Cull cruelty on camera

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

CHICAGO – –Steve Hindi and Chicago

Animal Rights Coalition colleagues used remote-con-

trolled miniature night-vision cameras in January to

get rare video footage––aired by many local TV sta-

tions––of DuPage County Forest Preserve staff catch-

ing deer in rocket nets and killing them with a captive-

bolt gun.

“One animal was seen jumping as the net

was fired, only to fall on her back. Another deer was

dragged by three others in a net as they tried to escape.

Her head was pulled under her body. Still another

deer suffered for at least 35 minutes,” Hindi said.

Shown the video on January 18, the DuPage

commissioners voted 11-10 to suspend the rocket-net-

ting. But on February 7 they allowed it to resume “for

research,” with the deer thus caught to be radio-col-

lared. Only deer injured by the rocket-netting would

be dispatched with the captive bold gun. Culling con-

tinues via sharpshooting.

Wildlife & People

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

A hungry hippopotamus,

rampaging through rice fields and

upsetting canoes in the Selingue dam

district of Mali, was said to have

magical powers in January after elud-

ing vigilantes for more than a month.

Alaska Department of

Fish and Game officers shot a

mama moose because of “ill disposi-

tion” on January 14 at the University

of Alaska campus in Anchorage, after

she tried to kick professor Bruce

Kappes as he sprinted to class. A few

days earlier the moose fatally stomped

Myung Chin Ra, 71, when he tried to

pass her to enter a building.

Beaver-bashing

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

ALBANY, N.Y.––The New York

Department of Environmental Conservation

plans to ease beaver trapping rules in

Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, per-

haps as early as March. The beaver trapping

season officially ends April 16, but in the

two-county “nuisance zone” landowners

will be allowed to trap beaver year-round

without a permit; will be allowed to use

cable snares, which are cheaper and there-

fore easier to place in large numbers as well

as more easily replaced if they get lost; may

set traps on dens, rather than at least five

feet away; and will be allowed to bait

beavers to specific areas before setting traps.

Hunting

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Robert “Buzz” Barry, 64, assis-

tant executive director of the Sportsmen’s

Alliance of Maine, told reporters on January

21 that he’s giving up hunting mammals after

40 years because of second thoughts he’s had

since a TV debate with an anti-hunter in

November; because his anti-abortion convic-

tions have caused him to review his attitudes

toward the sanctity of life; and most of all

because of the pain and fear he’s seen in the

eyes of animals he’s killed. He asserted, how-

ever, that he isn’t an “anti,” and said he hadn’t

yet decided if he’ll quit shooting birds.

Animals in laboratories

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

The USDA hopes to soon replace the present system of

classifying animal dealers, Animal and Plant Health Inspection

Service officer Steve Smith told ANIMAL PEOPLE on January 3.

All commercial animal breeders other than farmers now receive Class

A permits; those who sell animals they do not breed themselves are

issued Class B permits. A common misperception is that “Class B

dealer” is synonymous with shadowy characters who sell stolen pets to

laboratories, but in fact about three-fourths of the 1,280 current Class

B permit holders are in the pet trade; no more than 75, according to

Smith, sell dogs and cats to labs, and of those, fewer still sell “ran-

dom source” animals. Under the anticipated regulatory amendment,

there will be nine different permit categories, each of which is specific

to the nature of the permit-holder’s business.

Coast Guard

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Responding to reports that the

U.S. Coast Guard shoots the pets of

refugees picked up in the Caribbean,

USCG public affairs chief Captain E.J.

Blanchard writes, “We make every effort

to provide for the safety of life at sea,

including animals. However, the rescue

of human life remains our foremost prior-

ity. In July and August the USCG res-

cued over 56,000 Haitians and Cubans

from flimsy overloaded boats, rafts, and

inner tubes. An unknown number of ani-

mals were also rescued. Our most diffi-

cult moments came during the early days

of the Cuban exodus. On one day alone,

over 3,300 people on 600 different rafts

were rescued. Some of our 110-foot cut-

ters had over 400 boat people each on

their decks. Our commanding officers

were making life-and-death decisions on

a minute-by-minute basis. Unfortunately,

Willy may be freed

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

MEXICO CITY––Keiko, the orca star of the 1993 film

Free Willy!, will be relocated to a new facility under construction at

the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport by November, Free Willy-

Keiko Foundation president David Phillips announced on February

6––and this time, after many false alarms, the deal was confirmed by

Oscar Porter, general director of Keiko’s present home at the Nuevo

Reino Aventura amusement park in Mexico City.

Keiko, believed to be about 16, will be accompanied by

some of the Nuevo Reino Aventura staff, Porter said, praising him

for having “developed a very special sensitivity, intuiting and perceiv-

ing people. Keiko is very affectionate,” Porter continued, “especially

toward children, ‘showering’ them constantly with his outstanding

jumps. He is so intelligent that he has been able to learn more than 54

different routines.”

MARINE LIFE

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Biologist Macarena Green of Quito, Ecuador, on January 12

issued an Internet SOS for marine life in the Galapagos islands. On

October 15, 1994, she said, the Ecuadoran government opened the region

to sea cucumber collection for the first time, setting a quota of 550,000 to

be picked over the next three months. “However, in two months the take

exceeded seven million,” Green stated. “Fishermen were not only collect-

ing sea cucumbers, but also sea horses, snails, sea urchins, and black

coral. Also, one fisherman admitted he had already sent to Japan sea lion

penises as a try-out for a new aphrodisiac. The Japanese buyer paid $50 for

each penis.” The sea cucumber season was closed due to the abuse on

December 15, but, “The people involved during the lucrative yet devastat-

ing enterprise were not about to accept that. During the first days of

January they took over installations of the Park Service and Darwin Station.

They kept all the people inside as hostages, including the wives of many of

the workers and children. They threatened to kill all the tortoises in captivi-

ty at the station, and they threatened to start fires on little islands,” which

would also kill endangered tortoises. Green begged that letters on behalf of

keeping the sea cucumber season closed, permanently, be sent to Arq.

Sixto Duran Ballen, Presidente Constitucional de la Republica de Ecuador,

Palacia de Gobierna, Quito, Ecuador.

Be kind to your web-footed friends, by Lewis G. Nierman

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Other than a small number of dedicated wildlife rescuers, few Floridians care about

the state’s remnant population of Muscovy ducks. Misinformation and outright propaganda

from people in positions of responsibility meanwhile foster contempt and hatred for

Muscovies, who are termed “unattractive” and thereby condemned to abuse.

Muscovy ducks were brought to Florida from Central and South America more than

a century ago, to be raised for meat. Believed to have been first domesticated, as pets, by

Peruvian natives, they were imported into England as early as 1550, spreading from there to

Holland, Flanders, and France. They appear in the paintings of these nations’ 17th century

masters. The origin of their name is either in the Muscovite company which brought them

from South America, or in the name “musco duck,” by which they are known on the

Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua, where they first were found.

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