People & Organizations

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1997:

Fred O’Regan, former director of the Office of Europe,
Central Asia, and the Mediterranean for the Peace Corps, has succeeded
Richard Moore as chief executive officer of the
International Fund for Animal Welfare. Moore moved into a consulting
role nine months ago. Best known for international campaigns
against sealing, whaling, and dog-and-cat-eating, IFAW
also issued grants to no-kill animal shelters and rescue programs
totalling $395,000 in fiscal year 1996-1997, according to field activities
correspondent and pet rescue project coordinator Kristina
Hemenway. To receive the IFAW Pet Rescue Grant Project guidelines
for fiscal year 1997, write to Hemenway at 411 Yarmouth Port,
MA 02675-1822. No grants will be made before August 1, 1997.

The agenda for the April 10-12 Summit for the
Animals, an annual gathering of U.S. animal rights group leaders to
be held this year in Rockville, Maryland, indicates that the main
business will be to assess dues, prorated by the assets of the member
organization. Underwritten by United Animal Nations since inception
in 1985, the Summit now must become self-sustaining because
UAN, after the departure of longtime program coordinator Vernon
Weir to become a freelance consultant, has elected to focus
resources on the Emergency Animal Relief Services program led by
Terri Crisp. Other Summit topics include a day-long series of discussions
and lectures about working within the U.S. political system,
featuring three speakers of whom two are British; and a session on
“Recruiting and Reaching Ethnic Groups,” for which no speaker had
been chosen at press time. As ANIMAL PEOPLE pointed out in
January 1993, no national animal rights group has a person of color
among its top five salaried staff, nor as a non-salaried board president.
Members of ethnic minorities direct numerous hands-on animal
care facilities, however, both public and private, as well as
some regional animal rights groups. Apparently to reduce friction,
the Summit has abolished a traditional “open forum” in favor of discussing
questions which are to be submitted three weeks in advance.
The $150,000 Tyler Prize for Environmental
Achievement, administered by the University of Southern
California, was split among primatologists Jane Goodall, Birute
Galdikas, and George Schaller. Goodall, founder of the Jane
Goodall Institute, is known for her 38 years of field study of chimpanzees;
Galdikas, of Orangutan Foundation International, has
observed orangutans for almost as long; and Schaller, of Wildlife
Conservation International, is noted for field investigations of
gorillas, lions, tigers, snow leopards, and pandas. WCI was formerly
known as the New York Zoological Society.
The British-based Tiger Trust on Valentine’s Day withdrew
a full-page newspaper ad, published in Hong Kong, that
showed a picture of O.J. Simpson’s face captioned, “Brain behind
the slaughter.” The ad attacked the use of tiger brains in traditional
Chinese acne medicine.
PETA on March 11 severed relations with model
Naomi Campbell, one of the five stars of the “rather go naked than
wear fur” campaign, after she was photographed twice wearing
furs––most recently for Fendi, of Milan, a major fur designer.
PETA spokesperson Michael McGraw said Campbell was the only
one of 50 models who pledged not to wear fur, including Ellie
Macpherson and Claudia Schiffer, who broke the promise.
Legislation In Support of Animals, known for sparking
pound reform around Louisiana and for providing emergency animal
services when a budget crisis brought a six-month suspension of the
New Orleans animal control contract, has opened a five-cage no-kill
Pet Care Center to promote adoptions of animals from the Jefferson
Parish Animal Shelter, using space rented from a Metairie veterinary
clinic. “No need to sound the trumpets,” said LISA president
Jeff Dorson. “We are waiting to see if the public responds to the
idea,” in which case the adoption shelter will expand as needed.
Animal rescuers Jenny and Alasdair MacGregor, of
Monmouth, Gwent, Britain, in January won custody of a Welsh
pony they nursed back to health, on condition that they pay owner
Anthony Probert–– convicted of abusing the pony––half his asking
price of about $1,400. The Royal SPCA, which legally assisted the
MacGregor’s, then billed them for costs of nearly $13,000, on top
of their own expenses of circa $10,000. The RSPCA told the
London Daily Telegraph that the billing was “very unfortunate,” but
would not have occurred if they had just given Probert the pony.
Salt Lake City Animal Services director Peggy Hinnen,
unable to update the city animal control ordinance in three years of
trying, announced March 7 that she will step down from the top job
to take over public relations duties as soon as a replacement is hired.
Joining SLC/AS in 1978, Hinnen has been director since 1987.
The Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation on
February 20 renamed itself Los Angeles Animal Services, to
improve public recognition of its pet adoption, lost-and-found, and
anti-cruelty programs. Also seeking a new image, the Los Angeles
SPCA, founded in 1877, retitled itself SPCA/LA on December 3,
1996. SPCA/LA and the Long Beach Bureau of Animal Control
are discussing plans for a new shelter, possibly to be shared by both.
Australian Services Union industrial officer Brian
Springett said on March 13 that he would ask the Labor Council of
New South Wales and the Australian Council of Trade Unions to
boycott Greenpeace Australia, after Greenpeace Australia told the
NSW Industrial Commission that former staffers Ben Pearson and
Jean McSorley are not entitled to 32 weeks and 48 weeks of back
pay, respectively, for uncompensated overtime. Pearson and
McSorley lost their jobs last year when Greenpeace Australia laid off
a third of its staff. Pearson was chief spokesperson aboard the MV
Greenpiece during the 1996 campaign against French nuclear testing
at Mururoa Atoll. McSorley was a regional nuclear campaigner.