ANIMAL CONTROL & SHELTERING

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

Animal control shelters and humane societies with animal control c o n t r a c t s across the U.S. flew into panic with the April/May onset of “kitten season” because Ganes Chemical Works o f Pennsfield, New Jersey, ran out of sodium pentobarbital, the standard injection euthanasia drug, while retooling facilities to comply with tightened Food and Drug Administration product control standards.

The Humane Society of the U . S., however, lobbied the FDA into allowing Ganes, the sole U.S. sodium pentobarbital supplier, to mix up a batch to meet the seasonal demand.

Brenda Barnette, executive director of the Pets In Need adoption shelter in Redwood City, California, was not impressed. “Instead of focusing on a restricted ability to kill,” she urged in an open letter, “let us focus on all the private shelters and rescue groups who are doing everything they can––including paying the tax-funded shelters for animals––to save the lives of dogs and cats. Lethal injections are used to kill thousands of animals who are suitable for rehoming,” Barnett charged.

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CVMA, Maddie’s Fund fix ferals

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

ALAMEDA, Calif.––The 830 veterinarians participating in the California Veterinary Medical Association Feral Cat Altering Program reached their first-year goal of 20,000 feral cats fixed beyond previous levels three months early ––so Maddie’s Fund, sponsoring the projected three-year program with $3.2 million, announced that it will commit further funding to sustain the momentum.

Maddie’s Fund originally hoped the CVMA vets would fix 60,000 feral cats beyond previous levels, executive director Richard Avanzino told ANIMAL PEOPLE. The new three-year-goal is to fix 100,000.

The CVMA program fixes feral cats without charge to participating cat rescuers. Maddie’s Fund pays the vets $50 per cat fixed.

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Merry old England

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

The Royal SPCA in April honored Josie Russell, 12, sole survivor of a hammer assault several years ago that killed her mother and sister, for keeping a five-day vigil over three sheep who were trapped on a ledge at a slate quarry last October near her home in Caernarfon, North Wales. Russell and her friend H a z e l M c W h i r t e r spotted the sheep, and her father Shaun Russell was eventually persuaded to call the RSPCA. Rescuing the sheep from the 100- foot-high ledge in slings took about five hours.

The pro-foxhunting Countryside A l l i a n c e embarrassed the Royal SPCA in early May by hiring away former RSPCA London branch development officer Angela Egan––who reportedly brought with her memos purportedly from senior RSPCA executives, ordering her to delay processing membership applications from people who also belong to the Countryside Alliance and/or Countryside Welfare for Animals Group. The Royal SPCA has been fighting attempted hostile takeovers led by foxhunters for about four years.

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FIGHTING U-BOAT FOR ENDANGERED SEA TURTLES LANDS VISAKHA SPCA FOUNDER IN HOT WATER

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

VISAKHAPATNAM, India– – A brave commander and two soldiers defending women and children huddled on a beach against invasion by submarine is the stuff of action movies.

But soft-spoken Visakha SPCA founder Pradeep Kumar Nath, of Visakhapatnam, India, is trying to defend endangered olive ridley sea turtle females and their hatchlings from the navy of his own nation. His weapon of last resort, after all efforts at gentle persuasion failed, was to seek a High Court writ protecting the Visakhapatnam beach against Indian Navy incursion.

Now Nath himself and two Visakha SPCA employees are formally charged with criminally handling wildlife, falsifying evidence, and attempted extortion.

Rumors accuse them of worse.

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Two-strokes are out in parks

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

WASHINGTON D.C.– – Recognizing that the most invasive of all species are humans on vehicles with noisy exhaust-spewing two-stroke engines, the National Park Service on April 28, 2000 banned recreational use of snowmobiles at 29 National Parks, National Monuments, and National Recreation Areas.

The ban will be implemented by enforcing existing prohibitions on off-road vehicle use, adopted in 1972, and other disruptive vehicular activity, adopted in 1977.

Exempted from the Park Service edict are only Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota and 11 sites in Alaska, including Denali National Park, where specific legislation permits snowmobiling.

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Opposition builds to dog-and-cat eating

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

WELLINGTON, BERN, BANGKOK, TEL AVIV, BEIJING, SEOUL– – Calling Korean dog meat eaters “sadists” and “ghouls” because of the beatings and burnings to which they are subjected to increase the levels of adrenaline in their flesh, New Zealand First political party leader Winston Peters suggested on May 14 that dog exports to Korea and other nations where dogs are eaten should be banned.

Present animal export regulations, Peters warned, “do not totally guarantee the safety of the animal and its ultimate fate.”

Peters cited reports from Switzerland and elsewhere that dog breeders in Korea and China are seeking St. Bernards as breeding stock for meat production. The Swiss office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare on March 31 led a demonstration in Bern, the capitol of Switzerland, demanding a ban on dog exports to China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea, and the Philippines.

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ANIMAL SPECTACLES

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

 

Reporter Tom Lyden, 34, of KMSP-TV, Channel 9, in Minneapolis, was on May 15 charged with theft, unauthorized borrowing, and tampering with a motor vehicle, all misdemeanors, for taking a videotape of dogfighting from a car which was parked outside the home of junior flyweight boxer William Grigsby during an April 27 police raid. The car turned out later be Grigsby’s. Police and humane officers seized 13 pit bull terriers and other evidence that Grigsby may have been involved in dogfighting, but missed the video, which according to those who have seen it appears to depict Grigsby at a dogfight. Lyden called taking the video “aggressive reporting.” The Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists called it a major breech of reporting ethics.

Municipal court judge Thomas F.X. Foley of Freehold Township, New Jersey, in early April dismissed due to lack of evidence a case brought by M o n m o u t h County SPCA chief cruelty investigator Stuart Goldman against the Clyde BeattyCole Brothers Circus, of Deland, Florida, for allegedly overworking an elephant named Helen during a series of performances in August 1999. Goldman previously tried to prosecute the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus in 1996 for allegedly violating an ordinance by exhibiting elephants in a parking lot.

An attempted prosecution of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus for allegedly abusing seven elephants before an appearance in San Jose, California, on August 23, 1999 also failed due to lack of evidence, San Jose Mercury News r e p o r t e r Linda Goldson disclosed on May 9. Santa Clara County deputy district attorney R o b i n W a k s h u l l told Goldston that although the Humane Society of the Santa Clara Valley could establish that some of the elephants were injured, it was never able to identify exactly who injured them. Since criminal offenses must be charged to a particular person, no case could be brought.

U.S. District Court Judge Earl Britt of Wilmington, North Carolina on May 8 dismissed a claim by Oregon Trail Films coproducers Eric Epperson and Alan James that veteran movie animal handler A l i c i a Rudd misrepresented her ability to direct a trained mule named El Berta. Epperson and James held that delays caused by El Berta balking cost eight hours and $111,111––about a fourth of their total cost overrun in making the soon-to-be-released film, called Morgan’s C r e e k. Rudd told the judge that James had tried to overwork El Berta. Britt reportedly ruled that to be stubborn is a mule’s time-hon

U.S. Supreme Court raps ranchers & other big farm cases

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

Ruling 9-0 against the wise-use orie n t e d Public Lands Council, t h e A m e r i c a n Farm Bureau Federation, t h e A m e r i c a n Sheep Industry Association, the Association of National Grasslands, and the N a t i o n a l Cattlemen’s Beef Association, t h e U . S . Supreme Court on May 15 upheld the authority of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt under the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act to impose grazing reform rules governing the use of 170 million acres of leased federal property in 13 states. The Supreme Court ruling finalizes changes Babbitt ordered in 1995 which ended quasi-automatic grazing permit renewal for approximately 20,000 tenured leaseholders; allowed non-ranchers to bid on grazing permits, including for the purpose of holding land as wildlife habitat; and stipulated that fences, wells, and other improvements made on federal land by leaseholders become property of the federal government. A further effect of the ruling is that banks may no longer feel confident in making business loans to ranchers, accepting their grazing leases as collateral in lieu of owned real estate. The net outcome is expected to be more wildlife and fewer cattle and sheep on western rangeland.

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PEOPLE & DEEDS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:

The Sea Shepherd Conservation S o c i e t y has added longtime S t u d e n t Conservation Association e x e c u t i v e Valerie J. Shand as chief operating officer, and former National Science Foundation Antarctic expeditions technician M i k e Gallagher as facilities director.

David Brower, 87, a member of the Sierra Club since 1933, resigned from the board for at least the third time in May, over frustration with moderate policies. Brower was first executive director of the Sierra Club, but was fired in 1969 after conflicting with the board, and went on to found Friends of the Earth, the League of Conservation Voters, and Earth Island Institute, typically moving on after similar board conflicts. He was elected to the Sierra Club board in 1983, 1986, 1995, and 1998, but has rarely completed a term of office.

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