Dirty pool (Part I of a two-part investigative series)

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

ORLANDO, NEW YORK CITY,
MYSTIC––Activists don’t believe anything
they hear from the “aquaprison industry.”
Oceanarium people don’t trust activists to
know truth when they see it. And small won-
der on either side, given the pitch of the pro-
paganda for and against keeping marine mam-
mals in captivity.
This debate differs from the equally
bitter conflicts over hunting, trapping, meat-
eating, and the use of animals in biomedical
research. Knowingly or not, the antagonists
in the oceanarium debate express smilar
visions of what oceanariums should be––and
issue many of the same criticisms of what
they are. They agree that saving marine
mammals is among the urgent moral and eco-
logical priorities of our time. Their only sub-
stantive disagreements concern the morality
of capturing marine mammals from the wild,
a practice now largely but not totally history,
and the ethics of putting them on display.

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Horses

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:
Premarin maker on defensive
BRANDON, Manitoba––Wyeth-Ayerst is
worried about consumer response to the disclosure by
the Farm Animal Concerns Trust and ANIMAL
PEOPLE in early 1993 that its top-selling drug, the
estrogen supplement Premarin, comes from pregnant
mares’ urine, or PMU; that the great majority of the
75,000-plus foals born to the mares each year are sold
to slaughter; and that vegetable-based alternatives are
readily available. Premarin is now under boycott by
most major animal protection groups.
Wyeth-Ayerst now answers letters of protest
with copies of a report entitled Care and Management
of Horses at PMU Production Facilities, by consul-
tant Shauna Spurlock, DVM, who argues that the
ranchers, “place their foals as they always have. The
type of foals produced run the gambit from purebred
thoroughbred foals intended for the race track, to
quarter horse foals destined for the show ring, to draft
foals that may be used for light recreational work.

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Out of the flooding and into the fire in Houston

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

HOUSTON––Flood rescue in
southeastern Texas from Houston to
Beaumont was expected to become oil spill
rescue in late October along a 24-mile
stretch of the San Jacinto River and possibly
in marshes flanking the Houston Ship Canal.
As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press,
Texaco crews were still trying to stop leaks
in a pipeline containing 2.1 million gallons
of crude oil between valve stations––the last
of five major pipelines that broke under the
floodwaters. Two gasoline lines burst
together on October 20 and erupted into
flames, injuring 69 people and nearly incin-
erating a Houston SPCA rescue team
including Nick Gilman, disaster coordinator
for the American Humane Association.

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AGRICULTURE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Agriculture secretary Mike Espy
resigned on October 4, effective December 31,
amid allegations that while moving to more closely
regulate red meat sanitation, he improperly
accepted gifts and favors from Tyson Foods, of
Arkansas, the biggest U.S. poultry producer.
Grazing on public lands, reports the
National Wildlife Federation, has contributed to
the decline of at least 346 species of fish, birds,
and mammals that are either officially endangered
or have been nominated for endangered status.
USDA researcher Robert Wall predicts
that a way to make cows’ milk simulate the health
benefits of breastfeeding will be developed soon by
inserting human genes into cows. The first obsta-
cle will be finding a way to create a transgenic cow
for less than the present cost of $300,000 per head.

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Wildlife & people

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

An Indian logging elephant named Bir Bahadur
staged a sit-down strike in February after his handler was
replaced, blocking a local official’s motorcade for hours.
Outraged, the official ordered him shot, as “mad.” However,
Bir Bahadur then broke his fetters and fled into the forest, tak-
ing two female elephants with him. He’s been at large ever
since. Maneka Gandhi, daughter-in-law of the late prime min-
ister Indira Gandhi, is now seeking a pardon for him.
Indonesian forestry minister Djamaluddin
Suryohadikusumo says elephants whose habitat has been
taken for farming should be trained to work, not be killed.
“People must be ready to accept them as part of our economic
life,” he said October 12. However, he has dispatched a hit
team to kill Crest, a bull elephant who has killed 13 people
since 1986 and has escaped three times after being shot with
tranquilizer darts.

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Ohio data confirms hunting/child abuse link STRONGER THAN LINK TO RURAL POVERTY

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

TOLEDO, Ohio––The number of hunters in a county more accurately predicts the
level of child abuse than either population density or median income, according to a new
study of Ohio state statistics––and the findings apply to all four standard categories of abuse,
including physical violence, neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional maltreatment.
Overall, Ohio counties with more than the median number of hunters per 100,000
residents have 51% more reported child abuse, including 15% more physical violence, 82%
more neglect, 33% more sexual abuse, and 14% more emotional maltreatment.
Rural location and poverty are the two traditional predictors of child abuse––but by

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Animal control & rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

China Daily said October 18 that
Beijing dog licensing fees are to be set at
about $700 per year, triple the average
income of city residents; dogs will be
allowed outside only at night, on leashes;
excrement must be promptly removed; and
dogs will be banned from public places. The
12 million Beijing dwellers now keep about
190,000 dogs, who bit 21,117 people during
the first six months of this year. Since 1988,
89 Beijing residents have died of rabies con-
tracted via dog bites, sparking several dog
extermination drives. Rabies vaccination is
rare in China due to chronic vaccine scarcity.

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MARINE LIFE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Russian prime minister Victor
Chernomyrdin on October 7 signed approval
of the International Whaling Commission
agreement, reached last May, to establish a
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary including
most waters below the 40th parallel south lati-
tude. Just amonth earlier his administration
formally objected to the sanctuary––the cre-
ation of which Russia supported at the IWC
meeting, against heavy pressure from Japan
and Norway. Because Russia objected in 1982
to the IWC-established international moratori-
um on commercial whaling, the objection to
the sanctuary meant that under IWC rules
Russia would have been uniquely entitled to
kill whales in Antarctic waters, exempt from
retaliatory trade sanctions. The turnabout came
two days after the Russian coastguard sank a
Japanese trawler near the disputed island of
Shikotan, and six days before a Russian mili-
tary airplane fired on a Norwegian trawler
which allegedly intruded upon a military exer-
cise in Arctic waters.

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Plague! INDIA, AFRICA CONFRONT THE ULTIMATE ANIMAL CONTROL NIGHTMARE; Tight urban budgets gave rat-catching and trash collection a low priority

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

SURAT, India––Inadequate animal control service was largely responsible, authorities say, for the most deadly
outbreak of plague worldwide in 28 years at Surat, India. More than 400,000 residents fled the city as the outbreak became
known, creating risk the disease would spread to nearby communities, including Bombay, 160 miles to the north.
Remembering plague outbreaks that killed thousands during the 1940s and 1950s, 950 million Indians feared the worst.
Quarantines, inexpensive prophylactic tetracycline treatments, and fast information-sharing by electronic mail were

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