Month: October 1995

BOOKS: Think Like The Animal: Questions to Ask Before You Kill

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Think Like The Animal: Questions to
Ask Before You Kill, by Norm Phelps.
The Fund for Animals (200 West 57th St., New
York, NY 10019), 1995. 10 pages. Free in limited
quantities.

Back from combat in Vietnam, poet Doug
Rawlings has told high school students ever since,
“If they got you thinking about signing up just to kill
you some time, since nothing else is going down,
you better be getting ready to kill you some women
and children too, and you better be getting ready to
kill you some time doing time, doing some long
time locked up in their screams.” Think Like The
Animal effectively delivers the same message to
young men who might be thinking about proving
their manhood by taking up hunting, from the perspective
of a former hunter from a hunting family
who laid down his gun forever at age 15 circa 40
years ago. It might be best used by young women,
approaching young men they know one-on-one.

BOOKS: Congo

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Congo by Michael Crichton
Ballantine Books, N.Y., 1980, re-released with the film. 313 pages, paper, $6.99 U.S.; $7.99 Canadian.

It’s the late 1970s, and several rival groups of computer
businesses (portrayed as having the political ambitions, espionage
techniques, and arms of mini-nationhood) are feverishly competing
to be the first on site at the fabled Lost City of Zinj in the mysterious
depths of the African Congo River basin. Only at Zinj are
to be found the blue diamonds which will revolutionize computer
technology––and whoever finds the diamonds first finds the Bill
Gates-like riches of computerland.
However, the first expedition to Zinj was promptly
wiped out. Through hi-tech detective work and, finally, face-toface
combat, the diamond hunters discover that the gems of Zinj
are guarded by an anomalous race of grey gorilla.

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BOOKS: The Evil Side of a Racetrack

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

The Evil Side of a Racetrack
by Michael John Horak
Rainbow Books Inc. (POB 430, Highland City, FL 33846-0430), 1995. 515 pages, with photos. $30.00.

The Evil Side of a Racetrack is the autobiography of
Michael John Horak, a former harness racing owner, driver
and trainer, most heavily involved in the 1960s, when most
of his story takes place. But now, in 1995, the treatment of
racehorses hasn’t changed for the better. They are still
drugged and raced lame with alarming regularity.
Horak got into racing chiefly for the love of horses
and to be able to make a living with them. He tried to make a
difference by training his horses and those of clients in a cautious,
easy, drug-free manner. He did not believe in racing
an even slightly lame horse, no matter how well a drug
might mask the pain. He knew that drugs might work for a
while and perhaps a few more wins could be had, but in the
end the horse would break down in extreme pain.

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OBITUARIES

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Howard Elliott Winn, 69, died August 13 while gardening at his home in North
Kingstown, Rhode Island. Best known for pioneering acoustic research on whale songs,
Winn was author of more than 120 scientific papers altogether, pertaining to birds and fish as
well as marine mammals. “He was scientific director of the Cetacean and Turtle Assessment
Program,” remembered colleague Robert Kenney, “which was a landmark study in 1978-
1982 of the whales, dolphins, and sea turtles off the northeastern United States. Much of his
whale research over the last 15 years focused on the right whale, the most endangered whale
species. He was the lead investigator of the South Channel Ocean Productivity Experiment, a
large program which significantly advanced our understanding of right whale habitat requirements,and served as a member of the national right whale recovery team. In recent years he was conducting a continuing study of the ecology and behavior of coral reef fish in Belize, Central America.” Earning a B.A. in biology at Bowdoin College in 1948, and an M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, 1950 and 1955, Winn taught for 10 years at the
University of Maryland before joining the University of Rhode Island as professor of
oceanography in 1965. Winn served as president of the Animal Behavior Society in 1966.
He is survived by his wife, Susan Hammen-Winn, and four sons.
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BOOKS: Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations
edited by Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan
Duke University Press (Box 90660, Durham NC 27708-0660), 1995.
366 pages, $16.95 paper, $49.95 cloth.

This collection of 13 essays, discussing
exploitation and abuse of animals
and women from a feminist perspective,
makes for a challenging read. The
premise––that women and animals suffer
similar oppression, for much the same reasons––is
both valid and interesting. But
what the editors describe as a “multidisciplinary
approach” tends to be more scattershot,
uneasily blending discussions of literature,
semantics, sociology, ethics, ecology, etc.
One essayist even digs up an ancient squib
by Virginia Woolf.

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BOOKS: Simply Vegetarian

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Simply Vegetarian:
Easy-to-prepare recipes for the vegetarian gourmet,
edited by Nancy Mair and Susan Rinzler.
Dawn Publications (14618 Tyler Foote Road, Nevada City, CA 95959), 1989.
249 pages; $9.95 paperback.

Originally issued in 1985 as the Ananda Cookbook, Simply Vegetarian has reputedly
sold more than 80,000 copies. I acquired the first edition just before the current edition
appeared in 1989, but didn’t have the brains to use it while courting Kim, when I tried to
impress her by making lentil soup. That may be why she fed the soup to the porch raccoons.
Simply Vegetarian is not a strictly vegan book, but vegans will find plenty in it that they can
eat, will want to try, and will be able to make in less time than the four hours I
spent––twice––trying to impress Kim further by making a vegan peasant pie from a recipe in
another popular vegetarian cookbook, without getting past the midway stage she inelegantly
described as mashed carrots and potatoes.

COURT CALENDAR

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Crimes against wildlife
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on
September 5 for the second time denied Miami
monkey dealer Matthew Block’s attempt to overturn
a 13-month jail sentence he received in April
1993 after pleading guilty to felony conspiracy in
the “Bangkok Six” smuggling case. The “Six”
were baby orangutans whom Block attempted to
have shipped from Singapore to Belgrade in
February 1990, along with two siamang gibbons.
Tightly packed into a crate marked “Birds,” they
were intercepted at the Bangkok airport. Four of
the six orangs died from complications of the conditions
of their transport.

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Paul Watson goes to trial

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland– –
Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society seemed to be the most
relaxed person in the courtroom through the
first week of his trial for allegedly recklessly
endangering the lives of the crew of Cuban drag
trawler Rio Las Casas and his own 29 crew
members as well, including his wife Lisa
DiStefano, during a July 28, 1993 action in
defense of the Atlantic Canadian cod fishery. If
convicted, Watson could be sentenced to life in
prison. But Canadian fisheries officer Wayne
Evans, the first prosecution witness, testified
that Watson was arrested outside Canadian
waters. Extensive video of the encounter presented
by the prosecution showed no contact
between Watson’s vessel, the Cleveland
Amory, and the Rio Las Casas. And three
Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers who
were on the scene testified that they saw no
bumping.

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