COURT CALENDAR
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1993:
Activism
A federal grand jury in Grand
Rapids, Michigan, on July 16 indicted fugi-
tive activist Rodney Allen Coronado, 27, on
five felony counts including arson, pertaining
to a 1992 firebombing that gutted the
Michigan State University mink ranching labo-
ratory. The fire also destroyed the files of an
MSU staffer who was developing alternatives
to the use of animals in biomedical research.
Coronado, who has acknowledged involve-
ment in other direct actions including scuttling
two Icelandic whaling vessels, was reportedly
last seen in Oregon in early November 1992.
He is also sought for questioning by grand
juries probing arsons at animal research facili-
ties in Oregon, Washington, and Louisiana,
and by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in
connection with laboratory vandalism at the
University of Edmonton, in Alberta.
A court in Perugia, Italy, on July
5 convicted Slaughter of the Innocent author
Hans Reusch and the Lega Anti-Vivisezione
of libel for claiming in a LAV publication that
Animal Liberation author Peter Singer is an
infiltrator in the anti-vivisection movement.
Singer did not seek damages, but Reusch,
who has several times been convicted of libel-
ing fellow activists, was fined the equivalent
of $100 and LAV was fined about $50.
Longtime PETA staffer Robin
Walker, 27, and Elizabeth Darrow, 19, were
charged with disorderly conduct July 24 in
Philadelphia after Walker threw a pie at a cos-
tumed Ronald McDonald clown while Darrow
heckled him. Walker threw a pie at an Iowa
pork queen in 1991 during a PETA-led demon-
stration, but denied representing PETA this
time.
The tentative October trial date
for the McDonald’s restaurant chain libel
suit against British activists Helen Steel and
David Morris was abandoned at a July 29 dis-
covery hearing, at which McDonald’s refused
to turn over requested documents. No new
trial date was set. McDonald’s sued Morris
and Steel, three other activists, a TV station,
a newspaper, two labor unions, and a theatre
group after they circulated charges circa Earth
Day 1990 that the firm sells rainforest beef,
pushes an unhealthy diet, and is unfair to
labor. The other defendants apologized and
settled out of court. Steel and Morris, who are
defending themselves, are backed by the
McLibel Support Campaign, c/o London
Greenpeace, 5 Caledonia Road, King’s Cross,
London, United Kingdom N1 9DX.
Crimes against humans
Thomas Lee Dillon, 43, of Pike
Township, Ohio, drew 165 years in prison
on July 12 for killing four men who were
hunting or fishing and a jogger. Authorities
repeatedly failed to prosecute him for killing
as many as 1,000 cats, dogs, and cattle over
the past 15 to 20 years. Dillon is suspected of
committing other murders.
Donald Delgado, 18,
and Mark Falls, 22, of Spokane,
Washington, were sentenced to 37 and a half
years in prison apiece on August 3 for killing
pizza deliveryman Michael Maykowky in
1992. Asked by a Spokane Spokesman–
Review reporter if he felt remorse, Delgado
said, “If you kill a deer, you don’t worry
about the deer’s wife and kids, do you?”
Henry Vargas, 14, of Queens,
New York, was fatally shot July 21 in retalia-
tion, police believe, for stealing a Rottweiler
puppy a month earlier.
Kelly Cordry, 39, was killed July
16 in Adams County, Colorado, when his
motorcycle collided with a dog who “fell”
from an overpass, according to two juvenile
witnesses. Police are investigating.
Wildlife crimes
Agents of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Drug Enforcement
Agency, and U.S. Customs allowed 312 four-
to-five-foot-long Colombian boa constrictors to
die of heat stress in late June during a two-day
vigil over a suspected drug shipment in Dade
County, Florida. By the time they quit waiting
for the suspected smugglers to arrive, 202
snakes were already dead; the remaining 110
died after being taken to the Miami Metrozoo
for treatment. Condoms filled with cocaine
were found in the rectums of 223 of the snakes,
which had been sewed shut.
Lucio Marcelo Coronel, 31, of
Argentina, drew 15 months in prison August
11 for smuggling 748 reptiles and amphibians
into Miami, Florida, on February 7, all tightly
packed inside a single suitcase. Most of the
animals arrived alive but died later, the
USFWS said. The toll included 70 of 76
endangered Tartaruga turtle hatchlings.
Surviving animals were returned to Argentina
for release.
Alabama bowhunters Donald
Eugene Lewis, 38, of Cedar Bluff, and Arthur
Sims, 40, of Huntsville, pleaded guilty August
15 to killing at least three trophy bull elk in
Yellowstone National Park. They were caught
because they videotaped themselves doing it.
Louisiana wardens nabbed 39
alleged redfish poachers July 7, who used
forged papers to claim the fish were from
Mississippi. Louisiana closed commercial red-
fishing in 1991, to allow the pressured species
to recover.
Police in Okeechobee, Florida,
have charged exotic animal farmer L.D. Terry,
58, with buying stolen ostrich eggs.
Hunter harassment
Montana district judge Thomas
Olsen, of Bozeman, ruled in early July
that the state hunter harassment law
infringes the constitutional right to free
speech because it “prohibits communication
with hunters which is intended to dissuade
them from hunting, while allowing commu-
nication with hunters which encourages hunt-
ing.” The verdict overturned the conviction
of activist John Lilburn, who was charged
with stepping in front of a hunter’s gun and
saying “Don’t shoot” as he aimed at a bison.
The prosecution reportedly will appeal.
Hunter harassment laws have been adopted by
46 states, but most have never been used.
Courts in Connecticut and Wisconsin have
previously found them unconstitutional.
Michigan activist Chris Anderlik,
64, on July 7 won an apology from
bowhunter Larry Hayward and undisclosed
cash damages in an out-of-court settlement of
a civil suit. Hayward confronted Anderlik for
setting off firecrackers to scare deer away
from hunters at Sleeping Bear Dunes National
Lakeshore in November 1990. Anderlik was
acquitted of hunter harassment, but convicted
of illegal possessing the firecrackers, while
Hayward, who was defended by the National
Rifle Association, agreed to settle Anderlik’s
civil charges rather than face trial for alleged-
ly menacing her with his weapons.
Wildlife lawsuits
At request of the Tulare County
Audubon Society, judge Oliver Wanger of
Fresno, California, on August 12 halted four
timber sales in Sequoia National forest, pend-
ing completion of an impact report on any
harm that might result to the California spotted
owl––which unlike the northern spotted owl of
the Pacific Northwest, is not endangered or
threatened, but is a close relative.
The Sierra Club, National
Resources Defense Council, Mountain Lion
Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, and the
Desert Protective Council together sued the
California Fish and Game Commission on
August 2, for allegedly improperly removing
the Mohave ground squirrel from the state
endangered species list to please developers.
Also on August 2, four timber
industry groups sued the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service in Portland, Oregon, alleg-
ing that the marbled murrelet is improperly
listed as an endangered species.
The Sierra Club Legal Defense
Fund sued the U.S. Forest Service on July 20
for harming grizzly bear habitat via logging
and road-building in the Targhee and Gallatin
National Forests of Idaho and Montana.
Ingham County, Michigan circuit
judge Peter Houkon July 30 denied PETA an
injunction it sought to keep the state from poi-
soning fish at three sites so as to count them.
Spectacle prosecutions
The Progressive Animal Welfare
Society, of Lynwood, Washington, on
August 13 asked the Washington state Supreme
Court to issue a writ of mandamus obliging the
Okanogan county court to cooperate with
PAWS in bringing criminal cruelty charges
against Cactus Jack Miller, president of the
Omak Stampede, including the Omak Suicide
Race, in which horses charge down a 200-foot,
62-degree cliff four times in three days––twice
at night. Nine horses have been killed in the
race or practice runs during the past decade,
one of them just a day after PAWS petitioned
for the writ. The 17-year-old rider was unhurt.
PAWS attorney John Costo alleges the two
Okanogan County judges and prosecutor acted
illegally in “unfiling” PAWS’ initial attempt to
prosecute Miller, on July 23; that one judge
should have disqualified himself because his
wife is a law partner of one of the Omak
Stampede advisors; and that the prosecutor,
Michael McNeff, improperly dismissed the
PAWS complaint without a hearing. McNeff
also threatened on August 10 to file a civil suit
seeking to remove PAWS’ corporate charter.
The Suicide Race, begun in 1935, annually
draws 40,000 spectators, who spend about $3
million in Omak, population 4,100.
Cockfighting is illegal in Kentucky,
Greenup and Lewis counties circuit court judge
James Lyons ruled in early August, reversing
an April district court decision that freed
accused cockfighter Marvin Munn, 50, of
South Shore, Ky. Lyons’ verdict is binding
only on the two counties under his jurisdiction,
but sets a strong precedent for higher courts.
Former Kentucky attorney general Fred Cowan
opined in 1990 that cockfighting was legalized
by a 1980 amendment exempting birds from
state anti-cruelty laws, because then-Governor
John Y. Brown’s veto came a day too late. At
least six district courts have since dismissed
cockfighting cases. Lyons pointed out, how-
ever, that the legislature passed the amendment
to legalize shooting blackbirds, with no appar-
ent intent to permit cockfighting.
Cruelty
Alleged Satanists Gregory Allen
Scudder, 23, Richard Cotta, 25, and Roger
Grunder, 19, all of Pensacola, Florida, were
charged August 11 with stealing and fatally
mutilating eight cats, then drinking their
blood. The arrests were the first in a Florida
animal sacrifice case since the U.S. Supreme
Court overturned a set of ordinances adopted
by the city of Hialeah, Florida, to bar animal
sacrifices by Santerians––but as two justices
noted and attorneys Gary Francione and Anna
Charlton explained in the July/August issue of
ANIMAL PEOPLE, the verdict did not pre-
clude cruelty prosecutions.
Veterinarian Richard John Burr-
oughs, 51, of Mount Airy, Maryland, drew
two years on probation, 350 hours of commu-
nity service, and a fine of $500 on July 24 for
starving two confined cows. A former Food
and Drug Administration veterinary medical
officer, Burroughs was fired after his May 18
cruelty conviction.
Jose Canales, 54, of Wilmington,
Delaware, drew three years in prison July 9
for fatally raping a stolen dog with a broom
handle. Letters of thanks may be sent to Judge
Norman Barron, Superior Court, 11th and
King Streets, Wilmington, DE 19801.
House sitter April Smithey, 18,
and five juvenile boys were charged August 2
with torturing to death five doves, a hamster,
and a kitten belonging to magicians Allen and
Darlene Hitt, of New Castle, Pennsylvania.
Kennel raids
Butte County, California, health
and humane officers seized an estimated
200 miniature poodles from alleged breeders
Don and Charlotte Spiegel on July
28––including 67 poodles who were kept in
carriers inside an 18-foot recreational vehicle.
County health director Chester Ward
described the conditions as “crowded, filthy,
and deprived,” adding that goats and horses
on the 10-acre site appeared similarly neglect-
ed. The Spiegels are well-known to local
authorities. Circa December 1990, they left
Oroville after a previous raid found 200
miniature poodles in comparable conditions.
In February 1991, Mrs. Spiegel surrendered
140 poodles to the Red Bluff pound, saying
she couldn’t afford to license them. The
Spiegels were eventually charged with violat-
ing zoning laws, but were released by a hung
jury.
Raids on breeders have left
Arkansans for Animals, of Little Rock,
and the Jackson County Animal Shelter in
Jackson, Michigan, struggling to board
impounded animals for an indefinite time
pending final disposition of the respective
cases. AFA seized 151 dogs from a puppy
mill in Mammoth Springs during December
1992. The owners were finally convicted of
cruelty on June 2, but appealed, and the dogs
cannot be adopted out or euthanized until the
appeal is settled. Jackson County on July 8
confiscated 24 allegedly unfed and neglected
wolf hybrids from Melanie Lingoes, 41, of
Munith, after an investigator found two dead
wolf hybrids and a beheaded cat in her kennel.
Another wolf hybrid died in custody, while
three more were claimed by other people who
presented proof of legal purchase prior to the
raid. The remainder are isolated from the pub-
lic in a separate wing of the shelter. The
arrangement inhibits adoptions of other ani-
mals, according to shelter overseer Randy
Terronez, and some of the bored hybrids have
seriously damaged the facilities. Prosecutor
Dennis Hurst has insisted that they cannot be
euthanized without a judge’s authorization.
They cannot be adopted out.
New York police charged TomBar
Kennel owner Thomas J. Coleman of
Bombay, New York, with 48 counts of cruel-
ty on July 19, after Vanessa Eels of nearby
Massena visited the kennel to find a mate for
her teacup Chihuahua but instead observed
numerous sickly kittens and bought one to pre-
sent as evidence. Police had maintained sur-
veillance of the kennel since June 10, when
Coleman was charged with selling a diseased
kitten to another Massena resident. Coleman
said the veterinarians who examined the 234
dogs and cats found on the scene were
“idiots,” and claimed the raid occured because
he is Jewish and his wife Barbara is Afro-
American. The kennel is still doing business.
Cat rescuer not liable
Federal investigator Jacq-
ueline Booth, of University City,
Louisiana, won a nonbinding precedent
for cat rescuers July 10 when a Kenner
city judge ruled that she could not be con-
sidered the legal owner of a stray cat she
apparently fed for some time and tried to
catch on May 15 in a local Wal-Mart park-
ing lot. The cat escaped from Booth and
scratched a Wal-Mart employee in a fran-
tic dash through the store, whereupon
Kenner police cited Booth for having an
unvaccinated animal at large. The cat was
later trapped by Jefferson Parish Animal
Shelter staff and adopted by Booth.
Animal Collectors
Barbara Mills, arrested on multiple cru-
elty charges July 3 in Loudon, New Hampshire,
after police found three dead greyhounds in her car,
was quickly identified by mass media as she
described herself: founder of the Greyhound Rescue
League of New England, and a longtime officer in
the New Hampshire Animal Rights League. But
numerous members of NHARL and reputable grey-
hound rescue groups who helped rescue the dozens of
dogs and cats found on Mills’ premises described her
to ANIMAL PEOPLE as a little-known loner and
her Greyhound Rescue League as a one-person effort.
Mills apparently began taking in greyhounds about a
year before her arrest. Unable to find adoptors, she
took as many as she could to various no-kill shelters,
then allegedly shot several in the stomach. “This
might serve as a warning to people who think they
might set up as rescuers, who don’t have the proper
resources,” said Louise Coleman of Greyhound
Friends Inc., in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
Neighbors held a multiple-day work bee
to save Richard Gilbert’s home in Akron, Ohio, dur-
ing the first week of August, after the 500-pound
man, age 48, was given 10 days to correct more than
30 sanitation code violations or face demolition.
August 1, Akron dog wardens and the Summit
County Humane Society found 10 caged dogs and 55
birds––half of them dead––on the feces-strewn, rat-
infested premises. Another Akron animal collector,
Carl Moskoff, meanwhile sued the Humane Society
of Greater Akron, seeking to recover the three sur-
vivors among 20 dogs who were removed last April
from a home he shares with his sister Anna. Two
later died; 15 were euthanized due to poor health.
Both Moskoffs were subsequently convicted of cruel-
ty. Carl Moskoff has been in trouble with the
humane society and Akron authorities off and on
since March 1983, when he was convicted of
neglecting 164 dogs and 30 cats.
A July 3 raid by the California State
Humane Task Force seized nearly 100 sick and
malnourished dogs, cats, and birds from a home in
northeast Los Angeles, including several parrots val-
ued at more than $2,000 each. The parrots may even-
tually be auctioned off to help cover the cost of car-
ing for the other animals.
Paul Martin, 63, was charged with ani-
mal abuse on August 3 after police found the decom-
posed remains of more than 20 horses, mules, goats,
sheep, and dogs on his land near Caldwell, Idaho.
Ordered to get rid of 170 cats on July 26,
Cheryl Russell of Clarkston, Washington, threat-
ened to leave town instead––and to take at least 50
cats with her.
