LETTERS [Dec 1997]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1997:

Servicing coyotes
The Wildlife Services division of the
USDA, formerly Animal Damage Control,
recently published findings from a study using
lithium chloride balls as an aversive conditioner
for coyotes.
Lithium chloride is an emetic. It
causes the coyotes severe vomiting. It has
been used in Saskatchewan and Manitoba for
over 30 years with excellent results. It does
not kill coyotes––just trains them to avoid certain
food sources. In Canada, ranchers inject
45% lithium chloride into dead sheep, placing
them in areas that coyotes frequent. Coyotes
learn to associate sheep with violent illness,
and therefore avoid sheep.

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Editorial: Know where your gifts go

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1997:

The Philanthropy 400, an annual ranking by income of the biggest U.S. charities,
published by The Chronicle of Philanthrophy, is the nonprofit equivalent of the Fortune
500 index of for-profit corporations. The organizations appearing on either list are those
most likely to be respected as movers and shakers by the rest. Fortune 500 firms are both
most often solicited for donations, and most frequently hit by boycott, especially boycotts
called by relatively small activist groups whose leaders hope that choosing a high-profile
target will enhance their own prestige, as well as that of their cause.
Conversely, Philanthropy 400 charities are most likely to receive corporate
largess when for-profit companies seek to promote themselves––and avert or undercut boycotts––through association with prominent philanthropic projects.
Thus the rich get richer, and overworked underbudgeted grassroots groups struggle
just to survive, even as they build the moral impetus, provide the volunteers, and do
most of the outreach that expands donor support.

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Biotech head-trips

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1997:

LONDON––British journals and
news media in late October and early
November 1997 disclosed either the promises
of eternal life and meat without suffering,
or the separation of soul from body by latterday
Dr. Frankensteins––or maybe all three at
once, some commentators ventured.
But as Halloween came and went,
announcements of successful headless
cloning experiments and behavior-changing
brain tissue transplants generated surprisingly
little of the excitement that accompanied the
February 23 announcement of the first successful
cloning of a mammal from adult cells,
a ewe named Dolly, born at the Roslin
Institute in Scotland.

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Sea Shepherds announce Norwegian whaler sinkings

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1997:

OSLO, Norway––The International
Whaling Commission on October 23 gave the
Makah tribe of Washington state the okay to
kill gray whales––or at any rate the Makah and
U.S. government claim it did. Seal penis prices
in Asia, boosted by Norwegian and Canadian
governmental marketing, are reportedly at
record highs. Steinar Bastesen, the most notorious
whaler and sealer of all, in October won a
seat in the Norwegian parliament.
Marine mammal defenders took grim
comfort and inspiration, however, from the
apparent sabotage sinking of one of Bastesen’s
ships, the 45-foot Morild. The Morild sank at
dockside on November 11 in Bronnoysund,
430 miles north of Oslo, just 12 days after
intruders purportedly dressed in Halloween
pirate costumes scuttled another Norwegian
whaling vessel, the Elin Toril, at Mortsun in
the Lofoten Islands, six months after a third
Norwegian whaling vessel, the Senet, was
allegedly firebombed while in drydock.

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Great apes practice peace under fire

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1997:

YAOUNDE, Cameroon––Seizing an infant
gorilla, hunter Ntsama Ondo returned home to Olamze village
triumphant in mid-October, certain he’d make his fortune
just as soon as he could sell her to international traffickers––apparently
regular visitors to Olamze, situated near the
border of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
Her troop had another idea, the October 22 edition
of the Cameroonian newspaper L’Action reported .
Apparently following his trail, an estimated 60 gorillas
marched into Olamze single file just before midnight, ignoring
gunfire meant to scare them away as they paraded in
silent protest.
When that didn’t get the infant back, the gorillas
returned the next night. This time they battered the doors
and windows of the houses until the Olamze village chief
ordered Ondo to release the infant.
“Immediately the assailants returned to the forest
with shouts of joy, savouring their victory,” L’Action said.

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BOOKS: To Eat Flesh They Are Willing: Are Their Spirits Weak?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

To Eat Flesh They Are Willing: Are Their Spirits Weak?
Vegetarians Who Return to Meat
by Kristin Aronson, Ph.D.
Pythagorean Publishers (159 Easton Parkway, #2-H, Brooklyn, NY 11238), 1996
335 pages, paperback, $18.95.

Kristin Aronson, a philosopher of ethics
and ethical vegan, who teaches at Western
Connecticut State University, recently undertook
a philosophical enquiry into why people
who have been vegetarians return to eating
meat. She asked questions that vegetarians
often don’t want to ask, and probed where it
hurt, to find out how come even some once
ethical and passionate vegetarians sometimes
give up their vegetarianism and become
“lapso vegetarians.”

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OBITUARIES

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

A. Peter Rasmussen, 76, died of
lung cancer on August 19. Born in Utah,
after service in the Army he became a professional
singer and toured the country. The last
25 years of his life were devoted to animal
welfare. Having traveled to Africa, he met
Joy Adamson, whose life was subject of the
movie Born Free, and soon after became one
of the founding members of the U.S. Born
Free Foundation chapter. He was involved
with Tippi Hedren’s ROAR Foundation,
which funds the Shambala Preserve, housing
more than 60 wild and exotic cats. Since the
early 1980s he had worked as secretary to
Gretchen Wyler, president of The Ark Trust
Inc., and became its secretary when the organization
was formed in 1991. “To me,”
Wyler told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “the loss is
profound. He gave the phrase ‘Take a letter’
new meaning. When I said, ‘Take a letter,’ I
meant, ‘Take it home and answer it.’ He
knew my thoughts, and often he expressed
them better than I could.” Peter was the official
secretary of all 11 Genesis Award celebrations,
an annual event honoring the
media, presented by The Ark Trust.

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HINDI REVEALS MORE SHOCKING RODEO SECRETS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

CHICAGO––Dubbed “The Flying Nut” in the
October edition of Outdoor Life for flying his paraglider
between geese and hunters last year, Chicago Animal
Rights Coalition founder Steve Hindi hates to be ignored.
Indeed Hindi isn’t ignored when he visits
rodeos lately. Since the CBS tabloid TV show H a r d
Copy on September 17 and 18 broadcast some of Hindi’s
footage of rodeo promoters electroshocking bulls to make
them buck, he’s often found himself under video surveillance,
while rodeos affiliated with the Professional
Rodeo Cowboys Association have abruptly disallowed
videotaping by spectators, from the Adirondack
Stampede in Glens Falls, New York, to a string of
California rodeos that Hindi visited in early October.
But Hindi’s questions of rodeo organizers and
the PRCA are being ignored. Though PRCA rodeo rules
ban the use of electroshock for any purpose other than
moving bulls into holding chutes, and dictate that electric
prods are to be used “as little as possible,” the PRCA
has not responded to inquiries from both Hindi and ANIMAL
PEOPLE as to what action it may be taking
against such luminaries as Cotton Rosser, whose Flying
U Rodeo Company is a major PRCA stock supplier.

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BOOKS: The Man Who Listens to Horses

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

The Man Who Listens to Horses
by Monty Roberts
Random House (201 E. 50th St., New York, NY 10022), 1997.
258 pages, hardcover, $23.00.

The term “horse whisperer” was coined over 100 years ago, but
never before has it enjoyed as much popularity as today. A 1995 novel of
that title by Nicholas Evans touched readers around the world––both
those who love horses, and those who just love a good story.
The Man Who Listens to Horses, the autobiography of real-life
horse whisperer Monty Roberts, is nonfiction with the same potential. At
the local bookstore the other day, I saw stacks of The Man Who Listens to
Horses right beside the cash register, not buried in the “horses” section
where only equestrians might find it––the only non-fiction horse book I
have ever seen placed in such a sales-friendly location. It deserves the
same treatment in other stores across the country.

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