Clinton not expected to stand up to Japanese whalers

March 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––At the ANIMAL PEOPLE deadline, President Bill Clinton
was imminently expected to send a message to Congress about Japanese whaling, responding to
a December advisory from the Department of Commerce that Japan was vulnerable to trade sanctions
because of its decision to kill minke whales within the Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary.
But Clinton was not expected to impose sanctions.
Argued Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a February 7 letter to Clinton, “At this point,
any efforts short of sanctions would signal a lack of commitment to whale conservation by the
United States.” Japan officially moved into compliance with the 1986 global moratorium on
commercial whaling in 1988, but has continued to conduct gradually escalating hunts of minke
whales for “scientific research.”

Marine mammals

March 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Nets and dolphins

EDINBOROUGH––The Royal
SPCA and World Wide Fund for Nature
head a nine-group coalition protesting a proposal
by Scots Office Minister Raymond
Robertson to make Scots fishers more competitive
by lifting a ban on the use of
monofilament gil nets which might drown
harbor porpoises. Such nets are used in the
waters of other European nations.
Eleven dolphins apparently
drowned in fishing nets washed up in
Cornwall between January 4 and January 11,
prompting Cornwall Wildlife Trust chair
Nick Tregenza to apply to the European
Commission for funds with which to develop
an alarm to warn dolphins away from
nets. The EC is already funding a similar
project called CETASEL, formed under the
1994 Agreement on the Conservation of
Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North
Seas, a.k.a. ASCOBANS. “The project
started in the beginning of 1995, and the
first sea trials were carried out in March
1995,” said CETASEL coordinator Dick de
Haan. “The first enclosure trial, on a
stranded harbor porpoise, showed the animals’
sensitivity to ‘chirp and sweep’
sounds. In 1996 two sea trials are planned
off the southwestern coast of Ireland.”
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Most recent data shows shelter euthanasias down to 5.1 million a year

March 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

In October 1993, ANIMAL PEOPLE projected from about half of the data below that the annual U.S. shelter euthanasia toll could be as low as 5.1 million dogs and
cats per year––approximately a third of the then-prevalent guesstimates by national organizations. Adding in additional shelter-by-shelter intake and euthanasia statistics, compiled
over the past five years by a variety of different groups and individuals, confirms the estimate; of states for which multiple counts are available, only Indiana shows a rising
euthanasia toll, and that trend may have been reversed since the most recent available data was collected. Because not all the surveyors asked the same questions, figures are missing
from some of the columns. Dog and cat intake add up to a slightly different figure than total intake in some cases because some shelters report rounded numbers for some categories
rather than exact figures, producing a minor cumulative distortion. The New York data represents all shelters serving 87% of the human population, projected to cover the whole population
of the state. The Ohio data represents animal control shelters covering 34% of the state, projected to cover the whole population of the state.

Horse notes

March 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Nationally ranked equestrian
and heir to millions George Lindemann
Jr. drew 33 months in prison on January 18
for killing a horse to collect $250,000 in
insurance. His trainer, Marion Hulick,
drew 21 months. The two were among the
most noted defendants among 18 people
convicted to date in connection with a horsekilling
ring that also included the killers of
13 humans over 25 years. The last victim
was heiress Grace Brach, who vanished in
1977 after becoming suspicious of horse
transactions arranged by Richard Bailey,
convicted in connection with her murder last
year. His close associate, stable owner Jerry
Farmer, on January 22 drew 10 years for his
part in selling Brach and other wealthy
women worthless horses at premium prices.
Brach’s estate formed the Brach Foundation,
a major sponsor of animal-related projects.
The crime ring was exposed by a federal
reinvestigation of her disappearance.

Animal control & rescue

March 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Taking over the New York City
animal control contract from the American
SPCA on January 1, 1995, the Center for
Animal Care and Control provided pickup and
rescue service to 5,448 dogs and 4,753 cats
during the year, nearly double the ASPCA
norms, according to CACC director Marty
Kurtz. In consequence, dog intakes rose to
24,536, with a euthanasia rate of 73%, while
cat intakes rose to 26,266, with a euthanasia
rate of 78%. Returns-to-owner were achieved
at about the same rate the ASPCA managed,
but still at only half the rate managed by
Chicago and less than a third the rate of San
Diego, the apparent RTO leader among major
U.S. cities. To boost RTO, the CACC in
November began microchipping all animals
placed. Overall, the CACC adopted out 4,975
cats, 222 more than were picked up in distress,
along with 4,561 dogs. Combined adoptions,
all species, came to 9,616––slightly
less than the ASPCA norm, but the ASPCA is
still doing adoptions, dividing the traffic.

WOOFS & GROWLS

March 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

>>MARMAM@Uvvm.Bitnet<<, the online Marine
Mammals Research and Conservation Discussion hosted by
Robin Baird of the University of Victoria, in January appealed
for $5,000 toward operating costs. The Whale and Dolphin
Conservation Society started the kitty; ANIMAL PEOPLE
sent $100 and challenged other institutional users to proportionally
match it. As of February 2, MARMAM had raised just
half the amount, including gifts from Japanese whaling industry
flak Alan Macnow and Georg Blichtfeldt of the pro-sealing/whaling
High North Alliance, who may be the two least
popular users; William Burns of the GreenLife Society North
American Chapter; the International Marine Mammal
Association; Paul Nachtigall of Aquatic Mammals; Leslie
Strom of Wide Angle Productions; Phoebe Wray of the Center
for Action on Endangered Species; and private citizens
Andrew Morse and Keith Ronald. Paul Watson of the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society promised to donate as soon as
he resolved a modem-link problem. Absent were major animal
and/or habitat protection groups––including HSUS, the heaviest
single user––and any marine mammal exhibition facilities.

Activists & Organizations

Charity begins at home

March 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

“The Elinor Patterson Baker Foundation makes
grants for the general charitable purposes of organizations
that fulfill the airms, principles, goals, and purposes of the
Humane Society of the U.S.,” proclaims the purpose statement
filed with the foundation’s 1994 IRS Form 990-PF.
Indeed it does: of 129 grants made in the fiscal
year ending May 31, 1995, totaling $1,390,000, the six
largest were $250,000 to HSUS itself; $100,000 to the
Humane Society International, the umbrella for HSUS and
subsidiaries; $50,000 to the National Association for
Humane and Environmental Education, an HSUS subsidiary;
$50,000 to EarthKind USA, another HSUS subsidiary;
$35,000 to the World Society for the Protection of Animals,
whose vice president is John Hoyt, HSUS/HSI chief executive
officer since 1970, with HSUS board secretary Murdaugh
Madden as treasurer; and $25,000 to the Center for
Respect of Life and Environment, an HSUS subsidiary. The
Animal Rescue League of Fall River also got $25,000. Other
grantees with which HSUS had no representation got an average
of $7,008 each.

Animal health

March 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

University of Minnesota researcher Dr. Jesse Goodman and team announced January 24 that they have managed to isolate and grow the bacterium that causes human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, a newly identified and sometimes fatal disease borne by the same ticks as Lyme disease.

Having apparently gotten away with a wind-assisted premature release of the rabbit-killing calcivirus during field tests last September, without apparent harm to species other than rabbits, Australia is now hoping to halt the advance of South American cane toads through the use of the Irido virus, which apparently kills both toads and tadpoles in Venezuela. The cane toads were themselves introduced about 60 years ago, in hopes they would eat insects who plagued sugarcane growers.

Avian epidemiology

March 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

The Florida Keys Wild Bird
Center in January declared finished a
five-year epidemic of “wasting synd
r o m e ” among cormorants. The victims
were found anemic, dehydrated,
and severely underweight, but without
obvious disease or injury. About 90%
died. The syndrome was to become
subject of a major study––but in March
1995, cases quit coming. Overall, the
Wild Bird Center treated 130 cormorants
in 1994 and 133 in 1995. Half of those
treated in 1994 had “wasting syndrome,”
but most in 1995 had been hurt by fishing
gear––like most other birds the center
receives. “We have pelicans, pelicans,
fishhooks and pelicans,” director
Laura Quinn told Nancy Klingener of the
Miami Herald, “because pelicans hang
around fishers.”

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