Class B-Dealer C.C. Baird Out of Business PERMANENTLY!!!

For those of you who do not know what Class B-Dealers are, please see http://www.lcanimal.org. They really are a terrible part of the system which allows scum to literally steal dogs from back yards and sell to testing facilities. Just terribly wrong and sad. Finally, one the the most notorious was sentenced. But, only after much work. Please read below..... By the way, Last Chance for Animals is a great group.

Many of you will remember CC Baird as the B dog dealer who sold dogs (some stolen) to CU for their physiology dog labs. Among B dealers (who more or less are the scum of the earth) he is considered notorious.


'
From Last Chance for Animals:

UPDATE! 1/28/05
Class B-Dealer C.C. Baird
Out of Business PERMANENTLY!!!

"Respondents C.C. Baird, Patsy Baird, Jeannette Baird, and Patricia Baird, their agents and employees, successors and assigns, directly or through any corporate or other device, shall cease and desist from violating the Animal Welfare Act and the Regulations and Standards."

Greetings!

Class B-Dealer C.C. Baird's civil trial was scheduled to begin on January 24, 2005, but LCA received word on Friday, January 21, 2005 that both sides reached a settlement and the case did not go to trial. Details of this settlement were not made public until now.

The consent decision was signed and finalized on Friday, January 28, 2005 and includes the following terms:

The licenses of C.C. Baird, his wife Patsy, and their two daughters, Patricia and Jeanette, have all been PERMANENTLY REVOKED.

C.C Baird personally assessed a civil penalty of $12,700.

Fines amounted to $250,000, the largest fine EVER imposed by the USDA/APHIS.

A five year probation including a penalty of $250,000 (without further procedure) if any Baird is caught engaging in any activities under which their licenses were revoked.

C.C. Baird's "Martin Creek Kennels" and Patsy's "Pat's Pine Tree Farms" are OUT OF BUSINESS FOR GOOD!

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will confiscate all 100 dogs and 180 cats currently on the Baird property in the next week. (More details on this later).

THE TORTURING AND KILLING OF ANIMALS AT THE NOTORIOUS MARTIN CREEK KENNELS HAS COME TO AN END!

LCA's undercover investigations acquired over 72 hours of video surveillance footage at Baird's facility - Martin Creek Kennels - detailing overwhelming amounts of cruelty, abuse, neglect, and unsanitary conditions, which subsequently led to the USDA charging Baird with hundreds of violations of the Animal Welfare Act. For more information, please visit our site: www.lcanimal.org/invest/baird.htm

LCA thanks you for all of your support on this case. Together we MADE a difference! Now we wait for the criminal indictment!

Donate to LCA, Click Here!

For the Animals,

Last Chance for Animals
campaigns@lcanimal.org
310-271-6096 x25
http://www.lcanimal.org

Animal Rights Lunatic Is A Dog’s ‘Best’ Friend - Wacko Site of the Week

I think I just found the wacko site of the week. -

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/2732

Because you know, consumers are under attack! Did they ever think that consumer
freedom also means to let veg-related info. enter the discussion? What's ironic
is that they would actaully ban veg-related info. from entering the consumer
discussion as they are clearly mocking it. Again, idiots.

Definitely a right wing "think tank."

Again, going to these types of sites is an exercise in understanding what ar is
up against, and how to attempt (I emphasize attempt) to get through to them (
though it's not likely).

Follow up from previous - Vote Yes - Should student be charged with cruelty?

This is the follow up from previous posting about sicko student. Should student be charged with cruelty? - Please go to the link
below and vote yes.

http://www.wnbc.com/education/4116220/detail.html

http://www.wnbc.com/education/4116220/detail.html

Pet store animals cooked in school

With some people it's hard to distinguish stupidity from cruelty - or perhaps they're tied



Pet store animals cooked in school

Fri Jan 21 2005 08:35:35 ET



A Guinea pig and rabbit purchased from a Geauga County pet store ended

up on plates at a Cleveland area high school.



A 16-year-old student skinned and cooked the animals during a living

skills class on Wednesday, prompting student and parent complaints to

the Thompson Township Police Department and Geauga Humane Society.

Officials at both agencies said they are investigating.



Friday editions of the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER detail how the incident

may warrant animal cruelty charges.



Geauga Humane Officer Sarah Westman said it's illegal to needlessly

kill

"companion animals" raised for domestic purposes.



"Something irrational and wrong happened," Westman explained.



Ledgemont Principal Beto Gage acknowledged that "misjudgments" took

place but said the boy's actions are far from criminal.



The student - whose name was not released - described what he did in

terms of harvesting meat to fix a dish for classmates, Gage said.



The principal described the boy as an active hunter. The Ledgemont

district covers the rural communities of Montville and Thompson

townships, where killing - and then eating - wild game is fairly

common.



The hunt, however, usually doesn't take place at Pet Supplies Plus.



The boy went to the Chardon store and purchased the Guinea pig and

rabbit after coming up empty in the great outdoors.



"My skin's crawling over this," said Linda Schempp, a spokeswoman for

the pet store chain. "We sell our animals to be family pets - not

food."



Developing...

Zoo may tell elephants farewell (It's about time!)

Another proof of how zoos just simply do not care about the well being of other animals, and that they are incapable of creating natural conditions.

Sad and senseless deaths.

Zoo may tell elephants farewell
Lincoln Park mulls future of program

By William Mullen and Jon Yates, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporter Alex Kellogg contributed to this report
Published January 20, 2005

Having lost two of its three elephants in the last three months, Lincoln Park Zoo on Wednesday said it would send the last one to another facility while its staff re-examines the future of its elephant program.

Wankie, 35, an African elephant who lost her two female companions, Tatima, 35, in October and Peaches, 55, on Monday, will move from Chicago as soon as an appropriate home can be found for her, zoo officials said.

The two deaths have put Lincoln Park at center stage in a nationwide controversy over whether northern zoos should keep elephants, which come from tropical and subtropical climates. Animal rights organizations campaigning to ban elephants from zoos in general have heaped criticism on Lincoln Park since Peaches' death.

Zoo industry officials, however, denied Wednesday that cold weather had anything to do with the Lincoln Park deaths and challenged the facts that animal rights activists have been proffering to support elimination of zoo elephant exhibits.

The passion generated on both sides of the issue is a measure of the almost universal attraction and regard humans hold for elephants--the largest of all land animals and among the most social and intelligent of all species.

They usually come out No. 1 on zoo surveys as the most popular animals in their collections. Conservation officials struggling to stop the slaughter of elephants in Africa and Asia regard them as probably the most important zoo "ambassadors" to educate the public about the plight of wild animals and disappearing wilderness.

Lincoln Park officials said it was easier to send Wankie to a different facility to join an established social group than it was to find two or three compatible elephants and bring them to Chicago to join her in the zoo's African Journey exhibit.

In coming weeks zoo staff members will consider finding a replacement group of elephants. They said the option of keeping no elephants at all would be discussed, though they consider that possibility remote.

PETA blames weather

The animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on Wednesday charged that cold weather conditions were directly responsible for the elephant deaths at Lincoln Park.

"The issue is that, because of cold climate, they are forced to live indoors under conditions in which elephants are deprived of adequate exercise and enrichment," said Nicole Meyer, who said she is PETA's "elephant specialist."

"We find that elephants kept in captivity in general are dying prematurely, decades short of expected life spans as a result of captivity-induced ailments such as arthritis and foot infection."

Wankie, Tatima and Peaches came to Lincoln Park in 2003 from San Diego Wild Animal Park, a move excoriated by some animal rights activists. Wankie and Tatima were entering into elephant old age at the time, and Peaches was the oldest African zoo elephant in the country.

"We said they undoubtedly will not prosper and probably there will be some loss of life," said Pat Derby, director of the Performing Animal Welfare Society, a California group that operates three sanctuaries for captive wildlife. "Elephants can take some cold, but moving them from a climate like San Diego to a climate like Chicago is a horrible stress, and for old elephants, I think it's deadly."

Lincoln Park and other zoo industry officials say such charges are unfounded.

"The facts don't prove out what PETA and other activists are saying," said Bill Foster, director of the Birmingham (Alabama) Zoo and president of the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the zoo industry trade organization.

Current studies on the median age of death for captive African elephants, he said, "is not statistically different" than what it is for elephants living in the wild, about 36 to 38 years.

Some zoos have decided to do away with elephant exhibits. Last year, the Detroit Zoo director announced he would shut down the zoo's elephant exhibit and send Winky and Wanda to a warmer, roomier sanctuary.

In San Francisco, animal welfare groups pressured zoo officials there to stop their elephant exhibit after one died last April.

Officials at the Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden in Evansville, Ind., said they shut down the facility's elephant exhibit in 1999 after deciding it was better for the elephant, Bunny, to live in a Tennessee sanctuary.

Erik Beck, the zoo's curator of animals, said zoo officials thought the elephant needed companionship and that her exhibit space was outdated.

"Definitely what was correct 20 years ago ... even 10 years ago does not mean it's the right thing to do now," Beck said.

Elephants brought back

Yet other zoos, such as Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, are bringing elephants back after closing exhibits earlier, Foster said. And the Denver and Cleveland Zoos, are expanding elephant collections and facilities.

"Some of our most successful elephant programs have been in zoos in northern climates," Foster said, citing zoos in Cincinnati and Syracuse.

At the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, zoo workers and animal rights activists have expressed concern that the zoo's only elephant is depressed. Officials ultimately decided to keep her and embarked on a three-year, $500,000 improvement program, including construction of the world's first elephant treadmill for exercising in the coldest months.

"People have excellent points on both sides and nobody has true answers," said zoo curator Pat Lampi.

Despite the two recent deaths at Lincoln Park, Foster said, the Chicago zoo has been notable for its expertise in care of geriatric elephants.

Meyer of PETA said the deaths, coming in rapid succession, were proof enough of the zoo's inadequate care of the animals.

Kelly McGrath, spokeswoman for Lincoln Park, said there is no link between Chicago's cold winters and the recent deaths. "You need to take each death separately," she said.

"Tatima had some kind of bacterial disease. We don't yet know if it was tuberculosis, but it had destroyed her body. That is a bacterial disease that she could have acquired 30 years ago. If she had been here, stayed in San Diego or gone elsewhere would not have mattered in terms of her death. Peaches was just old."

During the winter, the zoo's elephants have lived off-exhibit in a 4,000-square-foot area with a concrete floor. McGrath said the concrete is not ideal and that keepers are hoping to develop a flooring that is softer, yet durable enough that the elephants can't rip it up.

West suburban Brookfield Zoo has two extremely popular African female elephants and has never entertained the idea of doing away with its elephant exhibit, said zoo director Stuart Strahl.

"Elephants are probably the most enigmatic and charismatic animals we have," said Strahl, "standing as representatives for the endangered and threatened wild species and habitat worldwide.

"The role of the zoo in a modern society is one of conservation and education. Our philosophy is that people care about wildlife and nature when they have meaningful, direct experiences with wildlife."

North American zoos and aquariums attract 140 million visitors a year, which Strahl said represents an enormous opportunity to teach an increasingly urban population the importance of preserving wildlife and habitats. North American zoos have about 300 elephants total, half Asian, half African.

"People are drawn to them because of their size," said Strahl. "They are an animal everybody can relate to.

"We use that every day to convey our fundamental conservation and education messages to visitors at our zoo. Our elephant keepers every day give lectures and have informal chats with visitors about the animals, their plight in the wild, their social behavior and how we care for them."

Too good of a story to pass up.....also quite educational

Main Supplier of Hollywood's Apes in Entertainment Gets Out of the Business

Main Supplier of Hollywood’s Apes in Entertainment Gets Out of the Business

Eleven chimpanzees and six orangutans going to a sanctuary

F O R I M M E D I A T E R E L E A S E

Eleven chimpanzees and six orangutans owned by Los Angeles animal trainer, Bob Dunn, will be out of the entertainment business in March and headed to a life of permanent sanctuary retirement in Wauchula, Florida. Dunn, owner of Bob Dunn’s Animal Services has for some 30 years been the main supplier of great apes for Hollywood and other entertainment, providing chimpanzees and orangutans to movies, television shows, and advertisements. Dunn is leaving the ape business and donating all his working and breeding apes to the Center for Great Apes, a private, non-profit sanctuary.

“My primates have worked many shows, but now its time for them to retire …and sending them to a sanctuary is the right thing to do,” said Dunn announcing that he is out of the ape business and will no longer own, breed, train, or work great apes in entertainment or provide them for commercial work.

Located on 100 acres of tropical forest and orange groves in central Florida, the Center for Great Apes was founded by Patti Ragan, who left a business career in order to provide long term care for orangutans and chimpanzees needing permanent care, the mission of the Center. With the assistance of the Arcus Foundation, the Center for Great Apes is building new habitats for Dunn’s retired apes who will move to Florida as soon as the facilities are ready. At that time, the Center will remove from Dunn’s property all cages, nighthouses, transfer crates, and other equipment used for these apes.

What was acceptable to the public 10 years ago is becoming unacceptable as people learn more about the use of apes in entertainment. Babies are taken away from their mothers as tiny infants, trained to do tricks and behaviors for the profit of the trainers, and worked only while they are infants and juveniles. Once they hit their adolescence (about 8 to 9 years old), they are too strong to be handled which results in a large number of unwanted apes. Given that chimpanzees and orangutans can live more than 50 years in captivity, the issue of where they go when they’re cycled out of entertainment is a major concern. Many in the past have been “out-placed” by trainers to roadside attractions, biomedical research facilities, and inappropriate breeding farms where more babies are pulled from their mothers to supply both the entertainment and “exotic” pet industries. The public is starting to understand the toll entertainment takes on such large, strong, smart, socially sophisticated and emotionally complex animals as chimpanzees and orangutans.

The closing of this primary supply of great apes in the entertainment business is a major step toward ending the use of apes in entertainment. While the Center for Great Apes is predominantly a rescue sanctuary, other organizations exist whose missions are public education, program development, and affecting legislation governing the use and ownership of these apes. Ragan anticipates that Dunn’s retirement and placement of his apes into a sanctuary will be applauded by the public that has growing concerns about the use of great apes in entertainment.

Founded in 1993 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Center for Great Apes has to date taken in 18 other orangutans and chimpanzees needing a permanent home. Ragan says, “There is a need for permanent, protective sanctuary care for great apes. While their lifelong care is a tall order, we make that lifelong commitment to each and everyone of them.”

Sammy, a 15-year-old orangutan, is just one of the new residents who will be arriving at the sanctuary. This red-haired ape had the starring role in the movie “Dunston Checks In” when he was just 6 years old. Now, weighing over 200 pounds and having the strength of several grown men, Sammy cannot be safely worked around human actors anymore. Sanctuary director Ragan says her staff is looking forward to providing Sammy and all the other apes that will accompany him with huge new habitats and a long, elevated tunnel system running through the wooded property.

“Sammy can now do what an orangutan does best and wants to do most…. eat, roam through the forest, and hang around with other orangutans,” commented Ragan. “We are very happy for him and all the others.”

The sanctuary, which is supported by individual memberships and private donations, is not open to the public as an attraction. For more information visit www.CenterForGreatApes.org.

First Post: Welcome to the GEARI Blog!

I hope to start posting soon. For now, I'm working on tech. issues with a new website. Check back soon. I hope to start posting tomorrow.

Justin