Bad news from zoos

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

A year and a half after tiger keeper
Trevor Smith, 32, was fatally mauled at the
Howletts Wild Animal Park in Canterbury, England,
main keeper Nick Marx on May 10 led the staff back
into the cages. A Bengal tiger named
Dodhwa ran to Marx and lay at his feet
for 15 minutes while he stroked her
head and talked to her. Owner John
Aspinall, 70, met a similar reception
the following day. After Smith’s
death, which came 15 years after a
female tiger named Zeya killed two
young keepers within a month and 11
years after an elephant killed another
keeper, Aspinall temporarily barred
his staff from entering the cages, and
the Canterbury city council made the
ban binding. However, an occupational
safety tribunal ruled in February
that the keepers may enter the cages in
pairs, and to Aspinall’s delight the
ruling was upheld on appeal in April.

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Mismanagement alleged at Philly Zoo

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

PHILADELPHIA––Philadelphia Zoo
president Pete Hoskins remains on the job despite
multiple calls for his resignation.
Zoo vice chair Marsha Perelman, treasurer
Frank Reed, and investment subcommittee head
J. Barton Riley all resigned in early May, after which
Hoskins announced the $247,000 the Philadelphiabased
zoo consulting firm CLRdesign, which has reportedly
worked with 50 other zoos worldwide, to
help remedy longstanding problems.
Hoskins and other senior management have
taken multiple hits from probes of the Christmas Eve
fire that killed 23 endangered primates, but so far the
only staff fired have been security guards Joe Villaloz
and Edith Henry, sacked in January for allegedly
making 14 personal telephone calls instead of doing
their rounds during the first two and a half hours of
the blaze. The guards reportedly admitted faking log
entries to show that they visited the World of
Primates as required, when in fact they did not.

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Oceanariums

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

Marine World Africa USA
was encouraged by the early progress
of bottlenose dolphin calves born to
Sadie, 16, on April 29, and Stormy,
21, on May 13. Sadie is the only
adult female dolphin at the park who
hasn’t previously raised a calf successfully,
but after two weeks she seemed
to be doing well, after a previous failure.
A third Marine World dolphin,
Terry, 35, was expected to give birth
just as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to
press. The father of each calf might be
either Bayou, 21, or Schooner, 20.
The Waikiki Aquarium, in
Hawaii, was unable to save a fivefoot
sand shark rescued from a tangle
of fishing net on April 24 by skin diver
Russ Brown. An autopsy indicated the
shark had probably eaten part of the
net as well as the fish she found in it.

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The Buckshire 12 join Primarily Primates

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas–– “We’re surprised
how well all of them adjusted to living in a
group situation,” says Primarily Primates corporate
secretary Stephen Rene Tello of the Buckshire 12.
The 12 chimpanzees, retired from research by the
Buckshire Corporation, arrived at Primarily Primates
on March 31.
“Before the move,” Tello explains,
“Buckshire began introducing them to each other in
pairs and then in groups,” which eased the transition.
The easy adaptation of the chimps to each
other was offset by some awkwardness about their new
facilities, which were designed taking into account the
behavior of the chimp colony already at Primarily
Primates––20 chimps, in four separate social groups,
who were rescued from a variety of abusive situations.

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Mad cow disease

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

British domestic
beef sales on May 14 were
back to 94% of their premad
cow disease scare
level, and prices were at
92%, said the British Meat
and Livestock Commission.
The scare began on
March 27, when scientists
told Commons that bovine
encephalopathy (BSE) may
be related to a new strain of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,
notable for afflicting young
victims; CJD had been
viewed as a disease of age.
In the interim, fish sales
rose 25%, while pork and
lamb sales were up 9%.
Beef consumption fell 28%
and prices fell 43%.

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What need has a cat for silver? Last living argyria victim challenges claims

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

DERBY LINE, Vermont– –
Celeste Yarnell, author of Cat Care Naturally,
is aggressively marketing colloidal silver
preparations for cats. Longtime humane
activist Rosemary Jacobs takes that personally.
“Since colloidal silver is being sold
as a dietary supplement,” not as a drug,
Jacobs warns, “these preparations are unregulated
and untested by the FDA.”
Disfigured by colloidal silver since
1956, when she was just 13, Jacobs knows
first-hand that it can be dangerous indeed, to
both animals and humans.
“I may have more silver in my body
than anyone else alive today,” Jacobs affirms.
“I am one of the few people, including physicians
and veterinarians, who knows about the
condition argyria and the dangers of colloidal
silver preparations. Ms. Yarnall claims that
‘colloidal silver has been used for thousands of
years, apparently with no harmful effects on
the body.’ This is not true. Colloidal silver
causes a r g y r i a, a slate-grey discoloration of
the skin. The condition is irreversible and cannot
be colored with makeup. I know because I
have it. I got argyria from nose drops a doctor
gave me over 40 years ago. Any serious
research on colloidal silver would find the connection.
It’s in the literature.”

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Birds

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service on May 18 commenced poisoning
5,700 seagulls at the Monomoy
National Wildlife Refuge, off Chatham,
Cape Cod, to protect an estimated 35
endangered piping plovers from predation.
The killing proceeded after U.S.
District Judge George O’Toole denied a
request for an injunction against it filed
by the Massachusetts SPCA and the
Humane Society of the U.S.
The Ngatihine Maori, of
Whangarei, New Zealand, on May 16
welcomed home the two survivors of four
endangered kiwis, tested along with six
bats at the government’s Wallaceville
Animal Research Centre to see if the rabbit
calicivirus disease currently ravaging
the Australian rabbit population might
harm native species. The February
killing and dissection of the other two
kiwis provoked protest from Ngatihine
leaders, who charged that they were misled
when they authorized the birds’ use.

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News from abroad

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

A ferocious spring battered central Asia into May––and got
worse when Mongolia officials seeded clouds to produce unseasonable snow,
hoping would help quell at least 288 simultaneous grassfires that killed 17
people, injured 62, burned 31,000 square miles of forest and pasture, forcing
the immediate relocation of more than 1,600 families and 436,000 cattle,
with the evacuation of another 1,600 people and 588,000 cattle anticipated.
The snow––almost the first to hit Mongolia in more than a year––put out only
a few of the fires, but froze or drowned at least 4,900 cattle, along with two
shepherd boys and their 150 sheep. Just to the south, in China, 700,000 cattle
and yaks reportedly froze to death in February during a natural cold snap.
Cyprus SPCA president Toula Poyiadjis on May 18 led 100
CSPCA members and their dogs, donkeys, and a chicken to the palace of
Glafcos Clerides, president of Cyprus, demanding enforcement of humane
laws. “Cyprus lags behind other countries in its treatment of animals,”
Poyiadjis explained. “There is prejudice, fear, and an inexplicable mania for
killing animals.”

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Safe at last!

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

Marine mammologist Ignacio Agudo, left, posed for
one quick photo with Alice Dodge of Pet Search, right, on their
way down the gangplank to Aruba after the first leg of his dramatic
February escape from Venezuela––where Agudo and fellow
ecologist Aldemaro Romero have been wanted for alleged
treason since February 1994, because they videotaped fishers in
the act of killing a dolphin for bait one full year before. The
video, aired on both U.S. and Venezuelan television, severely
embarrassed the Venezuelan government in their effort to undo
the U.S. “dolphin-safe” standard for imported tuna.
Romero escaped earlier, along with his family, and
now lives in Miami. “It is hard for me to recognize Ignacio
without his beard,” he laughed when shown the photo. “I have
never before seen him without it.”

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