Day: June 1, 1997

Arizona Office of the Attorney General’s Office raps Veterinary Review Board for failure to discipline veterinarians, probe complaints

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

PHOENIX––The Arizona State
Veterinary Medical Review Board “does not
adequately discipline veterinarians,” dismissing
more than 90% of the complaints it
received in three of the past four years, the
Arizona Office of the Attorney General reported
on April 28, following up a 1995 “sunset
review” by the Joint Legislative Audit
Committee, which determines whether or not
state-established organizations should continue
past their original mandate.
“Veterinary consultants retained by
the Auditor General reviewed complaints from
fiscal year 1996,” the Office of the Attorney
General’s report continued, “and found that as
many as one out of every six complaints dismissed
should have resulted in some discipline.

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Going to the dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Margie Richardson, 76, wife of the late Leon D.
Richardson, on April 21 asked the Hong Kong High Court
to set aside a will leaving more than $12 million to the Royal
S P C A, whose annual budget is about $60 million. Leaving
Mrs. Richardson in 1994, after 40 years, coincidental with the
death of his poodle, Leon Richardson gave her $3 million,
then rewrote his will, a 1991 draft of which purportedly left
her everything, just nine days before his May 1995 death at
age 77 from a heart attack. The RSPCA legacy was the
biggest share of an estate worth about $30 million. The London
Times remembered Leon Richardson, a U.S. citizen, as “a
dog-lover and financial commentator who had survived kidnapping,
atomic bomb tests and corruption charges.”

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Say what?!

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

The Lettuce Ladies, from People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, invited North Carolina general assembly
members to a May 8 vegetarian “pig-out” as thanks for a
moratorium on building hog barns. However, PETA
spokesperson Michael McGraw said, “Invitations bearing a
sexy vegetarian wearing strategically placed lettuce leaves
proved too racy” for the assembly speaker, who barred their
distribution.
The Louisiana state Senate and Governmental
Affairs Committee in April voted to terminate 60 state agencies
mostly set up to promote commerce and tourism, but
spared the Pork Promotion Board and Fertilizer Commission;
then approved amending the state ethics code to allow elected
officials to accept hunting and fishing trips from lobbyists.

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THE WINDSOME REGISTER

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

“The Windsome Register is the title of a register of
reputable animal protection organizations worldwide,” former
Royal SPCA and International Fund for Animal Welfare
executive Edward Seymour-Rouse wrote on May 15 to about
500 selected recipients.
“This Register is being set up at the request of a
donor to ensure that his already considerable donations to animal
protection go to those projects ‘that are concerned with
the largest number of animals who have suffered the most,’
backed by the most efficient and effective organizations.”

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“He’s an oxymoron”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

LOS ANGELES––Hired circa February 1, according
to Last Chance for Animals executive director David
Meyer, program staffer Luke Montgomery was on the job a
month before Washington Times columnist John McCaslin
noted his presence and his background; another month passed
before other activists called ANIMAL PEOPLE, accusing
him of trouble-making and asking, “Who is he?”
Gay activists previously asked the same question.
According to an October 6, 1995 posting by commentator P.
Del Grosso on a Gay:Stories:Gay Life World Wide Web site,
Montgomery “came to Washington D.C. a few years ago and
made a big fuss about changing his name to Sissyfag. He
claimed to be an AIDS activist and chased Bill Clinton around
for not doing enough about AIDS.”

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British close to banning fox hunts–– if Labour keeps deal

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

LONDON––Did International Fund for Animal
Welfare founder Brian Davies retire from the IFAW board of
trustees after the election of the new Labour government of
Britain to put himself in line for a high-level appointment, or
because his million-pound gamble that Labour will halt hunting
might not pay off?
Or was it really all just as he said, to focus on his
work with the Political Action Lobby, PAL for short, an independent
pro-animal organization claiming 50,000 supporters?
Davies gave Labour the equivalent of $1.5 million on
September 1, 1997, after Labour leader Tony Blair pledged to
permit a free vote in the House of Commons to ban hunting
with hounds. Blair seemed to retreat, however, as the May 1
election approached and hunting supporters formed a trade
union, The Union of Country Sports Workers. Eventually
Blair appeared to indefinitely postpone the free vote, in which
Members of Parliament would be allowed to vote their consciences
instead of a particular party line.

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Shelby bill would turn National Wildlife Refuges into hunting preserves

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Alabama Senator Richard
Shelby, a Tuskaloosa Republican, on May 15 introduced legislation
to declare all federal land open to hunting and fishing,
except if used for national security or other purposes which
cannot accommodate hunting and fishing. The bill would also
state that Congress intends for federal agencies to support, promote,
and enhance fishing and hunting opportunities when
making decisions regarding federal land use; require that all
excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment be spent for
wildlife management to benefit hunting and fishing; and give
hunters and fishers the right to intervene in any civil lawsuit
that might impose limits on hunting or fishing on federal land.

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LETTERS [June 1997]

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Concern for Helping
Animals in Israel members have
been withholding contributions to the
United Jewish Appeal, Israel Bonds,
and other charities that channel funds
to Israel, in protest over the Israeli
government’s refusal to allow an
ambulance donated by CHAI to an
Israeli animal shelter to enter Israel
without payment of exhorbitant customs
duties. Ambulances for people
enter Israel duty-free, but a $40,000
customs duty was imposed on the
$26,000 animal ambulance. The
ambulance would replace mass
strychnine poisonings. Appeals from
Senators and Representatives, as
well as from many animal protection
and Jewish organizations have been
ignored. The Animal Protection
Division within Israel’s environment
ministry agreed to pay the customs
duties from their own shelter budget,
but the finance ministry insists that
the money come from Americans.

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Editorial: Predators, parasites, and cat rescuers

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Cat ladies, and gentlemen, who venture into dark alleys alone to catch and neuter
seemingly endless legions of ferals, could teach the rest of the animal protection cause quite a
lot about patience, endurance, fortitude and strategy.
While Cleveland Amory said he formed the Fund for Animals to put combat boots
on the little old ladies in tennis shoes, younger advocacy leaders long derided cat-rescue as
beneath concern, somehow less important and less glamorous than saving the seals, the
whales, the elephants, and the dolphins. Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral has a
stronger record than most at seal, whale, elephant and dolphin-saving, yet was ridiculed for
years after she once described herself to media as “a cat lady with a global perspective.”
Cat rescue did eventually become socially acceptable in advocacy circles, largely
through the efforts of ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett, who insisted in her former
role as editor of The Animals’ Agenda, 1986-1992, that activists had to address the suffering
in their own back yards in order to earn credibility with the public. Eventually so many cat
rescuers identified themselves among the activist donor base that today almost everyone in a
leadership capacity at least pretends to rescue one or two cats per million dollars raised by
direct mail, including those who figuratively tied tin cans to Bartlett’s tail for putting cat rescue
on the animals’ agenda. Some advised then––in writing––that activists should stay away
from the homeless cat problem, as a problem beyond solution.

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