Editorial: Fighting the good fight

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

Those of us who have worked with cattle know that there are two ways to get a
balky cow to move. Cowpunchers yell, push, and beat the animal, who often becomes
even more obstinate. Milkmaids by contrast just walk in front of the cow, hands in pock-
ets, and she follows from curiosity. One experienced milkmaid with a pocket full of apples
could probably move more cattle farther, faster, than all the cowpunchers west of the
Mississippi, if she had a mind to, but no one has ever convinced the punchers, who con-
tinue to rave and kick and beat on almost every farm and feedlot.
Persuading the public to adopt humane attitudes and practices often seems similar-
ly frustrating. Problems and solutions evident to those of us in animal protection are
ignored and overlooked time and again by governmental authorities, whether we’re talking
about violence to animals as precursor of violence to humans, the folly of spending mil-
lions for animal control but next to nothing on animal population control, or the hidden
costs of the meat industry to human and environmental health. Undeniably, progress is
being made, and even in comparison with a few years ago, it is impressive in many areas:
the rapid drop in animal shelter euthanasia rates, the decline of sport hunting, the collapse
of the fur trade, and the exponential increase of interest in vegetarianism, to cite just a
handful. Still, the progress can seem as slow relative to the size of some of the issues as
the pace of Old Bossy may seem to a young cowhand who’d rather be traveling at the pace
of a souped-up pickup truck.

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Count finds 5 million euthanasias a year–– AHA SAYS 12 MILLION; WANTED TO DISCREDIT PET BREEDERS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

ENGLEWOOD, Colorado––
Knowing that an ongoing shelter-by-shel-
ter, state-by-state count has demonstrated
the annual U.S. euthanasia toll due to pet
overpopulation to be under six million
animals per year, the American Humane
Association on September 7 told mass
media that, “In 1992, a dog or cat was
euthanized every two seconds in this
country––12.1 million dogs and cats in
all.” The AHA release also maintained
that euthanasias are again increasing after
eight years of decline.

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Girl’s death due to bat rabies

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

BLOOMINGBURG, New York––The New York State Health Department is running
a search of all computerized hospital records to find possible undiagnosed deaths from silver-
haired bat rabies. The review began following the August 26 discovery that silverhaired bat
rabies was responsible for the first human rabies fatality in New York state since 1954.
The mid-Atlantic raccoon rabies pandemic recently spread into mid-state New York.
Northeastern New York is meanwhile contending with sporadic invasions of fox rabies from
Quebec and northwestern Vermont. But the rabies strain that killed 11-year-old Kelly Ahrendt of
Bloomingburg on July 11 has apparently been in New York, little noticed, for many years.
The case served to warn animal care and control workers, rescuers, veterinary staff,

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Deer overpopulation: Hunters caused it. What can we do about it?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1993:

DUPAGE COUNTY, Illinois––It isn’t deer
overpopulation that has the Dupage County Forest
Preserve commissioners, Steve Hindi of the Chicago
Animal Rights Coalition, Don Rolla of the Elsa Wild
Animal Appeal, and local hunting groups all at four-cor-
nered loggerheads. It’s what to do about it.
They’re agreed there are too many deer in the
six-square-mile Waterfall Glen preserve: 537 at last
count, even after 253 were culled last spring. They’re
agreed there’s nowhere to relocate them. They’re agreed
deer roaming out of the preserve are a hazard to cars and
perhaps to passing trains as well. They’re agreed that the
deer are eating songbirds and other brush-dwelling
species out of cover. They’re even agreed that there prob-
ably won’t be any ideal solution––quick, humane, and
inexpensive.

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