NEWSANIMAL SANCTUARIES

Bernard Unti, who has served on Humane Society International's IWC delegation since 2007, is senior policy adviser and special assistant to the president/CEO of The Humane Society of the United States.

Delegates to the International Whaling Commission’s 63^rd annual meeting on July 11-15 in Jersey (Channel Islands) can and should support proposals favoring transparency in governance and operations and the creation of a South Atlantic whale sanctuary. Doing so would help to set the IWC on a better course after 2010’s international battle royale over a compromise to lift the global moratorium on commercial whaling. That proposal, supported even by the United States, would have granted Japan legal commercial whaling quotas in its own coastal waters in exchange for a voluntary reduction in its "scientific" whaling in Antarctica.

It’s been ten years since the last formal transparency proposal surfaced at IWC, and in the continuing stream of details concerning vote buying, subsidized travel, and other perks for delegates, a serious attempt at reform is overdue. The Jersey proposal, sponsored by the United Kingdom, seeks to enhance overall processes for decision-making, observer group participation, integrating the findings of the IWC Scientific Committee into IWC deliberations, timely publication of reports, and funding the participation of developing countries, among other concerns.

There are a few things you ought to know about keeping primates as pets. They are long-lived, and they need care and nurturing every day for a lifespan that could stretch into decades. There's at least some risk of disease transmission to humans. Most importantly, they are wild animals, not suited to be pets in just about every case, and, being wild animals by nature, they can also be dangerous to their owners and others.

Those, of course, are just the human-centric reasons why people shouldn't keep primates as pets, omitting the (still being researched) harmful effects on the primates themselves.

Arkansas legislators seem to be getting that, and earlier this week, the Arkansas Senate passed a bill banning the ownership of primate as pets. That bill, SB 901, is up before the Arkansas House for consideration.

Award Season is in full-swing, and we already know that Sex and the City 2 won't walk away with any great honors. But one of the SATC ladies won't be leaving Award Season empty-handed: The Humane Society of the United States is honoring Kristin Davis with the Wyler Award this year.

The Wyler Award is given during the annual  Genesis Awards, a ceremony honoring celebrities who are making a difference in animal welfare. Previous Wyler Award honorees include Sir Paul McCartney, Hayden Panettiere, and Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi.

The HSUS explains why they're favoring Ms. Charlotte York Goldenblatt this year: "The Wyler Award will be given to Kristin Davis in recognition of the attention she has brought to the plight of orphaned African elephants impacted by the increase in elephant poaching for their ivory tusks."

In 2009, Bolivia became the first country in the world to ban domestic and wild animals from traveling circuses. A handful of other countries prohibit the use of wild animals or certain species, but Bolivia's law is the most comprehensive to date. The country's circuses were given a year to adapt their shows to eliminate all animal performances. That year is up.

Animal Defenders International was instrumental in getting the law passed, and they promised they'd be there to help enforce it. A few animals were voluntarily turned over early last in the year, but not every circus owner was willing to comply. So, in December, ADI traveled thousands of miles across Bolivia to rescue 24 captive lions from 8 circuses. All of the lions will be airlifted to the U.S. under a mission dubbed "Operation Lion Ark."

A pride of eight lions lived in a cage on the back of a truck, about the size of two double beds. Another lion was living in isolation in a tiny cage. Three 7-week-old cubs were born to a life of exploitation, but will now get to grow up in a sanctuary.

For the first time, Saving America's Mustangs, the foundation started by Madeleine Pickens to protect America's wild horses, will have a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade.

The 55-foot long and 35-foot high float is described by its designers as a patriotic representation of "the grandeur of the natural home of the endangered wild mustangs." The larger-than-life mustangs will be galloping down the parade route accompanied by members of every military branch, wounded warriors, canine war heroes, boys and girls scouts, and representatives from Native American tribes from across the country.

The float's theme is Mustang Monument, in honor of Pickens' proposed eco-sanctuary for horses. Here's her concept: Instead of leaving tens of thousands of wild horses — who have been rounded up from public lands — languishing in substandard, expensive government holding facilities, set them free in a sanctuary on their native range.

Saving America's Mustangs' float is a reminder to the parade's 54 million or so viewers of the place wild horses hold in our country's heritage, and it's a reminder to the Bureau of Land Management of how committed wild horse advocates are to protecting these animals.

The elephant situation at the San Antonio Zoo is getting serious. According to a local news item, In Defense of Animals has filed a complaint in California against the San Antonio Zoo, saying aggressive behavior between two elephants, Lucky and Boo, will probably result in "dire consequences." IDA is calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to act immediately and remove the elephants from the zoo and transfer them to a natural-habitat sanctuary where they would have room to move and could choose their companions. In the meantime, IDA is asking the USDA to require constant monitoring of the elephants by the zoo.

The IDA's complaint is backed by one of the world’s leading elephant scientists, ElephantVoices co-director, Dr. Joyce Poole, who has been studying elephant behavior in Africa and Asia for more than 30 years. “Lucky is being terrorized by Boo," says Dr. Poole. "This kind of persistent bullying is not seen in the wild, because elephants have other activities with which to occupy themselves, and because they can remove themselves from conflict, if need be. In my opinion, the primary cause of this undesirable situation is that the elephants have too little space.”

During Thailand’s annual Elephant Roundup, 300 captive elephants twirl hoops, throw darts, engage in mock battles and perform other routines for an audience of thousands.

But there was one less elephant performing last year. A severely injured, 40-year-old female named Ratree was rescued from the roundup by Juliette West, a 14-year-old from Pacific Palisades, Calif.

How I Became an Elephant, a documentary about the rescue and the plight of Southeast Asian elephants, premiered this week in Hollywood.

West’s passion for elephants was sparked last year when she learned about the Los Angeles Zoo's plans to build a 3.6-acre habitat for Billy, an elephant that has lived alone in a half-acre exhibit at the zoo for 20 years.

Just because we've already seen taxidermied piglet banks, frogs in plastic cubes and reindeer steaks for sale, it doesn't mean we can't have a humane holiday season this year.

Here are more than 25 ways to give without giving up on your love for animals.

Before you go shopping ...

Check your list twice at Caring Consumer or Leaping Bunny to make sure you're not giving the gift of animal testing.

Use the HealthyStuff.org ratings guide to make sure you're not stuffing your pet's stocking with toxic toys.

If you're walking on the wild side or shopping on vacation, the World Wildlife Fund shares endangering souvenirs to stay away from.

The film, One Lucky Elephant, is not your run-of-the-mill Disney animal movie, but get out the kleenex anyway. I watched the documentary at the St. Louis International Film Festival. It chronicles a nine-year hejira with Flora the elephant, and her caregiver David Balding, searching for sanctuary.

David acquired Flora when she was just a baby, when she had been orphaned in  Zimbabwe. He nurtured Flora, taught her tricks and devoted an entire circus to her — Circus Flora in St. Louis, considered a cultural institution. Although I'm a native of the St. Louis area, and a huge animal lover, I never attended Circus Flora simply because of Flora. You see, elephants in circuses make me angry (don't even get me started on Ringling Brothers) — I simply would never patronize them. But unlike the big commercial behemoths, the film reveals that Circus Flora and David have a huge heart.

The human-animal bond between the two is strong. David truly loves Flora and was crushed when he realized she wasn't happy. He felt guilty because of her life in captivity and desperately wanted her to be with other elephants.

David originally hoped to take Flora back to Africa, to be released in a sanctuary there, but because of  political instability, those plans evaporated. He then attempted to get Flora into The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, but was thwarted because, at the time, they were accepting only Asian elephants, not African elephants, so Flora struck out.

This post is part of a series running throughout Adopt-a-Less-Adoptable-Pet Week (September 19-25) to help promote understanding of the underdogs (and undercats) of the adoption world and find homes for harder-to-place pets.

Blind cats have it hard, and have to live life with two big strikes against them. The first strike is pretty obvious — they are blind. The second strike comes from people's reaction to their blindness. Few want to adopt a cat who cannot see. Yet a blind cat, like a blind human, is capable of living a happy, fulfilled life, and lack of sight should not make these special cats unadoptable.

While cats are justly famous for their excellent night vision, they are also quite adept at finding their way around using their other senses, such as sound, smell, and muscle memory. Also, a cat's whiskers aren't merely the equivalent of a human mustache. They help a cat get around. Cat whiskers are sensitive enough to detect even slight changes in a breeze. This allows a cat to navigate even in total darkness, and explains how cats can wander about a house at night without bumping into anything. As explained at HowStuffWorks: "The air currents in the room change depending on where pieces of furniture are located. As the cat walks through the room and approaches the couch, he'll know which direction to turn based on the change in air current around the couch."

Of course, cats with sight have the advantage of memory in helping them maneuver through a dark house. Yet a blind cat can learn his or her way around just as well, given a bit of time and patience.