PETA in the US and abroad

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

NORFOLK, Va.; NEW DELHI–– Sacred cows really have little in common with real cows.

Real cows give milk, are increasingly often factory-farmed in the U.S., frequently wander the roads in India without enough to eat, and in either nation follow most of their own offspring to slaughter as soon as they are economically unproductive––although in India the slaughtering tends to be illegal.

Sacred cows stand between real cows and public perception. They occupy billboards, pushing an image of health and contentment, between depictions of children and celebrities wearing white “mustaches.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals founder Ingrid Newkirk and People for Animals founder Maneka Gandhi during spring 2000 each tried to erase the “mustaches,” on behalf of suffering real cows––and were each promptly accused of atrocity.

GeesePeace vs. USFWS

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

GeesePeace president David Feld, of Fairfax County, Virginia, on April 14 accused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of sabotaging volunteer efforts to control Canada geese by oiling eggs so that they do not hatch.

The Fish and Wildlife Service appears to prefer controlling geese by sport hunting or by USDA Wildlife Services roundups of geese for donation to soup kitchens.

“They have required that permit applications be processed on pink paper, declared corn oil––the recommended oil for egg treatment–– to be a pesticide which can only be used by a certified applicator, and required nest sites to be identified 60 days in advance, which they know is impossible,” Feld told Washington Post staff writer William Branigan.

Feld said the Fish and Wildlife Service also barred volunteers from oiling eggs on private property, even with landowner permission.

Added Doris Day Animal League executive director and GeesePeace member Holly Hazard, “This is a problem that the Fish and Wildlife Service itself created. Egg-oiling is something they should lead the charge on. They are not even in the army.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service introduced nonmigratory Canada geese to most of the sites where they are now problematic, beginning more than 40 years ago.

Introductions continue. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, for instance, recently confirmed that it is trying to double the Iowa population of Canada geese, despite public complaints.

Why is Wendy Rhodes kissing this shark?

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

Education and Action for Animals president Wendy Rhodes [above], of Redondo Beach, California, is kissing this formerly captive nurse shark––about to be released––to make observers ask questions, she admits.

Rhodes wants people to question their attitudes toward sharks, toward keeping captive sharks, and toward keeping any animals captive for entertainment.

The nurse shark in the photo, previously kept at a San Jose pizza restaurant, is one of six Rhodes has rescued within the past year from tanks they have outgrown. They were returned to the sea with the help of more than 50 sympathizers.

Down Under

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

Royal SPCA of Australia president Hugh Wirth in February 2000 outraged both vegetarians and hunters with near-simultaneous announcements that the RSPCA will help market gourmet pork, to encourage farmers to rear pigs in less cruel conditions, and that the RSPCA will also seek to extend the present partial bans on duck hunting which are in effect on public land in Western Australia and New South Wales and throughout the Australian Central Territories.

Animal Liberation spokesperson Mark Pearson reportedly accused Wirth of “getting into bed with industry,” while Sporting Shooters Association vice president Ted Drane told Manika Naidoo of the Melbourne Age that he “will ask the tax office to investigate how money donated to a charity can be spent on a political campaign.”

DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE PETITIONS FOR PROBE OF THE FARM BUREAU

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

WASHINGTON D.C. – – Defenders of Wildlife and 179 other organizations on April 10 petitioned Congress for an “investigation into charges that the American Farm Bureau Federation national leadership has harmed the American farmer and their own members by posing as an organization representing farmer interests.”

The petitioners suggested that the Farm Bureau has a conflict of interest in operating “businesses that sell to the farmer and buy from the farmer.” They also sought “an investigation into charges that the Farm Bureau misrepresents its motivations to Congress and the American taxpayer, exploiting the farmer image to win nonprofit privileges that shield them from $61.75 million annually in federal income tax.”

Defenders circulated the petition by e-mail for a month preceding an April 9 expose of the Farm Bureau broadcast by CBS 60 Minutes. The expose paralleled a series of critical reports published in the Defenders membership magazine since 1998, as Defenders and the Farm Bureau clashed over the 1995 wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho. In December 1997 the Farm Bureau won a lower court ruling, since reversed, which would have required that all the wolves and their descendants be removed from the wild.

MONEY AND POLITICS

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

Donation records for the years 1991-1998 disclosed to The Chronicle of Philanthropy by Republican presidential cand i d a t e George W. Bush show no gifts to either pro-hunting or pro-gun groups, with whom Bush is closely allied. Not itemized were gifts totaling $24,592. The only animaloriented charity among the 58 listed recipients was the Dallas Zoo, given $1,875 in 1992-1993. Medical charities got $20,950, of which $15,000 went to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in 1998. Southern Methodist University got the largest gift: $150,000 in 1998. Other Methodist institutions got at least $115,000. The Bush gifts totaled $468,151; $334,425 was given soon after Bush and partners sold the Texas Rangers baseball team in 1998.

U.S. nonprofit foundation grant funding for projects meant to benefit the “environment and animals” rose from circa 2% of all grants in 1989 to 6% in 1998, according to data from the Foundation Center, Giving USA, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy––but within that broad category, “animals and wildlife” in 1989 got 0.9%, while all other “environment” projects got 1.1%. “Animals and wildlife” in 1998 got 1% ($70 million); other environmental projects got 5% ($412 million).

Dolphin-safe, takings, prairie dog verdicts

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

Thelton E. Henderson, chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, on April 11 ruled that Commerce Secretary William Daley “acted contrary to the law and abused his discretion when he triggered a change in the ‘dolphin safe’ label standard.” Daley, despite the verdict, on April 12 lifted the U.S. ban on tuna imports from Mexico which had stood since 1991, imposed because Mexican fishing methods were not “dolphin safe.” New York-based U.S. Court of International Trade judge Judith Barzilay on April 14 refused to reimpose the ban. “We could start exporting like crazy now, but nobody is going to buy tuna that doesn’t have the ‘dolphin safe’ label,” said Mexican fisheries secretariat spokesperson Dalia de la Pena Wing. Since 1990, “dolphin safe” labels have designated tuna caught by means not killing any dolphins. In 1995 a General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs panel held that the U.S. law which began “dolphin safe” labeling unduly inhibited trade by excluding imports of non-“dolphin safe” tuna. The GATT decree led to extensive revision of the 1990 law, via the 1997 International Dolphin Conservation Program Act. Daley then tried to administratively extend eligibility to use “dolphin safe” labeling to all legally imported tuna, but Henderson held that Daley had not documented any need to do so. Henderson in May 1990 banned imports of yellowfin tuna from Mexico, Venezuela, and V a n u a t u, under the 1988 amendments to the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, and in January 1992 invoked the same law to ban $266 million worth of tuna imports from 30 nations. Appeals of the 1992 verdict led to the 1995 GATT ruling.

Wildlife Waystation battles bushwhacking by California DFG

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. ––Moving fast on the dubious strength of a scathing report by consultant Diana Grenados, the California Department of Fish and Game on April 7 closed the worldrenowned Wildlife Waystation sanctuary to visitors; ordered it to stop accepting animals and to reduce the sanctuary population, now at about 1,200 animals; and shared copies of the Grenados report with media, days before Wildlife Waystation founder Martine Colette got it––and a week, Colette said, before she got a list of her alleged offenses.

The Los Angeles Times in particular vividly amplified Grenados’ allegation that the Waystation is “a roadside disaster,” which purportedly puts staff and visitors at constant risk from badly caged carnivores and mythical feces-flinging HIV-positive chimpanzees.

Grenados further asserted that the Waystation is dangerously overrun by ground squirrels, wild coyotes, and feral peacocks, whom she said should be “controlled.” Grenados complained that she could smell the 125 resident big cats’ urine, where––like all cats––they marked their territory.

SF/SPCA teaches veggie living

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

SAN FRANCISCO––In New York, the American SPCA magazine touts “free range” beef and poultry products. In Minneapolis, activists are begging the Humane Society of Hennepin County to at least offer vegetarian options alongside the hot dogs at an annual “Walk for Animals.”

In San Francisco, however, the San Francisco SPCA hosts regular workshops in vegetarian living: what to eat, how to cook it, and how to cope with any problems.

Each of the three workshops held so far drew just over 50 participants.

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