Shelter bashing wasn’t planned

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

A late summer wave of shelter-bashing by
animal rights groups took humane workers by
surprise, including some of the most outspo-
ken critics of shelter administrations. Protests
outside numerous shelters on Homeless
Animals Day, August 22, coincided with
campaigns against the management of the
Primarily Primates shelter in San Antonio,
Texas, and the Defenders of Animal Rights
shelter in Phoenix, Maryland. (See separate
items.)

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Guest Column: Violence and hatred won’t stop the pigeon shoot by Marjorie Spiegel

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

The string is pulled. The lid of the box opens,
and a bird flutters a few feet up into the air and is imme-
diately shot once, twice. If it is a clean shot, the bird
lies motionless. The crowd cheers. “That one’s dust,”
says a spectator. If the shooter is less accurate, we see
one wing, perhaps, twitching in the air, or a bird strug-
gling on the field. Boys in yellow shirts run to the birds,
throw a body in the bag, twist a neck, then into the same
bag. Sometimes a commotion: someone has made it
onto the field. She is pursued, yet reaches the string
lines or the boxes. The lids open, and eight or so pigeons
fly off to freedom, the most beautiful sight on a day
filled with much to be sorry for.
That is the essence of the Labor Day pigeon
shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania: some people wish to use
these pigeons for target practice, and others wish to see
this ended and to let the pigeons go free.

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Editorials: Welcome to ANIMAL PEOPLE!

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

With your substantial help and patience, we’re here, just six weeks after offi-
cial incorporation, ten weeks after announcing our intent to publish.
At that, we’re a week later than we’d hoped to be. Vital equipment failed and
had to be replaced on warranty; learning to use new software took longer than expect-
ed; the delay meant we had a lot more news to write up; and we can’t yet afford the
second Mac system we’ll need to avoid pre-deadline bottlenecks.
We’re paying no salaries so far. Although we could easily distribute 100,000
copies if we could afford to have that many printed and sent to distribution points, our
initial press run is a fraction of that size; we’ll get there when we can. Because our
start-up capital consisted of only good credit and a contribution from our first sub-
scriber, Mary Melville, we’ve had to contact other potential subscribers in small incre-
ments, a circumstance offset by your overwhelmingly positive response. In fact,
you’ve given us a rate of return on subscription appeals that direct mail marketing
experts swear is impossible.

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KKK defends pigeon shoot; 2,000 protest Labor Day bird massacre but 5,000 support it. Time for new tactics?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:
HEGINS, PENNSYLVANIA A pigeon hit point-blank by a shotgun blast looks
like a spreadeagled angel for just a split second, until the pellets tear her white breast and wings
to pieces and she flaps to the ground, awaiting the trapper boys who will wring her head off.
Wounded angels to some, doves of peace to others, and flying rats according to the
human participants, 5,000 to 7,000 pigeons are shotgunned each Labor Day at the Fred Coleman
Memorial Pigeon Shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania. Held annually since 1934, the shoot was
reputedly dying of disinterest a half century later; but no more. Two thousand protesters turned
out this year, nearly double last year’s then-record number. Lured by the chance to heckle, be
on TV, and maybe see someone get killed dashing in front of the guns to save pigeons, the
crowd of shoot supporters doubled as well, to an estimated 5,000. Among them were several
motorcycle gangs and two robed and hooded Ku Klux Klan members from Ephrata, Penn., who
explained that they saw the event as a good chance to recruit.

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Hurricane Andrew: Noah was there! Disaster spotlights preparation

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

MIAMI, FLORIDA Thousands of
animals drowned, were swept to their deaths
by winds reaching 200 miles an hour, or were
crushed by falling trees and collapsing build-
ings. Fragile habitat was harmed from southern
Florida to coastal Louisiana. But while
Hurricane Andrew hit too suddenly for anyone
to build an ark, thousands more animals were
saved from the August 24 disaster through the
prompt efforts of volunteer rescuers. As the
human relief response came under critical
scrutiny from victims and the media, observers
had only praise for the contributions of animal
control and humane workers.

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CHILDREN & ANIMALS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

* Representatives of about 50 animal
protection and child protectionorganiza-
tions met September 14 and 15 in Washington
D.C. under the auspices of the American
Humane Association to discuss common prob-
lems and opportunities to seek solutions
together. We were there; watch for a full
report in the November issue of ANIMAL
PEOPLE.
* “Until recently,” charges the current
edition of the newsletter Notes From The
Green World, “the image of the abandoned
Latin American child was of a ragged child
sleeping in a doorway. Today the image is of
a body, lacerated and dumped in a city slum,”
especially in Brazil, where death squads hired
by local merchants torture and exterminate
suspected thieves with perhaps more impunity
than if they shot stray dogs. Editor Walter
Miale cites extensive documentation of his
charges, including by Amnesty International.

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Editorials: For leadership, look in the mirror

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

ANIMAL PEOPLE subscribers have been quick to endorse our belief that
the most meaningful form of helping animals is tangibly helping animals. We’ve
promised to focus upon individual and community initiatives, together with hands-on
care—the things each of us can do by ourselves or in small groups to collectively make
an immense difference. After over two decades of animal and habitat protection work
at all levels and in most regions of North America, we have come to the inescapable
conclusion that most of the progress on most issues has come about not because of
national campaigns, but rather through one-on-one persuasion, often in the virtual
absence of national campaigns. The number of homeless dogs and cats euthanized in
pounds and shelters is down from over 20 million per year a decade ago to under eight
million now as result of the unending efforts and experiments of local humane societies.

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