Cambodian cops ruffle feathers by eating 92 fighting cocks

Yahoo – AFP, December 28, 2017

Cambodian netizens cried foul over the court order to kill the seized cocks
(AFP Photo/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA)

Cambodian police ruffled feathers on Thursday after they killed -- and ate -- 92 roosters that were seized earlier this month during a raid on an illegal cockfighting ring allegedly run by a relative of premier Hun Sen.

The birds were rounded up by police after they shuttered the two rural cockfighting dens on December 4 and arrested Hun Sen's nephew-in-law Thai Phany.

Thai Phany, a Cambodian-Australian citizen, was charged with running an illegal gambling operation -- a rare legal move against a member of Hun Sen's powerful family.

But while the raids were welcomed in a country teeming with official corruption, a court order to slaughter all 92 birds set off a flurry of criticism Thursday as netizens cried foul over the animals being given a harsher sentence than the people involved.

Scores of people were initially detained in the police raid, but most have since been released after receiving light suspended sentences, according to local media.

"Warrant to kill chickens! Where are the chicken owners, aren't they freed?" Hing Soksan wrote on Facebook, where photos of the slaughter have been circulating.

"The court's achievement by the end of 2017: death sentence for 92 fighting cocks," another Facebook user quipped about a justice system many decry as toothless against the graft underpinning Hun Sen's authoritarian regime.

Roeun Nara, Kandal province's deputy police chief, confirmed that the birds were killed on Wednesday following a warrant from the provincial court.

"We gave the chickens to our forces to eat," he told AFP, brushing off the online criticism.

The court document, seen by AFP on Thursday, said the slaughter was ordered "to prevent the offense from happening again and to speed up the investigation proceedings."

Cambodian police slaughter and consume 92 roosters that were seized earlier this month during a raid on an illegal cockfighting ring allegedly run by a relative of premier Hun Sen https://t.co/Gt0cwFus99 pic.twitter.com/GOwqaQbqKW

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 28, 2017

Korea dog meat campaigners accused of barking up wrong tree

Yahoo – AFP, Jung Ha-Won, December 27, 2017

South Koreans are believed to consume about one million dogs a year as a
summertime delicacy (AFP Photo/JUNG Yeon-Je)

Namyangju (South Korea) (AFP) - Barking at their rescuers, labradors, beagles and mongrels desperately scrambled out of rusty cages in South Korea: saved from the dinner plate by a deal with dog-meat farmer Kim Young-Hwan.

In the face of falling demand, Kim agreed to close his establishment in exchange for compensation from US-based Humane Society International (HSI). The dogs are bound for a new life in adoptive homes in the West.

He is the 10th canine-meat farmer to accept such an offer in three years. The exact sums are confidential, but each deal requires hundreds of thousands of dollars once adoption costs are included.

"This business is doomed... I wanted to quit before it's too late," Kim said.

The 56-year-old had 170 dogs at his farm in Namyangju, north of Seoul.

"The price has plummeted in recent years," he told AFP. "I'm barely making ends meet these days. Plus I've been harassed by animal rights groups all the time. It's such a hassle."

The push by animal rights activists, including many overseas groups, to outlaw dog meat consumption in the South has sparked mixed reactions and accusations of Western hypocrisy.

Dogs are seen in cages at a dog farm during a rescue organised by the Humane

 Society International (HSI) in Namyangju on the outskirts of Seoul (AFP Photo/

JUNG Yeon-Je)

'Lambs or rabbits'

South Koreans are believed to consume about one million dogs a year as a summertime delicacy, with the greasy red meat -- which is invariably boiled for tenderness -- believed to increase energy.

The tradition has declined as the nation increasingly embraces the idea of dogs as pets instead of livestock, with eating them now something of a taboo among young South Koreans.

Nevertheless, activists have stepped up campaigns to ban dog consumption, with online petitions urging boycotts of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics over the issue and protests in Seoul.

Such lobbying has provoked angry debates over what many describe as cultural double standards.

"I don't eat dogs, but I am disgusted by those who preach that only animals deemed cuddly enough or friendly enough by Westerners deserve to live," read one online comment.

One fifth of the South's 50 million people own pets, mostly dogs and cats, said another netizen, but for many of the rest, dogs were "no more special than lambs or rabbits".

The push by animal rights activists, including many overseas groups, to outlaw dog 

meat consumption in the South has sparked accusations of Western hypocrisy

(AFP Photo/JUNG Yeon-Je)

Similar debates have emerged in other Asian nations where dogs are eaten.

China's most notorious dog meat festival in the southwestern town of Yulin has drawn crowds despite international outrage, with sellers saying the criticism has actually encouraged more people to eat canines.

Taiwan banned dog meat consumption in April to mixed reaction, with some deeming it unfair to single out certain species under what was mocked as the "cute animal protection law".

Polls show South Korean public opinion is divided.

According to a survey this year 70 percent of South Koreans do not eat dogs, but far fewer -- about 40 percent -- believe the practice should be banned.

It also found 65 percent support raising and slaughtering dogs in more humane conditions.

There is currently no law on how to treat or slaughter canines in the meat trade in South Korea. But while farmers have urged Seoul to include dogs under livestock welfare regulations, animal rights groups oppose doing so, seeking complete abolition instead.

Suffer and love

At Kim's rundown farm, dogs sat behind tarnished brown rusty bars, their bowls filled with soupy scraps.

Housed in pairs, they spent up to a year in cages about two square metres and reeking of excrement before being sent to slaughterhouses.

Kim had 170 dogs at his farm in Namyangju, north of Seoul (AFP Photo/JUNG Yeon-Je)

Senior HSI director Kelly O'Meara said no animals should endure such awful conditions, and dogs in particular had "a special place" for people as they are often pets.

"That has certainly been the case in the West, but in Asia we see more and more people having dogs as companion animals too," she told AFP.

Each such farm closure -- one of HSI's most expensive initiatives -- is broadcast live online.

But Ahn Yong-Geun, a food and nutrition professor at ChungCheong University in Cheongju, questioned whether such organisations would condemn larger-scale beef or pork industries -- which have lobbying power and broad public support -- "in the same angry, aggressive fashion".

"The activists won't get as much excitement from donors about a pig rescue project or a cow rescue project, although these animals have just as much capacity to suffer and love as dogs," said Ahn, a vocal critic of the push to ban dog meat.

Wendy Higgins, director of international media at HSI, said the group encouraged people to "reduce and replace meat in their diet" but admitted rescue campaigns for animals such as cattle or pigs were not common.

Even so campaigns against cruelty in dog farming could "make people widen their circle of compassion for other animals in animal agriculture too", she added.

For his part farmer Kim will not be raising any other animals for meat -- he is banned from doing so under the deal with HSI.

"The social atmosphere has changed," he said, adding: "Eating dog is seen as if it's a crime these days."

Related Article:

Advocacy Groups, Celebrities Call for End to Barbaric Dog Meat Trade in Indonesia

An animal rights collective, known as Dog Meat Free Indonesia Coalition,

together with world-renowned celebrities launched a global campaign to stop

the trade in dog meat on Thursday (02/11) at Hotel Gran Mahakam in South

Jakarta, in light of recent disturbing findings of animal cruelty in the Southeast

Asian country. (Photo courtesy of Dog Meat Free Indonesia Coalition)

Brigitte Bardot, announcing book, slams Macron on animal rights

Yahoo – AFP, December 26, 2017

Brigitte Bardot, pictured in 1974, has long fought for animal rights and will release
a book next month (AFP Photo)

Paris (AFP) - French screen icon Brigitte Bardot will next month publish a book on her decades-long campaign for animal rights, she told AFP on Tuesday, taking a swipe at President Emmanuel Macron on the issue.

The 83-year-old star of "And God Created Woman" said the book, titled "Larmes de Combat" (Tears of Combat), will come out on January 25.

It will be "the record of my existence, of my fight on behalf of animals and the deep expression of my disgust".

"It will be the full record of my view of things, of society, of the way we are governed, of the way we treat animals in my country," said Bardot, known in France by her initials "BB".

She said she was "fed up" with what she called Macron's lack of support for animal rights.

"This government has got off to a very bad start," Bardot said. "Macron has no compassion for animals and nature."

Bardot slammed the 40-year-old president for holidaying with his family this month at Chambord, a hunting chateau in the Loire Valley.

"He congratulated hunters in front of their game while it was still warm," she said by telephone from Saint-Tropez. "It's scandalous and very inappropriate."

Bardot's publisher, Plon, described the upcoming book as "an original reflection, both calm and outraged at the same time, on her existence and the meaning of her fight."

The 1956 film "And God Created Woman", directed by Bardot's first husband Roger Vadim, propelled her to stardom but she retired less than two decades later, in 1973, when she was 39.

Bardot withdrew to a secluded home on the outskirts of Saint-Tropez on the Riviera.

Crusading against bullfights, hunting, and all forms of cruelty to animals, she is rarely seen in public except to press home her campaigns.

The former actress will publish an open letter in the Paris daily Le Parisien on Wednesday as her Brigitte Bardot Foundation launches its latest campaign against fur.

Nepal's last known two dancing bears rescued: officials

Yahoo – AFP, December 24, 2017

Two rescued bears are transported from a police station in Nepal's southern
Rautahat district to the Parsa Wildlife Reserve, as seen in a photo taken on
December 20, 2017 and released by World Animal Protection (AFP Photo/Handout)

Kathmandu (AFP) - Nepali authorities have rescued the country's last known "dancing bears", officials said Sunday, in a major step towards ending the medieval tradition of abuse of the beasts for entertainment.

The Himalayan nation banned the practice of performing bears back in 1973 but the tradition, an occupation for some street performer communities, lingered on in parts of its southern region.

Police and animal charities said they spent more than a year hunting the captors of the two sloth bears before they were traced to the Rautahat district near the border with India on Tuesday.

"We received information that they were in our area and managed to rescue the bears," district police chief Yagya Binod Pokharel told AFP.

Dancing bears are captured and bought as cubs and taught to dance on their hind legs. Their snouts are pierced with a heated rod so they can be controlled by the tug of a rope or chain.

Animal activists said the rescued bears -- 19-year-old male Rangila and Sridevi, a 17-year-old female -- showed signs of trauma such as cowering, pacing and paw-sucking.

"We are thrilled that the last two known Nepali dancing bears have been rescued from their lifetime of suffering... our hard effort and dedication has helped to bring an end to this illegal tradition in Nepal," said Manoj Gautam of the Jane Goodall Institute of Nepal, which worked with the police and World Animal Protection to rescue them.

The bears were located by tracking the owners' mobile phones.

The bears are being cared for by the Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Nepal's largest such reserve.

Dancing bears on the Indian subcontinent date back to the 13th century, when trainers belonging to the Muslim Qalandar tribe enjoyed royal patronage and performed before the rich and powerful.

In neighbouring India, the practice came to an end in 2012, decades after an official ban in 1972.

Sloth bears, a critically endangered species, are found in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. But shrinking habitats and rampant poaching have reduced their numbers, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The IUCN has put them on its red list of threatened species and their total estimated population is 20,000.

They can grow up to 1.8 metres (six feet) tall and weigh up to 140 kilograms (310 pounds).

Nepali authorities have rescued the country's last known "dancing bears", officials said, ending the medieval tradition of abuse of the beasts for entertainment pic.twitter.com/is8iQktJIH

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 25, 2017

Oman opens sprawling oryx reserve to ecotourists

Yahoo – AFP, Khaled Orabi, December 23, 2017

The Arabian Oryx only clung to existence thanks to a programme to breed them
 in captivity and in the early 1980s a batch of 10 were released into Oman's
Arabian Oryx Sanctuary (AFP Photo/KARIM SAHIB)

Haima (Oman) (AFP) - The Gulf sultanate of Oman is looking to carve itself a new niche in ecotourism by opening up a sanctuary for one of the desert's most fabled creatures -- the Arabian oryx.

Once extinct in the wild, the rare member of the antelope family famed for its elegant horns has been dragged back from the precipice in a sprawling reserve fenced off for decades from the public.

That changed last month when authorities for the first time officially opened the sanctuary to visitors -- part of a broader bid by Oman to boost tourism as oil revenues decline.

On a recent outing, wildlife rangers in SUVs patrolled the sandy plains of the reserve in central Oman's Haima province, spotting groups of grazing oryx and other indigenous species.

For years, the main goal has been a basic one -- ensuring the oryx can survive by focusing on "helping the animals here reproduce and multiply", said sanctuary spokesman Hamed bin Mahmoud al-Harsousi.

But now, as numbers have ticked up from just 100 some two decades ago to almost 750 today, the authorities began eyeing another role for the reserve.

"There has been more interest in its tourism potential -- to take advantage of its uniqueness and rare animals," Harsousi told AFP.

'Arabian unicorn'

The story of the Arabian oryx -- sometimes referred to as the Arabian "unicorn" due to its distinctive profile -- is one of miraculous survival.

Hunted prolifically, the last wild member of the species was killed in Oman by suspected poachers in 1972.

The Arabian Oryx only clung to existence thanks to a programme to breed them

 in captivity and in the early 1980s a batch of 10 were released into Oman's 

Arabian Oryx Sanctuary (AFP Photo/KARIM SAHIB)

The species only clung to existence thanks to a programme to breed them in captivity and in the early 1980s a batch of 10 were released into Oman's Arabian Oryx Sanctuary.

Since then, regenerating the oryx has been an often precarious process.

The Omani sanctuary sprawls over 2,824 square kilometre (1,100 sq miles) of diverse terrain -- from flat plains to rocky slopes and sandy dunes.

Its own fate has been nearly as tortured as that of the oryx it houses.

In 2007, the sanctuary became the first place ever to be removed from UNESCO's World Heritage list as the government of Oman turned most of it over to oil drilling.

On guard against poachers

Now, as oil prices have plunged over the past few years, it is the wildlife once again that has become an increasing priority for the authorities.

Harsousi puts the current number of Arabian oryx in the sanctuary at 742 and says that other species are flourishing there too.

"In the past three years, we have been able to increase the number of the Arabian gazelle, known as sand gazelles, from 300 to about 850," he added.

In addition to the animals, there are 12 species of trees that provide a habitat for diverse birds.

Oman has been on a push to transform itself into a tourist draw -- pitching its beach resorts to luxury travellers and desert wilderness to the more adventurous.

Officials in the sultanate told AFP that a major tourism plan would be announced within a matter of weeks.

Those working at the oryx sanctuary hope that it can help play a lead role in luring visitors to the country.

But there are also fears that greater openness could see the return of an old foe -- hunters.

With that in mind security is being kept tight, said Abdullah Ghassab Obaid, a wildlife guard at the reserve.

"Thirty guards and a police patrol are working to provide security in the reserve to prevent any infiltration."

Gulf sultanate of #Oman looking to carve itself new niche in ecotourism by opening sanctuary for one of the desert's most fabled creatures -- the Arabian oryx. https://t.co/PAdUzxybdi pic.twitter.com/NVRmO0nOmQ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 23, 2017

Therapy dogs give struggling young readers in Lithuania the positive attention and confidence they need to become happy bookworms

Therapy dogs give struggling young readers in Lithuania the positive attention and confidence they need to become happy bookworms pic.twitter.com/YyKZT07wqB

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 15, 2017