Strange but true tales of attitude

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

Nearly a year after refusing to
pay the Humane Society of Greater Akron
$150,000 annually for animal control service,
the Akron city council is reportedly moving
to set up a municipal animal control
agency––spurred by public outrage over an
April 12 incident in which health officials
boarded up the home of Bill Woolridge, 77,
with 27 dogs inside. The home was sealed
due to alleged unsanitary conditions discovered
by paramedics who responded to an
emergency call when Woolridge’s wife died.
Volunteers rescued the dogs the next day.
Akron city service director Joseph Kidder
called the HSGA request for $150,000
“exhorbitant,” but at 67¢ per capita, it would
have come to 43% less than the U.S. average
of $1.18 per capita paid for basic animal pickup
and impoundment. Akron had been paying
just $19,600 a year, less than 10% of the
cost of running the HSGA shelter.

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Like winning both the Cy Young Award and the MVP

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

DENVER––Patti Olsen, DVM, recently named
to the newly created post of Director of Veterinary Affairs
and Studies for the American Humane Association,
received the American Animal Hospital Association’s
Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare Award on March
11––and the Geraldine Dodge Humane Ethics in Action
Award on April 27.
“As a specialist in the area of small animal
reproduction, Dr. Olson has conducted research for many
years on non-surgical sterilization and contraceptive
options,” said AHA spokesperson Joyce Briggs. “Dr.
Olson is a founding member of the National Council on
Pet Population Study and Policy, and will lead a scientific
workshop scheduled for August 9-11, in Denver, entitled
‘A Critical Evaluation of Free-Roaming/Unowned/Feral
Cats in the United States.’”

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Animal control & rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

“The Progressive Animal Animal Welfare Society is
attempting to reduce the population of homeless cats with a
specific campaign reaching out to low-income families,”
reports companion animal services director Scott Van
Valkenburg. “First, PAWS is offering neutering surgery for any
puppy or kitten under four months of age for $5.00––or we’ll fix
a whole litter for $10.00. On April 20, PAWS volunteers distributed
500 door hangers in low-income neighborhoods identified
by animal control officers as having many homeless cats. PAWS
is now asking social service agencies to promote our low-cost
neutering campaign, and is posting information about it in social
service offices.”
The Los Angeles SPCA and Ventura County Animal
Control reported on April 29 that “over 500 birds from private
sanctuaries and dozens of horses from residences” had been
evacuated from the path of a local brushfire.

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Woofs and growls

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

In January the International
Fund for Animal Welfare quietly fired
Annemieke Roell, a staffer for 13
years. On April 27, Peter Kuittenbrouwer
of the Toronto-based Financial
Post revealed why: “Three years ago,
sent by IFAW to live in the Magdalen
Islands,” to arrange tourists’ visits to
see seals not being killed, “Roell made
friends with the seal hunters. She tasted
some seal meat and liked it. ‘I had it in
a pate, I had it in stew, I had it in salami
and pepperoni,’” Kuittenbrouwer
quoted Roell. In November 1995, sealing
advocate Gary Troake and Roell
“tried to broker a deal,” Kuittenbrouwer
continued. “The sealers agree to oppose
the trade in seal penises, which are
sought after as an aphrodisiac in Asia,
and IFAW drops its opposition to the
hunt.” Roell told Kuittenbrouwer she
now hopes to “do something from the
other side.”

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HEROIC CAT HONORED

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

The Illinois Senate and village of Wheeling, a
Chicago suburb, on May 6 commended Brat the Cat,
age one, for “ingenuity and persistence” in saving the
life of Jose Ybarra, 15, early on March 15, when
Ybarra suffered a seizure in his sleep from a sudden
attack of meningitis. Brat, a foundling kitten adopted
by the Ybarra family last July, heard Jose thrashing in
his bed and became alarmed, but couldn’t get through
the bedroom door. Shethen ran to wake Jose’s mother,
Karen Ybarra Hummerich.
“She was licking my mom’s eyelids, scratching
and meowing, doing anything she could,” Jose told
media. Hummerich shooed Brat away, but rose to
investigate when the cat tried to claw her way through
Jose’s door. Jose was by then in a coma.
“Our family physician said that if the cat had
not woken us up, we probably would have found him
dead in the morning,” said Hummerich. For five days it
was uncertain whether Jose would ever awaken––but he
then recovered quickly, and has resumed a normal life.

THE LATEST ON ISAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

ANIMAL PEOPLE reported in the
May Court calendar that the Internal Revenue
Service “is said to be investigating information
from former International Society for Animal
Rights staff and volunteers” that Henry Mark
Holzer, longtime confidante and attorney of ousted
ISAR president Helen Jones, “received substantial
sums from ISAR on a regular basis via his
Brooklyn-based Institute for Animal Rights Law,
which were not reported on the ISAR filings of
IRS Form 990––although ISAR newsletters published
since 1991 make frequent reference to supporting
IARL.”
While Holzer didn’t return messages of
inquiry before we went to press, he did call a
week later, and then faxed the record of ISAR
contributions to IARL: $400 in 1991, $20,000 in
1992, $35,000 in 1993, $5,000 in 1994, and
$5,000 in 1995, total of $65,400 over the five
years in question.

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Cunniffs’ cut of NAVS is up since 1992-1993 scandal

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

CHICAGO––Kenneth Cunniff has a high-profile law practice. He is also an
adjunct professor of law at John Marshall University. And according to National AntiVivisection
Society filings with the IRS, Cunniff additionally was paid $66,778 for
representing the National Anti-Vivisection Society in the fiscal year ending June 30,
1994; $100,219 for representing NAVS in fiscal year 1995.
Cunniff’s wife is NAVS president Mary Margaret Cunniff, who succeeded
her father George Trapp. In fiscal 1994 Mary Margaret Cunniff was paid $105,250;
in fiscal 1995, $106,860. Between them each year, the Cunniffs collected just about
10% of the total revenues of NAVS: $1,697,612 in 1994, $2,092,467 in 1995.
Trapp, long retired, was paid $30,250 in fiscal 1994 for consulting. The
IRS then raised the threshhold for salaries that must be reported to $50,000, and Trapp
vanished from the NAVS filings.

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Horse bills

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

Illinois governor Jim Edgar on
May 17 signed into law a ban on horsetripping,
a routine practice of charro-style
rodeo. The ban cleared the Illinois Senate
53-1 and the state House 94-13.
Pending in California and likely
to pass, says Sherry DeBoer of Animal
Health & Safety Associates, AB2347
“says that if you win a horse race and your
horse was drugged, the California Horse
Racing Board can allow you to keep the
purse if they decide that the drugging
probably did not affect the outcome of the
race.” DeBoer asks protest letters be faxed
to her for forwarding, at 510-743-9268.

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New anti-pet theft bills introduced in House

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Two bills
to crack down further on pet theft for laboratory
supply were introduced into the House of
Representatives in early May.
The pair are among the first of an
anticipated series of proposed amendments to
the Animal Welfare Act sections pertaining to
pets and the pet trade, discussed in April during
four days of hearings that were held in St.
Louis and Kansas City.
The Family Pet Protection Act of
1996, introduced on May 6 by Representatives
John Fox (R-Pa.) and Tom Lantos (DCalif.),
was reportedly drafted by In Defense
of Animals. It would abolish all Class B animal
dealers, an Animal Welfare Act permit
category which currently includes about 1,600
pet dealers as well as about 75 suppliers of
random-source animals to laboratories.

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