Animal News

The July 1, 2008, episode of ABC News Primetime focuses on people who have purchased monkeys as surrogate children. Born Free USA united with API has more than 500 primates at its sanctuary, many formerly kept as pets, and our staff worked closely with Primetime producers to develop this story, including allowing them the use of footage from our investigation into exotic animals kept as “pets.”

Families Adopt Monkeys as Surrogate Children
ABC News Primetime

"Great apes should have the right to life and freedom, according to a resolution passed in the Spanish parliament, in what could become landmark legislation to enshrine human rights for chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and bonobos." Born Free USA united with API's UK-based colleague, the Born Free Foundation, has a similar interest in great apes through its core involvement in The Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP), a United Nations partnership that aims to lift the threat of imminent extinction faced by gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans across their ranges in equatorial Africa and south-east Asia.

Spanish parliament approves 'human rights' for apes
Lee Glendinning
The Guardian

"The lone, and perhaps lonely, elephant at the Dallas Zoo is being sent to a park in Mexico. The zoo on Tuesday announced plans to relocate Jenny, a 32-year-old African elephant, to the drive-through Africam Safari Park, about 80 miles southeast of Mexico City in Puebla state. The park is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. So is the Dallas Zoo." Born Free USA united with API's UK-based colleague, the Born Free Foundation, began as a project to get the one remaining elephant, Pole Pole, out of the London Zoo.

Jenny, the elephant, leaving Dallas Zoo for Mexico
Associated Press
Houston Chronicle

"The growing interest in adopting animals that belong in the jungle, not in high-rise apartments, is prompting many other states to tighten their laws. About two dozen states, including California, Vermont and New Hampshire, already ban exotic pets — usually defined as any animal that is not a dog, cat, fish, horse or rabbit. Maryland is moving to strengthen its laws, and Florida legislators are drafting laws to stop an invasion of giant snakes." Born Free USA united with Animal Protection Institute has authored many of those laws and ceaselessly urges the passage of laws restricting private possession of exotic animals.

Popular exotic pets
Ruth David
Forbes

We grow enough food for everyone, but livestock are devouring our food supply. Commentator and bioethicist Peter Singer says unless we change, the dinner plate of the future will look far different. Born Free USA united with Animal Protection Institute has long maintained that going vegetarian or even vegan has the potential to affect positively lives of farm animals, to halt the destruction of the environment, and to improve one's own personal health.

Food crisis solution: Go vegan
Kai Ryssdal & Peter Singer
Marketplace
American Public Media

Animal welfare groups have long accused the Ringling Brother and Barnum & Bailey Circus of animal cruelty and court records show the circus has played rough in response. It spent millions of dollars on a 10-year espionage campaign which infiltrated and spied on animal organizations and activists. The man in charge was previously the head of Covert Operations for the CIA. The groups hope to have the last word when they haul Ringling Brothers into federal court this October with a lawsuit alleging the circus is cruel to its endangered Asian Elephants. The Animal Protection Institute is one of the plaintiffs in that suit.

To view the video reporting, clink on these links (stories begin after the commercial:

• Circus Lawsuit Moves Forward
• Circus Lawsuit Moves Forward Part 2

Circus Lawsuit Moves Forward
George Knapp
CBS 8 Las Vegas Now Eyewitness News

The Christmas tragedy that led to the death of Carlos Sousa Jr. and the tigress, Tatiana, is still fresh in people's memories. However, these should not deflect us from addressing the wider issue, namely should there be animals in zoos; I believe it is time for change.

Time to re-create our zoo
Letter to the Editor
Will Travers
CEO, Born Free USA

San Francisco's embattled zoo director announced his resignation Friday, nearly six months after a tiger mauled a San Jose teenager to death at the zoo. Manuel A. Mollinedo's sudden retirement comes after months of criticism over the San Francisco Zoo's role in the sensational Christmas day mauling that also injured two San Jose brothers and led to dual legal claims against the zoo and the City of San Francisco, which owns the zoo. Born Free USA united with API has decried safety issues even at AZA-accredited zoos.

San Francisco Zoo director resigns
Sandra Gonzales
San Jose Mercury News