Animal Rights

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.

The horses trot softly across sandy terrain and scrubby oak brush on Spain's central plateau, their riders listening for a rustle in the leaves, searching for a patch of wiry black fur betrayed by the sun. Finally, the hunters spot their prey. Ranch owner Ramiro Maura breaks the silence. "Venga! Arriba!" Maura screams -- "Come! Up here!" The riders yank their reins in unison, aim their spears and urge their horses up steep terrain laced with shriveled tree roots and boulders.

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

Pat Derby could coax Willie the bear with a handful of jelly beans, make Christopher the cougar twitch his tail on command, and even kissed Rijo the tiger. But when it came to Walt Disney, she had less patience. Derby, a Hollywood animal trainer turned animal rights activist, once walked out on him in the middle of filming for "Disney's Wonderful World of Color" after he subjected her bear cub to two hours of retakes under the hot studio lights. She always got along better with animals than people, anyway, she often said.

Japanese police obtained arrest warrants against three activists from the U.S.-based animal rights group Sea Shepherd on allegations that they attacked Japanese whaling ships last year, a news report said. Tokyo District Court approved the arrest warrants, Kyodo News agency said. Neither the court nor the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department confirmed the report. The aim of the warrants was to place the two Americans, ages 41 and 30, and a 28-year-old Briton on an international wanted list, Kyodo said.

May I quote: "Frankly, I don't shed a tear when I hear a lab has been broken into." Me, too! Hooray for animal rights groups! They speak up for the billions of animals wasted by the "good old boy" researchers. Methinks the researchers, and their system of grants, are nervous. Reminds me of Congress. RUTH UNGER Los Angeles

Re "No more curtain calls for elephants," Editorial, Nov. 26 The L.A. City Council's proposed ban on elephants in traveling shows, which The Times supports, is really based on the rhetoric of animal rights activists who oppose all animals in captivity and in entertainment. At a recent City Council committee hearing, so-called experts who are known animal activists were allowed to provide extensive testimony, while veterinary experts from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey were given mere minutes to make public comments.

With a computer-generated tiger at the center of the upcoming "Life of Pi," a controversy over live animals is brewing on a different holiday release. Wranglers in New Zealand have complained that as many as 27 animals have died as a result of conditions on the set of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," according to the Associated Press. The wranglers said that a series of sinkholes and other perils on farms made the conditions a “death trap” for the animals.

On behalf of the animal rights group PETA, an Irvine woman is asking the city to erect a memorial at the street corner where 1,600 pounds of fish died this month when a container truck crashed into two other vehicles. Dina Kourda, a volunteer with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, wrote to the Irvine Public Works Department to request that a sign be placed at Walnut and Yale avenues to honor the lives of the fish - believed to be saltwater bass - lost in the accident. The fish had been stored in large tanks that cracked open as a result of the Oct. 11 accident.

Los Angeles is poised to become the largest city in the nation to ban pet shops from selling dogs, cats and rabbits obtained from commercial breeders. On a 12-2 vote Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council tentatively adopted an ordinance that officials say will target puppy mills and will prevent tens of thousands of animals from being euthanized in city shelters each year. Individuals still will be allowed to buy directly from breeders, but pet stores will be limited to selling animals obtained from shelters, humane societies and registered rescue groups.

The president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States says he wants a seat on the board of directors at Tyson Foods so he can begin working from the inside-out to improve the plight of farm animals -- especially pregnant pigs. Let that sink in for a second. The head of one of the world's largest animal-rights organizations wants to help oversee one of the world's biggest meat producers.  Wayne Pacelle said in a statement posted on the Humane Society's website that he has filed paperwork as a candidate for election to the board of directors of Tyson Foods.

  This was the moment Matt Connelly had waited years for: the sudden yank on the line, the violent tug that dragged him to the edge of the boat and nearly into the cold Atlantic. After 90 exhausting minutes, the battle was over. Connelly and his crew mates peered down at the massive fish beside their 29-foot boat, Rogue Angel. They pulled out a tape measure to make sure their eyes weren't playing tricks on them. Finally, convinced the fish was big enough to haul in, they gaffed it, guessing its weight at 275 pounds.

America's shelters euthanized an estimated 3 million to 4 million animals last year. Most had been lost, abandoned or otherwise unwanted. But animal rights experts say it doesn't have to be that way, and people looking to help don't necessarily have to adopt a pet or even write a check to make a difference. One of the most powerful tools out there? Social media. Using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even Pinterest can help animal rights organizations, rescues and municipal shelters spread the word about critters available for adoption.

IQALUIT, Canada - Doomsday predictions of the polar bear's demise tend to draw an Inuit guffaw here in Nunavut, the remote Arctic territory where polar bears in some places outnumber people. People will tell you about the polar bear that strode brazenly past the dump a month ago or the bear that attacked a dog team in the town of Arviat in November. Heart-rending pictures of polar bears clinging to tiny islands of ice elicit nothing but derision. The move to protect polar bears is appreciated for one thing, however, and that's a hefty hike in the price for a dead one. Across Canada, prices for polar bear pelts have soared over the last few years, with two at a June 20 auction in Ontario fetching a record $16,500 each.