BOOKS: The Flight of the Osprey

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

The Flight of the Osprey, by Ewan Clarkson. St. Martin’s Press (175 5th
Ave., New York, NY 10010), 1995. 192 pages. $19.95, hardcover.

Nicola Fray is widowed at age 37.
Her late husband, a botanist, taught respect
for all creatures. But when fishery owner
Martin Collier beds and subsequently weds
her, after much dithery coyness on her part,
she not only learns to live happily with his
fishing, but has her eyes “opened” to the
“scientific” virtues of hunting.

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BOOKS: Diary of a Cat

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

D i a ry of a Cat, by Leigh Rutledge.
Dutton (375 Hudson St., New York, NY
10014), 1995. $12.95, hardback.

After Dear Tabby, this book by the
same author may disappoint, because the
feline diarist focuses not on cats, but less
realistically, on human conversations and
activities. The details eventually merge into a
“fur-fetched” plot. For example, a mysterious
animal named Vlad, of unspecified
species, does in a villainous woman who gets
buried in the flower bed, and at the final
word of this book the deed has still presented
no problems. Some of the cats’ antics, while

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BOOKS: Beyond Prejudice: The Moral Significance of Human and Nonhuman Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Beyond Prejudice: The Moral Significance of Human and
Nonhuman Animals, by Evelyn B. Pluhar. Duke University Press (Box
90660, Durham, NC 27708), 1995. 370 pages, index and bibliography, no discernible
price.

Add Beyond Prejudice to the dusty
mountains ground out by pedantic philosophical
debaters concerning the strained relations
between humankind and animals.
Pluhar is meticulous and thorough in
researching and presenting her
argument––over 300 pages of small
type––but does that justify yet another tome
on a subject long since picked to death?

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BOOKS: The Dog Who Rescues Cats

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

The Dog Who Rescues Cats: The True Story of
G i n n y, by Philip Gonzalez and Lenore Fleischer. HarperCollins
(10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022-5299),
1995. $16.00 hardback.
Imagine a tough Vietnam veteran, a laborer who lived to
spend, turning into a man who lives impoverished by choice, to
enable rescuing and nurturing the outcast cats of the Long Island
beach areas––not just lost housepets, but cats born feral and afflicted
with every kind of pest, disease, and defect, including some gruesomely
damaged by cruel people. He cherishes cats who are blind,
deaf, lacking hind feet, and one who is neurologically defective, and
tells us that even these can make loving and pleasure-giving friends
and companions. Living on disability pay after an accident took away
his job and his former physical freedom , this man spent nearly
$1,000 on only one of the many cats he continually sought veterinary
aid for, all the time feeding many feral cats and neutering all he could
catch.

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No arrests, no charges, but lawsuit in Petaluma shelter case

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

PETALUMA, Calif.––Sonoma County district
attorney J. Michael Mullins on December 1 said there was no
evidence to support criminal charges pertaining to the operation
of the Petaluma animal shelter by Thunder and Lightning’s
Cause, but as 1995 ended, the shelter remained under interim
administration by the Humane Society of Sonoma County.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported on
December 22 that the Petaluma city council “is considering terminating
TLC’s contract because of lingering concerns over
finances and recent complaints of animal mistreatment.”
Attorney Richard Day, representing TLC, reportedly
demanded after charges were not filed that TLC be put back in
charge of the shelter, that Petaluma compensate TLC for lost
income and legal fees, and that the city apologize for ousting
TLC from the shelter on November 8. According to the Press
Democrat, “The city’s settlement proposal apparently does not
include putting TLC back in control of the shelter.”
TLC won a three-year contract to run the shelter in
July, bidding $200,700; HSSC bid $226,000. TLC backers
allege that claims of mismanagement were concocted by city
officials who favored HSSC, which resumed running the shelter
on November 9.
ANIMAL PEOPLE heard of the eviction on
November 13 from Patricia Zimmerman, of Petaluma, who
said she and other TLC backers were calling media and animal
protection groups on behalf of TLC director Janet Coppini.
Requesting coverage, Zimmerman stated repeatedly that
Coppini had been “arrested” without charges and the shelter
shut by police. Zimmerman acknowledged “severe overcrowding”
at the shelter, but said a mobile unit to house cats was to
have been “plugged in” on November 9, and blamed cases of
kennel cough on the previous administration by HSSC.
ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton advised
that Coppini and TLC should get legal counsel. Zimmerman
said they were having difficulty finding a local attorney who
didn’t have a business relationship with Petaluma. Clifton
asked if Coppini and/or TLC had called either animal law specialist
Larry Weiss, who has a background in criminal law, or
the Animal Legal Defense Fund, both with offices in nearby
towns. At Zimmerman’s request, Clifton provided their telephone
numbers.
Clifton requested TLC’s IRS Form 990; shelter statistics;
copies of the shelter contract bids; local press coverage;
and copies of any statements from either Coppini or TLC.
Zimmerman said she would ask Coppini what items could be
sent. While she did, Clifton faxed Weiss, advising him that
Zimmerman or Coppini might call. Already aware of the case,
Weiss confirmed by fax the particulars as stated in Clifton’s
note. Zimmerman called back to say Coppini had found a
lawyer, and that as much of the requested information as possible
would follow. She declined to give Coppini’s telephone
number, saying Coppini had been advised not to talk to media.
The promised information from Zimmerman and/or
Coppini never came, but based on extensive discussion of the
“arrest” and surrounding circumstances with Zimmerman, both
before and after her interruption of the conversation to call
Coppini, together with confirmation of many of the circumstances
via other sources, ANIMAL PEOPLE took brief
notice of the situation on page 17 of our December edition.
ion which said Coppini’s “attempt at no-kill animal
control apparently ended with her arrest over unspecified
alleged financial irregularities amid complaints about overcrowding
and disease in the shelter.” According to Noel, “Ms.
Coppini was not arrested, either as your article states or for any
other charge.” Noel concluded, “Please have your insurance
carrier contact me immediately. If a satisfactory resolution is
not concluded by noon, San Francisco time, December 29,
1995, we will file suit against you for compensatory and punitive
damages in San Francisco Superior Court.”
ANIMAL PEOPLE had been contacted for other reasons
by other people claiming to represent Coppini and/or TLC,
including Day earlier the same day, and was aware that Mullins
had ultimately decided not to file any charges against either
Coppini or anyone else involved with TLC. However, Noel’s
demand was our first information from any source that contrary
to Clifton’s understanding from Zimmerman, Coppini had not
been arrested.
ANIMAL PEOPLE responded, “We welcome Ms.
Coppini’s written statement, including as to the particulars of
her apparent disagreement with the statements of Ms.
Zimmerman on her behalf to ANIMAL PEOPLE.”
At deadline, ANIMAL PEOPLE had received no
statement from Coppini, but was notified by fax that Noel did
on December 29 file a defamation suit claiming, “Plaintiff had
not been arrested; plaintiff had not been arrested over alleged
financial irregularities; plaintiff had not been arrested over
alleged financial irregularities amid complaints about overcrowding
and disease in the Petaluma Animal Shelter.”
ANIMAL PEOPLE has retained a nationally noted
attorney to defend if the suit is actually served.
–––CORRECTION–––
An independent source has confirmed that Janet
Coppini was not arrested. We are pleased to correct the statement
that Janet Coppini was arrested, which, though erroneous,
was made in good faith, according to the best information
available to us at that time.
Recently obtained copies of coverage of the Petaluma
shelter dispute published by the Press-Democrat and the
Petaluma Argus-Courier confirm that the police seizure of the
shelter was due to unspecified alleged financial irregularities
amid complaints about overcrowding and disease. Both papers
discussed an ongoing criminal investigation of business practices
from their editions of November 10 until after Mullins’
December 1 decision not to file charges. Public discussion of
overcrowding and disease in the Petaluma Animal Shelter surfaced
in the A r g u s – C o u r i e r of November 10, and continued
intermittently in both papers at least through December 22,
when the Argus-Courier reported that according to a statement
by TLC veterinarian Jona Sun Jordan, “accusations by HSSC
director Dan Knapp that animals were improperly kenneled,
sick animals were put in with healthy ones, two dogs had kennel
cough, kennels weren’t cleaned and were overcrowded are
not true.” The Press-Democrat carried similar but briefer coverage
of Jordan’s statement.

COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Crimes vs. humans
Convicted rapist Lloyd Frank Millett, of
Turner, Maine, charged November 6 with killing Rachelle
Anne Williams, 33, of Gorham, New Hampshire, and
Terrie M. Lizotte, 39, of Canton, Maine, was said to be
good with cattle, as a farm hand but also reportedly had a
prevous record for cruelty to his dog, as well as for assaulting
his ex-wife. Arrested 14 times since 1987, Millett is under
investigation in connection with six other murders and disappearances
since January 1983.
Northern Territories coroner John Lowndes
ruled December 13 in Darwin, Australia, that there is
insufficient evidence to say either that a dingo snatched 9-
week-old Azaria Chamberlain from her parents’ tent on
August 17, 1980, or that her mother was involved. The
infant vanished without a trace, but her mother, Lindy
Chamberlain, screamed “A dingo’s got my baby!” to tourists
at a nearby campfire. A February 1981 coroner’s verdict held
that a dingo took Azaria, but was overturned by an Australian
Supreme Court ruling. Lindy in October 1992 drew a life
term for allegedly murdering Azaria; her husband Michael
was convicted as an accessory, but remained free on a good
behavior bond. Two appeals failed, but in February 1986 a
hiker found Azaria’s bloodstained, torn jacket in a dingo den.
Lindy was released from prison five days later, and in May
1992 received $962,000 compensation for wrongful conviction.
Lindy and Michael requested the coroner’s re-examination
of the evidence in hopes of finally clearning their names.
Du Runqiong and her son Tang Youhua, 20, of
Jinli village in southern China, drew death sentences on
December 27 for killing 18 people, 10 cattle, 300 fish, 240
pigs, and 3,100 chickens with rat poison between May and
November 1995, purportedly to rid the earth of “bad people.”
Another 160 people were poisoned but survived.

Activism
The libel suit waged by McDonald’s Corporation
against London Greenpeace activists Helen Steel, 30, and
Dave Morris, 41, on December 11 became the longest-running
civil case in British history––and is expected to continue
into summer, costing McDonald’s an estimated $8,000 a day
in legal fees. Steel and Morris, who alleged circa Earth Day
1990 that McDonald’s promotes an unhealthy and environmentally
unsound meat-centered diet, are conducting their own
defense plus a concurrent countersuit.
A jury in Roanoke, Virginia, on November 30
awarded bird-lover Ruby Campagna $135,000 for emotional
distress suffered when South Roanoke Apartment Village
building manager Judy Woody crushed a nest of wrens in front
of her. Campagna’s granddaughter, Ginny Davis Owen, a
registered nurse, found her half an hour later in a state of clinical
shock. Campagna was represented by former U.S. attorney
and state senator-elect John Edwards, who said she remains
“very sad and depressive.”
U.S. district judge James Lawrence King r u l e d
December 21 in Key West that Russ Rector of the Dolphin
Freedom Foundation and Ric O’Barry of the Dolphin Project
were responsible for their own injuries suffered during a protest
against underwater bomb tests by the U.S. Navy on August 9,
1990. Rector and O’Barry held that the Navy and civilian contractors
intentionally ran over them with boats.
British activists Sandra White, Gaynor Ford,
and Gillian Peachey were arrested Christmas Eve and charged
December 29 with a December 5 arson at a poultry farm, as
well as with conspiracy to possess explosives and commit
arson. Peachey was already under a 21-month suspended sentence
for conspiracy related to a 1994 attempted arson at a hotel
that was hosting a hunt club meeting.
A 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy have been
sentenced for their part in releasing more than 1,000 black
mink from a mink farm in Cleveland, Wisconsin, last July,
with charges pending against a 13-year-old girl. The 12-yearold
was ordered to apologize to the mink farmer. Wisconsin
media have often reported, apparently due to a typo in an early
account, that the mink were valued at $3,000 apiece; the going
price for a black mink pelt at auction is actually $30.00 or less.

Humane enforcement
Navy officers Jeffrey Scott Wilkerson, 21, and
Dennis Steven Artzer, 20, pleaded guilty to felony cruelty
in Sonora, California, on December 13, for dragging a cat
behind a car last June 18––right after sheriff’s deputy Todd
Blankenship warned them not to––but Judge William Polley
said he would reduce the charges to misdemeanors on
January 16 if he got a good probation report. The cat was
rescued by animal control officer Wynette Townsend.
Letters to the judge may be sent c/o Tuolomne County
Animal Control, 2 S. Green St., Sonora, CA 95370.
James Michael Fishburn, 18, and Robert
Francis Lipsky, 20, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, were
charged December 26 with misdemeanor cruelty and conspiracy
for allegedly nailing a dog’s chain to a tree 10 days
earlier and using him as an archery target. Left for dead,
the dog dragged himself over a mile to animal rights activist
Doris Gitman’s porch in nearby Mechanicsville. District
Justice Andrew Zelonis of Tamaqua set bail at $10,000,
then raised Fishburn’s to $15,000 after he threatened to kick
a witness. Failing to make bail, the suspects were remanded
to Schuykill County Prison. The dog’s owners, Joseph
and Judy Harkins of Pottsville, said they didn’t want him
back, but Ruth Steinert SPCA shelter manager Diane
Reppy said more than 50 other people asked to adopt him.
Pottsville, Mechanicsville, and Tamaqua are all near
Hegins, scene of the notorious Labor Day pigeon shoot.
Jesse Bryan, 20, of Menomonie, Wisconsin,
on November 16 drew a year in jail on work-release toward
restitution, plus 10 years probation, for shooting cats,
dogs, cows, horses, and wildlife on a five-county crime
spree also including theft, burglary, and vandalism in
December 1994.
Alan Dahle, 34, of Haugen, Wisconsin, o n
November 29 drew 15 days in jail, two years probation,
and a seek-treatment order for killing his children’s dog and
fish because his 12-year-old son played hooky.
William J. Olson, 24, of Sand Springs,
Oklahoma, drew an 18-month deferred jail sentence plus
18 months probation on December 13 for abusing two tiger
cubs. A 5-month-old tiger with a broken leg and a 2-monthold
tiger who was partially blind from malnutrition were
found July 28 at Olson’s residence. Olson is not allowed to
keep exotic animals during his probation.
Allen Laboy, 37, of Miami, Florida, drew 9.5
years in prison on December 9 for brutally killing a dog in
August 1994––five years for cruelty, and 4.5 years as a
habitual offender, with priors for burglary, assault, and
drug possession. The total sentence appears to be the
longest on record for abusing a single animal.
Jay Messinger, 35, of McKeesport,
Pennsylvania, on December 4 drew 90 days in jail for beating
a dog who bit his 18-month-old daughter to death with a
hammer on November 14––28 days after Alan Roberts of
Westminster, California, was acquitted of cruelty for beating
a dog who bit his son to death with a baseball bat, in a
nationally publicized case. Messinger will get 45 days off if
he pays $210 in necropsy and court costs.
Farmer Daryl Larson, of Craig, Missouri, is to
be sentenced on January 11 for 50 counts of animal abuse
and 50 counts of improperly disposing of dead animals, all
misdemeanors. A jury on December 16 convicted Larson of
allowing an unknown number of hogs to starve in his barn.
“Estimates of the number of dead hogs ranged from several
hundred to 2,000,” reported Associated Press.
Three of seven students from McNary High
School in Keizer, Oregon––four of them football players––who
beat and burned to death an oppossum on video in
October and then showed the video as a high school class
project are now doing 60 hours of service apiece at a local
humane society, and are to do another 40 hours with other
institutions, according to the Portland Oregonian. The
other four youths are awaiting trial.

OBITUARIES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Sonia Cortis, 83, died in her sleep on December 12. Born in
Yalta, daughter of a diplomat, she became a successful cabaret singer.
She sang from her teens until the early 1960s and performed with Edith
Piaff and for royalty. In her later years, this dedicated friend of all animals
worked as a waitress and restaurant manager, spreading the good
word to staff and customers. And with her bullhorn, the former
chanteuse energized activists every weekend for 78 weeks in a campaign
to end the cat sex experiments at the American Museum of Natural
History, the first public protest successful in saving animals from suffering
in a U.S. laboratory. She dedicated her life to helping humans and
animals, and left her body to science. We’ll miss her.
––Henry Spira

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Animals in entertainment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

On the screen
PETA on December 5 asked the USDA to
investigate alleged Animal Welfare Act violations by
Tiger’s Eye Productions, of Orlando, Florida, which
trains animals for use in TV commercials and rock
videos. “Our investigator witnessed facility owner
David McMillan beating tigers in the face, ramming
ax handles down their throats, and depriving them of
food and water as punishment,” charged PETA
researcher Jennifer Allen. “Animals have also been
left outside without shade in searing heat, or without
shelter from raging thunderstorms, and have been
denied necessary medical attention when sick.”
Finding venues for his diving mule act
scarce, Tim Rivers has turned to Hollywood, training
many of the animals used in Ace Ventura: When
Nature Calls, the second of a comedy film series starring
Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura, pet detective and animal
rights militant. Because Rivers’ role was entirely
off-set, his involvement eluded American Humane
Association observers, whose contractual role in
supervising the use of animals in films is limited to on
set action. As the November 28 edition of T h e
National Enquirer put it, Rivers’ diving mule act “is
so hideous that Rivers has been arrested on cruelty
charges in Alabama, his act is banned in Illinois, and
he was thrown out of Atlantic City by Donald Trump.”

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ANIMAL RACING

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Greyhounds
The Shoreline Star greyhound track in Bridgeport, Connecticut,
opened on November 1, drawing dogs and managerial talent from The Woodlands,
a Kansas City-area greyhound track reportedly in economic trouble. By
Thanksgiving, Shoreline Star was in trouble too, with purses averaging circa
$77,000 a night, well below the projected $100,000-$150,000. Attorney Robert Zeff
financed the track––a converted jai alai fronton––with $30 million of his own money.
Zeff previously made headlines in Detroit as subject of two high-profile legal malpractice
cases, one of which Wayne County circuit judge Mariane Battani called “the
worst case of attorney manipulation that I have ever seen,” and as organizer of a
1988 scheme to export hazardous waste to Guinea-Bissau, Africa.
The Cour d’Alene greyhound track in Post Falls, Idaho, went out of
business on December 17, three months to the day after J. Todd Foster of the
Spokane Spokesman Review published a page one expose of abuses causing one trainer
to call it “the Auschwitz of greyhound tracks.” The National Greyhound Adoption
Network and the Spokane activist group Animal Advocates of the Inland Empire
were at deadline seeking homes for 200 to 500 greyhounds who would otherwise be
euthanized. Earlier, similar placement efforts saved hundreds of dogs after track
closings at Harlingen, Texas; Belmont, New Hampshire; and Joplin, Missouri.
Tracks in Alabama, Florida, Iowa, elsewhere in New Hampshire, elsewhere in
Texas, and in Wisconsin are also reportedly close to folding.
Greyhound Network News reports that there are now 53 active greyhound
tracks in the U.S., located in 16 states. Nevada, South Dakota, and Vermont formerly
had greyhound racing, but no longer have active tracks. Vermont, Maine,
and Virginia have banned greyhound racing. GNN is published from POB 44272,
Phoenix, AZ 85064-4272.
Sled dogs
The 1996 International Rocky Mountain Stage Stop Sled Dog Race,
running from Jackson to Alpine, Wyoming, will feature a $100,000 purse––and a
new “dog friendly” format. “Rather than a long marathon race, where dogs pull for
extended periods of time, the Stage Stop will be run in stages, like the Tour de
France,” race director Frank Teasley told Team & Trail. “We will have a brand-new
race of between 30 and 80 miles starting each day for the nine racing days of the contest.
Our mushers should always have fresh dogs in their teams.” Eight members of
the International Sled Dog Veterinary Medicine Association will supervise 30 human
contestants, who may bring up to 14 dogs apiece. No more than 12 dogs may compete
on any given day. Each dog will be given an EKG exam before the race, and
will be identified by an injectable microchip. Each musher must be a member in
good standing of PRIDE, described by Team & Trail as “an Alaska-based organization
created to educate mushers on the responsible care and treatment of sled dogs.”
Horses
The French horseracing industry, already in decline, reportedly took
heavy losses when employees of the state-run Pari Mutuel Urbain off-track betting
monopoly struck for job security on December 13. The pari mutual unions believe a
computer system upgrade scheduled for 1997 will cost the 1,700-member workforce
several hundred jobs.
The British Horseracing Board, with an annual budget of $30 million,
reportedly donates not one cent to horse welfare work. Racehorse breeding has
recently accelerated in Britain, taking advantage of the growth of the European
horsemeat market to profitably dispose of culls. The 25,500 thoroughbred mares in
Britain produced an estimated 11,500 foals in 1995––far more than racetrack demand
can absorb. The boom recently inspired Cambridge University to appoint horse fertility
expert William Allen as its first “professor of racehorse breeding.”
Other species
Gambling and investment stakes in pigeon racing are bigger than ever,
but U.S. participation has fallen from an estimated 100,000 fanciers a generation ago
to barely 20,000 today. Prizes currently peak at around $15,000, but the betting on a
$15,000 race can run as high as $100,000. Although pigeon racing here developed as
a pastime of the poor in crowded immigrant neighborhoods, in England, one pigeon
of proven success recently changed hands for $128,000.
Sugar cane farmer Wa Paopouchong, 41, on October 8 rode an 1,870-
pound water buffalo named Korn to their fourth world championship of water buffalo
racing in Chonburi, Thailand, at an average speed over the 120-meter course of
nearly 25 miles an hour. The victory paid them $200. The event, the only water buffalo
racing meet in the world, has been held for more than a century, but surrounding
festivities have been organized for only the past decade.
An ostrich named Flash Harry won the first-ever ostrich race in
K e n y aon Boxing Day at the Ngong racecourse on the outskirts of Nairobi. Six
ostriches were entered in the 200-meter sprint.

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