Chocolate bunnies menace Down Under biosecurity

May 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1999:

WELLINGTON, CANBERRA––Announcing on
April 1 that he had distributed at eight sites 50 rabbits who were
genetically modified to resist rabbit calicivirus disease (RCD),
Auckland entrepreneur Graham Milne made four-day suckers
of New Zealand officials and media.
The intent of the releases, Milne said, was “to
obtain field data on the transfer and spread of RCD immunity in
the feral population.”
In other words, Milne might have insured recovery
of the animal RCD was to eliminate.
Milne had actually just distributed chocolate Easter
bunnies. But no one figured that out until April 5––even as he
shared chocolate bunnies with reporters, bearing labels
explaining that they were RCD-proof.

ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

April 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1999:

“While it is argued by the Estate
that Howard Brand intended to prevent
future cruelty to his horses by ordering their
death,” Vermont probate judge S u s a n
Fowler ruled on March 16, “it would seem
to this court that a death sentence imposed
upon healthy, if aging, animals might be
considered cruel in its own right.” Fowler
thus overturned Brand’s will, allowing the
two horses to go to sanctuary. Brand, of
Essex Junction, Vermont, died on January 2
at age 88, soon after amending his will to
provide that the horses should be killed.
Fowler’s reasoning followed that of the
California state legislature when in 1979, at
request of the San Francisco SPCA, it overturned
a will which required the death of a
dog named Sido. The SF/SPCA placed Sido
in a new home, where he lived five more
years. Richard Avanzino, then president of
the SF/SPCA and now heading Maddie’s
Fund (see pages 12-13), credits response to
the Sido case with awakening his awareness
that the public would far more generously
support efforts to save animals’ lives than it
supports traditional animal control service.

Editorial: Building shelters won’t build a no-kill nation

April 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1999:

On pages 12 and 13 of this edition, the Duffield Family Foundation, now doing
business as Maddie’s Fund, answers the question weighing most heavily on the minds of
ANIMAL PEOPLE readers since October 1998, when we announced that PeopleSoft
founders Dave and Cheryl Duffield had committed the entire $200 million assets of their
foundation to making the U.S. a no-kill nation, and had hired Richard Avanzino to direct the
effort, beginning at his retirement after 24 years as president of the San Francisco SPCA.
The $200 million question, bluntly put, is “How do we get on the gravy train?”
The answer, summarized, is “Build a railroad.”
As the ad explains, Maddie’s Fund wants to see animal care and control organizations
for harmonious partnerships, to reach the no-kill destination on a specified timetable.
Get there early and you might get a bonus––but crash like Casey Jones, cannonballing along
in disregard of others stalled on the tracks, and you won’t even get a ticket to ride.

Clinton declares war on ferals

March 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

WASHINGTON D.C.—Declaring
war on species not native to the U.S., President
Bill Clinton on February 2 issued an executive
order creating an interagency Invasive Species
Council which within 18 months is to produce a
plan to “mobilize the federal government to
defend against” what Clinton called “aggressive
predators and pests.”
The ISC will be jointly chaired by
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Commerce
Secretary William Daley, and Agriculture
Secretary Dan Glickman. USDA Wildlife
Services, just eight months after the House of
Representatives briefly voted to rescind more
than a third of its funding, would appear to be
the chief beneficiary of $29 million for invasive
species eradication that Clinton included in his
proposed fiscal year 2000 budget, sent to
Congress in late January.

BOOKS: Save Our Strays

March 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

Save Our Strays
How We Can End Pet
Overpopulation And Stop Killing
Healthy Cats & Dogs
by Bob Christiansen
Canine Learning Center Publishing
(POB 10515, Napa, CA 94581), 1998.
$15.00 includes postage.

Since 1989 “The Book” in the animal
care-and-control field has been the
National Animal Control Association Training
Guide. Now there is another: Save Our
Strays, by Bob Christiansen. You need
both––and they don’t overlap.

ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

March 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

According to the January 1999
edition of Veterinary Economics, “ D r .
Richard Fayrer-Hosken, an associate professor
at the University of Georgia College
of Veterinary Medicine, has developed
Spay-Safe, an injectible contraceptive made
from a natural protein found in pig ovaries.
Three shots permanently sterilize a dog without
any known side effects. Spay-Safe is
undergoing FDA evaluation, and the university
has licensed a company to market it pending
approval. Now Dr. Fayrer-Hosken is
developing a dosage for cats.” Fayrer-Hosken
did not answer inquiries from ANIMAL
PEOPLE , however, and other information
reaching us indicates that the University of
Georgia may be involved in litigation with the
Humane Society of the U.S., which apparently
funded some of the research, over ownership
of the marketing rights.

Joint effort aims for no-kill in Albuquerque

March 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

ALBUQUERQUE––They didn’t
quite offer a Spay Day USA deal to match
Dallas, where PetFixx and The Fund for
Animals paid high school students age 18 and
older $5.00 on February 11 for each dog or cat
they brought in to be altered, or New York,
where The Fund clinic offered a “Neuter
Benny for a Penny” promotion to senior citizens,
welfare recipients, people with disabilities,
and animal rescuers––but the third annual
“Neuter Scooter for a Nickel” day organized
by the People’s Anti-Cruelty Association/
Albuquerque Animal Rescue did unite
Albuquerque Animal Services, New Mexico
Animal Friends, and the Animal Humane
Association in a pilot effort to “help this city
get started on the road to becoming no-kill,”
said PACA/AAR president Jane Long.

ANIMAL CONTROL, RESCUE, AND SHELTERING

January 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1999:

Ten animal care organizations in
Contra Costa County, California, led by
Tony LaRussa’s Animal Foundation, have
formed the Contra Costa Animal Welfare
Coalition, a pilot regional alliance to reduce
shelter killing, formed as recommended by
former San Francisco SPCA president
Richard Avanzino as a step toward obtaining
grants from the $200 million Duffield Family
Foundation. Avanzino on January 1 assumed
administration of the foundation, set up by
software magnates Dave and Cheryl Duffield
to help other locales emulate San Francisco’s
success as the first U.S. no-kill city. Contra
Costa County, across San Francisco Bay, has
almost the same human population as San
Francisco, but shelters in the county kill 16.3
animals per 1,000 human residents, just under
the state norm of 18.0 (also the current U.S.
norm), and nearly triple the San Francisco rate
of 5.8. Avanzino told ANIMAL PEOPLE on
January 5 that he is not yet ready to start
receiving inquiries from organizations wishing
to apply for grants, but said he would release
Duffield contact information in time for our
March 1999 edition. Tony LaRussa was
Avanzino’s choice to figurehead the first
model alliance, Avanzino told A N I M A L
PEOPLE earlier, because as one of the winningest
managers in baseball history he symbolizes
teamwork and innovation––and
LaRussa and his wife Elaine have been working
with distinction to help animals since circa
1972, when LaRussa was still an active player.

Dogs, chickens, monkeys, and China

January 1, 1999 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1999:

FUZHOU, China––“An old
Chinese saying, ‘Killing the chicken to scare
the monkey,” may explain the crackdown”
on dissent now underway in China, Melinda
Liu and Russell Watson offered in the
January 11 edition of Newsweek.
“This year brings some anniversaries
that may stir unrest,” they added, citing
the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen
Square massacre, the 40th anniversary of an
unsuccessful Tibetan revolt against Communist
rule, and the 50th anniversary of the
Communist takeover of China itself.
“Killing the chicken to scare the
monkey” may also explain the dog purges
threatened in December in Fuzhou City,
Fujian province, and actually carried out in
Wuhu, Anhui province.

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