1)   WIN! Gray Wolves Are Once Again Protected 2)   House Passes Crush Video Bill. Senate Is Next. 3)   WIN! Spain’s Catalonia Region Bans Bullfights 4)   Justice Un-served: Dog Handler Mary Wild Walks 5)   Bella’s Death Prompts Her Guardian To Act For Others 6)   NASA Engineer Quits Over Primate Experiments

7)WIN! Commercial Whaling Is A No-Go 8)Mean Meat Guy Gets 27 Yrs In Jail 9)WIN! NIH Rejects Animal Test Grants In OR, WA 10)  Money Trumps Free Speech: No SHAC 7 Appeal 11)  Win! Quality Egg Is Guilty And Fined For Cruelty

1) UPDATE / SOURCE: Gray wolves regain federal protections under Endangered Species Act

8/5/10, SUMMARY: The Bush administration delisted them. The Obama administration sanctioned their delisting. But your persistence helped to bring gray wolves back under Endangered Species Act protection. A federal judge reversed a U.S. Fish and Wildlife decision to delete Northern Rockies wolves from the endangered species list. The public slaughter of Greater Yellowstone wolves will not recommence in September. For hunters in Montana and Idaho — who killed thousands of wolves last year — open season is over.

Over two administrations, Kinship Circle supporters protested killing the very wolves that Americans had salvaged from near extinction. Thousands of letters, calls, faxes and emails to President Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, state and federal officials demanded that hunters stop the largest wolf bloodbath since the 1930s. For over a year our “Save Gray Wolves To Slaughter Them?” stayed on Kinship Circle’s Top 10 Alerts lists. We are happy to remove it, for now — as the current court ruling backs science, not politics, with its reinstatement of gray wolves as a protected species.

KINSHIP CIRCLE REFERENCES:
• 9/5/09: Save Gray Wolves So We Can Slaughter Them? • 6/2/09: Groups Sue Salazar To Save Delisted Wolves • 3/6/09: Wolves Lose: Sec. Salazar Takes Away Protection • 11/25/08: Save Gray Wolves From Bush Admin’s Kill Plan		• NOV 2008: Animals Want President Obama To Know... • 9/29/08: Bush Admin VS. Gray Wolves: GOP Losing • 2/29/08: Gray Wolf Hunts Planned After De-Listing

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2) UPDATE SUMMARY — 7/21/10: Thanks to your perseverance, the U.S. House Of Representatives passed (416-3) H.R. 5566, Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010. This partial victory snubs a 4/20 Supreme Court ruling that protects crush fetish videos as free speech. The U.S. Vs. Stevens ruling focused on "depiction" rather than actual abuse — the portrayal of high-heeled feet stomping small animals to death. H.R. 5566 bypasses the Court's decision, enforcing a ban on sale/circulation of animals shown crushed, drowned, stabbed or burned. After Congress returns from recess in September, it is imperative that the Senate also pass a Crush Videos Act of 2010.

ACTION ALERT:
• TAKE ACTION: HALFWAY THERE! HOUSE PASSES CRUSH VIDEO BILL

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3) UPDATE SUMMARY — JULY 2010: Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region is now the nation’s first mainland region to ban bullfighting. Catalonian nationalist Jose Rull said: “There are some traditions that can't remain frozen in time as society changes. We don’t have to ban everything, but the most degrading things should be banned." A 68 to 55 vote sealed the ban, amid cheers in the 135-seat legislature.

SOURCE: European Vegetarian and Animal News Alliance (EVANA)

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4) UPDATE / SOURCE: Arnold dog handler gets probation in deaths of 7 dogs

7/1/10, SUMMARY: She was charged with 8 counts of animal abuse, each a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both. But in the end, dog handler Mary Wild — found guilty on 6/4/10 for the deaths of 7 "show dogs" left in her overheated van in Arnold, MO — walked away with two years' probation and 80 hours community service at Jefferson County Animal Control. She is assigned a 750-word essay on heat affects on dogs and how she could have prevented the deaths... Mary was so hot herself she went indoors, leaving eight dogs in her cargo van where temps soared to 120 degrees. The dogs succumbed to slow death, likely heatstroke, while Wild slept comfortably.

“One handler called [Wild’s sentence] ‘a shocking mockery of justice.’ A former friend of the Wild family summed it up this way ‘I've known Mary Wild for years. It was no accident, it was gross neglect and prison is nothing compared to what those dogs went through before they finally died.’” Mary Wild Sentenced

KINSHIP CIRCLE REFERENCES:
• 7/4/09: Seven Dogs Perish, Trapped Inside Hot Van

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5) UPDATE / SOURCE: Jeff Daniels, Bella’s former guardian

6/29/10, SUMMARY: In May, Kinship Circle issued an alert about Bella, Jeff Daniels’ pit bull who escaped from a fenced yard only to be gunned down by an ACO. Jeff sends us this update: “Cabarrus County Animal Control shot and killed our beloved family companion, Bella. It has led to countless hours of research and networking...to form a nonprofit organization. This county is killing animals at an alarming rate... This is a passion project for me. I think I have found my calling in life. Please share both of these pages with your friends, family and co-workers and check out the "How You Can Help" page...We must speak up for the ones who can't speak for themselves. Enough is enough! Jeff Daniels”

WEBSITE: www.justiceforbella.org
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=507149604#!/pages/Justice-for-Bella/112769172098103?ref=ts

KINSHIP CIRCLE REFERENCES:
• 5/12/10: ACO Kills Bella, As The Scared Dog Runs From Him

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6) UPDATE / SOURCE: Animal Defenders International Announces NASA Engineer Resigns over
Planned Primate Testing

6/26/10, SUMMARY: NASA aerospace engineer April Evans quit her NASA job as space architect on the International Space Station (ISS) program due to NASA’s primate irradiation tests. Evans feels that NASA’s decision, after 30 years of non-usage, is a step backward. Evans contends that primate radiation experiments don’t concur with the Obama administration’s goals for new technology development to shield space radiations.

ACTION ALERT:

• TAKE ACTION: NASA NUKES MONKEYS. STOP THEM.

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7) UPDATE / SOURCE: Stunning Victory For Whales

6/23/10, SUMMARY: This year’s bid to legalize commercial whaling is a no-go. Thanks to Kinship Circle supporters who spoke out against whaling now...and many times over the years. Your comments to the International Whaling Commission help solidify wins like this one. Japan, Norway and Iceland are still hunting whales under the guise of “research.” However, if commercialized whaling (what whalers do now, illegally) had been legalized — they could have won rights to openly slaughter whales.

KINSHIP CIRCLE REFERENCES:

• 11/12/09: Spending Cuts Crush Japan Whaling? • 3/29/09: Demand Whale Conservation Over Killing • 3/4/09 Saving Whales At The Edge Of The World • 11/3/08: End Whale Bloodbath In Danish Faeroe Islands • 5/28/08: No More Makah Tribal Whaling • 3/7/08: Japan Whalers Shoot Capt. Paul Watson

• 1/17/08: Sea Shepherd Hostages Free, Action Needed • 12/3/07: Stop The Whale Killers - Japan, Norway, Iceland • 3/23/07: Japanese Whalers Returns Home in Disgrace • FEB 2007: Sea Shepherd Engages Japanese Whalers • 12/9/06: Capt. Watson & Sea Shepherd Crew

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8) UPDATE / SOURCE: Former Agriprocessors Kosher Meat King Sentenced to 27 Years

6/21/10, SUMMARY: One time Agriprocessors CEO, Sholom Rubashkin, was found guilty on 86 federal financial fraud charges last fall. Now, he’ll sit behind bars for 27 years and pay almost $31 million in restitution. It seems fitting for the head of a kosher slaughterhouse accused of such atrocities as electrically goading cows into a rotating drum that flips them upside down to slice their throats while fully conscious. PETA’s undercover footage revealed protruding tongues and blinking eyes...as columns of blood spurt from the cows’ wounds. Once throats are slit, workers gouge out their trachea and esophagus. Like giant rag dolls, the cows still struggle to stand, as workers wait for blood to drain from their mangled bodies. In 2004 (when Kinship Circle members urged them to do so) the USDA cited Agriprocessors for “engaging in acts of inhumane slaughter.” Now Mr. Rubashkin has 27 years in prison to hear the screams of his cows.

KINSHIP CIRCLE REFERENCES: • 12/6/04: 12/6/04: Screams From The Kosher Kill Floor

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9) UPDATE / SOURCE: Victory! No $15 Million Expansions for Northwest Primate Centers! In Defense of Animals

JUNE 2010, SUMMARY: The National Center For Research Resources rejected $15 million in grant requests from primate testing centers in Oregon and Washington. This NIH funding center “just said no” to a Washington expansion grant to construct a BioSafety Level-3 site that would have infected primates with deadly diseases. It also denied an Oregon expansion grant to breed more monkeys for research. NCRR awarded roughly 35% of grant monies, and 33% of total funds, specifically for animal research activities. In Defense of Animals, the national organization that initiated the protest campaign, “considers this a significant step in the right direction.” FULL REPORT AVAILABLE ONLINE. IDA further reports: “To their credit, NCRR awarded at least one grant — several in some cases — in each of the major categories of innovative non-animal tools: medical imaging, computational modeling, and microfluidics.”

KINSHIP CIRCLE REFERENCES:

• 2007: Researcher To Clone Primates For Human Diseases

• 11/2/03: Deliverance From Misery For OHSU Primates

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10) UPDATE / SOURCE: 3rd Circuit Turns Down SHAC-7 Activists' Appeal / Courthouse News, Animal Liberation Press Office

6/10/10, SUMMARY: The 3rd Circuit federal appeals court in Philadelphia rejected an appeal by six members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, who were convicted in 2006 of interstate stalking and conspiring to use their website to harass workers at 10 companies involved with the Huntingdon Life Sciences in Franklin Township, NJ. In last October’s ruling, a three-judge panel said circumstantial evidence supported convictons under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. While activist-defendants Andrew Stepanian, Darius Fullmer, Kevin Kjonaas, Joshua Harper, Lauren Gazzola and Jacob Conroy claimed that law violated their First Amendment rights...the panel said the government had ample evidence that they illegally targeted HLS.

THE SHAC 7’S CRIME? Operating a website that reported civil disobedience, laboratory animal rescue, vandalism and similar tactics. Conspiring to generate economic hardship for HLS through words, letter campaigns, calls to action.

WHO IS HUNTINGDON LIVE SCIENCES? In 7 undercover investigations over 12 years we’ve seen HLS techs drown animals’ lungs in toxic chemicals via naso-gastric tubes meant for their stomachs; a tech repeatedly punching a screaming beagle puppy; another tech slicing into the chest of a convulsing monkey during a supposedly post-mortem dissection. Animals are left to seize, vomit and collapse with no vet care. HLS has accrued multiple breaches of the U.S. Animal Welfare Act, the arrest of workers on animal cruelty charges, more than 520 infringements of Good Laboratory Practice in England, and a $50,000 payoff to the U.S. Agriculture Department for misstated records and animal welfare violations.

KINSHIP CIRCLE REFERENCES: • 7/19/09: No Money = No Huntingdon Life Sciences • 12/2007: Send Holiday Cheer To SHAC 7 Prisoners • 8/31/07: SHAC 7 Prisoner Darius Fullmer Free On 9/28! • 1/19/07: Wish SHAC 7's Josh And Jake Happy Birthdays • 12/25/06: Christmas In A Correctional Institution • 10/20/06: One Inside & Five To Begin Prison Mid-Nov • 9/12/06: No Money = No Huntingdon Life Sciences • 4/19/06: SHAC 7 Update

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11) UPDATE / SOURCE: Maine Egg Producer Pleads Guilty to 10 Counts of Animal Cruelty, Mercy For Animals

June 2010, SUMMARY: Kinship Circle supported the Mercy For Animals undercover investigation inside Quality Egg of New England, a Maine factory farm. Thanks to all who sent comments in this breakthrough case. In a rare outcome for farmed animals, Quality Egg pled guilty to 10 animal cruelty counts and acquiesced to $130,000 in fines and restitution. The nation's largest egg maker also granted the state authority to make unannounced inspections for the five years.

Egg-laying hens endure particularly cruel conditions. Some 98% of U.S. egg-laying hens live in battery cages stacked inside dark sheds. Producers typically pack 6-9 hens inside wire coops no larger than a filing drawer. Each bird occupies a space half the size of a sheet of paper and cannot flutter a wing or extend a leg. Many U.S. egg manufacturers starve birds in 10-14 day cycles (forced molting) to jumpstart egg output. To curtail fighting and cannibalism, workers amputate the bottom third of each bird's beak. Each year, millions of male chicks — who don’t lay eggs and aren’t a profitable meat source — are crushed alive in automated mashers. Spread as fertilizer, some mutilated chicks still peep and cry once spread over the ground.

After its 2008-2009 undercover work, MFA (with legal counsel from Compassion Over Killing) filed a complaint that urged enforcement of Maine’s anti-cruelty statutes. Abuses uncovered include:

• Workers/managers killing birds by grabbing their necks to swing them in circles. Such attempts to break their necks often led to prolonged, torturous deaths for the hens.
• Supervisors and workers throwing live birds into trash cans.
• Birds with broken bones, bloody open wounds, untreated infections and uterine prolapses.
• Hens confined 4 to 6 in wire cages so small they were unable to stretch wings, move freely or engage in other basic behaviors.
• Birds trapped in the wire of their cages or under the feeding trays without access to food or water.
• Rotting carcasses in cages with live hens still laying eggs for human consumption.
  

MFA findings reflect those recorded at most egg factory farms nationwide. Animal neglect and abuse are routine, not an exception.

KINSHIP CIRCLE REFERENCES: • 4/6/09: Maine Egg Farm Abusers Should Rot In Jail

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