Ark of Noah

Photos of injured monkeys raise concern

Sep 3

Posted by Noah in Animal Research/Testing, Monkeys | No Comments

Federal officials say they will inspect an animal research facility now that watchdog groups have complained about photos of bloody monkeys they say were leaked from inside.

Ten photos showing monkeys with deep gashes and open wounds surfaced on the Internet last week. An underground group calling itself the Animal Liberation Investigative Unit claims to have leaked the photos from inside the walls of Primate Products Inc. in Doral.

“Those pictures may be the tip of the iceberg,” said Don Anthony, spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale-based Animal Rights Foundation of Florida. “Who knows what else may be going on behind the scenes?”
sun-sentinel.com

Wildlife trafficker admits to smuggling 95 live snakes

Sep 3

Posted by Noah in Animal Trafficking | No Comments

KUALA LUMPUR — A Malaysian wildlife trafficker has pleaded guilty to smuggling 95 endangered boa constrictors and could face up to seven years in jail, officials said Friday.

Anson Wong, 52, nicknamed the “Lizard King” and described as one of the world’s most-wanted smugglers of wild animals, was arrested at the airport last week after he tried to smuggle the live snakes to neighbouring Indonesia.

The Wildlife and National Parks Department has said Wong was arrested after his luggage broke while on the conveyor belt, and airline staff later found snakes and a turtle in his bag.
hostednews/afp

Prince Harry accused of animal cruelty over polo horse injury

Sep 3

Posted by Noah in Animal Sports | No Comments

Prince Harry has been accused of animal cruelty after pictures of him riding an injured horse during a polo match surfaced.

In the pic, he is riding a pony that appeared to have been stabbed in the flank by his spurs.

The horse was injured during a match at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park in July, but pictures of the incident have just emerged.

An onlooker has claimed that the 25-year-old prince continued to ride his horse even when blood was visible on its flank.
hindustantimes.com

Earth’s animals face grim future

Sep 2

Posted by Noah in Endangered, Envioronment | No Comments

Major extinction event taking place, with many wondering what animals will disappear from the planet forever

By Jennifer Viegas

Corals, big mammals and many tropical species could all go extinct in the not too distant future, predict scientists who are attempting to forecast the fate of today’s animals by studying what happened to those in the distant past.

A complication is that no prior mass extinction event on the planet was driven by a single species. In a period of more than a half-billion years, only three such extinction events appear to have been as devastating as the present one, which is being caused by humans.
msnbc.msn.com

Man charged with animal trafficking

Sep 2

Posted by Noah in Animal Trafficking | No Comments

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian who served time in the United States nine years ago for animal trafficking, was charged with a similar offence at the Sepang magistrate’s court on Wednesday.

Anson Wong Kheng Liang, 53, was arrested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport last week while allegedly trying to smuggle 95 boa constrictors out of the country.

He was on transit from Penang to Jakarta when Kuala Lumpur International Airport authorities spotted Anson taking a bag with a broken lock held together with a rope.
nst.com.my

Russia and China agree to protect Siberian tigers

Sep 2

Posted by Noah in Animal Parts Traffic, Endangered, Poaching, Tigers | No Comments

China and Russia have agreed to set up the first cross-border protection zone for rare Siberian tigers.

Only about 500 of the big cats are thought to be left in the wild.

The zone will straddle the border along China’s Jilin province and Russia’s Primorsky Krai area, where both sides will enforce anti-poaching measures.

Hunting for skins and body parts, to be used in Chinese traditional medicines, is partly responsible for the decline in tiger numbers.

Illegal logging has also shrunk the tigers’ natural habitat.

Both countries will also adopt a joint monitoring system to track tiger numbers, and conduct joint ecological surveys.
bbc.co.uk

Will Aging Chimps Get to Retire, or Face Medical Research?

Sep 2

Posted by Noah in Animal Research/Testing, Chimpanzees | No Comments

By DAN FROSCH

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — Flo the chimpanzee bounds about her enclosure, hurls a rubber ball then stares quizzically at the New Mexico green chili pepper that will be her morning snack.

It has been a long time since Flo was on exhibit at the Memphis Zoo, even longer since she learned to smoke cigarettes during a stint with the circus. Most recently, she was a research chimpanzee here in New Mexico, part of an expansive biomedical testing program for hepatitis C and H.I.V.

At the moment, though, she is out of a job — but perhaps not for long.

Flo and the 185 other chimpanzees who live at the Alamogordo Primate Facility at Holloman Air Force Base have not been research subjects for nearly a decade — part of an agreement between the National Institutes of Health and the military, which prohibits using the animals for biomedical tests on the base.
nytimes.com

Obama urged to help end Japan’s dolphin hunt

Sep 2

Posted by Noah in Dolphins | No Comments

(AFP)

TOKYO — Animal rights activists protested against Japan’s dolphin hunts in a rally outside the US embassy in Tokyo Thursday, calling on President Barack Obama to pressure the count
ry over the issue.

Ric O’Barry, star of the Oscar-winning eco-documentary “The Cove”, handed a petition with 1.7 million signatures from more than 150 countries to US embassy officials, a day after the dolphin season started in the town of Taiji.

“We have come to ask President Obama to get involved in this issue and ask the Japanese government to abolish this annual, anachronistic, brutal slaughter of dolphins,” said O’Barry, who trained dolphins for the TV show “Flipper”.

The US president is expected to visit Japan in November for an annual summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.
hostednews/afp