Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news65~2.htm/__headers__.txt

Text File | 1998-04-02 | 9.8 KB | 241 lines

This despite the fact that public education about spaying and neutering has
never been better and the city of Burnaby has had a spay and neuter rebate
scheme in place for the past two years.

While the adoption wing for cats at the Burnaby SPCA's Norland Avenue
shelter represents a second chance for many felines, it's death row for
even more.

And that has shelter superintendent Carson Wilson concerned.

"That's a sizable number of cats," he said, adding the cost of euthanizing
one cat costs the shelter between $60 and $65. "It's hard to say why - it's
just one of those things."

Perhaps not.

Wilson suspects much of the problem is associated with the still-rampant
bekief that cats are a "disposable" commodity.

"The day of the move comes, for example, and people can't find the cat so
they think 'Oh, we'll just leave it behind. We can get another one, they're
easy to come by,'" he explained.

Left yo fend for itself, the once-domesticated cat is soon feral and, if
it's an unspayed female, quite often gets pregnant and has a litter of
kittens, perpetuating the cycle in even greater numbers.

"And on and on it goes," Wilson said.

The shelter usually has little trouble finding homes for young kittens
turned in or captured - it's the older ones that often pay the price.

"We get stuck with cats 10 months to a year old, still very nice cats, they
get left behind. No one wants them," he said.

Nor do many citizens seem to have much interest in the city's spay and
neuter rebate program.

Finance director Rick Earle said after an initial flurry following the
program's launch, things have slowed down almost to a crawl.

"I think it's the amount of the rebate," he said of the $15 individuals
receive back after spaying or neutering their pets.

"On a percentage basis, it's a fairly significant amount, depending on
where they got the work done, but as far as an absolute dolar amount,
people just don't seem to bother."

Wilson said a mandatory spay and neuter scheme could be a possible answer.

[ Note: Scott Neilson has previously written some positive ar-related
articles, including one argung against vivisection. He also helped
significantly in generating publicity whilst I was leading the Burnaby Spay
and Neuter Coalition three years ago. Carson Wilson is one of a handful of
local SPCA officials who are prepared to speak out against animal abuse and
cruelty.]



Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 14:10:17 -0800
From: Barry Kent MacKay <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: (CA)  Fishery panel orders ex-admiral to appear
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The Toronto Star;  Saturday, February 7, 1998

Fishery panel orders ex-admiral to appear
Official again faces allegations of missing reports

HALIFAX (CP) - A former admiral touched by the Somalia scandal is to be
called before the Commons fisheries committee as his new department
faces a subpoena for refusing to give sensitive documents to members of
Parliament.

Former vice-admiral Larry Murray was acting chief of defence staff in
1996-97 when he got into an angry exchange with the chairperson of a
royal commisssion over its treatment of junior officers testifying at
the Somalia inquiry.

Now Murray is associate deputy minister of fisheries --- the
department's No. 2 bureaucrat --- and angry members of the all-party
panel want to hear from him on his qualifications and role in
withholding reports on fishing by foreign ships.

"Is the minister hanging on to foreign observer documents until Murray
warms up the Somalia shredder?" Reform MP [Member of Parliament] Robert
Anders asked Fisheries Minister David Anderson in the Commons yesterday.

The committee plans to subpoena the reports, which detail fishing
efforts by more than 200 foreign vessels working off the East Coast,
where 40,000 Atlantic Canadian workers are jobless due to moratoriums on
key stocks.

Earl Wiseman, head of the department's international affairs
directorate, has said his officials gave the committee more thorough
statistics than it asked for, though not the observer reports
themselves.

But Liberal MP George Baker, committee chairperson, said those
statistics do not detail foreign fishing efforts to his panel's
satisfaction.

"We want to know what those observers said.  We want to know the
discards, the violations.  We want to know what they're doing, exactly
what they're catching...We want to know it all.

"The only way we can know it is through the observer reports."

The impasse has delayed the committee report by weeks, Baker said.

"What is the minister hiding?" Anders demanded to know.  "Will the
minister of fisheries and oceans hand over these documents today, or has
Larry Murray brought the culture of cover-up to the DFO [Deparment of
Fisheries and Oceans]?"

Anderson said yesterday he's willing to let Baker see the reports in
private but he repeated the department's stand that it cannot, under
law, allow them to be made public.  Officials have cited commercial
secrets as the reason.

"We must respect the wishes of the foreign nations involved," the
department told Baker in a letter last week.

But the committee's vice-chairman, B.C. Reformer Gary Lunn, said the
documents legally be turned over.

-30-

Barry Kent MacKay
International Program Director
Animal Protection Institute
http://www.api4animals.org


Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 20:04:37 EST
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Houston Rodeo Protest Plans!!!!!
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We are hoping to have a protest on the opening day of the Houston Livestock
Show and Rodeo, which is February 20th. We need all the help and people we can
get. If anyone is interested in preparations, participation or just spreading
the word, contact Frog and Renee at   [e-mail]   or call 713-863-8390.
Also, if anyone has any ideas for demo's (like a human in a saddle, etc...) or
helpful protest hints, please contact us!

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 19:23:47 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Injured Animals Must Wait 48 Hours for Humane Care
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1 Dead, 1 Missing in Calif. Storms
.c The Associated Press

by LOUINN LOTA

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A car careened off a collapsed road, killing one man, and
rescuers searched for a teen-age snowboarder on Sunday as Southern California
continued to reel from the soggy weight of El Nino storms.

While skies were clear, two days of rain left creeks in spate and mountains
heavy with snow. Another storm was expected to hit the area by nightfall,
bringing up to a half-inch of rain at lower elevations and an inch in the
mountains, the National Weather Service said.

A flash flood watch was in effect for Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles
counties. A heavy surf advisory was in effect until Monday morning from San
Luis Obispo County to the Mexican border for 7- to 11-foot waves that could
reach 14 feet at times, the weather service said.

In the Chatsworth area of the western San Fernando Valley, an unidentified man
was killed when a car plummeted about 50 feet into a ravine from a private
paved road that was undermined by storm saturation, authorities said.

It was unclear whether the road gave way before or while the car was crossing.
A man and a woman in their 60s survived the crash, crawling from the upside-
down car and climbing the ravine to get help. They were airlifted to a
hospital for observation. Both appeared to be in good condition.

The accident on Santa Susana Pass Road was reported at about 7:30 a.m. but it
was unclear when the car plunged off the bridge, city Fire Department
spokesman Bob Collis said.

In the Angeles National Forest west of Wrightwood, 120 people from specialized
rescue units searched for a 14-year-old snowboarder missing since Saturday
afternoon while snowboarding with an uncle.

The boy, whose identity was withheld, was last seen at Mountain High West ski
resort. Winds were gusting strongly when the teen slid out of resort
boundaries into a canyon.

The weather service said a new storm could bring another half-foot of snow
above 6,000 feet in mountains in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

The storms didn't only affect humans.

In recent weeks, more than 200 California sea lions have been rescued along
the Southern California coast, with nearly half being cared for at Sea World
in Mission Bay.

Of the 88 sea lions rescued and brought to the park, 38 have died.

``We can only save what we can save,'' said biologist Joe Cordaro, who keeps
track of the numbers for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The agency has set a 48-hour observation period before beached animals receive
human care to help ensure contagious animals will not infect healthy ones at
rescue centers.

Meanwhile, Ventura County agriculture officials estimated that the storm
damage to avocados, lemons, strawberries and other crops will top the previous
estimate of $5.5 million.

``I wouldn't be surprised if the original estimate triples,'' Rex Laird,
county Farm Bureau executive director, said Saturday. ``There's no way anyone
in agriculture can experience anything but negative results from here on
out.''

AP-NY-02-08-98 1710EST

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 20:37:05 -0500
From: Vegetarian Resource Center <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: How low will we go in fishing for dinner?
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