CHILDREN & ANIMALS
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:
$40 million in public funds are
used to teach “hunter education” to
700,000 U.S. school children a year. The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service puts up $32.2
million, while the balance comes from the
states; all 50 states participate. “They’re
teaching hunting as ‘gun safety,’ ‘physical
education,’ and any other excuse they cna
think of,” says Katherine Trimnal of
Columbia, South Carolina, who has been
investigating the program for some time.
This program is completely separate from
Project Wild, which also promotes a pro-
hunting message at cost of $23 million a
year.
Scalding a puppy to death is not
a violent crime, a youth counselor ruled
December 30 in Brooksville, Texas, there-
by preventing police from sending the 12-
year-old suspect to a juvenile detention cen-
ter––even though he showed no remorse and
police believed “very strongly” that he was
likely to commit another similar offense.
The boy was charged with a third-degree
felony. “To me, that’s a violent crime,” said
police Lt. Terry Chapman. “If this had been
an adult, he would have been booked into
jail.” The counselor was not identified.
Chris Schmindlin, 17, of Harrison
Township, Michigan, risked rush hour traf-
fic January 18 on I-94 in Detroit to rescue a
kitten he saw someone throw from an over-
pass. The badly injured kitten was treated by
the Humane Society of Macomb County.
The children’s magazine Stepping
Stones seeks submissions of stories, poems,
and art from children about “your insights,
instincts, and experiences relating with ani-
mal beings” for a June special feature.
Deadline is May 1. Address P.O. Box 3939,
Eugene, OR 97403.
Amway and Newsweek on January
14 honored the students of eight elementary
and middle schools for outstanding efforts to
protect wildlife and habitat. Winners includ-
ed Barnett Shoals Elementary, of Athens,
Georgia; Jacksonville Elementary, of
Jacksonville, Oregon; the San Diego
County School District, of San Diego,
California; Treasure Mountain Middle
School, of Park City, Utah; St. Bernadette
School, of Lancaster, Ohio; Harry P.
Andersen Middle School, of Omaha,
Nebraska; Georgia Middle School, of St.
Albans, Vermont; and Northwide Junior
High, of Jennings, Louisiana. Each school
received $7,500 to underwrite environmental
education. For further information on the
program, contact Amway, Public Relations
Dept., 7575 Fulton St. East, Ada, MI
49355-0001; 616-676-7196.
New Mexico state representative
Jose Abeyta reportedly plans to introduce a
bill to redirect into education the $800,000 a
year the state budgets to assist the federal
Animal Damage Control program. State
Land Commissioner James Baca evicted
ADC trappers from state property last
November, because they wouldn’t check
their traps more often than once every 72
hours. Support Abeyta c/o State Capitol,
Santa Fe, NM 87503.
United Nations Children’s Fund
staffers who reached Parayang, Sudan, in
late January found only 20,000 people left of
a population numbering 85,000 10 years ago,
when outsiders last visited the area. Warfare
had driven residents into the surrounding for-
est, where parasitical flies killed as many as
75%––most of whom could have been saved
if a vaccine costing about $15 per person had
been available.
