Animal People News
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European Commission votes to ban dog &cat fur B R U S S E L S ––The European Commis- sion on November 20 adopted a proposal to ban the import, export, and sale of cat and dog fur throughout the European Union. “The draft regulation will now be considered by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers for adoption by the co- decision procedure,” explained the EC Asian dog. (Kim Bartlett) announcement. “There is evidence that cat and dog fur been found not just on clothing, but also on a is being placed on the European market, usually number of personal accessories, as well as chil- dren’s soft toys.” Asian rabbits. (Kim Bartlett) undeclared as such or disguised as synthetic and other types of fur,” the EC announcement sum- “Just the idea of young children playing marized. “The vast majority of the cat and dog with toys which have been made with dog and Olympics to showcase growing fur is believed to be imported from third coun- cat fur is really something we cannot accept,” tries, notably China.” European Consumer Protection Commissioner Fifteen of the 25 EU member nations Markos Kyprianou said. Chinese animal testing industry have already individually introduced legislation “Kyprianou stopped short of calling B E I J I N G ––The 2008 Olympic Glenn Rice, chief executive of Bridge against cat and dog fur. “The proposed regula- for every product containing fur to have a label Games in Beijing will showcase the fast- Pharmaceuticals Inc., is outsourcing the tion adopted today addresses EU citizens con- detailing its exact origin,” wrote London Times growing Chinese animal testing industry, work to China, where scientists are cheap cerns, and creates a harmonized approach,” the European correspondent David Charter, the official Xinhua news agency disclosed and plentiful and animal-rights activists are EC announcement stipulated. “It also establish- “because he said it would be too punitive for on November 15. muffled by an authoritarian state,” reported es a system of information exchange on the producers of smaller, cheaper goods. “All food and ingredients to be Pocha for the Boston Globe on November detection of cat and dog fur.” Both the European Parliament and the prepared in Olympic kitchens will be fed to 25, 2006. “The Commission has been informed,” Council of Ministers had asked the EC to draft a white mice a day before they are served to (continued on page 7) the EC announcement added, “that such fur has (continued on page 12) athletes,” explained Beijing Municipal Health Inspection Bureau representative Zhao Xinsheng. Translated the BBC, “The mice will be fed milk, alcohol, salad, rice, oil and seasonings. Mice show adverse reac- ANIMAL PEOPLE tions [to common forms of food poisoning] within 17 hours, while laboratory tests take News For People Who Care About Animals much longer,” Zhao Xinsheng said. The Olympic connection surfaced amid publication of frequent feature articles about animal testing in China by Beijing- December 2006 based business writer Jehangir S. Pocha. “Because animal rights groups Volume XVI, #10 make it difficult for drug companies to build or expand animal-testing laboratories in the United States, Europe, and India, New Congressional leaders + have pro-animal history + WASHINGTON, DC.––Seldom if founded the Congressional Friends of Animals ever has a newly elected Congress looked caucus in 1990, of which Miller and Waxman more friendly toward animals. are longtime members) have been close politi- To be inaugurated on January 3, cal allies throughout the Congressional tenure 2007, the Democratic majorities elected in of new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fellow both the U.S. Senate and House of Californian. Humane Scorecard gave Pelosi Representatives on November 7, 2006 will only 56 in the 109th Congress, but she scored take control of Congress from the largely 100, 100, and 85 in the 106th, 107th, and unfriendly Republican majority who prevailed 108th Congresses. for the preceding 12 years, and will introduce The average Humane Scorecard rat- into key positions some of the Senators and ing for a House committee chair will rise from Representatives with the voting records most 33 in the 109th Congress to 69 in the 110th. favorable to animals. Congressional candidates endorsed The Humane Society of the U.S. by the National Rifle Association took an espe- Legislative Fund publication H u m a n e cially lopsided beating, the pro-gun control Scorecard gave perfect 100% scores during the Brady Campaign reported. 109th Congress to two of the five top-ranking “In the House, 109 NRA-backed members of the Democratic majority in the candidates, either endorsed or ‘A’ rated, lost About 500 protesters rallied on behalf of their dogs on November 11 outside the Beijing Zoo. 110th Senate: Charles Schumer of New York, their races,” a Brady press release summa- who will be vice chair of the Democratic cau- rized. Eighteen NRA-backed candidates lost cus, and Patty Murray of Washington, who in U.S. Senate.races. First Beijing dog purge in five will be conference secretary. Steering Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle won Committee chair Debbie Stabenow of re-election “even though the NRA spent nearly Michigan scored 80. $300,000 and held their annual meeting in years brings unprecedented rally Humane Scorecard also gave perfect Milwaukee this year,” Brady continued. scores to six of the 19 committee chairs named Doyle twice vetoed NRA-backed legislation BEIJING––Either “The Year of the The episode began, summarized to serve in the 110th House of Representatives. that “would allow virtually anyone to carry Dog” ended in Beijing with the first major dog China Daily, when the Public Security Among the six were Budget chair John Spratt loaded, hidden handguns in public,” accord- purge in the city since March 2001, or with Bureau announced in October that it would of South Carolina; Education & Workforce ing to Brady. Doyle also annoyed some the introduction of world-standard animal begin enforcing bans introduced in 2003 on chair George Miller of California; Govern- hunters and birders in April 2005, after stating sheltering and adoption practices, depending keeping dogs who are more than 14 inches tall ment Reform chair Henry Waxman of that he would veto any attempt by the state leg- on whether one asks activists or officials. and keeping multiple dogs in nine designated California; International Relations chair Tom islature to implement a proposal ratified by the Possibly a bit of both happened. parts of Beijing. Keeping multiple dogs and Lantos of California; Judiciary chair James statewide Wisconsin Conservation Congress The few certainties are that the dog dogs of any size is permitted in the more dis- Conyers of Michigan; and Rules chair Louise caucuses to allow hunters to shoot feral cats. laws enforced in November 2006 by the tant Beijing suburbs and outside the city. Slaughter of New York. “I don’t think Wisconsin should Beijing Public Security Bureau, Agriculture “On November 8, police made Miller, Waxman, and Lantos (who (continued on page 9) Bureau, and Administration for Industry & house calls in Beijing’s luxury villa areas to Commerce were of dubious value in ensuring check on illegal dog keeping,” China Daily public safety; that the crackdown was openly said. “They discovered six large unlicensed motivated by concern for keeping the streets dogs. By November 13, the canine inspection clean and safe before the 2008 Olympics; and section of the municipal bureau of public that the outcome may have been “killing the security had rounded up 500 stray, unli- dog to scare the monkey,” as animal advo- censed, or abandoned dogs.” cates gathered on November 11 outside the That would be an ordinary week’s Beijing Zoo in a globally reported protest. animal control intake in many U.S. cities, but Faced with the prospect of similar U.S. animal control departments typically embarrassment by human rights demonstrators respond to complaints about specific dogs. as the Olympics approach, Beijing authorities The Beijing Public Security Bureau appeared to use the pro-dog rally to rehearse struggled to convince citizens, and the world, containment tactics. (continued on page 8) 2 - ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006 + + ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006 - 3 Editorial feature Strategies for changing the world In the 1940 Walt Disney animated cartoon feature Dumbo, The Flying Elephant, the As the resurgence of cheap fur trim on garments demonstrates, however, there also first and perhaps still most vivid screen depiction of circus animal handling produced for a seems to be little currently effective peer pressure against wearing fur. The more fur is worn, paying mass audience, a troupe of drunken clowns speculate that if circus-goers laugh at an the more people seem to be willing to wear fur, especially in the traditional fur-wearing neigh- elephant made to jump from a platform made to look like a burning building, they will laugh borhoods of New York City, Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto, where fur never quite faded twice as hard if the elephant has to jump from twice as high. out as it did elsewhere in North America during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Activists in every cause could be accused of committing the same logical fallacy, As anti-fur campaigners debated in the 1980s and '90s, but seem to have forgotten, presuming that if a problem is exaggerated or described as a crisis it will get more attention, endorsing faux fur merely contributes to the visibility, acceptability, and popularity of wear- resulting in more effective response. ing real animal pelts. While there may be no lack of general recognition that trapping wild However, Che Green, executive director of the Seattle-based Humane Research animals or raising and killing them on fur farms is cruel, the individual fur wearer may deny Council, pointed out in the November 2006 edition of the HRC newsletter Humane Thinking that cruelty was involved in producing a garment which might be marketed as fake fur or rab- that, “According to a study recently published by Britain's Economic and Social Research bit raised for meat, even if the fur actually comes from a dog or cat.