Defenders of Animal Rights shelter picketed

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

PHOENIX, Md. Weekly protests
outside the Defenders of Animal Rights shel-
ter just north of Baltimore commenced on
August 14, coordinated by the Animal
Welfare League of Greater Baltimore. The
protesters, including former shelter employ-
ees and volunteers, alleged unrecorded
euthanasias, financial abuses, and miscella-
neous other irregularities paralleling some of
those alleged against Primarily Primates one
month earlier, also by former volunteers and
staffers. Several protesters contacted ANI-
MAL PEOPLE, including AWLGB president
Elizabeth Kirk, but none documented any-
thing at DAR that substantially deviates from
common shelter practice., nor did they pro-
vide evidence that anyone at DAR is collect-
ing unusually high remuneration.

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Shakeup coming at NAVS?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

CHICAGO, Ill. Independent auditor William Foy assumed administration of the
National Anti-Vivisection Society on August 1 for an indefinite period, replacing president
Mary Margaret Cunniff, who took a paid maternity leave. .
The NAVS board of directors hired Foy to perform an internal audit shortly after an
expose by ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton revealed that over a fourth of the NAVS
stock portfolio was invested with firms who perform or commission vivisection and/or have
become notorious for environmental abuses—including U.S. Surgical, whose sales demonstra-
tions on live dogs Cunniff denounced in print in May 1991, only days before purchasing
$46,745 worth of U.S. Surgical shares. The stock had nearly doubled in value when sold.
Earlier exposes traced the extensive use of NAVS funds to benefit members of Cunniff’s family,
including her husband, attorney Kenneth Cunniff; her sister, Catherine Curran; her father,
George Trapp, who preceded her in the presidency; her brother-in-law, Patrick Rocks; and her
uncles, Robert Mahoney and Al Lamier. Cunniff and her husband alone received an estimated
$172,000 in salaries and benefits during 1991. During their administration, according to well-
placed staffers, NAVS membership has fallen from 53,000 to 11,000; following the exposes,
the organization was believed to be losing from $25,000 to $50,000 a month.

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Fighting isn’t over for the Old War Horse

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

LONDON, U.K. The late Dorothy
Brooke founded the Brooke Hospital for
Animals as the Old War Horse Memorial
Hospital. Brooke specified that her primary
purpose was to protect retired military horses
and donkeys. Military organization wasn’t nec-
essarily part of her plan–but after assuming the
top post at the Old War Horse approximately
one year ago, following his retirement from the
Royal Army Veterinary Corps, Col. Brian
Thompson quickly moved to establish military
order—including institution of a rigid chain-of-
command, increased paperwork to track activ-
ities, a lid on information released to the press,
and an apparent ban on cooperation with per-
ceived rivals.

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No time for monkey business at Primarily Primates

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

SAN ANTONIO, Tex. Primarily Primates
has survived an attempted putsch, at least for
now, but the future of the showplace sanctuary
could yet be jeopardized by animal rights move-
ment politics.
Founded over a decade ago by former
zookeeper Wally Swett to house primates res-
cued from laboratories, roadside zoos, and
abusive exotic petkeepers, Primarily Primates
has expanded to accommodate nearly 400 ani-
mals. As Swett admits, there have been grow-
ing pains. Animals have often arrived at a
faster rate than funds to feed and shelter them.
Sometimes Swett and his volunteer staff have
been obliged to handle species they’ve never
seen before. Frequently they receive non-pri-
mates for temporary housing until other situa-
tions can be found—which can be difficult. A

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What’s going on at The Animals’ Agenda?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

MONROE, Conn. Five months after the
Animals’ Agenda board of directors sacked
most of the staff and forced editor Kim
Bartlett’s eventual resignation, the publication
is in “dire financial peril,” according to a late-
September appeal issued by board president
Wayne Pacelle..
Under pressure from numerous national
organizations who were irate over exposes of
group financial practices, among them PETA,
the National Anti-Vivisection Society, the
Doris Day Animal League, In Defense of
Animals, and the American SPCA, the board
abruptly fired news editor Merritt Clifton,
now editor of ANIMAL PEOPLE, last May
1. Simultaneously, the board terminated use
of otherwise vacant space at the magazine
offices by Bartlett’s feral cat rescue project.

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Shelter bashing wasn’t planned

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

A late summer wave of shelter-bashing by
animal rights groups took humane workers by
surprise, including some of the most outspo-
ken critics of shelter administrations. Protests
outside numerous shelters on Homeless
Animals Day, August 22, coincided with
campaigns against the management of the
Primarily Primates shelter in San Antonio,
Texas, and the Defenders of Animal Rights
shelter in Phoenix, Maryland. (See separate
items.)

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Hunting news

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

Arizonans will vote November 3
on a referendum measure to ban
trapping, portrayed by the National Rifle
Assn. and National Trappers Assn. as an
attempt to ban all hunting and fishing as
well. The initiative is sponsored, however,
by Arizonans for Safety and Humanity on
Public Lands, whose initial board of direc-
tors included a hunter and a gun dealer. The
group declined funding from the Humane
Society of the U.S. to avoid confusing the
issues.

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Letters [Oct. 1992]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:

I am feeling sad and sick about what
is done to helpless animals. After receiving
photos of torture for almost two years from
PETA, Greenpeace, In Defense of Animals,
et al, I feel I just can’t stand it. Is this normal?
I have saved 10 kitties and my neighbors
always have my cats in their yard. I spend lots
of time saying “I’m sorry.” I wish I could
have more, but I look like some nutty cat lady.
Anyway, back to my question: how do I stop
feeling bad?
—Alexandra Robertson, Rocklin,
California.

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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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