Day: April 1, 1994

Animal Control & Rescue

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

International
Police in the East City dis-
trict of Beijing, China, beat 351 dogs
to death during the second week of
February. “Our policy is to annihilate
them,” said district deputy chief of pub-
lic security Li Wenrui. Some other dis-
trict police bureaus spared smaller pure-
breds––if their owners could find homes
for them outside the city. Still others
killed dogs by strangulation, electrocu-
tion, and dragging them behind jeeps.
Press releases said the dogs were taken
to a shelter run by the Public Security
Ministry, but Jan Wong of the Toronto
Globe and Mail’s China Bureau reported
there is no such place. The Communist
government banned dogs as a nuisance
and a waste of food when it came to
power in 1949. Dogs have been hunted
out and killed every few years since
1951. Despite the killing, stepped up
since 1986, an estimated 100,000 dogs
inhabit Beijing, where a black market
dog can cost as much as many workers’
annual income. Foreigners and others
who can get dogs licensed and vaccinat-
ed may keep them––but rabies vaccine is
so scarce that the disease has killed as
many as 60,000 Chinese since 1980,
and most license applications are denied.

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Woofs and growls

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

People
Resisting pressure from some of the most influen-
tial members of his own political party, Kenyan president
Daniel Arap Moi on March 10 refused to accept Wildlife
Services director Richard Leakey’s mid-January resignation,
and ordered him to resume his work. Arap Moi took two months
to review allegations of corruption and racism directed against
Leakey, 49, by leading politicians who favor economically
exploiting the vast Kenyan wildlife reserves––among them
tourism minister Noah Katana and local government minister
William Ole Ntimama, two of the most influential figures in the
government after Moi. In four years as Wildlife Services direc-
tor, Leakey won worldwide acclaim for professionalizing the
warden staff and curbing poachers, who had severely dimin-
ished the elephant and rhinoceros populations during the 1980s.

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Crackdown on charities

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Assistant Treasury Secretary Leslie Samuels on March 17 proposed to
allow the Internal Revenue Service to impose sanctions on charities whose executives
receive excessive compensation and fringe benefits. Executives whose compensation
violates yet-to-be-established IRS guidelines would be forced to repay the charities.
The Philanthropic Advisory Service, a division of the Council of
Better Business Bureaus, has added to its 22 standards for charities a requirement
that direct mailings must state whether the organization is counting any part of their
cost as a program expense. The disclosure must appear in the body of the appeal,
in type no smaller and no less prominent than the rest of the text. Many national
animal and habitat protection charities write off a significant amount of their direct
mail fundraising expense as “public education.” (For a list of charities that do, see
the December 1993 ANIMAL PEOPLE feature “Who Gets The Money?”, or
send $2.00 to POB 205, Shushan, NY 12873 for a copy.)

MSPCA and ASPCA controversies

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Charges that the Boston-based Mass-
achusetts SPCA runs Angell Memorial Hospital
as a profitable venture instead of as a charity
resurfaced for the third time in six years on
February 22 in The Boston Globe. “The hospital
requires pet owners to pay for services in full up
front, or at least a 50% deposit with any payment
plan, before any medical work is done on ani-
mals,” explained reporter David Armstrong.
Said Donna Bishop of the Boston-area
rescue group Alliance for Animals, “The MSPCA
bills itself as a resource for people in need, and
they solicit funds on the basis of being a charitable
organization, but when people arrive there and
need services, they are denied.”
Responded Angell Memorial chief of
staff Dr. Paul Gambardella, “There is a perception
that because we are a nonprofit, charitable hospi-
tal, there will be or should be free care or
reduced-cost care. It’s a business. I make no
apologies for that.”

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Another march on Washington?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

BOSTON, Massachusetts––A possible
encore to the June 1990 “March for the Animals”
in Washington D.C. heads the discussion list at the
1994 “Summit for the Animals,” taking place
April 7-10 at the Omni Parker House in Boston.
The “Summit” is an annual meeting
among leaders of two to three dozen animal rights
groups. Participants are asked to pledge secrecy,
and attendance is by invitation only, However,
information sent to ANIMAL PEOPLE by multi-
ple sources indicates that the encore would be
scheduled for 1995 or 1996, and would be orga-
nized by Peter Gerard (formerly Peter Linck), who
also organized the 1990 march.

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Audubon muzzled criticism of hunting

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

SAN FRANCISCO, California––Desperately Seeking Sanctuary, an
hour-long National Audubon Society expose of abuses to the U.S. National
Wildlife Refuge system, aired March 6 on the Turner Broadcasting
Network––but only after senior Audubon officials cut criticism of hunting, trap-
ping, and fishing, investigative freelance Mark Dowie revealed the same day in
the San Francisco Examiner. Dowie is remembered for his 1977 revelation that
the Ford Motor Company had ruled against spending an extra $11 per car to keep
Pintos from exploding in rear-end collisions.
“In the original script and early rough cuts,” Dowie charged, “hunting,
trapping, and fishing were given equal time and treated with as much indignation
as drilling, logging, and military bombing runs. The script had special appeal
for (narrator) Mariel Hemingway, who spent much of her youth tearfully plead-
ing with her father not to hunt big game.” Her father, Gregory Hemingway, a
trophy hunter, pigeon-shooting champion, and convicted transvestite, was son
of author Ernest Hemingway––who became obsessed with hunting after his
mother forced him to wear dresses until he started school.

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