OBITUARIES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

George E. Brown Jr., 79, a liberal
Democrat who was elected 18 times to the
House of Representatives by the California
36th District, died on July 15 of postoperative
infection after heart surgery. Brown,
remembered Adele Douglass, Washington
D.C. director for the American Humane
Association, “was responsible for the 1985
amendments to the Animal Welfare Act.
With then-U.S. Senator Robert Dole, he had
introduced similar legislation in previous
Congresses. As chair of the Agriculture
Subcommittee that had oversight of the
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service, Brown held hearings on pet theft,
and was a strong supporter of Animal
Welfare Act enforcement. He was always a
friend to animals.”

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Court calendar

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

Ray County, Missouri, prosecutor
Stanley Thompson, who reputedly once
explained his failure to pursue a cruelty case by
telling a local newspaper, “I don’t do dogs,”
on July 14 charged regional Horse Aid representatives
Becky Burns and Angela Williams
with second-degree burglary and four counts of
felony horse theft. Burns and Williams were
arrested and jailed incommunicado for 20
hours, HorseAid cofounder Enzo Giobe told
ANIMAL PEOPLE, after attempting to
recover three ponies who were allegedly being
neglected and mistreated, including a stallion
who had not been gelded, in evident violation
of adoptor Floyd Stokes’ contract with
HorseAid. Under the contract, HorseAid
retains the right to reclaim animals at any time
if adoption conditions are not met, and the
adoptor waives the right to ever sell the animals.

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Greenpeacers shot at as whaling season ends

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

 

Deb McIntyre, 28, of Pambula, Court calendar
New South Wales, “was shot at and later
arrested by the Norwegian Coast Guard” on
June 12 after approaching a wounded whale
in Norwegian waters, Greenpeace Australia
reported. McIntyre’s inflatable powerboat
was punctured by the shot, allegedly fired
from the whaling vessel K a t o, but she was
not hurt.
Reporting either different particulars
of the same incident or describing a separate
but similar confrontation, the London
M i r r o r reported one day later that
Greenpeace activists Dave Thoenen of the
U.S. and Ulvar Anhaern, 32, of Norway
were “shot at with a semi-automatic rifle”
from a distance of about 60 feet as they tried
to prevent a Norwegian whaling vessel from
harpooning a minke whale 120 miles off the
Norwegian coast, and “jumped for their
lives as the bullet ripped a gaping hole in the
side of their inflatable.”

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BOOKS: Men & Whales

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

Men & Whales
by Richard Ellis
542 pages, 400+ illustrations, paperback. $30.00. 1991.

Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex
by Owen Chase
144 pages, paperback. $12.95. 1821.
Both from The Lyons Press (123 West 18th St., New York, NY 10011), 1999.

Available in paperback for the first
time are two classic works on the subject of
whales and whaling––Men & Whales, the
encyclopedic history of the human/whale relationship,
by Richard Ellis, and Shipwreck of
the Whaleship Essex, by Owen Chase, the
true narrative of a survivor of the event that
would be among the primary inspirations for
Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. With
the Chase narrative are two briefer accounts
of the same incident by other survivors.

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BOOKS: Grey Owl

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

Grey Owl: The many faces of Archie Belaney
by Jane Billinghurst
Kodansha America Inc. (575 Lexington Ave., New York,
If you are interested in how live- NY 10022), 1999. 145 pages, illustrated. $22.00, hardcover.

 

A sticker affixed to the cover of
Grey Owl: The many faces of Archie Belaney
announces that his life is soon to be featured
in “A Major Motion Picture by Richard
Attenborough.” Pierce Brosnan was apparently
cast in the leading role after the book
went to press.
The incorrect but dramatic capitalizations
echo Grey Owl’s own style, as one of
the first and most successful of the many
members of the Wannabe Tribe who have presented
themselves, over the years, as bearers
of a largely fictitious Native American ecological
wisdom.

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BOOKS: My Year of Meats

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki
Penguin Putnam Inc. (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 1998.
366 pages, hardcover. $23.95.

If you are interested in how live-stock are treated by those who raise them, or
in how meat is viewed culturally in Japan and
America, then read this unexpectedly hip
novel. It touches on the evils of commercial
television and advertising agencies, bigotry,
spousal abuse, and of course, the meat
industry. But it’s mainly a morality tale centered
on the world of advertising and one person’s
epiphany and redemption.
Told in the first person by one Jane
Takagi-Little, the daughter of a Minnesotan
father and a Japanese mother, who is an upand-coming
TV series coordinator, the book
is a real page-turner. Sponsored by “BEEFEX,”
a (fictitious) American beef export and
trade syndicate, the TV series is designed to
convince Japanese housewives that meat
should be a part of every big meal: that
“Meat is the Message.”

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BOOKS: The Voice of the Infinite in the Small

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

The Voice of the Infinite
in the Small:
Revisioning the Insect-Human
Connection
by Joanne Elizabeth Lauck
Swan, Raven & Co. (POB 190, Mill Spring, NC
28756), 1999. 361 pages, paperback. $18.95.

Bugs are in vogue. The Disney Studios hit children’s
film A Bug’s Life and the high-tech “Bug Show” entertaining
thousands of visitors a day at the Tree of Life in Walt Disney’s
Wild Animal Kingdom attest to that. Bugs including a tarantula
with remarkably mammal-like fur and trilobite-like Madagascar
cockroach larvae were also among the stars at the sleep-overs
hosted throughout the summer at the Woodland Park Zoo in
Seattle, where staff made a particular point of debunking cockroach
phobia. Many other major zoos added bug exhibits.

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Kenya Wildlife chief Leakey given whole civil service

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

NAIROBI––Stating, “The time has come to give
public jobs to those who can deliver,” Kenyan president
Daniel arap Moi on July 20 promoted Kenya Wildlife Service
director Richard Leakey to the post of permanent secretary in
the office of the president, making him head of the entire
Kenya civil service and secretary to the cabinet.
“Leakey, 54, a third generation Kenyan who was in
his second stint as director of the KWS, has a reputation for
efficiency and thoroughness,” explained Emman Omari of
The Nation, the leading Kenyan newspaper. Leakey previously
headed KWS from 1988 until mid-1994, a year after losing
both legs in a plane crash but gaining public stature with his
swift return to duty.
Resigning in frustration with arap Moi minions who
hoped to open Kenya to commercial hunting, Leakey formed
Safina, a leading opposition party, and was elected to the
Kenyan parliament. After arap Moi personally denounced
Leakey, a pro-arap Moi mob dragged him from his car and
flogged him––but when KWS became “a staff-bloated organization
wallowing in cash flow problems,” as Nation reporter
Ken Opala put it, arap Moi put Leakey back in charge.

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LAST OF THE TULI 30, LOKI/MURTHY, AND THAI LOGGING ELEPHANTS ALL FIND REFUGE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

 

JOHANNESBURG, CHENNAI, BANGKOK– –
Seven thousand South Africans marched on African Game
Services owner Riccardo Ghiazza’s farm near Brits on July 11
demanding an end to wild elephant exports and freedom for the
nine elephants of the “Tuli 30” then still with Ghiazza.
Ten burly bikers crashed Ghiazza’s gate and threatened
to free the elephants themselves, said WildNet Africa.
Outrage built for a week after the South African
Broadcast Corporation program Carte Blanche on July 4 aired
National SPCA undercover video of mahouts beating the elephants.
The videotaping was done at the Ghiazza farm over a
two-month interval by NSPCA inspectors Andries Venter, 25,
Yvonne Seaton, 26, and Karen Moller, 24, following instructions
from a High Court judge.

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