OBITUARIES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Toledo Edison Company stationary
engineer Kris Kohn, 41, of Toledo, Ohio,
died February 17 of a heart attack, shortly after
he and off-duty fire Lt. Eric Renzhofer spent
two hours rescuing 132 canvasback ducks who
were trapped in the East Toledo generating
plant’s water intake. “Kris had raised Canada
geese, pigeons, and a rabbit. We have three
Labrador retrievers, whom he loved very
much,” his widow Pamela wrote to ANIMAL
PEOPLE. “He also was a beekeeper. He
would get very mad when someone mistreated
an animal or child. He loved his children and
nieces, and is very deeply missed.”

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BOOKS: Jim Mason on the nature of unnatural acts

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

An Unnatural Order: Uncovering the Roots
of Our Domination of Nature and Each
Other, by Jim Mason. Simon & Schuster
(Rockefeller Centre, 1230 Ave. of the Americas, New
York, NY 10020), 1993. 298 pages, $24 hardcover.
“The Slave,” a powerful sculpture by Michelangelo,
depicts a man struggling to break free of the stone from which
he is partially formed. This image is repeatedly brought to
mind by An Unnatural Order, for the heart of Jim Mason’s
argument is that humankind is a coldly perverse and destruc-
tively struggling entity as a result of a futile effort to distance
ourselves from the natural and animal world from which we
evolved.

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Play (vegan) ball!

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

DAKOTA CITY, Iowa––Among the dis-
tinguished vegetarians and semi-vegetarians in base-
ball have been Henry Aaron, holder of the major
league career home run record; Jim Kaat, who pitched
a then-record 26 seasons; former National League All
Star second baseman Dave Cash; and Tony LaRussa,
manager of five first place teams in the past 15
years––but they all used leather gloves, because there
were no substitutes.
There are now. Heartland Products has
introduced the first wholly nonleather baseball and
softball glove. A relaced edition of the popular Regent
fielder’s glove, made in China, the Heartland glove
features a vinyl palm with nylon backing and stitch-
ing. Little League-approved, it comes in two sizes,
the larger of which is suitable for adults with small to
medium hands. Break-in characteristics are compara-
ble to those of leather gloves.

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Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

The USDA proposed March 9 to apply the same
sanitary standards to poultry as to red meat. Currently, no
trace of fecal matter is permitted on red meat, but fecal matter
is tolerated on poultry under a grading system that also consid-
ers the presence of bruises, feathers, and protruding bones. A
dead bird is deemed unfit for human consumption only if it
receives a failing cumulative score. Earlier, the USDA said it
would seek Food and Drug Administration approval of the use
of radiation to kill bacteria on red meats. Whether the request
would be extended to cover poultry too was unclear.

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Children & Animals: NABT MOVES TOWARD STRONGER SUPPORT OF CLASSROOM DISSECTION

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

WASHINGTON D.C.––The National Association of Biology Teachers has withdrawn its monograph The
Responsible Use of Animals in Biology Classrooms “due to ethical concerns about some of its classroom exercises and about
the unequal representation of animal rights and biomedical research groups in the resource list,” according to the
February/March 1994 edition of National Science Teachers Association Reports. NABT executive director Patricia

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BOOKS: Captive wildlife debate

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Zoos and Animal Rights: The Ethics of
Keeping Animals, by Stephen St. C.
Bostock, Routledge (29 West 35th St., New York,
NY 10001), 1993. 227 pages, $15.95 paperback.
Orca: A Family Story, by Peter Hamilton,
Lifeforce (POB Box 825, North Hollywood, CA
91603), 1994. 40 pages, $17.99 paperback.
Stephen Bostock, education director for the
Glasgow Zoo, fervently believes most captive wild animals
are happy, healthy, and enjoying the best of all possible
worlds. Peter Hamilton, who has spent many years cham-
pioning unhappy, unhealthy captive wildlife, believes just
the opposite, citing as example the life of the orca Corky,
in an account fictionalized to provide a happy ending: her
release after 25 years to rejoin her pod. Both Bostock and
Hamilton support their positions with a wealth of factual
detail, but both become tedious in their onesidedness.
Hamilton is merely shrill; Bostock is at times absurd, as in
citing a painting as documentary evidence of the terror a
prey species suffers when attacked by a predator.

What the new Catechism really says about animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

DENVER, Colorado––“The Catholic church has
declared that humans should not love animals or spend
money on them when it could otherwise be spent on human
beings,” the World Society for the Protection of Animals’
magazine Animals International reported last fall, claiming,
“The announcement is included in the newly published edi-
tion of the Catholic Catechism, the 800-page book which
states the church’s position on all aspects of life.” A similar
report appeared several months later in the American Anti-
Vivisection Society magazine AV, and was then amplified by
activist newsletters and computer networks until it reached
Marshall Massey of the Environmental Projects Center, who
sought verification.

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LAB ANIMAL USE DOWN, STUDIES FIND BUT BETTER RECORDKEEPING NEEDED

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Three
newly published independent reviews of
available data on laboratory animal use con-
clude that the number of animals used is
generally declining, especially relative to
the number of research projects under-
way––but agree too that USDA reporting
requirements need to be strengthened.
F. Barbara Orlans, Ph.D., of the
Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown
University, argued in the winter 1994 edi-
tion of the University of Chicago journal
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine that
animal use peaked in 1984-1985, fell albeit
with upward fluctuations during the next
five years, and seems to have leveled off
somewhat above the norms of the early
1970s. Orlans noted a drop of nearly half in
dog use since 1975 and downward trends in
the use of cats and primates. “For dogs,”
she wrote, “the range is from a high of
211,000 in 1979 to a low of 108,000 in
1991; for cats, the range is from a high of
74,000 in 1974 to a low of 35,000 in 1991.”

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Biomedical research

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Following five years of controversy and
a two-month probe by concerned individuals and
organizations, the University of Arizona in mid-
March released 12 greyhounds bought for biomed-
ical research from Greg Ludlow of GTL Kennels in
Goodyear, Arizona. Another greyhound was to be
released upon completion of a pacemaker trial; a
14th had already been used in a terminal experiment.
For the second time in six years, and just one year
after serving out a five-year USDA suspension of his
Class B dealer’s license, Ludlow was accused of
obtaining and selling dogs under false pretenses.
The release was achieved through the cooperation of
Concerned Arizonans for Animal Rights and Ethics,
the Greyhound Protection League, Greyhound
Network News, the management of the greyhound
tracks at Phoenix and Apache Junction, and Arizona
Greyhound Breeders and Kennel Operators.

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