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#30 From: "urs_noop" <urs_noop@...>
Date: Fri Dec 31, 2004 11:49 am
Subject: new year's resolution urs_noop
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let make some resolution's for animals fro this year 2005...

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#29 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Fri Dec 31, 2004 4:46 am
Subject: Surprising findings from Sri Lanka.....Experts: Tsunami Kills Few Animals lucia@...
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Experts: Tsunami Kills Few Animals

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2004122906180001920800&
dt=20041229061800&w=APO&coview

YALA NATIONAL PARK, Sri Lanka (AP) - Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka
expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of large-scale
animal deaths from the weekend's massive tsunami - indicating that
animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground.

An Associated Press photographer who flew over Sri Lanka's Yala National
Park in an air force helicopter saw abundant wildlife, including
elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse.

Floodwaters from the tsunami swept into the park, uprooting trees and
toppling cars onto their roofs - one red car even ended up on top of a
huge tree - but the animals apparently were not harmed and may have
sought out high ground, said Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, whose Jetwing
Eco Holidays ran a hotel in the park.

``This is very interesting. I am finding bodies of humans, but I have
yet to see a dead animal,'' said Wijeyeratne, whose hotel in the park
was totally destroyed in Sunday's tidal surge.

``Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense,''
Wijeyeratne said.

Yala, Sri Lanka's largest wildlife reserve, is home to 200 Asian
Elephants, crocodile, wild boar, water buffalo and gray langur monkeys.
The park also has Asia's highest concentration of leopards. The Yala
reserve covers an area of 391 square miles, but only 56 square miles are
open to tourists.

The human death toll in Sri Lanka surpassed 21,000. Forty foreigners
were among 200 people in Yala who were killed.

C Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information
contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or
otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The
Associated Press.

12/29/2004 06:18
APO

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#28 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:03 am
Subject: Editorial THT yesterday - Gadimai condemned lucia@...
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Dear friends,

THT yesterday published an editorial condemning Gadimai. The text is mostly
taken from our original letter to the editor, which was changed beyong
recognition. Although the editors have not apologised I think we should
consider this as one, and move on.....

Lucia.

Stop brutality
On December 18, thousands of animals were offered to Goddess Gadimai at the
Gadimai temple at Bariyarpur in Bara district. The Gadimai fair comes once
in every five years and is "famous" for animal sacrifice. This year the
fair started after the sacrifice of white rat, pigeon, pig, goat and
buffalo. President of the Gadimai Trust, Ram Chandra Saha, was quoted in
the newspapers as saying that on this day alone some 10,000 buffaloes and
15,000 goats were offered to the Goddess. This began with a special
trantrik puja and ended the next day after the sacrifice of goats. It was
reported that over 7 million pilgrims from Nepal and India visited the fair
and over 50,000 animals were massacred. Brutal and unorganised
extermination of innocent animals in the name of God or Goddess is
unfortunately said to have become a part of Nepali culture. The people
resort to animal sacrifice especially during Durga Puja in the popular
belief that appeasing the Goddess of Power brings prosperity and good luck.
However, observing religious practices and engaging in age-old tradition is
one thing, but resorting to unreasonable animal sacrifice for selfish
reasons in the name of religion is quite another. In any case, given the
poor conditions of the country, it can hardly be claimed that the almighty
God and Goddess have actually blessed the Nepali people on account of
animal/bird sacrifices. Also, Nepalis proudly declare themselves to be the
followers of Lord Buddha's Ahimsa, non-violence. Ironically then, the
people are being hypocritical while blindly following the traditional line
of macabre animal killings.

Organisations working in the field of protection of animal rights have long
been raising their voices against violent killing of animals. They have
persistently argued that cruelty against animals harm the society as a
whole. Reasons are obvious. It breeds insensitivity in children who may
take to criminal activities. As many tourists abhor such practices, it can
hamper the vital tourism industry of the country. Also, Nepal is a
signatory to a number of international wildlife treaties calling for humane
killing of livestock and poultry. The cruelty followed in Nepali
festivities completely contradicts the spirit of these conventions. Such an
uncivilised behaviour can only take the people backward and in no way would
help Nepal to move ahead to become a fully egalitarian society. It is
crucial to challenge all those orthodox beliefs that waste and drain the
resources. It would be better if the initiative started at the people's
level. The government and the civil society should discourage and
immediately design measures to raise awareness and end the violent
practices to help Nepal become a truly peaceful country.

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#27 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Sun Dec 26, 2004 4:17 pm
Subject: Nice reply regarding Gadimai lucia@...
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From: Jagdish A. Aarohi [mailto:jagdishaa@...]
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 11:58 PM
To: animalnepal@...
Subject: Gory Practice in Bara

Dear Ms Vries,

I am writing this to appreciate and thank you for your valuable and timely article: �Gory Practice in Bara� which recently appeared in the letter to the editor column in The Himalyan Times daily. I was overwhelmed with joy reading it. You cannot imagine how happy and how encouraged my colleagues and I feel after reading it. We knew there are environmentalist and animal rights group working in Nepal but I had not seen any noticeable contribution made towards the campaign against the cruelty to animals so far. It may just be my ignorance.

I am born and brought up in the region where Gadhi Mai Mela takes place. I have seen the gruesome killings; the massacre of animals and birds very closely from my own eyes. I have been raising my voice against this ghastly killing since quite a long time but more forcefully as a campaign for last ten years. By so doing I have antagonized many as well who really believe in animal sacrifices. They think my work is anti-Hindu. At the same time there are many who appreciate our work. I know, like Human Rights, Animal Rights too is an universal issue. Any one of any religion, nationality or race can protest any form of atrocities committed to any creatures. Therefore, I do not bother what these people say about me. I am glad you included these lines in your article �Nepal has signed a number of international wildlife treaties followed by the introduction of the Meat Act, which calls for humane killing of livestock and poultry. The cruelty displayed in these so-called traditions completely contradicts the spirit of these treaties and acts�.

To enforce my points I also wrote an articleI am not a writer though, it was my first article I ever wrote. (Please see attachment, and please ignore language mistakes in the article). �Nation�, English weekly published from Kathmandu printed it in its Dec 19 issue but with a mistake in my surname. I am glad however, they did print the article. The article is the true account of the infamous Gadhi Mai Mela and the atrocities committed to animals and birds there in the name of sacrifice. By the way, did you visit the mela or sacrifice site recently? If you did, you could not miss our banners in Nepali and also in English along the road to Gadhi Mai, they read: Stop Killing of Innocent Animals and Birds in The Name of Sacrifice� and �Stop Cruelty to Animals and Birds� etc.

I am telling you all this to let you know that our task is not very easy where 90% of the population is meat-eaters and majority of it believe in animal sacrifice, including its Hindu monarch. Thank God, and we are glad, our king did not offer any animal sacrifice this time when he visited Gadhi Mai Temple recently. We believe our campaign against Cruelty to Animals is slowly gaining ground. I am still in this region and have been monitoring Gadhi Mai Mela right from the beginning. This year greater numbers of visitorsover 50 to 60% morecame to the Mela compared to the last Mela five years ago but the number of animal sacrifices was much less. Gadhi Mai received less than 50% of animal sacrifice this time. Therefore, we have some room for encouragement too in this sector.

Lastly, let me thank you once again for your great article: �Gory Practice in Bara�. It came at such a time when we needed moral support the most. It did work like a morale booster for us.

Sincerely,

Jagdish Aarohi

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#26 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Sun Dec 26, 2004 5:03 am
Subject: Christmas Greetings from Animal Nepal, and a Free Gift for You! lucia@...
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Dear Friend,

Animal Nepal believes that in order to bring about long term change we must reach out to youth. This year we launched an eexciting project called Rock and Bark, a music project which includes most of Nepal's famous music artists. Apart from a CD and video (shown on the TV channels) Rock and Bark consists of a number of concerts. The basic message: Be Kind to Everyone, Including Animals. "All of us share the same blood and the same feelings."

You will be happy to see the outcomes, which are now available on the web :

http://www.animalnepal.org/thevideo.htm - The Aau Milli Gau video now online!
http://www.animalnepal.org/themusic.htm - Bites of each track on the CD for your enjoyment.

Can I recommend that you send these links out to all animal lovers (or not) around the globe? They represent a holiday gift from all of us at Animalnepal.org. And of course, as it is better to give than to receive, and to ask for something in return is just bad manners, I won t even mention that there is a donation link on these pages (meow J).

Seriously, we are very pleased to be able to present this work for all to enjoy, and we wish to thank all the artists, technicians, distributors, sponsors, etc. for their generous donations of labor and love this year, thus making this CD possible. Please check the web often for upcoming concert information, as we are still planning a big bash in Kathmandu early in 2005.

http://www.animalnepal.org/projectsCDs.htm

From all of us at www.animalnepal.org, have a happy holiday!

Jiggymutt

Chairdog

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#25 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Sat Dec 25, 2004 6:25 am
Subject: Maoist and Gadimai lucia@...
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Friends,

Supported from a somewhat unexpected corner for our campaign against the cruelty conducted at Gadimai. Here a write up from Janaastha, the Maoist mouthpiece, kindly translated by Avantika Regmi.

Lucia.

King-Queen Sacrifice Mice

Which animals figure in the list of panchabali (sacrifice of five types of animals and birds) offered to the gods-goddesses by the king? In general, during panchabali everybody, from the king to the common man, sacrifice he-goats, young buffaloes, cocks, ducks and doves. However, this time, at Gadhimai, His Majesty also made sacrificial offering of white mice so that Goddess Gadhimai would bestow His Majesty with immense power. His Majesty made the offering of white mice last Saturday, at the Gadhimai Mela, which is seven kilometer east of Kalaiya, the headquarter of Bara district, that lies on the banks of rivulet Pasaha. The Gadhimai Mela is celebrated for the duration of one month, every five years, and this time His Majesty the King himself participated in the mela, and made sacrifices of young buffaloe, two doves, a female baby goat, two white colored mice and fish. After their Majesties prayed to Gadhimai, the animal offerings were kept in front of the king and after the recitation of the ritual prayer that the king had offered these five types of animals and birds to Gadhimai, the live offerings were touched by the Tharu priests of the temple. The live offerings which His Majesties made to Gadhimai were not sacrificed in front of them. For remembrance, in the very beginning of the Gadhimai Mela, a white mouse was sacrificed. In this festival, thousands of animals and hundreds of white mice lose their lives.

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#24 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Tue Dec 21, 2004 3:31 pm
Subject: Tibetans go vegetarian! lucia@...
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An inspiring interview with a veggie Tibetan....ending with those lovely words from Shanti Deva:

As long as space remains,
As long as sentient beings remain
Until then, may I too remain
And dispel the miseries of the world.

Promoting Vegetaranism: an Interview
Phayul[Sunday, December 19, 2004 11:51]

"Where Tibetans go, butchers flourish," they say. But this is soon to
end if efforts of a lone Tibetan youth is to bear fruit. Tenzin Kunga
Luding, a Tibetan youth is on a mission to bring about vegetarianism
in the Tibetan society. He agrees it is a gradual process though. But
he believes every Tibetan will one day embrace vegetarianism. Phayul
reporter Nilza Angmo caught up with him recently, excerpts...

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=8603&article=Promoting+Vegetaranism:+an+Interview&t=1&c=1

What prompted you to start this society?

As a child I was extremely fond of meat unlike my sister who rejected meat or its soup right from her infancy. I relished meat not knowing how it came about, till I was about 10-11 years old when someone narrated me for the first time how cattles were packed in trucks, unloaded, and mercilessly slaughtered. The suffering of these animals that were forced to be our food touched my heart right through. Since then I gave up meat. To make up for it, I used to consume lots of milk and eggs, as school books, movies, health magazines and everyone around my world believed these two things were healthy and necessary and I felt the same too. Then one day I read Maneka Gandhi�s book "Heads and Tails". This book was the turning point of my life and it enlightened me about lots of ugly things that I knew for the first time. I realized that these foods (eggs, meat, and animal dairy products) were not only causing so much of unnecessary sufferings to animals but were harmful to our precious health and environment as well. I then chose to be a Vegan. At that time hardly anyone had heard of this term and almost everybody opposed or was skeptical of it. But I had the full support of my family, even though they were concerned of my health. I knew what I was doing and I stuck firm to my belief. I knew that compassion and loving-kindness form the core teachings of our �Buddha Dharma� and so propagation of vegetarianism was even more important in our community. I waited long time for a related group to come up in our community, but nothing surfaced. Finally, I took it upon myself to get things started and thus how we have the first Tibetan vegetarian and vegan group called "Tibetans For Vegetarian Society (T4VS). It is a registered non-profit charitable trust. I consider it as our community�s share of contribution for the development of a globally healthy, happy and humane environment. Everybody is welcome to join us whether vegetarian or non-vegetarian, Buddhist or non Buddhist.

What is your opinion present dietary habit of the Tibetan community?
I can only comment on what I have seen in the Tibetan community in India specially the ones I have been to. I am happy to observe that our food variety has improved and people are getting more health conscious. Most Tibetans have now included legumes in their regular diet which is very important. More people are turning to vegetarianism, specially the younger generation, which is wonderful. We have now started to gift fruits and juices in place of eggs and butter which was in the past a regular feature when visiting a guest. In fact I feel we must introduce fruits on a daily basis. I would love to see Soya bean dairy products replace animal dairy products. It is not only healthier, and ethical, but also an environment friendly option. On the whole I think there is some awareness to remain healthy seeped in the minds of our people and we must continue to follow in the same direction.

What kind of activities do you organize to create awareness of the benefits of a vegetarianism?

We wish to explore every possible means to reach people. So far we have shown documentaries to public and students, put up posters, given appeals in Tibetan Review, distributed pamphlets and stickers, sent video CD�s to every settlement and few big monastic institutions in India. We ran a signature campaign persuading all the Tibetan restaurants and meat sellers in Majnu-Ka Tilla and Budh Vihar colony to observe a meatless day on full moon�s day during the Saga Dawa month. Recently we organized a very successful concert in Majnu-Ka-Tilla as a part of celebration of the Tibetan Vegetarian Year (2004-2005) with the well-known Shambala Band, Pa-Tsering, Dhondup Tashi, etc. Phuntsok Topden, a youngster of our board member, has also started a "Green Friday" movement in his settlement. On this day many people of his settlement abstain from eating meat. As we have already registered our domain i.e. www.t4vs.com we are now on the phase of developing a web site for it. Alongside this, we are working to make a new video documentary to be shown in year 2005. We also hope to organize the first Vegetarian congress in our Tibetan society in the nearby future.

A few words to the Tibetan community?
I would like our people to read the book, "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins, which will give an insight into the need for plant based diet and my belief. One can also visit some good websites like, www.vegsource.com, www.ivu.org, and www.peta.org. What I am doing is nothing new; it has always been there in our Buddhist scriptures. I am only trying to follow these teachings by propagating love and compassion with respect for nature. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, also stresses often the need to cultivate a good human heart for the benefit of all living beings. Therefore it would be nice to see people trying to give up or reduce meat for a week, month, or for whatever limit of time they could. Meat is no more a matter of survival for us. With exposure to large varieties of nutritious vegetarian food, improved technology, better transportation system, and advancements of knowledge in various fields it is so much easier for us to give up meat than our predecessors.
Lastly, I conclude with the favorite lines of His Holiness written by Shanti Deva which has always motivated me. I hope it does the same to you all.

As long as space remains,
As long as sentient beings remain
Until then, may I too remain
And dispel the miseries of the world.

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#23 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Tue Dec 21, 2004 4:26 am
Subject: Excellent write up in Nation Weekly, Dec 19, 2004 lucia@...
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Beastly Instincts
Every five years, tens of thousands of animals are sacrificed at Gadhi Mai. It is a cruelty without parallel.

BY JAGDISH ARYA
Every five years, thousands of animals are sacrificed to appease the Goddess Gadhi Mai, the site of the single worst carnage in the country. This year the fateful date is Dec. 18.

What leads to the massacre is a very murky turn of events. The goddess gives the indication of her hunger for blood when a lamp ignites on its own at an anointed site at Gadhi Mai in Kalaiya. The whole thing takes place outside the public view, under a piece of cloth. Once the priests show that the lamp is lit, it is deemed as an indication from the goddess that she is demanding sacrifices or that she has signaled that the sacrifices can begin. A series of rituals takes place, ultimately leading to the bloodbath in which hundreds of thousands of animals are hacked to death.

The first ritual is the worshipping of weapons, which are later used to sacrifice the animals. Then the priests chant different hymns to appease the goddess. Once the pre-sacrificial rituals end, the animals are brought in for the kill. The sacrifice starts with the offering of five different creatures�the Pancha Bali. This includes: pigs, buffalos, goats, roosters and rats. The first on the list is the goat, followed by thousands of pigeons. Then come the pigs. This goes on until a rat is brought to complete the Pancha Bali. Remarkably, the pig�s blood is not sprinkled on Goddess�s idol as the animal is considered unholy.

Climax
As the ritual of the sacrifice of five groups of animals approaches its end, more than 600 people carrying naked swords and axes wrapped in red clothes descend from all sides. They frantically rush towards the fenced field where thousands of buffaloes are kept. Many of them wear red headbands, indicating they are licensed killers.

This fair is infamous for the sheer number of deaths and the cruelty on display�all in the name of appeasing Goddess Gadhi Mai. The fair reaches its climax on the day of the mass animal sacrifice.

The last Gadhi Mai Mela in 1999 saw 18,000 buffaloes sacrificed. Interestingly, the Gadhi Mai Mela Committee keeps the record of buffaloes that are brought for sacrifice because the devotees pay to get their animals beheaded. This year, the committee expects this number to cross the 25,000-mark. It, however, does not keep records of other animals or birds because of the overwhelming numbers. They include goats, chickens, ducks and pigeons, besides buffaloes.

To facilitate these killings, a sacrifice zone with a three-km radius around the Gadhi Mai Temple has been set up. After entering the sacrificial zone one can chop off the animal anywhere one pleases.

This, however, doesn�t apply to buffaloes. They are kept separate in a very large, fenced field and they have to be registered and paid for before the kill. No one is allowed to take away the heads of their animal; that portion of the kill is meant for Gadhi Mai. Obviously, all creatures, small and big, which are brought for sacrifice, go through pain and suffering but buffaloes suffer the most. The killers can�t chop off the buffaloes� heads because of their size. So, to make their task easier, the hackers first cut the buffaloes� hind legs after which the animal falls on the ground. They then start hacking at the neck until the buffalo�s head is separated from its body. It takes 20 to 25 attempts in case of big buffaloes.

The bloodletting that takes place turns the entire area into a marshy land of blood; the chopped animal heads littred everywhere present a repulsive sight. The most appalling treatment is meted out on the animals that are brought for the Pancha Bali; their throats are slit. The slitting is done slow and deliberately. Legend has it that longer the duration, the happier the goddess. That�s not all. Three to four days after the sacrifice, people start fleeing the mela venue as it starts emitting a nauseating smell. All kinds of traffic avoid the fare. But it�s the people living in adjoining localities who suffer most. Many fall sick. It takes up to two weeks for the smell to go away.
Clearly, the scale of the killings at Gadhi Mai is increasing. Who is going to stand by these mute animals and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves?

(Arya is an environmentalist campaigning against cruelty against animals )

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#22 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Mon Dec 20, 2004 6:20 am
Subject: Sad news - King and Queen endorse mass killing at Gadimai lucia@...
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King, Queen offer prayers at Gadimai temple
Himalayan News Service

Bara, December 18:

King Gyanendra and Queen Komal offered prayers at the Gadimai temple at Bariyarpur in Bara district today. The royal couple also accepted the Gadimai Development Master Plan booklet and silver-framed emblem of Gadimai presented by the CDO, Madhav Prasad Regmi, after the puja.

Ram Chandra Saha, chairman of the Gadimai Temple Management and Development Com-mittee, asked the King and the Queen for overall development of the area. Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Uma Kant Chaudhary, CDO Regmi along with Saha welcomed the royal couple, who returned to Kathmandu at noon. The Gadimai fair that comes once in every five years, officially started today. The fair is famous for animal sacrifice, which began after the sacrifice of white rat, pigeon, pig, goat and buffalo.

President of the Gadimai Trust, Ram Chandra Saha, said today alone some 10,000 buffaloes and 15,000 goats were offered to the goddess. The sacrifice that began after special trantrik puja will end tomorrow after the sacrifice of goats. Saha said over 5 million pilgrims visited the temple on the first day.

It is estimated that over 7 million pilgrims will visit the fair and over 50,000 animals will be sacrificed. The fair has covered an area of 150 bighas of land of the Bariyarpur village.

The pilgrims are thronging in from different parts of Nepal and India.

Pavan Yadav of North Jhitkaiya-2, Bara, expressed amazement at the sea of people. The pilgrims have complained of lack of facilities of toilets and traffic mismanagement.

An Indian pilgrim, Gambhira Prasad, said he had not been able to have food even in hotels.

Another Sushila Devi of eastern Champaran in India said she could not get firewood to prepare food. Some were annoyed by the security persons� behaviour.

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#21 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Mon Dec 20, 2004 6:08 am
Subject: Killing dogs does not stop the spread of rabies, confirms major Indonesian study lucia@...
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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Killing dogs does not stop the spread of rabies, confirms major
Indonesian study

 BANGKOK, FALLUJAH, BUCHAREST, BEIJING, CAIRO,
COLOMBO--If, as Winston Churchill advised, one should never
attribute to malice what may be attributed to stupidity, official
stupidity rather than malice failed to prevent rabies outbreaks and
drove dog massacres in at least 18 nations during the latter half of
2004.
 Dogs were shot, poisoned, gassed, clubbed, or
electrocuted by the tens of thousands because many authorities in
much of the world have yet to recognize that mass vaccination is the
only effective means of stopping or even slowing a canine rabies
epidemic.
 Dog massacres were even reported in three states of
Argentina, where Oscar P. Larghi, M.D., showed during the 1990s
that intensive three-month vaccination campaigns can virtually
eradicate rabies from major cities.
 "Even massive culling of the dog population, without an
intensive vaccination campaign among the survivors, will not arrest
an outbreak [of rabies] even if it occurs on a small island,"
concluded Indonesian Ministry of Health rabies control expert
Caccilia Windiyaningsih, in the November 2004 edition of the Journal
of the Medical Association of Thailand. Windiyaningsih extensively
reviewed one of the most intensive efforts on record to stop rabies
by killing dogs.
 "Flores is an isolated previously rabies-free Indonesian
island which has been experiencing a canine rabies outbreak,"
resulting in at least 113 deaths through June 2004, Windiyaningsih
began.
 The Flores rabies outbreak "started with the import of three
dogs from rabies-endemic Sulawesi in September 1987," Windiyaningsih
wrote. "Local authorities responded with massive killing of dogs,"
in early 1998.
 "Approximately 70% of the dogs in the district where rabies
had been introduced were killed that year," Windiyaningsih found,
"yet canine rabies still exists on Flores."
 Cats and monkeys were also targeted, to no avail.
 "Before the current rabies outbreak, there were an estimated
600,000-800,000 dogs on the island," Windiyaningsih elaborated.
"Almost all were owned and semi-controlled. They had not been
vaccinated against rabies, since rabies had never been reported
previously in Flores. Dogs were kept as watchdogs, pets, for food,
and for trade."
 Dog meat sellers, not street dogs, were most culpable for
the spread of rabies on Flores. "Some citizens did not kill their
dogs and moved them to the next as-yet rabies-free district, and
sold them in markets," Windiyaningsih explained. "Some of these dogs
incubated rabies and this contributed to the spread to other
districts."
 In East Flores, where the rabies outbreak started, 53,204
dogs were killed in 1998. Only 5,314 dogs remained as of 2002, of
whom only 40% were vaccinated, not even close to the 70% vaccination
rate needed to stop an epidemic, and less than half of the 85% rate
that the World Health Organization recommends as the goal of
vaccination campaigns, to create a margin of safety.
 Across the whole of Flores, 80% of the dog population was
killed. Just 46% of the survivors were vaccinated.
 Even after Flores authorities realized that the dog massacres
were not stopping rabies, Windiyaningsih noted, "No island-wide dog
vaccination campaign was implemented, as had been recommended by two
WHO consultants."
 The consultants, Henry Wilde of the Queen Saovabha Memorial
Institute in Thailand and WHO rabies expert F.X. Meslin, were
credited as co-authors of Windiyaningsih's paper, along with fellow
Indonesian Ministry of Health personnel Thomas Suroso and H.S.
Widarso.
 "An additional 226,698 or more dogs were killed after 1999,"
Windiyaningsih continued. "Nevertheless, canine rabies was not
eliminated. Out of 2,881 dogs tested for rabies, 2,318 were found
positive (80%)."
 "East Flores and Sikka districts continued culling dogs up to
2001," Windiyaningsih reported. "They were not successful in
eliminating the disease. Ende and Ngada (districts) started massive
killing of dogs in 2000, but made only meek efforts to follow this
with vaccination for the remaining canine population. Both districts
still experienced canine and human rabies in 2001. Only Lembata, an
isolated adjacent island district, remained free of human rabies,
but did report 37 cases of canine rabies and probably had more.
However," Windiyaningsih observed, "Lembata was the only district
that vaccinated over 50% of their dog population."
 The East Flores dog killingbegan more than a year after the
first human rabies case occurred, ANIMAL PEOPLE noted in June 1998.
The killing was ordered early in the unrest that brought the May 1998
fall of the Suharto dictatorship. Officials hinted as the killing
began that dissidents might be seen as mad dogs, by a regime formed
amid the 1965 slaughter of 300,000 ethnic Chinese citizens in the
name of purging Communists.

Dogs & democracy

 Windiyaningsih's findings affirmed the view expressed 31
years earlier by Dr. William Winkler of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, in the National Academy of Sciences'
handbook Control of Rabies, that "Persistant trapping or poisoning
campaigns as a means to rabies control should be abolished. There is
no evidence," Winkler wrote, "that these costly and politically
attractive programs reduce either wildlife reservoirs or rabies
incidence."
 Killing animals in the name of rabies control remains
politically attractive, worldwide, in part because the professed
need to exterminate dogs or other species provides a pretext for
shaky governments to keep soldiers busy, create patronage
employment, enlist the loyalty of ruffians who might otherwise make
trouble, and in the most extreme scenarios, fill the streets with
armed men whose gunfire tends to keep the public indoors,
intimidated, away from mass demonstration--like those in Kiev that
in November 2004 overturned the results of a corrupt national
election.
 A decade of sterilization, vaccination, and public
education by SOS Animals Ukraine, founded in 1994 by former United
Nations journalist Tamara Tarnawska, has ensured that there are few
mad dogs left in Kiev--and the success of the Ukrainian democracy
movement put into context the viciousness of the repression that SOS
Animals Ukraine met during the 1990s when it challenged the local
animal control establishment. Supporters' apartments were invaded
and their dogs clubbed to death in front of them, Tarnawska herself
was criminally accused of illegally possessing veterinary drugs,
vehicles were sabotaged, death threats were received even in the
presence of sympathetic news media, and the SOS Animals Ukraine
veterinarian suffered brain damage and serious memory loss in a
suspicious car crash that killed two other people.
 In hindsight, taking mad dogs out of the Ukrainian political
discourse may have been the beginning of the end of the
post-Communist authoritarian regime.

Dog soldiers

 Agence France-Presse on December 9 described the massacre of
dogs and cats that followed the 1st U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force
occupation of Fallujah, Iraq.
 The Iraqi newspaper Al Sabeh reported on October 6 that more
than 60 human rabies cases had occurred in Al Anbar province before
the U.S. invaded Fallujah.
 "Dr. Imad Al Deen Al Nagash, director of health monitoring
in the Iraqi Ministry of Health, was quoted as saying that the
spread of the disease was due to a shortage of vaccines, a shortage
of post-exposure treatments, the abundance of stray dogs, and a low
level of awareness among citizens," translated the Xinhuanet New
Agency.
 "Al Nagash stated that more than 145,000 children will be
vaccinated despite the ongoing military operations in Fallujah,
Ramadi, and two districts of Anbar Governorate," Xinuanet
continued.
 The vaccination effort probably never occurred. Neither did
the U.S. Marines bring supplies of Raboral, the oral rabies vaccine
made to immunize animals who cannot be captured for injections, nor
even conventional rabies vaccines and animal control know-how. What
they brought, replacing their combat weapons for dog-and-cat
killing, were blazing shotguns, demonstrating the approach that
fifty years ago left the rural South as the last part of the U.S.
with endemic canine rabies, long after vaccination eradicated it
elsewhere.
 Truly feral cats and street dogs were probably few, as the
Saddam Hussein regime had encouraged troops to use them for target
practice, and the survivors, like the survivors of cat and dog
purges everywhere, learned to be nocturnal and seldom seen. Pets
left by refugees from the fighting, on the other hand, would have
been easily killed.
 Marines told Agence France-Presse that they were getting rid
of a potential disease vector before the refugees returned. None
seemed to realize that some returning refugees might be looking for
their lost pets.

Dog meat & rabies

 The Xinhuanet attention to the Iraq rabies outbreak came
after 10 human rabies cases were reported in Cixi, China. After
several days of public announcements, Cixi officials and help hired
on a bounty basis reportedly killed 44,000 dogs in five days. A
similar massacre followed in Guilen.
 Chinese news media described the victims as unvaccinated
pets. Internet activist alerts asserted in thinly disguised rewrites
of alerts distributed before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens that
the killings were part of an official campaign to rid China of street
dogs before the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
 Neither claim appeared credible.
 Unlike Greece, where as many as 15,000 street dogs
reportedly disappeared in the years leading up to the 2004 Olympics,
China has few true street dogs, as they have not been officially
tolerated since the first major national dog purge closely followed
the Communist takeover in 1949.
 Photos of the Cixi dog massacre showed that most of the
victims were the relatively large yellow dogs called "meat dogs" in
southern and coastal China and Korea.
 Neither Cixi nor Guilen is anywhere near Beijing, or a major
route to Beijing, nor is either one a popular tourist destination in
itself. Both, however, are hub cities in districts known to
harbor huge dog meat farms, where few dogs are kept as pets.
 The numbers of dogs killed were exceptionally high compared
to the numbers reportedly killed during past purges of illegally kept
pets in Beijing and Shanghai, both of which are vastly larger cities.
 Finally, while China has strict laws mandating vaccination
of pet dogs against rabies, dogs raised for meat are exempted
because of a belief that vaccinated dogs cannot be safely eaten.
Officially, "meat dogs" are kept out of contact with other dogs, but
all canine rabies outbreaks known to have occurred in China within
the past dozen years have come in the dog meat producing and
consuming southern and coastal regions, not in the Beijing area, nor
in the interior, where dog-eating has been uncommon.
 The illegal Philippine dog meat trade may have been involved
in the rabies outbreak that brought the poisoning of about 1,500 dogs
in Legazpi during the week of November 18. The university city of
Dumaguete, several islands away, relied on sharpshooters to kill
about 500 street dogs during the first half of 2004, out of a
population estimated at 12,000.

Romania

 Political considerations were clearly behind late summer and
fall dog and cat purges in Bucharest, Romania, after mayor Traian
Basescu was re-elected in June and promptly declared his candidacy
for president of the nation. Basescu, whose political career has
been built upon dog-killing and mass arrests of prostitutes, on
December 12 claimed a disputed victory in the presidential runoff.
 In Galatzi, Romania, the Anglo-Indian firm Ispat
International acquired the vast SIDEX steel mill complex and pledged
to replace obsolete equipment notorious for producing pollution--and
showed serious intent, ROLDA cofounder Dana Costen e-mailed to
ANIMAL PEOPLE, by hiring dogcatchers to kill at least 1,000 of the
estimated 3,000 dogs who inhabit the vicinity, mostly as pets of
more than 5,000 workers and their families. Many of the dogs had
been sterilized and vaccinated, Costen said.
 In Serbia, Zov Society president Tadic Snezana alleged in a
five-page e-mail, more than 40 dogs were clubbed and injected with
the insecticide Dichlorvos on October 18 at the village of Kolut, by
order of Jovan Slavkovic, M.D., who in September was elected mayor
of the nearby city of Somor. The owner of the land where the dogs
were buried, Snezana wrote, tried to intervene, but he and his
watchman "were removed from the spot by brutal physical force."

Egypt & Turkey

 A dog massacre announced in Cairo in mid-September
appeared--briefly--to have been averted, through timely response by
the Egyptian Federation of Animal Welfare, Egyptian Society of
Animal Friends, and the Society to Protect Animal Rights in Egypt.
 "We suddenly have the beginning of a new era in Cairo," EFAW
and ESAF chief executive Ahmed El-Sherbiny and SPARE founder Amina
Abaza jointly e-mailed on October 27. "The head of the government
veterinary department who has in the past directed poisoning and
shooting campaigns has been replaced by Dr. Ahmed Tawfik. Dr. Tawfik
is very interested in neuter/return as an alternative to shooting and
poisoning, and wants to know more. He feels it would take about
three years to see the results of a neuter/return program, which is
a good indication that he does not expect overnight results,"
El-Sherbiny and Abaza reported, after meeting with him.
 Tawfik "was up front," El-Sherbiny and Abaza cautioned,
"that he would probably have to continue shooting and poisoning until
the neuter/return program is well advanced, in response to pressure
from above."
 Blue Cross of India chief executive Chinny Krishna and
Perihan Agnelli, founder of Fethiye Friends of Animals, flew to
Cairo to help get a neuter/return program started. Krishna
engineered the Indian national Animal Birth Control program. Agnelli
founded a similar program in 2000 in Fethiye, Turkey, which in June
2004 became the official model for animal control throughout the
nation, as part of a new national animal welfare law.
 The Indian ABC program, despite significant success over
many years, still meets frequent opposition from politicians who
would prefer to hire dog-killing goondas.
 Likewise, the new Turkish policy was soon challenged by dog
shootings and poisonings in at least three cities. Internal affairs
minister Abdulkadir Aksu on November 4 officially reminded the
administrators of 81 cities about their obligations under the law.
 The appearance of progress in Egypt hit a similar setback in
late November.
 "They are killing thousands of dogs," SPARE volunteer Mona
Khalil e-mailed. "My two special dogs were killed for no reason. A
person who did not want them around called the police, who came and
shot them. The police are cooperating with the veterinary
department, which uses poison."

Sri Lanka

 The news from Sri Lanka was more encouraging. After two
Colombo residents reportedly died of rabies in September 2004, Sri
Lanka health minister Nimal Siripala de Silva on September 22
announced his intent to reduce the Sri Lankan street dog population
from 2.5 million to one million, veterinarian Kala Santha e-mailed
to ANIMAL PEOPLE.
 Santha had for years vocally opposed a catch-and-kill program
that Sri Lankan officials repeatedly claimed was modeled after
recommendations of the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
 A second ominous sign from Colombo came when neuter/return
activists Shyama Peries and Kumudhini Saravanamuttu were charged with
"abandoning" animals, as described by Sagarica Rajakarunanayake of
the group Sathva Mithra in the September 2004 edition of ANIMAL
PEOPLE.
 Peries and Saravanamuttu were acquitted, however, on October 26.
Regime change was already underway at WSPA. Especially noteworthy
was the mid-2004 election of Chinny Krishna to the WSPA board. A
lifelong resident of Chennai, the nearest Indian city to Sri Lanka,
Krishna has often visited Colombo on business.
 While Krishna helped to equip programs in Colombo patterned
after the Indian ABC model, new WSPA director for companion animals
Elly Hiby relayed to ANIMAL PEOPLE that epidemiological research had
revealed to the Sri Lankan health ministry that 80% of the dog bites
requiring costly post-exposure anti-rabies treatment turned out to be
not from street dogs, who relatively rarely bite, but from
unvaccinated pets.
 This suggested to the health ministry a whole new direction,
Hiby indicated. Instead of trying to exterminate street dogs, which
was not working anyway, the future emphasis of Sri Lankan rabies
control will be on raising the rate of vaccination and sterilization
among pet dogs.
 Kandy Association for Comunity Protection Through Animal
Welfare secretary Champa Fernando told ANIMAL PEOPLE on December 15
that the work was "WSPA has moved away from any so-called
'catch-and-kill' policy, and now advocates a combination of
extensive sterilization, rehoming, education into responsible
petkeeping, and compulsory registration," WSPA director general
Peter Davies affirmed to ANIMAL PEOPLE.
 --Merritt Clifton

--
Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper
Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.
CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS IS: <ANPEOPLE@...>
Website: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/ with French and Spanish
language subsections.

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#20 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Tue Dec 14, 2004 5:24 am
Subject: Ayurvedic animal health care products lucia@...
Send Email

Friends,

Himalaya Herbal Health Care, a producer of high quality, safe herbal
medicines based in India, has released a great line of herbal animal health
products. We'd love to sell them and will make further enquiries. Check
them out at

http://www.himalayahealthcare.com/products/animalhealth.htm

Lucia
ANPO

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#19 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Mon Dec 13, 2004 5:17 pm
Subject: Re: Don't Forget Tonight's Premiere of Aau Milli Gau and an Important TV Show on Nepal's Animal Welfare lucia@...
Send Email

Langri and me enjoyed the show tremendously! You guys have done an amazing job! Shubu was shining, Sanzip looked ever so cute, PP was his creative self, and Jiggy looked 30 years younger. Let us know your secret and don't tell me it's just the make up....!

I thought the video clip was interesting too. I liked the scenes of the girl with the doves, the dog in the cage, Jes and Jig hugging, Willow with cute braces, 3 chorus girls dancing and Sanzip playing his fabulous solo. And of course the one of myself kissing a pup! The clip would have benefitted from a stronger story line but that's a hard one since we needed to fit in so much.

All in all - a great way to end 2004 for AnimalNepal.org. Well done, all of you.

Lucia.

ps let's watch the video together soon, okay? I want to exactly who is who where and when.

Dear Animal Lover,

Tonight on Kantipur TV, 9PM, Pooja Gurung s show, AnimalNepal.org is premiering the new rock video Aau Milli Gau from the Rock n Bark CD. The � hour program includes interviews with Subu, Sanz!p, PP, and Jiggy and the focus is animal welfare in Nepal and the efforts of over 19 artists, technicians, and sponsors. I hope u can tune in. (a DVD tape of this broadcast will be available from AnimalNepal.org for a mere 700|nrs for those that miss it, or free as part of a press release.) Please pass on this email to your friends and co-workers interested in Animal Welfare in Nepal. Thanks, and Woof!

Jiggymutt

Chairdog

www.animalnepal.org

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#18 From: "Herojig" <herojig@...>
Date: Mon Dec 13, 2004 12:20 pm
Subject: FW: Don't Forget Tonight's Premiere of Aau Milli Gau and an Important TV Show on Nepal's Animal Welfare herojig
Offline
Send Email

Dear Animal Lover,

Tonight on Kantipur TV, 9PM, Pooja Gurung’s show, AnimalNepal.org is premiering the new rock video Aau Milli Gau from the Rock n’ Bark CD. The � hour program includes interviews with Subu, Sanz!p, PP, and Jiggy and the focus is animal welfare in Nepal and the efforts of over 19 artists, technicians, and sponsors. I hope u can tune in. (a DVD “tape” of this broadcast will be available from AnimalNepal.org for a mere 700|nrs for those that miss it, or free as part of a press release.) Please pass on this email to your friends and co-workers interested in Animal Welfare in Nepal. Thanks, and Woof!

Jiggymutt

Chairdog

www.animalnepal.org

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#17 From: "Mandy Lamkin" <mandyl@...>
Date: Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:24 am
Subject: RE: Doggie Pill mandylamkin
Offline
Send Email

Hi all,

We are looking into this further at this end. We still need something similar for the girls, but the gov has picked the product up already as an efficient way of controlling native animal populations, which is good.

Hope everyone has a nice time celebrating the passing of another segment in time, that is, 2004. May all beings and Nepal be happy in 2005, and forever –whichever comes first.

Cheers,

Mandy

-----Original Message-----
From: Lucia [mailto:lucia@...]
Sent: Monday, 13 December 2004 1:15 PM
To: animalnepal@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [animalnepal] Doggie Pill

The Age, Melbourne December 10, 2004
>>
>>For dogs, end to cruel cut
>>By Michael Evans
>>
>>Man's best friend can breathe a little easier: dog owners can now choose
>>whether the family pooch need suffer the cruellest cut of all with the
>>release of what is claimed to be the first pet contraceptive.
>>
>>An Australian company, Peptech Animal Health, yesterday launched the
>>equivalent of the doggy pill, approved for sale through vets to treat male
>>dogs.
>>
>>Managing director Timothy Trigg said: "The owner may choose not to do it
>>(castrate) permanently. Some owners like to have a pair of nuts visible.
>>With this drug they're still there. Whether they go our way or the other,
>>it's up to them."
>>
>>The drug is inserted in an implant under skin between the dog's shoulders,
>>the company says. The low, continuous dose prevents production of sex
>>hormones, reducing testosterone levels to zero. This leads to a loss of
>>reproductive function that lasts six months

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#16 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Mon Dec 13, 2004 3:14 am
Subject: Doggie Pill lucia@...
Send Email

Reply | Forward | Messages in this Topic (5)

#15 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Thu Nov 25, 2004 3:24 pm
Subject: Girl Cured of Rabies With New Treatment lucia@...
Send Email

Was it God or the vaccin? Whatever, this is very good news of a potential life saver for many Nepalese. Remember the 60 devotees who contracted rabies in Udaypur last January after drinking milk from a rabid cow?

Girl Cured of Rabies With New Treatment
11/23/04 21:09 EST

By JULIET WILLIAMS
The Associated Press

WAUWATOSA, Wis. (AP) - Doctors say they used a unique combination of
drugs to cure a 15-year-old girl of rabies, making her the first
known human ever to survive the usually fatal disease without
vaccination.

A team of doctors gambled on an experimental treatment and induced a
coma in Jeanna Giese to stave off the rabies infection, said Dr.
Rodney Willoughby, a pediatric disease infection specialist at
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

``No one had really done this before, even in animals,'' Willoughby
said. ``None of the drugs are fancy. If this works it can be done in
a lot of countries.''

Only five people in the world before Giese are known to have survived
the rabies virus after the onset of symptoms, said Dr. Charles
Rupprecht, chief of the rabies section at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Those people had been vaccinated after exposure with a one-time
injection of a drug called rabies immune globulin that contains
antibodies against the virus, followed by five doses of rabies
vaccines within 28 days.

Giese's parents, John and Ann Giese, said they did not hesitate when
doctors approached them about trying the experimental treatment. They
already had been told their daughter likely would die.

``Miracles can happen,'' John Giese said. ``We believed it from day
one. We had to convince everyone else.''

Rupprecht credited Giese's survival to an ``aggressive and heroic treatment.''

``Basically we had a race and Jeanna won. Her immune system won,'' he said.

The Fond du Lac girl contracted the disease after she was bitten by a
bat while at church Sept. 12, but she did not seek treatment. She
began showing rabies symptoms Oct. 13 and was hospitalized Oct. 15.
Rupprecht said rabies had attacked the girl's central nervous system.

He said Giese's survival has caused the CDC to reevaluate its
approach to rabies in humans and scientists now are studying what
drug cocktails would be most effective in animals.

Although the United States has only a few cases of human rabies each
year, someone in the world dies of rabies every 15 minutes, Rupprecht
said.

In Giese's case, doctors began administering the cocktail of four
drugs after inducing a coma. A spinal tap after treatment started
showed her immune system was responding to fight off the disease,
Willoughby said. They kept her in a coma for about a week.

Willoughby said he had not expected Giese to survive when she was
admitted to the hospital. But he said he studied numerous cases of
the disease, and a team of consultants, including CDC officials,
decided within four hours to go ahead with the experimental treatment.

``I knew that this was a 100 percent fatal disease, so I knew there
wasn't much we could do,'' Willoughby said.

Willoughby said he could not reveal the exact drugs that were used
because medical protocol requires scientists first to publish the
results in a medical journal. He said they were two anesthetic and
two antiviral medications.

Willoughby said the treatment will have to be duplicated in another
survivor before it can be credited as a rabies treatment.

``At this point it's a great miracle,'' he said.

Doctors still don't know whether Giese will have neurological or
physical problems from the attack on her immune system, but
Willoughby said he was hopeful.

The girl is out of isolation and in a rehabilitation ward at the
hospital and doctors hope to release her by Christmas. Her parents
said she stood up for the first time Tuesday and recognizes people
when they come in the room.

The parents credited the prayers and positive thoughts of hundreds of
well-wishers for their daughter's survival, saying that God worked
through the doctors to save the teen, an avid basketball player who
always helps others.

Ann Giese said her daughter was bitten by the bat during a church service.

``She wanted the bat out of the church so the bat wouldn't get
hurt,'' she said.

Wisconsin's state public health veterinarian, Jim Kazmierczak,
reminded people they should seek treatment after any possible contact
with a bat or a bite from any other wild animal. Symptoms of the
disease usually do not appear until about a month after exposure, and
by then it is too late to get the vaccine.

On the Net:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/

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#14 From: "jiggy gaton" <herojig@...>
Date: Mon Nov 8, 2004 9:44 am
Subject: animalnepal website updated with slide show! herojig
Offline
Send Email

This is just a note to let you know that a new slide show of the  dog
training described on this page:
http://www.animalnepal.org/training/
is now there for your viewing pleasure.  Just go to this page and
click on Slide Show under Paw This.

Training concludes tommorrow so if you have not seen the trainers/
participants in action yet, you should come over to the Vet Hospital
grounds in Tripashor Tuesday morning - last chance to see Elke in action!

Thanks,
jiggymutt

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#13 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Fri Nov 5, 2004 4:41 am
Subject: [aapn] Primate research moves to China lucia@...
Send Email

Dear friends,

As you might know primate research is extremely controversial and Western institutions are moving to overseas countries in order to avoid animal welfare legislation and high costs in their own countries. In Nepal, NAHSON has started breeding facilities in Chitwan, on behalf of the Washington National Primate Research Centre.

The following Asian countries have banned monkey export:

India - 1977
Bangladesh - 1979
Malaysia - 1984
Indonesia - 1990 (wild-caught monkeys)
Philippines - 1994

When will Nepal take a stand on this issue?

Lucia.

http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=3&item=Features&itemid=335&language=1

Primate research moves to China

4 November 2004

The Kunming Institute of Zoology in south-western
China is just one of several primate research
facilities that are attracting Western researchers to
the country. With 1,400 monkeys including 300 in
isolation, it held scientists in awe at a recent
symposium on biomedical research using primates as
research models.

David Cyranoski describes the current trend among
researchers using primate models to shift their
studies to China, either by taking up positions there,
or through collaborations. Low costs, fewer
regulations, and the absence of animal rights groups
make the move an attractive prospect.

But some worry that these factors could cause problems
in the future. Activists say the same ethical concerns
that have arisen in Western primate facilities are
also valid in China, where there are fewer
institutional ethics review boards. Weizhi Ji,
director of the Kunming Institute, and his
collaborators, however, say ethical standards at the
Kunming institute match those in Europe and the United
States.

Reference: Nature 432, 3 (2004)

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#12 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Tue Nov 2, 2004 3:12 pm
Subject: Order Your Dog Tag Today! lucia@...
Send Email

100% Copper Dog Tags
This might save the life of your dog!

Did you ever lose a dog? Did you ever wish your canine friend would carry a Dog Tag?

AnimalNepal.org has developed a 100% copper Dog Tag in which the name of your dog and your phone number can be engraved. Order today and receive your custom made Dog Tag a week later.

Costs: NRs 225 (all benefits go to animal welfare projects in Kathmandu Valley)

Call Sital Pandey @ 9841 � 334537

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#11 From: "Jigme Gaton" <herojig@...>
Date: Tue Nov 2, 2004 8:09 am
Subject: ***SPAM*** RE: Durga causes problems paulreitman
Offline
Send Email

Wow what a mess... As a previous swimmer in the river, I can attest to the pollution of man-made materials. But as they say, it’s the worst that cleanses best. But it’s not fair to the fishes, birds, and water mammals, that’s fur sure. But what to do?

Jiggy Gaton

CEO, Herojig Cartooning and Ballooning of Timi (P)LTD.

www.extreme-nepal.com

From: Lucia [mailto:lucia@...]
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 8:40 PM
To: animalnepal@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [animalnepal] Durga causes problems

This article is from The Star Online
URL: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/10/24/asia/9218747&sec=asia
__________________________________________________________________________
Sunday October 24, 2004
Idol immersions in Ganges hurt dolphins

PATNA (India): Pollution from immersing thousands of Hindu idols in India's sacred Ganges river is threatening dolphins and other aquatic creatures such as turtles, environmentalists said yesterday.

Goddess Durga idols, lavishly coloured with synthetic paints and embellished with metal ornaments and weapons, are plunged into the Ganges every year in a ceremonial farewell at the end of a major Hindu festival, Dussehra.

Every year, idols made of plaster of Paris, synthetic materials and (a) large amount of non-biodegradable coloured paints cause severe pollution in the Ganges, said Guddu Baba, who leads a movement to clean up the river considered holy by Hindus.
In the eastern Bihar state capital of Patna alone, nearly 5,000 litres of paint would be released into the Ganges from the liberal amounts of colour daubed on every Durga idol, Baba said.

Thousands more idols would be immersed in the Ganges all over eastern India where the Durga festival is the key event on the Hindu calendar. The goddess Durga is worshipped for having vanquished demons and saved humanity.

In nearly every town along Ganges, thousands of Durga idols are immersed and local authorities don't even think of the environmental threat, said R.K. Sinha, who has been waging a campaign to help the river dolphins.

Sandeep Behera, coordinator for Freshwater Species under India's Freshwater and Wetlands Conservation Programme, said river dolphins in the Ganges had dwindled to a few thousand from tens of thousands at the start of last century.

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#10 From: preyesh hirachan <killjunge@...>
Date: Mon Nov 1, 2004 6:54 am
Subject: Re: Sushila Rai/Person/World Bank is out of the office. killjunge
Offline
Send Email

can i know where is the office of our organisation situated?

so wats the process going on for the animal trainners trainning

my mobile no. is 9851088130

thankx 4 mailing

see ya soon

preyesh

sital pandey <sitalpandey@...> wrote:

hellow, you can call me in my mobile. Number is 9841334537. mail me soon bye __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

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#9 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:09 am
Subject: India Hopes to Breed Endangered Tibetan Antelope lucia@...
Send Email

************************************************
India Hopes to Breed Endangered Tibetan Antelope
************************************************

Conservationists in the Indian Himalayas want to set up
a program to breed an endangered Tibetan antelope that is
slaughtered in huge numbers to make super-fine shahtoosh wool.

Even though the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species banned this trade in 1979, families who have been
living off this business for generations continue to
slaughter and produce.

For more details please follow the link below.

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=258

Source:
ENN Newsletter
October 27 2004




-------
To read the episodes of the pilot radio project, please visit:
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#8 From: sital pandey <sitalpandey@...>
Date: Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:08 am
Subject: Re: Sushila Rai/Person/World Bank is out of the office. sitalpandey
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hellow,

you can call me in my mobile.
Number is 9841334537.


mail me soon
bye




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#7 From: Srai@...
Date: Tue Oct 26, 2004 7:15 pm
Subject: Sushila Rai/Person/World Bank is out of the office. Srai@...
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I will be out of the office starting  10/18/2004 and will not return until
11/01/2004.

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#6 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:54 pm
Subject: Durga causes problems lucia@...
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#5 From: preyesh hirachan <killjunge@...>
Date: Thu Oct 14, 2004 5:55 am
Subject: Re: Gadimai coming up killjunge
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hi lucia

well we need to do something to stop trhese blood sheds .............hope we can do somethig.......and i am jus 18 hope i can help u

and lucia is ur fax machine alright? sionce dayz i have been trying to fax u for the training course

preyesh

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#4 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Thu Oct 14, 2004 4:04 am
Subject: Gadimai coming up lucia@...
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Dear friends,

According to Avantika, in the mail below, Gadimai festival is coming up
soon. As you might know we haev been trying to raise awareness about the
animal cruelty that takes place during this festival, and to point out the
health risks, as Gadimai in 1994 introduced the dangerous goat plague or
PPR disease to Nepal.

We need to revised our Miss Nepal campaign and think of other ways to
highlight the plight of the suffering animals during Gadimai.

Lucia.

---------------------------
Dear Lucia,
Hope everything is OK with you. Dasain is approaching fast, and Mucha House
has again come up with its online Khasi boka advertisement. Gadimai is next
month - it starts from mangsir. The committee to slaughter the animals has
been formed. The CDO of Bara district, Madhav Prasad Regmi, is the chairman
of the committee (see the attached html file from today's kantipur online).
The whole government machinary is being used. Please do something - at
least you can PROTEST. Maybe file a PIL - we need to do something.

I read in some newspaper that some Jain organization is observing dasai
days as "AHIMSA DIVAS " which is ,of course, is a great news. Some hindu
sect (Parnamis) had also organized a procession in KTM advocating no
bloodshed during dasain.

avantika

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#3 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Mon Oct 11, 2004 3:29 am
Subject: ANPO's new mobile nr lucia@...
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Dear friends,

Please note that Animalnepal.org's new mobile nr is 9841 - 334537.

For the time being the phone service will be managed by Sital Pande, our
volunteer.

Lucia.

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#2 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Thu Oct 7, 2004 3:32 am
Subject: CITES in BKK lucia@...
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Dear friends,

CITES is resently meeting in BKK to discuss some pretty controversial issues. Ravi Aryal, member of our Monkey Business Campaign, is there on behalf of Nepal, and we're looking forward to hearing from him!

Lucia.

Tuesday October 5, 2004
Species to save

The 13th Conference of Parties (CoP13) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species opened in Bangkok last Saturday, with participants all set to deliberate on some 50 proposals to update trade rules. HILARY CHIEW looks into the arguments in support of the listing of several species.

FOR the first time in its near 30-year history, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) opened in Bangkok � one of the world�s thriving capitals for wildlife trade � last Saturday. The 13-day meet will see the participation of government officials from 166 member nations, wildlife conservationists and the boisterous animal activists.

Bringing the meeting to this region is made all the more significant with the inclusion of Laos early this year into the world�s foremost conservation treaty governing wildlife. It would also spell full participation from Asean in the inter-governmental agreement that regulates global trade on selected species of flora and fauna, estimated to be worth billions of dollars annually.

Since the convention was signed in Washington DC in 1973 by an initial 80 countries and entered into force in 1975, trade in more than 30,000 wildlife species is currently being regulated under three appendices aimed at promoting sustainable use.

Appendix I applies the most stringent controls on species threatened with extinction, Appendix II regulates trade that could potentially lead to the extinction of certain species, while Appendix III includes species listed by an individual country in an effort to enlist international cooperation to control trade from their country. As the impact of trade makes itself felt on a population or species, the species can be added or removed from the appendices, or transferred from one appendix to another. A two-thirds vote from parties is needed to effect any amendments to the Appendices.

Over the years, Cites has fine-tuned the criteria it uses for listing a species. It puts the onus on the proposing government to make its case on the basis of scientific criteria. To do this, the government must provide as much detailed information and data as possible on population status and trade trends.

It is worth noting that when a species is transferred to a lower category, this does not necessarily mean that it is accorded less protection. Rather, it can be a sign of success that a species� population has recovered to the point where well-regulated trade, using a Cites trade permit, may be possible.

Cites also argues that by allowing a species to be commercially traded at sustainable levels, an Appendix II listing can actually enhance protection by giving local people a greater stake in the species� survival.
While high-profile species like the African elephant and whales that had hogged previous debates, are expected to take up substantial deliberation time at the conference in Bangkok, delegates will also decide on the appropriate level of protection to be accorded to less majestic but equally threatened species in world trade.
These include the great white shark, the ramin timber tree, the Chinese yew (a medicinal shrub), the yellow-crested cockatoo and the lilac-crowned parrot, five Asian turtles, the white rhinoceros, the Nile and American crocodiles and the European date mussel.
Out of the 50 proposals, several are of direct concern to Malaysia, the first South-East Asian country to accede to the convention in 1977.

Ramin
Struggling to control the illegal trading of ramin, Indonesia has submitted a proposal to upgrade all species of ramin from Appendix III to Appendix II. This will set a precedent for the inclusion of a highly-valued commercial timber species in Appendix II. Out of the 30 species of Gonystylus, six are of commercial importance with the G. bancanus being the most heavily exploited species.
After Indonesia, Malaysia is the second largest exporter of this tropical hardwood. Allegations of illegal sourcing of ramin � comprising sawn logs and even finished products like picture frames and billiard cues � have caused concern among international buyers.
Ramin populations have been so severely depleted that timber production has fallen drastically in recent years. According to a report by wildlife monitoring network, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, the declining status of the Gonystylus spp can be inferred from the drop in the annual volume harvested in Indonesia. From a peak of 1.5 million cu.m in the 1970s, it dropped to 131,307 cu.m in 2000. Malaysian�s harvest dropped from a peak of 600,000 cu.m in 1989 to 137,512 cu.m in 2000.

Agarwood-producing species
The escalating market price for the fragrant heartwood, particularly the Aquilaria spp, is fuelling unsustainable harvest in the range states from India to South-East Asia. The critically-endangered Aquilaria population in India prompted the government to push for the listing of one of the species � Aquilaria malaccensis � on Appendix II in 1995.
Current demands from the Middle East and Asia are met largely by unmanaged, wild-harvested stocks, many of which are declining as a result. Widespread illegal harvest and trade are also reported. Trade in Gyrinops species has increased in recent years. Malaysia has complained about the encroachment of Thai collectors in its forested areas. The valuable resin from Aquilaria trees is much sought after by perfumeries and the traditional medicine industry.
TRAFFIC International recommends member parties to support the proposal by Indonesia to include all species in these two genus in Appendix II for effective Cites implementation as identification of agarwood-products in trade is extremely difficult.

Humphead wrasse and great white shark
Regarded as the most commercially significant proposals, the inclusion in Appendix II of the large reef fish and the great white shark is another step towards using Cites trade rules to protect valuable fish species. The wrasse is traded live for the restaurant business, while the great white shark is hunted for its teeth and fins. The whale shark and basking shark were listed under Cites at CoP12.

Asian turtles
The United States and Indonesia proposed the listing of four genera and one family of freshwater turtles under Appendix II. The turtles were classified as vulnerable by the authoritative International Union on Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). This included the critically-endangered Roti Snake-necked turtle which is endemic to Roti Island in Indonesia.
Large-scale harvest within range states, prompted by the notorious Chinese food market, has resulted in substantial decline of these reptiles. Listing at the genus and family level will facilitate Cites implementation, should the genus or family be split into more than one species in future. In addition to proposals submitted by the various parties, the meeting will examine a number of strategic, conservation and implementation issues. For example, the European Community (EC) wants Cites to urge the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and others to address more actively the bush meat crisis caused by the over-hunting of local wildlife in Central Africa.

The EC also calls on Cites to adopt a resolution on the great apes, urging all governments to take stronger action to protect these primates. It is also recommending stronger action to protect Central Asia�s saiga antelope which continues to suffer declining numbers despite being listed in Appendix II in 1995.

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#1 From: Lucia <lucia@...>
Date: Thu Oct 7, 2004 3:32 am
Subject: World Animal Day in the Nepal media lucia@...
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Dear friends,

World Animal Day World was celebrated in a number of ways, and the media highlighted some of the activities. Below you find a write up from the Himalayan Times. They also featured a long piece higlighting the work of KAT, SPCAN and Animalnepal.org but I can't find that one on their website.

I especially like the news about the Non-Violence Week, which is a new concept in Nepal. I'd love to hook up with the organisers to see how we can contribute!

Lucia.

World Animal day : Schoolchildren�s role highlighted to prevent cruelty against animals
Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, October 4:

School students came up with a number of displays at a programme organised by the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Nepal (NSPCAN) to mark the World Animal Day today. According to the organisers, the students are the main agents of change in the society, especially when it comes to attitude change. �Students can convince a very large section of society which we cannot even imagine,� said Uday Singh, president of NSPCAN. Meanwhile, during the function, Himalaya Shumsher Rana handed over a dozen life memberships of NSPCAN to various participants. Sushma Pradhan of Santonza Trade Concern said she has 12 dogs as pets and many of them were street dogs. She appealed to the concerned authorities and the public to manage a mobile ambulance for animals in critical condition. Dr Ram Krishna Timilsina, spokesperson of the Supreme Court, said each animal�s death should be a dignified one as they, too, have the right to live. Since stopping consumption of animal flesh would create crisis in the ecosystem, there should be sustainable and scientific consumption. He further said the concerned bodies should consider changes in the present culture and traditions if that adversely affects the rights of the animals. General Secretary of the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Nepal, Dr Shree Ram Adhikary, said our religion preaches Ahimsha Paramo Dharma but people enjoy killing animals instead.

Non-violence Week
Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, October 4:

Shri Krishna Pranami Yuba Parishad and Nepal Anubrat Samiti are jointly organising weeklong programmes from tomorrow to mark the week (Tuesday to Monday) as Non-violence Week -2061. The programmes are being held to protest any sort of violence against animals, according to the organisers. �With the slogan, �society without brutality�, a number of programmes will be organised during the week to spread the message of peace,� said Bhola Dahal, president of the Shri Krishna Pranami Yuba Parishad at a press conference organised here today. The programmes are being held to call for an end to violence against animals. According to the organisers, the week will begin with a peace rally from Basantapur tomorrow. Various religious, sanitation and preaching programmes will follow the rally. �Some 50 different organisations, belonging to the Vedic, Bouddha, Jain and Sikh communities, will help celebrate the week,� a release issued at the press conference said.

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