US: Bear Hunt Training, Minus the Bear Later this month, camouflage-clad hunters and packs of dogs will set off across the densely forested foothills and rushing creeks here in western South Carolina for an age-old rite of fall: bear-hunting season. “It's one of the toughest, most exhausting sports there is,” said Roy Stiles, 64, of Travelers Rest, a longtime hunter and retired college professor. “You can track a bear for 15 miles before you tree it and shoot it — and then you still have to drag it out of the woods.” But this may be the last year that hunters anywhere in the country can prepare their dogs for these grueling outings by using an obscure practice called bear baying that dates back at least to the 1800s. Under criticism from animal rights groups, South Carolina is debating a legal ban on the practice of restraining a captive black bear while hunting dogs surround it and bark feverishly. The training, still popular in rural areas of this state, is designed to replicate the conditions of a wild bear encounter and to familiarize dogs with the animal's behavior. Animal rights protesters target Hackney business Beyond Retro ANTI-fur protesters woke residents from their slumber when they descended on a Hackney business. The Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT) brandished placards and shouted through a megaphone outside the head office of Beyond Retro in Penn Street, Hoxton, on Wednesday morning. The group were protesting against the company selling vintage fur coats. PETA says state's advice violates anti-cruelty law The animal rights group PETA wants Gov. Phil Bredesen to put a leash on the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, charging some employees are giving callers “cruel” advice for killing “pest animals” like raccoons that are caught alive. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asks Bredesen in a letter to act and “ensure that TWRA will take immediate corrective action and properly educate and train its staff regarding acceptable wildlife euthanasia methods.” The group said Tennesseans seeking advice on how to dispose of trapped raccoons and skunks “are being instructed to kill the animals by drowning, gassing via tailpipe, and abandonment (leaving animals inside the traps without sustenance).” Growing calls in Nepal to halt animal slaughter during Dussehra When she was eight, Pramada Shah nee Rana remembers how she threw a tantrum when her grandmother ordered a goat to be bought and sacrificed as a thanksgiving to the gods for fulfilling a wish. ‘When they brought the goat home from the market, I thought it was going to be a household pet,' says the 41-year-old, who is today part of a growing campaign by animal rights activists to stop animal sacrifices during Hindu religious festivals, sports that inflict pain on animals and activities that are cruel to them. ‘When I realized it was going to be slaughtered, I cried so much that my family decided not to sacrifice the goat, which then grew up in our house in Sanepa.' PETA protest at fashion designer's fur use Animal rights activists have threatened to escalate their protest action against fashion designer Camilla Frank if she doesn't stop using fur in her work. Activists from People for the Ethical Treatment on Animals (PETA) confronted shoppers and passers-by outside the designer's flagship store at Bondi Beach in Sydney's east today. Three activists, wearing fur which had been daubed in red liquid to simulate blood, hunched over in cages next to signs reading “Camilla: Animals Suffer on Fur Farms”. Three others handed out leaflets outside the store to protest against the designer's use of fur. BM
