LETTERS

July 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2000:

Golf: facing nature with a club

Since I started golfing
about a year ago, I have often wondered
why no one has ever done
anything about preventing injuries to
animals from balls. Some are killed;
lots are maimed. I move ducks and
geese into ponds away from golfers
when I am playing––and I let the
course management know I will take
the injured ones. Some golfers brag
about injuring birds and doing nothing
or killing them—this is something
that should be exploded! And
we don’t know how many foul balls
end up clunking a bunny or squirrel
over the head. Balls are bullets flying
at over 200 miles per hour. It is
very sad to see beautiful animals
walking with a dangling broken leg.

Letters

Editorial: No-kills have no cause to smirk

July 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2000:

“Too many animal control departments and humane societies which still hold animal
control contracts have a vested interest in doing what they have always done,” ANIMAL PEOPLE editorialized in May 2000. “Going a different and more successful way would
mean accepting some of the blame for causing barrels to fill, day after day, with furry bodies.
Complain though many animal control and humane society people might about the stress of
killing, they still find killing animals easier than doing what is necessary to stop it.”
But proponents of no-kill sheltering had no cause to smirk. Unfortunately, even as
too many conventional sheltering organizations resist change, too many no-kill advocates conduct
themselves and their own operations as cases of arrested development––and in some
instances deserve arrest on criminal charges for warehousing animals in filthy, noisy, overcrowded
kennels, where they enjoy neither a good life nor any prospect of adoption.
Those people may be a minority of the no-kill community, but they are a conspicuous,
ubiquitous, and problematic minority, collectively constituting the strongest case that
opponents of no-kill sheltering such as PETA and the Humane Society of the U.S. can make.

Endangered great apes seek life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

July 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2000:

KAMPALA, Uganda; LISLE ,
Illinois––Can another group seeking to save
wild African primates make a difference?
Already, more nonprofit would-be
saviours are trying to save nonhuman primates
than there are members of some rare
species jeopardized by logging and the bushmeat
trade.
Sketchy Panafrican News Agency
reports about the June 22 debut of Friends of
the Mountain Gorilla Society at the International
Conference Centre in Kampala,
Uganda, hint that it may be among a small
but growing number of African conservation
groups founded and run by Africans of
African descent. At deadline no other information
was available.

Inspectors are killed––cattle are not

July 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2000:

WALLULA, Wash.; WILMINGTON,
N.C.; LONDON, U.K.; SAN LEANDRO,
Calif.––Undercover video obtained by
the Humane Farming Association of shackled
and hoisted cattle having their legs hacked off
and being skinned alive at the Iowa Beef
Processors [IBP] slaughterhouse in Wallula,
Washington, showed KING-TV/Seattle and
KRON-TV/San Francisco viewers on May 24
that high-speed production methods may have
made the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958 more
an unenforced suggestion than a rule.
USDA inspector Gary Dahl and
retired USDA inspector Joe Doyle confirmed
on KING-TV camera that the video showed
exactly what it seemed to show.

Fighting animal control canon in the wild west

July 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2000:

KANAB, Utah; ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico
––A statewide animal care-and-control coalition headed by the
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary of Kanab, Utah, on June 22,
2000 received $1.3 million from Maddie’s Fund, as first
installment of $8 million to be paid over the next five years in
grant assistance toward making Utah the first U.S. state to practice
statewide no-kill animal control.
The Utah coalition qualified for Maddie’s Fund help,
Maddie’s Fund executive director Richard Avanzino told ANIMAL
PEOPLE, by enlisting the participation of 54 animal
control agencies, 18 no-kill organizations, two traditional shelters,
52 private-practice veterinarians, and 70 veterinarians
who were already participating in neutering voucher programs
administered by 14 different organizations.

NIH “reclaims” 288 chimpanzees from Coulston Foundation

June 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

ALAMOGORDO, N.M.––Bailing the Coulston Foundation out of yet another jam––although Coulston spokesperson Don McKinney denied that the foundation was actually in a jam––the National Institutes of Health on May 11 reclaimed title to 288 of the 650 chimpanzees at the Coulston primate care facility on the grounds of Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

As recently as March 20, In Defense of Animals recommended such a takeover, claiming in a press release that “Coulston is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, with at least $800,000 in unpaid bills and $2.6 million in outstanding loans.”

But IDA president Elliot Katz was not happy with the deal. “Because it does not call for retirement, does not prevent more research, and does not guarantee the removal of the chimps from Coulston’s control, the NIH plan is a shocking betrayal,” charged Katz, whose staff has closely monitored Coulston dealings for years.

Wildlife Waystation copes with red tape, green water––other no-kills struggle too

June 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

LOS ANGELES––Six weeks after the California Department of Fish and Game on April 7 ordered Wildlife Waystation to cease admitting visitors and taking in animals for either rehabilitation or lifetime care, the Waystation remained closed.

Founder Martine Colette told ANIMAL PEOPLE on May 21, however, that she was optimistic that alleged water handling problems were almost resolved and that a hail of other allegations amplified by seemingly everyone she ever had words with was close to blowing over––like all the other storms she has weathered while building the largest and perhaps oldest no-kill sanctuary for exotic wildlife in North America.

Bad publicity issued chiefly by L o s Angeles Times reporter Zantos Peabody and local internet activist Michael Bell had done the Waystation significant economic harm, but Colette was more concerned with the practical aspects of caring for more than 1,200 animals in the southern California spring heat while her water supply was limited.

Unusual gifts

June 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

Daniel Hollihan, 10, of Coos Bay, Oregon, collected 150 pounds of cat litter, 30 pounds of pet food, two bags of animal toys, food dishes, and a scratching post for the Coos County Animal Shelter by requesting items for the shelter instead of birthday gifts. Hollihan said he had thought about the idea since he was five, when he was saddened by the conditions he saw while adopting a dog.

The Tri-County Humane Society in St. Cloud, Minnesota, has received $1 million from the estate of local banker I r e n e Wilson, who died in 1998, five days after her 98th birthday and five months after adopting a five-year-old female tabby cat from the TCHS shelter. The cat now lives with one of Wilson’s former nurses. The adoption and a few small donations were her only known involvement with TCHS. Interest from the bequest is expected to increase the TCHS annual budget by about 25%.

The Toledo Animal Shelter Associa t i o n has received a $1.3 million trust fund plus $30,000 cash from the estate of former University of Toledo English professor Alice Huebner, who died in May 1999. Newly elected TASA president Barney Stickles told Toledo Blade staff writer Betsy Hiel that the bequest would enable the shelter to go no-kill.

Mountain Peoples Warehouse n a tural food distributors Judi and Michael Funk, of Nevada City, California, recently bought eight acres for the Golden Empire Humane Society as site for a no-kill shelter

Activists & Organizations

Felony cruelty bills & animals in transit

June 1, 2000 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina all added language to their anti-cruelty statutes during their spring 2000 legislative sessions which will permit felony prosecution. This brings to 30 the number of states that recognize a felonious level of cruelty. The Alabama law includes exemptions for hunters who control their dogs with shock-collars and property owners who use a BB gun to shoot cats or dogs in the act of urinating or defecating on their land. The Georgia law exempts fishing and pest control. The Iowa law exempts farm animals. As ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, felony anti-cruelty bills had also cleared the Pennsylvania house of representatives and the District of Columbia judiciary committee, putting each bill halfway to passage.

U.S. President Bill Clinton on May 5 signed into law a Federal Aviation Administr a t i o n reauthorization bill including provisions that require the Department of Transportation to supervise improved employee training about animal handling, require airlines to tell passengers about how animals will be carried, and also require airlines to file monthly reports with DOT, stipulating how many animals have been lost, injured, or killed while in their custody. The provisions came from the “Safe Air Travel for Animals Act” authored by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and promoted through ads in ANIMAL PEOPLE by the San Francisco SPCA Law and Advocacy Department.

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