OBITUARIES

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

Isabelle Gronert, 79, died

September 21 in New York City. Gronert

worked tirelessly for the rights of animals,

from demonstrating against the infamous cat

experiments at the American Museum of

Natural History in 1976 right up to her death.

She wrote letters, worked the telephone,

marched, raised funds, and found homes for

abandoned animals at her own expense. The

British-born World War II D-Day veteran

sought no recognition, only justice for ani-

mals. And she had the perfect answer to the

accusatory, “Well, what do you do for

humans?” often hurled at her while tabling:

she was a longtime volunteer at Roosevelt

Hospital, working with AIDS patients.

Gronert’s love extended to other living things,

including flowers, trees, and plants. She was

a popular member of the New York

Horticultural Society, and often lectured on

the care of African violets. Her own collection

of those beautiful plants in the window of her

home reminded visitors of an English cottage,

complete with a friendly offering of a cup of

tea. Her three feline companions, Max,

Jasmin, and Topsy, will be cared for by a

close friend. Gronert’s kindness, strength, and

determination were an inspiration to all those

lucky enough to know and love her. She will

be missed by many, but her spirit will always

be with us.

––Linda Petrie

Obituaries

BOOKS: Jennie

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

Jennie, by Doug Preston, Wyatt

Books, c/o St. Martins Press (175 Fifth

Ave., New York, NY 10010), 1994,

336 pages, hardcover $21.95.

It’s hard to believe this book is

fiction. The creatures in it––chimpanzee

and assorted humans––are that real; the sit-

uation is that detailed and specific.

BOOKS: Circus of the Wolves & Tano & Binti

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

Circus of the Wolves, by Jack

Bushnell, illustrated by Robert

Andrew Parker. William Morrow &

Co. Inc. (1350 Ave. of the Americas,

New York, NY 10019), 1994. 34 pages,

with 16 full-page illustrations. $15.00.

Tano & Binti: Two Chimpanzees

Return to the Wild, by Andy and

Linda DaVo l l s. Clarion Books (215

Park Ave. South, New York, NY

10003), 1994. 28 pages, with 12 double-

page illustrations. $14.95.

Famine hits Puget orcas

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

The orca population of Puget Sound has

grown from just 68 in 1976 to 94 now, reports

marine mammologist Ken Balcomb, of Friday

Harbor, Washington––but may fall fast, as many

whales in the heavily fished waters show signs of

starvation. Males are apparently suffering more

than females; several are missing, presumed dead.

The famine is a blow to the hopes of

groups trying to win the release of orcas captured

from those waters, including Lolita, 30, of the

Miami Seaquarium, currently considered the best

candidate. The Seaquarium tank is unsafe, Ric

O’Barry of the Dolphin Project alleges, and could

be ruptured by displacement from Lolita’s leaps.

MARINE LIFE

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

Hong Kong is building a new airport on

fill dumped into the former main feeding area for

highly endangered Chinese white dolphins, a sub-

species found only in the Hong Kong harbor area and

actually more pink than white. Of the 400 white dol-

phins counted circa 1990, only 50 to 100 survive

––many in a bay already designated for similar devel-

opment. The Hong Kong government has responded

to the dolphins’ plight by hiring biologists Lindsay

Porter and Chris Parsons to document their demise.

The Kyodo news agency reported

November 11 that the Japanese Institute of

Cetacean Research is soon to sell 65 metric tons of

meat from 21 minke whales killed last summer in the

northwestern Pacific––the first whales killed there

legally since 1986. The price is to be $17 per pound.

While nominally honoring the International Whaling

Commission moratorium on commercial whaling,

Japan has killed 300 minke whales for “research” in

the southern Pacific each year since 1987, selling the

meat after cursory study. This year Japan planned to

kill 100 minke whales in the northern Pacific as well.

Kyodo didn’t make clear how many whales of the

quota were actually killed.

Retired shrimper Cyrus Seven has pro-

posed starting a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchery

near Houma, Alabama, to be funded by the shrimp

industry in lieu of using much-hated turtle exclusion

devices on their nets.

Another of the 12 former Ocean World

dolphins who was flown to the Institute for Marine

Sciences in the Honduras on September 15 has

died––Squirt, age 34, captive at least 30 years.

Doug Cook, her trainer until 1979, burst into tears

at the news. “You might as well have told me my

mother died,” he said. “Squirt was the dolphin who

kept me in the business. She had one bad eye––she

lost the sight in it in the wild––but she was just

amazing, like a person in the things she could

understand and do. She would watch you training

another animal, and all of a sudden present you with

the routine, the whole thing, and get all of it right

the first time. She would improvise during a perfor-

mance, and if you tossed her a fish, it became a per-

manent part of her act. She loved to perform.”

Squirt died seven weeks after Trouble, her seven-

year-old niece, succumbed to pneumonia. Worried

by that death, Cook went to Honduras himself for a

first-hand look at the Institute for Marine Sciences,

which is part of the St. Anthony’s Key dolphin swim

program. He found the conditions and care excellent,

he said, a few days before Squirt died, but added

that he personally would have kept the dolphins in

the same social groups they had at Ocean World, to

avoid bullying, rather than putting them all into the

same lagoon together. Two of the dolphins, Mabel

and Tiger, are reputedly bullies; Tiger, he said,

once killed a young dolphin in a fight over food after

being starved as punishment by then-Ocean World

trainer Russ Rector. After Squirt’s death, Cook spec-

ulated that both dead dolphins might have overheated

on the flight from Florida. Overheating, he said,

may not kill dolphins immediately, but can lead to

death later of problems such as cirosis of the liver

that “can look like ordinary conditions of age.”

Merlin, one of the first five dolphins

brought to The Mirage dolphinarium in Las Vegas,

died October 29 at age 30-plus. Veterinarian Lanny

Cornell said the death was due to old age. An

Atlantic bottlenose acquired in 1990 from the

Hawk’s Cay Resort and Marina in Duck Key,

Florida, Merlin sired four calves at The Mirage, of

whom one died in infancy; three remain there, along

with the other four dolphins who arrived with him.

A National Marine Fisheries Service task

force has voted 15-6 in favor of killing up to 40

California sea lions at the Ballard Locks in Seattle,

to protect threatened and endangered steelhead runs.

Protests are being coordinated by Mark Berman of

Earth Island Institute: 415-788-3666.

Indonesia on November 5 banned catch-

ing and selling the rare Napolean wrasse, a seven-

foot fish often caught through the use of poisons that

kill coral. Environment minister Sarwono

Kusumaatmadja said Indonesia would pursue a

CITES listing for the Napoleon wrasse next year.

A humpback whale freed on November

16 by British and Omani divers after spending five

days trapped in a fish net thanked them by leaping

“out of the water six or seven times in succession,

landing with thunderous splashes, as if to celebrate

its newfound freedom,” the team reported.

Animals in laboratories

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

A Call for Public Forums on the

Use of Animals in Research and Education,

issued by Jane Goodall and the Green World

Center, asks university students and faculty to

“learn about and discuss animal experimenta-

tion and its actual practice in your own com-

munity,” emphasizing exchange of perspec-

tives over confrontation. “One of the greatest

barriers to social change is the confrontational

approach,” Goodall concluded. “Many areas

of discussion do not resolve neatly into black

and white. Learning from and reasoning with

those who do not share our views is one way

we grow as people.” Mailed to university

newspapers across the U.S. circa November 1,

the call was ratified in a follow-up mailing by

the American Anti-Vivisection Society.

Elephants HSUS “saved” are still in Milwaukee

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

MILWAUKEE––The long-awaited

transfer of the former Milwaukee County Zoo

elephants Tamara and Annie to the Performing

Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in Galt,

California, originally set for September, has

been postponed until spring.

PAWS president Pat Derby said the

delay is “primarily because the trailer training

for the elephants is going very slowly. Our

consultant Ellen Leech and the zoo staff have

been working with the elephants using rewards

and positive reinforcement,” she added. “We

expect that by spring the elephants will be

ready to load without undue stress.”

Zoos

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

The Buenos Aires City Zoo

announced October 28 that it intends to sue

the pregnant mother of a two-year-old, who

claimed a loose monkey scratched and bit the

boy, attacking from behind as zookeepers

fled. The zoo says the boy was hurt after get-

ting past security barriers. Reuters described

the 104-year-old zoo as “poorly maintained.”

Friends of Animals is investigating

a lawsuit to save 30 deer who share natural

habitat at the Mohegan Park Zoo in Norwich,

Connecticut. Norwich public works director

Paul Wadja has proposed killing the deer to

save the cost of complying with federal fenc-

ing and tuberculosis testing requirements.

Coulston keeps Air Force chimp contract

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

The U.S. Air Force has renewed

the Coulston Foundation’s contract to man-

age the 540-member chimpanzee colony at

Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The colony, the world’s largest, includes

140 chimps left over or descended from those

used in lieu of human astronauts during the

early days of NASA. The rest belong to

Coulston, a biomedical research suppler.

Founder Frederick Coulston, 79, reportedly

wants to expand the use of chimps, now

used mainly in AIDS and hepatitis research,

into testing treatments for conditions of age.

According to Boston Globe

reporter Scott Allen, “Coulston or his associ-

ates have removed chimps’ gall bladders to

study how the animals produce bile, and

Coulston believes that chimps are often the

best model for studying the effects of toxic

chemicals on humans. And Coulston pio-

neered the use of lower primates such as

monkeys in tests in which chemicals are

sprayed into open eyes, a practice he still

supports. Sources close to the company say

his researchers tested oven cleaner on mon-

keys’ eyes last year, despite initial objec-

tions from the in-house panel that reviews

research ethics.”

« 1 2 3 »