Canadian sealers on thin ice

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland––An outspoken proponent of killing as many seals as possible in hopes of bringing the overfished cod back, Newfoundland fisheries minister John Effords at a February 7 media conference made no secret of his belief that seal hunt news coverage should be strictly censored.

“If I had my way, photographers wouldn’t be taking pictures of the seal hunt,” Effords told reporters. “There should be no pictures taken of any hunt.”

Agreed Canadian Sealers Association executive director Tina Fagan, “The time has come to stop issung permits” to photographers to be on the ice. Fagan called for a two-year moratorium on publication of visual images of the Canadian seal hunt.

Editorial: Self-defeat in Los Angeles

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

On March 22, 2000, the Los Angeles City Council at urging of the Coalition to End Pet Overpopulation adopted what In Defense of Animals spokesperson Bill Dyer called “the nation’s strongest spay/neuter ordinance.” It boosts the licensing fee for unaltered animals from $30 to $100. Owners of unlicensed, unaltered dogs found at large––if identified––will get two warnings to license over a 60-day span, before being fined up to $500.

Los Angeles Animal Services Department manager Dan Knapp and local activists celebrated victory. They should have mourned a self-inflicted defeat, not least because the new ordinance killed any chance a local coalition might have had at funding a five-year drive toward no-kill animal control with help from the $200 million Maddie’s Fund.

As Maddie’s Fund executive director Richard Avanzino reminded, on the eve of the L.A. vote, “Maddie’s Fund does not pay for government programs, including state and local animal care and control mandates.”

Starving the hens is “standard”

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

SEATTLE––Rescuing more than 1,000 starving hens from Amberson’s Egg Farm near Lake Stevens, Washington, during the last two days in March, Pasado’s Safe Haven sanctuary cofounders Susan Michaels and Mark Steinway hope farmer Keith Amberson won’t walk this time.

Just 13 months earlier, in February 1999, Michaels and Steinway rescued 250 starving hens from the same facility, where Amberson reportedly was later to gas 20,000 hens with carbon monoxide in order to get manure discharges below legal limits.

Amberson had just been fined $21,000 by the Washington State Department of ecology, and was under orders from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to stop polluting tributaries to Lake Stevens within 10 days.

“But prosecutors refused to bring animal cruelty charges against Amberson,” the Pasado’s Safe Haven web site recounted, “when he claimed that the dead and dying hens” rescued by Michaels and volunteers on that occasion “were a result of forced molting, a standard egg production practice in which chickens are starved for up to 21 days to force them to begin laying eggs again.”

Bush, Gore, and muzzling

May 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2000:

AUSTIN, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON D.C.––Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush is an unabashed friend of wise-use wiseguys, an avid hunter, and was Safari Club International’s 1999 “governor of the year.”

Vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Albert Gore aided and abetted the 1993 resumption of Norwegian commercial whaling, the May 1999 resumption of Makah whaling after a 72-year hiatus, and the October 1999 resumption of international elephant ivory sales after a 10-year suspension––and is reputedly chief architect of the Invasive Species Council, the cabinet committee named in February 1999 by President Bill Clinton to pursue the extermination of non-native wildlife.

But Bush and Gore have distinctly different levels of tolerance for criticism.

Hunters kill predators, squelch voters’ rights

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

“I read in our local newspaper about the shocking and barbaric third annual Midwestern Coyote Calling Championship, held in January in St. Francis, Kansas,” wrote Nancy Lee, of Boulder, Colorado.

“As I know how committed you are to the welfare of animals, I’m hoping you’ll want to publicize this atrocity,” Lee continued. “If we let the powers that be in St. Francis know that decent citizens won’t put up with this kind of slaughter, maybe they’ll reconsider holding it next year.”

Added Louise Wilson Davis, in the letter to the Boulder Daily Camera that alerted Lee, “Perhaps St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, would like the name of this town to be changed.”

Seeking the quick fix––cheap

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

Honolulu––Proponents of a Hawaii Department of Health Vector Control Division plan to ban feeding feral cats claimed at January public hearings that neuter/return practitioners who rely on feeding to lure cats into cage traps couldn’t possibly raise funds enough to fix all the half million cats whom state wildlife biologist Fern Duvall estimates are at large on Maui alone.

Veterinarian Sabina M. Wenner, founder and president of the Animal CARE Foundation (Hawaii), fixed that objection on February 23. Calling a press conference at Kakaako Beach State Park, where the ongoing dispute between kill-the-cats and fix-thecats factions has been most intense, Wenner announced receipt of a $10 million grant from an anonymous out-of-state donor.

“Wenner said it has not yet been decided how much money will be allocated to other Animal CARE Foundation (Hawaii) programs,” reported Pat Gee of the Honolulu S t a r – B u l l e t i n, “but said the focus will be to prevent cat deaths, by trapping them, neutering them, and returning them to an appropriate environment. Some of the funds would be used to set up facilities” to do neutering, and to provide care for cats who cannot be returned to the sites where they were caught.

Legislators define “cruelty”

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

CHRISTCHURCH, TOKYO, OTTAWA; State Capitols, U.S.– – New Zealand, since January 1, 2000, has had reputedly the broadest-ranging and most up-to-date anti-cruelty act in the world, replacing an act dating to 1960.

Japan on December 14, 1999 updated its 1973 anti-cruelty act, enabling judges to imprison as well as fine animal abusers.

As spring legislative sessions rushed to a close, improved anti-cruelty bills appeared likely to pass in Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, and Wyoming. Bills before the Canadian Parliament and the legislatures of Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia seemed to have less chance.

The ANIMAL UNDERWORLD allegations

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

AZA Zoo Alleged questionable dealings (Italics mean Alan Green alleged a deal without citing the year [and often, without stating how many animals were involved]; boldface means Green cited the year and number of animals; zoos identified in capital letters were involved in deals Green cites as dubious which appear to have been exposed earlier by others. If a zoo is identified in capital letters but not boldface, we were able to confirm transactions that Green mentioned without citing the date.)

Abilene Zoo: Allegedly sold animals to Jim Fouts post-1990.

AKRON ZOO: Allegedly “heaped primates” on Zoological Animal Exchange. (Admits selling 2 animals in 1992.)

Baltimore Zoo: Allegedly sold Thompson’s gazelle, rhino to Red McCombs.

Bergen County Zoo: Allegedly sold elk via Woods & Waters auction in 1995.

BOOKS: Animal Underworld

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

ANIMAL UNDERWORLD:
Inside America’s Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species
by Alan Green and the Center for Public Integrity
Public Affairs (250 West 57th St., Suite 1321, New York, NY 10117), 1999. 320 pages, hardcover. $25.00.

I have been waiting since November 29, 1999, for the American Zoo Association to respond to my repeated inquiries as to just what it intends to do to discourage member institutions from exporting animals to wildlife parks in China which feed live animals to carnivores. The AZA non-response was among our January/February 2000 feature topics.

I have been annoying the AZA for more than 20 years with exposes of animal transactions contradicting the intent of the AZA Code of Ethics that zoo animals should not be dispatched to abusive situations, either directly or indirectly; should not be bred other than to sustain zoo populations without wild capture; and should not, under normal circumstances, ever leave the AZA-accredited loop.

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