Month: July 1999

LETTERS [July/Aug 1999]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Down Under
Thank you for your coverage
of the often cruel treatment of
wild introduced animals and native
animals in Australia and New
Zealand (“Chocolate bunnies threaten
down-under biosecurity”, ANIMAL
PEOPLE, May 1999). The
RCD saga is continuing. Those
such as myself who continue to
campaign to have RCD de-registered
as a biocontrol agent of rabbits
in Australia are extremely greatful
to publications such as ANIMAL
PEOPLE for alerting the rest
of the world to the shameful and
cruel behaviour of Australian
authorities in allowing RCD to be
legalised as a biological control
agent of the wild introduced rabbit
in Australia. As for New Zealand, it
is amazing that RCD live virus was
apparently approved by authorities
for sale by the bottle.

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Editorial: Cruelty cannot be stopped by one-party politics

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Our July/August 1999 cover feature on the Korean failure to enforce often promised
bans on torturing dogs and cats to death as human food notes that the “victory” the humane
community thought was long ago won in Korea was unusual among global issues––because it
did not come through linking the abolition of cruelty to protecting an endangered species.
The only similar example coming quickly to mind was the 1991 European
Community passage of a ban on imports of leghold-trapped fur. To have taken effect on
January 1, 1995, the ban was repeatedly delayed and finally killed on the pretext that it would
hurt Native Americans––who have never in the 20th century accounted for more than 5% of
the total North American trapped fur volume. Yet as early as 1985 the Native American argument
caused Greenpeace to scrap opposition to trapping, sealing, and indigenous whaling,
showing the wildlife use industries how to hide behind so-called “endangered cultures.”

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Loving the monkeys, too

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

BASTROP, Texas––Perhaps it
was just coincidence that just as the 1999
Primate Freedom Tour got the only seriously
bad press of its first three weeks on the road,
the Disney Network began broadcasting frequent
“Vault Disney” intermission clips of
Annette Funicello singing “I love the monkey’s
uncle,” backed by The Beachboys.
Then again, from Dumbo (1941)
and Bambi (1942) on, Walt Disney Studios
has given humane causes many a big surprise
boost in the guise of innocent entertainment.
Whatever the case, the Primate
Freedom Tour had by the end of the July 4
weekend brought the cause of nonhuman primates
in laboratories more media attention
than any other event or series of events since
the 1985 passage of Animal Welfare Act
amendments requiring labs to provide for the
psychological well-being of nonhuman primates
and dogs.

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The most misleading mailing ever?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

MUDUMALAI, Tamil Nadu;
NEW DELHI––”The Story of Loki,” the
Performing Animal Welfare Society and India
Project for Animals and Nature boldly headlined
in a joint special report mailed in May
with an appeal to donors, is “the worst case of
animal abuse ever documented.”
And, PAWS and IPAN intimated,
the plight of the elephant Loki was largely the
fault of Maneka Gandhi, the Indian minister of
state for social welfare and empowerment since
April 1998, but best known as founder of
People For Animals, India’s most prominent
animal rights group.
According to the PAWS/IPAN mailing,
Maneka “published a report about Loki
which is full of incorrect information,” allegedly
covering up the purported “worst case of animal
abuse ever documented,” thwarting IPAN
founder Deanna Krantz and PAWS representative
Ed Stewart in their efforts to obtain custody
of both Loki and an orphaned elephant calf.

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EC warns France re hunting

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

BRUSSELS––The European Commission on June 24 asked
the European Court to fine France more than $100,000 per day for
exempting itself from a 1979 EC directive which limits hunting seasons
to protect migratory birds.
The coalition-led French parliament on June 19 defied
French environment minister and Green Party leader Dominique
Voynet by voting 92-20 to extend the current five-month bird shooting
season––already the longest in Europe––to seven months. Of the 577-
member parliament, 465 did not vote, but no quorum was needed.

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Where men are mean and dogs are scared

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

SEOUL, Republic of Korea––Yet another of the
reputed international victories of the animal protection movement
during the 1980s has collapsed––and this one, the abolition
of dog-and-cat-eating in the Republic of Korea, was for
many activists the most important of all.
It was supposedly achieved in 1978, 1980, 1984,
1986, 1988, and in 1991, according to statements by Korean
officials and premature declarations of victory issued by the
International Fund for Animal Welfare, the World Society for
the Protection of Animals, and many other organizations which
joined in a threat to embarrass the Korean government with
protests against dog-and-cat-eating during the 1988 Olympic
Games, held in Seoul.
Sunnan Kum, 54, informally founded the first
Korean humane society, Koreans for Animal Protection, in
1981. The international groups backed her efforts in 1983,
after she sent them videotapes showing exactly what goes on.

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BOOKS: Taking Care of Puppy Business

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Taking Care of
Puppy Business
A Gentle Approach for Positive Results
by Gail Pivar & Leslie Nelson
Tails-U-Win! Canine Center (175 Adams
St., Manchester, CT 06040), 1998.
74 pages, stapled. $11.50 inc. postage.

Gail Pivar and Leslie Nelson teach
puppy-rearing as a parenting skill. Most of
their advice makes sense to me. One recommendation,
reinforcing and rewarding bravery
(not to be confused with territoriality), seems
especially important but often overlooked as a
means of preventing future behavioral problems,
including fear-biting.
But, having never had a dog who
was younger than about six months old, I
solicited outside perspective on Taking Care of
Puppy Business from people who have raised
and trained hundreds, also using affirmative
rather than punitive approaches, and was surprised
at the strength of the negative response.

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OBITUARIES

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

Garnet Monroe, 75, died of
pneumonic plague on May 27 in Fort Collins,
Colorado. Her husband Kenneth Monroe,
83, was hospitalized and treated for pneumonic
plague symptoms about two weeks
later, but recovered and resumed the activities
both had long enjoyed as volunteers for
wildlife-related programs of the Humane
Society of Larimer County, development
director Bonnie Baker told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Health officials believe the Monroes
and a 44-year-old female from Williamsburg,
Colorado, who also recovered, somehow
came into contact with plague-carrying fleas
from infested wild rodents.

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BOOKS: Animal behavior studies

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:

The Dog Who
Would Be King:
Tales and Surprising Lessons
from a Pet Psychologist
Rodale Press (33 E. Minor St., Emmaus,
PA 18098), 1999. $18.95 hardcover.

Is Your Cat Crazy?
Solutions From the Casebook
of a Cat Therapist
Macmillan (1633 Broadway,
New York, NY 10019), 1994.

John Wright has long been popular
with members of the animal welfare and animal
care and control communities. As one of
about only fifty certified animal behaviorists
in the United States, he is a frequent speaker
at conferences as well as an instructor at the
National Cruelty Investigators School.

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