Animal Control & Rescue

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

The North Shore Animal League

on May 13 became official sponsor of Spay

USA. NSAL sponsorship is expected to

result in a major expansion of the program,

a hotline to help pet owners locate afford-

able neutering (1-800-248-SPAY; 375-

6627 in Connecticut).

The New York State Humane

Association is supporting 13 bills to

strengthen state humane laws, including

measures to set up a state Animal

Population Control Fund similar to those in

New Jersey and Connecticut, and to give

judges the authority to take animals away

from convicted abusers. New York resi-

dents may get details from 914-255-7099.

Performing Animals

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

The Louisiana state senate on

May 12 passed a bill to make attending an

illegal dogfight a crime, 33-0, but reduced

the offense from a felony to a misdemeanor,

and cut the maximum penalty from three

years in jail and a fine of $3,000 to one year

in jail and a fine of $1,000. A bill to ban

cockfighting meanwhile remained stalled in

a legislative committee headed by cock-

fighting fan Rep. Raymond Lalonde.

Calif. neutering bill stalled; SEEN AS THREAT TO NEUTER/RELEASE

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

SACRAMENTO, California––

Apparently ready to clear the California

state legislature without opposition, a bill to

require that free-roaming cats be neutered

was stalled at the last minute by unexpected

objections from the San Francisco SPCA.

The bill, AB 302, by assemblyman Paul

Horchner, reads simply, “An owner of a

cat over the age of six months shall have the

cat sterilized if the cat is permitted outdoors

without supervision.” Violators would be

given citations similar to traffic tickets,

with all penalties waived if their cats were

neutered within a 30-day grace period. The

bill had the active support of the California

Veterinary Medical Association, numerous

national organizations, and almost every

humane group in the state, including sever-

al who neuter and release feral cats.

National survey finds both high neutering rate and indifference

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Newly published statistics collected last November by the polling firm Penn &

Schoen Associates shed new light on the human aspects of pet overpopulation.

Interviewing 803 randomly selected Americans who had owned pets within the preceding

five years, Penn & Schoen found that 77% of cat owners and 58% of dog owners had

neutered their animals. Five percent of cat owners and 11% of dog owners were intention-

al breeders, but the data, published in the May 1993 edition of Shelter Sense, did not dis-

tinguish between breed fanciers, who may breed only once in several years, and backyard

commercial breeders, who in effect run small-scale puppy mills and catteries.

Approximately 12% of cat owners and 31% of dog owners would appear to be accidental

breeders, responsible for producing at least one unwanted litter per animal (although with

what frequency the unwanted litters are born was not clear).

The Penn & Schoen telephone poll also asked owners of unaltered pets why they

did not have them neutered. Among this group, 23% percent of dog owners and 31% of

cat owners said neutering is unnecessary; 26% of dog owners and 14% of cat owners

cited interest in breeding; and 4% of dog owners (1.7% of all dog owners) and 11% of cat

owners (2.5% of all cat owners) said neutering is too expensive.

Direct action

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

U.S. District Judge Fremming Nielsen freed

Jonathan Paul, 27, from the Spokane County Jail on April

10, 158 days after Paul was held in contempt of court for

refusing to testify to a federal grand jury probing an Animal

Liberation Front raid on a Washington State University labo-

ratory in August 1991. Paul had been asked to testify about

his former housemate Rod Coronado, a suspect in several

ALF actions who has been sought for questioning for over a

year. Paul’s twin sisters, one of whom is TV actress

Alexandra Paul, waged a national campaign to free him that

eventually led to a two-page spread in People magazine.

Activists John Paul Goodwin, 20, Michael

Karbon, 20, and Jesse Keenan, 19, all of Memphis,

Tennessee, pleaded guilty April 19 to petty vandalism in

connection with spray-painting three fur stores last year,

slashing the tires of a truck, and signing the action “ALF.”

They drew a year in jail apiece (which may be suspended),

fines of $2,000 each, and were ordered to make restitution.

Mountain lion mix-up

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Last October, Predator Project Newsletter extensively

quoted and paraphrased from a letter by Michael Horan of Eagle’s

Nest, New Mexico, protesting the relocation of 13 mountain lions

as part of a study of their population dynamics which has yielded

strong evidence that the species should not be hunted. Horan linked

the relocation to older and ongoing mountain lion killing projects

undertaken to protect livestock.

Various animal protection groups picked up and echoed

Horan’s claims, condensing his account each time, dropping source

identification, and eventually adding appeals for letters of protest to

be addressed to the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

Then someone, remembering that the original item had been pub-

lished on newsprint, wrongly cited ANIMAL PEOPLE as the

source, although the first issue of ANIMAL PEOPLE hadn’t even

gone to press yet when Horan wrote his letter.

It’s to make you turn green

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

The United Conservation Alliance,

an association of hunters and trappers whose

name only sounds like an environmental group,

teamed with the Fur Information Council of

America to distribute 100 public service

announcements to 50 leading TV stations just

before Earth Day. The 30-and-60-second

announcements ––which apparently were not

aired by most of the stations––quoted Greg

Lincombe of the Louisiana Department of

Wildlife and Fisheries, claiming, “Commercial

trapping through the fur industry is the only

viable solution to keep muskrat and nutria in

check.” Actually, Louisiana alligators eat a lot

more muskrat and nutria than trappers catch, and

they’d eat even more if Linscombe’s department

didn’t remove as many as 75,000 alligator eggs a

year for resale to alligator farmers––but it’s the

sale of trapping permits (down 90% in five years)

that keeps him in a job.

Freedom of speech

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

Janet Fontenot, new editor of The Southern

Utah Spectrum, a newspaper circulating 50,000 copies

daily, recently dropped a weekly column by Lester Wood

of Citizens for Humane Animal Treatment, and according to

Wood, “initiated a policy of censorship against environmen-

talists, refusing to print letters to the editor with a pro-ecolo-

gy viewpoint.” In place of Wood’s column, Fontenot is now

publishing a column called “Maverick Country,” which

Wood describes as “a rabid anti-ecology column.” Other

Utah journalists essentially confirm Wood’s account, noting

that Fontenot has praised cattleman Met Johnson as

“Legislator of the Year.” Johnson is among the members of

the Utah legislature who have advanced open seasons and

legal jacklighting of skunks, raccoons, and red foxes, plus

a 20% increase in the sale of puma permits, in the erroneous

belief that killing predators will make more game available

on depleted rangeland. The state wildlife agency and even

some hunting groups are against the proposals.

But it was a great appeal

June 1, 1993 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1993:

A firm called In Vitro International enlisted the aid of

the Doris Day Animal League and the Animal Welfare Institute in

late April as it awaited a ruling from the U.S. Department of

Transportation as to whether a non-animal test it developed to mea-

sure chemical corrosivity could be used as a substitute for the tradi-

tional skin burn test on rabbits. Literature apparently originating

with IVI, reprinted verbatim by AWI and colorfully amplified by

DDAL, suggested that “tens of thousands of rabbits” would be sub-

jected to the painful skin burn tests this summer so that U.S. chemi-

cal manufacturers could comply with a voluntary international

labeling standard recommended by the United Nations and ratified

by DOT, to take effect on October 1.

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