Animal welfare in a global perspective

Global survey of animal-welfare regulations, practices and perceptions, with case studies on poultry meat from Brazil and Thailand, eggs from India and the USA, welfare regulations of farmed fish and welfare aspects related to (perceived) overpopulation of wildlif

Non-lethal elephant-population-control methods: summary of the first ESAG workshop

Management interventions are necessary to control elephant numbers within fenced wildlife reserves in South Africa. Use of non-lethal control methods is increasing, but information about their suitability and effects are not widely available. Three such methods are currently available; immunocontraception with Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP) vaccine, vasectomy, and Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH) vaccine. Here we consolidate what we know about these methods, using published sources and material shared at a workshop held in South Africa in 2016, in order to provide up-to-date information for future policy decisions concerning the use of these methods in South Africa and elsewhere

Interpreting Enhancement of Survival in Granting Section 10 Endangered Species Act Exemptions to Animal Exhibitors

Managing endangered species in captivity presents a unique set of problems. Despite their enormous potential to preserve species in the wild - through captive breeding programs, conservation initiatives, and environmental advocacy - many facilities are lagging behind. Part II of this note discusses the evolution of zoos from ancient Egyptian displays of wealth to modern day conservation and education centers. Focusing on the Endangered Species Act, Part III introduces various laws protecting captive animals. Part IV discusses the great potential of zoos to preserve species and the ecosystems on which they rely, while acknowledging the diverse nature of animal exhibitors and the variety in quality of animal care. In response to this inconsistency, and in the context of PETA v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Part V recommends four factors that the FWS might use to evaluate an animal exhibitor\u27s potential to enhance species survival in furtherance of the ESA

The status of African elephant (Loxodonta africana) populations in South Africa

With an increase in poaching of elephants (Loxodonta africana) across Africa, it is vital to know exactly how many elephants remain and where they occur, to ensure that protection and management are planned appropriately. From a nationwide survey, we provide current population and distribution data for elephants in South Africa. We consider the viability of elephant populations in the country, as well as some of the management techniques implemented and how effective these are in controlling elephant numbers. According to our surveys, there were 28,168 elephants in South Africa as of December 2015, with 78% of these occurring in the Kruger National Park (KNP) and reserves bordering and open to the Park. Of the country’s 78 discrete that host elephants, 77% have populations of <100 elephants, which could mean they are not genetically viable. We discuss our findings in terms of the conservation value of South Africa’s elephant reserves, and the animal welfare implications. We recommend that the current fragmentation of elephant habitat in the country be addressed through a national elephant management strategy that promotes wildlife corridors between existing, neighbouring elephant reserves

Supporting people with cognitive disabilities in decision making – processes and dilemmas

The exploratory study found that participants, including those with cognitive disability, mostly supported the broad concept of supported decision making. However supporters saw this as a complex, dynamic and frequently chaotic process.&nbsp;Fundamental to the process were relationships and tailoring support to the individual. The skills and knowledge required included communication skills, self-awareness, the capacity for reflective discussion, conflict resolution skills, and knowledge of strategies for tailoring the decision making process to the individual. The study revealed multiple dilemmas and tensions associated with supporting someone with cognitive disability to make a decision but most commonly mentioned were remaining neutral, managing conflicting perspectives amongst differing supporters, balancing rights with risk and best interests, and resource constraints. The study provides some key insights into the practice of supporting people with cognitive disability to make decisions and knowledge that can be incorporated into training programs for people in this role. The findings also highlight the need for further research in this area, particularly in relation to ‘what works’ in support for decision making for people with cognitive disabilit

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 29 (06) 1976

published or submitted for publicatio

Reproductive Health Aid: A Delicate Balancing Act

In this contribution the authors show that development assistance targeting reproductive health overwhelmingly concentrates on HIV/AIDS at the expense of family planning elements. Data on financial contributions disbursed by governments and private foundations are used as collected by the Resource Flows project as initiated by UNFPA/NIDI. The current allocation of aid does not accord well with the plans made in Cairo at the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994. Part of the explanation is that future health needs are difficult to predict, but it also shows how strong the influence of one donor, i.e. the United States, is in this setup. The landscape of population assistance is a highly volatile one, brought about not only by political issues like the Global Gag Rule, but also issues of collective action design as assistance under the heading of the Millennium Development Goals crowds out family planning. A complicating factor is that development assistance for reproductive health is at some points ill-adjusted towards the needs of developing countries.health;development aid;AIDS;fertility

Women and Gender: Useful Categories of Analysis in Environmental History

In 1990, Carolyn Merchant proposed, in a roundtable discussion published in The Journal of American History, that gender perspective be added to the conceptual frameworks in environmental history. 1 Her proposal was expanded by Melissa Leach and Cathy Green in the British journal Environment and History in 1997. 2 The ongoing need for broader and more thoughtful and analytic investigations into the powerful relationship between gender and the environment throughout history was confirmed in 2001 by Richard White and Vera Norwood in Environmental History, Retrospect and Prospect, a forum in the Pacific Historical Review. Both Norwood, in her provocative contribution on environmental history for the twenty-first century, and White, in Environmental History: Watching a Historical Field Mature, addressed the need for further work on gender. Environmental history, Norwood noted, is just beginning to integrate gender analyses into mainstream work. 3 That assessment was particularly striking coming, as it did, after Norwood described the kind of ongoing and damaging misperceptions concerning the role of diversity, including gender, within environmental history. White concurred with Norwood, observing that environmental history in the previous fifteen years had been far more explicitly linked to larger trends in the writing of history, but he also issued a clear warning about the current trends in including the role of gender: The danger ... is not that gendering will be ignored in environmental history but that it will become predictable-an endless rediscovery that humans have often made nature female. Gender has more work to do than that. 4 Indeed it does. In 1992, the index to Carolyn Merchant\u27s The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History included three subheadings under women. Women and the egalitarian ideal and women and the environment each had only a few entries. Most entries were listed under the third subheading, activists and theorists, comprising seventeen names. 5 Nine years later Elizabeth Blum compiled Linking American Women\u27s History and Environmental History, an online preliminary historiography revealing gaps as well as strengths in the field emerging at the intersection of these two relatively new fields of study. At that time Blum noted that, with the exception of some scholarly interest being diverted to environmental justice movements and ecofeminism, most environmental history has centered on elite male concerns; generally, women\u27s involvement tends to be ignored or marginalized.

Kickshaws

A collection of linguistic kickshaws