MEXICAN PET THIEVES SUPPLY U.S. SCHOOLS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

MEXICALI, Mexico––The World
Society for the Protection of Animals on March
25 announced it had exposed a major Mexican
pet theft ring, operating for at least eight years.
The ring is organized by several American resi-
dents of Mexico. Bunchers pay children $1.00
apiece to catch cats, who are trucked in lots of
30 to 40 to Mexicali, where they are drowned
about 10 at a time in water barrels, preserved
with formaldehyde, and hauled to a location in
Sinaloa state, where they are sold for $7.00
each. From Sinaloa, they are trucked to U.S.
customers.

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DOG SLEDDING

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Discouraged by the loss of a
dog due to heart attack, the only dog
death during the 1994 Iditarod sled race,
Susan Butcher, 39, announced March
21 that she won’t enter the race in 1995,
and said she would sell most of her ken-
nel. Butcher has competed in every
Iditarod since 1978, recording four vic-
tories and 15 finishes in the top 10 while
crusading for humane dog care and han-
dling. In 1991 she surrendered a lead
and allowed her longtime archrival Rick
Swenson to become the first five-time
winner, rather than risk her dogs’ lives
in a blizzard.

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Woofs and growls

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Animals and wildlife get
7% of the charity dollar in Britain,
4% in Canada, 2% in Spain, and
just 1% each in France and the
U.S., says a new study by the
Charities Aid Foundation––but the
figures aren’t directly comparable,
since medical care is primarily a
government reponsibility in the other
nations but remains heavily subsi-
dized by charity in the U.S.

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Zoos and aquariums

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Caught in a lobster trap in January
and donated to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium
in San Pedro, California, a 58-pound octu-
pus with 12-foot arms nicknamed Octavia was
housed in a tank just six feet wide, attracting
crowds and a PETA-sponsored protest. She
suffocated overnight April 11 after yanking
the plug from her tank.
Louis Bailey, age 8, escaped seri-
ous injury on April 5 when a cheetah scaled
an eight-foot fence at the Jackson Zoo in
Jackson, Mississippi, pounced the boy, who
had wandered into a restricted area––and
raced off with his baseball cap. The 75-year-
old zoo is asking the Mississippi legislature to
approve a $16.5 million bond issue to finance
major renovation.

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HSUS usurps AHA disaster relief role

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––On March 9 the American Humane
Association renewed the agreement it has had with the American Red Cross since
1976 to serve as the coordinating agency for animal relief after U.S. disasters.
Eight days later, after apparently pressuring the Red Cross at the board level, the
Humane Society of the U.S. reportedly told Associated Press that the Red Cross
had designated it “the official disaster relief agency for pets and other animals.”
According to AP, HSUS vice president David Wills claimed, “There
has been no real coordinated effort so far,” ignoring the AHA role in coordinat-
ing disaster relief since 1916, and the recent disaster relief work of the North
Shore Animal League and United Animal Nations,

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HSUS raids the Fund for Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––No one at the
Humane Society of the U.S. was talking––not on
the record––but spring maneuvers apparently
intended to consolidate political influence both
internally and externally may give the group a very
different profile on Capitol Hill. Events of note
included the March 15 resignation of Kenneth
Inglis, considered the most militant animal rights
activist on the board of directors; the hiring of for-
mer North Shore Animal League president David
Ganz, apparently to raise funds in connection with
a new HSUS government relations arm, including
a political action committee; and the wooing away
of virtually the whole political apparatus of the
Fund for Animals, including national director
Wayne Pacelle, attorney Aaron Medlock, and
Ohio lobbyist Bill Long, who had represented both
the Fund and HSUS in recent months.

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SPECTACLES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

Bill Petersen, county commission
chair in Glades County, Florida, is leading
an effort to ban “hog dog rodeos,” in which
dogs are set upon semi-feral pigs in enclosed
arenas. The winner is the owner whose dog
brings down a pig the fastest. Held in Glades,
Highlands, and Hardee counties, “hog dog
rodeos” are popular with hunters, says pro-
moter Roger Vickery.
The World Society for the
Protection of Animals seeks letters protest-
ing the Jaripeo rodeo, held each February 23
in San Matias, El Salvador, in which a clown
bites a calf’s tongue and pulls it back as far as
he can stretch it. Address Lic. Carlos
Hilermann, Presidente, Inst. Salvadoreno de
Turismo, Calle Ruben Dario 619, San
Salvador, El Salvador.

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Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The Council for Agricultural
Science and Technology reported March 21
that advances in farming methods and the
growing popularity of vegetarianism could
mean a 30% decrease in the amount of land
used for food crops during the next 50 years
even as the global human population doubles.
The 64-page CAST study, commissioned by
the Program for the Human Environment at
Rockefeller University, was authored by
Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station
agronomist Paul Waggoner, who explained
that the calories and protein produced on pre-
sent cropland are already sufficient to feed 10
billion vegetarians, rather than the five to six
billion people who now eat a diet including
varying amounts of meat.

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