Animal News:
Protesters Greet Ringling in Los Angeles
"Hard to tell which will put on the bigger show -- the 138th edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, opening at Staples Center tonight, or animal rights groups, including PETA, taking aim at one of their prime targets. Last Chance for Animals is also getting into the act, as is Born Free [USA united with API]..."
The circus -- and the protesters -- come to town tonight
Veronique de Turenne
Los Angeles Times
TV report on Ringling lawsuit
In-depth investigative piece focuses on the Animal Protection Institute’s coalition lawsuit against Ringling Bros. for substandard care of endangered Asian elephants.
Ringling Brothers Responds to a Pending Lawsuit
KLAS-TV Las Vegas
Monkeys are not surrogate children
The July 1, 2008, episode of ABC News Primetime focuses on people who have purchased monkeys as surrogate children. Born Free USA united with API has more than 500 primates at its sanctuary, many formerly kept as pets, and our staff worked closely with Primetime producers to develop this story, including allowing them the use of footage from our investigation into exotic animals kept as “pets.”
Families Adopt Monkeys as Surrogate Children
ABC News Primetime
Spain passes law on rights for great apes
"Great apes should have the right to life and freedom, according to a resolution passed in the Spanish parliament, in what could become landmark legislation to enshrine human rights for chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and bonobos." Born Free USA united with API's UK-based colleague, the Born Free Foundation, has a similar interest in great apes through its core involvement in The Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP), a United Nations partnership that aims to lift the threat of imminent extinction faced by gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans across their ranges in equatorial Africa and south-east Asia.
Spanish parliament approves 'human rights' for apes
Lee Glendinning
The Guardian
Another elephant leaves another zoo
"The lone, and perhaps lonely, elephant at the Dallas Zoo is being sent to a park in Mexico. The zoo on Tuesday announced plans to relocate Jenny, a 32-year-old African elephant, to the drive-through Africam Safari Park, about 80 miles southeast of Mexico City in Puebla state. The park is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. So is the Dallas Zoo." Born Free USA united with API's UK-based colleague, the Born Free Foundation, began as a project to get the one remaining elephant, Pole Pole, out of the London Zoo.
Jenny, the elephant, leaving Dallas Zoo for Mexico
Associated Press
Houston Chronicle
Strengthening laws against exotic "pets"
"The growing interest in adopting animals that belong in the jungle, not in high-rise apartments, is prompting many other states to tighten their laws. About two dozen states, including California, Vermont and New Hampshire, already ban exotic pets — usually defined as any animal that is not a dog, cat, fish, horse or rabbit. Maryland is moving to strengthen its laws, and Florida legislators are drafting laws to stop an invasion of giant snakes." Born Free USA united with Animal Protection Institute has authored many of those laws and ceaselessly urges the passage of laws restricting private possession of exotic animals.
Popular exotic pets
Ruth David
Forbes
Food crisis solution: Go vegan
We grow enough food for everyone, but livestock are devouring our food supply. Commentator and bioethicist Peter Singer says unless we change, the dinner plate of the future will look far different. Born Free USA united with Animal Protection Institute has long maintained that going vegetarian or even vegan has the potential to affect positively lives of farm animals, to halt the destruction of the environment, and to improve one's own personal health.
Food crisis solution: Go vegan
Kai Ryssdal & Peter Singer
Marketplace
American Public Media
Suit Against Ringling Gains Ground
Animal welfare groups have long accused the Ringling Brother and Barnum & Bailey Circus of animal cruelty and court records show the circus has played rough in response. It spent millions of dollars on a 10-year espionage campaign which infiltrated and spied on animal organizations and activists. The man in charge was previously the head of Covert Operations for the CIA. The groups hope to have the last word when they haul Ringling Brothers into federal court this October with a lawsuit alleging the circus is cruel to its endangered Asian Elephants. The Animal Protection Institute is one of the plaintiffs in that suit.
To view the video reporting, clink on these links (stories begin after the commercial:
Circus Lawsuit Moves Forward
George Knapp
CBS 8 Las Vegas Now Eyewitness News
