Sportsmen

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Philadelphia Inquirer photographer
Vicki Valiero’s image of bowhunter
Rex Perysian astride a dead pig just about
told the story on February 2 of her visit to a
canned hunt in Cheboygan, Michigan, on
assignment with staff writer Alfred
Lubrano––but if the picture wasn’t graphic
enough, there were Perysian’s words: “I’ll
grab it like I grab my women,” he told his
pals. Then Perysian dropped the animal’s
head and bellowed into the woods, boasting
that the kill had sexually aroused him.”
The article went on to detail, first-hand, the
exercise in sadism that brought Perysian and
pals to that climax.
Michael Nunn, manager of the
Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge,
in Oregon, on January 31 advised Friends of
Animals that he would recommend that the
refuge “back off” from a proposed aerial
coyote shoot, and instead do two years of
data collection before deciding on any
course of action. Refuge staff blamed coyotes
for a low rate of young pronghorn survival,
but outside biological expertise identified
other more likely causes, including
overgrazing. FoA attacked the coyotekilling
plan in newspaper ads that reportedly
sparked more than 1,200 letters of protest.

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Monk seals imperiled by near-war in Aegean

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

ISTANBUL––As a game of capture-theflag
among youths on the rocky islands between
Greece and Turkey escalated from taunts to trouble in
late January, Turkish Mediterranean monk seal expert
Bayram Ozturk of the Istanbul University faculty of
fisheries apparently tried to pour oil on the troubled
waters, but only stoked the conflagration, which was
eventually stopped only through the personal intercession
of U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Said Ozturk on January 31 via the MARMAM
online bulletin board, “The Mediterranean
monk seal population in Turkey is no longer stable,”
something of an understatement. “The most recent
census, made last year, found 47 individuals. On
the Bodram Peninsula, only six individuals including
pups are living in the small islands called Cavus,
Iremit, and Kardak. Since 1991, the Monk Seal
Protection Project has been conducted in these islets
on behalf of the Turkish Ministry of the Environment
by Istanbul University. Unfortunately,” Ozturk continued,
“Kardak got occupied by Greek soldiers.

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Clinton not expected to stand up to Japanese whalers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––At the ANIMAL PEOPLE deadline, President Bill Clinton
was imminently expected to send a message to Congress about Japanese whaling, responding to
a December advisory from the Department of Commerce that Japan was vulnerable to trade sanctions
because of its decision to kill minke whales within the Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary.
But Clinton was not expected to impose sanctions.
Argued Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a February 7 letter to Clinton, “At this point,
any efforts short of sanctions would signal a lack of commitment to whale conservation by the
United States.” Japan officially moved into compliance with the 1986 global moratorium on
commercial whaling in 1988, but has continued to conduct gradually escalating hunts of minke
whales for “scientific research.”

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Marine mammals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Nets and dolphins

EDINBOROUGH––The Royal
SPCA and World Wide Fund for Nature
head a nine-group coalition protesting a proposal
by Scots Office Minister Raymond
Robertson to make Scots fishers more competitive
by lifting a ban on the use of
monofilament gil nets which might drown
harbor porpoises. Such nets are used in the
waters of other European nations.
Eleven dolphins apparently
drowned in fishing nets washed up in
Cornwall between January 4 and January 11,
prompting Cornwall Wildlife Trust chair
Nick Tregenza to apply to the European
Commission for funds with which to develop
an alarm to warn dolphins away from
nets. The EC is already funding a similar
project called CETASEL, formed under the
1994 Agreement on the Conservation of
Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North
Seas, a.k.a. ASCOBANS. “The project
started in the beginning of 1995, and the
first sea trials were carried out in March
1995,” said CETASEL coordinator Dick de
Haan. “The first enclosure trial, on a
stranded harbor porpoise, showed the animals’
sensitivity to ‘chirp and sweep’
sounds. In 1996 two sea trials are planned
off the southwestern coast of Ireland.”
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Most recent data shows shelter euthanasias down to 5.1 million a year

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

In October 1993, ANIMAL PEOPLE projected from about half of the data below that the annual U.S. shelter euthanasia toll could be as low as 5.1 million dogs and
cats per year––approximately a third of the then-prevalent guesstimates by national organizations. Adding in additional shelter-by-shelter intake and euthanasia statistics, compiled
over the past five years by a variety of different groups and individuals, confirms the estimate; of states for which multiple counts are available, only Indiana shows a rising
euthanasia toll, and that trend may have been reversed since the most recent available data was collected. Because not all the surveyors asked the same questions, figures are missing
from some of the columns. Dog and cat intake add up to a slightly different figure than total intake in some cases because some shelters report rounded numbers for some categories
rather than exact figures, producing a minor cumulative distortion. The New York data represents all shelters serving 87% of the human population, projected to cover the whole population
of the state. The Ohio data represents animal control shelters covering 34% of the state, projected to cover the whole population of the state.

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Horse notes

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Nationally ranked equestrian
and heir to millions George Lindemann
Jr. drew 33 months in prison on January 18
for killing a horse to collect $250,000 in
insurance. His trainer, Marion Hulick,
drew 21 months. The two were among the
most noted defendants among 18 people
convicted to date in connection with a horsekilling
ring that also included the killers of
13 humans over 25 years. The last victim
was heiress Grace Brach, who vanished in
1977 after becoming suspicious of horse
transactions arranged by Richard Bailey,
convicted in connection with her murder last
year. His close associate, stable owner Jerry
Farmer, on January 22 drew 10 years for his
part in selling Brach and other wealthy
women worthless horses at premium prices.
Brach’s estate formed the Brach Foundation,
a major sponsor of animal-related projects.
The crime ring was exposed by a federal
reinvestigation of her disappearance.

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Animal control & rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Taking over the New York City
animal control contract from the American
SPCA on January 1, 1995, the Center for
Animal Care and Control provided pickup and
rescue service to 5,448 dogs and 4,753 cats
during the year, nearly double the ASPCA
norms, according to CACC director Marty
Kurtz. In consequence, dog intakes rose to
24,536, with a euthanasia rate of 73%, while
cat intakes rose to 26,266, with a euthanasia
rate of 78%. Returns-to-owner were achieved
at about the same rate the ASPCA managed,
but still at only half the rate managed by
Chicago and less than a third the rate of San
Diego, the apparent RTO leader among major
U.S. cities. To boost RTO, the CACC in
November began microchipping all animals
placed. Overall, the CACC adopted out 4,975
cats, 222 more than were picked up in distress,
along with 4,561 dogs. Combined adoptions,
all species, came to 9,616––slightly
less than the ASPCA norm, but the ASPCA is
still doing adoptions, dividing the traffic.

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WOOFS & GROWLS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

>>MARMAM@Uvvm.Bitnet<<, the online Marine
Mammals Research and Conservation Discussion hosted by
Robin Baird of the University of Victoria, in January appealed
for $5,000 toward operating costs. The Whale and Dolphin
Conservation Society started the kitty; ANIMAL PEOPLE
sent $100 and challenged other institutional users to proportionally
match it. As of February 2, MARMAM had raised just
half the amount, including gifts from Japanese whaling industry
flak Alan Macnow and Georg Blichtfeldt of the pro-sealing/whaling
High North Alliance, who may be the two least
popular users; William Burns of the GreenLife Society North
American Chapter; the International Marine Mammal
Association; Paul Nachtigall of Aquatic Mammals; Leslie
Strom of Wide Angle Productions; Phoebe Wray of the Center
for Action on Endangered Species; and private citizens
Andrew Morse and Keith Ronald. Paul Watson of the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society promised to donate as soon as
he resolved a modem-link problem. Absent were major animal
and/or habitat protection groups––including HSUS, the heaviest
single user––and any marine mammal exhibition facilities.

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Charity begins at home

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

“The Elinor Patterson Baker Foundation makes
grants for the general charitable purposes of organizations
that fulfill the airms, principles, goals, and purposes of the
Humane Society of the U.S.,” proclaims the purpose statement
filed with the foundation’s 1994 IRS Form 990-PF.
Indeed it does: of 129 grants made in the fiscal
year ending May 31, 1995, totaling $1,390,000, the six
largest were $250,000 to HSUS itself; $100,000 to the
Humane Society International, the umbrella for HSUS and
subsidiaries; $50,000 to the National Association for
Humane and Environmental Education, an HSUS subsidiary;
$50,000 to EarthKind USA, another HSUS subsidiary;
$35,000 to the World Society for the Protection of Animals,
whose vice president is John Hoyt, HSUS/HSI chief executive
officer since 1970, with HSUS board secretary Murdaugh
Madden as treasurer; and $25,000 to the Center for
Respect of Life and Environment, an HSUS subsidiary. The
Animal Rescue League of Fall River also got $25,000. Other
grantees with which HSUS had no representation got an average
of $7,008 each.

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