Dogs Used as Shark Bait on French Island
http://news.nationalgeogr...harks.html
By Maryann Mott
for National Geographic News
October 19, 2005
Live and dead dogs and cats are being used as shark bait by amateur fishers on the French-controlled island of Réunion, according to animal-welfare organizations and local authorities.

The small volcanic island off Africa's east coast is bursting with stray dogs—upward of 150,000, says Reha Hutin, president of the Paris-based Fondation 30 Millions d'Amis (the Thirty Million Friends Foundation).

Hutin sent a film crew to Réunion this summer to obtain proof that live animals were being used as shark bait. The goal was to expose the practice on the animal rights group's weekly television show.

It didn't take long for the film crew to find three separate cases, she said.

A videotape and photographs show the dogs with multiple hooks sunk deep into their paws and snouts.

"From then on everyone started to take the whole story seriously and realized it was true," Hutin said.

Photographic Evidence

A veterinarian successfully treated one of the canines, a six-month-old dog with a large fishhook through its snout (see photo), at an SPA (Société Protectrice des Animaux, or Animal Protective Society) clinic in Réunion's capital, St.-Denis.

Unlike most of the hooked animals, the dog was someone's pet, according to Saliha Hadj-Djilani, a reporter for the Thirty Million Friends Foundation's TV program. The dog had apparently escaped its captors and was taken to the SPA by a concerned citizen. Fully recovered, the animal is now home with its owners.

The other two cases uncovered by Thirty Million Friends were strays. They now live in France with new owners.

The foundation plans to finance a sterilization program on the island to reduce the stray overpopulation. But the job won't be easy.

Hutin said many locals view the strays as vermin. "There's no value to the life of a dog there," she said.

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More at :
http://news.nationalgeogr...rks_2.html

this is just disgusting

thats appalling, and whats worse is that things like this are hardly reported in any news programmes at all
[Edited 7/10/07 4:41am]

i hate humans

Maybe God will take pity on them and allow them into his paradise alongside the martyrs who kill for the reward of 72 white raisins.

Cloudbuster said:

okay, i don't hate you cloudy

XxAxX said:

Cloudbuster said:

Those poor dogs and cats, tho'. And here's me thinking that God is merciful, as I was so taught. Did he not hear their barks and miaows of anguish?

note: the blatantly sexual and playful nature of my exchange with Cloudbuster is not meant to erode or undermine the serious content of this thread. it merely serves to un-depress me after reading about yet another example of humanity's inhumanity toward the innocent animals with whom we share this planet.

XxAxX said:

Cloudbuster said:

Cloudbuster said:

i hate humans

XxAxX said:

XxAxX said:

phew...