BOOKS: Life Song: In Harmony With All Creation

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Life Song: In Harmony With All Creation, by Bill Schul, Ph.D.

Stillpoint Publishing (Box 640, Walpole, NH 03608), 1994.

204 pages, with bibliography. $12.95.

Bill Schul endorses the idea of a

universal life spirit, not the private domain

of homo sapiens, but shared by every organ-

ic entity on the globe. It is a spirit of com-

munication and intelligence, having its

essence at the very cellular core of each liv-

ing thing. This is an idea of mythic and con-

tentious proportions, yet Schul glides easily

across this semi-mystic plane where many

others before him have been blown to bits by

the land mines of the Scientific Method.

BOOKS: Ocean Warrior

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Ocean Warrior, by Captain Paul Watson.

Key Porter Books Ltd. (70 The Esplanade, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E 1R2), 1994. 264 pages, cloth, $26.95.

[In U.S., order from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, 3107-A Washington Blvd., Marina Del Ray, CA 90292.]

If Ocean Warrior was a work of fiction and Paul

Watson had never been a sailor, it would still make Watson a

worthy heir to the tradition of Stephen Crane, Herman

Melville, and Robert Louis Stevenson––a tradition he honors

with allusions to The Open Boat, Moby Dick and Treasure

Island. It’s a can’t-put-it-down page-turner: a rousing collec-

tion of classic sea stories, weaving all five of the eternal

themes into a single narrative. For those who weren’t litera-

ture majors, that’s man-against-man, man-against-woman,

mankind-against-nature, self-against-self, and coming-of-

age. It’s the story of a young man who matures through der-

ring-do in naval battle, growing into the command of a fleet

and leadership of a crusade while more awkwardly grappling

with politics and personal relationships.

OBITUARIES

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Choi Hui-bok, 23, of Pusan,

South Korea, allegedly killed herself on April

12 when her husband Chung Hae-soo came

home drunk after eating dog meat, which

many Koreans believe to be a sexual tonic.

She had tried repeatedly to get him to give it

up. “We fought over the matter and I went to

another room to sleep,” Chung told police.

“When I woke up she was dead, dangling

from a window frame by a necktie.”

Obituaries

The Monkey Wars

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

The Monkey Wars

by Deborah Blum

Oxford University Press (200 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016),

1994. 306 pages, cloth, $25.00.

Based on a Pultizer Prize-winning

investigative series published in 1991 by the

Sacramento Bee, The Monkey Wars is the

fairest, most comprehensive look yet at pri-

mate research and related protest. Author

Deborah Blum gained access to many of the

most controversial researchers and laborato-

ries in the United States. She describes from

first-hand observation the exploratory brain

surgery of Stuart Zola-Morgan, for instance,

combining appreciation of his findings with

discussion of the moral issues that have led

the activist community to brand him “Dr.

Zola-Morbid.”

REVIEWS: The Wellman Procedure: A Surgical Technique for the Complete Gonadectomy in the Dog and Cat

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

The Wellman Procedure: A Surgical Technique for the Complete

Gonadectomy in the Dog and Cat, promoted by William K. Wellman,

DVM, c/o All Creatures Veterinary Surgery (70234 Phoenix, South Haven, MI

49090; 616-637-3929).

According to William K. Wellman,

who advances “The Wellman Procedure” with

mailers, a videotape, and online postings,

“This revolutionary approach to spaying and

neutering cats and dogs promotes less inva-

sive surgery, far less time in surgery, much

shorter recovery time, outpatient surgery for

the pet, increased safety as result of the

above, lowered costs for pet owners, and

higher productivity for veterinarians.” Thus,

Wellman argues, widespread adoption of his

procedure could mean, “The possibility of

millions less unwanted animals, the possibili-

ty of greater affordability, and greater reduc-

tion in the mounting costs of animal control.”

COURT CALENDAR

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Humane Enforcement

American SPCA humane enforcement chief Robert

O’Neill led the biggest cockfighting raid in U.S. history on March

25, arresting 289 alleged spectators and seven alleged organizers in a

Bronx theatre building modified so that the cockpit could be disguised

as a boxing ring at a moment’s notice. Ninety cocks were seized for

euthanasia, along with 20 dead cocks. The ASPCA had already made

240 arrests and seized 1,550 cocks in a series of previous raids that

began in June 1994. The raids caused The New York Times to editorial-

ly demand that judges begin imposing the fines for cockfighting of up

to $25,000 and prison terms of up to four years that New York law

allows, instead of the token fines of about $200 that are usually given.

Scotland Yard on March 19 arrested six men and an

eight-year-old boy in the first cockfighting raid in Britain since 1985.

Another dozen suspects escaped.

High Court undoes transport victories

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

LONDON––The British High Court on April 12

reignited the five-month controversy over the export of live-

stock to European veal finishers and slaughterhouses with a

ruling that Dover, Plymouth, and Coventry had no jurisdic-

tion to ban live animal transport through their docks and air-

ports. The High Court rapped the civic authorities for acting

out of “narrow self-interest” in a “surrender to mob rule.”

The ruling undoes at a stroke the major gain from a

struggle backed by up to 92% of the public, according to

independent polls.

Anti-live export demonstrations commenced in

December 1994 after the European Union failed to adopt

rules of humane transport, and erupted into rioting at several

sites when, blockaded at ports, cattle exporters turned to fly-

ing animals to market. The conflict claimed six human lives:

two British livestock handlers and three Algerian crew mem-

bers aboard a chartered Air Algerie Boeing 737 that crashed

December 21 while returning from a night run to the

Netherlands, plus demonstrator Jill Phipps, 31, who was

crushed beneath a cattle truck on February 1, leaving behind

a nine-year-old son and a private animal sanctuary. Violence

continued into April on both sides, as the Animal Liberation

Front and pro-live export goons hit back and forth at each

other with vandalism and beatings.

An anti-wise use Weiss guy

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

SANTA ROSA, California– – ” In

a former life,” says Larry Weiss, “I prac-

ticed criminal law for 18 years. Eventually I

grew tired of making the streets safe for drug

dealers. Then, in 1985, I providentially

encountered a book, Peter Singer’s Animal

Liberation, which convinced me that I could

remain a lawyer and be proud of my work.”

Ten years later, Weiss grins, “I

mostly defend dog criminals. Or dogs who

are accused of criminal behavior,” he cor-

rects himself. “Especially those of whom it

is suspected they might eventually commit a

crime because someone thinks they resemble

a dog that might have a criminal disposition

under some other circumstance.”

Religion

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

The Miami county courthouse

maintenance staff has created a “Voodoo

Squad” to pick up the dead chickens, goats,

and other relics of Santeria sacrifice found

there each morning, remnants of Caribbean

immigrants’ attempts to influence justice.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 1993

that municipalities may not ban Santeria, but

they may enforce nondiscriminatory restric-

tions on it for reasons of health, sanitation,

and prevention of cruelty to animals.

The Rabbi Mayer Krucfeld,

assistant director of supervision for Star K

Kosher Certification, of Baltimore, recently

spent two days in La Jara, Colorado,

explaining how to start a kosher slaughter-

house to about 50 potential investors.

Currently the westernmost kosher slaughter-

house in the U.S. is Empire Meats, of Iowa.

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