WOOFS AND GROWLS
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:
THE WISE USE WISE GUYS ET AL
George Frampton’s last major task
before leaving the presidency of The Wilderness
Society to become Assistant Secretary for Fish,
Wildlife, and Parks in the Clinton administration
was to preside over the assembly of a 50-page
report called The Wise Use Movement: Strategic
Analysis and 50-State Review. It calls upon the
mainstream environmental movement to distance
itself from radical environmentalism, deep ecolo-
gy, and animal rights, while rebuilding alliances
with farmers and hunters.
The fall 1993 issue of Friends of
Animals’ ActionLine magazine features ANIMAL
PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton’s “Attack of the
Wise Use Wise Guys,” an investigation of vio-
lence against animals and animal defenders by
members of the self-named “wise use movement.”
It’s $1.95, from POB 1244, Norwalk, CT 06856.
Having run low on friends in Washington D.C.,
Putting People First is relocating this month to
Helena, Montana––PPF president Kathleen
Marquardt’s birth state.
U.S. Surgical Corporation president
Leon Hirsch, the leading financial backer of at
least three pro-vivisection groups, is the biggest
landowner in Sublette County, Wyoming, having
acquired 40,000 acres since 1988, including
seven new homes and an airstrip for jets. Hirsch
also acquired rights to graze 475 cattle in the
Bridger Teton National Forest, making him the
fourth largest BLM leaseholder in the county. In
addition, he owns another 40,000 acres in
Beaverhead County, Montana, where he
grazes 800 cattle in Beaverhead National
Forest.
“Freedom of the press is a myth,”
Livestock Conservation Institute communica-
tions coordinator Greg Gerber recently told
the meat industry. Pointing out the value of
meat advertising to newspapers, he urged
advertisers to pressure the papers to squash
stories critical of meat.
Eighteen hunting groups have
formed the Sportsmen’s Coalition for
Common Sense Amendments to the
Endangered Species Act, actually an attempt
to gut the ESA through amendment––but
conspicuously absent from the published ros-
ter are the National Rifle Association and the
Isaak Walton League.
The National Alternative
Livestock Association bills itself as being
“dedicated to the conservation and preserva-
tion of threatened, endangered and nonen-
dangered species through professional propa-
gation.” In other words, it’s an umbrella for
exotic animal breeders, headed by Maureen
Neidhardt, of Crawford, Nebraska.
The National Breed Clubs
Alliance, of Freehold, New Jersey, repre-
sents 48 dog breed fancies who are opposing
the repeal of American Kennel Club stan-
dards that call for tail-docking and ear-crop-
ping.
WATCH YOUR MONEY
Josephine Usag, of Lodi, Ohio,
died at 84 last year, leaving $29,678 each to
the Medina County animal shelter, Medina
County SPCA, PETA, and the National
Wildlife Federation. The programs of the lat-
ter pair largely cancel each other out. Before
leaving your money to any group, check it
out. (Watch for our fourth annual report on
the financial affairs of the 60-odd leading
animal and habitat-related organizations,
coming in our December issue.)
Watson and Hughey, the direct-
mail mill that was sued by 22 states in 1991
and settled with 10 of them for $2.1 million.,
is still in business, now called Direct
Response Consulting Services, and still rep-
resents numerous charities that spend less
than 10% of receipts on programs, including
Adopt-A-Pet, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which
raised $6.8 million between 1986 and 1992
according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy,
but spent only $426,671 on programs other
than “public education” done in connection
with fundraising mailings. The firm also rep-
resents several medical charities including
the Walker Cancer Research Institute,
Cancer Fund of America, Project Cure, and
Pacific West Cancer Fund, which tell
prospective donors that they don’t support
animal-based research without mentioning
that they don’t support much if any research
TACTICS & ACTIONS
A survey of Congressional
aides conducted in May by Western
Union found that 80% still pay most
attention to written communications.
Brief, well informed, single-topic per-
sonal letters get the most favorable treat-
ment; postcards, form letters, and tele-
phone calls are virtually ignored. Senior
citizens currently account for about half
of all Congressional correspondence,
followed in volume by anti-abortion
activists and the religious right, who
account for a combined 15%, and then
environmentalists, including animal
protection advocates, who account for
11%. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.),
a leading animal advocate, gets the
most communications: 10,000 letters
and 1,300 calls a day.
