Month: October 1995

Bad dogs or bad dog laws?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

“Our Potentially Dangerous Dog ordin
ance is under serious attack here in Portland,”
reports Multinomah County Animal Control director
Dave Flagler, whose online screen name is Dog Byte
1. “There is a move to test the constitutionality of the
ordinance because the ordinance requires that some
behavious warrant the destruction of the dog.”
Leader of the opposition Gail O’Connell Babcock
argues that, “The current law does not accurately
identify dogs who truly represent potential hazards to
the community. MCAC should no longer be permitted
to serve as police, prosecutor, and judge,” in
dogbite cases. “The law should be revised to empha
size rehabilitation and training. Mediation should
precede any contested hearing. If mediation fails, the
dispute should be resolved in a real court, not a kangaroo
court.” Other players in the dispute, both
members of the Portland Animal Control Advisory
Committee, include Patti Strand and Roger Troen.

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Animal rescue abroad

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

A wide-ranging new anti-cruelty bill
introduced in Victoria state, Australia, on
September 7 by agriculture minister Bill McGrath
would give greater powers of intervention to prevent
cruelty to police, Royal SPCA, and state government
inspectors; extend the definition of animals to cover
fish and crustaceans; apply to the use of animals in
reasearch; remove religous-based exemptions to
existing laws governing the humane slaughter of fowl;
and ban the transport of untethered dogs in the backs
of trucks and trailers unless they are helping to move
livestock. The provisions pertaining to aquatic life,
McGrath said, are “not intended to intrude on existing
commercial practices in the fishing industries, but
will enable inspectors to investigate the transport and
display of crayfish and the preparation of fish and
crustaceans for the table.”

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A WHALE OF A TALE FROM INSIDE HSUS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Fired on
August 11, according to one Humane Society
of the U.S. senior executive and numerous
staff, HSUS vice president for investigations
and legislation David Wills remains officially
“on administrative leave,” amid an apparent
board-level power struggle.
ANIMAL PEOPLE sources within
HSUS indicate that HSUS president Paul
Irwin and some board members want Wills
out; John Hoyt, president of Humane Society
International and Wills’ longtime patron, purportedly
wants to keep him. HSI is the
umbrella for HSUS and numerous affiliates.
HSUS/HSI board chair O.J. “Joe”
Ramsey is said to be heading a probe of accusations
that Wills misused funds and sexually
harassed subordinates. A corporate attorney
in Sacramento, California, Ramsey has
served on the HSUS board since 1975; his
arrival roughly coincided with that of Irwin.
Ten days after the September edition
of ANIMAL PEOPLE detailed complaints
against Wills by many current and former
HSUS staffers, we received a letter from
Washington D.C. media lawyer Stuart
Pierson, charging we had made “defamatory
and false statements about Mr. Wills” by
“asserting that Mr. Wills was fired.”

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HSUS anti-hunting except…

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Animal Rights America board member Stuart
Chaifetz charged via the Internet on July 15 and August 20
that the Humane Society of the U.S. had retreated from
anti-hunting policy by endorsing deer culls at three New
Jersey state parks––Black River State Park in 1992; the
Watchung Reservation in 1993, where sharpshooters rather
than sport hunters did the killing; and Lewis Morris State
Park this year. Chaifetz said HSUS regional representative
Nina Austenberg had asked him to cancel a hunt sabotage at
Black River, and had ratified the Watchung and Lewis
Morris culling plans.

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Is it time for Helen Jones of ISAR to retire?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

CLARKS SUMMIT, Pennsylvania–– Dave
Sickles says he moved to northern Pennsylvania, at his own
expense, on the promise of an “executive level position”
starting August 1 with the International Society for Animal
Rights. But when he reported for duty, Sickles says, ISAR
founder and president Helen Jones told him he wouldn’t be
hired, because there was purportedly nothing for him to do.
Yet, Sickles continues, there was plenty for him to
do in the weeks preceding his purported hiring date, when he
fulfilled ISAR assignments as a volunteer. Once in late June,
Sickles avers, he bought a case of white wine on Jones’
instructions at a local liquor store, using an ISAR charge
card. On several occasions, Sickles asserts, he witnessed
Jones having “five glasses of wine for lunch.” As a volunteer,
he says, he shared office space with “sixty or seventy
cats, many of whom were sick and dying.” And Sickles
claims he saw other signs of bizarre behavior by Jones,
including bouts of fear of venturing outside, called agoraphobia,
that were so severe she could scarcely cross the street.

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MORE MONKEY BUSINESS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

ACE Hardware monkeys
A spider monkey, a crab-eating macaque,
and three capuchins who for many years were kept in
solitary confinement as mascots of the five Buikema’s
Ace Hardware stores in Chicago’s western suburbs
were delivered to Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation
on September 2 as result of a year-long campaign led
by Deb Leahy and Joe Taksel of Illinois Animal
Action, with final negotiations handled by Bill
Dollinger of Friends of Animals. The effort gained
momentum after one monkey developed an ear infection
and eventually tore part of the ear off, leading to
USDA citations of the franchise owner for failing to
provide adequate veterinary care. A mix-up between
IAA and FoA resulted in IAA arranging to send the
monkeys to WRR while FoA, unaware of that deal,
asked Wally Swett of Primarily Primates to take them.

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Seven chimps safe, maybe more

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

STIRLING FOREST, N.Y.––Up in the air for
more than a year, the fate of seven chimpanzees formerly
used in biomedical research by the U.S. Army was apparently
settled on the eve of a September 15 deadline when former
New York University primatologist James Mahoney reportedly
flew to California and personally approved Wildlife
Waystation as their retirement destination.
The chimps were mustered out of the Army into the
custody of the NYU-affiliated Laboratory for Experimental
Medicine and Surgery In Primates, which subcontracted with
the Buckshire Corporation, of Perkasie, Pennsylvania, for
their temporary care while permanent facilities were built in
Texas. Both LEMPSIP founder Jan Moor-Jankowski and
Mahoney were close to retirement, and anticipated retiring
their entire 225-member chimp colony, if possible.
It never happened. In August 1994, MoorJankowski
and Mahoney resigned from the NYU Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committee in protest over what MoorJankowski
called “highly reprehensible” conduct that “must
be stopped” on the part of fellow NYU primate researcher
Robert Wood, who since 1986 had conducted controversial
drug addiction experiments on chimps and squirrel monkeys
at a separate facility.

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Wolves

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

The Denver-based Mountain States Legal
Foundation, a leading wise-use group, on September 7
sued the U.S. government for $500 on behalf of rancher
Eugene Hassey, 74, of Lemhi County, Idaho, who claims
the sum in compensation for a calf he says was killed in
January by a wolf released as part of the Yellowstone/central
Idaho wolf restoration project. An unknown party shot the
wolf as she ate the carcass. Defenders of Wildlife was initially
prepared to pay Hussey out of a fund that since 1987
has paid about 20 Michigan, Montana, and Minnesota
ranchers a total of circa $17,000 for alleged wolf predation
losses––but a federal autopsy found the calf died during
birth, and the wolf only scavenged her remains. Hassey
claimed at a March 29 Congressional hearing that he was
abused by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents Tom Riley,
Steve Magone, and Paul Weyland when they tried to execute
a warrant to search his property for evidence in the wolf
shooting. Idaho attorney general Alan Lance compared
them to “the secret police or the Keystone Kops.” But a transcript
of a tape recording the agents made during the incident,
released September 13, revealed that they remained
calm and professional while Hassey cursed them and threw
rocks at them until sheriff Brett Barsalou arrived and ordered
them to leave.

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LETTERS [Oct 1995]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Motivation
I’ve found a new use for ANIMAL PEOPLE:
motivational tool. I completed almost all the odious domestic
chores that I’ve put off for too long by using the following
strategy: if I do (insert tedious household task), I can read
one article and one department in ANIMAL PEOPLE. Now
I can confidently say the housework will get done at least 10
times a year! (ANIMAL PEOPLE is the only paper I read.)
––Judith Messimer
St. Louis, Missouri

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