From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

WASHINGTON D.C.––An October 29 ruling
by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Richey that USDA
regulations issued under the Animal Welfare Act in fact
violate the AWA has a quality of deja vu.
In fact, Judge Richey issued a similar opinion
on March 29, 1991, but was overruled on July 25,
1994, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of
Appeals, which held that the plaintiffs, the Animal
Legal Defense Fund and Roseann Circelli, Mary Eagan,
and Marc Jurnove as individuals, lacked standing to
bring the case.
The ALDF then restructured and refiled the
case. While Richey ruled again, as he did in the first
case, that the ALDF does have standing to pursue it, an
inevitable appeal by the USDA will almost certainly
again focus on the matter of standing, as have most
cases brought on behalf of animals, and it is not clear
that the Court of Appeals will this time agree with
Richey.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

Jailed for alleged contempt of court by McHenry
County judge James Franz on November 6, but ordered released
on appeal bond by the State of Illinois Appellate Court Second
District on November 21, Chicago Animal Rights Coalition
founder Steve Hindi finally got out late the evening of November
25, after Franz had delayed holding a bail hearing through the
weekend of November 23-24. On a hunger strike for the preceding
16 days, Hindi celebrated his release with a spaghetti dinner.
Hindi was hit with the contempt charge for participating in
protests outside the Woodstock Hunt Club on October 12 and
again on November 4, after receiving a temporary restraining
order which Hindi said to his understanding only prevented him
from flying ultralight aircraft over the hunt club to direct geese
away from the hunters. Hindi and fellow protesters Steve and
Carol Gross, who also received temporary restraining orders,
were at the same time sued for $410,000 by Woodstock Hunt Club
proprietor Earl Johnson––but while Hindi was in jail, Johnson
died, leaving uncertain whether the case would be pursued.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

Allegedly violating people and animals

For about two months a group of
as many as 30 Kentucky youths purported to
drink their own blood and animal blood, calling
themselves The Vampire Clan. Police
identified but didn’t charge several of them
while investigating a break-in and mutilation
killings of two puppies at the animal shelter in
Murray, Kentucky. The apparent leader,
Sondra Gibson, was eventually arrested and
charged with trying to coerce a 14-year-old
boy into having sex with her as an initiation
rite, but by then The Vampire Clan was on a
rampage. Arrested in Baton Rouge on
November 29, in connection with the
November 24 bludgeon murders of Richard
Wendorf, 49, and his wife Naoma Ruth
Wendorf, 53, in their home at Eustis, Florida,
were their daughter Heather, 15; Roderick
Ferrell, 16, son of Gibson; Howard Scott
Anderson, 16; Sarah “Shea” Remington,
a.k.a. Charity Lynn Keesee, 16; and Dana
Cooper, 19. Ferrell and Anderson were also
charged with the shelter break-in.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

“Let’s put this in perspective,” said football
coach Tom Smythe of McNary High School in
Salem, Oregon, to Portland Oregonian correspondent
Cheryl Martinis on November 25, after 18-
year-old linebacker Thomas Shepard was arrested
and charged with felony animal abuse for allegedly
clubbing a stray cat to death. “He didn’t rape,
maim, or pillage anyone. He committed a foolish
act that cost a dumb animal its life. So let’s not drag
this out forever.” Charged with Shepherd was Darle
Dudley, also 18. In October 1995, seven McNary
students including four football players were charged
with aggravated animal abuse for beating an opossum,
then burning her alive. They videotaped the
killing and showed the video in a classroom while
the teacher was out.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

MONTGOMERY, Alabama––Contrary to the
insinuations of an October 1996 appeal for donations issued by
Tina Fields and Ronald Denney under the name Saving
Animals From Euthanasia, listing Louis Jones, DVM, as
“attending veterinarian,” SAFE is not a legitimate charity and
Fields, Denney, and Jones remain under indictment for alleged
theft by charitable fraud and theft of charitable property in the
amount of $60,195, attorney Dennis Wright of the Alabama
Office of the Attorney General confirmed on December 16.
Wright said a trial date would probably be set in early
1997. The SAFE newsletter states that all charges against
Fields, Denney, and Jones were dropped on March 14, without
mentioning that they were promptly refiled after correction
of a technical error in the first filing.

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