The Great Ape Project and the bush meat trade by Karl Ammann

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

I have investigated aspects of the
bush meat trade in Africa for the last six
years. I no longer have any doubt that the
increasing commercialisation of this trade is
today the biggest threat to the survival of
many species in West and Central Africa.
The great apes are no exception. Many parts
of their range are being logged. The construction
of logging roads has allowed the
bush meat trade to go commercial. In consequence,
entire gorilla and chimp populations
are eaten into extinction, at a rate of thousands
of animals a year.
Why, at this stage, are the scientific
and conservation communities concentrating
on rather theoretical issues, while the
very existence of the subjects under discussion
is under serious threat?

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LETTERS [March 1996]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Thanks
I just received your little
note of thanks for my donation and
information about ANIMAL PEOP
LE. I love all the characters and
suggest you consider writing a novel
about them.
More to the point, I really
appreciate you folks. As painful as
it sometimes is, I read ANIMAL
PEOPLE and learn. I sent notes to
all the participants in the Declaration
of Panama. The World Wildlife
Fund, Greenpeace, the Center for
Marine Conservation, and the
Environmental Defense Fund all
used to get contributions from me.
They certainly know why they don’t
now.

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Editorial: Trust

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Building a humane world begins with building trust, the basic understanding that
permits peaceful interaction among living beings. Whether sharing a watering hole,
stroking a cat, or shaking hands on a deal, it starts with establishing mutual confidence that
vulnerability will not bring attack. Even infants must be able to trust their mothers before
they learn to reciprocate love; if infant trust is betrayed by neglect or violence, as the late
vivisector Harry Harlow showed through some of the most appalling experiments ever executed,
the capacity to engage in reciprocal relationships of any kind is lastingly impaired.
Trust in itself does not preclude violence, as even the most trustworthy humans
and animals may sometimes bite when they shouldn’t, but a climate of trust at least precludes
cruelty, since to do intentional harm is to erode trust.

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Last of the dinosaurs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

NEW YORK––The world learned
last year what leading-edge paleontologists
began to whisper a decade ago––that the
dinosaurs were not reptiles but close kin to
birds, or more precisely, that birds are not
merely descendents but survivors of
Dinosauria, a living branch of the therapod
dinosaur family. Among the therapods were
Ornithomimus, actually named for resembling
a bird; Gallimimus, essentially a giant
ostrich; the hawk-like Oviraptors and
Velociraptors; and the Tyrannosaurids,
including Tyrannosaurus Rex.
“Yo, T-Rex!” chortled Newsweek.
“Your mama’s a turkey!”

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Cutting euthanasias without conflict

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

SAN DIEGO––Can population control euthanasias be halted?
Do homeless cats breed in the woods?
New studies by the National Pet Alliance and ANIMAL PEOPLE say yes to both
questions––and confirm that the keys to success are first, going where the homeless cats are
to do neutering, and second, working to enable renters to adopt cats.
Political conflicts erupting in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Montgomery County,
Maryland, demonstrate meanwhile that harassing ordinary pet keepers with regulations and
extra fees may lower euthanasia numbers at cost of creating an eventually self-defeating backlash
against enforcement of any animal control or animal protection laws. In both cities, animal
advocates are digging in to protect nationally noted breeding control ordinances,
acclaimed when passed, but easy targets for newly elected fiscal conservatives, who recently
took over both civic administrations with a pledge to cut bureaucracy. The Fort Wayne city
council is contemplating closing the public animal control agency and contracting services

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The price of Willy

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

NEWPORT, Oregon––Keiko, the orca star of the
1993 film Free Willy!, was already the costliest, most controversial
whale in history long before he splashed into his
new surroundings, a $7 million state-of-the-art tank at the
Oregon Coast Aquarium. Enjoying four times the space he
had in his 11 years at the El Reino Aventura amusement park
in Mexico City, Keiko increased his activity so much as to
double his appetite within his first week of arrival, as the
biggest package ever flown by United Parcel Service.
But the successful relocation only escalated the
debate over whether and if Keiko can––or should––actually
be freed. Moving him was the easy part. There were disagreements
over who should move him, where, for what
purpose, but even El Reino Aventura general manager Oscar
Porter readily agreed in principle that he needed better quarters.

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