North Shore Animal League changes guard, offers free neutering

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. –– North Shore Animal League president David Ganz resigned

March 1, just as the March issue of ANIMAL PEOPLE reached readers with a page one probe of NSAL’s

unconventional approach to promoting adoptions and neutering. The investigation discovered that the NSAL

approach is substantially reducing both pet overpopulation and euthanasia rates wherever tried, and found little

current evidence to support criticisms often directed at NSAL by more conventional humane groups.

Although a successor to Ganz was not named immediately, NSAL chairperson Elizabeth Lewyt said,

“It is business as usual at NSAL, with all divisions running smoothly,” adding, “All NSAL programs and poli-

cies, including support and assistance for other animal shelters, will continue without interuption.”

NSAL attorney John Stevenson is now acting chief executive officer. “As chairprerson,” Lewyt con-

tinued, “I am now taking a more active role in the management of the shelter.”

As Lewyt’s first public action, she announced that, “Commencing April 1, NSAL will be providing

free spaying and neutering to all NSAL adopters.”

HORSES

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of

Appeals is to rule soon on whether the

National Park Service can remove about 20

feral horses from the Ozark National Scenic

Riverways park, 150 miles southwest of St.

Louis, Missouri. The horses are feral

descendents of a herd released during the

Great Depression. A three-judge panel is to

decide whether they are protected by the

same laws as western mustangs––whose

own protection is currently in dispute.

More than 60,000 Americans

needed emergency treatment for head

injuries suffered while riding horses in

1991, reports the Johns Hopkins Injury

Prevention Center. Children under 15 were

the most frequent victims. The center rec-

ommends that riders wear helmets.

Diet & Health

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Riley Detwiler, age 17 months,

on February 21 became the fourth toddler to

die from the outbreak of E. coli bacteria

poisoning that hit Jack-in-the-Box restau-

rants in Washington state and San Diego,

California, in December and January.

March 16, President Bill Clinton responded

to the deaths by proposing a complete over-

haul of the USDA meat and fish inspection

systems. Tainted meat killed more than 150

Americans and made more than 150,000

seriously ill during the past decade.

Tainted pork killed 63 people in

France last year, made 279 people serious-

ly ill, and caused seven abortions.

From bunkers to bat caves by Doug Reed

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

NEWINGTON, N.H. –– The weapons storage

area lies brooding at the core of the Great Bay National

Wildlife Refuge, surrounded by an eight-foot-high chain

link fence capped with barbed wire and razor wire. Thirty

concrete block buildings, 250 power poles, miles of wire,

and 15 weapons storage bunkers––fortified cement crypts

covered with earth and grass––crowd the site with silence.

Clustered at the far end of the 62-acre storage

area, the bunkers are empty of the missiles and explosives

stored there for the past 30 years. The double steel doors

are six inches thick and weigh five tons each. A heavy-

duty hydraulic jack opens one door, and visitors, mostly

members of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire,

wander into the dark. Jim Halpin, the manager of this new

refuge, explains that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is

exploring the bunkers’ potential as bat caves. It’s an ironic

exchange of wildlife for arms: bats for bombs.

The price of conversion

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

MADISON, Indiana –– The

pros and cons of converting no-man’s land

into wildlife refuges are nowhere more evi-

dent than at the 57,600-acre Jefferson

Proving Ground. Since 1941, Army per-

sonnel have fired more than 23 million

artillery, mortar, and tank rounds at

Jefferson, including 1.4 million dud

rounds that may still go off at any minute.

The Army wants to close Jefferson, to

save $7 million a year. But the closure

will cost southern Indiana at least 410

civilian jobs. Virtually the only alternative

use for the site would be as a wildlife

refuge, which would require the least

amount of clean-up. But even removing

enough unexploded ordinance to make

Jefferson minimally safe for refuge person-

nel could run as high as $550 million.

Despite all the shooting, the

edges of Jefferson are still forested, while

the firing ranges, carpeted with wildflow-

ers, attract birds and butterflies. Whether

or not Jefferson is formally designated a

wldlife refuge, chances are it will be

increasingly important to wildlife as the

human presence diminishes.

Houston Humane Society then and now; $15 neutering vs. 93% euthanasia rate

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Then

In September 1980, Houston Humane Society

board president Sherry Ferguson drafted a 12-page report to

her fellow board members. Opened in February 1963, HHS

was in every sort of trouble: badly overcrowded because of

a no-kill policy, financially shaky because of weak admin-

istration, and struggling to adopt out 700 animals a year.

By comparison, the Houston SPCA was adopting out

15,000 a year, and Citizens for Animal Protection, a group

founded to reform HHS, was adopting out 2,500 even

though it had no shelter.

That wasn’t the worst of it. HHS had no neutering

requirement for animals who were adopted out. When there

wasn’t space for newcomers, people who tried to surrender

animals were turned away––so many came at night and sim-

ply abandoned the animals on the property, alongside a

busy secondary highway. Many were killed by traffic

before staff arrived in the morning. Vermin infestations

were so severe that Ferguson said she wondered if HHS had

become a shelter for rats.

The Project BREED Directory: access to a lifesaving network

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

GERMANTOWN, Maryland––

Shirley Weber, by her own admission, is in

over her head. Her savings are gone, her

telephone bills sky-high. Her assets include

four dogs and four cats, a condominium in

a rough part of town, and two volumes of

something called The Project BREED

Directory. (BREED is short for Breed

Rescue Efforts and Education.)

Weber also has the belief that what

she has done in creating The Project

BREED Directory is important, that it will

make a difference for thousands of animals

from coast to coast. The paperback direct-

ory includes contact information for every

group Weber could find that rescues pure-

bred dogs, some groups who rescue other

specific kinds of animal, and a considerable

amount of useful advice.

Guest column: Helping all dogs through breed rescue by Gina Spadafori

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Some nights the telephone never stops ringing for

Sheltie Rescue.

The local humane society is holding a dog and

hopes we will pick her up soon––like today. A rescuer who

works with a different breed has pulled a Sheltie from a

municipal shelter two counties away––when can we pick

him up? A veterinarian is calling in hopes we can help a

middle-aged dog left for euthanasia when the family

moved. Two people want to dump their dogs tonight, and

we have no place to put them.

“If you don’t come get this dog right now,” hisses

one caller, “it’s dead. And I’m going to tell everyone what

hypocrites you are. Sheltie Rescue my ass.”

Letters [April 1993]

April 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1993:

Edison was a genius

I just received your letter

announcing your newspaper. As I

started reeading what you had to say,

I felt as if you knew my husband and

me personally. We are longtime

vegetarian/animal advocates who

write letters, take in strays, spay

and neuter, help the sick and

injured, and do what we can in gen-

eral to fight cruelty.

Letters

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