SIRENIANS

January 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

Fewer than 2,000 dugongs persist along the
Australian east coast and southern Great Barrier Reef, as
numbers have crashed from 50% to 80% in recent years,
partly due to storms and coastal development which have
devastated the sea grass that Australian dugongs depend on
for food, but to greater extent as the result of gillnetting,
which accounted for 15 of 30 recent dugong deaths at Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park, according to Helene Marsh of
James Cook University. Shark nets alone caught 654
dugongs off central Queensland in 1995, along with 651 dolphins
and 4,059 sea turtles. Only 45 dugongs, 31 dolphins,
and 1,420 turtles survived. Nine newly established protection
zones off Queensland may not help, warns North Queensland
Conservation Council coordinator Jeremy Tager. “The reality
is, there is no new protection from human threats to
dugnongs in these areas,” he said.” Gill netting, hunting,
coastal development, vessel traffic, and even the use of
explosives will continue in the proposed protection areas.”

Seals, sea otters, sea lions

January 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

Junior home office minister Tom Sackville told
the British House of Commons on November 30 that grey
seals and common seals along the eastern coast of Britain
from New Haven, East Sussex to the Scots border will
receive another three years of protection from any form of
killing, injuring, or capturing, following the December 19
expiry of the latest in a series of three-year protective orders
first issued in 1988. An outbreak of a disease believed to be
closely related to canine distemper cut the eastern coast seal
population from 3,900 in early 1988 to 1,551 by 1991. Since
then, seal numbers are up to 2,758, but that’s still just 70% of
the count formerly sustained.

Whaling politics heat up

January 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

NEAH BAY, Washington––Easily winning the fall
band election––as anticipated––the pro-whaling faction of the
Makah tribe moved immediately to form a 20-member commission
to draft a whaling charter and management policy.
The Makah in June 1996 withdrew an application for
an International Whaling Commission “aboriginal subsistence”
quota of up to five grey whales, but the would-be whalers, led
by logger and fisher Dan Greene, has announced intent to get a
quota this year––and, some hint, to go whaling whether or not
the IWC approves.
Although the Makah have not been whaling in 72
years, Greene et al claim the 19th century treaty that established
the Neah Bay reservation also guaranteed them whaling
rights in perpetuity. The Bill Clinton administration supports
that interpretation.

CETACEANS

January 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

Halfway through a two-year investigation of the
possible impact on marine mammals of the ATOC low-frequency
sound experiments, used to measure global warming,
University of California marine biologist Dan Costa says no
harm is apparent. “The animals are not abandoning the study
site,” explained Costa. “We’re finding whales and lots of dolphins
and lots of seals. The abundance has not changed, so
there’s no dramatic effect.”

FIELDS WARNING

January 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

MONTGOMERY, Alabama––Contrary to the
insinuations of an October 1996 appeal for donations issued by
Tina Fields and Ronald Denney under the name Saving
Animals From Euthanasia, listing Louis Jones, DVM, as
“attending veterinarian,” SAFE is not a legitimate charity and
Fields, Denney, and Jones remain under indictment for alleged
theft by charitable fraud and theft of charitable property in the
amount of $60,195, attorney Dennis Wright of the Alabama
Office of the Attorney General confirmed on December 16.
Wright said a trial date would probably be set in early
1997. The SAFE newsletter states that all charges against
Fields, Denney, and Jones were dropped on March 14, without
mentioning that they were promptly refiled after correction
of a technical error in the first filing.

Wise-use wiseguys

January 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

Louisiana governor Mike Foster gave “the first
indication that he plans to run for re-election in 1999,” said
the New Orleans Times-Picayune, by hosting a fundraising
three-day “Spirit of ‘96 Governor’s Duck Hunt” at the Oak
Grove Hunting Club in Creole, December 21-23. Lafayette
businessman Henry Mouton, identified as one of Foster’s
longtime hunting buddies, invited 54 people to join the hunt at
$5,000 apiece. Amenities included a 4:30 a.m. breakfast of
quail and a commemorative shotgun for each participant.

Wills accused of rape

January 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Humane Society of the
U.S. staffers Virginia Bollinger and Cristobel Block, suing
former HSUS vice president for investigations David Wills
since August 1995 for alleged injuries “sustained as a result
of Wills’ repeated battery,” on October 21 filed counterclaims
to Wills’ countersuit stating that, “Wills’ repeated battery
of Block and Bollinger was consistent with his pattern
and practice of sexually assaulting and sexually harassing
female employees with whom he worked, threatening them
with adverse action if they reported his unlawful conduct,
and terrorizing them through his verbal and physical threats
and attacks. Over a 10-year period,” the document continues,
“Wills has subjected at least 13 female employees with
whom he has worked, including Block and Bollinger, to
such sexual battery.” The filing goes on to describe alleged
repeated rapes of Bollinger and alleged rape attempts on both
women that Wills was purportedly unable to consumate.
Wills, also sued by HSUS for purportedly embezzling
$93,000, has denied all charges.

“McTaggert––you’re it,” says Watson

January 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

VANCOUVER––Sixteen self-described founding
members of Greenpeace upstaged ceremonies in Vancouver to
mark the 25th anniversary of the start of the group with an open
letter demanding “a ceiling on salaries,” a “leveling out of the
hierarchical structure,” and other changes to insure that “the
organization which broke new ground in environmental campaigning
continues in that tradition, continues to be at the cutting
edge of environmental reform, and does not simply
become part of the institutionalized political landscape.”
The “founding members,” whose actual founding
roles came at various points from the 1969 formation of the
Don’t Make A Wave anti-nuclear testing expedition that
evolved into Greenpeace to the 1976-1977 formation of
European chapters, argued that a decline in global membership
from 4.8 million in 1990 to 30 million today reflects the treatment
of members as a source of funding, without real input
into setting policy and choosing campaigns.

People moving

January 1, 1997 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:

Franklin M. Loew, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine a t
Cornell University since September 1995, on December 10, 1996 announced his
resignation effective January 31, 1997, to become president and chief executive
officer of Medical Foods Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A 1965 Cornell
DVM graduate, Loew was founder and dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine
at Tufts University in North Grafton, Massachusetts, near Cambridge, 1982-
1995. Medical Foods Inc. makes products for people with special dietary needs,
e.g. a candy bar for diabetics that helps sustain blood glucose as they sleep.

Activists & Organizations

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