A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:
Crossing Paths:
Uncommon Encounters with
Animals in the Wild
by Craig Childs
Sasquatch Books (615 2nd Ave.,
Suite 260, Seattle, WA 98104), 1997.
Paperback, 256 pages. $14.95.
According to the publisher, Craig
Childs “camps in the back country at least
nine months of the year, usually living in
the back of his truck, out of a river vessel of
some sort, or from his backpack. He hasn’t
had a phone in seven years.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:
Accused of mismanagement resulting in a $17 million budgetary shortfall a n d
more than 100 layoffs from a staff of 1,600, Bert Shanks, 58, resigned on June 13 as director
of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, but will continue to collect his $96,000-ayear
salary until September 11. Shanks attributed the shortfall to erroneously expecting in July
1996 that fishing license sales would increase, even though a scarcity of fish had obliged cuts
in bag limits and fishing opportunities.
The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Committee on June 1 approved a 1999 fiscal
year state Wildlife Department budget of $25.4 million, $1 million less than in 1998 due to
declining hunting and fishing license sales revenue.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:
SAN FRANCISCO––The 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 24
that the federal Bureau of Reclamation must
obey both the Endangered Species Act and
California state species protection laws in
allocating water to Central Valley farmers,
even though so doing may put the bureau in
violation of 40-year-old water use contracts.
If the ruling survives an expected
appeal to the Supreme Court by the defendants,
it may be invoked to help compel
other federal agencies to conform to the ESA,
a frequent point of contention in cases
involving everything from fencing along the
U.S./Mexican border to the failure of the
National Marine Fisheries Service to inspect
shipments of shark fins passing through
Hawaiian airports en route from foreign fishing
vessels to markets in Japan.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:
Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Margaret
Hinkel on June 23 ratified a settlement of conflict among New
England Anti-Vivisection Society board factions aligned,
respectively, with PETA and the Fund for Animals, which
had paralyzed NEAVS for more than two years. Under the settlement,
Marian Probst of The Fund told ANIMAL PEOPLE,
“All members of the board resigned,” except president
Theo Capaldo, whose succession to office the PETA faction
allegedly illegally conspired to prevent. A new board was
elected by the NEAVS membership. Among the new board
members are longtime Massachusetts activist Annette Picket;
Holly Cheever, DVM; Boston judge Sarah Luick; and Spay
USA founder Esther Machler. Roberta Wright, executive
director for less than a year, who served at request of PETA
cofounder Ingrid Newkirk, resigned and is to be replaced.
Hinkle ruled on January 22, 1998, that the PETA faction under
direction of the other PETA cofounder, Alex Pacheco, had
attempted to take full control of NEAVS in order to continue
diverting NEAVS assets in support of “organizations with
which they were allied.” A PETA/Fund coalition had led
NEAVS since deposing the administration of probate judge
Robert Ford in 1988. Ford was in March 1989 convicted of
mismanaging NEAVS assets for personal gains.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:
EUGENE––Kipland P. Kinkel, 15,
was arraigned on June 16 in Eugene, Oregon,
on four counts of aggravated murder, 26
counts of attempted aggravated murder, six
counts of first-degree assault, 18 counts of
second degree assault, and unlawful possession
of a firearm.
Kinkel, who boasted often to classmates
of torturing and killing animals, was
arrested on May 20 at Thurston High School in
Springfield, a Eugene suburb, for alleged illegal
possession of a gun.
Released to custody of his parents,
who both taught at the school, Kinkel allegedly
shot both to death with hunting weapons the
following morning, then massacred classmates
in the school cafeteria.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:
Save The Doves on June 9 submitted
almost 140,000 signatures to the Ohio
secretary of state’s office in support of a referendum
measure on the November 1998 ballot
which, if approved, would restore a state
ban on hunting mourning doves––but was
informed on June 30 that only 84,320 signatures
were valid. Save The Doves was given
another 10 days to collect the 16,073 additional
signatures needed to reach the minimum
of 100,393 required to go before the
voters. Ohio first banned dove hunting in
1917. The ban was repealed in 1975, was
restored in 1977, and was repealed again in
1995. If Save The Doves gets enough signatures,
the pro-dove hunting front Ohioans
for Wildlife Conservation has indicated that
it will attempt to legally challenge the petition
format. Ohioans for Wildlife
Conservation appears to have been organized
by the Columbus-based Wildlife Legislative
Fund of America, which initially formed in
response to a 1977 attempt to ban leghold
traps in Ohio via referendum, then expanded
into a national organization with support
from the National Rifle Association.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:
WASHINGTON D.C.––Wiley Coyote almost won a
round on June 23, as the House of Representatives voted 229 to
193 in favor of a bill introduced by Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon)
and Charles Bass (R-New Hampshire) to cut $10 million, the
cost of predator killing programs, from the fiscal 1999 USDA
Wildlife Services budget of $28.8 million––a cut four times
deeper than President Bill Clinton proposed in January.
The funding was almost certain to have been restored
in the Senate, where the 17 western states whose ranchers most
use Wildlife Services have proportionally far more clout, but
taking no chances, Wildlife Services senior staff and livestock
industry representatives lobbied through the night.
Congressional allies then demanded a revote on June 24, which
rescinded the cut, 232-192.
Despite losing an apparent landmark victory, predator
advocates remained encouraged at retaining 53 more votes
against Wildlife Services than ever before were mustered. The
previous high of 139 votes came in 1996, when Wildlife
Services was still called Animal Damage Control.
“We’ll keep at it,” pledged Tom Skeele, executive
director of the Predator Project, an activist group headquartered
in Bozeman, Montana.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C.– –
RAS Kennels owner Glenson Rolston Isaac,
29, of Hillsborough, on June 10 became
the first person charged under a 1997 North
Carolina law making dogfighting a felony.
Sheriffs’ deputies and Orange
County animal control officers seized 45 pit
bull terriers from RAS Kennels one day
after Isaac and kennel workers Dwayne
Harrigan, 25, of Durham, and Kelvin A.
Brown, 27, of Miami, were arrested for
possession of an estimated $300,000 worth
of cocaine, found during investigation of a
complaint that the kennel had exceeded the
20-dog zoning limit.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:
“Organized gangs are abducting
pedigreed dogs for breeding and ransom,
spreading terror among the owners
in the southern city of Bangalore,”
S.N.M. Abdi of the Hong Kong-based
South China Morning Post r e c e n t l y
reported from Calcutta––a story which
must have seemed bizarre back in India,
where even dogs of popular breed type
are so abundant at large that anyone who
wants a dog can attract one with just a
piece of bread.
But the Abdi account followed
only a month after The Times of India
described the pampered treatment of the
231 purebreds entered in the 90th annual
Bombay Presidency Kennel Dog Club
show in Mumbai.