Dolphins to leave Steinhart after two decades

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

SAN FRANCISCO––Amphrite and Thetis are
moving. Kept in an admittedly undersized tank at the
Steinhart Aquarium since 1975 and 1978, respectively, the
two female Pacific whitesided dolphins will join others of
their kind at a state-of-the-art oceanarium elsewhere “within
three to nine months,” new Steinhart director Robert Jenkins
told ANIMAL PEOPLE in early March. “It’s not a question
of if, or when,” Jenkins added. “It’s just a matter of com-
pleting the logistics.”
One big unknown is the length of time it will take to
re-sling-train the dolphins. “They’ve been sling-trained
before, and they’ll remember,” Jenkins said. “But they may
need practice before they’re ready to leave.”

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Tales from the cryptozoologists

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Freelance writer Peter Zahler and math teacher Chantal Dietemann, of
Watertown, New York, recently rediscovered the woolly flying squirrel in the Sai Valley of
northern Pakistan. Presumed extinct, the two-foot-long squirrel, with a two-foot tail, was last
seen in 1924. Although Zhaler and Dietemann actually recovered partial specimens of the
squirrel from around the nests of eagle owls last summer, they delayed the announcement until
March, to obtain scientific confirmation of their findings.
Australian zoology student Elizabeth Sinclair recently captured a pair of Gilbert’s
rabbit kangaroos in a live trap set for short-tailed kangaroos, according to the March edition of
Geo magazine. Considered extinct for more than a century, Gilbert’s rabbit kangaroos were last
seen alive in 1869. A radio transmitter was strapped to the male, who was then released. The
female, who had young in her pouch, remains in captivity.

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ESA ON HOLD UNTIL AMENDED

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Both the House
and Senate on March 16 approved in principle a
proposal to impose a moratorium on adding species
to the federal endangered species list, pending
amendment of the Endangered Species Act. The
measure would also prohibit new critical habitat
designations for species already declared endan-
gered. A Senate motion to reject the moratorium
failed, 60-38.
Details of the moratorium will have to be
worked out in conference committee and ratified by
both houses before going to President Bill Clinton
for either his signature or veto. Allowing the mora-
torium to stand could alienate Clinton’s remaining
supporters, while vetoing it would be seen as disre-
gard for property rights––the central theme of the
Republican “Contract with America.”

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Low AMPs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Americans for Medical Progress, an
anti-animal rights group funded by U.S. Surgical,
has grudgingly apologized for a February 24
claim that former Olympic diver Greg Louganis
betrays fellow AIDS patients by doing ads for a
group called PAWS, which AMP misidentified
as the Progressive Animal Welfare Society. That
PAWS opposes animal use in biomedical
research. “It has come to AMP’s attention,” a
February 28 retraction said, “that the group for
which Mr. Louganis is a spokesperson is Pets Are
Wonderful Support,” which assists pet owners
with AIDS in the Philadelphia area.
“A common tactic used by animal
rights groups to deceive the public,” the AMP
statement continued, “is to adopt names or
acronyms of respectable groups.” AMP may owe
all concerned another apology: founded in 1967,
the Progressive Animal Welfare Society is the
older group by 25 years.

AGRICULTURE, DIET, & HEALTH

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Polls of children and teens done by
the National Live Stock & Meat Board’s
“Youth Initiative Task Force” found in 1992
and 1993 that 50% were concerned about the
fat and cholesterol in beef, 37% were con-
cerned about the fat and cholesterol in pork,
and 16% were concerned about the fat and
cholesterol in chicken––but only 4% saw cru-
elty in beef production, 3% saw cruelty in
pork production, and 2% saw cruelty in poul-
try production. Just 1% saw ecological harm
in eating beef; none saw ecological harm in
eating pork and poultry. A follow-up survey
is scheduled for this year.

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Tiger beat

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Tigers could decline past the point of viability in the wild within 10 years and be extinct in the wild
with 20 years, International Union for the Conservation of Nature cat specialist group chair Peter Jackson warned
on March 12, while lauding a March 2 agreement between China and India to protect tigers along their disputed
frontier, and a similar deal reached on March 6 among Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, which share circa 500
wild tigers. China reportedly has about 80 wild tigers left, divided among three different species.
Fifty-seven Siberian tigers have been born since 1986 at the Hengdaozi Breeding Centre in northeast-
ern Heilongjiang province, China, of whom 53 have survived, the Xinhua news agency reported on February 21.

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Horses

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Feuds among Los Angeles-area
horse rescuers exploded into the media with a
bankruptcy petition filed on January 18 by the
Equus horse sanctuary, of Newhall,
California. Begun in 1992 by Sandra Waldrop
and Linda Moss, Equus adopts out horses
bought from killer-buyers. Friction developed
early, as volunteer Sandy Venables of
Chatsworth quit to form her own rescue group,
and caught fire after Equus expanded to a for-
mer mule ranch last June, then couldn’t make
the $2,500-a-month rent. In November,
Equus got an eviction notice––and was
accused of neglecting from 100 to 170 horses
by Barbara Goodwin Cross of the L.I.F.E.
Foundation, which places wild horses
obtained from the Bureau of Land

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WORLD WILDLIFE REPORT

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Asia
About 30,000 orangutans remain in Borneo, say Indonesian offi-
cials, but only about 300 survive in East Kalimantan province, due to rainfor-
est logging and poaching––plus 165 orangs kept at a rehabilitation centre in
Samboja, near the Sungai Wein jungle preserve. Rescued from smugglers,
most suffer from hepatitis and/or tuberculosis contracted in captivity.
Thai authorities circa January 20 confiscated 21 endangered
Burmese bear cubs from a smuggler who boasted of having already shipped 70
cubs to South Korean restaurants this year alone––and got off with an on-the-
spot fine. The cubs were taken to a captive breeding center, where three died
within a day.

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Animal health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Rabies roundup
A four-year-old girl from Centralia, Washington, on
March 16 became the first person to die of rabies in that state since
1939. Relatives found and killed a bat in her bedroom in February, but
did not report the incident to anyone until after she was hospitalized with
depression, constant drooling, and seizures. She lapsed into a terminal
coma on March 9.
Texas during the second week in February began airdrop-
ping 850,000 dog biscuits laden with the new oral rabies vaccine
over an area the size of Maryland, Delaware, and Rhode Island
combined, to stop an outbreak of canine rabies in coyotes and foxes
before it spreads from the southern end of the state to San Antonio. The
$1.9 million project is the biggest test of the oral vaccine on wildlife yet.

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