A Project of Animal People, Inc., 1992-2013
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
Wild Horses: A Spirit Unbroken, by Elwyn Hartley Edwards.
112 pages, $24.95 hardcover.
Swans, by Dafila Scott.
72 pages, 50 color photos, $14.95 hardcover.
Frogs, by David Badger, with photos by John Netherton.
141 pages, $35.00 hardcover.
All from Voyageur Press (123 North 2nd St., Stillwater, MN 55082-5002), 1995.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
Jo Stallard, 74, remembered by
the San Jose Mercury-News as “one of the
most determined environmentalists, conservationists,
and animal rights activists ever to
grace the Monterey Peninsula,” died
November 10 of cancer in a Monterey hospice.
Stallard “rarely let anything distract her from
her commitment to animals,” the Mercury-
News continued, “which she said deserved
first consideration because they preceded
humans on the planet. She always had an
SPCA-special dog or cat in her home, often a
canary, too,” and a tortoise, E.T., with a
warning sign in her window: “Patrolled by
attack-tortoise.” An officer of the Monterey
County SPCA, Stallard also co-founded the
Animal Rights Council and at various times
led the Monterey Peninsula Chapter of the
National Audubon Society, the Big Sur
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
Really Radical Reptiles & Amphibians and
Mind-Blowing Mammals, both by Leslee
Elliott. Sterling Publishing Co. (387 Park Avenue
South, New York, NY 10016-8810), 1995. 64 pages
each, $9.95 paperback.
If it’s from Sterling, you can bet it’s fact-filled and
copiously illustrated. Really Radical Reptiles and M i n d –
Blowing Mammals, the lead titles in Sterling’s new Amazing
Animals series, are print peers of the acclaimed National
Geographic Really Wild Animals videos, sure to fascinate
adolescents because they’re as entertaining as they are authoritative.
My only complaint about the Amazing Animals series
concerns the titles––especially the conclusions that the folks
who censor school libraries may jump to upon seeing them
spelled out on catalog cards. The word “radical,” lately
associated with Mutant Ninja Turtles, has not otherwise been
linked with reptilians since the eastern timber rattler ornamented
the “Don’t Tread On Me!” flag during the American
Revolution. Even worse, the phrase Mind-Blowing Mammals
implies the silverback gorilla on the cover could be in a crack
rage, while the title page lemur’s eyes may be dialated from
smoking marijuana. What’s next, Frenzied Fish? Sexy
Insects? Or Rock-and-Rolling Robins & Other Weird Birds?
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
Chad McKittrick, 42, of Red
Lodge, Montana, was convicted by a jury
on October 25 of illegally killing one of the
15 wolves who were released into
Yellowstone National Park in February.
McKittrick shot the male wolf on April 24.
Song Ho Kim, of Vancouver,
British Columbia, was convicted November
16 on 11 counts of illegally trafficking in bear
parts. Convicted a month earlier of a similar
offense was K.H. Yong, also of Vancouver.
The two were nabbed in a crackdown apparently
begun after Peter Knights of the privately
funded Global Security Network photographed
bear parts for sale in 13 out of 20
traditional pharamacies in Vancouver’s
Chinatown.
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
British High Court Justice
Richard Rougier ruled November 22 that a
pit bull terrier named Dempsey, subject of
three years of internationally publicized litigation,
need not be euthanized simply because a
friend of owner Dianne Fanneran allowed her
to run temporarily without a muzzle, violating
the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991, which
banned pit bulls from Great Britain. Rougier
wrote that the Dangerous Dogs Act, “bears all
the hallmarks of an ill-thought-out piece of
legislation, no doubt drafted in response to a
pressure group.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
The European Patent Office on November 24 postponed an expected ruling on a
petition from Compassion in World Farming and 16 other animal welfare and religious groups,
asking it to reverse its 1992 decision that Harvard University and DuPont could be allowed to
patent Oncamouse, a strain of mouse genetically modified to be more vulnerable to human
forms of cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration is reportedly soon to release two reports
indicating that as result of overfeeding and lack of excercise, many laboratory rodents are
in such poor physical condition that toxicity tests involving them could yield seriously misleading
results. One strain of rat has doubled its average weight since 1970, according to
National Center for Toxicological Research scientist William Allaben, who calls them “Just
blobs of fat with legs.” Commenting on the survival rate of experimental control animals,
which at Merck Research Laboratories fell from 58% to 24% over the past 20 years, Merck
veterinary pathologist Kevin Keenan suggests that, “The most toxic substance we’ve tested in
our laboratory is the food.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
SUMMERVILLE, S.C. – – An
early-November rumor reaching International
Primate Protection League president Shirley
McGreal indicates that for the first time a
chimpanzee has developed HIV, the human
form of AIDS, 10 years after experimental
infection at the Yerkes Regional Primate
Center in Atlanta. Previously, chimps have
only developed SIV, or simian AIDS.
“The chimp to date is not yet sick,”
McGreal said. “The possible finding at Yerkes
may explain some recent movement of chimps:
lots of possible drug contracts. Most chimps
used for AIDS research in the U.S. are captiveborn,
but we may see foreign drug companies
or nonprofits set up to serve U.S. firms, which
would get them access to chimps barred from
commercial trade byConvention on
International Trade in Endangered Species.”
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
A dead humpback whale discovered off
San Francisco on November 3 and two more
found floating near the Farallon Islands o n
November 9 brought an early halt to the controversial
Scripps Institution of Oceanography experiment
in using low-frequency sound to measure ocean
temperature and, thereby, global warming. The
$35 million Accoustic Tomography of Ocean
Climate experiment wasn’t to begin until November
8, amid precautions to monitor the effect on marine
life including transmitter-equipped elephant seals, a
sonar assessment of krill movements, and four
whale-spotters in aircraft. However, the Scripps
team turned on the ATOC sonic equipment 13 times
in preliminary tests between October 28 and
November 4, violating the protocol reached earlier
with wildlife protection groups who sued to stop the
project, arguing that the sound waves would deafen
whales and seals. At deadline the National Marine
Fisheries Service was still trying to determine
whether ATOC had anything to do with the whale
deaths, which could also have been caused by a
toxic algal bloom reported circa Halloween by
recreational divers. Alarmed by the whale deaths,
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
MIAMI, Florida––Pressure on the embattled Miami
Seaquarium intensified on October 23 when Metro Dade building director
Carlos Bonzon gave management 45 days to come up with a plan to repair
Lolita the Killer Whale’s Stadium, the 25-year-old central attraction of the
facility. Plans for a $70 million expansion, including a new whale stadium,
are on hold due to a lawsuit filed by the nearby town of Key Biscayne.
“Lolita’s tank appears to be structurally sound,” the M i a m i
H e r a l d reported on November 25. However, “the grandstand has been
severely corroded by saltwater, and is held up by temporary beams.”
Bonzon’s order came a year after whale freedom advocate Ric
O’Barry introduced himself to the Dade County building inspection
department as “the former trainer of the Seaquarium’s original killer whale,
Hugo,” who died in 1980, and charged that the crumbling whale stadium
could be broken up by displacement as Lolita leaps.
The Seaquarium staff architect called O’Barry’s claim unfounded.