Humane Scorecard 2009

The Humane Society Legislative Fund has released its 2009 Humane Scorecard.  The Scorecard ranks members of Congress on their support or votes on important animal legislation.  Only Senator Nelson was ranked given the changeover between Senator Martinez and Senator Lemieux.  Nelson ranked a disappointing 33%.  On house side, Representative Wasserman-Schultz was the only house member to rank a perfect 100%, although representative Klein and former representative Wexler came in at 92% with no anti-animal positions.  Representative Miller ranked the lowest with a 0% and 8 anti-animal positions.

The HSLF blog posted some additional facts about the scorecard here and encourages people to communicate with their legislators about the scores.

2nd Annual Florida Week for the Animals Febraury 6-14, 2010

The second annual Florida Week for the Animals is slated for February 6 - 14, 2010 and there are a number of events scheduled around the state.  Check out the calendar of events here.

Banning the importation of pythons

The Sun Sentinel has an opinion article on the need to ban importation of the Burmese python.  Water management workers in South Florida captured 25 this month alone.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing rules that would ban the importation of the Burmese python along with 8 other large snakes that endanger the Everglades.  From the article:

The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council opposes the proposed ban, claiming dealers and pet owners can regulate themselves. If that were true, you wouldn't have an estimated 100,000 snakes in the wild, nor would there be any need for the highly publicized hunts that make for photo ops but don't really solve the problem.

These snakes should never be allowed into the country in the first place. The only acceptable place to see one of these huge snakes is the zoo.

Read more about the proposed ban here from the Irrawaddy, covering Burma and South East Asia.

Ending Rattlesnake Roundups

The Tallahassee Democrat reports on the need to end rattlesnake roundups.  The "roundups" are annual rituals that involves pumping gas fumes into gopher tortoise burrows and collecting the eastern diamond back rattlesnakes that flee the fumes.  The article notes that the roundups are both unnecessary and inhumane.  In addition to harming and killing the snakes that are collected, the gas makes the burrows uninhabitable for years and adversely impacts threatened species such as gopher tortoises and indigo snakes.  Gassing the snakes is also illegal, according to a Georgia official quoted in the article.  At one point, there were twenty-three roundups, but only three still exist.  One of the former roundups in San Antonio, Florida, has changed to a festival supporting education and appreciation for the snakes.  Two of the three remaining roundups are in Whigham and Claxton, Georgia.  The article ends with the request that people stop attending:

The Whigham roundup will be held Saturday. The Claxton roundup is planned for March 13 and 14. If we don't attend, organizers will get the message that it's time to support another type of event that encourages conservation and preservation, rather than the wholesale slaughter of wildlife and the destruction of their habitats.

For more details, read "Effects of Rattlesnake Roundups on the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake," Feb. 2009, by D. Bruce Means, at http://www.herpconbio.org/Volume_4/Issue_2/Means_2009.pdf.

Picture Source. 

Thanks for visiting!

Despite the absence of any new posts for the last month, sitemeter reports that there are still 100+ visits per day and there were more than 6000 page views last month.  The counter has also gone over 200,000 visits since we started.   One of the new year's resolutions I intend to keep is updating the blog with the many developments in animal law.  Stay tuned....

Technology Aims to Replace Animal Testing

U.S News and World Report has an interesting article about a new test designed to replace tests tests on mice and guinea pigs used to predict skin reactions from drugs and cosmetics.  The new test from the Hurel company uses human skin cells to simulate the body's allergic response to foreign chemicals.  According to the article the technology could eliminate the need for tens of thousands of test animals each year and could shave $100 million off the roughly $1 billion cost of developing a new drug.