ACTIVISTS IN ACTION
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
The trial of Mary Constantine and
Bobbi Rhud of Minnetonkans Against Animal
Cruelty for allegedly interfering in a deer cull by
videotaping it ended June 24 with a hung jury.
Constantine and Rhud were arrested in an apparent
ambush on February 19, along with Steve Hindi,
president of the Chicago Animal Rights Coalition,
after retrieving hidden cameras and returning to
Hindi’s van. Minnetonka police spent several days
checking out Hindi’s electronic equipment before
returning it all to him, under court order, with rundown
batteries. All charges against Hindi were
dropped just before the trial. Hindi attended anyway,
as a defense witness. “The police really
helped,” he said. “One cop described the layout of
the ‘getaway’ van––even the back seats, quite an
accomplishment, since there weren’t any. Police
photographs proved that. The police were caught in
so many lies that the prosecutior repeatedly apologized
to the jury for their ‘mistaken’ testimony in his
final argument. The jury was apparently hung
because one juror, a bow hunter, was bent on conviction
from the beginning, telling other jurors he
‘wasn’t particularly concerned’ that the cops lied.”
Hindi will be in court again soon o v e r
the arrests of eight CHARC activists at the
Wauconda Rodeo for allegedly illegally using bullhorns
on June 12, plus three more arrests the next
evening for alleged obstruction of justice when
CHARC member Greg Campbell refused to use a
walky-talky to order one of the CHARC flying
machines to land. The initial arrests paralleled three
arrests of CHARC members in 1995 at the same
rodeo on the same charges. As in 1995, CHARC
was advised by public officials that they could use
bullhorns. The 1995 charges were dropped. The
June 13 arrests, Hindi said, involved significant
actionable police brutality, captured on video by a
TV news team. A civil rights suit was in preparation
as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals o n
July 17 ordered Miami lawyer Paul Bass to pay a
$25,000 to International Primate Protection
League president Shirley McGreal, for filing a
“frivolous lawsuit” against McGreal in August 1990.
The suit accused McGreal of allegedly interfering in
a business contract, by informing Peter Gerone,
director of the Tulane Primate Center, that primate
dealer Matthew Block of Worldwide Primates
had failed recent USDA inspections. Block in 1994
paid McGreal $25,000 for his role in the same case.
Greenpeace cofounder Patrick Moore,
who left the group in 1981, is now lobbying for the
Forest Alliance, a Vancouver-based timber industry
front. “It’s not as if I’m now in favor of dumping
nuclear waste in the ocean or killing sperm
whales or building nuclear reactors,” Moore told
Craig Turner of the Los Angeles Times, “but I do
favor cutting trees to provide consumers with the
most sustainable commodity in the world.”
The Network for Ohio Animal Action,
based in Cleveland, “is formally disbanding,”
trustees Deb Bartell, Karen Bartholomew, and
Liz Bujack wrote to members in mid-July, citing
loss of active participants to share the workload.
The NOAA treasury was dispersed to other animal
rights groups. NOAA was among the longest-surviving
and most successful of the former PETA state
affiliates which were cut loose to go their own way
in 1986, but was crippled in recent years by the loss
of longtime leaders via job change and relocation.
Norma McMillen, president of P e o p l e
for Animal Rights in Kansas since 1988, and Iris
M u g g e n t h a l e r, who founded the Vermont group
End Trap in 1988, both will retire effective
September 1 to spend more time with their families.
Boston attorneys Steven Wise and
Deborah Slater-Wise have formed the Center for
the Expansion of Fundamental Rights, whose
first project will be a “nationwide campaign to
obtain fundamental legal rights for chimpanzees and
bonobos.”
Vancouver film maker Jennifer Abbott,
31, pleaded “not guilty” to mischief on July 11 in
Saskatoon. Abbott allegedly trespassed on May 17
while videotaping a dead cow at I n t e r c o n t i n e n t a l
Packers Ltd. Her trial was set for December 17.
Sentenced to serve 90 days each in the
Los Angeles jail after a four-day trial for civil disobedience
during a May 20 antifur protest, S h e i l a
Laracy, 49, of Sacramento, Gina Lynn, 23, of
Costa Mesa, and Karin Brooks, 25, of Costa
Mesa began a hunger strike on July 11, reportedly
still underway as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press
on July 22.
Earth 2000 founder Danny Seo, 19,
was honored recently with a Giraffe award, given
by the Giraffe Project, of Langley, Washington,
to people who stick their necks out for the common
good. The Giraffe Project has nothing to do with
giraffes per se; the group promotes youth leadership
development, in any form of public service.
