Animal entertainment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Known for wounding bulls rather
than killing them outright, then dragging
them about the ring before kneeling in front of
them preliminary to the final sword thrust,
Jesuslin de Ubrique, 20, is the latest star of
Spanish bullfighting. Pelted with bras and
panties by female admirers when he enters the
ring, de Ubrique says, “Having fought with
thousands of animals, I have learned that the
woman is the best of all. I love bullfighting,”
he adds, “but if I decided upon this profession,
it was only to make money.”
At deadline, pending authorization
from Congress, the Ringling Brothers
C i r c u s was booked to perform an 18-elephant
“Salute to Congress” outside the U.S. Capitol
on April 5, to which Speaker of the House
Newt Gingrich proposed to bus school children.
Friends of Animals, the Fund for Animals, and
the Washington Humane Society planned to
protest. Ringling has otherwise ceased holding
circus parades and other outdoor performances
––and even asks reporters not to disclose the
hour at which animals will be marched from
railway station to arena. Once held in mid-day
with great fanfare to drum up interest in the
show, the processions now take place at night.
Police in Chonburi province,
Thailand, on March 16 shot a circus elephant
who killed two handlers during a performance.
Fearing such an incident, the city of Bangkok,
60 miles west, on February 11 banned ele-
phants from the city streets. Thousands of for-
mer logging elephants, thrown out of their old
jobs by forest conservation measures imposed
in 1989, have been brought to Thai urban
areas, where they perform to earn their keep.
The Columbus, Ohio city council
on February 7 voted 7-0 to bar novelty animal
acts, exempting zoos, rodeos, horse shows,
and circuses. The object is to keep out
wrestling bears, boxing kangaroos, and diving
mules. The ordinance also increased the penal-
ty for cruelty from $750 to $1,000, and made it
a first rather than third-degree misdemeanor.
Guests of honor at the Genesis
A w a r d s presentation on March 12 included
wildlife biologist Gordon Haber and Weela, a
pit bull terrier. Hired by Friends of Animals to
monitor the wolf massacre authorized by for-
mer Alaskan governor Walter Hickel, Haber
in November took dramatic video of the deaths
of four snared wolves that led new governor
Tony Knowles to announce the killing would
be halted as his first act after inaugeration.
Weela, a trained rescue dog, “rescued 30 peo-
ple, 29 dogs, 13 horses, and one cat during
the floods that plagued southern California
during the winter of 1993,” according to the
Ark Trust, the awards sponsor. The awards
honor media for outstanding contributions to
awareness of animal issues. Winners this year
included Black Beauty (feature film); D r .
D o l i t t l e (film classic); T i m e magazine; the
ABC news program 20/20; and The Simpsons
TV show.
Questionaires received from 619 of
the 2,301 active members of Circus Fans of
A m e r i c a listed elephants and big cats as the
favorite circus acts among 40 possibilities.
Horses ranked ninth, exotic animals 12th,
domestic animals 14th, and elephant rides
23rd. Acts involving chimpanzees, bears,
and sea lions were barely mentioned. Ninety-
five percent of the respondents were males,
average age 62; just 6% were under 40.
Three dogs died in the mid-
February running of the 1,000-mile Yukon
Quest sled race, as seven of the 22 teams
dropped out. Two died of “sled dog myopa-
thy,” a genetic disorder; one suffered severe
internal injuries after being hit by a sled.
Doug Swingley, 41, of Simms,
Montana, on March 14 became the first non-
Alaskan to win the 1,161-mile Iditarod Trail
Sled Dog Race, in a record time of nine days,
two hours, and 22 minutes. Despite the loss
of $450,000 worth of national sponsorship,
the race––the first in which no dogs died––fea-
tured a record purse of $350,000, of which
Swingley got $52,000.
The American Humane Assoc-
i a t i o n has amended its guidelines for the use
of animals in TV and film productions to bar
sedation for non-medical reasons. In April
1994, a drug overdose killed a vulture who
was sedated to appear dead in the film In The
Army Now.
Greyhound racing
Cleveland car dealer Ed Mullinax
is reportedly trying to talk a city task force
into adding $20 million worth of accommoda-
tions for greyhound racing to the estimated
$100 million cost of bringing 63-year-old
Cleveland Stadium up to date for football.
A Massachusetts bill to ban dog
racing and dog racing simulcasts, introduced
by Rep. Shaun Kelly, is reportedly stuck in
the legislature’s joint committee on govern-
ment regulations. State residents may ask
that the bill, HB 899, be favorably reported
out, c/o representatives Steven Angelo and
Vincent Ciampa, and senators Michael
Creedon and Robert Travaglini, at the State
House, Boston, MA 02133.
Vermont senator Jean Ankeney
has introduced a bill to ban dog racing in that
state. The only dog track in Vermont, the ex-
horseracing circuit in Pownal, has been
closed since 1992, but could yet be reopened.
The Texas Greyhound Assn. o n
January 15 opened a $675,00 training and
research center near Lorena. About 300 dogs
at a time are to be trained there, in sessions
open to the public.

Resources for humane education

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Simmons College, of Boston, has
opened up a new avenue for animal-related

education, the interactive electronic curricu-
lum. Two such curriculums have already
been up and running for a couple of years
now, used by dozens of teachers all over the
country as an aid to teaching computer use,
science, English, math, and research
skills––and the cumulative efforts of the stu-
dent participants are also usefully expanding
what we know about roadkills and whales.
The Dr. Splatt roadkill project,

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Birds

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

The National Audubon Society plans to use the alleged
mid-February poisoning of more than 40,000 waterfowl at Silva
Reservoir, Mexico, as a test of the strength of the North American
Commission on Environmental Cooperation, set up as part of the
North American Free Trade Agreement to monitor international pollu-
tion problems but not yet asked to rule on a case. The Mexican
National Water Commission blames the deaths on pesticide runoff.
Other sources blame chromium escaping from tanneries nearby, set
up to take advantage of the U.S. market opened by NAFTA.
Eagle deaths since November 1994 due to an unknown
toxin now total 27 in Arkansas, where the toxin causes brain damage,
and nine in Wisconsin, where liver damage is more common. Fifteen
eagles found dead in Wisconsin circa April, 1994, are believed to
have been deliberately poisoned, possibly by feather merchants.

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A feel-good story in the Adirondacks

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

CORINTH, N.Y.––Adopting out 1,500 to
1,700 animals a year, or roughly one for every 10 year-
round residents of Saratoga County, Adirondack Save-
A-Stray is easily the best-known enterprise in Corinth,
New York, population 2,700. Founder Meredith Fiel,
perhaps the best-known person in town, makes sure of
that, spending $500 a month to advertise in every paper
from Schenectady to Ticondaroga, and Rutland,
Vermont, to Lake Luzerne.
“If you don’t get out word about what you
have,” she states, “people aren’t going to know.”
Since 1991, Fiel has also contributed a popular
biweekly pet care column to the Glens Falls P o s t
S t a r––and just this year she commenced a weekly half-
hour interview program, “Hot Topics,” on the Corinth
country music radio station, WZZM 93.5. “It doesn’t
have anything to do with animals,” she insists. “The
focus is local current affairs.” But Adirondack Save-A-
Stray gets frequent mentions.

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Animal control & rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Sara Lohnes, 11, and Necia Crucetti, 10, of Hoosick
Falls, New York, dashed down an overgrown railway embank-
ment the morning of February 20 to free Sport, a husky/shepherd
mix belonging to neighbor Tim Stratton, 10, whom vandals had
tied to the tracks in front of an oncoming train. Police chief Royal
Howard said suspects would be questioned. The dog was reported
missing 20 minutes before the girls found him. Another dog was
killed the same way in the same vicinity several months earlier.
The Animal Regulation Department in Sonoma
County, California, received a record 202 reports of neglected
and starving animals in January, three times as many as in January
1994, supervising officer Bob Garcia reported on February 26.
Most of the cases involved harsh weather, including flooding.

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Innovation

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

“By the end of 1995, the Progressive
Animal Welfare Society shelter will stop killing
healthy, adoptable dogs and cats,” executive direc-
tor Craig Brestrup announced on February 24. He
pledged to accomplish this through increasing adop-
tion promotion, beginning to offer free and low-cost
neutering to the public, expanding use of foster care,
and introducing an “outplacement” program to assist
people who must for some reason give up a pet.
“Animals deserve better from us than a painless
death,” Brestrup continued. Other changes at PAWS
include “a mostly new shelter staff,” and a promise
that, “While the PAWS phone system will continue
to offer voice mail and recorded messages, your calls
will be answered by a knowledgeable, friendly, hon-
est-to-goodness real person.” Founded in 1967, the
PAWS shelter serves King County, Washington.

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Wildlife & People

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

The California Academy of the Sciences is trying to per-
suade University of California at Santa Cruz students to quit releas-
ing ex-pet goldfish into streams. Tadpole-eating goldfish threaten a
CAS-led attempt to restore the local population of redlegged
frogs––the species Mark Twain wrote about in The Celebrated
Jumping Frog of Calaveras Family. Hunted to extinction in
Calaveras County by 1900, the frogs now occupy only 25% of their
former range, including 12 streams in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Responding to the March ANIMAL PEOPLE item
about a New York Department of Environmental Conservation pro-
posal to relax beaver trapping rules in two upstate counties, DEC
bureau of wildlife chief Gordon Batcheller said on February 28 that,
“At this time, the DEC has no specific proposals to change beaver
management laws or regulations.” He didn’t say what had been done
with the proposal in question.

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Zoos

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

SAN DIEGO GETS PANDAS, LOSES RHINOS
SAN DIEGO––The San Diego Zoo
is dusting off plans to exhibit pandas––and
struggling to recover from the abrupt extinc-
tion of its Sumatran rhino breeding program.
Eighteen months after refusing to
give the zoo a panda bear import, Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt reversed himself on
January 14, after a personal visit to the facili-
ty, and granted the permit as the prototype for
a new national panda policy to be announced
in mid-March. Two pandas, a 13-year-old
male named Shi Shi and a three-year-old
female named Bai Yun, are expected to arrive
in spring on a 12-year loan from China.

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MARINE MAMMALS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

The clock is apparently running out on the sea
lion/steelhead conflict in Puget Sound, in favor of sea lions
who were caught, caged, and sentenced to death in February
under 1994 revisions to the Marine Mammal Protection Act,
for menacing the last steelhead from the endangered Lake
Washington winter run as they approached Ballard Locks. A
variety of nonlethal methods have failed to deter the sea lions,
but a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society proposal to relocate
them to San Francisco Bay and a publicity-grabbing cage
occupation by Ben White of Friends of Animals apparently
bought them time until the salmon run was over. Forthcoming
amendments to the Endangered Species Act are expected to
relieve authorities of the duty to save the last fish of particular
runs when the species as a whole is not endangered.
A female orca calf, stillborn at the Vancouver
Aquarium on March 8, died from blood loss due to a pre-
maturely ruptured umbilicus. “A calf experiencing this kind
of catastrophic event would be doomed whether in an aquari-
um or in the wild,” said consulting veterinarian David Huff.
The calf was the third the Vancouver Aquarium has lost, with
none surviving longer than 97 days. The death came five days
after an infant orca died at the Kamogawa Sea World (no rela-
tion to the U.S. Sea World chain) in Japan. The losses, along
with that of another infant orca at Sea World San Antonio on
December 28, renewed protest against trying to breed orcas in
captivity. However, noted MARMAM online bulletin board
host Robin Baird, “A large proportion of the killer whale
calves who have not survived have been from two particular
mothers, both at aquaria which have not had a single surviving
calf.” Orca calves born at U.S. Sea World facilities by contrast
have a better survival rate than wildborn counterparts.

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