Day: September 1, 1994

Editorial: Table manners

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

In 1987 the Iowa state legislature created the Iowa State University Bioethics
Institute, with a mandate to study the ethical issues involved in farming––and to prepare
ISU College of Agriculture graduates to meet the evolving ethical requirements of the gen-
eral public. Central to the ISUBI program is an annual week-long seminar for ISU scientific
researchers, at which all meals are vegetarian.
ISUBI has not forgotten where its funding comes from. Iowa is in fact more eco-
nomically dependent upon animal agriculture than any other state. Of the 36 million acres
of land surface in Iowa, 61% are used to grow fodder crops, while 11.4% of the private
workforce in Iowa is employed, directly or indirectly, by the cattle and hog industries.
Promoting vegetarianism is not an ISUBI objective. Yet ISUBI considers introducing farm-
ers and scientists to vegetarianism essential, because for a variety of ethical and health-
related reasons, it is an increasingly popular lifestyle that they must understand and reckon
with. Farmers and scientists who do not appreciate the reality of vegetarianism will not be
well-equipped to make important ethical and economic judgements. ISUBI therefore prac-
tices temporary immersion in vegetarianism much as foreign language seminars practice
immersion in the cultures of other nations.

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LETTERS [Sept. 1994]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Burned
On April 28, Jennifer O’Connor, the acting president of
Voice For All Animals, was walking a few blocks from her home
with one of her dogs. A truck driver pulling a tub of hot tar lost
control of his 1965-vintage truck, which had Mexican license
plates, and splashed Jennifer and the dog with the tar. Jennifer
received second and third degree burns over 36% of her body and
needed to be taken to the hospital. Even though she was in
tremendous pain, she would not allow the paramedics to take her
until she had made sure someone she trusted would take the dog to
her veterinarian. Realizing how expensive even a day in the hos-
pital can be, and despite her intense pain, Jennifer did not stay
overnight. Still, she had to go for painful and costly treatments
on a daily basis. Several weeks later, because the cost of the $300
treatments were getting out of reach, and against the better judge-
ment of the doctor, she started doing the treatments herself.
Jennifer will also need some skin grafts which she cannot afford.

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Whale-meat and brain damage

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A comparison of the pilot whale
consumption of pregnant Faroese women
with amounts of methyl mercury found in
umbilical cords and maternal hair has
discovered that those who eat whale meat
often pass mercury to their fetuses at lev-
els which may cause brain damage.
Conducted by biochemists Christine
Dalgard, Philippe Grandjean, Poul
Jergensen, and Pal Weihe, of Odense
University, Denmark, the study was
published in the June/July 1994 issue of
Environmental Health Perspectives.
Ignoring the international ban on com-
mercial whaling, Faroe Islanders kill
circa 2,000 whales a year. The Faroes are
a Danish protectorate.

Did Japan quit killing hawksbill turtles to resume killing whales?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

TOKYO, Japan––More than
three years after former U.S. president
George Bush warned Japan to quit dealing in
hawksbill sea turtles or face trade sanctions
under the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species, Japan on July 15
banned the import of the rare turtles and/or
their parts––after importing circa 30 tons of
hawksbill turtleshell during the first half of
1994 alone. The shells are used to make var-
ious ornamental sundries. The Bush warn-
ing, never followed up, was the first-ever
U.S. move to enforce CITES, although
Congress gave the President the authority to
do so in 1977. Japan is believed to have
imported parts of more than two million sea
turtles since 1971, according to Earth Island
Institute, including the shells of at least
234,000 hawksbills during the 1980s.

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Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace take on Norwegian whalers; JAPAN IGNORES SANCTUARY; RUSSIA MAY FOLLOW

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

NORTH SEA, TOKYO–––As a
summer of intense whaling and anti-whaling
activity off Norway closed, Japan announced
on August 12 that it too would flout the
International Whaling Commission by taking
an “exception” to the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary, created in May. A similar
announcement was expected from Russia.
While Norway for the second year
unilaterally set a commercial whaling quota,
breaking the IWC moratorium on commercial
whaling in effect since 1986, Japan formally
objected to the inclusion of minke whales as a
protected species within the newly created
sanctuary, which includes 80% of the known
minke whale habitat: all waters south of the
40th parallel except for a dip around South
America. The objection means Japan will
proceed with plans for a so-called scientific
hunt of 300 minke whales within the sanctu-

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Summer flooding tested disaster prep in Georgia

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

MACON, Georgia––Tropical Storm Alberto killed 31 people during the second
week of July, washing out 9,000 homes, 1,700 roads, 600 bridges, and 100 dams across
southern Georgia. Animals suffered too, as 300,000 chickens drowned on just one farm near
Montezuma, while 83 dogs and cats died in the submerged Sumter County Humane Society
shelter, a short distance north at Americus. Of the dogs left inside, only the shelter mascot
survived, hiding in a storage closet that withstood the water. One cat also survived, who was
quickly adopted out and named “Miracle.” Six dogs kept outside escaped as the torrent
wrecked their cages.
The Georgia Wildlife Resources division expected a heavy impact upon rabbits,
rodents, foxes, and fawns, who were born late this year due to a lingering winter. Driving

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Free Willy––or breed him? MORE AT RISK THAN MONEY IN OCEANARIUMS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A surfacing fin whale probably didn’t inspire the
Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.––but she might
have. She rises from the trench between waves like a glisten-
ing black wall, low at first, easing up out of the water until
her fin breaks the horizon and she looms for a moment as big
in life as in symbol. Then she spouts, arches her back, and
slides out of sight. Her broad tail never breaks the surface.
Just 15 seconds with a wild whale, after a 330-mile
drive and a three-hour cruise, can unforgetably confirm the
mystique of whales. Add to that half an hour of observing the
dolphins who often surf the wakes of whale-watching vessels,
and it’s no surprise that whale-watching draws 1.5 million
people per year in New England alone, pumping $317 million
into the local economy. Globally, says the British-based
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, whale-watching is
now worth more than whale-killing ever was––perhaps even
in Japan, the leading market worldwide for whale meat.

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