Animal Rights

It was the weekend before Christmas, but rather than searching frantically for gifts, Kathy Yandell stood outside a Beverly Hills retailer Saturday, starring in the role of the anti-shopper. The Redondo Beach animal rights activist, along with four fellow supporters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, were displaying protest signs and urging holiday shoppers to avoid the Nature Company.

Burger King Corp.promised Wednesday to switch to only cage-free eggs and pork -- a day after the reemergence of mad-cow disease focused national scrutiny even more on Americans' food sources. The fast food giant, one of the largest in the world, said it would phase out cages for its chickens and gestation crates for breeding pigs by 2017 - making its pledge among the most sweeping of many such vows made recently by competitors such as McDonald's and Wendy's. Changes in animal welfare practices have swept the food service and supply industries in recent months, as undercover investigations by animal rights activists and concessions from major companies created a domino effect.

"When Elephants Weep" is an argument for the existence of animal (non-human animal) emotions. Masson, who is the principal author, produces evidence, sometimes anecdotal, sometimes "scientific" (i.e. anecdotes told by scientists) to demonstrate that animals feel friendship, fear, love, joy and more complex emotions usually thought to be human specific, such as shame and the urge to altruism.

The scimitar-horned oryx was listed as endangered seven years ago, but a special exemption from the federal Endangered Species Act allowed breeders of the rare African antelope to nonetheless sell and hunt the animals -- at $5,500 a head. As a result, herds grew exponentially on exotic hunting ranches nationwide, especially in Texas. That exemption for the oryx and two other African antelopes popular with Texas hunters, the addax and the dama gazelle, could disappear Wednesday unless a federal judge approves a last-minute appeal by ranchers for an injunction.

Vikas Chinnan stood over a tank at the world's largest aquarium, peering down at the world's largest fish species. He was wondering what it would be like to jump in and frolic beside the whale sharks. The creature approached, eerily quiet. It was longer than a Ford Expedition, impossibly elegant as it banked into a turn at the tank's edge, flexing its gray, massive, mottled form into a parabola of living flesh.

She spent years as an outspoken antiabortion activist, and that cause remains dear to her. But these days, Karen Swallow Prior has a new passion: animal welfare. She wasn't sure, at first, that advocating for God's four-legged creatures would go over well on the campus of Liberty University, a fundamentalist Baptist institution founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals did a few things right when it opened its new West Coast headquarters in Echo Park last month. First, PETA spent $7.4 million buying and renovating its 82-year-old building, equipping it with such eco-industrial flourishes as a restored Art Deco facade, exposed ducts, vintage glass casement windows and cork flooring. Next, the animal rights group brought in 60 jobs - mostly transfers from its main office in Norfolk, Va. - but some local hires as well.

Tenants of a poultry ranch in Napa say there is nothing wrong with raising roosters and selling them to people who stage cockfights in Mexico, but California law doesn't agree and animal rights advocates say it's just plain cruel. Although it is a misdemeanor to raise fighting fowl, Capt. Mike Loughran of the Napa County Sheriff's Department says he can't search the Napa ranch unless evidence links roosters on the property to cockfights in other places.

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.

Have you seen the billboards around town that say "Protect Your Right to Own a Pet"? They show a child hugging a puppy and provide a website, exposeanimalrights.com, flanked by international "no" symbols (a circle with a slash though it) containing the initials PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and HSUS (Humane Society of the United States). When I first passed one a couple of weeks ago, I was confused.

HBO's"Luck" might not change how animals are used in filmed entertainment, but the odds look better after the show's swift and surprising cancellation this week. Set amid the hurly-burly of a racetrack, the low-rated drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte halted production Wednesday after the deaths of three horses used in filming raised ire among animal-rights activists. HBO said it couldn't guarantee more accidents would not occur, but it also took pains to isolate the "Luck" case as unique given the dangers of horse racing - a point backed up by some experts.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals did a few things right when it opened its new West Coast headquarters in Echo Park last month. First, PETA spent $7.4 million buying and renovating its 82-year-old building, equipping it with such eco-industrial flourishes as a restored Art Deco facade, exposed ducts, vintage glass casement windows and cork flooring. Next, the animal rights group brought in 60 jobs - mostly transfers from its main office in Norfolk, Va. - but some local hires as well.

By firing a single rifle shot at a wandering mountain lion during an Idaho hunting trip, California's top fish and game commissioner has inflamed the political divide in a state where hunters and advocates for the hunted alike feel under attack. The National Rifle Assn. put out a nationwide alert for members to support Daniel Richards, president of the state Fish and Game Commission, after photos he posted with his dead quarry in Idaho launched calls for his resignation from a commission that oversees wildlife policy in California.

Chimpanzees remain indispensable for biomedical and behavioral research that benefits humans, but only in a small number of circumstances and likely not for long, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine. After nine months of deliberation, a panel of independent experts judged that most current experiments involving man's closest primate relative can safely be discontinued. But the experts stopped short of calling on the federal government to retire all of about 600 chimps in its care, cautioning that unseen threats to human health "may require the future use of the chimpanzee.

Attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit Thursday in Massachusetts challenging the constitutionality of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, saying the controversial business protection law has the potential to criminalize many forms of protest that are protected by the First Amendment. Passed with much fanfare in 2006 as a reaction to attacks on fur farms and other businesses by shadowy animal rights groups such as the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, the law has not been used as much as initially expected, primarily because of problems defining the criminalized behavior.

The city of Glendale and the Tournament of Roses Parade go together like, well, carnations and marigolds. The city first entered a float in 1911 and hasn't missed a parade since, except during World War II, when the event was called off. That long streak was nearly broken this year when boosters ran short of money and city officials feared the float would have to be canceled, but local businesses ponied up more than was needed over the summer,...

Maybe I heard wrong or misunderstood what the lady from an "animal rights" group said on TV. Did she say that the group was against the San Diego Zoo's breeding program for the endangered Asian elephants because the breeding program is cruel to the elephants? How naive of me--I always thought extinction was the most cruel thing for a species. ANTHONY T. DUNN, San Diego

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.

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.