Animal Activists

While I am, being human, vulnerable to disease myself, as are my human loved ones, and feel it most worthy to gain and promote knowledge that contributes to the improvement of general health, when I ask myself, "How much pain and suffering of a laboratory animal can I find acceptable so that it may benefit my health," my answer is still none. Abuse by design is an intrinsically immoral act. ELAINE LIVESEY, Los Angeles

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a California law against slaughtering pigs and other animals unable to walk, activists are pressing forward with efforts to get a tough federal measure passed. The 2008 state law had made it illegal for slaughterhouses in California to "receive a non-ambulatory animal. " Any animal that could not stand on its own was to be returned to the farm or "humanely euthanized. " But the court's 9-0 decision Monday held that since Congress had already adopted its Federal Meat Inspection Act, California was not free to enforce differing rules or standards.

Re "Terrorism in the name of animal rights," Opinion, Nov. 12 Although I agree with P. Michael Conn that animal activists who threaten researchers with violence or place bombs under their cars should be called terrorists, I disagree with his analogy regarding animal rights. It's ridiculous, of course, to imagine a rabbit's surviving family suing the fox that killed it -- but very different imagining a lawsuit brought against a research lab on behalf of a monkey. Does the fox have a moral or legal obligation to treat other animals humanely?

Animal rights activists in Beijing are directing their attention away from fur farms, dog meat and zoos toward a less likely target in China: a rodeo. A coalition of 68 Chinese animal rights groups has called for the cancellation of Rodeo China, a Sino-U.S. cultural exchange event scheduled for October at the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. In a letter last month to the Chinese People's Assn. for Friendship With Foreign Countries, a government group teamed with the event's U.S. organizers, the rights groups condemned rodeo as a cruel sport that even Americans deem abusive and unpopular.

One day after meeting with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, about two dozen activists with the Animal Defense League protested at a Los Angeles Police Department event he attended Saturday at Paramount Studios. The activists want the mayor to fire the chief of the city's Animal Services Department because of what they say is the city's high rate of euthanizing dogs. They called off a protest at Villaraigosa's home after he agreed to meet with them Friday.

When UCLA neuroscientist J. David Jentsch was a grad student, he never expected his life as an academic would require around-the-clock armed guards, or a closed-circuit TV inside his bedroom so he could keep constant watch over his home. But the high-powered security proved necessary again this month when the researcher, who experiments on monkeys, opened a letter left in his mailbox to discover razor blades and a death threat. "We follow you on campus," Jentsch recalled the note reading.

A Sun Valley kennel has been put under 24-hour guard by city animal-regulation officers after a break-in there this week by pet owners who contend that they were misled into giving away their dogs and cats. Some pet owners found their pets at the kennel, which is federally licensed to sell animals to research laboratories.

'I can't turn them away. I spend every dime I get on them. People think I'm nuts.' William Long Dedicated to animal rescue work. The reaction was the same on both sides of the cage door Tuesday at the Castaic animal shelter. William Long was just as happy to see his two dogs as they were to see him. Long owns 87 dogs that have been confiscated by authorities in a dispute between Long and the owner of a Saugus kennel he had rented for his pets.

Chiron Corp. has sued an animal rights group, accusing the activists of waging a violent harassment campaign and supporting the man charged with detonating two pipe bombs at the biotechnology company's sprawling campus here. The suit, filed last week in Alameda County Superior Court, seeks to keep activists affiliated with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA, known as SHAC USA, at least 50 feet away from Chiron property and 100 feet away from employees and their properties.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a California law against slaughtering pigs and other animals unable to walk, activists are pressing forward with efforts to get a tough federal measure passed. The 2008 state law had made it illegal for slaughterhouses in California to "receive a non-ambulatory animal. " Any animal that could not stand on its own was to be returned to the farm or "humanely euthanized. " But the court's 9-0 decision Monday held that since Congress had already adopted its Federal Meat Inspection Act, California was not free to enforce differing rules or standards.

The first vision was simple and straightforward: To curtail puppy mills and kitten factories, the sale of cats and dogs should be banned in San Francisco, where the loving guardians of animal companions come to regular blows — politically — with the loving parents of children. The ban was put on hold last year after animal advocates broadened it to include anything with fur or feathers . Now it's back, with a new name and a new strategy: More is more. The Humane Pet Acquisition Proposal is on its way to the Board of Supervisors, and it hopes to protect everything from Great Danes to goldfish.

In West Hollywood, critters are king. Stores are forbidden to sell dogs and cats, there's a ban on de-clawing felines and a city ordinance states that animals are not "owned" ? they are cared for by guardians. On Saturday, residents rallied around yet another animal-friendly campaign, this one directed at local apparel shops. Nearly 200 people crowded onto the northwest corner of Crescent Heights and Santa Monica boulevards to demand that the West Hollywood City Council prohibit the sale of fur in town.

When UCLA neuroscientist J. David Jentsch was a grad student, he never expected his life as an academic would require around-the-clock armed guards, or a closed-circuit TV inside his bedroom so he could keep constant watch over his home. But the high-powered security proved necessary again this month when the researcher, who experiments on monkeys, opened a letter left in his mailbox to discover razor blades and a death threat. "We follow you on campus," Jentsch recalled the note reading.

The Santa Ana Zoo is one of only a handful in the nation that still offer elephant rides. For more than 25 years, children ? and some grown-ups ? have turned out by the hundreds to ride on the back of an 8,000-pound Asian elephant as it trudges around a shaded, circular enclosure near Monkey Row.? Although others have bowed to pressure from animal welfare advocates who oppose once-popular elephant rides as cruel to the animals and dangerous to the public, zookeepers in Santa Ana are rushing to their defense.

When a plan for a rodeo at the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds was tentatively approved last month, fans of ropin' and ridin' were elated. But officials Tuesday said a threatened lawsuit from animal welfare activists forced them to scuttle the local Sheriff's Department event, which was aimed at raising money for children's activities and organizations. The Santa Cruz County Fair Board of Directors "made a business decision that the benefits didn't outweigh the risks," said Steve Stagnaro, a board spokesman.

Federal prosecutors Wednesday filed criminal charges against a Santa Monica sushi restaurant and one of its chefs, alleging they had sold meat from an endangered whale. The Hump, a hip hangout at Santa Monica Airport, immediately said through attorney Gary Lincenberg that it accepted "responsibility for the wrongdoing charged by the U.S. attorney" and would pay a fine and resolve the matter in court. Named in the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, were Typhoon Restaurant Inc., owner of the Hump, and chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, of Culver City.

Ventura officials have launched a program to poison rats and ground squirrels that populate the city's beachfront, sparking outrage from animal activists and local residents who are calling the action cruel and inhumane. City Council members approved the monthlong eradication effort in January -- at the same time they adopted an ordinance to ban people from feeding squirrels and seabirds along the Ventura Promenade, said city parks manager Mike Montoya.

West Hollywood burnished its reputation as a national leader in animal rights legislation Tuesday night when the City Council unanimously approved an ordinance to prohibit most sales of cats and dogs in "companion animal" (pet) stores. The fact that no city pet stores now sell the animals didn't dampen supporters' enthusiasm for the measure. Local and national animal rights activists celebrated the news, saying they hoped it would spark similar efforts elsewhere. "This definitely calls for champagne," Carole Raphaelle Davis, West Coast director of the Companion Animal Protection Society, said before the vote.

The video images were disturbing -- a tiny white kitten singed with the flame from a lighter; a gray cat struggling beneath a woman's spiked heel; pit bulls tearing into a trapped animal. The Supreme Court has often said that freedom of speech includes ugly and foul language. But this fall the justices will be looking at video clips like these to decide whether selling films of dogfights or animal torture is protected from prosecution under the 1st Amendment. The dispute, expected to be heard in early October, has driven a wedge between traditional free-speech advocates and defenders of the humane treatment of animals.