WAR IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN: Saving Children and Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– The
press dispatches should have warned the
world. “Rivers and water holes have
dried up for the first time anyone can
remember, starving and burning to death
some 400 hippos,” Associated Press cor-
respondent Angus Shaw wrote from
Zimbabwe in mid-July. “Dead birds have
dropped out of shriveled trees, tortoises,
snakes, rodents, and insects have disap-
peared, and predators are killing more
weakened animals than they can eat… As
southern Africa suffers its worst drought
ever, thousands of animals have died and
officials are continuing to shoot many
more to feed the increasingly desperate
human population. The meat from the
culled animals has been targeted for chil-
dren showing signs of malnutrition.”

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Guest Column: Violence and hatred won’t stop the pigeon shoot by Marjorie Spiegel

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

The string is pulled. The lid of the box opens,
and a bird flutters a few feet up into the air and is imme-
diately shot once, twice. If it is a clean shot, the bird
lies motionless. The crowd cheers. “That one’s dust,”
says a spectator. If the shooter is less accurate, we see
one wing, perhaps, twitching in the air, or a bird strug-
gling on the field. Boys in yellow shirts run to the birds,
throw a body in the bag, twist a neck, then into the same
bag. Sometimes a commotion: someone has made it
onto the field. She is pursued, yet reaches the string
lines or the boxes. The lids open, and eight or so pigeons
fly off to freedom, the most beautiful sight on a day
filled with much to be sorry for.
That is the essence of the Labor Day pigeon
shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania: some people wish to use
these pigeons for target practice, and others wish to see
this ended and to let the pigeons go free.

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Editorials: For leadership, look in the mirror

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

ANIMAL PEOPLE subscribers have been quick to endorse our belief that
the most meaningful form of helping animals is tangibly helping animals. We’ve
promised to focus upon individual and community initiatives, together with hands-on
care—the things each of us can do by ourselves or in small groups to collectively make
an immense difference. After over two decades of animal and habitat protection work
at all levels and in most regions of North America, we have come to the inescapable
conclusion that most of the progress on most issues has come about not because of
national campaigns, but rather through one-on-one persuasion, often in the virtual
absence of national campaigns. The number of homeless dogs and cats euthanized in
pounds and shelters is down from over 20 million per year a decade ago to under eight
million now as result of the unending efforts and experiments of local humane societies.

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