Editorial: Why fur sales soared

April 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

On page 21 of our March 2000 edition ANIMAL PEOPLE reported that U.S. retail fur sales soared 30% in 1999, according to the Fur Information Council, reaching $1.57 billion––the highest mark, by far, since 1988.

As we pointed out, $1.57 billion in 1999 dollars is still 30% less than $1.85 billion was in 1988 dollars. The fur trade remains well short of recovery––but that made no difference to millions of animals who were bred to be killed on fur farms or were trapped this past winter, as furriers gambled that fur is back, and bid raw pelt prices up to their highest level since an erroneous rumor of a comeback sparked a pelt-buying frenzy in 1994-1995.

Five million more homes are waiting by Ruth Smiler

March 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:

In 1997 I closed my antiques shop in Vermont and moved to California to begin a snow-free life. I neither intended nor expected to become an expert on homelessness, either human or quadruped.

When the cottage I had rented in Oakland was sold, I failed to find another apartment for me and my two dogs. The three of us movedback into the camper van in which I had crossed the country, staying with friends for a few days here and there, house-sitting once for four weeks.

Since then I have experienced apartment hunting in Miami, San Diego, and suburban New York. Renting with pets is tough. And it is not just a problem for renters. It is also a growing problem for the humane community.

Brainwashing Taiwan: BIG-GROUP OUTREACH CAN BE MISGUIDED

March 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:

I read with a mix of hope and intense disgust the January/February 2000 ANIMAL PEOPLE feature about overseas animal shelters trying to avoid repeating U.S. and European mistakes.

Especially interesting to me were the remarks of Wu Hung, founder of the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan. Until recently Wu Hung chaired the Life Conservationist Association of Taiwan, a group which in name was active, but by way of activity did little more than publish pamphlets. I have talked with Wu Hung on occasion during my six years in Taiwan, and your article brought home to me the true evil that many of the large, rich organizations of conventional outlook are wreaking on animal rescue overseas.

BOOKS: Humane how-tos

March 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:

Trap, Neuter, & Return: A Humane Approach to Feral Cat Control Video from Alley Cat Allies

(1801 Belmont Road NW, Suite 201, Washington, DC 2009), 1999. 42 minutes. $16.00.

How To Control Beaver Flooding Edited by Sharon T. Brown, M.A., and Joseph W. Brown, Ph.D. Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife (146 Van Dyke Rd., Dolgeville, NY 13329), 1999. 12 pages. $2.00 each, bulk rates available.

Can You Turn A Wolf Into A Dog? Commonly Asked Questions About Having Wolves and Hybrids as Pets by Pat Tucker & Bruce Weide Wild Sentry (POB 172, Hamilton, MT 59840), 2000. 24 pages. $2.00 each, bulk rates available.

Guest column: New approach needed in foreign outreach by Pat Kyriacou

March 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:

It has been interesting to watch ANIMAL PEOPLE expand your international focus, analysing what you find, questioning the status quo, speaking out against the animal welfare establishment when necessary.

I too have been observing some of the large animal welfare organisations as they expand their activities abroad. Here in Cyprus, in the southeast Mediterranean, primarily British organisations have become involved. This is probably because Cyprus is a former British colony. Cyprus hosts millions of British tourists, plus thousands of resident British retirees, who often contact large British organisations when they are concerned about animal abuse.

It is interesting to contrast the approaches taken to animal advocacy in developing countries by ANIMAL PEOPLE and some of these large British organisations.

Editorial: Lassitude on attitude

March 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:

Beginning on page one of this edition, ANIMAL PEOPLE compares Chinese attitudes about animals, as recently surveyed by professional pollsters, to the attitudes of Americans, voiced in similar surveys done in the United States.

Readers with our own penchant for tracking statistics may notice that in order to find surveys which asked Americans essentially the same questions, we had to use data gathered on 27 different occasions by 22 different polling agencies––and though some of the questions were asked just a few months ago, others were most recently asked 17 years ago.

There were some questions we could find no match for. Hired by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Animals Asia Foundation, and the Hong Kong SPCA, the Chinese pollsters asked not only about issues and practices indigenous to China, but also about forms of animal use and abuse which might be imported, to see what might take hold if allowed the opportunity. Bullfighting and circuses were of particular interest, because entrepreneurs have already brought both bullfights and western-style circuses to the Chinese mainland. Incredibly, though we combed more than six feet of files documenting U.S. activism over animal use in entertainment, we found no indication that anyone here has ever really tried to find out what Americans think about animal spectacles in any kind of detail. All the existing data allows us to say with certainty is that Americans mostly approve of well-managed zoos and overwhelmingly disapprove of cockfighting. Where Americans stand on bullfighting, circuses, and rodeo––which combines aspects of both––is presently measured only by television ratings and gate receipts.

Shelter killing: how low can you go?

March 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:

SAN FRANCISCO––”Total dog and cat euthanasias dropped below 3,000 for the first time in San Francisco history,” SF/SPCA president Ed Sayres told ANIMAL PEOPLE on January 20.

The 1999 toll ended at 2,916, Sayres said––2,834 at the city Department of Animal Care and Control, and 82 at the SF/SPCA.

And in San Francisco, “euthanasia” really means what the dictionary says it does: a death administered to relieve pain and suffering. Healthy dogs and cats have not been killed in San Francisco since 1994, when Sayres’ predecessor Richard Avanzino negotiated the Adoption Pact with the SF/DACC, to guarantee a home to every healthy dog or cat whom the SF/DACC cannot rehome or place.

How the rich can get richer––and help the poor

January 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2000:

INDIANOLA, Washington–– Richard Linzer, author of It’s Simple: Money Matters for the Nonprofit Board Member, hadn’t seen the December 1999 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE when he wrote a guest column attacking “unimaginable accumulations of wealth by large nonprofit institutions” while the problems the money was meant to rectify continue.

Linzer was not yet aware that the Animal Rescue League of Boston ended the most recent fiscal year with cash and securities worth $98 million, more than 16 times the ARL program spending; or that Dogs’ Home Battersea, of London, England, had cash and securities worth $67 million, nearly ten times as high as the Dogs’ Home program budget; or that the relatively small Holiday Humane Society in southern California has cash and securities worth $14 million, amounting to $42 in reserve for every dollar it spends.

But Linzer, who advises philanthropists in “Microsoft country” near Seattle, did know about similar situations in other branches of charity.

Editorial: Pepsi Gets the Point

January 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2000:

The statement Pepsi-Cola gave to Garo Alexanian of the Companion Animal Network in late November 1999 was terse, to the point, and just what Steve Hindi of SHARK had demanded from Pepsi since June 1998:

“Pepsi-Cola Company does not sponsor or support bullfighting, nor do we endorse any kind of animal cruelty. Our Mexico City office has told us that Pepsi advertising is in the process of being removed from arenas in Mexico. And in the next few weeks, we will be sending officials from Pepsi headquarters to verify their progress.”

Hindi and SHARK are already verifying Pepsi progress. They verified first that Pepsi signs were removed from the Puebla bull ring, where Hindi took much of his graphic undercover video footage of bulls being tortured in front of Pepsi logos. Vendors in Pepsi aprons are still prominent, selling drinks of all sorts in Pepsi cups, but the signs––visible in every televised bullfight––have disappeared.

« 1 … 25 26 27 28 29 … 48 »