Editorial: Wolf & Simon

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:

Having formed perhaps the farthest-reaching animal protection
newsgathering network ever, we may receive and read more cruelty
reports, from around the world, than anyone else who ever lived.
Readers reeling from the shock and horror of just the handful
of cases they’re familiar with often wonder how we cope.
We look out the window. The joy and surprise of animals is
never far, from the flash of a diving redtailed hawk, the chirp of newly
hatched songbirds, and the whir of a hummingbird, to the sentinel work
of our German shepherd, Tasha; the industry of the rats, mice, chipmunks,
squirrels, and rabbits who loot spillage from our bird feeder;
and the indefatigable concentration of our cats, who never tire of watching
them, tails twitching, from behind secure fences and screens.
Shrews, snakes, and even giant banana slugs likewise give us
moments of appreciative interest. Some creature is always doing something,
and frequently the action is not only heartening but unexpected.

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Primarily Primates gets 30 space chimps

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:

SAN ANTONIO––In the end,
nothing could stop the U.S. Air Force––
except Primarily Primates.
On August 6, two months after the
initial deadline for deciding the fate of the
former National Aeronautics and Space
Administration chimpanzee colony, who
have been kept at Holloman Air Force Base
in southern New Mexico for more than 40
years, Air Force associate deputy assistant
for science, technology, and engineering
Colonel Jack Blackhurst announced at a
Washington D.C. press conference that of the
141 survivors, 111 will go to the Coulston
Foundation, of Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Headed by Frederick Coulston, 84,
the Coulston Foundation has managed the
colony under contract since 1993. It is also
the world’s largest supplier of chimps to labs.
Primarily Primates, the only other
applicant to meet the Air Force criteria to
receive the chimpanzees, will be given 30.

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Fixing for a fight of Leviathans

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:

NEAH BAY, Wash.; NEWPORT,
Ore.––If the media drama underway in the
Pacific Northwest was a professional wrestling
match, it would be billed as the Makah
Harpooners vs. Willy the Whale, alias Killer
Keiko, orca star of the hit films Free Willy!,
Free Willy II, and Free Willy III.
Scrapping for air time, they might
make a show of enmity, and their partisans
might fall for it, but more cynical viewers
would suspect they were working for the same
syndicate.
But who might own the syndicate––
Hollywood, or Japan?
Whoever wrote the “Keiko-vs.-
Makah” script, literal or figurative, seems to
have worked for four years to bring about an
autumn battle of Leviathans. Captain Paul “The
Pirate” Watson and fellow voyagers of the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society will try to put
themselves between the Makah whalers and
migrating gray whales. The Free Willy/Keiko
Foundation, led by David Phillips, also head of
Earth Island Institute, will meanwhile prepare
Keiko to become the first of his species ever
returned to the ocean after prolonged captivity.
The real struggle will come through
your TV and mailbox, as their causes vie for
public interest and donations.

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Who is this Leo Grillo?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1998:

ACTON, Calif.––Halfway from the Dedication and
Everlasting Love To Animals Rescue shelter to actress Tippi
Hedren’s Shambala sanctuary for exotic cats and elephants,
located six miles west on the same road, D.E.L.T.A. Rescue
founder Leo Grillo hit his brakes, swerved his four-wheel
drive vehicle off the pavement, and made a quick U-turn.
Instant hypothesis #1: Grillo missed a turnoff. But
there wasn’t supposed to be one.
Hypothesis #2: Grillo forgot something. That notion
was dashed when he cut to his right, down a steep dirt road
that was almost a washout, toward a railway crossing.
Hypothesis #3: Grillo lost his mind, four-wheel
drive or not.

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