Iceland to resume whaling

April 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1999:

REYKJAVIK, SEATTLE––The parliament of
Iceland on March 10 instructed the government to begin
preparations for Icelandic whalers to resume commercial
whaling by no later than December 31, 2000––and to mount
a drive to sway world opinion in favor of whaling.
The vote came as a cold shower to whale lovers
who had hoped that the tourist-attracting presence of the orca
Keiko in an Icelandic sea pen would dissuade Iceland from
resuming hunting. Iceland last killed whales in 1989, after
three years of defying the International Whaling Commission
moratorium on commercial whaling in effect since 1986.
Iceland withdrew from the IWC in 1992
“The Makahs have already done the damage we
feared,” said Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society. “Thousand of whales are going to be
killed because of their claim of cultural necessity.” The
Makah argument is echoed by both Iceland and Norway,
which in November 1998 unilaterally set a 1999 quota for
itself of 671 minke whales. Similar rationales are expected to
be heard from other onetime whaling nations.

Seals save life, need help

April 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1999:

ST. JOHN’S––Charlene Camburn,
30, of Cleethorpe’s, England, is one fish
processer who has only good words for seals.
Watching the colony of 400 grey
seals at the Donna’s Nook nature reserve on
February 1, Camburn became stranded by high
tide on a sand bar off the Lincolnshire coast,
along with her boyfriend, Chris Tomlinson,
36, and their son Brogan, seven. As night fell,
they decided Camburn, the strongest swimmer,
should strike for the mainland to seek help––but
the current swept her into the bitterly cold, fogshrouded
North Sea.
“I kept going under toward the end.
It seemed much easier to die than stay alive,”
Camburn told Steve Dennis of the London
Mirror. “I thought Chris and Brogan had died.
But I could feel the seals going under my feet.
They nudged my legs and feet and kept diving
beside me, and I kept bobbing back up.

USDA considers calling birds “animals”

March 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

WASHINGTON D.C.––The USDA
on January 28 announced that it will take
comments until March 29, 1999 on a petition
from United Poultry Concerns to amend the
definition of “animal” in the Animal Welfare
Act enforcement regulations to remove the
current exclusion of birds, rats, and mice.
“A short letter is fine,” commented
UPC founder and president Karen Davis,
“but the important thing is that the USDA
hears from the public that we want birds,
rats, and mice to be included in the AWA
regulations.”
The opening of the comment period
marks the farthest advance yet toward removing
the exclusion, made initially because
animal experimenters claimed the cost of
complying with AWA regulations in handling
birds, rats, and mice would be prohibitive.

Mary Chipperfield convicted of cruelty

March 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

HAMPSHIRE, U.K.––Circus
trainer Mary Cawley Chipperfield, 61,
and her husband Roger Cawley were on
January 26, 1999 convicted, respectively,
of 12 counts of cruelty toward a
young chimpanzee named Trudi and a
sick elephant.
One of their staff, Stephen
Gillis, was convicted in November
1998 on related charges for allegedly
beating an elephant with an iron bar,
shovel, broom, and pitchfork.

ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT ET AL

January 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1999:

British home secretary Jack Straw,
whose position is analagous to that of the U.S.
Speaker of the House, on December 17 recommended
legislation to expand anti-terrorist legislation
which would both strengthen the rights of
accused persons to a prompt public hearing, and
extend laws now pertaining only to international
violence and the “troubles” in Northern Ireland
to cover any “use of serious violence against persons
or property, or the threat to use such violence
to intimidate or coerce a government, the
public, or any section of the public for political,
religious, or ideological ends.” Although the
proposed legislation does not specifically mention
violence associated with animal rights
activism, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, and
London Times all prominently made the link.
Authorities recorded approximately 800 incidents
of vandalism and arson undertaken in
Britain in the name of animal rights during 1997.

Gambling & Crookshank warn British charities about investing, breach of trust

January 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1999:

British animal-issue organizations
ran into trouble one after another
near the pre-Christmas 1998 peak of
fundraising activity.
Embarrassed first was the Zoo-
logical Society of London, after London
Zoo director general Richard Burge, 40,
in early December announced he would
leave to head the pro-hunting Countryside
Alliance, starting February 1.
Royal SPCA press chief
Charlotte Morrissey urged Burge to “do
his homework” before betraying animal
welfare. “For us, cruelty is at the very
heart of this debate,” Morrissey said.

Bullfeathers

January 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1999:

Madrid regional government
children’s rights ombudsman
Javier Urra on January 5 told media
that he will soon formally ask the
regional assembly to bar children under
age 14 from bullrings. “We do not
object to bullfighting as such,” Urra
stated. “It is part of our culture and
some say it is an art. But there are ages
at which it should not be viewed.”
Urra’s request will have precedent: the
Catalona regional government barred
children from bullrings in December
1998. Concern about children at bullfights
may have been prompted, indirectly,
when a man was spotted carrying
a baby in a August 1998 running-ofthe-bulls
at Leganes, near Madrid,
accompanyied by a man who hand-led
children of approximately ages three
and five.

British ALF hunger striker Barry Horne at the verge of death

December 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1998:

YORK, U.K.––Convicted Animal
Liberation Front arsonist Barry Horne, 46, in the
62nd day of a hunger strike, was on December 8
in critical condition and reportedly close to lapsing
into a terminal coma.
Medical authorities said he had passed
the point of being able to make a full physical
recovery several days if not weeks earlier, and
that even if he broke the hunger strike this late,
his prognosis for survival would be shaky.
Horne undertook the strike, he said, to
protest the refusal of the Labour government led
by Prime Minister Tony Blair to call a Royal
Commission inquiry into laboratory animal use.

“Beauty without cruelty” becomes law

December 1, 1998 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1998:

LONDON, NEW DELHI– –
Cosmetic product testing on animals was
banned in Britain, effective November 16,
1998, but Indian minister for social welfare
and empowerment Maneka Gandhi has
reportedly been obliged to backtrack from
proposed rules which were touted as the most
stringent regulation of vivisection anywhere.
“Maneka has unfortunately
removed most of the good features from her
rules,” Susi Weisinger of the Bombay
activist group Ahimsa told ANIMAL PEOP
LE––but Maneka herself told Indian
Express reporter Pallava Bagla on December
3 that despite research industry posturing,
she remained “satisfied with the rules.”

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