Court Calendar

From: Animal People, March 1999:

Judge Barbara Kluka of Kenosha County, Wisconsin, in early February dismissed a felony charge of illegal possession of an electric weapon filed against Vegan Street electronic information service founder Marla Rose, of Chicago, at an anti-rodeo protest in October 1998. The “weapon,” displayed as a demonstration prop, was a cattle prod identical to those typically used to jolt bulls as they leave the chutes during bull-riding events. Wrote observer John Beske in a World Wide Web posting, “If Rose had been found guilty, the case might have set forth a spate of restrictions against electric cattle prods, possibly turning Wisconsin dairy farmers and hardware store owners into sudden felons, and likely banning the use of electric prods in rodeos and circuses. So in once sense Ms. Rose’s victory is a sort of defeat: it absolved the very device she was trying to denounce.” But Rose was upbeat. “We were able to demonstrate,” she said, “that police officers and prosecutors consider electric cattle prods to be dangerous weapons.”

Hilma Ruby, 61, of Rochester Hills, Michigan, and Patricia Dodson, 49, of Royal Oak, Michigan, were on February 22 fined $23,000 apiece and sentenced to serve six months each in jail for their part in releasing 1,540 mink from the Eberts Fur Farm near Chatham, Ontario, on March 30, 1997. About 500 of the mink froze to death, were hit by cars, or killed each other in fights soon after the release. Fur farmer Tom McClellanclaimed the raid cost him $500,000. Ruby and Dodson pleaded guilty more than a year after co-defendants Robyn Weiner and Alan Hoffmanplea-bargained fines and community service. A fifth defendant, Gary Yourofsky, is due for trial in March.

Texas District Judge John Marshall on February 5 reaffirmed his August and October rulings that pigeon shoots formerly held by the Dallas Gun Club are illegal because the conditions under which the birds are held and released are inhumane. Texas law permits captive bird shoots, but Marshall has repeatedly ruled that the birds must be have a fair chance at escape. Dallas Gun Club president Russ Meyer said the club would appeal again. Attorney Don Feare, representing pigeon shoot opponents, responded that further appeals are welcome because they will help lead toward an ultimate ban on such events. Feare is also president of the Wildflight Rescue Foundation. (See related article)

A peregrine falcon seen killing a starling in midair on February 12 validated the Fund for Animals’ claim that a starling poisoning program scheduled by USDA Wildlife Services under contract to Jefferson County, Kentucky, might put peregrine falcons and other federally protected raptors at risk. The Fund filed for an injunction against the planned poisoning on January 29. Jefferson County put the poisoning on hold, at least until fall, several days after the falcon appeared.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, of Washington D.C., on February 12 ruled that USDA Wildlife Services sharpshooters may not kill deer for Iowa City without meeting National Environmental Policy Act requirements to produce an environmental assessment of the program, publicize and distribute the assessment in order to receive public comment, and provide an adequate comment period. The USDA gunners had already killed 22 deer in two days when stopped by a temporary injunction on January 22, obtained by joint petition from the Fund for Animals, Animal Protection Institute, Friends of Animals, Humane Society of the U.S., and University of Iowa Animal Rights Coalition.

Bullfeathers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

PURCHASE, N.Y.– – With
Pepsi-Cola signs and banners still
prominent in major Mexican bullrings,
Pepsi is conceding nothing to the boycott
called in late 1998 by SHARC and
Last Chance for Animals––not even that
Pepsi advertising is a significant source
of revenue for the bullring operators.
Insisted Pepsi corporate
spokesperson Brad Shaw to ANIMAL
PEOPLE on February 10, “Pepsi does
not sponsor or endorse bullfighting.
Our position in that has not changed.”
Other Pepsi representatives
have told protesters that the Pepsi ads in
bullrings are placed by Mexican distributors,
over whom Pepsi has no control.

Read more

Is CSU trying to hide sources of greyhounds found in labs?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

DENVER––A Colorado bill appearing to attempt to
circumvent the record-keeping requirements of the federal
Animal Welfare Act cleared the state house on February 10 and
is pending in the state senate as SB 1228.
Reported Dan Luzadder of the Rocky Mountain News,
“Representative Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, a veterinarian
and sponsor of the bill, said Colorado State University requested
the bill to maintain confidentiality among clients and vets” at the
CSU teaching hospital.
The bill seeks to exempt CSU from having to produce
veterinary records pertaining to owned animals under the state
Freedom of Information Act, unless the records are requested by
the owners themselves.

Read more

PETA slams EDF testing deal with chemical makers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

WASHINGTON D.C.––People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals cofounder
Alex Pacheco threw a January haymaker at
the Environmental Defense Fund’s greatest
victory in 32 years of campaigning for more
stringent chemical safety standards.
EDF and the Chemical Manufacturers
Association on January 27 jointly
announced a protocol under which the chemical
industry will spend more than $1 billion to
safety-test 2,800 high production volume
chemicals, looking out for health effects
which were mostly not known when they
were first approved.
But as the announcement was pending,
Pacheco warned PETA donors that the
project would involve “millions of animals––
rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, rats, and fish––
over the next six years.”

Read more

Cockfights spur murder, mayhem, drug deals and counterfeiting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

SAN BERNARDINO, Cailf. – –
Gamecock expert Grady Coker, M.D., contended
in a December letter to ANIMAL
PEOPLE that cockfighting isn’t associated
with violent crime, but the gunfire erupting on
January 23 at an illegal cockfight in San
Bernardino, California, told a different story.
Seven people were hurt, “including
a toddler and an 11-year-old,” according to
police, who said they found bloody roosters,
syringes, and illegal steroids at the scene.
Arrested at another site where gamecocks were
also found were Robert Elizarraraz, 23;
Sergio Villarruel, 19; Salvador Ochoa, 18;
and an unidentified 17-year-old.
“There apparently was a dispute during
the event, and several suspects were asked
to leave,” said police sergeant Mike
Blechinger. “They did leave, but returned
with guns and [allegedly] started shooting into
the crowd.”

Read more

Ontario bans spring bear hunt

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

TORONTO, VICTORIA–– Foes
of shooting groggy bears as they awake from
winter hibernation won a round in tough territory
on January 14 when Ontario natural
resources minister John Snobelen announced
a long-sought ban on spring bear hunting.
Snobelen acknowledged that killing
bears in spring had orphaned about 270 bear
cubs per year, few of whom survived.
“We’ve looked at various options
to make sure that bear cubs aren’t orphaned,”
Snobelen said. “The only answer we came
up with was to end the spring bear hunt. It’s
the only acceptable way.”

Read more

Handling hoarders

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

Handling hoarders
by Vicky Crosetti, Executive director
Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley

The January/February 1999
ANIMAL PEOPLE feature “Animals
in bondage: the minds of hoarders”
reminded me of years ago attending a
talk on the same subject at a humane
conference.
Trying to describe why we so
often find huge numbers of animals
kept in filth and misery by people who
claim to “love” them, the presenter discussed
“good intentions gone bad” and
“obsessive/compulsive behavior.”
I learned to use her phrases,
when pressed for explanation––but as
the years and cases pass, I’ve decided
that I don’t know why people hoard
animals. Neither am I certain that
motive matters, except as a possible
predictor of who might become a
hoarder.

Read more

LETTERS [March 1999]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

Critical mass
Your newspaper has singlehandedly
done more for animal
advocacy around the world by covering
issues that are avoided by others
because the topics are either too
intellectually demanding or too controversial
to handle. For instance,
your January/February 1999 editorial
on how to best deal with China is
probably the best position I have
read on the matter. And your expose
of the bloated compensation paid by
high-profile and powerful groups
likethe Humane Society of the U.S.
et al is courageous and important.
As a college professor for
30 years, I am quite impressed with
how you can do extensive research
on a shoestring budget. Imagine
how much money the HSUS
expended just in terms of travel junkets
to expose the China dog fur
issue, only for ANIMAL PEOPLE
to point out that Russia is still the
biggest exporter of dog fur. And
imagine how the sum of all the
bloated salaries of animal executives
could be used for spay/neuter programs
and no-kill animal sanctuaries.
Their self-aggrandizement is
unconscionable and demoralizing to
those who at the grassroot level
struggle every day to survive.
Your newspaper has done
a lot on behalf of sincere animal
people who see the urgent need to
build a critical mass toward the time
humanity will learn to share this
planet with nonhuman species.
––Ruben Santos Cuyugan
Lenoir, North Carolina
[Cuyugan is retired direc –
tor of the UNESCO project for
International Development of the
Social Sciences.]

Read more

Editorial: Amazing Amazon rainforest reality

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

Chugging up the Rio Tambopata, one of the major Amazon tributaries, in a
motorized canoe, we were struck during a January 1999 visit to the Tambopata-Candama
Reserved Area in southeastern Peru by the contrast between the Amazonian rainforest as it
is and the image most people have of it––an image crafted over the past few decades chiefly
by conservation groups.
Funding rainforest research, documentary film-making, lobbying, and even the
start-up of ecotourism, most of these organizations have also rather blindly stumbled down
the tangled trail blazed since 1961 by the World Wildlife Fund.
WWF, as ANIMAL PEOPLE has often pointed out, is not just the world’s
wealthiest and most influential wildlife advocacy group: it also happens to be the world’s
best-disguised lobby for sport hunting and other consumptive wildlife use.
WWF founder Peter Scott was the duck-shooter who introduced the North
American ruddy duck to England; WWF and allies now clamor for an expanded ruddy
duck season and no bag limit, on the bio-xenophobic claim that ruddy ducks are miscegenating
English white-headed ducks into illegitimate hybrids.

Read more

1 2 3 4