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True Green Report

Former Zoocheck activists set sights on little guy

by Judi McLeod

July 15, 2002

For the owners of small zoos and menageries in the Province of Ontario, the animal activists’ witchhunt is back on.

Former Zoocheck activists Rob Laidlaw and Holly Penfound, who, a couple of summers ago, went out on the attack at Marineland, have shifted their focus back to the little guy.

The State of the Ark: Investigating Ontario’s Zoos, commissioned by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, concludes that the lack of a provincial zoo licensing and inspection system has contributed to large scale substandard animal welfare and public safety practices.

"You need a permit to be a hotdog vendor in Toronto, yet you can get tigers and pythons together, bang up a bunch of cages at a property next to a residential area and call it a zoo. There are no regulations in place. It’s ridiculous," Rob Laidlaw, project manager for WSPA and an author of the report, told the National Post.

Laidlaw and Penfound, key principals of the defunct Zoocheck, successfully lobbied the former City of Toronto council in banning the circus from coming to town, costing local ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars when a judge overturned the ban. In her Zoocheck days, Penfound was executive assistant to Coun. Peter Tabuns. She is currently employed by Tabuns in his new post as executive director of Greenpeace Canada.

Laidlaw and Penfound turned up in the council chamber of Niagara Falls attempting to increase their circus ban. They were shown the door by councillors when it was discovered none of the activists they had in tow hailed from Niagara Falls or even Toronto but had been flown in from Vancouver.

According to the WSPA report, Ontario has more than 100 amateur zoos, most run by families with little formal instruction in wildlife conservation or education. The association claims that the zoos sprang up because the Ontario government had no zoo legislation until 1999–when the Ministry of Natural Resources passed the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.

Consequently, the ministry began granting temporary zoo permits with the idea that enforcement regulations would soon follow, but the regulations remain undrafted.

The study inspected 16 zoos that house a range of animals from lions to raccoons and apes. Most–not some or many--were overcrowded, with animals in poorly constructed enclosures that did not provide shelter or shade. Some zoos showed signs of starving their animals.

The report names the Lickety Split Ranch in London, Ont. which houses lions, Siberian tigers and jaguars in small, flexible, mesh compounds without a perimeter fence around the whole zoo. One 2.5-by 3-metre cage held a red kangaroo, an animal that can run 50 kph and typically covers three or four metres in a single bound.

Owner Shirley McElroy said her animal park is registered with Tourism London and the facility is safe.

"It’s the little guy that they’re picking on," McElroy said. "It’s not what they’re saying it is. They’re painting a different picture."

The report said enclosures at McElroy’s zoo did not look secure enough and there was not adequate water or food available for some of the animals.

Those allegations are untrue, McElroy said. "I love animals, I love people and I would not have anybody harmed–any people or animals."

She suggested the association wrote the report to prompt more donations from a sympathetic public.

It would not be the first time. In their Zoocheck brochures, Laidlaw and Penfound relied heavily on rhetoric and hype aimed at people’s emotions. There is no doubt that the emotional hype brought in thousands of dollars in donations for Zoocheck.


The 'Save the World from Greenpeace' Bumper sticker Campaign

Toronto Free Press has launched a bumper sticker campaign as a direct response to Greenpeace activist's presence at violent Seattle World Trade Organization meetings.

Free 'Save the World from Greenpeace' bumper stickers are now available for anyone who wants them.

Besides using them for stocking stuffers, you can stand up for truth and non-violent ways of protesting with a Toronto Free Press 'Save the World from Greenpeace' bumper sticker.


Celebrity takes on pork industry

In recognition of the month when America celebrates its freedom, comes celebrity activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who got involved in the environmental movement after volunteering with the Hudson River Foundation to serve out 800 hours of community service for a 1984 heroin conviction, now runs the Water Keeper Alliance. After he hired a convicted environmental criminal, eight members of the board resigned, allowing him total control of the Alliance.

In more recent chapters, Kennedy has assembled a team of big-name attorneys to sue pork producers with the same tactics used against tobacco. He estimates potential "damages" of up to $13-billion.

"We have attorneys now who have money and they know what they’re doing," he has boasted.

The "sustainable" pork Kennedy advocates is produced by a system similar to that practiced in Sweden, where pork prices have risen as high as $12 per pound. While Kenndys may be able to afford that, average Americans cannot.

But Kennedy believes multi-billion-dollar victories are in sight–even if along the way he drives companies out of business, forces thousands of workers out of their jobs and drives up the price of pork for consumers. "We have lawyers with the deepest pockets, and they’ve agreed to fight the industry to the end," says Kennedy. "We’re going to go after all of them."

-Centre For Consumer Freedom


Activists to post ominous list on Net:

Earth over man

Environmental and animal rights activists are escalating their get-even attitudes towards the rest of society.

The Earth First Journal, in collaboration with the group Dictator Watch, intends to create a directory of "the individuals responsible for the widespread crimes against nature perpetrated by humanity upon the earth and its creatures."

According to Earth First, the directory will include "the sources of death and destruction that come from industry, government and also other institutions. For example, many religious organizations, through their beliefs and practices, have terrible environmental consequences."

The directory, which will be published in the Journal and also on the Journal and Dictator Watch’s websites, is intended to serve as a resource and guide for activists worldwide.

This is scary stuff," says James W. Conrad Jr., counsel of the American Chemistry Council, who equates the directory to a "Nuremberg Files-type website, with names, photos, home addresses, etc. people killing the earth."


From Smokey the Bear to:

Solar chain saws

"Since the beginning of the devastating forest fires in Colorado and Arizona, many environmentalists finally conceded that some forest thinning is needed to prevent these types of severe fires," says Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake. "However, one group, Forest Guardians, suggests thinning the forest using ‘solar-powered’ chain saws."

Solar-powered chain saws?

"I know my way around the hardware store pretty well." the congressman chuckles, "but I’ve never seen the solar-powered-chain saw section."

Kirsten Stade, a member of the Forest Guardians, was quoted in a recent East Valley Tribune article as saying the group supports forest thinning so long as it does not benefit commercial loggers and is done with solar-power chain saws.

"We all know that some radical environmentalists have too much influence on our forest policy," notes Flake. "But it’s clear that some also have too much time on their hands."



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