new book The Moral Menagerie as filled with "wisdom on every page." I have trouble seeing the wisdom in a book that claims ethical standards cannot be applied to our treatment of animals; repeats the morally bankrupt refrain that our relationship to animals should be governed by aesthetics rather than ethics, a claim which speciesist post-modernist philosophers use to justify the reduction of nonhuman animals to instruments of human pleasure; describes hunting as "performance art" (I can't wait to hear what Fellenz has to say about bullfighting); praises reactionary pro-hunting philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset; and considers hunting the ideal way for humans to relate to animals.

Those who believe, as Mercer appears to, that a comprehensive environmental ethic offers the most promise for providing an adequate theoretical framework for our relationship with nonhuman animals would do far better to turn to Lisa Kemmerer's outstanding In Search of Consistency: Ethics and Animals, which I believe is destined to become a classic of animal protection and environmental thought.

I am an admirer of Chris Mercer's campaigns against trophy hunting in South Africa, but The Moral Menagerie is facile, pretentious, neo-Nietzschean claptrap.

--Norm Phelps
Funkstown, Maryland
<n.phelps@myactv.net>

Mercer responds:
Norm is quite right. I was deeply unhappy with much of what the book says.

 

Correction

The May 2007 ANIMAL PEOPLE article "Bangalore dog panic spreads to Hyderabad" misidentified retired Justice B. Subhashan Reddy as chair of the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission.

An outspoken opponent of the Indian national Animal Birth Control policy, Reddy has pledged to seek changes in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to expedite killing dogs, and has exercised influence in several widely separated parts of India. He presently heads the Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission.

Reddy previously served as a Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, 1991-2001; was Chief Justice of the Madras High Court 2001-2004; and was a Justice of the Kerala High Court, 2004-2005.

 

Feeding elephants to crocs in Zimbabwe

Re "South Africa, Zimbabwe claim need to cull elephants" in your April 2007 edition, Geoff Blyth sent me an email ranting and raving because he heard the National Parks were starting a croc farm and they were planning on shooting Kariba elephants to feed the crocs. He asked me to expose it. I didn't realize that he had sent the same e-mail all over the world. I think it was the same day or the following day that I received a phone call from Eleanor Momberg [of the Cape Times in South Africa] asking me about the same thing. I told her what Geoff had told me in his e-mail. I think I also told her that I went to the Victoria Falls croc farm and the people running it told me that their crocs are fed on elephant meat, and I have it on good authority that a certain number of eles are allocated per year to feed the crocs at the Binga croc farm, so Geoff's story wasn't unbelievable.

A few days later, I received another e-mail from Geoff suddenly retracting everything he had said. He said he had spoken to Wayne Horsley, who he had originally claimed was employed by the croc farm to shoot the elephants, and Wayne told him that he had his wires crossed. They were not going to shoot the Kariba eles to feed the crocs. Instead they were going to shoot eles in the Save Conservancy and tranport the meat almost 900 kilometers to Kariba. He went on to tell Geoff that ele meat is not suitable for crocs. I smelt a rat when I read this, and I also found very hard to believe that National Parks would go to all the expense of transporting the ele meat so far when they have financial problems.

I sensed he was very nervous about what he had said. In fact he told me he was afraid of possible repercussions.

I didn't forward his apology to anyone because I really think there was some truth in his original story, and I'm glad it got out because that croc farm is not yet operational. If they haven't started killing eles yet, and planned to, I should think all this adverse publicity will make them think twice about it.

I've just been to Kariba, and interviewed Wayne Horsley with my video camera. He states categorically on camera that the croc farm is not going to kill Kariba eles to feed the crocs. He claims the story got out because there was an ele bull with a broken leg he shot to put out of his misery. That ele was fed to the Innscor croc farm.

I'm investigating the whole thing to try to find out what's really going on.

--Johnny Rodrigues, Chair
Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force
Phone: 263-4-336710
Fax: 263-4-339065
<galorand@mweb.co.zw>
<www.zimbabwe-art.com>
<www.zctf.mweb.co.zw>

 

Stopping rabies outbreak in Isiolo, Kenya

I have been meaning to write to you for ages about the rabies situation in Isiolo, Kenya, that you wrote about to the Donkey Sanctuary last December. The Donkey Sanctuary U.K., which funds our donkey project, donated 1,000 doses of rabies vaccine to use in Isiolo district.

As dogs are on the whole the main carriers of rabies, we also applied for and received another 1,000 doses of rabies vaccine from the International Fund for Animal Welfare for use on dogs and cats. Two teams went up to the Isiolo area and vaccinated both pets and donkeys. There was a good response from owners, who were very happy that we were helping them. Some dogs were tied up and brought in wheelbarrows, as they were not used to leads, and some cats (poor things) arrived in sacks.

In all, we vaccinated over 850 dogs and a few cats, and used the remaining vaccine around Nairobi in the low income areas.

Rabies is endemic in Kenya and from time to time there are outbreaks, even in Nairobi. The Veterinary Department deals with it by poisoning "stray" dogs with strychnine. As most village and slum dogs are free-ranging, they are killing peoples' dogs. It is indiscriminate. The exercise is self -defeating because people just get more dogs and the cycle starts again. We have tried to lobby about vaccination, but they say they don't have the money. Strychnine is cheap and easy to administer in bait. They say the animals don't suffer, at least not for long! We beg to differ. So rabies continues.

When we make noise, we are told to come up with a better solution. But they don't like the one we come up with.

--Jean Gilchrist
Director of Animal Welfare
Kenya SPCA
P.O. Box 24203
Nairobi, Kenya;
Phone: 254-2-882-500
Fax: 254-2-882-565
<jean@kspca-kenya.org>
<www.kspca-kenya.org>

Editor's note:

ANIMAL PEOPLE on December 11, 2006 shared with numerous organizations either based in Kenya, concerned with rabies prevention, or concerned with donkeys a report received that morning from the International Society for Infectious Diseases about a highly unusual rabies outbreak in Isiolo which appeared to be passing from donkey to donkey.

Although all mammals are vulnerable to rabies, herbivores rarely carry rabies long enough in a latent phase to directly infect other animals, and relatively seldom bite other animals, even when they are infected.

However, donkeys often do bite each other in jostling for dominance, especially at the tops of the legs.

ANIMAL PEOPLE pointed out that Isiolo is a crossroads community, located almost exactly in the center of Kenya, from which working donkeys could rapidly spread rabies in all directions.

We expected to publish an article about the outbreak and the containment effort as soon as particulars became available. However, after a flurry of related correspondence in January 2007, we heard no more from anyone until the arrival of the update from Jean Gilchrist, above.

The Kenya Network for Dissemination of Agricultural Technologies and Brooke Hospital for Animals also responded to the Isiolo outbreak, vaccinating 283 donkeys in nearby Limeru.

 

Maintaining momentum in Azerbaijan

I moved with my husband to Baku, Azerbaijan two years ago. We work in the oil industry. I was appalled to see the large stray dog and cat populations here. There is no government animal service except culling.

With a local veterinarian who had tried for years to start something, we enlisted some other animal lovers and created the Baku Protection of Animal Welfare Society.

We now have a clinic, where our vet treats pets, and we sterilize cats from our street projects. We have a small rescue centre, and a mobile clinic that we use for our Company Animal Services. We fund ourselves by offering trap/neuter/return service to large international companies with stray animals on their land. At this moment we are self sufficient and growing. Our contracts with the participating companies include an annual maintenance fee. We hope to open a facility made from portable cabins to treat the dog populations on a larger scale in September 2007.

My problem is that now we have been transferred to another nation--just as PAWS is taking off, and just as the government here has started to take an interest in what we are doing. They are discussing opening their own center, but have no practical experience, and need help.

We desperately need a dedicated animal lover to come here and take my place. Azerbaijan is developing at great speed, and is on the cusp of changing its whole attitude toward animals, both stray and wild. We cannot as yet afford to pay a salary, but we could try to get sponsorship to help with expenses.

The person would need to be able to communicate with government ministers, company management, other charities worldwide, and the expatriate and local community. This would be the main part of the job. Overseeing the clinic and the street and company projects would also be very important. We make sure that the standards put in place by our visiting veterinarians are maintained at all times.

Azerbaijan is an exciting country, especially at this time as the oil money comes in. Every day we see improvements. The people are the friendliest I have ever met, and are desperate to develop. I will be sorry to go.

--Elizabeth McCusker
President, Baku PAWS
<bakupaws@gmail.com>
Phone: 560 124