Category: Law

HUMANE ENFORCEMENT

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Reinforcing previous verdicts, the
Kentucky Court of Appeals on May 29 ruled that
cockfighting remains illegal in Kentucky despite the
1980 state assembly ratification of a bill that exempted
birds from the definition of animals protected by the
Kentucky anti-cruelty law. Then-Kentucky governor
John Y. Brown Jr. vetoed the 1980 bill, and the prevailing
legal interpretation remained that cockfighting
was illegal, until Montgomery County cockfight promoter
Marvin Watkins and four other individuals
argued in a lawsuit that the veto was invalid because
according to a deputy state senate clerk’s affidavit it was
issued a day too late. The Kentucky Court of Appeals
previously upheld the 1980 veto in 1994. At least three
major cockfighting arrests followed the 1994 verdict.

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Parakeet killer back in prison

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

ANCHORAGE––George William Adams,
38, alias William G. Adams and Skip Adams-Taylor,
on June 3 drew 40 months in prison from U.S. District
Judge James Singleton, in Anchorage, Alaska, for
being a felon in possession of a gun.
Convicted in 1980 of strangling a women he
met in a Washington D.C. disco and biting the head off
her parakeet because, he said, the bird’s chirping made
him nervous, Adams served 15 years, then skipped out
on parole, fled to Alaska, and became a clerk for the
Barrow office of the state Department of Corrections.
As part of his cover, apparently, he adopted a
guise as an animal rights activist––which led to his
arrest, wrote Lisa Demers of the Anchorage Daily
News, when “Barrow leaders complained to his bosses
that he may have used his state computer to protest an
Eskimo seal hunt.”

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9th circuit tells feds to obey ESA

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

SAN FRANCISCO––The 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 24
that the federal Bureau of Reclamation must
obey both the Endangered Species Act and
California state species protection laws in
allocating water to Central Valley farmers,
even though so doing may put the bureau in
violation of 40-year-old water use contracts.
If the ruling survives an expected
appeal to the Supreme Court by the defendants,
it may be invoked to help compel
other federal agencies to conform to the ESA,
a frequent point of contention in cases
involving everything from fencing along the
U.S./Mexican border to the failure of the
National Marine Fisheries Service to inspect
shipments of shark fins passing through
Hawaiian airports en route from foreign fishing
vessels to markets in Japan.

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NEAVS, HSUS embezzling, Center for Coastal Studies court cases

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Margaret
Hinkel on June 23 ratified a settlement of conflict among New
England Anti-Vivisection Society board factions aligned,
respectively, with PETA and the Fund for Animals, which
had paralyzed NEAVS for more than two years. Under the settlement,
Marian Probst of The Fund told ANIMAL PEOPLE,
“All members of the board resigned,” except president
Theo Capaldo, whose succession to office the PETA faction
allegedly illegally conspired to prevent. A new board was
elected by the NEAVS membership. Among the new board
members are longtime Massachusetts activist Annette Picket;
Holly Cheever, DVM; Boston judge Sarah Luick; and Spay
USA founder Esther Machler. Roberta Wright, executive
director for less than a year, who served at request of PETA
cofounder Ingrid Newkirk, resigned and is to be replaced.
Hinkle ruled on January 22, 1998, that the PETA faction under
direction of the other PETA cofounder, Alex Pacheco, had
attempted to take full control of NEAVS in order to continue
diverting NEAVS assets in support of “organizations with
which they were allied.” A PETA/Fund coalition had led
NEAVS since deposing the administration of probate judge
Robert Ford in 1988. Ford was in March 1989 convicted of
mismanaging NEAVS assets for personal gains.

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More young men with guns go berserk; Illinois hunter harassment law struck down

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

EUGENE––Kipland P. Kinkel, 15,
was arraigned on June 16 in Eugene, Oregon,
on four counts of aggravated murder, 26
counts of attempted aggravated murder, six
counts of first-degree assault, 18 counts of
second degree assault, and unlawful possession
of a firearm.
Kinkel, who boasted often to classmates
of torturing and killing animals, was
arrested on May 20 at Thurston High School in
Springfield, a Eugene suburb, for alleged illegal
possession of a gun.
Released to custody of his parents,
who both taught at the school, Kinkel allegedly
shot both to death with hunting weapons the
following morning, then massacred classmates
in the school cafeteria.

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Initiative efforts frustrated in Ohio, Oregon

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

Save The Doves on June 9 submitted
almost 140,000 signatures to the Ohio
secretary of state’s office in support of a referendum
measure on the November 1998 ballot
which, if approved, would restore a state
ban on hunting mourning doves––but was
informed on June 30 that only 84,320 signatures
were valid. Save The Doves was given
another 10 days to collect the 16,073 additional
signatures needed to reach the minimum
of 100,393 required to go before the
voters. Ohio first banned dove hunting in
1917. The ban was repealed in 1975, was
restored in 1977, and was repealed again in
1995. If Save The Doves gets enough signatures,
the pro-dove hunting front Ohioans
for Wildlife Conservation has indicated that
it will attempt to legally challenge the petition
format. Ohioans for Wildlife
Conservation appears to have been organized
by the Columbus-based Wildlife Legislative
Fund of America, which initially formed in
response to a 1977 attempt to ban leghold
traps in Ohio via referendum, then expanded
into a national organization with support
from the National Rifle Association.

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DOGFIGHTING RAIDS LEAD TO DRUG BUSTS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C.– –
RAS Kennels owner Glenson Rolston Isaac,
29, of Hillsborough, on June 10 became
the first person charged under a 1997 North
Carolina law making dogfighting a felony.
Sheriffs’ deputies and Orange
County animal control officers seized 45 pit
bull terriers from RAS Kennels one day
after Isaac and kennel workers Dwayne
Harrigan, 25, of Durham, and Kelvin A.
Brown, 27, of Miami, were arrested for
possession of an estimated $300,000 worth
of cocaine, found during investigation of a
complaint that the kennel had exceeded the
20-dog zoning limit.

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PET THEFT HITS INDIA

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

“Organized gangs are abducting
pedigreed dogs for breeding and ransom,
spreading terror among the owners
in the southern city of Bangalore,”
S.N.M. Abdi of the Hong Kong-based
South China Morning Post r e c e n t l y
reported from Calcutta––a story which
must have seemed bizarre back in India,
where even dogs of popular breed type
are so abundant at large that anyone who
wants a dog can attract one with just a
piece of bread.
But the Abdi account followed
only a month after The Times of India
described the pampered treatment of the
231 purebreds entered in the 90th annual
Bombay Presidency Kennel Dog Club
show in Mumbai.

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ALL ABOUT MONEY

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1998:

The Internal Revenue Service has
reportedly revoked the nonprofit status of
Adopt-A-Pet, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for
allegedly operating for the “private benefit”
of the direct mailing firm Watson &
Hughey, under a fundraising agreement
signed in 1985, which allowed Watson &
Hughey unlimited use of the mailing list generated
in connection with Adopt-A-Pet promotions,
but did not allow Adopt-A-Pet to
rent or trade names. IRS Form 990 filings
indicate that over the next three fiscal years
Adopt-A-Pet spent 97% of all receipts on further
fundraising. In 1991 Adopt-A-Pet was
among the co-defendants in a series of cases
brought against Watson & Hughey in 22
states for alleged misleading fundraising in
connection with use of sweepstakes appeals.

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