Winter of snow and drought

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

Severe swings in winter weather,
believed to be symptomatic of global warming,
hit animals hard around the world.
Near Bascones del Agua, in northern
Spain, more than 4,000 pigs drowned two days
after Christmas when a river overflowing with
snowmelt from the Pyranees mountains trapped
them in their barn.
At the same time, tropical fish farmers
in Hillsborough County, Florida, lost fish by the
ton to a sudden cold snap. The U.S. tropical fish
industry centers on Florida, and about 150 of
Florida’s 184 tropical fish farms are in
Hillsborough County, previously noted for climatic
stability.

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More “Who gets the money?”

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

ANIMAL PEOPLE continues to receive IRS Form 990 filings and/or group financial
statements for fiscal year 1994, four months after the deadline for inclusion in our annual
December financial abstract of animal and habitat protection groups:

• The American Bird Conservancy,
formed by the 1993 merger of the International
Council for Bird Protection–U.S., the ICBP–Pan
American Section, and the ICBP Inc., when the
original ICBP became BirdLife International,
spent $237,067; claimed to spend $142,517 on
programs, against $94,550 (40%) on fundraising
and overhead; did not claim program costs associated
with fundraising; and had assets of
$638,541, including $11,484 in fixed property
and $629,024 in cash. It took in $841,482 for the
year, $603,158 as grants from affiliates. Both the
revenues and the assets are quite high relative to
the level of reported activity, and may reflect
preparation to buy land or other facilities. Acting
administrative director George Schillinger was
paid $36,250. George Fenwick, paid $9,000 for
service “as required,” was the only other staffer
listed.

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Organizations

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, after announcing
a move to Seattle last year, then indicating
it might go to Hampton Beach,
Virginia, or Atlanta instead, has reportedly
now purchased a building in Norfolk,
Virginia, with a dock on the Elizabeth
River. PETA is experiencing online
address confusion, too: someone set up a
World Wide Web page at >>http://
www.peta.org<< for “People Eating Tasty
Animals,” with links to the Americans
for Medical Progress home page.

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Marching orders

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

Last Chance for Animals has
pledged to “take advantage of the tens of
thousands of supporters” it expects to attend
the June “March for the Animals” in
Washington D.C. to “blockade the USDA”
if it fails to announce pending regulatory
amendments to change the Class B dealer
system before then. Currently, the “B”
dealer classification covers anyone who
buys or sells animals across interstate
lines––including more than a thousand pet
dealers along with from 50 to 75 sellers of
random-source dogs and cats to laboratories,
many of whom have been accused of trafficking
in stolen pets. USDA spokesperson
Stephen Smith told ANIMAL PEOPLE
almost a year ago that the agency wants to
split th” ‘B” category into nine subcategories,
to enable closer tracking of activity.

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WOOFS & GROWLS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

Adopt-A-Pet, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, quiet for several
years, recently issued a bulletin “introducing our statewide
service,” a purported mobile adoption-and-rescue program,
and soliciting donations. Adopt-A-Pet in 1986-1992 raised
$6,840,756 via the Watson and Hughey direct mailing empire,
which renamed itself Direct Response Consulting Services after
paying $2.4 million in 1991 in out-of-court settlement of
charges pertaining to alleged use of misleading sweepstakes
appeals. Adopt-A-Pet was among the W&H/DRCS codefendants
in a series of cases brought by 22 states. In 1987-1989,
Adopt-A-Pet reportedly spent 97% of revenues on further
fundraising. Overall, according to incomplete IRS Form 990
filings obtained and abstracted by The Chronicle of
P h i l a n t h r o p y in September 1993, Adopt-A-Pet spent at least
55% of revenues on fundraising, with 6% spent on other documented
activities and 39% apparently unaccounted for.
W&H/DRCS also represented the Cancer Fund of America,
which sought donations by claiming it didn’t fund animal-based
research. It apparently funded––and funds––little or no
research of any kind.
German freelance TV producer Michael Born
faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly defrauding customers
of more than $203,000 by faking at least 22 documentaries
between 1991 and December 1994. In one episode he
purportedly paid an actor to pose as a hunter shooting a housecat.
Born defends his creations as “docu-drama,” in which
players act out real events.
National Audubon Society president John Flicker
says he cancelled publication of an article for the A u d u b o n
magazine by former New York Times columnist Tom Wicker as
part of “a relatively minor adjustment we’re making” to policy.
Wicker had charged that the Clinton administration has not
demonstrated a clear commitment to environmental protection.
The British Advertising Standards Authority censured
the International Fund for Animal Welfare o n
Valentine’s Day for the fourth time in a year, holding that ads
urging Tesco supermarket chain chair Sir Ian MacLaurin to
cease selling Canadian canned salmon “unfairly discredited
Tesco by its false implication about the supermarket’s involvement
in seal killing.” IFAW was previously rapped for likening
hunters to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (who serially torturekilled
wildlife before turning to human victims); using a photo
allegedly depicting John Wayne Bobbitt’s severed penis in an
anti-sealing ad, which pointed out that the major profitable
market for seal products is Asian aphrodisiac demand for dried
penises; and suggesting that South Koreans kill 400,000 cats a
year for use in soup. Cat-eating is technically banned in South
Korea, but is reportedly still commonplace.

Parody
Students United to Protest Research on
Sentient Subjects, now doing business as The Nature of
Wellness, startled Washington Post readers on February 25
with a parody of Americans for Medical Progress a d s
attacking antivivisectionists. Surrounding a photo of a bonneted
baby was the headline, “Most people see a beautiful,
healthy child…We see a cure for Feline Leukemia.”
Continued the text below, “Outrageous, isn’t it? How can
anyone possibly believe that a cat disease can be cured by
conducting research on healthy human beings? Ridiculous.
But, unfortunately, millions of Americans have been led to
believe that it is possible to cure human diseases by conducting
research on healthy animals.”

FEAR AND LOATHING IN TORONTO THE GOOD

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

TORONTO––A Divisional Court ruling by Justice
Edward Saunders is expected soon as to whether the Toronto
Humane Society must release to the public copies of the
pound contract it holds with the City of Toronto.
Claiming a need to protect the security of animals
and staff, THS has appealed a December 29, 1995 order
from Tom Mitchinson, assistant commissioner of the
Information and Privacy Commission of Ontario, to release
both the current contract, signed in 1995, and the contract
that preceded it, signed in 1985, with an automatic annual
renewal clause that will expire on July 31.
The Toronto City Council on March 5 authorized
the negotiation of another one-year renewal, over the objection
of Councillor Pamela McConnell, who held the THS
board seat reserved for the City Council from November 30,
1994 to February 7 of this year.

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Vouching for it by Karen Johnson

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

San Jose, California, is on the
verge of proving either that the fastest, most
cost-effective means of reducing the homeless
cat population is through providing free
neutering vouchers––or that meddlers will
dismantle any program, no matter how well
it works, to advance bureaucracy.
As described in the April 1995 edition
of ANIMAL PEOPLE, San Jose enacted
the free voucher program in October 1994.
After a slow start, it took off in February,
1995, following favorable coverage by the
San Jose Mercury-News. For 16 months it
enabled hundreds of people who feed outdoor
cats, often people of limited means, to get
the cats “fixed.”

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Editorial: Animal rights, Republicans, and Original Sin

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

“Four new trends will greatly affect the course of environmental politics in the
1990s,” writes Competitive Enterprise Institute director of environmental studies Jonathan
Adler in his recently published opus, Environmentalism at the Crossroads. “They are: the
growing influence of deep ecology and its radical preservationist policy prescriptions; the
environmental ‘backlash,’ as represented by the property rights and wise use movements;
the emergence of the environmental justice movement and the tensions it has created within
organized environmentalism (as members of racial and ethnic minorities demand representation);
[and] the challenge to conventional environmental policies by free market environ –
mentalism.”

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Missouri to trap otters: New icon for antifur drive with European ban pending

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:

BRUSSELS––If Europe banned the
import of seal pelts because of the cuteness of
harp seals, just wait until they meet river
otters––not only cute, but playfully active
and insatiably gregarious.
The Missouri Department of
Conservation quietly approved the resumption
of trapping river otters in May 1995, but
word didn’t reach the public until Valentine’s
Day, when the world learned from an article
by Mead Gruver in the St. Louis River Front
Times that the Missouri Trappers aim to give
Miss Missouri an otter coat this year.
Thus alerted, the Fur Bearer
Defenders and the Sea Wolf Alliance warmed
up their fax machines. Within hours bigger
organizations including the Animal Legal
Defense Fund, Fund for Animals, and the
Humane Society of the U.S. were on the case.

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